back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Worship Service 11/24/24
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I wanna welcome you to this morning's service. 00:08:36.360 |
Particularly if you are new, joining us for the first time, 00:08:43.360 |
which is right at the tip of the parking lot, 00:08:46.360 |
and you'll see our welcome team members in the blue jerseys. 00:08:55.360 |
I would like to highlight some important announcements 00:09:10.360 |
It's at 5.30 p.m. in the Main Sanctuary, okay? 00:09:24.360 |
have a great meal, and have a great time together. 00:09:29.440 |
will be having their Christmas party on December 7th, 00:09:37.360 |
Please know there is gonna be a table booth outside 00:09:42.360 |
but today is the last day to sign up for that, 00:09:46.360 |
We've been mentioning that a lot of the family teams, 00:09:51.360 |
Please know that even though you're presenting, 00:10:07.360 |
to do child care for that event on December 7th, 00:10:19.360 |
is that for fellowship and just building camaraderie 00:10:22.360 |
and getting to know people within the church, 00:10:25.360 |
we're gonna be starting our basketball season, 00:10:27.440 |
which will start January 5th at the Great Park. 00:10:33.360 |
and all kind of people of different skill level 00:10:46.360 |
There will be a table outside for sign-ups for that event. 00:10:50.360 |
Okay, at this time, we'll go into time of offering. 00:10:55.440 |
we have a drop box right there by the main entrance. 00:10:58.360 |
Otherwise, you can go ahead and give that online. 00:11:53.360 |
acknowledging, Lord, that you have been so good. 00:22:16.960 |
Today, as we are looking forward to our Thanksgiving week, 00:22:29.960 |
we want to take time to give thanks to the Lord 00:22:32.960 |
and meditate on what it means to have a thankful heart 00:22:43.960 |
and being delivered from the chariots of Pharaoh, 00:22:55.960 |
'I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted. 00:22:59.960 |
The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. 00:23:12.960 |
The Lord is a warrior. The Lord is His name.'" 00:23:26.960 |
where we can just continue to see more details, 00:23:35.960 |
throughout the history and throughout our lives. 00:23:38.960 |
And in so doing, God, cause us to be so worshipful 00:23:46.960 |
So as we think about, you know, again, Thanksgiving, etc., 00:23:52.960 |
I really do appreciate having these set times and seasons, 00:24:07.960 |
And in our family, we try to hold the tradition, 00:24:16.960 |
So no premature Christmas celebration, right? 00:24:22.960 |
We're actually prepping for, you know, the next season, etc., 00:24:24.960 |
but we try to make sure that doesn't become a quick bypass 00:24:28.960 |
as we honor our way to Christmas, so to speak, 00:24:30.960 |
because it is really a special time to thank the Lord. 00:24:35.960 |
Now, in so doing, you know, please, just as a request, 00:24:39.960 |
there's a lot of people that call it Harvest Festival, 00:24:42.960 |
and we're going to have a Harvest Festival, etc. 00:24:44.960 |
I get it, but every religion has a Harvest Festival, you know. 00:24:48.960 |
Did you know the Greeks have one, the Romans have one, 00:24:55.960 |
as long as they've had, you know, agriculture, farming, 00:24:58.960 |
there was a thank you to the lords, the gods of the universe, 00:25:02.960 |
for providing a great, great time of harvest, 00:25:14.960 |
We have this privilege to celebrate a holiday 00:25:18.960 |
that was based off those individuals who came to this land, 00:25:38.960 |
and rejuvenate our hearts of thanksgiving and faith unto God. 00:25:44.960 |
like what we learned in a snippet during our elementary days 00:25:50.960 |
individuals on the Mayflower came to the U.S. 00:25:53.960 |
with hopes of liberty, to have religious freedom, yes? 00:26:02.960 |
and we also know that they had a meal with a local tribe 00:26:06.960 |
because this tribe actually helped them survive. 00:26:09.960 |
And so in thanksgiving to God, they had a feast together. 00:26:15.960 |
to really appreciate what had happened, right? 00:26:18.960 |
Because back in 1620, yes, they embarked on this great journey, 00:26:26.960 |
many people died before they ever got to the land. 00:26:30.960 |
And what's more, they were set out for Virginia, 00:26:32.960 |
but they landed in Massachusetts, and the winter was harsh. 00:26:36.960 |
And so by the time they survived through the winter, 00:26:43.960 |
more than half the people on the boat that came over, 00:26:46.960 |
