Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): We're learning valuable life lessons today on Abounding Grace. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You laid down your life. That I would be set free. Oh Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me.

Welcome again to Abounding Grace with our pastor and teacher, Ed Taylor. We're in the middle of a new study in Exodus and today we get back to chapter 19. On their way to the Promised Land, the children of Israel had a few stops and God had some lessons for them along the way. It's a reminder to us that God is always preparing us for what he has prepared for us. Let's lean in and see what some of those life lessons are.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Chapter 13, verse 20. It says they took their journey from Succoth and encamped at Etham at the edge of the wilderness. The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way and by night a pillar of fire to give them light so as to go by day and night. He didn't take away the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night from before the people.

Etham. Etham speaks of the edge of the wilderness. They went from a place of reminding that their life on earth is not permanent, they're just pilgrims, to the edge of the wilderness. Before them is this large and ominous desert. God took them to Etham and reminded them that he was with them.

Where do you see that? Well, he didn't take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night. His presence is with them. He says it's here at Etham where he says, "I'm going to be your personal guide. Just watch me. Pay attention. In the daytime you can watch the cloud. Watch the cloud by day. At night there will be fire. A pillar. It will be very obvious." All they needed to do was learn how to follow his lead.

Why is this such an important thing? Because in Egypt they didn't live like this. This wasn't their life. They listened to a different voice. They had a different routine. They had a whole different set of habits. So much of their life, the decisions were not made by them, they were made for them under harshness and cruelty. But here at Etham, God was saying, "I want you to know I'm adding something to your life. I'm ready to lead you and guide you. You just got to look to me."

You have to go eyes wide open. You wouldn't see the cloud or see the fire if your eyes were closed, if your hands were over your face, if you weren't paying attention, if you were rebellious, if you refused. This new life at the edge of the wilderness would be a life of faith.

Notice the next stop. Chapter 14, verse 2. It says, "Now the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth between Migdol and the sea opposite Baal Zephon. You shall camp before it by the sea.'" Now they're led to a place you'll recall that seemed absolutely wrong. They were led into a trap. They were led to a place where they didn't see the hand of God. They only saw their circumstances.

Isn't that life sometimes? You only see your circumstances. That's all you can see, what's in front of you. What's in front of them is the Red Sea. What's behind them is an Egyptian army. What's to the left and to the right are seemingly insurmountable mountains. I want you to stop there. I want you to pause here. I don't want you to move here. Don't run away. Don't try to escape.

What do we learn here? This is what we learn. No matter what you see, God has a plan. He has a way where there is no way. He has an answer when you don't have it. He has money when your bank account's empty. He has relationships when you don't have one. He has friends when you need them. God is in your life. You can trust him, but you've got to camp there.

You can't wiggle out of it. You got to camp. "Yeah, but you don't understand, the Egyptians are behind me and if I stay here one day longer, I'm a goner." No, that's where I want you to stay. "What is wrong with God? Have you brought us out, have you brought us here to kill us?" Circumstances, they can be heavy. But God has a plan and a purpose, not only to deliver and keep his word to the nation, but to show his power to the world, to Egypt.

He's going to do it. He provides a way of escape when there was none. God always provides a way of escape when it comes to temptation. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man, but with every temptation there is always a way of escape.

Do you know that way of escape? You know how often it is, how you often live out and take the way of escape? You learn this word. You ready? No. You say no to sin. You say no to temptation. You say no to a person that is tempting you. You say no. Most of the time, the Lord's power latches onto that and you have taken the way of escape. I'm not going there. I'm not doing that. I'm not hanging out there. I'm not compromising. It on and on and on you can go. Pi Hahiroth. Boxed in. So often that's how we feel.

Chapter 15, verse 23. Very familiar. We spent some significant time on this stop. Now when they came to Marah. Remember Marah, church? Nobody wants to stop at Marah, but everyone does. Everyone has an appointment at Marah. They couldn't drink the waters of Marah. Remember why? It says right here, "They were bitter." And therefore the name of it was called Marah.

