Perspective is Everything

Thank you so much for joining us today. It is our hope that you feel welcome. If there is anything we can do to serve you, please don’t hesitate to let us know. As we dive into our series, The Exodus, Captivity to Promise. I sincerely believe that we are all on a journey where we are trying to and get grab hold of all that God has for us. That is what this series is meant to help us recognize; what God has for us and give us the faith filled steps to receive it. Because this is truly, in my opinion, one of the most epic stories in all of scripture, we want to resource you as you take this journey with us. I hope the journal has been a blessing to you. If you haven’t got your copy, download a digital copy and hop right in with us. Our key verse is...

Exodus 3:7–8 ESV

7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

In the series we have talked about:

Identity; Compromise; Commitment and the importance of Following the Pattern that God has established for us

Compromise

Commitment and the importance of Following the Pattern that God has established for us

As we continue on the journey from Captivity to Promise, let’s explore the next pit stop

Numbers 13:1–3 ESV

1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” 3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel.

Numbers 13:1–3 ESV

Numbers 13:1-

Numbers

Numbers 13:25–33 ESV

25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” 30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then 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 are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Numbers 13:25-

I believe there are a few instances within the Exodus narrative that ultimately served as a catalyst for others; that created a ripple affect that can still be felt today. This text is one of them. Their response to this assignment directly determined how long they would be in the wilderness. Today’s message title is: Perspective is Everything.

Illustration

Perspective is a powerful thing. We have phrases like, perspective is everything, or you have to change your perspective, it’s a matter of perspective. Perspective means a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view. Synonyms include: outlook, viewpoint, frame of reference, filter. We all know about filters. Our homes have filters that are meant to capture particles in the air so that we have clean air. Filters in our cars do the same thing. Filters set the atmosphere. We see this all the time in photography and digital media.

Maegan and De’Nira serve as our family’s digital historians. Maegan is a bit more extreme than my daughter. She takes pictures of everything. When I say everything, I mean everything. I was looking through her camera roll and she had pictures of sticks, grandkids, squirrels, clouds, houses, cars, stores, trees, concrete, bugs. Some of the funniest moments occur when Maegan and De’Nira start looking through pictures and applying filters. Filters can resurrect a dead picture. Filters can remove flaws. Filters can blur things out in the background so that you can focus on the big picture. Filters determine perspective.

Transition

This seems to be the same in our daily lives, filters determine perspective. When looking at circumstances, our filter determines our perspective. When we use the filter of the past in the present, it can obstruct our vision for the future. We all have a perspective but have you ever watched a movie and walked away with a completely different view point from a friend or critic? Have you ever been a part of a conversation in a group and each one has a different take away? Our filter determines our perspective. If we look through the lens or filter of offense or bitterness, that will be your perspective.

Your input will determine your outlook. From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. What filters are feeding your perspective?

Background/Context

The children of Israel have been free for roughly 2 years. God has done some amazing things in that time including giving them His law, the tabernacle, which was the literal presence of God. God establishes His expectations of His people, He leads them to the Red Zone with the lead. All they have to do is manage the clock, don’t turn the ball over, and kneel. Why are you running in your own strength when you would win if you just kneeled. Why are you doing so much, all you have to do is kneel?

Exodus 13:8–9 ESV

8 You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.

God instructs His people to capture the image of who He is, who they are, what He has done and what He is going to do. Knowing the next generation didn’t have first hand experience with them being rescued from Egypt and seeing God provide water from a rock, bread from heaven, God wanted to ensure they had the proper filter. The box on their wrist and forehead was meant to serve as a reminder of the strong hand of God. When we lose perspective, we lose hope.

For the Israelites, this moment served as an eye test to see if they lost perspective.

Points

For the Israelites, this moment served as an eye test to see if they lost perspective. Moses sent 12 leaders to spy out the land. He instructs them to get a sense of the people, places, and produce. He tells them to be of good courage. In other words, don’t freak out, God’s got this. They go for about 40 days, which serves as a number that reflects testing. They scout out the land and go to an area called Hebron. This is powerful because this is the place where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are buried. This should have served as a symbol of freedom for them, like the statue of liberty of faith; bring me your tired and poor and those looking to breathe free air…it should have been a monument the confirmed God’s faithfulness, but perspective is everything. We can look at where we are as tombstone where we died or a monument of what we survived. Abraham is here, Isaac is here, Jacob is here; God led us here. We can see it as the place where we will thrive or as the place where we determine our best days are behind us. They return and give an executive summary. Two to be exact. Two that reflect different perspectives.

