Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
This battle that we see before us, you win.
And so we're confident tonight, as we speak of your mercies that have been
extended to the house of Israel through the years, it's the same mercy that we
receive as we abide with you.
And of course, when we don't obey and we go our own way, you will chastise us and
rightfully so, with love, because you do love us so much.
And Father, we give you tonight, we thank you for tonight, and we ask that as we
go our way, that we will have learned something a bit more about your
wonderful scripture.
It's amazing how you unfold things that are new to us every day.
And we pray these things in Jesus' name.
And everyone said, amen.
Now, two things of warning, thank you for moving up.
I am now tethered.
It used to be that we had a mobile mic, so I can't get any further than about
the thing because the mic goes out on us.
And then a word of caution, you may be called on as unlikely as it is that I
do that because my right hand lady, Gayle, she's not here.
And every time I ask a question, her hand goes up and it saves all the
rest of you from answering.
So since she's not here tonight, it won't be embarrassing, but when I stick
the mic in front of you, it's your turn.
Ken, no hope for you, buddy.
You ought to go that way.
All right.
God's faithfulness extends to all generations.
That's our declarative.
We'll do a quick basic outline of chapter 18.
The tabernacle is now established at Shiloh.
The Israel's lights assemble at Shiloh and the tabernacle is now set up.
Remember Shiloh is first where it was.
And then as it developed in Jerusalem was brought in on the scenes and during
David's reign and then during Solomon's reign, it was built there.
Number two, Joshua challenges the seven remaining tribes that
didn't take their land yet.
They weren't obedient.
And for what reason?
I don't know.
They were busy, I guess, trying to establish themselves.
So Joshua actually rebukes them because of their delay.
You know, come into your land, possess your land, take your land, and do
what you must do to again, bring sovereignty to the Lord Jesus in
your own dwelling place.
The survey and then the division of the remaining land was made.
The representatives are chosen to do this.
The land is surveyed and described and lots are cast before the Lord at Shiloh.
And then the last one, Benjamin receives its inheritance and the
boundaries of Benjamin, like every other territory, are defined.
Okay.
And the cities of Benjamin are listed here.
Jericho, Bethel, Gibeon, and Jerusalem.
All right.
What's interesting about this?
The word established means that this is the first time that they had
a permanence of where to worship.
Remember, they were transient all their life.
When God spoke to Moses on the mountain and he provided the
information necessary to build the tabernacle, it was mobile for
years and years and years.
And now all of a sudden it is established in the Promised Land.
So that's a first.
The worship that went before the possession is always the way God works.
The, I guess there's a misprint there.
Okay.
All right.
The tabernacle is established before the allotment of the
remaining tribal inheritance were divided up.
So that worship was important because it shows that God required
first an adoration to him before he gave the land.
This order is significant because Israel's relationship with God was
to take priority over all possessions.
And that kind of works for us.
Do we have a situation where we have the free ticket and the give
me this and bless me, this club?
I don't think anybody in here works in that arena.
And so he establishes that, yes, he is benevolent, but yes, he is to be
worshiped and adored like we do on Sundays, like you do in your personal
worship, and so that he establishes that priority.
And then the set up, once again, the spiritual priorities then
should be established for us so we can see God's presence.
And there should be, the presence should be the center around
which all other blessings are given.
So that's the premise.
Then one other quick thing here, not yet possessed their inheritance.
Have we ever taken possession of our inheritance from the Lord or have
we missed out, but it's not too late?
People say, well, I've, you know, I'm past the age where I can
do anything for God.
No, you can always do something for God.
There's always a calling.
There's always a position.
There's always something to do in the kingdom of God for every one of us.
We might, we might miss the fullness of his blessing.
We might experience unnecessary frustration if we don't enter into that calling and
we will miss opportunities to influence others for Christ.
And we will miss a deeper experience of God's presence.
Okay.
So that's where we're at.
So I got a question for you.
In what ways can we actively maintain God's presence as the center of our lives?
How do we do that?
What does that look like?
How do we maintain that area of presence and abiding presence with him in your
every walk of life during the day at night in the morning?
What's that look?
Okay.
You've got prayer.
All right.
Okay.
The word.
I'm just including it in everything you do.
All right.
You know, kids have imaginary friends.
We have a real friend.
Yes.
So just hang with that friend and everything you're doing.
Yeah.
That's, that's why I do all day.
Should I take this trade or should I not take this trade?
Should I close that trade or not take close that trade?
I just include them.
Is he answering?
