Well, I'm certainly glad to be here this morning and spend this time with you.
I trust that as we've already been blessed, that God will continue to bless our time together
and use this time to encourage us in our walk with him.
I had the privilege of growing up in a pastor's home.
My dad entered the ministry when he was kind of middle-aged.
He was elected to the ministry as pastor in a small local church.
And so a lot of my formative years were spent in that kind of a home, that kind of a context.
And there was a time when I was in my teenage years, a high school student,
and we had a young family that came and joined us for one, not quite a year,
probably maybe through the equivalent of a school year.
And they were doing an internship because they were going to go out as missionaries.
And so they came and they were part of our little congregation for that time
and just got to know this family and appreciated the contribution they made to our ministry and our church there.
Went out to the mission field and when they came back, they came back somewhat disillusioned
because things were not what they had expected them to be.
It wasn't really what they had signed up for.
And I was thinking about coming to speak here and, you know, it's kind of nice when you have a period of time to prepare.
I know when you have to, not have to, but when you speak to the same congregation week after week,
it seems a week goes by very quickly and Sunday morning is there again.
But now that I have more free time, I have more time to think through what I'm going to speak about.
And so I was thinking about what should I share here this morning?
What would God have for us this morning?
And my thoughts were influenced by a book that I read written by Rabbi Jason Stobel.
And he was writing about the life of the Messiah.
And one chapter he devoted to Jesus being in the desert.
Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for 40 days and 40 nights.
That time that Jesus fasted right after his baptism.
And so he pointed out some different things that happened in our walk when we're in that wilderness experience.
This Penner family that went out as missionaries, things weren't what they expected them to be.
They were in kind of a, we might call it a desert or a wilderness experience.
Those thoughts are kind of parallel what happened with the children of Israel.
When they were in slavery in Egypt and then God raised up Moses to be the one who led them into freedom,
God gave them the promise of a promised land.
He had promised that to Abraham years ago, generations ago.
But now was the time for the children of Israel to enter into that promised land.
And so they had the opportunity to leave slavery and bondage and a place that wasn't really what God had called them,
their homeland.
And they had an opportunity to go into the promised land.
But they spent time traveling through the wilderness.
And it wasn't what God had planned for them to be long term.
But they ended up spending 40 years in that wilderness.
In Psalm 78, verse 52, and a couple of verses following, we read a little bit about that.
But he brought his people out like a flock.
He led them like sheep through the desert.
He guided them safely so they were unafraid.
But the sea engulfed their enemies.
Now he's thinking about the Red Sea and how the Egyptian army chased them and God delivered them.
Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land, to the hill country his right hand had taken.
He drove out nations before them and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance.
He settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
Isn't that wonderful how God can deliver people and bring them into a place of plenty,
a place of blessing, a place of prosperity, a place of goodness.
That is who God is and that is what he intends for his people.
And so the story of Israel and Moses and leaving Egypt and going to the promised land
has so many parallels to our own walk with God.
But the next verse says,
But they put God to the test and rebelled against the Most High.
They did not keep his statutes.
But.
God had these good plans for them.
But.
The people rebelled.
The people were sinful.
The people were doubting.
They didn't trust God.
And so they ended up spending that whole generation in the wilderness.
Now God doesn't intend for us to live our life in the wilderness.
However, there is a time between coming to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
And maybe you've experienced the transformation that comes when you see everything with new eyes.
And you have that new life.
And you have that freedom that comes from the burden of sin being lifted.
And you're not carrying that guilt anymore.
And you have that awareness that God loves me.
That Jesus died for me.
It's a personal salvation.
And then you read in his word about all the wonderful promises God gives us of his presence with us.
His empowering.
The way that he wants to use us.
That life.
We could call it life in the promised land.
But what happens is that sometimes there's that transition from that newness and that freshness and that joy and that new awakening.
And actually living in that place of promise.
As I was thinking about this, just in the last two weeks, I've had two interesting conversations.
The first one was with our next door neighbor.
Just moved in.
Just getting to know him a little bit.
Found out he's a believer.
And he has one of those testimonies of living in the world.
And being completely immersed in the world and in the drug culture and all of that kind of thing.
And then God just radically touching him and changing his life.
And now he's walking with the Lord.
And he's studying.
He's working full time.
But he's also studying full time in an online seminary.
