Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Deuteronomy chapter 8. This past Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving and what a wonderful time of gathering together with family and friends to thank the Lord for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us this past year. Now some of you may be thinking, “Thank the Lord, what is he talking about? Thanksgiving has to do with pilgrims and Indians, not the Lord! Separation of Church and State! It is what we have done.”
Tragically, that is the mindset of many today, many have forgotten the Lord, cut Him out of the picture. Let me take you back a few years and listen to what the Governor of Plymouth Colony, William Bradford had to say way back in 1623. He said:
“To All Ye Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”
Back in 1779 George Washington said this regarding our thanksgiving to God for all He has given to us:
“Whereas, it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; Whereas, both the houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness! Now therefore, I do recommend next, to be devoted by the people of the states to the service of that great and glorious being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be, that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country.”
Look at America today and see how far we have traveled from our relationship with God. He is not allowed in our schools. He is not allowed in our government. He is not allowed in our workplaces because if we speak of Him it might offend someone. But if you get angry, if you got mad it seems like people freely use the Lord’s name, but in vain, go figure! We have taken God out of our society and replaced Him with other gods, other gospels, and because of that, many believe like John Kerry who said in the last Presidential debate, “We are all God’s children!” Not so according to the Word of God!
Interestingly enough, when disaster strikes, when tragedies occur, God is blamed, the same God who has been locked out of our schools, our government, our workplaces, and even in some of our churches, and yet we then blame Him for what has transpired, we don’t want to take responsibility for anything, it is not our fault, or so they say. And we have also become a society of people that are very unthankful and I believe the reason we are so unthankful is we have forgotten the Lord and thus, when things go well it is because of our hard work, our intelligence, and-so-on. And when things go bad, the Lord is the target of a smear campaign even though they don’t believe in the Lord! And we at times, as Christians can develop that kind of mentality and instead of having an attitude of gratitude; we have an attitude of complaining.
Here in Deuteronomy chapter 8 the Lord gives us instructions regarding our relationship with Him, that we are to remember Him, we are to serve Him and if we don’t, then there will be consequences. With that said, let’s begin reading in Deuteronomy chapter 8, starting in verse 1 and see what the Lord has for us this morning.
Before the children of Israel entered the Promise Land under the leadership of Joshua, God warned them not to forget Him. Now that seems strange, doesn’t it? For 40 years in their wilderness wanderings, because of their rebellion against God, their sin they wandered, but God still sustained them. He provided food for them, Manna or bread from heaven. He provided water in the desert. Their clothes didn’t wear out and their shoes didn’t wear out! How in the world could they forget the Lord?
Simply put, they had become complacent. When they entered the land and began to be blessed, they took their eyes off the Lord and put their eyes upon themselves, their possessions, and they forgot the Lord and served foreign gods, false gods!
Complacency, apathy is a dangerous road to travel as this story shows us. We are told:
Some years ago in South America, a crew of Peruvian Sailors, headed up the Amazon River came upon a strange sight. It was like a scene from the “Twilight Zone.” A Spanish ship was anchored off the coast and all the sailors were stretched out weakly on the deck of the ship. As the Peruvians drew closer, they saw that the Spaniards were in terrible physical condition. They looked the picture of death itself, their lips parched and swollen. They were literally dying of thirst.
“Can we help you?” shouted the Peruvians.
The Spaniards cried out, “Water! Water! We need fresh water!”
The Peruvian sailors, surprised at this request, told them to lower their buckets and help themselves.
The Spaniards, fearing they’d been misunderstood cried back, “No, no we need FRESH water!”
But they received the same reply from the Peruvians to lower their buckets and help themselves. They finally did lower their buckets into the ocean waters and when they brought the buckets on deck they discovered to their amazement fresh water. They had quit trying. There at the mouth of the Amazon River, anchored for days, too far from land to see the coast, but not too far from the mouth of the River, they had fresh water in abundance.
Apathy had over taken them and they had quit. They were resigned to die when all that was needed was to lower their bucket. A small effort would have made all the difference.
- Brett Blair, Sermon Illustrations, 1999
The children of Israel went into captivity because they refused to bow their knee to the Lord. They thought their physical birth, being a Jew would save them, but it won’t and it doesn’t! They refused to drink from the life-giving waters of the Lord!
As I look at this great nation we live in, the spiritual heritage we have, the blessings we have, I see many parallels to the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. Just to give you an idea of where we were, what this nation was founded upon, and to see how far we have moved away from that, listen to these quotes from our Founding Fathers. We are told:
And because of our love for the Lord, these men, not perfect, but Christians, saw that the Lord needed to be first in their lives and in the life of this nation and God has blessed this nation beyond measure. Look at the wealth of this nation, what we possess and yet the thing that is most important, we are lacking and that is the Lord in our lives! We have cars, televisions, computers, DVD’s, VCR’s, clothes, shoes, entertainment, we are so wealthy that we are poor, we have lost sight of the Lord, the one who has blessed us!
