It's All How You Look at Things: Seeing from God's Perspective

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Hey, I want to hear from you. Would you consider emailing me? You can reach me at Greg at Harvest dot org. Again, that's Greg at Harvest dot org.

And you can also make me one of your friends on Facebook and drop me a comment. Coming up today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie offers some good reassurance for the growing tide of challenges people are facing here in 2020. We all face problems. We all face obstacles.

We all face challenges and we all face giants. But can you see them in the light of who God is? Don't look at God in the light of your problem.

Look at your problem in the light of God. It's all how you look at things. When you're driving clear across the country, you might encounter the Rocky Mountains, a huge mountain range.

Hikes Peak alone jets up more than 14,000 feet into the sky. But when you fly over those mountains on an airliner, it kind of looks like the same ground you saw an hour ago, but with more texture. Well, so it is with differing perspectives. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie brings us God's reassuring perspective on our mountain sized problems.

Turning your Bibles to Numbers Chapter 13 and the title of this message is It's All How You Look at Things. Now, maybe as you're listening to me, you are facing a gigantic problem. And as the days go by, your giant just gets bigger.

For instance, it could be a giant of fear. You're afraid right now. And no wonder you turn on the news and you hear it's going to get worse before it gets better with the coronavirus. You hear of the death toll going up. You look at an uncertain economy.

You look at riots in the streets and something else that might be frightening right now. Some challenge you're facing of some kind and you are paralyzed with fear. Or it might be a giant, if you will, of some kind of a personal sin. A certain area of your life that you've fallen over and over again.

You seem to get victory. You seem to conquer it for a week, maybe even for a month and you fall back into it again. It could be pride, envy, gluttony, lust or something else.

The list just goes on. Or in a related way, it could be a giant of addiction. You're trying to break free from the power of alcohol and you go well for a while without a drink.

And then you fall off the wagon and then you're back to square one. Or it might be drugs and you're just finding you cannot overcome this addiction. It's like a giant that taunts you day in and day out.

Or it could be a different kind of a giant. Maybe it's a husband that doesn't believe as you believe in Jesus Christ. And instead of getting closer, he seems to be getting further away from coming to the Lord. Or it might be a child that you raised in the way of the Lord and they've hit those teenage years.

And they're starting to push back and some have even gone prodigal on you. This giant, if you will, is anyone or anything that seeks to control you, hurt you, destroy you, or torment you in life. So listen, I have some good news for you right now. God is bigger than your giant. God is bigger than your problem. So the key is if you understand and see God as you ought to, you will see your problems for what they are. Listen, if you have a big God, you have small problems. And if you have big problems, do you have a small God?

Now I'm not in any way saying your problem may not be gigantic because it could be. But I'm just saying God is bigger than what you're facing. So if you have a big God, in other words, if you see God and His power and His glory and His ability to help you, you're going to see your problem with the right perspective. But if your problem looms so large that you can't even see how God can get you out of it, then the problem is your problem is bigger than your God and you need to change the way that you look at things.

That is why the title of this message is It's All How You Look at Things. Now in our last message that we called A Blessing for You, remember we learned some things about the Lord. And the blessing that was to be pronounced by the priests on the people.

They were to say the Lord bless you, the Lord keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you and lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. So we discovered that God loves to bless us and that God will keep us and He'll protect us and He'll give us peace. And that's so important the way that we view God because it will affect us in every area of life. So we're in a series that we're calling Water, Fire, Stone. And it's a series on the life of Moses and we're back in the book of Numbers. Now don't let that concern you because maybe like you, you didn't do well in school on the subject of math. Oh no, I hate Numbers. It's really not about numbers. It's actually a record of the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel. And the book of Numbers has a lot to say to us today.

Here's a question. Why did the children of Israel wander in the wilderness for 40 years? You know it doesn't take even on foot 40 years to get from Egypt to Israel. The reason it took so long is because they effectively went around and around in circles because they weren't learning the lessons God wanted them to learn. I mean they had it made in the shade. Every day the Lord provided them with food.

