WEBVTT 00:00:20.519 --> 00:00:21.442 Please stand and pray with me. 00:00:21.442 --> 00:00:39.722 Thank God, help us to hear your word with open hearts so that we may truly understand and believe and believing that we may follow in faithfulness and obedience, through Christ, our Lord. 00:00:39.722 --> 00:00:40.540 Amen. 00:00:40.540 --> 00:00:47.527 If able, please remain standing for today's scripture reading, which comes from portions of Exodus 15, 16, and 17. 00:00:49.079 --> 00:00:53.790 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea and they went into the wilderness of shore. 00:00:53.790 --> 00:00:57.268 They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 00:00:57.268 --> 00:01:01.590 When they came to Mara, they could not drink the water at Mara because it was bitter. 00:01:01.590 --> 00:01:03.323 Therefore it was named Mara. 00:01:03.323 --> 00:01:07.528 And the people grumbled against the Lord, saying what shall we drink? 00:01:07.528 --> 00:01:09.643 And he cried to the Lord. 00:01:09.643 --> 00:01:14.063 And the Lord showed him a log and he threw it in the water and the water became sweet. 00:01:14.063 --> 00:01:28.953 Then the Lord made for them a statue 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 of his statutes. 00:01:28.953 --> 00:01:35.631 I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer. 00:01:35.631 --> 00:01:43.025 Then they came to Elim, where there were 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees, and they encamped there by the water. 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:56.525 They set out from Elim and all the congregation of the people of Israel came into the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 00:01:56.525 --> 00:02:02.281 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 00:02:02.281 --> 00:02:16.370 And the people of Israel said to them would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. 00:02:16.370 --> 00:02:30.366 Then the Lord said to Moses behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. 00:02:30.366 --> 00:02:35.864 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily. 00:02:35.864 --> 00:02:49.810 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel at evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. 00:02:49.810 --> 00:02:53.307 For what are we that you grumble against us? 00:02:53.307 --> 00:03:02.790 And Moses said when the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling, that you grumble against him. 00:03:02.790 --> 00:03:04.002 What are we? 00:03:04.002 --> 00:03:07.508 Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord. 00:03:08.780 --> 00:03:17.008 And the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages, according to the commandments of the Lord, and they camped at Redifim. 00:03:17.008 --> 00:03:19.526 But there was no water for the people to drink. 00:03:19.526 --> 00:03:23.688 Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said give us water to drink. 00:03:23.688 --> 00:03:26.527 And Moses said to them why do you quarrel with me? 00:03:26.527 --> 00:03:28.086 Why do you test the Lord? 00:03:28.086 --> 00:03:30.344 But the people thirsted there for water. 00:03:30.405 --> 00:03:38.201 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? 00:03:38.201 --> 00:03:42.530 So Moses cried out to the Lord what shall I do with this people? 00:03:42.530 --> 00:03:44.185 They're almost ready to stone me. 00:03:44.185 --> 00:03:54.830 And the Lord said to Moses pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hands the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 00:03:54.830 --> 00:04:04.229 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock of Horab, and there you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it and the people shall drink. 00:04:04.229 --> 00:04:11.485 And Moses did so, and in the sight of the elders of Israel, and he called on the name of the place, massa and Meriba. 00:04:11.485 --> 00:04:18.410 Because of the quarreling of the people of Israel and because they tested the Lord by saying is the Lord among us or not? 00:04:18.410 --> 00:04:19.954 This is God's word. 00:04:20.815 --> 00:04:21.497 Thanks be to God. 00:04:21.819 --> 00:04:22.240 Please be seated. 00:04:23.865 --> 00:04:37.944 When we were in Israel, we learned that there's this ancient synagogue practice of the scripture reading always has to be longer than the sermon Another way to say that sermon has to be shorter than the scripture reading, which is brilliant, right, if God should outweigh the words of men. 00:04:37.944 --> 00:04:40.182 We're not going to do that today, I'm sorry. 00:04:40.182 --> 00:04:43.367 So buckle up, bear with me. 00:04:43.367 --> 00:05:09.408 The aboriginal people of Australia send their young men out into the outback at a certain age, probably between 12 to 15 years old, where they face an uninhabitable environment, over 100 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures, some of those deadly snakes in the world and if they don't know how to build a shelter and hunt and forge for food and know which plants are medicinal, they will not make it back alive. 