1-12-14 Sermon

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WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET

A New You For A New Year

01-12-14 Sermon

NUMBERS 13-14

      “Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the new land: ‘Go northward through the Negev into the hill country and SEE what the land is like and FIND OUT whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls or are they unprotected? How is

      the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Enter the land boldly, and bring back         samples of the crops YOU SEE.’”  Numbers 13:17-20 (NLT)

      “After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned to Moses and Aaron, and the people of Israel waiting at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land.”  (vs. 25-26) 

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I LOOK AT MY FUTURE

WITH EYES OF FEAR?

1.   I Get______________________________________________________________

      “This was their report to Moses: ‘We arrived in the land you sent us TO SEE, AND it is indeed a magnificent country—a land flowing with milk and honey! Here is some of its fruit as proof. BUT the people living there are powerful, and their cities and towns are fortified and very large. We ALSO SAW the descendants of Anak who are living there!’”   (vs. 27-28)

2.   I Develop___________________________________________________________

      “The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the Hill Country; and the Canaanites live near the Sea and along the Jordan!”  (vs. 29)

3.   I Fulfill My Own ____________________________________________________

      “But the men who had gone up with Caleb said, ‘WE CAN’T attack those people; they are stronger than we are.’”  (vs. 31)

I Infect Others__________________________________________________________

      “And they SPREAD A bad report about the land they had explored.”  (vs. 32)

5.   I See Myself As____________________________________________________

      They said, “The land we explored DEVOURS those living in it! ALL the people we saw there are of great size! We SAW GIANTS there!  We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them!”  (vs. 32-33)

6.   I Make Myself ____________________________________________________________

      “Then all the people began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. And they grumbled and complained in a great chorus against their leaders, Moses and Aaron. ‘We wish we’d died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!’ they wailed.” Num.14:1-2

·         C_______________

·         C_______________

·         S______________________  G____________________

THE ANTIDOTE: To Learn To________________________________________

        “Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, ‘We should go at once and take possession of the land right now!  WE CAN certainly do this!’”  Num. 13:30 (NLT)

      Jesus: “Didn’t I tell you that YOU WILL SEE God’s glory IF you believe?”     

      John 11:40 (NLT)

HOW DO I GET EYES OF FAITH?

1.    I Need To Invite Jesus Into____________________________________________

      Jesus said, “Unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.”                                             John 3:3 (NLT)

      2. Do Whatever God_____________________________________________________

      Joshua (with Caleb) said “We saw the land ourselves, and it’s very good. IF WE OBEY the Lord, he will surely give us that land rich with milk and honey. So don’t rebel. We have no reason to be afraid of the people who live there. The Lord is on our side, and they won’t stand a chance against us!”  Num. 14:6-9 (CEV)

      “So we see that they were not able to enter because of their unbelief.” Hebrews 3:19

WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET

A New You For A New Year

01-12-14 Sermon

Happy New Year everybody!  I am starting a new sermon series for this new year called A New You For A New Year.

The number one thing that determines whether you are happy or you are unhappy in the new year, whether you succeed or whether you fail in the new year, whether you grow or whether you stagnate in the new year is how you look at things.  It is your perspective.  That is why I have titled this sermon WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET. Your perspective determines your purpose.  Your perspective determines your passion.  Your perspective determines your place in history. 

The Bible tells us that there’s a direct connection between seeing and believing.  That faith and perspective are very closely related.  The Bible says “Faith is the evidence of things not seen.”  You don’t see it from a physical viewpoint; you see it from a spiritual viewpoint. 

You’ve heard people say “There’s more than one way to look at things,” and they’re right.  There is.  And the way you choose to look at things will determine these other areas of your life.  There is more than one way to look at things.  And generally you’re looking at things either with eyes of fear or you’re looking at things with eyes of faith.  And that’s your choice.  I can’t change that for you.  God won’t change that for you.  It’s your choice whether you’re going to look at this  new year of your life with fear, with anxiety, with worry, with nervousness or whether you’re going to look at it with faith and with confidence and in believing and in trusting God and taking risks that you would not normally take because of fear.

