The Wilderness

You should know something about me... I'm an avid podcast listener. My job allows me the incredible opportunity to sit on my rear in front of a computer 8 hours a day (bleh), so to pass the time as I peck away on a computer, I listen to podcasts. During my weekly check-in with Gateway Church I heard a sermon that hit me so hard and I wanted to share the gist of it with you guys.

The sermon series was titled "The Wilderness." All of us either have been or are in "The Wilderness". The Wilderness is a just a place in our lives where it seems like we aren't gaining any ground. We aren't progressing at all. It's a place where we can tend to feel frustrated with life, with work, with kids, you name it, and we begin to complain.

Numbers 14 explains the story of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. God delivered the Israelites out of the land of Egypt where they were slaves. He performed miracle after miracle on their behalf from parting the Red Sea so the Israelites could escape the pursuit of the Egyptians, to causing manna to fall from the sky to feed the people. Pretty soon though, the Israelites began to lose focus on all the God had done for them. They began to grumble and complain because things weren't as they felt they should be.

Let's pick up in verse 26:
"Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "How long must I put up with this wicked community and its complaints about me? Yes, I have heard the complaints the Israelites are making against me. Now tell them this: 'As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say. You will all drop dead in this wilderness! Because you complained against me, every one of you who is twenty years old or older and was included in the registration will die. You will not enter and occupy the land I swore to give you. The only exceptions will be Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. "You said your children would be carried off as plunder. Well, I will bring them safely into the land, and they will enjoy what you have despised. But as for you, you will drop dead in this wilderness. And your children will be like shepherds, wandering in the wilderness for forty years. In this way, they will pay for your faithlessness, until the last of you lies dead in the wilderness."

Umm.. so yeah.. those are pretty serious words. A few observations made by the speaker:

*If you're frustrated about your wilderness, remember that God's just doing with you what He did with His Son. (Matthew 4:1 "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.)

My personal favorite: "When our perspective is wrong, we look back at the wilderness as a curse. We look back at Egypt, the land of our greatest torment, and it will look more appealing than the wilderness, which is actually the land of our greatest transition."

The Wilderness, for the Israelites, was a place of transition, but they despised (lightly esteemed) it and it began to seem as a curse. Things just weren't happening fast enough. I know I can relate....

Why the wilderness?
1) Because crutches are killed in the wilderness

Deuteronomy 8:2 "Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey His commands."

2) The wilderness is a place your flesh goes to die.

3) The wilderness is your womb for your most expedient development.

Why is it important to war through the wilderness?

So that your finish line can be in the promised land and your children's starting line will be in the promised land.

In summary, the take away point is this, you are going to go through times in your life where you feel alone, you feel frustrated with your current situation, whatever. The point of the wilderness is to allow God to teach us. We have to get to a place where we are so reliant upon God, where we KNOW that things just aren't going to happen unless He does them. We have to put aside the feelings of self-pity, resentment, frustration, anger and instead view the wilderness as a place where we are experiencing "our most expedient development". Development is not a bad thing! It's a good thing actually! Not only does the way that you handle your time in the wilderness affect you, it affects your kids. Let your kids starting line be in The Promised Land!

If you would like to listen to this podcast yourself simply click here