Abounding Grace

Announcer: Today on Abounding Grace, find the solution to your problems at the cross.

Pastor Ed Taylor: What's the healing power of God in the difficulty you're facing right now? You have to get back to the cross. Get back to the cross, get your eyes back there, get your body back there, get your life back there, and go back to the cross.

You say, "I've been betrayed, Ed." Have you been betrayed? Get back to the cross. How much more was He betrayed? "I've been hurt, Pastor. I've been hurt so bad. I've been hurt deeply." How much? How much more did Jesus suffer and hurt for us? And yet He still forgave.

"But I'm disappointed, Ed. You don't understand how disappointed I am and what my kids have done. You don't understand. It's not as easy as you say." Well, how much more was Jesus disappointed when His disciples and His best friends fled and He went to the cross alone?

Announcer: 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 aim to complete chapter 15. We all go through adverse circumstances, and when we do, we need to be careful how we react to them. We can very easily turn bitter and angry, but it's during those times that our perspective very often needs to be realigned with Jesus at the cross. Here's Pastor Ed explaining how our bitterness can be healed.

Pastor Ed Taylor: All believers need to understand that Mara comes. Times of testing, times of pressing, times of pounding. This initial excitement, but real life settles in. Let's sing a song. And then you know as well as I do, out those doors or even in these doors, real life is upon us.

It's real life. And as a church, we need to understand that we live in a real world with real people with real brokenness that requires a real seriousness and submission on our part to the Lord. God could have easily brought them to waters that were pure, but He brought them to the waters of Mara. He led them there.

Why? So they could see the bitterness that was in them. Because if you read ahead, and we will in just a few minutes, God has a solution for bitterness and anger. God has a healing available to those of you holding on to emotions and things that have been tearing you down. God has a way where there is no way. That's the whole testimony of the rest of your life.

The older you and I get in following Christ, we come to realize that every situation is a way that's outside of our power and outside of our strength. We sit down and we pray and we say, "Oh God, get me out of this. Oh God, get me out of this." And then He does, and what is our testimony? Well, I was praying, brother.

Okay, you were praying. Yeah, I was praying and now look. I was in a difficult spot and I prayed, and I'm not in a difficult spot anymore. Wouldn't it be better to say, "Man, I was in such a difficult spot and I'm so grateful God heard my prayers," instead of, "Oh, I prayed." I know it's the right thing to do. It's good.

It's like how did you make it through the day? Well, I was breathing all day. Well, yeah, man, breathing, of course. God knew how important breathing was for you. You don't even control it. How was your day at work today? Man, my day was great because my heart was beating all day. All right, bro, I guess that's great. You had a beating heart all day. So did all of us. But it was the God who holds your life in His hands and sustains your very life that got you through today.

God brings us to these bitter waters to reveal bitterness that's in us. Notice, turn over to Hebrews chapter 12. It wasn't too long ago as a church that we studied these very scriptures, but I want to remind you what happens at the waters of Mara and the warning that comes to us. Notice with me in chapter 12 in Hebrews, verse 14.

It's a truth you want to hold on to. I believe the author to the Hebrews is Paul as he's writing to these believers in a very embittered condition themselves. Many thousands of years later, you have a group of God followers still dealing with bitterness. Fast forward from Hebrews another 2,000 years, we've got another group of Christians today on the earth dealing with bitterness. It is a part of living in the fallen world, a part of dealing with sin, the sin of others, and also our own sin.

Notice what he says in verse 14. "Pursue peace with all men and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Looking diligently lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up may cause trouble and by this many become defiled."

One thing this tells us real quick here coming back to the embitteredness of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt, notice that bitterness has a root. It goes down deep. It's deeper than what's seen in the moment. Bitterness has a root in our lives and be careful with it. Pursue peace, he says. Set your life out and your course of your life to please God. Don't fall short of the grace of God, he says.

