Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / March 10, 2024 | Deuteronomy - Fortune Favors the Lost

Transcript

March 10, 2024 | Deuteronomy - Fortune Favors the Lost · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to be with you.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like to go ahead and invite up the elder board and the brand new deacons for our upcoming year.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: So the guys coming to the stage.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Two weeks ago at our annual meeting, we approved uh the board for the next year.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: And this is something our members voted on, and our deacon board's pretty big, and so we're inviting up the new guys who are excited to add.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: And uh while we do that, here in a moment, we're just gonna pray for those who are uh going to be leading us this year.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: We are an elder-led church, and in fact, on our uh new website, you can find the pictures for the elder board on there under the leadership page.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: But before we do that, real quick, I did just want to thank uh some guys who are taking a step off the board.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um they've all served honorably, they've served well, and we're thankful for them.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: So stepping off the elder board, um Sheldon Hockey and Chris Mammalidi, um they have they've done it for many years.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sheldon has been on the elder board for quite some time, and so they have led us well.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have uh five deacons stepping off Robert Keyes, Stephen McIntosh, Keaton Riddle, Brady Sorensen, and Keith Wetzel.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so if we could just give a round of applause for these folks.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um those all those individuals, they've served well and they've served faithfully, and they're worthy of honor.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um but here in a moment, uh Jeff Sorensen, he was our uh elder board chair last year, our chair this year, Travis Buchanan, is uh is away this morning, and so he couldn't be with us.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: But um Jeff is gonna pray for the board, for those who are new, uh, for those who are um stepping off, and just for the upcoming year as a church.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, Jeff, would you go ahead and do that for us?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning and worship you already.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh thanks for uh Topeka Bible Church and what it means to each one of us.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh thanks for the elders and deacons who uh are willing to use the gifts that you've given to them to serve others.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for the guys that have uh spent uh years doing that and and feel the need to step down for a while.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and thanks for the new guys that have stepped up as well.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh give us wisdom and the decisions we make.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, our desire is to lead this church to discover, connect, and serve.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So give us wisdom as we make decisions to help uh facilitate the congregation to do that.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for your love and care for us.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name we pray.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Jeffrey.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take that.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, guys.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: So you can see with yeah, absolutely.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: You can see on the slide, I I should have said it, but uh, we have Randy Crandall stepping onto the elder board this year, and then Kelly Kelsey, Tom Loganville, Andrew Rieschick, and Don Wolgast stepping onto the deacon board.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: So we are we're excited to have them and looking forward to how the Lord will lead us this upcoming year.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we are continuing on, though, in our series in Deuteronomy, and uh as we do that, um, you'll there are some things that you're just are kind of becoming probably habit for us, right, as we talk about um uh what this book is about and sort of the setting, right?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Moses is speaking to uh the children of the the Israelites who had wandered during the book of Numbers, who were not allowed to enter into the promised land.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Now their children are about to go into the promised land.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: Moses can't go with them, and so the book of Deuteronomy is basically his last great task: imparting to the new generation the God's law and his word, so that they can follow it, they can be a faithful people, and they can go into the promised land.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And uh as he's doing that, you also can imagine Moses, uh, like any good shepherd that has been with his people for 40 years, is anticipating some of the things uh that his sort of not his congregation, but his people are going to be struggling with.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of uh as we continue on in the book of Deuteronomy, we're really not done going through the law in its entirety.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: We've sort of gone, we've done the decalogue, the Ten Commandments, and that's the biggest part, and that's really how he kicks everything off.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then really for the next like 20 chapters or so, it's sort of him explain explaining all a number of different laws and how they'll apply once they go into the promised land.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: We'll cover some of those, though not not all of them.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: But sprinkled in there is Moses' anticipation of what Israel is going to struggle with.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so this morning we're going to be looking at one of those things.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: He is uh looking forward, not with excitement, but um with an expectation, that Israel, as they head into the promised land, they are going to be experiencing an amazing gift and blessing.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: And he is worried that when they experience the blessing of the promised land and all of the wealth and comfort that comes along with it, that they will eventually forget God.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so that is where we're at this morning is this fear that Moses has, and ultimately uh what he tells them they need to do to sort of make sure that they remember the Lord.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see that this applies very well to us even today.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll begin, uh, we're like in the second half of Deuteronomy chapter six, if you want to go there with me.