Introduction — the main theme: forgetfulness can easily happen (vv. 11, 14, 18, 19)

Last week we saw that the first half of Deuteronomy 8 warned Israel not to waste the lessons of the wilderness. And it is my belief that they took these words to heart, and this second generation was faithful. God had proved this generation’s character by humbling them, testing them, teaching them to depend upon Him in everything, and becoming very conscious that man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. Yes, they needed bread, but they needed God to make that bread work well in their bodies. It was not independent bread. It was not independent water. It was not independent clothing, health, or energy. It was all from God, through God, and to God. So that was last week.

Today we look at a second test - the test of prosperity. And I believe this generation (for the most part) passed the second test as well.

Once God could trust them with blessings, He taught them how to maintain those blessings longterm. Where they were earlier tested by emptiness and need, they would now be tested by fullness and lack of any outwardly observable or recognizable need.

In the wilderness, they were tempted to complain because they had too little. In Canaan, they would be tempted to forget because they had so much.

And the concept of forgetfulness is woven throughout this section. Verse 11 says, “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God.” Verse 14 says, “When your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God.” Verse 18 says, “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth.” Verse 19 says, “If you by any means forget the LORD your God.”

So the main theme is this: forgetfulness can easily happen to even believers. It does not usually happen in one dramatic moment. It happens by steps. Usually we drift into forgetfulness. It happens by blessings being slowly disconnected from the Blesser.

A man does not usually wake up one morning and say, “You know what? Today I'm going to abandon the LORD.” No. More often he simply wakes up and forgets to pray because he is busy. Is that you? He forgets to thank God because he is comfortable. Is that you? He forgets to ask God for wisdom because he already has so much experience that life just seems to prosper on its own. He forgets to tremble at God’s Word because he has strongly held opinions that he does not want to let go of. He forgets to give God glory because he has become very impressed with himself.

And before long, the gift has become larger in his eyes than the Giver. That's the core danger.

So the sermon title is, "Don’t Let Blessings Make You Forget." If we guard our hearts, there is no reason why that needs to happen.

The context in which forgetfulness could happen — rich blessings (vv. 11–13)

Let’s read verses 11–13 so that you can see the context in which forgetfulness can easily happen. It's a surprising context. He says,

“Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest — when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied…”

It's important that you not misunderstand this - like Ronald Sider and other so-called "Christian socialists" have. Prosperity is not wrong. Beautiful houses, productive herds, abundant silver and gold, fruitful land, multiplying assets, full barns, good meals, and generational stability can all be great blessings from God. They can be used in a very spiritual way. They can be used to promote the kingdom, support families, practice hospitality, fund mercy, advance dominion, and bless the nations.

And for the most part, this second generation would be faithful in a way that the first generation had not been. Wealth and increase are not wrong. Moses describes these things as gifts from God’s own hand. God is not calling His people to despise His good gifts.

But — and it is a big “but” — God did not want them becoming like a spoiled child who eagerly unwraps a present with barely a glance at the giver. He wanted them to appreciate the Giver through the gift and to continue maintaining their sense of total dependence upon God even in prosperity.

But the reality is (and it is an ironic reality) that prosperity is often the context in which our hearts drift from that dependence. When they had need, they cried out to God and daily depended upon Him. When God satisfied every need abundantly, they began to be tempted to get so caught up in the busyness of managing their blessings that they would no longer sense their need for God.

The danger is not misery. The danger is comfort.

In the wilderness, they had to look to heaven every single morning for manna. In Canaan, they would open their barns and see plenty that would last them for years to come. In the wilderness, every day shouted, “You are dependent on God.” In Canaan, every full table might whisper, “You are secure.”

So that is why prosperity can be more spiritually dangerous than adversity. Trouble often makes us pray. Prosperity often makes us assume.

Think of a man whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. He freaks out and he begins praying that someone will come along and offer help. He is dependent. He is aware of his need. But when the car is running smoothly, the gas tank is full, the GPS is working, the air conditioning is pleasant, and the road is clear, he may not consciously attribute all these blessings to God. Yet he is just as dependent on God in the working car as he was in the broken one.

Likewise , a healthy man is just as dependent on God for his health as a sick man is. A wealthy man is just as dependent on God as a poor man. A successful man is just as dependent on God as a struggling man. The difference is that prosperity can hide dependence from our thoughts.

