The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E93 - Perspective

Episode Date: October 5, 2020

Well, hey, church. My name is Ryan Stone. I am one of the pastors here at 1122. I get the opportunity of being our Bay Meadows campus pastor and looking forward to digging into God's word with you over the next few minutes. We're going to be in Exodus chapter 13. I know you're going to ask that. I know you want to go ahead and get there. So go ahead and get ahead of me. Exodus chapter 13. We're going to talk about this idea of perspective. And perspective is just simply the way you look at something, the way you view something. We all have a perspective. We all, engage conversations with friends or we hop on social media or we watch the news or we sit alone in our prayer in quiet times or just in our own head's thinking and all of that conversations the way we engage the way we see the world is our perspective i remember when i was growing up in elementary school we found this book in the library and it was this book and like the first page would be a really close shot of like an apple or an airplane or maybe a flower and then you'd turn the page and on the second page would be the wide shot. So the first page was always so tight. You really couldn't figure out what you were looking at. And the second page would show you the

whole page. So I remember the first time we went through that book, I was so frustrated because I got everything wrong. My perspective was always wrong. But then in other times, when we went back to the book, all of a sudden, because I had seen the bigger perspective, I was able to see what exactly was going on. Maybe it was a bug's wing and I was able to see that. And I even remember, growing up. I'm a little bit competitive, so I would find the book, read the book, and then I would go find somebody who hadn't read the book, and I would try to challenge them to a game of who could guess what, totally cheating, but I want. So that's all that mattered. So we're going to talk about that idea of perspective. What does it mean the way we look at the world? And not only are we going to talk

about perspective, but I'd love to talk about what does it mean to look at God's perspective, and the way, how does God view the world around us? So I want to look at Exodus chapter 13. in verse 17. If you're new to Bible study, the book of Exodus is the story of Israel as they are leaving captivity in Egypt. And so we find the Israelites out on the road running out of town. And here's what it says. When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. But God led the people around the way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry my bones with you from here. And they moved from the edge of Sukketh to encamped in Etham and the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night and a pillar of fire to lead them by light. That they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart before the people.

Here's why I think it's important as we look at this text and we talk about perspective. Israel had just was freed. They were leaving Egypt. They were on their way to the promised land and there was a direct route to get there. Now the problem with this to direct route is that they had gone from Egypt to the promised land.

gone directly through the land of the Philistines. The Philistines were big, nasty warriors. And God do to lead Egypt or lead Israel from Egypt through the land of Philistines, many of them would have grown chicken and scared, and in their fear, they would run back to slavery and being afraid of what was in front of them. And so instead of taking them the quick way or the most straight way, God intentionally took them through the wilderness, took them around the land of Philistine, took them around. It wasn't the quickest way there. It wasn't the easiest way there. It was long and it was much more traveling in and out and through the wilderness. And here's the reason why. God saw the world. He saw everything through this

wide lens perspective. And when Israel was looking through their closed lens perspective, they may not be able to see the whole picture, but a sovereign God was with them, walking with them and walking them the long way around. Here's the thing to think about us. We studied today's passage. The long way is not necessarily the wrong way. Man, we need to hear that in 2020. The long way to get somewhere is not necessarily the wrong way. And sometimes God takes the long way for our good. I know from my own personal experience, having walked with the Lord and been in many tough situations, that sometimes it's the long way that produces in us character and produces in us a steadfastness that we would not have developed any other way.

For us, for me and my family, we've got many stories from where we've walked through miscarriages, we've walked through losing my dad, and we've walked through seasons of blessing, and we've walked through seasons of just seemingly pain, and always over and over again, it seems like those seasons of pain are places in which God slows me down long enough to remind me, he loves me. And that's kind of what 2020's been. Sometimes God will take us the long way somewhere for our own good. So I want to just spend a couple minutes in this passage, saying, what happens when we develop a perspective, a God's view, a godly perspective of the situation, the circumstances we find ourselves in? I think there's three things that perspective does for us.

