Yesterday's Manna

If you have your Bibles with you, turn with me, if you would, to 2 Samuel chapter 21.

We're looking at verses 15 through 22. There was war between the Philistines and Israel, and David went down together with his servants. And they fought against the Philistines, and David grew weary. And Ishbabeneh, one of the descendants of the giant, whose spear weighed 300 shekels of bronze, and who was armed with a new sword, thought to kill David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid, attacked the Philistines, and killed him. Then David's men swore to him, You shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel. After this there was again war with the Philistines at Gob.

Then Sibakai the Hushitite struck down Saf, who was one of the descendants of the giants. And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. And Elhanan the son of Jerah Origam the Bethlemite struck down Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand, six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number. He also was descended from the giants. And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shemiiah, David's brother, struck him down.

These four were descended from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we have several today that we want to continue to lift up to you. We pray for the Ephard family, having experienced the death of our brother Martin just about ten days ago.

Lord, I pray for that family, especially for Kim and Charles and Kathy and Kim's children, Lord as they are still deeply grieving over the death of Martin. We ask, Father, that you give them comfort put into their heart, that peace that passes all understanding. We pray for Barry Bailey, Lord, as he is in the hospital and still struggling with the effects of COVID, still having lung problems. We pray for his healing. We pray, Heavenly Father, a prayer of thanksgiving for Rick DeVore. We thank you, Lord, for answered prayer.

We thank you, Lord, that he is able to be with us, worshiping you today, and we thank you, Lord, for healing him. Heavenly Father, we are looking at an issue today that most of us deal with often. It's the problem of depending on yesterday's manna.

It didn't work for the Israelites, it didn't work for David, and it won't work for us. Father, we need fresh manna every day. We need to quit living on the high of our past spiritual experiences and trust you for today's journey. Lord, give us wisdom.

Give us insight. May we learn from David's mistakes and avoid them ourselves. Father, help me to feed your flock at grace today, and more than anything, help me to exalt Jesus. Lord, it is in the precious name of Jesus that we pray, amen.

You may be seated. In Exodus chapter 16, we read the story of the Israelites getting their first taste of manna. God spoke to Moses, and God said to Moses that he was every day going to send manna from heaven, and the manna from heaven would be nutritious.

It would be tasty. It would be good for them to eat, and he said they can get all they want. They can eat all they want, but there's a stipulation, and that stipulation is that if they cannot save the manna from one day to the next, they must trust God for new manna every day, and the only day they can get extra manna would be on the day before the Sabbath, so they won't have to work on the Sabbath day.

But that's the stipulation God gave them. And so Moses went back, and he gathered the people together, and he said, God has gloriously done a miracle on our behalf. He is going to send manna for us to eat every day. We can eat all we want. We can have all we want, and we can get all we want, but we cannot save the manna from one day to the next.

Guess what Israel did? Immediately, the first day, what do they do? They go out, and they gather up manna. They like the way it tastes, and so they get their bowls and their pots and their pans and their jars, and they fill them all up, and they try to save the manna. What happens? Well, they get up the next day, and that manna is rotten, and it's got worms all in it, and it's stinking like crazy. Folks, what's taking place there is this. That's the sin nature of man.

God gives the command, and immediately there is disobedience. I remember when I was eight years old, my sister Carol was three, and we were in the back seat of my dad's car. And I was picking on her, and she was starting to cry and whine, and my dad looked back at us with one of those looks, and he said, I don't want to hear another peep out of you. And if you do, he said, I'm going to take you out and spank you. He turned back around, and it was like I just couldn't help it. And I said, peep. That was the wrong thing to do.

He pulled that car over and took me out, and boy, I got a spanking. Folks, that is exactly what Israel is doing. God gave him instruction, told them what not to do, and they went ahead and they did it anyway. Folks, Israel learned a lesson. You can't be nourished today with yesterday's manna. You need a fresh supply of manna every single day.

You can't live on the high of past victories. You need a new touch from God every single day. This is why I try to encourage you all the time to get very serious about daily Bible study.

We need a new touch from God, a new word from God every single day. Reverend Jack Taylor said it well when he made this statement. He said, the greatest hindrance of a work of God in your life today could be the work of God he did in your life yesterday.

And what did he mean by that? He meant that our flesh is lazy, and we too easily get satisfied with what God has done for us in the past. And so we enjoy that, we get used to that, and we quit pursuing God in the present. Now you say, what does it mean to pursue God? I know the best way for me to pursue God is to pray. And another best way for me to pursue God is to get into the Scripture, let it speak to my heart each day. Now I can't tell you what time of the day is best to do a Bible study for you, but for me it's very early in the morning. I like to get up, eat a quick breakfast, and then immediately go to prayer. And then after my prayer, go straight to the Word of God to find out what God's challenge is for me today, what His Word for me today, what His comfort for me is today, and maybe what His conviction is for me for that day.

