Uh, I'm continuing the study that John is doing in the book of Exodus and the, the title of his series is The God Who Makes a Way and this morning, uh, what we're talking about is training in the wilderness and, and here's the big idea, here's the big idea because many of us are in wildernesses. Many of you feel that and, and after the first service and giving this message there are many people who came up and said yeah you know what, that's right where I'm at right now so maybe you are in a wilderness and our big idea this morning is that wilderness times can be opportunities to trust God, not an obstacle blocking us from God. Do you get that? It literally can be a training time. I'd, I'd like to give you an example, but I need a promise from you first, OK? If you ever see my granddaughter, you cannot tell her I shared this. Some of you are sitting here, I don't even know you. How would I know your granddaughter? And just in case. If she shows up someday and you go, oh, you're the granddaughter, don't do it, OK? We can agree on that. OK. Here, here's the illustration. My granddaughter. is in a gymnastic wilderness. And, and here's what I mean by that. She's never gonna be a great gymnast, and she goes to gymnastics all the time. And it doesn't have anything to do with her skill level. She's a tall girl. The, the girls her age get on those uneven bars and they swing. My granddaughter hits her knees on the pad. She's, it's, it's, it's, it's not gonna be who, who she is, and she loves gymnastics. But can I tell you something else? I went to, she was in a basketball tournament yesterday. And there were several girls taller than her. Um, her age. She out jumped every single one of them. She's the one that they put at the center for the jump ball because she could get higher than anybody. You know how, you know how she developed that? Gymnastics because in gymnastics, they are doing jumping as high as they can. She has to stand there and go and jump and do a flip standing so she can jump like nobody else. Whenever the ball went up to the rim, she went after it and she got more rebounds than anybody else because nobody could jump like her because gymnastics. Was the best training for that skill. She could take the basketball, saw it several times. She ran down that court. I mean, sprinting down the court, dribbling the ball, coming up and taking a layup. Nobody could catch her. Because she's developed in gymnastics, she's been since she was just a little girl and she still is a little girl running down that path and having to get the eye hand coordination to get her hands in the right place on the vault and to get her hands on the mat. She could do incredible things. She is doing phenomenal in school. And I think it's because of gymnastics, because of the training and the discipline that she's having to do. But she's never She's taller today. Than any girl that you will ever see in the Olympics in gymnastics. She's never gonna be a gymnast, but that's her wilderness. Can I tell you that there's those of you who are here today who are in a wilderness time. Maybe you're a teenager. You know, we are told by one study after another that teenagers today feel alone, that they, they feel like they don't have anybody who cares about them. They don't have any friends, they're, they feel bullied. That that online has just increased those feelings and so you have teenagers who feel like they're in a wilderness. Now, you have people I've, I've talked to them even today. Who who have moved to find a new job. Maybe moved here. And, and they were so excited about it and yet they feel I don't know anybody. All of my friends are back there, every everybody I know, I, I just feel like I'm in a wilderness, maybe you've taken a new job and and so you left the old job and you came to a new job and you went. You know, you know what all, all studies say, you know what the number one thing for job satisfaction is for a person in their job? Number one by far it is that there's someone at work they believe there's someone at work who cares about them, but the number of people who go to work every day and feel like, you know what, nobody here cares. If I don't show up for work tomorrow, nobody's gonna notice. And you feel alone, and you feel like you're going through the motions, and you feel purposeless. I've talked to many a young mother who was very excited to have that child. And that child is in their arms, and they're going, I don't know what happened, Dan. I feel alone. I, I feel isolated. I feel exhausted. I feel like I'm in a wilderness. The the number of senior adults that I've talked to. Who are in retirement and they're going, the purpose, my purpose is gone. And, and they feel alone. And, and so you may be here right now and go, that doesn't apply to me. No, it just doesn't. That's OK. I promise you, there's someone in your life it does apply to. There there there's a child, a parent. A spouse A coworker, there's somebody who close to you who's feeling like they're in the wilderness. And and our, our biblical passage that we're looking at today is in Exodus chapter 16 and 17 as we continue this study, and it's a passage that many of us are familiar with where the people of Israel, God provides for them manna. God provides for them. But they are in a wilderness now. Israel went through a couple of wilderness experiences. One was a short, very short period of time as they were moving from Egypt to the promised land. And, and then, as you know the story, and John will be telling us as he goes through Exodus, as they came to the promised land, they sent spies in and, and 10 of the 12 spies says, we can't do this. This isn't OK. We're never gonna make it. These people are gonna crush us. And 2 of them said, yeah, but God's with us. And the other 10 said, don't care. These people are gonna crush us. And so they decided not to go into the promised land, and God said for 40 years. 