Good Eyes

Where is 9 Orient are numbers 10 and numbers 11. I invite you though. We're going to be jumping. Okay, there it is. Never mind them and we're jumping around. So hopefully we'll be able to do this. Listen to the story. That really is a story so often we we forget at the Bible didn't drop out of the Skies of book, but that it was Pastor words words are meant to be heard. And so if you want to read that's fine, but I encourage you just to listen to the story and hear it as it was meant to be heard. So hear the word of the Lord From The Book of Numbers now Moses at the whole babsonhub run of midianite Moses father-in-law. We are sending out for the place about which the Lord said I will give it to you. Come with us and we will treat you well for the Lord has promised good things to his real. How about answer? No, I will not go. I am going back to my own land to my own people. But Moses said please do not leave us. You know, where would you camp in the wilderness and you can be our eyes and if you come with us, we will share with you whatever good things the Lord gives us. Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord and when he heard them his anger was aroused then fire from the Lord burned among them and consume some of the outskirts of the camp when the people cry out to Moses. He pray to the Lord in the fire die down. So that place was called tutterow because fire from the Lord Hepburn among them. But rattle began word that begin to Crave other food. And again, the Israelites started wailing and said only we had me to eat. We remember the fish. We ate in Egypt at no cost. Also the Cucumbers melons leeks onions and garlic, but now we've lost our appetite. We never see anything. But this Nana The Lord said tell the people consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow. When you will eating meat the Lord heard you when you weld only we had me to eat. We were better off in Egypt. Now the Lord will give you meat and you will eat it, but you will not eat it for just one day or two days or 5 or 10 or 20 days before a whole month until it comes out of your nostrils and you load it because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have well before him saying, why did we ever leave Egypt? This is the word of the Lord.

Sprite

Lord open my mouth and my lips shall declare your praise grant us wisdom to see to hear and to know what your word is saying for our lives open our eyes, so we may see the wonderful things that you have in your law. We are listening now in Christ's name we pray.