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Moses says to them, remember, this is just coming after that, the Shema, the love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength, right?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: That we are to love the Lord, we are to follow after him.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so you can see how this sort of comes on the footfalls of the Shema, right?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Love the Lord your God, remember him always, but know as you're heading into this place, you're you're most likely going to forget him, and you shouldn't do that.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Moses says, When the Lord your God brings you into the land, he swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give you a land with large and beautiful cities that you did not build, houses full of every good thing that you did not fill them with, cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant, and when you eat and are satisfied, be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: So Israel is going to be tempted to forget the Lord.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason they are going to be tempted is because two very big things are going to happen to them.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: The first is that they're going to go into this land and they are going to experience immediate and overwhelming wealth.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: They have some, as they've journeyed through for these 40 years, the flocks that are with them, as they are all almost entirely shepherds, um, they have grown over time.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so there is a sense of wealth that has come through there.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: But moreover, all those, the things about, you know, cisterns that you did not dig and olive groves and vineyards that are planted, all of that is this idea that the work, the hard work and toil to basically bring a land up to fruitfulness has been done already.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And they are going to go in and they are just going to take possession of it.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: This is a gift from God to them.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so one of those things that they will experience is that they did not have to work hard in order to experience the blessing that God is about to give them.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: You might say, well, honoring 40 years is uh certainly not easy.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, but um that was because of their unfaithfulness, right?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: They did not need to do that.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: If they had been faithful to the Lord, they would have inherited the promised land about 11 days after leaving Mount Sinai.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so this first thing that will happen is they will experience immediate and overwhelming wealth.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, not more even later on in the book, they'll even compare it back to Egypt, and they'll say, This land is even better than what was going on in Egypt, because sometimes they compare it favorably to that.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the the Israelites, they're like, we had it pretty great back in Egypt.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, no, you didn't, but anyhow, just because you think you did, this is better than that.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing that's going to happen is that they are going to experience comfort and satisfaction that they have not known, certainly this generation that Moses is speaking to for basically their entire adult lives up to this point, right?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's more than just the wealth.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's the fact that they have, at various times in their journey, though the Lord never let them die of starvation or thirst, they were still hungry and thirsty at times, right?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: They did not have maybe the variety of food, all these different things, that when they get into the land, every single physical need that they could have or desire is going to be satisfied.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so, where they've been a people who are sort of sitting in the desert, they're going, like, you know what, it would be really nice if we didn't have to constantly search for water in the desert, and God is about to bring them a land that is just covered with rivers and streams and fruits and all of these things.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so, when they get these blessings, when the Lord delivers the promised land to them as a sign of his faithfulness, Moses says, I'm very nervous, and in fact, I expect that you are going to forget the Lord your God.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: You're not going to remember him anymore.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that phrase that you are not going to remember God should be something that kind of sort of gets sends a light bulb off in our minds because we know that this has been something that they have been continually told to do.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: You must remember God.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: You shall not forget the Lord your God.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Apparently, this is a pretty significant problem.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: And furthermore, when you get into this land of blessing, right, not only should you not forget God, but in fact your praise and your worship and your adoration for God should be something that only increases as you see everything that you could have ever desired coming to fruition.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's this great disparity between what he is expecting to happen, that they would see this great wealth and forget about God because they finally got what they wanted, and then what should be happening, which is that when they experience all of these blessings, they should remember that the Lord is still the one that is providing for them.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Moses has that statement at the very end remember the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's he is not demeaning them, but it is like you are still a group of people, you are still a group of former slaves who are inheriting land that you did not deserve by a God that loves you, even though you have done nothing to show your love for him, or very little.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so Moses is reminding them of where they came from.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it almost draws us to like uh if you ever watch, you know, documentaries about it feels like normally it's sports figures, but anybody who's made it big, and normally the very beginning of that documentary is they go back to like the shack that they grew up in, and they're just like, yeah, this is where it all began, and everyone's like, wow, you know, this is okay.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: So from humble beginnings you came up, and the whole point in normally that that show or that documentary or whatever is to show that this person is still in touch with their roots, right?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: They, their hometown, they have not forgotten them, they have remembered them.