Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] New year, new challenges, new hopes.
[00:00:05] Let's start off with a new prayer. Would you join me as we pray?
[00:00:09] We sang these songs, Father, and every one of us has lived our lives in unique ways over this past holiday season.
[00:00:20] Sometimes we have dropped the ball.
[00:00:22] Sometimes we've had joy. We didn't expect surprises along the way, but all of it, Father, you were working in the background to give us and to bless us with these gifts that we don't deserve.
[00:00:37] You have taken care of us. You have provided for us. You've given us a joy that is deep within our hearts and a peace that passes understanding.
[00:00:47] We are grateful for all of that. Most of all, Father, we are grateful for your son, Jesus Christ.
[00:00:53] He is the Savior, the one that loves us more than we can possibly know, and the one who gave us his life so that we could be family with you.
[00:01:04] So, Father, as we take time this morning, opening your word, looking into it, open the crevices of our hearts that need to be revealed. Shine a light in there. Help us to see you in a fresh, new way in 26.
[00:01:17] Be challenged in new ways to follow. You have a seed, faith that grows into fruit in 26.
[00:01:25] We're anxious to see what you have for us. We're anxious to see how you will use us to build your kingdom.
[00:01:31] Thank you for our church. Thank you for our blessings. Thank you for our family. We are grateful for all of these things. And we recognize, Father, unlike many in our world, all good things come from you.
[00:01:45] Thank you. We love you for it.
[00:01:47] We pray all these things in Jesus name.
[00:01:50] Amen. Please be seated. Church. Well, happy New Year's.
[00:01:55] I haven't seen you. I feel like I haven't seen you since last year. That never gets old, does it?
[00:01:59] Never gets old.
[00:02:01] First Sunday of the new year.
[00:02:05] And I have some news to share with you before we dive into God's word this morning. By the way, my name is Craig Jarvis, If I haven't met you, I'm the lead pastor here at Village Church East. Glad you're here. Glad you're joining us online. Welcome. We're grateful to have you join us for our service.
[00:02:20] Yeah. Some New Year's news to share with you. Some of you know my daughter Karis. She's home for the holidays, going to Liberty University.
[00:02:31] And she has had a boyfriend, Joe. You know Joe?
[00:02:36] He and her have been getting familiar with one another for several years now. Joe helps us out with our songs sometimes on a Sunday morning. He's very talented. Loves the Lord. Good young man. And so last Night, Joe proposed to Charis. And so they are official.
[00:03:00] Yes. So if you'd like to see the ring, it's available for display on my daughter's hand. You can see it after the service.
[00:03:10] We are grateful that God has moved in their lives.
[00:03:14] Joe is a young man that loves the Lord and I'm anxious to see what the Lord does in his life and through his life to bless others. You may not know this, but on his spare time, when he's not going to school at Judson, he helps challenge individuals with learning.
[00:03:33] And he does this on a regular basis. In fact, he's going to be doing that today. He works on Sundays on a regular basis. He has a huge heart and I'm anxious to see how he and my daughter will create a life together where they begin to love one another and serve others in their marriage. So, happy news. Congratulations, you guys. All right. We are also starting a new series, and a new series is in Deuteronomy. Now, if you've been tracking. See that? That's pretty good. If you've been tracking with us, we have gone through Numbers. Numbers is a book about.
[00:04:10] Well, a lot of interesting things happen there. There's vipers and diseases and all kinds of interesting stories in there that you can.
[00:04:20] Battles and things like that.
[00:04:22] Deuteronomy covers a lot of the same things that Numbers does, but Deuteronomy is more of a Cliff Notes, more of a. More of a journal entry idea from Moses.
[00:04:37] Of course, Moses has gone through all of these things with the children of Israel and in the Book of Numbers. And his thoughts and how he thinks about these things are largely listed in the Book of Deuteronomy. And so we've referenced Deuteronomy in our conversations through Numbers, but we're gonna start actually a series. It's gonna take us four or five weeks to go through.
[00:04:58] And instead of talking about all of the disasters and the fights and the hurricanes and all of the things that happened in the Book of Numbers, there were no hurricanes. There were some earthquakes.
[00:05:09] But we're going to be talking about Deuteronomy and approaching it from the encouragement from a leader's heart as the people go through these challenges in their lives. Some invited in on their own and some they didn't even ask for.
[00:05:25] And so we're going to be stopping over the next four or five weeks on these different passages that will reveal a heart of a leader to encourage his people through tough times.
[00:05:38] So my question for you this morning as we begin is, how many of you traveled over the holidays? How many of you traveled over the holidays? Yeah. Put any miles on the car or airplane?
[00:05:49] A lot of people travel over the holidays. We travel over the holidays quite often. This year we did not, which was actually kind of. Kind of a treat.
[00:05:57] Everybody came to us. We didn't go to anybody else. How many of you, though, when you travel, have this reoccurring knot in your stomach that you've forgotten something?
