So three years ago when we started our church and we were gathering, and um the rest of Ses Robinsons and my wife and I, we were meeting a lot together and talking about what what a church could possibly look like.
And if we were aligned, do we think the same ways?
Would we dream of the same type of church?
I started attending this place called the North Georgia Church Planners Network.
It was this church planner's network that a place you can go and they'll help you start a church.
These places exist, these networks.
And so this network had come out of a big church uh called Perimeter Church, and and they they just helped churches.
And there I met this guy named Jim Moon.
And so Jim Moon was a part of this network, and he had started a church in Smyrna called Cross Point.
And so Jim had um he he he'll coach you.
And so when I got there, and then we were starting to form and talk about it.
Um I can remember in one evening uh the rest of the Robinsons and us, we met at our house in Atlanta, and Jim came.
I think it was his first meeting with us as we were talking about what could possibly a church look like in Marietta.
What could this possibly be?
And we didn't know what we're doing.
See, this is what you have to understand.
It's like we don't know what we're doing.
We need somebody, and that's somebody for us and for our church.
It was Jim.
Um there's probably no other person outside of our church who has had more influence on our church than Jim.
And that's because, especially that first year, we met every other week for two hours, and I'm asking the most logistical basic questions, I'm asking philosophical questions, and then slowly over time, you know, we've got stuff kind of, we've got some structures, we have stuff worked out, and and and then it just turns into counseling.
I'll be honest.
Now we meet once a month, and uh Jim just says, How are you doing?
And then just like out it comes.
Like it's it's a counseling session, which I need.
Um and so then when so two years ago, about two years ago, Jim came and he said, Hey, um, you know, uh I think I want to do what I'm doing here, um, like help pastors start churches and train them and help them.
I think I want to do that in Cuba.
And okay, all right, a little bit different than Marietta, but okay.
Yeah, that's great.
He said, would y'all, would your little church help support me in doing that?
Yes, we will do that.
Like, you know, we totally will do that.
And so the last last year and then this year, um, we've been able to support Jim.
And so Jim's coming to talk to you guys.
I know what Jim's doing.
Y'all don't know what Jim's doing, and yet we as a church are supporting Jim.
And so I want you to know him, and I want you to hear what we as a church are a part of in Cuba, even though we don't think about this on most days, um, what we as a community are a part of in Cuba.
So he's gonna come and talk to us for about just 10 minutes or so before the sermon about Cuba.
Thanks, Jim.
That's uh that's really uh amazing when you say it all in two minutes like that.
It's really an honor for me to be a part of helping you guys exist and thank you for supporting us, even though a lot of you don't even know who I am.
It's just a real honor to be here with you.
Uh I work for now, as of two years ago, I left the church that we started in Smyrna, and uh I worked for church multiplication ministers.
And initially I thought I was gonna be helping the church planters just in the U.S.
and English speaking world.
This whole thing about Cuba caught me by surprise because while we do have a bilingual church, I'm not fluent in Spanish.
Um y'all are supporting the church that we planted 13 years ago, and Pastor Hector's doing a great job there meeting down South Cobb Drive at the International Academy of Summer again today, and he sends his greetings and his thanks, and um we're getting ready to help start another church that speaks Portuguese and English here in the next couple of years, right here in Marietta, Lord willing.
So you guys have been a part of a lot of things that you just didn't know about, and so this is like your missionary report.
I don't even know how many missionaries do y'all support.
Are we are we in?
Oh, that's gonna be a whole lot.
We're honored to be supported by you guys, and I want to I want to help you connect with us because we really do need a lot of prayer.
Um I'm really dependent upon Jesus so much more than the more that I do in ministry, the more I realize I don't know enough, and I really need Jesus to come alongside me.
And I some of the stuff that they're asking us to do in Cuba, I'm not even sure how to do in English.
And so the Lord is sending Elizabeth and I um to language school for eight months starting in January, and we're at a pre season in our life where I can do that.
All three of our kids are out of the house now.
Um so we're we're nervous and excited and terrified and wonder and all at the same time.
So if you would, if you have a phone that has a texting on it, I want to give you an electronic connection to us.