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Or if maybe if you've had a friend or somebody in your family who's kind of made it big and you've said, like, you know, don't forget the little people when you make it big.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: This is the sort of same idea that we have.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, Israel, you are about to experience amazing blessing.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget about who brought you here, who loves you, and who continues to sustain you, right?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget the good Lord.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: What Moses also reveals, though, is that there's a key to Israel succeeding in this task.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: That if they are going to go into the land and they are going to remember God, that there is something that they can draw upon that will help them be able to remember God.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it is that the last 40 years of wandering have been a period of humbling and testing and discipline for them.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: That God is specifically used so that when they get to this place, they'll be ready.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna jump ahead a little bit into chapter 8, and we're gonna look at how, and chapter 8, we'll start in verse 2, and we're gonna see how Moses draws these things out, how the Lord has been preparing them through some of the hardest moments of their lives.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: Remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these forty years in the wilderness, so that he might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: He humbled you by letting you go hungry, then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your ancestors had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Your clothing did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these forty years.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, right, Moses provides them with this piece of information that maybe they didn't realize because he he's drawing out things that maybe they have taken for granted, right?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like the fact that their clothing did not wear out and their feet did not swell, though they were a people constantly on the move in the desert.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, Do you ever wonder why you never needed another pair of sandals, right?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so he's pulling these things out for them, and he says, you know, you did experience difficulty, right?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: That that was part of the journey, is that it was it was not easy.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that through that difficulty, there were some of those things which you brought upon yourself, right?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the fact that it happened at all, something you brought upon yourself, but also there were elements there that the Lord was interested to see how you would respond to it.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like when you struggled without food, and we know that it w they did not struggle for long.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like they had to go 40 days without food, but rather a day or two, and then they begin to complain against the Lord, and they say, Send us back into slavery.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: It was better there, at least we got fed, and then he brings them manna.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so, God, throughout these 40 years, and there are many examples of it in the book of Numbers and even in Exodus, where we see that God was kind of testing his people, but also through that testing, they were being humbled, and they were understanding that God would always, as he did, provide for their physical needs.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: There was never a time where actually they um suffered for long, I should say a long period of time, right?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Again, they did not starve, they did not go um for weeks without water and fall down in the desert because of these things.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: God, it was difficult, but God always provided for their physical needs.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: But what Moses is telling them now is he says, okay, well, think back on that time and realize that the other thing that God was showing you was that you don't live on bread alone, that you need more than that to survive.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, you need a relationship with God.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're familiar with your Bible, that phrase should be something that sort of uh makes us perk up because Jesus, uh, when he was being tempted by Satan, quotes this passage when Satan, Jesus has gone hungry for 40 days, and Satan tempts him by um sort of telling him to turn uh stones into loaves of bread, something that certainly would be very alluring.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, man does not live on bread alone, showing, right, this this theme and this idea that actually it is the relationship with God that is most important, though these other things are necessary too.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: So Moses is trying to impress this upon the people, right?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, you've gone through this period of testing, and God has never never ever left your side.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: He has been with you through every step of the way.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know this because of how you benefited physically and how God provided for your needs in the desert, but also you have seen him visibly.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: You were always able to look at the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire as you were going through the desert to know that God was with you and in your midst.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: And as he continues, he makes it very clear that this period of discipline was serving a purpose.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Keep in mind that the Lord your God has been disciplining you, just as a man disciplines his son.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: So keep the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams, springs, and deep water sources, flowing in both valleys and hills, a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing, a land whose rocks are iron, and from whose hills you will mine copper.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Then listen, this is how they should respond.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: When you eat and are full, you will bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given to you, right?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: There are many things in the book of Deuteronomy about what you should do and what you shouldn't have done.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so as Israel heads into the promised land, Moses is like, Look, this period of disciplining that you have gone through, it was a hardship for a time.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: It is preparing you to experience what God is going to give you.