Speaker 1: Hey, what up?
Speaker 1: It's Mark Carter on, the Pastor of Fierce Church.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.
Speaker 1: I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: When I was a day over 15 years old it was my 16th birthday I went to the driver's license place where you get your driver's license.
Speaker 1: I was so excited.
Speaker 1: I had been wanting to drive for years and years and years.
Speaker 1: I don't know why some kids don't want to drive today.
Speaker 1: Man, I couldn't wait to get out there.
Speaker 1: And I get to the driver's license place and earlier that week one of my buddies had told me hey, man.
Speaker 1: And then was butch.
Speaker 1: He said, hey, I went to take the test.
Speaker 1: But you know what happened?
Speaker 1: The instructor tricked me.
Speaker 1: He told me that he wanted me to do one thing, and then I did it.
Speaker 1: And then he said that wasn't the right thing.
Speaker 1: You fail.
Speaker 1: And I'm like you know, I'm 16.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, really, I believed it.
Speaker 1: Hook line and sinker.
Speaker 1: And so I'm out on my driver's test and I don't remember what the instructor said.
Speaker 1: He said something like hey man, turn over here.
Speaker 1: And I was like, are you trying to trick me right now?
Speaker 1: And he's like what?
Speaker 1: I was like I heard sometimes you guys try to trick people and he's like turn around and so we go back to the place and he's like fail.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: He could have been nicer about it.
Speaker 1: But you know, the problem was I didn't know what test I was in.
Speaker 1: I thought I was in the test.
Speaker 1: Figure out if the instructor's trying to trick you.
Speaker 1: That's the test I thought I was taking out.
Speaker 1: Smart, this guy.
Speaker 1: The real test was be good at driving and don't offend the instructor unnecessarily.
Speaker 1: About three days later I went back and I took the right test and I passed, thank God.
Speaker 1: But you know, sometimes we don't even know that we're in a test.
Speaker 1: We don't even know what test we're taking if we do know.
Speaker 1: And so I want to talk to you today about some of the tests that we take.
Speaker 1: We're going into a brand new series called the Road Up.
Speaker 1: Most of the last quarter of last year we were in the road out.
Speaker 1: This is the beginning of the book of Exodus.
Speaker 1: It was all about how Moses was called by God to lead the Israelites who were in slavery and bondage out of slavery.
Speaker 1: They're going to pass through the Red Sea.
Speaker 1: They got a plan they're going to go to the Promised Land.
Speaker 1: We got through the Red Sea and now we're going into the next series.
Speaker 1: This is a sequel series.
Speaker 1: I've never done a sequel series before.
Speaker 1: But here we are, the Road Up.
Speaker 1: Now the Road Up is a little bit different.
Speaker 1: The Road Up, whereas the Road Out was about coming out of bondage, coming out of some of the difficulty and maybe bad decisions or bad things other people did to us, the Road Up is about getting ready.
Speaker 1: It's about maturing to be able to enter into the Promised Land for all that we're supposed to do there.
Speaker 1: So God has a training regimen for every one of us.
Speaker 1: He's got things he wants to do in us.
Speaker 1: He's got this awesome destiny for us, but he's got to train us, to get us ready, and sometimes we just don't know what test we're in.
Speaker 1: We don't know exactly that we're supposed to be paying attention and trying to cooperate with the Spirit of Jesus as he gets us ready and takes us through tests and really matures us.
Speaker 1: And so here's the bottom line for today If you skip the test, you'll miss the lesson.
Speaker 1: If you skip the test, you'll miss the lesson.
Speaker 1: In Exodus 2020, moses gives us we're not there today, but Moses gives us kind of an overview of this entire section of Scripture.
Speaker 1: God is taking the Israelites these are the people that came out of Egypt through a bunch of tests, and Moses says this.
Speaker 1: He says do not be afraid.
Speaker 1: God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.
Speaker 1: God tests us to mature us, to grow us up, and he doesn't really for our benefit.
Speaker 1: It's in our best interest if we grow up.
Speaker 1: It's in our best interest if we get mature.
Speaker 1: Now, sometimes we want to.
Speaker 1: Maybe we don't know any better, maybe we're just kind of drifting into this mindset, but we make Jesus half a Savior.
Speaker 1: We make Jesus the kind of Savior he forgives me.
Speaker 1: His blood does pay the penalty for my sin, and that's great.
Speaker 1: I get forgiven, I get for sure the ability to walk with him through life and then go into heaven.
Speaker 1: But we forget to make him the God who's going to pull the poison out, the sin virus.
Speaker 1: He's going to slowly change us and make us more like Christ.
Speaker 1: That's what he came to save us from.
Speaker 1: It's not just the penalty of our sin, but it's the sin that rumbles around on the inside of us.
Speaker 1: He wants to make us more and more Christ-like, and that means we become more and more mature.
