[PASTOR MARK JESKE] Hi,
Pastor Mark Jeske here for
Time of Grace.
How long has it been since
you've really had a dream
just crushed?
What are the
disappointments that are
really sitting kind of
heavy on your heart right
now?
Pastor Jeremy Mattek is
going to dig into
Scripture with us today
and he's going to help us
to find God's strength,
encouragement and guidance
so that we can handle our
disappointments and they
don't crush our spirit.
Join us, won't you?
It's going to be excellent!
[MUSIC]
[PASTOR JEREMY MATTEK]
I'm sure many of
you know what an egress
window is?
If you have a basement in your home and you have a
bedroom in your basement,
you often need an egress
window; a large window that's supposed to be
large enough for someone
to climb out of in case
you are trapped in the
basement when the house is
on fire.
We have a basement in our
home and we have a bedroom
in that basement and we
also have an egress
window, which is about
four feet by four feet.
And outside that egress
window on the outside of
the house is a large egress window pit, a
window well, that you can
climb into if you go
through the window and
then there are some stairs
leading up this window pit, which is about - it
takes you about five feet
up until you get to the main level - and the
stairs there, they're only
about an inch or two deep,
which makes it a little
bit difficult for a human
to use them to climb out.
But it's even a little
more difficult for a
snake.
A while back, I was
working in my home office
when my son came running
into my office and said,
"Dad, a snake fell into our window well!"
And he was really excited
about it.
[Audience: Laughter] It
wasn't a very big snake;
it was only about 18
inches.
And it wasn't a poisonous
snake but he told me that
it was trying to climb out
and he thought it was very
entertaining so he invited
me to go and watch it with
him.
So together, we went down
to the bedroom in our
basement and we stood at
this - we stood at the
egress window and we
watched this snake try to climb its way up the
stairs and we watched as
this snake extended his
slithery body up onto the
first step and then pulled
the rest of its slithery
body up onto that first
step and then did the same
thing going up to the
second step and pulled
it's slithery body up and
then went up to the third
step and pulled its
slithery body up and it
only needed now to get
over the edge to escape.
But the distance between
that third step and the
ledge was a little bit
more than the distance
between each of those
steps and the snake wasn't
quite long enough and so
we watched the snake
extend itself as much as
it could to get up to the
edge and then extend
itself to the right and
then extend itself to the
left and then it came back
in the middle again and
extended itself as high as
it could go, going up on
the tips of its tail,
reaching until it finally
fell backwards and dropped all the way down to the
bottom of the pit. It didn't make it [Pastor:
Laughter] and it never
did.
It tried again, and again,
and again, and again, but
its best effort always
ended in disappointment.
Eventually, after the
snake was too tired to
fight back against us when
we tried to get a hold of
it, we pulled the snake
out of the window well and
we took it over to the
it in their window well.
it in their window well. neighbor's house and put
[Audience: Laughter] No,
we didn't. No, [Pastor: Laughter] We
did take it out and we
went about 100 yards back
behind our house and we
just let it out in the
field and we let it go.
But you know what I
thought as I was watching
that snake?
I thought that snake knows
how you and I feel from
time to time.
That snake knows what it's
like to feel disappointed.
I thought of anyone who
has ever poured out their
heart and their soul
trying to do their job or
raise their kids going
step by step, stretching
that, only to come up
that, only to come up themselves this way and
short of feeling satisfied in the end.
I thought of anyone who's
ever fallen on their back
and struggling against a
particular temptation and
had to start all over
again.
I thought of anyone who
has ever been on the verse
of seeing something so
amazing only to have their
legs cut out from
underneath them by a
sickness or a death or a
life event that they never
saw coming.
I thought of anyone who
has ever felt like they
have ever fallen into a
pit of disappointment and
wondered if they'll ever get out again.
I thought of anyone who
may have ever been in a
situation similar to the
one that Moses may have
found himself in.
After 40 years of leading
the Israelites through the
wilderness, after 40 years
of going step by step
through a desert, after 40
years of going this way
and that, after 40 years
of frequently landing on
their backs, they finally made it.
And just as they were
peeking their eyes over
the edge to see the land
of milk and honey that God
had promised them, God
told Moses, "You're not
going to make it.
You don't get to go in.
Everyone else will get to
go in but you have to stay
behind and just see it
from a distance."
And how do you think that
felt?
