Replay | Loneliness And Wilderness with Rudy

He is glorious. Behold the one who has come for us.

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard. To get connected or to give online,

you can go to connect.hcv.church or give.hcv.church. If at any time during this message you feel called

to make a change in your life, text changeme to 970-00. Thank you and enjoy the message.

Amen. Good morning Hub City. Good morning everyone out there in YouTube world, virtual world.

Yes, I'm Chris Rudisill, affectionately known by many of you as Rudy, and God put a message on my

heart today and I pray that that he speaks through me. So two weeks ago Chris, our awesome pastor,

pulled me aside and he was like, hey Rudy, I need to talk to you. He was like, you know, I'm gonna

go on vacation these next couple weeks and John's preaching next week and I had Rick Vance lined up

to preach in two weeks but Rick's had some things going on. He's got some complications and he's not

gonna be able to do it. So I was thinking about Rhett but Rhett's on vacation and I can't ask him

to do it right now. So you know, would you be willing to do the message in two weeks?

So of course you guys already, you guys already heard it, hear the punchline. So I look at him

I'm like, so you're telling me when you knew that you needed someone to cover, I wasn't your first,

I wasn't your second. How many of, raise your hand, how many other people did Chris ask before he got to me?

But you know what, I might have been Chris's third option but I was God's first option from the

beginning. So as I'm listening to Chris talk about the message in the message series, he's like, you

know, next week John's gonna talk about the relationship that David has with the message

that he has with Saul's son Jonathan and then the following week I'm gonna have you talk about David

in the wilderness and he starts to give me a little bit of direction and I just kind of block

him out and I'm not listening. I think man, John's speaking about relationships, like that's

relationship building is what I do, like that's how I teach. When I teach I build relationships.

That would be the perfect message for me but I gotta do wilderness, not an expert on wilderness

and it took me immediately back to the last time Chris asked me to do the message and the last time

Chris asked me to do the message it was during Sunday anthems of, sorry, more Sunday morning matinee

and it was basically the same conversation. He says, you know, we're gonna start out with Avengers,

we're gonna do the movie Eighth Grade and then we're gonna move into the movie Yesterday and he

names off all these things and I stop paying attention, I think gosh, you want me to do

Yesterday. I am a middle school math teacher, I teach seventh grade, the movie Eighth Grade would

be perfect for me but you want me to do Yesterday. So God spoke to me right then and there and he

told me, Rudy, if you were gonna do the messages you were an expert on then you might just cut

corners and not hear what I had to say and the message would come from Rudy and nobody wants to

hear what Rudy has to say. So on that note let me just pray again and bring the Holy Spirit into this.

Holy Spirit come. Thank you Holy Spirit, thank you for this place, thank you for the space that you

have given us to come and hear your word, thank you for the building that you are building for us

to just use as a headquarters to spread your word. I just ask that you just come upon me and come upon

everyone in this audience today, just open us up to hear your message and just speak the words

through me that you want the crowd here and the crowd at home to hear from you and you know what

Holy Spirit, some of my words are gonna probably slip in and when that happens I just ask that you

use my words for your glory and your goodness. In Jesus name, amen. So of course that afternoon

since I'm not an expert on all things wilderness I went home and started studying everything I could

find about the wilderness. YouTube videos, I looked through the Bible and I found a whole bunch of

cool interesting facts as I was looking through all this. Trust me there's a lot to weed through

for the wilderness. The Bible itself mentions the word wilderness in some context about 300 times.

Just the story of David in the wilderness, there's 15 stories about David while he's searching and

wandering through the wilderness. He spends about a decade in the wilderness. So buckle up because

I'm going to take us through every one of those stories. We might be here all day.

Just kidding. There is a lot of great stuff in there and I encourage you over these next couple

days just to pull out first Samuel and second Samuel and look at all the stories from the time

from the time Samuel appoints Saul all the way to the time King David becomes king. There is so

much that we can learn from all these wilderness stories. So some of you know I'm a math teacher.

