Amen. All right, kind of a longer psalm this evening, so let's dig right in. Look down there at verse number one where the Bible reads, give ear, O my people, to my law, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. And excuse me, this psalm is just starting off. referencing dark sayings which is mentioned a few times in scriptures and sometimes people are just a little maybe not certain what that means it's not actually very difficult but sometimes the dark sayings are a little bit harder to understand but they're also deep in wisdom so there's knowledge and understanding in the dark sayings, but they're not always necessarily just the most clear, but they are wise. And one of the most famous, I guess, references would be found in Proverbs 1, 6, where the Bible says to understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. And we see this right off the bat, this referencing of the dark sayings, the law, and then expressing, hey, we've already heard and known this stuff from our fathers. And then verse number four says, we will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. And this is a point I just wanna park it on briefly because there's so much to get to this evening. but the importance of showing the generation to come the word of the Lord, the law of the Lord, the wisdom of the Lord held in the dark sayings, and that tradition of passing it down. And I'll tell you what, this is... imperative for us as believers to be teaching our children about God, about the Bible. This is something that you need to take so much more serious than just bringing your children even to church. Okay? Yeah, absolutely. Bring your children to church. Let them hear the Word of the Lord. Hear the Bible expounded. Hear the wisdom of the dark sayings. Hear the Proverbs of Solomon. Hear the Psalms and all the great words and wisdom in the Law of God. And to begin to understand this and be part of their life from day one. Look at verse number five. The Bible says, So God commanded the law, he gave the law to his people, to Israel, and then commanded that they need to teach that to their children. He's saying, look, this is part of the law itself. Like I'm giving you this great law. I'm giving you this great wisdom. I'm instructing you the right way to go. And you need to make sure that you also are teaching your children. Keep your place here and turn, if you would, to Deuteronomy chapter number six. Deuteronomy 6, and while you're turning, I'll just read the next verse. We already read the entire passage, but Psalm 78 6 says that the generation to come might know them, talking about the law of the Lord. He commanded to make known to their children that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born. who should arise and declare them to their children. It's a generational passing of knowledge and instruction that cannot be replaced by anyone because it's the duty of mom and dad at home to be teaching and raising your children every single day in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You are the number one person that is responsible for how your children turn out. And, you know, something that I have expressed continually over with my children. Look, just because I'm the pastor of the church, I don't rely just on my children hearing what I have to say on a Sunday or on a Wednesday and then that's it and we never talk about the Bible, never talk about Scripture. You need to keep teaching regularly, continually. Make sure they're hearing it. Make sure that you could answer their questions. You help them to understand it. It's not just, believe me, when I teach my children, it's not exactly the same as me preaching here in church, right? The style and the method is a little bit different because I'm dealing more closer to one-on-one, right? I'm dealing with a smaller group and trying to help them to understand and help them to get these things. And it's something that is so important, and I've taught them, even in their school, because we homeschool them, but before they do anything else, their number one responsibility is to read the Bible. And I just preached recently on a subject of getting wisdom, how the Bible puts an emphasis on wisdom. You get smart, be intelligent, just to know more. It's so valuable in your life. But I'll tell you what, before any of the other education, the most important wisdom that my children can receive is that from the word of God. if they never fully became as wise as I would like them to be as far as knowing a lot of other things in the world or learning a lot and becoming super successful by the world standard, if they just grew up and understood the Bible and understood how to be a good, godly person, if they're a hard worker, say men or women, they grow up to be young men, young women that work really hard, that are people of their word, So when they would say something, people will actually respect and believe what they have to say, that they have character, that they can do things, they could be humble. All the attributes, all the characteristics that are taught in scripture. If my children could possess those things, that would make me happy. That's my ideal of success. It has nothing to do with how much money they make or any of that other stuff that the world wants to look at, which is why I put an emphasis on the Word of God, because you're gonna get the most valuable teaching and training from God's Word. It teaches us how to live, how to be moral, how to be good, how to live our lives, being honest, all these various things. But these things don't come naturally. We're naturally sinners. So you need to make the investment of teaching your children, which is why, like the Bible said in Psalm 78, referencing, look, God made that part of his law. He's like, you have to teach them the law, and it's even in the law that you have to teach your children. Look at verse number one in Deuteronomy chapter six. The Bible says, now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go to possess it. that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. He's saying, I'll bless you, this is good for you, learn my laws, teach them to your children, teach them to your children's children. Make sure they all know this, because that's going to lengthen your days. That is going to prolong your days. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Look, this is part of the law. You need to love God with all your heart, and your soul, and your might. And you know, we need to be teaching our children the same thing. Teach them the importance of their own relationship with the Lord. Not just your relationship with the Lord, not mom's, not dad's, but their own. And help them to establish that relationship with the Lord. And when they're younger, when you're raising children, as they're younger, you have to just make rules for them that they just have to follow no matter what. But the goal is that you're not raising children that only do the things that you're teaching, only read the Bible, because if they don't, they're gonna be punished. You wanna cultivate and nurture your children to want to know more, to want to learn, to want to read the Bible, to want to serve God. So it's not always easy finding that balance, and we're never gonna be perfect at it, but you have to be thinking about this, because if you just raise your children by rules only, When they leave the house, if you don't have their hearts, if their hearts aren't towards the Lord and towards Jesus, they're just gonna abandon what you've made them do for the first 18 years or however long of their life. They need their own walk with God. That's what's going to keep them for a lifetime. And you need to make it your priority to help to instill that love of God in their hearts and in their life, which means you're gonna have to be able to answer questions. You're gonna have to help them to understand things. You're gonna have to show them Real world examples. Show them what happens when people get into sin. Show them the truth of sin and not the facade that Satan wants them to see. What the world's gonna put out there of, oh yeah, you can sin and there's no problem and everything's fine and they're the cool people and everything else. So show them this is what really, look, this is what the word of God says, son. Hey daughter, look, this is what the book of Proverbs says. Look at what the Bible's saying right here and look how it plays out in real life. Teach them these things. It takes time. But it must be, it's critical to be done. Don't get so busy, and especially dads, don't get so busy providing for your family that you're not actually involved in any of the raising of your family. Look, providing for your family is a tough job. It is. And you're gonna have to work as much as you need to work to be able to support your family. But look, don't let that come at the, it shouldn't ever have to come at the expense of the actual raising of your children. Now look, moms in a biblical family are gonna have the most impact and they're gonna spend the most time with the kids and they're gonna be raising the children, but you know what, then you gotta make sure that your wife is also trained and ready and where she needs to be spiritually as well to have that important job. And I'm speaking a lot to the men because God has put men in the position of authority and responsibility. It's not just authority, it's also the responsibility. Men, fathers, dads, it's your job. You are the responsible. At the end of the day, you are responsible for how your house is run. And the Bible teaches in 1 Corinthians 14 that the women are supposed to keep silence in a church, and if they'll learn anything, they can ask their husbands at home. So that means that you are responsible for being able to teach your wives as well. When they have questions and they want to understand the Bible, you're there to answer them. And you're there for your children. And then that way, you know, they could be teaching the children even more while you're not there. This is so critical. Let's keep reading here. The Bible says in verse six, and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. Diligently means you are putting a lot of focus and effort into this. It's not you're flippantly teaching them to your children, or whenever you have time, you teach them to their children. As we keep reading, we're gonna see, no, you're gonna be making the time all the time. Teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them, look at this, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. It sounds pretty important to me. If God's saying, when you get up in the morning, when you go to bed at night, when you're traveling by the way, look, you need to be talking to them about this stuff. You need to be teaching them. And you know, it's not gonna be some big, drawn out, long Bible study necessarily and a full sermon every day of the week. You're gonna be giving them doses of truth. You're gonna be dropping words of wisdom on a regular basis. doing a little instruction here, a little instruction there. And look, kids don't have a super long attention span in general anyways. So you're gonna have to be dropping a lot of these, but in order to do that, the word of God needs to be in your heart. In order to be doing that, you need to be getting right with God. You need to have God's word in your heart. You need to be spiritually grown enough to be able to recognize a lot of opportunities to teach your children on a regular basis. Day to day to day. So you need to have your face in this book. And I was talking earlier about winning over the hearts of