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Amen, so Joshua chapter 13, so here we're focusing on, remember in Joshua chapter 12, we kind of wrapped up all the conquests and we talked about all the kings, the 31 kings that had been defeated and it kind of wrapped up the, you know, the physical battles are over and they're, or at least they're over to the point of the initial conquest is done. It goes through the 31 kings in Joshua chapter 12 and explains, you know, who they conquered and who, you know, we talked about some conquests and incomplete conquests. There's more that we'll talk about this evening, but Joshua chapter 13 is talking about, now we get into basically Joshua chapter 13 through Joshua chapter 22 is basically talking about the land allotments, basically the allotments of land to each tribe of the children of Israel and just who gets what and where the borders are and if they were completely conquered or not and the Joshua chapter 13 is talking about mainly the land on the other side of the Jordan, the east side of the Jordan before they came across. That's why it says, you know, Moses gave to them, Moses gave to them because if you remember Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, they basically, they got to the Jordan and they were about to cross the Jordan and go fight if you remember and these three tribes said, you know, we like this land over here. They had some battles already because some kings on the east side of the Jordan had already resisted them so they conquered them and these guys, they raised cattle and it was good pasture land and they said, you know, we'd just be happy with this land and if you remember, Moses basically said, you know, as long as you help us fight, you know, as long as you help us fight and conquer the promised land on the other side of the west because of course that was the initial concern was, oh, they just want to stay here and take the easy land and not have to go fight for anything, but that's not the case. They went and they fought and they helped the children of Israel conquer the land and this is the allotment that they get on the east side is what Joshua chapter 13 is talking about. I'm not going to just go through every single verse here, but what we'll do for the next few chapters is we'll look at some of these allotments, some of these tribes and see how they relate to other parts of the Bible and I'll show you kind of that methodology tonight, but let's start out in Joshua chapter 13. Look at verse number one because all these things correlate somehow and have consequences and things like that, other places in the Bible, even in the historical context of the Old Testament. Look at Joshua 13 and verse number one. Now Joshua was old and stricken in years and the Lord said to him, thou art old. By the way, the Lord is the only one that can say something like that and it not be rude, right? You can't really go up to somebody and be like, you're old, you know, but basically the Lord comes out up to Joshua and says, you're old, you're old and stricken in years and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. So it's not like this was a done deal. It's not like this was finished, you know, and that's kind of that kind of you can kind of relate that to the sermon that I preached on Sunday morning. It's kind of like these goals in our life are never going to be done, you know, and that was kind of where they were at with the land. They had not conquered everything that they were supposed to have been conquered, meaning God had given them a territory and they had only conquered so much of it, is what I'm getting at. Look at verse number two. This is the land that yet remaineth. So now we go into the land that basically it remains. They haven't even gone in there. They haven't even conquered it at all. All the borders of the Philistines and if you've read the Bible, you know that from this point on, even to the time of David and beyond, the Philistines are just a thorn in the side of God's people throughout the entire Bible. And all Gesheri, from Cehor, which is before Egypt, unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite, five lords of the Philistines, the Gazathites, the Ashdodites, the Escholonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites, also the Avites. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter five, 1 Samuel chapter five. So here's the land that, I mean, look, there was very much land to still be possessed. So they were to possess this land. They were supposed to, and this was their land. And as you can say, it's counted to the Canaanite. The Canaanites were the people that they were supposed to push out of the land. So this land of the Philistines was counted as Canaanite land. And this was part of the promised land that the people of Israel had. And these five lords of the Philistines remain there. Look at 1 Samuel chapter five. Hundreds of years later, the time of Samuel, look what the Bible says. And the Philistines, in verse number one, took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. So here's two cities that we're going to see here right away. The Philistines just defeated the children of Israel in battle and took the ark. This is way into the future from where Joshua was at. Look at verse number two. