Why God Allows Bitter Seasons | Pastor Josiah Guajardo | Bitter Places

right now. Welcome to church today, man. I'm so thankful that you chose to be with us, to attend with us today. I believe that you're not here on accident, that God brought you here on a purpose. My name is Josiah Guajardo. I get to serve here as one of the pastors of Battle Creek Church, and I specifically get to serve alongside our online community. And so wherever you're attending from today, whether it be in Tulsa, America, or the entire world, we want to say welcome. And I just want to say it's an honor to be with you, to be able to open God's word with you. And before we jump in, I just want to honor Pastor Alex and just how thankful I am for the opportunity to get to speak today. And man, just the impact that him and Meredith has had on my life and my family's life. We're just so thankful for Battle Creek Church. And my family and I, Delmi is my wife's name. We've been here for coming up on 10 years. We have two kids, Isabella and Josiah. As I said, this is my wife, Delmi, our two beautiful children. Isabella is 10 months old last week, and Josiah is four years old. His name is Josiah, but we call him Josias. And you're saying, well, why do you do that? Well, we got some name problems in my household. My dad's name is David. My name as well is David Josiah. So they called me Josiah so that I wouldn't get referred to as David so there wasn't confusion in our house. But then I had this really creative and bright idea to name my son David Josiah. And so David was already taken, Josiah was also taken, and so we had to create and get a new name.

And so Josias, which is just Josiah in Spanish. But he's turning four this July. And let me just tell you, he is all, boy, what do you mean by that? Well, he is into all the sports now. He loves to be outside. The other day he, at my brother-in-law's house, came in with a snake and he was like, it likes me because it was wrapping its hand around you. I told him, that is not good. Do not come near me or by me. We do not like snakes, but he's all, boy. And what does that mean? That sometimes at night we come home and we have some pain, from whether it be jumping or bruises or growing pains, I don't know. But usually we have to give him some medicine just to help him, right? The other day he had gotten sick, and normally he really is okay taking medicine when he needs to. But the other day, for some reason, this medicine particularly, he just didn't like it. He had a problem with it. And as every parent knows, giving a toddler some medicine is an experience, right? Sometimes you're grabbing them and trying to put it down. But for some reason, I think he thought that this medicine was bitter, and so he didn't like it. He was trying to resist it. And what's interesting is, right, he saw it as something bad, and even though I knew it was for his good. And as his father, right, I wasn't trying to hurt him, I was really trying to help him. But because, right, he's only three years old, he couldn't comprehend that this wasn't something bad. That really, that this medicine, even though it may have tasted bitter, was actually going to heal him.

And see, that's what we're going to be in today's scripture in Exodus 15. The Israelites are kind of in this same season. God had just delivered them through the Red Sea. And it's how this chapter opens with a song of deliverance. They're literally worshiping him for the deliverance that they had brought, right? They were in Egypt, and they had been slaves for years, and God sent Moses to Pharaoh. He'd asked him to let them go, and that whole story plays out. And Pastor, actually, Pastor Alex just talked about this a couple weeks ago, and he literally talked about what plague would you prefer, and I was like, none, none of them. I don't understand that at all. But they had just been delivered from all of that. They had been saved and brought out of that, right? The sea had just split. They had just walked through there, and Pharaoh's army had just drowned, and they Forgot that right just three days after worshiping and singing about God's goodness They found themselves going from water being split to no water and now they found bitter water So if you have your Bible Exodus chapter 15, we're gonna pick up in verse 22 And this is what it says then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea They went into the desert of Shur and they went three days into the desert and found no water They found no water you can Underline that and this is when they came to Moriah. They could not drink the water of Moriah because it was bitter Suddenly the people who were worshiping are now complaining, right? So they go from they had just walked through the Red Sea, right? They just walked through water all around and being able to to split it Then they went to no water and now the water is bitter Sometimes we praise God in the breakthrough but question him when we're wrestling with bitterness or Difficult seasons and some of us are maybe in that season right now where we love God But life doesn't taste the way that we thought it would or it's not going the way that we really wanted it to go You see what the Israelites did not realize was that the bitter place was not evidence that God had abandoned him

Actually, it was evidence that God was still leading them there Sometimes God allows bitter seasons not to destroy you but to do a work in you We say a lot around here that God first needs to do a work in you before he can do a work Through you and today I want to share three things that the story teaches us about difficult places and bitter Places number one is this if you're taking notes, you can write this down bitterness can reveal your heart If you keep reading in Exodus chapter In verse 24 says then the people complained to Moses saying what can we drink underline? complained in your Bible, they're saying What can we drink right? They had just forgot what had happened And I noticed this the water was bitter But now not just the water was bitter, but the people now became bitter, too You see the environment exposed what was happening Eternally, isn't that true for for some of us in here that sometimes we reflect the season that we're walking through You see because pressure doesn't create what's in you pressure really what it does is it reveals what's already in you You don't know how much you trust God or or how much you surrender to him until life gets tough Anybody can worship after the Red Sea splits right after your miracle miracle But can you trust him when there's no water or there's bitter water? See this is just like a bag of tea Right. I brought one with me here today and I have this cup and so you really don't know What's on the inside of a bag of tea until it gets into hot water right on the outside It just looks like a bag, but when you put it in Right, it starts to change the flavor of the water You see the hot water pulls out what's already inside this bag of tea and in the same way The pressure reveals what's being inside what's been inside of us the whole time And so that that's what I want us to think about today Is not to forget that God is still doing a work in us And what amazes me is this is how quickly they forgot what God had already done Right just some days earlier God was their deliverer they were singing of his deliverance and now they're acting like he had abandoned them and Honestly, isn't that sometimes that one difficult season makes us forget what God had already done in our lives You see bitterness has a way of distorting our memory

