Exodus Series, Part 7 | The Wilderness | Randy Garcete

God is doing in a specific group of people that started off as slaves in Egypt under the tyranny and oppression of Pharaoh.

Last time, several weeks ago, we looked at God's miraculous deliverance of his people, the Israelites, through the Red Sea, the parting of the Red Sea, and how he delivered his people from the armies of Pharaoh not only delivering them, but also completely annihilating the enemies and the armies of Egypt.

We ended the last portion of the service.

We ended with the song that Moses sings, chapter 15, a song of celebration.

It's the first worship song in the Bible and just a powerful song of deliverance, of victory and of God's promises.

So we ended on a really high note of seeing God's power displayed very obviously.

But now we're going to see a different shift in this journey.

We're going to read a lot of Scripture today, so what I'm planning to do is I'm actually going to ask I've asked Marcus to come back up here again, I'm sorry, you can come back up here and he's going to read our passage of Scripture, and then afterwards I will make some comments and preach out of this text.

Apostle Paul told Timothy to give instruction, to teach and to pay attention to the public reading of Scripture, and so this is an effort to do that and to just immerse ourselves in the story of the Bible.

So we're going to pick up in Exodus 15, verse 22, and we're going to read all the way through chapter 17, verse 7.

Exodus 15:22

Now, as we do this, if you have a pen or a pencil or a highlighter, pull it out, take the cap off or click the little clicker and, as we read through this, make a little note or underline every single question that you see the Israelites ask.

You can either write it down on your notepad or just underline it Every question that the Israelites ask to Moses or to each other, or to God, and then I think we'll draw some conclusions from that then.

So go ahead, marcus.

Exodus 15, starting in verse 22.

Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea and they went into the wilderness of Shur.

They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.

When they came to Merah, they could not drink the water of Merah because it was bitter.

Therefore it was named Merah.

And the people grumbled against Moses, saying what shall we drink?

And he cried to the Lord.

And the Lord showed him a log and he threw it into the water and the water became sweet.

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.

And there he tested them saying Then they came to Elam where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

Chapter 16.

They set out from Elam and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.

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 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 out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

Then the Lord said to Moses Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you.

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.

On the sixth day, when they prepare, what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.

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.

For what are we that you grumble against us?

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.

What are we?

Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord.

Then Moses said 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.

In the evening, quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay 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, and Moses said to them it is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.

This is what the Lord has commanded.

Gather of it, each one of you as much as he can eat.

You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.

And the people of Israel did so.

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.

Each of them gathered as much as he could eat, and Moses said to them Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.

But they did not listen to Moses.

Some left part of it till the morning and it bred worms and stank, and Moses was angry with them.

Morning by morning, they gathered it, each as much as he could eat, but when the sun grew hot it melted.

On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each.

And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them this is what the Lord has commanded.

Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.

Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all so.

They laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink and there were no worms in it.

Moses said Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord.

Today you will not find it in the field.

Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.

On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.

And the Lord said to Moses how long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath.

Therefore, on the sixth day, he gives you bread for two days.

Remain each of you in his place.

Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.

So the people rested on the seventh day.

Now the house of Israel called its name manna.

It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

Moses said this is what the Lord has commanded.

Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.

And Moses said to Aaron take a jar and put an omer of manna in it and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations, as the Lord commanded Moses.

So Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept.

The people of Israel ate the manna forty years till they came to a habitable land.

They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

And Omer is the tenth part of an ephah, chapter 17.

All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim.

But there was no water for the people to drink.

Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said give us water to drink.

And Moses said to them why do you quarrel with me.

Why do you test the Lord?

But the people thirsted 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?

So Moses cried to the Lord what shall I do with this people?

They are almost ready to stone me.

And the Lord said to Moses Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go.

Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it and the people will drink.

And Moses did so in the sight of the.

Thank you, marcus, amen.

So over the past several weeks, I've learned a new word, and I think it's a word that will be helpful as we dive into this passage.

That word is liminal Liminal how many of you know what the word liminal means?

Okay, all right, so liminal.

I discovered this word in Carmen Iams' book called Bearing God's Name, why Sinai Still Matters, and this was a new word for me, and it's a word that comes from the Latin word limen, meaning threshold.

Now, the word liminal means to be in an intermediate state or phase or condition, an in-between phase or transitional.

