Man Shall Not Live by Bread Alone

So grateful to be here with you. Bring a scripture to your to

your memory. Psalm 11 reminds us this.

The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven.

His eyes see his eyelids. Test the children of man.

The Lord tests. The righteous, the Lord tests

the righteous. We've seen his pattern of

testing over and over again. There's a there's a ton of times

we see this throughout the Exodus, throughout the book of

Deuteronomy in the wilderness. We saw it first in Israel's

bondage in Egypt. And they cry out and they say,

Lord, they're in an impossible situation.

If you do not intervene, if you don't save us, if you don't

redeem us, we are going to perish.

We're going to suffer and we're going to die in Egypt.

We have no deliverer. And he moves abundantly, asked

abundantly, more than they could have asked or imagined.

He leaves them not only out with the blessing of Egypt, but with

their money. He sends them out with their

gold and with their silver. And that's how they depart

Egypt. Who would have imagined?

And they go straight from that into another impossible

situation where they leave and now they they get blocked in.

Pharaoh says that nature has trapped them in.

They find their way to a wall of water, a deep ocean and a

pursuing army of Chariots behind them.

And here we have again. God has put them in this

situation nature has trapped them in, but we know God has

trapped them in. And it's a test.

And the faithless people panic. And they say to Moses

sarcastically, cleverly, was it because there are no graves in

Egypt that you've brought us to die in the wilderness?

It's a test. God opens up the waters, he

makes a way, and he drowns the Egyptians in a way that they

would have never asked or imagined into another impossible

situation. Then they're brought into the

wilderness and they run out of food and they get hungry.

And this isn't they started to get a little hungry.

Their stomachs are empty and there is no food.

And so they begin again to grumble and detest God.

And they say in Exodus 16 would that we had died by the hand of

the Lord in Egypt, where we sat by the meat pots and ate bread

to the full. For you've brought us into the

wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger.

And again God demonstrates himself.

He brings manna from heaven. Literally.

What is it? No one knew.

They didn't know. Their fathers didn't know.

They're never seen anything like this before.

God provides for them miraculously every day so that

they do not go hungry. And then finally another

impossible situation is given. They're taken to a place in the

wilderness where there is no water.

And the name of that place is NASA, which means literally

testing. So God brings them to this place

to test them. They begin to grumble again, and

they panic, Exodus 17, saying, why did you bring us out of

Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with

thirst. And again, if they hadn't

learned by now, and they haven't and we don't either.

He strikes a rock. Moses brings water from the rock

to feed a river of water to feed the livestock and the people.

He brings man. And from heaven, they never

hunger or thirst. So we look back and, you know,

hindsight's always 2020. What should they have done?

We should have all gathered together when the trial started

and just sang together, saying, all my life you have been

faithful. All my life you have been so, so

good. As long as I am able, I will

sing of the goodness of God. That's the right response.

The right response is to to quote Psalm 18 two to one

another. The Lord is my rock, my fortress

and my deliverer, my God, my rock and whom I take refuge, my

shield in the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised.

That's how you respond to a trial.

It's easier to say now, harder when you're in it.

You come into the New Testament. There's there's more impossible

situations. There's the most impossible

situation where we realize as God's people that we are trapped

in our sins and we're destined for hell.

And we say, as blind Bartimaeus said, have mercy on me or the

tax collector, have mercy on me, a Sinner.

And God made a way where there was no way.

He sends his only begotten Son to take our sins and to die for

our sins. He sends the bread of life, the

manna from heaven, and he brings rivers of living water in a way

that we would have never asked or imagined.

And this Son, when he comes, he sends Jesus Christ, whose

message in Matthew 6, you've already heard from David

Houghton. The message is, why are you

worrying? What are you anxious for?

Do you not have not demonstrated to you my faithfulness?

Do not know that I know what your needs are, that you need

food and clothing. Don't be anxious about your

life. He says what you're eat and what

you're going to drink is it is, is life not more than food and

the body more than clothing? Don't be anxious saying what

shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?

For this is what unbelievers seek after.

But you, O Christian, you seek first the Kingdom of God and his

righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

God knows what you need. You seek first His Kingdom, and

He'll take care of the rest. You worry about pleasing God and

loving him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all

your mind, with all your strength.

You love your neighbor as yourself.

God will see to the rest of it. That's Jesus's message and God

is going to test you and has tested you.

