The Way of the Wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:1-5)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:06.040 Number of years, I believe it was at Welch published a book on marriage 2 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:13.789 and the title was what did you expect? And anyone who has been married 3 00:00:15.070 --> 00:00:21.109 any like of time discovers the realities of being married to a center. That's 4 00:00:21.149 --> 00:00:26.140 a good question. What did you expect? Certainly not what Hollywood promises, 5 00:00:27.739 --> 00:00:35.100 because marriage is wonderful that it's filled with some rude awakenings. But expectations are 6 00:00:35.140 --> 00:00:38.409 an issue. Why aren't they? Expectations are always with us, whether when 7 00:00:38.450 --> 00:00:41.570 I get married or when I finally have children, or when I find my 8 00:00:41.609 --> 00:00:47.289 ideal job or when I go to visit the doctor. Sometimes we go to 9 00:00:47.329 --> 00:00:50.719 visit the doctor and expect them to be a miracle worker. We had a 10 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:55.600 family friend many years ago who had some significant illnesses and he went to the 11 00:00:55.679 --> 00:01:02.280 doctor dozens of times and on one of those later visits he looked at the 12 00:01:02.359 --> 00:01:04.870 doctor he said, look, I've been coming to you for two years and 13 00:01:06.030 --> 00:01:10.069 you haven't figured out what's wrong with me. Well, the doctor was a 14 00:01:11.069 --> 00:01:14.230 guy with lots of experience. He said follow me and he walked him out 15 00:01:14.269 --> 00:01:17.150 of the exam Roum down the hall and it was office and want to sit 16 00:01:17.189 --> 00:01:21.340 down right there and he said, look around. There were diplomas on the 17 00:01:21.420 --> 00:01:25.859 wall and certifications. He said, you see anything there about making you better? 18 00:01:26.980 --> 00:01:33.129 Well, what was he doing? He was adjusting expectations. We have 19 00:01:33.290 --> 00:01:38.969 expectations about the Christian life, yes, we do, and many years ago 20 00:01:38.010 --> 00:01:42.569 J I packer said the one of the most popular ideas is what he called 21 00:01:42.689 --> 00:01:47.280 hot tub religion, that the Christian life is a soothing, bubbly, relaxing 22 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:53.799 experience. Oh, contray, we may say. Scripture is remarkably clear and 23 00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:00.920 consistence about what I'm to expect on this path of following Christ until the day 24 00:02:00.549 --> 00:02:05.469 that that journey is over. Because if I if I have been fully accepted 25 00:02:05.590 --> 00:02:08.509 by God through Jesus death for me, and that that is what justification is, 26 00:02:08.629 --> 00:02:15.300 fully accepted, all conditions met, then I can expect after that that 27 00:02:15.659 --> 00:02:19.939 my God and father is going to take me into a lifetime of training, 28 00:02:21.139 --> 00:02:24.460 of exercise. Yes, he accepts me as I am, but he has 29 00:02:24.539 --> 00:02:30.689 no intention in his holy goodness to leave me as I am, because I 30 00:02:30.849 --> 00:02:36.210 must learn to walk with him. Or, as a shorter catechism puts its 31 00:02:36.250 --> 00:02:39.169 sanctification as a work of God's spirit by which we die more and mortisan and 32 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:45.319 live more and more to righteousness. And that's what he does, God's the 33 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:47.800 expectation of the Christian life is that God will lead me on a path. 34 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:54.319 It trains me to walk by faith. Now, that's a nice phrase. 35 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:59.710 We walk by faith through sure rolls off the tongue easily, doesn't it? 36 00:03:01.069 --> 00:03:07.669 But it's not so easy to live, is it not an easy matter? 37 00:03:07.789 --> 00:03:12.469 And it's not an easy matter because it means relying less and less on me, 38 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:21.819 means depending less and less on my circumstances. It means my happiness and 39 00:03:21.979 --> 00:03:25.020 peace and joy and endurance have less and less to do with how I'm doing 40 00:03:25.139 --> 00:03:30.330 and what my circumstances are and more and more to do with who God is 41 00:03:30.490 --> 00:03:37.169 and what his promises are to me. God wants to lead me to look 42 00:03:37.169 --> 00:03:40.330 away from myself to him, and that is a work of grace, because 43 00:03:40.439 --> 00:03:45.360 we are, by the nature of sin in us, curved in on ourselves. 