I got you. Amen. I should have got on it. I'd have been six inches taller. That's good singing. Appreciate that. Appreciate our kids and the Sunshine Choir singing. That was a blessing. I want to be a help to you tonight. If we can, I want you to turn to Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31 tonight. Pay attention to one phrase in this scripture and let it help us tonight. I believe it will. Jeremiah 31, verse number 2, the Bible said, Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. Now, Jeremiah is prophesying about the restoration of Israel and understand that they're in bondage and I want you to understand that really ever since the beginning of time God's people have gone through wilderness experiences. So today we think, well, there's no one who's gone through what I've gone through. The Bible said there is no temptation, there's no trial that you've gone through that is not common to man, right? So whatever you've gone through, I promise you someone has gone through it, but we feel like we're in isolation, don't we? So God's people have always had wilderness experiences. And think about this, after the Red Sea, Where'd they go? The wilderness, right? Jeremiah, the children of Israel are in bondage, a wilderness experience. Jesus spent time in the wilderness. John the Baptist spent time in the wilderness. So we're going to spend some time in the wilderness. And I mentioned it this morning, if the only time you can have peace, the only time you can have joy is in the absence of problems, you're never going to have peace and joy. And so we also, if we're going to spend time in the wilderness, I think we've got to understand that according to the Bible, and again, we go all the way over to chapter 33, and I hear a lot of people that will claim this verse, right? They'll go to chapter 33 and they'll come and they'll say, call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. And they'll say, hey man, I want to claim that. Well, you better claim it in bondage because that's where it's written. And you look at much of the New Testament. Where did Paul write it? In prison. So I'm just trying to help us understand that when you go through wilderness experiences, you may feel by yourself, but you're not the only one that's gone through it. And you're certainly not alone because he said, I'll never leave thee and I'll never forsake thee. So when we go through wilderness, we think about wilderness in our day, right? Well, it's mountains, and it's trees, and it's shade, and it's babbling brooks. Well, that's not at all what we're talking about. We're talking about a desert. Now, man, I'll tell you what, if wilderness, Brother Matt, was about trees and elk and bear and babbling springs and trout, we'd say, man, that don't sound like a bad place. But if you've ever been in the desert, that's not somewhere I'd want to be very long. So I don't know about you, I don't like to be hot. I don't like to be too cold, but I sure don't like to be too hot. And there's critters in the desert that their only goal in life is to kill you. They're not friendly. Scorpions, rattlesnakes, they're not friendly. They just want to kill you. And so there's lessons of grace we learn in the wilderness that you don't learn anywhere else, right? I mean, when things are good, it's hard to learn lessons that can benefit you. Because if the only time we learn anything is when things are good, I promise you this, you're not going to learn much because there's not a lot of mountaintop experiences. There's a lot of valleys. There's a lot of climbing down mountains and going back up mountains. But the mountaintop is very small. So, Brother Shane, it would be nice if we could stay on the mountain, but you won't stay there. So what do we learn? Three lessons. Are there lessons from grace that we learn in the wilderness? Well, there are some things we learn. Two are not positive, but one is encouraging, right? So number one, the desert is a place that was desolate. When you think about John the Baptist, it wasn't like he had all these people out there with him. They came out to hear him preach, but it was a lonely place. It was a desolate place. It was a place of dreariness. Now, you say, well, the sun's shining. Well, that's true, but here's the thing. There's little hope. If you're out in the desert by yourself, and there's no water, and there's no shade, and there's no help, there's no hope. Amen? I mean, you're out there to die. And that's exactly where the devil wants to put you in a place where you think the only way to get out of this thing is to die. Now I say if we're to sing victory in Jesus, we ought to have some victory in Jesus even in the wilderness, in the desert place. So there's little hope, there's little help. Amen? I mean, you go far enough out, your cell phone doesn't work, nobody's coming to rescue you, nobody's coming to help you. You've got to figure it out on your own. Well, that's a desert place. Amen? I mean, the children of Israel, when they wandered in the wilderness, the Lord was with them. But you remember, it seemed like every time they went around the corner, they were complaining, there's no food, there's no water. They never looked down at their feet and figured out their shoes didn't give out and their clothes didn't give out. And just in time, when God needed to show them something the most, God showed up. And that's where we are. There's no hope. There's no help, and may I say this, there's no beauty. There's no beauty. I mean, there are some people, Brother Jeremiah, that choose to go to the desert, but I don't know many. Man, you go to the mountains and you ever go to the Rocky Mountains and you see the animals and you see the rocks and you see the streams and you see those aspen trees and you're like, man, this is a beautiful place. But I don't see too many people going, man, I sure love the