Are You on the Right Side of the River, or Settling For Less?

And thank you, Mr. House, and thank you, Mr. Graham. Again, happy Sabbath to all of you.

Today, I would like to share with you a story about a group of people who God loved very much, and they were very important to him. But in the course of time, aside from the fact that he called them out of slavery, and the fact that he shed his grace on them, that he was good to them in so many ways, in the course of time in their existence, they decided to settle for good rather than the best. They decided to settle for convenience rather than settling for God's will for them. They had an opportunity to achieve God's will for them, and they settled for something less. They settled for second best instead of what God had intended for them. And I hope that the lessons that we can learn from this group of ancient people can teach us God's will today and hopefully can reinforce in our hearts and minds why we shouldn't just settle for convenience, why we shouldn't just settle for good, that we should desire God's best for us in our lives. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 18. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 18 and see who this group of people were.

This is an interesting scripture in the book of Chronicles that mentions the existence of two and a half tribes, a unique group of people whom God loved dearly. And here's what it says. The sons of Reuben, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, had 44,760 valiant men, men able to bear shield and sword to shoot with the bow, and skillful in war who went to war. So these two and a half tribes were impressive. They could field an incredible army. Verse 19, they made war with the Hagrites, Detour, Napshish, and Nodab. These were pagan groups of people who lived on the east side of the Jordan River. Continuing in verse 20, and they were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand. And all who were with them, for they cried out to the God in the battle, he heeded their prayer because they put their trust in him. Then they took away their livestock. Here's here's the bounty that these tribes ended up with. Made them even wealthier. 50,000 of their camels, 250,000 of their sheep, and 2,000 of their donkeys. Also 100,000 of their men. Verse 22, for many fell dead because the war was God's, and they dwelt in their place in captivity.

So as these tribes are preparing to enter the Promised Land, they're on the east side of the Jordan River. They're not in Canaan yet. They came across these peoples. They were mighty, they were powerful, and they defeated these people. The power and influence of these two and a half tribes is very impressive. When these Israelite tribes warred with these peoples who were east of the Jordan River, they defeated them. Now let's pick it up in verse 25. Well, I forgot something. Verse 22, for many fell dead because the war was God's, and they, speaking of these two and a half tribes, dwelt in their place until the captivity, until they went into captivity.

Now let's pick it up in verse 25. And they were unfaithful to God, the God of their fathers, and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.

So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pol, king of Assyria, that is Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria. He carried the Rubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh into captivity. He took them to Halah, Hebor, Harah, and the river of Gozan. To this day, all of those were northern Mesopotamia, so they were all taken out of their land, these two and a half tribes.

And sent far north as they were taken into captivity. Now history records that these two and a half tribes of ancient Israel went into captivity about 740 BC. And for someone who doesn't connect history with scripture, someone might say, oh wow, this is, yeah, this I've read about, that this is when the northern tribes went into captivity. No, it isn't. This happened about 740 BC. This was about 20 years before King Shalmaneser of Assyria, a later king, came down and captured the remaining northern tribes of the nation of Israel in 722 BC. So about 20 years before the northern tribes of Israel fell, Samaria fell, their capital was taken over, and the nation no longer existed. About 20 years before that, these two and a half tribes went into captivity.

There's a backstory to this event that I want to share with you today. This is kind of the moral of the story. Now we're going to work backward and see what events and what mindset and what attitudes made these people so vulnerable that they were the first to go into captivity. They were actually intended to be a warning here to the other tribes of Israel, a 20-year advance warning that if you don't clean up your act, if you don't get right with God, you, too, remaining tribes of Israel will go into captivity and your nation will exist no more.

No more. So how bizarre is this story? Well, let's see how bizarre it is. First of all, between 750 and 800 BC, a prophet named Jonah went to Nineveh, which happened to be the capital of Assyria, and he preached to them about their sin and said they needed repent, and this horrible, ugly, pagan, cruel nation repented according to the book of Jonah. Even though they were pagans, they responded to the prophet's preaching by humbling themselves and by fasting. That's recorded in Jonah chapter 3 verses 7 and 9. So after that event, these cruel, wicked pagans repent about a generation or two later. These same peoples are used by God to march down an exact judgment on Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Tiglath-Pelizer, the king of Assyria, took them in the captivity. So how bizarre is that? The pagans repent. God has grace and mercy on them.