[00:06:08] Yeah, I do, too. I get in the car and I'm driving away, and I'm thinking, what am I forgetting? And there are larger consequences for forgetting some things than other things, right? So, like, for instance, in the winter, forgetting your gloves and. Is not as important as forgetting to put gas in your car. Right. Or forgetting to pick up dinner is not as bad as forgetting your anniversary. Right. There's a little more weight to one than the other. Or forgetting to take out the trash is not as consequential as forgetting the code to your safe at home. Right?
[00:06:43] So the thing that brought this to mind, we were watching Home Alone for the thousandth time, and the mother gets on the plane. You know the story for Home Alone, right? The mother gets on the plane and they're flying away, and wheels are up and everything. And she just looks at her husband. She says, I feel like I'm forgetting something. And he said, no, we remembered everything. She said, no, I got this knot in my stomach. I feel like we're forgetting something.
[00:07:10] And then he starts going through the list.
[00:07:13] Did you turn off the lights? Did you turn off the oven? We did all that. Garage door. Forgot to close the garage door. And then she's sitting back and she's thinking, yeah, that must be it. And then she's thinking, no, that's not it. It's something else. And then she remembers, what did she forget at home?
[00:07:28] That's right, she forgot Kevin.
[00:07:33] I don't know why, the way my brain works like it does, but I can remember all of the movie references from all the 80s movies, but I can't remember where I parked my car in the parking lot.
[00:07:47] My wife would say, my brain deletes essentials, but archives nonsense.
[00:07:52] So forgetting is normal for humans. I want to encourage you. I was curious, so I checked this out. What do you think? Take Kevin off there.
[00:08:01] What do you think people forget the most?
[00:08:04] What do you think people forget the most? What do you think is at the top of the list? Give it some time. What's that?
[00:08:10] Cell phone. No.
[00:08:12] What's that?
[00:08:13] Keys.
[00:08:15] Did you say that? Was that my wife? Yeah. That sounds Right.
[00:08:19] According to the latest stats, the most common thing that people forgot is where they put stuff. So keys would arrive there. Cell phone. So that's the first 11.9% of the time people forget things. It's where they put stuff, you know, where the second thing they forget the most.
[00:08:36] Names of people they meet.
[00:08:38] Yeah.
[00:08:40] So the question for the day is, what kind of implications are there in forgetting God's goodness in our lives?
[00:08:46] We forget a lot of stuff.
[00:08:48] It's a human experience. But what kind of implications are there if we forget about God's goodness in our lives, if we forget about his works in our lives? The Bible tells us constantly that we're supposed to remember the works of the Lord. In fact, in Psalm 77, verse 11, it says this. I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes. I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds.
[00:09:16] There's an aspect of the Bible that teaches us that we are to intentionally remember God's working in our lives, his grace in our lives, his mercy in our lives. We're supposed to rehearse this. We're supposed to do activities to remind us of this. You know this because every communion service we do, we talk about this, Right? For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do it in remembrance of me. There's an aspect of our walk with Jesus Christ where we are meant to remember the good things of God, his actions in our lives, his activity around us. And if we don't make an effort to remind ourselves of God's continued work around us from day to day, it is as consequential as forgetting gloves. Or is it more consequential, like forgetting to put gas in your snowblower when you got four inches, that falls overnight.
[00:10:16] So today we're picking up a new series. This January, we're going to track through the book of Deuteronomy. And today, the encouragement for today is this.
[00:10:26] In Deuteronomy, chapter 8, we come across this idea that we are meant to find encouragement when we remember God's work.
[00:10:35] All right, I want to plant that out there. This is the key to the whole morning.
[00:10:40] If you want to live a life where you are encouraged daily and God knows every one of us needs a little encouragement. Right. We thrive on encouragement.
[00:10:49] If you want to be the kind of person that finds encouragement on a daily basis, there's an aspect to your spirituality where you can help yourself by remembering God's grace, goodness intentionally going through, like a sheet of paper in your mind, where you fill it up on how good God has been to us.
[00:11:12] I think this is why the Bible, by the way, mentions that in our prayers.
[00:11:17] It doesn't matter we're offering supplications or we're asking for things, or we're in times of need, that we should always give thanks in our prayers because it's a reminder to us that God is always at work.
[00:11:32] So take your Bibles, if you would, and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8, starting in verse 1.
[00:11:38] Give you a little bit of background. And then we're going to find seven ways this morning that we can find encouragement in remembering God's work in our lives and the blessings, the benefits that that will bring to us.
[00:11:53] Deuteronomy 8:1. The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to your fathers.
[00:12:06] Now, Deuteronomy chapter 8 comes after Deuteronomy chapter 6 and chapter 5. And all of the Deuteronomy chapter, well, all of them before eight, deal with some of the things that make Israel into a nation.
[00:12:22] The Shema is in there. Do you know what the Shema is? Shema is a Hebrew word for hear. And it starts off this very important passage of scripture that every Hebrew knows and every Christian should know.
