The Rock Family Sermon of the Week
The Rock Family Worship Center is a multi-cultural non denominational church led by Pastors Scott & Britt Silcox.
The Rock Family Sermon of the Week
Gardens | The Desert Garden - Pastor Scott Silcox
We explore the profound concept of the "desert garden" and discover how wilderness seasons can become transformative spaces when we change our perspective. Navigating difficult times requires understanding God's intentional work in seemingly barren places.
• The tabernacle represents a reconstructed Eden in the desert, showing God's desire to dwell among His people even in wilderness seasons
• God's ultimate desire is to be with us—the cross was about giving us access to the Father
• Desert seasons aren't meant to destroy us but to develop strength, character and capacity for what's ahead
• What appears dormant may actually be life waiting just beneath the surface for "one rain away" from breakthrough
• The desert can provide the clearest view of God when we remove distractions and gain proper perspective
• Resistance builds strength—what feels like opposition may actually be developing necessary capacity
• We can choose to see difficult seasons as formation grounds rather than punishment
Instead of praying to escape your desert season, ask God to reveal Himself within it. Your breakthrough might be just one rain away.
Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week. For more information about our church, please visit therockfamilytv Now. Join us for a message from Pastor Scott Silcox.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to be in service with you today. Today's going to be a great day today, I can just tell it, mainly because of this, and I feel this so strong and that is when people come into the room with one agenda in mind, where the Lord is lifted up, where he is glorified, and when people walk and sit and stay in this space and they're willing to allow the Lord to shape and form them. When you walk in open-handed like that, how many know he will not disappoint. And so I just wanna encourage you. If you're here today and you say you know, like maybe I'm not in that space, I encourage you, you can get in that space, you can get there. Majority rules in here, majority rules in here. And can I tell you, the majority of the people in this room walked in ready for the Holy Spirit to move and for him to speak to their lives, and so I'm encouraging you, you can come into alignment with that today. And today I told you a second ago that we were going to be talking about what it means to navigate difficult times, and I just want to talk through this today because I'm kind of taking this a little different turn, if that's okay for some of you Like, as I've just been in preparation for this series, how many of you have enjoyed the garden series so far?
Speaker 2:Have you enjoyed it? So far it's been pretty good, great, great. Isn't that funny? That's a terrible. I'm asking for you to tell me that you like it and I'm putting you like on blast. You know it was like one of those things like like tell me now, in front of all these people, that you like it. Not the best way.
Speaker 2:By the way, good to see Damani and Christian back in the house with a brand new baby. Hey yo, that baby's got more hair than you do, christian. What is happening, my God? All right, thank you, jesus. Look at what he's done there. He gave that baby a miracle. Yeah, he gave that baby a miracle. Listen, we don't always joke on everybody around here, so don't get nervous if I'm going to point you out Like, don't look in his eyes.
Speaker 2:You know like I'm not going to say nothing to you, but we've been in a series called the Garden Series and we've been just kind of navigating, like this entire journey of the Bible and finding out that there's ways and opportunities for us to grow and for us to learn through the narratives of the garden, and so I'll remind us that this is kind of how we started. If you remember this slide, I ask you to reference it. And while you're doing this, if you have your Bibles, open up to Exodus, chapter 25. Exodus, 25. And while you're doing that, I'll just kind of go through this again. As you guys know, we start in Genesis, which is where.
Speaker 2:What garden do we know of in Genesis? Simple, simple question Eden. And then it takes us through the tabernacle, it takes us through the temple, it takes us through Christ, who is the manifestation of a garden. He's the new place right. That's where Christ comes in and he becomes the place where the presence of the Lord is and he invites everyone to it. That's the blood of Christ we talked about today, right, or we sang about. That leads us into this idea where you have a revelation of who you are in Christ and you become what Christian. And how is he moving through? The Christians? We've seen that we're going to be doing some teaching on that in the weeks to come. Then, obviously, the church is born, and how many know this becomes a garden that we start to cultivate as well. Are you following? And then, last but not least, there is the eternal garden. There's the one that will come.
Speaker 2:That's the last message that we did in this room was all about this. We started in Eden, we went all the way to the end and we're going to kind of work our way back and we're going to focus on this today. The tabernacle we're going to focus on the tabernacle today for just a little bit. This is what we're calling the desert garden. The desert garden. Have you ever felt like you've been through a wilderness before? Maybe you're in this room and you feel like you're in a wilderness today. And this is just so timely for you today, because I believe this, by the time we're done today, we're going to ask ourselves some questions that I think will be very fitting, if not for you, who's in a desert season?
Speaker 2:But how many know that there's always going to be a desert season coming? If you're not in it today, how many know it's on its way? Now? I'm a firm believer in this. Like, how you approach that season matters, it absolutely matters. Where your head space is, where your heart is, where your motives are, are all going to come into check in the desert season. Does that make sense? And so we're going to talk about this a little bit and here's the three areas we're going to hit the tabernacle as a reconstructed Eden, the tabernacle and the role of humanity as priests and kings. How many know we have a job, priests and kings? How many know this? That Adam and Eve were operating in that very role even before it got defined in Exodus, right, and before we're even talking about the roles that they're going to keep. Adam and Eve were already functioning in that because they were given. What A job, right. Can anybody remember what the job was? Yes, yes, lots of mumbling. Did you catch that? You know? Right Was to what Be fruitful and multiply. Thank you, gary, thank you, you weren't even here that week and you knew that. That's awesome. And the tabernacle as a foreshadowing of future temples of Christ. And you guys saw this as I just listed it out in that graph. Let me just set the pace or the tone with you, the context for just a second Now.
Speaker 2:Exodus is interesting. We all know this to be like the movie Moses and all of the great things right, where Moses, the great leader, is called and he's to deliver his people out of where Egypt and they've been in bondage for 400 years 400 years Now. The way they got into bondage was looking for food. They were looking for provision, help, and what happens is they get taken in and they become slaves, and for 400 years they're at service to Egypt and at some point, god just decides. I'm tired of it. I want my people and I want to continue to move through my people and I'm going to make a show out of it, and can I tell you, it's a great drama. Not only does it come with like the most exciting things right From God, speaking from a burning bush that isn't burning, right?
