Kerry Shook - Look Up
Hey, we started this new series that I'm calling "Five Things that I Want my Kids to Remember Forever," but really I could say it's five things that I want all of us to remember forever. These are five things that Chris and I have learned over the years, that have made the biggest difference in our lives. And yet I'll have to admit, we so often forget them. These are five things I want to pass on to my adult kids and my grand kids and I wanted to keep going through generations, but then I forget them. These are five of the most important things you'll ever learn in life, and yet we forget them all the time.
And so, one of the things that we need to always remember is, when you lose your way, look up to God. There'll be times in life where you lose your way, you go the wrong way, you'll find yourself in a place that you didn't really plan on. We all lose our way at times in life, but when you lose your way, look up to God. I want us to stand in honor of God's Word. We're going to look at Psalm 121, one of my favorite psalms. So just stand up and follow along with me in this passage today.
"I lift up my eyes to the mountains. 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. 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".
Isn't that encouraging? Some of you needed that today. Maybe you need to look back over that this week, I mean, how encouraging. You can be seated. Hey, Psalm 121 is called a song of ascent, and there are 15 songs of ascent in the book of Psalms, starting with Psalm 120. Going to Psalm 134, 15 songs of ascent in a row, and by the way, most of the book of Psalms are really songs that were written by David to be sung. Now you see Jerusalem, the holy city is perched high in the Judaean hills, with the highest point being Mount Zion, where the temple stood tall and three times a year pilgrims from all over Israel would travel to Jerusalem for the main Jewish festivals to worship God in the temple.
And as the people would climb the road into the city and then walk up the huge stone steps leading up to the temple, they would sing these songs of ascent as they would ascend. Now, if you didn't know that, you really wouldn't understand this song of ascent that we're looking at, Psalm 121. In fact, let's really break it down. Let's look at verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 121: "I lift up my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth".
You see, the temple was the place where God's presence dwelt, so when the pilgrims coming to Jerusalem sang these first two lines, they were saying we're lifting our eyes to see the mountain of God, because we're looking up for God's help. We've come to worship him and to look to him to meet our deepest needs. Because the temple was located at the highest point, travelers could look up and see the temple from a long way off. And if they ever weren't sure that they were going in the right direction, all they had to do was lift up their head and look up at the mountain of God and see the Temple of God's presence and it would direct them.
And there will be times in this life where you'll find yourself confused and uncertain about the future or unsure about the direction of your life. And when you come to that place, lift your eyes up. To the unmovable mountain of God and he will fill you with peace and direct your steps. And there are times in all of our lives where we lose our way. Just remember, when you lose your way, look up to God and he will make a way for you. Now David, who wrote this Psalm, was saying when I look around me and see all the chaos and confusion in the world, I stop and, I look up to the mountain of God and see that God, the maker of heaven and earth, is still seated securely on his heavenly throne.
God is still in control, even when things look like they're spinning out of control. You see, we lose our way when we look at the wrong things. We take our eyes off God when I constantly look at my news feed and I'm filled with stress because of all the chaos and all the bad things happening in the world. And there's so much uncertainty. Or when I fixate on the problems in my life that I can't fix, when I focus on the future that I can't control, when I focus on the past that I can't change.
When I focus on the wrong things and take my eyes off God, I always lose my way in life, I lose my joy, I lose my peace, I lose my sense of direction in life. But when I look up at our unshakeable, unchangeable God, I see that God is still seated on his throne. And God is still in control. I get a little perspective. When my kids were little, we wanted a beach vacation and we had just gotten settled in pretty good and I was still detoxing, you know how it is and I was still stressed out thinking about all things I didn't get done, all the problems that I had at work and and just feeling kind of stressed.
And my daughter Megan was about six years old at the time, and she was looking out over the ocean and she said, "Daddy, did you know the ocean is just like a puddle to God"? She was preaching. She still preaches to me at times about what I need to do but, I thought, wow, that's so wise. It just reminded me of how big and great God is and that, he's in control, I can trust him., I can relax and the universe isn't gonna fall apart, because I'm not the general manager of the universe, I'm not holding it up. And when you look up to God, everything comes into focus, you get perspective. You see that the maker of heaven and earth can make a way for you.
