Provision of God
Notes
Transcript
DEDUCTIVE SERMON: Manna
DEDUCTIVE SERMON: Manna
BULLET: God’s providence is relationship.
Introduction:
Illustration: Something that I have been working on recently is catching up with people, intentionally text in old friends, classmates, and especially family members.
Some conversations felt awkward because it had been years since I last spoken to them.
The most awkward conversations that I had were when I had to call someone I hadn’t talked in awhile to get something from them. It felt so disingenuous!
My heart tells me that it is only right to catch up with them, see how their life is, then it becomes okay to ask them for 1000 dollars.
The method that I just described is relationship leads to providence. However, God seems to work in an opposite way. He provides in order to build relationship. He provides so that you get to know Him. The thing is, it isn’t awkward, because that exactly what He wants to do for us, He wants to provide and have a relationship with us.
God providence was personal. (vs 3-4, 6–12)
Context and introduce passage:
(narrative approach) The Israelites have just left Egypt and have seen God control the laws of nature. They have seen the impossible. The chapter before was a song proclaiming God’s deliverance out of Egypt. Then came the first miracle, bitter waters made sweet. It is just the beginning of the Israelite journey through the wilderness.
Read Ex 16:2-4
The grumbling begins: the first official complaint recorded in the journey to the Promised Land.
Wilderness symbolized the testing of the nation, God’s intention was to guide them into an understanding of trusting in Him.
Read Ex 16:5-8
“Glory of the Lord” God’s divine action that is soon to come (manna).
Word study: (יָצָא)
“I the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt”
God has REDEEMED the people of Israel. Reiterated 4 times in the Exodus Redemption, Moses is making it clear within Scripture that God has miraculously saved Israel. As the book of Exodus unravels the disobedience of the Israel nation, we see a more beautiful picture, God providing, saving, guiding, and loving this nation.
Deut 4:37 God personally brings the people out of Egypt, through the pillar of fire and cloud.
Going back to verse 2-4 the people are complaining to God, however, God isn’t condemning the Israelites for their complaining, instead He is quick to supply, a plan was implemented to train and test the worn-out faith of the Israelites.
His main focus was to draw near to the Israelites, throughout the entirety of the wilderness. Because His focus was personal, God was going to use providence to show how faithful and personal He is to the people.
God is a personal God, and we see it displayed in Exodus, but also we see how personal Jesus was during His time here on earth.
2 Main Points:
God was patient with the Israelites because He knew their faith was growing.
When dealing with young minds, we ought to be patient, because they are growing.
God was providential towards the Israelites in order to prove that He could be trusted.
When dealing with young minds, we too must become a resource of counseling, safety, spirituality, and encouragement. (reference to prev. sermon)
Illustration: A young father struggles with patience.
As humans, it’s easy to stress.
Philippians 1:5-6
because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ
TRANSITION: Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God employs these gifts to our ministries, to our churches, and in our families. The Holy Spirit gives us patience, wisdom, and reason to care and nurture our Pathfinders. When we embody the same qualities, we can help our Pathfinders develop a foundation of trust in God.
Because God’s providence is a relationship, a personal relationship.
2. God providence is fulfilling. (vs 15-22)
Read Ex 16:15
Word study explanation MANNA (brief)
The name of this word isn’t necessarily a distinctive, unique name, it simply means “What is this?”
The name doesn’t bring the meaning and juice behind this word. Instead, it’s the purpose of Manna that makes it Manna.
Read Ex 16:16-21
Manna fulfilled the proper necessities to completion.
It fulfilled their urgent physical starvation.
Reading back in verse Ex 16:18, they were fed to satisfaction. It was the perfect amount of what they could eat.
It fulfilled their urgent spiritual starvation.
Some lacked trust in the Lord, hence in Ex 16:20, the manna they stored became rotten with worms and stank. Skepticism of God’s continual providence filled their mind, until the next morning when they saw the manna again. It continued for 40 years, trusting that God would provide food for the next day.
Reiteration in Illustration (Country Buffet): The Israelites ate the perfect amount for the day, and would have nothing left over. Some decided to save some for the next day, just in case. This produced a test for the people—because they had no more food left, will God provide again the next day? Is He really going to provide?
At the root of the physical hunger was actually a spiritual hunger. God’s main focus for the nation was to trust His Will.
Deuteronomy 8:3 “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.”
“Man shall not live by bread alone”
In other words, we aren’t need of materials to live, instead “man man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Our innate need isn’t anything physical, but everything spiritual. This desire was taught to the Israelites as they were learning to trust God, especially to trust that God will always provide.
Application:
In our lives, how often are we searching for material provisions? All the time. How important is it to maintain financial stability? Very important. Should we strive to live a stable life? Yes we should. Is it everything we’re looking for? No.
