DEUTERONOMY 8 GOD HUMBLES AND BLESSES2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Deuteronomy 8 God Humbles And Blesses

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. We are here this morning in Deuteronomy chapter 8. And normally we would stand and read through the passage together, but the Lord's put it on my heart a little bit differently. And so we'll work our way through the passage during the message. So Deuteronomy chapter 8 is where we will be.

But I wanted to start the message this morning with a voluntary survey. So it's not mandatory. You can choose not to participate if you don't want to. But I'd like to find out just by a show of hands if you would say this morning that you are blessed. Anybody blessed that you would want to say, you know, hey, I'm blessed. Good. Nice. Good show of hands there. Lots of people that are

Now, the idea of that being, you know, he woke up today thinking, you know, life is good. You know, you're happy to be alive. Perhaps you have a beautiful home. You have things that God is doing in your life and you're excited about that. And so you're really blessed by the work that is going on.

Now, let me ask another question. Again, voluntary survey, so you don't have to put yourself on the spot if you don't want to. But who would say that you are humbled this morning? Now, before you raise your hand, I don't mean to say that, you know, like if you raise your hand saying, yes, I'm a very humble person. Thank you very much. No, no, no, not like that.

But as we see here in Deuteronomy chapter 8, the idea of humble is it means to be brought low. It can also mean to be afflicted or to be weakened. And so maybe you're in that kind of season in your life where you feel like, man, things, there's a lot of affliction. There's difficulty. I feel weak as a result of the things that are going on. And so by a show of hands, who would say that you're humbled in that way? You're afflicted or weakened this morning.

Wow. A lot more people blessed than humbled. That's really good. Awesome. Now, one last question.

voluntary survey. You don't have to answer, but quick show of hands. Who would say I'm a little bit of both? I'm blessed and I'm also humble. There's good things happening and there's also difficulty and affliction. I think for myself, that's where I would, you know, categorize me, that I'm in the midst of some great things as well as some very difficult things. Now, on the one hand, I'm blessed. I'm super blessed. You know, I'm blessed because I'm in the midst of some great things as well as some very difficult things. Now, on the one hand, I'm blessed. I'm super blessed. You know, I'm blessed because I'm in the midst of some great things as well as some very difficult things. Now, on the one hand, I'm blessed. I'm super blessed. You know, I'm blessed. I'm blessed. I'm super blessed.

Today, actually, if you go by date, it was yesterday. If you go by Sundays, it's today. Today is the anniversary of me pastoring this church. It was 11 years ago. I just got back from my honeymoon, and Pastor Tom announced, yeah, God's good. So while Kim and I were away on our honeymoon, Pastor Tom announced that he was moving on to Okinawa, and when I got back from the honeymoon, that next Sunday back is when I...

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And again, not saying that I'm the most humble person that ever walked the earth, like Moses said of himself. But I am in a season that is pretty difficult, that is hard. And I want to share some things with you, but I want you to understand and please know right up front

I'm not trying to complain. I'm not whining. I'm not a martyr. And I'm not in no way trying to say that what I have is the worst anybody has ever experienced in the world. That's not my heart at all, and that's not where I'm coming from. But as I look back over these past 11 years, these last two months where we've been in this construction building project have been the hardest of my 11 years here pastoring at Living Water.

The busiest, for sure, and very difficult things along with that for these past two months. Now, I know some might have the attitude or might have the question, well, you know, you're a pastor. I mean, so how hard could your life really be, right? You work on Sunday, you work on Wednesday, and that's about it. Well, that's not true in normal times, but it's especially not true in the midst of a project like this. And I would like to just walk you through a little bit of my yesterday, okay?

just to help kind of give you a sense of the kind of season that I'm in. Now, again, not complaining. I'm exactly where God has me. So this isn't, you know, anything like that, but it's just to let you know where I'm at. And then that'll lead us into the message for this morning.

So yesterday morning at 6.30, my alarm went off. I woke up, got dressed. About 6.50, I was heading out the door. I walked here to church and began a day of work here at the church. We were installing the window, doing some work on the entryway, and doing a bunch of general labor here until about 4.30. So all day long, I was working here. About 4.30, my wife called me.

And she's sick and she had a fever. She hadn't had opportunity to eat yesterday. So I went home at 4.30 to go make her some food so that she could not pass out in the midst of her sickness. And so I went home about 4.30, made her some food, came back here about 5.30.

