Promise To Provision

For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, the Messiah, Who has been preached among you by us, by myself, Slvanus and Timothy, was not Yes and No; but in Him it is (always the divine) Yes. For as many as are the promises of God, they all find their Yes (answer) in Him (Christ). For this reason we also utter the Amen (so be it) to God through Him—that is, in His Person and by His agency—to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 1:19-20 (Amplified)

A. PROMISE

CHILDREN OF ISRAEL

a. You shall inherit the Promised Land (Exodus 3:8-10).

b. God’s promise is not the end of the story, but the beginning of the journey.

c. We have to be cautious that we do not camp at the promise and never move beyond that place. God wants to take us on a journey to the provision, but we can limit Him by staying put.

d. We have to decide if we will stay where we currently are or if we will trust God to take us to a new place.

1. PERSECUTION

a. Tougher assignment is given to them (Exodus 5:6-14).

b. Persecution will come from those around you who do not want to see you receive the promise of God because it is of no benefit to them.

c. The persecution will come in when people don’t like the idea of you being promoted to a new place, and realizing who you are and who you can be. Far too many people are sitting idly by and being controlled by less than God’s best for them.

2. PROBLEMS

a. The waters of Marah were bitter (Exodus 15:23).

b. As you set out toward the provision of God’s promise, things won’t always be perfect or instantly get better.

c. Your vision must be long range, and therefore unable to be deterred by short term setbacks or disappointments.

3. POWER OF GOD

a. The Red Sea was parted (Exodus 14:19-31).

b. The Lord delights in showing Himself strong on behalf of His people!

c. During the journey from His promise to the provision, there will be times of difficulty or even setback, but God is in the business of working through His power to bring deliverance and victory to His people.

4. PRESENCE OF GOD

a. The Lord comes down on the mountain (EXODUS 19:10-25).

b. The Captain of the Host appears to Joshua (JOSHUA 5:13-15).

c. On this journey to God’s provision, He will come in His presence to speak comfort and direction as well as to take us one step closer to the destination.

d. He will lead with a cloud by day and a fire by night. His presence is there no matter the circumstance, in exactly the way that His presence is needed.

5. PROTECTION OF GOD

a. The Lord rains hailstones on the enemies of His people and causes the sun to stand still (JOSHUA 10:9-15).

b. God will go to great lengths to fight for and protect His children from harm, even to the point of altering His own creation.

B. PROVISION

a. Division of the land begins (JOSHUA 13).

b. God’s people see the provision of God’s promise.

c. God’s provision does not always come in the way we expect or when we expect, but it always comes.

d. We are living in a microwave society, but we serve a crock-pot God.

e. We have got to learn to hold on to the promise and believe for the provision – trusting God to be faithful.

f. Far too many people have stopped short of their promise. Too many churches have stopped short of their promised lands.

g. The danger of God’s power, presence and protection is that if we are not careful, we can mistake those things for His provision. They are part of the journey – they are being used by God to bring us into the new place He has promised to us.

*When God brings you out of something, He is taking you into something better. The journey may not be easy, but the destination is great. We can’t cling to yesterday. We can’t sacrifice God’s best on the altar of the good. We can’t settle and allow incomplete provision to satisfy us.

Story to Illustrate:

Around about age 11 or 12, we were taking a trip to Bowling Green, KY.  My parents had decided that would be a good place to take my nephew and I. They had promised us some really great things that we would do once we got there. We set out with a real excitement. It was about a 3-hour drive, but my dad could turn it into 7. Along the way, my nephew and I kept complaining about the length of the trip, and saying how we were never going to get there, and maybe Bowling Green wasn’t worth it after all. My dad finally got tired of the complaining and we ended up stopping in a small Kentucky town that had nothing to do. We stayed for one night and went home. As we complained that we were bored and that the trip was a waste and we didn’t have anything to do, my Dad told us that we got as far as we were willing to go, and the trip was exactly what we had asked for. Because we were unwilling to wait, we didn’t get to enjoy the cool things that we had been promised. We were stuck with just spending the night in some motel.

How many of us have done this same thing with God; and missed out on the great things He has promised us?