Jul. 12, 2026

Have you ever had a moment where life just didn’t match what you expected it to be?  It can be more than a little disappointing, can’t it?  Maybe a moment where you have just been pushing through life, and you stop, and look around and think, “Really…is this it? This isn’t how it was supposed to go.” At some level, we all carry expectations about how things are supposed to work out for us. We may not even realize we have them; we may never have spoken them out loud, and typically we don’t realize we have them until the reality of what happens in our lives falls short of what we thought would actually happen.  Often, there seems to be a gap between what we thought would happen and what actually happens in life…reality just falls short, sometimes very short, of what we hoped or thought it would be, and that is not easy to deal with.  There is a term for how we feel as we experience that gap between expectation and reality: it’s called disillusionment, and I’m not trying to depress you, but it is something we all face in our lives. This happens in life, in relationships, in marriages, in families, in our careers, even in our faith lives and our churches.  It’s actually one of the most common reasons we see people give up on their faith and their churches, and why so many Christians move from one church to another.  What takes place just falls dramatically short of our expectations.  We are just sure that God will make our lives easier, but life doesn’t get easier.  Ever hear someone say they tried the Christian thing, and it didn’t work?  We expect the church and its leaders to never disappoint and to meet all our needs, but inevitably it falls short of what we thought it would be, and we struggle.  Ever hear someone say they are struggling with church because they can’t find one that meets their needs?  Yeah, me too. As we get started today, I want you to think about this.  

Where in your life does the reality of a situation just fall short of what you thought it would be? 

Maybe it’s your faith life, or your church, or even your pastor!  Maybe it’s your marriage or family life.  Maybe it’s work, or where you thought you would be in life.  It’s tough, but so often things do not go the way we expect. We may not even realize that we had expectations, but we do, and when reality falls short of what we hope for, we struggle. But in that struggle, God can show us things we need to see in our lives. In many ways, that is what we are about to see take place with the children of Israel as we continue our study of their wilderness journey.

Last week, we studied Exodus 14, the epic parting of the Red Sea. We saw the Israelites move from joy to fear as they stood trapped between the sea and the angry Egyptian Army.  We looked at five things fear tries to do in our lives, and we leaned into the idea that God often leads us into vulnerable positions to help us grow; and by the end of Exodus 14, they get it: they learned a valuable lesson on who God is, and a new level of trust and respect for both God and God’s servant Moses.

Exodus 14:31 And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant. NIV

And that leads us into Exodus 15, which begins with one of the greatest worship songs in the Bible. Moses and the people worship and sing; it’s a joyful celebration.

Exodus 15:1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea. 2 “The Lord is my strength and my defense: he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” NIV

I want you to try to feel this moment; they just watched God move in an unbelievable way; they just watched Him part a sea; they walked on dry ground with walls of water on either side of them.  Then from the other side, they watched God wipe out the Egyptian army; it’s beyond miraculous. They are free. They are worshiping, singing, celebrating, and then, well, the mood completely changes.

Exodus 15:22 Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the desert of Shur. They traveled in this desert for three days without finding any water. 23 When they came to the oasis of Marah, the water was too bitter to drink. So they called the place Marah (which means “bitter”). 24 Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?” they demanded. NLT

It’s been three days. They made it three days.  Three days after watching God split the sea. Three days after singing and being amazed at how great God is, they find themselves challenged again, frustrated, complaining, and turning on Moses, who they had just put their trust in. It’s been three days.  But after walking in the desert, they are thirsty, and then off in the distance, they see an oasis, and I’m sure that immediately made them even more excited to drink the water they found.  But they can’t drink it; it is bitter, and they go from hopeful to frustrated, complaining and questioning both Moses and God.  Who would do that? Who would experience God in such a powerful way and moments later, assume He has failed them? Who would worship God when life is good, then question God when life gets hard or when challenges and disappointments come? Well, we would. We do. Their story is our story.