And then continued to work this time, kind of switching gears, cleaning up the whole place, sweeping everything up, putting away everything, and then bringing out the chairs and getting set up for service this morning. So came back about 5.30. That lasted until about 10 o'clock last night. Then I went home at 10 o'clock and Kim was hungry and again, still not feeling well. So I made her some more food and we spent some time together eating. And that lasted until about 11 p.m.

And then I began to study and prepare for this morning. And so I spent the next two hours till about 1 a.m. studying and preparing for the message this morning. By that time, I had logged on my activity tracker here 41,000 steps, which my app tells me is the equivalent of about 21 miles. So quite busy day running around and lots of things being done. So hit the sack at 1 a.m.,

Alarm goes off at 3. I decide that's too early. So I push it to 3.30 and that's still a little bit too early. So about 3.45 I get up.

And I get dressed. I head out the door. I go to Denny's. And from 4 a.m. to about 6 a.m., I finish studying and preparing for the message this morning. Then at 6, I come over here and finish the preparation for service. There was still a lot of cleaning up to do, still a lot of wiping down to do. So I do that, prepare the bulletins and those kinds of things in preparation for this morning. And then, of course, 8.30 is our first service. Did that.

Greeted many of you as you came in today and now we're in second service and going on. So that's a little bit extreme for a Saturday, but fairly typical for these past two months. Now again, that's just the season that I'm in. I told Kim before this all started, way back in March, I shared with her, foreseeing the season that we were entering into, that this was going to be a time and a season where the Lord would be emptying me.

where I would be pushed really to the limit, physically, emotionally, and that has proven to be true. That's something definitely that God has been doing. Physically, you know, being exhausted, sleep not happening so much, even when I have the time, because my body is just not used to this kind of labor. And so it objects and screams and fights me all day and all night. And so sleep has been a little bit lacking, unfortunately.

study time has been really limited. And so that makes, you know, the times where I'm actually teaching more stressful than usual because I'm studying and preparing about maybe 25 to 30 percent of the time I normally would spend. So usually I would have, let's say, 10 to 20 hours. Like today, you know, I had between four and five hours to study and prepare for the message.

Again, just to be clear, not complaining. I'm exactly where God has me. Yesterday, I believe, I'm confident, took place exactly the way that God wanted it to go. It's not something is wrong, but this is the season where God has me. And the scripture that God continues to put upon my heart is found in Luke chapter 17. You don't have to turn there.

But Jesus there is giving an illustration. He's talking about a master having a servant. He says, look, the master doesn't have the servant working all day in the field. And then the servant comes in and the master says, okay, let me cook you dinner and feed you. The master says, okay, good job working in the field all day. Now come in and make me dinner. And then after I've eaten, then you can eat.

And Jesus uses that illustration to say this in Luke 17, 10. He says, likewise, you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.

And that's what the Lord continues to remind me and tell me and make sure that I don't go into, you know, some kind of spiral of my own emotional thing. But to recognize I'm doing what God has commanded me to do. And my attitude, my heart needs to be that I'm a servant. I'm not doing something extraordinary. I'm not doing something like everybody should, you know, really recognize how hard I'm working. I'm just doing what my duty is to do. I'm doing what God has commanded me to do. And that needs to be my heart and I need to be faithful in it.

It's a stretching season. It's a difficult season. It's a humbling season. And this morning, as we look at Deuteronomy chapter 8, we're going to be talking about humbling as well as blessing. And the title of the message is God humbles and blesses. And I want you to know, as we work our way through Deuteronomy chapter 8, that God does both.

And that's the important part here. God does both. The humbling seasons as well as the seasons of blessing in our life are both part of God's work. And sometimes we begin to think in our minds that it's only the times of blessing where God is at work. You know, we think about the good times where things are coming together and things are provided for and God's just working miracles and we would say God's really at work.

And then the times of affliction, the times of great difficulty, the times of stretching, we often tend to think that, well, that's not so much God working. It's more God working when there's blessing. But then when there's affliction, it's kind of like many times we feel God's not working. Why isn't God working like he was when there was blessing is what we think. But we need to know that God does both.

