Numbers 20:1-13

Speaker 2: All right. Hey, man, I enjoyed that song, didn't you? Yeah, I could see some of y'all are getting into it, and some of y'all were just. Well, I like that song. And I was one of the single. No, I don't want to sing it now, but I sing over there by myself. Oh, man, that was great. You know, we last year we hosted Greater Vision in January and used up our concert budget the first month of the year. And so we haven't had a group in since January of 2021. But next month, on the 28th of August, we are having the Irwins back and they're going to be singing on a Sunday night doing a concert for us. And so I'm so excited for that. And just they don't even sing that song. But listening to you sing, I sing. All right. And this makes me want to hear the Irwins again. And so make plans for that. Invite some folks to come and join us. It's gonna be a really good night. You like the Irwin status? I couldn't tell. Yeah, you know. Brother Clarence will stick your head up there. Aren't you glad that brother Matt can sing? Yeah. Cause. Cause you and I can't. I didn't say you couldn't. I said I can't. And I'm glad my wife can play the piano because we would be really up a creek if Brother Matt couldn't sing and she couldn't play the piano. So anyways. Anyways, I need to stop tonight. Brother Mason Lemos is here and he's gonna be preaching for us. And I think I might sit in Sunday school, not in the church service, but I. When I first met Mason, he was in junior high and he was about as tall as Titus is now. And this little kid came running up to me with a basket of stuff, and I think it was our first it was close to the first Sunday that we were there in Virginia, and he and his family had put together these gift baskets to welcome us. And there were some things in there, actually, that I still use. I've got that pink muscle warmer in my desk for when my neck hurts. I think it was supposed to be for her, but I claimed it for myself. And you know Mason was just a normal kid in our youth group came to all the activities, was active, was involved. But specifically it was during one of our summer because summer teen adventures, it was like a teen vibes and we'd have preaching and games and crazy competitions all week long. And I wish I could take credit for the message that that really got a hold of Brother Mason's heart. But it wasn't me. It was it was one of our interns. It was a guy that's been here several times. Most of you have met him. His name is Joseph Smith. No relation to the Mormons at all. But Joe was there and he preached on being a red hot teenager for the Lord and there was a very noticeable change in Brother Mason from that week forward. And he began, you know, saying things like he wanted to be in the ministry, he wanted to, you know, go to Bible College. He wanted to be in youth work. And, you know, from time to time you hear those things and you're like, man, that's great. Let's let's take some steps towards that. And people get cold feet and they say, Oh, well, you know, maybe I don't know. And and a lot of times kids that surrendered to preach didn't ever end up going and do anything about it, and for a variety of reasons. But Mason did. And a lot of our kids would go to Pensacola, Christian, they'd go to Bob Jones, Liberty, and Mason said, you know, I'm going to do something different. I'm going to go out to Oklahoma City. And he went to Heartland Baptist Bible College and graduated. And now the Lord is using him. He's holding down a variety of jobs, but he's also very active in the church where he serves the Lord there in Mustang, as well as teaching at a Christian school, preaching for their chapels on a regular basis. And it's just been really great to see how God has worked in his life. He's got a great testimony and just the way he has allowed God to use his abilities in whatever opportunities the Lord opens to him. And so he's a great encouragement to me and I'm grateful for him. And Mason, you come preach to us tonight, and I know y'all will do a good job of listening. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4: Numbers, 20 to 20 numbers, Tony. I do not know. I keep saying numbers 22, but numbers 20 is where we will officially be tonight. Thank you for allowing me to be here for the void and. As he's already mentioned. I was obviously in his youth group. I was his favorite in the youth group and. He did a lot for my life. I'll explain that a little bit later on. But just how much he means to me, I genuinely do not know if I would be standing here today other than the fact that he's the pastor of this church. And I had to ask him to actually come here. But I don't I don't know if how genuinely be in a position where I am today without him, but I'm just thankful again for the opportunity to preach. I've preached here before. I love being here. I love the the welcoming that I that I receive. Being here, it's always an encouragement to be here. It's always good to see my mom, my sisters here as well. And Miss Nancy, of course. So, again, just thank you, Brother Boyd, for for allowing me to be here. Numbers 20. We're just going to begin reading in verse one where it