So the irony is that kids who grow up enjoying the prosperity with which God has blessed their parents can take that prosperity for granted. And yes, I am preaching to you children as well. You all have it good. Children may inherit houses they did not build, institutions they did not sacrifice to preserve, freedoms they did not bleed for, libraries they did not collect, churches they did not plant, businesses they did not start, and theological capital they did not personally fight to recover.

And unless they are trained to see the Giver through the gift every day of their lives, they may enjoy the fruit while forgetting the root. And yes, you parents have a responsibility to teach your kids how to live this way.

So Moses outlines nine downward steps into forgetfulness. And I want you to examine yourselves, and your extended family, our church, our city, and our nation and see where we are at in this downward slide. Hopefully you are not anywhere on this slide.

First step downward — gift without Giver (v. 11a)

Verse 11 begins with the first step. It says, “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God.”

And you might think, "Check. I'm not on this slide at all. I have not forgotten God. I worship Him." But the Biblical concept of forgetting God is not mere absentmindedness. It is not the kind of forgetting where you walk into a room and cannot remember why you came into the room. In Deuteronomy, forgetting God is moral and covenantal forgetfulness. It is forgetting how much we must depend upon God every moment of our lives.

Take medicine, for example. The Bible presents healing resources as gifts of God’s common goodness. But when we trust medicine to work all by itself, we have subtly turned the medicine into a god. We have treated it as an independent power.

But no created thing is independent. Medicine must be blessed by God for it to work. You've all seen medicine that works for one person not work for another. God is sovereign over that medicine.

Food must be blessed by God. Sleep, exercise, money, education, skill, and even the oxygen we breathe must be blessed by God. Don't take working lungs for granted.

So every blessing God places into our hands can continue to be a blessing when we use it prayerfully and to His glory. But when we remove God from the equation, we have begun to drift away from living out the first commandment. Keep in mind that Deuteronomy 6–11 is God’s exposition of the first commandment.

Food, work, shelter, beauty, land, wealth, cars, skill, technology, and success should all be used Coram Deo. And from past sermons you know that the Latin phrase, Coram Deo, means that we live moment by moment before the face of God. We need to develop a constant awareness of His presence and power in our lives. We live in dependence upon Him; we are accountable to Him; we are grateful to Him; we want Him to be glorified by what we do - even by the way that we weed the garden.

When we witness a powerful locomotive roaring past us and realize the unbelievable weight that the train is carrying, it can remind us that technology is a gift of God. Steel, physics, engineering, fuel, order, mathematics, human cooperation, and lawful dominion all testify to God’s goodness. I love trains. But that train can preach - when our eyes and ears are open to God's providence.

Moses is training Israel to see the land in a God-centered way — as a visible gift that points beyond itself to the Giver. We saw last week that the brooks preach. The wheat preaches. The figs preach. The iron preaches. The copper preaches. The beautiful houses preach. They all say, “Your Father is good.”

But if we stop listening to that sermon, the first step downward has already begun. We don't have to say, "I reject God" in order to begin to forget Him during the day. So - now that we've clarified what it means to covenantally forget God, is there something that you need to repent of? Repentance reverses this forgetfulness.

Second step downward — blessing without obedience (v. 11b)

The rest of verse 11 shows us the second step downward: “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today.”

Forgetting God soon shows itself in not keeping His commandments - or being selective on which ones we keep.

This is important. Moses does not separate memory from obedience. To remember God covenantally is to walk in His ways. To forget God is to start leaving His path. And you don't have to be as far gone as homosexuals to have something to daily repent of. And repenting is one good way of not forgetting.

We saw earlier in the chapter that obedience is the pathway to a fulfilled life. But if we start taking God for granted, the next downward step is that we subtly begin to deviate from God’s pathway of blessing.

And the word “subtly” matters. The drift often begins very small.

But lets think about this generationally as well. A first-generation Christian may sacrifice enormously to obey God. He may have been converted out of darkness. He knows what bondage felt like. He remembers what grace rescued him from. He is careful. He is watchful. He is grateful.

But his children grow up with the benefits of his obedience. They inherit stability, teaching, structure, books, worship, family order, and perhaps even some degree of prosperity. If they do not personally own that same God-centered dependence that their parents had, they can start to treat obedience as a family tradition rather than God's pathway to a fulfilled life. Then the third generation may treat that tradition as optional. This is how drift happens.

Imagine a ship that is only off course by one degree. At the beginning, the error looks tiny. You hardly notice it. But across an ocean, one degree can take you to a completely different destination.

