Gateway Church's Podcast
Why the Wilderness?
Pastor Preston Morrison begins his half of The Wilderness series with an eye-opening message about the three main purposes of the wildernesses we encounter.
Well, Pastor John, three weeks ago, started a series titled The Wilderness. And I'm gonna be continuing that series today with a message titled, "Why The Wilderness?" Have you ever asked God the question, "Why, oh, why?" Why, why, why, why, why, why God this wilderness? If you have, you're in good company, the question's been asked for centuries. And today, we're gonna try and answer that question. And if you have a Bible, I want you to turn to two places, numbers, chapter 16, and Deuteronomy, chapter eight. And while you're turning there, we're gonna get a little personal today. I'm gonna ask you some personal questions. How many of you would say that you have been through a wilderness season before? Okay, look around, I want you up everywhere, every campus, look around, okay? Now, if you were to take it another step and be quite vulnerable and transparent, how many of you would say that you feel like you're in a wilderness right now? Okay, put your heads up, I want you to look around, all right? You are not the only one. You are not the only one. And in this message, I'm gonna be speaking a lot in second person. I'm gonna be saying you a lot, and I want you to know why, because your wilderness is different than mine. It's not that I haven't been through a wilderness. It's not that I won't go through another one. It's that your wilderness is yours and mine is mine, but we all go through the wilderness. So my heart is that this would just seem like you and I are sitting down having coffee, and we're just talking about why God has us go through this wilderness. Now, there are some people who feel like they've never been through a wilderness before. And they probably, because they've never been through one, also think that they'll never go through one, because apparently they walk with God better than all the rest of us. And if that's you, I don't mean to burst your bubble this morning. But there's a chance that your wilderness could be right around the corner. And if that's you, honestly, I can sense you channeling your anger at me right now. I hear you saying, I rebuke that curse in Jesus' name, but it's not a curse, so don't rebuke it. Many of the greatest moves of God in scripture have been preceded by seasons of wilderness. If you're in the wilderness, relax, you're in good company. But many people are frustrated by the wilderness. And most of us go through seasons where at some point we are, and maybe you just recently got saved, and maybe even just got baptized in our most recent habitation service. Or maybe you've been a believer for years, and you never imagined that you'd find yourself in the wilderness to the extent that you're in right now as a believer. Let me encourage you. God's just doing with you, what he did with his son. I'll prove it to you. Let me show you in scripture, I'm gonna show you two of the first people mentioned in the New Testament, talking about a wilderness, how wilderness precedes moves of God. But before that, look in Numbers 16, verse 13. Numbers 16, verse 13. This is some of the Israelites, whining, complaining about their wilderness. They say, isn't it enough that you brought us out of Egypt, a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us here in this wilderness? Okay, now I want you to pause. That may sound like you, all right? That sounds like most of us in the wilderness if we have the wrong perspective. Now hit the pause button there. Now I want you to listen to two people in the New Testament who went through a wilderness before they experienced an incredible move of God. Look in Luke chapter verse 80, speaking of a young John the Baptist, it says John grew up and became strong in spirit. And he lived in the wilderness until he began his public ministry to Israel. Matthew chapter four, verse one, speaking of Jesus, immediately following his baptism. Says this, "Then Jesus was led by the spirit "into the wilderness." To be tempted there by the devil. Listen to me, if you're frustrated about the wilderness and you never imagined you'd find yourself in it as a believer, God's just doing with you what he did with his son. And here's why, when you got saved, you said to God, "I want to be just like Jesus." (congregation laughing) And honestly, I don't think any of us really understands what it means when we say that. But I do know this. It does mean that if God led Jesus into the wilderness, we should not be at all surprised when he leads us there too. There's no reason to whine about the wilderness and hear the Israelites in Numbers chapter 16 verse 13 are saying that the land where I was a slave, the land flowing with milk and honey. Isn't it amazing that when our perspective is wrong, when we see the wilderness as a curse, that we will look back at Egypt, the land of our greatest torment, and it will look more appealing than the wilderness, which is merely the land of our greatest transition. God had said to the Israelites, "I am taking you to a land flowing with milk and honey." And the Israelites say, "Can't we just go back to Egypt, "the land flowing with milk and honey?" The only way you can look back at Egypt and think Egypt is better than the wilderness is when your perspective is wrong. When you see the wilderness as a curse, but it's not a curse. And the number one thing people do in the wilderness, if you wanna know how you know you see the wilderness as a curse, the number one thing people do in the wilderness when they see it as a curse is wine. They whine about it. But the wilderness is not a curse to complain about. It's just a part of God's process. Listen to me, God will take you out of Egypt. And oftentimes lead you through the wilderness because the wilderness is where God gets Egypt out of you. Let me explain to you