WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.720 So, we sung there of inheritance, and the inheritance that David spoke about was really 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:18.199 dealing with some of these passages that we're reading in Joshua. 00:00:18.199 --> 00:00:24.300 So if you remember, Joshua's about taking of the land of promise, the land flowing with 00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:29.960 milk and honey, that God has promised to Moses, to Abraham actually, and then to Moses, and 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:36.759 but they have wandered through the desert for forty years because they didn't believe 00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:43.960 and trust in God, that God would be able to help them defeat their enemies and take the 00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:46.799 land of Canaan. 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:55.600 So the section that Billy read, chapter thirteen, is that kind of language that the inheritance 00:00:55.600 --> 00:01:00.820 is spoken of there, that's given to a couple of the tribes, that's repeated ten, ten, eleven, 00:01:00.820 --> 00:01:06.240 twelve times, right up to chapter, seven chapters like that, so you're maybe glad I didn't 00:01:06.240 --> 00:01:09.280 read all seven chapters like that. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:14.340 But I'm just going to read another section, which is slightly different, it's a kind of 00:01:14.340 --> 00:01:21.719 breathing space in the middle, Joshua fourteen, verses six to verse fifteen, it's a lovely 00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:28.840 little passage and it's about Caleb, if you remember Caleb, we didn't do it in Joshua, 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:35.959 but we've referenced it, Caleb was one of the two spies originally who said, yes, we 00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:41.640 can take the land, but the other, the other spy said, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's, there's 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:47.319 too many enemies, it's too strong and too big, and that disobedience, that lack of faith 00:01:47.319 --> 00:01:53.559 led to them wandering in the desert, so this is Caleb's story and it is getting his inheritance. 00:01:53.559 --> 00:01:59.399 Chapter fourteen, verse six, then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal and Caleb, 00:01:59.399 --> 00:02:04.959 the son of Japhunni, the Kenesite, said to him, you know what the Lord said to Moses, 00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:10.680 the man of God in Keresh Barnea, concerning you and me, I was forty years old, when Moses, 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:15.719 the servant of the Lord, sent me from Keresh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought 00:02:15.719 --> 00:02:21.560 him word again as it was in my heart, but my brothers who went up with me made the heart 00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:27.840 of the people melt, yet I wholly followed the Lord my God, and Moses swore on that day, 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:32.280 saying, surely the land of which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:38.240 and for your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God, and 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:44.159 now behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:49.359 time that the Lord spoke his word to Moses while Israel walked in the wilderness in the 00:02:49.359 --> 00:02:56.560 desert, and now behold, I am this day eighty-five years old, I am still as strong today as I 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:03.680 was in the day that Moses sent me, my strength now is as my strength was then for war and 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:08.400 for going and coming, so now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:15.760 day, for you heard on that day how the Anarchim were there, with great fortified cities it 00:03:15.760 --> 00:03:23.560 may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said. 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:29.840 Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jefune for an inheritance, 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:34.879 therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb, son of Jefune, the kenozite, to this 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:40.479 day because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel, now the name of Hebron formally 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:48.479 was Kireeth Arba, Arba was the greatest man among the Anarchim, and the land had rest 00:03:48.479 --> 00:03:49.479 from war. 00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:59.000 Okay, we are going to look at, skip kind of these chapters all in one, we are going to 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:03.039 deal with them all in one, from thirteen to twenty-one, and we have missed out one or 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:09.599 two things, but we are just giving a quick overview of Joshua. 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:15.560 So maybe the first question is Sunday night, so darkness is closing in, weirdiness is beginning 00:04:15.560 --> 00:04:21.000 to set in, and you are reading a passage like this and you would say, why? 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:22.000 Why? 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:30.600 You know, why does God, I mean the Bible is not that big, why does God choose to record 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:36.120 these things in such detail, all the land and the boundaries and the names and the areas 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:42.360 and the inheritance that was handed, why does He give it all to all the different tribes 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:45.600 in such detail for us as part of His living God? 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:46.600 Who is interested? 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:51.960 Who is interested in the ancient Near East towns and villages and conquests, and what 00:04:51.960 --> 00:04:58.640 the exact details of who was assigned and given what in the land, you know? 00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:04.479 Doesn't that just play into the hands of those who say the Bible is a dead, dull, dry, dusty, 00:05:04.479 --> 00:05:08.800 old book, boring, repetitive, irrelevant, and even quirky? 