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: And Him, being the perfect and all-knowing Lord above, understood that if you just went from where you were into this huge blessing, you would not be able to handle it.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so as you rebelled and revealed your hearts, he used that time to prepare you for this space.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's certainly not the only way that the Bible tells us the Lord was preparing them.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: There are actually a lot of examples, but another one is the route that they take from Egypt to the Promised Land early on, avoid some of the largest armies, because the Lord's like, you are not warriors yet.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: And if you went into battle, even though you would succeed because of me, um, you would get scared because you have never, you're not hardened by battle yet.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so then later on, as the you know, years go on, and we see that um uh the Lord, like even in Deuteronomy, we talked about defeating Og and the king of Bishon, right?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: And the Lord is like, these tinier battles, they're preparing you, like take heart, because I've shown you that you can do it.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: You've been disciplined in sort of this area of war, and now when you go on and take on these huge armies, you'll be ready to go.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: So God is preparing them in all of these different ways, right?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so what should happen is that when they enter this land, they should reflect back on these things and be thankful for them.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: This is also something that the Lord has done, not just with Israel, but with many of his leaders.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: You can look at Abraham, Job, uh, Joseph, Moses, you could look at David, uh, Daniel, the prophet Jeremiah.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you could uh so many examples of people in the Bible where they have gone through a period of discipline to prepare them for what is coming in the future.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: And the key lesson in many of those things is that if they had not gone through a period of turmoil or struggle or discipline, then they would not have been ready for the plans that God had prepared for them in advance.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Every single one of them is able to draw back on these things.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, God is still using this plan today.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Listen how James, the brother of Jesus, talks about this.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Consider it great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its full effect so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's uh one of those hard truths, easier said than done, that we understand that walking through hard parts of life strengthen us and sort of prepare us for what is coming.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yet very, very few of us, myself not included in the list, right?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like I don't like pain, I don't like suffering, I don't like walking through the periods of discipline that the Lord has for me, yet I also understand what he is doing through those periods.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: But a key part here, right, is that um it is not always obvious that those who are walking through hard times will use those moments to draw closer to the Lord.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people walk through periods of suffering and intense difficulty.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: And again, right, this is not some kind of like treatise on like how bad things happen.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes they come upon us because we live in a fallen world where death and disease run rampant.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh sometimes they come upon us because we are sinful people and we bring hardship upon ourselves, and sometimes the Lord brings things upon us, right?
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: But in all of these circumstances, we can always use them to draw closer to God.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: The question is, and really this is sort of the the implicit question for Israel is it's like, did you get the lesson?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like, did you understand uh how he He was using that period to strengthen you for this amazing blessing that you have coming up, right?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: See, this is the other truth is that it's not always discipline for the purpose of like future difficulty that we have to prepare for, but rather it is a spiritual temptation that God has been preparing them for as they head into a land of immense blessing and comfort and satisfaction, right?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Every reason that they have had, like physical reason, to rely upon the Lord their God is going away.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: They will be secure.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, certainly after the battles, like they will be secure, they will be in fortified cities, they will have all the food they could need, they will have everything that their hearts desired.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's like, did we have a true relationship with God, or was he like the vending machine, right?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, well, I need manna today, and so I love Jesus today, or I love the Lord today, right?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: You can think of it kind of like uh drilling a well, right?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: I love this analogy because you can think of drilling a well and in a new piece of land, and during times of uh, you know, during the rain, during the rains, or certainly not during times of drought, you might not have to drill down as far to be able to reach enough water to provide for your land.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: But then the drought does come and you realize that that well was never really dug deep enough to be able to reach water during the hardest times.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: And again, in this case for Israel, it is actually that the hardest time is going to come when they are extremely wealthy.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so discipline for Israel is like the Lord sort of gently impressing upon the person who says, I think my well is deep enough.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm getting water, everything's going well right now.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: And God says, Keep digging, keep going, uh, because there's a time coming uh when you're gonna need it to be that deep.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so we go, Lord, I'm digging a well is hard, it's not super fun, and uh I'm getting all that I need right now.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: But God and his grace and his mercy often prepares us for these times of trials that we will experience.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is Israel, right?
