WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:01.760 Well, good morning again. 00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:02.959 Uh my name is Sam Rapp. 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:04.240 I serve here as a student pastor. 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:06.400 And this is turning into kind of like Redeemer Students Sunday. 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:09.599 I don't know how that happened, but uh student pastor and the Redeemer Students announcement. 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:11.119 So that's just what we're doing here today. 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:12.480 But I'm honored to be with you. 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:18.719 A couple years ago, uh my wife Grace and I we took a trip to Asheville, North Carolina for a few days. 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.600 It was our first like real trip after a honeymoon. 00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:23.359 Here's a picture of us on that trip. 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:25.280 Uh I look really similar, I know. 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:26.960 I haven't aged very much. 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:29.920 Uh and I felt like a real adult booking this trip. 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:34.000 Booked the Airbnb, driving to a new city with my wife, not my fiance anymore. 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:35.520 I had to learn to say that word. 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:37.759 Uh we were so excited for this trip. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.359 And I am about as type A as they come, and so I thought through everything. 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:44.399 I was like, I'm gonna book the Airbnb right in the middle of the town so we can walk everywhere. 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:46.159 I'm gonna get all the logistics planned out. 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:48.159 I'm gonna book a tour of the built more. 00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:49.600 It's gonna be a perfect trip. 00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:58.960 And as a type A as I am, as I've learned from a lot of time on the counseling chair, uh a lot of my type A-ness is a defense mechanism of me trying to avoid pain in life. 00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:01.679 So that's something I'm learning, but that's a conversation for another day. 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:03.280 Uh any other type A's in the room? 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:04.159 Any type A's? 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:07.120 Uh type beers, I'm so sorry that we're the way we are. 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:07.920 We can't help it. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:09.920 Uh it's the way that we it's the way that we were born. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.000 Uh but thank you for helping us have fun. 00:01:12.079 --> 00:01:13.840 Uh type beers, I appreciate it. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:16.239 Um so the trip was perfectly planned out. 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:17.920 Nothing could go wrong, right? 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:20.000 So we get to the Airbnb. 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:21.840 It's in a great spot, it's beautiful. 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:24.239 It's on the second floor of this kind of shopping strip. 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:28.640 It would be like having a uh Airbnb kind of on the Merrida Square over some of the shops there. 00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:39.359 So uh we walked down the stairs and we were like right on the main strip, and so we kind of check out, we see a couple shops, and uh this one store looked really cute on the outside, and so we decided to go in. 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:48.319 Uh and at first it felt like a classic kind of cute white girl store, you know, it had like the cute little decorative rocks and the little paintings and you know, little books and all the good stuff. 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:56.560 Uh and then you know the feeling of you thought it was one thing, and then it becomes something else, and you're like, I'm not where I thought I was. 00:01:56.719 --> 00:02:05.280 Um so I come across this beautiful hardcover book sitting proudly on a table, perched up right next to the store, and this is what the cover says. 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:08.400 Uh, which by the way, updated and revised made me nervous. 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:09.199 I don't know why. 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:27.599 Um, but uh apparently this is a very popular book in the world of witchcraft because Oberon Zell, nicknamed Oz, aka the Wizard of Oz, on the top of the book, says the most comprehensive compilation I've ever seen on all aspects of the craft, uppercase craft that made me nervous. 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:38.240 You know the moment in the office when uh Michael is dating Pam's mom and Jim is begging Michael not to tell her, and then Michael calls Pam into the office to talk about it. 00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:41.199 Uh there's a quick, quick video here from that scene. 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:45.439 She is the mother of a close friend of mine. 00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:46.080 Oh. 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:47.919 More than a friend. 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:49.280 A co-worker. 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:51.280 Oh, gossip. 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:52.639 Who is it? 00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:55.680 Who is it? 00:02:58.159 --> 00:02:59.680 Who is it, Michael? 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:05.680 It's okay. 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:08.639 No, no, no, no, no. 00:03:09.599 --> 00:03:09.919 No. 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:18.319 Oh my god! Oh my god! So that was a little bit what I felt like in this witchcraft store. 