desert. I sure love for the sun to beat down on my body and feel like my skin's melting off of my bones. I mean, the fact is there's no beauty. That's exactly where those desert places, those wilderness places are in our life. Listen, it seems like there's nothing good. Now you know what I'm talking about because you've been there or you may be there tonight. There's just nothing good. I mean, it seems like even when the sun's shining, even when the Holy Spirit's saying, look, what about this? There's another side, another voice in your mind going, yeah, but it's not that good. Hey, if God cared about you, you wouldn't be out in this wilderness. And that's how they felt, right? I mean, even John the Baptist, when he's thrown in prison, he tells his disciples, he said, now you go make sure Jesus really is the one. that we're supposed to be serving, right? And so I'm just saying tonight that if we're not careful, when we get in that desolate place, it's a place of dreariness, and there's no hope, and there's no help, and there's really not a lot of beauty involved with it. It's also a place of death. Now, I don't know about you, I don't know of any, I may be wrong, but I don't know of any place called Death Valley that's in a cool place. You go out to the desert, they've got a place called Death Valley. And there are people they brag about, I don't want to go to Death Valley. I want to go to Living Mountain, right? I don't want to go to Death Valley. I'm going to avoid Death Valley. But I'm saying there's little that lives in the desert, there's little that lives in the wilderness Not many pastures. There's not many wells. Just a place of death. And that's what Satan will try to do to you. He'll come to kill, steal, and destroy. He'll rob you of your walk with God. He'll rob you of your relationship with others. He'll rob you of joy. He'll rob you of peace. He'll rob you of all the goodness of God if you'll let Him. And He'll put you in a desert place. God will allow it. You remember Job? You know where Job was? He was in a desert place. It was a place of danger. Remember when the devil came to Jesus? He had fasted for 40 days. He was weak and weary in the wilderness. That's when he tempted him. He didn't tempt him on the Mount of Transfiguration. He didn't tempt him when the Father was saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. He waited until he was downtrodden. He waited until he was defeated almost. I mean physically defeated. He waited until everything was drained out of him. and he came to him. May I say that? He'll do the same to you and me. When it seems like there's nothing good in life, when there's no hope, there's no help, there's nothing beautiful, when it feels like everything's against you and you're ready to die, the devil will just, he'll come right in there and there'll be danger on every side. There's a danger from walking away from God. There's a danger from walking away from your family. There's a danger from turning your back on God. and saying God doesn't care about me. I'm just saying that it is a place of predators. You know, and I've said it several times, but you ever watch those videos of those animals? Man, them predators, they don't go to the herd. They find that one that has gotten away from the herd. Amen. You know what church is? It's a herd. Amen. And listen, you can say, well, church is full of hypocrites and full of people. You're right. So you're fit right in, don't you? You got your blemishes and you got your flaws, but I'd rather be around the herd When the predator shows up, then out there by myself, right? Grazing by myself, and nobody's as good as me, and I don't want to be around those hypocrites, and next thing you know, the predator is on you, and the predator is destroying you, and a lot of times, even if the herd comes to help you, it's too late, isn't it? There's a lot of people I've seen in 22 years of pastoring, Brother Shane. One time, they were plugged in with the herd, but hey, you know what the devil did? He got them off in that wilderness, Nobody cares about you. Oh, if they loved you like they say they do. Oh, somebody would call you every single day, make sure you're okay. Hey, if they loved you like they say you do, this wouldn't happen. If God loved you, next thing you know, they get bitter. Amen. They get out in that wilderness. They start murmuring. That's what those children of Israel did, didn't they? They started murmuring, God done, we've been better off in Egypt. We'd been better off in bondage. We'd been better off before we got saved. Listen, I didn't go through all the trials and troubles in life before I got saved. It's so hard to be a Christian. That's the devil lying to you. Because you went through the same stuff. It looked different, smelled different. But it's the same trials. The difference is you just didn't have anybody to walk with you. It's a place of danger. There's predators. That's why, that's why when you get in that desolate place, right? We all get there. Listen, I get there. I mean, when you're physically tired and emotionally tired, spiritually tired, you better be careful. You say, it probably doesn't happen to you. It happens a lot. About every Sunday night, praise God, I go home. Lord, right? Brother Jose, it never happens to you, right? We're always, amen. You better be careful. But Jeremiah's, it's always good and never go through with the wilderness, do we? Say, what are you saying? Are you bragging about? No, I'm saying we're no different than you are. So number one, it's a place that was desolate, but number two, a path that was dreaded. I want to say this. Anybody that says they desire the wilderness experience needs to have their head examined. Seriously. Now you can get as spiritual as you want to and say, well, you know, in the wilderness, I know that's when I draw closer to the Lord. Okay, good for