Do Not Harden Your Heart | Micah Watterson

[SPEAKER_00]: All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of scene by stages.

[SPEAKER_00]: According to the command of the Lord and camped at Reffedin, but there was no water for the people to drink.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore the people quarrel with Moses and said, give us water to drink.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you test the Lord?

[SPEAKER_00]: But the people thirsted there for water, 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_00]: So Moses cried to the Lord, what shall I do with this people?

[SPEAKER_00]: They are almost ready to stone me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord said to Moses, pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel and taking your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go.

[SPEAKER_00]: behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horab, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses did so on the side of the others of Israel, and he called the name of the place Masa and Maraba, because of the corolling of the people of Israel, and because they test the Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the word of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, good morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Mike, if you don't know me, I'm the student pastor here, and yeah, I'm speaking this morning, so good to see you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Past couple weeks we've been in stories of faith over the summer, so a lot of you guys have come up and shared your stories, your testimonies, and I don't know about you guys, but I have greatly enjoyed those.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have been a blessing to me, and it's just great to hear that life has struggles, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And it is difficult, but depending on the Lord, trusting in Him is the way to get through that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so when Kurt had asked me to speak, you know, coming out of this series, I just kept going back to this story, Exodus, Seventeen.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you will open back up to Exodus, Seventeen with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: On this story is one that at first glance seems hopeless.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't really have a good ending, but man there are great treasures in here for us today.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I just want to kind of spread it all out and we'll make some points as we go.

[SPEAKER_01]: But first of all, Exodus, Seventeen, we got to figure out where we are in the story, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: To understand where they're at and what they're doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so first of all, this is the book of Exodus.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that means that

[SPEAKER_01]: God has rescued His people through His servant Moses from Egypt, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: They were captive slaves in the land of Egypt for many, many generations.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Moses is the one who has come and gone to Pharaoh, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Let my people go.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so He goes through all these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: This generation has seen so many amazing miracles.

[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, they've seen the ten plagues, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: They have the ten plagues that showed God's His greatness and His power over all things.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then they had to go through the red sea, so they saw God's greatness and his just his deliverance from the chasing of Pharaoh.

[SPEAKER_01]: He changes his mind and so he sends his people after them, but he delivers them through the red sea.

[SPEAKER_01]: Once they're through the red sea, they go to the wilderness.

[SPEAKER_01]: and they are hungry and thirsty and God provides them with mana and with kale every morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mana falls, he provides food for them.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is kale that falls as well, so they have meat to eat.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is leading them through pillars of cloud and pillars of fire.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: of fire.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we see great things that got us showing up in amazing ways for this group of people.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to keep that in mind because as we see later on, they tend to forget the goodness and the faithfulness of God in his power.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so let's just reread that real quick, get in that mindset.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we've taken everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is giving them mana and quail.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's leading them.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so here we get to Exodus, Seventeen.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of scene.

[SPEAKER_01]: According to the commanding of the Lord and camped at refidim, and there was no water for the people to drink.

[SPEAKER_01]: So as we get here, now you might read that first time I read that before I did all my studies, I read that as the valley of sin, as you might do.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I kind of thought this was a spiritual place, like a spiritual

[SPEAKER_01]: valley of sin that they had fallen into sin, but really this is a physical place if we could throw that map up.

[SPEAKER_01]: So here on the left we have this map, we have the Sinai Peninsula Suez, you know, Gulf of Arabia, all these things, this is a real place.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so over up on the top left, we would see Egypt, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: The Nile River comes down.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have gone through the wilderness of a fam, gone through Mara, Alim, Dofka, Alushk, now to Refidim.

[SPEAKER_01]: And all of that that region is the wilderness

[SPEAKER_01]: of scene.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it is a physical place as we see, they can't at refidim.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now refidim is important because of one thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's significant because there is one thing that is missing really.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that would be water.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you can see the landscape here on the right.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is a barren place.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is a desert.

[SPEAKER_01]: We think of wilderness.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think of wilderness as, you know, Georgia wilderness of like trees.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, these canopy's pine trees.

