Wilderness Heart

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

And we're gonna continue our trek through Exodus. And if you don't know, we're going through the book of Exodus all year long. We'll take some breaks in the summer. But just kind of catching us up where we are, we had the Israelites in Egypt and they're enslaved and they're crying out to God for help. And God sent Moses to Pharaoh and we went through the 10 plagues. The 10th one was the firstborn being killed if there wasn't lamb's blood on the door. When that happens, the Egyptians tell the Israelites, get on out of here, you're causing enough trouble. And then where we were last week was that they were penned in at the Red Sea and with the Egyptians bearing down on them, which looked like an impassable circumstance. And we talked about that last week. God opened up the sea, they walked on dry land. The Egyptians came in after them and the water closed up and it was just this miraculous thing.

The Israelites are saved and it's great. I'm gonna read you a few verses and in Exodus 14:31, it says, Israel saw the great power of the Lord used against the Egyptians so the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and his servant Moses. It's a good spot. Then they go on and sing, Moses writes a song and the Israelites and Moses sing this song and one of the verses in it in chapter 15, verse 11 says, who is like you, oh God, among the gods, little gee gods, who is like you, majestic and holiness, awesome and glorious deeds, doing wonders. And so this is where we pick up. Now I don't know if you know this, but archeologists found what they believed the Israelites looked like at this point in time and I've got some pictures up here. Okay, so, all right, so we've got Oscar the Grouch, Archie Bunker, the 70s, Eeyore, that's referenced really well. I don't know if you all know Debbie Downer

for Saturday Night Live, yeah, she's always got great stories, grumpy. And then you got Fred Sanford and that guy means a lot to me because my grandfather would always hold his heart like that and say that it's a big one and he would say I'm coming home Elizabeth and I never knew what that meant. But now I'm studying this, I know I do. So you would think that all that the Israelites had seen, all that I just described, that they're saved from being enslaved and here they are and they're free and they're in the wilderness and they're following God's direction and somehow we get this immediately and we're gonna talk about that. We're gonna be hitting a lot of verses kind of here in the beginning and then we're gonna unpack them. But I want us to look at three instances starting, we'll be starting in Exodus 15, 22. We have some black Bibles in front of you. The page number is like 51,

so if you don't know it's right there and we'll be starting in chapter 15 verse 22. So let's begin, it says, "'Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea "'and they went into the wilderness of Shur. "'And they went three days into the wilderness "'and found no water. "'And when they came to Moreh, "'they could not drink the water of Moreh "'because it was bitter. "'Therefore its name was Moreh. "'And the people grumbled against Moses. "'What shall we drink?' "'And he cried to the Lord, Hebe and Moses. "'And the Lord showed him a log "'and he threw it in the water "'and the water became sweet.'" And then verse 27 it says, "'They came to Elam where there were 12 springs "'and 70 palm trees and they camped there by the water.'" So we see the Israelites get trapped. The Egyptians are on their hill, hills they walk through the sea and then three days later of being saved,

they come to this place and they're thirsty but the water is bitter, they can't drink it. And so what do they do? They cry out to Moses. And what does Moses do? He cries out to God. And what does God do? He tells them to throw a log into the water and it becomes sweet to drink. And then they end up at a place that has 12 springs and palm trees, so this oasis, and that's where they are. So you would think, okay, the Israelites finally have understood that God is the God, going to provide for them. This is it. So let's fast forward to Exodus 16. It will be two and three. All right, so they set out from this place, from Elam, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai. And 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 he had died by the land of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out to the wilderness to kill us, this whole assembly, with hunger. Okay, skip to six, it says, so Moses and Aaron said to the people of Israel, at evening you shall know that this was the Lord brought you out 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 have grumbled against him, what are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord. And if you skip down to 35,

you see that the people of Israel ate manna for 40 years till they came to the habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. Okay, we skipped a lot in there, but God is providing them manna each morning, this white flaky bread in the morning that they have every time they wake up and they sense quail in the evening for them to eat after they grumble. And so they're wandering through the wilderness, they're hungry, and God provides for them. You would think that they would start believing maybe God is, maybe we're under God's provision, maybe he's providing for us. And not only does God provide for them this bread, but he does it for 40 years. And they actually put it in this jar and it goes in the Ark of the Covenant to represent God's provision in their life. So it's really important. So finally they get it, they understand God is faithful to them,

no need to worry anymore. Let's look what happens in 17, starting in verse one. All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by the stages according to the commandment of the Lord and camped in Rifdim. But there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled against Moses, 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 there for water and the people grumbled against Moses and said, why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So Moses cried out to the Lord, what shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, pass before the people taken with you of the elders of Israel and take your hand and the staff on which you struck the Nile and go.