I mentioned it already. I gotta get back to school tomorrow.

So I want to I want to do a little audience participation. Let me let me get practiced up

pretend like I'm teaching. When Chris mentioned the wilderness and David I immediately thought

about like David like David wasn't my first thought. So shout it out if you're in faith if

you're online type it in the comment box. Just shout out for me. Work with me a little bit. Let

me feel comfortable. Who what other people in the Bible what other characters in the Bible

do you remember went through a wilderness Jesus went through the wilderness spent 40 days and

40 nights with the spirit in the wilderness. Anyone else. Moses not only did Moses Moses spent

40 years in the wilderness by himself then Moses took all of the Israelites into the wilderness

and he spent another 40 years in the wilderness. Okay. So I want to I want to share with you a

little bit about the wilderness. Okay. We see stories of all these biblical characters. Elijah

David and Saul both. Job spent time in the wilderness. John the Baptist lived in the

wilderness. Even Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus in the wilderness. So that brings me to

my first point. We will all spend time in the wilderness. Psalm 107 and verse four and five

tells us many wondered around wondered in desert wastelands finding no way to a city where they

could settle. They were hungry and thirsty and their eyes lives ebbed away. And of course you

guys already mentioned Jesus was the first one that came to my mind. Jesus spent time in the

wilderness. And Matthew four after he was baptized after God sends the dove and anoints Jesus as our

savior after he does that then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by

the devil after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights. He was hungry.

Of course I don't know about you but I don't really think about Jesus when I think about my

wilderness. I really relate to David and sometimes Paul in the New Testament. And why do I relate to

David and Paul? Because they had flaws right. They made mistakes. In fact they they made huge

mistakes. But even after there's big mistakes that they made God still used them. God anointed them.

And if God could anoint them God can anoint me. And if God can anoint me God anoints you. So I

started thinking I looked a little bit into Job and you know I really relate to David. I really

relate to Saul. But when I look at Job, Job is hard for me to relate to because like Job always

did the right thing. How many of you have read through Job or heard a message on Job? And it

seems like no matter what happens Job is always doing the right thing. Now granted Job does

get an attitude with God and get frustrated but he always seems to do the right thing.

In Job chapter one there's a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of perfect integrity

who feared God and turned away from evil. And as I read that just think man I wish that I could get

to the point where I was a Job. And we hold Job some of us hold him up in this standard of

like he has it he got it. But what we don't see in the Bible before the story of Job's story

starts do you think Job was always perfect? Do you think Job always had it? He didn't. We just don't

see that part of it but we know in that verse it says he turned from evil so at some point he must

have seen it he must have lived it. But I think we do that with Job but I also do that with people

in my life. You know we have mentors we have people we look up to and it's great. It's great

to have those people around. There's people around in our lives. You know I look up to people like

Gary Benchhoff and Rick Vance. These gentlemen are just like great men full of God's wisdom.

And I look at educators like Neil Case and Mike Watson. These guys are just great educators full

of God's grace. And it seems in my head like they always do the right thing. Now if you talk to their

wives they might give you a little different story on that. But the point being is I look up to these

guys nonetheless. But have they always been great men great women their wives that deal with them

great women of God? No. They spent time in their wilderness. They spent time being led by the Spirit

long before they became the mentors to me and you that they've become.

And they didn't do it alone. And they didn't just have one trial. They didn't just have one

tribulation. All these characters in the Bible all these mentors that I have

point two they did they had these over and over again. You see Goliath wasn't David's only giant.

You don't he didn't just kill the giant and then go to the beach. He didn't just slay the giant and

go home and accept his kingship. No after the giant he had other giants. For goodness sake Saul

was a head taller than every other person in the land and he had to deal with Saul.

And then he ran from the wilderness ran into the wilderness from Saul.

