Your Bitterness Can Be Healed
Exodus 15:22-27
When faced with difficulties, it is easy for us to forget all of God’s past faithfulness quickly. I mean, it only took the Israelites three days to forget the miraculous rescue that God provided them at the Red Sea. What we have to remember is that the wilderness is often a place of preparation and spiritual growth. However, if we don’t trust in God’s plan for us and embrace the challenges we face as opportunities for growth, we can find ourselves growing bitter. Trials reveal what’s already within us. When life shakes us, what spills out reveals our true state. But God doesn’t leave us there. Every challenge is an opportunity for God’s work in our lives. Remember, God is faithful to complete the work He has begun in us, even when circumstances seem overwhelming. Nothing is too big for Him.
Are you feeling stuck in bitterness? That is exactly what we see in this section of Exodus. Just like the Israelites at Marah, where the bitter waters reflected their own hearts, our struggles can uncover hidden wounds. But there’s hope! By turning to the cross, we can find the healing and freedom we need to move forward. Remember, the journey of faith is both a celebration and a battlefield. Our victory is in Jesus.
Bitterness doesn’t just affect us but also those around us. When you and I don’t address the root of bitterness in our lives, it can defile many. How do we address the bitterness? Forgiveness is critical, even when it’s tough. By choosing to forgive others of the debt they owe, we also release the power that bitterness holds over us. We can only do this in the strength of Jesus. Just as the tree God showed Moses in this section of Exodus, which sweetened the bitter waters. Jesus does the same for us. By bringing our bitterness to the cross, we can find healing and forgiveness.
It is so important that we address the bitterness in our lives. By recognizing the roots of our bitterness, turning to the cross for healing, and embracing the freedom that comes from forgiveness, we can experience God’s faithfulness and move toward a place of peace and restoration. Remember, the journey of faith involves both celebration and challenges, but with God’s help, we can overcome bitterness and experience true healing.
The story of the Israelites at Marah teaches us a powerful lesson: bitterness doesn’t have to define us. I want to remind you that while we may encounter bitter experiences, we can choose faith over bitterness. Through Christ, we are made new, and we have the power to overcome. God’s desire for us is to move from the bitter waters of Marah to the refreshing waters of Elim, which symbolizes rest and restoration. Trust in God’s healing process and move towards peace.
Full Unedited Transcription
Amen. Open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 15 and we’ll pick up where we left off last time. And I’ve entitled our Bible Study. Your bitterness can be healed. Your bitterness can be healed. And I’m so thankful that we get to sing songs to the Lord, aren’t you? It’s such a gift that God has given to us. We get to express our hearts. All of the ups, all of the downs. We get to cry out to the Lord. We get to thank him. We get to sit in Even sometimes we’ll find ourselves in a place where we get to sit in in a room like this, and we may come in not even wanting to sing, but we get to hear other people sing and almost ride the wave of their faith and their encouragement.
Just for a season. We have the privilege of putting on our earbuds or our headphones and listening to music that was written to worship God, that was inspired by various women and men that God has given to his church. I found God’s gift often comes to us through a song, and we as a church are very blessed to have many wonderful and talented and gifted worship leaders, worship teams. And you know what our prayer is, Lord, give us more, give us more, give us more men and women that will step up with the gifts and talents that God has given to you in the realm of music and be used. It may not be up on the stage here, it may be with the junior hires, you may be a part of the worship that’s taking place with the kids. You you might just walk into the property with a song on your heart, and we overhear you singing it to the Lord and you encourage us. But chapter 15 of Exodus, we were introduced to the Song of Moses.
It was a song of victory. It was a song of celebration. These people, this nation is rejoicing. Why? Because they thought they were dead. But now they’re alive. Just even in the song is a picture of the coming Messiah who everyone saw that was dead. But in three days later, he’s alive. And here they are singing in response to all that God has done. We looked at that in depth last time, that true worship comes from an overflowing heart and response to what God has done. We’re not trying to bring God down. We’re not trying to work him up. So, you know, maybe if we sing enough and we’re loud enough and that maybe God will meet us here, God is already here and he’s faithful. He is the instigator. We’re the responders. He’s the one that initiates. And we are the ones that say yes and amen. This nation could see no way out. I’m sure among the millions there, some of them just like this is it. It’s over.
