What God hides for you is worth more than what you see

Introduction

Elder Junias ANANE preaches here the third part of a series on perspective: where God hides his glory, his deliverance, his power. He starts from a very simple conviction, drawn from Proverbs 25:2: "It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out." In other words, what you see of a situation is never everything that is actually there. God has hidden a treasure in it, and he invites you to search for it instead of running away. The title of the sermon sums it up in one line: you are more than what people see, and what God is preparing for you is worth more than what your eyes perceive today.

The thread running through the message weaves together several texts: Numbers 13-14 (Caleb and the ten spies), Judges 14 (Samson, the lion, and the honey), 2 Corinthians 12:9 (the power of God hidden in weakness), and Romans 12:2 (the renewing of the mind). On this biblical framework, Elder Junias contrasts two mindsets: that of the slave, who fixates on the problem and sees himself as prey, and that of the king, who searches out what God has hidden and refuses to be paralyzed. The core question, repeated throughout the sermon, is simple: when you look at your lion, what do you see?

Outline of the message

1. The glory of God is to conceal, the glory of kings is to search out

Proverbs 25:2 sets the key for the whole sermon: God, in his glory, hides things, we, in our dignity as redeemed kings, are called to search them out. The treasure is there, it is simply not exposed at first glance.
Elder Junias insists: Christ died to make us kings and priests. Being a king is not just a position on a throne, it is a renewed mindset. The throne stays empty as long as the way of seeing has not changed.
In previous parts of the series, he showed where God hides his glory, his deliverance, his power. That Sunday, he adds: God also hides the best of you, often in the worst moments of your life.
This does not mean the problem does not exist. It does. But the eye of the king refuses to be absorbed by the problem, it searches for the treasure that God has buried in it.

2. Slave mindset versus king mindset

The elder described the slave mindset the previous Sunday: it fixates on how complex the problem is, it amplifies the danger, it talks a lot, and it sees itself as prey. Proverbs 22 and 26 give the image of the lazy man who sees lions everywhere and already sees himself devoured.
The king mindset, on the other hand, focuses on the treasure God has hidden in the problem. It does not deny the difficulty, it refuses to be paralyzed by it.
"The problem is not the problem," Junias repeats. Two people can go through the exact same situation: one comes out of it destroyed, the other comes out of it stronger. What makes the difference is not the situation, it is the way you perceive it.
In every trial, then, the same question comes back to each of us: what do you see?

3. Caleb: a different spirit, a different way of seeing (Numbers 13-14)

Twelve spies set out to explore Canaan. Ten come back exaggerating the giants, describing themselves as crushable grasshoppers (Numbers 13:32-33). Caleb and Joshua, on the other hand, come back talking about milk and honey.
Numbers 14:24 holds the key: "Because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring him into the land… and his descendants shall possess it." It was not a different land that was promised to Caleb, it was a different spirit that was given to him.
Caleb also saw the giants. At first glance, he did not see milk flowing or honey dripping from the trees. But the eyes of faith made him understand that the treasure was there, hidden, waiting to be searched out.
For your descendants to possess the land, you yourself need to be animated by a different spirit. The blessing does not skip a generation of perspective, it passes through yours.

4. Samson: looking at the lion, seeing the honey (Judges 14)

Samson faces a young lion on the road to Timnah. Seized by the Spirit of the Lord, he tears it apart. Later, retracing his steps, he finds a swarm of bees and honey inside the carcass. He eats some, and gives some to his father and mother.
Then he poses his riddle to the Philistines: "Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet." For seven days, the wise men cannot find the answer. "Inside the one who devours, there is a treasure."
Samson, Elder Junias says, was looking at the lion but seeing the honey. That is the king mindset applied to an obstacle: "In the face of what you are going through, do not run away. Samson did not run away. He confronted it, with the power of the Holy Spirit, and the treasure came out."
Your obstacle is a disguised miracle. Do not run from your lion, there is abundant honey inside it, enough for you, for your father, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters.

5. The power of God hidden in your weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Where did God hide his power? In our weakness. That is the answer Paul receives from the Lord: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Your weakness, then, is not a dead end. It is the button that triggers the power of God. Your limits, your inabilities, your areas of insufficiency, that is exactly where God has stored the treasure.
"I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me," says Paul. The king mindset does not hide weaknesses, it presents them to God so that they become the place where his glory is displayed.