It was right outside of their tent. It was called manna. The word manna comes from the Hebrew krispokrimo and we get our English word krispy cream from it.

No, I made that up. But the Bible says it was sweet to the taste. It is described as the food of angels and it's hard for us to wrap our mind around it. But this amazing substance was there for them each and every day but it wasn't very long until they started complaining. Complaining. We're tired of this manna.

We're tired of eating this manna every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then God set them up with the ultimate GPS system. A cloud by day, a fire by night. You know you have GPS in your car or on your phone. You follow the directions. Turn right here, turn left there, etc.

And if you're like my GPS periodically it just makes no sense. Turn right on the next off ramp. You turn right. Turn left over here. Turn left here. Do a U-turn. Go around in circles five times. Get back on the freeway.

You're like what was that all about? But God's GPS was much clearer. Just like if the cloud moves, you move. If the cloud stops, you stop.

If it's night time and the fire moves in the sky, you go with it. So they had food to eat. They had amazing GPS to guide them knowing where they should go. And yet these people grew tired of it and they started taking it all for granted. And they started complaining. And they said, we remember the good old days back in Egypt. We miss eating our garlic and our leeks and our onions. Man their breath must have stunk.

You know think about it. Oh we miss it. Well you know we don't like this food. Besides we're all on the keto diet and man it doesn't work with that. We want meat again. And they start crying out to Moses. We want meat. We want meat and so forth.

So God gave them what they wanted. I mean you've heard of the expression raining cats and dogs. It literally rained birds. Quail coming out of the sky. And these people were so anxious. They have this meat. They didn't even take time to pluck the quail and cook them. They just grabbed these birds and bit into them. And the Bible says it turned bitter in their mouth.

And offering a little commentary. Psalm 106 verse 15 says God gave them their request but sent leanness to their soul. Listen careful what you wish for you might get it. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. So many listeners have commented on the help they receive from these daily messages. God's word ministers to them.

And it often gets them through some dark hours. I'm very sorry for the loss of your son Pastor Greg. Well I can relate to loss and grief.

I love the Lord but I struggle with the type of survivor's guilt. My older sister and I are only 11 months apart. We are very close. I spoke with her just hours before her cardiac arrest and she was excitedly waiting for her son's 21st birthday. Her youngest son found her on his bed and he screamed for help. Emergency responders were able to get a pulse and she was rushed to the hospital where drastic measures took place.

Because my sister signed a do not resuscitate order she was very clear about not wanting to be kept alive with feeding tubes and things. We had to let her go. It's been five years and as I tell you this you can hear me weeping inside.

I feel like it just happened. Like you've said you never really get over it you just get through it. I know the Lord will get me through this obstacle that robs me of fully experiencing peace with God's decision to bring her home. I also know more trials are just around the corner so I need to learn how to completely trust in the Lord and take myself out of the equation so Satan can't place those kind of strongholds on me. I pray for you that you will continue to preach the importance of having complete faith and peace with God's decision whether you like his decisions or not. May God continue to bless you and your family Pastor Greg. Thank you so much for all that you do. We're so moved when we hear from listeners like this knowing that this broadcast is helping. Would you like to share your story with Pastor Greg? Call 1-866-871-1144. Once again, 866-871-1144. Well today Pastor Greg is continuing his series on the life of Moses.

Our message title is, It's All How You Look at Things. I heard about a couple that were in their 60's. Both were 60 actually. And they were celebrating 40 years of wedded bliss. And suddenly a genie appeared and said you know you guys have done so well in your marriage 40 years. I'm going to grant to each of you a wish.

And he went to the wife first. What would you like? She said, Oh I love my husband so much. I would like to be in an island in the middle of the South Seas surrounded by beautiful blue water. That's my wish genie. And poof there she was on this island with her 60 year old husband that she had been married to for 40 years. And then the genie said, Okay what's your wish? And the husband looked over at his wife and said, I'd like a wife that's 30 years younger than me. And poof he was 90 years old.

So careful what you wish for you might get it. See the problem with the Israelites is they had forgotten how miserable they were back in Egypt. They had forgotten the sting of the Egyptian whip. They had forgotten the fact that they cried out to God over and over again for someone to deliver them.

