SurvivorMan
Pt. 2
I. Introduction
One of the lessons that I won’t spend any time on but want to mention to you after that clip is that are times in the dry moments of your life that you have to do things you wouldn’t normally do. There is a flip side to that as well. There are times in the dry moments of your life that you will want to do things you wouldn’t normally do so you have to be on guard. We will talk more about that next week.
Anyone hungry this morning? How does a nice, crunchy scorpion sound?
As much as we would like to avoid dry and desperate seasons as I mentioned to you last week they are inevitable. If you haven’t experienced a dry season in your spiritual journey then I can probably say that you aren’t very spiritually mature. Dry times are a part of the path to spiritual maturity. You can’t avoid it. You must learn to survive these dry moments and not only survive but embrace them and become stronger because of them. In fact, according to David in Psalms 63:10 the dry times should only increase our hunger, thirst, and desire for God rather than diminish that desire!
Psalms 63:10
1O God, thou art my God; earnestly will I seek thee:
My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee,
In a dry and weary land, where no water is.
Message - 1God—you’re my God!
I can’t get enough of you!
I’ve worked up such hunger and thirst for God,
traveling across dry and weary deserts.
That is a novel concept. Instead of the dry times making us angry, bitter, depressed, or hateful if we will allow them to the dry times can actually make us want more of God. That is a change of mentality for most of us. I know too many people who went through a dry season and instead of following David’s path they throw in the towel and run away from God rather than too Him. I want us to learn the survival lessons necessary to survive the dry seasons so that we will run to God!
Let me refresh your memory. We learned 3 very important Survival Lessons last week.
1. The wilderness is not a location, but a condition. If you just try to change locations to end the dry times the dry times will follow you.
2. The wilderness is common to everyone. No one, despite how spiritual you may be, is exempt.
3. If you stay in the wilderness too long you will die there. The wilderness is supposed to be a season not a permanent dwelling!
You will also remember that we are using the 3 great wilderness stories from the Bible (Moses, David, and Jesus) to learn these lessons.
So let’s look at lesson #4.
II. Lessons
Survival Lesson # 4 – The wilderness keeps our desires from outrunning our development.
We all have the desire. We won’t admit it. It is the dirty little secret that we don’t want others to know about. We lie in our beds at night and think about it. We desire to do something and to be something significant. For those of us in ministry we desire to be great at what we do. We secretly desire to preach the greatest sermon ever heard. We desire to have more young people in our ministry than anyone else in our town, area, or denomination. We are driven to be a success. The same is true for those in business. I want to be the best salesman. I want to out sale everyone in my company. I want to be the best doctor. I want to find the cure for a disease and have that cure named after me.
I submit to you that this desire is normal, natural, and actually healthy.
Who would want to sit under someone’s ministry who had the mindset of “I don’t want to be anyone or do anything? I want to be mediocre at best.” None of us would want to go to a doctor that didn’t want to be the best in his arena. None of us would want to be around that type of person, nor do we want to be that type of person.
But our desire to succeed and to make a name for ourselves forces us to join a race. This is a race that everyone runs. There is nothing wrong with having the race, but it is extremely important that we fix the race so that the right runner wins. What race is common to all of us? It is the race between our desire and our development.
TD Jakes is correct when he says, "Success can be as painful as failure if you are not equipped for it."
Moses’ desire to be a deliver outran his development. He had to spend some time on the backside of the desert. He needed some time in the wilderness help him to develop properly.
The Children of Israel desired the Promised Land but they had to spend some time in the wilderness to get developed for possession. This is because God doesn’t want you to visit your promise He wants you be able to possess your promise.
David had to learn to be a shepherd before he was developed to be a king. He had to handle sheep before he could handle people.
Paul, after the Damascus Road, desired to be a great witness, but he had to go and spend some time in Arabia, the wilderness to develop properly.
The dry moments in our lives help us to grow up and to grow deep.
You need the wilderness because some of you desire to be the greatest preacher, singer, counselor, business man, nurse, salesman, or youth pastor that ever lived. But if you don’t have the wilderness experience your desire will outrun your development and like Moses, you will fail and hurt others in the process. You must embrace the wilderness in order to become equipped to fulfill your desires.
How many of you know someone who was so gifted, so talented, most likely to succeed, but their talent outran their character and they ended up hurting themselves or someone else?
Remember talent gets you on stage, character keeps you there. And it is the dry times that develops character and the good times that reveal your character!
It is true God will grant us the desires of our heart, but it is through the wilderness experience that we learn to handle our desires.
It is in the wilderness that you learn the becoming aspects of Christianity rather than the doing aspects of Christianity.
You have great dreams and plans. Embrace the wilderness. No one may be willing to give you a mic right now. Don’t push your way on stage. If you do you will hurt someone. Maybe it doesn’t seem like you can get that promotion or the recognition. Just hold on. If you get there too early you will hurt someone. Develop in the dry times and when the season changes you will be ready to handle it. Just because you desire greatness doesn’t mean you prepared to handle it yet!
