Stop, Look, Listen

I. Text: Deuteronomy 8:1-10

II. Profiting from the Past

A. God told them to remember their past so that they could appreciate their present. He didn’t tell them to live in their past. (verse 2)

B. Moses told them on the day that they left Egypt to remember that day (Exodus 13:3)

C. They are reminded also in Deuteronomy 5:15 to remember that the Lord had brought them out of that land. He was telling them there, and in our text, to remember where He brought them from so that they would appreciate where they were going.

D. However, in Numbers chapter 11, we find them remembering the past as though they were better off there.

E. Listen to what happened in Leviticus: “Now when the people complained it displeased the Lord; for the Lord heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some (people) in the outskirts of the camp…now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving (lusted intensely)…and said, ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” (Numbers 11:1,4-6)

F. They were remembering, but it was not so that they could appreciate their present, rather, it was so that they could complain about and compare their present to the past.

G. Many of God’s people must learn how to stop living in their past, and start learning how to live in His presence!

Once they have learned to profit from their past, it will help them to

III. Be Perfected in Their Present

A. Verse 6 says, “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in His ways and to fear Him.”

B. We are to acknowledge our past so that we can appreciate our present.

C. Knowing where you came from will appreciate where you’re going.

D. Looking back and remembering where God brought you from in the past will help you determine how to live in the present. And, how you live in the present will always determine how you will live in the future!

E. Not only did God tell them to profit from their past, and be perfected in their present, but He also wanted them to

IV. Be Possessors of His Promises in Their Future!

A. Reread verses 7-10

B. He simply says that if we make Him Lord of all, and obey His Word, He would take care of everything else! We need not worry of the other things.

C. God said, I’ve given you manna, but, if you would just obey My Word, I would always give you manna and what you need. That’s why He said that man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. (Verse 3)

D. Jesus confirmed this in Luke 4:4 and in Matthew 6:25, 31-33 where He says, “Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? …Therefore, do not worry, saying ‘what shall we eat?’ or ‘what shall we drink?’ or ‘what shall we wear?’ …For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

E. The promise of their future was that He would multiply and increase their possessions. He promised to bring them into a land flowing with daily blessings, if only they would obey and enter therein and possess the land!

F. He said, in verse 9 of our text, that they would lack nothing!

G. Remember, the Psalmist David said, in Psalm 23, that the Lord was his Shepherd, that he should not want/lack.

Closing ~

Reread verse 1: “Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply (or increase in number), and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to you…”