Hello I Love You Let Me Tell You My Name
Jehovah Rophe – The God Who Heals – Ex. 15
Insert: Embarrassing Moments
Trans: We’ve all had embarrassing moments, but today we find the nation of Israel red-faced b/c of their response to the greatness of God.
Note: Isn’t funny in a sad kind of way how our lack of faith and poor attitude can reveal the quality of who we are and what we really believe. Well… it can. How you act and react to a given situation reveals much about who you are and whose you are.
Trans: Two weeks ago we talked about how God gives us test to bring out our best. He also gives us test to expose the truth of who we are and what we really believe.
Poem: There once was an oyster whose story I tell, Who found a grain of sand had got under his shell; Just one little grain, but it gave him much pain, For oysters have feelings although they’re so plain. Now, did he berate the working of Fate, Which had led him to such a deplorable state? Did he curse out the Government, or call for an election? No; as he lay on the shelf, he said to himself, "If I cannot remove it, I’ll try to improve it." So the years rolled by as the years always do, And he came to his ultimate destiny – which of course if clam stew. And this small grain of sand which had bothered him so, Was a beautiful pearl, all richly aglow. Now this tale has a moral – for isn’t it grand What an oyster can do with a morsel of sand; What couldn’t we do if we’d only begin With all of the things that get under our skin.
Intro: We introduced the truth that God gives us test to humble and mature us – to bring us under His authority and care. God is looking to take a grain of sand and use it to turn us into a pearl for His glory. In looking at today’s name for God (Jehovah Rophe), we find God at work again to test us to prove Himself as the One who heals.
Name: Rophe – occurs 60x in the O.T., – means to restore, to heal, or to cure. God is able to meet us at the point of our human needs and provide complete healing. It refers to physical healing, but can refer to emotional and spiritual healing.
Text: Exodus 15:22-27 (God intros himself as healer in test where there is no healing)
Setting: Israel has just crossed over the Red Sea – they are out of Egypt and in pursuit of a land of promise. After witnessing the greatest miracle known to mankind – they gathered together and worshipped God. They’d been redeemed – rescued from the bondage of Egypt. You’d think that life would be a bed of roses, but you’d be wrong. After a great victory the children of Israel rejoiced and then set out on a (3) day journey into the wilderness where they literally hit the wall. But there is much significance in the journey.
I A Place of DELIVERANCE
Note: As previously mentioned, the Israelites had just experienced a great victory over their enemy and had personally experienced the salvation of God. They were overjoyed and overwhelmed by the God of their forefathers and praised Him.
Verse: Exodus 15:1-7, 13
Note: The Israelites had been delivered miraculously by the hand of God while simultaneously their enemy was conquered. They were set free from the tyranny of Egypt w/ no threat of their return.
Truth: Whether in salvation or in everyday life, God will provide a means to deliver His people from the enemy.
Verse: No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. But when you’re tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. 1 Cr. 10:13
Greater is He that is w/in me than He that is in the world. 1 Jn. 4:4
Verse: In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rm. 8:37-39
Note: Our God Delivers – He sees His people through and is faithful to His promises. He delivers us from evil, sin, and self into an eternal relationship w/ Him.
II A Place of DRYNESS
Trans: While our God is a God of deliverance, He’s also a God who longs to bring us to wholeness and health. As His people begin the journey to promise, God sometimes has to take them on a detour to turn them from sand to pearls.
Insert: God has to take us to a place of dryness to cause us to thirst for Him alone. Just like w/ Israel, He has to bring us to the place where the cisterns of this world are no longer available so that we’re forced to search for the fountain of the living God.
Insert: God isn’t interested in delivering us to allow us to live independent of Him and focused on ourselves – He’s constantly putting us to test to force us to depend on Him and to have a proper perspective of life. Thus, sometimes after great victories, God has to take us into the desert of dryness and disappointment to humble us, mature us, and improve us.
Quote: God gives test to bring out our best.
Note: He took the Israelite to the Desert of Shur (wall) and they hit the wall. (3) days into the journey they find themselves out of water w/ no hope in sight. Now having just experience the greatest miracle ever, what do you think they did?
Insert: They GRUMBLED! They moaned, groaned, and complained. They had left the land of plenty – plenty of water, food, and pain – but now that their circumstances had turned into test, they longed for Egypt.
Note: It’s amazing how quickly people move from the mountain top to the desert. They go from having an attitude that said, “Isn’t God lucky to have someone like me?” to “why me – what have I done to deserve this?” And of course both are wrong.
