WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.100 Jesus as the bread of life. So, let's think about a few things together. Let's think, first of all, 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:15.380 about the grumbling that we see here at the end of chapter 15 and then the beginning of chapter 00:00:15.380 --> 00:00:24.719 16. It's a reminder, this text is a reminder that spiritual amnesia is real. Here is a people with 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:32.700 short-term memory. They have forgotten all that God has been for them, all that God has done for them. 00:00:33.820 --> 00:00:40.219 We often forget all the ways God has been faithful to us, all that He has done for us 00:00:40.219 --> 00:00:50.000 in the Lord Jesus. Spiritual children don't always trust our Father in heaven. Rather, we can be like 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:56.619 the stories that you've maybe heard of street children who are adopted into safe and secure 00:00:56.619 --> 00:01:03.159 families, but they can't quickly learn to trust. So, they hoard their possessions and they live in 00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:11.099 constant fear of being abandoned. A hard process of learning to trust. It's what we see with Israel 00:01:11.099 --> 00:01:15.480 in the wilderness. I think it's a struggle in every Christian, in every church, that struggle 00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:23.540 to remember and to trust. If you look at verse 1, it's important because it gives us a time stamp. 00:01:24.140 --> 00:01:29.079 And so, as they're on the journey, this is the fifteenth day of the second month after they'd come 00:01:29.079 --> 00:01:38.420 out of Egypt. So, this is when they begin to grumble. If we, like them, if we forget our past, 00:01:38.420 --> 00:01:48.640 then we're going to end up grumbling. They've just been singing a song, God has saved us. He's worked 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:59.260 so many miracles. Chapter 15, verse 2. Chapter 15, verse 13. God has been our Redeemer. Slaves bound for 00:01:59.260 --> 00:02:07.760 death, but we've been set free. God has just revealed Himself as the Lord who heals, not just the water, 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:16.300 but who heals His people. Verse 26. He has graciously provided an oasis in the desert. 00:02:18.860 --> 00:02:24.939 If we forget all that God has done for us in our spiritual experience, 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:29.460 like them, don't we find ourselves grumbling in the present? 00:02:31.159 --> 00:02:33.700 The Israelites said to Moses and Aaron in verse 3, 00:02:33.699 --> 00:02:38.780 If only we died by the Lord's hand in Egypt. There we sat round pots of meat and ate all the food we 00:02:38.780 --> 00:02:46.879 wanted. Life was great in Egypt. We had food. Really? They'd forgotten that they were slaves, 00:02:47.299 --> 00:02:55.659 being worked to death. They enjoyed Elam. There was no grumbling there. They had lots of shade, 00:02:55.659 --> 00:02:59.519 lots of food. There was plenty. There was contentment. But in the desert, 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:10.520 when the pilgrim life gets hard, that's when grumbling begins. Testing God. God, I don't feel like 00:03:10.520 --> 00:03:22.200 you measure up. God, I'd like more evidence that you actually argued. I can't see any purpose in this 00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:30.459 testing. If we forget all that God has done for us in the past, all that He continues to do for us 00:03:30.459 --> 00:03:38.560 in the Lord Jesus by His Spirit in the present, we will turn to grumbling, struggling to see a purpose 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:44.919 in testing. Boys and girls, I was thinking about butterflies and the way butterflies come out of 00:03:44.919 --> 00:03:51.739 cocoons. And sometimes when people come across a butterfly trying to get out of a cocoon, and it 00:03:51.739 --> 00:03:57.199 takes lots of hours of fluttering and flapping of wings, it can seem such a desperate process. People 00:03:57.199 --> 00:04:06.139 are tempted to take a knife and to open the cocoon to help the butterfly get out. Should we help the 00:04:06.139 --> 00:04:13.500 butterfly in that test as it has to fight to get out? The answer is no, because part of that fighting 00:04:13.500 --> 00:04:19.319 and that flapping is for its good. It actually releases chemicals that serve to strengthen the 00:04:19.319 --> 00:04:26.980 wings. If the butterfly comes out too early, it misformed—it's not a word—it won't survive. 