So even after David defeats Goliath he has other giants to face. And I'm not even talking about

actual human giants. David was appointed as king through Saul by God. He killed Goliath. He served

the king. He did all that. He was anointed first. Then he ends up in the wilderness.

And through the wilderness he spends a decade or so in the wilderness. Goliath wasn't the last hurdle

the last obstacle that David had to jump. And I think sometimes we get caught up thinking man bad

luck just keeps happening to me. And I just I have struggle after struggle after struggle.

And I just keep living this. Well guess what we all do right. We all have obstacles to overcome.

And we all like once one thing ends guess what here comes another.

But is it bad luck or is it just great lessons that we have to learn. Now what I want to kind

of put a spin on this. You don't go through the wilderness then get anointed by God. It's the

other way around. David received his anointment to become king long before he received his appointment

as king. You have already been anointed. You just haven't been appointed.

Jeremiah 29. We all know this one. You can probably recite it with me. For I know the plans I have for

you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.

And when God made those plans for you he didn't wait around to see you how you were going to

stumble through the wilderness before he anointed you. He didn't wait for you to be anointed.

He didn't wait to analyze and check out how you were going to deal with the bears and the snakes

to figure out what his will was going to be for you. He already knew. He appointed you as a child

of God long before your parents even met. Long before you even stepped foot in the wilderness.

So like David you're going to defeat a giant. Then you're going to go back out and tend the sheep.

Maybe learn to play the harp. Then you're going to have the king hurl a spear at your head.

And then you're going to have failed relationship after failed relationship. And you're going to go

hide in a cave somewhere in the woods. Somewhere in the wilderness. Then you're going to struggle

with addiction. Then you're going to go mingle with the enemy and the enemy's territory.

These are all stories by the way that I suggest you look up in the book of San Francisco.

Then you're going to hide in the cave in the wilderness. Wait where am I in my notes?

Then you're going to have financial hardships. You're going to stumble. You're going to fall.

You're going to get cut. You're going to get down in the dirt. You're going to be in the thicket.

You're going to get bruised and battered again and again. Wow Rudy this sounds like a really

uplifting message doesn't it?

You can choose to stay face down in the dirt or you can raise a hallelujah in the presence of your

enemies because you are not alone in the wilderness. Which is my next point. You're not alone out there.

In first Samuel chapter 22 David goes into the wilderness. David's not alone when he goes into

1 Samuel 22 · chapter mention

the wilderness. So David goes into the wilderness. He's not alone in the wilderness. He's not alone

into the wilderness. So David left Gath and took refuge in the cave of Edulum. When David's brothers

and his father's whole family heard they went down and joined him there. In addition every man who

was desperate in debt or discontented rallied around him and he became their leader. About 400 men

were with him. Sometimes we go through the wilderness and we think we're alone and we're

all by ourselves in the wilderness but we're not. There are always people around us. David had 400

family and friends and some other goofy people it says in there with him. But David had people

around us. You see there's a fine line between being alone and being lonely. And some of us

are around tons of people every single day and we feel lonely. And some of us right here in this

room full of people surrounded by people feel lonely. But I want to I want to come at you a

little bit different this morning. When you're feeling lonely you guys are all around a ton of

people. Reach out right now and say hi. Give an air high five to somebody around you right now. Do it.

Air high five. We can't touch each other. We got a social distance. Right? Now that person that you

air high fives if you're lonely reach out to them. Talk to them after the message. You're not lonely.

Find somebody. Okay. And here's a trick that I found which is my little spin. Sometimes when I'm

feeling down and depressed I'm lonely. I'm feeling dejected. Maybe it's a Saturday night and Carrie's

working and Kingston's on his video game or something. I feel down and depressed. I could

easily knock on my neighbor's door and ask them for help. But I want you to try this next time.

Instead of asking somebody for help or advice ask somebody if there's anything you need.

Ask somebody if there's anything you can do for them.

It works. I know it works. I've done it. I've text messaged people when I was feeling down.

