Our Perception of God
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Intro; In life, people look at things from different points of view based upon what they know about something. For example,
Nic talked about his excursion last week at the golf course as he was looking for Jacob and the high school golf team.
Some people on the course thought Nic was a golfer looking for his ball, while we know he was just a lost student pastor wandering in the wilderness of sand traps and bunkers and finally called Rebekah to come and save him!
Nic also made a comment about Chris Burch. He called Chris an old guy which we know is true, while others may think of Chris as mature and not old. NAH!
Some people look at things as black and white, while other people see grey
Most people are thankful to live in America because its the land of the free, while others look at America as the land of oppression and cruelty against them
Some people look at God as One who is looking to zap us while others look at God as the One who sent His Son to save us!
You either see things as a glass half empty or a glass half full! And according to how we see things, determines how we will respond to them!
This morning I want to preach on “Our Perception of God”
Text; Num. 14:1-10
1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.
2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
3 Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”
4 So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.”
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
6 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes;
7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: “The land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.
8 If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’
9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”
10 And all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Now the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting before all the children of Israel.
1. Their Perception of the Promised Land; Num. 13
1. Their Perception of the Promised Land; Num. 13
Perception- the way we view things; a way of regarding, understanding or interpreting something; a mental impression formed
Twelve spies have just returned from the Promised Land that God has brought them to. And their perception of the land is awesome.
27 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
The fruit of the land truly exceeded everything they could imagine.
For over 430 years the children of Israel had heard of the covenant God made with Abraham. An unconditional covenant that would place the descendants of Abraham in the very land that was before them.
1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
The Abrahamic Covenant included the promise of land (Genesis 12:1).
The Abrahamic Covenant also promised many descendants (Genesis 12:2).
The Abrahamic Covenant also included a promise of blessing and redemption (Genesis 12:3).
Here the children of Israel are standing on the precipice of the fulfillment of God’s covenant to Abraham, and their perception [view of the land, mental impression formed of what they saw and then believe] will decide their actions and fate!
The way we view God’s promises in His word, and what we believe about Him, decides our actions and our fate each and everyday!
20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
Do you believe that?
2. Their Perception of a Perceived Problem; Num. 13
2. Their Perception of a Perceived Problem; Num. 13
After all 12 spies agree that the land that they saw exceeded their expectations, 10 of the spies perceived a problem that stood in the way of them receiving what God had promised. Giants!
28 Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.
29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”
32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Instead of clinging to the promise of God, they focus on a potential problem!
Potential- having or showing the capacity to become or develop into something in the future:
Everyday we encounter things in life that have the potential to become a stumbling block or problem based on our perceptions of the situation
Peter allowed the waves that he was walking on to become a problem when He took his eyes off Jesus [Mt. 14:29-31]
The disciples allowed a demon possessed young man to become a stumbling block by not being able to cast it out, because of a lack of faith, prayer and fasting [Mt. 17:14-21]
Many disciples quit following Jesus because of the cost [John 6:66, Luke 9:23-24]
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We need to keep our eyes on Jesus, walk by faith and never forget that Jesus is bigger than any potential problem that we will encounter!
3. Their Perception of God; 1-10
3. Their Perception of God; 1-10
There are two different perceptions of God in this narrative; one sees God as a glass half empty while the other sees God as the glass half full.
Half empty- pessimist, an attitude of always thinking about the bad things in a situation rather than the good ones:
The people cried and wept because they were on the doorsteps of entering into God’s covenant, but a few giants stood in the way.
They murmured against Moses and Aaron for bringing them out of the bondage and slavery in Egypt only to die in the wilderness.
They complained that God really didn’t care about them or their families because they would die by the sword.
Instead of trusting God to overcome a potential problem, after all He had done to get them here, [the destruction of Pharaoh, the parting of the Red Sea, and the provision of manna and water in the desert], they grumbled, doubted God and feared what could become of them. They wanted to elect new leaders to take them back to bondage in Egypt!
Often as Christians we do the same thing with God. We look at God as a glass half empty god. He’s seemingly losing his power in this wicked world we live in. We fear the unknown, worry about God’s ability to fight our battles, and panic when things don’t go as we expect them too. Yet we quote Proverbs 3:5-6 but we don’t believe it!
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Half full- A person who views the situation optimistically or hopefully.
Moses and Aaron fall prostate before the Lord while Joshua and Caleb tear their clothes in distress because of the peoples lack of faith in God.
[v.7] “The land is an exceedingly good land”, we all agreed on this. This land is all that we thought it would be and more.
[v.8] “If God delights in us He will give it to us!”
Delight- to take pleasure in. God takes pleasure in us when we trust Him!
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
[v.9] “Don’t rebel against God nor fear the potential problems, God’s got this!”
In order to get from deliverance, Egypt, to destiny, Canaan, they had to go through a process of development; wilderness!
The wilderness is when God takes you through things in order to reveal to you He is God. You can only discover that God is God, when you’re going through wilderness situations.
Those are the trials, the testing’s and the temptations in which you have to depend on God because your own resources are not enough. You can’t make it on your own. The wilderness is dry, the wilderness is barren, the wilderness has no life. So if you’re gonna eat and drink in the wilderness, God is gotta rain down Manna from on high and bring water out of rocks. Because that’s what He did in the wilderness. The purpose of the wilderness is for God to show you He’s God.
Evans, A. T. (2009). “Freedom from Yesterday” (Part 6). In Tony Evans Sermon Archive (Nu 14:1–10). Tony Evans.
God has shown Himself capable in the past, He will show Himself mighty in the future!
6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
Close;
Our Perception of God not only affects how we trust Him and the actions we take in the circumstances of our life, it influences those around us.
Is your view of God, a god of a half empty glass, always looking at the negative side of things, wondering why God doesn’t do anything about the wickedness and chaos of the world.
Or do you perceive God as God of a half full glass, thankful for what He has done in the past and optimistic about what He is doing in the present with hope for the future!