00:03:18.560 --> 00:03:22.719 Um I saw the book, and then the feeling began to sink in. 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:25.199 Like, I'm in a witchcraft store. 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:31.360 Um and I look around and I begin to see it, I see pentagrams everywhere, which is a strikingly nervous sight. 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:37.680 Uh and then I looked at the back of the store and there's like four or five little booths in the back, much like therapy rooms, but they weren't doing therapy there. 00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:38.960 I think they were doing witchcraft. 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:43.280 Uh, I don't know exactly what that looks like, and but you're probably thinking, Sam, like it's just a store, dude. 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:44.159 Like, you're good. 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:45.439 It's it's just a store. 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:48.800 But I want to remind you, do you remember where my Airbnb was? 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:50.960 Right up the stairs. 00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:58.080 The floor of our Airbnb shared the ceiling of the Airbnb of the uh witchcraft store where I'm sleeping. 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:02.159 Uh and so I grew up in a Presbyterian church. 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:04.719 I went to a Southern Baptist church in college. 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:10.719 So, pre-seminary 23-year-old Sam did not know what to do with this information theologically. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:14.319 I was like, does witchcraft float upwards like incense to heaven? 00:04:14.479 --> 00:04:15.199 I didn't know how it worked. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:16.959 I was like, is it gonna seep through the floor? 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:20.480 Do I need to go buy some olive oil and you know wipe it on the floor and anoint the room? 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:29.279 I did not know what to do with the information because these people are practicing witchcraft about 15 feet from where my bed is, and so I was very nervous. 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:36.000 Uh and so not only did I freak out and panic, but I also got really mad at myself because I'm a type A guy. 00:04:36.079 --> 00:04:37.519 I I know the logistics. 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:39.759 And I was like, Sam, you dummy. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:42.879 You're gonna bring your wife here to kill her in Asheville? 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:45.600 Now, of course, we survived. 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:46.560 I got over my panic. 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:53.920 We didn't pray, though, in Jesus' name, to cast out any demons that were gonna come into that room, but we did also do some research in our Bibles. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:56.480 Uh, but the trip turned out a little different than we expected. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:02.480 And every time we walked down those stairs onto the strip, we looked, we saw that store and we did a little roundabout, you know, to scoot around it. 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:08.240 But this morning, uh, we're continuing in the season of Lent, which covers the 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter. 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:15.279 And the question I want to ask for us today is when life goes to unexpected hard places, where is God? 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:16.079 That's the question. 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:19.600 When life goes to unexpected hard places, where is God? 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:24.720 When the job is lost, when a family member or friend dies? 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:34.720 When another negative pregnancy test shows up, when the diagnosis hits, when a pastor or leader has a moral failing. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:36.480 Where is God? 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:47.120 In Exodus 17, our text this morning, we're gonna see a bit of a legal drama played out like a three-act play, a bit like a few good men. 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:53.920 Act one, the problem, act two, the accusation, and act three, the trial. 00:05:54.560 --> 00:06:07.040 Pastor Tim Keller, uh, he used to say that when we read the book of Exodus, it's as if we're walking into a museum and we see this beautiful room, and then there's a painting on one of the sides of the room, and we notice that the painting's really ugly. 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:13.680 So we get up, we get a closer look, and then we realize that the painting is a mirror, and that's what the book of Exodus is supposed to be like for us. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.439 So, let's look in the mirror, Act 1. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:29.360 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages according to the commandment of the Lord, encamped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:46.639 So this the great tension and problem of this text is something that we all experience: suffering, trials, hardship, evil in the world, we experience little things like the daily frustrations of life, conflicts, emotions. 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:51.120 We came in this morning, perhaps, after a lot of frustrations, conflicts, and emotions. 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:54.800 And if you're a parent with young children, you might want to shout amen to that. 00:06:55.759 --> 00:07:03.360 And we experience the big things like death, cancer, suffering, big life-altering things. 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:06.560 We don't have to look very far to see that the world aches. 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:08.480 So the people of God show up. 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:11.279 It's a place called Rephidim, which is no accident. 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:14.480 It's a name that literally means resting place. 