Well, good evening. Good evening. It is wonderful to be back, to be back in Bridlewood, to be back in Canada. I get teased about my Canadian accent on a regular basis. Thanks, Carl. Now living in the United States, uh, and I miss the A's and the about and all the various things that we say on a regular basis. For those who aren't familiar, about a little over three and a half years ago, or just under three and a half years ago, Heather and I and our two little girls moved, uh, to Scottsdale, Arizona, which is just outside of Phoenix, and it's hot. So when it's minus ridiculous here in the winter and you want a break, come down and visit us. And we're very thankful, uh, to have moved there. We really feel the Lord has taken us there, and it's been a privilege to be there. We'll talk a little bit about it over the course of the weekend. Uh, it's a real blessing to be here. As Jerry mentioned, uh, the original plan was to have, uh, dad and I actually share this conference together. Uh, as many of you know, dad has been struggling a little bit with colon cancer, um, but he's doing well. I just got a call before coming in tonight that he was discharged from hospital and he's at home now after surgery. Uh, Lord willing, I'll get to see him on Sunday night, so do pray for him. We appreciate that. Um, but, uh, Jerry, I can't say that you're a replacement for my father. Um, that would be a bit creepy, but um, uh, we're just so thankful that you're here too, Jerry. I've just richly enjoyed your message, message already. As Jerry mentioned, we didn't, uh, have a pre-discussion as to what we'd be speaking about, but now that Jerry's spoken, I know, um, that the Lord is guiding us and what we want to speak about. Before I tell you what I want to speak about, just turn your Bibles, if you would, please, to Isaiah fifty one. So I want to start the message with two passages that at first might not seem particularly related, uh, but I'll read those two passages with you. The first is in Isaiah fifty one, and then the next will be in Mark chapter six. We're going to read those two, give you a little bit of an introduction as to what I'd like to tackle with you over the course of the weekend for the three messages, uh, that we'll have together on the next three nights here at Bridlewood. And then for those who may be at Read of You on Sunday morning, we're going to have a bit of a spin-off message and have a similar theme. But let's just read, uh, the first few verses of Isaiah fifty one together. Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you, for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. And this is the verse I want you to notice, perhaps more than the others, in verse three. For the Lord shall comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. The Lord is able to convert the wilderness into joy, the, the, the desert into the garden of the Lord. Now turn over to Mark six, please. Mark chapter six. Now we're moving ahead to a very different time, uh, in the nation of Israel, here at the time of our Lord Jesus. And we won't read all of the background, but suffice to say, this is an active time in the life of the Lord Jesus. We, we frequently notice, of course, that the Lord uses different gospels to describe the Lord Jesus in different ways. It's the same Lord Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but we see him in different angles, in different lights. And the, the, the, the book of Mark, um, shows to us, uh, in many respects how the Lord Jesus, it's a, it's a briefer book. The Lord Jesus is very active. He's the servant of Jehovah, so we see constant activity and constant movement. Uh, in fact, almost every chapter, almost every major paragraph in the whole of the book of Mark starts with the word and. You don't have to check it now, trust me, but, um, it, it gives us a sense of what is the servant of Jehovah like? He's someone who does this, and then he does this, and then he does that constantly. Constantly active. And in the midst of that, here in Mark six, and look at verse thirty: And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And he, the Lord Jesus, said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest for a while. For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they departed into a desert place by a ship, privately. And the people saw them departing, and many knew him and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and out went- and out went them and came together unto him. So much for going privately. And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were sheep not having a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him and said, this is a desert place, and now the time is far past. Send them away that they may go into the country round about and into the villages and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. He answered and said unto them, give ye them to eat. What a pointed answer. Lord, can we get rid of these people? I mean, honestly, they're following us all day, all night. I can't go anywhere. I can't get something to eat. I, I came here for rest. They're, they're harassing me. Can't we just send them somewhere else? How gentle of the Lord Jesus to turn to his disciples, says, no, actually, you give them something to eat. And they said unto him, shall we go and buy two hundred penny worth of bread and give them to eat? Almost sarcastically, perhaps. He saith unto them, how many loaves have ye? Go and see. And when they knew, they said, five and two fishes. And he commanded them to make them all sit down by companies upon the green grass, and they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven and blessed and brake the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before them. And the two fishes divided he among them all, and they did all eat and were filled. So I often say that gives me justification to eat sushi, right? They didn't have time to cook this food, to cook this fish, raw fish, and they were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments and of the fishes, and they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men. I'll stop