Trust in the Gap
Sermon Notes
It is in the gap that God does his DEEPEST work in our hearts.
God wants closeness with US!
[Exodus 14:11-12 NIV] They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? [12] Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
[Exodus 15:25b-26] It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him. [26] He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”
Trusting God in the UNKNOWN is often harder than living in the bondage we KNOW.
God is WITH you in the gap.
[Exodus 16:2-4 NRSVUE] The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. [3] The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” [4] Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.
[Exodus 20:19] they said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen. But don’t let God speak directly to us, or we will die!”
Trust takes PROXIMITY.
Trust takes TRAINING.
[Deuteronomy 8:1-7] “Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. [2] Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character (NIV says “to know what was in your heart”), and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. [3] Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. [4] For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. [5] Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines* you for your own good. [6] “So obey the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. [7] For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with fountains and springs that gush out in the valleys and hills.
[Matthew 4:1-4 NLT] [1] Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. [2] For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. [3] During that time the devil came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread." [4] But Jesus told him, "No! The Scriptures say, 'People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
God wants us to trust His VOICE.
[Hebrews 11:39-40] All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. [40] For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without US.
Discussion Questions
Icebreaker: If you have a day all alone what would you do?
Read 1 Sam 16:1, 7, 13 and discuss what stands out to you.
Share about a time you tried to take a short-cut in life
What is a skill God shaped in your life during a Gap?
What area of your life is God growing you now?
Is there anything this group can pray for?