Encounters with Jesus: Part 4 - Dear Beloved - Pastor Andrew Damazio

Hey, this is Andrew Damasio, lead pastor of Rose Church here in Portland, Oregon.

Welcome to our podcast.

Our mission here at Rose is building big people.

Becoming like Jesus in community while growing in our faith.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, I pray today's message challenges you and encourages you on your walk with Jesus.

Thank you so much for listening.

Enjoy today's podcast.

Well, uh, we are going to continue our series today.

Um, I don't know what this is, week four or five, whatever.

Um, that we are talking about this idea called Encounters with Jesus.

Encounters with Jesus.

And what we've been doing is taking these siloed stories, mainly through the book of John.

Today we're gonna get in the book of Luke, but uh not the big miracles, not the public ones, these little siloed conversations that Jesus is having with people in his ministry that we've been zoning in on.

I believe he wants to have a solo, a siloed conversation with you today, amongst this room, amongst the hundreds of people in this room and in our church, just like you, just you want to have a conversation with you today.

And um, I had a word today.

I had a whole series, I kind of mapped out the whole series.

Here's the seven weeks I want to do, and here's the topics I want to do.

Um, today was not one of them.

Uh, I had a whole sermon planned for the day over the last 10 days.

I was writing and thinking for today, but um, just something's been happening in my heart, in my spirit, something I've just been thinking about that I would feel um, quite frankly, disobedient if I didn't talk about today.

Uh just something I just can't get out of my heart that I've just been processing today.

So today's not a sermon, if you will.

Um today, I don't know, you want to call it impartation or a thought or whatever.

I just want to have a public conversation with you about some things I'm even processing this morning live with you about a situation that Jesus had in Luke chapter 3.

Luke 3 · chapter mention

So if you want to go with me in Luke chapter 3, um for those of you that newer to church, there is these four books called the Gospels.

Luke 3 · chapter mention

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

It's simply the uh biography of Jesus.

It's his life, his his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, all the life of Jesus in those four books.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are written very similarly.

They're a lot alike.

Same stories, same preface.

Uh John is a whole nother ballgame.

John, how he writes the book, is unlike the other three.

And a lot of the stories that are in John are not in the other three.

But there's only uh two stories, maybe three, that are in all of them.

And it's not the birth of Jesus.

John and Mark just don't even talk about it.

They just start with him being a grown man.

They don't even dress it.

Luke and Matthew do.

Uh, but one of the stories that is addressed in all four is the baptism and temptation of Jesus.

All four talk about it.

And I'm gonna look at Luke chapter three today, read a few verses, then we'll jump to Luke chapter four, verse one.

But Luke chapter three, 21 to 23, says this.

When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.

Let me just pause there.

I know Justin just talked about baptism.

I'll just say this: if baptism was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for you.

So if you are newer to Jesus, maybe follow Jesus for some time.

You're like, I don't need to get baptized.

If baptism was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for us too.

I would also submit, I know there's many people in our church that were raised Catholic or Lutheran or maybe got sprinkled as a child.

I'm not saying it's not valid.

I'm not saying it didn't matter.

What I'm saying is you should make a grown adult decision for you to pursue Jesus through the waters of baptism as an adult.

So if anyone in the room today was sprinkled as a child or as a baby and you've not made that full decision for yourself, I would deeply challenge you.

Baptism is coming up for you as an adult to fully commit your life to Jesus through the waters of baptism.

Good enough for Jesus?

Good enough for me.

Jesus was baptized too.

And as he was praying, look at this, heaven opened.

The Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.

And a voice from heaven says, You are my son, whom I love.

Matthew and Mark say, This is my beloved.

And with you I am well pleased.

Let's jump to Luke 4, verse 1, just a few verses down.

Luke 4:1

Jesus, now full of the Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit.

Was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

For forty days he was tempted by the by the devil.

He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.

But Jesus answered, It is written, man shall not live on bread alone.

Then the devil took him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

And he said to him, I will give you all their authority and splendor.

For it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.

If you worship me, it will be yours.

Jesus answered, It is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

And then the devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here.

For it is written.

The devil begins to quote the scripture to Jesus.

It's pretty profound.