One writer puts it this way, or defines it this way, that liminal space is the uncertain transition between where you've been and where you're going physically, mentally, emotionally or metaphysically.

To be in a liminal space means to be on the precipice of something new, but not quite there yet.

And there's a lot of examples of physical liminal spaces, so a really simple one would be this doorway right here.

If I am on the other side of this door and I open the door, I'm currently in this room, but I'm going to this room.

I'm currently in this room, but I'm going to this room, the auditorium.

At some point I'm in between both rooms.

I'm not quite in this room fully, but I'm also not fully in the room behind me.

A hotel hallway is a liminal space.

Think of the long passageway past all the hotel bedroom doors that you walk.

It's not a space you stay in, it's a transitional space.

A couple other examples of this would be the interstate, interstate 77.

You get on there, but your goal is that's not your end goal.

You're on there for a little bit, hopefully a little bit, but your goal is to get on that off ramp and get to where you're going.

Can you think of any other physical liminal spaces, spaces that are transitional or between two certain areas?

Pregnancy, yes, that's a really good one.

And and maybe well, I'll elaborate on that a little bit more Any others.

Hospital bed Okay, beside your bed, okay, not in it Okay, so you're, that's okay.

The path from the kitchen to the bedroom yeah.

Any others Physical spaces that are liminal?

Airports, that's great.

Vehicles.

Airports that's great vehicles, that's really good.

I heard one more over here taxes, taxis.

I wish taxes were liminal.

Yeah, those are really great, we could there's.

Once you once get that concept, you sort of see it everywhere and those were all great examples.

Those are physical liminal spaces.

Now there are things like emotional liminal spaces or non-physical liminal spaces, and anthropologists use this word to describe a coming-of-age ritual in a lot of tribal people groups, where a boy who's like becoming older, goes out into the wilderness and spends a couple days there, maybe kills a lion or wrestles an alligator.

I don't know what they do out there, but when they come back the village receives them as a man.

They go out a boy, they're out there.

There's something that happens that when they come back they're received as a man and there's this liminal space where they're in transition and becoming something different.

Different Liminal spaces change us.

Sue mentioned pregnancy.

There's that nine-month period where you are a mom, but not in all the senses that you eventually will be.

There's something that happens where you're changing and you're a mom yet, but not in all the senses.

Are there any other emotional or non-physical ideas of liminal spaces?

Engagement that's great.

Yeah, you're not married, but you're also not just dating anymore.

You're not married, but you're also not just dating anymore.

School you would know something about that.

Yeah, anything else.

I think of a move, a physical move.

I know there's multiple ones of you here who've, in the past several years, have either moved into the area from out of state or moved homes.

There's that transition period from what life was like before you moved to then you move and there's this new reality that you have to learn how to deal with and learn how to become.

So you come here and you're like, okay, well, I'm in Holmes County or I'm in Dover, but my heart is still in Boston or in Millersburg or whatever.

I think of hearing the diagnosis of a serious illness.

There's what life was like before you found out that your wife had cancer.

And then you hear that diagnosis and everything changes.

Life is no longer normal and you're hoping that this is just a transitional time, that things will go back to normal.

But things are never really normal again.

I think of the death of a spouse or a loved one or a child.

There's what life is supposed to be like normal, stable, consistent and then suddenly your spouse passes away and all of a sudden life is no longer normal and life will never be normal in that sense again.

Liminal spaces change you, they change who you are as a person and they raise questions for us that normal, consistent, stable life doesn't really bring up.

I think of one liminal moment that we've all experienced and that is COVID-19.

I remember the day it was about how many years ago, was it?

About four years ago now?

I was traveling and we had heard about COVID and that it was coming closer and closer.

And I remember hearing about the first case in Ohio.

And then I heard my relatives in Pennsylvania saying that their work is shutting down, like they're supposed to stop working, and I remember that moment, the incredible fear that I felt of saying, okay, what if that happens?

Here and in liminal moments they raise questions for us and some of those questions are things like what's normal supposed to look like?

How will I provide for myself or my family?

Who will take care of me?

As humans, we crave consistency and predictability.

In a world where there is very, very little predictability or stability, and when we experience something that upsets that predictability or that consistency, it raises all kinds of questions that we have to deal with.

