An Extreme Makeover // Name Dropping Part. 6 // Dr. Dharius Daniels

All right, well let's go to the Bible, the book of Exodus chapter number 15, beginning at verse number 22. Exodus chapter 15, verse number 22 says, then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went to the desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. Then, then they came to Marah. They could not drink its water because it was bitter. This is why the place is called Marah. So some of the people grumbled against Moses, saying, what are we to drink? Then Moses cried out to the Lord and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water and the water became fit to drink. There, the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. He said, if you will listen carefully to the Lord, your God, and do what is right in his eyes, if you will pay attention to his commands and all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of these diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you. I want to talk from this subject in our time together, family, an extreme makeover. An extreme makeover. Family, I think this passage encapsulates

an interesting axiom that I want to articulate in our time together today. It is simply this. There are certain things that don't come up until the bottom falls out. I'm gonna try it again. There are certain things that don't come up until the bottom falls out. In other words, there are some issues, some idiosyncrasies that are only exposed in seasons of inconvenience and adversity. And God uses the exposure of these unexposed issues as an opportunity to introduce to us an aspect of his ministry that goes unnoticed and in some cases, unappreciated until we get in situations where we need a revelation that the God of scripture is not just the God who makes us right. He's the God who makes us well. I need a better amen than that. And this particular passage here in the book of Exodus exposes us to this truth I'm attempting to articulate. We started reading in the latter part of Exodus chapter 15, but contextually, Exodus chapter 15 is called a song of Moses and Miriam. It is a song of Moses and Miriam. Pastor, what does that mean? It's a passage that captures Israel's response after God rescues them from Egyptian captivity and oppression.

The beginning of Exodus chapter number 15 exposes us to the activity of Moses and Miriam, primarily Miriam, who leads the congregation in corporate worship as an expression of appreciation for their divine deliverance. This particular passage gives us the first biblical picture of what we call in our context, a praise break. Are y'all here today? Yes, indeed. It is the first picture of a praise break in Scripture. And a praise break isn't just some church creation. It is not just some religious routine. It's not just some empty exercise. Although some traditions and some environments and some individuals trivialize this, they make it theater. They engage in extreme emotionalism. They are distracting and they are seeking attention. Although that is the case in some settings, it does not undermine the biblical legitimacy of pausing for the cause to give them a praise. A praise break is prioritization of appreciation. It is an intentional interruption of previously held priorities for the purpose of expressing gratitude for God's goodness. Did you hear what I just said? It is an individual recognizing I had something else prioritized, but I am going to intentionally interrupt what I previously prioritized for the purpose of intentionally expressing gratitude

for the goodness of God. Okay, here's the way you may have heard it said. When I think Where's my section of the goodness of Jesus I Was thinking about one thing my mind was occupied with another thing I had a different set of intentions, but something happened that reminded me of God's goodness and Reminded me of God's greatness and reminded me of his promises that he has made and kept to me and in that Instance I press pause on everything else that I'm doing and I give him Intentional appreciation for his goodness to me somebody take about 18 seconds and think about his greatness Think about his goodness. Think about his grander and do what they did in Exodus 15 That's right It is rooted in scripture. It is a scriptural practice based on this pattern in Exodus 15 Which is why at this church we praise them before service We praise them at the beginning of service. We praise them in the middle of service We praise them in praise and worship and we even praise them in the middle of the preacher Because once we get divine revelation, that's gonna cause a divine revolution in our life We don't wait for the Manifestation of what's being preached to celebrate we celebrate in the middle because we believe God's gonna do Just what he said I'm going if y'all go with me today or not It was raining outside. So I came ready. I came with my own fire You might not feel like hearing it I feel like saying it today He they engage in a praise break Did you hear what I just said? Yeah, they engage in a praise break. That's what the text says All right, they praise and the first portion of Exodus 15 you can read it first portion of Exodus 15 Captures this song But then toward the latter part of the chapter text says we read it together three days later Three days later