He does humbling and he does blessing. And I think of the words of Job to his wife when she gave him some bad counsel after he was experiencing affliction. And he responds to her in Job 2, verse 10. And he says, you speak as one of the foolish women speaks. He says, shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity? God does both good and adversity.

Blessing and humbling. And that's what we see Moses explaining to the children of Israel here in Deuteronomy chapter 8. So there's four points I'd like to walk you through in this passage. Starting out in verse 1 and 2, point number 1 is that God humbles you to reveal your heart. Let's read verse 1 and 2. It says, "...every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe."

Here the children of Israel are on the border of the promised land.

God has led them out of Egypt. He has had them in the wilderness for 40 years. And now they're on the verge of going into the promised land that God said he would give to them. Moses is not going to lead them in. Joshua is going to lead them in. But Moses here is kind of giving his final address. And that's what the book of Deuteronomy is. His final address to the people. And giving them the instruction and reminders that they need as they go forward.

And so Moses starts out saying, hey, think about these commands. Remember these commands that I'm giving you today and keep them, follow them, do the things that God has instructed. And then in verse two, he says, and make sure you remember that it's God who led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness. And so here Moses refers to the whole wilderness experience.

And he says, remember that God led you that whole time. Now, as you look at the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, it's important to note that part of the time in the wilderness was God's plan. Originally, from the very beginning, even though it was an 11-day journey from where they were to the promised land, God had set aside for them more than 11 days. They spent about a year in the wilderness.

There at Mount Sinai, they received the commandments. They received the instructions for the tabernacle and built the tabernacle. And there was about a year that went by as they were wandering in the wilderness and camped out in the wilderness during that time. Well, then God brought them to the edge of the promised land. And you remember, they got there and they freaked out. And they said, no, there's giants in the land. We don't want to go in. And they rebelled against God.

And so then God caused them to be in the wilderness for the next 38, 39 years as part of his discipline. So there was part of it that was correction, but there was part of the wilderness that was just God's plan. And so Moses says, look, God led you all the way these 40 years. And then notice he says, why? To humble you and to test you.

And again, that word humble, it means to be brought low, to be afflicted, or to be weakened. And so he brought you through the wilderness to weaken you, to bring you through affliction, to bring you low during that time. Now, this time of affliction in the wilderness, we need to recognize here because part of that was God's plan. We can understand then that affliction in someone's life

is not always part of God's correction. Sometimes it's just part of God's plan. Sometimes God just wants to bring you to the end of yourself. And sometimes we look at a person's life or we look at our own life and the trouble that might be there and we come to the conclusion of Job's friends. Hey, Job, there must be some sin in your life. There must be some correction that God's trying to bring, some issue, some thing that you need to repent of because look at this trouble.

And sometimes God does bring affliction to bring correction. But also sometimes God brings affliction for his own purposes, to bring us to the end of ourself and ultimately to reveal your heart. God humbles you to reveal your heart. We see that there in verse two. He says, "'To humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, "'whether you would keep his commandments or not.'"

Moses explains here the purpose of that time in the wilderness, that where you were weak, where you were afflicted, where you hungered, that the purpose of that was so that your heart would be revealed. Now this is something interesting because we know from Jeremiah chapter 17, God there says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

If you and I were to try to discern or figure out our own heart, God says, you're going to have a hard time with that. Because the thing that your heart does best is deceive you. And so you can try to meditate. You can try to figure out your feelings. You can try to sort through your emotions. And you can do all of that to try to, you know, just sit here today and figure out where your heart is at. But you'll have a hard time because your heart is very deceitful. My heart is very deceitful.

We can't know our hearts. And so what God does is he uses affliction. He uses times of humbling to bring revelation. And the issues of our heart and the things of our heart, the condition of our heart comes to the surface, whether there be sin issues or whether there be good character that's found there. The heart is revealed and uncovered through the process of affliction. Now,

God also says in Jeremiah 17, I, the Lord, know the heart. I search the heart. I test the mind, he says. He can see our heart, but he allows these seasons of humbling so that, well, we get a chance to recognize and see our own heart, which we couldn't normally see. And we might think, hey, I examined myself and I think I'm pretty good. My heart's, yeah, good shape, good condition, right on. But

And then time of affliction comes. Now, we usually have it backwards. On a normal day, a good day, we're thinking, yeah, my heart's good. My heart's doing well. And then something bad happens. And then something ugly comes out of us. And we say, well, you know, that wasn't in my heart. It was because of that situation. I put it in there. But that wasn't in my heart. But the reality is, no, that ugliness that you see come out, well, no, no. That's actually the condition of your heart. The rest of the time, it's deceitful.

