GOD CONSCIOUSNESS

HOSEA 13:2-9

INTRODUCTION:

It is possible that we have come here today and are seeking to worship the great God of heaven and will leave here and God not be with a 100 miles of this place and us not know it. It is also possible that we come to the house of God and leave never being aware of His presence in our midst.

When we come we, we should come with a consciousness that we in the presence of Holy God and we are worshipping an audience of One.

Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death…” Sin destroys and sin kills. That is true for individuals; it is true about families; it is true about the church. Far too many people die and families and churches die and the problem is sin. That is the root of the problem.

Here is the root of the problem for the nation Israel: FORGETTING GOD. It is in verse 6 “…they filled their heart and were exalted, therefore, they forgot me.”

If we understand that it is in Christ that we live and move and have our being, and if you live in the daily consciousness that God is holy and everyday when you wake up you wake up in His presence: it is difficult to comprehend that someone could forget God. But God said the nation forgot Him.

If you tell me that a lost world has forgotten God, I am so surprised at that.

But when you tell me that those who profess to know Christ as Savior and having been blessed by Him and knowing that it is by His grace that we have our very existence, and they forget God: that is hard to comprehend.

And what about the church? Can a church forget God. I want to warn us that we will forget God if we do not guard ourselves.

I want us to be conscious of the fact that what has and is happening at Dry Valley is by God’s grace. From the time this church began to the building of the first building and all those that have followed, those saved, the lives changed, the unity among God’s people: has all been by the hand of Sovereign God who was pleased to do a work here.

Let us be reminded that we have not arrived yet. If you let prosperity and blessing go to your head; if you begin to believe that it is because of us then we are one step away from forgetting God.

CAUSE OF FORGETFULLNESS

YOU FORGET GOD WHEN TROUBLES HAVE CEASED AND BLESSINGS ARE ABUNDANT

Notice verse 6 “when they had pasture they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore they forgot Me.” This is a reference back to Deuteronomy 8:11-12.

They were satisfied: This is not the sense that they are fine and have no complaint against God. Rather it is complacency, ingrattiude, and focus on the blessing rather than the God who gave the blessings.

In the wilderness they lives off manna from heaven and water from a rock. Canann was a place of abundant blessing. It seems that that “the greater the goodness of God to HIs people, the less their gratitude to God for the blessings.”

God knew the people in the wilderness. Verse 5 “I knew you in the wilderness.” God knew them and God provided for them.

NOTE: when people are in difficult times they seem to find time to meet God and do the work of God. In times of distress, people will tend to spend time alone with God.”

In time, the people arrived in Canaan and began to live in houses they did not build and eat from vinyards they did not plant and drink from wells they did not dig. God warned them in Deuteronomy not to forget that it was God’s hand that had provided all that.

Hosea 13:6 says they were filled and their hearts exalted and they “forgot Me.”

When you come to smooth waters, to a time of blessings, you must double guard against the sin for forgetting God.

When you move from trouble to triumph, be careful that your heart is not exalted and you forget God.

YOU FORGET GOD WHEN THE PRESSURE OF THE URGENT IS GONE.

The children of Israel, while in the wilderness, had no water to drink or food to eat so God provided manna from heaven and water from the rock.

Now, in Canann, they have fruitful fields, they reap great harvests, and their barns are full. They have full barns but empty hearts.

There are those who love God in their poverty and yet forget God in their prosperity. We must guard against becoming full and forgetting God.

PROGRESS OF FORGETFULLNESS

Rowland Hill compared those who forget God to hogs under an oak tree. “They eat the acorns but they never look up and thank the oak.”

How does the progress of forgetting God begin?

BEGINS IN THE HEART: This is very subtle. Your heart begins to grow cold toward God and the things of God. You become prosperous. (BTW there is nothing wrong with having stuff and long as you don’t let stuff have you.) The things that God has blessed you with and you now possess begins to possess you.

YOU KEEP INDULGING YOURSELF

When a man;s heart has been drawn from God, he indulges himself even more. This world becomes your focus rather than the world to come. You have begun to leave God in your heat and it starts to show up in discontinued service to the Lord.

And if you don’t stop altogether coming to worship you will begin to say things like “the singing is not as good as it used to be; the preaching is not as good and I am not being fed.”

YOU LOSE YOUR SPIRITUAL APPETITE

Solomon said “to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.”

The man who forgets God looses his appetite for spiritual things. And if you continue to come to worship your mind is pre-occupied.

“There is many a man who comes into the pew with acres of land hanging to his boots and there is many a woman who sits there in a fine new dress-not only the one she has on but the other one that is to be bought on Monday.”

RESULTS OF FORGETFULLNESS

WHEN YOU FORGET GOD, EVEYTHING YOU GAIN IS LOSS

It was Jesus who said if a man gain the whole world and lose his soul he has lost everything

Philippians 3:7 “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.”

WHEN YOU FORGET GOD, YOU WILL TRIVIALIZE THE THINGS OF GOD.

When you forget God, the things of God will become trivial. You will no longer take seriously prayer, soul winning, bible study.

CONCLUSION

You must come to the realization that you are moving in the direction of quickly forgetting God.

No one forgets God in the sense that they cease to believe He exists, but they move for the acknowledgment daily of God in their life. NOTE: Romans 1