Come on They are wandering they have gone Past the shores of the Red Sea they are wandering in a desert called shore and for three days they go without water And the place the text says the people that were just appreciative Three days later Get amnesia They become anxious then they attack their asset It's in the text Did you hear what I just said three days later? I mean after they text even says read Exodus 15 is the first mention of a tambourine in Scripture in Miriam uses a tambourine after after they got through three days later they run into unexpected adversity and the Unexpected adversity creates amnesia pastor. What do you mean? Because their issue was the absence of water They're in the desert three days with no water So they're anxious because they have a water problem I'm arguing that their anxiousness is a result of amnesia Because they're anxious Ladoon because they have a water problem They're anxious because they have a water problem They're anxious because they had a water problem, but three days before God had just fixed a water problem Just fixed a water problem because the Red Sea was a water problem So now they're anxious about water because they forgot God just fixed an Issue with some water and I want to tell you that the same God that fixed that water problem It's the same God that can fix this water problem the same God that fixed that provision problem

It's the same God that can fix this provision problem. He's the same yesterday today and forever more So Texas They're trying to find water and they get to this place called Mara Everybody say Mara so they get to this place tomorrow body of water, and watch this. They get excited and then disappointed. Three days, no water. Then all of a sudden, they see water. Three days, no water. Then all of a sudden, they see some water. Three days, no water. All of a sudden, they see some water. They've been hoping for water, praying for water, confessing water, journaling about water, believing for water. And finally, they see some water. So it looks like God has answered their prayer. And then they get to the water. And the Bible calls it bitter. That just means it's salty. It's seawater. So it can't quench their thirst. So I've been needing some water, believing for water, praying for water, journaling about water, confessing water. Then I see some water. And I start testifying that God has given me some water. I go on threads. And I say, God has given me some. Some of y'all understand. I go on threads, and God has given me some water.

And I go to IG and say, God has given me some water. And then I get to what I think is an answered prayer. And what looks like an answered prayer is a problem. Now, my degree of disappointment matches my degree of excitement, because I thought you were going to do it. And then when I got close to it, I saw you didn't. God, it feel like you're playing with me. God, don't play with my emotions. Where is my honest church today? Has anybody ever been through a season where you felt like, God, don't? Come on. You didn't even have to get my hopes up about this. He gets to Mara. Mara is salty water. Mara is salty water. They get to a salty place. I'm going to tell you why this is important. Because the Bible claims that Israel's exodus out of Egypt, or the Bible reveals that Israel's exodus out of Egypt is a type or a foreshadowing of salvation. Can I prove it to you? The Apostle Paul in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 1 says, for I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they passed through the sea. When he says under the cloud, what does that mean? When Israel was making their exodus, the Bible says God led them through signs and symbols. There was a cloud that led them by day. So they followed the cloud.

And there was a pillar of fire that led them by night. So that represents the presence of God. Now, what Paul says here is, he says, remember, because they're in the Old Testament, so they weren't baptized in Jesus' name, right? They didn't experience what we would call a New Testament baptism. What Paul says, that they were all under the cloud, the presence of God, and they passed through the sea. What sea is that? That's the Red Sea. So the cloud represents the presence of God and the sea represents baptism. Why? Verse 2, they were all baptized into Moses. Y'all following me? Okay. And the text says, once they get tomorrow, the water is bitter. They cry out against Moses. Moses doesn't cry out back to them. He cries up to God. And God shows him a piece of wood. He doesn't create anything. He shows him something that already exists. So he doesn't have to create something new to fix a problem. He shows him something that's already existing and says, I'm going to give you anointed innovation and I'm going to show you how to use something that already exists to solve a problem you can't solve on your own. So he says, I want you to take wood and throw the wood in the water. And when you throw the wood in the water, it's going to make bitter water, sweet water, undrinkable water. Drinkable water so you get saved from destruction because of what I did with the wood Did you hear what I said? So it's a it's a type of salvation because Egypt represents a type of the world

coming out of Egypt Represents coming out of the world coming out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God Then being baptized through the Red Sea Saved Because of what somebody did with the wood Y'all did y'all catch that Cuz the use of the wood in the Old Testament Here is a foreshadowing of use of the wood in the New Testament Cuz God used wood to save their life in the Old Testament, but he used a cross To save our life in the New Testament, it's a picture of salvation Are y'all okay, I promise you I'm going somewhere y'all. Okay. Here's why this is important. They're saved and in a salty place Saved But in a salty place saved but in a bitter place But it took them three days To be exposed to their bitterness Ah Yes, indeed when they first got out they got new believer zeal They have no knowledge but zeal Did y'all hear what I just said? Yeah, remember as soon as they get out of Egypt Remember they get on the other side of Red Sea. It's a whole praise break. So they got that new believer zeal Y'all experience that or you experience people who have that no knowledge only zeal But they think their zeal is knowledge So they've been reading the Bible three weeks and now you don't know what you're talking about and you've been reading it 30 years But when they run into adversity post Egypt They don't know what to do Because their only experience with managing adversity is when they in bondage So I know what I do when I don't know what to do when I'm in Egypt But I'm not in Egypt anymore