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:19.439 So they show up to the place of rest only to find that they don't have water to drink. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:24.319 And water turns out to be a pretty big theme in the book of Exodus. 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:31.360 A couple chapters before this, they showed up to another place, and the water was bitter, and God made it sweet. 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:40.160 The chapter right before this, they had the manna from heaven, the sweet bread that God provides, and yet they continue to grumble. 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:44.240 And we, too, are quick to grumble when things go wrong, right? 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:48.000 And also we're pretty slow to praise when things go right sometimes. 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:49.759 And the people here are in real danger. 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:53.920 You die of dehydration much faster than starvation. 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:55.920 So the stakes are real. 00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:07.680 But the story of Exodus in the 16 preceding chapters is real complaint over a real issue, and God showing up and providing exactly what they needed. 00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:18.079 It was just three chapters before this, where God told Moses to take the staff, put it in the Red Sea, only for them to part and walk through to freedom. 00:08:19.120 --> 00:08:22.319 But in this story in Exodus 17, we see a shift. 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:28.720 Because in the chapters before this, it was the people grumbled, they grumbled, they complained, they grumbled, but here we see a sharp turn. 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:31.680 So this is Act 2, the accusation. 00:08:32.559 --> 00:08:36.720 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, Give us water to drink. 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:38.720 And Moses said to them, Why do you quarrel with me? 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:40.080 Why do you test the Lord? 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:46.639 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt? 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:49.759 To kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:53.440 So Moses cried to the Lord, What shall I do with this people? 00:08:53.679 --> 00:08:55.759 They're almost ready to stone me. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.240 So you notice the difference. 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:07.759 The people certainly quarreled there in verse or grumbled in verse 3, but the word used in verse 2 is quarrel, and there's something so much deeper going on than just anger. 00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:10.559 The word for quarrel is a legal term. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:12.000 It's a courtroom term. 00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:16.159 So it's as if they're bringing a legal charge against Moses here. 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:18.799 They want him to go step into the stand. 00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:26.960 And their accusation of Moses is that of a capital crime, that he led them into the wilderness to die. 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:31.279 He's just trying to lead faithfully as God had instructed him. 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:38.799 And yet, here he is, potentially being condemned for a capital crime, which in this day would have meant he would be stoned to death. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:41.919 The people of Israel had grown to a huge number at this point. 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:46.399 Some people say a couple hundred thousand, some people say up to about two million people. 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:47.919 It's a huge group. 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:51.679 And they're accusing this one man of a capital crime. 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:55.759 And the people seem to be overreacting, at least at first read, right? 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:59.840 I guess unless we have the courage to hold up the mirror a little bit. 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:03.600 Because are we not too professional grumblers? 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:09.440 Are we not also professional gossipers who love to destroy people in our minds? 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:17.200 The Marietta bubble we live in is wonderful in many ways, but it can quickly become an echo chamber of gossip and complaining. 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:24.159 And beloved, we are quick, like the Israelites, to grumble and complain against our leaders and pastors too, aren't we? 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:29.200 We're quick to find fault in those the Lord has placed in positions of leadership and authority. 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:32.879 We ought to be quicker to pray for our pastors than criticize them. 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:35.840 And now there is space for accountability. 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:41.120 And in our day of skepticism of leaders, that makes sense. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:47.600 But when the issue is that of preference and not theology, we ought to be slow to critique and quick to pray. 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:56.320 The writer of Hebrews on this writes, Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. 00:10:56.559 --> 00:11:00.480 Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. 00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:05.919 And you notice here, the opposite of this verse is what's going on in Exodus 17, right? 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:11.679 People have run out of patience on Moses, and Moses has run out of patience on the people. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.879 He said to God, What shall I do with this people? 