What Do You Do In The Desert?

Exodus 3: 1: "Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father in law, the priest of Midian:
and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb."

When we suffer, we also have a habit of thinking that our suffering is unique.
When we hurt, many of us behave as if the world is about to collapse.
We think that no one has ever suffered as we suffer.
We think that no one can understand our problems.

Let me tell you about a man who had it really bad.
He graduated from the best university in the country.
His prospects for the future was very bright.
Many years before, he had been just a heartbeat away from being one of the most powerful men
in his country.
He could be Times Magazine, "Man Of The Year."

If you were to mention this man's name, people would shake their heads and speak of
how strange it was that a man who had everything would, in an unguarded moment throw it all away.
What a shame!
He is now living out in the desert.
He is in Midian -- of all places.
He is tending sheep.
Then, they would shake their heads again, and say once more, what a shame it was.

Moses had everything.
He lived in the Pharaoh's palace.
He had the best education available for his day.
He was well on his way to becoming one of the great powers of his world.

Then one day, he got involved in a fight with an Egyptian, and killed him.
So, he had to leave that place in a hurry, and ended up in the desert.
Midian might as well have been on the dark side of the moon.
The life of Moses was over.
All his prospects were gone.
They were gone in the blink of an eye.

Don't you thank that Moses sat and looked at those sheep, and felt sorry for himself?
Do you know that feeling?
You might be tending sheep in the desert right now.

There are times when you can see this by looking on the faces of some who have been doing
all the right things for years.
They've been going to church regularly, and probably have been some of the most faithful members
of the church.
They might have been Sunday school teachers for many many years.
They had been doing all the right things for many years.

Sometimes, they would hear a stirring testimony of great things that God was doing
in the life of someone else.
But it was always the life of someone else.
It never happened to them.

It happens also to pastors.
They preach, pray, and visit; they preach, pray, and visit; and nothing outstanding ever happens.
Every year an alarming number of pastors drop out of the ministry.

There are church members who sit week after week in the pews without any sign of joy
or real purpose in their worship or their lives.
They keep coming out of habit.
They keep coming because hope is a tough thing that can take a lot of beating.

Missionaries can experience the same problem.
Some, after struggling with a foreign language, loneliness, and the cold hard fact
that it is going to be a long time before they can really do anything,
and they just cannot stand it anymore, so they resign.

Whether we like it or not, failure is an experience which is common to all of us.
Life in the desert is a life where nothing works, and self-pity reigns.
There are many who can relate to that experience.

I have read of a missionary in Japan who said that only years after being on the mission field
could he see what God was doing in his life when he was a pastor in the states.
He pastored a church for several years before coming to Japan.
And while he was a pastor, he often had periods of depression and uncertainty
about what he was doing.
It seemed to him that nothing was happening in the life of the church.

He genuinely loved the people and cared about the church, but nothing was happening
to indicate that his ministry was having any effect or influence on anyone or anything.
Now, after some time in Japan, this same pastor can see why God wanted him at that church.
It was God's way of preparing him for Japan.

The Japanese people do not respond quickly to the gospel, and they do not often respond to it
with any show of excitement or emotion.
So, at that church that he pastored where it seemed not much was happening,
God was teaching this missionary to love people just as they are.
At a time when this missionary thought he was doing nothing much for the Lord,
God was teaching him to love people whether they have responded to his ministry or not.

That is a tremendous lesson to learn.
We cannot always be sure about everything, but God can be trusted to be doing something.
Sometimes, it is only after the passage of time that we can see what God has been doing in our lives.
After all, we must remember that Moses spent 40 years in Midian.

Sometimes, things can go dreadfully wrong.
Sometimes, every word we utter is foolish.
Sometimes, every move we make is in the wrong direction.
Sometimes, we cannot do any of the things that people expect of us.
Sometimes, nothing we do works.

Sometimes, there is not one shred of evidence that our lives are going anywhere or doing anything.
Sometimes, even worship is a boring routine and duty.
Sometimes, our prayers sputter and flutter up to the ceiling, and then stall and fall back
like lead balloons to the floor.

And so, Moses is sitting with his chin in his hand, and looking despondently at all those sheep.
What in the world are we to do in such a situation?
A real test of faith is what we do and what we say when we are in the desert.

