← Mariners Church Weekend Messages
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Welcome to Mariners Church Weekend Message Podcast. Inspiring people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Discover your purpose and get connected by visiting MarinersChurch.org or click the link in the show notes.
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All right. I'm so excited to walk through this book this summer with you. If we haven't met, my name is Eric. I'm the senior pastor here. Before I jump into the text, I just want to celebrate two things with you that I know you'll be excited about. Last weekend, not at every service, but at every congregation, we had one of our services where we celebrated those who had just completed Rooted, our ten week discipleship journey. And then we invited people who were ready to make a commitment to Jesus to confess faith in him and become his, to stand and confess that they believed. And across all our congregations last weekend we saw 173 people people confess faith in Jesus, which was amazing. So beautiful. And then we also had baptisms last weekend. Some of you were baptized last weekend, which is so special, so meaningful. Across all of our services and congregations, last weekend we saw 270 people baptized. So, so beautiful. Celebrate that. It's really been just a sweet season, a beautiful season in the life of our church. And I'm so thankful for you, who are generous to your church by your giving. From a human standpoint, you finance and fuel all that God is doing among us. And so thank you for being generous. I'm really thankful for you. Then I want to also say, I know we were saying it a lot because it's Father's Day. I want to say how thankful I am for you dads. I think it's awesome that on Father's Day weekend you showed up at church. You were setting an amazing example for your family and your community. That you're here at church on Father's Day weekend is awesome that Jesus is the center of your life. Man. I'm so proud of you. And there's so many, some dads in particular that I want to express gratitude for. I love being a dad. It has been such a joy in my life. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. But I look at the men who are in our church who are ahead of me. I know I'm kind of getting old Now, I'm 50. But those who are older than I am, who are now being a dad still to adult children, you inspire me. I'm learning watching you. I'm so thankful for the men in our church who are doing that season well. And some of you have moved on to being grateful grandparents and you're an amazing granddad. I love watching and learning from you. So I'm thankful for the example that you set for me and for men like me. And I'm also thankful for the young dads. I know that some of you are a new dad. You have elementary kids or preschool kids or they're moved on to junior high. And I just want to share something with you that some men that I respect shared with me. When I became a new dad, I was in the marketplace. And some of you, you're in the marketplace and your career matters. And it should. It's a Christian. You should do the absolute best with the discip or the craft that you have thrown yourself into. But some older men told me this, and I never forgot it. Eric, the most important meeting you lead this week won't be the meeting around the conference room table. It will be the meeting with your kids around your dinner table. That's going to be the most important meeting that you lead. The most important conversations that you have won't be conversations you have with your teammates, your colleagues at work, although those are important. Those matter, and you should do that well. But the most important conversations you have as a dad are the conversations with your kids. And so young dads, I'm proud of you for committing to follow Jesus in front of your family. And I encourage you to throw yourself fully into this season. So one more time, let's give it up for all the dads. Really thankful for you. Excited for you. Father's Day. Oh, gosh, maybe 15, 20 years ago, Kay got me. I don't even know. I was just a brand new dad and she got me the DVD series of Prison Break. We used to, like, binge watching TV series like that. And Prison Break is one where there's some good guys who are in prison and they're trying to escape. So you're, of course, rooting for those. But also in the show Prison Break found myself rooting for bad guys. Like, why am I wanting them to get out? I'm rooting for the bad guys. But I see that in myself when I watch lots of shows. Like, I watch a Mafia show, I'm rooting for the Mafia family. Or I watch a Western, I'm rooting that Billy the Kid will escape. I'm rooting for the bad guys. And this has spilled out over into regular Life. Last May, 10 inmates escaped from a prison in New Orleans where I grew up. And I found myself rooting for these guys. And I know you're like, that's horrible. I know, but everybody needs a second chance. And I was wanting this