# Daily Bread Sunday PM

Key Passage: Exodus 16
Date: June 7, 2024

Exodus chapter 16, if you would, please. Exodus chapter 16 in God’s Word. Exodus 16, help me out. What is her memory verse reference? Anybody know that?

Good, Exodus 14. You’re ready to say it out loud together? Here we go. We’ll start with the reference. Exodus 14:14, “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” Good, doing a great job. One more time, how about that? Here we go. Exodus 14:14, “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”

Someone said if you have a hard time remembering references—you can get the verse, but where it’s found is tough—then when you say it, memorize the reference before and after. Every time, before and after, it would kind of be like you’re saying the reference twice sometimes because you have to remember it. Sometimes that’s very helpful.

But last week, we talked about murmuring, and one of our men told me he said, “I did it for 24 hours, no murmuring at all.” He said it was very rewarding. I thought, wow, that’s awesome. He said, “I thought about putting up a sign: Murmur-Free Zone, amen.” I thought that’s a pretty good idea right there. We might have to tear that sign out every once in a while. But I thought it was awesome they were putting it into practice. What a great, great thing.

We’re still in this chapter, chapter 16, and we’re going to start in verse number 11. Exodus 16 and verse number 11 of God’s Word tonight. If you’re there, would you please stand if you are able? Exodus 16 and verse number 11 tonight. I’ve already heard of at least one man that’s tired tonight. Anybody else tired tonight? Anybody? Oh, we’ve got a fair amount of tired tonight. All right, all right. We’re going to stay standing for longer than typical. No, I’m joking with you.

Verse number 11, if you would please, Exodus 16:11. And the Lord is speaking to Moses, saying, “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, speaking to them, saying, ‘In the evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord, your God.’”

Let me just say a word about how gracious God is. He’s not saying the murmuring was right. We know from Numbers 11 that it displeased the Lord. But after all our failures, after all our mess-ups, the Lord still took care. Aren’t you glad you serve a merciful, gracious God? I’m so thankful for that. That’s what’s going on here.

Look at verse number 13. “And it came to pass that at evening the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.”

Would you pray with me that God would just speak to our hearts? Give us an energy, a hunger for His Word tonight. Would you do that? Father, we do come. We do need You tonight, Lord. Father, it would be foolish for me to think that I can give Your people what they need apart from You. Lord, would You open up Your Word to us tonight? Father, would You send Your Spirit applying, giving life and energy, and just making known—it’s a spiritual book—help us to spiritually discern it? And Father, would You do that? Lord, not based on my merit, Lord, no, no, based on Your Son Jesus. And Father, well, thank You for it because of the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

Sometimes we get this matter of the manna and the quails mixed up, right? Let me just talk for a bit about it as a way of introduction. He fed them manna continually for 40 years.

Would you look in verse number 35 of the passage here? Verse number 35. Exodus 16:35. “And the children of Israel did eat manna”—notice that manna—“40 years, until they came to the land inhabited, and they did eat manna until they came into the borders of the land of Canaan.” So I want you to notice that the manna, all right? He did not continuously feed them with the quail. He fed them quail twice: here in Exodus 16, and then later on in Numbers 11, right? Sometimes we think both were continual. I for sure have had that mixed up before, but I want to kind of clarify this a little bit at the beginning.

Now, what does the quail represent? I’ll just give you my thoughts on it, and we’re going to focus on manna here in just a bit. There’s an interesting—look over in Psalms 105, if you would, please. Psalms 105 and verse number 40 of God’s Word. And it is interesting that evening they had quail and in the next morning they had manna continually.

And so what’s the deal with the quail? Look at Psalm 105, look at verse number 40. The people asked—notice that, I think that’s key—the people asked, and He brought quails. They had asked for some meat, is what I would take it, but they asked. And just in His graciousness, He gave them quails and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. Keep the finger there for this moment; we’ll go back to it.

But I simply think that the quail represents just God’s physical blessings. It was a very tasty bird, maybe a touch different, the quail over there than what we think of a quail in our day and time. I remember years and years ago there was a man named Clay Smith. How many of you remember Clay Smith and what my family does way back in the day? And I never went quail hunting before, but I’d heard about it and how they’re in cubbies and how they take off and all that.

So Clay said, “Hey, you’re going to go hunting.” He’s a man in our church back in the day, and said, “Sure, we’ll go.” And we went out, and sure enough, it was kind of like he had heard: every kind of in cubbies, you walk up, and they just take off and move. You better have a 12-gauge, whatnot. And so he got, I think, about six of them. And he said, “Well, I’ve had plenty of whatnot.” And he thought, “These are little”—he did say, “These are a little different looking quail,” you know—“but,” he said, “well, you know.”

