The Devil In 3D

See I always read it wrong. I thought he was a lion. I thought he was bigger than me and stronger than me. But I found out that he's just loud like a lion. And the place where he roars is in my mind. That's where he's the loudest, in the thoughts that I have. And so he's looking for someone to devour. Did you ever wonder why all those Twitter feeds and Instagram feeds and Facebook feeds, why they call him feeds is because they're eating your mind alive?

Did you know that? And so he devours people in any way that he can. He's looking for someone. The command is resist him, But how many know it's hard to resist what you don't recognize, and if we're to resist the enemy, because I don't know about you, But I don't intend to live the rest of my life as a Christian and be a slave to my own imagination. Amen.

I don't intend to live the rest of my life forgiven by Christ as a prisoner to my past and replaying memories of moments that have come and gone, but I can't escape them in my mind. And so I really intend if it takes me the rest of my life, and it might, because it seems like sometimes I take two steps forward and three steps back. But I'm trying

to get free. I'm trying to take my mind back so I can serve God with my mind and love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my strength. And I don't want to be drained, so I go into each day with no energy and broken focus. I really want to be able to see clear the way ahead so I can follow Christ into my future. And

that's the intention of this series. But in order to resist the enemy, we've got to recognize him, or we'll spend our whole life, resisting all the wrong things, resisting silence when sometimes that's where God speaks the loudest, resisting or trying to avoid awkward situations. And God's middle name is awkward. He'll run out of food on purpose to see what you're going to do in an awkward situation. He'll sit down next to a disreputable woman it all well,

and make it awkward. So the disciples have to decide if they really believe that this message is for everyone. And so let's take a look today at this idea of recognizing the enemy so we can see how he's at work in our lives. And this may be a weird title, but I want to call this message the devil in three D. What does he look like in real life, not our cartoon image of him, our coloring

book devil. Once we get the cape off of him and try to understand how he really operates to try to master our minds and set up a seed of influence and our souls through controlling our emotions, we can

start to do battle. And you know, Paul said one time, we are not ignorant of Satan's devices, devices, Satan's devices, and of course I don't think this is the devil, but I wanted to give you three things just to make it memorable that start with the letter D. And rather than continue on talking about Peter this week, I want to move into the Old Testament for a few moments and tell you a story about a Bible character that I know you've heard of, named Moses, and I

want to use this one example from his Life's probably not the one that he would choose for us to evaluate, because he made a great mistake and it cost him dearly. But hopefully, like First Corinthians ten says, we can use him as an example so the same thing doesn't happen to us. How many of you want your kids to learn some stuff from your experience that they don't have to learn through their own pain. And so let's look at this. I'll read it to you. I'll be honest

with you. I never appreached on this passage before because I was intimidated by it. And really it's a little confusing. You'll see that it seems a little harsh what happens in this passage. And honestly, I knew that if I ever preached it, that God would probably speak something to me that I wouldn't want to hear because I relate to a little thing that happens in this Bible story. But I want to share it with you now as

we lean into this message. The devil in three D and of course Moses's devil was a little different than ours. He would have said Pharaoh, who was the ruler of Egypt, the one that he had to demand emancipation for the people of God from. He never really asked for that assignment. He didn't seek that assignment. He wasn't looking for a life purpose. God just interrupted what he thought was his second half of life and gave him something different to

do and wasn't terribly convenient. But now we're looking at Moses at the end of his life, and this is what the Bible says Numbers chapter twenty, verse one. In the first month, the whole Israelite community arrived at the desert of Zenn and they stayed at Kadesh. Their Miriam died and was buried. Their Miriam died and was buried. Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron, and they quarreled with Moses and said, if only we had died

when our brothers fell dead before the Lord. Why did you bring the Lord's community into this wilderness that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grape vines or pomegranates, Wi Fi or Starbucks. It's trying to bring you into the text. I don't want you bored trying to listen to this

Bible story. And there is no water to drink. Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell face down, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. When God's glory shows up when you've run out of answers, That's when God's glory shows up when you admit God, I'm powerless to do this on my own. I need you God. I've tried everything, and still these people are driving me crazy. But I'm here at the entrance to the tent and

I need you to speak. So for everybody who came into church with a cocky attitude today talking about I wonder what this sermon is gonna be about. And he better hurry up and get to it. Because I don't really even want to be here, up here in that karate kid shirt looking like a Halloween costume, say something, won't you. You're not gonna get it. But those of you who came in here humbled under the mighty hand of God, he might just speak, because you're listening now.