[00:12:37] Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. That's the Shema. That's right before chapter eight. In fact, you.
[00:12:45] A couple of chapters before chapter eight, you have the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not, Thou shalt not. All of these things, ten commandments, the Shema, instructions for how to live in the promised land. These are all given to the children of Israel, all given to this new nation that has now exited Egypt and is now building a nation for themselves.
[00:13:07] In Deuteronomy 6:12, it says, Take care, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. In other words, you have to be careful to not forget.
[00:13:22] Again, human nature, we forget stuff where we put our keys, where we left our kids, if you're doing home alone stuff.
[00:13:33] But this is an idea that we'd be careful not to forget because our children will need these reminders. We need these reminders. And so we are supposed to keep them in front of us at all times. Our children are meant to be reminded of our journey with the Lord so that they can correctly live out their journey in the future.
[00:13:53] So here we get to the first one of the things we shall remember so that we can be encouraged to build a future that's strong. Verse 2. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness. Now park there for a second and read that one more time.
[00:14:13] You shall remember the whole way. Isn't that interesting?
[00:14:18] Don't remember the wilderness, remember the way.
[00:14:23] Don't even remember the Lord. Remember the way the Lord led you in the wilderness, the way the Lord has guided you these 40 years so that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. So the first component is simply remembering the way God leads is meant to shape your character.
[00:14:46] This is not the geographical way the Lord leads in our lives. This is the methodological way the Lord leads in our lives. Remembering the way God leads is as important as the direction that he leads. God makes no mistakes.
[00:14:59] He doesn't need to fill time.
[00:15:02] He does things on purpose.
[00:15:05] Sometimes the way for us is easy and sometimes the way for us is not easy. True.
[00:15:13] Sometimes the way God leads us is challenging. And sometimes the way God leads us is just kind of like an everyday, come as you go kind of moment in our lives.
[00:15:24] And so Moses is telling children of Israel, like I think we are to learn today that even though life seems difficult, particularly when life seems difficult, particularly when it hurts and it stretches us, it's always meant to form us.
[00:15:39] And that is what we are to remember.
[00:15:41] Remember the way the Lord has led you. You'll find that it's essential.
[00:15:46] The way that he leads forms you into the person he's looking to make you into.
[00:15:54] Studies show that we forget most often unless a thing is revisited, a moment is rehearsed, or it's.
[00:16:01] Or it's an emotional moment in our lives that sinks in very, very deep for us. And our goal is to remember those life changing moments that God gives to us so that we can become the people he wants us to be through those moments.
[00:16:18] Remember the way the Lord has led you. The other thing I find interesting about this, Christopher, would you throw that verse up there one more time? Look at this. You shall remember.
[00:16:30] Isn't that interesting? This is not a request, this is a command.
[00:16:35] You shall remember. Why is it so important?
[00:16:38] Because this is how God humbles our hearts to reveal what's really there.
[00:16:45] We have these phones now which are awesome, right?
[00:16:49] Do you remember when we didn't have these phones? Anybody remember? Not the younger generation, I know, but when you didn't have the phones, you had a camera. And when you took a picture, you were very, very careful to take a picture because you only had 24 or 36 attempts, right? And if you blew it, too bad, so sad. And you couldn't look at it and say, it doesn't look right, let's do another one. You took it by faith that it was going to come out, right? And then you took it and you had to wait like eight or nine days to get your roll back.
[00:17:20] Now your cameras are full of a thousand pictures that are useless, right?
[00:17:26] And you're thinking to yourself, how in the world am I going to archive all these things?
[00:17:31] Sometimes this reminds me, sometimes there's things happen in our lives that we remember. And some things we just don't want to remember.
[00:17:41] Some things are just like normal to us, everyday moment, occasions to us.
[00:17:46] Other things are really special and other things are really hurtful. You never take a picture of a really hurtful moment. Isn't that interesting?
[00:17:56] We took a thousand pictures last night at the dinner after the big moment when Joe proposed to Charis. It was a big moment. And we took all these pictures and we stood and we took the candids and we took all of these pictures.
[00:18:15] But the moments that hurt the most, you don't take pictures.
[00:18:19] The funerals, the moments you're breaking down and crying, you know, take pictures of those things. Can I just offer you just a little thing about the heart of God? Maybe those moments that you don't want to take pictures of shape your heart the most.
[00:18:35] You don't want to remember them.
[00:18:37] But maybe, maybe God does it so that we can remember them.
[00:18:45] A church I worked at, one of the first churches I worked at in ministry, going through a tough time.
[00:18:52] Got into a situation where there was a lot of innuendos and accusations about stuff that just never happened. It was just misunderstandings along the way.
[00:19:04] And I got called in and I had to talk to the pastor about it. And I'm thinking to myself, this is so unfair. This is just.
[00:19:11] None of this is reality. It's just made up fantasy. And I had done nothing wrong. There was nothing.