So, how do I handle conflict now? How do I handle lack now? Because when I had lack in Egypt, I knew how to run it up It's quiet here Did you hear what I just said So that they're saved but they bitter Saved but salty Because Mara was a mirror that revealed to them issues That don't come up until the bottom falls out Did you hear what I just said Mara was a mirror that revealed to them some issues that don't come up Until the bottom falls out Mara is when you get to the place where you realize and the three days represents a season Not three literal days, but it's a season In your spiritual journey where you realize I'm out of Egypt But some of Egypt is still in me and Sometimes it takes three days for that to show up. Yes, you say Yes, you're going to heaven, but you're salty And come on here and when I say salty I'm using it as a metaphor to expose or explain the Unaddressed impact that Egypt had on you, even though you out of it Sometimes it takes because when you got that new believer zeal is I woke up in this Jesus and I ate lunch in this Jesus And I went home and it's Jesus and you need to pray like I pray and you need to read like I read And you need to be sound like I'm sound and you need but then three days You hit a season in your spiritual journey journey, the wall. You hit a season, you hit a spiritual journey where all of a sudden the impact of all of those years of abuse and all those years of abandonment and all of those years of identity issues and all those years of exploitation and all those years of manipulation and all those years of subjugation and all those years of oppression and suppression and depression. You hit a place where you see the impact of all of those years

and you see some ways, some habits, some tendencies, some impulses, some perspectives, some practices that grew out of the wounded soil of their soul that was not automatically evicted when they made an exit out of Egypt. My God, did you hear what I just said? I said not automatically evicted when they're out of Egypt. I got Bible. I said I got Bible. You guys remember when Israel built that golden calf? What if I told you that wickedness was an expression of woundedness? I got Bible. I got this. Exodus 32. Watch what it says. Exodus 32. We're gonna read it together. We're gonna read it together. When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered Aaron and said, come make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him. Give my text back up. Watch what? My text. Same one. Yeah, verse one. The one we just had up. Please. Exodus 32, right? One. All right. No problem. I got it here. When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain. Are y'all hearing this? When they saw he was so long, what is taking him so long? Then they gathered around the one who was there. They don't even know this man if it's not for Moses. So they have an attachment to who's present. Because they feel abandoned by who's absent. So their idolatry is a result of their anxiousness that is tied to their abandonment issues that was accumulated in Egypt. He about to leave me too. Okay. Okay. Okay. Are y'all okay? Okay. Come, let us make gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him. So watch this. They don't even ask for Aaron to be their leader. They ask for Aaron to help them make a god because they were treating Moses like that. Because spiritual infancy creates spiritual codependency. And many people become challenged when spiritual families, like a changed church, which is all about life change and spiritual maturity and growth, won't accommodate spiritual codependency. Instead of Moses being treated like God's man, they were treating Moses like a god. When Moses was just the vessel that God used to get them out of Egypt, if Moses would have said

no, he would have picked somebody else. Hallelujah. God's gonna get it done. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah. Spiritual codependency is when Christians attempt to utilize an individual or an organization as a substitute for what God God wants to equip and empower them to do for themselves. Y'all aren't talking to me in here. Did you hear what I said? So do we need other people to help us pray? Yes. Is there a ministry for an intercessor? Yes. But if you use Jesus' name, and your faith is strong, when your baby got a fever, and the Tylenol won't work, and you can't get to a preacher, you can get your own lawyer. I need a church in here today, and lay hands on your own child, and pray for your fever to break, that fever to break. All right, let me wrap up. They tired, all right. Pastor. What'd he say? It's at this place that the Lord makes this statement. It's at the bitter place, it's at the salty place that he makes this statement. If you listen carefully to the Lord your God, and do what is right in his eyes,

