Deserts Week 1 | Sermon

So I was thinking about it this week and you're gonna have a story like this too. I'm just assuming. Maybe you did it or your kids have done it to you, but it was, I don't know, Christmas year, I was 11 or 12 years old and it's kinda crazy. We used to do this thing. If you're a young person here, you have to ask your parents about it after service. But we used do this thing called playing outside like it was wild. Like we would

actually go out of the house like pre internet and all this stuff. It was a good time. And so we would go into our cul de sac and we would play all kinds of games, kickball and baseball. Well,

basketball was kind of the sport that we wanted to get into. So I told my parents, hey, we need a hoop to put out in the cul de sac. And so I told my mom and dad probably 20 times like this is the gift that I want. This is what I need. So whether it's Santa bringing it down the chimney or you guys figuring it out, like this is the gift, right? So Christmas morning comes rolling around and I come walking downstairs and I'm looking at all the presents and there's five kids, right? So Christmas is kind of a chaotic scene. There's lots of stuff and I don't see a box that's big enough for a

basketball hoop. I'm like, my parents are so awesome. Probably got like a magical one that's in a small box and it gets bigger somehow. I'm just assuming like it's happening. There's no way my parents would not get me the basketball hoop. And so we survived Christmas, the present

shrapnels flying all around the room and we get done opening all the gifts and to my utter shock and disappointment,

there's no basketball hoop. So at 11 or 12, I do the logical thing and I just throw a tantrum, right? And start to talk about just how terrible my parents are and how ungrateful I am for all the gifts that I have. And my parents kinda let me do that for a couple minutes and then they're like, hey, can you follow us out to the garage?

Yeah, right?

So we walk out to the garage and my dad had built and set up the basketball hoop that was kinda like my last final surprise to where I felt like a total jerk. And the reason that I tell you the stories, I'm assuming you've been there as well. Hopefully it's not just me, but the reason that I start there, was joking with my kids. I was like, I've got a bunch of stories I could tell about you knuckleheads, but I don't wanna air your dirty laundry to the church. So I'll be the bad guy in the story, okay? But the reason that I start there is I was thinking about it this week. It's amazing to me in that moment where I had convinced myself that this basketball hoop was going to be everything that I needed. Like it was the thing that was going to bring me joy and bring me meaning and I was gonna be able to figure out how to be a basketball player and go to school and impress all my friends. Like I was so fixated on that thing

that when I didn't get it,

all of a sudden I became blind to everything around me that I did have. Right? All the Christmas presents I had just opened, I was so ungrateful for. I I was blind now to the fact that I also was wearing clothes that my dad had provided to me. Right? I was eating food that he had paid for. I was living in a house that he was paying for. And it's amazing to me how when this thing called envy really begins to set in,

how much it blinds you to the provision of your father.

The reason that I start there is the story that we're gonna read today in Numbers chapter 11. It's kind of a bizarre story. It's a story where the nation of Israel,

they start to allow envy to come into their heart and God has a really strong reaction to it. And it almost doesn't make sense in that like, well, the sin is just envy. Like it's really not that big of a deal. Like we all kind of deal with comparison and it isn't really that big of a deal. But God has an incredibly strong reaction to it. And here's why I think he does.

What I wanna spend the next few moments kind of trying to convince you and I of is that envy friends, the reason that it's something that we need to pay attention to, the reason we should lean in this morning is because left undealt with, this is the big idea, envy will blind you to God's goodness. Every single time,

envy will make you completely oblivious to all of the blessing that is right in front of you. We have to remember the Bible tells us it's not flesh and bones that we wage war with, but it's spirits and principalities.

Okay? One of the greatest tactics that the enemy will use to rob us of the goodness of God in the middle of a amazing season

is he will get you to just focus on the one thing that somebody else has that you don't have that you really want. And as you become hyper fixated on that, I promise you what will happen to you is exactly what happens to the nation of Israel. You will be blinded to how good God really is and you'll begin to try to become your own God again.

Let me kinda lay the scene in the context for where we are in Numbers chapter 11. Okay. The Old Testament is primarily about God's people. They were called the Israelites throughout the Old Testament.

God chose them as a nation that would be kind of an example. He was showing the world what his relationship with us would look like through his relationship with the nation of Israel. Well, at some point, the Israelites were facing a really bad famine and so they go to Egypt so that they can have food. And Egypt in the beginning for them is an amazing place. They're flourishing.