for them. And so they escaped. This was one of the largest escapes in modern history from a prison. Ten inmates escaped. They took a toilet off of a wall and went through a hole and they talked smack on their way out. Too easy. Lol. Clearly, millennials, they are too easy. LOL language. And I'm rooting for these guys. And then I start reading about them. I'm tracking them, like every day. I'm seeing if they've been captured and I'm hoping that they get this fresh start. And they. And then as I read about them, I realized, what am I doing? I mean, some of them are murderers or attempted murderers. How am I rooting for them? And then I realized that this is true about me and it's likely true about you. There's something in us that is attracted to rebels. We like a good rebellion. And in the scripture today, in the Book of Numbers, we're going to look at this very famous account of a rebellion that is so important that you understand that Jesus, Brother Jude wrote about this rebell short book in the New Testament. But we're going to look at the account that he references in the Book of Numbers. And this is what I'm going to challenge you to do today. I'm going to challenge you to rebel in the right direction. All of us, we have in us this desire to rebel. Why? Well, because God created you and he created you to worship him. And because you are going to worship something, it means you're going to rebel in the opposite direction. If you worship God, you're going to then rebel against this world. If you rebel against God, then you're going to set your affections on the things of this world. You're going to rebel in one direction or the other. Now this passage, numbers, chapter 16, it is a great passage for Father's Day because this is a dude passage. I mean, it is an intense, rebellious kind of passage. I'm shocked that there's not movies around it. It's super intense. We just finished vacation Bible school here at Mariners Irvine. This would not be a VBS story at all, but it's a story that we can learn a lot from. So this is God's word we're going to be in. Numbers chapter 16, verse 1. What has happened so far is God's people are in the wilderness. They're in Beth. Between the rescue from Egypt, that's the book of Exodus, which we studied last year, and the promised land that God's going to Give them. That's the Book of Joshua, which we'll study together next summer. They're in the middle, they're in between. They're in the wilderness. It's called the Book of Numbers. We're seeing in the Book of Numbers that God is with them, that he's not abandoning them, just like he's with you. Because the Book of Numbers is also a metaphor for you. It's a metaphor for life in between. You're in between your rescue and the time when you will live with him in everlasting paradise. You're in the middle, and God is with you. We saw that God had them camp around the tabernacle, where God would dwell with his people. We saw that God fed them every day manna bread from heaven. But they would complain about it. They started complaining about lots of things. And then when God brought them to the edge of the promised land that he has for them, this is what we studied last week, numbers 13 and 14. That instead of embracing it like, yes, God has this for us, they complained about that, too. They started saying crazy things like, God, we would rather die in the wilderness than have your life land. God, we wish we were back in Egypt. Our Egyptian slaveholders were better to us than you are. They started complaining over and over again. And they kept saying, God, we don't want you. And finally, God said, okay, you can have what you want. All of you are going to die in the wilderness. But to Joshua and Caleb, the next generation, the second generation is who's going to go into the land. Okay, you would think at this point they understand that they should stop complaining. Let's see what happens. Number 16, verse one, page 82 in your magazine. Now, Korah, son of Izar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, with Dathan and Abriam or Abraham, I can't. Whatever sons of Elab and On, son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took. Now, let me stop here for a moment. I don't know if I said those names correctly, but you have no idea either. So we're okay. The ones that are underlined, Korah, Dathan and Abraham, they are going to form a rebellion. The names that I have circled are their ancestors. They're from these tribes. Now, notice the one circle. If you have a Bible or your magazine, you may want to circle them, because in a moment, I'll show you why this is important. So these people, they are going to go against a rebellion against Moses, who is their leader, the one who brought them out of slavery. They took 250 this is verse 2. 