our reading there, uh, and try and see how we can potentially connect these two passages together. Well, as I've been thinking over the last several months of what I might want to cover as, as a topic over the course of the weekend, I thought, well, what better topic than where I live? So here you are in, uh, beautiful Canada, and I look out the windows here of all these beautiful trees, although I've come of late to appreciate that the cactus is a noble and a beautiful plant. So, uh, my office at at, uh, at the clinic where I work at Mayo Clinic, um, in Scottsdale overlooks the one s- one of the range of mountains of the Scottsdale Mountains, and I can see innumerable cacti, and I've come to appreciate the cactus, and I was literally looking out the window one day thinking, what would I like to cover for this conference this weekend? And I thought, well, why don't I look at what the scripture has to say about deserts? So I'm going to talk to you this weekend about deserts. Hopefully, no pun intended, it won't be a dry message, but, uh, hardy heart, but, um, I thought, I thought it might be of relevance to think about the scriptures and deserts. And in fact, when you start looking into it, words that are translated either desert or wilderness, and often those words are interchanged. I won't bore you with all the different, uh, both Hebrew and Greek words that are involved, but this is made reference to hundreds of times in the scripture. You probably, just off the top of your head, can think of a number of instances. We've just read one here in the New Testament, but you can probably think of several instances in the scriptures where something about the desert was important, particularly times in the Old Testament. We think of Elijah running off into the desert. We can think of the Ethiopian eunuch. We can think of so many people throughout the scriptures, Old and New Testament, that have to do with the desert. Well, we have to focus our thinking a little bit, and I'll explain that what I'd like to do ultimately is to think about nine, uh, different features of the deserts in the New Testament. So we're going to find nine instances in the scriptures, of which we've read one together, three for each message that talk to us about the desert. But before we do that, I want you to notice a beautiful theme, um, that we're going to understand a little bit more of, hopefully, as we think about the desert, because I want you to think with me, what, what immediately comes to mind when I say desert or cactus or Arizona? Well, I don't know. I better not ask you what comes to mind when it comes to Arizona, because sometimes it's not very good. But, um, what sorts of things do you think of when it comes to the desert? Because hopefully a theme that I want to demonstrate to you in the scriptures is that the very thing that you would associate with the desert, the scripture demonstrates to us the very opposite. Let me, let me give it to you this way. Uh, let me suggest that there are three critical characteristics of a desert. Number one, it's desolate. Number two, it's dangerous. And number three, it's dry. I chose them all to start with the letter D so that I can remember them a little bit better. It's desolate, it's dangerous, and it's dry. Let me explain that a little bit more. So it's desolate. You'll find very frequently, especially in the scriptures, and hopefully even just in our understanding of life, that, um, the desert is the place that's kind of out in the middle of nowhere. I live there, I know, right? And sure enough, Phoenix is a huge city. Scottsdale is a large suburb of Phoenix, uh, but you get a little bit outside the city limit, and you see out in the desert, I mean, you're looking for Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner and whoever else is coming around the corner, but, I mean, it's, it's in the middle of nowhere, and, and you naturally think of it being a desolate place, and in fact, very frequently in the scriptures, which was part of the intimation of what the disciples said here, when they said, Lord, this is a desert place. We're, we're not going to be able to do very much here. We're, we're, there isn't a seven eleven around the corner. We're not going to be able to find food for these people. And so the concept of a desert is it's, it's deserted. It's, it's not where you would live, despite the fact that I live there. Um, it's not an inhabitable place. It's not where we would want to normally live. And in fact, in the scriptures very frequently, the concept of living out in the wilderness or, or, or establishing your habitation in the wilderness is to live in the place that the world doesn't want to live in. The world is not interested in living in the wilderness. So for Abraham to uproot himself out of a major metropolis and go out into the middle of desert, that people, I'm sure, thought that Abraham had lost it. Why would you want to live out in the middle of the desert with all the perils of the desert? It's, it's in the middle of nowhere. You want to be in the middle of the action. You want to be here. So despite the fact that the scripture paints to us this concept that a desert is desolate, it's uninhabitable, we're going to find the paradox, remember, the contrast that the Lord Jesus makes it inhab- and makes it habitable for us. The Jews, as they wandered through the wilderness, it wasn't exactly a happy place for them in many respects. The Lord actually hadn't intended them to be in the wilderness for as long as they were. Scripture tells us that their carcasses dropped in the wilderness because of their unbelief. But it was made habitable. Why? Because the Lord was with them. And he was with them, wasn't he? Whether it was by day or by night, he gave them very clear manifestation. You might be in the wilderness, but I'm with you. Jerry already talked to us a little bit about that tonight, and I'll come back to it later when we look at what these several aspects of the desert. But I don't know what's going on in your life right now. And maybe no one else knows what's going on in your life right now. It might actually