Well, good evening again. If you take your seats for just a moment, before we read our text, I'd like to give you a couple of words of introduction. If you walk across the street to our bookstore, there's a book in there written by a guy named Doug Wilson who's a pastor up in Idaho, and the name of the book is called Reforming Marriage. And the thing about this book is I haven't read it. I want to, I plan to, all I've done is look at the front cover, and I'm judging the book by its cover. Not really. I've stared at the cover for so long because on the front of it is a really intriguing painting, which I looked up on Wikipedia was painted in the 17th century by a Dutch artist by the name of Jan Steen. And the picture is entitled The Sleeping, the painting is entitled The Sleeping Couple. And it's this man and woman sitting around an outdoor table, and they're all dressed up on the whole, you know, Puritan garb, like layer after layer, after layer, they must sweat like pigs. And they're just laying there, and in between them, there's a craft of wine, and there is the man and the woman. And they are slap, drunk, and asleep on the table, just flat out, dead asleep. She's on a pillow, even. I guess she anticipated that the wine was going to be that good that's just right there, they're asleep. And you wonder why is Doug Wilson putting that painting on the front of a book about marriage? The painter probably had some issues with people drinking too much, and that's fine, OK? But I think Doug Wilson put that painting on the front of his book to use understatement to make a very profound comment. This man and this wife are present to each other, because they're close, they're around the table. But by virtue of the fact that they are flat out, drunk, and asleep, they couldn't be more apart from one another right now. They are three sheets to the wind, and they don't even know one another's there. And I think what Doug Wilson intends by that, perhaps, is to say that marriages today are in a sense two people who are asleep at the wheel. They are present unto themselves, but in some sense they are absolutely absent from one another. They are married, but they're not really married. And that's what motivates him to write his book, because he sees, perhaps, so many marriages that are asleep at the wheel and he wants to address that from a Christian perspective. For you see, there are marriages, and then there are more true marriages. Good marriages, and I like to draw an analogy. There is a kind of life that's in God. And then there is another kind of life that is more true, that is in God, that is genuinely good. And the question is, what is the good life in God? We're going to look at a text tonight that sort of obliquely comes at the question, what is a good life in God? Now it says it in sort of an interesting way, and I use the word interesting for a reason, because what we're about to read is a moment in Israel's history that is anything but what God would wish to have for his people to live. And yet in doing so, as we look at what is the opposite of the good life in God, I think you and I will be able to see what does God intend for us? What is a good life in him? So I've got you comfortable, stand up. Let's read Exodus chapter 17 verses one through seven. All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord and camped at refidine, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water and the people grumbled against Moses and said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So Moses cried to the Lord, what shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel and taking your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rocket horub and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it and the people will drink. And Moses did so in the side of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Masa and Meribah because of the quarreling of the people of Israel and because they tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not? This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Would you be seated? Father, you give us much in even a short passage like this of seven verses and I would pray, Lord, that even in the multitude of words that I will use to try to explain it that you would allow us in the power of your spirit to take away from this few minutes together. One true thing about you, about us and about your son Jesus and his gospel. And then Father, we will have been better for the time. You are worthy of worship. Now help us Father to worship you by listening into your word. In Jesus name, amen. This text is not gonna make much sense to you apart from some context and if you haven't been with us in the last several months that Tim has been preaching through Exodus, I wanna give you some of the pertinent context to understand these seven verses. If you know the story of Exodus at all, you may remember that the nation of Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for some 400 years and early in Exodus Moses is raised from childhood in the court of Pharaoh being set apart at a very early age to have some sort of significant responsibility in the life of Israel. But at some point as he ages in the court of Pharaoh, he has to summarily flee from that land and head to the herdsman in the nation or in the region of Midian and there he settles with that people and he finds a wife and living among the herdsman there of the Midianites Moses hears the call of God to be his chosen instrument in delivering the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt. So