It makes you forget the prayers that God had already answered in our life The doors that God had opened the time he carried you through it in the ways he's provided before You see the people complained to Moses, but Moses responds differently in verse 25 This is how Moses respond Moses cries to the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree You see it's the same problem Right, they have the same they're facing the same problem that their water is bitter But Moses goes to the Lord. It's a different response, right? The people were response was bitterness and the other response was dependence, right? Moses response was dependence on Lord. You've already taken me out I've saved me from Pharaoh's army and out of the Red Sea. Why would I stop depending on you now? It's like squeezing a sponge right when you have a sponge and it's full of water a lot of times you can't see it but when you Squeeze it, whatever is inside comes out. Pressure reveals what's on the inside. And some of us are blaming the season when really God is revealing something in us, right? God is revealing that maybe we're dealing with fear or control or resentment. Maybe you really, like we've talked about in our last series, that you have some unbelief that God doesn't really hear us or see us, that he doesn't really know me and I don't think he's coming to rescue us. Or maybe you're just trying to rely on self-dependence. And really what God is asking us to do is just to trust him, that God just wants us to trust him. And it leads to the second thing that I think this story wants to teach us is that difficult seasons can develop your trust, that it can develop your trust today.

If we keep reading in verse 25, right, it says, Moses cried out to the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree. And then this, Moses threw it into water and this made the water good to drink. See, verse 25 says that God showed Moses a tree and this is what's something special about our God is that, this is what I want you to see is that the tree was already there before Israel even arrived at Moriah, that God had already provided that tree before there was no water and then bitter water, there was already a tree nearby. You see, before the problem showed up, God had already prepared provision. Before they got thirsty, God already knew what he would use to heal them. The tree did not grow overnight, right? God had prepared it beforehand. He goes before us, he knew the need before you and I even knew or know the need. In this story, that's what I love about it is that Moses looks and he finds this tree, which means God had already planted it, God had already grew it, knowing that the tree had a purpose and he was going to use it to take care of his people. And some of us need to hear this today. And let me just tell you, I needed to hear this. God goes before you.

Isaiah 46, 10 says, I make known the end from the beginning. He is yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is the same and he knows and goes before you and me. So let me encourage you today. Before you got the diagnosis, he was already there. Before the heartbreak, he was already there. You may be surprised by the season that you're walking through, but God is not surprised by it. Before you even saw the problem, God already knew it and he already set the provision for it. You see, before you even showed up to the wilderness with no water or the bitter water, grace was already growing nearby. The answer to your pain may already exist even if you can't see it. Even if you feel like God doesn't hear you, see you or know you, let me remind you today that he does and he goes before you and he is Jehovah Rapha. He is your provider. And this is why in difficult seasons we have to develop trust because the wilderness forces dependence. You see, God intentionally led them somewhere where they had no control, no backup plan, no ability to fix themselves. Well, what did they have?

They had the dependence so that they could trust in him. You see, I had the opportunity in college to play golf and one of the things that I wasn't expecting when I went to college was that being a college athlete or a college golfer came with workouts. And I know what you're thinking. Why in the heck would you have to work out if you're playing golf? Well, trust me, the first two years I asked the exact same question. Like, let me just paint you this picture. I'm 140 pounds in college. The weight room is not my friend. I'm in there with grown men lifting grown men kind of weights and I was not that. I was weak and I wasn't very strong and I definitely wasn't lifting very much. We had this running joke in there because my goal was just to get to the big plate. What do you mean? In the weight room, the big plates are 45s and I was not there yet. And so during the season, I had began with the bar and then we added five and then we added 10 and then 15 and then 25. And eventually, at the end of my time, I got to two big plates and 45s on each side. And let me tell you, it wasn't impressive, but to me, it was breakthrough.

But what did I learn during that season? That as I added a little bit of resistance, it grew my strengths over time. Just like I learned to put a little bit more weight every single time. I learned to build my strength. I think God sometimes allows resistance because he wants to build the trust in us. Sometimes we think that if God loved me, he would keep me from hard seasons, but I think sometimes love looks like preparation instead of prevention. You see, God didn't stop them from walking without water. He prepared them for it. And I wonder how many times has God already placed in our future, has already placed grace in our future before we even arrive. Leads me to the third thing that I want you to know today, to learn today, is that God can turn bitter places into places of healing. Verse 25, right? Moses threw the stick in the water and the water became sweet. There's the good news of the gospel. God never wastes a bitter season. God never wastes a season, period. Then Moses threw the tree into water and the water becomes sweet. God just didn't bring them out of Egypt.

