The Story: The Journey Isn’t Always Easy | Week 4

Well, morning. Certainly glad to see all of you out this morning as we worship God together. Thank you so much for having Sherard last week. I heard you did a wonderful job and brought a bunch of visitors and that's always, I told him before he preached. I said, brother, I think you're going be a blessing to this congregation and I pray this congregation is a blessing to you.

So, thank you for your encouragement. As you've heard me say before, I am only standing before you right now because people did that for me. They moved aside, allowed me opportunities, and you just never know what god has planned for your life. I was able to take a little bit of time off on Monday. I'll be honest with you, I slept a lot of the day.

You ever had a day like that? Now, one thing I will complain about is y'all didn't tell me as you get older that sleep is harder to come by. You know, you you get you get a time finally where you don't have a responsibility, you can rest, and so you get in that bed to feel so comfortable. At some point during the night, your back says, that's enough. I can't be here any longer and I'm I'm to that point in my life and so, I gotta count my blessings but I can get my sleep but thank you lord for the rest we can get.

Amen? Amen. This morning, we are already in chapter four. It seems like it's flying by. We've got, I think, thirty one weeks of the story as we follow what what god is doing in the upper story and what the people experience through the lower story and as we've already seen, that can be very different, right?

What you believe is happening or the struggles you go through, a lot of times we ask god the question, what is this about? When am I going to get out of it? Why? Why? Why?

Yes. And we're going to experience the same thing today. Now, last week, Sherard talked about the story of Joseph which is a fascinating story where Joseph is put through he he he lives a life of hardship, doesn't he? But at the end, Joseph sees that god has made out of this terrible situation, god has brought good. You ever been that in that part of your life?

Like during the middle of the struggle, I would love to have more information about Joseph, wouldn't you? We get a lot of the highlights and Joseph kind of see it. Maybe Joseph was just that positive kind of person where even in the midst of struggle, he was positive and that god's in control. Maybe he was that person. I'm not a lot of times.

How about you? I I wonder, alright, what is it that is going on? Is something going wrong? Have I done something? But but still at the end of the day, I see, okay.

Well, that's maybe that's what god was bringing about in me. That god was shaping and molding me and a lot of us are only here because of the way god has shaped us. Yes. Those difficult circumstances in life turned out for our good but in this part of the story, in this part of scripture, the Israelites have gone from this respected people and and where Joseph was to being here long enough and and multiplying enough that pharaoh sees the situation a little differently now. Now, the Israelites are so big that Pharaoh's becoming a little paranoid.

Okay, what if our enemies trying to attack and this large group of people join them? And so, he is he is freaking out really so to say and so, this is a point where something shifts and pharaoh decides what needs to happen is we need to enslave these people and so, we live as a free people. We often pray. We're very thankful for the place we live. Yes.

We have not experienced slavery. I cannot imagine slavery. Whether we're talking about the Israelites or we're talking about what we've experienced even in our country. But to be completely under the power of someone else, can you imagine that? What the experience would be?

What the questions for God would be in those moments? And in those moments, I think the only only way I can get through is to come to continue reminding myself that God is faithful. Yes. Because you've seen it before. You've seen how god has brought you through.

Can you continue to see it during the hardship? And I think that's when we start having those questions of faith. Is god there? Am I on the right track? Am I doing the things I'm supposed to be doing?

Why is this happening to me? One of the most powerful questions of life, I think and there have been plenty of books written on it. Why do bad things happen to good people? Yeah? And we can ask that about all kinds of situations.

Terry mentioned, we've had several accidents. We've got a blessing right here with us today. Survived an accident where he was pinned under a side by side. I don't know if you all know this whole story, but he was pinned under a side by side waiting for somebody to come along. Somebody saw him, and while he was pinned under the side by side, he had ants all over him.

That's the stuff of horror movies. But guess who's with us this morning? Earlier, was it yesterday, day before, Colt trying to come home from Texas A and M and his parents told him to stay and get some rest, and he said, No, thank you. Right? He tried to drive home and fell asleep and had an accident, and God has kept him with us.

