So Great a Deliverance Part 1

Exodus 15. Exodus 15 verse 13. You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. Well, good evening again. It's a blessing to be back in this book. This is our our fourth week. It's our fourth message into this great book, this great picture of redemption and deliverance and worship. First message that we gave was an introductory to the book and I explained that we were going to divide this book into three parts, hence the name of the series.

So after that introductory message, the first two weeks we dealt with the redemption and how Jesus is our Passover lamb, our perfect substitute. We saw that Christ as our Passover lamb, his blood is spread on the cross just as the Hebrew people took the blood of a spotless lamb and smeared this blood on the doorpost. We also saw that Christ when he came, he was baptized in the grave in a sense. He was dead and he was buried in three days.

He was resurrected and just as Christ and just as the Old Testament people of Israel passed through the Red Sea, they were baptized into the death and burial and resurrection of Christ as we are upon our salvation. But I want you to see that tonight we move in in part two. And so we're going to be looking at the deliverance. God delivered Israel from Pharaoh. He delivered them from bondage and tyranny, lawlessness and idolatry. And this is the way you lived before your conversion to Christ. If you're a New Testament believer here tonight, you had lived in the bondage of sin from the tyranny of a cruel slave master of sin.

You were enslaved into the lawlessness of this world. Sin and righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit convicted you of idolatry. We saw last week that there were 10 judgments for 10 different gods or false gods worshipped in Egypt. But I want you to see that just as they were delivered from Pharaoh, they were delivered directly into the desert. The desert, as we're going to see, is a perfect metaphor for your Christian life. The desert is a place of providential leading. You cannot live into the world and live in the world of as a Christian if you're not led.

So we'll see that the Old Testament people were led by a pillar of fire at night and a cloud in the day. Now, I want you to see that this leading this cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night, they're one and the same. I guess growing up, I thought that they were two separate things, but it was one cloud. And just as the sun descended in the West, this cloud by day began to glow and it was a pillar. It's referred to as the angel of the Lord. And so this just means this was a signal of God's divine presence.

And any time they looked up, if they were to doubt the presence of God, all they had to do was to look at this pillar of fire at night and the cloud by day. But this desert is not just the place of providential leading. It's a place of purging. And such is your Christian life. When you go through difficulties, you will see that this desert experience of our world will purge us. It's going to purge you of flesh. It's going to purge you of pride. It's going to purge you of self-reliance. It's going to purge you of unbelief. And tonight we're going to look at each of these things as they are purged from the Israelites.

One thing I want you to know is that God purged Israel, not just of unbelief, but unbelievers. If you were to read through Exodus, as I'm challenging you all to read, even if you haven't started, it would be a perfect place. Just everything that we've gone over, even in this review, we'll get you started and how to frame the book. The first 15 chapters, picture redemption, right from chapter 15, verse 24 on into chapter 24, we see deliverance. And we will unpack that so you can catch up. It's easy. I have some resources available if you'd like those.

But in Exodus 12, 28 scripture notes that there was a mixed multitude that went out with Egypt, out of Egypt with Israel. And there's been a lot of debate by scholars as to who were this mixed multitude. If you have a King James version, you will hear it. Other translations refer to it as a mixed rabble. It's not a very positive term. Matthew Henry notes that in every congregation of believers, there are hypocrites. So we think of this mixed rabble. They could have been other slaves from other nations. Egyptians would have gathered slaves from all different countries. They could have been some Egyptians who just saw the writing on the wall.

They knew that things were not going to be good for them. So they simply listened to the instructions about the passover and they went out and they would have been with the camp. Now we have to believe that some of these mixed multitude, some of these people had to have been converts. So these were people who would have not only started to celebrate the passover as commanded, they would become believers in the sense that they would obey the law. In the New Testament, we see a temple. There was a court of the Gentiles. And it's important to bring this out because God always intended that his people would be a missional people.