That the devil is quoting the written word to the living word.

Um, out of context of the word.

So hear it today.

Just because the word is being spoken doesn't mean it's always coming from God.

Side note.

It says, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you and to guard you carefully.

So they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

Jesus answered, It is said, Do not put the Lord your God to the test.

When the devil had finished all this tempting, look at this, he left him until more opportune time.

Jesus, verse 14, returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news spread through the whole countryside, for he was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

I've been doing this every week with like a dear so-and-so, dear title.

My title for today is Dear Beloved.

Dear Beloved.

I'll fill in the blank as I do at the end of this sermon.

Dear beloved, dear beloved.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for your word.

God, thank you for everybody in the sign of my voice.

God, in this room, overflows, and there's some mom's room upstairs in the other overflows, wherever they're at in this room.

God, we know you're not bound to a room.

You're not bound to a space.

Wherever we're listening, would your spirit reside, speak, transform, comfort?

God, as we spend a few moments in this very um popular and known passage, um, would you speak to us?

Would you guide us?

Lord, we we thank you for these rooms in these spaces that we get to be with the gathering of the saints.

And the brothers and sisters of faith, God, I pray for this room, God, yes, uh corporately, but individually, God.

Let them have a conversation with you.

Just as you were having this story, God.

We thank you for the rain, but we're sick of it, Lord.

Would you bring the sun in your mighty name I pray?

And everyone said, How many of you've enjoyed the rain the last couple days?

Like you've actually enjoyed it.

We're booing people now.

We're booing people in church.

Um, couple observations that I must make of our text today before we jump into it.

I want to actually talk about it, it would be amiss of me if we don't even adjust these few things before we get into the text.

A few observations.

Number one, did you see that the Bible says that when Jesus is done being baptized, the Bible makes it very clear that Jesus is then led by the Spirit.

Led by the Spirit.

Which my first observation that you must understand today, that if Jesus is willing to submit to the Spirit, how much more for you and I to submit our lives to the Spirit?

Jesus, the Son of God, submitted himself to the Spirit, leading him somewhere.

One author says it is sheer ignorance when Christians don't pray.

That we just we believe that we don't need God in our life.

We got it.

We have our future, we have our five-year plan, we have our LinkedIn account, we have our connections, we have our friends, we we can take care of ourselves.

We got this.

So, first observation I want you to see today that if Jesus is willing to be submissive to the Spirit, how much more for you and I?

To even vocalize to ourselves everybody, Lord, lead me, direct me, guide me.

I don't have this figured out.

Lord, wherever you want to take me today, you are in charge.

Lead me today.

Another observation is that we have no context in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John that Jesus ever prayed to be led by the Spirit to the wilderness.

Which leads me to believe that oftentimes we're being led to places we never asked for.

We didn't we don't see Jesus praying, lead me to the wilderness, lead me to a desolate place.

No, but the Holy Spirit leads them there.

See, sometimes we have to trust in God's sovereignty more than our prayer requests.

Well, I didn't ask for this, I didn't write this in my journal.

I was even praying for this.

But God knows where you need to be, when you need to be there, how you need to get there, and we need to be submissive, saying, Lord, lead me even to places I don't even know to ask for.

I don't even know I should pray for something like that.

I don't even know I could pray to go to that place.

Lord, beyond my prayer, lead me.

First observation.

Second observation, which we will get into today, is where the Spirit led Jesus.

Not to a high place, not to a lush, flourishing land, but to a desolate place, to a dry place that the Bible calls the wilderness.

You see, the modern West has now frequently characterized this place called the wilderness where sinners go.

We believe that when we end up in a wilderness season or a dry season, that's because of sin.

It's because we made a mistake.

I want to submit to you three reasons why people end up in a wilderness season.

Number one, they send themselves there.

They exile themselves because of the decision they made.

Second, life takes them there.

They didn't ask for it, just life took them there.

Or third, which I want to get into today, God led them there.

God, the Bible says the spirit led Jesus to the wilderness.

It does not say the devil led Jesus to the wilderness.

It says the spirit led him there.

Which means I just want to submit to today, every time you find yourself in a difficult scenario, ask yourself this question: Did I put myself here?