250 prominent Israelite men who were community and representatives in the assembly. And they rebelled against Moses. They came together against Moses and Aaron and told them, you've gone too far. Everyone in the entire community is holy and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the Lord's assembly? When Moses heard this, he fell face down. Then he said to Korah and all his followers, tomorrow morning the Lord will reveal who belongs to him, who is set apart. The one he will let come near him. He will let the one he chooses come near him. So something's gonna go down tomorrow morning. Korah, you and all of your followers are to do this. Take fire pans and tomorrow place fire in them and put incense on them before the Lord. Then the man the Lord chooses will be the one who is set apart. It is you Levites who've gone too far. This is God's word. They said, moses have gone too far. Moses says, they have gone too far. Who are these people who are forming this rebellion? Korah and the Levites, they're against Aaron. Aaron's the priest. And so they don't like that Aaron has the priestly responsibilities. They want to do what Aaron does. Aaron gets to go into the Tabern with a place where God and man meet. They're like, why do you? We want to do what you do. We don't want you to be in charge. We want to do what you do. And then Dathan and Abraham, they'll go against Moses for his civil responsibilities. And they start to grumble against Moses and Aaron. And like most good gossip, some of what they say is true. The most effective gossip is falsehoods laced with truth. So what they said that was true is that God did love the entire community. True. What they said was true is that God did want to be with everyone. True. What they said was false was Moses, you exalt yourself above everyone else. That wasn't true. Moses throughout the narrative so far, we've seen multiple times he says, God, I don't want to lead these people anymore. I don't want to do this. I'm not qualified to do this. I didn't birth these people. And yet God keeps Moses in the role. Now, how did these people get together? Why did they together unite around there complaining? It's fascinating when you look at the depiction of the Tabernacle and the encampment where the people camped in the wilderness. Notice I had you circle the tribes that they came from. The twelve tribes of Israel camped around the tabernacle. And you will notice. What do these people who are complaining have in common? What do they have in common? It's really simple. They're. They're next. This location. Thank you. They're next to each other, which this could be a depiction of many offices across the country. All the complainers sit next to each other. They do at lunch. Complainers find each other, do they not? Grumblers find one another. And so here's how it would go down. They were complaining about the food. They would get out of their tent in the morning. They would walk outside and they would eat the manna. And they look next to the tent next to them, like, man, you like this, man? Nah, not really, man. I'm kind of tired of it. I'm tired of this, too. I don't even like what's going on around here. Moses and Aaron thinking they better than everybody else, and they just start talking smack and they're grumbling and they're complaining. Multiplies, and they become this really bitter, angry people that want to form a rebellion against the leaders, Moses and Aaron that God had put in position. When I was in my mid-20s, I was a pastor, a young pastor. And there was an older pastor who had retired, who gathered a group of us for a mentoring group. And he's a retired pastor. There's six or eight of us in the group. And one day in the gathering, one of the young men my age does a. He thinks it's a flex. He says, man, let me just tell you what happens. For some reason, people when they have a struggle or a complaint, they just come to me. I think I'm just a safe place where people just feel like they can come and share all of their complaints with me. He was saying, like, this was a flex to the older pastor. And the older pastor says, son, now you know when an older pastor looks at you and says, son, you better brace yourself for what's coming. He said, son, if everyone's coming to you, you need to ask what's wrong with you, what signal you're sending that anyone with a complaint thinks they can find unity with you. Moses reminds the people, let me sum up the next section, guys. You're Levites. You have an amazing responsibility. You watch over the tabernacle. But it wasn't enough for these people who were forming this rebellion. It wasn't enough when God gave them bread, they wanted meat. Now it's not enough that God has them as Levites. They want Aaron and Moses role. They are not satisfied with the provision of God. They're not satisfied with what God has given. Moses sends word for them, hey, let's meet. They say, no, I don't want to meet. And they send word back to Moses. It's crazy talk. Look at verse 13. Is it not enough that you brought us from a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? This is shocking. Do you also have to appoint yourself as ruler over us? Notice they say, moses, you brought us from a land flowing