WEBVTT 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:10.919 Psalm 106. We looked at the first 13 verses last 00:00:10.919 --> 00:00:21.480 week. Psalm 106. Psalm 105 was about God's faithfulness 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:26.339 to His people. And Psalm 106 is about God's people's 00:00:26.339 --> 00:00:30.500 unfaithfulness to God. It started out with some 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:35.429 words of praise, but then we are quickly... introduced 00:00:35.429 --> 00:00:39.070 to the problem of Israel and really our problem 00:00:39.070 --> 00:00:42.270 too, and that is we see God work sometimes in 00:00:42.270 --> 00:00:44.869 powerful ways and then we are quick to forget. 00:00:45.310 --> 00:00:48.750 And we want to do things our way and we don't 00:00:48.750 --> 00:00:51.369 want to wait on the counsel of the Lord. And 00:00:51.369 --> 00:00:54.229 that's exactly what God's people Israel did and 00:00:54.229 --> 00:00:56.530 maybe we can learn from their mistakes and from 00:00:56.530 --> 00:01:00.100 our mistakes. And so tonight we're going to read 00:01:00.100 --> 00:01:02.820 again verse 13. That's where we ended off last 00:01:02.820 --> 00:01:07.260 week. We'll read 13, 14, and 15. I told you last 00:01:07.260 --> 00:01:09.040 week that we were going to probably take our 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:11.260 time getting through Psalm 106 because there's 00:01:11.260 --> 00:01:14.400 some good stories that are referenced here. And 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:17.079 so we want to take our time to go back and look 00:01:17.079 --> 00:01:19.659 at some of these in the context and see what's 00:01:19.659 --> 00:01:25.459 going on in the earlier. earlier scriptures where 00:01:25.459 --> 00:01:28.280 these stories were recorded. So let's pray, and 00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:30.200 then we'll read this scripture and get started. 00:01:30.659 --> 00:01:32.519 God, we come to you. We thank you for a good 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:34.500 day. I thank you for all the folks that have 00:01:34.500 --> 00:01:37.700 come tonight. I pray that you would help us to 00:01:37.700 --> 00:01:39.819 learn something from what we're about to read, 00:01:39.939 --> 00:01:44.000 and maybe we can use these scriptures as a mirror 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.879 in our life to examine our attitudes and our 00:01:47.879 --> 00:01:50.819 hearts and our actions to see if maybe we ever 00:01:50.819 --> 00:01:53.930 fail in this way, dear Lord, and it's not It's 00:01:53.930 --> 00:01:56.510 not good if we do, and you're not pleased with 00:01:56.510 --> 00:01:58.750 that. And so, dear Lord, I pray that you would 00:01:58.750 --> 00:02:01.750 help us just to know that even if we have fallen, 00:02:01.870 --> 00:02:04.870 even if we have failed, that, God, you desire 00:02:04.870 --> 00:02:07.230 for us just to repent and to come back to you, 00:02:07.290 --> 00:02:09.169 and your grace is sufficient. And, dear Lord, 00:02:09.270 --> 00:02:12.650 we need that. We are not worthy, God, but we 00:02:12.650 --> 00:02:16.550 thank you for being good to us even when we are 00:02:16.550 --> 00:02:19.770 unfaithful just as... Your word says the Israelites 00:02:19.770 --> 00:02:21.949 were. So I pray that your Holy Spirit would be 00:02:21.949 --> 00:02:24.030 with us and let your word do the talking tonight. 00:02:24.289 --> 00:02:29.750 In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen. Psalm 106, verse 00:02:29.750 --> 00:02:34.930 13. They soon forgot his works and would not 00:02:34.930 --> 00:02:39.430 wait for his counsel. They were seized with cravings 00:02:39.430 --> 00:02:43.150 in the wilderness and tested God in the desert. 00:02:43.710 --> 00:02:47.449 He gave them what they asked for. but sent a 00:02:47.449 --> 00:02:52.530 wasting disease among them. Now, those couple 00:02:52.530 --> 00:02:57.889 of verses there, 14 and 15, sum up a whole story 00:02:57.889 --> 00:03:01.069 that's a pretty interesting story that's found 00:03:01.069 --> 00:03:04.930 in Numbers 11. And so, really, we're just going 00:03:04.930 --> 00:03:07.270 to use these two verses as kind of a springboard 00:03:07.270 --> 00:03:09.789 to go back and look at the actual text we're 00:03:09.789 --> 00:03:12.669 going to look at tonight. And that is in Numbers, 00:03:12.689 --> 00:03:16.169 that's toward the beginning of your Bible, Now, 00:03:16.310 --> 00:03:19.409 we don't have time to go through all of it, so 00:03:19.409 --> 00:03:21.389 we're just going to pick and choose a few verses. 