00:05:09.408 --> 00:05:15.930 But if they do, they're received back into the community and they find a new place in it. 00:05:15.930 --> 00:05:27.971 Similarly, the Inuit have a tradition where, when their children are strong enough, usually around 12 years old, the elders lead them into the Arctic for their first hunt. 00:05:27.971 --> 00:05:34.062 Okay, while they're out in the Arctic, they bring tents and spears and they have to kit whatever they need to eat. 00:05:34.062 --> 00:05:47.571 They have to kill it in order to eat it, and while they're there, they travel for miles for weeks on end in hunt of listen to this a narwhal, a caribou or a bearded seal. 00:05:47.571 --> 00:05:50.406 You have to get one of those three or you don't come back. 00:05:50.406 --> 00:05:52.732 Just pause for a moment. 00:05:52.732 --> 00:05:56.365 A narwhal, that's like one of those unicorn whales, like that's insane. 00:05:56.365 --> 00:06:02.204 And a 12 year old has to kill it and bring it back in order to accomplish this, in order to pass. 00:06:02.204 --> 00:06:10.208 And so, when they're out in the wilderness and the Arctic, it toughens them, it strengthens them, it teaches them skills that they carry with them the rest of their life. 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:16.651 My favorite, though, is the Maasai tribe of Kenya and Tanzania area. 00:06:16.651 --> 00:06:22.430 They send their young man, around 15 years old, into the savannah to hunt a male lion. 00:06:22.430 --> 00:06:25.483 Nothing less than that will do. 00:06:25.483 --> 00:06:28.507 They don't have a rifle or a bow. 00:06:28.507 --> 00:06:34.072 They actually have a spear, and they train for years to prepare for this. 00:06:34.072 --> 00:06:41.673 It's a big deal, and as they're preparing, they have to develop strength and endurance and undaunted courage. 00:06:41.673 --> 00:06:50.490 Literally, they have to bet their lives on their ability to persevere through this test, and so, as they go out to hunt a male lion, they cannot sneak up on it. 00:06:50.490 --> 00:07:03.009 In fact, they actually bring with them a rattle with bells on it, so that the lion faces them face to face and they have to kill it with a spear face to face. 00:07:03.009 --> 00:07:10.791 If they do that, if they pass, they officially transition into being a Maasai warrior. 00:07:10.791 --> 00:07:15.649 If they fail, they officially transition into being lion food. 00:07:15.649 --> 00:07:19.567 This is what they have before them and I love this. 00:07:19.567 --> 00:07:24.608 The Maasai association casually says it like this many warriors have been lost to lions. 00:07:24.608 --> 00:07:28.824 Simply put, what do all of these have in common? 00:07:28.824 --> 00:07:30.646 They're all tests. 00:07:30.646 --> 00:07:32.862 They're all tests. 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:37.230 These times of testing are so universally practiced throughout place and time. 00:07:37.230 --> 00:07:45.206 Almost every culture in every time and place has some form of what has now been called a rites of passage. 00:07:45.206 --> 00:08:03.528 This term was coined in the 1909 by a guy named Arnold Van Genep and he studied these across cultures and there's a wide diversity, but they have this in common there's this transition from girlhood to womanhood, from boyhood to manhood, and it goes through this what's called a rites of passage. 00:08:03.528 --> 00:08:06.345 Every culture throughout time and place has had these. 00:08:06.345 --> 00:08:16.367 Until today, modern and Western American culture were like well, I'm just glad I don't send my sophomore to fight a lion and I get that. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:32.028 But we coined a term helicopter parenting and we actually have an improved version of that which is called snow plow parenting, which means you just aggressively get in front of your kids and plow any obstacles out of their way so that they just have an easy path to walk down. 00:08:32.028 --> 00:08:40.100 This is modern Western parenting, and you might think listen, isn't that better than sending our kids out to be eaten by unicorn whales? 00:08:40.100 --> 00:08:43.649 I don't know. 00:08:43.649 --> 00:08:45.166 You tell me how's this working for us? 00:08:45.166 --> 00:08:55.067 One study found that anxiety and depression rates in college students rose roughly 80% in the generation just after helicopter parenting began. 00:08:55.067 --> 00:09:09.946 In his book the Comfort Crisis, michael Easter says that new research shows that depression, anxiety, feeling like you don't belong, risky behavior and even suicide quote can be linked to being untested. 00:09:09.946 --> 00:09:20.606 So we send our kids into a volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous world without being taught or tested to face that world. 00:09:20.606 --> 00:09:23.187 No other culture would be so foolish. 00:09:23.187 --> 00:09:31.041 Even God, the good and kind father, in his wisdom, tests his children. 00:09:32.817 --> 00:09:39.221 And so what if I told you I knew of something that could help you experience God as more real than you do right now? 00:09:39.221 --> 00:09:43.480 What if I could tell you there was something that could help you experience you more real than you do right now? 00:09:43.480 --> 00:09:52.908 What if I could tell you there was something that would enable you to find a relaxed contentment with life as you have it, here and now, not there and then when it's. 00:09:52.908 --> 00:09:56.023 You know whatever checkpoint you're waiting for to achieve. 00:09:56.023 --> 00:10:03.721 What if I could tell you that you could grow in endurance to continue doing what is right despite a mounting desire to stop? 00:10:03.721 --> 00:10:17.134 What if I could tell you that you could have an unmatched level of self-awareness, that you could develop a vital prayer life, that you could develop integrity personally, that you could have strength for your faith? 