Praise God. But those questions of life come up in those difficult circumstances. The medical issue, the accident. God, what are you trying to to do here? And I don't think, I don't stand before you and think that god causes all of these things to happen.

I think god can cause things to happen. I think god does at times but I don't think everything in life is something that god said, you know what? You need to have an accident but I do believe that god can bring good out of any situation. Yes? Have you seen it happen?

Yeah. Yeah. The the the the moment of of when you're feeling, you know, I have hit rock bottom, there's no way out. I want you to notice in scripture. When it feels like there's no way out, that is when god shows up and works.

Because those are the times where you it's very hard for us to wave that away and say it was something other than what it was. Because we do that, don't we? In the moment, maybe we give god credit later on, we think, well, you know, that was kind of me. I put in the effort, right? Do you see how it kind of fades at times?

But we need to give god the credit and that's when god shows up in these moments. That god is still faithful, that god has made a covenant that he is going to bring about, right? Now, the problem is is that we're very impatient people. Can I get an amen? Amen.

We're very impatient people. I want it to happen right now. Now, they were in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years. I want it now. Can you imagine?

Like, our country is not 430 years old. Can you imagine four thirty years of being in the same place going, didn't god promise us a land? You know, we go from, you know, favored in the country to enslaved in the country a We're We're of to and so you have to continue reminding be yourself that god is faithful, that when god makes a covenant, he's gonna bring it about but the problem is he's gonna bring it about in his time. That god is gonna bring this when the timing is right for him to fulfill what he has said. In Exodus two verse 23 through 25, during those, many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help.

Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel, and God knew. That's a very simple statement. Because even if you read the Psalm, sometimes the Psalmist will say, God, where are you? And maybe you felt that before, that I feel isolated.

Where God, where are you in this moment? I have questions. But this tells us that God looks down on us, and he sees what we're going through, and God knows. He understands. You don't have to feel isolated.

God sees what you're going through and again, we, that's where the impatience come in. Well, god knows. Let's make it happen quickly, right? And we understand that that this is not the the end that god sees and he says, okay, well, there's gonna be a process to this. If you know the story of Exodus, Israel at this point, like I said, has been in this place for so many years and that their suffering has continued even to the point of slavery And the narrator of the scripture of Exodus kind of gives us the upper story and what God is understanding, but put yourself in that same place.

We're going, God, are you hearing any of this? Do you hear me crying out? Are are you going to do anything about this? And so, Moses is a man who is who survived. Remember, Pharaoh's order to kill all the male children Or even to the point where he not only survived but he is adopted by Pharaoh's daughter.

He used to grow up in this royal place but he he ends up killing an Egyptian and we see that kind of early in this chapter that an Egyptian is going against a Hebrew and he thought he'd gotten away with it until the next day when he starts talking to two Hebrew people and asking them why they're arguing with each other. Why did you argue with your brother? And one smarts off to him. It says, are you gonna kill me like you killed the Egyptian? Uh-oh.

I love true crime. You don't wanna witness like that. I'll tell you that right now. That knows what you did. You tried to you tried to hide what you did and all of a sudden, uh-oh.

And so Moses has to flee. He goes from this high status, fleeing to Midian, and starts tending sheep. In Exodus three verse seven through 12, then the lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cries or cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey. I can't eat either one of those things.

So that doesn't stand out to me. But that's what he says. A land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Parasites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now behold the cry of the people of Israel has come to me and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt.

But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Now, I think we can all relate to that question. Can you imagine having to go to the leader of any country and saying, what's gonna happen is, we're gonna take all these people you've enslaved and we're gonna head out. Can you imagine that? Now, add to that, Moses now has the conscience of what he has done.

Now, we we know through the story that Moses will say, hey, I'm not a good communicator. You know, he he comes up with all the excuses. Just like we do but the problem with Moses and the problem with us most of the time is that we're thinking in our terms. We're thinking in lower story, only what I believe I can do. And what we've taken out of the equation is what God can do.

