- Hi, everybody. If you look at your message notes, you'll notice that I titled this message Finding God in the Desert of the Soul. Now some of you have heard
me talk about this before. In fact, I preached this message about 12 years ago here at Saddleback. But given the situation that most of us find
ourselves in right now with the heat turned up in your
life, with the pressure on, I thought, you know, this
is probably a good time for us to revisit the truths
that are in God's Word about this issue itself. So I wanna start this message
by asking you a question. Do you know what the largest
desert in the world is? Now, let me give you some clues. It's not the Sahara desert, it's not the Gobi, or the Mojave desert. The largest desert in the
world is the Antarctic. Now you might be saying, wait
a minute, how's that possible? Because deserts are hot
and dry and sandy places. So how can the Antarctic
possibly be a desert? Well, this is what I learned in my college oceanography class. It's because the desert
is not defined by heat. Though most deserts are hot, but a desert is actually
defined by precipitation, rainfall or snowfall. And any place that receives less than 10 inches of rain
or snow in a year is a desert. And the Antarctic receives
less than two inches a year. And you might say,
"Well, now wait a minute, 'cause I watched television and I've seen all of the,
you know those movies and documentaries about the Antarctic, and it just seems like there's
always a blizzard going on." Well that's because that is snow that has already fallen long time ago, but it's too cold to melt so it's just blown around that continent by gale force winds, But there's actually less than two inches of fresh rainfall or snowfall
in the Antarctic in a year. So it is the largest desert in the world. Now a desert can also be a place that has more evaporation
than precipitation, like we have here in Southern California. So why all of this talk about weather? It's because the desert is a
great metaphor for the soul. And I have found that
there are three types of what I call soul deserts. And I've been through all three of them. Some of them more than once. So you might wanna
write some of this down. The first soul desert, like the Sahara, where it's hot, and the pressure is high is when the heat turns up in your life. And many of you are
experiencing this right now. Maybe you're in a financial
bind, or a family crisis, or your family's been under lockdown, and you are under stress, and you're under all of this pressure and there're heated conversations
going on in the house. Or perhaps you're being treated unfairly in a relationship or at work. And you feel exposed, vulnerable, like the sun is just beating down on you and things are heating
up, the soil is parched, and the fruit of your labor everything that you have
worked so hard for, for so long is withering on the vine. And you try to read your Bible, but it's like chewing on sawdust. And no rain has fallen on
your soul in a long time. So you're living off of memories of past encounters that
you've had with God, and you find yourself longing for a fresh drink of living water. And your prayer is God,
get me out of this. When is this going to end. A soul desert can also be
just like the Antarctic. When your heart turns cold toward God or toward the people around you. Maybe you've lost your passion for life or your passion for God, and
you just feel burned out. Or maybe you're angry with God over something He did or did not do. And it seems like your prayers
are just hitting the ceiling and you read your Bible,
and you try to pray but you just come away
thirsty and dissatisfied. It's as though God has
nothing to say to you, or maybe that He's just absent. And you might've turned your
back on Him because of it. If your heart is turning cold, then your prayer these days
is either God where are you or God, I just don't care anymore. Or perhaps you're in a desert in which you are giving out
more than you're taking in. And your life is in an unhealthy balance. There's too many commitments,
too many expectations of you, too many people and projects
demanding your attention. They can even be good things, but too much of anything isn't good. It's like there are too
many plants in the ground, but there's only so much water and so something is gonna suffer. There are so many demands on you, and just not enough of you to go around. And even when it does rain, it seems like the rain just evaporates before it's had time to soak in. There's nothing left over to enjoy. And your prayer these days is God, I don't have
anything left to give. When the heat turns up,
when your heart turns cold, or when you're giving out
more than you're taking in, these are all deserts of the soul. So what does the Bible tell us about our God who works in the desert? Well, let's look at our lives
in light of the Word of God. Throughout the Bible, God
often met people in the desert. God spoke to Abraham in the desert. God spoke to Jacob in the desert. He spoke to Moses in the desert. He spoke to Elijah in the desert. He led Jesus into a desert to be tested. And God taught David many
lessons in the desert. One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 63. And David wrote it when he
was in the desert of Judah being pursued by Saul. Saul was trying to kill him. So the heat was turned up,
and the pressure was high. And here's what he said,
"Oh God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You,
my soul thirsts for You. My body longs for You