You see, often when a nation, a people are blessed, they look to themselves for this accomplishment instead of the giver and sustainer of life, the Lord Jesus Christ! We are not thankful but we complain that we don’t have this we don’t have that. Look at this past election and what people were complaining about, money, possessions, toys and not about the moral condition of this nation! It is all about them! It is as the Lord said to Israel back in Deuteronomy 8:17 and we have that same mentality as we are blessed with so much, “then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’”
You may not agree with me on this but I think America is being weighed in the balances of God and unless we change we are going to be found wanting, short and the judgment of God will come! Remember the story of Belshazzar the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, who was the king of Babylon. Belshazzar was now the king, he was co-reigning with his father Nabonidus who spent most of his time away from Babylon and thus, Belshazzar was running the kingdom.
Babylon was wealthy and its city was fortified to say the least. The city of Babylon extended some 60 miles around, 15 miles on each side. The walls of the city were some 350 feet high and 80 feet thick extending another 35 feet below the ground so no one could tunnel into the city. These walls were so wide that they would have chariot races on them 6 to 8 abreast. There were some 250 towers on these walls extending another 100 feet in the air. They had another inner wall with a moat between the two walls. The Euphrates River divided the city almost in half and they had gates at the entrance of the river and exit of the river from the city. This river supplied ample fresh water for the people. Plus, they had enough food within the walls of the city to sustain the people for 20 years without opening the gates of the city. So no one could get in and they could withstand any army that would come against them, or so they thought!
That is why Belshazzar throws that wild, drunken party while the Medo-Persian armies were attacking the city because it was impregnable! Not only did Belshazzar mock the armies of the Mede’s and the Persian’s but also the true and living God as he took the temple vessels of Israel that were taken by his grandfather some 70 years earlier and began to drink from them! And in Daniel 5:5-9 we are told that as he did this, “In the same hour the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king spoke, saying to the wise men of Babylon, ‘Whoever reads this writing, and tells me its interpretation, shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck; and he shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.’ Now all the king's wise men came, but they could not read the writing, or make known to the king its interpretation. Then King Belshazzar was greatly troubled, his countenance was changed, and his lords were astonished.”
Because of this trouble he summons his grandmother who tells the king that Daniel is a man who can tell you what this handwriting is all about. And Daniel comes in and tells the king how pride had filled the heart of his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar and how God broke him of that pride and he repented and turned to the Lord, surrendered his life to the living God.
He goes on to say starting in verse 22, “But you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this. And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written. And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” Daniel 5:22-28.
Because he refused to humble himself before the Lord, God was going to humble him as judgment came upon him and the kingdom of Babylon. The handwriting on the wall said this, “Numbered, numbered, to light, divided.” In other words, the king and his kingdom have been weighed in the balances of God and have come up short! Little did he know that judgment was only hours away as the Medes and the Persian army would take the city by a storm and that the king would be killed!
Look at America today as we do what we want, mocking God. I have seen in these gay pride parades people with signs saying, “God is gay!” We are no different than Belshazzar, we don’t see the handwriting on the wall, or if we do we too don’t understand it, judgment is coming if we don’t change. That is not to scare you it is just a reality! I see the blessings of God for this nation as a big freight train that has put its breaks on long ago but it takes time for it to completely stop. The only solution is not building up our military, our economy, this or that, which may not be wrong but will not help in the end, I don’t care how fortified, how strong we think we are. The only solution is to remember the Lord, return to Him and know what the Lord desires of us as we are in His Word and we apply His Word to our lives.
We as Christians love to blame the unsaved for all our problems, all our troubles, but the reality is, it is our own fault! Who opened their arms to evolution? It was Christian leaders who did and still do today! Who is accepting gay relationships as a normal life-style? Christian leaders once again! In the 2000 Presidential elections most Christians didn’t vote and look how close the race was! This year, in 2004 Christians did get out to vote and it made a difference, but I pray we don’t become complacent in this or think that because of the election this nation will be changed while we sit on our laurels! We can become complacent in our relationship with the Lord, apathetic with God and instead of coming to worship God we come to see what we can get out of Him, we play church while America is being weighed in the balances of God and is about to be judged by God!
Look at the number of gods we worship in this country including the god of self. We have the god of pleasure that we worship. The god of immorality we worship and think nothing of it. Think about it, this nation that was founded upon the Lord Jesus Christ is now the leading exporter of pornographic material in the world! The children of Israel burned their children to the god Molech in the fire as a sacrifice and we offer our children to the god of pleasure also, it is called abortion and over 40 million children have been murdered in the womb since abortion was legalized in this country. We talk about women’s rights, what about the child’s? Homosexuality is being promoted as a normal and healthy lifestyle! Greed is rampant in the country, a do whatever you can to get whatever you can mentality. We see violence in our streets, in our sports as players and spectators go after each other, in our schools, in our work places, even in deer hunting as a man shot 8 people, killing 6 because they were in his area that he had for deer hunting! How did we decline so much morally, spiritually and so fast? Because the Lord said in Deuteronomy 8:19-20, “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. 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.”
