SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I ask you to take it open up to Exodus chapter 17.
SPEAKER_01: We are uh going through the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we took a break for Advent, and now we're gonna get back in Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and I want to uh I I think what I have this morning is more of a word than a sermon, and I'll try to get it out in the in the form of a sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Usually at the Sunday after Christmas, you'd like to give away a car or a puppy or something to make people interested.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't have any cars or any puppies, uh, but but I think I've heard from the Lord uh from from Exodus 17.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to talk to you this morning about this topic.
SPEAKER_01: Old words for the new year.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and old, not in the that they're old now dated, but old in that I don't think we say these things in the church enough.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so uh I've been carrying this with me for this past week, and so I want to give birth to it here in your midst today and let you do with it whatever you want.
SPEAKER_01: One lady said in the last service, she said, after the first point, I could have just got up and walked out.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, You should have.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so after the first point or the second point, if you're like, that's all I needed to hear, just quietly make for the exit, and we'll see you next week.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are like, you don't mean that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh this is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, the book of Exodus is that God set his affection on these people, Israel, and he said, You're gonna be my people, I'm gonna be your God.
SPEAKER_01: That has a privilege to it, me being your God, but also has a responsibility in it with you being my people, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_01: And they're on a journey, they've been g they've been delivered out of slavery under Pharaoh to worship God, and they're on a journey to the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in Exodus 17, verse 1, all the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Shin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and encamped at refitim.
SPEAKER_01: But there was no water for the people to drink.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, Give us water to drink.
SPEAKER_01: Moses said to them, Why do you quarrel with me?
SPEAKER_01: Uh why do you test the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: But the people thirsted therefore, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?
SPEAKER_01: And so Moses cried to the Lord, What shall I do with this people?
SPEAKER_01: They're almost ready to stone me.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I will stand before you there on the rocket Oreb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel, and he called the name of the place Massah and Marabah because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, Is the Lord among us or not?
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, this is free.
SPEAKER_01: Anytime people in the Bible name a place, it's with a reason.
SPEAKER_01: Either it's a really good reason or it's a really bad reason.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll understand that more as we get into it this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but when I say old words for the new year, there's four phrases that I think the Holy Spirit's giving me I want to give to you from Exodus 17, 1 to 6.
SPEAKER_01: And the first one is this right here.
SPEAKER_01: God leads us with sanctification in mind, not satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: God leads us with sanctification in mind.
SPEAKER_01: Sanctification is the process by which we become more and more like Jesus and less and less like our natural self.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: And so God leads us with sanctification in mind, not satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Where do you get that?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Shin by stages according to the commandment of the Lord and camped at Rephidim.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, God told them to move out, and he told them to camp here.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: God knew there was not going to be water there for them to drink.
SPEAKER_01: God knew it.
SPEAKER_01: And so, as you take this old word with you into the new year, because sometimes God's gonna put us in circumstances, which, by the way, there's nothing about our life that catches God off guard.
SPEAKER_01: There's two words you never find in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, really?
SPEAKER_01: And so God leads you with sanctification in mind, not satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me hear, let me say this.
SPEAKER_01: That means that that doesn't mean you're never gonna be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: That means that one of those is bigger than the other.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're one of the boys and girls that are in the room this morning, let me tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: That means that sometimes your mom and dad are gonna tell you to do things and you're not gonna want to do it.
SPEAKER_01: But you need to do it anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's gonna make you more like Jesus if you learn to obey some authority figures in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Parents, you need to require obedience of your kids, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because when I see some kids out in the out in the world, out in public, I just think they ain't got no authority at home.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not a statement about your kid, mom and dad, it's a statement about you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for coming today.
SPEAKER_01: You're dismissed.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just go to the mall and just look around.
SPEAKER_01: And I have this question that goes through my mind: who's whipped that kid lately?
SPEAKER_01: And it ain't my job.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just kind of like, dang, people do not know how to be in public.
SPEAKER_01: See, God leads us with sanctification in mind, something bigger and better than our personal satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's hard for you to get your head around unless you believe, you know what, there's something better than me just getting my way all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Because, boys and girls, when you get older, you don't get your way all the time.