44 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:51.199 That God is determined that that is what our life will be. He's 45 00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:57.310 going to guide us into learning experiences, into the kinds of paths that will 46 00:03:57.590 --> 00:04:03.110 teach us to walk by faith in him. That brings us to this passage 47 00:04:03.150 --> 00:04:09.750 in deteronomy. Eight. Deoteronomy is of course, God's preparation of the second 48 00:04:09.870 --> 00:04:13.620 generation of the Jews to enter the land. The first generation failed, wandered 49 00:04:13.659 --> 00:04:15.740 around the wilderness for forty years until they all died, which is what they 50 00:04:15.779 --> 00:04:20.579 wanted. Now they're about to enter the land and that second generation is being 51 00:04:20.620 --> 00:04:26.089 paired and Moses calls them on the plains of Moab, just east of the 52 00:04:26.129 --> 00:04:30.170 Jordan River, as they prepare to cross, and Moses will talk to them 53 00:04:30.250 --> 00:04:34.569 about the ways of God with them and the Wilderness, and God's ways are 54 00:04:34.649 --> 00:04:39.240 always the same. The way he led them in the way he leads us 55 00:04:39.319 --> 00:04:43.000 are the same, because he's the same God and we are the same kinds 56 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:46.680 of people as the Israelites. So let me read to you Deuteronomy Eight, 57 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:51.870 verses one, two five, the whole commandment that I command you today. 58 00:04:53.069 --> 00:04:56.750 You shall be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in 59 00:04:56.910 --> 00:05:00.310 and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your father's and you 60 00:05:00.430 --> 00:05:05.029 shall remember the whole way that the Lord, your God, has led you 61 00:05:05.389 --> 00:05:13.420 these forty years in the wilderness that he might humble you, testing you to 62 00:05:13.579 --> 00:05:15.980 know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not, 63 00:05:17.699 --> 00:05:23.769 and he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with Manna, 64 00:05:24.769 --> 00:05:29.689 which you did not know, nor did your father's now that he might make 65 00:05:29.850 --> 00:05:34.129 you know that man does not live by bread alone, that man lives by 66 00:05:34.170 --> 00:05:40.720 every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not 67 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:46.000 wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know 68 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:49.189 that in your heart that is a man disciplines the son. The Lord, 69 00:05:49.310 --> 00:05:54.550 your God, disciplines you. Well, let's see what we can learn from 70 00:05:54.550 --> 00:05:58.350 this about how God takes us and paths to train us on the walk of 71 00:05:58.389 --> 00:06:00.269 faith. We know as, first of all, the passage, as the 72 00:06:00.389 --> 00:06:03.420 Lord leads us. First to all, the way the Lord, your God, 73 00:06:03.459 --> 00:06:09.860 has led you these forty years in the wilderness. He led them and 74 00:06:10.060 --> 00:06:15.939 he leads us with a purpose in mind. God does not randomly lead us. 75 00:06:15.740 --> 00:06:19.250 First five says that purpose is to discipline us, to train us. 76 00:06:21.370 --> 00:06:29.649 So here's how I paraphrase this. God custom designs are circumstances and brings us 77 00:06:29.810 --> 00:06:35.240 into them in order to do his good work in us. Custom design, 78 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:46.160 now that's basically the statement of God's sovereignty, isn't it? But that's easy 79 00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:53.029 to say. Isn't it? It's hard to believe, especially when the circumstances 80 00:06:53.149 --> 00:06:59.029 are difficult. One of the things I do as a pastor is conciliation work. 81 00:06:59.110 --> 00:07:01.899 I've done all this training and I've got certification and I work with churches 82 00:07:01.939 --> 00:07:06.459 and members of the churches and conciliation and mediation and I sit with people and 83 00:07:06.579 --> 00:07:12.180 hear their stories of conflict and see the broken relationships and the pain of strain 84 00:07:12.339 --> 00:07:17.610 and strife. And one of the questions I ask as I listen just do 85 00:07:17.649 --> 00:07:20.930 you believe God is sovereign? Oh, oh, yes, yes, they 86 00:07:20.970 --> 00:07:28.170 always say. Well, do you believe a sovereign God puts you into diverse 87 00:07:28.329 --> 00:07:32.000 trials for your good? Oh yes, yes, what do you believe he 88 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:39.839 