Speaker 2:We could just stop there and just talk about how God uses things in a way that he's an all-consuming fire in the spirit. We could just we could lean into this idea and I often talk about this is that most times when we talk about Moses, many of us are asking for us to be like Moses and I want to be a great leader, and things like that. But how many know this? That God didn't? God didn't choose Moses because he was a good leader. He chose Moses right after he heard the cry of the people. It was the cry of the people that motivated God to find the man to bring, to bring freedom.
Speaker 2:So here's, here's a quick lesson for you, which I'm not preaching about today, pastor Ryan, but I'm going to say it anyway. And that is this when you're waiting for your, your opportunity, here's the thing God is listening for the cry of people. Don't underestimate the power of prayer, don't underestimate the power of crying out to the Father, because he hears you and because he hears you, he will go find a man. And this is my thought Oftentimes and I say this to Dante and any of those that are being launched listen, you think this is about your platform. This is really because he hears the cry of young people in Atlanta. So he found you. That's the difference and the way you frame that. If you go in thinking it's just my big opportunity, how many know you're going to miss out on what God is really trying to do.
Speaker 2:You lose the sensitivity of the moment because you think it's a finality, it was your end game, it's just the beginning, and for Moses, that's what it was. It's just the beginning and all of a sudden he gets called in and he says hey, I want you to go free my people. Right, I won't go through this entire story because you all know. But we go through a whole slew of plagues to get Pharaoh's attention, don't we Right? And eventually it gets close enough to home that he says get out of here. He didn't just free him, he says just get, just get off the property. I can't deal with you anymore, right, I don't want any more death, I don't want any more pestilence, I'm done with it. You're, you're, you're annoying me. Get out of here, right? So he sends them away and in their exit, literally in their exit they begin to take from the people of Egypt. So they have provision for the desert.
Speaker 2:Now, this is God, this is God, that God will, in his sovereignty, look over you 400 years in bondage and then, right at the end, says here's a bunch of resources to head out to the desert. Now, I don't know about you, but that seems a little like counterproductive. Why do they need all that in the desert? Right, I don't know about you, but in hindsight we have the beauty of hindsight where we can look back over the story. But anybody else just look and be like why all the provision? Why all the stuff? That seems like a lot to burden them with just across a giant desert, and yet they head off into it and we've come to find out later that there's going to be use for all of the things that they've gotten.
Speaker 2:Now the truth is there's a whole series of things that happen in there, especially when Moses is trying to hear the word of the Lord, and God's invitation is that I want to be your God, I want to be intimate with you, I'm making myself available to you, and everybody said, yeah, we don't want that. You go do it. Seriously, can I just pause right here and say also a point that I'm not planning to talk about today, but I am going to mention? Right, the worst thing that we can do as believers is hope that Pastor Scott will go for us. No, no, no See, he saved you, he made himself available to you, he called you. And what I get to do, what pastors get to do, what leaders and small group leaders get to do, we get to come alongside of you and encourage you in the way of the Lord.
Speaker 2:Where we've gotten it twisted in the church is we become the solution? There have been too many pastors and preachers who wanna be the final say, who want the glory of being the one that's in charge and the one that's leading, and the problem is is that person oftentimes can't sustain that weight of pressure over long periods of time, and what we've been seeing lately is a mass exodus of leadership because those people have decided that they are the final word and not the Lord. Let me say it better, that they are the final word and not the Lord. Let me say it better we have gotten in the big C church, better at people becoming more dependent on the leaders and less dependent on the father. And so what happens is you create an appetite in people that place extra demands on humanity that that can't live up to.
Speaker 2:I guarantee you, if you don't know a leader that's fallen or fallen short, or you have not heard, or you've been living in a hole maybe over the last couple of years where you've seen a mass exodus, I can guarantee you can go back and look and almost exclusively every one of those has been a open door, a breach into their intimate life with the Father. It doesn't start with like a massive catastrophe. It always. You can link all of the failure in leadership back to a lack of prayer and intimacy with the Lord. It starts there. You follow.
Speaker 2:Why would that be the case in the church. Let me tell you why. It is Because in our humanity we get excited about being needed and we get to get feeling like, oh, I'm needed. And so what happens is is I no longer need the father's direction because I'm so busy being needed. So I wasn't going to preach about that today, but it is something we ought to talk about for a second right. It's context. You got to understand where we're at Be ready to receive what he asked for us today.
Speaker 2:So imagine, with me, you've been exiled into this wilderness with a bunch of stuff, hoping that you're just making a pass to a better land. That's the hope. Moses is taking us to better land. Instead, he takes us to a better opportunity. He brings us to the edge of possibility. God says to go and he goes. He says to take the land and the people decide we don't want it. It's going to cost too much, it's too scary, it's the unknown. How about we send some spies over there to tell us what it looks like? Two of them come back with confidence. Ten of them come back and say we're grasshoppers, we're going to get crushed. There's absolutely no way we're doing this. Going to get crushed. There's absolutely no way we're doing this and in that case, majority ruled that day and 40 years later, that decision paid an ultimate price. In that season is where we get tabernacle.
Speaker 2:But I want to just highlight this, this idea that God's ultimate desires to be with him. Let me say this to you today God's ultimate desires to be with you. His ultimate desire, the idea of the church, the idea of what it means to be saved, all of it is with this one thought is that he wants to be with you. That's it. The cross was all about one thing access, that the father can be with you. Now, I want you to just think about that. That is, if you could boil everything down in our faith, in our belief, right, it all boils down to this one thought. There's a God that loves you so much that he will cross heaven and earth just to get to you. He would allow his only son come on somebody to die for you, for one single purpose. What he's telling the people of Israel even at this point is to say this whatever Adam and Eve had goofed up at the beginning, whatever Babel did to split the nations and, yes, we have Noah who turns around and has his own floating garden right and preserves humanity. Fast forward through all of that deal. God's message is not changed. From Eden I've created a place for you. That's it, and that's where we get to today, exodus 25,.