Hey what can I do for you? How can I pray for you? Can I help you move? Can I help you do something?

It always lifts me up. Because why? Where are we when we're lonely? We are really just questioning,

doubting our self-worth. And what a better way to fulfill that question than to be worthwhile

to someone else while someone else is walking through their wilderness.

Just be careful. We can't rescue everyone from their wilderness.

Because everyone has a lesson that they need to learn in their wilderness.

I want to look at Matthew chapter 4 here. I talked about it a second ago. I want to really

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

highlight it again because some of you are going to say no Rudy but no. There are some times when

I am just alone and I don't have anyone to reach out to. But in Matthew chapter 4 it says,

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And I never really saw that first part. Did he just accidentally end up in the wilderness?

Did he just accidentally end up in the desert? Who took him there? The Spirit led him there.

So the entire time, we know the enemy shows up at one point, but the entire time God is there,

Jesus is there. Who's with him? The Spirit is leading him. So even when we're alone,

we're not truly alone. Because the Spirit is always with you. And in fact, it's in those alone times,

it's in those times where it's just you and the Spirit by yourself. That's when God really

wants to speak to you. That's when you need to lean in to the Spirit because God has something to say.

God has a lesson. Moving on to my next point, number four.

We can't cut corners. First Samuel 24 in chapter 2. I'm going to read 2 to 4. I'm going to kind of

jump around this a little bit. Saul gathered up all his men and then we see, when Saul came to the

sheep pens among the road, a cave was there and he went in to relieve himself. David and his men were

standing in the back of the cave, so his men said to him, look, this is the day the Lord told you

about when he said, I will hand your enemy over to you and you can do to him whatever you desire.

But then David got up and secretly cut the corner of Saul's rope. And then he goes on down in verse

8. After David got up, he went out of the cave. He finds Saul and he says, my Lord, the king.

And Saul looks down and David says, Saul, why do you listen to the words of people who say, look,

David intends to harm you. You can see with your own eyes that the Lord handed you over to me today

in the cave. Some of my men advised me to kill you, but I took pity on you and said, I won't lift my

hand against my Lord, my king, since he is the Lord's anointed. See, my father, look at the corner

of your robe, my hand, for I cut it off, but I didn't kill you. Look and recognize that there is

no evil rebellion in me. I ascend against you even though you are hunting me down to take my life.

Now it's a little play on words here because David technically cuts the corner of Saul's

robe and hands it to him, but honestly, David wasn't cutting corners here. He could have just

stepped up, cut the corner, killed Saul, taken to his kingship, taken his anointing, taken his

appointing, and became king. But he didn't. He waited. And we know eventually waiting, he becomes

God, he becomes king anyway. And he waits for God's timing. So I ask you guys today, don't cut

corners. Wait for God's timing. We get impatient. And John talked about it last week with Saul.

Saul cut corners. Saul couldn't wait. Saul decided to do things himself. In the second book of Samuel,

in chapter six, we read a story here about David. David and his men are moving the Ark of the Covenant

to the final resting place where David wanted it to be. And David decides he's going to build a cart

and have these oxen pull the cart. And what happens while the oxen are pulling the cart, one of the

oxen stumbles, the ark falls off the cart, and this dude named Uzzah, he reaches out to try to save

the ark and he touches it. But when he touches it, God strikes him down because he irreverently

touched the ark. Now why? What happened? David didn't take the time to research how the ark was

supposed to be moved. He didn't take the time to make sure that they were doing things the way God

intended it to be done. He cut a corner and as a result, he lost one of his men. So when we try to

take God's will into our own hands and do God's will our way, it just doesn't work.

And speaking of God's will our way, I mentioned Saul. Saul oftentimes tried to take God's will

and do it his way. John talked about this a little. In fact, John did this point last week,

almost the same point, and I was like, God, I want to use this in mine. So I'm going to use John's,

I'm going to spin it around a little bit. The fifth point I have here, are you Saul or are you David?