[SPEAKER_01]: But now it is barren, it looks like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they're on their way down to, as you can see on the map, Mount Horab or Mount Sane, which is significant for other reasons.

[SPEAKER_01]: But only six weeks ago, they had seen the Red Sea.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'd seen the parting of the Red Sea.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was six weeks ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: So for our mind, that was the Sunday before Memorial Day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: Six weeks ago, you had seen God split the Red Sea.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's been leading you.

[SPEAKER_01]: with pillars of cloud and pillars of fire.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they come up with these charges against him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's important because God did lead them.

[SPEAKER_01]: He did lead them to this place.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says there in verse one that according to the command of the Lord that they had been led to this place.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they had a problem with that.

[SPEAKER_01]: They got had led them to an area of barrenness, of no water.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was providing for them food, but you need water to live.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so they have charges against him.

[SPEAKER_01]: before we get to that.

[SPEAKER_01]: God commands them to that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the Christian life, is it not that we go wherever the Lord leads us, wherever he leads, we will follow.

[SPEAKER_01]: That we don't want to go anywhere unless he is the one who's taking us there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just a few verses that just tell us that that corroborate this story would be Job chapter one verse twenty one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Job says, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: That whatever the Lord does wherever he leads, blessed be his name.

[SPEAKER_01]: That he is doing this work.

[SPEAKER_01]: Another one would be James.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you go with me to James chapter four, I'll read it for you if you can't get there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm getting there too.

[SPEAKER_01]: James chapter four, I'll just start in verse fourteen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're just as a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, you ought to say if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.

[SPEAKER_01]: There you go.

[SPEAKER_01]: As the Lord wills, we will go and do this or that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our tomorrow is not guaranteed.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can't make plans.

[SPEAKER_01]: God is the one who's in control.

[SPEAKER_01]: And lastly to this point is Psalm one fifteen.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of flipping.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm one fifteen verse three.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, but our God is in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases.

[SPEAKER_01]: He leads us wherever he pleases, even to a valley without water.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so if we go back to Exodus, seventeen, the Lord commands them there.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is the Lord's will that they have been brought there.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is literally led them by a pillar of fire and cloud to this region.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the question is why?

[SPEAKER_01]: I think for you and me, if we're following the Lord, He eventually will lead us to a place like this as well in our own faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know through these testimonies we have heard times of being in refidim, camped out in refidim in the valley of scene with no water.

[SPEAKER_01]: It seems hopeless wilderness everywhere that you look.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want you to understand through this text why that is good, why it's good.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so the first scene you could call it scenes, or maybe points in this in these seven verses, the first point scene, whatever you want to call it, is they are led to a waterless camp.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the main point of this, God has led his people to a campsite without water, wilderness as far as they can see.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want you to understand why and feel that is good news, because

[SPEAKER_01]: We go through that as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the second scene would be that there is an angry protest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's re-read versus two through three again.

[SPEAKER_01]: says therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said give us water that we may drink and Moses said to them why do you quarrel with me and why do you test the Lord but the people thirsted there for water and they grumbled against Moses and said why now have you brought us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst

[SPEAKER_01]: They are upset.

[SPEAKER_01]: As I'm sure many of us have been upset in those times of our lives, of why have you led me here, God?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't understand what you're doing, and it doesn't make sense to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like you have led me here to abandon me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And even more severely, the people of Israel have said, you have led me here to kill me.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the main point of this one is God's people did not trust that God's providence is good, but accused Moses and God of harmful purposes.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we see they bring it that charge.

[SPEAKER_01]: Give us waters that we may drink.

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses says, why do you quarrel with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: And really, he gets in that second question.

[SPEAKER_01]: He gets to the heart of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, why do you quarrel with God?

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses is saying, I am a servant of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have taken you where he is led.

[SPEAKER_01]: Your quarrel is not with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is against God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why do you quarrel

[SPEAKER_01]: with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think sometimes we can be like Israel where we blame things on, you know, the physical, the things that we can see we can grasp hold of.

