The Lord Your God Is The One Fighting For You

It's been a long time, it feels like for me. It's only been two Sundays away, but it feels like it's been longer. I've missed you guys. I'm glad to be back with you. Two weeks ago, I was up in Wisconsin doing a men's retreat for a man, for Jeremy Vandergailey, and he's a member of our presbytery. He pastors the church up in the Northwoods, and it's more important that it's the Northwoods than what little town it is. It's a nice place, beautiful. It's buggy. They have fish with teeth, and they have bigger fish with bigger teeth that eat the smaller fish with teeth. And I got to catch some of them, so a good time was had. But I missed you guys, and I'm glad to be back. This morning we're going to be picking back up in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 3. Our passage picks up after the Israelites had conquered the two Amorite kings, Sion and Og. You'll remember that Og was a giant. They had just come through.

taken his lands and dispossessed them. The Israelites are about to go into the promised land and to fight a lot more with the Canaanites, the seven tribes that are in there. All this fighting was a scary prospect for the Israelites. And so Moses reminds them again, as he has many times over these last couple of chapters, that the fight belongs to God. And it's him that fights for them. It's not their strength, but his strength. Not their wisdom, but his wisdom. Not their will, but his will. So my hope this morning is that we will learn to trust and rely on God's strength and his wisdom to go before us, to fight for us, to provide for us the things that he's promised to us and that we would follow after. Would you please stand now as we read the word of the Lord from Deuteronomy chapter 2, verses 12 through 22. So we took possession of this land at that time, from Aror, which is by the valley of Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead and its cities. And I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites.

The rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh, all the region of Argab. Concerning all Bashan, it is called the land of the Rephaim. Jer, the son of Manasseh, took all the region of Argab, as far as the border of the Jeshurites and the Meachathites, and called it, that is, Bashan, after his own name, Havoth Jer, as it is to this day. To Metir I gave Gilead. To the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave from Gilead, even as far as the valley of Arnon. The middle of the valley is a border. and as far as the river Jabbok, the borders of the sons of Ammon. The Arabah also, with Jordan as its border, from Shinarath, even as far as the sea of the Arabah, the salt sea, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah on the east. Then I commanded you at that time, saying, Your Lord your God has given you this land to possess it. All you valiant men shall cross over, armed before your brothers, the sons of Israel. But your wives and your little ones and your livestock,

I know that you have much livestock. It shall remain in your cities which I have given you until the Lord gives rest to your fellow countrymen as to you. And they also possess the land which the Lord your God will give them beyond the Jordan. Then you may return every man to his possession which I have given you. I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So the Lord shall do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. Do not fear them. For the Lord your God is the one fighting for you. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. These first chapters of Deuteronomy are a retelling of the history of Israel, the 40 years in the wilderness, and the run-up to them actually going into the promised land, into the land of the Canaanites. This is Moses' final act of leadership.

Over the Israelites. Deuteronomy is the retelling of God's law, but this beginning, this sort of introduction in these first few chapters is him reminding them of the past 40 years. What had happened, what had gone on. Some of it was distant history. In the 40 years, some of it was more recent. The most recent was them coming through the lands of Sion and Og and making war with them or having war made with them. And then, by the strength of the Lord, taking those lands. And so Moses says, so we took possession of this land at that time. That's meant to recall to the Israelites the Lord's work. You remember that in the 40 years that they were sent out into the wilderness, all of their older men were taken away. And that they weren't made to make battle or to make war with these other people until all of their valiant men had gone away, had died. Until all the older men were gone. They were brought to a weakened state.

