Thanks again. Next to all the people who help make these services happen. You see a handful of us up here. But there are so many people who spend so many hours every week making sure that you have a bulletin on their slides on the screen and that you can come in here and have air conditioning. So thank you to everybody who helps make these services happen. You sports fan? Most of us are. We follow one sport or another. If you are, then you know that after a sporting event, a game or a match or a race or whatever, there is a... You can look in the paper or you can go online. Paper the next day online almost immediately. You can see a little statistical summary of that sporting event. They say it's a football game. And you didn't get to see it, but you can go to that little summary in the paper the day after and you'll find out not only what the score was but what the score was by a quarter. And you'll find out how many points were scored by touchdowns or point after touchdown or field goals or whatever. You'll find out the total yardage of your team and the passing yardage and how many passes he threw and how many were complete and how many were intercepted and what the rushing yardage was and who carried for how many yards and what the average was. Everything you want to know about it. If you're a baseball fan, you might read the box score the next day after your team plays and you'll find out everybody who played and how many times he came up to bat and how many hits he got, how many walks, how many hit by pitch, how many runs were scored per inning, the pitchers, how many runs they gave up. You are everything you want to know about that sporting event even if you couldn't see it. Every sport has some version of this. They're not all excited to read. They're not all excited to hear about either. I know they're not all excited to read but they tell you a lot about the event even if you weren't there to see it. And I say all that because this morning the passage will go to read is a little bit like that. It's a little bit like that. It's not the most fascinating passage in the Bible if you've glanced at already you know but it tells us a lot about the history and the experiences of our forebears and the faith, the nation of Israel. And like I do when I'm using these long passages, one reason I preach these long chunks of time is there's really no good way to, no good place to break these. It's a pretty artificial break these. They really present one story, one unit of the history. So we'll read the whole chapter. We'll take it in chunks as we usually do. So let's pray together before we look into the Word of God. Father, I am grateful that this is your Word. And even these parts of your Word that to us don't seem all that interesting, it's there for a reason. It's there to show us something about you and about how you work and the lives of your people throughout time and history. And so as we look into this passage, Joshua 12, I pray that you would illuminate our minds and captivate our hearts, activate our wills and motivate our hands and feet to know you more intently, to love you more deeply. And our neighbors as well, and to serve you more faithfully as a result of our being here today, that we leave here more like Jesus than we were when we got here. I pray in his name. Amen. Joshua 12, it's going to teach us several things. The first thing it teaches us is to look back with appreciation, beginning in verse 1, these are the kings of the land whom the Israelites had defeated and whose territory they took over east of the Jordan from the Arnon Gorge to mount her mone, including the eastern side of the Araba, Sa'han, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshban. He ruled from narrower on the rim of the Arnon Gorge, from the middle of the Gorge to the Jabok River, which is the border of the Ammonites. This included half of Gilead. He also ruled over the eastern Araba from the Sea of Kenereth, to the Sea of the Araba, the Salt Sea, to Beth Geshemoth, and then southward below the slopes of Pizga. You got all that? Hey, with me, you got Jorala down here? I feel like you need a scorecard to keep up with the players. I feel that way, too. So let's break it down. Verse 1, these are the kings of the land, whom the Israelites had defeated and whose territory they took over east of the Jordan. This is back in the day for the guy who's writing this. This is back before Joshua assumed the leadership of the people of Israel. This is back under Moses' command and leadership. And the first king they took down east of the Jordan was this, in verse 2, Sa'han, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshban, poor ol' Sa'han. I mean, he's just sittin' her mind in his own business, isn't he? He's got this idyllic little setting out there in the countryside. Miner's own business not caused him to harm anybody and long come the big bad Israelites. They kick and they take names and they take him right out of the picture and take his town away. Not exactly. It's not exactly how it happened. This