 Amen. All right. We're there in John chapter number one. John chapter one is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. I think it's a very, especially the beginning is a very beautifully written, very poetic opening. What I want to do is I want to focus on or start at least on verse 43. John 1 verse 43. Now I think this is kind of interesting because you have this story. Let's start reading in verse 43. The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee to find a fill up and say it unto him, follow me. So Jesus is calling his disciples here. The chapter opens just with this poetic description of who John the Baptist was, who Jesus Christ was. It opens up with John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus Christ. It's very exciting, very upbeat tone to John chapter one. Now Jesus is calling his disciples who are eager to follow him. Verse 44. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip, find it in Nathaniel and say it unto him. So Jesus is calling all these disciples and they're going and they're telling other people. They're telling their brothers, their family. They're following Jesus. Philip, find it in Nathaniel and say it unto him. We have found him of who Moses in the law and the prophets did right. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So this is a very happy upbeat tone here. And I feel like in verse 46 the chapter kind of comes screeching to a halt here. Verse 46. And Nathaniel said unto him, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? And here we see this optimistic chapter kind of comes screeching to a halt here with this very pessimistic tone that kind of stands out where you have Nathaniel. Nazareth must have been known as a bad area. Must not have been known as a very great part of town or very great part of the country. Because here you have Nathaniel who has someone tell him we found the Messiah. We found the Savior and his reply, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip say it unto him, come and see. So we're not really going to be looking into the story too much, but it is kind of setting the tone for what we're going to look at this evening. This evening, the title of the sermon is the spectrum of perspective. What I'd like to do is take a few minutes and look at perspective. We have optimism on one side, pessimism on the other. What should we be? Should we as Christians be optimistic? Should we be pessimistic? Does it depend on the situation? Does it depend on what we're going through? What's the balance? Should we be all of one or a balance of both? What should we be? Turn to Exodus chapter 3. Exodus chapter number 3. I love this. The reason I opened with these verses here is, one proof alone that the Bible is not written by man, that it was inspired by God is, I don't know if there's any other book out there that captures the human nature as well as the Bible. If the Bible was written by man, it would not capture the downside of mankind. It would not capture so well just the nature of man, just the nature of everything from the fallen state of man to just man's pessimism and every little avenue of the nature of mankind the Bible captures perfectly. So this evening we're going to look at pessimism, we're going to look at optimism, the dangers of both and the correct balance. So let's start off with pessimism. What are the dangers of pessimism? Here's some things you can watch out for with pessimism. What is pessimism? Pessimism is defined as a tendency to stress the negative or unfavorable or to take the gloomiest possible view. So let's look at a couple issues with pessimism. A couple things we should watch out for with pessimism. Let's make an argument against it this evening. The first thing is this, you're in Exodus chapter 3. One thing about pessimism that is a danger is that pessimism can stem from a lack of faith. They're in Exodus chapter 3. Here we're talking about the story of Moses at the burning bush. Moses is when Moses is called by God, he's standing at the bush that is on fire and is not consumed, the Bible said. And look what God is saying to Moses. Verse 9, Now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come up unto me. And I also have seen the oppression where the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore. So God is giving a command to Moses. He's saying, you know, I see what my people are going through. I see the oppression. I see the, they're in slavery. I hear their cries and his action is come now therefore. And I will send thee into Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. So here God is calling the prophet Moses. And he is telling him, I want you to go to Pharaoh and I want you to tell him to let my people go. And Moses' response is in turn to chapter 4. Look at verse 1. Just flip the page over. Exodus 4 verse 1. And Moses, I'm sorry, verse 9, my bad. Verse 9, And Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice. This is some pessimism here from Moses. Here God is telling him, hey, I want you to do this. It's going to turn out great. Just don't worry about it. And Moses says, they're not going to believe me. It's not going to work. For they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. Okay. And so what happens now, basically in between, is where God basically tells Moses of all the miracles. God's still being patient with them. And he's saying, okay, don't worry. I'm going to have you do this miracle and this miracle. And you're going to go in that way, both the Pharaoh