You know this with impossible situations, just like Israel,

just like Abraham, his physical descendants, his spiritual

descendants, and these impossible situations, you, you

have to cry out to him and say, God, if you don't intervene, I'm

going to die. If you don't heal me, I'm going

to die. If you don't provide for me, I'm

not going to have enough finances.

I will lose my house, I will lose my apartment, I will lose

my kids. If you don't come Lord and

intervene, then my marriage is going to fail.

And we are as Christians and God's people, no strangers to to

trying times and God continually points back to people.

It's going to be the verb of this text.

He says remember, remember my faithfulness.

Remember when I demonstrated myself to you.

We can go on our own recent history, even to less than five

years ago at First Baptist Church.

There's a group of women, Deanne and Mary and Pat and Nancy.

They're in the the children's area where there are no

children. And they're praying, saying,

Lord, would you bring us children that we can minister to

and love on and serve, not knowing that within a few years

the renovated kids area with its eight classrooms would not be

near enough to host all of the children that God was going to

bring in this church? I don't think we knew as the

parents of those children how many children God was going to

bring in this church. It's abundantly more than we

could ask or imagine. And the same is true within the

last 15 years at Heritage Church.

We were relying on the weekly gifts of the people to keep the

lights on. We would pay Jay and say, here

is your check, but please don't cash it until the end of the

week right with it. That was what's a it's a weekly

relying on the gifts of our people.

That's in our history. And we had no idea that God

would within a few years have three full time pastors at this

church where we're doing his work and a savings account.

And we went this year above our budget, $21,000.

We were in the black as a church.

And so we remember and we say, praise God, and that history and

that perspective reminds us of where we were.

So more than in Israel and that congregation, more than in our

church, God brings impossible situations to you and to your

family. And these trials exist.

Moses explains in Deuteronomy 8. To humble you and to expose you

and your self-sufficiency and to form you into the image of

Christ. And so there's a, a sweetness

that comes from depending on God like that.

But there's also a stress that comes from training your mind

and training your heart and training your soul to rely on

him when you have no sufficiency in yourself.

I know some of you, Maris Goss has struggled with headaches

forever. I've struggled with headaches

since I was a little kid. That's one of the ways that my

prayer life when I'm in those moments is, is the, the best,

right? There's a, a sweetness to the

communion that comes when you're truly depending on God.

I can't heal this on my own. And God, I need you.

I'm dependent on you. And so we, we discuss trials and

and tribulations a lot as a church.

They come on us. They're all over the scriptures.

But we asked this morning, what if God delivers us from those

trials and tribulations? Then what?

What if you're desperately sick and the Lord makes you well?

Or what if you're poor and God brings you into sufficiency or

even abundance? Moses says in Deuteronomy 8, if

you want to open there, this opens up a whole new set of

problems. And the the issue of Deuteronomy

8 is the tension that Moses brings of this is there are two

things that are true at once. The 1st is that God delights to

bless his people in every way. And the second is that those

blessings have the ability to draw our heart away from God,

and our focus then is on the gift rather than the giver of

those gifts who is blessed forever.

Amen. And So what do we do if God

blesses us? To use the language of 816, what

if God does you good? And this is where we turn to

Deuteronomy 8. Read with me verses 1 to 20.

And Moses gives us wisdom on how to live with nothing and how to

live with everything. Verse 1, he says, 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 give to your Father's.

Verse 2 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

you would keep His commandments or not.

And He, he humbled you and let you hunger, and fed you with

manna, which you did not know, nor did your Father's 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. Your clothing did not wear out

on you and your foot did not swell these 40 years.

Know then in your heart that is a man disciplines his Son, the

Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the

commandments of the Lord your God by walking in His ways and

by fearing Him. For the Lord your God is

bringing you into a good land. The land of brooks, of water, of

fountains and springs flowing out in valleys and hills.

A land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and

pomegranates. A land of olive trees and honey.

A land in which 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 you shall eat and be full. And you shall bless the Lord

your God for the good land that He's given you.

Take care lest you forget the Lord your God 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, 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 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 manna that your father's

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 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 Father's, as it is

to this day. And if you forget the Lord your

God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I

solemnly warn you today that you will surely perish like the

nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so you shall

perish because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your

God. Two tests in Deuteronomy 8 that

the Lord describes, Moses identifies them and he reveals

their purpose. The first one you can write down

is the test of emptiness. That's verses one to six.

