 |
| Rev. Brent Russett |
Pastor of
Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
http://www.sunnysidechurchottawa.com/ _______________________________________________________
LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, June 21st 2015:
‘When God Provides’
Good morning. And welcome to good news in the
morning. My name is Brent Russett. I am
the Senior Pastor at Sunnyside Wesleyan Church. It is my pleasure to look at
some of life’s challenges, and then bring you some good news in the morning.
I am
glad that you tuned your dial to CFRA. I want you to know that you can also
find Good News in the morning on the internet at Goodnewsinthemorning.ca .
There you keep up to date with what is happening around Good News Christian
Ministries.
This program has been sponsored by Ellard and Kathryn
Perry. You people have partnered with me in the gospel in
many different ways. Thank you for sponsoring this program and partnering in
this way.
This
morning we are going to look at Exodus 13-14 and I want to talk to you about
When God Provides
This
morning I want to talk about, “When God provides.” I have been fortunate enough
to see God provide in so many ways. I remember early in ministry I was
questioning whether or not I was called to ministry and one of the old saints
of the church came to me and gave me a gift. She said, God laid it on my heart
to give this to you. It was a sign at the right time that God was not finished
with me yet.
There
have been many times that God has provided for me. Often times, the provisions
came just in time..
I
know that some of you have experienced the provision of God. After all that is
who he is. One of the names of God is. Jehovah Jireh – The God who provides.
I
know that about God. Many of you know that about God. And yet so often we worry
about what we don’t have. Have you ever been there. You pray for God to
provide, you hope that God will provide, but you worry about whether or not he
will come through. In those time it is helpful to know the ways of God.
I want
to take you to the book of Exodus. Exodus tells the story of how God lead his
people out of Egypt to the promised land. There journey often reflects our
journey. The way that God worked with his people shows a little of who He is.
And often when we take a look at the people of God, we see a little of who we
are. This morning we are going to look at Exodus 16 and it is no different.
When
it comes to this story it is helpful to remember that when the God’s people
lived in Egypt they were agriculturally based. If you read the text closely you
can see that they had their own animals and their own land. Yes they were
slaves and built monuments for the Pharaoh of Egypt, but they were also
farmers.
I
grew up on a farm, and I know a little about farming. The one thing that you
learn as a farmer is that there is a right time for everything and you need to
plan ahead. There is a season for planting and a season for growing and a
season for. If you plant when you should be harvesting you probably are not
going to get a harvest.
You
also learn to plan ahead. It can’t always be harvest time. So when you harvest
you need to store your harvest so that you have something to eat when it is not
harvest time. So you collect a year’s worth of grain and store it. You can or
dry the fruit. Since they didn’t have freezers, they probably salted the meat.
You work now, so you have something to eat in the future.
In
our supermarket culture, we often forget about how these things work. Someone
else harvests and stores and we just go to the store and buy what we need when
we needed. But if you are living off the land, life is quite different. You
learn to prepare for tomorrow.
Now
as we get to Exodus 16, verse one tells us that the people of God had been on
the road for about a month. In that month they had eaten most of their
reserves. The people of God are getting hungry. They are getting really hungry.
Exodus 16:2–3 (NLT)
2 … the whole community of Israel complained about
Moses and Aaron.
3 “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they
moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we
wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to
death.”
Now
if you know the story you know that God is going to feed them manna. Manna is a
bread like substance. It tasted of like coriander seed and honey. God will shower this manna down every day.
But here
is what I want you to note. The people of God had been on the road for a month
before the manna starts.
God’s provision doesn’t start until his
people are all out of provisions. It wasn’t until the people came to end of
their own resources that they were able to access the resources of God.
I
have noticed this to be true time after time. Often it is not until we get to
the point where God is all we have that
we find that God is all we need.
There
is nothing wrong with an agricultural lifestyle where you store up for a time
in the future. Jesus was careful to explain that your faith should not rest in
what you have stored up, and he was careful to point out that if you sacrifice
your soul, to always be getting more and more, then you have a problem – But
handled properly, there is nothing wrong
with storing for the future. And in some ways, what you have stored up is God’s
provision for you.
But
sometimes life happens. Sometimes we get on the road of life, and things don’t
turn out like we expected they would. It is not until you come to the end of
your resources that you will experience the supernatural provision of God.
