Christian Faith Beyond Wilderness Trials: Isaiah 43:16-19

The church is facing wilderness trials and must wait for God to make a way.

The enemy wants to take the church back, but God will make a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters.

The church must keep its eyes on Jesus and not look at the troubles and trials around the world.

God will put the enemy under his feet and there is coming a time when evil will be revealed and defeated.

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Now we've been talking about Israel We've been talking about how they had to go through some really bad things. We know the story. We know when Moses led the Israelite people, the children of Israel, through Egyptian bondage and started into the desert, that they were chased by Pharaoh's guards. We know that. We see. We watch the movies. We read the scripture. We know that. And what a horrible thing it must have been to be the children of Israel thinking that they had been set free. And starting off on this way, through the desert, starting to make their way to what Moses had promised them was the promised land. But the problem was, as they were walking and as they were making their way, that they began to hear the chariots rumble. And you can hear the sounds of the guardsmen, all the warriors coming to take them back. The enemy wants to take us back. The enemy wants to destroy the church. And the church is being destroyed little bit by little bit by the enemy. But it is time for the church to wait for the Red Sea to part. We talked about that a few weeks ago. but even through the Red Sea miracle what happened to the children of Israel they had to wander the desert they wandered the desert for 40 years now it wasn't that big of a big deal from where they were to the promised land was not that far of a journey yet they wandered around in a circle in the desert for 40 years I feel like the church world is doing that We're wandering in the desert We've been wandering around Kind of chasing our tail, if you will Like a dog chasing its tail, right? Our little girl, Jazzy She loves to chase her tail for some reason I don't know why But she'll do that someday She'll just sit there Look over, see her tail And she'll start going like this Just running around in a circle Trying to grab her tail And she'll get it sometimes and then she'll fall down on the ground with her tail in her mouth. That's kind of what we're doing in the church world. We're chasing our dog. We're running around in a circle. We're doing the children of Israel. We're running around in a circle. We're wandering around in a desert. But the thing is, in God's time, what happens? The children of Israel witness the promised land, witnessed the miracle that had been promised them. God has promised His people a miracle. God has promised His people something, but right now we're going through the wilderness. Right now we're going through the hard place. We're wandering around in the desert. We're doing this. But God has promised something special. Just beyond the wilderness is the church's blessing. And I want to share with you what it says in Isaiah 43, starting in verse 16. It says these words, Thus saith the Lord. When it says, Thus saith the Lord, you know what you better do? Listen. Listen up, right? He says, Thus saith the Lord, Which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters. What does this come down to? This comes down to just what he did for the children of Israel in the Egyptian bondage. As he made a way in the sea. When the path before you is blocked, what do you do? Do you wait for God to make a way? Or do you turn around and go back the other way? See, many, many churches, many, many people are beginning to see the blockade of all the troubles and trials and tribulations of 2020. And they're saying, oh, well, we'll have to go back instead of waiting for God to make a way. See, that's what's the problem. God will make a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters. I love it. Well, how do we make that path? How do we see that? It comes from the Creator. It's not going to come. It's not going to come from politicians. It's not going to come from legislation. It's not going to come from government-issued proclamations and programs and all this stuff. That's not going to be the way in the problems that are going on. Jesus is the way. That's the point. I love what happened. If you remember the story, Peter. Peter was walking on the water and his path was pretty solid as long as he had his eyes on Jesus. But then he began to look around at all the troubles and trials and tribulations. That is the church world in 2020. We're sitting here and instead of keeping our eyes on Jesus, what are we doing? We're looking at all the troubles and trials and tribulations all around the world. All the problems with election. All the problems with coronavirus. All the problems with social injustice and all this type of stuff. and we're looking at all this type of stuff instead of keeping our eyes on Jesus. And that's why we're sinking in the morass of sin and degradation and all the troubles of this world. That's why we're doing it, because we don't have our eyes on Jesus. See, we've got to keep our eyes on Jesus. Peter would have been fine if he kept his eyes on Jesus, but he began to look around. And he began to sink. And what did Peter do? Peter said, Lord, save me! And Jesus came, grabbed him by the hand and lifted him off. You know what? If the church will just say those words, Lord, save us, you know what will happen? He'll take us by the hand. He'll take us by the hand. He'll protect us. He'll wrap his arms around us. And ooh, I'm telling you, let me tell you something, church. Let me tell you something. If God rocks his arms around you, there ain't no coronavirus that can't get to you. Hallelujah. If God rocks his arms around you, there ain't nothing that this world can throw at you, that Satan can throw at you, that can get to you. Because if Bible says it plain and