Learning Gratitude in the Wilderness | Lessons From the Feast of Tabernacles

- How many of us are in a situation even now that's hard and we need to understand that maybe the Lord is doing something in our life in the season that we're in that's difficult and maybe it's very purposeful on the Lord's part. - Yeah, this is actually what God's really trying to do is change the way we think about our situation. So that when we encounter a situation, we see it different. Maybe in fact, we see it as an opportunity versus seeing it as a pain. It's really that half glass empty or half glass full perspective. And so often in life, I think we can count the things in our lives that are going wrong and we look at things as empty. We don't realize that God woke us up today. We don't realize that we're able to eat and enjoy food and there's a lot of good around us and we might have the wrong perspective. And sometimes these circumstances, these wilderness experiences allow us to change the way we're thinking about things so that we can really see things from a heavenly perspective. - Yeah, absolutely. And I'm thinking Dustin, Cynthia and I took a walk in the park yesterday and we were smelling some of the beautiful fall leaves and just the turning of the season. We could smell it and it smelled so great. And I wanted to smell it more.

I just wanted to take it and I wanted to be filled with the fragrance 'cause I was appreciating it. And I thought, you know what? If I just got released from hell and the smoke of hell, that putrid sulfur burning rotten stench of hell and I was trapped in there and then all of a sudden the Lord released me and I was standing it in this place in the park right now. I would be smelling these fragrances with such incredible appreciation. But I hope it doesn't take us continually having to go through hard times in order to make us appreciative. I'm praying that I get to a place where I don't need that to be always appreciative 'cause the Lord said, "In all things give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." And that gets to your point, Dustin, that when we realize that the hard times that the Lord brings us through are sometimes purposeful on his part, just like the Apostle Paul said. He said, "Because of the abundant revelation "that was given to me," Paul was speaking, "because of the abundant revelation, "God sent a messenger of Satan "to torment me in the flesh

"to keep me from exalting myself, "that the trial, the torment, "the humbling was purposeful." So when we're going through these hard times, as you were saying, if we realize that there's purpose in them, we can give thanks. It's not about whether we're just enjoying, you know, the feeling of it. It's like, thank you, Father. How do you give thanks in all things? By crushing that in everything that's happening in our life, there's a purpose. - Yeah, and God's ultimate in for us is not this earth and trials. It's heaven, where he wipes away every tear, removes all the pain, where we're our bodies, we have a new body that's whole and full, that doesn't get sick. It's, that's ultimately the purpose, but there's something about us going through this so that we can really be prepared to value it and receive it and deserve it. And we really don't, there's nothing we can do to deserve it. We know that Israel really never, did they deserve the promised land? No, God is good, he gives it to us. But, you know, you appreciate it, you value it so much more

after God has brought you through something. That's a really interesting word that you use there, deserve it. Because it's exactly, as you said, it's a bit of a conundrum. It's a bit of oxymoron, like the two don't make sense together. Like on the one end, it's all the blood of Yeshua, a hundred million billion percent. And there's nothing other that comes to us as a gift. It's a free gift. But on the other hand, there is a participation that takes place. And that's why Yeshua said, He that overcomes in Revelation chapter two and three. Seven times Yeshua said, He that overcomes will inherit these things. So there is something, it's kind of like when you work for something as a human being, like if you put something together, let's try to, if you work on a project in your home. - Yeah. - And you complete it, maybe it's fixing something in your kitchen or in your bathroom or building your basement out. If you have much more appreciation for it,

then if you would have just had a contractor do it. If there's something that we gain, and that's a God-given thing. I mean, God wants, He has somehow built into us the ability. This sounds so wrong, and I'm not talking about ungodly pride. I'm talking about godly pride, that there is something that God's gonna reward us for, and we're gonna feel good. God's gonna make us feel good about the decisions that we made to love Him, about the decisions that we made to love children and love others, about the sacrifices that we made. God's gonna reveal that to us one day, and we're gonna be breasted by it and rewarded for it, and we're gonna feel good about it. - Well, there are rewards in heaven. I mean, the Bible says that we will be judged, but it also there'll be rewards in heaven, and I think about that, and I wonder, you know, will all be content, but will there be different levels of reward in heaven when we experience different things based upon what we, you know, what we did on the earth? - 100%, I mean, Yeshua said, "Behold, I come quickly, and I'm coming to give a reward to each man." He said, "According to what he's done," and Paul talked about the fact that every man's work would be tried, right?