The rest of the time, it's tricking you. It's there, but you may not recognize it. But in those times of affliction, it brings the revelation, the reality of what's really in there. Think about Peter as an example. He, there with the rest of the disciples, said, you know, Lord, even if all these other guys deny you, I will never deny you. That's what Peter said. Why? Because his heart deceived him.

He was convinced, even if I have to die with you, even if all these guys abandon you, I'm going to be faithful to you, Jesus. But just a few hours later, there was some affliction. And you know what that affliction did? It revealed Peter's heart. It brought forth what was actually there. And so then we see Peter denying the Lord. He thought he was going to be steadfast. He thought he was going to be faithful. But the affliction revealed his true condition.

And that's what God does. He humbles in order to reveal your heart. But not just to leave you in that condition. Not just to say, okay, look at this issue, you know, or there's a problem or see how ugly you are. Going on now, point number two in verses three through nine, God humbles you to teach you. God humbles you to teach you, or you could also say it this way, God humbles you to train you.

As those things are brought to the surface and those issues are realized, now God says, okay, now we can work with it. Now we can work on it. And I can teach you what you need and we can help you grow in those areas of weakness. Verse three, Moses says, so he humbled you, allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone.

but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. So again, Moses says, he humbled you. He brought you low. He allowed you to experience affliction. And he says, he allowed you to hunger, but he didn't just leave you there suffering and hungry. He fed you with manna. Why? Because he's teaching you. He's doing a work. Now, Jesus quoted this verse and you probably recognize it in his time of temptation. He said,

He told the enemy, when the enemy told him, hey, turn these stones into bread since you're hungry. Jesus quoted this and said, man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. And that's interesting to consider because as you think about times of humbling and affliction, you need to understand that Jesus experienced times of humbling and affliction just like us.

It was in the moment of an affliction. He'd been in the wilderness, just like Israel was in the wilderness. He'd been fasting and hungry, just like Israel was hungry. And it was in that time that, well, affliction revealed his heart. And it revealed that his heart was perfect, spotless, clean. The author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 4.15 that we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses and

Because he was in all points tempted as we are, afflicted, humbled as we are, yet without sin. His suffering, his affliction revealed a perfect heart. He was sinless, but he can sympathize with us because he suffered like us. He experienced affliction like we do. And so God allows these kinds of afflictions, humblings, hungers,

in our life to teach us, to train us. And there's three lessons I'll point out here briefly. Lesson number one, life is about relationship with God. Here's one of the lessons that God wants to teach you through affliction.

He wants you to know that life is about relationship with God. Life is not just about physical survival. It's not just bread alone. It's not just food and clothing. It's not just whatever I need for the day to survive the day, to get through today and then start again tomorrow. But through the midst of that, as God is providing manna for the children of Israel, he's teaching them it's not just about physical survival. It's about relationship with God.

Not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. God wants you to know. And through affliction, he wants to teach you to walk with him, to trust in him, to rely upon him. He wants to teach you about that relationship. Corrie ten Boom, who was back in World War II, she was in one of those death camps that was there as a result of the war.

strong believer. God did amazing things through her. And one of the things that she said is often quoted. She said, you may never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have. You may never know that Jesus is all you need. Although we might declare, we might say, Jesus is all I need. But we might not know the truth of that, she says, until Jesus is really all you have. And that's the idea here.

You shall not live by bread alone. When you're in those times of affliction, when you have nothing else, God is teaching you that he is sufficient for you. He's enough for you.

He's able to satisfy. He's able to meet your needs. So lesson number one, life is about relationship with God. Lesson number two is found in verse four. It says, your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these 40 years. Here's lesson number two. God is faithful to provide. He says, all that time in the wilderness, your garments did not wear out.

And also, I took care of your feet. You were on your feet wandering for 40 years, but your feet didn't swell. Now, that's pretty amazing to wander around, be on your feet for 40 years and not have your feet swell. God is providing for his people. Now, he's providing in some unique ways and maybe ways that we wouldn't vote for if God, you know, gave us the opportunity. 40 years later, you're still wearing the same clothes.