Speaker 1: And so he sets up little wildernesses for every one of us.
Speaker 1: You've got you know, you've got a wilderness catered to you.
Speaker 1: We're all on different tests at the same time, but you have a very specific, very detailed, very for you test that you're probably in right now.
Speaker 1: You might even be in more than one.
Speaker 1: You can't make it through the wilderness without knowing the Lord much better than you do right now.
Speaker 1: You can't.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm just trying to say the point of the wilderness.
Speaker 1: You can't make it through the wilderness without coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ more than you do.
Speaker 1: That's why you're in the wilderness, so that you will know Him more than you do.
Speaker 1: And so that's the progress plan.
Speaker 1: That's how we get through it.
Speaker 1: He wants it to go through, but you get through by knowing Him better or beginning to learn.
Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
Speaker 1: This is how God wants me to act and think.
Speaker 1: It's not just that he wants me to acknowledge Him.
Speaker 1: He wants me to start to think that what he says about Himself is true.
Speaker 1: He wants me to start to act like what he says about Himself is true, and he sees the inner man and the inner woman.
Speaker 1: So he knows exactly how much we actually do think that.
Speaker 1: So he wants us to grow.
Speaker 1: He wants us to grow in character.
Speaker 1: He wants us to grow in fire.
Speaker 1: He wants us to grow in hatred of sin.
Speaker 1: He wants us to grow in that thing he called the fear of God.
Speaker 1: That's where we begin to operate like.
Speaker 1: It matters how you interact with God.
Speaker 1: The wilderness is a great place for fear of God, if we can attain it, if we can grab hold of it, for it to turn into love of God.
Speaker 1: Let me give you an example.
Speaker 1: When you were probably a child, you were taught early on hey, don't steal things.
Speaker 1: If you steal the lollipop from your cousin, there's going to be some version of discipline.
Speaker 1: And so you learned don't steal lollipops because there's going to be discipline.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you learned something like that.
Speaker 1: But as you got older, maybe something began to shift in your heart.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just that you were afraid something might happen if you stole, but you started to think that's beneath me to steal.
Speaker 1: Like most of you probably, you wouldn't go out and rob anything today because you're like dude, that's not who I am.
Speaker 1: I don't do that anymore and many of you would even say I just love God too much to do that.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't do that.
Speaker 1: It started out as fear of consequence, but it turned as you grew, as you mature, as you went through.
Speaker 1: That initial fear turned into just because I just respect my God, I just love Him.
Speaker 1: I would just want to do what he wants me to do.
Speaker 1: That's where fear starts.
Speaker 1: But it becomes love if we will let it.
Speaker 1: But in order for it to do that, we got all kinds of tests.
Speaker 1: Oh man, there's so many tests, I'm sorry to tell you, but at least I think we're going to get some clarity today.
Speaker 1: We're going to get some clarity that sometimes we're in a security test.
Speaker 1: That means I'm very busy, worried about other people's approval, and God is bringing me through nuanced tests to make me say, man, there's no use in this.
Speaker 1: Trying to keep everybody happy is straight up crazy.
Speaker 1: That don't work.
Speaker 1: But He'll keep letting us hit our head against a tree or a brick wall until we learn that's a bad idea.
Speaker 1: That's not going to lead to anything good.
Speaker 1: You're just going to get pain if you keep trying to keep everybody happy.
Speaker 1: There's also the forgiveness test.
Speaker 1: This is where you're in a season and it's really about yeah, but will you forgive them?
Speaker 1: I know that what they did was wrong, but can you learn to be free by forgiving them?
Speaker 1: That's the test that you're in.
Speaker 1: What about the betrayal test?
Speaker 1: This is a hard one.
Speaker 1: This is where someone you really love, like maybe a Judas you really thought, man, you guys were tight, and then it totally turned around on you and you got just like Jesus.
Speaker 1: You got the betrayal test and the question is are you going to harbor bitterness and resentment for the rest of forever?
Speaker 1: Are you going to look at that person that's so straight up, betrayed you and you're just going to pray for them, god, would you bless them?
Speaker 1: Would you help me assimilate this so I become the better version of me, so I can get out of my wildernesses, and would you even help them get out of their wildernesses?
Speaker 1: Maybe you're in the humility test.
Speaker 1: The humility test is can you receive it when people just don't think you're a big deal?
Speaker 1: They don't care what you think, they don't care what you're doing, they don't care where you're going, nobody cares.
Speaker 1: Can you pass that test and still?
Speaker 1: And you just keep rocking you, you just keep being faithful, you just keep doing what's in front of you.
Speaker 1: I don't need everybody to think anything about me, I'm well-able just to concern myself with my affairs before heaven.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're in the oh man, this is a hard one.
Speaker 1: You're in the waiting test and the waiting man.