And some would be gold, some silver, you know, some brass, some would be burned up. So I think there's definitely different levels of reward, and again, at the end of the day, it's all goes, you know, back to Yeshua and His blood. And as we're doing this, we're being prepared to receive the reward that God has for us, because this is where this is all going. The Lord said, "In the wilderness, Moses is speaking, he fed you man in which your fathers did not know, get this now, that he might humble you, that he might test you, get it now, to do good for you in the end. Otherwise, you may say in your heart, my power, and the strength of my hand made me this wealth, but you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who has given you power to make wealth, that he might confirm his covenant, which he saw to your fathers as it is to this day." What I'm getting from all this, Dustin, is just the fact that trials, difficult times, the challenges that we face, this is reality, this is part of living in this world, and people that think that they're here to just get as much enjoyment out of everything without a realization and a recognition of the fact that God is gonna bring us through testings and trials to get us to become more dependent on him, to test us in order to bring us to the next level in order that he can bless us.

If we don't have a recognition of that, we're gonna just, our head's gonna be spinning, we're not gonna understand life or what we're going through. - You know, I think about some of the things you and I've talked about in the past. We often start our days thinking, what's gonna make me feel good today? Okay, well coffee's gonna make me feel good, so I'm gonna go have coffee. And if something gets in the way of that though, that the, you know, oh, I didn't get my coffee today, the day's ruined, and then oh, and this person called me and oh man, I didn't wanna have to deal with that. And we just complain, we have this attitude that if everything doesn't go exactly the way we thought it was gonna go, and the way we expect it to go that we complain, and that's, you know, I think about Israel and the wilderness with Moses not having water, they start complaining. And God hears their complaints. There's something about God, these trials, Him trying to bring us to another level to where our, we are content and our life is not built upon every circumstance being perfect for us to be happy. - I love that, and I think also this is such a challenge for us that when we're going through hard times, when we feel like complaining that emotion,

that impulse rises up to complain, to be bitter, to be angry, we need to remember these words that these are opportunities to overcome those impulses and to thank God, you know, a simple thing, we hear it all the time, I don't wanna be right, but I mean, it's something that we all can relate to, you're in traffic, someone cuts in front of you, someone's in front of you that slows you down, and you're in a hurry to get somewhere. I mean, that anger rises up, that irritation, but to stop and recognize this might be an opportunity for me to pull back that negative energy, that impulse of frustration that I'm having, this is an opportunity for me to pull back and look at the situation, and first of all, ask myself, why am I feeling this way? Why am I in such a rush to get to this place? Is it the end of the world, if I'm gonna be five minutes late because of this? What makes me like this? And we just begin to wrestle with why are we the way we are? We sense that we have this spirit of entitlement, this sense of just being so wrapped up in the now and not putting God first, like you're saying. Dustin to walk through life practice being thankful and being happy hey listen I'm not telling you that I'm always thankful and I'm not telling you that I'm always happy but I will say this I'm working on it I'm working on looking at the things I go through and getting a godly perspective on them so I can be like the one the Lord show me in that chair it's hard but I keep going up to the next level yeah and it's not like these needs that that that he's talking

about here I fed you in the wilderness I mean being hungry is a genuine need like that's like something like if you're feeling you know a genuine need something's wrong in life you're not you don't have food that's a real need I mean Israel wasn't wrong for feeling hungry they were wrong for complaining and not trusting God in it and I think that's where sometimes we go so wrong that and this is what God's trying to teach us it's okay for things to go wrong in our life but it's our attitude when it goes wrong and who we turn to and how we respond that that matters that's perfect and it's so easy to look at Israel and say they didn't do it but I'm looking at Israel like I understand why they complained yeah I understand why they were mumbling I understand why they said are we gonna have that rotten man again today breakfast lunch dinner 40 years every single day are we gonna have that same food every single day you could understand but it's a lesson for us what God wants from our heart how to walk through life because the truth is we all want to be happy yeah but we can't be happy unless we're grateful unless we're thankful unless we have purpose and so what I'm getting from this is that we learn that the Lord brought Israel through this 40-year test for a purpose the scriptures is gift thanks to God and all things for this is His will concerning you in Christ Jesus as you quoted about in the book of James that don't be surprised by these trials God's doing this to test your faith and it's not testing it to see if you'll pass or fail it's to bring you up to the next level it's to refine you James says that after going through your your faith will have been refined so purpose we find and challenges like I'm getting ready now to go someplace I know the number to be walking in to a difficult time but it's like even though I'm challenged by it I'm like thank you Lord that there's purpose in it that you're gonna do something you're gonna bring me up in that chair like I saw myself in that month you're gonna bring me up to the next level yeah and you know what the good thing is we're gonna come through every difficult thing in life every wilderness maybe you feel like you're in a wilderness right now maybe it's relationally maybe it's with a husband wife spouse child maybe your job maybe