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:10.599 Is it not all a bit quirky? 00:05:10.599 --> 00:05:15.599 And our sophisticated twenty-first century minds that we have to go back and read this 00:05:15.599 --> 00:05:18.439 kind of thing? 00:05:18.439 --> 00:05:24.639 I think when we first come to passages like that, we can naturally have these kind of 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:28.319 instincts, and I know many people have had, I know I've asked many times in the past, 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:30.560 you know, why are these passages in the Bible? 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:32.480 Why are they so long? 00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:36.120 Why did God choose to put them there? 00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:39.920 Because we work from the premise that this is God's living word, don't we? 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:45.279 And we work from the premise that God is right, and God is wise, and God is good, and God 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:47.800 deliberately has chosen to do this. 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:51.039 And so we need to ask the question, then why did He choose to do this? 00:05:51.039 --> 00:05:57.759 Well, I think because in reality, what we see when we go to a passage like this is it 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:02.839 deals with some very important themes. 00:06:02.839 --> 00:06:05.920 I admit we need to dig a little bit sometimes. 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:09.839 We have to pick on some of the shadows that are here, some of the key words. 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:15.800 But we recognize that these bits of the Bible point to some, what can we say, more crucial 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:20.039 parts, more crucial parts of the revelation of God's word. 00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:28.360 All of the Bible is equal in its significance and its import and its vitality, but all of 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:36.879 it is a one, and all of it points ultimately to Jesus Christ and to the work that Scotty 00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:41.759 was mentioning this morning in his sermon, the work of God and his redemptive purposes 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:45.000 and plans for all humanity. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:46.000 You wouldn't come to this. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:52.800 I would certainly argue you wouldn't take these seven chapters or eight chapters actually 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:57.199 and meditate on them in the same way that you would meditate on say Ephesians or Galatians 00:06:57.199 --> 00:06:58.399 or the Gospels. 00:06:58.399 --> 00:07:03.199 You wouldn't take each verse and maybe just take one verse for a day because it's a very 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:04.199 different part of the Bible. 00:07:04.199 --> 00:07:06.079 It's a narrative for a start. 00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:09.959 And so it's good sometimes just to have all the chunks. 00:07:09.959 --> 00:07:13.879 So if you, if time, read the chunk, read the whole chunk at some point. 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:15.600 It wouldn't take long. 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:16.600 Why is it here? 00:07:16.600 --> 00:07:19.520 Well, there's one or two things we're going to say. 00:07:19.520 --> 00:07:22.320 First thing is, it's here because it's real. 00:07:22.320 --> 00:07:24.800 Okay, but because it's real. 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:29.000 That's why it's here because it's history, his story. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:30.000 But it's history. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.280 You know, these events happened. 00:07:32.280 --> 00:07:34.520 The people entered the Promised Land. 00:07:34.520 --> 00:07:38.920 They defeated the Canaanites as we saw and as we've been looking at previously. 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:46.720 It's part of God's story, of God's people in God's world, with God's purposes being 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:50.759 outworked in that part of history. 00:07:50.759 --> 00:07:56.920 And it's part of a bigger picture of God in the world in which we are the twenty-first 00:07:56.920 --> 00:08:00.040 century, part of that. 00:08:00.040 --> 00:08:05.920 So it's part of God's big picture in history. 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:09.600 And because of that, we recognize it as being real. 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:14.000 Now, because it's real, imagine if you were part of a family gathering where your rich 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:23.280 uncle was going to read out, well, he wasn't because he had deceased, but your rich uncle, 00:08:23.280 --> 00:08:27.759 family or lawyer was going to read out his will, his inheritance. 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:32.159 And you knew that you were part of that and that everyone in the room was going to get 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:37.719 something in that inheritance from your rich uncle. 00:08:37.719 --> 00:08:39.919 You would want the details, wouldn't you? 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:42.879 You would want to listen carefully. 00:08:42.879 --> 00:08:47.839 You would want to know exactly what you'd been gifted because that would be significant. 00:08:47.839 --> 00:08:53.319 If your rich uncle just said, well, you know, just divide it out however you think yourselves. 00:08:53.319 --> 00:08:55.799 Well, that leads to war, doesn't it? 00:08:55.799 --> 00:08:58.559 That leads to family chaos. 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:04.199 How much of the world's chaos is caused by family division over land or property or money? 00:09:04.199 --> 00:09:05.399 Massive amounts. 