The Desert: God's Special Design for Your Spiritual Development, Part 3

If you have your Bible, turn with me to the book of Exodus, the third chapter. Exodus chapter 3. It was a time in which Moses would come to grips with some of the great truths about his God. And today, having already looked at the desert itself, Today, we want to look at its design.

What is the design that God wants to produce in your life? What is it that He wants to see happen in your life so you have an idea as to what God is doing? And however long that desert experience might be for you, I don't know. Only God knows. And yet, there are some specific things. That he wants to see happen in your life. Remember, Romans chapter 8 tells us that all things work together for good. Not some things, not certain things, but all things. That includes the desert. That includes even your sin, because it says all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose.

For those in whom he called, he predestined to be conformed to his image. We don't need more information in the church. We need a lot more conform in the church. We are inundated with information. We need to act on what we know. And God wants us to be conformed to His image. He wants us to look just like Him. And so God is going to spare no expense. To make sure that his children come out looking just like him. That's good news because that tells me that what God's doing in my life is for his ultimate glory.

And for my personal good. In that order, by the way, His glory, my good. And therefore, I need to understand God's design. So let me give them to you this morning.

Number one. I think there are seven of them. Is that true? In your notes? All right, there's seven. And I'm trusting the Lord that I can get through all seven of them this morning. So here it goes. Number one, the very first thing that God wants to design in your life is that you ad His pres.

That you ad his presence. Remember the first excuse that Moses gave, or before he even gave an excuse, God came to Moses and told him, Moses, I am going to be with you.

You, Moses. This is my plan. This is what I want you to do. You have this assurance, I will be with you. My presence is always going to be there. Now, what God is wanting to do is get us to ad His presence. Now For the most part, we read those words like in Matthew 28, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And you know what? For the most part, they're just words to us. Okay, God's going to be with us. We kind of take that for granted. It doesn't mean that much to us. And that's because we don't adore the presence of God.

The des experience. Causes us to adore His presence, to want to be in His presence, to have Him with us, and to recognize His presence among us. The desert experience causes us to realize that wherever we go, whatever we do, God is with us. And that enables us to accomplish His purpose. In our lives, those who have not experienced the desert are not too concerned about the presence of God. They don't adore His presence. It's the presence of God that distinguishes us from everybody else on the earth.

And we live in the light of that presence. We live in the light of submission to a king that rules in our lives, and the world sees that king because we are distinctly different than they are. Moses understood that. Moses learned to adore the presence of God. And God takes you through the desert experience so you realize that He is everything and you adore His presence. You love to be in his presence. It's like, you know, when you're newly married or just engaged and you love to be in the presence of your spouse.

It's an exciting time. The same it is with God. He wants you to be excited about being with him. There's an excitation to be with him. There's also a little proclamation about him. You want to proclaim him. You want to tell other people about him. There's a meditation upon him as well. Right? A meditation upon him. I love what Psalm 19 says, or excuse me, Psalm 1, verse number 20. My soul is crushed with longing after thine ordinances at all times. Isn 't that good? My soul is crushed with longing for thy ordinances all the time.

I just want to hear from you, Lord. I want to be with you, Lord. I want to know what you have to say, Lord. That's the person who adores his presence, and that's why God takes you to the desert experience. He wants you to love to be around him. I mean, he's going to be with you no matter what, but he wants you to adore his presence. Number two, not only does he want us to adore his presence, he wants us to acknowledge his power.

He wants us to acknowledge his power. God came to Moses and said, Moses, I'm going to be with you. Well, that was just not quite good enough for Moses at the time because he wanted to know, what is your name? If I go to these people and tell them that I met you, what am I going to say is your name? And he told them, I am that I am. That great phrase that is so deep with the infinite power and knowledge of God. I am that I am. God will go on to say in Exodus chapter 3: that's my memorial name. That's how I'm supposed to be remembered from generation to generation.

Everybody from this time forth will know that I am. And God wants you to acknowledge His power. That means you must acknowledge that you are powerless, that you can't accomplish what needs to be accomplished. You can't accomplish what needs to be accomplished in your marriage. You know, you ever notice that in a marriage, people are doing all they can to make it work and it just doesn't work?

