In this message from Deuteronomy 8, discover why we must remember where God has brought us from, trust His promises, and guard our hearts against pride and spiritual complacency.<\/p>\n
Through Israel’s journey from the wilderness toward the Promised Land, this sermon explores the dangers of forgetting God when blessings come.<\/p>\n
Don’t Forget God When You Are Blessed<\/p>\n
So today you’ll be having a slightly different kind of uh message. You’ll be hearing a different kind of message because you will not only just hear a message, you will have something to take home, something to remember from the Bible because Bible says faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of God. If you have more word of God into your heart, you have more faith in God. If you believe it, say amen. I have one good news to share with you and I got one bad news to share with you. Which one do you want first? Bad news you want first. All right. You are so pessimistic. All right. So the bad news, let me give you another clarification. Bad news is not just for you and for me. It is for the entire world. And you know what? Good news is only for those who are washed in the blood of God. The bad news is for the entire congregation, entire people across the world. And the good news is only for those who have been washed in the blood of Jesus. You know what is the bad news? All of us are suffering with a disease. You name it diabetes or hypertension I’m not talking about that is the problem that every person in this world suffers between two incurable problem there they have no cure at all no medicine can answer that uh uh that disease you know what is that the first one is we forget what we ought to remember and the second is we remember what we supposed to forget am I right or wrong this is the most dangerous incurable disease that entire world is suffering and more importantly the Christian brethren is suffering. We remember we forget what we are supposed to remember and we remember what we are supposed to forget. Now if you can volunteer with me I want one volunteer to just tell me if you have studied in India and if you have school in India you would remember one that teacher in your schooling who was very strict with you who was who was a nightmare to you. Can you name that teacher name please? Yeah. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Can you please name the teacher whom you were afraid of? Anybody? Yeah. Praise God. Praise God. You remember, right? We remember that we already Okay. How many of you have studied Pythagoras theorem in your school? Can you can you can you tell me the theorem? Forgot, right? But you remember the school teacher Pythagoras sum of the squares of the both sides is equal to the square of the opposite side. A square plus B square is equal to C square. This is a good thing we forget. But what do you remember the nightmare? The teacher who gave you the nightmare. Praise be to God. We this is what we remember. We tend to forget what we ought to remember. And we tend to remember what we ought to forget. There’s always a quarrel between the heart and the mind. My friend heart says come heart says to the brain hey brain come see the good things that have happened there lot more good things you know what brain is busy I’m also a certified clinical psychologist you know what brain always tries to remember brain always tries to remember the toughest things or the baddest things or the saddest things. So there are 10 number of good things that are happening which heart wants to know but brain is always busy in looking at that one little bad thing that happened in your life and this is common don’t ever think if you are sitting in this room if you say oh no this is not my problem you are fooling yourself because if you are a human this is what sigman freud has said he’s diagnosed that every human race suffer from this this two incurable problem and today I’m going to give you the good And good news comes a little later.