Most of you wouldn't probably want that, right? It's like, no, Lord, just give me the food and everything that I need and I'll worry about my own clothes, okay? Don't make them last for 40 years. But God provides for you in those kinds of ways. You may be broke, absolutely, and be desperate for your next meal and God is still providing for you, but maybe in some unique ways. And so maybe he makes the tires on your car last longer, right?

Like, I don't care about the tires. Give me the food. I need the food. That's what I'm most concerned. I'm hungry. Or I got to pay the bills. I got to take care of this. I got to handle this. I need a job. But God says, all right, your tires are square. They're going to be good for another five years. God is providing for you. He's faithful to provide, but he's doing so in a way that continues to allow you to learn to trust in him, to learn that life is about relationship with him. And so he keeps your fridge running.

He keeps your roof from leaking long after it should have been taken care of. But he's faithful to provide for you, to take care of you. And you may not see it and it may not be in the ways that you would want, but God is taking care of you. He is faithful. And so he says, your garments did not wear out, nor did your foot swell these 40 years. Lesson number three is found in verse five. He says, you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord, your God chastens you.

Lesson number three, God trains you as a parent does a child. God humbles you to teach you, to train you just as a parent does their child. Now, when we think of the word chasten, we automatically have some connotations with that. That's always, you know, like corrective discipline. It's always a spanking, that kind of thing. And we have that kind of attachment to chastening.

Now, chastening can be that, but chastening at its core really is talking about training. And sometimes that includes correction, but sometimes it's just instruction. And so you can be training a child and you're instructing them, you're teaching them. Let's say you're helping them ride a bike. It's not punishment.

But there's instruction and there's, you know, explanation and there's encouragement and there's difficulty and there's all that going through it. But it's not punishment. But then also sometimes there's punishment and then the instruction that goes along with it. Here's the correction. Here's why you don't do that. Here's what you should do next time. You know, that kind of thing. And it's training. And in a similar way, he says, you should know

This is something you should grasp hold of. You should know in your heart, grab this truth and hold on to it. As a man chastens his son, so the Lord chastens you. Just as you might teach your kid to ride a bike, the Lord is going to teach you to do that job or to be that kind of spouse or to work in that way or to do this or to serve. God is going to be teaching you and training you. And he uses times of affliction, right?

to do that. Sometimes it's correction, but sometimes he's just growing you up and helping you become the man or woman of God that he desires for you to be. So he goes on in verse six and says, therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in his ways and to fear him. Therefore, because God is humbling you in order to teach you, in order to train you,

to build you up, therefore keep the commandments. You know, sometimes in times of affliction, we're very tempted to throw out the word of God, the commandments of God, the instruction of God. And a lot of times people do. Things are so rough, things are so hard. Maybe I should not do that. Or maybe because I feel so sorry for myself, I can, you know, indulge the flesh and

Because, you know, I have it so hard. Things are so difficult for me. So God understands, you know, if I have that extra barrel of ice cream or whatever. It's okay for me to indulge this sin, to give in to those cravings.

But Moses says, no, no, no. The afflictions are for your training, for your teaching. God's teaching you that life is about relationship with God. God's teaching you that he's faithful to provide and he's training you just as a parent does a child. So therefore keep the commandments, be faithful to the word of God and walk in his ways. Press on in your walk with God and also fear him. Reverence the Lord, honor the Lord and trust him.

But also Moses goes on to say, God has good things in store for you too. Check out verse seven through nine. It says, for the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing,

a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. These words must have been like music to their ears. These guys have known desert for 40 years. And he says, God's bringing you in. There's going to be hills. Really hills? Now, why would you get so excited about hills? Have you ever driven down the 40 through Texas, through Oklahoma? It's just like,

It's just flat. It's so boring. Where's, give me some hills, you know? And you have those crates, like, yeah, I want some hills. And he says, there's going to be brooks of water. Why is that so exciting? They were in the wilderness, the desert. There wasn't water. They were always desperate for water. Always complaining that there wasn't water. He says, there's going to be fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills. And they're like, all right, this is like great promises here. And there's going to be wheat and barley. And they're like,

You mean some variety, not just manna every day and fig trees and pomegranates. And it's like, wow, this gets even better and better. Olive oil and honey. This is exciting. And he says, you're going to eat bread without scarcity. You're going to have an abundance. There's not going to be scarcity. As they were taking the manna, remember God measured out the manna. He said, one omer per person. That's it. No more. Just enough. But in the promised land, he said, God has good things for you.