00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:13.319 And so God here, in dealing with these twelve tribes, is intricately and accurately dividing 00:09:13.319 --> 00:09:19.479 out the inheritance that Moses, he'd spoken to Moses about and to Abraham about getting 00:09:19.479 --> 00:09:20.479 the land. 00:09:20.479 --> 00:09:22.959 And it was very real to them. 00:09:22.959 --> 00:09:27.439 As they read this, as they heard what Joshua was saying, it was absolutely real to them. 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:32.760 And of course there's more than simply the reality of the physical inheritance being 00:09:32.760 --> 00:09:37.680 given and what God was doing, as we'll go on to see. 00:09:37.680 --> 00:09:40.000 So it's real. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.200 This is history. 00:09:42.200 --> 00:09:44.240 And interestingly, isn't it? 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:54.040 It's history that deals with the big things of life, people and land. 00:09:54.039 --> 00:09:58.399 That's two of the biggest things in the world, isn't it, people and land? 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:02.799 That's what makes up this world, people and land. 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:09.679 So you've got roughly 7.3 billion people in this world. 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:15.319 Probably the estimates are that there's been a hundred billion people, roughly, who have 00:10:15.319 --> 00:10:19.480 lived since the beginning of time. 00:10:19.480 --> 00:10:25.159 And there's 13 billion hectares of land. 00:10:25.159 --> 00:10:28.440 So there's lots of people and there's lots of land. 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:34.080 And that's what makes up this world that we walk on and that we live in. 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:37.159 People and land kind of highlight who we are. 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:46.480 It's in our DNA to be people and to live and own and work on and be part of the land. 00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:52.519 But it's also, and there's actually quite a lot of, there's quite a lot of symmetry 00:10:52.519 --> 00:10:55.279 between what I'm going to say and what Scotty said this morning. 00:10:55.279 --> 00:11:02.600 Well, he said it much better than me because I could have listened to that all day. 00:11:02.600 --> 00:11:05.600 But there's this great link. 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:12.920 He spoke about the great creation of the Garden of Eden and that was people and land. 00:11:12.919 --> 00:11:18.519 And it speaks of what we've lost also, doesn't it, because of sin, in terms of people and 00:11:18.519 --> 00:11:22.919 relationship with God and the curse on land. 00:11:22.919 --> 00:11:29.639 So as image bearers, we see that these issues are fundamental to our humanity. 00:11:29.639 --> 00:11:34.959 As image bearers, people are hugely significant in the world and Joshua is dealing here with 00:11:34.959 --> 00:11:36.439 people and their inheritance. 00:11:36.439 --> 00:11:38.120 We need each other. 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:42.879 It's about love, isn't it, about family, about laughter and being born and nurtured and growing. 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:48.559 And protecting one another and having that insatiable appetite for being alive together, 00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:55.720 for building homes, for cultivating, for possessing, for owning, for acquiring, for having, and 00:11:55.720 --> 00:11:58.879 for being in our homes, for sitting in our gardens. 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:03.279 We exalt the beauty of the mountains when we walk in them, the rivers, the forests, the 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:09.559 amazing civilizations that have been built in this world in which we live, people and 00:12:09.559 --> 00:12:11.559 land. 00:12:11.559 --> 00:12:21.000 And it also speaks of the brokenness that sin has brought into the world between people 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:22.919 and people and land. 00:12:22.919 --> 00:12:29.239 You know, the horrors of division and hatred and death and violence, people destroying 00:12:29.239 --> 00:12:33.239 one another very often over borders. 00:12:33.239 --> 00:12:38.279 We see it in the United States, we see it in Syria, we see it in Hong Kong, we see it 00:12:38.279 --> 00:12:43.319 in Barcelona, we see it in Scotland, we see it in the UK. 00:12:43.319 --> 00:12:54.559 There's this great battle that is going on over land, getting away from one land, Vietnam, 00:12:54.559 --> 00:13:00.600 coming to another land, the UK, dying in the process in order to get here. 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:06.240 Battles and wars and protectionism, nationalism and all of the things that are making up this 00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:13.799 world in which we existed, we are part of people and land. 00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:19.399 And that is what Joshua is dealing with here, and God is speaking into that, and He is speaking 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:24.200 into that powerfully through the redemption story, isn't it? 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:29.960 In its entirety, it's the promise, as we saw this morning, the promise of redemption and 00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:34.680 healing and wholeness and homecoming and an inheritance. 00:13:34.679 --> 00:13:40.919 You know, Billy read about the inheritance that was given to one of the tribes, and right 00:13:40.919 --> 00:13:46.679 through Joshua 13-21 speaks about, this is your inheritance, this is your land, this 00:13:46.679 --> 00:13:54.399 is the gift you're being given, and we recognize and know spiritually that we too have an 00:13:54.399 --> 00:14:01.599 inheritance in Christ that only He alone can give, and He speaks into the deepest longings 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:09.399 of our hearts and of our lives by gifting us that relationship with Him and the hope 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:16.519 of land in the new heavens and the new earth, which we looked at already this morning. 00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:18.399 And we try, don't we? 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:26.560 We to fulfill that with a thousand poor substitutes as we chase after the wind, only to know that 00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:32.119 our inheritance and our hope and our life and our future is with Jesus Christ and in 00:14:32.119 --> 00:14:34.519 Jesus Christ. 