Better News Podcast Ricky Alcantar - Cross of Grace Church

God knows our needs better than we know ourselves. What we consider a need may really be a hindrance in our relationship with Him. In today's study, Pastor Ricky will show how only God can provide for our eternal hunger. Not only will He provide for our physical needs but more importantly, our spiritual needs. Mankind can only find true fulfillment in Jesus Christ. We'll see how Jesus was torn apart by the wrath of God on the cross for us so that we could be eternally fed.

Have you ever noticed the desire to return to some of the old habits which you gave up when you became a Christian? Pastor Ricky will show us in today's study how we could be much like the Jews after they were delivered from slavery in Egypt. Believers in Christ can also begin to grumble about not having the freedom of following their desires. However, the freedom that the world offers is actually slavery to sin. Sometimes we may be guilty of serving our desires and not God.

God's purpose for us is always good. It’s our sin that lies to us and we question whether He is present when things are going badly. But as people rebelled against Him in the desert, God promises to be with them and provide for their needs. They’re blaming God for their condition, for not taking care of them, and instead of turning away, He brings water from a rock. When we needed a savior He brought us his Son, The Rock, who gives us living water. No matter our misunderstanding of Him, He does provide.

In the most horrible times of your life, you may have wondered where is God? He couldn't possibly be watching us go through misery and be okay with it, right? Not like ourselves, His commitment never wavers. We will go through turmoil but He promises to be with us. With that kind of hope, we can go on. As we’ll hear in today’s teaching, God's commitment to His people is steadfast. They can't see beyond their current circumstances but God knows the plans He has for them and He will be there.

Giving your life to Jesus doesn't immediately make all your problems disappear. In fact, you may face new ones. Fully breaking away from our old lives is not an easy transition. As we’ll hear today from Exodus, God’s people were so fixated on the uncertainty of being in the desert that they started to look back on their lives in slavery as being better. When we begin to look back on our days without the Lord as having been easier, we need to remember the end game of that path and focus on renewed life in Him.

Throughout our lives, we’ll experience battles great and small but none are so vital as the one for our souls. For the unbeliever, God is fighting every moment to draw you near, for the believer that hard-fought struggle has been won. As Pastor Ricky will remind us in this study in Exodus that our bondage to sin has been broken just as the children of Israel were free from slavery in Egypt. The effects of sin still remain though but none as blinding and oppressive as those chains that bind unbelievers.