Water in the Wilderness - Part 3

[00:00:01] I liken it considered the wilderness. [00:00:05] And living in Colorado, you probably have lots of opportunities for the wilderness. [00:00:11] What's a wilderness place you might think about at this particular time in your life? [00:00:23] The good old wilderness. [00:00:26] You know, I think about living in Colorado, but for me, what I really enjoyed in the wilderness was from 1993 to 2019, almost every year I went to northern Canada to fish. [00:00:41] We went to a lake that was 200 miles long. [00:00:44] We went 17 miles by water where we fished. [00:00:49] And we spent probably 15 hours a day on the water. [00:00:56] It was so invigorating. [00:00:59] And yet you're out in the middle of nowhere. [00:01:03] You're way up in northern Canada. In fact, it's as far as it is to get to the border. We had to drive that much further in Canada to get there just so we could enjoy the wilderness. [00:01:17] We want to talk about water in the wilderness. [00:01:22] That sort of reminds me of where we were, only it was much bigger than water. [00:01:30] What about water in the wilderness? [00:01:35] What does that say to you? When I think of it, I think of a place here in America where I was. [00:01:44] And that is up here. You know where that is. [00:01:48] Niagara Falls. How many of you been to Niagara Falls? [00:01:54] Wow. [00:01:56] I thought there'd be a bunch of. You raise your hand. [00:01:59] An impressive place, you know, and you take the boat out there right next to those falls, and you feel the power of that water coming down as it rocks your boat. [00:02:14] Or if the wind comes up, you'll feel the power of the spray coming off of it as it hits you in the face. [00:02:22] There's something awesome about a place like Niagara Falls. [00:02:32] And then how about this slide that was just last week. Where was that? [00:02:42] That was on the east coast. [00:02:44] Now there's the effect of frozen water, right? Does that look like a lot of fun? [00:02:52] I don't think those guys were experiencing a lot of fun with that. They were digging out of a lot of snow. And if you saw a lot of the pictures, that was a very tough time for a lot of people with the snow like that. And I know we all love snow, but sometimes you can get too much. [00:03:11] You can, can't you? And that's one of those examples as we read through the Bible. [00:03:20] Wilderness is a very important place throughout our scriptures, both good and bad. [00:03:31] Just like here we have these wonderful wilderness areas all around us and. And yet sometimes they can be a really good place. And sometimes we hear about people who get lost and somebody has to find them. And sometimes it doesn't end well. [00:03:53] And so our Lenten journey Is water in the wilderness? [00:03:59] Pastor in his newsletter this month, wrote about that. And I. [00:04:03] I'm going to reread a section of what he wrote because I thought it was really good for us to think about this. [00:04:10] We follow Jesus into the wilderness, a place of dryness, silence, and testing. [00:04:19] Scripture often portrays the wilderness as a land without water, where the people of God are brought face to face with their limits. [00:04:33] Do we have limits? [00:04:36] All of us do, don't we? [00:04:41] Have we ever been tested? [00:04:45] Anybody here never been tested? [00:04:48] I don't see any hands. [00:04:50] Why is that? [00:04:52] Because we all go through testings every year. We do this 40 day journey we call Lent. Why do we do that? [00:05:04] It seems like it's just repetition, right? [00:05:08] Is it because we need to focus on what God has done for us? [00:05:18] And in these 40 days, we are reminded that you and I are. We can't save ourselves. [00:05:26] You hear about that in school as you go through things. We can't save ourselves, can we? [00:05:33] I know we'd like to, but at our very best, what happens? [00:05:42] What do we do? [00:05:44] What? [00:05:46] Okay, yeah, that's what happens sometimes. [00:05:52] And yet, as we live out our lives and as we realize that we can't save ourselves, we need a savior. [00:06:01] And we also, in life experience change, don't we? [00:06:08] Any of you changed? [00:06:11] You know, I was here a few years ago and I see some faces that. You know what, you've changed a little bit since I last saw you. [00:06:19] Why is that? [00:06:23] Yeah, you got a little older and you look still the same, but some of you look a little bit different now than you did then. [00:06:30] Change is a part of our lives. [00:06:34] And so in Genesis, God talks about creating the world, doesn't he? [00:06:41] And then he talks about sin entering into the world in chapter three. [00:06:47] And then we have the flood and we have the Tower of Babel. And then in chapter 12, God forms a people through who. [00:07:00] Who does he use to do that? [00:07:02] What's his name? [00:07:06] Ah, Abraham and Abraham and his sons. And you know, when the book of Genesis ends, you end there with, they're settled in where? [00:07:20] Egypt. Egypt. And you know what? They're settled in Egypt. And everything seems to be hunky dory. But like Pastor Hesse said last week, 430 years later, what happened? [00:07:31] Little bit of time, right? [00:07:34] Think about that. 430 years. [00:07:37] You know, I'm an old guy, but I got a long way to go to get there. [00:07:43] I'll never see it, but the reality is it's at 430 years. And then we have our Old Testament Read. [00:07:50] God hears the cries of his people and he wants to lead them out of slavery in Egypt. Things are tough. They need a change. [00:08:04] They need something different. [00:08:06] And so we read about how God sends Moses. [00:08:11] Now Moses in this first plague. What did he do? [00:08:17] What does he do? [00:08:18] What's the first? How many plagues were there? [00:08:22] Well, seven's cause. [00:08:25] Come on, you guys know this. How many plagues? 