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now, um that question, though, or rather we could say Moses's expectation.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Um, I think, based upon knowing you, that when you go into this land, you are going to forget the Lord your God.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, everybody who's in front of Moses will be like, no, we're not.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: We're definitely not going to forget the Lord.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: He has done all these things for us.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: The sad truth, to just sort of fast forward in our Bibles a little bit, is that Israel most certainly forgets about God.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they do not, though they sort of have this kind of high point with Joshua when they first go into the land, very, very quickly they fail to carry out God's will and fail to be obedient to Him and driving out the nations, and they intermarry with them, which brings all sorts of problems.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about that next week.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: And because of that, they begin to worship false gods, become disobedient, and ultimately allow the wealth and the beauty of the land to corrupt their hearts.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to just briefly sort of fast forward to a prophet that you might not be familiar with.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: His name is Amos.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to show you, there's so many examples we could list here.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: But I want to fast forward to the time when God sends the prophet to remind Israel of how far they have fallen.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: And ultimately at the period of time in history when all of the covenant promises that you're reading about in Deuteronomy, all of the covenant blessings and curses that the Lord is laying out that are contingent upon Israel's faithfulness, we're fast forwarding to a time when Israel has brought upon themselves, because of their disobedience, all of the curses of the land, and ultimately they are about to be kicked out of the promised land.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: Amos in chapter six says, Speaking about the leaders of Israel, they lie on beds inlaid with ivory, sprawled out on their couches, and dine on lambs from the flock and calves from the stall.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: They improvise songs to the sound of the harp and invent their own musical instruments like David.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: They drink wine by the bowlful, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore they will now go into exile as the first of the captives, and the feasting of those who sprawl out will come to an end.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: So there's some specific language there, but basically what Amos is saying to his group of people, which would be about actually 700 years or so after Deuteronomy here, but what Amos is saying is that the leaders of Israel, in this particular part, it's the northern kingdom, but the leaders of Israel, those who should be guiding the people in their dedication to God, right, who should be setting the example, setting the pace for what it means to worship God and love him and adore Him in the land.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, they are the ones who are leading the people in depravity.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, you can see here that all of the comfort and satisfaction and wealth of the land has just made their hearts turn away from God because they have everything they could need.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of being dedicated to the Lord, they have become dedicated to themselves.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of being worshipful of God and thankful for what he has done, they are thankful for themselves and the beauty of the land, but not because God has given it to them, but because it enriches them.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so we see they are in love with food and they are in love with drink and entertainment and cosmetics and their appearance.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: But it says they do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph, and by that we're talking about now a tribe.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're saying that the people, the entire nation has fallen, and certainly by the time we get to Amos, that it has been a uh going on for a very long period of time.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: But it says that these leaders, they they don't, they're not troubled by the fact that the nation no longer worships the Lord.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, they're troubled by whether or not they get, you know, their meals on time, and they get the choicest pieces of meat.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so you can see this is what Moses is basically predicting, right?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: This is what he is anticipating to come down the line.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so, because of that, it says, therefore, they'll now go into exile as the first of the captives.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: So the leaders will be the first ones that get taken away.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: And what God is going to do is the same thing that he did to the wilderness generation in the book of Numbers, right?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: The same thing that Moses is talking about.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: This generation that Amos is speaking to is about to experience discipline, right?
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like the father disciplines his son, as Moses says, right, that Amos is telling them that now you will go back into a period of discipline.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: And what we end up seeing in the Old Testament is that this does eventually draw people back.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, oh my goodness, how do we not realize how wrong we were?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: But it took them falling away from some of these blessings and wealth and distinction and sort of satisfaction and into a period of difficulty for them to return back to the Lord.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yet this is not a necessary cycle.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is where I kind of want to push us this morning as we finish, right?