First Samuel 9 in verse 3, one day the donkeys of Saul's father Kish wandered off. Saul said to his

son, Kish said to his son, Saul, take one of the attendants with you and go look for the donkeys.

Saul and his attendant went through the hill country of Ephraim and then through the region of

some S word that I don't know how to pronounce, but they didn't find him. They didn't find him.

They went through the region of Shelem, nothing. Then they went through the Benjamite, Benjamite,

I probably should have practiced these words, huh? They went through the Benjamite region,

but didn't find them. Like David, Saul has his own wilderness story.

And then down in chapter, or verse 17, when Saul went to the region of Shelem,

when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told Samuel, here's the man I told you about, he will rule over my

people. So like David, God used Samuel to reveal Saul is the first king of Israel. So we see all

these parallels, all these correlations between the men, David and Saul. But when we look at the

men, David and Saul, but when we look at them, they both mess up. They both cut corners. They both do

things their own way, take God's will into their own hands. But what's the difference? Even though

they both messed up, when David messed up, he repents and he comes back to God. But when Saul

screws up, he merely says, I'm sorry, and keeps moving on. So I ask you, are you Saul or are you

David? Saul didn't have the patience to wait on God. And John told us last week, Saul pushed God

away. He even pushed away David, who was the tool that God had get. David did so many great works

for Saul and he's running after him. He was appointed, but he ends up dying alone, far away from God.

But why? Saul didn't guard his heart. Proverbs 4.23 says, guard your heart of all else, for it

determines the course of your life. If you're not guarding your life, guarding, sorry, guarding your

heart, you can easily be pulled away from God's will. The enemy is a crafty little devil. And if

you don't stay connected to God and guard your heart, you can easily be pulled away.

Now, if you came here today because you thought I was going to teach you all kinds of lessons

that we can learn from the wilderness, sorry, I'm not going to do that. I can't do that because we

all have our own wilderness. So all the lessons that we're going to have are going to look different.

What I will do is give you some steps so you can learn your own lessons and ultimately

guard your own heart. So let's get down into it. Let's look at these steps. The first step,

pay attention. When you're going through the wilderness and you see things happening around

you, pay attention. Hebrews 2.1, we must pay the most attention therefore to what we have heard,

so we do not drift away. Pay attention to when you get things right and pay attention to when

you get things wrong. Pay attention to how you stumble. Pay attention to when you do it right.

Pay attention to the advice of the mentors around you, the people around you. Pay attention

to the mistakes that other people make because we all are making mistakes in our wilderness.

We're all learning, so pay attention. You know, God speaks to me often when I'm out on a run or

I'm out in nature in the wilderness. I need to make sure that I'm aware of His voice.

So you pay attention, you see what's going on, and that leads us to the second step, reflect.

Pay attention, see what happens, but then after the fact, go back and reflect. Now I'm not saying

dwell. I'm saying reflect. What did I do that worked? What did I do that didn't? And how can

I change that? Back in chapter 17 of 1 Samuel, I'm going to tell you about the first step.

Chapter 17 of 1 Samuel, this is before the wilderness, before the giant. In fact, this is Saul talking

to David. David and Saul just having a conversation. David's begging to be the one to meet Goliath.

And in verse 34, he says, David says to Saul, your servant has been keeping his father's sheep.

When a lion or bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it. I struck it down

and it chewed the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it,

and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine

will be like one of them because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued

me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.

What did David do? David went back and he drew from an old experience and he reflected on it.

Then he used it to direct him into this incidence of killing the giant. So he took everything that

he knew before by fighting wild animals and used it when he had to fight the giant. And then we

follow David through the wilderness and we see that he uses the same pattern in the wilderness

and he continues that same pattern after he becomes king. He just goes and he reflects and

he learns from his lessons. And really it's a tribute to God's faithfulness. Now for me,

when I reflect, there's a couple songs that I really love to listen to that kind of help me

reflect. One of the songs, I kind of mentioned it earlier, Raise a Hallelujah. I just love that song

because that song reminds me that when I'm in a difficult place, God is always there in the storm.

