Wilderness Mentalities - Ps Roley Thorndike

Welcome to Logan City Christian Church Podcast, where we bring God's Word to you weekly.

We pray what you hear will bring clarity to your situation and open doors in your life.

Enjoy the message.

Isn't he a wonderful God?

He's worthy of all our praise and all our worship.

We freely give it to him, don't we?

I trust you do.

Hallelujah.

Well, when Pastor Betty was here, I thought, well, just keep going, you know, I'm redundant.

Just keep going.

It's good to be encouraged by someone that's been up the road a bit further.

Hallelujah.

We've been encouraged this morning a few times to have an expectant heart.

And I just want to say again, why did you come to church today?

Well, if you came to worship God, that's good.

But we need to have an expectant heart that I just don't turn up and it happens and I

go home.

What are you expecting to receive from God?

What are you expecting to hear from God?

Are you open to hear God?

You might say, of course I am because I came to church.

No, not necessarily.

There's something about being here, but there's also something about being present while you're

here.

Being present while you're here.

Sunday morning is not a time to come into the house of God and fall asleep.

I know sometimes we're not off because we're tired and because of this and because of that.

But regularly, you know, and I'm not talking about this church particularly, but regularly

I have seen people come to church and just fall asleep.

When the preaching starts, they fall asleep.

And I thought, well, not while I'm preaching, please.

So I remember a couple of times there, you know, got rather demonstrative in my preaching

and made a lot of noise and everything else.

They couldn't go to sleep.

But anyhow, I think I better quit.

Anyhow, why are you here this morning?

Be present while you are here, not just be here.

I think that's a good thought.

So open your heart to receive this morning.

Open your heart to receive.

You might say, well, nothing particularly that I want, but you want the blessing of

God.

You want to hear what God wants to say to you today.

Open your heart to hear.

Otherwise, friend, you're in the place and it just goes over your head and you're missing

out.

Don't miss out this morning.

Let God be God and let God do what God wants to do in your life, in my life, in our lives,

in this church.

Because this world needs God.

This world needs God.

The events of this week even, the president or one of the candidates, Mr. Trump, somebody

tried to kill him.

It's not a really good look, is it?

Thank God we live in Australia.

And you see all the, I'm not knocking the Americans, but all the stuff that goes on

with their elections is to me way over the top.

But anyhow, they had their thing and he was endorsed as their candidate and whatever.

I don't know what's going to happen there.

The president is, anyhow.

And I'm not for one or the other and whatever.

But I tell you what, this world needs someone to stand up and be strong.

Needs someone to stand up and be strong.

Well, it may as well be me and you.

It doesn't have to be the president of the United States.

It would be good if one of them did, but anyhow.

We need to stand up and be strong.

Friend, the world is in a mess.

You know the world is in a mess.

You read about it, see about it.

You live in it every day.

But our heart needs to be, and I'm sure that it is mostly, that we're wanting God to do

something.

We're wanting God to move in our midst and to move in our government.

And for those of our Christian politicians in Australia, that they would stand up and

be counted as Christians.

And some of them are.

Most of them are.

Some are sort of in the background there and yes, I'm a Christian and I go to church and

they do the right thing.

But we need ones to stand up and be strong and say, no, that's not what God wants.

And the people will follow.

Some won't, but most will because they're looking for someone to lead.

Because that's a leader's job is to lead.

Not just to kowtow and bow down to every crackpot person that comes along and says, you need

to be doing this.

Oh, well, okay, I'll please you then do that.

You can't please everybody.

You know the thing I like about God?

He doesn't care what I think so much.

I need to care what he thinks.

Oh dear.

God wants us to have a good time.

He wants us in our life to have a good time.

He wants us to be joyful and happy and whatever, but he also wants us to be serious at those

right times.

And friend, I believe it's a time to be serious in God.

It's a time to be serious for our nation.

It's a time to be serious for yourself.

And this morning I want to share a few things that I trust would help you and encourage

you.

As we look at the children of Israel, and so much can be said, so much can be taken

from Exodus and Deuteronomy and all those books in the Old Testament there that tell

us about Israel and their journey.

For we know that the children of Israel being in captivity in Egypt, slavery, that they

were there making bricks out of straw and doing what they were, subservient people there.

But God had chosen them and God led them out of there.

He led them out of their slavery and He took them into the promised land.

But that's a picture of our salvation.

We're in bondage in sin and enslaved to sin.

Not because so much of what I, it's just because of sin.

We are born in sin.

It's not the sin of our parents, it's the sin that we're just born into.

We are born with a sinful nature.

And God came and set us free because Jesus died on Calvary, shed His blood, and as we

receive Him as our Saviour we are cleansed and we are free.

As they put the blood over the doorposts and the lintels of their houses when the angel

of death was passing over.

They were under the blood and the blood set them free.

The pictures are there.

The Old Testament is a picture book of the New Testament.

It's a picture book of our journey of salvation.

And then God led them out and He led them across the Red Sea.

They saw the miracles there across the Red Sea.

They were baptised in the water as it were.

They went through the waters.

We get baptised in the water for the remission of our sins.

Their enemies were cut off and drowned behind them.

And then we know that they wandered around for 40 years in the wilderness and I'm jumping

ahead of myself but anyhow they wandered around there for 40 years and then they had to go

into the Promised Land and cross Jordan.