be best described as a desert, where you're desolate, where there's no one to live with you there. Well, let me reassure you tonight that the Lord Jesus wants to make it habitable for you. The second thing about a desert is it's dangerous. It's not exactly where you go for safety, although we find, again, paradoxically, that there's some people in the scriptures who ran to the desert for safety, uh, when they were running away from people, usually like David or Elijah or others. I learned a little bit, not very much, a little bit about the dangers of the desert. So I, um, I'm one of these crazy marathon runners, and so I get up early every morning and I run in various places, and, um, I have this certain path that I like to to run on. It's a bit of a desert trail, and it's part of the horse trail, and this one other time I thought, well, I'll just go this different way. Well, there are some things out there that you might not want to see. Um, some of them aren't so scary. Um, there's this one little coyote who seems to wave to me every morning when I run by. It's like, good morning, morning. As I run by, he runs back. The coyotes aren't the problem, but there's some other animals and some other things that can be challenging. So this one Saturday morning, I took the girls, Heather and I and our two girls went for a little hike, um, and we we walked through this very well demarcated trail. We were, we were safe, and we knew there wasn't going to be a problem with snakes or scorpions or things like that. But I don't know if you've ever been familiar or know of something called the jumping cholla. I don't know if anyone's heard of this thing. It's basically this miniature cactus about the size of your fist or two fists put together, and they call it a jumping cholla because the scientific part of me doesn't quite understand this, but it actually has an ability with its stereotactic, uh, attractiveness to cling to things that it's not quite touching. So if you come close enough to this little miniature cactus, it'll actually come and stick to you. And we're walking down, I told the girls, be careful, stay on the road, stay on, stay on the path. And then all of a sudden, Alyssa, my, my now five and a half year old, says, Daddy, there's something on my shoe. And sure enough, one of these jumping cholla was attached to her shoe. Now, thankfully, it hadn't really gone deep in. You got to remember, these have little burrs or little, uh, spikes on them, uh, almost an inch long. And of course, what's the natural reaction of a father when you see that there's something that could hurt your daughter? I reached down and pull it off of her shoe. Suffice to say, it scared the girls. I think Heather was going to throw up, actually, because this thing went through my fingers, and it was, it was, it was really quite a mess. Uh, but that's just a not so graphic story to tell you that, um, and not so enjoyable. It's okay. I'm doing all right. I'm not getting too much PTSD thinking about it, but, um, you know, it was, it was a reminder that there's some perils out in the desert. And when you think of the desert being a dangerous place, you'll find in the scriptures that often it's viewed as a desert, that is a dangerous place. People went out into the desert, took their life in their own hands. That's where robbers lived. That's where people could find you. That's where people would sh- would go out and search for you. Saul sent out hundreds of people, if not thousands, to hunt David down in the desert. But what, what did David say? Again, what's our contrast? What's our paradox? You think of the desert being a place that is, that is dangerous. David can say, I lay down and slept, and I awoke, for the Lord sustained me. He didn't say, I lay down and slept and I awoke because I found a really good hiding spot in the desert. No, he didn't give himself credit, but the Lord took care of him. How marvelous to know that when dangerous things come into your life, and danger can carry various forms, shapes, or sizes, the Lord is there to protect us, and he can, and he will. The third, and perhaps the most striking, to me at least, um, characteristic of the desert is that it's dry. I learned that running in the desert my first few months in Arizona. I didn't realize why people carry so much water when you run. You actually don't realize how dry you are because you don't, you do sweat, but then it seems to immediately evaporate, so you don't have that drenched feeling and you need to drink water. It can be a very, very dry place. And so, sure enough, we'll find in the scriptures very often that a desert is referred to, this is a dry place. Sometimes even the word is, is literally described or, or is translated rather that way as a dry place. So you think of it a place where there's no nourishment, there's no food, there's no water. And so the disciples could say to the Lord Jesus that night, Lord, this is a desert place. Where are people supposed to find food? What does the Lord Jesus do? He doesn't take them outside the desert. He says, right here in the middle of the desert, right in the place where there seems to be no source of water or food, I'm going to feed you, and I'm going to water you. Remember how the Lord did that in the wilderness for his people? He gave them manna from heaven. He gave them water from rocks. Are you kidding me? He did it because he is the source of nourishment. And again, personalizing it, maybe they're, maybe you're going through a dry period of your life. And you know what I mean, don't you? When things don't seem to click right, when things just seem to be a little bit more empty, physically, spiritually, emotionally, in your family, where it's, you go to the top and nothing's coming out, or it just seems that you're in the desert. Well, the Lord Jesus is the one who can provide water and nourishment in a way that no one else can. Sometimes we just want to look to our own resources. We want to find our own solution. We've got to find our own way of doing it. I'm not saying that you go to an empty table and all of a sudden the Lord, uh, miraculously drops food