00:04:29.100 --> 00:04:38.720 Our God uses testing to grow strength, to give strength, and we need to receive that and to be ready to 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:46.280 trust Him. So, when we think about the pilgrim story back then, and we think about our story today, 00:04:47.500 --> 00:04:52.900 as we are on that journey of faith, if we're on the journey of faith, where we're going to be in a 00:04:52.900 --> 00:05:00.380 situation where either we're preparing for trials that will come, or we're in the heat of testing right 00:05:00.380 --> 00:05:08.520 now, there are two things that we can learn from the Israelites. One, this warning against grumbling. 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:15.720 I think especially important is verse 7. In the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:27.440 because He has heard your grumbling against Him. When we grumble about and against our circumstances, 00:05:27.440 --> 00:05:35.760 we are grumbling against God. Why? Because the Bible tells us God is in control of all things. 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:44.939 Nothing comes into our lives apart from our Father's hands. And so, we are invited to rest and to trust the 00:05:44.939 --> 00:05:53.480 reality of Romans 8, 28, that all things work together for good for those who love Him, even when we don't see how, 00:05:53.480 --> 00:06:04.900 even when those circumstances and testing seem so hard. Every test becomes for us an invitation to pray, 00:06:05.660 --> 00:06:14.220 an invitation to depend, an invitation to grow. How can I walk by faith and not by sight? 00:06:14.220 --> 00:06:23.780 A chance to put on display as the people of God, a sense that God's grace for us, God's faithfulness 00:06:23.780 --> 00:06:30.840 to us in the Lord Jesus, the reality of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, that can keep us in peace, 00:06:31.220 --> 00:06:40.220 that can help us bear patiently. It can really surprise a watching world when Christians go through 00:06:40.220 --> 00:06:47.620 testing, trusting in God, giving praise to God. So, there's a warning against grumbling, and there's an 00:06:47.620 --> 00:06:53.840 encouragement to remembering. And we say this a few times, and Moses keeps repeating it in his books, 00:06:53.880 --> 00:07:00.420 and it's through the whole Old Testament. Christians need to know our history. We need to know the stories 00:07:00.420 --> 00:07:08.880 in the Bible of God's faithfulness, to know the stories of God's wise purposes, to recognize that this is 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:14.680 part of our story, that the God who was able to feed the Israelites in the wilderness is the God who's 00:07:14.680 --> 00:07:22.980 able to provide for me today. Every personal story that we have of being able to look back and say, 00:07:23.339 --> 00:07:30.560 yes, that was hard, but God kept me. God brought me through. God even helped me to rejoice. 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:35.480 We need to remember those stories, we need to remember those stories, and to share those stories, 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:43.780 to increase and encourage us in our faith. And we need the gospel story of God's loving faithfulness 00:07:43.780 --> 00:07:53.000 to us in Jesus, to recognize that all our needs, our great spiritual need is gloriously met in Jesus. 00:07:53.860 --> 00:07:58.879 Our need to be forgiven, our need to be reconciled, our need to be brought home to God, 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:06.060 all met in and through the Lord Jesus. And to understand, like the story of Daniel's three 00:08:06.060 --> 00:08:13.819 friends when they were thrown into the fire, fire of testing, who else was there? One like the Son of 00:08:13.819 --> 00:08:21.980 Man, Jesus was there. Jesus, the one who would then go into the fire of testing for us at the cross to 00:08:21.980 --> 00:08:27.240 save us, is the God who's always with us in the heat of the trials that we face. 00:08:27.240 --> 00:08:35.139 So, there's lessons for us from their grumbling. There's also lessons from their testing. 00:08:35.980 --> 00:08:41.960 So, it's basic for us to remember that the testing that God gives here has a purpose in view, 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:47.000 just like every class test has a purpose. Are the pupils and students keeping up? Are they retaining 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:55.960 information? Are they able to transmit it? God's spiritual test, the purpose is stated, verse 4, 00:08:55.960 --> 00:09:02.600 I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 00:09:04.420 --> 00:09:15.740 God tests his people. Will we walk by faith? Will we trust God's Word? Will we trust God our Father? 