Sermon Tone Analysis

*Point of View*

Last week in discussing relationships we brought up the possibility that maybe some of us are putting the cart before the horse.

We suggested that it might be possible that some of us are not ready for a relationship yet.

And the reason your prayers and your desire in your heart aren’t being answered is not that God thinks you should be alone, but rather he is trying to keep your from disaster.

We suggested that some of you are baby Christians and what makes a baby a baby is not only that it is completely dependent upon his father, but also that babies have an inability to discern what’s right or wrong.

When we have no sense of being centered in the Lord we tend not to rely on scripture or prayer, but rather begin to interpret or not interpret the word of God based on our own desires.

In other word we take God along for the ride.

In this sense we only know what is pleasing to ourselves and therefore show we have a lack of knowledge concerning his word.

So how do we begin to take step in our lives to please God?

I believe pleasing God starts from being centered, having a perspective, or a divine point of view.

Having a point of view simply means to have *purpose with a range of vision*.

When we have a standpoint from which we come from it becomes more than something from which we just “believe,” rather it becomes a foundation in which we see the world, how we base our decisions, it guides our steps because it guides our heart and mind.

A point of view maybe to some an opinion, but I am not talking about just an opinion I am talking about the type of perspective that is life changing and life altering,  Perspective that changes the course of ones life by changing its destination.

My uncle owned a boat and before he would set course for sea he would examine the boat to make sure it was ready for the sea.

He new that if we spent enough time in the sea that the wind, the weather, the storms, and the waves would beat on the ship and unless the everything was perfect on the ship it would never make it to it’s destination.

So one clear day we set sail and for a few hours the sun was out and you could see for miles ahead.

Everything seemed fine and we just coasted along until the weather changed, the storms set in and the waves began to beat on the boat.

All the sudden we had to really use the equipment of the boat.

As all these things came against us it began to try to change our direction, to throw us off course so immediately we took the wheel of the boat and tried to maintain our course.

However, as the storm and waves beat against the boat and we tried to fight it, our rudder broke and put us at the mercy of the conditions of the sea.

Hours and hours passed until the storm finally calmed down and when we sort of came to we realized we were thousands of miles off course and had no hope of ever reaching our destination.

Unfortunately there is a large segment of our churches and supposed Christians just like this analogy sort of lost at sea.

When I talk about perspective or point of view I compare it to the rudder on this boat.

Without out the proper perspective you may sail along all cozy for a while and everything may look alright but when the storm hits you will not be able to keep your destination.

The fact is that although our lives might seem in perfect condition like the boat in this story, the truth is our hearts are broke.

Our rudder doesn’t have the proper perspective, and if our hearts have the wrong point of view then ultimately our destinations will be off course.

Moreover, we will be at the mercy of the conditions of the sea.

So we have to ask ourselves how we gain proper perspective or the correct point of view in order to reach the proper destination.

Now I love our definition of point of view.

Remember, we said it is *purpose with a range of vision.*

The word “range” insinuates distance which is perfect for our definition.

We are saying that the vision or perspective God has for our lives is not focused on right here and now, but is focused on eternity which in turn will be the rudder for here and now.

So we see that our point of view, our center if you will, and our perspective is key to learning how we please God.

 

*2 Cor 4:1-2*

Therefore, since through God’s mercy *we have* this ministry, /we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, and we do not distort the word of God.

On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

/

 

I want everyone to consider for one second on how you came to the Lord.

Just as Paul states in this passage we all have come to God by God’s mercy and a statement or profession of faith.

Paul states that it was because of this mercy that God gave him his ministry.

In other words, the mercy of God set Paul on a different path, it changed his course, and it gave him a new purpose, a new destination, and a new point of view.

This is what is called the fruit of repentance.

Remember John the Baptist when he was screaming at the Pharisee’s early in his ministry.

*Matthew 3:8*

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

The term fruit here in this scripture is not talking about a apple or banana, the term fruit here in the Greek is καρπός (/karpos/), which means result or profit.

So when John the Baptist screams produce fruit in keeping with repentance he is saying in essence show the profit of your salvation, show me the results of being saved.

