Sermon Title- “What Have You Done for Me Lately?”
Sermon Subject- How Quickly We Forget Our Blessings
Scripture- Exodus 16:2-15 and Philippians 1:21-30
Date- 22 September, 2002 (Fifth Sunday of Kingdomtide)

Hundreds of years before the events in the 16th chapter of Exodus God placed a young man named Joseph in Pharaoh’s Courts and brought him to Pharaoh’s attention in such a way that Pharaoh would place great trust and authority in him. Joseph finally became second in power, second only to Pharaoh himself, in all of Egypt. This allowed Joseph the opportunity to provide his siblings and father and the Israelites as a whole a place to live and work as they escaped the great famine. Here they grew into a large tribe.

Some 30 years or more prior to the events in the 16th chapter of Exodus God arranged for a Jewish male infant to escape slaughter by Pharaoh’s men and for that same infant to come to the attention of Pharaoh’s daughter. Then God placed a desire in the heart of Pharaoh’s daughter to raise this infant in the Royal Court and God arranged things so that Pharaoh’s daughter would hire the infant’s own mother to wet nurse him. Thus this infant named Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s Royal Courts, but his mother had the opportunity to instill in him knowledge of the Jewish faith in the one true God. As a young man Moses killed one of Pharaoh’s men for abusing an Israelite and Moses had to flee. This allowed God to bring Moses back to be God’s agent to bring about the freeing of the Israelites as Egyptian slaves. And when they left, the Israelites left laden with riches in gold an silver beyond their wildest dreams.

Just days or weeks prior to the events in the 16th chapter of Exodus God authors two of the greatest miracles in the Bible on behalf of the Israelites. First He performs the Passover, which the Jews celebrate to this day and which is arguably said to be the central event in the story of God and His relationship with His chosen people. And then God separates the Red Sea so the Israelites can walk across on dry ground and which then comes back together to drown Pharaoh’s entire army. God has done all of this to keep his promise to Abraham and to bring his people together and mold them into a nation. And so after the Red Sea miracle God begins to lead them to his holy mountain, Mount Sinai. It is at this point that the events of the 16th chapter take place. And it is in the 16th chapter of Exodus that we begin the ever recurring theme of, “What have you done for me recently?” between the Israelites and God.

What we hear the Israelites saying in Exodus 16 is. “OK, God,
so you killed Pharaoh’s first born son and the first born of all in Egypt except our first born and then you divided the Red Sea so we could walk through and Pharaoh’s army was drowned. That’s great, but what are you doing for us now? We are getting pretty hungry. We could have stayed in Egypt where at least we ate good. Why not just kill us in Egypt instead of bringing us out here to starve to death? What are you doing for us lately?” They sound like a pretty ungrateful lot don’t they? This isn’t the kind of prayer request we would expect to move God to do more for them is it?

And yet we know God prepared for them an abundance of quail in the evening and manna, God’s bread in the morning. If we think about it, God provided for them each morning the bread of life that was sufficient for their needs, for the needs of each person even though these needs were different from person to person. Where else have we read about the bread of life sufficient for the needs of each person. Why right here in the wilderness of the Old Testament we find Christ. Didn’t Jesus say he was the bread of life. Don’t we find him as the bread of life broken for us at the Communion table? Didn’t Jesus say he was sufficient for all our needs. God is providing to the Israelites a foretaste of his best and greatest gift, Jesus Christ. And God is providing it to an ungrateful people who are yet sinners. Praise God who blesses us from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of the New Testament, and on and on up to today even at the times we least deserve to be blessed.

Let ‘s look first at our own attitudes. Do we awake each morning and say, “Good morning God. Thank you for a good rest. I can’t wait to see what you have in store for me today."” Or do we start the day by complaining to God about the things we didn’t like about yesterday or last night, completely ignoring the fact that God has made us in his image, has made us co-heirs with Christ and has given us co-dominion over the earth and all that dwells therein- pretty awesome stuff to over look. Or do we begin the day by not even thinking about God at all. And as long as things are going our way, we may well continue to ignore God. But let something go wrong in our day or something happens that isn’t as we would wish it to be, then I suspect we will begin to think about God and God will begin to hear from us.

Let’s be honest with ourselves for a minute. Does God ever hear anything from us other than requests for what we want? If we think back over a day or a week or a month what per cent of what God hears from us is requests for what we want, what per cent is praise and thanks and what per cent is asking what God desires from us? Is it 95-5-0 or 98-1-1 or perhaps 90-7-3 or 75-20-5 or 70-20-10 or550-30-20 or praise God perhaps 45-35-20. We need to work hard to avoid the what have you done for me lately mentality or it may be us that begins to sound like the ungrateful bunch.

Let’s look at the attitudes of one who has made Christ Lord of his or her life and has completely surrendered his or her life to Christ. Paul writes to the believers in Philippi, the Philippians, from prison. Paul is writing to the members of the first church established in Europe. As he writes to them, he has no idea if this will be his last day on earth or not.. Today may be the day the Romans will take him and crucify him or behead him. Do we hear complaints from him about breakfast? Does he suggest to God that the meat at the evening meal might be a little moister? We do see that God hears from him all the time. He is grateful for life that he might work for God and bring people to Christ. He is grateful that he might die and be with Christ. He is pleased to share the joy of the faith and he wishes to share abundantly in boasting of Christ Jesus. He hopes God will help them as well as himself to live lives worthy of the Gospel of Christ. And finally Paul graciously acknowledges the privilege of believing in Christ and also of suffering for Christ. God is hearing a lot from Paul all day long, but it does not appear there is any danger Paul may sound like part of an ungrateful bunch. And he certainly does not sound like a what have you done for me lately sort of person. Paul’s percentages sound more like perhaps 5-50-45.

Maybe we should put a sign by where we go to pray that reads: 20-40-40, reminding ourselves that of all the times God hears from us today or this week or this month only 20 percent will deal with things we want from God and 40 percent would deal with praises and thanksgivings for all God has and is doing for us and finally 40 percent would deal with what God wants from us. I challenge you to try this and see what a difference it will make in your prayer life and in your walk with the Lord. Let’s all become 20-40-40 people.
Amen.