And friend I believe the crossing of the Jordan is that time that we, is the baptism in the

Holy Spirit.

However, some might not agree, I don't know.

But let's read from Deuteronomy chapter 1.

Deuteronomy 1 · chapter mention

So we're looking here at this stage.

Oh no, I'm jumping ahead again.

My goodness.

Let me just read this.

Chapter 1, 1 to 8.

These are the words of Moses spoken to all Israel on this side of Jordan in the wilderness

in the plain, the opposite Sufa between Peran, Tofel, Laban, Hazaroth and Dizba.

You exactly know where they are, don't you?

In the 11th day's journey from, it is the 11th day journey from Horeb to Mount Sur to

Kadesh Barnea.

Now it came to pass in the 40th year of the 11th month on the first day of the month that

Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments

to them.

After he had killed this king of the Amorites and he dwelt, who dwelt in Heshbon and Og,

the king of Bashan, who dwelt in that place and there.

And on that side of Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law saying,

the Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb saying, you have dwelt long enough in this mountain.

Jordan, and take your journey and go to the mountains of the Amorites and all their neighboring

places in the plain, in the mountains and in the lowlands and in the south and in the

south coast, in the sea coast to the land of Canaan, of the Canaanites to Lebanon as

far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

See I have set the land before you, go in and possess the land which the Lord swore

unto your fathers to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to give them and their descendants after

them.

So God is saying here, or Moses is saying here and rehearsing with this, now the next

generation of Israelites that came out of, these are the kids that came out of Egypt,

not the mums and dads.

That generation perished in the wilderness, 40 years they wandered, that's a generation.

They perished in the wilderness and these are the children now that Moses is reminding

of what God said prior to just going into the promised land.

So Moses is rehearsing all that God had done, had got them to that place.

I wouldn't want to have been Moses.

I like to talk to Moses when we get to heaven, might have to join the queue, I think there

would be many that would like to talk to Moses.

But he was the pastor of some rebellious people wasn't he?

You got an easy job Rod, you haven't got rebellious people.

We're not rebellious are we?

Not intentionally.

But he was a pastor of these three million or something of them that were there and he

had some difficulties.

And the Bible says that Moses knew the ways of God.

The people saw the acts of God but Moses knew the ways of God.

Friend I tell you there is something in that that if you can get a hold of that, that can

change your life.

We just don't go looking for the miracles of God and say oh yeah God's good and God

did this and God did that.

But that we would know how God works.

We would know the ways of God and we know that, we can know that if we know the Word

of God because these are the ways of God.

This is how God does it.

This is what God wants, not what someone else says, not what Mother Mary said, not what

Aunt Jane said, not what Uncle Bill said, but what God says.

Moses knew the ways of God.

And yet out of the frustration that he felt at different times and I tell you what out

of three million people, surely he got frustrated a few times.

He struck the rock in anger and he struck it twice.

God said just strike the rock.

But that rock was Jesus.

It's a type of Jesus.

And he smote the rock in anger.

And as a result of that, God said you're not going in.

Of all that you've done and all that he did because of one thing, he didn't go in.

God said you're not entering the promised land.

And the last chapter of the book of Exodus, it tells you there how what happened to Moses.

God allowed him to go up into the mountain there and have a look across and see the promised

land but he couldn't go in.

And God buried him in that place.

No one knew where he was buried, the Bible says.

And God buried him there.

He died.

God took him.

Could I just say there's a price to pay if we don't obey?

Anyhow let me get to this.

In that chapter verse 6, it says the Lord God spoke to in Herob saying you have dwelt

around this mountain long enough.

And oh thank you.

I'm not used to people picking up my notes.

You have dwelt around this mountain long enough.

In other words, you've been going round and round and round and round the problems.

You've been going round and round and round and round with your attitudes and God is saying

fix up your attitudes and move forward.

That's my interpretation of what God is saying here but I believe it's correct.

He wanted them to move forward.

Deuteronomy, the book of Deuteronomy is an interesting book.

I just want to give you a little bit of a background.

But the key word of the book of Deuteronomy is remember.

It was a whole book about remembering this.

Remember God did this.

Remember the commandments.

And Moses is going through this with the next generation to go in who are now adults and

saying these are the commandments and he read them out to them again.

He reminded them of all the good things that God had done for them and how He provided

for them.

So the key word is remember.

The time of writing is just prior to entering the promised land.

The location is on the plains of Moab, this side of Jordan in the wilderness.

So they had come from Egypt, from Egypt.

They had gone across the Red Sea, round and round the mountain in Sinai.

They came up here to Catechisphani and then they went around and on the eastern side of

Israel and then they attacked Israel or the land of Canaan from the east.

From the east and they went westward and they were camped at that eastern place there.

And this is where Moses is speaking to them.

Just for your Bible scholars and we should all be Bible scholars to one degree or another,

the synopsis or the whole general thing of the book of Deuteronomy is in chapters 1 to

4 there's a rehearsal there of God's past dealings with Israel.

Then in chapters 5 to 11 you've got a repetition or a re-reading of the Ten Commandments and

the choice Israel had to be a separated people obedient to the divine command.

See God just didn't take, He chose Israel to be His possession.