And then we're made to fight. The reason that that happened was so that God would be able to demonstrate his power in delivering them. All of us tend to look to our own wisdom and our own strength and our own abilities when it comes to getting the things that we need. And if we look to ourselves and we think, well, I don't know how to get that, then our presumption is, well, then I can't have it. And that's a foolish thing to think. Because in that thought, we deny that God has any agency or will or desire. to give to us the things that we don't have the strength to get for ourselves. But time and again, that's exactly what God does. He gives to his people the things that they're not able to get for themselves. And this land was the same. But we took possession of the land at this time. But toward the bottom, we're reminded how they took possession of this land. When Moses spoke to Joshua, he says, your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God

has done to these two kings. So the Lord shall do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. Do not fear them, for the Lord your God is the one fighting for you. Now it is true that the Lord used them, the Israelites. That's not always the way He fought battles or provided. Sometimes He did miraculous things. Sometimes He sent fire from heaven. Sometimes He sent a confusing spirit. But in this instance, He used His people. And yet it was His strength and not theirs that carried the day. If we learn to rely too much on our own ability and not enough on God, we'll be like the Israelites, always afraid, always scared, always failing. Interestingly, when we lack something we want, we're very quick to say, it was God who kept it from me or took it away or didn't allow it. But we don't do the same thing when good things happen. This weird paradox. When bad things happen, we know God's got his hand in it.

But when good things happen, it was us. It was our good stewardship and wisdom and hard work for shame. For shame that we would steal God's glory and take it and act like we're the ones who get the things that we need. I realize that's the message of America. Pick yourself up by your bootstraps. Carry on. If you want it, go get it. That's just how things work around here. But it shouldn't be that way with the people of God. We should give glory to God for the things that we have and the things that he's given to us. We should give glory to him for the things he withholds or takes away. Job said, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He attributed both blessing and cursing or hardship to the Lord. And he blessed him for it. And so should we. We should remember that the good things that we have are from God's mercy to us. We should see God's hand in everything that we do, everything that we have.

Now there's an interesting note about this land that they've taken possession of. This land was not part of the promised land. The promised land started on the other side of the Jordan. But they've taken this land to the east of the Jordan. They've taken possession of it. They've said, this is ours. We're going to live here. It's an interesting thing we're going to come to about how the Reubenites and the Gadites end up coming to live on this side of the land and what good was in it, what bad was in it, what conflict was in it. But we need to start by recognizing that this was not part of what God promised to give them. In the lands that they traveled through before they came up to the Amorite land, they weren't given the lands. In fact, they were told, you may not take this land. You may not settle here. You may not make war here. You may not steal from the people here. Pay for your food and water. Make your way through. Keep traveling north. Then they come to the land of Sion and they're told it's going to be time for war.

And they conquered. And then they traveled further north into the kingdom of Og. And they were told more war. And they conquered. These lands were given to them by God in addition to the lands that he had promised to give to them. Now what do we learn from this? Well, here's one of the things we learn from this. God doesn't just give to his people what they absolutely need. It's generous. God doesn't just give to his people what he's obligated to give to them. He gives more than that. This land was like an extra, an additional blessing, an unaccounted for kindness. More land for them to grow, to build out into, and to develop. And it was a good land. The lands that they had moved through further south were not really very nice places to live. Arid, dry, rocky. But these lands, we'll find out as we carry on in the text, these were fertile, good lands. Lush lands, green lands, good places to live.

And so it's God's way with his children to give them more than he promised and not less. You remember Job in his life? He was a righteous man. He had a wife. He had children. He had wealth. And then all of those things were taken away from him. And he suffered physically as well with sores and despaired of his life and wanted to die and said things like, it would be better for me to have never been born than to live as I'm living now. He cursed God. He was angry. And the Lord rebuked him. And then at the end of the book of Job, how did his life end? How does the book of Job end? It ends with the Lord restoring to Job wife, children, more of them, wealth, more than he had previously. So God took away and God restored. And he restored in abundance more than Job had previously.

