Meredith we had a town on Sunday for a workshop in New Orleans for four days and before she went she said hey You go to shore and get some food for you while I'm gone I was well, yes, please get me and I kind of I rattled off my favorite like you're not at home to judge me for eating these things snacks Come on back of vegetables. What are these things? But no she gave me all the fun stuff all this if I asked for and I kind of got to a rough spot because I come Tuesday night Also, I'm saying these things. It's my trainer sits like 10 feet away from me Sorry Jason So I Tuesday night I'm like I'm there because somebody on Facebook said something about this and I realized like every single meal I had had from Sunday night till Tuesday night had the word pizza in it Like I had a pizza hot pocket those are never a good idea I shared the Jim Gaskin video if you've not seen that yet watch that thing only I'll add to it is like hot pockets are like Denny's you never intend on doing it.
It just happens And we talked about I did not have bagel bite something I didn't have a nasty even I won't stupid that low Now some of you are judging me right now looking like this is a great Chad Order pizza at least once maybe twice can't remember because the dog likes pizza to justify ordering pizza because I know the 12 pound dachshund needs I pepperoni black all the pizza. Um, but I'll tell you what I did have and this is what I had this conversation with somebody later on I had some I had some pizza rolls Man when I was a kid, I thought those things were like high culinary Those things are gross You know the cheese inside doesn't melt like I'm tearing one open to cool it off I can give a dog half of it because she's much people food is weed and And I'm sitting there and it's like the cheese doesn't melt like it's a cue like everything else It's like if you make a chart in Excel. There's a half-life of pizza rolls They're like so hot. They're gonna peel the skin off the roof of your mouth But then 30 seconds later it's like this cold gelatinous like mound Like you have to eat as many pizza rolls as you can in that window of good like they're growing when I was a kid I thought those things were amazing And so I kind of get myself into that model of okay Are they have they made them worse on purpose to try to make them cheaper or taking their money or were these things just always gross And I just didn't know it because I was seven years old and I thought that's you supposed to use a kid with pizza rolls I called my mom and I asked her she said well you didn't have much more your kid because they were too expensive So you probably just thought they were awesome if you never had them and I made a lot of pizza rolls Like I college for me was like pizza rolls and Hawaiian punch.
I mean that's how I got the way I am now but But I'm realizing you know there's some stuff that you think is really good when you had these memories of it being but it is not good They never really were good You just it's like false idealized narrative in your head that a pizza roll is the absolute best type of food I can eat at this moment actually after I'm very rarely do I say I'm not going to eat something anymore after Tuesday night when I My pizza realization. I'm crossing pizza rolls off the off the menu for Chad because there's just nothing good comes of this But think about that how many times though do we have something in our mind in our head that we think is good and We will argue that it is good even we know it's not good So many times we're so much more comfortable with what we know Versus what we don't know we get so comfortable with what we know that we idealize it Even though we know it wasn't good for us. It wasn't healthy for us It wasn't it wasn't fulfilling for us all these other things, but we know it and so we have lifted up this position So today we're looking at story from the book of Exodus from the Jewish people and from Moses is they're having this discussion Over the past the present in the future and what's really good for us So we're gonna talk about this idea that what God gives us today prepares us for tomorrow and he sustains us because of yesterday So when our Bible is up Exodus chapter 16, we're gonna read a couple of places on that This is what it says to start off with in the whole community of Israel and out I can't set out from Eve them and journeyed into the wilderness of sin now. This is not like the wilderness where you do bad things It's like shorthand for Sinai Everybody who's smarter than me writes about this said that so I felt the need to make sure I communicated that to you all This morning as well, but uh between Eve them and Mount Sinai So they arrived there on the 15th day of the second month one month after leaving the land of Egypt And there too the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron 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 In the words of the Moses look I'm going to rain down food from heaven for you each day that 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 follow my instructions on the sixth day that we'll gather food And when they prepare it there will be twice as much as usual So what God gives us today prepares us for tomorrow and we're sustained because of yesterday God's time in his hands and our experiences with him or design to be consistently moving forward This toward Israelites or lamenting what they used to have other translations that they called back to these Stu pots so they would sit around I mean Imagine a habachi table of gumbo like that's what I imagine when I read this that's what sounded like to me But this is the first lesson that we learned today is that we're comfortable with what we know even if it isn't good The Israelites is their complaining here.