And so John was just a little fellow. I’m not sure. Maybe I’m guessing maybe eight years old. I don’t know. Maybe 10. He’s somewhere along there. And so the men of the house, we’re going to eat this, well, you know. And so we had, you know, prepared them and all that. Got it prepared. Took him alive. She cooked it up, you know. Tammy and Sarah were like, “Uh-uh, we’re not eating that. We’re not eating that.” And so me and John, being the men that we are, we thought, “Oh, we’re going to eat it no matter what.” It tasted awful. What in the world? I’ve always heard it’s good, you know. And I’ve added some of these men’s things since then, but it was just awful, but we, you know, we’re going to eat it no matter what, you know.

And I think the next day or so, Clay called me. He said, “Pastor,” he said, “you know what? I’ve been thinking about this. I’ve been searching a little bit.” He said, “I don’t think those were quail we should. I think those were larks.” So I ate larks, friends. So if I have brain problems, you know what the problem is, all right? Now, you know.

And so that’s my experience with eating quail, you know. But it usually tastes very, very good, you know. And I think it’s just God saying, “Look, you’ve asked, and I’m going to give you something, a very tasty, a delicacy somewhat in that day and that time,” and God gave that to them simply because they asked. God’s like that sometimes. You know, He just gives us things we really don’t deserve. He just gives them to us. I think He’s below that line that God gave to them.

But I do want you to notice this: the quail—and I’m not saying quail is bad for you. Now, the lark, I’m sure it’s bad for you, right? But I don’t think quail is, you know, it’s good. But I do want you to notice, if you look back at that verse, you’re right there, Psalm 105:40. Just watch the wording of this. “The people asked, and He brought quails and satisfied them.”

Now, I want you just think about how nourishing this manna that they ate for 40 years was. Forty years. I mean, that was their diet for 40 years. Some—I don’t know if this is true online; it doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot that represents this, but online, ever they get true there, you know, I would not be dogmatic about it—some even say where the Bible talks about how their feet did not swell has a little bit to do with how nourishing the manna was. I’m not sure about that. A doctor had said that. But you know what you call someone that’s graduated bottom of the medical class? You call them a doctor, amen. You know, so. But I’d heard that. I don’t know how true that is. But anyway, just think about the nourishment. Forty years they ate this manna. It had the vitamins and nutrients and nourishment they needed for their bodies to be in the desert, the wilderness. The young folk, the older folk, the middle age—that was about the age. And just the nourishment, just wanted to point out the nourishment.

I want you to notice those couple of verses. They were satisfied. They were filled with the manna, and how nourishing the manna was.

Look down in verse number 15. Just getting some facts here about the manna before we dive into it. Chapter 16, look at verse number 15. Exodus 16:15. “And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, ‘It is manna.’” Children of Israel were the one that named it, “It is manna.” For they wist not what it is. Actually, that’s what the word manna means. If you look in Strong’s Concordance, the definition he gives is “whatness,” or many would just say, “What is it?” They didn’t know what it was. They never saw anything like that. “What is this?” And the children of Israel are the ones that gave it the name manna. It is manna if they were—it’s not what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.”

It’s interesting. Psalm 78:24 calls it—there it says this—“And had given them of the corn of heaven.” Isn’t that interesting? The next verse over there in Psalm 78: “Man did eat angels’ food.” Well, that’s interesting. Angels’ food. They were eating from the corn of heaven, angels’ food, this manna.

Now try to apply it to ourselves for just a bit here. They’re eating this manna for 40 years, and it sustained them, it nourished them, it took care of them, gave them what they needed. What’s the deal of this manna? We’ll look over in John chapter 6. John chapter 6. There’s no such thing for him. John chapter 6, amen. We’re going to get it right here in a second. Let me see if I can remember it. It’s kind of like a thorn in your side, right? Amen, you know.

John chapter 6. And let’s look and see, very clear here. John chapter 6. By the way, here in this passage, Jesus had just fed the 5,000 plus women and children. Great miracle. By the way, I think a little bit, many times Jesus did that, Jesus was showing His deity. “God sent bread. I can send bread. I am God. You have seen the Father, you have seen Me,” or what? And He makes bread, feeds the 5,000. You can’t feed 5,000 out of a sack lunch, you know, and plus women and children. No, He multiplied, He blessed it, and breaking came, and so on and so on. So just a little note about that.

