WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.060 7. We'll be right around there this morning. I think it's page 180-something, somewhere around there. 00:00:12.460 --> 00:00:19.660 It is a new year. 2016 is over. And a lot of what you see in the news is all about 00:00:19.660 --> 00:00:29.179 how many celebrities died in 2016. And when things like that happen, we tend to put a 00:00:29.179 --> 00:00:35.960 special significance on the last words of these kind of people. The last words are important. 00:00:35.960 --> 00:00:42.340 When we know that we have only a little bit of time left, we want to make our last words count. 00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:48.159 Now, of course, sometimes we don't realize which words will be our last. There was a singer, 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:53.820 Johnny Ace was his name, and he was playing with a pistol, and he said, I'll show you that it won't 00:00:53.820 --> 00:01:02.060 shoot, not realizing that those would be his last words. But when we know that we're leaving the 00:01:02.060 --> 00:01:10.019 world soon, we tend to focus our last words on the things that we believe matter most. So today, 00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:15.539 what we're going to do is we're going to look at some famous last words of a man called Moses, 00:01:15.939 --> 00:01:21.200 which in your Bible is called the book of Deuteronomy. Now, there's a lot of important 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:28.920 things that Moses could have said in his last big speech to the nation of Israel. They're about to 00:01:28.920 --> 00:01:35.180 go into the promised land that had been promised for hundreds of years. They had just spent 40 years 00:01:35.180 --> 00:01:41.719 in the wilderness. But it's interesting to see that Moses does not use his last time with the Israelites 00:01:41.719 --> 00:01:49.300 to focus them on how to prepare to train for battle with the Canaanites, who were more numerous and 00:01:49.299 --> 00:01:55.739 better equipped for battle than the Israelites. He doesn't focus on how to set up the most efficient 00:01:55.739 --> 00:02:02.459 form of government, which they would need, how to make crops and cattle thrive in a new land, 00:02:02.620 --> 00:02:09.099 how to promote small businesses, make good alliances, or provide good social services for their new nation. 00:02:09.979 --> 00:02:15.159 It's not that these things are unimportant. Many of them are actually addressed in the book of 00:02:15.159 --> 00:02:22.599 Deuteronomy, but they certainly are not the primary focus of what Moses wants to emphasize in his last 00:02:22.599 --> 00:02:29.900 words. And the reason is because Moses knows that Canaanites and crop failures, they're not by any 00:02:29.900 --> 00:02:36.919 means the biggest problem that can happen to the Israelites. Deuteronomy makes it clear the worst thing 00:02:36.919 --> 00:02:45.159 that can happen to Israel is for them to forget God. And Moses says that the temptation, the temptation 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:51.219 to forget God will come in a number of ways. And as we head into a new year, I think it's very good for 00:02:51.219 --> 00:02:59.560 us to look at this because we are going to face the same challenges in 2017. So Moses says, we're going to 00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:05.899 look at three different ways that Israel will be tempted to forget God in their new land. Number one, 00:03:05.900 --> 00:03:12.599 they could be afraid of their enemies and external threats, tempted to forget that God is more than 00:03:12.599 --> 00:03:19.900 big enough to deal with these things. Number two, they could be drawn away by the cultures around them 00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:28.860 and forget the real God in favor of the empty promises of sin. And number three, they could be proud of 00:03:28.860 --> 00:03:34.860 their own righteousness, of their own accomplishments, and start to feel self-sufficient, forgetting that God 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:42.400 gave them all of these things as a good gift and that they constantly depend on him. So what we're 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:48.600 going to do is we'll look at these three temptations and the one solution that Moses gives that covers all 00:03:48.600 --> 00:03:58.140 of them. So first, Israel will be tempted to forget God because of the fear of external threats. Look in 00:03:58.139 --> 00:04:07.179 chapter 7 and verse 17. You may say to yourselves, these nations are stronger than we are. How can we 00:04:07.179 --> 00:04:14.519 drive them out? But do not be afraid of them. Remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all 00:04:14.519 --> 00:04:21.199 Egypt. You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the miraculous signs and wonders, the mighty hand and 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:27.740 outstretched arm with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all 00:04:27.740 --> 00:04:32.899 the peoples you now fear. Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until even the 00:04:32.899 --> 00:04:39.300 survivors who hide from you have perished. Do not be terrified by them for the Lord your God who is 00:04:39.300 --> 00:04:48.079 among you is a great and awesome God. So when we look at a situation, when we look at it reasonably and we 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:54.379 measure the odds and we find that we don't really measure up, the odds put us at a real disadvantage. 00:04:54.800 --> 00:05:01.560 We're afraid. It's only natural. Israel was going to war with nations that were bigger than they were, 00:05:01.639 --> 00:05:06.959 that were better equipped for battle, had fortified cities and all, and they did not measure up to the 00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:13.899 odds against them. But it should be noted here that Israel going into these bad odds was actually 00:05:13.899 --> 00:05:21.899 exactly where God wanted them to be. God himself was asking them to go and do something that by any 00:05:21.899 --> 00:05:28.459 reasonable calculation looked impossible. So we shouldn't really be too hard on them for being 00:05:28.459 --> 00:05:34.679 afraid. We do the same thing when we face difficult situations while we're following God, because God 00:05:34.679 --> 00:05:43.500 still regularly asks his people to do the seemingly impossible. Often obeying God doesn't mean being 00:05:43.500 --> 00:05:50.060 comfortable and getting everything easily. Often it means doing things that look like they could ruin us. 00:05:51.779 --> 00:05:58.879 Even if we never have to face battles with armies like Israel, it might mean taking a stand that 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:03.839 costs us our social life because people don't understand why we won't do what they do. 00:06:05.079 --> 00:06:10.220 It might cost us a relationship with someone we're very attracted to because our lives are headed in 00:06:10.220 --> 00:06:19.560 different directions. It might cost us a promotion or even a job because we won't dishonestly cut corners 00:06:19.560 --> 00:06:27.400 for the company. Sometimes obedience looks like it adds up to be the worst option available to us. 00:06:28.200 --> 00:06:35.200 But Moses says that's because we've left out the most important part of the equation, and that is God. 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:42.319 Look at verse 18 again. Remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt. You saw with 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:47.480 your own eyes the great trials, the miraculous signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm 00:06:47.480 --> 00:06:54.719 with which the Lord your God brought you out. In verse 21, do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God 00:06:54.719 --> 00:07:03.360 who is among you is a great and awesome God. Basically, Moses is making the same point here that Paul makes in 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:12.480 Romans 8, if God is for us, who can be against us? Yes, we may face all sorts of terrible situations, 00:07:12.900 --> 00:07:19.800 enemies, disasters, but if the God of the universe is promising to work all of these things for our 00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:29.540 ultimate good, then we don't have to fear them. The key, though, is that we must remember, remember who 00:07:29.540 --> 00:07:36.500 God is and what he has done, his power. We must make our calculations with the most important piece 00:07:36.500 --> 00:07:44.060 in place, that God is God. And if he is with us, and if he has shown his power already in the past 00:07:44.060 --> 00:07:52.040 for us, he's shown his faithfulness, he's shown that he is good to his promises, we can bank it all on him 00:07:52.040 --> 00:07:58.020 and know that the odds really will always be in our favor, as Katniss Everdeen would say. 00:07:58.819 --> 00:08:04.840 But notice the difference. Moses doesn't encourage the Israelites with a pep rally. 