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GPS: Trust God in the Bitter Places
June 23, 2026 · 34 min
Pastor John Mark walks through Exodus 15 and reveals how bitterness becomes a poison, a prison, and a prism distorting everything we see. Through Moses' simple act of obedience—throwing a piece of wood into bitter water—discover how God transforms your hardest seasons. Your Elim, with its twelve springs, is closer than you think.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
June 23, 2026 · 34 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
Pastor John Mark walks through Exodus 15 and reveals how bitterness becomes a poison, a prison, and a prism distorting everything we see. Through Moses' simple act of obedience—throwing a piece of wood into bitter water—discover how God transforms your hardest seasons. Your Elim, with its twelve springs, is closer than you think. ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor John Mark walks through Exodus 15 and reveals how bitterness becomes a poison, a prison, and a prism distorting everything we see. Through Moses' simple act of obedience—throwing a piece of wood into bitter water—discover how God transforms your hardest seasons. Your Elim, with its twelve springs, is closer than you think.
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In this video 0:00 Honoring Fathers and Trusting God's GPS7:00 Bitter Waters After Victory14:00 The Poison, Prison, and Prism of Bitterness21:00 Overcoming Bitterness God's Way33:00 From Marah to Elim: Keep Moving Forward
Honoring Fathers and Trusting God's GPS 0:00 Well good morning church family. Are you glad you're in God's house today? Amen, so am I. Welcome to you and those of you who are joining us online. We have been in the middle of a series, entitled GPS,0:12 God's powerful story in your life and in my life. I'm wearing, I'm actually sporting a shirt today. If you want 1, get 1. Walk around and wear it. But we also know that this is a special day for dads. We do0:23 this every Mother's Day, but we want to do this for Father's Day. If you are a dad in the room, stand up, alright? And if you're online, just give us a thumbs up. Give all these dads a hand, just remain standing.0:37 If you haven't had bacon, hopefully you'll get your bacon. You know, as we look in God's word, dads are to be honored. Kids are to honor their father and their mother. You can remain standing if you can, but I want you0:49 to know also when we think about the culture that we live in, we talk about the cities, communities, places we work. If you look in God's word, Jesus is very clear. The Psalms are very1:01 clear. There are good men and there are evil men. Good men produce good things in godly ways. Evil men produce bad things1:13 in ungodly ways. A good man says yes where God's word says yes and no where God's word says no. An evil man, and there are many of them among us,1:25 an evil man will say no where God's word says yes and yes where God's word says no. And so what we want to be is kind of men who are truly good men. You1:37 know you hear a lot about good and evil, you know a lot of people just want men just be nice guys. I will tell you, you don't have to be a nice guy. A good man is gonna be a nice
1:48 guy. But see, if we're just nice guys, a lot of times we'll go along to get along. It'll hurt our family, it'll hurt our communities, we'll just say, I don't wanna offend anybody. So I wanna encourage him, and
2:00 we celebrate masculinity here at Cottonwood Creek. A good man is a godly man who is willing to stand for his family and stand for his city and stand for his country and I want you to be a good man. And
2:12 I believe there's probably some men out there like I used to be. Or deep seated inside of me, there's this good man, he's just hiding out. How many of you know what I'm talking about? That you you think, man I
2:24 would love to do this or I'd love to do that. My prayer is if you're 1 of those guys either in person online over the next over this next year as we study this passage and many more to come, that that good man will show
2:36 up inside you. That you are consistently and constantly saying, where God's word says yes, I'm all in. Where God's word says no, I'm all out.