And if you would, I guess you can use your phone in church, but not just for your Bible.
But if you would open up a message and type in the number 7177, uh this will connect to you electronically.
I have a few uh magnets of our family that you can.
If some of you want to put these on your fridge, you can pray for us.
I've got business cards too.
I'll be hanging around in the hallway to talk until uh the last person has any questions.
Um if you will text 71777 and then type in the number four in the word Cuba, it will connect you to a page that will give you our website and type in support us.
I'm gonna ask you two things.
I'm gonna ask you boldly two things.
Would you pray for us?
I really feel like we need more prayer.
Um I know we need more prayer.
And secondly, I'm gonna ask you to ask Jesus if he wants you to support us Cuba.
It takes all the pressure off of me and all the pressure off of you, but we just ask Jesus what he wants us to do, and then we obey him.
So it's no pressure, I'm not gonna follow up, or uh, we're trying to get some money raised by giving Tuesday, which is a week from weekend Tuesday.
Anyway, all that to say that's kind of the information.
But I want to tell you a little bit of the story of how so that you understand what's going on in Cuba and the part that y'all are playing in it.
Uh course you know, back in the 60s there was a revolution in Cuba and the church was persecuted for about five years.
And then for 25 years or so, it was discriminated against very harshly, like Christian kids couldn't go to college, that sort of thing.
Um, and then they lost their trading partner with the USSR, and the government changed it in and said, Well, you you guys can have some more freedom, we're not gonna discriminate against you as much, but you can't have any more church buildings.
The ones that you have, that's all you get.
And somebody very wisely asked, so can we meet in our homes?
And the government said, Well, sure, you can do whatever you want to in your home.
So over the course of since the 90s, God has been infiltrating in a very legal, uh official way, it's all approved, uh, getting the biblical doctrines of grace into the human church.
In the 1990s, there was no there was no denomination that was teaching the biblical doctrines of grace.
The very gospel that you guys preach right here, nobody was preaching it.
And um, now let me back up and tell you some of the story that ramps up to that.
In the 20s, uh after the after the independence from Spain, uh, a Cuban evangelist and American missionary uh by the last name of Thompson started a Bible school to train pastors uh in the center of the island.
And uh over the course of time, um uh that that missionary had three sons.
One of those sons is Alan Thompson, and Russ has had the opportunity to meet Alan.
Um Alan was the director of the seminary in his 20s when the revolution happened, and his story follows along.
He he was kicked out, um, and he started a world team, a mission organization in the 70s and 80s, and he burned out because his faith was in himself and in his own in his own power.
And somebody uh shared with him the biblical doctrines of the race and it changed his life.
And he started working with other churches.
He developed a church planter assessment that many denominations used, and he got a PhD in adult learning, and he became a part of a denomination and became a multicultural coordinator for that denomination.
He then started working with a small organization you may have heard of in New York City called City to City.
And he co-authored a book with Tim Keller, The Church Planting Manual.
And then he retired about 75 to 76 and moved out to Washington, and then he got an email from Cuba in 2010.
One of the people that had heard the gospel of grace in the 90s had become the president of this very now very legalistic denomination.
And he said, Alan, we need to renew this whole denomination.
Will you come help me?
He's 78 years old.
And he said, Yeah.
So he started traveling to Cuba, he started developing church-based training.
Uh started proclaiming the gospel, getting the things that were translated from city to city into the hands of the Cuban people, and he started multiplying.
They started with 40 leaders, and over the course of 10 generations of people promising to multiply the gospel into their friends, they have gone from a 40 leader strain to now over 40,000 leaders trained.
They don't have any more church buildings, but they have about 40,000 house church leaders.
The government there said in the 70s and 80s that there were about less than 1% of Christians and people in claim to work.
And now the government reports that there are over a million people who proclaim to be Christian.
God is doing a super amazing work, but it's all with brand new Christians, people that haven't even believed in Jesus.
They were atheists or doubters five years ago.
Now they're leading house churches.
It's just rapidly multiplying.
And so my role as a coach, what Alan has asked us to do is to come into Cuba and train Cuban house church leaders uh in the gospel so that they can begin to mentor one another and spread coaching and mentoring throughout the island.