And the question that we ask in the test of emptiness is, will

you trust God when you have nothing?

Will you trust God when things are impossible And it remembers

Israel's time in the wilderness? And for context, it looks

forward to the second test, which is the focus of the

chapter, verses 7 through 20, that it's the test of fullness,

which says, will you remember God when you have everything and

you have family and you have church members and you have

friends that are in both of these camps and and you are

likely experiencing one of these two tests, having nothing or

having plenty. And so you need to heed the

wisdom that Moses is offering. What will take them in order?

The first Test is one that will come on all of us.

If you're not going through it now, you will, and probably

soon. The test is the test of

emptiness. Will you trust God when you have

nothing and you think to to Deuteronomy?

This is a book that shaped and framed by three sermons.

We've already seen the first one, we're in the middle of the

second one. This is Moses preaching to the

people as they're at the edge of the Promised Land.

They've been wandering the desert for 40 years, and as the

people are awaiting the abundance that God has for them,

he stops them for at least a month to reflect on this desert

wisdom. What have we learned from all

these years in the desert? There's wisdom to be gleaned.

And so there's there's kind of this contrast.

This is a, a chapter of wisdom, Chapter 8's a chapter of wisdom,

but it's a chapter of contrast. And so he says, if you look back

on all this wisdom and you glean all of God's wisdom in the

wilderness, then you'll see that the wilderness was actually a

place of fruitfulness. And the place that you're going

into, which looks like it has so much abundance and it's flowing

with milk and honey. If you don't heed God's wisdom,

it will be a place of nothing. It will be desolate.

And we look at that period in hindsight of 2 million people

wandering around the desert for 40 years, and we say this was a

waste of time. What a what a waste of time that

was. And in many ways it was.

But God says in many ways, there's a hundred ways in which

it was also fruitful. How how can Israel know?

How do they know whether the last generation worth of time

was futile? And the answer is by asking what

they were able to learn from that experience.

Deuteronomy in Deuteronomy 8, Moses tells the people this was

our time of testing and it was not arbitrary.

It had a purpose. And you can see it in verses one

to six at humble that revealed that form them.

Look at look at verse 2. He said the experience humbled

them by exposing their self-sufficiency.

Verse 2 again that God might know and that they might know it

exposed their heart so that there's no question.

This is the state of your heart. You skip down to verse five more

purpose. It formed them into the image of

God. It made them like Jesus Christ.

It created virtue in them. And so Moses says this

experience taught them just like your trials and temptations will

teach you. And it tested them just like it

will test you. It goes on and it says it

exposed them and it formed them and it showed the grace and the

provision of God and it showed his generosity and it

demonstrated his Providence, his about his ability to exercise

his kingship. It showed his omnipotence that

he's in control of the things of this world.

So you look at all this, you say, actually it's fruitful in

every way. It would set up the very words

that Jesus would rehearse when he's in the wilderness.

You see, all of the lessons that Israel was supposed to learn in

the wilderness, Jesus uses to combat Satan in the wilderness.

And so look, look at all this. It's a fruitful time of

learning. It's fruitful in every way.

It's why Christopher Wright says while the circumstances resulted

from human sinfulness, it still had divine purpose.

Or we could say it this way. God works all things for good

for those who love him, for those who are called according

to his purpose. And so God is a testing God and

James when we went to the book of James, we saw that he he

brings trials and tribulations of every kind of various kinds.

That means multi colored. He brings trials in every way.

And you can think through some of these categories that the

Lord tests you. Your mental and physical health

could be times of trial. Your finances, your children,

your marriage, your extended family, your education and your

school, your career, your friendships, your neighbors, and

even your church can be blessing.

And seemingly all of these come at the same time.

And we say why all of these tests?

Deuteronomy 8/3 is 1 that you should commit to memory.

It's the point that he might make you understand that man

does not live by bread alone. You might learn to trust God

when you have nothing. We might say that you would

learn to trust God especially when you have nothing.

So Moses says he, he first brings you these trials to

remove your pride, to humble you.

When Israel was standing with that army approaching in the the

ocean behind them, they realized in that moment, I am not God.

And that was the point. And they realized in that

moment, every individual person realized, I have no capacity.

I am no Messiah, I am no deliverer.

And actually I'm dependent on one.

And that's the point. And so Scripture gives the same

opportunity when they run out of food and water, when they're

hungry, when they're thirsty in the desert and all around them

is just scorpions and sand, they recognize I am not a deliverer.

