Sermon in Minneapolis 25.11.2011

In Jesus' name, we shall continue our services. And being here, I find myself a sinful man. I have to ask that, can you please meet me with that gospel? I want to believe together with you, and again with that prayer unto the Heavenly Father, that God, our rich Father, has continued to give unto us of His Word as He sees fit.

We just heard the precious Word of God. Brother spoke and made some references to the wilderness journey, and how God helped His people there. And we will read now a few verses from Deuteronomy chapter 8, beginning from verse 10. These words are words of the leader, temporal leader of that wilderness journey, Moses, at the very end of the journey, when he was shown by God those sites of the land that he would never enter. And he, advised by God, wanted to teach His people. And this, we could say, is part from Moses' farewell speech. And we will hear this verse in Jesus' name.

When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which He hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping His commandments and His judgments and His statutes which I command thee this day. When thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied then thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought where there was no water who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end and thou say in thine heart my power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which is whereunto thy fathers as it is this day. Amen.

I would also like to bring greetings of God's love and peace from brothers and sisters in Elk River and I see that some of brothers and sisters from Elk River have come here and are in your midst and they certainly will relate to you their very, very personal greetings. It's wonderful that we have these times when we can come and pass around the word of God but also to visit and discuss and see how things are going and have the fellowship that we do experience in God's kingdom.

God who created us as people did not create us to be alone. He has given us many escorts, many dear brothers and sisters and that is one reason why on this day we can be very thankful for our text begins with the words when thou hast eaten and art full then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Being that we have so celebrated and observed the American Thanksgiving Day we can all relate to that how it is to be well fed and how it is to enjoy all the goodness that God provides or that during this Thanksgiving season especially during this time but throughout the year we have reason to give thanks unto God.

Moses who had been with this people for 40 years in the wilderness and had known them from before and being a man, a human himself, knew how we as humans are and God knows how we as humans are and that's why he wanted Moses to speak his people this word. They were about to enter the promised land. They were going to encounter some warfare but through all of that God had promised that he would bless them and he would give them land.

Earlier in the chapter Moses says the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of oil, olives and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. Give it to you. He had pulled people from the slavery of Egypt and told them to take on and go on that journey.

I'm sure probably most of you if not all have sometimes had a chance to go camping out in the woods. I know I really enjoy and my family enjoys it and I know many, many families here enjoy it. It is a good chance for us to go out and be there out in God's nature. Sometimes when we go and stay in the woods for a day or two we really begin to appreciate what God has created.

But when we go even and I'm sure you young people have gone together with your friends and some elderly people who are here probably have done it for many decades where you go and either in a camper or in a tent go out to the woods and enjoy that time during God's nature there's no lack of good and wholesome activity even for a child of God sometimes and especially for you young people it seems like this world is so wrapped around the entertainment of this world that what's there for a child of God to even experience and I know you have experienced it and together with your friends you have done it.

But when we go even camping there is much preparation and especially food. You have packed your food into coolers and maybe put some ice there so that it will stay cool and what happens on day three when the ice is running out everything is starting to get bad. If children have been there together with your parents maybe and raised tents and you know there are lots of details that go into being out in the woods and things are not always so handy as it is in our regular places of dwelling in our homes.

What might have people of God, people of Israel, been thinking when they went on to this journey? Brothers so preciously talked about those occasions, some of the occasions that happened in Exodus. It relates how there were 600,000 men both women and children that went on that journey.

Now our little camping trip although with all its details, all its perceived difficulty really isn't that difficult when we compare this with what God's people experienced in a dry Sinai peninsula. Exodus relates that they also had with them cattle and among those there were 600,000 men but women and children certainly there were little babies, babies that were born many, many difficulties.

How can you and those people? They saw as they were traveling it didn't take them long after leaving Egypt and coming into the wilderness, the Sinai peninsula to figure out there is just no food. How can you humanly see it 600,000 men maybe 2 million people in a sandy desert? That's what people were wondering too despite God's ordinance to not murmur things will take things still happen he will take care but how could you humanly take care of maybe 2 million people in a dry desert land? You can't.

That's why as we heard brother saying and it provided a spiritual scripture or a spiritual picture of Lord Jesus following at the rock but also in a very human sense those people needed food and they needed water and they murmured and God did not want his own people to murmur against him yet he had a way yet he had a way so many times we come to an end of a road where it seems like there is no way forward and God still opens the way. It's the same today as it is has always been.

