How Negative People Can Affect A Positive World
Deuteronomy 1:20-34
Many of you have came to me and said, “I’ve got a question for you”. For those of you who have, you know what my reply is, “true”. The problem with that answer is that I have not even heard the question yet. I simply want to try and be positive. And that is what I want to talk to you about this morning. Why we should be positive. Because a negative person can have a negative effect on someone and cause them to have some negative results.
Coming from a sales background I know the effects of both a positive person and a negative person can have. If you want to be successful in sales you need to hang around positive people. Negative people will pull you down, while positive people will build you up. I have a friend of mine who is a friend but I hate to watch a ball game with him. He is so negative, and gets down on what he calls “his team” real quick. Win or lose, I like to support my team.
Maybe you are negative and you really don’t realize it. I’ve never told my friend that I prefer not to watch the game with him; I don’t want to hurt our friendship. But for me personally I would much rather hang around a positive person than I would a negative person.
And what we need to realize that often times, we only get one shot at making a positive attitude on someone. And if you are here this morning and you are a Christian, then you may only have one chance to make the right impression to lead someone to Christ. As a church, when a visitor walks through the door, we may only have one chance to make an impression on them that will cause them to want to come back. Once chance, a chance that can either draw someone to Christ, or we can mess up and someone can spend an eternity in hell because we have been a negative person in a positive world.
So let’s look back at a story in the Old Testament that tells how negative people caused a lot of people to have a negative result. Open your Bibles with me and let’s read Deuteronomy 1:20-34.
This event is also recorded in Numbers 13. Let me kind of paraphrase this story to you. The Israelites were captive slaves in the land of Egypt. They cried out to God for deliverance, and God heard their cries and though a man named Moses delivered them from their bondage. They witnessed the pelages to the land of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, and manna from heaven, the water from a rock, the fire by night, and the cloud by day to guide them. But now they arrived at their destination. The Promise Land, promised to them by God.
Yet after experiencing all that with God they wanted to send some men, spies as they called them, to search out the land and come back and tell them how it was. Twelve went out, came back with a cluster of grapes so big that they had to have two men carry it on a pole. Their report, “It truly flows with milk and honey”, But ten of those spies, those with the negative attitude said this. “Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large”.
Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, the ones with the positive attitude said, “The land we passed through to spy out is exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey”.
The result… Numbers 14:36-38 Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land, those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the LORD. But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.
Notice here the language used, the men… who returned and MADE all the congregation complain… Those negative men got the death penalty, but the positive men, Joshua and Caleb, remained alive.
So from this story lets us look at the lessons to see the dangers of being negative in a positive world. The first thing I want us to notice is…
God is Positive
In the title of my sermon, you might have found it strange to read the words positive world. You probably thought what world is He talking about. The world we know today is a wicked, cruel world; full of hate, crime, and war. But the truth of the matter is, the world we live in today was not world God intended.
Genesis 1:31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
It wasn’t just good, it was VERY good. That would be in modern day language like saying, “It’s All good”. God created the perfect place; the perfect man (and woman) and He had the perfect plan. It was sin that was the downfall. Not God’s plan, our mistake. Genesis 6:6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
I don’t blame Adam or Eve, if it would have been me, I would have ate the fruit first, not to be out done by the woman. But God did not intend for that to happen. Not His plan, our mistake.
And God has a plan for your life as well. Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
God is a positive person, and He has a positive plan for your life. But He also created each one of us with a thing called “Free Will”. And with our free will we sometimes chose to be negative. And being negative can lead to my next point.
Negativity is Contagious
Those 10 negative spies had an effect on a whole Nation. After they heard the news from the 10 spies, they began to complain. "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
Isn’t that the way it works today? You can have one person start complaining and others want to join in. You can be sitting enjoying a ballgame and then someone starts complaining about the coach or maybe the officiating. What usually happens? Others want to join in.
And the sad part is that it’s not just at ballgames. It happens in our churches. Something does not go the way YOU think it should. Instead of going to the person responsible, you complain to others and they in return spread it to others. Let me first tell you something, it is IMPOSSIBLE to please everyone. It’s too hot, it’s too cold, I like the old songs, I like the new. Any church with more that one person in it; will not always agree on everything. We are all individuals with personal opinions, and personal needs and wants. What we need to realize is this is God’s church. And our job is not to please us, but to please Him. And the best way to do that is by fulfilling the Great Commission, by bringing the Lost to Christ.
