"Remember The Long Way!"

Deuteronomy 8:1-10, 18-20

Awww come on and praise the Lord up in this house. God bless you as you are seated in the presence of the Lord. Ushers you may admit the door and let the worshippers in. Amen. This chapter of Deuteronomy is a powerful piece, and it’s pregnant with possibility. That’s why I had to jump around a little bit and skip because I needed you to get the full effect. And when you get a chance you should really read the whole chapter, but I don’t have time, so I want to focus in on verse number 2, where the Lord says, "Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these last 40 years in the wilderness." And that’s what I want to deal with. I want to keep it simple and for a little bit of time talk from the subject of, "Remember The Long Way." "Remember The Long Way." Are you all praying with me on today?

My Brothers and my Sisters, I am convinced today beyond a shadow of a doubt that when God raises you and takes you to a new level or a new hieght that it is imperative that even though you’re at a whole new place in life, that you don’t forget where you came from. Yeah, you, you, don’t forget, you don’t forget. And God doesn’t want us to forget because it allows us to remain humble and meek, even in our elevation. And I believe on today that it is dangerous to forget where you came from. It’s dangerous. But i’m also convinced that far too often when we get raised to a whole nother level in God or to prosperity, that we forget where it is that we’ve come from and more importantly WHO it is, in fact, that bought us up from there. Yeah we, we tend to get prideful, puffed up, concieted, and self-centered, like we did it all by ourselves. Like we’re all of a sudden "Holier than thou". We look down on those that are even yet still where we were just at, as if we’ve never been there before and we’ll never go back again, when the truth be told if it wasn’t for God on our side we could still be caught up in our mess at the same old level or be back down there tommorrow!! We get full of ourselves, we get concieted.. Hello somebody!! Y’all ain’t going with me!! Somebody oughta say "amen!" And so, and so we’re forgetful and concieted. Somebody oughta say "Concieted!"

And i’m sure now some of you all are saying, "Well preacher, why is it soo imperative that we don’t forget where we came from?" And for those of you who are Bible Scholars i’m sure you’re trying to bring up Paul in Phillipians chapter 3 when he says, "Forgetting what is behind..." I need to tell you don’t get that twisted because he wasn’t saying forget your past completely but what he was implying was "Don’t dwell on it... Don’t dwell on it.." Move on, don’t let it hold you back but don’t forget it!!! Y’all ain’t liking me! That’s okay I didn’t come to make friends I came to bring a word! And so, why is it then, so important to remember where you came from? Why is it? I believe that there are 3 reasons found here in the text and I need to drop them on ya, I need to drop them on you because I believe that they will help you. Can I teach y’all something for a minute?

The first reason why it’s important to remember where you came from is because oftentimes it’s in your previous state or wilderness where you learn the most from as far as life lessons. Let me make it plain for you.. More often then not in life we learn the most from our trials & tribulations. It’s not the good times that so much as teach us as it is the rough & hard times... Can I get a witness? You, you didn’t really learn how to pray and seek God, fast & put him first, until God allowed you to go through some things and some situations where you had to rely totally and solely on him! And you didn’t learn how to be so creative, and imaginative until you had to survive on your own with nothing!!!!! You didn’t learn the importance of love, kindness, compassion, and care until you went through a period of not being loved or cared for by anyone but God. You didn’t learn full dependence on God until you had no job, a hill of bills, rent that needed to be paid, no friends, children acting up, didn’t know where your next meal was coming from!!!!! Somebody help me up in here!!! And these are lessons, lessons that you need to continuously draw from for a lifetime!!!! I’m still using stuff I learned in my wilderness experiences today! Can I get a witness up in here? And so, you need to remember the lessons you learned in your past wilderness experiences. Somebody oughta say "Stuff I’ve learned!"