00:09:15.740 --> 00:09:23.480 Israel finds themselves in an interesting place. So, they're halfway between Elam, this wonderful 00:09:23.480 --> 00:09:28.620 oasis. They're halfway between Elam and Sinai. Sinai, where they're going to meet with God, 00:09:28.700 --> 00:09:32.480 they're going to receive the national covenant. But right now, they're in the wilderness, they're in a 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:41.279 hard place. But God has taken them there. God, who is wise and good, has taken them there, 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:47.600 is testing them to teach them to grow in their dependence and their trust. And God will do the 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:58.799 same for us. He gives them two tests related to gathering. In verse 16, there's that first test, 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:05.659 give us today our daily bread. This is what the Lord has commanded. Everyone is to gather as much 00:10:05.659 --> 00:10:12.120 as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent. So, God was going to miraculously rain 00:10:12.120 --> 00:10:20.600 down this bread that would form from dew. And the people were instructed, gather enough for each person 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:29.899 within your family group. Eat it that day and trust God to do the same again the next day. That's the 00:10:29.899 --> 00:10:38.980 first test. The second test is remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Verse 22 and 23, 00:10:39.039 --> 00:10:44.879 on the sixth day, they gathered twice as much because the Lord commanded tomorrow is to be a day 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:50.419 of Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. So, day six is different because this time they're 00:10:50.419 --> 00:10:57.879 supposed to gather in twice as much so they can enjoy a day of rest. Now, remember, the people of 00:10:57.879 --> 00:11:05.120 Israel, they've never done this before. They've never seen this bread before, but they're not going 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:14.820 into this test blind, by which I mean they have their past. God has rescued them. God has been leading 00:11:14.820 --> 00:11:22.120 them, pillar of cloud, pillar of fire. God has been providing for them water and food. God has been 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:30.960 keeping His covenant promise that He made over 400 years ago. Just like them, our faith is never blind. 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:42.460 Our faith is rooted in God is. Thus says the Lord, that we see the glory of God in Christ Jesus. 00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:48.659 So, there's these two tests related to gathering, but significantly also we discover 00:11:48.659 --> 00:11:57.579 that the God who asks them to obey graciously makes the obedience possible. Because the only way they 00:11:57.579 --> 00:12:06.240 can gather bread is if God rains it down from heaven, which He does for them, except on the Sabbaths, 00:12:06.659 --> 00:12:15.399 for forty years. Did you notice that in verse 35? They ate manna for forty years until they reached the 00:12:15.399 --> 00:12:21.100 border of Canaan. The land would be good, a land of plenty. They don't need the bread from heaven then. 00:12:22.100 --> 00:12:28.840 How else does God graciously provide? Well, He preserved the manna on the Sabbath. It lasted twice 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:40.399 as long as it did ordinarily. God is also so gracious in responding to their failure. So, in verse 20, 00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:47.120 some of them showing a lack of trust. On day one, they're told, gather as much as you need, but they 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:55.600 gather extra. They stockpile, and it stinks, and it's full of maggots. Or on day seven, when they're told 00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:05.000 to rest, and some of them go out to work, God is patient with them. Though they are children not yet 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:12.399 fully trusting, though they are suffering from spiritual amnesia, God graciously instructs, 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:19.080 leading them towards faith. Verse 