with milk and honey. Where did Moses bring them from? Egyptian slavery. But they've grumbled so much that they've become foolish in their minds that they actually call the Egyptian slavery that God rescued them from the land of milk and honey. Though God called the promised land that he had for them the land of milk and honey, they stole the words God used to describe the promised land and attributed those exact same words to slavery in Egypt. We saw in week one of our study that Stanford University released research that the more you grumble and complain, you actually lose mental capacity and problem solving ability. You become more foolish. Let's be honest, some of us can't afford to be complaining. And these people were complaining and they made themselves foolish with all of their complaints. This was illogical. This was crazy talk. The land of Egypt was the land of milk and honey. See, when you complain and grumble, you actually say illogical, foolish things. When the inmates escaped from the prison in New Orleans, I was watching them and it was really foolish. They had no plan after they escaped. Too easy. Lol. They're out, no idea what to do. Several were captured within a couple of days. One was seated on a park bench. He just got tired of walking and just sat down. One got on social media, started posting pictures of himself on social media and was captured. Within a couple of months, all of them were captured, Every single one of them. Their rebellion was foolish because now not only are they back in prison, they're back in prison with longer sentences than they had to begin with. Now you know the most foolish rebellion? Our rebellion when we rebel against our Creator, as if something he has created can bring greater joy and satisfaction to us than he can. We are so foolish when we rebel. Now, Moses had told them, let's do this test the next morning. Here's what we're gonna do the very next day. We're gonna see who God accepts. And so what they would do in the tabernacle, God had set up that the person who was the priest was to go into the tent of the meeting, the tabernacle with a sensor or a fire pan and offer incense to God. And God would accept that offering. And the person was to represent all of the people to now Aaron. And these people from Aaron was the priest, and these others From Korah, these 250 and Korah himself, they were saying, we want to do what Aaron does. So Moses said, okay, let's. Fine. I don't want to do this anymore. Anyway. You come the next day, the next morning with the fire pan, and everyone's going to offer their incense to God. And let's see who God accepts. If God wants you to do this, I'm totally cool with it. Let's see what happens the next day. All right, this gets really intense. Verse 18. Here's the next day. Each man took his fire pan, placed fire in it, put incense on it, and stood at the entrance to the tent of the meeting along with Moses and Aaron. After Korah assembled the whole community against them, at the entrance to the tent of the meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole community. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron. This is God's word speaking. Separate yourselves from this community so I may consume them instantly. This rebellion is going to be really short lived. Moses and Aaron, they go to God on behalf of the people. They beg God to have mercy. God says, separate yourselves from their tent. And then look down at verse 31. Just as he finished speaking these words, the ground beneath them split open. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them. And their households, all Korah's people and all their possessions, they went down alive into Sheol. That's the. The grave or the pit with all that belonged to them. The earth closed over them and they vanished from the assembly. At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled because they thought the earth may swallow us too. This is God's word. Wow. Now I love you, Mariners Church, that you're willing to look at the difficult passages in scripture. Because the modern reader would ask, what kind of God is this that opens the ground and swallows people and then closes it? This is God bringing judgment out of his holy anger against the sinfulness of people. When I lived in Cincinnati with Kay, this is before children, I was a youth pastor there. We had a house that had a sinkhole, and the sinkhole kept getting bigger and bigger. And neighbors would make fun of us, like, you got to get that filled. Your house is going to fall in. And that wasn't true. It was incrementally growing over time. And we had a contractor come and add dirt and Pack it down, add more dirt, pack it down, plant grass, and everything was fine. This is different than that. This is not a natural sinkhole forming. This is God supernaturally opening the earth, swallowing a community of people, and closing the earth. Now, likely some of you would think, I'm all for that. If this was a group of murderers, open it up and