God With Us In The Wilderness Series

God With Us - Wilderness

December 5, 2021

Matthew 1:23

We’re in part two of a series that's called God With Us. We’re looking at the different ways that we can experience the presence of God in our lives. We’re using one main text for this series and building off that text.

Our verse comes from Matthew 1:23 - - - 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). - Matthew 1:23

That’s our focus, believing and trusting that God is with us. Last week we looked at the fact that God is with us in the valleys of life. Today, I want to look at a different metaphor, that God is with us when we’re in the wilderness.

We enjoy God on the mountaintops, but we experience Him in a different, more intimate way when we’re in the valley.

How do we experience God's presence in the wilderness? To me, the wilderness is different from the valley, because time in the wilderness seems to last longer. The wilderness is a barren, dry place, a desolate place where you feel very alone.

One of the images often found in the wilderness is wandering. As we wander, we wonder when in the world is this going to be over. When are we going to get out of the wilderness? Think about the Israelites as they moved through the wilderness for 40 years on their way to the promised land. It seemed like the wilderness was a place of wandering, loss and disasters.

You may be in the wilderness right now. We seem to pass through the valleys, but we wander, almost directionless in the wilderness. Maybe you’re stuck in a job, or debating going back to school, maybe it’s what to do in life and you feel like you’re wandering. Maybe it’s a relationship that’s not moving along as you like, maybe it’s a sickness that doesn’t seem to be resolving.

We feel alone, lost, maybe disoriented. We try to finding our direction, as people offer free advice, but that doesn’t seem to help.

It’s interesting that most wilderness stories in the Bible occur after mountaintop experiences. That's what happened with Jesus. He had a mountaintop moment with God right after He was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Heaven opened up and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove. And His Father publicly expressed His love and approval for Jesus. God said ‘this is my Son, whom I love. With Him I am well pleased.’

It's a father saying I'm proud of you. It's a mountaintop experience, and then the next verse says, immediately Jesus was driven into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days. Isn’t that crazy? Mountaintop, followed by wilderness.

Maybe it’s that way with you, things were going great, and then you found out that someone wasn't being honest with you – and you end up in the wilderness; or they weren’t faithful to you. Something happens financially. It’s a health issue, job issue, school, kids, or the fridge or furnace goes out. You know how it is, one day all is great and the next, you’re in the wilderness.

You feel alone, spiritually dry, and desperate. I want to show you one big thought that we'll come back to again and again that I pray would touch your spirit as you hear it and as you live it.

The big thought is this - - - as much as it hurts, your deepest need becomes a gift, when it drives you to depend on God.

If you’re willing, your deepest need, can become a gift, because it drives us to a greater dependence upon God. That’s when you get intimate with Him.

I want to share a story from 1 Kings 19 to illustrate this. The prophet, Elijah had a mountain top experience and before he knew it he was alone in the wilderness. He became desperate, depressed, and scared for his life.

It would take a lot of time to read the entire story from the Bible, so I’m going to summarize it for you. The story is in 1 Kings 17-20.

There was an evil king in Israel named King Ahab. And King Ahab had an even more evil wife named Jezebel. Jezebel heard about all that Elijah was doing for God. How he was condemning their sinfulness. He was not afraid to proclaim God to all people as he followed God’s call in his life. She got so mad at Elijah for confronting her husband that she wanted to take matters into her own hands. She wanted Elijah dead!

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah performed this amazing miracle proving that God is real and alive. He burned up this altar that the false gods couldn’t touch. He poured 100's of gallons of water on the wood to make it harder on God to set on fire. Elijah prayed to God and - - - - POOF ---- a fire from heaven came down and burned up the altar. All the false prophets couldn’t manufacture a fire on dried wood. It was a miracle and it was powerful. Then he killed around 450 false prophets. It was a huge amazing victory!