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. So there's still a heathen people. It's not like the children of Israel have even come into this area and are living amongst them, as the Bible would say. And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen on his face before the ark of the Lord. This is this idol, this false god, and God knocked it over. It's kind of a funny story here. And they took Dagon and set him in his place again. They're like, oh, our dumb idol fell over. And they set up their idol again. And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut upon the threshold. Only the stump of Dagon was left to him. Therefore, neither the priests of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon and Ashdod unto this day. They got so scared from this situation that the priests just abandoned the priesthood of Dagon and Ashdod here. They were just afraid of what was going. But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod and destroyed them and smote them with emerods. You can look that up yourself if you want to know what that is. Even Ashdod and the coast thereof. And when the man of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, the ark of God of Israel shall not abide with us, for his hand is sore upon us and upon Dagon our God, lower case G. So here these people of Ashdod have stolen the ark from the children of Israel hundreds of years later, verse number 8. Therefore, they gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them and said, what shall we do with the ark of God of Israel? And they answered, let the ark of God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. These are the Gittites, by the way, that live in Gath. And they carried the ark of God of Israel about thither. It was so that after they carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction. And he smote them of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. Therefore, they sent the ark of God to Ekron, and it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out and saying, they have brought about the ark of God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. Everyone is afraid of the ark of God at this point. Turn over to 1 Samuel chapter 6, 1 Samuel chapter 6. So we see, you know, some of these same cities that were not conquered in Joshua chapter 13, we see that they're causing trouble for the people of Israel hundreds of years later. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 6 and verse number 16. And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, here's the same five lords. They returned to Ekron the same day, and these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the Lord. And here's where the ark caused all the trouble, right here. Ashdod, Gaza, Eschilon, Gath, and Ekron, the same five places. Because look, the ark of God is being taken captive into these five cities that are, they are basically the Lord's cities. The Lord has given these cities to the children of Israel, they just haven't had the faith to go out and conquer what the Lord has already given them. So God's taken things into his own hands here, and they were literally afraid to have the ark of God in any of these five cities, and they sent it back to the children of Israel. Go back to Joshua chapter 13. So the same cities in Joshua 13 are still giving them trouble in the time of Samuel, through David, you know the stories. Where was Goliath from? He was from Gath. He was a Gittite, he was from Gath. Look at Joshua chapter 13 and verse number 4. The Bible says, from the south all the land of the Canaanites, that is beside the Sidonians, unto Aphek to the border of the Amorites, and the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon toward the sun rising from Balgad under Mount Hermon unto the entering inn of Hamath. Now skip down to verse number 8. Verse number 8 through basically verse number 13 talks about, you know, just the territory on the east of Jordan. And I want you to focus, let's look at, if you remember, you know, Og in verse 12, all the kingdom of Og and Bashan, this is the giant which reigned in Asheroth and Edri who remained out of the remnant of the giants, for these did Moses smite and cast them out. Nevertheless, the children of Israel expelled not, now here's another incomplete conquest right here, they expelled not the Gesherites nor the Macatholites, but the Gesherites and the Macatholites dwelt among the Israelites unto this day. So now we have a situation where it's not that they didn't conquer the place, they conquered the place, but now they dwelt amongst these people. They dwelt amongst them. You say it's no big deal, right? No big deal. They still conquered it, they're in charge, you know, what's the big deal? Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 3. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 3. So they did not expel the Gesherites, they're dwelling amongst them. They're dwelling amongst them. And again, hundreds of years later in the time of Saul and in the time of David, we see that this causes a major problem in the Bible. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 3 and look at verse number 1. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 3 and verse number 1. Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David, but David waxed stronger and stronger and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker. Verse number 2, and unto David there were sons born in Hebron, and his first was Amnon of Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and his second, Cheleab of Abigail, the wife of Nabal, the Carmelite, and the third, Absalom, the son of Makah, the daughter of Telmai, king of where? King of Gesher. And the Gesherites is where they dwelt amongst these people. So here's what happened. Here's what happened. Hundreds of years later, King David marries one of these people. He marries one of these people, and he has this son, and this son's name is Absalom. So David marries, and she wasn't just any Gesherite, by the way. Look at who she was. She was a princess of Gesher. I mean, you ever wonder, I mean, look, here's the thing. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 13. You say, so what's the big deal? So David had a few wives, and one of his wives was a princess of Gesher. She was the daughter of Telmai, king of Gesher. So this is a princess, this woman that David marries. But Absalom fled and went to Telmai, the son of Amohad, king of Gesher. So this is Absalom. Absalom is David's third son who killed Amnon, if you remember. Amnon, of course, we know the story there. He committed a serious sin against his sister, and Absalom killed him for it. And I hardly blame Absalom for that, but Absalom flees for fear of reprisal from his father and other people. And look where he goes. Where does he go? Absalom fled and he went to Telmai, the son of Amnon, king of Gesher. And David mourned for his son every day. He fled to grandpa's house, is where Absalom went. And he went to, he didn't go to the people, the children of Israel, he went to this king, this Gesherite king, is where he went. Absalom fled and went to Gesher and was there three years. And the soul of King David longed to go forth unto Absalom. But he was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead. So David didn't really mind that Amnon was dead. I'm sure he found out what he had done, that he had forced himself upon his sister. But look, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7. This is why the Bible warned the children of Israel of doing this very thing. And it just has serious consequences in every single time that it happens in the Bible. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7 and look at verse number 3. Deuteronomy 7 and verse number 3. The Bible says, neither shall thou make marriages with them. It's almost like God knew that there would be serious generational consequences if they mixed with these people and married into these people. Thy daughter shall not give unto his son, nor his daughter shall I take unto thy son, for they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly. Go back to 2 Samuel 15. Go back to 2 Samuel 15. So basically, the theory is this. God says, don't marry these, don't mix with these people. First of all, this is like warning B. Warning A was just get rid of all of them. Just destroy them all. They all needed to be destroyed. Just like Jericho, just like the other cities that were utterly destroyed. That's what they were supposed to do, but they stopped doing that. And some of them, they didn't conquer at all. Some of them, they conquered and put them in tribute, and they lived, they dwelt amongst them, as the Bible says, which is the case in Gesher. They dwelt among them, and David marries into them. Deuteronomy 7 gives the secondary warning of, okay, if you're not going to utterly destroy them, certainly don't marry into them. Don't give them your daughters, don't take their daughters to your sons. Why? Because they will turn your hearts away from me. And they will take the hearts of the people, and they will turn the heart away. And look at what happens here. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 15. Absalom is gone for three years. And then David is convinced, and David brings Absalom back. He's gone for three years. He goes to grandpa's house to the king of Gesher, and look at, he has just come back. If you look at the verse before 2 Samuel 15, verse number 1, the very previous verse, he has just returned. And look at verse number 1. What does he do immediately when he gets back? And it came to pass after this, after he returned from grandpa's house, that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom rose early and stood beside the way of the gate, and it was so that any man that had controversy came to the king for judgment. Then Absalom called unto him and said, Of what city art thou? And he said, Thy servant is one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, See thy matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. He says, the king is too busy for you. He stops. He sits at the gate. He sits at the gate of the city. Why? Because he wants to be the first one to see people coming. So he stands at the door, and he just intercepts people, and he says, Hey, the king's too busy for you. Tell me your problem. I'm the king's son. Look at verse number 4. And Absalom said, Moreover, all that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or case might come unto me, and I would do him justice. He's like, the king? The king's just too busy. But he's like, Oh man, but if I was the king, I would not be too busy. I would hear every problem that you have, and I would, look, he's committing treason immediately when he gets back, and he's got this huge plan. He's got this huge plan. He hires all these men to run before him. Look, he wants to look official. He wants to look official. He wants to look like, he wants to look the part of a king. Look, he didn't just show up and then think of this. Look, this man's been planning this for a while, because as soon as he gets back, he hits the ground running with this treasonous plan. I mean, he came back changed, is what I'm getting at. He came back after his father. He came back a traitor. So what was going on? What was going on in Gesher? I'm sure grandpa wasn't saying wonderful things about King David. I'm sure grandpa wasn't sitting there saying, hey, you ought to think about this when you think about who has the opportunity to influence your children, by the way. When you think about, oh, I'm going to just leave, first of all, I mean, I wouldn't leave your kids with anybody in this day and age, relatives, anybody, anybody. So I mean, that solves the problem right there. But the point is, people can influence your kids. People can be influenced. This boy was influenced, and he was turned against his father in this three years that he was