swallow. If this was a group of rapists, open the earth and swallow. But let's be honest what is happening. This is a group of complainers. This is a group of grumblers that God says, I'm going to open the earth and consume you instantly. Now, I'm going to unpack what this means in a moment. I'm letting the tension build because I want to apply this to you. But you would likely think, I bet they stop complaining now. I'm not a perfect man, but if I was there, I think I would stop complaining. Let's see if they stop. Verse 41. The next day, the entire Israelite community complained about Moses and Aaron, saying, you have killed the Lord's people. When the community assembled against them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the tent of meeting, and suddenly the cloud covered it and the Lord's glory appeared. Moses and Aaron went to the front of the tent of the mean. And the Lord said to Moses, get away from this community so that I may consume them instantly. But they fell face down. Moses then tells Aaron in the next verse, run into the plague. There's a plague that is spreading. Run into the plague and offer incense. Offer a sacrifice so God will turn his anger. And Aaron does that. Verse 47. So Aaron took his fire pan as Moses had ordered, ran into the middle of the assembly, and saw that the plague had begun among the people. After he added incense, he made atonement for the he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was halted. This is God's word. Aaron, the priest who the people wanted to overthrow. The chapter opens with the people complaining against Aaron. The chapter ends with Aaron running into the plague, risking his life for the people that he loves so much. So what do we do with this passage? Some of you are new to the Christian faith. You're new to the Bible, and I'm so glad that you're here. You could wrestle with this text. There's some truths in this passage that are reiterated throughout all of Scripture. Here's a microcosm of some truths about the whole Bible. 1. God is more holy than we imagine. We can't even fully grasp in our finite minds his infinite holiness. He's more Glorious, more beautiful, more sovereign, more pure, more righteous, more holy than we can imagine. Holiness means to be set apart. He's not like us. He is different than us. He's pure and holy. In Southern California, we understand that the sun is awesome. We enjoy Southern California and the sun. Even in the afternoons when there's June gloom, we still enjoy the sun. And we know if you've ever taken a science class, you know that you have life because of the sun. That the earth would completely disintegrate without the sun, that it would harden. There wouldn't be life without the sun. The sun gives us life. But we also are wise to know that you can't casually approach the sun, that you must take the sun seriously. You couldn't even walk up to the sun. You would would be burned up if you got close. The sun must be taken seriously. God, according to the scripture, is a consuming fire. He is holy. He gives us life. We only have life because of Him. We only have life because he sustains us. But yet you cannot casually approach him as if he's just someone like you. He's holy. Which also then brings us to number two. We are more sinful than we realize because God is more holy than we understand. We are more sinful than we often realize. We sometimes will look at sins if there's categorization of, well, there's murder and rape, and then there's complaining. But because God is so holy, complaining is utterly sinful and disgusting to our holy God. Because it's saying, God, you weren't wise in what you gave me. You aren't gracious in what I have. He's more holy. We're more sinful. Now, I want you to understand where I see myself in this passage. I have heard pastors use this text to manipulate people and teach this passage really poorly. I've heard pastors say things like, we are the community. I am Moses, you're the people. And anything that God leads me to do, you should fully support. Or you're being like the sinful people. I've heard pastors say stuff like that. It's a wrong application of this text. I just want to be honest. I'm not Moses. Listen, you. You're such a great people. You honor me. You're so encouraging to me, but I'm not above you. I'm not Moses. When you read the New Testament, you don't see someone like me compared to Moses. The one you see compared to Moses is Jesus. He's the one who's rescued us from the slavery of our sin. Moses rescued the people from slavery of Egypt. Jesus rescued us from the slavery of our sin. I'm just like you in that I've fallen short of the glory of God. And if you're a Christian, you and I are just like. Because we have the same spirit of God living within us. God can lead you just like he can lead me. I'm not in a position above you at all, but among you. I say we must realize that God is holy and that all of us have fallen short. He's more holy than we know. We're more sinful than we