REMEMBER the Kindness and Goodness of God | +Quigg Lawrence

So if you have your Bible, if you have a Bible app, we are in Deuteronomy. Not quite as hard to find as Obadiah or Nahum or Third John, but Deuteronomy—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the fifth book. Deuteronomy eight. Let me read one verse and then I'm going to share a story, then we'll get into the meat of it.

From Deuteronomy eight, verse 11:

Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his rules, his statutes, which I commanded you today. Lest when you have eaten and you're 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 and out of the house of slavery. — Deuteronomy 8:11-17

Let me pray. Father, thank you for your word. We stand under it to be taught by it. Your word is not burdensome. It is our very life. We believe that by your spirit, you will speak to each of us. In Jesus' name, Amen.

A Story of Custom Boots and Forgotten Faithfulness

Well, on my fortieth birthday, I wanted to spoil myself. In the forties, you need everything. Do you know that? At 62 now, I'm trying to get rid of stuff. I'm thinking, how many more years do I got? If I get rid of one thing a week, by the time I go to be with Jesus, my kids will just have an empty house to get rid of. That's it. But when I was 40, I needed everything, and I needed fancy boots. I flew to Houston with my wife, and we had some custom made ostrich boots. Isn't that cool? I worked this thing with Annette. I said, "Honey, there's a Nigerian church just starting down there in Houston. They've asked me to come preach, so it would be a good thing if I could go get my boots made in Houston and preach the same week."

So I went down there. What a lovely pastor they had—a great man. I've always, strangely I don't know why, but just been so attracted to international friends, especially to my friends from Africa. I was talking with the pastor, I'm like, "Tell me your dreams. What's God doing here?" He said, "Well, we want to build a healthy church for the Lord. Right now, we have about 80 people coming on Sunday—80 people."

We talked some more and about thirty minutes later, he said, "Yeah, we might need some help trying to get a piece of land and a building, or just get an old building we can refurb, but we're going to need 800 seats minimum."

I'm like, "Well, why do you need an 800-seat sanctuary if you only have 80 people coming on a good Sunday?" He said, "That's because all the people come on harvest days. They're like two or three a year. They all come on harvest days, but they don't come on the other Sundays."

I'm like, "What?"

See, I have this tendency to put people on a pedestal. I know it's idolatry. I'm aware of it, but I do just kind of naturally want to put somebody on a pedestal—a great preacher, a great athlete, a great somebody. Friends, I have put Africans on a pedestal, and that is no fair to them. The reason I put them on a pedestal is my African friends wake up at 3:30 in the morning, most of them, every day to pray. 3:30. I asked Ben Kwashi, Archbishop Kwashi, "Why do you all wake up at such a ridiculous hour? God would still be there at 5:30." He says, "Yeah, but the Muslim call to prayer is at four, and we want to start a prayer to the one true God at 3:30."

So they wake up at 3:30, and friends, I tell you, my friends in Africa, they love the Lord. The Lord is part of their day, not just something they do for a few minutes on Sunday. He's part of their life, and it's so important to them. But the thing I couldn't understand is these friends. Now, these aren't Benjamin Kwashi people, but these are other Nigerians who used to go to church at 5:30 in the morning to pray together. They used to go to church several times a week—break bread, fellowship, the apostles' teaching, the prayers. And yet they come to the US, these same people. The same people who were most faithful, the ones I had put on the pedestal. And like 90% of them in that church weren't coming to church except for on two or three harvest days—basically Christmas and Easter.

I realized, first of all, don't ever put anybody on a pedestal. Number two, it's easy to forget the Lord, right? Especially when there is what? What changed for them coming from Nigeria to Houston for most of those people? Do you know what changed their walk with the Lord? Affluence. Affluence.

These other friends, when they were in Nigeria, most of them were quite poor. They were certainly under threat of being killed for being Christians. But when they come here, life's easier. You got credit cards, you can get things, you can go to Walmart, you can go skiing, you can do things. So God's just not as important. The people that went at 5:30 in the morning just weren't coming to church. If those godly people can forget the Lord, how much more us mere mortals?

And so when we open up Deuteronomy 8, it starts out, and I realize when I take you here, I've been living with this passage most of the week and thrashing it over, but you're coming in cold. You have no idea. This could be like a documentary season three episode two, and you have no idea what's going on. Can I at least give you real quickly what's happened?

In Deuteronomy 5, God gives this amazing gift called the 10 Commandments, the law he gives to his people. He doesn't give it to the Assyrians. He doesn't give it to the Babylonians. He doesn't give it to the Egyptians. He doesn't give it to any other people. Just these wandering Arameans, these little bit of nobodies. He gives us gift of his law, the 10 Commandments.