Did life put me here, or is God leading me here?

Because if life led me here, I know how to not go here again.

If I led myself here, what am I learning from my decisions?

Or if God led me here, it's what are you trying to teach me in this place?

The text we're reading from today is not sin, not life, not self, it's God leading Jesus there through the power of the Spirit to a place called the wilderness.

This is why I want you to see today as we get into our text is the dichotomy, the paradox of these two stories.

Luke 3, Luke 4, Matthew 3, Matthew 4, Mark 1 and 2, and then John 1 and 2.

Jesus goes from hearing the voice of the Father to hearing the voice of the devil.

He goes in a blink of an eye, a moment, from hearing the voice of heaven to the voice of hell.

I think the gospel writers are putting these stories right next to each other for a reason that you can see even beloved people end up in the wilderness.

And you can go from hearing open heavens, God speaking to you, to add of nowhere going, I can't hear God's voice anymore.

And now I hear the voice of the enemy.

You see, the wilderness, friends, is a place where God seems to be silent.

Did you catch this?

Did you see in the text?

The Bible says that Luke 3, he hears the voice of heaven, open heavens.

The devil's not talking in the baptism, only God.

Yes?

And then we go to the wilderness, and now God's quiet and the devil's speaking.

Do you see the reverse of voices?

The wilderness is a place, a season, a moment in time where we feel like God has stopped talking and I only hear the voice of the enemy.

I find it very, this is what's been just stirring in my heart.

I'm just sharing for my heart.

I find it deeply annoying and challenging that when seemingly I need to hear God the most, He's silent.

If I need you to speak at any time, it's the wilderness time.

I don't need your voice when the heavens are open.

That's good enough for me.

I need your voice when it's dry and weary and parched.

Of all of the seasons, I really need you to show up, God.

It's this one.

And you go silent on me?

All I hear is the voice of the enemy right now?

This would be a really good time for you to speak up.

And notice what Jesus does.

He wrote, every time the devil talks, he says, it is written.

Listen to me.

He does not say it is said.

It is written.

Being, he's quoting what God has said in the past.

Okay, you missed it.

Okay.

I thought that was gonna hit a lot more than it did.

So meaning, in the wilderness, you don't need a new word.

You need to refresh an old word.

You don't need a God, I need I need something new right now.

Because many times He goes silent during this season.

You don't need a new word.

You need your memory to refresh yourselves of an old word.

That God said that last pursuit or that last Sunday, or when I was nine.

See, this is the thing.

What does God say to Jesus?

You are my son.

Right?

What does the devil say to Jesus three times?

If you are the son of God.

The devil always questions the last thing God said to you.

From the voice of heaven, you are my son, the devil.

If you're really the son, see, this is what's so profound about God.

He knows what's coming in your future, so he gives you words in your past.

See, there's sometimes you hear me preach, Pastor Holcomb last week, Jake next week.

You can hear these people preach and go, that wasn't really for me.

Not yet.

The word wasn't for me today.

Not yet.

And then what happens is you get led into a wilderness season and a word from a year ago, a prayer from six pursuits ago, a memory from when you were 19 starts coming back in and going, that's why God said that to me.

That's where that word came from.

And God begins to pull into your past a word that was spoken into your present.

Because it's in the wilderness moments of life where you only hear many times the voice of the enemy.

And this is what I want to lean into today.

This is what I feel.

I've just been wrestling in my heart.

Again, this is not really a sermon.

I just want to impart some stuff from my heart today.

I felt very clearly from the Lord that there's a lot of people at church today that you are in a season that you've just been hearing the voice of the enemy.

That's all you've been hearing.

And I want to show you that maybe three or four, we'll see how far we get today.

About the lies of the enemy that come during the wilderness.

I'd like to call it, because here's the thing usually the devil doesn't scream, he whispers.

He just whispers these thoughts.

And I think there's three or four things that some of you in the room, I don't know who this is for, maybe all of you, maybe some of you, that the devil's been whispering about what this season's gonna do for you.

Number one, they won't be on the screen, they're just things I'm thinking about.

Number one, I think one of the lies that has been whispered to many of you is this you're gonna come out empty-handed.

You're going to lose everything.

