1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,680 He is glorious. Behold the one who has come for us. 2 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,600 Welcome to Hub City Vineyard. To get connected or to give online, 3 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:26,240 you can go to connect.hcv.church or give.hcv.church. If at any time during this message you feel called 4 00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:34,880 to make a change in your life, text changeme to 970-00. Thank you and enjoy the message. 5 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:42,880 Amen. Good morning Hub City. Good morning everyone out there in YouTube world, virtual world. 6 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:49,760 Yes, I'm Chris Rudisill, affectionately known by many of you as Rudy, and God put a message on my 7 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:57,760 heart today and I pray that that he speaks through me. So two weeks ago Chris, our awesome pastor, 8 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:02,800 pulled me aside and he was like, hey Rudy, I need to talk to you. He was like, you know, I'm gonna 9 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:09,760 go on vacation these next couple weeks and John's preaching next week and I had Rick Vance lined up 10 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:14,640 to preach in two weeks but Rick's had some things going on. He's got some complications and he's not 11 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:21,600 gonna be able to do it. So I was thinking about Rhett but Rhett's on vacation and I can't ask him 12 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:27,840 to do it right now. So you know, would you be willing to do the message in two weeks? 13 00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:32,800 So of course you guys already, you guys already heard it, hear the punchline. So I look at him 14 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:37,520 I'm like, so you're telling me when you knew that you needed someone to cover, I wasn't your first, 15 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:44,720 I wasn't your second. How many of, raise your hand, how many other people did Chris ask before he got to me? 16 00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:54,240 But you know what, I might have been Chris's third option but I was God's first option from the 17 00:01:54,240 --> 00:02:00,960 beginning. So as I'm listening to Chris talk about the message in the message series, he's like, you 18 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:06,560 know, next week John's gonna talk about the relationship that David has with the message 19 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:12,720 that he has with Saul's son Jonathan and then the following week I'm gonna have you talk about David 20 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:18,320 in the wilderness and he starts to give me a little bit of direction and I just kind of block 21 00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:23,920 him out and I'm not listening. I think man, John's speaking about relationships, like that's 22 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:29,280 relationship building is what I do, like that's how I teach. When I teach I build relationships. 23 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:34,960 That would be the perfect message for me but I gotta do wilderness, not an expert on wilderness 24 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:40,000 and it took me immediately back to the last time Chris asked me to do the message and the last time 25 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:46,880 Chris asked me to do the message it was during Sunday anthems of, sorry, more Sunday morning matinee 26 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:52,480 and it was basically the same conversation. He says, you know, we're gonna start out with Avengers, 27 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:58,240 we're gonna do the movie Eighth Grade and then we're gonna move into the movie Yesterday and he 28 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:02,880 names off all these things and I stop paying attention, I think gosh, you want me to do 29 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:09,440 Yesterday. I am a middle school math teacher, I teach seventh grade, the movie Eighth Grade would 30 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:22,160 be perfect for me but you want me to do Yesterday. So God spoke to me right then and there and he 31 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:28,560 told me, Rudy, if you were gonna do the messages you were an expert on then you might just cut 32 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:35,520 corners and not hear what I had to say and the message would come from Rudy and nobody wants to 33 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:45,680 hear what Rudy has to say. So on that note let me just pray again and bring the Holy Spirit into this. 34 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:52,320 Holy Spirit come. Thank you Holy Spirit, thank you for this place, thank you for the space that you 35 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:58,320 have given us to come and hear your word, thank you for the building that you are building for us 36 00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:06,000 to just use as a headquarters to spread your word. I just ask that you just come upon me and come upon 37 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:13,200 everyone in this audience today, just open us up to hear your message and just speak the words 38 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:19,120 through me that you want the crowd here and the crowd at home to hear from you and you know what 39 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:24,240 Holy Spirit, some of my words are gonna probably slip in and when that happens I just ask that you 40 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:34,480 use my words for your glory and your goodness. In Jesus name, amen. So of course that afternoon 41 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:40,640 since I'm not an expert on all things wilderness I went home and started studying everything I could 42 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:45,360 find about the wilderness. YouTube videos, I looked through the Bible and I found a whole bunch of 43 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:51,840 cool interesting facts as I was looking through all this. Trust me there's a lot to weed through 44 00:04:51,840 --> 00:04:58,800 for the wilderness. The Bible itself mentions the word wilderness in some context about 300 times. 