We’re done. And yet now they’re miraculously alive. And it says in verse one of chapter 15, then the Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and they spoke, saying, but remember, the Bible doesn’t have chapter breaks. It wasn’t written that way. Chapter breaks. Verses were added much later on to help us remember and to see where things are. Remember where things are because chapter 15, verse one follows chapter 14, verse 30. Notice with me now in seeing the response always comes with the initiation. Notice. So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt. So the people feared the Lord. Believe the Lord and his servant Moses. Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord. Can I just pause for a second and speak to those of you that don’t like to sing, or don’t like the songs, or don’t like the new, you know, the new songs coming out, or whatever it may be toward music.
You may even be here thinking, you know, I’m okay with the Bible studies pastor. I’ll even rearrange my life where I’ll come in a little late. I’ll miss the music. I come for the Bible study and I’ll leave. Afternoon. Can I just speak to you just for a moment and remind you of have this. It may not be a preference for you, and it may not be an opinion for you. And it may not be what you like and what you don’t like. It just may be. You haven’t seen God’s faithfulness in a while. And I don’t mean that God hasn’t been faithful. I mean that you have refused to see the faithfulness of God. Maybe your thankfulness has been lacking, and you’re just taking credit for things that God is constantly doing in your life. Maybe you’re under the weight of a great burden or barrier, and that’s all you can see. You know, you got all this goodness and the grace of God and His finished work on the cross for you, and the forgiveness of sin and the reminder.
But then you get through these things and they just blind you. They’re so small and compared to the big work of God. Amen. In preparation for song, when you come to your church, ask God to show you his faithfulness. Ask God to remind you of his goodness. I’ve been listening to an audiobook recently of a famous actor who died a sudden, tragic death recently, and his whole life was filled with drug addiction and alcohol addiction. I mean, and this is a guy that most people that are starting out in the business or most people. This is what every actor and actress they aspire to, the life that he had to, the money that he had to, the prestige that he had to, all that he lived. He finally made it. And if I mentioned his name or the show he was in, you would know exactly who he is. No doubt he had everything you would think. But over and over again he mentions as he reads this audiobook over and over he mentions.
But nothing would fill that emptiness. Nothing would fill the emptiness. Relationship after relationship, bottle after bottle, pill after pill, paycheck after paycheck, house after house. He even mentioned recently I was listening. He even mentioned, you know, I was feeling bad one day. So I just went down and bought a, bought a car, a Bentley of all that. And he said it made me happy for about five days. And then you pick it up again. And he went through the cycle of sobriety and going back and sobriety and going back sobriety and going back. And it hit me because it wasn’t the purpose for which I got the book and wanted to listen to it. But God had a purpose that was different than anything that I had. And God just recently has welled up in me. How thankful I am that he delivered me from those addictions in my life. I mean that just that alone. I can hear the testimonies and almost every page I’m like, that would have been my life.
That would have been my life. If I live that long, that would have been my life. I would have been running over here and I’ve been running over there. And yet, at the point of time, God revealed to me why I was created, why was on the planet, and exactly what he wanted to do with my life. And some of you might go, well, yeah. He told you you were a pastor early? No, no, none at all. He revealed to me in the moment of my salvation how much he loved me and wanted me to be in relationship with him. That’s my purpose in life. Everything else is second and third and fourth and all the responsibilities and all the titles and all. All of that pale in comparison to a God that loves me and would welcome me into his family by the blood of Jesus Christ. How can you not sing when you know what God has done? How can you not sing? And I just want you to consider again.
I might be speaking to a very small group today, but how can you how can you come into the sanctuary of God so welled up with the love of God, and so glad what he’s doing in your life. So the rescuing power, the the the amazing faithfulness he showed and then and how can it how is it possible that you come and sit there and you go, you know, I don’t like that song. Oh, come on, man, no. How could you not like that song? How could you not see the Lord high and lifted up. Where the train of his robe fills the temple. And the angels are crying. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Where it’s so amazing in the presence of God that you fall on your face and worship. And you say, Lord, you’ve been so good to me. They’re singing because of God and what God has done. God made a way where there was no way. Have you? Do you have that as a testimony in your life? Have you ever seen God make a way for you where there was no way? I want to I want you to thank those of you who were born into a Christian family.
Okay. And you were raised from a very young age. Very, very young age to love God. And you love God because of your parents or your grandparents, your great grandparents. And eventually the love of God became your own love. You were raised in the right way. You surrender your life, you’re born again. And you think, well, you know, I don’t really have a way of the way. There is no way. Well, all you need to do is go back some generations, because somewhere in your family tree, God made a way where there was no way, where it was hopeless when all was lost. Well, that’s where the children of Israel we went through this song as they sang it. Miriam leading worship. God showed up as the Lord of hosts, as their defender, as their protector, as the leader of the army. Remember, he came as the leader, the God of the army. He fought their battles for them. They didn’t have the resources to fight.
