Take care, lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and rules and his statutes which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full in a built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with the mana your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart my power and my power in the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth, that He may confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers as it is this day. Let us pray. Father I pray this morning as we consider these words of Moses I pray that you would make it clear to whom they point. That is Jesus I pray that you be in my head and in my thinking, in my heart and in my understanding and in my mouth and in my speaking. Father I pray that you'd open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf this very day. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. You know there are very few things that I just dread in life. I mean there are a lot of things I don't like and there are a lot of things that frustrate me. But the things that I dread and one of them is coming up this week. And that thing that's coming up this week that I dread happens once a year and that's my annual physical exam. And the reason it happens to be this week is because I wouldn't let me reschedule more than three times. Why do I hate the exam? It's not because I'm afraid of being sick. In fact I feel good. Look good, right? You know why do I need to go? And yet I go because other people tell me I have to. And nonetheless I go and the reason I don't like it is because the doctor is always probing. Especially I'm 42 years old now and it seems like every year he has more questions and more things he wants to know about me. And you know you sit down and he pulls out my sheet and he goes well he always first thing. Well blood pressure is a little high. Probably because you just hate being here, right? Bingo. But then he goes down the list so are you exercising? Can't lie to your doctor. I can't. So I failed that one. Are you excited? How about your diet? He keeps, he asks and asks and asks and you want to get it? Okay. Sorry about that. He asked you all these questions and you know what would it be like? You know the other thing that I have going going for me is I grew up on the beach in South Florida and I'm practically an albino. And so now he wants to basically I have to be completely unclothed and he wants to check every inch of my body for sun damage. Now what if the doctor came to me and he said Tommy you know tell me tell me about your stress level. Actually he never asked me that because he knows I'm a pastor but let's assume he said ask me about your stress level and I say you're not sending your business. And he goes okay. How about are you exercising? None of your business. How about diet? None of your business. How about like your damage from the sun dude none of your business. Would you think I was crazy if I said that to him? You would. Now consider this. God himself is the great physician of our souls and there are lots of areas in our lives where he says he asks his question or he says let me look at that. And what do we say to him? None of your business. The primary thing that he asks over and over 2,500 times in the Bible he mentions it and yet more Christians than not when they're confronted with the issue say that's on your business. What's the issue? It's issues that revolve around money. You see money money issues God is the one who is the great physician of our souls and he's constantly diagnosing us and he constantly wants to see if there be anything that he can help us with. And yet oftentimes when you get to the issue of money most Christians go that's none of your business. And the bottom line is if you're a Christian is there any part of your life that God is not allowed to ask about. Is there any part of your life that God's not allowed to probe is there any part of that God's not allowed to examine and see if you need a little help there. And the issue is in my experience as a pastor and just from the witness of the Bible that money is the primary issue that God tends to want to deal with our hearts about because money is actually the way we handle money the way we're stewards of our wealth is the way is one of the primary ways to diagnose whether or not you're actually growing in Christ. You see because if the gospel is true what it means is you've experienced the generosity of God and more and more and more you're becoming a generous person. And so happy Mother's Day we're going to be talking about giving today. Actually we're going to be talking about giving we're going to be talking about stewardship for the next three weeks. There's another reason though where I want to talk about stewardship and those of you who have been here for a while know that every year I think it's so important that I talk about giving because the Bible says so much about it. But there's also another reason that is more specific I think to our church now that I've been senior pastor I think it's for almost a year maybe two. I don't know I'd sort of morphed into it but either way now that I've been here one thing that always that's bothered me is what is what I'm going to call the elephant principle. You know when I was a kid one of my favorite animals at the zoo were elephants I love watching National Geographic specials about elephants the only place that I can't stand seeing elephants is right in the middle of the room. And when in most churches when you begin to talk about money or you begin to talk about the church budget it's the elephant in the room and in my experience in our church the church budget is the elephant in the room and every year since I've been here. When it comes budget time all the sudden everyone sort of changes right you got the being counters are constantly saying I don't know if we can afford it we need to cut the budget we need to do it you got other people who say well I think I think it's good but do you guys even know like what what we're capable of giving. And you basically everyone sort of shuts down and we don't know because over the years our churches in a fabulous job with the process of coming up with a budget. But we've not what we've not done to well of a job of doing is is developing an overall plan for stewardship and developing God's