Unplug Trust that God will Provide Enough

Two weeks ago I shared about the two different kinds of work. We see work before the fall of man and work after the fall of man.

I thought about this and recently I was mowing my yard and Mason Munier was hanging out with Colten at the house. Mason is 11 years old and owns his own mowing business.

Colten and Mason came out on the front porch and I shut the mower off. I wanted to have some fun so I said to Mason what do you think of my mowing job. He just shrugged his shoulders.

I said come on man give me some feedback. What do you think? I said are my lines straight enough, how is my cut height on the grass? I said I think it looks pretty good myself, I think my lines are on point and my grass height is just right. Look how lush it looks.

He shrugged his shoulders. I then asked him would you hire me? His eyes lit up and he answered my question with a question by saying can you weed eat? I kinda frowned and said yes. He said if you are working for me you won’t be pushing a mower you will be running the weed eater. I laughed.

For me, that is the difference of the work in the garden and the work after the fall. Work in the garden is pushing the mower making the yard look good and work after the fall is weed eating.

Financial Trust

It is interesting when hard work meets TRUST especially in our finances.

In my lifetime, it has always felt that if the church finances are doing well then my family finances are struggling or if my personal finances are doing well then the church would be struggling.

It is easy for my hard work attitude to begin to believe that I can make all things work out. I can work harder and find more ways to provide.

I will never forget a time in early in the life of Bridge of Faith. I was working hard. I was trying to make ends meet. Payroll was quickly approaching and when I looked at the numbers we did not have enough money in the bank to cover payroll.

I think I might have sent a prayer request out to some friends because I did not know how or what to pray so I just sent a message to some friends and asked them to pray for us because I didn’t think we would make payroll. Our staff was not very big at this point either.

I was desperate.

Neil Franks from FBC Branson called me and said where are you at. I said I am at my house. He said I am headed your way and you stay there.

He pulled in my driveway and I went out to greet him. He then said I heard about the need you have to make payroll. He said here is a check and it was between 5-10K. He said make sure you make payroll and then he said if you get here again then you call me and give me a heads up.

As Neil left, I just set there in awe and tears ran down my face as the Lord reminded me over and over again that I am provider and I will provide.

Sabbath (שַׁבָּת, shabbath):

It means that you STOP or to cease from

In Genesis 1 we read of the account of God’s creation. We see the beginning and the end. We also see this rhythm of work and rest.

Then all of this leads to day 7 where God Shabbaths that is he Stops and ceases from work.

He blesses day 7 and makes it Holy or fills it with His presence. God creates then he leads to the ultimate day 7 where he says just rest and enjoy.

Adam and Eve mess this up by disobeying the Lord. We are then introduced to the second kind of work where you will labor and toil over the earth.

Exodus 16 set up

In the beginning of the book of Exodus it parallels the creation narrative. Pharoah comes to power and the Israelites are multiplying. The Lord is blessing them.

The Egyptians get nervous about this multiplication and so they start to suppress the Israelites (God’s chosen people).

This cause the Israelites to grow even more. In order to stop them, Pharoah orders for all Israelite male babies to be killed.

So you have darkness, death and disorder. The creation story starts with disorder and then God brings order to the Earth. and leads to the ultimate 7th day rest.

In Exodus, God raises up a boy through water (Moses) to deliver his people out of slavery.

10 plagues happen and then finally Pharoah lets the people of God go.

He delivers them through the Read Sea on dry ground in this amazing account.

What happens next

Exodus 15:22–26 HCSB

22 Then Moses led Israel on from the Red Sea, and they went out to the Wilderness of Shur. They journeyed for three days in the wilderness without finding water. 23 They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter—that is why it was named Marah. 24 The people grumbled to Moses, “What are we going to drink?” 25 So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he threw it into the water, the water became drinkable. He made a statute and ordinance for them at Marah and He tested them there. 26 He said, “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in His eyes, pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am Yahweh who heals you.”