00:14:34.519 --> 00:14:40.559 So God speaks into it, this whole area of people and land in its entirety, in the big 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:46.159 picture, but I think what a chapter like this or an area like this, part of the Bible like 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:52.679 this also reminds us is that He speaks into these things in detail as well, okay? 00:14:52.679 --> 00:15:00.079 So these chapters as I mentioned, they seem to be monotonous and fussy in their detail, 00:15:00.079 --> 00:15:05.439 but it was detail that mattered to God and mattered to the tribes who were receiving 00:15:05.439 --> 00:15:07.719 the inheritance. 00:15:07.719 --> 00:15:15.239 And much of the promises of God speak into the detail of your life tomorrow, that it 00:15:15.240 --> 00:15:22.960 might seem fussy and it might seem a bit monotonous also, some of the stuff that God 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:25.680 is interested in. 00:15:25.680 --> 00:15:30.320 And you might think that nobody else would be interested in the monotony of your life 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:35.120 and the boredom of your life and the minutiae of your life, the stuff that doesn't make 00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:40.240 the front page, that doesn't make you significant in anyone else's eyes. 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:45.200 But what these passages tell us is that God is interested and cares about the minutiae 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:51.039 and the details of our lives, and we can come to Him in prayer about all of the things that 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:55.200 concern us, the fine-tuning elements of our lives, the things that you're worried about 00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:59.080 tonight and you're looking around and you think, what on earth am I, why am I concerned 00:15:59.080 --> 00:16:02.680 about these, God isn't interested in that, the people in the church aren't even interested 00:16:02.680 --> 00:16:07.480 in that, why would God be as the sovereign King of the universe because He gives us chapters 00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:14.480 like this with great detail, because He's not some kind of, He's not a vague insurance 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:20.680 policy for us for the future, He's interested in the detail, the struggles, the battles, 00:16:20.680 --> 00:16:24.600 the worries, the concerns we have, that's why He says, do not be worried, not because 00:16:24.600 --> 00:16:30.600 we don't worry, because He wants to take our worries to Him and lay them at His feet because 00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:35.039 He is interested in the detail and the minutiae of our lives. 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:38.599 So when you think sometimes like that, oh God, I wouldn't be interested in that, read 00:16:38.599 --> 00:16:44.559 these chapters, read about all the different little villages and towns and borders that 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:49.759 are mentioned, and then ask yourself, is God not interested in the details and the small 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:51.559 things? 00:16:51.559 --> 00:17:00.719 So we see that it's real, and we also see it, the whole issue of land and people is being 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:06.360 outworked by God with developing clarity throughout Scripture. 00:17:06.360 --> 00:17:10.200 So what we have here is kind of, and you know that, we've looked at that before, it's God 00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:11.880 at work, isn't it? 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:18.600 It's God at work, but it's almost, like it's almost prototypical, it's almost a prototype 00:17:18.600 --> 00:17:23.880 of what He's going on to do in Christ, it's pointing forward to something better, it's 00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:30.120 still real, they were giving the promised land, they entered the promised land, they 00:17:30.119 --> 00:17:37.039 were victorious in many ways, there were real promises that were made to Abraham and also 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:42.919 to Moses about rescuing His people and giving them inheritance, giving them a home, giving 00:17:42.919 --> 00:17:48.879 them a land, giving them someone permanent to stay after the slavery and their wanderings 00:17:48.879 --> 00:17:54.159 in the desert for forty years, being their God, being among them, being their King, being 00:17:54.159 --> 00:17:57.799 with them. 00:17:57.799 --> 00:18:00.240 But it's only shadowy, isn't it? 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:03.159 Because it's not the end of things. 00:18:03.159 --> 00:18:08.919 So Joshua's about taking the land and then possessing the land, but it's fulfilled in 00:18:08.919 --> 00:18:15.879 Christ, and we know that and we can see that and we understand that, don't we? 00:18:15.879 --> 00:18:21.879 So we can say this evening, once you were not a people, but now you are a people, and we 00:18:21.879 --> 00:18:26.159 are bound together because of our relationship with Jesus. 00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:31.840 It was interesting this morning, Scotty was standing at the door here, he was about to 00:18:31.840 --> 00:18:40.920 leave and he was speaking to Dean who had been on this AV, dealing with the AV yesterday, 00:18:40.920 --> 00:18:46.600 the conference and also today, and so he remembered his name and he was speaking to him and he 00:18:46.600 --> 00:18:49.000 said, you know, what do you do? 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:50.600 What's your job? 00:18:50.599 --> 00:18:57.240 And Dean said, you know, work with computers and algorithms and he went into this detailed 00:18:57.240 --> 00:19:01.079 explanation of kind of what he did with algorithms. 00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:03.599 I don't know what he did, I don't know what it's about. 00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:08.679 It's pretty detailed and he's working in the guts of computers doing that kind of stuff. 00:19:08.679 --> 00:19:15.279 And Scotty said, oh well, we have nothing in common whatsoever apart from Jesus. 