men this chapter contains a pretty cool miracle of God feeding the people with
manna and that's something that we think a lot about the the Bible talks
about it in the New Testament referring back to this it's pretty
famous miracle but I think there's a there's an aspect of this miracle
that sometimes overlooked that I think is the coolest aspect of this
miracle of the manna how they went out and they gathered all different
amounts but then miraculously they all ended up with the same amount and I
believe that that's one of the key teachings of this passage and in fact
this passage is quoted in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 emphasizing that
very fact okay now before we get into that aspect of it though let me just
kind of catch you up to that point in the chapter at the beginning of the
chapter it talks about the fact that when they went on in their journeys
they complained about not having food to eat right it says in verse 3 and the
children of Israel said unto them would to God we had died by the hand of
the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots and when we did
eat bread to the full for you've brought us forth into this wilderness
to kill this whole assembly with hunger now of course when they were in
Egypt they were slaves the Bible says their lives were made bitter with
cruel bondage and they were beaten and forced to work and didn't have
anything to show for it but now they're idealizing that in their mind and the
picture here is of us sometimes when things aren't going right in our
Christian life we'll sometimes think about the good old days you know in
the life of sin and living in the world but let me tell you something
first of all it wasn't the good old days in the first place but second of
all if you go back it's not going to be there anymore okay once you get
saved you can't go back because if you do God's gonna punish you you know the
Bible says whom the Lord loveth he chaseneth and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth now if you're an unsaved person and you're going out and and
partying and living a sinful life you might get away with a lot of things but
when you're a Christian and you go and do those things you're not gonna
get away with it anymore a lot of worldly people get away with a lot of
bad things but when you're saved the Bible says him the Lord loveth he
chaseneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth so you're going to be
disciplined if you go God's not gonna allow you to enjoy it and have a good
time and for things to go well things are gonna go poorly so there's
no turning back okay when you're serving Christ you keep going forward
and you go through the hard times you make it to the other side God
blesses you but anyway they're complaining and they're saying some
stupid things here it says in verse 4 then said the Lord unto Moses build
our rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather
a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in
my law or no so he says here he's gonna test the people to see whether
they're gonna obey his law he's gonna give them free food you know
he's going to give them food from heaven but there's a test associated
with it okay and the test is that they're supposed to go out every
morning and they're supposed to gather a certain amount okay and that amount is
called an Omer o-m-e-r and this amount other places in the Bible call this a
Homer h-o-m-e-r it's the same thing and I don't know exactly what this
unit of measurement is it's pretty hard to know for sure what ancient
units of measure are because of course this is from about 3,500 years ago that
this took place there's a very long time ago but they were supposed to go
out and gather a certain amount and then not only that but they were
supposed to only gather it on six days and on the seventh day they
weren't supposed to gather anything okay and on the sixth day they would
gather twice as much so they would gather two omers on the sixth day and
he tells them look you need to follow these instructions he says if you
try to keep it until the next day it's going to rot it's gonna breed
worms it's gonna stink you know he sells them only gather what you need just for
today eat that and then tomorrow you're gonna go gather it again okay and of
course people disobeyed and tried to stockpile it you know because they're
thinking you know hey we went a long time without food we're gonna
stockpile this but you know what they're showing there is that they
don't have the faith that God's gonna keep providing and sometimes we can do
the same thing in our lives where God's providing for us things are going good
God's taking care of our needs but then we feel the need to stockpile and lay up
treasures upon this earth why do people lay up treasures upon this earth
well some people are just greedy and they want to be rich and so forth but
you know what some people stockpile treasures on this earth because they
want to have that security you know they want to just have a ton of money
laid up so that they know if things go bad I'm covered but you know what if
things go bad I'm covered why because I'm trusting in the Lord to provide my
needs okay so that's where you have to get is where you realize that you know
God's gonna provide our needs he's got us covered give us this day our
daily bread and that you don't get super into just investing and
stockpiling money and gathering up all this wealth and riches even if it's
just for a security or whatever don't let that become your life it's very
easy to fall into that the love of money is the root of all evil the Bible
says and so they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and
into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and
perdition you don't want to go down that road guard your heart against the
love of money and covetousness so you know just you need to have your
food your clothing your place to live just what you need let God provide your
needs work hard but don't get into getting rich and investing and laying up
a bunch of money on this earth so he's testing them that they do this
now here's the cool part of the story look if you would at verse 16 it
says this is the thing which the Lord has commanded gather of it every man
according to his eating an omer for every man according to the number of
your persons taking every man for them which are in his tent so everybody goes
out in the morning and the Bible says that the dew was on the face of the
ground in the morning and then when the dew disappeared what was left were
these little white round things and they were like wafers made with honey
and taste and it was called manna which manna is just a term that means
I don't know what it is okay so it's just this unknown food that God's
giving them from heaven and he said he was raining bread from heaven and later
the Bible says man did eat angels food okay so this is a special food that
they're eating and they're supposed to go out and gather an omer however
