Keys to A New Beginning (8)

Stop Showing Contempt for God

Numbers 14:1-44

Jim Davis

How many of us are so preoccupied with our ideas of how we think things ought to be that we fail to appreciate how things really are? Too often our ideas of how things ought to be becomes a tremendous barrier in our lives. The hardest thing in the world is to see things in the light of God’s glory.

A noted Canadian photographer, described barriers that prevented him from seeing the best photo possibilities:

"Letting go of the self is an essential precondition to real seeing. When you let go of yourself, you abandon any preconceptions about the subject matter which might cramp you into photographing in a certain, predetermined way. ...

"When you let go, new conceptions arise from your direct experience of the subject matter, and new ideas and feelings will guide you as you make pictures. (Merle Mees in Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker), from the editors of Leadership.)

The same is true in our relationship with God. If we can get past how we see things—i.e., get past seeing only how we think things ought to be, we could get new glimpses of God’s glory and power at work in our lives. Sometimes the biggest hindrances to a fresh new beginning is our inability to let go of what we already know, for it blinds us to what we could be.

Do you see your life from God’s perspective or only from your limited view of how you think things ought to be? This is the one thing that is robbing the church of a new vision today. The apostle Paul was great at seeing his problems from God’s perspective.

2 Corinthians 4:7-12
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body" (NIV).

Rom 8:18-19
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (NIV).

One day little Bobby’s father came into the front room and saw the boy looking out on the street through the big end of a telescope. He said, "Son, that’s not the way you look through a telescope. If you look through it that way, you make the objects look smaller. A telescope is to make things look bigger." But Bobby smiled and said, "Daddy, the bully who’s always beating me up is out on the street. I turned the telescope around because he’s my main problem, and I want to see him smaller than he really is."

I don’t know of anything that would reduce the size of our problems in our own eyes more than gaining God’s perspective on them. Too often, the way we perceive our problems allows our circumstances to blind us to our opportunities.

A gardener who took great pride in his lawn was besieged with dandelions one year. He tried everything he could think of to get rid of them. Finally, in desperation, he wrote the Department of Agriculture explaining all the different dandelion deterrents he had tried and asking what he should do next. The answer came back from the Department of Agriculture, "Try getting used to them." That wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

That’s not what we want to hear when we have problems. However, if we are planning for a trouble free life, we are in for trouble. In fact, if you strive to live a Christian life, you are in for trouble. I hasten to say that if you choose not to live a Christian life you are also in trouble.

God is not like the Department of Agriculture, he doesn’t want us to just get used to our problems. He wants us to gain a new perspective about our problems. The Hebrew writer seeks to give the Hebrew Christians a new perspective on their problems. He writes, "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?" (Hebrews 12:7). We must view our problems as proof that we are children of God. We must see our hardships as God’s education and training to improve our lives.

Self-Pity Shows Contempt

Do our problems cause us to seek sympathy or solutions? The Israelites were having a pity party in the following verses.

Numbers 14:1-4
"That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt (NIV).

Numbers 14:11-12
"Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites. The LORD said to Moses, ‘How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they" (NIV).

When our difficulties become an excuse to engage in self-pity we show contempt for God. Joyce Meyers in her book, Battlefield of the Mind, writes, "We cannot entertain demons of self-pity and also walk in the power of God!"

Have you ever noticed the thoughts that well up inside us the moment we are disappointed or hurt? In times like these the devil assigns a demon to sit on our shoulders and whisper lies in our ears. He tells us about how cruelly and unjustly we have been mistreated. If you listen to the demon’s thoughts you will fall into a life of bondage and self-pity. When the Israelites fell into this trap God said that they were showing contempt for him.

We have a choice when trouble comes. We can either seek God’s perspective or listen to the lies of Satan. It is up to us. To listen to the lies of Satan and fall into the trap of self-pity is to show contempt for God.

Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger people. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle.

We suffer from self-pity because we become so wrapped in our own view of how things ought to be. "The smallest package I ever saw was a man wrapped up wholly in himself." (Billy Graham, Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 2.)

We show contempt for God when we waste our pity upon ourselves. This is a perverted sense of compassion. Pity is something God expects us to extend to others rather than turning it upon ourselves. Taking the love God meant for others and turning it upon yourself shows contempt for God. When it becomes selfish and self-centered it destroys us because it blinds us to God’s perspective for our lives. When we turn it in upon ourselves as we concentrate upon our feelings it becomes a form of idolatry. It becomes idolatry because the images of how we believe things ought to believe control our feelings and emotions, and warp our perspective about the way things are.

