WEBVTT

1
00:00:01.523 --> 00:00:04.223
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

2
00:00:06.223 --> 00:00:07.023
You may be seated.

3
00:00:10.623 --> 00:00:15.523
Jesus says that no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is

4
00:00:15.523 --> 00:00:18.323
fit for the kingdom of God. If 

5
00:00:18.323 --> 00:00:19.223
we find it ever

6
00:00:19.223 --> 00:00:21.223
so enticing to look back.

7
00:00:22.523 --> 00:00:28.423
Over our shoulder back to from whence we came remembering how good it

8
00:00:28.423 --> 00:00:29.823
was back there.

9
00:00:29.823 --> 00:00:34.923
Now, that is a testament to the peace and joy that Christ delivered to

10
00:00:34.923 --> 00:00:40.323
us through his faithful provision in former days and it's good, right

11
00:00:40.323 --> 00:00:44.623
and salutary that we should live in gratitude for the abundance that

12
00:00:44.623 --> 00:00:46.523
Christ has poured upon us

13
00:00:46.523 --> 00:00:54.723
in those previous days. But when our gaze is drawn more towards

14
00:00:54.723 --> 00:00:55.023
where we have come from and not so much towards the horizon of

15
00:00:55.623 --> 00:00:57.223
where we are headed.

16
00:00:57.223 --> 00:01:03.223
That is a betrayal of a lack of confidence that Christ, provision will

17
00:01:03.223 --> 00:01:05.323
continue in the days ahead.

18
00:01:06.423 --> 00:01:10.823
We look back with yearning for the way things used to be.

19
00:01:10.823 --> 00:01:16.923
And so we move forward not in a straight line, but swerving to and fro.

20
00:01:18.223 --> 00:01:23.523
So, it was with Israel, they're on their way to the promised land on

21
00:01:23.523 --> 00:01:28.323
the horizon is the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham, Isaac and

22
00:01:28.323 --> 00:01:34.823
Jacob. They're going to be inheriting the land and yet they keep looking

23
00:01:34.823 --> 00:01:37.123
back. Back in Egypt

24
00:01:38.923 --> 00:01:43.523
we sat by the meat pots and we ate bread to the full, but out here in

25
00:01:43.523 --> 00:01:45.523
the wilderness that is all gone.

26
00:01:46.823 --> 00:01:50.123
And so they long to be back in Egypt.

27
00:01:50.123 --> 00:01:55.423
They long for the security of slavery.

28
00:01:56.623 --> 00:02:03.223
Egypt was the house of slavery and in that house they had security.

29
00:02:03.223 --> 00:02:06.923
When you're enslaved, your belly is full.

30
00:02:06.923 --> 00:02:12.623
Your appetite is satiated and that brings comfort. Comfort

31
00:02:12.623 --> 00:02:13.323
great enough

32
00:02:13.323 --> 00:02:18.323
that Israel looks past its cost slavery.

33
00:02:19.323 --> 00:02:20.423
Freedom

34
00:02:20.423 --> 00:02:25.623
releases the shackles of slavery but we cling to those shackles

35
00:02:25.623 --> 00:02:28.623
because of the comfort they deliver.

36
00:02:30.123 --> 00:02:34.123
You know, the comfort found in slavery.

37
00:02:35.123 --> 00:02:39.323
On one hand, you hate the sin that binds you.

38
00:02:40.323 --> 00:02:43.023
Don't you long to be free of the sin

39
00:02:43.023 --> 00:02:44.323
that is controlled you for so long?

40
00:02:44.323 --> 00:02:50.023
Now addiction comes in many forms from the well-known addictions of

41
00:02:50.023 --> 00:02:54.923
alcoholism, substance abuse, pornography and gambling.

42
00:02:55.723 --> 00:03:01.223
On down to the supposedly less scandalous addictions of gossip,

43
00:03:01.223 --> 00:03:03.223
endless screens

44
00:03:03.223 --> 00:03:04.023
and the like.

45
00:03:05.123 --> 00:03:06.723
Whatever it is,

46
00:03:06.723 --> 00:03:11.923
once your eyes are open to see that your heart is gripped, by the icy

47
00:03:11.923 --> 00:03:14.223
fingers of sinful addiction.

48
00:03:14.223 --> 00:03:16.623
You want to be free.