40 years you're gonna wander in the wilderness. That's not this wilderness experience. There was that short period of time that as they left Egypt and they went to the promised land, that's the wilderness they're in at this time. But the first thing that we learned as we, as we look through that is that hunger, which was part of convincing them that they were in a wilderness, hunger provided an opportunity for obedience. It says this in in Exodus chapter 16, beginning in verse 2, the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, Would that we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Do you think that's what they really did is brought everybody out there just to die? Absolutely not. But when you're in a wilderness experience, one of the first things that goes bad is your thinking. You start thinking poorly. And if you're in a wilderness time right now, you might feel that, but did you know that wilderness times often, often follow real high times, great things, this wilderness experience. Of Israel is coming, get this one month, one month after they had been standing at the edge of the Red Sea and boy if you're, you're watching the news today you have seen maps of the Middle East and you see the Red Sea. It is not a narrow thing. It's a pretty wide thing, the Red Sea, they're standing at the edge of the Red Sea, and behind them is Pharaoh's army. John was telling us about this, and, and the Pharaoh's army is coming and they're standing right there at the edge of the water going, Well, this is it. And God parts the water. He parts it so wide that 1 to 3 million Israelites could walk across on dry land. Is that incredible? And they've gone across on dry land and they're now on the other side and they look back and here comes Pharaoh's army right through the same path. And they go, great, we're dead. And all of a sudden I saw the water coming back down. And they saw the wheels of the chariots. Of the Egyptians getting stuck in the mud and they saw the horses trying to plow their way through the through the soggy ground, and then all of a sudden more water came and more water came and it comes crashing in on them. And they all die. They have just seen, just seen a month earlier. The water split and their enemy destroyed. And a month later, they're going, oh, we're gonna die out here of hunger. I mean, do you think that God who who split the Red Sea could take care of the problem? I think so. Do you think the God who brought that and destroyed the whole army without them doing any fighting could be there and provide for them? Absolutely. But they had already forgot, you know, some of us. In our wilderness times have just gone through a high. You know, maybe, maybe you're that high school student. Who, who was so excited to get out of middle school, if I just get out of middle school. And now when you talk to your family or open up at all you say I don't know anybody excuse me, there's 1000 students in your school. You don't know anybody. I don't know anybody. I don't have any friends. Well, what about so and so on? No, I don't have any friends. And when you're in the wilderness, that's how you feel. But it was right after a high time. If you're, if you're a young mom, you were just hoping and praying for the health of that child, and now that little child is in your arms and you're rocking, and it was the highest time and right now you're going. I'm alone I had friends, we could go do stuff and I've got, I'm stuck. I'm, I'm, I can't, I'm exhausted. I'm too tired to go anywhere and you feel like you're in a wilderness right after this high time. You, you got a new job and you are so excited. It's the perfect job and you get there and you go, I don't know anybody. I'm alone. I'm in a wilderness. You're retired. You had all kinds of plans. You had it all laid out. You had the economics, the financial, all worked out, and I'm gonna be able to do this and this and this, and, and you've done this and this, and you're going, I got nothing. I got no purpose. I'm just. Going through the motions. I'm in a dry time, a wilderness. That's what Israel was going through. They felt like they were alone. One of my favorite prophets in the Old Testament is Elijah. He's so, this guy is so honest with God. And, and, and if you're in a wilderness. You know, be honest with God. It is OK. God, God is big enough and strong enough for you. To say in your prayers, God, I feel alone and abandoned. I need you to show up. I, I love Elijah. Elijah has just won this incredible battle between, um, Bale, the, the followers of Baal and himself, and he had the contest. Remember the contest? Because you, uh, You, you build an altar. I'll build an altar. You put your sacrifice on it. I'll build a sacrifice on it. You call down to your God, I'll call down to my God. And so the, the 400 prophets of the false god Baal build their altar. They put their sacrifice and they go, God Baal, come to burn. And nothing happens and