realize. Which means we need a mediator. We need someone who's going to turn the wrath of God against our sinfulness. Because God is holy and pure. His wrath or his anger against sin is justified. It is right and righteous. Because we are the ones who've rebelled against Him. We rebelled in the wrong direction. We went our own way. All of us have. We need someone who's gonna be our mediator. Who will turn the wrath of God away from us. Aaron ran into the plague because he loved the people so much. But I have good news and you know this. But I wanna remind your heart. We have God, the son, Jesus, the Christ who ran into our plague. Who came here to seek and to save that which is lost. Aaron risked his life by running into the death. Jesus Christ gave his life and absorbed the cross as he died for us in our place. Aaron carried the censer. Jesus carried the cross as he went and was crucified to have the wrath of God turned from us. Aaron went and offered a sacrifice and offered atonement and offered incense. And God's holy anger was turned away from the people. Jesus is better than Aaron. Jesus accomplished more than Aaron. Jesus not only turned the wrath. Here's what Jesus did. He did not merely turn the wrath of God. Jesus, because of his great love for you, Jesus absorbed the wrath of God in his flesh, went to the cross and for six hours was brutally crucified. Excruciating pain. And in those six hours, all of our sin and shame was placed on him. All of the wrath of God against sin, if you've believed in him, was no longer on you. It was placed on Jesus. So at the end of the crucifixion he was yelling out it. And there's no more holy anger left for you in the cup of God's wrath. Jesus drank it to the very last drop. The only thing left for you, son and daughter of God, is God's mercy and grace and Compassion for you. Because Jesus drank the very last drop of the cup of God's wrath. He's better than Aaron. He's the greater Aaron. This passage is so intense, but it's the story of the Bible in a nutshell that God is more holy than we can imagine, which means we've fallen short more than we realize. But thank God that we have Jesus, the ultimate mediator, who has rescued us and forgiven us. He is our atonement, who has taken the punishment away from us because he absorbed it himself. So in this passage, though it is intense, you also see God's grace. Let me share it in another stunning way. And this is stunning. This was Korah and his family. Earth opens, they're swallowed. But clearly, when you read the whole story of the Bible, there are some of his descendants who knew to step away. There's some in his family who knew not to be a part of the rebellion. How do I know? Because when you keep reading the Bible, you get to the book of Psalms. And in the book of Psalms, there's multiple psalms that in the prescript above verse one, and it's in the original Hebrew. If you open your Bible and you go to Psalm 42 or Psalm 46 or Psalm 84, you will see in the prescript that this is a mascul, that the psalms a masculine, which means a teaching psalm, a psalm that teaches. And it's written by. This is mind blowing. It's written by the sons of Korah. The sons of Korah? What? Meaning that this family who was so rebellious, there were some who said, that's not going to be my legacy. That's not going to be who I am. No, I'm in awe of God's grace. Listen, some of you dads need to hear this because some of you grew up in a home where you had an absent dad. And you wonder if what kind of dad you're going to be. I'm going to tell you what kind of dad you're going to be. You're not going to be like the father you had. You're different because Jesus has made you brand new. You're going to be a good dad. You're going to be a good dad to your kids because Jesus has changed you and he's. And you're going to break the legacy. Somebody made you feel guilty about some generational curse, a generational sin. Korah's sons who wrote psalms, they're like seven generations later. They didn't believe in some generational curse being passed down because they believe that God's grace is bigger. And God's grace is bigger than all of your past and whatever is in the past of your generation. God's grace is bigger. And he's changed you. And you're going to be a man who follows after him. That's the kind of man that you're going to be. That's the man you're going to be. The sons of Korah wrote Psalm 84. Psalm 84, verse 10. Better is one day in your house, God, than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the world. Wicked. That's awesome. Because their great great grandfather said, no, I don't want to be a doorkeeper. I want to be the one in Aaron. Spot the descendants. I don't care what position I have. I just want him. I just want God. You get to the New Testament. Jude, the half brother of Jesus. I say half brother because they had the same mom, but a different dad, because Jesus was born of a virgin, didn't have an earthly biological dad. Jude wrote one chapter in the Bible. It's