One, perspective allows us to see as God sees. And when we can see as God sees, we're able to do as God says. Back to verse 17, Pharaoh let the people go. God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God's sense, said, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. I think when we talk about perspective, when we see the things that God sees, we see the way that God sees, it makes it much easier to do the things that God's asked. I know in my life, it seems like there's been times where God has asked me to do audacious things, whether it's to forgive someone, I don't really feel as forgivable, or whether it's to make a move, make a decision on selling a house or buying a

house or whether it was for me stepping out of what would have been a football coaching career to go into full-time ministry or whether it was to get married or have children or whether it was to be a part of planning the church 1122 in all of these areas seemingly the question that God had for me was audacious and big and honestly pretty scary but what I've learned is that when the longer and the more I can lean into God's perspective the more I can ask not why am I in the but God, what are you saving me from? In 2020, the perspective, the question has been this, not why is 2020 so weird, but maybe, God, what is it that you're trying to speak to me? I know looking back, and even though we're still walking through COVID, there was a season in which we were in

pretty heavy quarantine. And I remember thinking, as a raging extrovert, I was just home all day long. And I think my wife was ready for me to go back to work, or go back to the office at least. And I just remember day in and day out having all these really special. moments with my family, to walk together with my wife, to teach our youngest to ride a bicycle, to spend more time doing family worship and prayer and watching movies together. And these unique times that we're like, man, this seems so weird and seems so awkward to be in this quarantine. And yet in that, God wove something in my family that we will always cherish and always look back on in 2020 being not only the year it was so weird, but also being the year that

we got to spend so much time together. I think it's really easy if you're the Israelites walking through the wilderness or whether you're us in a season like 2020 with the political climate and all the things going on, I think it's easy to get focused on why are we in a wilderness. But perspective allows us to step back and instead of staring at the trees, it allows us to step back and go, God, what are you doing here? What are you teaching me here? God, if I could just see as you see, I could walk and do as you say. Second thing, perspective. perspective gives us is it gives us the ability to trust God even when he's not when he doesn't seem trustworthy. Now God is faithful. Second Timothy tells us that he is faithful even when we're not

faithful. God is trustworthy always. His character doesn't change. He can't not be trustworthy. But I'll admit to you there are times when it seems and feels like I don't know if I should be trusting you. And I think that happened to Joseph. That's when we read in the verses, verse 19, that Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, carrying the bones with him from Egypt all the way to the promised land. Now, the back story there is this. Joseph was an Israelite who was sold into slavery, ended up in Egypt, the son of Jacob. He went there before and he was in prison, and Pharaoh found out that he could interpret dreams. And so through a series of events, Joseph became like his right hand. And he was leading when Israel came and said,

we're in a famine and we need food. And so Joseph provided for, his fellow Israelites through the power of Egypt. While as years past, Egypt began to enslave the Israelites. They became slaves in the country in which they were once visitors. And in the moments as Joseph died, he said, hey, don't bury me here, but put my bones in a box, because God has promised us a promised land, take my bones back to the promised land. And so from that moment of putting his bones in the box and telling his sons and daughters to carry his bones back for years they were in slavery and finally god sent moses to to break israel out of this slavery in egypt and it was a reminder as they carried their box this box of bones of joseph that god would always provide even when it seemed

like he wasn't going through even when it seemed like the circumstances weren't going to happen even as it seemed that this thing was super tough and super difficult and how do i get through this and How do I? What, what, what? Tons of questions. Even in the midst of being seasons where it seemed like God wasn't trustworthy, he was. In fact, Joseph said this in Genesis chapter 50. As for you, you meant evil against me. But God meant it for good to bring about many people to be kept alive as they are today. See, what Joseph knew is even when things seemed bleak because of a godly sized perspective, he knew he could trust God. even when it seemed like the opposite was true. Finally, perspective allows us to keep grinding day and night.

