Winning In The Wilderness 11.4.18

Hey today I am concluding our latest series called wisdom for the wilderness and and this is the sixth part and it's in a series where we've been exploring a very common yet overlooked season that God brings into the lives of people you can see that whether you said all through Scripture you can see it all through if you followed God for some time there is a season that you will endure that's called the wilderness and it's a place that things aren't as easy as they once were but God's doing a work and we've been exploring that week after week but um it's kind of just help you kind of get into it is I just want to help you really this whole series been to help you identify if you're in one you know like for instance a wilderness is one of those places where spiritual things become difficult like worships not as easy as it once was and reading the Bible becomes very difficult and then spiritual things are not that easy more their struggle you're a wilderness is also kind of characterized by the idea that that you know your dreams they're kind of moving it away from you not closer like you you thought that you would always have this marriage you thought that you know you would always be in this job or you'd have your own business or a ministry and and then that dream just seems to be fading and that's a sign of the wilderness another side is that just when you feel stuck you can't go forward you can't go backward you can't you just can't you feel like you're just you're unable to move in a new direction you just feel stuck and you're stuck in this wilderness and so we've been going through this and unpacking it and learning from it because the very disorienting time but one of the things that we've done to help is honestly it's just hard to wrap your words around the wilderness some of you've probably struggled to say you know I'm going through this or I'm struggling with this you know you don't know if it's depression or oppression or you're not sure what it is and so one of the first things we've done is week after week we went back to a definition that I found of the wilderness is the definition that just helps you identify this season and here it is it says the wilderness is a season of God's developments so it's a season it's not last forever but it's at God's hand and for some of us that that's new because we just kind of boiled it down so everything good is God and everything bad is not but sometimes God brings us into a season of struggle to develop a seizure he's not doing it to punish us he's doing it to develop us and it's marked by the fact that his presence seems very far in worship it just is like clanging cymbals and reading the Bible is like reading tax law and just it doesn't feel like there's someone behind your faith anymore and it's also a time when his promise seems to be in doubt that you you're doubting now that that what he said and what he promised and what you thought you'd have you're seeing that fade away and you just think that you're gonna have to settle in life it's just gonna look a lot different than what you thought God promised you now each week we've kind of unpacked different parts of this definition and today I want to finish this whole series by looking at the very last part of when your promise is in doubt because here's the reality the wilderness feels like it really does that the promise you have is in doubt but I want to show you today that in fact the promise is not in doubt but the wilderness indicates the promise is in route to you that it's not actually that it's moving further it's that you're actually moving closer and here we're going to learn is there is no great promise unless you walk through the wilderness that God uses the wilderness as a prerequisite for every great promise he brings into your life and so if you're sitting here today and you're saying man it just this is a wilderness and I it's lasted so long and I just don't know if he's gonna here's what I'm trying to tell you you're closer than you've ever been the wilderness is like a signpost that is indicating you're on your way so you're closer than you've ever been to the dream you're closer than you've ever been to your purpose you're closer to the season you've always you're closer than you've ever been the wilderness is not an indication of bad news it's an indication that you're on your way it's good news but here's the sobering thought if I know that about your wilderness guess who else knows that about your wilderness the enemy see everything that's been going bad in your life has not been the enemy sometimes the struggle has been at the hand of God but the enemy knows that at the time that you're about to break through is a perfect time for him to show up and derail you in your wilderness and and so that's why the final lesson is really this the final lesson of the wielders is in the wilderness the enemy attacks just before the promise arrives that that the enemy attacks and you can see it again and again through scripts rocket I can share your multiple stories the enemy that he's not been there the whole time make it to some of that so you know it's just been God and teaching us and developing us but when you're coming to the end of it that's when the enemy it shows up and so here's what that means it means that how do I know when I'm almost out of the wilderness things get a lot worse but things get a whole lot worse and I want to help you kind of understand it and so um I thought about this recently our seven-year-old son he had a recent birthday got a handheld video game system kinda