00:03:21.490 --> 00:03:23.469 We're going to read the first few verses just 00:03:23.469 --> 00:03:25.669 to get a little context about what's going on, 00:03:25.830 --> 00:03:30.610 and then we're going to skip down a few verses. 00:03:31.870 --> 00:03:47.740 Numbers chapter 11. Numbers chapter 11. We're 00:03:47.740 --> 00:03:50.120 going to start in verse 1. We'll read through 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:52.199 this pretty quickly, hopefully, and see what's 00:03:52.199 --> 00:03:54.900 going on. Now, to give you a little context, 00:03:55.199 --> 00:03:59.280 God had delivered his people out of Egypt, and 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:01.599 they are wandering around, and they are complaining 00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:05.539 a lot. We talked about one example last week 00:04:05.539 --> 00:04:08.060 from Exodus 15, which is right after they crossed 00:04:08.060 --> 00:04:11.330 the Red Sea. Almost instantly they started complaining 00:04:11.330 --> 00:04:15.050 about water. We see right after that in Exodus 00:04:15.050 --> 00:04:18.009 chapter 16 that God provides quail for them to 00:04:18.009 --> 00:04:20.430 eat. Well, we're going to see that same thing 00:04:20.430 --> 00:04:23.810 here in Numbers 11, but I'm pretty sure it's 00:04:23.810 --> 00:04:26.209 two separate occurrences. Some might say that 00:04:26.209 --> 00:04:28.670 it's the same event, but I don't think so. When 00:04:28.670 --> 00:04:31.149 you read through Numbers 11, it looks like this 00:04:31.149 --> 00:04:33.800 is sometimes later. that this event occurred. 00:04:34.060 --> 00:04:36.600 And so we see two different occasions where God 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:38.740 provided quail for His people. The first one 00:04:38.740 --> 00:04:42.879 in Exodus 16, and then we have this one in Numbers 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:46.000 11. And we see the same heart among the people. 00:04:46.100 --> 00:04:49.740 They are still complaining about their situation. 00:04:50.279 --> 00:04:54.939 Numbers 11, verse 1 says, Now the people began 00:04:54.939 --> 00:04:58.019 complaining openly before the Lord about hardship. 00:04:58.620 --> 00:05:02.519 When the Lord heard, His anger burned, and fire 00:05:02.519 --> 00:05:05.680 from the Lord blazed among them and consumed 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:09.879 the outskirts of the camp. Then the people cried 00:05:09.879 --> 00:05:12.540 out to Moses, and he prayed to the Lord, and 00:05:12.540 --> 00:05:17.120 the fire died down. So that place was named Tibera, 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:21.000 because the Lord's fire had blazed among them. 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:23.660 Okay, so the scene is set for us, pretty simple. 00:05:24.360 --> 00:05:26.920 God was so gracious to his people, he delivered 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:29.120 them out of Egypt. All they had to do was be 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:31.399 obedient. They were disobedient, so they're wandering 00:05:31.399 --> 00:05:33.779 around, and they're complaining about how bad 00:05:33.779 --> 00:05:37.959 things are. And this just makes God angry, so 00:05:37.959 --> 00:05:40.240 angry that he sends fire down all around the 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:42.420 outskirts of their camp. Everything's burning 00:05:42.420 --> 00:05:44.620 up, and the people cry out to Moses, Oh, Moses, 00:05:44.740 --> 00:05:46.199 what are we going to do? You've got to save us. 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:50.000 And Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.439 down. Okay, so we kind of see what's going on. 00:05:53.500 --> 00:05:57.819 Let's continue a little further. Verse 4. Contemptible 00:05:57.819 --> 00:06:01.000 people among them had a strong craving for other 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:06.120 food. The Israelites cried again and said, Who 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:09.879 will feed us meat? We remember the free fish 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:13.879 we ate in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, 00:06:13.879 --> 00:06:17.839 leeks, onions, and garlic. But now our appetite 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:21.649 is gone. There's nothing to look at but this 00:06:21.649 --> 00:06:26.110 manna. Now, this is interesting for us to consider. 