Perspective one allows us when we to see as God sees it, we can do as God says. Two, we can trust God even when he doesn't seem trustworthy. Three, perspective, seeing the world, the way God sees the world, allows us to keep grinding day in and day out. Verse 21 and 22 tells us that God went before Israel, in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, meaning he never left their side. And all the time that they were in a pilgrimage from Egypt to Israel,

through the wilderness, through the ups and downs of the mountains, and through all the different tough parts of life, God's presence never left his people. When we have a perspective that sees the world the way God sees the world, we can see that even when the world is upside down, that God never leaves his people. Now, how do we keep grinding? You see, God's word is not telling us to pull yourself up

and tie your bootstraps tighter. God's word is telling us, since his presence is with us, wherever we go, we're following him and trusting him. I think one of the ways that we keep our eyes focused, our perspective focus on a God's size perspective, is that we dig in and we cherish God's word. Psalms chapter 119 verse 105 says this, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

I think one of the best ways we keep our perspective and kind of a God-sized perspective is that we trust God's word to show us and to lead us really just kind of as far as we need to go. I don't know if you've ever been in the woods at night when it's dark. And I want you to think about this. Like a dark night, you're in the woods, trees are covering you, clouds are covering the moon, dark, dark, right? The kind of dark night that you can't really even see your way out of the woods. You know how to get out, you know where you're at, but you just can't see where the trees are at. So you turn your flashlight on. Now the flashlight doesn't illuminate the entire woods, right?

It doesn't illuminate everything that you can see. What a flashlight does is show you just enough perspective, just enough distance that you can walk a little further and walk a little further. and what you know is that what you can see is leading you to a place you can't see yet. That's what God's Word does for us. It's like a light and to our feet. It's a light into our path. It shows us, it directs us, it guides us. God's word is a gift to us so that we can keep grinding day in and day out.

And so I want to encourage you as we walk this season out together, as we walk through 2020 together, as we walk through the political climate, as we walk through all the energy and the news and social media, as we walk through times of loneliness, as we walk through times of sickness, as we walk through times of ups and downs, and even in some of the insecurities and fears we have with our jobs and our lives and our family, even when we can't see what is way out ahead of us, when we have a godly perspective, his word illuminates and shows us enough. We know this, his word says he'll never leave us and forsake us. We know this, that even in the valley of the shadow of death,

we fear no evil because he's with us. We know this, Romans 8, that God is working things for the good for those who love him. So I want to encourage you with this before we end today. As we walk through a season of uncertainty, I would encourage you, you can either stare at the trees and go, why am I in the wilderness? Or like God's people, the Israelites, you can go, God, I'm going to follow you, even if it's the long way. Because the long way is not necessarily the wrong way. In fact, as we take a long way to 2021, what is it that God is teaching us? What is He shown us? I want to leave you with these two questions. In this season, where is God leading you? Not what circumstances are you in, but where is God leading you? Is he leading you into something new? Is he leading you into something

you've experienced before that he wants to show you something brand new in? Is he leading you the long way? is he leading you through a difficult seizing? Where is God leading you? And the second question I would encourage you to answer is this, what is God teaching you? As he leads you on this path, as he leads you through maybe the wilderness or maybe through the mountain top experience or through the valley, as he's leading you, what is it that God is teaching you? I want to pray for you and I want us to be encouraged by the word of the Lord. Let's pray. God, we love you, and I thank you that you are ahead of us. You are making the crooked ways straight. You were walking ahead of us, your cross laid down over the chasm that we would not fall in it.

Lord, I thank you that as we wrestle through seemingly being on a long way, we know that just like with Israel, your presence is with us. By day and by night, you are with us. Lord, I pray that you would show us, where are you leading us that we might follow you? I pray that you would show us what you're teaching us. I pray your word, that your word, your scripture, would be a lamp to my feet that I would see where I'm standing, and it would be a light into my path, that it would show me where I'm going,

even if I can't see everything, I know that I can trust you and follow you. So Lord, I pray for our church. I pray for everyone diving into this devotion, that in this season, in this moment, wherever we're at, we would hear your voice, and we know this is the way to walk in it because your voice is trustworthy. But we love you, in your name we pray.

Amen. Church, we love you. We'll see it in church soon.