Matt Hagee - The God We Take For Granted
The problem with our world today is not with a God who has never failed and is faithful from generation to generation. The problem in the world today are the hearts of evil men who take God for granted. And today, we turn to Psalms 78, and we see a chapter in Israel's history in which, time and time again, in spite of God's goodness on their life, they took him for granted. By God's grace and through the leading of his Holy Spirit, in this generation, I pray that we do not do the same. Let's read Psalms 78:5 together. If you're there, say amen.
"For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright and whose spirit was not faithful to God".
Heavenly Father, through the power of your Holy Spirit and the anointing of your presence in this place, I pray that today, when we leave here, our hearts would be set right and that we would be found faithful to a God who has never failed us. In Jesus' name, we pray and ask. All of God's children said, praise the Lord.
You may be seated. When you read Psalms 78, it begins by saying that God was so kind to the children of Israel in that he gave them his word. And when he gave them the word, the testimony that he gave to Jacob, he commanded them, "You fathers teach these words to your children". He gave them a responsibility with the gift that he had given. And what you need to know, beginning in this chapter, is that with great gifts, comes great responsibility. The problem in this generation is with the hearts of wicked men who take a faithful God for granted. The world that we live in is filled with the kind of people that Paul warned Timothy about in 2 Timothy 3:5. He said, "They have a form of Godliness but they deny the power thereof".
These are the kinds of people that hit the campaign trail and make statements like "God bless America," and then, when they're elected, they forget God exists. These are the kinds of people that want to ban "In God we trust" and take "One nation out of God" off of anything that has to do with our nation. They want prayer out of our schools. And then they proclaim that there is no God but you must trust the science. Have you noticed how "In God we trust" has been replaced with "Trust the science"?
How many of you remember when science was something that they used to discover truth? You know, Isaac Newton, whenever he saw the apple fall from the tree, he wanted to know why. So, he used science and he proved the law of? Okay. Science used to be used to discover truth. Now, "Science" is a word that tyrants use to camouflage things that they want to control you with. Science used to seek truth. Now, science tells lies. Science tells lies like there is no longer male and female. You are whatever you feel. Trust the science. Here's the thing about trust: you are either going to bow before God and put your trust in him so that you have the courage to stand before tyrants, or you are going to bow before tyrants and put your trust in the science and have a form of Godliness but deny the power thereof.
My earnest admonition to you, church, my earnest admonition to you, America, my earnest admonition to all who are under the sound of my voice today, have faith in God! Put your trust in El Shaddai because he is the all-sufficient one. Humble yourself before him and worship him in the beauty of holiness. Do not be afraid or dismayed: for there is no God like our God. He is great and greatly to be praised. Church, we live in a world that is filled with darkness but our God has overcome the world! When you read Psalms 78, you realize that God gave the children of Israel a great gift and a great responsibility. And rather than take care of their responsibility, they took God for granted.
And when I read Psalms 78, I encourage you to go read the whole chapter, it goes on and on, verse after verse, of how good God was and how they continued to test him. They continued to disobey him. They continued to see what they could get away with. When I read Psalms 78, the first thing that comes to my mind is, how dare you. How dare you treat such a good God so poorly? How dare you take God for granted? Just consider four short verses in Psalms 78, beginning at verse 12. The Psalmist describes all of the marvelous things: that's his words. He said, "Marvelous things, God did in their sight".
What marvelous things did he do? In verse 12, he says he crushed the Egyptians. He delivered them from bondage. He parted the Red Sea. He led them with a cloud. He warmed them with a fire. He fed them with manna. They drank water from a rock. And they still took him for granted. When there was no way, he made a way, and they took him for granted. When they needed deliverance, he sent Moses, and they took him for granted. When they were attacked, he was a shield and he defended them in battle. He held the sun still and they took him for granted. When they were hungry, he rained down angels' food in the form of manna. They ate it and not one sick nor feeble among them. And they still took him for granted.
When they were thirsty, he made water gush out of a rock and 2 million drank. And they still took him for granted. When they needed direction, he gave it. And when they were lost, he found them. And still, they took him for granted. How dare you take a God like that for granted? But then there's the question: are we any different than they? In this generation, look at the marvelous things that God has done for us. Consider his goodness in our lives. And ask yourselves, "Have we honored him like we should? Have we served him like we ought? Have we submitted to his word? Have we obeyed his commandments? Or have we taken God for granted"?
You see, everything that God did for the children of Israel in Egypt, he did for us through his son, Jesus Christ, when he sent him to the cross. The children of Israel were in bondage and he set them free. We were slaves to sin and he set us free. He freed us from our past. It's forgiven and forgotten. It's under the blood. He freed us from fear: for God has not given us a spirit of fear. He freed us from poverty because, for our sakes, he became poor. He freed us from sickness when, by his stripes, we were healed. He freed us from sorrow: for in his presence is the fullness of joy.