I am not God. And when your child comes, you

have to remember is it brings you to the same point.

The trial comes, the simple temptation comes and you say, I

am not Jesus Christ. And I say, praise God for that.

You are not Jesus Christ. You cannot deliver yourself.

Trials come and then you understand, oh, I'm dependent on

another. If he doesn't intervene, I will

not be delivered. So people come to the church all

the time. They come and talk to John and

I. They come and talk to the elders

and they say things like my marriage is in shambles and

there's no fixing this. And they'll use language like

this is beyond fixing. We are beyond help.

And in one sense, when they say that we're like, then this is

where God works, right? Then settle down.

Now we put our hand to the plow. This is where God wants you to

be When you're at the point where you're beyond

self-sufficiency, That's where God works because at the end of

it, when you're delivered, he wants you to say to God be the

glory. He has done this.

I've done nothing. You are not Jesus, and you have

to also remember you are not Christ.

You're dependent on Him. But he also does this to teach

you that you don't live by bread alone, that you are dependent on

another. It humbles you, it exposes you,

and it forms you into His image, verses 2 and 5.

And so he does this to create in his people the sort of virtue

that's consistent with the high calling that you've been given

Israel, just like Abraham, just like every individual in this

room, we have different callings, we've been given

different blessings. We live in different

circumstances, but we're all being conformed to the same

person. It's all the same virtue.

It's why the spiritual gifts are for everyone or the the fruit of

the spirit is Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.

Moses adds humility. This is what we will all look

like because of these trials. And so as a father disciplines

and shapes the virtue of his sons, verse 5, Moses, so says

God disciplines and shapes the virtues of his children.

Will you trust God when you have nothing?

And has he ever, has he ever proven faithless to you?

I see people in the room that are 20 years old, 30 years old,

80 years old, you're still here and you're dressed with every

good thing. Has God ever not been faithful

to you? Will you trust God when you have

nothing? We sang the lyrics.

Your promise still stands. Great is your faithfulness.

I'm still in your hands. This is my confidence.

You've never failed me yet. And so if you're being tested,

then trust in Him. And if you're not being tested,

remember that the Crucible is coming and you can resolve ahead

of time that when that day comes.

I'm going to trust in Jesus Christ when the disaster comes,

the various trials come. I will trust in Him.

And remember that the test doesn't come when things begin

to get hard. The true test is there.

Remember Israel when their stomachs were empty and there

was no food, When they were at that absolute most hopeless

moment? That's the real test, right?

When it's not when you're getting sick, it's when you're

at your deathbed, right? That is when God reveals

himself. That's when the true test comes.

And so it's a small example with all the trials that you've gone

through, the trials that I've gone through.

This is just something that the Lord has taught me lately.

We felt as the New York City party, as we tried to go to New

York, we didn't get to go like our college students did.

We kind of had our own wilderness wandering.

The closest we got to New York City was when we stepped on a

plane from Oklahoma City. So we flew to Dallas.

We tried to avoid the snow by going South and we ran into the

wind, unforecasted winds. The Lord knows when the wind is

going to come. We did not.

Neither did the plane agencies, Southwest and American Airlines,

but we went to Dallas. As we're about to land the wind,

there's a gust of wind. We can't land, so we get

diverted. We are already in a situation

that we would have called hopeless.

We've already said if we get on this plane, we've already missed

our connecting flight. And so we said we're going to

trust God and try to get on this plane.

As we're landing, the wind blows, we get diverted to

Austin. At this point, we've completely

missed our flight and it is completely hopeless.

And we all sit down and we just resolved we've missed it.

This is it and trying to figure out a way to get back home.

It was as we were being diverted to Austin.

I checked my phone after I've given up hope, I'm faithless.

I checked my phone and the flight that we're on is now the

flight that's going to be terminating in LaGuardia.

I'm not even going to have God's showing me.

You're not even going to have to get out of your seat, right?

You're not even have to get out of your plane.

If I want to get you to New York, you're going to be in New

York. And ultimately it changed again.

We did not get to go. The flights were booked.

But God showed me in that moment, out of that small

exercise, you're in my hand. It's not hopeless.

He flashed the hope in a way that you can never ask or

imagine. I will get you to New York if

you're supposed to be in New York.

So we, we trust him, especially when things are hopeless because

he's the guy. He's the guy who makes a way

Deuteronomy 8. They're looking back at the

testing of the past and actually God is looking toward the

testing that's going to come in the future.

