This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. This morning we'll be reading from Deuteronomy 8-10-20. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God. Failing to observe His commands, His laws, and His decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your hands and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase, and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert that thirsty and waterless land, with the venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you mana to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you, so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me, but remember the Lord your God for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant which He swore to your forefathers as it is today. If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God. Thanks Charles, this is God's Holy and inspired word that we look at here this morning. If you haven't already turned there in your Bible, go ahead and do to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8. It's also I think in the insert there in your bulletin as well that you can follow along along with it. A place where you can take some notes if you so desire to do this morning. We yesterday was an eventful day for lots of different reasons. It was probably a day for some of you that you would like to forget, your Crimson Tide fan, Florida Gator fan, Kentucky Wildcat fan maybe perhaps, or it could be a day that you want to remember for some of our families here. We had homecoming kids going off to homecoming last night. We had kids coming home from college, which was a very cool thing as well too over the weekend. But irony of all that is that we have the power to remember. We have the power to forget. But my question for you this morning, as we look at this text, is are you remembering God? Are you remembering the giver of all good things? As it's already been mentioned we're in a stewardship series and we will be the next few weeks as we're talking about that. And I really don't want to spend a whole lot of time especially this morning talking really at all about money directly. And I want to talk about other kinds of stewardship like your time and your talents and your abilities and your possessions or things like that. Stewardship has something to do with all of that. But what I really want to talk about is do you know the one who is the giver of all good things? And this text very clearly reminds us and it points to not forget. What Mark Twain said once, I'm opposed to millionaires but it would be dangerous to offer me the same position. Zig Ziglar also said about money. Money won't make you happy but everybody wants to find out for themselves. And there's a whole lot of truth to both those quotes from very profound men. And even more important quote from the son of God himself in Matthew 6.21. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Money and how much we give has much to say about where our hearts are. And we know that's true especially living in the most wealthiest country in all the earth. Most wealthiest country in generation really of all time here living the United States of America. Let me talk a little bit more about that. Let me share some statistics that probably most of you won't be surprised by our pretty much familiar with. But in 2001 almost 10 years ago 80 million families in the US said they were in financial trouble. After 50 years of almost unparalleled prosperity for our country. And you can imagine it's probably not much better today and probably much worse with our economy where we're at. About 43% of American families spend more than they earn each year. That's a current statistic. Average households carry some $8,000 in credit card debt and personal bankruptcies have doubled in the past decade. As far as giving goes it's an estimated 60 billion dollars each year are donated churches or religious organizations each year here in the United States. Now that actually sounds like a pretty good figure number but let's compare it to some other things that we spend in our country. Do you know that $40 billion? It's estimated that it's spent by Americans on their pets alone. And 60 billion equal to that of what is given to churches or Christian organizations will be spent on weight loss programs in the course of a year. Kind of puts things in perspective. 40% of church members say they overspend monthly giving and giving by church members was higher during the Great Depression than it was in 2004 where I got that statistic. Can't imagine any better now in 2010. 3 to 5% of Christians tithe following the scriptures mandate to give 10% of your income back to the Lord. And Christians worldwide have a personal income tolling more than $16 trillion but only 2% give to Christian causes at all worldwide. What does giving say about our hearts? And this important question is that is again I want to focus this morning what does giving say about the heart of God? So we're going to look as this text points out many ways of how God does just that, how he gives and how he is a giver. Some questions I want you to ask yourselves as we go through here is what does giving say about the heart of God? That's the first one but too. How do we become givers like God? God's told us in his word that we're made in his image. We know as those who are followers of Christ that our design is to be reflecting that image, to be more more like God Himself and specifically through Jesus Christ who was the very perfect picture of what mankind should look like as you walked here on earth. And ask yourselves this question, have you forgotten God? I remember reading a story of an example back in 2006 there was a 6 year old named Michael Emmanuel living in Boca Raton, Florida not far from here. And he was at his own 6th birthday party like every kid his age should be at their party. They're at Chuck E. Cheese in Boca Raton. Well the party went great they had friends they had families there and everything was going just fine. And then it came time for the party to be over people loaded up going this way or that way they had about 3 different vehicles left and departed. And everything seemed to be going fine until about 