Remember the lord your God

[0:00] to Deuteronomy chapter 8. If I can just preface what we're about to read, because we're going to pick it up in verse 11, rather than the entire chapter, this is God speaking to his people, calling his people to remember the grace given to them by himself, also calling them to remember the commandments that they have received, and that this is an act of God's grace to receive God's commandments.

[1:01] And that should be understood very clearly, because it was God's grace that brought them out of Egypt, and then it was God's grace to give them the law. We tend to think that the law came before grace, but actually in the whole scheme of things, grace always precedes the commandments of whatever kind they are. Now, as we come into chapter 8, God is asking his people, or rather commanding his people to remember him, and so we pick it up in verse 11. Now hear God's word.

[1:35] Take care lest you forget the Lord, your God, by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground, where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.

[2:33] Beware lest you say in your heart, my power and my might of my hand have gained me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord, your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the Lord, your God, and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord, your God. Well, I'd like to read just a couple of verses, if I can, out of the Proverbs. You don't need to turn there, because we'll be spending airtime, airtime in Deuteronomy 8, because that is the bulk of the teaching.

[3:28] And so Proverbs 16 begins this way, the plans of the heart belongs to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. The last verse is this, conveying the same truth in many ways, that the lot is cast into the lap, the coin is tossed into the air, the dice is rolled onto the table, but every decision is from the Lord. It's wonderful in many ways. And then I'm just going to turn to Proverbs 30, and read verses 21 and 23. Now, I understand that these may be unfamiliar verses to many of us, because of the difficulty that they bring with them, but it's worth reading.

[4:17] It's strange that that may seem, but it bears witness to what we have read already. Well, we'll come back, to Deuteronomy 8 in particular, whilst remembering the Proverbs, after this next hymn together.

[4:55] Well, if you have your Bibles open in Deuteronomy 8, verses 11 onwards, this evening will be addressed by the text, as we're always addressed by the text, by God through his word. But this evening, the focus is clearly on blessing, the blessing of God upon the people of God. God seeks to bless his people. He seeks to bless them abundantly. But it's not always clear to God's people what is blessing, and what is the result of their own hands. In fact, in many times, they can look at the blessing of God, and say, well, actually, as we saw in Deuteronomy, I did this, I accomplished this, look at what I've got for myself. So, the issue here, especially for our church, where we are at this particular moment in time, before the Lord, on a morning congregation, on an evening congregation, and throughout the week, with what is happening, I think it's about time. If we haven't already understood how the blessings of

[6:10] God work, at least this evening, come to understand how the blessings of God actually work. Well, number one, to point out, it's not a mechanism, it's not a method, it's not a case of, if I do this, then I get that. It is true, however, that faithfulness leads to blessings, and God speaks of that in his word, but being faithful to get, doing to get, is the sin that the elder brother committed in Luke 15.

[6:42] Both brothers committed, effectively, the same type of sin. They both wanted what the father had, without wanting the father. The youngest son wanted it by saying, give it to me now, I want it, and I don't want you. Let me go and spend it on whatever I like. But the oldest son says to his father, all these years I've served you, and you've given me nothing. All right, that's why you served me, because you wanted something. Well, that type of faithfulness is not true faithfulness. That type of faithfulness we say, I'm doing to get, is not the type of faithfulness that God blesses. God blesses those who, God honors those who honor him. That's different than trying to get something. So the blessing that we need to understand here is, how does God bless? And the problem that we have is that because of our sin, we have a way of, one, misunderstanding it, and two, messing the blessing up. We can just mess it all up in an instant. Now, several years ago, back in the day, when I was in the trade, I can remember sitting down in a lunch break, you know, most of the men that I worked with, in fact, at one time, all the men that I worked with were unconverted men. And we're sat around, we're having chats. The discussions would take many forms. But one day, there was this particular discussion of what would you rather be? What would you rather be? Two of them started it off, the rest of us were listening. And the question was this, would you rather be rich or lucky? Which would you rather be? And the discussion went on for some time. I thought, hey, you've got a pretty good point there, but I'm not going to follow it. And the discussion went on, but at the end of the day, the thing being discussed really, whether they understood it or not, was who would have control? Who would have control? Because the discussion went something like this. If I were rich, then I would have quite a lot of control.