They were allowed to go out. However, some of these multitudes were not believing. In fact, scripture later says that they led Israel into sin. They started longing for food and pots of meat in Israel and they stirred up God's people to disbelieve and disobey. But I want you to see that this desert was a place of providential leading and purging unbelief, but it was also a place of praise. And just continuing through our introduction tonight, I want you to see that our theme verse is a worship song. If you read Exodus 15, you'll see just as soon as Pharaoh and his chariots were completely drowned, they begin this awesome worship song.

And Exodus 15, 13 is spontaneous and it is heart filled. Brother Chris told us last Sunday morning that Noah was a man who had failure, but he was a man of worship and he builds an alder to God spontaneously and he worshiped. And that's what we should do when we see God purge us of sin and we see him deliver us, our hearts will be moved to worship him. But the desert is also a place of provision. So with that, I want to ask you to turn back to your other verse that I read tonight, Deuteronomy chapter three, verses nine through 10. Deuteronomy chapter three, excuse me, Deuteronomy 32 verses nine through 10.

But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob, his allotted heritage. He found him in a desert land and in the howling waste of the wilderness. He encircled him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye. What we're going to study tonight is the Lord's provision, how he provided in so many different ways. If you look at this desert, it was referred to in Deuteronomy as a waste of wilderness. And you see a picture of God providing care. He encircled him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.

So what I want you to see is if you've been blood bought and if you have been rescued out of the tyranny of your old life and God's baptized you, you're identified with Christ and his death, burial and resurrection. You are living a life no matter what trial comes your way. The Lord is going to use this to purge you, to purify you, but he will provide for you. And I think it's important as we look into this day that we're living in with such trial, whether it's unrest politically, whether it is turmoil between people, groups and ethnicities and races, or whether it is a global pandemic. We have to see that these things are not accidents.

God is going to provide our greatest need through these times. If you can also, if you would turn to the book of Jeremiah, chapter two, I wanted to use this verse because this verse gives a beautiful picture of how the Lord provided. In the book of Jeremiah, God sends the prophet to speak to this people. And God is saying this people at this point in time in their history, they have rebelled. They have returned from the Lord. They have turned into idols and wicked idolatry. And Jeremiah is speaking the very words of God and he's saying to the people.

Jeremiah, chapter two, verse six, they did not say, where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt? Who led us in the wilderness? And if you have your copy of God's word, and if you would highlight this or underline this, listen to this description. One of my most favorite descriptions of the wilderness journey in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through and no man dwells. I can remember the first time I came across this verse. I was actually waiting for Brother Chris. We were going to have a late night prayer meeting is the case.

It just so happened at this time in our journey. We were praying at midnight. We would start at 10 o'clock and pray till midnight. And I was waiting on him. He's running a little late and I came across this verse and it just struck me. That's been almost 20 years ago. This would have been 2004. And what strikes me about this verse is that this is a place where no one travels. This is a place where no one can live. And I want to frame, this is a lengthy introduction, but I want to frame our message tonight with this. The desert wilderness is a life that no unbeliever can live.

This is a place, the wilderness was a place where no, nobody traveled, no one could live. And your Christian journey is a life that no unbeliever can live. No unbeliever wants to live. And we need to frame that because the Christian journey in a wilderness and we are pilgrims, we are, this is not our home. We are passing through. And the life that you endeavor to live through trial, through difficulty is a life that's not cut out for everybody. The Bible says many are called, few are chosen. And this desert life, living solely dependent on the providence of God, depending on him completely, not everybody is going to live that life.

So what I want to do tonight is I want to show you our main truths. We've got four main truths tonight. And I want you to see the message title. These are lessons from the desert, lessons from the desert. So our lessons that I think will fit very well in your Christian journey, lessons that you can immediately begin to take with you. The first major truth, the first lesson we need to learn from the desert. God is mighty to save and he is mighty to deliver. God is faithful to provide and reprove. That is to correct. God alone satisfies his people. And major truth number four, God sustains his people. So major truth.