10 o'clock that night when Chuck E. Cheese was closing. And as employees looked around they saw Michael still playing on the games but looking a little bewildered now because he couldn't find any of his family anywhere. He had been left there. And the mom thought grandmother was taking him home with her and of course grandma thought mom was taking him home with her. And the police were called to come in and help track him down. It wasn't until the next day they actually were able to track down the parents and get him back home there. And a quote from the article was this, is it possible to have a joyful celebration and still forget the guest of honor? Well Michael won't forget that birthday I'm pretty sure and I know mom won't. But think about us. Can we forget the guest of honor, the one who has created the heavens in the earth, the one who has created us and given us life? The one beyond that even though when we rebelled against him came after us with a passion to forgive, to die across for the sins of his people, to invite us to experience eternal life and to be restored to him. Can we forget him? Here's the point this morning. I'll tell you right up front. Trusting the giver transforms you into a giver. Trusting the giver will transform you into a giver. Let's look at point number one here. Point number one is this. Remember the giver's provision. Remember the giver's provision. Let me look back at the text and if you've got it, follow along with him and you can read the first four verses again. When you have eaten, and by the way I should give you the context here and back, we didn't have time to read it all. But here is the Moses talking, God's talking through Moses, reminding the people that once you get to the promised land, once you've gotten there and you're experiencing all the promises and my blessings I give you, that's what comes before this, verse 10. When you have eaten and been satisfied, pray as the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees on getting you this day. Otherwise when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, when you have herds and flocks grow larger and your silver and gold increase and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Here's the point here that God is trying to remind Israelites and what his Holy Spirit wants to remind us today that God is the giver of everything that we have. He's given us everything, whether it be possessions, whether it be actual money, whether it be your health, whether it be your time, whether it be your abilities and talents, as a look across this room, there are so many of those represented here, but they are gifts. If you question that, go visit a loved one or a friend or just anybody at a nursing home today. They'll talk to you about those things are temporary. The gifts fade, they'll tell you the financial resources fade because they're seeing theirs fade in many cases. But it's a great reminder at that point, though all that you have has been given to you as a gift and it's something that you must understand and receive it as such. What Jesus shares as well and his famous sermon on the Sermon of the Mount, Matthew 6, he says telling this story, he says, therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you'll eat or what you'll drink or about your body, what you'll wear is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes. Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? What's Jesus' point? God cares about birds and he feeds them. But what's the real point? You're worth a whole lot more than birds and the birds don't worry. The birds are not on Prozac as far as I know. The birds are not stressed out because they know they have a heavenly father and their own way, they know that. And God's saying, you're much more valuable than they. You're made in my image and you're worth me coming after and saving. And I'm going to care and I'm going to feed you. But we are so often tempted to forget where our provisions come from, who has fed us? He might have used your parents, well he did use your parents to provide for you. He might use your skills or the specific job that you have and the career that you have to help provide. But everything you put into your mouth is something that he has created. And the way you got it was some kind of way that he has gifted and provided and created in you to be able to receive it. Everything we have is a gift from God and we're told not to forget it but to remember that. And the reason why is neglecting that and as soon as you neglect that, you begin to fall into a sense of entitlement. And there's no better place in all the planet to discover and see what entitlement looks like than in the great country that we live in, the United States of America. That being facetious I really do believe it's a great country that we live in. But I do believe as well that the reality of entitlement that you can find here is unparalleled by any other place on the planet here. Well the Chicago Tribune article back in 2008 had an article. In fact they called it the entitlement nation. That was the title of the article. They found that 44% of households had someone who received some form of government benefits. That was in 2008. On 2010 it's almost 50%. They found that a generation ago it was down, it was less than a third just a generation ago. In 2005 the article reported that 39% paid no federal income tax whereas today in 2010 45% paid no federal income tax. What's the picture? The picture here is that there's more, there's less being put in and there's more that's coming out in this whole mix of it. And the American people are getting more and more this sense of entitlement. They went on to look at some other things percentage of senior corporate executives with a high net worth. These were people that were defined as having a net worth of more than $1 million not including their primary residence at all. They found that when they were asked what they credited their success to, what they credited their great wealth to. Here were the top five. Number one hard work, 99% said hard work you got in there. Number two intelligence in good sense. Close second, 97%. Number three, a higher than average IQ at 83%. And