So, to be fair to Israel here, their thirst is real.  They traveled for three days without water in a desert. Their bodies are weak. This is a real need here.  Three days of walking in the desert without water is a thing!  They're beyond thirsty; this is coming down to survival.  But I want to ask you a question here.  Do you think God did not know they would need water? Do you think it snuck up on God that they needed water?  There is something going on here for sure. I want us to really sit in this for a moment: they have a real problem; then they thought they had a real solution, and in a mean trick, they can’t drink the water, and now they are feeling real disappointment.  Imagine how tired and thirsty you would be after three days in the desert; seeing water you can’t drink would just make it worse, wouldn’t it?  This is where they are: they have a real problem, and the worse it gets, the more they struggle to trust God.  We know how that feels, don’t we?  When do we struggle to believe and trust God?  Is it when life is singing like a song, the bills are paid, and everyone we love is happy and healthy?  No, it’s when life is hard; it’s in those moments when the reality of our lives is falling short of our hopes, dreams, and prayers.  I mean, we can say it; it’s one thing to believe in God’s goodness when you and your loved ones are healthy, and you have what you need in life, but what about when you don’t?  What about when you pray and pray, and the answer does not come quickly, or when you are following God’s lead, and life is still difficult, when you are really thirsty and can’t drink the water?  I mean, that is different, isn’t it?     

You know, no one is excited about adversity and disappointing moments in their lives. But one reason we struggle when this stuff hits is that we have expectations about what we think should happen because we are following Christ.  We can believe that if we follow God, life should get easier. We may not even realize we think this way, but we often live that way, don’t we?  Things hit our lives, and we think, “I trusted you, God. Why is this still hard?” “I did the right thing. Why did the rough thing still happen?” “I prayed. Why did God not fix it?”  “I don’t understand, God. I’m doing exactly what You asked me to do, but things aren’t going the way I thought they would.” Ever been there?  Yeah, me too.

Israel had just experienced the power of God in incredible ways; they were singing and worshiping God and so grateful for those experiences.  Maybe they expected the rest of the journey to be easy.  I doubt that the expectation was death by dehydration in the desert.  But there is something really important to see here.  What did God tell them that He was going to do?  God told them he was going to free them from Egyptian slavery and bring them to an amazing new home…did He say it would be easy?  Did He tell them how He was going to do it?  It’s interesting, because we tend to fill in those blanks on our own, and often, I don’t think we even know that we are doing that.  

I will give you an example from my life.  Over 25 years ago, God asked me to serve a church plant starting in the Dillsburg area called Mountain Ridge Church.  I was told to serve this church community, to love and protect Ken and his family; it was one of the clearest things God ever told me to do, and I’m doing it.  But along the way, there have been so many things that have hit and hurt me.  There have been so many good things, but also so many devastating moments when things were happening that I didn’t see coming: people leave, seasons of financial stress, seasons when fewer people are coming, global pandemics, and so many people who promised to always be here and to support me and the church who are not doing that today.  There were times when I questioned everything because it hurt so much, and it took many of these “Marah Moments” to learn and understand something very important.  God never told me how things were going to go; He asked me to trust and obey Him in my calling; the rest was just me filling in the gaps with what I would like to see.  I would love to see this church bursting with people.  I would love everyone who hears us preach to find a passionate walk with God, engaging God daily, praying and reading His Word.  I would love for everyone to come and stay here for the rest of their lives and to have a passion for God and the church, but that wasn’t something God spoke or made clear would be; He told me to love, serve, and protect this church, Ken, and his family.  The other stuff that is so painful and disappointing, well, that is on me to let go of…I view it like this.  God stands me in front of a block wall.  He hands me a ping-pong ball and says, "I want you to throw this at the wall for me?"  I say, “Yes, Lord, absolutely, I will faithfully throw this ping-pong ball at this wall!”  And I’m so inspired to throw the ball at first, but over time I am devastated that I haven’t knocked the wall down; it is still standing, and I’m depressed and frustrated, feeling like I’m failing because I can’t knock the wall down.  But God never asked me to knock the wall down; He never said the wall would fall down; He simply asked me to throw the ping pong ball at it.  The rest of it was my desire for a particular outcome, but God never promised that outcome; He simply asked me to trust and obey Him.  Do you see it? 

Following Jesus is not about the outcome of saying yes; it’s about saying yes and following Him.  We tend to expect outcomes that God never promises, and we can be so disappointed when they don’t come, or when tough times arise as we follow Him.  But following Him does not mean we will never walk through adversity.  It doesn’t mean that every prayer will be answered the way we want. It does not mean there will be no loss, grief, or disappointment.  And so often, the hard times are when God is teaching us the most, revealing where our hearts are, and helping us know Him more deeply.

“Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.”  Charles Spurgeon

I think all of us know how Marah feels. You finally get the job, or relationship, or thing you thought would make life better—and it didn’t.  Maybe your Marah is not something you chose; it is a health issue or a broken relationship. Maybe it’s a loved one making choices you cannot control, or your marriage is harder than you imagined. Whatever it is, life is just not turning out the way you hoped it would. And you stand there looking at what is in front of you, asking: “God, what am I supposed to do now?” That question is not wrong. The people ask Moses, “What are we going to drink?”  Which is not a bad question, but the deeper issue is what happens in our hearts while we wait for God’s answer. Will we turn toward Him? Or will we turn against Him? Will hardship make us bitter?  Will we quit on God in the disappointment of life falling short of expectation, or will it make us more dependent on God?  This is the tension they are sitting in at Marah, just three days after they watched God part the sea.

You know, as I read this story, I keep thinking about how easy it is to lose perspective when we are disappointed or afraid. The Israelites had not forgotten that the Red Sea happened. But in their current pain, it became all they could see; the next need is just louder than their past experiences.  And we do the same thing. When we are hurting, we can become so focused on what is missing that we forget everything God has already done. We focus on what is not working and lose sight of the many things that are. We see bitter water and forget the Red Sea, and the giant pillar of fire in front of us. We can focus on the unanswered prayer and forget the prayers He has answered. It’s so easy to do, but so often the tough stuff just drowns out the God stuff in our lives.  And really, one of the ways we fight discouragement and bitterness is by remembering all that God has done and all the ways He came through for us in the past, because He is the same God we have today… Again, easier said than done.  Now, I do want you to see that there is something beautiful in this story…The people complain. Moses cries out to the Lord.

Exodus 15:25 So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink… NLT

God takes bitter water and makes it drinkable another miracle! But then we see something very important here.

Exodus 15:25 …It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him. He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.” NLT

So, God was not simply trying to get them through a thirsty afternoon. He was teaching them what it means to trust Him with their lives. They are learning a new way to live, built on trust, dependence, and obedience.  And I want you to think about this.  If God did this with them, is it possible that God does the same with us, helping shape us into the very people we were created to be?  If that is true, then maybe the hard seasons we face are not punishment but a way to shape and mold us. It’s tough, but maybe the tough stuff is an invitation to trust Him more deeply. It may be the place where God teaches us the most.

I want you to see this: they have some expectations on how this will all go, and we often do in our lives too.  But God never told them it would be an easy walk to the Promised Land; He just told them to follow Him!  And all summer long, as we study their story, we will see them complain, doubt, even rebel, and even forget God and all He was doing. It’s tough to watch at times, but the beautiful thing is that as they struggle and pull against Him, God just continues to love and provide. He corrects and teaches them, and there are consequences, but He does not abandon them. He just keeps loving them, which is beautiful; then, after God makes the water drinkable again, He says this…

Exodus 15:26 …“If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”  NLT

Ok, this is awesome, but there is also some tension here that we need to talk about.  God says that He is the Lord who heals you.  I love that, but does that mean we will never get sick, face suffering, or experience pain?  Well, no, because we live in a broken world; good and faithful people can get sick. They grieve, walk through trauma, loss, and hardship. But God is still the Lord who heals. He can heal bodies.  He absolutely heals hearts. He can heal relationships and our wounds. He heals what sin has broken. Sometimes that healing comes immediately. Sometimes it comes slowly, or in ways we do not expect. But He is still the God who heals. And at Marah, God tells Israel they must learn to trust Him, and that His commands aren’t a burden or meant to harm them but to lead them to the best lives possible.  I wanted us to see this and sit in that tension for a moment. God gives Israel instructions to listen to Him and obey His commands; then you won’t get hit with the things the Egyptians did. It is easy to read that and think God is saying that “If you do the right things, and follow God perfectly, nothing bad will ever happen in your life.”  That would be nice, but that is not what Scripture teaches us at all.  Throughout Scripture, we see that good, faithful people still suffer and endure pain in this world.  But God’s commands and ways of living are to be followed, not because they keep us from facing challenges, but because they lead us to the best life possible.  