says, then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation into the desert of Zion. In the first month, the people abode in Kadesh and Miriam died there and was buried there. There was no water for the congregation, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people showed with Moses and Spake saying, What God? That we had died when our brethren died before the Lord. Why have you brought up the Congregation of the Lord into this wilderness? That we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have you made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us into this evil place? It is no place of seed or of figs or vines or of pomegranates. Neither is there any water to drink. And Moses and Aaron went up from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And they fell upon their faces, and the Lord of the the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Take the rod and gather thou the assembly together, thou and and Aaron thy brother, and speak unto the rock before their eyes and in so give forth his water and thou shalt bring forth them to them. Water out of the rock. So thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts to drink. Moses took the rod from before the Lord as she commanded him. And Moses and gathered the congregation together before the rock. And he said to them, Here now, you rebels, as we fetch you water out of this rock. Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote the rock twice and the water came out abundantly and the congregation drank. And their beast also. And the Lord speaking to Moses and Aaron, because he believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel. Therefore, you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. This is the water of America because the children of Israel strove with the Lord and he was sanctified in them. If my friends want to say that this is probably a very familiar passage and I'm probably not going to preach anything that you don't already know. But nevertheless, it was an encouragement to me to study through this passage and to to preach it before and now coming back to it again. I enjoyed the study and I enjoyed the reminder that it is just. Just to be able to depend on the Lord. We even heard that this morning and thankful for that truth and is confident that this is where God has me to be. So with that being said, let's just go ahead and pray and get started. Heavenly Father, we come before you tonight, and thank you for all that you've done for us. Thank you for the fact that we can depend on you. You are completely capable of supplying for our needs. And hopefully we'll be able to see that tonight through this this passage. Thank you for just all of again, all of the things that you've done. Thank you for family. Thank you for just. Just allowing me to be here. Just again, call my nerves as I as I preach your word, coming to preach passionately and clearly to convey the truth that you would have me to convey me to say nothing more. Nothing less. Just help me to also just again, hide behind your word. And that this is a message that you've wanted me to preach. And I just pray that that is conveyed also as well as, again, just making it clear in Jesus name, he meant. It was after walking five miles on a backpacking trip that I knew that I had just messed up. I was in the Boy Scouts for a few years and was a pretty active troop. We went camping, we went backpacking, we went we went camping about once a month. And this particular trip, like I said, we we went backpacking and we parked our cars about eight miles from the campground. We then had to grab all of our stuff, our backpacks or coolers, the food that we needed. And we were to hike all of that for about eight miles to the campsite. Everything that we needed. We had it. We had to carry it. I was a young kid and obviously I'm not very tall now, as you can see. But as Brother Boyd mentioned already that I'm I wasn't much. I was very much shorter then. I was literally compared to the height of a baby this morning and Sunday school. And now again, compared to the height of Titus. So if that gives you any kind of picture, he's not entirely wrong. But but again, as you can imagine, I was I was much shorter then when I was eight. And due to my lack or due to my height or lack thereof and my stepdad sense of humor. All of you know, Jerry, I'm assuming and have gotten to know and gotten familiar with his sense of humor. He bought me probably the biggest backpack that he could find and must have picked he must have picked that backpack up and said, yeah, he can fit inside this one. It's going to be good. He's got it. So. So we gather all these things up. I have my this gigantic pack that I had to get all my stuff trucked along. Trying not to fall off. Because I'm trying to balance this huge thing on my back. And. Again. You know that feeling that you have and you get when you're maybe forgetting something. I didn't have that. So I kept chugging along. And again, into that eight mile walk, I didn't have that feeling until about five miles into that hike when I go to reach for my canteen. Only to have that feeling become realization that I didn't have any water. And great. I have no water for the weekend, which is the most important thing that we could have that scouts could have had. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure that my scoutmaster said multiple times, Hey, guys, don't forget your water. That is probably the most important thing that you can have on this trip. So I've arrived at camp. I got my oversize backpack slash sleeping bag. I got extra clothes. I got food. I have kool aid package that we're now useless. Just kidding. They weren't useless. I just put them my. And I feel that this is a very similar situation to where the children of Israelites have found themselves in. Israelites have set camp up in Kadesh, and unfortunately this is a low time for them. They have just been hiking along. They've set up camp. Miriam Moses, a sister, has just passed away. And what else could go wrong? They look around. And they find and realize that they have no water, which, as I determined as an eight year old, is no minor issue. The Israelites were often discontent, discontented, without a cause. We find in numbers 11 even that they complained about the manner that God had already provided for them. They complained that God had not been providing for them that whole time with food, and it wasn't wrong to ask for the meat, but it was wrong to complain that they didn't have any and wish that they were back in Egypt, which is a continual theme that they chose to do. So not only were they content discontent with what God provided for them already. They were not content in deliverance and leading from God. But again, not having water. It's not this it's not just this simple discontentment. It's a very simple or serious need. They would eventually die without water. And for some reason they felt that they had no way of getting water, even though they had just they had been in this situation before. Back in Exodus 17. We see this today in our own lives, where this is a need, that there is a need that needs to be met, where it seems like it won't be met. And I'm sure most of you in this room have have never gone a day or two days even without water. But tonight, that need may seem like filling up your gas tank. You know, especially with gas prices the way they are now, I can imagine it might be difficult to to to put the pump in your car and say, man, I really don't want to do this. I don't want to see the damage. But. I mean, I remember times in college when where I genuinely thought that a couch had more change in it than my bank account did. And there was times where I definitely struggled to fill up my gas tank and I would be thinking, I have $0.25 in my bank account. How am I going to fill up my car when I'm on E and I have to go to work for the rest of the week? There's nothing as far as the eye can see that shows any sign of money coming in anywhere. Maybe you're in need of a job and you're there looking and looking and looking and no one is hiring. This could look like paying for a medical bill and you need to pay it off. But there's nowhere in sight means for provisions. You may even be sitting here while I have plenty of water, but I'm drained spiritually. And we know that the Bible compares itself to water in a couple of places. Psalm one we're talking about, and he will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, and we ought to be rooted in God's word. John four is another place where where Jesus says to the woman at the well, he who drinks of this living water shall never thirst again. We can trust in this everlasting God that we serve because he gave us this his everlasting thirst, thirst quenching word. You may be sitting here thinking, what? When I am reading my Bible, I don't I don't seem to be getting anything from it anyway. You know, I have my devotions. The water just doesn't seem to be there. And I just want to plead with you. This isn't the message, obviously, but not to give up. Because I would rather be reading my Bible and feel like God isn't speaking to me than have it closed, or I've silenced him completely. Because again, if you're. If you're reading your Bible or if you're excuse me, read your Bible, even if it's seeing if even if he seems silent, because if you don't, it is no longer him being silent. But it is now you silencing him. All of these things I mentioned, yes. Are serious needs. And even though these can be very serious needs for you, what should your response to be to them? Can we look to the Israelites to find the right response? No. Even though this is a very serious need in their in their life, their attitude was still wrong. The severity of the need will never justify a wrong attitude. The severity of the problem is not an excuse to sit here and complain and whine to God. The children of Israel needed water and they knew exactly how to get it and who to get it from. Yet, even though they knew how to get it and how to get it from the response would tell us that they didn't. To individuals. They responded, and the children of Israel responded with anger and faithless cries and murmurings. Verse two Children of Israel responded that way, and instead of asking God for their need to be met, they began speaking against