Fighting to change your perspective!

Well, thanks so much for that email this morning Katie...that's so awesome...and really makes you think...here's the story for everyone else...

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live.They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"
"It was great, Dad."
"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.
"Oh yeah," said the son.
"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.
The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."
The boy's father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are."

Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.

Wow...how powerful is that...and how true!! Just this week I was reading a sermon God gave me months ago that I've been waiting for the right time to preach. I'd forgotten I had written it and found it and read it...then just today the opportunity has come up in which I will now get to preach it in about 2 weeks time. How awesome! My sermon is all about what we want in life and where we look for it! The 3 biggest things we want in life is
1. To feel important
2. To be happy
3. To live life to the full
Those are great things to want, but sometimes we really need to take a long hard look at where we are looking to find those things. What is our perspective? Have we lost our perspective?

The first thing we want is to feel important. How funny is it that we so often feel unimportant in the place we're in or in the position we're in. In 1 Corinthians it speaks about the parts of the body and how important each part is...how the ear cannot say to the eye, 'I'm not important cause I'm not an eye' We were never intended to have one big undimensional warped body part...all of our body parts serve their purpose...right down to our eyelashes...which seem insignificant and yet the protect our eyes. In the same way, have we lost our perspective a little by thinking that our seemingly 'small' role in the big scheme of things is not important?? 'I'm not building the Kingdom from here' ...why not?? Think about what it is that God's asked you to do. We have a lady in our church who does up the powerpoint every week. Very rarely do people take the time to say to her 'Hey, good job on power point this week!' She could take that and think, 'Stuff this...I'm not important and my role doesn't mean anything to the Kingdom of God so I'm not needed!' The truth is, she IS needed! Without her we wouldn't have PPT...without her we'd maybe go back to over head slides...or maybe someone else MIGHT find the time to do it amongst everything else they need to do...but by doing what she does, she not only keeps things up to date for us and gives us a great PPT presentation every week, but she makes things easier here in the office for us or whoever's preparing the meeting that week. Her role is important...it's her ministry!! Why do we look at what we're NOT doing instead of looking at what we COULD be doing...! God puts us where we are for a reason...and He happens to think we're important enough to be there!!

The second thing people want is to be happy...have you ever heard someone say, 'Happiness is a state of mind!' So if that's true then why do we look to find happiness in a few plastic notes and a few gold and silver coins?? Why do we believe that being thin and beautiful makes you happy? Driving the right car, owning the right house and furniture makes you happy...in Ecclesiastes 3:11-12 it says:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.

He has set eternity on our hearts...he believes that you are beautiful! When you get to heaven God won't be asking you how much money you earned or what clothes you wore or what car you drove or even the house you lived in...what He will want to know is 'What did you do with Jesus?' What will you say? ‘Well, I didn’t have time to think about that God, I was just trying to make as much money as I could and be as trendy as I could and as cool as I could and trying to find the right life partner so that I could be happy’…do you think God will understand that? Or do you think He’ll say ‘I was your life partner…your eternal life partner! I set eternity on your heart! What more did you want??!! What more could have made you happy??’

We have this unsurpassing joy and happiness in Jesus Christ. We need to look deeper and grab hold of it. Stop looking at what you don’t have and start looking at what you do have! Stop dwelling on the bumps in the road and start checking out the view! Decide to be happy! Think about what Christ has done and what He offers you and be happy because nothing could make you happier...truly!!

The third thing that people want is to live life to the full...and man, is the worlds perspective messed up here or WHAT?!?! How do you live life to the full? Well, you go out to as many parties as you can possibly get to for as many years as you can handle, drinking as much as you can, having multiple partners, living life dangerously. Taking risks! Trying drugs at least once to see what its like and to be able to say ‘I tried that’. That’s not a full life. That’s not what God had in mind. At some point you’re going to be forced to look deep into your life and you will realise how hollow your life has become. I know, I lived that life! I threw God away. Wanted nothing to do with Him. I smoked, I got drunk, I partied, I got involved with boys. Then, one day God broke through. He cried out to me and pleaded with me to reassess my life and take Him back! I looked at my life which I thought was full and realised that I’d taken everything out of it. I was an empty shell! All I’d been doing was digging a bigger hole! There was nothing left! I had to grab Gods hand otherwise I would have been lost forever.

God sent Jesus so that we might have life and have it to the fullest! In John 10:10 it says:

“The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”

God has said that He wants us to have a full life! He doesn’t want us to have empty meaningless lives! He wants us to live life and live it to the fullest! That’s nothing new. Living life to the full is not a new trendy concept! Its God’s concept! But we’ve misinterpreted it! We’ve tried to live life to the full without God in the picture! We just can’t do it!! We have to have God in our life! Without Him we are nothing!

Is it possible to live life to the full without compromising your standards? Is it possible to live life to the full without conforming to the world and its crazy notions of what you must do and have and be to live a happy life? Is it possible to live life to the full as an influencer and not as one easily influenced? The answer is YES! When you have a life with Christ your life is full! You just need to CHOOSE Him!!

Choose to change your perspective...choose to understand your importance in His Kingdom...choose to be happy...choose real life to the full!! Change your perspective!