2:48 Because that's the kind of men God wants us to be. God, thank you so much for fathers, thank you for men. God, thank you that as we look all the way back to the creation story, you said you created male
3:00 and female in your image and you blessed them both. God, my prayer is that today these men, these fathers, sense your blessings and your goodness in their lives. In Jesus' name we
3:12 pray, amen and amen. You may be seated there where you are. Happy Father's Day, guys. Let's man up in a Godly way this next year and be the men that God has called us to be. We've been in a
3:24 series entitled GPS, God's powerful story. And here's what we realized when we looked through the book of Exodus. We clearly see that God has been leading his people for thousands and thousands of
3:35 years. And our primary passage, before we jump into Exodus, has always been this passage here. It's Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5 and 6 and it says, Trust in the Lord
3:47 with all, everybody say all. With all your heart and lean not to your own understanding in all your ways. Submit to him and he will make your paths straight. Well, why do we
3:59 wanna do that? Why do we wanna trust God with all our heart? Why do we wanna sit, submit to God all our ways and all our ways, understand his ways not my ways? It's because God sees things that we don't
4:11 see. He's got a totally different perspective. I love what God said in Isaiah, he says, My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways. Your ways declares the Lord, as far as the heavens are above the earth, are my
4:22 ways above yours? So when you think about man, God, what are you doing here? God sees things that we don't see. God understands things that we don't understand. I can tell you as a pastor and just
4:34 as a dad and as a husband and ultimately as a son and you know, working, there are times that I show up to a decision and I really want to go this way or I
4:46 lean towards going this way, but I clearly sense that God is leading me that way. And my understanding says, well I think this way is gonna make me happier, it's gonna make me enjoy life a little more. That
4:58 seems like a hard path, God. And this is where Proverbs says, listen, trust God and lean not to your own understanding because beyond the obedience is where we find God's blessings.
5:11 See, a lot of times we don't understand God's ways until after we obey Him. And then you get on the other side of whatever it is and you look back and you go, high 5 God, I get it now.
5:23 And And so we want to be the kind of men, we want to be the kind of people that simply say yes to God because he sees things from a different perspective. He knows things we don't know and he understands what is
5:35 best for you and me. So, set the stage if you've been out a little bit. Children of Israel are in slavery. God shows up to Moses at a burning bush, says I want you to go release the people, go to
5:47 pharaoh, bring them out. Sure enough, the plagues fall over, the passover happens, those with the blood over the door of the lamb, they are passed over. The Egyptians come out and said leave tonight, leave
5:58 immediately, we're ready for y'all to be gone. They actually help them pack and give them gold. As they get on your way, children of Israel come out, they begin to march toward the promised land, they're on their way,
6:09 following God's voice, celebrating God's goodness. They find themselves at the Red Sea, they're at the Red Sea, the Egyptian pharaoh says, you know what, I'm gonna go bring them back. They've got the red sea in front of
6:19 them, the enemy behind them, God parts the sea, they go through on dry ground, the enemies are destroyed in the middle of the red sea. Now they're on the other side of the red sea and all of a sudden God shows up in a
6:31 pillar of fire and a cloud to give them directions. Now a lot of times people have a misunderstanding. They think you know, if I just say yes to God, I'm never gonna encounter
6:43 problems. If I just say yes to God and follow him, I'm never gonna find myself in bitter places. And so what I'm gonna show you today is a bitter place the children of Israel found themselves in
6:55 at the same time they were right in the middle of God's will. But if you find yourself in a bitter place, don't ever stay there. Continue to move on because God has something
Bitter Waters After Victory
7:07 special and better for you in the days ahead. So let me show it to you in the story. Exodus chapter 15. Here it is. Remember slavery, plagues, Passover, Red Sea,
7:18 freedom, cloud, fire, then this. Verse 22. Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, place of incredible victory, and they went into the desert of shore. For
7:30 3 days they traveled in the desert without finding water. Alright? God's powerful story sometimes includes bitter places. Here it is.