They're they're muttering other translations. I say they're grumbling talks about this actually the word complain is used seven times in this whole chapter It's very specific type of complaint though because a couple things are going on first I'll tell you they're one month away from Egypt now This isn't like if you're a walking dead fan. This isn't like first season or something's happening so we have to run out of fear and don't have anything with us Earlier in excess the scriptures talk about how the Jewish people Plundered the herds of the Egyptians they came 400 years ago and were given the job to be pharaohs shepherds to take care of the royal flocks Like that was their job like we read the stories that they're making bricks and building buildings And we think that's what they've been doing for 400 years But every single thing about these people they are herders they take care of animals They came into Egypt with massive amounts of animals and we see that they were keeping these flocks then I said they plundered their herds They also up under the wealth of Egypt. They left Egypt with a lot of stuff They were not unprepared going in to this journey that shows us this inscriptions I'm not gonna time to kind of go to the bullet points today with this but this is not about them not having any food This is about them wanting to grumble about something and specifically It's this this type of complaining that they're doing up because it's not legitimate what they're doing is they're complaining because they don't like the interpretation of what God can do They don't like they don't like the fact that Moses and Aaron are leading them into a place that they do not knows They're complaining against Moses and Aaron and Aaron's Moses brother and he's leading as well This this word complain also means to mutiny like this this is a legitimate like disagreement.
This is open rebellion That's going on and they're just trying to find every single thing that they can say that they are unsatisfied with that they think it's just Building up a mountain of evidence that we're all going to die out here Because we don't know what this place is like we don't know what this world is like we don't know what this life is like in fact Most of Exodus and also like Leviticus the really weird book It's just teaching of people how to be people because they've not had to live in community with anybody or in a self-governing relationship for hundreds of years They're saying I would rather have slavery than freedom because at least slavery was predictable At least I knew what was coming up next when we were enslaved See our sitting in the past that we do sometimes Or are lamenting in the future? It's doing the same thing there it is us saying you know I don't believe you had anything good for me back then and I don't really believe you're having anything good for me in the future So I'm just gonna grumble about this. I I disagree with how you have been in my life And so much of this back and forth This is not just something they're doing this chapter and every half of Exodus all they do is complain about everything And it gets to the point where you have to start asking yourself the question if we are negative consistently all the time if We all talk about for the last six or seven weeks the fruits of spirit we realize our words can create worlds If we are negative about things all the time Well, we slowly actually build up a negative life around ourselves and in my mind I tend to agree with that because with their negativity here in his life is denying the fact that God has been active These are the same people who saw the Red Sea part for them. These are the same people who saw all the miracles that led to their Exodus They've seen all the crazy Bible stuff.
Okay. How many times have you been a really rough place? I just need to get some crazy Bible thing and I'll believe you completely I think it's all the crazy Bible things and it wasn't enough for them They're creating a negative life and a negative world around themselves What if for us if we realize what type of worlds do our words create? What type of world is our faithfulness create?