They're thriving as a community. They actually grow to be almost 2,000,000 in numbers.

So they're they're doing really well. Well, the problem is the pharaoh that invited them in then dies and a new pharaoh comes into the scene and he realizes, hey, these Jews, there's a lot of them. And if they wanted to, they could overthrow us. And so he makes a logical decision to enslave them.

And the people of God find themselves living in captivity in Egypt. And eventually God will raise up a deliverer named Moses and he goes to Pharaoh. He does the whole, let my people go. He sings a song, does the dance. He throws the, you know, cast or the

whatever the heck it is. The thing on the ground, it turns into a snake. The river turns to blood. Like all this stuff happens and eventually Pharaoh allows the nation of Israel to leave. Moses parts the Red Sea and famously they walk through it. They're now on the other side and they are now a free people.

But the problem is, is what the what happens in a moment is the chains fall off of them.

But the baggage that they built up with in slavery is still with them. And so God, before they go and enter into what's called the promised land, it's Canaan, God tells them this is where you're now gonna live. Your people will live in the land that I've created for you. But before you get there, I need to teach you some things. You need to unlearn some habits that you've picked up in slavery.

And for the first year of their freedom, Exodus, numbers one through 10 is primarily God teaching them what it means to follow him. How to do worship, how to operate in the temple, how to be a person that lives as a free person. And in Numbers chapter 11, God now after they're ordered, they're structured,

they're beginning to realize who God is and how good of a God he is to them. He now tells them, okay, it's time to start marching towards the promised land. That's the context that we're about to read in Numbers chapter 11. Here's how verse one begins.

It says, soon the people began to complain about their hardships

and the Lord heard everything that they said. Then the Lord's anger blazed against them and he set a fire to rage among them and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp. Like this is one of the most gangster verses in the Bible. It's like they start to complain and God's like, all right, I'm gonna set a couple of you people on fire. Does anybody else wanna keep complaining?

I'm like, I need this trick for my kids, right? Like I'll light you on fire sucker. You know, like God has this really strong reaction to them complaining. Verse two, it says, then the people screamed, you would think to God, but they go to Moses

for help. And when Moses prays to the Lord, the fire stops. Okay. Verse three, after that the area was known as Taberah, which is Hebrew for barbecue.

Could you imagine if that was real? It's like that's insensitive. That's people. It's called the place of burning because fire from the Lord had burned among them there. Verse four says that then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave, don't miss the sentence, the good things of Egypt.

Remember Egypt is where they were enslaved. And the people of Israel also began to complain, oh, for some meat, they exclaimed, some Caldwell's barbecue. Come on somebody. Verse five says, we remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers,

the melons, the leeks, the onions and garlic that we wanted. They're like, yes, slavery was bad, but we had onions and garlic for days and that's pretty awesome, right? Verse six, but now our appetites are gone. If you have a Bible and you have the ability to highlight underline circle this phrase, but now our appetites are gone. I wanna come back to it in a second. All we ever see is this manna. Okay, all we get is manna. The manna looked like small coriander seeds and it was pale yellow like gum resin. Verse eight, the people would go out and gather it from the ground. They've made flour by grounding it with hand mills or pounding it in mortars.

Then they boiled it in a pot and made it into flat cakes. These cakes tasted like pastries baked with olive oil. Verse nine says the man who came down on the camp with the dew during the night. Last verse, verse 10, Moses heard all the family standing in the doorways of their tents whining and the Lord became extremely angry. Moses was also very

aggravated. The people have been free for about a year, thirteen months. In their first move to start heading towards freedom, they start to complain.

And they start to become hyper fixated on the fact that all they have every day is manna. Okay. Here's what you just know about what's happening in this season. Moses records, the book of Deuteronomy has a lot of the same stories that are recorded in numbers,

but it's Moses pulling out all the leadership principles of what God was doing during this season. And in Deuteronomy eight, Moses tells us that God's primary purpose for the desert season both for them and I also believe for us was to teach us some lessons.

So what God was doing primarily is he was teaching them what it means to walk as a free person who is only used to living in bondage. Okay? When we give our lives to Jesus, there are some things that we have to unlearn. There are some rhythms and habits that we've developed while we were enslaved

to sin that take a while to come off of us. So what God was doing for them was every day they would wake up and there was manna from heaven that would just fall from the skies and they would walk out and there was these little things of bread that they could pick up and they could eat. And God would tell them, gather enough for what you need for today,

but don't take more than what you need for your daily provision. And if they did, that manna that was left over would actually spoil and rot. God was teaching them, I am your daily provision. I am your provider.

