Bitter to Sweet

Well, today we are in week five of our Exodus part two sermon series, where we’re walking through the book of Exodus chapter by chapter, verse by verse. If you’re new to Shepherds Gate, we started this back in January, went all the way up to Holy Week, took a break, and now we’ve begun preaching through the text. And so if you’re here and I haven’t had a chance to meet you yet, I’d love the opportunity to do that after the service.

I’ll be out in the West Lobby. There’s a Welcome Center. We’d love for you to connect there.

There’s a gift for you there. But it just gives us an opportunity to thank you for joining us today. I want to say hi to everybody that’s streaming in online, our friends that are at First Lutheran and Algonac, and anybody that may be watching later on demand.

This is what October looks like. If you’re wondering, just seeing how methodical we are on this, we try not to rush anything. We really encourage you to be part of this, not just on Sundays, but throughout the week as well.

And what you might not know is that the Detroit Lions organization has actually given us a gift in October. Did you know that? I called and I said, here, I need you guys to do me a solid, okay? And so for the entire month of October, just October, all of the Lions games are afternoon or evening games. Isn’t that incredible? So there’s no reason to ever miss church, okay? That’s a big thing for us here at Shepherds Gate.

Be present every single week. Read the text if you can. Those of you that did this know that there was only six verses.

We only have to get through six verses this morning. And then the way to engage with the text or even to invest in your family, the easiest way to do that is to download our app. When you download our app, the front screen always has Exodus part two.

You just click where it says reading plan and cues, and it’ll actually open up questions that you can follow along throughout the week after we preach the sermon. So you read it before you come, you listen to the sermon, and then you interact with the questions afterwards. And we just watch and see how that enhances your worship experience.

Now, because I said we’re on week five, I want to give you a little bit of recap in case this is your first time with us. It says this in Exodus chapter 13. This is kind of where we’ve been, is that God brought his people out of slavery.

They were enslaved for over 400 years, and God was the one that delivered them. He leads them to the Red Sea. Their enemies start pressing in upon them.

They’re looking back. They’re scared. They’re crying out to Moses.

They’re crying out to God. They don’t know what’s going to happen. God performs this miracle.

He parts the Red Sea. They walk through on dry ground, and once all of the children of Israel, God’s people, get through, these people, their enemies, the Egyptians, are coming through on chariots, and God performs another miracle by causing the sea to collapse on top of them, and God kills their enemy. He wipes out every single one of them.

In fact, the scriptures tell us that their bodies are just washing up the shore, like they’re literally seeing the destruction of their enemy with their own eyes, and as we looked at last week, what’s the proper response? What’s the only response they knew to do was they start singing out praises to God, which is why we had our worship focus last week. How many of you were here, and you just loved that, right? That was like a record. I think it was so awesome.

Our worship team did such a great job. Those of you that love singing, you love worship. Jeff, who’s our worship director, he’s only been with us for three months.

You’re going to be finding out information about worship nights that he’s going to be planning in the future, and so when I say he’s just getting started in what it is that God’s going to do in and through him, I really mean he’s just getting started, so pay attention to those. We’re excited to have those as we head into the future. So here they are.

They’re singing out their lungs. They’re dancing. Did you know dancing’s okay? Did you guys pick that up last week? I know sometimes people think the worship leader should have duct tape and they shouldn’t be able to move, or they should be behind instruments or something.

No! God’s the one that said to dance, make a joyful noise, to lift up your voices, to worship him, to use your hands, to use your body as that expression of your adoration toward our gracious, loving, faithful God. Amen? And what’s so interesting is as soon as they go through the Red Sea, the word that’s used in the text is then. So they go through the Red Sea, it says, then they break out in song, and it’s the same word you’re going to see here today.

So if you have your Bible, you want to turn to Exodus chapter 15. We’re going to start in verse 22, where again it says, then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went into the desert of Shur. The difficulty is we don’t know how much time is then.

Does anyone have any guesses? Is it a day? Is it a week? Is it a month? Did they just hang out by the Red Sea for an entire year? What’s going on in the text? And what’s fascinating, this was originally written in Hebrew. If you dig into the Hebrew words, which are much more robust, much more detailed than our English language, what you find out is that Moses leading here, even this word led, is a very forcible word. Like literally, he’s telling them, pack your bags, we are leaving.

