Deuteronomy 8:11-16 The Message
11-16 Make sure you don’t forget God, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today. Make sure that when you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up—make sure you don’t become so full of yourself and your things that you forget God, your God,
the God who delivered you from Egyptian slavery;
the God who led you through that huge and fearsome wilderness, those desolate, arid badlands crawling with fiery snakes and scorpions;
the God who gave you water gushing from hard rock;
the God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never heard of, in order to give you a taste of the hard life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well in the days ahead of you.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen.
Are We Remembering God as God Remembers Us?
Deuteronomy 8:11-14 Amplified Bible
11 “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His commandments and His judgments (precepts) and His statutes which I am commanding you today;12 otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have increases, 14 then your heart will become lifted up [by self-conceit and arrogance] and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
It takes a whole lot of work and resources to keep and maintain a home.
Whether you own your own residence or lease or rent from others, there are always little maintenance projects that creep up: light bulbs need replacing, lawns need mowing, faucets begin to drip, doors which need to be repainted.
Sometimes we put the work off for another day, but if we wait too long the home will slowly deteriorate – home always needs regular maintenance.
We can also face many temptations to take our home with God for granted.
When times are good, we look at our material blessings, at our relationships with family and friends, neighbors or at our moral character, and we assume we are doing fine -we forget that these are gifts from God that we receive by grace.
In our bible text, Israel was reminded that when they arrived in the promised land, they needed to make work of remembering God. God warned that if they did not actively honor the Lord for his gifts, they would soon forget the Giver.
I read once that most divorces occur not because of an affair or a spouse’s violence but because of apathy—a husband or wife simply begins to take the other for granted – they look at each other and cannot find a reason for love.
Something similar kind of apathy can happen in our relationship with God.
Our God wants us to know and remember where our blessings come from—and especially the gift of our relationship with him in Christ – do we still recall, do we still remember all the ancient covenants God gave us to create community?
Are We Remembering to Live A Christ-Centered Life?
It absolutely matters how you and I live our lives.
Oh, it is great to be saved; but don’t neglect how you live your life thinking I have all I need.
If you take that apathetic attitude now that I am saved and it doesn’t matter anymore how I live my life, your lack of following Christ faithfully might result in a family member, a friend, or a co-worker not accepting Christ in their life.
I believe it would be terrible if the way I live my life somehow, in some careless way, manner, prevented someone from coming to know Christ as their Savior.
Right now, it sounds good that I am going to heaven.
But I believe that when Jesus hands out rewards for how you lived, you would have wished you done more in this life to store up treasurers in heaven.
As in the Parable of the Talents, I believe that when Jesus assigns us places of service in His kingdom then we would have wished that we done more in this life to be able to have a greater reach, greater place of service in His kingdom.
Jesus warned us in the Sermon on the Mount to store up treasures in heaven.
The Apostle Paul testified that all he had gained in this life, he counts as loss for knowing Christ.
He says the real value of life is knowing Jesus and serving Him while we have breath.
Apostle Peter talked about the importance of our obedience to God because He has set up an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away reserved in heaven for you.
So what I am hearing is that salvation should not be enough in my life.
I should only want to live a Christ- Centered life; I should only want to live big for Christ; Paul lived big for Christ; Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, many clouds of witnesses lived big for Christ and every one of us in here should try to live big for Christ, but I can tell you from personal experience, it is not so easy.
In the world we live in today, we have so many complex things competing for the center stage of our life that sometimes Jesus is delegated to a side stage.
I would hope that we would ask ourselves today the question:
Is Jesus center stage in my life?
Is my life a Christ-centered life?
You don’t know. You are not sure.
So, I want to spend some much needed, much required quality time with you today sharing what I believe a Christ-centered life looks like, then we must each fervently pray, decide for ourselves whether, if my life is Christ-centered or not.
Christ-centered life sees Jesus as the source of everything in their life.
Philippians 4:18-20 The Message
18-20 And now I have it all—and keep getting more! The gifts you sent with Epaphroditus were more than enough, like a sweet-smelling sacrifice roasting on the altar, filling the air with fragrance, pleasing God to no end. You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes.
Notice the Scripture does not say that God shall supply some of my needs, nor does it say that God shall supply most of my needs but God supplies them all.
You would think, perhaps even steadfastly believe and preach that God being the source of my everything would be an ultra easy concept for one to grasp.
Can anybody here think of something that you do that God is not the source?
My own surgically repaired heart, my life, my very last breath, my sleeping, my labor, the protection of my family, the food on my table are all the result of God.
You know what that tells me: if I am indeed Christ-centered, Jesus is always on my mind because it constantly, naturally comes to my mind that He has done all of this; for His glory and honor and praise alone He has done all that for me.
But let me tell you what happens to us.
Humanity happens!
Humanity interferes!
Slowly over time, I switch the source from God to myself.
I begin to think that I am doing it.
I begin to think less about Jesus as I go through my day and more about what I am accomplishing, and all of the accolades I should be receiving in abundance.
I am the one that got the promotion the boss just gave me.