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Is this not a necessary cycle for them.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: Though it ends up being the cycle that happens over and again in the Old Testament, in big ways and in small ways, that as Israel prophets, they forget about the Lord, and the Lord needs to remind them who he is until he blesses them again, and this sort of thing just keeps happening.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: But as Moses is speaking to them, the possibility lies before them that they would be a people who just go in and experience blessing and stay there, which is what we would all want.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so as we finish this morning, we're going to look back at the end of chapter 6, or really verses 13 through 19, because Moses once again provides an application.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: What is the blueprint that Israel needs to follow so that as they go into this time of testing, of spiritual difficulty, even though it's disguised by, or I shouldn't say it's disguised, it's not like the Lord is bringing them something bad, but through this blessing, there is an opportunity that they might fall away.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: What are the things that they need to do so that they would not be a people who forget God in their wealth?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: And they would be a people who remember the lessons of testing.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy 6, verses 13 through 19.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: Moses gives five things.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: Fear the Lord your God, worship him, and take your oaths in his name.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now, uh this one might be uh a bit more of a test, but you might recall earlier uh Jesus quoted Deuteronomy chapter 8 when being tempted by Satan.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: That would be the first quote.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: Here is actually where he gets his second quote.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: There are three pieces of scripture that Jesus quotes back to Satan during the time of testing in the Gospels, and all three of them are in the sections of Scripture we're looking at today.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: So this is the second one that you are to worship the Lord your God alone.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: And if you listen to our podcast this past week, um we talked a little bit about fear and how fear is something that we have a difficult relationship with.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um either because we don't understand what God means when he says fear, right?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: We think it's some sort of like Stephen King novel, okay, or something spooky, um, and that's not what it is.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, or we have a proper understanding of the fear of the Lord, which is out of a respect and proper reflection on his might and holiness, right?
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is the a proper reaction that Israel had when they were at Mount Sinai, and it was the thunder and the fire and the smoke and the voice, and they are trembling and they're like, has anybody lived to hear the Lord like this?
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: And God's like, You make a great point.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: No, nobody has.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you sh, I mean, there is an element there where it's like, you should, the idea that like stepping onto the mountain would be something that instantly killed you, like you should be afraid of that.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because where it's coming from is just an outpouring of God's power and his might and his holiness.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so the other way we might fall short is if we don't like the idea that we need to have a fearful respect for the creator of the universe.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: But this is always the thing that sort of begins, whether in the Old Testament or the New, the recentering of ourselves upon the proper worship of the Lord is that we would be a people who fear him and love him, and we do both of those things at the same time.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: Moses says, Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you, for the Lord your God who is among you is a jealous God.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, the Lord your God will become angry with you and obliterate you from the face of the earth.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: You like that one?
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: Obliterate you from the face of the earth.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: This is one of those deals where I look back in the text in the Hebrew and I was like, what is that really?
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's obliterate you from the face of the earth.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: You can maybe say that he wipes you from the face of the earth, but I don't know which one of those you'd prefer.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's basically a summary of all of the things that are entrenched within God's law and what will happen if they go against him.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: And again, you might say, well, man, it feels like we've heard these things before.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't think there's anybody who's standing before Moses and is just going, like, oh, we don't worship the other gods?
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because that I that was I was under the impression that once we went into the promise, that was like a thing we did.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't think there's anybody who is feeling that way yet, it becomes the first thing that they do.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so you're like, well, why does God keep reminding them?
