Keion Henderson - What to do in the Wilderness

Today I’m coming from Exodus 16, and I’m going to look at verse number 2. The Bible says in Exodus 16, verse number 2, that the entire company of Israel, the whole congregation, murmured against Moses and Aaron. And where did they do it? In the wilderness. Let’s look at verse number 3. Here’s what the word of the Lord says: the Israelites said to them-watch this — basically, and I want to paraphrase so you all understand what’s happening: they said, «You should have left us where we were, but you messed up our comfort and brought us out here.» What are you trying to do? You ever seen somebody, when you’re trying to kill me, ain’t you? Ever heard someone say, «Y’all are trying to kill us, and your weapon of choice is hunger! You 're trying to starve us to death!» Look at verse number 4. Are y’all with me so far? Then the Lord said to Moses, «Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for who? And the people shall go and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will keep my law or not.» In other words, it’s saying, «Every day, you go out there and get the bread.» Daily, daily bread. Are you with me so far? Yes. This is not about giving you a loaf; you’re not loaf-worthy. If I give you too much bread, I won’t see you for a while. So, what we’re going to do is create a situation where you have to commune. Amen. Now, anyone who can give you bread every day has enough bread to give you for the week, but the way your mind is set up-you have a brain and a mind, and you can’t handle a loaf. He’ll give you a loaf if he can, but because they were complainers, God says, «I’m going to make sure you have to come back every day; otherwise, I will have created my own prodigal sons.» Are y’all with me so far? All right. What I want to talk about is something that will help you, I believe, and I only have two points. How many of you think you’re in a situation right now where God is testing you before you come out? So, yes, last Tuesday, we talked about how to work your miracle.

Today, we’re going to talk about what to do in the wilderness. If you are in the wilderness right now, I have two things that I’m going to give you, and I think if you do these two things, it will help you in your wilderness. Give your neighbor a high-five on your way to your seat and say, «What to do in the wilderness.» You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. I don’t have to get into the entire background of what’s going on, but basically, with the children of Israel, they 've rebelled against God. Now, notice that Aaron and Moses are the leaders, but if you read the scripture carefully, it doesn’t say they rebelled against Aaron and Moses. It specifically says that they rebelled against God. Because anytime you rebel against the person God put over you, you are rebelling against God. Anytime you rebel against authority that God places over you, you may think it’s directed at the person, but in actuality, God subscribes the rebellion as a rebellion against His choice and His system. And its description ought to show you that you won’t always agree with the direction of your Aaron and your Moses, but your disagreement with that direction doesn’t give you the ability to be rebellious. God is basically saying to them, «They know where they are taking you because I told them where to take you, and you’ve got to get in line, Israel, because you and I have had a continuous problem. Every time you don’t like what I have to say, you do what you want to do. Every time you don’t like my system, you want to go back and create your past.» Y’all are going to have to follow this. You see, most people, when they don’t like the present, as opposed to finding out what the future holds, they go back to what they know, no matter how painful it was. Are you praying with me so far? Exodus 16 begins by saying that the whole congregation-somebody say, «the whole congregation.»

Now, this text is not about the church only; it’s something you’re supposed to be able to adopt for your life. So, the text says the whole congregation. One translation says the whole company, but you may want to say the whole family or the whole office, or whatever it is that you share responsibility and space with. This is applicable. The whole of the thing, the whole congregation, for this particular group of Israelites was murmuring. Everybody say, «murmuring.» They were murmuring against Aaron and Moses in the wilderness. And I understand it, because just about a month ago, prior to this, just a few weeks earlier, they were dealing with a shortage of water. You 'll remember that God did several things with water. Number one, He turned bitter water sweet; you remember the bitter waters of Marah. And the other thing that God did is He brought water out of a rock. And they were complaining. What Moses does-and I want to warn you against this because you can mess up your blessing — is that the first time he strikes a rock, and water comes out of it.