Bitterness. Bitterness. They had to taste bitterness in a controlled environment. They get through, but they're very thirsty. They're very expectant. They come to water. They jump in to begin. They jump in to take it in only to find out that it's very bitter. Marah reminds us that there's times in lives, there's times in our life that life will be bitter. Have a bitter taste to it.

There's a difference between experiencing something that's bitter and becoming bitter. I would say the ratio should far outweigh as we experience things that give us a bad taste and difficulty. That's going to happen far more than we becoming bitter ourselves. Angery, frustrated, angry, bitter, resentful. We want to be careful of those, but they needed to stop at Marah and taste those waters.

Why? Well, notice Chapter 15, verse 27. What's next? Then they came to Elim where there were 12 wells of water and 70 palm trees, so they camped there by the waters. 12 wells of water, 70 palm trees. Refreshment and rest. There's refreshment and rest. Even out of bitterness, God brings them to a place of rest, relaxation.

Going back to Egypt wouldn't do it. Digging their own wells wasn't sufficient. It was the wells of freshness that God provided. This is something I learned as I was studying through 1st Samuel and it's a warning to all of us. You can't take things into your own hands. You must trust the Lord. What he has for you is better than anything you could ever do, anything that you could ever work up, anything that you could ever create.

God's way is much better and they needed to experience Elim. Marah leads to Elim and I would say if bitterness comes into our life, the best place is just to come back to the Lord and start being refreshed with the water of his word. Abiding in Christ. John 7. Out of the abundance of your heart will flow what? Rivers of living water. Clean, fresh water from the Lord. Come back to him. I wonder how many listening to me today, bitterness is where you've camped.

That's not the end of our Bible study because they got up from bitterness and they came to Elim. But even the rest and relaxation ended there because they needed to get up and keep moving. Why? Because it's the journey. It's not just the destination, it's the journey. It's the journey.

Chapter 16, verse 1. And they journeyed from Elim and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin. Now it's spelled S-I-N in the English but it's not a word that refers to sin at all. The Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai. This was a rocky, difficult place. They go from bitterness, nasty water, to fresh rest and relaxation and shade and refreshment. And now they come to the Wilderness of Sin and they're hungry and they're complaining about food. This is where God provided manna.

They had so much manna, so much of God's faithfulness. Manna from heaven. A symbol in the scriptures of God's provision, of God's word, of him taking care of us. Church, I don't want you to underestimate the power of God's word. I don't want you to underestimate how much he's ready to bless you if you would just open it and read it. How much he wants to show you of himself.

And you know, those of you that are new to the Bible, and I know many of you are, here's the thing. If there's a hard part of the Bible, just skip it. Just go right past it. You're in a season right now, read it, but you don't have to stop and go, "I don't think I'll ever read the Bible until I understand this difficult passage." People have spent their whole life trying to figure out that difficult passage. So you have permission as you're reading the Bible, just read it and take it in because it is God's word, but you don't have to understand every single thing you're reading to continue on.

Because you're going to get to something you will understand. You'll get to, "Oh, I get that. Oh, they stopped." I mean you think about, I've taught you in depth about Marah and Elim, but if you read Marah and Elim, it's pretty, you don't need a pastor to explain it to you. It says right there Marah is bitter and Elim has fresh water. You can just be like, "That's amazing, God, that you would allow them so thirsty to come to these waters and be so disappointed, but just a little bit farther along was Elim. God, you're so good. You're so faithful."

As you're reading the Bible, you could be in the morning, your morning devotions, and God is just telling you, "Hey, bitterness isn't going to last forever. Elim is right up ahead." But you have to get into the word of God, church. You have to. You have to. So much is lost today because there's a lack of the reverence and respect and the reception of God's word.

Now I commend you, you were here on a midweek, you're listening on the radio or maybe catching a different video, watching a Bible study. I commend you for pressing in, but this is for those that aren't pressing in. Or even today you might be pressing into Bible study, that's great. Bible study, Bible study, Bible study, those are powerful and wonderful. God has given his church pastors and teachers to help us, to build us up, to equip us and prepare us. Yes, yes, yes. But you got to take the word of God to your own heart and your own soul yourself, just you and the Lord with the teacher, the Holy Spirit, ministering to you through his word. You might find even better, you might even have a note in your Bible. God, I've got a better insight on that than you got, Pastor. I know you did. The Holy Spirit's a wonderful teacher.