00:08:05.640 --> 00:08:08.320 He doesn't encourage them with nice slogans like, 00:08:08.700 --> 00:08:15.280 Is Fader Lind? Or, If you believe, you can achieve. That's because Moses knows that building ourselves up 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:22.699 won't actually work. We can have really, really good self-esteem. We can have wonderful confidence, 00:08:22.699 --> 00:08:28.719 but it won't change the reality that we are, in fact, actually very small. We are, in fact, 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:33.980 actually unable to control the people and events around us to any great degree at all. 00:08:35.199 --> 00:08:39.019 Moses does not argue with Israel that the odds are not against them on their own. 00:08:40.139 --> 00:08:45.120 The odds are against them on their own. In fact, he's very clear. They have no 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:51.000 ability to do this by themselves. But his point is that it never depended on them anyway. 00:08:52.560 --> 00:08:58.440 Look in verse 7. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you 00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:04.399 were more numerous than other peoples. For you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:10.180 the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty 00:09:10.179 --> 00:09:15.939 hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know, 00:09:16.059 --> 00:09:21.939 therefore, that the Lord your God is God. He is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a 00:09:21.939 --> 00:09:30.979 thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. Israel, like us, were not strong 00:09:30.980 --> 00:09:39.500 enough in themselves. That's no problem because God is more than enough if they will trust him. God is big 00:09:39.500 --> 00:09:45.180 enough to deal with any number of angry Canaanites. He's powerful enough to send rain on thirsty ground. 00:09:45.580 --> 00:09:54.580 He's God. Economies, alliances, recessions, wars, Brexit, Donald Trump's terrorists. None of these things can get the best 00:09:54.580 --> 00:10:06.100 of God. The God who spoke the universe into existence by the sheer power of his command. Israel's biggest 00:10:06.100 --> 00:10:14.680 threat will never be external things like enemies and disasters, and neither will ours. If God's people 00:10:14.680 --> 00:10:23.820 keep their focus on God, they will not need to fear any external situation, any external threat, even though 00:10:23.820 --> 00:10:30.840 we do still have to face them. But keeping our focus on God is going to be harder than it might seem. It's 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:36.540 harder for Israel than it might seem. The real damage of external threats is that they can cause God's 00:10:36.540 --> 00:10:44.460 people to take their eyes, to take our eyes off of God because of the fear. So Moses warns them, you've got 00:10:44.460 --> 00:10:51.640 to remember who God is. Don't lose sight of that reality in the middle of the difficult circumstances. 00:10:51.639 --> 00:10:59.159 You've got to remember God. We've got to remember God. But it's not only the difficult times. It's not 00:10:59.159 --> 00:11:06.879 only the external circumstances that are going to tempt us to forget him. Moses also says that Israel 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:12.659 will be tempted to forget God because of the powerful lies of the cultures around them. 00:11:12.659 --> 00:11:18.980 Now, Jesus said the greatest commandment of all is in Deuteronomy 6.5. You can turn there if you want. 00:11:19.059 --> 00:11:26.620 It's right next door. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your 00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:33.719 strength. The second one, Jesus said the second greatest commandment is from Leviticus 19.18. 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:40.819 Love your neighbor as yourself. This is what we were made for. To be close to God, to find our life 00:11:40.820 --> 00:11:49.120 in loving and being loved by him. And then to find, you know, his love poured into our hearts, 00:11:49.280 --> 00:11:57.440 into our lives, and then to reflect that out to others. That's what God made us for, to love God, 00:11:57.520 --> 00:12:05.100 to love people. But then in chapter 7 here, Deuteronomy 7, verse 25, Moses says there's something 00:12:05.100 --> 00:12:12.480 Israel should definitely not love. He says, the images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. 00:12:13.259 --> 00:12:18.840 Do not covet the silver and gold on them. Do not take it for yourselves. You will be ensnared by it, 00:12:19.060 --> 00:12:24.480 for it is detestable to the Lord your God. Do not bring a detestable thing into your house, or you, 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:31.000 like it, will be set apart for destruction. Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:39.139 destruction. So we have these commands to love God, to love people, and to detest idolatry. Love, love, 00:12:39.399 --> 00:12:46.600 hate. But it's not really so surprising. I mean, I love my wife. And if I really love my wife, 00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:54.240 shouldn't I detest any hint of adultery with another woman? And the Bible often compares idolatry 00:12:54.240 --> 00:13:03.180 with adultery. It is an absolute betrayal of our claim to love God. But when you think about it, 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:10.879 why in the world would Israel be tempted to go after another God, when they had seen the real God 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:17.700 do so much for them? All these amazing miracles, bringing them out of Egypt, providing for them in 00:13:17.700 --> 00:13:24.019 the wilderness, doing all of these amazing things that he had done for his people. I mean, what could 00:13:24.019 --> 00:13:32.299 possibly entice Israel, who had seen all of this, to worship a different God? We don't actually have 00:13:32.299 --> 00:13:37.720 to guess, because we've seen it happen in the Old Testament a couple of times before Deuteronomy. 00:13:38.019 --> 00:13:47.039 It happens in Exodus, and it happens in Numbers, because of different reasons. In Exodus, Israel makes a 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:53.620 golden calf to worship, because they're tired of waiting for God, who is taking his time, giving them the 00:13:53.620 --> 00:14:02.019 covenant at Sinai. They were tired of waiting for God. But is that really, are we so different? I mean, 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:07.440 we too, we chafe at the times that God makes us wait. Sometimes it seems like he's forgotten us. 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:14.700 Our situation is getting too bad, and we need to do something now. We need to take matters into our 00:14:14.700 --> 00:14:22.640 own hands, because God is just too late. Now, we may not use a golden calf, like Israel, but the thinking 00:14:22.640 --> 00:14:29.400 really is the same. God is too slow, so we try to control things. We try to manipulate things. We try 00:14:29.400 --> 00:14:35.840 to manipulate the circumstances through appealing to some other source of power. Maybe it's money. Maybe 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:42.560 it's influence. Maybe it's deceit. We depend on something or somebody else to try to fix the situation 00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:48.559 without reference to God. And we don't think of ourselves as idol worshipers when we do that, 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:54.239 but we're actually doing exactly what idol worshipers have always done when we try to manipulate 00:14:54.239 --> 00:15:02.179 whatever powers we can to work in our favor apart from trusting in God. In effect, we're worshiping a 00:15:02.179 --> 00:15:10.759 power other than God and trusting in it instead of him. That's what happened in Exodus. But there was 00:15:10.759 --> 00:15:16.100 another time that Israel turned away from God already, and that was in Numbers. In Numbers, 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:22.600 they were drawn away to worship other gods by Moabite women who invited Israelite men to sexual acts 00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:31.179 of worship. So it wasn't logical arguments that got them to turn away from God. It was beautiful, 00:15:31.539 --> 00:15:36.279 easy women. And once again, really, are things so different now? 00:15:36.279 --> 00:15:46.600 There are several people I knew growing up in church as children and as teens. They looked very 00:15:46.600 --> 00:15:54.339 Christian, and yet eventually they turned completely away from God. And one day it hit me that every 00:15:54.339 --> 00:16:01.539 single one of them, at the time that they turned away from God, was involved in sexual sin. And I don't 00:16:01.539 --> 00:16:09.500 think that that's a coincidence. Our culture is in love with sexual satisfaction, even though they 00:16:09.500 --> 00:16:16.699 never seem to be able to find the satisfaction bit of that. They're always worshiping sex as the ultimate 00:16:16.699 --> 00:16:24.000 source of goods. And that's nothing new. Israel was doing the same thing when they went after the gods 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:32.899 of Moab. But these are empty promises. And Moses warns that Israel cannot have it both ways. 00:16:33.580 --> 00:16:39.399 They cannot worship the gods of the cultures around them, acting like they are the givers of every good 00:16:39.399 --> 00:16:47.139 gift, and at the same time love and worship the real God who is the real source of every good and 00:16:47.139 --> 00:16:55.779 perfect gift. We can't do both. 1 John 2.15 says, do not love the world or anything in the world. 