I need to do that. A few weeks ago, we gave out a little study plan, a Bible study plan that Eugene worked up called Journey Through the Word. It's a great little Bible study plan, and it will hold you accountable.

If you don't have a plan that you're using right now, I would encourage you with all my heart to use it. I believe God will honor it. Now you may be asking, what's this got to do with David? In 2 Samuel chapter 21, we see a colossal failure, and it is a failure that almost cost David his life. Why did David fail? I think David failed here because he was dependent on yesterday's manna. Now, if I were to ask you today to tell me the name of the giant that David fought, I have a feeling that I know what you'd say.

You'd say, oh, that's an easy question. David fought Goliath. That's the giant that he fought.

Well, that's true. He did. But did you realize there was another giant that David fought? His name was Ish-bebenab. And who ever heard of Ish-bebenab?

We don't talk about him, do we? Well, Ish-bebenab was either the son of Goliath, he might have been just a grandson of Goliath, but he was one of his descendants. Folks, when David went to fight Goliath, it was a major, glorious victory. But when he went to fight Ish-bebenab, it was a terrible, horrible, almost fatal disaster.

My question is, what happened? Why is it that we shout with joy about David's struggle and fight with Goliath, and we almost weep about David's fight and his struggle with Ish-bebenab? Well, let's take a look first at yesterday's victory. And let me just quickly reiterate the biblical narrative. David is out watching over the sheep that belong to his dad.

He's out in the pasture working with them. And David has brothers that are all older than him. Some of them are in the military. And they are working for Saul's army. And they are out there on the battlefield right at that moment. And they are trying to protect Israel from the Philistines.

They want Israel to have peace. And so David's dad, Jesse, goes to David, and he wants to minister to his older sons that are out there on the battlefield. And he says, David, I want you to take food to them. And he gives them a big kind of picnic basket.

And it's filled with all this nutritious, tasty food. And he says, you take this to them. And encourage them. And get them to eat this so that they will be nourished and be strong and have everything that they need to get along and to get better and to win that battle. David goes out on the battlefield. He finds them. And he went out expecting that he might see hand-to-hand combat out on the battlefield. But that's not what he sees. Instead of seeing hand-to-hand combat, he sees the entire Israelite army cowering from this ten-foot tall Philistine giant warrior whose name is Goliath. And Goliath is standing on the hill. He's screaming out at the Israelite army that's cowering before him. And he's screaming at them. He's calling them names. He's laughing at their plight. He's blaspheming their God. And he's humiliating them. Just leaving them in that humiliation. Goliath is challenging them.

And he does it for 40 days in a row. He says, we don't need to fight a battle country between country. We can do it in a representative fashion. He says, I will fight for the Philistines. You get your greatest warrior.

Bring him out. He can fight against me. We will fight together one-on-one. And whoever wins that battle, then the land belongs to them.

And so that's what we want to do. If I win, then the Philistines take the land. If your man, your greatest warrior wins, then the Israelites get the land. At the end of Goliath's 40 days, David shows up. David is not expecting what he heard. Here's this Philistine giant cursing the armies of Israel and blaspheming his God. David gets mad. And I want you to know, this is not a sinful anger.

This is righteous indignation. And David starts asking questions to the Israelite soldiers. And he said, why doesn't somebody stop this godless blowhard? What are you doing cowering like just silly little girls?

Why are you doing that? Why are you letting this kind of blasphemy go on? So I want you to know, this is not David being macho. I want you to know, this is not human courage that we see in David. This is righteous indignation that comes from David's deep fear of God and reverence of God. And David steps up and he challenges the Israelite soldiers. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that is defying the armies of the living God? Now the next thing that happened kind of, I think, shocked David. Where his older brother, the oldest one, Eliab, steps up and he jumps all over David for taking this strong stance for God. David says, wait a minute.

Wait a minute. He said, this is not some little light thing that's going on here that we can just ignore. This is a very serious matter. Our God is being blasphemed and somebody needs to take a stand. Folks, David is entering spiritual warfare here and one of the first things that David has to learn is this. Sometimes in spiritual warfare you have to stand alone. Sometimes you're going to have friends, you're going to have family, you're going to have even church members that are not going to be willing to pay the price that you're willing to pay. This can happen with spouses and I've seen it. It can happen with spouses. When you've got one spouse that's committed to God and committed to truth, you've got another spouse that's kind of compromising and the spouse that's compromising will come and put the heat on the other spouse. And the compromising spouse will say, why do you always have to be a fanatic? You always act holier than thou. You turn people off with your false piety.

