Revering the Word
Deuteronomy 8 The Word is our daily bread.
Good morning, everyone. This morning's journey finds my wife and I on a vacation headed to North Carolina We're gonna do some hiking and see some friends So I'm in the car right now. My bride is driving and you might hear a little bit of the car I do these live every morning, so That's just the way to roll so this morning we're in Deuteronomy in chapter eight and really This captures the central theme of Deuteronomy Israel is on the other side of the Jordan They're still in the desert and they're about to enter the promised land and God is giving them Judo a second Reminder of all the things that he has Asked them to do an obey so that when they get to the promised land Especially after they get blessed especially after they find wealth especially after they receive Blessing and prosperity that they would not forget the Lord when they would get there It's kind of interesting to know that Israel does forget the Lord You know that much later in history. They will actually lose the Word of God and someone will be going into the temple to search for something and they'll find the Old Testament scrolls in the temple treasury somewhere and the King at that time Josiah will tear his clothes and read it and be like oh my goodness I can't believe we've forgotten to follow Yahweh It's incredible that even with all these grand reminders that they will forget one day about the Lord and You know it's so good even we have a Repeated message here in Deuteronomy about following the Lord not forgetting and it's so important that we do this daily this is one of the reasons that I You know encourage so strenuously that we would be in the work daily that we would read through the whole Bible and by being in the word every day It helps us to remember the Lord and not to forget the very thing that God's asking us to do this morning So with that backdrop, let's get in to Deuteronomy chapter eight All the commandments that I am commanding you today You should be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land wish to Lord swore to give to your forefathers You shall remember all the way wish to Lord has Led you in the wilderness these 40 years that he might humble you Testing you to know what was in your heart whether you would keep his commandments or not It isn't that interesting, you know in the journey of life. We go through hills and valleys Sometimes it may seem like God is not moving or God is not working and that's a test for us. It's an opportunity for us to Remain steadfast and following God even though at the moment, maybe things don't seem to be going our way Trust God even in the silence and one of the things that I teach is To trust God for all that he's done not just what you see him doing, you know, there's been periods of history where You know, it didn't seem like Israel was being blessed it didn't seem like the favor of God was with them in fact a whole degenerate generation of Followers died out in the desert because of their unfaithfulness earlier and think about them They had to wait right now for 40 years in the desert until the next generation God was going to let in That doesn't mean that he wasn't God It doesn't mean that he wasn't to be worshipped and that he isn't king But he just set aside a time for a season where he was going to have Israel wait And there were other times like when Israel was in Babylon because of their unfaithfulness for 70 years It didn't mean that God wasn't real for those people who were in Babylon It's just that God had set up part of season where he was going to eventually restore them and bring them back to the land But they were going to be in Babylon for those 70 years God was still God that entire time so we have to remember God for all that he's done Not just what we think he is doing at the current moment It's a test to trust him through the storms He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know Nor did your fathers know that was the first time he had fed them in that way in the desert through the manna That he might make you understand. This is such a great word that man does not live by bread alone But lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the lord How important that is man does not live on bread alone, but on Everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the lord did you know that jesus quoted this passage He was being tempted in The desert by the devil when he fasted for a period of time And the devil was trying to twist God's words to jesus and jesus said man does not live on bread alone but on everything that proceeds out of the mouth of god what a wonderful word that is and May we know it, you know, uh, you know, uh, you know, sometimes People in in you know, maybe in my life, maybe in your life they They may judge us or they may Not understand why we believe what we believe or why we say what we say I think sadly one of the reasons that there's Division about things sometimes is because people don't know the bible And if you would you know, I try to echo You know think of what an echo is and echoes a sound right that it's the same sound that you say and it just echoes And essentially that's what we're to do as christians is we're to echo the word of god. We're to echo what he said and Sometimes i'm astonished when people would disagree with something that i'm proclaiming out of the word of god That they would be surprised that I would believe that or they would say that i'm wrong because the world thinks something different And it's not about me. It's not about whether i'm wrong or i'm right The question is is what is the word of god say because we are supposed to not live on bread alone, but by every Thing that proceeds out of the mouth of god So it's very important that we know it right if we don't know the word of god We might start bleeding in our own opinion or the world's opinion and get away from what god actually said And uh, I need to remember sometimes when people don't maybe Respect what I believe to take it away from me take it It's not about me. It's not about what I believe It's about whether what i'm saying is from the word of god or not I need to turn it back to the word of god and let people know that's where it comes from and indeed jesus Echoing this verse Wants us to honor the guidance from god's word And then he reminds them of what he did for them in the desert your clothing did not wear out on you Warded your foot swell