Sermon Tone Analysis

Deuteronomy 8:1-20

 

! Introduction

      Evreyone wants to succeed and prosper.

Every one who is farming would like to have low input costs and high prices for grain.

Everyone who plays a sport would like to win.

Everyone would like to be able to purchase a new vehicle as soon as the old one is off warranty.

All of us would like to have a job that is fulfilling, that we can do well and that pays well.

Prosperity and success is the wish of all of us and if someone wanted to fail, we would think that something is wrong.

If a team plays hockey, they want to win, they don't plan to lose.

Some people would like to become famous.

All of us would like to be the best we can be.

The whole world context is one of success.

There is a college named, "Success Commercial College" The US army invites people to " be all you can be."

One company has a pension plan called "Freedom 55" which advertises that you can be wealthy enough at 55 that you don't have to work any more.

We encourage our children to succeed and we are happy when they do and disappointed when they don't.

We are wired for success.

There is nothing wrong with success, but do we realize how dangerous it can be spiritually?

Do we prepare our children to succeed as Christians by warning them of the dangers and giving them tools to help them remain faithful when they succeed?

We often think that when we succeed, then we will be able to relax, when in fact when we succeed we need to be much more alert and careful in our spiritual walk than when we do not succeed.

! I.                   Stories

      I would like to tell you two stories to explain what I mean.

!! A.                 The Story Of Israel

      If you will turn in your Bibles to Deuteronommy 8, the passage Art's care group read, you can follow along to hear the first story.

When Israel came out of Egypt, things were tough.

They hadn't been good in Egypt, but they were worse in the desert.

The passage talks about the hardships in the desert.

Verse 15 talks about the "dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions."

It doesn't sound like a picnic or a vacation.

They experienced hardship, lack and trouble.

In the desert, Israel learned that God would provide when they could not provide for themselves.

God provided manna to provide for their hunger; He provided water - bringing it out of the rock.

He provided  clothing - verse 4 says that "Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these 40 years."

Israel experienced help from God at a time when they could not provide for themselves.

God was faithful and they became convinced by experience that God provides.

Now Moses told them good news that this time of suffering was almost over.

In a short time, they would be crossing over the Jordan River and entering into the promised land.

The text tells about the beauty of that land.

Notice in verses 7-9 there is a description of the abundance of the land they were about to enter.

The deprivation of the desert was about to end, they were about to get rich.

There would be plenty of water, the crops would do well indeed, the promise in verse 9 is, "you will lack nothing."

Further down in verse 12, it talks about the "fine houses" they would build and about how their flocks would grow large and they would have lots of silver and gold.

What a welcome relief it would be when they would enter this land.

Prosperity and success would be theirs.

All of it a blessing from God.

      But, this chapter is written to warn them about the dangers that would accompany that prosperity.

Numerous times Moses warns them that entering the promised land would not be a time to relax, but would be a time of great spiritual danger.

In verse 11 he says, "Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God..." Verses 12-14 also warn that when they would prosper they should watch for the danger that "your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God..."

      God warned them of the danger of success and warned them in verses 19,20 that if they were not careful and if they would forget God, then he would destroy them like He would destroy the nations they were going to dispossess.

The sad thing is that when Israel entered the promised land this warning was not heeded.

What God warned them about happened.

They became wealthy and they did forget about God and eventually, because of their faithlessness, God destroyed them.

In Jeremiah 13:24,25 we read the warning to Israel at the time of Jeremiah many years later, "I will scatter you like chaff driven by the desert wind.

This is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you," declares the LORD, "because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods."

During the lifetime of Jeremiah, this destruction occurred.

!! B.                 The Story Of the Mennonites

      This is a story that strikes close to home.

It is so similar to what has happened to the Mennonite people and because I am one, to my family and to me.

Following the Russian Revolution, the Mennonite people in Russia began to experience escalating deprivation.

During the revolution, some experienced the loss of family.

Later there was an increased tax burden which forced the collectivization of business and farms.

Eventually, many lost their wealth and freedom.

Freedom of religion was taken away.

A number of years later as the second world war approached, further losses occurred as all the men of the villages were taken away and then whole families were deported to Siberia.

For those, like my family, who managed to escape the trains to Siberia, there was a further loss of all property.

At one point, members of my family were refugees on the steppes of Russia with only the clothes on their back.

The loss and deprivation they experienced was terrible and frightening.

Out of this experience, I have heard the stories of faith in which people with nowhere else to turn learned to trust fully on God because they knew that He was their only hope.

I have heard stories of prayer times when the whole village of refugees gathered to pray because they needed God's help in their desperation.

I have heard of Scripture that became precious because it sustained in a difficult time.

Eventually these people came to North America.

Some of you have personally experienced the things I am talking about.

At first there was poverty, but eventually there began to be signs of prosperity.

Today, those who came out and their descendents are living in comfort.

Most of us are middle or upper middle class.

We have risen to high positions in government and industry.

We have succeeded!

In fact, we would have to say that with or without this background, we are a people who have succeeded.

But what has happened to faith?

Have we kept faith or have we succumbed to the danger of prosperity?

There are some who have allowed their wealth to cause them to forget God.

Even those of us who continue to live as children of God have succumbed to the temptations of wealth.

We have learned to depend on our wealth and become quite nervous if that is threatened.

Although we are generous, I wonder how many of us are giving out of our excess.

We have accomplished many things, but have we accomplished them by the power of God or by our wisdom and political power?

We attend church, but is worship of God at the center of our life or is it a leisure activity?

If trials came, what would be revealed about our hearts?

I think it is clear that what God warned Israel about in Deuteronomy 8 is a clear and present danger and we as North American Christians need to heed this warning.

! II.

Faithfulness In Prosperity

      Therefore, we need to examine ourselves to see if we have fallen into the dangers associated with prosperity and we need to provide a warning and a way of avoiding this danger to our children.

!! A.                 Aware Of The Danger

      When Israel experienced the difficulties of the desert, Moses indicates in 8:2 that it was a time of testing to "see what was in their heart."

Difficult experiences prove what is in our heart.

In trials, people will either throw the whole thing overboard or they will learn to cling to God completely.

There is a danger in trials, but there is no doubt about where a person stands.

Trials will test to see if we really believe in the omnipotence, love and righteousness of God?

      Success, on the other hand, is much more subtle.

A person who is successful can appear to be a person of faith, but we really don't know.

The danger in success is much greater because we are untested and we can coast along with the appearance of faith, but it is not a real faith.

Therefore, it is doubly important that when we succeed and when we are prosperous that we are aware of the dangers and constantly examining ourselves to make sure that we have not left faith behind.