- You know, I'm standing back there thinking about

this age of grace that we have been granted.

I learned about finances and tithing.

When I was a kid with my mom and dad going,

"Tithe, it's what God told you to do."

(audience laughing)

And that was our teaching method.

You know, this is what God said,

"So you probably ought to do it."

It wasn't a suggestion, and I love though,

not just in the area of finances,

how much grace God extends to us.

Across the board, it's like he teaches us

over and over and over again.

And we miss it over and over and over again,

and yet he comes right back in with that grace

and continues to teach.

I am so grateful we have a God like that, aren't you?

I would have like, might not have made it like

past my first two days if he wasn't a grace-filled God,

because just because we give our lives to him

doesn't mean we give our lives to him.

Just because we accept him as Savior doesn't mean

we are instantly gonna start getting everything right.

And I'm so grateful for a God who walked the earth

and was tempted and faced all of the things that we face

so that when he ascended and when he went back to his Father,

the Word tells us that he is touched

by the very feelings of our infirmities.

He is touched by even the things that you feel,

and not just your circumstances,

but how you feel about your circumstances.

And I believe that's kind of where the Lord

is gonna have us go today for a little bit.

Today we're gonna be talking about water from the rock.

And you know, not the rock, but you know, the rock.

And actually when Kevin gave me this particular passage,

a little behind the scenes here,

at the beginning of the year, Pastor Kevin will send out

a message to the pastors and he'll go,

has the Lord put anything on your heart?

Are there any stories?

Are there any particular scriptures

that you want to teach on,

or that you feel like the Lord has given you something

to share on, and we'll send in those passages.

This is where the Lord's been ministering to me.

I did not send this passage in.

(congregation laughing)

I think he got me confused, Alan,

this one was supposed to be for you.

But I got excited as I got into it,

and I was thinking, okay, let's see.

Kevin does demonstrations, and I'm like,

I could get a stick and a rock,

and then there's water involved,

but there'll be a lot of cleanup

if you turn me loose with that.

And then I was like, no, Kevin has used a staff.

Kevin has used rocks.

Kevin has used water.

He's used signs.

I even said, what about those blow up things

that stand out in front of, Kevin has used those.

So I guess what I'm left with is the word.

(congregation laughing)

And while we may be able to argue with Kevin,

not the minion, our Kevin,

can't argue with the word, can you?

You can't argue with what the Lord has to say.

And so I'm excited to take you on this little journey

he took me on, 'cause if I have to go, so do you.

Anyway, if you would stand,

let's read this passage of scripture

and see what the Lord has to say to us today.

All right, let's go.

The whole Israelite community

set out from the desert of sin,

traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded.

Can you say that one more time?

Traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded.

They camped at Rephidim,

but there was no water for the people to drink.

So they quarreled with Moses.

(congregation speaking faintly)

Moses replied, why do you quarrel with me?

Why do you put the Lord to the test?

But the people were thirsty for water there,

and they grumbled against Moses.

They said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt

to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?

Can we stop here for a minute?

I want you to whine that one, okay?

We're gonna be like, do it like your toddler

when you're not giving them a cookie or something.

Okay, we're gonna read that verse again.

They said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt

to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?

I love that.

Anyway, then Moses cried out to the Lord,

what am I to do with these people?

They are almost ready to stone me.

The Lord answered Moses, go out in front of the people,

take with you some of the elders of Israel

and take in your hand the staff with which

you struck the Nile and go.

I will stand there before you at the rock of Horeb.

And finally, strike the rock and water will come out of it

for the people to drink.

So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

And he called the place Massah and Meribah

because the Israelites quarreled

and because they tested the Lord saying,

is the Lord among us or not?

Father, I'm so grateful that you are among us.

I am so grateful that you have brought us here today,

just as you brought them to that place then.

And Father, just as you met with them at that point,

I am trusting God that you are gonna meet with us today.

I pray, Father, your word do the work that no man can do.

I pray, Lord, that your word reach into those places

in our lives and call us up.

I thank you for your faithfulness.

Let my stuff fall in your stand in Jesus' name, amen.

Oh, I love that little voice.

That was perfect, babe.

That was perfect.

I think most of us know or are aware

that there is a second instance that follows this in Numbers

where Moses is, where the people come once again.

I like the whiny part.

You all did really good at that.

It's almost like you practiced.

Moses, there's a second point at which Moses is confronted

by the people and they ask him again to bring them water.