is designed this trial for you at this time? Well, maybe not, 89 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:46.310 maybe not. Connecting the dots between believing God is sovereign and believing he sovereign 90 00:07:46.389 --> 00:07:54.910 and this circumstance and this heartache and this broken relationship. That's different. And 91 00:07:54.949 --> 00:07:58.620 yet we know from scripture, to quote the hymn, every joy or trial 92 00:07:58.939 --> 00:08:03.939 falleth from above. Just what James says considered all joy, when you fall 93 00:08:03.980 --> 00:08:09.220 into various trials and eight two he has led you, is not about a 94 00:08:09.339 --> 00:08:13.490 general path, but about details. He took them by the pillar of cloud, 95 00:08:13.529 --> 00:08:16.009 in the pillar of fire, through the Wilderness for forty years, located 96 00:08:16.050 --> 00:08:20.769 them in specific places, sometimes for a day, sometimes for a month, 97 00:08:20.170 --> 00:08:26.889 places that God designed for them. And Moses is saying, remember all those 98 00:08:26.050 --> 00:08:33.639 places, remember that path. That was God leading you. Second thing we'd 99 00:08:33.639 --> 00:08:39.320 see about the passage is is God leads us in these paths the way I 100 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:43.629 would put it, as to see our emptiness. Notice how he says that 101 00:08:43.789 --> 00:08:48.389 in verses two and three that he might humble you, to test you, 102 00:08:48.549 --> 00:08:52.470 to know it was in your heart. And Verse Three humbled you and let 103 00:08:52.590 --> 00:08:56.700 you hunger. He humble's. Let's look at that. He humbled you. 104 00:08:56.299 --> 00:09:01.340 God led you in a path that would humble you. Now the idea here 105 00:09:01.419 --> 00:09:09.460 is a severe affliction, abject poverty. God brings them to a point where 106 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:18.730 they have nothing, not reduced savings, nothing. Now why would God humble 107 00:09:18.809 --> 00:09:22.730 us? Why, it says here, he let them be hungry, not 108 00:09:22.090 --> 00:09:31.240 skip a meal, but have nothing, refrigerator bear, bank account empty, 109 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:41.350 last meal eaten. God humbled them by letting them be hungry, by bringing 110 00:09:41.429 --> 00:09:48.230 them into severe affliction. Now why does he do that? Because God knows, 111 00:09:48.269 --> 00:09:50.669 and we'll come back to this. They did in prosperity. You and 112 00:09:50.750 --> 00:09:58.139 I are generally selfdeluded. We think we're doing pretty well. As the song 113 00:09:58.259 --> 00:10:05.620 goes, I've got the world on a string. Nobody in severe affliction sings 114 00:10:05.700 --> 00:10:11.250 that song. They sing the songs when we're doing well. We think we 115 00:10:11.330 --> 00:10:13.889 got it all mastered and we write a book on how you two can do 116 00:10:15.049 --> 00:10:20.649 what I've done to have a mastery of life, and people believe they can 117 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:22.840 master it too, so they buy the book. Can you make lots of 118 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:28.080 money on them? Now, affliction, severe trials humblest. They bring us 119 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:33.679 to see that there are times when we are in over our heads. As 120 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:35.190 a matter of fact, they should bring us to see that all the time 121 00:10:35.389 --> 00:10:41.389 we are in over our heads. An old Jewish rabbi was asked once why 122 00:10:41.470 --> 00:10:46.070 he prays. He says I pray when I'm in trouble, and then he 123 00:10:46.149 --> 00:10:50.740 said I'm always in trouble. To humble them, to test them. That's 124 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:54.460 an interesting phrase in it. To test them, what does that mean? 125 00:10:56.419 --> 00:11:01.379 Well, what do you do test for? If you're a teacher, at 126 00:11:01.460 --> 00:11:07.129 tests reveals what's they're not what is professed, but what's really there. I 127 00:11:07.649 --> 00:11:11.610 travel to teacher to school in the country of Serbia and we give tests and 128 00:11:11.730 --> 00:11:18.639 the test reveal how much the students have learned. Every student thinks they've learned 129 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:24.720 the material really well until they take the test and if they don't do well 130 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:26.480 in the test, they protest. No, no, I knew it better 131 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:33.710 than that. Results sure don't look that way, noe. God tests us 132 00:11:33.870 --> 00:11:37.669 because test reveals reality, and the test he uses is this pain and pressure. 