[00:19:19] There was no sinful situation. It was just like stuff that had happened. And I had to sit in there and I had to make an account before the pastor. And I was ticked off because I don't know if this happens at your job or not, but I didn't do anything to deserve this.
[00:19:34] And all of a sudden I have to sit down with this pastor. So I go to see this other Pastor that worked at the church that I was at. And I sat down with him and I just, I vented. I just said, this is ridiculous. Like, none of this is true. This is just like, look at the character of these people and these people and look at my character. And he just said he waited for me to stop venting and then he just looked at me and he said, you know, Craig, sometimes you just have to eat humble pie.
[00:20:01] And I stormed out of his office. No, I didn't.
[00:20:04] But I wasn't happy to hear that.
[00:20:07] And I certainly didn't take a picture of it because it wouldn't have been something I want to remember. But you know what? It happened like 20 years ago, and I still remember it.
[00:20:17] Why? Because I learned a lesson that day that I had to learn. Sometimes church, you have to eat humble pie.
[00:20:25] Whether you're innocent, whether you're not innocent, it doesn't matter. Sometimes you have to eat humble pie. Why? Because it develops your character.
[00:20:34] Nobody likes somebody that's proud all the time.
[00:20:37] You know, we like people that are humble, that are self deprecating, that an understanding of themselves and a love for others.
[00:20:44] And sometimes you have to eat humble pie. These moments that hurt us, that humble us are sometimes the greatest moments that we should revisit because they shape our character.
[00:20:57] And this is what God is saying through Moses in chapter 8.
[00:21:02] God often teaches us his deepest lessons in the quiet classroom of humility.
[00:21:11] Here's the second one, starting in verse three. And he humbled you and let you hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that a man does not live by bread alone, but lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Does that verse sound familiar? It should, because Jesus quoted this one.
[00:21:33] This is another one that is really important to remember. The component number two for remembering in this verse and these verses are, remember specific incidences from your past that help you drive toward God.
[00:21:49] He let you hunger. Don't you think that's weird?
[00:21:52] God let his people hunger.
[00:21:55] Let them.
[00:21:56] If you're a parent, you know, you're thinking to yourself, well, my job is to make sure that my kids are the most comfortable that they will ever be. I want them to have a comfortable life now. I want them to be happy now. I want them to have a comfortable future. I want them to have a strong future where there's lots of income and they won't want for a thing in the world. Maybe that's not what God wants Ever think of that?
[00:22:18] I know, it's rough, isn't it?
[00:22:21] We drive toward comfort. But maybe God is like he did with the Israelites, letting them hunger on purpose.
[00:22:30] Why would he do that?
[00:22:32] Because they came up to the Promised land. God said, go over into the promised Land. And they said, nope, not going to do it.
[00:22:41] So they forced God's hand. And so he let them wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And while they're in the wilderness, he let them hunger. Why? Because they had to learn the lesson. Trust God's promises.
[00:22:59] Trust he will take care of you.
[00:23:04] What they didn't learn at the border of the promised Land, forcing them into 40 years in the wilderness, they still had to learn the lesson.
[00:23:11] And so he let them hunger so that they could learn. Learn to take him at his word, that he might make you know that we live by God's word and not by bread alone.
[00:23:25] The incident is, he let you hunger, and the purpose is to remind you to depend on God. Bread sustains the person, but God sustains the body.
[00:23:39] He wanted to give them a deeper anchor to lead them into the future. By the way, this is the same verse Jesus used when he was. Do you know when he used this verse?
[00:23:48] Anybody know?
[00:23:50] He used this verse three times. He was tempted by the devil when he was in the.
[00:23:55] Isn't that ironic?
[00:23:58] When Jesus is in the wilderness, this is the verse he calls out.
[00:24:03] This is the one when Satan comes to him and says, turn these stones into bread. By the way, he didn't do it. I know there's a song out there that says, jesus turned stones into bread.
[00:24:14] He didn't do it because he used that opportunity to draw from this moment in Deuteronomy.
[00:24:23] That reminded the Israelites what he would like for us to learn as well.
[00:24:28] Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Bread is important.
[00:24:34] It will sustain you, but only for a little while. It's like eating Chinese food. You're hungry in two more hours, bread will work, but it won't work long term.
[00:24:44] God's promises will work long term.
[00:24:49] Matthew 4. 3. It says it this way. The tempter came to him and said, you're the Son of God. Command these stones to be made into loaves of bread. And he answered and said, I love that. Jesus always says, if you think that Jesus didn't appreciate, love and promote the Old Testament, like, that's a stupid theology too. That's going around today. Old Testament was Old Testament, but when Jesus came, everything changed. And There's a moment. This is true truth in there. But you need to understand, every time Jesus taught, he always starts with it is.
[00:25:18] And where is it written?
[00:25:20] Old Testament.
[00:25:21] Why do you think we use the Old Testament here at village church? Because it is written.
[00:25:26] It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
[00:25:33] We get to the third one.
[00:25:35] Your clothing did not wear out. Verse 4.