00:10:17.134 --> 00:10:20.215 What if I could tell you that there was something that could give you all of these things? 00:10:20.215 --> 00:10:21.177 Would you be interested? 00:10:21.177 --> 00:10:25.462 Well, every one of those is a. 00:10:25.462 --> 00:10:38.427 I could give you the direct quotation from scripture that the Bible promises each and every one of those things to those who experience what the Bible calls testing, testing. 00:10:39.595 --> 00:10:53.134 And so what I wanna do this morning is look at Exodus 15, 16 and 17, where there are three tests that occur, and I wanna see what can the Bible, what can ancient Israel teach us about facing testing in our lives today? 00:10:53.134 --> 00:10:56.715 So, if you have a Bible, get to Exodus 15, verse 22,. 00:10:56.715 --> 00:11:05.303 And we're gonna look at this, maybe not verse by verse, but paragraph by paragraph together, and this is the one point that I'm gonna work out through those three tests. 00:11:05.303 --> 00:11:10.701 Here's the one point God leads us through the wilderness of testing to find freedom in his presence. 00:11:10.701 --> 00:11:15.475 God leads us through the wilderness of testing to find freedom in his presence. 00:11:15.475 --> 00:11:17.878 Look at test number one water made sweet. 00:11:17.878 --> 00:11:19.744 From Exodus 15, 22,. 00:11:19.744 --> 00:11:26.159 It says this Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea and they went into the wilderness. 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:28.735 Of sure, they went three days in the wilderness. 00:11:28.735 --> 00:11:32.662 Now, throughout scripture, the story of scripture, the wilderness is the place of testing. 00:11:32.662 --> 00:11:33.345 That's important. 00:11:33.345 --> 00:11:37.302 They went to the wilderness and found no water. 00:11:37.302 --> 00:11:44.142 When they came to Mera, they could not drink the water of Mera because it was bitter and therefore it was called Mera. 00:11:45.155 --> 00:11:57.023 The question the Israelites are asking in this moment, the question that you are asking in moments of testing, is can God bring sweetness out of the bitterness of my life right now? 00:11:57.023 --> 00:12:01.402 Can God bring sweetness out of the bitterness of your singleness? 00:12:01.402 --> 00:12:05.582 Can God bring sweetness out of the bitterness of your work? 00:12:05.582 --> 00:12:10.054 Can God bring sweetness out of the bitterness of your relationships? 00:12:10.054 --> 00:12:13.519 God, can you bring sweetness out of this bitternessanger? 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:17.215 Now the Israelites are in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 00:12:17.215 --> 00:12:20.325 They finally stumble upon water and it's undrinkable. 00:12:20.325 --> 00:12:24.342 Talk about mismet expectations. 00:12:24.342 --> 00:12:25.886 So what do they do? 00:12:25.886 --> 00:12:31.400 Verse 24, and the people grumbled against Moses saying what shall we drink? 00:12:33.115 --> 00:12:46.095 10 times in our texts the word grumble occurs 10 times, and I think the reason is because Israel is, in many ways, a picture and a pattern of all of humanity, and so we're supposed to learn from them. 00:12:46.095 --> 00:12:54.740 1 Corinthians 10 tells us from this actual story in particular, you see, because grumbling is just bitterness that bubbles up to the surface. 00:12:54.740 --> 00:13:02.000 That's all that it is, and so Jesus said that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:10.403 So when you grumble, it's because there's a bitterness, there's a resentment, there's an entitlement in your heart that is now being articulated by your lips. 00:13:10.403 --> 00:13:20.934 That's what happens when we grumble, and our cultural moment has actually institutionalized resentment and bitterness and entitlement. 00:13:20.934 --> 00:13:24.405 This is just the air we breathe, the water that we swim in. 00:13:24.405 --> 00:13:27.717 I don't want you to think by that I mean, oh yeah, them out there. 00:13:27.717 --> 00:13:29.384 I mean you, me, in here. 00:13:29.384 --> 00:13:32.254 We're influenced, we're affected by this. 00:13:32.254 --> 00:13:42.086 Every single one of us I really believe this Every single one of us, every single day, has thousands of reasons to grumble or be grateful. 00:13:44.436 --> 00:13:47.861 There's the options, and the difference is perspective. 00:13:47.861 --> 00:13:50.455 It makes all the perspective in the world. 00:13:50.455 --> 00:13:51.907 Some of you know people who do this. 00:13:51.907 --> 00:13:56.654 When you're at like a coffee shop or whatever and the barista says, hey, how are you? 00:13:56.654 --> 00:13:58.000 And they say better than I deserve. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:08.422 And some of you are like that's kind of just cheeky and Christian-ese and listen, it is a little bit, I get that, but there's a truth in that. 00:14:08.422 --> 00:14:09.764 That's actually really profound. 00:14:09.764 --> 00:14:11.760 What do you deserve? 00:14:11.760 --> 00:14:14.220 What do I deserve? 00:14:14.220 --> 00:14:21.581 Consider that for a moment, because that's gonna shape your perspective on the thousand things that you have come at you every day. 00:14:21.581 --> 00:14:25.481 That could be fodder for grumbling or fodder for gratitude. 