00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:01.179 If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. For everything in the world, the lust 00:17:01.179 --> 00:17:06.220 of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, comes not from the Father, but from the world. 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:11.359 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:19.639 So what's the solution though? What if we find our hearts attracted to love other things more than 00:17:19.639 --> 00:17:27.539 God? Well, Moses gives us a bit of advice in Deuteronomy. He says, we've already read in chapter 00:17:27.539 --> 00:17:34.579 7, how we should not give idols a chance. He says to Israel, destroy them. A man who wants to love his 00:17:34.579 --> 00:17:39.979 wife first and best is going to have a hard time doing that if he's looking at pornography on the screen 00:17:39.980 --> 00:17:45.839 in front of him. A person who wants to love God first and best is going to have a hard time doing 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:53.400 that if they're constantly filling their minds with the world's beautifully packaged lies. If we allow 00:17:53.400 --> 00:18:00.360 these lies into our homes, into our TVs, into our heads, and expect everything to be just fine, we're 00:18:00.360 --> 00:18:09.860 fooling ourselves. Moses also says in chapter 6, verse 13, you can look there. He says, fear the 00:18:09.859 --> 00:18:16.959 Lord your God. Serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of 00:18:16.959 --> 00:18:22.879 the people around you. For the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn 00:18:22.879 --> 00:18:29.299 against you and he will destroy you from the face of the land. These are not encouraging words. 00:18:30.399 --> 00:18:35.579 We talked about how God is bigger than any external threat that we face and we can trust him. 00:18:35.579 --> 00:18:43.899 And that's a very encouraging thing. But that same God who is so big and so good and so trustworthy 00:18:43.899 --> 00:18:49.039 and so powerful beyond imagination, that's not only good for remembering that we don't have to 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:57.939 fear external threats. It's also good for helping us fight sin's lies. Because remembering who God is 00:18:57.939 --> 00:19:03.980 helps us remember that sin is very serious. It is actually treason against the God of the universe. 00:19:03.980 --> 00:19:12.579 That is a serious thing. And it's a perspective we desperately need. But ultimately, not even that 00:19:12.579 --> 00:19:21.200 will be enough by itself. What we need is in chapter 6, starting in verse 4, where Moses says, 00:19:21.360 --> 00:19:27.799 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, 00:19:27.799 --> 00:19:33.960 with all your soul, with all your strength. These commands that I give you today are to be on your 00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:39.799 hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along 00:19:39.799 --> 00:19:44.940 the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your 00:19:44.940 --> 00:19:50.759 foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. See, the way to fight wrong 00:19:50.759 --> 00:19:58.940 loves in our hearts is not just to stamp out those loves and leave their place empty. Our hearts were made 00:19:58.940 --> 00:20:06.140 to love. They will love. They must love something. In the Garden of Eden, Satan convinced Adam and Eve 00:20:06.140 --> 00:20:13.759 that there was satisfaction and good in loving something besides God. And ever since then, we've been 00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:18.000 looking everywhere possible for what that thing could be that we could love that would give us 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:25.480 satisfaction and good apart from God. But it doesn't exist. Our hearts were made to love God 00:20:25.480 --> 00:20:31.359 and no other object, no other person, no other cause, nothing else could ever satisfy us apart from Him. 00:20:32.920 --> 00:20:39.859 David cries out to us in the Psalms, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. And he says, 00:20:39.859 --> 00:20:47.400 In His presence are pleasures forevermore. So Moses says, we must constantly remind 00:20:47.400 --> 00:20:53.060 our hearts in any way possible, not only of how powerful God is, that we don't need to fear 00:20:53.060 --> 00:20:59.620 external threats, but also remind our hearts of how good God is, so that our hearts will be drawn to 00:20:59.620 --> 00:21:07.720 love the real source of everything true and good, and not the empty imitations and the lies that sin 00:21:07.720 --> 00:21:10.900 offers us so loudly and so constantly. 