And he's feeling a sense of being called to ministry.
But he was sharing with me that 10 years ago when he came to know the Lord, he had this wonderful transformation.
And this just a new insight into what life was all about and how he could be free from the bondage of sin.
And the drugs that he was involved in.
And all of that brokenness and that dysfunction.
And he had this joy and this peace.
And he said, but then for a while I kind of wandered.
He went into that desert place.
He went into that place where it seemed as if the presence of God was not as real.
It wasn't as vital.
And he kind of struggled for years.
And then slowly learned more.
And learned about walking with the Lord.
And now he's in a good place.
But he went through a time of real struggle.
Another person that I talked to within the last couple of weeks is somebody that has been used in ministry.
Somebody that has training in ministry.
Somebody that has been used in ministry.
And was sharing with me just the other day.
And I said, right now I'm in a place where I'm not seeing any sense of purpose.
I'm not content where I am.
I feel that there is something that could be different, should be different.
But I'm kind of stuck here.
And I thought, you know, that's probably not an uncommon experience.
Maybe many of you can relate to the fact that there is that joy and that freedom that come when you first come to know the Lord.
And there's the great promises that God has for us.
But your daily life feels a little bit like cake without ice cream.
Or cake without icing and ice cream, right?
It just, it's there but it's not quite.
It doesn't feel as if you're living quite in what God has promised.
Sometimes God leads us into that wilderness.
Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit of God.
God had a purpose in that.
God had a purpose in taking the Israelites from Egypt through the wilderness to the promised land.
He didn't intend for them to be there for a whole generation.
But he intended them to be there.
What did he do in that wilderness?
Well, Moses went up on Mount Sinai.
He got the Ten Commandments.
He got the instructions about building the tabernacle.
These people had been immersed in a culture that was ungodly.
They'd been influenced by the Egyptian culture.
Remember what they did as soon as they ran into a little bit of a test?
Make us a golden calf.
Well, that was a direct influence of the thinking of the Egyptians.
What did they do when they were running short of, or they got tired of their food, or they were maybe short of water?
They said, you know, maybe we could go back to Egypt and we could have some of those leeks and onions and cucumbers that we used to enjoy there.
They forgot about the slavery.
And they said, but there was different food there.
And maybe we could just go back to that.
And so they had the thinking of Egypt in their minds and God had to cleanse them of that.
He had to remove the values and the religion of Egypt from them and show them that they needed to trust in God.
They needed to learn to trust in God regardless of what their circumstances or their observations suggested.
And they didn't always make that test, did they?
When God said, go, they said, no, we look, oh, we feel like grasshoppers.
We can't go.
When God said, don't go now, they said, oh, well, you know, we've had second thoughts.
Maybe we'll go now.
And God said, don't go.
I won't be with you.
You know, years ago in Bible college, our singing group used to sing this little song about the,
or the Israelites in the desert.
And it went something like this.
Well, don't you know that in the days of old when the Israelites didn't do what they were told?
Because of their stubbornness, they failed the test.
When they wavered in their faith each time by their whining and their crying for a sign,
our Lord simply told them this.
Go on and take another lap around Mount Sinai till you learn your lesson.
Till you stop your whining and you quit your rebelling.
Till you learn to stand in your day of testing by trusting and obeying the Lord.
Have you been in the situation where the Lord asked you to wait upon him,
but it seemed you could not remain still?
So you started planning what you're going to do because you thought the Lord had forgotten you.
And just then you hear these words.
Go on and take another lap around Mount Sinai.
Just the other day I heard the Lord say,
Son, you've got to trust me and take another step of faith to carry you through the storm.
But when the storm started getting rough, I thought the Lord wasn't strong enough.
So I started doing things on my own.
Then he said, go on and take another lap around Mount Sinai till you learn your lesson.
So we used to sing that song and I thought there's a lot of truth in it.
Now if you can relate to spending time in that wilderness experience,
that in-between time, you're probably in very good company.
King David had been anointed by Samuel and told very specifically that he was going to be the next king of Israel.
And we know what happened in his life, right?
As a young lad, he went out and he fought the...
It wasn't even really a battle, but he conquered Goliath,
threw the whole Philistine army into confusion.
Israelites won a great victory.
And King Saul said, you know, whoever defeats Goliath can become my son-in-law.