So you see the dichotomy of um nature in the story.

He goes from a river, which is what?

Refreshment.

Right?

Lush, flush, like water to the desert.

And this is what can happen many times is when we get to the desert, we think everything we got in the water season is gonna be stolen.

Everything I got in that last season, in the open heaven season, of the job and the friends, and the marriage and the money and the confidence that I did, everything I got in that last season is gonna be stolen from me in this season.

Because what guys, this is not deep stuff, but I think it's important.

Water can't live in the desert.

The desert dries up water.

And that's what sometimes we feel in our soul.

If I'm in this season, everything I got in the last is gonna dry up and I'm gonna lose it.

And for many of you, the voice of the enemy during the season has simply been this you're gonna lose it.

You will not come out of this season full.

You will come out empty, you will come out losing something, you will come out broke, you will come out in lack.

This season is going to take everything from you.

Do you see?

I want you to see in Luke 4, 1, the Bible says that Jesus goes in full of the Spirit.

It says he leaves the Jordan, leaves Galilee, and is full of the Spirit.

Did you see Luke chapter 4, verse 13, the very, very end?

Luke 4:13

Uh verse 14 and 15.

I think we have it on there, maybe.

Verse 14, Jesus returned in the power of the spirit.

Uh, Mark and John says he returns full of the spirit.

Do you see?

You will not come back empty.

You will come back full of the thing you need to be full of.

Yes, you might lose some stuff in the season.

Yes, you might bury some stuff out there, but you will not come back empty-handed.

It is a lie of the enemy to keep telling you, you're gonna lose everything, you will be empty-handed, you will lose every other, you will not come back with anything.

Yes, you are.

You will come back full of the spirit.

Notice the text.

I didn't get into this last service.

It does not say he would he came back full of the wilderness.

It says he came back full of the spirit.

Because one of the main goals of the wilderness season is for you to start identifying in it even when you leave it.

I can't find it, maybe you can.

In all the gospels, Jesus never references the wilderness in a sermon, ever.

He doesn't use it as something that happened to him.

It's not in the Sermon on the Mount, it's not in the upper room discourse, it's not when he ascends to heaven.

He does not address it.

I don't think that's saying it never happened.

It's saying I won't give it more power than it deserves.

Yes, I went through it, yes, it happened, but I will not keep referencing it as if I'm a man from the wilderness.

I'm not a man from the wilderness, I'm a man full of the spirit.

And when I came out of that, yes, I lost some stuff.

Yes, I left some stuff out there, but hear me.

I will come out full.

I will not leave this season empty-handed.

But this is the lie of the enemy, isn't it?

You're gonna lose it.

You're gonna lose them, you're gonna lose that.

Everything you got in that water season, that open heaven season, you are going to lose it.

It is a lie of the enemy.

You are going to come back full.

But this is what's really annoying to me, and I wish I had my TV and I would show you some Greek words and stuff, but I forgot to tell the team.

Um that's on me.

My bad.

Um I want to do a Greek word study with you for a second.

The word pneuma in Greek is the word spirit.

When you study the Holy Spirit, you get a degree in pneumatology.

The study of the spirit.

The word Greek, uh, the word pneuma in Greek is spirit.

More than that, it's the word life.

The spirit or life leads Jesus to the wilderness.

In Greek, the word wilderness is the remos.

You know what the word reamos means in Greek?

A place of no life.

In what world does the spirit of life lead me to a place of no life?

And here's the thing: when the spirit of life leads you to a place of no life, you come back full of the thing that led you there.

So Jesus is led by life, the spirit, to a place where there is no breath.

The desert is a place of it's dry.

There's no breath, there's no life, but he comes back full of life.

Hear me today, for those of you that have that the enemy whispering in your ear, you will come out of this season empty-handed.

He is a liar.

You will come back full.

Full of what?

The thing you need the most.

The second lie I think is happening for some of you is this.

If you're his beloved, why are you here?

Do you hear it?

Jesus goes from being called by the Father my beloved to not hearing the voice of the devil.

Questioning his identity, questioning if he's the son of God.

Some of you, your thought process is this if I'm truly his beloved, how am I finding myself in this season?