The dry times are about developing!
Survival Lesson # 5 – The wilderness teaches you how to truly worship.
Moses and the Children of Israel learned to worship wilderness experience.
Notice the time in which they learned to worship God. There was initial excitement and apprehension about escape. Then frustration over no progress. No seen purpose. No apparent provision. It was a dry time. Routine, mundane, no feelings, no goose bumps, nothing changed. The route was constant, the clothing was never new (guys you might wish we could go back to that), the traveling companion were the same, no new experiences, no new exploits, same food, same problems and trials every day.
David understood this. He had to endure the mundane and routine task of watching the sheep, sometimes being gone for 3 to 6 months at a time. In the wilderness by himself. And yet it is hear that he learned to strum his harp and write psalms.
Sounds like a typical life experience. Initial excitement over being involved in your dream. But then frustration. The provisions run low. The routine is constant (9 to 5 kills the glamour). It can be a very mundane time. The romance is gone. The faces stay the same (same co-workers, same kids, same spouse). The expectations are high and at times the results are low.
However, it is during the routine, in spite of no feelings, no new exploits, unseen and sometimes forgotten purpose, facing the same problems and trials that you must learn to worship in spirit and in truth. It is during this time, in the middle of the wilderness journey that you (Slide 5 b & c) must learn to worship God for who He is rather than for what He does. No feelings but faith. No seen progress but confidence that He is working everything together for our good. Confidence that even on the backside of a desert a seemingly forgotten sheep herder can have a burning bush experience.
This is the way of the wilderness. It is during this time that we learn to worship in spite of feelings. We learn to worship in spite of sight. How many of you know that it is easy to worship in the oasis of life. It is easy to worship in the easy times and fruitful times. When everything is great is it really a sacrifice to raise your hands? When provision is abundant is it really difficult to trust God? When everyone is well it is hard to believe in faith. But it is in the dry times when nothing is going right that we learn to worship in spirit and in truth.
Today is the Day of Pentecost. Even that great outpouring that we celebrate was preceded by a dry time. Think about it for a second. The Lord is gone. The one they have left everything (career, families, friends) for. Fear. If Rome killed him they may kill us. It is a dark time. They would have understood and related to Job – can’t find God. And yet we find them on the Day of Pentecost having one of the most significant spiritual encounters the world has ever witnessed? Good times may produce goosebumps, but dry times produce true worshippers!
You can also notice one more thing about the disciples on the Day of Pentecost. They were hidden. Which brings me to today’s final survival lesson.
Survival Lesson # 6 – To survive the wilderness you must know where to hide.
Hiding is usually seen or thought of as a defensive posture or position. However, I encourage you not to despise the hiding place. Read Exodus 33:20-29 and I Kings 17:5-6, 17-22. God hid Moses and Elijah. He put Moses in the cleft of a rock and hid him with his hand. He directed Elijah to a small brook while a drought was upon the land. Hidden. Out of sight. Out of the picture. No spotlight. No glare of camera or stage lights. The hiding place.
Some of you feel hidden and maybe even forgotten. Something within in you is causing you to feel restless. There is a restless urge and drive to accomplish the significant. Out of that restlessness comes the cry or thought, “If I could just do something big. If I could just go to such and such place. If I could go somewhere large. If I could just get on a major platform.” Some of you are tempted to leave and quit what you are doing, to make a change for the spotlight and the large audiences, applause, promotions, raises, etc., but let me shout into your spirit, “Don’t abandon the hiding place.” God is hiding you on purpose.
We can reflect on what took place after Moses and Elijah had spent some time in hiding to see what God is trying to accomplish in you. Moses comes out of hiding with more than a glow; he comes out of hiding with a Word of Law. Elijah comes out of hiding with a word of life for the widow who’s son had died. God-ordained hiding will produce in you a word of law and word of life. You will be marked like Moses. You may not physically glow but out of the hiding experience you will be marked with power as you speak. People will take notice that your words carry a new weight (“chabod” – Hebrew word for glory translated “weightiness”). Your words will produce breath in those who have been suffocating for lack of a fresh word. Don’t despise the hiding place. Don’t be tempted to come out of hiding or force your way out of hiding before God has finished placing a word of law and life in you. Don’t come out until God says come out! I realize the spotlight, applause, and large stage are tempting, but be assured God hasn’t forgotten you while you are in the hiding place.
If you don’t know where to hide in the wilderness you will not survive. You will be swallowed up and lost forever. Most of us, during dry seasons, turn to all of the wrong places to hide and it gets us in trouble. We try to hide in activity and work. If I stay busy I won’t be dry. We try to hide in people. If I am just with someone I won’t feel dry. We try to hide in things. If I could just get the right car, house, clothes I won’t feel dry anymore. In order to survive the wilderness you must know where to hide!