Okay, so how does this tie into Exodus?

Okay, so how does this tie into Exodus For Israel?

I believe their time in the wilderness was a liminal space.

They, for 400 plus years, had been in the land of Egypt.

They had a hard life, but it was predictable and it was consistent.

It was difficult.

Praise God, they're no longer slaves anymore.

God has delivered them out of Egypt, has set them free, and we ended on a high note where God is worshiped and praised for what he's done, how he's delivered them.

But their destination is not the wilderness, their destination is a promised land.

And we realize pretty soon, as we're reading this story out of the Red Sea, that there's a long journey to the promised land and for the next 40 years they're going to be in the wilderness.

And they don't know how long they're going to be there.

God didn't tell them hey, you're going to be in the wilderness.

And they don't know how long they're going to be there.

God didn't tell them hey, you're going to be in the wilderness for this long.

They're thinking they're on their way to the promised land and all of a sudden they emerge out of the Red Sea into the wilderness.

And this is a liminal moment for them, a transitional moment between Egypt and the promised land.

And it's in the wilderness, and that's what I'm going to refer to the liminal space, the wilderness.

It's a picture that we can relate to In the.

In Egypt, they had jobs, they knew who was in charge, they knew what to do to get food.

They had access to the greatest water source in the known world.

Life was somewhat stable, even if it was hard.

But now out here in the wilderness, nothing is stable, nothing is predictable.

Everything is sort of up for grabs.

Who's in charge?

Is it Moses?

And that's a whole journey for Moses too.

That he's he's going to be learning.

But what I want to look at in in this story is the three.

There's three different incidences in the passage that we read where they encounter their obvious lack or their need or a problem that they encounter, and how they respond to that, the questions they ask, and then what God teaches them through that.

Okay, so the first sort of initial problem that they face is they come out of the Red Sea.

They're rejoicing.

Then in verse 22 of chapter 15, it says Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea and they went into the wilderness of Shur Verse 23,.

When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter.

Therefore it was named Marah.

The first problem they run into is no water and for a people that had access to the greatest fresh water source in that part of the world to be away from that, to be out in the wilderness with my little kids, with maybe my elderly parents or my grandparents, in the desert and there's no water.

That's a problem.

And it's a problem that if we don't find a solution for like now, we're going to die.

And we see them how they respond.

They say and the people grumbled against Moses, saying what shall we drink?

And we give them a lot of grief for the grumbling.

We're like like the word grumbling is referred to 10 times in this chapter and it's you heard it in Marcus's voice when he was reading the grumbling it's not a, it's not a pleasant thing, like it's not a, it's not a pleasant thing, it's not a positive thing, it's not even portrayed as a positive thing.

But they had reason to grumble.

My wife and I, on our honeymoon we were in Joshua Tree.

We were in California but we did some hiking in Joshua Tree, which is like the desert part of California and it's beautiful but it is barren, dry and a scary and a little bit dangerous place.

We took a two-gallon jug of water from the gas station down the road and we hiked.

I think it was maybe five miles back in.

It was in and out to an old gold mine and we ran out of water about halfway back on our walk back and we were okay, like we were thirsty.

It was hot, we were thirsty, but we were going to be okay.

But this is that.

You don't really think about that until you're in that situation.

Some of you guys have water bottles here and are just sipping it or coffee or tea, but we have access to water and that's not something we deal with.

But they encounter this problem and the question in their minds is well, what should we drink?

But deeper than that is, who's going to provide for us?

Like, where are we going to get this?

Who's going to come through here?

Like Pharaoh he was a tyrant, but he at least gave us water.

This new God, this God of Moses and our forefathers, a God that we're seeking to follow, how is he going to provide for us?

How is he going to come through for us?

We see what God does through Moses.

Moses throws a log or a tree into the water and the water became sweet, and God hears their grumbling and he changes the bitter water into sweet water and then he says in verse 25, then the Lord made for them a statute and a rule.

And there he tested them, and that word tested will come up again in the next several verses.

What God is doing in the wilderness is he's testing them and he's seeing if they have what it takes to follow him with complete abandon, even when it doesn't make sense, even when it gets hard.

Some of you are maybe in a liminal space right now.