\nContext of Deuteronomy: Preparing for the Promised Land
\nI want to talk to you from the book of Deuteronomy and I tell you my preaching style is an expository style. Right? I am going to tell you the book the chapter and we go slightly deeper into that. Right? So after you finish this halfhour sermon you would go back home you would at least know what is there in Book of Deuteronomy. Could anybody sum up the book of Deuteronomy in just three points here? All right. So book of Deuteronomy was written by not me Moses. Yes. And this Deuteronomy means jutro means second onommy means oracle. So this is the second time that Moses is saying why does God wanted Moses to say second time? Because the after the 40 years of wilderness there’s a new generation that has come up which has completely not known about God who has not seen what God has done. They have not seen how the Red Sea was departed. They have not witnessed the 10 plagues. They have not they have not seen any of those greatest things. Now this is a new generation that has come up except for Moses, Caleb and Joshua. Entire 30 lakh population was new and they were now on the edge of Moya plans and right in front of them was the cannon the promised land and behind them was a 40 years of wilderness. Now this is what this is the time that God wanted people to know that God is going to bless them in the future. The blessing is seen blessing is right in front of them. The blessing is seen right in front of them. But before God wanted before God gives that blessing in their hand, God wanted to prepare their heart. My brethren, I wanted to tell you God loves to bless us. If you believe it, say amen. God always wants to see us be prosper. God always wants to see us be blessed but before he gives blessing he wants to guard our heart. He wants us to guard our heart. So this is the Deuteronomy. Uh this a summary of book of Deuteronomy. In book of Deuteronomy you will see three sermons preached by Moses. The first sermon is from the chapter 1 to chapter 4. The first sermon he speaks about remembering God’s faithfulness. How many sermons? Three sermons. First sermon from first chapter to fourth chapter he speaks about God’s faithful. Remember people about how God is faithful and the second sermon he speaks about from the chapter fifth uh fifth chapter to 26th chapter and here this is the lengthiest this is the lengthiest chapter in the in the book because because this is the lengthiest sermon in the book. It goes it spans almost around 24 chapters. All right. Now here he gives the second commandments. Here he gives lot of practices. Here he gives lot of other things and the last sermon lasts only for four chapters 27th chapter to 30 chapters and the last four chapters. So these are the three sermons that Moses spoke in the book of Deuteronomy. And the last four chapters in the chapter 31 he commissions his job to Joshua. Why? Because God says Moses, you’re not going to enter into the promised land. It is Joshua who is going to take people into the the promised land. So he is handing over the responsibilities to Joshua. That is what you see in chapter 31. And in 32, Moses is not just a leader, he’s also a great poet and a singer. You see the song of Moses sung in chapter 32. And in chapter 33, you see that you know Moses is blessed. Now all the while Moses has blessed people. Now this time God is blessing Moses. In chapter 33 you see the blessing of Moses that go that he received from God. And in chapter 34 you see the death of Moses. There he dies. Now you you now you have the book of Deuteronomy on your tips. How many how many sermons in book of Deuteronomy? Three sermons. Number one he speaks about the God’s faithfulness from chapter 1 to chapter 4. Number two he gives the law of God through love. That is chapter 5 to 27 26 and the third chap and the third sermon is about the blessings and the curse and the renewal of covenant and that is in the last 27 to 30 and the 31 32 33 34 you know you have it there.
\nDeuteronomy Chapter 8 Overview
\nSo today I’m going to talk to you from Deuteronomy chapter 8. Now I will tell you all uh if you can turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 8 and please hold your Bibles there because I’m going to give you the background because now here we are. Here we are I’m going to set you the background. Now at present they are at the Moya plains. Moses and his people are at the Moa plains. In front what they see? They see the promise. They see the land. They see the land flowing with milk and honey that God has promised. And at the back what they see at the back they see the 40 years of wilderness, the 40 years of trouble time, the 40 years of testing times. So this is the time. So Deuteronomy was written at the edge of receiving the promise. At the edge of receiving the promise they not yet received the promise, but they’re at the edge of receiving the promise. Now this is very important my brethren to understand this word. Deuteronomy is always about looking back and preparing for future. Looking back and prepare for future. My friends I want to tell you God is going to bless this church in this nation. Amen. He is going to give you prosperity. He is going to bless you. But remember there is a great danger in receiving a prosperity. If you forget to look what is back. If you forget to look, if you forget to remember what God has told, if you forget your wilderness, you will fail in your promised land. If you forget your wilderness, you will fail in your promised land. This is my message. My message is very clear. Remember, remember that you don’t forget. Remember that we don’t forget. This is what Moses is speaking to the people of Israel in that place. So before this is what God says that before I bless your hand, I will guard your heart. Everybody come on. Who wants to be blessed here? Only one. Who wants to be blessed? Amen. Who wants to be prosperous? Everybody, everybody yearns to be blessed, right? We all wants to be blessed. But this is what God is saying. When the blessing is about to come in your way, never forget your wilderness. I am sure I’m sure all of us here have have had our own wildernesses. If you believe it, say amen. All of us have our personal wilderness. I had my personal wilderness. Pastors have your personal wilderness in your ministry. Brethren, have personal ministries in your job, in your businesses. Children have your wilderness. Youth have your wilderness. Praise God for the wilderness. You know what? In the wilderness, God is allowing us to go in the wilderness. But he is not leaving us alone. He is with us in the wilderness. He is like the sun. He is like the the cloud of uh the cloud in the morning and the fire cloud in the in the in the evening. He is our El Shadai. He wants us to be in the wilderness but not alone. Why? Because he is wanting us to know that before he places his blessing in our hand, he wants to get our hearts guarded. And you know the place where you get your hearts guarded that’s in your wilderness. But very soon this people have forgotten the wilderness. That’s why they failed in the promising. My brethren, now I want you to look at Deuteronomy chapter 8.