like his first and like most kids you know he very quickly mastered all the games he had moved up every level did everything that he could and and you know but there was this one game it was a superhero game and I mean it he just he moved all the way navigated you know got all the levels but then he got to the last level and if you've ever played video games you know what the last level is like you don't matter what the game is it's the meanest baddest ugliest you know villain of the whole game and you have to defeat him too in order to kind of overcome and be the champion and so um you know Sawyer basically tried and tried and tried and he just could never overcome this last villain and so you know one day I I got a lot of stuff to do but I sat down beside and just wanted to kind of you know see what's going on in his world and and so I'm watching him and he tries me he makes the move but it doesn't work and he and he oh he fails to get it again and and then you know and the longer I said that though something strange happened I move it moved from from me watching him to him watching me and like it give me that let me get a try you know and and I'm just saying it's a little addictive you get in there like like after a few minutes he's like alright dad I'd like to let me let me go I said just wait a minute son I've always got this you know I mean like now and I'm I'm proud to say that I stole a toy from a child you know it's not proud moment not proud to say it took me you know two hours worth of my supposed to be doing other stuff and the stand playing this game but I am proud to say you are looking at the Marvel Universe champion and I did overcome and I did walk out of there victorious now I tell you all that to tell you this whether you play in Super Mario Brothers or you're in the wilderness it's the same truth that before your greatest advancement there will be the greatest attacks and you will face the greatest opposition of the wilderness right before you leave the wilderness because you don't get to be the overcomer you don't get to be victorious you don't get to walk out of this season without going mano y mano the enemy trying to derail God's purposes in your life and so you need to know this this whole message today is very very important because as you're coming out of the wilderness it's not going to be easier it's gonna be harder but there is a way for you to win in the wilderness and that's what I want to I want to help you today and I I want you to see this and really what is the most famous wilderness in all of Scripture the wilderness that Jesus himself endured and you can find it in Luke chapter 4 and I'm just gonna read you the first couple verses it says Jesus full of the Holy Spirit left the Jordan that's a river and was led by the spirit into the wilderness I'm just telling you that verse that sometimes God doesn't just always lead us to easy things sometimes God leads us to a wilderness because he's got a plan but to have the plan he's got to develop some stuff in us so he says so the spirit led us not the devil led us the spirit led us into the wilderness and for 40 days he was tempted by the devil he ate nothing during those days and at the end of them he was hungry and it says the devil said to him when he was hungry at the end of this forty days right before he's about to exit it says if you are the son of God tell this stone to become bread and jesus answered it is written man shall not live by bread alone and so Jesus led by the Holy Spirit walks in the wilderness and he's out there in for 40 days and 40 nights scripture says doesn't eat he doesn't drink he's there to be totally dependent on God which is what the wilderness is all about and what happens is that that as he's about to exit this season the enemy shows up and tries to derail Jesus because how many people know if you could derail Jesus you can derail all of God's plan so the enemy himself shows up and he starts to tempt Jesus through through three temptations and Jesus answers just like you saw every temptation by by saying it is written and quoting God's Word and then navigating away from the enemy's will for his life but before I go any further I just want to point out the obvious because some of you are still struggling with this idea that maybe God has led you to a place that that's not easy and then he's actually led to you a place that's kind of barren and it's not the blessed thing you always thinking lead you know and and it just doesn't seem to make that a good God would put you in a tough spot and what I want to point out is Jesus endured a wilderness and what this tells us is again the wilderness is not punishment it's God's preparation it's not a sign that he doesn't love you it's a sign that he does and want you to grow to your fullness in him and what this also tells us is the wilderness is required for every person who will ever do anything significant for God there's a requirement let light like you can read all of Scripture and what you'll find is every significant destiny in Scripture there was a wilderness that preceded that destiny like you've seen in Abraham and in Moses and in Gideon and in David and in Daniel then then you go into the New Testament you see it in John and Peter and Paul and yes even Jesus had to go through a wilderness so this is not God's punishment it's God's hand it's the very hand he put on his own son to prepare him preparing you and then the reason it's required is this the reason the wilderness is required for your purpose is because it's in the wilderness that we receive specific revelations the