00:06:26.750 --> 00:06:29.209 Now, let's not forget where Israel had come from. 00:06:29.529 --> 00:06:34.850 They were slaves in a foreign land. But isn't 00:06:34.850 --> 00:06:37.970 it funny how things that are pretty horrible 00:06:37.970 --> 00:06:42.389 in our life, after a while, we forget how bad 00:06:42.389 --> 00:06:46.029 they were. We remember things sometimes better 00:06:46.029 --> 00:06:49.310 than they actually were. We remember things that 00:06:49.310 --> 00:06:54.470 really were bad, and maybe there was some level 00:06:54.470 --> 00:06:57.810 of good to them. We kind of forget about the 00:06:57.810 --> 00:06:59.670 bad, and we just remember the good, and then 00:06:59.670 --> 00:07:03.750 we want to go back to those things. And they 00:07:03.750 --> 00:07:06.250 should have thought, wait a minute, we were enslaved 00:07:06.250 --> 00:07:09.910 in a foreign land. But instead they say, well, 00:07:10.029 --> 00:07:13.370 look at us now. We have come out in the middle 00:07:13.370 --> 00:07:15.389 of this wilderness, in the middle of this desert. 00:07:16.149 --> 00:07:19.329 God has led us out here, and Moses has led us 00:07:19.329 --> 00:07:22.230 out here, and man, it was so good back where 00:07:22.230 --> 00:07:24.449 we were. Listen to all the good stuff that they 00:07:24.449 --> 00:07:28.569 had when they were in Egypt. They had fish, free 00:07:28.569 --> 00:07:32.370 fish it says, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, 00:07:32.550 --> 00:07:35.269 and garlics. Man, they were living a good life, 00:07:35.310 --> 00:07:38.050 weren't they? Well, that's how they remembered 00:07:38.050 --> 00:07:41.420 it, but they had forgotten. The worst part of 00:07:41.420 --> 00:07:43.399 it. Now, would you rather be enslaved and have 00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:46.100 some fish to eat, or would you rather be free 00:07:46.100 --> 00:07:48.560 on the way to your own land flowing with milk 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:52.180 and honey? Well, to them, they couldn't look 00:07:52.180 --> 00:07:55.220 ahead. Even if God told them what was ahead was 00:07:55.220 --> 00:07:57.360 beautiful and great, and they were going to be 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:00.459 blessed there, they'd rather stick with what 00:08:00.459 --> 00:08:03.040 they knew, even though what they knew wasn't 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:04.959 that good. And are we ever guilty of the same 00:08:04.959 --> 00:08:08.100 thing? Maybe there's good things in store for 00:08:08.100 --> 00:08:10.060 us. Maybe there's good things that God wants 00:08:10.060 --> 00:08:13.199 to do for us and we're scared to take that step 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:16.240 because it's unknown in some sense. It's unseen. 00:08:17.379 --> 00:08:19.399 We don't like to get out of our comfort zone. 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:22.660 Even if our comfort zone's pretty bad, we don't 00:08:22.660 --> 00:08:25.839 like to get out of that comfort zone. Even we 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:28.199 are drawn back to things that we know are not 00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:32.139 good for us. Like there was a time in my life 00:08:32.139 --> 00:08:36.190 a few years ago and I said to myself, I said, 00:08:36.210 --> 00:08:38.250 I'm going to cut out sugar. And I did. And I 00:08:38.250 --> 00:08:40.590 did very well. I went for months and I ate very 00:08:40.590 --> 00:08:44.190 little sugar and stopped drinking Cokes entirely. 00:08:44.889 --> 00:08:47.269 And I felt a lot better during that time period. 00:08:47.669 --> 00:08:50.909 And so I concluded what I already knew. And that 00:08:50.909 --> 00:08:53.990 is that sugar is not good for you. And even though 00:08:53.990 --> 00:08:56.289 I knew sugar was not good for me, guess what? 00:08:56.629 --> 00:08:59.029 One day I looked back and I was thinking, man, 00:08:59.070 --> 00:09:02.029 a Coca -Cola would sure be good today. A Kit 00:09:02.029 --> 00:09:06.259 Kat bar would sure be good today. And I thought, 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:08.840 man, it was good when I had that Kit Kat in the 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:11.039 afternoon, that Coke. And so guess what I started 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:14.000 doing? I started doing what I knew wasn't good 