No, I think so.
When, when, when it's a good one.
Yeah, right.
Oh boy.
Oh, the devil made me do it.
How are you?
Don't be sorry.
You're good.
That's okay.
The interesting thing about the presence of the Lord is when you're in his presence,
you hate to leave.
When you, when you, when you come to the point in time in your life where you
can press into that and find that it's something that you value so much.
So what else do you do to maintain that presence?
Now, like me, you know, Joni and I are in this, um, um, countryside, um,
retirement place and, you know, we're talking all day long and she says, well,
what did you say?
Well, I was just talking to the Lord.
Then I hear her singing or something and worshiping.
And I think, you know, this is wonderful that we have just a
communion with the Lord.
How do you maintain that Jenny?
Sometimes I sing praise music because God inhabits the people that praise Him.
Yes.
Very good.
See, I'm glad you moved up.
Well, I did too.
It was a sage advice.
Uh, I find many different things than, you know, but, um, I meditated
just before it came over, you know, um, I don't want to get all goofy on you.
I'm just, you know, just sitting down, breathing, being silent and being quiet.
And, uh, going from there with God meditation, it's extremely powerful.
Really clears the air.
Well, so my wife came home from ceramics today and I told her, look, I said, I need
to meditate before I go there.
And I said, it's about 10 after three.
And I woke up at quarter of four.
So I meditated with my eyes closed.
I'm guilty.
Anyone else?
How do we maintain God's presence in our life?
All the things that we've talked about are true.
It's having a, an affixiation toward what is God's interests.
His interests may be people at some point in time.
It may be situations that you can intervene in, but as long as we maintain
a servant's attitude or position toward him, and we begin to groom an
understanding of when he speaks to us.
And it, isn't it interesting how he communicates to us and he doesn't say a
word, you know, it's inside, he comes to us.
I've only ever got here, her God say one word to me audibly.
And other than that, it's that intuitive understanding that you get these
impressions and these guidance from him to do what he asked you to do.
All right.
Now, let's take a look at the land itself.
Let's do a little bit of a parenthesis here.
So we come into the land and he's going to distribute the land.
They should have taken their land by now, but this is what the scripture says.
And the land was considered agriculturally rich compared to many
surrounding regions in the East.
And it says in Deuteronomy 8, a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees,
pomegranates, this is the land that was given already there.
Remember they had houses that they moved into when they, when they did the wars
and they got rid of all the ites, like, um, I think you had talked about
that on Sunday, Chris, all those ites to get rid of them.
So they had houses, they had vineyards, and all they were to do
is maintain those things.
So sorry about that.
And let's take a look at how this land was developed.
This is the joy that is understanding in God about what he did in the land of all.
And if you look at a map in the beginning, you can see that
it was all arid and desert.
But this chosen land had several agricultural advantages compared to the
rest of the surroundings of the desert and the semi arid areas.
Much of Israel's central and northern territory was highly productive when
properly cultivated and with an abundance of rain.
So remember that little tag, abundance of rain.
We'll come back to that.
Diverse growing regions were from north to south.
Natural springs and water sources existed.
High country terraces for farming, seasonal rains for crops, and
fertile valleys for vineyards.
So this is what they had.
They had it all.
Now the provision that God has given, which is an abundance in
Deuteronomy 11, 10 and 12, it says this, it's better land than you had in
Egypt where you had to struggle just to water your crops.
The hills and the valleys in the promised land are watered by rain from heaven.
Okay.
So there, there again, God's benevolence because the Lord your God keeps his eye
on the land and takes care of it all year long.
So that's the promise that he had given.
So the land was not only fertile geographically, but God shows it
intentionally.
And if you remember a couple of chapters back, we talked about the boundary of the
north, the boundary of the south and the east and the west.
So there are boundaries that he gave them.
And then they had to divide the land up between the 12 tribes.
So the covenant provision was all the way from Abraham.
It was promised to them.
The land was a gift from God to his people.
He already knew it was the best land.
So now we have the dependence upon God, the land's fruitfulness depended
upon God's continual blessing of environment, but of the rain so that they
could raise their crops.
The land required trust in God for the provision of this rain.
The land became a conditional, a continual lesson of faith and obedience.
Do I have faith in the spring as a farmer to plant my crops?
Do I have faith that it's going to rain and grow and there will be a harvest?
Well, in the obedience of God, you extend yourself and you say, okay, he has
given this land, he's going to bless us.
By faith, we plant the seed and we then do the harvest.