David said, I'm not worthy of that.
But then years later, he did become Saul's son-in-law, married another daughter.
And everything was just going fantastic for David.
But we know the story of David, don't we?
How for years and years, Saul was jealous and David was running and hiding.
And if we go to the book of Psalms, we read over and over and over again the Psalms that David wrote during those times.
Your Bible might have little subtitles at the beginning of the Psalm.
And a lot of the Psalms talk about how David wrote this Psalm while he was fleeing from Saul,
while he was in the desert of Zin, while he was with the Philistines, over and over again.
You're probably very familiar with some of those words.
We like to sing them.
As the deer pants for the streams of water, my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long,
Where is your God?
These things I remember as I pour out my soul.
How I used to go with a multitude, leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
My soul is downcast within me.
Therefore, I will remember you from the land of Jordan, the heights of Hermon, Mount Zimer.
Then he goes on to say,
I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?
My bones suffer mortal agony, as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long,
Where is your God?
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Ever felt that way?
Ever look back in your life and said,
Boy, it was terrific.
Like, God's presence was so real and so near.
God's word was so alive to me.
I couldn't wait to worship with other people.
God has great promises in store for me.
But right now, I'm in that in-between time.
Why am I feeling this way?
Why does it feel as if the problems are greater?
Why does it feel as if the trials are so strong?
Why do I feel as if I'm in this wilderness?
Then David ends that Psalm 42.
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Sometimes God develops our faith by exercising it.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
But our faith becomes stronger when it is exercised.
So King David had that wilderness experience.
What about John the Baptist?
Where did he spend his ministry time?
Matthew chapter 3, the first couple of verses there.
John the Baptist's ministry was in the desert.
His message was, prepare the way of the Lord.
But what, how do you prepare the way of the Lord?
What was his message?
It was, repent.
Repent, for the day of the Lord is at hand.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Repent.
Repent means change.
Change your way of thinking.
Change your way of living.
Change your way of acting.
Make an about turn.
Learn.
So the people in John the Baptist's time were probably somewhat complacent.
They had waited for many years for the promise of the Messiah.
They had probably settled into, this is the way life is.
None of us would ever do that.
We'd never settle into, well, this is just the way life is, would we?
We always live with anticipation.
We always live with hope.
We always live up with optimism, don't we?
But maybe some of the people needed to hear that message.
Hey, you know, you've settled into the wrong thing.
You need to lift up your eyes and remember the presence of God is here,
and God is doing a new thing.
And so John the Baptist learned that, and he taught the people,
you need to prepare your heart.
You prepare your heart by humbling yourself before God
so that God will be great.
John the Baptist used these words,
he must increase, I must decrease.
And that's really the bottom line.
That's the bottom line of repentance.
It's not about me, it's about God.
And so sometimes we go into that wilderness experience
because God needs to work on our attitude.
God needs to humble us.
God needs to show us our dependence on him.
If you think you are spending time in a wilderness
and you can maybe relate to King David or John the Baptist,
what about Jesus?
I mentioned earlier that after Jesus' baptism,
he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
and it says very specifically,
to be tempted of the devil.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
to be tempted by the devil.
After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.
And then if you want to read all about the temptation,
you go to Matthew chapter 4
and you can read about the various temptations.
How Satan came to Jesus
and how he was actually using and abusing the Word of God
to try and tempt Jesus to doubt God,
to disobey God,
to worship the wrong things,
to try to go about God's purposes in his own way.
And it was the whole temptation,
the whole time of Jesus being in the wilderness
was addressing this question.
Did God really save?
You know that question first came up
in the Garden of Eden, didn't it?
When Satan came,
the serpent came and tempted Adam and Eve,
his question was,
did God really save?
And the implication was,
maybe God said something,
but did he actually mean what he said?
And Jesus faced Satan
and he answered that question,
yes, God really did save
and God really does mean what he says.
And when we stand with God
and are faithful to God,
he hears us,
he may test our loyalty,
but he rewards those
who diligently accept and trust
and wait for him.
Hebrews chapter 4 gives us
another little picture of Jesus.
The end of that chapter,
verse 14 and following,
gives us another little picture of Jesus
and that temptation
and what effect that has for us.