onto it like he did with the wi- with the, uh, Israelites in the wilderness by providing the manna. But the Lord is going to feed you, he's going to nourish you, he's going to meet your thirst in a way that no one else can. Marvelous. That in the midst of the desert, this is what perhaps doing the study overwhelmed me more than anything else, literally, honestly brought me to my knees, to think that the Lord chooses the driest place to feed people, to give them something to drink. It's a theme, isn't it? Remember how we met the woman at the well? There's a lot of suspicion as to why it was in the middle of the day. Perhaps she was trying to not be seen in public. It was a hot part of the day. And it was at that time that the Lord Jesus spoke to her about being the one who could give her something to drink that would cause her never to thirst again. I'll be blunt, are you thirsty? I don't mean physically. Is your heart searching for something? Do you feel a bit of a dryness and emptiness? Scripture tells us, ho, everyone that thirsts, come to the waters. The Lord has something for you that the world can't give you. And so, with that as as a background, uh uh uh, those are the features of the desert, if you will, or these characteristics of the desert. There's one last thing I want to say about the desert before we start thinking about these nine instances. What other, the other, uh, uh, aspect of the desert that really strikes me is not only, as we said, is it, is it desolate, it's dangerous, it's dry, it's everywhere in the scripture. It's prolific. In fact, some of you have heard me give messages or series before on Bible geography. I'm always fascinated how the Lord uses the physical planet to teach us about himself, and that there are literally incalculable number of ways to think about how the Lord teaches us through the trees, through the stars. That Heather was watching a video the other night about stars and how they literally foretell the gospel. It's remarkable. There's so many different aspects, or even just looking at Bible geography, how certain things are connected because they happen in the same place. Instances that, or, or instances in scriptures that you wouldn't naturally put together because they happen maybe hundreds, if not even thousands of years apart. They're connected because they happened in the same place. Marvelous how the Lord can use geography. But here, I think even simply in the physical layout of the land of Israel, the Lord is trying to teach us something. You remember, the land of Israel in some respect is a microcosm of the whole planet. And there there are very few places in the world like Israel in the sense that they have such extremes because of changes in altitude. As they say, you can snow ski in the morning and and water ski in the afternoon, and you can grow almost anything, not quite, but almost anything you grow in the world, you can grow in Israel because of the conditions that are there. So the Lord is saying, look, here's a little picture of the world in a smaller geographical area, and yet you find every major city in the land of Israel, in biblical times in particular, and to some extent today, is surrounded by the desert. Uh, they, the only reason why the whole country isn't a desert is because of the Jordan River, of course. And so it's almost as if the Lord is saying, look here, I, I put you in the middle of the desert. I put you in the middle of nowhere. The desert is prolific. A- a- within a few miles at any point, you can be out in the desert. I think the lesson that he's trying to teach us there is our absolute and utter dependence on him. That without his source of nourishment, without his protection, without his company, our desolate, dry, and dangerous place would overwhelm us. Even physically, the Lord is trying to instruct us that he is watching over us and caring for us every step of the way. Isn't that fantastic? Just by looking at a Bible map, you come out saying, what a God is this? I have a wonderful savior, like we were singing in that song. It's marvelous, isn't it? He wants you to know that you need him. And as soon as you start thinking that you don't need him, you can do it by yourself, you're in grave trouble. Grave trouble. I always like to put it this way, to mature as a believer is to become more dependent. Opposite of our usual maturation as we get older, as my daughters are growing up, they become more independent. It hurts me. I don't want them to get older, but, um, I see them becoming little Miss Independent, see them growing up. Well, the Lord help us very opposite, if you will, in our spiritual walk to become more dependent on him. And I think hopefully, as you study more, and as because I'm only going to give you a few glimpses of deserts this weekend, and maybe whenever you see Arizona on the map or see a cactus, you can remember these series of messages and think a little bit about how gracious God is. You see, the world, in many respects, as I've said, the desert's not the habitable place for the world. The world is not so keen on the desert in, in general, as we see it in biblical times in particular. But how wonderful that the Lord gives us something that, let me suggest to you, as I've said so frequently, even from this pulpit, the Lord gives us something better than what the world has to offer. The world might say, why, Abraham, why are you going to go out in the middle of the desert? Why would you want to go out there? How could, what kind of life are you going to have out there? Well, the Lord is giving us something even better. Uh, for those who are going to be at, uh, Read of You on Sunday, just as a little preview, I want to balance all this desert talk with a little bit of garden talk. So we're going to look at the theme of gardens in the scripture. Of course, the first thing we read about in creation on the planet, really, that is habitable, was the Garden of Eden, often referred to as the garden of the Lord. And there are multiple gardens in the scripture. There's no way we can cover them all, but I think similarly we're going to see this beautiful theme of how the