Foreigners, Faith, and Forgetfulness

November 23, 2014

Deuteronomy 8:7-18

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

Luke 17:11-19

We live in a time when more and more adult children are moving back in with their parents. The causes
range from divorce to layoffs to military deployments to financial problems and everything in between. And
whenever we hear news like that, even for people we dont know, we feel a certain amount of
disappointment. Yes, our children are almost always welcome in our homes, and yes, they will always be
our children, but we feel disappointment because something inside of us tells us that this is now how things
were supposed to be. Our goal, as we raise our children, is to nurture them and to teach them all the skills
that they will need to become successful, productive and independent adults.
Our hope for our children, as much as we love them and want them to need us, is for them to reach a place
where they really, no longer need us. This same sort of thing sometimes expresses our frustration with our
governments system of welfare and provision for the poor. We all want to be able to provide for people
who are down on their luck and who need a hand, but we are disappointed when we hear stories of people
who choose not to work and who have become dependent upon the system instead of using it as a stepping
stone to something better. Even though we know that statistically, most people only receive such aid for two
or three years before moving on to something better, we are frustrated by the few who choose to remain or
who are trapped there.
The assumption, the goal, even if we never said it out loud, was that all of us should move from a place of
dependence toward independence. And this is the same goal God has for his children. One of the places that
we see this is in Deuteronomy 8:7-18. Here we find the Israelites about to enter into the Promised Land and
God explains that they are moving toward independence. As they do so, God warns them not to forget
something that might seem minor, but is actually something of vital importance.
7

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good landa land with brooks, streams, and deep springs
gushing out into the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates,
olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the
rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
10

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be
careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees
that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and
settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you
have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought
you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that
thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.
16
He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and
test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, My power and the strength
of my hands have produced this wealth for me. 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives
you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is
today.
God told the people that he had brought them out of slavery, where the Egyptians took care of them, and
was bringing them out of the wilderness, where God took care of them, but now they were coming to a place
where they would care for themselves by harvesting the bounty that was already there and by working the
1

land. The people of Israel were coming to a place where they would no longer be visibly dependent upon
God for their everyday survival. No longer would they go out each day to collect the manna that God had
sent, but instead they would go out each day and work to raise livestock and crops and pull metals from the
ground. They were becoming more independent but as they did, God presents them with a warning. When
you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful
that you do not forget the Lord your God.
Because they seemed to be more independent, the temptation would be for the people to forget God and
believe that they had done everything for themselves and owed God nothing. God reminds the people that
they are able to provide for themselves because God rescued them and because God brought them to this
place where independence was possible. They seemed to be independent, but it was still God who made the
sun to shine, brought rain to water their crops, and who gave them life and breath and the ability to do all that
needed to be done. Even though they had been brought from dependence to independence, what they had
actually become was not independent, but simply less dependent. God was still in control and as they lived
their lives, the people of Israel still owed God their worship and their thanksgiving.
We see a similar lesson when Jesus healed ten lepers in Luke 17:11-19.
11

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was
going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud
voice, Jesus, Master, have pity on us!
14

When he saw them, he said, Go, show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed.

15

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at
Jesus feet and thanked himand he was a Samaritan.
17

Jesus asked, Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise
to God except this foreigner? 19 Then he said to him, Rise and go; your faith has made you well.
The lepers were outcasts and forced out of the community. They were dependent upon the generosity of
others and were unable to provide much of anything for themselves because it was illegal to come in contact
with healthy people. But when Jesus heals them, they are once again given the ability to return to their
families, to their communities, their jobs, and their independence. But of them all, only one returned to Jesus
and he wasnt even a Jew. Instead, the only one who remembered to be thankful was a foreigner who was
generally hated by the Jews who surrounded him. And it is this man who Jesus tells us was healed because
of his great faith. Somehow, in both stories, we see that faith and thanksgiving must always be connected. If
we believe in God, and if we trust him with our lives, then we must trust him, not only when times are hard
and we need his daily care to provide for our needs, but also when times are good, when we seem to be the
most independent and able to provide for ourselves.
But not only are faith and thanksgiving connected, there is something more. In 2 Corinthians 9:6-15, the
Apostle Paul says that if we are truly thankful, we will be motivated to action.
6

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also
reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or
under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all
things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:

They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;

their righteousness endures forever.
10

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed
and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be
generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lords people but is also overflowing
in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others
will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your
generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go
out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable
gift!
As we often do, it is important to watch for the words so that. Whenever things are done for a reason, we
can find the summary, or the reason, right after the words so that. And in this passage we find, You will
be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will
result in thanksgiving to God. God is going to give gifts to his people, he is going to bless them
abundantly, and he is going to increase the harvest of righteousness so that, you can be generous in every
way, so that your generosity will result in even more thanksgiving. And this applies not only to the things
that we have but the things that we do for others because Paul says, This service that you perform not only
supplies the needs of Gods people, but overflows into more expressions of thanks to God.
In Pauls eyes, thankfulness is seen not in what you say, but in how you give. And how you give is not only
what you put in the offering plate, but in the things that you do for others. And all of these things are
intended so that God will be praised and more people will give thanks to him.
Good times test us far more than bad times. It is easy to trust God when we need him to put food on our
plates, but we forget to trust God when our plates and our wallets are full.
We must be careful, when times are good, that we do not forget God and assume that all that we have came
because of our own efforts.
God is generous with us, so that we can be generous with others.
God gives to us, so that we can give to others.
Faith, thanksgiving, and generosity: As we celebrate this week and as we remember how God has blessed us,
let us also remember that these three things, faith, thanksgiving, and generosity, must always be tied together.

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Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry heights in Massillon, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media
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John Partridge. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.