Now, He’s having a conversation after that with some of the Pharisees. We’ll jump to verse number 26. We weren’t planning on it, but let’s do that. Verse number 26: “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.’” You like the food. You like that bread. You like to eat that.

But notice what it says, verse number 27: “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.” He said, that’s not the big deal of this food you ate. That’s why you’re after Me. But He said, look way past beyond that into everlasting life. This is a conversation that’s going on here with Jesus and the Pharisees.

Look at verse number 30. They said, therefore, unto Him, “What sign showest Thou then, that we may see and believe Thee? What dost Thou work? Remember the Jews require a sign. Our fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

Then Jesus said to 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.” Let’s keep going. Look down verse number 48. Verse number 48 makes it real clear here. Verse number 48: “I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes 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.”

Of course, speaking of the cross, He’s about to die. So what does this manna over here in the building represent? It represents Jesus Christ. He is the bread of life. And the bread came down, and it lay on the ground. Jesus came down from heaven. He laid down His life. It was in the morning after the nighttime, after Christ went to the cross, the night, the darkness, the three hours of darkness, and the light. He became the light of the world and the bread of life. The Lord gave it even to the sinful people. It makes it available for everyone. The Jewish people were murmuring and complaining, and yet 40 years, even after they were sinful, He gave them that manna. You see the picture here? It brought life. It brought life to the Jewish people, the nation of Israel that had died in the wilderness—two million or so Jewish people that had died for sure—but the bread gave them life. Jesus gives mankind life. He is the life, eternal life, that God gave to you and I through Jesus Christ. So a wonderful representation, this manna of Jesus Christ. Very clear, very clear, probably the most common, and it’s very accurate. The Bible is not a man making it up; it’s very clear. John chapter 6, He is a better life associated with the manna from the Old Testament of Israel. All right. See that?

And I want to suggest, and I think you probably have heard there, but just a moment, would you look over in Matthew 4? Let’s take a little different angle at this thing. It is also a biblical angle. And I want you to notice we’ll just focus on this a bit tonight over in Matthew chapter 4. And this is where Jesus was tempted of the devil in the wilderness, all right? Matthew chapter 4, verse number 1. When you’re there, would you say amen? Good deal. Matthew 4 and verse number 1. You’re already out there? We’re waiting on you, right?

Here we go, verse number 1: “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights…” A lot of people in that part of the world will fast. Or Muslims take it; they fast from the morning to the afternoon or evening. A lot of Jewish people from 6 to 6. But Jesus fasted, America—very clear in Scripture—fasted 40 days and 40 nights. Wow. That’s something for you. I mean, I have not been there. Not close to that right there. 40 days and 40 nights fasting. Wow, that’s all I got to say.

“And He was afterward an-hungered.” You better believe He was hungry. 40 days and 40 nights. And when the tempter—that’s the devil—came to Him, He said, “If Thou be the Son of God…” Notice He’s really attacking His identity. “If You really are the Son of God.” He was. “If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” Boy, Jesus, could You have done that? Better believe He could have, man, just boom, you know, just thought it. Sure He could. And maybe in some ways He could have showed that He is the Son of God, that power, that might. But either way, He left the will of the Father and followed Satan’s playing. Satan, by the way, he’ll attack your identity. He preached a whole message on that years ago. He’ll go after that. That’s what you really do with Jesus.

But watch what Jesus says, verse number 4: “But He answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’” Now, here’s my question: Jesus said, “It is written.” Well, where is it written? What was Jesus quoting from? Where did you get that from?

Would you look over—would you look over in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 8? And we’ll find out what Jesus was quoting from. He’s quoting Scripture. By the way, you fight Satan with the sword of the Spirit, the Bible. That’s what Jesus was doing. And so what was He talking about? We’ll look back over in Deuteronomy chapter 8 and look at—by the way, let me just remind you—He mentioned that they live by bread alone but by every word. He’s saying, look, your nourishment is not just bread but by every word. How do we get the every word of God in our day and time? The Bible. Praise the Lord for the King James Bible, amen. By the way, praise the Lord, we got an every word Bible. Maybe I can trust every word in it. Don’t have to worry about who’s messed with and changed it.

So just with that note right there, look over in Deuteronomy 8. Look at verse number 3. Deuteronomy 8:3. “And 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 know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.”

Here’s what I’m getting at. He said, “Look, you had this manna because I said you’re going to have the manna.” So as the manna wonderful? Yes, but it also shows you how important every word of God is. Every single word.