Lord has an interest in gardens and what he can provide to us. But as I mentioned, I want to walk through with you about nine aspects, if you will, or- or nine uh, features of the desert, and we're going to try to cover three of them in each of our meetings, and they're short points, but hopefully ones that'll encourage you. Tonight, I want to think with you that the desert is a place of solitude, it's a place of separation, and it's a place of revelation. Lord willing, tomorrow night, together, we'll think of the desert as a place of preparation, a place of rest, and a place of nourishment. As we said, even paradoxically, of nourishment, even though you don't think of the desert as a place to eat. And then finally, we're going to think on Sunday night together that the desert is a place of searching, a place of repentance, and a place of testing. Searching, repentance, and testing. But for tonight, we want to think of the desert as a place of solitude, a place of separation, and a place of revelation. Well, in terms of solitude, we've already actually read it together here, uh, in in the in the verses that we've read together. We saw in Mark six, um, and let's just look back at that one verse, verse thirty two. it says, and they departed into a desert place by ship privately. The intent, at least, was that they would be in a private place because the crowds were everywhere in the city. It seemed no matter where the Lord Jesus went, people wanted to follow him. And so he said, well, let let's go where we can go off quietly and to a place of solitude. And this is, of course, just one instance you can find, and particularly in the Old Testament, a number of individuals who were alone in the desert. Can you think about them? Abraham was at some point, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Elijah, Elisha, I mean, the list goes on. At some point, each one of those individuals were alone, and were alone in the desert. If we can generalize that concept a little bit, um, let me suggest to you that it is critical for each of us to be alone in the desert. Uh, DL Moody once said that character is what a man is in the dark. Now, in many respects, it's easier to be righteous and to be holy when you're surrounded by a group of wonderful Christians like you tonight. Not trying to get brownie points, but you are pretty wonderful, you know? But what of it when you're alone? A lot of aspects we could think of when we think about being alone, but let me perhaps focus on this one, because I think the intent that the Lord Jesus had in his, in taking his disciples to be alone, it wasn't a time for him to berate them, uh, for him to, to, to discipline them or, or to per se train them, although we're going to talk about that later, because tomorrow night we're going to talk about how John the Baptist and many others were prepared in the wilderness, that that was the place that the Lord used them for preparation. But, but here is a different aspect, and this is why I wanted to use it as the first. I would suggest that this concept of solitude is really a personal enjoyment, if you will, of the Lord alone. I mean, I love going to conferences. I, I've very much, very significantly curtailed my travel for speaking in particular and conferences, uh, uh, just for sake of Phoenix is a long way away, uh, but also because we, we want to put a lot of emphasis in our very small assembly in, in Phoenix, and, and I want to be home with Heather and the girls. But I love going to a conference like this. It's marvelous to be surrounded by other Christians and people that you know. As I was saying at the break, it disturbs me that some of you, when I left, were like in Sparks, and now you're married with children. It's a bit disturbing, but, um, it's marvelous to see this, and, and it's great, isn't it, to be able to, and the Lord gives us great example of that from the Old Testament through the New Testament. He wants his people to gather together in big groups. He likes that. He likes when we sing together. He likes when we eat together. Thank you to Osgood for the food later. Um, he loves when we do that. But we need to spend time alone with him too. You know, it's like in any relationship that you have, whether it's your spouse, uh, your children, your boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancé, whomever it might be, it's nice to spend time with them with other people. We enjoy that, but you need that time one-on-one. So let me ask you bluntly. Last seven days, it's Friday night, right? So let's go back to last Friday night. Between last Friday night and tonight, how much time have you spent alone with the Lord Jesus? Think about it. I mean, we know deep down that there's no more wonderful person to be alone with. But if we don't culture that relationship, personal enjoyment of the Lord, we're not going to long for more of it. And I didn't ask you explicitly how much time did you spend reading your Bible, or how much did you time did you spend praying or meditating or going to a meeting. You differentiate that in your own mind. It's not like, um, the Lord isn't with us all the time. Of course he's with us all the time. So you could answer and say, well, he's with me twenty four seven. I know what you mean. But to dedicate yourself, to find time when you are exclusive to him, if you will, where your mind is exclusively focused on him. Yes, in one respect, we want our minds to be stayed on Christ, which is to say that no matter what circumstance we're in, no matter where we are, our default position is to fall back at thinking about the Lord. You know people like that, don't you? They love the Lord, they're in the word so much, they're spending time with Lord's people, no matter what you're talking about, somehow it comes back to the Lord. And it's almost a reaction. It's just natural to them. That's wonderful. I love talking to people like that. I want to be more like that. But I'm not thinking about that as much as the very time when you say, I- I'm going to spend the next twenty minutes just alone with the Lord. We're all busy. I- we all know what it's like to be