Speaker 2:Let's read this scripture. It says the Lord said to Moses speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution. Did you hear that? I just just. It's in the Bible. People are like I don't know why they do offering around here. I don't know the Lord. He said it's okay. The Lord said take up a contribution from every man whose heart moves him. You shall receive the contribution from me and this is the contribution that you shall receive from them. Gold, silver, bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goat's hair, tanned ram skins. Some of y'all are going to bring goat's hair next week in here. We heard you, pastor. We heard you Got you some skins, tanned ram skins, goat skins, case you would oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, stones for setting for the ephod and the breast piece, and this one right here.
Speaker 2:Highlight in your Bible number eight. And this is his intent. And let them make me a sanctuary that I may what Dwell, dwell in their midst. Here's the father's heart. He pulls his man aside. He says this I'm using you to lead my people into the presence of the Lord. Here's what I'm not leading them to do. Put their dependence on you, moses. I'm not leading you. I'm not leading you out here so that you're the man, moses. I'm leading you out here so that you can tell them my desires to be with them, and I'm going to create a system that allows them and me to be together. And this is where we get the sacrificial system right. You guys are familiar with this, and that is that what God establishes, a way for his holiness to be accessed, there has to be a sacrifice for our sin, right? So I'll go back to this slide here for a second. And you see the fire that is there. You can see that that altar is where sacrifices would be made right, on behalf of your separation to God, so that you can be made righteous in his sight.
Speaker 2:Now, the inside of this temple is interesting. There's some interesting facts about this, but there's the outer court right, the inner court, and then there's the Holy of Holies right, which is where the presence of the Lord is, which is where the blue flame is. That's where God the Father would rest. It's a perfectly square place in there. It's perfect and the and it's where the ark of the covenant would sit. And the ark of the covenant you guys are pretty familiar with the furniture of the temple or the tabernacle, but you know that that is where the presence of the Lord is and it had a gold box and it had the two cherubim over the top of it guarding, and I just want to highlight that here in a minute.
Speaker 2:But these are all garden narratives. If you're paying attention, there's the menorah which is in there, which you can kind of. I didn't put it in there, but inside there's a menorah. When you come in it would be to the left right. You come in it would be to the left right. That menorah would be the representation of the tree of life, right.
Speaker 2:So he's recreating something. If you're paying attention to what he's doing, this is not just some random thing that he's asked Moses to pull together. In fact, you need to know this. God is so intentional that he is not coming off the narrative. You get bored easily, but he doesn't. He thinks his story is pretty interesting and he thinks how he started it really mattered. And so he keeps that narrative in a thread all the way from the beginning, all the way to the end.
Speaker 2:And right here at Tabernacle he's doing the exact same thing. He's saying hey, this is important, pay attention. He puts the showbread there to the right when you come in, and then there's obviously just outside there's a washing basin to wash up, because you can't be in the presence of the Lord unclean, right. So we'll talk about this stuff in a second, but I just want to kind of point out a couple of things to you, and we'll start with this right here. The tabernacle as a restructed Eden these are echoes of Eden in the tabernacle's design, and this is what it looks like. The presence of God is at the center. It's at the center. The presence of God is at the center, very similar to where do you guys remember in Eden, where was the tree of life? Right there, in the center of the garden, right. And so he says here, I'm going to put my presence back into the center of my people again, and you may not know it, but they've heard the story of Adam, right, they know the story, the story has been passed on, they have a understanding of it. And so they would be paying attention. They would have been noticing these things. This wouldn't have like gone by them unnoticed. They're paying attention.
Speaker 2:How about this one, the guarded by cherubim, which I mentioned earlier? Do you guys remember that when Adam and Eve end up falling what is at the garden gate, so that they don't return Cherubim To guard the garden I gave you and instructed you to do the job. You didn't do the job. I have to release you into, essentially, the outer court, by the way. And then turns around and says, hey, I'm gonna guard this thing so that you don't stay in a perpetual state of sin. I don't want you to eat the tree of life, since you've already done the other. This will keep you in that state forever, so I've got to guard you from getting to it. And then there's separation. But then, fast forward, we see this manifestation through the tabernacle. So there's separation. But then, fast forward, we see this manifestation through the tabernacle. So there's a cherubim that's guarding what? The presence of the Lord, again on the box covering it. Right, you're familiar with the furniture, the lampstand, as the tree of life. I said that a second ago.
Speaker 2:But how about this? The three-part structure. There's the outer court, the holy place and the holy of holies. The outer court, the holy place and the holy of holies. The outer court is where everyone is welcome. That's where sacrifice and worship is made. But in order for there to be service to the tree of life and into the showbread, only a certain group of people could be there. And you can go read about how they were established. But the Levitical priests were allowed to do that. That's men that were raised up to turn around and service and care for the temple itself or care for the tabernacle.
Speaker 2:You guys tracking with me, I want to give you a history lesson, real quick, because I want to open up some thoughts in this desert garden to you. But I need you to get this stuff first. So then there's these three places and then there's the holy of holies. So then there's these three places and then there's the holy of holies. Right, that's where the presence of the Lord is, and one, one dude could access that a year and they tied a rope around his ankle Because if there's a shred, if there's a shred of unholiness in him, can I tell you?
Speaker 2:Can I tell you, if I knew my time was coming, you ain't never seen nobody live the Christian life like I'd be living. You ain't never seen nobody serve like I've been serving. I'm talking about daily fasting and prayer. I mean, I'm on this thing because it's life and death. The sad part is is until there's those kind of stakes, many Christians won't ever rise to what they're capable of. This is why you see massive thriving in other countries. Why you see a massive revival take place is because it is life and death for them, where for us it's just life and inconvenience, where for us it's just life and inconvenience. We've got to shake ourselves as believers, recognize that everything we do, it matters. Amen.
Speaker 2:How about this one at the end? Some of you can't even see this. It says Eastern Orientation, that when it was set up it was facing the east. Go back and look at the Garden of Eden, guess, where its orientation was. Come on facing the east. Go back and look at the Garden of Eden, guess, where its orientation was. Come on facing the east. When you turn around, look at the things that God has put in place. There's reasons for these things, right, all right. So there's some of the physical structure.