in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I've seen You in the sanctuary, and beheld Your power and Your glory. And because Your love is better than life my lips will glorify You. I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name, I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as
with the richest of foods. With singing lips, my
mouth will praise You. On my bed I remember You. I think of You through
the watches of the night. And because You are my help, I sing in the shadow of Your wings. My soul clings to You, and
Your right hand upholds me." David says, "Earnestly, I seek You in a dry and weary land
where there is no water." Does that sound familiar? Are you in a dry and weary
land where there's no water? I've been there many times myself. And I have found three questions
when I'm in the desert. How did I get here? What am I supposed to do in the desert? And when am I gonna get out of here? So I wanna start with
the last question first. When will I get out? How long is this going to last? And here's my answer, and it
may be a little hard to hear. Don't be in a hurry. Don't lag behind, but
don't be in a hurry either. Take the time to learn
the lessons the first time because you sure don't
wanna go through this again. My prayer is Lord do what it
takes for as long as it takes because I don't wanna miss this moment. So don't hurry. You know, there is a
special beauty in deserts if you'll just take the time to look. But if you try to rush through
it, you might miss something. Take the time to learn the lessons well. At the same time, the
Lord can seem very near, even in a desert. One of my deserts when
the heat was turned up lasted several months, and I
was under tremendous pressure, but at the same time, God felt very close. But the time came that I could see signs that this was all about to end, that I was about to
come out of that desert. And I remember praying one
morning, God, I'm gonna miss You. And it's not that I was gonna forget God or love Him any less, but there is a closeness
that you don't sense when everything is going great. We hold on tighter to
the people that we love during times of crisis. So don't be in a hurry. The answer to the question When will I get out of this desert is quite simply at the proper time. But while you're waiting, you've gotta keep doing
what you know is right even when it doesn't seem
to be making a difference. The Bible says this in Galatians 6:9, it says, "Let us not
become weary in doing good for at the proper time,
we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Now, the question remains,
how did I get here? Why is this happening? Did I do something wrong? Is God mad at me? Has He forgotten me all together? It's most likely if you're
a follower of Christ, that you are in the desert
because God led you there. Just as He did with Elijah
and David and Jesus, He led you into the desert because He wants to say something to you. And the only place that
you could hear His voice and learn this lesson is in the desert. And God will lead you out of
the desert at the right time. A desert, you might wanna write this down, a desert is God's way of
getting your attention. Listen to these words
from Hosea chapter two. Israel has become desolate
because of their disobedience but the Lord promises to
restore her to Himself. And here's what He says. "Therefore, I am now going to allure her. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There in the desert, I will
give her back her vineyards and we'll make the Valley
of Achor a door of hope. There in the desert, she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she first
came up out of Egypt." In other words, when
she was first set free. "And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband. You'll no longer call me my master. I will remove the names of the Baals." The Baals were idols,
there were false gods. He says, "I will remove the
names of the Baals from her lips no longer will their names be invoked. And in that day in the
desert, I will respond." And that word respond
is the same word as sing that we read just a couple of verses ago, it's the same word. He says, "In that day in the desert, I will sing, declares the Lord. I will sing to the skies, and
they will sing to the earth, and the earth will sing to the grain, the new wine, and oil,
and they will respond. They will sing to my people." The Lord says, "I will allure her and I will lead her into the desert, and there in the desert,
in the dry and weary land, I will give her back her vineyards. There in the Valley of Achor, she will sing to me and I will sing back and cause her land to
flourish once again." There is something that God
wants to do in your life when He brings you into a desert place. A fruitfulness that He
will restore to you. God will not abandon you in the desert. He will turn it into a place of abundance. And there in the desert, He says, "I will make the
Valley of Achor a door of hope." Now, what is this Valley
of Achor all about? Well, the Valley of Achor,
Achor literally means trouble. It's the valley of trouble. Now what made it a place of trouble? Well, it's back in Joshua chapter seven in the Old Testament. Israel was on a spiritual high. They had just defeated Jericho, and now they face their next target. And it was a little town called Ai. It was so small it only had two
letters in its name, Ai, Ai. So it's a sure win. But they lost. And after their defeat, Joshua, he fell to the ground