Maybe you're struggling with an illness that you just found out about, or some of you maybe just moved and are trying to find your footing or trying to make sense of life, and that raises questions like what's normal?

Am I going to be okay?

Is God in control?

Does he see this, carmen Imes says in her book.

She says God is not in a hurry to lead them out of liminal space and into the land he promised to give them.

They're not ready yet.

See, for 400 plus years they were slaves and that slavery.

They're out of slavery physically, but that's all they've known.

That's been their identity, and now God is preparing them for inhabiting a new land, and it's going to take some time, all right.

So the next problem they run into is lack of food, and so I identify with this hands down, because I love food and I think I would probably die from lack of food quicker than lack of water in the wilderness.

But they head out from Elam in chapter 16.

And let's see here Verse 2, the whole.

Our Thanksgiving dinners For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

What they're saying is look around us, there's nothing out here for food.

We left the most fertile fields, the biggest food production land in that region where people came from other countries to our land to buy food.

But now we left that.

So we were slaves and yeah, that wasn't fun, but we at least had food.

We had meat, we had pots of meat, we had bread.

But out here, what are we going to eat?

Who's going to feed my children?

Like?

This is a big problem, and we see, first of all, with this meat thing, the picture that I get is how many of you have been to a Brazilian steakhouse?

Okay, a couple of you have been to a Brazilian steakhouse?

Okay, a couple of you.

It is a glorious experience and if you ever get the opportunity to go to a Brazilian steakhouse with Joe Troyer and his brothers, it is well worth the experience.

But that's the picture I get is abundance and no lack of food, but they run out of food and then this grumbling theme continues.

They grumble and with this grumbling it's not just like God, will you please take care of us, it's like Moses, you brought us out here to kill us.

Or like it would have been better for God to kill us back there, where we at least had food.

Out here we got nothing and I'm going to die.

I'm going to die with an empty stomach and my kids are going to starve and like I would have much rather been a slave in Egypt.

And they say it would have been better for us to die in Egypt.

And then we see down in verse 8, where Moses said the Lord has heard your grumbling, that you grumble against him.

Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.

And there's a promise that God gives Moses that says I've heard the grumbling of my people, I've heard their grumbling and I'm going to provide and I think that to me is such a wonderful promise that even when we grumble, sometimes in a negative way, and we blame God, we blame other people around us and we're just sort of angry at the world and we just want to go back to Egypt that God hears that and he doesn't just turn his back.

What happens next is an amazing, amazing thing.

It says in verse 10,.

As soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.

So they were following this cloud in the wilderness.

So this thing's always present.

But what did this look like?

It wasn't just a cloud, but it was the glory of the Lord in the cloud.

I imagine some sort of light or something in this cloud that was like that's God's glory, and he's heard our grumbling and he sees us and he's taking care of us and he says at twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread.

And that night he sends quail, which honestly would have been a terrifying experience.

I hate birds, they're like a phobia of mine and I just yeah, anyways, I probably would have died right there.

But this flock of quail, come in cover the camp.

Yeah, I completely would be dead already.

And then in the morning the dew comes and when it dries up, there's this bread or this fine.

It says this flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground.

When the people of Israel saw it.

They said to one another what is it?

What is it?

And then Moses said to them it is the bread that the Lord has given to you to eat, and this is what the Lord has commanded.

Gather it, each of you as much as he can eat, and you shall take an omer according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.

And the people of Israel did so.

Amazing how God provided for them when they didn't have any food in the wilderness.

They had quail, they had meat better than the meat pots of Egypt, more abundant, and they had enough bread to survive.

And that continued to happen for 40 years.

To me that's just I don't know amazing that that happened every day and God provided for them for 40 years.

But we see in verse 23, this is what the Lord has commanded.

Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a of Sabbath in the Old Testament, but this theme was already present in creation, where God worked six days and on the seventh day he rested and he said it's good and I'm going to enjoy it.

In the middle of their greatest need, he introduces this idea or he institutes this practice.

They're in the wilderness, they're in a scary place.

And he says in this moment, scary place.

And he says in this moment, I guess it's the time to start Sabbath-ing.

And I'm not going to get into all the Sabbath practices and all of that until later and even what it means for us today, but I believe this was a moment where God was teaching them to trust him.

We see, on verse 27,.

On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather but they found none.

