The Border Dispute

Well, good evening. It's good to see you all. If you want to go ahead and stand with me, we'll pray and we'll get started.

Father, we thank you for the day, Lord, and we just thank you and we praise you. Lord, tonight as we come here to spend some time in your word, I pray that we just set everything else aside that's going on in life and just lift a joyful noise to you, Lord, and just dive into your word and allow it to change our hearts. We love you and we praise you. We thank you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Blessing be the name. And you guys can go ahead and have a seat if you like.

Well, God, we just thank you for who you are, God, and just how much you love us, Lord, and for how good you are to us. Lord, we just give you praise and glory. We thank you for what you're doing and for what you're going to do, Lord. We know that you're coming again soon, Lord, and that the victory is already won.

God, we just give you praise, and we thank you for the battle that you've already won. We thank you. We thank you for the victory that we have in you, Lord God. And tonight, as Pastor Ryan comes, I just pray that your Holy Spirit, Lord, would just overflow him. Lord, give him the words to speak and prepare our hearts to receive the word that you've prepared for us, Lord.

We love you, Lord. We praise you and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Good evening. If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Joshua, chapter 22.

Joshua, chapter 22. The title of the message this evening is Border Dispute. But I promise I'm going to keep myself out of trouble. I actually stole that out of a commentary that had no idea that we're in the middle of a border dispute right now. So, now, as we come to chapter 22, we're going to see the tribes to the east of the Jordan, the ones that are going to settle on the east of the Jordan,

get sent back to their land. And there is going to be a dispute that comes up because of that. And so there's a couple of things we'll see. We're going to see the return of the eastern tribes. And then the offensive altar, because that ultimately is what brings about the border dispute. But if you remember, the children of Israel have been in about a seven-year campaign,

give or take a little bit, of taking the land. They had crossed the Jordan miraculously. And they had gone in and defeated really all of the major armies, the major city-states that they needed to defeat. And then we've been looking at the distribution of the land. As Eve said, each of the tribes receives their inheritance. Well, as we've mentioned several times,

the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, when they had first come to the edge of the promised land, and they had defeated Og and Sihon, they saw that region to the east of the Jordan River there. And they said, this is a beautiful country for farming. It's a beautiful place to raise livestock. We would just like to settle here. And so, of course, they'd made a deal with Moses that they would go across,

and they would help their brethren overtake the land. And then they would be able to return. And that's what took place. They had done their part, and now it was time for them to return. And so we pick up in chapter 22, verse 1, and this is what it says. It says, Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, and said to them,

You have kept all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you. And you have listened to my voice, and all that I have commanded you. You have not forsaken your brothers these many days to this day, but you have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God. And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers. As he spoke to them, Therefore, turn now, go to your tents, to the land of your possession,

which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you beyond the Jordan. So the first thing Joshua does is he speaks to the faithfulness of these tribes. And I think that there's some interesting things for us to pay attention to here because there's three things about the faithfulness of these tribes that are really displayed to us. He first of all says, You have kept all that you were commanded.

Now again, at this point in time, the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, they weren't fighting for their own land at that point in time. They already had their inheritance. It had already been guaranteed to them, and it had been guaranteed to them on the other side of the Jordan. So all of the battles that they went to, all of the fighting that they did was not for land that they were going to inherit, and yet they were faithful to the command, to the covenant that they had made with Moses to go on with their brethren to do the work that needed to be done.

The second thing that he says about their faithfulness is that they had not forsaken their brothers. And really, if you think about it, there's a perfect picture of the body of Christ that takes place amongst these tribes because though they were not fighting for their own land, they knew that it was their brethren. And if it was their brethren, then it affected them because all of the nation of Israel worked together. If one portion of the nation of Israel was affected, then they were all affected by it.