45 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:08,480 Just the story of David in the wilderness, there's 15 stories about David while he's searching and 46 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:13,520 wandering through the wilderness. He spends about a decade in the wilderness. So buckle up because 47 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:17,680 I'm going to take us through every one of those stories. We might be here all day. 48 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:22,400 Just kidding. There is a lot of great stuff in there and I encourage you over these next couple 49 00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:27,840 days just to pull out first Samuel and second Samuel and look at all the stories from the time 50 00:05:27,840 --> 00:05:33,280 from the time Samuel appoints Saul all the way to the time King David becomes king. There is so 51 00:05:33,280 --> 00:05:40,640 much that we can learn from all these wilderness stories. So some of you know I'm a math teacher. 52 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:43,280 I mentioned it already. I gotta get back to school tomorrow. 53 00:05:43,280 --> 00:05:47,120 So I want to I want to do a little audience participation. Let me let me get practiced up 54 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:53,200 pretend like I'm teaching. When Chris mentioned the wilderness and David I immediately thought 55 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:59,040 about like David like David wasn't my first thought. So shout it out if you're in faith if 56 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:04,000 you're online type it in the comment box. Just shout out for me. Work with me a little bit. Let 57 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:09,040 me feel comfortable. Who what other people in the Bible what other characters in the Bible 58 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:15,200 do you remember went through a wilderness Jesus went through the wilderness spent 40 days and 59 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:22,640 40 nights with the spirit in the wilderness. Anyone else. Moses not only did Moses Moses spent 60 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:30,000 40 years in the wilderness by himself then Moses took all of the Israelites into the wilderness 61 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:37,600 and he spent another 40 years in the wilderness. Okay. So I want to I want to share with you a 62 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:43,040 little bit about the wilderness. Okay. We see stories of all these biblical characters. Elijah 63 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:48,240 David and Saul both. Job spent time in the wilderness. John the Baptist lived in the 64 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:56,000 wilderness. Even Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus in the wilderness. So that brings me to 65 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:06,080 my first point. We will all spend time in the wilderness. Psalm 107 and verse four and five 66 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:11,360 tells us many wondered around wondered in desert wastelands finding no way to a city where they 67 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:17,600 could settle. They were hungry and thirsty and their eyes lives ebbed away. And of course you 68 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:22,400 guys already mentioned Jesus was the first one that came to my mind. Jesus spent time in the 69 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:29,840 wilderness. And Matthew four after he was baptized after God sends the dove and anoints Jesus as our 70 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:36,720 savior after he does that then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by 71 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:40,480 the devil after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights. He was hungry. 72 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:48,400 Of course I don't know about you but I don't really think about Jesus when I think about my 73 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:55,200 wilderness. I really relate to David and sometimes Paul in the New Testament. And why do I relate to 74 00:07:55,200 --> 00:08:02,400 David and Paul? Because they had flaws right. They made mistakes. In fact they they made huge 75 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:11,280 mistakes. But even after there's big mistakes that they made God still used them. God anointed them. 76 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:21,680 And if God could anoint them God can anoint me. And if God can anoint me God anoints you. So I 77 00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:26,160 started thinking I looked a little bit into Job and you know I really relate to David. I really 78 00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:32,800 relate to Saul. But when I look at Job, Job is hard for me to relate to because like Job always 79 00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:38,160 did the right thing. How many of you have read through Job or heard a message on Job? And it 80 00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:43,760 seems like no matter what happens Job is always doing the right thing. Now granted Job does 81 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:49,520 get an attitude with God and get frustrated but he always seems to do the right thing. 82 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:58,080 In Job chapter one there's a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of perfect integrity 83 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:06,240 who feared God and turned away from evil. And as I read that just think man I wish that I could get 84 00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:11,760 to the point where I was a Job. And we hold Job some of us hold him up in this standard of 85 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:19,280 like he has it he got it. But what we don't see in the Bible before the story of Job's story 86 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:28,720 starts do you think Job was always perfect? Do you think Job always had it? He didn't. We just don't 87 00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:34,640 see that part of it but we know in that verse it says he turned from evil so at some point he must 88 00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:42,000 have seen it he must have lived it. But I think we do that with Job but I also do that with people 89 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:46,880 in my life. You know we have mentors we have people we look up to and it's great. It's great 90 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:51,280 to have those people around. There's people around in our lives. You know I look up to people like 91 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:56,720 Gary Benchhoff and Rick Vance. These gentlemen are just like great men full of God's wisdom. 