If you have ever been in a
situation in which your
heart has been tempted to
be overrun by
disappointment, then I
think that Moses might
know how you feel.
And Moses is the one who
gives us some
encouragement on where to
go and what to do when that happens.
In the book of Numbers 27,
starting at verse 12:
"Then the Lord said to
Moses, 'Go up this
mountain on the Abarim
range and see the land
that I have given the
Israelites.
After you have seen it,
you too will be gathered
to your people, as your
brother Aaron was, for
when the community
rebelled at the waters in
the Desert of Zin, both of
you disobeyed my command
to honor me as holy before
their eyes.'" Do you think
that was very nice of God
to take Moses up to the
top of a mountain and show
him the land that he would
not be going into?
I mean, at first glance,
it kind of seems like a
dad holding out to his son
his son's favorite piece
of candy and a piece of
candy his son hasn't seen
in 40 years and he's
offering the piece of
candy to his son and he
says, "Would you like to
have this?"
And just as the son's eyes
get really wide and he's
about to reach for it, dad
pulls his hand back and he
pops it inside his own
mouth and he never gives
it to him.
That's kind of mean.
But that's not what God
was doing.
Keep in mind that this
wasn't the first time that
God had told Moses that he
was not going to be going
into the Promise Land.
The first time he told him
was back in Numbers 20,
which is when the event
happened that God referred
to in this section.
Back in Numbers 20, the
Israelites were in the
desert and they were
complaining that there was
no water in the desert and
so Moses and Aaron went to
God to ask God what they
should do about no water
being in the desert and
God told them to, "Honor
me by talking to that rock
and telling it to produce
water for everyone."
But you might know that's
not exactly what happened;
Moses didn't talk to the
rock, he hit the rock.
Water still came out,
everyone's thirst was
satisfied, but it wasn't exactly what God had said.
And so, God told Moses
right then, he said, "You
are not going to be the
one who's going to lead
this community into the
land that I promised
them."
And that's the incident
that God is referring to
here in this section; the
one that keeps Moses out
of the Promise Land.
And there are three things
that you might find really
interesting about this
whole situation.
Firstly, back in Numbers
20, the Israelites were
being really, really nasty
to Moses.
Moses was incredibly
underappreciated.
In addition to telling
Moses that they were
thirsty in the middle of
the desert and complaining
about the lack of water,
they also told Moses
basically that they would
rather be back in Egypt
dying than in the desert
following someone like him.
They didn't care all that
much that Moses had left a
very comfortable life and
a very profitable job to
come to Egypt and try to
save them; they only cared
about the fact that they
were uncomfortable and
they blamed Moses for it.
Secondly, do you know what
Moses was doing just
before the Israelites
started complaining about
their thirst in Numbers
20?
He was burying his sister,
Miriam; the sister who
watched from a distance as
little baby Moses floated
down the river in the
wicker basket.
The sister that Moses was
right next to and burst
into a joyful song of
praise to God after they
escaped from the Red Sea
and after God saved them
from the Egyptians.
Miriam had just died and
the dirt from putting her
body in the ground was
still on the hands of
Moses, when the people
that he came to save let
him know that we kind of
wish you were the one who
was in the grave.
And thirdly, the third
thing you might find
interesting is what
happened just before God
took Moses to the top of
that mountain and showed
him the Promised Land that
he would not be entering.
Do you know what happened
just before God did that?
God changed his mind about
something.
An Israelite named
Zelophehad - for all you
expecting moms, there's a
good baby name for you -
an Israelite named
Zelophehad had died and
Zelophehad had five
daughters and no sons.
And back in those days,
God had made a law that if
a man died, his
inheritance was to be
passed on to the oldest
son and that if there were
no son then it wouldn't go
to any of the daughters,
it would go to a near male
relative.
But after Zelophehad had
died, the five daughters
of Zelophehad came to God
and asked him to change
his mind and he did.
He did!
He changed his mind about
something that he had said
and I find that really
ironic that that's right
before God takes Moses up
to this mountain and does
not change his mind for
Moses' benefit.
He told him in Numbers 20
that he would not be going
in and in Numbers 27, that
is exactly what happened
even though maybe you
wouldn't blame Moses for
hitting something.
When the people you are
trying to serve barely
even let you say goodbye
to your sister before
letting you know in no
uncertain terms that
you're not exactly the guy
that we wanted.