00:14:26.796 --> 00:14:33.384 And what testing does is it actually reveals these deeply held commitments about what I deserve in life. 00:14:33.384 --> 00:14:36.855 Imagine being free from that. 00:14:36.855 --> 00:14:42.054 Imagine the freedom from no longer carrying entitlement with you wherever you go. 00:14:42.054 --> 00:14:49.475 Imagine no longer having to deal with bitterness and resentment because you feel like you're wronged so frequently. 00:14:49.475 --> 00:14:56.211 Imagine the joy and the freedom from having to keep track of all of the little slights you experience on a daily basis. 00:14:56.211 --> 00:15:07.870 God wants to set you free from that, because he leads us through the wilderness of testing to find freedom from resentment and entitlement and bitterness. 00:15:07.870 --> 00:15:17.246 Only testing can produce new city to be not a community of entitlement but a community of thankfulness in a world of entitlement. 00:15:17.839 --> 00:15:22.294 I told you a few weeks back that Camp Family has a motto which is can'ts aren't cannibals. 00:15:22.294 --> 00:15:25.767 My kids are not allowed to bite or eat each other. 00:15:25.767 --> 00:15:30.030 We have another one, which we've been working on, which is be grateful, don't grumble. 00:15:30.030 --> 00:15:34.740 And in that moment you might feel like, well, that's kind of a little bit demanding of a three-year-old. 00:15:34.740 --> 00:15:39.095 All I'm inviting my children to do is to pay attention. 00:15:39.095 --> 00:15:54.134 In this moment we're disappointed, we're discouraged, we're sad, we got rained out, we didn't make it on time, whatever it is, and in that moment we have something that we can be thankful to God for, or we have something that we could grumble over, and perspective makes all the difference in that moment. 00:15:54.134 --> 00:15:58.505 And so, listen, trials, things that we face, they don't actually put bitterness in us. 00:15:58.505 --> 00:16:01.043 They don't actually put bitterness in our hearts. 00:16:01.043 --> 00:16:04.801 They draw the bitterness out of our hearts so that we can deal with it honestly there. 00:16:06.375 --> 00:16:24.134 In Scripture, one of the best metaphors for trials and testing is this idea of smelting gold, where you put gold into a fire and you melt it, and as you melt it, all of the impurities kind of rise to the surface so that you can draw them out, and then you have this refined gold in its place. 00:16:24.134 --> 00:16:26.644 That's what trials, that's what testing does to us. 00:16:26.644 --> 00:16:43.528 It surfaces these areas where we are tempted towards bitterness and resentment and entitlement, so that we can deal with those things in community and before God in a meaningful way, and it leaves behind a gold that's refined by fire, as Peter puts it. 00:16:43.528 --> 00:16:47.261 And so if we don't groan, what do we do? 00:16:47.261 --> 00:16:48.980 Look with me at verse 25. 00:16:48.980 --> 00:16:58.394 It says in Moses cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. 00:16:58.394 --> 00:17:01.043 And so don't hear what I'm not saying. 00:17:01.455 --> 00:17:04.785 There actually is a place to articulate your grievances. 00:17:04.785 --> 00:17:07.740 That is a real thing. 00:17:07.740 --> 00:17:10.083 It's actually very important to be able to do that. 00:17:10.083 --> 00:17:15.454 And what the Bible calls that, the Scriptures call that form of holy complaint. 00:17:15.454 --> 00:17:24.010 They call it lament, lament, or Romans eight puts it like this groaning, groaning and grumbling are not the same thing. 00:17:24.010 --> 00:17:31.593 Here's the difference you bring those complaints into the presence of God and they are sanctified there, they are made holy there. 00:17:31.593 --> 00:17:34.015 Unleash your complaints. 00:17:34.015 --> 00:17:39.214 If you find bitterness, resentment, entitlement stirring up in your heart, let it loose. 00:17:39.214 --> 00:17:43.815 Corum deo, which is Latin for before the face of God. 00:17:43.815 --> 00:17:49.534 And those complaints right there turn from grumbling into groaning, into lament, and they're sanctified there. 00:17:50.219 --> 00:17:50.923 Moses cried to the Lord. 00:17:50.923 --> 00:17:52.412 You better believe. 00:17:52.412 --> 00:17:57.815 It Doesn't say he prayed, it doesn't say he talked, although he does those things right here. 00:17:57.815 --> 00:17:58.929 He cried to the Lord. 00:17:58.929 --> 00:18:03.432 He feels the pain, he's aware that life is really challenging. 00:18:03.432 --> 00:18:07.414 Right now we're in a wilderness and the only water we can find is undrinkable. 00:18:07.414 --> 00:18:12.994 And as he cries to the Lord, god showed him a log to make sweet tea with. 00:18:12.994 --> 00:18:16.015 And this word showed is actually important. 00:18:16.015 --> 00:18:20.394 It actually is the root word for the word Torah, or instruction, or direction. 00:18:20.394 --> 00:18:23.646 The first five books of the Bible are called the Torah because God instructs his people. 00:18:23.646 --> 00:18:31.314 I love this because it's significant to think the word prayer and the word precarious come from the same root word. 00:18:32.500 --> 00:18:36.506 In times of testing, life feels precarious and then we can pray. 00:18:36.506 --> 00:18:40.414 We don't pray because we don't find our lives being very precarious. 00:18:40.414 --> 00:18:43.294 We're shielded and insulated from our vulnerabilities. 00:18:43.294 --> 00:18:46.394 But God in testing allows us to be set free from that. 00:18:46.394 --> 00:18:49.326 So we call out to him and then he shows us things that were there all along. 