"Keeping Life In Perspective"

Fact #1, Man is a creature...

Genesis 1:26 HCSB

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

Genesis 1:27 HCSB

So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.

Genesis 1:28 HCSB

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

Genesis 1:29 HCSB

God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This food will be for you,

Genesis 1:30 HCSB

for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth—everything having the breath of life in it. I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Genesis 1:31 HCSB

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.

Hard fact #2, People are temporary

Psalm 49:10 NEB

But remember this: wise men must die; stupid men, brutish men, all perish.

Psalm 49:11 NEB

The grave is their eternal home, their dwelling for all time to come; they may give their own names to estates, but they must leave their riches to others.

Psalm 49:12 NEB

For men are like oxen whose life cannot last, they are like cattle whose time is short.

The Psalmist isn’t done...

Psalm 103:15–16 NEB

Man’s days are like the grass; he blossoms like the flowers of the field: a wind passes over them, and they cease to be, and their place knows them no more.

Harder fact #3, life is pretty grim.

Romans 1:18 HCSB

For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,

Romans 1:19 HCSB

since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.

Romans 1:20 HCSB

For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

Romans 1:21 HCSB

For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened.

Romans 1:22 HCSB

Claiming to be wise, they became fools

Romans 1:23 HCSB

and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

That’s just the beginning, it gets worse from there.

For Jesus followers…just keeping life in perspective...

2 Corinthians 5:1 HCSB

For we know that if our temporary, earthly dwelling is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands.

2 Corinthians 5:2 HCSB

Indeed, we groan in this body, desiring to put on our dwelling from heaven,

2 Corinthians 5:3 HCSB

since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.

2 Corinthians 5:4 HCSB

Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

2 Corinthians 5:5 HCSB

And the One who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.

2 Corinthians 5:6 HCSB

So, we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:7 HCSB

For we walk by faith, not by sight,

2 Corinthians 5:8 HCSB

and we are confident and satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:9 HCSB

Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him.

2 Corinthians 5:10 HCSB

For we must all appear before the tribunal of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or worthless.

2 Corinthians 5:11 HCSB

Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, we seek to persuade people. We are completely open before God, and I hope we are completely open to your consciences as well.

2 Corinthians 5:12 HCSB

We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in the outward appearance rather than in the heart.

2 Corinthians 5:13 HCSB

For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we have a sound mind, it is for you.

2 Corinthians 5:14 HCSB

For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then all died.

2 Corinthians 5:15 HCSB

And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died for them and was raised.

Perspective...

It changes things, doesn’t it?

Why?

Matthew 9:36 NRSV

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Perspective, because of Jesus…the Ministry of Reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5:16 HCSB

From now on, then, we do not know anyone in a purely human way. Even if we have known Christ in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know Him in this way.

2 Corinthians 5:17 HCSB

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.

2 Corinthians 5:18 HCSB

Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

2 Corinthians 5:19 HCSB

That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

2 Corinthians 5:20 HCSB

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 HCSB

He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Jesus alongside.