29, this is God speaking, 00:13:19.220 --> 00:13:25.679 Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath. That is why on the sixth day He gives you bread for 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:32.679 two days, so the people rested on the seventh day. He's leading them to know He is trustworthy, 00:13:32.679 --> 00:13:41.239 leading them towards faith, leading them to rest. And He graciously provides also by once again showing 00:13:41.239 --> 00:13:51.339 up in His glory. The people are grumbling, and God says, gather. And as they gather, verse 9 and 10, 00:13:52.199 --> 00:14:01.079 He shows the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud. He doesn't abandon His people. He doesn't give up 00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:08.840 on His people. He's walking with them, inviting them to understand that they can trust and they can obey. 00:14:11.100 --> 00:14:16.560 Now, I want to connect their testing with our own to think about the life of faith. 00:14:17.379 --> 00:14:25.520 To do that, a story from our summer holidays. We went to a park called Beda Park in the summer holidays, 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:32.939 and my abiding memory of that park is of one boy, maybe 11, 12 years old at the top of it. You can see 00:14:32.939 --> 00:14:39.799 up the top there, an inflatable jump. Not particularly high jump, maybe 12 feet or so, but this poor boy 00:14:39.799 --> 00:14:47.620 spent, it felt like, hours stuck on the ledge. He would get so far, you'd see him sort of crouching, 00:14:48.019 --> 00:14:51.899 and then he would give up. He'd pull back. His parents would try and encourage him. His friends 00:14:51.899 --> 00:14:56.659 would try and encourage him. He would see person after person doing the jump, enjoying the jump, 00:14:56.699 --> 00:15:02.079 but he just couldn't. And there's a real battle going on, until eventually towards the end of the 00:15:02.079 --> 00:15:07.439 day, finally, felt like cheating. He took the leap, and you could see his face lit up with joy. 00:15:07.919 --> 00:15:12.079 And then he was on that endless repeat, up the stairs, off the jump, off the stairs, off the jump. 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:24.360 Now, is our faith, is Christian faith, a leap in the dark? Is it a scary, terrifying thing? 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:30.160 Sometimes the criticism made of Christianity is that our faith is nothing more than that, 00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:39.360 just a leap in the dark. We have no basis for our trust. I would suggest that a better picture 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:49.419 of our faith, not jumping into the nothingness. It's more like abseiling, where we've got an 00:15:49.419 --> 00:15:57.440 instructor, and we're secure by a rope and by a harness. At every point, we are held. Yes, 00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:05.019 there are still points that are fearful, but we're always held and always kept. Christian faith 00:16:05.019 --> 00:16:15.939 is reasonable. Just like Israel, we see God's creation. We had a beautiful day today. We have a 00:16:15.939 --> 00:16:25.500 great creator. The fine-tuning of the universe speaks to a creator. We have demonstrations of God's 00:16:25.500 --> 00:16:34.759 character in his word, in our experience. We have his covenant commitment to his church, 00:16:35.019 --> 00:16:44.019 we have his giving of his Son, the Lord Jesus, to be our Savior. Our faith is eminently reasonable. 00:16:44.579 --> 00:16:52.679 And so, when we are tested, we're invited to then lean into the truths and the promises of God's word. 00:16:53.980 --> 00:17:01.159 When our faith feels weak, we talk to a brother or sister in Christ to be encouraged 00:17:01.159 --> 00:17:10.740 from their experience and from God's word. We learn to obey and to trust with the grace that God provides. 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:20.039 Their testing speaks to us of daily bread and daily trust. It speaks to us of the wisdom of the Lord's 00:17:20.039 --> 00:17:27.220 prayer. Remember Jesus teaching us to pray, give us today our daily bread. Our temptation often 00:17:27.220 --> 00:17:33.660 is that we project forward, we imagine all that might happen, and we want a year's supply today. 