Seeing As God Sees

Introduction. (I Samuel 16:1-13) In this beautiful account of the annointing of king David we are touched by a few elements:

  1. By outward appearances someone else seemed suitable to be king.
  2. Samuel learns that appearance alone is not a true guage of someone's character.
  3. God evaluates the heart of man.
  4. God sees differently than man does.
Illustration: I don’t fly much. But some years ago my parent’s offered me some of their frequent flyer miles for a preaching trip to and from Tampa. On this trip I was fascinated by the view from the window.
-- First just like view from tall building
-- human beings- first things that pass out of sight
-- cars become small dots floating on the thin lines that become highways
-- buildings little boxes that litter the landcape
-- fields and forests become a quilted checkerboard of patterns and colors
-- only evidence of icestorm thin lace of white that trimmed the edge of each section of the quilt pattern.
     I thought about this a great deal and it occurred to me that to a small degree this illustrates how different God’s spiritual view of things must be from our own. This evening I’d like for us to consider together how we can “see things as God sees.”

I. God Sees Time Differently.

  1. Time is not as long as it seems. (II Peter 3:8,9) Illustration: When a plane gets to a certain altitude it is amazing to note that it hardly seems that you are moving at all. A trip that would take 24 hours in a car passes in a little over two hours.
  2. Our lives are very short. (James 4:13-15)

II. God Sees The World Differently.

Illustration: When I was in High School, they would often construct beautiful stagesets for plays and musicals they did. Many of these were as carefully constructed as the interior of a house. Yet, when the play was over it was torn apart! In the same way we see our world as permanent -- to God it is a temporary backdrop for a limited time.

  1. This world is temporary. (II Corinthians 4:17,18)
  2. The world is passing away. (I Corinthians 7:29-31) KJV “fashion” Gr. schema = English scheme -- (I John 2:16,17)

III. God Sees Troubles Differently.

  1. Troubles are not as significant as we may see them. Illustration: When I left, overwhelmed by the icestorm - power out -- trees down all over house - Back to view from plane couldn’t even see evidence of the storm -- Our problems are small in the whole scheme of things. (II Corinthians 12:7-9)
  2. Troubles are not setbacks but opportunities for growth. (James 1:2-4; Romans 5:1-5) Illustration: Back to view from plane --There are millions of other people with the same problems.

IV. God Sees Human Beings Differently.

  1. Man is small in the universe. (Psalm 8:3,4; Psalm 144:3,4) Illustration: As small as we are -- God has considered us.
  2. God has valued us over other parts of creation. (Hebrews 2:1-16)

V. God Sees Sin Differently.

Illustration: As you fly occasionally you feel times when the plane begins to shake -- turbulance -- wind pockets of “rough air” -- You can’t see it, but it is very important to the safety of the flight.
     What God commands us to avoid -- what He commands us not to leave off -- may not always make sense to us. We fail to see the importance of it, but God sees and understands (like turbulance) how dangerous it is to our eternal security.

  1. Sin leads to death. (Romans 6:23)
  2. As sinners God loved us. (Romans 5:6-10)