much that is but look at verse 17 and the children of Israel did so and
gathered some more some less and when they did meet it with an omer meet just
means measure it when they did meet it with an omer he that gathered much
nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack they gathered every man
according to his eating so this is the miracle that I'm referring to that's
interesting I've never heard anybody preach about it I've never heard
anybody talk about except I've preached about it different time I've
never heard anybody bring this up and every time I read it it always jumps
off the page at me that it's interesting how you know somebody goes
out and gathers a bunch of extra man I'm hungry I'm gonna load up or I'm
gonna just do extra and it says when they get back they measure it and it's an
omer so one guy gathers under and he gets there and he measures it and it's
an omer another guy gathers a bunch of extra and then when he brings it
back and measures it shakes it out it's an omer so God actually performed a
miracle here not to just give them the food which is a miracle in and of
itself but there's this other miracle where God basically adds to the
people who don't have enough miraculously he multiplies their food
and then the people who gather too much he actually takes away from what
they have now this is a profound truth okay now if you would go to 2nd
Corinthians chapter 8 where this is quoted from this is a very profound
truth because God will do this to us in our lives he'll take away from us
sometimes if we have too much and he'll add to us if we don't have
enough to make sure that we have what we need an omer okay obviously
speaking figuratively but look at 2nd Corinthians chapter number 8 and verse
number 13 it says for I mean not that other men be eased and you be burdened
and what he's talking about here is is he's collecting money from a
prosperous church and he's bringing it to some poor Saints that are in another
church and these people are poor and they don't have enough so he's gonna
help them out by collecting from this church that has more money and they're
gonna like donate to charity to help the poor basically is what this is about
and he's saying look it's not that I want other people to have it easy and
for you to be burdened and you're gonna work hard and we're gonna take
it away from you and give it to someone else that sound familiar but he
says in verse 14 but by an equality an equality that now at this time your
abundance may be a supply for their want that their abundance also may be a
supply for your want that there may be equality and here's the quote from
Exodus as it is written he that had gathered much had nothing over and he
that had gathered little had no lack that's what we saw back in the story
okay so what the Bible is saying here is look God wants us to help people
out that are needy that are poor that are down there like if we can help
people out when they're in need if we have extra then down the road that
person is gonna be able to help us out so not only do we rely on the Lord to
take care of our needs we also rely on other people to take care of our
needs people that we've helped in the past okay so if you spend your
life helping people doing things for people being a blessing for people
those are all people that are gonna help you in the future you say well I
don't really know if these people are gonna come through for me in the
future but here's the thing the Bible says there's a special blessing if you
help people that don't return the favor then God's gonna return the
favor the Bible says he that give it to the poor lendeth to the Lord and
that which he has borrowed he will pay again and so God will pay you back
if that person doesn't pay you back this is the way society is supposed to
work okay we have our faith in God but we also have family we also have
friends we also have church right these are the three communities that we have
here that are closest to our heart right we've got our family we've got
our friends and we've got our church and obviously there's some crossover
between those three groups but the idea is that if I fall upon hard
times or if you fall upon hard times you've got family you've got your mom
your dad your brother your sister you know maybe even cousins if you're
Hispanic you're probably buddies with your second cousin twice or move you
know it seems like Hispanics have a little more extended family than we as
white people do you know when they have the family come out for an event
it's like a lot of people okay so basically you know you got relatives
that are there and if you call upon them you know presumably you have a good
relationship with them if you're really in a bind you're really in a jam you
know they're not just gonna leave you high and dry okay you say well I don't
have any family like that okay you should strive to have family like that
first of all but maybe you don't you know you're in a position you're just
like well too late sorry I don't okay well but then you got friends you
say I don't have any friends well you know a man that hath friends must show
himself friendly you know be a friend reach out to people make friends and
then when your friends need something you help them out and then down the
road they can help you out and then also church you know you invest in
church you go to church you you volunteer at church you you get
involved you you work with the church you fellowship with the church
you're a blessing to the church and then when things go bad for you you've
got the church you've got all these people at church they can help you out
with things and the church helps people out but you know what people who don't
come to church aren't involved in the church don't have any friends of the
church they don't contribute anything you know they're probably not gonna be
getting a lot of help from other people at church when they're not get
you know I'll tell you what when when there's a person who's always you
know making meals for the new moms and they're coming and volunteering here
and volunteering there you know that's the type of person that's gonna be
helped out now here's the thing our church does not just give away money to
people that's not even legal a lot of people think that that the church is
supposed to just give money like just redistribute wealth or something
okay that's not legal and not only that that's not the purpose of the
offerings in the Lord's money to just just oh you need help with your cell
phone bill sure here you go you know all you need a little help with the
rent new you know this and that that's not what we're talking about okay now
there are people who legitimately need help and typically we do this out of our
own pockets okay because we don't just take like the offering money or the
tithe money or the church's mic typically if somebody comes to me or
other people in the church and says hey man I'm really in a jam I need
help then we typically just reach into our own pocket and just say hey