Because it's it's not normal.
They've grown up uh suspicious, they've been spied on, they've been persecuted, they've been trusted.
Um it's very different, it's economically still very challenging.
But they've asked us to make a three to five year commitment to come in and train their people so they can train uh gospel-focused coaches for the whole thing.
So going back to what I said before, I really need your prayers.
And if God would so lead you to prompt you to support the initiative, believe it or not, in about a year, it's going to take about$30,000 to train the key leaders, to buy them the data, the minutes that they need on their phones, to buy some of them phones, to buy a couple of them bicycles, to get the training materials in there, to get the people in, and to move them around in the in the in the country.
Um would you guys please ask Jesus if he wants you to support us, if he wants you to commit to pray?
It would be a huge blessing for many, many people in Cuba.
It'd be a huge blessing just to know your name and that you're connected with us.
Uh and um and I'll come back here and give you another missionary report in a little while uh when we get back from language school in August.
So thanks for paying attention.
Great.
Let me pray for you.
Is that your phone ringing?
Yeah, it's a timer.
You said 10 minutes.
Oh, okay.
So it just went off.
Let me uh let me let me pray for you.
God, we uh we come before you as a community and we pray for Jim as he is a part of our community also, even though his face is not here on a week-to-week basis.
His heart is so much a part of our church, and we thank you for what you have called him to and what you have uh the desire and passion you put in his heart for these these pastors and these people in Cuba, and we pray that um can you give them wisdom and discernment as they go and they uh help the church grow and help give hope to people.
God, we pray for the right resources and the right timing.
We thank you for them in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you.
That's all okay.
So uh you don't have to worry too much.
I did shave my sermon down knowing that Jim was gonna be here, so you don't have to get all stressed out, that that's like an add-on.
So usually I'm four pages, I'm three pages, so uh it's gonna work out for everybody.
All right, so back to Exodus.
Uh it's been last week I didn't preach.
Uh Barry preached, that was fantastic, and that was so great to get to sit there and uh just receive.
So we're back to Exodus this week.
Now, this Exodus story is an unfolding story.
It helps us to see what we are like, it helps us to see what God is like, and what we've been seeing is we've been seeing, um, as we've been seeing what happens in Egypt, uh, we're seeing what happens in us.
I mean, this story is our story.
Do you remember the situation, right?
The Hebrews were in slavery, and this would have produced, uh, this would have produced questions.
You're enslaved, you're enslaved by the Pharaoh, the ruler, and not only is he kind of the ruler, it's not like he's just the president, he's also sort of like, he's not a deity, but he's like backed by God.
And so you have this guy who's backed by God, and you are enslaved by him.
And so the question arises well, whose side is God on?
Like, is God only on the side of the strong and the put together, or could God actually be on my side?
Could God actually be on my side as the enslaved and the worn out and the exhausted?
And then we get this beautiful scene: Moses is out in the desert, the burning bush, right?
We hear he hears the voice of God in the bush, and God says, I've heard their cry.
I've heard their cry.
I'm I'm you go, and through you, we are going to rescue them out of that situation.
And what this is, is it's this great no to the disillusionment that God is on the side of the strong and the put together.
Because what it says to them at the time, what it says to us now, is it says, no, no, no.
Like God is on the side of the exhausted and the worn out, because that's who he goes to, and he rescues them and he pulls them out, and we get this great story.
They don't go through uh that easy path through the wilderness.
He takes them down through the way of the wilderness, the long route, and their backs are against the Red Sea.
You remember the story?
We've been through it, and the backs against the Red Sea, and again the people are freaking out.
Just take us back.
I can't believe he led us here.
The army's coming up, they're gonna slaughter us, it's all over.
And then the sea splits, and they walk through, and they get to the other side, and then the sea closes in, and all their oppressors, all their fears are drowned, and they get on the other side, and then we get the sermon from two weeks ago.
Two weeks ago we talked about they get on the other side, so they've had the rescue, and then they have this great celebration.
Huge celebration.
And then we pick up this story and this journey in Exodus 15, verses 22 through 27 this morning.