Behold, I stand before you there on a rock of Horeb and you will strike the rock and water will come out of it and people will drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders and he called the name of the place Mesa and Miraba because of the corolling of the people of Israel and because it tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not? Okay, so this span is, we had three days and we had a month and then we're within like a few months of this miraculous thing that God did. And so now that they're out of water, this time they, did they say, hey, remember last time we didn't have water to drink, remember what God did? Let's ask him for that again. Nope, they grumbled against Moses and Moses cried out to God. And we see escalation because now Moses is like, they're about to stone me. Like they're really angry this time, they're about to kill me. And what does God tell Moses?

He says, to strike the rock and water will come out. And so when we summarize these three instances, I think the next like summarizes, we've got Israel grumbling, bitter water, because they had bitter water, God used a tree, water to drink, okay? Israel grumbled for no food in chapter 16, God gave man and quail 40 years of food. And in 17, Israel grumbled no water again, God told Moses to hit a rock and out came water. So the question I think that can be asked is, is grumbling against God bad? Like should we grumble against God? Don't we see that in the Bible? Like think about some places in the Bible, can you grumble against God? Let's think, you see it a lot in the Psalms, right? Let's look at a few Psalms. Psalms 13, one through two says, oh, how long Lord will you forget me forever? Psalm 88:3 says, I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death.

And in Psalm 74:10 says, how long will the enemy mock you God? Okay, is this similar? I think it helps to put these verses in context. If we go back to chapter 13 of Psalm, though he's asking, have you forgotten me? Look at verse five. But I trust in your unfailing love, my heart rejoices in your salvation, okay? Look at Psalm 88, it says, overwhelmed with troubles, but Lord, you are the God who saves me day and night, I cry out to you. And on the last one it says, you're questioning how long people are gonna mock, enemy's gonna mock God, and it says, but God is my king from long ago, he brings salvation on earth. So what's missing here between what the Israelites are doing and what we see in the Psalms, which we call lamenting. What's the difference between grumbling and lamenting? Well, the difference is the Israelites were complaining about their situation and then full stop.

That's it, they're complaining. Here what we see in the Psalms, what we talk about lamenting, is they're bringing their concerns to God, but they're trusting in Him, they're asking for His help. So grumbling says, I know best, okay? When you grumble, when we grumble, I know best. Lamenting says, God knows best. But so most of us are not far off from the Israelites. Right, our heart tends to move towards grumbling when things aren't going our way. And sometimes it's just a natural thing for us to do. I'll give you a few examples. Take work, you work somewhere now that seems to have no way forward. You're stuck in a dead end job, you feel underpaid and overworked. You don't really have any options to do anything anymore and you hate to go to work and everybody can tell. Okay, some thoughts or things you might say is I deserve better. I know plenty of people who have better jobs

that did not work as hard as I did. I know people who are in the higher positions are not even better dumb. I'm so much smarter than, right? My life must not have much value as I'm rotting away here. My family has no reason to be proud of me, okay? That's what grumbling sounds like. All right, in school, you're a student. In high school or college, you look around and you feel like an outsider and there's no really good way for you to fit in. You feel invisible. Things you might say or think is if I left this place, nobody would even know. I can't wait to get out of here. Everyone else has it so easy and I'm here struggling and it's not fair, okay? Take church. Changes are happening in a church. Some of your past traditions and experiences are nowhere to be found and you find yourself thinking and saying, if the church just listened to me, it'd be so much better.

Churches today have no idea what they're doing. There's not a good church around. If only they sang more hymns. If the children program did more fun events, then what's the deal with this blue carpet? Okay, that's an illustration. I'm not talking about our ridiculous blue carpet. Okay, I just wanna make sure that's clear. Just an illustration in case Drew asks.