The chosen ones refuse to repent. They're arrogant, disobedient to God, worship foreign and pagan gods, except the pagan mindset and culture, and God uses these cruel peoples who repented generations earlier to come and take the chosen people into captivity and remove them from their land. How bizarre is that? Well, let's find out today what lessons we can learn from this backstory that led to these two and a half tribes being the first to go into captivity, a whole 20 years before the rest of the northern tribes of Israel went into captivity and no longer existed. Let's begin in Genesis chapter 12 beginning in verse 1. Genesis chapter 12 beginning in verse 1.

This all begins with the promise that God makes to Abraham because of Abraham's faith and obedience.

Chapter 12 beginning in verse 1. Now the Lord said to Abram, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.

Verse 3. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And we can clearly see how physically the descendants, the earth would be blessed by the achievements of the physical descendants of Abraham, but more importantly, it was from his lineage, that Jesus Christ would come, the Savior of the world, who would more importantly fulfill that in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Verse 4. So Abram departed from as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him.

And Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people to whom they had acquired Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. That was the land that God was promising Abraham and his descendants. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the Terabyrnth tree of Morah and the Canaanites were then in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your descendants I will give this land. And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord. So this was God's partial promise to Abraham in the land of Canaan.

Abraham didn't inherit the land of Canaan. As we know from the book of Hebrews, he was a pilgrim.

He was an alien his whole life. It was a promise that was far off. He was never able to enjoy literally owning Canaan. That was something for future generations that God had planned. This was just a foretaste of what God had planned for his future descendants in the land of Canaan.

Where was this biblical Canaan? Well, anciently, Canaan was the strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea, sometimes referred to as the Great Sea in the Bible, and the Jordan River. There's a strip of land along there, and that anciently was known as the land of Canaan. Later, God would expand his promise, and ultimately the promise the descendants would exceed Canaan would go as far north as the Euphrates River in the modern Iran, and as far south as a border with Egypt, a river that separates not the Nile, but a river that separates Egypt from what we would call southern Canaan.

But for his time, for Abraham's time, and as far as immediate descendants, God intended this land of Canaan. So let's continue the story. As time goes by, his descendants, known as the Israelites, became slaves, oppressed in the land of Egypt. However, God had not forgotten his promise to Abraham. God called a man named Moses to be a leader, to confront Pharaoh, and to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, and we refer to this event as the Exodus. Let's read what God says to Moses. Exodus chapter 6, the book of Exodus, beginning in verse 1. You'll turn there, please.

Exodus chapter 6, beginning in verse 1. Then the Lord said to Moses, Now you see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land. And God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord, I am Yahweh, the YHVH.

I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name Yahweh, I was not known to them. I've also established my covenant with them to give them, what land? To give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers. Again, Abraham was still a stranger. God promised Canaan as a possession, but his entire lifetime Abraham was a stranger. He was a pilgrim in that land of Canaan, that land on the west side of the Jordan River. Verse 5, and I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians kept in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore, say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. So we know the history. God provided a number of miracles to impress upon the Egyptians their need to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt, to go to a land that God had promised him, that is the land of Canaan, because that promise went all the way back to the covenant that he made with Abraham.

However, as we know, there were detours in the journey to the Promised Land, weren't there? Because of their poor attitudes, because of their sins, they didn't make a beeline to the Promised Land. They kind of circled and circled and circled and was delayed and punished for 40 years because the spies came back and most had a negative report. And so they did not go directly to the Promised Land in Canaan. They rotted in the wilderness for years and years and years. So now let's pick up this story in Numbers chapter 13 and verse 16.

So now after a lot of travel, a lot of running around in circles, they have an opportunity.

They have an opportunity to actually go into the Promised Land. But before they do, they want to send out some spies to see what kind of a land that it is. And they don't know this, but God is actually testing the attitude of the nation once again. Numbers chapter 13 verse 16.

These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and Moses called Hoshiah, the son of Nun Joshua. Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, Go up this way into the south and go up to the mountains and see what the land is like, whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many, whether the land be land they dwell in is good or bad, whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds, whether the land is rich or poor, now whether there are forests there or not be of good courage and bring back some of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. So they went up and they spied out the land from the wilderness of Zinn as far as the Reohob near the entrance of Hamath. If you were to look in a geographical map, you would see that all of this land that they describe was in Canaan. It was all in the land west of the Jordan River, between the Jordan River and the Great Seas. We know it today as the Mediterranean Sea.