133 00:11:37.750 --> 00:11:43.350 Sure, and pain and pressure flushes out what is true of us. 134 00:11:46.590 --> 00:11:50.100 Same phrase is used in deter genesis twenty two. After these things, God 135 00:11:50.620 --> 00:11:58.059 tested Abraham. Want to see what, why was Abraham's confidence in his promise? 136 00:12:00.259 --> 00:12:03.330 Exodus Fifteen, God says, is the be Israelites Begin their wilderness journey. 137 00:12:03.330 --> 00:12:07.490 The Lord made for them a statuted and rule, and there he tested 138 00:12:07.809 --> 00:12:16.720 them. James says that God sends diverse trials for the testing of your faith. 139 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:22.799 What is the reality of my confidence in God? What is the reality 140 00:12:22.919 --> 00:12:26.240 of my faith? And that takes you to the third thing, verse two. 141 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:31.029 To know what was in your heart. What does that mean? I 142 00:12:31.110 --> 00:12:33.309 mean? Doesn't God already now? Of course he knows. We don't know, 143 00:12:35.789 --> 00:12:43.190 but he knows we don't know. So God needs to apply affliction and 144 00:12:43.299 --> 00:12:48.139 difficulties to a custom designed in order to test us, in order to reveal 145 00:12:48.299 --> 00:12:54.460 what is true about us. You see, we only we only see an 146 00:12:54.500 --> 00:12:58.179 accept what is true about us under the weight of immense evidence, and we 147 00:12:58.379 --> 00:13:03.090 only get at the evidence by God testing us. Because what I am an 148 00:13:03.090 --> 00:13:09.450 affliction is what I really am, what I am in prosperity is not what 149 00:13:09.570 --> 00:13:13.720 I really am. And See, all of us have an image of ourselves 150 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:20.720 in our minds right and if we could project that image onto a screen, 151 00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:24.279 people would conclude its four parts true, three parts wishful thinking into part laws. 152 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:28.629 I don't care how far along in the Christian life you are. That's 153 00:13:28.669 --> 00:13:33.509 are about the mix and the only way God can cut through the wishful thinking 154 00:13:33.549 --> 00:13:37.789 and flush out the lies. As affliction, he tests us and it reveals 155 00:13:37.909 --> 00:13:43.659 what we really are. I was like to say to people my wife and 156 00:13:43.700 --> 00:13:46.620 I thought we had a wonderful marriage and excellent communication, and then we tried 157 00:13:46.700 --> 00:13:54.139 to walpaper a room together. Well, not so much about the marriage, 158 00:13:54.179 --> 00:14:01.529 you know, we didn't do well and we both thought we were flexible people 159 00:14:01.889 --> 00:14:09.649 and then God gave us children. We weren't patient, we didn't have good 160 00:14:09.690 --> 00:14:16.840 communication, we were not flexible, and all got revealed. Israel, escaping 161 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:18.440 Egypt, said Oh, Lord, will follow you wherever you go, will 162 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:22.399 make promises, will keep the Covenant. First difficulty came. You brought us 163 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:26.950 out here to kill us. So what was true? Did they trust God 164 00:14:26.990 --> 00:14:33.190 or not? What was true is they didn't. And all the blather about, 165 00:14:33.389 --> 00:14:35.549 Oh yeah, we're all for you, will do whatever you want, 166 00:14:35.590 --> 00:14:41.059 that was just so much wishful thinking. The truth was when God let them 167 00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:46.779 be hungry and tested them, their hearts revealed and they came to see them 168 00:14:46.620 --> 00:14:54.330 selves whether or not they would keep his commandments, and they wouldn't. They 169 00:14:54.330 --> 00:14:58.409 wouldn't. So you might say, well, this is this, this is 170 00:14:58.570 --> 00:15:03.450 strange. Does God get some kind of perverse pleasure about making us feel awful 171 00:15:03.450 --> 00:15:09.039 about ourselves? Well, some people would characterize it that way. I don't 172 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:16.000 think so. I think God's just a good diagnostician. He knows that we 173 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:20.710 are deceived. He knows that there's no one we talk to and listen to 174 00:15:20.870 --> 00:15:24.750 more than we talked and listen to ourselves, and we know