He says in verse 16, lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. So three significant things here. Be careful you don't fall short of the grace of God. Be careful that a root of bitterness doesn't spring up, that the root of bitterness doesn't spring up. And then thirdly, watch out for sexual sin, fornication, profaneness, anything related to misusing your body in the realm of sex.

And because the children of Israel are at Mara, I just want to focus on the root of bitterness for this evening. Just being careful of that. Bitterness is so common among us, but not often admitted. As I've shared with you before, bitterness is a lot like bad breath. Everyone around you knows you have it but you, and you won't admit it when you're told.

Marie has a very nice way of sharing with me that I might need a little bit improvement in my breath. And without a word, she just hands me a piece of gum with a big smile. And I say, "Are you?" and she won't even answer because she's looking out for me. If somebody comes to share with you that they see a temperament about you or something, it's because they're looking out for you.

And maybe they come full front. It's like, "Hey man, bro, you're just bitter." And you just know right away by your response whether you're open to the work of the Holy Spirit. The more defensive you are, the possibility that that's a very accurate statement. Bitterness, this root of bitterness speaks of a life that is offensive to God, obnoxious to men the Bible says, a defilement to others.

Bitterness toward God, defilement toward one another. It ruins you and everyone around you. Be careful. And you know bitterness does come from a lot of pain. That's the root. We've been so wounded, some by the homes we were raised in, some by the circumstances, some by the communities that we live in. There's so much about our life we didn't get to choose.

And that's the place that God placed us in the world. But the way the world acts, the way that sin corrupts, it just gives a lot of pain. Some of it's self-imposed, a lot of suffering, a lot of hurt, a lot of woundedness, a lot of handling bitterness incorrectly, making it worse and worse. And it takes an experience. It takes an experience to flush it out, like the children of Israel.

It took this experience to flush it out because look, it was in them. Didn't they just sing? Didn't they just sing the song of Moses? Didn't they just follow Miriam? Didn't they just rejoice? And three days later, it says in verse 24 back in Exodus, "And the people murmured against Moses, saying, 'What shall we drink?'" James talked about blessing and cursing coming from the same mouth. It ought not to be so.

And here they are. They're upset with Moses, the man that God has used in their lives greatly. But it's actually not even about Moses, is it? It's about the God of Moses. Three days. Why? Because it was in them. So often we blame the circumstances for all our bad behavior, when it's not the circumstances at all. It's you. It's me.

The circumstances reveal, they don't create. They reveal. I think of the coffee cup. I'll never forget this. This was back when I was working. All it really takes is one time for this to happen and it won't happen again. But I left a coffee cup on my desk for who knows how long. I have no idea. But I would always bring a new one and another one. I never take it back to the kitchen for whatever reason.

And one day on my desk I brought another coffee cup and I handed it down and I'm working. I get distracted and I pick up the wrong coffee cup and I began to drink it and the worst, nasty green stuff. I don't know how long it was there, but it was all my fault. Spit up all the reports I was doing and on my keyboard. It was nasty.

You see, there was something already in the cup. When I went to pick it up and turn it over to my lips and bring it in, it was already there. My hand, my desk, my attempt to drink it didn't create the green things that were alive and talking to me in there. It was already in there. Trials are like that.

You come to the waters of Mara and you blame Mara. You blame the leaders. You blame and who knows. You get into the place where no, it can't be me. It's this person and that person. You completely factor out the sovereignty of God in your life. "Oh, I can't believe I lost my job." Obviously, God did not want you to have that job. And whether you see it now or you see it later, you will see God's provision without that job.

The circumstances were hard and difficult and I'm sorry for that. But life is hard and difficult, isn't it? And God had brought us to a place of what? Faith, a place of decision. And all of our response is a revelation of God picking up that cup and bringing it close to Himself. And He doesn't need to know what's in it. We do.

And that's the ongoing work of faith and sanctification in our lives. I always think of an illustration, not that it's my own, but it fits this truth very well, where you're out in the garage with a hammer and you're pounding a nail and you slam your thumb and every wicked, vile F-word, F-bomb, cuss word comes out of your mouth. And your neighbor comes, "Are you okay? I never heard you cuss like that before, Pastor."

"You don't understand. You don't understand. I would have never said those words if I didn't hit my thumb." Oh no, no, no. The pain in your thumb just brought out what was in you. Brought your neighbor over to humble you, and He brought you to the waters of Mara. The waters of Mara.

Now, I did use pastor as that illustration, but that was not me, pastor, so you know. Anyone that knows me knows that I would have to borrow Marie's hammer because I don't own one. They're all hers. The waters of Mara are hard, and of course we'd want to avoid them. Clean water, living water, as Jesus would later say in John 7, living water gushing out of us from the innermost being. That's our desire, but Mara comes.

It's a point of decision. They murmur against Moses, and Moses, verse 25, he cries out to the Lord. And the Lord showed him a tree. And when he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. And He made it a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them and said, "If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I'll put none of the diseases on you for which I have brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you." Jehovah Rapha, one of the revelations of God, His name.

And then they came to Elim, where there were 12 wells of water, 70 palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters. It doesn't take much Bible students of what this tree represents. The Bible says that Jesus Himself died on a tree. The cross. What's the healing power of God in the difficulty you're facing right now? You gotta get back to the cross.

Get back to the cross, get your eyes back there, get your body back there, get your life back there, go back to the cross. You say, "I've been betrayed, Ed." Have you been betrayed? Get back to the cross. How much more was He betrayed? "You've been hurt, Pastor. I've been hurt so bad." You've been hurt deeply? How much? How much more did Jesus suffer and hurt for us? And yet He still forgave.

"But I'm disappointed, Ed. You don't understand how disappointed I am and what my kids have done. You don't understand. It's not as easy as you say." Well, how much more was Jesus disappointed when His disciples and His best friends fled and He went to the cross alone? His own beloved disciple Peter denied Him and another betrayed Him. It's the cross, church. It's the cross.

The cross will keep you safe. It's the cross. He is my only hope at the bitter waters of Mara. And I want to encourage you to bring your pool of bitterness to the cross and get your perspective realigned and keep it aligned. Humble yourself and say, "Lord, wash me and cleanse me and heal me and forgive me and set me free."

Listen, if someone has hurt you deeply, forgive them. If someone continues to hurt you deeply, continue to forgive them. Until you forgive them, they have power over you. But when you forgive, you find yourself in a place of being under the power of God, and you just trust Him with it. Because understand, this root is often in bitterness, not exclusively, but often the root is unforgiveness.

Hurting people hurt people. Have you heard that before? Is it true? Let me suggest something else. Healed people bring healing to others. Healed people, that's the next step. I say, has anyone been hurt today? Yes, we've all been hurt. I'm being hurt right now, Pastor. Yeah, but you're also being healed right now as you look to the cross.

You're walking in healing. Jehovah Rapha is ministering to you from the inside out. Healed people help people to heal. Forgiven people forgive, and forgiveness brings great freedom. It brings total freedom. You walk in freedom when you release people from the debt that they owe you.

Before you leave today, some of you need to come up to the stage and pray that God would give you strength. Some of you need to come to the stage and on either side in the baskets are pamphlets on forgiveness, and you need to take it and read it and pray and obey, just like He says here. "If you diligently heed the voice of God and you do what's right in His sight and give ears to His commandments and keep His statutes, you will be healed."

You will be healed. This is powerful here. You'll receive the healing of God. Really, what you'll receive is the enjoyment of healing because healing's already yours by faith in Christ. You'll begin to enjoy it. You won't give power to those that are hurting you. You'll give them to the Lord.

You're worn out and you're tired, you can do this. You're worn out and tired, you can walk in this. You can move from the waters of Mara to the waters of victory. I don't want you to miss this and we're going to head out here, but you've got the scenario. It's a real-life scenario. We're learning principles and truths from it for our own lives here in the 21st century.