he goes, you might say a little bit apprehensively and he gets there and he begins to ask Moses to let his people go, to let the people of the Lord go and Pharaoh refuses and so the Lord sends plague after plague, after plague to try to convince Pharaoh that he is God and that Pharaoh was not and that he must release his people and each time Pharaoh's heart hardens all the more. Until finally, one final plague where the Lord announces to everyone in Egypt, I will take your firstborn if you do not heed my call and Pharaoh refused to listen and that night he lost his son to the Passover. And finally, Pharaoh relents and Israel is allowed to depart and they break into celebration not only because they've been released from Egyptian bondage but now all of these promises that they've heard about, that they've dreamed about, that they've prayed about. These promises that God had made of their forefathers, it seemed like those promises are now in the offing that their fulfillment is more imminent than they could have ever imagined. And we have to understand those covenant promises that God has made this people if we're gonna understand chapter 17. Because they've been promised much. They've been promised land. And now when they've left Egypt, they've been told, you're headed there. This is land that have been set apart from you from time before you knew it and now it's coming your way and you're going to it. And they've been promised blessing. As early as in Genesis 12, the Lord promises to bless the people who come through Abraham. But they'd also be promised to be a blessing to all the nations that they would be the people who would represent God to the world. They would be the conduit through whom God would express and shower his blessings to every single inhabitant on the earth and restore the creation to its former glory that had been lost as far back as when Adam and Eve first sinned and tried to live independently of God. And so they're headed to the place where they as a people would be able to settle and to grow and to flourish and to become the source of blessing to all the world. And those are all the promises that formed God's overarching plan for his people and for this world. And those are the covenant promises we have to understand. Because what happens in chapter 17 is just a continuation of that journey on the way to the land. The journey continues, but with another challenge of which they've faced many, even in their few months that they've been out of Egypt. Look at verse one again. All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages. According to the commandment of the Lord and they camped at refidine, but there was no water for the people to drink. If you've been here over the last few weeks, you may remember that despite all the astounding displays of God's power and even when Israel find itself in a tough moment, instead of remembering what God has done for them, instead of remembering why they ought to have faith in him, they lose heart. They lose faith every time it gets tough. And every time it gets tough, Israel begins to call into question the wisdom and the power and the plan of God. And it's usually Moses is the first one to get yelled at by the people. And that's what happens here in verse two. Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. And Moses said to them, why do you quarreled with me? Why do you test the Lord? They desire water. They see no way to get it. And so at first, they're taking out their frustration on Moses, perhaps even insinuating that he's holding out on them, like he and the boys are taking the quartermasters water and enjoying themselves and keeping away from the rest of the folks. But Moses sees through their complaint. It might be directed at him, but the people's beef, if they're honest with themselves and with Moses, their beef is really with the Lord. Their anger at Moses was really just a veiled anger at God for what seemed like incompetence on his part. They're hoping that with their outburst, that they will force God's hand to finally give them the water that they want. And that's why Moses calls this what it really is. It's not just a complaint. It's not just a quarrel. It's a test. They're trying to test God. Usually it's the one that's the Lord testing his people to see what they're made of. And now it's the same word they're in Hebrew that Israel is trying to figure out God. You're really there. Are you really legitimate? Are you really trustworthy? They're trying to see if God can really help them by making accusations against Moses. But even if Moses calls it what it is, the people, they're not satisfied. Their complaint begins to escalate. It changes from a quarrel into what we hear now in the word grumble. They're starting to impune Moses' motives. They're beginning to engage in recrimination. Look in verse three again. The people thirsted there for water and the people grumbled against Moses and said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? That word grumble is not a superficially chosen word. It's the same word that Moses uses to explain what Israel did at every challenging moment since she left Egypt. In chapter 15, when the only water they had was bitter, it says the people grumbled. In chapter 16, when they had no bread or no meat, it says the people grumbled. And now again, here in chapter 17 when the encampment at Refidim yields no water, what do they do? They grumble. And that grumbling is sort of a domesticated word to you and me. We don't really