Chosen ones.

Special people.

Thank you.

Special people.

He chose them to do that, to be that.

But to be that special people they had to do it God's way.

And we know that the people when things were going good wanted to do it God's way but when

things were going bad they wanted to do it the world's way.

In other words they didn't want the prophets to rule over them and they didn't want to

obey all that God had said.

So they said they wanted the king like the other nations had a king because they didn't

have a king.

But they had God who said to them if you do all the things that I'm wanting you to do

you I will do awesome things among you.

That was the promise.

You see they ignored these promises.

A lot of them.

And friend I want to dare say to you how many times, let me put it in personal things, how

many times have I ignored what God has said to do?

How many times have you ignored what God has said to do?

You've read it in the Word.

You've seen it in there.

You've maybe heard it preached or whatever but you haven't done it.

You've ignored it.

You've just gone and done what you've done before.

Or you tried it and it didn't work so you just said oh well I've moved on.

You see if we do it God's way awesome things can happen.

That's what he said.

Awesome things can happen.

Anyhow so God, Moses was reminding them of this particular thing.

That they were a separated people to live under that, to live under God's guidance.

Chapters 12 to 26 is the whole code of laws to be observed when they got into Canaan and

then the final words of Moses and his song and blessing in chapters 31 to 33 and then

the account of Moses' last vision of the promised land and his death in chapter 34.

So there you have a good study of Deuteronomy.

Now my notes are pretty much shot at the moment because I've jumped ahead and whatever but

let me just read what I had here because it succinctly puts it.

It had been 40 years since they left Egypt.

The journey which should have taken a few weeks had not been completed because of their

whinging and complaining and their disobedience causing frustration and heartache to their

leader Moses.

They had spent about two years camped at Mount Horeb and they refused to enter the promised

land which God had promised them so they wandered aimlessly in the desert in the wilderness

for 38 years.

That's a long time.

You think of 38 years ago.

What were you doing 38 years ago?

So if you're 80 today you were 42.

That's a long time ago.

That's a lot of living.

And they were going round and round and round and round in circles for 38 years.

They were now camped on the eastern border of Canaan, the promised land in the valley

opposite Bethphor in the uplands of Moab overlooking the Jericho and the plains of Jordan.

Moses is now speaking to this next generation.

So he said all that.

And this next generation had lived in the consequences of their father's disobedience

and rebellion.

These are the kids.

I mean they didn't know anything.

If mum said this or dad said that or if they were a bit rebellious you know and whatever

or over the meal they complained about what God was doing or what Moses was doing or something.

You know they were just there listening to it all.

And I'll say this now because I might forget to say it later.

They didn't blame their parents because these are the ones they're standing now that actually

went in and took the land.

Anyhow.

And they faced new challenges and new foes, new temptations and even new leadership as

they prepare now to go forward with Joshua under his command to take the land.

You see God is always wanting his people to move forward.

Always wanting his people to move forward.

It's been said before that if you are not moving forward you're moving backwards.

Well that's not necessarily right.

But if you're not moving forward you're going nowhere.

That's what I'd rather say.

Like I can stay here and I can move forward.

Yes I'm moving forward.

But if I stop moving forward I'm not going backwards.

I'm just stagnant.

Getting stale.

Standing in one place.

And if I do that so long and everything well then I can backslide.

Well then I'm going backwards.

But God always wants his people to move forward.

To advance.

To go on.

To progress.

And to grow up and be strong.

That's what he wants for you and me.

Now I'm not saying that you're not doing that.

I'm just saying this is what God wants.

Just keep doing it then.

It's the same for us today isn't it?

Ask yourself.

Am I growing or am I getting stagnant?

Am I staying in the one place?

Am I changing and becoming more like Jesus?

Or am I the same as I was a year ago?

Do I see growth in my Christian walk?

Or is it just the same old me as it was 40 years ago?

50 years ago.

Last year.

You see God says his ways are not our ways.

Hang on to that one.

His ways are not our ways.

His ways are not our ways.

Why did the children of Israel rebel to the extent that God denied them the entrance into

the promised land?

They had God as their deliverer coming out of Egypt.

He was their leader.

He led them through the desert.

You know, fire a pillar, pillar of fire by night, pillar of cloud by day.

You know what I mean.

He was their provider.

The manna falling from heaven every day.

Only enough sufficient for that day.

He was their warlord.

And they lived on miracle provision and miracles every day and safety.

What was their problem?

What was their problem?

I mean you think to yourself, what was their problem?

Why were they whinging and complaining?

Well, I believe it was their wrong thinking.

It was their negative mentality.

It was their negative attitude.

I can imagine, you know, being one of them and living in probably fairly rough conditions

in a tent, but it was cold and it was hot and everything else.

And maybe they had some cause to complain.

Maybe they could even justify that they had cause to complain.

But did complaining help them or hinder them?

It hindered them.

Friends, let me just say this.

I might have cause to complain about something, but if I complain, is it going to help me

or hinder me?

Is it going to help me to go forward if I complain or is it going to help me to be grumpy

and just complain more and whinge and whine?

Aussies are good at that.

Any of you that have been in the military forces, be it Air, Navy or Army, you'll know

that it's a saying that if a whinging soldier is a good soldier, a complaining soldier is

a good soldier.

