Out Of Egypt: Lessons From The Wilderness: Why The Wilderness?

Speaker: Pastor Lee Cummings
Date: April 18, 2020

God is once again calling His Church to remember. Remember who we were created to worship. Remember where we were when He came for us. When we again find ourselves pinned down by impossible circumstances and hear the echoes of accusation pursuing us, we must remember that it is He who is fighting for us, leading us and bringing us into a land flowing with milk and honey. In this hour, it’s time for us follow the fire by night and cloud of His presence by day.

In this sermon called Lessons From the Wilderness, Pastor Lee Cummings teaches on the place the Israelites found themselves in the book of Exodus, and how it’s similar to the place we find ourselves in today. The question is, are you going to see it as a blessing, or a curse?

Focus Scripture

Exodus 15:22-27 (ESV)

“Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, 26 saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer. 27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.”

Sermon Highlights

• Welcome to the wilderness.

• The wilderness was preparation.

• Between deliverance from Egyptian bondage and the inheritance of the Promised Land stood the wilderness.

• The wilderness represented three distinct purposes for Israel.
  1. The wilderness was a test
  2. The wilderness was a revelation
  3. The wilderness was a highway

• God didn’t craft the wilderness just for this moment - the wilderness was always there.

• God leads us through natural difficulties to develop supernatural endurance.

• The wilderness was designed to refine you, define you, and assign you.

• The wilderness was not God’s attempt to destroy you or punish you - the wilderness is God’s crucible to remove the dross of slavery out of you,

• God could get the slaves out of Egypt - but He couldn’t get the Egypt out of the slaves.

• For all the progress God wants us to experience, there’s a process that we must go through.

• The wilderness is actually a blessing

• Don’t let the limitations of your faith keep God at a distance.

• The process requires us to embrace the wilderness.

• God will never waste a crisis. He will be trusted.