Introduction
The Lord Provides
By SermonCentral
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You’ve probably heard the story about an elderly Christian lady, who lived next to an affirmed atheist. She didn’t have much as received a meager social security survivor’s benefit.
Although, she had enough money only for most basic meal plans, daily she would open her windows to give thanks in prayer to God.
Once month the social security check was over two weeks late, putting her in a real tight situation. But no matter what, she still praised God for taking care of this need.
Her neighbor, sitting on his porch, overheard her praying, “Lord although I don’t have any food but you will provide.”
Well, her neighbor thought this was great opportunity to prove to her there no God. So, he hurried to store, bought a carload of groceries.
When he got home, he put the groceries on her porch, rang doorbell hid in bushes in order to be able to jump out and surprise her when she opened the door and saw the groceries.
The elderly woman made her way to door. She opened door, saw all groceries and praised God.
Her neighbor jumped out of the bushes and said, “See, God is not real. I bought those groceries” to which the old woman replied, “I knew God would supply my needs, but I didn’t know he would make the devil pay for them.”
The Lord provides.
Jehovah - jirah.
A phrase first spoken in Scripture when Abraham was taking Isaac to be sacrificed. Instead God provided a ram, caught in a thicket.
God is our provider.
God provides.
Always does. Always will.
God provided for His people as they were leaving Egypt on their way to their new home.
And it started with fire.
We read about this in Exodus 13, starting with verse 20:
20 The Israelites left Succoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. 21 The Lord went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night. 22 And the Lord did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from its place in front of the people. (Exodus 13, NLT)
A pillar of fire. Now that had to be a sight to behold. I’ve seen some pretty big bonfires, but this would outshine them all. After all, it is estimated that there were around 1 million Israelites leaving Egypt and traveling East.
You’d have to have a pretty big flashlight for all of them to see the way at night.
But then again, God knows exactly what we need and that’s what He always provides.
The Psalmist, almost reminiscent of the travels in the wilderness, writes:
1 I look up to the mountains—
does my help come from there?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth!
3 He will not let you stumble;
the one who watches over you will not
slumber.
4 Indeed, he who watches over Israel
never slumbers or sleeps.
5 The Lord himself watches over you!
The Lord stands beside you as your
protective shade.
6 The sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon at night.
7 The Lord keeps you from all harm
and watches over your life.
8 The Lord keeps watch over you as you
come and go,
both now and forever.
(Psalm 121, NLT)
So let’s look at the travels of the Israelites this morning, briefly, and see what and how God provides.
1. First, we see that through the fire God provided light by which they could travel.
It was the exactly what the Israelites needed to travel through the wilderness at night.
And there were advantages for traveling at night, like:
• Cooler temperatures
• Moving 1 million people through the wilderness without being noticed
Armies today know the benefits of moving stealthily at night — having the benefit of night vision goggles.
Each step of the way, God lit their path.
A Mother Was Putting Her Little Four-year-old ...
By Lynn Malone
Copied from Sermon Central
A mom was putting her little four-year-old daughter to bed for the night. The child was afraid of the dark, and the mother, on this particular occasion, with her husband away, was a little afraid too.
When the light was out, the little girl caught a glimpse of the moon outside the window. “Mommy,” she asked, “is the moon God’s light?”
“Yes,” the mother said.
Then the child asked, “Will God put out his light and go to sleep?”
The mother replied, “No, dear, God never goes to sleep.”
Then, out of the simplicity of a child’s faith, the little girl said something which gave reassurance even to her mother: “Well, as long as God is awake, there is no sense both of us staying awake.” And off to sleep she went.
God’s light never goes out.
And as the Psalmist said, God does not sleep or slumber.
And He watches over our steps, keeping us from stumbling.
David reminded us that God’s word is a lamp for our feet, and a light for our path (Psalm 119:105).
Not much has changed, has it?
God is still there today, lighting the way before us.
