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The Lord raises His children right

If you are a native to the south and have been around anyone with any age, you’ve heard the word raisin’.

Not raisin’ as in the little, shriveled up remains of a dried grape, I’m talking about raisin’ as in “That child got good raisin’.”

I’m sure if you read Rhonda Rich’s column in the Jones County News, Ms. Rhonda has used that phrase a time or two.

As I remember it being used, you’d hear it in one or two ways.

If the child spoke to you politely, referred to you as “Sir,” or “Ma’am” and said “Please” and “Thank you,”

Someone would say, “That child has had good raisin’.”

Conversely, if the child was disrespectful or rude, you’d hear, “That boy didn’t get no raisin’.”

You’ll notice something in both of those.

While the child was held accountable for how they acted, the ultimate accountability rested on mom and dad.

This is sound biblical thinking actually.

It’s based on a phrase I’ve heard a lot of recently - it’s creation order.

It’s the order of how the Lord created things.

1 John 3:1 says: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are...”

If we are His children and He is our Father, then it is His responsibility to raise us right.

Our text today is a wonderful expression of a good Father raising His children right.

Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Exodus 16.

We’ll be in the entire chapter although we won’t read it all today - I trust you’ve either done that before you got here or you’ll do it when you get home.

And to all of our children

The Lord gave you a mom and a dad to raise you.

Some of you may live with someone other than your original mom or dad, but God still provided someone to be a mom and a dad to you.

That’s by God’s design.

When we get to the 10 commandments, you’re going to hear God tell you to “Honor your Father and your Mother.”

It’s because God gave you your mom and dad as a gift to give you good raisin’.

I know that to you they are old, they are old-fashioned and it feels like their number 1 priority is to take all of the fun out of life.

But you know in your heart that’s not true.

God gave you your mom and dad to love you, to teach you and to protect you until you are finally old enough and know enough to make it on your own.

And even then, you’ll still need your mom and dad.

Kids, the three words you’ll be listening for today is People, Word and Lord.

Everyone, let’s hear now the Word of the Lord from Exodus 16.

Exodus 16:1–12 ESV

They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.” Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’ ” And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

I was listening to the Knowing Faith podcast, when Jen Wilkins said, “Exodus is the story of Yahweh teaching His people how to follow Him.”

And in that moment, I got it.

My heavenly Father has been raising me ever since He saved me.

The theme of the entire Bible can be summed up with a verse from Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 30:22 ESV

And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

There is nothing more to life than that. Really.

I belong to Jesus and Jesus belongs to me.

1 John 3:1 “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are...”

God is our Father and we are His children - He is raising up.

Ah, Pastor Randy, we know that - and you do - but have you considered

When you were saved, you knew nothing of Jesus.

Now I know, many of us had been in Sunday school and Church all of our lives.

We learned so many Bible stories and we learned how to act

We learned how to act as people - people - told us how to act.

But it wasn’t until we were saved and the Holy Spirit entered our hearts and minds that we started to realize that we what we were learning from people

Was actually coming from God.

And the older in the faith we grew, the more we started weighing what men and women were teaching us against the Word of God

The more we started discerning the Lords’ teaching.

The more we wanted to be in a body of believers who listened as a body for the Word of the Lord.

Who wanted to do what they heard the Lord say.

The story of the Exodus is our story.

They were in bondage in Egypt.

We were in bondage to our sin.

The Lord through His sovereign will decided it was time to save the Israelites.

The Lord through His sovereign will decided it was time to save us.

When He saved Israel, He began to teach these people who had heard of Him who He really was.

When He saved us, He did the same thing.

We had heard of him, and yet He started teaching us how to be His children.

So how did He teach them?

Exodus 16:2 “And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,”

They grumbled because they were hungry and they said some really dumb things.

“If we were back in Egypt, at least we’d die with a full belly.”

Did they want to go back to Egypt?

Of course not.

They were baby Yahweh followers.

And here they are, slap dab in the middle of nowhere and there is no food to get.

They grumbled, just like a child does.

Let a new born get hungry and what happens?

Let a 2 year old get hungry and what happens?

Let an adult - where do you think the word “hangry” came from?

I’m angry and grumpy and hard to get along with because I’m hungry.

The Israelites were hangry and they were hangry with God and that was a good thing

Because it became a teachable moment.

Exodus 16:4 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.”

We don’t like the word test - nobody wants to be tested.

So swap that word for the word prove - a few of your translations will use that word.

“That I may PROVE them, whether they will walk in my law or not.”

Well, the Lord being omniscient, He already knows what they are going to do - so who is He proving it to?

Let me answer that this way - have you ever done anything that you disappointed you because you did something that you knew God would not approve?

Do you think maybe - possibly - that what happened to you was the Lord just “proved you, whether you would walk in His law or not?”

Your failure didn’t surprise the Lord - and His Holy Spirit reminded you of His law.

And when you remembered, you were ashamed and disappointed because you knew you could do better.

And that taught you something, right?

The Lord proved you.

The Lord is raising us.

So you know the story of the Lord giving them the manna in the wilderness.

Two little tidbits to help you win at trivia sometime.

Do you know what the word “manna” means?

It means, “What is it?”