So the spies went there. Let's pick it up now in verse 25. And they returned from spying out the land after 40 days. Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kedish. And they brought back word to them to all the congregation that showed them the fruit of the land. And they told them and said, we went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

Nevertheless, the people who dwell there in the land are strong. The cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there, and the Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan. So they had an opportunity to go.

But their attitudes would hold them back. Moses and the nation of Israel were standing on the threshold of Canaan, the Promised Land. And God had instructed 12 spies or 12 scouts to explore the Promised Land and witness what they were about to receive, and 10 of the 12 scouts focused on their perceived fears. And their poor attitudes, like a cancer, infected the attitudes of the rest of the community. And there was an uproar, and God said, this generation cannot go into the Promised Land.

So 40 years would go by. An entire generation was intended to die out and be replaced by a new generation before they would go to the Promised Land. So now, unlike the spies, they began, after 40 years, to make their journey to go into the Promised Land. But unlike 40 years earlier, Israel traveled up the east of the Jordan River, where Canaan was left of the Jordan River, between the river and the Great Sea. And that's where the spies went. 40 years later, after their time of punishment was done, they traveled up the land east of the Jordan River. This means that now they would need to cross the Jordan River to get into Canaan, to get into the Promised Land.

But then something else happens. It's not that easy. It's never that easy, is it? Numbers chapter 32 verse 1. Let's find out what happens. Numbers chapter 32 and verse 1.

Now it says, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock. And when they saw the land of Jezer and the land of Gilead, these are lands, of course, east of the Jordan. They haven't crossed the Jordan River yet. That indeed, the region was a place for livestock. The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came back and spoke to Moses, to Eliezer the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying, they mentioned cities, Ataroth and Dibon and Jazer and Nimrah and Heshban and Eliejah and Shebam and Nebo and Brienne, the country which the Lord defeated before the congregation of Israel is a land for livestock and your servants have livestock. Therefore, they said, if we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan. How do you think that went over? How well do you think that went over to Moses and Eliezer and the leaders of the congregations of Israel? Suddenly, they want to do it their way. Here's a change in plans. So how well would this go over? Verse 6, And Moses said to the children of Gad and the children of Reuben, Shout your brethren, go to war while you sit here. Now why will you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over to the land which the Lord has given them?

Thus your fathers did, he's referring back to the time of the spies, thus your fathers did, when I sent them away from Kadesh Barnea to the land. For when they went up to the valley of Ashkel and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them. So we could say, in using modern terms, Moses flips out. Or he's not a happy camper in the camp of Israel.

When he hears, these folks basically say, this is really nice land. Don't make us go cross the river and go into Canaan. We kind of like it here. Well, obviously, this wasn't part of the plan. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. Moses is angry with their selfish request.

They will bargain with Moses, as we'll see, and return to this land and remain in the land once.

They, at least as a minimum, cross the Jordan River with the other tribes, help them to secure the land, and then through this bargain they will be allowed to come back and inhabit this land east of the Jordan River. Again, this is once everyone is secure in the Promised Land on the west side of the Jordan, where God really wanted them to be. One biblical scholar puts it this way, I quote, this decision by the Reubenites and Gadites was based on their lust to have what they saw as the most advantageous to themselves, end of quote. Perhaps this reminds you of the story of Lot and Abraham. You may recall in Genesis 13, where both Abraham and Lot had large flocks, and they could no longer support it, and their herdsmen were getting into arguments. That wasn't a good thing.

So Abraham said, let's separate, and being gracious like Abraham was, he says, you choose first.

And Lot allowed his greed to direct his choice. He evidently never gave thought to the fact that the land that he chose was an area that was infected with wicked people who sinned greatly against the Lord. It was a regrettable choice for Lot. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of their great sin, and Lot barely escaped himself losing his wife in the process.

So it's kind of a parallel to that story. Now let's go back Numbers 32, verse 14. This is Moses speaking, and again, Moses is livid. And look! You have risen in your father's place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still the more, the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel. For if you turn away from following him, he will once again leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people. Moses says, because of your foul, stinking, selfish attitude, because of your greed, you could cause everyone here to die. Do you want that on your head?

You want that on your hands? So Moses basically says, no, that's just not going to happen.

So they go to plan B, verse 16. Then they came near to him and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock and cities, for our little ones, but we ourselves will be armed, ready to go, before the children of Israel, until we have brought them into their place. And our little ones will dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until every one of the children of Israel has received his inheritance, for we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has fallen on us on this eastern side of the Jordan. Oh, really? Who said?

