Milk And Honey

TITLE: Milk & Honey pm102206

TEXT: Exodus 3:7,8 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey

I. DOES GOD ANSWER PRAYER?

A. Does God answer prayer? Does He keep His promises of old? These

are questions I have attempted to answer many times as I have stood

before you on Sunday night.

1. Sometimes I have felt like an apologist explaining the fine print to

the saint who feels she/he has been slighted by the hand of God—

the one who says, “Preacher I didn’t get my answer.”

2. You see the answer to the to the age long question often depends

on who you ask and at what point in their lives have you asked it.

3. If you were to ask the person on the mountain top of spiritual

experience you would get the answer, “Absolutely! Praise His

name!”

4. If you were to ask someone struggling right now like Annette... She

may give you the pat Christian answer. But what she feels to be

the truth is gnawing at her soul as much as her infirmity is gnawing

at her body.

5. Ask the Duponts and unless they are feeling especially vulnerable

at the moment you may get the pre-prepared answer. But down

inside can they really help but wonder if God is going to come

through this time.

6. Does God answer prayer? Does He keep His promises of old?

Does He see the state that I’m currently in? Does He feel my pain?

Or is He a god who doesn’t care who lives a way up there?

7. Is He so far removed—detached from the affairs of this world and

it’s people that He is unable to hear their cries of agony and faith.

8. Or, is Jesus really that friend who sticks closer than a brother.

9. Will He really Eph 4:19 meet all your needs according to his

glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

10. Will the prayer offered in faith accompanied by the oil of anointing

really make the sick person well.

11. Do we really have no cause for worry? –for food, shelter, clothing.

Does the Heavenly Father really know in advance that we need

them?

12. I could go on and on. Does God really answer prayer? Does He

keep His promises? Does He know what I am going through?

II. GOD PROMISES MILK AND HONEY.

A. At a time when the people of God were at their lowest—when they

were asking similar questions to the ones we ask today, God gives

this promise. He promises to lead them to a land flowing with milk

and honey. What did He mean. As a young child in Sunday School I

have often wondered what this really meant.

1. The Israelites found themselves lamenting their situation just like

we do when the seasons of our lives turn from sunny to cloudy,

from warm to frigid.

2. Hear them again. Can you relate? They were literally groaning

under the tyrannical hand of their oppressors. The word says,

Exodus 2:23 The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried

out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to

God.

3. And the word gives us God’s response I have indeed seen the

misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out

because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their

suffering.

B. And then He promises to lead them to a land flowing with milk and

honey. What sort of promise was this?

1. Let me see if I can explain the concept to you. First of all the milk.

Ask farmers in Wisconsin. When do you have to milk cows. Does

anyone know? The answer is every morning.

a. On dairy farms all over the world this is a constant. They milk

those cows early in the morning and a couple of times a day

after that.

b. There is no letting up. Winter, summer, spring, autumn. Those

cows are going to give milk.

c. If they don’t give milk it’s off to the slaughter house and later to

McDonalds. Milk is a symbol of a constant source of provision.

2. I believe that God is communicating I will always be there for you.

When you feel the warmth of my presence and when you don’t. In

the summer in the winter. I am you constant source of provision.

I’m as reliable as the milk cow that gives milk every day.