Episode 1361: Quarreled & Tested

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1, 361 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:10] Sharon Grossman: I'm Dr. Sharon Grossman. I challenge you to invest in yourself. Invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to avoid burning out is key.

[00:00:27] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:49] Scott Maderer: And some of these tests and quarrels and arguments that we have might fade by the wayside if we stopped worrying about what's different and started focusing [00:01:00] on what we have in common and started focusing on putting those things into action that really matter. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:01:14] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you

[00:01:41] In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about both Exodus 17 1 7 and Matthew 21 23 32. I share how we often complain and test God instead of showing faith. I also share how instead we should focus on living out our faith [00:02:00] in action. Exodus Chapter 17 verses one through seven says, from the wilderness of sin, the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages as the Lord commanded.

[00:02:12] They camped at rium, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people qualed with Moses that said, give us water to drink, and Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses and said, Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?

[00:02:33] So Moses cried out to the Lord, What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, Go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rocks at Horeb.

[00:02:51] strike the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink. And Moses did so inside of the elders of Israel. He called the [00:03:00] place Masai and Merneb, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not? Matthew chapter 21 verses 23 through 32 says, When he entered the temple, the chief priest and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?

[00:03:22] And Jesus said to them, I also ask you one question. If you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? And they argued with one another. If we say from heaven, he will say to us, when, why then did you not believe him?

[00:03:43] But if we say, of human origin, We were afraid of the crowd, for all regard John as a prophet. So they answered Jesus, We do not know. And he said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the [00:04:00] first and said, Son, go and work in the vineyard today.

[00:04:03] And he answered, I will not. But later he changed his mind and he went. So the father went to the second son and said the same. And he answered, I go, sir. But he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? And they said, the first. And Jesus said to them, Truly, I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.

[00:04:25] For John came to you in the way of the righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. Now I think we can all agree that there's a lot of quarreling, a lot of testing going on in the world today.

[00:04:48] And it's showing up in churches all over the world as well. There's continued fighting around all sorts of things. And this first passage from [00:05:00] Exodus is talking about access to water. Which, honestly, is a big issue in a lot of parts of the world. I'm in South Texas and we've had a drought recently. We have finally had a couple of days of rain just in the last few weeks, but before that it had been months since the last rain of any sort.

[00:05:20] And though we may fight over resources, water is one of those resources that seems really immediate and personal, because we need it to survive. And you can see the panic that these people are having here. They are out in the desert. They've escaped from Egypt. And yet again, they're without food or water.

[00:05:43] If you remember last week, we talked about an earlier passage where they were complaining about having nothing to eat and nothing to drink. And again, it's give us water to drink. And Moses seems almost offended by this. He hears the panic. He hears the fear. He hears the [00:06:00] frustration. He hears the anger and he says, Why do you quarrel with me?

[00:06:04] Why do you test the Lord? See, it's not just about whether or not they trust him. It's about whether or not their actions are showing faith in the God who rescued them, who's already provided for them just a few short verses ago and will provide for them again. He seems to be saying, Hey, remember quarreling and testing.

[00:06:27] We've tried that. It didn't get you anywhere. And Jesus, the passage in Matthew, is a similar idea. Here, Jesus is in the temple, and he doesn't actually rename the temple quarrel and testing like Moses did. Those words at the end are literally the words for quarreling and testing. But instead, everywhere Jesus goes, somebody seems to try to, Ask him a question and a lot of times those questions aren't really questions They're set up as gotcha moments or traps designed to make him look bad Or make [00:07:00] him look like he doesn't have real faith, or he's not living out the law that somehow he's subversive And so they ask him by what authority do you do this?

[00:07:12] and Jesus seems to say back to him. I'll show you yours if you show me mine. What authority do you have? How dare you, they seem to be saying, do the things that you're doing like healing people, accepting people, giving people grace. How dare you go around telling people how to get into heaven? Who do you think you are?

[00:07:35] What am I gonna do with you? Both Moses and Jesus in some way seem to be saying, Or could be saying why am I surrounded by these quarreling people? Why am I surrounded by these people who are testing me? I don't know about you, but it would make me angry. But in a way, Jesus says, you know what?

[00:07:56] Let me ask you a question. And he says, great. And he [00:08:00] asked them the question about John the Baptist and the people seem to be trapped between saying that it's of God, but that would then. give them one set of kind of traps that they would fall into, because if they say it's from heaven, then they will then have to stand up and say, why didn't we believe him?

[00:08:24] Because they didn't believe in John the Baptist, or if on the other hand, they say it's of human origin then the crowd that's around them who notice they're kowtowing to in a way, might argue with them or harm them in some way. And then Jesus takes this weird turn and starts to talk about the parable of two sons.

[00:08:46] But notice what this parable is showing. It's showing that disconnect between the words and the deeds. The words that the people speak and the deeds that they actually do. And Jesus [00:09:00] sets them up and he tells them the story. He says, Hey, which one of them did the will of the father? And of course, it's the one who actually did something.

[00:09:09] He didn't ask which was the better son or who was the more holy son. He said, which one of these is doing the will of the father? Doing the right things. Notice, by the way, they're doing the right things. The son isn't doing it because he expected a reward. He's not doing it to earn anything. He's doing it because the father asked.

[00:09:30] He's doing it out of a response to that. And yes, his first word was no, but then he went and did it anyway. Jesus seems to be pointing out that those that can get their hands dirty, those who are building community and working in relationship, those who are working with those who come alongside, even if those people who come alongside maybe aren't the nicest, aren't the best, aren't the most friendly people in the world, somehow are being on the path a little bit more than those who [00:10:00] are talking a good game.

[00:10:01] Making promises, but then not actually matching their actions to those promises. This seems to be a long haul journey, where we have to act the way we speak. And we do it not because we think we're going to earn something, but because it's just the right response to being asked. That teaching is that first is a living out of the faith.

[00:10:27] First is putting faith into action. That's how we can stop fighting and quarreling with God. That's how we can show a response to God. Standing up and speaking up whenever we need to, going out and doing things whenever we're called to. It's about living, not just talking about it. It's about doing, not just talking about it.

[00:10:53] And some of these tests and quarrels and arguments that we have might fade by the wayside if we [00:11:00] stopped worrying about what's different and started focusing on what we have in common and started focusing on putting those things into action that really matter. Thanks for listening.

[00:11:21] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to Facebook. com slash inspired.

[00:11:45] stewardship, and like our Facebook page and mark it that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our [00:12:00] abilities with time and tips there. Until next time, invest your time Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.