92 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:04,400 And I look at educators like Neil Case and Mike Watson. These guys are just great educators full 93 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:11,920 of God's grace. And it seems in my head like they always do the right thing. Now if you talk to their 94 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:20,800 wives they might give you a little different story on that. But the point being is I look up to these 95 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:27,520 guys nonetheless. But have they always been great men great women their wives that deal with them 96 00:10:27,520 --> 00:10:35,120 great women of God? No. They spent time in their wilderness. They spent time being led by the Spirit 97 00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:42,240 long before they became the mentors to me and you that they've become. 98 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:47,920 And they didn't do it alone. And they didn't just have one trial. They didn't just have one 99 00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:52,880 tribulation. All these characters in the Bible all these mentors that I have 100 00:10:54,640 --> 00:11:02,080 point two they did they had these over and over again. You see Goliath wasn't David's only giant. 101 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:09,440 You don't he didn't just kill the giant and then go to the beach. He didn't just slay the giant and 102 00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:16,080 go home and accept his kingship. No after the giant he had other giants. For goodness sake Saul 103 00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:20,400 was a head taller than every other person in the land and he had to deal with Saul. 104 00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:26,080 And then he ran from the wilderness ran into the wilderness from Saul. 105 00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:32,880 So even after David defeats Goliath he has other giants to face. And I'm not even talking about 106 00:11:32,880 --> 00:11:42,080 actual human giants. David was appointed as king through Saul by God. He killed Goliath. He served 107 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:49,360 the king. He did all that. He was anointed first. Then he ends up in the wilderness. 108 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:55,280 And through the wilderness he spends a decade or so in the wilderness. Goliath wasn't the last hurdle 109 00:11:55,280 --> 00:12:01,600 the last obstacle that David had to jump. And I think sometimes we get caught up thinking man bad 110 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:06,160 luck just keeps happening to me. And I just I have struggle after struggle after struggle. 111 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:13,920 And I just keep living this. Well guess what we all do right. We all have obstacles to overcome. 112 00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:24,160 And we all like once one thing ends guess what here comes another. 113 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:38,320 But is it bad luck or is it just great lessons that we have to learn. Now what I want to kind 114 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:45,920 of put a spin on this. You don't go through the wilderness then get anointed by God. It's the 115 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:55,920 other way around. David received his anointment to become king long before he received his appointment 116 00:12:56,800 --> 00:13:04,400 as king. You have already been anointed. You just haven't been appointed. 117 00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:09,680 Jeremiah 29. We all know this one. You can probably recite it with me. For I know the plans I have for 118 00:13:09,680 --> 00:13:15,680 you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. 119 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:22,800 And when God made those plans for you he didn't wait around to see you how you were going to 120 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:29,760 stumble through the wilderness before he anointed you. He didn't wait for you to be anointed. 121 00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:36,000 He didn't wait to analyze and check out how you were going to deal with the bears and the snakes 122 00:13:36,560 --> 00:13:42,640 to figure out what his will was going to be for you. He already knew. He appointed you as a child 123 00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:49,760 of God long before your parents even met. Long before you even stepped foot in the wilderness. 124 00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:56,960 So like David you're going to defeat a giant. Then you're going to go back out and tend the sheep. 125 00:13:56,960 --> 00:14:03,520 Maybe learn to play the harp. Then you're going to have the king hurl a spear at your head. 126 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:07,920 And then you're going to have failed relationship after failed relationship. And you're going to go 127 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:13,680 hide in a cave somewhere in the woods. Somewhere in the wilderness. Then you're going to struggle 128 00:14:13,680 --> 00:14:18,640 with addiction. Then you're going to go mingle with the enemy and the enemy's territory. 129 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:23,920 These are all stories by the way that I suggest you look up in the book of San Francisco. 130 00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:28,240 Then you're going to hide in the cave in the wilderness. Wait where am I in my notes? 131 00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:33,040 Then you're going to have financial hardships. You're going to stumble. You're going to fall. 132 00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:39,120 You're going to get cut. You're going to get down in the dirt. You're going to be in the thicket. 133 00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:43,760 You're going to get bruised and battered again and again. Wow Rudy this sounds like a really 134 00:14:43,760 --> 00:14:47,760 uplifting message doesn't it? 135 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:54,720 You can choose to stay face down in the dirt or you can raise a hallelujah in the presence of your 136 00:14:54,720 --> 00:15:01,120 enemies because you are not alone in the wilderness. Which is my next point. You're not alone out there. 