here's what you need and we help people out and look there are certain
people that I'm gonna be willing to do more for than others they're gonna be
certain people that you're willing to do more for than others okay now a lot
of people have this idea of well the church you know they got to take care
of the single moms because the single mom's the new widow this is
what I've heard taught single moms are the new widows really because the
Bible is real strict guidelines on this that the church should not be charged
unless it's a widow indeed and the widow has to be above 60 years old
having been the wife of one man and she has to be one who you know was was
working for the Lord in her lifetime it says you know hey did she bring up
children did she lodge strangers you know did she diligently follow every
good work did she wash the Saints feet I mean if she was contributing
and being a blessing and she's over 60 and her husband's dead and she
doesn't have any children or grandchildren it says children are
nephews but that's an old use of the word nephew if you look up nephew in
the dictionary I see it's an archaic use that actually means grandson what
we would think of as a grandson children and grandkids if they don't
have that you know that's a pretty rare situation that's a super rare
situation now in the early church you say what about Acts chapter 6 and
they're yeah in the early church they're helping widows left and
right and it was a mess and everybody and then they're complaining they were
all entitled and everything but that look the teaching that the
Apostle Paul gives in first Timothy chapter 5 came later where God says hey
look let not a widow be taken into the number under three score years old you
know he says and it has to meet all these qualifications so it's it's a
rare situation okay so single moms so now we're supposed to so women get
pregnant out of wedlock or whatever and it's just like oh the church needs
to provide what that's like that's literally like the polar opposite of
the widow described in first Timothy 5 that's faithful to her husband and
just doesn't have kids you know because let's face it not everybody's
going to have children most people are gonna have children some people are
not able to have children so you know what do they do when they get you
know when they get old and and you know they're relying on their husband
and something happens to their husband you know that's the type of situation
where you know then the church would step in and say hey you know we'll help
out and look the church does help out in situations that are clearly charity
you know depending on the situation but the point is I'm not talking about
taking money out of the offering plate here what I'm talking about is
me reaching in my pocket other people in the church reaching in their
pocket and just helping people out because you know what they're just we
just help each other out right because that's what friends do that's what
churches do that's what families do okay and it's you know if somebody's just
starving and this this isn't typically an issue because we live in a
prosperous land but I mean if somebody's starving if somebody's I mean
look if I were just if I were literally just out of my house and
just homeless and I've just got my eleven kids and I just don't have
anywhere to stay tonight and I don't have any food and I don't have any
money I don't have anything who thinks that I would just be left out in the
street to sleep tonight somebody's gonna bring me in you know what I mean
and if not then my mom will bring me in or my dad's gonna bring me in or
people from church will bring me in somebody's gonna bring me in you know
okay so but that's what you got to do though but but here's the thing
you got to help other people out and then down the road people help you out
this is the way society is supposed to work now our society has gotten away
from this because we've gotten in a situation where it's just all to rely
on the government so we're being forced to help everybody out money is
taken out of our checks against our will and given to lazy jerks who won't
work lazy slobs who refuse to go to work that's where our money you say
and then instead of feeling love in our heart like here's the thing if
you actually help someone out who's in need you'll feel love in your
heart for that person it's a positive interaction it's more blessed to give
than to receive so when you're not doing it grudgingly or by constraint but
when you see someone have a need and say hey I want to help you out let me
meet that need you feel good you feel loved toward that person when
somebody takes money away from you against your will it literal gunpoint
namely the IRS and then just gives it to the lazy but you know what
caused you to resent that person it caused you to look at that person and
say you lazy jerk how dare you you know take my money and go buy all your
you know junk food all these expensive items you know and it's like I
worked hard and I'm struggling to make ends meet and have to pay some fat
tax bill so that you can sit on your duff and do nothing okay so
breeds resentment it's wicked and not only that it causes people to live a
lifestyle only for themselves and that's why today if you look at the statistics
there are more people living by themselves today in 2019 than ever in
the history of the United States more people are living by themselves
they just live on their own they just live by themselves they just live
unto themselves and then couples are having less children people are going
to church less people are just cut off from society they cut off their family
they cut off Church they have very few friends and it may be superficial
relationships with friends and then they just say well you know here's my
safety net the government here's my safety net the 401k here's my safety
you know we ought to rely on God Church family okay you know this is the
way society is supposed to operate in a Christian society okay and you know
what people who you say I don't have any family they'll help me what did you
do to burn every family relationship that you have what did you do to make
every member of your family mad is the question that I would ask and I'm
and I'm not saying that always applies there are exceptions to this but
you know what if you actually honor your father and mother they're gonna
be very likely to help you out when you're in a bind and everybody's got
some story about how bad their mom is not bad there and I know there are some
really bad moms and dads out there but let me tell you something a lot of
children today are just not honoring their father and mother and
then they just want to talk about bad their parents are and their parents
aren't even that bad when you actually meet their parents they
actually are great people okay and you know the brothers the sisters yeah
well you just have it so good pastor Eric is you have a great family but
you know what whether you have a great family or not you can make