your children and getting them to wanna have their own relationship with the Lord. Look, if you're a good mom, if you're a good dad, your children will emulate you. I mean, they emulate parents anyways. The better parent you are, the more they're gonna want to be like you. Children grow up and it's just natural for them to want to be like mom and dad. So you want to help them to instill in their heart a good love for God, a good love for the Lord, and have their own walk with God, then how about you have your own good, solid walk with God, that you're genuine, you're sincere, it's not just, oh yeah, dad shows up to church on Sunday and then the rest of the week it's like a different guy. You can hide that from everyone else. You can hide that from people in church, but you can't hide that from your kids. We need to make sure that the generation to come knows the Lord, as Psalm 78 is stating. Let's go back to Psalm 78. reiterating verse number six, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. and might not be, as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God." We need to be teaching our children to not be stubborn and rebellious like previous generations have been, older generations that have not kept the Word of God, but they need to have their heart right. The Bible says whose spirit was not steadfast with God. That means we need to make sure that our heart is steadfast with God. And what does steadfast mean? It means consistent, it means you don't give up. If you are steadfast, you are consistent, you are going to continue and you don't give up. And the job of teaching your children the Christian life can be a tough road to walk. It's not easy, but you know what? You just got to make sure you don't give up. Keep your heart steadfast. Keep focused. Keep on track. And when you slip, get right back up again. Just show you're going to have bumps and you're going to have the hiccups in this life. Don't let that set you back and get you out. Just get right back around again. Look at verse number nine, the Bible says the children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle. So it was bringing up just this group of people's tribe, the children of Ephraim, excuse me. Look, they were armed, they had bows, they had the tools, they were well-equipped, their fathers had given them different things, maybe carnal things, but they turn their back in the day of battle. You can have the weapons of war, but if you don't have the heart You're going to turn back. You're going to flee. You're going to run. You need to have the heart. You need to be able to move forward and fight in the day of battle. And when you're raising children up to walk in the way of the Lord, it's a spiritual battle. They're going to be facing difficulties. They're going to be facing, you know, people, different pressures from different people. to get them to change their belief, to get them to abandon their faith, to get them to give up. And you need to teach your children not just to give them the weapon, don't just give them the Bible, but help them to know how to use it. Help them to be courageous and strong and rooted in their faith so that they have the character and the strength to not turn back in the day of adversity. When the time of trouble comes, they could stand firm and stand strong. That investment needs to be made. The children of Ephraim, look, they were one of the biggest tribes in Israel too. They were extremely blessed physically. They're a huge tribe, but you know what? Even though they had everything they needed, they turned their back. And then what good was it all for? What good is it all for, dads, if you wanna, you're gonna work and just make sure your children has every electronic device, every other thing, all these other tools, you're gonna equip them with all this stuff, and they have no character and they have no love of God, and then they just turn their back on the things of God and just go off into the world. You lost the battle. You lost the war. You need to prepare your children for battle. The spiritual preparation is way more important than providing the tools. And of course you need weapons to fight a war. But think about this, whose is the battle anyways? Who really wins the battles? God wins the battles. We just need to stand. The Bible says to, you know, to gird up your loins, to put on the armor of God and having done all to stand. Stand therefore. We need to teach our children to stand. not to waffle, not to compromise, not to go back on the word of God, just be able to stand. And look, God will bring the victory. You don't have to be the one waging the wars and doing that stuff. Just look, make it through, stay faithful, stay steadfast, and God will bring the victory. And of course, we want to equip them as much as possible and give them the tools they need. In the spiritual battle, we have the word of God as our sword. But they need their faith. They need the truth. They need the gospel of the preparation of the gospel of peace, right? So their feet shod. All the elements of that spiritual armor. it's parents' job to equip them with all of those things. Let's keep reading here in Psalm 78, verse 10. They kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk in his law and forgot his works. Again, now referring to the previous generations who were trying to raise their children the right way, say not like our fathers, not like the people who had already turned their back on the Lord. They didn't keep God's covenant. They refused to walk in his law. It's not that they didn't know him, They knew the law and they refused to do it. They forgot his works and his wonders that he had showed them. Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt. in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and he made the waters to stand as in heap. In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. He claved the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers." Now, This is all referring to the salvation of the children of Israel out of Egypt, when God saved them out of Egypt from being bond servants, from being in bondage and freed them. And all of these great mighty works that God did when he showed himself strong in Israel. Look, this is one of the main themes or main events in the whole Bible. The events that happened in Egypt when Moses led the children of Israel out is referred to over and over and over and over again. It's when God just without a doubt just showed his power, his might, his authority, and all the wonderful things that he did. These great miracles illustrating even greater truths and greater spiritual truths. Just because this happened a long time ago, we should still be teaching our children this stuff and make them know, look, these are real things. These aren't just fairy tales. This isn't just story time. This isn't fiction. This literally happened. And make the Bible real for them. help them to know and not just read over it and dig into the word of God and teach them and say look you know you could be out you see this big boulder you see this big stone you see this big rock well you know what God did when the people were wandering and they were thirsty and they have anything to drink because God was just leading them and they just had to trust God and just follow God, wherever God was gonna have them go, they were just following. And when they just didn't have any resources, they didn't have any water, they couldn't just carry everything with them. You know what God did? God had Moses smite this rock here, and you know what? A whole stream of water came flowing out of this rock. And God provided for them. even in a situation that look impossible. These are the truths that, look, our children need to understand this because God just doesn't do this every day. He's not doing it every day. And it's folly for people to think so highly of themselves, oh, if God doesn't strike the lightning right here in front of me right now when I say to do this, that he's not, you know. People come up with all these stupid things to try to tempt God. But look, he's already done plenty of things for us. There's not a continual need to prove to every single person who's ever existed on this earth physically by showing some great miracle to that person individually, every single person, every one of the, I mean, who knows? I don't even know what an estimate of the total number of souls who've ever existed on this earth is over the past 6,000 and some odd years. of people being born and dying every day on this plan mean it's it's who knows i don't know it's it's a really high number felt that much it's it's a lot of people billions trillions hunt i mean quadrillion to what it like whatever the number is god's not gonna have to show himself improves up every single person because he's already done enough he's already done very extremely significant things to show like look this None of this could just be explained away. None of it. These miracles of God. We need to be teaching our children this. Don't forget all the marvelous things God does. We see he provided them guidance. He was there to lead. He led the children of Israel out. He used Moses, but he was a light in the darkness. God was able to shine the light so that they can see. And he was also a cloud of protection against the enemies that in the daytime, the enemies couldn't find them day or night. They were continually protected by God while God illuminated them. God showed them the way. He also provided the protection. When you're gonna walk by faith, God will look out for you. God will protect you. And even in an impossible situation, God is able to do the impossible. Parting a sea, impossible. No one could do that. Technology today can't even do that. There's not like a fan strong enough or whatever, you know, to get some wind to try to make waters just stand up like a heap, the Bible says. So you could just have this perfect path and you could have water on this side and water on this side. You could just literally walk through a sea on dry ground, not in the muck. Bible says in verse number 17, and they sinned yet more against him. by provoking the most high in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yeah, they spake against God and said, can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people? And if you know this story, you know this is when the children of Israel were longing after the meat. And oh, man, this manna. God fed them with angels' food. And we're going to read a little bit more about that here in just a minute. He provided for all of their needs. He literally brought water out of a rock. When they're thirsty, it's like, and they still had the gall to complain and to be asking for meat. Now, the Bible says, asking you shall receive, but you know what? In your prayer, you need to make sure you're not praying for things just to consume it on your lusts. So when you have needs, God supplies your needs and you can go to God and ask God for your needs. But if you have some lust that you just wanna satisfy some craving of a lust in your heart, you don't go to God and ask for those things. That's a wicked thing to do. And these spoiled brat attitudes going, oh man, we had it so good in Egypt. You were slaves. You didn't have it so good in Egypt. And now you're talking about the food that you ate while you were a slave. And oh man, you're out here in the wilderness. God, you don't even have to work for your food. You just go pick it up off the ground. They asked meat for their lust, the Bible said there in verse number 18. And then have this attitude. Oh yeah, well hey, God was able to bring