[8:41] I could choose to work or not to work. I could choose to go on a holiday or not have a holiday. I could, I'm more or less in control of a lot of things because money can do a lot. It can buy a lot. Now, money clearly, as Alfred Hitchcock put it very, very clearly, you know, clearly not a Christian thinker, but he had a bit of wisdom there, that while money can't buy you happiness, it can sure buy you out of unhappiness. Okay? And this is what these men were articulated. I recognize it can't buy me happiness, but I sure do recognize it can buy me out of unhappiness. Okay? It can make my life a whole better than what it is right now. And the other one was arguing, well, I'd rather be lucky because if I'm lucky, I might get rich. But if I'm lucky, then I might be lucky in the way where I'm kept from ill health because you can be rich and poorly and what good is that? And the discussion went on and on and on. The issue was, is what type of blessing would you really like? But underlying that was the issue of control. Who gets control over my life? This is, does luck get it or does riches get it? Well, at the end of the day, it's a fruitless exercise because God is in control.

[9:58] And as we read in Proverbs, the heart plans, the heart of the man plans his way, but the outcome is determined by the Lord. The man can flip a 10p coin and say, well, if it's tails, I'll do this. If it's heads, I'll do that. But God determines whether or not it will be a heads or a tails, irrespective of what he thinks the head will mean or the tails will mean. Okay? God doesn't ordain what the man wants it to mean. He simply ordains the outcome. Whatever, you know, it's like if I see three yellow cars, then God wants me to go on holiday. Well, the likelihood that you're going to step out your door today or tomorrow and see three yellow cars is pretty high. Okay? You need to choose something difficult. Okay? If you want, if you're going to do that type of thing. And this is the type of basic sort of direction that these unsaved men were trying to take. The conversation was really a discussion on control. It was really a discussion on the type of thing that I would like in my life in order for my life to be able to do this or that or be free from this or the other. Now, Proverbs, as in Deuteronomy, understands that there is a distinction that can be made on earth that cannot be made in the new heavens and the new earth. Material possessions on earth can make a distinction between one man being rich and the other man being poor. But when that rich man and poor man stands before God, God doesn't see that. The type of distinctions that separate people down here will not separate people as they stand before God. They make no difference at all. The ground on which you stand before the Lord is a level ground. It is a ground that equalizes out all the material blessings to the point where they just don't count before God. But if God, for a moment, let's say, could be left out of the picture, even though God cannot be left out of the picture, but just imagine for a moment you had a discussion like unbelievers do and God doesn't even come into the conversation, it's obvious that you would rather be rich than poor. It's fairly obvious that you would rather be healthy than sick. That's a no-brainer.

[12:17] It doesn't take any mental energy to be able to work out, I'd rather have riches and health than poverty and illness. But when you bring God back in or where God always has been, now things get complicated because sometimes the blessings of God do come in the form of illness. Sometimes the blessings of God do come in the forms of struggle. They don't just come in the forms of riches. They don't just come in the forms of getting the job. They can also come in the form of not getting the job. I can remember teaching the youth back in the previous church, and the Lord's Prayer in particular, leader, lead us not into temptation. I said, if you pray that and you want God to answer that, that could mean you praying out the type of job that you might want. Well, they say, how does that work? Well, what do you mean? I said, because God might know that that is the very job that could lead you into temptation. And so if you've asked God to lead you out of temptation, what that means in real terms is not getting the job. Do you still want to pray the prayer? Do you understand now how the blessings of God actually work? They come in all shapes and sizes and all forms? They cannot just be considered in earthly terms as riches and good health and anything else that comes with it. The blessed life is a life that comes in the form that God gives it to us in order to keep us away from evil, keep us away from temptation as we pray to be kept away, and to keep us close to him. So blessings don't always come in the form that we expect them to, if you think about it in earthly terms only.

[14:02] Now, if a church begins to make distinctions in the church like people do in the world, we've got a problem on our hands. Now, it's obvious that in the church, some people have money and some people don't.

[14:16] Okay? Some people have nice cars and others at the minute have no car. Okay? Now, these type of distinctions can clearly be made. Now, they make no difference before God, but when it actually comes to who you are and what you do, it can be incredibly damaging to say, to, to, to say you're just no good. You're just, you're just no good. I need, right? This is a failure to understand what God gives a person and what God doesn't give a person. And this is crucially important because pride is a serious problem.