Why come with a big and exciting news today as I hope to do every Sunday, but today's news is particularly exciting because I just called way that a new type of chocolate has been invented Yas hallelujah. It's called Ruby chocolate and according to the Internet. It's slightly sour and sweet flavors with us made from a special form of cocoberry found on the Ivory Coast sounds exotic and two weeks ago. It was announced that this chocolate finally be available in the United States making it the fourth natural chocolate joining the likes of milk dark and white and I don't really think it's always wise to send your opinions from the pulpit, but I'm going to say and I think it's about time we had some new chocolate Okay, because for 8 years since Nestle came out with white oven in the thirties, we had been without a new kind of chocolate but let's be honest. We probably even realize that we needed Ruby chocolate. We already have three kinds of chocolate that get the job done. Well enough might be my favorite kind of chocolate is white chocolate. Is there a duster? Is there anyone with me that white chocolate is okay a colony on board informed me that white chocolate wasn't real chocolate and I don't approve some people down there. Anyways, he's wrong. I know he's wrong and God will be my witness in this but I think it just goes to show that sometimes there are good things that we didn't even really know we needed and then I start thinking about what it means for God to give us good things. I ran into a bit of a problem. Because I think if there's one thing on which I think all of us can agree God wants good things for our lives. Would you agree with that? God wants good things for our lives. We say that God is good all the time. He called his creation good in the things he does is good. But here's where the problem starts. How do I know what is good? If God sees things as good then how do I see what he sees? In the academic world if I used good, I would be condemned because that's a known as a week adjectives. I can mean so many things by said that a meal was good. It could mean that it was fresh well-prepared tasty sad if I could meet all those things or to mean none of those things you saying they were the problems coming because good lacks Precision, which is worse things get hairy when we start saying that God wants good things for our lives. In our reading for today, we find two separate but related stories of people who are trying to discern the good things that God has promised for them. And our first reading be encountered Moses and how bad how bad was either Moses's father in law or brother-in-law the Texas kind of monster and there's a very interesting text you accuse if you're curious about to make a service, but I don't matter what matters is that the Israelites have left Egypt they camped at Sinai and now they're finally ready to leave Sinai and unknown facts about the kind of scout out the land go before then, but he refuses. In an hour after working at Second Story we read repeat about the Israelites complained for food and it what these two stories have in common is the theme of eyes in the back of your head. So what time trying to understand the store so that's jump in our time machine that's going back to thousand years and we've arrived in a Wilderness between Egypt and modern day Israel. Why most of the movies by portray the Middle East as one big desert Egypt where they were coming from and Kane and where they were going? We're actually very Lush because they were by very big Rivers the Nile River the Tigris and the Euphrates river right what the space between the Wilderness wasn't really like that. The desert was considered a dangerous place. Nobody lives there. There was no food and shelter their work. However diseases earthquakes and scorpions. So the Wilderness had nothing they wanted. And everything they didn't want and this is the setting of The Book of Numbers refine Egypt and its puberty almost there trying to get from where they were to wear their promise to go. Naturally. I don't let the Book of Numbers might seem like a very boring a book and maybe it's because of its name and numbers and after the census the two sentences that happened in the book, but it might behoove you to know that the Hebrew name for the Book of Numbers. It's a Bimini bar which means in the wilderness in the desert is a lot more epic of a name for the book of numbers. And so as me hear disorder stories of Israel grappling in the world has the very exciting Story So Far time machine, we see the Israelites trudging through the Wilderness and it's about two years into this journey is where our story takes place. It's just long enough to forget the little details of Egypt. It's hot there scorching Sun. There's a burning sand and there is nothing in sight each day. Like clockwork Nana would plop down from the sky. They would see it. They were collected. They would prepare it and they would eat it in the Bible tells us that ahead of Music reality kind of at a so Frosted Flakes is kind of the analogy that it's off. I hear compared to so take that for what it's worth. Maybe Frost place. Like I miss you meme Frosted Flakes and gets really thin that's probably why I don't want to say that they were eating Frosted Flakes. But this is this is just one theory that I'm just going to throw out there for you take it or leave it take it or leave it. Stop first month. No tracking after The Exodus was pretty exciting. But now they didn't really realize that the change would have cost them this much time and energy cuz they were walking in the same place everyday seeing the same boring sites eating the same boring food and spending time with the same annoying people. And I actually did that. They're craving for Egypt increased. They start to wonder if the Wilderness was worth it. They started remember that. Hey Egypt had a huge River with lots of fish in the Nile River Market selection was starting to sound pretty appealing in comparison to all the man that they've been eating Egypt pyramid houses actual signs of civilization. So the proverbial straw on the camel's back broke when the 626 round of Mana drop from the sky and they raised their voices and frustration and said if only we had me to eat. We remember all the fish. We ate in Egypt at no cost. Also the Cucumbers melons leeks onions and garlic, but now we've lost her appetite. We never see anything but this manner and this is the moment when I'm reading the text and I want to laugh at the characters. All we see is manna is there a complaint but think about the irony they're all there really sea is evidence of God's promise in presence among them. And what do they think is good Egypt with its fish and it's fruits. They say we remember the stuff we ate for nothing really for nothing. It only cost of enslavement under the pharaoh. All the things they bugged about Egypt or under the condition of slavery. They couldn't free to go to that River and catch fish. They couldn't go to the bazaar and buy food. Can you see the irony here that the things they remembered as good or actually bad and the things they currently see as bad or actually good. Psychologist have a name for this. It's called Rosy retrospection Rosy retrospection in which of the past is remembered better than it actually was there was an experiment at the University of Washington. They asked participants to rate their recollection of big life experiences trips anniversary vacations, and they found their recollection after an experience was more positively evaluated them when they were actually on you in the experience. Any distractions in disappointment that they might have experienced we're forgotten within days of the event. And this is how the Israelites see the past. That's why I'm going to go out and say that I think the Israelites had bad eyes. I'm not saying that they don't have 20/20 vision, but I'm saying that they didn't know what was good but perceptions were distorted because right after they were promised good things from the Lord numbers 11:1 opens with that line. The people were like those who complain of Badness Image of through those rose-colored glasses and how bad to also had an eye problem because he refused to see and use his good eyes for the sake of Israel. So what was underlying this complaint that we read about it really wasn't a food shortage problem. It was a perception problem. They could not see God's good blessings and what they saw as a bad situation there. I become board to God's promises. They had seen the same Mana the same leaders the same Landscaping what was behind these eye problems was really that need for Assurance. Prescott go to hold true to his promises. Is this world Earnest really a part of the good thing that God has promised. And of course, it's not just the Israelites who has bad eyes today. We can struggle to recognize what God wants from us and what God wants for us. It's not always because we have bad memories by simply because it can be difficult to discern good things from bad things. I like the Israelites are I've become tired and it seems like we've been looking at the same thing for months and years isn't that and that strange nothing's really changed around me. But that changes how I see things I haven't found anyone to marry yet. So now things must be bad. I haven't gotten kids or grandkids yet. So now things must be bad. It's like one of those optical illusions that change when you stare at it for so long. And we can distort and misunderstand what we're seeing. When we fail to discern the good from the bad though, it can lead to dangerous things. We know it in this world. There are people who distort God's good gifts in bad ways that harm others in the past month. We've heard stories of school shootings. We hear stories of conflict continuing around the world. of murders people left without families and we don't mention these things because we realize they came from somebody's lack of wisdom a failure to know. What was good. And we can't figure out what God wants for our lives that can lead to confusion and frustration. It's like shaking a Magic 8-Ball and only getting that boxing results my backup reply hazy ask again. Later.