7:42 When they came to Meroe, they could not drink the water because it was bitter. That Hebrew word means sharp, harsh, sour, or even poisonous. So for some reason the water was bitter there,
7:54 that is why they called the place Meroe. Now look at verse 24. So the people immediately grumbled against Moses, how quickly they forgot. They're no
8:06 longer slaves, they're on the way to the promised land, a little sour water causes them to grumble. Now here it is, how quickly they forget. Saying, what are we to drink? There are some
8:18 false ideas out there that, you know, if I just say yes to God, if I'm in God's will, there will never be any problems. Can I just tell you that's wrong? The children of Israel were
8:30 right in God's will on the path to the promised land, and they found themselves in better waters. Some people have this idea, well you know, if God is pleased with me and happy with me, I'll
8:41 never experience anything bad. That is not true. What God wants of us sometimes is he wants us to trust him in the bitter places, not hang out there,
8:53 but be ready to move on and continue to follow him. Because sometimes bitter places, it's simply God testing to see if you've learned what he's already taught you.
9:06 So notice this, God through the plagues, through the Passover, through the Red Sea was teaching the children of Israel, you can trust me. Now all of a sudden
9:17 they show up at Bitter Waters, he wants to know, have you learned the lesson, can you trust me? Well guess what? They failed the test. Everybody say failed the test.
9:30 They failed the test. God says, 10 plagues, the Passover, the Red Sea, headed your way to freedom, the cloud and the fire and here's a little bitter water, let's see how they do.
9:41 Not good. A big f. They failed the bitter water test. And so many times I can tell you, listen, as your pastor the number of times I've failed the bitter water test, I can't even
9:53 count. And then all of a sudden something happens either in my daily devotion or scripture or Gina says something. A lot of times Gina says something. And and I always listen to her. And she goes,
10:05 Are you really worried about that? Are you really struggling with that? I go, Yeah. And she goes, Why? And I go, because? And
10:17 because is such a spiritual answer. And if you really want to give it a little impact, just because. Raise your eyebrows a little bit and that speaks right to her heart, right? But here's the
10:29 deal, don't think that because you're experiencing bitter waters that you're out of God's will because you're not. But in bitter places, let the water
10:40 stay bitter, but don't become bitter. You say why? Look at what the writer book Hebrews says. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 15, here's what he says. Let the water stay bitter.
10:52 He says, see to it that no 1 falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows. How do roots grow? Underground, slowly,
11:04 silently, but they affect everything around them. No 1 just wakes up 1 day and says, I'm bitter. They had the experience and the bitter root has been growing below
11:16 the surface. It's been spreading. It's been quiet. It's been silent, but it's causing things to happen. It's causing the ground. It's absorbing the nutrients and then all of a sudden when the fruit of bitterness shows
11:26 up, it didn't happen overnight. It's an unresolved hurt or bitterness that we've failed to deal with to kill the roots that shows up and hurts us. He says, See
11:38 that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Well, what causes bitterness? Man, you can look it up and you
11:49 might say, I can tell you what caused it. You might have some 1 thing. Some sort of hurt in your life, something that's happened, maybe, maybe disappointment. You really thought 1 thing was gonna happen
12:01 and you're disappointed that the other thing happened or maybe disappointed with someone else. There might be someone here either in person or online that may be in a previous relationship,
12:13 they betrayed you. Maybe someone you had a close friend, a close confidant that just when y'all got together at Starbucks or wherever it is over a cup of coffee, you could just open your heart and bare your
12:25 heart and sure enough turns out that y'all's friendship breaks up and they tell everything you told them in confidence. Man, you just feel like that betrayal or maybe a loss of a loved 1 or loss of a
12:37 career or maybe something happened at work and you you you were doing you're faithful man, the boss told you all the time you're great, I can't make you and you're gonna be awesome and you you meet all your goals and all
12:48 of a sudden there there's a promotion opportunity and you're just like man, I'm gonna get this promotion, I'm the most qualified then it turns out somebody else gets it. And bitterness can grow up in your
13:00 in your heart. Maybe maybe there's something you prayed for for a long, long time. You said, God, man, I'm just praying. I'm taking this to you. I'm taking this to you, and all of a sudden an unanswered prayer sometimes.