passage doesn't tell us numbers 21 does. I'm going to read a little bit of that to you. But the Bible tells us that they, Moses and the people, they took Heshban from Sa'han. He had taken away from the Moabites, not long before that. And not only that, he picked this fight. He didn't have to get into a fight with the Israelites, but he picked the fight. Let me read you from numbers, chapter 21. I'm going to read verses 21-26. Israel sent messengers to say to Sa'han, king of the Amorites, let us pass to your country. We will not turn aside into any field or vineyard or drink water from any well. We will travel along the King's highway until we have passed through your territory. But Sa'han would not let Israel pass to his territory. He mustered his entire army and marched out into the desert against Israel. When he reached Jihad, he fought with Israel. Israel, however, put him to the sword. It took over his land from the Arnon to the Jabbak. But only as far as the Amorites, because their border was fortified. Now, there's another message, but that's not for today. Verse 25, Israel captured all the cities of the Amorites and occupied them, including Heshban, and all its surrounding settlements. Heshban was the city of Sa'han, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken from him all his land, as far as the Arnon. So Sa'han had taken the land of the Moabites, and all Israel wanted to do was just pass through it. But he wouldn't let him. Big mistake. Big mistake. Some of you remember that old Jim Krochi's song? You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off the all alone Ranger, and you don't mess around with Moses. You don't mess around with Moses and the Israelites. That's a little adaptation of Krochi's song, but you shouldn't mess with Moses and the Israelites. You Sa'han, king of the Amorites, had been reading the box scores. He would have known. Word traveled, he should have known. The ancient Israelites, these guys were the 1927 Yankees and the 72 dolphins, and the bulls under Michael Jordan, and Muhammad Ali all rolled into one. You didn't mess with him, and all they wanted to do was pass through his territory. And he wouldn't let him do it. So God's people, they weren't looking for trouble. They just wanted to pass through. When I was studying this passage this past, we get triggered in memory something I haven't thought in so long. Parkside Elementary School in Columbus, Indiana, where I went for a few years, my first several years of elementary school, recessed one day, one beautiful spring day. We had monkey bars, you know, the kind that had two sets of bars at right angles to one another, and they met up there on the top of the middle. Beautiful spring day. In kindergarten, I'm sitting up on top of those monkey bars, right in the middle, and I was king of the world. And I'm sitting there enjoying myself until this much larger, fourth or fifth grade girl came up and said, move. And I made two mistakes. One was I folded my arms stubbornly, and the other one I said, make me. Young men, a lesson learned from your pastor here. When a woman asks you or even tells you to do something, the words make me are not your best response. I don't remember exactly what happened next, but I remember clearly finding myself flat on my face in the hard dirt service with a bloody nose and a busted lip and making an unexpected call on the school's nursing office. Yeah, I would not terrible that mean old fourth or fifth grade girl to do that. You know, today there will be a lawsuit. You know that. Today there will be a lawsuit. Channel 7 would be out there. Pandemonium on the playground, or a monkey bar mayhem, or something. You know, they'd alliterate something. There'd be an investigation. Those monkey bars would be gone the next day. There would definitely be a lawsuit, though. But I learned a lesson out of that. I learned something. And that's when someone much bigger and stronger than you wants to pass through, and they just want to pass through. Unless you've got a real compelling reason, let them go. Just let them play right through. What I learned at the price of a bloody nose, say, on King of the Amorites, later on, on Og, the King of Bashan, they learned it a much, much higher price. Let me say this, though, because I've said this to you before. If we're serious about following Christ, we're going to encounter opposition. But don't go looking for it. Don't go asking for trouble. Don't go, I said to you a week or two ago, if you tug the dragon's tail, and he turns around and he roaches, you don't expect much sympathy. Don't go stirring up the Canaanites. They're going to come out, or it's enough. The gospel is offensive, but we don't have to be offensive and erasive on top of it. We're going to encounter opposition. We don't need to stir it up. But if the Canaanites want to rumble, then they need to know that we're ready for the struggle. We'll answer the bell. We will go all 15 rounds of it. Second Peter, chapter 3 and verse 15. Ladder part of it. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect. Always be ready to give an answer. I know I've told you before, but I keep an email correspondence with a number of non-Christian friends. And I've told you about this before, but it's been a while since I mentioned it. One of my non-Christian friends, in particular, was really after me on a particular issue. What the issue was doesn't matter, but really after me about my Christian stance on it, how we Christians can act this way. Well, if you're going to do this about that, and really after me, and I answered the email back and forth a few times, and finally, it's perfectly really being abrasive about it. I said, okay, all right. I'm going to try to answer your questions. I'm going to take the gloves off, and I'm going to answer your questions as bluntly and as frankly as I possibly can. I don't know if I can do it, but I'm going to try to answer your questions to the best of my ability. And then when I'm done, I have a question I want you to answer. You've been very critical of what I believe. You've been very cynical about me, about Christianity in general. What is it you believe in? Enough. That you're willing to take a stand on. Where will you stand? What are the core principles of your life for which you will stand, and maybe even for which you would die? After I answer your questions, I want you to answer me. I'm still waiting for that answer. I'm still waiting. Don't go looking for trouble, folks. But if it comes, then you know, we're ready. We're ready to rumble. And we'll answer the king tonight in the appropriate manner. There's another aspect of this I want you to know. Look at verse three again. Instead of your bolts and open your Bible open. He, Sihon, also ruled over the Eastern Arabah from the Sea of Canada. That's the Sea of Galilee. To the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, or what we call the Dead Sea, to Beth, Jeshimoth, and then Southward below the slopes of Pizga. The slopes of Pizga. If you really know your older testament, that they might ring a bell with you. Deuteronomy, chapter 34. Let me just have you look at verses one and four with me. Deuteronomy 34, verses one and four. This is the end of the book of Deuteronomy. Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pizga across from Jericho. There, the Lord showed him the whole land and then verse four. Then the Lord said to him, This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When I said, I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it. This is the end of the road for Moses. But for the Israelites, Mount Pizga, where Moses saw the promised land, where Moses' earthly journey ended. That would be like for anybody in the western hemisphere going to the island of San Salvador or there in the Bahamas, where we think was the first place Columbus set foot in the new world. It would be like going to wherever it was in Panama that Fasco, Nunez, De Balboa, first saw the Pacific Ocean. What a moment. What a pivotal moment in the course of Western history. What a pivotal moment for Moses when he stood on top of that mountain. He saw Canaan. Numbers 21 says the Israelites went up the road after having seen there the slopes of Pizga. They went up the road, and they did the same thing that they had done to Syahon, King of Bashan. They did the same thing to Ogh. I'm Syahon, King of Amorites, to Ogh, the King of Bashan. Verse 4. And the territory of Ogh, King of Bashan. One of the last of the refites who reigned in Asterooth and Eddry, he ruled over Mount Hermon, Salika, all of Bashan to the border of the people of Gesheur and Makkah, half of Gilead to the border of Syahon, King of Heshban. Verse 1-5. This is like a recitation of the great military victories of the people of Israel up to that point. It would be like me saying to anybody who knows American history. You let me talk to you about the victories in the Revolutionary War, at Lexington, Concord, and Tykonda Roga, and Bunker Hill, and Valley Forge. I'm going to be talking about the great military battles at Guadalcanal and Midway, and the Battle of the Bulge, and D-Day. This is a recitation of some of the great military history, military victories. Verse 6. Moses, the servant of the Lord and the Israelites, conquered them. And Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave their land to the Rubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, to be their possession. That's what Moses did. It was marvelous. That's what Moses did. It was absolutely wonderful. You ever sit around with your friends? Now that I'm getting older. You ever sit around with your friends and talk about the old times and the good times and the games you won, and the battles you won? You ever see that bumper sticker, the older I get, the better I was. Sit around and talk about some like Bruce Springsteen's song, Glory Days. These things, these were marvelous chapters in the history of Israel. This is what Moses did. They said he conquered these two kings on the east side of the door, and it took all their territory and