That is how moral drift works.

A family does not usually abandon God all at once. First, family worship becomes irregular. Then the Lord’s Day becomes crowded with other things. Then prayer becomes perfunctory. Then Scripture becomes unfamiliar. Then God’s law becomes embarrassing to you when you are in certain crowds. Then the world’s categories become normal. Then the children absorb the assumptions of Canaan without realizing that they have forgotten the God who gave them Canaan.

Moses says, “Beware.”

Third step downward — prosperity without humility (v. 14a)

The third step down is enjoying prosperity without humility. In the first part of verse 14, Moses says, “When your heart is lifted up…” That's talking about pride.

Prosperity does not merely fill the house; it can inflate the heart with pride. The image is of the heart rising, swelling, becoming exalted. The person begins to feel larger than he really is. He becomes impressed with himself. There is nothing wrong with your silver and gold multiplying. But prosperity becomes dangerous when the heart rises with the bank account; or it rises with your theological acumen.

A balloon does not become stronger as it expands. It becomes more fragile. Pride feels like enlargement, but it is actually increased vulnerability. The more inflated the heart becomes, the easier it is to puncture, and the easier it is for God to humble it.

I should say that there are various kinds of pride. There is a subtle pride that comes from stability. Stability can easily make us say:

“I am not desperate anymore.” “I am not needy anymore.” “I've got life figured out.” “I know how this works. In fact, I can show you how it works” “I can handle life.”

Moses says, beware. That's not a good sign. The lifted-up heart is already drifting from God long before it bows to an idol.

And you might think, "I've checked that box off. I'm not prideful." But here’s the thing- prideful people rarely recognize their own pride. It’s like bad breath. Everyone but the prideful person can smell it. And pride does not always look like arrogance. Sometimes pride looks like prayerlessness. Prayerlessness is a kind of pride; it is self-sufficiency. OK, now do you perhaps see some elements of pride in your life?

Sometimes pride looks like independence. Sometimes pride makes us refuse to seek counsel from others. Sometimes pride makes you irritated when someone corrects you or disagrees with you. Sometimes pride looks like the inability to say, “I was wrong.” Sometimes pride looks like assuming that because God has blessed your past decisions, your current instincts must be reliable. Pride can be ever so subtle. Down through the years, God has brought me to tears a number of times as He has exposed subtle manifestations of pride that need to be crucified. I hate pride in myself. And I want you to hate pride in yourselves. It is part of drifting.

A successful businessman can begin to confuse God’s blessing with his own brilliance. A skilled mother can begin to confuse God’s mercy on her children with her own competence. A pastor can begin to confuse God’s fruit with his own giftedness. A student can begin to confuse God-given intelligence with personal superiority. A nation can begin to confuse inherited Christian capital with national greatness.

But the lifted-up heart is a dangerous heart. It's the third step down. And it needs to be repented of whether it manifests as prayerlessness or other forms of pride.

Fourth step downward — history without memory (vv. 14b–16)

Moses now reminds them that pride can make us forget how needy we were of God’s grace in the past.

Verse 14 continues: “And you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”

When they were in anguish over their bondage as slaves in Egypt, they cried out to God. When they needed God’s guidance in the great and terrible wilderness, they cried out to God. But in prosperity, pride would tempt them to forget the very lessons the wilderness was designed to teach.

Moses gives them a catalog of sanctified memory in the next phtases.

• The very next phrase says that they must not forget danger: “fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water." • Next, they must not forget His past provision: “who brought water for you out of the flinty rock." • Next, they must not forget daily dependence: “who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know." • Next, they must not forget divine purpose: “that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end.” One of His purposes in the desert was to teach them humility so that He could trust them with good things.

This is powerful. Moses is saying, “Do not let Canaan erase Egypt from your memory. Do not let your beautiful houses erase your past experience of the wilderness. Do not let full tables erase the memory of how you had to depend upon God for manna every day. Do not let your vineyards erase the rock from which God gave you water.”

And by the way, it is the very nature of pride to be forgetful. For pride to survive, it absolutely needs to forget past failures. Right? It must forget past inadequacies, sins, and shortfalls. Pride cannot survive accurate memory. Such memory doesn't feel good. The proud man must edit his story. He must minimize God’s mercy, forget past helplessness, and exaggerate his own contribution.