137 00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:08,400 In first Samuel chapter 22 David goes into the wilderness. David's not alone when he goes into 138 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:14,800 the wilderness. So David goes into the wilderness. He's not alone in the wilderness. He's not alone 139 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:22,240 into the wilderness. So David left Gath and took refuge in the cave of Edulum. When David's brothers 140 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:28,160 and his father's whole family heard they went down and joined him there. In addition every man who 141 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:34,960 was desperate in debt or discontented rallied around him and he became their leader. About 400 men 142 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:40,560 were with him. Sometimes we go through the wilderness and we think we're alone and we're 143 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:49,200 all by ourselves in the wilderness but we're not. There are always people around us. David had 400 144 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:55,200 family and friends and some other goofy people it says in there with him. But David had people 145 00:15:55,200 --> 00:16:03,760 around us. You see there's a fine line between being alone and being lonely. And some of us 146 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:10,320 are around tons of people every single day and we feel lonely. And some of us right here in this 147 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:17,920 room full of people surrounded by people feel lonely. But I want to I want to come at you a 148 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:22,720 little bit different this morning. When you're feeling lonely you guys are all around a ton of 149 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:30,000 people. Reach out right now and say hi. Give an air high five to somebody around you right now. Do it. 150 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:36,320 Air high five. We can't touch each other. We got a social distance. Right? Now that person that you 151 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:42,880 air high fives if you're lonely reach out to them. Talk to them after the message. You're not lonely. 152 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:51,280 Find somebody. Okay. And here's a trick that I found which is my little spin. Sometimes when I'm 153 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:58,560 feeling down and depressed I'm lonely. I'm feeling dejected. Maybe it's a Saturday night and Carrie's 154 00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:06,240 working and Kingston's on his video game or something. I feel down and depressed. I could 155 00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:12,640 easily knock on my neighbor's door and ask them for help. But I want you to try this next time. 156 00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:19,440 Instead of asking somebody for help or advice ask somebody if there's anything you need. 157 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:23,680 Ask somebody if there's anything you can do for them. 158 00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:33,920 It works. I know it works. I've done it. I've text messaged people when I was feeling down. 159 00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:38,400 Hey what can I do for you? How can I pray for you? Can I help you move? Can I help you do something? 160 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:46,000 It always lifts me up. Because why? Where are we when we're lonely? We are really just questioning, 161 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:53,360 doubting our self-worth. And what a better way to fulfill that question than to be worthwhile 162 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:57,120 to someone else while someone else is walking through their wilderness. 163 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:05,440 Just be careful. We can't rescue everyone from their wilderness. 164 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:11,280 Because everyone has a lesson that they need to learn in their wilderness. 165 00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:16,000 I want to look at Matthew chapter 4 here. I talked about it a second ago. I want to really 166 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:20,640 highlight it again because some of you are going to say no Rudy but no. There are some times when 167 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:27,120 I am just alone and I don't have anyone to reach out to. But in Matthew chapter 4 it says, 168 00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:32,880 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 169 00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:38,720 And I never really saw that first part. Did he just accidentally end up in the wilderness? 170 00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:47,280 Did he just accidentally end up in the desert? Who took him there? The Spirit led him there. 171 00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:52,560 So the entire time, we know the enemy shows up at one point, but the entire time God is there, 172 00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:59,760 Jesus is there. Who's with him? The Spirit is leading him. So even when we're alone, 173 00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:09,440 we're not truly alone. Because the Spirit is always with you. And in fact, it's in those alone times, 174 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:17,600 it's in those times where it's just you and the Spirit by yourself. That's when God really 175 00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:26,080 wants to speak to you. That's when you need to lean in to the Spirit because God has something to say. 176 00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:33,200 God has a lesson. Moving on to my next point, number four. 177 00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:43,200 We can't cut corners. First Samuel 24 in chapter 2. I'm going to read 2 to 4. I'm going to kind of 178 00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:48,880 jump around this a little bit. Saul gathered up all his men and then we see, when Saul came to the 179 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:57,120 sheep pens among the road, a cave was there and he went in to relieve himself. David and his men were 180 00:19:57,120 --> 00:20:01,840 standing in the back of the cave, so his men said to him, look, this is the day the Lord told you 181 00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:07,600 about when he said, I will hand your enemy over to you and you can do to him whatever you desire. 