Number one, God is mighty to save and mighty deliver. This is mighty to deliver. This is what we need to learn as we study the deliverance. I want you to see tonight that the God of your salvation is the God of your sanctification. If God is big enough to save you out of your sin, the way you used to live, then he's got to be big enough to sustain you through, no matter what happens. And we have to trust that he is capable of delivering us because when you go through trials, you're going to be tempted to handle trials in an unchristian manner. You're going to be tempted to handle trials and difficulty the way you want to handle them.

We're going to talk a lot about grumbling tonight. What is the difference between a difficult situation that is a trial and is a test and grumbling? Some may see that as a very fine line, but scripture makes it very, very clear. There is a chasm between bringing legitimate concerns to God and grumbling. And we're going to spell that out tonight. But you do need to know how I'm going to break this down. There are 10 wilderness tests, and I will speak to each of these tonight under different set sub points. So the 10 wilderness tests are not times that God tested Israel. These are times when Israel tested God.

God says to the people of Israel through Moses, you tested me 10 times. And if you understand a little bit about what's going on, what is their attitude, what is their behavior, you will begin to see how we can test God if we're not careful. And what is the difference between Job, who was blameless when he had great trial and the people of Israel who tested God? So the first, I want you to see in these 10 wilderness tests, we're going to look at the first test. And this will help us see that God is mighty to save and mighty to deliver. Now, it's going to be important for you to study on this. I can't go through and read all these tests.

It would take too much time. So I'm just going to give you where the portion of scripture and ask you to go and study them. The first test, first time they grumbled against God in a sinful way is in Exodus 14, Chapter 10, verse 12. Exodus 14, 10 to 12. They're at the Red Sea, and Pharaoh is descending upon him with his greatest army. It's actually all of his charioteers and his horses. I've preached a sermon on this before. I entitled it the long road out of Egypt. And God instructs Moses to turn south instead of taking the quickest route to the land of Canaan, which was only about 20 miles.

He tells Moses to turn south and they go on the bank of the Red Sea. And this triggers arrogant thoughts in Pharaoh that they have taken a wrong turn, that they are actually lost. They're hemmed in by the Red Sea and he has a change of heart. He's going to get revenge and he will gain victory over the God of Israel. But this is God's trap. He's ensnaring Pharaoh and the people see Pharaoh descending upon them towards the banks of the Red Sea and they become furious. Actually, they become very terrified and it says they grumbled against God.

Now let me say, I think you can see it is not wrong to be scared when you're in an impossible situation. In your Christian life, it is not wrong. At what point do they sin? The point when they blend their fear with unbelief, you will see a host of emotions that Egyptians face. But what separates it grumbling and simply the emotions that we have in the Christian life is when we mix them with unbelief. They combine this fear with unbelief. The second test that you will see, God delivers them through the Red Sea. He wipes Pharaoh out. He wipes out the largest, the most devastating military on the face of the earth. God destroys it unequivocally.

And the Israelites are at the banks of the Red Sea there and they praise the Lord. They have this worship session, spontaneous, it's glorious, and they go three days without water and it's a second test. They finally get to a place called Mara. And I have this sermon available on our website. You can search Brother Keith's sermons if you want to look at this. But basically, they found that the water was bitter and they grumbled against Moses. Scripture says in Exodus 15, 22 to 24, "And the people murmured against Moses, saying, 'What shall we drink?' Then he cries to the Lord, the Lord shows him a tree." This is a wood.

This piece of wood was actually dead wood. I spell out significance of that in the sermon. But essentially, the water was made drinkable. I won't spend a lot of time here. You have a sermon that you could go and listen to if you wanted to. But the point of this is that Mara was simply 30 miles from the Red Sea. And six miles from their destination was a place called Elam. That's where God was leading them. And Elam had 12 springs, one for every tribe and all their livestock and all their children, everything they would need. And there were palm trees.