The people leave from there and they head into the wilderness of Shur in three days.
They're journeying there for three days, and they found no water.
So things are starting to get tough.
And they end up in this place called Mara, and they couldn't drink the water because it's bitter.
And I love this passage, and here's why I love it: because it's all reality.
It's all reality.
The rescue, the celebration, and the difficulty.
It's all life.
Right?
Like we love the first two, right?
That we just like just take me back to like the whole like rescue, and then we're singing, and everything's great.
But that's not that's not the that's not the whole of life.
Like, the whole of life is three days later, you're dying of thirst, and you're like, man, just three to three days ago, everything was great.
And we just feel like a lot of times when we're in that place of disappointment, because that's what these people were.
They were they were just disappointed.
Because they get through the Red Sea and they're singing, and everything's great, and then they get and they're going, well, we're just gonna walk through the wilderness, and surely everything's gonna be provided so easily, and there's gonna be no difficulty.
And they get into it and they can't find any water, and they get into this, and it's this feeling like this is not what I signed up for.
Have you ever gone online to book a hotel?
And um let's let's talk about like like before there was all like the websites that like rank hotels.
What's that website that ranks hotels?
Hotels.com, good try.
There's there's one, is it like Zaggett's Zaggett's restaurants.
TripAdvisor, thank you.
We got there.
Good job.
First time here, and you nailed the question.
Great.
I right like pre-trip advisor.
Like, like there's no like you just had to trust like the pictures, right?
Like you were just going on the pictures.
Maybe you went to AAA and you got the little book, right?
And maybe they had a little rating for you.
But you're trusting the pictures, and you look at the picture of the lobby looks great.
Fantastic.
Right?
The elevator, what lovely elevator.
You get one picture of one room.
It's probably the one room in the whole hotel that was actually decent.
And you get there and you walk up and you're going, eh, it's okay.
It's not quite like that picture, but you know, it's okay, lobby's okay.
And then the elevator doors open, you're like, ah, the inside of this elevator does not look like the outside does.
And then you get up to your hallway floor.
I don't know if this has ever happened to you, and the door's open, you're like, this is not the same as the lobby.
And then you open the door to the room, and you're like, this is not, this room is not what I signed up for, like back like three days ago when I booked this thing.
See, this happened to me one time.
Literally, the TV is bolted to the dresser.
Has anybody been in that hotel?
The remote was bolted to the nightstand.
I'd never been in that hotel before.
I mean, I'd gone from like wanting a good night's sleep to just just don't get murdered was my goal by the end of this, is just don't get murdered.
And there's and there's this feeling, it's not what I signed up for.
And I'm like, man, if I could go back just three days ago, I would have never made this decision to come to this place.
And that that's this feeling these people are having.
It's not what I signed up for.
I thought it would be one way, and it is it is just completely a different way.
And so we get verse 24.
And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log.
And he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
Now, commentators on this verse, they they they call this anticipatory providence.
Right?
I mean, you'd say even say let's say that together.
Anticipatory providence.
Can't you just feel your IQ going up, just saying it out loud.
I am a smart person.
I read that, I just kept saying it all week, just to be able to pronounce it correctly.
All right, so anticipatory providence.
We're gonna see it this week, and then next week we get the story of manna.
We're gonna see the same thing next week.
It's the idea that God goes before these people, he goes before us, and he anticipates the care and need that we will need.
So uh maybe two months ago, a month ago, we took our little girls hiking.
So two-year-old at the time, four-year-old, and seven-year-old.
And we we said, let's go for it.
So we went for this hike called Raven Cliffs.
I don't know if you've been there, four and a half mile hike, okay?
And we're going, I think, I think we can do it.
You know what?
If we don't make it always fine, like we can always turn back.
But you know how that is, you get out there and you're like, we're gonna make it, like we're not turning back.
Like, and so we get there and it's a beautiful fall day, and we're hiking, and everybody's outside.
Now, my wife, she's very smart, and so she had packed some snacks, some refreshments, some lollipops.
Like, she is ready.