people as stewards and until you begin to do that every year at budget time it's going to be this time of like I don't know I don't know do you trust like I don't know let's ask questions. Only until what one only if you address the elephant in the room can you begin to actually address the real issues of what we should be doing with our money as a church. And so you're going to find today I'm going to mention it again in your order of worship there's this stewardship survey. And basically the reason we I'm asking I asked the session and I prove that this the only way that we can begin to to answer questions honestly about our budget is if we get a little bit of information from you as a congregation. It's an anonymous survey it'll take you less than a minute to fill out and I'm asking you to sometime during the service if I hit a low spot in my preaching you could do it then fill this out do it by household not by individual. And just put it in the offering plate as it goes by or if you need to give it to one of the ushers on your way out I'd ask you to do that as well because one one of the questions we have to ask is what is our congregation capable of giving. In other words we can't we can't make a good budget unless we know who what it is we're dealing with what what are the raw materials if you will. And so it's helpful though if you if you're willing to do this to do it and put it in the offering plate the more data we have the more we'll be able to work with it. And if you for some reason don't want to fill it out then don't I don't want to say because I won't know anyway I won't know if you did or didn't so don't no one will know but I'd encourage you to do it as we move into the stewardship and we'll let you know how the numbers come out on that. So this morning we're going to sort of set the groundwork for this whole idea of stewardship we're in a sense we're going to look at what what is even the context of stewardship we're going to do it from Deuteronomy chapter 8. And we're basically going to look at three things this morning we're going to look at one thing to remember and two things not to forget. One thing to remember two things not to forget or one thing to remember and two warnings are two dangers so what's the first thing when we talk about one thing to remember what are we talking about from the passage that I read you. Really it's all of chapter 8 really it's the whole book of Deuteronomy the word Deuteronomy means something like the second law and the book of Deuteronomy was written to the second generation of Israel because Moses didn't want them to repeat the same mistakes that their parents made. And what they forgot was the gospel they forgot the gospel and they forgot the context if you will of generosity. And what's the context of generosity what's the context it's it's simply this it's this thing that Christians call the gospel. What was the gospel to Israel it was just this that that they were in bondage and slavery and Egypt and God came by his grace and he delivered them from their bondage and slavery and made them a promise. I'm not only going to take you out of your bondage and slavery but I promise you I'm going to take you in to the promise land into the land of Canaan. And for 40 years they walked through the desert doing lap after lap because the generation that had been delivered out of Israel didn't really believe the second part of that promise they didn't have faith and so since they didn't have faith they had unbelief God just kept making them do laps. And that's where the story picks up here the second generation now is getting ready to walk in and Moses wants to remind them basically not to repeat the mistakes of their fathers. I'll give you a few verses from chapter 8 at the beginning that's not in your order of worship. What's the context it says the whole commandment that I command you today you should be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness that he might humble you testing you to know what was in your heart whether or not you would keep his whether you keep his commandments or not. And he let you hunger and fed you with mana which you did not know nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. You're clothing did not wear out on you your foot did not swell these 40 years know that in your heart as a man disciplines his son the Lord your God disciplines you. What Moses is reminding them of is not the gospel in the sense that of their deliverance from Egypt but what he's reminding them of here now is God's ongoing care when in the midst of hard times. In other words they got in the wilderness if you ask anyone who made that wilderness experience what was it like was it pleasant to a person they would say no is prime miserable and the question is will the God take care of you during that time the answer is yes. In other words even in the midst of hard times even in the midst of trials and tribulations the question you have to ask yourself is God still faithful. In our context it might be this question in the midst of a down economy in the midst of hard times in the midst of a lot of fear about what's going to happen is God still faithful in the midst of that. Will God still provide in the midst of that and you look back at the history of this church or any church and when times were hard and you look back and you say was God with us that whole time. Did he take care of us and in fact when hard times come at least from this text the point of the hard times it appears is that God is actually testing Israel to see whether or not they will remain faithful to him. Will they trust him in the midst of hard times and did you catch what says he says I let them be hungry. I let them feel it I let them feel a little bit of the toughness that I might feed them but also so that they might know that man shouldn't live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. In other words God in the Hebrew worldview when God speaks it is tantamount to action. In other words when God promises you can just you can count on that it's a fact so when he says that man should not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. In some sense those go together that if God promises you he's going to take care of you and he will never fail you or forsake you you can count on that just as if it has already been done. And