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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
This week, we’re seeking to learn some very important lessons God wants to TEACH us about the powerful potential in times of TESTing, like we are living in right now.
Today let’s remember back, to a time before we’d ever heard of COVID-19, or “PPE’s” or “social distancing” or anyone wore a facemask outside a hospital. Let’s remember a time when unemployment was the lowest it’s been in many decades, and the markets were climbing by the day, and life was quite different. In fact, think back to a time in your life when you were wonderfully happy and content. Now let’s consider the TEST of ABUNDANCE!
History shows us, times of ABUNDANCE can be times when we become very vulnerable and maybe even complacent. Do you remember Abraham and Lot? Genesis 12:4 tells us Lot accompanied Abram and Sari as they left Haran and began the long journey following God to Canaan. Lot’s father had died, so Abram was watching over his nephew and teaching him the skills of raising herds and flocks of animals. Lot lived with them several years, and God blessed both men with great abundance. In fact in Genesis 13:6 says “The land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great…and quarreling arose between the herdsmen of Lot and Abram’s herdsmen…”
So the day came when Abram and Lot stood together on a hill looking out over the vast pasturelands and Abram said to his nephew Lot “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me. Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right…so the two men parted company; Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and sinning greatly against the Lord.” (Gen. 13:8-13)
Perhaps you remember how the story continues as Lot finds himself attracted to the city life and moves into Sodom and eventually is only spared by an angel who leads him out, as Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by fire which fell from heaven, as God judged the despicable wickedness in those towns. (Genesis 19) Now friends, do you see it was their ABUNDANCE which caused Abram and Lot to need to separate from each other? I wonder how “abundance” has affected your life or your ancestral family, or friends you know?
Let’s return to Deuteronomy 8 and pick up the story of Moses from yesterday, in vs. 10. Remember everyone standing before Moses that day, other than Joshua & Caleb, were either children that Passover night they ran out of Egypt 40 years before, or they were born in the desert. All they’ve known for 4 decades is sand in every direction, blazing sun, and every day, I mean every day, Manna as their primary food to eat. They’ve lived in tents, and moved OFTEN, sometimes every day. Put yourself in their sandals. Can you imagine how desperate these people are to settle in the new land, have gardens and houses and start businesses? How would you be feeling?
So Moses says: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, PRAISE the LORD your God for the good land He has given you… When you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
I can hear the rumble among the people, can you? “Oh no we won’t Moses. We’re sick and tired of the desert and living in tents and eating manna, but we won’t forget God’s goodness to our parents. If God had not freed them that Passover night, we would have been born into slavery, and we’d working with the slavemasters whip cracking on our back. Oh no, we won’t forget…”
But the truth is…they did forget! And so do we. We do forget, don’t we, my friends? Good times, ABUNDANCE, affluence, the easy life causes us to feel we have no need for God. Our schedules fill with fun times and fun things, and soon we have no time for worship or time in God’s Word or prayer. And if we aren’t careful, the children who grow up in that environment know nothing about God.
So wise, old Moses continued: “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth and so confirms His covenant…” So look deeply into your heart, and the hearts of those you know, my friends. When you look at your home, your automobile, your big screen TV, your paycheck, what thoughts come into your mind about HOW it all has come into your hands, and WHO it really belongs to? Oh yes, it’s your name on the title of the car or house, but all that you have, belonging to someone else, is only one heartbeat and one breath away, isn’t that right?
Do you remember Paul wrote to Timothy “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it… People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap, and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Tim. 6:6-10)
Do you remember the conversation Jesus had with a rich man, recorded for us in Matthew 19? And as the rich man walked away Jesus said to His disciples “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 19:23,24) Sometime earlier Jesus had said to a crowd as He taught them “You cannot serve two masters…both God and money…where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt. 6:19-24)
So honestly now my friends, how has this TEST of ABUNDANCE been going in your family heritage, your life, in your friends? The Bible and history are filled with examples of ABUNDANCE leading the hearts of many good people, far away from God. But. . . have you learned the power of Gratitude and Generosity? That’s the antidote!
There are many wonderful examples of people who’ve been greatly blessed by God, and they understand it is ALL God’s resources entrusted to them, and they are determined to be good stewards of it all. So they regularly ask God to show them how HE wants them to disperse the resources. God leads them in strategic generosity as they distribute His resources by His guidance. In so doing they are partnering with God: He entrusts to them great resources, then they distribute those resources by His leading, and then God guides those who have received the resources, to use them for the accomplishment of His purposes.
It’s a miraculous thing to be part of this my friends, have you learned this great privilege yet? It begins with Gratitude rather than pride and then the Tithe of course, but it goes much further, when you consider that ALL you have is God’s, entrusted to you to be used for HIS glory, in obedience to His guidance.
So here’s my summary statement for us today:
Danger: Abundance can produce pride, self-reliance, and independence from God
OR… Gratitude recognizes it’s all from God, intended to accomplish God’s purposes.
Oh Lord Jesus, this Test of ABUNDANCE is very real for many, many people. Help us see what you see when You look into our hearts when we think of money. Oh we are so very grateful for Your great generosity to us, please help us catch Your vision for what could be if we lived generosity as we follow Your guidance for how You want us to use all of whatever we have, for Your glory.
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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