and the elders of Israel will know that I have sent you. That should be enough for Moses. But verse 10, And Moses said unto the Lord, Oh, my Lord, use another excuse here. I am not eloquent. He says, I'm not a good speaker. I'm not good at... I didn't pass my public speaking class in high school. Neither here to foreign, Nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant. The time of slow of speech and of a slow tongue. So God kind of shoots down his first excuse. And so Moses still sticking to his pessimism, kind of rolls right on to the next thing. He says, well, I can't talk well. I'm not a good speaker. Verse 11, And the Lord said unto him, So here we see God kind of get frustrated at Moses here. God says unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb or deaf or the seeing or the blind? Have not I the Lord? God tells him, I'm the one who made your mouth. I'm the one who designed the mouth. Who are you to tell me that yours doesn't work good enough? Verse 12, Now therefore go, And I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. And just as a side note here, this isn't really part of the sermon, but just as a side note, this, you know, not everyone, some people are naturally good at speaking. Some people are naturally good at interacting with other people. That was always a weakness of mine. I'm kind of an introvert, but you don't have to worry about using this excuse as a soul winner. You don't have to turn there, but Isaiah 28-11 says this, This is God speaking, For with the stammering lips and another tongue, will he speak to this people. You don't have to worry about, I can't speak or I'm not good with words. You have the Holy Spirit and God promises that that's enough. But, aside from the point I digress, Moses is being pessimistic here. And you say, why is he being pessimistic? His pessimism is stemming from a lack of faith. That's why Moses is doing this. That's why he's being pessimistic. He doesn't have the faith. He has all these other reasons. Look, there's a time to think logically, and we're going to look at that this evening or in a little bit here. But in this moment where God is telling him, you just need to trust me. I'm telling you it will work. It will be fine. There's no reason to be pessimistic here. Turn to Numbers 13. Look, God gave us a brain. God gave us common sense. He wants us to use it. But not to the point where we doubt the infinite power of God. We need to be careful with that. Numbers 13, this is where God is sending the twelve spies into the land of Canaan. God has promised them this land. God didn't make a mistake here. God didn't forget to look up the demographics of the land. He didn't forget to do a census on how many people live there. God knows what he's doing, and he wants them to go and just search out the land. Verse 1 of Numbers 13, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel, and every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man. Every one a ruler among them. So there's twelve spies. One was from every tribe, representing every tribe. And Moses, by the commandment of the Lord, sent them from the wilderness of Peran, all those men were heads of the children of Israel. Skip to verse 25. And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came unto Moses, and Aaron, and all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Peran, to Kadesh, and brought back word unto them, unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told them and said, We came unto the land, whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it. Now, keep in mind here, before we continue, I want you just to understand that they were not sent into the land to give everyone an opinion. God had already told them it would work. God had already been telling them for generations that this is the land that he would give them. They were sent there to, you know, scope out the land, to maybe draw a map, or to kind of just get a better idea. Because obviously God fought their battles, but he still expected them to do the due diligence of showing up and fighting the battles, and having enough faith to do that. But they were not sent there to give an opinion. Verse 28, Nevertheless, Nevertheless, these spies are speaking to the people. The people be strong to dwell in the land. In the cities are walled. That shouldn't matter. God already gave them the land. There's no reason for pessimism here. And very great. And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people. So notice, they're just panicking people. You can already tell by the fact that Caleb is having to still the people. That means he's having to calm them down. Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. But now the men are arguing with them. But the man that went up with them said, We be not able to go up against the people. That's some serious pessimism here, and it's stemming. Why? Why do they have this pessimism? Because they don't have the faith. We be not able to go up against this people for they are stronger than we. And then just to make sure we get it, the narrator of the Bible here clarifies, and they brought up an evil report to the land, which they had searched into the children of Israel, saying, and then it gives us more context in what they said, the land which we have gone up is a land that either thought the inhabitants thereof and all the people that we saw are men of great stature. And then here they, they're so pessimistic they start to use, they start to blow things out of