They didn’t give it a new name, they simply called it what they said when they saw it the first time.

“What is it?”

"Hey hon, you hungry.”

“How about boiling us up a pot of what is it?”

Second little tidbit - there is an idiomatic express in here that gets lost on us.

Exodus 16:31 “Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.”

When Moses said “the taste of it was like wafers made with honey,” what he was saying was, “it was the best thing we had ever put in our mouths.”

So think of it like this.

What is it? I don’t know but it’s the best thing I’ve ever eaten.

The Lord told them to collect just enough for one day - that was about 1/2 gallon per person per day.

And we’re real hard on them because some kept extra overnight and it spoiled - got worms in it and soured.

But let’s cut them some slack - they are kids learning from Dad.

Forever, they had to store food - if you have a garden you know, when the last squash plant dies for the summer, you’d better have frozen some squash or your out.

They were doing what they had always done - they were trying to take care of themselves.

And the Lord said no - it doesn’t work that way anymore.

I’m going to teach you who takes care of whom.

And then He did this: Exodus 16:23–25 “he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’ ” So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field.”

Now we are back to creation order.

What did God do on the seventh day?

He rested.

Now think with me - Did He rest from everything?

No He didn’t.

Listen to the what He did: Genesis 2:1-3

Genesis 2:1–3 ESV

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

He rested from all of His creative work.

He still held the stars in their places.

He still provided for the man and animals He had created.

The universe didn’t split off into a million billion pieces because God took a breather.

No.

The Lord rested from all of the creative work He had done and He enjoyed it.

What does this say to us?

Well, it tells us that all of those folks in Jesus’ day that had rules telling you exactly how many steps you could take in a day before you were “working” didn’t get it.

The Israelites still had to milk their cows and goats.

They still had to feed them and water them.

They still had to maintain the order of life.

But they were not allowed to indulge in their creative work of providing for themselves.

Instead, they were to take the time on the seventh day to reflect on the week and to remember just Who it was who was taking care of them.

You know how we are.

We get to working so hard and we get so focused on being successful

And I don’t just mean monetarily successful, I mean we want to do it right - we take pride in our work as we should.

Work is a gift from God - we should strive to do our best.

But if we work hard enough and long enough, we start forgetting who gives us our success and we start believe that our success depends solely on our efforts.

I know some of you are under the gun.

You are good people and you are working hard and a lot rides on your decisions and your hard work.

And the world had changed.

The labor market is tight.

But creation order has not changed.

And I can’t give you a definitive “this is what you need to do” in your case

But I can tell you this - the Lord told His entire people Exodus 16:29–30 “See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day.”

Let’s be very clear of what we are hearing.

What spoils overnight on days 1 - 5 takes 2 days to spoil on day 6.

The Lord made a miracle happen within a miracle - the manna was miracle enough, on day 6 it is a double miracle.

The Lord takes care of His people.

Do you remember how verse 12 ends? Exodus 16:12 ““...Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ””

I’m encouraging you to pray to the Lord and let Him lead you and prove to you that He is Yahweh your God.

That Yahweh is your provider.

And you figure out a way to have a Sabbath day for the Lord.

Here’s the big takeaway for me and I pray it is for you.

I know this is silly but I told the Lord that I sure hope He sees me with the Christian maturity of at least a 6 year old.

I’m not in bad company thinking this.

Origen was one of the early church fathers - he lived in the late 100 - early 200’s ad

And Origen said the Bible was “baby talk for an infant human race.”

There is so much we need to learn.

I miss Stanley Jones.

He and I used to commiserate that we were today years old when we learned something new

And I said all of the time, when we meet Jesus face to face, we’re going to be so wrong on so many things.

But we said then and God’s word from Exodus says so now - it’s O.K.

The Father expects no more of me than this.

He’s raising me - and it’s really good raisin’.

My dear brothers and sisters,

Two things.

Don’t think too highly of yourself than you ought - not a single one of us is all that and a bag of chips.

And number two, don’t be too hard on yourself either.

We are but babes in Christ and our Father is teaching us.

Do you think that’s why Jesus gave us communion?

He knew we are but babies and we’d need something to help us remember Him and what He taught us?

The Lord has provided our food that keeps us alive since the dawn of creation.

So Jesus took that food and added some additional meaning to it.

That bread that gives life became the bread of life.

In Deuteronomy, Moses will remind the Israelites Deuteronomy 8:3

Deuteronomy 8:3 ESV

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

That sounds familiar right?

It’s because Jesus quotes it at the beginning of His ministry.

Jesus is the very Word of God

He saves us.

He binds us together.

He raises us giving us food and drink for our bodies

And food and drink for our souls.

As we approach the Lord’s Table this morning, let us remember the Apostle Paul’s teaching

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Jesus is coming again.

Not for you and me - but for us - for His body, the church.

Let us pray.

pray

If you are a Christ follower who was baptized after you were saved, you are invited to join with us at the Lord’s table.

Everyone please exit your pew to the left and proceed to the station closest to you.

If you are gluten free, come to ______ table.

When you are served, you may eat the elements then or take them to your seat - whichever you want.

When everyone is served, we’ll sing a song and go to our homes.

So now, will you stand and come to the Lord’s table.