and he's crying out to God. He said, "God, where are you? Why did You let this happen?" And God says to Joshua, I love this, He says, "Why are you lying on the ground? Get up, there are idols in your camp." And the reason they lost the battle at Ai is that a man named Aiken had taken forbidden treasure from Jericho and hid it in his tent. And because of his disobedience, Israel lost the battle at Ai. And the place where all of this happened was called the Valley of
Achor, the valley of trouble. But here in Hosea, the Lord says, "I will make the Valley of trouble, Achor, I will make it a door of hope." Now, think about this. A door is a passageway. It's a way out of something
old and into something new. And when God wants to bring
you into something new, He first has to bring
you out of something old. And often that passageway
involves sorrow and difficulty. It's a valley of trouble. But He says, "I will turn
this valley of trouble into a door of hope." Listen, in fact, write this down, your valley is not a
dead end, it's a doorway. And the Lord says there in the desert, you will sing as in
the days of your youth, as in the days you were first set free. Even in the midst of trouble,
there is a promise of joy. That God will use our
troubles as a door of hope if we allow Him to do His work
in us and surrender ourselves to the Lord and to this process
He wants to take us through. He will put a song in your heart and restore your vineyards in the desert. Your desert may seem like
a place of barrenness, but God will turn it into
a place of fruitfulness. Now, this still leaves us
with the third question. What should I do while I'm waiting for all of this to happen? What should I do in the desert? Well, let me give you five suggestions, and you can write these down. First, prepare to meet God there. Prepare to meet God there in the desert. In Isaiah chapter 40, there is a similar picture
to what we see in Hosea. Hosea's words tell us how
we got into the desert. The Lord led us there. Now Isaiah's words tell us
what to do while we are there. And here's what he says in Isaiah 40:3-5. It says, "A voice of one calling in the desert prepare
the way for the Lord." Let me say that again. "A voice of one calling in the desert prepare
the way for the Lord. Make straight in the wilderness,
a highway for our God. Every valley be raised up, every
mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level, and the rugged places, a plane. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." He says, "In the desert,
prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight in the wilderness,
a highway for our God." What do you do in the desert? You make a way for the Lord. Why, because He's coming
to meet you there. He is coming, He's on His way, He led you there and
He will meet you there. The Lord will meet you in the desert, He's not on the other side, waiting for you to find your
way through on your own. He infuses our experiences
with His presence but we have to make a
way for Him to do that. And God has promised in His Word, in fact, it's an Isaiah 45. He said, "I will never tell
you to seek me in vain." So He will meet you in your desert. So prepare your heart to meet Him. Watch for signs of His arrival. Look for the dust of His
feet out on the horizon. Stay alert, seek Him out. As Psalm five says, "Wait in expectation." Not in doubt, not in fear,
but in faith and expectation. Make yourself available to
Him as often as you can. Talk to the Lord throughout your day. Here's a powerful life
lesson that I have learned. When God seems silent, it's
because He's listening. So when God seems silent, it's because He's listening
to you, so talk to Him, let Him hear from you, talk His ear off. Create opportunities to
connect with God in prayer, make yourself available
and expect God's arrival. Second, if He's gonna restore
fruitfulness in your life, then start planting seeds
now for spiritual growth. Start planting the seeds now. Get in the Word of God, and plant seeds of scripture in your soul. Jesus told a parable in Luke
8 about a man sowing seeds. And he said, "The seed
is the Word of God." He says, "The seed on good soil stands for those with
a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering, produce a crop." So get into your Bible, camp
out on one verse or passage, and let it take root in your heart. It might take awhile for it to germinate and start showing signs of fruitfulness, but nothing grows until
the seed is planted. So start planting seeds of scripture now and expect a harvest to come. Now here's the third thing
to do while you're waiting, eliminate unnecessary distractions. Eliminate unnecessary distractions and give God your full attention. That's what Isaiah is talking about when he says every
valley shall be raised up and every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plane. He's talking about the
things that trip you up or that dead in the way,
or that block your view. He says, "Make the path straight." Fill in the low places,
smooth out the bumps, remove the obstacles, get rid of all of the
unnecessary distractions. Those distractions can be simple things it can be things like
clutter in your life. They can be activities
that waste your time. They can be noise, harmless
radio, television, movies, computer games, web surfing, busy-ness. Turn the music off in your car and spend your drive
time talking to the Lord. You see, it's hard to hear
God's still small voice when there's noise all around you. Distractions can be
just too much going on. You're spreading yourself too thin and leaving no room to listen. There's too many commitments that keep you from focusing
on your spiritual health. And some of those things
may be fine and harmless in normal circumstances, but when you're making a