let me show it to you in scripture in Isaiah 40 it says the voice this is a prophetic word coming through Isaiah it says the voice of the one crying in the wilderness listen this is what it says there's a voice that accompanies the wilderness and it says this voice is about preparing the way of the Lord remember the wilderness is all about God preparing you for your next season and here's how he's gonna do it he's gonna make straight in the desert a highway for God so he he's gonna come into your life and make some things that are crooked straight and it says that things like the valleys will be exalted in mountain tops will be brought low crooked places will be made straight and the rough places will be smoothed out that's that's what's going on in the wilderness there's some some things that are crooked being made straight and some things that are that are rough for gonna be made smooth and it's all because the glory of the Lord shall be revealed listen there's a voice that accompanies every wilderness and that voice can only be heard in the wilderness there's just certain things you're only ever gonna hear God say when you go through a wilderness some things you'll never hear him in the comforts some things you'll never hear him in just the enjoyment some things you're never gonna hear him in the busyness that's why God puts us in the wilderness as he's got something specific to say and what he says always it gives you specific revelation for your life let me say it this way I'm gonna let you take a guess guess where David wrote most of the songs you read in Scripture the wilderness guess where John the Baptist the first person to reveal Jesus as as Savior though guess where John the Baptist received the revelation that Jesus was Savior of the world in the wilderness guess where Paul he writes this in galatians guess where paul received the revelation that we read through the new testament in the wilderness yet guess where the Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation in the wilderness of Patmos I'm just telling you there are certain things that you'll never receive from God until you listen to that voice in the wilderness and by the way the reason the enemy shows up the enemy shows up in your wilderness to keep you from receiving what God's trying to reveal see the enemy's coming right now to your wilderness because he's trying to keep you from receiving the revelation of the book God wants you to write he showed up in your wilderness because he's trying to keep you from the revelation of how your marriage can actually work he's trying to keep you from your identity so you don't fully grasp that you are a child of God and you'll live the rest of your life and insecurity he's trying to get you to not get the business plan God wants to give you to not get that the ministry ideas that God wants you he's there to keep you from the revelation of what God wants to deposit in you in the wilderness that's why he's there now listen he doesn't just show up and make things bad the enemy has a very specific tactic and how he attacks us in the wilderness and guess what he's not doing the things around us you know what he's trying to do he's trying to derail us in the way we think see everything you're gonna experience the enemy's attack in the wilderness is not gonna be that things go bad around you chances are if you're in wilderness something's already went bad he's trying to get you to think bad that's why the best sellers called battlefield of the it's called battlefield of the mind because that's where the enemy shows up to attack that's where he shows up and tries to get you derailed things are already not what you'd want him to be around you he's trying to get you to think in the wrong way and so there's very specific what he does and I want to show you what the enemy attacks in the wilderness because you need to know this otherwise you you're defenseless to go against him there's two very specific things that the enemy attacks in the wilderness and we get them from Jesus's Jesus's account in the wilderness here it is verses 9 and 11 look it says the devil led Jesus up to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple so Jesus like on the highest point and here's what the enemy says if you are the son of God throw yourself down from here and then look at this the enemy quotes a scripture he says for it is written he will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully that they will lift you up with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone he said Jesus if you're the Son of God then you jump off here because the Bible says that God won't let any bad things happen to you and now this reveals exactly what the enemy is going to attack in your life the first thing in the wilderness the enemy attacks is who you are he says if you are the son of God you know he said Jesus if you're the son of God what are you doing in this wilderness with me I mean if you were my son I'd never put you in something like this Jesus Jesus do you think that you're in this wilderness because you know God is displeased with you mate he's disappointed I mean after all Jesus you're 30 years old you're not even married yet do you think that he's he's disappointed with you because the enemy always challenges who you are in the wilderness that's why you started to wonder if God really loves you that's why you started to wonder if really you you are entitled to blessings that God give you it's why you started to wonder but maybe I'm different maybe because of what I've done maybe because of who I was maybe God treats people