\nRemember Your Past in the Wilderness
\nThis is my title. This is my sermon. Remember so that you do not forget. Remember that you do not forget. What you should not forget. When do you forget? That’s my that’s my contention here. What do you forget and when do you forget? Now, if you if you divide the chapter 8, the chapter 8 has 20 verses. Now if you divide that into four parts. First six verses is it talks about remember the past. The first six verses talks about remember the past. What is there in the past? The past was wilderness. This was how God formed you and me in the wilderness. And God is saying in those six verses remember your past. A four piece you got to remember this this evening this this afternoon maybe from chapter 8. I’m going to tell you about entire 20 verses in just few minutes. Now we are dividing the chapter into four. The first part is remember your past and the second part is from verses 7 to 10. It says remember the promise God is giving them a promise that God will bless them and God will bless us as well. Amen. Hallelujah. And the third portion is if they fail to remember. If they fail to remember, there’s a problem. Remember the problem. Prosperity makes us forget our wilderness. Prosperity makes us forget God’s hand. Prosperity is more dangerous than adversity. You know what is the most dangerous thing that can happen to Christianity, Christian church? It’s not the persecution. It’s the prosperity that spread. Because if you see the church history, church had a greatest revival under persecution. The church expanded under persecution, church was born in persecution, church expanded in persecution and church is living in persecution. The moment there is no persecution and the prosperity overtakes, that’s when the people tends to cool down and that’s when people tend to forget God. So my brethren, God is saying remember there is a problem. The problem is prosperity can make us forget something. I’m going to tell you what we’re going to forget. Everything from the Bible. I’m not going to say anything of of off my head. It’s completely from the bo word of God. And the last point he says if you don’t address the problem, if you don’t address the problem, the last two verses he says there is a penalty that you will have to pay if you don’t address the problem. You see there’s a he’s asking us to remember but remember the past and he’s saying remember the promise. How many of you have received the promise of God? If you receive say amen. Amen. Hallelujah. You have had you had a wilderness as a past. You received a promise and God is saying there’s a problem if you don’t understand your promise well because prosperity can make you forget your promise and if you don’t address your promise you’re going to face the penalty quickly let’s run it through all the verses now 1 to six if somebody can help me read or we don’t have much time let’s just go running it says that you know verse can can somebody please uh quickly read it please verse Yeah. God had led them to the wilderness for 40 years. And in the wilderness, look what he says in verse two. He says he says, Yeah. Go back to the slide, brother, please. My my slide, please. Yeah. Open. Yeah, you can keep that. All right. So listen listen here in in verse two it says that God had led them and then please read the verse two sister and God had humbled us in the wilderness and and he tested them in the wilderness and in verse three. Yeah. And he fed us in the wilderness. Yes. And verse four, and he protected them in the wilderness. Yeah. And five and six. So God discipline six things that God is forming them. you know in the past in all of why God wants us to understand a wilderness because wilderness is not because of our sin wilder wilderness is not because our adversity wilderness is God’s plan for us to take it into the promised land without wilderness there is no promise in our life there’s no fulfillment of promise praise God for the wilderness in our lives come on church praise God for the wildernesses in our life because in the wilderness God is what is he doing? Has he left us? He is leading us. He has humbled us and he tests us and he feeds us and he protects us. You know what? How know how he protected? How many years were they in the wilderness? By the way, 40 years the Bible says their dress did not worn out and they would have grown in stature and as they were increasing even the dress also started increasing. You know our dress the next day worns out right? But for 40 years the dress did not worn out. How many of you change your shoes every quarter? Most of you right? But these people have never changed their sandals for fucking years. Why? Because that’s the protection of God. You know where? Not in the promised land that is in the wilderness. Praise God. Praise God. So God has led them. God has humbled them. God has tested them. God has fed them. And God has protected them and God had disciplined them because there’s a purpose for a wilderness. That’s why God wants them to remember. Remember, remember because if you forget, if you and I forget the wilderness, our past, because often times when we get into prosperity, that’s what happens. We forget from where we came from. We forget our past.