God provides the compass, the GPS, the direction we need to go.
During Super Bowl Xxxvii, Fedex Ran A Commercial ...
By Raymond L. Johnson
Copied from Sermon Central
During Super Bowl 37, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie Castaway, in which Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker, whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years.
Looking like Tom Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a suburban home, package in hand. When the owner comes to the door, he explains that he survived 5 years on a deserted island, and during that whole time, he kept this package in order to deliver it to her.
She gives a simple, “Thank you.” However, he is curious about what is in the package that he has been protecting for years. He says, “If I may ask, what was in that package after all?”
She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, “Oh, nothing really. It is just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds.”
God provides all of those same things to us today — a connection to Him through prayer — a compass to guide our steps through His word. Seeds to spread the good news wherever we go.
We just need to make sure that we are following — reading the compass — going the direction that the pillar of fire in our lives is leading.
God provided the light that they needed while they needed it to guide them to where they needed to go. The references to the pillar of fire, and the pillar of cloud, cease when the Israelites arrived in the Promised Land. Why? Because God had provided the leading they needed when they needed it.
2. God provided their food while in the wilderness.
Now, there’s nothing worse on a road trip than being hungry, except for 1 million people being hungry.
Can you imagine the whining and complaining? The fussing?
So God does what God always does: He provides. In Exodus 16, we read:
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”
11 Then the Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the Israelites’ complaints. Now tell them, ‘In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will have all the bread you want. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”
17 So the people of Israel did as they were told. Some gathered a lot, some only a little. 18 But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed. (God provides!)
31 The Israelites called the food manna. It was white like coriander seed, and it tasted like honey wafers.
35 So the people of Israel ate manna for forty years until they arrived at the land where they would settle. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. (Exodus 16, NLT)
God provided the food that they needed while they needed it.
And who could have figured to have morning dew turn into basically bread every day?
It was God’s way — in God’s timing — in God’s providence — in ways the Israelites could have never imagined.
God provides us blessings each day to provide what we need in ways we could never imagine.
Sometimes we chalk it up to coincidence. But really it is God doing what God always does.
Let me share a story with you.
Manna From Heaven--a Thanksgiving Story" ...
By Mark Brunner
www.beechsprings.com
Copied from Sermon Central
A young couple stood in their driveway, basking in the glow of friendship, steeped in a feeling of deep appreciation, waving goodbye as a caravan of cars and trucks pulled out of their driveway. “Goodbye! Thanks for coming. Thanks for everything!” It had been an evening to remember, that would live on in their memories for years.
Times had been hard for their young family, especially over the last six months or so. Jim had lost his job early on in the year and Sally was pregnant again. With three mouths to feed already, a house payment, a truck payment, and numerous other bills to pay, the past few months had been very difficult. Sally had had to go back to work to supplement the meager part-time income that Jim was able to bring in. There were times when they simply didn’t know how they were going to get through tomorrow, let alone through the week or the month.
They tried not to look too far down the road anyway since that tended to frighten them more than reassure them. Now, just when things looked their bleakest, the holidays were approaching. There would be gifts to buy and somehow they needed to find a Christmas Tree. Thanksgiving? Well, there would be no turkey and the fixings this year. They would have to do with a nice meat loaf and be happy about it.
That’s when it happened. On Thursday morning after going to church, they had come home to find their driveway filled with cars and trucks. They were parked everywhere, even on the frozen lawn. Their little ranch house was ablaze with light and there was a barbecue chugging away in their open garage. They got out of their truck, looking at each other in amazement. “Where did all these cars and trucks come from and what are they doing in our house? There’s smoke coming from the garage, and ...” Jim’s amazement was cut short by the sudden appearance of a stout neighbor lady pushing through their side door cradling a bowl of potato shavings that she was about to toss into the garbage.