At one point in Jesus' incarnation, talking with His disciples, this is in Luke 18, Peter says this, he says, Behold, it's a bit of a complaint. It's a bit of a gripe. It's like, this is really hard, man. Do you not realize what you're requiring of us? He says, Behold, we have left our homes and followed you. Here we are. We've come out. We left what was familiar. We left the people we were responsible for. We left our livelihoods. We've left our own homes and followed you. And He, Jesus, said to him, Truly I say to you, There is no one, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of my kingdom, the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come eternal life. Jesus promises to Peter and to those who've left their families and their homes and their livelihoods that they will receive back, not just what they left. He didn't just say, you'll get to go home eventually.

He said, you're going to go home. You're going to receive an increase, an additional blessing, a greater blessing. And I really do think that that's an important thing for us as Christians to remember and to realize, that God gives the most and God gives the best to his people. I think we focus too much on the hardships and the difficulties of our lives. We have them, and it's the result of our own sins and the fallen world that we live in. And it is escapable through death. finally escapable through death. But it's escapable in this life through faith if we'll trust what God says and we'll see what He does. Him giving His people this land was a kindness. And you realize there's always a way to argue through and say, well, actually, it didn't end up being a blessing. Because the people that lived over there eventually...

walked away from the Lord. They sort of separated and isolated themselves. They weren't a part of the tribe of Judah. They were like, well, we don't really care much about our brothers. We just want to live over here. And there's conflict amongst the tribes later on as the kingdom is established and as the people are spread out and set up. But is that really the point? They could have all been crammed over on the other side of the river. And we could even make the case that that would have been better for them if they had all been crammed over on the other side of the river.

But it was God's kindness to give them a fertile land to live in. They didn't do well with it, but that doesn't discount God's kindness to them. Carrying on in the passage, it says, From Aror, which is by the valley of Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead and its cities, I have given to the Reubenites and the Gadites, the rest of Gilead, and all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I have given to the half-tribe of Manasseh. All the region of the Argab concerning all of Bashan is called the land of the Rephaim. So there's this weird thing that goes on. If this is not part of the promised land and nobody else's, they haven't entered into their rest. The promised land represented you're going to have rest. You're going to have war, but then you're going to have rest. It's a strange thing that two of the tribes, two and a half of the tribes are being given land. It seems like they're being given rest prematurely. And we're left with the question like, why is it that these two and a half tribes are given this land? Well, it doesn't tell us in this passage.

exactly all of the backstory. We have to go over into Numbers chapter 32, and we read a detailed account of how this all came to be. Deuteronomy is just sort of a, it's a summary history. But if we go back into Numbers 32, the whole chapter is about how this came to be. But the simple answer to why are they being given this land, it's because they asked for it and negotiated for it. I want to read to you from Numbers chapter 32. This is just verses 1 and 2, and then verses 4 and 5. It says, now the sons of Reuben and the sons of God had an exceedingly large number of livestock. Notice how the Lord separates them, the sons of Reuben and the sons of God. And he says they're separating themselves from the sons of God. It doesn't say from the other tribes or from his brothers. He attributes, it says one of these groups is with me and one of these groups is separating from me. Now the sons of Reuben and the sons of God had an exceedingly large number of livestock. I'm sorry, Gad. I misread that. I was like, wait, this doesn't make sense. It's Gad, not God.

Oh, never mind. Now the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad had an exceedingly large number of livestock. Seems like a sort of interesting note, right? In our passage, when I read it, it's like Moses puts in parentheses, I know you've got lots of cattle. Why is that in there? Well, here's why it's in there. They have an exceedingly large number of livestock. So when they saw the land of Jazar and the land of Gilead, that it was indeed a place suitable for livestock, the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben came and spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the congregation, saying, The land which the Lord conquered before the congregation of Israel is a land for livestock. Your servants have livestock. 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 across the Jordan.