Because beloved people don't encounter stuff like this.

Let me ask you some rhetorical questions that you should consider.

Does the father love the son?

There's a thing about that.

Do you believe that God the Father truly loves and is pleased by his son?

Then why is he here?

Second rhetorical question.

Do you think Jesus sinned in his life?

I hope your answer is no, because otherwise we'd have some significant problems.

No, he's perfect, sinless.

So then why is he here?

Do you think he's uh disappointed his father?

No, the Bible says in Luke 3 that God says, I am well pleased in you.

So if even Jesus himself ends up in the wilderness, pleasing God fully, never sinning, being fully loved by God, and even someone like him ends up in the wilderness, why do you think you're there because of your sin?

Why do you think you're there because God doesn't love you enough?

Why do you think you're there because you're not making him happy enough for him to keep you in the last place?

If Jesus can end up there, how much more for you and I?

But this is the voice of the enemy that comes out, he doesn't love you that much.

Beloved people don't encounter this type of pain.

I don't know if I want to say what I'm thinking.

Don't tease me.

Um it's people that refuse to be led by the Spirit into the wilderness, that refuse to be God at a level he had pre-planned for them.

So so we live in a generation that prays for more oil but refuses to be squeezed.

We live in a generation that prays for more anointing but refuses to be tested.

You see, you see, the wilderness is a season of not punishment but preparation.

So so the the order of Jesus' life matters theologically speaking.

The Bible says we don't know his life really, so we know the day he's born, so day one, circumcised, day eight, we have seven days there.

We see him again for one day at twelve, and then not till thirty.

We miss a whole bunch of his life.

Do you know why Jesus does not start teaching publicly till 30?

Because in Judaism and Israel, when a man turns 30, he becomes an official adult.

Like he becomes an elder of the tribe.

So Jesus knows the customs and doesn't start teaching until he be respected by the community.

He turns 30, gets baptized, goes to the wilderness, and then the Bible says he comes back teaching, full of the power of spirit, and starts doing miracles.

There is not one time in all the gospels Jesus is recorded of doing any miracles before the wilderness.

Only after.

The sequence matters.

Grace, tested, used.

Grace tested, used.

What we want is grace, used.

The West wants grace, used, but there is a test that we cannot skip.

That God wants to do something in us in the wilderness.

That no other place can accomplish what he wants to be done.

It's the wilderness.

It's the remote.

It's the dry place that the Spirit leads us to, and we need to know that the lie of the enemy is often in our ears saying, if you are his beloved, why are you here?

The third thing I just want to unpack a little bit today is I think the third lie of the enemy that many of you are here right now is this.

This is never going to end.

The season you find yourself, you will stay in.

In the text, I think it's important that the Bible says that Jesus is never told how long he'd go to the wilderness.

It does not say that the Holy Spirit tells him, I'm leading you to the wilderness for 40 days and nights.

We are told that when he comes back, that Jesus spent 40 days and nights there.

He was not told the time frame of the season.

By the way, um one of the major things in the Old Testament with the nation of Israel is they spent 40 years in the desert.

When you look at a map, how long that process is, it's a 13-day process.

From Egypt to Canaan is a 13-day journey.

They turned a 13-day journey into a 40-year season.

Listen to me.

Your obedience cannot shorten seasons, but your disobedience can lengthen it.

Your obedience cannot shorten what God wants to do, but your disobedience can make a 13-day season into a 40-year season.

It can lengthen it.

They spent 40 years in the desert.

This is your new life.

You will not leave this.

This is your new future.

I'll say it this way.

For some of you, you're starting to build houses where you should be pitching tents.

You're starting to act like you're staying here.

You're starting to sow seed like you're going to be here a year later to reap the harvest.

You're starting to build a house and marry people.

It's like you're trying to build a community in the middle of the wilderness as if this is your new land.

And then when God comes to draw you out of it because the season's over, like I thought this was my life now.

Oh, may I say it a different way?

Some of you are starting to make permanent decisions in temporary seasons.

And isn't it really frustrating that when God actually pulls us out of a season and it's over, we look back and go, if I would have known it was about to end, I would have never made that decision.

If I knew I was six weeks away, if I knew I was three days away from this season being over, I would have never said that.