And that's the way that continual cycle begins to work.
Just as the promised land then would become fruitful under God's blessing,
a life surrendered to God can become spiritually fruitful as well.
But what do we have to do?
Seek his presence, follow him, abide with him, be obedient and all the
things that we have been talking about.
So my question then is, in what ways are we tempted to rely on our own
resources rather than God's provision?
This is a very leading question.
In my life, I feel I'm capable.
Now, if you ask Joni, maybe that's a different story.
So you'll have to do that on your own.
But I'm capable in several things.
I can make decisions.
I mean, you know, the kids always tell me, yeah, dad, you're not always
right, but you're never in doubt.
Meaning that, yeah, okay, let's do this.
And, you know, it may be wrong, but I always have an opinion.
And so I have a tendency then in my natural life to just, you know,
make that decision and do that sometimes without God's blessing.
I did that one time in business, bought another business out.
And it was a catastrophe.
I had to write off about a half a million bucks only because it just
didn't fit in our metric of our enterprise.
And I look back on that after I did it, and I realized that when
this opportunity came up and it was a goldmine opportunity, all
the equipment, all the patents and all the things that were
there, and then I lost money, flushed money down the toilet,
if you will, and we never got anywhere.
And I realized then that, you know, I just really didn't even
ask the Lord for that.
I only assumed that it was so.
So it was a hard lesson.
So how does that look in your life?
What are your downfalls, your problem areas that you don't
rely on the Lord?
What's that look like?
Or are all of you obedient?
Oh, you're good.
True confession, right?
Yeah.
Well, actually, this isn't for me.
This is for my good friend that I just found out her cancer
has returned and it's, you know, spreading.
I literally just found this out 10 minutes ago and I know so
and she is a strong, faithful Christian.
And she says, I'm refusing to believe that it's going to
grow.
I'm asking for a miracle.
And she has had a lot of blessing in her life.
So, you know, if I were her, I would be wanting all of
the medical treatment.
And I do believe that God created science.
God created medicine.
And I do believe that we are to use these resources available
to us.
But in addition, I want God to use her as having faith that
she can be healed and so that she glorify God in her healing.
Yeah, that's what I'm believing.
We have a similar experience.
There are now seven people that we pray for on a daily
basis that have cancer.
It's just amazing the number of people.
And there are all varieties of things from young, unmarried
men, 22, 23, all the way up to retired people.
It just, you know, it's amazing.
What's her name?
Her name is Elaine.
All right.
She's 63 and started with cancer of the kidney that she
overcame years ago.
Well, Lord, we just ask now, even in your name, Lord, that
Elaine would receive an insurance from you that there
is a policy with debt paid on it and bodies healed because
of what you did on Calvary.
So we thank you for this.
We thank you for this testimony in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Anything else?
Anyone else?
Oh, okay.
Well, yeah, I made a lot of mistakes in my life.
So now I'm in the right place with God.
So quite simply, I think any distraction that takes me
away from him, even for a moment, from my heart, my
mind, my thoughts, I mean, it doesn't sound like a big
deal, but, you know, I told you I was meditating
earlier in my being the period of quietness.
I started thinking about a candy bar, but, you know,
steady, any kind of distraction when it's mortal or
venial, you know, sin wise.
That's it.
Amazing how our mind works against what our spirit
desires, isn't it?
A continual war.
All right.
No other inputs.
Okay.
Let's ask another question.
Let's put it another way.
Our need for immediate answers sometimes creates the
fear of not being accepted and maybe our ego, one of
those three immediate answers, fear of not being
accepted or the ego.
So that may be some of the issues that we deal
with.
All right.
Let's take a look at this faithfulness as it
extends to us.
God's faithfulness now or his fruitfulness refers to
his ability to bring us to some productive point in
our life.
Not that we receive, though we will, but that we
are productive for his kingdom life.
In other words, he does give us eternal life.
He gives us an opportunity to grow.
Like we said, read scripture, we get challenged.
There is an abundance of blessing.
How many can say that there has been an abundance
of blessing in your life because of this?
Yeah.
I mean, everybody, there is blessing.
There is multiplication of belief.
We had a prayer meeting this morning and my
wife, she was just talking to in the general
context of our requests about how the Lord has
met every need that she's ever had.
And, you know, from my standpoint, that's a step
of faith only because she is disabled, but she
claims that and I thank the Lord for that.
And so there's a multiplication of what we
see in the beginning of our Christian
experience, how it grows.