Now if you put the other slide up for me, John, I wrote down lyrics to another song, this other

song, it's an old song from the 80s when I was a kid. It's called The Anchor Holds by a gentleman

named Ray Bolts. And I just wanted to put these lyrics up for you guys on the screen and just

kind of walk you through them. Unfortunately, I can't sing, so I'm just going to talk.

The anchor holds through the ship is battered. The anchor holds through the sails are torn.

I have fallen on my knees as I face the raging seas. The anchor holds in the spite of the storm.

And oftentimes when I hear this song, I literally weep, I literally cry because it reminds me of

what God has done in the past when I've walked through a storm. I've been beaten down, I've been

torn apart, I've been on my knees as the waters raised up, but God through it all was my anchor.

And he's held me through it. And then one of the verses, I think it's like verse three, he goes on

in this verse to say, I have been young, but I'm older now. And there has been beauty these eyes

have seen, but it was in the night through the storms of my life. That's where God proved his

love for me. And what is Ray Boltz doing in his song? He's reflecting back to all those times

where he thought he was alone in the wilderness, but he wasn't. And God was there.

So we need to pay attention to when he's there. We need to pay attention to the lessons that he

wants us to learn. Then we need to go back and reflect on where those lessons are,

what lessons we can take away. And then we need to do step three, we need to act.

Or sometimes we need to not act. See, we all want to be like David, we all relate to David,

but are we willing to not fight back? Are we willing to not speak up when it's time to not speak up?

When it's time to not speak up? You know that saying the pen is mightier than a sword?

The current social media version might be the keyboard is mightier than a sword.

Because every time I go and come up with a great clever response on the keyboard to somebody's

obnoxious Facebook post, it usually ends up being the equivalent of me falling on my own sword.

Right? Because your words cut. So I ask sometimes, is it the sword that you need?

Ephesians 6, you guys all know this, I'm sure, talks about the armor of God, 13 through 18.

I'm just going to read the whole thing to you. This is why you must take the full armor of God

so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having prepared everything to take your

stand. Stand therefore with the truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on

your chest and your feet sandaled in readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation,

take the shield of faith and with it you will be able to extinguish all the arrows, the flaming

arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is God's word.

Pray at all times in the spirit with every prayer and request and stay alert in this

with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. Now notice when the sword comes up in

there. The sword is the last thing that's mentioned. Sometimes you need the sword,

but sometimes you need to choose the shield. Sometimes we need to choose the breastplate

or the helmet. And the only way to know which sword or which weapon to choose is because we've

already paid attention and reflected and it was time to act. We said a little prayer and hopefully

picked the right lesson to reflect on. And then my last one here is my last step. Yoke yourself with

God. Now I picked the word yoke for a very specific reason. I could have picked like partner with God,

but I picked yoke for two reasons really and I'll talk about the other one in a second.

But when they choose to put oxen together, they put two oxen together, they yoke them together,

the harness, the harness, the wooden thing that connects them is called a yoke.

When they put them together they try to pair the oxen so that the oxen are of equal strength,

equal size, even actually equal demeanor. But when they pair them together, they're not equal

in strength. But when they pair them together, the first ox is an older, seasoned ox. He is trained,

he's hardy from years of routine, years of experience. The other ox is a young, a new ox,

just being trained ox. He has potential but is inexperienced. By sharing the same yoke with a

young workhorse, the elder trains the young. And not only that, the experienced one draws harder

to bear the majority of the load and because the older one leads, the younger one doesn't have to

wonder what to do. He learns from his mentor and he gains the knowledge and the skills to teach

the other ox. They are yoked together. In 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14,

2 Corinthians 6:14

do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness

or what fellowship has light without, or sorry, what fellowship has light with darkness?

