A Lesson In Theology

An expository sermon from Deuteronomy 8:1-20.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

If you brought your Bible with you, would you open it to Deuteronomy chapter 8 this evening? Deuteronomy chapter 8. There's only 20 verses in Deuteronomy 8, so we're going to read the entire chapter. And the title I've given to this message tonight is a lesson in theology. And so let's just begin verse 1 and read the chapter. All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swear unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart, whether thou would keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not. Neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know, that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment wax not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of oil, olive, and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness. Thou shalt not lack anything in it. A land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day, lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water, who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint, who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end. And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth, but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swear unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish, because you would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we simply ask that you would bless our time and your word this evening. Give us the attention span that we need. Help us to learn more about you, and uh, Lord, may it impact the way we live our lives. Father, we love you, and uh we ask you to teach us tonight in Jesus' name, amen. As you come to this chapter, I want to point out to you that Moses had the opportunity to know God in a way that nobody else had an opportunity to know God. So just think for a moment. If you remember back in Numbers chapter 12, Adam's or Moses' brother and his sister challenged his leadership. Right? Aaron and Miriam came to him. Does God only speak through you? Can't he speak through us? And God came to Moses' defense. And I want you to hear what God said about Moses. He said this in Numbers 12, 5 through 8. The Lord came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and he called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so. Who is faithful in all mine house? Now listen what he says about Moses, with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And so I'm not speaking in hyperbole, I'm not exaggerating what I'm saying. Nobody on the planet at that time had the opportunity to know God as intimately as Moses knew God. And Moses' knowledge of God changed his life. Just think about the record that we get of Moses' encounters with God and what came out of that. I mean, for instance, think about the burning bush. That's the first big encounter that he has with God. Take off your shoes, you're on holy ground. And from that moment on, the purpose of Moses' life, the trajectory of Moses' life changes. Remember, he's been in the wilderness, he's been on the backside of the desert for 40 years, probably pretty content to be there with his wife and his children and having a purpose to serve. But because he learned something about God at that burning bush, it all of a sudden makes him discontent with where he's at and makes him want to go where God wants him to be. From there he learns that God is, I am, that I am. Remember, who should I say is sending me? And God reveals to Moses a name that he hasn't revealed to anybody else, and he speaks that name, I am. It speaks of God's eternity, and it speaks of God's omnipotence. Moses got knowledge of God through those signs and wonders and miracles that he did. Remember, God empowered him to face off with Pharaoh, and God said, Trust me, throw down your rod, and I will turn into a serpent. And God does that, and Moses learns more about God. He gets to know God. Moses' knowledge was uh was not satiated, but it uh it was a petitive. It made him want more. He wanted to know God more. So if you remember, even after all that, Moses' request to God is, Show me your glory. I want to see you. And that's when God says, Well, you can't see me full on and live. It would annihilate you. But I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock and I'll pass by and I'll let you see the afterglow of my glory. And then Moses spends those days, those forty days up on the mountain. And we know that he receives the Ten Commandments directly from God, but he also receives all of the tabernacle design. And so 40 days alone on the mountain with God. And uh and when he comes down, he's never the same, is he? It says his face is glowing. I like to think of him as old glowing face Moses. It changed him being with God. And so everything in that is a result of Moses' knowledge of God. And so since God has, or Moses has gotten to know God and seen the impact that it's made on his life, no doubt Moses now looking back over his 120 years says, boy, things really started to change 40 years ago when I started getting to know God. And it has just changed and continued to change and to get better. And because of that, he wants to pass that on to these people before he dies. So just imagine the guy who knows God the best has gotten notice that he's about to pass away. And so as he's preparing this next generation, not only does he tell them their history, not only does he point them to the future and to fulfilling what God wants them to do, he also wants to teach them about God. He wants to help them know God better. Moses understands what few people understand, and that is everything in our life is affected by our theology. And I think that that's lost on us sometimes. We don't realize that everything in our life is affected by our theology. What we know about God makes an impact on everything, from the things that we pursue to the things that we shun to the