They didn’t have the army or the military. No. God brought them into a place that shock them, stirred up in all these emotions, and delivered them. He wanted them to understand something very early. If you’re taking notes, he wanted them to understand, like he wants us to understand that the life that we live right now on earth, this is not a playground. It’s a battlefield. Just like the promise line we’ll learn in the Book of Joshua. The Promised Land was not a playground. It was a battlefield. And it’s true. You’re in a spiritual warfare. The world, the flesh, the devil. It’s real. It’s predictable. At times. It’s overwhelming, sometimes shocking and surprising. Many today, even listening to me right now or living in defeat, not using the weapons that God has given us to fight. Not wanting to not willing to sing a song of victory. Some of you, we need to sing the song of victory, not because of what God has done, although that gets us there.
But we’re singing a song of victory by faith. We’re like, I know you’re a God of victory. I know you’re the God of the army. I know that you can work. I’ve seen you before. I’ve seen it in my friend. I’ve seen it in my neighbor. Lord, I’m singing this because I want to see it in my own life. And the Lord will meet you there. Don’t give in. Don’t just collapse. Don’t just turn around. Don’t quit, don’t compromise. Don’t run away. Don’t wander away. But stand and fight church. Fight together in the spiritual realm. The Bible says in first Timothy chapter six verse 12, fight the good fight of faith and lay hold of eternal life at any time. And every time you decide to take a stand for Jesus, just expect an all out assault upon your life. It goes with the territory. It goes to the place where you need to look to the Lord continually. Every spiritual warfare. Heavy spiritual attacks are signs that you’re on the right track.
Now, if you were a sideline Christian dabbling in religious things, not really interested in making progress, then that’s right. Where the devil wants you. That’s right. Where he desires you. A Christian in name only. In word only. But once you take a strong stand to obey, he’ll unleash a full frontal assault upon your life. And on each side. And from behind. I want to show you this. We’ll get to Exodus in a moment. Would you turn over to Isaiah 54 with me? Isaiah 54. I want you to mark this. It’s one of those passages we mentioned quite frequently, but I want you to memorize it. I want you to see it in your Bible. I want you to mark it. If you’re using your iPad or your phone. I want you to screenshot it, put it right on your home page. Isaiah chapter 54, verse 17. Listen, this is so valuable. It’s so important. It’s given. It’s laid out for us later on in Ephesians.
But listen, it says, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. And every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me, says the Lord. Isn’t that just enough to sing from that one verse? No weapon formed against you will prosper. God will accomplish his work and finish it in your life, no matter what it looks like, no matter how trapped you feel, no matter how how the circumstances look. Listen. If you’re paying attention to circumstances, you’re only getting half the story. If that you may not even be getting half the story. You’re just getting what’s in front of you. Well, you you don’t understand. This has happened to me. This has happened to me. This has happened to me. This is happening. Yeah, but that’s not the whole story. Here’s the whole story. What God has started in you. He will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. That’s the whole story that Jesus on the cross said, it is finished.
It’s finished. You can trust him. No weapon formed. I know it doesn’t feel that way. It does feel sometimes that the weapons are prospering. Read the Psalms. David was like living that out all the time. Why are they doing this and why are they doing this? And what’s happening? Why are you so discouraged? Soul? What’s wrong with you? What’s happening? Look at all my enemies. But God. But God, it’s even an area where singing helps your emotions. Did you know that singing can help your emotions when you just begin to obey God and lift up your voice in song? Or if you don’t want to lift it up in song, you can hum it, you can whistle it. You can give a joyful noise to the Lord. But church, think of the goodness of God and respond with a song in your heart. That’s where the children of Israel are here in Exodus 15. There’s a song in their heart, just like us now. They too had to move on.
Life isn’t always a song. It’s not always a song, I should say. It doesn’t last forever. Songs come to an end. And then we got to move on. And that’s where the children of Israel are. Here. The song came to an end and then they had to move on. Notice with me. Exodus 15, verse 22. So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of. Sure. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they had come to Mara. They could not drink the waters of Mara, for they were. What is your Bible say? Bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Mara. Four times. God wants us to understand the significance of this word. Mara. Three times in bitter wants. He wants us to understand that bitterness comes to us all. And here they are three days later, and they come to waters and their thirsty hot desert. They went from that time of rejoicing out into the wilderness.