In none of these examples, are we asking God, are they asking God for direction or declaring his faithfulness? Rather, we're just complaining about the situation. We love our pity parties and what happens is grumbling becomes toxic. In our grumbling, we move God away from the situation and we're seeking our own interest and we're thinking that we know best. So lamenting says, God, I have no idea what or why this is happening. I need you. Grumbling says, God, get your act together. That's really what it's saying. So like the Israelites, you may think, we're just grumbling against our situation. I mean, other people, I'm not really grumbling to God but listen to what Moses is saying when the Israelites, because if you remember, the Israelites aren't grumbling to God, they're who they grumbling to, Moses. Listen to what Moses says in a couple instances. Chapter 16, seven through eight says,

for what are we that you grumble against us? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord. And 17 too says, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? Moses is saying, why do you complain about your situation? I'm not in control of this. You know who's in control. And if you're acting as if he's not in control. So we see this in the New Testament. Listen to what Paul writes later in New Testament in Philippians 2, 14 through 15. It says, do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault, wrapped in a crooked generation. Those are some strong words. James, always quick to the point, says James 5:9 says, don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The judge is standing at the door, exclamation point. Okay, so there's no wiggle room for us grumbling in any circumstance.

Yet this is an automatic response for us. And you can hear this, a lot of times in church, we hear this and we're like, okay, you're right. I need to stop grumbling. I'm gonna stop grumbling right now. And really what happens is we don't address our heart situation, because that's where grumbling is coming from. That's where the Israelites are grumbling from, their lack of faith. And so we're gonna call this today, we're gonna call this a wilderness heart. And there's some pages that's gonna get passed around that has, let's see who's listening here. Iris is listening, Kenneth, Corbin, Levi, thank you. There's some pages here that I want you to have as we kind of walk through what we're gonna call today is a wilderness heart. And we're gonna look at symptoms of what a wilderness heart looks like, okay? And so knowing that these actions come from the heart in leading us, we ask ourselves, how do we get here?

Why are we saying these things, okay? So the first thing on the list as they're coming around, and we're gonna kind of use the wilderness theme here, is arid faith, okay? This is when we allow our faith to become dry and undernourished. So when we encounter difficult seasons, or even a rough day, we automatically turn, we can automatically turn to our own ways instead of God. And in the Israelites in chapter 15, it wasn't three days. And so they were already complaining and losing faith in what God is doing. And then they saw the Egyptians, they saw the water just cover up and they were free. And then three days later, they're like, where's our water? God's gonna kill us. So wilderness heart says to God that you're not enough. We need to take over ourselves. And so our arid faith needs to be constantly watered. And the Lord provides over and over, remember in the verse 27 of chapter 15,

it says they came to Elam where there was 12 springs of water, more water than they needed. I like this chapter actually in Psalm one. And we'll just read the first three verses. It says, blessed is the one who does not walk and step with the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or take a seat in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night. So what is that person like who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates day and night? That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaves do not wither, whatever they do, prospers. So what I want you to do is to write these two verses, Psalm 1:2-3. And I want you to write that next to your arid faith, to just be reminded that when we quickly turn to grumbling, in the midst of our situation,

it is an indicator that our faith is dry. It's malnourished. And how do we get water? It says delighting in the law of the Lord, and meditating on his law day and night. So when you look at this tree that's in Psalm, the way it's able to withstand every season is because its roots are pulling up nourishments daily from God's word. And so if we fight a heart that wants to grumble out of our situation, we must daily be in God's word and constantly nourishing God's word prevents arid faith. Okay, the next one, dusty truth. Okay, that's a little bit of stretch for the wilderness, but we're gonna go with it. We forget what God has done in our life and what we know he has done in scripture. If you think back in your life, how God has delivered you and been faithful, I want you, this is an interactive part. I want you to raise your hand if God has been faithful to you

more than 10 times in your life. More than 10 times. Okay, hands down. I want you to raised your hand if God's been faithful to you more than 25 times in your life. Raise your hand. Okay, a lot of hands raised. I want you to raise your hand if God's been faithful more than 100 times in your life. raise your hand, okay. Now, I want you to raise your hand if when conflict arises you forget about all those things immediately. Yeah, is that crazy? We're like the Israelites. I mean, if you're like me, you wanna reach into Scripture sometimes with the Israelites and just like slap them in the back of the head and be like, I cannot believe you guys. You are such idiots. And right as I think that God's like, hey, here's a mirror. Once you look into it, tell me what you see. And I'm like, ah. I almost had everybody's name tag say Israelite today, but I did not do that.