Moses about their need. In other words, they failed to realize that God could supply their need and that man could not mean what was Moses going to do. Moses couldn't genuinely bring water. I mean, he could potentially dig for a while. But overall, this was the desert. There was no water in sight. And and again, they were just sitting here saying, we have no water. And that was what they were focused on. And why would they have gone to him instead of their almighty God, who had again already done so much for them, including providing them water? When needs come in our life. Our response ought not to be as the children of Israel's. But who can we look to in order to find the right response? Because with all that God has done for you, how could we have a poor response? In your responses like why is this happening? God, what are you doing to me? That I don't understand. What are you trying to do here? How dare you do this? God. Didn't you say that you would provide for all our needs? Well, where are you? We may even say my life was so much easier before I was saved. Sometimes I feel like the Israelites, God's chosen people, just saw God as something that just supplied their needs and nothing else. That's not who God is. He's he's the true God. He's our provider. But he's also so much more. He's the I am his meaning. He's sufficient. He is our provider. He's our banner, our rock. He has given you salvation. He's giving you life. He is giving you a good family. The ability to walk is giving you the ability to sit here and talk. So what is there to complain about? My mom and and several other people in my life has always challenged me to always thank God first. When you have a list because when you have a list of things that you have thanked him for, you will find that you need don't need to ask for much else. What does that famous psalm say? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. So clearly complaining is is the wrong response. I mean, when we really sit back and look at all that God has given you and really take. Take time to. To write it all down. It is. It's very much the wrong response in the sense it is what is the right response? And again, who can we look to to find that right response? In verse six, we find that Moses fell on his face before God and worshiped him and noticed this. He worshiped him even before he asked Him to supply their needs. He didn't worship him in an effort to ask. He just simply worshiped him. And because he worshiped him, God simply just said. Do this. Moses, according to the passage, didn't even need to ask. And even when it seems like there is no way our need can be met, God still deserves to be worshiped. Moses realized his physical needs could not, could, could be met by simply reaching out to his spiritual father. Whatever your need is, you can still fall on your face before the God who is worthy of it. We're the worthy of worship simply because He is God, but worthy of worship because he created you and He created us to worship Him. But also he's worthy because he knows your needs, even before we ask him. The God who supplied their needs in numbers 20 is still the God that we serve today. Right. So. When we sit here and understand that God provided their needs and God provided needs for Israel time and time again, and like Moses, they should have known to ask God immediately. Rather than to complain to Moses and against him. Children of Israel could have looked back and remembered all that God has already done. To get them out of Egypt, brought them to where they are now in Kadesh. But instead they looked back at Egypt and desired to go back. Despite the slavery, despite the bondage that they were in, but yet they still somehow are focused on the pomegranates that were there, the figs that were there, instead of the freedom that they now have. And the blessings that God wants to give them. But again, the Israelites have been in this situation before, and I'm not talking about the position where or this situation where God just provided for them because yes, while that was true and is true, they were in the exact situation before. As I mentioned back in Exodus 17, they did not have water and he provided water for them. And clearly, they didn't learn that God could do it. Moses knew, though, and did what he knew to do. He sought God for his need. God gave Moses instruction regarding how He will supply their need. God told Moses to in verse eight, Speak to this rock. These instructions might be strange. I mean, speak to the rock. We know that rocks can't hear. Um, they may look like bread, as we heard this morning. Um. But they can't hear. And because they can't hear, it's logical to also say that they can't talk back. So. And he had never spoken to Iraq before, thankfully, but he had hit Iraq before. Again, back in Exodus 17. And God use is different. And I say this because God uses different instructions to teach us different lessons during specific circumstances. God uses different instructions to teach us different lessons during specific circumstances. So God told Moses back and actually the 17 to strike the rock. Now He has told him to speak to the rock. Again, it's the