there was 102 individuals, more than half died, okay? 00:26:54.960 |
you would think you were an incredible failure. 00:26:59.960 |
and the stories are actually incredibly saddening 00:27:02.960 |
because pretty much every family had somebody within their family die, 00:27:09.960 |
and a lot of them, because it was the harsh winter, were kids. 00:27:17.960 |
I want you to take a moment to think about this. 00:27:23.960 |
You wouldn't see this as an occasion to be like, 00:27:33.960 |
it took Christian faith to give thanks in that kind of circumstance, right? 00:27:40.960 |
And you guys know because probably you were forced to read the Mayflower Compact, etc., 00:27:45.960 |
that embedded into this endeavor was the ideas, the principles of God, 00:27:50.960 |
more than just simply escaping religious oppression. 00:27:55.960 |
For example, if you take the very first portion of that Mayflower Compact, 00:28:04.960 |
"have undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith this honor." 00:28:11.960 |
That's very different from just saying like, "Oh, there was a bunch of separatists. 00:28:16.960 |
And the reason why I'm saying this is because 00:28:18.960 |
if we take time to meditate and just to imagine, 00:28:23.960 |
can you imagine coming to an unknown territory, 00:28:27.960 |
seeing just unknown individuals, all that kind of stuff, 00:28:30.960 |
and then seeing half of the people you love die in front of you, you burying them? 00:28:39.960 |
I would have thought, "This wasn't blessed by God. 00:28:46.960 |
I would have thought, like, "I regret the fact that I asked you guys to come with me," so to speak. 00:28:56.960 |
William Bradford, who was the first governor of that Plymouth colony, 00:29:09.960 |
And so that Thanksgiving was an incredible act of faith to say in the midst of what I see, 00:29:23.960 |
What I see is actually the graves of the people I love. 00:29:37.960 |
To be able to say good and perfect gifts come from the hand of God 00:29:43.960 |
in a time when your agenda, like your vision, your great project, 00:29:52.960 |
it takes an incredible amount of faith to give thanks in that kind of scenario. 00:29:55.960 |
And so the challenge to us is can we exercise that kind of foundational faith 00:30:01.960 |
to thank the Lord in every instance, every circumstance? 00:30:08.960 |
I immediately thought about the people in the Exodus generation, right? 00:30:13.960 |
You have people who were enslaved for 400 years. 00:30:19.960 |
They saw their grandpa, their dads, their uncles get buried in the buildings 00:30:31.960 |
just makes-sense conclusion to think we're all gone. 00:30:38.960 |
But in crying out to the Lord, they receive mercy, 00:30:44.960 |
For us, we have a foundation that is not just positive thinking. 00:30:48.960 |
It's not just, "Hey, guys, count your blessings." 00:30:50.960 |
It's not a facade of just, like, trying to say the good stuff. 00:30:55.960 |
For Christians, we have such a foundation of hope 00:30:57.960 |
where we can give thanks in every circumstance. 00:31:02.960 |
how can we have such a deep-seated gratitude in our heart? 00:31:06.960 |
Point one, you remember how much you personally have been forgiven, okay? 00:31:16.960 |
You recall the depths and the pit and the darkness from which God has rescued you. 00:31:25.960 |
And you take time to see and not necessarily appreciate 00:31:29.960 |
but value the weight of sacrifice of the Lord. 00:31:34.960 |
And this should come natural to us, but sometimes we're just so forgetful. 00:31:40.960 |
And I would say perhaps sometimes the greatest threat 00:31:48.960 |
is just getting so fixated on all the stuff that's going around us 00:31:53.960 |
we completely lose sight of the things before. 00:32:06.960 |
In ministering to these individuals, the promised people of God, 00:32:11.960 |
God prepared them before He delivered them, right? 00:32:16.960 |
Before that He actually pulled them out of Egypt, 00:32:19.960 |
He did His works of miracles, and then He spoke to them. 00:32:23.960 |
And He prepared their mind and their reactions for the time that they'll come out. 00:32:30.960 |
The way He prepared them was to challenge them not to forget. 00:32:34.960 |
First, in Exodus 12, He gave the instructions for the Passover. 00:32:39.960 |
And in verse 25, He says, "So when you enter that land which the Lord will give you, 00:32:44.960 |
as He promised, you shall observe this rite." 00:32:55.960 |
There was not supposed to be a man or child missing this dinner. 00:33:01.960 |