so that's what Moses is reminding the first generation of his remember God took care of you during that whole journey through the wilderness that he might test you. He didn't just talk about their journey but he he reminds them of their past but he talks about their future as well and did you notice let me read to you what their future will be like. He says in verse 7 for the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land a land of Brooks of water a fountains of springs flowing out of the valleys and hills a land of wheat and barley a vines fig trees pomegranates a land of olive trees and honey a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity in which you will lack nothing. And you shall eat and be full and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. So on one hand he reminds them of the past that God God took care of them in the past but he also reminds them that God promises them abundance. The land that they're going into in other parts of the Bible says it was like the land of Eden remember when the spies went in to check it out. It was like the land of Eden it was so lush and it was so abundant and it is such that they will never experience lack in that land. They will have abundance they were more than they could ever ask or imagine. In the same way the gospel to us is the same thing right. The Jesus delivers us from our bondage it's called sin. And he promises he'll never leave us or forsake us and he takes care of us the whole way and you remember I preached on it a couple weeks ago. Jesus promised that he not only would give you life but he would give you life how. I'll give you life in life abundantly. The promise from Jesus is that we would not just have life but have abundant life. Now the question is is that mean physical or not? Is he promising us physical abundance or is he promising us something else? And the answer is pretty clear that it can't only be physical abundance or material abundance because there are a lot of places in the world that trust Jesus where they're dirt poor. So what's that mean for us? Fortunately for us we can identify with this because not only has God promised Jesus when he promises us life abundant is that does that play out spiritually but it also plays out physically. In other words if you live in North America you are experiencing abundant life materially speaking. There's no question about it you know this week. Here's a website if you want to have a little fun this afternoon. It's called globalrichlist.com. It's pretty simple site. You go there and you plug in your annual salary. You can do it in US dollars, pounds, yen, whatever you like. Put it in there. And you hit the you hit a button and then within seconds it pops out exactly where you stand with regard to the rest of the world. Like for example, Bill Gates is the the rich. He's number one on that list. He is number one out of six billion plus people. He's number one on the list. I put in my salary which everyone knows since I'm the pastor. I put in my salary and I came out out of six billion plus people. I'm like the 41st millionth richest person in the world. 41 million back sounds pretty far back until you consider the pool from which it's coming. Six billion. In fact the the average household income for the United States in according to 2007 census the latest data was just a few hundred dollars over fifty thousand dollars a year. And if you put fifty thousand dollars a year into globalrichlist.com you know where you come out on that. You're in the top one percent of all the people in the world as far as how wealthy you are. Something to think about isn't it? So when you're as wealthy as we are. When you're filthy rich like we are. What are the dangers of that? You see because on one hand we tend to think of the Israel's time in the wilderness as their biggest test. Their time of poverty and their time of not having anything as being like this great test that they went through but a bigger test and the bigger test for Israel is the same test that's just as big for you and I. And that test is not what you're going to do with your property but what you're going to do with your wealth. And Moses anticipates that and so he actually gives them two warnings about the issue of wealth. Let me look at the first warning in verse 11. In verse 11 he says, take care unless you forget the Lord your God but not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes which I command you today. Less when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them and when you're heard and your flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied. Then your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God. So what's the first danger of prosperity? The first danger of prosperity is amnesia. The first danger of prosperity is amnesia. You forget where it came from. You see if grace is true that means that you and I deserve nothing and everything that we have at some level has been given to us. And yet when we're giving great wealth and prosperity the temptation is to just forget the God himself. Why is that? If that's the question the answer has to be did you another question which is was God really the thing you desired in the first place? You see we all give effortlessly to the things that we call God. So if you want to know what your true gods are just look at where you spend your money and Moses is warning them when you get in and you are full and you have no lack at all your first temptation is going to be to forget the Lord your God. What's the remedy to that temptation immediately follows up with the remedy to the temptation or the problem of amnesia that's due to prosperity and to wealth? And what is the remedy to amnesia regarding who God's providence and his wealth? The remedy of course is the gospel itself. The remedy is the generosity of God. If you've gotten to a point where you have what you need and because you have what you need you don't even pray anymore why bother? The remedy to that is to remember the generosity of God and that's what Moses does notice what he says to him. And verse 14 he says your heart will be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery who led you through great terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions. Thirsty ground where there was no water out of the fluently rocky fed you with