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:22.119 He said, I have no mathematical mind and I could really sympathise with that. 00:19:22.119 --> 00:19:23.920 But that's true, isn't it? 00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:27.920 We come together, we are a disparate bunch of people, but we come together with that 00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:30.799 great, we've become a people. 00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:36.879 We're not once a people, but now we are a people because the power of sin and death 00:19:36.879 --> 00:19:39.599 has been reversed in our lives. 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:46.399 And we have been through repentance and faith, we're reunited with Jesus and we're also 00:19:46.399 --> 00:19:49.439 reunited with one another. 00:19:49.439 --> 00:19:54.679 The division that sin brings to people and the land and the relationship between people 00:19:54.679 --> 00:20:01.399 and the land is turned on its head through Christ. 00:20:01.399 --> 00:20:06.119 And we receive them as, I think it's quite interesting, they're a cruel irony, isn't it? 00:20:06.119 --> 00:20:14.079 Notice that death, death for each of us, it turns us to dust. 00:20:14.079 --> 00:20:18.359 From dust we've come, dust we shall return. 00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:26.599 It's ironic that we end up in the land in death, but yet in resurrection we come alive 00:20:26.599 --> 00:20:32.119 again and we'll enter into a new relationship with the land. 00:20:32.119 --> 00:20:38.239 Jesus comes to rescue with the promises of God and with the hope of an inheritance for 00:20:38.239 --> 00:20:42.119 us. 00:20:42.119 --> 00:20:47.279 He takes away the futility of our living, especially in aging and death. 00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:50.599 I'm not going to say anything about that just because I'm going to mention it with regard 00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:52.759 to Caleb at the end. 00:20:52.759 --> 00:21:00.559 But Christ's desolation and exile and abandonment on the cross and then resurrection is the gateway 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:08.240 for our rescue as we come to Him recognizing what He has done in our place, enabling us 00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:12.399 to become a people who have an inheritance. 00:21:12.399 --> 00:21:19.960 So it's fulfilled in Christ in power and also in generosity. 00:21:19.960 --> 00:21:24.919 So Christ gifts us salvation and gives us an inheritance. 00:21:24.919 --> 00:21:29.200 So every believer has an inheritance. 00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:32.840 Christ is our rich uncle, as it were. 00:21:32.840 --> 00:21:40.519 And the New Testament picks up on this idea all the time, what we possess, what we own 00:21:40.519 --> 00:21:46.039 in deposit and looking forward to what we will own in the future. 00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:48.160 And it's great. 00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:52.720 If you ever go online, if you ever use a... 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:59.720 There's an app called Bible Gateway that you can use which if you type in a word, it will 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:00.720 give you all... 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:02.360 It's like an online concordance. 00:22:02.360 --> 00:22:05.360 It gives you all the references to that word in the Bible. 00:22:05.360 --> 00:22:11.319 So type in inheritance and then look at all the New Testament references to inheritance 00:22:11.319 --> 00:22:12.319 that you'll find. 00:22:12.319 --> 00:22:16.120 There's lots of references to inheritance because it's all linked together because the 00:22:16.120 --> 00:22:21.480 New Testament writers recognized that what was happening in Joshua was simply a shadowy 00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:25.440 picture of what we're going to receive and what we receive in Jesus Christ. 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:27.039 We receive an inheritance. 00:22:27.039 --> 00:22:30.720 So Ephesians 1.13 speaks about that. 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:34.400 It says, And you were also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, 00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:36.039 the gospel of your salvation. 00:22:36.039 --> 00:22:40.519 When you believed you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, given the 00:22:40.519 --> 00:22:47.640 life of God and the presence of a spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance 00:22:47.640 --> 00:22:51.800 until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory. 00:22:51.800 --> 00:22:57.400 So there's something for us that's guaranteed because we have the Holy Spirit as Christians 00:22:57.400 --> 00:23:01.160 and it's life and it's going to be life to the full. 00:23:01.160 --> 00:23:07.560 And it's not yet in its fullness and we have this to look forward to and it happens because 00:23:07.560 --> 00:23:08.880 of His death. 00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:15.880 You know, the rich uncle has to die, doesn't he, to get the inheritance. 00:23:15.880 --> 00:23:18.000 It's a terrible thing. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:20.040 That's what the prodigal son stories about. 00:23:20.040 --> 00:23:21.840 He wanted his father dead. 00:23:21.840 --> 00:23:25.920 So basically, so he could get, but what the inheritance anyway, even if he wasn't dead 00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:28.720 because he was going to, but he despised his father. 00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:33.120 So basically wanted him dead so he could get his money. 00:23:33.120 --> 00:23:35.920 And to get an inheritance, the person needs to die. 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:37.400 And Hebrews speaks about that. 00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:45.400 Hebrews 9 speaks about that, that Jesus had to die before we could receive the blessing 00:23:45.400 --> 00:23:47.920 of His death. 00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:51.280 And obviously His death was unique in resurrection. 00:23:51.280 --> 00:23:56.120 His resurrection is in a sense part of that inheritance. 00:23:56.120 --> 00:24:04.080 Christ is the deposit, is the reality of our inheritance, is the fellowship with Him. 00:24:04.080 --> 00:24:11.560 He's the one who never perishes, spoils or fades, unlike every other relationship. 