You can trust me. You don't have to hoard up things for your future. You don't have to try to gather it all together because you have a father in heaven that is leading you and protecting you and guiding you and providing for you. And the nation of Israel didn't really know what to do with it

because they began to do the same thing that you and I will do at points. Because here's what God promises to do for you and I. God promises to meet your every need. But you have to be careful because oftentimes what we hear when we read scriptures that say, okay, God meets my every need. We mistake needs with wants.

And we go, that means that God will provide my every want. Never says that. God never told him I'll provide you meat every day. He said, I promise you, you won't go hungry.

I promise you, you will not have to worry where your next meal is coming from because I'm your provider. I will take care of you. But they began to blur the lines between wants and needs. The same exact thing that you and I do as well. And I think so often, most of our discontentment

when it comes to our relationship with God is because we've mistaken needs for wants. And we go, God, I just really want this. And I don't understand why you are doing it for them and you're not doing it for me. And the problem with envy

is envy doesn't just stop at you being frustrated that you don't have something that somebody else has. Eventually what it will do is it will begin to make you bitter and resentful towards the people that have the thing that you think you deserve. And you will begin to walk around as a really bitter person.

Here's what I think is really what is what's behind envy. The thing that fuels envy, if you will, that is at an all time high in our culture, it's comparison. One of the ways that the enemy will rob you of all of the blessing that God has in your life is he will get you to compare your blessing

to somebody else's blessing. He will get you to compare your season to somebody else's season. There's three ways primarily that I think the enemy uses comparison against us. The three categories of envy,

if you will. The first one is material comparison.

You've done it, right? You go and buy a new car and you're like, oh, this thing is awesome, right? And then you look and you see it everywhere. You're like, wait, wait, everybody has one of these? And I remember when I got a new truck, got an f one fifty. I was like, man, is my dream truck. This thing's awesome. I love it. Until I saw my friend's f two fifty. And I was like, what? I need a two fifty. Are you kidding me? Like that thing's got auto drive and like my truck sucks. And all of a sudden the truck that was a blessing

is now, it's just a truck.

I remember my wife and I, I wish I had an hour to tell you the story. I will at some point, man. God literally supernaturally provided the house that we live in out here. And we gotta go through the process of renovating some of it. And we were redoing our master bathroom and it would what I would have said was our dream bathroom

until some friends of ours in the pecan started renovating their bathroom. I was like, dog, my whole house could fit in their bathroom. You know what I mean? Like chandeliers,

like I need a chandelier in my bathroom now. I didn't even know I wanted it and now I need it. And literally my wife and I in the middle of renovating what was like our dream bathroom, sitting there like, yeah, I guess this will just be our bathroom. You know, it's not.

And it's amazing how all of a sudden what I was content with compared against what somebody else had, it's just a bathroom. And it's amazing how many of us wake up every day and we go, it's just health. It's just a house. It's just a spouse. It's just some kids.

It's just a job. I know kids aren't gonna ever be a source of blessing, right? But I think oftentimes don't miss this. We forget that we're living in the exact thing we prayed for just a season ago. But

when we compare it against what somebody else has, all of a sudden the blessings are gone from it. And the problem is we're living in a culture where for the first time in human history, every single time your friend goes on vacation, you see it. Every time they get a new car, you see it.

Every time they get a promotion and buy something nice, you see it. Why? Because of social media. And I'm not saying that social media is all bad. But I'm telling you that there are things, there's a reason that the generations coming up are facing rates of depression and anxiety and almost a rejection of technology

because there are unintended consequences that also come with it. And you better believe the enemy is leveraging it to rob you of all the blessing that God has for you in this season. For some of you, the comparison trap that you fall into is the relational one. It's not so much material thing as much as it is being in a season that you wanna be in, you're not in yet. For some of you, you are single and you're really desperate to be married.

And it's hard for you to look at your friends who are getting married and still believe that God has a good plan for you because you're like, I'm just such a better person than them and I don't know why I'm not married and they are. Right? And you start to almost unintentionally

get frustrated at those people. For some of us that are struggling with infertility, to look at people where it's like, dude, I eat nothing but organic. You like bark and dirt all day. They eat McDonald's and they're cranking out babies left and right. Like why can't we?