And I mean, sometimes it's just very overwhelming
how he cares for us.
And then, of course, there is spiritual increase
in us.
How many have stopped growing?
All right.
Good admission.
You always grow.
If once you plateau and you stop, things
continue on and you're left wanting and lacking.
So always remember, there is a challenge and
encouragement to continue to grow in the Lord.
Faithfulness then originates with God because
he's the creator and the source of all of
our life.
So we have that.
The faithfulness is connected to his
obedience.
We touched on that.
We're not obedient.
He waits and if we're resistant and
rebellious, sometimes he has to come and
chastise us like he did the Israelites when
they were rebellious and not obedient.
And then following God produces what?
The fruit of the spirit, the love, the joy,
the peace, the patience, the kindness, the
goodness, the faithfulness, the gentleness
and the self-control, all these things.
And then faithfulness in our lives demonstrates
the faithfulness of God to others.
I mean, have you ever had people come up to
you say, well, what makes you tick?
Why are you, and I'll give my own personal
things, people just said today, someone
said today, that Joni was out and about.
And say, well, why are you always content?
And, you know, it was evident that this
person wouldn't be content in Joni's
situation.
Here she has, you know, a non-curable
disease in the natural.
She is in a wheelchair.
She is disabled.
But, you know, why are you so content?
And that's the Lord shining through her
and giving testimony to her.
I kid her a lot in the sense that I
tell her that when the Lord heals you,
you won't have much of a testimony
compared to the testimony that you have
now.
And that's not the case, but it's just
the idea that people say that of her.
So faithfulness produces
multiplication and he turns scarcity
into abundance and weakness into
strength.
It's amazing how that works in God.
Okay, let's look at the bigger picture
now about the land that God wants
to provide for the Israelites.
And he wants above all else, fellowship.
That's the primary reason that he did
what he did.
He wants fellowship with his creation.
The land was chosen by God, not by man.
We said that only God establishes the
inheritance and God determines the
boundaries.
We touched on that in Deuteronomy 32.
It says when the Most High gave the
nations their inheritance, he set the
boundaries of the people.
So he already established that.
There was again, a detailed
description in Numbers 34.
It gives a clear description of the
land's boundaries so that God's desire
for Israel would be given even before
they got there.
And here are the boundaries that we
had referred to prior to this.
I won't go through them.
The Promised Land became a place
where what God's people could now
live near his presence.
He chose it.
He was going to dwell there and they
were around him and they could
experience his presence.
They could worship him again to
Shiloh, remember Old Covenant
Testament in the sense that we
have to go to a local place to
worship and again to walk in
covenant with him.
That was the goal.
So the question is, are we viewing
our home, Jenny, your new home,
the workplace, the church and the
community as places assigned by God
or is this just random?
So you think about that.
You know, there's always a, oh,
what if this or what if that?
I wish this, I wish that, not so.
There's an assignment that he has
for each one of us.
How can we better honor God in
the place where he has planted us?
What's that look like?
Are we always disgruntled?
Are we dissatisfied?
Are we going to make that place
that God has put us in relevant
to our life, our testimony so
that others can receive God and
grow? That's a big question.
So let's take a look at a little
bit. Here is the Promised Land
that we had before Christ.
This is how it looked for us.
We were in a spiritual wilderness.
We could all say amen to that.
Just as Israel wandered in the
wilderness, we're apart from
Christ and are described as
spiritually lost, separated from
God without lasting peace.
Amen on that.
Enslaved to sin.
Without a secure, eternal
inheritance.
What else? In Ephesians 2, it
says, Remember, at that time you
were separate from God and
without hope and without God.
Now we may have thought we had
hope. We may thought we were
successful. We thought we had
all these things, but we are
enslaved to that which again
controls us.
We lived in a different
kingdom, the kingdom of
darkness.
Our land was what is spiritual
darkness, uncertainty and
without an anchor.
And I thought I can give
testimony to that in my teenage
years when I kind of drifted
away from the Lord.
I was here and there and
whatever. There was no anchor
in my life.
Colossians 1.13.
He has rescued us from
darkness. So that's what we
are. We lived in sin and
self dependence.
Again, the barren landscape
of self rule.
We talked about that some
longer time ago, the striving
that we had and that God was
not present in our lives.
Now, what do we have over
here? Our first place now is
in Christ.
That's who he is.
That's who we serve.
For believers now, our
primary identity is not tied
to a piece of land.
It's tied to the person,
Jesus Christ.