"And when your children say to you, 'What does this rite mean to you?' 00:33:05.960 |
You shall say, 'It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord, 00:33:08.960 |
who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt, 00:33:12.960 |
when He smote the Egyptians, but spared your homes.' 00:33:21.960 |
Whenever we do Passover meal here at church, I always remind everybody every year, 00:33:25.960 |
remember the greatest mistake we make in not remembering history correctly 00:33:32.960 |
is to think, "Yeah, those Egyptians, God really got them." 00:33:40.960 |
You weren't so much spared from the wrath of the Egyptians. 00:33:49.960 |
If you did not have the blood of the Lamb over you, 00:33:52.960 |
if God did not tell you to quickly go, you too would have perished, right? 00:33:57.960 |
And what's more, embedded into that Passover dinner, 00:34:01.960 |
did you know that there was another feast on top of the already feast? 00:34:06.960 |
And my point is God knew we were going to forget. 00:34:10.960 |
So if you just look down in chapter 12, actually look up verse 14. 00:34:16.960 |
As I'm looking at Exodus 12, 14, there is another feast laid upon an already feast. 00:34:23.960 |
It says in verse 14, "Now this day will be a memorial to you, 00:34:28.960 |
and you shall celebrate it as a feast of the Lord throughout your generations." 00:34:31.960 |
You're to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. 00:34:37.960 |
but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your house. 00:34:40.960 |
For whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh, 00:34:47.960 |
So even to this day, the Jewish community practiced this, the feast of unleavened bread. 00:34:52.960 |
Do you know what that was supposed to remind you? 00:34:56.960 |
What he said was, "Remember, you're not supposed to wait for the leaven to rise, the bread, 00:35:01.960 |
because judgment is coming and you need to escape." 00:35:05.960 |
And what's more, removing the leaven from your own house represented a second fact, 00:35:09.960 |
which is that dirtiness, the thing that permeates. 00:35:20.960 |
Do you understand and remember what you've been saved from? 00:35:25.960 |
Did you know that there was another feast or a kind of ceremony embedded on top of that? 00:35:32.960 |
In Exodus chapter 13, please take a moment to look there. 00:35:35.960 |
Exodus 13, verse 2, there is something called the redemption of the firstborn. 00:35:41.960 |
And the Jewish people practice this even today. 00:35:44.960 |
It says, "Sanctify to me every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb, 00:35:50.960 |
among the sons of Israel, both man and beast." 00:35:56.960 |
"And Moses said to the people, 'Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, 00:36:00.960 |
from the house of slavery, by a powerful hand the Lord brought you out from this place.'" 00:36:10.960 |
That the judgment of God took the life of the most -- in that culture, as you know, 00:36:16.960 |
the firstborn had the first rights and represent the family. 00:36:28.960 |
And you're thinking, "Whoa, I didn't know this, 00:36:30.960 |
that God, from the moment that he was delivering those people from Egypt, 00:36:36.960 |
that he stacked on one another these various religious rights and ordinances to never forget." 00:36:42.960 |
And just in case you did, do you know what he said? 00:36:50.960 |
"So it shall serve as a sign on your hand and as phylacteries on your forehead, 00:36:57.960 |
for with a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt." 00:37:03.960 |
If you look up Teflon on the Google, what you'll see is the Jewish community, 00:37:12.960 |
and they wrap it around their hand with a box at the top, right on their bicep, 00:37:16.960 |
so that just in case they forgot, they could be like, okay. 00:37:22.960 |
And what's more, they have a decorative box right here with a band around their head. 00:37:30.960 |
They do this all the time just in case, forget, 00:37:33.960 |
they have inscriptions of the scriptures put into a box on their forehead. 00:37:39.960 |
Okay, let's take a moment and meditate on this. 00:37:49.960 |
You have to meditate and imagine you're a normal person who used to be a slave in Egypt, 00:37:56.960 |
and you're standing there hearing Moses talk, 00:38:01.960 |
You just saw gnats come out of everywhere and people's mouths and all that stuff. 00:38:09.960 |
You heard the wailings go through the entire land. 00:38:13.960 |
You heard people crying like it says like never before. 00:38:19.960 |