One of the best examples of this is the passage we’re going to look at today which is in the book of Numbers, chapters 13 and 14.  Numbers is the fourth book of the Bible, a book written by Moses.  The background of this story is Moses has led the children of Israel out of Egypt.  They had been slaves for four hundred years.  They spent two years crossing the desert.  It shouldn’t have taken them that long but when you’re moving a couple million people at once it takes a while.  They get up to the edge of the Promised Land, they’ve been two years in the wilderness, and they’re ready to go in to Israel, the land that God has promised them. 

Moses says before we go in I’m going to send some spies in to spy out the land and see what it’s like.  So he selects twelve men, one from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.  He sends them in and they go in and they look at everything.  He gives them very specific instructions.  Then they come back and they report. There’s a majority report and a minority report.  Ten of the spies say yeah it’s beautiful but it’s filled with enemies and we cannot do it.  They’re seeing with the eyes of fear.  God’s already done all these miracles in Egypt and in the wilderness but they’ve already forgotten this.  And they’re afraid and they say we can’t go in and possess the land God has promised. 

Then there’s a minority report.  Two of the spies say, sure we can do it.  They see with eyes of faith.  Their names are Caleb and Joshua.  Later, they’re the only two guys of that entire generation who get to go into the Promised Land.

The people start complaining and they see and they get afraid and they say we can’t do it.  So God says, ok, fine, this generation doesn’t get to go into the Promised Land.  And for the next thirty-eight years they wandered in the desert until all of them died. 

It is the way you see your future, with eyes of faith or eyes of fear, that’s going to determine whether you get to go in and possess all that God has planned for you in the next decade or whether you miss it.

Let’s start the story in Numbers 13.  Verse 17, “Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the new land: ‘Go northward through the Negev into the hill country and see what kind of land this is and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many.  [He gives them some questions.] What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad?  Do their towns have walls or are they unprotected?  How is the soil?  Is it fertile or poor?  Are there many trees?  [Then he says …] Enter the land boldly and bring back samples of the crops you see.” 

That’s the way I want you to enter this new year.  I want you to enter it boldly with faith and confidence. “Enter the land boldly and bring back samples of the crops you see.” 

Before any people can succeed with a goal, they have to see the goal.  If you can’t see it in your life you can’t succeed in it in your life.  If you can’t see yourself being healthy, you’ll never get healthy.  If you can’t see yourself prospering, you’ll never prosper.  If you can’t see yourself being used by God for his glory, then you’ll never be used by God for his glory.  If you can’t see yourself getting married or finishing college or starting a career or whatever your dream is, if you can’t see it, you can’t succeed in it.  You’ve got to see it before you sense it before you say it. 

Here’s what happened.  “So they spied out the land all the way from the wilderness up to Hebron.  There they saw the Ahimanites, the Sheshaites and the Talmaites.  All the families descended from Anak.”

I don’t want you to confuse these tribes.  They’re very important.  The Ahimanites, the Sheshaites and the Talmaites.  These are not the parasites.  These are not the termites.  These are not the stalactites, stalagmites or the satellites.  Otherwise you’re going to really get messed up in your Bible study; you’ve got to know who these tribes are. 

It says, “When they came to Eshcol they cut down clusters of grapes, so large that it took two of them to carry it back on a pole, and they also took samples of pomegranates and figs.”  This really is a bountiful country.  It’s plentiful, it’s bountiful.  It’s full of gigantic fruit like they’ve been feeding it Miracle Grow.  And it really is the phrase, land of milk and honey, these plants are enormous.

