Merritt, Ashcroft Opening Song: Take My Life and Let it Be #330
Scripture: Psalm 63:1, A psalm of David, regarding a time when David was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. Title: Wilderness Wandering
An inexperienced young preacher was to hold a graveside burial service at a cemetery. Not knowing where the cemetery was, he made several wrong turns and got lost. When he arrived an hour late, hearse was nowhere in sight, backhoe was next to the open hole, and the workmen were sitting under a tree eating lunch. The diligent young pastor went to the open grave, found the vault lid already in place. Feeling guilty because of his tardiness, he preached a passionate service, sending the deceased to the grave in style. As he returned to his car, he overheard one of the workmen say to the other, “I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years and I ain't never seen anything like that!" God came to Abraham and told him to leave everything he knew and travel far from anything he’d ever seen before.
WHERE was Abraham? In the wilderness. There Abraham learned will of God, faith, and became father of a new people. Abraham wandered there more than half his life. Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” so we know it was Jesus Who came to Abraham’s tent. Jacob discovered his true self after wrestling with Jesus, and became a changed man in the wilderness, of all places. Moses age 40 thought he could lead the Israelites out of Egypt under his own steam. He tried by killing an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite. Moses fled to the wilderness because Pharaoh was angry when he found out. There Moses learned how foolish to take on God’s job in his own power. Moses felt he was wasting his life, but God had a plan for him. Perhaps you feel like your life is being wasted. During times in the wilderness, God is teaching our hearts. There Moses became humble. He learned contentment while taking care of sheep. Jesus called Moses out of the wilderness to lead the children of Israel.
WHERE did Moses lead the people? Right back into the wilderness! So you see, Moses got his training in region that later was wilderness through which Israelites wandered. When Pharaoh let the people go, Jesus did not lead them on the road through Philistine country, though that was shorter. “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt." So God led them roundabout through wilderness. In our relationship with Jesus, we don’t trust from day one, but more and more as we walk through ups and downs with Jesus.
SONG: BEND IN THE RIVER OF LIFE
I don’t know Israel's expectations as they left Egypt, but the wilderness was not it! Numbers 11:10-15, Moses heard all families standing in doorways of their tents whining and complaining. Moses was very aggravated and said to God, "I can’t meet their expectations! I did not make Your promises to them! You are too hard on me! If You love me, let me die so I don’t have my wretchedness!" Even when you trust Jesus, wilderness is not fun! Moses trusted God, but whining Israelites made him miserable!
Moses said, “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years to teach you man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from mouth of the Lord.” Israel learned lessons in the wilderness. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were camping in a tent and fell asleep. Holmes woke and nudged his faithful friend. "Watson, look up and tell me what you see." Watson replied, "I see millions of stars." "What does that tell you?" Watson said, "It tells me there are millions of galaxies. I observe Saturn is in Leo. I deduce time is quarter past three. I see God is all powerful and we’re small. Why, what does it tell you?" Holmes spoke, "Watson, somebody has stolen our tent!" WHAT are we learning in our wilderness?
In Judges 11, Jephthah was great warrior, but didn’t have many friends. He was strong, but a loner. His family despised him and chased him away. WHY was he outcast? Jephthah’s mother was a prostitute, and his half brothers wanted nothing to do with him. He felt unaccepted, unloved. But God loved him and taught him skills. During lowest time of Jephthah’s life he received important instruction. In the wilderness, other men joined him; he learned how to lead men, fighting for survival. God used it to teach Jephthah how to lead Israel against Ammonites. If you feel unwanted and unloved, maybe Jesus is helping you to learn some skill, ability or character development.
When prophet Elijah heard Queen Jezebel's threat to take his life, he shook! This man who all alone won contest with 450 false prophets, this man was afraid! His expectations lost, faith shattered, he was full of self-pity, so depressed he asked God to let him die. God didn’t give Elijah his wish. Instead He led Elijah on a 40 day trip even further into wilderness. Elijah feared for his life, failed to trust God, ran from his problems. God asked him a question. “What are you doing here?"