00:24:11.560 --> 00:24:12.840 Some very sweet ones. 00:24:12.840 --> 00:24:15.080 We've lost this weekend. 00:24:15.079 --> 00:24:19.159 One very sweet one this weekend in Bill Anderson. 00:24:19.159 --> 00:24:25.879 And all the best relationships, perish, spoil and fade, they're broken in this world, apart 00:24:25.879 --> 00:24:29.319 from the one with our elder brother, with Jesus Christ. 00:24:29.319 --> 00:24:36.199 We are never separated from Him, even though we die, yet we will live because of His resurrection. 00:24:36.199 --> 00:24:42.399 And the generosity of that is great, but it's not just a person of Jesus. 00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:51.040 Jesus is our King, but also a kingdom, a land, a belonging, a spiritual reality, certainly, 00:24:51.040 --> 00:24:57.200 but with physical anticipation, which again we mentioned this morning, a new heavens and 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:01.400 a new earth, a renewal of this world that we live in. 00:25:01.400 --> 00:25:06.400 Every inch of it will belong to the living God, and we will be the inheritors of that. 00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:14.320 Homes, gardens, mountains, hills, rivers, infinitely more real, more beautiful and more 00:25:14.320 --> 00:25:19.600 unspoiled, people and land. 00:25:19.600 --> 00:25:26.200 That's our hope and that's an inheritance, and that's what passages like this speak about. 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:33.519 I'm just going to finish with an illustration of a great picture of faith in action. 00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:39.480 In the person of Caleb, we read that in the second passage, Caleb is just such a great 00:25:39.480 --> 00:25:44.879 character, love Caleb, Joshua chapter 14. 00:25:44.879 --> 00:25:51.839 And he was the one who had great faith, or faith in a great God, isn't he? 00:25:51.839 --> 00:26:00.839 He was the one who believed God, just like Abraham did, and it was credit to him as righteousness. 00:26:00.839 --> 00:26:07.159 One or two things about Caleb's faith, it was wholehearted. 00:26:07.159 --> 00:26:14.439 Verse 9, it's kind of verse 8 really, but my brothers who went up with me made the heart 00:26:14.439 --> 00:26:19.119 of the people melt, yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. 00:26:19.119 --> 00:26:24.279 And then at the end of verse 9, surely the land in which Moses said, sure the land in 00:26:24.279 --> 00:26:27.480 which your foot is drawn shall be inheritance for you, for children forever, because you 00:26:27.480 --> 00:26:31.559 have wholly followed the Lord your God, wholeheartedly followed the Lord your God. 00:26:31.559 --> 00:26:34.319 He was a wholehearted, he had wholehearted faith. 00:26:34.319 --> 00:26:37.319 That's a great picture of faith, isn't it? 00:26:37.319 --> 00:26:44.759 Because he saw that as God was worth it, and there was nothing to compare to serving the 00:26:44.759 --> 00:26:46.599 living God. 00:26:46.599 --> 00:26:55.519 And we recognize that, and we see that God, our God as Christians is worth following wholeheartedly, 00:26:55.519 --> 00:27:00.119 as if who is second, sorry, Colossians 3, 23 and 24. 00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:08.599 Whatever you do as a Christian, work heartily or wholeheartedly as for the Lord and not for 00:27:08.599 --> 00:27:14.240 men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. 00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:15.720 You're serving the Lord Christ. 00:27:15.720 --> 00:27:22.680 So when we go, when you go from here tomorrow, Sunday's okay, but tomorrow, in your workplace 00:27:22.680 --> 00:27:26.960 with the annoying person beside you, or with the struggles and battles that you're facing 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:33.400 with health, or with accommodation, or with others and being bullied, or whatever it might 00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:41.720 be that we are to, with all our heart, work and serve Jesus Christ, not in order to earn, 00:27:41.720 --> 00:27:47.000 but because there is this inheritance that is ours that we already possess. 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:54.920 And that passage in Colossians is surrounded by advice to who? 00:27:54.920 --> 00:28:01.680 Married couples, children, families, individuals, slaves, employees, employers. 00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:08.839 It's dealing with the everyday grit and gristle of life, and we are to be wholehearted people 00:28:08.839 --> 00:28:10.319 of faith. 00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:15.079 And that comes from communion with God and recognizing who He is. 00:28:15.079 --> 00:28:19.720 So He's wholehearted, He was also trusting, wasn't He? 00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:22.639 Because He had trusted in the Lord. 00:28:22.639 --> 00:28:27.799 Verse 10, now behold, the Lord has kept me alive just as He said, these 45 years since 00:28:27.799 --> 00:28:33.519 the time that the Lord spoke His word to Moses while Israel walked in the desert, in the wilderness. 00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:40.079 He had trusted the Lord for 45 years in the desert when that whole generation were wiped 00:28:40.079 --> 00:28:47.960 out because of their unbelief, and He knew that the promise of God was never empty. 00:28:47.960 --> 00:28:51.399 And that's why we need to know the promises of God and trust Him. 00:28:51.399 --> 00:28:58.039 That's why His word is so vital in our lives, because it's a revelation of the divine person, 00:28:58.039 --> 00:29:03.799 and we need the help of the Holy Spirit, and that intentionality of trusting our life to 00:29:03.799 --> 00:29:04.799 Him. 00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:09.119 Who do you trust as you go into the working week? 00:29:09.119 --> 00:29:12.719 To whom are you committed in trust? 00:29:12.719 --> 00:29:18.959 And it's not about having faith in your faith, because that's a council of despair. 00:29:18.959 --> 00:29:22.039 So it's saying, how much faith I can work up? 00:29:22.039 --> 00:29:30.239 But it's about having faith in God, and looking to Him and communing with Him, speaking with 00:29:30.239 --> 00:29:37.479 Him, leaning on Him, repenting to Him, seeking His help, trusting when it seems absolutely 00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:41.240 impossible to trust Him. 00:29:41.240 --> 00:29:45.240 It was, He was wholehearted, He was trusting. 