that what we 175 00:15:24.870 --> 00:15:28.950 say ourselves is generally pulling the wool over our own eyes. He knows that 176 00:15:30.590 --> 00:15:37.059 national surveys indicate that eighty percent of people think they're above average. And that's 177 00:15:37.059 --> 00:15:41.460 especially true in our knowledge of Him and our knowledge of ourselves. And so 178 00:15:41.220 --> 00:15:50.690 God design circumstances to reveal us to our selves, because we will not be 179 00:15:50.889 --> 00:15:56.850 saved and we will not learn to walk by faith until we see ourselves as 180 00:15:56.929 --> 00:16:02.690 God sees us. And if you, if you look at the life of 181 00:16:02.769 --> 00:16:06.759 Jesus, you'll find this is the war between Jesus and his enemies. Jesus 182 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:10.080 said, the son of man came to seek in the save those were lost, 183 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:15.480 and they said, we're not lost. They may be lost, but 184 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:25.750 we're fine, so they killed him. See, God knows that we need 185 00:16:25.950 --> 00:16:30.710 affliction to flesh out the reality that's there. So we will see our desperate 186 00:16:30.870 --> 00:16:37.700 emptiness and finally, perhaps by His grace, indeed genuine genuinely by His grace, 187 00:16:37.820 --> 00:16:40.539 when we're finally running on empty, we look to him for help. 188 00:16:45.899 --> 00:16:48.409 Because third, his goal is not just to show us our emptiness, but 189 00:16:48.570 --> 00:16:52.450 is infinite sufficiency. Verse Three. He humbled you and let you hunt, 190 00:16:52.490 --> 00:16:57.610 be hungry and fed you with Manna. So there they are, at the 191 00:16:57.649 --> 00:17:03.880 end of the rope. All visible means of nourishment and water gone, no 192 00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:11.000 grocery stores and no Amazon delivery in the side one if you ever, if 193 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:18.789 you've never seen the shine I it makes Yuma look like paradise. There's nothing. 194 00:17:19.869 --> 00:17:22.470 There might be an oasis here and there, but certainly a not for 195 00:17:23.109 --> 00:17:27.829 over certainly not resources for over million people. And where they are with no 196 00:17:27.990 --> 00:17:33.259 visible means of support and God feeds them with man of. The story is 197 00:17:33.299 --> 00:17:36.420 an ex of the sixteen. It's a wonderful story. And Mana means. 198 00:17:36.619 --> 00:17:41.259 What is that? What he says, which neither you know. Your father's 199 00:17:41.299 --> 00:17:45.769 no, you look at and said, what's that? Manna? So for 200 00:17:45.890 --> 00:17:48.970 the next forty years, every day they woke to a thin layer of manna 201 00:17:49.289 --> 00:17:52.650 on the floor of the desert. It was like a brand of crackers that 202 00:17:52.769 --> 00:17:56.529 he describes it in terms that I don't know, because I don't know what 203 00:17:56.650 --> 00:18:00.759 coriander is. And every day they went in and they gathered enough and they 204 00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:04.279 ate it and were satisfied and they couldn't keep it overnight and went back to 205 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:11.039 zero. The next day they kept it at rotted no savings alone, except 206 00:18:11.160 --> 00:18:12.589 on the day before the Sabbath, and then if they kept it overnight, 207 00:18:12.670 --> 00:18:22.029 they had enough for two days. So he tested them, brought them to 208 00:18:22.630 --> 00:18:30.819 emptiness and poverty so that he might show them his infinite sufficiency. And even 209 00:18:30.859 --> 00:18:36.980 in this, when they were tested, they tried to save that rotted and 210 00:18:37.099 --> 00:18:38.539 they went out on the Sabbath to look for it and there wasn't anither, 211 00:18:41.009 --> 00:18:47.650 because they just couldn't believe God was infinitely sufficient and could care for them a 212 00:18:47.730 --> 00:18:53.329 day at a time. Now Stop to think about their life. I like 213 00:18:53.450 --> 00:18:56.960 to get into the details, sir. For Forty Years in the barren wilderness, 214 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:03.640 apart from some oases where they stopped, they lived in immediate dependence on 215 00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:14.109 the faithfulness and Providence of God, one day at a time. No savings 216 00:19:14.150 --> 00:19:23.779 accounts, no refrigerators, no yettie storage containers like you take camping, except 217 00:19:23.779 --> 00:19:32.220 for the Sabbath. Every morning they woke up nothing to eat. Gathered the 