I would have never bought that.

I would have never for some of you, the voice of the enemy is simply this is it for you.

You're going to live here now.

And again, what can happen in that season if you begin to think like this is life for me, is it starts becoming a part of your identity.

You start identifying as a wilderness person.

Well, this is just who I am now.

This is just what my life is right now.

Do not allow this season.

For some of you, this season is seven days.

For some of you, it's been a month.

For some of you, maybe a few months, maybe a year.

But it's a season.

It's a moment in time that you are not called to identify with, to stay with, and act like you are never getting out.

The last thing I want to talk about for a bit is like part two of that point, or like point one B.

Some of you are like, well, I guess I guess this is my life.

I'm just gonna live here.

Then it turns into this.

Then it can turn into the last thing I want to talk about, and simply this.

The voice of the enemy is saying, I'm not going to make it.

See, the first part of that point is like, I don't like this, I don't want to live here, but I can live here, I guess.

Like this is my lot in life, these are the cards I've been dealt with, and I'm just gonna live.

And then it turns into, I'm not gonna make it.

I'm going to die out here.

I will not survive this season.

Partially that's true.

As in, you can't make it on your own.

But now you have a comforter.

Now you have someone with you who's not just been through it, but conquered it.

Jesus did not just go through the wilderness, he came out conquered, he came out victorious, he came out on top.

See, one thing you got to notice in the life of Jesus throughout the gospels is everything, and I mean everything, but a couple hours I'll show you.

Everything Jesus is doing is calculated.

It's never random, it's never just, oh, I guess this is happening.

It's all calculated, and everything he's doing is either undoing or redoing where humans failed.

Everything.

As I said, Israel lost in the wilderness for 40 years.

That's where they failed.

So, where does Jesus go to be victorious?

In the same wilderness that the previous generation had failed.

Jesus comes back victorious.

So now you and I have an aide who's been here before, who's conquered this land before.

Um, I'll say it this way Jesus does not just know the map, he knows the terrain.

What I mean by that is I could look at a map.

Like, oh yeah, river there, mountain there, passing there, drop.

I could look at the map and like give you an assessment of the map.

But I don't know how long that river is.

I don't know how deep that water is.

I don't know how slick that side of the mountain is.

For all those that are like outdoorsy, whether you're going on a rafting trip or a hiking trip, isn't it just like immediate fear when you go to like check in and get your guide and the guide's like 19?

If you're 19, we don't trust you, but uh I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding.

Right?

Like the guide's like 19, and you're like, it's my first day, I'm so excited, and you're like, I don't want the first day guy.

I don't want the first day guy.

What you want is like the 60-year-old that's walking out being like, Hey, I've done this for 40 years.

What happens?

Peace.

Trust.

Because, like, oh, you've you've done this before.

As silly as it sounds, friends, you have a guide that is not, this is not his first rodeo.

He's not the 19-year-old first day excited that, like, he is the veteran, seasoned guide that goes, Hey, follow me.

This might seem smart.

No, it's not what you think.

Come this way.

The river's not that deep, it's deeper than you think.

Don't do it.

Well, this side of the mountain, no, that side's like just we have a guide that is going to lead you through the wilderness, who's been there before and is victorious through it.

You are not alone.

And again, I don't know who this is for.

It could be for five of you, it could be for 500 of you.

I don't know.

But this is what I've come to say today.

Just simply just change from my heart, something I've just been stern thinking about.

And you can fill in the blank now.

My beloved, the wilderness is a liar.

It's a liar.

Jesus is sitting, or sorry, the devil is sitting on his throne of lies.

That's what he does.

And do you notice I said it earlier that the devil quotes scripture back to Jesus just out of context?

I don't have time to get into it, but he quotes a few verses out of a whole chapter.

And this is what sometimes the devil wants to do is he wants to come and talk on the behalf of God out of context of God's knowledge, and begins to talk to you about the Bible, about faith, or about church, and you begin to listen to the lies.

And again, I don't know who this is for, but I think there's some people today that you've spent this last season drenched with lies.

So much so you're starting to act upon them as truth.

You're starting to make decisions, friendships, money, school, business stuff, you're actually starting to act out, make some decisions.