That's the anchor that we
have. The New Testament
repeatedly speaks of
believers being in Christ.
Our spiritual identity is
first found in him and we
are citizens of God's
kingdom.
Israel had a physical land.
Believers are given a
greater inheritance and we
abide in the kingdom of
God.
Our citizenship is in heaven
and Philippians 3 talks
about and we live in earthly
nations, but our ultimate
alliance is to God and his
kingdom.
So God still appoints our
place. He appears, he
appoints where we are to
live and serve.
Acts 1726, he determined
the time set from the set
for them and the exact
places where they should
live.
And then our home, church,
workplace, community, the
sphere of influence that
we have is the place that
we are asked to work.
Well, I can do better over
there if only.
No, this is what you have
here. This is where you're
this is what you're given
here.
So I'm going to just go
through these things and
think about this.
I did these two pages this
afternoon, just very quick
of the blessings that God
had given the Israelites.
Oh my gosh, it was just
amazing.
Deliverance from Egypt, the
men plagues, the Passover
protection, parting of the
Red Sea, destruction of
Pharaoh's army, the
provision in the
wilderness, bitter water
made sweet, manna from
heaven, quail for food,
water from the rock.
Clothes and sandals didn't
wear out.
Guidance and protection, a
pillar of cloud by day, a
pillar of fire by night,
God's presence in the
tabernacle, victory over
the limilec while Moses
held up his hands.
And the protection from
numerous enemies during the
wilderness journey, entering
the promised land, crossing
Jordan, walls of Jericho,
hailstones destroying
Israel's enemies, the sun
standing still.
Think about all these
things that God provided
ongoing covenant blessing,
the land flying with milk
and honey, extraordinary
harvest and provision,
repeated deliverance through
judges such as Gideon and
Deborah and Samson and the
preservation of Israel
despite repeated threats of
destruction.
So now that's all that he
did.
Let's just take a look at
what he did in response to
rebuke.
This is the other side of
it.
I'm Mount Sinai and the
wilderness, the death of
about 33,000 people to go
about the golden calf, the
fire from the Lord to barren
and the plague after
complaining about food
rebellion against God's
leadership.
Miriam rebelled the
wilderness generation was
condemned to die.
The earth opened up and
swallowed Cora and her
descendants.
Fire consumed 250 rebels and
the plague killed 14,700 in
immorality and idolatry.
Twenty four thousand died
because of bell worship.
Fiery serpents sent among
the people.
And during the conquest,
again, they can and his
family judged for taking
forbidden spoils.
Israel defeated at AI because
of hidden sin.
And then during the period
of the kings, there was some
drought.
There was defeat.
There was the northern
kingdom separation from the
southern kingdom.
And it goes on and on.
So think about the
interaction of God.
Now, if we were to list the
things in our life, how God
dwelt with us and then dealt
with us, they would
enumerate a very positive
experience.
And on the other side of
life, I don't like to think
about this.
What has he done to
chastise us to help us
understand what his kingdom
is about?
Sometimes it's a positive
stick and sometimes it is a
negative stick to be able
to understand what God's
doing in our lives.
All right, so let's look at
the statement now.
Grow where you're planted.
What's that mean?
Simply means this.
Are we unhappy with our
assignment?
What is our assignment?
It's where we live.
The fear, sphere of
influence that we have.
Are we saying, if only I
had a different job, if
only I lived somewhere else,
if only my circumstances were
different, that's not
yielding and being
obeyed, being obedient to
the Lord.
John 15 5, I am the vine,
you are the branches.
Whoever abides in me bears
much fruit.
So are we continually
wanting to change locations?
And Jenny, I don't mean
this by an apartment.
Experience a wondering
spirit.
There was a friend of
ours, long standing.
She was used to the Lord and
she fell away from the Lord
and she has a wondering
spirit.
She's meandering here and
meandering there.
And she spent all her money
traveling, doesn't have a
dime to her name.
I just, you know, I just,
I just feel for her.
She just lost her husband
last year.
It's a very tragic to see
these things, but she had
just a wondering spirit.
She just couldn't settle
down.
Being drawn by better
circumstances.
Oh, I've got this
wonderful job.
Three states over.
We shared that last time.
I got a very good offer.
Denied it because of the
kingdom of God being in my
sphere of influence.
And where I serve, I didn't
take that job, but better
circumstances.
Trust in God's placement.
Bear fruit where we are.
Let God develop our roots.
Just as a tree needs time
to establish roots.