And so they did not forsake their brethren. And then the third thing that he tells them is that they have kept the commandment of the Lord. They've kept the commandment of the Lord. And so this faithfulness meant that they would be rewarded with what God had promised. And so he says, it's now time for you to head over to your side of the Jordan and to take the land, go back to your tents,

go back to your families who you haven't seen for these last seven years. But before they go, Joshua has a word to speak to these tribes. Notice what it says in verse five. He says, only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and keep his commandments, and to hold fast to him and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

So Joshua blessed them and sent them away and they went to their tents. Now Joshua gives this charge to these two and a half tribes, but it's interesting because chapters 23 and 24 will be his charge to the rest of the tribes. But he knows that this is probably going to be one of the last times that he sees some of these guys. And so he wants them to know and understand, to remember, because he's led them all of this time.

And so he wants to give them a charge so that they will know what's expected of them and what's required of them. And this charge that he gives them takes on four parts. The first thing that he tells them to do is to observe the commandments. He says, be careful to observe the commandments and the law which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you. Now David Guzik in his commentary

points out something very interesting about the word observe here. Because he says, the word observe carries with it the idea of both to hear and to know. Because you cannot observe the law. You cannot observe the commandments if you have not first heard the commandments and know what they are. And that not only is a word for these tribes, but it's a word for us as well.

Because if we are to have this same sort of charge to observe what God has commanded to us, then we must first hear what God has to say to us and know what God expects of us. And know what God's word has to say to us. And that reminds me of what we're told in the book of Romans, that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so it was important that they not only had heard, but that they know exactly what God had commanded them to do.

Be careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses gave to you. The second thing that he tells them that they are to do is that they are to love the Lord your God. Now it's kind of interesting because we don't always think about love. We don't always think about love as being a command. We think of love as being an emotion, right? We think of love as being a feeling,

something that you express through your feeling. And we forget that it's actually something that's commanded to us. Because if you remember, love is a lot more than just a feeling. Love is a decision. It's a decision that we make to commit ourselves to someone or something. And he tells them that there should be that wholehearted love that is shown to God. Because after all,

law, without love, is legalism. And love without law is licentiousness, right? The two have to work together. But if they are to truly observe the law the way that they are supposed to, it must first come from a heart of love for God. The third thing that he tells them to do is that they are to walk in all of his ways. Now, if you've been a part of very many of my Bible studies,

you know that we can define the word walk as the order of your life, the way that you live your life. In other words, you're not just supposed to hear what God has to say. You're not just supposed to know what God has to say, but you show your love for the Lord by the way that you live your life day in and day out. It's one thing to observe some commandments on one particular holy day or at one particular time of the day or perhaps one particular time of the week.

It's a whole other thing to make all of your life that which follows the Lord. And in order to be, the people that God had called for them to be, in order to truly keep the old covenant, in order to truly be God's people, the way that they live their life day in and day out was to reflect their love for God. They were to walk, to order their life in all of his ways. And then the fourth part of the charge that he gives to them is to hold to him and to serve him.

Now, I find it kind of interesting and read this verse with me again. It says, Be careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and to hold fast to him and to serve him with all of your heart and with all of your soul. It reminds us that there's a truth that remained true in both the old and the new covenant. And that's that whether it's old or new covenant, the same thing remains true.

We don't just adhere to a set of instructions. We adhere to an individual because we were not created for laws. We were created for relationship. You see, while they were to walk in his ways, ultimately what they were to keep themselves to was to him. They were to serve him. If you remember all the way back in Exodus, when God set the children of Israel free

and he brought them out into the wilderness, he brought them to Mount Sinai. When he brought them to Mount Sinai, he said, I have set you free unto myself. Because they were set free so that they could serve God, not just so that they could keep a list of rules and regulations, but so that they could serve God because they were set apart unto him. And brothers and sisters, the same is true as new covenant believers in Jesus Christ.

We were set free, not so that we could keep a whole new list of rules and regulations. We were set free so that we could follow him because it's what we were created for. And so he gives them this charge to observe the commandments, to love the Lord, to walk in his ways, and to hold fast to him. And of course, then Joshua blesses them and sent them away. So we pick up in verse seven.