But we look at these and we go, those knuckleheads, you know, man, if I was an Israelite, I would not have thought those things. I would not have. I would have been so faithful. And then God reminds me, yeah, but I've done all this in your life and then you're freaking out over this thing like I've not provided for you before. And why is that? It's because the truth in our life becomes dusty. It's becomes hard to see. And we doubt it. We begin to doubt. Look in the Israelites in 17, they say, why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock? So Moses cried to the Lord, what shall we do with these people? They're already about to stone me. And so this is just showing you how the Israelites' hearts quickly doubt God's provisions, even though it's happening over and over and over. And that's a lot like us. And we quickly forget and doubt God

and we grumble about our situation and we think we know better and the truth becomes dusty. And it's not because we don't know. That's the key point. It's not because we don't know the truth, but it's because we don't remember it. First Peter 1, 12 says, in verse 12 it says, so I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. So he says, I'm gonna remind you of these things, even though you know them and they're firmly established. Because I think it is, in verse 13 he says, I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body. We are to refresh our memory of what God is doing in our own lives and what he's doing in scripture. And so one way to do this, and it's kind of, it's a little odd, we don't say this every time, I feel like this is week three in a row,

we've suggested this. So I feel like God may be telling us something and I do not do this well. So it's hard to tell you to do this. We should journal. We should write down our prayers. We should write down what God is doing in our lives. And what happens is you can go back and look and you can highlight where God is just, where you were at a point in your life where you're like, I'm at the Red Sea, I see no way forward. And God delivers you and you can go back and be reminded, oh yeah, I remember that, I remember that. And so that process, so right now I want you to just pick one thing that you think, looking back in your life and under Dusty Truth, I want you to write one thing where God has just been faithful. And maybe it's been as epic as opening up a sea, but I want you to write one thing, a reminder to yourself on what God has done in your life to be faithful.

And so when we find ourselves grumbling, that's an indicator of our heart, not having faith in Christ and not remembering what he's done in our lives. And so we have to constantly go back and remind ourselves with scripture and with just remembering what he's done. The third one here is chasing a mirage, okay? Keeping the wilderness heart theme. We've also found ourselves chasing false saviors. So what happens is we begin to believe things outside of God's design is more satisfying. And so we begin to pursue those things and it's like chasing a mirage because even if we get it, it's not fulfilling. And so our grumbling then opens up the door for us to believing lies. Listen to how the Israelites romanticized their time in Egypt in 16th grade. It says, would we have died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat pots listen, I mean, I can just hear them going,

oh, this delicious meat pots and we ate the bread to our full for you've brought us out into the wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger. So go a few chapters before they're crying out to God going, get us out of here. Remember the Egyptians increased their suppression and they were just at their end. But what do they remember? They remember those meat pots and that bread, remember how good that was.

They quickly forget that they were enslaved and being worked hard. And so we too do this, we too think that we deserve more. And a simple thought that we say often is I deserve this. And I'm gonna chase after it, absent of God because I deserve this. Here's some quick examples of that. You feel you and your spouse are not intimate enough so you begin to find things on your phone to supplement because why? Because you deserve it. You're working a ton and you're barely making enough money to cover your expenses. I'm not gonna give to the church, why? Because I deserve this money.

After a long week of work and school instead of engaging with family on a Friday night, you scroll on your phone for hours, why? Because you've had a hard week and you deserve this. The problem with having a I deserve this attitude is if you look at the gospel and what it says we deserve, for the wages of sin is what? Death. Be careful getting what you think you deserve.

And what happens is we lose sight. We're chasing these things that we think we deserve and they're like a mirage. They're fake, they lie to us. Listen to what James, second time quoting James, chapter one verse 14 and 15 it says, but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their evil desires and enticed. So think about where this starts. Starts with evil desires enticed, verse 15, then after the desires are conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it's full grown gives birth to death. So when we start to misplace our desires, to please ourselves thinking that this is better than anything, we grumble to God when we don't have it, we quickly move away from him and our desires give birth to sin. And so we are chasing a lie like a mirage. I want you now under the chasing mirage, I want you to think of something, just one thing for now, think of something where you've said I deserve this.