218 00:19:32.259 --> 00:19:37.539 Mana, ate it through the day, end of the day, nothing left 219 00:19:37.700 --> 00:19:44.289 to eat. Forty years, three hundred and sixty five days a year. 220 00:19:47.089 --> 00:19:52.880 Imagine the matter of fact. God wants some not just a know about manaby 221 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:56.920 says in verse four. Your clothing did not wear out in your foot did 222 00:19:56.039 --> 00:20:00.000 not swell, I'm going to reverse the ordinary laws of wear and tear, 223 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:06.119 just so you know, I'm God. Imagine where in the same pair of 224 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:08.589 shoes for forty years and you look down on them in the end, the 225 00:20:08.630 --> 00:20:14.950 fourth years, they look brand new, and your clothing, which, without 226 00:20:14.990 --> 00:20:18.269 being washed and human perspiration and all that, would eventually rotten fall apart, 227 00:20:18.349 --> 00:20:22.940 looks like you just bought it yesterday. Be because God is bigger than the 228 00:20:22.980 --> 00:20:27.140 laws of decay and the laws of wear and tear. God can reverse them 229 00:20:27.180 --> 00:20:34.769 simply by saying so. You See, he wants them and us to know 230 00:20:34.930 --> 00:20:37.609 that he is, in the words of Paul, the God who gives life 231 00:20:37.609 --> 00:20:41.289 to the dead and calls the things that are not as though they are. 232 00:20:41.730 --> 00:20:45.130 And the only time you'll appreciate the fact that God gives life to the dead 233 00:20:45.210 --> 00:20:49.640 is when you're dead. I want to know a god gives life to the 234 00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:52.799 dead. Well, then they're going to have to die now. I don't 235 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:57.880 want to know it that way. I want to be near death. No, 236 00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:03.359 that doesn't work that way. I want to know a god you can 237 00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:07.230 call into existence out of nothing anything he wants. Well, that means you're 238 00:21:07.230 --> 00:21:14.750 going to have to have nothing now. I didn't mean that. Every day 239 00:21:14.950 --> 00:21:18.700 for forty years, six days a week, apart from the Sabbath, God 240 00:21:18.940 --> 00:21:26.779 said let there be Mena, and there was manna. That was enough, 241 00:21:29.660 --> 00:21:32.660 because these are his covenant people and he's not going to abandon them. And 242 00:21:32.779 --> 00:21:37.490 this is how God works. He didn't come to Abraham at age thirty and 243 00:21:37.690 --> 00:21:41.650 Sarah At age twenty one, or whatever it would have been, and say, 244 00:21:41.650 --> 00:21:45.009 Hey, you're going to have a kid now every H'm seventy five. 245 00:21:45.130 --> 00:21:48.839 Sarah was younger, never had kids. You're going to have you're going to 246 00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:53.039 have a son. Well, highly unlikely, but let's wait twenty five years 247 00:21:53.079 --> 00:22:00.759 and make it impossible. Because Abraham, when you're dead and Sarah, you're 248 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:03.309 dead, then I'm going to be the God that gives life to the dead, 249 00:22:04.349 --> 00:22:07.789 and I don't. I don't need you to be alive. I can 250 00:22:07.869 --> 00:22:12.150 accomplish my purposes simply by speaking, and that's what Israel and the Wilderness is 251 00:22:12.190 --> 00:22:18.099 experiencing. Not by bread alone, not by the means God uses to care 252 00:22:18.180 --> 00:22:22.700 for us, but by the word by which he commands us to be cared 253 00:22:22.740 --> 00:22:26.900 for. That's the idea here, that man does not live by bread alone, 254 00:22:26.940 --> 00:22:29.339 but by every word that comes from the mouth of God is about more 255 00:22:29.420 --> 00:22:34.490 than Bible steady. It's about the providence of God by which he rules and 256 00:22:34.690 --> 00:22:41.369 orders all things by his word of command. And if God speaks, I 257 00:22:41.569 --> 00:22:49.319 will be taken care of. That's all he has to do. And he 258 00:22:49.400 --> 00:22:55.720 doesn't want them to trust means he wants them to trust him. So here's 259 00:22:55.720 --> 00:23:02.029 a thought for you. Once Israel got into the land, land flow of 260 00:23:02.109 --> 00:23:04.829 milk and honey and it accomplished a great deal the conquest and the land was 261 00:23:04.869 --> 00:23:08.869 abundant and, you know, grapes big enough to had to carry him on 262 00:23:08.910 --> 00:23:15.299 a Palette. They were no more secure and provided for than they