It says, now to the one half tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half, Joshua gave a possession among their brothers westward beyond the Jordan. So when Joshua sent them to their tents, he blessed them. And he said to them, return to your tents with great riches, with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, iron, and with very many clothes. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers, the sons of Reuben, the sons of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh returned home and departed from the sons of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their possession, which they had possessed according to the command of the Lord through Moses.

And of course, they were going back, not empty handed. They were going back with all of the spoils of war. And so they returned home. And so now we come to the second part of the chapter, which is really the heart of the chapter, which I have entitled the offensive altar or a misunderstanding. So we pick up in verse 10. It says when they came to the region of the Jordan,

which is in the land of Canaan, the sons of Reuben, the sons of Gad, the half tribe Manasseh built an altar there, a large altar and appearance. And the sons of Israel heard it. They said, behold, the sons of Reuben, the sons of Gad, the half tribe Manasseh have built an altar at the frontier land of Canaan and the region of the Jordan on the side belonging to the sons of Israel. And when the sons of Israel heard, the whole congregation of the sons of Israel gathered themselves at Shiloh to go up against them in war.

My things devolved quickly, didn't they? That that that escalated quickly. So what happened here? Well, so these tribes are on their way. Back and you can imagine the conversations that took place among them. At least I can. I can imagine the conversations that start to take place among them. Remember, how did they have to get into the land? They had to cross the Jordan.

What was the Jordan doing at the time that they crossed it? What was in its flood stages indicating that there would be a great barrier in between their inheritance and the rest of the nation? Not only that, there was a great valley which the Jordan River rested in in between where they would settle and where the rest of the nation of Israel would settle. And you can imagine the conversations that they said.

There's a lot of distance between us and Shiloh. Shiloh was where they had the tabernacle set up. It was the center of worship. It would remain the center of worship until until David took Jerusalem. At that point in time, they moved the center of worship there. But it's where the center of worship was. And you can imagine the conversation. Well, what if one of these days they start to say, you know,

you dwell on the other side of the Jordan. I don't really think that you're a part of us. How do we know that you're really a part of us? What are we going to do? And so perhaps some ideas were thrown around and they said, you know what, we should build the same kind of altar, the same kind of altar that they had, only we'll make it a really big altar. And this altar will be huge so that anybody that comes here will know that

altar looks just like the altar that's in Shiloh. They must belong with us. And so that's what they did. They built an altar. And you may have even noticed in verse 10, it says, when they came to the region, they built an altar. Notice what it says at the bottom of verse 10, by the Jordan, a large altar in appearance. In other words, the thing was big. You could see it from a really long ways away.

Now, the children of Israel are going to get very upset with them. And you should be asking yourself the question, why did they get so upset with these two and a half tribes for simply building an altar? Well, if you were to go back to Leviticus and I don't want you to right now, but if you were to go back to Leviticus, you would know that there was a command given in Leviticus by God. He said, you shall.

Not build an altar any place that you want, nor shall you make sacrifices any place that you want. You shall build an altar in the place where I choose to set up my tabernacle and you shall make sacrifices on the place where I choose to set up my tabernacle. God said, you have to worship the way I want you to worship where I want you to worship. Matter of fact, when you move on into the kings, you'll find that in the list of kings, it's given some are good, some are bad.

But there's usually one problem that even the good kings have. Do you remember that problem? Perhaps you've read it, but they did not tear down the high places. What were the high places? Well, they were the altars that people built to worship wherever they wanted to. They had an impure worship of God during the time of the kings. Well, this was still a really pure time, right?

Picture the early church in Ananias and Sapphira, right? So they're like, oh, no, this isn't good. They've already rebelled against God. They have already rebelled against him. And they are going to bring shame on all of us. After all, it's only been a few years since the Baal Peor incident when a handful of people brought shame on the entire nation and all kinds of people died that day.