I mean, they're trying so hard, they're gritting their teeth, they're doing everything to make it work. But it doesn't work. And they can't understand why it doesn't work. Half the time is because we have admitted that we have nothing to do with a good marriage. God does. God's about that. We are powerless. It doesn't mean we're irresponsible, but it means we are powerless to change the situation. See, we think we have the power to change the situation. You don't! You have no power. Christ said in John 15, 5, Without me, you can do nothing.

See, the problem is we think we can do something, we think God's blessed because He saved us. We think God's blessed because we're a part of his kingdom. And now, just think of all the mighty things God can do now that I'm in his kingdom. But that's just not the way it is. But that's what we think. So, God takes us through the desert experience to strip us of our self-resources, like He did with Moses, because Moses thought he was powerful enough to pull off the Exodus. And we read about that many, many months ago.

But he wasn't, was he? And God had to break his self-reliance. He had to break his independent spirit to make him dependent upon him. And woe to us for. For thinking that we can make our Bible study work, or we can make our church run, or we can make our marriage good, or we can do those kinds of things. Well, you can't. God does those kind of stuff. We need to be obedient to Him, submissive to Him, and realize, Lord, without you, I can do nothing. And I need you to energize my life. I need you to mobilize my life.

I need you, Lord, to do in my life what only you can do, and I will follow in obedience to you. And Moses had to come to realize that it was the great God Jehovah, Yahweh, who was the ruler of his life and the ruler of his people, and it would be That one who would deliver the people out of Egypt, not Moses. And God needs you to acknowledge his power, to acknowledge that you are powerless. To come to the end of your own self-resources and to realize, you're right, Lord, I can't do it. I can't make it.

I can't handle it. And God says, I can handle it. I can do it for you. Just let me do it. Number three.

Number three. He wants us to appreciate and appropriate his promises. He wants us to appreciate and appropriate his promises. Moses said in Exodus chapter 4 that I've never been eloquent in verse number 10. Neither recently, nor in time past, nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of Of tongue, and the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth, or who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to say.

Moses needed not only to appreciate what God was going to do for him, but he needed to appropriate what God was going to do for him. You see, he needs to realize that God says, I got it all taken care of, Moses.

You know, Moses throws out this excuse. Well, I can't speak so good. So, since when did that ever stop God from doing his work? Because you can't speak so good. Well, I'm not very intelligent, so I can't necessarily teach like someone else can. So, since when did God ever need your intelligence to make sure that people are taught the Word of God? See, we get in this self-pity mode that says, well, you, I can't do this, I can't do that, I'm not so good here, I can't sing this, I can't sing that. God says, you know what?

Like he said to M Moses, what do you have? What's in your hand, Moses? Well, a staff. I've been using it for the last 40 years to knock some sheep around. Well, throw that staff down, Moses. And God would tell Moses to take that staff because that would be the rod of God. That would be the symbol of God's almighty power that he would have to realize that God was going to work in and through him every single day. And he had to appreciate what God was going to do. You know, we get to the point in our lives where we just don't appreciate what God has done.

We take it for granted. We take it for granted. And then we don't appropriate those promises in our lives. So this past week, I started thinking of some of the promises that God has given to us. You know, He promised us. You know, Philippians 1:6 says, that he who hath begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. God's going to complete the work. That's good news, isn't it? Because God's not done with you. He's not done with me. And that's always a good thing because none of us are where we need to be.

And so. As I was writing down some of these promises, I thought to myself, you know, God does a mighty, mighty work in his people. And I thought, you know, he converts us into a new creation. If any man be in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:17, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, all things have become new. He transforms our lives and realize that he cleanses us from all corruption. Titus 2:1, right? He purifies for him a people of his own possession, zealous of good deeds. And that's another promise.

He completes us. He completes us through regeneration. Colossians 2. 10. For we now are complete in him. He completes us. Before salvation, we are incomplete. When we are saved, we are now complete. We are now made whole because of the finished work of Jesus Christ at Calvary. He's the kind of God who comforts me amid my affliction. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, right? Verses 3 and following, down to verse number 10. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all kinds of wonderful blessings.

He talks about how we are now comforted by the God of all comfort. My God promises to comfort me amid my affliction. And God takes us through a desert experience. He takes us through difficult times and says, you know what? I want to comfort you. I want to be your comfort. I love what Psalm 62 says. Psalm 62, verse number 1: My soul waits in silence for God only. For him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold. I shall not be greatly shaken. Psalm 62 is the only Psalm.

