Smoke - Week 2
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Transcript
Passage: Exodus 13:17-22
Big Idea: God is providing by guiding.
Introduction:
If you weren’t here last week, we started a new series called “Smoke.” Some of you probably are still confused by the title, but when we look at the Old Testament, we see that smoke often signals God’s presence is near.
Last week, we took a look at the moment with Moses and the burning bush. We saw this shocking moment turn into a holy moment where Moses encountered God, and was awakened to God’s presence in His life.
As we go through this series, it is my hope that you are awakened to the presence of God in your lives. When we look at Scripture, and we seek to grow in our understanding of who God is and why He wants relationship with us, we can’t help but encounter God. Encountering God will cause us to take a look at our lives, and make changes because once we encounter Him, we will want to be like Him.
In order for our hearts to be awakened, we first need to do some things:
Revere who God is
Repent of what we’re not
Realize God is Holy
Recognize His presence in our lives.
Today, we are going to look at how God provides by guiding us in our relationship with Him.
We will also see the continuing theme that THE REASON THAT AT ANY MOMENT, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IS BECAUSE OF GOD.
Transition:
Have any of you found a hidden treasure? Or has anyone ever been on a treasure hunt? Maybe not for most of you, but you all probably get excited even at the idea of going on a treasure hunt, am I right? Lately, I have loved getting to watch certain shows or movies that involve a treasure hunt.
Who’s seen National Treasure? Man what a movie! What’s interesting about that movie too, is that he seems to have collected a lot of the clues from his parents and grandparents. He finds old things that are in his garage, and they help him find the treasure.
Now there are people today, who just happen to stumble upon treasure in their garage, and all of a sudden they become very rich. Those stories aren’t quite as captivating, but it is interesting to know what they found, and how much it is worth.
Listen to these 3 examples and see if you can figure out which of these hidden treasures was worth the most money.
Elizabeth Gibson was walking down a New York street to get her morning coffee when she saw a large, colorful canvas covered with abstract art nestled between two big garbage bags. Elizabeth is a self-proclaimed dumpster diver who tries to find treasures among trash, so her first instinct was to pick the painting up. She debated doing so because it was so big, but she eventually decided she had to have this painting. Little did she know at the time that the painting was “Three People,” a 1970 canvas by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo. The painting had been stolen 20 years earlier, and it was actually the subject of an FBI investigation. The painting was still in surprisingly good condition, and as it went to auction it was estimated to be worth a shocking…
Tanner Sandlin was surfing on the internet when he read a story about nine very rare (and expensive) video games. One of the games was Air Raid, an Atari 2600 game released in the mid-1980s. Only 12 known copies of the game existed, and even though the game was terrible, the fact that it was so rare and so bad made it a collector’s item. When Tanner saw a picture of the game, he realized that he had bought it when he was a kid. He went through some boxes in his garage and found the game and its original box. Because the game was so bad, Tanner had never had any of his friends to borrow the game. Now he had it, and it was actually the only single-owner copy of the game in existence. Tanner got an Atari expert to verify the game and then put it on eBay. When the auction concluded, Tanner sold the game for a whopping…
A Pennsylvania comic-book shop owner was shocked one day when someone walked into his shop with a near-mint copy of Detective Comics 27, the pre-World War II comic that told the story of Batman’s debut. Todd McDevitt, the shop’s owner, had been saving his money for two decades in case he ever had a chance to buy the rare comic, which now exists in no more than a few hundred copies. Todd said that the person who came into his shop had been cleaning out the attic when the comic was found. Todd wouldn’t say how much he paid for the comic, but he said that at auction it would be worth a stunning…
The Tamayo painting is estimated to be worth $1 million. The Air Raid cartridge sold for $31,600 — the second-most ever for a video-game cartridge. The Batman comic is estimated to be worth $250,000.
Often when we hear or see stories like this, we all wish we could find something that’s worth a crazy amount of money so that we could “get-rich-quick.” The funny thing is that the process of treasure hunting is often tougher than we expect, and leaves us disappointed.
We often take the same treasure-hunter approach when it comes to God. We take God’s promises to provide for our needs and turn them into a name-it-claim-it theology where God’s utmost priority is to make and keep us happy. We basically try to treat God as a cosmic vending machine or a genie in a lamp, and then when He doesn’t give us everything we want exactly when we want it, we get mad at him. But this treasure-hunt approach to God’s provision doesn’t work.