Right? And you start to compare yourself and you will miss the lesson that God is teaching you in this season that feels like a desert. You will miss the opportunity to hear His voice in new ways, to trust His provision in new ways. For some of you, your trap, your comparison is the one that is just circumstantial.

It's the job that you don't have, the business that isn't growing fast enough.

It's the things that other people are getting to enjoy. I don't know if you get those cards during Christmas where people send you like the updates of what their family did over the last year. There was one that we got this year and the family was talking about it. Their son is like my son's age, he's like 11 or 12. And he was like, yeah, Brian went to Mexico and he built a house this year. He was in Uganda digging wells for the homeless. And I like walk in my son's room. I'm like, dog, you see this? You went outside four times all last year.

This kid's like solving world hunger. You're building fourth in Fortnite. Like, I need a better son. Like, people are looking at me, dog. Like, they're judging me because of you. I was totally content with it until I saw somebody else's son. I'm like, he's a better son. You know, like

He's not in the service so I can say that. But here's what I mean. It is so real where all of a sudden the thing that was like, man, such a source of joy and blessing. The moment you compare it to what somebody else has, all the joy that you used to have with it is just gone.

And you better believe that the enemy is going to use this to begin to rot you from the inside out. Why God has such a strong reaction to this? The reason that I had you underline that verse, verse six,

where they're saying because all we have is manna,

because we don't have any meat, it says that our appetites are starting to die. It's actually a poor translation of the original language. Again, the old testament was written in Hebrew. When you look at that sentence in the original language, a better translation would be like our life force is being drained from us. Our soul is withering away.

Not because it actually is, but because we're so fixated on what we don't have, we are dying inside. This is what the author of Proverbs tells us is what happens. Look at this verse, Proverbs fourteen thirty. A peaceful heart will lead to a healthy body. It is connected to your physical body. But jealousy,

it's like a cancer in the bones. It's like a cancer that will rot you from the inside out. And what is beginning to happen to the people of God in their first moments of freedom, they are settling into one of the greatest traps that the enemy lays for us. Compare what you have to somebody else.

And if you don't stop it, it will destroy your soul. It is why God has such a strong reaction

against it. Look at what James, Jesus' brother says when he talks about this idea of envy and jealousy. But if you are bitterly jealous and there's selfish ambition in your heart, don't cover it up Don't cover up the truth with boasting and lying. Your temptation will be, yeah, not me. I don't struggle with it. I understand that people do, but not me, but you're you're just lying.

Jealousy and selfishness are not God's kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, they're unspiritual and demonic. One of the greatest tools that the enemy will use to bind you to God's goodness is convincing you to compare what you have to what somebody else has.

Verse 16, he says, for wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. Don't miss that last verse. What James says, why God has such a strong reaction to envy settling into the people of God is because envy is a root sin that leads to every other sin.

Envy is what leads you to lying and cheating and stealing. The reason that some of us struggle with pornography is because we're not satisfied with how our spouse looks.

The reason that we step out and end up having an affair is because we're convinced that if we just get a different spouse, a spouse that respected us more, that loved us differently, that treated us like that person's spouse does, then my problems would go away. And you convince yourself that your spouse is the problem. But the problem friends is really what you have is you have a problem of envy. You have taken marriage, you've taken pleasure

that is a good thing that God has created. You've taken it outside of the context for which God has created it and you have now made it a God that you are worshiping. And that God will always let you down. And the problem is his envy will always attach itself to other sins.

Martin Luther, the famous reformer said that essentially

what God did with the 10 commandments, remember Moses, Mount Sinai, he comes down, he goes, look, here's the ten, ten rules, the 10 short charts for the nation of Israel. The tenth one was thou shall not covet. Martin Luther said what God did is he summarized all 10 of them by saying, do not be envious

because envy will lead to all of these other sins.

Friends, we have to understand in a world where comparison is at an all time high, envy is one of the most subtle ways that I believe that the enemy is stealing the glorious abundant life that Jesus gave his life for you and I to have. So the question is, is what do we do?

How do we begin to see the warning signs of it? I think the story that we just read in Numbers chapter 11 shows us the three ways that the enemy is gonna try to blind us to God's goodness. Okay. The first one, if you're taking notes, write this down. The first thing the enemy is gonna try to do is he's gonna try to blind you to God's past goodness.