And God answered their prayer and sent them Moses and brought them through this wilderness and through the Red Sea. And all of the rest but yet they just said, Man we wish we had it like we used to have it. And you know the devil will come and whisper in the ear of a Christian and say, Hey man remember the good old days. Remember that one party where this happened and he'll bring back a few memories. And you know all of us if we're honest would say that before we were Christians had some fun when we were sinning. The Bible says there's pleasure in sin for a season.

It's a short lived pleasure. But the devil isn't going to remind you of the misery you experienced or the emptiness in your heart. He's not going to remind you of the guilt that plagued you day in and day out. He's not going to remind you of the time you almost overdosed. He's not going to remind you of the time you contemplated suicide. He's not going to remind you of all of the repercussions that came as a result of your sin. He'll just remind you of a few good times you had.

So you say well I'm going to go back and do that stuff again. Warning. It'll turn bitter in your mouth.

Just like it did for the Israelites. It'll happen to you because now you see you know better. You've tasted of the living water. And you're no longer going to be satisfied with swamp water. You've tasted of what it is to have a relationship with God.

And you're never going to be satisfied living that old life again. So they've eaten of this quail. This bird. It turned bitter in their mouth. And now they've come to the very brink of the promised land. They're poised to enter in. So they send in 12 spies. 12 spies to check things out.

To see what was ahead of them. And that's where we pick the story up here in Numbers chapter 13. I'm going to read from verse 25.

And by the way I'm reading from the New Living Translation. After exploring the land for 40 days the men or the spies returned to Moses and Aaron. And the people of Israel 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 back from the land. So these guys came back with a cluster of grapes that were gigantic. It took two of them to carry the grapes back. Imagine how big the peaches would have been. How about the watermelons?

Those would have been gigantic. So they bring back this incredibly large fruit. Verse 27.

This was their report to Moses. We arrive in the land you sent us to see. And it is indeed a magnificent country. A land flowing with milk and honey. And here's some of the fruit as proof. But the people living there are powerful. And the cities are fortified and very large. And I'll drop down to verse 30 of Numbers 13.

But Caleb tried to encourage the people as they stood before Moses. He said, let's go at once to take the land. We will certainly conquer it. Oh but the other man who had explored the land with them answered, we can't go against them. They're stronger than we are. So they spread discouraging reports about the land among the Israelites.

The land we explored will swallow up any who go there. All the people were huge. We even saw giants, the descendants of Anak. And we felt like grasshoppers next to them. And that's what we looked like to them. And all the people started to weep aloud. And they cried all night. And the voices rose in a great chorus of complaint against Moses and Aaron. They wailed, we wish we had died in Egypt or even here in the wilderness. Oh man.

This is incredible. So 12 spies go in. 10 of them give a discouraging report to give an encouraging report. It all comes down to how you see things.

How you look at things. First there was the majority report from the 10 spies. You see their problem was they did not seek God for what He is. They only saw problems.

Listen. God promised them a land flowing with milk and honey. God promised He would give them the land. But they ignored what His Word said and put their eyes on circumstances. On obstacles. On challenges. On giants.

And ultimately on defeat. That's because they had a small God. And thus they had big problems.

But then there's the minority report. This is basically Joshua and Caleb. They saw the same obstacles. They saw the same challenges.

But they also saw opportunities and great victories if they would go into the land. So here's what it comes down to. It's all how you look at things. We all face problems. We all face obstacles. We all face challenges and we all face giants. But can you see them in the light of who God is? Don't look at God in the light of your problem. Look at your problem in the light of God.

Again He's bigger than what you're facing. If you're taking notes here's point number one. The problem here is they focus their attention on the obstacles rather than their objective. Let me say that again. They focus their attention on the obstacles rather than their objective.

Number 1328. They saw the people were powerful and the towns were fortified and the people were very large. Listen. Obstacles are frightening things when you take your eyes off of the objective. When you fix your attention on the obstacle rather than the objective fear will always eclipse your faith. Let me say that again. When you fix your attention on the obstacles rather than the objective fear will always eclipse your faith. Don't do that.

