Honey from the Rock...
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Honey from the Rock
Honey from the Rock
Introduction to the Song…
13 “Oh that My people would listen to Me,
That Israel would walk in My ways!
14 “I would quickly subdue their enemies
And turn My hand against their adversaries.
15 “Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him,
And their time of punishment would be forever.
16 “But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
Oh that My people would listen to Me…
God yearns for His people to listen… to remember… to hear His voice…
And to obey! Look at what He says,
13 “Oh that My people would listen to Me,
That Israel would walk in My ways!
Sunday School this morning
In society today there is another pandemic sweeping the nation. It is called anxiety....
I expect this from the world, their hope is only in their own success, their own strength, their own abilities, but the Church should be different!
We have hope in a life eternal, in a God unstoppable, in a purpose unbreakable… So why is it the Church deals with as much anxiety as the world?
I think the key is found here in this passage. God wants what is best for us and His cry in this psalm is:
“13) Oh that my people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in my ways!”
Listen and obey… Listen and obey… Listen and obey…
I think the reason the Church is falling into a secular outlook on life that is dependent on their own strength is the same reason Israel did the same time and time again throughout the Old Testament.... They fail to listen and obey…
Obedience is a result of Godly interactions…
You can’t expect to grow in a deeper relationship with Him unless you first engage with Him.
Listen and Obey.
The Church has stopped listening! Biblical illiteracy within the church is at an all time high.
How can we listen if we don’t know His voice? How can we learn His voice if we are not in His word?
He’s been speaking from the Beginning…
Adam and Eve in the Garden…
Listen and Obey…
Look what He says He would do…
14 “I would quickly subdue their enemies
And turn My hand against their adversaries.
15 “Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him,
And their time of punishment would be forever.
16 “But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
God yearns to bless us, but blessing come through empowered obedience!
Listen and Obey!
I think anxiety could be crushed in the Church if we were listening!
We need to listen and remember!
He’s Jehovah Jireh, the God our provider…
Reminded of the widow woman in 2 Kings 4 when she comes to Elisha…
Reminded of the 5000 in Matt 14 that Jesus fed with a few fish and loaves…
He’s a provider!
27 “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?
28 “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,
29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
30 “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!
Here’s what happens, we get so caught up in the daily grind that we forget to listen and engage in His word!
What I find in myself is that my stress level is directly counter to the amount of time I spend in reading and prayer.
We must listen in order to obey....
I talk a lot about physical provision, but He’s a provider of more than posessions…
He’s the provider of peace..
33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Paul calls Him the Lord of Peace…
3 “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust is built… We have to spend time engaging with God and His word…
The more we trust Him, the less we will find ourselves battling anxiety…
5 Thus says the Lord,
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 “For he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt without inhabitant.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord
And whose trust is the Lord.
8 “For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit.
AND IT WILL NOT BE ANXIOUS in a year of drought!
Even the time of drought, God hid Elijah along side a brook and fed him via the raven express…
Because Elijah had listened to the word of the Lord and obeyed His command…
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Listen and Obey… Listen and Obey…
He’s the provider of sustenance…
He’s the provider of peace…
He’s the provider of victory!
I think about Gideon in Judges 6, threshing wheat in a wine press… He was afraid! but God showed up and said…
12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.”
He was hiding for fear of the enemy… He didn’t have it in mind to fight… But God promised victory…
14 The Lord looked at him and said, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”
15 He said to Him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”
16 But the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.”
Skipping ahead to the end of the story:
19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.
20 When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”
21 Each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran, crying out as they fled.
He’s the Victorious warrior!
He is unmatched, unequaled, unrivaled…
He’s never lost a battle! He wears the robe of victory…
Explain train of his robe in Isaiah 6…
1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.
He cannot fail… He cannot be defeated.. His challengers have all melted away in the fervent heat of his wrath…
He’s God the provider… The provider of sustenance… the provider of peace… the provider of victory…
Who then can challenge the people of God?
13 “Oh that My people would listen to Me,
That Israel would walk in My ways!
14 “I would quickly subdue their enemies
And turn My hand against their adversaries.
15 “Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him,
And their time of punishment would be forever.
16 “But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
This is the answer to anxiety for the people of God…
LISTEN AND OBEY!
I think we need a testimony service to just sit around and remind each other of the works God has done on our behalf…
How easily we forget, but we are to be like the tree planted by the water who is not anxious even in times of drought…
Our provision doesn’t come from the world… Our peace passes understanding because it doesn’t come from anything the world can giive…
And if the world didn’t give it to me.. the world can’t take it away…
He’s Our provision and our peace and victory…
Why should I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid?