Sermon Tone Analysis

Exodus 16:4 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.

5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”[1]

When God provides for us there is almost always instruction.

As much as He will teach us through adversity, He will teach us through His faithfulness.

I believe that this is God’s preferable method of teaching us.

Most of us however miss the lesson or forget it quickly and it would seem that we learn most effectively through adversity.

1.

\\ Learning to take what we need.

q      It is a daily activity, receiving from God.

He gives you today what you need today – not what you will need tomorrow.

q      What we need is no different than what anyone else needs.

There was a specific measure.

There are times when we would like to justify our consumption by insisting that we need more than others.

They were to take on omer (about two quarts) per person in the family.

If you could take inventory of your life today and divide everything that you own into one of two categories, that which you absolutely cannot do without (needs) and that which you could survive without, you might appreciate more what you have been given.

q      Manna was God’s specific answer to their need, heavenly bread.

They saw it and didn’t know what was.

Thus the meaning of the name “manna” – /“What is it?”/

Christ was heaven’s specific answer to man’s need as well.

He still is today.

Regardless of what you may look backward and long for, God knows your need.

He knows that what you think will satisfy you, will only increase your longing.

The longer we try to satisfy our own needs the more desperate and disappointed we become.

They longed for the days in Egypt when they had plenty to eat.

They forgot that they suffered in bondage each day, working as slaves.

Jesus was God’s manna.

The Bread of Heaven.

John 6:31 Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ a”  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.

36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.[2]

*1*/      /In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2 He was with God in the beginning.

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood a it.

6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.

7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.

8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

b 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—  13 children born not of natural descent, c nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, d who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

[3]

 

What is the application here?

Basically that like these folks in the wilderness, we fail to see what God does for us and to accept it.

It is not so much that God does not hear and answer our prayers but that His answer does not meet with our approval and so we look for something else.

 

2.

Learning to use what we’ve got.

What God gives you is meant to be used today.

It is meant to be spent not saved.

Don’t hold back.

There are certain things that you can’t carry over into tomorrow.

We understand that with vacations or sick leave or time – what we don’t use well is forever gone.

Missed opportunities may never recur.

What was left over from what they had been given went bad.

If the daily provision of manna was just enough then for people to have something left meant that on the previous day they failed to consume what they needed.

Therefore they forsook their daily needs in favor of imagined needs on the next day.

They were “rationers”.

! Present Tense

 

\\ It was spring

But it was summer I wanted,

The warm days,

And the great outdoors.

It was summer,

But it was fall I wanted,

The colorful leaves and the cool dry air.

It was fall,

But it was the winter I wanted,

The beautiful snow,

And the joy of the holiday season.

It was winter,

But it was spring I wanted,

The warmth

And the blossoming of nature.

I was a child,

But it was adulthood I wanted.

The freedom,

And the respect.

I was 20

But it was 30 I wanted,

To be mature,

And sophisticated.

I was middle-aged,

 But it was 20 I wanted,

The youth,

And the free spirit.

I was retired,

But it was middle-aged I wanted,

The presence of mind,

Without limitations,

My life was over.

But I never got what I wanted.

\\  

The Present is the point at which Time touches Eternity.

Of the present moment -- and of it only -- humans have an experience analogous to the experience which God has of reality as a whole; in it alone, freedom and actuality are offered them.

He would therefore have them continually concerned either with Eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present -- either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself; or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.

... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Screwtape Letters

 

How many spiritual gift tests will you take before you begin to use what you have been given.

What are spiritual gifts?

They are abilities, talents, particular driving passions that you have for a certain activity or cause or “thing”.