Speaker 2:How about this? How about the role of priest and king. Here was the job. It was to maintain the purity of the sacred space by ensuring obedience to God's commands. That's why there were such strict rules. So let's go back to the Garden of Eden, right? I want you to what Be fruitful, multiply. I've given you a job and they didn't do it. Why? Because this is the thing that God gave clear instructions on how to thrive in the garden.
Speaker 2:In the same way, fast forward to this the tabernacle. What is he also doing? There's only one way to access the Father. Okay, let me say it like this in where you're at today, there aren't many ways to do this life, christian life. There's not many ways. There's not many ways to the Father. There's not. There's like, if you think, living a Christian life is somehow like okay to live in a mediocre life, or like a just laissez-faire way of Christianity, how many know that's not what he died for? He died for you to be empowered with the authority of what Christ has. When we preach about, you're seated with him. There's an empowerment. And then there's a way. There's a certain way.
Speaker 2:We are constantly trying to mix our life and what he expects and we make justifications for that. And can I tell you, I'm the worst at that. I am. I want it on my terms. Come on, everybody wants relationship on their terms, on my terms. Here's the thing God has a set of terms and he's inviting you into it. And here's the beauty is, he gives you the grace to walk it out.
Speaker 2:Because some of you say, yeah, I know he's given terms that I can't live up to. That's not true. That's not true. That's not true. It really isn't true, it's it's. It boils down to this one thing Submitted heart Shape, form me God and help me. And you know what it's? His commitment to follow through with that, amen. So there's commands, there's a way to obey. How about this? Mediate God's presence by properly offering worship and sacrifices. Right. So, from Eden to the tabernacle, all of a sudden, there's a sacrificial worship that has to be put in play. What Adam and Eve lived in in regular conversation and what was the worship? What would have been the worship and sacrifice for Adam and Eve lived in in regular conversation and what was the worship? What would have been the worship and sacrifice for Adam and Eve? Their work, their management of it.
Speaker 2:So many times we consider work as just a way to make money, but it's actually on how you're being faithful in the earth with what he's given you. Do you understand what I'm saying? So, if you just associate your work with just a paycheck and not with bringing his kingdom into every area, how I work matters because it brings worship and glory to the Lord. How I live, how I talk, how I treat people, that brings glory to the Lord. And so when you treat that like that's something separate, I only have to do that on Sunday and Wednesdays, sometimes during the year. But no, the invitation is to a lifestyle, and in our going and our doing it brings glory to the Lord.
Speaker 2:Worship is not just singing a couple of songs, and in fact that's what cripples us many times is that we associate worship with just that, and so we wonder why we go through desert seasons week in and week out. Come on, we can live in a place of worship before the Lord. I wake up with worship on my mouth. I wake, I walk about my day bringing glory to the Lord in the way I act and respond. You know worship.
Speaker 2:Pastor Rusty used to talk about this all the time because he's, if you don't know, our Pastor Rusty man. He just lives and breathes worship, right, he floats everywhere he goes. His little wings just take him all over the place. He just lives in a constant state of worship. But he got a revelation early that he can live in that space and that's been a prayer for me. Is that God? I want to live in that space where I understand intimacy with you and I know how to live in a place of worship. Does that make sense? All right, how about this? Teach others about God's rule, expanding the sacred order beyond Eden. That was the job.
Speaker 2:What is the job also at the tabernacle is this is to make sure that God's fame is known beyond reach. So, for instance, like when the job is, moses says I've given you a promised land. I want you to take it to go. That's what it's expansion. It's expansion. What God is setting them up to do is to expand and to take this and to take it to the world.
Speaker 2:But how many know that there is a point that you can actually halt what God's trying to do? It doesn't mean you'll change his mind, but you can delay it. I wonder if there's anybody here that's ever thought about what has been delayed in my life because of my attitude towards him. I just want, I just have you, anybody else thought like that? Am I the only one that's thought like that? And I get to reading scripture like this and I get to understanding there's a bigger narrative at work and I start to wonder. Oh my goodness, I wonder how many times I sent spies into something he told me to do. The instruction was not to send spies in. The instruction was to just take them and cross over. The problem is, is everybody wanted to make sure that's okay, and I can't tell you how many times I've missed the Lord. I mean this. I mean it. I know I have. I've missed him because I've been wanting a better clarity than the one he gave me. You ever done that? I know Brian's done it. We're friends. We can say that about each other, because he absolutely knows I have too.
Speaker 2:Tabernacle is a foreshadowing of the future temples. We talked about this and that is this From the tabernacle to the temple. It was a more permanent Eden, right? So what God was doing is he's doing something in Eden, but he's manifesting himself in every season of the people group. Now what should that mean to you? You should be encouraged because he didn't forget about you In the same way that he made preparation for people to connect with him. He's also made that preparation for everyone in this room and he started by Eden and he goes into the tabernacle and then from the tabernacle we get to the temple and from the temple we know this there's same level of instructions that were in the tabernacles, the same in the temple, yet it's more permanent. Faced east presence of the Lord is in the center. There's a sacrificial system. There's a way to access him right Until what On comes the scene of Jesus, who becomes what? The ultimate sacrifice and temple right. And so we have here, so Jesus as the true tabernacle and temple. He shows up. That's why he could have so many clear directives towards the church folks.
Speaker 2:How many know that he was the harshest with church people? Yeah, if we were back there, we would be in that. We would kind of fit that mold right. He would be like he'd have his harshest words towards us and he loves us. But here's what was frustrating is that the fulfillment of everything you've been asking for is standing in front of you and you still won't see it. It's because you're too loyal to the system that was put in place in a desert garden and I'm more loyal to it that I can't even see the manifestation in front of you. I'm standing right here, I'm the answer to the prayer, I am the answer to every prophetic word that's been given.