So it's not just satisfaction of water, but there was shade from the beating heat of the sun. It was literally exactly what God was leading them to. So you see them just throw up their hands and they really become inconsolable and unable to be led. God miraculously shows Moses a piece of wood. He throws it into the into the bitter water. The bitter water is made sweet. It's not just drinkable, but it is refreshing. But this is the second time. This is important for us to see. Here's some some verses. Psalm 63 one, Oh, God, thou art my God early.

Will I seek thee my soul thirst this thirst for you, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Christian, there is no water for you in this world apart from Christ. And praise God that there is nothing to satisfy us in this world. The only thing that could satisfy them was a miraculous movement of God. And there will come times in your Christian journey where you will be parched. You will find this longing for supernatural living water. And you will look to your left and to your right and you will find nothing to satisfy. And what's interesting is that after this grumbling, the Lord makes a covenant with him.

He says there he made a statute for them in an ordinance that there he proved them and said, if thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord, God, thy God, and will do that which is right in his sight and will give ear to his commandments and keep his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I brought about the Egyptians. He actually says, guys, settle down. You have great water here. Settle down. If you just listen to me, I'm your healer, Jehovah, Raph, I'm your healer. I want you to see a second major truth tonight. God is faithful to provide and reprove. God is faithful to provide and reprove.

We fast forward to the third wilderness test, the third time they test God. This is Exodus 16 verses one through three. After they experience a refreshing time at Elam, interesting one side note, God did not speak to them any new word while they were at Elam. Isn't that interesting? They're in this desert, the heat is beating. This is a place no one can travel and survive. And yet, God speaks to them when they're at Mara. He doesn't give them a new word when they're at Elam. Sometimes we have to be most uncomfortable to hear a word from God. But in the third wilderness test, they're back in a desert. This is called the desert of sin.

And so again here, they hungered. They hungered and they grumbled against God. Is it a sin to be hungry? No, it's not a sin. Is it a sin to go to Moses and say, Moses, we need food. The people need food. Can we pray and ask the Lord for food? That's not a sin. It is in their spirit when they combine the hunger with disbelief. So at this grumbling, this is the introduction of manna. So God gives them manna from heaven. I want you to note that manna is small. It's small in diameter. It's round. It's satisfying. And it's on the ground for important characteristics of manna.

Because just as manna is small, Christ, not physically small, but he lowered himself. Scripture tells us that being in the form of man, being like man, he considered God not as something to be grasped. Equality with grasp, Philippians says, that he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. He lowered himself. He became small. Manna was round, meaning it had no rough edges. Christ was holy. He had no rough edges. The holiness, the roundness of the manna can be seen in Christ being holy. You could pick manna off the ground and you could eat it. It was satisfying. It literally was everything that you needed to sustain yourself.

Now there were instructions. If you wanted to cook manna, you could bake it. You could cook it with oil. You could, you know, even today there are people who take the word of God and they do marvelous things with it. They unpack the word of God. They can, for instance, you could say that a pastor who's gifted in the word prepares. He prepares the manna from heaven and he prepares it so that we may eat it. But also you should know that there is enough truth in this word of God. You ought to be able to wake up in the morning and open it up and be satisfied. And that's what manna is. It's small like Christ. It's round like Christ.

It is satisfying like Christ. A manna was found on the ground. This is a posture of humility. When you see Christ, where is he early in the morning? He's on the ground on his face praying. The scripture tells us in Luke, so we get a picture of his prayer life. The disciples found Christ every morning, early in the morning. So manna can be seen as a type of Christ and we cannot live in this desert without it. You cannot live without the word of God. But this takes us to the fourth wilderness test. Exodus 16 verses 19 through 20. Exodus 16 verses 19 through 20.

Again, in the desert of sin, they paid no attention to Moses concerning the storing of manna until the morning. God had told them that basically they were not supposed to store manna. They were supposed to rely on him every day. So they could, you can't stockpile manna. You're supposed to get only as much as you need for your family. And they didn't listen. And so this became infested with maggots and worms and it became disgusting. But they grumbled and God was very angry because they were not listening to him. The fifth wilderness test also in Exodus 16, you can find this in verses 27 to 30.