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:16.899 for me. Because there was a part of it that seemed 00:09:16.899 --> 00:09:19.720 good, and it is good in the moment. It is good. 00:09:19.820 --> 00:09:22.899 And here recently, guess what? I would get my 00:09:22.899 --> 00:09:25.740 Kit Kat just about every afternoon, get my Coke 00:09:25.740 --> 00:09:29.080 about every afternoon. And guess what? I feel 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:30.860 bad when I start eating all that sugar, plus 00:09:30.860 --> 00:09:33.509 some other sugar too. It wasn't just that. That 00:09:33.509 --> 00:09:36.429 might be okay. And then guess what? Then I start 00:09:36.429 --> 00:09:39.610 feeling bad. And so now I say, well, I'm going 00:09:39.610 --> 00:09:42.509 to cut out sugar again. So that works good for 00:09:42.509 --> 00:09:45.610 about two days. And then in the afternoon I say, 00:09:45.809 --> 00:09:49.190 about Kit Kat time. And so it's a struggle, right? 00:09:49.370 --> 00:09:53.090 We live in a part of our life that we know is 00:09:53.090 --> 00:09:54.970 not good, but there's something about it that 00:09:54.970 --> 00:09:57.830 draws us back there. And even though the Israelites 00:09:57.830 --> 00:10:00.769 had come out of slavery, They were looking back 00:10:00.769 --> 00:10:03.450 on that time favorably when it was not a good 00:10:03.450 --> 00:10:06.970 time. And so here they are in the presence of 00:10:06.970 --> 00:10:08.769 God, and they're in the mess they're in, eating 00:10:08.769 --> 00:10:11.090 all this manna for so long because of their own 00:10:11.090 --> 00:10:13.570 disobedience. But they kind of overlooked that. 00:10:13.649 --> 00:10:15.669 It ain't their fault. It's Moses' fault. It's 00:10:15.669 --> 00:10:18.049 God's fault. They don't have any of this good 00:10:18.049 --> 00:10:19.889 stuff to eat anymore. They're sick and tired 00:10:19.889 --> 00:10:22.350 of eating this manna. We want meat, they said. 00:10:22.509 --> 00:10:25.549 We want meat. And I can understand that. I want 00:10:25.549 --> 00:10:27.889 meat too. If I had to eat salad every day or... 00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:31.519 or any kind of bread every day and didn't have 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:35.340 any meat, I'd be mad too. And they were mad. 00:10:36.360 --> 00:10:39.419 And they were complaining about it. Well, Moses, 00:10:39.639 --> 00:10:41.580 if you continue reading the story, I encourage 00:10:41.580 --> 00:10:43.500 you to do so. He says, God, what am I going to 00:10:43.500 --> 00:10:45.159 do with these people? What did I do to deserve 00:10:45.159 --> 00:10:48.480 this? Now, I'm paraphrasing, but he says, God, 00:10:48.500 --> 00:10:53.480 just take my life. God, if I've done right by 00:10:53.480 --> 00:10:55.759 you, then just take my life and get me out of 00:10:55.759 --> 00:10:57.580 this mess. I don't deserve all these people. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:01.200 They were giving him a hard time. Maybe sometimes 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:03.860 we feel that way. Maybe people we are trying 00:11:03.860 --> 00:11:06.240 to lead sometimes, we say, God, why in the world 00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:08.559 did you give me this bunch of people? I don't 00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:10.139 say that about y 'all, by the way. That was not 00:11:10.139 --> 00:11:13.440 a passive -aggressive statement about a pastor 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:17.340 in his church, I promise. But sometimes maybe 00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:19.600 we are in a situation like Moses where we're 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:21.139 like, what am I going to do? I want to be out 00:11:21.139 --> 00:11:23.519 of this situation. Lord, just kill me. I can't 00:11:23.519 --> 00:11:26.710 handle these people. But God was good and he 00:11:26.710 --> 00:11:28.389 was gracious and he said, no, I'm going to take 00:11:28.389 --> 00:11:31.149 care of this situation. So if we scroll down 00:11:31.149 --> 00:11:34.590 a little bit, if we scroll down a little bit, 00:11:34.669 --> 00:11:39.330 we're going to go down to, let's see where we 00:11:39.330 --> 00:11:49.889 want to go to. Let's skip all the way down. I'll 00:11:49.889 --> 00:11:51.490 let you all read the rest of it by yourself. 