friends you can make church friends you can have family you you've got to
live your life where you're living for other people and don't tell me that if
you live for other people you're gonna be left high and dry I don't
believe it it's false and you say well I helped out all these people and
they won't help I I was dedicated to church and church didn't do anything
for me nobody wants to help me my family won't help me then God's gonna help you
otherwise the Bible isn't true because the Bible says that if you help people
if you give it shall be given unto you period give and it shall be given
unto you that's what the Bible says so you don't tell me that I just went
through my life just giving giving giving giving and I'm just high and
dry and no one will do anything for me you're a liar or God's a liar or you
didn't really do as much generosity as you think we did I mean it's that
simple that's what I believe so if you would flip back to Exodus chapter
number 16 we need to we need to be a giving person and he said look I want
there to be an equality so that when you need help somebody else will
help you out and you know when someone else needs help you help them
out and what he means by equality there is he's saying he doesn't want us
to lack he doesn't want us to be poor and have nothing but he also doesn't
want us to be wealthy and rich now the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 30
give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me give me
neither poverty nor riches this is a prayer that we should be praying we
should not want to be rich and we should not want to be poor we should
want to just have what we need this is the goal okay and what God will often
do in our lives is that if we start getting too much money we start
getting too successful we start having too much God will step in and
sometimes just take away so that when we shake it out at the end of
the day all we have is an omer you say man I just can't seem to get
ahead it's like I just keep trying it and I'm just always living paycheck to
paycheck you know maybe God is just keeping you lean because he wants you
to live paycheck to paycheck because he knows that if you have too much you're
gonna start getting puffed up and arrogant and prideful or whatever you
know God knows what we can handle you know my grandpa at one point was a
really wealthy man but he had to lose everything before he got saved and
then he would keep trying to succeed in business after that and he always
had enough but he could just never make it ever again in business you know
he never he never could just get ahead and have the prosperity that he had
before he was saved God just knew probably that he couldn't handle it
you know there was a time in my life while I was pastoring this church
where I was running my fire alarm business my secular business and it
was thriving and I was making tons of money hand over fist and it was such a
great gig but then God took it away and it was just and you know he took it
away right before I was about to make a ton of money like I I had just signed
all these contracts for all these projects that I was gonna be doing
installing all these fire alarms and a whole bunch of Home Depots and I and
I did the first job and I made a huge profit and I was like I'm gonna
make more profit on the next one because I made all the mistakes on this
when I learned my lessons I made a great profit and I'm like it's only
gonna get better from here because now I know they were all the same I was I'm
like doing the math I'm like whoa I'm gonna make a lot of money over the
next two years this is gonna be great gone because I preached a hard
sermon against the homos and then you know got back to homo depot or
whatever basically I lost those contracts so the point is you know God took that
away from me because this is back before I was full-time pastor back
when I was working my secular job you know God took that away from me because
he probably knew that that was not gonna be good for me spiritually to
make all that money to make too much money and to just get too much I
don't know maybe there's another reason but that's probably why and you
say oh I know myself you know if I have millions of dollars you know I could
handle it and every yeah right everybody that's what everybody thinks oh I'm
gonna be different you know everybody who wins the lottery destroys their life
except me you know I'll tell you this if I had a million dollars I'd get rid
of it as fast as I could that's what I would do I would just get rid of it
because it'll destroy people's lives like nothing else to have too
much money okay now most of us are not struggling with that you know what
do I do with all this money so stressful you know but you know what God
will keep us leaner sometimes than we want to be because he knows that
spiritually we need to be a little lean he knows that that's what we need
spiritually so you say oh I'm struggling I'm I can't get by you know
what maybe God has you in that position for a reason he's keeping you
lean are you fed do you have food and raiment be content you're clothed
you're fed well then you know God has kept his promise now on the other
side of this equation sometimes you might go out and you work hard and you
know what you try to gather your know your Omer but it's like you just can't
get it done it's like you just can't make ends meet and then you'll see God
sometimes step in and supernaturally provide and you'll get bonuses and
windfalls and you'll get a raise that you didn't expect or somebody will
just give you money or you just find money you know I mean you'll find a
hundred dollars just laying on the you know hundred dollar bill laying on the
ground who's ever found a hundred dollar bill laying on the ground tons of
people I mean people are just leaving money everywhere probably you know so the
point is you know I've never found a hundred dollar bill on the ground all
right God knew I couldn't handle no I've never found a hundred dollar bill
but my son aren't aren't you the one Isaac who's just always he's just
always finding money my kids are always finding money laying around or
they'll buy stuff at the thrift store it's got money in the pocket or
it's it's stuffs left in it it's just like man they're finding all kinds of
money so you know and we always just tell them hey the wealth of the sinner
is laid up for the just so the Bible says so you know God can and will
provide or you know he'll he'll prick people's hearts to help you and give
you what you need and take care of you your friends or family will give you
something and whoa that was unexpected and you'll be able to make it but
don't get this attitude of well I've got a stockpile and lay up money and I
want to be rich and this that just decide right now you're never gonna be
rich just decide you know what I'm going to live a humble life for the
rest of my life I don't want to be poor I don't want to be wondering