I'm so glad you did because that was God's word for you. You even had it jotted down there of what a special day and special morning it was. So they come to that rocky place and God gives them manna. Notice now in Chapter 17 and verse 1. It says, "Now all the congregation of the children of Israel set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin according to the commandment of the Lord and they camped in Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they contended with Moses, 'Give us water that we may drink.'" And Moses said to them, "Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the Lord?"

Thirsty again. As we read on and we studied, Moses strikes the rock. God provides water for this complaining group that's a few months out in the wilderness. It's all brand new for them. You have to step back and say, "Man, what a parallel. The children of Israel coming out of Egypt, out of slavery, into the Promised Land and it's a journey. It doesn't happen overnight." What a parallel that is to the believer's life.

Coming out of sin. Some of us getting saved later in life, being delivered from this horrific sin, but then it's a journey. Things don't change overnight, do they? Thoughts don't change overnight, habits don't change overnight. I mean, we have a new love, we have a new life, we're a new creation in Christ.

The theological words, if you're taking notes just so you can know them, the theological words of salvation. It happens in a moment. Justification. You are made right with God in an instant by the blood of Jesus Christ. But then there's a journey of your whole life and the journey, the theological word that the Bible uses to describe that is sanctification, where you and I through our life's experiences, through our obedience, through our failures, through our successes, through the word of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, we are being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

So while we haven't arrived yet on the journey, I hope we're learning along the way and we're growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. That's important for us. And then the destination, the theological word for that destination is when we're face to face in our new bodies, we're with Jesus for all of eternity. The word for that is known as glorification. And that's still yet future. None of us have experienced that glorification where no more sin and we're just so in, it's just everything that we've ever desired in the presence of the Lord. We're not there yet. We're in the sanctification process. God is changing us.

Some of you like the change, some of you don't like the change. Some of you like it when you agree with it, some of you don't like it, but then sometimes you get to this place and you're like, "I'm thirsty again." And you so quick to forget how God's provided water last time. Don't you remember Elim? You filled all your containers. You took water, like you had so much water you had enough to take with you. And now you're going to get mad at Moses and there they are.

But God provides again. That rock. We learn in the New Testament represented Jesus. That rock was Jesus Christ, providing water for the people and rest. Jesus is our true rest. And through Jesus, his wonderful spirit comforts us and gives us. Here also is the place where there's victory over the Amalekites, as we were studying in our previous studies. This area, this stop, where God brings order to the nation in the leadership. God's been at work and you can see along the way, God has been at work.

So when you go home today, and we have just the few more things we'll see what we can cover, but when you go home today, I want you to spend some time considering your journey and would just give God credit for some of the stops. Just out loud in your prayer life, in your prayer journal, give God credit for some of the stops. Go back to the time where you're like, "Yeah, I remember complaining about this to God. I was so upset." And then how God not only provided whatever you needed but he moved you on to the next stop.

Or you look back and you go, "I remember the day where I learned how to live by faith. I took that step of faith. I'd never done that in my whole life. God asked me to do this, he asked me to do this, he asked me to move here." I remember he wanted me to quit my job, he wanted me to, I just couldn't believe it. All he wanted me to do was look to him. And when he moved, I moved. And when he stayed, I stayed. And my life's never been the same. Give God credit just like the journey we see here.

Well notice now, come back now to our text in Chapter 19. They come to Sinai and it says in verse 3, "Moses went up to God and the Lord called him from the mountain saying, 'Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.'" And we say amen. We just saw some of the stops of what God was showing them along the way, how he delivered them and took care of them.

And I love this in verse 3. It's so neat. It says, "Moses went up to God and God called to him." I think of all the women that will be getting out into the mountains, very symbolically going up to seek God and how in that moment, in those two and a half days, in that time of solace, getting away from everything, moving in that day when you're going up to the mountain, God is going to be calling to the women.