They disregarded Moses concerning gathering the manna on the seventh day. You were supposed to gather twice as much as you needed Saturday evening or all day Saturday. You're supposed to gather twice as much as you normally needed and not gather any. Someone disregarded this and gathered on the seventh day. They grumbled against God and God, scripture says they tested God and he was angry. So I want you to see that God is faithful to provide and reprove. In your Christian journey, you must depend on him daily for your needs and you must receive his correction. The Lord says that he chastens those whom he loves.

It is his love that corrects you. It is his love that pinpoints areas in your life that are wrong, that need to be fixed. We will be corrected when we sit to receive manna every Sunday morning, Wednesday night. We will sit and receive manna at a Bible study, maybe on our own as we listen to sermons or we read books. But you've got to depend on the Lord opening up your copy of God's word daily. This leads us to the third truth tonight that God alone satisfies his people. This takes us to the sixth wilderness test, Exodus 17.

There are many, many things in Exodus that we're skipping over, but I think if you understand the 10 wilderness test, you understand a great deal about the book. Here they again complained about water. In fact, scripture in the New Testament refers to the waters of of Massa and Meribah, where they called God into question, where they murmured against him. In fact, Paul tells the Corinthian church not to grumble as the Israelites did at the waters of Meribah, 1 Corinthians 10. This is important that you see that there is nothing in the in the world that will satisfy you apart from God and Christ himself.

You might remember Jesus on the cross said, I thirst. He was given a solution of wine and vinegar and he spat this out. And nothing can satisfy our thirst when we need it the most. There was nothing that Roman centurion could put on a sponge and give to Jesus that would satisfy him, but God and his work. As we move to the fourth and final major truth tonight, we need to see that God not only is mighty to save and deliver, he's not only faithful to provide and reproof. He alone satisfies his people, but God sustains his people. He sustains them in a few different ways that will bring out in this book. He sustains them through prayer.

I want you to see that God sustains Israel through prayer. If you look into Exodus chapter 17, we see that the descendants of Amalek came and fought Israel. Now, the Amalekites were actually descendants of Esau. You might remember from my sermon two weeks back, Esau was Jacob's brother. Esau forfeited his birthright. Although he was the heir, he forfeited this birthright and his descendants would become enemies of Israel. And they came and fought Israel. The scripture says that we don't hear any record of them grumbling, but there are two battles that are happening at one time.

While Joshua is leading one battle in the valley, Moses is fighting another battle on the mount top. He raises his staff and every time his staff is lowered, the Israelites are defeated. This certainly would be worth greater study. But these two battles are waging and actually the battle on the mount top is more important. Moses is raising the rod of God. It's no longer the rod of Moses. It sees being the rod of Moses when it became a snake and he picks it up. It's the rod of God. And he's raising the rod of God. And every time the rod is elevated, the Israelites are victorious. But every time he lowers this, they are defeated.

This is a picture of Christ's intercession for us. If Christ is not interceding for us, we've got no hope. But whereas Moses lowered his arm, he is an imperfect picture of Christ. He's an imperfect mediator. Jesus, the perfect mediator never fails. That's why scripture says that he ever liveth to make intercession. So I want you to see that however imperfect he was, Moses solicited the help of two men. These are both men who were beyond fighting years. They were in the age range of Moses. They're 80 plus. One of them is Aaron. The other is her. So Aaron is the high priest. He ought to be a prayer if you're the high priest.

And the next is her. I mentioned this in my first introductory message. Her had a famous grandson. His grandson was Basil. Basil was literally a spirit-filled artisan. God's filled him with the spirit of God to fashion the instruments of worship. The tabernacle, the ornamented purple covering of the tabernacle, the garments that the priests wore, the Ark of the Covenant. All that was fashioned by this great man, Basil. And he had a great godly grandfather who was a grandfather who prayed. And this picture of every time Moses became weary, he just couldn't keep his arm lifted. So what did Aaron and her do?