proportion, which is usually the case. And there we saw giants, the sons of Anac, which are come of the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers. And so, we were in their sight. Look, we understand there was giants, the Bible tells us there were giants in those days. Okay, there weren't, it wasn't like Jack and the Beanstalker, they were 500 feet tall, 9, 10, 11 feet tall. But by ratio, were they grasshoppers? Were they grasshoppers in the sight? No, they weren't. This is them blowing things out of proportion. They're trying to convince people against what God has already told them he has given them. They're being pessimistic. Now look, from a military perspective, I'm all with them. From a military's perspective, that's what they're doing. They're saying, you know, we're not able to do that with art, but look, God trumps military strategy. Especially in this case. Turn to Nehemiah chapter 4. While you're turning to Nehemiah 4, I'm going to read to you a few verses from John 20, where Jesus has risen from the dead and he has appeared unto some of his disciples. And you have Thomas. He's already appeared to some of the disciples, but the Bible says in verse 24, but Thomas 1 of the 12, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So all the disciples have seen Jesus at this point except for Thomas. It says, the other disciples therefore sit unto him, we have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, except I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. He's being very pessimistic here. And after eight days, his disciples were within and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus. The door's being shut and stood in the midst and said, peace be unto you. Then he said, so obviously God is all knowing. He knows the one that did not have faith. And God singles out Thomas here. And pardon me believe that I don't know this as my opinion, but pardon me believe that maybe this is the reason God on purpose maybe was testing Thomas. That's why he wasn't with him the first time. I don't know. I get a feeling from that because notice how he singles out Thomas. He says, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side. And be not faithless, but believing. We need to be careful because pessimism can obviously arise in us because we lack the faith. They're there in EMI chapter 4. So what's the danger of pessimism? What's the problem with pessimism? Well the first problem is that it can stem from a lack of faith and we need to watch for that and we need to be careful. There's a time for pessimism. We're going to see that in a minute here. But us not having faith is not a time for it. But here's another problem with pessimism. Pessimism can be used to discourage works for God. They're in EMI chapter 4. Look at verse 1. Of course you have the context in EMI. This is after the captivity. This is decades after the captivity and the Israelites, the Hebrews are returning back to the land of Israel to build the walls and build the temple and kind of rebuild everything a generation later. But you have enemies. You have enemies that do not want them to build the wall. You have enemies that don't want them to do this work that God has commanded them to do. Verse 1. But it came to pass when Sam Ballot heard that we built the wall. So this is Nehemiah speaking. Nehemiah wrote the book of Nehemiah and he's speaking kind of first person under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Heard that we built the wall. He was raw. That means he was angry and took great indignation and mocked the Jews. And he spake before his brethren in the army of Samaria and said, Pessimism, what do these people Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones under the heaps of rubbish which are burned? Now Tobiah the emirate was by him and he said, even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall. So they're just to the point of being ridiculous. They're using pessimism. He's saying, oh, a fox could push over your wall, your building. They're just, they're using pessimism. Why? This time, it has nothing to do with the lack of faith. This time, it's solely being used to discourage works for God. And we need to be careful of this because this can happen with ourselves, with us doing this to ourselves. We are being pessimistic in discouraging works of God for ourselves or we are allowing other people to do it to us. You don't have to turn there, but I'll read to you Nehemiah 411. It kind of, this is later, but it kind of, it reiterates why they're doing this. And our adversary said, they shall not know and either see till we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease. These are enemies of the Lord and they did not want this work being done. So they're using pessimism to discourage. Turn to Isaiah 36. Isaiah chapter 36 and especially in a group like a church where everyone's striving together this can be, this can become a cancer. While you're turning to Isaiah 36 I'm going to read you part a couple verses of the story of Gideon. You have the Midianites that were pressing the children of Israel and God chose a man named Gideon to go against them and the Bible tells us the Midianites had an army that you couldn't even count it, it was so big. It stretched as far as you can see perhaps hundreds of thousands of people in this army and God has chosen this man, Gideon the Bible says in Judges 7.2 you should be in Isaiah 36 and the Lord said unto Gideon the people that are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands. Let