Manna From Heaven

Manna from Heaven- How to wait on God Exodus 16

• God meets needs. You either believe that God is an active sovereign hand in your life, or you don’t. I think he is. He still moves in the life of the believer today. He is the ruler of earth
• Pastor Jay talked about this somewhat last week in his sermon (great sermon) that the big question we ask is, why does he do it in one area, and not another? IDK is a faithful statement
• But as Christians, and as humans, what do we do when we find ourselves in a situation that we can’t control that we need help? What do we do? How do we walk it out?
• Here we find Israel, out in the middle of the desert. 
• Exodus 16 details the Israelites’ journey through the desert, where they grumble against Moses and Aaron over hunger. God responds by miraculously providing manna, a bread-like substance, and quails for meat, establishing a test of obedience and trust by instructing them on how to gather and rest on the Sabbath.
• Many of the blessings of your life will come to you over time. Rarely when you expect it and usually not in the way that you thought it would happen. Translate- Not how you want, when you want. 
• So how do we walk through it?

1. Don’t complain

• 2 Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
• I get it Israel! You’ve been delivered from the hand of the pharoah, followed Moses, expected the best, did what you were Told and now you’re out in the middle of nowhere with no KFC
• They are going to do some next level complaining here
• 3 And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
• Notice the pattern of complaining- this is how most of you complain as well
• Drastic thinking- It would have been better if we died. 
• Complainers are always the most dramatic all or nothing talkers- “I’m going to die if I don’t eat”
• No you wont. You’re being dramatic. You want attention. No one cares. Shut up. 
• Misremembering– We had meat and ate bread to the full
• Complainers often look back at other times and think they were better times. They forget the challenges and shortcomings of previous seasons of life. Job, relationship, age, stuff etc was better. Typically a FALSE comparison that isn’t connected to reality. 
• False prognostication- You brought us out to kill us
• The complainer is typically a false prophet. The biggest lie is often “it will always be this way” or “this is going to destroy me”. No faith. No hope. Forgetting the truths of God’s word. 
• All of those are faithless statements that disconnect from the reality of a living God!
• You’re not supposed to complain! That shouldn’t be what the child of God does! AT ALL
• I get it- This isn’t the way of the world. The world complains about everything. 
• No one wants to hear your complaints. Not even you. It doesn’t make you feel better. 
• “but what about my feelings”. Sharing your feelings is way dif. Than being an overly dramatic complainer who has no semblance of Christian virtue or faith. 
• Philippians 2:14-15 Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”
• Christians who choose to not complain become a contrast in a world filled with complainers. 
• Stuck on tarmac. Wind. No exit. No stopping. Pinnacle of changing nothing. Change attitude!
• 1 Corinthians 10:10 Nor complain,  James 5:9 Do not grumble against one another
• Make a decision, while waiting on the promises of God to not sin with your mouth. 
• Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.”
• God knows what complaining does for the heart- Nothing. You can be merry and waiting. 

2. Believe the promises

• 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you
• God heard. Moses heard. They didn’t need to hear tho- Both God and Moses knew there were thousands of Israelites out in the wilderness without food. Moses was also without food. 
• Sidenote- Most situations you’re in, the leader and other people know what’s going on
• God knows you’re in your situation. He’s already got a plan of what he’s doing and how
• V4 And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.
• God is working something out in the Israelites to prepare them for the promised land
• There’s something to be gained in the waiting that we rarely see until we’ve walked through it
• The promised land is going to have its own set of problems, and before you get there, there’s some things in you that you’re going to have to grow and walk in. Work it out now. 
• The promises of God are real though. If God has spoken it, it will come to pass. It will happen. 
• 2 Co 1:20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen
• You must believe this friend. Stop the complaining. Trust in God’s word that what he said is going to come to pass is going to come to pass. 
• He didn’t bring you this far to leave you. He didn’t build it in you to tear it down. He didn’t deliver you to destroy you. Your complaining needs to turn to declaring! Yes he will! 
• Now this confessing doesn’t change your circumstances or the plans of God. You don’t do this to force God’s hand or make anything change. You do it because HE SAID TO DO IT
• Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
• Pr 16:24 Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.”
• Speak the promises- He said he will, he can, I can trust, God is sovereign, powerful, wonderful. 
• Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
• When you choose to no complain and embrace the promises of God- it changes your attitude and it keeps you in a position of FAITH. Believing that God will do what he said he would do! 
• Speaking of Abraham- Romans 4:20-21“He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.”
• Romans 4:18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed
• CONTRARY TO HOPE! This is HUGE!!! The times you need the biggest hope is when there is NONE! If everything is going as planned, you don’t need hope. Hope is when things are hopeless
• He 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
• You have to believe that God is faithful. Sing it. Read it. Pray it. Believe it. 
• Eating at a busy restaurant- Feels like forever. Trying to not watch kitchen. It will happen! 