Think about something you've said that about in the last few weeks. Something that says I deserve this. And write that down and just be reminded that what we get through Christ is more than what we deserve. The last one here is barren gratitude. When we find ourselves grumbling, it's like a situation where thankfulness is infrequent, shallow or non-existent. We're not giving thanks. In chapter 16 we see God essentially giving the Israelites food morning and night. And we get to 17 and they don't have water. We haven't seen them thank the Lord for this yet. They get to there and they go well what, we have food but now we don't have water. And they're forgetting about this mysterious bread that appears in the morning, the quail, and they just forget and they're focused on what God's not giving them. So the two things that help, two, this aren't the only two, two ways that we get to a place where we're not thankful,

where we don't have gratitude. One is that familiar blessings go unnoticed. Okay? We're so blessed by so many things, it just goes unnoticed. And you want to be reminded of this, just read about like the suitor's missionary update, okay? Where they can't meet like this and talking about Jesus where they are because they could be imprisoned, beaten, or killed. And yet, you know, if weather's bad or something, we may not go to church. We forget like the blessings, like even just having the freedom to come and worship together without fear, fear of anything happening to us.

The little things in life, I don't know if you're raised in a Baptist church, you definitely sound count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God has done, count your blessings, name them one by one. And so the whole song, the hymn, is to like be reminded of all the blessings. It doesn't take long to sit down and just think about the things God's given you. So one is those familiar blessings go unnoticed. Number two is constant focus on what's missing. So you're not focused on the blessings, you're focused on what God has not given you. You're reacting to this, you're missing the appreciation. And so when we focus on we don't have more, we grumble and complain.

You know, if, oh, who's really rich? Elon Musk complained about not having enough money, we would all eye roll, right? Yet that's kind of what we are because of what Christ gave us saying. And we're here saying, oh, we don't have enough. We're here with our hands out, like somehow God should be giving us more. Listen to 1 Thessalonians 15, I mean, five, six through 18. Look, if you want some memory verses, these are some easy ones, because verse 16 says, rejoice always. If you remember that, you've got a verse memorized. The second one says, pray continually. That's verse 17, all right? You can leave this place having two verses memorized. And then verse 18 says, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you and Christ Jesus. Rejoice always, pray continuously, and give thanks in all circumstances. That's a beautiful picture. Imagine if we could live every day like that.

That'd be amazing. So in the last column, I just want you to write down one or two blessings in your life. Just be reminded of what God has done for you. How can we allow ourselves to think that we're not given enough when we spend time in God's word and are reminded of what he's done for us? The most impactful thing that we have to be thankful for is that God sent his son for us. And the crazy thing about that is, that is actually foreshadowed in the verses that we're reading today, okay? Remember in chapter 15, there was bitter water. And it says, and they cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed them a log, and he threw it in the water, and the water became sweet. A lot of you may have a little thing next to that word log. If you go down, it says tree. So by throwing this tree into this bitter water, it became clean and sweet. And this is a picture of what the cross did, a tree,

did for us. Our bitter sin was made clean because of Christ Jesus on a tree, okay? If you think that's a little bit of a stretch, let's keep going. Mana, in chapter 16, God provided mana for them to eat. Let's read what Jesus says about this in John 6, starting in 47. It says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes and has eternal life, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate mana. Okay, that's talking about right where we are. They ate mana in the wilderness and they died. Okay, that's a little confusing. They didn't eat mana and immediately died. They just died of natural things, okay?

This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one man may eat it and not die. He's talking about himself. I am the living bread that came down from heaven, and anyone who eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I give for life of the world is my flesh, okay? So Jesus is saying, just like mana, I came down from heaven. The difference is, where mana was sustaining them for a day, what I've done is gonna sustain you for eternity. That's a huge difference. God provided the Israelites bread, and Jesus is saying that that's similar, but what I do, my nourishment is for eternity, to abide in me, that his body was broken for us. Okay, so that's mana. Look at chapter 17, verse six. It says, behold, I stand before you, and there on a rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out, and the people shall drink. Okay, so this was the instance,

the second instance where they didn't have water, the third instance of grumbling, and the rock provides water. Listen to what Paul says in chapter 10 of 1 Corinthians. It says, for I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were under the cloud that passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses, and in the cloud and the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food, so he's talking about the Israelites here, and they drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Okay, so you see we have the tree, we have the manna, which represents Christ as a bread of life, and then we see that the rock that sustained them with water was Christ. Christ was there the whole time. Jesus was sustaining them physically, but that's a foreshadowing of how he does it for us spiritually.

