Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Exodus

Exodus 15:22-27 02/15/04

Message Title: ‘For Bitter or Worse’                                                                                                                      Text: Exodus 15:22-27

Introduction: We have been addressing bitterness this morning. Many things in life contribute to bitterness. Family problems, rejection, past abuses, misunderstandings, conflicts, church problems and the list could go on. All of these if not dealt with correctly and timely have the potential to grow the seed of bitterness in our soul.

Read: Eph 4:31 ‘Get rid of all bitterness’

Why? Because everything you think about will be filtered through the grid of bitterness. It will affect your thinking, your relationship with others AND with the Lord. Harboring bitterness is that serious.

How do we get bitter? What do we do to get past the bitterness in our lives? That is what our text will help us with this morning.

Read: Ex. 15:22-24      Separating the Sacred and the Secular

It would have been wonderful to linger at the Rock Concert of praise to the Lord.
It’s a place of excitement, joy and security.  But, every Christian, like the ancient Israelite, is a pilgrim on a journey following God’s leading in their life. And for those ancient Israelites, it was time to move on. From their perspective it was time to leave the sacred assembly of worship and re-enter the secular world of real life. And thirst is a real life problem.

Understand that the text is not saying that they didn’t have any water. But, their supplies were getting low. Then, their hopes rise when off in the distance they see an oasis. What a disappointment when the get there, taste the water and find it is undrinkable. The joy of discovering water quickly turned to anger at Moses for leading them there. This is not the first time Moses had let them down. So this was not just a demonstration of anger, it’s a glimpse into their hearts…it’s the revelation of the bitterness in their souls. And bitter people grumble, complain and rarely have anything nice to say, especially to those closest to them.

What was the real problem here? They had separated the sacred from the secular in their lives. The ancient pilgrims had failed to see the relationship between the affirmation of their faith in their sacred assembly of worship and the application of their faith in the living out of their daily, secular lives. They worshiped God as their warrior, but could not see God in the everyday role of waterer. Israel should have been able to apply the faith they demonstrated in worship to their current situation. Perhaps they felt God was God in sacred worship but it is up to us to deal with the rest of life.

Before we condemn these dessert wanderers, lets look a bit closer to home. We gather on Sundays for our sacred assembly called worship and we sing songs like ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’. And then we leave our sacred space, our sacred time to venture off into our secular lives worrying about our finances, our job situation, our health, as though God was only faithful in the sacred times of our lives.

It is easy to affirm our faith in the sacred assembly…it is hard to practice our faith in what we perceive as the secular part of our lives.

And that’s the problem, we separate the two. We create false distinctions between those areas in our life that are sacred (church, public and private worship) and secular (everything else). The result is that living our faith is really only relevant at specific times (sacred) and not so much the other times (secular). One of the reasons hurt and disappointment turn into bitterness is because we have placed it into the secular part of our lives and we don’t allow God access. Because we don’t think there is a spiritual solution to our secular problem.

Just like the Israelites. God is to be worshipped, God has delivered us from the Egyptians…but Moses is supposed to get us water. To the Israelite, this was not a spiritual problem, it was a practical one.

Transition: Can you identify with the Israelites? Ever felt that way? Well there is something God wants you to know.

Read: Ex. 15:25a         Joining the Sacred and the Secular

God wants you to know that there is always a spiritual solution to every situation.

Back to the text. Notice a common tree, nothing special about it. It just happened to be growing by some water that was bitter. But, when God instructed Moses to throw it into the water to make it drinkable, it became dedicated to God for his use.

God joins the secular and the sacred.

God does distinguish between that which is holy and that which is profane, but not the sacred and secular. There is a difference. The holy includes both sacred and secular when the Christian dedicates both to the Lord. Profane is whatever is not dedicated  or consecrated or given over to the Lord.

Bitterness happens when we fail to dedicate some area, event,  situation, person or emotion over to the Lord. Bitterness comes when we fail to realize that the problem is spiritual and not situational.

Moses really didn’t have to throw the tree in the water for God to make it drinkable, God could have just made it drinkable. But God used the tree as a symbol of healing the bitter waters to make them sweet. This symbol would reappear later in the NT where it becomes the cross on which Jesus died so that we can find forgiveness and healing from the bitterness of sin. But more on that later.

One more thing. Notice that God didn’t replace the bitter waters of Marah with a new well. He transformed the bitter waters into fresh.
Some people refuse healing in their life because they demand or think they deserve an escape instead of a solution.

