“Where God guides, he provides.
Where God leads, he feeds.
He is not just our source, he is our supply.”
Sermon Title: GOD’S GIFTS: GRATEFUL OR GRUMBLING
Sermon Text: EXODUS 16 (NIV)
Sermon Series: MOSES: LIFE LESSONS FROM THE HESITANT HERO
By: PTR NESTOR SY
Sermon Notes:
EXODUS 16:10-18 NIV
10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud.
11 The LORD said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’” 13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat. 16 This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’” 17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed.
1 CORINTHIANS 10:10-11 NIV
10 And do not grumble, as some of them did--and were killed by the destroying angel. 11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.
I. GOD IS OUR SOURCE
EXODUS 16:1 NIV
1 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.
EXODUS 16:2-3 NIV
2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
EXODUS 17:3 NIV
3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
It’s so easy to put God in the rearview mirror.
EXODUS 16:4 NIV
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.”
EXODUS 16:13-15 NIV
13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.
“Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God.”
C.S. Lewis
ACTS 17:28 NIV
28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ …
II. GOD IS OUR SUPPLY
EXODUS 16:8 NIV
8 Moses also said, “You will know that it was the LORD when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD.”
EXODUS 16:15 NIV
15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.
EXODUS 16:29 NIV
29 Bear in mind that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out.”
EXODUS 16:32 NIV
32 Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.’”
“Where God guides, he provides.
Where God leads, he feeds.
He is not just our source, he is our supply.“
EXODUS 16:16-18 NIV
16 This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’” 17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed.
NUMBERS 11:4-6 NIV
4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”
Instead of thanking God for what they did have, they complained about what they didn’t have.
III. GOD IS OUR SECURITY
EXODUS 16:32-34 NIV
32 Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.’”
33 So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the LORD to be kept for the generations to come.”
34 As the LORD commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna in front of the Testimony, that it might be kept.
EXODUS 16:35 NIV
35 The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.
The worse thing we can ever do to insult God is to put our security in anything and in anybody other than him.
JOHN 6:31-35 NIV
31 Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
JOHN 6:68-69 NIV
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
“The meaning of the manna is that all we need is Jesus.”
Philip Ryken