That sounds good.  Then it says in verse 25, “After exploring the land for forty days, the men [who were the spies] returned to Moses and Aaron, and the people of Israel waiting at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran.  They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land.”  All this sounds really good.  Great property, great fruit, very bountiful country.  But ten of the spies saw the land with eyes of fear and only two saw it with eyes of faith.  So they gave a negative report.  In the negative report, the people decide, we can’t go into the Promised Land.  We give up.  We’re afraid.  And they die in the desert. 

I don’t want you to do that in this new year.  So we’re going to look at six things that happen when you look at your future with eyes of fear instead of eyes of faith.  Then we look at how to fill your eyes with faith so you can move into God’s plan, God’s promise. What happens when I look at my future with eyes of fear? 

1.     I get stressed by conflicting information.

Throughout your life you’re going to hear good news and bad news and what you focus on will determine what you do with your life.  You can focus on the negative or you can focus on the positive. 

Verse 27 “This was their report to Moses: ‘We arrived in the land that you sent us to see [what you see is what you get] and it is indeed a magnificent country, a land flowing with milk and honey! Here is some of its fruit as proof.  But the people living there are powerful, and their cities and towns are fortified and very large.  We also saw the descendants of Anak who are living there.” 

Who are the descendents Anak?  The Anakin are from the tribe of Skywalker and the force was very strong with them.  Oh no!  That’s the wrong story.  I got it confused for a minute.  The Anakin were actually very large people.  They were over six feet tall.  Some were seven feet tall.  They were two hundred, three hundred pounds.  For a small middle easterner, these guys looked like giants. 

Notice they said, “It’s magnificent country… but the people living there are powerful.”  See the conflicting report?  Good news… but.  Good news… but.  I want you to circle the word “but.”  Notice that I actually made it in a little bigger type font.  See that on your outline?  The biggest problem that’s going to keep you from experiencing God in the new year is your big but!  [turn to your neighbor and ask them, Did I really just hear the pastor say that?]

Everybody has a but.  “I could do this but… I know God wants me to do this but…”  Everybody has a but.  Some buts are bigger than other buts.  I can always see your but, but I can’t see my own but!  And it is those buts that keep you from becoming all God wants you to be.  But, but, but, but, but!  I can’t do it. 

If you’re going to let God use you, if you’re going to go into this new year, you’ve got to let go of the big buts in your life.  Of the big excuses, the big problems, the big reasons why you think “I could never do this.”  We get stressed by conflicting information.  It’s a beautiful place but… there’s some enemy in there.

The second thing that happens when I look with eyes of fear at my future is…

2.     I develop a scarcity mentality.

I not only get stressed more when I’m looking with eyes of fear but I also develop what I call a scarcity mentality.  What is a scarcity mentality?  It’s the idea that there’s no room for us.  There’s not going to be enough for everybody so I better hold on and hoard what little I’ve got.  I shouldn’t give it away.  I shouldn’t expand myself.  I shouldn’t take any risks because there’s a scarcity.  I’m going to batten down the hatches and hold on.

This is what happened to these guys.  They said there’s no room for us.  Verse 29 “The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”  What are they saying?  This is supposed to be our Promised Land – it’s already filled with people!  And these people are enemies and they don’t want us moving in.  There’s no room for us.  Why did God bring us here?  There’s just not going to be enough land for everybody!

When you see with eyes of fear you get this scarcity mentality and you start saying, “All the good jobs are already taken.  How in the world am I ever going to get a job in this economy?  All the good men are already taken.  How am I ever going to get married?” 

That is the eyes of fear.  The scarcity mentality.  I’m going to hold on to what little I’ve got.  I’m not going to take any risks.

The third thing that happens when I look with the eyes of fear,

3.     I fulfill my own self-defeating prophecies.

What do I mean by that?  I mean that the person who says, we can do it, and the person who says, we can’t do it, are both right!  If you say I can and if you say I can’t you’re right either way.  Because you’re going to end up fulfilling what your attitude is.