    -Some people are not willing to let God turn a bitter job into a sweet career.
    -Some people are not willing to let God turn a bitter marriage into a sweet romance.
    -Some people are not willing to let God turn a bitter enemy into a sweet friend.

Sometimes, often in fact, God simply wants to transform what we already have.
Just like the tree that was already there, God used what was available to make the situation a blessing. Please, think hard about that.

Transition: There’s one more piece to the bitterness/blessing transformation.

Read: Ex. 15:25b-26   Setting the Ground Rules  

There is no doubt here what God is saying.  God demands our obedience. Notice there is no division, no differentiation…all is sacred in the life of the Christian therefore, in all of life, God, the Lord is to be obeyed.
In Christian ministry, in school, on the job, in the home, while away from home, in all times and in every way, the Lord is to be obeyed. No exceptions, no time outs.

I will say this as clearly and as non judgmentally as I can…there is no room for bitterness in the life of the Christian. Harbor it, continue in it, and you will not know the joy of the Lord or the blessings of his presence.

Take it to God, dedicate it to him, take it from secular to sacred and God makes you a promise…he will reveal himself to you as Jehovah Rophe ‘The Lord Who Heals You’.

Transition: What is the reward for obedience? The reward for joining the sacred and secular parts of our lives…..Rest.

Read: Ex. 15:27           Showing the Goal

God provided abundantly for his people. Elim was a place of rest, not permanent rest, for that was the Promised Land, but refreshing and peaceful rest along the road to the Promised Land. God promises the same for the Christian who dedicates his/her life to the Lord and who in obedience follows after the Lord as he leads.

Rest along the way. Bitterness is truly unrest. Some people may seem like they enjoy being bitter, but in their heart of hearts, they are restless. God offers rest to the weary, rest to the hurting, rest to those who have chosen obedience as the path to wholeness in Christ.

Conclusion

ILL: One day, two monks were walking through the countryside. They were on their way to another village to help bring in the crops. As they walked, they spied an old woman sitting at the edge of a river. She was upset because there was no bridge, and she could not get across on her own. The first monk kindly offered, “We will carry you across if you would like.” “Thank you,” she said gratefully, accepting their help.  So the two men joined hands, lifted her between them and carried her across the river. When they got to the other side, they set her down, and she went on her way. After they had walked another mile or so, the second monk began to complain. “Look at my clothes,” he said. “They are filthy from carrying that woman across the river. And my back still hurts from lifting her. I can feel it getting stiff.” The first monk just smiled and nodded his head. A few more miles up the road, the second monk griped again, “My back is hurting me so badly, and it is all because we had to carry that silly woman across the river! I cannot go any farther because of the pain.” The first monk looked down at his partner, now lying on the ground, moaning. “Have you wondered why I am not complaining?” he asked. “Your back hurts because you are still carrying the woman. But I set her down five miles ago.”
 
Dr. Anthony T. Evans, Guiding Your Family in a Misguided World
 

Tell me, what hurts, what wounds, what burden have you been carrying that has caused you to become bitter, that has caused you to have a critical spirit, to be a complainer and murmerer?

Read: 1 Pe 2:24  ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.’

The secret to turning bitterness into blessing is in every circumstance, in every glimpse of the monster of bitterness, we must allow the sacrifice of the precious blood Jesus shed on the cross of Calvary to cleanse, heal and strengthen us.

Don’t let your past ruin your present or future. God will help you. There is still power in the blood of Jesus Christ to heal all wounds all hurts, no matter how deep or how old.

Don’t walk out of this building this morning a bitter person.  If someone has hurt you, forgive them, if you are beaten by past failures or bad decisions, remember Jesus can set you free from defeating thoughts. I believe God will move heaven and earth to help you if you cry out to him, he loves you that much.

But, what if you are not a Believer, a Christian? For you, perhaps there is a very distinct separation of sacred and secular.

If that is you, you need to know the hand that was stretched out and nailed to the cross, reaches out to you today, right now. It is the hand of Jesus Christ who wants to heal you of the bitterness of unforgiven sin, to relieve  you of the prognosis of eternal death.

Faith in Jesus Christ brings rest for you soul and will take you from bitterness in sin to blessing in Christ.
If the Spirit of God is touching your heart this morning, say yes to God, say yes to his forgiveness, say yes to his healing touch. Say yes, to Jesus’ death on the cross as payment for your sin, and say yes to heaven.