6. Renewing the mind to see the way God sees (Romans 12:2)

Romans 12:2 is the engine behind this change in perspective: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
Paul is writing to children of God, not to pagans. You can be saved, converted, and still remain untransformed in the way you think. God wants to go further: circumcise your heart, yes, but also renew your mindset.
This requires giving Christ your heart, your mind, your thoughts, and even your eyes. "Your eye is the lamp of your body" (Luke 11:34): it is through the eye of faith that one sees deliverance, as Moses did, it is through the eye of faith that one sees the honey, as Samson did.
Two people can look at the same lion: one sees his own death, the other sees the honey that is about to come out. The difference is not in the event, it is in the renewed mind.

7. The best of you is hidden in your worst moments

"God has hidden the best of you in the worst moments of your life." The statement is bare, with no wrapping. It applies to marriage, to calling, to health, to finances.
Today, Junias says, we consume relationships like fast food: we love the easy moments, we run the moment things get hard. Yet it is precisely in difficult moments that the best of you as a spouse, as a son, as a daughter, as a brother, as a sister, needs to be revealed.
The principle runs through the whole Bible: it is in a desert, in a prison, in a furnace, in a pit, in a storm, that the best of God's servants was revealed. Not in spite of the trials, but through them.
The conclusion is a reversal of perspective: what you are going through, if you look at it with the eye of a king, already contains the treasure that God is preparing for you and for your descendants.

Key takeaways

The glory of God is to conceal things, yours, as someone redeemed, is to search them out (Proverbs 25:2). What you see never exhausts what God has placed in a situation.
Two mindsets stand opposed: the slave amplifies the problem and sees himself as prey, the king searches for the hidden treasure and refuses to be paralyzed. It is not the situation that makes the difference, it is your perspective.
Caleb inherited the land "because he was animated by a different spirit" (Numbers 14:24). He did not see anything different from the other ten, he saw it differently, and that was enough to change his destiny and that of his descendants.
Your obstacle is a disguised miracle. Samson did not run from his lion, he confronted it by the Spirit, and he drew honey from it for his whole household. Do not run from your lion.
The power of God is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Your area of insufficiency is not a shame to hide, it is the place where God has deposited his glory.

Personal application

Facing the heaviest situation you are carrying right now, what do you really see? The lion, or the honey God has hidden in the lion? Take the time to write down both, and notice which one takes up more space in your mind.
In what area of your life are you still operating with a slave mindset, the one that amplifies the problem and makes you see yourself as prey? Name it before God and ask to be "animated by a different spirit" like Caleb.
What weakness are you trying to hide from God, from yourself, from others? What if that was exactly where God has hidden his power for you (2 Corinthians 12:9)?
In your family, your marriage, your work, your service at church, where are you tempted to run because "it has become hard"? What would choosing to stay, to face it, to wait for the honey, look like?
Take ten minutes this week to slowly reread Romans 12:2. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you one specific thought to renew, one specific way of seeing to change, starting today.

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does "having the mindset of a king" mean according to this message?

It is not about claiming a status or acting powerful. It is about adopting a way of seeing: refusing to be absorbed by the problem in order to search for the treasure God has hidden in it. Elder Junias grounds this in Proverbs 25:2 ("the glory of kings is to search things out") and in the fact that Christ made us "kings and priests." The king mindset, then, is the renewed perspective of Romans 12:2 applied to your concrete situation: you see the lion, but you search for the honey.

Does "seeing the hidden treasure" mean denying the reality of the trial?

No. The sermon insists: searching for the treasure does not make the problem disappear. Caleb clearly saw the giants, he did not deny them. He simply refused to be reduced to them. The king mindset does not downplay suffering, it refuses to stop there, because it knows, by faith, that God has placed something in the situation beyond what the natural eye perceives.

How does this message connect to 2 Corinthians 4:18 on the invisible being eternal?

The whole sermon revolves around a principle Paul states elsewhere: "We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18). The treasure God hides in your lion, in your weakness, in your worst season, belongs to that unseen and lasting order. The lion is visible and temporary, the honey God draws from it feeds a whole household and leaves a mark on the next generation. You are more than what people see, because God is working on what lasts.

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