where my next meal is gonna come from I don't want to just have to eat rice
and beans every day you know I want to be able to eat a reasonable diet but
I'm never gonna be rich I'm just gonna live a normal humble life that's
should be your attitude that's what you should pray for God provide I just want
to provide for my wife I just want to provide for my children I just want to
have what I need and you know God will give you the occasional bonuses
he'll send you the quail in the evening as a bonus okay but the manna
should be enough all right so don't seek riches be content with what you
have rely on God to take care of you so when they went out and gathered the
manna it's one Omer some of them ate not all of it and decided hey I'm gonna
keep some of this for later because I do you know just in case and then the
next day it stank it bread worms it was gross they had to throw it out and
God was angry that they didn't obey so then when they come to the sixth
day they go out and gather and because they're not paying attention they don't
listen they're disobedient in many ways they go out and gather and then
they're like somehow surprised when on the sixth day they come back and they
measure it they're like whoa there's two homers here and Moses has
helped this is what God told you is gonna happen you go out on the sixth
day you gather twice as much because this is to get you through the
Sabbath so this is another miracle because if this stuff has a shelf life
of 24 hours and it just completely stinks and has maggots in it the next
day well then you how's it gonna get through the Sabbath but yet somehow
miraculously they would gather twice as much on the sixth day and then on
the seventh day they wake up the next morning and it doesn't have any
maggots it doesn't have any worms it doesn't have any stink and then
they eat that and that gets them through the Sabbath and then so God's trying
to teach them here how to obey like look just do I'm giving you really
simple instructions here right you go out you gather this much people are
gathering too little people are gathering too much and God's frustrated with them
okay and then they're trying to stockpile it till the next day he's
angry then there and then he tells them don't go out on the Sabbath to
gather it you got twice everybody got two homers everybody got what you need
don't go out on the seventh day together and then like certain people
get out and they go out there on the same it's just like what is wrong
with people but you know what it's the same in our day what's wrong with
us what's wrong with people today it's just human nature I don't want to go
out and see if it's out there and again part is the lack of faith they
want to see you know well Moses said it's not gonna be out there but I
want to go see for myself because if it's out here six days it's gonna be
out there the seventh day it's like duh this is coming from God this is a
miracle and yet I've even heard scientists today try to explain the
manna that it wasn't a miracle who's ever heard that one before I mean I'm
telling you these scholars and scientists they try to explain every
miracle and they explain how there was this certain bug it had a certain
dropping or something and they're they're eating that drop or it shed
its skin I don't remember what the theory was but they literally had some
theory about what the children of Israel were eating to her wasn't right
look if it was just some bugs exoskeleton or some bongs some dungs
that bugs dung or bugs turd that they're eating it's not gonna taste like
wafers made with honey number one okay yeah it could be a small white
round thing but it's not gonna taste like honey number one and number two
what about the fact that it breeds worms after one day and what about the
fact that on the Sabbath it doesn't folks God is a god of miracles and you
can't just try to explain these things or they try to explain the
resurrection they try to explain the virgin birth they try to explain the
three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace how you know well they were
in a cold spot and you know the Red Sea was really the Reed Sea it's
stupid but look if you don't believe the Bible then just say I don't
believe the Bible but if you're gonna claim to believe the Bible you have to
believe in the miracles of the Bible okay it's a package deal either the
Bible is true with its miracles or the Bible is a fraud you can't have it both
okay if you're gonna claim to believe the Bible you have to believe
the Bible and these skeptics are going out on Sabbath and trying to find
manna and it isn't there because God's telling them look I'm testing you I'm
proving you now go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 8 I gotta hurry
up here Deuteronomy chapter number 8 he talks about this what he did with the
manna and it says in verse number two of Deuteronomy 8 and thou shalt
remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in
the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee again prove thee means to
test you to prove thee to know what was in thine heart whether thou would
us keep his commandments or no and he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger
so God allowed them to hunger by design it wasn't just an accident or
you know God just wasn't that good at supplying them because you wonder
why the children of Israel keep running out of food keep running out
of water is God just not know that they need food look your Heavenly Father
know it that you have need of all these things God purposely allowed
them to hunger he purposely allowed them to run out because he's testing
them to see what they're gonna do and he's trying to teach them lessons and he
does the same thing with us where he'll put us through hard times and put us
through lean times because he's trying to teach us something so in verse
3 he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna
which thou knewest not neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee
to know that man did not live by bread only but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord does man live so he's trying to
teach them something about the Word of God this is symbolic in nature as well
not only is he teaching them just a basic lesson of do what I say if I say
to gather this much gather that much if I say not to work on the
Sabbath day then don't do it if I say to gather twice as much on the sick
you know just follow simple instructions right that's the the easiest lesson
but then there's another lesson where the manna represents the Word of God
and what the manna represents is getting up every morning and reading your Bible
that's going out and gathering the manna because man doesn't live by bread alone
man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and it's the same thing with
the Bible you don't just say well I'm gonna read my Bible extra today and then I'm not
gonna read the Bible for the next several days you know God wants you to go out every