[00:25:38] Your foot did not swell these 40 years.
[00:25:41] Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. This is the third component to what we are to remember. Number three. Remembering God's correction strengthens you for a stronger relationship later.
[00:26:01] Loving parents correct their children.
[00:26:05] Whoa. I know this may be new to you, but it's not to God.
[00:26:12] Loving parents correct their children.
[00:26:15] In fact, in the book of Proverbs, it says, a father who hates his son doesn't correct him.
[00:26:21] Loving parents correct their children. Why? Because they know remembering correction in the past strengthens a stronger relationship for the future.
[00:26:33] The difficulty you have faced in the past, God says, may have not been the Lord punishing you, but it may have been God forming you.
[00:26:43] And the same thing is true for us, Church. The difficulties that you remember in the past may not have been God punishing you out of anger or disappointment or whatever.
[00:26:54] May have been just God forming you to be who you need to be in love.
[00:27:01] Remember, God's discipline is always to form, not to forsake the way you remember. Past difficulties determine who you trust for future blessings. And so God disciplined them in the wilderness to teach them to trust.
[00:27:13] Food was still coming.
[00:27:16] I always think that this is interesting. Like, we tend to throw all of these accusations to God where we're the victim and he's the oppressor. And in the world today, that seems to be the case. But we forget so often. Again, forget. We just forget. Just open your Bible and read it. These guys didn't go into the Promised Land because they didn't trust him. So he sent them into the wilderness. But then he let them hunger so that he could feed them with manna. And when did the manna come, Church?
[00:27:43] Every day.
[00:27:45] Except for Sabbath every day.
[00:27:49] And they would go out and they would gather it and they would have food. Don't you find that so loving of God, that even in the discipline of these rebellious people, he still fed them?
[00:28:01] And he does the same thing for us as well.
[00:28:05] His discipline is to Help us realize, even in our most rebellious moments, God is still forming us. If we will bend to his discipline.
[00:28:17] The wounded heart always wants to play the victim.
[00:28:21] But we need to remember this correctly. God is forming us, not forsaking us.
[00:28:27] God is forming us, not forsaking us.
[00:28:31] Number four, verse seven. For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land. A land of brooks. This is one of my favorite. Listen to this. A land of brooks, of water fountains and springs flowing out of the valleys and hills. A land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates. A land of olives, olive trees and honey. A land where you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing. A land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And if you shall eat, and you shall eat and be full. And you shall bless the Lord for the good land he has given to you. This is number four. And here's number four. Remembering the past strengthens our drive for the future.
[00:29:11] Whatever it is that you've gone through in the past, however difficult it has been, look at it differently. Not like I was the victim and God has been good bad to me and he has forsaken me. Cause none of that is true. Remember it correctly and let that be the drive to send you into the future with a deeper trust in God. I love this passage in particular because it says it brags on God. Don't you love that? He gives you the brooks and the springs and the pomegranates and the barley and the wheat and the blah, blah, blah and the vines? It's all there.
[00:29:43] But you got to go pick it.
[00:29:46] You got to go gather it.
[00:29:48] You're not going to wake up one morning and the elves put a loaf of bread in your oven. It doesn't work that way.
[00:29:54] You got to go get the wheat, you got to thresh the wheat, you got to knead the wheat, you got to cook the wheat and then you get bread. I love this about God. He brags about all of the wonders of the land they're about to enter.
[00:30:09] But none of it is laying on the table when he gets there. When they get there, they've got to work for it.
[00:30:16] God's land would yield value for the future nation. But they must not be complacent. The land would prosper. God would put it in the ground. God would put it on the trees. But you got to pull it up. God will bring the seed, but you got to get it to the table. God will put Copper in the ground. God believes in mining holy smokes. God would put copper in the ground, but you got to go get it, you got to mine it.
[00:30:40] God provides everything you need, but that does not eliminate our determination, our drive to participate in his blessings.
[00:30:51] Some of God's best gifts may require diligent personal effort to uncover.
[00:30:58] So remembering God's blessings from the past will give us a stronger drive to provide and give God thanks for what we receive in the future.
[00:31:07] I love this because this is also a picture of Eden.
[00:31:10] Eden, the garden that God created. There was for Adam and Eve, full of blessings.
[00:31:18] All the fruit of the trees they could eat of, except one. But you got to go gather it, you got to go eat it, you got to go get it, you got to go cook it.
[00:31:27] And in the same way, when they get to this new land, it is going to yield for them all of these wonderful things. But they have to work and they have to get it. Do you know work is a part of God's image in you?
[00:31:40] I used to think when I was younger, I can't wait to get to heaven because I won't have to work anymore.
[00:31:47] I can't wait to get to the new kingdom, to eternity, because finally I can take a nap, you know, I don't have to work anymore.
[00:31:53] Work is a part of what God created us to be. Work is a kind of the image of God working out in us. Work is not a result of the Fall. Did you know that, like when Adam and Eve were in the garden, they were supposed to. Before sin entered into the world, they were supposed to work the soil. It's just that when sin entered in the world, the world, the land worked against them. It would be harder now, them going into the promised land. God is saying, I'm going to make the land work for you again.
