A Promise, A Problem, God’s Provision

Kids

I hope you all have something special planned to make sure your mom’s know just how much you love and appreciate them.

They do so much for you and they love you more than you can know. I just want to share something with you quickly because there is something God says you need to do if you trust God and trust your parents.

Ephesians 6:1–3 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.””

All of that just means listen to your parents. Obey them. They are trying to teach you about the world, and more importantly, the God who made this world. You can trust them, not because they’re perfect, or they know everything, but you can trust them because they trust the Lord.

When we say we want to honor our mothers this mothers day, that means we want them to know that we love and appreciate them more than our favorite book or toy or movie, or for the older kids, even more than your smart phone. While we take today as a special day to celebrate our moms, lets make a special effort to honor them every day.

One last thing before you go. I want you all to tell your mom’s how much you love them, and to make it less embarrassing, we will all say I love you mom together as a church.

Mother’s Day

As we honor our mothers in the room, I just want to take a moment to consider just how much these women do. When my mom was doing the raising, I didn’t have a clue, just how many dirty diapers, sleepless nights, or stress beyond measure that I cost to raise. It wasn’t until Marissa and I had two little boys of our own that I realized what was actually involved in the raising of children, and we have so many more seasons to navigate.

For everyone in this room, I just want to affirm you that the work that your mother did for you, that you have done for your children, or that you hope to one day do for your children, it is Holy work.

Psalm 139:13 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”

God, in his mercy, chose to include us in the work that he did on the 6th day in Genesis, that He called very good, in creating man. God has made us co-creators with Him, and knits together a new human in the womb of the woman.

Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

The work that you do in raising your children, both physically and spiritually, is Holy work. The world tells us that this is the work that you should consider not doing because there are other things that make you happier. The world says that you can be even happier if you just have some more time to do you.

Raising children is one of the most self sacrificial works that we can do, but man, the earthly reward alone is worth every bit of it. And for us, who have put our faith and trust in Jesus, our reward is also a heavenly one.

And before we move to the last scripture I have for our mothers, I want to make sure that we give proper honor to all of the women in our church. I want to make sure that as a body, we embrace fully God’s design in creating two crystal clear sexes, two clearly distinguished genders, two different roles, yet equal before God. Equal in righteousness, honor, goodness, significance, importance. All unified in one body of Christ, with the same Holy Spirit indwelling us, in worship and in service to the same Holy God. Today, we lift up biblical femininity, and for that, what better place to turn than to Proverbs 31.

Proverbs 31:25–29 “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.””

Biblical femininity is more than just having children. That is not where your worth before the Lord comes from. God has designed each of you with a very specific role. The culmination of that role is to be a spiritual mother to whoever it is that the Lord has in your life. That may be your children, but it is also those who you disciple. Those who the Lord has put in your life that are seeking the wisdom of a Godly woman. When we have a treasure as great as the Kingdom of Heaven, we have a Heavenly reward awaiting us when we share of it’s goodness.

Mazevo ladies, your church appreciates your willingness to love and to serve us. I personally appreciate each of you so much, that I want to make sure I take advantage of having many of the mothers who are often serving in children’s ministry here by serving you up a feast, back from where we left off in Exodus 17.

A Promise

Before read our text, I want to review something integral to the entirety of the bible. When we went through Hebrews together, we talked about faith and what it is.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Faith is this kind of complete trust. The other thing that we talked about in Hebrews was the object of our faith. Is it strong enough to hold the weight of reality?

Crane/Climber Story

The object of our faith is Yahweh, and the promise that he made.

Genesis 17:7 “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”

Revelation 21:3–7 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

This promise is surely one that we can put our whole trust and faith in. One that will never fail, that we never need to question or doubt. If you believe that you are a sinner in need of God’s grace, if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for your sins, and if you believe that on the third day He rose again, ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and you say, that Jesus is my Lord, brothers and sisters, grab hold of that unbreakable scarlet thread that traces its way through more than 40 verses from Genesis through Revelation. I will be their God, and they will be My people.

The reason I spend so much time on the promise, is because we find ourselves in the part of the Exodus story where God is testing Israel. What kind of test is it? It is a test of their trust.

Exodus 17

v.1-7

v.1 Rephidim -> Rephidah(Hebrew) -> Rest

v.2 Quarreled -> Complain

v.6 What patience our Heavenly Father has with us when we lack faith

1 Corinthians 10:1–4 “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”

What did the pillar of cloud do?

Led

Protected from Egypt(Ex. 14)

Shaded from the Sun

What did the pillar of fire do?

Led

Provided Light

These things were visible signs of an invisible God that represented His presence

v.7 Massah -> Test/ Meribah -> Quarrel

Notice how Moses summarizes their test or doubt

v.8-16

v. 12 God has called Moses to something that he cannot do on his own

Rather than picking someone else who is stronger, God chooses to use exactly the same person, and provides exactly what Moses needs to do what He has called him to do.

We see the family and friend of Moses come to his aid

We see the humility of Moses to accept the help

v. 15 How do we respond when we see God’s provision?

Worship

Jehova Nissi

Conclusion

In this chapter, we get two stories that have the same premise. The people are called on this whole wilderness journey to trust God. These two stories represent what happens when they don’t trust, and when they do. Notice, both stories are centered around a problem, and end with God providing for His people.

When we view these stories through the lens of promise, problem, provision, we can see pretty clearly the difference. In the first, rather than trusting God and passing the test, they test God. It is purely the condition of the heart that is different. In both, God provides, but only in one does Israel test God. Only in one do we lift of the name of Yahweh as our banner and bring Him glory.