When you realize all of the liberty that was given to you because of what Christ did the day he died in your place, you begin to understand, "Whom the son sets free is free indeed". But what have we done with that freedom? Have we used our freedom in Christ as we should or have we taken it for granted? Have we used our freedom in Christ to overcome the world or have we let the world overwhelm us? Have we done as we should or have we taken him for granted? Have we undervalued his word and taken his blessings lightly? How dare we abuse the privileges of his grace and mercy? Has God been good to us? Yes. Have we been good to God? That's a lot harder question to answer.
When I read Psalms 78, I find these words written in verse 18: it says, "They tested God". Say that with me. "They tested God". They tested God in their hearts, asking for the food of their fancy. Now, when you read on, what you find is that they were asking for meat instead of manna. They were tired of eating perfect food. And whenever they asked God for meat, he sent quail. And while the quail were in their mouth, God killed them. The reason that this was an issue is because what they were doing is turning down what God provided for what they wanted. It's a spiritual issue. It is you submitting to God's will or you trying to manipulate God to do your will.
Rather than eat the manna, which is the bread from heaven that he sent, they wanted the meaty things of this world that they could sink their teeth into. And when they sunk their teeth into it, it killed them. Nothing's changed. Some people say, "Well, where is the wrath of God on the earth today". Look around you, folks. Go read Deuteronomy 28 and start at verse 15. Most of the time, we celebrate verses 1 through 14, because that tells us everything we want to hear. "Blessed in the city and blessed in the field and blessed in your basket and blessed in your bowl and the head and not the tail, and you lend and you never borrow". Yay!
The problem is Deuteronomy 28 says, "If you keep the commandments," those are your blessings. If you disobey the commandments, verse 15 all the way through the end of the chapter tells you what happens. I'll just hit some of the high points and see if you cannot see the wrath of God turned against this world. Deuteronomy 28, it says, "If you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, these curses will come upon you". It says, "Cursed shall you be in the city".
How many of you see the lawlessness in our city? Murder rates are soaring. Law Enforcement is under attack. And police departments are talking about citizens engaging in risky behavior. Let me tell you something, when sitting in your home watching television is risky, the world's just getting a little too dangerous. It says, "Cursed shall you be in the field". "Cursed will you be in your basket and in your bowl". Those are the places that you go for your food. How many of you notice there's a problem in our grocery stores? Verse 23 and 24, it says, "The heavens shall be like bronze and the earth shall be like iron, and God will change your rain to powder and dust".
Do you know how much of the United States right now is experiencing unprecedented drought? Verse 25, "The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out against them one way and flee seven". Deuteronomy 28:25 was fulfilled when you saw the way we left Afghanistan. People read things like this in the Bible, and they say, "God did all that"? No, we did, when we decided to take him for granted.
Verse after verse, line after line, you see the cost of deliberate disobedience. And when you get to the end of the chapter, what I come to the conclusion of is it's not worth it. It's not worth a season of sin to live without the blessings of God in your life. It's not worth all of the heartache that you're going to go through to live without his presence, in whose presence is the fullness of joy. It's not worth the torment to live without his peace. It's not worth the danger to live without his protection. It's not worth it to live without his provision. He has given us a very clear directive. He set before us life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life. Choose life!
Instead, we play "What-if". Church, we're not here to see what we can get away with. We're here to declare his truth to a lost and dying world. We're not here to see if we can camouflage the light. We're here to shine so brightly that a world of darkness knows that there is a father in heaven. He didn't redeem us so that we could act like slaves to sin. He set us free, so that one of us could put 1,000 to flight, and two of us could put 10,000 to flight: so that we could lay hands on the sick and they would recover: so that we would raise the banner of truth and in the mighty name of Jesus, turn this world upside down for Jesus Christ!
Rather than asking the question, "What if God," what would happen if we said, "What if we"? What if we humbled ourselves and prayed? What if we repented of our sin? What if we turned to God and drew near to him? The Bible says that he would hear our prayer and he would heal our land. The reason that people take God for granted is because they don't want to bear the burden of freedom. And believe me, with every gift, comes responsibility. And freedom is a gift. It's not free. It was given to you, spiritual freedom and natural freedom. And with both forms, the spiritual freedom that Jesus Christ gave you and the natural freedom that our forefathers gave us comes this burden of responsibility. And that burden of responsibility is personal responsibility.
You see, the burden of freedom is this: you are in charge of you. You have the responsibility of taking care of you. When you're free, it's not my job to take care of you and it's not your job to take care of me. I'm free to take care of me and you're free to take care of you. It's not the government's job to take care of you. It's your job to take care of you. The responsibility to take care of yourself and those that God has given you to be a steward of. Psalms 78, it talks about personal responsibility. It says that God gave them the word and he told them what to do with it. Tell it to your children and to the children who are yet to be born, so that they would then tell their children.
It was God's desire for the generational succession of the truth to be a matter of personal responsibility in which a father would tell a son, and a son would tell a grandson, and a grandson would tell a great-grandson, so that generation after generation after generation, you would know where your blessings came from. Consider this in our natural world today. Do you know why there is such a strong push to pull down historical markers and to rewrite and revise history? Because if you can erase the past, you can control the future. What did God say in Psalms 78? He said that the generation to come might know and declare the works of the Lord.