He's gonna try to get you to rewrite the narrative of all God has delivered you from. All that God has brought you out of, he's gonna slowly try to rewrite that story. Look what he does with them again in chapter 11 verse one. It says, soon the people began to complain about their hardship.

They're complaining about their hardship on the other side of freedom. Like this verse is just so rich with audacity. It's literally me sitting there with my dad going, you didn't get me a basketball hoop. He goes, you realize that you were a slave in chains

and you begged me to get you free. And so I raised the deliverer, multiple miracles happen and now you're living in the fruit of what you prayed for last season. And yet in a moment, in a moment of comparison, hyper fixated on the thing that you don't have that somebody else has, all of a sudden you start to misremember

the past. You start to misremember how bad you really were. You start to misremember how bad the addiction really was that God brought you out of. You start to misremember the burden that the debt you were carrying really was. You forget how bad Egypt really was and all you begin to do if you're not careful,

if you're just on the other side of freedom and you don't begin to learn the new rituals of what it means to follow and trust God as a free person, you will start to look back on that season and all you'll remember is all the fun parts of it. And you'll forget the brokenness, you'll forget the enslavement.

I don't know if you've ever walked with somebody that's going through like that has gotten to the other side of a really gnarly addiction, but it's one of the most mind blowing things to me to watch. Where they will literally walk through hell, rock bottom. They've lost everything. Families have walked away, homelessness.

I mean, kinds of horrendous life circumstances. They fight for sobriety, they get to the other side of it. And then something happens in their life. Circumstances change, something difficult happens and the enemy begins to whisper in their ear. Was it really that bad? You can control it differently this time.

You won't let it get that bad. There was a lot of onions and garlic. There were some good things as well. And all of a sudden, the person that all of us look at and go, there's no way they'll ever go back to that. What did they do?

They go back to it and they re enslave themselves to the things that they were set free from. And I'm telling you friends, that is the enemy's plan for every single one of us. Here's what's amazing to me that I wanna show you. Okay? I spent some time doing this really cool illustration.

Even if you don't think it's cool, lie to me after service and tell me that it is. Here's what's amazing to me about the story that we're reading in Numbers 11.

They have something that you and I don't have. Okay? We have access to Jesus and the Holy Spirit in ways that they didn't because we're on this side of the cross.

But what God was doing with them every day is the Bible tells us that he would guide them like a cloud. Okay? There was a cloud that was with them during the day. It was God's manifest presence that was leading them. And then at night that cloud would turn into a pillar of fire. So they never at any point had to wake up and wonder, hey, where is God? They could literally look out and see him. Now he's like, he's right there. There's manna every morning. There's multiple ways that God is proving that he's leading us. They could physically see him yet still they ended up in a situation

after allowing envy to sit in their heart for a while where they woke up one day and they said, yeah, I don't know if I can trust God though. It tells me friends that you and I are capable of getting to the exact same place as well. Where there will be circumstances,

situations and things that happen to us that will tempt us to ask the question, can I still trust God? Do I really still believe that God is with me? Did God really deliver me from all that stuff or was that just like emotionalism? Was that just like spiritual manipulation?

Was it just, you know, the music? You'll start to rewrite the story. We have to be prepared for those days because they will come.

Here's how I think we combat it. Paul actually talks about this. Here's how when you're faced with a circumstance that will tell you to question God's goodness. Here's how you can remember that God is still good and your best days are still ahead of you. Here's what Paul says in Romans chapter eight. He says, you gotta remember friends since he, God, God did not spare even his own son but gave him up for all of us. Won't he also give us everything else?

If you're sitting in a season this morning where you're wondering where God is, you're wondering if you can trust him, if you're wondering if he's forgotten you, Paul says, look to the cross.

The cross is the reminder that there's nothing that God won't do to rescue you. There's nothing that God won't leverage to reach you. There's nothing that is beyond his willingness to give so you can be set free. He says the cross is our proof that the season you are in, even as difficult as it might be, it is temporary.

The cross proves to us that our best days are still ahead of us. But if you begin to forget that, I'm telling you friends, you will begin to allow the enemy to rewrite the past of God's goodness.

You will begin to misremember how bad things really were. And then you are just a couple steps away from allowing the enemy to rob you of all the blessings in your present circumstances. Here's the second thing that I believe the enemy is gonna try to blind you to.

He's gonna try to blind you to God's presence goodness. Once he gets your past and you start to re question that, all the current stuff that you have, he's gonna start to rewrite. For the nation of Israel, they had some amazing things that God had supernaturally provided for them.