“They’re here!” she shouted. And suddenly, neighbors and friends began pouring from the little house like ants from a hill, descending upon the stunned couple and their children. Thanksgiving had arrived at their little house with the morning dew still wet on the ground. It was everywhere. The smells of baking turkey and cooling pies permeated the crisp autumn air.
Thanksgiving had arrived, that’s for sure; and it had come without any investment or labor at all. Friends had made it happen.
The young couple and their kids were royalty for the day. They were guests in their own house, a house that was bursting at the seams with warmth, bounty, and fellowship for the better part of the day.
Now, as all the guests departed, they returned to their now empty home. It seemed strangely quiet after hours of noise and commotion. The smells of food and drink still lingered there, but the only evidence of that bounty were the several bags of trash sitting placidly at the back door and a refrigerator filled with imprisoned, sleeping left-overs. The kids were already sleeping, even the dog seemed worn out from the day’s commotion. Jim and Sally were alone with their sudden silence.
As he put his arm around his beaming wife, a sudden expression of concern spread over his face. “You know,” he stated. “You know what I’m afraid our biggest problem is now?”
Sally looked up with an inquisitive smile. “What?”
“It’s making this last. I mean,” he paused. “I mean, not the leftovers. Those will be gone soon enough. I mean, the appreciation. For nearly the entire day we didn’t hardly think about ourselves at all.” He blurted, arms outstretching as if to embrace the whole scene. “Do you know how long it has been since that happened? We didn’t think about our troubles at all. The only thing that changed was the fact that we spent this entire Thanksgiving Day truly being thankful. And, I guess, when you are buried knee-deep in this kind of appreciation, you just can’t think that much about anything else.”
Sally looked into the living room at her oldest son sprawled out on the sofa. “I guess you’re right. I wish I could just box up the feeling I have now and keep it handy. I’m almost afraid how I might feel tomorrow. If I could just peek into the box a little every day, well, it would be a help.”
Jim held her closer, and closed his eyes in prayer. “We don’t need a box or anything else, honey. We’ve got each other, the kids, and we were blessed this day from heaven above. We didn’t do anything for it. It was, like, manna. You’ve just got to believe that it will be there again tomorrow. You just got to believe!”
Who could have imagined that day that when they went to church what they would come home to.
Who could have imagined bread showing up on the ground every morning in the wilderness.
Who could have imagined the phone call at just the right time with just the right offer.
Who could have imagined the unexpected check in the mail that covers the expenses for the month.
You see when we believe, when we trust God, when we put our complete faith in Him, God provides exactly what we need when we need it. Always has. Always will.
The Israelites didn’t need manna in the promised land.
But they did in the wilderness.
And so God provided.
3. Using the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud God provided shelter to His people in the wilderness.
Remember the words of the Psalmist:
5 The Lord himself watches over you!
The Lord stands beside you as your
protective shade.
6 The sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon at night. (Psalm 121, NLT)
During the summers growing up, I typically had three jobs — help with the mowing business my dad had, mow our yard, and keep the weeds out of the garden.
There was one yard we would mow for a widow. Looking back, I think I would almost call it a mini-farm. Between me mowing with the push mower around the house and my dad using the riding mower in the fields, it would take us almost 6 hours to do the entire job. It was a whole day.
But one of the things I liked about doing this job was the shade of the trees. She had rows and rows of trees that had to be mowed around with the push mower. I didn’t mind doing that so much because for a few minutes, I was out of the blazing hot sun.
In Ohio, along the Ohio River, it may be hot, but it was always extremely humid, making it feel a lot hotter than it actually was. If you did any work outside, you would always look for those ways to get cool, or find a break from the heat of the sun bearing down on you with no mercy.
If you’ve worked outside, you understand this.
You look for those opportunities to get out of the sun. And it’s always a blessing when a gigantic cloud passes over, and brings shade for long periods of time.