Then the Lord said to Moses verse seven, take the staff, that same staff that you raised over the Red Sea, and it parted, that same staff that initially threw on the ground. And I proved who I was to you because I turned the staff into a snake, and you picked it back up and it became a staff again. That same staff that turned the Nile River into blood until your enemy had no choice but to release you from bondage. That same staff that when you raised it up,

the Amalekites were no match for the Israelites. That same staff. Take it now. I want you to get erin and get everybody together and speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will pour out its water, and you will bring water out of the rock for the community, so they in their livestock and drink. So Moses took the staff from the Lord's presence, just as he had commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, listen, you rebels.

I'm gonna start saying that around my house. More to the kids. Do we bring you water out of this rock? Isn't anything I do enough for you. I've been leading you through this wilderness for thirty eight years, and it's never enough. It never stops. It never stops. Somebody shout, it never stops. I screamed that one day on vacation, top of my lungs. I'd been such a good dad all day. I took my kids swimming, I went on

a bike ride with the kids. We went in ate Japanese food, and we sat with people we didn't know, and I pretended to think it was funny when he flipped the bowl into his hat, like I never saw it before. I was a good dad that day. I was a great dad that day. I read to him at bedtime. And still at the end of the day, they were fighting, and all of a sudden, I heard myself screaming at my kids. Have you ever had an out of body experience screaming at your kids? And you

were surprised what you said next? And you were thinking I might have to bleep myself at it myself. I don't know what what's coming out next. The Holy Ghost just left and something else took over. And now I'm watching myself and I'm scaring of myself, and I shouted at the top of my lungs. It never stops. Now we can laugh about it. It It wasn't funny at the time. Listen, your rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock. We already did this one time, thirty eight years ago.

This has happened before. God kept your shoes from wearing out. Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock, which God did not instruct him to do, twice with his staff, and water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. So on the surface what Moses did worked, But just because it worked on the surface doesn't mean it was wise and does not mean it will have a sustainable effect.

And this is why when you control people with your anger or your pouting or your manipulat see I can't even say the word is a foreign concept to me, manipulation. You end up very lonely because the cost of controlling people is to end up alone and I know I got you pinned up against your chair right now talking about this sermons, so look confused and you get through this. But some of the stuff that works on the surface costs us in the end. And that's why it's so

important that we understand this. Because what everybody got water, but it cost Moses what God had promised. And if the passage ended at verse eleven, you'd say, well, what's so hard about that scripture? Unfortunately, Verse twelve tell us that even though the water came out of the rock, what came out of Moses's heart in that moment prevented

him from going further into God's promise. And even though all the people were happy and the people were impressed, and the people might not have even known anything was wrong because they were all too busy drinking, the people got hydrated. The people got what they wanted, but Moses lost what God had promised. Verse twelve, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into

the land I give them. These were the waters of Mirabah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord, and where he was proved holy among them. Makes me wish I would have paid more attention in my Hebrew class, because if I knew that miraba means quarreling, I would understand that God does some great miracles in places of great conflict. You know, it's funny all the little things we miss if we read the Bible in English because the interpretation.