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:32.320 Parents with young children, you know what it's like when you've been parenting all day and your kids are being maybe especially frustrating, and then your spouse, who has been magically not there the whole time, shows back up and you look at them and you say, Tag, that's a bit what's happening here. 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:38.559 Moses is fed up, he's done, he's on the stand, he looks at God and says, Tag, you're it. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:40.159 What are you gonna do about this, God? 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:42.559 And that brings us to Act 3, the trial. 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:43.919 Verse 5. 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:53.679 And the Lord said to Moses, Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 00:11:53.840 --> 00:12:00.559 And behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink. 00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:13.120 And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel, and he called the name of the place Masa and Mariba, because of the quarrelling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, Is the Lord among us or not? 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:15.840 Again, the Lord is so patient. 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:24.000 Again and again and again, the people blame Moses and grumble against him, and the people grumble against God and complain against God. 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:26.000 And the Lord's response here is stunning. 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:27.039 Did you see it? 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:33.200 People have put Moses on trial, but even deeper than that, they're putting God on trial. 00:12:33.759 --> 00:12:38.960 So God says to Moses, pass on before the people and bring some of the elders. 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.960 So in this trial, the elders would stand as witnesses. 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:50.559 So it's as if God is saying, Hey, Moses, go walk on in front of that giant group of people and bring your jury along with you. 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:53.840 And did you see what did God tell Moses to carry? 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:56.240 The staff with which you struck the Nile. 00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:58.080 So this has two meanings for the story. 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:01.919 Number one, a staff was a symbol of judicial authority. 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:10.559 So, in a sense, the staff that Moses is holding is like that of a judge walking along with his gavel, ready to slam justice down. 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:16.240 And so here we see Moses acting as the judge. 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:19.840 And yet the judge is the one being put on trial. 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:25.200 Number two, the staff was the memorial of the Red Sea crossing. 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:28.000 The Lord didn't tell Moses to just bring any random staff. 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:31.600 No, this was the one that he put into the Red Sea to be parted. 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:34.799 The salvation story of the Israelites. 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:42.559 So when the people saw this staff, they thought, oh no, this staff is different. 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:47.759 This staff is the one that the Lord of hosts brought us to salvation. 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:52.639 So the scene is being set here like that of a courtroom drama, right? 00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:57.200 Except it's not Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, it's Israel, Moses, and God. 00:13:57.360 --> 00:14:02.879 And yes, the people are quarreling against Moses, but again, they are really after their Maker. 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:04.639 And that's relatable. 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:08.559 When things go wrong in our lives, horribly wrong. 00:14:08.799 --> 00:14:15.360 When we see the suffering of the world we live in, it is an understandable thing to look at God and ask him the same question as the Israelites. 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:16.960 Are you among us or not? 00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:24.080 And here at the height of the drama of this story in Exodus 17 stands someone being tried for a capital crime. 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:25.919 And we ask, is it Moses? 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:27.120 Is it the people? 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:28.159 Is it you and me? 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:29.600 Is it the elders? 00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:37.120 But God says, Moses, take the staff and strike the rock, and then God says, Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock. 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:44.000 So what God is saying here is that God is going to stand in the place of the guilty being tried. 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:54.320 Moses is being told by God here to take the gavel, take your staff and strike the rock, and God says, I'm gonna be right there, ready to receive the blow. 00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:58.080 The world we're living in wants justice to be met. 00:14:58.559 --> 00:15:08.399 The tension you feel within yourself at your own pain, at the injustice and evil in the world, the tension you feel in yourself makes sense as an image bearer of God. 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:14.639 You're meant in this world to long for justice, but the question, the ultimate question is where can justice ultimately be met? 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:17.360 Where can the justice of the universe be met? 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:26.080 When God was grumbled against here, when he was quarreled against here, did he bring down the gavel upon his people? 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:26.960 No. 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:29.919 He took the gavel upon himself. 