49
00:03:16.623 --> 00:03:18.223
No more

50
00:03:18.223 --> 00:03:22.923
can you live with the harm that slavery, descend brings upon you and

51
00:03:22.923 --> 00:03:26.223
upon those whom you love, you want to be free.

52
00:03:27.723 --> 00:03:32.723
But still there is comfort in slavery.

53
00:03:32.723 --> 00:03:34.823
Even slavery

54
00:03:34.823 --> 00:03:35.323
to sin.

55
00:03:36.423 --> 00:03:42.023
No matter what sin it is that specifically controls you, the allure

56
00:03:42.023 --> 00:03:43.623
is always the same.

57
00:03:44.623 --> 00:03:52.423
Slavery brings comfort. Indulge in the sin just one more time and you

58
00:03:52.423 --> 00:03:53.623
will feel good.

59
00:03:55.123 --> 00:03:56.323
At least for a moment.

60
00:03:57.623 --> 00:04:02.623
For that moment, your belly will be filled, your desire will be

61
00:04:02.623 --> 00:04:06.123
satiated and slavery will seem worth it, for a moment.

62
00:04:10.423 --> 00:04:13.923
And then comes the Lord in all his glory.

63
00:04:15.023 --> 00:04:19.923
Israel grumbles that they no longer have the security of slavery with

64
00:04:19.923 --> 00:04:25.223
full bellies and then they look out into the Wilderness and they see

65
00:04:25.223 --> 00:04:26.723
the glory of the Lord.

66
00:04:26.723 --> 00:04:32.023
His glory had been seen back in Egypt when he brought them out with a

67
00:04:32.023 --> 00:04:38.323
mighty hand and an outstretched arm, but his glory is no longer back

68
00:04:38.323 --> 00:04:43.623
there in the house of slavery, his glory is before them in the

69
00:04:43.623 --> 00:04:43.923
wilderness.

70
00:04:45.823 --> 00:04:51.123
You will not find the glory of the Lord, back in your sin, and the

71
00:04:51.123 --> 00:04:55.023
fleeting comfort and false security that is found in it.

72
00:04:55.023 --> 00:05:01.723
His glory came to you there amid your sin in order to set you free.

73
00:05:01.723 --> 00:05:06.123
And His glory refuses to allow you to remain there.

74
00:05:07.123 --> 00:05:12.023
His glory is not bound up in slavery, but in freedom.

75
00:05:12.823 --> 00:05:15.423
And free you are.

76
00:05:16.523 --> 00:05:21.023
The word of the Lord spoken by his servant into your ears, this very

77
00:05:21.023 --> 00:05:26.023
day. I forgive you all your sin in the name of the Father and of the

78
00:05:26.023 --> 00:05:30.923
Son and of the Holy Spirit, you are not slaves

79
00:05:30.923 --> 00:05:33.723
you are free.

80
00:05:35.123 --> 00:05:39.923
And in that freedom, the Lord feeds his Israel.

81
00:05:40.623 --> 00:05:45.423
In the evening came the quail and in the morning there was Manna. Now

82
00:05:45.423 --> 00:05:49.223
it's not the same as the meat pots and the bread that they filled

83
00:05:49.223 --> 00:05:51.123
their bellies with back in Egypt.

84
00:05:51.123 --> 00:05:56.423
It wouldn't give them that same false security and fleeting comfort

85
00:05:56.423 --> 00:05:58.923
that they had known back in the house of slavery.

86
00:05:58.923 --> 00:06:02.923
Instead, it gives them something far greater.

87
00:06:04.123 --> 00:06:08.723
It gives them certainty because it is the bread

88
00:06:08.723 --> 00:06:11.823
the Lord that he is given them to eat.

89
00:06:13.023 --> 00:06:20.523
And still today, the Lord feeds his Israel with bread that he gives us

90
00:06:20.523 --> 00:06:21.123
to eat.

91
00:06:22.223 --> 00:06:24.723
The Lord gives you to eat freedom.

92
00:06:25.723 --> 00:06:32.523
Freedom from sin. Freedom to know his provision. Freedom to look out on

93
00:06:32.523 --> 00:06:36.323
the horizon and though you don't know exactly where it is

94
00:06:36.323 --> 00:06:37.623
that you are heading

95
00:06:38.223 --> 00:06:40.923
you go forward in freedoms

96
00:06:40.923 --> 00:06:44.423
certainty that he is leading you.

97
00:06:45.423 --> 00:06:48.423
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.