Whose decision was that? And the interesting thing here is it reads, in reality, just like it comes across, they're basically giving Moses an ultimatum. They're basically saying, well, this is what we're willing to do. Whether you like it or not, we're going to build gates for our sheep to stay in. We're going to build little cities and leave our young ones and our wives here. And we're taking this land. We don't want any land on the other side of the river. This is our inheritance. So they're basically telling Moses what the conditions are going to be. And Moses said to them, if you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for war, and all of your armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until he has driven out his enemies from before him, and the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you may return and be blameless before the Lord and before Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if you do not do so, then take note. You have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. I always wondered where that scripture was. Be sure your sin will find you out. Build cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do whatever has proceeded out of your mouth. So Moses reluctantly agrees to their request under certain conditions. God will allow this to happen, but it's not part of his will. Just a reminder, and something I've spoken about a number of times that confuses a lot of religious people. There is a huge gulf between God's will and what God allows. God allows a lot of things that are against his values, against who and what he is, that are contrary to his will. But because God allows free moral agency, he allows us to make choices, and we have to live to the consequences of those choices that we make. We need to understand the difference between what God's will is and what God allows. God's will was for them to go into the promised land across the Jordan, to take land there and be part of the nation or the tribes of Israel, not to be isolated and separated from their kin by the Jordan River. God wanted them to all be together. He wanted the Jordan River to be a barrier between the pagan influences of that part of the land and where God's people would settle. A river, especially in ancient times, was a good natural boundary and barrier, and that was God's original intention.

So again, there's a vast difference between what God allows and what God's will is. They are two totally different things. They chose the good. At least they thought it was good. They said the land was good for their sheep. They chose the good rather than the best, rather than what God had planned. They settled for second best and left themselves vulnerable in the future because of their isolation from the other tribes. Verse 31. Then the children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, As the Lord has said to your servants, we will do, we will cross over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, but the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us on this side of the Jordan. So Moses gave to the children of Gad the children of Reuben and a half tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihan, king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og of Bishan, the land and its cities within its borders, the cities of the surrounding country. These were all nations that existed on the east side of the Jordan River. They had conquered these people. And Moses said, okay, if this is what you want, you can stay here. So again, what was the problem? God's original plan was for the Israelites. Yes, all of the Israelites, all of the 12 tribes to inhabit Canaan together west of the Jordan River. He wanted all 12 tribes to live in proximity to one another so they could worship at the tabernacle together. They could protect each other. They could trade easily. They could maintain a biblical culture because they would all be backed up and sandwiched together as one people. That was what God wanted. They would be insulated from pagan influence by that border of the Jordan River. But they were human. They were carnal. The allure of fertile land, and I can get this now, was too intoxicating for them. So they isolated themselves from the nine and a half tribes and lived with the Jordan River as a dividing line between them and their very own kin. They made themselves vulnerable to the enemy.

The leaders of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and a half tribe of Manasseh believed that their plan to separate themselves in the east side of the Jordan was better than God's plan of keeping all 12 tribes together. Soon Moses died, and it was Joshua's time to bring the tribes into the Promised Land, crossing the Jordan River. Let's read about that. So finally, after all of this background, they're crossing the Jordan River. Joshua chapter 4 and verse 14, if you'll turn there with me.

And these two and a half tribes do keep their part of the bargain, and they're involved in this crossing the River Jordan, and they're involved in helping the other tribes to conquer the land of Canaan, or most of it. Joshua chapter 4 verse 14, on that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him as they had feared Moses all the days of his life. Then the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, command the priest to bear the ark of the testimony to come up from the Jordan. Joshua therefore commanded the priest when he got at the edge of the river, saying, come up from the Jordan, and it came to pass that when the priest who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the midst of the Jordan, and the souls of the priest feet touched the dry land, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks as before.

So in parallel to God parting the Red Sea, they come up there, the waters part, and everyone walks across as if it's dry land. The river literally separated till everyone's across, and the river goes back and flows as it continues to flow today.

Verse 19, now the people came up from Jordan on the 10th day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho, and those 12 stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. And when he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, when your children ask their fathers in time to come, what are these stones? And you shall let your children know, saying, Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land, for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up before us until we crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, but you may fear the Lord your God forever.