Elijah replied, "I’ve been very zealous for God. I’m only one left." In other words, “Nobody else does anything; everybody turned against me, so I’ll just go away.” God led Elijah to get off his pity pot and get back into service. If we don’t see results we expect, it doesn’t mean Jesus has failed. Elijah had his trying time in wilderness, yet God took him to heaven in a chariot, without seeing death. Now imagine if God had let Elijah die in the wilderness as Elijah asked! But God had something much better planned, just as God has a plan for you!
SONG: EVEN IN THE VALLEY
1 Samuel 23:14, David now stayed in fortresses of the wilderness and hill country of Ziph. King Saul hunted him day after day, but God didn't let Saul find him or capture him. David knew God promised he would be next king of Israel, but here he was treated like a common criminal. Wilderness is barren, desolate wasteland. It can also be a very good place to pasture sheep. David, the shepherd boy who became king, knew what it’s like to be in the wilderness. John the Baptist was in wilderness until his showing forth. Bible says he dwelt among wild beasts. What did he do wandering on rocks? He ate locusts and wild honey. God’s will was that John not be corrupted by religious system of his day. He was a Nazarite from birth, filled with the Holy Spirit while still in the womb, Luke 1:15. His clothing and diet were “off the charts.” From childhood, he lived in wilderness. Though born into a priest family, he didn’t take his father’s name or his work. John goes out and preaches in the wilderness!
People come to him, from every direction, all levels of society. John the Baptist called a spade a spade. “You generation of vipers,” he said. The voice of one calling, "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God,” Isaiah 40:3. John was sent to prepare way for Jesus by preaching in mountainous country, lying east of Jerusalem, sparsely inhabited. The Jewish Church, to which John was sent to announce Messiah, was in a barren, desert condition, unfit spiritually, not ready for her King. Though their hearts were like desert, Jesus loved them and was coming to save them.
Both Matthew and Luke make clear the Spirit led Jesus into wilderness. There He fasted 40 days and 40 nights focused on spiritual matters. Although Jesus became physically weak, He was spiritually strong. Temptation of making bread out of stones occurs in the same desert where Jesus fasted. Wilderness here is the rocky, uninhabited area between Jerusalem and Jericho. Desert wilderness was seen as outside society. Even the Son of God had to spend time in the wilderness. Jesus’ journey to wilderness led by Holy Spirit began after baptism.
Baptism is such a spiritual high. How can a wilderness follow BAPTISM? Devil tempted Jesus, trying to convince Him to use power of God rather than rely on faithfulness of the Father. Satan creates doubts in us. “Does God REALLY CARE about you? Is He REALLY listening to your prayers?” Remember Jesus’ way to fight temptation, “It is written.” Search the Bible. Only God satisfies our spiritual hunger. Wilderness reveals what is true in life, and that is Jesus.
God wanted Apostle Paul to be taught by the Spirit. How long was Paul in the WILDERNESS? Paul was about three years in deserts of Arabia, Galatians 1:17. I’m sure Paul preferred to dwell with Christians and minister for God. But God needed to adjust Paul’s thinking. Paul mentions Arabia not as place for preaching, but preparation for ministry, in contrast to Jerusalem. No one was there who could inform him about Jesus. The new convert journeyed to Arabia to be alone with God, ponder the Gospel. Like Moses and Elijah he spent seasons of reflection, communion with Jesus, in preparation.
Perhaps you feel you’re just spinning your wheels; none of the doors are opening as you want in life. You feel you’re in a desert far from where you think God wants you to be. Like Paul, God wants us to spend time learning new things, unlearning old things. Before we can minister to others, we must be ministered to by God. Be assured Jesus leads even in the wilderness.