way for God in the desert, you need to cut back on them so you can focus your attention on God. You need to learn to say no. Categorize things into what's important and what's not important, and then only do the important things so that you can use the resources of your time and energy carefully. The point of all of this is
to get a new perspective, to ask yourself, "What is
God doing through all of this and how can I worship Him in my struggle?" The Bible tells us in Colossians three that we are to set our hearts
and our minds on things above. In other words, if your heart really wants to connect with
God, then put your mind to it. Stay focused and eliminate
unnecessary distractions. Just say, "Lord, I'm gonna take the time that I would normally spend
on these other lesser things, and I'm going to devote that time to you." Now here's the fourth thing you can do, and this is a hard one. Search your heart for idols. Search your heart for idols. Like Israel in the Valley of Achor, they lost the battle of Ai because there were idols in their camp. So search your heart for idols. Look again at Hosea 2:17. God says, "I will remove
the Baals from her lips and no longer will
their names be invoked." So what does that mean? Baals were idols. Listen, Baals where the false gods of the culture around them. So what's the big deal about that? In Jonah 2:8, God says this, "Those who cling to worthless idols, forfeit the grace that could be theirs." So you must search your
heart and ask yourself, "Am I clinging to any worthless idols that are causing me to forfeit the fullness of God's grace in my life?" 2 Kings 17:15 says, "They
followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves." So what is an idol today? Idols are false gods, idols are anything that you
put between yourself and God. Anything that you are
unwilling to let go of or to stop doing if God tells you to. A good way to identify idols in your life is to examine your bank
account and your calendar. What do these two things tell
you about your priorities, about your values, about
how you spend your life and what you worship? You see an idol is anything
that you sacrifice to. Now, I gotta get personal, and I have some tough questions to ask. But I hope you're hearing me that these are not coming
out of finger-pointing. I'm asking these questions out of love and out of my own personal experience. And I'm asking you these questions
because I care about you. So I'm not judging anybody here, I'm asking you as the Bible
says to search your own heart. You're ready? So here's my questions. What idols are you sacrificing to? Are you sacrificing decency to an idol of indecent entertainment? Are you sacrificing moral purity to an idol of an immoral relationship? Are you sacrificing your family to an idol of work or career? Are you sacrificing your ethics to an idol of money or possessions? Are you sacrificing God's
highest good for you to idols of old lifestyles and behaviors that you have not let go of? Idols can also be remnants from your past that still direct your life. These can be accomplishments, or they can be lies that
people said about you that have distorted your view of reality or have become the
focus of your attention, the filter through which you see life. Well, I have to live to
prove myself to my father or my siblings, or even to
somebody who's no longer living, but I'm still living in fear of them. That can be an idol because it's where you derive your value. And you're trying to earn their approval or appease their anger. An idol can be an area of
deliberate disobedience. An idol can also be unforgiveness because we allow that
person to occupy our minds. If your hands are gripped around a grudge, you cannot get a grip
on what God has for you. So your grudge can be an idol,
and you need to let go of it. An idol might be looking
back at you in the mirror. Maybe you're trying to be your own God. Who's calling the shots in your life? Who's in charge? Is it God or a worthless idol? Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. Okay, I'm done with the hard questions. So let's find our way out of this. How do you break the grip of an idol? You break the grip of an idol by starving your passion for it. Stop sacrificing to it. We pursue idols because of our passions. And the only way to get
rid of an old passion is to get a new passion. And you get a new passion by feeding it. You get rid of an old passion
by starving it to death. When you feed your passion for God, you starve your old passion
for worthless idols. You can break the grip of
idols by changing the channel, by staying away from people and places that are harmful to you. By letting go of unforgiveness. Here's a spiritual growth step to break the grip of the idol
of money and possessions, start tithing, why? Because giving breaks
the hold of materialism. Ask yourself, do I possess my possessions, or do they possess me? Tithing is a step of spiritual growth that reminds you of
your dependence on God. Everything you have comes from Him, God gives to you because He
wants to give through you. And if you spend it all on
your life, that's idolatry. But if you use it for God's
purposes, that is true worship. So when you'll find yourself in a desert, look for worthless idols, things that you might have
been carrying with you that are causing you to miss out on the fullness of God's
grace in your life. So what do you do while
you're in the desert? First, you prepare to meet God there. Second, start planting
