KEEP LOOKING UP (Outline)
NUMBERS 21:4-9 - March 6, 2005 - LENT 4
INTRO: Different people have different attitudes in this life. Some are positive attitudes and some are negative. Today we will learn that a Christian life displays a very positive attitude. For people of the world really have nothing to be happy about in the end. All their struggles, hopes, and dreams always fall short of their expectations. Everything earthly is subject to corruption, decay and utter destruction. That will certainly lead to a very negative attitude. What makes the Christian positive in this world of sin? Our focus is not just on this life. Our focus looks above for the things that are still yet to come. Believers keep looking up. "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is tem-porary, but what is unseen is eternal"(2 CORINTHIANS 4:18). From the example of Israel in today’s text you and are encouraged to KEEP LOOKING UP. As we KEEP LOOKING UP we will I. see our Lord’s loving discipline and we will II. see our loving Lord’s forgiveness.
I. SEE OUR LORD’S LOVING DISCIPLINE
A. The children of Israel were close to finishing their 40 years of wilderness wandering.
1. In the land of Edom they were in sight of the Promised Land.
2. But the king of Edom refused to let Israel travel through his country.
B. In verse 4 Israel turns back from Edom and returns to the wilderness. Their journey will be longer.
1. Naturally the people were not happy. They want God to fulfill his promise.
2. Israel wanted deliverance. They wanted it now. Verse 5 records their complaints against God.
C. They complained about the Lord’s providing for them. They were tired of traveling.
1. Everyday they had been given manna -- not good enough. Their clothes did not wear out.
2. The Lord’s discipline is drastic and swift. Snakes came and caused many deaths in verse 6.
D. Are we much different than these ungrateful children of Israel? Who among us does not think from time-to-time or maybe quite often that we deserve even more and better things out of this life? After all, the world preaches that the only way to be happy is to have lots of stuff. The world would have everyone believe that happiness can only be found in materialism. To that end the world offers all kinds of get-rich schemes. Sometimes we fall into the snares of this worldly philosophy. Instead of looking up we look around us and grumble and complain about those who seem better off than ourselves. We have become friends of the world instead of God. "You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God" (JAMES 4:4).
E. Our human nature consistently and constantly complains against the unfairness of this life. We never have enough. We always want more, more, more. When we get more, more, more it is never quite what we expected. Satisfaction with what the Lord provides is not always what is should or ought to be. We open our bulletins and see the offerings. Not enough. We open the open bulletin and see the attendance figures. Not enough. As we keep looking with earthly eyes it would be easy to have a very negative atti-tude. We can all too often easily forget that is purely by God’s abundant grace that there are any people in worship who freely and joyfully contribute to God’s kingdom. Today, again the Lord reminds to keep looking up. Solomon prays: "Give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ’Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God"(PROVERBS 30:8b, 9). We pray this in the Lord’s Prayer – trusting the Lord to provide daily.
F. The more we plot and plan to get ahead in this life the more our Lord reminds us that he is in control. May it never be among any of us that our Lord would use the very drastic discipline of death to cause us to come closer to him. Yet we know it is through much tribulation that we must enter into the kingdom of God. Paul had a thorn in the flesh to remind him that in weakness the believer sees the strength and love of God. Those times, which seem trying to us help us to keep looking up. Difficult times focus our atten-tion and vision away from ourselves and back toward the Lord. "I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. Correct me, LORD, but only with justice--not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing"(JEREMIAH 10:23,24).
TRANS: KEEP LOOKING UP and see our Lord’s loving discipline. KEEP LOOKING UP and
II. SEE OUR LOVING LORD’S FORGIVENESS
A. It did not take very long for the children of Israel to recognize their mistake – once again.
1. After all, the 40 years of wilderness wandering began because they had grumbled against God.
2. In the midst of God providing for them the Israelites complained. God’s discipline resulted.
B. Verse 7a. God’s people recognized their mistake and they saw their sin. They asked Moses for help.
1. The people needed Moses as their mediator (go-between). Verse 7b. Israel seeks help.
2. Moses listens to the people. Rather than reject their pleas Moses prays to God for Israel.
C. Moses pleaded for God’s mercy time and again. They reject God and Moses seeks God’s mercy.
1. In verse 8 the loving Lord of God’s people provides a simple and quick answer.
2. Verse 9 reveals the response of Moses and the repentant people among the children of Israel.
D. The Lord’s deepest desire is that all men would come to repentance and not die but live forever in heaven. To do that mankind, especially today, is reminded to keep looking up. When believers honestly look inward there is only one sight to be seen. That unpleasant sight that you and I and every believer discover is sin. Daily we sin much and we sin often in thought and word and deed. Keep looking up and see our loving Lord’s forgiveness. "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord"(ACTS 3:19). Divine forgiveness = times of refreshing!
E. The prevailing attitude of most people in the world around us is very negative. There is always some-thing or someone to fear. Living in fear cannot provide positive attitudes. Looking around at the events of this world would cause to believe those very things the world proclaims. The world is a dark place. Of course we realize the darkness of this life is because of sin. It is all the more reason to keep looking up. "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins"(COLOSSIANS 1:13,14).
F. Our lives are changed. People ought to see in us a positive attitude simply because our loving Lord has made a, really all, the difference in our lives. Our loving Lord freely forgives so that we can enjoy this life as we are looking up, expecting a much better life to come. Keep looking up at the Lord’s for-giveness – the price paid on the cross for every one of our mistakes and shortcomings. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed"(1 PETER 2:24). Keep living it up in righteousness for the sake of Jesus Christ!
CONCL: For many their life has become very negative. The things of this life offer no eternal hope and certainly no eternal satisfaction. Sadly, more and more people are simply looking so intently at this life and the things of this world that they have forgotten to keep looking up. This is seen in the unsatisfied lives of people, the grumbling and the complaining. There is no satisfaction to be found in this earthly life. Learn from the mistakes and the example of the children of Israel. Keep looking up and you will see that is out of love that our Lord disciplines. Keep looking up and see that it is from an even greater love that our loving Lord forgives. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God"(HEBREWS 12:2). KEEP LOOKING UP right into heaven itself! Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
LENT 4 readings (ILCW – A): HEBREWS 5:15-6:2; ROMANS 8:1-10; MATTHEW 20:17-28