Speaker 1: Ain't nothing happening in the waiting test.
Speaker 1: You're just waiting, you're just waiting, and seasons are going by, and it seems like everything's changing for everybody else, but not for you.
Speaker 1: You've been with this thing, or with that difficulty, or with this predicament for year after year after year, and maybe you didn't know.
Speaker 1: But can I just tell you oh, baby, you just hang on because you're actually.
Speaker 1: You don't see it very well maybe, but you're in a test, you're being trained.
Speaker 1: This is not random, this is on purpose.
Speaker 1: God cares about you so much that he's going to cater these tests exactly to what you need right now.
Speaker 1: You know, tests take a long time sometimes.
Speaker 1: You know God's in the business, though, of making.
Speaker 1: Through patience and pressure, he makes jewels, and I think he's trying to make some of us jewels.
Speaker 1: But, man, it's taking a lot of patience and it's taking a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1: You just keep going, don't give up.
Speaker 1: God chooses the time of tests.
Speaker 1: He chooses the when, the when in your life, the exact right junctures.
Speaker 1: But he doesn't leave you to do them alone.
Speaker 1: He leaves you to do them with the very best partner you could have the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, and really he's the only one.
Speaker 1: You need to make it through all the tests and you might find that one of the tests is the loneliness test, where everybody flees from you, where you don't even know what's going on.
Speaker 1: You can't keep a friend and you realize that's so you'll learn that as much as people mean well and as much as people actually love you and they actually would lay down their lives for you, they still ain't Jesus and he's the only one.
Speaker 1: It ain't a spouse, it ain't a sister, it isn't a friend.
Speaker 1: It is only Jesus that can fill all those nooks and crannies of your heart.
Speaker 1: I'm just curious Is this speaking to anybody today?
Speaker 1: Anybody feel like they know what this is about?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the Lord's going to inform us today.
Speaker 1: Here's some awesome news.
Speaker 1: I love this news.
Speaker 1: You don't have to get everything right to get through the tests.
Speaker 1: You do not have to do the test perfectly.
Speaker 1: Passing the test doesn't mean you do everything right.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you don't sin.
Speaker 1: All you have to do to make it through the tests is to remain willing to learn.
Speaker 1: I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1: King David.
Speaker 1: He started out like this underdog.
Speaker 1: Everyone David is like wow, he's a warrior, he's a musician, he's topping the charts.
Speaker 1: He takes down Goliath, he's running from the king and gets away and God honors him and ultimately brings him to be the king of the nation.
Speaker 1: It's so awesome.
Speaker 1: Everyone's like this is a storm.
Speaker 1: This would be on Netflix.
Speaker 1: This guy is amazing.
Speaker 1: If you look at David's life, then he begins to make some dramatic mistakes, like he has a guy killed.
Speaker 1: His redorulous affair.
Speaker 1: His own son is so bitter that he essentially tries to pursue and take over the kingdom and kill his old man, and then his only recourse is to actually watch as his army takes out his son.
Speaker 1: He's done a lot wrong and yet it says this in the book of Acts, chapter 13, 36.
Speaker 1: Now, when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep.
Speaker 1: He was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.
Speaker 1: He fell asleep, meaning he died.
Speaker 1: His body looks like it's sleeping but it's really dead.
Speaker 1: But he had served God's purpose in his own generation.
Speaker 1: He didn't serve God's purpose in his own generation by not sinning, because he failed a lot actually.
Speaker 1: So, boy youłą, he was not a model father, he was not a model king, but what he did do you can see it.
Speaker 1: At the end of his life, he's still trying to learn.
Speaker 1: He's still like you know.
Speaker 1: Maybe this trial is from God, though I just want to receive it, just in case.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to follow God's plan.
Speaker 1: If God wants to bring me back into the kingship, I'll just let God do it.
Speaker 1: He's learned not to not sin.
Speaker 1: He's learned to let God have his way.
Speaker 1: My goodness, just let God have his way.
Speaker 1: Just let God do it.
Speaker 1: Just quit striving, quit fighting it, quit trying to work your own plan around the thing and just say you know what, if it's God, it's going to be, and if it's not, ain't, no use me trying to avoid it.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to cooperate with God.
Speaker 1: Somebody say hallelujah.
Speaker 1: I love this message already.
Speaker 1: Well, these Israelites, man, they got a harsh road ahead.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: So they're coming out, they're coming through the Red Sea and, yes, they're on their way to the promised land, but God knows, they need a lot.
Speaker 1: They need a lot of wilderness.
Speaker 1: They need some training.
Speaker 1: There's a lot in them as a people that needs to get out of them and a lot that's not in them that needs to get in them.
Speaker 1: And so they're in this harsh environment there.
Speaker 1: They're in a desert land.
Speaker 1: They call it the wilderness and it's a wilderness.