But this is real deal. This is hard. This is difficult. They really are at a place where they're three days and they're upset, they're parched, the waters are nasty, they're poisoned, they're bitter. This is real. But they don't know that verse 27 is up ahead. They don't know. See, that's what happens with us. We don't know that Elim is up ahead.

We want Elim without the Mara. That's what we want. We want this place where there's wells of water. We want this place where there's 70 palm trees. We want this place where we can camp by the waters, but we don't want Mara. And the Bible tells us today, you want Elim, you gotta go through Mara. You want refreshment, you want these wells and the shade of the palm trees, you've got to deal with your Mara.

You want to live in a greater realm of victory today, you gotta deal with your bitterness. Church, you're ineffective as a bitter woman and a bitter man. God is ready to heal you. You just go to the cross. It's already yours. Or as we know, a few people, they live their whole life bitter. Never deal with it. They only get more bitter and more bitter.

And what happens? You start to avoid them. You don't want to be around them anymore. You don't want to be defiled. You don't want to deal with the drama. You don't want to. And people start to. And then what happens to a bitter person when people stop going around them? They get more bitter. And then they go, "It's your fault, and it's your fault, and it's your fault," and they die a very bitter woman, very bitter man.

It doesn't have to be you. You listening to me today? It doesn't have to be me. It doesn't have to be you. I could sit and I could write, maybe even write a book, maybe a few blog posts explaining to you why I choose to be so bitter because this is going on, this is going on, this happened to me, this happened to me. But then I'd be wasting my life as a messenger of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because every time I write that blog post and I hit post, the Lord says, "But I've provided healing for you, Ed." Bitter water. "I can't believe the pastor you gave me." My pastor's in heaven now, so pastor you gave me. If you would have just given me a better pastor. That's what they're saying here. Just give me a better Moses. Just give me a better dad, I'd be different. If you were to give me a better mom, I'd be different. Give me a better upbringing, I'd be different.

And that may be true. But there's nothing we can do about it now. What we can do about it now is forgive and get on to Elim. It's waiting for you. The palm trees, the shade, more water than you can possibly ever want and use the rest of your life. I'm sorry bitterness has come to you. I'm sorry bitterness has come to me. I didn't know bitterness in its depth until after my son passed away.

Oh, and then I began to know bitterness. I began to know bitterness by all the circumstances and all the, I began to know it very deeply, understand the root of it. Not to the degree like I fully understand it, but I know of which I speak here. Not even thinking because of my emotions and my feelings that Elim, 12 wells of water, how could 12 wells of water come from this? How could I ever enjoy the shade? I didn't think the sun would come up some days. It certainly didn't come up in my heart, my mind.

But the Lord is so gracious to be patient with you, to lead you and guide you, to send men and women into your life to minister to you, to provide for you the glimpses of the cross, to remind you of His goodness, to throw a few songs in there. You know, it was after my son passed away that God began to give us a new song every year, kind of like an anthem.

Sometimes I felt like it was for the whole church we were bringing it. It was really Pastor Ian that would introduce a song and you go, "Man, that's it." I don't know where he's finding these things. Why can't I find them? Why does only he find them? I want to find these songs.

But God put them in my life, put them in our life. Now we have Pastor Sean and other, they'll drop songs into you. You'll never forget them the rest of your, they'll be the anthem of your life during this season. They will be the song that next, maybe two years later you'll hear and you go, "Oh, I remember. I'm not there anymore. That was such a great song, got me through such a dark time, it's so good." It doesn't hit quite the same now. Why? Because you moved on from Mara. It's a great song, but it's not hitting so deep anymore because the root of bitterness is not so deep. Or the root of fear is not so deep. Or the root of anguish is not so deep, whatever it may be.

Announcer: You're listening to Abounding Grace with our Bible teacher and pastor Ed Taylor. To give this a second listen, all you need to do is visit aboundinggraceradio.com or 1place.com. You can also listen through our app and that can be found in the App Store or Google Play, just search for Ed Taylor.

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