[14:56] If we don't recognize that God blesses us in these ways, then the trouble is, is we end up with a Deuteronomy problem here of people thinking, look what I can do. Look how great I am. Isn't it obvious that God needs me? Okay? I thought, I can remember, think at one point, why wouldn't God want me? Look at what I can do. Until David White had a point out to me, well, what actually can you do? Doesn't Jesus say, apart from me, you can do nothing? Yeah, he doesn't mean everything. No, I think he does. Apart from me, you can do nothing. It's, those who think they can, it is the pride that comes before the fall. Now, it's clearly true that in this world, there are schools and education system. You can have the best education, but let me, let me qualify that, you can have the best education that money can buy. And the reason I put it that way is because it is a mistake to think that because it is the best education that money can buy, it is necessarily the best education. I'd much rather have a Sunday school full of blessed teachers teaching and leading all these children that we have in this church than sending them off to the best school in the world. I'd much rather have that than what the world can offer. I'd much rather have the blessing of God than anything else. In fact, what the church needs more than anything is blessed people, not brilliant people. What the church needs more than anything is people who have their prayers answered, not people who have lots of money. Okay, if we're to understand the blessing of God, then we're to understand the blessing of God properly. So I'd much rather be in a blessed church than a brilliant church. I'd much rather be in a blessed church that have their prayers answered than in a church full of money where nothing is an issue. I'd much rather have a church full of people who understands that what they have and what they can do is given to them purely by God than to think, look at what I can do all by myself. The church doesn't need people who thinks that God needs them. They just mess everything up.

[17:17] They mess homes up. They mess families up. They mess workplaces. They just mess everything up. What we need is to understand where I stand before God. I am what I am and nothing more because of God's blessing.

[17:33] Here in Deuteronomy, it only took a few days, not even perhaps a few days, for these people having been told that everything that they have is a gift from God to them, to them thinking, wow, look at what I've done. Only a matter of days. Once they're in the land flowing with milk and honey where everything, all the houses have been given to them, all the crops in the lands because they entered in at the time of harvest. They had to do no sowing. They had to do none of the hard work. They simply entered into a land full of blessing and within a short period of time, they thought they'd done it themselves. They had forgot God. They thought I had done it with my own ability. And that's the danger that as a church that we can even enter into right now. And it normally comes along with a sense of entitlement. It's not uncommon for God's people to have much and then think shortly after having much,

[18:34] I'm entitled to this. The sense of entitlement is strong and powerful. Our heart tells us, why shouldn't I have it? I deserve it. Why shouldn't I have it? I've worked hard for it. Why shouldn't I have it? I say my prayers and I do my service in the church. The sense of entitlement is even reinforced by our service and our praying life. That's a problem. So let me put it simply.

[19:04] The blessings of God are never owed to God's people. Never, ever, ever. Okay? The blessings of God are never owed to God's people. They are blessings. They are given as free gifts. They are given in abundance. They are given whenever God decides to give them. And they are not given whenever God decides to hold them back. So before we get on to the specific application, such as the blessing of prayer, the blessing of giving, the blessing of being blessed rather than brilliant, we need to acknowledge two things. And the first is this. Number one, there are two areas of focus here. The first one is faithfully acknowledging. In order to be blessed, we need to faithfully acknowledge. And secondly, in order to receive God's blessing, or rather, as we receive God's blessing, to faithfully remember. Now, in Proverbs 16, we learn elsewhere, which I didn't read, that the man who gives thought to the Lord will discover good.

[20:10] The man who gives thought to the Lord will discover good. And the same person who trusts in the Lord will be blessed. Now, what this means is this, that the person who does nothing other than simply acknowledge God will be blessed. He doesn't do anything to get the blessing. He simply acknowledges that God is the Lord of all blessing. He faithfully acknowledged God in all that he does, a bit like Job that we saw this morning.