13:12 Anybody in here had unanswered prayer? I have. Man, you could just step back and you be you can begin to be bitter and when that unanswered prayer turns into a hurt, then oftentimes that hurt can turn into
13:24 resentment. Who do I resent? Those it seems like God's answering their prayers. And if I had that hurt that turns into resentment, eventually it becomes bitterness. And then all of a sudden when it
13:36 really becomes bitterness and those slow growing silent roots are producing fruit, that's when not only does Hebrews say I get hurt, but many others get hurt. You say why?
13:48 Let me tell you 3 things bitterness does to you. You might want to just write these down. They're all p's. 1, bitterness is like a poison. It's like a poison that
The Poison, Prison, and Prism of Bitterness
14:00 you drink and it hurts you and it hurts others as well. Bitterness is just like a poison, it will defile many. 2nd thing, bitterness then becomes
14:12 your prison where you are constantly chained back to the memory of what happened in the past, where you just can't let it go, but if we let bitterness continue to
14:23 grow, it's like I'm constantly chained to whatever happened, whatever they said, whatever the failure was, whatever the disappointment was, whatever the discouragement was, whatever the betrayal was, I am constantly
14:35 in prison to that past experience, and I can't shake it. Here's the 3rd thing and this is perhaps the worst thing. Bitterness
14:47 then becomes the prism or the lens with which you see everything else. You'll someone will come up and they'll be talking to you and you're just looking with the prism of bitterness and you're like, yeah right.
15:00 I don't believe this. Or someone makes you a promise in the prism of bitterness saying, we'll see. And so, child of God, I want you to know bitterness is a root that grows
15:12 up and defiles many. It becomes a poison, it becomes your prison, it also becomes, man, that prism with which you see everything. Just just a comment if you're bitter and
15:24 looking through a prism, just some casual comment can feel negative. Some indiscriminate act. If you're seeing life through the through the prism of bitterness, you'll think they snubbed me when
15:36 they had nothing to do with snubbing you. But we see through bitterness, and I want you to know everything we need to do needs to be saying no to bitterness. Why? Because the consequences are significant. No 1 will walk
15:47 out of here and say, I think I'm gonna drink a little poison today. If you do, don't invite me over to your house to eat. No one's gonna walk out of here and say, you know what, I want to be in prison to that which
15:59 should happen to me 10 years ago, or 5 years. It just happens. No 1 walking out here going, you know what, I'm just gonna view everybody with suspicion. That's what bitterness does. So let
16:10 me give you a couple of consequences of bitterness, and these are real, and we're gonna put them up on the screen. Did a lot of research, a lot of study. There are physical consequences to being a bitter person. I love
16:22 that the Bible's not a medical book, but it's got a lot of medicine in it. I love what Proverbs 14 verse 30 says, a heart of peace gives life to the body, but envy or bitterness rots the bones. Bitter
16:33 people, they have studied the physiological. Those who are bitter about some past event have these health things. Elevated stress hormones, increased blood pressure, poor sleep habits,
16:45 weakened immune system or immune function, increased anxiety and higher levels of chronic stress. That's the poison. Here's the prison.
16:57 There are intellectual or mental consequences to being a bitter person because the prison of bitterness keeps you chained to every negative event that ever happened in your
17:09 life and your mind just continues to run that loop over and over and over again. And so what happens is you begin to expect someone to betray you. You begin to expect someone to
17:21 disappoint you. You begin to expect to lose and no longer win. Why? Because the prison of bitterness has held you back. That's why Ephesians chapter 4 verse 31 says, get rid of all bitterness.
17:32 Everybody say all. All of it. Get rid of all of it. Bitterness does what? Bitterness changing back to what was said or what you wish would have been said or what was done or what you
17:44 wish had been done. Man, it keeps occurring because it never leaves our mind. Now, here's the prison part. Okay? Remember I said poison, prison, prison.
17:57 Relationally, If you're a bitter person, you'll be relationally less by studies less satisfied, more cynical,
18:08 more angry, and more bitter towards those you're in relationship with. That's what we just saw, Hebrews chapter 12, see to it that no root of bitterness grows up to cause and defile many.