things that we desire, all of that. It is changed by our knowledge of God. And so what Moses is actually doing is he is teaching them theology. Theology, right, is that three-dollar word that simply means what we know about God. Knowledge of God, the word about God. Your knowledge of God has a direct correlation with how you live your life and how you're going to handle issues that arise in your life. And so, if you look back over your Christian life, you lived a certain way before you knew God. And then you met God and it changed your life. And then over the years, as you've gotten closer to God and you've gotten to know God, you can see that it has impacted your life. And then it changes the way that you handle things. And so, uh, no doubt if you look back over your life when you were a young Christian, there were probably some things that you didn't handle well or overwhelmed you, or some of those uh besetting sins that you struggle with, and then after getting know God better, you handle that much better. You're stronger in those areas. Let me give you what I believe is the most powerful verse in the Bible about the importance of knowing God. How important is it to know God? And how important is it to get to know God better? Well, I think the most important verse in the Bible on the knowing God is John chapter 17, verse 3. It comes out of Jesus' high priestly prayer. It's the night before his crucifixion, it's after the Passover, after the Lord's Supper, before he goes to the garden, and he is praying to God in the presence of his disciples. And in John 17, 3, Jesus says, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee. And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I would say to you that there can't be anything more important than what follows that statement from Jesus. This is life eternal. Isn't that the most consequential thing in all of life? Where are you going to spend eternity? How do you get to heaven? What is it that saves you from hell? And Jesus' response is that they might know thee, the only true God. What is the most basic denominator for having eternal life? Now I understand we've got to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, believe the gospel to be saved, but I would say the most basic common denominator for eternal life is knowing God. Let's phrase it in the opposite. Can you have eternal life without knowing God? No. And so the most basic denominator is I have to know God. Well, why do I have to believe in Jesus? Because Jesus is God. Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. Jesus is God with us. You understand that believing in Jesus is knowing God. And so knowing God is the most consequential knowledge that we can have in life. So if eternal life is dependent on knowing God, then everything else is downstream from that. Which means that knowing God is going to have the biggest impact on my life. If knowing God is what determines my eternal life, well, everything else is downstream from eternal life. Everything else is secondary to eternal life. And so if knowing God affects that, then knowing God is going to affect everything downstream for that. Moses knows this. And it is for that reason that he takes the time, an entire chapter in our Bible, to teach the people of Israel a lesson in theology. And so what I find are ten theological principles in this chapter. Ten theological ten principles about God. Ten things that Moses wants the people to know about God. And so I'm going to have to move kind of quickly. I'm not going to be able to elaborate on them, but I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you a proof text to go with each one of those. And so if you're ready, number one, God wants what's best for you. God wants what's best for you. If you notice in verse 1, Moses begins by saying, all the commandments that I command you this day, if you will observe them and do them, then you will live, you will multiply, you will go in and possess the land which the Lord swear unto you. And so I would say this. If God commands it, it's best for you to do it. If God commands it, then it is best for you to do it because God wants what's best for you. He doesn't give you commands that are going to hurt you. He doesn't give you commands that are going to make your life worse. He is giving you commands that are going to help you, commands that are going to make your life better. Why? Because know this about God. God wants what's best for you. Unfortunately, some religions, some denominations have portrayed God as this cosmic killjoy who doesn't want anybody to have fun. And he's leaning over the porch rail of heaven, yelling at everybody for walking on his grass. That is not God. God wants what's best for you. Jeremiah said it in a very fitting way in Jeremiah 29, 11. He says, For God said, For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. And so first thing Moses says in his lesson in theology is, God wants what's best for you. Never ever doubt that. Have no doubt God wants what's best for you. When we're facing the enemies and we're scared, it doesn't feel like that this is what's best for us, but God wants what's best for you. And so Moses says, that's a baseline. Know this about God. He wants what's best for you. Number two, God will use difficulties in your life to expose what is really in your heart. And so verse number two, Moses says, Well, God led you through the wilderness these past 40 years, and he allowed you to suffer. Why? To humble you, to prove you, and to know what was in your heart, to show what was in your heart. And so God will use these difficulties in your life to expose what is really in your heart. There is a purpose and a value in the things that try you. As we talked about this morning, it is that process of trying that produces patience. And the trials and the tribulations are not fun. We don't enjoy them. We would choose not to go through them. But we need to understand something