[20:38] And the person who faithfully acknowledges God discovers good. He discovers blessing. The person who trusts in God, who's not actually looking for the blessing, ends up being blessed, not because he's trying for blessing, but because he's simply trusting in the Lord. In other words, as we learn elsewhere, faithfulness in God does lead to blessing. It does lead to blessing. But the person who is blessed often isn't chasing the blessing. He's simply just trusting. He's simply just being faithful to acknowledge God in all things. And as he trusts, as he acknowledges, he becomes blessed. Not because he's getting the blessing, searching for the blessing. He's simply trusting God. But the moment that man loses sight of his faithfulness and starts enjoying the blessings more than the God that blesses him, he ends up losing the blessings. Okay? This is what I mean about our sin. We have something in us that just destroys the blessings that we have. We can just destroy what God has given us in a moment.

[21:46] And the way that we do it is, why shouldn't I have it? Right? I can understand why God would give it to me. You can. Can you explain it to me? Why should God give me anything? Well, that sense of entitlement that you can see, but perhaps somebody else cannot see, is the thing that can lead to the destruction of the blessing that you feel. And when it's mixed with that entitlement and pride, it just erodes any kind of faithfulness in the Lord that we have. And so what happens? Well, God brings that person all the way back to the beginning to learn the lesson all over again. Why is it that some people seem to learn the same lesson over and over again? Well, it's fairly simple because they haven't learned the lesson. Okay? It's not true that a person learns the same lesson over and over again.

[22:42] They haven't. If they're having to learn the same lesson, they haven't actually learned the same lesson. Surely that follows. Once they've learned the lesson, then they move on to something else. I mean, isn't that how education generally works? That when you've learned this, you then move on to the next stage because it's assumed or understood that you now know this and you can move on. But the person who tries to move on without understanding the foundation beneath him doesn't last very long. He has to go all the way back to the beginning. But it's exactly the same spiritually before God. Some people are doing a lot of movement. Some people are pedaling very, very fast, but the chain isn't on.

[23:24] They're just, you know, they're pedaling incredibly fast, but God has got hold of the back seat. Do you remember how you used to deal with a child? And just lifted it. So the back wheel is just spinning and spinning. You're going nowhere. And so a lot of people are putting a lot of effort into learning and they're getting nowhere because they're not really learning. They are failing to learn the lessons that God has them. And the first lesson is this. Faithfully acknowledge God as the God of the Lord of all blessing. That's the acknowledgement. Faithfully acknowledge God as Lord of all blessing. Once you've done that, you'll be led to the second area of focus, which here we see in Deuteronomy as faithfully remembering.

[24:11] So one faithful acknowledging leading to faithfully remembering. Now, I know that this is unusual for a church to hear, but it's not, it shouldn't be because it is in scripture. And it's unusual for children often to hear that, did you know that forgetfulness is a sin?

[24:29] Now, how can forgetfulness be a sin? Well, God says here, if you forget, then, you know, I'm going to judge you for it. In other words, he doesn't say, never mind, let me tell you again. He does tell them again. But forgetting the Lord and forgetting his benefits is not something, is not a case of absent-mindedness. It's actually a disobedience to a command. The command is, do not forget the Lord, your God. And you, by forgetting, are breaking the command of God, which tells you, do not forget the Lord, your God. So the forgetfulness here is a serious matter, not an area of absent-mindedness.

[25:10] If you are failing to remember, you're failing to keep the commandment, which tells you an area, which is speaking directly into your conscious commitment. It's speaking directly into your focus of your life. In other words, you're absent-minded of God, which tells you that you're thinking of something else, or your heart is somewhere else. And so instead of forgetfulness simply being a little thing, which is no big problem, think about it how God thinks about it. It is a sin to forget God.

[25:44] Okay? It's not a, it's not a little thing. It's actually a very, very big thing. And when that happens, God uses that moment to reveal our heart to us, to show us again and again why he deals with us the way that he does. And the person who thinks, well, God needs me and my ability is sorely mistaken.

[26:09] Now, it is true that God wants you, and he will always want you. But there's a big difference between wanting you and needing you. Remember, God is in need of nothing.

[26:23] And God not needing you is the best message that you could ever receive, because there has to be another reason for him wanting you. If he needed you, then he needed you for something. If he needed you, he needed you because there is something missing in him that he doesn't have. In the same way that there was something missing in the first man that God created, by design. God looked at the first man and saw that he was in a stage of incompleteness.

[26:53] He needed a helper. Now, he needed a helper. Okay? He didn't want a helper. He needed a helper. Why? Because the woman brought a position of completeness to the man that the man didn't already have.