The wilderness is a place of preparation. Did you know that the wilderness is often a place of preparation? It’s a place of battle in the spiritual realm. When Jesus went on into the wilderness, the devil met him there. But the wilderness becomes a place of victory because the devil had to leave, because the Word of God was spoken to him, and the truth prevailed. But the wilderness is not a place we like to be in. It gets. We get to the place where we’re out in the wilderness in life, and we get thirsty and we come to water, and we’re expecting it to give us what we want. And we only come to find out that the waters were bitter. And here at the waters of Mara, I want you to notice that three days is all it took. And it may not be three days for you. It could be three hours. It could be three minutes. But after just three days, it didn’t take very long. Three days. They’ve forgotten the faithfulness of God.
They’ve forgotten the goodness of God. They’ve forgotten the victory of God, and they’ve forgotten that God is leading them. They forgot that God is leading them. And one of the things they needed to understand with the waters here is that God led them. Tomorrow. God led them here. He led them to this place of bitterness. But really, it’s not merely a place of bitterness. It’s a God led them to a place of faith. This was a point of decision, and it helps me a lot to remember when I do remember that the Lord allows difficulties in my life to bring me to a place of decision. Will I trust and obey and abide and rest, or will I freak out and be all upset and get into the flesh? And on and on the list goes? Will I be in the spirit or will I be in the flesh? And one of the obstacles that this young nation now is facing after dealing with fear. And that’s where they were at the Red sea, dealing with fear, the very next temptation in their life was bitterness, fear and bitterness.
They go together and as they take the waters in, it says, when they came to morrow they couldn’t drink it, because the waters were bitter. Verse 23. So they named it bitter so quickly they forgot the power of God. And you know what I have to say? And I want to speak to some of you today as well, where everything seemed to be bitter to this former slave nation. Because of their heritage, they have been generationally raised as slaves. They’ve been embittered by life. I’m certain some of you have been embittered by life. It hasn’t been an easy life thus far. And so things are bitter to you. There’s just a lack of sweetness. It can be very hard to exercise faith when everything seems bitter. Not only when the water is bitter. This is very clear. But even when the water is just a little got a little bad taste to it, it tastes bitter to you because of the difficulty of your life. The Israelites were bitter here not only because of the water, but they brought it with them.
The Bible says that we’re new creations in Christ. The old things have been passed away. All things become new. And that’s great from the spiritual realm. There are technical theological words to describe our salvation. One of them is justification, where immediately you’re changed and born again. But then the process from justification until you meet Jesus face to face, there’s a Bible word for that. It’s called sanctification and part of the process of being conformed into the image of Christ. The sanctification process is dealing with all the baggage that you brought with you from your unbelieving days, or your unbelieving family, or the generations of difficulty. Now, you know, some churches would look at that and go, oh, you know, that’s a generational curse. That’s no, it’s not a generational curse. Any curse that ever in your life was broken on the cross of Jesus Christ. You are not powerless to deal with these generational things. You just need to understand them and confess them to the Lord. Just like man, I’m just so bitter.
I’m just like my mom. And it’s just the generational curse on me. No, no, no, you picked up some bad habits in the home that you grew up in, and they became a part of how you responded to things. And so now God is showing you a new way. He’s saying you’re not bound by the generations before you. You’re not bound by your old bad habits. You’re not bound by your fleshly. You know the the way that you lean into things and you’re not bound by that anger. You’re not bound by that addiction. You are free in Christ. But God brings you to these places so you can choose by faith to follow him, that you can choose by faith to see his power. They had this glorious deliverance. Yes, they had this beautiful personally written song by Moses. Yes, they’ve been set free. Yes, God has provided to offer them up to this day, even the three days it took to get to the waters of Mara. But now that they’re at the waters of Mara and the bitter waters remind them of their bitter past, and it just swallows them up.
Every Christian, every one of us has a Mara or 2 or 3 in our lives. It’s part of our fallen world. A time or a season of bitterness and anguish that becomes a part of our story. Paul would say in Second Corinthians four verse eight. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We’re perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Struck down but not destroyed. Always carrying about in the body. The dying of the Lord Jesus. That the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. New believers especially. But all believers need to understand that Mora comes times of testing, times of pressing, times of pounding. This initial excitement. But real life settles in. Let’s sing a song and then you know as well as I do out those doors, or even in these doors, real life is upon us. It’s real life. And as a church, we need to understand that we live in a real world with real people with real brokenness that requires a real seriousness and submission on our part to the Lord.
Amen. It’s God could have easily brought them to waters that were pure, but he brought them to the waters of Marah. He led them there. Why? So they could see the bitterness that was in them. Because if you read ahead, we will in just a few minutes. God has a solution for bitterness and anger. God has a healing available to those of you holding on to emotions and things that have been tearing you down. God has a way where there is no way. That’s the whole testimony of the rest of your life. You see, the older you and I get in following Christ, we come to realize that every situation is a way that’s outside of our power and outside of our strength. We sit down and we pray and we say, Oh God, get me out of this! Oh, God! Get me out of this! Oh, God, get me out of this! And then he does. And what is our testimony? Well, you know, I was praying, brother.