Speaker 2:And when there was no recognition of that, that's what caused the frustration, because those people still wanted others to do and to be and to justify and to sacrifice. Right when he's saying I'm here, the ultimate sacrifice. That's why, when the church got frustrated with the disciples for not fasting, you remember that they were so frustrated. Why don't you make your disciples fast? He's like why should they fast? They have me, they have me, they see me, they understand the hour. Oh, they'll fast. That's coming, that's coming. They don't know it, they don't know it. But I won't be here long. But while I am here, there's no need. There's no need. I'm in the presence of the Lord.
Speaker 2:So this is where they get to and then from there the church is born, which is the new tabernacle, which is where all of the church is formed, where Peter and Paul begin to expand the gospel and there becomes a community, where what we begin to build another garden, and in that place the presence of the Lord is there, the invitation of the Holy Spirit. It's not just God in you, but how many know you need the Holy Spirit. If God felt it was important for all of the believers in the upper room and he believed it for himself why doesn't he believe that for you? Come on, we've got to redirect ourselves on that. That teaching's got to be taught again. We need it again. So the church is born. And then, obviously, what we talked about a few weeks ago the new heavens, new earth. Now I got us all the way to there.
Speaker 2:To get us right back to this slide right here, because I want to talk about this for a second. I want to talk about this for a second. That was your little history lesson. We're up to speed. I got one more little history bit for you that I didn't put in slides because I just want to communicate it to you. Here's something that I don't remember hearing quite often when I was growing up, but I think it's important.
Speaker 2:There's another narrative that's at work in the desert that I think we have to pay attention to Now. You may or may not know this, but I encourage you to go look it up. It's out there. You can find all the information on it. You can get it, I promise.
Speaker 2:But I want you to take notice of this particular setup and this particular setup where you see the tabernacle, how it's faced and what it's doing. Its particular layout is not foreign to the people of Israel. It's actually not a new thing to them. Now. It's a new thing in structure because God gives it to Moses. He says this is what I want you to do. But what he's doing is he's using something that has already existed before, and what it is is. This structure is also what Pharaoh would have used and Egypt uses as a war tent Almost identical, almost exactly identical. Now you say, why in the world does that even matter? I don't even know why that even matters. It matters this is that God was always trying to be very intentional about what he was doing. He wasn't just making up something so that it's unique. No, he was letting them see what you're used to when you were in bondage, when you were there in Egypt, when there was war. This is the kind of tent that would go up. So what is God saying to the people of Israel?
Speaker 2:Go back and look at Exodus 15, 15, 3. Exodus 15, 3. If I'm wrong, you can correct me after service, but Exodus 15, 3. And what does Moses recognize him? As you are a warrior. And what does Moses recognize him as you are a warrior. You are a warrior.
Speaker 2:Remember the song that's being sung? Because they just knocked off the Egyptian army? You guys, remember the old school, the horse and the rider thrown into the sea? That charismatic little ditty that we did Right here is where he's talking about it. He identifies him as what? Now? This is interesting because Moses is putting context in the eyes and the people of Israel who feel like they're in bondage. They've been saved to God, they've been brought out to him and wanted to remind them. You weren't just brought out here to die, you were brought out here to go to war. Remind them, you weren't just brought out here to die, you were brought out here to go to war.
Speaker 2:And though you say that is not God's temperament, yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. In fact, you just follow that all the way through. I give you any. I give you a couple of examples. Before I do that, I just want to say what would have normally been this same kind of setup. There was an outer court, inner court, and then there was the Holy of Holies. That's where Ramses II. You can go. He's got some hieroglyphic drawings of this kind of stuff on it so you can kind of check that out. But he would have been in the back. That's where his throne room would have been.
Speaker 2:Now, come on, people, think with me for just a second. What's God saying? God's teaching through the desert garden. He's saying listen, I'm not just leaving you alone, I'm actually going to remodel, I'm going to redeem 400 years of bondage and I'm going to give new definition to what you've seen. Because when you were at war in bondage, the leader was the emperor. He's in the back. That's where he met with his hierarchy, his group right, and he's saying no, no longer are you going to be lorded over by a king, but there is one king in your life. His name is Jesus, his name is God, and it's going to be represented by this thing that represents the presence of the Lord. What else is he saying in that space? He's like there's, there's all of this, this reminder of the people.
Speaker 2:I am with you and, listen, I didn't bring you out here for Moses to be the king. In fact, what I've said is I'm going to let my word Come on, you just have to track me. He said I know there isn't going to be a guy back here making decisions. My word is the one that will guide you. Somebody needs to pay attention this morning. You think I'm talking about Israel and you think I'm talking about Egypt and about. I'm not talking about that. I'm getting you to understand that the power of the word of the Lord on your life. Today.
Speaker 2:Most of you are so easy to lean into somebody else's opinion, but the word of the Lord is clear about you. The word of the Lord is clear. He has made himself available to you and he started at the tabernacle. He started in Eden, but he's been manifesting himself again and again and again. He's redeeming everything, all those things that you think are broken and lost and confusing, and I don't know and what will ever happen. Can I tell you he's going to redeem every single minute of it. You're going to look up one day and you're going to be like oh, look at what he did and this is what he was doing here and this is how you're going to find out. He's been in the details from the very beginning, even at the tabernacle. He's saying I'm going to redeem your bondage by showing you. I'm going to take and then move myself into that structure, and then I'm going to give you a new definition for it.
Speaker 2:It's fantastic, god's intentionality towards you, God's intentionality towards his people. You say God's not a God of war, and why would that even represent him? I don't know. I'd like to know why they kept bringing the Ark of the Covenant into battle. Come on, think with me for a second. You're thinking like I've never heard this. It'll make no sense. Well, think through it with me for just a second. You've read enough of your Bible to know that we lost the Ark of the Covenant in a war. And the reason they brought the Ark of the Covenant in the world is because that's our king, that's our representation, that's our authority, that's where our source of power comes from, and so they bring him in to change the trajectory of the war, but because their motives were wrong in using the. The motive was wrong. How many times have we tried to? Our motives have gotten in the way of us being more effective in the kingdom. Okay, I'm not talking about it, no more. I need you to hear what I'm saying. God's intentionality towards his people has always been there. It's for you.