But hear me, you're going to regret because when the season ends and you get out of it, now you look back with 2020 spiritual vision and you begin to see God's hand all over it.

But you've been you've been engulfed, you've been drenched with lies.

Some words that have been spoken over you that you are believing.

But you should not be believing.

Because the wilderness is a place where God seems silent and the devil seems so loud.

And if you're not careful, you start listening to that voice, the things he's saying, the lies he's spewing, the questions he's asking.

And notice the devil's not clever.

You're not smart, by the way.

What does he do to Eve?

Did God really say?

What does he do to Jesus?

If you are, the devil can only pervert what God has spoken.

Listen to me.

The devil has no power to create, he only has power to distort what God created.

That's why he can only ask questions, not make statements.

If you are the Son of God, did God really say?

These are the questions that many of you have just been pondering.

He's been whispering in your ears that you are, maybe you've already been making decisions, you're getting ready to make decisions, that God's like, hey, my beloved, come here.

The wilderness is a liar.

When you get out of this season, you will see what it what it is and what has been spoken.

But I think that phrase is so important as we get ready for a time of worship.

Some of you need to be reminded today that you are his beloved.

I'll ask you a question.

I think you should consider.

Do you think that you give God pleasure?

Do you think you're pleasing to him?

That's what the Bible says.

God looks at Jesus, this is my son who I am well pleased.

All the families in the room, you know this.

Your child acts differently when they know their parents are pleased with them, and that you are his beloved.

Because for some of you, the wilderness has been so painful, you stopped acting like the beloved, and you started acting like the forgotten.

And it's actually like seriously begin to mess with your psyche of yourself, of how God views you, how you view yourself.

Like I'm not the beloved.

God would never let me.

It's the voice of the enemy.

Trying to unravel some things that God has said and done in your life.

That I'm praying today as we go in a time of worship.

The Holy Spirit, the great comforter, the great physician, is gonna come do a heart surgery today.

And for some of you, I do believe this.

You do you do not need a new word.

God's gonna take your memory back.

Man.

This is why church is so important.

Because when you are raised in church and raise your family in church, sometimes just being around for 20 years, it just starts logging your memory.

And sometimes during the darkest moments, it happens to me all the time.

I will go back to when I was 11 years old.

I'll remember that moment when I was 14.

I'll remember when I was 22.

Your memory is a weapon.

Either for good or harm, you choose.

But what happens when you're in the middle of it?

I don't need God to speak a new word to me.

I need a refreshing word of and he starts bringing things back.

I go, you have always been there.

You did do it last time.

You have been faithful.

You you did, I okay, God, I remember.

And what starts happening is your memory starts building your faith.

And then what happens?

You walk out of this little season, whether it's a week or a month or whatever.

You walk out, what?

Not empty, full.

Full.

Full of what?

The Spirit.

And that's what I'm praying for today.

That happens.

I felt this last service really deeply.

Not to be cheesy.

But yesterday at the pouring rain.

I pray that happens today.

Not of literal rain.

No more, Lord.

But I pray yesterday's natural image becomes a spiritual one of today.

That his presence would fall like rain.

And every weary heart would find refreshing.

Every desolate place would find refreshing.

Every crack, every crevice, every weary, every dry and despite place, that his presence would f-it would be like a presence, and he would find what is the world with this?

Dry.

It's dry.

For some of you, that's what your soul feels like.

It's dry.

It's cracked.

It's barren.

And you need the river of God.

Many, many times in the scriptures, his presence is viewed like dew, like rain, like moisture.

Many times the Holy Spirit is viewed like oil.

That's what you need today.

Is this ever gonna end?

Yes.

Am I going to stay here forever?

No.

Am I gonna survive?

Yes.

Does God hate me?

No.

Did I do something wrong?

No.

What did I do to deserve this?

Nothing.

Why am I here?

Because God has a feature for you that you cannot comprehend or understand.

And without this moment.

You are coming, Mr.

Mr.

Money with the sweet.

Then you're tested.

Then you're used.

A tested faith is not a trusted faith.

We go through testings, friends, these seasons, these loving this moments.

But you will not come back empty, you will come back full.

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