They every morning woke up and they never had to wonder where their meal was coming from because there was manna that was on the ground. They had all the food that they could ever want. They had water supernaturally provided for them. In Deuteronomy eight, Moses actually reflects and goes, we wandered the desert for forty years and our clothes never wore out.

God was just supernaturally making our stuff last. We never fought wars. God was protecting us. Every day we had food, we had water, we had provision, we had freedom, we had family, we had community, we had identity restored to us. We were once again God's people. But in a moment

of becoming hyper fixated on what they didn't have, they missed all of this. And instead what they chose to stare at was the box called meat. And you're like, trust me, man. I like me some barbecue. You know what mean? Like I wish that this was the thing at the top of the pyramid as well. But for them,

they were blinded to all of this because they were convinced that this is what they needed. And I'm assuming yours is not barbecue, but I know that every person sitting in this room, you will be tempted to do the exact same thing. And maybe right now because you're single and you don't wanna be,

or you're in a marriage that's really tough, or you're praying for a wayward son that just isn't coming back. You're praying for finances to turn around and they just aren't happening and you have become hyper fixated on this thing and you're shaking your fist going, God, where are you?

What I'm trying to encourage you is that with some perspective, with some wise counsel, if you really look around, I promise you God has built a monument to his goodness right in front of you. Your life, I promise you has inklings of his provision all over it. But if you become hyper focused on the one thing you don't have,

the enemy will blind you to all of this stuff. It didn't just happen to them in Numbers chapter 11. Do you remember the Garden Of Eden?

God created literal paradise for Adam and Eve to live in. He tells them, you guys go name all the animals, have yourself a good time like make babies, do what you wanna do. I've given you all these trees you can eat from all of them. And what do they do?

They allow the enemy to blind them to all of the provision that God has for them. The abundant life that existed for them to walk with God in the cool of day. And instead, the enemy goes, yeah, but what about that one tree that you don't have? And they go, you know what? Maybe God's keeping something from us.

And friends, this is the problem with envy. Tim Keller has a quote I wanna share with you. Tim Keller reminds us that envy will make you think that something is wrong even in paradise.

I think the reality is that some of us are sitting in some pretty amazing lives. Some of us have the things that other people would just give everything to have, but we are miserable in the middle of it. Because envy will begin to make you an incredibly bitter person. It'll begin to truly rot you from the inside out.

Because instead of focusing on all the stuff you do have, all you can see is what you don't have. And it's a really dangerous place to be. I'm telling you friends, God wants the enemy wants to blind you to all of what God is doing in your life. And if you allow him to begin to take your present blessings,

you are just a few steps away from going, I don't think I can trust God with my future. This is the enemy's ultimate plan. The last thing that I believe he wants to blind you to is God's future goodness.

The end of the enemy's plan is pretty simple. It's to get you to ask the question, can you really trust God with your future? And if he gets you to say no to that question, he has you. Because then you begin to go, you know what?

I'll just be my own God. I can figure this out on my own. And here's what we have to remember when we find ourselves in seasons that feel like deserts. The desert in its very design, in its original intent, It was always meant to be temporary. God told them from the very beginning, you are going to Canaan.

The Bible says it's a land that flows with milk and honey. I have created a place for you. This is your forever home. But right now, there's some lessons in this season that you're gonna walk through. And it might be difficult, it might be hard to see me, but I promise you I'm with you every day. I've given you signs to prove it. Every morning you'll walk out, there's supernatural food provided for you. Water is just gonna spring up in random places. You will know that I'm your God and you can trust me. And there will be a day where you will be with me forever in the land of Canaan. Okay? For them, it was a physical place. For you and I, we have to remember, friends, this world that we're living in, it is temporary.

But if you forget it, you will begin to try to get too much meaning out of this life. I don't know if you've read the book of Ecclesiastes, but it's written by a guy who was incredibly wise and incredibly wealthy. In his summation of life, a man that has 400 wives, 700 concubines, a trillionaire,

his summation of all of life, it's meaningless. It's meaningless if you only live for the life under the sun. But he says, if you can understand that there's a life beyond the sun and you can do the second thing that Solomon says, you can begin to be content with your lot in life.

Here's what it'll give you the ability to do, to enjoy the life under the sun. But if you live from a place of this is everything, my possessions,

my house, my kids, listening to me, the stuff that I do, that's where I'm gonna find meaning from. I'm telling you, you're setting yourself up for failure. You are allowing yourself to be exactly where the enemy wants you to begin to go. You need to get more out of this. We have to remember friends, this is not our forever home. We are just passing through.