Psalms 78 protects your children and your grandchildren from a dictator ever taking their freedom if you will take the personal responsibility to teach them what the Word of God says. Don't outsource it. It's your job. It's your job to make sure that they know. That freedom that Christ gave you came with the responsibility of telling others what Jesus Christ has done in your life. This is what Revelations says: "They overcame him by blood of the lamb and", what? "The word of their testimony". They made it their responsibility to tell others what Jesus did. Whenever you look at this issue of personal responsibility, do you know what it takes to fulfill it? It's a four-letter word, work. No responsibility gets fulfilled because you wished it to. It only gets done when you are willing to do the work that it takes to do it.
Are we going to work through our problems? Are we going to trust in God and stand before tyrants? Are we going to bow before tyrants and forfeit God's blessing? The question is this: how badly do you want to be free? How badly do you want to see God's blessings on your children and your grandchildren? How badly do you want their future to be filled with hope rather than despair? How badly do you want to see God arise in this day and generation and pour out his power without measure? If that's how bad you want it, then what we've got to do is stop taking God for granted and start living by the precepts and the counsel of his word.
Do what this book says. "Draw near to God so he can draw near to you". "Submit to God, resist the devil, and he'll flee from you". "Put on the whole armor of God and take a stand in the evil day". "Fight the good fight of faith," and "Pull down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God". "Endure hardness as a good soldier," because if God be for us, who can be against us? The choice is yours.
Joshua, he lived through every chapter and every verse and every line of Psalms 78. And when you turn in the book of Joshua, you find a moment in Joshua's later years. The young men of Israel have come and they've told Joshua, we don't know how much longer we're going to stick with this Jehovah thing. And Joshua makes it very plain. He says, "Choose you this day whom you will serve". You want to serve the Gods on the other side of the river? That's your choice. You want to do what seems right to you? That's your choice. Then he said, "But for me and my house," I get to choose. "For me in my house, we're going to serve the Lord".
You see, Joshua said, "As for me and my house," I was there in Egypt. I started my life in that brick pit. And I was there when God sent this man, Moses, to deliver us. And I saw the impossible become possible when, suddenly, slaves were turned into soldiers, and we marched right out of Egypt after the Passover. I was there when we got to the Red Sea and we didn't know how we were going to get across it. And he pushed the water back left and he pushed it back right and we walked through on dry ground and then saw Pharaoh drown in what we had just come through. I was there when we were thirsty and the rock gushed the water. I was there when we were hungry and he fed us with the manna. I was there when the enemies attacked us and he held the sun still. I was there for all of it!
So, you choose for you and I'll choose for me. As for me and my house, God's been too good to me. God's poured out too many blessings on me. When you didn't know how to pay the bill, God made a way where there seemed to be no way. When the doctor diagnosed you, God reached down and he touched you. When your family was falling apart, his hands wrapped him around you and he pulled you back together. When you were losing your mind, he gave you peace that surpassed all understanding. When you didn't know what to do, he gave you the answer of how to get through it.
Whenever you were lost and all alone, he found you and he was the friend that was closer than a brother. When you needed his touch, his hand was there. When you needed joy, he sent it. When you needed peace, he sent his presence. Child of God, if he's been good to you, you can't give up on him! I don't want you to take God for granted. So, I just want you to take a moment and lift your hands. And I want you to open your mouth and I want you to thank God for his goodness. Thank him for his blessings. Thank him for your health and for your strength. Thank him for your home. Thank him for your family. Thank him that he has a plan for you. Thank him that his word and his promises are true.
Father, thank you. Thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, and what he has done in our lives. Thank you for your Holy Spirit that's in this house. Thank you for your power and your grace and your love divine. Thank you that standing here in this room, we are in your presence where there is fullness of joy. Thank you for lifting burdens. Thank you for destroying yokes. Thank you for setting captives free. Thank you for defeating the enemy. Thank you that when we call upon you, you hear us and you show us great and mighty things that we know not.
Father, we give you thanks and we give you praise. We give you glory and we give you honor. And we ask that you would forgive us for the times that we've taken you for granted: when we've looked lightly at your blessings and we haven't given you the praise that you're worthy of. We ask, father, that not only would you forgive us, but as we humble ourselves, you would heal our land. Heal our land. We take responsibility for the gift that you've given. And we will not let the gospel light go out. But we will shine brighter than ever before so that our children and our grandchildren will know who Jesus is and what he has done, marvelous things. We worship you, Lord. We give you thanks and we give you praise this day, in Jesus' name. All of God's children said, praise the Lord.
Father, we give you thanks and we give you praise. We give you glory and we give you honor. And we ask that you would forgive us for the times that we've taken you for granted: when we've looked lightly at your blessings and we haven't given you the praise that you're worthy of. We ask, father, that not only would you forgive us, but as we humble ourselves, you would heal our land. Heal our land. We take responsibility for the gift that you've given. And we will not let the gospel light go out. But we will shine brighter than ever before so that our children and our grandchildren will know who Jesus is and what he has done, marvelous things. We worship you, Lord. We give you thanks and we give you praise this day, in Jesus' name. All of God's children said, praise the Lord.