they called louder and nothing happens. They start dancing and yelling and, and nothing happens and Elijah, being the kind encouraging prophet that he is, stands on the side and said, maybe you wanna say it a little louder. You maybe you're God's sleeping. Maybe he went on a trip. And so now they're screaming and they're slashing themselves and it's now. It's now Elijah's turn. And Elijah says, take gallons, buckets of water and throw on the sacrifice. And they poured it on the sacrifice and he prays and he says, God, bring fire down from heaven and boom, it came. And burned it, burned up the sacrifice, and all the people went, whoa. His God is the real God, and they, they slaughtered the priests of Baal. Said, you, you were lying to us. So, that's a pretty high time. I mean, If you're sitting in your backyard going, I can't get this barbecue lit, God, could you bring fire down from heaven? And boom, it's right there. You're going, you know what? I, I think I got a good God here. OK. So he's done that. And, and he's sitting there going, you know, things are, things are pretty good. God's listening to me. And then right afterwards, we read this right after that happened. It says in 1 Kings 19, Now Ahab told Jezebel, the king told his wife all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So may the gods do to me and even more if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And he, Elijah, was afraid. Cause I've just called fire down from heaven. This, this lady is scaring the daylights out of me, so I'm gonna run away. And he ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there, but he himself went a day's journey. Into the wilderness. And came and sat under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself that he might die. And says, it is enough, Thou Lord. Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers. Did you get the picture. Here he had just come off this high and now he was in this valley going, I just want to die. As he's in the wilderness. But what we learn is that wilderness experiences provide an opportunity for us to be obedient. Here's what, here's what it says in Exodus 16:4. Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them whether or not they will walk in my instructions. What was one of the purposes of manna? One of the purposes of manna was for the Israelites to show God that they could be obedient, that they could follow His instructions. By the way, they failed big time. They went, we're not gonna be sure there's gonna be bread tomorrow, so we're gonna take extra. It didn't work out that well for them. Wilderness experiences test us. Whether we're going to be obedient if you're in a wilderness experience right now. Maybe you're a person who says, do you know what? Yeah, I'm drinking a little more than I used to, but, but I just need it. These times are so tough. Maybe you've started taking some pills that you had always said, I'll never take those pills. But now you find you're taking the pills because you go, it helps me get through the day. Maybe In your wilderness experience, you say, I feel all alone except for that one person. At work who seems to care about me. And we've gone to lunch and I really like them, but I know my spouse wouldn't be happy if I did this and you know it's not what you should be doing, but you continue to disobey. Wilderness experiences are opportunities to obey. 95% of the decisions that we need to make any kind of moral or spiritual decision, we know the answer to. We don't, we don't need somebody, you know, oh, was I supposed to yell at my wife? Let me pray about that. Really? No, don't, don't do it. Was I supposed to be taking those drugs? You could, you would give your friend the answer and say, no, don't do it. But in your wilderness experience frequently we disobey but the reality is if we would look at those times as opportunities to demonstrate to God that we can be obedient, that we want to be obedient, and I promise when we do that, God shows up in a big way when we are obedient. There's a 2nd thing I see about the hunger issue, which was an obedient issue. Hunger also provides an opportunity to see God's mighty work. It says in Exodus 16, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel. Speak to them, saying, at twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. What's it saying? It's saying, That I'm gonna show you that I'm God. Guess what? We, we forget this, but they had meat to eat, right? It, it tells us. In Exodus 12, John already took Pastor John already took us through this. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, rise up and get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel, and go and worship the Lord as you have said. Take both your flocks and your herds as you have said, and go bless me also. They had flocks and herds. This is just a month after that. They're out in the wilderness, they have their flocks and their, their herds, but their thinking is so messed up. They're thinking about what they don't have and their focus is on that that they ignore the things that they have. Can I tell you that one of the solutions to our wilderness times. Is to journal. To take time every day and just write down what God has given you. Well he hasn't given me any friends in Phoenix, but he's given me a bunch of friends back in Davenport. He's given me friends here. Write down what he has given you, not what you don't have. I, I, I feel