Now I
recognize that when we talk about God providing, our minds usually turn to
things financial. And I know that there are some of you who need God to come
through finacially in the next little while. I trust that you will find that
God is all that you need.
Other
parts of the world seem to learn this lesson a lot faster than we do. I have
travelled to parts of the world where there is no social safety net. People
come to the end of themselves faster.
There
is a reason why faith is often bigger in other countries. When God is all you
have you find out he is all you need. We don’t come to the end of ourselves so
quickly.
But
in my experience is that there are
things other than finances where we need the provision of God. We live in a
world where many people experience loneliness. We live in a world where people
experience extreme grief. We live in a world where people go through trauma. We
live in a world where people get bad news from Doctors. We live in a world
where people experience relational pain and hurt. In all of those places are a places. we need God to
provide.
In
all those places we need God to come through.
But
often God does not provide until we run out of provisions. He lets us go our
own way, try our own thing, do all that we can do, and then when we get to the
end of ourselves – he does what we cannot do.
When
I am in those situations I wish God
didn’t wait until the last minute. But it seems to be his way. Part of the
spiritual journey is to learn to put our faith in his provision rather than our
provisions. Part of the spiritual journey is to learn to put our faith in God’s
character rather than our own ingenuity. Often God does not provide until we run out of
provisions.
Music
– Jehovah Jireh (The God who Provides) Toronto Mass Choir 4:02
Back to the text
Exodus 16:4–5 (NLT)
4
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for
you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for
that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my
instructions. 5 On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare
it, there will be twice as much as usual.”
So
God tells Moses, I am going to provide for my people, but there is going to be
a test built into the provision.
Now
in our world, a test is given so that the instructor knows how much the student
knows. But what if the instructor already knows how much the student knows –
then what is the purpose of a test? In that case a test is given so the student
knows how much the student knows.
God
knows everything. He know the level of faith, the level of trust of his people
– but he puts them to this test – so that they know how much they know.
So
God says, I am going to give them each day enough food for that day. It is kind
of like going to a buffet. You can take all that you can eat, but you can’t
take any home.
Now
remember these people are farmers. They are used to storing up now for what
they will need in the future. To live from day to day is really stressful when
your security has always been what you have in your barns what you have in your
cupboards, what you have in your bank account.
At
least it is stressful until you learn to trust the person who is providing
every day.
Do
you think after a year or two in the wilderness after feeding on Manna every
day, that they are stressed out about
whether is going to be manna the next day. Of course not. After a while they
will learn that God provides. But the process of learning – that is sometimes
stressful.
So
God says to them gather what you need for each day, and before the Sabbath day
gather twice as much, so that you can rest on the Sabbath.
Exodus 16:16–18 (NLT)
16 These are the Lord’s instructions: Each household
should gather as much as it needs. Pick up two quarts* for each person in your
tent.”
17 So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some
gathered a lot, some only a little. 18 But when they measured it out,* everyone
had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who
gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed.
There
are seasons in life where God allows you to get all of what you need but no more
than you need. That doesn’t happen in every season of life, but there are some
times – when it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you just can’t get ahead. You
have to trust God for today and he is only going to give you enough for today.
It was
not God’s intention to leave his people in the wilderness all their lives. They
took the long way around. It took them three years to get to the boarder of the
promised land. When they entered the promised land they would no longer need
manna. They could go back to agriculture. But in this period he was helping his
people to trust him day by day.
Not
every period of your life, will be about learning to trust God for his daily
provision. But it is a lesson that most of must learn at some point in our
spiritual journey.
It is
important that we understand the lesson when he teaches it. Because he is going
to build on this lesson. If we don’t get it, we tend to have to learn the same
lesson over and over again.
Of
course if you know the story, the Israelites get to the edge of the promised land and would
not go in because they thought the opposition was too strong.
They
didn’t really learn the lesson that God was trying to teach them now. God will
provide what you need when you need it. God would provide the strength to meet
their enemies. God would provide victory. But they hadn’t learned the lesson
that God would provide.
Because
they didn’t learn the lesson they needed to learn, most of them lived their
whole lives living hand to mouth, rather than trusting God with the risk he was
telling them to take.
The
idea that God will provide what you need when you need it, is not just an Old
Testament idea. How did Jesus teach us to pray. “Give us this day our daily
bread.” This lesson from the manna was so important that Jesus included it in
the prayer that his church often repeats.