They grabbed a rock he could sit down on. And each of them grabbed one arm and they took turns. They helped him constantly. I think this is a good picture of church leadership. You know, not that we hold Christ's intercession up. That's not the case. But your leadership in a church have got to be men of prayer who pray and weep for the battle that's going on. Wherever you serve in the church, your role is important. You may be a front-line worker taking care of the nursery. Or you may be someone who is a hospitality ministry. Or you may be someone who's teaching. You may be someone who is serving acts of mercy, acts of service.

One thing I know about your pastor is that he weeps for you. He weeps and prays for this congregation is as do I. Your pastor prays for you. And we pray for you with a burden that God has given us for this group of people. While you are serving, please remember this intercession. Join, please pray for us. Because our arms do get weary as well. I want you to see that God sustained Israel through intercession. But also God sustained Israel through his faithfulness. God was faithful. So this takes us to the seventh test. You might be the most familiar of this one. This is at Mount Sinai.

Moses has been away for 40 days and he is receiving the law of God. The people go to Aaron, this man of prayer, this high priest, and they say, we don't know where this Moses is. Make gods for us. What does Aaron do? He listens. God is incensed and he tells Moses what is going on. And what do you see? Moses begins interceding for the people. This is another picture of Christ. When we have failed, Jesus is interceding for us. Exodus 21, 1 through 35. At Mount Sinai, as Aaron led the people in making the golden calf, Moses was on the top of the mountain interceding once again.

Now one thing you need to know is the people justified this desire for idolatry by saying Moses had been gone so long and that God perhaps had left him. But one thing is important to know is that the cloud never moved from over the tabernacle. While Moses was away for 40 days, God in his presence and the signal that he was with them never ceased. Really what this was, is this was people who wanted idolatry. The pillar of fire at night never left. The cloud by day remained where it always did, which was over the tabernacle. But yet this is a sign God never left his people. We look to the ninth test.

Now unfortunately you have to get into another book. You have to leave the book of Exodus to see the rest of the story. But I wanted to give you these Bible references so that you can study this some more. The ninth test happened at Kibroth Hatava. Let me go back. The eighth test, excuse me, the eighth test happens in Numbers chapter 11 at Tebere where the people raged against the Lord. At this point they actually wanted to stone Moses. The whole congregation lifted up their voices and cried out that night and the people wept.

And all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt or if only we had died in the wilderness." Can you imagine a person who's been saved, active in the church, can you imagine them saying, "You know I really miss my lost days. You know I really miss those parties. You know I really miss all those ungodly movies and the ungodly music." That's what they were saying. They, what were they thinking? All you had to do was just go back. We can go back and read Exodus and look at the tyranny of Pharaoh. Pharaoh was not a nice guy.

He did not deal kindly with the Hebrews. You know when we go through trial we can handle it with faith and trust or we can murmur. Also in Hebrews 11 verses 4 to 34, excuse me, Numbers 11 verses 4 through 34, we see the night test. This was at Kibrath, Hatava, and the grumbling provoked by the rabble for quail. So you had this mixed multitude that went out with Israel. They missed the food in Egypt and they began grumbling and they stirred up the congregation of Israel and they began to say, "Oh we had pots of meat." So in judgment God actually sent quail again for the second time but he sent more than they could possibly handle.

He actually sent about two gallons height of quail and it covered the ground. So remember this would all spoil if they didn't use it. So they actually had to work and work and work to gather all this quail and then they had to dress the quail and cook the quail to the point that they became sick of it. This was judgment and this leads us to the 10th test. This is also one you are probably familiar with in Numbers chapter 14 verses 1 through 3, "Kedesh in the desert of Puran when the people refused to receive the good report of Joshua and Caleb." Now all 12 spies that were sent into the land of Canaan came back and said, "The land is great.