And there's a whole lot in that that I get tickled at.

And now listen, I understand that there are a lot

of teachings about this particular passage,

some of which that refer to in 1 Corinthians when it says,

"He was the stone, that Jesus was the stone."

And by striking the stone twice as we get

into the next passage of Scripture,

you know, it's a type and shadow.

And I understand that there are a lot of ideas

about how that is gonna go.

And I am not the one to take you down that path.

I believe the Holy Spirit can take us down that path

because it can get a little divisive.

But I think the Lord would have me take you down the path

that he took me down with this passage of Scripture

because that's the only way I can share it with you.

If it's not personal and doesn't minister in my life,

why would I expect it to come out and do the same thing

in yours?

So we are gonna jump into where I believe the Lord

allowed me to jump in.

And somebody has messed up my nut so.

No, it's okay.

It's all good.

You know, when I was thinking about this particular passage

of Scripture, the very first thing that the Lord took me to

was the book of Ruth, which is unusual because we are

in Exodus, right?

And so it's a little bit jumping forward.

Pastor Justin shared Thursday night,

which if you haven't been here, it's a really good series.

And you should come and join us in that.

But in the book of Ruth, the very first passage, it says,

"In the days when judges ruled,

"there was a famine in the land."

Now, how does this relate to what we're talking about here?

Well, number one, the thing that strikes me is

when it says there was a famine in the land,

the land it's talking about is the land of promise.

There was a famine in the promised land.

How does that happen?

This is the land of milk and honey

that they traveled 40 years to get to.

It was the land of milk and honey.

And then now it's saying that there is a famine in the land.

So you know what that tells me?

That tells me that sometimes the promise

doesn't look like the promise.

It tells me that sometimes along this journey,

it doesn't feel like or look like what we anticipated

it would look like in the beginning.

I need to know, okay, maybe, let's just say,

maybe Kevin missed it.

This isn't the passage of scripture

that we're supposed to be jumping onto.

So let me ask you this.

Have any of you ever received a promise from the Lord?

I want hands.

Has the Lord ever told you something?

Yeah?

Have you ever had to wait on the fulfillment of that?

Yeah.

Now wait a minute.

There's more hands going up for waiting

than there was for receiving the promise.

So what's that about?

Than receiving the promise.

Well then this must be the right passage of scripture.

As Justin was sharing Thursday night,

I told him, I said, "These should link up together."

I've always wondered, you know,

this journey from when the Lord said

he was gonna take them into the promised land,

all of the signs, all of the wonders,

yet they wound up in a journey of 40 years.

How did that happen?

And why 40 years?

Most people who turn 40,

there is significance to that age, you know,

kind of changes things.

But I was like, do you know why they wondered for 40 years?

Don't tell anybody.

I really need a more uneducated congregation.

Well, as Justin was sharing this week,

the Lord, right before this situation

that we just read about,

about the water coming from the rock,

there was a period of time when they got,

the children of Israel came close to the land

and the Lord, Moses said, he took 12 leaders,

sent them into the land,

and they were to spy out the land,

and they spied out the lands for 40 days.

And when they come back, the 12 go to give a report,

and 10 of them go, yes, it is everything

that you said it would be.

It is everything the Lord promised.

It is a land of milk and honey.

There are grapes the size of a man's hand.

You know, all of this report, yes, it is exactly that.

But we can't take it.

We can't go get it.

They are big.

We are small.

They are giants.

We are grasshoppers, you know?

It's like, yes, yes, everything God said was true.

Oh, but we can't do that.

And so Joshua and Caleb, of course, say,

yeah, we can absolutely take the land.

Man, we need more Joshua's and Caleb's, don't we?

We need more that will go, oh, we absolutely can,

because see what they understood

was they weren't gonna take the land.

God was gonna take the land.

God was gonna fulfill his promises.

And so often we get stuck trying to figure out

how we are gonna fulfill God's promises.

When what God is doing is going, will you trust me?

Will you trust me?

And so their punishment for that

was for every day that you walked the promise.

I'm gonna become the Amplified Bible here for a minute, okay?

It may look a little different than your Amplified Bible,

but just go with me here for a second.

He says, okay, you literally walked in the promise

for 40 days, and you saw confirmation

after confirmation after confirmation

that everything I said about it was true.

And so for every day you walked that land,

saw the promise, and then came back and gave that report,

but the lack of, I'm gonna give you a year

to wander in the wilderness.