SPEAKER_01: So you need to start when you're really little, not get in your way all the time.
SPEAKER_01: It's great.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great thing to not get your way all the time.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't get his way all the time.
SPEAKER_01: In the garden, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
SPEAKER_01: But nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.
SPEAKER_01: That means you can say to your mom and dad, you know what, I don't want to do that right now, but because you're my mom, I'm gonna obey you and do what you ask me to do.
SPEAKER_01: Or you can say, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
SPEAKER_01: And then your mom's gonna whip you and you're gonna do it anyway.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, God leads us with sanctification in mind, bigger picture, bigger agenda than me being satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: And here's how you know you're growing up spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: Being sanctified is better, is more satisfying than being satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: It just is.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing I want to say to you this morning, an old word to take into the new year is simply this: God is not the problem.
SPEAKER_01: And I would just love for all of us as a church just to start off the new year, just kind of fixed and foremost in our mind this statement that God is not the problem.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever the issue is, it's not God that it's not doing what God should be doing.
SPEAKER_01: Can we just take that with us into the new year?
SPEAKER_01: Because if we're not careful, well, let me say it like this: I don't believe God owes us an explanation, another demonstration, or a reassuring miracle.
SPEAKER_01: God has done enough for all of us in this room to have complete confidence in and faith in Him until the day we die.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't owe us anything more.
SPEAKER_01: He's done plenty.
SPEAKER_01: Uh matter of fact, I think C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis, a great Christian writer and thinker, had it best.
SPEAKER_01: He wrote a book called God in the Dock.
SPEAKER_01: Now he talks about God in the dock, not like a boat dock, like God's on trial.
SPEAKER_01: And in the book he says this he talks about the difference in how men from a long time ago, people a long time ago thought about God and how the modern man thinks about God.
SPEAKER_01: He says the ancient man approached God as the accused person approaches his judge.
SPEAKER_01: For the modern man, the roles are reversed.
SPEAKER_01: He is the judge.
SPEAKER_01: God is in the dock.
SPEAKER_01: He is quiet, he is quite a kindly judge.
SPEAKER_01: If God should have reasonable defense for being the God who permits war, poverty, and disease, then the modern man is ready to listen to it.
SPEAKER_01: The trial may even end in God's acquittal, but the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.
SPEAKER_01: And beloved, let me just tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: That's our culture we live in.
SPEAKER_01: Man is on the bench as the judge and God is in the dock.
SPEAKER_01: But that ain't true.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care how many people think that and feel that, the Bible teaches that God is on the bench and man is in the dock.
SPEAKER_01: And God doesn't have to prove Himself to us.
SPEAKER_01: If you could just go into the new year and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: God's not the problem.
SPEAKER_01: If the wheels come off your business or your home or your marriage, or one of your kids gets off the reservation and says, I'm mad at God, and I can't you make me go to church.
SPEAKER_01: Just smile and go, hey, sweetie, God ain't the problem.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just start with that.
SPEAKER_01: God is not the problem.
SPEAKER_01: God didn't have to prove Himself.
SPEAKER_01: A long time ago, we used to sing a hymn called Tiss so sweet to trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We don't sing it much anymore.
SPEAKER_01: It's not hip.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have iambic pinct hammer.
SPEAKER_01: You can't dance to it or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Uh especially if you go to a church that looks like Banana Republic and less like a church, you don't sing stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: Churches are embarrassed of sounding, this is free.
SPEAKER_01: Churches in America are embarrassed of sounding like the church and looking like a church.
SPEAKER_01: So you walk in, it's like Banana Republic, or it's like a coffee shop, and you're like, hey, where'd the church go?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we're a church.
SPEAKER_01: We're into that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Just, I mean, let's stop trying to disguise ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing: if you get you can get so good at disguising yourself, the world doesn't recognize you anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And so we used to sing this hymn that says, 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know, thus saith the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And the chorus says, Jesus, Jesus, how I've trusted him, how I've proved him o'er and o'er.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, for grace, to trust him more.
SPEAKER_01: See, the the the the hymn writer had it right.