I told you two weeks ago, and I'm gonna tell you again so you it sticks in your mind. Maybe you tweet it out. Is it still a tweet now that it's x? I don't know. But the only thing standing between you and doing God's will or accomplishing what God wants for your life, most of the time, the only thing standing between you and that is you.

And our limited understanding or our limited view of what god can do through us. Amen. We don't have to go, oh, look at me. I have done this or I have walked through that door but we give god the credit. Thank you, lord.

It's like Joseph did. Joseph ascended to this place because of god. And that's what we need to do. As Moses tries to make this case, god says, well, you're gonna do it. You're gonna go.

God has heard Israel's cry, and the next question is, how's this gonna work? How are we gonna get all of these people out from under the hand of pharaoh? And then Exodus six, verse six. Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them. And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.

I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the lord. Did you notice in that scripture there wasn't one part about how great Moses was and what Moses is gonna do?

God tells Moses, you tell the people who I am. They've been in Egypt a long time. They need to be reminded of god's promise and who god is. That I'm going to take care of this. Now, I can only imagine if you were in slavery and all of a sudden, you get a word from the lord that says, hey, you're gonna get out of this.

You are you pretty excited? You would think. Right? But we know the rest of the story. Right?

Sometimes excitement, sometimes not. We'll see how it goes. But before God kind of unleashes we know God's gonna bring about these plagues. God tells him through the scripture what he intends to do, how he intends to continue with this covenant that he has made. You are going to get this land.

But as we know, pharaoh refuses. And at times, pharaoh through the plagues will say, okay, y'all need to get out of here. And it says, god hardens his heart and then here we go again. All the way to 10 plagues and the final plague is the most powerful. It's what we know now as the Passover.

That in every household, the first male child is going to die. And what happens in this is God is kind of reversing what Pharaoh has done before. Remember, Pharaoh said, all of the Hebrew children, first or all the males, are going to die. And God said, well, we're gonna reverse that. And what the Hebrews have to do is they have to kill their their lamb and wipe the blood on the door facing so that god passes over.

They still celebrate that today. We celebrate that through the the the communion as well. That god is faithful, that that god's promise is true and and so that's what they understand through the the Passover. In Exodus 12 verses 21 through 23, we'll read the 29 as well. Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans and kill the Passover lamb.

Exodus 12:21–23

Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lentil and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you. At midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock.

And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, go up, he said, go out from amongst my people, both you and the people of Israel, and go serve the Lord as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also. Well, that's an interesting end to that sentence, isn't it? It has taken 10 plagues, and now pharaoh is like, get out of here.

You ever want to say that to somebody? I'm tired of you. You've talked enough. I need to go lay down. Right?

I I love Katie's nana. She's my grandmother as well. I've I've known her longer than I've known my own grandma. You you all a lot of you guys have met her. She's been here.

But when she gets tired in the evening, she doesn't say get out of here. She says, you want me to make you a bed? Because she's headed to hers. And I love that. But here, Pharaoh is done with these people.

And and that's what that's part of God's plan, right? Pharaoh now sees, you you see that and bless me also. Because he understands at this point, he's tried through magicians to replicate things, of the plagues and some of them were successful and some of them were not. And through this, pharaoh knows, oh. You see this, bless me also.

Take your livestock, take your herds. That's that's a big thing because there were a lot of people and he's allowing them to take all of that with him. Just get out. And that is the way god has chosen to work here after generations of slavery, Pharaoh says, get out, go, and they leave Egypt. But what we see is that this moment of celebration doesn't last a long time, does it?

Because as much as I am impatient, we wanna see results now. I'd like to know that following God and following His promise meant that everything was always good, wouldn't you? That if I looked around and everything was good, I'd know that I'm on the path. But we've already seen in the second book of scripture that following god is not always easy. Have you experienced that?