182 00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:16,480 But then David got up and secretly cut the corner of Saul's rope. And then he goes on down in verse 183 00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:21,200 8. After David got up, he went out of the cave. He finds Saul and he says, my Lord, the king. 184 00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:29,040 And Saul looks down and David says, Saul, why do you listen to the words of people who say, look, 185 00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:33,760 David intends to harm you. You can see with your own eyes that the Lord handed you over to me today 186 00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:40,800 in the cave. Some of my men advised me to kill you, but I took pity on you and said, I won't lift my 187 00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:48,240 hand against my Lord, my king, since he is the Lord's anointed. See, my father, look at the corner 188 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:52,720 of your robe, my hand, for I cut it off, but I didn't kill you. Look and recognize that there is 189 00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:58,880 no evil rebellion in me. I ascend against you even though you are hunting me down to take my life. 190 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:05,600 Now it's a little play on words here because David technically cuts the corner of Saul's 191 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:11,120 robe and hands it to him, but honestly, David wasn't cutting corners here. He could have just 192 00:21:11,120 --> 00:21:16,000 stepped up, cut the corner, killed Saul, taken to his kingship, taken his anointing, taken his 193 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:26,160 appointing, and became king. But he didn't. He waited. And we know eventually waiting, he becomes 194 00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:34,960 God, he becomes king anyway. And he waits for God's timing. So I ask you guys today, don't cut 195 00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:42,240 corners. Wait for God's timing. We get impatient. And John talked about it last week with Saul. 196 00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:50,160 Saul cut corners. Saul couldn't wait. Saul decided to do things himself. In the second book of Samuel, 197 00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:56,800 in chapter six, we read a story here about David. David and his men are moving the Ark of the Covenant 198 00:21:56,800 --> 00:22:03,520 to the final resting place where David wanted it to be. And David decides he's going to build a cart 199 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:09,520 and have these oxen pull the cart. And what happens while the oxen are pulling the cart, one of the 200 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:18,000 oxen stumbles, the ark falls off the cart, and this dude named Uzzah, he reaches out to try to save 201 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:25,280 the ark and he touches it. But when he touches it, God strikes him down because he irreverently 202 00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:32,320 touched the ark. Now why? What happened? David didn't take the time to research how the ark was 203 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:38,080 supposed to be moved. He didn't take the time to make sure that they were doing things the way God 204 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:46,560 intended it to be done. He cut a corner and as a result, he lost one of his men. So when we try to 205 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:54,160 take God's will into our own hands and do God's will our way, it just doesn't work. 206 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:59,840 And speaking of God's will our way, I mentioned Saul. Saul oftentimes tried to take God's will 207 00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:04,080 and do it his way. John talked about this a little. In fact, John did this point last week, 208 00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:09,680 almost the same point, and I was like, God, I want to use this in mine. So I'm going to use John's, 209 00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:16,480 I'm going to spin it around a little bit. The fifth point I have here, are you Saul or are you David? 210 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:23,840 First Samuel 9 in verse 3, one day the donkeys of Saul's father Kish wandered off. Saul said to his 211 00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:28,800 son, Kish said to his son, Saul, take one of the attendants with you and go look for the donkeys. 212 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:34,640 Saul and his attendant went through the hill country of Ephraim and then through the region of 213 00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:40,800 some S word that I don't know how to pronounce, but they didn't find him. They didn't find him. 214 00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:46,720 They went through the region of Shelem, nothing. Then they went through the Benjamite, Benjamite, 215 00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:52,720 I probably should have practiced these words, huh? They went through the Benjamite region, 216 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:59,360 but didn't find them. Like David, Saul has his own wilderness story. 217 00:24:01,120 --> 00:24:07,040 And then down in chapter, or verse 17, when Saul went to the region of Shelem, 218 00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:13,280 when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told Samuel, here's the man I told you about, he will rule over my 219 00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:22,000 people. So like David, God used Samuel to reveal Saul is the first king of Israel. So we see all 220 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:31,360 these parallels, all these correlations between the men, David and Saul. But when we look at the 221 00:24:31,360 --> 00:24:41,600 men, David and Saul, but when we look at them, they both mess up. They both cut corners. They both do 222 00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:49,200 things their own way, take God's will into their own hands. But what's the difference? Even though 223 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:57,520 they both messed up, when David messed up, he repents and he comes back to God. But when Saul 224 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:06,400 screws up, he merely says, I'm sorry, and keeps moving on. So I ask you, are you Saul or are you 225 00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:13,120 David? Saul didn't have the patience to wait on God. And John told us last week, Saul pushed God 226 00:25:13,120 --> 00:25:19,280 away. He even pushed away David, who was the tool that God had get. David did so many great works 227 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:30,160 for Saul and he's running after him. He was appointed, but he ends up dying alone, far away from God. 228 00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:41,520 But why? Saul didn't guard his heart. Proverbs 4.23 says, guard your heart of all else, for it 229 00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:48,320 determines the course of your life. If you're not guarding your life, guarding, sorry, guarding your 230 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:57,360 heart, you can easily be pulled away from God's will. The enemy is a crafty little devil. And if 231 00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:03,840 you don't stay connected to God and guard your heart, you can easily be pulled away. 232 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:12,800 Now, if you came here today because you thought I was going to teach you all kinds of lessons 233 00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:19,360 that we can learn from the wilderness, sorry, I'm not going to do that. I can't do that because we 234 00:26:19,360 --> 00:26:26,320 all have our own wilderness. So all the lessons that we're going to have are going to look different. 