One year for every day that you saw

and knew the promises of God and refused to do it,

or were fearful and didn't go there.

Aren't you glad?

Aren't you so grateful that we don't get a year

in the wilderness for every time we fail to believe?

Aren't you so grateful that in His grace and in His mercy,

He says, okay, one more time.

Okay, come on, we're gonna cover this one more time.

And then He encourages us and He teaches us

and gives us next opportunity to go there.

40 years, 40 years they wandered the wilderness.

The thing that is interesting to me is that you know

they had to be so excited about the destination,

but I wonder how much thought

they actually gave to the journey.

And see, that's where we are a lot of times.

We receive a promise from the Lord,

or we feel like the Lord has shown us something

or told us something, and all we see is that, which is good,

but there's a journey between here and there.

And there's an accountability in that journey

from here to there.

And we watch the children of Israel begin

to move a little differently as things become uncomfortable.

How do we act when things begin to get uncomfortable?

How do, my mom used to always say,

well, it had to do with my stepfather

who really never got out of his recliner.

And she would go, you just gotta wait

for him to get uncomfortable.

And she'd go, you know, nobody moves

until they're uncomfortable.

And then sometimes spiritually guys, that's the truth.

We don't move until things get very uncomfortable

where we are, we love comfort, it's a good thing.

And now I'm gonna be honest enough to say

that if I were wandering through the desert

for any period of time, like 20 minutes,

I would probably grumble and I would complain.

I am not the outdoor, Hal, don't say it.

I'm not the outdoorsy type.

I'm more the turn up the air conditioner type.

I'm not gonna do it, no, no.

But the people begin to grumble and they begin to complain.

I know none of you have ever done that.

I know none of us have ever grumbled or complained,

but the people begin to grumble and complain.

At one point, the scripture says, God actually says,

you know, these people have tested me 10 times.

That was my first week.

But I was like, he says they've tested me 10 times.

And I mean, I could like standing right here go,

okay, wait a minute, why did you bring us out here

in the desert to kill us?

Were there no graves back in Egypt?

They were a little dramatic anyway.

And they're like, oh, we're so thirsty.

Why did you bring us out here that our children

and ourselves and these cattle are going to die?

And then there was the whole, you know,

I don't like manna anymore.

Can you give us something else?

And then there's, oh no, we're grasshoppers.

We're not, they're big guys, we're little.

They whined a little bit.

And in that, in that,

they were testing the Lord.

You know, sometimes we don't think about it that way.

When things aren't going the way we want them to,

and we start to grumble or we whine or we complain.

And the Lord's goodness is all around us.

All around us.

Hey, that sounded almost like Dolby stereo

when you go to the movies.

All around.

Oh, I need more coffee.

Anyway. (audience laughing)

(laughing)

Anyway, more than 10 times they test him.

More than 10 times.

But like I mentioned, there's a second time

that Moses is called to go to the rock.

And this actually, this one actually tickles me

a little bit, even though it turns out really, really bad.

I feel bad for him.

Anyway.

But this time, the thing that predicates

the water from the rock is,

it says that Moses and Aaron had a meeting with the people.

And the people were upset.

And so at the end of the meeting,

Moses and Aaron had to go face down

before the 10th meeting.

Have you ever left an encounter with some human beings

and had to go find a place with Jesus?

Some of you said that louder than others.

And I'm just wondering if you're a friend of mine

and if that could have been me,

but I'm a little bit sensitive about those things.

But they go and they go face down

before the 10th of meeting.

And this time, the Lord tells them to go

and he tells Moses to take his staff.

But he tells them, this time,

I want you to speak to the rock.

I want you to speak to it.

He doesn't say hit it or anything else.

And if you are familiar with this story at all,

you know that this does not go well.

He goes before the people, he takes the staff and say,

I think the Lord allows us sometimes

to take comfortable things with us.

Not so much that he was gonna use it,

but there might have been an element of Moses

that went, this worked last time.

So if this whole speaking thing doesn't work,

I will have this magic staff here.

That is not scriptural.

I'm just saying, you never know

how a person's mind is gonna work.

But sometimes the Lord lets you take something familiar,

but what he really wants you to take is his presence.

What we really need to take into any situation

is his presence.

And I'm gonna jump a little forward in that.

But he gets up in front of the people and he still,

you know, he tells the people, you are rebellious.

You are rebellious.

And then what's interesting to me is he says,

you are rebellious.