busy. Everyone in this room has a story of how busy it is. I know I've been busy. I work around the clock. I was taking care of patients through the, through the night almost last night. I, we all know what it's like to be busy, but that's not an excuse. It's never an excuse, because if you want to spend time alone with someone, you know you're going to find time. When you love someone, you make time. Are you spending time alone with the Lord? Every single major character in the scripture that we know almost anything about has spent time alone with the Lord. And very often, it was that time alone that allowed them to do what God had called them to do, because it built that relationship with the Lord. So when the Lord called on Abraham to do something particularly difficult, or, uh, David or Elijah or some of these people that we've been speaking of, they have had a history together. So when Abraham went to, if I can use the modern term, negotiate Sodom and Gomorrah with the Lord, do you think that was the first time he talked to the Lord? Of course not. Look how the Lord said it. He said, how can I go destroy Sodom and Gomorrah until I tell my friend, Abraham? So he was called the friend of God. That relationship had been there. And I know different weeks, different things can happen, but I'm just using the last seven days to drive home the point. If your relationship with the Lord Jesus was dependent on the last seven days, how strong a relationship would it be? It's a place of solitude. Turn with me, uh, please, uh, to Luke chapter six— Sorry, Luke chapter five. It's not only a place of solitude where we are to spend time alone with the Lord. Secondly, it's a place of separation. There are many verses I could have chosen for this. But, um, just for connection's sake, because I think it'll help you understand the passage better, let's read from verse twelve of Luke five, Speaking, of course, of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, who, seeing Jesus, fell on his face and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Isn't that a brilliant way of putting it? He didn't say, Lord, make me clean. He didn't say, Lord, I know you can make me clean. He said, Lord, if you will, I know you can make me clean. More remarkable. And so the Lord put forth his hand and touched him. And we could speak at length about how marvelous it was that the Lord touched him instead of just saying it. This is someone who is really, frankly, an untouchable. I will, be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. And he charged him to tell no man, but go and show thyself to the priest and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. But so much the more went their fame abroad of him, and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities. What'd the Lord Jesus do? And he withdrew himself into the desert or into the wilderness and prayed. I want to use this as an example of separation. This was not per se that the Lord was separating himself from the sins of the world, although we could perhaps make that application. But here the Lord is surrounded by good things to do. There are all these sick people, and and he wants to heal them. We know that he wills, just like he willed in this leper, but there was a point where the Lord had to separate himself. And I, and I, and again, I think we can apply this in two ways. The first way we can apply it is to say, there are times when even in well-doing, even in good spiritual activity, whether that's in the context of your local church or even just your job, because remember, everything we do, in a sense, is spiritual. Hopefully we do it unto the Lord. The Lord wants you to do well at your job. He wants you to work. He doesn't, uh, there's a balance, of course, as to as to precisely what we want you to do, which is why we always need to be dependent on the Lord. The objective isn't just to climb some ladder. The objective is to give greater glory to God. But he wants you to do, and whatever you're doing, he wants you to to do it as unto the Lord. And, uh, in doing so, you can be doing great and wonderful things, but there's a time that the Lord needs to withdraw you. You can't burn the candle on both ends, and I'm, I know I'm a little hypocritical in saying that, uh, in many of the things that I tried, tried to do, but it's something I'm learning a great deal about. And even in the midst of positive spiritual activity, just like the Lord said, okay, disciples, I can see that you're exhausted and you're hungry. Let me take you aside for a while. Do you do that? I know it's connected to what we said about solitude. Do you go for that opportunity for a little bit of refreshment or, or of a break or of, of, of a time away? It isn't so much a concept of a vacation as much as separating yourself away from that activity to something else. That brings us to the second application. The first application is to separate yourself to some degree in the mix of positive activity, but the second application could be that we're separating ourselves away from the world. In one respect, all these infirmities could potentially speak to us of sin. I'm not saying that those people, um, are, are, uh, physically sick because of sin, but we know that leprosy in particular and physical infirmity is a picture to us, uh, an example to us of what sin does to the physical body. And so, in a sense, the Lord is withdrawing himself from the sin that so besets us, that surrounds us. And what's the answer? To go out in the middle of the desert and just sort of say, la la la la la la, I can't hear the sin, I don't want to see it, la la. No, he withdrew himself to pray. That's the fundamental difference. Get this, young people, please. We're not separating ourselves from the activity and the things and the sins of the world just so we can live in some void, in some waiting room, until we get to heaven. Right? Some of you heard me say that before, no disrespect to the hymn. It says, when we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be, because we're surely not rejoicing now. Sometimes that's, that's, we sing that almost tongue in cheek, we