[27:09] You can only be a helper from a position of strength. The Lord is my helper. I'm not the Lord's helper. Okay? The Lord is my helper. So God wants me, but he doesn't need me. And that's good news.

[27:21] That is really, really good news. That God wants me, but he doesn't need me. So what do the blessings of God tell us? Well, they tell us the same thing that they told the people of God in Deuteronomy.

[27:37] That when you have plenty, it is because of God's faithfulness, not your own. That when you are blessed, it is because God is remaining faithful to you, not necessarily because you are remaining faithful to God. God pours out his blessing on us. Now, he does so here to his people in very large ways indeed, but God's people will have a way of messing it all up. But he does so in ways of great measurement. I mentioned this morning how you can hold things back from certain people because they don't know how to handle it. You know, the proverb speaks of a fool coming into, you know, a fool wins the lottery and he's rich for about three weeks.

[28:21] Right? It doesn't take much for him to lose it all because he doesn't know how to handle it. Well, God's people are not always the wisest bunch either. So God blesses us, but he blesses us often proportionately. And when he blesses us abundantly, he does so with commands and with structures.

[28:44] As I often say, when you take a child out to the shops and they have money in their pocket and they want everything in the shops, I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it. The problem is not the money in the pocket. That's not causing the problem. That's not where the problem is. The problem is with the want. And it's the same with God's people here. The problem is not with what God has given them, but the problem is with them and how they respond to what they have and everything else that they want. So God knows how much his people can handle. And he also understands that this sense of entitlement is a terrible sin that can creep up in their heart. That's why he warns them here in Deuteronomy. He says, beware lest you say, verse 17, beware lest you say in your heart, my power and my might of my hand have gained me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord, your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to the fathers. In other words, God is saying that you really need to remember that when you put your hand in your pocket and it's full of money, it wasn't your hands that put it there. Okay. When you put your hands in your back pocket and you pull out your wallet and it's full of cash, it wasn't your hand that put it there. It was mine. And the reason you find that much there is because of my faithfulness to you, not your ability. You are blessed because I have decided to bless you. That's what we need to remember. The reason why I think this church is enjoying blessing, the blessing of God, is not because we're actually doing anything different. And to think and to ascribe it to one person or two people in particular, is the road to destroy the blessing we have. And we cannot afford to do that. We have many people in this church who are blessed by God, obviously. Many people who serve God that are clearly blessed by God. But we cannot point the finger at each other and go and say, it's because of you we have all of this. However much I love you, however much you are really good and lovely, okay, it's not you.

[31:04] It's God through you, but it's not you. And I praise God for blessing you and then leading to the blessing in this church. But we must remember where it comes from lest we end up losing it. Okay. I don't want to lose it. And hence why we have this message this evening. I don't want to lose the blessing of God. So let's think how this applies as we conclude. Number one, the best way to deal with their sense of entitlement, which can occur quite easily, that this is done by my own hands and why shouldn't I have it? Because look how great I am, is to remember that we are saved by a homeless man. Whenever my heart feels that I am better than what I really am, and why shouldn't I have all of this, I take my back, take myself back to the gospels and read the words that Jesus says to the two men who wanted to follow Jesus, but didn't follow Jesus. Foxes have holes, birds of the air have their nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. I am saved by a homeless man, and therefore I am not entitled to anything more than what he had. Anything else that I do have in addition to that is the result of God's blessing, the total sum of God's blessing upon my life. So that is the best way to deal with a sense of entitlement that might encroach in your life. Look at Jesus. Look at Jesus as he walked this earth.

[32:35] Look at what he had, and why do you think that you should have any more than him? But if you do have more than him, and all of us do, we have it because God has blessed us. Secondly, the best way to deal with our prayer-less life, a life that doesn't pray as often as it should, or perhaps a life that doesn't pray at all, is to remember that Jesus is Lord. To remember that Jesus is Lord. This means that there is a standard to everything. There are standards in the church because Jesus is Lord. There is a standard in the fellowship and the membership because Jesus is Lord. There is a standard to the Christian life because Jesus is Lord. There is a standard to discipleship, the Lord's table, a baptism, service, all because Jesus is Lord. There is a standard to prayer. But all of those standards cannot actually be met without availing yourself of the blessing of prayer. And prayer is a blessing of

[33:43] God, a total blessing of God. It is freely given to be freely used in order for God to answer those prayers. It is a blessing that we don't use as much as we should. Now, I was going to phrase the question that I'm about to ask in this way, but I'm not. But I'm going to explain to you what I was going to say, even though I'm now saying it. So here's the question. I was going to phrase it this way.