And then he strikes the rock.

That is leadership 101.

You rebellious people.

It's funny when it's not you.

It's funny when you can look at other people's lives

and see that one act, that one thing,

that one thing changed his path to the promise.

That one thing.

And I'll be honest enough with you to go,

God, how's that even fair?

How's that even fair that this would happen

and then that promise and all that he had poured into that

and one act changes everything.

But I don't know, guys.

This is just me.

But I don't know that striking the rock

was actually the issue.

Now we're gonna get.

But the thing that has struck me about this,

the thing that I have been carrying in my spirit for this

was all of you, almost every single one of you said

God had promised you something, that he had given you

something and that it hasn't happened yet, right?

It's not been fulfilled yet.

I've got those in my life.

I've got places where the Lord promised

and meant that he fulfill it.

Man has he met me every single time except for this.

Or except for this.

And my question and the question that I felt like

the Holy Spirit posed in my own spirit was,

what are you like when the promise

does not look like the promise?

How do you respond when you thought

it was gonna go this way?

You thought you would be healed.

You thought your children would be saved by now.

You thought this miracle, you thought this marriage

would be restored.

You thought this would happen

and it didn't turn out that way.

Or you're still in that way.

How do you act?

What do you represent when you are in those waiting years?

And I say years purposely, could be decades

while you're waiting on that promise to be fulfilled.

How do you act?

See, here's what I think.

It's just a thought, but it's based on scripture.

There's a point.

Even though Moses misses it and he strikes the rock twice,

what does the Lord do?

He still sends water to the people.

He still supplies the people.

The water still pours out.

You need to understand that God will still bless his people

and then deal with the leaders.

Don't think for a minute that he will not deal with us

as leaders if we mislead.

But what scripture tells me,

God doesn't say, "Since you struck that rock."

What God says to Moses is, "Because you did not honor me."

No, "Because you did not believe in me

"and trust me enough to honor me as holy before the people,

"because you did not believe me, trust in me enough

"to honor me before the people, you're not taking 'em in."

That's about a whole lot more than striking a rock.

That is about do you believe what he said to you?

And do you believe it enough

that when it doesn't look like it

and when everybody else is saying, "Oh no, no, no,"

or when you are mad at God or you are upset,

do you believe him enough?

Do you believe that he is who he says he is

to the point that you will stand before the people

and honor him as holy in the middle of your situation?

Because that is what we are called to do

day after day after day after day after day

on this journey toward the promise

that he has set before us.

And I can honestly say I fail at that.

I fail at that so often when I know his goodness

is all around me and to go,

but God, I feel like you said this, it was about honor.

And if it's about honor,

and if it is about honoring him as holy

in everything that he is and all that he's called us to,

if it's about honor, we might be in a little bit of trouble

because we live in a society

that doesn't really lean toward honor.

They don't really lean toward respect.

We don't really lean into that whole God sovereign over us.

It is you and only you, God.

We don't lean like that.

We have a tendency to invite God into our world

and ask him to accommodate our needs

and to fit into the structure that we have for him.

But can we honor him as holy?

I wanna read this to you

because when the Lord gave it to me,

I felt like it was important.

And I had just written in the risk of alienating some,

we live in a society that seems to have little understanding

of respect and honor for authority.

And I believe that lack of respect,

the lack of honor has found its way

into the pews and the pulpits

because in making Jesus our homeboy,

in making God our friend,

we begin to see him as such and he is, don't get me wrong,

but there is this casual spiritual arrogance

that enters into our life that causes us to think

we are on equal footing with him and we are not.

We have made him.

So we have done our best to make him so user-friendly

so that people who wanna straddle the fence

between carnality and Christianity feel comfortable.

But he's holy.

He is sovereign.

He is holy, guys.

You know, you hear the phrase dumb it down.

You can't dumb this down

'cause either he's holy or he isn't.

Either he's sovereign or he isn't.

Either he is who he says he is or what are you doing here?

That's the God I know.

That's the God I know.

And see, I love, I love, love, love

that God ministered to his people

even when the leaders were blowing it.

Many, many, many years ago, I used to travel some

and I would go and I would play and I would sing

and I would do those kinds of services.

And I was in a season of my life

where I had no business being on a platform

or trying to lead anybody in worship.

But I was also the type that was such a people pleaser

that I couldn't back out and leave a church without that.

And so I went to this church and I sat down at the piano

the whole time convicted by the Holy Spirit going,

what are you doing here?