We are getting out of here. In fact, Jewish scholars believe that what was happening is the children of Israel were actually pillaging the dead bodies that were washing up on shore. Remember, they were enslaved, and so all they had were the possessions that were on them.

And so when they see these, you know, officers and these people that would have been in nice clothes and had nice jewelry and all of those things, that God now needs to get them out of where they are at. So most people would say they weren’t there for a very long time, like God needed to move his people on. And it says they’re traveling three days in the desert without finding water.

And everybody says, uh-oh, right? Here’s the key in all this. God wanted to get his people out of Egypt. They know that the promise of the promised land is still to come, but God also has to go through a process of getting Egypt out of his people.

You know, we live in the world, and it’s so easy for us to get absorbed by the things of the world. And sometimes we think that this is our final home. This is our final place.

And it’s not. We’re just here temporarily. We’re just traveling through until we get to our ultimate home, which is to be in the presence of Jesus forever and ever and ever.

So it’s kind of a good warning to us to not hold on to material possessions or get so obsessed with the things that we have in our lives because one of two things are going to happen. Either we’re going to die or Jesus is going to come back. And in both incidences, our possessions mean absolutely nothing.

And so even in our lives, God has to constantly get the world out of us and sometimes our love of the world to turn us into the image of his son, which is what he does each and every day. So it says this in 23. It says, When they came to Marah, okay, three days, no water, they could not drink its water because it was bitter.

Now, I would like to know, who was the first person that tried the water? Like, who are the people that were just ready to pass out? Was it a kid? Was it a parent? Was it Moses? Was it someone in a leadership position? Was it a bunch of people and they start tasting the water? I mean, try to put yourself there at the scene. And yet, very quickly, they realize that this water is not good for drinking. How long can a person go without water? Who knows? Is that true? I mean, if you guys are the medical people, I don’t know.

I was just wondering. You can’t go five? Can you go six? Seven? Where are the nurses? How many? There’s a nurse. How many? How long have you seen somebody go? Oh, seven.

She sees somebody go seven. So God is really pushing them to the breaking point, is he not? How many of you just happen to be seated next to somebody that gets really cranky when they don’t have food? If that’s you, go ahead and raise your hand loud and proud. And what do you call those people? Right, right.

And you’re the 11 o’clock service. So hopefully you fed them breakfast before they came. Otherwise, they’re going to be like, Tim, hurry this along.

I got lunch plans afterwards. I mean, it’s amazing how much food is part of our lives, how obsessed we become with it. This isn’t just food.

This is water that they are begging for. And so what does it say in verse 24? The people grumbled against Moses, saying, what are we to drink? Now, I kind of find this fascinating, that that’s all that they thought to do. Where are the men? Or where are the leaders? Why didn’t they gather together and say, hey, we haven’t had water for three days.

Maybe some of us should divide up, and maybe some people should go in this direction, in this direction, in this direction, and then report back. And eventually, maybe we would find water. Like, nobody comes up with a plan.

Their only plan is to complain to Moses that there’s no water. And poor Moses is just listening to all these complaints. He’s just listening to the bickering of all of these people coming through his two ears.

I am so thankful, just so you know, for Shepherd’s Gate Church, because no one ever complains about anything here at the church. This is why I will never leave this church. I talk to other pastors.

Eric and I are getting ready to go to a pastor’s conference later today up in Boyne, and I’m going to hear from pastors, and they’re going to tell us stories about people in their church that all they do is complain. And I always have to say the same thing. I don’t have that problem.

We never have that. No one ever sends an email. No one ever stops me in the hallway.

This is an incredible place, just so you know. So it’s hard for me to understand what Moses must have been going through. But the reality is, how quickly they go from singing to sinning.

And why is that? See, their grumbling and their complaining may be spoken to Moses, but it’s directed toward the Lord. And their grumbling shows the true nature of their heart, that they actually don’t believe and trust God who just brought them out of slavery and brought them through the Red Sea. It’s a trust issue.

I know some of you right now, you’re like, wait a second, grumbling and complaining is a sin? But I do that every day. In fact, when I wake up, that’s all I do is complain. Yes, you need to get delivered.