were in 263 00:23:15.339 --> 00:23:22.940 the wilderness, when they lived a day at a time, no more secure 264 00:23:26.099 --> 00:23:33.009 because their security was not in their savings or in their abundance. Their security 265 00:23:33.170 --> 00:23:37.210 was in the faithfulness of their God and his powerful word to supply for their 266 00:23:37.329 --> 00:23:42.519 needs. See, God, God has infinite resources and he delights to show 267 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:47.920 us as infinite resources and for us to trust him for his infinite resources, 268 00:23:48.519 --> 00:23:53.200 that we don't ask until we're needy and sor he brings us to a point 269 00:23:53.240 --> 00:23:57.029 of need, not to make us miserable, but as one when at the 270 00:23:57.069 --> 00:24:03.670 song says, God cannot pour his riches into hands already full. So he 271 00:24:03.150 --> 00:24:07.430 pries out of our grasping fingers all that we cling to and then pours out 272 00:24:07.509 --> 00:24:15.500 his faithfulness upon us so that we might know him, so that we might 273 00:24:15.539 --> 00:24:22.859 experience his infinite faithfulness and sufficiency. And that's what God wants, not to 274 00:24:22.940 --> 00:24:26.769 make us miserable, but to lavish his care upon us as his people. 275 00:24:27.730 --> 00:24:30.690 And so he designs the path of our lives to be a walk, a 276 00:24:32.250 --> 00:24:37.170 path that trains us to walk by faith, to experience my emptiness and his 277 00:24:37.369 --> 00:24:41.440 infinite sufficiency. And I don't learn quickly. So guess what, I'm going 278 00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:48.039 to be taken a lot of experiences that take me into emptiness, and out 279 00:24:48.039 --> 00:24:53.269 of all those all I will come to know his infinite sufficiency. I met. 280 00:24:53.470 --> 00:25:00.549 Imagine your Israel. Imagine tomorrow morning. You wake up. You've lost 281 00:25:00.549 --> 00:25:07.259 your job and you can't find one. Your savings account. You're checking account, 282 00:25:07.339 --> 00:25:11.779 your K, your IRA and your government sponsored social security or gone. 283 00:25:15.460 --> 00:25:19.180 There's no foot in your refrigerator, your house is foreclosed on you, you 284 00:25:19.259 --> 00:25:30.690 have nothing. Is Anything changed? Nothing's change. You are a secure and 285 00:25:30.809 --> 00:25:36.160 cared for in that position of bankruptcy, as you were the day before, 286 00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:40.640 with a refrigerator full of food and a well paying job and lots of money 287 00:25:40.680 --> 00:25:48.160 in savings. Nothing's changed, because God hasn't changed. God's Word is sufficient 288 00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:53.230 to supply for his people, as believe it's C S Lewis says, he 289 00:25:53.269 --> 00:26:00.390 who has God alone has no less than he who has God and everything, 290 00:26:03.549 --> 00:26:08.900 because if I have him, I have everything. And our God wants to 291 00:26:10.019 --> 00:26:14.700 take you and me on the path where we taste that, not where we 292 00:26:14.779 --> 00:26:19.930 do book learning. He wants us to taste it, to say yes, 293 00:26:21.089 --> 00:26:30.329 that is true, because that is for our joy and his glory. I 294 00:26:30.450 --> 00:26:33.839 sat with a friend not too long ago. A man number of years ago, 295 00:26:33.960 --> 00:26:42.359 because of problem in surgery, now lives with terrible pain every day. 296 00:26:44.359 --> 00:26:47.789 It's been all over the United States, Mayo Clinic, everywhere to get the 297 00:26:47.910 --> 00:26:51.869 pain removed, to find some way to change the effects of the surgery, 298 00:26:51.910 --> 00:26:56.589 which damage something in his heart but now creates this pain and nobody can do 299 00:26:56.670 --> 00:27:02.180 a thing. On most days has pain levels between a six and and eight 300 00:27:02.420 --> 00:27:07.779 on a scale of one to ten. Some days it's worth and I sat 301 00:27:07.900 --> 00:27:17.369 with them and he said God has been so good to me. I thought 302 00:27:17.450 --> 00:27:23.890 that's that's crazy talk, except for someone who has come to taste of the 303 00:27:23.970 --> 00:27:30.119 faithfulness and powerful word of God to him and the infinite sufficiency of God. 304 00:27:30.440 --> 00:27:33.720 In his affliction. He said, Oh, I've learned so much about God. 305 00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:44.630 There was beautiful. Dude. What of the eight says? God leads 306 00:27:44.710 --> 00:27:49.430 his people, leads you, leads me on the path we're on right now, 307 00:27:52.869 --> 00:27:56.829 to train me, to train you to walk by faith, to