He had specifically told them get enough on the sixth day so that you don't have to go out on the seventh day, you can just enjoy it, what I've given you.

But there's this, this, almost this, this, this fear driven like, like scarcity mentality that, okay, like you gave me enough today for tomorrow.

But the Sabbath day comes and it says some of the people went out to gather and they didn't find any.

Why did they go out?

Like they had enough?

Why didn't they just like sleep in or just worship with the rest of the people?

Why did they have to go out and go look for more?

And I think it was because of all these questions that they're asking Is God going to take care of me?

Like who's going to take care of my family and I have to go out there.

And our culture today says you've got to get out there and you've got to hustle, you've got to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and if you don't take care of yourself, nobody's going to take care of you.

But God is going against that, saying no, I'm going to provide for you and I'm going to take care of you.

And he's asking them to trust him.

Let's move on to chapter 17.

And again they run into a problem.

They move through the wilderness, move on from the wilderness of sin by stages.

It says so.

There was this progressive movement and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

It seems like at this point they should be learning that, okay, no water to drink, like we'll be, okay, like God's going to take care of us.

But, man, I can identify with this because they have to learn lessons over and over and over again.

God is using these moments to teach them to trust him.

They quarreled with Moses, said give us water to drink.

And what ends up happening?

The Lord says to Moses pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel and taking your hand, the staff with you which, with you, struck the Nile, and go Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it and the people will drink.

And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

This is just, I'll be honest, it's just strange.

I have a hard time picturing this.

It's just so.

When I want water, I go to my kitchen sink and I turn up the faucet, and sometimes even that is too much for me to do, like we have access to water, but out in the wilderness they're completely dependent on God, completely dependent on him.

And he says I'm going to go stand before you on that rock.

And there's some beliefs or some people will say that when God stood there on that rock, that when Moses hit the rock, he actually struck God and it was a foreshadowing of the death and suffering of Christ and how Christ is living water for you and I today.

But it was did this and God provided again fresh drinking water.

So we get to the end of this of the text.

It says because of the quarreling of the people of Israel and because they tested the Lord by saying and here's the last question that if you were taking notes or underlining, this is the last question that you underlined and this is the question is the Lord among us or not?

Is the Lord among us or not?

The first question was is the Lord among us or not?

The first question was where can we get water?

And the last question, which I believe is the underlying question about all of these little problems in the liminal space that they're in, is is the Lord among us or not?

Because it's not really about the water or the bread, it's about who's going to take care of me, like, who's going to provide for me.

And as you and I, we experienced these things.

We asked the same questions.

As we experience these things, we ask the same questions.

And it was in this time in the wilderness, this time of unknown, of uncertainty, that they would continually be asking that question Will the Lord come through for us?

Is he among us or not?

Like, can I trust him?

Can I trust that he'll provide and take care of me?

Carmen Im says For Israel, the wilderness journey from Egypt to Canaan is liminal space far more than just a place to pass through, and I think this is the key.

As we look at the Israelites, she says it is the workshop of Israel's becoming.

It is the workshop of Israel's becoming.

The wilderness is their temporary destination.

That makes them who they are.

Liminal spaces always do that.

They change us.

So God is using this time in the wilderness.

They change us.

So God is using this time in the wilderness, this time of unpredictability, of danger, of fear, to change them, to form them, to shape them into the people he wants them to become.

And it's a long process and God is not in a hurry.

God is not in a hurry, he's not in a hurry.

If I was part of that group of people, I would be.

I'd be like let's get to Canaan as soon as we can.

God's like no, we're just going to be out here for about 40 years and we're just going to take our time.

Because there's a lot of change I want to see in your life and it's going to come through hardship and every day.

You're going to have to wake up and learn to trust me.

You're going to have to learn that I'm there for you, like I'll care for you, I'll be there for you.

The wilderness was a workshop that God worked in their lives.

It was a workshop of their character.

It was a means by which God formed them and shaped them into his people, the people he wanted to become.

What wilderness are you in right now?

We've spent a lot of time focusing on the Israelites, but let's bring this to today.

What wilderness are you walking through right now?

Take out a pen or your tablet or phone.

Take about 10 seconds and think about what is the wilderness that I am walking through right now, and it doesn't have to be something catastrophic like the death of a loved one.