Immediately God’s chosen people start to complain. Who can blame them. They have been 3 days without water in the dessert.

God provided for them crossing the Red Sea but it is so easy to forget what God has done in the past. For them, it was 3 days.

Exodus 16:1–3 HCSB

1 The entire Israelite community departed from Elim and came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt. 2 The entire Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!”

Sat: b’shevteno

(beh-sheev-teh-nu) the three letters of Shabbath are in this word.

When we shabbat by pots of meat in Egypt.

We ate bread to fullness or completeness

Sheba or Seven:

Seven means fullness or completeness

So they see the wilderness and this wondering as the opposite of the 7th day rest. They also view Egypt as Eden.

We sat around meat pots and were full and complete.

If you read chapter 1 of Exodus you will see that this is not the case. They were not experiencing Shabbath or fullness and completeness.

How easy it is for our minds to get so twisted and believe that the hard labor of Egypt or Slavery of Egypt for these Israelites is the goal of life. As Steve said last week, Don’t Miss the Point.

The portrayal is that humans create the very opposite of what God wants for us but our expectations and desires become so bent and distorted that we can look back on terrible things as the best thing we ever had.

Tim Mackey

Exodus 16:4–5 HCSB

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow My instructions. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.”

In the realm of death God is going to provide bread from Heaven.

He is giving abundance for you that you don’t have to create in the middle of the dessert or death. He is providing for you daily for your needs.

Notice the pattern that he is going to provide it in.

Where does this pattern come from?

Genesis 1.

On the 6th day, you gather twice as much. So that on the 7th day you don’t go out and gather but you trust that God has given you enough on the 6th day to last on the 7th day.

God has provided enough for you that you can rest for a day

Just rest and enjoy it

Exodus 16:6–7 HCSB

6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites: “This evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt; 7 in the morning you will see the Lord’s glory because He has heard your complaints about Him. For who are we that you complain about us?”

Verses 9-14

The Lord’s Glory appears and says in the morning I will provide bread from Heaven for you

Quail comes out of heaven covers the camp. There is a layer of dew on the camp and when the dew is lifted there in the desert or the wilderness is these thin wafers or bread from heaven.

Exodus 16:15 HCSB

15 When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, “What is it?” because they didn’t know what it was. Moses told them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.

Manna: What is it?

The Lord had given you to eat or I give you to for food.

Same phrase as Genesis 1 and the 6th day. I give this to you for food.

Exodus 16:16–18 HCSB

16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather as much of it as each person needs to eat. You may take two quarts per individual, according to the number of people each of you has in his tent.’ ” 17 So the Israelites did this. Some gathered a lot, some a little. 18 When they measured it by quarts, the person who gathered a lot had no surplus, and the person who gathered a little had no shortage. Each gathered as much as he needed to eat.

Jim has expressed to me on several occasions that we don’t understand it but God provides what you need for where you are.

In other parts of the world, people live on a lot less than what we live on here in the United States. Working with Alexis and JoHana it takes a lot less to live in El Salvador then it does here. Katie Conner is in Haiti and they are in a major struggle right now. Katie is surviving on less than what we have here but I have read their letters of thankfulness of God’s provision.

Exodus 16:22–30 HCSB

22 On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, four quarts apiece, and all the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 23 He told them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil, and set aside everything left over to be kept until morning.’ ” 24 So they set it aside until morning as Moses commanded, and it didn’t smell or have any maggots in it. 25 “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you won’t find any in the field. 26 For six days you may gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.” 27 Yet on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they did not find any. 28 Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep My commands and instructions? 29 Understand that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day He will give you two days’ worth of bread. Each of you stay where you are; no one is to leave his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

This is before the 10 Commandments

So every day you gather what you need for the day.

On the 6th day you will gather enough for two days. You trust that God will provide enough for you that will sustain you on the 7th day.

Can you trust that there will be enough and that you can rest and trust God’s provision?

The seventh day is the day to trust in God’s provision even when my circumstances tell a different story.