God uses different seasons,
work, relationships, ministry
opportunities to develop
our character.
And again, these deep roots
often form before they're
even visible.
Fruitfulness comes from
remaining connected to
Christ in a body of
believers.
That's for sure.
All right, question.
What opportunities for
growth and fruitfulness
exist in my current season?
Where can you see?
Are you satisfied that you
understand that God has
put you where you are?
And so what does that look
like when we have these
areas of fruitfulness in
these in this current
situation that we're in?
Do you see that there is
opportunity?
Do you see that God wants
to use you where you're at?
You know, and just on
behalf of even your case,
I mean, moving, that's a
good opportunity, an old
new set of friends, right?
Yeah, you can make that's
good.
That's wonderful.
Everybody was silent.
Oh my, just normal way of
life.
Here we are.
No new friends, no new
experiences.
God's challenging us.
No, he's not challenging
us.
Oh, John, don't ask these
questions.
Ah, no.
Anybody.
Everybody's quiet tonight.
Oh my gosh.
All right.
Okay.
Michelle, you're in luck.
For me, I'm getting married
next month and Kevin has
two girls, so, um, being
able to minister to them
and live with them.
And yeah, so congratulations.
I didn't know that.
Oh, all right.
All right.
Kevin, you're a fortunate
man.
Treat her well.
All right.
How old are your children?
He has 20 girls.
Oh, okay.
Well, you're right in the
midst of teenage years,
right?
God bless you.
I'm newly married, second
marriage, and I'm living
with my husband and his
kids and his kids are
adults, 22 and 18.
And, um, I've been here
a year.
I moved from Connecticut,
last spring and, you know,
they loved me as the
girlfriend.
I was long distance.
I would leave, come back
for a few days, leave again.
And I noticed that so, so
I thought that I was going
to move in and we were
going to just become
fast friends.
Oh, okay.
No way.
And, you know, my husband
had to say, you got to
give it time.
You got to give it time.
So, um, I've been praying
a lot to God to lead me
and guide me and to be
respectful of their space.
Um, and it's been really
hard because I have been
wanting to develop a
closeness and they're not
ready.
So, um, fortunately now
there is peace.
Um, but what helped me
cause Satan was all in
my mind and just wrecking
havoc.
I started memorizing
scripture and I would fall
asleep at night saying
some new verses that I
had remembered.
And when I woke up in the
middle of the night, instead
of thinking negatively, I
would sometimes all I
could say was Jesus and I
would just say, Jesus,
Jesus.
And, um, I have become
much closer with the Lord
during this season.
So I just wanted to
encourage you and
congratulations on your
upcoming wedding.
So we'll call her the
outsider, right?
But when you come into
a family, you're really
the outsider per se.
And we ask God to redeem
that time.
Yes.
You're an addition.
Yeah.
All right.
Very good.
Thank you for that
exhortation.
All right.
The next question is how
can I better serve God's
purposes where he has
planned at me.
Okay.
We are we, I mean, I'll
speak for myself.
We are involved in quite a
few things at, um, our
retirement community, but
recently I've just asked
the Lord, you know, what
is it that, that I
should be doing?
Is there anything else
that, um, you would like
me to do and, um, what
might that look like?
And, uh, it's very
easy when you have your
cleaning taken care of,
they wash the windows, they
prepare meals, the toilet
backs up, you call and
they're right over there.
You know, and it's just,
it's comfortable.
We like living there, but
I asked the Lord, I said,
you know, what is, what's
that look like?
What's, what's new around
the corner here?
So I'm challenging myself
and I hope that you
would too, because we can
get very comfortable even
in the ministry set that
we have, whatever that
may be, maybe one thing,
it may be several person,
it may be interceding for
your friend and all that
goes along with that.
But yet Lord, is there
anything else you want
me to do?
And yet on the other side
of that, we don't want
to be so busy that we
only touch the things that
we minister to casually.
It's a responsibility when
God gives us a calling so
that we're faithful in
that, so that we can do
what he wants.
But I, you know, in, in
each one of your lives,
you know, ask the Lord, is
there anything else that
you would like me or want
me to do?
And then let that still
small voice when you're
in, on the inside,
speak to you.
Yes.
Yeah, I was just going to
say, you know, this
opportunity for growth
and fruitfulness in my
life, you know, for so
much of my Christian walk,
even though I've known
in my head that I am
loved and valued by Jesus,
I still, somewhere along
the line, developed this
mentality that my value
was in what I could
produce for him.
I lived that a while.