gave it up to us as an inheritance. That's all true. Let me tell you what's not mentioned here. What's not mentioned here are all the times that the Israelites gripped and grumbled out in the wilderness. Moses, did you bring us out here to die? There weren't any graves in Egypt. Can't you just hear it? Moses, we're tired of this bread. Can't we have some meat? Moses, we want the freshwater. Can't you bring it from the rock? That's not mentioned here. What else doesn't mention here? It's that little episode with the golden calf, where the people down below said, we don't know what happened to this guy, Moses. We need a God here and now we can worship. Everybody, take off your jewelry. Let's melt it down and make ourselves a great big cow. And God was so disgusted with him. He was going to wipe him off the face of the earth and start all over the Moses. Moses said, God, please don't do that. He pleaded for his people. And God reminded. There's an episode in Numbers, chapter 25, where 24,000 people, 24,000 of the Israelites, were put to death by the Lord because of their rampant blatant idolatry. And they're disgusting, canony night practices. And God wiped out 24,000 of them. That's not mentioned here either. There were some incredible accomplishments on your Moses. There's also some dark day, some dark chapters in this history right here. Listen, you got a golden day, a golden era in your past? That's good. That's good. Thank God for those wonderful seasons in your life when things were good and things were right. But let's keep in mind. They weren't, they weren't maybe all as good as that. It's not as if everything in the past was all wonderful. Now it's tough. Come on. There were some dark times back there too. Thank God for those times. I thank God for the wonderful seasons in my life. I thank God for the mentors, the Moseses he's put in my path. I thank him so much for my own father. I wish you all could have met my dad. He was a wonderful God. That's why I'm so much better adjusted than you are. Because my dad was such a wonderful guy. That's why I'm the model of emotional and mental and spiritual health that you see before you. Now when he was, he was a great guy. I wish you could have met him by far the best mentor of my life. I thank God for Jim Green. Maybe y'all know Jim. A mentor to me in my early days in youth for Christ. The Steve Brown, many of you know, for Steve's impact on me, on my life and my ministry. Richard Pratt, Richard was by far the best of the professors that I had in seminary. Still a good friend. Will fell in me because men toward me and a number of others. I thank God for what wills done. There's another guy that I don't usually put in my mentor category because we're pretty close in age and I still seem a lot. But I thank God very much for the ministry this guy had in my life as a young Christian and has many times since. Tell Andy I said that about him when you get home with you. I thank God for Andy McDaniel. I thank God for those men and for the times I've gotten spent with them. But I don't dwell on the past. I don't dwell on the past. There were some great times. There were some tough times too. And God doesn't repeat himself. God loves to do the new thing. Isaiah 43 verses 18 and 19. Do not call to mind the former things or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new. Now it will spring forth. Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness. Rivers in the desert. Look back with appreciation. Realistically with appreciation. And then as some I say, oh Lord, he's only at verse 6. He's going to speed up a lot. I promise. We're going to speed up a lot. Look around with anticipation. That's what Moses did. Now, verse 7. Here's what Joshua has done. These are the kings of the land that Joshua and the Israelites conquered on the west side of the Jordan. From Baal Gad and the valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, which rises towards Seir. Their lands, Joshua gave as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel according to their tribal divisions. And by the way, this is just a preview of what we're going to get into in chapters 13 through 21. Someone says, oh good, more conquest, more dividing of the land, more inheritance. It's all right. It's here for a reason. Verse 8. The hill country. The western foothills. The arabah. The mountain slopes. The desert and the negab. The lands of the Hittites. Amorites. Canaanites. Parasites. Hivites and Jebusites. Now I'm going to read all these names here. And here's what I want to keep you engaged with me on this, okay? When I read through these kings of so-and-so, I want you to keep score. I want you to tell me what I'm done. Which letter appears most frequently at the beginning of a king's name? And I'll narrow it down for you. Is it going to be the A, G, H, M, L? I'm sorry, I do the way around. H, J, L, M, or T. A, H, J, L, M, or T. Which letter starts the names most frequently? Are you ready? The king of Jericho, one. The king of AI, near Bethel, one. The king of