And so we hit the trail and we're hiking, and everybody's hiking, even the two-year-old, she's hiking, also, like her little legs, she's just running along.
And so we're all hiking, and you know, the first mile's going great, and they want to stop and they want to look at things, and so we kind of entertain that a little bit.
But I'm also I also know, like, hey, we got a ways to go.
Like, we come on, come on, let's go.
We did see a snake, kind of a big deal.
That was a big deal.
There's a big item along the way, and so along the way, you know, it's just like I'm bored, I'm tired, my legs hurt, and you're like, guy, come on, come on, babies.
I got you, babies.
Come on, keep coming, keep coming.
And and and the feeling that they have is like, like, y'all said this was gonna be fun.
Like, like this is supposed to be like the fun Saturday, like in the mountains.
Like, this is not fun.
Like, I'm on I am just walking, apparently, is what this is.
It's just like like just walking.
And like we think it's a blast, and they're just like, I'm not sure.
We're just we're just walking in the woods.
But it's just like keep coming, keep coming, keep coming, hanging there, hanging there, hanging there.
So Finally, we make it to the end, and you know, Mama has packed good lunch and snacks, and we take our shoes off and put our stinky feet in the cold creek, and we're all replenished and we're renewed, and then we hit the trail again to go head back.
And it's just over and over again, even more on the way back, because they're tired, just complaining.
And it's for them, it's the feeling like this is not what I signed up for.
Like they said it was gonna be fun, and it's not, my feet hurt, and I'm bored, and I want this to be over.
I'm just not liking this.
And for us as the parents, we're like, hang in there, this is great.
Like we're training you, we're training you.
You don't realize it right now, but we're training you, and we'd push them a little bit further than they could make it, and then we'd stop and we'd give them some water, or give them a lollipop, and we just did that all the way back to the car.
Now, here's the point: my great wife, right, and her sovereign mothering knowledge, uh, she considered and she cared for those girls before they hit the discomfort which she knew they would hit.
She considered and cared for them that morning, knowing they were gonna hit difficulty and discomfort later that afternoon.
And even when we got there, as good parents, we're not dishing out the lollipops every five feet.
We're still pushing them along as far as they could make it.
And here's what we learn out of this: anticipatory providence.
God goes before these people.
The remedy has been in preparation long before the need arose.
The remedy has always been waiting.
This is what loving parents do.
God throws the log and the water through Moses, and the water is made sweet, and there's great dependence here.
But we see this great anticipatory providence.
And in this moment, there's teaching, there's stretching, there's dependence, and there's all this care.
See, God knows what he's doing.
He knows these people.
He knows people.
He knows you, he knows me.
He knows that we need to be cared for.
He knows that in difficulty and in bitterness we need to be cared for.
And he knows something we don't know, and he knows about timing.
And he knows that people must be broken to cry out for redemption.
And he knows we're only fulfilled when we're at a place of crying out for redemption.
And he knows that.
That's why we get point number one.
I have three points.
Point number one: faith is always tested.
So we have this covenant relationship with God.
We've talked a lot about this.
And see, this is this gracious relationship of God toward us, not just us toward him.
So it's not just like us working into greater and greater favor with God, but it's actually God coming toward us.
We see it in the garden where Adam rebels, Adam and Eve rebel, and God comes, hey, where are you at?
Where are you?
It's God pursuing them.
With Abraham later in Genesis, we've talked about how he makes the covenant with Abraham.
And it is God pursuing humanity.
And how we've said it in the past is like God is saying, I will be what I should be to you, whether you are what you should be or not.
Now, what's interesting is that inside of this covenant relationship, the love of God is not averse to testing.
Because he loves us, he will teach us, but in order to teach us, he tests us.
Because only the broken cry out for redemption.
And this is why faith will always be tested.
Always.
Not because he doesn't love, but because he does.
Verse 25, the second half of 25 through 27.
There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord your healer.
Then they came to Elam, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.
So point number two is that healing comes by hearing.
So God rescues these doubting people.
He gives water to these complaining people, right?
You know what I'm talking about?
He grants you peace when you only offer him doubt.
Have you ever been there?
Or he gives you unchanging acceptance, even though all your offering is apathy.
