Desert Survival Training

Video…Awkward Invitation

Slide #1

Welcome…Guest/Holy Grounds

For VP church to be successful this year in reaching in our community…

I felt it necessary to go beyond the training we have already have put in place here at the church..

Many of you are currently involved in the Sunday morning Apologetics class as well as the Wednesday evenings Revelation study …but are they enough…are they preparing us to serve God?

This is why I felt it necessary for each of us to take a few moments this morning to get trained in what I call…D.S.T.

Slide #2

For Christians to be 100% successful in reaching people for the Kingdom…each one must realize that spending personal time in the desert is a necessity.

I have yet to run across anyone who enjoys this type of training…but without going thru it…your effectiveness for God is limited.

If I have noticed anything about living in the southwest during the summer time…it is this.

If you don’t first prepare yourself for your journey…it can be detrimental to not only your health…but more importantly to your spiritual walk with God.

Before the average person leaves the city and journey’s out into the desert…It is in their best interest that they carry a survival pack.

(Explain what’s in pack…Lay out on table)

When a person is properly prepared to spend many days and nights in the desert… their experience seems to be more enjoyable.

But when a person is not properly for their journey that very same experience can seem to last a life time.

The desert can be a great experience if people are prepared to accept how God is going to train and provide for them ……...

Prayer

This morning we are going to look at 4 desert experiences that each of you might find yourself in … as God prepares your heart for service.

The first area desert travelers’ find themselves in is…

Slide #3 Seeking Direction

Before a person can head out into the desert for their Godly training… they first need to agree with….

What Matthew 22:14 says. “For many are called, but few are chosen”

Not every person who heads into the desert is 100% ready to know or serve God.

God understands (and is disappointed) that man is saturated by his sin nature.

And the desert experience is the best way to clear away all of life’s impure/dirty thoughts that have been planted by Satan.

God wants your (Individual) desert experience to be life changing.

God also realizes that your time spent in the desert with Him is different from any another’s.

The apostle Paul spent 3 years in Arabia…while God prepared his Heart for service.

Moses spent 40 years in the desert lands of Median… before God called him back to free the Israelites from their bondage.

Joseph spent 13 years in Egypt…serving in Potiphar’s house.

And David spent many years of his life in the desert fleeing from King Saul before He became the appointed King.

In all honesty with the technology we have today…our desert travels could greatly be reduced to a minimum…(compass..GPS)

But there is something unexplainable that happens to a person while they travel with God in the desert.

It’s in these very times that we… like Moses get to experience our own burning bush while on God’s Holy ground.

I know that many of you…currently are on this spiritual quest right now…

And my advice to you as a Pastor is… DO NOT rush through your journey.

Let God reveal the direction that you are to travel on.

Cherish each moment that you spend with God…and watch in the mirror… the life changing transformation that happens to you.

Seeking direction is where each of us begins our journey with Christ.

The Second desert area travelers’ find themselves in is…

Slide #4 Seeking Out Water

God wants your undivided attention…and way too often… the only way He can get your attention is to separate you from what is comfortable.

The Bible share with us from the book of Luke 4:2 that Jesus lived for 40 days without food…but what about water… it’s a much different story.

Man can only live 3 days without water…thus the reason that God choses to send us out into our deserts…

When a person is endlessly wandering around the desert physically dying of thirst…they have no other option but to place all their trust in God to provide.

How many people do you know that can make water magically appear on command?

Millions of Israelite’s got to see this very thing happen…

(During their Exodus from Egypt the Israelites found themselves on their own desert experience)

Numbers 20:10-11…

“Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them,

“Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”