235 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:34,960 What I will do is give you some steps so you can learn your own lessons and ultimately 236 00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:42,000 guard your own heart. So let's get down into it. Let's look at these steps. The first step, 237 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:48,240 pay attention. When you're going through the wilderness and you see things happening around 238 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:55,040 you, pay attention. Hebrews 2.1, we must pay the most attention therefore to what we have heard, 239 00:26:55,040 --> 00:27:01,120 so we do not drift away. Pay attention to when you get things right and pay attention to when 240 00:27:01,120 --> 00:27:08,080 you get things wrong. Pay attention to how you stumble. Pay attention to when you do it right. 241 00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:12,880 Pay attention to the advice of the mentors around you, the people around you. Pay attention 242 00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:19,360 to the mistakes that other people make because we all are making mistakes in our wilderness. 243 00:27:19,360 --> 00:27:26,000 We're all learning, so pay attention. You know, God speaks to me often when I'm out on a run or 244 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:31,520 I'm out in nature in the wilderness. I need to make sure that I'm aware of His voice. 245 00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:36,560 So you pay attention, you see what's going on, and that leads us to the second step, reflect. 246 00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:43,440 Pay attention, see what happens, but then after the fact, go back and reflect. Now I'm not saying 247 00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:50,640 dwell. I'm saying reflect. What did I do that worked? What did I do that didn't? And how can 248 00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:59,440 I change that? Back in chapter 17 of 1 Samuel, I'm going to tell you about the first step. 249 00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:09,440 Chapter 17 of 1 Samuel, this is before the wilderness, before the giant. In fact, this is Saul talking 250 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:15,360 to David. David and Saul just having a conversation. David's begging to be the one to meet Goliath. 251 00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:22,480 And in verse 34, he says, David says to Saul, your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. 252 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:27,040 When a lion or bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it. I struck it down 253 00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:31,920 and it chewed the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it, 254 00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:38,320 and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine 255 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:44,320 will be like one of them because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued 256 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:49,680 me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine. 257 00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:56,800 What did David do? David went back and he drew from an old experience and he reflected on it. 258 00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:03,920 Then he used it to direct him into this incidence of killing the giant. So he took everything that 259 00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:11,280 he knew before by fighting wild animals and used it when he had to fight the giant. And then we 260 00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:15,920 follow David through the wilderness and we see that he uses the same pattern in the wilderness 261 00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:23,280 and he continues that same pattern after he becomes king. He just goes and he reflects and 262 00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:30,000 he learns from his lessons. And really it's a tribute to God's faithfulness. Now for me, 263 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:34,720 when I reflect, there's a couple songs that I really love to listen to that kind of help me 264 00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:40,720 reflect. One of the songs, I kind of mentioned it earlier, Raise a Hallelujah. I just love that song 265 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:47,040 because that song reminds me that when I'm in a difficult place, God is always there in the storm. 266 00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:56,720 Now if you put the other slide up for me, John, I wrote down lyrics to another song, this other 267 00:29:56,720 --> 00:30:04,160 song, it's an old song from the 80s when I was a kid. It's called The Anchor Holds by a gentleman 268 00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:09,280 named Ray Bolts. And I just wanted to put these lyrics up for you guys on the screen and just 269 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:13,840 kind of walk you through them. Unfortunately, I can't sing, so I'm just going to talk. 270 00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:21,520 The anchor holds through the ship is battered. The anchor holds through the sails are torn. 271 00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:29,280 I have fallen on my knees as I face the raging seas. The anchor holds in the spite of the storm. 272 00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:36,240 And oftentimes when I hear this song, I literally weep, I literally cry because it reminds me of 273 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:41,360 what God has done in the past when I've walked through a storm. I've been beaten down, I've been 274 00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:48,400 torn apart, I've been on my knees as the waters raised up, but God through it all was my anchor. 