There is a home that God has built for us called eternity. And that's where all of these things will pass away. And here's what I want you to hear this morning is I know that there's some of you that there's really good things that you want. The desire to be married and have a family. It is a good desire.

But my fear is that sometimes even good things, we can make God's things. You know what Paul actually addresses?

If you're single inside of the church and you're struggling to trust God, Paul actually addresses that in a letter that he writes in first Corinthians. But he gives us some really bizarre advice that I wanna show you this morning. Look at what Paul says if you're single and you're struggling to be content in that season. Here's what Paul says. He says, what I mean brothers and sisters

is that the time is short.

He says from now on those of you who have wives should live as if they do not. I remember when I first read that verse, was like, wait, what did he say? Like if you have wives live as if you should. It's like Paul, we're talking about single people that wanna be married, not dudes that are going to Vegas. You know what I mean? Like, you're like, I found my life first babe, we can leave. Like those of us who have wives will live as if we do not. Here's what Paul concludes. Here's what he means. For this world in its present form is passing away. Paul's advice to a single person struggling to be content with the season of singleness

is remember even the fabric of marriage, even the function of marriage is something that God gave Adam because in this broken and fallen world, it was not good for him to be alone. But there is a day that's coming where that void will not exist. And do you understand the Bible tells us that marriage,

the thing that we so often elevate inside of the church, marriage itself will not exist in eternity. There are not marriages in heaven. And I know for some of us it like blows our mind and we're like, well, that makes me sad. And again, I think we will know our spouse in some capacity,

but marriage in its very design was built for this world. But when we are in the full presence of Jesus, we will not need marriage because there is no longer a void within us. What Paul is saying, here's how you can get through your season that you're struggling to get through. Remember that it's temporary.

Remember that God is building you a forever home and when he's done and when he's ready, he will come and get you in in the father's home are many rooms. There's space for you.

He says, remember that all of this is temporary. All of this is fleeting. There's a couple verses I wanna share with you about this idea of heaven. Psalm chapter 16 verse 11 says, you and I have to remember that it's God that will make known to me the way of life. It's in his presence that we find the fullness of joy. It's in your right hand there are pleasures forever.

He says, you gotta remember it's in God that we find pleasure that we find joy. It's not in a bigger house, a better car, nicer golf clubs, all those things are cool, but it's in God that we find the fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Paul also referencing

this idea of heaven says this in first Corinthians chapter two, he says, that is what the scriptures mean when they say, no eye has seen, no ear has heard and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. You know why you and I struggle so much with trying to get too much out of this life?

Because we have no idea how good heaven really is going to be.

What Paul is saying is even if I could explain how good it's gonna be, you couldn't comprehend it. It's like a four pointed triangle. It's like a round square. Like our brains just aren't built to compute it. And so what we do instead is we just reach for things and we try to create heaven on earth.

And what I'm trying to convince you of is friends, this life is primarily about learning lessons that God is teaching and making us into the person we're supposed to be for all of eternity and helping people get out of the line that are destined to hell into the line destined to heaven. But the enemy will try to distract you and he will try to blind you and he will try to get you to focus on one thing. And then all of a sudden you'll lose your purpose, you'll lose your focus, you will lose what God is trying to do in you. Do not allow the enemy to blind you to how good God has been to you.

I wanna close by just kinda telling you a story. Okay? This is more of like a personal story for me because even good things can become God things if you're not careful.

When I moved out here from San Diego to start our young adults ministry, truthfully, I came to Rock Point pretty convinced that like they were gonna find out at some point I had no idea what I was doing and I just was way way in over my head. And so all of a sudden ministry for me became an idol.

It became something where like my identity was wrapped up in it. And what would happen to me is like if we had a week where like a few 100 people would show up and I felt like the numbers were really big, I would walk out of the room patting myself on the back going, dude, I know that sermon was amazing. Like you you're just the man. Like you're awesome. They all came because you're so great. And then the next week,

a bunch of them would just not show up. We'd have a really small number and I would walk away utterly defeated. Just going, what's wrong with me? Comparing myself to all these other friends that were running ministries.

And then the next week numbers would go back up and I'd be doing well. And for six months plus, was on this emotional roller coaster, trying to find meaning from a ministry, a good thing, a God thing. But all of a sudden, it became an idol in my heart. It became an idol in my life.