00:21:10.900 --> 00:21:18.759 So Israel will be tempted to forget God because of the external threats that they face. They will be 00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:25.780 tempted to forget God because of the beautifully packaged lies of the culture around them. But then 00:21:25.780 --> 00:21:32.480 there's another area that Moses warns Israel about. They will be tempted to think that they deserve 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:40.019 what they get and that they don't need God anymore. So look in chapter 9, verse 4. 00:21:44.940 --> 00:21:51.259 After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, the Lord has brought me 00:21:51.259 --> 00:21:57.700 here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness. No, it is on account of the wickedness 00:21:57.700 --> 00:22:02.539 of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your 00:22:02.539 --> 00:22:07.960 righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land. But on account 00:22:07.960 --> 00:22:12.340 of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you to accomplish 00:22:12.340 --> 00:22:18.559 what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand then that it is not because 00:22:18.559 --> 00:22:24.440 of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a 00:22:24.440 --> 00:22:31.460 stiff next people. Remember this and never forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the 00:22:31.460 --> 00:22:37.059 desert. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord. 00:22:38.840 --> 00:22:45.080 He's repeating the same thing over and over again. It's not because of your righteousness. It's not 00:22:45.080 --> 00:22:50.080 because of your righteousness. It's not because of your righteousness. It's kind of like Moses thinks that 00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:54.220 they might be tempted to think that these good gifts come because of their righteousness. 00:22:56.359 --> 00:23:01.599 But that's natural, isn't it? I mean, we're all tempted to think that the good things we get in 00:23:01.599 --> 00:23:09.359 life come to us because we're really good people. We've done good things. Karma is a popular idea 00:23:09.359 --> 00:23:15.319 because it reflects the way we think things ought to work. Good things come to those who do good. 00:23:15.319 --> 00:23:22.740 Bad things come to those who do bad. But God is saying here very clearly to Israel that he is 00:23:22.740 --> 00:23:30.139 purposefully doing good to them, not because they were good, but in spite of the fact that they were 00:23:30.139 --> 00:23:37.720 rebellious against him. He's doing good to them because he is good, not because they were good. 00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:45.220 And he made good promises which he intends to keep. There's absolutely nothing that 00:23:45.220 --> 00:23:51.480 Israel has done to deserve these promises. In fact, Moses spends most of chapter 9 reminding the 00:23:51.480 --> 00:23:58.940 people of Israel how many times they rebelled against the Lord. He actually sums it up in 9.24. 00:23:59.140 --> 00:24:02.940 He says, you've been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you. 00:24:04.920 --> 00:24:11.240 He reminds the Israelites that the only reason they still exist as a nation, in chapter 10, 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:19.099 verse 10, he says, it was not his will to destroy you. They had given God plenty of cause for judgment, 00:24:19.500 --> 00:24:27.140 but God chose instead to be gracious. And Moses says that this is something they must remember. Why? 00:24:28.059 --> 00:24:33.240 Because if they don't, they'll be tempted to think that all of their prosperity frees them up 00:24:33.240 --> 00:24:39.779 from needing or depending on God. Because they have things sewn up very well. Thanks very much. 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:43.359 But look in chapter 8 and verse 10. 00:24:45.240 --> 00:24:51.599 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 00:24:51.940 --> 00:24:56.720 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, 00:24:56.839 --> 00:25:02.099 his laws and his decrees that I'm giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, 00:25:02.099 --> 00:25:07.759 when you build fine houses and settle down, when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver 00:25:07.759 --> 00:25:13.439 and gold increase, and all you have is multiplied, then your hearts will become proud and you will 00:25:13.439 --> 00:25:19.219 forget the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through 00:25:19.219 --> 00:25:24.879 the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land with its venomous snakes and scorpions. 