Jesus
taught us to trust God for today. There are often times where that is all you
can do – trust God for today. There are often times when God only provides for tomorrow,
tomorrow. He provides for today, today. Give us this day our daily bread.
He
teaches you this lesson, so that when you fact the giants of life, you can
trust that God will provide in those times as well.
Well
God gave his people a test. It was a test to show them their own hearts.
Exodus 16:19–20 (NLT)
19
Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” 20 But some of
them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full
of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them.
There
were some who couldn’t overcome their tendency to store up things. So they
tried to store up Manna. It didn’t work. It went bad. It smelled. It really
smelled.
The
Lord was trying to teach his people to trust him daily. There were some people
who tried to take things into their own hands and it didn’t work. Here is the
thing, when God is trying to teach you something, it is really helpful to learn
what he is trying to teach you. The only way to do that is to obedient to what
you know to do. They knew that they were to gather enough for today, but not
for tomorrow.
Moses
was really angry with the people who tried to store up manna for the next day.
It doesn’t say anything about God’s emotions. Moses’ emotions and God’s
emotions are not the same thing.
I
think God was quite satisfied with the natural consequence of their actions.
God is a teacher. He is patient – except it seems with stubbornness.
God
is trying to teach his people to trust him. He is trying to teach his people to
follow him. He is trying to teach his people His ways.
God
is not interested in giving his people rules for rules sake. What he is trying
to do, is teach them the lessons that they will need to be able to live and
live well.
Exodus 16:21–26 (NLT)
21 After this the people gathered the food morning by
morning, each family according to its need. And as the sun became hot, the
flakes they had not picked up melted and disappeared. 22 On the sixth day, they
gathered twice as much as usual—four quarts* for each person instead of two.
Then all the leaders of the community came and asked Moses for an explanation.
23 He told them, “This is what the Lord commanded: Tomorrow will be a day of
complete rest, a holy Sabbath day set apart for the Lord. So bake or boil as
much as you want today, and set aside what is left for tomorrow.”
24 So they put some aside until
morning, just as Moses had commanded. And in the morning the leftover food was wholesome
and good, without maggots or odor. 25 Moses said, “Eat this food today, for
today is a Sabbath day dedicated to the Lord.
Not
only did God want to teach them that he would provide, he wanted to teach them
how to really live. So here God is teaching them to take one out of seven days
off. He didn’t do that for his good, he was doing it for their good. He knew
that a day’s rest every week is what we need to function well.
Lessons
of God’s provision is always accompanied with learning God’s ways to live.
Here
is what I have noticed, if you are in one of those seasons when God is giving
you just what you need but no more than you need, there is almost always a
parallel lesson that he wants to teach you.
Some
of you university students are learning that God will provide, but you also
have to learn manage you money. Some of you have learned that God gives you
enough time to do what he has called you to do, but he is teaching you about
managing your time and your energy. Some of you have learned that God will
provide the peace that you need, but you also need to find a rhythm in life to
live well in this world. Almost every time God teaches you about provision he
will teach you about something else as well.
There
are some of you who are listening, that God wants to teach you about trusting
his provision. I know it is nerve racking. It is at least until you learn to
trust.
There
are some of us who have learned to trust him with some parts of your lives, but
not others. God wants to teach us to trust him in all parts.
There
are some of you who are feeling that you are being tested. This is not about
what God needs to know. It is about what you need to know about yourself. Learn
about yourself, and then turn that over to God.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, Thank
you so much for how you are faithful, Lord, how you are always faithful. Thank you
that you come through for us. Lord, help us to trust in you. Help us to learn to
walk with you well. Help us to put our faith in you.
Lord, I pray
that the people listening to me today, that you would help their faith to grow.
In Jesus name, AMEN.
“ If Good News in the Morning has been a factor in
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This
program has been sponsored by Ellard and Kathryn Perry.
You people have partnered with me in the gospel in many different ways. Thank
you for sponsoring this program and partnering in this way.
And
Thank you for listening this morning. This program is on the air by the grace
of God and donations of many faithful people. If you can help financially we
would really appreciate it. You can make a cheque payable to Good News
Christian Ministries, and send it to Box
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May you know
Jesus Christ personally and profoundly.
May the Holy Spirit reside deep within your heart . And may the heavenly Father surround you with
His constant and abiding and accompanying love
By Rev. Brent Russett
Pastor of Sunnyside Wesleyan Church in Ottawa:
_______________________________________________________
PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast:
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