[00:32:26] And Adam was commissioned, just like they were, to make whatever God gave them better.
[00:32:34] This is why the concept of work is not a bad thing. And it's not work to give to somebody else. It's work so that your hands can be blessed in doing what God has called you to do. And then that can be used to bless others.
[00:32:48] The result is gratitude after all of this. And you shall eat and be full. You shall bless the Lord, your God for the land that he has given to you. The more you receive from God, the more you receive from the land, the more full your heart will be. Of thanks to God for what he has given to you. You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord. Work means Blessings and work delivers a thankful heart.
[00:33:17] Number five. Take care. Lest you forget the Lord your God, by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, your silver and gold is multiplied, and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will be lifted up and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land, out of the house of slavery.
[00:33:43] Forgetting who provides is always revealed in personal behavior.
[00:33:51] Forgetting who provides is always revealed in personal behavior. If you think what you're doing is filling your future with hope, you will protect that thing until you die.
[00:34:04] You'll begin to love that thing.
[00:34:07] You will begin to serve that thing.
[00:34:10] A lot of guys serve their jobs because they look at that as future hope.
[00:34:15] This is a problem because no man is ever to work as their idol.
[00:34:23] If you take and take and take without remembering the hand who gave it to you, then you will become a pompous prude.
[00:34:30] God says, don't forget how you get there. This is God's blessing. Don't forget how you got here. Recognize God as the giver. How do you know that you've forgotten God? You won't keep his statutes anymore. You, you won't keep his rules. And you've forgotten the one who gave you this thing in the first place. AKA your heart will get lifted up. You'll say, I've done all this myself. And this is exactly what happened to Israel. Because they were supposed to, number four, keep the Sabbath commandment from God. Top 10, don't work on Sabbath.
[00:35:03] But because they looked at their work as their future hope, they protected it with everything they had. They thought to themselves, what? Why am I sitting back one day and not taking advantage? I could get a little more rich if I work this day.
[00:35:17] And they didn't keep the Sabbath. And this ticked God off over and over again.
[00:35:21] I don't need to obey God. It's not as important.
[00:35:25] I'll even work on the Sabbath. How does this translate into 2026 for us?
[00:35:30] What does this look like for us?
[00:35:33] If you use all the stuff God puts on your plate for other things other than blessing God first, you run the risk of creating an idol.
[00:35:47] We are meant to take everything that God has given us and steward them for God. Steward them for his glory. This is everything. Our wealth, our kids, our stuff, our time.
[00:35:59] Here's a rule of thumb.
[00:36:01] Whatever God has given to you, you should use as he would use it.
[00:36:06] All right, let me say that one more time. Whatever God has given to you, you should use it as he would use it. You are a steward. It's on loan.
[00:36:18] So my next question is, what do you have that God has not given to you?
[00:36:24] Nothing.
[00:36:26] So therefore, everything that we use is meant to honor God.
[00:36:30] Always honor God as a source of all you have so that you can guard your heart.
[00:36:36] Your children, given to you by God, raise them for the Lord first. Your time, given to you by God, use it for him first. Your wealth, given to you by God, use it for him first.
[00:36:47] You have nothing that he has not given to you. Your computer, that God has given to you, use it for him first. Your car, your house, your land, or whatever it is, use it for him first. You are steward of those things. Remember where you got it from so that you can use it for him in the future.
[00:37:06] Colossians 3:17 says, Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to the Father through Him you can tell those who are remembering God and those who have forgotten God. Those who remember God will fear God, they will obey God, and they will love God. Those who forget will neglect God's commandments, they will neglect God's rules, and they will not pay attention to his statutes.
[00:37:31] Number six. Beware, lest you say in your heart. Number verse 17. My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.
[00:37:39] You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
[00:37:49] Number six is this. And it kind of flows off. Number five. Remember the source of your life to shine the spotlight on him for future generations.
[00:37:59] The way you use your stuff now has implications on what your children see, what your friends see, what the world around you sees.
[00:38:07] This is what he means by that he might confirm his covenant to your fathers. His covenant wasn't made with these people, it was made with their fathers. So they are to steward the things that God has given to them, remembering where they came from in the Father first place, so that future generations would constantly be drawn back to God.
[00:38:27] Giving God credit for your successes keeps the light on him for future generations.
[00:38:33] Your acknowledgement and the remembrances of where you got things from in the first place will redirect not only your heart, but the heart of future generations. This is why I pray in restaurants.
[00:38:44] Our family will bow our heads and we'll pray in restaurants.
[00:38:48] This Used to be a normal thing. It's hardly done anymore. In fact, I don't know if it's even done in people's homes anymore.
[00:38:55] Calvin said you should pray. John Calvin said you should pray after a meal. Because if the meal is bad, you can remember to still give God thanks.