So here’s what I’m getting at: It’s a fair comparison. Yes, Jesus, He is the bread of life. He is the living Word (John 1, capital W). “In the beginning was the Word,” all right? But all of that, but we have the written Word. And we get manna and we get our nourishment, not just from the living Word—He is life, He is everlasting life, He is eternal life—but we get our substance, we get our nourishment from every word from the written Word. So the manna also represents God’s Word, the Bible. All right?

Now let’s just talk about this, just for a minute here, about this manna, all right? Let’s kind of go back to Exodus 16. Let’s think about it. Yes, Jesus Christ and all that, the Bible, okay? Let’s look at some things about this manna, how God tells them, and it represents Jesus, yes, the living Word, but also the written Word.

So look in Exodus 16, and would you look in verse number 16? Exodus 16:16. You are there tonight, amen? Good, good. Here it is, verse number 16: “This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded: Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer.” You get a lot of different measurements from an omer—between two and three quarts of what most people will say. “Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer, for every man according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.”

They were to gather it—everybody in their house. Look, I don’t think, I don’t think—maybe so. Brother John, Ms. Marie would tell them how them boys, man, they’re getting energy. Their boys, they’re ready to go, you know, 13 months old. But I don’t think they’re at the age they go out and gather an omer each. Or maybe an older or elderly person sick in bed. They might not be able to go out and gather it. And so other people in the household were to go gather it for them if they physically could not go gather it for themselves.

But I want you to notice it was a team. It was a household. It is such a good thing when families, especially with little ones, they sit down and have somewhat—somewhat of devotions together, somewhat where they’re getting in the book, and it may look so different for different people, but they’re getting in the book. That household. By the way, there may be times you or your spouse or someone in the house is not where they ought to be. Maybe they’re just weak, whether it be physically or even sometimes spiritually. You hit them over the head, “Go gather your—get your omer out there,” you know. “Get your Bible.” No, won’t you go and won’t you walk with God for yourself and a little bit for them and say, “Lord, I need…” By the way, if there may be weak spiritually, it may be a little bit tougher for you because your other people in the house are not where they ought to be. Hey, friend, don’t go beat them over the head. Go try to get something from God for them to you. And so you have extra grace, extra love for them. But it was a family thing and a wonderful thing.

Look, if you will, over in Numbers chapter 11. Numbers chapter 11. They’re murmuring a little bit about manna over here. We’ll get to it. In time, we’ll be over here. This is about a year later, by the way, Numbers 11 is from Exodus 16. But God gives them a little description of the manna in Numbers 11 and verse number 8. I want you just notice this. This is interesting. We’ll be here, I don’t know, in the future, we’ll be here if you continue all the life of Moses. Numbers 11, verse number 8: “And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills,” so they could grind it up and maybe make bread, cupcakes, or cupcakes with icing on it, or cupcakes with icing with that cream cheese on the icing, you know. All right, anyway, trying to get that hit out there so that you’re going to make bread or something out of it, “or beat it in a mortar and make it in pans and make cakes of it; and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.”

By the way, that’s where the Word of God is. The Holy Spirit gets a much like fresh oil. But here’s one way: they made it all kind of different ways. Friend, if you’re eating the same thing for 40 years, you’ll have a bit new ways to eat it, isn’t it? Can you imagine the recipe book? 40 different new ways to make manna, amen, you know? Think about it. That’s what’s going on here. You know, 101 different ways to make a meal out of manna, you know. But here’s the thing: just kind of like there are so many different ways to get the Bible in you for a family to have some of family devotions. I’ve heard of families making—you make them plays out of it, and you know, acting out David and Goliath. Everybody wants to be David. Amen. Nobody wants to be Goliath in that one there, you know. Please don’t give them a real sword either, you know, in that one there, you know.

But you can do that. Or you can just sit around and maybe, you know, you read one verse, maybe that. Maybe it’s just the verse. There have been times we read one, you know, and “Everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you,” and we just went around the room just saying what you’re thankful for. You know, it can be a thousand different ways. Have fun with it. Don’t be too, you know, don’t preach that devotion time. I’m not going to preach it. You don’t do that; you’re going to turn them off. But have fun with it.

And even for you, how do you get the Bible in you? There are probably a thousand ways. There are Bible apps that read the Bible to you nowadays, or Scourby, you know, Alexander Scourby, you know, or dramatized, or hear it preached or hear it called or read it in a devotional. There are couples’ devotionals. There are every kind of devotional in the world out there nowadays. And I’m just saying, but get in the Bible in you and try to get that bread of life inside of you. Have fun with it.