00:18:49.326 --> 00:18:57.744 I have a hunch it's not in the text that that log was there all along and until Moses cried out. 00:18:57.744 --> 00:19:01.414 Then the Lord showed, instructed, directed his attention to it and said try that. 00:19:04.082 --> 00:19:06.428 So in times of testing, brothers and sisters, cry out. 00:19:06.428 --> 00:19:08.653 God, show me what you're up to in this. 00:19:08.653 --> 00:19:08.813 Show me. 00:19:08.813 --> 00:19:09.394 That's what it says. 00:19:09.394 --> 00:19:15.338 The Lord showed him one of my favorite prayers Show me more. 00:19:15.338 --> 00:19:17.167 Show me more, god. 00:19:17.167 --> 00:19:18.094 What are you up to? 00:19:18.094 --> 00:19:18.839 Where are you at? 00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:20.125 How are you at work in this? 00:19:20.125 --> 00:19:22.307 Why are you doing this? 00:19:22.307 --> 00:19:27.380 How are you gonna turn this testing into something good? 00:19:27.380 --> 00:19:32.565 How are you going to bring, show me, how you're gonna bring, sweetness out of the bitterness of this moment. 00:19:32.565 --> 00:19:37.986 In my life, that's what it looks like to groan, to lament instead of grumble. 00:19:37.986 --> 00:19:40.880 Look with me at verse 25. 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:59.220 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. 00:19:59.220 --> 00:20:04.579 You can assume it's probably the Nile water being turned into blood, because they're in need of water right now. 00:20:04.579 --> 00:20:06.144 It's probably what he's referring to there. 00:20:06.586 --> 00:20:10.630 Why, for I am the Lord, I am Yahweh, your healer. 00:20:10.630 --> 00:20:18.089 Simply put, the purpose of testing is to teach you to hear and obey out of love. 00:20:18.089 --> 00:20:26.909 To hear and obey out of love how do we become those who actually lean in and climb our ears to hear God so that we can obey God? 00:20:26.909 --> 00:20:32.249 That only happens through testing, where we learn through the healing power of love. 00:20:32.249 --> 00:20:38.243 One of the ways to talk about what testing is doing is it's surfacing everything in your life that hinders love. 00:20:38.243 --> 00:20:45.867 There's a lot in your life that hinders love for God and for neighbor, and God, through testing, is surfacing those things. 00:20:45.867 --> 00:20:50.726 He's bringing the impurities of your heart of disloyalty and distrust. 00:20:50.726 --> 00:20:54.208 He's bringing those to the surface so they can be dealt with with him. 00:20:54.208 --> 00:21:02.368 So God woos us to hear and obey by reminding us I am Yahweh, your healer. 00:21:02.368 --> 00:21:04.523 That's who I am. 00:21:04.523 --> 00:21:06.444 I'm here to heal you. 00:21:07.119 --> 00:21:11.010 I do inflict wounds in order to heal, like a good surgeon. 00:21:11.010 --> 00:21:12.945 That's what happens in testing. 00:21:12.945 --> 00:21:22.066 I heard it said recently that the difference between a surgeon and a coroner is they both inflict wounds, they both take bodies apart, but only a surgeon can put them back together. 00:21:22.066 --> 00:21:25.288 God's not a coroner in this situation. 00:21:25.288 --> 00:21:28.064 He's a surgeon he cuts, he inflicts. 00:21:28.064 --> 00:21:32.347 He afflicts the comfortable and then he comforts the afflicted. 00:21:32.347 --> 00:21:35.567 That's the way that God works, through testing. 00:21:35.567 --> 00:21:37.506 And then it goes on in verse 27,. 00:21:37.700 --> 00:21:44.188 Then they came to Elim where there were 12 springs of water Remember 12 and 70 palm trees? 00:21:44.188 --> 00:21:45.029 12 and 70s are. 00:21:45.029 --> 00:21:49.005 Those are numbers of perfection, fullness, wholeness in the Bible. 00:21:49.005 --> 00:21:50.328 And they camped there by the water. 00:21:50.328 --> 00:21:53.489 Christian, you live between Egypt and Elim. 00:21:53.489 --> 00:21:58.048 You live in the wilderness between Egypt and Elim. 00:21:58.048 --> 00:21:59.625 You live in that wilderness. 00:21:59.625 --> 00:22:03.289 The tension of the times is where we are right now. 00:22:03.289 --> 00:22:11.249 We are not yet in this oasis of the presence of God, where all of our tears are wiped away, where pain and sorrow and death shall be no more. 00:22:11.249 --> 00:22:17.826 We are not there yet, but we know we're heading there and the Israelites get a glimpse of what that paradise might look like. 00:22:17.826 --> 00:22:24.048 And so God is leading us through the wilderness of testing so that we might find freedom in the oasis of his presence. 00:22:24.048 --> 00:22:25.862 Here and now. 00:22:25.862 --> 00:22:27.425 Four tastes. 00:22:27.425 --> 00:22:36.384 But there and then, when Jesus comes back and makes all things new, there will be a fullness of that freedom in the oasis of the presence of God. 00:22:37.980 --> 00:22:42.008 Let's look at the second test here bread from heaven, exodus 16. 00:22:42.008 --> 00:22:43.904 Look at verse one with me. 00:22:43.904 --> 00:22:55.900 They set out from Elim and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 00:22:55.900 --> 00:22:56.501 This is important. 00:22:56.501 --> 00:23:04.839 They left Egypt a month ago and they've only experienced miraculous provision in that whole process of leaving Egypt till today. 00:23:04.839 --> 00:23:06.345 That's actually a really important context. 