[00:39:06] That's how important it is to pray. And praying before a meal or after a meal is not magic. You know what it does? It reminds you where you got the sleep stuff to begin with.
[00:39:16] This is not your doing. It's not the planet's doing. It's not your lucky stars. God has given this to you.
[00:39:25] Give him thanks for it.
[00:39:27] Maybe in 26, you need to simply not for any magic or anything.
[00:39:33] Just make a decision that you're gonna bow your head and pray not only at home, but in public places. Because when you do that, you redirect the attention of everybody around you so that they know you're giving thanks to the one who deserves the credit.
[00:39:50] The farmer raised the pig. The butcher killed the pig.
[00:39:55] Somebody business bought the pig. The guy in the back fixed the pig. I'm saying pig because I really like pig. The guy in the back fixed the pig.
[00:40:06] The attendant brought the pig to you and put it in front of you. You ate the pig, but who created it?
[00:40:13] God. That's right.
[00:40:15] From the mouths of infants.
[00:40:19] You just made a great illustration for me. Because if we remember to give thanks to who thanks is due, who hears that? The children.
[00:40:27] The next generation.
[00:40:29] You made this illustration really good, Jojo. Thank you.
[00:40:33] I want to encourage you, remembering where you got your stuff might just be an important part of what you should start doing in 26.
[00:40:43] Pray in public.
[00:40:45] Give thanks to God in public. Listen, anyone can kill a pig, but only God can create a pig.
[00:40:51] And if you forget your great God, there's an obvious outcome. And that brings us to the last one, number seven. If you forget the Lord, your God, and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today you shall perish.
[00:41:06] Apparently, remembering God and his work in and around us is so important that if we don't do it, we will perish.
[00:41:15] A little more important than remembering where you left your keys.
[00:41:20] Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, you will perish too, because you will not obey the voice of the Lord. Component number seven is this.
[00:41:28] When we remember.
[00:41:30] Remember, forgetting God holds eternal consequences.
[00:41:36] If you forget God, you will perish. Why? Because you will credit something else for that good thing.
[00:41:44] Your intelligence, your lucky stars, your investments. Listen, the World will provide you lots of things to thank other than God. Where do you think we got the term Mother Earth from?
[00:41:55] Please don't ever use mother Earth.
[00:41:59] Because mother Earth is saying the earth is your mother. Earth is saying the earth is your mother.
[00:42:08] The earth is not your mother. The earth is created by God and given to you to steward for Him.
[00:42:15] The earth is not your mother if the earth is your mother. The earth has provided everything you need. You can knife God and get rid of Him.
[00:42:24] I want to read you a passage of scripture that I think puts us very clearly from Romans chapter 1 and verse 18.
[00:42:32] The drive of the human nature is to forget intentionally that God is the giver of all good things. And there's consequences to that.
[00:42:40] There's consequences to that. And they're given to us way back in Romans chapter one. Here's what it says. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by unrighteousness suppress the truth.
[00:42:53] For what can be known about God is plain to them.
[00:42:57] Church what can be known about God is plain to everyone because God has shown it to them. How has he shown it to them? For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power, his divine nature, have been clearly perceived. Everybody say clearly perceived.
[00:43:15] When you see something, clearly perceived, when it's right in front of you, clearly perceived.
[00:43:20] Ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made, whatever God has made is meant to point us to Him. When we forget to acknowledge that we will worship other things.
[00:43:32] So they are without excuse.
[00:43:34] Verse 21. For although they knew God, they didn't honor him as God, nor give thanks to Him. Did you see it?
[00:43:42] Nor give thanks to Him.
[00:43:45] Why? Because they got this stuff on their own. Mother Earth gave it to them. Whatever. They became futile in their thinking. Their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise. They became fools. And they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men and birds and animals and creeping things. They gave glory to something else for what they enjoyed in this life. That is the difference between those who follow Jesus and those who don't. Those who follow Jesus know where the things come from. They give thanks to God. Those who do do not follow Jesus don't know where their things come from. And so they don't give thanks.
[00:44:17] And apparently that matters to God, or he wouldn't have written it like this.
[00:44:22] With foolhardy hearts they forget God and then they become a slave to those things. And I don't want to take our Time here. But you can watch what people.
[00:44:35] Whatever people protect the most is what they love the most.
[00:44:38] Whatever you're protecting the most is what you're loving the most.
[00:44:42] So people, if they love the things that God gives them and worship those things, you can watch what's most important by what is protected the most by those individuals.
[00:44:53] And then they serve them.
[00:44:55] Whatever you serve represents what you fear. Leaving the most, losing the most fear, money, future, children, whatever it is. I've seen people that turn their children into their idols because they fear losing them so much they'll abandon faith in God to try and grab onto their kids.
[00:45:13] And in doing so, they not only lose their kids, they also lose their faith in God.
[00:45:20] We think by hanging onto it and protecting us, protecting it, we'll keep it. It'll be our pet, our cute little bunny.