He's always complaining about something, especially about anything, especially Australians.

But we're a different breed.

Oh, that's a message for another time.

You see, it's the wrong thinking, it's the wrong attitude that holds us back.

You know, I've said this to Claire so often.

My biggest job in life, my biggest task in life is to maintain my good attitude, is to

keep my attitude right.

Is that correct?

Just to keep your attitude right.

You can lose your attitude about a lot of things if you want to, but what good does

it do?

Maintain a good attitude.

It's a full-time job, I've found, about you, it's a full-time job.

Oh dear.

See, I want you to see it's not the environment, it's not the circumstances that we live in

that determines faith and hope and trust in God.

It's our attitude and response to those conditions and the environment.

Look, a simple example is a bit like road rage.

Someone cuts you off, someone does the wrong thing or they can't merge or you think, oh,

you idiot.

And you might be right in, yes they did the wrong thing and whatever, but to go on about

it is not helpful.

Just to say, you don't know what you're doing, but I do and off you go.

Confidence, coming into a roundabout, to merge in a roundabout, oh goodness me.

Be confident and just do it.

People tend to have got their blinker on, stop and do all these sorts of things and

create traffic problems and accidents and see, you can get all complaining and everything

about that, can't you?

But it doesn't do a hill of beans, it's good to complain about it.

It doesn't change them because you're not talking to them.

All you're doing is letting the frustration come out, which may be a good thing if you

can just cut it off at that point, but normally it goes on and on and you get home and you're

saying, you know that bloke cut me off of that thing and couldn't merge, they're idiots,

they don't know what they're doing.

How are they letting those old people drive?

And we can just have a good whinge and a complain.

I know you're smiling because you do it.

We all do it.

Maybe to one degree or another, but we all do it.

You see, the children of Israel, they focused on the things around them rather than what

God had promised them.

For us, we focus on the things around us rather than what God has promised us.

If you're sick and you think about the sickness all the time and not think about what God

has promised all the time, friends, you're going to just not be healed unless God sovereignly

does something, which He can do.

Some things are needful, I know, but whether we have a new car or a bigger boat or a better

job and money to live in a new house, that's not the issue, but all those things are good

things.

They're not wrong to have those things, but you can have them all and still not be happy

and fulfilled in your life.

And there are many, many, many people in the world who have all those things and they are

not fulfilled, they're not happy.

What does the Bible say?

I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than whatever.

These things won't help when you have unwanted stresses and problems and hardships and trials

that come in life that come to your life.

And these things won't help you at all.

And if you have a wilderness mentality, you'll be struggling to be the overcomer that you

need to be and God says you are.

You see, if we're thinking about the wrong things, that is the problem, as far as I can

see.

We all want to be successful and prosperous and happy in our life and that comes by allowing

the Word of God to help us see where we need to change and how to apply that Word that

will bring the change to our lives.

And I guess if you look back over a lot of preaching that you've heard, that would be

the gist of it.

It's no good giving you all the bells and whistles and everything and all the little

if it doesn't come to down, this is the problem, this is the answer, you need to do it, this

is how you do it.

You say that's a bit harsh.

It's truth.

All that God said to the children of Israel, be obedient, obey what I'm saying, do what

I'm saying, do it the way I'm telling you to do it.

This is what he said.

And this is the thing about God, that there's no correspondence ended into that.

You can't write him a letter or talk to him and say, God I don't agree with that.

Well you can but it won't make a bit of difference.

His Word is unchangeable.

If he says to do it, we need to do it.

I'm saying that if it says to do it, I need to do it too, I'm not just saying you, we

need to do it.

But see the Israelites, they didn't get it.

They saw things from their point of view and didn't see things from God's perspective.

They didn't see the way God saw it.

God said, I've chosen you and I want to be your leader and I want you to live under my

divine covering, protection, provision and everything else.

And they said, no, we don't want that.

We want to king like the other lot.

We want to till the ground.

We want to do all the stuff that the others do, nations.

So they didn't get it.

And it cost them their lives though, didn't it?

That generation died out.

And God purposefully caused them to wander around until they died out.

He said, no, that's it.

You're not going to do that, you won't enter.

The generation that died in the wilderness, they died unfulfilled and disillusioned even

though God loved them and chose them as His special people.

So Christians, we can look at them and say they were foolish, they were ungrateful.

But as we look at our own lives, are we any better?

Hmm, challenge there.

Are we full of faith and hope for the future and obeying the promises and instructions

of God's Word every day, all day?

Are we complaining, comparing, arguing away the truth of the Scripture and not applying

its life-giving principles and words and then wonder why the things don't go the way they

should go?

If you've got a roadmap and the roadmap says this is the way to Bila Mkanka out there,

but you would say, well I think I ought to go this way, you're not going to end up there.

It is that simple.

The signpost says that's the way to Bila Mkanka, wherever that is.

But you say, no, we'll go this way.

Well we know all roads lead to Bila Mkanka because you can go around the world and come

in another direction and you'll get there but that's not the smartest thing to do.

James 1.22 simply says with great, great emphasis, be doers of the Word and not hearers only,

deceiving your own selves.

Psalm 119, I'm not going to read the whole Psalm, but Psalm 119, every verse except a

couple in that of 175 or something, other verses in that Psalm, it mentions the Word

of God in every verse.