Right now people who are going to compete for the gold in the next Olympics are already training.  I can guarantee you not one of them is saying, I can’t do this.  You don’t ever win a gold going into the race thinking, I can’t win.  You only go into the race if you think, I can win.  I could win.  If you tell yourself in advance, I can’t do this.  This will never happen in my life.  I could not get in shape.  I could not get out of debt.  I could not get married.  I could not adopt a child.  I could not… whatever it is.  I could give you a hundred things “I could not…” you’re right.  You’re going to fulfill your own self-fulfilling prophecy.  That’s called seeing with eyes of fear.

Developing a scarcity mentality and fulfilling my own defeating prophecies.  There were only two guys of these twelve guys that went in to spy the land that said, we can.  They’re the only two guys that got to go into the Promised Land forty years later.  Everybody else said we can’t and God said you’re right – you can’t.  You’re stuck in the wilderness the rest of your lives.  Because of your unbelief you don’t get to go into the Promised Land.

Verse 31, “But the men who had gone up with Caleb said, ‘We can’t [there’s that negative] attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”  You’re going to fulfill your own self-defeating prophecy and you’ll miss God’s blessing for your life.

If that wasn’t bad enough, when I look at my future with eyes of fear there’s another problem--

4.     I infect others with my negativity. 

When you’re negative, when you’re fearful, when you’re worried – sorry!  It doesn’t just affect you; it affects everybody else you love too.  We spread it around.

Verse 32 “They spread a bad report about the land they had explored.”  Pretty soon the whole nation is worried.  The whole nation is fearful.  The whole nation… its psychology being passed on, it becomes contagious.

Not only do I infect others with my negativity, the fifth thing is…

5.     I see myself as inadequate for my challenges.

This is a sad thing that happens.  People who have the ability to do something with their lives, are stymied and stopped and barricaded by their own negative attitude.  I see myself as inadequate for my challenges.

This is what they said in verse 32: “The land we explored devours those living in it!” Really?  Isn’t that a little exaggeration?  Just eats them up, devours them.  “All the people we saw there are of great size!”  Really?  Everybody there?  It’s like “Everybody’s doing it!”  No, not really.  “All the people we saw are of great size! We saw giants there!”

You know what happens when you worry about something?  It gets bigger.  Have you noticed that?  When you worry about something it gets bigger.  The more you think about it, the bigger it gets in your mind.  And pretty soon you’re facing a giant problem simply because you willed it, you worried it into a giant problem. 

The land devours the people, everybody’s big size, we saw giants there.  “We seemed like grasshoppers...  [We’re like little ants, insects to step on.  We seemed like grasshoppers…] in our own eyes.”  Circle “in our own eyes.”  That’s perspective.  They’re seeing with the eyes of fear.  Seeing with the eyes of negativity.  “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them.”  Oh really?  This is a classic case of negativity; eyes of fear cause me to see myself as inadequate.  I couldn’t be a good husband.  I couldn’t be a godly man.  I couldn’t make it in that business.  I could never succeed at…whatever.

Notice these words: “The land we explored devours…”  The word there in Hebrew means “to eat up.”  What they’re saying is these people are going to eat us for lunch!  They’re like cannibals.  Then they say, “All the people we saw there are of great size.”  Then it says “We saw giants.”  The Hebrew there literally means “bullies, tyrants.”  Imagine the NFL offensive linemen of life.  Giant six-foot eight, six-foot nine, three hundred fifty pound men. 

Then it says, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our eyes and we looked the same to them.”  How do you know how you looked to them?  You don’t. 

Here’s a fact of human nature.  We always tend to project our fears onto other people.  So if you think you’re inadequate, you think everybody else thinks you’re inadequate.  If you think you’re unattractive, you think everybody else thinks you’re unattractive.  They don’t think that at all.  But because you do, you project it on them.  It is your own eyes of fear that have caused you to miss what other people see. 