18:20 Bitter people often becomes critical of others, cynical of others, negative about everything, and they become easily offended, even about things that
18:32 should not offend them. 1 person's bitterness can affect your marriage, your family, your friendship, churches, and workplaces.
18:44 So when you think about it, poison, prison, prism. Physical, mental, relational, and
18:56 finally spiritual. What does it say? It says what happened? They came to bitter waters, the people grumbled. And when we grumble, we don't
19:08 have good fellowship with God. So I want to encourage us, let's be the kind of people that say yes to God even in bitter seasons. So let me give you 4 biblical thoughts from
19:19 Exodus chapter 15 on bitter places and how we let bitter places stay bitter, but we don't become bitter. Alright, so here's number 1. You ready? Thought number 1 is simply this,
19:32 bitter places often follow God's greatest blessings. Remember what I just said? They were in slavery, 10 plagues, the Passover, let my people go, they go out, the Red
19:43 Sea, Red Sea parts, they cross through on dry land, the enemy is destroyed, now God leads them by a cloud and by fire, and here they are 3 days later, They have forgotten about the plagues, the
19:55 Passover, the freedom they have, the Red Sea, the victory, the cloud and the fire. They forgot all about it. Exodus chapter 15 verse 22. Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea all the way
20:07 to the desert shore For 3 days, everybody say 3 days. For 3 days they traveled in the desert without finding water. God often tests what he's already taught. He just taught them over
20:19 and over again, you could trust me. Now they show up at water and they fail the test. Bitter waters. Look at verse 23, when they came to Marah, they could not drink the water because it was bitter, that is why they
20:30 called the place bitter. So, 2 thoughts on bitter times. If you find yourself in a bitter space, remember God's past victories He's given you.
20:43 Remember all the blessings that you've had over and over and over again. You would have thought someone in the children of Israel say, hey, I know this water's bitter, but how many of you remember the Red Sea?
20:55 I know this water's bitter. How many of you remember the Passover? I know this was bitter and a lot of times we forget when we find ourselves bitter, we get so fixated on that which is bitter, we can't remember that
Overcoming Bitterness God's Way
21:07 which was bitter. And so we always want to be in 1 of those places where we think back, and then I'll just put it this way, just do the math. Do the math in
21:18 your life. For the children of Israel, here's the math. 400 years of slavery, 3 day walk in the desert toward freedom, bitter waters.
21:31 The math doesn't measure up. Would you really rather go back to 400 years of slavery or are you willing to endure just a couple of days? See a lot of times we need to do the math. How many days have you been blessed in
21:43 your life compared to the negative bitter day? Don't focus on the negative bitter day or the negative bitter season or the 3 days in the desert. Focus on all the other good things and godly things that God has given
21:54 you. Why? Because they are temporary, God's victories are not. Bitter places are temporary, God's victories are not. I love what Peter said in 1st Peter chapter 1 verse 6. Here's what he said. He says,
22:06 in all this, and he's talking about trials and tribulation, go ahead and greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while, everybody say little while. Okay, it's real. Now for a little while, you may have
22:18 had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by
22:30 fire, may result in what? So, what is he saying? God is going to test what he's taught you. And what he tests, he refines us so that ultimately the outcome will
22:41 result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. So, God says, I'm going to let you go through some bitter places. But do the math. Remember the
22:53 victories. I am refining you and I am testing what I taught you so that I can make you better and more faithful to me so you can praise me and glorify me all the way to the end. That's thought number 1. Here's number
23:05 2, bitter places oftentimes reveal what's in us. What was the 1st thing you saw that happened? It says when they came to Marah, the people grumbled.
23:18 Just pause this rhetorical question. Did the bitter waters cause the grumbling or did the bitter waters just reveal the grumbler?