The testimony is God, the statutes of God, the Word of God, whatever it is, the mention

is there.

And so the whole thing of Psalm 119 is the Word of God is important and you need to obey

it because He's saying in that Psalm, because I do this, God you're doing that, because

I attend to your Word, you look after my life, that sort of thing.

So as we look at the attitudes of the children of Israel and see the results, it may be a

reflector of our attitudes and we will do best to take some heed.

Wilderness mentality, and that was the title of my message, wilderness mentalities, but

a wilderness mentality is wrong thinking and having a wrong attitude.

That's wilderness mentality.

And if you're finding that you seem to be not progressing in your Christian walk or

you have a problem and you don't seem to be able to overcome that problem, whatever that

problem might be, it could be that your thinking is wrong and your attitude is wrong.

Now some of you are looking at me like a bull looking at a new gate, like you've never heard

that before but I know you've heard it before.

See if you're feeling that you're in the wilderness, I believe that's the reason.

Because wilderness mentality, I'll say it again, is wrong thinking and having a wrong

attitude.

And if your thinking is wrong, this is just a, anyhow, read it, but if your thinking is

wrong, your attitudes are wrong and if you think the wrong things, you will do the wrong

things.

If you think the right things, you will do the right things because everything that you

do starts with a thought.

Remember that.

Everything you do starts with a thought.

People get murdered because someone thinks that that's what I'll do.

I'm going to kill that person.

You say, but I'm not a murderer.

No, of course you're not.

But I'm just saying the principle is that.

Banks get robbed because people think about robbing banks.

I never robbed a bank.

I never think about robbing a bank.

Have you?

You have?

Oh, okay.

But you thought about it and then you bought that thought in the captivity of Christ and

then you dealt with it and you didn't.

Good one.

But see, everything starts with a thought.

Some things become automatic though, don't they?

Like you get in your car to come to church today.

I guarantee you never got in your car and thought about everything you did.

You didn't think about walking up to the car.

Now I have to pull this handle out and that'll open the door.

Now I have to put my foot in there and that shuts the door.

Now I've got a key.

I've got to put that in there and oh, if I turn that, that's right, it goes.

And then I have to put this in there and I have to... you don't think that.

You just get in and do it.

It's automatic for you, isn't it?

Whether your car's a manual or automatic, I'm talking about your automatic reaction.

You just do it because you've done it so many times.

Friends, sometimes we get so in the automatic mode of our living that we're missing out

on the real gist of what God is wanting to do because we're saying, oh, I tried that

before or something and it's just we're in the automatic mode rather than we might be

there but we're not present.

I tell you what, I know you've heard me preach a few times, I know that.

And you've heard me say it before about thinking and all our things and if you haven't, you

can get all the tapes I suppose if you want to.

But friend, it's such a major thing that when you talk to some people and you're not trying

to psychoanalyse them, you're not trying to counsel them, you just hear what they are

saying and it's all, you're a Christian?

I'm hearing all this verbal garbage coming out of you.

And then you say you love God and you're obeying everything that God said to do.

You can't do that.

The results would be different.

So let me say it again, if your thinking is wrong, your attitude will be wrong and your

actions will be wrong and you will be wrong because every action starts with that thought

and the more you think about something, the more you'll focus your thoughts on something

and stronger the desire to activate that thought and do it.

Now, there's good and bad thoughts, isn't there?

Like you think about a good, juicy steak, yay thick, sauce, onions, potato, you got

the picture?

That's a good thought.

You can sit and look at that all day and think about that all day but if you think about

that long enough, you'll say to your wife or your husband, I really feel like a steak,

let's go and get one because it starts with a thought.

But then if you think about a wheat bix with peanut paste on top of that, you got the picture?

The dry old wheat bix and the sticky old peanut paste on top of it and you try and eat that

and I'll tell you what, that'll gum you up for a month.

It'll gum your mouth up for a month.

It's not pleasant.

You wouldn't think about that for once and say, oh, I didn't think about that at all

and you wouldn't say to your spouse then, I think we need to go and buy some wheat bix

and buy some peanut paste and really have a feast, that'd be wonderful.

It's wrong thinking.

It's just ridiculous.

It's unpleasant.

But positive thoughts are pleasant.

So you have your steak and you have the wheat bix, you have positive thoughts are pleasant,

negative thoughts are unpleasant.

So the more they thought about how worse off they were, the children of Israel, after their

miracle deliverance from Egypt, listen to this, they produced attitudes of ungratefulness,

of blame, of porous, self-pity, unteachableness and more.

And they became a foot stomping complaining rebellious people who wanted everything to

be perfect with no problems and to have immediate results.

And they didn't want to put in the effort.

And God, while you're about it, a variety of diet would be good, thank you very much,

attitude Israel.

And I'm sick of these clothes that don't even wear out and the shoes I'm wearing don't

even wear out.

I can't even get a new dress, all the ladies said.

So they're complaining but they were living in a miracle.

The Bible says that their garments never wore out.

Their shoes never wore out on their feet.

But they complained about it in any case.

Because Mrs. Jones over here, she said, these shoes, I've had them so long, I'm getting

sick of them.

Yeah, well, that's all, I never thought of that, but yeah, mine are too.