00:25:25.139 --> 00:25:31.259 He brought you water out of a hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, 00:25:31.259 --> 00:25:37.259 something your fathers had never known, to humble and test you, so that in the end it might go well 00:25:37.259 --> 00:25:43.000 with you. You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:48.559 for me. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, 00:25:48.920 --> 00:25:54.220 and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. 00:25:54.220 --> 00:26:02.059 So not only did God refrain from destroying Israel in their rebellion, he went further and he blessed 00:26:02.059 --> 00:26:10.120 them with all of this abundance. And God has done the same for us, even more so actually in Jesus, 00:26:10.579 --> 00:26:17.039 taking our punishment that we deserved, that's what we deserved, and giving us instead even greater 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:23.860 gifts than he gave to Israel. But sometimes the sheer volume of God's blessings can make them 00:26:23.859 --> 00:26:29.679 easy to take for granted. I mean, how often do we really think about the fact that every single 00:26:29.679 --> 00:26:38.639 moment we live is a gift of undeserved grace? I mean, that's totally undeserved for sinful people. 00:26:38.759 --> 00:26:47.059 Remember, the wages of sin is death. No, see, instead of, we generally tend to focus and think a lot more 00:26:47.059 --> 00:26:53.079 and complain about the hardships that we face in life, a life that we never deserved in the first 00:26:53.079 --> 00:27:00.299 place. It's telling that people love to ask the question, why does God allow bad things to happen? 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:05.519 But we never really take the time to ask the question, why does God allow good things to happen 00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:12.599 to people who have rebelled against him so completely? We quite easily get used to God's blessings. 00:27:12.599 --> 00:27:19.519 And pretty soon, we start thinking that we earned those blessings ourselves. And then we start to 00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:26.319 think that we deserve those blessings. These blessings are ours by right. And if God takes some of them 00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:33.139 away, even for a moment, we get really angry because we feel like our rights have been violated. 00:27:34.399 --> 00:27:41.779 Never stopping to consider that even the ability to yell at God is a gift of grace that is completely 00:27:41.779 --> 00:27:48.720 undeserved. But what's the answer? Moses says in chapter 8 and verse 10, 00:27:49.220 --> 00:27:55.200 when you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 00:27:55.859 --> 00:28:01.799 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, 00:28:02.200 --> 00:28:07.980 his laws and his decrees that I'm giving you this day. Sounds familiar by now, I think. 00:28:07.980 --> 00:28:14.740 The fact is that all the big problems that Moses warns Israel about have the same solution. 00:28:15.700 --> 00:28:22.019 Are we afraid of external threats that we're going to face? We have no strength to face them on our own. 00:28:22.819 --> 00:28:28.460 Are we falling for the empty but oh so beautiful lies of the world around us? 00:28:28.940 --> 00:28:33.940 Are we starting to think that we earned and that we deserve everything that we have? 00:28:33.940 --> 00:28:46.259 The answer to all of these things is the same. Remember. Remember God. Remember who he is and what he has done for you. 00:28:47.120 --> 00:28:53.340 Remember that he is stronger than anything that we face. Remember that he really is the only true source of 00:28:53.340 --> 00:29:01.160 satisfaction and joy for our lovesick hearts. Remember that everything we have is a gift from him. 00:29:01.160 --> 00:29:10.540 Remember to fear God and we don't need to fear anything else. Remember to love God and our hearts will be so full 00:29:10.540 --> 00:29:19.220 that the other loves just really won't be able to compete. Remember that we depend on God for everything 00:29:19.220 --> 00:29:27.800 and that he is powerful. He is good and he is totally completely dependable. He proved it to Israel. 00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:36.980 He has proved it to us much more so on the cross. Don't forget to remember the Lord in every circumstance you face, 00:29:37.180 --> 00:29:43.659 in the depths of our own hearts. Remember the Lord this year. Amen. 00:29:44.759 --> 00:29:49.519 We are going to finish with the song, Great is Your Faithfulness. 00:29:49.519 --> 00:30:05.200 Sorry, it's sign number 200 in the book. 00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:05.240 Thank you.