And what would you say to
God if you were in Moses
situation?
Because that's what
happened next.
After God took Moses up to
the top of this mountain,
after he showed him the
land that he would not be
going into, after he
doubled down on his
declaration that you are
not getting in, Moses
opened his mouth and he
said something to God.
And before we look at what
he said, I want you to
think about what you would
say or what you do say or
what you think when
somebody makes you feel
unappreciated.
When you work hard for
someone else's benefit and
they don't even take the
time to say thanks or even
let you know that they
noticed.
Or how do you feel when
someone you love dies and
you have to stand at the
side of their grave and
even before you've really
had a chance to finish
saying goodbye, it's right
back to somebody letting
you know that you didn't
do something quite the way
that we wanted.
Or how do you feel when
you're on the verge or
something in your future,
something coming up that
just gets your heart
pumping, it is so close
you can see it on the
horizon, but it never
comes.
It never happens.
Do you know what it's like
to feel disappointed?
And then what do people
here you say when you are?
Because that, my friends,
is the real reason Moses
was kept out of the
Promise Land.
After the Israelites
complained about the lack
of water, God told Moses
and Aaron, "I got this.
Honor me by going and
talking to that rock and
telling it to produce
water."
And Moses and Aaron left
that meeting with God,
they went back to the
camp, they gathered
everyone in front of them,
and they said, "Listen,
you rebels!
Must we bring you water
from this rock?"
Tap, tap, whoosh!
And what was wrong with that?
Must - what was the next
word?
"We."
They didn't even mention
God.
Their goal wasn't to honor
God in front of anyone;
they were more interested
in letting everyone know
how their complaining
affected them.
Just think about the last
time you felt
disappointed; the last
time life didn't quite go the way that you wanted.
Were you more eager to
highlight in front of
everyone that we have a
God who can bring water
from a rock and just might
be able to do something
amazing in a tough
situation that we're in?
Or are you more eager to
have at least just one
person notice how sad and
down in the dumps you are
because something didn't
go the way that you
wanted?
Moses' big sin was not
hitting the rock; it was
being more absorbed with
God.
God. himself than he was with
And as he stood there on
that mountain and as he
looked over into the
Promise Land that he would
not be going into, after
he was reminded of the
self-centered sin that was
going to keep him out, do
you think he felt more
disappointed in the fact
that he wouldn't be going
in or more disappointed in
himself?
And how easy is it for you
to feel that same thing
when you look back in your
life and look at where
your focus has or has not
been?
And how hard would you be
willing to work and how
far would you be willing
to stretch yourself in
order to never have that feeling again?
A number of weeks ago, I
read a story about a bus
city of Seville, Spain.
city of Seville, Spain. that had pulled into the
And it started its journey in the city of Morocco in
North Africa, 143 miles
away and in order for a
bus to get from the city
of Morocco in North Africa
to the city of Seville,
Spain, it needs to cross
24 miles of water across
the Strait of Gibraltar on
a car ferry.
And so this bus started
its journey in the city of
Morocco and then crossed
the 24 miles of water on
the car ferry and then
drove halfway across Spain
and stopped in the city of
Seville and when it did,
the bus driver got out, he
he noticed something.
he noticed something. looked under the bus and
You know what he noticed?
A teenager who apparently
had been holding onto the
bus the entire way; all
the 143 miles.
Apparently, there are a
good number of folks who
are trying to cross the
border into Spain from
Morocco and North Africa
because life really isn't
all that easy for everyone
there at the moment.
And this teenager
attempted to escape by
holding onto the bottom of
a bus for 143 miles.
That's a big risk!
That's a lot of effort
just for the chance at a
life that maybe wouldn't
fill him with so much
disappointment.
But it didn't work because
they obviously found him.
They put him in prison for
a little bit, they cleaned
him up and the sent him
right back home.
As he learned a very
important life lesson:
That no matter how hard
you work, life is just
full of disappointment.
And he is not the only one
who knows that and you
aren't, either.
Jesus does, too.
He also made a very
difficult journey.
He came all the way from
heaven not because he was
trying to escape anything
but because he knows that
life in this world is
often full of
disappointments.
It's full of temptation,
it's full of death, it's
full of piercing pain.
It's full of so many
people who so eagerly
break promises to love God
and love others more than
anything and he wanted to
save you from it.