think about it as sort of an incendiary or an offensive word, but in this context, it is. They've accused Moses of incompetence, now they're imputing his motives, and it's not in a restrained manner. And that's why the only thing Moses can think to do is pray. And so he does that in verse four. Moses, Christ of the Lord, what shall I do with this people? They're almost ready to stone me. And the Lord hears this prayer and gives him some slight, succinct and important instruction. And the narrative slows down to hear what the Lord has to say. And this is what happens in verse five and six. The Lord said to Moses, pass on before the people, taking me, some of the elders of Israel, taking your hand, the staff with which you struck the nylon go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rocket horub, and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. The Lord wants the people to see Moses walk out ahead of them. He wants the elders of the people, the ones with influence over all the nation, to witness up close what he's gonna do. And he wants them to see that the very same staff that made the Nile River become a bloody, fetted, cesspool will be the very same staff that will bring life giving water. And the Lord wants Moses and the elders to be absolutely convinced that what's about to happen will be because he, the Lord, went before them, and so the Lord instructs Moses to simply strike the rock. Now, rock doesn't tend to be a good source of water. That's why they call it rock and not river. But on that day, when he strikes the rock, it flows, and it flows abundantly, and Israel's exasperated accusatory faithless desire for water is met. That's grace. The Lord looks past yet another manifestation of faithlessness and gives them what they need, but which they had desired so intensely that they had entirely lost sight of their God. That's gonna be crucial here in a minute. It's not about the fact that they desired water. It's what they did when that desire became so intense and their response that was elicited from up within them when that desire became so intense. And that's why this passage ends on we might call an awkward note. Listen to verse seven one more time. And he, Moses, called the name of the place Masa and Meraba because of the quarreling of the people of Israel and because they tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not? In other places in Scripture, places are sometimes named according to what God has done in that place, either by providing or healing or showing forth his righteousness, but here what gets memorialized is not what God did, but how his people had responded to the moment they found themselves in. That's the text. And the question is, what has it got for us from that? It is not Israel's proudest moment. The question is, why does Moses choose to include this in his history of Israel? If he's in personal or if he's in public relations, he's doing a really poor job right now because it doesn't esteem Israel. Why is it in here? One reason's obvious. Moses wanted to include it to exalt the Lord's might, exalt the Lord's grace and bringing forth water from the rock, but you have to gather from the way that the passage ends that he recorded these words to issue a warning. A warning to those who adhere these words again in future generations. And what is the warning? Here's my first point. It is a serious error to test the Lord. Moses memorializes their obstinacy because he wants the future generations to take note and remember testing the Lord doesn't wash ever. And it turns out that this moment in Israel's history is huge in Israel's collective historical memory because this moment is recorded in Numbers chapter 20 in Nehemiah chapter 9 in Psalm 78 and Psalm 81 and Psalm 95. The instance of testing God actually becomes a principle in Deuteronomy 616 when Moses tells the people, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massah. But it goes farther into Israel's history. It's in that text in Deuteronomy, the Lord Jesus quotes in Matthew 4 during his temptation, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test, he says, under the tempter. And when it comes to grumbling, which of course is also another feature of this text, Jesus calls out the Pharisees for grumbling over the fact that Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus calls out the Jews for grumbling among themselves about Jesus' claim to be the bread of life. And Jesus calls out the disciples who were grumbling over Jesus' demand that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood. So this moment is huge. 9-11 took about an hour and a half for it to happen and now it will be forever in the history of America. It will be forever in our collective consciousness. This moment, seven verses, it goes throughout the biblical and the question is why? Why this warning? Why beware of testing the Lord or of becoming belligerent and incorrigible in order to force his hand? Because look, at first, from our vantage point, that feels a little grade school, right? Don't challenge authority. Don't talk back to the teacher. Kinda sounds a little over the top. Like God is perhaps being a little too petulant with his people that won't trust him. There's a couple of reasons that Moses is issuing the warning. The quarreling itself was not the problem. It was an effect of a deeper problem. Their grumbling meant that they had lost sight of some larger and more important truths than just that they were hungry or thirsty. They'd forgotten three things, actually. One, they