A Matter of Perspective

Introduction

Open your Bible to Luke chapter 5.

Sometimes in preperation for my sermons there are things that either happen to me in life or a scripture that will completely come alive for me. In the last few months there were a few different occurings that I could say allowed me to gain perspective. Or I should say regain perspective.

I heard a wise man say once that life is simply a matter of perspective. You see the difference between the grouchy you and the faithfilled you, the emotionally unstable you and the consistent you is just a matter of perspective.

We are kind of in the middle swing of summer. Summer is supposed to be relaxation and enjoyment and it is supposed to be amazing. Most of us are agitated, overwhelmed, stressed out and just not having a good time. We have kind of lost our perspective.

What is perspective. Perspective is this ability, which I believe is from God, to put things in their proper place. What happens in our life is things that are not as big as they should be become so dominant and so big, we get fixated on them and they begin to determine our emotions and if I could say this they begin to determine our view of God.

Today I want to share with you this story in Luke chapter 5. (Tell story about reading the Bible with Lucy)

I believe that all of us have pretty busy lives or at least at some point we get busy and it becomes so easy to lose perspective. I believe we all struggle sometimes with putting things in perspective.

Perspective is remembering there is a God and you are not Him. You are not the Messiah for your family, or your future marriage, or your coworkers. You are not the Messiah of your own life. There is a Messiah and He lives and we are not Him. The government is on his shoulders. His burden is light. His yoke is easy, and we have the ability to cast it all on him.

How do we regain perspective?

Luke 5:17

Luke 5:17–26 NIV

One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

Where is the emphasis here? The emphasis is on the forgiveness of sins not the healing of paralysis. Looks Jesus is emphasizing this strong point here. Yes He has a passion for your healing but what is paramount here is forgiveness.

Forgiveness is far more important to Jesus than your physical healing.

Explain the emphasis.

v26 gives us some perspective let me tell you. I actually believe that can happen to us as well if we put the focus where the focus needs to be.

We are waiting for limbs to grow out or for people to rise up and walk before we say “I have seen remarkable things today”. I would like to suggest that if you accepted the forgiveness of Jesus every day of your life you can say “I have seen remarkable things today”.

Losing Perspective

If you are anything like me you have this tendancy to let your emotions get the best of you once in a while. Amen? You see the reason that I constantly needed to hear that life is a matter of perspective all the time is because I lost perspective all the time.

Explain yourself playing sports

Explain story of NBA player drafted

Recently I heard a story about a young man who entered the NBA draft. At one time they had predicted that he could be the number 1 or 2 pick, but on draft night he wasn’t picked until the last pick of the lottery. I remember

He could have lost perspective and lost one of the most memorable moments of his life. How many times do you get drafted to the NBA? Me 0.

Regaining Perspective

How do you regain your perspective when it is lost? It is really interesting everytime people go on a mission trip they always come back with a whole new perspective of how we live life here. But what if you don’t have time to go on a mission trip. How do you regain your perspective. I believe everyday there are moments or things that want to get blown completely out of proportion and in that moment can we say that I know how to put it in its place.

Look at our story today. I don’t know what it is like to be paralized, but Jesus does something very interesting. The man is let down by 4 very passionate friends. They want to see their friend walk. What does Jesus do? He looks at the man who can’t walk and he says “you are forgiven”.

Explain the friends possible reaction.

You see the reason Jesus heals him is so that they will see forgiveness. Your focus is so tangible it is so literal. But I have come for something so much greater than what you can see. I have come to deal with the greatest illness, sickness and plague in human history. I have come to forgive you of your sins.

Explain driving frustration

You are forgiven

I am about to tell you today that your perspective should change because you are forgiven. We treat forgiveness a lot like the children of Israel treated manna when they wondered the wilderness.

(Explain manna for the Israelites) Fastforward to John chapter 6 Jesus says that He is the manna. Often times we relate to Jesus and forgiveness the way that they related to manna. The miracle got mundane because it was always there.

I wonder if because we are looking for such tangible wonderful maricles we miss the one that is staring us in the face when we wake up in the morning.

John 6:29–32 NIV

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

Manna was just a picture, but Jesus is the true bread. He says I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and they shall never thirst. He isn’t saying you won’t want some french fries, he is referring to your soul being full. Let me tell you this can completely change your perspective on Monday morning.

About a year into the manna miracle the Israelites began to complain.

Numbers 11:4–6 NIV

The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

Explain our perspective on jobs and marriages.

God I know I am forgiven and I know that is enough, but those things on my prayer list you haven’t answered them in quite a while. What is going on with you God? It seems we get fixated way too strongly on the tangible things we need. God’s perspective is so much bigger then ours.

Outro

Explain getting to heaven one day.

What if we began thinking this way? How would that change the way that we walk out today or tomorrow.

Matthew 6:33 NIV

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

You know what steals our perspective? It is all these things. All these things on our minds. Your relationship to all these things is supposed to be different than any people group in the world.

If I have learned anything in this life is that people who are sour, mean, and ugly in your attitude are people who have their perspective set on the wrong things. Jesus says your perspective for these things needs to be through me.

What is the kingdom of God that we need to focus on?

Romans 14:17 NIV

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,

The power to put things in their proper place is to focus on the finished work of Jesus that makes you righteouss.