. . . Claim My Inheritance?

Dr. Michael Youssef: I have seen people who have cried buckets and they claim to commit their life to Christ, but went on without any claim of the inheritance. They never claimed their inheritance in and with Christ. And that is why Joshua is crying to his people. He's saying, "Don't let one more day go by without you claiming your victory through Christ." And then you go and do that every single day.
Guest (Female): Joshua, the new leader of Israel, is getting increasingly frustrated with God's people. They're hesitant in their obedience to obey God's call to take possession of the land that God had already promised. And according to Dr. Youssef, it's a similar frustration that our heavenly Father has with many Christians today. So, next up, a powerful challenge to claim the victory of a life committed to Christ. Hey, do remember that Leading The Way is a listener-supported media ministry made possible through your prayers and your faithful generosity. Stand with Dr. Youssef in taking the gospel across this nation, the Middle East, and to those in remote villages. Give us a call at 866-626-4356 or visit ltw.org. Let's listen together now as Dr. Michael Youssef begins today's Leading The Way.
Dr. Michael Youssef: I want to ask you a question: What is the easiest thing in the world? I mean, the easiest thing in the world. Think about it. The easiest thing in the whole world for me is quitting. You see, quitting doesn't take much energy. Quitting doesn't take much effort. Quitting doesn't take time. Quitting doesn't cost you anything. The easiest thing in the world is to quit. It really is. You'd say, "This is too hard. I'm quitting. This is too tough. I'm quitting. This is too high. I can't climb. I'm quitting. This is too frightening. I'm quitting. This is too exhausting. I'm quitting. This is too challenging. I'm quitting." The easiest thing in the world is to quit. And in the book of Joshua, chapter 18, verses 1 to 4, we're about to see the people of God quitting. After all they've been through, they're about to quit. Let me read those verses and then explain some more. Chapter 18, beginning at verse 1: "The whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh and they set up the tent of meeting there." Remember, the country, Joshua is letting us know, was brought under control. They already got the promised land under control. "But there were still seven Israelite tribes who had yet to claim their inheritance. And so Joshua said to the Israelites, 'How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? Appoint three men from each tribe. I will send them out to make a survey of the land and to write a description of it according to the inheritance of each. Then they will return to me.'" You say, what's going on here? Why is Joshua getting so exasperated with the people of God? Why is Joshua so frustrated with the people of God? And if you don't think he's frustrated, you maybe want to let me spell it to you in the original language. Verse 3: So Joshua said to the people, "How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, gave you?" Now, another translation put it this way: "How long will you be slack to go and take possession of the land?" Now, we have begun a series of messages from the book of Joshua entitled "You Want Me to Do What?" and it is a challenge for us to begin to focus our vision of reclaiming the educational institutions, to reclaiming our workplaces, reclaiming our neighborhoods for Jesus Christ. And in the past nine messages, we saw the people of God being powerfully and supernaturally crossing the river of impossibility, the River Jordan, when it was high and flooding. We saw them supernaturally and powerfully penetrating and crumbling before them the walls of Jericho, the impenetrable walls of Jericho. We saw how supernaturally they have received complete victory from the hand of God to defeat all the inhabitants and to take the land. And in the last message, we saw Joshua dividing this land of inheritance among the people of Israel. And he was not dividing it based on the birth order of the children of Israel. No, he was not dividing it on the basis of the numerical numbers of each of the children of Israel. No, he was dividing the land based on the faithfulness of the people of Israel. So, after all of this, you'd have to say, wait a minute. After all of this, you would think that they would take their territories, because it's literally like a walk in the park. You would think all they needed to do was just load their rider camels and just move in. I mean, you think this is it. The war has already been won. You would say by now they would have claimed their inheritance. But like a lot of people, they began to quit before the job was finished. They began to quit before they took possession of their inheritance. They began to dismiss their inheritance before they got hold of it. They began to slacken and throw away their rightful place and rightful inheritance. Listen to me. The land already has been allocated. But here's what the word of God said: But seven tribes got used to the nomadic lifestyle. That's not what it says, but I'm explaining it to you. They got so used to that nomadic lifestyle that they would not take their inheritance. They would not claim their inheritance from the hand of God, the inheritance that has been given to them, the inheritance that's theirs to take. The inheritance that's already deposited in their bank account, and all they need to do is cash the check. All they needed to do is to appropriate the inheritance that God gave them. But they were willing to settle for second best. Now, beloved, listen