Every Christian needs sanctified memory if he or she is to spiritually prosper while prospering outwardly. You need to remember what God delivered you from. You need to remember prayers that He has answered. You need to remember sins that He forgave. You need to remember foolish decisions that He overruled. You need to remember seasons when you had no strength and He sustained you anyway.

So, the bottom line is that one of the best defenses against pride is rehearsing your dependence.

This is why testimonies matter. This is why memorials matter. This is why family stories matter. This is why the Lord’s Supper matters. Fathers were to teach their children what God had done.

A family that never rehearses God’s past mercies is training its children to think that the present blessings are normal, automatic, and deserved.

But Moses says, “Remember the wilderness, the fiery serpents, the scorpions, the thirst, the rock, and the manna. Remember that God humbled you and tested you to do you good in the end.”

Do not waste the wilderness. And once you leave the wilderness, do not forget what it taught you.

Fifth step downward — work without worship (v. 17)

Verse 17 gives the fifth downward step - work without worship. It says, “Then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’”

Here Moses exposes the inner creed of prosperous pride.

And it will likely not be said out loud to others - especially if you recognize that it is socially inappropriate say so. So Moses says, “You say in your heart.” What he is talking about here is a hidden attitude in the heart. But it describes an attitude of self-sufficiency. It is private, but God hears it.

The words here are emphatic:

My power. The might of my hand. My wealth.

This is the point where forgetfulness becomes spiritual theft. The proud man steals the glory that belongs to God. It's a kind of theft.

He may still be religious. He may still attend worship. He may still say grace before meals. But in his heart, he believes that his life is self-made. And he looks down on those who aren't self-made.

Now, don't get me wrong - Moses is not denying the absolute imperative of human labor. Israel would have to work. They would plant, harvest, build, tend herds, defend their land, and manage resources. But Moses is warning them that even their ability to work is a gift.

The issue is not whether their hands worked. The issue is whether their hearts worshiped.

A child may use money from his father to buy a gift for someone and then proudly say, “Look what I bought.” There is a sense in which he bought it. But behind his buying was his father’s giving. So too, man truly works, plans, builds, saves, and produces. But behind every lawful success stands the God who gave life, strength, opportunity, land, rain, skill, health, tools, markets, peace, and breath.

So this verse confronts the myth of the self-made man.

The Biblical view is not laziness. It does not say, “I did nothing.” That would be a falsehood. It says, “I worked, but God gave the power to work. I planned, but God gave the wisdom to plan. I prospered, but God gave the increase.”

Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 15:10: “I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” That is the balance. Paul labored hard, but he made sure that grace got the glory.

The proud man says, “I labored; therefore, I deserve the glory.”

The humble man says, “I labored; yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”

Hopefully you can see that each of these steps are subtle forms of drifting. They aren't easily recognized.

Sixth step downward — success without dependence (v. 18a)

Verse 18 gives the antidote: “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth.” It's a recognition of dependence. And when you have success without dependence, you have another downward step that needs to be repented of.

Notice what Moses does not say. He does not say, “Remember the LORD your God because wealth is bad.” He says, “Remember the LORD your God because He gives you power to get wealth.”

That's a fantastic verse to use against socialism. "He gives you power to get wealth. God is not against wealth as such. He is against wealth that is severed from worship. He is against wealth that produces pride. He is against wealth that makes us forget covenant dependence. He is against wealth that becomes a rival god.

But lawful prosperity, rightly received, is a gift from Him.

So the sixth downward step is this: a person no longer actively trusts God to prosper him in life. He may believe that God saves souls. He may be able to get into all kinds of good theological arguments. But in the practical affairs of daily life, he stops actively trusting God for the ordinary.

And that is the deadly drift.

We often think unbelief only concerns the extraordinary. We think we are failing to trust God only when we face cancer, bankruptcy, persecution, or death. But Deuteronomy 8 says that we must trust God when the bread is already on the table, when the house is already built, when the flocks have already multiplied, and when the silver and gold are already in hand. Here's the point:

• Faith is not only for crisis. Faith is for breakfast. • Faith is not only for the hospital room. Faith is for the office. • Faith is not only for emergencies. Faith is for bookkeeping, parenting, eating, studying, investing, building, gardening, and planning. All of these things need to be done with a consciousness of your need for God.