00:17:34.440 --> 00:17:40.360 All the wisdom for all we might ever face. All the courage for all that might come our way. 00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:50.839 All the strength for what may happen. But rather, we're called to come daily. To trust daily 00:17:50.839 --> 00:18:02.559 in a Father who loves us, who is good, who does provide physically and spiritually, who does invite us to come 00:18:02.559 --> 00:18:14.299 every day. And so, we pray every day, and we pray through the day. As needs arise, as situations change, 00:18:14.299 --> 00:18:25.759 as testing come, daily bread calls us to daily trust. But the Sabbath day testing also reminds us 00:18:25.759 --> 00:18:34.019 of Sabbath rest and the gift of worship, doesn't it? It reminds us of the wisdom of God's design, 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:44.279 that woven into the fabric of creation is that we are made to rest and to be refreshed. 00:18:44.299 --> 00:18:54.299 And to re-center our lives and our hearts on our Creator and our Redeemer. We're not made to run the 00:18:54.299 --> 00:19:01.980 endless treadmill. Rather, we're invited to stop. That's part of God's provision in our testing as we 00:19:01.980 --> 00:19:11.579 come together on a Sunday. We stop and we remember, I'm not God. I'm not invited to have all the answers 00:19:11.579 --> 00:19:18.939 and be in total control. I'm invited to trust the one who knows and who loves me. In the midst of 00:19:18.939 --> 00:19:24.699 everything that's happening, we're invited to stop and recognize our God deserves our worship, 00:19:25.539 --> 00:19:35.359 deserves our loyalty, deserves first place in our heart. We stop and we worship so that God can feed us, 00:19:35.359 --> 00:19:45.079 that we can receive His grace as we hear God's Word, as we're reminded of the gospel, as we remember that 00:19:45.079 --> 00:19:52.719 God loves us and sent His Son to be the Savior for sinners like us. So, in our testing, we need God, 00:19:52.720 --> 00:20:02.799 we need His church, we need worship. Let's think finally about the object lesson. Let's think about 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:09.200 this manna. Remember we said God's tests, they always have a purpose, the purpose being that His 00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:15.299 people might walk in faith and obedience. Now, it's interesting, isn't it, that at the end of our text, 00:20:15.299 --> 00:20:23.460 Moses is invited to gather some manna to provide an object lesson, not just for that generation, 00:20:23.539 --> 00:20:29.240 but future generations. Verse 32, this is what the Lord has commanded, take an omer of manna 00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:36.259 and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the wilderness 00:20:36.259 --> 00:20:41.220 when I brought you out of Egypt. So, one day supply is gathered and it's stored in a jar, 00:20:41.220 --> 00:20:47.579 and that jar would eventually be placed in the tabernacle when it was built. And remember, 00:20:48.460 --> 00:20:54.039 that manna that would usually last one day, two days at best, God is going to preserve it so it 00:20:54.039 --> 00:21:05.140 lasts beyond 40 years, as a lesson to remind them that God fed them. God provided for their needs all 00:21:05.140 --> 00:21:12.960 the way to the promised land. Every time they would then go to worship, future generations would go 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:23.880 to worship, they would see the bread. Will I humbly trust and obey? To go to Deuteronomy 8, verse 3, 00:21:25.160 --> 00:21:31.900 will I be taught that man doesn't live by bread alone, but in every word that comes from the mouth 00:21:31.900 --> 00:21:39.860 of the Lord. That there is something even more vital than this manna, and that's God's life-giving 00:21:39.860 --> 00:21:48.759 Word. This story reminds us, and the Bible reminds us, and our experience teaches us that times of testing 00:21:48.759 --> 00:21:56.540 will come. The life will feel like we're wandering in the wilderness, and there'll be times where we feel 00:21:56.539 --> 00:22:01.859 like God has taken us on a hard road, and there may be times where we feel there could be no possible 00:22:01.859 --> 00:22:10.659 good in our circumstances. There are times when our faith will come under pressure. There'll be a 00:22:10.659 --> 00:22:18.519 refining from God as He wants to squeeze out sin and self and form us into the likeness of Jesus. 00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:25.779 But there's also going to be the world wanting to squeeze us into its mold. We're going to be wanting 00:22:25.779 --> 00:22:33.359 comfort and security. So when hard times come, it can lead us to confusion and to doubt. 