Now, I told my small group this week, people pray and people experience different things. You you see this in in spiritual, spiritual discipline things. Some people believe that if everything's going well in life, I must be following god. Some people believe only if it's difficult, am I following god? The problem is it can be either one, right?

You can have wonderful days following god. You can have the most horrible days following god and so this is where when we talk about the lower story and the upper story, it can be difficult. Can we at least say that? To understand what god is doing. To imagine these people celebrating, we are no longer in slavery.

We are out of Egypt and god is leading them. Exodus 13 said that god guides Israel with a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. I don't know if you ever had God speak to you. I've never heard audible words from God. I have felt urgings and things that have it might as well have been a a sentence because I knew exactly what I had to do.

But I've never followed god in a cloud and in fire but I think I would I would head that way. How about you? Like, that's the most glaring, obvious sign, billboard. Hey, we need to do this. But we know the story that this this is not something that that they stay happy about for a long time.

In Exodus 14, when Pharaoh drew near, they're heading out through the wilderness. Pharaoh has changed his mind. God, it says, god has hardened his heart again. He he knows they need to leave and all of a sudden, he thinks about it and I'm sure he thought about all the livestock, all the things they took. They were even given gifts and he changes his mind.

He said, alright. Now, we need to kill him. He says, he sent over 600 of his best chariots and even more to kill these people and so, when pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them. Let turn celebration into fear real quick, doesn't it? And they feared greatly and the people of Israel cried out to the lord.

They said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? They are already upset that they are not back in Egypt. They wanted out of Egypt. They cried out to god to take him out of the slavery and as soon as he does so, they say, why? Is it because there weren't enough graves we just need to die out here in this this wilderness?

What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? The exact thing they wanted. You ever gotten exactly the thing you wanted and realized that's not what I wanted at all? Yeah. Sometimes that's the case and that doesn't mean necessarily that you're on the wrong path.

They were on the wrong path. They're on the right path but they felt like, why have you done this to us even though they were all praying for it? Is it is this is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone that we may serve Egyptians for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. Well, that's a very difficult thing to to say and to reconcile after they wanted out of slavery.

But the danger is real. All of a sudden, they are facing very they're facing pharaoh and all of his people trying to get them. Israel cannot see the way forward, but they were still exactly where God led them. Right? And the problem is this is this is the rock and the hard place because they have pharaoh behind them, and all of a sudden the Red Sea or the Reed Sea in front of them.

Now, I don't know how you you plan to get out of this and that's the question they're having. Well, we we could've just died there. It was nicer. We had more food. I'm sure they're thinking.

But in verse 20, in verse 13, let's read this And Moses said to the people, fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. Well, that takes some faith. You will never see these people again. He he says, the lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent.

One of my favorite verses in scripture. Be still and know that I am God. Some of you need that today. Write it down. Write it on your heart because anxiety, fear, your schedule, whatever you're facing is eating you up.

Moses says, Shut up. All you need to do is shut up. There might be a little frustration in that, I don't know. Just be quiet. Allow God to work.

Stand down. In verse, 21 here, then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. In verse 22, I'm gonna get back to it. What in the world? There we go.

And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. And in verse 29, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Thus, the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

And what this doesn't say at the end, which it should, for a few minutes. You feel that? Sometimes I feel close to God. I feel like I understand what's going on and how he's leading and the power that he shows to bring me through things. And then in just a few minutes, maybe I have a doubt about where I'm going or what God is up to.

And that's what we see. Is that we we have this fear, of God and what he's doing. We believe in Moses and what, you know, the way he's leading. But now, what happens? Exodus 15 begins with Israel singing after the sea.

There's a song sung. They are excited after they've already kind of gone back and forth about where they should be. But then they three days later, they face this undrinkable water. Soon after, they're hungry, and then they're thirsty again. It feels like my kids on a long trip.

That's what this feels like. Yeah? We clean out the van, there's french fries, there are old things. Actually, it's not even the van. We moved our sectional the other day and where Logan sits looked like a pack rat was under there.