Right. It hasn't been that long since Achan, which those are the two examples that are going to be given since Achan sinned. And thirty six, I think, people died that day. And so they're going, oh, no. What they've done is evil. We are zealous for the name of the Lord. We should do something about this. And so they gather together for war. Now, I want to point something out to you.

Their zeal for God is good. There's nothing wrong with what they want to do. As a matter of fact, you know, when it says be angry and do not sin, that's what they're doing here, because they think that God's name is being impugned and they think it's going to bring up. An apostasy throughout the nation at this altar remains. Their zeal for God is really good at this point in time.

They're choosing to fight the right kind of battle. However, there's a little bit of work that needs to be done. Notice what it says. Verse 12. So when the sons of Israel heard it, the whole congregation, the sons of Israel gathered themselves at Shiloh to go up against them in war. But then comes verse 13, then the sons of Israel sent to the sons of Reuben,

to the sons of Gad, the half tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead. Phineas, the son of Eliezer, the priest who, by the way, was involved. He was the last guy to spear somebody during the time at Baal Peor. And with him, ten chiefs, one chief for each father's household, each of the from each of the tribes of Israel. And each one of them was the head of his father's household among the thousands of Israel.

And they came to the sons of Reuben, the sons of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. And they spoke with them. Ah, wisdom has prevailed. Now, I don't know who came up with this idea. Joshua doesn't tell us who came up with this idea. I don't know. Joshua was like, wait a second. Before we go destroy a bunch of our brothers, maybe we should find out what the altar is all about.

Maybe we should look into this a little bit more. I'm not sure if Phineas was like, hey, this seems like a bad idea. Maybe we should figure it out first. Ask questions first, throw spears later. Right. Maybe that's what it was. No matter what. Wisdom prevailed. They were fighting the right battle because their zeal for God was good. But they used a great deal of wisdom to make sure that they knew why they were

fighting and if the battle was even necessary. So they send this delegation. So this delegation goes and talks. Notice what it says. Verse 16. Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord. What is this unfaithful act which you have committed against the God of Israel? Turning away from following the Lord this day by building yourselves an altar to rebel this day against the Lord is not

the iniquity of pure enough for us from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, although a plague came on the congregation of the Lord that you must turn away this day from following the Lord. If you rebel against the Lord today, he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel tomorrow. If, however, the land of your possession is unclean, then cross into the land of the possession of the Lord where the Lord's tabernacle stands and take possession among us. Only do not rebel against the Lord or rebel against us by building an altar for yourselves besides the altar of the Lord our God.

Did not Akin, the son of Zerah, act unfaithfully in the things under the ban? The wrath fall on all the congregation of Israel and that man did not perish alone. It is iniquity. Now, I love the way that they present it. I'm going to love even more the way that these tribes respond because these guys come in hot, right? There's no mincing words there. They're like, why are you acting unfaithful towards the Lord?

Why are you doing what you're doing? And they give examples. Number one, don't you remember Baal Peor? That wasn't that long ago. Matter of fact, we're still suffering some of the effects of it to this day. Then I love the next thing that they say. If your land is unclean, if you feel like you can't worship there, then come over here with us. Come over to our side of the Jordan.

We'll give you some of our land. Now, I think that that's a pretty interesting statement for them to make. Pretty powerful statement for them to make. They say, you know what? If the way that you remain holy and the way that we remain holy is to make a sacrifice is for us to make a sacrifice, then it's something that we're willing to do. You know, I find a lot

of people we're usually willing to point out the sin in other people's lives, but we're not willing to make a sacrifice to help them stay away from it. We're usually willing to point out what people have done wrong, but we're not always willing to make a sacrifice to help them be right, because that's what it will require on our part. When when we see people in the wrong in their lives, it will require a sacrifice on our part in order to bring them along. Whether it's a sacrifice of our time, whether it's a sacrifice of our energy, whatever it is.