if you pay attention to his commands, and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of these diseases I have brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you. It is in this place, the bitter, salty place, that he reveals himself as Yahweh or Jehovah Rapha. The Lord who heals. Are y'all hearing this? It is in this bitter place, this salty place, that he reveals I'm the Lord who heals. Now here's what I wanna do. I wanna do a little preaching polemic here, okay? I wanna do some loving correction here. I wanna do it charitably and humbly, but very often, for those of us that are familiar with Jehovah Rapha, we talk about the name, but not the context that the name was given. Because the context that the name was given in reveals to us what the name actually means. Because Rapha has been historically interpreted and relegated to physical healing. But no one in this text is physically sick. Mara did not reveal physical sickness. Mara did not reveal a sick body. Mara revealed a sick soul. How? You come out of Egypt, but you are sick with cynicism, and you are sick with anxiousness, and the constant stress you are under

has caused you to have a deregulated nervous system. And now, anytime somebody says, I need to talk, your heart rate goes through the roof because your nervous system has been subjected to constant and consistent stress. You cannot enjoy seasons of God's bountiful blessings because something in the inner recesses of your soul gets scared and paranoid when things start going well. So you brace yourself, and you are waiting for the bottom to fall out because all that time in Egypt has you under so much emotional dysregulation that you cannot enjoy the goodness of God in the land of the living. Sick. And Rapha says, I want to heal that. Does he heal physically? Yes, but to relegate Rapha to physical healing only is to rob yourself of the richness of that revelation. Like he said, I can do more than break fevers. Glory to God. I feel Pentecostal. Hit me one time that I said he can do more than break fevers. That's it right there. I need somebody to help me preach this. I said he can do more than break a fever. He can break a generational pattern. He can break a dysregulated nervous system. He can break your pattern of cynicism and paranoia and negative thinking.

He's Rapha. I said he's Rapha. We gotta go. It's in this context that he reveals himself to be Rapha. So you saved. I'm done. But you're almost paranoid. You're waiting on the bottom to fall out. Because in Egypt, that's all that did happen. So now, that's all you think will happen. And he says, I want to heal that. Moses go to the store. You think he never coming back. He just went to the store. I'm coming back. I just went to the store. Wait a minute. That's aggressive. Where you at? Rafa says, I know you saved, and I got you out of Egypt, and you had that new Egypt zeal. But then I took you through a season, three days. You ran into what's called the wall, and now you see, I'm saved and I'm out of Egypt, but there's some stuff God's telling me to do that I was able to do immediately after Egypt. But now that I've been in this three days, it's some stuff I'm still struggling to do. And I'm going the second way, and they don't have answers, so they keep telling me to do what I did. So I keep going the second way, because they don't have the answers, because they're not living it. They tell you to do more of what you're already doing, because they're not humble enough to admit they stuck at the same wall you are.

They just got a mic. They just got a teaching gift, but they still stuck. Rafa's expanding our understanding of salvation to what we call Sozo. We have a whole change track, six weeks, on this. Because salvation has roots in this word Sozo, and it means holistic salvation, comprehensive restoration. It means to save from danger, destruction, and eternal death, to heal from disease, to preserve and to keep safe, but also to make whole and restore. And many of us have been operating with an incomplete understanding of salvation that accepts we can be rescued, but ignores that we can be repaired. So when we get to this wall and we realize, okay, I was able to stop some stuff, but I hadn't stopped all the stuff, and I'm able to love some people, but I ain't loving my enemies yet. And then second way creates such a culture of pretension that you feel judged by being honest. So you're more accepted in second way as a hypocrite than you are as an imperfect person. So if you don't love your enemies but act like you do, in second way church, you accept it. But if you're honest and say, I don't love my enemies, then you're judged. Because here's my point, there's another name of God, we're dropping two names today. There's another name of God that comes in the book of Leviticus, Leviticus chapter number 20. He says, consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am the Lord that makes you holy. That's Jehovah or Yahweh Makkadesh. Now Exodus in the Bible is before Leviticus, right? Yes, Exodus is before Leviticus, which means Rapha is introduced before Makkadesh. If you want to get technical, Rapha is introduced before Mount Sinai. So Rapha's actually introduced before the commandments, because there's some of the commandments you can't execute without being whole. Here's some of your challenge.