Those things that we thought would bring us joy, pleasures, happiness we are finding out only bring us pain, hurt, and we find ourselves captive to them, slaves to these things. Look at our nation; we are more psychoanalyzed than any other nation in the world. There are more Americans on Psychiatric medications than every before and instead of being healthy we are more messed up than ever before! We are so willing to treat with drugs today that we even give young children antidepressants! Instead of dealing with the real issue, the heart of the matter, humbling ourselves before the Lord, we are just doing our own thing and one day we will awaken to a nation that is facing the judgment of God.
The Lord said in II Chronicles 7:14, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” That is our responsibility but we first must awaken from our spiritual sleep and humble ourselves before the Lord, seek His face, His will for our lives because if the Lord has not impacted our lives then how in the world are we going to impact the world for Jesus? We won’t and that is what we are seeing today, not people coming into the kingdom of God but moving from one church to another because of some silly reason or another. How sad.
Paul, in Romans 13:11-14 admonishes us by saying, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” The Lord’s return is drawing closer and we are that preserving force for a society, for without Christians can you imagine the morality of a society? It would be horrible, it would be worse than what we see with Islam and its violence, its behavior, there would be anarchy without morality and that morality comes from the Lord!
I think the key for us is found in Deuteronomy 8:10 where the Lord said, “When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.” Folks, God has blessed us as a people and a nation, may we give him thanks for all that He has done! May we not become complacent, apathetic in our relationship with God for it will have detrimental effects upon our nation and us.
Can we make a difference? Can we make that big of an impact on a society? We are just a small group of people! If that is how you feel you are looking at things with the wrong set of eyes. You are looking at things through a human perspective, and yes, it is impossible. But change your lenses, look at these things through the eyes of God and see what impact just a few people can have as the power of God is working through them, through us. Within 30 years the Gospel message was proclaimed throughout the whole known world without television, radio, computers and-so-on. It can be done because God is on our side; He desires to use us for His glory and to spread the Gospel message forward.
You see, God had impacted the lives of these men and what impacted their lives, what they burned with, others saw and others caught and they too were on fire for the Lord. Today, we don’t like to burn, we don’t like to reach out, we don’t like to be molded and shaped into men and women of faith because it hurts and thus, we have not impacted this world like God would have us! I know, it can be discouraging at times, but if God is on our side, then the victory is already ours, we are victorious and thus, we just need to walk!
Maybe you have heard of this story of Telemachus, it is a story of how one man can make the difference, a man who was willing to give all to make that difference. We are told:
Telemachus was a Christian monk who lived about 1,600 years ago in a monastery just outside of Rome.
While visiting Rome, Telemachus was swept up by a mob and he found himself pushed into the coliseum. He was horrified by what he saw. He saw the bloody gladiator fights that the Roman people staged for the entertainment of the crowds . . .
As the gladiators fought, Telemachus – stunned and outraged – jumped from his seat and ran into the arena begging the Gladiators to stop fighting. But the crowd roared with laughter . . . until one of the gladiators ran his sword through the small, unarmed man of God. Dying, Telemachus didn’t beg for his life. He only said one thing over and over . . .
“In the name of God, stop . . .”
“In the name of God, stop . . . “
The crowd grew silent.
One by one people left the coliseum. That very day, the Emperor sealed a mandate ending the brutal gladiator contests forever. Telemachus took a stand for Truth. It cost him his life, but in the name of TRUTH he changed Rome – and history – forever!
You see, one man took a stand and changed the world. It doesn’t take many, in fact, it may only take one. Will you be the one?
As we reflect back on this Thanksgiving may we have a heart of thankfulness to the Lord, an attitude of gratitude unto God as we are obedient to His Word and we let our light so shine that men may see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven! Praise the Lord for this great country we live in but let us not become complacent and apathetic. May we take back what the enemy has taken from us and by the power of God’s Spirit the work can be done, this nation can be restored to a shinning example to the world of Jesus Christ. But, as Edmond Burke said, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” May that not be the case for us, may we not take this sitting down, but arise and take back what the enemy has stolen from God! It can be done.
Let me leave you with this to think about. Years ago an elderly woman said to Charles H. Spurgeon, “Ah, Mr. Spurgeon, if Jesus does save me, He shall never hear the end of it.” I will take that as being something that is not just good, but great and if that is all we have to be thankful for, what more do we need? You see, He has saved us and it doesn’t get any better than that. But not only that, He has blessed us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. May we not forget to thank Him and then live what we believe, let others see Jesus in us so that we may impact our homes, communities, workplaces, state, nation and the world. It can be done for with God all things are possible!