The Wilderness Day 1

We look at how Jesus goes from baptism to the wilderness immediately, and why that matters when our own lives feel dry, quiet, or lonely. We reframe the wilderness as a purposeful place God uses to form us, then close with a simple five minute silence practice you can do today.
• Matthew 4:1 and Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness 
• how chapter and verse breaks can hide the story’s momentum 
• Mark’s timeline showing “immediately” after baptism comes testing 
• why the wilderness is not a punishment or wrong turn 
• wilderness patterns in Scripture with Israel, Elijah, and David 
• discomfort, pruning, and growth without distractions 
• a five minute silence action step and one focused question to ask God 
So until tomorrow, share it with a friend. Take five minutes and sit in silence today.

Transcript

Matthew 4 And The Wilderness;

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, it's Pastor Josh. Welcome back to the Field Notes. And this week we're starting our new series on our new Devo, looking at Matthew chapter 4, verse 1. And it says this Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Now, when we read the Bible, it's really easy for us to get stuck on chapter and verse breaks. We automatically assume, just like we're reading a new line, that there was this time and all of this that happened. But remember the Bible wasn't originally written with those breaks in it. When Matthew writes this, it's just one long letter. And when we look at the timeline in Mark's gospel compared to this, in Mark 1, 11 and 12, we see that Jesus is baptized, the heavens burst open, God's audible voice speaks, and then immediately the Spirit drives him out into the wilderness. Boom! Let's go. There's no celebration dinner, there's no high fives, there's no congratulations, straight into the wild. And the crazy thing is, is we have to remember he's led there by the Holy Spirit. It's God taking Jesus into the wild. Now most of us look at the wilderness in seasons of our lives, those times when things just feel dry and quiet, lonely and difficult, and we immediately think we've done something wrong. We complain about the heat, we complain about the bugs, just like if we were to go into isolation out in the wilderness. We complain about the isolation. We treat the wilderness like a spiritual jail sentence or a cosmic timeout for not being a good Christian. But look at the text. Jesus didn't wander into the wilderness because he took the wrong turn and he wasn't sent there as a penalty. If we look at scripture, the wilderness is everywhere. When God freed the Israelites from Egypt, where did they go? The wilderness. When Elijah couldn't handle the stress, the wilderness. When David fled from Saul, straight into the wilderness. It isn't an accident and it isn't a punishment. It is a purpose-driven environment. The wilderness is the place where God works on us. It's the place where there's no distractions, it's quiet, it is just you and the spirit. It is the opposite of the loud, busy, chaotic city. We live in a world that hates being uncomfortable. We want the blessings without the pruning. But growth doesn't happen when you're comfortable in the air conditioning. If you feel isolated right now, don't panic. If you're in the wilderness right now, don't panic. That is where God works on us. He uses the silence to defrag your mind and the heat to burn off the distractions. So our action step this week, the thing that we need to be doing, the thing today, not this week, we need to be doing, is we need to take five minutes today and just sit in total silence. No phone, no music, just you and Jesus. Ask God one specific question. What is the one thing that you want me to grow in during this wilderness trip? Stop complaining about it, stop wondering when you're gonna get through it, and start listening to the lesson. So until tomorrow, share it with a friend. Take five minutes and sit in silence today.