Yeah, and Jones, you remember that, and you remember, yamanyamanyamanyamanyam.

They were so blinded by their wrong attitudes, they couldn't see and appreciate all that

God was doing and that they were living in those abundant miracles every day.

They started off excited about their deliverance.

They saw the plagues, they saw the waters of the Red Sea open up, they saw their enemies

defeated and drowned.

They were free from slavery, but thankfulness and obedience to the one who delivered them

was short lived.

They took the responsibility for their future welfare and their journey from God because

they thought they could do it better.

Without me saying it all the time, are you applying what I'm saying to you, to yourself?

But God still loved them and He led them because their plans couldn't change the plan of God.

See, God will always love you and He'll always care for you and His desire is always to bring

you into a better place.

And the smart person, the spiritual person would not rebel against God or rebel against

His Word, but rather do it so that God can do what He wants to do in us.

So what are some of these wilderness mentalities?

As I said, a wilderness mentality is a wrong mindset.

In 2 Corinthians 10, 5 and 6 it says, casting down imaginations and arguments and every

high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity

every thought to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when

your obedience is fulfilled.

See, we need to cast down these imaginations, bring every thought into the captivity of

Christ.

And that is not always easy because sometimes things get so fast and happen so fast you're

caught before you realise it, but then you need to deal with it.

But see, every thought that comes, you start to think about some person and you're negative

about that person.

We need to bring that under the Word of God and captivate that thought and just hold it

there, hang on, hang on, hang on.

And then deal with it.

Is this godly thought?

Is this what God would do?

Is this what God wants?

Yes, no, whatever.

And then we deal with it.

And the last part of that verse then says, and being ready to punish all disobedience

when your obedience is fulfilled.

So when we are obeying what God said, we can deal more easily with what that thought is

and we can just deal with it and effectively fix it.

Now it's not, there's more to that than that, I know.

But bringing that thought into captivity, think about what you're thinking about.

Just don't let your brain run off and think about everything and anything because that

brings worry and whatever.

So I just listed a few things here that maybe are things that might help you because this

is what I see in the children of Israel when they went round and round in a problem and

they were stuck in the wilderness there.

They were, first thing was they were ungrateful.

They were ungrateful.

Deuteronomy 2.7 says, for the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands.

He knows you're trudging through this great wilderness.

These 40 years the Lord your God has been with you and you've lacked nothing.

But they were still ungrateful.

As I said before, their clothes didn't wear out and their sandals on their feet didn't

wear out.

And how that worked, I'm not sure.

But as their foot grew, the sandal grew.

I remember my grandmother, she used to live with us, my dad's mum.

She lived with us.

And she made me some clothes.

I was only a kid.

She made me some clothes.

And she labored away at the machine and stitched this thing up and a pair of shorts and a shirt

and I hate to say it but the shirt had buttons on it that went through the shorts.

You remember those?

And you had to button the shorts so your shorts didn't go down and you sort of had, and it

was old curtain material.

Oh grandma.

Anyhow, I must have said something but I remember these words, you ungrateful little tyke.

I never forgot it.

You can see the children of Israel, they were ungrateful as I've said quite a number of

times this morning.

That they were ungrateful but they were living in the miracle power of God.

Water, food, everything they had.

And God was with them.

What about, so we need to have an attitude of gratefulness.

Gratefulness.

Thankfulness if you like, but being grateful.

It's a challenge if you set it for yourself.

And there was a lady who wrote a book and it was called A Thousand Gifts.

Ross, Ross Camp was it?

Whatever her name was.

And she chose things and made notes of it and put it into a book of things to be grateful

for.

There's a whole story with that but like even the tree, she was grateful for this tree

outside her window.

She was grateful for the clothes that she wore.

You think about things to be grateful for, list them all out and be grateful for them.

Maybe do one every day.

That would be a good exercise even if you set yourself, say I'm going to do ten or

whatever it might be.

But anyhow, an attitude of gratefulness.

What about an attitude of just blaming the past?

Just blaming everybody else.

We blame others, blame parents, blame school teachers, blame the boss, blame the government,

blame anybody.

But it's not me.

Don't blame yourself.

You see it's the oldest thing in the book isn't it?

Genesis 3, 12 and 13.

This is where God came and sought Adam and Eve in the garden after they'd eaten of the

tree and he said what have you done?

And Adam said well this woman you gave me, she gave it to me so I ate it.

And then he said Eve, well what happened to you?

He said well the serpent that you put in the garden, so I ate it.

Blame someone else.

It's the oldest thing in the book.

It's the oldest thing in the book.

It happened in the schoolyard didn't it?

At school when you're there.

There was always the blame, with your brothers and your sisters.

Wasn't me, must have been them.

Who made the mess in the lounge?

Not me, he did.

But the next generation didn't blame their parents as far as I could see here.

They could have.

It was pretty hard living but you know they could have but they didn't.

They were the ones now Moses is speaking to and they were now like on tender hooks, we're

going to go into this promised land, we're going to take this thing.

Our parents didn't and we're not saying oh well we can't because they didn't or because

they did that well we're not as strong as we should be because they didn't look after

us well enough.

They had to sleep on a hard bed or something.

We can't blame others.

You have to take responsibility.

And the other thing is what about just the way I am?

