Speaker: Pastor Jim
Scripture Focus: Joshua 1:9, Philippians 3:13, Proverbs 3:5, Revelation 3:8 (KJV)
Introduction: The Strange Place Between Survival and Movement
Good morning, church family.
There is a strange place in life that many people never talk about.
It is the place between surviving something… and learning how to move again.
It is that place where the storm has passed, but the damage is still visible.
It is that place where God has brought you through something, but you are not yet sure what comes next.
And if we are honest this morning, that place can feel almost as hard as the wilderness itself.
Because pain changes you.
The wilderness changes you.
And I know that not because I read it in a book, but because I have walked through it.
There have been seasons in my own life where the wilderness became very real.
There was a time when my own body betrayed me, and I stood face to face with how fragile life really is.
There was a season where relationships fell apart, and I learned what loneliness can sound like when the house gets quiet.
And there was another valley where I heard words from a doctor that shook me to my core and forced me to wrestle with fear and uncertainty.
I do not tell you these things for sympathy.
I tell you because I know what it means to walk through wilderness.
I know what it is to pray when heaven feels silent.
I know what it feels like to sit in rooms where all you have left is God.
And I can tell you this this morning:
God was faithful in every single wilderness.
Not once did He leave me.
Not once did He forsake me.
Not once did He stop holding me.
And now I have learned something:
The wilderness was never my ending.
It was preparation.
1. There Comes a Time to Move
Joshua chapter 1 verse 9 says:
“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
Joshua was standing at the edge of a new season.
Moses was gone.
The wilderness was behind him.
The promise was ahead.
But between him and the promise was movement.
God was saying:
It is time to move.
Church, there comes a moment when God says the same thing to us.
You have cried there long enough.
You have grieved there long enough.
You have sat in that pain long enough.
Now it is time to move.
Not because the pain was not real.
But because your future is still calling.
2. Some Things Cannot Cross the Jordan
Paul said in Philippians 3 verse 13:
“Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,”
There are things the wilderness puts on you.
Fear.
Bitterness.
Questions.
Wounds.
Regret.
And if you are not careful, you will drag them into the next season.
But there are some things that cannot cross your Jordan.
There were fears that attached themselves to me in my wilderness.
Fear after facing death.
Fear after loss.
Fear after diagnosis.
Questions that tried to settle permanently in my mind.
But God taught me something:
The wilderness may shape you…
but it cannot own you.
Your pain may mark you…
but it does not get to name you.
And what God is calling you into next is too important to carry old chains.
3. Trusting What You Cannot See
Proverbs 3:5 says:
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
That sounds beautiful until life stops making sense.
There were moments in my life where nothing made sense.
Why this?
Why now?
Why me?
Why this pain?
Why this loss?
Why this battle?
But I have learned that God often explains Himself after obedience, not before.
Sometimes the road ahead is dark.
Sometimes you do not get a map.
Sometimes all you get is His voice.
And that has to be enough.
Because if God is leading you, even the unseen road is safe.
4. When God Opens the Door
Revelation 3:8 says:
“Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.”
Some of you are standing at an open door right now.
A new season.
A new healing.
A new calling.
A new beginning.
But fear is keeping you frozen.
The same fear that wilderness built.
The same fear that pain strengthened.
But hear me:
Do not let what almost destroyed you stop what God is trying to build.
The wilderness did not kill you.
The loneliness did not destroy you.
The sickness did not finish you.
And if God brought you this far…
why would He leave you now?
Closing
I feel this strongly this morning.
Some of you have survived things nobody knows about.
Battles in your body.
Battles in your mind.
Battles in your home.
Battles in your heart.
And you made it.
You are still here.
And now God is standing at the edge of your next season saying:
Take the step.
Move forward.
Trust Me again.
Walk through the door.
Leave the wilderness behind.
Because what is ahead is greater than what is behind.
The road beyond the wilderness is open.
And God is waiting there.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father,
Lord, we come before You this morning humbled by Your faithfulness.
For every wilderness You have brought us through, we say thank You.
For every valley that did not destroy us, we say thank You.
For every silent room where You held us when no one else could, we say thank You.
Lord, some of us have walked through deep waters.
Some have faced sickness.
Some have faced loss.
Some have faced heartbreak.
Some have faced fear so heavy it felt like it would crush us.
But through it all, You have kept us.
And today, Lord, we stand at the edge of a new season.
And for many of us, that is frightening.
Because moving forward means trusting You again.
It means leaving behind what hurt us.
It means releasing fear.
It means letting go of what we cannot carry into the next place You have prepared.
So today, Lord, we lay it down.
Every burden.
Every wound.
Every regret.
Every fear.
Every question.
We place it at Your feet.
Strengthen us for the road ahead.
Give us courage like Joshua.
Give us trust when the path is unclear.
Give us faith to walk through every door You open.
And remind us, Lord, that the same God who kept us in the wilderness will lead us in the promise.
Heal the brokenhearted.
Strengthen the weary.
Comfort the lonely.
Touch the sick.
Restore the discouraged.
And let Your Spirit breathe fresh life into every soul under the sound of this prayer.
Lord, we are ready.
Ready to move.
Ready to trust.
Ready to follow.
Lead us forward.
And we will give You all the glory.
In the mighty name of Jesus Christ we pray,
Amen.