Now here’s the interesting thing. Look in verse number 27, Exodus 16. And look in verse number 27. Exodus 16:27. “And it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.” Why is that? God said, “No, no, no, no. On the sixth day, there will be twice as much; you gather twice as much, but not on the Sabbath day, not on the seventh day. Don’t you gather of it? No, no, no, no.”

In verse number 28, “The Lord said unto Moses, ‘How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?’” Boy, He was upset about it. “For that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Abide ye every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.”

Now we’re trying to apply that to our day and time, just for a moment, about Sabbath and Sunday. Now, the Sabbath was an Old Testament command that God gave to the nation of Israel. It’s the only one of the Ten Commandments not repeated in the New Testament. And it represented—they were trying to keep the law. Remember the laws of schoolmasters show us we’re not good enough; we need a Savior. And so they would work all week long and they would rest on the last day. So they get them trying to work, work, work, be good enough, be going to be good, and then rest. You’re never good enough, by the way.

So Jesus, He is Lord of the Sabbath. He fulfilled this. The Sabbath is just a shadow of the Messiah. Jesus is the real Sabbath. He is the real rest in Christ Jesus. Now, so we don’t have the Sabbath on the last day of the week. Now, on the first day of the week, we represent or we celebrate Jesus and the resting in Jesus. He saved me by His shed blood. He is my rest. He is my Sabbath. He is Lord of the Sabbath. I rest in Jesus Christ. I got saved by Jesus. Now the rest of the week, I work for Him because He saved me, not to earn my salvation, but because I am saved.

Years ago, I had two Mormons come to my house. We live in a tract over here in La Verne. And so, look, we do the same things; we go door to door, but we do it for two different reasons. You do it to earn your way to heaven, which you’re never going to earn. I do it because Jesus earned my way. Whether I go or not, I’m going to heaven because of Jesus, but I go because I love Him. He loved me and gave Himself for me. Big difference. That’s the two different signs.

And so in our day and time, we have church on the day He rose, and we are celebrating His victory over death, hell, and the grave on Sunday. Sunday is our religious day. The Sabbath of the religious day. Sunday is our religious day. It is the Lord’s Day. All right. So think with me. He said, “All right, I want to gather of this, but on the Sabbath day, the religious day, I don’t want you to gather.”

Let’s think about Sunday for a moment here. It’s our religious day. Here’s something—I was talking to a man, I think last week, nice man. I didn’t get an argument with him. I just told him he can be wrong if he wants to. No, I didn’t tell him that. I didn’t say that. But he said, “Well, we don’t do the church thing. Me and my family, we just sit around and study the Bible.” And I’m not trying to be mean, but by the marks—you know, tattoos and all that—it doesn’t seem like it’s working real good, you know, the best I can tell. I’m not trying to be mean; he’s a good man. But he said, “We don’t do that church thing. We just study the Bible.” No, no, no. Studying the Bible daily doesn’t replace the religious day or Sunday or church. There’s a big thing in our day and time: “Well, forget about church; just study your Bible.” Yes, study your Bible, but that does not replace doing what God said, “Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together”—church.

And you see how it lines up with this thing here? No, on the religious day, go to church. Go to your religious day. Go to the Lord’s house. By the way, there’s something special, just something special about it on Sunday when God’s people come together and fellowship together in Sunday school and church, and you come to dine from the table of God’s Word, whether it be at Sunday school or church. Or something special. That’s God’s plan. And just because I’ve been in my Bible all week long doesn’t mean, “Well, for your own church.” No, no. He said, “I want you to still participate on this religious holiday.” We are supposed to still participate in the house of God as a whole, as a whole. It doesn’t seem like the religious folks that don’t go to church—praise the Lord if they’re reading their Bible, I like that, that’s the start—but it doesn’t seem like it makes much of a dent in this world. No, it’s God’s plan to find your local church, we are going to get involved with one another. And by the way, it in church wonderful, everybody doing their part. Everybody, I just love it. Man, everybody’s doing this out of the other around here, making it happen for the Lord Jesus Christ and making a difference in the world. And that’s God’s plan. See, that’s what God wants.

A couple of things about this manna. Look, if you will, you’ll know this verse. Look, if you will, over in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And we’ve got to hurry along here. First Corinthians chapter 2. We’re just going to get a quick, quick thought here. And 1 Corinthians 2, verse number 14: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Remember back over here in Exodus 16, I think it’s 15, where they said, “Man, what in the world is this?” They didn’t understand it. They didn’t get it at first. “What is this? Is this corn flakes or Fruit Loops?” You know what’s got it? You know, they didn’t know what in the world. Look at this, 1 Corinthians 2, look in verse number 14.