same situation, but different instruction. It was back in Exodus 17 that God told Moses to to strike the rock, possibly, and I believe to show his anger towards them. God was tired of them complaining. I mean, back in Exodus 17, what had just taken place was that he had just brought them out of Egypt. All the plagues happened, all of all of the miracles that took place in Egypt to get them to where they were. He parted the Red Sea for them. And after all that he had done, leading them through the wilderness by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. All of those things that God has clearly been present for. And yet they saw one inconvenience and they murmured against God. Moses and Aaron. After all that God had done for them, they should have realized if God can part the Red Sea for me, he can certainly provide water. The fact that they continually failed to realize that it. It doesn't make sense. And again, they they failed to realize that. And I believe God showed his anger using Moses to strike this rock. Or by using Moses to strike this rock. And again, if you go back to Exodus 17 later and read that account, God clearly was angry with them because he was he was God was angry with them for tempting him by saying, is the Lord among us or not? What a question. After everything that I just brought up, everything that they had just recently been through. Just to simply ask, is the Lord among us or not? This is a time where God wanted to convey in numbers 20. A different message by giving different instruction. For a specific message. Now God is telling him to speak to the rock. It was at this time where God wanted to show His grace, his mercy and love. Let me remind you that this is still a low point for the Israelites. Again, Miriam has just died. They were just told that they were not able to enter into the promised land due to their lack of faith. Back in numbers 14. They're remorseful and they know that they had sinned against God. Dodd through that probably wanted to show them that he still loved them, he cared for them even though they had sinned against him. And maybe this is also you tonight. We've talked about physical needs previously, but emotional needs as well. Specifically in motions of brokenness in like the children of Israel, they must have felt useless. They may have felt God was done with them. When since all that they're going to do from now to the rest of their life is is wander around the wilderness for 40 years until the next generation comes up and and they'll enter into the promised land. But again, it was probably on their mind that well. I don't know what God's going to do now. What can you do? We're just wonders now. Is it possible tonight that there's someone in this room feeling just as they felt useless? A broken. Unworthy. How to be some kind of encouragement tonight because this is a message of mercy. This is a message of grace and love. And it is important to say this because God does still love you. God is wanting to pour out his love, his mercy. And his grace towards you. God told Moses to speak to the rock so that it would be a picture of love rather than striking the rock, which would have been a picture of anger and judgment. I mean, think about it. When Mike when my parents disciplined me as a child, I would have much rather gotten sat down and talked to rather than placed on the bed and spanked. Right. I mean, that's fair. So again, when they discipline me as a child, they would either strike me with a paddle or. But even so, even if that happened, they would still set me down and talk to me and. And make sure that I'm comforted. And, you know, hey, I still love you. You just disappointed me, all of those things. I mean, when the belt wasn't and when the belt was coming down, I didn't really feel a love mercy. I certainly didn't feel mercy of grace. I didn't feel that. I mean, don't get me wrong, I got what I deserved. There will still be consequences for your actions. But please know that the consequences are out of love. We all know the the verse. The Lord, Lord Jason's those He loves. But after I did get what I deserved again, they sat me down, told me that even though I had disobeyed or whatever they had just spoke to me for, they still loved me. They still cared about me. And ultimately, that was that was the best thing for me. But they would also simply just sit me down and tell me that I'm grounded or take something away. And there was no physical pain that was that was needed. I enjoyed that so much better because I didn't feel pain the whole time. I felt loved. I saw grace and mercy. But this this instruction to Moses, towards the children of Israel was very specific. And I believe God intended for his people to receive a message of love and grace. And does Moses adhere to God's instruction and show the Israelites the lesson that he was trying to convey? What did Moses do? Moses disobeyed God by hitting the rock and doing it his own way. Moses disobeyed a direct, clear command to speak to the rock instead of hitting it. And instead of doing what God tells us to do, we sometimes out of fear, grief, impatience or anger, follow our own directions. You may be sitting