clear, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. That is what we've got to have. We've got to be wrapped in the arms of the loving Savior. But the problem is many of our church members in the church world are not wrapped in arms of a loving Savior. They're too worried about stuff around them. What does it say? I walk by faith not by sight but too many church people are walking by sight and not by faith And that's why we're wandering in the wilderness so long. It's because the church world is walking by sight instead of by faith. I love what it says in verse 17. It says in verse 17, which bringeth forth a chariot and horses and the armies and power. They shall lie down together. They shall not rise. I love those words. God is going to put the enemy under his feet. I'm telling you, there is coming an egg, church, very, very soon, when God is going to reveal all of the evil in this world and he's going to put the enemy under his feet. And there ain't nothing, there ain't nothing, I'll say it one more time, there ain't nothing that evil can do. Nothing they can do. I love what it said, what the psalmist wrote in Psalm 68 and 21. He said this, But God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such and one as goeth on still in his trespasses. Because there are too many people, too many evil people that are being, basically being puppets, led by a puppet master literally saintly. Too many people being led. And the church world, Lord, this is from God. Too many churches have leaders or being puppets led by saintly. They're too worried about offending instead of listening to what God has to say. They don't want to offend. They're too, as we talked about, they're too worried about him getting stuff in the offering plate instead of worrying about people's souls. Church world has become the church world has become a state. Back in the day, it was a separation of church and state. That was the whole thing. That was what our country was founded on. And people sit there and want to say, Oh, well, that means that the church should have nothing to do with the state. But that's not what the founding fathers meant. They meant government stuff should not affect the church. That's what they meant. But somewhere along the line, we split it on. And now we say, well, now you know what? The state, the government, should control the church, and the church should have nothing to say about what goes on in the state. Or the government, if you will. That's where our problems come into this nation. A nation that turns its back on God is a nation that's doomed for failure, and that's the truth. We don't like to hear that, and people don't like to hear that. Oh, we know the world doesn't like to hear that, but that's the truth. All you can go through and you can see all through the history of this world, we've had times when our nation would fall on its knees to God, and you know what happened? Our nation flourished, and it began to get more jobs and more blessings, and there was peace, and there was all this type of stuff going on, and everything was looking good. And then when the nation would turn its back on God, what would happen? Troubles, trials, tribulations, and trouble. Trouble, trouble, trouble. a nation that turns its back on God, is a nursing nation that is doomed for failure. And that's the truth. I don't like to say that. People don't like to hear it. They don't like it because, oh, it hurts. We don't want to believe that God is in control, but God is. You may not believe it, but that's what I mean it's not true. God is going to have final say. God, what God wants is going to come forth. And let me tell you something. Let me go a step further with this. What God wants, God's getting no matter what a politician says. No matter what any politician does or says or tries to do in their own way. No matter how much they try to pay off things and do things, God will have found a rule. Because let me tell you something. You have these big fat cats that are horrible, but I mean, but they are. They've got these big fat cats that have these big bank accounts and they think they can pay off everything. But my God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and all the potatoes in the hills, there ain't nothing that they can do. There ain't nobody that can buy him off because he already owns it all. Hallelujah. I'm telling you. So there ain't nothing they can do. There ain't nothing they can do. God is going to have God's say. That's the point. I love this. They will not rise as it says here. they are extinct they are quenched as so they are extinct they are quenched that's what's going to happen all the evil that is in this world right now all the evil that is permeating this church the world and it's trying to come into the church world you know what's going to happen? it's going to be extinguished God is going to lift the veil and the truth is going to be seen and people are going to know. Now that doesn't mean the whole world's going to follow suit and follow God, but they will see the lies and they will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Hallelujah. I love it. I love it. Verse 18 says this, Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. I love this. This is really interesting. When I studied this, I found something very interesting in this. He says, remember ye not the former things, or don't remember the things of the past. You ever heard the statement, the good old days? We've all heard that, right? The good old days. I even say it sometimes. Oh, for the good old days, right? I say it. But God is saying, don't remember the good old days. We read the amazing miracles in God's holy word, right? I go through them and I think about it. I think of Gideon. And wow, what an amazing miracle Gideon saw. Gideon had an army, right? And it's so beautiful. Gideon had a pretty decent sized army, but God said, you got too many men. and he said but Lord we're still outnumbered with all of them and not that, he said yeah but you got too