275 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:55,520 And he's held me through it. And then one of the verses, I think it's like verse three, he goes on 276 00:30:55,520 --> 00:31:03,520 in this verse to say, I have been young, but I'm older now. And there has been beauty these eyes 277 00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:10,880 have seen, but it was in the night through the storms of my life. That's where God proved his 278 00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:17,200 love for me. And what is Ray Boltz doing in his song? He's reflecting back to all those times 279 00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:22,640 where he thought he was alone in the wilderness, but he wasn't. And God was there. 280 00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:29,120 So we need to pay attention to when he's there. We need to pay attention to the lessons that he 281 00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:33,680 wants us to learn. Then we need to go back and reflect on where those lessons are, 282 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:39,680 what lessons we can take away. And then we need to do step three, we need to act. 283 00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:49,120 Or sometimes we need to not act. See, we all want to be like David, we all relate to David, 284 00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:57,440 but are we willing to not fight back? Are we willing to not speak up when it's time to not speak up? 285 00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:03,520 When it's time to not speak up? You know that saying the pen is mightier than a sword? 286 00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:09,760 The current social media version might be the keyboard is mightier than a sword. 287 00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:16,880 Because every time I go and come up with a great clever response on the keyboard to somebody's 288 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:23,600 obnoxious Facebook post, it usually ends up being the equivalent of me falling on my own sword. 289 00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:31,680 Right? Because your words cut. So I ask sometimes, is it the sword that you need? 290 00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:39,920 Ephesians 6, you guys all know this, I'm sure, talks about the armor of God, 13 through 18. 291 00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:44,240 I'm just going to read the whole thing to you. This is why you must take the full armor of God 292 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:49,760 so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having prepared everything to take your 293 00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:56,000 stand. Stand therefore with the truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on 294 00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:02,400 your chest and your feet sandaled in readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation, 295 00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:07,520 take the shield of faith and with it you will be able to extinguish all the arrows, the flaming 296 00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:12,160 arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is God's word. 297 00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:18,080 Pray at all times in the spirit with every prayer and request and stay alert in this 298 00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:25,200 with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. Now notice when the sword comes up in 299 00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:33,520 there. The sword is the last thing that's mentioned. Sometimes you need the sword, 300 00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:37,600 but sometimes you need to choose the shield. Sometimes we need to choose the breastplate 301 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:44,480 or the helmet. And the only way to know which sword or which weapon to choose is because we've 302 00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:50,240 already paid attention and reflected and it was time to act. We said a little prayer and hopefully 303 00:33:50,720 --> 00:34:02,800 picked the right lesson to reflect on. And then my last one here is my last step. Yoke yourself with 304 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:10,000 God. Now I picked the word yoke for a very specific reason. I could have picked like partner with God, 305 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:14,000 but I picked yoke for two reasons really and I'll talk about the other one in a second. 306 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:19,840 But when they choose to put oxen together, they put two oxen together, they yoke them together, 307 00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:23,440 the harness, the harness, the wooden thing that connects them is called a yoke. 308 00:34:24,240 --> 00:34:29,040 When they put them together they try to pair the oxen so that the oxen are of equal strength, 309 00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:37,440 equal size, even actually equal demeanor. But when they pair them together, they're not equal 310 00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:46,240 in strength. But when they pair them together, the first ox is an older, seasoned ox. He is trained, 311 00:34:46,240 --> 00:34:53,440 he's hardy from years of routine, years of experience. The other ox is a young, a new ox, 312 00:34:53,440 --> 00:35:00,880 just being trained ox. He has potential but is inexperienced. By sharing the same yoke with a 313 00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:07,840 young workhorse, the elder trains the young. And not only that, the experienced one draws harder 314 00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:14,320 to bear the majority of the load and because the older one leads, the younger one doesn't have to 315 00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:20,320 wonder what to do. He learns from his mentor and he gains the knowledge and the skills to teach 316 00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:30,400 the other ox. They are yoked together. In 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14, 317 00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:36,480 do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness 318 00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:41,440 or what fellowship has light without, or sorry, what fellowship has light with darkness? 