Moses spoke to God and God said I will send you food and for forty years every morning except in the morning of Sabbath there was a frost on the ground and once the frost lifted up there was this powdery kind of white material that those people when they first saw they did not know what it is. They didn't the first morning when it came down they did not know what it is. Moses told them this is from God this is God God providing us food. They called it manna and for 40 years every single morning except on Sabbath for Sabbath they had gathered double the amount of food. Sabbath which is the day of the Lord was made holy sanctified there was no work there was no looking for food and it sufficed.

God gave them enough for 40 years they were able to live off of the food that God provided. Some writer writes of this in Psalm 78: I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard unknown, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful work that He has done.

For He established the testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments, and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

That was the experience of those generations. They had fallen short of God's will. They had fallen short. They had sinned. They had hurt. And then later on in the psalm, the psalm writer says, Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and He made the waters to stand as an heap. In the daytime also He led them with a cloud. And all the night with the light of fire, He claimed the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

And they sinned yet more against Him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking need for their lust. Yea, they spake against God. They said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His people? Therefore, the Lord heard this, and was wroth. So a fire was kindled against Jacob, and an anger also came up against Israel, because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation.

Though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven, man did eat angels' food. He sent the meat to the full. God's people were able to eat what God sent them. Some writer says of this manna, describes it as an angel's food. So precious was it. And it sufficed. It brought, it kept them going, it kept their bodies nurtured.

And they were, after 40 years of trials, 40 years of difficulty, 40 years of doubt, sin. Yet God brought them to the border of the promised land. Because He loved His own people, and He wanted to keep His promise that He had made.

So then, Moses is speaking of the next chapter of God's people's life, the life of the nation of Israel, and warns them. Because he knows that it will be a good land. It will have all kinds of goodness. Warns them. Remember still, it is all God's gift.

How many times in our day, when we certainly diligently go about our business and our own life's endeavor and providing for ourselves, for our family, God's word is good. God's word exhorts us to be diligent. God's word exhorts us, and there are many, maybe we don't quote there now, but there are many exhortations to be diligent and work hard. Even the very beginning of creation, God said, with your forehead in sweat, yourself out of heels, you will work. And that's what we are exhorted to do. And that's what a child of God wants to do. Be diligent and with those gifts that God has given to what we can here in this life.

And certainly, we all want to be able to provide for our needs. Certainly, we all want to provide for our families. It's essential. And we do everything that we can. Yet, the word of God says, unless the Lord built a house, they labor in vain who build it. In everything, in the end, we have to remember it's God's blessing.

And in some regard, God, as the scriptures tell us in many places, isn't too picky over whose life he blesses in a temporal way. For he says, the scriptures say, how God sends his rain to the just and unjust alike. In this life, we see, it certainly is true.

At times, it seems like does God remember his own people, his own kingdom. But he has something much better reserved for his own people, for his kingdom. And he blesses the child of God's life. And, as it was during the wilderness journey, those blessings were there, but they didn't always appeal to those people.

So it didn't, I don't know how long it took, but the scriptures also relate, that the manna that they were so happy to receive, and that tasted like honey, soon began tasting like oil. People would go and gather the manna. They would mill it and make cakes and wafers. And scriptures tell that that manna can always taste so good to people.

In our life, there is much more that we have been blessed with than what we even realized. Some people have sometimes said that blessings are hard to even know about until you lose them. One of them being health. There are many others. Another one could be a house, place of employment, mother, father, brother and sister, a friend. God has blessed every one of his children abundantly.

And scriptures exhort us and as Moses advised by God to speak to people, exhort to people of Israel to remember where those blessings come. Moses says, when thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.

Brothers and sisters, a safe homeland, it's a wonderful blessing of God. A safe country to live in, it's a great blessing. Especially this Thanksgiving time, to remember this country and all those years, all that sacrifice that people have put in for this country to move on, to remember that. But we also remember with thankful hearts God's blessing.

God has blessed this country to become a prosperous nation. I know there are some of you together with me who have come from a different country, another country that God has reached to bless as well. God's kingdom. And people in God's kingdom live in different places of the earth. Everyone certainly holds their country of origin dear and wishes for God's blessing.

And Moses talks about this good land, land of Canaan, where they had been traveling and said, that when thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day.

When thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions, and drought where there was no water, who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint, who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, and to do thee good at thy latter end.

God wanted his people to suffer a hunger in this instant, at this time, so that he would humbly humble them, and he would prove them, and then to provide them a very good end. It certainly had to be humbling for those people who I don't know what professions they had at that time, but if there were any farmers, or if there were any people who worked with flocks, that they were fed with something that they had not ever before even seen.