Our search for purpose cuts much deeper than the physical world, according to Scripture and according to the miracle of Manna. Our purpose is destined for so much more.
I love how …
C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity: "Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably, earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing."
This quote is beautiful because it states what our true desire is: to be in heaven with our Creator. That’s it. That’s our fulfillment. Our physical bodies yearn for bread, but our whole being yearns for the bread of life.
TRANSITION: Our spiritual hunger is of utmost importance. Nothing of this physical world can provide that fulfillment. God provides that fulfillment through His Word. Within our Pathfinder programs, we must continue to focus the utmost important aspect of any youth and young adult ministry: spiritual fulfillment.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Because God’s providence is a relationship, a fulfilling relationship. God had a unique, fulfilling agenda, and this last point covers the most intimate part of relationship.
God providence highlighted quality time. (vs 22-30)
Illustration: The last Sabbath of Camporee didn’t feel like Sabbath.
Read Ex 16:22-30
Tracking the history of this passage, the Israelites still weren’t accustomed to rest on the Sabbath.
In verse 27, we see a clear indication that there people who were restless and continued to search for provision. They still struggled with the idea of rest, which is absolutely fascinating because of their clear need for it due to the oppression they experience before.
It was a work mindset.
It was a lack of trust, but it was still being developed.
The still haven’t realized the purpose for it: a memorial and sacred day.
The Sabbath is described in a combined definition. According to the study of the word sabat, it means “remembering” or “paying attention to” while being accompanied by external acts.
The Sabbath that is given to the Israelites here both involves and internal remembrance and an external remembrance.
Internal - It was so that they could remember or pay attention to the fact that God had not only created them, but saved them. Ex 20 explains the commandments as a reminder of liberation. Deut 5 explains the commandments as a reminder of a personal covenant made to them. This highlights the relational aspect of Sabbath, a time to remember how wonderful God was to the Israelites, and also to us.
External - The specific Hebrew word for rest means “halt from work.” It represented the external action to stop everything, and remember. The external idea behind Sabbath correlates with the internal purpose, stopping everything to remember that our God loves us. The external action of stopping helps us hone in the mindset that God is for us.
Application: It’s a weekly memorial that we keep today as Adventists. It’s a time when we can put a pause on work, school, stress, and focus on the most important person in our lives.
The Israelites were getting accustomed to trusting that God was going to take care of them, thus the Sabbath was implemented to develop that trust and fellowship with the Lord.
As busy as we may get, with our families, personal lives, and Pathfinders, God calls us to have that same priority: to remember that He’s got everything under control. Therefore, we rest in Him. We prioritize Him.
Illustration: The Jewish boy Mortakai who found safety in the arms of his rabbi.
Transition: Sabbath gives us the opportunity to hear God’s heartbeat. How are we prioritizing stopping and resting in the Lord on Sabbath today? In our Pathfinder programs? Are the things that come to your mind that stop you from hearing God’s heartbeat?
God provided the Sabbath to create quality time with His people, because He wanted to be with them in relationship.
Conclusion:
Brainstorm:
This text was written in order for the Israelites to remember God’s providence and care. It was a record of faithfulness, one of many divine actions and theophanies to come. It was written so that they could recall and believe, especially during this time when their faith was weak. God provided support and evidence to strengthen their lives to reconcile with the LORD, after a long period of oppression and separation.
The human conditions that we ministered to were of unbelief, developing faith, and necessity of Sabbath.
Together, these points specify to one specific truth: God provides. God provides food to the hungry. God provides rest for the restless. God provides trust to unbelief.
With the ancient audience, the Israelites, we share the similarities of the BULLET. We are hungry, we are need of Sabbath rest, we must now how to deal with unbelief and developing faith.
This passage should invite us to remember that God is longing to be with us and His providence is evidence for that.
This passage points us to Christ because of the reason He died, to bring us back to Him in the Heavenly Kingdom, the true Promised Land.
Application: God wasn’t fed up with the Israelites because of their grumbling, instead He understood their current spiritual status in order to prove His character. The issue wasn’t their complaining, it was why they were complaining. They needed to learn how to trust God again.
As a Pathfinder director, teacher, and even TLT, we connect with young people with young faith. Our own spiritual lives continue to grow of course, but in our churches, we are put in positions that develop the spiritual lives of adolescents. It’s an important role, crucial even.
However, it’s one of the greatest opportunities to share the gospel with young minds. To share the wonderful character of God in the Bible, to share our testimonies on how God has brought us out from our own Egypts, in every case, working with undeveloped spiritual lives means we have the opportunity to build their foundation on solid rock, JESUS.