There's a way that we choose to live in God's present Create what God gives us today prepares us for tomorrow and he sustains us because of yesterday because we know what yesterday held The truth of the second thing we learned this is you know what we need for today is not what was provided for us yesterday Think about that what we need for today is not what was provided for us yesterday What they're doing here is they're not discerning the presence of God in their life They're looking for God. They're saying hey We need you to like split waters again do the crazy Bible thing so much in the book of John Which we talked about a couple of years ago about the signs that signs and miracles are there for belief and Jesus gets kind of increasingly frustrated with people who are going to make do something cool I call them party tricks back then I just say do another cool party trick Jesus What they're failing to do here is seeing God active in their ordinary life They're saying you can only act you can only do extraordinary things you can't do ordinary things and y'all is there anything more ordinary than making sure You got something to eat every day. That's one of those ordinary things that we take for granted more than anything else So guys I'm going to rain down bread for you from the sky I'm going to do a crazy Bible thing with the most simplest activity that you do multiple times a day We have selective memory sometimes our lack of discernment of God's presence in our life Think about this No, when you have a bad memory about something we all have bad memories about things think about this How many times have you just thought about the memory you have and then you started creating like side conversations that never happened Or made things even worse in your mind than actually left to be next thing you know you've built up this like whole fake world That is now influencing your present day actions Because we're looking just we only think God we get the point where we only think God can work in the extraordinary We're not even looking out for the ordinary everyday things that he is doing all around us and that ends up giving us blinders Just like the Israelites had they could not see what God was doing And I see we only look to see God acting out an extraordinary or miraculous situations will fail to realize his role in our everyday affair Our everyday little things know when we think God is absent except in either mountain top situations are our deep valleys We talk about lordship. Let's actually think what's a greater activity of us giving Jesus lordship Us like praising him when something amazing happens us or praying to him like when we are at our wits end or us having an everyday Normal alright day and thanking Jesus for how he's been with us and that everyday normal alright day Saying hey, you gave me exactly what I needed today This is what I needed and you provided for me today and we build up them just to the muscle memory of that We'll realize he provided for me today He's gonna provide for me tomorrow He's gonna provide for me the next day and the day after that and the day after that and that makes our face On to something that is so much bigger than us happening at these amazing experiences or these really crummy experiences That's us giving him lordship over every single situation that we come to and what we need for today is not what provided for us Yesterday because what it also leads us to believe is us hang a hold on to something and making it last a lot longer than it Should have which comes up in this next spot or no last lesson this morning is that today is today and tomorrow is entirely different Exit of 16 21s we come off into this 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 so this is the stuff we call manna now Tell you there's not any amazing thing that manna literally means what is it?
Like somebody 30 services called what you call it candy bars exactly I can imagine Mary's well What do you want I'm gone for I want to give me three bags of what you call it? Like that would be very bad But just like we don't know what this is and we're just gonna just in the name of it They're praising God for the way he's acting on ways doing things They're not trying to describe the actions of God They're simply letting the actions of God be right there in front of them It's a daily replacement of their ideal eyes and their false narrative of these amazing about you gumbo pots in Egypt They're saying you know what we're not gonna believe into the lies of our past We're not gonna believe into how we only remember the good things We choose to forget about the bad things we choose to let the bad things run our life now And we forget about the good things that happen back then too So saying we are going to believe in the truthfulness of what you give us and what you reveal to us today The second thing that's going on inside of this is interesting. It's much more powerful Nothing what we initially think verse 22 to 25 on the sixth day to gather twice as much as usual four courts for each person instead of two Then all the leaders of the community came and asked Moses for an explanation He told them this is what the Lord commands tomorrow will be a day of complete rest a holy Sabbath day set apart for the Lord So baker boil as much as you want today instead of side what is left for tomorrow So he puts on a side until morning just as Moses commanded in the morning the leftover food was wholesome and good Without maggots or odor and Moses said eat this food today for today is the Sabbath day dedicated the Lord There'll be no food on the ground today You may gather the food for six days, but the seventh day is a Sabbath There'll be no food on the ground that day some of the people went out anyway on the seventh day But they found no food and the Lord asked Moses how long will these people refuse to obey my commands and instructions? So God's command in there is he's just be mindful of rest and rest and it is not like like your grandparents Sunday rules I remember like I went to my grandparents one time and we should we got there on a Sunday I had my birthday a couple weeks before and my grandmother had a toy for me and I was like seven years old and she gave it to me And they didn't have any batteries and there's a worse realization when your kid and you get a cool toy It doesn't have any batteries and I'll go to the store and my grandfather's like Sunday No, but the storm Sunday.
Here's a pretty tall. I was were covered all his initials. I can brought it on him I go to the store Sunday and look at how I love my grandfather. I mean I've kind of idolized him all month like He's like held up this like stubborn.