gone. But look, I mean, Deuteronomy 7 came true. It all started with David marrying into people that he should not marry into. God warned him. And who did it affect? It affected his son, and his son turned against him, just like he turned against him. David was with God. David's heart was with God. Absalom's heart turned against God, turned against David, and he turned against his father. I mean, this is just more trouble from incomplete conquests, but we can see the details of how things happen here, and it can be a warning for us. Don't think that people can't influence your kids, even in subtle ways, by the way. And don't you think that, you know, you're not going to have people in your lives that are not going to try to influence your children. They're going to try. And you need to make sure that that opportunity can't happen. Again, more trouble from incomplete conquests. So, you know, another lesson is complete the Lord's conquests in your life. Don't leave incomplete conquests. Don't leave things that you know you are supposed to complete. Don't leave those things undone. Because as time goes on, they will become bigger and bigger and bigger problems in your life. I mean, look, I mean, a lot of people think, you know, they have problems, and, you know, I talked about this in a little bit on Sunday morning, but like, the longer you leave problems in your life, David's a great example, but the longer you leave problems in your life, the more it will affect your children. I mean, there's definitely a time variable there. There's definitely a time variable. I mean, look, you can't have this attitude that I will get it right eventually if you have kids. You know, because it'll just get worse and worse until you don't realize how serious the problem is. You know, you've heard the saying that sin will keep you longer than you want to stay, and it'll cost you more than you want to pay. The cost is going to be, the part of the cost that you don't want to pay is going to be your kids. Almost every time. Go back to Joshua chapter 13. Joshua chapter 13. So we see more problems in the Bible with incomplete conquests. Joshua chapter 13, look at verse 14. Joshua chapter 13. So verses 14 or 15 or so through 22 is basically Reuben's inheritance. It's Reuben's inheritance. But there's an interesting part. I want to read verse 22. I'm not going to go through all the cities that they inherited, but look at verse number 22 where the Bible says, I mean, this is just kind of a random verse right in the middle of Joshua chapter 13 where it says, Balaam, also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them. Now that's a huge story, and I'm going to preach a whole sermon on that next week. So we're not going to touch that this evening. You know, there's a huge story about this man Balaam in Numbers chapter 22 and elsewhere in the Bible. And one of the neat things about the story about Balaam, and I'll show you that next week, but the neat thing about that story is if you just read it in the Old Testament, you know, it may seem a little confusing. But when you put together some things from the New Testament that talks about, it kind of like unlocks the puzzle for us. So it's a really cool example of the Bible kind of, you know, explaining the whole thing to itself with the New Testament matching the Old Testament. So we'll go through that next week. But look at verse number 23. Look at verse number 23. Oh, go back to verse 14. I'm sorry, I mentioned verse 14, but I didn't read it. I'm going to read verse 14, and then we'll talk about it at the end. But randomly, in the middle of Joshua chapter 13, we're talking about all this land and all these places and the cities and the borders. In verse 14, the Bible says, only unto the tribes of Levi. So we're only talking about Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh really here in Joshua chapter 13. And then we get this random verse that says, only unto the tribes of Levi, he gave none inheritance. The sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as he said unto them. So just remember that, underline that in your Bible that the sacrifices were their inheritance. Okay, so the children of the tribe of Levi gets basically two things to inherit. And the first one is the sacrifices the Lord God made of Israel by fire, okay. Now go back to verse number 23. Verse number 23 through, oh, verse, let me see here. Verse number 23 through, it's really 24 through 28 is the children of Gad's inheritance. And then we go from 29 through 32 is basically the children of Manasseh. Look at verse 23, it says that the border of the children of Reuben was Jordan, and the border thereof. And this was the inheritance of the children of Reuben after their families, the cities and villages thereof. So many borders are rivers, just an interesting point, they're natural barriers, and God uses natural barriers. It's just interesting, God's a map maker, you can kind of take from this. You know, that was God's idea. You'll see that with many states in the United States, kids, when you're learning your states and your geography, you'll see that many borders are rivers. You know, the border between North Dakota and Minnesota is the Red River, it's a river. Many states are divided by rivers. It just makes sense, it's a natural barrier, and God uses it as well. Now go back down to, so basically the rest of the chapter from 29 to 32 is Manasseh's inheritance, but let's look at the last verse of the chapter where it says, but unto the tribe of Levi. So here we go again, unto the tribe of Levi. So in verse number 14, we saw that he gave none inheritance to Levi except the sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire. And then in verse number 33, we see that the tribe of Levi, Moses, gave not an inheritance. The Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 2 in verse number 5. So first of all, we see the mistakes that the children of Israel made. They left a lot of land not conquered. They left land incompletely conquered. We saw how historically that affects the children of Israel throughout the history of the Bible. But then we get these two little morsels about the tribe of Levi and how they didn't get an inheritance of land. They didn't get an inheritance of land. Look at 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 5. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 5. We can apply this inheritance of the tribe of Levi directly to us. And I'll explain to you why. If we look at 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 5, the Bible says, ye also. So the Levites were the priests. The Levites were the priests. Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood. We talked about this in the Baptist basic series, the priesthood of the believer. We are priests, the Bible says. You have a priesthood and holy priesthood. To offer up what? Spiritual sacrifices. So we are, you know, we're not sacrificing bulls and goats in a temple like the Levites were, but we are offering up spiritual sacrifices. Well let me ask you, are you offering up spiritual sacrifices? You know when we go out and we go soul winning and we get somebody saved and we share the gospel, those are spiritual sacrifices that we're offering to the Lord. The spiritual sacrifices, they should be acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. You can't just sacrifice anything. You have to do what God tells you to do and that is a spiritual sacrifice that is acceptable to God. It's not you can't just make up your own thing. I mean that's what everybody's doing, right? Everyone's making up their own spirituality. And we'll look at that in a few minutes. But you can't just like be like I'm all spiritual. I mean how many weird people have you met that have all kinds of weird spiritual things that they do? We're talking about that today out soul winning. People just, they're in this weird, I mean I can't remember what brother Matt called it, but they're in these like weird spiritual realms or something. What these, if you make up your own weird spirituality that you combine your horoscope and you know some weird spiritual thing and you're talking to the wall, you know that is not acceptable to Jesus Christ. So we are priests. This can apply directly to us. So they don't inherit any land. They get the sacrifices of the offerings of the burnt, offered by fire and their inheritance is literally God it says. It says the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance. What could that mean? Turn to first, turn to Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1 and look at verse number 11. Well the Bible says the same thing about us is that we have an inheritance as well. I'm going to show you how the New Testament just matches perfectly to, so I mean the person that wrote the New Testament, if it was a man he must have been a genius because he matched everything perfectly. All these things we see about God's army in the New Testament matching perfectly to God's army in the Old Testament, all these things about the priests and their inheritance matching perfectly to us being priests and our inheritance and our sacrifices and you know the things that we're supposed to offer, it fits up just perfectly. These men must have been geniuses. They were fishermen and geniuses, right? Look at verse number 11 of Ephesians chapter 1. The Bible says, in whom also, in Jesus by the way, Christ, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. So we have an inheritance in whom? It says in whom? In Christ. So basically our inheritance is Christ is what the Bible is saying which matches up perfectly with what it says that the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, the Levites. It matches perfectly. Go to Colossians chapter 1 and look at verse number 12. Colossians chapter 1 and look at verse number 12. Colossians chapter 1 and verse number 12, just a couple of books over in the Bible. The Bible says, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. So we have a spiritual inheritance and that inheritance is Christ. Very exactly the same as the Levites had their inheritance in Joshua chapter 13. So look, let's talk about that in a little bit, but I want to say a couple things about the land here. Okay, I want to say a couple things about just, we'll go back to the Levites and I want to apply a couple more things there, but we're basically going through and I didn't read every verse because it's just like border here and border there, but the allotment was very specific in the Old Testament, in what the children of Israel and each tribe, and you're going to see that. You're going to see that in chapters 13 through chapters 22 that God is very specific. This tribe gets this land and here's the border, this river and to the north and to the south and to this side. God's very detailed, but here's the thing. The allotment was very specific. God literally gave them this land and I want to point this out because it's going to be important with some of the things that we study in the future at this church. This is the only time in history in the, okay, let me rephrase that. This is the only time in the history of the world that God has specifically given land to certain people. It's not the case in the United States. In the foundation of the United States, God did not come down from heaven. You're not going to find it in the Bible and said, you know, New York goes to these people and, you know, Rhode Island goes to these four families and