SPEAKER_01: It is our privilege to prove to the world around us the sufficiency and the veracity of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is our privilege to say to everybody, Yes, I'm going to get in situations where the bigger agenda is my sanctification, my becoming more and more like Jesus than my satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: So watch me, and I'm going to demonstrate to you how sufficient God really is.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't, you don't get there unless you begin with the fact that God is not the problem.
SPEAKER_01: He says in verse 2, Exodus 17, the people quarreled with Moses and said, Give us water to drink.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses said to them, Why do you quarrel with me?
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, Why do you test the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: This is the great sin that they committed.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll get to that in a minute, is they tested the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: They demanded that God prove himself to them as if he hadn't done enough already.
SPEAKER_01: So what does it mean to test the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: How do we trust the Lord, to test the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you four or five ways we test the Lord these days.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is simply this when we refuse to wait for him.
SPEAKER_01: When we refuse to wait for him.
SPEAKER_01: This was not the first time they'd been without water.
SPEAKER_01: Just two chapters ago in Exodus 15, they got tomorrow, this place of bitter water, and they said, There's no good water here to drink.
SPEAKER_01: And God miraculously provided, and here we are, just two chapters later, and God led them to a place.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God wanted to see what was really in their heart, what they would do when they didn't get their way.
SPEAKER_01: Your truest character is on display when you don't get your way.
SPEAKER_01: That's when the real you comes rushing out.
SPEAKER_01: That's when the real you says, This is beneath me.
SPEAKER_01: I deserve better than this.
SPEAKER_01: And so there they were, screaming at Moses and testing God.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they refused to wait and say, No one among these millions of people, no one said, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: This isn't the first time we've been without water.
SPEAKER_01: And our God is faithful, okay?
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna provide.
SPEAKER_01: So let's just chillax here and wait on God to come through.
SPEAKER_01: No, they were thirsty and they turned on God in a heartbeat.
SPEAKER_01: Another way we test the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, is when we demand that He does the same thing the same way at the same time every time.
SPEAKER_01: We demand that God does the same thing the same way, the same time, every time.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's what they're thinking.
SPEAKER_01: They back in chapter 15, they didn't have water, they cried out, they turned on Moses and they they complained to God, and God provided it, and so in their mind they start thinking, this is how you get God to respond.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not careful, you you think, hey, the way I get God to respond is just by complaining.
SPEAKER_01: Third way we test the Lord is when we when we believe we know better.
SPEAKER_01: When we believe we know better.
SPEAKER_01: When we're like, I got this.
SPEAKER_01: I got this.
SPEAKER_01: See, when you start thinking you know better, then you've taken responsibility for your life and your well-being.
SPEAKER_01: And you've said to God, I don't, I don't need anything else.
SPEAKER_01: I I I I got this.
SPEAKER_01: It's a dangerous place to be, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: One of the fourth ways we test God is when we doubt his character.
SPEAKER_01: When we doubt his character, when we when we say to him, because in in this second half of chapter 17, uh tells a story about Moses and a battle's going on with the Amalekites.
SPEAKER_01: And as long as Moses held his arms up with a staff in, the people of God were winning.
SPEAKER_01: But when he got tired, his arms came down, the enemy started winning.
SPEAKER_01: So two men came along and held his arms up, and after that, they they they they they they said, Hey, God is Jehovah-Nisi.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord our God is a banner God, is what they said.
SPEAKER_01: That's who that's where that name comes into being for the for the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: And and God does not like it when we doubt his character, when we when we insult his consistency and his sufficiency, that is gonna come back, beloved, in ways that you don't have a frame of reference for.
SPEAKER_01: The last way that we test God is when we insist that he prove himself by doing specific things.
SPEAKER_01: When we insist that God prove himself by doing specific things, like making the price of oil go back up.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Or we insist that, you know, hey, here's how we insist that God does specific things.
SPEAKER_01: You're 25, you're a guy, you're single, you're starting to get lonely, you've kind of outgrown the club scene.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, hey man, I I wouldn't mind being married or you know, having kids and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Or I wouldn't mind having just a girlfriend.
SPEAKER_01: Having a girlfriend is great, but let me just warn you something.
SPEAKER_01: Them girlfriends turned into wives.
