I’d like you to think about how you would finish this sentence.
The sentence, “Things would be better if . . .”
How would you finish that sentence?
Boy, there are a lot of different ways you could finish that sentence.
Things would be better if . . .
COVID weren’t a real thing.
Things would be better if . . .
kids never had to miss any school in person.
Things would be better if . . .
we had the ability to plan more than a day at a time
without really expecting that something is going to blow up my best plans
because of how inconsistent and unpredictable everything is.
Things would be better if . . .
I knew who was going to get elected next week.
Things would be better if . . .
it would be the person that I want to get elected next week.
Things would be better if . . .
I could eat all the ice cream I wanted
and there’d be no negative side effects.
Or I could eat chocolate,
or cheese curds,
or french fries or anything greasy or deep fried.
A lot of different ways that we could finish that sentence.
And the Israelites found out that it’s really important how we finished that sentence
because, of course, they said things would be better if we had some meat.
In Numbers chapter 11, that’s what they said.
And God, as we said yesterday, he said, “Well, okay, I’ll give you some meat.”
“I’ll give you so much meat that it comes pouring out of your nostrils
“and you’ll get sick of it.”
And it seems that he pretty well delivered on what he said he was going to do
because in one day he said it made it rain quail from heaven.
And they landed on the ground and so much quail came onto the ground
and it was three feet off the ground.
And quail three feet off the ground
went for as long as the distance you could walk in one day.
In other words, they looked on the horizon
and that’s all they saw. There was so much of it.
I don’t know if and it actually literally came pouring out of their nose,
but it was a lot.
And things were good because they had their meat.
But then God did something.
For those who had complained to him that
things would be better if they only had meat,
he did something to the quail they were eating.
It did something to their stomach.
It made them start feeling sick
and then they died from it.
They died.
And God taught them in a very powerful way that there are consequences
to having the wrong thing in first place in your heart.
To loving anything more than you will love God.
Of course, it’s not wrong to love meat, or ice cream,
or anything deep fried.
It’s not wrong to want COVID to be gone.
It’s not wrong for
our kids to have students to play with and see every day in their classrooms.
It’s not wrong to care very passionately about who wins this next election.
But we have to be careful.
If our desire for those things has a bigger control on our heart and on our emotions
than God
and his love
and his promises,
A God who also knows what it’s like to ask himself that question
or to finish that sentence,
“Things would be better if . . .”
there weren’t nails in my skin.
Things would be better if . . .
they didn’t put the crown of thorns on my head.
Things would be better if . . .
my friends didn’t all run away from me when I most needed them.
Things would be better if . . .
the people that I’ve only loved
loved me back.
Things would be better if . . .
There are a lot of different ways Jesus could have finished that sentence.
But there’s only one way he did.
Things would be better if . . .
he loved you
no matter what.
Things would be better if . . .
you were forgiven
of anything and everything
that would potentially keep you out from being with him.
Things would be better if . . .
you knew definitively, without a doubt,
that God has your back,
that he’s by your side through absolutely anything.
Things would be better if . . .
you always had a reason to believe that it’s gonna be okay,
no matter how much better any other category of life could ever be.
Things would be better if . . .
you are a member of God’s own family.
That’s how Jesus finished the sentence
and because he did
you can rest well tonight, my friends,
because your life is in the best place of all.
It’s a place where you’re never alone,
where you’re always with him.