I’ve often found it interesting how many people think Christianity is something you just have to eventually give in to when you are done having fun in life.  There is this mindset that says, when I become a Christian, my fun days are behind me, so I will live it up for a while and then someday, maybe when I have kids or something, I will give in and resign myself to the Christian life.  LOL, like those days of partying until all hours, waking up sick as a dog, living for whatever our flesh wants next, somehow were the good old days!  LOL, were they?  For so many of us, we hear God’s commands and think they are oppressive, like put in place to not allow us to enjoy life.  But it’s actually the opposite; it’s love.  God’s commands are not meant to steal our joy, and they also are not a leverage point for us to negotiate what we want from God, (it’s not well God, I did this, so you should do ______ for me!)  They are meant to lead us to our best lives possible.  This is why Psalm 119 says this about God’s laws…

“Your laws are my treasure; they are my heart’s delight.” —Psalm 119:111 NLT

You know, way back in week one of this series, we learned that the wilderness journey is really about teaching these people to do two things: to trust God and to love Him most, and life just gets harder when we don’t.  When we love God most, His ways and instructions stop feeling like heavy, restrictive burdens that are hard to follow and keep us from enjoying life, and we start to understand that they are loving gifts that actually lead us to real life.  That’s a massive shift in our lives…so if life is hard, if your faith life is hard, if spending time with Jesus is hard, if attending church is hard, or serving God is hard, that is a sign that you are struggling to trust God with your life and love Him most. Let’s look at how this Marah story ends here in Exodus 15.  It doesn’t end with bitter water, but a really cool moment.

Exodus 15:27 After leaving Marah, the Israelites traveled on to the oasis of Elim, where they found twelve springs and seventy palm trees. They camped there beside the water. NLT

So, after Marah, and the miracle of making the bitter water drinkable, God leads them to a beautiful oasis with twelve springs and beautiful palm trees.  I mean, you can just feel how awesome this place is, and there they camp, resting with more water than they know what to do with, and I think this is beautiful.  For three days they walked in the desert, wondering if God didn’t realize they needed water, so thirsty they thought they would die.  They show up at Marah, and in a mean twist, they see water but can’t drink it. They are crushed and question God, just unable to trust that God saw the bigger picture and was up to something in their lives.  I wonder how they feel now sitting in Elim, refreshed, rested, cleaned up, hydrated, and cooling off in the shade of those palm trees. Do you think they thought about how they acted in Marah?  Do you think anyone went up to Moses and said, “Sorry, man, I may have overreacted a little there; I didn’t know we would find a beautiful place like we are in now.”  They couldn’t see the bigger picture; they didn’t know what was to come, but God did.

You know, that may be something we all need to remember today.  You might be standing in the middle of a Marah moment in your life right now.  You may have a real problem, and may be dealing with real hurts, disappointments, and pain.  Maybe you are wondering why God would allow you to walk through it, struggling with how you will get through it, even questioning where God is, or what He is doing…it’s easy to feel negative and bitter in those moments, because they are as real for us as it was for them wanting a drink after walking in the desert for three days.  It’s hard to trust God when you are struggling.  It’s hard to believe in God or trust Him when you are in those difficult places in life, because you cannot see where God is taking you!  Imagine how they would have acted at Marah if they knew Elim was a few miles ahead?  They couldn’t see it and struggled, but just because we can’t see the big picture doesn’t mean God isn't preparing that place for us, too.  It’s so easy to feel like God failed us in those brutal, bitter moments, but just as he did with them at Marah, He is teaching us to trust Him when we can’t see what will happen next, and regardless of what will happen next, that’s different, isn’t it? 

So, as we close today, I want you to try and personalize this.  Do you trust God with your life?  Are there places in your life where you are tempted to believe God has failed you, left you, or just forgotten to take care of you?  Are you looking at your situation and thinking, God, I don’t get it; I’m doing what you ask; why is it so hard or painful…or just flat out disappointing?  Listen, those feelings are real, but it may be worth looking at something, because the pain and disappointment can often be magnified because we add what we would like to see happen to every situation, and then decide if it doesn’t go our way, God’s left us, or isn’t it with, but if we are honest, that is us, adding what we want to what God asked us to do.  Just like the ping-pong ball story I brought up earlier, God can stand us in front of a wall and ask us to throw that ping-pong ball at the wall, and we can do that faithfully, and consistently, and but overtime we can become frustrated that the wall didn’t fall down, but God didn’t ask us to knock the wall down, He asked us to trust and obey Him, and throw the ball, we wanted the wall to fall down, we assumed it was what He wanted, but we can’t see the big picture and He can.  One last question today: how do you view God’s laws?  Are they hard and oppressive and God’s way of taking all the fun out of your life, or could they be a gift that leads you to your best life possible? 

Life is so hard, and we won’t always know what God is up to, but the game changer is to trust Him and love Him most. It’s wild to think about this Marah story, from amazing worship after the epic miracle of the parting of the Sea, to devastation and discouragement in just three days.  Who would do that?  Who would experience God in this way, and then assume He isn’t with them or is now failing them just moments later?  Well, we would.  We do.  Their story is our story.