Pretty easy to understand. They said, hey, good grazing land for all of our animals. We're sort of the, you know, we're the keepers of the livestock, and why don't we just stop here? Good place for us. We'd be happy to have it. Can we just stay? The passage in Newt Numbers continues on. I thought about reading you the whole chapter, but I'll summarize it instead. It continues on, and I want you to realize that their request on the face of it is not a bad request. Meaning they're not lying. They actually do have a lot of livestock, and this actually is good land for livestock. Those things are true. Even their request to stay there is not a sinful request. But here's the part that the Lord took issue with, that Moses took issue with. It was that last part where they said, do not take us across this Jordan. Don't make us go over there. Now, you might read that and hear that and think, oh, well, that's because they just didn't want to live over there. But that really wasn't all that was going on. What was the state of things on their side of the Jordan?

Peace. What was the state of things on the other side of the Jordan? War. Where would you like to live? Awfully green pastures over here. We've got lots of livestock. Why don't you let us stay here if it pleases you? The Reubenites and the Gadites wanted peace and ease. And they wanted to leave the fighting for their brother. That's shameful. Moses goes on in the book of Deuteronomy and he links their... or in the book of Numbers, he links their request. He likens it to the spies' report when they came back 40 years before. He says, you know what happened? 40 years ago, we sent spies into this land. And they went over there and they saw it was a good land and they saw it was a scary land. And then they came back and they melted the hearts of the people. They discouraged them and caused them to sin. That's what the spies did. And that's what you're proposing to do.

You propose to discourage your brothers from taking the land that God's promised to give to them because you don't want to fight. You're being selfish. You're only thinking about yourself. You haven't considered your obligation to your brothers. You can understand why they'd say, well, this is our land. Why do we have to go fight for your land? But you also understand that's a very selfish thought. Those are your problems. See to them yourself. That's not how Christians ought to think. That's not how they ought to prioritize. They shouldn't think, well, I'll do for me and you do for you and hope it goes well for you. That's Christless. So when they say, we don't want to go over the river, we don't want to continue in the fighting, they're saying, we don't really care what happens to the brothers, nor do we care if we get a portion in what God's promised. We just want to live here. We just want peace for ourselves. It says that the Lord's anger burned against them. Moses rebuked them.

and they negotiate. And they say, well, here's the thing. This is basically the sum of the negotiation between Moses and the Reubenites and the Gadites. He says, listen, you're going to be a discouragement to your brothers, and it's shameful what you're doing. And they come back and they say, well, okay, take two. We do want this land. Good land for us, and that much is true. But we'll go fight with our brothers. We'll cross over with you for battle. But once the battles are over, we'd still like this land. Can we come back to it once all the fighting is done? And to that, Moses agreed. That's what we have a summary of in our text. It says, then I commanded you at that time. This is the Lord speaking to the Reubenites, or Moses speaking to the Gadites and the Reubenites. Then I commanded you at this time, saying, the Lord your God has given you this land to possess it. All you valiant men shall cross over armed before your brothers.

the sons of Israel. But your wives and your little ones and your livestock, I know that you have much livestock. So remain in your cities which I have given you until the Lord gives rest to your fellow countrymen as to you. And they also possess the land which the Lord your God will give them beyond the Jordan. Then you may return every man to his possession which I have given you. So essentially what Moses says to them is, you can have this land when your brothers have their land and not before. You have to stay and stick with them until all the work is done, until all the fighting is over, until there's rest for everyone and not just for you. He allows them to set up their cities and to leave their wives and their children and their livestock. Would you take the deal? You can have the land, but all of your men have to go fight. And you'll leave behind in a newly conquered land.

And conquered doesn't mean that all the bad people are eradicated. It just means they're dispossessed. They're out of power. If you read back in Numbers, this guy Jer that shows up in here who takes over Gilead, it says that he goes in and then he wipes out all the people who are still there, dispossesses them, and then he takes the city. So there's still enemies in this land. It's not that they're all gone. It's just that they're out of power. Would you leave your wife and your children and all of your wealth in that land so you could go fight in another land for your brothers?