And so he held onto
something even more
dangerous than a moving
bus; he held onto a cross
with all of its pain
because he wanted you to
be able to walk through
life and know that you
never need to feel
disappointed in yourself
ever again because that's
what it means that you're
forgiven.
That you're forgiven.
That not even your worst
self-centered, me first
moment is going to stop
you from one day walking
into a land of promise far
greater than the one that
Moses saw from that
mountain.
One in which you will
never hurt, cry, die, or
be disappointed ever
again.
God wants you to be able
to stand exactly where you
are in life - on any
mountain at any time - and
know that you don't need to be so concerned about
all those ups and downs of
life because our God is.
And that's why Moses said
what he did on top of that
mountain to God.
After God took him up
there and after he saw the
land that he wasn't going
to be going into, Moses
showed that he learned his
lesson.
I'm going to read his
words and I want you to
pay attention to how often
Moses refers to himself in
what he said to God in his
life.
It says: "Moses said to
the Lord, 'May the Lord,
the God of the spirits of
all mankind, appoint a man
over this community to go
out and come in before
them, one who will lead
them out and bring them in, so the Lord's people
will not be like sheep
without a shepherd.'" How many times did Moses refer
to himself there?
Not once.
He was far more concerned
about the people around him.
And not only that, did you
notice what he called God?
He called him the God of
the spirits of all
mankind.
In other words, he's the
God who gives spirit, who
gives life to all mankind.
In other words, he knows
your life, he knows your
challenges.
He knows your unique ups
and downs and Moses knew
that all of our unique
lives have one thing in
common.
When he asked God to
provide a leader for them
that would go in and come
out and lead them in and
go out, he was reminding
us that we're not the only ones whose lives are so
all over the place all the
time.
Just look at the person
next to you.
Go ahead, look at them.
They know; they do.
Life is full of ups and
downs but we have a God
who will always get us
through it.
And Moses actually saw
proof of that as he was
standing on that mountain
because he was looking at
a land of promise that God
was able to provide after
40 years of desert
wandering.
And a land of promise that he was willing to provide
for a nation that most
certainly did not deserve
it. But for Moses, but he was
preparing Moses for
something different on
that mountain.
On that mountain, God was
preparing Moses to die.
That's not the way God
said it; he said, "You
will be gathered to your
people."
going to die and then he
going to die and then he In other words, Moses was
was going to see - with
his own eyes - something
that he would have never
been able to see in that
Promised Land and do you
know what that was?
Miriam.
He was going to see Miriam
and all of his other
people who had gone before
him.
Moses was reminded of a
beautiful truth that we
get to live with every day
that even death isn't a
disappointment for the
Christian.
Your death is the day that
God finally gives you
everything your heart ever
wanted.
And that's why God took
Moses to the top of that
mountain.
That's what God wanted
Moses to see.
And that's what he wants
us to see, too; that we
always have a place to go
in our disappointments.
We get to go to a God who
knows your life and who
knows how to lead us
through it.
Amen.
[MUSIC]
[PASTOR JEREMY MATTEK] How do you deal
with guilt over promises
that you break?
A little over a year ago,
a woman named Freya was
driving in her car when
she went speeding through
a red light at 40 miles an
riding on his bike.
riding on his bike. hour and hit a man who was
The man's name was David
and the collision tore
through his spine and left
him without any ability to
move his legs.
For Freya, that was the
first day in over a year
in which she had not taken
her bipolar meds, which
she had promised to take
every day.
And as a result she said,
just before she went
through that intersection,
she heard what sounded
like a million manic voices all screaming at
the same time in her head.
And as she was listening
to that, suddenly David's
face was on her
windshield.
She stopped her car, ran
out of the car, and was
screaming, "I'm sorry!
I'm sorry!"
over and over, again and again.
A couple of months later,
Freya's heart stopped for
a few minutes because of a
heroin overdose.
She started taking heroin
after the accident because
it helped her forget.
It helped her pretend that
what had happened wasn't
reality but of course, she
knew she couldn't just
pretend; she couldn't just erase her past.
That was a hard place that
Freya thought she'd never
be able to escape from and
maybe you know that
feeling.
She eventually had a day
in court and on the first
day in court after the
judge sat down, a man in
the back of the room that
Freya had never before
seen walked up to the
front and asked the judge
if he could say something.
The judge allowed him to
and then he pointed at
Freya and said, "This
woman significantly
injured my son and my son couldn't be here today.