experience 308 00:27:56.990 --> 00:28:03.420 my emptiness that I might turn to his infinite sufficiency and come to know him. 309 00:28:06.380 --> 00:28:08.700 God strips away all visible supports and all we have is him and his 310 00:28:08.819 --> 00:28:12.569 word of promise. And when that is true, do you want to know 311 00:28:12.690 --> 00:28:19.410 something, we're more in touch with reality than when we're prospering. Randy, 312 00:28:19.490 --> 00:28:22.809 a number of years ago, when we lived in the the bay area, 313 00:28:22.890 --> 00:28:26.849 San Jose, she taught at a Christian school and there was a lady in 314 00:28:26.930 --> 00:28:30.880 a school that has just been through a couple years of horrific suffering and it 315 00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:33.119 was now on the other side of it and Rondie was in a conversation with 316 00:28:33.240 --> 00:28:36.880 her and said how are you doing? And here's what she said. I 317 00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:42.470 miss it. We made you miss it. I felt more in touch with 318 00:28:42.630 --> 00:28:51.710 reality in the affliction, then I do in my prosperity. Well, what 319 00:28:51.910 --> 00:28:56.099 was she in touch with? Her emptiness, his infinite sufficiency. She was 320 00:28:56.140 --> 00:29:03.859 right. I would say the same thing. The Times of most desperate neediness, 321 00:29:03.940 --> 00:29:10.049 of the experiences of his most faithful sufficieficiency, then all is well. 322 00:29:10.130 --> 00:29:15.769 I get sleepy. And how does God wake us out of sleep? Pain 323 00:29:15.170 --> 00:29:21.970 wakes us out of sleep. We don't drift to this. God has to 324 00:29:22.289 --> 00:29:30.519 train us. A couple more thoughts. One is taking a walk with Randy. 325 00:29:30.599 --> 00:29:33.079 We take a walk most mornings and number of years ago we are going 326 00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:37.880 through some really difficult times and she said how are you feeling? And I 327 00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:42.630 said I just want to get to the point where I don't have to trust 328 00:29:42.670 --> 00:29:52.819 God all the time. And then I said, what am I saying now? 329 00:29:52.940 --> 00:29:56.619 God wants me to trust him all the time, and so he trains 330 00:29:56.740 --> 00:30:00.539 me. So how's this supplied us? I've hinted that all along. There 331 00:30:00.859 --> 00:30:04.539 there, this is the Christian life, right from the beginning to the end. 332 00:30:06.339 --> 00:30:10.849 The beginning of a Christian life looks like this. The Holy Spirit convicts 333 00:30:10.930 --> 00:30:15.529 me of Sin. He brings me to a point of being thirsty, guilty, 334 00:30:15.609 --> 00:30:19.809 helpless and hopeless in myself. He makes me empty and aware of my 335 00:30:21.009 --> 00:30:26.559 emptiness. Out of that he shows me the sacrifice that covers my guilt and 336 00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:32.000 the fountain that satisfies my thirst and the bread of heaven that I may eat 337 00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:34.640 and live forever and be satisfied, and the light that is light in my 338 00:30:34.710 --> 00:30:41.990 darkness. And I come to be in Christ. And then he continues that 339 00:30:42.150 --> 00:30:47.150 same pattern in my whole Christian life. By the Holy Spirit, by circumstances, 340 00:30:47.190 --> 00:30:51.259 he creates diverse trials, not to wake me from death, but to 341 00:30:51.380 --> 00:30:57.099 awaken me from slumber, the slumber of everything's fine, and he pries out 342 00:30:57.140 --> 00:31:00.859 of my hands again again, all that I cling to that he might fill 343 00:31:00.940 --> 00:31:06.289 them with himself. And he has diverse means to do that, endless means. 344 00:31:07.609 --> 00:31:15.289 Broken relationships, strained relationships, a difficult child, a difficult parent, 345 00:31:15.529 --> 00:31:22.079 betrayal, a mean boss, chronic disease, financial crisis, unemployment, cancer, 346 00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:27.119 infertility, the death of a loved one, those are not enemies. 347 00:31:29.759 --> 00:31:33.430 Those are sent by God into our lives so that we might turn away from 348 00:31:33.670 --> 00:31:45.230 ourselves, super bankruptcy and file for his provision and his infinite sufficiency. Again 349 00:31:45.269 --> 00:31:49.099 and again. He is enough. He is enough and he is kind enough 350 00:31:51.180 --> 00:31:52.980 to want to teach us that, so we learn to walk by faith in 351 00:31:53.099 --> 00:32:00.220 him. He is enough, his word of promises enough, his salvation in 352 00:32:00.259 --> 00:32:00.099 Christ is enough.