This is the focus of the chapter.

Moses goes beyond our normal discussion of trials and

tribulations and he looks ahead and says, what if God delivers

you and you see that there's a new set of problems.

We call this the second point, the test of fullness and the

question if you are, if God has prospered you, if he has given

you fullness and sufficiency, The question for you is will you

remember God when you have everything?

What if God delivers you from sickness and restores to you to

a place of health in your blessing of health, will you

remember God? The odds are not for you if you

remember. 10 Lepers come to Jesus Christ and he heals all of

them. How many return to worship?

One comes back to worship him. And I can tell you, the pastors

of the church people come all the time.

We have vulnerable men and women who come up the streets and we

we can help them so far as we're able, set them on solid ground

and give them jobs and give them food.

And when they reach this place of stability, they no longer

need the church. They no longer need God.

We never see them again. This is the pattern we see over

and over. Very few stay and continue

acknowledging God. The second scenario, and what

if, what if God delivers you from your poverty and what if he

takes you from being poor and now he makes you rich and he

gives you an abundance like he's doing here with Israel and your

abundance. Will you remember God?

We look at the statistics in America and we say it happens to

so many Christians that it's, it's we could say virtually

every Christian when God multiplies their house, they do

not give in proportion to what God has given them.

They forget God and they take those gifts and they focus on

the gifts rather than the giver of those gifts.

They don't give to the church or to missions or to charities or

to the poor. God's gifts draw your attention

away from the giver and you forget.

And this is what Moses is speaking to when he says in

verse 19, the solemn warning. I solemnly warn you today that

you will surely perish if you would not obey the voice of your

God. Sobering as well that Jesus in

Matthew 25 doesn't condemn. He takes these Christian Christ,

professing Christian men and women and he he condemns them.

These, these Christ, I guess not Christian, but those who profess

Christ, you call him Lord. And he condemns them not for

what they don't do, but for what or for what they do, but for

what they don't do. He says I've given you these

resources. It's not that you're actively

oppressing people that said, I've given you this treasure and

you've squandered it. That's what you haven't done.

And so God's telling Israel here, the time of your testing

is over and the time of your abundance is upon you.

And generously and graciously he, he tells them what's coming

in the future ahead of time. He says, I'm giving you many,

many good things. We could say You'll see the

description in a moment. I'm giving you every good thing.

And on the prosperity of your Kingdom, don't forget your king

as you look at verse 7. There there's a transition from

the past to the inevitable future.

And you see this land that they haven't taken hold of, but

that's legendary and its abundance and its prosperity.

Read verses 7 to 10 with me and you'll you'll get a glimpse of

this. He tells Israel, For the Lord

your God is bringing you into a good land, A land of brooks, of

water, of fountains and springs flowing out in the valleys and

hills, A land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees

and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey.

The land which you will eat bread without scarcity, you will

lack nothing. The land whose stones are iron

and out of whose hills you can dig copper and you will eat and

be full and you shall bless the Lord for the good land that he

has given you. This reminds me some of you are

familiar with. There's an early American art

fraternity based out of New York City.

It was the Hudson River school. You raise your handle if you

know that one their their art is beautiful.

Thomas Cole was one of the authors of that.

He's got a piece in the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

You can go and see it, but they they were criticized because

they will go out into the wilderness.

Nobody had iPhones then. They didn't have cameras like we

have today. And so if you're living in the

city and there's this vast American wilderness, it's

beautiful. There's mountains and there's

the Hudson River Valley and the Catskill Mountains.

And so they're trying to paint pictures of these wonderful

landscapes and bring them back so that people can have a sense

of what this land really possessed.

And the criticism came and the fact that they didn't paint the

landscape exactly as you would see it.

So there's not a place you can go line it up and say, yeah,

there's that tree here in this lake, in this little pond in

this river. And it wasn't like that.

They wanted to give you a sense of what the land would be like.

Were you there seeing it for yourself?

And so they say you're you're being disingenuous.

You're a liar because when I go there and they're saying, no, we

want to recreate and you the same sense that we had when we

saw this for ourselves. I think that's exactly what

Moses is trying to do here for his people.

The land is not literally flowing with milk and honey.

The the mountains are not made of iron and copper literally.