00:29:45.240 --> 00:29:51.120 He had robust faith, and this is the best, I really like this bit, the end of 10, B and 00:29:51.120 --> 00:29:52.120 11. 00:29:52.120 --> 00:29:57.759 He says, and now behold, this day I'm 85 years old, I'm still as strong today as I was in 00:29:57.759 --> 00:29:59.160 the day that Moses sent me. 00:29:59.160 --> 00:30:04.279 My strength now is my strength was then for war and for coming and going. 00:30:04.279 --> 00:30:10.119 It's a great little montage, isn't it, of His robustness. 00:30:10.119 --> 00:30:14.920 In old age, this great declaration of faith in God and not in Himself. 00:30:14.920 --> 00:30:21.440 Now for some of us who are getting older, there's always the danger of finishing badly. 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:23.879 There's always the danger of just giving up. 00:30:23.879 --> 00:30:28.879 It's so hard, or of just retiring from faith. 00:30:28.880 --> 00:30:39.360 And yet here's this great old man of faith who had seen his faith strengthened and his 00:30:39.360 --> 00:30:44.720 trust in God's love and care that kept him alive for 45 years. 00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:51.120 And it's a great testimony of the importance of old people who are Christians, and old 00:30:51.120 --> 00:30:57.480 people who keep looking to the Lord. 00:30:57.480 --> 00:31:00.400 And I want the young people here to recognize that. 00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:03.920 Recognize how important older people are here in the church. 00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:10.319 Because old people and older people who have been Christians for many years are able to 00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:15.039 declare God's strength even though maybe physically they may be feeling weaker. 00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:16.839 Nothing better than an old enthusiast. 00:31:16.839 --> 00:31:19.759 It's the greatest thing in the world. 00:31:19.759 --> 00:31:26.920 And you want to know old enthusiasm, and there's great old enthusiasts here. 00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:31.160 Because it's overcoming what is, you know, it's very easy to get cynical and bitter 00:31:31.160 --> 00:31:32.160 than old age. 00:31:32.160 --> 00:31:36.600 But there's that great verse in Corinthians which says that even though outwardly we're 00:31:36.600 --> 00:31:40.160 fading away, inwardly we're being renewed day by day. 00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:44.400 There's an inner youthfulness in lots of the older people here. 00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:50.800 So are the young, that's why we don't just do stuff that's generationally tight. 00:31:50.800 --> 00:31:55.160 That's why the house, the city groups are so great because they're multi-generational 00:31:55.160 --> 00:31:59.720 because it's important to get to know older people in your life. 00:31:59.720 --> 00:32:04.040 And it's great to do so. 00:32:04.040 --> 00:32:10.320 And the older people, be examples of what God can do and the impossibilities of getting 00:32:10.320 --> 00:32:13.440 old to the young people and speak to them. 00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:19.279 And just share your faith with them. 00:32:19.279 --> 00:32:27.200 And as a congregation we seek to honour old age, respect and value their words and their 00:32:27.200 --> 00:32:29.720 examples. 00:32:29.720 --> 00:32:36.279 So I would encourage you, the younger people, to spend time with the golden generation here 00:32:36.279 --> 00:32:38.759 in St. Columbus. 00:32:38.759 --> 00:32:41.200 Because they're not always here. 00:32:41.200 --> 00:32:48.960 I regret, Bill Anderson was in St. Columbus for four or five years when we first came. 00:32:48.960 --> 00:32:52.920 Because they asked for some help from our sister church in Bucleon. 00:32:52.920 --> 00:32:59.000 Bill, registered blind, not physically strong, was one of the volunteers. 00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:00.000 I'll go. 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:02.440 I'll, here am I, Lord, send me. 00:33:02.440 --> 00:33:03.440 And he came here. 00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:06.440 He was vital in the early days here. 00:33:06.440 --> 00:33:08.840 And times with him were rich and great. 00:33:08.840 --> 00:33:13.960 And I regret when he went back to his own home congregation just not spending more time with 00:33:13.960 --> 00:33:19.519 him and learning more from him because he had such a robust faith. 00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:24.440 And lastly and very briefly, courage as well. 00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:28.799 In verse 12, you know, give me now, he says, this hill country of which the Lord spoke 00:33:28.799 --> 00:33:34.120 on that day, it may be that the Lord will be with me and I shall drive them out, just 00:33:34.120 --> 00:33:36.120 as the Lord had said. 00:33:36.120 --> 00:33:41.400 Oh man, eighty-five years old and he's got the courage to take that land that God has 00:33:41.400 --> 00:33:43.000 gifted him. 00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:47.720 And he's been kept through war and through wilderness. 00:33:47.720 --> 00:33:49.200 It's not been an easy life for him. 00:33:49.200 --> 00:33:53.039 And it's not a council of, you know, a kind of life's easy, no problem. 00:33:53.039 --> 00:33:57.000 But the bigger the battle, he could see, the bigger the battle, the greater the opportunity 00:33:57.000 --> 00:33:58.319 to rely on God. 00:33:58.319 --> 00:34:02.640 And the deeper the impossibility, the more he could trust in his living God. 00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:06.119 And he knew that from past experiences in his life. 00:34:06.119 --> 00:34:08.400 He says that. 00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:16.200 He didn't rely on circumstances and he didn't rely on feelings, however significant and 00:34:16.200 --> 00:34:18.240 they weren't, and how passionate he was. 00:34:18.240 --> 00:34:22.880 He relied on the living God and the courage that the living God gave him because he'd 00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:24.639 been with him right through his life. 00:34:24.639 --> 00:34:28.639 And I can guarantee that that will be the case for all the older people here who've 00:34:28.639 --> 00:34:29.840 been Christians for a long time. 00:34:29.840 --> 00:34:33.160 Well, I've been Christian for maybe forty years. 00:34:33.159 --> 00:34:41.199 I can say that, that God has been true to his promises. 