10. 10. There we go. I heard it. 10 plagues. This was the first one. So how many more plagues did he have to do to get Pharaoh's attention? [00:08:39] Nine more plagues. This seems like a pretty powerful plague actually, if you think about it. What did Moses tell Moses to do? [00:08:51] Turn the water into blood. How is he supposed to do that? Put his staff in the water. [00:08:56] And what happens? [00:08:59] The water turns to blood. [00:09:03] And what happens for all of God's people? [00:09:10] Becomes a difficult time, doesn't it? For seven days it tells us that the water to turned to blood. [00:09:19] Think that got a little old? [00:09:23] I think that got a little old. [00:09:26] And yet what happened with Pharaoh? [00:09:32] His heart got hardened and so did he change? [00:09:42] No. [00:09:43] It took nine more plagues. And finally what's the plague that changed Pharaoh's heart for a moment? [00:09:55] Pardon? [00:09:57] Okay, with the angel of death and your firstborn male, where the blood was not over the door place. What happened? [00:10:08] They died. [00:10:11] Pretty interesting. You stop and think about it. [00:10:14] God leads his people out of Egypt because why? [00:10:22] Why does God care about the Egyptians? I mean the. Yeah, well, maybe the Egyptians too. But the Israelites, They're his people. And through this people, he's going to be what? [00:10:41] Send us a savior. [00:10:43] Okay, so we have all this going on in the Old Testament, all these changes. Which then brings us to the gospel reading for the day. And here now we come. [00:10:54] Jesus in John is. Where is he at? [00:11:06] And what happens at the wedding? [00:11:10] They ran out of wine. Yeah. And so. [00:11:14] Yeah, we gotta. Okay, let's go to the next slide. [00:11:18] There we are. [00:11:20] We got those six jars, right? Big ones, was it? 25 to 30 gallons, right. [00:11:27] That's a lot of water. [00:11:29] And what did Jesus do? [00:11:32] He turned it all into wine. He turned it all into wine. And not just turning it into wine, it was the. What? [00:11:41] The best wine. [00:11:43] How about that? [00:11:45] I know you guys probably don't know about wine too much yet, but some of the adults do. So you know, it's one of those things. Yeah, but it was a happy time. So here we have changed wine in the Old Testament wasn't a very good thing, was it? [00:12:00] But here we have water change. That is a celebration. It's a very happy time for God's people. [00:12:10] And so look at what happens. Water turned to wine. Now, I was going to do that where I brought water in here to this little thing. So it changed right in front of you. But then I looked at all the things I got to do, and it was a little tricky. So I said, nah, I'm not going to do that. [00:12:31] But I thought about it anyway, so we can have a change. [00:12:35] Okay. [00:12:36] Well, changes in each of these readings have different effects for people. [00:12:46] One, it causes them to deal with some really uncomfortable things in their lives, and the other one was a time of celebrating. [00:12:59] Do we ever have wilderness experiences? [00:13:03] Yeah, life sometimes throws some real challenges at it, doesn't it? [00:13:09] Have you ever had something that was difficult for you to do? [00:13:16] Anybody in school or had difficulty with the subject? [00:13:24] Some of you are saying, yeah, some of you just bowed your head. You didn't want to let me know. [00:13:29] That's all right. That's all right. Because, you know, I didn't always like everything in school either. [00:13:34] But, you know, that's the way life is sometimes. But wilderness experiences we all go through. [00:13:42] And when pastor talked about that place of dryness, silence and testing, that's why the wilderness journey we are taking in this Lenten season, because we need to think about that in our own lives. [00:13:58] We get tested. [00:14:01] Sometimes we struggle, and sometimes change is difficult, you know, and as adults, I can tell you it gets really hard to change, especially as you get older, because we remember the way it used to always be, and that's the way we want it. Right. [00:14:22] I see they're all sitting back here because they know I'm right. [00:14:30] But that's a part of life, is the well. What's the good news we have? [00:14:38] You see that I put the water in a baptismal font for a reason. [00:14:44] What's important about water in a baptismal font, you get baptized, and when you're baptized, you become a child of God. So everyone who's been baptized is a child of God. And that's the good news we have for our lives and is that God has called us to be his children. He knows us by name. [00:15:09] And then as we make this journey in these 40 days, we come to Holy Week and what happens there? [00:15:18] Jesus comes to Jerusalem, where there he would suffer and die. [00:15:26] And on Good Friday, he would be put on a cross for you and for me. [00:15:32] But is that the end? [00:15:36] No. We got the good news, don't we? Because that's the reality of what we talk about. This season of Lent is a time for us to reflect on our own sinfulness. For the dryness at times when we turn our backs on God. Ever do that? [00:15:53] I know we all do it sometimes. [00:15:56] And the wilderness exposes our weaknesses, our sins. [00:16:04] But what's the good news? [00:16:09] What's the good news? You all know it. [00:16:13] Jesus died for us, didn't he? [00:16:17] And what did he do on Easter? [00:16:21] He rose again so that we may have life in his name. And so it's important for us to make that journey to the cross where we see suffering, death. Because we know something even more important. [00:16:35] Death could not contain him. [00:16:38] We know that our Lord rose. And because he rose, we too have what? [00:16:46] We have life in his name, don't we? Each one of us. Okay. So we need to reflect. [00:16:54] Our Savior did bleed. We need to ponder that wondrous cross.