But he's wants to give you a sense of the blessing that's

going to come on you when, when you enter into this land, he

wants you to be awestruck, like they will be awestruck as they

anticipate this. And he's painting a, a contrast

again, it's a, it's a chapter of contrast between what they've

experienced in the last 40 years and what they will shortly

experience. They're going from the desert

into a sort of paradise. And look at the rich nature of

the land. Verse 7, there's brooks and

there's water and there's fountains and there's springs.

Verse 8 is the necessities of food.

There's wheat and there's barley.

You can make bread and there's grain.

Verse 8, There's luxury items. God doesn't just give you the

necessities. He knows how to give good and

perfect gifts. If God's given you more and

given you things to enjoy, would you honor Him by saying Amen?

Look at what he gives them. Vines for grapes and wine and

fig trees and olives and honey and pomegranates.

Verse 9 And there's metal in the mountains.

He says there's iron and copper. And there's an Old Testament

scholar named Thompson who comments on this.

He says this is literally true. He says the reference to iron

and copper in the hills is remarkably exact.

Ancient copper mines and smelters have been discovered in

recent years in the Arab below the Dead Sea and Geological

Survey has demonstrated the presence of ores and copper and

iron in the hills. You go on to verse 13.

It's not just what's contained in the land, but what they're

going to bring into the land. There's herds and flocks and

they're going to multiply. And he says you're going to

build these beautiful houses, some that you inherit and some

that you build, and it's going to go well with you.

Verse 13, there's going to be silver and there's going to be

gold. And then he contrasts that to

what it was like in that moment. Look at verse 15, terrifying

wilderness, fiery serpents, thirsty ground.

Verse 16 and manna alone for food.

So again, here's the contrast. You have life in the desert

versus life and experience in the Promised land, and you have

the salvation of Israel against the suffering and the judgement

of the Canaanites. And you have the lack of the

Israelites and the abundance of the Canaanites.

And by the way, how did the Canaanites do with all the

wealth and blessing that God gave them?

Did it terribly. So God's taking it away from

them. He's giving it to another.

He's taking it away. He's showing that riches have a

unique ability to draw your heart away from God.

There's a strange tension that we don't often think about that

God knows how to give blessings to his people, and those same

blessings have the ability to draw our hearts away from God.

And so he's warning you of this ahead of time.

And you think because you're not daily and consciously, this is

most of the people in the room because we're not daily

consciously, intentionally thinking about how God is

providing for us, that somehow we're able to provide for

ourselves or that the wealth that we've gained was somehow

because of our own hands. We think we're wise, we have a

solid education, we're employable for others.

We're strong and we're capable. We being you, not me for others.

You're rich. God's prospered, your house.

And so you think I have gotten these things for myself.

And when you come into that mindset, this is what verse 17

is telling you. Listen to the warnings.

Beware lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of

my hand have gotten me where I am.

Verse 18. This has been one of my favorite

verses for a decade because it's, it's so beautiful and, and

what Scripture teaches about how to how to have wealth and how to

gain it and how to be faithful with it.

He says you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who

gives you the power to get wealth.

That's such a wise verse. And so God's saying He's the one

who gave you the gifts and the circumstances to have the

education and to have the muscles and to have the money.

Just because you achieved something through

entrepreneurship doesn't mean it's not a gift of God.

Just because you went and earned your four year degree doesn't

mean it it wasn't given to you by God.

Verse 18, He gave you the power to get wealth.

And so Proverbs 39, therefore honor the Lord with your wealth.

Deuteronomy 818, honor the Lord who gave you the wealth.

Beware, don't allow the gifts to take the place of the giver,

your relationship with the gifts to over shadow the relationship

with the giver of those gifts. That's what happened to Solomon,

who Jesus says was not arrayed like God would have taken care

of him and he gave him. This was the high point the the

golden age of Israel's and David and Solomon and what happened to

Solomon when God made him rich, it led him to accumulate all of

these women and wives and his heart was led away.

So what do we do? There's a few verses I want to

call your attention to in this passage that show us the

faithful way forward. The first one is in verse 2.

Remember. Remember the lesson learned from

the desert. Remember the wisdom of the

wilderness, Why He subjected you to futility, why He brought you

into impossible situations to test your faith.

He gives you 3 reasons at least. He says it's to humble you, It's

to expose your heart, to show that you are not self-sufficient

and to form you into the image of Jesus Christ.

That's why He does it. Remember 2nd verb He says, you

got to. You got to know verse 3.