Sometimes the writers will put little humorous things in there that I wouldn't know to look for. But this particular word play, if you go back to verse two and I told you, I'm gonna give you three d's and I am the first one is deficit because he is describing a deficit that the people of God are in. It says in verse two there was no water for the community, and the people gathered. Now the Hebrew word forgathered here that he uses is a word that means

to come together for the purpose of conflict. And see, I didn't even know Facebook was in the Bible. Talk to me, they call it a community. But the community came together to quarrel in that a nice word to quarrel, not to not to fight, not to argue, but to quarrel and so they're they're fighting with each other and they don't have patience. But they don't have patience because they don't have water. And before we're too hard on them, these complaining Israelites, we need to consider that this was

a matter of life and death. This is not the barista messed up your order and forgot that you prefer almond milk. This is something different. This is we can't live but a few days without water, and so we're desperate. And I've noticed that when people get desperate, they start doing things they wouldn't normally do. Have you noticed this about yourself, that that when you get desperate, you get edgy, you get touchy, and sometimes you're lashing out at people.

And it's not about the people. Like I had to flaying to the kids about my road rage, it's not really about the driving. It has nothing to do with the driving. It's just that Dad finds this a convenient place to be shielded and an anonymous where I can let some stuff lie that's been building up. God, I don't want a real preacher, JJ. You preached next week. Thank them out. It's a whole thing because they came together to quarrel and what they didn't know couldn't know,

is that they were on the border of Canaan. The land that God had promised them was just a few short months away. But in a time when they should have been preparing to conquer, the enemy had them in a state of conflict. Don't you understand that the reason that you've been fighting like you've been fighting, and even the reason sometimes that the devil will get you focused on fighting against people, is because God is trying to bring you into what he spoke over your life and

the promise of his inheritance and the saints. And now the closer you get to that promise, the greater the conflict is going to be. I think one of the reasons that our church gets so divided is because the enemy knows that if we would ever stop fighting and focus on the mission that we were given by our captain and the savior of our souls, we would be dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. But we can't come together because we quarrel too much. It never stops, we

never quit finding new things to fight about. It's not only that Christians fight against other religions. We can subdivide on a multiplicity of different levels of Christianity, and we can get into little groups so that we no longer come together to lift up the name of the Lord and to take this message to the ends of the earth.

But now we're fighting over a translation of the Bible, or we're fighting over what you wear to worship, or we're fighting over what specific nuance you believe about the Holy Spirit. But I didn't come to quarrel, so I don't need to fight with you. I came to conquer, and I need you in my corner. And I don't have the energy to spend fighting against the people God called me to fight with. So if you're black, fight with me. If you're a Hispanic, fight with me. If

you're a woman, fight with me. If you're young, fight with me. Let's get together, old heads, young people, let's fight this fight together. And there's no water in the wilderness. And when there is no water, when there is a deficit, you start reacting instead of responding. I'm apprecia this message, Hollie. I feel it happening right now, because what I want to say is, forget about the budget deficit. We got a whole lot more than a budget deficit in our

nation today. And it's a different deficit than they faced. It's not a lack of water. I feel like in our world today we are severely lacking in our ability to empathize with others because we've got a surplus of opinions and a deficit of empathy. Let me try another one.

They didn't like that very much. We have a surplus of information and a deficit of wisdom, because if we don't have insight into information, we will get caught up in highlights and headlines and highlights and headlines and highlights and headlines and highlights and headlines, clicking on crazy stuff and not even bothering to read anything but the first sentence. And then somebody wants to ask me, do you really have a water slide on your stage because you don't

want to come. I almost lost my faith in the human race over that water slide. It's a deficit, and I've been noticing about myself. Maybe this is why I wanted to preach the series that I'm having a hard time focusing because you know, the Devil's devices. I think it's I think I'm no neurologist, but I think when it's getting hard for me to read three sentences in a book and now I'm trying to swipe paper. When I reached up to swipe a book the other day,