something about freedom. Freedom is not getting out of Egypt. Freedom is getting Egypt out of you. God walks us into the wilderness, into the driest of places, so there will not be even a residue of Egypt. Where when we walk into a room, they don't smell Egypt, they smell Canaan. So, let's answer this question, why the wilderness? Here's the first reason I believe God brings us through the wilderness because crutches are killed in the wilderness. Crutches are killed in the wilderness. Flip over to Deuteronomy chapter eight. Starting there in verse two. It says this, remember how the Lord, your God, led you through the wilderness for these 40 years, humbling you and testing you. Now, time out, I want to address this word, testing. Because if you don't understand the word testing, when you find yourself in the wilderness being tested, you can be doubly frustrated. Let me give you a good definition for the word test. A test is an opportunity with the goal of success. When God tests you, he's giving you an opportunity with the goal of success. God tests you. God doesn't tempt you. Temptation, on the other hand, is an opportunity with a goal of failure. God tests you, while the devil tempts you. In other words, God tests you to try and get the best to come out of you. And the devil tempts you to try and get the worst in to you. God is attempting you in the wilderness. He's not playing games with you in the wilderness. The wilderness is merely a test. And his sincerest hope is that you would succeed and pass that test. Keep going there in verse two of Deuteronomy eight. God's humbling you and testing you to prove your character and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. Look back there in the first part. Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these 40 years? Should we really be whining about the wilderness if God is leading us through it? Think about this for a minute. We make the wilderness out to be so horrible, but if God's leading us through it, is it really that bad? I'll give you something far worse than being in a wilderness God's leading you through. How about when you find yourself in a wilderness, God isn't leading you through? I don't care where he leads me. I'll follow. I don't care where he's taking me. As long as he's leading, I will follow, even if it is, into the wilderness. As long as he's leading me into, and you know what the best part about this Deuteronomy eight is it says God led them through the wilderness. God doesn't just lead you into the wilderness. If he leads you through it, here's what that means. God leads you into the wilderness, and he'll lead you out of it if you'll let him. God isn't dropping you off in the wilderness, hoping you figure it out all by yourself. He's right there with you leading you through it. And if you want him to lead you out of this wilderness that you feel stuck in right now, you're going to have to kill all your crutches. Five or six years ago, I was in the worst wilderness that I've ever been through in 33 years. And in the midst of this wilderness, my appendix ruptured. And I thought it would be a genius idea to try and live with it for about five days. I know what you're thinking, that should have killed you. It would have killed a lesser man. (audience laughing) Clearly, I'm not he, whatever. Actually, the doctor of when my wife took me to the emergency room, the doctor said to me, either you are the dumbest man alive or the most stubborn man alive. And my wife said both. (audience laughing) It had gotten so bad that I couldn't even go to the bathroom. The toxins were literally tearing me apart on the inside. And the last morning, I got out of bed and I couldn't stand up past here because the pain was so unbearable. And so my wife took me to the emergency room. They obviously saw something was wrong. They removed and abscessed the size of a Volkswagen out of my abdomen. (audience laughing) And I spent the next seven days recovering in a hospital bed. And on the seventh day, the doctor came into our room and he said, "Preston, it's time for you "to begin walking again." Now, my sweet, loving, gorgeous wife becomes a till of the hunt (audience laughing) when the doctor gives her an order related to me. And that woman came to the side of my bed and said, "Get up." The second the doctor walked out of the room, "Get up, it's time for you to walk." So she drags me out of bed. I hadn't been out of bed for seven days. She drags me out of bed. And I'm literally this high. I'm in so much pain. And she leads me around the bed and out the room and into the hallway. And once we get into the hallway, she detaches from me. (audience laughing) And she moves over here, so. (audience laughing) By the time I get to here, she's already over here. So. (audience laughing) And she keeps going around. I said, "What are you doing?" And she said, "Baby, time out. "Don't call me baby at a time like this." (audience laughing) She said, "Baby, you need to walk all by yourself "without my help." Now, being the godly, casserole man that I am, I took a moment, I paused and I prayed about what I was about to say. I did not submit what I was about to say to God, I just prayed about it. And I looked at woman in the eye, that sweet, young, and very misguided woman in the eye, and I said, "Fine then. "You go just be married by yourself, "and I'll go find me a nurse." (audience laughing) Incidentally, that was a test. (audience laughing) And I failed it miserably. But what did my wife know? My wife knew that the sooner I could walk without crutches, the sooner and stronger I would walk out of that hospital. If you find yourself in the wilderness, you're gonna have to kill all your crutches. You realize what a crutch is? A crutch is simply a plan B, you've turned into a plan A because you don't think God's gonna come through. (audience clapping) The wilderness is a place where your flesh goes to die. And the greater your death within the