But he wanted her and the
judge and the prosecution
to know that he holds no
ill will against the woman
who hurt him." And then he walked over to Freya, gave
her a hug, and said, "My son couldn't he here today
but he wanted you to know
that he already forgave
you on the day of the
accident." The judge was
so moved by what he had
said that eventually the
charges against Freya were
dismissed.
And why were they
dismissed?
Not because she was able to erase her past but
because the person she
hurt forgave it.
And that, my friends, is a
secret to dealing with
your guilt over your
broken promises.
It is remembering that in
Christ Jesus, God has done
the same thing for you.
In the book of Zechariah,
we see a man named Joshua
standing in front of God
waiting to be judged and
Joshua is wearing filthy
rags.
The filthy rags represent
the filthy mistakes of his
past.
And standing there, he
couldn't remove them; he
couldn't get rid of them
though he wanted to.
But God could do something
with them.
It says, "Now Joshua was
dressed in filthy clothes
as he stood before the
angel.
The angel said to those
who were standing before
him, 'Take off his filthy
clothes.' And then he said
to Joshua, 'See?
I have taken away your sin
and I will put rich
garments on you.'" God
removed Joshua's filthy
rags for him and replaced
them with clean garments
that didn't have a single stain on it.
It's a picture of what he
did for you when he took
your sins away from you,
covered Jesus with them,
and then punished him on a
cross as if he were the
one guilty of everything.
your sins.
your sins. At the cross, God removed
He took them away and then
covered your weak,
vulnerable, naked, sinful
shame with Christ Jesus'
own perfection and
promised that he would always look at you that
way. And if God looks at you
that way, you can too.
The mistakes that we make
are real but we don't
define ourselves by them.
By the grace of God, we
get to define ourselves
entirely by how Jesus
lived and what Jesus did
on that cross.
[PASTOR MARK JESKE}
Oh, thank you,
Pastor Jeremy; I feel
better already.
You know, I've had my own
disappointments; things
that just didn't go the way I wanted and I'm often
too stubborn just to let
go.
I always want it my way.
Sometimes, I've just got
to take that deep breath
and let go and let God do
it his way.
It's usually better,
anyway.
to be back in just a
to be back in just a Don't go away, I'm going
minute to pray with you.
[PROMOTION] "Why can't you
be more put together like
her?
You're such a mess." "What kind of man are you?
Don't be such a wimp."
"How can you expect anyone
to like you when you're so 1006 00:25:43,508 lame all the time?"
I wrote this book, "Change
of Story," because we all
tell ourselves stories and some of those stories take
us to somewhere good and
some of those stories
spiral down into more and
more temptations into dark
places.
It's at those moments,
like Asaph or David, where we have to hear God's
story for us.
And so, in this book,
you'll see what God's
story is for you and how
God can connect you to
that story so that you can change where you're going
and start leading a life
closer to God.
And it's our thanks for
your donation to help
reach more people with
God's timeless truths.
So get your copy of
"Change of Story" when you
give today and begin your
journey away from negative
thoughts and into the true
story of God's love.
[PASTOR MARK JESKE] Can we
pray together about the
disappointments and
struggles that we've had
in our lives?
Let's pray.
Dear Lord Jesus, We come
to you today confessing
our frustration with
things that haven't gone
quite right.
But we all know that we
need a little patience and
humility therapy; we all
need practice and your
help in letting go and
trusting you more. We always want to handle
everything ourselves and
sometimes we hit our limits.
Lord Jesus, we can't see
ahead; we can't even fully
tell what's going on right
around us.
So we need to trust in
your great vision and your
clarity.
You know what's going on;
you know what's best.
you know what's best. you know what we need and
Help us learn from our
disappointments.
Help us find our great
satisfaction in you and
help us realize that we're
never going to have heaven
on earth; we only will have heaven in heaven with
you.
Come soon, Lord Jesus, and
in the meantime, patch us
up and keep us going.
our hopes up and inspire
our hopes up and inspire Keep our faith strong and
us to be an inspiration to
the people around us to
keep trusting in you. In your name we pray,
Amen.
For Time of Grace, I'm
Pastor Mark Jeske,
celebrating God's amazing
grace with you and it all
starts now.
[MUSIC]
[ANNOUNCER]
The preceding program was
brought to you by the
friends and partners of
Time of Grace.
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