You don't just have just enough. You get to have bread without scarcity. I could be a little bit extra full. It's all you can eat. Like this is pretty exciting stuff. And not only that, there's iron and copper out of the hills that you can dig. There's good things ahead. God has good things in store for you. And you need to know that the humbling times are not the end of the story. And that's so important because in the times of affliction and humbling, you know what it's like. It feels like

this is going to be it forever. I'm always going to suffer. Things are always going to be this hard. Things are always going to be terrible. All I will ever know is affliction. That's how you feel in the midst of suffering, right? But God says to the children of Israel, there is the wilderness, but I'm bringing you into the promised land. There is the seasons of affliction and humbling, but there's also the seasons of blessing. And for us as believers today, we're

We can look at this life and say, even though there's the blessings that God gives, this whole life is really a season of affliction. And we look forward to eternity where that's the ultimate fulfillment of all God's goodness and all God's promises of blessing towards us. God has good things in store for you. Therefore, keep the commandments, walk in his ways, learn these lessons. That's what God is teaching you in this times of affliction.

Life is about relationship with God and God is faithful to provide. He takes care of you. Even if you would wish he would take care of you in different ways, he takes care of you. He's faithful and he trains you as a parent does a child. And I would encourage you in those times of affliction, the longer it takes for us to learn the lessons that God wants to teach us, the longer we will be in the times of affliction. Learn the lessons. Learn that life is about relationship with God.

Let God teach you these things. Let God reveal your heart and grow you and develop you in those ways that he desires to. God brings the seasons of humbling. He brings the season of affliction. However, humbling is not all that God does. God also exalts. He also blesses. And that leads us now in verses 10 through 18, point number three for this morning. God blesses you, so don't forget to obey.

As Moses is telling the children of Israel about the blessings that are in store for them in the promised land, he also gives them a warning. The promise of blessing comes with a warning. The humbling comes with a promise of providing. The promise of blessing comes with a warning. Don't forget to obey God. Verse 10, he says, when you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land is

which he has given you. So you're going in, there's hills, there's valleys, there's an abundance of food. And you can see the contrast. You were hungry in the wilderness and there's going to be, well, a time where you are full in the promised land. There's a change happening. You're going to be experiencing abundance and God's going to bless Israel. It will not always be wilderness. You will not always be hungry. You're going to be full.

Now with that blessing, here comes the warning, verse 11. Beware, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes, which I command you today. So watch out. A time of blessing is coming, but there's a danger that comes with the time of blessing. And the danger is that you begin to forget God. There's a danger in blessing that it's not

It's not as dangerous in the time of affliction. There's a danger of us forgetting God. And so to help you not forget God, he says, make sure you keep his commandments. And there's a theme of obedience throughout this chapter. You go back to verse one, every commandment, which I command you today, you must be careful to observe. He talked about obedience in the wilderness. God's teaching you. So be faithful to keep his commands.

Here again in verse 11, beware that you don't forget to keep his commands. In verse 20, he says, there'll be punishment if you don't keep his commands, if you're not obedient. There's a theme of obedience. Whether you're in the wilderness, the time of affliction, or whether you're in the time of blessing, God will.

requires, he says, we must be obedient to him. And as a sign to help us recognize when we're forgetting God, he says, look, one of the ways that you'll see that you're forgetting God is you stop keeping his commands. Beware, watch out that you don't forget the Lord by not keeping his commands. And as you find yourself disregarding the word of God, veering off, doing things that you thought you would never do,

it's a sign, it's evidence for you that you're beginning to forget God. That God doesn't have the right place in your heart any longer. And notice some of the results as he goes on in verse 12 through 17.

He says, beware, in verse 11, that you don't forget the Lord. Verse 12, lest when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and your gold are multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage,

Verse 16. Verse 17. Verse 18.

My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. How easily we forget. Abundance messes with our memories. Abundance messes with our memories. When we don't have to trust God for the next meal, when we don't have to trust God to get through the day, it's so easy. We quickly forget. God provides abundance. He provides seasons of blessings.