John the Baptist spoke of it this way, but James chose to say it this way.

*James 2:14*

14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?

Can such faith save him?

When you go to school the fruit of your learning is the result of your diploma.

How we know you have had an education is by that diploma, it is the fruit of all the work you put into school.

In the same way Jesus expects us to bear fruit in keeping with repentance*.

I can not emphasize the importance of how all of us need to understand this concept of bearing fruit with repentance and its importance, because it is how we honor and bring glory to God in our lives.*

If we were to look at tree and see fruit we would have to concede the idea that there was a source from which the tree itself received its power to bear fruit.

In the same way there had to be a source in Paul’s life that changed him from being a zealot that wished to kill Christians for the sake of the law to becoming an apostle of Jesus himself.

Now it’s simple to state that Jesus is that source, but the source itself insinuates power and that what makes Paul and the disciples different from everyone else.

Though Paul and disciples claimed to know God it was more then a claim, and though they professed Jesus Christ as God it was more then a profession.

So what was this salvation they carried with them and what was this new point of view.

What they received in salvation was a touch of heaven of a piece of eternity so much so in fact that it not only stayed with them, it changed there point of view, but it not only changed there point of view, it became there point of view.

Take Peter who was a fisherman.

I emphasis *was* because when he truly met the lord he no longer became associated with fishing, but being a disciple and an apostle of Jesus.

Something changed inside of him, a new perspective, a new point of view and a new purpose.

Peter had a new source of power and strength.

Notice that in these two examples, both Peter and Paul went from chasing the cares of this world to forsaking everything in this world for the sake of the kingdom.

Again there perspective changed in such a way that what ever was happening here and now was not effected because they had a sense of eternity in there hearts they carried with them.

Looking back to our scripture in 2 Cor 4:

 

*2 Cor 4*

Therefore, since through God’s mercy *we have* this ministry, *we do not lose heart*.

2 Rather, *we have renounced secret and shameful ways*; *we do not use deception*, and *we do not distort the word of God*.

On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

You can see that Paul says we don’t lose heart, we renounced secret and shameful ways, we don’t use deception, we don’t distort the word of God.

We have to ask ourselves why not.

If lying, stealing, sexual immorality, homosexuality, gossiping, drunkenness and debauchery were ok then why is it condemned in the writings of the apostles and the apostolic fathers.

There is nowhere in any ligitetmently accepted writing where such things are accepted by the church.

While these are the extremes of this world how many do we know carried away by these extremes, who live and work every week for the weekend.

How many in this room are just tied to the mundane things in this world so much so it becomes our focus.

The point I am making is the emphasis we put on our desires and needs of this world not realizing that if you have been born again and saved you carry eternity within you.

And the piece of eternity should be the center of our focus.

This eternity should be our point of view.

Paul states: 

2 Corinthians 3:1

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again?

Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 *You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.

3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.*

Paul tells them that they are the fruits of his ministry that they are not bound by that which is from the world, in this case the law, but that which is in their hearts is the Spirit of the Living God.   *Meaning eternity!*

Moreover, in this passage of scripture Paul looks to them as evidence of him producing fruit for the kingdom.

He is bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.

Do you begin to see the eternal perspective Paul is carrying with him.

Nothing of this world has life in it unless God himself breathes life into it.

Even the Law though it was given in a glorious way, could not bring glory to God and man.

The laws did no more than condemn man and could not save him.

The law itself contained the Spirit of God, but that Spirit could not be placed in the heart of man because the law itself was written on stone.

The stone is a substance that had no body, mind or soul, and though the spirit of it was alive the work of it brought death showing us our sin and leaving us condemned in that sin before God.

However, the work of Christ reconciles us to the principle of the Law and to the Father in light of our sin.

Because Christ became what killed us and put the Spirit of God not in a stone but in our hearts so that we live not for ourselves or the desires of this world but for God!

 

*2 Corinthians 5:1*

Now we know that if the *earthly tent we live in is destroyed*, *we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven*, not built by human hands.

Therefore our perspective doesn’t come from something dying every day like this earthly tent and its desires, but from something eternal and everlasting.

Jesus took that which was stone and turned into a temple for God.