differently but not only does he attack who you are he also says for it is written because he attacks who you are and he attacks what God says I know this is a kind of strange you said what the enemy's quoting scripture oh yes the enemy knows scripture oh yes matter of fact I go as far to say the enemy knows more Scripture than most of you and here's why because he's made his whole existence about getting you to doubt what God said so he's gonna know it in and out to contort it and make you look you know what that looks like in the wilderness the enemy comes up and says now it says in Scripture right that God works all things for good and this that look very good does it maybe what God says it's not true it's when he comes up to you and says I'm doesn't say in Scripture that God will never leave you or forsake you this would earn us you seen God around much it's been pretty difficult to get a hold of him maybe God's not as trustworthy as he says he is because the enemy's always gonna attack who you are he's always gonna attack what God said in the wilderness I started out this series telling you about a wilderness that Kayla and I experienced last fall and I'm and I'm packing it for you that we went I don't know the day that began I don't know the day that concluded but for an extended season last fall we just went through a wilderness it was one of the most spiritually dry plate times in our lives I mean it didn't matter how I what we saying what what I studied it is just it was just dry and I had never felt like God was so far and I'd never been so close to just throwing my hands up and just being done and here's what's interesting about that is I think back on that wilderness is it was very difficult to hear God the volume of God's voice was very low but I can hear the enemy loud and clear and and and here's what I read in my life I've never really struggled to sleep but during that season my sleep was was was very much broken up and you know what I do I'd wake up and before I could even gather my thoughts I would hear things like maybe God so distant because he's displeased with what you've done I don't think that but all I said I start thinking maybe God is distance because he's displeasing what I've done you know I'd wake up another night and immediately I'd hear how are you supposed to help people if you can't even help yourself you know immediately I wake up and I I think maybe that maybe this is the morning I wake up and it's just different and instead I'd wake up and I'd hear this is the way it will be for the rest of your life I'm just telling you that the enemy is gonna come and make you think that you are not who God says you are and that what God has said is not true and will not come to pass and that God has some specific thing like there's just some exceptions and what God says and he knows how to take you apart piece by piece and and I remember waking up night after night day after day just thinking those things mulling around battling into my mind with him and I'm and I remember that one thing that saved me in this season is out of obedience not out of feeling I just kept showing up and reading my Bible like I just show up to read it because that's what I should be doing I felt if nothing else I should be like I should have integrity if I'm gonna tell people to read the Bible I should read the Bible and most days I'd get nothing out of it and one day and after months of going through this I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me in into Luke chapter 4 and so I read it once and it didn't mean nothing to me and I read it twice didn't mean nothing mean third time nothing in about the fifth time it was like a light bulb kicked on and I could see three things Jesus did to win in the wilderness just three things and I'm telling you these three things saved my life in that wilderness I could just see him they came right from what Jesus was going and they're the three things that Jesus did three things I did listen to me there are the three things you're gonna have to do if you're gonna win in the wilderness and I'm gonna give them to you but listen to me most of this series has been about helping you see things that are that are not kind of revealed helping you understand and then discern what things are I've not asked you to do a whole lot in this series but I'm saying today what you do is what I'm gonna say will be the difference on if you win or lose this battle that you're facing in the wilderness and I say that with kind acts and I say it with passion because of this when you see these you're gonna write them off as it can't be that simple you're gonna see these and go I don't know it seems like it should be this is a lot more difficult than that I mean there should be like something you know so I mean some kind of a seance so there should be some kinda like I gotta go to a prayer line there should be some kind of recitation that just seems too simple to win in the wilderness but listen to me what will determine if you win in the wilderness will be can you do these three things that Jesus it will not be can you come up with something sometimes we just make things more complicated than it has to be so I want you to see these put more than see them more than hear them more than right I'm gonna no you gotta do it do you want to win in the wilderness here's the first one how do you want in the wilderness remember god loves you remember God loves you see immediately ah that's too simple I can't be yet I'm telling you you got to remember God loves you because while the enemy is trying to dismantle your faith the