It's trusting in God only. It's not trusting in God and something else or someone else. See, that's the habit pattern of our life. We trust in God along with our income. See? See, we trust in God along with our intellect. We trust in God along with our works. See, we want to add to what God wants to do. And God says, no, no, no, no, no, you can't do that.

It's me only. Hope in me only. And you know what? Very few people have ever gotten to that point. And that's why God takes us to the desert, so that we might learn to appreciate and appropriate His promises in our lives. Adore His presence. Acknowledge his power. And number four, ac his pro. Accept His provision. In verse number 14 of chapter 4 of Exodus, when Moses gave the excuse where he said, You know, Lord, maybe you better send somebody else. and the anger of the LORD burned against Moses. God said this Is there not your brother Aaron the Levite?

I know that he speaks fluently, and moreover, behold, he is coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. And you are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do. Moreover, He shall speak for you to the people, and it shall come about that he shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be as God to him, and you shall take in your hand this staff. With which you shall perform the signs.

Folks, listen, God wants to provide for us. He does. And for the most part, we are unwilling to accept what He provides. It's not good enough. It's not what we think we want or what we need. And we need to accept what God provides for us. You know, for the most part, we are discontented people. Isn that true? We never have enough money. Our house is never big enough. Our cars are never nice enough. Our clothes are always too old or too out of style. That's why they keep changing all the styles. So you keep buying new clothes.

Nothing is ever good enough for us. And that rubs over to our relationships. You know, our husband's no longer any good for us, or our wife is no longer any good, or my kids are no longer any good for me. Nothing's any good for me anymore. There's always something better out there. There's always a new idea or a newer idea. And one of Satan's ploys is to cause us. To be discontent in relationships, in situations, in our church, in our family, and to look elsewhere for provision. And God says, I have provided for you right here.

Right here. And for the most part, we are unwilling to accept what God provides, thinking that what He has done is just not that good. And yet, God says, Wait a minute, this is what I've done for you.

And this is what I want to do for you. You'll realize that people who go through the desert realize that what they have is more than what they need. It's more than what they need. Because God's provided. If you've got your Bible, turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 32 for a moment. Deuteronomy chapter 32. Moses is about to die. See, we got the life of Moses in 30 minutes this morning. He's about to die now.

Deuteronomy chapter 3, that's the song of Moses. It 's a swan song. Listen to what he says. This is so interesting. Talking about the nation of Israel, he found him in a des land. A desert land and in the howling waste of a wilderness. Think of the howling waste. What a way to describe the desert. It's a wasteland. And what did he do? He encircled him. He cared for him. He guarded him as what? The pupil of his eye. Listen, in the desert, whatever yours may be, whatever form it might take on for you specifically, in your place of isolation, in your place where you are being stripped of all your self-resources.

God treats you, listen, as the apple of his eye or as the pupil of his eye. That's that most sensitive part on our body. It's that part that we do all we can to protect. When someone swings at us or throws something at us, we automatically. Cover the eyes because they are so sensitive. They are in need of protection. And God says, This is what I did for you.

I guarded you, I cared for you, I protected you as if you were the most sensitive part of my body. That's what God does for his people. And then listen, it says, like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, he spread his wings and caught them. He carried them on his pinions. The Lord al guided him. The Lord alone. There 's nobody else. There 's nobody else to guide you, but the Lord alone. See, that's what the desert does. He gets us. to the ultimate place that the provision He gives is Himself.

And He alone guides us. He alone protects us. He alone cares for us. He alone spreads His wings over us and guides us. To the place of his pleasure. And God says, I want you to accept my provision.

Ultimately, I want you to accept me as your provision. I want to be all you need. I want to be everything to you. That's what I want to be, God says.

I want you to love me with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind. The intensity behind the great Shema in the Jewish literature is so intense. All that you have, I want it all. And when you get to that place, you don't need anything else. When you get to that place, listen, you don't need a good marriage. You'd like to have a good marriage, but you don't need a good marriage. You need Jesus. When you get to that place, you'd like to have obedient children, but you don't need obedient children.

You'd like to have them, but you don't need them. When you get to that place, you don't need more money, although it would be nice to have. You might want it, but you don't need it. Because Jesus is that provision. And resting alone in Him is what He wants you to do. Rest in Me, trust in Me only. Believe in Me. I am your provision. I alone am your guide. I alone am your God. You see, God wants to be more than just what you need, He really wants to be what you want too. Isn't that true? He knows you need him.

