Untitled Sermon (5)

Introduction

Israel

New Jersey is the most densely populated US state. Compared, it is about the size of

Israel and has about the same number of inhabitants.

Israel is 9 times smaller than Minnesota.

Although Israel is small in its size, its diversity of geography is comparable to that of the

United States.

1. From Desert, to coastal plains, to Mountainous, to Rainforest like terrain.

2. Israel has it all within only a few miles.

A. Israel is the the land bridge that connects Africa to the lands of Asia and Europe.

1. If it was traveling by land it was going through Israel.

2. Egypt in history was one of the longest running world powers.

I. Egypt

A. This Ancient world power was ruled by Pharaoh’s.

1. Their prosperity was constant primarily because of the Nile River, that often

protected them against draught.

2. Because of the location of Israel and Egypt there was a constant relationship

between the two nations.

B. Today I want to talk about the Wilderness

Israel—Individual-Family-Tribe-Nation

I. Exodus 1:6-14 “Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the

Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in

numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. Then a

new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.  “Look,” he said

to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must

deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war

breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” So they

put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built

Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were

oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread

the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with

harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their

harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.”

II. Jacob and the Family are living in the Promise Land among the Caanites.

A. They are where God wanted them in the Promise land when a drought begins to

threaten their existence.

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1. God provided for Israel and his family by orchestrating Joseph’s promotion in

Egypt.

a) The children of Jacob went to Egypt to escape drought.

b) The reason they were in Egypt to was God’s provision led them to Egypt.

1. God was their provider.

a) They prospered in the land of Egypt.

b) However, Egypt was never supposed to be the land of promise for them.

c) It was merely a place of Provision for the season.

A. However, they begun to see the Land of Egypt as their home and the source of

their provision.

I. Remember the Promise Giver!

A. Remember the Vision!

1. The vision Given to Abraham was to become a nation in the Land of

Caanites.

2. They had become content to live in the Prosperous land of Egypt.

B. When it was time to go back Home.

1. They wanted to stay.

2. They liked where they were at.

C. Long after the drought was over they were still living in Egypt.

1. Later we see that they developed this thinking that Egypt could provide for

them even more than the one true God they claimed to worship.

II. God brings a shift!

A. The Egyptians saw the family of Israel as a beneficial people.

1. They were given favor.

B. In order to get the Israelites to move there needed to be a disruption.

1. When we forget the objective.

a) When we stop following God.

b) When we lose sight of the vision.

2. God will orchestrate a disruption that will shift our desire.

C. The people of Egyptians begin to persecute the people of Israel.

III. Notice the affects of persecution.

A. “But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread;”

1. Persecution perpetuated Growth!

B. In persecution the people cry out for change.

1. The question really has to be……..Did they want change that occurred in the

borders of Egypt that made it easy to live there………Or did they now see the

error of their ways knowing they needed to move home?

IV. God sends a Deliverer!

A. Keep in mind Israel is not a nation yet.

1. They are a family.

2. At best a tribe.

a) Living in a nation that is not their own.

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B. Moses returns from His wilderness experience.

1. In order to lead the Israelites God had to take the leader through it.

C. Moses declares the 10 Plagues.

1. With the last one being the death of every firstborn child.

2. Of course, the Israelites only escape this plague if they cover their house with

the blood of a firstborn lamb.

a) Symbolizing the sacrifice Christ would be to us.

D. Passover led to a Crossing Over!

I. Faith Fact: Death Experience

A. When we give our lives to Christ the blood of Jesus covers us.

1. So at death when the Angel of Death comes it will Passover us.

2. Then we cross over into our Promise land.

B. Death passes over so that we can cross over.

V. The Israelites are standing at the Red Sea.

A. They have anywhere between 1 million and 3 million people.

B. An impossible obstacle in front of them.

1. The Egyptian army behind them.

VI. They are Slaves!

A. Most of these Israelites are generations beyond any connection with Joseph and

their forefathers.

1. They were in Egypt for 430 years.

2. They were there longer than the U.S. has even been a nation.

B. These children had been raised as slaves.

1. They were taught to think and respond as slaves.

2. Their mentality only knew to look at every challenge as a slave.

3. Believe only truth that fit their Slavery mentality.

C. You can take a person out of Slavery, but you have to change the way they think

or they will never escape slavery.

VII. Slaves Fear the Worse.

A. The Israelites operate in Fear.

1. Fear for their life.

a) Why because they have been controlled for so long.

b) They believe the source of living came from the grace of the Egyptians to

provide for them life.