319 00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:49,200 Instead of yoking ourselves with unbelievers, we need to be yoked with God. We need to see God's 320 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:55,120 vision for us. We need to see his will for us. We need to let him be the stronger, mightier one 321 00:35:55,120 --> 00:36:02,000 since he is, and let him lead us. And we see that in David. David spent time in the wilderness. We 322 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:09,440 get to 2 Samuel in chapter 5. David is now king. When the Pharisees heard that David, verse 17, 323 00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:14,080 when the Pharisees heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they went up in full 324 00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:18,720 force to search for him. But when David heard about it and went, but then David heard about it and 325 00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:23,520 went down to the stronghold. Now the Philistines had come and spread out in a valley of Rephiam. 326 00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:30,400 So David inquired of the Lord, David inquired of the Lord, shall I go and attack the Philistines? 327 00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:38,000 Will you deliver them into my hand? Then the Lord answered him, go, for I will surely deliver him 328 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:45,680 into your hands. He went to God first. And then we see later, later on in chapter 5, 329 00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:53,280 in verse 22, same thing. Once more the Philistines came up and spread out in the valley of 330 00:36:53,280 --> 00:37:00,640 Rephiam. So David inquired the Lord and God answered. And then skipping down to 25. So David did as the 331 00:37:00,640 --> 00:37:09,280 Lord commanded him and struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Giza. When David was 332 00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:20,640 yoked with God's will, God delivered. Now if you notice the action steps here, I chose yoke for a 333 00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:27,680 very specific, it was kind of hard trying to find a y word that worked. But if you notice, I've spelled 334 00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:36,400 out an acronym here, pray, pay attention, reflect, act, yoke. So I spelled out, thought I was being 335 00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:43,840 clever. This is probably Rudy slipping in something. But it works and the Holy Spirit took what I wanted 336 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:50,400 to say and worked with it. So if you notice, pray. So we need to pray, but pray doesn't always mean 337 00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:54,960 like get on your knees and pray. And what the word that I like, and this was harder so I didn't do 338 00:37:54,960 --> 00:38:01,600 it, abide. I couldn't come up with action steps for abide. But abide, abiding Jesus, abiding God. 339 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:07,520 If you abide in him, he'll abide in you. So I want to go back real quick as I finish up here and I 340 00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:12,880 want to look at these four action steps, pray, through the lens of what it looks like to do it, 341 00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:19,920 abiding in God and allowing God to abide through you. Pay attention. Pay attention to the lessons 342 00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:25,200 God is walking you through. Pay attention to the stories that you read in the Bible. And the more 343 00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:30,640 you pay attention, the more you're on God's wavelength, the better it is, the better it's 344 00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:36,480 going to be for you to reflect. Because when you reflect and you take God along, it'll help with 345 00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:43,440 discernment. It'll help you understand. Is that God's idea or Rudy's idea? Is that the enemy idea 346 00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:52,240 or God's idea? And then act. If you go to God every single time before you act, just a quick 347 00:38:52,240 --> 00:38:58,000 little prayer, it'll change the trajectory of that action just to make sure you're in God's will. 348 00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:04,800 And then yoke. The enemy does a great job. The enemy, if you ever notice, the enemy doesn't 349 00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:13,280 just come straight out and lie to you. The enemy just takes these like kind of truth, half lies, 350 00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:19,920 small lies, and he spins it. And he doesn't turn it upside down on us. He just kind of skews it 351 00:39:20,720 --> 00:39:28,080 and takes that little lie. And it can be very easy for us to believe him if we're not guarding our 352 00:39:28,080 --> 00:39:36,720 hearts and we're not yoking our lives with God. So you follow these steps. You allow the Spirit 353 00:39:36,720 --> 00:39:44,320 to guide you through them. You live your life abiding in the Spirit. If you abide in Him, 354 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:51,920 He will abide in you. Now, for some of you, 355 00:39:55,520 --> 00:40:03,520 you say, hey, Rudy, I understand these. I get your points. I need help. So if there's something in 356 00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:11,200 this message today that stuck out to you, I will encourage you to reach out to us, reach out to the 357 00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:16,800 church office. In fact, we have a great way for you to do that. If you feel like Jesus is speaking 358 00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:21,840 to your heart today and you're just ready to give your life to Him and abide in Him and let Him lead 359 00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:29,120 you, I want you to take your cell phone out. I want you to type in the number 97-000 and text, 360 00:40:29,120 --> 00:40:34,960 one word, change me. And somebody from the church office will reach out to you and they'll help you 361 00:40:34,960 --> 00:40:38,960 take these action steps to bring you closer to God. 362 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:46,960 Let's pray. 363 00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:52,400 Holy Spirit, thank you so much for this message. 364 00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:58,240 Thank you for taking us through the wilderness, thanking us. Thank you for making us struggle 365 00:40:58,240 --> 00:41:04,240 because we know that every time we struggle, every storm we walk through, you're there to guide us 366 00:41:04,240 --> 00:41:10,640 if we just abide in you. Now, ask that as we move forward in our week, as we move forward in our 367 00:41:10,640 --> 00:41:17,200 lives, that we just continue to come to you, paying attention and reflecting and then acting on your 368 00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:25,040 will and being patient in your will for us. Just continue to watch over us, Holy Spirit. 369 00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:31,040 Thank you so much for a wonderful warning. In Jesus' name.