What are you doing here?

And I just remember, guys, the presence of the Holy Spirit

hit that room.

I have never before or since experienced anything like that.

There was literal wind in that room.

There were people laying in the floor.

And I mean, it was just the most amazing thing.

And all I could hear when I was sitting at that piano

was God going, I will bless my people.

I will bless my people.

And what I understood was that it has nothing

to do with you.

It has nothing to do with you.

It was the most humbling and formative moment

I think in my life.

It was one of those moments because always before

when I had gone to do that, it's like I had prepared.

I wrote the songs.

I played the piano.

I did this and then God showed up in spite of my mess.

And he went, I'm gonna bless my people

and I will deal with you later.

And he did.

And he did.

And I had to repent.

(sniffling)

God will bless his people.

It was a very humbling lesson.

Jesus, help me.

In the very first instance when Moses goes

to strike the rock, scripture clearly states, he says,

God says, my presence will go before you.

And I will stand before you at the rock of Horeb.

And when you strike the rock, the water will flow.

And it was the presence of God, that presence of God.

Guys, do you understand that when you are in the middle

of that journey and it's feeling long

and it's feeling like God's never gonna meet you

and it's feeling like you are thirsty and you are lost

and you're starting to lose that faith,

you know you need to get in his presence.

Do you understand that you need to find a piece

of carpet somewhere and do exactly what Moses and Aaron did

and just go face down before him and cry out to him

and stay there, stay there.

Not one of these little five minute prayers,

even though something's got a change in our heart

in that moment so that when we stand up from that time,

we're still not, we are not carrying the grumbling

and complaining anymore, but we are carrying the,

I believe in you enough to stand and honor you

as holy before the people.

Don't stand up till you get that.

Don't stand up until you get that.

Here's the thing.

They started out good.

And boy, that initial experience we have with the Lord

when he saves us and we feel cleansed

and we feel delivered, that initial experience,

man, there's a high and you go out and it's like, yes,

we are gonna take that promised land.

And then all of a sudden you get thirsty

or the baby's crying and there's nowhere to put them.

I had written this.

Somewhere in the wilderness, the people decided

that they were not strong enough to take the promise.

Somewhere in the wilderness, the people stopped believing

that God would finish what he started.

Somewhere in the wilderness, their hardships began

to override their hope.

Somewhere in the wilderness, the leeks and garlic started

to sound better than the milk and honey.

Somewhere in the wilderness, the people stopped believing

that God was who he said he was.

Even with the pillar of fire, even with the miracles,

even with the parting of the Red Sea, they stopped believing

that God was gonna take care of them,

that God was gonna provision them

and that God was gonna do what he said he was going to do.

And that is what I believe the Lord would have me

bring to you this morning.

Those of you who raised your hand and when God told me this,

God has given me this, God has laid this out

and I'm still waiting.

Do you believe he is who he said he is?

Do you believe he will do what he said he would do?

Do you believe that he is alpha and omega,

the beginning and the end?

Do you believe that he is Jehovah Shema,

that he is Jehovah Sid Canoe?

Is he the God of your peace?

Is he the God of your provision?

Is he the God who loved you and saved you

and called you out of your own Egypt?

We are getting ready here to sing a song.

This is what I felt in my spirit.

Every single one of you, I know y'all hate when I do this,

every single one of you that raised your hand,

said God has promised me something and I'm still waiting.

I need you here.

And I'm gonna come down there with you

'cause I'm still waiting too.

(gentle music)

And we're gonna make a declaration tonight.

Man, I wish the children of Israel had had this song

out there in the desert

so that they could begin to make a declaration.

I'm gonna come down here, guys.

Because I'm still waiting too.

I'm still waiting too and I know that we have a God

who will complete what he has begun, amen?

Amen.

So we're gonna make a declaration

and when we get to this chorus,

I believe you are who you said you were.

And when he said, the one line that I love so much

is it says, I'm running through parted waves

straight to you.

I want you to know you have some parted waves

in front of you.

And God, oh man, just the imagery to go,

can you even imagine,

could you just close your eyes for just a second,

see those waves roll back

and see him waiting for you right there.

That's the position I want you to take

as we begin to sing, I believe.

And I'm believing that the Lord is just gonna minister

to you, that he is gonna reconfirm those promises to you

and that he's gonna reassure you that he finishes

what he starts.

Go ahead guys.

Jesus.

[music fades out]

[music fades out]