We've been there, right?
So this covenant is deep and it's a secure place.
And then when we read this verse, right?
Like some of this verse, you're kind of going, ah, no, this feels kind of legalistic, right?
Like it does.
Do this and then I will give you healing.
That's what the verse says.
Do this and then I will give you healing.
And that word listen, listen to my statutes, it means to keep, keep to my voice, keep to my ways, then I will heal you.
I wrestled with this verse so much this week because I am not legalistic and I want no part of it.
And so I'm just wrestling with this.
Like, how does this fit in?
I don't know.
Oh man, I'm just wrestling, I'm reading, I'm reading, I'm reading.
And so finally I call uh Bill Fodlove, our like resident, literally PhD Hebrew, Old Testament, which he goes to our church, and so good to always have one of those guys in the church.
And so I call him about Wednesday.
I'm like, let's just have a 30-minute chat about Exodus 15.
And so we talk and we talk it through, and then I started to get some understanding here.
And and here's what it is.
Um loyalty is demonstrated, life works better.
Okay, so that's clear.
Like for you to be obedient to God's ways, life will work better.
That's just how life is.
Because his ways are good and they're holy and they're pure, and if you're obedient to those ways, your life will work better.
And there's one big problem, though.
It's you.
So this is true.
It is true that if you do this, life will work better.
That is true.
The big problem is we're not perfect.
We are far from perfect.
We don't diligently keep.
We don't even keep on some days.
We don't even keep all day.
See, this guides us, but then it breaks us.
You should be loyal, you should set your heart toward it, but you should also know that when you fail, and as you're failing, because you do, and even now you're failing in some degree, you're just not aware of it, even then, the grace of God, the sufficiency of the blood of Jesus is enough for your righteousness and your standing before Him as a secured, accepted, beloved child of God.
See, all the demand, all the law, all the commandments in the Bible, whether they're relevant today or not, they are good, they're pure, and they're holy, and they end up breaking us.
And if you give your life to that, you will be exhausted, worn out, and broken.
What they do for us is they reveal our deep need for an outside savior.
For grace.
This is when grace means something.
And that's point number three, there at the end where he says, I am the Lord, I am the healer.
Point number three, he is the healer.
You're not the healer.
You and your great listening and your keeping, it doesn't heal you.
Not ultimately, not to the right position before God.
It does not heal.
He heals you.
See, God knows you need this word of instruction to guide your wandering heart, and he knows you need the relief of recognizing that you aren't perfect to keep it.
He knows you need both.
And God knew this.
This is anticipatory providence.
That the law is anticipatory providence, and the law to guide us is anticipatory providence, and the law to break us is anticipatory providence, and when we're broken and we're exhausted and we're wondering like what side is God on, the gospel, the incarnate God who dies on a cross, takes our sin upon himself and gives us his righteousness, the great display of the love of God and the grace of God, that anticipatory providence is where we find our salvation.
This is what makes him the healer of our souls.
This is the only place you will find healing from your heart, which continues even now, and my heart which continues even now to use secular and religious means to self-justify itself in this world and before God.
So, my brothers and sisters, may you diligently listen to the voice of the Lord.
And in your failure, may you find immediate relief in the grace of God, in the anticipatory providence that He gives to you.
May you know Jesus as healer in a deeper and more profound way than ever before.
May his stripes heal you.
Amen.
Let's pray together.
God, we confess that we are hard-hearted, doubting, selfish people that want to know everything.
We want everything.
We want to justify ourselves with our own work.
We want to doubt that your work's enough.
For position with you, for forgiveness, to climb out of this hold of shame, to make something of ourselves.
We confess all of this.
We confess that we are your people that get tomorrow after a great victory and great celebration, and we get tomorrow and we taste bitter water, and we are so disappointed with you.
Because we thought it would be a different way.
And forgive us for this pride.
Thank you that you have provided a way for redemption.
May your law guide us and may it break us.
And may we see the grace of God bigger and bigger and bigger in our lives.
And may the fruit of the Spirit inside of us be for great glory.
For your faith.
We pray in the name of Jesus.
Amen.