Sermon Central
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You Don't Have To Grumble - There's Hope For The Weary! Series
Contributed by Rick Shockley on Nov 16, 2001 (message contributor)
Summary: There’s hope in the midst of the daily challenges of life. Even when we are weary and seem to lose hope, God provides and sustains us with His presence and promises.
Take Heart! #6
THERE’S HOPE FOR THE WEARY!
Matthew 11:28; Exodus 15:1-7; 22 – 16:1
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:
"I will sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider
he has hurled into the sea.
[2] The Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
[3] The Lord is a warrior;
the Lord is his name.
[4] Pharaoh’s chariots and his army
he has hurled into the sea.
The best of Pharaoh’s officers
are drowned in the Red Sea.
[5] The deep waters have covered them;
they sank to the depths like a stone.
[6] "Your right hand, O Lord,
was majestic in power.
Your right hand, O Lord,
shattered the enemy.
[7] In the greatness of your majesty
you threw down those who opposed you.
You unleashed your burning anger;
it consumed them like stubble.
Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. [23] When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) [24] So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?"
[25] Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the Lord made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. [26] He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you."
[27] Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.
The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.
He lived from 1865 to 1936. He was English, yet born in Bombay, India. He wrote poetry and is the author of books like Captain Courageous, How the Leopard Got His Spots, and The Jungle Books. Who was this man? Rudyard Kipling.
Kipling’s writings not only made him famous but also brought him a fortune. A newspaper reporter came up to him once and said, "Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over one hundred dollars a word.”
The reporter reached into his pocket and pulled out a one hundred-dollar bill and gave it to Kipling and said, “Here’s a one hundred dollar bill, Mr. Kipling. Now you give me one of your hundred dollar words.”
Rudyard Kipling looked at the money, put it in his pocket and said, "Thanks!"
Well, the word "thanks" is certainly a one hundred dollar word. In fact, I would say it is more like a million-dollar word. It’s a small word but it has a powerful meaning. It might only have 6 letters but it gets across a message that few other words are capable of achieving.
When that little word is missing, we feel it deeply. You know what it’s like when someone doesn’t say "thanks" – you feel hurt, used, ignored, and taken for granted and you wonder why you bothered to do something for the person in the first place.
Saying thanks in the good times doesn’t seem so difficult, does it? Just ask the children of Israel.
I love the story of the grumbling motorist. "What am I supposed to do with this?" grumbled the motorist, as the police clerk handed him a receipt for his traffic ticket.
"Keep it," the clerk said, "When you get four of them, you get a bicycle."
The children of Israel had just gotten a divine ticket out of Egypt. If you look at Exodus 15, you will find it to be a most unusual chapter. It begins with the song of Moses and ends with the sigh of the murmurers.
The children of Israel had just been delivered from Pharaoh. They were now marching towards the Promised Land. You would think that they had the wind in their sails and nothing would detract them. But that is not the case. How is it that they could come from such a miraculous deliverance and yet not trust God and murmur?