And then God's telling you, "Don't forget this. 00:38:24.960 |
And just in case you forget, here's a box for you. 00:38:27.960 |
And just in case you forget, you have to eat this stale bread. 00:38:29.960 |
And just in case you forget, everybody has to sit, and you have to gird your loins. 00:38:32.960 |
And just in case," and you're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. 00:38:49.960 |
On top of that, we have to sacrifice a precious lamb? 00:38:52.960 |
On top of that, we have to bring this and bring that? 00:39:12.960 |
And so I pray that as we go into the Thanksgiving season, may we never forget the depths of 00:39:21.960 |
I pray that we would not be so busy that we look up at God and say, "Oh, the season 00:39:32.960 |
I pray that we would not be so consumed with, "This is the time to buy everybody their 00:39:43.960 |
But I pray we would never forget because for these individuals, not even a year, not even 00:39:55.960 |
six months, not even three months, the first month they come out and they start walking 00:40:04.960 |
All they see is the marauders and the bandits and the other nations and all they see is 00:40:18.960 |
Because for us, God knew that we would forget too. 00:40:21.960 |
And so in every book of the New Testament, it typically starts off with, "Do you understand 00:40:26.960 |
the depth and the riches of the mercies of God and how you were once dead in your trespasses 00:40:32.960 |
and you're walking with everybody and the sons of disobedience and you're just children 00:40:39.960 |
And if you turn your eyes to Ephesians 2, verse 11, Ephesians 2, 11, it says, "So therefore 00:40:46.960 |
remember that you formerly, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by 00:40:54.960 |
the so-called circumcision, which is performed by the flesh by the human hands, remember." 00:41:01.960 |
It told you, "Remember who you were formerly." 00:41:04.960 |
And then he says again, "Remember," verse 12, "that you were at that time separate from 00:41:08.960 |
Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, 00:41:16.960 |
But now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far, far off, have been brought near by the 00:41:26.960 |
Bunch of Gentiles who had no common grace saying, "Of course I'm a child of God." 00:41:32.960 |
And getting all snooty and looking down on the Jewish people. 00:41:37.960 |
May we never become so forgetful that we just assume the graces of God. 00:41:44.960 |
Here in the New Testament, I confess that this is a problem too. 00:41:52.960 |
Confess that now that I've been Christian for, you know, actually just the other day 00:41:57.960 |
I was in youth group and I saw some old photos of myself. 00:42:02.960 |
And what I was trying to show them was that the style, it just recycles. 00:42:07.960 |
And I said, "Dude, I see a bunch of you guys wearing big baggy clothes." 00:42:11.960 |
I used to do the same, so I showed them a photo. 00:42:14.960 |
And I showed them a photo, they were like, "Whoa, why are you wearing that?" 00:42:17.960 |
You know, I had like double X large T-shirts, baggy pants, et cetera, you know. 00:42:21.960 |
And it just started to like well up in me like, "Oh my gosh." 00:42:25.960 |
At that time, I was just basically a juvenile delinquent, right? 00:42:30.960 |
I was just deserving of nothing, living my life with nothing but lust for money, girls, 00:42:43.960 |
But even then, I realized I don't know if my thankfulness goes deep enough. 00:42:48.960 |
Because as you recall, Jesus told the generation this principle, "Much forgiven, you will love much." 00:42:57.960 |
Pastor Peter has been walking through the Gospel of Luke, and you recall in Luke chapter 7, 00:43:07.960 |
But she came with the oil that was so precious to her. 00:43:10.960 |
She broke it, she anointed him, she tried to take her hair and wash his feet with her tears, 00:43:15.960 |
and then she ended up kissing his feet, and a bunch of the people around him were looking at Jesus and saying, 00:43:20.960 |
"This guy's not a prophet because if he was, he would know how dirty this woman is." 00:43:28.960 |
And then Jesus looked at his disciples and said, "Simon, I got a question for you. 00:43:32.960 |
Who do you think will be more thankful, the man who was forgiven a hundred or thousands?" 00:43:41.960 |
This woman loves much because she's been forgiven much. 00:43:52.960 |
I think about just this fact, the whole question of if our God, and I knew that even with 15 festivals, 00:44:00.960 |