Now remember the direction you look, determines the direction of your life. And we see this many times in scripture. One example is when Moses and Israelites came to the Promised Land and Moses sent in 12 people to spy out the land and bring back a report and they came back and they all said, "It's amazing, it's beautiful, to is the land of milk and honey". But ten of the spies said, "But there's no way we can take it". Only Joshua and Caleb said, "We can do it with God's power". Now look at why they saw things so differently. You see, the ten saw it all one way, but Joshua and Caleb saw it the complete opposite.
So, look at it with me in Numbers chapter 13, Numbers 13 beginning with verse 30. It says, "Caleb calmed down the crowd and said let's go and take the land for I know that I know we can do it. But the other men replied, those people are much too strong for us and the people are like giants. They were so big that we felt the smallest grasshoppers". So ten of the spies looked at the enemy and they said, "These guys are giants. We felt like grasshoppers compared to them".
You see, those ten spies looked at life from a ground-level perspective and looking at the situation from the ground-level made the enemy look like giants and they felt like grasshoppers compared to those they were comparing themselves to. And they said, "There's no way, no way we can defeat these guys". But Joshua and Caleb, they looked at life from a God level perspective. They looked up at their giant God and they said, "There's no way we can lose. Because the maker of heaven and earth will make a way, he's too big. You know these guys aren't giants at all compared to God," but Joshua and Caleb were outvoted 10 to 2, because the people sided with the 10, and God made the Israelites wander in the desert for 40 years because they didn't look up to God.
Because they didn't look up to God, God directed them back into the desert, and 40 years later only Joshua and Caleb from that whole generation entered the Promised Land. The rest of them died out in the desert. Think about that for a moment, they were on the doorstep of their destiny, but they looked in the wrong direction and it determined the direction of their whole lives. They had a ground-level perspective and they felt like grasshoppers compared to those giants. But the prophet Isaiah gives us a true perspective, a God level perspective.
This is the truth, Isaiah 40:22: "He," God, "sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, then he blows on them and they wither and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff". Isaiah got a real vision of God, he had the true perspective. From God's perspective, even giants on earth are like little grasshoppers compared to his greatness and power.
You see, the ten looked at the giants and they said, "These guys are too big". They looked at the giants, then they looked at themselves, but they didn't look up to God. But Joshua and Caleb, they looked up to God and said, "Those giants are too big for us. They look way too big for us, but they're just grasshoppers compared to our great God". And when you look at life from a ground-level perspective, your problems look giant and you feel like a powerless grasshopper compared to them. But when you look up to God, you get a God level perspective. You go from saying, "No way" to "God will make a way. The maker of heaven and earth will make a way from me".
What does it really mean to look up to God. I'm saying, hey, look up to God, look up to God, but let's get real practical. What does that really mean for me to look up to God? Well, first I look up and pray for God to make a way. Many times in scripture, people physically looked up and prayed to symbolize they were spiritually looking up and depending on God. Even Jesus did this at times and John 17:1 it says, "After Jesus had finished speaking, he looked up toward heaven and he prayed". Jesus looked up to his Father in heaven to show everyone that he was looking to his Father for direction.
So in Psalm 121, when David says, "I lift up my eyes," he's saying, "When I need help, I pray to the God who can help me". This is so simple, yet so powerful. We need to look to the maker of heaven and earth by praying for God to make a way for there seems to be no way. So many Christians are what I call practical atheists. They believe in God, but they live their life as if God doesn't exist. They might as well be an atheist because they're always trying to make everything turn out right, or to do God's job, trying to hold up the universe. They're carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders when they could look up to their God and pray.