00:34:41.199 --> 00:34:47.079 The failings have always been one-sided, always one-sided, never on God's side. 00:34:47.079 --> 00:34:48.759 And that should give us greater courage. 00:34:48.759 --> 00:34:53.279 Sadly, sometimes it doesn't, but it should. 00:34:53.279 --> 00:35:02.039 Because we see in a different chapter, in chapter 17, a different tribe who, when they're 00:35:02.039 --> 00:35:05.119 given the land to take, they say, oh, the same thing. 00:35:05.119 --> 00:35:06.119 Oh, I don't know. 00:35:06.119 --> 00:35:07.119 I'm not sure. 00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:08.800 I don't know if we can go up. 00:35:08.800 --> 00:35:09.800 It's difficult. 00:35:09.800 --> 00:35:14.119 There's a lot of strong enemies in that place. 00:35:14.119 --> 00:35:16.400 Not sure if we can go. 00:35:16.400 --> 00:35:19.239 They don't end up driving out their enemies. 00:35:19.239 --> 00:35:26.480 And so they end up weak and compromising, unfulfilled and broken because they lacked courage in 00:35:26.480 --> 00:35:27.480 the living God. 00:35:27.480 --> 00:35:30.119 So pray for these things. 00:35:30.119 --> 00:35:37.719 Pray for these three things in your life, grace, discernment and courage. 00:35:37.719 --> 00:35:42.359 And ask God to help you look with the eye of faith to see the impossibilities that you 00:35:42.359 --> 00:35:43.359 face every day. 00:35:43.359 --> 00:35:45.359 And we all face impossibilities. 00:35:45.359 --> 00:35:52.279 I recognize the enemy that we need to overcome in our own heart and also in the world in which 00:35:52.279 --> 00:35:53.279 we live. 00:35:53.279 --> 00:35:57.480 And live by faith and trust in the living God. 00:35:57.480 --> 00:35:59.199 And look with the eye of faith. 00:35:59.199 --> 00:36:00.199 So I'll finish with this story. 00:36:00.199 --> 00:36:01.799 I hope I get this right. 00:36:01.799 --> 00:36:05.519 I'm terrible at telling stories that I've read in books because I never remember them 00:36:05.519 --> 00:36:06.519 properly. 00:36:06.519 --> 00:36:12.919 But this is about a shoe salesman who's sent by his company to a foreign country. 00:36:12.919 --> 00:36:13.919 It's quite an old one. 00:36:13.919 --> 00:36:16.480 He married Nod in his head. 00:36:16.480 --> 00:36:18.919 You could probably come up and tell it much better. 00:36:18.919 --> 00:36:24.719 And when he gets there, he sees the condition of the country. 00:36:24.719 --> 00:36:34.519 And it was an old story, so he sent a cable back home, text for the young ones, saying, 00:36:34.519 --> 00:36:39.879 wire me some money to get me a train home. 00:36:39.879 --> 00:36:42.439 Nobody wears shoes here. 00:36:42.439 --> 00:36:43.439 He's a shoe salesman. 00:36:43.439 --> 00:36:45.359 He's obviously a poor country. 00:36:45.359 --> 00:36:46.359 Nobody wears shoes. 00:36:46.359 --> 00:36:47.359 He's a dead end. 00:36:47.359 --> 00:36:48.359 There's no point in going. 00:36:48.359 --> 00:36:52.000 He just wants money to go back home. 00:36:52.000 --> 00:36:56.519 And so the company sent out a second salesman. 00:36:56.519 --> 00:37:03.519 And he sends, when he arrives, he looks at the country and what he sees. 00:37:03.519 --> 00:37:08.880 And he sends a cable back to the company saying, market is unlimited. 00:37:08.880 --> 00:37:10.760 No one has shoes. 00:37:10.760 --> 00:37:14.039 Send me all the shoes you can. 00:37:14.039 --> 00:37:16.760 Because he sees things differently. 00:37:16.760 --> 00:37:22.760 And so often we are negative and we give up because of what we think are the impossibilities 00:37:22.760 --> 00:37:25.160 of the situation we're in. 00:37:25.160 --> 00:37:26.920 Nobody's going to believe. 00:37:26.920 --> 00:37:27.920 Nobody's going to accept. 00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:29.920 None of my friends will come to faith. 00:37:29.920 --> 00:37:31.840 None of them will believe. 00:37:31.840 --> 00:37:34.360 And we give up and we walk away. 00:37:34.360 --> 00:37:41.000 Or does it drive us towards the one who promises to break down the walls of impossibility in 00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:46.720 our lives and our hearts and promises to fulfill what we looked at this morning? 00:37:46.719 --> 00:37:52.519 That he has a purpose and a plan that's absolutely being fulfilled and will end up with all of 00:37:52.519 --> 00:37:57.239 us as believers, if we are believers in the new heavens and the new earth with him. 00:37:57.239 --> 00:38:01.719 If you're not a believer, then that's something that you must contemplate and must come to 00:38:01.719 --> 00:38:06.719 terms with the claims and the reality of Jesus Christ and what he says. 00:38:06.719 --> 00:38:07.719 So let's pray. 00:38:07.719 --> 00:38:15.799 Father God, help us to live by faith, but not faith in faith, but a faith in God, which 00:38:15.800 --> 00:38:20.480 means we go and keep going to You with our weakness and our failure and with repentant 00:38:20.480 --> 00:38:26.120 hearts, seeking Your help and seeking Your grace and seeking Your newness and seeking 00:38:26.120 --> 00:38:29.200 Your pleasure in our lives. 00:38:29.200 --> 00:38:35.400 Help us to desire You more and to trust in You more and to know, even in these seemingly 00:38:35.400 --> 00:38:42.039 dull and dry and difficult passages of the Bible, that You're the God who is intimately 00:38:42.039 --> 00:38:48.559 involved in fulfilling Your promises as a generous and gracious God. 00:38:48.559 --> 00:38:57.679 And may we understand that in our lives and put it to the test and not live in a rut of 00:38:57.679 --> 00:39:09.960 unbelief or discouragement or failure, but look to and live in that great relationship 00:39:09.960 --> 00:39:16.960 of faith with the Lord Jesus Christ and take an example from someone like Caleb or some 00:39:16.960 --> 00:39:25.559 of the great old Christians here in the church and know that God is true to His promises. 00:39:25.559 --> 00:39:31.760 So may you in habit our lives and our hearts bless everyone tonight who's here, bless them 00:39:31.760 --> 00:39:38.000 as they go from here, maybe into difficult family situations or into isolation or into 00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:45.079 difficult work relationships and battles of doubt or struggle or fear or hearts that 00:39:45.079 --> 00:39:52.400 don't desire you or whatever struggles and difficulties we face, help all of us this 00:39:52.400 --> 00:40:03.159 evening to turn to You and to commune with You and to seek Your grace and help in our 00:40:03.159 --> 00:40:04.159 time of need. 00:40:04.159 --> 00:40:08.159 For Jesus' sake, Amen.