your health I don't know what it is maybe you're going through a wilderness right now but know this as Dustin was sharing God will be faithful to you and do good for you in the end so we want to choose right now will we believe will we believe in God number one that he's good and that he's gonna do something good in the end for us as a result of going through this trial what do you think about that Dustin well I think that you said it well it's really when you're in a hard time it's it's hard to see the good you're you know when you're in those clouds in that dream you talked about yeah all you can see is those dreary clouds yeah it's hard to remember that on the other side of those clouds there's this really blue beautiful sky and you know Jesus endured the cross because of the glory that was set before him and when I think about that you know he said an example for us that basically said you know what like going through the trial going through the test there is a glory on the other side and the more we can remind ourselves of that I think the easier it is for us to make it through a hard time yeah to know that it is good for me in the end yeah amen and God's gonna bring you closer to him as you cling to him in the hard time that you're going to right now I'm thinking Dustin here it says God did this in verse number three of Deuteronomy 8 that you might understand that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of them off of the Lord so if we'll respond by the grace of God to become dependent on him through the trial it's gonna bring us closer to him and at the end of the day that's where the only peace we're gonna ever truly find is it is it's not gonna be in the world world's peace is temporary you know people that have peace right now that don't you know they're not really living closely with God the peace in Right, right. And I think about it, you know, we're in a hard situation. I think about this verse you just read. "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." And we keep mentioning James. And I think about James and he said, when you're in a hard time, essentially, because he's talking about trials, he says, "If a man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God and let him not doubt." Because if you doubt, you won't receive anything from the Lord. But believing that God is going to give you a word, God is going to lead you through,

that you can actually rely on the Lord. Both Deuteronomy and James are saying the same thing, basically, when you're going through something, you need to look to God for the answer for what you're going through. A hundred, a hundred percent. Now, let's take a look here what another interesting verse. The Lord told them how difficult it was and that he was humbling them and testing them and they had to rely on him alone. And then Moses reminds them in the next verse, "Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these 40 years." What's interesting about that is that even though it's really hard, God's still going to be faithful to you. It doesn't mean that it's not going to be hard. It's going to be very hard sometimes. I'm not taking that away from anything. We go through some hard, painful, excruciating, painful times. But you know what, going through those times, that's birthing something in us. The Scripture tells us that the temporary trials that we go through are now worthy to be compared with the eternal glory that these trials are working in us. In other words, the temporary trial, even though excruciatingly painful at times, it's not worthy to be compared with what going through that trial is working in you in the realm of eternal life. You know, Rabbi, I wonder if we could really fathom what heaven would actually be like. If we could really fathom the glory. I think it was Paul who said they were caught up into the third heaven. They said they were caught up into the third heaven. I mean, he probably didn't want to come back, but he could fathom it. And that's why he said he was content. I've been to the third heaven. I've seen it. But he's saying I'm content in prison. No wonder he's content in prison. He had a glimpse of that glory. Yeah. One of the things that we're relating to heaven in the Succare is if you look at through the roof here. We can look through the roof of the Succah and we can see the blue skies. What do we remind of? We're reminded of God in heaven. And so, yeah, when we have that eternal mindset of heaven, it makes everything else a lot easier to bear because a lot of times we have that tension, "Are my really saved? Are my going to heaven? Have I done enough?" And there's that tension in scripture. Like the scripture says, these things have been written to believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. You know, the other hand, we find these other things in scripture where Paul says, for example, "Do these things improve your election sure?" Or Yeshua talking about people that, you know, they met him and they said, "Lord, didn't we do all these things?" And Yeshua said, "I never knew you." So we struggle, "Are my really going to heaven?" Let's pray right now that the Father would kiss us with revelation. Those of us that are

His true chosen ones, that we would know we're going to heaven because that's going to make life so much easier down here. Dustin, would you lead us in prayer? Heavenly Father, right now for every person listening, what would you just place an image, a feeling of what heaven will be like inside of them? I pray, God, that you would connect them to an eternal glory that's not of this world, that's straight from your spirit, God. Would you commune with us right now, Lord? And would you allow us to see that truly, just like Jesus for the glory, for the glory He knew that was before Him, would you allow us to know the glory that you've set before us? Would you do something not that's not just in our mind, God, but something that's deep down in our spirit inside of us? Do something supernatural right now, I pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. In the book of Numbers chapter 6, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over His people. And the Lord said, "When you speak these words over My people, I will place My name on them and bless them. Receive the impartation." (Singing in foreign language) (Singing in foreign language) (Singing in foreign language) (Singing in foreign language) (Singing in foreign language) (Singing in foreign language) (Singing in foreign language) (Singing in foreign language) (Singing in foreign language) The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up by His countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and Shango. [MUSIC PLAYING]