here thinking, well, I would never disobey a direct command from God like that. I mean, it's so simple. Just just do what you're asked to do. Right. And, yes, it is simple. We look at Moses like, man, you messed up like you started off so good, too. Like you, you you had the right response. You did what you were supposed to do. You worship God and and he gave you the instructions of what to do and how to receive your need. What happened? You just decided to forget everything and say, I'm going to do it my own way. That. I have no idea. I mean, other than the fact of of impatience and anger and grief and frustration with the children of Israel. But we do the exact same thing. I mean, do we always follow God's commands? The pastor is going through the Sermon on the Mount currently, and even just reading through that, we can see just how much we really don't obey God or how much this his simple commands get misconstrued or twisted. I mean, the easiest one that comes to mind would be Love your neighbor. It's a very simple command. And I actually the last time I was preached, I preached from that passage. It's a very simple command, but yet somehow it needed to be said. You've heard that. It's been said, love your your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you are love your enemy. Love your enemy. And how about even from what we heard this morning, were where the passage pastor preached about asking, seeking and knocking. I mean, how many of us have asked once, not once and not once? Said I did what she told me to do. But as we found out this morning, that's not entirely what God is saying. How about committing adultery? I've heard several times in my life. Well, as long as I don't touch her, I'm fine. Not what Jesus said. But that was that was twisted. That's that's been twisted. Again. How many times do we twist the interpretation of God's word? That is Moses's mistake here. Not only did he disobey God, but he failed to carry out the message that God's God probably properly message properly and furthermore showed a great lack of leadership and faith. You noticed what Moses said to his people in verse ten where he says, Here now you rebels. And I first want to point out that he calls the Israelites rebels and then rebels against the word of the Lord. I Irish ironic. Irony is a wonderful thing. Secondly, he says, Must we fetch you water out of this rock? Like he had anything to do with it. What should have been done for God's glory was then done or was now done in man's failure to obey. And in doing so, claims the glory for himself. So again, he disobeyed God and said, Must we fetch you water out of this rock? Saying, Must we do this? And he didn't give God the glory for it. Notice also that because Moses disobeyed, he had to hit the rock twice by trying to do it his own way. If Moses if Moses had done exactly what God had said, it makes sense to me. That he would have just spoken to it and water would have come out. But instead Moses struck the rock and it didn't work the first time, so he had to hit it again. And you would think after hitting it the first time, he would he would stop for a minute and say, wait. Hitting it didn't work. Um. Last time it worked. Oh, right. God told me to speak to it. But unfortunately, he decided to just hit it again. He hit it out of unbelief, out of anger, out of impatience, grief and strife. Notice that the water still flowed out. But the consequence was that Moses was not able to enter into the promised land. When we do so bad, when we disobey God and do things our own way, we might get the results that we want, but we will end up missing the blessings of God in the end. We should obey God's word because a life of obedience will result in daily provisions in lifetime and in a lifetime of blessings. We should obey God's word because a life of obedience will result in daily provisions and a lifetime of blessings. This obedience to God's instructions may lead to the result we want in a moment, but we will not get the blessings we could have had in the end. And it's common knowledge when we follow God and do exactly what he says he will provide. When we don't, can he? He might still give us a result. But he gives us the result we want in a moment. But again, we'll miss out on what God could have had later on. This man has a tendency to disobey God and and try to do it our own way. We heard about again this morning about our dependance and our independence and how we we feel that we can do things in our own strength, even even preaching and song leading. It's extremely possible. And especially after getting into a flow of things that it happens. We have that tendency to just do it our own way. And God graciously allows us allows for the same results. But he does he does judge our disobedience. I think if Moses could go back in time, I think he would. I think he would have spoken to The Rock. I mean, Moses was reflecting on the history of June, on the history of the children of Israel and Deuteronomy chapter three. And he's begging God he's he's absolutely begging God to let him enter into the promised land. And if Moses had just spoke to the Rock, he would have seen the same