\nRemember the Promise of Abundance
\nBut God is saying remember for I have the next part is that remember the promise. Now here is the most interesting thing. What is the promise? Can somebody please read it out loud? 8 and 7 vers sorry chapter 8 7 to 10 please. Everybody looking into the scriptures please. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is a land of wheat and barley, vineyards and figs and pomegranates, olive oil and honey and iron and copper. This is enough for every civilization to grow. Why is United States so prosperous in the entire world? Because this has got the diversity. This has got the blessings. Why is Israel though the smallest of all the nations? Why is it most powerful? Because that is the blessing of God. You know the our blessing depends upon not our ability. It is what God gives us through. Amen. This is what God is saying. Now God gave them wheat. He gave them barley. He gave them water. He gave them honey. He gave them vineyard, figs, fruits, vegetables, oils and minerals and everything God has given them. And this is this is for you. Did they earn it? Did they deserve it? Did they own it? It is all given unto them. Never say after you reach a certain stage, after I reach a certain stage, oh, this is my hard work. Oh, this is my wisdom. Oh, this is my wealth. Oh, this is my my talent. Oh, this is my promotion. This is my my friend. They’re much more qualified than you out in the world. They’re much more better than me outside in this world. But this is only because of the grace of God that God has promised us to be in this place to worship the living God. Amen. Hallelujah. And this is the promise that God is giving. He gave them. And you know what? They also ate the mana, the food of the thing. But disgraceful. Even after eating the mana, they disowned God.
\nThe Danger of Prosperity and Pride
\nEven after eating the heavenly mana, they disown God. And for that the problem you see from 11 to 18 let’s not read it because there’s too many verses. This is what happens. The problem is prosperity in your prosperity there is more adversity because when we are blessed is when we have to be very much careful. You know people wants to be blessed. Everybody wants to be blessed. Everybody wants to be prospered. In fact it is God’s will in Genesis 1:26 that we are to be blessed. expand, progress, grow. But remember, the greatest adversity also lies in prosperity. You know why? Because this is the people. God warned them. Remember, I’m giving you all of them. But prosperity leads to temptation. You know what they said in chapter 11. Read chapter 11. They say that they forgot God. Can you read chapter 11? Sorry, verse. at verse 11, please. Yeah. Yeah. Your plenty you do not forget. When do you forget the Lord? It’s in plenty. When you have more, when you have good health, good wealth, good education, good every amenities, luxury is when God says be careful. That’s when you and I I’m telling you who might say oh it’s not me but you remember the universal incurable problem that that’s inescapable you cannot escape right and the number two once you become prosper you might say oh I’m a modest pe I’m a modest man I’m a humblest man but pride prosperity be gets pride you agree it or not prosperity begets pride that’s what is said in verse 14 it says that who it’s not God it’s it’s about me can you read the chapter sorry verse 14 please for me yeah then your heart will become proud and what makes us forget the Lord will be and the and the third point in chapter 17 it says that it’s all because of me it’s all because of me this is not about God it’s because me that I have come here and you know the penalty that God is saying this morning of if you don’t address your problem properly this is what it says you know God will raise up nations he’ll bless the other nations to come upon us and lead us into slact because they forgot what God has done to them and they said this is because of because of the promise that he has given to our forefathers. They forgot the pro they forgot their past. They forgot their promise. They failed to address their problem and they had to face the penalty. And the penalty even today they are facing in the midst of promise they’re facing the penalty. They have no peace at all. Every morning they wake up with shivers. Where does the missile come from? And that’s not going to end until the day of the Lord. Amen. You know why? Because they failed there to remember God. And here is the good news, my friend.