It's just the way I am.

I was born that way.

It's just the way I am you know.

And I can't, I'm not going to change, it's just the way I am.

You've heard people say that, oh well that's just me.

That's just me, that's just the way I am.

That's the way I was born, that's the way I was made, you know whatever it might be.

That's a defeatist attitude.

You see in Judges 6 Gideon's standing there, thrashing the wheat and he's down in the thing

there cowering away because of the Midianites.

And God, the angel comes to him and says, Hail mighty man of valor.

He says, who me?

Not me.

He said, Go in this might of yours and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.

Have I not sent you?

In verse 15 he says, Oh my Lord how can I save Israel?

I indeed, in my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house.

So he was just saying, I've had it before I start.

That was his attitude, I just can't do it.

But we know the story, the end of the story is that he did and he became one of the judges

of Israel.

What about comparing yourself to others?

Comparing yourself to, it's a wilderness attitude friend.

I know if you're going to measure up to someone, there are very, very few people that you would

choose in your life to measure up to, to compare yourself with.

If you've had a good relationship with your father or with your mother, the girls with

the mother and the blokes with the father, but you know you might sort of want to measure

up to them.

It might be a spiritual leader, it might be a pastor or a teacher or some other of the

Word of God and you would want to measure to them.

But the best one is to measure to Jesus and this is how we do that, by obeying the Word

and reading the Word and loving Him and whatever.

So you know, things like, expressions like, I'll never be as good as them.

I was told at school, my brother was older than I was and he was good at school, he was

in the top one and two of the classes and I was in the other part.

And this teacher said to me one day, you know, you'll never be as good as your brother.

You'll never be the boy your brother is or the man your brother is.

You know, and that took me a long time to get rid of that because that held me down.

I'll never be as good as him, that's what he said.

And it's not a conscious thing, it's just niggles away there anyhow.

And so that's a good expression, a bad expression.

I'll never be as good as that person.

Well that person mightn't be real good anyhow, you only think they are.

What about the attitude of comparing to others and you say, huh, look at them, they're all

their new car and their new house, they think they're so good, eh?

It's a wilderness attitude, that's not doing you any good.

Is it alright if I say all this stuff?

Are you hearing what I'm saying?

Are you hearing what I'm saying?

Yeah, good, okay.

I've just got a couple more.

You know I love you and I'm just not trying to anyhow.

What about she always wears nice clothes?

You know, these ladies, that one, she always wears nice clothes.

We don't care men, do we?

You know, if you've got a nice jumper, I don't want your jumper.

I don't have to have the same jumper as you, I'm happy with what I've got.

But the ladies seem to always sort of compare about clothing.

I don't know whether that's right or wrong, shoot me dead if I'm wrong on that one, but

it just seems to be a thing.

Don't compare yourself to other people, don't cover other people's goods, don't cover their

cloak or their whatever.

You know, just be you, with God.

Let God work in you.

Let God take care of everything else and everybody else.

To Corinthians 10-12, enough of that one.

For we do not care at class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves,

but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves

are not wise.

I'll leave that one at that.

What about not taking responsibility?

What about just opting out, just dropping out, I just want to drop out of the world.

I just want the world to stop so I can get off.

I just want this situation to go away.

Take responsibility, friend.

Take responsibility, don't pass it on to someone else and want them to fix it for you.

You do something about the problem, especially your own problems.

What about being unteachable?

They think they know it all.

People that think they know it all, they don't know it all because nobody knows it all except

God.

And some Christians always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,

to Timothy 3-7 says.

What about this thinking of being unworthy?

I'm not worthy.

I'm unworthy.

Even the word is a terrible word, it's unworthy, you know.

Makes you feel bad.

You are worthy because God has made you worthy when He forgave you for your sin.

When you asked Jesus into your life and He cleansed you from your sin, He made you a

child of God.

And He said, you're my son, you're my daughter and we are now co-heirs with Him in the kingdom.

Anyhow, what about being impatient?

That's not a good attitude either.

We all struggle with that.

I think it's probably a good one.

But I tell you what, sometimes it's good to be impatient, especially if you're in the

public place and you want to go to the loo and there's nobody and there's no loo to

have, you know, or they're all occupied and you're just starting to get a bit impatient.

That's good impatience.

But there's bad impatience like getting impatient at every traffic light.

What about, hey, what about the Microsoft collapse the other day?

I think there are a few impatient people around the other day.

There sure was, I'll guarantee that.

My son was at Bunnings and he bought one or two things and he went to the checkout, didn't

know anything about this.

There was a guy in front of him who had six or seven things and he was the first that

they were processing to pay when all their computers were down.

So he's thinking, I'm going to be here for an hour, you know.

Anyhow, what they had to do, they had the person there had to use their own mobile phone

to get onto their website, which still seemed to be working, to find out what to charge.

Then they got out the old machine and the bit of paper and the card and this sort of

thing, you know.

Then they had to write on all the items.

This is taking time.

That's why we ditched all that thing a long time ago, didn't we?

And progressed to just tap the card.

But then the new cards don't have the raised up letters on the new cards so that when they

put the new cards on there, there's nothing just to write, so they had to hand write all

the numbers and the name.

It just took him 35 minutes to get four items and then he had to step up to the plate for

his two items.