00:11:52.190 --> 00:11:55.779 Let's skip all the way down to verse 31. Numbers 00:11:55.779 --> 00:11:58.100 chapter 11, verse 31. Y 'all go back and read 00:11:58.100 --> 00:11:59.980 the whole chapter so you can see all the stuff 00:11:59.980 --> 00:12:02.940 that we're skipping over so you get the context 00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:06.299 of what's going on. So, these people won't meet. 00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:08.340 God, we won't meet. Where's our meat? We won't 00:12:08.340 --> 00:12:10.460 meet. When we was in Egypt, things were so good, 00:12:10.519 --> 00:12:12.620 God, you brought us out here. We want something 00:12:12.620 --> 00:12:15.340 good to eat. God said, if you want something 00:12:15.340 --> 00:12:16.799 good to eat, I'm going to give you something 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:21.779 good to eat. Verse 31. A wind sent by the Lord 00:12:21.779 --> 00:12:25.940 came up and blew quail in from the sea. It dropped 00:12:25.940 --> 00:12:28.840 them at the camp all around, three feet off the 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:31.379 ground, about a day's journey in every direction. 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:34.080 Now, when it says three feet off the ground, 00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:36.059 I'm not really sure exactly what that means. 00:12:36.519 --> 00:12:39.039 I'm not sure if it was quail piled up three feet 00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:40.799 off the ground in every direction. That would 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:44.679 be a ton of quail, but maybe it is. As we're 00:12:44.679 --> 00:12:46.720 going to see as we continue on, it could mean 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:49.940 that the quail were flying low for whatever reason. 00:12:50.659 --> 00:12:53.039 They came in off the sea and the quail were coming 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:54.759 in three, four foot off the ground. They were 00:12:54.759 --> 00:12:57.919 flying real low. That could also be what it means. 00:12:58.019 --> 00:13:00.600 It's not clear. Regardless of whether it was 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:03.259 piles of quail or low flying quail, it was a 00:13:03.259 --> 00:13:06.179 lot of quail. God said, you want meat? I am sending 00:13:06.179 --> 00:13:10.940 you some meat. And continuing on, verse 32. The 00:13:10.940 --> 00:13:13.980 people were up all that day and night and all 00:13:13.980 --> 00:13:17.240 the next day gathering the quail. The one who 00:13:17.240 --> 00:13:21.440 took the least gathered 50 bushels. And they 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:23.799 spread them out all around the camp. Now that's 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:26.299 a lot of quail. Now this was a lot of people. 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:29.399 A lot of people gathering quail. And they gathered 00:13:29.399 --> 00:13:32.240 quail all one day and the next day. And it says 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:34.320 the one who gathered the least amount of quail 00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:38.440 gathered 50 bushels of quail. That's a lot of 00:13:38.440 --> 00:13:41.679 meat. Man, God supplied in abundance, didn't 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:44.759 he? They said, we want meat. He gave them meat. 00:13:44.840 --> 00:13:47.740 He gave them just what they wanted. So they got 00:13:47.740 --> 00:13:51.340 their feast. So they began to feast down. In 00:13:51.340 --> 00:13:55.139 verse 33, while the meat was still between their 00:13:55.139 --> 00:13:59.159 teeth, before it was chewed, the Lord's anger 00:13:59.159 --> 00:14:02.840 burned against the people. And the Lord struck 00:14:02.840 --> 00:14:07.019 them with a very severe plague. So they named 00:14:07.019 --> 00:14:12.429 that place. Kibroth, Hadavah, because they buried 00:14:12.429 --> 00:14:17.149 the people who had craved the meat. From Kirbroth, 00:14:17.210 --> 00:14:21.669 Hadavah, the people moved on to Hazeroth and 00:14:21.669 --> 00:14:26.210 remained there. Man, that's pretty intense. God 00:14:26.210 --> 00:14:27.830 said, you want meat? I'm going to give you so 00:14:27.830 --> 00:14:29.909 much meat that you're going to be sick of the 00:14:29.909 --> 00:14:33.340 meat. And they were. They ate so much meat, they 00:14:33.340 --> 00:14:35.360 got sick. He brought a plague on them. He said, 00:14:35.379 --> 00:14:37.279 if you're going to complain, if you're going 00:14:37.279 --> 00:14:39.340 