Israel vaunt themselves against me saying my own hand has saved me. So God says you know there's too many people Gideon I don't want you to win the battle and think that it was because you had strength he says I'm going to whittle your numbers down so much verse 3 but notice God removes most of the people but God is very tactful with who he chooses to remove. Verse 3 now therefore go proclaim in the ears of the people saying whoever is fearful and afraid lets him return and depart early from Al-Giliad and they return to the people 20 and 2,000 and there remained 10,000 so the majority of the people leave but notice what I want I want to remove a majority of these people I want you to find everyone that's scared and afraid and I want them to go home you say why because if you have a group of people serving God especially in this Christian life this is a good example because we are vastly outnumbered we are vastly outnumbered and when you have a group of people serving God if you have people that are pessimistic that pessimism even if their pessimism can discourage the work of God that the rest are trying to do so God says if you're fearful if you're afraid we don't need you go home that's harsh but God understands that these people he has he needs them to be strong he needs them to get a job done and he cannot have pessimism ruining that we'll look at one more example of this you're there in Isaiah chapter 36 here this is when Hechah is threatening the nation of Judah they are they had just attacked Israel and now they are at the walls of Jerusalem to attack this city but notice the tactic they don't just go and evade the city right away notice what they try to do to win over the city in an easier way Isaiah 36 look at verse 13 then then Rabbi Shekah so this is a this is a messenger like a general of the Assyrians he's not the king but notice what he said he does then Rabbi Shekah stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews language and said hear ye the words of the great king the king of Assyria so earlier in the chapter we are told that he was specifically speaking to the people not the king if he was speaking to the king he'd send a messenger he's speaking to everybody here he's trying to get the people's attention they'll say the king will receive you for notice the pessimism he shall not be able to deliver you so what's he trying to do to weaken the people as he goes and he uses pessimism don't trust Hezekiah everything Hezekiah has told you it's a lie it's not going to work he can't deliver you now let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord saying the Lord will surely deliver us the city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria so he goes to them look you got to be careful of this because as a Christian people are going to come to you in your life maybe they're not going to directly say this but in a roundabout way I can promise you they will use pessimism to say don't trust in the Lord that life you're trying to live it's not going to deliver you it's not going to work don't let that happen to you and look it can be like I said it can be the pessimism of other people attacking you it can be pessimism of other people serving God in any capacity but we can also if we're not careful we can let it we can do it to ourselves we can let our own pessimism hinder us from doing great works for God so just beware because this will be used against you whether it's from a lack of faith or it's being used to stop us from serving God pessimism can be a danger and we need to be careful of it but what about optimism you say okay I'm scared nothing's ever nothing's ever I'm going to be super optimistic all the time this is a problem as well what is optimism optimism is defined as a tendency to expect the best possible outcome or dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation so you say we can't go wrong with optimism right not quite turn to Jeremiah chapter 5 so just like we looked at two problems or two potential dangers with pessimism we're going to look at two potential dangers of optimism two areas that optimism can actually get us into trouble Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 11 here's the first problem with optimism optimism potentially can cause us to ignore the judgment of God you're there in Jeremiah chapter 5 your God is a problem in Jeremiah of course Jeremiah was not the only prophet that did this but in this particular time frame in this book you have Jeremiah preaching to the to the nation of Judah in particular he's preaching to them about the captivity that would one day come from Babylon this is kind of what in general this is kind of what he spent his life preaching on he talked about other things as well but this was kind of his main mission and you had a problem with people going around kind of denying that this was happening of course people don't like to hear bad news people don't like to hear their wrong they felt very treacherously against me say the Lord he's saying they're in sin they are not they have turned for me verse 12 they have belied the Lord belied meaning to give a false representation of or to misrepresent so they're they're essentially creating a false reality of God they're creating a false picture they're misrepresenting what God actually thinks and said it is not he neither shall evil come upon us neither shall we see sword nor famine so you have these people going around and we know that there are prophets false