Instead remember what your objective is. Let's take the coronavirus as an example. You want to talk about something that has affected our whole nation and even the whole world.

It's brought our economy to a standstill and now we're trying to get it rebooted again here in the United States. Many of you your whole lifestyle has been changed. The schooling of your children has changed and all you see are obstacles.

But wait. There's also opportunities. I mean think about what we had to face in churches and as pastors. We were literally told overnight to shut the doors of our church buildings which we did to flatten the curve of COVID-19.

Well here's the thing. Yes that's a bad thing to shut the doors of our church. But on the other hand the doors for our church opened up and one of the results of that is called Harvest at Home. You see we took this a lot more serious.

Seriously I should say we're far more intentional with what we're doing. And we're going to continue on with this every weekend for you. So this is something that you can count on being a part of your life.

So here's what we need to remember. Take your eyes off of the obstacles and put them on the opportunities. What is the opportunity that is in front of us right now? It's presenting the gospel to people. People need to hear about Jesus Christ. Good encouragement from Pastor Greg Laurie today on having a heavenly perspective on both the opportunities and obstacles that come our way. Important counsel today here on A New Beginning. Did you hear all of Pastor Greg's counsel today? Hope so.

But if not don't miss out. Get a replay by going to harvest.org. Just look for the message called It's All How You Look at Things. Or you can call for a CD copy 1-800-821-3300.

Again that's 1-800-821-3300. People are moved by Pastor Greg's new film A Rush of Hope. It draws on key moments from major movies such as I Still Believe, the story of Jeremy and Melissa Camp. Do I understand why Melissa isn't here anymore? No, son, I don't. You chose willingly to walk into the fire with her.

Right beside her all the way to the end. But then that's exactly what I would do for your mom and you boys. That's what love is. I identify with Jeremy's story. At the age of 20 my fiancé died very tragically. But after a very dark time the grace and mercy of God reached me.

I don't know the answers to your questions. But I do know this. My life is not full in spite of the disappointments.

It's full because of them. That's the voice of well-known actor Gary Sinise from the movie I Still Believe about Jeremy and Melissa Camp. Pastor Greg, that's such a moving part of this new film, A Rush of Hope. No question, Jeremy and Melissa Camp were in love, beautiful love story.

They were newlyweds and then the tragic news that Melissa had cancer. And facing the worst case scenario of losing his wife we see how faith and hope work together. And I believe God could use this to bring thousands and thousands of people into the kingdom. I don't know of anything like this that has ever been put out there before. And I think you'll agree with me when you see it.

Again it's called A Rush of Hope. You saw it online and many of you said, oh I want my own copy. Now you can have one and you can watch it as many times as you want to watch it. And you can show it to as many people as you want to show it to.

And you can do it wherever you want to do it. And you'll have your own copy along with some special resources. We've developed a booklet that's called Answering Life's Most Important Questions that you could give out to a non-believer that you know. Also a piece that we wrote that will show you how to host a watch party.

In other words how to have the maximum impact if you bring people over to your home to have a viewing of this cinematic crusade that we call A Rush of Hope. So we'll send you a copy of this DVD for your gift of any size. And I want to just say in advance thank you for believing in what we do. And let's pray that next year is our greatest year ever.

Amen. And your gift couldn't come at a more strategic time. So we hope you'll contact us today for the DVD of A Rush of Hope. Along with the evangelistic booklet and the resources to help you host a watch party. Plus we'll send a digital download code so you can watch online right from your computer or tablet or smart phone. That way you can take it with you and share it with a friend.

Sort of a cinematic crusade in your pocket or purse. So write us today at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. And we can take your call anytime 24-7. Or just go online to harvest.org. Are you receiving Pastor Greg's daily devotions? Get these inspirational thoughts in your email box every day.

Sign up free of charge at devo.harvest.org. Well next time more insight on the opportunities and obstacles that come our way. And how the pathway to happiness is viewing those events from God's perspective. Tune in for more good encouragement next time on A New Beginning. This is the day, the day when life begins. The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at harvest.org.