to me. This is a picture of so many professing Christians. So many professing Christians who live in sin and disobedience to the word of God and they still claim to be the children of God. Many professing Christians who never let anybody around them know what their faith is all about. In fact, there are so many Christians that if their colleagues at work or classmates at school or their neighbors found out that they were Christians, they would be shocked. They come so far in the Christian life, and then they quit. They quit. Hear me right on this one, because spiritually speaking, when you come to Christ, you have an access to the feast, but they settle for food stamps. They have an access to the palace, but they settle for the ghettos, spiritually speaking. They have been given the power to reclaim their workplace, their school, and their neighborhoods for Christ, but they choose to deny their rightful inheritance. Why? Because quitting is what? Easy. Quitting is easy. You know, I'm even challenged at times when I read stories of people who have far less a vision than what God has given us, far less a call than what God has given us, and yet they never give up and they're committed to their cause. Many years ago, I remember reading this story. It put me to shame about a young man by the name of Walt. Walt had an idea of a cartoon named Steamboat Willie. And he takes this cartoon character to Hollywood. But Hollywood laughed at him. They would not give him the time of day. They made fun of him. Time and again, he would go and knock on the doors and he gets turned down. Many people would have quit long time ago, but he would not give up on this cartoon character. We're talking about a cartoon character. He would not quit his conviction over a cartoon character. We're not talking about people's eternal destiny here. We're not talking about people's lives that are in shambles that can only be made whole in Christ. No, we talk about a cartoon character. And this young man would not quit, would not give up. And of course, most of the younger generation would know the cartoon character as Mickey Mouse, and his name was Walt Disney. He would not give up. Walt Disney said he sees obstacle as a detour, but not a dead-end street. He sees it as a teacher, not as an undertaker. He saw resistance as a cause for persistence. Back in the old days in the rural America, churches used to have night services for testimonies where people would get up and testify of what God has done. And in fact, in some areas, they used to call them quitting nights, because that's when people come in and say, "I'm going to quit this and I'm going to quit that." And one night, there was one of those meetings and emotions were running high and one man got up and he said, "I have been smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, but I'm going to quit." Another person got up and said, "I drink six cans of beer every day, but I'm going to quit." Another guy got up and he said, "Well, I've been cussing and cursing too much and I'm going to quit." So a little old lady got so excited by the emotions of the moment, got up and she said, "I don't do anything, but I'm going to quit." But listen, there's an irony in that statement. There's an irony in the statement. There are many people in the church of Jesus Christ who are not doing anything for God and they need to quit. And Joshua knew the importance of worship. So what did he do? He understood that worship gets God's people together, being uplifted and being challenged and being motivated. And so he brings them together in order to challenge them to claim their inheritance. And so look at verse 1 of chapter 18 of Joshua. Verse 1: He gathered them to worship in Shiloh. Now listen to me. When you come to church to worship, the church is not where you do God's work. That's not your mission field. When you come to worship, that is not your mission field. Your mission field starts the moment you walk out of these doors. Worship should be challenging for you. Worship should be prodding for you. Worship should be encouraging. Worship should be motivating. Worship should be strengthening. Worship should be empowering for you. Worship should be convicting and equipping you. Equipping you to do what? Equipping you for going out into the mission field and doing the work of Christ. And that's in your where you work, or where you play, where you live, and where you go to school. And claiming the inheritance of the Lord. That's what you're supposed to do when you walk out of worship: to claim and to appropriate your inheritance in Christ. You say, what is that? Your territories, your opportunities, your spheres of influence. Wherever God places you, with your coworkers, with the people you rub shoulders with, with your classmates, with your neighbors. Those whom you meet every day, who are desperate to know that Jesus Christ saves from the guttermost to the uttermost, who desperately need to know that Jesus forgives the repentant sinner, that Jesus restores the brokenhearted, that Jesus redeems those who confess. And he is knocking on their doors through you. And so Joshua gathers the people in this new worship center to worship the Lord. But he also did what I have been trying to do throughout this series of messages. That's what he was trying to do. He was saying, "Don't let your inheritance go unclaimed. Don't let your effectiveness for Jesus Christ go to waste. Don't let the business of this world keep you from being a true apostle, the sent out of Christ wherever you live and work. Don't let the weariness of this world cause you to quit your call in life of reconciling men and women, boys