Building God’s Character in the Wilderness

Christmas 2023 

Topic: Building God’s Character in the Wilderness

Three Stories:

1.      Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the Wilderness and there he was tempted by Satan.

2.      Exodus 16:1-19 the Children of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

3.      Genesis 37:1-36 Joseph is sold by His brother.

 

We have been studying the Wilderness within the last few weeks from Isaiah 40 to Mark 1, and now today to Matthew 4 & including Exodus 16 & Genesis 37

Must I remind us today: Last week we identified the two portals that connect us with Jesus, 1. Prayer 2. Scripture. Your wilderness is our set up to a God led life.

I feel like there is so much that we can learn, there’s so much enlightenment, so much lesson, so much direction, so much will and so much character that can be built from the wilderness.

Last week I said, we all are in three types of people: 1. We either fixing to be in the wilderness, 2. In the midst of a wilderness, or just getting out from the wilderness.

Definition: Wilderness is a season of intense experience that has impacted the entirety of our lives. It is an intense wholistic mental and emotional roller-coaster that has often driven to the edge of a capabilities. It is the season of our lives where we throw our hands up. It is a season of nearly giving up. It is the season with no light at the end of the tunnel.

Definition: Character is the intersection of our thoughts, our feelings, and our behaviors. So, if our Feeling and our thoughts hinges on God, then our behavers become Godly.

Character is the aggregate of who we are; it’s “what’s inside every one of us.” In our case here today. So, in order for us to build Godly characters, God must be inside of us. Hence, God’s qualities then, becomes our qualities.

What are some of the most valuable things that you currently do? Thinking, Feeling, & your Actions. Those are your commodities that can be monetarily valued.

What the most important thing that you have to do with your most valuable’s: Surrender to God

Consequences: our thoughts, feeling, & actions all has consequences, if these values are not fixed or founded in God’s then our wilderness experience is in vain. We will continue to stay in the wilderness.

The Israelites journey from Egypt to the promise land was supposed to take less than a year. But it took forty years because they refused to forged their lives with God’s characters.

Story about Anger and Bad (Human) Characters

A long time ago there was a boy. He was smart, talented and handsome. However, he was very selfish and his temper was so difficult, that nobody wanted to be friends with him. Often, he got angry and said various hurtful things to people around him.

The boy‘s parents very concerned about his bad temper. They considered what they could do and one day the father had an idea. He called his son and gave him a hammer and a bag of nails. The father said: „Every time you get angry, take a nail and drive into that old fence as hard as you can.”

The fence was very tough and the hammer was heavy, nevertheless the boy was so furious that during the very first day he has driven 37 nails.

Day after day, week after week, the number of nails was gradually decreasing. After some time, the boy started to understand that holding his temper is easier than driving nails into the fence.

One day the boy didn‘t need hammer and nails anymore as he learned to hold his temper perfectly. So he came to his father and told about his achievement. „Now every time, when you hold your temper all day long, pull out one nail“.

Much time has passed. At last the boy could be proud of himself as all the nails were gone. When he came to his father and told about this, he offered to come and take a careful look at the fence. „You did a good job, my son, but pay your attention to the holes that left from the nails. The fence will never be the same. The same happens when your say hurtful things to people, as your words leave scars in their hearts like those holes in the fence. Remember, we need to treat everyone with love and respect, because it doesn‘t matter, that you say you are sorry, the scars will not disappear.

If we have taken the path of Ungodliness, disconnect ourselves from God. In order to reconnect to God, we will have to go through a process of forgiveness and God will grant us that forgiveness and you must accept and live a life of gratitude. However, but those scars is left there.

The entire message of the Bible is all about how God is restoring the broken relationship between human beings and Himself. This season of our wilderness, Christ is born to restore, to connect, to renew, to start over…. It is time to disconnect and re-connect. 

Hence, Sisters and brothers, is it time to turn back to God and hinges your most valuable thing that you have unto God?

See we are all chosen and called by God. Look at Psalm 139:15-17 ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from when I was made in the secret place, When I was woven together in the depths of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. ¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God! How vast is the sum of them!

We are chosen just like the Children of Israel; God knew us before we were born. No matter what the circumstances was, no matter what our environment was, no matter what our situation was are—We can’t Let those things define us. We were purposefully made and it is time that we are reconnected to God’s purpose.

God’s Love us anyway: His Character

A little girl was decorating a box with a gold wrapping paper to put it under the Christmas tree. Money was tight, so the girl‘s father punished her for wasting almost all roll of that expensive paper.

However, the next morning the girl brought the gift to her father. „This is for you, Daddy” – she said. He opened a box and found it empty, so he became angry again. „Don‘t you know, that when you give someone a gift, it is supposed that there would be something inside it” – he said severely.

The little girl looked at her father with tears in her eyes. „Daddy, this box is not empty, I filled it with my kisses, all for you“.

The father was stunned. He felt so embarrassed that could just put his arms around his little daughter and beg for her forgiveness.

For many years of his life the man kept that golden box near his bed. Wherever he felt sad and downhearted he opened the box and thought of love that the little child had put into it.

Each of us have been given a present of unconditional love from God. It is the most precious possession that anyone could hold. In the manger, that precious Gift was born and onto the Cross, that precious Gift was crucified, but Victory was delivered at His resurrection so you and I can spend eternity with Him. 

Roman 5:8 God shows his Love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.  

Amen

Call for renewal and re-commit lives to Christ. If you have never received Christ into your life, today is the day.

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.