2. Fear they would not be provided for.

B. The Red Sea experience revealed this mentality in the Israel.

1. Exodus 14:10-14 “As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and

there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried

out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in

Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by

bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone;

let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the

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Egyptians than to die in the desert!” Moses answered the people, “Do not be

afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you

today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will

fight for you; you need only to be still.”

2. Their Provider was their Slave Driver!

a) God says, “It is time to think differently.”

(1) It is time to Repent!

(2) It is time to allow me to lead and provide for you!

I. Greatest Miracle that has ever taken place.

A. God moved millions of people through the Red Sea on dry ground.

1. And then He defeated the enemy that was trying to harm the object of His

love.

2. God fought for them.

B. The Israelites are amazed at how God has come through.

1. They write songs about the events.

2. They dance

3. They celebrate

4. They are happy.

C. God is now leading them on to the Promise land.

1. Cloud by day.

2. Pillar of fire by night.

3. There is no mistaking the presence of a supernatural God.

I. Revelation, not events are required to change our thinking.

A. Revelation of who God is will forever change how we view the circumstances of

our life, NOT EVENTS!

1. If God would just come through for me, it would give me more faith.

a) It won’t!

b) That isn’t how it works.

2. It is when we get a revelation of who God is that we believe God is taking

care of it.

a) Before it happens.

B. Your faith doesn’t not grow through victories, it grows by revelation.

II. Israel’s first stint in the Wilderness

A. God’s plan for Israel to spend in the Wilderness is really only 40 days.

1. After the Red Sea!

a) This is intended to cause the people to begin to see God is with them.

b) THEY TEND TO BELIEVE THAT GOD IS WITH THEM BUT THEY

REFUSE TO SEE GOD AS THEIR GOD.

(1) THEY DON’T BELIEVE GOD WILL PROVIDE.

B. So they come to the Jordan!

1. There promise is on the other side.

a) This has been God’s promise to this father, family, now tribe and if they

cross over they will become a nation.

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b) Promise given almost 600 years before this.

III. They send out 12 spies

A. Numbers 13-14

1. Numbers 13:31-33 “But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t

attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread

among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They

said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw

there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of

Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own

eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

B. They sent the spies out to search out Strategic advantage.

1. Ten of them come back with a report declaring that God was wrong.

a) We know better.

b) We are too small.

c) We are slaves

d) We are not going to be able to defeat them.

e) We are grasshoppers

2. Two of them (Joshua and Caleb) disagree and declare don’t forget what God

did to the Egyptians.

a) We can take this land.

b) This is our promise.

C. The people follow the leading of the majority.

1. Often times the leading of the majority is the path of least resistance and

requires no faith!

1. WHEN GOD ASKS YOU TO DO SOMETHING HE IS TAKING IN

TO CONSIDERATION WHAT HE INTENDS TO DO.

a) We often only take into consideration what we can do.

b) If you could do it, you wouldn’t need God and your faith would die.

D. Deuteronomy 1:26-28 “But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the

command of the Lord your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, “The Lord

hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the

Amorites to destroy us.  Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts

melt in fear.”

IV. Israel Responds to the Report out of Slavery mindset.

A. They believe what they can see.

B. YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO WALK IN THE PROMISE LAND IF WE

DON’T REPENT OF A SLAVERY MENTALITY.

1. God knew that they needed to spend more time in the Wilderness.

C. God declares that they would wander in the wilderness a year for every day they

were there.

1. 40 years.

V. Israel’s Mistake

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A. They regretted their decision and begged Moses to let them go because they

realized they made a mistake.

1. So they went up anyway even though God had told them that He would not

be with them.

2. They really failed to understand their dependency on God.

B. God did not create us to only come to him when we need help.

1. The wilderness experience is designed to help us learn our daily dependence

on God.

2. Joy of living in His provision.

The Formula of Promotion

I. 1st - Know the Promise!

A. Know the source.

1. Believe it is for you.

2. Know what they are.

B. Life can be extremely boring if it has no eternal purpose.

1. You have a destiny

C. A Promise takes our wandering and gives it purpose.

II. 2nd - Trip through the Process

A. This is the wilderness!

1. The people of Israel were raised to think, believe, act and respond as slaves.

B. Hofstede’s Five dimensions of Culture

1. He talks about how our environment impacts the way we perceive truth and

respond to things occurring in our life.

a) The way we think will have a direct impact on our behavior.