But you don't need to be on a retreat to do that. You posture your life to go up to God and he will come to you. It does take a special effort and discipline to go up to God. Often we're in a place of asking God to hear us, and he does. He does hear us. And yet the reality is we follow the life of Jesus Christ carefully we see that he made an effort constantly to get away and commune with his Father.

Which is why you may or may not always realize this and I would say that if you're not careful, church because very repetitious, habitual and on the bottom of the task list, if something more interesting comes along. You have to be careful because it's not seen for the value that it is. But in a small way for some of you in a very large way, when you rearrange your life around the gathering times of your church, this is what you're doing. You're going up to God.

When you say no to whatever, maybe something's more compelling even happening right now in the service, no, no, I need to be with the house, I need to be at the house of the Lord. I know it's just a building, but I need to be there. I know you can do it online, but online is not the same. Can I get an amen on that? Online is not the same. It's great and it's useful, but it's not the same as being here.

You don't know what God's going to, like I think of the testimony Pastor Enrique shares tonight. You had to be on the property 10 years ago in order to lay your hand on some stranger that's on the property and pray for him. You had to be here. It's not going to happen. You know, like laying hands, like we don't even have anything on TV for that, but like laying hands on YouTube, it's not the same. You've got to be in proximity, which is where Acts Chapter 2, verse 42 comes into play, where they continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship.

That's a very important word. We're out of time today. We'll pick up next time, but I'll pick up on this. It's a very important word, koinonia. It's a significant word within the body of Christ so that you're in proximity, because when you're in proximity, you have opportunity for fellowship. Now we can use technology for sure. Technology is another tool of communication and it has its place.

But in priority, koinonia is never done alone. It's always done with someone. Fellowship. And to be in the house of the Lord right now and in different ways, I guess if you could put a list, number one, be together. And if you can't be together, then try to listen in live. And if you can't try to listen, then pick it up later. Like I know there are priorities depending on our life, but church, do not neglect the gathering together as is some the manner of some. Don't neglect it. It's good for you. It's so good for you.

Get to the men's gatherings, men. Get involved in a small group in a house. Encourage ladies to be together. Come to the small groups where there's prayer, where there's encouragement, where there is opportunity for proximity. But never forget this, and this is where I'll close for day today. Although we emphasize the fellowship of us together, fellowship among us together would never happen and will never happen unless we have fellowship with God. That's true koinonia.

You know we often use this verse in Ecclesiastes, a threefold cord is not easily broken. We use it in marriage ceremonies and pre-marital times and it's an accurate, wonderful illustration. But it's also a beautiful picture of koinonia, where two or three are gathered, I'm there in the midst. He's among us and fellowship is so important. We'll get into that next time.

Guest (Male): Hey, thanks for listening to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. We're going and growing through a study of Exodus right now. You can hear this message again online at aboundinggraceradio.com or listen through our app. Search for Ed Taylor in the App Store or Google Play.

Well maybe you're looking for a good book to go through. Here in the month of March, we've picked out an excellent one written by Tim LaHaye and Bob Phillips. It's titled Anger Is a Choice and it provides counsel and exercises to help us better understand the causes of anger, how to control it and how lack of control affects us physically and spiritually.

We'll send you a copy when you support Abounding Grace with a gift of $25 or more. Just call, ask for Anger Is a Choice. Our number is 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also order online at calvaryco.store.

Abounding Grace is made possible through the generous support of our listeners and as we continue to deliver God's word one verse at a time, we're looking to our listeners for help. Together we can reach people with the love and truth of Christ and make a difference in these last days. To make a secure donation, drop by aboundinggraceradio.com or call 877-30-GRACE. Next time on Abounding Grace, we'll continue Pastor Ed Taylor's study of Exodus. Thank you for listening today and we'll look for you tomorrow as we open the word together in search of God's abounding grace.

This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You laid down your life. That I would be set free. Oh Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me.

Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church, Colorado here in Aurora.