exhausted. But he's given me this new child. Who's bringing me great joy, and it's a wilderness time right now, but he's given me so many positive things. He's given me a cool home. He's given me a place to live. He's given me a family that cares about me. They may be a long ways away right now, but he's given me that instead of focusing on what we don't have, focus on what God has given you, because if you can focus on that. It, it will change everything. One of the things that Paul, Paul, we don't know what his, his issue was, we've talked about this before, but Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 tells us about a thorn in his flesh. We don't know what that is. If some think that it's a physical ailment, others. Uh, have other conjectures of what it is. I think it's really a good thing that we don't know because we could basically substitute his thorn in the flesh with the wilderness experience in your wilderness, in your wilderness, there's something that you have that is, is, is hurting and it's painful. That's what Paul had and he goes to God and says, God, take it away. And what did God say? No. You're going, no, no, no, no, God, you don't understand. I know, I know how to pray. Um, I pray for this and you give it to me. And so Paul goes back and he says, God, take away this thorn in the flesh. And God says, no. And and Paul's thinking this makes no sense at all. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm going through this pain. I'm going through this discomfort. I'm going through all of this stuff that seems to be separating from me, me from you. God, please take away this thorn in my flesh. And God says, no, Paul. You are stronger when you're weak. You're stronger when you're dependent upon me, and so Paul says, I have learned to rejoice in struggles, in bitterness, and persecution, in wilderness times. Because I have learned that when I'm weak. That's when I'm the strongest. When I'm dependent upon God. If you're in that wilderness right time right now and you're going, where's God? I'm telling you, I'm telling you, continue to call on him. His answer may be no. His answer may be silence for a while, but continue to call on him, please. Um, I know it's painful, but I know that God calls. One of the things that I would, I would say, and we're gonna, in, in, in a few minutes we're gonna be closing, and I'm gonna be asking for people to come up and to pray with you if you're going through a wilderness time that you come up and, and I'm sharing that with you because this church has people who love to do that. They love to be used by God to help other people. We have a ministry here called Soul Care and, and it literally is people who have spent time hours getting trained how to come alongside people who are in the wilderness. And be a support and encouragement and and words. So if you're going through that at at the end of the service I'll give you an opportunity. I said, you know what, there's there's people up here and at that time do that recognize. That there are, there are people who care if you're not in a small group, you know, uh, put down on that card how do I get connected in a small group because one of God's ways of helping us in wilderness times is Christian fellowship, Christian friends who can encourage us, who have also walked through wilderness times and they can tell you this was their experience, this is how God worked in their life. And so I encourage you to get plugged in. One of the things that John asked me to do, in fact, the first thing he asked me to do at Northridge, I'm sorry, at Mission Grove, the first thing he asked me to do is to start a men's ministry here. And, and, and so there, there wasn't anything going and so on the, we started on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays to have a, a men's group. Yesterday we had about 40 guys who came out they're sitting around tables and things like that and, and we're studying, um, the book of Ephesians right now, but guys are getting connected with other guys. And um we're, we're having a retreat coming up with, with more than 12 of our guys who are gonna go on this retreat up to Williams. But not only is it just 12 of our guys, there's like 400 other men from churches in the area. That we get to go up there and and and we get great teaching we get cabin time where we get to talk about what's going on in our life and we develop friendships and we develop connections and that's what we need and guys more than anyone I've I've mentioned before that every study indicates that as difficult as it is as it is for people to find friends today, men have the most difficult time developing those friendships. And so we have these means of finding that because if you're in a wilderness time, God never intended you to do it completely by yourself. Here's the 3rd point, a wilderness experience can provide an opportunity to know God was present. Exodus 17 says, but the people thirsted there for water, and they grumbled against Moses and said, Why now have you brought us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pass before the people and take some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you, and there on the rock at Horeb you will strike the rock, and water will come out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. He named the place Masa and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel and because they tested