to demand these things, I'm going to give you 00:14:39.340 --> 00:14:41.820 what you want, and you're going to realize that 00:14:41.820 --> 00:14:45.679 what you want is not good for you. And the place 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:49.019 was named, where it says Kibroth Hatava there, 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:52.379 that means the grave of the cravers. That's what 00:14:52.379 --> 00:14:55.659 that means. The grave of the cravers. These people 00:14:55.659 --> 00:14:59.679 died in what they craved. They crave what they 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:02.340 thought was good and it ended up being their 00:15:02.340 --> 00:15:05.960 destruction. And that's what's being talked about 00:15:05.960 --> 00:15:10.059 in this passage we see in Psalm 106. This is 00:15:10.059 --> 00:15:13.779 the story that's being referenced. And this is 00:15:13.779 --> 00:15:18.620 a good story for us to consider. Do we ever have 00:15:18.620 --> 00:15:22.500 this attitude or mindset in our life? Is there 00:15:22.500 --> 00:15:24.940 anything in our lives that maybe God has delivered 00:15:24.940 --> 00:15:28.360 us from that... After we get a little bit away, 00:15:28.659 --> 00:15:32.019 at a distance, it looks a lot better than it 00:15:32.019 --> 00:15:35.139 did up close. Everything looks better at a distance, 00:15:35.299 --> 00:15:37.580 especially when your eyesight is as bad as mine. 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:39.980 You can't really see all the details. You say, 00:15:40.039 --> 00:15:43.940 man, that looks better than I remember. In Israel, 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.860 at a distance, away from Egypt, they said, man, 00:15:46.860 --> 00:15:50.019 Egypt looked pretty good. Man, we want to go 00:15:50.019 --> 00:15:51.679 back there and eat all those melons and those 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:55.370 fish, and everything was so good. But they didn't 00:15:55.370 --> 00:15:58.070 know what they were asking for. Now God knew 00:15:58.070 --> 00:16:00.590 he didn't want his people to go back there. He 00:16:00.590 --> 00:16:03.009 knew he wanted to deliver his people. He also 00:16:03.009 --> 00:16:04.769 knew he didn't want his people to have this heart. 00:16:05.289 --> 00:16:07.470 He wanted his people to be obedient to him and 00:16:07.470 --> 00:16:09.269 to listen to him and to follow him and to trust 00:16:09.269 --> 00:16:13.230 him. Not just to complain and moan and groan 00:16:13.230 --> 00:16:17.350 about every single thing. But that's exactly 00:16:17.350 --> 00:16:20.450 what they did. Just the whole time they just 00:16:20.450 --> 00:16:23.960 keep on groaning and complaining. We want, we 00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:25.980 want, we want. This is what we want because this 00:16:25.980 --> 00:16:29.919 is good for us. And God gave them what they wanted. 00:16:30.919 --> 00:16:34.320 It wasn't good for them. It's the same thing 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:37.919 that ever happened in our life. Maybe you've 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:39.759 got an example of that that you can think of. 00:16:40.460 --> 00:16:42.399 Maybe there's something in your life that you 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:44.720 wanted so bad and you wanted so bad and you got 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:48.440 it and it was a burden. It was a burden maybe 00:16:48.440 --> 00:16:50.820 financially or it was a burden because it added 00:16:50.820 --> 00:16:53.379 extra stress or whatever it is. Sometimes the 00:16:53.379 --> 00:16:55.500 things that we want, that we think are good, 00:16:55.559 --> 00:16:58.899 are not good for us. Sometimes you see that. 00:16:58.940 --> 00:17:01.039 You see a child that tells their mom and dad, 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:02.399 they say, oh, I want to get a puppy. I want to 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:03.960 get a puppy. Let me get a puppy. And the parents 00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:06.420 say, no, you can't just get a puppy because you've 00:17:06.420 --> 00:17:07.920 got to take care of a puppy. And they say, I 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:09.160 want a puppy. I've got to have a puppy. Give 00:17:09.160 --> 00:17:11.019 me a puppy. I want a puppy. Let me have a puppy. 