Note: The truth is God allows desert experiences to drive us towards Him – not away from Him. He uses times of dryness to expose the condition of our hearts and to bring us to a place where we will thirst only for Him. He uses dry times to teach us that we need His healing hand to watch over and protect us.
Insert: Consequently, God takes us into the desert to put on the squeeze. O. Chambers says God has to squeeze us if we are ever to become wine, b/c you can’t drink grapes. Yet if we are hard, sometimes we shoot off like a marble. The desert is to soften us so that our lives can become useful to God.
Point: It’s amazing how carnal and lost people often run to bondage in the face of faith challenges. Carnal Christians and lost people would rather live in misery than walk in faith. They see giant problems instead of giant victories.
Insert: David and Goliath – everyone but David saw a giant problem – David saw a giant God and a giant victory.
Note: Joshua/Caleb – when they entered the promise land to spy out the land promised by God, they saw giant victories, while the other spies saw giant problems.
Insert: Why do we grumble? B/c we look at life from man’s point of view instead of by God’s perspective. We look at things based on how they’re going to affect me.
Story: Just yesterday I heard a story about a pastor who started receiving grief b/c the church was baptizing too many people and the water bill had exceeded the budget. You laugh, but the church is filled w/ well-meaning (possibly saved) people who just don’t get it. They think the church should revolve around them – they think their opinions matters to God and to godly people – it doesn’t!
Note: God isn’t concerned about what you think; He’s concerned about whether you are walking in obedience w/ His will and word. He’s concerned only that we know Him and have submitted our lives to Him.
When we’re more concerned w/ ME, than w/ His kingdom – we often begin to grumble. Grumblers begin w/ talking in secret and then they attack God’s leaders in authority over them. They rebel against God by attacking God’s appointed and anointed leader.
Note: Listen, a grumbling spirit is the sign of a discontent and carnal life. It‘s a sign of a life that doesn’t think that God knows what He doing. But God isn’t concerned about how right you might think yourself to be b/c to grumble is to fumble the faith that’s set you free. The desert reveals the truth attitude of the heart.
III A Place of DISSAPPOINTMENT
Note: There is a second place God has to take us if He going to be released to be our God – He has to take us to disappointment to teach us to trust in Him alone.
Insert: After the people began to grumble they found a well at Marah (Bitter), but could not drink the water. Often we tend to look for all of the available resources to see if they can quench our thirst, but they cannot.
Note: It’s amazing how quickly people turn from God instead of to Him in times of bitter disappointment. But disappointment isn’t an opportunity to test our ability to overcome, but a time to test the dependability of God.
Quote: Remember – Disappointments are God’s appointments.
Insert: How you respond to times of dryness or disappointment reveals the condition of your heart. You are either a Job or an Israelite. Either you are humble or you grumble. Either you trust or you fuss.
When God allowed Job to hit the wall, Job determined it’s better to trust God whereas the Israelites thought it better to trust in man and self.
Trans: But let me assure you, until you have hit the wall of dryness or disappointment you can never learn dependence – and it dependence you find wholeness.
Note: Dryness and disappointment have this unique ability to strip away the fat and expose the truth. They have the ability to expose the source of our strength.
Trans: We have to go through the desert of dryness and the well of disappointment in order to bring us to dependence.
IV A Place of DEPENDENCE
Note: Ultimately, God is concerned w/ one thing – am I connected to Him alone. Does my faith work b/c I’m plugged into the source?
Insert: Think about a lamp. You can have a working lamp w/ a good light bulb, but if you’re not plugged into the outlet, then your light will never shine. Until a believer is plugged into God, their faith will not work in every day life.
Note: I watch Christian’s daily attempt to live the Christian life in the flesh and calamity abounds around them. They are so caught up on keeping the rules or just surviving they do not know what it means to thrive. Jehovah Rophe is about this issue.
Trans: So what does all of this have to do w/ Jehovah Rophe – the God who heals?
Trans: This is an odd passage for God to reveal Himself as Jehovah Rophe – b/c no one is being healed. Which raises the question – what is God trying to tell us?
• God is saying first that He is concerned w/ wholeness over healing.
• God is concerned w/ spiritual healing over earthly comfort.
• God is explaining that healing is preventative as well as experiential.
• God is explaining the healing is conditional. If you, then I will…
1) If you listen carefully to God’s voice and do what is right in His eyes.
2) If you pay attention to God’s Word and obey it… then…
Note: If you want health and wholeness begin moving towards dependence.