[00:45:29] But in actuality, Jesus says this. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?
[00:45:40] When you forget to praise God and worship him, what happens?
[00:45:43] You'll forget him, which leads to worshiping other gods, which leads to destruction and death.
[00:45:52] So what? Here's three. So what's real quick. Number one. Remember on purpose or you'll drift by default.
[00:45:58] That's actually really good.
[00:46:01] Remember on purpose or you'll drift by default.
[00:46:04] Forgetting is not rebellion at first.
[00:46:07] God knows I've forgotten so many things. It's ridiculous, right?
[00:46:11] Forgetting is a part of the human nature. Forgetting is not rebellion, not at first. It's just neglect.
[00:46:17] No one wakes up planning on forgetting the Lord.
[00:46:21] It happens. When we stop rehearsing his faithfulness, we forget when we stop rehearsing God's faithfulness.
[00:46:29] We don't drift toward God, but we can remember our way back.
[00:46:33] If you don't intentionally remember how God has provided for you, how he has led you, how he has formed you, then your heart will slowly drift away from Him.
[00:46:44] And let me just say, whatever you don't remember, you eventually replace.
[00:46:49] Number two.
[00:46:51] Let past hardships shape you, shape your trust, not your bitterness.
[00:46:58] What do I mean by that? God used hunger, discipline, painful incidences to form this Israel into a nation, these Jewish people into a nation. They had to be formed. They had to be created. They had to be given moments that they can remember so that they would appreciate who they were becoming.
[00:47:19] So I would ask you to consider church. The wilderness that you go through may not be God's punishment. It may just be him forming you.
[00:47:29] It may not be because you've done anything wrong. It may just be because he needs you to Be who he needs you to be tomorrow.
[00:47:36] He's forming you into an image of his son.
[00:47:39] So can you remember your trials? Maybe not as punishment, but as formation.
[00:47:44] If you can, you might just stop blaming God and instead trusting Him.
[00:47:52] The way you remember yesterday determines how you trust God tomorrow. So I'd encourage you church whatever it is that has like those moments in my life that sitting across from the pastor, being accused of something that I didn't do, when everything in me says, God, why are you treating me this way?
[00:48:10] Think of going to the other pastor and having a conversation with him and him in all his wisdom saying, craig, sometimes you just have to eat humble pie.
[00:48:20] Maybe whatever you're going through is so you can learn to trust God better tomorrow. Number three. Work hard, but never forget where the blessings come from.
[00:48:30] I love this part of it.
[00:48:32] Work hard, but never forget where the blessings come from. God gives land, God gives resources, God gives opportunity. But he still requires his people to work, steward and grow.
[00:48:43] Remember, God's provision should never make us passive or negligent. Let me just speak to you guys out there for a second. Men, you are created to work. Women too. I mean, we're all created to work, but men in particular.
[00:48:56] Men in particular, and I have seen in my life so many men that have given up this, this privilege of working hard and they become passive and they let other things occupy their time.
[00:49:09] So I want to talk to the young men out there and even to the middle aged men.
[00:49:14] There's an aspect of our lives that becomes fuller when we live out the image of God in us by working, work. Learn how to do something different. Learn how to work on your car, learn how to, how to work in the ground, learn how to cook, learn how to clean. Your wives are going to love you for this work. Men, we are created as the image of God to work. It is the condition that was given to Adam and it's passed down to all of us, particularly males. We are meant to work, not play video games. Do you get it? We are meant to use our hands. This is how we live out the image of God in us women too. But a little sidebar for men.
[00:49:56] It should make us grateful, diligent and humble. God's grace provides the resources, but our faith puts them to work. So last thing I want to say, it's up on the screen. Who you remember determines what you trust. And what you trust determines how you live.
[00:50:11] Who you remember determines what you trust.
[00:50:14] If you remember it's God, you're going to trust him.
[00:50:18] And what you trust determines how you live in the future.
[00:50:23] Deuteronomy chapter 8 Remember the goodness of God.
[00:50:29] It'll be powerful for a strong future.
[00:50:33] The anchors of our memories in the past will drive us in the storms of life.
[00:50:43] And there will be storms.
[00:50:45] But if your anchor is in the goodness of God in the past, the promises of God made to you, the blessings of God all around you, you will have a firm foundation to move into your future regardless of the storms.
[00:51:01] Let's pray.
[00:51:03] Father, I'm grateful for this passage of scripture. There's so much stuff in here. It's just amazing to me that you have given us a book, Deuteronomy, written thousands of years ago, but so powerful for us to even start our 26 off with.
[00:51:20] Help us to be a group of people at Village Church east, those online friends of our church. May we be the people you have called us to be that remember your goodness. May we be bold about it. May it help point future generations to the one who gives us all good things.
[00:51:40] You have been way kind to all of us and so I want to start off 26 by saying thank you.
[00:51:50] Thank you Father for your blessings and help us Father to be the kind of people that remember them on a regular basis in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:52:01] It.