SPEAKER_01: And then, yeah, yeah, that's mine over there.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And then, like Jay-Z says, you got 99 problems, but a wife ain't one, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's great.
SPEAKER_01: I highly recommend it, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Girlfriends turn into wives who have kids.
SPEAKER_01: And when you marry that woman, you marry her family as well.
SPEAKER_01: All of them.
SPEAKER_01: Which is why when we're done here this morning, I'm gonna go home, pile up in the minivan with my wife, two daughters, and two dogs, and drive nine hours to Florida.
SPEAKER_01: Get you some of that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: On the second busiest day of the Christmas holiday season, travel-wise.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if there's a slowdown on I-10 on the way, my wife's gonna look at me and go, babe, I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna look at her and go, You owe me for this.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not gonna say that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, babe, we we we made this decision.
SPEAKER_01: This is great.
SPEAKER_01: I joke, I say, you know, we could go tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: I'd get up at four in the morning, have you there by one or two in the afternoon?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Yeah, there's something about waking up at my parents' house.
SPEAKER_01: See, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you married fools out there like, save yourself, dude, save yourself.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Here's this is free.
SPEAKER_01: Marriage is where self goes to die.
SPEAKER_01: That's all married people laughing right now.
SPEAKER_01: You single people looking around like, oh, well, uh, I don't think I ever want to be married.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not married, you're missing out.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'll explain later.
SPEAKER_01: Explain it to your little kids later.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It's just marriage is where self goes to die.
SPEAKER_01: You don't get your way all the time.
SPEAKER_01: You can plead all you want.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, Father, it'd be possible to just cut past from me.
SPEAKER_01: It can't.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing: you're now in a one-flesh relationship with another human being, and they have a will and they have desires, which means you ain't gonna always get your way.
SPEAKER_01: And you're better for it.
SPEAKER_01: So, text me that in about six hours.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm sitting on I 10, them two dogs got to get out and go to the bathroom.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, mmm, mmm, mmm.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing, that the the the this old word to take into the new year's, third one is this sin has consequences.
SPEAKER_01: Sin has consequences.
SPEAKER_01: And see, yeah, yeah, yeah, there's forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Because immediately that's where you go.
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, there's forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's forgiveness, but there's also consequences.
SPEAKER_01: And my fear is that we preach forgiveness so long and so hard that we've raised a generation who do not understand consequences.
SPEAKER_01: But God understands consequences, beloved, and one of the biggest consequences for the children of Israel is that is that God stopped trusting them.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, how do you know God stopped trusting them?
SPEAKER_01: Because God stopped entrusting himself to them.
SPEAKER_01: And when God stops trusting somebody, he stops entrusting himself to those people.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is that they just ended up going in a big circle for 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're coming to the end of the year and you're kind of like, man, I'm still struggling with the same sins, thinking the same thoughts, using the same words and phrases to describe my life.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, I just spent the whole year just going in a big circle.
SPEAKER_01: Then maybe the issue is not your wife or your boss or your church or God or your kids or your husband or your wife, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the issue is that God doesn't trust you anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's the issue.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's no one in your life that looks at you and kind of says, hey man, now I know some of you are thinking, oh, well, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: This is John.
SPEAKER_01: You can turn if you want.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 2, verses 23, 24, and 25.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm all in on this.
SPEAKER_01: When God stops trusting a man, you can know Jesus and be in relationship with Jesus and go to heaven when you die, and God not trusts you like he trusts some other people.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 2, verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when he, Jesus, was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was due.
SPEAKER_01: Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_01: They saw the signs, so they believed in his.
SPEAKER_01: That didn't make them Christian.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Well, we believe in your name.
SPEAKER_01: We believe that you might be the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: We believe.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like Nicodemus in John 3.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus does some miracles and he's already done some stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and he says, Oh, Rabbi, we we know you're a teacher who's sent from God because no one could do the things that you do unless God were with him.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Marvel not that you must be born again.
SPEAKER_01: You're not going to get a sniff of the kingdom unless you're born again.
SPEAKER_01: And Nicodemus is like, Oh, oh, okay, we can talk about that.