Yeah.
And so, um,
I don't mean that for you.
Yeah, well, it is for me too.
So, um, but it's, um,
been a season where the
Lord has told me to
figure out what it means
to just abide.
Yeah, that's good.
And, um, so really trying
to hear what fruitfulness
is going to look like,
because I just left
one of my jobs and I,
so I have more time.
I'm hoping that God makes
me fruitful in a lot of areas.
But I have to be really
careful not to just produce
for production sake.
that's a monkey.
I've fought for years.
Yeah, because you think,
OK, now I know I'm not
productive enough.
So therefore I'll do
something more.
Yeah, I mean, I just,
I can identify with that.
The Lord give you peace,
peace, peace, peace.
Yeah, that's good.
Thank you for sharing that.
Anyone else?
Any thoughts?
All right. OK.
So.
The again, the connecting
the sphere of influence
to where we are placed.
Again, the this fear
that we're talking about
is defined as people, places,
relationships, opportunities
that God has entrusted us with
and that we can influence
others for his purposes.
And I'll take off
what you said.
Sometimes you get into
needing to do
and in doing you want to
become the friend of.
I don't know whether that ever
got you triggered or not.
But sometimes it's not
the friendship, although
that's a way in which to win them.
But that's not first.
The first purpose is for God
to work through you,
whatever that may look like,
and then be then befriend
them secondarily
because there is a
there is a purpose and all that.
It's just not friendship.
So additionally, our sphere
of influence becomes specific
in areas and the community
where we are positioned
and so that we can represent him
what whatever that may look like.
All right, our family,
if for nothing else, our family
and as your family grows,
do your daughters know the Lord?
All right, OK, that's that's that's good.
That's that's one box
checked off there.
That's great.
Our family, again, the spouse,
the children, the grandparents
and again, an extended family.
Our neighborhood.
I can remember there was a time
that where we lived
in the beginning of our marriage,
it was a more condensed community.
And my wife, every time
somebody moved in
and whether it was in the block
that we lived or three blocks up or whatever,
she used to bake cookies
or a pie or something and go over
and we used to introduce ourselves.
And, you know, that kind of
doesn't happen anymore.
And we have to push ourselves
to be open and to have friendships
with one another
so that we can win them for the Lord.
And you might ask, who are my neighbors?
How can I demonstrate
God's love to them
by a dozen cookies?
OK, our church encouragement
for one another,
serving one another,
discipling one another,
praying for God for God
to work together
so that we can have outreach.
Our worship, volunteer activities,
our workplace, rather,
there are coworkers,
customers, associates.
And then God placed the Israelites
in a strategic location
where the surrounding nations
could see what his blessing,
his laws being worked out.
Remember, other than the Israelites,
there was an they were nomadic people.
They were always warring.
They were taking other cities,
doing things, trying to Trump one another.
And now he comes
and brings an abiding sense
of his presence in these people.
And they are to show forth
his laws and character
and his faithfulness in action.
And that should be the way
that we live example.
Well, how is it
that you have this faith?
How is it that you're different?
And so often you get asked
these things without even a word.
So God's dwelling place
among his people
was the highest blessing.
So the blessing was that
the creator of heaven
and earth chose to dwell
among his people.
That's so wonderful.
Ultimately, the greatest
treasure in the land
was not the agriculture,
the military security.
It was the God's presence.
He was there.
They were to come to Shiloh
and worship him
throughout Israel's history.
God reminded his people
that his presence was more important
than the prosperity.
And I don't think we have
that problem amongst
the people in this room.
But that's typically
a lot of what you get.
I know I face that
with one of my grandsons.
I asked him, I said, well,
I said, AJ or JP.
I said, what do you want to do?
He said, I want to be
an entrepreneur, make a lot of money.
I thought, oh, boy.
You know, and that's that
we talked about college
and I don't want to go to college.
I want to do this.
And, you know, right now
he's washing garbage cans
and make he makes ten dollars.
A garbage can that the truck
comes along, picks him up.
He goes and puts his sprayer
on the back, sprays him,
washes him out, cleans him up,
uses the people's hose.
He makes ten.
He made a couple of hundred
dollars in the last couple of weeks.
He buys and sells electric bikes.
And he's, you know, he's a widget.
So OK, Lord, this is
a matter of prayer now.
Not that he has to go to college,
but it's the idea
that where he wants to go,
he's kind of like, you know,
all around, I can do this and that.
Typical young male. OK.
