26 Apr “don’t call it a comeback | part one “the purpose of the wilderness’

Key Verse: exodus 19

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This is a wilderness season and the whole world is in this wilderness season.  We are out of our comfort zone, away from all that we know.

God does not want to bring us back, he wants to bring us forward.  Through this experience, he wants to do something in us to make us ready for post-wilderness living. 

The Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness getting ready for the promised land. Just like them, God wants us growing, developing, and listening.

The Wilderness is God’s TRAINING GROUND.

This is where we learn and grow.  Some of God’s best men trained in wilderness:  Moses tended sheep so he could lead God’s people, David running from Saul, Elijah runs from jezebel, Paul the apostle gets saved dramatically then is in the Arabian desert for years.  The wilderness is to get us away from everything so we can get to know God.

Exodus 19:1-2 (ESV)

3 months into the wilderness God speaks to his people. God wants them to know him.  They cried out to get out of Egypt (Exodus 2) and God got them out. Then 3 months later they are struggling with doubt and fear.  God has to teach them lessons about listening to him.  This is where we are right now. Perhaps we have asked God to do something, or change something, or do something different in our lives and He is answering our prayers.

Q. What have you been praying for, that in this wilderness experience, he may be answering (change in job situation, financial, a change in you, etc.)?

1. In the wilderness God’s VOICE CALLS to us.

Exodus 19:3 (ESV)

He wants to say something to us we probably would not hear if this did not happen. We may want God to save us but we don’t want him to speak to us.  He saves us then sanctifies us. To sanctify is to make holy, and to be made holy is to be set apart for God’s purposes.  The silence fo the wilderness is where God speaks to us.

Q. How has God’s voice called to you while in the wilderness, what is He saying to you and are you listening?

”God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” – C. S. Lewis

Exodus 19:4 (ESV)

The point of deliverance was to get them to be with God. Life is being with God.  Egypt kept Israel from being with God.  Sin keeps us from being with God,  it is our spiritual Egypt. It impedes us from fulfilling our destiny. If we don’t listen to God during crisis we will waste this time.

The wilderness TEARS US AWAY from what’s FAMILIAR  so that we can become FAMILIAR with the VOICE of GOD.

2. In the wilderness God’s TRANSFORMING WORK begins in us.

When we respond to his voice we will be transformed.  We will waste this crisis if all we do is tell God how much we hate it and want it to end. We should be getting into his word.  When we hear God, we are changed, when we ignore him we stay the same.  (There are devotions every morning at 8:00a on waterschurch.tv)

Q. As you listen to God’s voice, how is he transforming you?

Exodus 19:5 (ESV)

It is not just about hearing, it is about doing.    

* The Covenant is God’s PROMISE to Abraham to bless and multiply his descendants.

Exodus 2:24 (ESV); Exodus 6:5 (ESV)

This is how it works. God starts something with us, (like Abraham he made a promise), he sticks to his word and is faithful to it.  When God says something we can take him at his word.

Q. What are some promises of God you have a hard time believing and why?

We need to believe he is doing something good in this crisis.  He saved us, we did not save ourselves.  Someone brought us the good news. God brought his word to us.  We have the covenant of Jesus’s blood.

Hebrews 13:20-21 (ESV)

The God who saves us also is gong to equip us and work in us that which is pleasing in his sight.  Fear, anxiety, and patience is getting tested but he is working in us.

Some people want God to SAVE them but not TRANSFORM them.

We want out of a situation but then we want to take it from there.

Q. What situations have you wanted God to get you out of but then you want to take over (example: when you have a financial hardship, he wants to make you a good steward of what you have, but you want him to give you more money)?

– We want God to take US out of THINGS. (SAVE US)

• God wants to take THINGS out of US. (TRANSFORM US)

God drew Israel to himself because he wanted to take out of them what was not pleasing to him.  He wants us to stop loving idols so he gives us a bunch of idols.  He won’t stop us until we hit rock bottom and see how empty it is. Having all this time to do all these things we should not do and realize it is empty.  In his grace he is taking these things out of us.

Q. What has been your go-to indulgence (outlet) during this crisis and how do you think God is trying to change these things in you?

In your own prayer time, pray this prayer:

“God I realize that I am addicted/attached to ______________. I have also realized that ____________ is not going to satisfy me. Teach me to love you more than I love ______________. I want to change. I need you to create in me a clean heart.”

3. In the wilderness God’s PURPOSES are made CLEAR to us.

In the wilderness, is where we see what God wants us to do. We are coming out better than we were and well equipped for the next stage of what is going to happen in our lives, family, jobs, and relationships.  Maybe we will appreciate everyone much more or stop complaining about things.

Q. What are you looking at differently now?

Exodus 19:5 (ESV)

We are not the same people we were 20 years ago.  God shapes us into who we are.  We will be his people when we allow him to transform us.

John 15:16 (ESV)

He calls us to be fruitful. 

Q. How has God used you for his purposes in the wilderness?

The Lord doesn’t want to take the Church out of the WORLD… He wants to take the WORLD out of the Church so that the CHURCH can CHANGE the WORLD.