Speaker 2:Today, I started thinking about this today. I started thinking about how many deserts are represented in this room today. Can I just be transparent with you? Last couple of weeks have just felt like desert seasons for me. You might look around and be like I don't know how. How, man, there's so many great things happening. How many know that it isn't all that's happening around you? Sometimes it's just this internal thing that's happening inside of you. There can be tons of positive, but there's just like I'm struggling to find the joy in it because the internal desert is too dry. Because the internal desert is too dry and we say well, pastor Scott, you said it yourself, you need to get before the Lord. You don't know, I'd said that about myself earlier. Yeah, I do, and I am, and I do this.
Speaker 2:But have you ever been in a season like that? Have you ever been in a season where you felt like it didn't matter what, it didn't matter what, you couldn't make a right decision? You ever feel that way. You do good and your good is bad, and you're like what is going on? Right, right, she's looking down, so she didn't see it. You know what I'm talking about. You're trying to do good. You're trying to do the things you're supposed to do. You're trying to and it just it ain't working.
Speaker 2:We prayed over some folks here a few minutes ago. They're in the desert season right now. It's hard when there's sickness in your family or sickness in a loved one and it doesn't feel like there's hope. You can't find it when you've gone through cancer battle after cancer battle and you've prayed, come on, you've prayed, you've prayed, you've had people pray, you've fasted, you've changed things and the outcome didn't change. Doesn't that feel like a desert season, when the government decided that they gonna get right and that cost you your job and panic set loose. Feels like a desert. Marriage didn't work out. You were in a contractual marriage, not a covenant marriage. Huh, and it didn't work out. Feels like a desert Loneliness.
Speaker 2:How about this one? We don't talk about it that much, but it's a real one. Just fatigue. I see it on the face of young mothers all the time. And that's not discerning. You hear me. I'm not saying oh, I'm so discerning, bro. Every young mother is drained to no end. Right, the kind of support that's needed in the family and the house and the children, and the driving and the schedules and the can I tell you that'll start to weigh on you and then you start to ask yourself am I even good at this? So that opens the door, then, for doubt that even though God blessed you with children, you doubt he blessed the right person with it. In the desert it's dry, barren, it's hard, it's just hard.
Speaker 2:But I want to change your mindset a little bit today. I want you to think through a couple questions. I'm going to ask you a question. I'm just going to elaborate on it and I'll put it up here on the screen so you can get the first one here.
Speaker 2:What if your desert season is actually full of hidden life? What if what you're walking through today that you think is isolation and loneliness? What if what you think you're walking through today is impossible because you can't see a natural solution for it? But what if? Just what if for it? But what if? Just what if beneath the surface is hidden life? One of the things that children of Israel probably realized if they were paying attention is what felt like a sentence. You know, you got us out here. I mean, you know the story. They immediately begin to do what? Complain? I'd rather go back. Bondage is better, because at least we eat better. Come on somebody. Bondage is better because we eat better, right, somebody. Bondage is better because we eat better, right.
Speaker 2:There's a place in your desert season that you can choose that way of thinking. If only it's all the if questions. If I had only done this, if I hadn't done this job and done this job, I would be in a better position. If I hadn't married her and married her, it would be better. You get in a place where you start to repeat narratives like that and I'm just telling you I think you have to change that to what if?
Speaker 2:The season I'm in right now is not an accusation towards me and my decision-making, but maybe it's an opportunity for life to come forth. Maybe your desert season is not meant to kill you but to make you. Is this a fair question? I'm telling you you should write these down because you're gonna come up to your desert season. If you're not in it already, it's coming. But I'm gonna just tell you here's a better way to approach it. When I go to pray, I'm praying this hey, I don't receive the fact that this season is going to kill me. I believe this season has new life for me, and not because I'm saying it, but because you're creating a desert garden and you have been for years an opportunity for you to be seen and you to be felt.
Speaker 2:Second question I want you to think through what if your breakthrough is just one rain away? What if your breakthrough is just one rain, one downpour away? What if your breakthrough is just one rain, one downpour away? I get this sense in this room that there is somebody in here desperate for the Holy Spirit to rain on your life. I've got to encourage you this morning. Don't give up. What if just one encounter with the Holy Spirit. What if the breakthrough you've been looking for, what if the deliverance you've been asking for, just one rainfall away?
Speaker 2:As you know that in the desert, if you were gonna frame what I'm talking about this morning or this last little bit, is five things you can find in the desert that maybe are overlooked and forgotten that when it rains in the desert, do you know that there's a thing called super bloom? Super bloom. You know what I'm talking about. You can look it up. There are things that were lying underneath the surface that one massive rain will continue to just explode life out of the sand. Right, here's what I'm trying to say to you. Just because it's buried in sand doesn't mean it's not alive. The thing that you're dealing with, the frustration, the hope just because it looks like it's buried in sand, it's one rain away. That's why I would encourage you you don't come into a service and just be like, well, if you can, no, no, I know you can. That's why I showed up you. You don't come into a service and just be like, well, if you can, no, no, I know you can. That's why I showed up here today and in fact, most of you showed up here today for this one thought. As you knew it was gonna be raining in the room. There was a chance that life could look different today. That's all about understanding. How is your desert shaping you into a stronger survivor? You know some of the most resilient animals and plants in the world are found in the desert. Here's my encouragement to you today Is it possible that your desert season is only revealing the strength that you don't even know you have? It's a developmental piece.
Speaker 2:The Lord didn't bring them to the desert to abandon them. He brought them to the desert to make them into the people that he originally called them to be. The desert wasn't a final destination. The desert was formative when we hear the word formation. He was forming them and reforming them, regenerating life, just all the sacrifice that had been given. He has turned around and redeeming in the desert.
Speaker 2:You think, man, this is so hard. Starting a business, this is the hardest thing I've ever done. There's been resistance, resistance, resistance, resistance, resistance. I don't know about you, but I used to work out. Here's one thing I remember Right In order for you to build the muscle and the capacity for more, you have to put your body against resistance. It's the resistance that qualifies you for the more.