Sometimes we'll have to make sacrifices on our part to say, you know what? If that's what it's going to take for you to walk right, then that's what it's going to take for you to walk right. And so they're willing to make this sacrifice. And then there's one more statement that's made. Did not Aiken teach us anything? Didn't we learn anything from what we went through with Aiken?

Now, again, if I'm these two and a half tribes, I'm a little bit offended at this point in time. All I did was build an altar because I didn't want to get left out. Right. All I did was build an altar, an altar that I intended as an altar of witness, an altar for show, so that I wouldn't get left out. And they just came in hot, accusing me of being unfaithful to the Lord.

And it brings me to an interesting point. People are always going to misunderstand us. You just have to know that. And I'll get to this again towards the end. People will misunderstand the things that you do sometimes, and we can't take it personally. It's lessons I have to learn. In life, because I usually take most things kind of personally. But eventually there's going to come a

point in time where somebody's going to misunderstand what you did. One of the greatest quotes I've ever read is that you are always the villain in someone's story. Isn't that great? I am. I'm the villain in several people's stories. They've told me about it. It is what it is. People are going to misunderstand you sometimes, but they don't let that stop them.

Notice what it says. Verse twenty one. Then the sons of Reuben, the sons of Gad, the half tribe Manasseh answered and spoke to the heads of the families of Israel, the mighty one, God, the Lord, the mighty one, God, the Lord, he knows and may Israel itself know if it was in rebellion or if in an unfaithful act against the Lord, do not save us this day. If we have built us an altar to turn away from following the Lord, or if to offer a burnt offering or grain offering on it, or if to offer sacrifices of peace offerings on it, may the Lord himself require it.

But truly, we have done this out of concern for a reason, saying in time to come, your sons may say to our sons, what have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between us and you. And the sons of Reuben, the sons of Gad, you have no portion in the Lord. So your sons may make our sons stop fearing the Lord. Therefore, we said, let us build an altar, not for burnt offering or sacrifice.

Rather, it shall be a witness between us and you and between our generations after us that we are to perform the service of the Lord before him with our burnt offerings and with our sacrifices and with our peace offerings. So that your sons will not say to our sons, you have no portion in the Lord. Therefore, we said it shall come about that if they say this to our generations in time to come, that we shall say, see the copy of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made not for burnt offering or sacrifice. It is a witness between us and you.

Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away from following the Lord this day by building an altar for burnt offering or for grain offering or for sacrifice besides the altar of the Lord, our God, which is before his tabernacle. Now, I love the way that they start this off because twice they invoked the name of the Lord, the mighty one, God, the Lord, the mighty one, God, the Lord. Now, when you start repeating God's name like that, at least in Jewish ideas, that means you're taking it really seriously. They said, let God be a witness for us.

I love that phrase. It says God knows and brothers and sisters, if you're somebody who has been falsely accused, if you're somebody who has been misunderstood, if you're somebody who you can't seem to clear your name with somebody else, even though you know 100 percent that your heart is right, I want you to know something the Lord knows and you don't need to keep trying to clear your name. You don't need to keep trying to to make it right. You need to know the Lord knows that your heart was right before him.

And what you did or what you said, you name the thing. And so they say, hey, listen, God knows. God knows what's going on here. Understand why we did what we did. If we have done something wrong, then let God judge us for it. We've built this as an altar of witness, not as an altar of sacrifice. And of course, they explain themselves. Now, again, the potential was there

for these two and a half tribes to absolutely blow this thing up. Right. Well, if you're going to treat us that way, then maybe we are about to go to war. If you're going to treat us that way, then you know what? Yeah, you guys go do your own thing and we'll go to war right now. That potential was there. But there was wisdom on the part of Phineas. And now there's wisdom on the part of the two and a half tribes.

And this thing is solved. And so they explain themselves. They explain exactly what they intended. And so notice what it says in verse 30. So in Phineas, the priest and the leaders of the congregation, even the heads of the families of Israel who were with him heard the words which the sons of Reuben. The sons of Gad, the sons of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them.