The sixth thing is,

6.     I make myself miserable.

If I don’t look at my life and I don’t look at my future with faith eyes I just make myself miserable.  Nothing is more miserable than to be around somebody who is scared, negative, against it all, thinking it’s not going to happen. 

Numbers 14:1-2 is what happened after they gave this negative report, “Then all the people began weeping aloud, and they cried all night.[that’s a long time to cry] And they grumbled and complained in a great chorus against their leaders… [When people are afraid they start criticizing their leader.] …complained… against their own leaders, Moses and Aaron. ‘We wish we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!’”

What happens is when I get negative, I throw myself a pity party.  There are three parts to a pity party and they’re all in this verse.  Crying, complaining, and second guessing.  That’s it.  Crying, complaining, and second guessing.  When you live with eyes of fear instead of eyes of faith it says, “they cried all night.”  You go around moping and moaning.  They cried all night.  Then “they grumbled and complained in a great chorus.”  It’s amazing how our fears cause us to complain about everybody else.  Then we second guess “We wish we died in Egypt or even here in the wilderness.”  Do you know that some people would rather die in the wilderness than face their fears.  That’s dumb!  I want you to face your fears.  Because that’s the way you get out of them.  The harvest of fear in your life is crying, complaining and second guessing.  And you get stuck and you miss the Promised Land God has for you.

What’s the antidote? 

The antidote is to learn to look with faith.  I need to learn to look at everything with faith.  Look at myself, look at God, look at my husband or my wife, my children and grandchildren.  Look at my future, look at my finances, look at my health, look at my giving, look at my witnessing.  I need to look at everything in my life with faith because faith trumps fear.  Faith creates confidence.  Faith gets you moving. 

This is what Caleb did.  In verse 30, “Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses  and said, ‘We should go at once [circle “at once”] and take possession of the land right now! [circle “right now”] We can certainly do this!”  These are the eyes of faith.  We should go at once and we should do it right now. 

I defeat my fears with movement.  That’s a very important principle of life.  I defeat my fears with movement.  I don’t argue them away.  I don’t discuss them away.  I don’t wish my fears away.  I don’t talk them away.  I defeat my fears with movement.  You must move against your fears.  You must do the thing you fear the most.  Fear is always worse than the thing itself. 

He says, right now we should go.  We should move against our fears.  We don’t discuss it, we don’t focus on it. 

Here’s what I want us to get today.  If you don’t get anything else I say get this: If you want God’s best in your life in 2014 –you need to stop listening to your feelings.  You need to stop looking in fear.  And you need to start living in faith. 

The Bible says if you believe God will help you then he will help you and then you will see a miracle.  You believe and then you see.  People say I’ve got to see it to believe it.  Actually it’s the opposite.  I’ve got to believe it to see it.  You believe God will help you and then you will see the miracle.  You don’t see the miracle and then believe it.  No.  You believe it and then you see it. 

During Christmas, that message that I did on making room for Jesus.  Remember we talked about Jesus had two friends who were sisters, Mary and Martha.  Mary and Martha had a brother and their brother was named Lazarus.  Lazarus got sick.  So sick that he died.  Mary and Martha were grieving and Jesus shows up and they said, Lord if you’d gotten here sooner you could have healed him.  And he says, I’m here on time.  I didn’t want to heal him.  I wanted to raise him from the dead.  I let it get worse than you thought it should get because I wanted to do a bigger miracle. 

That’s true in your life.  He wants to do a bigger miracle in your life.  But you’ve got to trust him.  Jesus said this to Mary and Martha after their brother died, John 11:40 “Didn’t I tell you that you will see God’s glory if you believe?”  You’ll see it if you believe it first. 

Here’s my question to you, as your pastor.  How badly do you want to see God’s glory in your life in 2014?  How badly do you want to see God’s blessing on your life in this decade?  How badly do you want to see God bless each area of your life? 