all of a sudden it doesn't sound like a free and easy deal. It's like there's a cost to it. It's hard. It's scary. You've just gone through all of this battle, and now you're going to leave all of your loved ones defenseless so that you can go fight. The question that would be on your mind if you're thinking through this is, who's going to protect them? We'll answer the question. Who's going to protect them? The same person who gave you the land. That's who's going to protect them. You see, we rely on our own strength. We would understand the difficulty of doing what they agreed to do. They agreed to do it. And it was commendable that in the end they agreed to go into fight. Who knows what would have happened if they hadn't. They may have had a civil war at that time. Ended up with one later. They agreed to trust God to protect their wives and their children. And so my point in bringing all of this up to you is to say, you men, don't take on to yourself things that belong to God. Don't use...

your role and position as an excuse for fear and for disobedience. Will God use you to protect your family and provide for them? Yes. And should you feel that responsibility? Yes. But you should trust God to provide for them if he's calling you to do something else and to care for them. That's what they had to do. They had to say, we're either going to trust God to provide for them and protect them in the midst of their enemies, or we're not. That's really, when it came down to what's really going on, that's what it was. Are we going to trust God to protect our children and our wives or not? Our strength or his strength? That's what it came down to. And so they went. And they went until their brothers had rest. Now what's that look like in our real life? None of us are being called for necessarily, you know, are in the reserves being called up for active duty. You could sort of think of it that way in the military. Like the guys who are in the reserves, it's like, well, it's not really my fight. I'm not really active duty. And it's like, well.

Yeah, but until you're called up and then it is your fight, right? Guys that go through the military, Gabe, you spent how many years in and then you have years of reserve service, right, afterwards, where you don't live the whole life, but it's like all they got to do is communicate and be here at this time and whatever you got going on. Oh, my wife's about to have a baby. Okay, well, you got to be here at this time. We're about to move. Well, we're this or we're that. Maybe there's a way to appeal to get out of it if there's some really extraordinary circumstance, but the general rule is...

If they call you, you come. You're expected to be there. That's what you signed up for. It's inconvenient is what I'm getting at. It's costly is the point. And one of the things that I think practically, given that we're not in military service, is that we would look at one another and say, see to that yourself. I think it's one of the most damning things that Christians can say to one another or can demonstrate to someone is if they have a problem, And they make known to you their problem or their need or you see it and you go, not my work, that's his work. I think it's one of the most damning things we can do as Christians. That phrase, see to it yourself, do you know who said that? Like that's in Scripture. I'm just quoting Scripture. Do you remember who said that? The Pharisees said that. Well, Pilate said it too. Pilate said to the Jews, see to that yourself in terms of killing Jesus. I was thinking about the other time where the Pharisees said it to Judas, where he came and he tried to repent.

threw the coins back in and they said, that's not our problem. See to your guilt yourself. It's just sort of this wicked dismissal of the burdens and the hardships of other people and say, you know what? You do you and I'll do me. Just hard hearted. And it has a fatal presumption in it. And that fatal presumption is that in the future, you're not going to be the one who needs help. Many of you are young and you're strong and you're healthy and you don't hurt. And you haven't lived enough life to have the regrets of older age. You're like, I wonder if I'm doing okay raising my kids. You'll find out at some point whether you're doing okay in the future. But you won't be finding out whether you're doing okay then. You'll find out if you were doing okay like five or ten years ago. And you'll see some of the failures. And you'll need help. If you make a habit of attending only to your own needs, you shouldn't be surprised when in the future you're left.

as the only one who will attend to your needs. Jesus told us it was more blessed to give than to receive. And in this context, to fight, more blessed to fight than to rest. I think I've told this story before. It's a sweet story to me because the man who's in it, I love. It's your father-in-law. You're married to Megan, right? Jesse? Your father-in-law. Pastor Bailey in Bloomington, they were building a house. Jeff was in charge of all of the trim and all of the doors, installing all the trim and the doors. I was working on the job because I was working for Bob Sands and we were painting the house and doing all the stain work and all that type of stuff. So we were two contractors and we're there. And I lived up in Indy at the time. I'm sure Vanessa was pregnant, but I don't remember with which kid. Which is to say there was a burden, right? There was a reason to come home. And it was late and it was the end of the week.