day and read the Bible not to stockpile the Bible and and some people will say
oh I've already read the Bible you know back when I was in prison you know I read the Bible
a lot I had a lot of time and I read the Bible a lot buddy the you know they think like oh
I've already read that but you got to keep reading the Bible I don't care how much food
you ate a month ago you're hungry today it's like oh I man you know what actually I was
supposed to be on a diet this year and I've eaten so much from January until now I'm actually
not eating anything else for the rest of the year because I've already eaten all the food
that I'd planned for 2019 that doesn't work does it you're gonna die well guess what that
doesn't work spiritually either you can't say like oh I listened to so much preaching
and I read the Bible so much that you know what I don't need to read the Bible anymore
and you know what believe it or not I run into people all the time who think that they
don't need to read the Bible and you know I bet there's even children and teenagers in this room
that think oh I've already read the Bible cover to cover I grew up in church
I know what the Bible says what do I need to read the gospel of Matthew for
I know what happens in Matthew you know spoiler alert he's gonna raise from the dead at the
end you know and and he's gonna send them out into all the nations to go preaching or whatever
look I don't care how many times you've read it read it again you have to keep reading the
Bible and you know what when you get to where like look I've been saved for a long time I've
been saved now for 32 years I've read the Bible cover to cover many times but you know
what I need to keep reading the Bible I can't just say oh man I've memorized so much Bible
I've read so much Bible I could just kind of just ride on that knowledge for the rest of my
life no you will forget things and you'll get false doctrine and you will get spiritually
cold and spiritually dead I don't care how I don't care if you've read the Bible a hundred
times cover to cover you've got to read it every day you've got to read it every day to
maintain spiritually okay and I I believe that there are many Baptist pastors today
who have stopped reading the Bible or they're reading it in very small quantities they're not
getting the full Omer right they're not getting the full Omer they're reading a couple verses
or whatever I'm telling you there are a lot of Baptist pastors who don't read the Bible
otherwise explain to me why they don't know what they're talking about right I mean how
could you be in the ministry for 30 years even if you only read the Bible cover to cover
once a year you'd have read it 30 times cover to cover you you wouldn't some of the
mistakes that some of these guys make and look everybody makes mistakes I get up and make
mistakes and I say things that are inaccurate or wrong in my preaching you know you've got
to obviously make the Bible your final authority not me your final authority okay everybody makes
mistakes but when you hear preachers getting up and they it's like they don't understand
basic stories they're completely mixing up facts and they're just it's unexplainable
if they're reading their Bible right you know and it's just to sit there either that or
they're under some kind of delusion or they have some kind of a cloud or a blinder that's
even scarier you know what I mean like like are they not even saved or are they just or is God
punishing them by sending them some kind of a cloud or darkness or confusion where they can't
understand or perceive what they're reading but I mean I think that not reading the Bible
must be epidemic among pastors and I think a lot of these guys because because listen whenever
we sin let me tell you how sin comes into our lives it starts out with an opportunity to sin
and then you know what the next step is justification of our sin
have you noticed that in your life when you sin you find a way to justify it
right before you sin you have this little conversation with yourself where you tell yourself
why what you're about to do isn't really wrong or it's not that bad or why it's okay right you
that's called justifying your sin isn't that what isn't that what we do every single time we sin
usually is like we try to justify it like well you know and we don't we don't just be like
yeah this is wrong and I'm doing it anyway yeah you know that's not typically what we do
as Christians we typically have an opportunity to sin and then we have this rationalization
or justification process where we rationalize it and say well here's why it's okay here's
why it's not a big deal and I think that this is the thought process of these guys
is oh man I went to bible college I studied the bible I've read the bible 20 times cover
to cover 30 times 50 times cover to cover I know the bible really well and I'm just so busy
with ministry now and I even I even had a pastor tell me something similar to this one time
I was talking to a pastor and I was a young guy and this was a pastor I really admired
I didn't go to his church but it was just somebody that I knew and I admired him so I was
kind of picking his brain asked him questions and I was asked him you know what what kind of
bible reading plan do you do you know what what's your bible reading plan and he started to
be like well you know back when I was in bible college and he started telling me how back in
the day he was on a program where he'd read eight chapters of the bible every day and so
he'd get through the bible twice a year back in the day and he said you know nowadays he's
too busy to read the bible that much but he said you know he really got a lot of bible
knowledge he really laid a solid foundation back then and he can he's kind of riding on that
so he still reads his bible every day but he doesn't read eight chapters now look if you're
a layman if you're just if you're just a church member okay you know I think that if you read
the bible once a year you're doing great that's what I think if you're you know man woman
boy and girl joe church member you're not a pastor you're not a preacher and you read the
bible once per year which is like 15 minutes a day right you read the bible 15 minutes a day
and it ends up being about three or four chapters a day and you get through the bible
once a year I think that's a great goal if you read it more than that great but if you're
just a layman that's great praise the lord you know I don't think you have to necessarily
read the bible in huge quantities I think you know reading the bible more than that is
great and you should read more if you can or if you if you desire to I'm for that but that's a
great starting point that's a great standard and you might double that and I think it's great if
you double that and read eight chapters but if you're a pastor good night this is your job
like this is this is your life this is your calling this is who you are and not only that
people are relying on you to know the bible so that you can tell them the truth I mean look