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus talk that way?
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many people believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you did signs, you healed people.
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the next sentence.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people, and he needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
SPEAKER_01: That's probably the scariest verse in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Hear it again.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people.
SPEAKER_01: He needed no one to bear witness about man.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a translation, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: And hear this from a heart of compassion it comes from.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't need you to tell him what's in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: He already knows.
SPEAKER_01: He knew what was in a man.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't need man's testimony about man.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need anybody to bear witness about man.
SPEAKER_01: I know what's in a man.
SPEAKER_01: I know what's in a person.
SPEAKER_01: That ought to not frighten you, that ought to liberate you.
SPEAKER_01: To stop trying to act like, oh, I don't think this or feel this.
SPEAKER_01: Sin has consequences.
SPEAKER_01: And one of those you're going to see over and over in Exodus is that God, when God stops trusting people, and by the way, this is one of those consequential things.
SPEAKER_01: Now again, when the Bible names something, when it says Meribah and Masa, there's a reason God's saying, don't forget this.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not just for them, it's for future generations, which includes us.
SPEAKER_01: We can't preach trustworthiness into you.
SPEAKER_01: Going to church won't make you more trustworthy.
SPEAKER_01: We all should ask ourselves, hey, hey, hey, am I a person that God trusts?
SPEAKER_01: You say, why is that such a big deal?
SPEAKER_01: Let me read to you from the 95th Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why it's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: This is the 95th Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: Starts off really good and then kind of ends on a more somber note.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 95, verse 1, Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord is a great God and the great king above all gods.
SPEAKER_01: And in his hand are the depths of the earth, and the heights of the mountains are his also.
SPEAKER_01: The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, come let us worship and bow down.
SPEAKER_01: Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.
SPEAKER_01: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts at Maribah as you did at Masah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
SPEAKER_01: For forty years I loathed that generation and said, They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore I swore in my wrath, they shall never enter my rest.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, before you go astray in your life, you go astray in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: So set over your heart this morning and ask yourself, Where is it where do I sense my heart kind of going astray?
SPEAKER_01: Because he says here today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah and as on that day at Massah.
SPEAKER_01: Do not harden your hearts as they did back in Exodus 17 when they put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself today, what else does God have to do for you to trust him?
SPEAKER_01: God says, My record speaks for itself, though they had seen my work.
SPEAKER_01: They put me to the test like I have some more to prove.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, let me just say again sin has consequences.
SPEAKER_01: Not to be ominous and Debbie Downer, but just to say, hey, let's let's think about this.
SPEAKER_01: Is there forgiveness?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: Is there consequence?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: The children of Israel, this generation, wandered for 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: And God said they're never going to enter my rest.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they went astray in their heart.
SPEAKER_01: They started thinking wrongly about God on the inside.
SPEAKER_01: And then they continued to relate wrongly to God on the outside.
SPEAKER_01: Fourthly and finally, this morning, I want to give you this word, this old word to take into the new year.
SPEAKER_01: It's presence without provision.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that doesn't mean that God's not going to provide.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: You hear what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's really about learning to relate to God in a more mature way.
SPEAKER_01: Relating to Him with something more than getting our way in mind.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the question that they asked.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Is the Lord among us?
SPEAKER_01: Back in Exodus 17, they get to the end and they said, Is the Lord among us or not?
SPEAKER_01: And that was the deal breaker for God.
SPEAKER_01: God was like, Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: You have the audacity to ask a question like, Am I among you or not?
SPEAKER_01: Why is that such a big deal?
SPEAKER_01: Because back in Exodus 4, God told Moses, You take this staff, and it's going to be a symbol of my presence.
SPEAKER_01: And then God said to the people, I will be your God and you'll be my people.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is privilege and it's responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: It's a two-way street here.
SPEAKER_01: And then he said, I'll be a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
SPEAKER_01: Hello.
SPEAKER_01: And you have the audacity to turn around and go, is God with us or not?
SPEAKER_01: Because here's why they ask it.
SPEAKER_01: Because we ain't got any water to drink.
SPEAKER_01: And God, beloved, takes himself seriously.