but more, 20 religious acts, but more, all of this ritualistic thing you do, but more, 00:44:06.960 |
even text that you're supposed to tell your kids, "Hey, ask me. Ask me why I do this." 00:44:16.960 |
I pray that my thankfulness would be so deep. 00:44:20.960 |
I pray that my gratitude from my Lord would be so deep, 00:44:23.960 |
that during this time when I get together a family and I try to teach my kids, 00:44:33.960 |
You say, "Thank you, Noma," for a piece of turkey, you know. 00:44:38.960 |
I pray I would sit them down, and I would sit them and just be welling up with, 00:44:43.960 |
"Do you have any idea how good God has been to our family, to my church? 00:44:51.960 |
Do you have any idea how God has been so patient with such a forgetful people, 00:44:58.960 |
who just run off and go take care of their homes, take care of their lives, 00:45:02.960 |
take care of everything about them, but forget the God who gave them life? 00:45:13.960 |
Point two, in having this heart of gratitude, God must truly be your all in all. 00:45:29.960 |
Many good pastors, both from like Pastor John Piper and Pastor MacArthur, 00:45:34.960 |
when I read some of their commentaries, they say things like this, 00:45:41.960 |
"We are a people who are way too easily satisfied. 00:45:47.960 |
You're a people who are satisfied with having nice clothes, nice house, nice friends, 00:45:52.960 |
but you don't realize that when you do that to yourself, you ruin yourself. 00:45:59.960 |
You set yourself up for disappointment because everything in life does not last, 00:46:07.960 |
Your wife, amazing gift of God, does not last forever. 00:46:13.960 |
Your children, amazing gift from God, children are a gift from the Lord, 00:46:22.960 |
But when God is your all in all, you set yourself up for true satisfaction. 00:46:29.960 |
And Scripture tells us that this is what we need to hear. 00:46:32.960 |
This is what we need to know and feel so that we would have a thankfulness 00:46:40.960 |
And Moses, the leader of the people, he sings this when deliverance happens. 00:46:49.960 |
Chapter 13, chapter 14, the deliverance is happening, 00:46:52.960 |
and all the drama of the chariots chasing, they hit the wall of the water, et cetera. 00:47:00.960 |
The passage I read earlier was chapter 15, verse 1 through 3, 00:47:04.960 |
"Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord and said, 00:47:08.960 |
'I will sing to the Lord, for he has highly exalted the horse and its rider. 00:47:17.960 |
The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation.'" 00:47:29.960 |
Moses doesn't just see the chariots that died. 00:47:32.960 |
He sees that, so we should thank God for everything that has happened. 00:47:44.960 |
And so he says, "This is my God, I will praise him. 00:47:52.960 |
And throughout that, the people are singing and praising. 00:47:57.960 |
To say that God is my salvation is to say he is my everything. 00:48:08.960 |
He surely is the warrior who's going to protect me. 00:48:11.960 |
To say, "This is my God," then he is my everything. 00:48:17.960 |
And what he sings is in verse 11, just taking a snidbit. 00:48:21.960 |
He says, "Who is like you among the gods, O Lord? 00:48:26.960 |
Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises and working wonders? 00:48:32.960 |
You stretched out your hand and the earth swallowed them. 00:48:35.960 |
And in your loving kindness, you have led the people whom you have redeemed. 00:48:39.960 |
In your strength, you have guided them to your holy habitation." 00:48:44.960 |
So, the truth that I want to highlight is this. 00:48:51.960 |
Sometimes you will hear kind of cliche-ish advice that in a season like this, 00:48:57.960 |
especially when you have so much to do and your life is busy, 00:49:00.960 |
maybe things aren't going for you well this day. 00:49:08.960 |
And some people will say to you, "Mark, count your blessings." 00:49:20.960 |
You should be able to see the various things God has done in your life. 00:49:24.960 |
However, the point is that is not enough, right? 00:49:28.960 |
Because from the blessings, you're supposed to see the giver of all the blessings. 00:49:36.960 |
If you've been Christian for any length of time, you have heard this said, 00:49:47.960 |
Do not love God in such a way where you see God as the cosmic vending machine, 00:50:00.960 |
But rather, give attention to God himself and know that you have not stuff but him. 00:50:12.960 |
But because you and I have heard that so many times, 00:50:15.960 |