mana. The remedy he gives is the gospel to generosity of God. You need to constantly remind yourself where it is you came from. Do you remember if you are a Christian do you remember what it was like before you were a Christian? Do you remember what it was like when you were lost and felt abandoned and felt orphaned? And the remedy to this problem here is to remind yourself of that. But it's also to remind yourself of God's generosity because he says remember the Lord your God who delivered you out of the land of Egypt. Do you remember what it cost them to be redeemed out of the land of Egypt? Remember it cost a lamb during Passover cost every family had to take a lamb and they had to slaughter a lamb and to the average family that was pretty expensive. It was a big sacrifice to give a lamb and they would slaughter the lamb and they put the blood over the door and the angel would come through and he would pass over those. That's nothing compared to the extravagant expense that God went through to deliver us from our Egypt. We did deliver Israel from their age of it cost a lamb to deliver us from our Egypt from our sin. It cost a lamb as well but that lamb of God who's name Jesus. That Jesus God spared no expense in order to deliver us and what Moses saying God spares no expense to deliver you that ought to change the way you look at your wealth. If the more you realize what it costs God to deliver you the more open your hands will be when it comes to actually helping out other people. You see what I'm talking about now it's not just you notice I didn't say where we are in our church budget we're down and we're up. I don't care about that. What matters right now is where you are with Jesus and if you are seeing Jesus for who he is how could you help but be generous. But there's another there's another obstacle that Moses points it out the the second the first danger of prosperity is amnesia the second danger of prosperity is self righteousness or presumption because Moses is anticipating right. The people are going to get in the land and they're going to have all this stuff and someone's going to come along and you say you know you remember God delivered us out of Egypt and he gave us all this stuff. What would the be the response to that it's the typical American response by the way I'll read it to you. Verse 17 he says beware lest you say in your heart my power in the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth that he may confirm is covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is this day. In other words I mean if you ever listen to the radio or watch the news you hear people complaining I'll be honest I'm going to put something on table I cannot stand. High taxes it drives me crazy every you know everyone I turn something on I hear someone wants more from me that drives me crazy. But when you hear people talking about that what do you often hear I produce this I made it with my own hands and therefore no one else should be able to have it. And that might be true when it comes to the government it is completely false when it comes to the gospel because when you consider the gospel you never have the right to say this is my stuff I work for it I produce it and therefore no one can touch it because at that point Moses says don't you know Tommy even the power to earn that came from God. Everything that he didn't just give you this stuff he gave you the power to earn the stuff that at the end of the day you are completely and utterly reliant upon his grace do you understand that Tommy. Most of the time I say no but there's something bigger do you notice what he attaches to the end of this he says that don't forget this in order that God may confirm to you the covenant that he makes this day and that he made with your fathers what's the covenant that God made with the fathers starting with Abraham. The covenant that God made with Abraham remember it started in Genesis chapter 12 God called Abraham out and he said I'm going to give you two things I'm going to give you an heir and a great people will come from you Israel and he said I'm going to give you land the promise land they're getting ready to walk into it. Now we always forget what was their part of the bargain what was Abraham side of the bargain in that covenant that God made with their fathers namely Abraham. I'm going to give you an heir and I'm going to give you a land and you on the other hand your job in this covenant is to be a blessing to all the families in the earth. That's why I'm calling you that's why I'm giving you all this stuff that's why I'm giving you ares that's why I'm giving you the promise land that Abraham that is why I'm going to give your descendants the most abundant wealth the earth is ever known so that your descendants can be a blessing to all the families on the earth. That's why I'm giving it to you don't forget what's that have to do with us same thing the reason God has given us our well first of all do you realize that not only does he own everything but that he has given us everything that we have but also that he has given us everything that we have in order that we might be a blessing to everyone around us. If your answer to that question is yes then that changes your life because then every single spending decision you make becomes a spiritual decision. It becomes a spiritual decision should I spend this money on myself or should I give it to someone else who needs it more. In mind you I'm not talking about being a taxing you I'm talking about are you becoming a more and more generous person think about that this week. Next week we're going to start talking about the issue of tithing. Now some of you I know immediately think well New Testament says nothing about tithing and you're right the New Testament says you're to give everything so I'm going to cut you some slack by only talking about tithing. Think about that don't forget your survey let me pray for us. Father I just pray that as we consider the gospel we consider what you have done for us in the past what you continue to do for us in the future and what you promise to do continue to do for us now we promise in the future that we would become more and more generous not because we have been made to feel guilty but because we have been made to feel grateful. We pray these things in Christ name. Amen. Amen.