you. But there's something wrong with you if you desire the wilderness. I will say this, you don't have to desire it, you'll get there. You don't have to drive your car to it, it'll find you. You don't need the GPS, you don't need maps, I promise you, you just keep serving God and the wilderness will find you. Amen? So it's a path that's dreaded. There's nobody I hope that says, no, we ought to do everything we can to serve God But I promise you, when you're in the wilderness, it's dreaded. Why? Because it's a place of loneliness. You often travel alone in the wilderness. Everybody loves you when it's going good, right? Everybody loves you when you're on top of the world. Everybody's on your side, but I promise you, you start going through the wilderness, and all of a sudden, all your best friends, right, with all the good advice, and, you know, that's like Job's friends, right? They came in for a while. Brother John, they just sat there with him. By the way, that's probably the best thing you can do. Then they got a little tired of sitting, and they said, Let us expound our wisdom to you, Joe. Here's why you're going through what you're going through. Right? You're just too blind to see it right now. God has shown me. Let me help you with something. When somebody tells me God has shown them something about me, I choose to run away from them. Because you're not near as spiritual as you think you are I was in my prayer closet and God told me How did he tell you? Well, he showed me how to show you Why is he showing you stuff about me but he's not showing you stuff about you that I can see and everybody else can Amen, that's good preaching I know why you're going through the wilderness. Why are you going through the wilderness? You're going through the wilderness because you're not living for God. I'm going through the wilderness because I'm so spiritual. That's good preaching right there. Your life is all messed up and God's chasing you. But I'm so spiritual, the devil himself is dragging me through the wilderness. I'd be real careful with that. You may find out that when you're in the wilderness because you have been so super spiritual when other people are going through the wilderness they might just let you go through it by yourself. Amen. And I promise you this, all the fair weather friends that you have, you ever heard the saying Now, I'm going to expound some wisdom to you. You ever heard the saying, when people are gossiping to you, you need to be careful because at some point in time they'll gossip about you? There's a lot of Baptists that need to understand that. Oh, they'd never talk about me. Yeah, they will. And Brother Matt, going through the wilderness is the same way. See, a lot of people, when you're on the mountaintop, and you know what? Preachers are the same way. When God's blessing, man, I tell you what, and oh, they want you, and they want to be your friend, they want you to come preach, but you start going through some valleys and some trials, and all of a sudden, you can't find them. Man, I want some folks going to stick with me. You know what they'll do sometimes? People say, look, you stand for God. We'll stand with you, men of God. I've met that crowd. You go out first and we'll be behind you. And they're shooting bullets at me. And I look, and they're like, where'd they go? Right? There's loneliness. And if you get away from God, see, sometimes in that lonely place, He's all you got. but if he's all you need so so that dreaded dreary place there's loneliness most will leave you when you enter into wilderness so just get ready then not only that I want you to think about the hardness of it it's often a place of heat It's often a place with no refreshment. It's often a rugged, difficult place. I don't know about you, some of these folks, they're always adrenaline junkies and, you know, they want to climb this and do this and you're like, they got to screw loose is what they got. Physically, you understand some of that, maybe. But spiritually, I'm telling you, you don't have to go looking for the desert. It'll find you. It's a hard place. I want to encourage you with this. If you're going through the wilderness, that doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. You're not doing this thing right. If you're serving God and you're where you need to be and you're doing it all right, you wouldn't be going through that. That's the devil telling you that. Right? Because he told Jesus, he said, listen, if you'll bow down and worship me, he said, I'll give you all these kingdoms. Now you say, well, that's all well and good, but he knew he was going to get them anyway. One day he'll get them all. Well, guess what? So will you. Right? So will you. But see, when you're beaten down, downtrodden, and lonely, and hungry, and thirsty, and the terrain is hard, you'll do... Hey, remember the old boy in the Old Testament? He sold his birthright for what? A bowl of pottage. A stinking bowl of soup. He gave up his birthright. Because here's what he said. He said, I'm about to die. He wasn't about to die. He exaggerated his circumstance to make it worse than it really was. And he was willing to give his birthright up for a bowl of soup. I like soup. Just a few months. If we ate soup every night from probably October till... I'd be fine with that. But I'm not going to give up the best God has to offer for a bowl of soup. Amen? Bowl of stinking pottage. That don't even sound good. Pottage. If it said tater soup, I'd be like, well, maybe I could understand that, but not pottage. Right? So here, when you go through the hardness of life and the hardness of the wilderness, you better be careful when someone else is going through it and criticizing them because you may find yourself in the same wilderness. There's a path that was dreaded, but number three, let me give you this encouragement. If that's all we had, if all we had was a place of dreariness and death and danger and loneliness and hardness, then I'd probably say what we need to do is just go home. Quit doing this, right? Waste of time. Just go home, live the best we can, till we die. Right? But see, Jeremiah chapter 31, God's given the prophet, the Bible said at the same time, verse number 1, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. That's what he said. Thus saith the Lord, the people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness. Well, what does that mean? God's unmerited favor in the wilderness. Even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. Notice verse 3. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel. Thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountain of Samaria. The planters shall plant and shall eat them. as common things for there shall be a day that the watchman upon the Mount Ephraim shall cry arise ye and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God there's the hope right there in all that bondage and captivity and all the dreariness and all the loneliness and all that that the children of God have gone through he's making them a promise He's saying, though you're going through it, though you're in captivity, there's coming a day. There's coming a day because there's a God in heaven that loves you that all this is going to get better. You say, when's that? Well, when he comes back, when's that? Don't know. They didn't know. Jeremiah, God gave him a prophecy to tell them, and he couldn't tell them exactly when it was. You know what? That's called hope. You and I have hope tonight. Now, if you focus on all the desert places, you won't have hope. If you focus on the one that'll walk with you through the desert, that's where your hope is. And so, in this desert place, there is a provision that is discovered. God didn't say you wouldn't go through deserts. He wouldn't say you wouldn't go through dry times. He didn't say everything was always going to be springs of living water. He didn't say there was always going to be extra food, right? He just said He'd go with you. He'd never leave you, never forsake you. What's that mean? Well, if you look back to the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness, there were a couple things that they had. First of all, they had a daily provision. Not an abundance, but a daily provision. Well, as we know, the model prayer, give us this day our daily bread. So manna is given daily. When you get up, may I say, when you get up in the morning, the blessings of God, the graces of God, the mercies of God are new everyday. Amen. When you got up this morning, you got what you didn't deserve. When you got up this morning, God shined on you, woke you up. You're not in the hospital. You're not dying today. Praise God you walked into church and you got to worship Him at least one more day. You got to come to church at least one more time. You got to hear the youth choir sing one more time. May I say you didn't deserve that. That is a grace of God. And so may I say that manna had to be gathered daily. Now if you don't spend time in the Word of God, you're not gathering manna. If you don't spend time in prayer, you're not gathering manna. God didn't say, stand there and open your mouth up and I'll drop it in. He said, I'll drop it on the ground and you go out and get your manna every day. So you can be two-thirds of the equation, you can stay in the dry place, the desert place, or you can realize that God will provide for you in the desert. Not only that, it may not be in abundance, but we are given what we need. You may not get extra. My grace is sufficient. Listen, he didn't say was, He doesn't say, will be. He just says, it is. Right now, today, God's grace is really all you need. You say, what about tomorrow? You can't focus on that because tomorrow His grace is sufficient. So it's a daily provision, but also in the wilderness there's a divine presence. So you remember the Lord. He walked with them. He sent them a deliverer in Moses. He goes up to the Red Sea. They get to the Red Sea. And they already start questioning God's man. They said, Moses, you brought us to this water, this body of water to die. Remember what he told them? He said this, stand still. Stand still. and see the salvation of the Lord. See, we're not still. We don't like stillness. We want commotion. We want chaos. We want something all the time, right? Sometimes God gets you in the desert place to get you still. Sometimes it's health issues. Sometimes it's mental issues. Sometimes it's physical. Sometimes it's spiritual. Sometimes, listen, God will remove everybody out of your life, so you have to be still. You know what we do, Brother Bardolph? Sometimes we fight it. I don't want to be still. I want to be surrounded. I want this. Sometimes God's got to get you on your back before you're quiet enough for Him to speak to you. stand still. Well then, guess what he did? Parted the Red Sea. You say, okay, great. Well you're not getting that. He didn't part the Red Creek. He parted the Red Sea. It was enough, first of all, for a million, at least a million Jews to cross. Think about that. It wasn't a path. It wasn't like this and a million of them. No, it was enough for a million. Now, some would say, well, that's not a miracle because Red Sea was ankle-deep. Okay, that's more of a miracle. All of Pharaoh's fellas in chariots drowned in ankle-deep water. Pretty amazing if you ask me, but that's not what the Bible said. The Bible said that there were walls of water Can you imagine walking through that, you walk through there, you see that fish? Do you see that leviathan in this sea here? What kind of fish do you think that is right there? Then when they got across, all that water killed all them soldiers. So you would think When God did that, they go, we will just go with God. How