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Growing through the Desert Seasons
Essentials for Growth
Part 1
We’re kicking off a new series on spiritual growth this month.
To start all of that off, I want to talk today about growing spiritually through the desert seasons of life.
To get us started I want to ask you a question.
Can anybody tell me what the largest desert in the world is?
Somebody guess.
Sahara?
Mojave?
Gobi?
Any other guesses?
The Antarctic is the largest desert in the world.
You say how is that possible?
That’s a real odd place.
It’s because a desert is not measured by heat.
A desert is measured by how much rainfall or snowfall happens in a year?
Any place that gets ten inches or less in a year is a desert.
The Antarctic only gets two inches of precipitation in a year.
You say, wait a minute!
I saw the Penguin movie and I watch National Geographic and the Discovery channel.
I’ve seen those enormous blizzards and all of that.
How is that possible?
It’s because what you’re actually seeing is snow and ice that’s already been there for a long, long time.
It’s too cold to melt.
And it’s just blowing all over that enormous continent.
But the Antarctic actually only receives two inches of fresh snowfall in a year.
Another way you can measure a desert is it’s a place that has more evaporation than rainfall or snow.
You didn’t know you were coming to science class today did you?
The reason I‘m going into all of this stuff is because there’s a life metaphor here.
The desert that I want to talk about today is the desert seasons of the soul.
Because a desert can be a very, very hot, dry place.
But a desert can also be a very cold place.
And of course the desert can be the time when you’re just giving out a whole lot more than you’re taking in.
Anybody ever been through those kinds of deserts before?
I want to talk tonight about how we can grow in the desert seasons of our life.
How do we meet the Lord when we find ourselves in a desert?
The Bible tells us that God spoke to a lot of people in their deserts.
He spoke to Abraham in the desert.
He spoke to Jacob in the desert.
He spoke to Moses in the desert.
You go, of course, they lived in the desert.
And that’s true; they lived in the desert.
But he spoke to them in the desert of their deserts.
In the wilderness of their deserts.
God spoke to Elijah in the desert.
He led Jesus out into the desert.
And many times God spoke to David, King David, in the desert.
We can read about these interactions that David had in his desert experience with God as we read through the Psalms.
I want us to look at one of those Psalms right now. .
David wrote this Psalm when he was in the desert of Judah being chased by Saul.
Saul was trying to kill him.
So talk about being in the heat of things!
There he was – he was in the heat of things.
Here’s what David said:
“OH, GOD YOU ARE MY GOD, EARNESTLY I SEEK YOU; MY SOUL THIRSTS FOR YOU, MY BODY LONGS FOR YOU, IN A DRY AND WEARY LAND WHERE THERE IS NO WATER.
I HAVE SEEN YOU IN THE SANCTUARY AND BEHELD YOUR POWER AND YOUR GLORY.
BECAUSE YOUR LOVE IS BETTER THAN LIFE, [not because of your power and glory but because your love is better than life] MY LIPS WILL GLORIFY YOU.
I WILL PRAISE YOU AS LONG AS I LIVE, AND IN YOUR NAME I WILL LIFT UP MY HANDS.
MY SOUL WILL BE SATISFIED AS WITH THE RICHEST OF FOODS; WITH SINGING LIPS MY MOUTH WILL PRAISE YOU.
ON MY BED I REMEMBER YOU; I THINK OF YOU THROUGH THE WATCHES OF THE NIGHT.
[he’s up pacing the floor in the middle of the night – just like we do.
I think of you through the watches of the night] BECAUSE YOU ARE MY HELP, I SING [everybody say “sing.”]
IN THE SHADOW OF YOUR WINGS.
MY SOUL CLINGS TO YOU; YOUR RIGHT HAND UPHOLDS ME.”
He says earnestly I seek you in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Does that sound familiar to anybody?
Ever found yourself in one of those places where you feel spiritually dry?
Where life just seems barren and fruitless?
And you’re just dying for a taste of the water that God would have to offer you.
I believe that some of us are probably in desert seasons right now.
You might be in one of those deserts where the heat is turned up.
And everything is parched in your life.
Maybe the heat is turned up at work.
Maybe you’re in a financial crisis.
Maybe you’re in a family crisis.
The heat is turned up.
Maybe you’re being treated unfairly in a relationship.
Maybe you’re seeing all of the fruit on the vine withering away.
Everything that you worked so hard for is just withering and dying in the heat of what you are experiencing right now.
You look for comfort.
You want to hear what God might have to say to you so you go to the Word and you try to read your Bible.
But it’s just sort of like chewing on sawdust.
There’s just nothing there.
There’s no life.
There’s no fruitfulness happening in your life.
No rain has fallen in a long time.
So you find yourself living on memories of past encounters with God, wishing that life could be like it used to be.
Like it was when everything was wonderful.
In times like these oftentimes your prayer can be, “God!
Just get me out of this!
When is this ever going to end?”
Or perhaps you might be in a desert season in your soul when your heart has turned cold and it’s become hardened.
Maybe you’re just burned out.
You could be angry with God over something that God did or maybe something that God did not do.
And your heart is turning cold.
You’re burning out.
You’re losing your passion for life.
You’re losing your passion for God.
Your prayers are just hitting the ceiling.
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