water out of a rock, but can he furnish a table in the wilderness, huh? Can he provide us with meat? Like what a wicked attitude, especially after seeing all of the things that God has already done. to just tempt the Lord. It's a wicked and an ungrateful attitude. And especially these miracles, because what did God do? He offered true life. There was a fountain of living water. Like obviously physically they needed to survive by getting physical water. They needed to drink water to survive. But that was representative of the eternal life that's offered through God. the rivers of living water, which again, is gonna be symbolized in the end times as well. With a new heaven and a new earth, there's gonna be the stream that provides life. I mean, it's so symbolic throughout the scripture, but God's providing the spiritual meat, God's providing the spiritual drink, and what do they care about? The carnal things. They care about the flesh. They care about the eating of flesh. You're like, oh yeah, God can save the soul, but can he provide for my flesh? So stupid. Verse number 21, therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth. Wroth means he was full of wrath. There's a past tense. He was angry with them. So a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel. because they believed not in God and trusted not in his salvation. So obviously he was angry over them wanting, you know, first murmuring, complaining, not being content with what God was giving them. But at the end of the day, what God was most angry about is that they still just didn't even believe in him. It says they didn't believe in God and they didn't trust in his salvation. Though he had commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of heaven and had rained down manna upon them to eat and had given them of the corn of heaven, man did eat angels' food. He sent them meat to the full. And of course, Jesus, when he came down, said, I am the bread from heaven, right? He's basically referring to himself, Moses gave you manna, but I'm the bread of life, I'm the bread of heaven, which a man eat of this bread, he's never gonna die, right? Their fathers died in the wilderness. They ate of that physical food, they ate the manna, but that manna was representative of Jesus Christ, and God's angry because he's like, look, I'm giving you the spiritual meat, I'm giving you the spiritual drink, and you're rejecting it, and you're looking for another answer. Like, look, it's grace, you don't have to do anything for it. I'm giving you the water, I'm giving you the food. Eat and be satisfied. And they're like, no, no, no, that's not good enough. We want something else. And that's what makes God mad. And people know the truth. People hear the truth. Hey, look, it's a free gift. It's salvation. It's by grace. You don't have to work for it. You don't have to jump through any hoops. You don't have to go to church and be baptized and do all these other things in order to be saved. Just accept it's a free gift. God loves you. Take the gift. I did it all for you. No, no, no, I don't want that. No, no, look, no, I gotta do, that's not enough. I gotta do something else. I gotta do more. That makes God angry. That makes him angry. He gets full of anger and wrath, which is why the Bible says in John 3, 36, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. God is wroth with people that are given the corn from heaven, yet don't trust in the Lord. Verse 26. He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, and by his power he brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea. And remember, there was this huge multitude, million, over a million people in the desert, and they're asking for this flesh. And even when God told Moses that like, look, tomorrow they're gonna have their flesh, Moses is like, like, really? Like, are you gonna do this? And God's like, What, do you think there's anything that's too hard for me? Like you've already seen what I can do. Do you really think I can't provide flesh? Of course I could provide flesh. He was just offering them salvation and keeping them alive and they want more. He's like, you know what? I'm gonna give them the wicked intent. I'm gonna give them the desires of their heart. I'm gonna let them feast and let them satisfy their lust. And take note of this too, because if you have this lust in your heart, you wanna scratch some itch, some flesh desire that you have, God might just let you get indulged in that. But it ain't gonna go well for you. Verse 27, he rained flesh also upon them as dust and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea, and he let it fall in the midst of their camp round about their habitations. So they did eat and were well filled, for he gave them their own desire. He gave it to them. They were not estranged from their lust. Oh, you wanna go and get involved in lust? God'll let you do that. But while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them and smote down the chosen men of Israel. Be careful what you desire it just may be given you. And if you want to see a little bit more about this story, I'd love to turn if you would to Numbers chapter 11. It's such a powerful story. And you talk about a story we ought to be teaching our children. Yeah, Numbers 11. Seriously, I'm not kidding. And I bring this up frequently, and I bring this up at home frequently, because kids need to understand the difference. And especially in such a rich world that we live in right now, God has blessed this nation as a whole tremendously. And yes, there are people who suffer and go through horrible things, and that doesn't change, but the amount of wealth that exists in this country is just astronomical. It really is. It is insane how good people really have it. And it surprises me how people can be so upset and so down in the mouth, oh, I don't have this and this, and have such a poor attitude about things, and think that they're so, oh, I'm so poor and everything else, and like everybody's walking around with a stinking computer in their pocket. Everybody is. I mean, kids are walking around with these things in their pockets and more, right? And you've got food in your cupboards. You've got refrigerators keeping things preserved. The amount of work and effort that's required to actually have plenty of food is so small. And we're talking about humanity as a whole, for all existence of mankind. People have it so good. Watch your mouths when you go to complain. And Numbers 11 teaches this story to the utmost. God supplies your needs 100%. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. All these things is the food and the clothing. Okay, the necessities of life. But you know what? God wants your heart. God wants you serving him. And God definitely doesn't want you to have a spoiled brat entitled attitude that makes you think that you just deserve everything. Look at verse number 18 and numbers 11. The Bible says, and say thou unto the people, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow and ye shall eat flesh. For you have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, who shall give us flesh to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt. Oh, how quickly their memory fades of Egypt. Oh, it was well with you? God saved them out of Egypt. I mean, talk about a slap in the face to be complaining in the ears of your savior that saved you out of slavery to be like, oh yeah, it was good when I was a slave. What? I mean, imagine that in just physical sense. Imagine there was somebody who was enslaved. Think about the child trafficking stuff, right? Happens. There's people, there's kids, there's teenagers, they get locked up in houses and are literal slaves to do horrible things and treated awfully. Imagine being the one to free that person and save them and take them out of that and be like, hey, come. And you could come and live with me. And you don't have that much, but you're able to provide them with food and shelter and safety. And then they're like, after a few weeks or a year or something, you've been trying to help them. And then they're just like, Really? We're having oatmeal again? I mean, what are we having for dinner, rice? I had it real good when I was locked up. I mean, at least the guy gave me whatever. I was a Chick-fil-A or something. Whatever. I mean, just think about how nuts that is, right? How crazy that would be for someone to have that attitude and then start complaining to you who saved them that you're not doing enough for them. You're not giving them enough. This is what happened. This is exactly what happened. God saved them from being abused, from being enslaved and freed them and completely freed them and gave them all they need. And they're gonna complain. Look at verse 19. It says, ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither 10 days, nor 20. So this is another opportunity for God to show just how awesome he is also. Because Moses was asking like, how can you even feed all these people for one day? Like, how could you even give them that one little, you know, like everybody to have meat? Like, how can you provide so much meat? They're in the wilderness. It's like a desert. Like, where are you going to find all of this food? Like, are you gonna slay Leviathan and bring him out here and chop him up for everyone to eat? You know, like, like it's just, it's just a massive amount of people. And with so many people, God's like, you know what? It's not gonna be a day. It's not gonna be five days. It's not gonna be 10 days or even 20 days, but a whole month. So he said, they're gonna have so much food. Everybody's gonna have so much food, so much flesh to eat. You're gonna have it for a whole month. Look at this, until it comes out at your nostrils. Like, I'm gonna give you so much food. I mean, just imagine like God, like he's gonna shove it in your face until it's just coming out your nose. Like, oh, you wanted flesh to eat? Here, here you go. This is figuratively what God is doing. He's saying, you're going to get so much, and I'm just going to overload you on this lust that you wanted so bad, and you're going to get so deep in this now that you're going to hate it. The thing that you wanted so bad that you were going to say slavery is worth eating. I mean, think about it. Would you be willing to trade your freedom for a meal? People do it, look at Kane. Look at Kane, Esau. Kane, Esau. Kane is a different story. Esau sold his birthright. until it come out of your nostrils, verse 20, and it be loathsome unto, meaning you hate it, because that you have despised the Lord which is among you and have wept before him saying, why came we forth out of Egypt? Like, why did we even come out of Egypt? I can't have any chicken. I just have this manna. That's what they're saying. Jump down to verse 31. And there went forth a wind from the Lord and brought quails from the sea and let them fall by the camp. as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. And the people stood up. I mean, that's like three feet tall. Like, that's how much fell. It's like three feet deep. And the people stood up all that day and all that night and all the next day, and they gathered the quails. It took them all that day, all that night, and all the next day just to collect all the food that landed in camp. They didn't have to go on some big hike to get it or anything. It's literally just all around them. And it's taken them a day and a half, 36 hours, to just gather up the food. He that gathered least gathered ten omers, and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp. And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, e'er it