thing he's trying to do is get you to doubt that there's a good God who loves you and if he can get that out of your faith the rest of it dismantles if you don't believe God loves you you can't build any great faith in your life and let me say this is exactly what Jesus did we've been focused on Luke chapter 4 do you know where Jesus was in Luke chapter 3 let me show you before he went in the wilderness this is the exact event that Jesus she's participated in its that when all the people were being baptized Jesus was baptized to which let me just say for a second we got baptism coming up in just a couple of weeks and if Jesus were baptized you definitely need to be baptized so you need to go today at the end of this and sign up at Connect central because if Jesus thought it was important enough to be baptized you definitely need to get baptized and let's get you in the pool okay now and as he was praying heaven opened up and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a bodily form like a dove not a dove like a dove and a voice came from heaven now let me just say if you go sign up for baptism this will probably not happen that your baptism we gonna make sure it's a celebration it's going to be a spiritual experience God's will do some great things but chances are heaven is not gonna open and say over your life though the way this happened but look his Heavenly Father look what he said you are my son whom I love with you I am well pleased listen the reason Jesus defeated the voice in the wilderness is because he remembered the voice in the water so Jesus didn't get in the wilderness and go man I'm out here and this is tough you think God loves me he went out in the wilderness and said I know God loves me because he's already said it over my life and don't get me wrong God has told you he loves you before you went to this wilderness you need to remember what he said see the problem was for a lot of people today is is that they view God's love through the lens of their circumstances instead of viewing their circumstances through the lens of his love you know Jesus didn't show up and go well if God loves me this wilderness is gonna be easy Jesus showed up and said I don't care what I face in here I know God loves me and I can deal with anything because if I have the love of my heavenly Father there is nothing that can take me out it's a big difference for some of us we need to come to the realization God's love is not proven in our life but how easy our life is God's love was proven by the fact that he laid down his life so that we could have life it's a fact it's not something you live with as a feeling nonetheless listen the your honor the difference in the way we go at it and the way Jesus goes at it Jesus entered the wilderness and lived there in the wilderness from approval not for approval and many people are living their life for approval and not from approval see Jesus walked in and said you know what my father loves me I can live from that through this difficulty instead of walking in and saying I'm in this I gotta find somebody to approve and love me see the reality is is that for a lot of us we're searching for approval instead of living from it and that's the reason you have to have a boyfriend because you're living for approval that's the reason that you you have to have your boss see everything you do because you're living for approval it's the reason that you have to acquire and at the title or amass the stuff is because you're living for approval and living for approval we'll send you on a path that you spend your whole life chasing something that God's already given you you have to live from approval when it comes to the struggles you have to live from approval when it comes to the great times in life at any point you live any other way than from God's approval you will be out of balance and then you're susceptible to the enemy listen God's love is not based on your performance good or bad like for instance you know when one of our kids we couldn't remember which one was 1 or 2 years old they were upstairs playing and Kaylin I you know remembered that it got kind of quiet we thought oh man you know it's not good when you kids get there playing in another room and they're quiet so we went upstairs and we opened the door and unveiled to us was just awful ungodly mess what our child had filled their diaper and taken it off and just and I didn't take a step in the door before I looked at Kaylin said that's your child based on what I that is your type they are not related to me I have no responsibility to help clean this up that is your child and that's funny except for that's the way a lot of us think God looks at us we think that we find ourselves in the middle of a mess and God goes that's not my child that's not my child that's not mine one that is going through the divorce that's not my child that that's you know a bankrupt that's not that's not mine like he he puts his love based on our performance but I want to tell you that that couldn't be further from the truth see DNA is not based on performance DNA is deeper than that and God has woven his very DNA into who you are you can you can run away from him and you still got him in you and that's by his design look at Genesis one look at this I think this is an incredible verse it says then God said let us make man kind in our image and in our likeness this is a pretty big deal I would not if I was God have put this verse in the Bible I wouldn't have because what I would have known if I was a sovereign God that can see all things and know all things I would have known