Speaker 1: It's not like a forest, but it is a sparse, barren place.
Speaker 1: Nobody really lives there, because nobody can.
Speaker 1: They can't really sustain animals very long.
Speaker 1: They can't sustain humans, for sure.
Speaker 1: And so they're traveling through this wilderness and they're going for a few days and they're running out of water and they brought a lot of animals with them.
Speaker 1: There is a million and a half people and they're on their way through this wilderness, desert land and they're running out of water and you could imagine they start to panic.
Speaker 1: They're like um, is God going to help us or not?
Speaker 1: Because I feel like he did all these awesome things, but now did he give up on us?
Speaker 1: Is he gone?
Speaker 1: Did we displease Him in some way?
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, is this even real?
Speaker 1: Is Moses doing something here.
Speaker 1: Did Moses lose his favor?
Speaker 1: Now we're all in trouble out here in the woods Is that possible?
Speaker 1: And so they begin to despair.
Speaker 1: And you and I even though we're going to be tempted this entire series to look down on the Israelites, we're probably just like them, because when things don't go the way we thought they were going to go, almost immediately most of us we begin to do what they do, and that's grumble and blame and be like wow, I'll tell you what I'm really disappointed in this.
Speaker 1: I didn't expect this to happen this way.
Speaker 1: So now I'm pretty upset about it.
Speaker 1: And they begin to talk to one another.
Speaker 1: They begin to blame the guy who's supposed to be in charge, moses.
Speaker 1: I don't think they got though much.
Speaker 1: They leave that part out.
Speaker 1: If they would do the opposite of what they're doing, like all of us, if we would do the opposite, instead of blaming it down and despair, if we would just look to God and ask God, would you show me how you want to help me in this situation?
Speaker 1: We might find that God fixes a whole lot of stuff that we couldn't fix, but in the process he's also fixing us.
Speaker 1: Exodus 15-22.
Speaker 1: Then Moses had Israel set out from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of shore.
Speaker 1: And they went three days into the wilderness and found no water.
Speaker 1: This shore is in northern Sinai.
Speaker 1: And they came to Mara, but they could not drink the water of Mara for they were bitter.
Speaker 1: Therefore it was named Mara.
Speaker 1: Now, mara's not a city, it's not a village, it's a place and the water there.
Speaker 1: We're not told that it's poisonous, but you can't drink it.
Speaker 1: There's something about it that's so bitter like I can't even muscle it down, man.
Speaker 1: So the people grumbled at Moses why do we drink, man?
Speaker 1: They're just, I can't believe this.
Speaker 1: And they cried out to Yahweh they, sorry.
Speaker 1: Then he, moses, cried out to Yahweh, and Yahweh showed him a tree and he threw it into the waters and the waters became sweet.
Speaker 1: So they're all.
Speaker 1: They're all like losing their minds against Moses.
Speaker 1: They're all, ah, moses has the presence of mind to say, um, now, let's not forget, there's a giant like pillar of cloud right next to them, following them this whole way.
Speaker 1: Okay, moses has the presence of mind to be like what do you want to do about this?
Speaker 1: They might kill me soon, but there genuinely is not a lot of water.
Speaker 1: What do you want to do.
Speaker 1: You know, thankfully, if you've been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, if he's forgiven your sins, you have a permanent pillar of cloud living inside of you, named the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: He's always with you and you can always just look up and be like um, what do you want to do about this?
Speaker 1: I'm in trouble, didn't see this coming, didn't know.
Speaker 1: I was going to need some stuff here, but I'm glad you're here, let me just ask you.
Speaker 1: And he shows him a branch.
Speaker 1: Moses heaves the branch into the water.
Speaker 1: Now, this is just like.
Speaker 1: Moses knows this because he's raised the staff over the Nile and the whole thing turned to blood.
Speaker 1: There's nothing in the properties of the branch that's going to heal enough water for a million and a half people.
Speaker 1: No, it's the act of faith when Moses doesn't really know what to do, but he just obeys what he's told.
Speaker 1: Somebody say just obey what you're told.
Speaker 1: Just obey what you're told.
Speaker 1: He responds to God in faith and God uses something very natural to heal and sweeten the water.
Speaker 1: There he's set for them a statute and a judgment, he meaning God, and there he tested them.
Speaker 1: So he makes a rule, he clarifies hey guys, just you know, the Ten Commandments are coming, you're going to get some very, very detailed law.
Speaker 1: I want you to get used to this right now.
Speaker 1: You need to be understanding and seeking and going after what I say.
Speaker 1: I showed Moses the branch he obeyed, threw it in the water, and that fixed the situation.
Speaker 1: He said if you will earnestly listen to the voice of Yahweh, you're God, and do what is right and is right, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes.
Speaker 1: I'll put none of the diseases on you which I put on the Egyptians, for I, yahweh, am your healer.
