Deserted In The Desert Series

1. Know where you are

There was once an absent-minded professor who became so absorbed in his work that he forgot the simplest details. One morning his wife said, "Now Henry, remember, we are moving today. Here, I’m putting this note in your pocket. Don’t forget." The day passed by and the man came home to his house. He entered the front door, and found the place empty. Distraught, he walked out to the curb and sat down. A young boy walked up to him, and he asked him, "Little boy, do you know the people who used to live here?" The boy replied, "Sure, Dad, Mom told me you’d forget."

2. The People of God (even key people) experienced the desert – but God has not forgotten

a. Abraham -- 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. Hebrews 11.9

b. Moses – 40-40-40; the exodus; the tabernacle; worship in the desert

c. David – escaping Saul/Absalom in the wilderness – did not start there or end there but was part of the journey

d. Temptations of Yeshua (Jesus) – 40 days in the wilderness

e. WE go into the desert of suffering and challenges of various kinds

3. Paradox – Feel alone in the desert times – place where God is known best

4. Psalm 63.1-8

I. Life is the Desert Path

Nancy Newhall -- “The wilderness holds answers to questions man’s not yet learned to ask.”

A. The Presence of God Makes the Difference on the Path

1. He gives feet for the journey – He made my feet like hinds’ feet, and set me secure on the heights. 2 Samuel 22.34

2. Not smooth path or easy way – proper feet

B. The Presence of God Preserves Life

1. God provided water from the rock

2. Our thirst for God is fulfilled in Psalm 63.1 & 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. 38 He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7.37-39

3. Our Biggest Dangers – 13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2.13

a. Leaving God

b. Making our own way/cisterns

C. The Presence of God is Enough for Now

1. Today – 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6.34

2. God gives us enough for NOW and we move on in the journey (Manna)

D. The Presence of God Empowers Our Service

1. We receive shelter

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. 2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. Isaiah 32.1-2

2. We GIVE shelter (we become an oasis for others)

17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever. 18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. 32.17-18

3. Living waters flow through us – 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. 38 He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7.37-39

II. The Desert is a Teacher

A. Lesson #1 – All Paths Are Not Safe

1. Unpredictable – Streams in the desert

2. Heat without shade

3. Food and water

4. Lostness and wandering

B. Lesson #2 – God’s Path is Correct and Challenging

1. God Has Led his people – 19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. Nehemiah 9.19