Therefore,
since we have a great high priest
who has gone through the heavens,
Jesus,
the Son of God,
let us hold firmly
to the faith we profess.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize
with our weaknesses,
but we have one
who has been tempted
in every way,
just as we are,
yet without sin.
Let us then approach
the throne of grace
with confidence
so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help
in time of need.
So sometimes we're in that wilderness place,
that desert place,
that place of God's seeming silence,
God's maybe seeming absence,
and he's testing our loyalty.
He's testing our love for him.
Will we believe him?
Will we trust what he has said
even though the circumstances around us,
even though our feelings tell us
it's not working out the way it should?
Will we trust that he is true
and that he keeps his word?
Another person who spent some time
in that desert place
was the Apostle Paul.
After his conversion,
that dramatic conversion
on the road to Damascus,
then he met the Lord
and right away he was on fire for God.
But in Galatians chapter 1,
it tells us something about his experience.
He says,
I did not consult with any man,
nor did I go up to Jerusalem
to see those who were apostles
before I was,
but I went immediately into Arabia
and later returned to Damascus.
Then after three years,
I went up to Jerusalem
to get acquainted with Peter
and stayed with him 15 days.
And he goes on to talk a little bit more
about his experience.
But what happened in Paul's life
during those three years in Arabia?
Well, we know that Paul was very zealous.
We know that Paul was very familiar
with the Old Testament.
We know that he was instructed
in the Old Testament.
We know that he was persecuting the church
because he believed that followers of Jesus
were not on the right track.
He believed that they were working against God.
And so his whole thinking,
his whole frame of reference,
his whole worldview had to be reshaped.
And I believe during that time in the desert,
he learned a whole new way
of understanding God's purpose and God's plan.
because he became a very strong teacher
of taking the Old Testament truths
and saying this is how Jesus has fulfilled
what was spoken in the Old Testament.
His most basic convictions were shaken
and had to be rethought.
What he had believed and fought for
with such passion and zeal
was shown to be a tragic misunderstanding
of God and God's plan of salvation.
He had to work through that.
And then he became that great apostle,
that great missionary
that's established churches
in so many places.
You know, sometimes we're very sincere.
Sometimes we love the word of God
as much as we understand it,
but God has to take us
to a better understanding.
Maybe we're misguided in some way.
Maybe we're sometimes simply wrong.
And God has to put us in a place
where he can teach us
a little more of his truth.
So what are some lessons
that we can learn from this?
In God's economy,
which comes first?
Our happiness
or our holiness?
In God's economy,
which comes first?
Our happiness
or our holiness?
Our peace,
our well-being,
our joy,
it's all going to flow
out of our holiness.
When we come to know God,
when we come to trust God fully,
when we surrender ourselves
and when we say,
my life is yours,
when we yield completely,
then the fruit
of all these good things
are going to start
to grow in our life.
Another thing we can learn
is God's timing
is not our timing.
God's timing
is not our timing.
God has a lot of patience.
God has a long-term plan.
God has an eternal plan.
We think in the moment.
We think,
boy, this is very uncomfortable.
God says,
you know,
I'm shaping you
for something greater.
In Revelation,
what do we read
over and over and over again?
To him who overcomes.
That means there will be testing,
there will be trials,
there will be things
that we have to work through,
there will be challenges in life.
But to him who overcomes,
I will give to eat
of the tree of life.
There are parts of our character
that are shaped
in times of retreat
or quietness
that would not be shaped otherwise.
There are things
that we learn
when God pulls us back.
Our understanding
of God's word
is at best incomplete.
There are times
where he has to correct
something in our thinking.
Maybe being taken
on that wilderness journey
is a preparation
for a greater,
more fruitful ministry impact.
Many of you
are probably familiar
with the story
of John Bunyan,
the author
of Pilgrim's Progress,
an allegory
about how
Christian leaves
the city of destruction
and he goes
to the celestial city.
And the story
is all about
the trials
that he faces
and the victories
that he overcomes
and the companions
that he meets
along the way.
And it's a beautiful story
that has been
translated
into many,
many different languages.
It's a very,
very popular story
and it's been
very helpful
to many people.
But you know,
John Bunyan lived
in the 1600s
in Britain
and during that time
there was a lot
of tension
within the church
because the Church
of England
was a state church
and they had
certain ways
of doing things,
they had certain structures,
they had certain ways
of organizing things
and then there was
a group of,
they called them
non-conformists
they were people
that said,
you know,
we need freedom
to worship God
the way that our
conscience dictates
according to the
word of God.