the last thing I want to do is go to church and give false doctrine from the pulpit
I'd rather listen to a preacher that's completely boring but everything he says is true then the
guy who's swinging from the chandeliers screaming beating the pulpit throwing things
he's always got a prop and and he's just it's always inaccurate every sermon and look there are
a lot of preachers I kid you not you can listen to any sermon at random and there will
be wrong doctrine in every sermon every sermon you know I mean I could start listing names of
them if you want I mean you can listen you can literally just count the false doctrines in
every message every it's like how can you be wrong every time
but it's out there I'll tell you how by not reading the bible
not knowing the facts the bible is complicated there's a lot in the I mean it's a big book
and you have to you you know if you're going to preach and be accurate you've got to do a lot of
reading and study and that's why I can't even believe it you know guys want to go in the
ministry and we have a standard of hey you need to read the bible at least 10 times
before you're considered for ordination okay that's a minimum standard and by the way that
doesn't mean oh I've read it 10 times ordain me now you know you know that but that's a
minimum standard and people act like oh man that's so stringent really I mean you so you've
been saved for seven years and you haven't read the bible 10 times and you want to be made a pastor
that means you're barely even doing what the layman should be doing but what is that what
lawyers do do lawyers study the law 15 minutes a day do doctors study medicine is that about
brother baron you know you've been through medical school right so
did you did you study for about what 15 minutes a day
to get through med school pre-med right you've been through medical school I have 15 minutes
a day right hours what in the world I mean what I mean what do you got to know a little
bit of anatomy what do you got here I mean hey I got this you know femur uh tibia fibula
let's go I'm ready to go folks humorous radius ulna I'm ready to roll that's insane isn't it
because you learn a little more than that in medical school don't you go a little deeper
than that don't you yeah yeah but see this is what you have today people are like yeah I
mean I know the bible yeah stick out your tongue yeah it looks good all right yeah 98.6 is
the temperature we're looking for all right I'm ready to treat you know let's do surgery
you know let's let's operate you know what I mean there's a lot more you know people go to
medical school they're spending hours and hours studying and studying and studying and studying
and studying lawyers are spending hours studying and studying and studying and it's not just
lawyers and doctors what are other professions where people end up doing a lot of studying
what's that engineers or uh what else architect what else just any accountant
all of these are going to take more than 15 minutes a day
what's that
nuclear power plant yeah I mean that's not 15 minutes a day you know to be to be working
at a nuclear power plant and to be you know look the point is why do we why do we have such a low
standard for men of god on bible reading right it's like this is your job this is your
life this is your livelihood this is your calling and you have hundreds of people relying
on you to tell them the truth and explain things that are difficult in the bible and make
them easy and make them accessible for them and you know what they're trusting you and relying on
you and to sit there and just read the bible 10 minutes a day sometimes that's a joke
you got to take that seriously if you're going to preach you've got to take it seriously and
look sorry but i think that preaching the word of god is the most important job
you say well that's just because you like it because it's your job you know but but here's
the thing you know what it's super important because i mean it's heaven and hell for people
it's it's it's super important you know the last thing i want to do
my greatest fear is to get up and preach things that are false
okay that that that's to me that's the worst thing that i could do is to get up and preach
things that are wrong preach things now some people are preaching things that are wrong
because they're liars and some people are preaching things that are wrong because they
were too lazy to do the reading and the study and we've got all kinds of pastors out there
just just just false doctrine false doctrine lies lies wrong wrong inaccurate inaccurate
inaccurate you know pastors getting up and pastors getting up and saying
that bethel and jerusalem are the same city
it's like that's ridiculous now maybe you're a layman and you don't understand the difference
between bethel and jerusalem okay if you're a pastor of a church and don't know that
bethel and jerusalem are two different places i mean you've got serious problems and and and
people act like oh this guy used to be a great preacher in the past well maybe he was but at
some point he quit reading his bible i mean that's a major controversy in the old testament
between bethel and jerusalem that's a that's a big thing that's not a small thing and and
a whole sermon a whole sermon based on the fact that bethel and jerusalem are the same place
oops that's that's ridiculous so so the point is that you know we need to maintain our
bible reading i as a pastor need to maintain my bible reading i don't care how much i've read
in the past i need to read a lot now every day in copious amounts much more than one time
per year okay and you as a as a lay person you need to read your bible every day and you
should at least read your bible for 15 minutes a day and don't tell me you don't have time
to read the bible for 15 minutes a day that's ridiculous everybody has 15 minutes i don't care
how busy you are you have 15 minutes and you know what if you can read it for a half hour great
but you should be at least you don't understand what it's like in my i don't care how busy of
a housewife you are how busy you are with the kids and the homeschooling and making
meals and everything you know what you need to read your bible and you say oh you don't know
my work schedule i'm a i'm a you know i'm a firefighter i'm a nurse or i'm you know i'm on call
and it you can find 15 minutes to read your bible and you've got to do it every day and you
say well i'll just stockpile it on sundays no you got to read it every day right gather the
manna daily that's what god's teaching here okay that we need to live by god's word
job said i've esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food so it was more
important to him than getting food and water was to read the word of god okay so yeah pastors
need to read the bible layman need to read the bible if you're training to be a pastor
you're training to preach if you preach in our ministries from time to time you need to be