Then in Deuteronomy 6, after getting the 10 Commandments, they actually specify the great commandment. Now, you know that from Jesus, but in Deuteronomy 6, this is where Jesus was quoting from. He said:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. — Deuteronomy 6:5

Of course, Jesus added to that: love your neighbor as yourself. But see, the 10 Commandments were given, then the great commandment. Now we pick up Deuteronomy 8.

So God is speaking through his servant Moses, and he says this very plainly:

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 your fathers. — Deuteronomy 8:1

Now, this kind of sounds like quid pro quo, doesn't it? Maybe you're like me and you hear words that lawyers know. I used to—fifty years ago, I don't know what that word means. Quid pro quo basically means, if you do this for me, I'll do that for you. It's kind of like, you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back.

What I want to say is this is not exactly that, but it is cause and effect. There are consequences to the way we choose to live our lives. There are consequences to who we worship and who we invest in. But really at the heart of God, what you see here is—He's not going to miss anything if He doesn't have a bunch of people obeying Him. What He's really trying to do is bless the people, to take them into the promised land, to that land flowing with milk and honey.

So He says: This whole commandment, I command you that you will be careful to do it, that you may live and you will multiply and you'll go in and possess the land.

You know, Satan comes to do the opposite. The Bible says he comes to steal, kill, destroy. That's his mission, like SEAL Team Six: steal, kill, destroy. But Jesus says:

I have come that you might have freedom, that you might go in and go out and find pasture. — John 10:10

That's what Jesus said. You will go in and go out and find pasture.

You know why I wasn't a Christian? I thought it was just all rules, all heaviness. I didn't realize that actually living as a non-Christian is not freedom at all. It only seems like that for a season, but there is real freedom in Christ, and His commands are actually not burdensome. They're just great, great counsel, and they also prevent us from doing really dumb things like poking each other in the eye or hitting somebody on the head with a stick or cheating on our spouse or stealing from somebody. There's wise counsel from the Lord.

And so He says, I want you to keep these commandments so I can bless you. I want to bless you. I want you to have that freedom. I want you to possess the land.

And then it says in verse 2 of chapter 8:

Remember. — Deuteronomy 8:2

This is exactly what my friends in Houston were not doing. At one time when they're really dependent on the Lord and the Boko Haram or whoever's trying to kill them, they're walking with Jesus, they're glued to Jesus, and now they come to the land of America, which they think is the land flowing with milk and honey and money. And they were forgetting the Lord, their God.

And so He says, I want you guys to remember. I want you to remember. You've been through some hard times, and we're going to get to that in a second. You've been through some hard times, but I want you to remember how good the Lord has been to you.

So one thing I want to say to you today: if you're going through a hard time—and who hasn't gone through at least a really brutal time one time in their life—it's very easy to become like Job's wife and say, just curse God and die. It's very easy for me to become like others and go like, God, where are you? Could you show up? Come on.

What the Scripture is pointing us towards is that we need to look back and remember all that the Lord has done for us, our 62 years or however many years you have.

Before you knew your left hand from your right hand, the Lord made you. He breathed the breath of life in you. He put you in a womb and you were safe there, and you were born, and somebody fed you, and somebody diapered you, and somebody taught you to read, and maybe at some point, somebody taught you about the Lord. God's been so good to you, and so he had been so good to the Israelites.

Moses is trying to say, remember the way the Lord led you for forty years in the wilderness, in the desert. He says, I want you to remember that and think about how faithful God has been. He let you go in the wilderness for such a long time to do what? There's a purpose to why he let Israelites walk in the desert for forty years. You could probably get there in six months if you did a direct line. But why did he let them go around in circles for forty years in the desert?

He might humble us, and he might test us to know what is in our heart. — Deuteronomy 8

God, actually, it's not a sign of his lack of love for you. It's actually a sign of his love for you. Like a father disciplines his kids. A father encourages his children. A father speaks truth to his children. How much more if we who are evil sinners do that? How much more our heavenly father gives good gifts to his children? The Lord tests us because he wants to know what's in our heart. Actually, he already knows. He wants us to know what is in our heart. So he humbled Israel in the desert. He tested them. He was trying them, kind of like in a crucible, so they could see, and so everyone could see what was in their heart, whether they would keep his commandments or not.

The Lord humbled you. He tested you and humbled you. — Deuteronomy 8:3

The Lord let you hunger, but even in the midst of testing you and humbling you, God showed up. If you're in a hard time right now, it really is a hard time. We're not minimizing it. We're not pretending that's not reality. If you're in a hard time, you're in a hard time. And it is a time of testing. It is a time where the Holy Spirit will reveal what's in your heart. But the Lord's intent is always to bring you towards him. His intent is to bless you. But there is a time of trial and testing.

He let you hunger and fed you with manna. Even in the midst of their hunger, God brought down bread from the ground, and then the doves. He provided meat when they were murmuring.

Your fathers did not know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. — Deuteronomy 8

Living by More Than Bread

How many of you guys like to eat? I mean, like, you really love to eat. Have you seen my Instagram? It's got like three things: grandchildren, bluegrass music, and food. Okay, I lied. We also have some Jesus stuff on there. Jesus, kingdom stuff, grandkids, bluegrass music, food. Food, food, food. I love food. Do you like food? I like butter, I like garlic, I like pasta, I like homemade food. My wife's a great cook. But the reality is, friends, as awesome as that is, and it is awesome, food is awesome. Man does not live by bread alone. If you live for the appetite of your stomach, you're going to be one miserable person.

There's a hunger. The Bible says that God places eternity in the hearts of all men. We can look outside and see the fingerprints of God, his divine attributes, his eternal power, and know that there's a creator and know that that's not us. And when we see that, we know we're called to worship this God who made us and made all things.

The Lord does say, man does not live by bread alone. Do you know that this morning? Do you know that there's much more? There's bread that has come down from heaven, and that's where you're gonna have your needs met, is in Christ, not in other things. So the Lord is wanting to bless.

Then he recalls for the Israelites, because this is who it was written for. He says, your clothes that you were wearing and the sandals on your feet, they did not wear out for forty years. I don't know about you guys, but if you went in my closet, you would see clothes from forty years ago. 32 waist, styles. Oh my goodness. What were they thinking? Do you have those in your closet? But the point here is not style. The point is that the Lord was faithful. These wandering Arameans, they were slaves. They got out of Egypt, and for forty years their shoes did not wear out. For forty years they had clothes on their back, and even when they murmured, "Oh, God, send us back to Egypt. It was so great being a slave in Egypt. Oh, they had pots of garlic and so many wonderful things to eat." See, they were deceived.

Egypt really wasn't that way. That was their false memory. And so the Lord is trying to say, he disciplines his children. Just as a father disciplines their children, hopefully in love, hopefully not exasperating them, but as a loving father or mother would discipline their children, so the Lord disciplines his kids. That's why he tests. That's why he would allow you to go through a wilderness, to grow you. How the heck else do you think you're going to grow? Do you think you grow in times of affluence or when things are going well? Not many people do.

Do you know when you grow? In the crucible. You grow when there's a diagnosis that you cannot fix. You grow in a time where you've lost your job. Maybe it was your fault. Maybe it wasn't. You grow in times of testing, and the Lord wants you to grow into the full measure and stature of his son, Jesus.

And so while the Lord does test us, tells us to remember him, and he humbles us, remember at the same time, he's also feeding us. He's also clothing us, and he wants to bless us by bringing us into a good land. That's his heart. That's why he's calling us to walk in his commands. Commands are good, like when you tell your kid, please don't stick your finger in the electric socket. It hurts. It might kill you. Are you being mean? No, you love your child and you're trying to protect them. So it is with God's commands. Words of wisdom, words of instruction, words to keep you safe, and also so your neighbor won't poke your eye out or whack you with a stick or steal all your stuff.

Now, we go on in Deuteronomy 8. He says this: "I, the Lord, brought you into a land flowing with milk and honey with fountains and springs and valleys and hills with wheat and barley, and with vines and fig trees and pomegranates and olives and honey. I'm gonna bring you into a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity."

— Deuteronomy 8

See, there was a time of testing. There was a time of hunger, and even then the Lord provided. He says, but I'm gonna take you into the land where it is a land flowing with milk and honey. There will be no more scarcity there. It's foreshadowing the heavenly banquet that Isaiah talks about. We're going to have great food and well aged wine. The Lord wants to bless his people.

The Two Warnings

But then I want you to look at verse 11 because there are two things that are kind of a poke in the chest here. Two things.

Number one is, in verse 11, there's a warning. Warning Will Robinson. This, while it was written to the Jews who are about to go into the promised land of Palestine, we understand that, but it's also written for us. So the warning God gave them could also apply to us. What is the warning? There are two warnings.

"Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes. Take care, lest you forget the Lord. Lest when you have eaten and you're full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and the silver and gold is multiplied, all that you have is multiplied, then very likely your heart will be lifted up. Your heart will be lifted up, and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents, scorpions, etcetera, etcetera."