prophets that were kind of inspiring this in people but this idea was spreading of God wouldn't do that does this sound familiar today God wouldn't I don't believe in a God that would send people to hell I don't believe in a God of judgment this is what they were saying they wanted to deny that this was happening as a result of their sin and so they're denying it they're being optimistic they're saying I don't think God's like that I don't think God would do something like that they're using optimism here verse 13 let's see what God thinks about this and the prophets that tell them this shall become wind and the word is not in them thus shall it be done unto them let me have the famous verse wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts because you speak this word behold talking to Jeremiah here I will make my words in thy mouth fire and this people would and it shall devour them I was not very happy about this see but they're being optimistic they're looking at things in the best possible light look at verse 22 look how mad God is about this verse 22 fear ye not me God sees their optimism and you know what God says he says you know what you don't fear me fear ye not me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by perpetual decree that it cannot pass it and the ways thereof tossed themselves that they cannot prevail though they roar yet they cannot pass over it but this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart they are revolted and gone look when it comes to the judgment of God because we're saved meaning we're not going to go to hell but we do face the chastisement of God if we sin against him in this life look the chastisement of God the judgment of God in that area optimism can destroy us if we choose to take utter optimism and we deny that we've done wrong we deny that we've made mistakes it'll get worse and worse and worse and worse for ourselves we need to be careful about that Zephaniah 1.12 you know what the term there says this it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their leaves that say in their heart the Lord will not do good neither will he do evil and obviously this applies to individuals but this applies to I kind of put the judgment of God I kind of can put into three different I'd like to think about it in three different areas you have saved believers there can be judgment from God in just the form of chastisement of the believer but then there's also the judgment of the unsaved hell and it's the same concept there how many people have you run into out soul-winning oh I don't believe God I'm a good enough person they're using optimism this is optimism in this area I'm pretty sure I'd make it to heaven they don't know for sure but what side do they lean towards I think I'd make it I think I'm good enough I don't think God sends anyone to hell but look not just with unsaved but you know this also applies to a nation that's the particular instance here in Jeremiah in Zephaniah it's a nation and God's punishing or getting ready to punish a nation for their sin and it's just getting worse because the people are in denial they're being too optimistic about the judgment of God they're escaping reality they're saying it wouldn't happen to kind of demonstrate this I want to read you a quote this is obviously I'm reading this quote to show the wrong mentality we should have but I'm going to read you a quote from the great statesmen and heretic Mitt Romney Mitt Romney said this once quote it's fashionable in some circles to be pessimistic about America about conservative solutions about the republican party I utterly reject that pessimism that mentality right there is what will be the downfall of America is that you have this is an area we should be pessimistic when it comes to the sins of our nation look I believe our nation was founded on good principles I believe that we messed it up I believe that it was more than one point then we allowed corruption we allowed everything we kind of took that inheritance and ruined it however we need to be pessimistic about America if we want the hope of getting right or fixing our problems as a country if that's even a possibility anymore we need to be real about the problems we have if we just ignore our problems and say no we're fine God bless America no matter what that's going to destroy us one thing I just thought about even the Star Spangled Banner which is our national anthem and I believe it's the third or fourth verse I forget how it's phrased but there's a phrase in there that says something like God will bless our efforts if our cause it is just so even then it was understood that even John Adams would say that you need a moral this constitution this government it's only going to work for a moral people it's only going to work for a moral and religious people but if we take the state of our country today in the sin we're in the filth that we accept if we go with Mitt Romney here and we reject all pessimism we say you know what it's fine everything's great as everything's burning around us we're like this is wonderful God bless America no matter what that is what will be the ultimate destruction of our country we're not going to get anywhere you can't escape you can't Jonah this you can't run away from God you can't act like the judgment of God isn't real and hope it works it's no different with it saddens me many times because you go soul winning and you run into someone who you say you know for sure if you go to heaven do you want to know? no