Speaker 2:When you say I want God to do something different in my life, but you don't want to go through the resistance, the resistance is what determines your capacity. Can I just be honest with you? There's a whole generation that didn't want or couldn't fathom giving themselves over to resistance so they could be, and so what the Lord did is he allowed them to settle and to miss just shy of their promise for another generation to accept it. And I'm gonna just tell you, if you're in this room and you keep disqualifying yourself because of your age or inexperience, or all the other things that you keep saying, are the hindrances of what keeps you from being a better Christian, more involved, or I can't get connected to the church because this person hurt me over here.
Speaker 2:You can live on every excuse you want to, but can I tell you, I believe you're just at the threshold of what God wants to do in your life and if you'll just embrace the resistance, that the desert is not meant to destroy you. It's meant to make you into something. It's meant to give you capacity that, when you step into hard times, where things start to fall apart around you, instead of turning around and getting sad about it, start praying for new rain, stop getting frustrated about it and start saying what are you building in me? Oh, I see what's happening here. You wouldn't bring me into here because this is a transitional piece. This isn't forever. This is you making me into something. This is a dependency that I don't have. This is a muscle I haven't strengthened before. This is something I've never. I've never gone this way before, but you're making me into something. You have to reposition yourselves or you will get eat up by the desert.
Speaker 2:Complacency, compromise or purpose destiny strength beyond what you even know, or purpose destiny strength beyond what you even know. Do you know that many times. If you could go back and look in the spirit, brayden, who you are today versus who you were 10 years ago, your capacity is more, isn't it? Not just physically, but in the spirit. Who I was 10 years ago couldn't handle the things I'm going through today. But 10 years ago I was asking for where I am today. 10 years ago I'm asking for what I have today, but I didn't have the capacity, and if he had given it to me, it had crushed me. It was God's sovereignty, his love and care for me, him redeeming my life and the people around me, so that when I could intersect, when I had the strength to handle it.
Speaker 2:Some of you guys are facing things right now. You think I'm not strong enough. The fact that you're in it lets me know. You're strong enough With God's presence in it. Hear what I'm saying. All right, are you getting anything? Could your wilderness be the clearest place to see God? Could your wilderness be the clearest place? Do you know? One of the most beautiful places to see the planets is in a desert. Your perspective in the desert? Because there's no light pollution, there's no city pollution, there's nothing outside of a sandstorm, but in that place there's actual clarity like none other there.
Speaker 2:Do you hear what I'm saying? Could it be that in the season you feel like you're in today, I believe this can be the clearest view of God you've ever had. When you walk into it and you walked into this room and you said I can't feel him, I can't see him, I don't know him. Maybe you feel buried. This morning I'm going to just tell you look up, and I'm asking you to just ask the Father give me a clear vision of you. You didn't leave me here to abandon me. You didn't guide me here.
Speaker 2:Listen, we talk about this desert season. Well, guess what? We know this. There was, the ultimate garden had to go to the desert too. You follow me. You follow me. Who am I talking about? What am I talking about? It was Jesus. Before Jesus could even get into his ministry, he was taken into the wilderness, where that garden would be put under pressure.
Speaker 2:And what is the thing that the enemy does when he's in the wilderness? He tries to use the word to convince you. You didn't hear the first time. He uses the word to convince you that you aren't who you say you are, or the word isn't what it says about you. Save yourself. Throw yourself down. Turn these stones into bread. You're hungry, you're starving. I'm going to give you an easy way out.
Speaker 2:What did Jesus do? He continued to pivot back into his identity in Christ. There's only one voice that I have to listen to. Listen. You're gonna have to, at some point, turn and look and say I understand who I am in Christ. Here's the word of the Lord. I'm standing on it. I choose to believe that this season is just a pathway. It's just a move. It's a transition point. This isn't a lifetime.
Speaker 2:When we talk about the testimony of your son coming to Christ, right, you and I know we've been following up each week, getting feedback on that. Can I tell you there were probably times in that desert season you thought it's never gonna happen. Oh, but one rain away, one rain and where is he? Now I'm in church. I'm having long conversations with my mama in the living room, we're lifting up the name of Jesus. I'm stepping out and believing and living in something, all because you kept the right perspective in the desert season. It's possible and the testimonies are all in this room about it. Stand to your feet and close. Johnny beat me up here tonight. Today I had this shirt was given to me. Johnny, will you come? Johnny, will you come? Different type of keys. So funny man. I got that last week. I just lost my mind.
Speaker 2:I thought it was so funny If you're here this morning and you can say, Pastor Scott, I'm in a desert season right now. I need this. I need the perspective change. I need transformation in my life. I need to see this perspective of God being near to me in the midst of the hardest season. Some of you have gone through catastrophic loss after loss after loss, and it feels like it's punishment.
Speaker 2:I'm going to tell you, turn and look at the Father. He is very close that the desert, as it was for the children of Israel, as it is for us today, is but a passing through. You weren't meant to live here. Stop setting up camp, Come on. This is the word of the Lord for somebody, maybe the one walking out. But listen to me, stop setting up camp. Stop setting up camp and creating another culture. That is a lie of the enemy. This is normal. This is my life. This is the way it always is. This is the way I always will be. Let's sit around and eat worms and die.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to just tell you there's a different narrative when Christ is in the scene. When he's on the scene, you're just one rain away. You're just one recognition away the seed that you need. The who you're supposed to be is just below the surface and it's as simple as an invitation. If that's you today, you say that's me. I need you to pray for me. I want you to lift your hands. I want to pray for you today.
Speaker 2:I'm in a desert season. I need this. I need a way out. I need a way out. I need a way to look through. I need a different perspective. I want you to lift it up high. I'm not going to embarrass you. I just want you to have your hand up because I want to know who I'm praying for.
Speaker 2:Today. There's hands up all over the room, all over the room, all over the room, all over the room. Desert season. He's got you, bro. He's got you. Thank you for being honest. Thank you. You're not raising your hand to me. You're raising your hand. It's a recognition. This is my public profession.
