Modern Day Manna
Pastor Erickson preaches from Joshua 5, Exodus 16 and John 6 on the manna that fed Israel in the wilderness, showing that it was daily provision and never God's promise of a land flowing with milk and honey. He calls the church to stop settling for a just enough walk with God and to answer Jesus's call to Peter by becoming disciple makers.
The message in 6 points
The manna ceased
He reads Joshua 5:10-12, where the manna stopped the day after Israel ate the fruit of the land of Canaan, and announces his topic: modern day manna.
53:12Short memories in the wilderness
A month after leaving Egypt, Israel murmured against Moses in the wilderness, forgetting the Red Sea and missing the food of slavery. He says we can be the same, forgetting what God has done, yet God rained bread from heaven, enough for one day, to prove whether they would walk in his law.
55:54Provision is not the promise
In John 6 Jesus says he is the true bread from heaven. Pastor Erickson says the manna was a miracle but not God's best: it was a temporary fix for an immediate need, while God had promised a land flowing with milk and honey, and Israel settled for daily provision for 40 years.
1:00:38A just enough walk with God
He describes modern day manna as a just enough mentality: just enough of God to hold a marriage together, keep children in church, or slip into heaven. He names screens, careers and sports put ahead of God, says backsliding means not being where you were a year ago, and thanks older saints for setting the example.
1:05:03A manna mentality
He says living on manna left a generation dependent and without initiative, so the spies saw themselves as grasshoppers, while Joshua and Caleb said we are well able. His own greatest fear, he says, is to come to the end of life without doing what God called him to do.
1:16:48Peter, do you love me
Even after three and a half years with Jesus, Peter went back to fishing, but Jesus asked him three times if he loved him and told him to feed my sheep, which Pastor Erickson calls making disciples. From Philippians 3:13-14 he calls every believer to refuse modern day manna and press toward the mark.
1:27:50
In his words
“You see, we don't need to settle for what God gives as simple provision as if it's God's promise. Because [manna] was not God's promise. It was simple daily provision. Don't let provision take the place of your promise here tonight.”
“Backsliding simply means that you can look back a year ago and say, I'm not where I used to be.”
“My greatest fear is to have an [epitaph] written across my gravestone that says, Here lies a good man that could have been a great man.”
Taken word for word from the video, with punctuation added. Words in [brackets] were fixed so the line reads clearly.
Scripture
He reads
Joshua 5:10-12
10And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. 11And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. 12And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
King James Version.
Exodus 16:2-4
2And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: 3And 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 ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. 4Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will 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.
King James Version.
Numbers 11:5
5We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:
King James Version.
John 6:31-35
31Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. 32Then 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. 33For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 34Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. 35And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
King James Version.
John 6:48-51
48I am that bread of life. 49Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 51I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
King James Version.
Philippians 3:13-14
13Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
King James Version.
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