Why don't you just get a life? You know, that hurts when it's the devil's crowd making a statement to you like that, but when it's your family, when it's your loved one, when it's your good friend, when it's a church member, it's really tough. David did not let a lie of discourage him and Saul heard what David was saying and Saul called David in and he said, I want to talk to you and they sat down. In 1 Samuel 17 verse 32, I want you to listen to what David said to Saul.

He said, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight the Philistines. Brothers and sisters, that's an important step in spiritual warfare. To refuse to be intimidated by the naysayers. To stand up and say, I will obey God, come hell or high water. I will obey God no matter what the cost is. Listen to Paul's teaching on the armor of God in Ephesians chapter 6. As I go through these verses, I want you to notice how often the word stand is mentioned. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and rulers of darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore taken to you the whole armor of God that you may withstand in that evil day and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breast plate of righteousness. I don't have time to expound fully on David's spiritual warfare here, but it started out with David's being willing to stand against the negative opposition. That's the first thing that he had to do. The second thing that he had to do was to rehearse past victories.

Now that's different from depending on yesterday's manna. What David did is he went back and he saw the promises that God had given him, and he saw how God had always been faithful to keep his promises. And folks, God always will be.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20, Paul said that all the promises of God in Christ Jesus are yes and amen. So God had promised that he would take care of David. And when David had to go out to his flock and he saw a lion attacking his sheep, God strengthened him. And he was able to defeat that lion bare-handed.

A bear did the same thing. He was able to defeat the bear. So he said, if God will give me the strength to do that, I believe that God will give me the strength to fight Goliath. And not only did he do that, but he refused Falt's armor. Saul came to him. He says, David, I've got some great armor for you here. I want you to put on this heavy bronze armor.

It will protect you. David said, Saul, no, I don't want the armor. He said, all I need is a slingshot and God. When David fought Goliath, he was a young man.

Teenage boy, really. He had no military experience. He had never fought in a war before. When he went out to battle against the giant, he had no protective armor. He had no protective clothing. He did not carry a weapon other than the little slingshot. No shield, no sword, no javelin.

Only one little slingshot and five smooth stones. Here we see this little wiry teenage boy standing before this great giant, this ruthless, tough, heinous killer on the face of the earth at that time. And old Goliath took one look at him and just roared with laughter. And he said, who do you think you are? Little kid come out here to fight me.

Little dog, he calls him. He said, I'll take you and I'll rip you to pieces and I'll use you for alligator bait. And David looked back at him. And David replies, Goliath, you come to me with a sword, a shield, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts and you're going to die today because this battle is the Lord's. David took this slingshot. He put a rock, one of the smooth stones into that sling. He swung it around his head a few times.

He let it go. That rock flew through the air guided by the hand of God. It hit the giant right between the eyes, went into his brain, killed him on the spot.

He fell over graveyard dead. And David runs over to him. He takes Goliath's sword out of his sheath and he severs his head from his body.

He takes the head of Goliath, he holds it up and the people of Israel, the soldiers begin to shout and hoot and holler and they're just rejoicing over what God has done. And then he turns around and he sees the Philistines running for the hills. We love that story, don't we? We love that story. That's David.

That's our man. He was able to kill a giant with nothing but a slingshot. Well, we should get excited about that because it was God's victory. We read the story in 2 Samuel chapter 21 and we mourn over it because when David fights the giant Ishmaab, he's defeated.

Folks, it's a completely different situation. This time David is not a young boy, he's a man. He's the king of Israel. He is a great military strategist. He is a seasoned, war-hardened veteran. He is a man who knows how to use his sword. He's a man who this time is wearing the strong, tough bronze armor. And this time he's carrying out to battle a sword, a shield, and a javelin.

And when he walks out to face Ishmaab this time, he walks out with great confidence in himself. He says, hey, I've done this before. Been here, done that. I know how to do this. Piece of cake.

Nothing to it. I'll whip him and then all of Israel will love me for it. And I can just see old David. He's standing there with his chest all poked out and he screams at Ishmaab. Come on and fight.

I whipped your dad 35 years ago and now I'm going to whip you. And Ishmaab rolls up his sleeves and says, I don't think so. And he walks out to David, probably runs out to David, and he takes him and he slaps him in the face and knocks him to the ground. He jumps on David and I can just see him beating David in the face and then he takes his sword. He's ready to kill David and Abishai, one of David's great warriors, comes running over, knocks Ishmaab off of him, knocks him down to the ground, and then he, Abishai, takes Ishmaab's life, he kills him. Kills him.