You probably need help. And if your family doesn’t want to be around you, and you keep wondering, why doesn’t my family want to be around you? It’s probably because you’re a complainer. Thus, you are a sinner.

Because all complaining does is show the true nature of where your heart actually is. God doesn’t want you to complain. God wants you, even in the midst of trials and circumstances, to trust that you are his child, and that he will work all things out for your good.

Because that’s what his scriptures declare over your life. He works all things out for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. Are you called according to his purpose? Which means that every trial, every circumstance, every hardship that you are facing, God has you exactly where he wants you to be.

And if he’s putting the pressure on, and you don’t feel you’re getting the answers that you need in the time that you need them, all that means is, is that he’s refining you. That he’s leaning into you. That he is, in that moment, getting you to trust more and more in who he is, and what he can do, and how he will protect you and lead and guide you with your life.

This thirst didn’t create their unbelief. All it did was reveal it. Now what’s fascinating is if you haven’t read 1 Corinthians chapter 10, I would encourage you to do that, because a guy named Paul writes this letter to a church in Corinth in the New Testament.

In all of chapter 10, he kind of summarizes what’s happening in Exodus. And one of the things, check this out, that he actually writes to the church in Corinth is this. Do not grumble as the Egyptians did.

Which means if Paul wrote it for the church in Corinth, I get to tell you today, stop grumbling! Don’t be like the Egyptians. Put your hope in Christ. Know that he is at work in your life.

Not only in Corinthians, we also find this in James. And this is one of the hardest verses, I think, to read. It’s one of the hardest verses to live by.

Because James tells us that we should count it joy when we face trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of our faith is what produces steadfastness. I’m going to see if Jeff might be able to create a song where we could sing these words.

You ever notice another worship song say this? God, please stretch our faith. God, please make our lives miserable. God, please bring hardship into our lives.

And then make us joyful in the fact that we’re suffering. How many of you would love if that was our opening worship song here at Shepherds Gate? You’d be like, I ain’t singing a song. But isn’t that what he’s telling you to do? You count it a joy when God is focused so much on you that your life is experiencing a pain point.

And yet somehow in that pain point, that means that God loves you and he’s at work in your situation. Steadfastness. You know steadfastness literally means remaining faithful under trial? It’s your future self.

Which is fascinating now on social media as this has become kind of a trend that everyone’s all focused on their future self. So you’re going to work out so that your future self, you’re going to eat healthy so that your future self, you’re going to put this skin cream on so that your future self doesn’t have wrinkles anymore. So far it’s not working for me.

What about your spiritual life? What about your future spiritual life? So as Moses is hearing the complaints of the people this time, as he’s done before, he responds correctly. He doesn’t complain to God, he cries out to God. He drops to his knees, he raises his hands and he says, God, you brought us here.

I know you’re the one that’s leading and guiding us. I know you’ve given us the promise of the promised land. God, how do I fix this problem? How do I get through this challenge that we are facing? And isn’t it fascinating that God is the one? The Lord showed him a piece of wood.

How did he show him a piece of wood? Anybody have any guesses on that one? So like a big beam of light that just, oh, over here there’s a piece of wood. Now this isn’t anything different from what Moses has been through. He’s got kind of this relationship with God because remember God revealed himself in a burning bush to Moses.

He also gave, you know, Moses a rod and he’d throw it down, it’d turn into a snake and he’d pick it back up and it’d turn back into a rod. So, you know, Moses has been through a few rounds of this with God and if God says, here’s a piece of wood, you can kind of see that Moses has been through a few rounds of this. Moses is going to go along with whatever God’s plan is.

And so he grabs this piece of wood, he throws it into the water and wouldn’t you know, another miracle takes place and all of a sudden it’s fit to drink. And who was the first person then that got to taste that new clean water? Was it Moses that showed him it was now clean to drink? And even in that moment, whoever it was, everyone just go rushing toward the water and they’re all just consuming it with their hands because they’re so thirsty and they knew that that’s what they needed to continue to live. Now, as soon as this is over, and this is also God’s plan, is immediately following, God kind of gives rules and instructions.

