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
2. Follow HIS Paths – 12 “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I command you this day for your good? 14 Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it; 15 yet the LORD set his heart in love upon your fathers and chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as at this day. Deuteronomy 10.12-15
3. NOT – comfortable; easy; enjoyable (although joyous) – WHO told you it was?
[USMC Boot Camp in Parris Island – “I Beg Your Pardon, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden”
III. The Key to the Desert is Remembering God (“My God”)
A woman on phone: The telephone rings, and the young mother answers. "Honey, it’s mom. I called because I know that you’re busy with the three children, and I want to give you some help. I’m going to stop by to clean the house, take care of the baby, and prepare dinner for when the boys get home from school.
I want you to get ready to go to my beautician, I paid her already, and she is going to give you "the works," your appointment is at 1:00.
Give George a call at the office and tell him that you will meet him at your favorite restaurant for dinner; on me..."
The young mother suddenly interrupts and asks "George, who is George?"
"Your husband." says the caller.
"My husband’s name is Fred." She replies.
"Is this 555-3212?"
"No this is 555-2212"
"I’m sorry I have the wrong number." says the now embarrassed caller.
After a pause, the young mother sheepishly asks, "Does this mean that you’re not coming over?"
A. Remember is a Key Concept in the Scriptures – a form of it is used over 200 times
1. Remember that the Deserts Lead to the Promised Land
2. Remember God Provides Enough for Now
3. Remember that Our Mission is the Same as the Hebrews – Kingdom of priests; holy nation – Exodus 19.5-6; 1 Peter 2.9
B. Remembering is More than Memory – It is Keeping Covenant
1. God remembered Noah – Genesis 8.1
2. Yeshua (Jesus) says to remember him – Luke 22.19
C. Remembering Taps into Hope –
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.” 13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. 16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. Revelation 7.9-16
1. From Isaiah 49 and 25
2. Sang in the fullness of their relationship with God
1. Paradox – the times we feel most helpless are the times we have the most strength –
2. We are the
3. temple of God – even in the wilderness – For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 2 Corinthians 6.16 (Cf. Leviticus 26.2; Exodus 6.7)
4. We win – 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 2 Corinthians 4.7-8
5. greThe Bet -- Anton Chekhov
We live in a world that knows little about what’s truly valuable. People all around us are pursuing things that have no lasting value. That pursuit is ably treated by Anton Chekhov in his classic short story The Bet. This story gives us great insight into the value system of most people.
The plot involves a wager between two educated men regarding solitary confinement. A wealthy, middle-aged banker believed the death penalty was a more humane penalty than solitary confinement because “an executioner kills at once, solitary confinement kills gradually.” One of his guests at a party, a young lawyer of twenty-five, disagreed, saying, “To live under any conditions is better than not to live at all.”
Angered, the banker impulsively responded with a bet of two million rubles that the younger man could not last five years in solitary confinement. The lawyer was so convinced of his endurance that he announced he would stay fifteen years alone instead of only five.
The arrangements were made, and the young man moved into a separate building on the grounds of the banker’s large estate. He was allowed no visitors or newspapers. He could write letters but receive none. There were guards watching to make sure he never violated the agreement, but they were placed so that he could never see another human being from his windows. He received his food in silence through a small opening where he could not see those who served him. Everything else he wanted—books, certain foods, musical instruments, etc.—was granted by special written request.
During the first year the piano could be heard at almost any hour, and he asked for many books, mostly novels and other light reading. The next year the music ceased and the works of various classical authors were requested. In the sixth year of his isolation he began to study languages and soon had mastered six. After the tenth year of his confinement, the prisoner sat motionless at the table and read the Bible. After more than a year’s saturation of the Bible, he began to study the history of religion and works on theology.
The second half of the story focuses on the night before the noon deadline when the lawyer would win the bet. The banker was now at the end of his career. His risky speculations and impetuosity had gradually undermined his business. The once self-confident millionaire was now a second-rate banker, and it would destroy him to pay off the wager. Angry at his foolishness and jealous of the soon-to-be-wealthy lawyer who was now only forty, the old banker determined to kill his opponent and frame the guard with the murder. Slipping into the man’s room, he found him asleep at the table and noticed a letter the lawyer had written to him. He picked it up and read the following:
Tomorrow at twelve o’clock I shall be free . . . but before leaving this room . . . I find it necessary to say a few words to you. With a clear conscience, and before God, who sees me, I declare to you that I despise freedom and life and health and all that your books call the joys of this world. . . . I know I am wiser than you all. . . . And I despise all your books; I despise all earthly blessings and wisdom. All is worthless and false, hollow and deceiving like the mirage. You may be proud, wise and beautiful, but death will wipe you away from the face of the earth, as it does the mice that live beneath your floor; and your heirs, your history, your immortal geniuses will freeze or burn with the destruction of the earth. You have gone mad and are not following the right path. You take falsehood for truth, and deformity for beauty. To prove to you how I despise all that you value I renounce the two million on which I looked, at one time, as the opening of paradise for me, and which I now scorn. To deprive myself of the right to receive them, I will leave my prison five hours before the appointed time, and by so doing break the terms of our compact.
The banker read the lines, replaced the paper on the table, kissed the strange, sleeping man and with tears in his eyes, quietly left the house. Chekhov writes, “Never before, not even after sustaining serious losses on change, had he despised himself as he did at that moment.” His tears kept him awake the rest of the night. And at seven the next morning he was informed by the watchmen that they had seen the man crawl through a window, go to the gate, and then disappear. (From John MacArthur, www.gracechurch.org/sfellowship/pulpitcm/article.asp?id=20&aid=80, Article “Praying For the Right Things; Accessed 04/09/06
-Some people have to learn the hard way what is of value, and there are some who never learn.