wilderness, the stronger your strength when you walk out of it. (audience clapping) Kill all of your crutches. Now here's what a crutch looks like on a bad day. Well, God, if you're not gonna make me feel better in the midst of this wilderness, then a fair sure will. God, if you're not gonna make me feel better on this horrible day in the middle of this wilderness crisis, that bottle of wine sure will. God, if you're not gonna bail me out and make me feel better today in the worst wilderness I've ever experienced before, trip to the mall with that maxed out credit card sure will. Anything you think will make you feel better when you feel God doesn't come through is a crutch that must be killed. And in the wilderness, God desires that we kill all of our crutches. You'll never get out of the wilderness until you can walk out with no plan B. God created the wilderness to be a place with no alternatives. And He did that for a reason. He wants the only option to be Him. It's not a multiple choice test this wilderness. There's only one right answer and it's Him. God created the wilderness to be a place with no alternatives because a place with no alternatives is a place with no idols and a place with no idols is a place with the great I am, not the weak I am. Don't whine about the wilderness being a place with no alternatives. God set it up that way. Kill your crutches. Here's the second answer to the question why the wilderness. Because appetites are altered in the wilderness. Appetites are altered in the wilderness. Keep going in Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse three. Yes, He humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna of food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone rather we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Let me explain to you what an appetite is. An appetite is a godly craving in you that can become a deadly weapon used against you if you don't control it. An appetite is a godly craving, a craving, a desire. God put in you that can become a dangerous weapon used against you if you don't control it. So alter your appetite. Here's why it's so dangerous, this appetite. Because the devil will use your appetite as his angle. How many of you have ever learned that on a horrible day when you feel lower than low, your flesh gets a little hungry and when your flesh gets hungry, the devil will gladly bring you a meal. And he doesn't just bring you a meal, he brings you your favorite meal. Why? Because God knows. You need some desires and the devil is watching your desires. And if you're not careful, if you're not controlling your appetites, which means you've submitted your appetites to God, that's all controlling your appetite is. And saying no to yourself. If you don't control your appetites, the devil will pursue you via your own appetite. Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve are a great example. They had the desire to be so close to God and to spend so much time with God that one day they will become just like God. God put that there. God puts in all of his children the desire to grow up one day and be just like daddy. But the devil took that appetite, twisted it and used it against him as his angle. Here's what's so dangerous about the angle. Oftentimes the devil's angle is one of the hardest things to see. If I were the devil, if I were your enemy, I wouldn't come at you with a thousand of my friends because you'd hear us coming from a mile away and just run. If I were the devil, if I were your enemy, I would come at you alone with nothing but me and my ninja skills. And I wouldn't come at you head on because my biggest fear as the devil is that you've been training with the master, which means your ninja skills trump my ninja skills because his ninja skills trump my ninja skills. So I won't as the devil come at you head on 'cause you'll beat me, you'll see it coming. So here's what I'd do if I were the devil. I'd watch you and I'd watch you for long enough to learn what your blind spot was. And then at just the right time, I'd come at you from your blind spot. That would be my angle. I'd come up behind you and I'd tap you in the temple with my pinky finger and you'd go down and the movie would be over. Listen to me though. It is easier to see the army with which the enemy attacks you than it is to see the angle by which he approaches you alone. What's the angle? It's your appetite. So make sure your appetite is healthy. The healthier your appetite, the harder it is for your enemy to hitch his angle to your appetite. Submit your appetites to God, alter your appetites and you will defeat your enemy. Here's the third answer to the question, why the wilderness? Because preparations are made in the wilderness. Preparations are made in the wilderness. Let's keep going in Deuteronomy eight, verse four. For all these 40 years, your clothes didn't wear out and your feet didn't blister or swell. Think about it, just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good. So obey the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you in to a good land of flowing streams and pools of water with fountains and springs that gush out in the valleys and hills. It is a land of wheat and barley, of grapevines, fig trees and pomegranates, of olive oil and honey. It is a land where food is plentiful and nothing is lacking. That is your promised land. It's a land where nothing is lacking. We need to stop griping about the wilderness being some barren wasteland. It may be a wasteland, but it is not barren because what you see as a wasteland God sees as a womb. The wilderness is your womb for your most expedient development. So get comfortable there. What would you rather, you take even longer? God puts you in the wilderness like he puts a baby in the womb. Here's what takes so long, us. We are what takes so long. I know how messed up I am. I have to take the same test four or five times to get the point sometimes. What's