23:30 See, when you and I go through difficult spaces and hard spaces, the bitterness doesn't create the bad attitude. The bitterness just reveals
23:42 the bad attitude. If you take a grape and you squeeze a grape, grape juice comes out. Right? Did you create the juice, or did you just reveal the
23:54 juice? What about toothpaste? Hopefully, you brushed your teeth when you came to church in the morning. If not, the person on the left or right, they're gonna tell you. When you squeeze toothpaste, what comes out of it?
24:06 Toothpaste. So, when we go through those tight spaces and those difficult spaces, listen, when we are squeezed by bitter circumstances, what comes out is
24:18 what was already in there. It didn't create it. So, that's why we want to consistently and in such a way that we're praying to God, God, remove this
24:30 bitterness. Make me a give me someone with a character that I'm grateful for everything that I have, because bitter times just reveal what is going
24:42 on in our lives. I love what Jesus said. Look at his words in Luke chapter 6 verse 45. I mentioned this at the beginning. A good man brings good things out of the
24:54 good that is stored up in his heart. And an evil man brings evil things out of the evil that is stored up in his heart. Where's the good and where's the evil? It's already stored up. It's just ultimately what comes out.
25:05 So listen, bitter places don't create the bitterness. They just reveal what the bitterness was that was already in your heart. So, we constantly want to have good hearts and godly hearts and good
25:17 things flowing around in our life. Here's number 3, ready? God can turn your bitterness into something better. You say, where do you see this? Look at Exodus chapter
25:28 15 verse 25. It says, the people grumbled, they came to bitter water. Verse 25, then Moses cried out to the Lord and the Lord showed him a piece of wood and he threw it into the
25:40 water and the water then became fit to drink. Notice the 4 things that Moses did here, alright. If you want to know, if you're at a bitter place, maybe just write these 4 words down. Alright. They
25:52 grumbled to Moses, alright? Same action, same bitter water. The people grumbled, Moses prayed. So thought number 1, if you're going through something that
26:04 is difficult or a bitter space, begin to pray about it. Pray about every person in the in the situation, every circumstance that's going on. It says Moses then turned around, they
26:15 grumbled to Moses, Moses cried out to God. So it starts with prayer. Here's number 2, if you're gonna make it through bitter seasons, we have to learn to see what God wants us to see. Alright?
26:28 Now Moses could have prayed to God and saw the grumbling people and he'd have been hacked off, right? He could have thought something like I would have thought, 3 days in the desert. God, can we just send them back now?
26:39 Can we just send them back now? No, notice when you pray, Moses began to see something God wanted him to see. What was that? A piece of wood. Alright?
26:51 How many of you know, if I'm Moses, I'm going, alright Lord, how's that gonna help? Piece of wood? Lord, I was really hoping you were gonna show me just on the other side of Meroe was this sweet
27:03 water and, or there was gonna be a no Zarka stop just right around the road. But listen, he prayed, God showed him something that he had not seen before. God says see the piece of wood. So thought number
27:15 2, pray that you would see what God wants you to see in the better place. Here's number 3, God said go pick up that piece of wood and throw it in the water. Here's the obedience
27:26 part, Moses could have said, well that's not going to help. Number of times, I don't know if you've been in these situations when you know you're kind of in a conversation with someone and say, what do you think I should
27:38 do? And you'll give them this great tidbit of wisdom, but you know, if I was in your situation, you're coming to me because I think you think I have wisdom. And then you tell them what to do and they go, yeah, I don't
27:47 think I want to do that. Well then, don't waste my time. God said Moses pick it up and throw it in the water. Moses could have said, the wood's not gonna help.
27:59 But instead he chose obedience. Says he picked it up, he threw it in the water, so there's an act by faith. I want to pray, I want to see what God wants me to see, then I want to take action by
28:10 faith. I don't know how this water in this bitter I I don't know how this piece of wood in this bitter water is gonna help, but if God tells me to do it, I'm gonna do it. And then number 4, expect
28:22 a miracle when you don't think it's going to happen. That's the 4 step process. If you're in a bitter space right now, maybe it's your marriage, maybe it's at the office, maybe it's in a relationship, pray.