00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:33.600 Now, beloved, what other religion tells us that? 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:39.360 What other worldview is so upside down as that of the judge standing in the place of the guilty? 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:42.799 We see this no more clearly than in the person and work of Jesus. 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:58.399 God himself, the second person of the Trinity, who came down, who became a man, who lived in the wilderness, who experienced all the pain, the suffering, the hardships, the temptations that we do, and then being accused in a legal trial. 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:07.200 Being put on trial, being quarreled against, them finding no fault in him, and still condemning him to the cross. 00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:14.720 And then ultimately, like the Lord in Exodus 17, having the divine gavel of judgment upon himself. 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:18.639 Remember the moment on the cross where Jesus cries out, I thirst? 00:16:20.799 --> 00:16:24.960 God provided the water for the people in the wilderness. 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:31.679 He did not satisfy Jesus' thirst there, because Jesus was drinking something that we never could. 00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:37.360 Apostle Paul explains clearly what happened in Exodus 17 here in 1 Corinthians 10. 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:55.360 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 00:16:56.559 --> 00:17:01.919 God has thrown himself under the rod of judgment, so that you might be liberated. 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:07.519 And this is not only a story pointing to our sins being thrown upon Christ. 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:13.599 It is also a story about the spiritual blessings we receive in our union with the rock. 00:17:13.839 --> 00:17:19.279 The Israelites drank deeply from the rock because God took their place. 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:24.799 And God is such a master storyteller here for two primary reasons. 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:30.799 First, is there anywhere more unexpected for water to be than at the top of a high rock? 00:17:31.680 --> 00:17:34.319 In the desert, that would be the last place you look. 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:36.559 That's where the sun shines the brightest. 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:38.319 There'd be no water there. 00:17:39.759 --> 00:17:42.720 And that is exactly where God shows up for them. 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:45.200 In the most unexpected place. 00:17:45.759 --> 00:17:52.079 So I would invite you over this season of Lent, this is part of what Lent is for, is to look for grace in the unexpected places. 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:57.279 And now, second, physical thirst is such a great parallel to spiritual thirst, isn't it? 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:02.000 Tim Keller on this, he says, In the desert, you find the water of God. 00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:07.759 Until you get to a hard place, you're drawing water from all sorts of streams apart from God. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:10.720 These sources are su are shallow and will eventually run out. 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:14.880 It is one thing to intellectually believe in God as our source of life. 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:19.920 It is a completely different thing to functionally live with God as our source of life. 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:24.640 Now, many of you in this room have walked through a lot of deep suffering. 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:30.079 I've sat in many hotel or many hospital rooms with many of you, and it's been heavy. 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:33.359 And the world is going to tell you to put God on trial for those things. 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:37.359 That you should be mad at him, you should be mad at other people. 00:18:37.759 --> 00:18:41.920 This is why suffering can cause us to grow cold and cynical over time, right? 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:55.039 But in the Christian worldview, if our sufferings lead us to the river of living water, as we see God dead on a cross and risen from the grave, we can actually live with hope and suffering. 00:18:55.279 --> 00:19:00.160 We can let our trials and our sufferings form us into the people God is growing us to be. 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:13.039 It's in our sufferings in the wilderness that God, in his patience, and his providence, and his grace to you and me, is reforming our spiritual taste buds for that of rivers. 00:19:13.359 --> 00:19:16.319 Jesus in John 7 says this very thing. 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:22.799 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:28.799 Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:32.640 And Jesus uses the word if there, and it's almost a rhetorical device. 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:35.920 He says, If anyone thirsts, because of course we thirst. 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:39.680 It's a matter of what we are thirsting for. 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:46.640 So just a question for us to reflect on is what streams are we settling for when rivers are available to us? 00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:48.799 Is it our bank account? 00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:50.400 Our performance? 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:51.519 Our success? 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:53.759 Our kids' performance or success? 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:55.759 Is it numbing out with alcohol? 00:19:55.839 --> 00:19:56.559 Is it porn? 00:19:56.640 --> 00:19:57.119 Is it work? 00:19:57.279 --> 00:19:59.359 Is it acceptance from a certain group? 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:02.160 What is the stream when the river is there? 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:05.359 Now there is a real warning that this passage gives us. 