So how does God’s provision work? What does God give us, and what is our responsibility? In session three, we are going to step into the smoke together to discover how we can journey into God’s provision for our lives.
Scripture: Exodus 13:17-22
Background:
Moses
We already know that Moses was saved as a baby because of God’s provision, and he ended up being prince of Egypt. But the whole thing was ruined one day when he decided to intervene on behalf of an Israelite who was fighting with an Egyptian. He kills the Egyptian, and tries to cover it up, but ends up having to flee for his life because he’s caught in his mistake.
He flees to Midian where he takes care of his father-in-law, Jethro’s, flock. One day, he sees something crazy. A burning bush.
God calls him to go to Pharaoh, and ask for the people of Israel to be set free. We will pick up more of this story in 2 weeks, but for now, know that the Israelites are set free, and Moses is now leading them out of Egypt to the promised land.
Exodus 13:17-22
17 When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land. God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” 18 So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea. Thus the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle. 19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear to do this. He said, “God will certainly come to help you. When he does, you must take my bones with you from this place.” 20 The Israelites left Succoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. 21 The LORD went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night. 22 And the LORD did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from its place in front of the people.
Short Explanation:
God has already provided for them in a number of ways:
He provided their freedom from Egypt
He parted the Red Sea
He even gave them manna and water in the desert so that they wouldn’t die of hunger or thirst.
This instance feels different though for the people of Israel, and I’m sure many of them questioned why God was taking them on a detour.
What do we see was the reason for this detour? God took them away from the Philistine territory in order to protect Israel. He knew that they were at a weak state in their faith, and so a hardship like war may discourage them from ever getting to the promised land.
God’s provision may not have been what the Israelites expected, but the heavenly pillars of cloud and fire left no doubt that God had provided this guidance for them. We learn from this pillar of fire that SMOKE SIGNALS THAT GOD IS PROVIDING BY GUIDING.
God goes ahead of them
God guides them
God comforts and protects them
Application:
Often when we think of treasure, we like to focus on the treasure and not the map that leads to the treasure. But the map and the treasure are both important!
Think of movies with maps or treasure - often in those movies you see pirates fighting for both things because without the map, there’s no finding the treasure.
At times, we make the mistake of not understanding the treasure that God is offering to us. We see God’s provision in ways that everyone else might see it - with money, nice stuff, the best car, the nicest phone.
What if God’s provision is more like the treasure map than it is the treasure?
Follow me on this one because I think it’s important we see how God works.
In this story, we see that God didn’t just give the Promised Land to the Israelites as soon as they were free from the Egyptians. He led them through the Red Sea, and into the wilderness, but all along He protected them and was GUIDING them.
His GUIDING presence was his provision.
The same is true for our lives. God has given us His Holy Spirit, and He promises never to leave us or forsake us. Just like the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, God’s presence is very real and near in our lives.
Of course, God is able to give us gold, and at times He will drop provision in our laps in such a way that there is no doubt He has provided and blessed us. But more often, God won’t drop provision in our laps. Instead, He will guide us toward provision. He will show us where to go, what to do, and how to get there so that we receive what He has promised us. God is providing for us by guiding us, not just by dropping something in our laps.
In order to receive God’s provision:
WE MUST FOLLOW WHERE GOD GUIDES US.
God’s work is not dependent on us, but it’s not independent of us either. We have a role, and that’s to follow where God guides.
WE MUST ACCEPT OUR RESPONSIBILITY INSTEAD OF WAITING ON GOD TO DO EVERYTHING FOR US.
Far too often, we expect God’s provision to be a treasure chest. We expect to hit B6 on the cosmic vending machine and have God immediately give us what we want. God can and will do this at times. But if we expect God to always provide in this way, we’ll miss out on so much of what God wants to provide for us.
WE MUST STOP FOCUSING ON THE TREASURE CHEST AND START LISTENING TO THE GUIDE.
God is providing adventure and purpose and meaning for us, but we must follow Him to receive this provision. If we focus on the treasure chest, we’ll miss out on God’s provision that is the treasure map.
Ending: Let’s remember that Smoke signals that God is providing by guiding. My encouragement to you tonight is that no matter what is happening in your life - family trouble, friend trouble, school trouble - trust God’s provision is there for you, and choose to accept it. As you follow His provision, He will guide you to know Him, and you will receive the treasure that He has to offer!