00:17:11.769 --> 00:17:13.670 And the parents finally cave and say, if you 00:17:13.670 --> 00:17:15.569 want a puppy, you're going to get a puppy. But 00:17:15.569 --> 00:17:16.970 you've got to clean up after it, and you've got 00:17:16.970 --> 00:17:18.369 to feed it, and you've got to take it out in 00:17:18.369 --> 00:17:21.069 the middle of the night. And guess what? That 00:17:21.069 --> 00:17:23.329 puppy is so good at first. They all look the 00:17:23.329 --> 00:17:25.150 little puppy, and oh, it's all good. And then 00:17:25.150 --> 00:17:27.769 all of a sudden, you've got to feed it, and you've 00:17:27.769 --> 00:17:29.829 got to start taking it outside, and you've got 00:17:29.829 --> 00:17:32.470 to start cleaning up after it. And then all of 00:17:32.470 --> 00:17:34.529 a sudden, some of y 'all probably had this experience. 00:17:34.589 --> 00:17:37.289 All of a sudden, your kid, they don't want the 00:17:37.289 --> 00:17:40.549 puppy anymore. I want an inside puppy. Well, 00:17:40.569 --> 00:17:42.259 then all of a sudden, Well, could we let it be 00:17:42.259 --> 00:17:44.319 an outside puppy? Because they realize, I don't 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:46.380 want to clean up all this stuff. And something 00:17:46.380 --> 00:17:48.660 that they wanted so bad that they finally got, 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:51.660 they realized that maybe it wasn't as good as 00:17:51.660 --> 00:17:54.900 what they thought it was going to be. And maybe 00:17:54.900 --> 00:17:57.640 we have some stories, not just as kids, but maybe 00:17:57.640 --> 00:17:59.819 as adults, we have some stories of some things 00:17:59.819 --> 00:18:04.019 that we had to have. And we got them and we realized, 00:18:04.299 --> 00:18:06.759 I probably would have been better off not having 00:18:06.759 --> 00:18:09.369 this. I probably would have been better off not 00:18:09.369 --> 00:18:11.230 doing this. I probably would have been better 00:18:11.230 --> 00:18:15.829 off not acting this way. And God's people were 00:18:15.829 --> 00:18:21.450 so, they were so obstinate and they were so consistent 00:18:21.450 --> 00:18:25.950 that God, this is what we want. Eventually God 00:18:25.950 --> 00:18:29.230 gave it to them. And sometimes God does that 00:18:29.230 --> 00:18:32.529 for us. Sometimes those are hard lessons to learn. 00:18:33.579 --> 00:18:36.160 Maybe some of you have learned them. Maybe some 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:39.799 of us are in some of those lessons today. And 00:18:39.799 --> 00:18:42.440 it ain't good that we got there. It's not good 00:18:42.440 --> 00:18:46.960 that in our disobedience and our desire to not 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:49.400 wait on the Lord's counsel and our desire to 00:18:49.400 --> 00:18:52.819 have what we want when we want it got us in this 00:18:52.819 --> 00:18:56.539 shape. It's not good that we're there, but God 00:18:56.539 --> 00:18:59.579 is still good. And we don't have to just keep 00:18:59.579 --> 00:19:02.920 demanding the quail. That we can stop and say, 00:19:02.980 --> 00:19:06.039 okay, God, I've been asking for things and seeking 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:08.400 things and I've got things and I want things. 00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:11.640 And God, I don't know if it's good for me and 00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:13.799 so I just, I want to repent of that. And God, 00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:17.019 I'm sorry for that. Maybe there's some things 00:19:17.019 --> 00:19:19.680 we've already got. We're learning those lessons 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:21.599 and we just need to ask God to forgive us and 00:19:21.599 --> 00:19:24.700 to help us. By His grace and mercy, God, I've 00:19:24.700 --> 00:19:26.680 gotten myself into this mess, but God, would 00:19:26.680 --> 00:19:29.299 you get me out? That's the story of Israel. Man, 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:31.599 they got... They got themselves into so many 00:19:31.599 --> 00:19:34.000 messes. And some of them, some of them sadly 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:37.339 didn't learn their lesson. But some of them did. 00:19:37.460 --> 00:19:39.440 Some of them did cry out to the Lord. Some of 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:41.279 them did call out to the Lord. Some of them did 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:44.920 recognize their sinfulness and repented. And 00:19:44.920 --> 00:19:46.759 the ones who continued