number four, being the best in every situation 62%. And some 32% just credited it to luck. God didn't make the top five. Well survey done of 2000 employees in another article which was done by recruiting and staffing agency found some interesting things. They found that 20% of office employees admit to stealing office supplies. That's one in five. Those with only a high school diploma were 13% likely to steal office supplies. While those with a college diploma were 27% more than double. What was their observation? There was a greater sense of entitlement that somehow the company owed it to you because of what you gave in or maybe the extra hours you put in. Another rationalization though for stealing is what it was but it was attributed to a sense of entitlement. Well if you might ask yourselves which class of people we were thought about this which class of people in our country are more likely or give the most. Is it the lower class? Is it the middle class? Is it the upper class? Well you might be surprised that those making less than 20,000 per year give the most percentage wise. While the upper class is actually second with the middle class a distant third. What is it that the lower class those described as making less than 20,000 a year. What is it that they understand? What is it that they know that prompts them to be more likely to give than the rest. Those that have more to give. I think if you ask honestly you'll see there's a sense of entitlement felt by the rest where there's a sense of those who have very little to understand that all that they have has been given to them as a gift. And they know that was there one day and some of them know from real life experiences that it can be taken like that and it can be gone the next. And they probably understand much better when the Bible promises your daily bread and invites you to pray that even the Lord's prayer. They understand that yeah that's what it's about trusting God for your needs for the day. Let me ask you we ask yourself a couple questions here. Do you believe that God has given you everything you have? Do you believe that? That's a very important question. Are we like the top five reasons given by those worth one million dollars. You're really thinking contribute to themselves. The Bible says something very different. Do you believe that God has plenty more to give. Not only has he given you everything that he has but he's got plenty more. He owns it all. As the scripture say he owns a cattle and a thousand hills. Old Testament way of saying he's got it all. He's not lacking anything. Do you believe in trust that God has promised to meet your needs. If you trust him. Matthew 631 through 33 and that very same passage where Jesus talks about hey I'm going to take care of birds. I'm going to take care of you. He falls on to say so do not worry saying what shall we eat or drink or what shall we wear for the pagans run after these things. And your heavenly Father knows that you need them but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Seek first his kingdom. He'll feed you. He'll clothe you. He'll take care of your needs. That's God's promise. See here's the point trusting the giver transforms you into becoming a giver when you trust him as the giver in your life. Well, it's not just trusting the giver who has provided for you but it's trusting a giver who has also delivered you. Number two, remember the giver's deliverance. Remember the giver's deliverance. This text does and goes right to that point starting in verse 13 through 16. And when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and it's been multiplied then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert that thirsty and waterless land and his venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought water out of the hard rock. He gave you mana to eat in the desert. Something your father should never known to humble and attest you so that in the end it might go well with you. Where are you told to remember? There's your last word told. Don't forget his deliverance from Egypt and his work in your life. What is the spirit of God telling us to the church today? Do not forget how God has delivered you. The first thing that might pop in your mind if you're honest is like thinking, well, I'm still looking for that deliverance. Hey, I've got job problems. I've got family problems whether it's a marriage or my kids. I've got problems in my house, financial problems. Where is the deliverance? Well, again, you've got to look at the bigger picture of things here and what God would answer that question, he would say, look, you got to go back 2000 years. You got to go back and remember the sun came here to earth and he died on a cross to deliver you from something far greater than what Egypt was threatening the Israelites with. He came there to deliver you from something far greater than your economic struggles, your relationship problems, your physical health challenges. He came to deliver you from the ultimate enemy of sin and of death and to conquer it. See, the Bible doesn't hedge about it at all. It tells you life is short. It tells you life is like a vapor. It tells you you're here one day like a flower in the field and you're gone the next. But what he does promise you is that you have an eternal soul and what he does promise you is that there is hope and there's a new heavens and a new earth. There's a new body to have one day and that one day every tear will be wiped away and every need will be met fully. And the promise is that he even starts to answer here now on earth or not meant to be ultimately answered here now on earth but there meant to be ultimately answered in the new heavens and the new earth. Even the day that you go to be with him or the day that Jesus comes back in his second return. That's ultimate deliverance. That's eternal security and hope. That's the kind of hope that gives you the kind of joy that doesn't like going through hard times but can sustain and endure during them because you know you have a God. Who is taking care of the biggest problem you have in fact the scriptures say if he did not spare his own son will he hold back anything that you need obviously obviously not. So