called the Book of Jude, but it's one chapter. And he warns us not to be like Korah. Don't be Korah. Don't rebel like Korah. So you have within you this desire to rebel. Rebel in the right direction. Rebel against your grumbling, not against his grace. Hey, men. And this is for everybody. But it's Father's Day, so I'm talking to the men for a moment. You're looking for a fight. Sometimes you're looking for something to go for, something to be passionate about. Rebel. But don't rebel against his grace. Why would you rebel against him? Rebel against your grumbling. Just like in the Book of Numbers, you're surrounded by a culture of grumbling. There's grumbling is so common in our landscape today. It's so common you've got to decide it's Sunday that you're drawing a line this week. And I'm not going to rebel against his grace. If I'm fighting anything, I'm fighting my grumbling. You are in the wilderness and there's going to be grumbling. There's things to grumble about. Maybe every time you're on social media, there's this account you go to and you get news and you always get frustrated and angry and you for it to seven friends and you text about it. Get off the app. Rebel against your grumbling. If that's what's doing to you. Rebel. Some of you, there's a group of friends that you go to a game with or you go to brunch with. And you'll notice every time you get in the car after you're with them, you grip the steering wheel a bit tighter because it just pulls out some anxiousness and some frustration and some anger. Listen, those people are created in the image of God. You should love them. God loves them. But limit your time with them if they constantly pull out the grumbling in you. Because when you grumble, those words leave your mouth. They enter back in through your ears. They get into your mind and make you foolish. They get into your heart and make you bitter and anxious. Rebel against your grumbling. If you're like me, I pull out my phone every Sunday night and I look at the meetings for the week. I've been doing this for years. It's how I begin my week. I'll pray over each meeting and each person I'm meeting with. On Sunday evenings, I'm. I pray over the whole week. Some of you as you will pull out your phone and look at your meetings coming up. There's things that you're frustrated with. You don't like this person or your boss or the job. And you start to complain and grumble. What do you do? Because grumbling will spread and ruin you. You replace your grumbling is how you fight it, with gratitude for God's grace. I'm not saying that the job magically gets amazing. What I am saying is that God's grace is greater than however bad the job is. I am saying that there's so much to be grateful for because your God rescued you from slavery, of your sin and your great God has everlasting paradise. You're looking for a fight. Don't rebel against God's grace. How foolish would we be? There's no one who's been better to us than he has. There's no one who's provided for us like he has. There's no one who's loved us like he has. Why would we ever rebel against Him? Instead, you draw a line in the sand and you put up your fist and you fight against your own grumbling because your own grumbling will destroy you. And you fight against your grumbling by rejoicing in his grace. That he is the one who ran into your death with the cross, took it all, is your atonement. And you now have life forever because of Him. So let's stand and let's worship him as we begin a new week. Let's sing our guts out, men. Come on, it's Father's Day weekend, men. Let's sing. Let's sing our guts out as we say God, we're stirring our affections for you. We're giving you our all. We're going to sing a song about all that Jesus has done for us. I know some of you want to leave right now. Don't do that. You sing. You sing. Rebel Against Leaving and give Jesus your worship. Let's sing to him now. All right, extend your hands, please, and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you'd bless your sons and daughters this week that you would remind them that you were gentle and approachable and that you love them. Cause your face to shine on them. I pray they will experience your mercy and your joy this new week. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go in peace. Have a great week.
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Thanks for tuning in to the Mariners Weekend Message Podcast to support the ministry of Mariners Church. You can click the link in the Show Notes or download the Mariners App at your favorite app store. If you've been navigating God's wisdom with us through this year's annual read and would like to hear personal reflections from pastors in your community, check out the Gospel Every Day podcast. Imagine feeding your heart, mind and soul with the kind of practical wisdom that will change your life. If you haven't picked up the annual read yet, visit MarinersChurch.org or download the Mariners app for more information on where to find it.