seeds now, get in the Word. Third, eliminate unnecessary distractions. Learn how to say no. And fourth, search your heart for idols and if there's anything there, confess it and give it to God. And finally, here's the fifth
thing, sing to the Lord. That's right, sing to the Lord. When David was in the desert in Psalm 63, he said, "With singing lips,
my mouth will praise You. I sing in the shadow of Your wings." And again, in Hosea 2:15, he
said, "There in the desert she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the days that she
came up out of Egypt." So keep a song in your heart. Why sing in the desert? Because singing keeps you
in an attitude of prayer. It's easy to be distracted when you're reading or
praying spoken prayers, but it's much easier to
stay focused when you sing because it engages your whole person. So sing to the Lord. In my desert, I turned
my car into a sanctuary. I sang worship songs to the Lord. And it helped me eliminate
the distractions. So sing to Him in the
car on your way to work, or on the way home. Listen to worship music throughout the day in your home or on your phone. Make a Spotify list of worship songs Sing in the shower, sing longer
songs, take longer showers and let praise be the soundtrack
of your desert experience. Worship the Lord in the desert. Sing to Him, let Him hear your voice. Jesus said to the woman
at the well in John four, He said, "The Father is
looking for worshipers." So if you're in a desert looking for God and you can't seem to find Him, then stop right where
you are and worship Him, right there in the desert,
and He will come find you. Sing to the Lord, and the Lord
will respond to your voice like a shepherd listening to
the cries of a lost sheep. He'll meet you. He will make His presence known to you. He will bring you peace in
the midst of your trouble. He will restore hope to you. He will take you through your troubles. He will lead you through
and teach you the lesson He wants you to learn and
make your life fruitful again. The Lord is coming to your desert. God is not waiting for you on the other side of your troubles, He wants to meet you right
here in the middle of it all, in the pandemic, in the lockdown, in your job crisis, whatever it might be. So whether you're in the heat of things, or if your heart is cold, or if you feel like you
have nothing left to give, hold on to God, look for
Him, expect to meet Him, plant seeds of the Word in
your mind and your heart, eliminate the distractions, get rid of the worthless
idols, and sing to Him. Worship Him in the desert because that is where
He's going to meet you. As I close this message, I wanna look again at Isaiah 40:3-5. He says, "In the desert
prepare the way for the Lord. And right there in the
middle of your desert, the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all mankind together will see it." In other words, everybody else
will sit up and take notice. It'll be obvious to everyone, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. And what the mouth of the Lord has spoken, the hand of the Lord will accomplish. Let's pray together about these things. Why don't you just bow your heads? I'm gonna ask you to search
your heart here for a minute. If you are in a desert,
search your heart right now, just open your heart to the Lord and ask the Lord to show you
if there are any distractions. What valley needs to be raised
up, what mountain made low? And ask Him to reveal any worthless idols that you might be holding onto
that are getting in the way. Just seek Him for a minute. You don't have to be afraid of this. And as the Lord brings
things to your mind, just confess them to Him. Just say what He says. Just say, "Lord, I see that
I'm holding onto this grudge, I'm holding onto this heartache, I'm holding onto this behavior, I'm holding onto this old way of thinking, or this habit, or this
relationship, this lifestyle. I'm still trying to be my own God. Lord, I see that I'm letting
these things distract me." Just open your heart and tell Him that you're looking for Him, and ask Him to show you what He wants you to learn, go ahead. And if you've never opened
your life to Christ, and if you've just been
in a desert on your own, then I wanna invite you to do something. I want you to just in
your own heart and mind, just say this to God. Say, "God, I know that I need you. And so with all that I have, and all I understand at this point, I'm opening my heart to you today. I ask you to forgive me for
trying to be my own God, for trying to pave my own
way, and not following You. Jesus, I receive Your gift of forgiveness. I believe that You died for my sins. And so Lord, with all that
I have, I give myself to You and I ask You to come
and find me in my desert, and to put me on the path of life that will be pleasing to You." And now I'm gonna pray for you. Father I pray for all of us who might be in a desert right now. I pray that You will send
the rain of Your Holy Spirit to soften hardened hearts,
to soften the hard soil, and to quench our thirst for You. Lord, would You send
that rain of Your Spirit to water the seed of Your Word that has been planted in our hearts, and cause it to grow and
to bear fruit in our lives. Lord, I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. If you just prayed to open
your heart to Jesus Christ for the first time, we
would love to know about it. So you can text the word
Newstart, that's one word Newstart to 83000 on your phone, Newstart to 83000. Or you can email newstart@saddleback.com. And if you would like to give your tithe, you can do it online
at saddleback.com/give. God bless you everybody,
we'll see you next time.