SPEAKER_01: He takes his character seriously.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, This, this is let me give you a because sometimes you can think, I don't really relate to that.
SPEAKER_01: Sometime this next week, men, when your wife is cooking supper, and it's about 20 minutes later than it usually is coming off the stove, walk in the kitchen and look at your wife and go, hey, are we eating supper or not?
SPEAKER_01: Let me know how that goes.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they did.
SPEAKER_01: They were like, hey, is God among us or not?
SPEAKER_01: And God's like, I don't know who you think you're talking to, but you're not talking to me that way.
SPEAKER_01: And not, and by the way, not because God's angry, but because God's right.
SPEAKER_01: Don't confuse those two, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: So as we go into the new year, I want to encourage us to learn to relate to God and to think about God in terms of presence, not just provision.
SPEAKER_01: Presence, not just provision.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says in Psalm 16, 11, in his presence is fullness of joy, and in his right hand are pleasures forevermore.
SPEAKER_01: So the provision issue and what God can do, that's a done deal.
SPEAKER_01: But here's how you know you're maturing and how you think about your Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: You just want to kind of be in God's presence and you don't want to ask him for anything.
SPEAKER_01: You just want to just be around him.
SPEAKER_01: I tell my 18-year-old who's going off to college in like seven and a half, eight months.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, hey, you need to spend more time with your mom this next semester of school than you do your friends, because your mom's smarter and better than all your friends.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, oh, yeah, Dad.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'll tell you what, I'm so done with high school drama.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the older I get, the more I realize you're right.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.
SPEAKER_01: My work here is finished.
SPEAKER_01: And I just stood there and looked at him.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, say that again one more time out of your little mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Your little 18-year-old, I mean, I just, yeah, I mean, you and mom, I'm more just catching herself.
SPEAKER_01: Whoa, did I just say that?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you just said it.
SPEAKER_01: I got it tattooed on my chest now.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Just presence, not provision.
SPEAKER_01: What does that look like?
SPEAKER_01: Let me close with a picture of what it looks like.
SPEAKER_01: This is the 131st Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, my heart is not lifted up and my eyes are not raised too high.
SPEAKER_01: I do not occupy myself with things too great or too marvelous for me.
SPEAKER_01: But I've calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother.
SPEAKER_01: Like a weaned child is my soul within me.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
SPEAKER_01: Presence without provision is you just say unto the Lord, I just want to be with you.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to be with you.
SPEAKER_01: Like a weaned child with its mother.
SPEAKER_01: A weaned child doesn't need the milk anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Most of you in this room shouldn't need milk anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You should just be saying to the Lord, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, it was a down year, market's down, price of oil's down, we had to lay people off.
SPEAKER_01: But hey, let's not kid ourselves, God.
SPEAKER_01: Let's not kid ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: You've been so good to me for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: Just being with you, thinking about you, being in your presence, that's enough for me.
SPEAKER_01: Anything beyond that is just gravy, because your presence is the thing that matters most.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, as we continue in Exodus, you'll see Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Because at one point, God says, by the way, the greatest temptation you face will be provision.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Because at one point, God gets so tired of their inconsistency, he says to Moses, You guys can go into the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: There's provision, go get it.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm not going with you because I'm tired of you whining.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses looks at God and says, if you don't go with us, then we don't want to go.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because he understood presence over provision.
SPEAKER_01: And it is the responsibility of leadership to be beyond where your people are.
SPEAKER_01: Moses understood it.
SPEAKER_01: And he's trying to, pleading with God to say, hey, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't act.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, be merciful, God.
SPEAKER_01: These knuckleheads, they're coming around.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't want the promised land unless you're going to go with us.
SPEAKER_01: So once again, what is presence without provision?
SPEAKER_01: It's the 131st Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: This is my prayer for myself going into the new year.
SPEAKER_01: This is my meditation for the new year.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to calm and quiet my soul like a weaned child with its mother.
SPEAKER_01: Like a weaned child is my soul within me.
SPEAKER_01: Can we just go into the new year and take this old way of thinking about God?
SPEAKER_01: Not old because it's outdated and not true anymore, but it's old because we don't talk about it much in the church anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And if we're not careful, God becomes a means to an end.
