The other day on my walk around the neighborhood, I passed some surveyors working. I slowed my pace and observed their fascinating actions. One had a sight glass looking contraption on a stick and the other, a great distance away, had that crazy tripod mounted sextant looking thing. Somehow these guys work closely together with their equipment to establish a highly accurate demarcation that will officially and legally establish property lines. The imaginary line of what is yours and what is mine.
Think about this. Say I own a huge plot of land. I mean big, like 250,000 acres. And it's in the beautiful rolling hill country of central Texas. And on top of me owning this land, I like you…a lot. So, I decide to gift you 10,000 acres of this land. Now I bet your ears are perking up. Probably the first thing you would ask me is where? Where exactly is my land within your parcel? I would need to have surveyors come out and officially mark off the boundaries of your new piece of land so that you would know exactly where your land begins and ends. It would be very important right? I think so, boundaries are good.
As we read through Joshua chapter 12 today, we find a chapter that at first glance seems like another “skip chapter.” You know what I’m talking about, as you commit to read through the entire Bible you'll eventually come across a chapter that is all genealogies and endless lists and as you do, you look at it like it was still written in Hebrew. Most of the names you can’t begin to pronounce and as you struggle through the first few verses you decide that the relevance is just too low, skip on to the next chapter. But you know the value in God’s Word is not simply having the relevance given to us, but in searching for it on our own.
Today as you read the names, kingdoms and boundaries of all the kingdoms Moses and Joshua have conquered by the power of God, you might be quick to dismiss the long list and just skip ahead to “more relevant” stuff. But think about our surveyor analogy. Do you think it was important for the Israelites to know the exact boundaries and borders of the land God had given them as an inheritance? Since God gave it to them, promised to defeat all the kings in it and promised to protect them within it, I would offer a resounding yes, they needed to accurately know the property lines of their land. And it is here in chapter 12 of Joshua we find just that, the official property lines of the Promised Land that God has given to His people.
Did you know that today, God has given you an inheritance as well? No, not a big plot of land in the middle east, but a promise of true, abundant life. But do you know what is true about an inheritance? You have to claim it for it to be yours. Check out this news article from 2012.
“A long-lost relative of the reclusive and eccentric New York heiress Huguette Clark, who stood to inherit $19 million of her $300 million fortune has been found dead from hypothermia in rural Wyoming.
Timothy Henry Gray's body was discovered by children sledding under a Union Pacific Railroad overpass in Evanston, Wyoming, in the southwest of the state on Thursday, as the temperatures hit 10 degrees.
Gray, 60, was the half great-nephew of Clark, who died in May 2011 aged 104 and tragically was unaware that he was potentially entitled to 6.25 percent of her copper mining fortune, which has been conservatively estimated at £307 million by the administrator of her estate.”
Timothy Gray was set to inherit $19 million dollars. It was legal, it was official, and it was fully arranged. All he had to do was claim the inheritance. Yet, in tragic irony, he was completely unaware, living homeless under an underpass and died of exposure to the cold, apparently unable to afford even a blanket or coat to preserve his life.
You know this story resonates greatly with me today, but on a spiritual level. Since the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, man has been spiritually destitute. A relentless sin nature has plagued every single human since. This sin nature drives us away from God and His Word and pulls us into a state of prideful, arrogant self-service. Our sinful flesh draws us into serving ourselves and ignoring the abundant life God has for us to inherit. We live in a world today of spiritual Timothy Gray’s, people that have been promised the full inheritance of God, yet they are failing to claim it as they are dying spiritually.
Folks, God is crystal clear about the destination of our spirits after these earthly bodies expire. For those that fully realize their sin nature, it results in a great recognition for the amazing grace of God. And in God’s amazing grace, He sent His Son. His only Son came here and dwelt among us. To live on this planet, a sinless man that would sacrifice His perfect life so that we could have life. If you fully recognize the work of Jesus upon the Cross and know that His work alone can save you from the death penalty of your sin against God, you will be saved. (Rom 10:13) As a result, when you take your last breath on this planet, your next breath will be in Heaven in the presence of God. This is a promise from God, He has clearly laid out the boundaries of salvation, but you must claim it. Knowing about it is not good enough. Knowing someone else that has called on Jesus is not enough. Going to church, praying, giving money or going on a mission trip is not enough. You must personally claim God’s gift of Salvation the exact way He instructs.
But folks, what if when I gifted you that 10,000 acres above, you were too busy to ever claim it. You meant to, you had plans to, you’d even scheduled a time to do it, but you never truly did it. Do you still get the land? Nope, not even close. The gift of Salvation through Jesus is available for the entire world today. The question is, will you claim the gift of God? If you plan to do it and for whatever reason, just never get around to it, it will have eternal ramifications for your soul. You see, to call upon Jesus is to accept the inheritance of eternal life in the presence of God, but to reject, forget or just refuse to deal with Jesus, is eternal separation from God in hell. Each and every person on this planet that hears the gospel of Jesus Christ has a decision to make.
Folks, if you have accepted Jesus, you have a job today. To go and tell. To use whatever life situation God has put you in to tell others about the amazing story of Jesus on the Cross. The world deserves to know. Every person on this planet has an amazing gift just waiting on them. Better than any jewels, money, gold, land or property. This inheritance is promised to all by God, it must only be claimed. But people must know before they can claim it. Today, tell someone about the amazing inheritance God has for them.
God bless you as you boldly tell the world about Jesus.
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