And Jeff was behind on his work. And I want to think I was leaving at like 7 or 8 o'clock at night. And he was just completely covered up all by himself trimming out this big house. And Jeff was not a trim carpenter. He was doing it as a labor of love. But he was completely overwhelmed by the work. And I remember going out to my car and thinking, well, I'm going to leave and Jeff will have to figure that all out. And I remember just thinking, you dirty dog. This guy is so far behind. Like he's not going home to see his family. He's probably going to work until the sun comes up.

and he's going to be depressed the whole time. I said, you have to go help. So I go back, and I go back inside, and I say, Jeff, what can I do to help you? And I've already worked a whole week and a whole day, and I'm tired and covered in paint and all the rest, and an hour away from home, and I said, what can I do to help? And he says, no, no, no, no, no, you go home. He didn't want to impose, and I said, Jeff, let me help you. What can I do? He says, I don't remember what he said. Put all the doorknobs on, all the doors in the whole house. Install the strike plates and all that stuff. And I said, sure, I can do it. So I did it, and it took me hours. It's like midnight now.

And here we are, both still working at this house, both with wives and children at home, and we're still working in this house. And I get it all done, and I say, Jeff, is there anything else I can do to help you? And he says, no, no, no, no, you need to go. We were both bleeding at the time. And then he did this thing, and then he said, what can I pay you for your time? I just laughed at him. Just this big, exhausted, tired laugh. And I just said, Jeff, if you think I stayed here to make money, you're crazy. Like, there's not a lot of money that's worth the headache that we've just gone through.

You know, I stayed because I loved you and because you've been a blessing to me and to my wife. That's why I stayed. And it was the kindness of God that I saw the need and really the kindness of God that I was willing to answer it. If I had left, which I was my right, you know, done my job. I was done painting. Would not Jeff have been discouraged the whole night? All he did was give me a big Jeff, you were hug. If you know Jeff, those are memorable. He just gave me a big hug and just thanked me. And that was that.

I don't tell you that story to boast. I tell you that story just as an example to say you have a lot of ability to either encourage or discourage the people around you. And the most discouraging thing you can do is when the work is still being left to do, say, well, I got to go. I got to go. Because you leave the people who are left there working without your help. And they need your help. The simplest way to say it is, you men. I know you have wives and I know you have children. I know you have a whole life to live. If your brother needs help and you've agreed to help him, do not leave until the work's done. Don't leave until he can go to bed. You know, I was thinking this last night with you. This sanctuary was a mess. John had a mess in here last night. I was here and I was writing and I was done. John shows back up at 9.30. His kids are in bed. So he's back and he's putting away all of his belongings and stuff. We got a new soundboard.

John's often here doing work like that. And I was like, okay, I'm just going to go say goodbye to John. And the feeling was strong. I'm just going to give John a really big hug. And I'm going to go home. But you had a few things out. And it was like 10 minutes of hanging out. And I thought, you know, I'm going to stay and I'm going to help John. It took faith for me to stay and help you. I wanted to go home and leave you to your work. But I just thought, I just finished writing my sermon. It's like, what was I going to do?

Be warm and well-fed, buddy. I'm going home to go to bed, see you in the morning. You know, like, it's those little things. It's those little things that will grow you and bless others or not. That's it. And that's what Reuben and Gad didn't want to do. They were just like, yeah, they can go do their thing. That's not my problem. This is a good place for me, you know. I'm hiking with Joseph and some of his friends. Teenage boys don't ever run out of energy unless there's chores to do. And we went on a hike. I don't know how far the hike was. And we've all got our packs on and we're going, you know, and I'm like, you know, one of these people is not like the other one in terms of being in, like, let's go for a 15, 12-mile hike, whatever it was. You know, I got my backpack on and strapped on and my water and we're just, you know. I knew I was in for it, but I just didn't know when it was going to really become obvious that I made a bad choice. It wasn't long into it.