[SPEAKER_01]: We put blame on other people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of getting to the heart of why am I, am I arguing against God?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm protesting against God and his plan.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the blaming Moses, they need to get right with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Understand, they need a heart check, really.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of they are blaming God of treachery.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're blaming him of murderous intent.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, Moses says, your quarrel is out of place.

[SPEAKER_01]: It isn't with me, it's with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And story after story in the Bible, God has been shouting out, trust me.

[SPEAKER_01]: He keeps shouting at story after story, trust me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so yeah, the heart of the question, they are questioning God's timing.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're not saying that he's unable to, obviously they know he's able to.

[SPEAKER_01]: Through all the things that we have just talked about with Egypt, with the Dread Sea, with Mano, and the Quail, and the Pillars.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're not questioning his timing, not saying he's incompetent, he's unable.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're saying he doesn't intend to.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, God, you are not intending to give us what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you let us out here to let us die of thirst?

[SPEAKER_01]: They're saying his purposes aren't saving and they're murderous.

[SPEAKER_01]: We might not understand all the reasons why God chooses a waterless encampment, but like Job.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's so amazing with Job that He falls to His knees.

[SPEAKER_01]: He tears His clothes.

[SPEAKER_01]: He weeps and He praises the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says He worships.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need to be like that as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: In our difficult times, we fall toward our knees and we worship.

[SPEAKER_01]: God says trust me and they didn't.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the third scene, third point, is a life-giving presence.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let's read verses four through six.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Moses cried out to the Lord saying, what shall I do with this people?

[SPEAKER_01]: A little more and they will stone me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then the Lord said to Moses, pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand, your staff with which you struck the Nile and go.

[SPEAKER_01]: behold, I will stand before you there on the rocket for a bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you shall strike the rock and water will come out of it that the people may drink and Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the main point of this scene, seen three, is that God's life giving presence towards absolutely undeserving people goes on.

[SPEAKER_01]: His patience has not run out.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God's answer to Moses is, I'm gonna give them water to drink.

[SPEAKER_01]: They want water, they're accusing me of all these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna give them water to drink, but I'm gonna make it as amazing as possible.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he gives four reasons of why this is so amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He gives four ways that they are going to remember this and they're gonna remember the providence and the really the provision of the Lord at this time of their accusing him of murder and he will still show grace in patience with them.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the first one out of this is He will make the miracle public, as verse five says.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, go before all the people, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, what shall I do?

[SPEAKER_01]: A little more they will stone me.

[SPEAKER_01]: God says, pass before the people.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God has been accused of murder in public.

[SPEAKER_01]: All the people agree they have said it, brought it against Moses and God in public.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so God will be vindicated in public.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, you wanted to come against me in public.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to show you my greatness and my love and my patience before all the people.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the second one is that it will be attested by the elders.

[SPEAKER_01]: It continues.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said, take with you some of the elders of Israel.

[SPEAKER_01]: So this means that it will be significant.

[SPEAKER_01]: The elders job was to record the history.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have recorded everything thus far of Egypt, the plagues, he has the Red Sea, all these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the elders have are being brought out so that they would see this and record it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that it would be taught from generation to generation.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that here now,

[SPEAKER_01]: This is about three, four hundred years later, we would have it still.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I want it to be public and it will be recorded so that it will be taught from generation to generation.

[SPEAKER_01]: It will become part of what they know and they teach.

[SPEAKER_01]: The third one, it will be a continuation of the miracles of the ten plagues of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he says, past before the people take with you the elders and lastly, and take with you your staff with which you struck the Nile.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing, the significance of this is that this staff would immediately get them back to their slavery in Egypt.

[SPEAKER_01]: That they would see this staff and we know that the staff, he struck the Nile with it and it turned the water into blood.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, take with you this staff, this remembrance, this peace of history for them, this peace of God's amazing power and strike a rock with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says the staff that turned the water to blood will turn a rock into water.

[SPEAKER_01]: The staff would turn it into the water into blood and it's the same staff, it's the same power, it's the same God, it's the same grace.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's true today, it was true then.

[SPEAKER_01]: That that same power is the same one that can rescue you from this wilderness.

[SPEAKER_01]: Give you provision in your wilderness.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the fourth one, and this is really the most wonderful, the most amazing one, is that it will come about by the Lord's presence as we read in verse six.