say that. We look so forward to it because right now we're depriving ourselves of all the good things because someday it'll get better. And there's some truth to that in certain concepts that we look for a city whose builder and maker is God, that, that Moses forsook the sins, uh, uh, that were, would only last for a season because he, he wanted something better. But the Lord does give us something better, and not just in the future, he gives it to us in the here and now. And if we're going to recognize that I'm not just trying to seal myself out from the world, I'm not separated just away from the world, I'm separated to something. You know that verse, of course, in Thessalonians, it says that ye turned to God from idols. They he d- they didn't just turn from idols and say, well, these idols aren't doing it for me, so I better look for something else. They turned to the Lord. So how's your prayer life on the subject of being alone with God? And what an example of the Lord Jesus, the one himself who is entirely distinct of sin. Let's remember that. The Lord Jesus hadn't the capacity for sin. He's teaching us in this. Even in the midst of that, he goes to fellowship along with his father. How wonderful to know that the Lord isn't just saying, don't do this, and don't do this, and don't do that. He's giving us something better to go to, and it's to him. And yet, sadly, often, because we don't go to him and enjoy him, we're missing out on all the joys that he has for us. The, the longing that he has, I've always been struck, even as a child, I had a bit of an understanding of this, that I, I have always been taken the notion that the Lord wants to spend time with me, like, honestly, me? Why would he want to spend time with me? And yet every time I read the scriptures, he tells me he wants to. It's almost like this leper saying, I don't know why he would want to clean me. I don't know why he'd want to heal me, but Lord, I know that if you will, you can. Do you think the Lord hesitated? Do you think he made him wallow in it a little bit? Well, let me think about it. I'll get back to you, all right? Why don't you ask me tomorrow? Why don't you come back tomorrow? Do you think that's how the Lord deals with it? You know what it's like with people when you want to spend time with them and you call them and they don't call you back, and, oh, are they really interested? You, you email them, you text them, you fax them, carry your pigeon, I don't know, whatever way you communicate with people now, tweet them, and there's no reply. Let me assure you that the Lord Jesus is quick to respond. It's marvelous, isn't it? How often we find that in the scriptures? Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The, the very structure of that verse in- in- intimates that the Lord Jesus is, is literally in a rush to come and answer. He's just waiting for the faintest, Lord, I want, I'm here. You want instant messaging? There's nothing more instant than the Lord Jesus himself. Marvelous place of separation. Time's going quick, so let's close, uh, looking at the last verse. Let's go back to just a couple chapters, to Luke chapter three. We talked about a place of solitude, a place of separation, and finally a place of revelation. This could be a whole message of itself, but we'll just leave you a few thoughts. Um, let's read for connection, uh, Luke three, verse one. Now, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate became governor of Judea, and Herod, being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip, tetrarch of Iturea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Linfensanius, the tetrarch of Abilene, Anas and Caiaphas being the high priests. The word of God came unto John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. It's not the first time that you're going to read that the word of the Lord, the message of God, the voice of the Lord came in the wilderness. Now that I'm more attuned to the desert, I've been watching for this. I'm amazed how often the Lord spoke to his people in the desert. Was it because they're away from the noise of the skyscrapers of Jerusalem, and they could actually hear him? Perhaps so. But here we, we understand a beautiful principle in the scripture, and it's the connecting points of intimacy and revelation. That's why I've ordered them the way we have. The place of solitude, the place of separation. Now you've taken that time to be close to the Lord. Um, uh, not to overuse the expression that people have used so many times, that God doesn't have favorites, he has intimates. Let me ask you, how intimate are you with the Lord? How close are you to him? The, the principle here is that we see very often the Lord wants to reveal himself. He has a desire, a longing. He has so much to show us. He has so much to tell us. Eternity, he'll continue to do that for us. But as we become closer and closer to him, he shows more and more of it. Yes, there's this concept that, all right, I'm going to dig, and and as I study in the scriptures, I'm going to spend the next three hours reading this book, and I'm just going to read it over and over and over again. I strongly advocate that. I like, before I preach on a passage, I like to read it fifty, seventy, usually a hundred times if I can. You'd be amazed what you get on the seventy fifth reading you didn't get the first seventy four times. Just that reading it over and over and over, and you think, okay, I'm the one digging, I'm finding. There's some truth to that, but really, at the end of the day, it's the spirit of God that's revealing it to you. That's why the natural man can't really comprehend the things of God. It's not an intellectual capacity thing. Having a high IQ doesn't make you gifted in the scriptures, does it? It's not the point. There are people haven't barely finished a grade three or four education who understand the scriptures much better than any one of us in this room. And so this, this beautiful principle of those that are intimate with the Lord are given revelation. You want to know more? I'm not saying God has given you some new revelation. It's all here