Christianity leaves no room for self-pity. Christ teaches us three cardinal principles that will empower us to live much different.
 

• "Love when you expect no love in return.
• Do good without expecting thanks.
• Lend when you do not hope for a return.

"This will make us act like the sons and daughters of the Most High." (Citation: Henrietta Mears in Dream Big: The Henrietta Mears Story. Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 6.)

Wasting the love God meant for others on self destroys God’s purpose for our lives. It ends in selfishness and self-pity. It is a narrow-minded way of living. It is also an exhausting way of life for it robs our lives of God’s power of salvation.

Too often we become blinded by our losses—by what loving others cost. "When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us" (Unknown).

Thinking of Others Is the Key

Have you ever noticed the seniors who volunteer at the local hospitals? They are running errands, delivering flowers, pushing wheel chairs, sitting at the computer finding patients rooms. They seem to have a lot of mental and physical energy. They have discovered an important principle. Energy expended helping others--gives those expending their energies more energy than they expend. This is especially true in the emotional area of our lives.

Have you ever noticed how weak you feel when you are depressed? Depression results when we turn all our love upon ourselves in self-pity. The best way to gain your energy back when you are depressed is to get up and do something for somebody else.

Philippians 2:1-4
"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others" (NIV).

There is a reason many Christians have not discovered the joy and power of God. The joy and power of Christianity come in the doing of whatever God asks us to do.

On an episode of the ABC television talk show "Politically Incorrect," host Bill Maher was discussing some rules for relationships from the male perspective. With regards to sex he said, "Don't [gripe] about porn."

When the panel (three of whom were women) asked what he meant, he responded, "Unless you [women] are willing to give us sex whenever we want, you don't have the right to gripe if we use pornography."

Surprisingly, all three women agreed that the rule made sense. This rule and response demonstrate the distorted attitude towards sexuality prevalent in our society. Sex is seen as primarily for one's personal physical pleasure. The other person is merely a tool to be used to that end. (Citation: "Politically Incorrect," ABC Television (2-15-01).

This is not only true with our sexuality, but it is a mere reflection of the core values by which we live. The subtle hidden truth is this: "I deserve what is coming to me." That is self-love, which is destroying relationships with others.

The new concept that Christianity introduces to our lives is that of a self-giving love, for this is where true happiness begins. There is an emptiness inside us designed to be filled with the giving of one’s self for the highest good of others. To attempt to fill it with self creates an even greater emptiness. I think that is proven by the way we give to charities.
 

• Average household contributions to charity in 1995: $1,017.
• Percentage of households that did not give to any charity in 1995: 31.
• Percentage of income given to charity by people with household incomes under $10,000: 4.3.
• Percentage of income given to charity by people with household incomes of $40-50,000: 1.3.
• Percentage of income given to charity by people with household incomes over $100,000: 1.4. (Citation: Gallup Organization for Independent Sector, cited in Chicago Tribune and Omaha World-Herald (10/10/96). Leadership, "To Verify.")

It seems as though the more we receive of what we want the less we have to give to the needs of others. We become totally absorbed with self.

Luke 6:38
"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (NIV)

We are not talking about a laborious duty to be fulfilled; we are talking about an attitude that must be developed. Honoring others with our actions without an attitude of respect is not really honoring them at all. Serving others involves both right attitudes and right actions.

When our free will becomes enslaved to having and exercising our own rights in behalf of self we are no longer free. This is where we seek to make our world conform to the way we think things ought to be. For us to live in such a world only enslaves others to our way of thinking.

God has endowed us with a free will. We are free moral agents, but how many of you are enslaved to your will. Satan seeks to make your free will into his will. God’s will is the only will that can allow us to remain free. To remain free we must cleave and cling to nothing but God’s will.

It is no accident that baptism represents death to self. It symbolizes the strongest action we can take—that is crucifying self with Christ. Dying with Christ. To be resurrected to a life lived for others.

Matthew 16:24-26
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (NIV)

Conclusion:

Life is ours for the taking. We can begin a new life whenever we please.

We may have as much of God as we will. Christ puts the key of the treasure-chamber into our hand, and bids us take all that we want.

If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a bank, and told to help himself, and comes out with one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor? Whose fault is it that Christian people generally have such scanty portions of the free riches of God? (Citation: Alexander MacLaren, quoted in Streams in the Desert. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 3.)

Doesn’t it show contempt for God for him to provide us with all the spiritual and physical blessings we need and then turn around and waste them upon ourselves?

Isaiah 43:18, 19
"Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland" (NIV)