We don't want
to follow the structures,
we don't want
to stay with these
traditions that are
sometimes more secular
than godly
and we want the freedom,
we need the freedom
to share.
And so,
there were people
like the Methodists
that grew out of it,
there were people
like the pilgrims
that grew out of
this non-conformist
group that said,
we are going
to walk with God
and worship God
and study the word
of God
and seek to be
faithful to him.
And John Bunyan
was a pastor
in this non-conformist
church group
and because
he refused
to conform
to the state church,
he ended up
being in prison.
He spent 12 and a half
years in prison
and his heart
was to be with
the people
and to be pastoring
the people
and he used
his time
in prison
to write.
And he wrote
numerous things
but among them
he wrote
The Pilgrim's Progress.
During that time
of what we might
call wilderness time
or desert time,
John Bunyan
ended up
writing something
that has given
people
a lot of guidance
in their
Christian walk.
It has given
people hope
in their struggles,
it has given
people
an insight
into some
of the things
that happen
in our Christian
life and the
struggle,
the spiritual
conflict that
is behind it.
Would he have
been able to
write with such
insight,
with such depth
and such clarity
if he hadn't
lived that
experience?
So,
where are you
today?
If we think
back to the
example of
the Israelites
in Egypt
in bondage,
moving through
the wilderness,
entering the
promised land,
where are you?
Perhaps
there's someone
here today
that says,
you know,
when I really
look at my
life,
I have to
say,
I don't know
freedom in
Christ.
I don't know
if I'm saved.
I don't know
if I would die
today,
I don't know
if I'd go to
heaven.
I don't know
if my sins
are forgiven.
Maybe there's
someone here
that struggles
with those
questions.
And God's
answer to you
today is,
you can know.
You can know
that Jesus
died for your
sins.
You can know
that your
sins are
forgiven.
You can know
that you don't
have to live
in bondage.
You don't
have to live
with all the
things that
hold you back
from the best
life that God
has for you.
You can
simply confess
your sin
to God.
You can
believe that
Jesus Christ
died for
your sins.
You can
say,
yes,
I admit
that I
have a
need.
I admit
that I
am a
sinner.
I admit
that I
don't have
the gift
of eternal
life,
but God,
I turn
to you.
I offer
you my
life.
I ask
you to
cleanse
me,
and I
thank and
praise you
for giving
me the
hope and
the gift
of eternal
life.
And you
can enter
into that
joy and
that freedom
that Jesus
Christ offers,
that gift
of eternal
life that
will not
be taken
from you.
You can
thank him
for that.
Perhaps
today you're
living in
that promised
land.
Perhaps
today when
you look
at your
life you
say,
yes,
you know,
I am
living in
the abundance
of God's
blessing.
I walk
in his
presence.
His word
is alive
to me,
and I
am just
living in
joy and
in victory.
If you
are,
praise God.
That's a
good place
to be
because your
joy and
your life
with Christ
will overflow
and it
will influence
and impact
other people's
lives around
you.
And that's
a great
blessed place
to be.
Perhaps
you're living
in that
in-between
place.
What I'd
say to you
this morning
if you are
is don't
believe the
lie that
God has
abandoned
you.
Don't
believe the
lie that
God doesn't
care.
Put down
your roots
into God's
word.
Believe what
he says
when he
says in
Isaiah 30
verse 15,
in repentance
and rest
is your
salvation,
in quietness
and trust
is your
strength.
Maybe you'll
never see
this side of
eternity,
what God's
purpose is
in leading
you through
that desert
place,
that wilderness
place.
But remind
yourself
that the
God who
loves you
enough to
give his
only begotten
son to
die in
your place
has a
good plan
for you.
When I
was a
kid we
used to
sing a
song
together.
In our
family
devotion
time we
sometimes
ended by
singing a
little chorus
together.
We'd sing
together,
My Lord
knows the
way through
the wilderness,
all I
have to
do is
follow,
my Lord
knows the
way through
the wilderness,
all I
have to
do is
follow.
Strength
for today
is mine
all the
way,
and all
that I
need for
tomorrow,
my Lord
knows the
way through
the wilderness,
all I
have to
do is
follow.
God
bless you
as you
follow him.