So again, this is a miracle reminiscent of crossing the Red Sea. The waters of the Jordan River literally parted, dried up, and people tiptoed across it as if it were dry land. Now, do you think the other nations heard about these kinds of things?

Let's go to Joshua chapter 5 and verse 1. So now the roles are going to be reversed. When God sent 12 spies into the land, the spies came back and Israel was terrified with what they heard. Oh, these people are strong. These people are tall and we're just puny little things, so they were terrified.

But now the roles are going to be reversed. Joshua chapter 5 and verse 1, So it was when the kings of the Amorites, who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we had crossed over, that their heart melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel. So now the roles were reversed, and neither were the ones that were terrified. And as any army general would tell you, what's going on upstairs, whether you believe you can or believe you can't, is half the battle in the military.

Half the battle is what people think about themselves in their own army. And so it was that they conquered most of the peoples of Canaan, and the rest of the Israelite tribes, the other nine and a half, settled there. And by about 1000 BC, David became king over the united tribes. After a period of great instability, the judges occurred, people lived like animals, the nation was in chaos.

Then Saul arose, and it's questionable whether all the tribes were ever really united around King Saul. It appears to have been mostly the southern tribes who were supporting him, and the northern tribes were already off in their own little world. But David became king and unified all the tribes. However, by the time of Rehoboam's reign, that is Solomon's son, about 930 BC, the northern tribes rebelled and created their own nation named Israel.

The few tribes in the south became known as the kingdom of Judah, and the tribes in the north became known as the nation of Israel. And for most of their history, this is Israel, these ten tribes, most of their history they had evil kings and led the people to reject God and to accept the paganism of their neighbors. And as I mentioned earlier in the sermon by 740 BC, the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser captured these isolated, very vulnerable two-and-a-half tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and took them into captivity. We read that earlier in 1 Chronicles chapter 5 and verse 26. Again, this was intended by God to be a warning to the other tribes who were still together on the western side of the Jordan that you need to get right with God, you need to clean up your act, or the same thing will happen to you. But unfortunately, the warnings of the prophets fell on deaf ears, and they, the entire, what was left of the entire northern tribes, the nation of Israel, went into captivity about 20 years later, and fell to another Assyrian king. So that's a story. Interesting story.

There are some lessons that we can all learn from this story, from these two-and-a-half tribes of Israel. Let's talk about some of these lessons together as God's people.

Brethren, when we start believing that our plans are better than God's will for us, negative consequences are just around the corner, due to making very regrettable choices.

Do you know what God's will is for your life? Have you prayed about that? God's will for your life might be slightly different than God's will for my life. I have a different set of DNA, different talents. I may be younger or older than you are. I may have different life experiences.

What God is doing in my personal development plan is probably different than what God's doing in your personal development plan. Do you know what God's will is for the rest of your life when we leave this building today? What is God's will for you? Like many of us, the two-and-a-half tribes saw the immediate benefit of the land that they were promised. They saw that it was ideally suited from them, and from a practical perspective, just looking at it physically or carnally, it seemed like a pretty good place. Despite the fact that God wanted something different for them, they chose immediate gratification rather than greater delayed blessing later on. They wanted the land that they thought was really nice now, rather than being willing to wait and go over to the other side and see what that land looked like.

Reuben Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh chose an earthly blessing over the spiritual blessings that God had intended for them. And in the end, they lost everything because they did it their way rather than following what God's will was for them. They settled for less, and in time, they got nothing. It's a pretty powerful lesson, I think, for each and every one of us.

Reuben and Gad wanted what God had not planned for them.

Was there no suitable pasture on the other side of the Jordan? They didn't know.

They didn't have the patience to find out what was just around the corner. What God really had planned for them? They didn't think that far ahead. They were short-sighted. They were reacting to what I want and what I want now. And that's how they were making their decisions. Nevertheless, lacking patience, they grabbed what looked good to them with a carnal, I want it now philosophy.

And certainly, they were not in the perfect will of God. How many of us are in this situation today?

Having remained on the east side of the Jordan, away from the remaining nine and a half tribes of Israel, away from God's tabernacle, they were vulnerable to attack by marading bands of peoples and even, as they found out later, on great nations like the nation of Assyria. They were vulnerable to attack from the cruel kings who would just walk through fighting those areas all the time. They were in a constant state of war. Sometimes they were in a state of war with Judah, their kin to the south. Who have we chosen to be influenced by? Have we isolated ourselves from God's people? Have we made ourselves vulnerable? And are we allowing the negative influences of this world to affect our thinking by trying to conform to the world, the world's culture, the world's values, rather than being with our kin, our brothers and sisters in Christ?