Jerusalem, one. The king of Hebron, one. The king of Jarmouth, one. The king of Laquiche, one. The king of Eglon, one. The king of Gezar-one, the king of Deber-one, the king of Gether-one. King of Horma-one, the king of Arad-one, The king of Liv-na-one, the king of Adolam-one. The king of McH Yellow-one, the king of Bethel-one, the king of Tapu-one. Dancing your breath as well as mine. The king of Hef Grefish, the king of Offèac-one, the king of Laシă-Rone-one, King of MăDone-one, the king of Ha-Zor-one, the king of symron-meron-one, King of Okshoth 1, the King of Anak 1, the King of Meghito 1, the King of Kadesh 1, the King of Jokdam and Karmel 1, the King of Dwar and Naphoth 1, the King of Goyim and Gilgal 1, the King of Tirza 1, 31, kings and all. Alright, what do you got? Which letter appeared the most at the beginning of a name? Take a shot. There's a big prize for this. A, how many say A? You're a bunch of sheep. You don't know. Who else? Who else? What? E, T. I was going to say E wasn't on the menu. T? How many think it was T? Not too many. Anybody else? H? How many say H? Few more, ok? Anybody else? J? How many say J? A lot more say J. Alright, I think if I keep sitting on out letters you'll just keep raising your hands. The truth is it was letter A. Those of you who said A way to go. It appeared at the beginning of five names. Second was J and H with four. I'd like you to care. I'll go on, ok? The message here was to the people of Israel. The reason they listed all these people, if God has been faithful to see us through all these battles, all these struggles with all these people, if he was faithful to Moses on the east side of the Jordan, to knock off Sinhan and Og and on the west side of the Jordan, to knock off all these people, if God has been faithful to those things for us, don't you think he'll see us through as we take the rest of Canaan? Don't you think he can finish the job? Let me ask you something. Do you remember those times when you thought you were not going to make it? Maybe you thought physically you weren't going to be here, and here you are. Do you remember those times when you were struggling in your marriage and you didn't know if you could keep on breathing? Maybe the marriage made it. Maybe it didn't. But here you are. Do you remember those times with your kids, or maybe your parents? You thought you weren't going to make it. You were not going to survive this one, but here you are. And you made it. Those times in your business, with your finances and those relationships. And you didn't know if your heart could take it one more day. But here you are. And you made it. And no one has been easy in many of us. And probably the vast majority of us were broken people. We're wounded people. We're not here because we're so spiritual. We're not here because we're so strong. Here because the grace of God is bigger than our sins and our brokenness. And if he's gotten you this far, don't you think he can take you the rest of the way home? I think, and I read part of this to you, excuse me about a month ago, I think Martin Luther King Jr. had this passage right here in mind on April 3rd, 1968, when he gave that speech where he said, Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead, but it doesn't matter with me now because I've been to the mountain top. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. And about 12 hours later, Martin Luther King Jr.'s earthly journey ended with the crack of a rifle from James Earl Ray. Martin Luther King, who had seen over from the mountaintop in the Promised Land, I believe, entered into his eternal rest. Moses' earthly journey ended up there on Mount Pisga. It says God buried him in the valley there in Moab, and nobody knows where to stay. That's where Moses' earthly journey ended when God called him home, but both of them trusted God. Both of them trusted God to get them the rest of the way home. Look back with appreciation. Look around with anticipation. Finally, very briefly, look up with adoration. All this talk of kings conquered and lands taken. Seems to us is pretty dry. It's just a box score, really. An event that's already taken place. But if you know how to read it, you have to look into it. It'll tell you a lot about events that we weren't there to see. God did this. One thing to fulfill, partly to fulfill a promise that he made to Abraham. Let me read this to you briefly from Genesis 15. This is Abraham's vision. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, to your descendants, I will give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, Kenazites, Kabanites, Hittites, Parazites, Refites, Amorites, Kenanites, Geiger Shites and Jebiusites. And hundreds of years later, hundreds of years later, here are Joshua and the people of Israel receiving the fulfillment of the promises that God had made to his people. He did it. God did it to fulfill one promise, and I'll also just set the stage for another one. Let's take that verse 23 in front of you. The king of door and off-authed door. One, the king of Goyim and Gilgal, one. Goyim. That's the Hebrew term for everybody who's not Jewish. It means the Gentiles or the nations, the king of Gentiles or nations in Gilgal, one, all that God was doing in the unfolding drama of the older covenant. He was setting the stage for the ushering in of the newer covenant when his grace would be scattered abroad to the nations, to the Gentiles, which would include most of us this morning. The unfolding plan of redemption from Abraham, before that, from Adam and Eve to Noah, to Abraham, from Abraham to Moses, from Moses to David and then from David to the coming of the new covenant, the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Man, that must have seemed like a long time. Man, that must have seemed like it took so long. And most of them never knew. They never saw what it was that God was doing. They died, not knowing how God was using them in the unfolding drama of redemption. They didn't know. And even the people in Jesus' time, they got to see the fulfillment of those promises. They don't know what we know. Man, it seemed like a long time for them. 2,000 years since then for us. But Isaiah 9 verses 1 and 2, God said this, through his prophet Isaiah, nevertheless there will be no more bloom for those who were in distress. In the past, he hung with the land of Zebulin and the land of Naftali. But in the future, he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles by the way of the sea along with the Jordan. The people walking in darkness has seen a great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. God was setting the stage, we read that text normally at Christmas time. It's a messianic prophecy. God was setting the stage for something greater than the taking of Canaan of the promised land. Must have seemed like a long time for them. Must have seemed like a long time for a lot of us. Does God seem like it's a little slow in keeping His promises to you? Does God seem like His time table is not your time table? You're in good company. You're in really good company. Let me conclude with a story that Leith Anderson, pastor, Leith Anderson in Minnesota, says is, the daughter of missionaries in Congo told him this story how she had gone back to a village in the Congo to mark the hundredth anniversary of the coming of the missionaries. There's a day of great celebration and singing and the telling of stories and then before they were ready to wrap up an old man raises hand in motion for everybody to be quiet. He said he had something that he had to tell them something that he knew that if he didn't tell them he would take it to his grave. And when they hushed down he told them that when the missionaries first arrived, his people thought these missionaries, he thought they were strange. And they thought that their message was quite dubious and so they decided to test the missionaries and here's what they did. They used an old tribal recipe and they began to poison the missionaries. And the missionaries' children began to die one by one, slow, painful deaths and they didn't know why. But it was as these people in this village watched the missionaries as they went about the business of caring for their dying children and then burying their dying children as these people in the village saw that happened. That's when they decided this Christianity is real. Now those children never knew and those missionary parents never knew why what was happening to them was happening. But God was using it. God was using it to work out his plan of redemption that was going to yield a greater glory for him and a greater good for those people. They didn't get to see the box score. They didn't know. They didn't get to see the final score but they know now. Maybe you know now. We're a part of something so much bigger that God is working on in our lives for his glory, for the building up at the body of Christ and for the advance of his kingdom. Let's pray. Father, thank you for writing us into your story all the way back to the garden and then in your salvation of knowing his family and in your calling of Abram from Earth, the Caldys, making him a father of nations and in him a blessing to all nations. Thank you that we get to be a part of that blessing. We get to be a part of the people of God. I'm thankful this morning for writing us into your story and I'm mindful too that there's almost certainly someone here this morning who is not yet a part of that story. He's on the outside looking in from my prayer today is that you would reach down and touch that man or that woman or that young person's heart and say, wouldn't you like, wouldn't you like to get in on this? Wouldn't you like to be a part of this story too? Lord, that you would reach out to that person this day and that you would remind each and every one of us how good it is to be included in the story. It's my prayer today in Christ's name. Amen. Now receive the benediction. Go now on the love of God the Father, the grace and mercy of God the Son, the fellowship and companionship of God the Holy Spirit. Live the life. Amen.