Speaker 1: And they came to Elam.
Speaker 1: They went a little further and there were 12 springs of water and 70 date palms, and they camped there beside the waters.
Speaker 1: Where they went.
Speaker 1: Tradition tells us that this is currently the place called Uyan Musa.
Speaker 1: I'm probably saying that wrong, but it's a real place.
Speaker 1: You can find it on Google Maps if you don't want to go there.
Speaker 1: And it's a place that, yeah, it just looks like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's sustenance there in the desert.
Speaker 1: That would be good for people.
Speaker 1: But let's get back to our lesson.
Speaker 1: If you skip the test, you'll miss the lesson.
Speaker 1: So let's make sure that we don't skip any tests and don't miss any lessons.
Speaker 1: Here's two questions.
Speaker 1: There's more than two, but today we're going to talk about two, two questions for the road up to maturity.
Speaker 1: Number one will you pray for what you discover?
Speaker 1: You need Part of walking we've got.
Speaker 1: Now I gotta tell you, man, the world don't know about this, they're not going to ask a question like this.
Speaker 1: But if you're in God's training program, if you've got Jesus who's put you out in the wilderness with himself, you got to learn to ask this question, because you're going to run into things all the time where God is actually trying to teach you to pray.
Speaker 1: He's using the hardship and he's saying yeah, I know that you're noticing you have need here and you're scrambling to try to like find a way to do it and you're scrambling to try to like find a solution to it.
Speaker 1: But the answer is look up and be like what do you want to do?
Speaker 1: He's trying to teach you to pray.
Speaker 1: You say, well, I'm just not good at that.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like that should be the strategy for me.
Speaker 1: I think Jesus would tend to disagree with you.
Speaker 1: It doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's part of the test.
Speaker 1: Is you need to get over that?
Speaker 1: You think that Because Jesus is going to keep you there until you decide to learn it, or it's time to go home to heaven.
Speaker 1: But that's the question.
Speaker 1: Will you pray for what you discover you need, instead of just getting to panic like these Israelites did, instead of just capitulate to the pressure, will you ask?
Speaker 1: Like none of these other islars even seemed, seems like they didn't even ask, none of them were like hey, um, you know, they scoot up next to Moses like hey, you know, man, it's kind of rough here.
Speaker 1: What do you want to do?
Speaker 1: You think maybe we could ask, we just ask for a cup of water.
Speaker 1: Maybe God could do something.
Speaker 1: We saw him do these ridiculous miracles before.
Speaker 1: Maybe he can do something.
Speaker 1: Oh, they didn't even do that at all.
Speaker 1: They didn't even think to ask.
Speaker 1: Instead, what do they do?
Speaker 1: They grumble, they got complaining, they just started to talk to one another and you know that just heightens it, man.
Speaker 1: People start talking about.
Speaker 1: Now it's getting worse and worse and mentally it's, oh, it's overwhelming now.
Speaker 1: But you know, the cross of Jesus Christ teaches us to resist grumbling, because we're really supposed to resist the idea that we are the center of the universe.
Speaker 1: And so the cross is you're not the center, jesus is the center, because you see his love for you, back off with the grumbling a little bit and see if you can't find his counsel.
Speaker 1: Now, this would be almost impossible if it weren't for the pillar of cloud or the Holy Spirit who is with us.
Speaker 1: Who will actually, if we just ask him, you just ask him every day.
Speaker 1: God, place a guard over my mouth.
Speaker 1: I'm very tempted to complain, but we just place a guard over my mouth and shut it down for me a little bit more, and he might not shut it down completely, but you'll be surprised, they'll shut it down a lot.
Speaker 1: Most of us.
Speaker 1: You know this man.
Speaker 1: There are things where you have you really struggle with asking for help, but there's probably things that you don't struggle at all with asking for help, I'll bet you.
Speaker 1: There's categories like car maintenance for some of us, taxes for some of us and Technology for some of us.
Speaker 1: At least one of those probably hits you somewhere where you would say I'm not even gonna try that.
Speaker 1: I Tried that once and it was man.
Speaker 1: It was just a sad, sad story.
Speaker 1: You know, now I'm just gonna get a professional man, I'm just gonna call somebody.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask the right question.
Speaker 1: Dude, I spent four hours on that stupid program.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna walk down to the other cubicle, ask them to do it and it'll be done just like that.
Speaker 1: I have no problem asking for help, because I know this is way beyond me.
Speaker 1: Well, dear heart, I don't know if you've tried to control the universe lately, but I'll.
Speaker 1: I'll bet you you're worse at that than the other three things we just named.
Speaker 1: But there is an expert.
Speaker 1: He's on call all the time.
Speaker 1: He's super ready.
Speaker 1: All we got to do is ask.
Speaker 1: Here's some questions I found that are very helpful for me to kind of determine Now, what, what is it that I need?