I want us to challenge us in a different way. 00:50:18.960 |
That that simple truth, "Do we love the giver more than the gifts?" 00:50:31.960 |
And here, what I'd like to point to is that God did just that 00:50:38.960 |
What's really interesting is the whole story of the manna. 00:50:44.960 |
So we're just walking through Exodus, and we're at Exodus 16, 00:50:51.960 |
it hasn't been that long since they just miraculously walked through dry land 00:51:02.960 |
"So they set out from Ilium, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel 00:51:06.960 |
came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Ilium and Sinai, 00:51:10.960 |
on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt." 00:51:19.960 |
Verse 2, "The whole congregation of the sons of Israel"--picture the scene. 00:51:30.960 |
It's not, "Ah, you always get those bad apples in the group." 00:51:33.960 |
"The whole congregation of the sons of Israel 00:51:37.960 |
grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 00:51:43.960 |
'Would that we have died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt 00:51:47.960 |
when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate the bread to the full. 00:51:52.960 |
For you have brought us out into this wilderness 00:51:54.960 |
to kill us, the whole assembly, with hunger.'" 00:52:00.960 |
The straight audacity to say, "Maybe God should have just killed us." 00:52:16.960 |
Dude, we're at a juncture in our journey where you could have died every day. 00:52:23.960 |
You know, that's what I would have said, okay? 00:52:27.960 |
Verse 4, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold, I'll rain down thunder.'" 00:52:32.960 |
He says, "I'll rain down bread from heaven for you." 00:52:42.960 |
He says, "No, he rained down sweet bread from heaven, 00:52:45.960 |
and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day. 00:52:50.960 |
Now listen to this, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in my instruction." 00:52:59.960 |
That our true faith that says, "I love God the Giver more than the gifts," will be tested. 00:53:07.960 |
But sometimes it will be tested by your daily bread. 00:53:14.960 |
Verse 5, "On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, 00:53:17.960 |
it will be twice as much as they gather daily. 00:53:20.960 |
So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, 00:53:23.960 |
'At evening you will know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt, 00:53:27.960 |
and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, 00:53:29.960 |
for He hears your grumbling against the Lord. 00:53:32.960 |
And what are we that you grumble against us?'" 00:53:35.960 |
So I want you to think and imagine yourself as one of the people, okay? 00:53:40.960 |
In my head, when I did that, I was like, "What's wrong with these people?" 00:53:48.960 |
In my self-righteousness, I saw myself as much more mature than them. 00:53:56.960 |
Did you know that in another passage, it says that this manna, 00:53:59.960 |
they cut an omur and they saved it for the generations. 00:54:06.960 |
Just imagine the best piece of bread from '85 or something like that, 00:54:12.960 |
It has something like honey, and when the sun got warm, it melted like honey. 00:54:21.960 |
And I'm one of those people that can eat the same thing over and over again. 00:54:25.960 |
So I'm sitting here like, "What's wrong with you people?" 00:54:27.960 |
God could have been like, "As you go, here's this miracle bean. 00:54:35.960 |
They didn't sit there and wait for stuff to grow. 00:54:36.960 |
So God literally allowed them to move and pick up bread they didn't have to work for. 00:54:44.960 |
Seriously, as I was meditating, my voice did the, "Eh," because I was so upset. 00:54:48.960 |
Like you have magical miracle bread, true miracle bread. 00:54:54.960 |
Did you know that later in Deuteronomy, it describes that if the people were 00:54:58.960 |
incapable of collecting enough, the miracle bread would feed the whole family 00:55:04.960 |
Did you know that if they accidentally gathered too much, it would go away by the next day? 00:55:08.960 |
Did you know that on the sixth day, they would gather double portion and it would last? 00:55:27.960 |
You and I are way too mature to complain about bread." 00:55:30.960 |
What they complained about was, "Moses, this is not efficient. 00:55:35.960 |
Give us bigger baskets and we'll collect for the whole week, then I don't have to go out every day." 00:55:44.960 |