taking so long is God is preparing me. God is preparing you. If he were preparing someone else, he would have been done a long time ago. But me, I take longer than that. But here's the good news. As long as it takes me to prepare to get out of the wilderness, God takes that same amount of time and prepares my place for me. Right now, as I am preparing in the wilderness, God is preparing a place for me. God takes preparation seriously and he proves it and that while God is preparing you for it, he is preparing it for you. Look what God says to the Israelites. In Exodus chapter 23 verse 20, he says, "See, I'm sending an angel before you "to protect you on your journey "and lead you safely to the place. "I have prepared for you." Look at what Jesus said towards the end of his life in John chapter 14. Verse two and three, "There is more than enough room in my father's home. "If this were not so, "would I have told you that I'm going to prepare "a place for you? "When everything is ready, "when everything is ready, "I will come and get you "so that you will always be with me where I am." Jesus said he was going to prepare a place for you. God put his best in a position to prepare for you. Listen, the Father sent the Son to this earth to die for you. Then the Father sent the Son back to heaven to prepare a place for you and he left the Holy Spirit behind to prepare you for that place. God has not abandoned you in the wilderness. So if you're frustrated, stopping frustrated, God is right there with you leading you through it. And the longer it takes, listen, the more time God has to prepare the place for you. God is intimately preparing your place for you. No one else can get there but you. In any time a place is prepared intimately, the more intimately it is prepared, the more overwhelming it is upon arrival. When God walks you out of this wilderness and into your promised land, God isn't going for a yawn on your first day when you take a look around. God isn't going for a, hey, nice job, God. Here's what God's going for. God is going for when you walk into the wilderness and into the promised land for the first time. He's going for exceedingly abundantly above anything you could ever have asked for or could have possibly imagined. God is going to render you speechless at the side of your promised land. God is going for tears of joy. God is going for a response that says, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, God. It was worth the wait to which he will say, welcome home. The wilderness is not a curse to complain about. The end of this passage, Deuteronomy chapter eight and verse nine talks about the promised land, your promised land, being a place where nothing is lacking. I want to know how many of us want to live in the land where nothing is lacking? How many of us don't just want to live there? How many of us want to stay there? You want to know why it's so important to war through the wilderness? It isn't so you can get to the promised land. It's so your finish line can be in the promised land and your children's starting line can be in the promised land, not in the wilderness. War your way through the wilderness. Don't wander through the wilderness and don't walk through the wilderness. War your way through it and punch your ticket to get out of it by winning the war while you're in it. You can't graduate to the promised land until you win the war in the wilderness. The wilderness is a womb and God is about to push you out into a land that is bigger and better than anything you could possibly imagine, but he won't do it until you're ready. Could God put you there eight months early? Absolutely he could, he has all power. But if he took you out of the womb after only being there for a month, sticking you in the promised land could kill you because you're not ready for it. And God's desire is not that you visit the promised land, it's that you remain in the promised land. So enjoy the womb and while you're in it, kill all your crutches, alter all of your appetites and make preparations within the wilderness for when you get out of it. And soon you will find yourself living in a place you've never lived before. You will find yourself leaving a land where nothing is living and living in a land where nothing is lacking. I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. What is the Holy Spirit saying to you? Is it to kill a particular crutch? Is it to alter an appetite? Or maybe you've killed all of your crutches and altered all of your appetites. But you've been in this wilderness so long that you've stopped making preparations to get out of it. And God's simply saying it's time to prepare to get out 'cause it's time to move. If you're here today and the Holy Spirit is speaking to you right now, whether it's to kill a crutch or to alter an appetite or to get a divine strategy of preparation in the wilderness or maybe it's something completely unrelated to this message if you need ministry this morning. In a moment, I'm gonna pray. When I'm done praying, everyone's gonna stand and I'm gonna invite our altar ministry team to come forward and when they come forward, I want you to come with them. An altar is a place where things go to die. It's a great place to kill a crutch, to kill an appetite and give it to God. A great place to kill my strategy of preparation and receive God's. Please don't listen to the voice of the enemy that would draw you to the exit when God's drawing you to the altar. So when I'm done praying, if you need ministry for anything at all, please don't hesitate to receive it before you leave today. Holy Spirit, I pray you'd give every person who needs to receive ministry from you today, the boldness and the courage to come forward, to kill a crutch, to alter an appetite or receive a divine strategy from you. Give them the boldness to come to this altar instead of head towards that exit in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]