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NUMBERS 32:5

"LESS THAN BEST"

Intro: The Children of Israel now ready to enter the land God had promised them. The
       tribes of Reuben,  Gad and 1/2 of Manassah requested inheritance outside the
       land; they had become content where they were dwelling.

I. THERE IS A DANGER OF STOPPING SHORT OF GOD'S BEST FOR YOUR LIFE.
        A. Many of the promises go unfulfilled because we fail to claim them or
           appropriate them.
                1. God has promised perfect peace.
                2. God has promised fullness of joy.
                3. God has promised to supply all our needs.
                        a. Sometimes people come saying, "I live completely by faith, can
                           you help me out"?
                        b. This never means that God is going to support my laziness.
                        c. Paul was completely serving the Lord yet when the need arose
                           he made tents.
                        d. Great inconsistencies.
                                1. "I have given my life completely to God" How much time
                                   does He get each day?
                                2. "All I have belongs to God"  When is He going to get it?
                4. God has promised Living Waters.
        B. This land that Reuben and Gad wanted was not the best, they had grown
                accustomed to it.
                1. So many times we just get used to our situations. "What you can't cure
                   you must endure."
                        a. We make adjustments and settle down.
                        b. This is all the farther I wish to travel with God.
                2. There is a contentment which is good and there is a contentment
                   which is bad.
                        a. The spiritual man is content with his material possessions
                           yet striving for more of God.
                        b. The carnal man is content with his relationship with God, yet
                           is striving for more material possessions.
        C. Some people attend church on occasion; that is all the closer they want to
           get to God.
                1. They have a sort of "you don't bother me, I won't bother you" attitude.
                2. Oh yes. they believe in God and would defend Him in an argument; they
                   even joined the church but they never left Egypt.
        D. Some attend church regularly, every chance they get. They look for the
           things of God, they are truly God's people, yet they have stopped short
           of God's best.
                1. Spiritually they have come to Jordan but they have never crossed over.

II. THE DANGER OF STOPPING SHORT.
        A. History tells us that these tribes were the first to fall the Assyrians.
                1. You are far more vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy.
                2. Satan finds it easier to lure you away.
        B. We are also told that the descendants of these people were the Gadarenes.
                1. When Jesus came to their coasts they asked Him to leave.
                2. They had degraded from raising cattle to raising pigs.
                        a. Failing to go forward they went backwards.
                3. Not entering in to the promises. they rejected the greatest promise
                   of all; God's Messiah Jesus.
        C. Some of you standing today at Jordan's banks.