Or maybe somebody, a bunch of you guys, your parents in here is like, 00:55:53.960 |
Once I started sitting there and imagining, dude, they could start complaining nonstop. 00:55:57.960 |
Do you know how long they were supposed to eat this bread? 00:56:02.960 |
So by not being able to plan for the future, what happens? 00:56:17.960 |
Why can't we store this up so that we--you know that there's going to be days when we have to run. 00:56:23.960 |
You know that there's going to be days maybe people will attack us. 00:56:28.960 |
God took away their security and said, "You get only what you can for the day, 00:56:40.960 |
I began with the question, "How does our faith get tested? 00:56:45.960 |
How do we know that God is truly my all in all?" 00:56:49.960 |
God then says, "If I am your all in all, let me take away some of the stuff in your life, 00:56:54.960 |
because some of you guys long for friendships. 00:56:58.960 |
Some of you guys long for security and just control freaks. 00:57:10.960 |
To be a servant of God, God frequently tests you. 00:57:35.960 |
You've given me every single thing I need--loving instruction. 00:57:47.960 |
He'll give a strong hand, encourage you, and be like, "You can do it, son." 00:57:56.960 |
But in order for us to know that, God will sometimes remove it. 00:58:12.960 |
Take my life and everything, even if all I have is you." 00:58:16.960 |
And I realize, like, I can't flippantly say that. 00:58:24.960 |
And then God will test me to see if that's true. 00:58:28.960 |
And my prayer for you is to have that thought in your mind. 00:58:32.960 |
"Lord, I can be thankful, even when so many things have been taken from me, 00:58:38.960 |
because I have you, and I have made you my all in all." 00:58:43.960 |
And so finally, the way that we have a thanksgiving heart 00:58:47.960 |
and a gratitude that lasts and transcends circumstance 00:58:56.960 |
You have to have eyes of trust that see not according to the flesh. 00:59:05.960 |
If we operate by pragmatics, reason, sensibility, logic, 00:59:12.960 |
stuff that comes to us naturally, I just see X and Y, I see A and B, 00:59:17.960 |
and my conclusion is C, there's too much stuff to complain about. 00:59:24.960 |
It is difficult to be thankful when you have no food. 00:59:31.960 |
After meditating, I repented and said, "You know what? 00:59:34.960 |
Israelite generation from the Exodus time 3,000 years ago, I'm sorry. 00:59:41.960 |
Because I've got to be honest, how many of us are so thankful 00:59:46.960 |
when we're thirsty and we feel like we're going to die? 00:59:48.960 |
How many of us can be so thankful when everything you have 01:00:00.960 |
Because logically speaking, you should be destitute. 01:00:09.960 |
and I believe that this classic section talking about the sin of man 01:00:14.960 |
is talking about something actually quite sensible, 01:00:17.960 |
and it's actually also talking about the wilderness generation, 01:00:24.960 |
Because the whole summary of the Exodus people, a snapshot, 01:00:30.960 |
is even though God has given them deliverance, the law, 01:00:43.960 |
"For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, 01:00:48.960 |
but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened." 01:00:53.960 |
They knew God, but they didn't really know him. 01:01:03.960 |
"For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature 01:01:08.960 |
rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever." 01:01:13.960 |
They literally saw the hand of God, and then they put up a statue of a cow 01:01:21.960 |
"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, 01:01:30.960 |
As soon as they started to lose trust, what did they do? 01:01:39.960 |
This is very indicative of somebody who's seized by their flesh. 01:01:43.960 |
This is very indicative of somebody who is not really giving trust 01:01:46.960 |
to the person and character of God, the individual, 01:01:49.960 |
but all they're doing is making practical decisions. 01:01:58.960 |
"You know what's more convenient is to have this God. 01:02:04.960 |
Literally, the vast majority of the sins of the Israelite people 01:02:09.960 |
"I don't want to go all the way to Jerusalem. Let me just worship on this high mountain." 01:02:13.960 |
"I don't want to go to a scary God where I have to sacrifice a lamb 01:02:17.960 |
when I can just take a God I can manipulate, control, and take Him in my tent." 01:02:23.960 |
The vast majority of their thanklessness came from grumbling. 01:02:33.960 |
My prayer is that we would mature far past what I just see with my eyes, 01:02:42.960 |