Okay? You were praying? Yeah, I was praying. And now, look, I was in a difficult spot, and I prayed, and I’m not in a difficult spot anymore. Wouldn’t it be better to say, man, oh, man, I was in such a difficult spot and I’m so grateful God heard my prayers instead of, oh, you know, I prayed. I know it’s the right thing to do. It’s good. It’s like, you know, how did you make it through the day? Well, you know, I was breathing all day. Well, yeah, man, like breathing, of course. Like God knew how important breathing was for you. You don’t even control it, you know? How. How did you go? How was your day at work today? Man, my day was great because my heart was beating all day. All right, bro, I guess that’s great. You had a beating heart all day. So did all of us. But it was the God who holds your life in his hands and sustains your very life that got you through today.
God brings us to these bitter waters to reveal bitterness that’s in us. Notice. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 12. It wasn’t too long ago as a church that we studied these very scriptures, but I want to remind you what happens at the waters of Marah and the warning that comes to us. Notice with me in chapter 12, in Hebrews verse 14, when you get there, Hebrews 12, in verse 14, it’s a truth you want to hold on to. I believe the author, to the Hebrews is Paul, as he’s writing to these believers in a very embittered condition themselves. Many thousands of years later, you have a group of God followers still dealing with bitterness. Fast forward from Hebrews. Another 2000 years. We’ve got another group of Christians today on the earth dealing with bitterness. It is a part of living in the fallen world, a part of dealing with sin, the sin of others, and also our own sin. And notice what he says, verse 14. Pursue peace with all men, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord looking diligently, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up may cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.
One thing this tells us real quick here, coming back to the embittered ness of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt. Notice that bitterness has a root. It goes down deep. It’s deeper than what’s seen in the moment. Bitterness has a root in our lives. And be careful with it. Pursue peace, he says. Set your life out and your course of your life to please God. Don’t fall short of the grace of God, he says. He says in verse, as you keep reading, they’re already turned back. But let me get back to Hebrews with you. He says one more thing there that is very important, because it brings about the significance of where you are when you’re at the point of bitterness. He says in verse 16, lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of bread or food sold his birthright. So three significant things here. Be careful you don’t fall short of the grace of God. Be careful that a root of bitterness doesn’t spring up, that the root of bitterness doesn’t spring up.
And then thirdly, watch out for sexual sin, fornication, profane ness, anything related to misusing your body in the realm of sex. And because the children of Israel are at Mara, I just want to focus on the root of bitterness for this evening. Just being careful of that bitterness lot It’s so common among us, but not often admitted. As I’ve shared with you before, bitterness is a lot like bad breath. Everyone around you knows you have it but you, and you won’t admit it when you’re told. Marie has a very nice way of sharing with me that I might need a little bit of improvement in my breath, and without a word, she just hands me a piece of gum with a big smile and I say, are you? And she won’t even answer because she’s looking out for me. If somebody comes to share with you that they see a temperament about you or something, that was because they’re looking out for you and maybe they come full front. You know, it’s like, hey man, bro, you’re just bitter.
And you just know right away by your response whether you’re open to the work of the Holy Spirit, the more defensive you are, the possibility that that’s a very accurate statement. Bitterness. This root of bitterness. Speaks of a life that is offensive to God. I’m not obnoxious to men. The Bible says a defilement to others, bitterness toward God, defilement toward one another. It ruins you and everyone around you. Be careful. And you know, bitterness does come from a lot of pain. That’s the root. We’ve been so wounded, some by the homes we were raised in, some by the circumstances, some by the communities that we live in, some by, you know, there’s so much about our life we didn’t get to choose. And that’s the place that God placed us in the world. But the way the world acts, the way that sin corrupts, it gives us it just gives a lot of pain. Some of it’s self-imposed, a lot of suffering, a lot of hurt, a lot of woundedness.
A lot of handling bitterness incorrectly. Making it worse and worse. And it takes an experience. It takes an experience to flush it out like the children of Israel. It took this experience to flush it out because, look, it was in them, didn’t they? Just didn’t they just sing? Didn’t they just sing the song of Moses? Then they just follow Miriam. Didn’t they just rejoice? And three days later it says in verse 24, back in Exodus, and the people murmured against Moses, what shall we drink? James talked about, you know, blessing and cursing coming from the same mouth. That ought not to be so. And here they are. They’re upset with Moses. The man that God has used in their lives greatly. But it’s actually not even about Moses, is it? It’s about the God of Moses. Three days. Three days? Why? Because it was in them. So often we blame the circumstances for all our bad behavior when it’s not the circumstances at all. It’s you.