Then all of David's men gather around David and they say to him, David, that's it. Your fighting days are over. We can't let you in the battle ever again because if you're killed, then it's all over. There's nothing that we can do. There's nothing that we can do. What a blow for David.

How embarrassing this must have been. He's the giant killer. He's the king of Israel. He's the man who's the greatest military strategist on the face of the earth and for his own life to be saved, one of his own servants, one of his own men has to come and do his fighting for him because David couldn't do it.

What could lead a great man to go down a road of defeat like that? You remember the quote that I just gave you about from Jack Taylor? He said the greatest hindrance of a work of God in your life today could be the work of God that he did yesterday. Or as I stated in the title of the sermon, there's a great danger in dependence on yesterday's manna.

I got three points I want to share with you very quickly this morning. Number one, a strength that fails. Look with me at verse 15. There was war again between the Philistines and Israel. David went down together with his servants and they fought against the Philistines and David grew weary. When David went out to fight Ishmaabenom, he went in his own strength. He depended on his own military prowess. He knew that he could handle a sword. He knew that he was known as the greatest military strategist on the face of the earth.

He knew it. What a difference there was in the attitude of David fighting Ishmaabenom compared to the attitude of David fighting Goliath. When David went out to fight Goliath, he was totally confident in God. He was filled with the Spirit of God. His fear was not of Goliath, his fear was of the Lord. And he went out knowing his own weakness, knowing his own inexperience, totally trusting God, not trusting himself. David threw out his chest when he was fighting against Goliath and he said, you come to me with a sword, a shield, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts and you're going to die today because this battle is the Lord's. When he went out to fight Ishmaabenom, it was different. He said, I come to you with a sword, a shield, and a javelin, and you're going to die today because this battle is mine. Wow. How stupid can you get?

Depending on yourself, depending on your own confidence. David was failing himself. David was depending on his own strength and brothers and sisters, when we start depending on our own strength, the thing that we can be sure is going to happen is our own failure.

12th chapter of 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is teaching us about his thorn in the flesh and he calls it a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him. Whatever it was, and he didn't tell us what it was, but it was something that hurt him. It was something that caused him great, great pain. He felt like it was hindering his ministry.

He felt like it was keeping him from being everything that he could be. He prayed about it three times, Lord, take this thing out of my life. Finally God said, no, Paul, I'm not taking this out of your life. I'm leaving this in your life to keep you humble.

I'm leaving this in your life to keep you dependent upon me. I'm leaving this in your life so that you can learn this truth that my strength is made perfect in your weakness. In other words, the more we realize our failings and our lack of talent and our lack of ability, the more room we give God to work in our lives. If you ever wondered why so many of the intellectual elite today reject God and they reject the teaching of God's Word, they don't want to appear to be dependent upon anything but their intelligence, their talent, and their agenda. To follow God, you must acknowledge that you are not God, the intellectual elite are not doing that. Folks, it is this pseudo-intellectualism that is attacking our world and our nation and even many of our churches. I want to read you what Dewey Roberts said. I think he said it well. French President Emmanuel Macron recently specified the reasons for his country outlawing homeschooling.

He said that too many homeschoolers are being taught about God and that has proved to be a negative thing for society. It is obvious to anyone that has eyes and ears that totalitarianism is on the rise throughout the world. Countries which have formerly permitted missionaries are now outlawing them. Nations that have had democracies are turning to socialism. Countries that have enjoyed freedom are imposing despotic laws supposedly to protect the citizens.

Yet the old adage remains true that any nation which chooses safety over freedom shall have neither. The same thing has happened in the modern church. Social justice has taken over many denominations in the United States and North America. And with that social justice there has become tyranny for many.

It seems unfathomable but it is true. A movement that touts justice denies justice to most. Justice for all has been replaced by justice for a few, those identified as the oppressed. And retribution against all those who are identified as the oppressors. The old values have been thrown out and Marxist values of so-called social justice and critical race theory have been substituted. With those new values the church can expect all the same compassion as the former Soviet Union's KGB and other communist nations gave to their citizens.

Brothers and sisters that's a wake-up call. In John chapter 10 verse 14 Jesus said I am the good shepherd I know my sheep. What does sheep look like?

Well sheep are woolly and they smell bad and they usually grow to about the same size. So how does the shepherd identify or distinguish between all the sheep and his flock? How does he do that? He does that because he knows them by their imperfections. You might know this one because there's a cut in his ear. This one has a birthmark. This one has a little scar on his nose and that little in those little imperfection marks mark him out as being special.