00:23:06.345 --> 00:23:13.049 It goes on and the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 00:23:13.049 --> 00:23:24.440 Clearly, the sweet tea was not enough and the people of Israel said to them would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by meat pots and ate bread to the fold? 00:23:24.539 --> 00:23:29.346 Does anybody else, does your escapism present as idealizing the past? 00:23:29.346 --> 00:23:31.059 Okay, just me and the Israelites. 00:23:31.059 --> 00:23:33.405 All right, we're going on For you, who have? 00:23:33.405 --> 00:23:38.529 You have brought us out into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. 00:23:38.529 --> 00:23:41.385 Maybe you'll be more honest with me here. 00:23:41.385 --> 00:23:45.045 Does anybody else impute motives to other people when you're in a bad place? 00:23:45.045 --> 00:23:49.465 It's exactly what they do here Murderous motives. 00:23:49.465 --> 00:23:51.847 You are deliberately trying to kill us. 00:23:51.847 --> 00:23:53.163 Big Mo, what are you up to? 00:23:53.163 --> 00:23:58.065 What not to do in testing? 00:23:58.065 --> 00:24:00.625 Don't take it out on the people around you. 00:24:00.625 --> 00:24:02.505 It's a real temptation. 00:24:04.220 --> 00:24:05.806 Psychologists call this projection. 00:24:05.806 --> 00:24:07.284 Think about a projector. 00:24:07.284 --> 00:24:11.787 A projector takes an image and shines it onto a wall, or something like that. 00:24:11.787 --> 00:24:22.988 In projection, we take the worst that's in us and we project it on those around us, especially our leaders, especially those who have authority over us. 00:24:22.988 --> 00:24:29.967 John Mark Comer, a pastor in, used to be a pastor in Portland area, somebody who I've learned a lot from, has been really helpful. 00:24:29.967 --> 00:24:38.829 He says it like this much of the so-called cancel culture is a form of projection, an attempt to offload the fear of shame and rejection. 00:24:38.829 --> 00:24:49.048 By shaming and rejecting others, in particular anyone in leadership or in power, bitterness in your heart turns into blame towards other people. 00:24:50.782 --> 00:24:51.926 So how does the Lord respond? 00:24:51.926 --> 00:24:53.643 He tests them. 00:24:53.643 --> 00:24:55.303 Look at verse four. 00:24:55.303 --> 00:25:07.807 Then the Lord said to Moses behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you and the people should go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. 00:25:07.807 --> 00:25:14.450 This test is about timing, which, if you're in a trial, timing is everything. 00:25:14.450 --> 00:25:16.448 Psalm 13 begins how long, oh Lord. 00:25:16.448 --> 00:25:18.903 But this test of timing. 00:25:18.903 --> 00:25:19.446 Look at verse four. 00:25:19.446 --> 00:25:24.070 It says it's really the test of will I have enough in time? 00:25:24.070 --> 00:25:27.910 Verse four says this a day's portion every day. 00:25:27.910 --> 00:25:34.204 This is, I think, where Jesus gets the phrase give us this day our daily bread from this story in Israel. 00:25:34.204 --> 00:25:41.185 But listen, if you're anything like me, I want monthly bread, like your boy doesn't want daily bread. 00:25:41.185 --> 00:25:43.628 Because I gotta wait and expect it's gonna show up tomorrow. 00:25:43.628 --> 00:25:50.346 I'd love to get October's portion on September 30th, 31st I never know which month to have 31 days. 00:25:50.346 --> 00:25:54.069 I wanna know if I can get October's portion at the end of September. 00:25:54.069 --> 00:25:56.125 I don't wanna wait for tomorrow's portion, tomorrow. 00:25:56.125 --> 00:25:57.420 Why? 00:25:57.420 --> 00:26:01.548 Because that requires something of me a trust, a confidence that God's gonna show up. 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:08.726 Verse six so Moses and Aaron said to all the people at evening you shall know it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 00:26:08.726 --> 00:26:13.109 And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord. 00:26:13.109 --> 00:26:16.228 Because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. 00:26:16.228 --> 00:26:19.228 For what are we that you grumble against us? 00:26:19.228 --> 00:26:28.443 And Moses said, when the Lord gives you in the evening, meet to eat and in the morning, bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling, that you grumble against him. 00:26:28.443 --> 00:26:29.667 What are we? 00:26:29.667 --> 00:26:33.549 Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord. 00:26:33.549 --> 00:26:37.885 Listen, the principle here is if you're caught in grumbling you'll miss the glory. 00:26:37.885 --> 00:26:42.428 If you are caught up in grumbling, you will miss the glory. 00:26:42.428 --> 00:26:46.905 It's like somebody who's buying a jeep suddenly sees jeeps everywhere. 00:26:46.905 --> 00:26:54.685 Because whatever you value, you attend to, and when you attend to something you become more aware of that thing. 00:26:55.599 --> 00:27:04.925 And so, listen, some of us value being victims so much that we interpret everything in light of that reality to make us the victim in the story. 00:27:04.925 --> 00:27:18.987 Psychologists call this the drama triangle, which is we play the victim role, somebody's the persecutor role, somebody's the rescuer role, and this triangle ruins relationships and it's a constant temptation for us. 00:27:18.987 --> 00:27:29.087 This is why Jesus says inspect your eyes, Look really closely, because if possession is nine-tenths of the law, perception is nine-tenths of reality. 