many times has God given you a Red Sea experience? And you get on the other side because everything's not planned out just like you want it, right? Wasn't long, wasn't long. What are they doing? We're about to starve to death out here, Moses. Moses, we're about to starve to death. So you're telling me the same God that sent all those plagues, same God that pulled that water back and killed your enemy, that same God can't give you something to eat in the wilderness. Right? So they got to murmuring. God said, alright Moses, tell them I'm going to send them manna. Well, they didn't know what that was. They'd never seen manna. Right? Moses said, alright, go out there. You get what you need for that day. On the Sabbath, you get what you need for that day and the next day. Well, guess what they did? Some of them said, well, we want extra. Then Sabbath day came. Some of them said, nope, not going to do extra work on the day before the Sabbath. We're not going to collect extra. They didn't have any. Who'd they blame for that? God. They go a little farther. They get tired of manna. See, some of you are so tired of manna. God said, I'll tell you what I'm going to give them. I'll give them some meat to eat. They didn't have to do much for that either, did they? Then they get to a place, said, Moses, we're about to thirst to death. God said, take that stick, hit that rock, water came out. They never learned to trust him. He led them by a cloud. and protected them on the back side. He led them by fire, protect them on the back. Then they still didn't think they could trust God. You say, those stinking Israelites. Well, let me say this. 2024, stinking Christians. Don't be so hard on them. Get to the New Testament. You got the disciples and they're all, man, we're with you, Jesus. Every time they came to a wilderness, They questioned him. Those stinking disciples, how in the world can you walk with Jesus? Then you've got to have some rough times and not trust him. I bet they're saying, looking down from heaven, so stinking Baptist. If I had the completed Word of God and if I could read the end of the book, there's no way I would have done what I did. There's a divine presence. You may not see it, you may not feel it, but you better know it's there. Listen, if we could pull back the veil of the spiritual world and you could see how God protects you and how He's got His hand of protection upon you, you'd get on your face tonight on this altar and you'd do nothing but weep and praise God. Thank God we don't know all this going on. But you better know that there's a divine presence around you. Then finally, we have to understand there's a definite purpose in all this. There is a purpose in all. God doesn't do anything without a purpose. Nothing. He does all things well. You can claim Romans 8, 28, all you want to. But listen, you better understand something. He does it for His reasons, not yours. All things work together for good. You say, well, I thought they worked together good for us. For his purpose. For his purpose, not yours. See, God allows you to be, God allows you to be part of his plan. You're not the plan. You ain't the plan, friend. This ain't your world. This ain't your life. This ain't all about you and me. This ain't about Currytown Baptist Church. This ain't about the bus ministry, our bus ministry. This ain't about all that stuff. It's about Him. And when it stops being about Him and becomes about you, we look through the wilderness and we'll say, God, why would you allow this in my life? Instead of God, how can you get glory out of it? You say, that's easy to preach, but you're not going through what I'm going through. Maybe not, but you haven't gone through what I've gone through. But Jeremiah hasn't gone through what he's gone through. Nobody's gone through what someone else has gone through, but here's what you need to understand. It's for His glory, His purpose. And if you're in this thing for the right reason, then you'll realize that no matter what the wilderness experience is that God won't leave you. But He's got a purpose and His purpose is He is not yours. We're so narcissistic, so self-absorbed, we think all this about us. Right? We do. We think it's all about us. Well, you don't understand what I'm going through. But here's the thing. How is it I'm going to finish. I've lost about three quarters of you. How is it that the early church, they thought it was an honor to suffer for the Lord? They counted it an honor to suffer for Jesus, and us, we go through one little storm. I don't know why in the world if God loves me, he'd let me go through this. They would, listen, they'd get out of prison, they'd go straight back in town and start preaching again. Right? Brother Matt, we, listen, they censor us on Facebook, we lose our mind. I'm never going to say that again, I might upset some people. Right? I'm not, listen, I might get shadow banned. I don't even know what shadow banning is. I've heard preachers say this really, well I tell you what I don't like being on social media and on YouTube because I have to be careful what I say. I haven't and I'm not going to. Now you say amen all you want but when they come protesting and all that don't go hiding under the pews. Amen. Preach on preacher. Where y'all at? You go handle it, preacher. You're the man of God around here. You're the leader. We're behind you. We're in here. You go out there and take care of that. No, no, no. We're going to send the deacons out first. All right, deacons, go deac. Security men, I was kidding with them a while ago. Man, it's cool out there. I said, now I know why we always got 17 security guys on duty all the time. Y'all out here enjoying this air conditioning. We'll make them earn their money, Brother Barry. There's always going to be wilderness. But aren't you glad God gives us grace? Grace in the wilderness. Let's stand together.