28:35 Ask God what he wants you to see, whatever he shows you, follow in obedience, and then expect a miracle that God's gonna do something powerful and real. Man, that is exactly what we wanna do. Let me just show
28:47 you, put this together. We'll put it up on the screen for you. Here's 5 practical steps to get over bitterness. Okay, so the difference is, pastor, you just gave us 4 step process. That 4 step
28:59 process was to keep from being bitter in the moment. This is if you've already had the root of bitterness grow up in your heart, this is what it should
29:11 look like. How do I get it out? Number 1, acknowledge the hurt. Tell God what happened and how it hurt and He's probably gonna say, I know you've been whining about it for a long time. That's what He tells
29:22 me. Number 2, cry out to God. That's exactly the children of Israel grumbled, Moses prayed. Man, Israel grumbled and Moses prayed. Most important question I'll ask for
29:34 the day. Children of Israel grumbled, Moses prayed, which 1 are you? When something bitter happens, are you a grumbler or a prayer?
29:47 And that determines the outcome. Here's number 3, you ready? Release others from the offense and don't seek revenge. You can go read Romans chapter 12 and just
29:58 just touch. If you're walking around wishing something bad would happen to somebody, man, just let that go. They hurt me, I want something to hurt them, just let that go. Leave revenge
30:10 in God's hands. Here's number 4, refocus on God's faithfulness. God, you have been good. I love what the Psalmist said in Psalm 77 verse 11. I will remember, everybody say
30:22 remember. I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your miracles from long ago. And I will remember and consider all of your works
30:35 and I will meditate on your mighty deeds day and night. Here's number 5, believe there is an elam
30:46 in your near future. You say pastor, what is elam? Let me show you what's just past bitterness. Verse 26,
30:59 he said, if you listen carefully to the Lord, let's just continue to read the story and do what is right in his eyes. If you pay attention to his command and all of his degrees, I will not bring
31:11 you, bring any of you the the, diseases I brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord your God who heals you. Look at verse 27. Then,
31:23 everybody say then, they came to Elim where there were 12 springs and 70 palm trees and they camped there near the water.
31:38 God says, don't ever build a house of bitterness. While that may be a stop along your road, it's never your destination.
31:51 God allows us to go through the ups and downs in life. God allows us to experience some bitter waters in life, but God never wants you to set up camp at bitter waters. He
32:03 wants you to keep moving forward. What the children of Israel didn't know, they're right there at Meirah, God's testing what he had already taught them. But God already knew this is not where you're supposed to camp
32:18 because there's an oasis just down the road. As we close today, if there's someone in this room that you have been camped out near bitterness for a long long time,
32:31 God's saying, hey, pack your bags, move away from bitterness, because there's just an oasis just down the road. As I was just pondering
32:44 the closing thought. Here's my closing thought, we'll just put it up on the screen. The lesson of Mara is that bitter places are never the end of God's story. The same
32:56 God who led them to Mara was already leading them to Elul. Trust God in the bitter places and keep moving forward. Let's pray.
From Marah to Elim: Keep Moving Forward
33:08 God, thank you so much for reminding us and the children of Israel that we're all going to have those seasons, those times where we experience bitter things. God, let us be the kind of people that we
33:20 don't grumble, we cry out. In those bitter places, we just pray, God, what do you want me to do? Number 2, that we would say, God, what do you want me to see? Number 3, God, how do you want me to
33:32 act? Number 4, God, I'm going to trust you and expect a miracle. God, beyond this after just even a couple of conversations after the 1st service out in the atrium, my prayer is there's
33:44 some some people right now that they've been camped out in bitterness, been hurting their relationships, their families, and their friendships,
33:57 that they would say, I'm ready to move on and believe God that there is an oasis ahead. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen.
John Mark Caton99.9K followers