about God. God uses those, God has a purpose in those. And one of the purposes in going through difficult times is it exposes what is actually in our heart. I grew up in a redneck sort of way, and one of the pastimes that we had when I was in high school was fighting, right? And uh and so we would met, and you can't make it up, we would meet at Possum Forks, and so it was where one road met another. Uh, I'm not sure why it got the name, but that's what everybody knew it was. And so you can't fight on school property, you get suspended. And so after school, we're meeting at Possum Forks, we're gonna fight. And I remember vividly as a teenager, you know, you'd have a buddy or somebody who's gonna fight, and they'd tell you everything they're gonna do. Man, I'm gonna hit them with a right and the left, and I'm gonna get them down, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. And they have what they think they are going to do. And without fail, when the fight started, they did nothing that they said they were going to do. Well, you know, we learn something about adrenaline, right? There's a fight or flight, and we're really good about thinking what we are going to do, but when we're put into that pressure situation, we don't always do it. Well, that's the purpose that God uses difficulties for. We all think, like Peter, I'll never leave you. I'll go with you to the death. I won't deny you. And then the very moment he's put to the test, he fails. What is that difficulty? It exposed to Peter what was in his heart. Listen, God doesn't do it to expose what's in your heart for him. He already knows what's in your heart. He does it to expose it so that we come face to face with it. And to realize that, hey, I'm not as right in my heart as I should be, or I'm not as strong in my faith as I should be. 1 Peter 1 7 says, the trial of your faith is much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire. He says there's a preciousness about the difficulties. It's valuable. And so God will use those difficulties in your life to expose what's really in your heart. Number three, God wants to teach you to live in dependence on him. God wants to teach you to live in dependence on him. We find this in verse number three. It says, He humbled you, he suffered you to hunger, he fed you with manna, which you didn't know, neither your fathers knew, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. You know, there are two reasons why God does this. God wants the teacher to live in dependence on him. And so that was one of the lessons that God was teaching Israel as they went through. He didn't allow them to stay in a land where they could grow their own food, harvest their own food. He took them to a land where food was scarce, where water was scarce because God wanted to provide for them and he wanted to teach them a lesson. You can't live by bread alone. You can't just do it on the necessities. You need me. Well, the reason God teaches them that, there's two reasons for this. Number one, independence is rebellion against God. Independence is rebellion against God. That's hard for us to hear because we're a very independent society, right? That's the old American heritage. We can do it on our own. We're frontiersmen, we're pioneers, we are people who can get by on our own. We don't need the help of anybody. But in life, independence is actually rebellion against God. And the other reason God wants us to live in dependence to Him is because God's dependable for all things. And so He wants to teach you you can't do it on your own. That's rebellion. And He's dependable for everything that you need. What are you facing this week? What are you up against? God's dependable. God is able. The Apostle Paul wrote about this when he wrote in 2 Corinthians 12 about that thorn in the flesh that God gave to him. He gave it to him to keep him from being exalted above measure, right? From being puffed up. And he taught him that in his weakness then is God's strength. And so Paul says, Then I embrace the infirmity, because when I am weak, then am I strong. God wants to teach us to live in dependence on him, and he will teach us to do that. He'll take you through some things that you can't handle on your own until you're down on your knees saying, God, I can't do this. I can't do this. I need your help. And what you'll find is that God is dependable. Number four, God is involved in the little things. Things. God is involved in the little things. This comes from verse number four. Look at this little verse. I love that this is pointed out. Moses says, Your raiment wax not old upon thee, so your clothes didn't wear out, they didn't dry rot, they didn't tear up. Neither did your foot swell these forty years. What does that tell us about God? It tells us that God's involved in the little things. Isn't that a little thing? It's a garment. It's a swollen foot. God preserved their clothes and he prevented feet. I have observed in my own physicality is that if I walk for an extended period of time, my hands get a little swollen. Now, I don't know if that's a if that's a medical diagnosis or if that is just natural process of the body, of fluid building up and all of that stuff. But I also know that that's part of what goes on. And so you've got people who are walking and traversing, and they're not, you know, they're they're not wearing the nicest of shoes. They're maybe wearing these homemade sandals, and they're out there in the desert, and yet God kept their feet from swelling. Such a small thing. But God wants us to know that He's involved in the small things. Jesus said this, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your father. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore you are of more value than of sparrows. You know, I think sometimes we have these little problems, and they're not major crises, but I mean, enough of those little problems really add up. And sometimes we feel like, well, that's that's not something God's concerned about. That's I'll take care of the little problems and God takes care of the big problems. But we need to remember that God is involved in the little things, He cares about the little things. Uh Melissa and I were just reminiscing uh this weekend about Wyatt, who is now 20 years old. And when Wyatt was little, I mean like two years old, uh he had this stuffed animal, and it was known as Blue Dog, because it was a blue dog. And and we lost blue dog somewhere. I I don't know where we lost blue dog, but we searched everywhere and we could not find blue dog. And uh our assistant pastor did children's church, and I'm telling you, every Sunday in children's church for months, Wyatt said, pray for my blue dog. And of course, prayer. And you say, Is that right? Should you do that? Absolutely, I believe it is right, because I think God cares about the little things. Now, what Wyatt learned is that God didn't answer that prayer. We never found blue dog. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with praying about that because God cares about the little things in your life. Number five, God will correct you for disobedience. Verses five and six, Moses talks to them about the correction of the Lord and that uh that uh as a man chastens his son, so the Lord will chasten you. And uh and the reality is about chastening, about correction, is that correction is an act of caring. Correction is an act of caring. The most extensive passage on the correction of God in the Bible is Hebrews 12, 5 through 11, and that's where it says that God chastens every son that he loves. And that if you're without chastisement, then you're not a son. You're not a daughter. You are not his child. And so God will correct us. God does allow corrective measures to come into our life, but he doesn't do it out of vindictiveness, he doesn't do it out of retaliation, it is not a tit for tat type of thing. It is an act of caring. He is correcting us, just like we would correct our child for playing in a busy street. Why? Because we know the consequences of them in that street. They can get hit by a car, maimed for life, or killed. And so I'm going to discipline them. I'm going to correct them to keep them, to course correct them from doing that. God will do the same thing for us. God will correct you for disobedience. And so if you are a child of God, there will be some correction. One of the disclaimers I give to new Christians is, hey, you know, there's some things that you've been used to doing and it didn't bother you. And now you're going to try to do those things and it's going to tear you up. You're going to feel all kinds of feelings about those. The Bible calls that conviction because God doesn't want his child partaking in those things. And so God will correct us, and he will correct our disobedience because he cares about us. Number six, God created everything we need. And we find this in verses seven through ten. Moses goes from talking about the correction of God to talking about the land. And he says, Man, it's a land where there are brooks, there are fountains, there are wells of water, there is pomegranates, and there is olives that will make oil, and there are figs. And then he talks about the resources. Hey, there's iron in the ground. You can dig iron ore and heat that up and make seal out of it. There is brass in the ground. And so he goes from verse 7 to verse 10 talking about all the things that are in that land. Let me ask you a question. Who put those things in that land? God did. At creation, God put those things in that land, and he is giving that land to these people. Why? Because God created everything that we need. When you think about creation, the only reason, the main reason I should say, the main reason that we have Earth, that we have the moon, that we have the solar system, the planets rotating around it, we have the stars in the sky. Oh, you understand all of that God created, though he created it first, he created it for a habitation for human life. His goal was to create man and woman in his own image with whom he could have fellowship, and he needed to create uh uh an ecosystem that would support and sustain their life. So he made it just the way we need it. The temperature on planet Earth is perfectly conducive for human life. The soil will produce fruit and vegetables when we grow it. The fossil fuels and the minerals that are in the ground. I mean, you just think about all of this stuff that we dig out of the ground, that we cut down out of the forest. God created everything that we need. As a matter of fact, Genesis 2, verses 8 through 10 speak about this, how that God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and he put all the things in there that Adam and Eve would need, and he put Adam and Eve in that place. He created everything we need. And so Moses says, I want you to know this. God created it all. And so when you're harvesting that food, you ought to be thanking God because God created it for you. When you're digging those minerals out of the ground, there's an opportunity to thank God. When you're falling those timbers to build your houses, thank God, because he's the one who created everything that you need. Number seven, God is forgotten in times of abundance. In verses 11 through 14, there is this warning beware that thou forget not the Lord. And the danger that Moses points out is the danger comes when you get into that land. And when you have an abundance of food, and you have an abundance of water, and you have the resources to build your houses, and your flocks begin to grow and multiply, and your wealth begins to increase. That's when you need to beware because you're in danger of forgetting God when you are in abundance. And I would say this is more of a lesson on anthropology than it is theology. That tells me more about me than it tells me about God, right? Anthropology is the knowledge of man, the