King's Story
Notes
Transcript
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Read Isaiah 41:10 “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.”
Pray!
Why I, Averted
First off I want to thank both Wednesday and King for sharing their stories!
We are doing this series because our testimonies point to the glory and faithfulness of our God.
Our stories are reminders that God is compassionate , loving, merciful, powerful and active in all of our lives.
Our stories can be used to point others to Christ.
Seasons In The Desert:
Seasons In The Desert:
Sometimes our life can truly feel like we are just walking through the wilderness.... for some this wilderness may seem like you are constantly climbing and falling down mountains , for some it may feel like you are lost in the woods with a real sense of dread, for others it may feel you are lost in the dessert where heat is leaving you parched and everything looks the same and you truly feel like you don’t know what to do or where to go anymore.
Lets read Deuteronomy 8:1-10
“Carefully follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase, and may enter and take possession of the land the Lord swore to your ancestors. Remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these forty years in the wilderness, so that he might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your ancestors had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these forty years. Keep in mind that the Lord your God has been disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. So keep the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams, springs, and deep water sources, flowing in both valleys and hills; a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper. When you eat and are full, you will bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
wilderness. The Hebrew word (midbar) that is usually translated “wilderness” in the Bible refers both to something that is “desolate and deserted” and something that is “beyond,” i.e., beyond the limits of settlement and therefore of government control. Thus, a wilderness was not defined by geographic features so much as by a perception of disorder and danger. A wilderness was usually assumed to be the home of wild beasts and savage wandering tribes. In time of war or repression refugees would flee to the wilderness
Many of us try to avoid the uncomfortable in life, because we think we have very legitimate reasons for doing so. When our life hits the “desert”, it is very hard to recoup. Our heart and mind feel burnt out, everything seems lifeless and even taking a single step seems to require an extreme amount of effort.
As I prepped this week something very interesting occured to me as studying
the desert is not presented as a hopeless place in the Bible. God had used the desert and the wilderness to speak with His people. If you are in the middle of a desert season, you’re actually not alone.
God spoke to Abraham while he was in the wilderness. God brought the Israelites into the wilderness, because He wanted to speak to them at Mount Sinai. This is where He spoke to Moses. In the wilderness God met with Elijah. It was in the desert when God spoke to John the Baptist, who spent most of his life in these rough conditions. He became known as the Voice Calling in the Wilderness.
Each of these stories is filled with miracles. In the wilderness God was present, and in the desert, He made Himself known.
In our Western cultures, we are very used to our comforts. Even as followers of Jesus, we try to avoid the desert. We don’t like when life is hard, and barren, and dry. The wilderness makes us feel isolated, so we do what we can to escape it. Regardless if you put yourself in that dessert by choices you made, or outside circumstances and things just happened to shake out that way…God is with you their and wants to connect with you.
But what if we asked God when is the right time to move on? Is He trying to tell us something?
The negative approach to the wilderness is challenged even in the Gospels. Jesus with His disciples often chose the wilderness for rest and to teach His friends. It was their quality time, when He was not being pulled in every direction by those, who needed His help.
It was in the desert where Jesus was baptized, and God announced to the whole world that He loved His Son!
Young David was running through the desert when he was trying to flee from King Saul. He was hiding in caves and you could say he was in a very low place in his life. But it was in that wilderness, where he experienced closeness and intimacy with the Lord. He wrote dozens of poems and songs, pouring out his heart. He knew God was listening, too.
Wednesday and Chad seem to have felt they were in this place as they didn't know what was going on with King and His health…But i love how instead of caving in or giving up... there faith grew as they pursued God and His direction through it all.
Self Control:
Self Control:
One thing it is easy to do when you are going through the wilderness is to lack self control. We can feed into all our broken ways to try to resolve our “problems” or figure out how to just deal with the wilderness we are in.
A lack of self control we have the mindset of just dealing with our wilderness we find unhealthy ways to cope with the stress of it all. We feel we are helpless and the only way to deal is to just do whatever we have to do to survive it....We don’t really learn anything by doing this…Nor do we really try to connect with God. Our lack of self control leads us to go to our impulses...
I love how King brings up that the world needs more self control. I couldn't agree more with him on this...
When we are disciplined and have self control we learn how to navigate the wildernesses we may find ourselves in. We don’t feed into our broken impulses that can keep us in the dessert longer than we have to be and prevent us from experiencing God.
When we learn to navigate the wilderness were in we put ourselves in a position to truly connect with God and allow Him to help, speak, comfort, and guide us through it. We learn valuable lessons when we have self control, and stay obedient to the LORD theses lessons can help us for all our days.
When we get through the storm with self disciple and self control we are of the mindest and living with the knowledge that it was God who helped us through our wilderness. But we can tend to forget just like the Israelites and become prideful thinking we did it on our own....
Lets read the rest of Deuteronomy 8:11-20
“Be careful that you don’t forget the Lord your God by failing to keep his commands, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today. When you eat and are full, and build beautiful houses to live in, and your herds and flocks grow large, and your silver and gold multiply, and everything else you have increases, be careful that your heart doesn’t become proud and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. He led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty land where there was no water. He brought water out of the flint rock for you. He fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your ancestors had not known, in order to humble and test you, so that in the end he might cause you to prosper. You may say to yourself, ‘My power and my own ability have gained this wealth for me,’ but remember that the Lord your God gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm his covenant he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve them and bow in worship to them, I testify against you today that you will certainly perish. Like the nations the Lord is about to destroy before you, you will perish if you do not obey the Lord your God.
Don’t Have a Spirit Of Fear:
Don’t Have a Spirit Of Fear:
Another thing we have a tendency to do during these seasons in the wilderness is become fearful and we allow this fear to paralyze us and it keeps us stuck where we are and causes us to slowly lose hope, joy, and peace.
We all face things in our lives that feel like the wilderness. Maybe like David we can’t seem to escape our problems. Like Abraham, we are not sure where to go or what to do. Maybe like Moses, we feel overwhelmed with our responsibilities. Or like Elijah, we are simply burnt out. We have to stay focused on pursuing God and seeing Him in the middle of our wilderness.
Staying in Gods word during theses seasons is crucial. Unfortunately when fear sets in anxiety, depression and many other things began to take over and we don’t even want to pick up His word, connect with others or move forward..We become isolated
Although in hardship we want to avoid the discomfort of the desert, it is an invitation to an encounter. God wants to speak to us. Thanks to Scripture we know for a fact that in the desert is where the presence of God is most prevalent. Why is that? because 9/10 we have come to the end of ourself in these season and the distractions have fallen away or been stripped away and we can finally hear and see God.
Jesus chose the wilderness, because he knew that, while being alone and tempted, there was strength and authority to be gained by being alone with His Father. No matter how isolated you may feel today, God wants to come into your wilderness, be near you, and speak to you. He is in the midst of your wilderness. SO you don’t need to be fearful!
OFFER SALVATION IF GOD MOVES YOU IN THAT DIRECTION!
Week 3 Questions:
What has your wilderness looked like? Do you feel like you are currently wandering through the wilderness?
How have you seen God meet you in the wilderness? How have you navigated through it?
Why do you think we can struggle with self control when we are going through some hard times?
Deuteronomy 8:11 states “ be careful you don’t forget the Lord” why do you think we struggle to remember the Lord? especially after we have seen his faithfulness time and time again in our lives.