\nJesus in the Wilderness and Closing Prayer
\nThere’s a beautiful connection between Deuteronomy chapter 8. Another five minutes I’m going to close. There’s a beautiful connection between Deuteronomy chapter 8 to Matthew chapter 4. This is exactly where Jesus, our Lord and Savior, where the people has failed in the wilderness of 40 years. Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior in the wilderness of 40 days he encountered the temptation you know by what? By the word of God. Every word that he spoken he has quoted three verses in when when he was tempted by Satan. This is why people of God it is important for you to know the word of God by heart. I was so happy to see these children reciting the memory because this is what you do when you are tempted. You must use your bullets of memory verses. You must use the weapons of the of of of the word of God. Amen. Hallelujah. This is what exemplified by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. You know three verses he quoted. All the three verses were from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6 till 8. And the first one was from chapter 8 verse3. And he quoted, “Man shall not live by the blood alone, but by the every word that comes out of the mouth.” Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise be to God. You know what the good news for all of us. People of Israel, they had directly mana coming from heaven. But yet they Jesus Jesus passed it perfectly. And you know why I say the good news? We are eating the living blood of Jesus Christ. Amen. Hallelujah. Though we may fail, he stands by us and he makes us prosper. Hallelujah. He make though we may fall, he is by our side and he’ll make us stand. Though when we fall down, when we stumble, Jesus stands by us. When father comes for judgment, he stands right before us. He says, I have paid for him. I had paid for you. I had for them. It was they who have to be presented before God. How grateful we are. How greater beings we are. Because the only difference that makes between us and them though they had direct access, we have the direct cleansing from the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah. And this is the good news. the incurable diseases that the entire human race suffers. We have been cured of that incurable disease by the blushing of the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah. Glory be to God. Praise be to God. That’s what Jesus has done. So my friend, we have a better bread than the people of Israel. We have a better provision than the people of Israel. And we have a better inheritance. They had the cannon which they still residing but they have no peace. But we have a greater inheritance that is the eternal heaven which shall be for us which shall we we where we shall be with the lord and save we are seated upon the throne for ancients together. Hallelujah. How better are we? If you believe it say amen. If you’re cured of this incurable disease say amen. Hallelujah. So that is what we have. God is about to bless faithful community assembly in the coming days. Believe it. Say amen. And all he wants to to tell you remember your past. Remember your promise. Remember there is the problem and address the problem. Otherwise we’re going to face penalty. Yes, we were to face penality, but that penalty was taken up by our Lord and Savior. Conclusion, I would just like to say this. A preacher once said, “When you look back, thank the Lord. When you look ahead, trust him. When you look within, humble yourself. And when you look up, worship him.” Can anybody can Can all of us repeat this? When you look back, thank him. When you look ahead, trust him. When you look within yourself, humble ourselves. When you look up, Deuteronomy 8 says exactly this what we have to do. Amen. Glory and praise be to God. Shall we all close our eyes, bow our heads, look up to the Lord in prayer this morning, if you are here, my friend, waiting upon the promise of God and God is to bless us. He wants to put the blessing in our hearts. He wants to give his blessing in your hand. This is a personal blessing. This is not a community blessing. This is not a family blessing. This is a personal blessing. He wants to directly come and place that blessing in your hand, in my hand. My brethren, though we are timid people, though we are imperfect people, we fail to remember what we ought to forget. We fail to remember what we ought to forget and we remember what we ought to for we forget what we ought to remember. But God says it’s okay. He sent his son so that he loved all of us. And he’s saying, “I’m going to make your promise everlasting. I’m going to make your promise everlasting.” That happened in my life four years ago when I was running away from God. I wanted to go back and settle down in the States and earn money. And that’s when God called me. I was young. I had profession. I had education. I had everything. I said, “God, it is because of me.” But God brought me to the valleys and he said, “You’re not done yet.” And he’s taking me to the nations. He’s putting me in front of the people of non-believers and he’s making me proclaim the greatness of the true living God. And that is through the power of the blood of Jesus. There is power in the blood of Jesus, my friend. It gives us strength to withstand the promise of God. It gives us strength<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"