had forgotten entirely God's overarching plan. But he was moving this people into place to be a blessing under the whole world. He'd made that promise to them and he was carrying it out before their very eyes but all they saw was the hardship in front of them. When I was a boy scout and I went to summer camp for the first time and they taught me about water preparedness. They said, when you try to save a drowning victim, it's not uncommon to go out and find the person that's drowning, flailing and kicking and not trusting that you're there to help them. And the way in which you do help them is you smack them across the face to get them to come to grips with the fact that you are here to help. Israel is in their hardship and they're trying to get, Lord says, I gotta smack you across the face. You're not listening to what I'm doing here. You're not aware of the plan I've got in place here. And in forgetting this plan, they felt inclined to grumble but that's not all they forgot. They forgot his power. They forgot what he was capable of doing for them and in them and what he hoped to do through them. He'd made the promise time and again that he would be with them. He'd shown his ability to deliver them and rescue them. He'd even invited them to ask him for help when it got tough. But in forgetting this power, they felt authorized, justified, inclined to grumble, to test God to see if he would finally put up or shut up. But there's one other thing they forgot. They'd forgotten that God has a preferred way of preparing his people to participate in his plan. Sorry for the narration. This is God's preferred MO. He tends to break those he uses before he can use them. In every one of the patriarchs in Genesis, in Moses himself, in Aaron his companion, everyone thus far in using them to accomplish his purposes in each of them, he had to bring them to periods of deep disorientation so that he could show them that he was God and that he was capable, but they'd forgotten that. And in forgetting that that was his preferred way of preparation, they felt inclined to grumble. So the first reason that Moses warns of testing the Lord is that it represents not just a forgetfulness of God but a willful forgetfulness of God in his entirety. They had to choose to disregard and discount and discredit all they knew of God in order to assume this grumbling and testing spirit. Now, you hear that and you might think, wait a minute. Life's tough for them, right? They'd been in bondage for 400 years, right? You tell me, it's a serious danger to doubt the goodness or power of God. I'm a weak person. How could you blame me for being in that kind of faith struggle? Let's be clear. It's not the presence or absence of doubt that's an issue here but rather the response to the struggle of faith. Israel's response was to value their own sense of control over their value of God and their overvaluation of that led them to grumble. But their grumbling wasn't the most serious issue and here lies the second and more important reason for Moses' warning. It is a short trip between testing God and idolatry. And idolatry. It is a short trip between withholding your trust from the Lord and transferring that trust to someone else. In Exodus 32, when Moses has been on top of Mount Sinai for a long time, the complaints about what God is doing, turn into thoughts about creating other gods to worship and deliver them and that's exactly what they do in fashioning a golden calf. They longed for what they did not have. They longed for the presence of the leadership of the Lord and when they became frustrated at not getting it, they pressed forward at first by quarreling with Moses and then grumbling against God. But in time, the absence of trust that was signified by their grumbling, that changed. It became a transfer of trust to some other source of alleged power and that was signified by them fashioning a golden calf. But longer, their grumbling continued, continued without remembering the overall plan of God, the overall power of God, the overall preferred MO of God. When that continued, the more intense the desire to meet their own need and because the heart will not rest until it gets what it wants, it eventually seeks after other avenues besides complaining to get it. If you saw the season finale, you lost, you heard Sawyer say, way I see it, a man does what he does because his heart wants something. It's true and the heart doesn't remain static. If it cannot find its relief in one way, it will find it in another. And if Israel never found its contentment in the Lord in the middle of its distress, it was gonna find a way to relieve it. And so it did by soliciting the aid of a golden calf, now let me see if I can bring all of that ancient history into a contemporary setting. Nothing that Israel grumbled over was an improper object of desire. I hunger, I thirst, I want bread, I'd like meat, I'd like that to be slaughtered by Pharaoh. Nice things, good things. There are innumerable things that you and I can long for. Love, intimacy, comfort, stability, respect, identity, sex, resources, whatever it might be. None of those are unholy desires. But when those things are in short supply, you and I are faced with a choice. Are we gonna trust that God is with us? We in a sense in our minds, if not with our words, ask the same question that Moses memorialized the place about when he said, is the Lord with us or not? If our trust begins to fail in that regard, and we might begin to quarrel, to complain about what we don't have, or