00:22:34.500 --> 00:22:45.440 When faith turns to fear, when we're tempted towards grumbling, how do we not give in? How will it be 00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:55.640 possible for us actually to grow in faith, to grow in obedience through the hardships that God sends our way? 00:22:57.400 --> 00:23:03.039 From our text, we can say there are two things we need. First of all, we need the Word of God. 00:23:04.600 --> 00:23:11.480 We must gather the Word of God like the people gathered the manna. As we come to church each Sunday, 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:20.200 come ready to hear life-giving words from God, to gather them. As we read the Bible for ourselves each day, 00:23:20.539 --> 00:23:28.579 it is the light for our path. It is our life. It is our weapon in the spiritual battle. 00:23:30.039 --> 00:23:34.059 As we gather God's Word, we must feed on it. 00:23:34.059 --> 00:23:45.639 We must take it in. We must take it in. Working hard to listen, taking time to meditate, praying for help to do what it says. 00:23:46.980 --> 00:23:57.019 And we must receive it as a gift from God. This is God's inspired living Word. This Word that contains the 00:23:57.019 --> 00:24:05.359 gospel Word. A Word that speaks eternal life to us. Without this Word, we have spiritual famine, but by God's 00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:14.839 grace, we're invited to spiritual feasts. Because as we open God's Word, we hear God's promises, 00:24:15.779 --> 00:24:22.019 and we see again God's faithfulness, and we learn God's will for our life of faith, 00:24:22.019 --> 00:24:29.980 and we recognize that He sent us Jesus, and He sent us the Spirit, and there is grace for each day. 00:24:31.319 --> 00:24:38.639 And of course, as we experience God's tests, we need God's greatest gift. We need Jesus, 00:24:39.139 --> 00:24:48.480 the living Word of God. John 6, Jesus describes Himself as the bread from heaven. 00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:53.799 Jesus describes Himself as the bread of life. 00:24:56.380 --> 00:25:06.279 Jesus invites us to feed on Him by faith, and to enjoy eternal life. He calls us to look to Him 00:25:06.279 --> 00:25:15.620 as God's life-giving provision for us on the walk of faith. To understand that to have Jesus as Savior 00:25:15.619 --> 00:25:26.939 is to have everything. If we have Jesus, we have eternal life. If we have Jesus, we have eternal love. 00:25:27.939 --> 00:25:33.719 If we have Jesus, our sins are forgiven. If we have Jesus, we have spiritual freedom. 00:25:34.579 --> 00:25:40.339 We have this great anticipation of future realities in our promised land still to come, 00:25:40.339 --> 00:25:47.000 but we begin to experience the life of God right here and right now. 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:54.319 The answer to our grumbling, the answer to the struggle that we have in our testing, 00:25:54.740 --> 00:26:04.759 is gospel gratitude. It's to think on Jesus, that when we so often fail in the test of faith, 00:26:04.759 --> 00:26:12.279 we have a Savior who passed the test for us. When He was being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, 00:26:12.440 --> 00:26:19.539 turned these stones to bread. Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes in the 00:26:19.539 --> 00:26:29.859 mouth of the Lord. Jesus lived with faith and obedience all through His life, including going to the 00:26:29.859 --> 00:26:40.519 cross to be our willing, loving Savior, facing the ultimate test for us. And Jesus, now ascended, 00:26:40.939 --> 00:26:50.219 sends the Spirit, so He's with us in every test that we face, supplying daily grace in our weakness, 00:26:50.220 --> 00:27:01.620 every day, until we too reach our promised land. So when God in His wisdom tests our faith, 00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:08.279 He wants to grow our dependence on Him, that we will grow to trust and obey Him. 00:27:09.640 --> 00:27:15.279 And when those tests and those trials bring us into, again, a wilderness experience, what we need to do 00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:26.240 is to gather to ourselves the gospel of grace once again, to receive God's gracious provision for us 00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:36.160 in the Lord Jesus, the God of glory present with us. We can expect tests, but we don't need to be 00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:43.139 depressed by them or defeated by them as we understand that God is with us to help us and strengthen us. 00:27:43.140 --> 00:27:51.280 And He supplies what we need so that we endure by faith. Let's pray together. 00:27:54.100 --> 00:27:56.140 Lord, our God, we thank you.