It’s me. The circumstances reveal. They don’t create, they reveal. I think of the coffee cup. I’ll never forget this. This was back when I was working. I mean, all it really does, all it really takes is one time for this to happen. And it won’t happen again. But I left a coffee cup on my desk for who knows how long. I have no idea. But I would always bring a new one. And another one. I never take it back to the kitchen for whatever reason. And one day on my desk, I brought another coffee cup and I handed it down and clickety, clickety click. I’m working. I get distracted and I pick up the wrong coffee cup, and I began to drink it in the worst nasty green stuff. I mean, I don’t know how long it was there, but it was all my fault. Spit over all the reports I was doing and on my keyboard. It was nasty. Nasty. You see, there was something already in the cup.
When I went to pick it up and turn it over to my lips and bring it, and it was already there. My hand, my desk, my attempt to drink it didn’t create the green things that were alive and talking to me in there. It was already in there. Trials are like that. You come to the waters of Mara and you blame Mara. You blame the leaders. You blame. And who knows? You get into the place where. No, it can’t be me. It’s this person and that person. You completely factor out the sovereignty of God in your life. Oh, I can’t believe I lost my job. Obviously, God did not want you to have that job. And whether you see it now or you see it later, you will see God’s provision. Without that job, you will see God’s provision. He obviously didn’t want you. There are the circumstances were hard and difficult, and I’m sorry for that. But life is hard and difficult, isn’t it? And God had brought us to a place of what? Faith.
A place of decision. And all of our response. Is a revelation of God picking up that cup and bringing it close to himself. And he doesn’t need to know what’s in it. We do. And that’s the ongoing work of faith and sanctification in our lives. I always think of an illustration, not that it’s my own, but it fits this truth very well. Where you’re out in the garage with the hammer and you’re pounding a nail and you slam your thumb in every wicked, vile f word, f bomb cuss word comes out of your mouth and your neighbor comes. You okay? You okay? I never heard you cuss like that before, pastor. You know, it’s like. It’s like, oh, you don’t understand. You know? You don’t understand. I would have never said those words if I didn’t hit my thumb. Oh, no no no, no, the pain in your thumb just brought out What was in you brought your neighbor over to humble you, and he brought you to the waters of Mara, the waters of Mara.
Now, I did use pastor as that illustration, but that was not me pastor. So you know. Anyone that knows me knows that I would have to borrow Marie’s hammer because I don’t own one. They’re all hers. The waters of mine are hard. Of course we’d want to avoid them. Clean water. Living water. Right. Jesus would later say in John seven. Living water gushing out of us from the innermost being. That’s our desire. But Mara comes. It’s a point of decision. They murmur against Moses and Moses, verse 25. He cries out to the Lord. And the Lord showed him a tree. And when he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. And he made it a statue in an ordinance for them. And there he tested them and said, if you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, give ear to his commandments, and give all, keep all his statutes. I’ll put none of the diseases on you for which I have brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.
Jehovah Rapha, one of the revelations of God his name. And then they came to Elam, where there were 12 wells of water, 70 palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters. Doesn’t take much Bible students of what this tree represents. The Bible says that Jesus himself died on a tree. The cross. What’s the healing power of God in the difficulty you’re facing right now? You got to get back to the cross. Get back to the cross. Get your eyes back there. Get your body back there. Get your life back there. Go back to the cross. You say I’ve been betrayed. And have you been betrayed? Get back to the cross. How much more was he betrayed? You’ve been hurt, pastor. I’ve been hurt so bad. You’ve been hurt deeply. How much? How much more did Jesus suffer and hurt for us? And yet he still forgave. But I’m disappointed. You don’t understand how disappointed I am and what my kids have done. And you don’t understand.
It’s not. It’s so easy, as you say. Well, how much more was Jesus disappointed when his disciples and his best friends fled and he went to the cross alone? His own beloved disciple, Peter, denied him and another betrayed him. It’s the cross church. It’s the cross. The cross will keep you safe. It’s the cross. He is my only hope at the bitter waters of Mara. And I want to encourage you to bring your pool of bitterness to the cross and get your perspective realigned, and keep it aligned. Humble yourself and say, Lord, wash me and cleanse me and heal me, and forgive me and set me free. Listen, if someone has hurt you deeply, forgive them. If someone continues to hurt you deeply, continue to forgive them until you forgive them. They have power over you. But when you forgive, you find yourself in a place of being under the power of God, and you just trust him with it. Because understand this root is often in bitterness, not exclusively, but often the root is unforgiveness.
