I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Psalm 42:1-2a
1
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2a
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
-- Bugs Bunny once famously said
that he took a wrong turn in Albuquerque -- having been back for a week now
from my trip out there, I fully understand what he means -- I took a wrong turn
out there, too
-- earlier this week I found myself
getting sick, and now it has developed into a full-blown summer cold, and I
blame it all on Albuquerque -- traveling puts stress on the body -- and being
in an airplane for extended periods of time can lead to you catching whatever
anyone else on that plane has
-- but traveling to Albuquerque put
me under a different stress without me even knowing it -- because Albuquerque
is in the southwest, I thought it would be a lot hotter than it was -- I was
surprised at how cool it was and how pleasant the temperatures there actually
were in the afternoons when we finally got out of our class and were able to go
out and explore
-- but that’s when I took my wrong
turn -- because it was so cool and because I had been suffering through the
unusual 100-degree heat here in south Georgia, I got off my normal schedule of
hydration -- I didn’t carry a water bottle with me and I didn’t drink as much
water as normal and I ended up getting dehydrated, which probably helped lead
to the cold I’ve got now
-- it turns out that Albuquerque is considered
a high desert area -- when we think of desert regions, we typically think of
places like the Sahara or the Mohave -- areas with vast amounts of sand and
sand dunes and no vegetation -- areas that are extremely hot and dry during the
day -- since Albuquerque wasn’t like that, it never crossed my mind that it
might be a desert, too
-- it turns out that Albuquerque is
in a region that they call “high desert” -- a high desert occurs at higher
elevations -- the city of Albuquerque is actually at about 6,000 feet, and we
traveled up to the top of the Sandia mountains, which were over 12,000 feet --
so, high deserts are literally high
-- and, they are dry -- you don’t
realize it because the temperatures aren’t blistering hot like in the Sahara
and there’s vegetation out there, but the area just doesn’t get the amounts of
rainfall you would expect -- it gets so little rainfall -- and what it gets
just evaporates away -- that it is considered a desert -- and, so, because I
didn’t get hot while I was out there, I didn’t drink water like I should -- and
that put me in a state of dehydration -- adding the dehydration to the stress
of being away from home and the stress of traveling through airports and being
stuffed in an airplane for hours on end resulted in my body getting weakened
and the cold I have now picked up
-- so, yes, like Bugs Bunny, I took
a wrong turn in Albuquerque and ended up getting sick
II. Wrong Turns and Desert Living
-- wrong turns happen to us all the
time, and if we’re not careful, wrong turns in our spiritual lives can lead us
into deserts just like those in Albuquerque and the Sahara -- not physical
deserts -- but spiritual deserts -- places of spiritual drought and dryness and
a lack of connectedness to the River of Life and the springs of refreshing that
come from the Holy Spirit
-- here in Psalm 42, we see the
Psalmist has taken a wrong turn and ended up in just such a place -- look back
at verse 1 again
1
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2a
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
-- he is in a dry and dusty land --
he thirsts for God and the presence of God -- just like the deer pants for
streams of water, the Psalmist says that his soul pants for God
-- if you’re like most people, you
understand the Psalmist -- you know what he’s going through because you’ve been
there, too
-- all of us have been through times
of spiritual dryness in our lives -- all of us have walked through spiritual
deserts from time to time -- it happens to even the most devout Christian -- it
happens to you and to me
-- spiritual dryness can take many forms
-- hopelessness -- depression -- sense of lack of purpose -- lack of meaning --
lack of results
-- we find ourselves serving out of
duty and not out of an anointing or calling by God -- we’re just going through
the motions -- just doing programs and doing things for others while we feel
disconnected and distant from God -- apart from Him and from His presence and
power
-- our faith is no longer contagious
-- others do not sense God’s presence in us or in the things we do -- we’re in
a spiritual rut -- just drifting along in our lives without meaning or purpose
-- dry -- dusty -- thirsty -- seeking something or Someone to quench our thirst
-- we’re like David as he calls out
in Psalm 63:1, ‘You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no
water.’
-- we’re in a desert, even if we
didn’t recognize it at first
-- look back at the second part of
verse 2
2b
When can I go and meet with God?
3
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while
people say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
4
These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how
I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One
with
shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.
-- the things of God no longer quench
the thirst of the Psalmist -- he goes through the motions of religion -- he
goes to temple -- he goes to church -- he seeks God as in the past -- but he
doesn’t find God like he used to
-- people recognize God is not with
him any longer -- they ask, “where is your God? -- why are you going through
this? -- why are you sad? -- why are you depressed? -- why are you angry?” --
it’s noticeable -- this spiritual dryness permeates his very being
-- he remembers how it used to be --
how he used to go with the multitude to the house of God -- actually leading
them there -- how he used to come to church in joy and thanksgiving -- knowing
that God would meet him there -- knowing that God would be there and that God
would be in his life -- but he hasn’t felt that way about church in a while --
he hasn’t felt that way about God in a while
-- it’s just like Allen Parr wrote:
“Have you ever gone through a season where you’ve felt spiritually disconnected
and dry? -- I mean at one point in your life you can remember that you were “on
fire” for God.