many you don't need that many God was weeding them down, he said you got to get rid of them because why, because there were some that God didn't anoint and God didn't need and God didn't want because they weren completely sold out to him wonder why the church is being weaved down I think that what happening is because God is weeding down the ones to the ones that he wants Well, see, Gideon, he kept saying, well, we'll eliminate them, we'll eliminate them, got down to 300 men, and God said, that's the perfect number. Gideon at this point, you know Gideon, in the back of his mind, had that thing, 300 men against thousands? We're in trouble. in the back of his mind he had to think that but the interesting thing with Gideon was he had his trust in God and when Gideon went with his 300 men to win the battle they never even had to lift up a sword because God did the miraculous but God in his words says forget about that forget about that miracle interesting you remember the miracle of Elijah up on the mountainside with the prophet of Baal. Oh, I love this one. One of my favorite stories. I love it. The prophet of Baal, he said he had a little competition with him. He said, let's pray. Let's decide. And the God that answers by fire, that's the one we'll worship. And he said, I'll never let you people go first. So I sat down and let them do their thing. And they started dancing around and chanting and cutting themselves and carrying on, begging for Baal to answer with fire. But Baal wouldn't answer. And I love what happens. Elijah gets so tickled about this whole situation, he starts mocking him. Hey, maybe he needs to scream a little louder. Maybe Baal fell asleep on him. Maybe he went on vacation. Maybe he's busy. Maybe he's not taking no calls today. He's sitting there having fun of him. He's having a good time. Well then he says, okay, you've had your time. It's time. Now fire. And Elijah just said a simple little prayer. And like that, God answered with fire. And the interesting thing is, let's go a step further. Put a little cup of water down. Strike a match and drop that match in the water. What's going to happen? That fire is going to go out, right? Always happens. Fire never lats up water. Well, not exactly always. Here, something interesting happened. The fire of God evaporated the water. What a beautiful thing. What a beautiful thing. At this point, the prophets of Baal saw the power of Yahweh God. And they got so scared, they ran. God's about to reveal something and all the evil of this world is going to be scared and Baal is going to be scared and all the evil is going to be scared and they're going to run but there will be nowhere to run and hide because you cannot run from God oh hallelujah you can't run from God as much as you want to you can't run from a holy God hallelujah I love it But here he's saying, don't remember these old miracles. Why? Because what I'm about to do is going to make these miracles look small. What I'm about to do is going to make these miracles look tiny. What I'm about to do is going to do something that's going to make these miracles seem insignificant. I love it. Verse 19 says, behold, I will do a new thing. I will do something that you ain't never seen before Hallelujah God is going to do something miraculous God is going to do something that is going to make this world so shocked that it's going to shake everything to its very core and they will have no choice but to look up I love it He says Now it shall spring forth shall ye not know it I love it There will be no doubt that the miracle came from Jehovah Yahweh God I love what the psalmist wrote in Psalms 77 and 14 He wrote these words He said, thou art the God that doest miracles Thou hast declared thy strength among the people And there's coming a day very, very soon That God is going to bring a miracle I don't know when it's going to be I don't know how it's going to happen But I know it's going to happen I know it's going to happen because why do I know it's going to happen? because God never fails God never fails if he said it in his word and it says it here, it's going to happen it's going to happen I don't know how, I don't know where, I don't know when I don't know the situations I'm not a prophet, I don't play claim to believe and I don't play one on TV, amen but I'm saying I don't know how he's going to do it but I know we will I know we will because I've read the back of the book and you know what it says? We win. That's what it says. So if I read the back of the book and we win, then I know that God's going to show up and show off sometime in the near future. And this world ain't going to have nothing to do but just sit back and say, wow, maybe we were wrong all along. Hallelujah. I love this. He says, I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Rivers in the desert. And let's face it, you know that ain't, that ain't, that just doesn't happen. When's the last time when you looked at a picture of a desert and you saw a river run through? Don't happen. But why did God say he's going to make way in a river and a desert? God will make a way where there seems to be no way. that's what it comes down to God's going to make a way where there seems to be no way I love it just like the children of Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years and it seemed hope was lost right now the church world is wandering in the desert we're wandering in the desert we seem like hope is all but lost but it's always as we said darkest before the dawn it's always darkest right before the dawn you ever got up right before dawn and looked it is dark I gotta get up early in the morning on Saturdays and get up because I get to the radio station early in the morning to start out and when I get up early in the morning and I'm out there with Jasmine early in the morning letting her take care of her business before I go to work. It is so pitch dark. But the interesting thing is it's so dark. So dark that you can't even hardly see your hand in front of your