I got to go and we're over time, this is about to be a problem, but, I'm sorry, but I needed like a Sunday evening service for this really. Here it is, here it is, listen to me, listen to me now. Some of your challenge, those of you who aren't churched, you may not have this issue because you don't have this, you don't have the detox from this, but some of you, here's your challenge because it was mine, you got introduced to Makkadesh first. So they preached to you Makkadesh and not Rapha. So it kept you in a cycle of spiritual stagnation, sin, and shame, because no matter how much you kept praying, it's some stuff you couldn't break. But you can't break it because you're broken. So Rapha has to make you whole so you can be holy. So, instead of experiencing what we would call a reformation, you live your spiritual life with repression. And then there are some people who are Pharisees who live in a constant state of repression because they don't have a healthy theology of spiritual formation. So all they talk about is repression, repression, repression, repression. So they live with a hyper-religious zeal that creates a sense of superiority because you don't love Jesus like I do because you're not doing what I do. When the fact is you have to keep doing that because every day you have to fight a dragon that you could make a snake. So you're dealing with a dragon when you could be dealing with a snake if you let the Holy Spirit actually heal you. So you're bragging about your holiness, but you're not whole. That's why you mean. And kindness is the fruit of the Spirit. So if you're not kind, I don't care how much Bible you teach or preach, it says to me there's an area of your soul that's not whole. And so now you've got to fight your demons and dragons every day, and now you assume everybody else has the same demons and dragons because you stuck on the side of a wall. So now you can have no balance because you have no strength.

And when we have balance, you call us uncommitted when you really underdeveloped. You that weak you can't hear a song and not get into bed? You got Maccadish before you got Rapha, and some holiness doesn't come until you're whole. God wants to give us an extreme makeover. I'm sorry, we way over, but we just got to stop, I don't know. But this is a space where you need to be honest. There's some areas where you're stuck, and it might not be a sin cycle, it might be an obedience issue. You really can't love your enemies yet. Like I'm at the point where I'm not going to do nothing wrong to mine. That's where your bishop at. So let me model, now I didn't have to tell you that, why did I say that? I'm trying to model something for you that you need to do. Like yeah, I love them with the love of the Lord. Do you want to be with them? Nope. Want to hang out with them? Nope. Amen. I don't want anything bad to happen to them. That's where I'm at right now, though. That's where I'm at. Amen. I'm not going to bother you back. That's it. Stay over there. Why? Because everybody's got an area where he's working you through the wall. So I got to progressively heal you, got to progressively heal you, because in some areas you won't be able to be holy until you get healed.

You done been in this altar 18 times. Because you've been coming here looking for Maccadish. And Rafa said, if you'll meet me, I promise you, if you meet me, I'll introduce you to Maccadish. I'll make the introduction because Maccadish is the Lord that makes you holy by making you whole. God have mercy. So I'm getting ready to pray, because why would you believe he can heal cancer and can't heal resentment? Amen. You won't live. You'll fight the good fight of faith with cancer, but won't fight it with paranoia. And Rafa wants to regulate. Why do I keep hearing nervous system? Rafa wants to regulate nervous systems. You're not bad, you're broken. You're afraid. You're wanted. You're out of Egypt, but you can't go through what you went through in Egypt. And Egypt not impact you. And the devil don't want you to have this revelation. Because he wants you and he wants well-meaning, but unformed and uneducated preachers to keep you stuck in a sin cycle. Because they haven't met Rafa yet. You can't fix it. This is why you're in a cycle. Whole before holy. I'm gonna pray. You're here today. Jesus is Rafa. Jesus is Nisi. Jesus is Makedesh. Jesus is God. See, the more the Lord sanctifies you, the more you see. And even stuff you thought you were through and over. He shows you aspects of it. We're showing up in your life in different ways. I didn't know until literally the Holy Spirit just showed me this this moment on this stage. That when I lost my friend Ramon Harper in 2019, what it created in me is an unhealthy fear when it comes to anybody I love deeply. So my wife's mammograms make me so nervous. My phone ringing. If it's early in the morning, I see dad on there. Heart rate spike.

That was loss. I'm not weak. I'm a human that he's making whole. And right now, I believe the Holy... Why did I say that? I didn't have to say that to you. I'm modeling something. I'm not only called to give you theology, I'm called to be an example so that you can put it into practice. And I believe the Holy Spirit show us right now where some of our Egypt is showing up. And Rafa, would you heal? Would you set free? And would you deliver? In Jesus' name. You're free to go but some of you are free to stay. We'll figure the rest of it out. But I think some of us just need a minute. And so some of you, if you need to go, you can go. Please go if you need to go. But you don't have to go just yet. Amen.