you and I are gonna fail we're gonna fall we were gonna mess up and we were gonna get ourselves into some messes and I would want to be able to say not my kid you know what God said though he said make sure you put in the first chapter of the first book of this word that they work that will last for eternity that they are made in my image that my DNA is woven into them and it doesn't matter if they fail it doesn't matter if they succeed it doesn't matter how they perform it doesn't matter what mess they get themselves they are mine and I want forever for people to look at them and know their mind and I want them to remember that I love them I don't want anything to ever keep them from questioning my love put my very DNA in them and he did it knowing you and I would fail so you better remember God loves you because if you don't remember God loves you the rest of us promises a road now here's the second thing you better repeat God's Word three times the enemy comes to Jesus and tempts him three times Jesus replies with it is written and quote scripture now listen to me Jesus is the Son of God he is God in the flesh and so Jesus has been around longer than anybody else he knows all things he sees all things he was here before anybody Jesus has all knowledge and yet he doesn't argue with the enemy I mean could he have won an argument so why do you choose not to argue because there's no power in arguing with the enemy there's only power in God's Word being exposed to the enemy listen to me some of you are arguing with the enemy I'm gonna try harder and I'm gonna keep working and I'm gonna do it and if I and I'm gonna make this happen and you can argue all day long but there is no power in that argument there's only power when you tell the enemy what God's Word has said that's why when you know what God's Word has said you don't have to entertain what the enemy is saying you don't have to listen to his lies and his accusations you know what God said it's final complete no more to talk about there's power in that but there's no power in arguments and this has been my soapbox for a long time it's gonna keep me in my soapbox you will spend the rest of your life as the devil's punching bag until you get a daily relationship with God's Word you are not able to pull enough from a sermon or a podcast or a tweet that's all good but there's only power in God's Word you can't get that power from what your mama says you can't get it from what I tweet you can only have that power when you take God's Word and hide it in your heart so that the Holy Spirit can pull it out and dispense it as needed in the trials that you face and until you realize you are weak without God's Word you will live kicked around and pushed down by the enemy's lies and his accusations you need to know that he is trying to keep you from God's Word to destroy your life he went when you don't have a Bible in your hand he sees you as disarms there is no weapon and he is able to do what he will with your life as long as that Bible sets on a coffee table and dust is on it he will take you for a ride any day of the week but if you'll get his word God's Word in your heart you can stand up and refute every lie every accusation every untruth every day but until you do it you will live in defeat you will but listen to me you're gonna live in defeat because he's gonna come to you and he's gonna say you are a failure you are disappointment what you have done and what you're gonna do disqualifies you from God you will always be an addict you always have anger issues you always have money problems and he's gonna tell you your mama was like that and you're gonna be like that and I'm gonna make sure that your kids are like that and until you have God's Word in you that you can stand up and say that is not true I am NOT a failure a disappointment or an addict I am the righteousness of Christ I have a joint heir with Christ Jesus I'm forgiven blood I'm above and not beneath I am the head and not the tail until you can stand up and say I'm the apple of his eye and his thoughts look towards me are greater than the sea and the sand of his holton until you can say he has a hope and a future and a plan for my life you're gonna get taken to school by the enemy listen to me listen listen this is a non-negotiable it is a non-negotiable you can't show up here enough to get enough power to defeat the enemy it's me that's why Jesus didn't argue he just said this written it's written listen you need to read the Bible every day you read it when you don't understand it you read it when you do understand it because even when you don't understand it it is working it is freeing your mind it is healing your hearts and it's renewing who you are you're reading the Bible every day is putting solutions inside of you for problems you don't even have yet that the enemy knows he's gonna bring about and God reaches in and pulls them out at the exact right time you can't win in the wilderness without God's Word you can't and I guess it just comes from me I'm a little fearful that some of you are gonna be circling the mountain again next year because you cannot win without God's Word most powerful thing you can do today is download the Bible app and begin to read it every day I'll tell you can't win without it now listen here's that here's the last one how'd it win in the wilderness you need to resist the temptation to quit every temptation that the enemy offered Jesus was a promise God had given him but that the enemy said let's just take a shortcut to it see for instance he said why don't you turn these stones into bread