Instead of yoking ourselves with unbelievers, we need to be yoked with God. We need to see God's

vision for us. We need to see his will for us. We need to let him be the stronger, mightier one

since he is, and let him lead us. And we see that in David. David spent time in the wilderness. We

get to 2 Samuel in chapter 5. David is now king. When the Pharisees heard that David, verse 17,

when the Pharisees heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they went up in full

force to search for him. But when David heard about it and went, but then David heard about it and

went down to the stronghold. Now the Philistines had come and spread out in a valley of Rephiam.

So David inquired of the Lord, David inquired of the Lord, shall I go and attack the Philistines?

Will you deliver them into my hand? Then the Lord answered him, go, for I will surely deliver him

into your hands. He went to God first. And then we see later, later on in chapter 5,

in verse 22, same thing. Once more the Philistines came up and spread out in the valley of

Rephiam. So David inquired the Lord and God answered. And then skipping down to 25. So David did as the

Lord commanded him and struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Giza. When David was

yoked with God's will, God delivered. Now if you notice the action steps here, I chose yoke for a

very specific, it was kind of hard trying to find a y word that worked. But if you notice, I've spelled

out an acronym here, pray, pay attention, reflect, act, yoke. So I spelled out, thought I was being

clever. This is probably Rudy slipping in something. But it works and the Holy Spirit took what I wanted

to say and worked with it. So if you notice, pray. So we need to pray, but pray doesn't always mean

like get on your knees and pray. And what the word that I like, and this was harder so I didn't do

it, abide. I couldn't come up with action steps for abide. But abide, abiding Jesus, abiding God.

If you abide in him, he'll abide in you. So I want to go back real quick as I finish up here and I

want to look at these four action steps, pray, through the lens of what it looks like to do it,

abiding in God and allowing God to abide through you. Pay attention. Pay attention to the lessons

God is walking you through. Pay attention to the stories that you read in the Bible. And the more

you pay attention, the more you're on God's wavelength, the better it is, the better it's

going to be for you to reflect. Because when you reflect and you take God along, it'll help with

discernment. It'll help you understand. Is that God's idea or Rudy's idea? Is that the enemy idea

or God's idea? And then act. If you go to God every single time before you act, just a quick

little prayer, it'll change the trajectory of that action just to make sure you're in God's will.

And then yoke. The enemy does a great job. The enemy, if you ever notice, the enemy doesn't

just come straight out and lie to you. The enemy just takes these like kind of truth, half lies,

small lies, and he spins it. And he doesn't turn it upside down on us. He just kind of skews it

and takes that little lie. And it can be very easy for us to believe him if we're not guarding our

hearts and we're not yoking our lives with God. So you follow these steps. You allow the Spirit

to guide you through them. You live your life abiding in the Spirit. If you abide in Him,

He will abide in you. Now, for some of you,

you say, hey, Rudy, I understand these. I get your points. I need help. So if there's something in

this message today that stuck out to you, I will encourage you to reach out to us, reach out to the

church office. In fact, we have a great way for you to do that. If you feel like Jesus is speaking

to your heart today and you're just ready to give your life to Him and abide in Him and let Him lead

you, I want you to take your cell phone out. I want you to type in the number 97-000 and text,

one word, change me. And somebody from the church office will reach out to you and they'll help you

take these action steps to bring you closer to God.

Let's pray.

Holy Spirit, thank you so much for this message.

Thank you for taking us through the wilderness, thanking us. Thank you for making us struggle

because we know that every time we struggle, every storm we walk through, you're there to guide us

if we just abide in you. Now, ask that as we move forward in our week, as we move forward in our

lives, that we just continue to come to you, paying attention and reflecting and then acting on your

will and being patient in your will for us. Just continue to watch over us, Holy Spirit.

Thank you so much for a wonderful warning. In Jesus' name.