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because he knows them.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: Because he knows their hearts, just like he knows our hearts.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: The common command is fighting against the common sin here.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: Then he says, Do not test the Lord your God as you tested him at Masa.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: Masa is uh another word for uh the waters of Meribah, and this would be where um early on in their journey uh they uh are struggling, they haven't had water for uh two or three days, and so they are thirsty, and they um they don't, the way they go about asking the Lord for water is very problematic, in that they don't really go to him and ask the question, but rather they pose a test to the Lord.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: And uh this test, this is in Exodus 17, and this test is basically like Lord, if you're really here, you will give us water.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you're actually the Lord that loves us and cares for us.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, I know we see the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, but if you're really in our midst, then you would do this for us.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: And uh the Lord answers their request, but he's not happy about it.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, Moses, uh, well, the Lord through Moses rebukes them and he says that you should never do this again.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: What you've done is a bad thing.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: You do not pose experiments to God, uh, testing whether or not, and posing conditions and contingencies on your worship of him based upon sort of your checklist of items.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Israel, like, big picture, you've just been redeemed out of 400 years of slavery, and you're like, if you're really there, give us water.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so Moses says, Do not test the Lord your God as you tested him at Masa.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: And we would also find our third quote from Jesus right here.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: This is the third thing that he quotes back to Satan.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so, as we continue on, we're gonna get to this in just a moment, but we see that there are elements of this that very much play into our daily life because, uh, even today, because Jesus considers them so important.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: The last two I'll kind of breeze through, but uh, because they are related.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's carefully observe, right, the commands of the Lord your God, the decrees and statutes he has commanded you, and also do what is right and good in the Lord's sight, so that you may prosper, and so that you may enter and possess the good land the Lord your God swore to give your ancestors by driving out all of your enemies before you, as the Lord has said.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so these two things, it's like two sides of the same coin here, and it's obedience, which we've talked about, and how really critical that is, especially under the Mosaic covenant for the uh prosperity of Israel.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: But the two sides of this coin, the one side is that once you go into the land and you're tempted by all of these things, do not forget the commands that I have, because if you do forget the commands that I have, uh you will meet Amos later on, basically, right?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: You will find yourself in difficulty.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: So these are the things that Israel must do, and it would uh prevent the cycle of rebellion that they seem to continually find themselves in, and it would allow them to stay in the land that the God had, that God has provided for them.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um sadly, they don't, right?
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that's kind of a lesson for another day, right?
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: What we're what I want to leave us with this morning is what is it for us?
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because the fact that Christ quotes Deuteronomy 6 and 8, all right, when Satan is tempting him with the pleasures of the world, gives us a pretty fantastic idea that this is still something that should lay upon our hearts and our minds as good and right things to do as we are pushing back against the spiritual temptation of being a blessed people.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like, there are certain things about this that, yes, don't apply to us.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like today, under the new covenant, under our relationship with Christ, just following uh his commands does not immediately result in blessing.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: That is the prosperity gospel, and that is a false gospel, okay?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have this direct connection with blessing and curses that the nation of Israel did.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: We, in fact, want to be obedient to God out of a love for God.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: But Jesus still quotes these things, and I think that is so relevant because even though we are no longer under this old covenant, we are still bombarded day after day with this temptation of living in a nation that is extremely wealthy, and whether or not you find yourself in that category, right, of let's just say like immense physical blessings, that you have your health and you have wealth and you have success and all of those things that we would say are correlated with like walking into the promised land, okay?
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: Even if you don't find yourself particularly in that category, which some of us don't, right?
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_01: Many of us don't, you all and we all live in a nation that is drawing us towards those things, and says that those things are really the ideal part of life.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, that when you have success and when you have value and when you have worth is many times based upon our cultural pressures when we're pursuing those things and get recognition for them.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so what that does is we have to recognize that even if we feel like we are walking this straight and narrow path, we are constantly being pushed to transform into an image that is not Christ.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: A couple ways that this comes through.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think that we rarely see struggle or difficulty as an opportunity to grow closer to God.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think instead we view it as a lack of his love or lack of care for us.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes we test the Lord like Israel did at the waters of Meribah or at Masa.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: I do that.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: Our relationship with God is normally tied directly to our level of comfort in the wrong way.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: Meaning that when we are struggling the most is oftentimes when we draw closest to God.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then, like Israel, when things begin to go right and we get healed, or the one we love gets healed, or the thing, good thing happens at our job, right?