was chewed. So they're just digging into this, and it's literally still in their mouths. It says the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. He let them have their lust, But then comes the repercussion, then comes the payment for their lust. And he called the name of the place, Kibrathoteba, because there they buried the people that lusted. And I don't remember if it, I think it says it in Psalm 78, but like he killed the fattest of them, right? The ones who were lusting the most. The ones that were just so given over to that lust. He's just like, no. These are the stories. This is what the Bible saying, don't forget these things. Teach them to your children. Don't forget the wonderful works. Don't forget what God does for you. Don't forget the goodness of God. And look at the punishment, look at what, is outside of that, when you reject the Lord, when you're rebellious, when you're stiff-necked, when you're thinking that slavery might be a good idea, when people, and look, the Bible will teach you, okay, physically, slaves, it's unlikely that any one of us is physically gonna be threatened with becoming a slave, like the slavery that happened in America is over and has been abolished, and it's not looking like that we're gonna head back to that system anytime soon in this country, right? But slavery still exists and is full well in the form of sin. The bondage and the slavery to sin that exists is very real. And that is a slavery you don't want to try to get back into. If you've already had a victory, you've already conquered maybe some sins and gotten some sin out of your life, some addictions, some alcohol, some smoking, whatever that may be, don't start to think back and be like, oh man, I remember how good it was when I used to do this, thus and so. Oh, I used to live this way or, you know, don't be a fool. Because you were in bondage. You give yourselves over to sin, you are in bondage. And that's what the word of God teaches. And that's the truth, by the way. Don't go having these fond memories of being a slave. Back in Psalm 78. Oh, no. My timer died. I think we're going to do a part one and a part two on this psalm. I was already kind of thinking it might happen. So don't worry. Verse number 32 though, look at this verse. For all this they sinned still and believed not for his wondrous works. Therefore their days did he consume in vanity and their years in trouble. And you know, when you just refuse to believe God and want to just go after your lust and go after these things, your days are vanity. Your days are meaningless. Living for the lusts of the flesh, living for the world, living for money, living for these gratifications of your flesh is vain. It's empty, it's meaningless. I mean, at the end of the day, the word of God is going to provide you with the best, most meaningful life. that you can have in this life. It's gonna provide you the most peace. It's gonna provide you the most comfort. It's gonna provide you the most direction. It's gonna provide you the most joy. If you could implement the truths found in the word of God, you literally will have the best life that you could possibly have here on this earth. Because the people that the world projects as having the best life on this earth, it's not really the best life. It's a facade. It's fake. It's an illusion. The billionaires and multimillionaires and the people who have all this stuff and all the money, it's not nearly what you think it is. It's like fake book. It's a projection of what people want you to see. But you don't get to see behind the curtain. You don't get to see the real life. You don't get to see the miserableness and the shallow relationships and everything else that goes along with all of that money. And people ignorantly think, oh, that wouldn't happen to me. It's like, you know what? You have no idea. You know what's found in Proverbs, in the book of God's wisdom, is to make me not rich, that I'm gonna forget the Lord, and say, who is the Lord, and just don't make me poor, so that I'm gonna be tempted to steal and blaspheme the name of the Lord. And obviously I'm paraphrasing that, but there's wisdom in just, God, please give me what we need. Like Jesus taught the prey, Lord, give us this day our daily bread. God, please just help me, give me some bread today so I don't have to be hungry and I can focus on doing the things that really matter. Not only would your life be vanity, like verse 33 says, it says, but they're years in trouble. you want to ignore the wisdom of God and you want to step away from that, you're just asking for trouble. Trouble will come and be sure your sin will find you out and trouble comes your way. When you continue to live your life in unbelief, it just amounts to vanity and trouble. And that's what they said. They didn't believe, they have all these opportunities, they don't believe, and you know what? Now their days are just consumed in vanity and trouble. And I think I'm gonna stop it right about there, because we're about halfway through this psalm. And I don't normally do this on a Wednesday night, but I know it's been going on for a while, and there's a lot more to cover. It's a very lengthy psalm. So we're gonna have a part two, Next week, but there is so much to learn in this psalm in this first half. Seriously the you know, if you walk away with nothing else The net the generation to come needs the Word of God Now more than ever or now as much as ever at least Don't neglect The the need and the sacrifice necessary, because it is a sacrifice. It's not good enough just for you to walk right. You need to instill that in your children in the generation to come. If you don't have any children, how about being a good role model and teaching the generation to come still? Through your actions, through your life, through your words.