Even as much as we’ve been mentioning the pick of the month, the book of the month, where you have John the Baptist, they’re offended at his current circumstances and just wanting confirmation that Jesus is the Messiah he needs to release. He needs to release himself by trusting in Jesus, even as we have the ability to release ourselves by forgiving one another. Because you know the phrase, I’m sure you’ve heard it hurting people. Hurt people. Have you heard that before? Is it true? Let me suggest something else. Healed people bring healing to others. Healed people. That’s the next step. I say, has anyone been hurt today? Yes, we’ve all been hurt. I’m being hurt right now, pastor. Yeah, but you’re also being healed right now as you look to the cross. You’re walking in healing. Jehovah Rapha is ministering to you from the inside out. Healed people help people to heal. Forgiven people forgive, and forgiveness brings great freedom. It brings total freedom. You walk in freedom when you release people from the debt that they owe you.
Before you leave today, some of you need to come up to the stage and pray that God would give you strength. Some of you need to come to the stage and on either side in the baskets are pamphlets on forgiveness, and you need to take it and read it and pray and obey, just like he says here. If you diligently heed the voice of God, and you do what’s right in his sight, and give ears to his commandments and keep his statutes, you will be healed. You will be healed. This is powerful. Here you’ll receive the healing of God. Really, what you’ll receive is the enjoyment of healing because healings already yours. By faith in Christ you begin to enjoy it. You won’t give power to those that are hurting you. You’ll give them to the Lord. You’re worn out and you’re tired. You can do this. You’re worn out and tired. You can walk in this. You can move from the waters of Marah to the waters of victory. I don’t want you to miss this.
And we’re going to head out here. But you’ve got this scenario. It’s a real life scenario. We’re learning principles and truths from it for our own lives here in the 21st century. But this is like, this is real deal. This is hard. This is difficult. They really are at a place where there are three days and there’s they’re upset, they’re parched. The waters are nasty, they’re poisoned, they’re bitter. This is real. But they don’t know that. Verse 27 is up ahead. They don’t know. See, this is what happens with us. We don’t know that Elam is up ahead. We want to eat them without tomorrow. That’s what we want. We want this place where there’s wells of water. We want this place where there’s 70 palm trees. We want this place where we can camp by the waters, but we don’t want Mara. And the Bible tells us today. You want Elam. You got to go through Mara. You want refreshment? You want these wells and the shade of the palm trees.
You’ve got to deal with your Mara. You want to live in a greater realm of victory today. You got to deal with your bitterness. Church. Your ineffective as a bitter woman and a bitter man. God is ready to heal you. You just go to the cross. It’s already yours Or as we know, a few people, they live their whole life bitter. Never deal with it. They only get more bitter and more bitter. And what happens? You start to avoid them. You don’t want to be around them anymore. You don’t want to be defiled. You don’t want to deal with the drama. You don’t want to. And people start to. And then what happens to a bitter person when people stop going around them? They get more bitter and then they go, it’s your fault, and it’s your fault. Your bones, your bones, your fault. And they die. A very bitter woman, very bitter man. It doesn’t have to be you. Are you listening to me today? It doesn’t have to be me.
It doesn’t have to be you. I could sit and I could write, maybe even write a book. Maybe a few blog posts explaining to you why I choose to be so bitter. Because this is going on. This is going on. This happened to me. This happened to me. But then I’d be wasting my life as a messenger of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because every time I write that blog post and I hit post, the Lord says, But I’ve provided healing for you. Ed are bitter water. I can’t believe a pastor you gave me. You know my pastor is in heaven now, so like pastor you gave me, if you would just give me a better pastor, that’s what they’re saying here. Just give me a better Moses. Just give me a better dad. I’d be different if you were to give me a better mom, I’d be different. Give me a better upbringing. I’d be different. And that may be true, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.
What we can do about it now is forgive and get on to Elam. It’s waiting for you. The palm trees, the shade. More water than you can possibly ever want and use the rest of your life. I’m sorry bitterness has come to you. I’m sorry. Bitterness has come to me. I didn’t know bitterness in its depth until after my son passed away. Oh, and then I began to know bitterness. I began to know bitterness by all the circumstances and all that. I began to know it very deeply. Understand the root of it. Not to the degree like I fully understand it, but I know of which I speak here. Not even thinking because of my emotions and my feelings, that ellam 12 wells of water. How could 12 wells of water come from this? How could I ever enjoy the shade? I didn’t think the sun would come up some days. It certainly didn’t come up in my heart. My mind. But the Lord is so gracious to be patient with you.