You hear that? Jesus doesn't hate your weaknesses he uses your weaknesses for his glory. My strength, the Lord said, my strength is made perfect in your weakness. Point two there's a pride that destroys. Look at verse 16. And Ishmael Bena one of the descendants of the giants whose spear weighed 300 shekels of bronze and who was armed with a new sword thought to kill David.

C.S. Lewis the great British theologian wrote a great book called Mere Christianity and in that book he was describing pride. He described it this way, there's one sin which no man in the world is free which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else and of which hardly any people ever imagine that they are guilty of themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad tempered or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink or even that they are cowards but I do not think I've ever heard anyone who is not a Christian accuse himself of this sin.

There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves and the more we have it in ourselves the more we dislike it in others. The sin I'm talking about is pride. The number one sin that Jesus hates I believe is pride.

When Jesus would see these self-righteous Pharisees walking through the streets of Jerusalem with their long flowing robes with their noses stuck up so high in the air if it would rain they'd drown. When he would see all that and see that kind of self-righteousness it hurt his heart. And folks I want you to know David when he went out to face Ishpovina was proud. His heart was filled with pride. He was cocky.

He was so cocky he could strut sitting down. I mean this is just amazing to look at the David that we know who's become so horribly proudful and what happened while he was being beaten up by Ishpovina one of the servants had to come over and save his life and do the work that he could not do. At that point David knew that pride cometh before destruction and a haughty spirit before fall.

My third point is a harvest to consider. Look at verse 17. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid, attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then David's men swore to him, you shall no longer go out with us to battle lest you quench the lamp of Israel. In Galatians chapter 6 the Apostle Paul said, whatsoever a man soweth actually also reap. I think David is really genuinely learning that lesson in this particular passage.

I think he's coming to understand just how serious this is. That when a person is filled with pride, when he is dependent upon his own strength and his own power, there are going to be great consequences that are going to follow. Folks, that's true. There is a high cost of sin whether you're a believer or whether you're an unbeliever. There is a high cost of sin. This sin cost David greatly.

David's men said, David that's it. You're going to the bench. You're no longer in the ball game. You're getting out of the war.

We can't trust you anymore. You might get killed David. You have just lost your opportunity to serve and honor God.

Wow. Friends, there is a law of the harvest for us to consider. For Christians it says this, if we don't use our talents for God's glory, then God may take the opportunities away. Maybe you're here today and you've got a talent, a gift of teaching. You say, well, I'm too busy and I don't really want to use it. It could be that God takes that opportunity for you to teach your way.

Maybe you have a gift, a beautiful singing voice. You're not using it for God's glory. He may take the opportunity away. Maybe you're in a situation where you are financially well off. He has blessed you financially and you're not given liberally to the kingdom work. He may take those opportunities away. Maybe God's called you to preach.

Maybe God's called you to the mission field and you've just kind of been putting it off, putting it off, putting it off. He may take that opportunity away. Now I know what Romans chapter 11 verse 29 says. It says, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

They're without repentance. So what does that mean? It means that if you've genuinely been saved, if you've genuinely been born again, He's not going to take your salvation away. And it also means if you have been given a spiritual gift, He's not going to take that spiritual gift from you. But He may, He very well may, take the opportunity away.

All of a sudden you don't have the desire to serve like you once did. And all of a sudden He takes you, He puts you on the shelf, and He opens up an opportunity for someone else that they might come in and do what God has called you to do. And you miss the opportunity to glorify God. Folks, if you think that's not important, I want you to know that what you do for the Lord's kingdom on this earth will have an effect on you for all of eternity. It will glorify God for all of eternity. And if we miss those opportunities, what a horrible, terrible state we're in.

There is a harvest for us to consider. People don't depend on yesterday's manna. Stay in the Word and stay in the Word daily.

Stay humble, stay dependent, and do not leave your first love. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to the end of this chapter, we understand more than ever why our only true hero should be Christ. Here we see David, the man after God's own heart, the apple of God's eye. And he's essentially being put on the shelf.

His pride and dependence on past victories has made him pretty much useless as a battlefield warrior. Lord, you inspired Paul to write these words in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11. If these things, things that happened in the Old Testament, happened to them as examples to us that were written for our instruction, may we take heed to Paul's words and fight desperately against depending on yesterday's manna. Help us to remember that your strength is made perfect in our weakness. Break our pride, and please don't put us on the shelf. May we spend all of our time on this earth striving to bring you glory. We ask this prayer in the holy and precious name of Jesus, amen.