I thought, I got to take my mind back. Actually, next week, if the Lord will enable me and help me, I'm gonna try to preach on that very subject of focus, because I'm talking to more more people who feel like their mind is fragmented and can't hold a thought. And it's not just because you're getting old and fish oil won't help it. There's some principles in the Word of God about distraction that we need to look at. It's a deficit, a deficit where we have more ways to

communicate and we're connecting less than ever. I think that's what the skyrocketing porn rates are about. I think that's what the skyrocketing sleep deprivation rates are about. We are desperate to connect, and we call ourselves connected and nothing could be further from the truth. And it's too much. Costa called it too much to live with, too little to live for. It's a deficit, a deficit of meaning, a deficit of insight. And when the deficit is left unaddressed,

you know what happens next. Disappointment sets in And that's the second D is disappointment because I'm looking at how the Israelites are talking to Moses right, and I get it. I get it because when you don't have what you need to live, you start doing things that you would not normally do and it's not even you. And you also want to explain to people. Sometimes I don't even know who that was. I'm so sorry. Can we take back the last five minutes? And sometimes you can't. Sometimes

you can undo it. And what the Israelites said to Moses here apparently hit that button. Now everybody has a button. All of you who are calm, we just haven't found yours yet. Really, everybody has a boiling point. Everybody has something that if you hit that, you will see a different version of them, and you will completely change their enneagram number. The right button, they go from a seven to a two, a peacemaker to a shooter, and it

can happen so quick. Most is the man of God is violently striking a rock when God is trying to show his people grace. But the reason he did it, and this is why I can't figure out sometimes in my own life where it comes from, because I find things coming out of me, and I'm confused about where it came from, because i know I'm not mad about what I'm mad about, because it's not a big enough deal to make me as mad as I am about what I'm mad about. Please help me preach to you

in this together. And they just got done telling him they wanted to die. And it's his fault. Because anytime you are facing a deficit in your own life, you start looking for someone to blame. Anytime you are confronted with your own barrenness or brokenness, you want to find somebody else or something else whose fault it can be. And the first thing we do when we run out of resource is to look for someone else to take responsibility. If only we had died when our brothers fell dead

before the Lord. Why did you bring the Lord's community? Why didn't my mom? Why wasn't my dad around? All? These are reasonable things to say, but they don't really help the situation. They only make it worse. Why did you bring us out here into this wilderness that we should die here? They weren't actually about to die. God wasn't going to let him die. They were on the edge of destiny, about to take the land that God had promised for generations, and they want to die at

the edge of destiny. Why'd you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? There we had figs. There, we had grape funds. There we had pomegranates. There we had grain. I forget to mention the whips. They forget to mention the mud and the straw, and they begin to glamorize a past that really didn't even exist, well, the good old days. I get it, man, it's tempting

to go back there in your mind. Just as long as you know is your version of the past is just as imaginary as your version of the future back in Egypt, the place that you were praying God to get you out of. Oh, I never forget this. One time a lady came to me. She said, you need to change some things in the church, very early in the church. And I was woo, I was cocky. I was twenty eight. So what I said, next to Homie responsible.

There's statute of limitations. She listed everything she wanted me to change in the church, change this and change that, and change this and change that. And either the Lord or the devil prompted me to say what follows. I said, so you want me to recreate the church that you left to come to this one. I didn't mean it how it came out. I meant to say, I'll pray about it. I am, but a servant and a vessel

just gushed out came out frustration. So you understand that frustration operates when your experience is different than your expectation. So when you are frustrated, it is not your life that you're frustrated with. It's your life compared to your expectation of your life. That's what makes you frustrated. It's that it normally takes me thirteen minutes to get there, and today it took me thirty. And I didn't plan

for that. And so since I was already at a time deficit and a sleep deficit, and I didn't put margin on this trip, now I find myself frustrated. I'm not really frustrated at how long it's taking. I'm frustrated about how long it's taken compared to how long I thought it was gonna take. And one of the best things we can do for our peace of mind is

to crucify our expectations of others. I mean, really just put it up there on the cross and get to the place where we no longer have an expectation of people to meet our needs, because we understand that our water flows from a different rock, that our joy flows from a different place. Come on, Epham, shout at the phone that I don't depend on people to provide for me what God has promised. It's already mine. And so

they got really upset man. And then Moses got upset, and he went to God and he wanted God to be upset like he was upset. And Moses was mad because God wasn't mad. That's what happened here. He was disappointed. It never stops after all I've done for you. I've been here before. I have been here before, even even in high school when I was the athletic trainer water boy for the football team. Coach Meyer recruited me to be the athletic trainer. Said you could get a scholarship.

