I recently heard a sermon that turned things on their heads.  Steven Furtick was preaching all about #HarvestProblems.  Literally there were so many good points in his sermon that I couldn’t listen to it all in one day.  I love those kind; the kind where I have to sit back and digest before moving on.  One of the things I took away was this – It’s all a matter of perspective or context.

He told the story of when his then five-year-old son was listening to him say a line from his upcoming sermon.  “Shout til the walls fall down!”  The little boy was completely taken aback and quickly asked, “You don’t really want the walls to fall down, do you?”  Steven quickly realized that if the very walls of the house fell down, people might get hurt, they would lose their home and some of their stuff.  That would be bad.  He went on to say that if you turn it around, it is actually a good thing.  If he told us that there were walls, partitions, blocks between us and what God has for us to do, we would see it differently.  If we would worship and shout until those walls fell completely down, that would be a fabulous thing!

Another example he gave was  worship.  Sometimes today you hear people say, “I missed worship, but I made it for the sermon.”  His comment was that Paul told us in Romans 12:1 to give our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is our spiritual act of worship.  So basically our entire life is worship.  We cannot miss it.  Unless we aren’t doing what Paul told us to do.

And church itself.  Back when the disciples were around, there was no church building, no 501c3, no nothing.  They had to be who they were where they were and just take whatever came.  So this concept of “going to church” is kind of strange.  When are we not the church?  The church is who we are.  Who you are.  Who I am.

He even brought it down to tithing.  He said that if we look at it like a chore, or an obligation or even a sacrifice on our part, we will never do it.  However, if we look at it as if we GET to keep 90% of God’s money, now that’s a horse of a different color!  God blesses us with part of His treasuries.  After all, everything belongs to God in the first place.

My friend Wanda takes it even further.  We get that 90%, and then God promises to bless that 10% to be more than we can ever hold.  So the  ten percent becomes phenomenally more.  She would suggest that there are no limits on God’s provision and lavishing good gifts on His children. (Matthew 7:11; Luke 11:13)

So where have we lost our perspective?

Maybe it’s time we all started reading and studying.  Maybe it’s time we start praying for a huge dose of godly wisdom.  He tells us if we ask for wisdom He will give it to all without fail.  (James 1:5-8).

I for one want to see what God wants me to see.  Not walk around with blinders on.  Not see what everyone else sees.  Our culture, our common knowledge be thrown out the window.  In John 7:37-38 Jesus stands up at a banquet and yells.  Wow, Jesus standing up and yelling says this is important stuff.  This must be paid attention to.

³⁷ Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

He said to believe in Him AS THE SCRIPTURES SAID.  Really, as the scriptures say?  How do you know what that is if you haven’t studied and aren’t continuing to study?  As my grandpa used to say, “God doesn’t have any grandkids”.  This means we will all be accountable for our personal Jesus.  Who is your Jesus?  Does He measure up to what the scriptures say about Him?

The people at the banquet are confused.  They went around saying different things about Jesus.  Some said He was the Messiah.  Some said He was the prophet.  Some wanted to seize him.  (“⁴⁰ Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, “This certainly is the Prophet.” ⁴¹ Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? ⁴² Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” ⁴³ So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him. ⁴⁴ Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.”)

All of a sudden there were many different Jesus-es.  And in our culture today, there remain many different Jesus-es.  How does your Jesus measure up?

I challenge you today, right now, to pray and ask God for His wisdom.  To see with a spirit perspective into people, problems, situations and most importantly, into Jesus.  He makes all the difference.