And the funniest thing happened because as soon as we moved the section where he sits, he dove onto the mess as if he was gonna clean it before we saw it. And thank goodness our small group was there doing that and they got to experience all of this. But do you hear in this? I'm hungry. I'm thirsty.

I don't like the weather. I don't like where we are. It was nicer back then. The the the complaining, the questioning, what does this mean? And so the same people who have just witnessed this extraordinary deliverance from all of this, from pharaoh, from the waters.

Tell me this, if you walk through a place that was a sea and you walk through on dry ground with water on either side, are you gonna forget that very quickly? You wouldn't think so. But man, do we have short term memory sometimes when it comes to faith? Why do we have short term memory when we we forget what god has done for us? That we go back to fear or we go back to I'm uncomfortable.

God, why aren't you here making me comfortable? That's what that that's kind of what we lead with. We lead with, I would just rather be comfortable. But following god is not always comfortable. In Exodus 16, and the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

And the people of Israel said to them, would that we have died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. My gracious, how quickly they went back. And I hesitate a little bit because if they were standing here looking at our lives and reading a a narrative about my own life, they'd probably say the same thing about me. God, John, you've experienced the faithfulness of god and how quickly did you question again? When we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, I remember when we were at that buffet.

For you have brought us into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. That's a little dramatic. I'm sorry. But I wasn't there. I've walked in the desert close to the Dead Sea, and I was out there for an hour, and it was beautiful to take a few pictures and run back to the bus with air conditioning.

So had I been out there, and we know the rest of the story, they were out there for how many years, y'all? Forty. Forty years. Are we there yet? Forty years.

That's what they were facing. You're trying to kill this whole assembly. Then the Lord said to Moses, behold, I'm about to rain bread from heaven. Thank you, Lord. Roadhouse rolls.

Right? Thank you, Lord. Not that cinnamon butter. I need regular butter. Okay?

I'm 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. And so what God decides to do is give them just what they need each day. Because our problem sitting here in 2026 is we have too much. We have and what I mean by that is we have too much sometimes to depend on God and to give him the credit and the glory. Because I feel like I'm protected because I've got a savings account or an IRA or insurance or something that's gonna cover me or maybe I have family.

But God gave them just enough to depend on him. And in verse 11, and the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of all the people of Israel say to them at twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning, you shall be filled with bread, then you shall know that I am the Lord your God. Walking through the walls of water wasn't enough for these people. Just like the things in my life weren't enough for me at times. It says, in the evening, the quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay on around the camp.

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. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, what is it? For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, it is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. And they called the bread manna which sounds like the word, what is it?

Because they didn't know what it was. And so, we know we know this story and we know that this is not a a happy ending. We have quail. We have bread in the wilderness. Thank you, Lord, except now I have too much.

Now I've eaten it for too many days in a row. Anybody in here eat leftovers? Yeah. I grew up eating leftovers. Katie grew up in the city and they just went out to eat.

They didn't have leftovers. We we we ate we ate leftovers on leftovers. And I'll be honest, I love some chili, and I really love chili the second day after it's been sitting. But I don't know about the fifth day or after that. Right?

Why is it? I don't know, Wiley. I don't have an answer. Why is it day one and two is fantastic but day five, you're going, what else we got, honey? Can we go out to eat?

And that's what they experience. They they grumble and they're upset. We don't have enough to eat. God says, I'm gonna rain bread and they rain bread. They said, what is this?

And they ate it. It was alright but not day after day. What do you want meat? I'm gonna rain quail. Well, now I've had quail too much.

And you see how we continue to okay, here's a blessing from God and it kinda fades. I use this all the time but I to me, it just the the the the illustration that that kind of sticks out to me. It's like getting that new vehicle or maybe even new to you. That first day you get it, man, that's an awesome vehicle, right? But in year three, you start looking around.

Now, vehicle still gets you down the road, still does all the things you wanted it to do in the first place, but now something's wrong. It is faded. The the glory of it is faded, right? Doesn't smell the same anymore. It it just doesn't feel the same, And so we decide, I'm going to go down and I'm going to get me a brand new vehicle.