North Dakota goes to these families because I'm not happy with them. I'm just kidding. But I mean, the point is that nobody specifically gave anybody else land in the history of the world except right here. God, I mean, didn't give anybody else land. This is a very specific case. That point will be important. That point will be important. Because, like, a main focus of this church, just as a side note, is going to be education. A main focus of this church is going to be education. I may not be the most entertaining preacher that you will ever hear, but, look, I want to be super focused on studying the Bible here. I want to be super focused on how the Bible relates to us today. I mean, we're going to go into some deep dives here. We're going to find out what the Bible says. We're going to find out what man has done throughout history. Does it match with the Bible? Does it not match with the Bible? What were the consequences? What were the consequences either way? Where, I mean, where did we come from? Why were things done the way they were done? You know, why are we going the way we're going today? All these questions can be answered from the Bible. The main focus of this church, and, you know, one of the biggest reasons, it's the reason that we're homeschooling church. One of the main focuses of this church is a biblical worldview. And in order to have, like, and look, you can have a biblical worldview on, you know, a surface level. Or you can have a biblical worldview on a very in-depth level, where you can look at everything that's happening around you, everything that's happened over the last 50 years, 100 years, 200 years, 300 years, and you can look at it and you can say, yeah, you can understand why that happened, you can understand why it went there, went there, went there, you can understand the consequences of where we're headed, and you'll understand everything from the focus of the Bible, a biblical worldview. And guess what? As the kids are raised this way, they will understand it as well. So when people have all these dumb things, and then you'll start to really realize how stupid the philosophies are that are being taught to children today. You know, whether that just be evolution or secular humanism or whatever, I mean, these kids, by the time kids in this church, this is my goal, by the time a kid in this church is 12 years old, he'll look at all these worldly philosophies and just be like, man, that is dumb. It's like, that is crazy that people do that. Because it is. So that's going to be a main focus, just a preview of this church. Now the Levites, let's go back to them. God was their inheritance. God was their inheritance in Joshua chapter 13. What does this mean? Here's what this means. Here's what this means. It means, think about it, everybody else got land. Everybody else got 100 acres or 1000 acres or whatever you want to call it. They just got God as their inheritance. What I take from that is that it means they had to have more faith than everybody else. The Levites. Turn to Nehemiah chapter 13. See everybody else got land. They could go out there and they could work. They could go out there and they could build. They could go out there and they could improve. They could go out, but not the Levites. Not the Levites. They had to rely on the tithe from the people, number one, go to Nehemiah chapter 13. Nehemiah chapter 13. Look at verse number 10. So Nehemiah, you know, he's been gone for a while and Nehemiah comes back and the Levites they're nowhere to be seen in the house of God. It's like coming into a church and the pastor is just, he's not there. He's not there. He's not coming to work anymore. And Nehemiah chapter 10, look at verse Nehemiah chapter 13, verse number 10, and I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them for the Levites and the singers that did the work were fled, every one, to his field. What in the world? They didn't have a field. What are they doing out in the field? Then I contended with the rulers and said, why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together and set them in their place. He dropped the hammer on these people. So here you had the Levites. The Levites were sitting in the house of God and nobody was taking care of them. So they're like, we're going to go work too. We're going out and we're getting some land. And we're going to go out and we're going to do our thing. And he contended with the rulers, because they weren't being taken care of in verse number 10. Then brought all Judah the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil unto the treasuries in verse number 12. So he set things right. Look, the priests quit. They were out on the land with everyone else. So Nehemiah squared things away. We'll talk about that in more detail on Sunday night. But the main thing was that they were to be taken care of from the tithe, number one. And, and I don't really, that's not really the main focus of what I'm getting at. But the point is, their inheritance was the Lord himself. Actual land, they got none. What does that mean? What does that mean? Does that mean blessings on earth? Does that mean blessings in heaven? Here's what that means. They just had to do what they were supposed to do. They were supposed to be taken care of by the people. They were supposed to go and do what they were supposed to do, and then God would take care of the rest. That's what that means. And they just, that's why they needed, that's why they needed, look, the Levite had to have more faith than everybody else. Because when you can go out, look, when you can go out and you can work your land and you can build your business and you can do all these things and, you know, look, you can see that. You can see those results of