Jeremiah hollered when he was not sure where God was because God meant everything to him.
John the Baptist had to know if Jesus was the One.
The coming of the Messiah was everything to him, and he had to ask.
Job had to ask God about the meaning of innocent suffering and about God's purpose in the world.

It was not suffering that mattered ultimately to Jesus when He hung upon the cross;
it was the presence and purpose of God that mattered.

Those who cry out to God in the midst of their times of hopelessness and failure
are the ones who really believe in God.
They cry out because they have faith in a God who is there, even in the desert.
They cry out because they have a faith stronger than hopelessness.
They cry out because like John the Baptist, Jeremiah and Jesus, the will and purpose of God
in their lives is something about which they cannot be passive.
It means far too much for them.

Most all of us have a hunger for success, and for meaning and purpose in our lives.
Yet, the truth is that all of us fail at times..
There are times when our lives are like a valley of dry bones where nothing satisfies,
and nothing seems to work, and there is no meaning or life that we can see.
There are times when we sit in church, Sunday after Sunday and wonder privately,
what does all of it mean.
And there are no magic charms that will bring us out of that kind of misery.

However, we must remember one thing.
It was in Midian that Moses saw the burning bush.
It was in the desert where his life was wasting away with the sheep, that Moses heard
one of the greatest calls ever extended to a human being.

People make all kinds of claims about the great things that God has done in their lives.
And sometimes, we cannot help but wonder why Jesus is doing such marvelous things for others,
and yet, our lives remain so dull and average.
Sometimes, we cannot help but wonder where God is, when we find ourselves tending sheep in Midian.

But God really is doing something wonderful in your life.
God gives us a hope that can never be extinguished.
Being a Christian is not always fun.
But it is always filled with hope.

It always has a future that God has promised.
It always has a purpose and meaning in life.
We have that hope, even in Midian.
Even the smell and the bleating of the sheep cannot drown it out.

God has given us a wonderful future, and a purpose in life that no failure, no frustration,
and not even boredom can take away.
It was in Midian that Moses saw the burning bush, and received the call to set the people of Israel free.
It was out in the middle of nowhere, and right in the middle of a failed life that Moses saw God
and found the meaning and purpose for his life.

Many times that is the way it happens.
For when we are puffed up with success, we may gloat for days how wonderful God is,
but we still cannot seem to avoid being secretly how very pleased we are with ourselves.
But when we are in Midian, and when we are failing, we know the truth.
We cannot make our own salvation.
And, we cannot guarantee our own future.

Midian is a place where we are stripped of all the success that would cause us to think
that we are uniquely equipped enough to make it on our own.
It is the place where God reminds us that we live in His presence,
and only His presence in our lives can give us hope and meaning and purpose.

Midian is also the place where we can see the burning bush.
It is there that we can see clearly the hope that only God gives.
Success is gone.
Pleasure is gone.
Dreams have faded away.
Our self image is tarnished, and we are all bent out of shape.

Sometimes, these things have to be taken away, or we would never take our eyes off of them.
We would never take our eyes off of them, and see the burning bush of God's presence.

And, there is always a burning bush!
God's purpose and presence in your life is a burning bush that no failure can ever extinguish.

So, what do you do in the desert?
Have faith in God!

"Have faith in God when your pathway is lonely.
He sees and knows all the way you have trod;
Never alone are the least of His children;
Have faith in God, have faith in God.

Have faith in God when your prayers are unanswered,
Your earnest plea He will never forget;
Wait on the lord, trust His word and be patient,
Have faith in God. He'll answer yet.

Have faith in God in your pain and your sorrow,
His heart is touched with your grief and despair;
Cast all your cares and your burdens upon Him,
And leave them there, oh, leave them there.

Have faith in God though all else fall about you;
Have faith in God, He provides for His own:
He cannot fail though all kingdoms shall perish.
He rules. He reigns upon His throne."

Refrain:
"Have faith in God, He's on His throne,
Have faith in God, He watches over His own;
He cannot fail, He must prevail,
Have faith in God, Have faith in God."

Sermon adapted by Dr. Harold L. White