To lead you and guide you. To send men and women into your life. To minister to you. To provide for you the glimpses of the cross. To remind you of his goodness. To throw a few songs in there. You know, it was after my son passed away that God began to give us a new song every year, kind of like an anthem. Sometimes I felt like it was for the whole church. So we were ringing. It really was Pastor Ian that would introduce a song and that’s it. I don’t know where he’s finding these things. Why can’t I find him? Why he goes, only he find. Now I want to find these songs. But God put him in my life. Put them in our life. Now we have Pastor Sean and other. They’ll drop songs into you. You’ll never forget them. The rest of they’ll be the anthem of your life. During this season, there will be the song that, you know, maybe two years later you’re here and you go, oh, I remember I’m not there anymore.
That was such a great song. Got me through such a dark time. It’s so good. It doesn’t hit quite the same now. Why? Because he moved on from Mara. It’s a great song, but it’s not hidden so deep anymore because the root of bitterness is not so deep, or the root of fear is not so deep, or the root of anguish is not so deep, whatever it may be. Listen, God, he has for you. Let me show you. Turn over to John, chapter seven. God has for you the deliverance. Not that little drops of marrow might come, you know. It’s like I thought I left Mar a long time ago. No, you got Mara still following you. Kind of like. What’s that character in Snoopy that walked around in the cloud, always following him. All dirty pig pen. You know how you’re walking around and he’s like, man, I left that behind. But you took it with you too, man. It’s like I took a shower.
I know, and your clothes are still dirty, like you took it with you. But you know, it’s not the waters of Mara. It’s just the reminder of the waters of Mara. It’s not the place anymore. Because you moved on. You moved on, or you move forward. You’re not at the waters of Mar anymore. You’re. You have victory. But notice what Jesus says. Here’s the solution, and we’ll close. I love this passage because I always envision standing on the southern steps of the temple with the wall behind us, and I can’t wait till we go looking down the hill into the old city of Jerusalem. Everybody that goes to Israel will be able to see this. It’s one of my favorite stops. It’s just a wall and steps, but would often be the steps that Jesus and his disciples would use to go up into the Temple Mount, standing there down the Pool of Siloam on the way to the bottom. And I have everyone open the Bible here, and we read this passage.
It says, on the last day, in that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the spirit whom those believing in him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Amen. Isn’t that what you want in your depths of your heart? It’s interesting, and I’ll leave this here. You know, when you have a bitter episode in your life or a bitter season in your life and God heals you of it and move on. I just want you to know a lot of people that are back in that season, they aren’t healed and haven’t moved on. And because of that, you may find yourself intersecting with them at other times, and they still want you to be in the waters. Amara. They still desire for you, and that’s how they see you, and that’s how they treat you.
Like you’re still with the waters, but you’re gone. It’s they that have chosen to stay at the water’s Amara, not you. And so, by faith, you claim the work of God in your life. Then they may come into your life, you know, 20 years later. Oh, you’re still bitter, bro. I left the waters of Mar a long time ago. Well, I just remember. Yeah, but don’t take me back 20 years because I’ve made progress. The Lord has done great things. Let me tell you about what the Lord has done. No, no, I won’t tell you because we got to go backwards. Don’t let anyone take you back to the waters tomorrow when God has delivered you. No one, no one can take you back unless you choose to go with them. And if you ever want to rehearse the waters of Mara, rehearse it in such a way where you go, I remember bitterness. I was remembering the healing of bitterness sitting in the shade. And l’m drinking my little glass of water with an unending well of God’s freshness in my life.
You know, you have the cross church. Look to the Lord. He heals. Amen. Yeah. Lord, we thank you and so are grateful. God, that you have done the work in our lives, that you have healed us, that you are with us and among us. And I pray, God, that you would show us your will and your way for our lives, in Jesus name. Amen.
Pastor Ed Taylor, Bible study, worship, faith, healing of bitterness, Exodus chapter 15, Calvary Church, Aurora Colorado, song of Moses, spiritual growth, God’s faithfulness, deliverance from Egypt, worshiping God, bitterness, wilderness experience, Isaiah 54:17, spiritual warfare, Christian faith, forgiveness, healing journey, roots of bitterness, trials and challenges, Holy Spirit, living water, transformation, gratitude, prayer, God’s grace, personal testimony, emotional healing, overcoming struggles, faith over bitterness, worship through song, community, biblical teachings, encouragement, restoration, peace, victory in Christ.
