We continued this week in our series, “Is This It?” where
we have been discussing the wilderness lessons that must be learned in
order to be prepared for life in the Promised Land.
Before
we got into this week’s lesson we pointed out a couple traps that are
common for us to fall into while in the wilderness. The first is
grumbling and bitterness. Three days into the process, the Israelites
began grumbling and complaining. The word used in Exodus 15:24 to
describe their grumbling was the Hebrew word, luwn. It means to grumble
and complain, but it also means to dwell and abide.
We
all speak out of frustration sometimes. But do not fall into the trap
of becoming one who dwells and abides in grumbling and complaining. The
solution that God gave was to have Moses throw a piece of wood
(representing the cross) into the bitter water at Marah (meaning bitter)
to make it sweet so that the people could drink and stop complaining.
We
can see the bitter water as other people – even in the church. What we
must do is apply the cross, or grace, to others so that we learn to see
them as God sees them. If we become grumblers and complainers about the
problems in others in the church, it will drive us out instead of in.
Sometimes we need to remember that if everything around us stinks, we
need to remember the common denominator – us! Maybe we need to change
our outlook.
The
next trap was the relapse. When we left Egypt (became born again) we
left the life of sin. However, that doesn’t mean we no longer sin. Out
nature changed, but our flesh still needs work. After we become
followers of Christ and leave the sin life we will still sin – sometimes
big time. Are you then just a hopeless sinner?
The
answer to that question comes from the fact that you even ask it. You
see, the way you know you ARE different is that you now feel this thing
called guilt. Before you were saved, there was no guilt when you sinned.
Guilt can be good. It is designed to give us that bad feeling that we
would like to not experience again – thereby driving us further from the
sin in the future.
Guilt
can malfunction. When it does, it drives us away from God. We step away
from His grace and feel unworthy. This will cause us to either live a
lowly, condemned Christian life or simply give up and go back to sin.
Instead we need to use it to inspire us to overcome.
Now,
the lesson… This one is related to the manna that God provided to the
Israelites in the wilderness. There were certain rules associated with
the handling and consumption of the manna. One is that , except for the
Sabbath, it could not be kept overnight. It could not be stored up.
There was fresh manna every day. We need fresh Word every day.
You
see, the Word is our bread. Jesus is the Word become flesh (John 1:14).
He tells us that He is the bread of life. In Matthew 4:4, when tempted
in the WILDERNESS, he quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 in saying that we do not
live by physical bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the
mouth of God. You need Word every day! Just Sunday or every other Sunday
or… well, you know, is not enough. You don’t have to be a Bible
scholar. Just a couple minutes in the Word every day will bring
tremendous spiritual nourishment to you.
The
second part of this lesson is that you need a shepherd. You see the
word manna, in Hebrew, means “what is this?”. You need the shepherd to
tell you what it is. You need a teacher. Of course Jesus is THE
shepherd. By the Holy Spirit He will reveal all truth about the Word. We
realize that just knowing WHAT the Bible says is not enough and can
lead to a lot of misunderstanding. We need teachers to help us learn and
divine the Word rightly.
This
does not mean every teacher, even the really good ones, are always
right. You still must have the Holy Spirit help you sort it all out. But
the church pastor has a job given by God to do the best he or she can
to teach the truth of AND about the Word. The pastors are not the actual
shepherds. They just work for him. This is another reason to get and
stay connected to a good church.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php.
To learn more about Living Word
Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
