Testing in the wait

Waiting Faithfully: Hearing God’s Voice in the Wilderness

A Lenten Sermon for the Church Today Texts: Matthew 4:1–11; Psalm 95

Today as a church we begin the season of Lent.

Introduction: Lent and the Lost Art of Waiting

The season of Lent invites us into a time the world is no longer comfortable with. Lent gives us a chance to slow down, gives us time to search, and time to wait. The season of Lent is not meant to rush us toward Easter; it walks us deliberately toward the wilderness, toward hunger, toward silence, and ultimately toward the cross.

In the world today everything around us has been designed for convenience. We stream movies and show’s instead of waiting to see them at the movies, on cable or regular tv. We order our food online and have it delivered instead going and shopping for ourselves. The art of preparing and cooking meals in our own kitchens has gone away in most homes. This has led our society to a people who do not even know how to do basic things like go shopping, how to cook, and how to make things with their own hands. Sadly, the number of people that lose these abilities continues to grow from generation to generation. We have become a society that expects immediate answers, instant results, and quick fixes.

Waiting has come to feel like a waste of time.

As Christian’s our waiting, is never empty. Our waiting is formative. Waiting is where faith is tested, refined, and revealed. Waiting is where obedience is learned, where trust is proven, and where hearts are either softened or hardened.

Lent is an invitation for us as individuals as well as a church to rediscover holy waiting—not passive waiting, not idle waiting, but faithful waiting before God, and listen for His voice.

The question is What kind of people will we be while we wait for Jesus?

Psalm 95

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;     let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving     and extol him with music and song.

3 For the Lordis the great God,     the great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,     and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it,     and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down in worship,     let us kneel before the Lordour Maker; 7 for he is our God     and we are the people of his pasture,     the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice, 8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,[a]     as you did that day at Massah[b] in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested me;     they tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;     I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,     and they have not known my ways.’ 11 So I declared on oath in my anger,     ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

I. Worshiping While Resisting: The Warning of Psalm 95

Psalm 95 begins exactly where we are most comfortable: worship. However, it turns into a warning for us all.

“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.”

This is joyful, expressive, and communal worship. It is the kind of psalm that feels at home in the gathered assembly. There are praises, thanksgiving, and recognition of God’s sovereignty. The Lord is a great God, a great King above all kings. The depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains and the sea are all His, for He made it.

Everything feels right—then the Psalmist takes a sharp and unexpected turn.

“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…”

Suddenly, the psalm moves from praise to warning. From celebration to confrontation. From singing to listening.

The Psalmist reminds us of something the church often forgets worship does not automatically mean obedience. It is possible to sing the right songs and still resist the living God. It is possible to gather regularly and yet remain spiritually stubborn.

The psalm points back to Israel’s wilderness experience—Meribah and Massah—are places defined not by faith, but by complaint. The people asked, “Is the Lord among us or not?” even after witnessing God’s saving power time and time again.

The tragedy is not that they lacked evidence of God’s presence. The tragedy is that their hearts had grown hard.

A hardened heart is not an angry heart. It is a resistant heart. A heart that hears God’s voice but refuses to trust it. A heart that remembers God’s past actions but doubts His present faithfulness.

This Psalm was not written to sinners. It is written to believers.

And that is what makes it so unsettling for the church today.

II. The Church Today and the Danger of Hardened Hearts

Every church of every age has faced and continues to face the temptation to confuse familiarity with faithfulness. We know the songs. We know the language. We know the rhythm of worship. But Lent asks us to stop and examine whether our hearts are still open to God’s voice.

Questions that we must ask ourselves:

Have we grown impatient with God’s timing? Have we grown defensive when challenged by God’s Word? Have we learned to praise God publicly while resisting Him privately?

Psalm 95 tells us that the wilderness generation did not fail because they lacked worship—they failed because they lacked trust.

Their waiting turned into grumbling. Their testing turned into rebellion. Their longing for the Promised Land turned into nostalgia for Egypt.

Waiting reveals the truth about our faith.

And that truth is often uncomfortable.

Tonight, I want you to open your bibles follow along as I read Matthew 4:1–11

Please stand with me as we read the word of the Lord

4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[c]”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[d]”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, andserve him only.’[e]”

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father we ask that your words speak to us so that each and every one of us gain knowledge and a better understanding of what it means to wait during the season of lent. Teach us how to stay focused on you and listen for your voice. Help us not to wander, but to fix our eyes on you and only you as we wait for your return. Speak for your servants are listening, in Jesus’ name we pray Amen.