doing some serious bible reading because we the last thing we need is another preacher to get
up and not know what he's talking about you know we need people to get up and be accurate
and preach the truth and teach people knowledge not where people walk out
dumber than when they walked in and that's what's going on in churches all over america today
people are walking out screwed up on doctrine instead of walking out and saying you know what
okay i understand that now i know what's going on with the manna i get it you know i
understand the application of my life you know we need the truth to be preached and we need
people in the pew to go study the bible on their own and not just blindly accept whatever
the pastor says and you know what something if you don't if you never read your bible
a lot of things in the sermons are going to go over your head now look if you're a brand
new christian and things are going over your head and you're like i don't understand half the
sermon that's okay focus on the half you did understand and do that and if god sees you
doing the half that you do understand he'll reveal the other half to you but if you neglect the
half that you do understand he's not going to show you the other half why should he show you
the other half well he didn't do the first half okay so whatever you do understand apply it to
your life be faithful with it god gives you a simple instruction follow it obey it do what
he says okay he reveals a little light to you follow that light and he'll give you more light
okay but i don't know about you if i go to church i want to get all the under i want to
understand everything you know i want to get the maximum benefit out of it well you know what
if you're reading the bible cover to cover then when pastor anderson gets up and he's talking about
the manna and the children of israel moses aaron you know who those people are and you
understand the situation you're not like well who's moses and you know you laugh at that but
you know what i go out soul winning and knock on people's doors and there are people who
literally don't know who moses is they literally don't know who abraham is they don't know who
noah is they don't have a clue we take that stuff for granted if we grew up in church
and who here would say you know before i got saved i didn't know who most of the main bible
characters were before i got saved yeah i mean so look there are a lot of people who don't have
the luxury of growing up in a christian home and you kids that are growing up here hey you're
blessed to grow up knowing who these people are and being able to understand things that you
you know many prophets and righteous men would have loved to understand the things that you
understand okay growing up in a christian home and learning these things so that's the parable
of the manna it has two great applications in our lives it has many others but just two
that i want to emphasize that number one it teaches us about our food or our income or our
sustenance or that which we need to survive it teaches us hey look don't try to get two
omers don't try to do a half omer an omer for every man don't try to be austere and super poor
and you're like buddha or something and you're going to go you know practice austerities
like a hindu or something in the hamalayas you're going to go stand on one foot and eat
one grain of rice and all these things you know look just live a normal life
okay eat your daily bread but don't go out seeking to double it and have double what
everybody else has and be rich and stockpile so that's kind of the the physical application
of the story about the manna is about our daily bread and then the spiritual application about
the manna is about the word of god that says look you need it every single day you say
well according to that logic i should be able to take a day off from my bible reading
well make that sunday all right because then you'll get two sermons you'll read two chapters
in church and then you can take sunday as your day off from bible reading and read it the
other six days and you'll be doing great amen but we've got to keep reading it and and i don't
care how many times you've read it you need to keep reading you don't know everything
you will learn more the next time you read it you will learn new things that you've never seen
before because it's a living book that's as deep and vast and profound as the mind of god
and not only that but i guarantee you you have to maintain that knowledge because you could
literally just go a couple years without reading your bible and you'll be shocked at what you
forget you've got to keep it refreshed you know look i read the bible a lot and yet when
i'm reading the bible i'm constantly picking up new things and when i'm reading the bible you
let me tell you the feeling that i often have reading my bible even though i've read the
bible a lot in the past i spent hours a day reading the bible currently when i read the
bible every single time you know what i think to myself i'm just like man i feel like i don't
know this as well as i should this particular book or this particular passage i'm constantly
feeling that way i'm constantly feeling like man i wish i had a better handle on this book
there's so much here you know i i've been studying exodus extra and i've just been thinking
to myself man i don't know exodus as well as i want to you know i need to study this
and i'm reading leviticus and thinking the same thing like wow there's a lot of this that i
really need to refresh or i i'll be like i totally forgot this part even though it's
something i read a few months ago or something you know what i mean you need you need to
maintain that okay and and i think 15 minutes a day is a minimum for god's people man woman
boy and girl you know you've got to do that at least okay and look do more i mean and look
pull it down and read it for pleasure you know just enjoy it
but at a minimum you've got to have it coming in every single day to keep you right
spiritually the bible says we should read therein all the days of our life let's
borrow enough word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word lord thank you for
the manna from heaven first of all thank you for our physical food lord everybody here i believe
has been fed today and so i thank you so much for um the feeding lord that we've had today
and uh dear lord thank you for the spiritual food that's so readily available in our bibles
lord help us to read our bibles every day to love the bible and lord i realize that there's
some people who read the bible more than others and and some people need to read the bible
more than others because they're pastors and preachers or deacons or evangelists or missionaries
or you know people who are trusted to deliver god's word so help us to read it and study it
and help every every lay person that's here as well to read it and study it and love it
and eat that manna and don't let it go to waste don't let it just melt away because
it'll be gone forever in jesus name we pray amen