Speaker 1: I'm very tempted to complain right now.
Speaker 1: What is it that I needed?
Speaker 1: And that's the first question to myself self Okay, what do you?
Speaker 1: What do you need, dude, what is the problem here?
Speaker 1: And it might be you might be tempted to complain.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I'm always running out of context.
Speaker 1: Gosh, darn, all these stupid contacts.
Speaker 1: They always want $100 every other month Just to get these dumb context.
Speaker 1: Okay, you can complain, or you can just look.
Speaker 1: Okay, what do I need?
Speaker 1: I need contacts.
Speaker 1: That's what I need, god.
Speaker 1: I need contacts.
Speaker 1: Or Maybe you're like all my clothes look like dumb.
Speaker 1: They're old.
Speaker 1: I don't like these.
Speaker 1: You can complain about it.
Speaker 1: You believe this stupid closet ain't nothing, drawers are broke.
Speaker 1: Or you can just, lord, what do you want to do about the man?
Speaker 1: I need some clothes.
Speaker 1: Can you give me some clothes?
Speaker 1: And what do you do?
Speaker 1: You just turned a grumble into an ask.
Speaker 1: Why not just ask I need some baby formula?
Speaker 1: I can whine about it.
Speaker 1: I expand his dog on this inflation.
Speaker 1: Or you can just say, Lord, I don't know where you got some, but I know you got some somewhere.
Speaker 1: I need you to reroute it to me.
Speaker 1: Need some baby formula, preferably by Friday.
Speaker 1: Can you do that, jesus?
Speaker 1: And we might be surprised sometimes.
Speaker 1: Other times it's okay.
Speaker 1: Asking myself doesn't seem to work.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna ask some people that are nearby me, some people that are close to me.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look to nearby friends who just have a vantage point in on my life and say, okay, permission to speak freely.
Speaker 1: You can say whatever you want.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about offending me as you look at me in this Wilderness situation that I'm in, in this tough deal.
Speaker 1: What do you think I need?
Speaker 1: What does it look like?
Speaker 1: Like I'm?
Speaker 1: Everyone else gets it, but I don't get it.
Speaker 1: What is it that I that I need, and they might say stuff like All right, I'm gonna trust you for a second, I'm gonna tell you the truth and we'll see how you respond.
Speaker 1: I Think you did counsel.
Speaker 1: I think you need more people speaking into your life.
Speaker 1: Or I think you need to take a season and you need to rebuild some trust over there.
Speaker 1: Or they might say something like you know, sister, the best thing you could do I know it's going to sound harsh, I don't mean harsh Best thing you could do is keep quiet Like you are, just your mouth is running a mile a minute and your brain is following it and just take a season, maybe fast maybe, but calm down because you can't hear nothing right now.
Speaker 1: And then, maybe one of my favorites Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: I'm not even smart enough to know what I need.
Speaker 1: My friends are not smart enough, or really they don't see the hidden things that you see.
Speaker 1: What should I be praying for?
Speaker 1: What do you say that I need?
Speaker 1: And you know he won't tell you all the time, but often he will.
Speaker 1: He's told me.
Speaker 1: I remember one time I was driving home from church.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes I don't know if you guys know this.
Speaker 1: Okay, just so you know how it works in the life of a preacher, even though we know better.
Speaker 1: Every time, just about every time we preach, we're like, okay, that was either awesome, praise God, you showed up, or I suck.
Speaker 1: Like that's what it's like.
Speaker 1: Preachers can testify.
Speaker 1: You know this is true.
Speaker 1: And so there's more than my share.
Speaker 1: I'm driving home like, oh man, what is up with that?
Speaker 1: And I'm spinning into.
Speaker 1: It's not that I'm necessarily complaining out loud, but I'm just like Carter, why are you so bad at this man?
Speaker 1: You know how the devil works.
Speaker 1: And instead I just looked up.
Speaker 1: I was like what do you say about this?
Speaker 1: What am I getting wrong here?
Speaker 1: What do I need to pray about?
Speaker 1: And Spirit spoke to me, just very simply.
Speaker 1: He doesn't speak to me always like this, but he just spoke to me right there in the car.
Speaker 1: He said your problem is you think the effectiveness of your preaching depends on you?
Speaker 1: Dang, that's one of those ones like, oh, awesome, you know, because that's true, not now.
Speaker 1: Preachers, dude, we got to prepare and we got to like try to know our stuff.
Speaker 1: We got to be ready to be led by the Holy Ghost at any moment.
Speaker 1: But the moment that we forget that, the only reason any of this works at all is because the Spirit of God is using it in people's minds and hearts.
Speaker 1: That's the only reason it works.
Speaker 1: So for me to doubly think that anything I'm doing is actually what's working, man, that's just double dumb.