the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not? Is the Lord among us or not? And that's a question you may be in your wilderness going, is God there? David, who has written so many of the psalms, um, frequently was in that place, that emotional place, that spiritual place where he said, is God there? But he frequently would self talk to himself, you know, when, when, when you're in a wilderness, you talk to yourself a lot. And unless you're intentional about it, the things that you say continue to spiral down. You continue to say, I'm alone. I can't make it. God's not here. I don't have anybody, and you keep spiraling down. Listen to David, who sounds pretty low, but he changes his tone. Listen to this in Psalm 42. He says, I will say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy as a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me while they say to me all day long, Where is your God? Now? Listen to how he changes. Listen to what he says to Himself. Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my help and my God. Can we do that? When you're in the wilderness, can you stop? For for some of you. Christian music is a is a wonderful tool to help you self talk, to help you praise God and focus on what God is doing so that you know, you know what, in the middle of this wilderness I know God is with me. I'm not alone. And, and I just encourage you to do that. The other thing that Pastor John has been doing and doing an excellent job of is taking the Old Testament and tying it to the New Testament and then finding an application for us. The, the people of Israel, God's answer to them was to provide them manna, remember, and manna, daily bread that was on the ground. Well, there's a picture of the same thing in the New Testament with Jesus. Jesus is out, literally at that point it was almost out in the wilderness. He's along the lake. He's on a mountain, and he, he's, he's talking with the people, and there's about. 15 to 20,000 we hear about the 5000 men, but probably a total of about 15 or 20,000 and, and it gets late and he turns to his disciples and he said feed them. And they go, yeah, that ain't gonna work. And he goes, no, feed them. Uh, and they said, how? And Jesus says, Well, what do you got? And a little boy with some bread and fish, and we know the story, and he fed them, and the people went, we gotta make him king. That's the kind of king we need is someone who can like Moses feed us every day. And so Jesus, knowing what they were thinking. Says this Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father. So the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna. and died. But he who feeds on this bread will live forever. Did you get that picture, those who will be dependent upon, who feed on me. Um, you're not, you're not gonna believe this. Some of you will. Um, I exercise. At least 5 days a week, an hour and a half each day. Some of you are looking and going, not a chance. And, and I move like this so that nobody sees a profile of me. Uh, another thing that I do is I, I, I do a Bible study each week with one guy, a friend of mine who's in really good shape, and, and I don't like him at all, um, because one thing that he tells me over and over and over again is, Dan, you can't exercise yourself out of a bad diet. I'm going Shut up. I mean, if you go to my car right this minute, I got a big bag of Lay's potato chips right in the front seat. If we are emotionally and spiritually. Unhealthy right now. And we're feeding on the stuff of the world. We're not going to get better. Jesus said, feed on me. Take me in. Eat my flesh and drink my blood. Take, take me in. Let me be in control. Trust me, be dependent upon me. And so this morning, I, I want us to understand because, and, and don't let anybody make light of it. If you're in a wilderness time, don't let anybody make light of it. It's a tough time to be there. It is But if you begin to see your wilderness experience as an opportunity to trust God and not an obstacle blocking you from God. Things will look different. And then you can, you can live your life trusting him. I found a, I was reading a devotional and in it they had. Um, a quote from John Alvarez. John Alvarez. Lived in the 1500s and he wrote this and if you have the sermon notes if you picked them up at the door, it's at the bottom of those notes it says this let it suffice to say then that God perceives the imperfections within us and because of His love for us urges us to grow up. His love is not content to leave us in our weakness, and for this reason he takes us into a dark night, a wilderness. He weans us from all the pleasures by giving us dry times and inward darkness. In doing so, he is able to take away all these vices and create virtues within us. Through the dark night pride becomes humility, greed becomes simplicity, wrath becomes contentment, luxury becomes peace, gluttony. Becomes moderation, envy becomes joy and sloth becomes strength. No soul will ever grow deep in the spiritual life unless God works passively in that soul by means of the dark night. If you are going through one of those times right now, I just wanna share with you. Don't pray to escape from it. Pray that God will meet you there and meet you in a powerful way, we're gonna stand and and sing this song. And, and as you're singing, I just. I want you to think, are you in a wilderness time right now? And if so, Would you like to change and begin to trust God?