C. Wilderness re-shaped their interaction with God.

1. There was never a limit to what God could provide for them.

1. Common mistake for many people is to believe that they are

ready for promotion before they are ready for promotion.

a) We believe man controls our promotion.

b) Friend God does!

D. Wilderness is different than a storm!

1. The wilderness lasts a whole lot longer.

a) The storm will reveal God’s faithfulness for us!

b) The wilderness will reveal God’s character in us!

(1) Processes the character of God in us.

2. Wilderness

a) It is a wandering

b) It is all great but it seems as though you aren’t going anywhere.

3. You will continue to wander until your character is to a level that you are

ready for promotion.

III. 3rd - Get Promoted

A. God is faithful to work in your life the promise if you invite Him to do that.

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1. Curiosity of what God’s plan is.

2. God wants to promote you!

B. He will never promote someone to a new place until they have learned character

in the Wilderness.

C. There are positions that we think are promotions and they are rather demotions

in God’s eyes.

1. You should care about God’s promotion.

The Wilderness Is A Blessing, Not Punishment

I. Whenever the Lord leads you into a wilderness it is never punishment for you rather

punishment for the devil.

A. It is in the wilderness that the devil is defeated in your life.

1. There is no contest between God and the devil.

B. Our approach to the wilderness will have an incredible impact of its success in

our life.

1. Attitude determines altitude.

II. It was easy for the Israelites to think that the Wilderness was punishment because

they didn’t trust God to go into the Promise Land.

A. In reality the Wilderness was a blessing.

1. It was a gift.

a) Anything that causes us to come to a place to acknowledge our need of

God is a gift.

2. In the Wilderness, it could not provide even what they need for survival.

a) They were dependent on God to send the provision.

B. The wilderness was NOT:

1. God’s disapproval

2. God’s abandonment

3. God putting you on the shelf.

III. ‘In the Wilderness’ comes from a Hebrew word ‘BaMidBar’.

A. The root of the word means ‘To Speak’

1. It is in the wilderness times of our life that we will learn to value the Voice of

God!

a) Moses

b) Elijah

c) John the Baptist

d) Jesus

2. They all went to the wilderness to speak with God.

B. If there is anything that is going to shape and develop you and your character it

is:

1. God’s Word

a) His word corrects our thinking.

2. God’s Presence

a) His presence corrects our image.

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IV. Every Wilderness will reveal new strength in us.

A. 2 Corinthians 12:9 “Grace is sufficient for me.”

Wandering in the Wilderness has a End Date

I. The Israelites didn’t want to go back to the Wilderness.

B. Interesting part of this story.

1. After they decided to believe the 10 Spies they changed their mind when they

realized they messed up.

a) They decided to go up anyway.

b) Even though was wasn’t with them.

c) They were going to fix it.

2. Rather than fix the situation it only made it worse.

a) They were defeated.

(1) It was described as bees swarming and fleeing.

C. The Israelites were for sure going to go through the wilderness for a year.

1. However they ended up there for forty years.

2. Many in the Egyptian generation died there because they could not get to a

point of surrender to God.

V. We can’t shorten the wilderness, but we can certainly prolong it.

A. In the wilderness, you will experience some of the greatest attacks just prior to

the promotion.

1. Stay the Course.

2. Don’t give up on the brink of a miracle.

B. Our tenure in the wilderness will be determined by whether we pass the test.

VI. Don’t allow Satan to turn your wilderness into a dead end.

A. The Israelites did precisely that.

1. They did not recognize the process.

2. They didn’t realize that they weren’t being punished but processed and they

carried a slavery attitude.

B. They didn’t allow God to change their slavery mindset.

VII. Pursue the Purpose For Your Time there

A. Deuteronomy 8:2 “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the

wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was

in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”

1. Can God trust us with the true riches of His Kingdom?

2. That is what is being worked out in us.

B. Ultimately God wants your heart.

1. He is obsessed with your heart.

2. He desires to have your heart.

C. We will never out live our usefulness for the Lord!

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Conclusion

I. Deuteronomy 1:34-38 “When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry and

solemnly swore: 35 “No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore

to give your ancestors, 36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will

give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the

Lord wholeheartedly.” Because of you the Lord became angry with me also and

said, “You shall not enter it, either. 38 But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will

enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it.”

IV. Why was Moses not allowed to lead the people into the Promise Land?