He wanted to heal them from what had happened in Egypt. And sometimes healing tastes bitter before it becomes beautiful. And that's kind of how it was when I go back to my son. He thought, why are you giving me this bad, bitter medicine? But as his dad, I knew that the bitterness was connected to his healing, that if he would just drink the medicine later, it would heal him. And maybe some of the seasons we're trying to escape are actually seasons that God wants to use to reveal our heart so we can depend on him and he can use it to heal us. Some people think that the tree points to the cross, that this tree that was Moses found in the desert is pointing to the cross, that Jesus would later hang on a tree to heal our bitter souls. Galatians 3.13 says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. You see that the tree Moses threw into the water became, made the bitter water good. And really think about that illustration on the cross. As Jesus died, he died for our bitterness. He died for our sins. The cross has the power to transform bitterness into healing, pain into purpose, suffering into testimony, like last week, the powerful testimony

of Caleb and Jeremy that we heard. And finally, brokenness into restoration. And I love that the story, that Moriah was not the end of the story. Verse 26 and 27, this is how it ends. There the Lord made a law for them and tested them. He said, listen well to the voice of the Lord your God. Do what is right in his eyes. Listen to what he tells you and obey all his laws. If you do this, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians. And it says, for I am the Lord who heals you. Verse 27, after leaving Moriah, the Israelites traveled onto the oasis of Elam and where they found 12 springs and 70 palm trees. They camped there beside the water. Because after Moriah came Elim, and after bitterness came refreshment, after testing came provision. You see, that place of bitterness was never meant to be permanent. And someone here today needs to hear that you don't need to stay in that bitterness. Don't build your home in bitterness. Don't let bitterness become your identity. Don't let people identify you by your bitterness. You may have experienced bitterness, but you were not created to live there. If God led you to this season, let me just tell you, he also knows what your next season is.

Some of you walked in today carrying disappointment and exhaustion. Maybe some of us are dealing with some unanswered prayers, or maybe prayers that are not answered in the way that we want. And maybe some of us today are literally facing and dealing with bitterness. And maybe today God is reminding you this, that he's not abandoned you. The tree was already there before the heartbreak. The tree was already there before the disappointment. The tree was already there before the bitterness. Let me just tell you, the cross was already there. And what feels bitter today may become the very thing that God uses to heal you today or tomorrow. And so today, I just wanna encourage you. We're gonna have a time of worship to respond. Let me just remind you that it is well. That God knows you, he hears you, he sees you. And he wants you not to stay in this season of bitterness, in this season of unknown, in this season of self-dependence. What he wants you to do is, hey, if you're working and living. through something, he wants that to reveal in your heart. Bring it up to the surface so that you can give it to him. In this time of worship, maybe today, you need to give him the very thing you're dealing with, or the very season you're walking in. Maybe that may be bitterness,

maybe that may be this doubt or unbelief. Maybe God just wants you to trust him today. To say, hey, I know you're walking through this, but trust God today. Help him to grow your trust, to develop your trust so you can trust in him. Or maybe you're here this morning, and you've walked through some difficult times in life. Maybe you've said, life has been difficult, and I've had some pretty difficult seasons, and I have some bitterness built up, or I have some distrust, and maybe God is working in your heart and you feel in this time right now that you need to deal with that. What I wanna tell you today is let God heal you. Let him bring that out, and as he reveals it in your heart, give it to him, trusting that he's gonna take care of it. And know this, the cross has already happened. He died for you and for me. We can leave it at the cross. You don't have to stay in bitter waters forever. God has already thrown the tree in the water. He's already thrown that piece of wood in the water. He's made it good drinking for you and for me. All we have to do is reveal our heart, trust in him, and allow him to heal us. So I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna continue to worship. And my encouragement for you today is don't leave with that bitterness in your heart.

Don't leave with the things in your life or in this season undealt with. Deal with them today. Reveal them to the Lord so you can trust him to take care of them, and he can heal you from that. Would you pray with me? Would you pray with me today and give that to the Lord? Maybe, let's do this. Would you just open your hands, your palms like this? Lord, I'm giving you the things that I'm walking through. Let me pray over you. Father, our hands are open, that we are giving you the things that we're walking through. The things that are in our heart, the bitterness, the doubt, the resentment, the self-dependence, the unbelief, God, we give it to you today. God, because we trust that you are gonna help us to deal with it, God, that we trust that we can give it to you and it is already taken care of. And Father, I pray that you would heal us today, that we wouldn't stay in bitter waters forever, that we wouldn't stay in this season, that you would help us to see that there is going to be a tomorrow, there is going to be a next season, that you go before us and you already have the provision that we need. And so God, I just pray over all of us today, Father, that we would deal with this today, that we would trust in you and that you would heal us from what we're walking through.

God, I'm so thankful for our church and for everyone who's attending today in Tulsa, America, the world, God, that you would do a work right there, wherever they're attending from today. In Tulsa, God, or America, or the world, God. We're so thankful for what you're doing, Father. We love you and we thank you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's continue to worship this morning.