And the idea of experiencing
his presence is what we're about
throughout Israel's history.
God reminded his people
that his presence
was more important than prosperity.
So Moses once said this.
If thy presence go not with me.
Carry us not up hence,
meaning to that place,
which is the promised land.
We experience this truth
in an even greater way
through Jesus Christ
and the indwelling Holy Spirit.
God no longer dwells
in a physical tabernacle
or temple made by human hands.
He dwells within his people.
Our greatest blessing, then,
is not what God gives us,
but what God is doing
through us and with us.
So what does it mean
to live in an awareness
of God's presence?
We kind of beat this to death,
but I want to make a point.
Awareness of God's presence.
How long does it take you
to realize that God's presence
is with you or he wants
something from you?
Is it immediate?
Is it a day?
Is it an hour?
Are you so busy
that you forgot about God?
And again, you don't have to show
a confession of hands,
but it's the idea
that as you get tuned
to his presence,
you begin quickly
to understand what he's saying.
And that is an art form.
That is that is learned.
It doesn't come automatically.
What does he say?
If you seek me,
I will be found.
You have to seek him.
You have to believe
that as you spend time
with him at his feet,
worship prayer,
the things that we've talked about,
God will bring himself to you.
Remember Moses.
Moses turned away
and looked at the burning bush.
So there was God
and he was waiting.
The bush was burning
and Moses could have easily
just walked on by,
but he turned
and he saw the bush.
So first of all,
we have to understand
that God is waiting for us
and whatever you characterize that,
whatever you call that,
you begin to create
an atmosphere
where he can speak to you.
And as you cultivate that
and keep that maintained,
that voice will become
extremely directive.
It may be challenging.
It will take you to new heights
and depths that you wouldn't even believe.
Well, I can't do that, Lord,
but you can do all things
through Christ, which strengthens you,
which strengthens us.
So consequently, keep that in mind
when you think about,
well, where am I?
What's my mission?
What's my sphere of influence?
What else should I be doing?
And I don't mean that we are all busy
because I know, Debbie, with you,
you want to, okay,
calm down and get steady before the Lord
and there's a season of time for that.
And that's wonderful.
And then lastly, it's this.
The land was a stage
upon which God was to reveal his character.
As we speak
and believe for revival and spiritual,
that's awakening,
our prayers should not be simple
for God's provision
and protection and prosperity.
It should be an anticipation
for what he wants.
Our deepest desire should be for his presence.
First, and out of that,
then comes service.
And then as we weigh these things,
you can see in the scale,
God's presence is transformational,
it's fruitful, it's peaceable,
and it's life-giving.
And on the other side of that,
we are meant to show what?
The justice, righteousness,
friendship, and compassion to all people.
So we look at
the final aspects of the land being divided.
We understand now that their land is given.
It's for these people to settle down
and be fruitful
so that the kingdom of God
can be expressed through them.
The only problem is all that failed
and Christ then had to come
and give the ultimate sacrifice.
It's disappointing as we go through these chapters
to think of all,
and I'll put it in the vernacular,
blood, sweat, and tears that God went through
to create this nation
only for the nation to rebel and fall all apart.
They say, okay, I have to do this in another way.
And that was obviously God's plan.
He knew the end from the beginning.
But it's the idea that the nation building
that we talked about in months back
going through Exodus,
how he created a nation out of tribes
that were warring,
how he brought his law,
how he made a civilization,
how he created structure,
how he created law
to give these people a foundation
so that they could be truly a witness for him.
And yet it was all given up
because of their rebelliousness.
So Lord, we thank you
that we are not found on the other side
of life
where we are by ourselves,
where we are the last and only truth dwelling within us.
And it's our ego and our power
to be somebody that we wanna be.
We are simply your servants, Lord.
So we ask as we go away tonight
that we'll ponder the fact
that what we should be doing
and how do we express you
in the areas that we live.
We know we don't have to move away
to get you to give us attention, Lord.
You're right here.
And so we yield to you
in our present circumstances
how to move through us.
We thank you for the blessing
that we heard tonight of this marriage.
We thank you for that.
We thank you that you'll bless these girls
with a mom.
And Father, we just ask
that you give her grace to walk through this
in the name of Jesus.
And we thank you for the healing of this lady.
So we give this to you tonight
in the name of Jesus.
Everybody said amen.
Amen.
Thanks for joining us
at Lansdale Life Church
as we praise God
and discuss his word.
Don't forget to join us
for worship live Sunday mornings
at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed
and have a great day.