When manna is no longer enough: sermon outline

But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna! Numbers 11:6

Introduction:

Israel's problem was not a lack of provision. It was discontent with God's provision (Num 11:4-6).
"We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt" (Num 11:5). For free? They were slaves.
Manna or quail: what God gives or what you crave.

1. The manna: provision that came from heaven (Exod 16:4).

"What is it?" (Exod 16:15). It was "a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors" (Deut 8:3).
"The manna came down on the camp with the dew during the night" (Num 11:9). God works while you rest.
It had to be gathered every day (Exod 16:4). Whoever kept it for the next morning found it "full of maggots" (Exod 16:20). You can't live on yesterday's manna.
It lay on the ground: to gather it, you had to bend down (Num 11:8). And it was sweet; it "tasted like honey wafers" (Exod 16:31).

2. The quail: memories of Egypt and grumbling (Num 11:31).

The menu of nostalgia: "cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic" (Num 11:5).
Manna comes down from heaven. Quail comes with the wind (Num 11:31).
They "caught quail all that day and throughout the night and all the next day, too" (Num 11:32). They would eat meat "for a whole month until you gag and are sick of it" (Num 11:20).
"while they were gorging themselves on the meat (...) the anger of the Lord blazed against the people" (Num 11:33). There "they buried the people who had craved meat from Egypt" (Num 11:34).

3. The manna and Jesus: the living bread that came down from heaven (John 6:51).

Jesus is "our Passover Lamb" (1 Cor 5:7), the serpent lifted up in the wilderness (John 3:14), the rock that traveled with the people: "that rock was Christ" (1 Cor 10:4).
Jesus is the Word who "became human" (John 1:14). The manna taught that "people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deut 8:3).
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven" (John 6:51).

4. The hidden manna: the reward of those who overcome (Rev 2:17).

"To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven" (Rev 2:17).
The desert manna stopped at the border of Canaan (Exod 16:35). The hidden manna never runs out.
The promise is not for those who grumble. It is for those who overcome.

Conclusion:

I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. John 6:35