results. You would have gotten the blessings of the of entering into the promised land. But because of Moses's disbelief, God told him that he would not enter. And imagine that. For 80 years. He led his people and it was God's purpose for him to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land in just in a moment. God judge them for his disbelief. And after again, 80 years, he couldn't go. Doing things our own way may get a result that we want, but we will always miss God's blessing in the end. What results are you looking for in your walk with God? You're looking for a temporary result for what you want in a moment. Or are you looking at the big picture that will show you the eternal blessing rather than a temporary result? Pastor Gaddis. Pastor, you may know him, Southwest. He always said this. Don't give up what you could have for what you want. In a moment. Again. I think I think Moses, if he if he just stopped and looked at the big picture. You would have realized. That the promised land would have been so much better than just receiving water from Iraq. There are a few points that I wanted to close with tonight. Mostly just a recap of what's already been said. Like I said at the beginning, it's nothing you don't know. And I'm not preaching anything new. But I do want to close with. You can trust God to supply your need. Even in times of need, God still deserves our worship. And even in times of grief, frustration, anger, God still deserves our obedience. Our response should be falling on our face and worshiping him, listening to him and obeying him. In, let's be honest. Why? Why worship him and ask for his guidance? Why? Why seek him? Why ask? She cannot. And go through all of that trouble. Just to turn around and ignore it. And then proceed to do it your own way. Now, this is not me saying never ask for God's leadership because you can just do it your way anyway. That's that's not what I'm saying. It is, however, me saying that when you worship God as you should, it's only logical to do what He asks you to do. Now I do understand the dilemma. We do this all the time as human, as humans, especially young people, myself included. And we ask our parents to do something or ask for something, and they say no. And. It's easy to just go ahead and and do it anyway or take it anyway. Or we could ask advice from our parents or your pastor who, by the way, gives amazing advice. But I know when I was growing up, I couldn't do anything without my mother saying, Did you talk to Brother Boyd first? Like, I'm serious. I couldn't hear it. I could not do anything without hearing that. It was. Have you talked to her about it? Brother Boyd doesn't think that's a good idea. It was so frustrating. But I'll tell you what. I made less mistakes in my life. And I knew I had multiple people in my life who cared about me back then. Of course, I was the typical teenager. I mean, rolled his eyes. I was frustrated. But I stand here today. I tell you that I might not be standing here after you said this, but I might not be standing here if I had ignored the counsel of a God fearing man and a godly woman. It was helpful and I needed it. But how many times have you ignored good advice from your parents before and how did it turn out? I mean, I can confidently say that I'm pretty sure it didn't turn out the best for you. It didn't turn out the best for me. And it didn't turn out the best for Moses. What makes you think that you can get on your knees, worship God, ask for help, do the opposite of what He told you to do and expect it to be okay. And if it doesn't turn out to be okay with your mentors, mentors and parents on earth. We can't expect it to be okay with our Heavenly Father. And again, it didn't work out for Moses. It's not going to work out for us. Now. Earlier I said God provided for them back in Exodus 17, and because he's the same God then as he is today, he will provide for us today. I mean, everyone likes that truth. It's like, yes, God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He's going to provide for our needs. Everyone loves that truth. But God, because he's the same God yesterday, today and forever. He's also the same God that will judge you for disobedience as he did, or as he judged Moses for his. That that truth is not so light. But nevertheless, it's still true. And that truth. That's the truth that we can follow. We can all follow and trust because it's tried and true. It's following God's following God's way, and instruction will lead to God's eternal blessings rather than His judgment. Don't settle for a result. Don't don't settle for a result you want in a moment when you can receive his blessings in the long run. There's no reason to settle for a result when you can strive for blessings. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you tonight. Thank you for all that you've done. Again, thank you for this opportunity. I just thank you for this congregation and the blessing they are to me and my family. Thank you for Brother Boyd as well. And just his kind words and his his mentorship. Thank you for again all that you've done. And just a moment.

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