maybe then to secretly accuse God of being aloof or impudent or uncaring, we might even elevate into expressing irritation at others because we're upset about what we don't have. But if our desires continue, without learning a contentment in God, without remembering the fact that he's got a plan, that he's got power, that he's got a way of preparing us for himself, that it's only a matter of time before our absence of trust in God will become a transfer of trust towards something else. That's idolatry. And why is that distinction important? If I'm so fixated on what I don't have, and I find God not responding as I would have, it's only a matter of time before I start to step outside his will for my life in order to relieve my distress. When I will choose willfully concealment, fraud, indulgence, deceit, posturing, whatever it takes to get what I desire. I will eventually move beyond mere irritation at what I don't have and into manipulation to get it. Moses named that place, the place where Israel tested God because they needed to be warned of what grumbling represented and where it could lead them. And all that is to say, it matters if you start grumbling against God. It represents a forgetfulness that if left unchecked can lead to something worse than complaining. It can lead to an allegiance to ideas or habits that will mislead and will consume you. And that's the life in God that is no life in God. It's an acquaintance with God that lacks an intimacy with God. And that's Moses' warning to Israel and to you and to me. And that all sounds pretty dreadful and sobering. And it should, but there's hope. Because the company, this warning, there is an implicit encouragement that we need to see. Moses doesn't record this to rub their nose in it. It's to give us hope that there's a way out. We don't see the encouragement necessarily born out in Israel, but we see God's handling of the matter and that is the basis for our encouragement. And that's my second point. The Lord will lead you to the good life in Him as you learn to trust Him in trial. Let me say it again, the Lord will lead you to the good life in Him as you learn to trust Him in trial. Israel's perennial and cyclical problem is twofold. They forsake Him when it gets tough and they forget Him when everything is light and peace. Kinda sounds like my problem too. When it's great, I get perhaps a little complacent. I'll take a little bit too much credit. When it's tough, where are you? In this episode, Israel grumbles, she gets what she wants, but her trust in the Lord doesn't grow because she hedges her bets on God every time it gets tough. The question is, is God enabling this people? Should God have withheld his provision because every time he helps, they don't get any wiser. No. In fact, it's the Lord who engineered this moment for a reason. Why do I say that? Did the Lord know that the people would need water? Of course, that's why we call Him God. Did He know before they asked? Yes, that's why we call Him God. So He could have supplied them water even before they started grumbling, yes. So if He knew what they needed before they asked and could have supplied it before they grumbled, why did He let them get in a tight spot to teach them what it is to walk by faith? When you walk by faith, when your eyes of your heart are firmly set upon the plan and the power and the preferred ammo of God, you are not tempted to forsake Him when it gets tough and you're not tempted to forget Him when things are well. You know who your redeemer is when you walk by faith and there in my friends lies the good life in God and it is significantly wrought during times of trial, exclamation point. We may have heard this somewhere before, right? James chapter one, can it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect but you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. Romans chapter five, more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. Second Corinthians one, chapter eight, for we did not want you to be ignorant brothers of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. It's the trials that have enormous capacity to bring forth real fruit in us, real faith. The Lord has innumerable ways of bringing forth fruit in us. Not all of which include affliction but affliction is a significant way in which He does it. So the good life in God loves God in the good times and loves God in the hard times. How would Israel ever know if she was the people she was meant to be when the love for God did not turn on the specifics of her circumstances? How do you know when you're being the person he intended you to be, when you can trust God or rather when your trust in God does not turn on the specifics of your circumstances? So the Lord leads us to the good life in Him as we learn to trust Him in trial. But look, let's be honest, neither that trust in trial nor the good life that follows from it occurs in me naturally and it probably doesn't mean you either. It is my first inclination to lose hope when it is bad. It is my first inclination to take too much credit to become lackadaisical in my outlook when peace and comfort overtake me. And that's why I wanna say this is my third point. The only way to heed the warning, the only way to find the encouragement in His leading us to the good life is this. You have to trust the one to whom this entire episode in Israel's history points. Paul speaks of this very moment in his letter to the Corinthians and if you got your Bibles pulled up in just a second, we're almost done. First Corinthians chapter 10. Paul has got the entire exodus experience in his mind in his heart when he says in verse one of chapter 10 of first Corinthians, I want you to know brothers that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, I.e. red sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food. That's the man of from heaven and all drank the same spiritual drink. It's the water from the rock. The entire exodus experience is in Paul's mind and he does that to explain why Moses made his point. Verse six. These things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were as is written the people sat down to eat and drank in rows of the play. We must not indulge in sexual morality as some of them did and 23,000 fell on a single day. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Why did Moses include it to be an example that we might not do evil, verse six. That we might not become idolaters, verse seven. That we might not put Christ to the test, verse nine. That we might not grumble, verse 10. But he says that you and I have reason for hope because we're united to the one who was the rock there at Narebaugh, verse four. And all drank the same spiritual drink for that drank from the spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was Christ. In what Moses did there amidst Israel's grumbling, Paul sees the Lord Jesus very, very present. Christ was the rock. The parallels are striking. No pun intended. God was present in that moment there. God is present in the Lord Jesus. God supplied their need in that moment. God is present in the Lord Jesus and supplies our need in him. And it was in that moment that striking the rock supplied them. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, it was the Lord Jesus who was struck himself that formed the source of his supply of us. It is through his death, his resurrection that we drink his, as Jesus puts it, living water. John chapter four, unless Christ is present, you can't heed the warning. Unless Christ is working, you can't find the encouragement and the fact that God does his best work in the times of trial. And the question is why? Why do we need the gospel of Jesus to find the good life? And here's where I close. It's really simple. When you look to Jesus, you see most readily, the plan of God majestically worked out in Jesus. And when you see what Christ has done, and what Christ has done for us, then you see whatever your distress is, whether you lack a job or a friend, or you are lonely, or you are hungry, or you are tired, or is there some sort of lack. Whenever you see that distress in this wider context, then you, like Paul, can say with him in second Corinthians four, for the slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. When you see Christ, you see the plan. When you see Christ and you look to him, you see the power of God brought in him. And so your temptation to quarrel, your temptation, to grumble, your temptation to test meets with the promise of God that Paul tells us also in first Corinthians 10. No temptation has overtaken you that is not coming to man. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. When we look at Christ, when we trust in him, we see the power of God brought in him. And finally, we see in Christ God's way of bringing about his goodness through the redemptive suffering that was accomplished in him. And so we see that whatever is our duress, it is not beyond the capability of God to fit us for the good life in him. If you're in Christ, you are like Israel, you are on a pilgrimage toward a land that was promised to you, toward a hope that is promised to you, toward a future and an eternal goodness that is promised to you. And like Israel on that pilgrimage, you will encounter moments of distress. And so I ask you rhetorically tonight, where's it tough for you right now? Your job, relationships, your health, fulfillment of whatever desires you have, and the outcome of your efforts, look, it's tempting to grumble. And when grumbling doesn't get what you want, it's tempting to look outside the intentions of God to relieve your distress. If it's hard now and you're tempted to grumble, remember what you're forgetting and remember what it is exposing you to. And if you come here tonight recognizing, you know what? I have been grumbling. I have been looking at the Lord with a certain distaste and disdain and division and you wonder, is there any hope for me? Would you please remember how we treated Israel in that moment? His grace was not beyond them in the midst of their grumbling. His grace is not beyond you in the midst of yours. And if you're here tonight and Jesus right now is an intriguing fellow, someone that you'd like to study and understand more about, but not someone that you might worship or submit to in entirety, let me tell you this, Moses, when they left that place, gave that place a new name, but for those that God calls out of darkness and brings into himself, he gives them a new identity and that identity tells them this, that they are more deeply corrupt than they ever know, but they are more abundantly loved than they could ever imagine. And when those two things arrive in your heart by the power of his Holy Spirit, you may begin to discover what is the good life. And then your life does not turn on the specifics of your circumstances. And therefore if you don't trust them yet, I'm inviting you to consider it and to trust him because then you get that new identity and identity that finally will deliver unto you what is the life that he intends.