-- “You were active. -- You shared
your faith. -- You invited people to church. -- You were excited. -- You felt
the presence of God through worship.
-- “Your prayers were passionate,
specific and you prayed believing God would actually answer you. -- You were
convicted about the sin in your life.
-- “But somewhere along the line
your fire went out. -- Worship seemed like a ritual. -- You began to feel like
you were going through the motions. -- Your prayers got shorter and if you were
honest, you secretly doubted God would even answer them because to you so many
others have gone unanswered. -- And…it became easier to sin without conviction”
-- that’s exactly where we find the
Psalmist -- he took a wrong turn in Albuquerque, and now he’s lost in a
spiritual desert
-- verse 5
5a
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
-- why? -- why are our souls
downcast? -- why are our souls so disturbed and so dry and so distant from our
God? -- that is the question that the Psalmist asks -- that is the question
that we need to ask when we find ourselves in spiritual deserts, too
-- there are many wrong turns that
can lead us into deserts of spiritual dryness and disconnectedness from God:
-- Physical exhaustion -- physical
trauma -- physical sickness -- when you are tired -- when you are hurt -- when
you are sick -- you don’t feel like going through your normal spiritual
routines -- you take a left turn and find yourself moving away from God
-- you might still pray, but your
prayers are self-centered -- “God, heal me from my pain and suffering -- heal
me from my sickness -- make me feel better”
-- when we are physically exhausted
or sick -- when we are worn down and tired of just doing life -- it’s hard for
us to engage with God in a real and meaningful way -- this can quickly lead us
into a spiritual desert
-- along those lines, spiritual
exhaustion can cause us to take a wrong turn in our relationship with God --
doing too much ministry -- giving out too much of ourselves to others --
serving others and not taking care of ourselves -- these can lead to dis-ease
in our spiritual lives
-- when I was on the plane traveling
to Albuquerque and back, I heard the ubiquitous safety briefing that every
traveler hears on a plane -- and there’s one piece of advice they give that is
important for us in our spiritual lives
-- they tell you that if the cabin
pressure drops, that oxygen masks will drop out of a ceiling panel and they
tell you how to put them on -- but, they say, if you are traveling with a child
or someone who needs help putting on their mask, don’t help them -- first, put
your mask on and then you can help them
-- there’s a spiritual lesson in
there for us -- sometimes, we need to take time to put our masks on -- to get
out of the desert and get filled back up with Living Water -- we have to do
that first, before we can help anyone else -- to do otherwise will just
continue to dehydrate our souls and our spirits and lead us just that much
farther away from God
--
the third wrong turn we can make is being distracted -- it is so easy in our
day and age to find something to do other than spend time with God -- we’ve got
our phones -- we’ve got tablets -- we’ve got TV and Netflix and 400 channels to
watch -- we’ve got podcasts -- we can download books and magazines to our
phones or tablets and never have to get out of our chairs
-- all of these things distract us
-- they distract us from life -- they distract us from people around us -- just
go to a restaurant and watch how many people sit at a table together on their
phones without interacting with each other -- and, they can distract us from
God
-- these things are not necessarily
bad -- but they can cause us to neglect God and our relationship with Him
-- criticism and negative thoughts
or comments can cause us to turn away from God -- it just takes something out
of you when you’re trying to serve God and minister to others and all you get
is negative comments or criticism from others
-- “that person is just trying to
rip you off” -- “that person is just trying to take what they can get” -- “that
person doesn’t really care -- they’re never going to change, so why are you
wasting your time on them”
-- it’s just like Nehemiah when he
was working on the wall around Jerusalem -- the Gentiles in that land would
gather around and make fun of the Jews -- they’d make dispiriting comments
about their work -- how their wall wasn’t ever going to get done -- how their
wall was just not that good -- and it caused the Jews to start to lose heart
and lose hope
-- this happens to us all too easily
-- mean-spirited comments and negative or toxic people can sap your strength
and cause you to turn away from the God you are serving
-- sometimes we find ourselves in a
desert because our lives are changing and we’re resisting the change -- we’re
moving into a new cycle of life -- our old routines and our old way of doing
things has changed, and we haven’t adapted our spiritual lives to this new
normal
-- you see that in parents whose
children are moving out for college or because they get married -- the empty
nest syndrome -- you see that in couples who find themselves taking care of
elderly parents or others in their lives -- putting all their time and energy
into others rather into taking care of themselves
-- moving into new phases of life
can throw you out of your normal means of grace and of receiving refreshing
water from the Lord -- life gets weary -- life feels like it’s just an endless
morass of drudgery with no way out
-- this is a desert that requires
intention to find God again -- where you once found streams of living water may
not be present in this new life -- you have to find new streams of Living Water
-- news way of connecting with God -- just like God had Moses bring water out
of a rock when he was leading the Israelites through the wilderness, we need to
find new sources of refreshment and renewal in these desert areas
-- finally, sin and disobedience can
lead you into a desert -- when you disobey God, you harm your relationship with
Him -- when you don’t do what He says and turn away from Him, you can’t expect
Him to pour out His presence and graces in your life in the same way
-- a desert may be His way of
calling out to you -- of getting your attention -- of causing you to come back
and to seek Him again
-- when you’re looking at the
reasons why you are in a desert, looking at your spiritual life and whether you
have unconfessed sin is a good place to start
-- as Tony Evans says, “Yielding to
sin and being too busy to worship God quickly leads to a divided mind and
heart.”