— Deuteronomy 8:11-17

This is exactly what I'm talking about. This is what broke the heart of my Nigerian pastor friend. The friends that used to get up, wake up at four, 03:30 in the morning to pray, then they would go to church and be at church at 05:30 to pray together every day because the Lord was the most important thing of their life. But now, as they come to the United States, what happened? Somebody sprinkled fairy dust on them? I don't know what happened. You know what happened? I'll tell you what happened. They started falling in love with mammon. They started liking comfort and ease in their houses and their things, and they forgot the Lord.

Well, come on harvest days. Friends, God doesn't want you to just come on a harvest day. He wants you. He loves you. He really does. He wants all of you, and he wants to bless you.

So the first warning is take care not to forget the Lord. Let me make it personal. Don't apply this to the person behind you or the person in front of you. You're like, "Hey, that guy really needs it." I need to apply this to me. Like I always say in scripture, all the people that heard this the first time, they're all dead. So the question is, do we hear this? The better question is, do I hear this? Or you could say, do I hear this?

The Lord is warning you. Take care lest you forget the Lord. Have you forgotten the Lord? Man, I was on fire, man. I met Jesus in Young Life, and I was on fire. We had Bible studies. It was awesome. I'm like, "Yeah, that was also in 1993. Congratulations for precious memories." God doesn't want to be a God of precious memories.

Or maybe he could say, "Well, then I had this encounter with the Holy Spirit, and it was just awesome, and you wouldn't believe all the cool stuff God was doing." I'm like, "When was that?" "Oh, fifteen years ago." Friends, you can't live on yesterday's manna. You can't live on a relationship that no longer exists. Basically, our loving Father is just saying, "Take care. Be aware. Never forget me."

You know what? A really practical thing you could do. The way that you cannot forget the Lord is actually simple: spend time with him. I get it—everything competes with your time. Somehow I'm thinking after COVID that the gym is going to come to me, and somebody is going to strap me in a machine, and it's going to work me out, and then they can leave, and I'll go on my way. Some of you all think the same thing about growing in Christ. You think if Tinker Bell is going to sprinkle some magic dust, and all of a sudden you're going to be on fire for the Lord again. Friends, there is no magic dust.

You need a time, you need a place, and you need a method. If you want to meet with the Lord, it's not that complex, friends. You need a time—what time of day are you going to meet with the Lord? I won't tell you what time; you figure it out with God. You need a place, like a nice leather chair next to gas logs. I don't know, wherever your place is. And you need a method. I use the one year Bible. Some people use other ones, but you need a method: a time and a place.

Take care lest you forget the Lord God and your heart be lifted up. — Deuteronomy 8:11

There's another warning, and then we better close. Look in verse 17:

Beware lest you say in your heart, "My power and 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 loving covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is this day. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, you will surely perish. — Deuteronomy 8:17-19

Friends, if this was true for people that saw God do amazing miracles—bigger than anyone you've ever seen—if they can forget the Lord, do you think you cannot? He's warning us. I love you. I want to bless you. While he may not literally take y'all or me into the promised land of Jerusalem, he's going to take us into his family, into relationship. He said, "Don't forget me. Remember me and beware of pride. Beware of thinking like all this stuff I got came from my own hand."

You know what the Bible says? It says, "Naked you came into the world and naked you will leave." Praise be the Lord. Friends, this is a call to a God who loves his people, who wants to bless his people, who wants to take you into a land flowing with milk and honey. But he warns us here: remember him, don't forget him, make time for him in your life. But if you forget the Lord, you will surely perish. That's a hard word, but it's a true word.

We're going to give an opportunity now for folks to come to the rail. If you'd like to pray by yourself without anybody messing with you, these front rails are for that. But if you're at a place where you go, "You know, I really need somebody to pray with me," you don't have to tell them all about it. Just say, "I need prayer for a diagnosis," or "I need prayer for a job," or "I need prayer for my anger," or "I just need prayer." And so we're going to allow that to happen in the next couple of minutes. The rest of y'all who are not coming forward can pray and pray for them.

Lord, let me just give you this time and pray that your word would not return void. Lord, for those of us who are struggling now to remember you, or maybe some of us, Lord, we have forgotten you. We have gotten prideful and think that everything we have comes from our own hand. That is the greatest lie in the world.

The earth is the Lord's and everything that is therein. — Psalm 24:1

The Bible also says, "What do you have that you've not received?" And so God, we open this time up. Holy Spirit, minister to your people, your beloved.