[SPEAKER_01]: Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horab and you shall strike the rock, and the water will come out of it that the people may drink, and Moses did so in the side of the elders of Israel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, it's interesting because in my mind, if it were me, I don't understand why he would be so graceful.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I will stand on the rock.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will be with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, later on, he goes up to Mount Sait.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sait, he has to withdraw, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: His majesty and his greatness is on the mountain of Mount Sait, Mount Horab.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so for me, I was really struggling with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't understand what the purpose was because he could have said, all right, gather the people there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses, you guys stand by the rock and I'm going to go up to the mountain because you guys are sinful and you're bringing charge of murder against me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're you're unrighteous.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am holy.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what God says.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm holy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am righteous.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am just.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't be with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I would think.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to go up to the mountain.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to throw like a lightning bolt down.

[SPEAKER_01]: It'll put water out of the rock.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you'll see.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that would be amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Would it not?

[SPEAKER_01]: That would still be amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: They would still be able to record that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Be says, no, no, no.

[SPEAKER_01]: My presence will be there.

[SPEAKER_01]: He could have said, I'm done with these rebellious people.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he didn't.

[SPEAKER_01]: And really, the question is why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why was he not done?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why did he continue to show them love and provision?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's because what the people needed more than water out of Iraq was the presence of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: The presence of the Lord is what they needed the most.

[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm sixty three verse three says that your presence is better than life.

[SPEAKER_01]: That your love is better than life.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, so then I will praise your name.

[SPEAKER_01]: that God is better than life.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's better than water out of Iraq.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is that true of you and me that we would have that same dependence and love for him?

[SPEAKER_01]: That no matter what hunger or thirst that we would choose him, that we would want him desire him more.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what I've been really a question is what's been the point of God rescuing them out of Egypt?

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, they're bringing this charge against him.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're saying you are going to kill us.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have let us out here to let us die.

[SPEAKER_01]: What has God's purpose in this?

[SPEAKER_01]: And really, they're not trusting in what He has said in His promises.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is faithful.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is worthy of our trust.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have not remembered His word.

[SPEAKER_01]: If we go back to the beginning of this, what God says to Moses in Exodus three,

[SPEAKER_01]: If we read Exodus three, seven through nine, it says, the Lord said, I surely have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have given heed to their cry because of their task masters.

[SPEAKER_01]: For I am aware of their sufferings.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does that sound like a God who would then go through amazing things to lead them out into the middle of nowhere and let them dive first?

[SPEAKER_01]: No, it does not.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't remember this.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're too busy focusing on what's in front of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: God continues verse eight, He says, so I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Emerite and the Parasite and the Hivite and the Jebiusite.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Furthermore, I've seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are pressing them.

[SPEAKER_01]: God says, I have seen you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sending a deliverance for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they don't remember that.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't remember his faithfulness and his promises.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's really what I think the purpose of this story is and the need for us is that in the wilderness, when we are camped at Reffedim, wilderness everywhere, no water and sight, remember his promises.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because God is good.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is not taken us into his family as a child of God, of a son or a daughter of the King to leave you abandoned.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need to rely on him and his promises as difficult as that may seem.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to go further into Exodus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go to Exodus, nineteen verses four through five.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says this, God is speaking again.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on Eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the people for all the earth is mine.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we see that God has rescued them to be his possession, his treasure, that he desired them so greatly, that he would go through all the things of Egypt, leading them all the way so that he would have them.

[SPEAKER_01]: They would be his.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's for you and me as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has made us his.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are his possession now, his bride.

[SPEAKER_01]: And how often

[SPEAKER_01]: we think he has either forgotten us or has let us out somewhere to dive first.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he's saying, I'm taking my stand on the rock that will give you life because my presence is your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: My presence is your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: I brought you from Egypt to myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: God saying, you think you need water, you need me.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's true of me and you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so finally our fourth scene is a memorial of failure in verse seven.

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses, he names the place Masa and Maraba, which means testing and quarreling because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel because they tested the Lord saying, is the Lord among us or not?