And you have food and beautiful houses and flocks and herds and silver and gold. And he says, watch out. In those times, there's a danger. And make sure that you don't forget God. And make sure that it's God who provides for you. And he gives some references here. He says, you were delivered from bondage there in Egypt.

Don't forget that God delivered you. And then he led you through the wilderness and there was all these dangers and there was the need for food. There was the need for water and God took care of you and protected you and provided for you. He fed you with manna, again, that he might humble you and that he might test you, but to do you good in the end. But what happens when we forget God is that we get the benefit of all the blessings that God promised us.

And then we take the credit. He says, and you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. Watch out. Abundance will mess with your memories. And you'll forget God. And you'll start to think, I did this. I would ask you to consider. Do you have a good job? Why? Well, because I went to this school. And I got that degree. Because I know this person. And I negotiated that relationship.

Because I worked out this deal. Because I got that transfer. Because I, I, I, I, I, with my might and my strength, my wisdom, I got myself this job. Watch out. You need to understand you're forgetting God. It's God who delivered you. It's God who blesses you. Do you have a beautiful house? You have somewhere comfortable to live? Why? Well, because I worked so hard and I bring home the bacon and I made this deal and I took care of that. Why?

Don't get confused and start to think, with my might, with my strength, with my wisdom, do you have enough food? Can you go home today and have lunch and not be stressed about it? Why? Because God has blessed you. Because God has given these great things to you. Don't forget the Lord in the times of blessing. Verse 18, and you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.

that he may establish his covenant, which he swore to your fathers as it is in this day. He says to Israel, remember the Lord, you have wealth and you're going to be tempted to think it's because of my power, my might, my strength, I got this wealth. But he backs it up and says, it's God who gives you the power to get wealth. You have a good job because you work hard. It's God who gives you the health to work hard. It's God who enables you. It's God who provides for you.

to fulfill his promises, to establish his covenant, to do his work. God blesses you, so don't forget to obey. God knew about this danger for the children of Israel. And so he gives this warning through Moses. But he also built into their calendar opportunities for them to remember. So that if they were going astray and beginning to trust in themselves, they would have an opportunity to turn back and get right and remember God.

that it's God who is blessing them. And so God gave them holidays to help them remember his provision and his blessing. You might remember three times a year, the children of Israel were called to go before the Lord at the tabernacle or in Jerusalem when they were established in the land. They were to keep the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of harvest, and the feast of ingathering. And every year they were to keep this. It was a requirement every year. Now these feasts were...

Well, were opportunities for them to remember God's blessing. The Passover feast and unleavened bread, that was for them to remember how God delivered them out of Egypt and how God provided manna for them through the wilderness. So it's to remind them of what God had done in the past. But then the feast of harvest and the feast of ingathering were the ongoing reminders of

of God's provision. The feast of harvest, also known as first fruits, was at the beginning of them harvesting the crop. They would take a small portion before they harvested the rest of their fields. And they would take that to the Lord and say, Lord, we're giving this to you in faith that you're going to provide the rest of the harvest for us. And we're recognizing right here and remembering that you're the one who provides this. And so we're giving this to you in faith.

And then there's the Feast of Ingathering. That's at the end. After all the rest of the harvest is collected, now they take a portion and say, okay, Lord, you've provided abundantly. You've been such a great blessing to us. And so we give a portion to you. And so they were given these reminders built into their calendar to help them stop, reconsider, have the opportunity to repent if they had begun to forget God, to forget that it's God who provides.

And I would encourage you to do something similar. I would encourage you to set up reminders for yourself, to give yourself opportunity, build in some traditions, build in some calendars, build in some things to give you an opportunity to stop and consider. Am I where God wants me to be? Am I remembering God? Does God have the rightful place in my life? For me, I have specific times of the year, two times a year, I reassess my life.

I do it at the end of the year, so December into January. I'll take a couple weeks and I'll sit down and I'll think through and I'll pray through everything that I can think of regarding the church and regarding my role as pastor here. I'll think through and I'll pray through everything that I can think of regarding my role as husband. As a man, as a pastor, as a husband, I'll reassess, I'll evaluate, I'll consider what is it that God wants me to grow in this year?