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:13.039 And the warning is what we will naturally do through suffering if we're not careful, which is letting our hearts grow cold and hard. 00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:18.400 And we know this because of how later writers of the Bible apply the story of Exodus 17. 00:20:18.559 --> 00:20:23.839 Psalm 95 says this: Oh, come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:27.359 For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand. 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:27.920 Listen to this. 00:20:28.079 --> 00:20:38.480 Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as at Mereba, as on the day at Massa in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:54.799 What's crazy is then the writer of Hebrews, hundreds of years later, he quotes that exact same psalm, and then he says this Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 00:20:55.039 --> 00:21:01.599 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:08.480 For we we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:11.039 That's a real warning. 00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:15.519 A hardened heart, leading us to fall away, the writer says. 00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:19.039 And yet the writer gives us a really good pastoral application. 00:21:19.279 --> 00:21:22.480 He says, encourage one another every day. 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:24.559 Encourage one another every day. 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:26.880 That's the solution to the hardened heart. 00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:28.480 To be encouraged in Christ. 00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:30.400 And is that not what we all really need? 00:21:31.440 --> 00:21:34.480 One of my favorite hymns ever, we just sang it, is Come Thou Fount. 00:21:34.799 --> 00:21:37.200 And the writer of that hymn, Robert Robinson, great name. 00:21:37.359 --> 00:21:38.240 Sounds like a pitcher. 00:21:38.480 --> 00:21:43.200 He's so brutally honest about how easy it is to grow cynical and fall away, right? 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:49.200 He says, Let that grace now like a fetter, which is like a prison chain, bind my wandering heart to thee. 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:52.319 He confesses, prone to wander, Lord. 00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:53.279 I feel it. 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:55.519 Prone to leave the God I love. 00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:56.960 So here's my heart. 00:21:57.279 --> 00:22:00.240 Take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:05.039 And I've that song stings to me because I find it so relatable. 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:07.279 I am so prone to wander. 00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:10.960 I'm so prone to look for streams that I can never satisfy. 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:13.519 Prone to grumbling and gossip. 00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:17.200 Prone to letting my heart grow cold and cynical. 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:18.720 So what's the solution? 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:26.480 Well Robinson tells us in the stanza before this here I raise my Ebenezer, which means rock of help. 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:37.200 When you're suffering, when you're lonely, when you stumbled in that sin, you promised God you would never stumble, and again, your solution is to raise your rock of help. 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:42.319 Exodus leads us to the reality that we are banking everything on our Ebenezer. 00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:56.000 Christ, the one who took our sin and guilt upon himself, the one who had the cosmic rod of judgment slammed upon him, the one through whom we receive rivers of living water. 00:22:57.680 --> 00:22:59.440 Christ is everything. 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:03.359 So a few questions to reflect on and consider this week. 00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:08.319 Number one, where am I looking for satisfaction and belonging apart from God? 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:10.400 What are the streams, right? 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:16.000 Number two, how has my suffering led me to doubt, cynicism, and unbelief? 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:20.960 Number three, where is God inviting me to drink more deeply of his love and grace? 00:23:21.119 --> 00:23:25.440 And then finally, who is someone I can specifically encourage and pray for? 00:23:26.319 --> 00:23:32.400 Now, if you have any questions about the sermon, about the text, about Christ, or need prayer, I'll be down front after the service. 00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:33.839 I'd love to talk and pray with you. 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:35.119 Let's pray. 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:48.319 Our Father, we have set before us a passage of scripture that leads us ridiculously clearly to the person and work of Jesus Christ. 00:23:49.279 --> 00:24:05.039 Lord, every other world religion, every other worldview is telling us to ascend the mountain, to be right, to be whole, to be at peace, to prove to God that we're enough. 00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:09.759 And yet, Lord, what we see in this text is that you are a God who descended the mountain. 00:24:10.480 --> 00:24:19.839 You are a God who came down, who stood in our place, who took our penalty upon yourself, and then gave us rivers of living water to drink from. 00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:26.640 So, Lord, I pray this morning that in all of our unbelief, all of our doubt, all of our cynicism, we would meet you, our great rock. 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:31.279 And we would have a new, fresh taste of the rivers of living water. 00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:34.400 Father, thank you for showing us Jesus in this text. 00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:40.240 And thank you that unlike Moses, Jesus, our mediator, never grows tired of us. 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:42.880 Help us believe this all the more deeply. 00:24:43.279 --> 00:24:44.400 I pray this in Jesus' name. 00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:45.119 Amen.