00:27:29.087 --> 00:27:36.488 For most of us, how you see the world, whatever your sight is set on, is actually gonna shape how you experience the world. 00:27:36.488 --> 00:27:38.365 Jesus says beware of that. 00:27:38.365 --> 00:27:52.446 Do some log inspections or some things, some bitterness, some judgment, some things in your own heart, in your own mind, in your own lives that make you perceive reality askew, not the way that it is, but the way that you see it. 00:27:53.599 --> 00:27:59.728 And so, in our victimhood, we can find whoever it is that we can blame around us to be our persecutor. 00:27:59.728 --> 00:28:06.547 It sets us off, it gets us off from any responsibility, and that's exactly what Israel does to Moses. 00:28:06.547 --> 00:28:10.145 It says that they grumbled against Moses, and Moses is emphatic. 00:28:10.145 --> 00:28:11.824 Hey listen, it's not me you got beef with. 00:28:11.824 --> 00:28:13.328 It's the big guy. 00:28:13.328 --> 00:28:16.728 It's actually Yahweh the one who led you out here. 00:28:16.728 --> 00:28:19.949 I'm just his servant, I just do what I'm told. 00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:34.568 And so, listen, if we're in a situation where we find ourselves really angry with God for allowing us to be tested like this, that's the only people that can find themselves in that situation are the people that believe in the God of the Bible. 00:28:34.568 --> 00:28:46.646 Only the God of the Bible is good enough, great enough and wise enough to both allow things to happen in our lives and be totally in control of them, and yet use them meaningfully in our lives. 00:28:46.646 --> 00:28:57.503 Let me say it like this if there is a God great enough to grumble at for the testing that you're in, then that God also has to be great enough to have purposes for allowing that. 00:28:57.503 --> 00:28:58.909 That you might not understand. 00:28:58.909 --> 00:29:01.345 You can't have it both ways. 00:29:01.345 --> 00:29:08.307 If God is so great you can blame him for the situation that you're in, then he's got to be great enough to have some purposes. 00:29:08.307 --> 00:29:10.007 Maybe your finite mind doesn't get. 00:29:11.700 --> 00:29:18.948 There's an invitation, as we grumble against God, not to emphasize our grumbling but to turn towards the glory of God. 00:29:18.948 --> 00:29:22.364 That's what the text calls the goodness of God through our testing. 00:29:22.364 --> 00:29:27.130 God's glory biblically is when his goodness goes public. 00:29:27.130 --> 00:29:35.301 When his goodness goes public according to the angels in Isaiah 6, who spend a lot more time with God than I do, so I listen to them. 00:29:35.301 --> 00:29:36.306 I think they're right about this. 00:29:36.306 --> 00:29:41.385 The angels in Isaiah 6 says that the whole earth is full of God's glory. 00:29:41.385 --> 00:29:45.268 This is where the perception reality really matters. 00:29:45.268 --> 00:29:55.865 Do we perceive that For those with eyes to see, every bush can be a burning bush If you see the presence of God lighting up the world with his glory? 00:29:55.865 --> 00:29:59.127 That's the invitation of this text. 00:29:59.127 --> 00:30:02.105 Is that we would open our eyes if you remember our call to worship. 00:30:02.105 --> 00:30:08.169 Open your eyes to the countless ways in which your heavenly Father provides for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. 00:30:08.169 --> 00:30:21.191 If he does that, how much more will he provide for you, especially in the time of testing, because God leads us through the wilderness of testing into in order to find freedom in his presence. 00:30:21.191 --> 00:30:22.967 That's the goal of what he's up to here. 00:30:23.119 --> 00:30:23.963 Look at verse 14. 00:30:23.963 --> 00:30:33.006 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. 00:30:33.006 --> 00:30:41.166 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another what is it If you have a Bible with a little little tiny superscript there, a little number? 00:30:41.166 --> 00:30:45.288 Look at the margin and you'll see that that is this word that sounds kind of like manna. 00:30:45.288 --> 00:30:46.903 What is it in Hebrew? 00:30:46.903 --> 00:30:48.964 For they did not know what it was. 00:30:48.964 --> 00:30:53.387 And Moses said to them it is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. 00:30:53.387 --> 00:30:55.565 So they name the provision. 00:30:55.565 --> 00:30:57.526 The provision of God comes and they name it. 00:30:57.526 --> 00:30:58.107 What is it? 00:30:58.107 --> 00:31:01.566 Bread from heaven, and they name it. 00:31:01.566 --> 00:31:02.127 What is it? 00:31:03.567 --> 00:31:04.940 Listen, I think what this is is on our own. 00:31:04.940 --> 00:31:10.248 It's really hard for us to make sense of God's provision in our times of testing. 00:31:10.248 --> 00:31:13.490 There's few things like pain to make you myopic. 00:31:13.490 --> 00:31:16.819 This is why we desperately need community. 00:31:16.819 --> 00:31:18.380 This is why we need people around us. 00:31:18.380 --> 00:31:20.380 Look at verse 31, a little further down. 00:31:20.380 --> 00:31:22.638 It says this now, the house of Israel. 00:31:22.638 --> 00:31:24.196 That's the whole group. 00:31:24.196 --> 00:31:27.470 The community called its name manna. 00:31:27.470 --> 00:31:29.846 Now they name it manna. 00:31:31.492 --> 00:31:38.509 What I mean by this is we need other people to make meaning out of our suffering, to make meaning out of our testing and our trials. 