So then the question becomes, if you truly believe that, how could we have a grumbling wilderness heart? If you really believe that, what do we have to grumble about? We love grumbling. Look, I love pity parties. Like we can throw them together. Like I'm fine with that. When I feel like I've got it harder than everybody else. Does anybody ever feel that way? Oh, no one's got as hard as me. No one works as hard as me. No one, you know, just this self-pity party. And it identifies the toxic part of my heart that is just lacking. And yeah, I'll share this. This week, so as you like, I feel like when you teach or you preach leading up to it, God does a number on you. Like I feel like I come in here, like I've just been beat up and now I'm supposed to like preach just knowing that I'm not doing a lot of this well. I was listening to a podcast and in the podcast, it was a Christian podcast.

It was referencing another podcaster who's somewhat popular, but not Christian at all. His name's Theo Von, he's a comedian, okay? And he's like Crash. So Google listen to him after church, okay? But he on his show had a caller call in and the caller was saying, look, I just feel like I go out and I'll party and I'm just in this weird cycle of life and I just don't know how to advance. I feel like I'm just stuck in this just endless cycle and I just can't see a way forward. And then so Theo Von responds to that and he's saying, I've began to pray. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm praying. And even when I'm praying, I feel like I know that I'm lying to God because I'm praying for him to help me not do something. And he says, and he references, he says, there's a story in the Bible called John five. So he doesn't really know how to say story in the Bible,

John chapter five, he says, John five. And he says, it's about a guy who's sick and Jesus asks him, do you wanna be healed? And he's like, that's where I am. And he's just like, this is just on his podcast. He's like, that's where I am. Do I wanna be healed? Cause when you get healed, your story changes. You're different. So do I want that? And I mean, I'm like, so when I'm listening to this, I'm on like a trail during lunch at work. I'm just walking, you know? And I mean, I just get emotional. I don't even know what's happened. I don't get emotional normally. I mean, Candace will tell you that. She refers to me as Chandler too much on friends, but this, I feel like God amplified this moment and said,

like you're studying and you're preaching on the heart. Like it's all inward focused. Like this, there's people around you who are in this cycle who don't know a way forward. There's people who are exploring the gospel that's just kind of kicking the tires. And you have a story. Your life has been changed by me. So one, you need to understand that the gospel, that I underestimate the power of the gospel, that it can change lives. And two, I need to be burdened for these people. So this wilderness heart that's all grumbling and stuff, God's just like,

just don't even go, have a heart like me for my people that's seeking me, that's seeking the lost and allow me to use you to carry this forward. And I'm just sitting there in the middle of Forest Park trail, just hopefully no one, I'm sure people call and go like, there's some guy that's distraught. But I was just sitting there going, this is like a glimpse of like God's heart for us. And we miss it often, the Israelites miss it. But the fact is it doesn't change its truth. It's true then, it's true now, it's true always will be. And so that's something we can just hang on to, plant our flag and go,

when you're grumbling just look silly like the Israelites. We look silly. So the commitment is this morning, look, if we're having tendencies, let's check, let's see if our faith is aired, let's see if we need to be watering our faith. Let's go back and dust off God's faithfulness in our lives. If there's things that we're chasing or think we deserve or need, those just be reminded, those are like, we have what we need in Christ.

And that lastly, we have a lot of things to be thankful for. And so we're gonna close, we're actually singing blessed assurance. And in it, it talks about our story, this is my story. And just use this time of worship to really just declare what your story is through Christ. And if you don't have that story, and you're just not really even sure, maybe you're like Theo Von, I don't know. I don't know if I want a new story. I just encourage you to start conversations. There's no magical prayer to be prayed. There's no, I just ask that you just start searching the gospel, who Jesus is. And when people hear that we'll do that with you, we can have conversations, that would be great, because it's worth it. I promise you in my own life it's been worth it. So let's go ahead and let's close and let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you that we look at the Israelites,

the Old Testament is such a mirror to our own, unfaithfulness. But it also is declaration of your faithfulness in our lives when we don't deserve it at all. We don't deserve the grace, the mercy, the fact that Jesus stepped down off of his throne to pay the price for us. And then offer us a relationship now and forever with you and the family of God is just mind-blowing. Lord, as we sometimes just get caught up in the micro of our days or our situations, help us to have eyes like you, help us to have a heart like you. Let us be a church that just really magnifies Christ in all situations and declares your glory because the story before you in our lives was horrible. And then you came along and changed our story and we thank you for that.