III. Coming out of the desert
-- so, you’ve realized you’ve taken
a wrong turn -- you’re in a desert -- what do you do about it?
-- the first thing you must do is
admit where you are -- recognize your need -- cry out for God’s presence once
again -- cry out for God -- trust in Him and put your hope in Him again
-- look at the second part of verse
5
5b
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
-- when the Psalmist realized his
distance from God, he turned back -- he admitted he had taken a wrong turn --
he was in a spiritual desert -- but he trusted God -- he put his hope in God --
he continued to praise God, knowing that God would save him, once again
-- turn over to James 4:7-10 and
let’s finish up there
7
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change
your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before
the Lord, and he will lift you up.
-- in this passage, James gives us
the steps to correct our path -- he gives us the map to lead us out of the
desert
-- first, we submit to God -- we
turn back to Him -- we give Him all that is going on in our lives -- our physical
and spiritual exhaustion -- our hurts -- the pain from the criticism -- the
pain from the negative and toxic people -- the distance we feel from Him
-- we cry out to Him -- we turn to
Him -- we submit and give ourselves to Him once again
-- and James tells us that if we
come near to God, He will come near to us -- God will hear us when we pray --
God will come to us when we submit
-- James goes on to counsel us to
turn from any sin in our lives -- to confess and repent and wash our hands and
purify our hearts -- to choose a different path -- to humble ourselves before
God and trust that He will lift us up
-- the Psalmist in this passage did
not give up when he found himself in a spiritual desert -- he still hoped in
the Lord -- he still trusted in the Lord -- and he sought Him with a thirst
that comes only from someone who has wandered in dry and dusty places
IV. Closing
-- I don’t know where you’re at
today -- I don’t know how your walk with God is -- you may be experiencing
times of refreshing and renewal with Him -- you may be like the Psalmist in
Psalm 23 -- with the Lord in green pastures beside the still and quiet waters
-- but you may be where the Psalmist
in Psalm 42 is -- in a desert -- in a dry and dusty land -- far from where you
used to be -- far removed from the streams of Living Water and the renewing
presence of God
-- if you are in that place today,
then you must choose to seek God again -- do what Jesus told the church of
Ephesus in Revelation -- go back and do the things you did at first -- go back
and seek your first love again like you did when you first got saved -- seek
Him with all your heart and He will come to you
-- it becomes trite for me to tell
you to just read your Bible and pray, but this is the path back to God -- force
yourself to do that, even if you don’t feel like it -- call out for God and
seek Him where He can be found -- over in verses 7 and 8 in this Psalm -- after
the Psalmist has turned back and intentionally begins to seek God again -- he
writes: “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls -- all your waves
and breakers have swept over me -- by day the Lord directs His love -- at night
His song is with me -- a prayer to the God of my life”
-- God not only quenched the thirst
of the Psalmist, but He brought forth a waterfall of His presence -- waves and
breakers overwhelmed and swept over him -- the dryness was overcome by the
presence of God’s Living Water -- and God’s love was there day and night
-- seek God where He may be found --
that is in His word -- that is in prayer to Him -- that is in His church --
call out to God from this dry and dusty land, and hope in Him and trust in Him
and know that He will pour out His living water -- His streams of refreshment
-- in your life again
-- one more thing, and I’ll close --
as I was working on this message -- as I was thinking about being in a desert
and getting out of it all week -- all I could hear in my mind and in my heart
was Crowder’s song, “I read the red letters”
-- maybe that’s a message for us
today -- go back to the red letters -- go back to what Jesus said -- go back to
Jesus -- and He will lead you out of your desert and into the green pastures by
the still and quiet waters of His love
-- let us pray
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