I'm fine I'm good I don't want to talk about this right now some people will say I don't want to have this discussion right now and it saddens me because I look at this person I think to myself where else would you apply this in life you have a major problem here you don't know if you're going to heaven and so your solution is just to ignore it not think about it put it on the back burner it's no different with the judgment of God in general whether it's us as the chastisement of God to say believers whether it's a nation or whether it's someone who's unsaved ignoring the judgment of God and being optimistic about it and acting like it's not real will only make it worse so dangers of optimism the first thing that we learned is optimism can ignore the judgment of God but here's another thing we can look at optimism turn to Matthew chapter 4 optimism can tempt God turn to Matthew chapter 4 verse 5 here we have the story of Jesus who is right before he begins his ministry he kind of goes through the trial where he is tempted of the devil the devil tests him and tempts him with various things he's trying to get the sinless son of God to make a mistake because Satan knows how salvation works if Jesus Christ was not perfect then there's no hope for salvation if Jesus Christ was not perfect then when he died on the cross he would be dying for his own sin he could not die for the sins of the world if he was a sinner himself verse 5 so here we see one of the things that he does then the devil take them up this is really interesting here take them up into the holy city the Jerusalem instead of him on the pinnacle of the temple and save unto him if thou be the son of God cast thyself down for it is written he shall give his angels charged concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up any time thou dash thy foot against a stone this is a real verse here this is in Psalms this is a real verse this is a real promise from God and Jesus said unto him it is written again thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God so what does this mean? because here you have the devil pull out a Bible verse and quote a Bible verse to Jesus and says God has promised that he will protect you God has promised that he will give his angels charge over you angels are protecting you Jesus cast thyself off the temple and your Jesus counters this and says yeah however it also says you should not tempt the Lord thy God so how is this tempting God? the devil is being optimistic here he is saying God has promised that he will protect you jump off here's why this would be tempting God and I kind of want to focus on because I think a lot of people can miss this there's a lot of promises in the Bible just to name a few there's the promise God will provide for us food and raiment there's the promise of safety safety is of the Lord salvation believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved there's the promise that if we go soul winning we preach the gospel we will bear fruit there's the promise that if someone is seeking the truth they're going to find it but all these promises have something in common the common denominator in all these is that to some extent they all require our input let's think about this imagine if you went through life with utter optimism when it came to the promises of God for men let's just think about go through the first couple as men what if we said God will provide for me and I've seen people do this I've seen men who do this God will provide for me so I'm not going to get a job God has promised he'll provide for me or what if we said safety is of the Lord so I will take no steps to protect me or my family I'll just take perilous risks of my life God's promised God's promised safety is of the Lord God's promised me well what if everyone else what about the mentality of you know everyone I think everyone goes to heaven a lot of people say that that's an optimistic take I think everyone just kind of no input of their own no decision they have to make nothing on their side is automatically everyone saved that's a lot of people think that no matter what religion you are I don't believe in God who would send people to hell or thinking what if a believer told themselves you know if someone's seeking the truth they're going to find it so I'm not going to go soul winning because they'll find the truth anyway and they'll get saved anyway almost this partially Calvinist mentality of anyone who's looking knocking at the door and seeking for the truth to any extent they're just going to get saved somehow somehow they will get saved so why do I need to preach the gospel you see where I'm going with this all these things even salvation look salvation is a free gift and everything is already paid for but if we don't at least put the input in to make the decision to trust Christ we are not saved we cannot be saved God does not save you automatically a human has to make a decision to trust Christ as their savior it goes with all these things let's think about a couple of examples in the Bible the biggest one I can think of is the Israelites promised the promised land we kind of already looked at it a little bit it was a conditional promise God promised them he would give them that land but it was not unconditional look this is a huge misunderstanding this is why the majority of mainstream Christianity today still thinks that the nation of Israel is God gave that to them God gave them that nation God promised the world the whole Old Testament