a mile and a half into it. We like worked our way down into this valley. And it was like a slow descent, you know. But coming out, it's just switchback, like 100 feet up this ravine. We're like halfway up, and it's like, I'm going to die. I can't carry this stupid pack. And I'm sitting there, and I've got these teenage boys who are like, ready to go yet? I'm like, no, I'm not ready to go anywhere, you know. And so what do they do? They took my pack, and they carried it the rest of the trip. Like one of them were carrying a backpack on their front and then a backpack on their back, you know, like two backpacks. And they'd trade my backpack around them. Such a blessing. We wouldn't have made it to the cave. We wouldn't have made it. And you were happy to do it. It was fun. And on the way back, they divvied up all our stuff and they put it in four packs instead of five because we, you know, we just redistributed it so I didn't have to carry a pack all the way out. Such a kindness. Such a kindness. That was the sweetest part of the whole trip to me.

I was having these teenage boys help carry my burden. This is the kind of men and women we should be. You should not be the kind of person who leaves before the work's done, who says to someone when you see they have a need, yeah, that's your problem, or that's your responsibility, or I'm busy. I'll tell you a secret. We're all busy. We're all busy. And if there are times when you can't help because of something going on, you should know that you're missing out. You're missing out on being a blessing and receiving a blessing. And you should feel it that way. I think part of the reason we don't ask for help often, I watch our deacons fund. It just grows. It grows and it just grows. It has like $10,000 or $11,000 in it. And we have to move. We've sort of become accustomed to the deacons will help us move. But when it comes generally to asking for help, we just as a church don't ask many people for help.

Martin, you and I had this discussion about your crawl space and I was like, Martin, ask for help. He's like, but it's a mess. I made a mess. I don't want to have other people clean my mess up. And I'm like, it's what we do. We're forever cleaning up each other's messes. Sometimes it's muddy and sometimes it's spiritual and it's just how it is. And so he did. He got to the point and he asked for men's help and they came over and they helped and they all had a great time crawling around in the mud. And I wasn't able to be there. And I missed out. I've crawled around in your basement a different time.

doing a different project or your crawl space. But I think part of the reason we let other people deal with their own stuff is because we don't offer our own help. We think, well, I can't ask for help. I've not given any help of my own. The way to remedy that is to give help when you see it. Make the sacrifice. And in time, God will make that sacrifice. He'll erase the word sacrifice and he'll write the word blessing. The thing you gave won't be seen as a sacrifice. It will be seen as a blessing that you receive. It'll be the kindness of God to you to have been able to help. And so that's how bad what Reuben and Gad are doing here. All of this is just to illustrate they were selfish and selfish in a sort of way that was destructive to the fabric of Israel. And so it's good that they agreed to carry on and to cross over and to fight. But it's fair also to say that generally Reuben and Gad were selfish and lazy. And that that characteristic didn't...

didn't escape them. Later on, the prophet Amos is deriding them. They ended up in what's Samaria. They were Samaritans. They lived in that land eventually. And he goes after them. And do you know what Amos calls the women of these tribes? You cows of Bashan! Remember, the land is the land of Bashan. And remember, they have cows. And so he calls out to the women for their laziness, their gluttony, their selfishness, and he calls them, you cows of Bashan. These sins that they had, though they went to fight, they didn't go far enough in putting these sins away from them. And so you and I need to learn from them, to put away so that in years they don't get exclaimed of us, you cows of Bashan. We're always looking to feed yourselves and take care of your own interests and neglect everyone else. As your life goes on, you should be able to point to things in your life where you said, you know what, I did this thing that was costly to me for the benefit of somebody else. That's why I did it. And I didn't expect them to repay me for it. And I didn't do it to get praise. I did it because I love them. I did it because they love me. I can't tell you how many times I've been the recipient of that love from you guys. But there have been times where you've been left alone as well. And so we should make it our aim not to leave each other to our own devices. If we see someone struggling or...