[SPEAKER_01]: So the main point of this scene would be, Moses memorializes their failure to believe in God's saving presence.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't have a happy ending.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's no revival that, you know, I mean, the presence of the Lord doesn't descend and, you know, joy and all these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's not even repentance really.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's no tearing of sackcloth in ashes.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just ending with a memorial of failure.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's no awakened faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: The story doesn't even end with water.

[SPEAKER_01]: It ends with the promise of water.

[SPEAKER_01]: Note out the water came.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we see that they have, I mean, Jesus is born.

[SPEAKER_01]: So water did come.

[SPEAKER_01]: There was provision for the nation.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it doesn't end with water.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't write that down.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't see that.

[SPEAKER_01]: He ends with the memorial of failure.

[SPEAKER_01]: He ends on the note of failure.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's Israel's failure, and not God.

[SPEAKER_01]: He names it, Massan Maraba for testing because they attested the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: They had brought charges against him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses has one final indictment for them, really.

[SPEAKER_01]: In verse seven of the variant, it says, is the Lord among us or not?

[SPEAKER_01]: God said, I will bring my presence on the rock.

[SPEAKER_01]: Gather everyone so they would see it.

[SPEAKER_01]: My presence will be on the rock.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the people are saying, we don't even know if he's here.

[SPEAKER_01]: That they have so far gone from the promises.

[SPEAKER_01]: They've forgotten his faithfulness and his goodness, that they don't even know if he's there or if he intends to kill them.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what is Moses and God's aim in writing this?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the purpose?

[SPEAKER_01]: It is pretty doom and gloom, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It begins and ends with testing and quarreling and unbelief.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't trust God and they harden their hearts against him.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the big trumpet blast of this passage right here is don't harden your hearts.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying, don't be like them.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what Moses and God are saying in writing this, don't be like these people.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you'll read with me, Hebrews chapter three verses seven through nine, it'll be up on the screen.

[SPEAKER_01]: three, seven through nine, it says this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your father's tried me by testing me, and it's seen my work for forty years.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do not be like them, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't harden your hearts.

[SPEAKER_01]: Another one would be Psalm ninety five versus seven through nine, it says this.

[SPEAKER_01]: For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

[SPEAKER_01]: Today, if you would hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in Maraba, as in the day of Masa, in the wilderness.

[SPEAKER_01]: When your father's tested me, they tried me, though they had seen my work.

[SPEAKER_01]: Guys, we have seen God's work.

[SPEAKER_01]: in your life and in my life and in the lives of other people.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the testimonies are great about that we see God's work in and through others lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she says, we have seen God be good and His work do not harden your hearts.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't be like them.

[SPEAKER_01]: And lastly, this is just, this is just the apostle Paul being amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And first Corinthians ten,

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I'm getting there too.

[SPEAKER_01]: First Corinthians ten says this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's start in verse one.

[SPEAKER_01]: For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses, and the cloud and in the sea, and all at the spiritual food, and all during the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not well-pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now these things happen to as examples for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: You see that there, that story is an example for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's an example, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do not be idolaters as some of them are, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play.

[SPEAKER_01]: nor let us act immorally as some of them did.

[SPEAKER_01]: In twenty-three thousand felon one day, nor let us try the Lord as some of them did and were destroyed by the serpents.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now these things happened to them as an example and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore let him who stands to heed that he does not fall.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we see it is an example for no grumbling, no testing, no quarreling that we would rely on him, do not be like this people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't be like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the message.

[SPEAKER_01]: So when God brings you into waterless encampment and there is wilderness in every direction with no way out, don't be like Israel.

[SPEAKER_01]: trust him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He brought you here and he can bring you out.

[SPEAKER_01]: He will stand on the rock and he will be your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, you might be thinking, this is what I was thinking, how can God uphold the righteousness and his holiness and his justness of his name while also showing mercy to these God, the little and God despising people?

[SPEAKER_01]: How was that possible?

[SPEAKER_01]: They have accused him of murder and yet God, he goes before them.

[SPEAKER_01]: How is he still holy just and righteous?