You know, the world, when they look at the Bible first, they’re like, “Whoa, I don’t understand that. I don’t get that.” Well, when the Holy Spirit of God moves inside, they get saved, well, they have new light on the Word of God. Then, as they grow and they listen and they understand, they discern His voice more. They begin to understand more of the Bible, and the Bible becomes to come alive to them, and they get nourished, meaning in understanding, and they begin to grow in their appetite for the Word of God. Same thing: at first, they didn’t know what in the world that manna was. That’s how the name came. And people at first, “Well, I don’t understand the Bible.” By the way, that’s why a lot of people will change the Bible, but I’d rather change me than change the Bible. I’d rather grow instead of trying to bring it down to my level; I try to get up there. They try it, but they didn’t get it at first. And somebody’s not going to get the Bible at first.

One more thought. Look back over in Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy 8. Very quickly here. One last thought about this manna in the Bible. Deuteronomy 8. Look in verse number 16, if you will. Deuteronomy 8:16: “Lest 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 might establish His covenant which He sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.”

Let me just try to explain a little bit. I think what it means here: Remember, God didn’t say, “All right, I’ll give you a month’s supply at one time. Let me give you a big nest egg of manna.” Every day, every day. If they gathered and they tried to save it up, it got worms and stank. And that picture—every day they had to humbly come before God: “God, I need You today.” That way, later on, when they entered into the promise land, “Well, we got there. Look at us, we got this land, we took this land.” I want you to remember all those years every day he had to get up and depend on Me. Can I put it real, real just simple? Why was it? God gave them day by day. Why does He want us to be day by day in the Bible? He doesn’t give you something way down there. “I see this storm. I want the strength for down there.” No, He will give you what you need today. Why is that? Because God wants to have a day-to-day relationship with Him. He wants to wake up every morning, walk with you. He wants you every morning just get up and be in His Word.

We’ve already pictured a little bit mentally, you know, a Christian waking up in the morning, going to their coffee table or wherever it may be. Don’t make it too comfortable; you’re allowed to be sleeping, amen, you know. But you’re going somewhere. You’ve got your coffee and you’re reading the Word. And I want you to do this: Not only Christian—that’s a wonderful sight. Or later on, if your schedule, it’s better if you do that—that’s a wonderful sight. But I want you to not only picture that, but I want to picture God every morning at His coffee table, if you will, with this coffee, if you will. And He’s got the nourishment you need for that day. And He’s waiting for you. He said, “I want you to come just as My children and get in My Word. My manna I gave you for today. And I’ll be waiting for you. I give you what you need every day.” Children of Israel got up, the manna was always there, always there. Jesus, oh yeah, He is our life. And then the written Word is our day-to-day life, amen, our nourishment.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. Maybe just two questions, just very briefly tonight. You say, “I need to be in the book. I don’t know how.” I don’t know what that means for you. Maybe listening to preaching, maybe memorize it, maybe just reading a little bit every day, but I just need to be in the book. God spoke to my heart: “I need to be in the book. I need to be in the book.” God has spoken to my heart about that. Not you tonight, you sleep. You end up preaching, “Man, I need to be in the book.” Oh, me too, me too. It’s got everything we need, everything we need. Just get in there. Oh, it’s a wonderful, wonderful nourishment God has given you. He has it right there. He has it waiting for you. Are you getting to it? That’s wonderful.

One more question: You say, “I would like for my relationship with the Lord to grow. I want to have that day-to-day walk humbly with God. I’d like to do that, and through His Word, I’d like to have just a deeper and broader relationship with my Heavenly Father.” And I’m asking, “Lord, would you help me grow and have a stronger relationship with You?” That’s you tonight. Preacher, I want that. Just lift your head. Preacher, I want that. He wants that too. God bless you. That’s wonderful. Would you let Him know about that tonight? Just let Him know about that.

Father, thank You for the manna. Jesus, thank You. You gave Your body, Your blood. And Lord, thank You. You gave us bread every morning, so always waiting for us. Thank You for Your Word. Lord, help us to be after it daily, just trying to get nourishment out of Your Word. And Lord, I pray that You would—we want to know You. We need You, Lord. Would You deepen and widen our relationship with You? Bless our people in these next few minutes, Lord, please. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Daily Bread - Sunday PM 08302023