Dare To Focus On The Promises Of God Series

Our preaching theme this year is Dare to be Different, God has told us if we truly want to follow Him, His plans, His purposes, His will, then we must be different, different in the way we speak, the way we think and the way we act from many people in the world today.

This month we have been considering what it means to have a different focus, a different attitude, a different perspective. Today I want to encourage you to Dare to focus on the promises of God.

Perhaps this morning there is something on your mind that is bothering you. Maybe there is something you have been praying about or something you are going through or worried about going through. Do you need God to show that He is still God and still faithful to His promises? Will you dare to focus on the promises of God? Will you dare to be confident in whatever circumstance or issue or problem you face because God has promised He will never leave you or forsake you?

Whatever it is that is bothering you, the message God has laid on my heart for you this morning is about a way of approaching life that can help you focus on the promises of God in every circumstance, you can trust Him to be God and bring you through it.

I pray that each of us might be able to see what it is we can do, what God can do, how we can position ourselves before Him, and how to take hold of every promise in God’s word that is ours.

I want to start with a verse from Numbers chapter 14 to focus our thoughts and then go back to Numbers 13 and work forward. Here is the verse from Numbers 14:24 and I’m reading from The New Living Translation: “But my servant Caleb has a different attitude than the others have. He has remained loyal to me, so I will bring him into the land he explored.”

A different kind of attitude, the attitude of a person, the motivation of a person, the focus of a person, its positioning that God is speaking of here.

What kind of attitude would God say you have? Attitude... I don’t have an attitude!!!

Truth is all of us have an attitude, some good, some bad, some indifferent, but attitudes none the less.

We can develop an attitude in a split second to something, or an attitude can be something we allow to develop over a period of time. I’m not talking about our actions because sometimes we are very good at being good and other times we are very good at being bad. Attitude is more to do with the position you actually take which prompts or causes certain behaviours.

An attitude is not being aloof or snooty, an attitude could be a position you take on something, it could be the way you review something, it could be the stance you’ve taken in life that actually has nothing to do with you

Your attitude could be a product of your background or upbringing that has caused you to think a certain way and shaped your attitude in life.

When God speaks about attitude in Numbers 14:24, the context is about His servant Caleb having a different attitude, a different spirit. His attitude was central to the way in which he lived - the way he saw things.

Our attitudes really have everything to do with the way we see things and the way we see life. Our biggest challenge in life can often be to make sure we see life in the right way, to see it through the right glasses, take the right position, to have the right perspective, to focus on it in the right way, to have the correct view.

Our attitudes can have a lot to do with our world view, our world view could be a very small one or our world view could be an educated one, an informed one, an opinionated one, a large one – it is our world view, our perspective, our focus, the position that we take. But the challenge for each of us is to align our focus with God’s focus, to align our attitudes, our opinions, our actions with God’s will and word.

Caleb has this different attitude, and God says Caleb has remained loyal to Him.This attitude that Caleb had, the spirit he had, actually lined him up in a place where God looked at Him and says, He has remained loyal to me.

What does it mean to remain loyal to someone? Being loyal means despite the circumstances, despite what we can’t see, despite even what we know, despite the way we feel, despite what we think, despite what we want to run from, despite everything, we remain in a place where our position has not changed.Where our loyalty is not moved.