and to say, "No, no, God, I trust Your character." 01:02:47.960 |
And that's what the nation of Israel did at times when they were sober 01:02:51.960 |
and at times when they were delivered and they praised God and said, 01:02:54.960 |
"You, You, God, You're powerful, and You're the God of my forefathers, 01:03:07.960 |
Sometimes we being so sophisticated, sometimes we being so efficient, 01:03:12.960 |
sometimes we having thoughts of like, "What may be better for my own life?" 01:03:22.960 |
And even when we may question, "Is this the best?" 01:03:32.960 |
I want to give to you a passage in Philippians 2, verse 13. 01:03:39.960 |
It says, "For it is God who is at work in you, 01:03:43.960 |
both to will and to work for His good pleasure." 01:03:48.960 |
If I sometimes ask people about like, "What is your life's complaint?" 01:03:52.960 |
Yeah, some people complain about like, "Oh, my job. It just seems so dead end." 01:03:56.960 |
Or maybe some of the biggest complaints are members of our family. 01:03:59.960 |
It's like, "Oh, they're so stubborn." You know? 01:04:02.960 |
And then I hear a lot these days when I counsel people, 01:04:05.960 |
a lot of people are most frustrated with themselves. 01:04:09.960 |
"How come I'm not mature enough? And it's scary to think that I'm so weak. 01:04:14.960 |
And they compare themselves with other people. 01:04:24.960 |
You're a fallen being who is still in the flesh. 01:04:33.960 |
God is at work in you to will and to do His good pleasure. 01:04:40.960 |
And when we do, verse 14, "Then we can do all things without grumbling or disputing, 01:04:44.960 |
so that we will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God, 01:04:49.960 |
above reproach, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, 01:04:52.960 |
among whom you appear as lights in the world." 01:04:56.960 |
So, as we think about this season, honestly speaking, you guys, 01:05:00.960 |
we're so incredibly blessed, we should count our blessings. 01:05:04.960 |
I mean, I've been on this pulpit before, and I've said, 01:05:07.960 |
"I'm probably one of the most blessed pastors that I know of." 01:05:11.960 |
And I'm not--that's not like a, "I'm one of the best." 01:05:22.960 |
and walk with me here at this church for 24 years. 01:05:26.960 |
I have elders who have given me guidance over all the biggest decisions of my life, 01:05:31.960 |
like when I dated or when I messed up, when I was going to school, 01:05:35.960 |
when I got married, when I had children, when I got into this position. 01:05:45.960 |
You guys sit through the sermons, you guys want more teaching, 01:05:48.960 |
you guys want counsel, you guys want to grow together. 01:05:51.960 |
And sometimes I'm even afraid, because you're so supportive, 01:05:58.960 |
Next thing I know, all I get is, like, rewards cards to REI. 01:06:09.960 |
And then my prayer now is, I pray that my gratefulness would be strong here and now, 01:06:15.960 |
but be strong every season, when the Lord tests me. 01:06:21.960 |
When the circumstances I can't see with my eyes, like, 01:06:34.960 |
The Lord provided when our congregation was struggling. 01:06:36.960 |
The Lord provided when we hadn't had buildings. 01:06:38.960 |
Any circumstance, the Lord has been faithful. 01:06:46.960 |
Father, help us to be a mindful people that do not forget you. 01:06:52.960 |
Help us, Father God, to not follow in the pattern of our flesh, of our forefathers, 01:07:00.960 |
where we can go to a retreat, come back the next day, and forget your name. 01:07:05.960 |
I ask, God, that you would help us to remember your goodness, 01:07:09.960 |
remember the depth from which you have drawn us out, 01:07:19.960 |
We thank you today as a congregation joining our voices. 01:12:28.960 |
All right, God, we do thank you again from our hearts, Lord. 01:12:37.960 |
We bless you for the mercies anew every single day. 01:12:42.960 |
We bless you, God, for granting to us life, our breath, and our daily bread. 01:12:47.960 |
And then most of all, Father, thank you that we are known by you and that we can know you. 01:12:53.960 |
I ask, God, that you would continue to grow our faith, grow our hearts, 01:12:58.960 |
so that truly as we walk through this life, even if the people threaten us, 01:13:03.960 |
even if we lose here and there, even if everything we treasure and value get taken away, 01:13:54.960 |
An empty grave is there to hold my Savior in. 01:14:37.960 |
And life is worth the living just because he lives.