Speaker 1: And so the Spirit of God is saying to me you need to pray for revelation on the fact that you need to work as hard as you can, but everything depends on the Spirit of God, and then I can give God a shot of praise, because he's wonderful and I don't need to be.
Speaker 1: You know we've got 10 minutes left, but I'm just going to go to the second point, because we all came here.
Speaker 1: You turned in.
Speaker 1: I've got Bible here, let's just read it.
Speaker 1: Okay, so two questions for the road up to maturity Will you pray for what you discover you need?
Speaker 1: Number two will you obediently adjust your life to my commands?
Speaker 1: There's a test right there.
Speaker 1: I know you know it, but will you obediently adjust?
Speaker 1: Somebody say adjust, adjust your life to my commands.
Speaker 1: There's a message in this.
Speaker 1: God says to all of you Israelites, he's trying to get them to understand.
Speaker 1: And Moses hey, see how I can just like heal stuff.
Speaker 1: I can not only use water to like smite Egyptians.
Speaker 1: I can just heal it.
Speaker 1: I can just take a natural thing and I can heal it.
Speaker 1: I can take all of your difficulty all of it's not only wrong with life but really precious wrong with you and I can use very natural circumstances to sweeten it and to heal it.
Speaker 1: If you'll try to obediently adjust your life to what I say, jesus did it.
Speaker 1: He just took the branch through it in the water.
Speaker 1: He didn't even argue with God.
Speaker 1: He's like I don't understand this.
Speaker 1: Here you go and God took something very natural, just like all your life circumstances.
Speaker 1: God doesn't like have to use magic in our lives.
Speaker 1: He's like dude, I've got all of everything natural.
Speaker 1: I'll just use it to bring you through tests, to sweeten you, to heal you, to make you the better version that I'm trying to make you.
Speaker 1: I'll just use the natural stuff.
Speaker 1: Some of you are like why is all this happening?
Speaker 1: Because God is using the natural stuff to heal you and all you've got to do is do your best.
Speaker 1: Anytime you see the branch, whatever that is, that means obey whatever you know to do Just throw that in the water and God says I'll use that.
Speaker 1: Responding obediently to my words is the trial.
Speaker 1: Sorry.
Speaker 1: Responding obediently to my words in the trial is what heals you.
Speaker 1: I'll say it again, because I jacked it up the first time Responding obediently to my words in the trial is what heals you.
Speaker 1: Notice God saying.
Speaker 1: He's saying dear Israelites, before you enter any further, you need to make a big deal about my words.
Speaker 1: That's what I said in verse 26.
Speaker 1: If you'll earnestly listen to my voice of Yahweh, your God, and do what is right in His sight and give ear to His commands and then he goes on.
Speaker 1: Well, I took quite a while this week I want to give the card of translation.
Speaker 1: Can I parse all this out?
Speaker 1: This is another modern way to say this.
Speaker 1: If you will really listen to what I say and do what I think is right instead of what you think is right, and pay attention to my commands more than just acknowledging them, but laying your life alongside them and adjusting your life to them, I will give you layers of protection that others do not have.
Speaker 1: So let's just pull it apart real quick before we end.
Speaker 1: If you'll listen to hear, if you'll earnestly listen, if you'll not just say, oh yeah, I like the Bible.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, will you go back again.
Speaker 1: Will you come in here again?
Speaker 1: Will you listen to another sermon this week?
Speaker 1: Will you dive into God's Word again, even though you're like I feel like I know this.
Speaker 1: No, go down again, look at it again.
Speaker 1: Will you really listen?
Speaker 1: Then God says oh baby, I'll put the very answers to your tests in the text.
Speaker 1: I'll make sure it's there so you can speed your way out of this thing, and He'll probably convict us if we do it.
Speaker 1: If he starts getting the word a little more.
Speaker 1: He'll probably convict you of the sin of not valuing his word more, which we all get wrong.
Speaker 1: But we all need to come back and value God's words and listen to here.
Speaker 1: This is what Jesus is talking about when he says in John 15, 7 if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it'll be done for you, but my words are abiding in you, which means you're synchronizing with my will.
Speaker 1: It's very easy to pray my will now, and I love to answer my will.
Speaker 1: God says a Romans 12 to and don't be conformed this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Speaker 1: The world is constantly trying to Conform you to its image, and God's word comes along as the answer, though it says no, no, no, I'll help you pass your tests.
Speaker 1: Just get your mind around my word.
Speaker 1: There's number two.
Speaker 1: It's not the number two in your notes, but it's just the second part of this.
Speaker 1: Listen to hear and humble yourself, humble yourself.
Speaker 1: Humble yourself is really important for our day and age, because when we hear God says something, and then we think something, we're like Let me see if I can just arrange this so that it agrees with me.
Speaker 1: Let me see if I can recouch the word a little bit so that it's more appetizing for people like me and that's Guys.