he reminds us of God's deliverance and how important that is the South African Cape Times newspaper reported this story back in 2004. There's a South African man who caught nine criminals breaking into his home. Now as he came upon them of course they were all startled and they started to run and he ran off. They all started to run off. He caught one of them and he actually threw them into the swimming pool as a way trying to catch them all and trying to make sure they got caught for what was going on. Well the guy he threw into the swimming pool had this problem though. He didn't know how to swim. So after he threw this guy in the pool there he he's in a predicament because now this guy is starting to drown in his pool. The guy that was just trying to break in his house and rip him off. So the guy's thinking all right what I do. Yeah he's like I can't let this guy drown so he jumps in he saves the guy pulls and gets an out of the pool which the guy pulls out a knife now and holds it on him and is threatening him again. So what does he do? He kicks him back in the pool. Shops him back in the pool. He has to rescue the guy twice before the guy gives up and turns himself in. But isn't that also a picture of us? Here we have a God that only created us and gave us life and we rebelled against him. We're the ones there are the thieves that would steal his glory that would steal his need not need his desire for worship. Our need to worship him and we would give our glory to worship other things or worship ourselves. And we're just like that. We get rescued from a situation and we're pulling knife back out on God like hey don't mess with me again. How many times have you seen God delivered you in the small ways of your life? Health, protection, safety, provision for food? And the moment we feel secure again we're like pulling that knife out saying God back off. What does he do? He rescues you again. We all hear that story and we think you know a different man should have come out of that pool the first time. A different person should have been if he understood that he was deep in.
The desert experience when he brought him out from there was a reminder of such a contrast. Each of the things that impressed him and explained to him that he was the only enemy out of that, the enemy out of the desert. That continued to meet with these but it was just a picture of what is the opposite of us. If you doubt maybe we don't trust we can picture what he slips like. It's a desert with this picture.
What does he do for us? He takes us from a lot of the needs that we need. Here we are. Eric and that have wrote an article called the In Life of St. Andrew. We wrote this about a German pastor who had a name in Martin Luther. Serving through the 30-year-old, 30-years-old man of the 17th century, many of whom read you his extra about this pastor. He's living through that to face the world.
He was born in 1480, in May of that period, his own life. By the end of the year, the refugees had been buried in trenches without sources. There's a number of so far. Yet we live the animal down in the back of the pastor. We are the following prayer for his children to often think we are the artisans of Moses. We wonder things that go in the morning of Jesus. We run on the others' arms. Let us number one. For the countless, he is simple. He's still very experienced in life. He was understood and immersed in the ways that he was stowed upon. And that tree's form is currently on. To see it, when I have any respect, to still see God's goodness and faith in us. He's still realizing now that what happens to the workers and the Americans and the women's work insurance, and so on. You see, unless you see guys, the bigger of the difference from sin and death, you would never know the joy of getting the God's gift. Trust in the different chains of God. Going out later, remember of God's provision, remember the God's deliverance, the third thing you need to remember. Then your heart will become proud. If you ever forget the Lord of God and follow the Lord of God's worship, and now they haven't been meant to testify, it's your day that you will surely be destroyed. By donations, the Lord will surely work. So you will be destroyed. And if you ever forget to leave your honor to us, most of us will grow stronger. And you will have to have that good God be provided. Because Jesus might be good there for us. Trust in Jesus, because he's not living for us. For the story about a city of New York, who is visiting relatives on the farm, the farmer is pretty aggressive, and he's a lump on the farm at times, and he gives us wisdom. He gives us wisdom, and his dog comes running out of him, and he actually starts hurting all the cattle, and also all the cattle come into the beings of that hole there. and then it takes us on and it matches the game's shot. And the city world are in. The city is going to start moving forward. You know, he thought this was pretty impressive. He's like, yeah, that's pretty good. And some dog, what's her name? Well, the forgetful farmer, the woman. And we fly back to the city. I can't think of the number, what do you call it? What do you call it? I don't know. I don't know. So we turned to his wife and said, hey, Rose, what do you call the dog? I don't know. As forgetful as it is to forget the dogs name. It's not forgetable to reach your wife's name. I remember when we were born out of our age, and say I dated her all, and I still also did. With that, don't forget your wife's name to stay here. We'll let you tell you the number, remind you of how she used to work for her space. We mean that how we forgot that he comes after us and moves our heart's name as a number of names. He used to say, what a terrible thing is when your wife gets in and you think there are a lot of good things. But there's a fair warning here that warning comes that if we do forget you know two things about it. The first thing that's there, first of all, is pride. Pride will come. Then your heart will become proud. Forgetting will lead to pride. 