A farmer may plow, plant, fertilize, irrigate, and harvest. But he must still actively trust God for soil, weather, seed life, bodily strength, market access, and protection from disaster. A business owner may make wise decisions, hire well, work hard, and serve customers. That's good. But while he is doing that, he must still actively trust God for favor in the eyes of people, wisdom as He interacts with people, integrity, opportunity, and the ability to keep going. A parent may discipline, teach, pray, and model faithfulness. But he must still actively trust God to regenerate hearts and bless the means. Can you see why this chapter is still very tightly connected to the first commandment?

Let me comment on that word "power." Verse 18 says God gives “power” to get wealth. If you do much study in commentaries, you will see that the word "power" includes strength, health, ability, intelligence, opportunity, providential connections, lawful order, and the very breath by which we work.

This means that in addition to figs and barley preaching (which we saw in the previous section),

• Every paycheck should preach • Every completed project should preach • Every sale should preach • Every promotion should preach • Every harvest should preach. • Every meal should preach.

They should all say, “It is He who gives power to get wealth.”

The meaning of verse 17 is not passivity. The meaning of verse 17 is active, grateful, obedient dependence.

Seventh step downward — wealth without covenant (v. 18b)

The seventh step downward is wealth without covenant. And God phrases it in the positive - He gives the remedy here. The second half of verse 18 says, “that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”

We must have a strong sense of covenant continuity with what God has done before us and what God intends to do after us.

God gave Israel power to get wealth, not merely so individuals could live comfortable lives, but so that He might establish His covenant. Their prosperity had a covenantal purpose. It was connected to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was connected to promises made before they were born. It was connected to generations yet unborn in the future.

In other words, Moses is teaching them to see their blessings as part of a much bigger story.

• They were not isolated consumers. They were covenant heirs. • They were not self-made individuals. They were recipients of promises sworn to their fathers and the sacrifices made by their fathers. • They were not merely building private estates. They were participating in the establishment of God’s covenant purposes in history.

This is so important. Prosperity becomes dangerous when it shrinks our kingdom vision. God gives blessing so that we will think covenantally: backward, upward, outward, and forward.

Backward: “What did God give through our fathers?” Sure your fathers may have messed up, but was there something they contributed to your success?

Upward: “How does this blessing glorify God? How can I use it in a way that glorifies Him?”

Outward: “How can this blessing serve others? Father, you have blessed me with so much. Are there people in need that I can help out?”

Forward: “How can this blessing be stewarded for future generations? Lord, I want to be a good steward.”

But forgetfulness shrinks everything down to the present.

It says, “My comfort. My house. My success. My retirement. My name. My plans. My wealth.” That's so short-sighted! It's so present-oriented.

Covenant memory says, “The God of my fathers has shown mercy. I stand on ground I did not create. I have received what I did not earn. I must steward it faithfully so that future generations will bless the LORD.”

A man who loses covenant continuity becomes like a tenant who thinks he is the owner. He tears out load-bearing walls because he thinks it will look better, without asking the landlord's permission. He sells family heirlooms because he wants quick cash. He forgets that he is a steward.

This has happened again and again in formerly Christian families, denominations, and nations. One generation receives a covenant inheritance. The next generation assumes it. The next generation spends it. The next generation despises it.

They forget the fathers. They forget the covenant. They forget the purpose of blessing. Some of you were remembering the godly sacrifices of our forefathers on this last July 4. That's good. But it seems that the nation as a whole has taken our freedoms for granted.

God does not give prosperity merely to increase our options. He gives prosperity to establish His covenant. Everything in life is covenantal.

That means our homes, businesses, educations, books, land, influence, savings accounts, churches, and children must be consciously connected to God’s kingdom purposes.

The question is not merely, “How can I enjoy this?”

The question is, “How can this establish God’s covenant purposes?”

Eighth step downward — worship without God (v. 19)

Verse 19 says, “Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.”

Here the progression reaches open idolatry.

Covenant forgetfulness does not stay static. If we forget the true God, we do not become neutral. We drift, and drift, until eventually we begin to follow other gods, and serve them, and worship them. Our minds will be consumed by something.

And you might think, "Well, that's definitely not our family." But you know what? Man is incurably religious. If he does not worship the LORD, he will worship something else. It may not be Bhudda. Instead, he may worship wealth, pleasure, entertainment, state power, human autonomy, science falsely so called, sexual freedom, safety, progress, race, nation, revolution, comfort, technology, celebrity, or self-expression. But he will worship.

Notice the progression in verse 19:

Forget the LORD. Follow other gods. Serve them. Worship them. Perish.

This is why forgetfulness is so deadly. It does not merely produce mild spiritual dullness. It eventually produces idolatrous allegiances.