Get some how in the midst of this confusion and frustration God is working. Even when we cannot see it God is helping our weary eyes, and he doesn't send a text by providing for the grumbling Israelites. He tells Moses to prepare the camper more man, because you will not eat it for just one day or two days or 5 or 10 or 20 days before a whole month until I come out of your nostrils and you load it wasn't in it. I find it strange that God would choose to give in to the complaint of the hot tired people. It reminds me of kind of people on a hot day at Disney World or Michigan adventures or Cedar Point young people are so hot and they're getting intimate the Heat and then I just think why would you give in to those complaints? Put in providing an overflow of Mana God showed them. What was good his promises fulfilled and made real in the story is so much more about material breadman of Frosted Flakes stuff. It's about how God provides wisdom and guidance through unexpected means cuz things are really as they seem and while the Israelites saw the Mana as a sign of God's curse God saw the manner as a sign of his continued promise. The Amanda Show Tha God sees things and he offers it to the Israelites as a way to remember him. And this happens with hobab to Moses offers how bad the opportunity to let God use his vision for the sake of God's good purposes. Mona says listen to this come with us for the Lord has promised good things to Israel, you know, where we should camp in the wilderness and you can be our eyes if you come with us, we will share with you and whatever good things the Lord gives us. Can I see what's happening at both of these stories? God is offering us the ability to see things with new eyes to see how he is seeing things.

And these offers are for us today just as they were for the Israelites. God gives us wisdom through his Spirit which enabled us to see things like he does to be able to distinguish the good things from the bad things. He he he gives us a new lens through which we can view the world of what I guess. That's a better eyesight.

Can you know when we see things? I'll look bad. We trust that God sees them as an opportunity to turn them into good God corrects our vision. He gives us eyes to see the good in the bad.

Golf takes bad situations in our lives though. Some of us might even be going through a bad thing right now. But I can offer you any. Hope today is that we might not know why that seemingly bad thing happened. But we do know that God is using it for his good purposes. It reminds me of the story of Joseph in the Book of Genesis who endured so many hard situation being sold by his brothers into slavery betrayed by the accused of sexual assault and he stood before his betrayers. Look them in the eye and said what you intended for evil God intended for what he said good.

So I'm here to tell you today that God is not the source of bad things in our lives. He is the Redeemer of evil. He sees evil and works to make a good luck and I love how to open a him put it right. I seen the goodness of the Lord that filled the Earth with food. He formed the creatures with his word and then pronounce them. Good morning how Li wonders are displayed. Where are I turn my I if I survey the ground I tried her gaze upon the sky. In this perception that God has is the same thing. He shows us when we submit to his wisdom. Like hold up rather than putting on Rose Colored Glasses. We are invited to look with God to put on the hospital glasses that see things through the lens of the good news.

It's our challenge today is to submit to God's wisdom. Scott to show you how he sees things because God wants good things for our lives. But what's better is that he helps us see those good things through his holy spirit. An Ascension Sunday be remembered that even though his body is send it to Heaven Jesus Promised his Spirit to live within us. The guy does honor as we await the day in which all things we made good. His purposes will reach their climax.

We really need an internal view of things to fully realize just how the events of our lives are playing according to God's plan. And thanks be to God for his grace that allows us to catch a glimpse of it now. It for now that puzzling additive good will remain a frustratingly difficult words Define when we say that God wants good things for our lives. Kubota be like if we chose to look at things with Better Eyes. Let's Wonder not just for kids church. Sat through some wondering. I wonder what it would be like if we look at those bad situations and chose to say this is not bad. But this is what God is working to make good once again.

God's spirit is helping pry open our eyes to see his good purposes and even if it doesn't seem like it on the surface. So they're going to that reality today. Pick a situation in your life and ask God to help you see it through his perception. and when you do you'll start to see that things might not be as they seem. That's bright.

Thank you God for a spirit that allows us to see things like you do. Thank you that you don't leave us blind and grappling around for trying to figure out what is good in our lives that you are actually guiding us even in ways that we can expect. Help us to lean into that reality today help us to see things like you do give us your eyes. So we might know that you are working out even the worst situation for your good purposes and SP Prime and invar Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, who hears our prayers on that as we respond to God's word.