Having a hard time. You have to learn to see these things. You have to lead your family to be willing to make these concessions. It will be costly. In the short term, it will be costly. But the blessing you'll receive in the future far exceeds the loss in the moment. When Peter asked Luke, or in the book of Luke, where Peter asked Jesus, you know, we've left our homes and we've left to follow you. And he says, Anybody who's left these things for the kingdom of God is going to receive back more. I think about my own life, and I think about you all. I'm an only child. I've got ten half-siblings. I've met two of them once. I have a mom. I have a mother-in-law. We're the closest. My mother-in-law. My other sister-in-law lives in Bloomington. My other sister-in-law and their families live in Arizona. Vanessa and I don't have this big, huge bunch of family around us.

We have a bunch of kids, but in terms of peers and older, there's not many. There's none on my side, right? And what I think is that God brought us up here to plant this church so we would have a family. And it's not been without its costs or its sacrifices or its hard days. We've all had them. But God tells us the truth. So don't be selfish. Don't think only about yourself. Make decisions for the benefit of other people. and then give glory to God for giving you the will and the strength and the ability to be a blessing. Don't be like Reuben and Gad here. Remember God's kindness. Remember God's strength and his provision. Moses said to Joshua, Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So the Lord shall do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. Do not fear them, for the Lord your God is the one fighting for you. Don't believe that...

God's faithfulness to you in the past isn't sufficient grounds for you to trust that He'll be faithful to you now or in the future. It's the exact opposite. His faithfulness to you in the past is the down payment, the guarantee of His faithfulness to you in the future. So live like it. Get over yourself and your own strength and your own interests. I know you have them. We all do. They're temptations to lead us away from serving God and away from His blessings. Reuben and Gad said, I don't want to share a bedroom with you guys, essentially. I don't want to be cramped over in the promised land with you. I use that example because you all have kids and you're like, how many kids can we put and how many, you know, we're working these things out. It's a blessing to not have a bedroom all to yourself. That's a lot of work and they're a big mess. What about your roommates or maybe it's your spouse? It's so much better than being alone. I mean, it's a mess and it can be frustrating at times, but it's so much better than the alternative.

Reuben and Gad wanted the alternative. And in time, it proved to be harmful to them. Seek to build God's kingdom and teach other people about it. We're in the middle of Pride Month, beginning of Pride Month. And it's easy to be upset about it and sort of be grumpy and be, you know, just angry. You think that the people that you live around are worse than the Ninevites. I don't think they're worse than the Ninevites. Maybe different sins. I don't think they're any worse than the Ninevites. Don't be like Jonah, who was just... all about himself and doing what he wanted to do. He knew that God was merciful and compassionate, and he hated it. He was willing for God to be merciful and compassionate to him. But when it came to being merciful and compassionate to sinners, nah, he didn't have any place for it. He certainly didn't want to be the instrument of God's mercy. Shame on Jonah, thinking only of himself, wanting to keep all the blessings of God for himself alone, wanting to keep the land like Reuben and Gad. This is good land. I don't think we should just let it go to pot. Like, there's a bunch of cities here. Why don't we?

Run our flag up the pole. I guess what I'm saying to you is you shouldn't just love the people who are easy to love. Even the people who are easy to love aren't always easy to love. If we're honest, your siblings and your parents and your kids and your spouse, they're not always easy to love. But even they shouldn't be the only recipients of your love and your kindness. In Nineveh, there was 100, 120,000 who didn't know the right hand from their left. They were lost. They were gone. They were without God. And so God sent them Jonah. And they repented. Do you believe in repentance? Do you care to love people around you to lead them to repentance and to call them to repentance? Or should they just see to it themselves? That's their problem. We have a nice land. We've got lots of cattle. We don't have lots of cattle. We don't have lots of kids. Be selfish. Be faithful. Trust that God's faithfulness to you in the past is the foundation of his faithfulness to you in the future and to others through you in the future.