Certainly, it could not be of their own goodness that this was granted unto them. This was God's joy. Moses said, how God fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not, and the scriptures tell when people were looking at that manna and collecting it at first, they were wondering, what is this?

Now, then Moses continues that those people would always need to remember where the gifts come from. So that then he says, and thou say in thine heart, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. That's the other option. And that's what comes to us as humans, as humans. Oftentimes, first in mind.

In the past, then most livelihood or large part of livelihood was through farming and planting the fields. It was, sometimes maybe it was easier for them to see that our lives and our livelihood certainly is in God's hand because God either sent his rain or he didn't. But the same applies still.

You might find your duty in life and work much different from that of farming. Many are the goals that you want to reach and many are the ways that you go about providing for a family and providing for yourself. Just as it was in the days of farming and as it is today in farming when God sends his rain, gives good weather, in all work that we do. Unless God blesses it, it will not succeed.

Can we say that God has blessed us much? Don't we feel that although my duty might be in some ways small, but yet I have been able to get something done. Houses have been built, meals have been made, there are many things that have happened. God knows the life of every believer and he provides.

But and it's as Moses relates there are some other parts in scriptures where the scriptures speak of remembering where all this goodness comes from. James writes in his letter in chapter four. Here's the letter in chapter four. He speaks of businessmen. He says, go to now, ye that say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. Certainly that's what businessmen want to do.

So, but then James continues, whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanisheth away. And then continues, for that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. May we always remember everything is in God's hands.

But then Moses was speaking of that man. And certainly it is important and necessary to provide for our daily needs. Men cannot go very long without food and especially without water. And in these times that are trying for some of us who are experiencing difficulties. Brother John, in the opening, welcome, talked about some of the details of this time and the finances.

Among brothers and sisters, God's children, there are many that are having difficult times. And there might be food on the table as that's kind of in abundance in our day. But as Luther says about everyday breath, it includes much, much else. And there are brothers and sisters that are suffering serious difficulties and we can pray on their behalf.

And if God gives us a mind to be there for them and help them in their struggles, may it all be for God's glory and for the benefit and edification of brothers and sisters.

But Jesus says to still look at something else, even more than what is temporal and necessary for our daily needs. There were people who followed Jesus after seeing that he had done many miracles. He had healed the sick. He had provided health care for those people and they had become healthy. A great man.

And there were many among the people, Jewish people who were looking for a new king who would again leave this country and maybe raise against the occupying Roman empire. And in many ways people were looking at what Jesus was doing.

There were those who had after seen Jesus healing the sick, followed him and saw another great miracle. He provided food in the wilderness called the Sea of Galilee for 5,000 men. Out of young lads, food that he brought, there were five loaves and five bowls of bread and two fishes or that way around. Jesus, Son of God, made it to continue and continue and continue and everyone was fed.

And people certainly came to him and they had much hope for him. Jesus speaks to them. Jesus, and this is from John 6, 26 on. Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.

Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed.

Then said they unto him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

They said therefore unto him, What sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

And Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.

Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.

Jesus was speaking of himself being the bread of life, manna from heaven. During wilderness journey, they received manna for their everyday need, for their food. It is also a picture of the manna that we continue to receive as God's children.

God's word is manna from heaven. For our so many times hungry and thirsty souls, when we in our own life circumstances, experience those difficulties and those temptations and those doubts, that manna is freely given in God's kingdom. God still provides for everything that we need.

Jesus continues on, Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever.

And the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.

That heavenly manna continues to be given in God's kingdom. My brother and sister, just how you find yourself tonight, you can yet uplift your heart and believe all your sins forgiven in Jesus' name and blood. And you can be of good cheer.

In God's kingdom, we are in a good kingdom. When we are in this kingdom, continue our travel. No matter what our experiences are in this life, God can provide. And above all, He provides the heavenly manna, gospel, that lifts us up, that carries us, and brings us to the destination.

That manna during the wilderness journey was needed throughout the journey. But once they reached that land, which is also a picture of our home in heaven, once they reached the burden and got in, there was no more need for that heavenly manna.

In our lifetime, yes, we lean on the staff of gospel, but one time, when we are able to live from this world blessed by God as a believer, we no longer need to suffer affliction, no longer need to worry, no longer need to look forward thinking, am I going to make it? Right that moment, all that we have hoped for becomes true, and at that moment, we can join former saints in the home in heaven.

Be uplifted, my brother and sister, this evening. Sins are forgiven in Jesus' name and blood. And you can be of good cheer.

We will join in the benediction: The Lord bless us and keep us; the Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us; the Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.