III. Jesus Led into the Wilderness (Matthew 4:1–2)

Matthew opens with a striking statement:

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

This is not accidental. Jesus is not lost. He is not being punished. He was not abandoned. He is led—by the Spirit—into a place of testing.

Before Jesus performs miracles, before He teaches crowds, before He announces the kingdom, He waited. He fasts. He entered silence. And He experienced hunger.

Forty days.

The number itself echoes Israel’s story—forty years in the wilderness, forty days on Sinai, forty days of testing and preparation. Jesus is reliving Israel’s story, but where Israel failed, He will remain faithful.

It is important to notice that Jesus waits in weakness. Hunger is not theoretical. It is physical. It is exhausting. It is humbling.

Lent does not ask us to pretend weakness does not exist. It invites us to face it honestly before God.

At the end of the forty days Jesus was tempted three times.

IV. The First Temptation: Bread Without Trust

The tempter came to Jesus when He is hungry.

“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

The temptation was to meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way. Jesus has the power. The hunger is real. The solution is available.

But the question beneath the temptation is this: Will you trust God’s provision, or will you take control for yourself?

Jesus responded:

“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Jesus refuses to reduce life to appetite. He refuses to let hunger dictate obedience. He waits—not because bread is bad, but because trust matters more.

Our church’s today face the same temptation. We are tempted to believe that survival justifies compromise. That effectiveness excuses disobedience. That results matter more than faithfulness.

But Lent reminds us that God’s Word sustains us even when our circumstances feel empty.

V. The Second Temptation: Faith Without Trust

The devil then takes Jesus to the highest point of the temple.

“Throw yourself down,” he says. “For it is written…”

He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[c]”

Notice that here Satan quotes Scripture. This is not temptation away from religion—it is temptation through religious presumption.

The challenge is simple: force God’s hand. Demand proof. Turn trust into spectacle.

Jesus responded:

“It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[d]”

True faith does not manipulate God. It does not demand guarantees. It waits quietly, trusting that God is faithful without being coerced.

Our church’s today often want dramatic confirmation instead of patient obedience. We want signs instead of surrender. We want assurance without vulnerability.

But Lent calls us back to a deeper trust—the kind that waits without demanding proof.

VI. The Third Temptation: Glory Without the Cross

Finally, the devil takes Jesus to the highest mountain so he can see all the kingdoms of the world.

“All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me.”

This is the ultimate shortcut: authority without sacrifice, victory without suffering, a crown without a cross.

Jesus’ response is decisive:

“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’

Here the temptation is not subtle. It is a direct assault on allegiance.

Church we must hear this clearly: there are no shortcuts to God’s kingdom. Any success that requires compromised worship is not success at all.

Lent reminds us that the way of Jesus is the way of costly obedience.

VII. Angels, Not Applause

Matthew tells us that after the devil leaves, angels come and minister to Jesus.

There was no crowd. No celebration. No recognition.

Only quiet faithfulness rewarded by God.

Waiting often feels unnoticed. But heaven sees.

VIII. From Hardened Hearts to Faithful Waiting

Psalm 95 and Matthew 4 stand in stark contrast.

Israel hardened their hearts. Jesus surrendered His will.

Israel demanded proof. Jesus trusted God’s Word.

Israel longed for Egypt. Jesus chose obedience.

The question for the church today is not whether we will face wilderness seasons—we will. The question is how we will respond while we wait.

Will our hearts grow hard, or will our faith grow deep?

IX. A Lenten Call to the Church Today

The season of Lent is not punishment. It is preparation.

God is not absent in the waiting. He is forming us.

This season invites us as individuals, as well as the church as a whole to listen again—to God’s Word, to God’s Spirit, and to God’s call to obedience.

“Today, if you hear His voice…”

Not tomorrow. Not when it’s easier. Not when the waiting is over.

Today! Listen!

Conclusion: Waiting That Leads to Life

Jesus emerged from the wilderness ready for ministry because He waited faithfully.

And the same is true for us.

The waiting of Lent prepares us for the joy of Easter. The silence prepares us for the song. The cross prepares us for resurrection.

If we will listen. If we will trust. If we will obey.

“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.” Listen to Him closely and let him in. God will do wonders during our wait.

If you feel God speaking to you don’t harden your heart. If you have not accepted Jesus as your savior or it’s just been a long time since you’ve heard his voice pray to Him, He wants to tell you something.

As we close in prayer I want to invite you to the alter, they are always open. Listen For Gods voice not just during Lent but in all of our seasons.

 Ask Him for repentance of your sins, accept Jesus Christ as your savior. If you need someone to pray with you please just raise your hand and I am sure that someone will come to you.

 Let us pray.

Amen.