[SPEAKER_01]: They have brought charges against him and he still provides water.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's no repentance there.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's because God has offered himself as our life while surrounded by the outrage of people and guiding him as evil.

[SPEAKER_01]: How is that possible?

[SPEAKER_01]: And the reason is because of Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Romans three verse, twenty-five, it says that He is the propitiation in His blood through faith that God displayed Him as that.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was to demonstrate His righteousness because in God's merciful restraint, He let the sins previously committed go unpunished.

[SPEAKER_01]: The sins of the fathers before us go unpunished.

[SPEAKER_01]: That the sin that we read in Exodus, seventeen, is covered because of the blood of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: that they did not deserve it and yet it was given.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because of what would happen, fourteen hundred years later, of what Jesus did on the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: So when God passed over the sins of seeing two and four and poured out mercy in seeing three, was he unrighteous?

[SPEAKER_01]: Was he taking his holiness lightly?

[SPEAKER_01]: The answer is no.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knew what he would do in fourteen hundred years.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what Paul was saying in First Corinthians ten, about Israel and the wilderness.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says that the rock that they followed, they was following them, was Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says that rock that they drank from the spiritual food and drink was Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: The provision was Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: The undeserved blessing and the gift of grace was because of Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's interesting in Jewish legend, they thought that the rock, that Moses struck, that had water coming out.

[SPEAKER_01]: They believed that it followed the nation around in the wilderness, that as they would go, they'd camp for a night and they'd wake up and there'd be the rock with the water flowing.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what they believe.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's part of Jewish legend.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's what Paul is talking about when he says the rock which followed them

[SPEAKER_01]: And so for us, we have that same rock, and that rock is following us as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: That it's Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's following us wherever we go, giving us provision and grace and undeserved blessing wherever we are, especially in the wilderness.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the undeserved blessing of water from the rock, the undeserved blessing of mana, the undeserved blessing and deliverance at the red sea, the undeserved guidance day and night all oh to the cross of Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: So now we are right to say that the rock is Christ, the man of the deliverance of the guidance, it was all Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: God's people can enjoy none of it without the blood of Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's for me and you, undeserved blessings that we have been given every day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though we are bringing charges against him, we're accusing him of leading us into middle of the desert.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's still providing for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is promises stand firm.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's true for us who are in Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone does their blessing that we will ever receive, owes to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: as Romans eight thirty two says he who did not spare his own son that gave him up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give us all things.

[SPEAKER_01]: He will give us everything we need to do his will to glorify his name and to make it home.

[SPEAKER_01]: Make it to paradise eternal life with Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Trust in God.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is faithful.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so to sum it all up, the main point of this is that God brings His people to the end of themselves, not to destroy them, but to show that He alone is their rock.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is their water and He is their victory, so that all glory might go to Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as we were about to go into just a time of reflection and prayer,

[SPEAKER_01]: And really what I'd like for this time to be is just at our seats or you can come up the prayer team will be up here.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can come to the rugs and just pray that you would remain faithful, that you would trust in God's promises.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know that there are people in the wilderness right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want you to go to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: to ask him for forgiveness of the accusations you have brought against him and to ask him for the undeserved blessing of water.

[SPEAKER_01]: And really that water is his presence.

[SPEAKER_01]: That his love is better than life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what I want us to do as a church is to go to him ask for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ask for his help.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's the best prayer you can ever pray is God helped me.

[SPEAKER_01]: So this next time that we go into just wherever you're at, if you want to come up, please do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to pray for yourself, I'll be down here as well as the prayer team.

[SPEAKER_01]: But guys, he is worthy of our trust.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is worthy of our trust, especially in the wilderness.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let's pray.

[SPEAKER_01]: Father, your word is so amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for your deliverance, for your purposes, so that it might be written down and recorded so that we would read it here today.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wouldn't get the same effect of your grace and your mercy.

[SPEAKER_01]: The complete undeserving mercy because of your son.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let us run to him now, that we he would carry us every day of our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: Father, the your purpose and the wilderness is our dependence on you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let us depend on you Father.

[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you for who you are, what you've done and what you will do.

[SPEAKER_01]: We pray this all the name of your son.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.