Took him an hour to get out of the shop.

Patience.

Poor girl couldn't do anything about it.

Anyhow, there you go.

But having patience is not my ability to wait, but my ability to have a good attitude while

I wait.

That's patience.

What about pride?

Well, you know, we know about that one.

Pride.

And others.

And there are plenty of others that we could talk about, but we're not going to talk about

them this morning.

Enough has been said.

I think you get the idea.

Friend, the thing that you think about is so important because it reflects your attitudes

and it brings things.

Think good things.

What did the Bible say?

Whatever things are pure, whatever things are just, whatever things are holy, righteous,

good.

Think on those things.

Sometimes when we're just sitting and we're just stargazing, you know, we're just sitting

there having a cup of coffee and looking at what's going on and our mind just starts to

wander.

That's a dangerous time.

Don't let your mind wander.

Direct your mind to good things.

Think on the good things.

You see, God's ways are higher than our ways because there's a way that seems right to

man, the Bible says in Proverbs 16, 25, but in the end, the way is death.

My ways are higher than your ways.

My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.

Friends, God's way is best.

Some people live in the wilderness and some people pass through the wilderness.

Be one that passes through the wilderness.

You might be in the wilderness, but you're moving through it.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Yea, though I walk through the valley.

I'm not camping in there.

I'm not staying in there.

I walk through the valley.

I walk through the wilderness, but those that live in the wilderness, they're the negative

people.

They're the ones that complainers.

All those sorts of things.

Don't be one of those.

Don't live an unfilled, miserable life as though you're stuck or bogged down wishing

you were somewhere else.

Get somewhere else.

Do something to be somewhere else.

Have you tarried and camped and skirted this problem long enough, the Bible says.

It's time to take the promises of God and apply them to your life.

Move forward with joy and the freedom that God has given you.

So that's the best part.

Move forward.

Move forward.

Let God be God.

Let God be God.

Oh Father, I just thank you for every person that's in this place this morning.

I pray God your blessing over them, Father, in their living and in their lives, in their

daily lives and whatever they're doing that Lord, we would as pastor say that communion

this morning Lord that we should just be... I forget what you said.

Lord Jesus help me.

Think about God all the time.

Think about God all the time during the day.

Take him with you.

That is the thing.

And so Father help us to do that.

Bless these ones Lord.

Bless these ones Father.

I thank you Lord for every person here.

Lord that you would watch over them.

Help them in their living.

Lord help them to see the truth of your word and apply the truth to bring change into their

lives and while your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed.

Friend if you're here this morning and I know there are visitors here today and if I've

preached a bit long I'm sorry about that.

But if you're here this morning and you've never asked Jesus to be your savior, if you've

never asked him to forgive you for your sin and you say well I don't know whether I have

or I haven't.

If you have you will know.

If you haven't you don't know and you need to do that.

The Bible says and Jesus said it you must be born again because if you're not born again

you can't understand the things of the kingdom of God and if you're not born again you're

living in your sin and that sin separates from God.

But what Jesus did on the cross when he died for you and shed his blood for you and as

we receive that sacrifice personally into our lives he forgives you for your sin and

he links you into God that your spirit becomes one spirit with him and you are born again.

That's what you need to do this morning.

If you're not born again this morning while every head is bowed and every eye is closed

no one looking around please.

If you're here this morning and I know that some of you were all here this morning but

if you're here and you've never given your life to Jesus I want you to raise your hand

and saying that you're saying yes I want to give my life to Jesus.

Thank you.

I see those hands.

Thank you.

God bless you.

You can put them down right now.

You see Jesus said if you acknowledge me before men I'll acknowledge you before my Father

in heaven.

But if you deny me before men I'll deny you before my Father in heaven.

Is there anyone else this morning you want to give your life to Jesus?

Those of you that are watching this morning online you need to give your life to Jesus.

You need to let God come into your life and cleanse you from your sin and be born again

and then let God touch your life with newness and joy and everything that he says in his

word for you.

You need to open your heart to him this morning and I see some of you there watching this

morning in your lounge rooms and you're struggling with that.

You're struggling and you're saying I don't know whether I can trust this.

I don't know whether.

You can trust God friend.

I've been saved for 60 something years and I say yes you can trust God.

He's never let me down friend.

He'll never let you down.

Give your life to him today and when you do that just pray this simple prayer.

Lord Jesus come into my life.

I confess my sin before you.

I give you my life.

Come and be my Savior and my Lord.

And my friend I receive you as my Savior now in Jesus name.

If you've said that prayer friend watching online you just let us know.

Send us an email.

Come to this church whatever you like.

No pressure but we'd just like to help you talk with you if that's what you want to do.

The information is there on the screen for you to do that.

So God bless you.

While your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed one more time.

Is there anybody else here this morning you want to give your life to Jesus?

Anybody?

Could I ask you?

There's two folk up the back that raised your hand.

Would you come to the front and let me pray for you?

Jesus said if you deny me before men I'll deny you before my Father but you're acknowledging

me right now.

You're acknowledging God and he will bless you.

He'll encourage you.

Hallelujah.

Thank you for joining us.

We pray God's richest blessing on your life.

If you haven't already make sure to join us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

You can also find us at LoganCityChristianChurch.com.

See you next week.