And Phineas, the son of Eliezer, the priest said to the sons of Reuben, to the sons of Gad, to the sons of Manasseh. Today, we know that the Lord is in our midst because you have not committed this unfaithful act against the Lord. Now you have delivered the sons of Israel from the hand of the Lord. And then Phineas, the son of Eliezer, the priest and the leaders returned from the sons of Reuben, from the sons of Gad, from the land of Gilead, to the land of Canaan, to the sons of Israel and brought back word.

And the word pleased the sons of Israel. The sons of Israel blessed God and they did not speak of going up against them in war to destroy the land in which the sons of Reuben, the sons of Gad were living. The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar witness. For they said, it is a witness between us that the Lord is God. And so the delegation is pleased.

They're like, hey, perfect. We're really glad it didn't end this way. We accept your explanation. And may the Lord bless you guys as you establish yourself. They brought it back to the children of Israel. The children of Israel said, what a beautiful thing. They blessed God. And of course, they refer to this altar as an altar of witness. Now, I think that there's a handful of things

that we take away from this because what could have potentially been a civil war, in the nation of Israel, what could have potentially been a civil war in what was just a freshly established nation, are the same types of things that can create a civil war in churches. They can create civil wars in families. They can create civil wars in friend groups. And I think if we look at some of the ways that things were dealt with here, perhaps there are some things that we can learn as believers in Jesus Christ living in the 21st century, still dealing with border disputes, still dealing with misunderstandings.

Maybe there are some things that we can learn. So there's four things that I would like for us to take away from this. Four things that I think are important for us to know. Number one, we have to make sure that we fight the right battles. We have to make sure that we fight the right battles. And in order for us to fight the right battles, we have to first identify what the wrong battles are.

All of the wrong battles that we fight, always surround one thing and one thing only, our pride. Have you ever noticed that? You ever noticed any time an argument goes really, really bad is because your pride is involved and all you want to do is prove yourself right. And all you want to do is prove that what they did was wrong and you were right. And there comes a point in time where it's not about God's honor anymore.

It's not even about what's right and wrong anymore. It's about whether or not you can prove your point. I've seen it happen over and over again. Never in myself. I mean, I've heard this in other people, but I've seen this happen over and over again. And so we first of all have to begin to identify what are the wrong battles that we fight. Is my frustration, is what I'm upset about, is what I'm ready to go to war about,

based upon my zeal for that which is right and wrong? Or is it based upon my pride? You know, I've always used as a really good gauge as to whether or not I'm fighting the right battle. Can I still pray in the midst of my frustration? You know what I have always found? If I'm fighting a battle based on my pride, I cannot pray. I just can't because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt

that it's my pride. And I'm like, Lord, I know I'm right. And it's almost like God's going. Right. He just gives me that look. I know I can't actually see God's face. I know I can't hear his voice, but you can almost. I don't sense it coming out of your Bible. Like if your Bible was able to cross its arms and look at you, it's like your Bible would go. Because, you know, you're wrong.

You know, it's about pride. Even if you know that in that particular situation, you're right. It's no longer about what's right and wrong. It's about your pride. We have to fight the right battles. What are the right battles then? They're based upon whether or not God's name is being honored. They're based upon whether or not God is being honored in the things that are being done.

They're based upon whether or not I care about the true righteousness of God and that individual being right with the Lord or that situation being right with the Lord or restoration really taking place. And so we have to learn to fight the right battles. I'm here to tell you right now there are churches that are started all the time because people are fighting the wrong battle. I will guarantee you that there are churches that get started because one group got mad at another group, and so instead of working out their issue, they fought the wrong battle.

And in their pride, they just went and started another church. I can tell you stories. I won't, but I can. Of this happening because people were fighting the wrong battle. Brothers and sisters, the first thing that we need to understand is to fight the right battle. Number two, wisdom searches a matter out. Wisdom searches a matter out. Listen. One of the worst phrases that can be said to you is, do you know what I heard?