And one day I was mixing that gatorade so sweet, and I thought, I don't think they give scholarships for that. I think he tricked me into this. You know, I kind of didn't like it anyway. It wasn't like I really cared too much about football. Football's fine, I'll turn it on. I'm not like some of y'all fantasy lineups and stuff. I got a real life. I'm skinding, I'm skinning. I'm scarting this fine as fine as fine. Fine, I'm skarting. I'm scarting this fine as fine as fine. But man,

it was a relatively simple job. I did it for over a year, and the main part of the job, you know, every once in a while, they would let me tape a wrist or an ankle. I think it wasn't even really people that was hurt. I think they just sent cast members over because if anybody was really hurt, doctor Bowens came in. So I don't even think I was really taping anybody. I don't even think it was. But I did have one one job, and every time they would have a water break, it was my job

to turn on the water. That's right, Bobby Bouche got nothing on me. Well, I did it like clockwork. They blow the whistle. I was positioned close enough to the spickett which was connected to the hose which went to the PVC pipe in Monk's Corner. It was fancy with a PVC pipe with the holes in it, trough of sorts with the water would come out of the pipe. But I was the man who turned it on, and I turned it on about three or four times every practice. And one day I went over there to turn it

on and nothing came out. I don't know who forgot to pay the bill, but nothing came out. And those football players went to drink and they lined up at the PVC pipe and nothing happened. And they started yelling at me, like these rebellious Israelites started yelling at Moses, started yelling at me, calling me Steve. I don't even go by Steve. There's an N on my name. Now the consonant. This ain't will of fortune. Oh, I was mad yelling at me for the one time the water

didn't come on. Hundreds of times the water came on. One time it didn't come on. And guess what, I'm not controlling the water. I'm just the one turning it on. So they were yelling at me. So I wasn't saved yet. Let me get that in. So I turned around and

said God bless all y'all. Only instead of God bless I've said some different bce vocabulary that is not appropriate for this church setting and holy people such as yourself, And in that moment, I forgot they were bigger than me, because I do have a level of crazy that if it kicks in, I will stop caring how much bigger you are. And I would rather die than have you cussed me out. I got in my Toyota turch cell and I drove off. So oh just kind of came

back to me. Man, I'm sorry because all these times I get Moses's disappointment. I really do, all these times, and this one time, all I've done for you, all the meals I've cooked, all the prayers I've prayed, all the compliments I gave, all the Christmas presents I bought, all the sacrifices I made, and you mean this one thing, this one time, and now you want to yell at

me and disrespect me and ignore me. I figure Moses is tired of being taken for granted, tired of people just assuming that you're always gonna do it and it's just easy for you. Until I realized that Moses wasn't really disappointed with the people. Moses was still dealing with a fear that he had carried with him since the time God met him at the Burning Bush, impossibly before that forty years earlier, when he killed an Egyptian to

try to rescue one of his fellow Hebrews. And he never really fit in because he was raised as an Egyptian, but he was by birth a Hebrew. And when he tried to defend the people that he was one of from the people that he had had to live with, Moses ended up having to run. That's why he ended up in the wilderness with the shepherd's staff to begin with. And that's why when God met him at the bush, Moses said, you got the wrong one. Picked somebody stronger,

Pick somebody more capable, Pick somebody with more experience. Pick somebody who doesn't struggle with what I struggle with, because I'll let you down, God, and I'll let them down. And not only not only is Moses dealing with this moment, but he's dealing with forty years of frustration, forty years of frustration that you could argue were the result of his lack of faith when he didn't go in and

fight and take the land God had promised. In a sense, what they're saying about Moses is true, and he knows it. It's not him, it's not them that he is disappointed in. So like for me realizing in my adult life that my core fear and a lot of the reasons that I withdraw and a lot of the reasons that I lash out. It really came to me one time early in my marriage to Holly, and it was a low key argument, but all of a sudden it just kind of erupted and I yelled at her, I'm not stupid,

I'm not stupid. It never stops. I'm not stupid, she said. I didn't say you were stupid, But I wasn't responding to what she said. I was responding to what I felt somewhere in me was something that told me that I didn't know enough, probably back to my dad, in some ways he loved me. It wasn't that he didn't love me, but he kind of felt like it was him against the world and he didn't have a full deck to play with because of the way he was raised.