study of man. And that just tells me that's what my nature is. That when I have everything that I need in abundance, there's a great temptation for me not to live in dependence on God. Because I am self-sufficient. And so Moses warns them about forgetting God in times of abundance. Paul writes something similar in Romans chapter 1, verses 21 and 22. He says, Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful, became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. I would say that the blessing that we have in the United States is also the curse. The blessing is the abundance. We live in an abundant land. I mean, just survey the maps of the world. Just learn a little bit about the resources and the geography, and you will find that we are a blessed nation because we live in a land of abundance. And that abundance has taken us far away from God. We have everything that we need, we think, for life. And there's a temptation to forget God. Number eight, God leads us through difficulties to something better. God leads us through difficulties to something better. This is verse 15 and 16. And what Moses is saying here is that he led you through the great and terrible wilderness. And he describes it, it had fiery serpents and scorpions, and there was drought, and there was no water, and he brought forth water out of the rock. He fed you in the wilderness, and he did that to do good, verse 16, at your latter end. And so God does lead us through difficulties, but remember he is leading us through it. That's not the destination. The wilderness is not the destination. The promised land is the destination, but God leads them through the wilderness, through the difficulty, to get to something better. And I would just remind you that the earth is the wilderness, and heaven is the promised land, and you have to go through the wilderness to get to the promised land. Isn't that the lesson that Jesus taught to the disciples on the road to Emmaus when they're saying, Man, we can't figure this out. Why did he get taken? Why did he get crucified? And Jesus says, Haven't you read the scriptures? Ought not Christ to have suffered and then enter into his glory? And so that's that same principle. You and I, listen, this life's not going to be perfect. We're not going to ever have a utopian society. There's always going to be difficulties here because we're on the way to something better. And God will lead us through the difficult to get to something better. Romans 8 says this I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And he goes on to say, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, those who are called according to his purpose. And so what I can know about this wilderness called earth is that even though it has its difficulties, God is working it together for something good. He is bringing me through, and what I am headed towards will absolutely eclipse everything here. Number nine, everything you accomplish or achieve in this world is because of God. Everything you accomplish or achieve in this world is because of God. This comes from verses 17 and 18. It is still kind of under that heading of being aware about forgetting God in your abundance. And he says, hey, verse 17, if you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand has gotten me with this wealth, he says, you need to remember the Lord your God, for it is him who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant with you as it is this day. We must be aware of our tendency to want to take credit for our accomplishments. That's a tendency that we have. We want the credit, don't we? I mean, we we come off of the field. How'd I do? Did you see that hit? Did you see that catch? Did you see that shot? Like, we love to take credit for the things that we accomplish. But when we do take credit for it, we actually discredit God. Moses is saying, watch out. You're going to get to a point where you're going to say, Man, I worked that land. I plowed that field. I removed those rocks. I got those stumps out. I fertilized that field. I planted that field. I watered that field. I tended that field. Now look at the produce that I have created in my field. And Moses says, Don't you realize? How could you forget that it is God who gave you the power? It is God who gave you the life. It is God who gave you the ability to get the wealth. And so anything that I have or have accomplished, when I trace it back, it has its origins in the blessings of God. Jesus said in John 15, 5, for without me, you can do a little. Is that how it goes? Without me, you can do nothing. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. If there is no God, there is no you. I mean, it's his oxygen that we're breathing. He's the one who created the heart that pumps the blood through my veins. He holds the patent on my skeletal structure. He's the one who equip me with all the parts that get the work done. Paul framed it this way for the self-aggrandizing philosophers in Athens. He said, For in him we live and move and have our being. You think you're living independently? You think you can take credit for something? Listen, everything you're doing is in God. God is the one who facilitates everything that you do. There is absolutely nothing we can take full credit for, except maybe sin. We can't blame that one on God. But everything else, we can't take full credit for it. Number 10, last of all, God's people cannot prosper when they ignore theology. God's people cannot prosper when they ignore theology. Last two verses of the chapter says this it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, you ignore theology. You don't care to know anything about God, and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyed before your face, so shall you perish, because you would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God. Notice it says, if you do at all forget the Lord God. You know, we we live constantly in danger of forgetting. To