What are some directions that he wants me to go in? I take that opportunity to seek the Lord and to try to hear from him. And then it works out pretty well in June or July is the pastor's conference that I get to attend every year.

And so that's another opportunity for me. And I get to look back at, okay, in December and January, God gave me these instructions. And how am I doing now halfway through the year? Have I been growing in those areas he called me to grow in? Have I been faithful in those instructions that he gave to me? And it gives me an opportunity to pray through and reassess and consider, am I where I need to be? Does God have his rightful place in my life?

And so for me, it's been really valuable. And I would encourage you, do something similar. It may not be the exact same timeframe, but you need to have, otherwise we just kind of coast. We get into this thing and we're just going along and going along. And there's a danger in times of blessing of us forgetting to obey God. We forget that it's God who blesses us. Well, finally, point number four found in verse 19 and 20 says,

God blesses you, so worship him only. In verse 19, he says, then it shall be, if by any means, if you by any means forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. So he says, watch out. Here's a warning. Don't forget God. If you do forget God, he says, and you follow and serve other gods and worship them,

then you will perish. And there's an important truth in that. You need to understand, we need to remember, you don't have the option to stop worshiping. You don't have the option to stop worshiping. That's not an option. You can stop worshiping the true and living God, but that only means that you're going to be substituting then another God in his place. You're going to be worshiping some God. That's the reality.

And if we stop worshiping God, it's not just that we stop worshiping. You know, it's like, well, I used to go to church, but I stopped going to church. Now, in the physical realm, that doesn't mean you started going to the mosque, right? So it's like, well, I just stopped worshiping. That's what we think. But God says, no, no, no. When you stop worshiping God, it means that you start worshiping other gods. You're always, always worshiping someone or something. And it's interesting that in those times where we...

begin to worship other gods. We forget God and we get distracted and we start pursuing other things and there's other passions and other priorities in our life. Whenever there's a crisis, a time of humbling, I'm sure you know this to be true. Even though you've been pursuing other things, worshiping other gods, you know where to turn in those times of crisis and you run back to the Lord. You cry out to the Lord. Maybe even make vows to the Lord. Lord, if you get me out of this situation,

I'll do this and I'll do that. We know where to go. But somehow in the day to day, we forget God and we begin to worship other gods. And he says, if you do that, you're going to perish. So again, beware. It's God who blesses you. So make sure that you obey him. Make sure you don't forget to obey God. Make sure you don't forget to serve him, to honor him. And make sure that you worship him only. That you don't start to devote yourself to a false god.

that you don't allow other passions, other priorities that will take away from your relationship with God. Make sure that you keep God first and foremost in your life. If you don't, you will perish. You're going to worship God or you're going to worship something else. Keep God first because it's God who blesses you. Don't be fooled and start thinking, I did this. It's God who did it for you. So obey him and worship him.

And with that thought, I'm going to ask Ronnie to come up and close us in a last song that we can have an opportunity to do just that, to worship him, to praise him, to thank him. Now, if you're in a time of affliction, a time of humbling, it's still appropriate to praise God because God is at work. He's revealing your heart. He's teaching you. And so worship him and praise him for that. And if you're in a time of blessing, you're not so desperate. Things aren't so critical. You're not stressed out.

Well, you can also bless God and worship God and remind yourself and keep yourself remembering that it's God who blesses you, that you make sure you keep him first. Let's pray and then we'll finish up with the closing song. Lord, we thank you that you continue to work in us. Lord, that even though we are forgetful and sometimes we do forget you,

Even though we're stubborn and our hearts are deceitful and we don't know our own wickedness sometimes, even though we wander, we go astray, Lord, you're so faithful to us to take care of us, to teach us, to instruct us, to open our eyes, to call out to us, to give us opportunity after opportunity, to come back to you. Lord, you're so gracious. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to respond to your grace and your love and your goodness, to trust you in times of humbling,

Lord, as you reveal our hearts, help us to turn ourselves over to you, that you could grow us, teach us, and train us to become a man or woman of God that you've called us to be. And in the times of blessing, I pray, Lord, that you would help us to not forget. It's not our strength. It's not our might. It's not us. But Lord, it's you. Help us to obey you and to worship you, keeping you and giving you the full and rightful place that you have and you deserve in our lives.

Help us to do that, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.