Wilderness Wanderings 1

1 Cor. 10:11 "All these things (Israel's wilderness wanderings) happened to them as examples—as object lessons to us—to warn us against doing the same things; they were written down so that we could read about them and learn from them in these last days as the world nears its end."

This is the Apostle Paul's summation of all of Israel's wanderings, failures, and mistakes while in their journey through the wilderness.

God gave us the account of their journey in the Bible so that we would learn from the things they did wrong, the traps they fell into, and not make the same mistakes.

The Bible also reveals WHY God took them through the wilderness---what He wanted to teach them, and by application, what He wants to teach us.

___________________________________________

Now, here's a little bit of history concerning Israel's wilderness wanderings to help set up our new series....

The Bible says that the Children of Israel wandered in their wilderness for 40 long years.

Heartbreakingly, the distance between the Red Sea that they crossed, and the Promised Land they were headed for could have been travelled in around 2 1/2 weeks.

Let that sink in!

Rather than going straight to their inheritance they became bogged down, hindered, distracted, and defeated time and time again....

They constantly frustrated God's grace and sabotaged their progress.

After only 1 1/2 years of wandering in the wilderness, their disobedience (which consisted of testing God 10 times in a year and a half) earned them a 40 year sentence from God.

Only 2 men out of the first generation were allowed into the Promised Land!

The rest of them died in the wilderness.

________________________________________

Now, Israel's wilderness was a real geographical place....

They journeyed through what the Bible describes as a "great and terrible" place of "fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water" (Deuteronomy 8:15).

It was essentially an uninhabited place.

Nothing was there but barrenness....There was no vegetation, and no water to quench their thirst.

It was like being lost in that desolate place called Death Valley.

_____________________________________

But while Israel's wilderness was a real place, the wilderness we sometimes experience today is a spiritual place..........yet very similar to what Israel went through.

So let's talk about how you know whether or not you're in the wilderness.

When you're in a wilderness experience you feel as if you're at a stand still.

Things aren't happening around you like you're used to...

We might call it the sense of being stuck, of treading water, or of being on a hamster's wheel, expending energy but getting nowhere.

You feel as if you're driving solo......you feel very alone.

You try to radio God, but it's as though He doesn't hear you at all.

You want to talk to someone about it but either no one is there, or they don't understand, and you just don't know where to go next.

You call your best friend and they're not answering the phone.

You call your mother but she's not at home, and your dad's out on business.

Your boyfriend is weirding out on you and your girlfriend has no time to talk.

You ask yourself, "What in the world is going on here!"

Essentially, your security blankets have all been pulled out from under you.

___________________________________

Your wilderness may be not having a mate.

Your wilderness may be not having any money.

Your wilderness may be a child that won't do right.

The wilderness is a time when you are alone---waiting, wandering, wondering, and asking the question "where am I? Who am I?"

It seems no one can help you, because the arm of flesh is useless in the wilderness.

You've prayed, rebuked devils, fasted.

Yet you still find yourself in a barren place.

If that's you, stay tuned for the next four weeks...help is on the way!

As we're going to see, the wilderness is the place God uses to help fashion and shape us into the image of Christ.

_______________________________________

The Bible reveals that all of God's champions experienced a wilderness!

ABRAHAM had to go through the wilderness when God told him to leave his country, his people, and his father's house----It was the only way that Abraham could become great.

God chose JOSEPH to be a leader.....But long before that, Joseph was cast down in a PIT, only then to be sold into SLAVERY by his own brothers.

Because of his refusal to sexually compromise himself with a married woman, he was tossed into PRISON for a crime that he did not commit.

DAVID was the promised king of Israel, yet he spent years hiding in the wilderness from King Saul, who was trying to kill him.

MOSES was in the wilderness in order to lead the children of Israel----Sometimes we too are in the wilderness to help others get through it.

God promised Israel a Promised Land but there was a wilderness to go through before the promise!

Even JESUS, the promised Messiah, had to go through the wilderness.

The Bible says that after Jesus's water baptism, the Spirit "drove Him into the wilderness" (Mark 1:12).

In the wilderness, Jesus experienced hunger and temptation.

In the wilderness He found himself alone......His friends weren't there---He had no support team to encourage him.

He felt the aloneness intensely.....perhaps He wandered around for awhile thinking, “What do I do next? Where do I go? How do I handle this?”

Remember, He was "tempted in all the ways we are, yet without committing sin."

Mark informs us that Jesus' wilderness experience also included the presence of dangerous wild animals----"the beasts were there" it says.

The Bible says that Jesus experienced an intense battle with the devil in the wilderness.

So aloneness, hunger, thirst, danger, and intense spiritual warfare comprised our Lord's wilderness experience.

But Listen! The Captain of our Salvation also came OUT of the wilderness full of the power of the Spirit, and began to systematically destroy the works of the devil!

Since He is our forerunner and model, this is also God's will for you and me!

____________________________________

Now let me give you some wilderness facts today you will want to remember....

I. Before the fulfillment of your promise you will likely have a wilderness experience.

Wilderness experiences almost always precede spiritual promotion.

All the Bible champions we've already named----Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, and even The Lord Jesus----all had wilderness experiences prior to their promotion.

The fact is that our wilderness experiences are blessings disguised as trouble!

The wilderness of today prepares us for the blessings of tomorrow!

Hosea prophesied to Israel concerning their wilderness experience,

"Therefore I will allure her (Israel), will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her. I will give her vineyards from there...she shall sing there...!" (Hosea 2:14-15).

If you're in the wilderness today, don't lose hope because God has a plan to get you through it, and to even give you vineyards of blessing from your experience!

__________________________________________

II. God will never forsake you in your wilderness.

Listen to this powerful verse:

Jeremiah 31:2 "Thus says the Lord: 'The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.”

And think of Jesus in the wilderness------We're told that although "beasts" were in the wilderness with Jesus, that "angels ministered to Him."

If you take His hand and obey The Lord, you will not only SURVIVE, you will THRIVE!

In Isaiah 43:19, God promises, "I will make a ROAD in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert."

And one of my favorite verses: "Trust in The Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path" (Prov. 3:5-6).

God knows what He is doing in your life, especially in the wilderness.

Don't die in the wilderness---God is with you there!

______________________________________

Sum: Wilderness precedes promotion, The Lord will never forsake you there, and THIRD....

III. The wilderness can be the hot desert God uses to burn away what is fleshly in our lives.

God said to His own people in the wilderness, "...the Lord your God disciplines you (in the wilderness) for your own good" (vs. 5).

God sometimes wants us alone, and so He puts us in the wilderness to cut away the junk.

The wilderness is the place where your spiritual flab is burned away to make you a better spiritual soldier and athlete.

It is in the wilderness that God trains us for battle.

It is in the wilderness that we learn how to pray.

It is in the wilderness that we learn to rebuke devils.

It is in the wilderness that we learn to cast down vain imaginations.

It is in the wilderness that God pulls off our covers and reveals to us who we really are.

It is in the wilderness that God does surgery and cuts away our sins----selfishness, greed, lying, fornication, adultery.

It is in the wilderness that we learn to stand boldly for our God.

How else will you learn to trust Him, how else will you learn patience?

How else will you learn to seek Him?

_________________________________________

And then finally,

III. The wilderness teaches us to depend on God like nothing else will.

God told the children of Israel, "Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. 3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of The Lord" (Deut 8:2-3).

In the wilderness a trade off takes place deep down within us---we switch from leaning on fleshly things to leaning on God.

I live by His Word, His strength, His grace, not by anything this world can give me!

Next time we're going to break down a few different kinds of wilderness experiences starting with "The Wilderness of Want."