And somewhere I probably started thinking that I was operating in life out of a deficit of intelligence. And so my first instinct when someone makes me feel stupid, what a phrase when they make me feel stupid. How much power are you giving away to other people when someone can make you feel stupid. That's a weak mind. But that's where that's where I find myself sometimes and that mental wilderness, that mental wilderness, do you know what I'm

talking about? And I'm afraid. I'm afraid sometimes up here, not that I'm going to get the Bible wrong or that I'm going to dishonor God, but unfortunately that I will disappoint you. And every time we start a new series, I feel it, you know, because I try to create expectation this is going to be the best series ever. And then I hope Baby Jesus and Mother Mary and the Holy Ghosts will somehow help us, because I don't

want to disappoint you. And I'm sharing this autobiographically, but I'm wondering, is like, do a lot of us function in this place that I don't want to disappoint you? And that's why I hide. And now I find myself I don't even want to pick up the phone when people call, because now if I can text them back, I can carefully craft my response. Even in the smallest ways. I see this fear, I see myself withdrawing. I see myself wanting to isolate, and it's a tendency that I

don't fully understand because I do love people. I really do love people. I've always loved people. I was a dude that hugged everybody in his graduating high school class, the whole two one hundred and thirty of them, hug them all. But I find myself sometimes wanting to withdraw, find myself wanting to walk out, find myself wanting to get out, and I wonder why, you know, like, am I losing my love for people? It is all this getting to me, like lights and cameras and all that.

But I realized I realized in the weirdest way one day what it was when a lady said to me, I've I've been going to your church seven years and I've never met you. And I said, I'm so sorry. I took it like an accusation, you know. She said, no, no, it's a big church. We love. The minister said, okay, good, I'm sorry. That's I'm really sorry, though, that's bad. I met your pastor in seven years. I'm sorry. She said, it's fine, it's fine. Stop apologizing now. It's awkward because

I'm making it awkward. Then she made it awkward. She said, you're much taller on the screen. Well that helped you already. See I'm insecure woman, but I don't want to let you down, you know. So, So when Moses has this moment and I'm calling in a moment, but it's really not a moment because anytime something comes bursting to the surface, like Moses hitting that rock twice when God specifically spoke to him to speak to the rock, not to strike it. And I know why he struck the rock because this

is the third issue. It's the issue of dependence. You know. This staff was the thing that he carried with him. Like Tom Hanks had a volleyball, Moses had a stick. And now in this moment where the community needs water and this is to be their last test, but they don't know it. This is to be their last test to see if they really trust God, and Moses fails the test. What I could not understand is why did God tell him to take the stick if he didn't

want him to use it. Why did God tell mos us take the staff and then don't use it, just hold it and speak to the rock. Until I remember what Moses said to God when God first called Moses, I'm not good at speaking. And before God could let Moses lead his people into the promise, he had to know do you trust me enough? When God said Moses, you can't lead the people, it wasn't for punishment, it

was for protection. If Moses would have led them in in the condition that his heart was in, with years and years and years and years of resentment building up, they would have all got killed the first time God spoken, they didn't do what he said because God needs someone

who is not dependent on their staff. I know you struck the Red the Nile River, and the Red Sea, and I know that this staff has been used to perform great miracles, and I want you to hold it in your hand, but have the faith not to use it. I want you to speak to the rock, and he struck it instead. And God said, you don't trust me enough. You've allowed this resentment to build to a point that

it has killed your potential. When we allow resentment to build and build and build and build, when we never really believe that we are what God said we are, when we are constantly taking people's assessment of us as the ultimate reality, it limits our participation in the promise of God. It doesn't keep God from loving you, but it keeps God from being able to lead you into the great and precious promises that have your name on them. God said, I just need you to trust me. I

know you stutter, I know you stammer. I know you're afraid of letting me down. But it's never been about you, Moses. It was never about your mouth. It was about my mighty hand and my outstretched arm. It was never about your rod. It was about the rock. So what are you trusting in today, my friend, the rod or the rock?