God in His wisdom, provided the shelter, the shade that the Israelites needed while they were traveling. I have seen some pretty impressive pictures of what scholars and artists have believed the pillar of cloud looked like. Some make it look like a wide paper airplane — with wide wings, pointing in the direction that they needed to go.
I believe that’s probably a pretty good representation.
God provides the shelter we need — from the sun — from the storm — from the ups and downs of life.
David wrote in Psalm 27:
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom
shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies
and my foes, came upon me to eat up
my flesh,
they stumbled and fell.
3 Though an host should encamp against
me, my heart shall not fear:
though war should rise against me, in
this will I be confident.
4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that
will I seek after;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to
enquire in his temple.
5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me
in his pavilion:
in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide
me;
he shall set me up upon a rock.
(Psalm 27, AKJV)
God is our pavilion — like what we are in today — to be out of the weather — to be out of the sun — to be out of the heat.
And in the storms, the pavilion keeps us safe and dry.
That shelter and protection that God provides will take many forms during the course of our lives.
As we studied last week, it could be an army of warriors in chariots of fire. In the time of the wandering in the wilderness, it could be a cloud.
Someone has once said that God’s wisdom will not lead us where His grace cannot keep us.
When our faith is in God, He will provide the shelter we need on our journey serving Him.
4. Through the pillar of fire, God provided security.
Back in Exodus 13, Scripture says that the Lord did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from its place in front of the Israelites.
The pillars of fire and cloud gave the Israelites a sense of security — God was always there — God was always watching over them.
God was accompanying them on this journey to their new home.
God was keeping watch, keeping His people secure, even when the enemy was right behind them.
Just a chapter over, we read this from Exodus 14:
19 Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to the rear of the camp. The pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood behind them. 20 The cloud settled between the Egyptian and Israelite camps. As darkness fell, the cloud turned to fire, lighting up the night. But the Egyptians and Israelites did not approach each other all night. (Exodus 14, NLT)
A secure barrier between us and the enemy.
God provided exactly what the Israelites needed as they were fleeing from Egypt — as they began the long journey to their new home.
Conclusion
So, this morning, whether it is a million people, or a million bills, God has promised to provide exactly what we need when we need it.
God provides in His way in His time.
God could have provided Moses and the Israelites with a map. God could have provided some other means to get them from Egypt to Canaan. But in His divine wisdom and providence, He chose what they needed at that moment for that moment.
We certainly will find ourselves in a wilderness in life — sometimes even wandering around aimlessly, without a point of reference.
A POINT OF REFERENCE
James Merritt
Copied from Sermons.com
It’s like what the English government did During World War II. The English government knew that Hitler was planning to invade the British Islands. They encouraged their people to prepare for the invasion and they did several things: they boasted their defenses, they put guards on constant watch, and they developed early warning systems and evacuation routes.
But the government did one more thing — it passed a law requiring every community to take down all the road signs and any sign that named any town or village. You see, the leaders knew the Germans had maps of England, but if they couldn't locate themselves on those maps, they would be slowed in their progress as they approached London. Without any sign or any point of reference, the troops would just wander aimlessly around.
The world does that to us. It takes our roads signs away. And we live our lives lost; not knowing where we are and don't know how to get to where we need to go, so husbands and wives will wander away from their marriages. Children will wander away from their parents. People will walk off cliffs of drugs, alcohol, or materialism. Sheep need guidance. We need direction and leadership.
This morning, here’s a trustworthy statement: If we trust God, He will provide the path and the light to the path we need to travel, provide the direction in which we should go, provide safety along the journey, and provide final passage to the promised land awaiting us. And it is that final destination that will be our reference point.
God provided the salvation from slavery that the Israelites needed.
God provides the salvation from sin we need.
It all starts with belief.
Then trust.
Then surrender.
Then walking with God each and every day that we live.
And one day, He will bring us beside the cool waters of the river of life, waters that flow through the land of promise — the land of security — the land of home.
Are we following the Light of the world this morning? Or are we meandering through life in darkness?