It's actually if you go read first Corinthians, Paul talks about this season of the nation of Israel wandering in the desert. And he says, the reason that they struggle with envy is because they struggled with idols. They had made it a god. They were worshiping something wrong.

And here's what that shows me is friends, the the way we get into these places is by worshiping the wrong things. The way we get out of them is by worshiping the right things. And so I sat on a Thursday night in worship. Our team was running through some songs.

And in the middle of that moment, I sat there and I just was praying and I was like, God, I could teach this sermon. I could teach this sermon about how our job is obedience and your job is outcome. And I know the message, I just can't live it.

There's a disconnect between what I know and what I'm experiencing and I don't know what to do. And I literally, it was one of those moments where I felt like the Holy Spirit just impressed on me in that worship moment. And he said, Daniel, at some point you have to ask the question, when will Jesus be enough for you?

And I felt like that question just hit me like a ton of bricks. Like, is Jesus really actually enough for you? If all you were to get in this life is what God has predestined for you to have, would that be enough for you? If all you would get is what God has for you, would you be okay with that?

I think this entire message, it boils down to one really simple question. Friend, do you really actually believe? Do you really actually believe that the plan that God has for your life, in all the ups and downs, all the trials, all the U turns and all the moments,

do you believe that God's plan for your life is better than your plan for your life? If not, telling you, you are setting yourself up for the enemy to come in and just begin to whisper little thing and get you to rob, be blinded to God's goodness in your past. You won't see him in your present circumstances.

My hope and my prayer is that we would be people at our core that really go, you know what? I know that God is a good father who provides good things for his kids. And if my current circumstances would tempt me to believe that God is anything other than good, I wholeheartedly reject it.

But it's not natural for us to get there.

We have to teach ourselves how to do that. We have to worship our way through that. I wanna leave you with a verse where Paul talks about this struggle. Paul talks about kind of this whole life of trying to figure out how to be content when you have a little, how to be humble when you have a lot, how to know who God is no matter what is happening

existentially in your life. Look what Paul says in Philippians four. I leave you with this verse. It says, not that I was ever in need for I have learned. Notice he says learned. It wasn't natural. I've learned how to be content with whatever I have.

I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have again learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it's with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or with little.

For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. He concludes in verse 19, and this same God who takes care of me will supply all of your needs from his glorious riches which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Friends, you have to learn how to be content in every circumstance, in every situation.

Here's why every one of you was given one of these when you walked in this morning. Jesus tells us in John chapter six that the nation of Israel rejecting the manna, it was actually them rejecting him as the bread of life. The reason that God responds so strongly is because it wasn't a rejection of a food source.

It was a rejection of him as their God. Here's how we make sure we don't settle into the same thing. We have to be people who learn to feast on the word of God, the word made flesh in the person of Jesus. We have to take and eat him as the word of God, as the bread of life. It's why Jesus would gather his disciples

just hours before he would go to the cross to pay the ransom for our sin. And he would tell the disciples, you will be tempted to find too much meaning in this life. Remember that my body will be broken for you so that you can be set free from captivity.

Don't allow the enemy to dismiss that, to reduce it down to just it's just the cross. No friends, it is the thing that proves God's goodness. So together we take and we eat the body that was broken for us.

Jesus gathered his disciples again and told them, take this cup and let it symbolically represent my blood that will be spilled out for you. That the cost of freedom was my life. A cost that God was willing to pay so that you and I could be set free.

But if you're not careful, the enemy will reduce it to something that happened thousands of years ago that doesn't have the power to set you free. And so together we gather and we remember the blood that was spilled for us. We take and we drink.

So father, I thank you God for every single person that's here this morning. Lord, I know that in this room are people that are wrestling through some really big and heavy things. And Lord, I'm not trying to just use easy answers at what I know are really complicated questions.

But Lord, I'm thankful that through the Holy Spirit right now, you're ministering to people's hearts. You're encouraging them. You're challenging them. You're reminding them of your goodness. And father, I pray through the power of the Holy Spirit that we would walk out of this room

convinced that our best days are ahead of us. Reminded that the cross proves to us that our current reality, it is not our forever reality. God, would you give us the courage and the boldness

to walk through the situations that we're in, the deserts that we find ourselves in this morning. It is in Jesus name that all God's people said, amen.

Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Yeah. And make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the we are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.