Because First Corinthians ten tells us plainly that this happened as an example for us, that the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness were an example for us, for you and me in our daily lives, in our efforts to trust God in the face of our own frailty, he said. The apostle Paul said verse four. They drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them. Here's the revelation, and that rock was Christ. It wasn't

about Moses. It's not about me. It's not about you. Yes, I will let you down. Yes, I will disappoint you, But I'm not the rock. You know how good that makes me feel to know I'm not the rock. I don't have to force it, I don't have to fight it. I don't have to explode in anger when it doesn't go oh my way. I'm not the He is my stable place. He is my solid ground on Christ, the solid rock I stand. Whole other ground is sinking sand.

Please stand, I'm closing, Please stand, I'm closing these Verse thirteen, where the waters of Miraba, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord, they quarreled with the Lord. And verse two it said they quarreled with Moses. But really they were quarreling with the Lord. It wasn't even about Moses. It's not even about you. It's not even about me. We've been taking things personally, you know. Let it build and

then it explodes. Not in church, Oh you look so fancy in here, your little boozy blessed self, come up in the House of God carrying a big, old, thick Bible. Explodes when you get home. It explodes when you're all alone and you find yourself crying out, desperate for connection and disappointed with your life. So you start striking rocks and you start trying to get You know, the water came out of the rock, and it worked on the surface, but Moses did not get to enter into the promise

of God. Did God still love Moses? Absolutely? You see the God of second chances? I sure hope, so I know he is. I know He's not gonna punish me for one mistake. I can prove it. I can prove it to you. Give him that verse you earlier someone fourteen eight. When the Psalmist reflected on this event, he said, you got it one fourteen eight, the one I sent

you earlier today? No is Psalm one fourteen verse A. What if I started yelling at the people on the screens to demonstrate Moses's frustration, But it said that God turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water. And God spoke to me through that verse and said, if they'll let me, the place of their greatest mistake will become the place of my mercy and their greatest miracle. But for this to happen, we can't keep it all up inside and keep exploding in

situations and exploding. It's not for everybody. Sometimes it's much more subtle than that. It's the little waste that you withdraw yourself from those that you love because I don't want to be disappointed again. I don't want to be a disappointment some living my whole life trying to avoid disappointment. I'm bringing my expectations down, down, down, down, down, down down, because now no one can disappoint me. And I'm bringing myself back back back back, because i don't want to

disappoint you. It's not about you. This is the test. This is the test. With your rod in your hand, to remember all that God has done for you, and the rock in front of you, the presence of God. Speak to it, don't strike it, Speak to it, Confess it before God. Speak to your weakness, own your inadequacy. God said, I'm not looking for you to be what I need you to be. I'm looking for you to trust in what I already am. And so when Moses said I'm not, God said I am. When Moses said

I'm not, God said I am. When Moses said I'm not, God said I am. When Moses said not, God said I am. Do you trust him enough to let him handle those who have hurt you? Do you trust him enough to allow him to use everything that's happened for your good and his glory? Lift your hands. If you do, the rock is in this place. When my heart is overwhelmed, Lead me to the rock that is higher than I meet us in this moment. God, pour out your spirit

in a fresh way for your people. Now. I asked that you would speak to that weak place, broken place, discouraged place. Make that heart beat again for real water from a rock, so you are beauty from brokenness. Call to him, Call to him, speak to the rock. Unless you come, ask if you need me enter my decision making process. God, I need you well. I hope you enjoyed the podcast today, and if you did, there are just a couple of things I'd love for you to do.

Number one, subscribe to our show. That way, the most recent episode will always be in your feed, waiting for you ready when you are. And secondly, if this ministry has impacted you and you'd like to help us continue to reach others, you can click the link in the description and you can give now and I'll see you next time on the Elevation Podcast.