00:31:38.509 --> 00:31:39.694 We need that. 00:31:39.694 --> 00:31:43.178 We don't have enough perspective, your perspective. 00:31:43.178 --> 00:31:53.477 There's a female Jewish philosopher who said it like this you can't even see the back of your own head, like if that doesn't humble you about what you can know and your perspective on things. 00:31:53.477 --> 00:31:56.876 You need other people to tell you what the back of your head looks like. 00:31:56.876 --> 00:32:00.135 Maybe you need other people to tell you what God's up to in your testing. 00:32:00.135 --> 00:32:12.401 And so, in that way, this is a requirement or an invitation, but it's an invitation to submit to other people's perception of what's going on in our lives, not just anybody. 00:32:12.401 --> 00:32:17.364 People who know you, who love you, who are for you, can we submit to their perception of what's going on in our lives? 00:32:17.364 --> 00:32:18.650 Do we even open ourselves to that? 00:32:18.650 --> 00:32:19.868 Do we invite that? 00:32:19.868 --> 00:32:24.143 Hey, if I'm off here, let me know, please, my circle. 00:32:24.163 --> 00:32:25.836 This past year I was in a season of just. 00:32:25.836 --> 00:32:28.338 I was just overextended, I was exhausted. 00:32:28.338 --> 00:32:36.342 There was a few other things going on at once, and one of the brothers in my circle literally said this he's like hey, I wonder if you're in a season of testing. 00:32:36.342 --> 00:32:52.353 It's all he said and I kid you not, it was from that conversation that made me dibs, this passage, and this was probably in the spring sometime, because he, in that simple comment, it reframed everything about what I was going through in that moment. 00:32:52.353 --> 00:32:54.414 Oh, god's up to something. 00:32:54.414 --> 00:32:56.430 He wants to work something in my life. 00:32:56.652 --> 00:33:02.538 I knew enough about the biblical promises of testing to know that that was actually probably a good thing, and maybe even the answers of my prayers. 00:33:02.538 --> 00:33:08.594 God, make me patient, make me humble, make me generous and kind, make me full of faith. 00:33:08.594 --> 00:33:12.294 Those prayers, seasons of testing, those are his answers. 00:33:12.294 --> 00:33:14.395 It's the only way he does that in us. 00:33:14.395 --> 00:33:16.910 And so, listen, we need community. 00:33:16.910 --> 00:33:27.855 This is why I say God leads us through the wilderness of testing, not you y'all plural, that's who he leads through the wilderness of testing, because we need one another. 00:33:28.471 --> 00:33:31.932 I wanna go further on how this provision in testing is communal. 00:33:31.932 --> 00:33:32.816 Look at verse 17. 00:33:32.816 --> 00:33:34.957 And the people of Israel did so. 00:33:34.957 --> 00:33:45.977 They gathered some more, some less, but when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. 00:33:45.977 --> 00:33:48.979 Each of them gathered as much as he could. 00:33:49.590 --> 00:33:53.203 Some of you this morning hear this, some of you. 00:33:53.203 --> 00:34:00.349 Your test is that you are called to take the much that you've been given and to give it freely to those who have little. 00:34:00.349 --> 00:34:02.018 That's the test. 00:34:02.018 --> 00:34:03.950 This is what happens when you're given. 00:34:03.950 --> 00:34:07.309 You know what Spider-Man's uncle said with great power comes great responsibility. 00:34:07.309 --> 00:34:11.309 If you've been given a lot, the test is what will you do with the lot that you've been given? 00:34:11.309 --> 00:34:20.230 In other words, very literally, if you get a raise, a promotion, I want to see you raise your standard of giving before you raise your standard of living. 00:34:20.230 --> 00:34:21.748 That's the invitation of this text. 00:34:22.192 --> 00:34:24.989 Now, if you're not with me like, this is what I'm saying. 00:34:24.989 --> 00:34:36.956 God longs for a new city to become more socioeconomically diverse, that the poor could come in and be in our midst and be welcome and belong here, and the rich actually would make sure that their needs are taken care of. 00:34:36.956 --> 00:34:39.293 That's exactly what I'm talking about Now. 00:34:39.293 --> 00:34:48.048 Before some of y'all write me off because I know we're conservative theologically in here and we like to blind ourselves to those passages Let me just say I want the whole Bible to come to bear here. 00:34:48.048 --> 00:34:51.429 Paul literally quotes this text to say what I'm saying right now. 00:34:52.152 --> 00:34:54.103 Listen to this in 2 Corinthians 8, 14. 00:34:54.103 --> 00:35:02.626 It says this your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 00:35:02.626 --> 00:35:05.019 Quote as it is written. 00:35:05.019 --> 00:35:07.030 Then he quotes Exodus 16, 18. 00:35:07.030 --> 00:35:11.202 Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. 00:35:11.202 --> 00:35:15.789 If this does something to you, this stirs something up. 00:35:15.789 --> 00:35:17.538 Read Acts 2, acts 4, acts 6,. 00:35:17.538 --> 00:35:22.909 Just see how the early church applied this principle of the New Testament for community and worked it out in their midst. 00:35:22.909 --> 00:35:31.452 It's crazy for a culture how bent on consumerism and consumption For that it's crazy. 00:35:31.452 --> 00:35:34.070 For the kingdom of God, it's just normal. 00:35:34.070 --> 00:35:37.789 This is the world, this is the kingdom that we live in and live under. 00:35:37.911 --> 00:35:42.943