SPEAKER_01: And beloved, he's the end.
SPEAKER_01: He's the end.
SPEAKER_01: All this other stuff's going to take care of itself.
SPEAKER_01: You know that, right?
SPEAKER_01: He's not up there kind of going, I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: He's your dad.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one that says in Matthew 6, consider the lilies of the field.
SPEAKER_01: They don't labor or spin, and yet your heavenly father clothes them.
SPEAKER_01: And King Solomon and all his wealth, he's not dressed as nice as one of these.
SPEAKER_01: And if this is how your father cares about the grass which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, does he not care much more about you?
SPEAKER_01: And so let's just go into the new year, reminding ourselves that sin has consequences.
SPEAKER_01: It's presence without provision.
SPEAKER_01: God is not the problem.
SPEAKER_01: Just whatever the issue is, you might have to say out loud in 2016, God's not the problem.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just start there.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, let's just tell ourselves He leads us with sanctification in mind, not satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Just take a moment.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest today, we like to teach the Bible and just think about it for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: So just take a minute and gather your thoughts and ask the Lord what he said to you.
SPEAKER_01: What had your name on it?
SPEAKER_01: What stood out?
SPEAKER_01: What it was it when you heard it, it kind of pricked your heart.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, ooh, ah.
SPEAKER_01: It is our privilege to prove the Lord, to demonstrate his sufficiency, how enjoying it is, how enjoyable it is just to be in relationship with Him.
SPEAKER_01: As I finish one year and I kind of begin to turn myself to thinking about a gym membership and thinking about a diet.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think about that until after the new year.
SPEAKER_01: Eat you some cookies.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to have cookies this time of year.
SPEAKER_01: But as you wind down one year and look to another, what are some words you've got to take with you into this new year?
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you're just gonna go in a circle yet again.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about these things, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: What if at the core of all of this that what really motivates God is life and rest and joy and peace?
SPEAKER_01: What if that's what he's working towards in your life?
SPEAKER_01: He sang that a couple stanzas ago.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you remember it.
SPEAKER_01: Just from Jesus simply taking life and rest and joy and peace.
SPEAKER_01: What if, when he puts you in situations and you don't get your way, what he's the bigger thing he's really working towards is life and rest and joy and peace.
SPEAKER_01: How would that affect the way you relate to him?
SPEAKER_01: You surrender your ideas to his ideas.
SPEAKER_01: Because I just want to tell you, you don't have to know the words to the songs we sang today.
SPEAKER_01: You may be new in church, you may be like, hey, I just stung around, hung around for the free food of my family, and they drug me to church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not into this.
SPEAKER_01: Walk out today and think this about God.
SPEAKER_01: That the way he relates to you is with four things in mind.
SPEAKER_01: For you life and rest and joy and peace.
SPEAKER_01: He's with you, he's gonna be with you to the end.
SPEAKER_01: So you need to learn how to relate to him.
SPEAKER_01: Better yet, you need to learn how to enjoy him.
SPEAKER_01: One of the early creeds of the church says, ask the question what is the chief end of man?
SPEAKER_01: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you that that's what we were wired up for.
SPEAKER_01: It's why we came into this world, it's why we're breathing.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for our children.
SPEAKER_01: Some of our children aren't little.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them are little right now, and it's it requires a lot more energy.
SPEAKER_01: But as they get older, it requires a different kind of energy.
SPEAKER_01: So I pray you'd sustain those with little kids and remind those with big kids that you you know our big kids' heart.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to live heartbroken over our big kids that got off the reservation.
SPEAKER_01: And some are still off the reservation.
SPEAKER_01: But you're the God who deals with their heart, and so you're also merciful.
SPEAKER_01: So be merciful, God, and bring them back.
SPEAKER_01: Uh because they're missing out on what they were created to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we say that, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: Give us the grace to prove you o'er and o'er.
SPEAKER_01: It's again and again.
SPEAKER_01: May we sing this same song with these same people at the end of this next year.
SPEAKER_01: And look back and see how you've given us opportunities to prove you.
SPEAKER_01: For that we're grateful, so we say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Alright, stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Life and rest and joy and peace.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you or dismiss.