Speaker 1: It's just super rebellious and prideful and ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Did you make a universe lately?
Speaker 1: No, okay.
Speaker 1: Have you been alive for more than a hundred years?
Speaker 1: No, okay.
Speaker 1: The eternal, who is from before everything, knows the deal.
Speaker 1: He loves you.
Speaker 1: He tells you the right stuff.
Speaker 1: That means when I hear something like odd, I don't know, god thought that then I immediately say I don't even know if I totally understand that.
Speaker 1: But Whatever God says is right.
Speaker 1: I just agree, even though, if I don't like it, even if I'm like how, I still say I don't know how I'm honest.
Speaker 1: But your word is right and it's not for me to try to change your word.
Speaker 1: It's for me to say I Guess I'm gonna need Jesus help for that one, and you'll get it if you'll ask.
Speaker 1: And Then, finally, we adjust to his word.
Speaker 1: We just to his word.
Speaker 1: Give yours to his commandments and keep all his Statutes.
Speaker 1: When you know it and you're humble about it, then adjust to it.
Speaker 1: That's what I had to do with the driver, with the drive driving instructor person who gives me my license.
Speaker 1: I had to adjust.
Speaker 1: I was in the wrong test.
Speaker 1: I found out what he really wanted me to do and I adjusted.
Speaker 1: And then, boom, I got through the test.
Speaker 1: There was a super easy.
Speaker 1: All I had to do is do what the person giving the test wanted me to do, and that's what God will do.
Speaker 1: Now You're gonna find, even when you are doing your best to pass these tests, he's not gonna give you everything that you want.
Speaker 1: Right then, these Israelites they got water.
Speaker 1: There's a lot more to the promised land of water, so they didn't have everything fulfilled entirely yet.
Speaker 1: But you know, the thing about Jesus is he'll often leave us without stuff for a time in our tests because he himself wants to be the real solution.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read you something from first Corinthians, this chapter 10.
Speaker 1: We're gonna study this later on in the series, but it's just so powerful we need to hear it today.
Speaker 1: Paul is talking about these, this chapter in the Israelites life, and he writes this.
Speaker 1: He says they were all baptized in the Moses, in the Cloud and in the sea.
Speaker 1: They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Speaker 1: Paul says they didn't even know it really, but, spiritually speaking, christ was the one who was their sustenance back then.
Speaker 1: And maybe you and I don't know it as we need to know it right now.
Speaker 1: We don't know up a Christ being content with Christ alone when everything else is taken away.
Speaker 1: When you got this pain that you hate and Jesus says I'm not gonna give you everything, but giving you myself, I do give you everything.
Speaker 1: Learn to contentedly drink from Christ and, baby, you can make it through any trial.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna leave or forsake you.
Speaker 1: In fact, he's the one who's determined to get you through the trials.
Speaker 1: He takes you as his personal assignment.
Speaker 1: He's like father I'll get him there.
Speaker 1: I'll get him there.
Speaker 1: That's why we need to drink deeply of Jesus Christ every day.
Speaker 1: Come also, buddy.
Speaker 1: So If we skip the test, we'll miss the lesson.
Speaker 1: Thank God he doesn't often let us skip the test, we just keep taking it.
Speaker 1: It's time to start getting some of the lessons, though let's bow our heads and ask for his help with that.
Speaker 1: Jesus, we've got a personal host, a personal guide, a personal mentor to lead us through the tests of the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for valuing us so deeply that you yourself would come.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't send anybody else.
Speaker 1: We drink of you today, jesus.
Speaker 1: We need you.
Speaker 1: We need your clarity, we need your refreshing, we need your liberality.
Speaker 1: We need you to cause us to get it.
Speaker 1: Help us to faithfully walk with you and drink from you contentedly while we wait For you to work out everything that you're going to got strengthened.
Speaker 1: The church fam here today.
Speaker 1: In Christ's name, amen.
Speaker 1: Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1: If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on Passionately knowing Jesus and being his witness in our generation, check out fierce that church.
Speaker 1: We'd love for you to join us either digitally or in person.
Speaker 1: Also, if you're looking for leadership development related content, don't forget to check out the fierce leadership podcast, available wherever you get your podcast from.
Speaker 1: Special Thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry.
Speaker 1: It's because of you that this is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click on the link in the description to give now or visit fierce that church for more information.
Speaker 1: If you enjoy this podcast, why not subscribe?
Speaker 1: Share it with your friends, click on the share button, take a screenshot and share it on social media or whatever.
Speaker 1: You would share such things.
Speaker 1: Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it.
Speaker 1: Don't give up.
Speaker 1: Hang on to Jesus.
Speaker 1: He won't let go of you.
Speaker 1: Jesus loves you so much and we love you.
Speaker 1: I hope someday we get to meet in person.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening.