Untitled Sermon

Kiddy Table Teaches You Manors.

The kiddy table is where it is ok to be messy.

Deuteronomy 8:5–10 ESV

Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

Deuteronomy

The humbling experiences in the past—eating at home with mommy and daddy had prepared you with the proper tools to eat at the kiddy table. All of the corrections, no elbows on the table, chew with your mouth closed, no farts and butts are not appropriate table talk, thats a fork not a dinglehopper—get it out of your hair. Before this you were a mess spitting all over yourself, but now you know what a fork is. You know not to chew with your mouth open. Fundamental behaviors.

This is what Moses is teaching the Israelites before he dies. This is half time in the football game where you fumbled and threw interceptions and now your losing. This is the speech given by the coach to the players prior to walking back out on the field. Many of you here will be saying: Man this is mashed potatoes…where is the turkey? But before we choke ont he turkey lets make sure we can chew mashed potatoes because to graduate from the kiddie table you first have to learn it’s lessons.

What is Moses telling the Israelites?

1) Recall the practice meals!

The Israelites failed quite a bit in the wilderness.

They wanted to go home at the Red Sea. They built an idol at the foot of the mountain. They cried for meat and then gorged themselves to death. and the list goes on…In the desert it was ok to throw food.

Deuteronomy 8:2–3 ESV

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 8:2-

In the high chair it’s ok to throw a fit. You get corrected as in VV5, but there is an abundance of grace.

As move from the high chair to the kiddie table, forget not what you have learned, but advance in your knowledge and understanding.

2) Thank God for the Provision.

Moses was trying to remind them of the consequences for taking things for granted. The purpose of the 40 years in the desert was to humble Israel, to prepare them for the feast.

The purpose of the 40 years in the desert was to humble Israel, to prepare them for the feast.

You can always tell the novice thanksgiving eaters from the seasoned ones. As the food gets passed around the novice begins to mound food on his plate. By the time their done half the mashed potatoes are gone.. They don’t understand that magical little ferries are making more and it’s in the kitchen waiting for them. They pile their plate full of provisions so they won’t lack a thing.

A Seasoned Thanksgiving enthusiast portions out his meals because they understand the slower they eat, the more time your pants have to stretch and make room. They know that the size of blessings on your plate doesn’t matter, but rather the ability to finish does.

At the end of the meal the novice is always too stuffed and still has mounds of food on their plate. They let their eyes be the judge instead of their belly.

This is what Moses is saying. In the wilderness you squandered the blessings. You threw it on the floor, you weren’t thankful, you acted like a 2 year old, but now—now you need to remember what you have learned because:

Deuteronomy 8:11-

Deuteronomy 8:11–14 ESV

“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,

Gratitude keeps your eyes on the blesser instead of allowing you to be overcome by the blessing.

I have seen many good soldiers fall before desert ever hits the table because they are with their eyes instead of their bellies.

I was going to label this series the attitude of gratitude, but attitude defined is this:

Attitude- a settled way of thinking or feeling. I know many people who have an attitude of an avid eater, but when it came to to sit down and fork up they failed. This is the person who talks a good game, but drops the ball on the 5 yard line. They know some bible verses, they can even talk the Christianize talk, but that’s as far as it goes. They have a settled way of thinking, but not a settled way of doing.

3) Keep in practice.

Gratitude without practice is like faith without works—dead.

Moses is saying some pretty easy stuff…when God blesses you remember to say thank you. But Christians seem to have a very difficult time with this.

At the kiddy table people will walk up to you with an empty plate and say: look mommy I’m done. I said thanks and I ate everything you provided. Look mommy I’m done. Then the inevitable: Can I have desert. Mommy did I do well enough at meal time that I can be rewarded again with desert?

With will get 1 of two responses: Yes, or no go back and eat this much. This is typical at my house. I half eaten plates put in my face all the time.

We can be like this with God sometimes: When the happiness of one blessing wears off we come to him with an empty plate and say where’s the next one.

Moses was telling the Israelites that they key to staying in a relationship with God is to be Thankful for what he has provided and not what we think he should provide.

Discontentment breaks marriages, rips apart friends, and turns a once on fire Christian into a stone cold atheist.

Proverbs 30:8–9 ESV

Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

Proverbs

The biggest Idol Moses was trying to rid the Israelites of is self worship.

If anything that takes the place of God is worship, than by stating that we are the creator of our blessings in life we are trying to take the place of God.

This is Moses passing the baton speech Moses is about to die. This is Israel’s commencement speech, but you can almost hear the pain in his voice as he seems to want to utter Paul’s Words in 1 Corinthians. Moses says: here is this very elementary principle. Please don’t mess it up, don’t put yourself in front of God. Moses traveled with them for 40 years, heard their complaints and grumblings, and saw their deaths and failures.

1 Corinthians 3:1–3 ESV

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

1 Corinthians 3

This isn’t mind blowing stuff, but if you find yourself wondering why you aren’t being blessed like other people or why it doesn’t seem like God entrusts you with more this is a very good place to start. Join us next week as we join David at the adult thanksgiving table.