that he would not if they were not serving God he removed them from the land if they were not serving God if they were not right they went into captivity and somehow a nation that still rejects Christ as their savior look the Jews need to be saved just like everybody else they need to be saved just like everybody else Paul said he wished he could he could exchange his own soul for the Jews however they still reject Christ and they're still unsaved there's a whole bunch of people out there that think that it was just apparently an unconditional promise but that's not how it worked it was if you serve me if you keep my commandments then I will bless you with this land turn to 1 Samuel 4 1 Samuel chapter 4 look this is why we already apply this to every year of our life in some extent this is why we have jobs this is why we have jobs because it's still our duty to provide for ourselves our families start our job our duty to go soul winning and look if we don't if you don't go soul winning look I do believe that if someone's knocking at the door and they're seeking the truth God will lead you'll lead them towards a soul winner however if you don't go soul winning there are going to be people over your lifetime who are seeking in some form that are going to go to hell because God was going to lead them to the truth but it was your job to do it and you never did so these are all promises but we still must do our due diligence think about getting we talked about think about all the times in the Bible that God said I'm going to win the battle for you I'm going to fight for you but was there ever a time where they just sat and did nothing and God just miraculously fixed the problem for them no they had even if it was only 300 men they had to have the courage they had to go to battle they had to put their armor on they had to go out get themselves an array they had to swing their sword and then God won the battle for them that's why we have jobs that's why we go soul winning that's why there's a first aid kit in the aviarum here just as a very small example because just because God promises us these things doesn't mean that we don't have responsibilities or he doesn't want us to at least have the faith to follow him on those things think about this think about if you had a boss that was training two people to do a task or a job think about what if you went to both of them and said you know I know you're just learning I know you but I will make sure that you don't make any mistakes I'll make sure I check your work I'll make sure I'll make sure as you're learning that you don't nothing's messed up I'll help you and I'll make sure that I will ensure your success as your boss now what if you had one person I heard this and said well I'm not going to do anything then I'm not going to try and with this boss sees this person is not not trying at all not even putting in the effort because he told me he'd take care of it he told me he'd make sure everything turns out fine what if you looked at the other employee who although he's making mistakes he's learning he's trying as hard as he can he's learning how to do the job he's studying how to do the job he's really putting the effort in even if it's minute because he's just learning he's really trying to do what he can who do you think that boss is going to help more who do you think that he promised to both of them that hey I'm all in sure your success but who do you think he's going to really bless with the most he's going to bless the person who is taking their role seriously he says you know I know I have a job as a protector or a soul winner or provider or whatever it is a follower or an employee I know God is giving me that role in my life and he's insured he's promised me that he'll take care of me through that he's not going to leave me hanging but I'm going to take it seriously I'm going to try as hard as I can to show God that I care and I'm taking it seriously and God will take care of the rest that's the mentality we should have you're there in 1 Samuel 4 this is a great example of this here the nation of Israel is in a bad state they're fallen they're rebellious against God they're in sin and as a result verse 2 opens with judgment of God and the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel and when they joined battle Israel was smitten before the Philistines and they slew the army in the field about 4,000 men and when the people were coming to the camp the elders of Israel said maybe we better get right with God no that's not what they said they went with optimism wherefore would the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us that when it cometh unto us it may save us out of the hand of our enemies so instead of getting right they take this mentality of you know we're just gonna go into battle anyway almost with this entitlement mentality you know what God owes us victory look God doesn't owe us anything God doesn't owe you safety he doesn't owe you protection there is nothing God owes you so even if something is a promise to you just like God promised them victory if they obey him and we take this and we say you know what God just God will just regardless of my input or my heart or how I am spiritually God will just do this for me that's a pretty arrogant mentality to take to the creator of the universe to think that God owes you anything skip to verse 10 see how this went for them going into battle in sin ignoring God daring to take the ark of the covenant and think that