forget something, you had to know something. Any of y'all forget anything? It's happening more often for me, I tell you. But if I forgot it, it means I knew it. And so think about it. If you forget the Lord your God, well, that means they knew him. There's a danger for us as Christians. Even we start off strong and we're in the word and we're growing, we know God, we're pursuing God, we are still in danger of forgetting God if we slack off, if we back off. And so I find that the safeguard against forgetting God. So how do I how do I combat forgetting God? Well, the best way to combat forgetting is to continually be deepening your knowledge about God. Keep pursuing Him, keep reading His word, keep walking with Him, keep meditating upon the things that you read. Keep pursuing that knowledge of God. If you're pursuing a deeper knowledge of God, then that's going to safeguard you against forgetting. It's when you and I decide that we can coast. Well, I know all the major Bible stories. I can find all the books in my Bible. I know some things. Well, that's dangerous territory because that's in the land of forgetting. And so it is that pursuit of knowing God that will protect us from that. You know, it has always struck me that the Apostle Paul had this as his goal in life 25 years after he got saved. Now, just like I said, nobody knew God as well as Moses did in his generation. I think there's a real solid argument to say probably not too many people knew God as well as the Apostle Paul knew God. He meets him on the road to Damascus. He later gives testimony that Jesus Christ appeared to him and taught him the doctrines, that he didn't get it from the other disciples because they avoided him. They want to invite him in. And then God uses him to write half of the New Covenant, half of the New Testament. I mean, he far outpaces anybody else, right? John gets five books. Paul gets 14 if he is the writer of Hebrews, as I suspect that he is, but even if he's not, that's 13 books of the New Testament. So I would say that Paul knew God really well. And yet, 25 years after pursuing the Lord, he writes this in Philippians 3.10, that I may know him. What do you mean that you may know him? Don't you know him, Paul? No, I want to keep knowing him. He goes on, and he says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ. Paul was pursuing a deeper knowledge of God all the way to his death. And I'm telling you, that's the goal for us. That we need to keep pursuing that knowledge because we can't prosper if we ignore theology. You say, I want to have a strong faith, I want to have a joyful Christian life, I want to experience the power of God on my life like I've heard and seen it in other people's life. You can't do it if you ignore theology. I like what John MacArthur used to say about church growth. You know, in our modern age, we get so sidetracked on things. And you just wouldn't believe the things that churches have done to try to attract people. I mean, they've jumped school buses with motorcycles, they've flown airplanes and dropped Easter eggs out. I mean, they've just done just some of the wildest. I've heard of car churches giving away cars, giving away a car to the person who brought the most visitors, right? And so it's so easy for us to get sidetracked. And John McGuire. Arthur's ministry. He's passed on now, but was through the height of that. And he said, this was his philosophy, that he would worry about the depth of the church and that let God take care of the breadth of the church. In other words, he's saying, my job as a pastor is to take them deeper in the word, deeper in the knowledge of God. And if I do that, then God will add to the church. And so I'm telling you, we can't prosper if we ignore theology. We need to keep pursuing it. And so I would just ask you a few concluding questions. How well do you know God? One of the most frightening verses to me in the Bible is in John chapter 14. And it's the question that Jesus asked to Philip. And yet have you not known me? Well, apparently Philip did know him. Philip had been with him three and a half years. Philip could recognize him. Philip could recite some of his teachings. And yet Jesus is saying, You don't know me as well as you could know me. You don't know me as well as you should know me. And so I find that to be a very searching verse in my own life. Would Jesus say that same thing to me? Have I been so long time with you, and yet you still don't know me? Our knowledge of God will be evident by the way we live and by the way that we handle difficulties. That's where it really shows up. Not in the number of verses we can quote, not in our theological intellect to hold dialogue with other Christians. But that knowledge of God is more than just filling our heads with information. It actually changes the way we live our lives, and it changes the way we handle difficulties. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for making yourself knowable. Lord, you are higher, so much higher than we are, higher than the clouds are above the earth. We could not know you if you had not made yourself knowable. Your very revelation is revealing to us yourself, your character, your will, your commands. Father, I just pray and ask that you would help us to take full advantage of what has been made available to us. May we not be negligent. May we not be satisfied with the inventory of knowledge that we have. May we always be seeking to know you better. May we make that our goal, like the Apostle Paul, that we might know you, that we might pursue you. Lord, I just pray and ask that you would grow us and deepen us as a church, and that you would use us by the way we live for you to be a testimony and a witness to those around us. Oh, Father, we just pray and ask that you would give us a hunger and a passion for knowing you, and that we would pursue that until the day we see you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.