God is With Us in the Wilderness
Notes
Transcript
God With Us: The Wilderness
God With Us: The Wilderness
INTRO:
Wilderness: an uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region.
The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet – those last truly wild places that humans do not control.... and have not developed with roads, pipelines or other industrial infrastructure.
A century ago, wilderness extended over most of the planet. Today, only 23% of land – excluding Antarctica – is free from human activities.
spiritual wilderness is:
uninhabited - you are isolated
inhospitable - you are uncomfortable
a time when you seem to have no control over the circumstances
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
God is with us in the wilderness
BODY:
God’s presence
in the garden
tabernacle in the wilderness
temple
Incarnation - Jesus
new heaven, new earth
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
DWELT - tabernacled
Wilderness - that place where the only way the Israelites could survive was to learn to trust in, rely on, depend upon the one and only, true GOD.
length of time in the wilderness
wandering in the wilderness
In the wilderness, through His WORD, God provided their:
direction (way)
Law (truth)
food & drink (life)
[when we find ourselves in the wilderness]
times in the wilderness often follow mountain top experiences
Israelites freed from slavery in Egypt
Elijah wins the contest on Mt. Carmel (tell this story)
(1 Kings 19:9, 11-13)
not in the wind
not in the earthquake
not in the fire
but in the sound of a low whisper
the Word of the Lord called him by name
CLOSING:
and now, the WORD has become flesh, his name is Immanuel (God With US), his name is Jesus because he will save us from our sins
abide in His Word He will abide in us (abide = dwell) remain
make straight the path
valleys will raise up and mountains will come down
why? so that it is clear to everyone that the savior has come!
he has come to be with us in the wilderness of sin and death and lead us into the promised land of eternity with Him
PRAYER
when we find ourselves wandering in the wilderness, whisper to us.... call us by name.... so we know that we are not alone… so we will know that God is with us.