This is an indictment of the formerly Christian nations of the West. The West that was founded on Christianity did not quickly drift into open paganism. The drift began with forgetfulness. Our nation received blessings produced by centuries of Christian influence. But then those blessings were severed from the God who gave them - and especially severed from how the Bible defines those things. And it should be no surprise that we are losing them fast. Let me give you some examples:

• The West wanted Christian dignity without acknowledging the image of God - and that human dignity only makes sense if we were made in God’s image to reflect Him. • The West wanted Christian morality without God’s written law. That's one of the big problems with Christian Nationalism. Now, it is true that they do promote the Ten Commandments, but they don’t let the rest of the Bible explain what the Ten Commandments mean. They don't want God's written law, so they come up with different laws for the nation that they label natural law. • The West wanted Christian liberty without Christ’s lordship. And you might say, "Some Natural Law advocates explicitly call for Christ to be Lord of the nation. Our nation says 'One Nation Under God.'" True, but they fail to let Christ define His lordship from the Bible alone. • The West wanted Christian compassion without Biblical truth. So some Christians have opted for socialism. • It wanted Christian prosperity without covenant obedience. • It wanted inheritance without the Father.

And once the LORD was forgotten, other gods automatically rushed in.

• The state became a savior. • Pleasure became a right. • Identity became self-created and self-defined. • Money became security. • Experts became priests. • Entertainment became liturgy. • Politics became religion. • Children became burdens. • Creation became either a goddess to worship or raw material to exploit.

Forgetting God always has consequences. And having forgotten God, man became both idol and slave.

This is not only a national danger. It is a danger to churches, families, and individuals.

Whatever you trust, serve, sacrifice for, fear, obey, and look to for ultimate security has become your functional god - even if you don't see it as a god.

Moses says, “Beware.”

Ninth step downward — privilege without protection (v. 20)

Verse 20 gives the final step: “As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.”

He was saying that Israel must not presume upon privilege. If Israel imitates the nations, Israel will be judged like the nations. And don't think that America will escape God's judgments without repentance.

God told Israel, “Do not think that because I brought you in, I cannot cast you out. Do not think that because I judged the Canaanites, I will ignore the same sins in you. Do not think that covenant privilege makes disobedience safe.”

The same God who destroyed the nations before Israel could also judge Israel if Israel became like the nations.

This is a frightening warning, but it is also deeply merciful. Why do I say that it is merciful? Well, God warns before He strikes. Praise God! He warns us. He testifies before judgment falls. The text says, “I testify against you this day.” The warning itself is grace. God is placing the danger sign before the cliff so that you don't fall off.

• A father who says, “Do not touch that wire; it will kill you,” is not being harsh. He is being loving. • A doctor who says, “If you continue in this pattern, it will destroy you,” is not being cruel. He is being faithful. • A pastor who says, “This path leads to judgment,” is not being negative. He is being merciful. And I hope you take the corrections that Gary and I bring from the pulpit and in private in that spirit. We are not correcting you because we think we are better than you. No. All the elders in our denomination speak into each of our lives as well. Till the day we die, we never want to stop growing and learning. And we hope you take that attitude as well.

Moses is doing pastoral work. He is saying, “Prosperity can become the road to destruction if it leads you to forget the LORD.” And history proved the warning true.

So we should read Deuteronomy 8 not just as an ancient warning to Israel, but also as a warning to us.

Conclusion

Let me conclude by reminding you of the solution. It is Jesus. It's not trying harder. It is by depending more consistently on His grace.

Jesus, the true Son, passed the wilderness test and the fullness test. And His grace can enable you to more and more consistently pass both tests as well.

He passed the wilderness test when He refused to turn stones into bread independently of the Father’s will. He quoted Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man shall not live by bread alone.”

But He also passed the prosperity test. Satan offered Him “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.” Jesus refused to grasp inheritance apart from obedience. He would not gain the kingdom by worshiping another. He received the nations by faithfulness to the Father, through suffering, death, resurrection, and exaltation.

So in Christ, we learn both how to suffer and how to abound. We learn how to be hungry without grumbling and how to be full without forgetting.

The wilderness asks, “Will you trust God when you have nothing?”

Prosperity asks, “Will you remember God when you have much?”

Never say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.”

Say instead, “The LORD gave. The LORD sustained. The LORD strengthened. The LORD established His covenant. Therefore, to Him belongs the glory forever and ever. Amen.”