face. But then just a few minutes later, the sun begins to rise. The sun begins to rise and the light begins to shine. And this world right now is in a dark, dark place. And I'm going to tell you, but the sun's about to rise. The sun is about to rise Jesus is about to rise The God is about to rise up And he about to save You thought you had your way and you thought you had it all said and done You thought everything was done. You thought you had victory. No, no, no. No. I have a final say. I have a final say. We're going to wander in this desert, but there's coming a sunrise. There's coming a day very, very soon when we're going to see the blessing of God and God is going to rise up and And he's going to show up and show up. And this world is going to see the brightness of God's holy presence. I love it. I've got a question for you today in conclusion. And it's simply this. Are you ready to leave the wilderness? Are you ready to leave the wilderness? We've been wandering the wilderness long enough. Are you ready to leave the wilderness? Are you ready to see the promise of the blessing? Are you ready to see something that we've been hearing about it and wondering about? Are you ready for the blessing? Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. I tell you what, I'm ready to leave behind depression, doubt, and fears, and I'm ready to head down Victory Road. Hallelujah. I love what it says in Psalm 107.35. It says, he changes a wilderness into a pool of water and a dry land into a springs of water. I tell you We must not get weary in our travels But we have to keep pressing forward And when we keep pressing forward When we keep pressing on We're going to see the blessing We're going to see the miracle We're going to see the blessings of God In our lives And in our church And God will have what he wants Not what we want Not what we want because I don't want what I want for His church. This is God's church. This is not my church. This is not your church. This is God's church. This is God's church. I don't want what I want. I want what He wants. And if God says, I'm going to weed out and I'm going to put in what I want, then you know what I say? Lord, have your way. Lord, have your way. You do what you want. Just let me be clay used in your hands. That's all I want to be. But are we willing? Are we ready to leave the wilderness? Are we ready to press forward? We can't get weary. We have to keep pressing on. Let's bow our heads before the Lord this morning. Let's bow our heads before God for just a moment. This morning, I want you to think about it for a second. Do you ever get weary? Do you ever get weary? Do you ever get to a point where you feel like, Lord, I'm just so weary in all the evil that's going on in this world. I get so tired and I get so weary and I get so discouraged that sometimes I don't know where I even make it. If that's true today, and you want a blessing from God, you want God to show up in your life and help you to press forward, I want you to raise your hand to God today. And I want you to say, Lord, pour your blessing down upon me right now. Will you raise up your hands? All over the place. If you're watching the video, if you're listening to the audio or whatever, just raise up your hand right now. Hands going up everywhere. I know it. I can feel it. I can feel people raising their hands, watching the videos and listening to the audio. Father God, you saw these hands going up today. Father God, people that are weary, they get weary. They get weary with all the bad news, with all the stuff that's going on with coronavirus, injustice in the world, and the hatred, and the divisiveness, and all this stuff that's going on, and all the stuff going on in Washington, and all the issues in this world. We get weary. But Father God, right now, I pray for strength upon your people. Those ones that raise their hand. Those true believers that are saying, Lord, don't let me get weary. Help me to press forward. I pray right now that you will fill them Father God fill them right now Fill their cupboards to overflow Father God may they be blessed beyond measure And as they go throughout this week And the weeks to come and the months to come Until Father God the sun rises And the blessings fall Father God I pray right now That you will help us to press forward That we will not get weary in well doing But we will keep pressing on Knowing that you have a blessing coming our way If we'll just hold on I pray it right now in Jesus' name. Father God, as we wander this wilderness, help us. Help us to not let our shoes wear out, just like you did the Israel people. Father God, help us to not get weary, but help us to press on. And Father God, I pray that right now. I pray that blessing for your people right now. I pray that you will help your people right now, that we will not get weary, but we will press on. Father God, I pray for that blessing right now. Father God, I thank you for the blessing. I thank you for the touch of the masters and ears. Father God, I thank you for each and everyone that came out today in our church. And Father God, I thank you for each and everyone that watched the video and listened to the audio version. I pray, Father God, the richest blessings upon everyone today. That, Father God, we will be blessed beyond measure. And now, Father God, as we dismiss, I pray that you will not dismiss us. But Father God, you will walk with us as we walk this wilderness path. That we will, together with you, be blessed. And that we will not give in until we see the miracle. Father God, I pray right now in Jesus' name. I thank you, Father God, right now in Jesus' name. And Father, for all that you are. For all that you do. I give you the praise and the honor and the glory for everything. Father I thank you for this message today And I pray that it's been a blessing Father I give you honor and praise and glory For it's in Jesus name We beg these blessings today And we sing a hearty amen And amen Thank you. Thank you. you

Playlist coming soon.