in their wickedness, man, 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:48.980 you see God deal with them. You see God destroy 00:19:48.980 --> 00:19:50.920 them sometimes. We'll look at an example of that 00:19:50.920 --> 00:19:55.160 in a week or two. But we don't want to be those 00:19:55.160 --> 00:19:57.950 who... who continue on. You don't have to continue 00:19:57.950 --> 00:20:00.690 on in your own selfish desires, in your own ways, 00:20:00.789 --> 00:20:03.609 in your own sin. We can say, okay, God, I've 00:20:03.609 --> 00:20:07.130 gone too far. I've wanted it my way, and I've 00:20:07.130 --> 00:20:09.849 done my way, God, and I've got myself in a mess, 00:20:09.950 --> 00:20:11.430 and I thought I wanted something that was going 00:20:11.430 --> 00:20:14.269 to be good for me, and I realized that what I 00:20:14.269 --> 00:20:16.329 thought was good for me is tearing me up. So, 00:20:16.329 --> 00:20:19.769 God, would you just help me? And praise the Lord, 00:20:19.809 --> 00:20:21.690 through Jesus Christ, we can have that grace 00:20:21.690 --> 00:20:25.980 today. whatever mess we might have gotten ourselves 00:20:25.980 --> 00:20:31.079 into, whatever sin of our past that we were freed 00:20:31.079 --> 00:20:33.299 from, just like the Israelites, there were things, 00:20:33.400 --> 00:20:36.700 there were sins that so easily ensnared us, and 00:20:36.700 --> 00:20:40.259 maybe years have gone by, and there are things 00:20:40.259 --> 00:20:42.940 that we hadn't done in years, and maybe sometimes 00:20:42.940 --> 00:20:46.259 there's that temptation the devil still puts 00:20:46.259 --> 00:20:49.319 in our mind, and there's something in our distant 00:20:49.319 --> 00:20:54.329 past that we know is bad. We've left behind that, 00:20:54.390 --> 00:20:56.869 boy, that devil sure does make it look good. 00:20:58.490 --> 00:21:01.309 Boy, what you did in the past, that was a pretty 00:21:01.309 --> 00:21:03.170 good thing. Remember how much fun you had doing 00:21:03.170 --> 00:21:08.289 that? Man, the devil is so good at making that 00:21:08.289 --> 00:21:11.450 stuff at a distance look beautiful, but it ain't 00:21:11.450 --> 00:21:15.369 beautiful. The sins and the things of our past 00:21:15.369 --> 00:21:18.369 that enslaved us, they are not beautiful. And 00:21:18.369 --> 00:21:21.559 Jesus died on the cross to give us freedom. So 00:21:21.559 --> 00:21:24.779 we don't have to go back. As tempting as it may 00:21:24.779 --> 00:21:27.460 be, we don't have to go back. We don't want to 00:21:27.460 --> 00:21:29.759 be those who try to find our satisfaction and 00:21:29.759 --> 00:21:33.180 joy in the evil of the past. We want to find 00:21:33.180 --> 00:21:35.380 it in Jesus Christ in the present. Say, God, 00:21:35.500 --> 00:21:38.759 however good the things of the past may be, they 00:21:38.759 --> 00:21:41.779 do not look as good as Jesus Christ. So I'm going 00:21:41.779 --> 00:21:43.660 to just hang tight on Him and what I have right 00:21:43.660 --> 00:21:47.079 now. Let's pray. God, we thank You for this good 00:21:47.079 --> 00:21:50.230 word and this good story. And I pray that you 00:21:50.230 --> 00:21:52.890 help us, dear Lord, that if maybe we're guilty 00:21:52.890 --> 00:21:57.450 in some way of these things, God, and we get 00:21:57.450 --> 00:21:59.890 to where we seek our way and want it our way 00:21:59.890 --> 00:22:02.369 and complain about maybe what we don't have or 00:22:02.369 --> 00:22:05.730 what we want. But God, I pray that you would 00:22:05.730 --> 00:22:08.069 help us to be careful and cautious and just to 00:22:08.069 --> 00:22:11.690 trust you and not try too hard to do things our 00:22:11.690 --> 00:22:16.410 way to get what we want. And God, if we've done 00:22:16.410 --> 00:22:18.730 that and we... We are suffering the consequences. 00:22:18.809 --> 00:22:21.089 I pray that we would just repent of that and 00:22:21.089 --> 00:22:24.869 seek you, that you'd give us some mercy. Help 00:22:24.869 --> 00:22:26.910 us to do better moving forward. Help us just 00:22:26.910 --> 00:22:30.089 turn to you, dear Lord. Help us not to be drawn 00:22:30.089 --> 00:22:33.869 back to our past slavery, as tempting as it may 00:22:33.869 --> 00:22:36.589 look. I pray that you would help us to keep our 00:22:36.589 --> 00:22:41.950 eyes looking upward and onward, not to the past, 00:22:41.950 --> 00:22:44.309 but to the present, to Jesus Christ and to the 00:22:44.309 --> 00:22:47.819 future, to our future hope and glory. And I ask 00:22:47.819 --> 00:22:50.140 these things in Jesus' name. Amen.