I am the one who put in the extra hours; I am the one that got the boss to notice the quality of work.
Pretty soon all of that self-sufficiency stuff that pushed God from the center of my life turns back into self-pride(look what I have done) and God moved even further from center stage in my life to one of the smaller tiny stages on the side.
Back to being governed by my humanity, I again begin to forget all about what my Savior Christ is doing for me, and it is all about what I am doing for myself.
God gave the Israelites a warning about that type of thinking: and now in this moment of devotion, I believe that by warning them, God is also warning us.
Deuteronomy 8:11-16 The Message
11-16 Make sure you don’t forget God, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today. Make sure that when you eat and are satisfied, build pleasant houses and settle in, see your herds and flocks flourish and more and more money come in, watch your standard of living going up and up—make sure you don’t become so full of yourself and your things that you forget God, your God,
the God who delivered you from Egyptian slavery;
the God who led you through that huge and fearsome wilderness, those desolate, arid badlands crawling with fiery snakes and scorpions;
the God who gave you water gushing from hard rock;
the God who gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never heard of, in order to give you a taste of the hard life, to test you so that you would be prepared to live well in the days ahead of you.
Can that happen to us and we forget God?
Yes, it surely can happen to us just like the Israelites.
Yes, confess it or not, because it absolutely has already happened to us.
A Christ-centered life will place its central focus on the person of Jesus Christ not the rules of our faith.
Philippians 3:10-11 The Message
10-11 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.
There ought to be a sticker on the front door of every Christian home that says, “make room for Christ in your Christianity.”
I am afraid that a lot of people get so caught up in the do’s and the don’ts of their beliefs they substitute a religion-centered life for a Christ-centered life.
The Jewish faith of the Old Testament substituted a relationship with YHWH in lieu of the do’s and don’ts of their faith.
That is what made the Pharisees so powerful – they were the teller of the rules.
That same thing has happened in the New Testament churches.
There are churches which are so centrally focused on the rules of denomination that they forgot the person of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And individual Christian people have been known to take the focus off Christ and put it on the rules.
If you have done that you are in good company.
The Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:4-6, I got caught up in the do’s and don’ts of the Jewish faith.
But he goes on and says in verse 7 all these things I count loss for Christ.
Now Paul is talking the person of Jesus Christ.
He saw his error and corrected it.
If you focus on the rules over the person of Jesus Christ are you willing to correct it?
A Christ-centered life wants no one to get the glory except Christ.
Revelation 4:11 Amplified Bible
11
“Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they exist, and were created and brought into being.”
A Christ-centered life has one goal: Jesus gets 100% the credit.
I love it when after a football game when a player is interviewed by an on the field announcer and the very first thing out of their mouth is all credit for my performance today goes to Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:29-30 The Message
29-30 But, except for these special cases, I’m not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say; I’m going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said. If I eat what is served to me, grateful to God for what is on the table, how can I worry about what someone will say? I thanked God for it and he blessed it!
But then there are those interviews with the politicians.
And nine out of ten of them want to give the credit to themselves for something they done, some law that they passed.
And as it gets ever so much closer to election time, they want you to know all their accomplishments to curry favor with the voters.
What are you more like the football player who gives the credit to God or the politician who touts all his or her accomplishments.
In a Chris-centered life- Christ has got to get 100% the glory.
A Christ-centered life handles the troubles of this world with hope.
A life that is not Christ-centered will sometimes fall apart dealing with those same troubles.
The difference is the hope.
Romans 15:4-6 Amplified Bible
4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope and overflow with confidence in His promises. 5 Now may the God who gives endurance and who supplies encouragement grant that you be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify and praise and honor the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 3:15 Amplified Bible
15 But in your hearts set Christ apart [as holy—acknowledging Him, giving Him first place in your lives] as Lord. Always be ready to give a [logical] defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope and confident assurance [elicited by faith] that is within you, yet [do it] with gentleness and respect.
The hope inside of a Christian is a resurrected Christ, the hope is a living Christ.
And we know that whatever the outcome God is absolutely 100% in control and that he has plans for us and we ultimately, win. (read 1 Corinthians 15:57-58)
The unbeliever can not see how this is going to turn out good.
Conclusion
1 Corinthians 15:57-58 Amplified Bible
57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory [as conquerors] through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord [always doing your best and doing more than is needed], being continually aware that your labor [even to the point of exhaustion] in the Lord is not futile nor wasted [it is never without purpose].
A lot of things competes for the center stage of our life.
Don’t let Jesus be removed from the center stage of your life for something that has no business being there.
Christ is the only ONE who has business being on the center stage of your life.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 46 The Message
46 1-3 God is a safe place to hide,
ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,
courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
4-6 River fountains splash joy, cooling God’s city,
this sacred haunt of the Most High.
God lives here, the streets are safe,
God at your service from crack of dawn.
Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten,
but Earth does anything he says.
7 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
8-10 Attention, all! See the marvels of God!
He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
Bans war from pole to pole,
breaks all the weapons across his knee.
“Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything.”
11 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 