It's everything that we could dream of and more." But only two of the 12 spies had faith and believed that God could deliver the enemy and this was the last straw and with this test the Lord sent them to 40 more years in the wilderness. In conclusion I want you to see that the desert will reveal your hidden pride. And here's some some lessons that I draw out from Exodus. Practical lessons of application and you can immediately begin meditating on these in the scripture verses and I want you to see that the desert will reveal your hidden pride.

When you go through trial, heartache, now I want you to see that difficulties that the Israelites went through are legitimate needs. Hunger, thirst, security, safety, these are legitimate needs but when God brought them through difficulty and trial they grumbled. So the desert reveals our hidden pride. Secondly the desert reveals our need for a God. We may not have a pillar of fire at night in the cloud by day but we have God's Word. We have the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit dwelling within the believer is the guide. In fact, Holy Spirit is the per clitos. He's the comforter. He is the one who comes beside.

It is impossible to live your life without the Holy Spirit. He's granted at repentance and belief, at salvation. The Holy Spirit is given to the believer. I do think however if you're not in prayer and if you're not reading the Word, if you're not seeking the Lord, I think it is very, very possible to grumble against the Lord and to miss this Spirit's leading and reassurance. Now remind you the Israelites descended into pagan revelry and that picture of God's presence was right there in the middle of the camp. So we can get distracted in the things of our busyness when you're wrapped up in our emotions and we can totally miss God's per clit.

The desert also reveals lessons that we must remember. I want you to think with me on our verse in Joshua in Jeremiah. God held the Hebrews accountable because they didn't remember their testimony. When God does something special in your life, He expects you to remember it. You know what's a good way to remember special things that God has done for you and in your life? Tell people. This has been something that's been a habit for my wife and I when the Lord worked in very, very unique ways to bring us each of our three children.

It would stir up conversations in town and my wife would come home and tell me about all the people that she had been witnessing to while I was at work and sharing because our family makeup looked a little bit unique and a little bit different, but this was just something that God did so that we could proclaim it and we proclaimed every opportunity we could. And as you simply share a testimony of God's provision, you will remember it. It will become part of who you are. We actually will be in sin if we forget everything the Lord did for us in our conversion. From time to time when I preach, I look out and I see the testimonies.

I see things that God has done. And I think about where Moses would have been if he's looking at his people and they're grumbling and they're complaining. And the whole time he's thinking, how did they not remember what he did to Pharaoh? How did they not remember the time where I struck the rock and water came out at Miraba? How could they not remember the time when they were hungry and the Lord gave them manna? He's still giving us manna. We need a provider and a guide and we need to remember. And fourth, the desert reveals that our only goodness is in Christ. Along the way, we see Aaron fall. We see Moses fall.

We see the leaders of the community in this group, they sin. This is a reminder that there is no goodness within us but Christ. Finally, the desert leads us to worship. We should have spontaneous moments when we think of all he's done for us and we're simply moved to worship. The scripture tells us that in 40 years, the thongs of their sandals did not wear out. Can you imagine that? Walking on the heat of a place is so hot people couldn't even travel and their shoes did not wear out. Now why would God provide them with shoes and sustain their shoes and not sustain their souls?

This is encouragement for us because as you go through trial and difficulty, tragedy and heartache, trial both inward and outward, the Lord is faithful to meet you in this. He has not abandoned you. The world will never feed you spiritually. Entertainments, sports, recreation, politics, our lack of loving or hating politics, endless twitter wars, media recreations and sports, hunting and fishing, video games. These don't provide water. These do not provide water. Are they wrong? Absolutely not. But they become wrong when they are added with unbelief, when they are a substitute.

We as travelers, we look for a city whose architect and builder is God, Hebrews 11 10. I want to encourage you to find Christ to be enough. Find him to be glorious at his right hand or pleasures evermore. As we close tonight, as we dismiss and leave and go home, let us be faithful to find him and to find him more than enough in the morning as we gather manna. As we look up and see the spirit is with us, we hear the still small voice of the Periclet.