2003, 11 times our growth. Share a story about this. Actually, a thing that happened in choice with the original one time. You know, we think about this and we're kind of about how they see this in just a few months. We know to do is be about this to about kids around the letters to Santa Claus. And the post office doesn't comment. They're looking to do what they need on these letters to rest the Santa Claus. But I hadn't thought about it. But this article pointed out, in fact, that in Jerusalem, they get letters to them all the time. They get letters to Jesus all the time. And they have to make them, they got this letter to them. And they don't know what to do with this. Once 2003, the report is story of some of the post office for a particular problem in Israel. We're actually reading one of the letters. I made a simple letter asking God for 5,000 shepherds to ease his poverty. One of those orders that that post office there were called in Jerusalem. They were so moved by that. They took out a collection. And then we're able to raise up 5,000 or 40, a 4,000, 3,000 shepherds. And as soon as it could be, it isn't given. But after about a month, that very same person will go back 11, also back to God. So thank you, God, for the contribution. But next time, please don't send it through those posts. They're thieves. They stole 7,000 shepherds. I'm sure it's worth it. A man who had no knowledge or his source of blessing came. But let me ask you, who much taught that man? So here's the illusion. The illusion is that we're responsible for generating that wealth. That's the illusion. But the reality is that God gives you humility. He's the black in God's glory. He's obsessed to living in the river once and for. Getting the facts is that God gave you the talent. The God's willing to use your ability to sustain it, and to take it. Well, the first one is pride and following from that. It's for dealing with need to push it. If you ever forget the Lord, you've got to follow the God's worship and bow down. I testify against you that you will be restrained in the street. By the nations, the Lord is destroying the world. He said, you will be destroyed out of the name. Natural and sometimes unnatural. So I'll say, look, you're equal to not going to do that. I give my whole spirit to get you a sin. I get you a sin. Yes, I'm just going to say this. For this is where you're going to be. I just don't want to destroy you. Why do you do that? It's a shock of God and a spirit. It's from the loving hand. I don't understand a sin and a death for us to realize it. But it's a story that we've gone and passed through. A pastor, the life of his, he was sharing this story that his experience, which I want to share with you. I recently took a quote by that drive. An old read-up man and the guy barely knew it. Along the way, we ended up talking about Jesus and whether this man gave his life to Christ. This response to me laid out the man in his resistance to the gospel and striking prayer. He said, my biggest problem is pride. I can't come on myself. And you want to know the reason I can't give up my pride. He leaned up on the stream of the Paul's prayer because it's wrong and so forth. I couldn't leave my ears. I knew that his pride had brought nothing but great pain and his life. It was all that you know about growing up in the game, his father died on the road of Christ, and his mother was in the monument. I knew that this self-made man beat his right prayer. And he was not a poor man. He had just gotten out of prison. In fact, I found out he'd later been in his own way back in the prison. In a separate conversation, his wife had told me that his young daughter was a terrified man. But he's not a horrible man. She's kind of believed him. She could tell me that the old man he was driving was going to beat me because only he would be possessed and will be. Yet the spite of all the differences that can help him in this. And in some way, it's this guy that I admire, so. I struggle a little bit on my pride because it's wrong and so forth and so forth. But what it's really wrong, go to him and beat his pain. My selection is a thing. Steve Farrah's book, called Finch and Strong, says this, simple, taking farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you were willing to send isn't only getting back things. There's more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. As soon as building your mind and being on anything, even a very good thing, more than we go. Whatever you build our life over examples of how this destruction looks, if you make money, it's a thing that you're looking to to answer your life's problems, thanks to give you the code of security. We look at that to be the ultimate thing. What it's going to do to lead to becoming, if you may control the center I love your partner in life, that's the way to never be able to enjoy the moment at any part of life. You always be afraid of something in the shape of it. If you have the idle approval, you've got to step forward in part of your life. You'll always need more praise because praise will never be enough. And the praise that you do give, you'll always question it. I think it's going to support your ultimate true bias. I just cannot sustain the worship. I was thinking, we've been shoving it into our new law. The sin of it that you worship, and you're destroying it. Destroy it, get it. This is your hardest. You need the warning. Pressing the giver, which means warning. That's it. I believe the real difference in the American church is not between conservatives and liberals. Fundamentalist and charismatic, more between Republicans and Democrats. The real difference is between the aware and the unaware. And somebody is aware of that love, the same love that the follow-up has for Jesus. That person is just spontaneously grateful. The cries that they could has become the dominant characteristic of the interior life and the by-product of the gratitude to children. We're not joyful, and then you come grateful. We're grateful. It's given me the script for saving. So what he's going to say, each man should give it his aside in his heart. Not for a lot to know, or in a whole different way. Maybe it's just the same significance in each reason. Maybe it's the reality that I've seen to provide for a sense of happiness for them. Now, maybe it's a new way to build a look back.