There’s a table in the wilderness where blind can see, weak become strong, and first is last. Where the blessed sing of God’s tenderness, where lame can walk and weary rest. When you search so hard for Promised Land, but soil won’t yield to your blistered hands, you hang your head, wipe your brow. When you close your eyes while on your knees, working hours spinning through your head, you remember place that your heart desires, where you found life. All are welcome to find living water, come find peace, and trust Jesus in wilderness. Deuteronomy 32: 9-10, “For the Lord's portion is His people. He found him in a desert land, and in howling waste of the wilderness; He encircled him, cared for him. He kept him as the apple of His eye.” You are the apple of God’s eye.
SONG: RIVER OF LIFE
Will we TRUST GOD or will we react to circumstances? Wilderness experiences force a decision. We must decide who we are, what our life is about. We all go through space or time of confusion, transition, growth. It tests deepest secrets and convictions of our heart to see what lies inside. We may have just gone through greatest highs of our walk with God. Next we find ourselves in spiritual turmoil, spiritual desert. God uses times in wilderness to help us grow in faith and prepare for our calling. Times of spiritual wilderness open us up to Jesus.
My parents divorced and abandoned us when I was 19. I’m oldest of 6 so I raised my siblings. I got married at 23 and my husband helped me put my siblings through college. After they were on their own, God led my husband and I to Chilliwack where I went through a suicidal depression like Elijah. I felt isolated and alone in the country. But God used that to soften my heart, show me things about Isabelle that I’d numbed out, and lead me to emotional healing. I came out of denial about a dysfunctional childhood, joined support group as my surrogate family, and I ministered to single mothers and battered women. That’s where I started doing sermons because we had to share our pastor with Hope Church. My sisters and I used to sing as the Fong Sisters and I missed them when I had to sing alone. Most of all I missed my best friend Deborah.
Bible wilderness were barren lands, desert sands; wilderness for the Christian takes us to empty places of the heart. It’s possible to be full of the Holy Spirit, yet go through a wilderness. You may be surviving day to day, waiting for healing to manifest. It’s unpleasant for our flesh. Instead of prosperity, just trials or pressure. Our peace is disturbed by negative emotions. We trust wilderness time is only temporary, however tough it seems. Jesus Himself had to pass through wilderness before HE could be used by the Father to bring salvation, healing and deliverance. Just after His time in the wilderness, “Jesus returned in the power of the Holy Spirit to Galilee." Jesus is our example as we pass through the wilderness.
How LONG is our wilderness? There is period of waiting between a promise and time of fulfillment. Length of wilderness may vary from 40 days to 40 years. Our response to God determines how quickly we get out. Israelites could have been out of wilderness in 2 years if they believed God when spies returned. Trials are not necessary for Jesus to know what’s in our hearts; He already knows but rather for us to know! If we have attitude problems, they show when we’re squeezed under pressure. If we complain, we take another lap around the mountain. Our wilderness is opportunity to know Jesus intimately. Here is the test to find if your mission on earth is finished. If you’re alive, it isn’t.
At times we feel separated from God, spiritually dry. Deepen our communication with Him when we feel most cut off from God; He is actually close to us. Israel felt abandoned, but God was always there, always providing. Jesus can be trusted, no matter what. “Someone was hurt before you, wronged before you, hungry before you, beaten before you, humiliated before you, betrayed before you, yet Someone survived. You can heal too,” said Maya Angelou.
Jesus returned to desert places in order to re-charge Himself, and He invites us to follow. We have desiring and seeking in wilderness. “God, you are my God, I seek You. My soul thirsts for you, as in a dry and weary land, where no water is.” There we recognize how much we need Jesus. Psalm 35:1, “In that day nothing will be lacking. It is the mouth of the Lord that has spoken, and it is the Spirit of the Lord that will act. The wilderness and the parched places will be glad, for the wilderness will rejoice, and blossom like the rose."
SONG: FEASTING AT THE TABLE