Speaker 2:This is me saying today I need something to break in my life. I need something to change. I need a new perspective in the season I'm in. I'm tired of getting beat up. I'm tired of getting run over. I'm tired of being discouraged. In everything that comes my way, I run over. I'm tired of being discouraged and everything that comes my way. I'm tired of things coming to me and it's setting me back weeks and months. If that's, you, raise your hand. I want to pray for you. We're going to believe. We're just going to ask the Father to break off that mentality, that idea.
Speaker 2:Come on church. If you're believing and you're a prayer warrior, I want you to pray. I just want you to pray right where you're at. Come on, pray, Try to put yourself in position of where these people are today. You don't know their story, you don't know where they're at. I see you up there in the balcony. I know that story Feels like isolation, Feels like being forgotten, Feels like a demotion, feels like an abandonment.
Speaker 2:We come against it. In Jesus' name, God, I pray for crystal clarity. God, in this season, I pray right now, God, that you'd reveal yourself. God, I pray that people will begin to open up their eyes and see that this season has not been a season sent to kill them or destroy them, but it's meant to develop them. God, I pray for a strength in their muscles, a strength in their character, a strength in their relationship with you that is untouched, unmatched and noticeable to all. God, I pray that they would draw near to you in such a way that it's undeniable the strength that they draw in the desert season. God, I pray that it feels so.
Speaker 2:God, I pray that it just turned. Even today, God, the perspective, it just turns. It just turns. I don't. I don't see my problem. I see opportunity, God. I don't see where I'm falling short. I see you developing a strength in me that is uncommon. It's uncommon, and it just requires me to see you more clearly. It requires me to trust you in this season.
Speaker 2:God, we know this. If you plan for your people in Israel, if you plan for their exodus, if you planned with them in mind, you have got us in mind today, God, you have not forsaken us. You have brought us through the blood. You have brought us through the cross, God, and you brought us to a place where we can trust you, we can depend on you, God, that the season we're facing today will not mark us for forever, Not for the negative, but it will shape and form in us a capacity that we couldn't get any other way. God, for all the discouragement, all the ups, all the downs, all the promises that have been broken, all the things that are almost there and not quite there. That hindrance, that tendency, God, I pray that they would no longer look at it as a resistance to who they are, a resistance that would bring failure to them, but a resistance that makes them capable for more, because you're shaping us, you're forming us, you're transforming us constantly and you're using the desert to do it.
Speaker 2:God, I speak to every seed that's buried under the soil, Every seed that's buried under the sand. We place a demand on it in Jesus' name, God. I thank you, God, for every prayer, every thought, every intercession, God, every promise that lays right below the surface and we ask for a fresh rain, a fresh rain, a fresh rain, a fresh rain, a fresh rain. God. I pray that when they get in their cars today, God, and they head back to their homes, they don't go home thinking it's waiting for me there, but, God, they walk into their homes, God, full of life today. Expectation, God, that the rain of the glory of the Lord is with them and that today we'll start to sprout up revelation, understanding, insight, wisdom, direction. God, favor all the things that are underneath the surface. God, I pray for a super bloom in their life today.
Speaker 2:God, I pray for a tenacity in the spirit to contend for the impossible, to continue to lay hold of what's possible in the Lord. God, I pray that you would strengthen us, God, our character, to be able to withstand the pressures of the outside world. Recognizing God that you are with us and in this place, I choose to have clarity. I choose clarity, not confusion. We come against confusion in Jesus' name. I come against every spirit of confusion that has been wrapped up around your mind, hindering you from seeing him more clearly, that that's blinded you, your insufficiencies, your shortcomings, that you have used to blind you from what he sees in you. We come against that in Jesus' name Self-denial, self-doubt from what he sees in you. We come against that in Jesus' name Self-denial, self-doubt, self-hate. We come against it in Jesus' name and we pray for freedom. Freedom. We thank you today, Father. We give you glory. We give you glory. We do the crazy thing. We thank you for this season. I thank you for this season. I thank you for this season. I thank you for this season. This season, this season's producing a greater hunger for you. I thank you for this season. Without this season, I don't know how to. I don't even know how to ask you anymore. I don't know how to depend on you more. This season is what developed that. It's this season that brought glory, God. This season brought more out of my life. I give you glory for it. This sounds radical to some people in here, but you got to start thanking him for the season you're in, Even if it's one you don't quite understand yet. I thank you In this season. I can have clarity In this clarity in this season. You've spent all your time giving glory to the devil. For the season you're in, I'm giving glory to the father that in every season, when he's present, it's him. When he's there, he's with us. Come on, somebody. You got to hear this this morning. You got to change, Got to get your heart in that posture, or the devil will continue to drag you through the mud and frustrate you, frustrate your marriage, frustrate your family. No, God, I thank you for this season. I thank you for the season where I get to trust in you more. I thank you that you're stretching me in this season. I thank you that my marriage can be better. I choose to see a better version of what I am and who you are, and what we can be together. God, that's what I choose. It's a choice this morning. It's a choice this morning. He's in the desert. He's in the desert and he's building a garden. Come on, somebody's just got to say that over yourself, he's building a garden. Come on, just tap your heart, Say he's building a garden. He's building a garden. He's building a garden where the, where the presence of the Lord is in the center. He's building a garden where a sacrifice of worship is not too much to ask. It's not too much to ask. He's building a garden. He's building a garden. It's not age-related. This is every person under the sound of my voice and listen to me online, every young person in this room. He's building a garden. He's building a garden. He's transforming you. He's making something new out of you. This season is not gonna break you. It's gonna make you into exactly what he intended and you can't bypass it. Stop praying to get out of it and ask him to show up in it. Stop praying to get out of it. Start saying show me where you're at. Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? Show me. That's the posture this morning. Heavenly Father, we love you today. Thank you for your word, Thank you for your people today. Give us a new perspective, new life. There is life in the desert and it's you Help me to see it. In Jesus' name, everyone say amen, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:We hope and pray this message was encouraging and impactful. Join us live on our website or Facebook on Sundays at 9 and 11 am. You can stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at the Rock Family. Have a Jesus-filled week.