these 40 years That was the years there in the desert thus you are to know In your heart that the lord your god was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son And you know the bible talks about god disciplines those whom he loves So even though some of the generation had their had to die out in the desert in those 40 years He was doing that because he loved them and he wanted when their children went into the promised land That they would be more faithful than the ones that came before So god disciplines because he loves just like we discipline our children because we're trying to help them Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the lord your god to walk in his ways and to fear him The fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom It's one of the the greatest things is to have fear and reverence for god and his word and to obey it to There's blessing in that the lord wants to go well with you For the lord your god is bringing you into a good land. This is really interesting a land of brooks of water Of fountains and springs flowing forth in valleys and hills A land of weed and barley of vines and fig trees and pomegranates a land of olive oil and honey A land where you will eat food without scarcity In which you will not lack anything a land who stones our iron and who and out of whose hills you can dig copper When you have eaten and are satisfied you shall bless the lord your god For the good land which he has given you isn't that interesting? I mean You know most of us probably don't think this way because In a sense, you know if we have money we can buy what we want to eat Right and we go to the grocery store and buy honey But the things in that day to have all of these goods in All of this kind of food available was a a major luxury and god was saying you're gonna You're gonna have a much better living conditions when you enter the promise land It'd be kind of like now if I said well, you know what if I gave you two million dollars What would you do would you honor the lord would you say steadfast to him even though you've been blessed And god was concerned that after they had the blessing of the promise land that they would Begin to forget and begin to not obey him This is what it says in verse 11 Beware that you do not forget the lord your god by not keeping his commandments and his ordinances and his statues Which I am commanding you today Otherwise when you have eaten and are satisfied and have built good houses and lived in them And when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and gold multiply And all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud And you will forget the lord your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery He led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water He brought water from for you out of the rock of flint in the wilderness He fed you manna what your fathers did not know that he might humble you and that he might test you to do good for you in the end And see god's desires in the end. We would be blessed. You know god's ways lead to blessing He doesn't want us to forget him As we you know one of the greatest temptations we can have is blessing really The blessing of wealth and prosperity It's easy to become complacent. That's one of the problems in america's with the abundant blessing that we had in this country It's easy to become complacent and not remember the lord He's trying to say to them. Hey, remember what I did for you in the desert. Remember how I provided for you Don't forget me when you get there But you shall remember the lord your god for this he who has given you power to make wealth That he may confirm his covenant, which he swore to your fathers as it is this day It shall come about if you forget the lord your god and go after other gods and serve them and worship them I testify against you that you will surely perish Wow God's giving them a stern warning and isn't it interesting it says that he gives the power To make wealth and may we realize that you know the things that have gone right or well in our lives are a blessing from god And if you've been blessed with wealth You know just be careful about Staying steadfast to him and also thinking about how you can use what god has given you for his glory And may that be a call to each of us on our lives because in america We have been very blessed and may we not just use that blessing for ourselves and you know here. I am on vacation, right Makes me, you know, not that there's something wrong with vacation But it just reminding us all that we need to be a blessing To the kingdom of god to others and to serve his kingdom even if and when we've been blessed verse 19 It shall come about if you ever forget the lord your god and go after other gods and serve them and worship them I testify against you that you will surely perish god does not want us to worship anything but him alone There there's no other god god alone remember Hero is your the lord your god the lord alone or the lord is one there is no other god He wants us to know that and worship him alone And then he said in verse 20 like the nations that the lord makes to perish before you So you shall perish because you would not listen to the voice of the lord your god Wow, what a tragic thing that is to turn away from the living god to turn away from his guidance and instruction to Believe in our own opinion to believe in our own ways And that is going to lead to destruction not only in this life but in the life to come But following the lord god is going to lead to favor not only in this life and the life to come how important that You and I Honor every word that proceeds out of the mouth of god and to be in the word every day and to remind ourselves of the lord And to know all that he said that's why I believe every Serious christian should study the whole bible. That's why we have reviewing the word That's why I do what we do and i've been doing it for a long long time now I just continue going through the bible and it's I can tell you it's worked I want to tell you that going through the bible at a chapter a day and just committing to do that for your entire life I'm here to tell you it works and I would encourage you when you finish this through your journey To do it again stay in the word And you'll see that god's favor and blessing are with you and ultimately You're going to have the faith that's going to enter his eternal home. God bless you all [BLANK_AUDIO]