At that point in time, you need to step back and go, OK, who did you hear it from? How reliable is the source? And what's the other side of the story? Because wisdom searches a matter out. I will guarantee you will save yourself 90 percent of your arguments if you will just get to the source of the issue. This is one of the things I've learned from working with with young people.

One of the great things that you can do is get two or three kids and just separate them out and start hearing each one's story. And as you hear each one's story, you find that somewhere in the middle of all of them is the truth because they're each telling a little bit of truth based upon their own understanding. And so you have to search it out. And so when somebody says, do you know what so-and-so said about you?

You need to go, well, can we bring them in so that I know that for sure? Because if you start doing that, they'll stop they'll stop sharing those kinds of things. You have to stop it with the do you know what I heard and start searching it? Well, let me go ask them about it then. Well, let me go see what they have to say. I promise you, you'll stop it right then and there.

Wisdom searches a matter out. And brothers and sisters, we have to stop going off of what we heard and start going off of what is true and finding out from the source. Because that's exactly what they did. You saw how a war was averted. A war was averted because they said, wait a second, maybe we should go ask him if that's what they meant to do. Maybe we should go ask him if that's what

they meant, because maybe they didn't mean this as throwing something in the face of God or doing their own rebellious thing. Let's go ask them before we blast them, right? It's probably a pretty good statement to use. I just came up with that on the fly. Maybe you should ask them before you blast them. Number two, wisdom searches a matter out. Number three,

the goal of confrontation should always be restoration. The goal of confrontation should always be restoration. Listen, I've seen this go really, really wrong. Where the goal of confrontation was not restoration. The goal of confrontation was anger. It was just simply to vent your feelings because you don't like them. You don't like what they did. Quite frankly, they hurt your feelings and you're going to let them know just how bad

they hurt your feelings and you're going to make sure that they hurt as bad as you do. And if that's the reason why you're going to confront somebody, don't. If you can't confront somebody with a heart of restoration, then you can't confront them because that's what confrontation is for. It's for restoration. And if we do it for any other reason, it's usually our pride.

It kind of goes back to fighting the right battle. And then number four, there's a lesson to be learned. There will always be misunderstandings. Let God be your greatest witness. There will always be misunderstandings. Let God be your greatest witness. I fall into this trap sometimes where I want to go around and correct the story. Right. I heard somebody said this about me.

And I go to everybody to make sure that that the story is corrected. And you know what God tells me every time I start to do that. Right. And I'm able to bring forth your righteousness like the noonday sun. You don't need to go fight all those battles. Those are mine to fight. All you can do is do what you're called to do. And let me handle everything else.

And you know what happens every time I do that? God handles it. He brings forth my righteousness like the noonday sun. Unless I've done something wrong. And then he lets me absolutely deal with the consequences. But if I know that what's gone on is correct, I don't have to go to every single person and make sure that the that the story is corrected. Because, listen, you'll wear yourself out.

You'll wear yourself out doing that. Let God fight your battles for you. You do what God calls you to do. And let God deal with everything else, because he is our greatest witness in the midst of all of the understandings. And so in this border dispute, we see that God ultimately prevailed because they followed these principles. I didn't come up with them. I just took what they did because they followed these principles.

Good prevailed and God prevailed and war was evaded. Isn't it amazing? And so, brothers and sisters, there's always going to be disputes. Follow, follow biblical principles and God always takes care of it. And so next week we will finish up Joshua with Joshua's farewell address. All right, my friends, let's pray. Father, we come before you and thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning or this evening.

And I just pray that you would bless it to our hearts. Lord, I know that you use all of these things. What I know that you use all of these lessons. And so, Lord, I know that you use all of these lessons. Lord, as you said, these things were written for our admonition and instruction. And so, Father, let us take the instruction and be who you've called us to be.

We just thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.