No This isn't like your grandparents Sunday. This is God saying hey There's one day a week we built this into the schedule one day of the week for you be mindful of how I am in the middle of your life And how I provide for you in such a way that you're not gonna have to go get this this stuff this day I'm gonna give you enough today before I'm gonna give you what you need for the future and it's gonna be exactly what you need He's also I'm gonna give you That for what you need when you don't realize how much you're gonna need We don't know what the plan is gonna be for it you're gonna be equipped for it And then there's the whole interesting thing about how is it not not to hold this stuff over because it's gonna go rotten But think about that how many times or what is it like if if we only learn something just once in life and we depend on that for the rest Of our life we have just one experience with Jesus I think so many times my heart breaks because for some odd reason we've gotten this like drilled into our head sometime That like our like middle school camp experience is enough Jesus to lead us through to our adult life In the scripture here you're saying hey you hold on this stuff for once in many days It's gonna be rotten and full of worms It's going to be worthless Because I'm gonna provide for you the next day And I'm gonna provide for you the next day if we hold on to the past and try to make that be there for what we need today God's you said that's not gonna work because if we do that you're denying what I'm trying to give you today You're denying the power of what I want to do for you right now You're denying how I want to put my presence in your life in a way that you absolutely need it just for today Now to me that's a lot more powerful Because I'm forgetful and if my life depended on something I learned at some point in time in the past And that was all I ever had of that I would be in trouble and that when we even even our mountaintop experiences that we have with God He wants to consistently be growing in our lives Consistently begin beginning us new things because here's the funny thing what you're realizing what you're needing about needing right now from God It's not what you need from him years ago if you still need the exact same thing in the future Well, we've not done that much work, have we? The today is today and tomorrow is entirely different so three questions to think about I'm asking myself these questions three questions In what ways are we holding on to the past? How are you adding the past still speaking to your life now?
You know it might be some crummy things that happen to you a lot of us We carry those things into our present life and they still Lord and roll over us We're letting the past influence us and some of us we have an uncle reco tendencies Napoleon dynamite who just put me in You just put me in we let the past control our lives in many different ways We're gonna pass control our lives though. We're denying that God can do something in our present can do something in our future Second thing is this what excites you about the future? What scares you about the future? So I love about this though.
What excites you and what scares you is him saying I'm giving you exactly what you need exactly I made a joke in 830 service. I have a I have a sermon series It will probably never preach so I'll make everybody mad But it's called God didn't say that it's based off like Pinterest saying something about Jesus you don't talk about now Like it's not in the Bible trust me like I always think the whole God is not gonna give you more than you can handle That's not no, he's gonna give you exactly what you need to get the job done Every single thing that you need to experience what you're going through right now. You already have He's given that to you. He's equipped you for that He's not holding back from us so we can learn a lesson.
He's saying I've already given you this just Just remember where that toolbox is I've given this to you completely you have every single thing you need to do the things I'm asking you to do last thing is this What and we this is on the back of our connection card every Sunday it's an important question for us to think about business What is Jesus asking you to do? And we live a life is expecting Where we truly believe that Jesus is asking us to do things that we will have new eyes that are opened up differently The first stage of this from for me for most people is well, he's asking me to not do or to stop doing That's a stage we all go through but then if we if we if we learn how to handle that we learn how to look to him We learn how to trust we learn how to have to have healthy faith within begin to realize he's saying hey I need you to come alongside of me and do this or I'm putting this burden upon your heart or I'm calling you to do this Or I'm putting this dream in this vision into your mind I'm asking you to do this out of faithfulness because this will expand your understanding of the world and it will expand my kingdom in the world You're living in what is Jesus asking you to do? Friends this a simple message about finding food in the morning That tells us so much about what does it mean to be faithful and what does it mean for for Jesus to be here with us? What does it mean for us to be here with Jesus?
And what does it mean for us to understand that his salvation also offers us restoration and the ability to walk through time Serving him and consistently growing with him. This is how he heals us. This is how he also sends us out in mission Let's pray together Jesus help us to see how we're holding back and God is not you you're not holding yourself back from us It's the ways that we've held ourselves back because we're still allowing things to be our anchor and our security that are false God sometimes they're bad things sometimes are painful hurtful things sometimes they're they're all right things we can argue and justify But God whatever we put our security on is not you is an idol Go we're praying right now for those tent stakes of false security be pulled up for us to not deny your activity in our life We pray that the only story of our past that we cling to is the stories of your faithfulness How those stories propel us forward in this life and our present and also in our future We're looking to you to work do amazing things in each of us. It's you know, we pray.
Amen