An optimist said to a pessimist, “Isn’t this a bright sunny day?”  The pessimist replied, “Yes, but if this hot spell doesn’t stop soon, all the grass will burn up.”  Two days later, the optimist said to the pessimist, “Isn’t this rain wonderful?”  The pessimist replied, “Well, if it doesn’t stop soon, my garden will wash away.”  The next day, the optimist invited the pessimist to go duck hunting.  The optimist wanted to show off his new registered hunting dog that could do things no other dog could.  (This makes me think of George Skoog).  The pessimist looked at the dog and said, “Looks like a mutt to me.”  At that moment, a flock of ducks flew over.  The optimist shot one of the ducks and it fell in the middle of the lake.  He snapped his fingers and his new dog ran after the duck.  The dog ran out on the water, picked up the duck, and ran back on the water.  The optimist took the duck from the dog’s mouth, turned to the pessimist, and said, “What do you think of my dog now?”  The pessimist replied, “Dumb dog—can’t even swim!”

          We may laugh at that, but which person can we relate to the most in the story—where do you see yourself, or better yet, where would others see you?  Are you the optimist or the pessimist?  When you look at your life, what do you see?  Do you have hope for your future?  How about when you look at your job?  Is there hope?  You excited about it at all?  How about the world in general?  What do you see there?  Is there any reason for optimism or hope?  What about your church?  When you look at Bethlehem Covenant, what do you see?  Do you see a church that is old, stagnant and out of touch with the community?  Do you see a church that is perfect, that should stay as it is and just continue to try to exist?  What do you see when you look at any aspect of life?  I guess what I am asking is, are you an optimist or a pessimist?  But by the end of the sermon, I will really be asking a bigger question—how big is your God?  How much faith do you have in God?  How sure are you that your God is an awesome God and He has done great things in the past and He can do great things now?  How sure are you that if God can raise Jesus from the dead, He can bring new life to a church?  When you look at your God, when you think about who God is, what do you see?

          Our scripture this morning from Numbers gives us the story of the Israelites and their inspection of the Promised Land.  The Israelites were the special chosen people of God.  They had been slaves in Egypt 400 years however.  They dreamt of release and freedom.  As many of you know, God raised up a leader named Moses to lead His people out of Egypt, out of bondage.  God told Moses that He had set aside a special land for them called Canaan, which was to be theirs.  God’s agenda was to get His people to Canaan, a land that He described as flowing with milk and honey, an abundant land. 

          God sent ten plagues to Egypt so that the Egyptian leader, the Pharaoh, finally told Moses to leave.  But after letting them go, the Egyptians decided to chase after the Israelites.  God parted the Red Sea so the people could walk through the middle of it and when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.  God then led His people on the way to Canaan.  He went ahead of them protecting them each step of the way.  They saw His presence in a visible way with a cloud by day and a fire by night.  They were hungry and God provided food; thirsty and God provided water.  With all that God had done and was actively doing, you would think the people would unite on God’s agenda.  You would think these people would align to the plan God had given them.  Instead, they complained.  They grumbled about everything.  They muttered about Moses and his wife.  They complained about the food they were eating.  God would get furious with them, but each time Moses begged God to forgive the people.  He was always asking God to put up with the people. 

Now in Numbers 13, they are near the land that God has promised them.  It’s like the night before the big game.  They are about to enter Canaan.  Moses chose twelve people, one from each tribe of Israel, to go out and explore the land.  It was the first committee recorded in Scripture, and the results were not good.  The mission was not to determine whether or not to go into the land—God had already told them that this was the land.  The mission was simply to explore it.  They spied on the land for forty days and then came back to give a report on what they had seen.  They said, “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey!  Here is its fruit.  But the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large.” 