So it’s not about you. It’s about Him. Pleasing Him. And not to say that you should not be able to express your opinion, but there is a right and a wrong way to do so. The right way is to be done in a loving orderly fashion to the parties that it pertains to. The wrong way is the way described in Proverbs 6:12-19. This is a good description of a negative person.
Not to long ago, on Sunday nights, I did a mini series on this scripture. But for those of you who where not there, let me give you a brief description of these seven things that as it states, “the Lord hates”.
1. A proud look- simply stated, someone thinking they are better or more spiritual than others. Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
2. A lying tongue- I find it strange that the one sin that 99% of us are guilty of, would make this list. I mean, after all it is a sin that begins with at an early age. How many times have you asked the kids if they did something, with the evidence of the crime every where, and they look at you with those innocent eyes and shake their head no.
3. Hands that shed innocent blood- Now when we talk about this sin, you might think of a robbery that goes bad or a drive by shooting where a child is struck with a stray bullet. And those are examples of shedding of innocent blood. But the one that comes to my mind is one that occurs much more often. Abortion.
4. Heart that devises wicked plans-Premeditated sin. Sometimes we fall into sin, but what is worse is when we plan on sinning, knowing and willing sinning against God.
5. Feet that are swift in running to evil- It is putting feet to our sins. You don’t think about the consequences of your sin. You don’t think about how it will hurt your relationship with God. You act or run without thinking.
Proverbs 1:15-16 My son, do not walk in the way with them, Keep your feet from their path; For their feet run to evil, And they make hast to shed blood.
6. A false witness who speaks lies- Now if you remember the second sin we discussed is lying. This one sound very similar, a false witness who speaks lies. But the main difference is while one is lying to protect you, the other is lying to hurt someone else.
7. One who sows discord among the brethren-The last one is someone who sows discord among the brethren. And it uses the word abomination to describe it. This word is the strongest expression of hatred. Causing discord among the brethren causes God’s greatest disapproval.
Think about it as you would in a family. When a family does not get along then you have a family who is in chaos. It always has been and it always will be the will of our Heavenly Father for us to be in unity.
Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity.
So when you are negative, it is contagious and it sows discord among the brethren.
This leads me to the last point.
Being Negative is Dangerous
Now lets finish my previous point before I go any further. Sowing discord among Christians is one of Satan’s favorite tools. If we are busy fighting among each other, we probably will not be fighting against what we should be fighting against. Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
We, that is, we who are Christians are to be the light that draws others to Christ. And when we fight among ourselves, we are not setting the example that would lead others to Christ. That is dangerous, very dangerous. Remember we may only get one chance to make a difference in someone’s life. So we shouldn’t waste that chance.
We all know what happened to Israelites when they became negative about going into the Land that God promised them. They never went there. And when we as Christians are negative, we do not receive the blessings that God intends for us as well. So be positive. Take your eyes off the bad in people and look for the good. Remember we all are sinners, we all fall short, and there are none who are perfect. Instead of focusing on the things in church that are not going the way you want and look at the good that God is doing in the church, and if you can’t find anything good happening in your church then start doing something good and hopefully others will catch on.
Now I have been talking manly to Christians about being negative, but if you are here this morning and you have never entered into a personal relationship with Jesus by accepting Him as your personal Savoir, then you are living on dangerous ground.
The children of Israel were told that the Land they were promised was a good land, they responded with “Nevertheless”. They began making excesses about why they couldn’t enter in.
What is your “Nevertheless” excuse for not entering into that personal relationship with Christ? What giants are you afraid of, what walls do you have that need to be torn down?
Maybe you are negative or upset with God. Maybe some things have happened in your life and you blame God. God has a plan, and sometimes God allows things to come into our lives to help us follow that plan.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
His plan is positive. His plan is eternal life with Him in Heaven. Don’t be negative by rejecting Him today.
Let’s Pray