I'm going put my arm around the salesperson. We're going to be on Facebook. And we start the cycle over again, right? And in two years, and some of us only make it two years, right? Six months, boy, this is old.

This is old. But we're thankful in the moment, but then it just seems to fade. I asked somebody when we first had Evan, and you know, it's it's tough when you're a first time parent and and you're trying to raise a kid and and I ask one of our our people at church who basically adopted us as grandchildren. I said, how do you keep having kids? You know, with it being this difficult because you go from being single and and then being married and then having a lot of time and time to sleep and all those things.

How do you have, how do you go from one child to two? And she said, you forget. You forget how hard it is. Some of y'all are on a page that you aren't forgetting. You just want okay?

God is just blessing y'all. Oftentimes, we we receive those gifts, and it quickly fades. What God has done, how he has blessed me, what's going to be next. Israel wanted freedom from Egypt, and God gave it to them. And then they weren't happy about it.

But notice the story continues. God's covenant continues. God is forming these people into the people he wants them to be. The road is not easy, And oftentimes, that's what we experience, right? You can be living inside an answered prayer and still have days where you are questioning what God is doing.

Has have you been there? Are you prayed for something and god gave it to you and so you believe, oh god is faithful but then, day two, day three, you start, something happens. What is happening? You can still be living in an answered prayer and question God. And the chapter ends with people questioning whether God is with them.

After 10 plagues, after delivering them from slavery after four hundred and thirty years, after bringing them through on dry ground between walls of water, delivering them from an army, delivering them from starvation and from dying of thirst. The chapter ends with, God, where are you? And again, I hesitate to point the finger because we are often doing the exact same thing. Right? I want us to pray to God and give him all the things that we are struggling with, and God has told us through this, he hears us.

He knows our pain, but often God's timeline in the upper story is not the same as ours. And so we should, as people of faith, walk through those open doors, allow God to lead us, understanding that there will be days that you have a lot of questions. Right? God, what are you doing? But we must remain faithful.

Now, also what I want you to notice is that God didn't just strike them down because they were grumbling. Now, we're going to read later. He kind of wanted to. I kind of want to do that with my kids sometimes when they're grumbling. Just strike them down.

Oh, my kids are perfect. I'm sorry. I'm the ministry here. My kids are perfect. Everything's perfect in my house.

But God doesn't strike them down. God knows. God understands even when we question, even when we don't know, even when he gives us exactly what we wanted, and then we're not happy about it. But what is God calling you to? What is what door is God opening for you right now that you need to walk through in faith?

I'll tell you, what I what I pray for, I don't think I finished my story earlier. What I asked about or told my small group is that often when I pray with in in big decision moments, I necessarily pray that the the situation is going to be easy. What I do pray for is open doors. God, make this apparent the door I need to walk through. I I I don't pray that everything's gonna be hunky dory as I walk through it and and we need to remember that.

That just because we are we are following god does not mean it's going to be easy. Most of the time, it's those hard times that we start to question. We start to have wondering about our faith and all of those things. But I don't think that's a bad thing. I think that shows that we are searching for god.

And so I just want to encourage you today. If there's a door you know that god is calling you to walk through, walk through it in faith. The journey may not be easy but god is faithful. Amen, church? Amen.

Let's end with a prayer this morning. Our father in heaven god, we thank you so much for being our god. Lord, as we study through your word, lord, we we see the ways that the Israelites got exactly what they asked for, lord and they still weren't happy but lord, that's not just a story about them, that's a story about us. Lord, would you light our path? Lord, lead us in a way, a pillar of fire, something to show us the way we need to go and lord, we we know that there are fears, anxieties, all the things that try to keep us from from walking through that door.

Lord, remove that. Lord, help us to walk in faith. Understanding there will be days where we don't know how we're gonna get through. But God, you are faithful. Lord, we thank you for loving us.

We thank you for walking beside us. And Lord, continue to do that with this church. It's in the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.