Then a man named Caleb speaks up: “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”  But the other men who had gone up with him said, “We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are."  And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.  They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it.  All the people we saw there are of great size.  We saw the Nephilim there.  We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."  Caleb is the optimist here.  The others are pessimists.  “The land flows with milk and honey, but….”  Ahh….there it is…that nasty little three letter word…“but.”  I almost titled this sermon, “What to Do with the Big Buts in Your Life” but….there it is again….but my wife told me that I probably shouldn’t do that.  It’s a small word that packs a big punch—I imagine that one little word has been the beginning of the end for a number of churches; the death sentence for many churches.  “We’d love to reach out to our community, but….”  A gym would be nice, but kids would be hanging out around the church. ”  A nursery school would be good but the kids might write on the walls or something.”  We realize young people are the future of our church….but we like things just the way they are.”  We wish we could do it that way, but….we’ve always done it this way.”  I know that would be a great way to reach people and get them into the church….but it’s not what I am used to and not what I am comfortable with.”  “Pastor Dave is a nice enough guy and all, but….he’s so young.”  “We’d like to grow….but we are in a bad location.”  “It’s a great idea, but….where would we get the money?” 

Most of us unfortunately only see and focus on the problems and not the opportunities.  For some reason we like to focus on the “buts” instead of the possibilities.  One of the speakers at the Midwinter conference last month, Darrell Griffin, preached on this same text from Numbers.  Listen to what he says: “When ‘the research committee’ returned with their report, two of the spies—Caleb and Joshua—shared positive news, telling of milk and honey.  I’m sure all of the people in the meeting said, ‘Amen and praise God.’  Then came the report from the other members of the spy team, who acknowledged the milk and honey, followed by the word “but” as they proceeded to tell of the giants in the land who they described as too powerful to overcome.   I’m telling you that no matter what meeting I’m in, no matter how happy I am, there is that word ‘but.’  “There is that conjunction trying to mess up my function every time.  I want you to know, beloved, this condition can kill our confidence, zap our creativity if we are not careful; and it can stop us from going into our Promised Land experience.  If God told you to do something, you have to go and do it despite the conjunction.  You have to learn to function despite the conjunction.” 

I would submit to you that the Hebrew people couldn’t function despite the conjunction.   Look at what their reaction is in Numbers 14.  Listen carefully to what they say—see if maybe you are thinking the same thing.  “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."  Now, did you hear that?  The people claim that they were better off remaining in Egypt, where life was predictable, although oppressive.  They were trapped in ‘the same.’ They had been in the wilderness so long that the wilderness was in them.  That wilderness mentality is evident among pastors and churches as well.  In his sermon on this text, Darrell Griffin joked that “some people need to join the group ‘Same Anonymous’—they need to go to a meeting and say, ‘Hello, I’m Bob and I’m a same-aholic.’”

You see what happened here?  God told the people He was giving them the land—that He had a plan for them, He would be with them and guide them and sustain them.  The people wanted to play it safe though.  They refused to unite around the plan for their future that God had given them.  They refused to trust and follow.  Instead, the majority united around criticism, negativity, and dissension.  The sad reality is that most churches choose not to change—they choose not to enter the Promised Land.  They would rather die.  Tragically, in most churches, the pain of change is greater than the pain of ineffectiveness.  Let me say that again because I think it is important: Tragically, in most churches, the pain of change is greater than the pain of ineffectiveness.  In other words, people would rather just go on doing what they are doing; they would rather keep the status quo; they would rather keep doing what isn’t working and just finally see the church die than to go through the pain of changing the way things have always been done.  If they don’t like it, they don’t want it—even if it will help the church in the long run.  Like the people of Israel that we read about this morning, they would rather stay in the desert and die.  Their church may be shriveling up and shrinking and dying of thirst in a proverbial desert, but darn it, that’s better than doing things differently.  “It’s better to go back to what we’ve always known,” the people of Israel said.  “It’s better for us to get back to what we know, what we are comfortable with, what is easy for us.  Oh, we may die, but we will die in comfort and security.  We may die, but at least we won’t have to face a challenge.  We won’t have to go through trials and difficulties and deal with other people.  We won’t have to deal with the giants in our lives.  We will just have to die a slow death.  Hallelujah.  Amen.  Praise God.”