It can be something, anything that you feel is a hardship or that has you wondering and asking like will God come through?

Will God take care of me?

Will he provide for me?

Can I trust him?

What wilderness are you in right now?

And write it down.

I'm not going to ask you to share it.

I'm not going to ask you to share it.

It can be complex, it can be simple, and take some time to think about that wilderness, and this is what I want you to think of now for maybe like 30 seconds.

What are the questions that you're asking about the wilderness that you're in like?

What questions are you asking about the wilderness that you're in, like, what questions are you asking about the situation, the specifics of the situation and, even broader than that, what are the questions you're asking about God in the middle of that?

And then write those down as well.

I'm going to go to the bathroom.

Thank you for your patience.

I know we're a little over time, but I think this is really important for the last little section here to really bring it home for us, for the last little section here to really bring it home for us.

I shared with my communion group a couple weeks ago what I was sort of planning to talk about for this next sermon and someone asked me so are you in a wilderness right now?

And I had to think about that a little bit.

I would say that I am.

Some of the things that we've gone through as a church over the last year have left me asking a lot of questions.

It's easy to talk about trusting God, but in reality it's really difficult.

I'm learning the need to trust that God will take care of me, will take care of the people I love, and that he's in control, and that he's actually working in the middle of all of that, that there's something he's doing in us in me, james 1,.

He says Count it all, joy my brothers when.

Says Same word there as what God said in Exodus.

There's that sitting in that liminal space, that transition, that space where all the predictability is gone and you want stability, but maybe you don't sense it or have it.

It's like that's where God's working in your heart, because he's asking you to trust him in the middle of that, even when it doesn't feel like you can.

Because he's asking you to trust him in the middle of that, even when it doesn't feel like you can.

Malcolm Muggeridge says he was a British journalist in the 20th century.

He says, contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction.

Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness.

That's not comforting words, it's not something you'd hang on your wall.

Oswald Chambers says there are some things only learned in a fiery furnace.

John Bunyan there's a quote by him says If thou meet with the cross on thy journey, in what manner soever it be, be not daunted and say, alas, what shall I do now?

But rather take courage, knowing that by the cross is the way to the kingdom, the way to the promised land.

Where we're going is through hardship, it's through liminal, it's a liminal space.

One maybe takeaway for you today is verse the last part of chapter 16.

God tells the Israelites to gather bread and some of this manna in a jar and keep it, and they carry this jar of manna with them for future generations and so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness.

As you experience the wilderness in your own life, remember what God has already done in the past for you.

Take note of how he's provided for you in the past, and that provides a sense of comfort and peace and provides some sense of like hey, god is actually there and has taken care of me and will take care of me.

In closing, I'd like to close with prayer.

I ask you to stand, close with prayer.

I ask you to stand, take whatever you wrote down as your wilderness, and if you didn't write anything, that's okay.

But for those of you who did, hold that in your hand, whether it's on your phone or in your notepad, and we're just going to present that to God.

We're just going to say, god, this is where I'm at right now and you're asking me to trust you and I'm having a really hard time doing that.

But I want to keep following you and life just doesn't make sense to me right now.

But help me to trust you in the middle of that and to know that you've got this.

Let's pray, father, we love you and we need you.

God, we are a group of people, like the Israelites, who there's so much of Egypt left in our hearts.

There's so much of Egypt left in our hearts, and we know that you're trying to form and shape us into a people that trust and love you and are completely sold out for you.

But, god, life is hard and it's confusing and it raises all kinds of questions, to where we even come, to the point of asking the Lord are you with us?

Are you among us or not?

Are you with us?

Are you even working or real?

And for those of us who are hurting or wondering that, lord, I pray that you would take our questions and that you would just sit with us in the middle of that and help us to trust you in whatever way that you're asking us to God, there's a lot of different situations here at Grace Point, even with the visitors here.

I don't know what everybody has, I don't know what kind of situations or what kind of wildernesses we're all in, but I know that life is hard and that we do encounter them.

And, lord, I pray that you would enter into the wilderness with us and, like you appeared in the cloud when the Israelites were grumbling, I pray that you would, in the same way that you would present yourself and you would show us your presence, reveal yourself to us in our own wilderness, that we could trust you and continue following you.

In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.