I believe there are two overarching filters, that determine our perspective.

Filter of Feelings

12 scout out the land and 10 determine that the land is uninhabitable. They are not desolate places. They didn’t have to start from scratch. They had walls, massive fruit and some pretty influential and powerful people. None of this should have been a surprise since God told them the land He was giving them was currently occupied. However, their feelings kicked in. Instead of looking at what they saw as a blessing that was about to come, their perspective was there is no way we can occupy this land; we are going to die here. They got caught up in their feelings. Feelings are good, they are given by God. Feelings are like the instrument panel on a car, they serve as indicators. Years ago my check engine light came on and I spent considerable amounts of time and money to repair it only to discover the censor needed to be recalibrated, not the engine. The lesson I learned was, censor was an indicator but it isn’t fact. The same can be said of our feelings, they are indicators, but they are not facts.

Jeremiah 17:9 The Message

9 “The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out.

Proverbs 4:23 ESV

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

When our feelings become fact we lose objectivity; we lose hope; we lose perspective. The Israelites looked at the land and didn’t see the promise, they obsessed over the problems. Feelings began to communicate, there is no way we can win a battle with these guys. There is no way we can overcome these barriers. Compared to them, we are the size of grasshoppers. Feelings will lead you to compare you to the size of your problems instead of measuring your problems to the size of your God. They lost perspective of when God turned water into blood, parted the Red Sea, killed the first born of Egypt, rained bread from heaven, allowed water to come from a rock…they lost perspective. Feelings can cause us to lose perspective of the goodness of God. Perfect love casts out fear, but perfect fear casts out trust in God.

1 John 4:18 ESV

18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

These trusted leaders spread this throughout the congregation. When obstacles are met with the oxygen of our feelings it spreads like wild fire and cause others to be consumed by their emotions.

Are there areas where you’ve lost perspective of how good God has been to you?

Filter of Faith

The other filter that fuels our perspective is faith. Caleb and Joshua were men of faith. They had a different perspective. Caleb quieted the drama and said, man let’s go, we are well able to OVERCOME IT. How is it that all 12 saw the same thing, but only 2 had a faith filled response? Notice, Caleb didn’t discount what the 10 said. He didn’t have unrealistic optimism, he had perspective. Faith doesn’t deny facts, it believes God in spite of them.

I believe they had a heightened focus on who God is and what He has done for them. God wanted to ensure that the children of Israel didn’t lose perspective of who He is, who they are, what He has done and what He said they would do. This is why we see a constant thread through scripture to “remember”. The feasts were largely meant to serve as reminders. Passover, reminder. Tithe, reminder. Communion, reminder. God built in these rest stops on our journey so that we can pause and be reminded of His goodness because that will serve as our filter and our filter will determine our perspective.

Exodus 13:8–9 NLT

8 “On the seventh day you must explain to your children, ‘I am celebrating what the Lord did for me when I left Egypt.’ 9 This annual festival will be a visible sign to you, like a mark branded on your hand or your forehead. Let it remind you always to recite this teaching of the Lord: ‘With a strong hand, the Lord rescued you from Egypt.’

God instructs His people to capture the image of who He is, who they are, what He has done and what He is going to do. The box on their wrist and forehead was meant to serve as a reminder of the STRONG HAND OF GOD. This was the prefrontal cortex. The place where decisions to take action on thoughts.

What is processed in the mind is executed in the hands. God told His people, let me be your filter. He said, I am; I will be what you need me to be. I will be your healer, I will be your deliverer, I will be your champion, I will be your provider. Don’t focus on the walls, don’t focus on the giants; focus on the fact that says, “this battle isn’t yours, it belongs to the LORD. Joshua and Caleb never perspective that God is God and God is in control.

Closing

As a result of their fear and doubt, an entire generation died off because fear will struggle to be at piece with the blessing. It doesn’t have to be so with us. You can change your perspective. You can change your filter. No filter is final. We have the ability to revert back, to get a fresh start. Zacheus couldn’t see Jesus because of the group he was in. He had to make a decision to change his filter so that it could change his life. When you change your perspective, it will change your life.

Luke 19:2–3 ESV

2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.

Which group are you in?

Change your perspective

Closing

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