And for the most part, we know we need him. But he wants you to want him. Is that so difficult to ask? I mean, after all, he's done for us. The least we could do is. Trust him daily for our provision. That's why when Christ taught his disciples to pray, he said, When you pray, you pray this way: Give us this day our daily bread. He didn't say, give us this week our weekly bread, or give us this month our monthly bread. Give us this year our yearly bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Because you know, for the most part, living the Christian life is a moment-by experience, it's a day-by-day kind of journey.

And you trust me during those days, and I will give you your daily bread. Whatever you may need, because I am your provider. And of course, if you're not born again, you realize that God says you have to accept my provision on the cross for your salvation, right?

You can't get saved any other way. Just me alone. You can't get to heaven any but through me. I am the provision. I 'm it. I am the sacrificial lamb. And so we trust him for our salvation. And yet, after we're saved, what do we do? We no longer trust him for anything. I mean, he saved us. Let's just go on with life. Well, the bottom line is, God says, keep trusting me.

Another thing that God wants to do in your life and in mine is to apply His precepts. He wants us to apply his precepts to our lives. Whatever he has said, he wants us to do. So the psalmist said this way in Psalm 119, verse number 67: Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now, now I keep your word. So you learn to apply God's precepts to your life. Be obedient to Him. Sixth, we're almost done. We will finish today. Affirm His plans. He wants you to affirm his pl. It says in chapter 4, verse number 18: Then Moses departed and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Please.

Let me go, that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt and see if they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses Go in peace. And the LORD said to Moses and Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men who are seeking your life are dead. So Moses took his wife. and his sons and mounted them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the staff of God in his hand. Affirm the plan of God. God's sovereign plan in the life of His people was so unique and so unbelievable. That Moses, by acting in obedience to God, by applying the precepts of God to his life, living in obedience to God, would now do what he needed to do: to affirm that God had a plan, and that plan included in him.

And he was going to fulfill that plan no matter what. And you obeyed the Lord. You know, we need to affirm the sovereign plan of God for our lives. And God says, I want you to affirm my plans.

I want you to be able to say, you what? It's God who led me into this desert. It's God who put me here. And I accept it as from God because God has lessons to teach me. And you'll get these people come from these different churches and say, you know, God doesn't want you to be this way. God never designed the children of his kingdom to be poor. He wants them to be rich and to be able to claim their riches here on TV all the time. And yet they're false prophets. Because maybe it's your time to be poor.

Maybe it's your time to be in your desert. So you can learn to adore the presence of God, to acknowledge the power of God. All that to do one thing, and that's to achieve the purposes of God. God to achieve the purposes of God. God has a purpose for your life. God didn't save you to abandon you. God didn't save you to leave you alone. God saved you because He has a purpose for your life. He saved Moses and did a work in Moses' life that he would be used in a mighty way. He saved him from the Nile River.

So he'd be used of God in a tremendous way. He wants you to achieve his purposes, not your purposes. He is. And God's purpose is that you would be used of Him in a mighty way for the glory of God and His kingdom, not for your own glory. And throughout this whole des experience, whether you're in the midst of one now, and God says, I have a purpose for you and a plan.

It's not to destroy you, it's to develop you. You're designed to be like me. I want you to be conformed to my image. I said this a couple of weeks ago. I want to say it to you one more time. There's 137 chapters in the Bible about Moses. Two of them cover the first 80 years, 135 cover the last 40 years.

Know why? Because until you're broken, until you've gone through your desert, you're never mightily used of God until then. And after Moses was broken. H you been on the back side of the des, a vessel now fit for the Master's use? You have 135 chapters that detail this man's obedience to God, his desire to serve the true and living God. Think about that next time you go through your des experience. You think, God's got a purpose for my life. I don't know where it is. I don know what kind of ministry it is.

I don know if it's in my family right now, if it's in my church family, if it's My community. I don't know what it is, but God is doing something in my life right now.

To make me learn the principles of His Word, that I might depend totally upon Him, serve Him, follow Him, love Him, because ultimately there's a purpose. That he wants to accomplish through my life. And that, my friend, should motivate you. The God of the universe, the King of the world, says, I want to use you for my sake, for my glory, for my purposes. Let's pray.