So are you asking God to meet your needs? are you asking God to make a way where there seems to be no way in your life? Are you praying for God to make a way? Let me give you a little challenge, a simple little challenge, that'll change your life. A challenge that I need, that you need. This week when you first wake up, pray for five minutes, just pray for five minutes talking to God about what you need. Asking God to make a way in some area of your life you need God to make a way in. Pick one or two things, the biggest things on your heart that you need God to come through for you. Maybe write them down and just for five minutes pray, just talk to God. Thank him that he wants to listen to you. Thank him that he answers prayers.
Just five minutes in the morning before you go out. Even just two minutes, pray and ask God to meet that need. He wants to make a way, but he's waiting for us to pray. And then right before you go to bed, pray five minutes, sometime in the evening, pray for five more minutes. And thank God for the day and ask God to forgive you for all the times you lost your temper and you messed up and you know, and pray about that same thing. Pray again and just give it over to God and say, "God, you're big enough to handle this. I give it to you. Now help me sleep so I don't worry about it".
Give it over to God. Will you do that with me this week? Let's do that every day this week and let's see what God does. He's just waiting to make a way. I want you to look at Isaiah again, because Isaiah had this unbelievable perspective on how amazing and how powerful God is. Isaiah chapter 44, beginning with verse 24. Look at it with me. "This is what the Lord says, your Redeemer who formed you in the womb. I am the Lord, the maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself". God says here, "I formed you in the womb". God say, "Remember I made you, the maker of heaven and earth made you".
There's no such thing as a self-made man or woman. God made us, God made us all and sometimes people walk around acting big and saying, "I made it myself. I made it on my own. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and I became a success in life because I did it". No, there's no such thing as a self-made man or woman. We're all God-made and we depend on God for everything, even our next breath. God's the one who gave you the ability to work. He gave you the opportunities you have. He determines the time, the number of years and the number of days that you'll live. He gives you your very next heartbeat. We depend on God for everything, we just forget about it so often.
And when you remember that you're just one of 8 billion people on this little blue ball in our enormous solar system, tucked away as little dot in our galaxy called the Milky Way, and there are at least 100 billion other galaxies, just like our Milky Way all throughout the infinite universe that God created, you get a little perspective. And then, people have the audacity to walk around acting like they're a big deal. It's like, "I'm important, I'm a big deal, I'm an influencer, I'm successful, I'm wealthy, I'm famous. I'm a really big deal". What? That's ridiculous. But here's the amazing thing, God is bigger and greater than we can fathom, and yet he cares about every detail of our lives. Isn't it amazing?
The Bible says he even has the hairs of our head numbered, which isn't very impressive to me, but there's a lot of other scriptures. There are a lot of other scriptures, like he counts every teardrop that we cry because he cares about every hurt. And he wants us to pray to him. He's waiting to meet our needs. Psalm 121 tells us to pray for direction when we're confused, to pray about every decision, to pray for protection, to pray for deliverance when we're at a dead end, to pray for God to make a way. And so the first thing I do is I've gotta pray for God to make a way. And then secondly, I've gotta look up and wait for God to make away.
In the Old Testament, there was a time when three enemy armies were prepared to attack the Israelites and godly King Jehoshaphat was just overwhelmed with fear. And you can't help but when your emotions get filled with fear because you feel overwhelmed. He didn't know what to do, but he made the right choice. He chose to look up, and in 2 Chronicles 20, verse 12, he prays: "For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you". I love that our eyes are on you. God, we're looking to you God. The King says, "We're overwhelmed. We don't know what to do, but we're looking up to you and we'll wait on you to show us what to do. And we'll wait on you to make a way for us because it's hopeless without. But we look to you our only hope".
And when we're waiting on God many times, we start trying to make a way our own way. We start looking to other things to meet our needs. You see so many times when I'm waiting on God, it's like, "God, you're not coming through, what's the problem"? I think I've gotta help God out. It's like, "God, I just prayed. It's been five minutes. What's your problem"? You know? But sometimes it's, "God I've been waiting months and it's not happening. What's going on here"? And it's at those times that I'm so tempted to try to do God's job, try to make a way my way, and it always backfires. You see, God's the maker of heaven and earth. He's the maker of all things, the problem is, instead of trusting the maker of all things, we start trusting in the things he's made.