He did this when they were leaving Egypt. He gave them rules and instructions on how they were to worship and what they were to do and not do. And so we see the same pattern again in verse 25 where it said the Lord issued a ruling and instruction and he’s doing this.

Why is he doing this? To put them to the test. Okay, time out. Why do they need to be tested? I mean, isn’t the three days without water kind of a test? I’d be like, okay God, I think they got through round one.

Do they really need a second round of this? And here’s what’s so important when you read the Bible. God isn’t testing them because he doesn’t know what they will do. Just like God doesn’t test us not knowing what we will ultimately decide to do.

God knows the beginning and the end, the first and the last. He knows exactly how we are going to respond. What he is doing in these moments is exposing the reality that is actually in our hearts.

The motive of our hearts, the lack of faith in our hearts and getting us to truly lean on him and trust his direction for our lives and not just for our lives but the lives of our kids and our grandkids and everybody that God has placed within our circle of influence. Which begs this question, which I want us to spend a few moments on this morning. Where might God be teaching you to trust him? Do you know? I guarantee you every single one of you in here in some way, shape or form or if you’re streaming in online is facing a hardship.

You’re facing a difficult situation or relationship. Maybe I should help you this morning. Anybody have a teenager in the house you want to kill? Anybody have a boss that you wish wasn’t your boss? Anybody have a co-worker you wish would go to another company? How about a neighbor? Anybody have a neighbor that every fall the tree, the leaves from the neighbor’s tree somehow magically by the way the wind blows falls all into your yard and that neighbor never ever has the compassion to come over and to rake up the leaves that fell from their tree.

Anybody have that situation? Remember I’m on the board of my subdivision and you wouldn’t believe some of the stuff that we deal with and sometimes I can get a little sarcastic on email especially when people email complaints and sometimes you know I’m not very Christ-like in my response which is why I should always sleep on an email for at least 24 to 48 hours because sometimes they’ll just say, hey because I’m the secretary so I have access to all the emails. Why do you live in a subdivision? Like we’re all sharing lawns. We’re all sharing spaces.

Maybe there’s something else that God’s trying to teach you in that simple moment. Something that’s so frustrating or somehow causes you to have such anger in your life. I’ll tell you mine the last several months.

The last several months it’s been exhausting to deal with our building program specifically Chick-fil-a. I cannot figure out why this is taking so long just so you know. I have cried out to God.

I have complained to God. I have rationalized with God. I have said to God, God did you know Chick-fil-a is a Christian organization? Did you know that Shepherd’s Gate is a Christian church? Did you know the two guys that we work closely with are both Christians from Chick-fil-a? I know that because I went on their Facebooks and I stalked them and I found out they both go to church.

And I have said to God, we are all on team Jesus and we all want our church to grow. And we want to be through this building program. God why is it taking so long? I don’t understand.

I don’t get it. Wah, wah, wah. And this week our executive director Jim Jensen, part of his roles and responsibility here is he does a lot of the data analysis and helps us to make sure that we’re moving people through the discipleship plan that we got to preach through back in August.

And so he works with all of our ministry leaders, Pastor Eric in particular, who oversees our kids, students and adults and all the new classes and small groups. And he looks at worship data as well. And so he’s tracking to see, you know, are there things that we’re missing? Is there things that we need to be aware of? And it was crazy to have the conversation with him this week because he said, Tim, do you realize that we have been worshiping in the gym now for over three years? Does it seem like three years? The nine o’clock said no, by the way.

So over three years ago, we left Egypt and we came into the gym. And we have been worshiping in the gym. We started in the summer, so it’s been over three years now.

And he said this, you’re not going to believe this. And I said, what? He goes, if you look at the data and the analysis of our in-person worship, people that actually show up to church, because we know people, you know, the average now is twice a month. And a lot of people stream in online.

He said, what’s crazy is, is ever since we moved into the gym, our in-person worship attendance has increased. By 60%. And I was like, no way.

You’re telling me that God can grow a church with people that worship in a gym? That’s insane. And you guys are the ones that have to suffer because after the 11 o’clock service, you actually have to stack the chairs. So we can act like we’re this, you know, portable church so that people can play pickleball in here during the week.

Because, you know, God, Jesus, and pickleball. That’s the new thing now. I mean, this is what it is.