the Bible says that the moment the wilderness was over Jesus has actually served dinner by angels something God had already given him but the enemy was inviting him to take shortcut for instance he took Jesus on the top foot and said Jesus I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world if you'll bow to me he might check read the book Jesus is already given all the kingdoms of the world so the enemy comes and tries to get you to quit God's process an invitation to quit from the enemy is an invitation to distrust God because he's not delivering what he said he would and so what he's saying is hey why don't you go ahead and fulfill God's plan with your hand and I'm telling you that's how we end up in a world of mess that's how we end up married to people that we should never be married to because we're trying to make God's promise of a husband happen quicker than he intends it to happen that's how we end up with all kinds of debt we never God promised us a house but we ain't happening quick enough God so we take out loans we should never have that he never intended when we quit his plan to let our own but that's how we end up working in places we shouldn't work that's how we end up connected to things we shouldn't be connected it's not that that you don't want what God wants for your life it's just you're trying to make it happen in your timing you're quitting God's plan and trying to make it happen in your strength and that's why I did used to do and here's the reality in the wilderness you're gonna want to quit and you need to resolve in yourself today that when you want to quit you remind yourself you remind yourself remind yourself that God is doing something even when I can't see it that you just keep saying God you're doing something even though I can't see it listen Taylor and I when we were dating we went to our very first theatrical production we went to saw a miracle on 34th Street and I'd never been to the theater before and I remember being taken back by by just the the staging I thought it was remarkable you know because what happened to I mean you get in there there's this giant stage and it's it's a this New York City lit up I mean you can see the whole thing and then there comes a point where there's the curtain drops and there's an intermission a period of time and now I couldn't see it but what's happening in that intermission is is they're they've rebuilt a whole other set and when you come back in after the intermission the curtain raises and it's no longer a cityscape it's the inside of a department store everything's changed every position what it looks like everything's different now and it's crazy that all that happened and I didn't see any of it listen to me the wilderness is your intermission the season that you used to have the curtain has fallen on and you can't see behind the curtain what God is organizing you can't see him positioning people you can't see him putting together things you can't see how he's working in your kids lives you can't see how he's getting ready to provide oh oh you seized the curtain and you start getting nervous because you think oh my gosh the curtains falling on my life it's over I mean there's that's never it's over and the enemy's beside you saying that's not intermission that's the final curtain this thing's over every promise you thought was gonna happen it's not going to happen God is God is not trustworthy sometimes he promises things and he just doesn't deliver and when he didn't come you need to just go ahead and quit listen to me you have not experienced the final curtain you have experienced an intermission and what you don't realize is is that behind that curtain God is organizing and moving and adjusting and repositioning and pulling the right people on and putting the right people off and he's organizing the right doors to open at just the right time and he's shining lights what used to be darkening he's illuminating and he's darkening what he is putting it all together and you don't get to see it till the curtain rises and the wilderness is over but you don't resolve in yourself God is doing something and just because I can't see it doesn't mean it's not happening and you just gotta get some grit about you or you're willing to look at the enemy and say it is not over this is just an intermission why don't you sit here with me and watch God come through on his promise when this thing lips you're about to see him do what he always said he was gonna do what why is the enemy fighting you so hard because he's afraid of what's ahead look at this this is the last verse in Jesus's wilderness look at this and when the devil had finished all this tempting he left him until an opportune time which that tells us they're gonna be more wildernesses you just need to know that and Jesus returned out of the wilderness to Galilee broken beat down bruised barely making it because of what the devil did to him Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and look what happens and news about him began to spread throughout the whole countryside the enemy wants you to think that a wilderness you're gonna leave the wilderness busted up bruised banged up barely got yourself together barely holding the tank that's not the way the wilderness works the wilderness is a phone booth for Clark Kent you are about to step out of a wilderness and you gonna have faith like you've never had before you are gonna have insight into to Revelation guy like you've never had before you not believe the wilderness busted up barely making it you are gonna walk out with your head high strength and