Dangerous Success - Deuteronomy 8

Introduction

I can remember several years ago being at the funeral of a relative and everyone saying the same thing as they walked by the casket and sat in the funeral home: What a wasted life. What most meant by that was that he was unrealized potential. He was a young man who had made poor decisions whose life had come to a tragic end. Some said, “He was so smart. He could have done anything.” Others said, “What a great dad he could have been.” Or, “If he could have ever figured it out, he would have been to have had anything that he wanted.” I can’t think of anything sadder to be said at a funeral than to have your relatives gather around your casket and contemplate the failure of your life.

But, it makes me wonder: What amounts to a wasted life? How do you measure whether or not a life is wasted? Well, it depends on your system of accounting; it depends upon what you value supremely. We typically assess the significance of someone’s life by the success they’ve had and the influence they’ve held. The greater the success, the greater the influence, the more significant the life in our minds. It seems to represent realized potential. It’s how we envision our own funerals one day. People gathered around talking about how impactful we’ve been, how much we’ve accomplished, and how many people that we’ve helped. But, though these are good things not to be diminished, they can also serve as camouflage for misaimed lives. Success can give the appearance of meaningful living to meaningless lives. If we have the wrong accounting system, success and influence and the attainment of our life goals can actually serve to cover up a devastatingly aimless and worthless life.

God’s Word

That’s what God is concerned will happen to the children of Israel as they enter the Promised Land. They’re going to realize a prosperity and success that they couldn’t have conceived living as slaves in Egypt or as sojourners in the wilderness. They’re going to be living in a place where the dirt is made of copper and where there’s more fruit and bread than they are able to consume. They’re going to move into a land of abundance as a gift of God, and that’s the threat. You see, God knows the human heart. He knows its deception and corruption. He knows the evil and apathy that its capable of. He knows how easily satisfied it becomes with all of the things that don’t matter. In fact that’s one of the ways the OT presents the gospel to us. It forces us to see and come to grips with the reality of our own hearts and our sinfulness. And so, God has a series of warnings for them and for us who live today in America. Warnings about Success and the Human Heart (Headline):

Don’t be too easily “satisfied.”

v. 11 “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..”

v. 14 “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,”

Two questions of Deuteronomy 8:

Who are you when you have less than you need?

Who will you be when you have more than you could want?

Thorns grow in the rain just as they grow in the heat.

Rain and Heart drawing

A change in circumstances does not lead to a change in heart.

Success affords you the freedom to be who you really are, do what you really want to do, and go after what you really want.

ILL: Who are you when you first get to live on your own? You’re you!

Thorns of success: v. 11 “forget the Lord” “not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes” v. 14 “your heart lifted up”

Fruit of success: The opposite. Accepting the invitation to know God even better rather than forgetting him - to live in relationship with him ; freedom to go after = zeal to honor the Lord in every way. Received great blessing = humbled that even you could receive such kindness

v. 12-14: “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”

Success = the attainment of whatever is significant to you. Not just millionaires and businessmen. The kids or marriage you always wanted. A job you enjoy. Good health. A place at the lake or the ability to go fishing when you want.

Success isn’t evil, but it does uncover evil.

The problem with your heart isn’t that it’s too hard to please. The problem with your heart is that it’s too easily satisfied.

C.S. Lewis: “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

God is offering us a glimpse of his glory, but we’re too busy watching our 65” TV to care. He’s inviting us into an intimate relationship with him, but we’re too wrapped up with t-ball practice to notice. God is inviting us into his palace to dine with him, but we’re content to be sitting outside the gate eating mud pies.

APP: Where does the glory of God fit into your vision for your life? If you received the answer to every prayer, would still find reason to pray? If you attained every goal and had perfect health and reached every milestone and had every dollar you want right now, would God still be a necessary part of your life? Or, is He is just a means to your ends? That is, do you actually want a relationship with God or do you want a genie you can store away until the next wilderness?

Don’t take credit for “success.”

v. 17: “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’”

“I’m a self-made man.”

Taking credit is actively forgetting God.

We just don’t forget who God is; We forget who we are.

Success can be a hallucinogen giving us delusions that we are strong when we’re weak, smart when we’re ignorant, and in control when we control nothing.

Like the the man tripping on LSD who becomes convinced he’s superman. Success can be lethal if it convinces you that you’re able to fly when you can’t.

v. 14-16: “Who brought you out of the land of Egypt....who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness…who brought you water out of the flinty rock....who fed you in the wilderness”

We go through the wilderness. Our health is bad or we have no money or we experience a devastating loss. At the end of ourselves, we pray and pray and pray, begging God to intervene. And, He does. Suddenly, we realize we’ve made it to the other side. We’ve made it into the Promised Land. Our health returns, or our financial situation turns around, or we recover from the loss and depression we’ve known. What’s our first reaction? Look at how tough I am. Look at how adaptable I am. Look at how savvy I am. Look at how resilient I am.

Of course, we were ready to give up, or we had given up. Of course, we don’t control the health of our bodies, no matter how many organic foods we eat. Of course, we don’t control the economy or lie and death or the making of oxygen or the birth of children. Our self-congratulations is nothing more than a delusion.

The gospel begins for sinners with self-awareness.

You have to realize your need for Jesus before you’ll come to him.

You have to realize your inability to be strong or good or able before you’ll reach out to Christ.

The only way you can become who you’re supposed to become is to realize who you’re not.

It’s the only way that you’ll get your accounting right. It’s the only way to live your life in perspective.

It’s the difference between “look at what I’ve earned” and “look at what God has given.”

That’s how it relates to obedience as God does in verse 11.

If I’ve earned it and it’s mine and I deserve it, then it’s irrational for me to do with it what someone else (even God!) wants me to do with it.

If God has given it and God has blessed it and God has secured it, then it’s irrational to not do exactly with it what God has said to do with it.

Irony: What was meant to be used to make God known has led to them forgetting God altogether.

APP: How are you using your success? Your wealth? Your health? Your family? Your time and energy? Your home? In your deepest heart, who you do you believe is really responsible for it?

Don’t live for what isn’t “secure.”

There’s a contrast being drawn between verses 18 and 19.

6 x’s “LORD your God” is mentioned in these 10 verses.

v. 18 “that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as if it is this day.”

Their prosperity in the here and now is intended to confirm God’s love for them forever.

v. 19 “And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.”

other gods = anyone or anything that you give credit for God’s goodness.

Why was Israel always tempted by other gods? The promise of more success.

Baal promised fertile ground and great crops = big $$$

Why are we tempted to by other gods? Why are we tempted to work later or to stingily hang on to more or to sign up for yet another travel ball team or hire another tutor, all in the forgetfulness of God? The promise of more of what makes us happiest. The dangling carrot of more success.

The temptation of success is to trade what last forever for that which can be gone tomorrow.

Parable of the foolish CEO

Jesus tells the story of a CEO in Luke 12.

He built bigger barns and made more money until he had established an agricultural empire, and on the day in which he’d reached the pinnacle of his career that he might retire and enjoy it, God took him from this world.

It didn’t matter that his kids drove nice cars or were good at softball. It didn’t matter that his employees envied him or that his investment folder said he could move to his own island. It didn’t even matter that he’d kept up his health. It only mattered that he’d forgotten God. Because he’d forgotten God it came to be that he traded what he could have enjoyed for eternity for that which he could only accumulate for a little while.

Don’t come to the end of your life only to realize that you’ve wasted it. Honestly, it’s not going to matter what people think of you at your funeral, whether you reached your potential in their opinion or not. It’s only going to matter that your accounting system was aimed at what was secure and not success that lasted only for a moment.