your own actions. I mean, think about it. You know, you go out and you have a chunk of land and say, Brother Frank has a chunk of land and I have a chunk of land. And maybe I have an idea for my chunk of land and he has an idea for his chunk of land. Look, is every business idea created equal? I mean, can you really say, I mean, let's say that Brother Frank goes out and he starts a taco truck with a red lobster on the top of it and I start Microsoft. I mean, is it the same? Is it the same result? No, I mean, so you could see the results of what you were doing. The red lobster or the rubber lobster thing, that is a great idea though. And now it's going to be out there for everybody. That's fine. That's my gift to the world right there. A taco truck with a red rubber lobster on the roof, these big rubber claws flopping around, driving around Fresno. Lobster tacos. There you go. It's out there. But look, the bottom line is that you could go out and you could work your own land, you could do your own thing, you could build your own business and you could kind of have that assurance of your own success to a degree. The Levites just had to do what they were supposed to do and just trust that God would take care of them. They just had to do their job and have faith that God would take care of them. That's kind of how I feel. That's kind of how I feel. I have to do what I'm supposed to do and God will take care of everything else. That's kind of how I've always felt since I've been here. So I mean, if I have that faith, God will take care of the rest. Others can labor on the land and work, but the Levite needs the faith to do what he needs to do. But look, a church, just as, think about this, just as you could have the taco truck on the land and the Microsoft on the land, like a really good idea and a maybe not so good idea. Look, a church can go the same two directions. A church can have the same spectrum. A church can be managed very well. A church can be managed exactly how God wants it to be managed. Or it can be completely run amok. I mean that spectrum is there. I mean there could be, look, there could be, just like the Microsoft and the taco truck, there could be no standards, there could be no order. I'm assuming we have two churches on this spectrum that are, you know, that have a candlestick and that are, you know, they have the right gospel, by the way. I mean that's what we see everywhere in churches today, just no order, no standards, whatever. Anything and everything goes. But even with two churches that have the right gospel, they could be managed the way God wants it or not. I mean that spectrum is still there. But that's not pleasing to the Lord if it's not run the way the Bible says that it should be run. The inheritance, look, the inheritance will be doled out accordingly. You have to think about it that way. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Here's the thing. As far as order in the church goes and the reason that Nehemiah had a right to be so upset that everybody was gone is because as far as order in the church goes, look, somebody has to keep order in the church. Somebody has to keep order in the house of God. You say, well, it's a mess today. It's a mess today and it's just kind of because of the day and age that we live in and, you know, it's a new problem. It's not a new problem. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Look here's the thing though. You have to be present to lead and that's what Nehemiah knew. He knew that these Levites, they needed to be not where they were. They needed to be in the house of God doing what they're supposed to do. You say maybe order in the church and disorderly churches is a new thing. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Look at, I mean, this is Paul dealing with the Corinthians. I mean, Jesus has just been here. Look at verse 26. Look what he says. He says, how is it then, brethren? When you come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. He says, let all things be done unto edifying. Look at these people here. Imagine this church. This church is a train wreck. Everybody is singing their own different types of songs. There's, I mean, some people want contemporary, you know, CCM or whatever you call it. Some people want to sing the old hymns. Everybody's just kind of doing what they want. Everybody has their own doctrine. Some people think the two witnesses are this. Some people think the gospel is this. Some people think this. And it's just, it's just a mess. And then it's even crazier. They went Pentecostal. Everyone hath a tongue. Look everyone, he has to literally explain for the next few verses like, hey, don't just go babbling a bunch of random stuff. It's like if nobody can understand what you're saying, what's the point? It's like everything should be done unto edifying. It's like, that's not edifying to anybody. You know, that's, you know, that's, that's not, and less and less, you know, I'm like, and then brother Jeremy gets up and he says, he said to follow the word of God. And then I'm like, and he's like, he said to read your Bible every Tuesday night at six o'clock. He said, go to church three times a week. That's how, that's what Paul's saying is supposed to happen. Okay. Except it's supposed to be, anyway, I didn't even mean to get into the whole tongues thing, but the point is this church is a mess. This church is a mess. Everybody's doing crazy stuff. And you know why they're doing it by the way? They're doing it so they can seem spiritual. They're making up their own spiritual sacrifices. They're making up their own stuff. They're in weird spiritual land. Like brother Matt said, they're just like, you know what? I'm super spiritual because I go into a trance and