Some people worship creation, they worship nature, they worship creation rather than the Creator. And God says, "I'm so glad you're impressed with what I've made. But I want you to know me. If you like what I made, you're gonna love me". It's really dangerous to take anything or anyone and put them first in your life in place of God. It puts them in the place of an idol. In Psalm 146:3, David says, "Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground, on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. He is the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them. He remains faithful forever".
Don't put all your trust in a human being because you'll be let down and you'll let others down. You see, God's the only one who's faithful and will never let you down and so we look to God. There's only one Savior, Jesus Christ. If you look to any human being as a Savior or any material possession as a Savior or any other thing as your Savior, you're gonna be let down. There's only one Savior, Jesus Christ. Now we're to turn to others and admit we need their prayers and encouragement. We need each other, that's why it's so important to be part of a church family because the Christian life is not lived alone, it's lived in community where you connect with each other, you encourage each other, you're there for each other when you're hurting, you pray for each other.
We need to admit we need others, we need, "Hey, would you pray for me? I'm really hurting here. Hey I need you to encourage me here, I'm kind of down". We need each other, but we're to put God first. We're to put all our hope in him, to keep looking to God, keep waiting on God to make a way because even when it looks like nothing is happening, God is already making a way. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean God's not working. I'm telling you, it's amazing, that God makes a way when we pray.
Look at this next verse, that David said in Psalm 21, really the next or two more verses in the chapter, the song of the ascent that we're studying. It says, "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". I love that, God never sleeps. He doesn't need to sleep. God never sleeps, he's always working for you, protecting you, directing you, keeping you from going the wrong direction. God never sleeps, so you can.
So you don't have to worry. God never rests, so you don't have to be restless, you can rest, you can sleep tonight. He rested on the 7th day after creation to show us that we need rest. And whenever we rest, it's an acknowledgement that he's God, I'm not. God wants us to work hard, he created work, but then we're to rest, take that day off, that Sabbath. And God never sleeps, so when you can't see him working, don't sleep on God. Just know he's working because God doesn't sleep because he's always working, making a way even if you don't see it. And so that brings me to the third thing. Look up and get ready for God to make a way. Expect God to make a way.
How do you get ready for God to make a way? How do you prepare for the blessing? Obedience, the Bible says obedience brings blessing. When you take a step of faith and obey what God says in his Word... and by the way, without faith it's impossible to please God. So it's our faith that activates God's blessings, it's that step of obedience. And so when you pray like the Bible says, for God to make a way, you do it before God makes a way. Usually we want God to make a way for us, and then we just pray, "Thank you, God". Usually we want God to make a way, then we'll obey. But God says, "No, you obey then I make a way and you see that my Word is trustworthy".
I keep thinking about Harriet Tubman. I love Harriet Tubman. She was born into slavery on a Maryland plantation in 1822. And her mother told her stories from the Bible when she was a little girl and that just took hold in her heart. And she developed a deep and real faith in God. And when she was 26, she learned that she was about to be sold away from her family. She didn't know what to do, but she realized she had to do something, so she made her escape from slavery, and she made her way somehow, all by herself, over 90 miles along the Underground Railroad, traveling at night to avoid slave catchers, and also so she could look up and follow the North Star. And she followed that North Star. She reached Pennsylvania and freedom.
Then she made an amazing decision, because over the next eight years, she risked her freedom by leading scores of slaves north to freedom. And during those trips she relied on God as her North Star to protect her and to guide her and everyone she led, miraculously made it to freedom. And she always gave the credit to God, saying, "It wasn't me, it was the Lord. I always told him I trust you. I don't know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me," and he always did. See, we have a North Star, Jesus Christ, and he will never fail you, he's always faithful. So stop looking down, stop looking around, stop looking ahead and look up to the maker of heaven and earth who wants to make a way for you.