[34:14] What would happen to your life if you didn't pray? And then I realized, I can't ask the question that way, can I? Because, you know, because as we look out on Christians' lives, it's quite apparent to some Christians maybe what their life looks like without prayer because their life looks just the way it is.

[34:39] They don't pray. They're quite obvious. So I began to realize that that question would make no sense whatsoever. Rather, the question had to be reversed. And so the question reversed would look something like this. What would your life look like if you actually prayed?

[34:59] What would your life look like if you actually, what would this church look like if we actually prayed the way God wanted us to pray? Now, I think we are much closer to what does a life look like when it doesn't pray? We just look at our life. It's staring us in the face. I think we're much closer to that than we are the other, of what would it actually look like if we did pray the way God wants us to pray. And so if we are to avail ourselves of the blessing of prayer, the only way we can avail ourselves of that blessing is to pray. There is no other way to get to the blessing of prayer without prayer. In the same way, there's no other way to repent other than repenting. Okay? There's no other way to love other than loving. Well, there's no other way to pray and receive the blessing of prayer other than praying. One follows the other. Thirdly then, the best way to deal with the material, that is with money or security, is to keep an open hand. Now, I have been to a couple of missionary meetings. I don't mean the ones that take place on a Wednesday evening. I mean the committee meetings back in the day. And on one occasion, Pam Wanderley was at the meeting. And I asked if I could come along, and I asked those on the committee at the time if I could ask Pam a couple of questions. And I did.

[36:24] I asked her a couple of questions that I felt needed to be asked of her. And because Pam being the way that she was, she wouldn't bring it to us. It needed to be drawn out. And that speaks of her integrity. And so I asked her the questions. And this is what she said. I won't tell you what the question is, but I'll tell you her response. And she says, well, it's fairly simple. We live with an open hand. So I said to her, what do you mean you live with an open hand? She says, well, it's fairly simple. Her hand is open. And what that means is, is that it's open and God can put in. But at the same time, people can take out. God can put in and people can take out. But if her hand is closed, then nobody can take. But at the same time that it's true that nobody can take, it's also true that God can't put in.

[37:15] God can't put in. So we keep an open hand. Well, this kind of open handedness, where you recognize that what God gives to you, that what God gives to you is also what God gives to you to give to others, is a clear example of how to deal with materials, is a clear example, practical example, of how to deal with money, of how to deal with material blessings, of how to deal with security. You keep the open hand.

[37:47] God gives to us in order that we can give to others. God blesses us in order that we can bless others. And as Job says, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. We may do it with our hand, we may do it with our hand, but the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. So here's the final, the final thought as we wrap it up. Remember, remember, remember that the blessings of God are never owed. They are never owed to God's people. You are not blessed by God because you are owed them.

[38:28] Never, ever, ever is that the case. God blesses you because he chooses to bless you. God has blessed this church. I truly believe it. I pray that we would have the wisdom to recognize the blessing and the wisdom to recognize that it isn't the making of our own hands. I pray that we would understand that. The church doesn't need people who think that they are a benefit to God. The church don't need people who thinks that God needs them. And the reason that's the case is because they mess everything up. As James says in the letter of James, everything should come down to if the Lord wills.

[39:14] If the Lord wills. And that doesn't mean that I'm allowed to do what I want until the Lord makes himself clear. No. No. If the Lord wills means that everything, as we saw in Proverbs as well, is if the Lord wills. Our whole life should be directed by that thing at the forefront of our mind. I will do this if the Lord wills. I will go there if the Lord wills. I will pursue this if the Lord wills. And I will keep doing it until the Lord wills not to go that way or not to do that thing.

[39:46] That's how we recognize the blessing. If the Lord wills is a call for us to understand how God blesses and even when God blesses. And nobody knows the blessing he has for us tomorrow or the next day or the next day or even next year, whatever it may be. So understand this, that you are not owed blessings, but God freely, freely gives them to us. Amen.