Josh 18:2+3, And there remained among the sons of Israel seven tribes who had not divided their inheritance. So Joshua said to the sons of Israel, "How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? 
We are deep in our consideration of the truth that there is an effort required for our ongoing relationship with Christ. It is the reality that was before the remaining 7 tribes of Israel in the course of their habitation of the Promised Land. They had to arise from their slothful encampment and proceed forward into the land of their inheritance. They needed to do so because that was what God had commanded for them. 
The fact was that they were to be honoring to God in their action, and not neglectful of Him and His Omnipotence and His Omniscience. We have read about those times when they tried to do things on their own, without His blessing or seeking after the Lord with respect to what His will was for them. Every single time, they faced utter disaster and defeat because they were trying to drag the Lord with them into battle rather than following as He went forth before them unto His completely victorious triumph. 
For us, we need to learn when to go and when to stand. Always, as we measured out last time, we are actively engaged in our waiting before the Lord for that time to move forward under His instruction and His direction. That forward progress must always be in complete obedience to the Holy Spirit and His Word set before us. We are to study the Word of God and feast upon it as our daily sustenance. We are to ask the Holy Spirit to make it life in us.    
As we are told in Eph 6:10-20, we are to be strong in the Lord. That strength takes practice and exercise and testing to become solidly established as our life in Christ. We are to put on the armor that God gives us in order to stand firm. We are not to run here and there trying to take the battle to the enemy. We are to stand firmly rooted in Christ, awaiting His orders. Under His command, we will either advance into the fray, or be completely rooted in our stand against all the forces of anger and hatred and frustration and fear and hopelessness that crash against us without our being moved or shaken from the steadfastness of Christ.
In those instances, we stand firm! Stand firm! Stand firm with the whole protection of the Lord God Almighty covering us because we have been prepared through our prayer and supplication and feasting upon His Word. We are rock solid because we have undergone the patient building up of our faith through all the trials and testing and difficult circumstances and perilous storms that have careened down upon our heads without our flinching or falling or failing. 
Please turn to Eph 6:10-20. We need to be encouraged in this mighty call to stand firm no matter what! Our strength through this is because we have been so active in our waiting on the Lord to position us for His plan of action in the every battle. 
Eph 6:10-20, Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. 
Notice, in this standing firm in the Power of Christ, there is also the call to pray for one another, especially those who are teaching the Word. The Apostle beseeches his brothers and sisters in Christ for prayer to continue to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ with boldness. The same is my request of you. Pray for me that I may be that minister of the Word who feeds the flock with good food that nourishes and builds up those prayer warriors of the Lord. We need to stand together in prayer in order to be taught to stand firm in the established faith of Christ Jesus.
We need to measure our days through prayer and supplication and thanksgiving unto the Lord, beseeching Him for the greater and deeper knowledge of His glory being established and effective in our lives. This waiting before the Lord for His timing of action is never that of idleness and slothful consideration of somehow being deserving of some special dispensation of the Lord. The glorious truth of our salvation in Jesus Christ, in spite of our unworthiness to be so redeemed, should be sufficient to deal with any other sense of entitlement that may infest our thoughts and ideas.
Rather, we are ready to go when the Lord urges us forward and we are to remain, steady and prepared as the Lord so details His plan for our every step. We are to be active in our engagement and relationship with the Lord on the basis of our study of His Word, our prayer life, and our worship in fellowship with the saints. Standing together, we are seeking that which will be to His praise at the time He so establishes for us. 
Our Lord Jesus brings this forth in the parable that is recorded in Matt 20:1-7. Please open to it. We see the fact that the Lord’s timing is not set upon our sense of timing. He works as He wills and He calls as He deems when He deems best to complete the work as He requires. We are not to compare ourselves to any other Christian because He is working His perfect timing in their lives as He is so doing in our lives. The focus is on the work that He requires and not what when and how long others may have been responding to His call in their lives.
Matt 20:1-7, "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. "And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. "And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, 'You too go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' And so they went. "Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. "And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing; and he said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day long?' "They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into the vineyard.' 
    	Our Lord, in John 6:26-29, details where the focus of our lives need to be set. There is a work that is required of every Christian. It is that effort that it takes to learn the depths of what our spiritual life in Christ entails. It is the giving of ourselves unto all that is required in our daily walk with Christ Jesus. This is not something that happens without work. Rather it is necessary to fully engage in the very hard and difficult diligence that building a relationship necessitates. 
	Our relationship with the Lord is an active one that entails all our attention and all our effort and all our ability and all our concentration. As husbands and wives, we have some sense of what is required for a relationship of oneness to grow and develop and flourish. That is what must be taking place as you and I are growing together into the Lord, individually and corporately.
As many will attest from years of working to maintain our earthly relationships with spouses and children and parents and siblings and friends and our brothers and sisters in Christ, there is an immense investment of time and energy and patience and kindness and submission and devotion and diligence and commitment that is required for anything more than just a cursory connection with one another. This is one of the aspects inherent in the passage as we read it together.
John 6:26-29, Jesus answered them and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal." They said therefore to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." 
	It is necessary to continue on in Christ for us and for the sake of one another. Too often Christians think that because salvation is a very personal miracle that they are in this whole life in Christ by themselves. They fail to understand that salvation is like a child’s birth and development, it is a new birth into Jesus Christ. 
However, once born, in the normal growth of a child, there is the knitting together into family that takes place. There is the teaching and the instruction and the encouragement and the love and the patience and the discipline which cause the whole family to grow together into the fullness of Christ. That is a most simple explanation for the miracle that is our life in Him. It takes work, hard and laborious and self-sacrificing work. And yes, it is sometimes tedious and often repetitious work in practice and in patience to grow together.
	Listen to the Apostle Paul’s encouragement as given in Eph 6:5-8. All of us, not just those who are engaged in a job or profession, need to give our all in service as unto the Lord. Wherever the Lord has planted us, at whatever task He has given fo us to do, we are to serve Him with every fiber of our being as we give the best that we can to each day’s duties as unto Him.
Eph 6:5-8, Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. 
	The Apostle continues this theme in his letter to the Church at Philippi in Phil 3:8-16. Please turn to it. Here is detailed the manner in which we are to regard all the things of this world in comparison to that which the Lord brings into our lives. Our relationship with Him, and all the work that we each invest into it far outshines any earthly accolades and fortune. Our eyes need to remain absolutely focused on our Lord in order to move immediately and decisively at the mere nod of His head, as He stirs us into action for His name’s sake and for His Honor and for His glory in the whole of His creation.
	Phil 3:8-16, More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. 
    	The Apostle Peter, in 2 Peter 1:5-14, brings this morning to a close with his added encouragement to us to continue on in our living relationship with Christ. We are not to get discouraged or waylaid nor distracted by the things of this age. Neither are we to just settle for what we may have already seen in Christ. There is far more at stake than merely our place on this earth.	2 Peter 1:5-14, Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. And I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
We are here to express, in perfection, the difference that Christ makes in each one of those who believe upon Him and trust Him and obey Him. This is even more vital and needed in these days of pandemic, economic, social, and familial stress and disorder and decay. We need to be standing firm in Christ at the forefront of our families and our friends and our workmates and our schoolmates and our employers and our employees and yes, even those who are our enemies. Our call to action is in our shining forth as the ever more perfect expression of the Love of Christ to all those who are in our sphere of influence with every fiber of our being. So be it!
And there remained among the sons of Israel seven tribes who had not divided their inheritance. So Joshua said to the sons of Israel, "How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 79:9. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name; And deliver us, and forgive our sins, for Thy name's sake. Amen.