3. Be obedient

• 16 This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.’
• So God brings the guidelines to the blessings. Now for our application- you can apply obedience to your deliverance, and you should- but what I want to focus on is the obedience in the promises- If God has told you something clearly in the scriptures, be obedient to it
• Trust the scriptures more than your thoughts. I believe that God speaks to people, but often times I see people who speak ‘God told me’ and its contrary to scripture or lacks wisdom
• Often times people spiritualize things to get themselves out of situations or get themselves into situations. “God told me” does not protect you from the rebuke of “God’s word says”
• Be Obedient to the clear demands of scripture. Go with what you know to be true. 
• Example- Maintaining discipline and morality in the midst of trails. Just because you’re going through something doesn’t mean you can quit discipline and go get drunk. 
• Continuing actions in the midst of trials and waiting. You can still serve, give, worship, attend in the midst of your trials. “going through something” doesn’t suspend obedience. Still kept SABBATH
• Do you say to your 2 year old “you’re on your own, Im going through it” or not? NO
• Psalm 78:7 That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments;
• Set your hope in God! Keep his commandments! People will find themselves in Job situations, relationships, whatever and not know what to do HERE so they do NOTHING anywhere!
• “we didn’t know how to do this so we did nothing”. A kid left home alone who didn’t do chores
• How about you do the part that you DO know and don’t worry about what you DONT
• John 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
• God told the nation of Israel- Go out daily and pick it up. Do that. God said Keep the sabbath. Do that. Don’t worry about the future. Don’t be concerned with whats next. 
• God has given clear commandments that are undeniable and clear. Do them earnestly. 
• Evangelize while you’re waiting. God has told us to tell people the Gospel do it. 
• Fellowship while you’re waiting. God wants us to be together. Going through it doesn’t exempt you from having to fellowship. People say “the church wasn’t there for me”. Bro you left in a mood and didn’t respond. I’m not a bill collector. Go and do you. Be an adult. 
• Continue to pay tithes. Its demonic to withhold your tithes and sacrifices from the Lord because he hasn’t moved in an area you need. Don’t give God your sick and lame sheep. Continue
• Continue to serve. You can serve in your brokenness. Steeped in sin, no. But I’ve been preaching for 20 years and I have had some pains. Some of my best ministry has been in my most painful 
• Read and study. God hasn’t changed. Keep being refined. Keep coming to Church. Stay faithful!
• 1 Samuel 15:22 Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice
• Deuteronomy 11:26-28 Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.”
• Here’s the big question- to whom are you going to obey?
• Acts 5:29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’”
• You may have vacillating passion but you shouldn’t have vacillating obedience. 

4. Reap the blessings

• 35 And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan
• God provided for Israel. Manna and Quail. 40 years. That’s provision! 
• Would it have been their exact menu choice? Maybe not. But he provided! Supernaturally! 
• Here is something that I need you to understand about our God and our faith. 
• God made food fall from the sky for 40 years. Once would miraculous enough. 40 years
• I don’t believe this to be an allegory. It’s not a fable. It’s not a misunderstood story. 
• Literal physical food fell from the sky from the God who rules and controls the earth
• If I told you I was lost in the woods and god made food fall from the sky you’d say I was lying
• But I believe that God did that. Has he done it again? IDK, but I know he can. That’s my belief. 
• Read Ps 78:18-25 they spoke against God: They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
• This is faithlessness! You must believe that God can and God will! Why is the Bible so filled with miracles? Just so we can look back and say “that was cool”
• Do you believe that Jesus is going to come back into the sky in bodily form? That blood will flow in the Streets? We either live in an in between where God does not act or move or we do. 
• James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
• God still moves today! HE will still provide. He will still move. He has not forgot about you and is not set to destroy you. He will take care of you and watch over you and move on your behalf. 
• Phil 4:19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
• YES! YES HE WILL! ALL OF IT. You might have some struggles and you might have some pains, but your NEED shall be met. Your needs are not your wants. What you NEED will be provided for. 
• Be honest of your self sabotage. You can’t be disobedient and say God is doing it. 
• God did not make you a bad employee and inconsistent relationally. 
• You cup will run OVER!  Psalm 23:5 anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.
• Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”
• Let me end with this. Can you stop being upset at being someone that God can bless?
• I’ve had some guilt because I’m blessed, but I’m faithful. God has taken care of me. 
• Proverbs 10:22 The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it.
• Receive the blessings of God with no guilt or sorrow and don’t be envious of those who walk in faithfulness. Consider their ways and imitate their faith.