1. Solitude
Bonhoffer said, “Beware of the brother who cannot be alone.” “Alone you stood before God when he called you; alone you had to answer that call; alone you had to struggle and pray; and alone you will die and give an account to God. You cannot escape from yourself; for God has singled you out. If you refuse to be alone you are rejecting Christ’s call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called.”
We are taught to fight solitude. Turn on the radio. Hang out with someone all the time. Clean with the TV on. iPods constant. However, God wants us to be alone sometimes so that we learn to commune and communicate with Him.
Charles Swindoll says, “Solitude has nurturing qualities all its own. Anyone who must have superficial sounds to survive lacks depth. If you can’t stand to be alone with yourself, you have deep, unresolved conflicts in your inner life.”
It was when Jacob was left alone in Genesis 32:24 that he wrestled with God and had his name changed. Even Christ would take times to be alone.
Mother Teresa once said, "We need to find God, and He can’t be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature — trees, flowers, grass — grows in silence; see the stars, the moon, and the sun, see how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls."
2. Obscurity
You must learn to hide in obscurity. Moses tended sheep for 40 years on the backside of the desert. Unknown and unseen. David lived in the shadow of his brothers. He was overlooked by his father. Gone months at a time and barely missed. Jesus spent 30 years in the unknown and unrecorded.
It is in the shadow of obscurity that we learn to be servant leaders instead of self-serving leaders. For those who can be unknown, unwanted, unneeded, and unapplauded are those who are best suited to handle power and popularity. If you see someone push their way to the front avoid them. They are dangerous. Obscurity helps us deal with our need to be needed!
3. Word
You must learn to run and hide in the Word. The sanctuary you run to is not the rocks and hills. It is the Word.
Moses ran to the desert and ran head long into a Word.
Jesus, in the wilderness, utilized the hiding place of the Word to defeat the enemy.
But perhaps the most glaring example of this is David.
David had to run. David had to escape with his life. His situation had taken a nasty turn. Once a welcome and honored guest in the palace, David is now an enemy of the state with a price on his head.
He was used to the countryside. He could have run for the hills. He was comfortable in the caves. He could have found one in which to hide. But instead He ran to Nob and at full sprint ran into the sanctuary there.
There David found bread and a sword (not just any sword, Goliath’s sword). He came into the sanctuary ravenously hungry and unarmed for battle, defenseless against attack. He left with a full stomach and armed for war. Remember, God’s Word has been called both bread and sword. This is what we must find in our sanctuary. We must stop running long enough to find the Word of God as bread. We must find the sustaining bread of God’s Word for our life. We must find that ever-proceeding word from God’s mouth on which we can live and exist. But we must also discover His Word as a sword. To reenter the battle, to handle attacks, to withstand the onslaught of the enemy we must leave the sanctuary armed with a sword. But this wasn’t just any sword. The Word declares that there was no other sword like Goliath’s sword. We must emerge from our sanctuary with a special word. An ordinary word won’t do. Someone else’s word won’t do. A borrowed word won’t do. We must allow the victories and experiences of our past to produce a work in us that then produces a word of God in us like no one else’s. The bread and the sword can only be found in the sanctuary.
We must find a filling Word and a fighting Word.
Your flight may be caused by the board breathing down your neck or perhaps the boss who threw compliments now throws spears. It could possibly be an angry, misinformed spouse, the heavy load of life, the strain of the financial struggle, or the weight of juggling family with carreer. There are numerous things that cause us to run. Threats, fear, and stress cause us to desire to hide and disappear. Running and the need to escape are normal.
However, again I tell you that what you are running from is not nearly as
important as what you are running to.
In our fear, our exhaustion, our pain, we often run to everything, everyone, and everywhere except where we will find help. We must learn to hide in the Word. Not someone else’s Word. Your Word. A Word like no other Word. Your own edge.
When was the last time you ran into God’s Word during a time of need and struggle? When was the last time you hid away and found nourishment and strength from His Word? It is the safest place to hide.
That is why David could say in Psalms 18:2, “2Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; My God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge;
My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.”
And why he could cry out Psalms 46.
1God is a safe place to hide,
ready to help when we need him.
2We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,
courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
3Before the rush and roar of oceans,
the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
GOD of angel armies protects us.
4River fountains splash joy, cooling God’s city,
this sacred haunt of the Most High.
5God lives here, the streets are safe,
God at your service from crack of dawn.
6Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten,
but Earth does anything he says.
7Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
GOD of angel armies protects us.
8Attention, all! See the marvels of GOD!
He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
9Bans war from pole to pole,
breaks all the weapons across his knee.
10“Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything.”
11Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
GOD of angel armies protects us.
III. Close
Close:
Pray for those need to settle into the wilderness for development.
Pray for those who are having a hard time worshipping during the dry times.
Pray for those who need to hide. Need a word.