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: Or our you know, car doesn't break down, or whatever these things are that we're like, Lord, please like get me through the next day, and then he does.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think very often we fall into the same situation of Israel where we go, okay, God, I'll talk to you the next time I need you.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_01: And what Israel, what Moses was telling Israel to do, he's like, actually, you should be diving deeper into the Lord your God because he has not only answered your prayers, but now he has shown you all of these blessings.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like that should increase your praise for him.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: And fourth, that most of our hopes and desires are toward providing comfort and satisfaction for ourselves and for our families, and we've forgotten that man doesn't live on bread alone.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I maybe I'm just speaking to myself right here, but and this is this I think very few people might be able to relate to this, but let me tell you how this is working out in my life right now.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: Where we live, our house, there are, I think without exaggeration, if you count the bordering homes next to us, like 12 to 15 dogs, okay?
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: And they we have a baby, and we have dogs who are sympathetic barkers, okay, who bark when other dogs bark, and it drives me nuts.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I have to tell you, and I know this is funny, but this is also like part of it, is I have desired to move for years now because I am so focused on getting away from the sound of dogs, okay?
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I love dogs.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's not my point here.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: But my point is that, and my wife is so wonderful to remind me of these things.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: She is such a blessing to me.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: But she draws me back into this idea of like, we are good.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like we have a home where we are secure and we are safe and we have everything that we need.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: And instead of continually just trying to seek out the comfort of not barking dogs, right?
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: As silly as that sounds, like, what is the Lord teaching us about being in this space right now because we aren't able to move into another home?
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like, what is it about our relationship with God that so often we are just drawn back into, back, into, back into, Lord, please bring me comfort.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: When what is often the case in the Bible is that those who willingly undergo discipline are the people who then not only experience blessings, but appreciate them more.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: So there is nothing.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing wrong, final thought.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing wrong with enjoying the blessings that the Lord has given to us.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: Don't hear me say that.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: If you have wealth, if you are prosperous, if you have your health, if you have all of these things, you don't need to feel guilty about enjoying the good things that the Lord has given to you, right?
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: But you must remember God.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're on the flip side, if you're somebody who's like, that is not where we are at right now in our life.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it does not feel like the promised land.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_01: It feels like the years of wandering.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: What is the Lord doing to draw you into this space?
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how is he using this to discipline you?
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: And are you recognizing that space so that you might be prepared for whatever the Lord brings to you next, whether it is hardship or prosperity?
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: Final question, summing it up.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: If you lost it all, would you still worship God?
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: And if you gained it all, would you remember God?
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: Play a little sort of hypothetical with yourself.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: Everything goes away like it does for Job in the Bible.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like, is our relationship with God still there?
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_01: Or was it based on the fact that things were going pretty well?
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: Or if every single prayer, every single answer was given to us, every single need provided in abundance for us, would we continue to remember the Lord and would our praise for Him increase?
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's probably one of those questions that impacts you, maybe more than the other, and draws us into worship for the Lord.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_01: So with that, let's go ahead and bow our heads and pray together.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: God, we thank you for today.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, we thank you for the times of wanting where you are with us, and we thank you for the times of blessing where you are with us.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, we thank you for how you walk with us through all the periods of life.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: And God, that you use it to draw us closer to you.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray that for those who feel like they really are in a time of digging wells right now, that God, you would strengthen them, you would encourage them, you would help them to see what you are doing for them, and that, Lord, before long, you would reveal to them what you have been preparing them for.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_01: And God, for those who are experiencing great blessings right now, of family and love and friends and material blessings and health and security and safety and Lord, many other things that you provide for us as good gifts.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_01: God, might we remember you in these spaces?
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_01: And Lord, especially if we have begun to drift away, realizing that things have been going pretty well for us.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_01: Might we be drawn back into just praise, Lord?
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_01: Thankful that our relationship with you is based less on request and more on thankfulness.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: And God, that that would be something that draws us deeper into our love for Christ.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: And God, finally, that as we consider Christ, we would look at Him as one who endured suffering so that we might gain, being thankful for Him that we are blessed through the blood of our Savior.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's in his name that we pray.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for being with us this morning.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: Love you.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great week.