Thanks be to God. Our care ministry uses it on Tuesday. Our kids and students use it on Wednesday.

But think of what it is that God can do. And then I was reminded of the fact that, you know, Shepherd’s Gate actually started in a middle school. And they spent over three years worshiping in a middle school.

And while they were in the middle school, they grew. What does it show you? It tells you this, I have nothing to complain about. I have nothing to gripe about.

I just need to keep trusting God and that he is going to do things in his time and in his way. Amen. And this is so hard to say, but it’s true.

God often leads his people through or to places of suffering, uncertainty, thirst, and even testing. It’s all throughout scripture. He does this over and over and over again.

And it’s not because he likes torturing people. It’s not because he likes playing games. This is all part of forming us to be more like Jesus Christ.

So again, the Lord didn’t just get his people out of Egypt. He was teaching them to trust him at the beginning of the wilderness because he knows that there is more to come. There’s more obstacles and challenges to come.

There’s more enemies that they’re going to be facing in the future. And God is so sovereign and God is so amazing that he will do what he needs to do to prepare his people for the future. Just as he is going to prepare you, even if it’s painful for you, for the preferred future that he has for you.

Now look at verse 26 because these are the instructions he tells them after he gives them this clean water. If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and you do what is right in God’s eyes and you pay attention to his commands and you keep all of his decrees. Oh man, that’s a lot, isn’t it? Wait, now all of a sudden I got to behave.

Now all of a sudden I got to watch what I say. I got to check the boxes. I got to do what God is calling me to do.

And if I don’t do that, then God’s not going to love me. And if I don’t do that, then God is going to abandon me. And if I don’t do that, then I’m not going to have blessing in my life.

Hold on to that because when you go to Hebrews, it tells us this, the Lord disciplines the one he loves. And sometimes that’s what we need. It might not even be a trial or a testing.

It might be you’re just flat out being disciplined by God because he’s not happy with your attitude. And he’s not happy with the words that come out of your mouth. Or maybe you’re one of these keyboard warriors that thinks you can just type whatever you want on social media.

God may be doing something deeper in you than you even realize. And maybe it’s time to cry out and confess those things to him and watch what he does. This verse, this verse that we’re going to look at again, isn’t God saying, obey me and I’ll save you.

He’s already saved them how many times now? This is the third time. Gets them out of Egypt, gets them through the Red Sea, gives them water so that they are actually able to continue breathing on this planet. God is teaching his redeemed people how to live and how to continue to trust him as their Lord and Savior.

And so that’s why he says, I will not bring on you any of the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians. We’re not going back, friends. We’re not going back to the days of the plagues.

No, instead, I am your Lord. I am your God and I will be the one who brings complete healing to you. It’s just going to happen in my time.

And it’s going to happen when I say it’s going to happen. But this does not mean that I would ever leave or abandon any one of you because you are my beloved. I died for you.

I would do anything for you. This is so good. This is so important.

Thanks be to God, Israel’s grumbling didn’t make God abandon them. Thanks be to God, our grumbling doesn’t make God abandon us. Got a couple of people this morning.

The God who rescues us is the one who remains faithful to the end. And what’s so crazy about six verses, because the sixth verse says this, then, then they came to Elam where there was not one or two or five or six. There were 12 springs and 70 palm trees.

Who got to count the palm trees? And they camped near Aruba. And what was there in Elam? Water. God, they just got done grumbling.

You gave them water. I wouldn’t have been so nice. I’d be like, no, you’re going to pay for it.

What? Teach you to make sure you don’t complain again. No. He leads them to the next place.

And now he lets them be in this beautiful oasis so that they could rest. And that he could show them once again how much he loves them. And isn’t that cool about our relationship with God? And walking this timeline that we have on this earth.

That the more we walk through life, and the more we realize that God has been in control the whole time. We mess it up. We get in the way.

We kind of try to take things in our own direction, or we tell God he’s wrong. And we, most of the time, just make it harder on ourselves. But what’s so amazing is you walk the Christian life is when you look back and you literally see the provision of God each and every step of the way.

And even though we’re not home yet, that day is to come. That God still is in the business of blessing his people and providing rest for his people. Amen.

And you know what’s so incredible now in our worship service?