If you want God’s blessing, if you want God to use you, you want to see the glory of God in your life, you’ve got to stop nursing your worries, stop feeding them by thinking about them on and on.  You’ve got to make some faith commitments in whatever areas you need to make them.  And you’re going to need to step out and move against the fear in faith.  How do I do that?  How do I see God’s plan, God’s purpose for my life, my destiny?  How do I see it?

Let me give you two starter steps.  There are more than these but these are starter steps to get you going.

1.     First I need to invite Jesus into every room of my life. 

I don’t have to go into this in detail because I spoke about it at Christmas.  But, any area of your life where you’re worried, any area of your life where you’re upset, any area of your life where you are anxious and nervous, that’s the area of your life you have not given to Jesus Christ.  Because when Jesus walks in the room he fills it with peace.

So your worries reveal to you the areas of your life that are not under Christ’s control.  You worry about finances?  It’s not under Christ’s control.  You worry about your job?  It’s not under Christ’s control.  Whatever room is not filled with Jesus is not filled with peace; it’s filled with fear, worry and anxiety.

Jesus said it like this in John 3:3, if I want to get eyes of faith, if I want to see how God sees my life, “Unless you are born again you can never see [circle the word “see”] the kingdom of God.”  If you want to see from God’s viewpoint you have to get God in your life.  And there’s not a better time to do it than the first weekend of a brand new year.  So let’s start this year right.  Let’s start it with Jesus in every room of our lives.

The second thing you have to do, …

2.     Do whatever God tells me to do.

That’s the final thing.  Obedience is what unlocks the power of God in your life.  Here’s an example, Numbers 14:6-9 “Joshua [with Caleb] said ‘We saw the land ourselves, and it’s very good.  If we obey [this is the key] the Lord, he will surely give us the land rich with milk and honey.  So don’t rebel.  We have no reason to be afraid of the people who live there.  The Lord is on our side, and they won’t stand a chance against us!”

You know all that stuff you’re worried about?  It doesn’t stand a chance against you if you will obey God, if you’ll do what he says.  The Lord is on our side.  These guys had forgotten that God had been preparing the Promised Land for hundreds of years.  Then he did miracle after miracle after miracle in Egypt, defeated the most powerful nation in the world, brought them out, miraculously fed them manna and quail and provided water for them every day for all this time and now they’re afraid to go in to the Promised Land that God’s given them?  We’re afraid.  So God says, ok.  So be it.  You die in the desert.  And that whole generation died in the desert walking around in circles until a new generation arose and then God let that generation go in.

You know what to me is the saddest verse in the Bible?  It’s this verse, Hebrews 3:19 talking about these people “So we see that they were not able to enter [they didn’t get to go into the Promised Land.  They didn’t get what God had promised.  They missed the blessing that God had planned for them.  They missed their destiny.] they were not able to enter because of their unbelief.”  It was their fear, it was their worry, it was their anxiety, it was their unbelief.  They missed the blessing, they missed their destiny because they would not do what God told them to do.

I don’t want you to miss your destiny in this new year.  So let’s go for it.

Prayer:

      You can do this!  As Joshua said, we will surely receive that rich land of milk and honey if we obey the Lord.  We have no reason to be afraid.  The Lord is on our side.  They won’t stand a chance against us.  If you’ve never invited Jesus Christ into your heart or you’ve held back some rooms of your life pray this prayer. Jesus Christ, I want you in every room of my life in this new year.  As I start a new year I want a new me.  And I’m opening every room of my life to you.  I want to be born again.  I want those spiritual senses to see the things you want me to see, hear the things you want me to hear, to taste the things you want me to taste, and smell the things you want me to smell.  I invite you into every room of my life. 

      Then would you pray:  Lord, I ask you to help me to do whatever you tell me to do.  I’m sorry I’ve been afraid.  I’ve held back.  I’ve been afraid to risk.  Help me to see my future with your eyes of faith.  In your name I pray.  Amen.