Such people will never risk because they don’t trust the power of God.  They are pessimists.  The glass is always half empty and maybe even has a hole in it or it’s cracked.  There’s always a problem that can’t be dealt with or faced.  But you see, we can’t minimize God!  When we minimize God, we maximize our problems.   You’ll notice that God is nowhere mentioned in the report of the research committee sent to Canaan.  Most of the spies didn’t come back from their forty day adventure and say, “It might be tough….there are some big people there, there are some fortified cities, but God is giving us this land and there is indeed good stuff in it and God will lead us there.”  There were two people though who were optimistic, who did have faith and trust in God: Joshua and Caleb.   Look at Numbers 14, starting with verse 5: “Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there.  Joshua and Caleb, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good.  If the LORD is pleased with us, He will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us.  Only do not rebel against the LORD.  And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up.  Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us.  Do not be afraid of them."  No “buts” here.  They have faith.  They aren’t naïve though.  They don’t say it’s going to be easy or without challenge or difficulty.  Their point is that God is with them, God has promised them the land.  Their God is bigger than the obstacles they face.   

But notice the people’s response to this impassioned plea from Joshua and Caleb.  They give this rousing speech about how God is with them—sort of like what I am trying to do in this sermon—but the message falls on deaf ears.  Verse 10: “But the whole assembly talked about stoning them.”  They want to kill Joshua and Caleb for casting a vision and leading the people where God wanted them to go.  They wanted to kill those who were bold enough to say that with God all things are possible.   And people think leading a church is easy.  Never has been, never will be.  How many pastors have been driven out of churches or have simply given up and left because people refused to do anything different or refused to unite around any vision for the future?  One of the problems was that the majority of the people were focused on the facts, not focused on the truth.  Facts are what you see, but the truth is what God said.  Yes, it is a fact that there are giants in the land, the cities are fortified, the people are strong.  But the truth is God is with them and has made promises to them.  The truth is God is a wonder-working, miracle-working God.  The truth is God has been with them in the past.  We don’t just walk by the facts, but we walk by the truth.  We need to go to the facts and tell the facts all about our God.  The only way people will experience the truth of God’s power is to follow Him into situations where they will have to trust Him.  I wonder if we as a church really have to trust God right now?  Or are we playing it safe?  Do we trust God or do we trust in our investments?  Do we give sacrificially so as to reach our budget and allow for real ministry, or do we count on the fact that the money given to us by faithful people in the past will carry us along and allow us to short-change ourselves, God and our church?  Are we thinking and praying about what God can do here through us or are we thinking about just how to survive and continue on like we always have? 

What do you see?  What is your view of who God is and how He works?  What is your hope, you vision for this church?  What do you see?  What would you like to see?  I’ll tell you what I see.  I see a church that has a lot of thinking to do, a lot of praying to do, and a lot of work to do.  And I see a church with a lot of potential, a church that has a core group of committed people who love God and love the church more than any of their own personal tastes or preferences—people  who want what is best for the church, not just what they would like for themselves.  Thank God for the small group of people that will be willing to put the good of the church before their own personal wants and needs—those who are willing to sacrifice some small things to gain the large things.  What do I see?  I see a neighborhood around us that is in need of some help in many ways, including spiritually.  I see a great and awesome God who has been faithful in the past and who has brought this church through some rough times before.  I see a God who isn’t done with us yet….if we are willing to work with Him.  I see a God who raised Jesus from the dead and I see a Jesus who never met a corpse that He didn’t raise up to life—so I believe God can resurrect this church to vitality and new life.  I see the God we talked about in our call to worship this morning:  “I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from?  My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.  He will not let your foot slip—He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.  The LORD watches over you—the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.  The LORD will keep you from all harm—He will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”  Is that what you see?  Is that the God you look to and the God you trust with your life and the life of this church?  What do you see?  What do you see?  Amen.