somehow it has some it's gonna do some magical thing for them and the Philistines fought and Israel was smitten and they fled every man into his tent remember 4,000 people died before that's still a lot of people but now that they double down in their sin and they got this arrogant mentality with God it says and there was a very great slaughter for the fellow of Israel 30,000 foot men and the ark of God was taken and the two sons of God Eli, Hophne and Phineas were slain in the late in the end of the chapter we would hear the phrase the glory of God was departed from Israel don't get, look you say but didn't they have faith didn't they have optimism didn't God promise to fight their battles they had a false mentality they had the mentality that a lot of us can get in different areas a lot of people can get that says you know just because God promised me something he just owes me that and he'll get it no matter what it's not the right mentality to have with God don't let so what is tempting God tempting God is when you let yourself get an entitlement mentality with God look God has promised you to give his angels charge over you but if you throw yourself off that temple you're sticking it to God you're saying you owe me this God you owe me this protection it's not right it's tempting God don't let your optimism tempt God so we talked about pessimism we talked about optimism the dangers of both turn to Isaiah chapter 50 let's wrap it up I'm sorry turn to the 2nd Timothy 4 2nd Timothy 4 let's wrap it up here so what's the proper balance we understand there's some serious dangers of pessimism we understand there's some serious dangers pessimism can let us can let us have a lack of faith it can stem from stopping it can let us stop us from serving God optimism can cause us to ignore the judgment of God it can even cause us to tempt God let's look at the right balance here's what the right balance is the right balance of optimism pessimism for a Christian is this essentially you were to shorten it up we should be pessimistic enough to be rooted in reality but optimistic enough to know that once we've lost control there's no more we can do God take care of the rest we take our hands off the wheel 2nd Timothy 4 this is kind of the last many people think the last words of Paul kind of his him kind of wrapping up and summarizing his life and we're not going to read the whole chapter but up to this point up to verse 16 Paul's just been it's pretty pessimistic he's been talking about all the people that stabbed him in the back that left him that hurt him that caused him harm in some way or another that left him that abandoned him verse 16 at my first answer no man stood with me this is pretty pessimistic Paul but all men forsook me I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge that's a great mentality to have with our enemies by the way verse 17 notwithstanding the Lord stood with me here's some optimism and strengthened me by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion say what are you talking about Paul you've lived a life of betrayal of persecution there's a good chance that he is about to be executed and he knows that what are you talking about Paul how can you say verse 18 and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me into his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory forever and ever amen look it's about because look here's the reality the Christian life is hard if you're gonna do it right it's hard Paul says it was difficult you know I've come across a lot of trouble a lot of people hurt me but in the end God was on my side so I still win that's the mentality because you know what Paul realizes I believe Paul's a very logical person I believe that's why he was so effective as a soul winner is he was able to go to people that didn't even had even heard of the God he was preaching and they haven't even heard of Jesus and he was able to get down with them and understand their background and where they came from and be logical with them and convince them and exhort them and convince the gainsayers he was a very logical person he was pessimistic enough to realize where he had to be logical but at the end of the day he was able to identify where he no longer had control where he couldn't change certain things he couldn't change other people he couldn't change the persecution that happened to him so he was optimistic enough to say you know what in those times God's got me taken care of I've read the last chapter I know who wins mentality even if I die on this earth no matter what happens to me here I still win kill me do whatever you want to me as long as Jesus Christ died and I'm going to heaven when you kill me I've won that's the mentality we need to have in the end God was on my side so just to recap don't let pessimism grow out of a lack of faith don't let it stop you from serving God both in yourself and others don't let optimism make you ignore the judgment of God if we all sin we all make mistakes we need to correct that as early as possible don't let optimism play in our favor and push our faults out of the way don't let optimism get to the point where you tempt God where you think you are owed things God promises you so inclusion this evening let's think about this let's think about the words of Paul here I think this is really just the greatest example of this enough pessimism to be grounded in reality but enough optimism to trust the Lord with the rest let's borrow our heads and have a word of prayer