drool on myself and fall over in church. What you didn't go into, you didn't, you know, go into a coma in church on Wednesday night when are you even saved? That's that's where that's at. That's about being spiritual or trying to, but these are not spiritual sacrifices that the Lord wants. He goes on and look at verse, skip down to verse number 34. He goes on to explain. He's like, look, this church needs order. It's like this church needs order. Look at verse 34. Then he says even more about order. Imagine saying, imagine saying this today. Imagine standing up in a church and saying this today, let your women keep silent in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, also sayeth the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. Turn to First Timothy chapter two, he's talking about proper order in the church. This church is off the rails. Everybody's doing whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it. They're saying crazy things. They're preaching crazy doctrines and crazy tongues and languages that nobody understands. And it's out of control. First Timothy chapter two matches up perfectly. In verse number 12 it says, but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor assert authority over the man, but to be in silence. Look, that's not a popular thing to say today. But again, proving why the Levites needed to be in the house of God. A church, look, a church left on its own will just follow the culture right into the toilet. That's why the Levites need to be in the house of God. So the Levite is a force against that. The priest, the pastor is a force against the church following the culture. But he needs to be present to administer the church. We'll talk about some of those details in the coming days. But all the Levite needs to do, all the pastor needs to do of a church, it's really pretty simple. He needs to know what the Bible says. He needs to know what the Bible says and then all he needs to do is just administer the church that way. That's it. It's broken down very simply. That's what it is. Even when it's really culturally like, let your women keep silent in the churches. People would hear that today and they're like, do you hate women? It's like, no. But that's what the Bible says. So that's the way we run the church. It doesn't mean the women can't talk to their husbands and talk normally. Just like in the church service, that's why the men say amen and the women don't. Because the Bible says. And really, 2 Timothy chapter 2, you're just like, that's a weird rule. But 2 Timothy chapter 2 really kind of tells you why that rule is there. Because of where the church will end up going. And it's saying, look, it's just that the women are not to have authority over the men. What this rule is really, it's a microcosm basically saying that the men are to lead the church. The men are to be the leaders. Why are the men to be the leaders? Are the men better? No, because that's the role that God gave them. Look, there's roles in this life. There's roles. Look, in administering anything, in managing a project, there is roles. If you have a $100 million project that you're trying to build, everybody can't be the electrician. Everybody can't be the valve mechanic. Everybody can't be the boiler maker. Everybody can't be the millwright. You need millwrights, boiler makers, valve guys, technicians, mechanics, welders. You need all these people. Why do you say that, you could say that, oh, why shouldn't this person be the welder? Look, that's just who God put in charge to be in these roles. It's very simple. Women are to raise the children, be keepers at home. That's the role that God gave them. Are you going to argue with God? It's just simple roles. The Levite, the pastor, is to just enforce these roles in the church. He has to be there. He has to be there to do it. He can't be running around trying to build Microsoft like everybody else. That is where the Levite needs his faith because the Lord will be his inheritance. Whether that means blessings on this earth or blessings in heaven, I don't know. I'll let you know. The main thing is to do things the way God wants them done. It is more of a responsibility than a searching for blessings. I believe that what that means is when it says that God will be your inheritance, it's God simply saying to the Levite, you do what I told you to do and I will take care of you. It's really that simple. People would just take a statement like that and they would just cut it up and they would make all kinds of weird doctrine about it. All it's saying is that God is saying to the Levite, you do what you're supposed to do and I will take care of everything. I'll take care of everything for you. I'll take care of everything for the church. So that's what we'll do. That's what we'll do here. I will administer this place properly according to what the Bible says. Because that's God commanding me and that's important. And then I'll just have faith that God will just take care of everything. That's why I don't worry about too many things. I'm not really too worried about a building because what we have to do is we have to do what we're supposed to do. We have to do what we're supposed to do and God can take care of the rest. And you know, doing what we're supposed to do is putting in our due diligence and looking for a building and soul winning and doing all these things but we're not going to cancel soul winning and go searching for a building. We are going to do what we are supposed to do and also do due diligence and be responsible with what the Lord has given us and God will take care of everything and I have absolute faith in that. Not worried at all. Joshua chapter 13. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.