Who are we being influenced by? For many people, including some in the faith, they settle for good, comfortable, stable, instead of God's best for them, what God has intended.

Some isolate themselves and face greater struggle trying to maintain God's way of life, because they don't come to church, don't attend Bible studies, aren't there in service projects helping and serving other people? Some may go to church, but they're careful not to get too involved. For them, there's always an emotional barrier between attending church and becoming it's like the Jordan River in your minds. Difference between attending church and being involved with God's covenant community. Is there a spiritual Jordan River that's blocking you from what God's will is in your life? Some have a Bible, but they can't seem to find time to read it all week. They have opportunities to study the Word of God with others, numerous Bible studies and other events, but they choose to ignore that privilege. They notice all of the serving opportunities, but never have time to actually sign up for one. Great listening about them, and it's wonderful that other people are doing it, but again it's like there's that spiritual Jordan River in their lives. I want to attend church, but I don't want to be too close. I don't want to get too involved. They may pray for their own needs, but have little inclination to worship God on the Sabbath, to come here and thank God, and to pray for others.

So how are we doing regarding that spiritual river in our lives? When we bargain with God's will, like the two and a half tribes did with Moses, there are negative long-term consequences. There are always negative long-term consequences when we're not aligned with God's will for us.

There's a huge gulf between good and what God offers, which is greatness. A huge gulf between good and great. Are we just settling for the good, the comfortable, the secure, and not allowing ourselves to align our lives with the total will, the perfect will, the complete will of God that he has for us?

Some people, including some in God's church today, are choosing to stay on the east side of the Jordan, where it's nice and comfortable, where they call their own shots, where they can make their own decisions, where they can feel like they're in the church but still emotionally, mentally, they're separated from the people of God by a Jordan river that exists in their minds and their hearts, where there is a barrier that prevents them from getting too involved in their own spiritual lives or in the spiritual lives of their brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that continues until God sends a not-too-subtle reminder that his plans for your life do not involve being on the east side of the Jordan.

God has better plans for us. And if we follow his plans, we don't end up living a life of regret.

Those plans involve each of us staying connected to God's covenant community. That is his church to worship together, to encourage one another, to pray for each other, to serve side by side together, to learn together, to share our lives together.

That is what God's will is. So what side of the Jordan are you living on?

Are you living on? Our final scripture, Ephesians chapter 4 verses 1 through 7. Last scripture today.

Paul writes, written from someone who was in prison at this time, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. You know how we walk worthy of that calling? We seek God's will. Not my way, not opining like Frank Sinatra. I did it my way. Right? Seeking God's will. That's how we walk worthy of our calling. Verse 2, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering. Did the two and a half tribes have long suffering? You kidding me? No, this looks good. I want it, and I want it now.

With gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body. There aren't a bunch of mini bodies floating around out there. There's one spiritual body. We're connected to that body. Do we have the kind of relationship with God that we know, according to God's will, that we are connected to that spiritual body? There is one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope with your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in you all. Verse 7, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. And of course, God has so much grace that he called us out of this world, and he opened our minds, and he allowed the blinders to fall off of our eyes so that we could see his truth. Now, are we seeking God's will in our life? Let's participate together as one congregation with a unity of purpose, and that is preaching the gospel and preparing a people. On the Sabbath day, we are preparing a people. Every Sabbath day, we worship the Lord our God. We meet together to fellowship, to share some fine meals together, to spend time with one another. We have service opportunities. We mentioned a few of those in announcements today. We have many ways for us to congregate in unity with a purpose, and that purpose is to love God with all of our heart and mind and soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And of course, that includes our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ. I encourage you to stay on the right side of the river with your brothers and your sisters in Christ. Don't isolate yourself physically or spiritually to make yourself vulnerable to an enemy who seeks to destroy us.

If we think that the kings of the Syria were cruel and mean and vicious, I tell you that our enemy, sight and the devil, is far more cruel and vicious and wants to destroy us.

Not just our physical lives, but wants to destroy our opportunity for all eternity.

So let's continue to be a congregation. Let's continue to be on the right side of the river with our brothers and sisters in Christ, growing and sharing and giving, because that is part of God's will for your life. Have a wonderful Sabbath!