in the scriptures. But you wonder why things are a little bit dry? You wonder why things aren't really going the way your spiritual life isn't as vibrant as it should be, and the things of the world seem a little bit more attractive, and coming to meetings like this might seem a little bit less exciting than they should be? Well, you tasting of the goods that are here? They all point to him, of course. Are you allowing the Lord Jesus to reveal those things to you, those wonderful truths? Have you had those, those, those moments where I think of it as a, like they've drawn the cartoons where the little light bulb comes on over your head, you know, where you're reading the scripture and all of a sudden... I mean, there are times when you almost have to push your Bible away and say, Lord, I just, you're too good to me, I can't take this in. When was the last time that happened to you? When was the last time you're just overwhelmed with the goodness of God? You just thought, I cannot believe that he's done that for me. If you need to think a long time to try and remember that, you're missing out. I'm not trying to berate you over it. I'm trying to invite you back in to enjoy it. Come see, taste that the Lord is good. And so there's this beautiful connection, as I say right through the scriptures, between those who were intimate, if you will, or close with the Lord, that he, those are the ones he revealed. I mean, what is intimacy, right? You think, say the word intimacy, you start thinking about physical things. But intimacy, in its essence, if I can try and define it, is sharing something with someone that you wouldn't share with somebody else. If something particularly good or particularly bad happens, ask yourself, who's the first person that comes to your mind that you want to share that with? That's with whom you're intimate. We can remember days in our lives when tragedy occurred, whether it was a national or international tragedy like September eleventh, or a tragedy in your family, or an exciting day when a little one was born, or marvelous news came your way. If you were to be given some wonderful news tonight, who's the first person you'd want to tell? It gives you a sense of who you're intimate with on a physical level. And so it was no surprise when the Lord had something to reveal, when there was this big news that he was going to rain fire and brimstone down on Sodom and Gomorrah. That's a big deal. They said, well, I can't do it unless I tell my friend. What are the things happening in your life that you would say, how could I not have told my friend this? I get that feeling. How can you, you resigned from this job, and you didn't even tell me that you were going to do that? And so time and time again, we find the people who are most intimate with the Lord. Perhaps, again, I don't, I don't want to highlight one person above the others. I would argue that maybe one of the individuals who had the greatest insight into the future revelation of God in the Old Testament was Daniel. You read the book of Daniel, and he had understanding of things, of course, it came from the Lord. Daniel was a tremendously intimate man with God, wasn't he? And what I love about Daniel is he teaches us that we can be intimate with God even though we're surrounded by the kinds of people that he was surrounded in. Right? You think you've got a tough boss? Yeah, try Nebuchadnezzar. Yeah. Thanks for coming out, right? Like, I know you got problems at work. I get it. I understand that. I've got that too. But door number one is Nebuchadnezzar, door number two is your boss. I think I'll take door number two, right? Marvelous how he taught us that. Who similarly do you think of in the New Testament? Is there anyone in the New Testament that you can think of was perhaps more intimate with the Lord Jesus than anyone else? Give you a hint, starts with J and rhymes with mon. Wouldn't it have been John, the disciple John? Scripture tells us he, he rested his head on the bosom of the Lord. He's probably the youngest of the disciples, so maybe that had something to do with it. But the scripture says he was the disciple whom Jesus loved. There was an intimacy there. Is it any surprise who wrote the book of Revelation? It's John, isn't it? You want more? Go to him. You might think it's cold here in Ottawa sometimes, but I'm encouraging you tonight to make it to the desert every once in a while. A place of solitude, a place of separation, a place of revelation. Let's pray. Father, we're so grateful to be here tonight. It's a privilege to just meet with the Lord's people. We are so thankful that we have this freedom and this ability to gather together and to try, in some capacity, understand our Savior a little bit more and have him touch our hearts. Father, we're grateful for him tonight. We're grateful for these simple thoughts about the desert and how it's so prolific and surrounds us in the scriptures, and yet we know it speaks of the one who wants to spend every moment with us. Father, help us, we pray, to be ones who long for more intimacy with thee, that we would be the ones who would separate ourselves from the world and spend time alone with our wonderful God. Father, we're so grateful for, uh, the assembly here and the many assemblies represented. We pray that over the course of the weekend, our fellowship would be sweet, that it would help sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron, that we build each other up and encourage each other in the things of the Lord. We're touched when we think of the Lord Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem. And in many respects, we know the Lord Jesus is here tonight and how he longs for us to be drawn closer to him. Oh Father, help us to run to him. We're thankful so much. We're thankful for these refreshments that have been provided, for the fellowship. Uh, again, we know it all comes because of our centering on the person of the Lord Jesus, the one who binds us all together. We're grateful for, uh, these refreshments and these blessings together. Bless them to us, we pray, and bless our evening in our Lord's name. Amen.