Above all, you are to know that man does not live by bread

alone. Jesus learned this wisdom and he

used it himself three times. Satan tempts him in the

wilderness when he's recapitulating the life of

Israel. But where they failed at every

point, he is faithful at every point.

Every time Satan comes at him and tests him, he quotes

Deuteronomy. And the beauty of this is, now

we've seen all three of the quotations in context.

I'll read them. You've seen all of these.

When tempted to throw himself from the temple, Jesus quotes

Deuteronomy 616. You shall not put the Lord your

God to the test. And when he's tempted again to

worship Satan and so to inherit all the kingdoms of the world,

he quotes Deuteronomy 613. It is the Lord your God you

shall fear, and him alone you shall serve.

And then when he's hungry, he's tested by Satan to turn the

stones into bread. And he responds with Deuteronomy

6 or Deuteronomy 8/3, this very passage you're studying same

Bible, same verse you have in front of you.

Jesus quotes it saying man shall not live by bread alone, but he

lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

This is the whole point of the passage.

And so in this context, it's it's the reason for the

remaining verbs. Verse 11, take care.

Verse 17 beware, take care lest you forget the Lord in times of

abundance and beware lest you think that the resources and the

blessings, the time, the treasure and the talent you have

are because of you. They are gifts from God.

You go to Paul Josiah read right up to our our verse and I love

we get to pick up right where he left off in Philippians where

Paul says this. I know how to be brought low.

I know how to abound in any and every circumstance.

I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,

abundance and need. I can do all things through

Christ who strengthens me. That's the context of his words

when he says that we can live in abundance and we can pass the

test and we can live with nothing and we can pass the

test. Why?

Because we can do all things through Christ, who gives us

strength to be faithful with nothing and faithful with much.

If there was a secret to living correctly with abundance, this

is it. We think that money and food are

indispensable for life, but Jesus says I am indispensable

for life. The Scriptures are

indispensable. Carson and Beale go even further

and they say it's the spiritual nourishment that takes

precedence over the physical. Because if you go without food

and water, you can, you can die and you can perish in one sense,

but if you go without salvation and living with Christ, then you

perish forever. And so he says this.

We don't live by bread alone, but by every word that that

comes from the mouth of God. What Moses is teaching is that

following Christ is true life. And if you would seek God, his

Kingdom and his righteousness, all of the rest of these things

will be added to you. If God's provided for all your

needs these years of your life, would you say Amen?

If he's given you abundantly, more than you can ask or think,

would you say Amen? He is so faithful.

There's a tension here that Moses is drawing.

The last tension I want to draw you to.

He says there's on the one hand, there's emptiness with

remembering. That's where Israel was in the

desert. When you're empty, it's easy to

remember God. Your your need for him is your

dependence on him. That's what the desert

experience taught. And then he says there can be

fullness with forgetting. That's the warning.

Don't get so full and multiply your resources to the point that

you forget God. So he says when you have

nothing, trust God, especially in that hopeless moment.

And when you have everything, remember God and honor him.

He's wanting to to create this balance.

What if you as a Christian were a full rememberer?

What if God gave you all good things and you remembered Him?

That's the pattern that He wants you to follow.

When you have nothing, trust Him.

When you have everything, remember Him.

Make Paul's words your own words.

I know how to be brought low. I know how to abound in any and

every circumstance. I've learned the secret of

facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Church, pray with me. Lord, we, we know that there are

many in our in our midst who are suffering, who have nothing in

this moment because of health, because of trials, because of

any of these, these situations, Lord, where these trials can

come on us. And we pray that you would give

them the faith to acknowledge you and to remember you as they

have nothing. And for many of us in this room,

and many who are not here because they have already

forgotten, Lord, we pray that when you bring blessing and when

you bring those times of abundance, that we would

remember you and that we would so be blessed, as Paul says,

that in all circumstances you would be honored as Lord.

And we confess in this moment that we are so dependent on you,

You are our Lord. We bow our knee to You that we

remember that formally now as we remember back to the cross which

sets us all on the the same playing field.

Lord, we are all equally dependent on you.

God, increase our unity and increase our love, even as we

come now to the Lord's Supper to start another month again in

complete unity and faith and independence on you, our Savior,

and whose name we pray. Amen.

Thanks for listening. To learn more about Heritage

Church or if you'd like to respond to this sermon, visit

our website at www.heritageshawnee.org.