and girls to Christ." Don't let the activities of life deviate you from your primary activity, which is being an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Don't let your social life be without purpose. And so Joshua pleads with them. Look again at verse 3. Underline it in your Bible. Let it be an encouragement to you. Let it be a challenge to you. "How long? How long will you put off taking that which the Lord your God has already given you?" Hear me right on this one. You see, Joshua, in his intensity and in his exasperation with the people of God, he is saying to them, "Every passing day is a day lost in the program of completing the occupation of the land." He is saying that every passing day is a day lost in which the enemy could regroup and come back and become re-entrenched in the land. That all of what God has done and all that we have seen, those of you who have been following this series of messages, would have been gone to waste. After all of that, because some of them were not claiming their inheritance. Listen, I have been ministering well over three decades now and I have witnessed firsthand the significance of the warning of Jesus in Matthew chapter 12, verse 45. Jesus was saying that when an evil spirit leaves a person and departs from that person, when that person comes to Christ and then nothing happens in that person's life, that evil spirit is watching. He hasn't gone too far. And he is seeing that that person never claimed the promises of God, never claimed the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, never claimed the infilling of the Holy Spirit, never claimed their inheritance in Christ. And Jesus said that evil spirit will come back, but he will not come back alone. He'll bring seven with him. Beloved, I have seen people who have cried buckets and they claim to commit their life to Christ, but went on without any claim of the inheritance. They never claimed the power over sin. They never claimed power over temptation. They surrendered to it. They never claimed their inheritance in and with Christ. And they, within just a matter of time, a matter of time, they become so hardened, so hardened, so hardened that nothing and nobody is able to penetrate that heart. I've seen it. The danger of not claiming all of your inheritance in Christ. I've seen it too many times to doubt it. And that is why Joshua is crying to his people. He's saying, "Don't let one more day go by without you claiming your rightful place as an ambassador of Jesus Christ, without claiming your rightful power in Christ, without claiming your victory through Christ, without claiming your authority from Christ, without your rightful inheritance with Christ, without your rightful infilling of the Holy Spirit that will empower you. And then you go and do that every single day." The danger of quitting too soon. Because quitting is what? Easy. So many people give into it. And it's so subtle and it can happen slowly and you wake up and you realize that you have quit. Christopher Columbus struggled for years to have an audience with Queen Isabella of Spain. I mean, he tried, he tried, and he tried again. Oh, but she and Ferdinand her husband were so busy. They were so busy fighting the Moors. They were so busy in trying to keep the empire soul and spirit and body. She didn't have time to waste on this dreamer of a sailor who was telling her that you can go east by going west. It's crazy. But he would not quit and he would not give up and he kept on trying week after week, month after month, year after year. He would not give up. Finally, what she did, she did what a lot of leaders do: She formed a committee. And that committee studied Christopher Columbus's proposal. Took five years. Five years. And he would not give up and he would not quit. And then came their consensus: The idea is impossible. But Christopher Columbus would not give up. He would not quit, although quitting was easy. He would not quit. And so a second committee was formed. This one took a year. And then after a year came the decision. The consensus was the idea is too expensive. But he would not give up. He would not quit. He would not surrender. And finally, Isabella, just to get rid of him, this persistent dreamer, gave him what he wanted and sent him on his way. I thought about this and you probably have, too: If he didn't persist, probably we wouldn't be sitting here. Who knows? We may have, but I'm convinced we probably wouldn't be here. When faced with resistance, try persistence. When you are faced with resistance, try persistence. And then I had another thought this week. It hit me hard. What if God gave up on me? Some of you came to Christ late, some of you came to Christ early. And whether it is a year or 10 years or 50 years that Christ pursued you until you surrendered to him, what if he gave up on you? What if he quit on you? You would not have known him, you would not have experienced forgiveness, you would not have known that you are on your way to heaven and have eternal life with him. But thank God he does not quit, and neither should we. Listen to the words of Joshua: "How long? How long will you wait before you take your possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? How long? How long?"
Guest (Female): Dr. Michael Youssef, inviting you to claim the inheritance that God promised. Thank you for joining listeners across six continents for Leading The Way. If you'd like to talk with someone about what it means to be a Christ follower, please visit ltw.org/jesus. There's a contact form that you can fill out and get that conversation started.
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