boldness that's come from the Holy Spirit's work inside of you you're not leaving with less than you're leaving with more the Bible says when the children of Israel left Egypt they did not leave as slaves they left with will barrels of gold the riches of Egypt because God never sent you out poor then he sent you in you walk out with strength you didn't know was in there in sight you didn't know was in there just faith that's over from and you're able to walk out when that curtain raises on your life God's not why have you leave busted up this is for your betterment then I'm just telling I've seen it again and again in my life for instance I'm besides last fall I have been through three other wildernesses just seasons I know that's what God was doing for instance there was one that lasted about nine months in 2006 and there was one that lasted about six months in 2011 and it always won it lasted about four months in 2014 and I it was just the details were different but there was a similar kind of thread to all of them there was just it was a wilderness and I want you to know in every one of these I wanted to quit every one of them none of them were enjoyable none of them and in every one of these the the enemy spoke to me you may make it but it ain't gonna be good you you might get out of this but you're not gonna be any shape to do anything yet you may make it out but you'll barely survives you better go ahead and settle for what it ain't gonna happen you might make it but you you just just go ahead and quit this this ain't gonna work out I'm telling you that's what you hear the whole time and as I look back over them what I see is that the enemy here I just learned about the enemy he lies you need to know that he don't ever say anything true ever he lies because in 2006 on the tenth month I married Kayla and that whole wilderness was about us not getting married and then on the seventh months of 2011 I moved from Birmingham Alabama to st. Louis to be a part of this church and then in the fifth month of 2014 I became the pastor of this church and so when I look at this I don't say you know what the enemy is probably right what I look and say is thank God I'm in a wilderness because I'm about to step into something incredible because God's never gonna leave me worse than what I had this is an invitation to better to more to the belief in a higher level and you'll start seeing that in your life too guys that will leave you with less than he brought you through this so he could enlarge you to handle more of his blessing and spirit in your life so you know what that looks like that means that when you're in a wilderness your frustrations to start going down and your face should start going up because the the wilderness your promise is not in doubt it's in route it's always almost there now here's the thing though this is not combination I gotta be honest way it's not a combination we just okay I'm gonna say God loves me I'm gonna read the Bible and I'm not gonna quit today and I'll be better tomorrow listen I don't know how long your wilderness is look at some of these I mean 10 10 months nine months six months it's gonna take time but here's what I'm telling you the enemy's fighting you so hard cuz you're about to step into something so great and so you know what I would do if I was you it's just I was you I would get up tomorrow I'd stand to my feet him before I had coffee talk to anybody looked at my phone I'd say God loves me he loves me so much that He gave His only Son so that I could be in an eternal relationship with him and then the next thing I'd do is I'd reach over and I would open my Bible and I would read whatever it said because what it says it's more reality than what is going on around me and then I would just know this just me you may not want to do this I would just get a little boldness about me and I would just look and say devil I am not quitting today God loves me and he has said my promises sure I'm not quitting today I'm not a quitter I'm gonna keep showing up I'm gonna keep worshiping I'm gonna keep serving I'm gonna keep reading because I don't live by what I feel I live by what he said I woke on God's Word and you can try to attack me in this wilderness but I am going to make it I've got a promise to have I will possess it because God said it so there's no sense in having anything to do with me today I'm walking out of this day and I'll be better than I've ever been I'll be half greater faith than I've ever been and you can follow me if you want but you're not going to want to mess with me when I win it you need to get some bread about you you are not so we push over and you get it home plug it in and carrot what a child gotta live here in the name of Jesus come on Sandhya feet this morning standing your feet this morning know my prayer for you today is my prayers just you get some grit about you every promise is not gonna be easy signed sealed delivered and come on a nice little cushion for you to take some up you just got to get in there and look at the enemy I don say I don't care what you say I know what God said and I will have this I will have my children following Christ I will have this ministry he's put in my heart I will have this marriage and I don't care what you say if God said I can have it I'll have it and you just learn to walk like that [Music]

Channel: TwinRivers.Church

Views: 68

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: TRWC, Jesus, Church, Twin Rivers Worship Center, St. Louis

Id: KV0GxRzhmOU

Length: 44min 36sec (2676 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 05 2018