Made for More: 'Perspective'

The following is a message (abridged and edited) preached by Pastor Ryan Peterson (pictured above) at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., on July 20, 2014.  

“We look at the trash on people, when God looks at the treasure underneath.”

“For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7b ESV).

Jesus told his disciples to follow him. Jesus let children come to him. “Become as a child,” Jesus said.

Those who exalt themselves will be humbled. Jesus said, “The greatest is the servant.”

God looks at the heart. Luke 7:36-50 ESV, following:

One of the Pharisees asked him [Jesus] to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.

And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”

And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”

“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.”

And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”

 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet.  You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.  Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?”

And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (end of Scripture reading).

The Pharisees told about stuff to do, but they didn’t do a lot of it.

It’s all about your perspective.

In the Pharisee’s house, they reclined at the table. A woman came in and washed Jesus’ feet. Simon, the Pharisee said to himself (maybe even mumbling), “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”

Jesus hears hypocrisy and judgment a lot louder than a whisper. The Pharisee’s heart was exposed.

The woman was “of the city” (perhaps a prostitute). The Pharisee saw her as a sinner. We would hope to be Jesus in the story, but often we are not.

Jesus used “money” to tell Simon the Pharisee a story. The story is about forgiveness, not money.

Jesus asked Simon, “Do you see this woman?” Do you really see her, past the trash?

Simon the Pharisee had not been hospitable. (He had not washed Jesus’ feet when Jesus arrived.) Pharisees are deeply self-centered. Jesus, on the opposite end of the spectrum is selfless. Others saw the woman as a sinner. Jesus saw her as forgiven, because she had come to him.

“She has loved much,” Jesus said. Those who are forgiven little love little.

The Apostle Paul said this:

“But he [Jesus] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ [Because Jesus said that, Paul said] Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV).

Do we see the depth of our trash before God? Experience that and experience grace. Come to him; come to his feet, weeping. The depth of my weakness is the depth of God’s grace.

The Kingdom of God doesn’t operate the way the earth does. Do you see the trash in people, or do you start to see glimmers of treasure?

We like the ability, courage, and boldness to be transparent. What we truly desire is a perspective change. A change in perspective is good, if it’s “done under the Lord.”

Let me share with you the story of Arthur Stace [abridged from wesleymission.org]:

Arthur Malcolm Stace was born in 1884, in Balmain, just west of central Sydney. His mother and father, his two brothers and two sisters were alcoholics; his sisters, brothel operators.

Stace grew up in poverty, looking after himself and stealing as needed. At twelve he was made a ward of the state, but received no great education. At fourteen he found his first job, in a coalmine, and at fifteen he was in jail for the first of many visits.

In his twenties he lived in Surry Hills in Sydney's inner south, running liquor between pubs and brothels, connected with gambling and housebreaking, until the start of World War One. He served in France, returning partially blinded in one eye, and suffering the effects of poison gas. From then until the middle of the Great Depression he slid further down into alcoholism, until he was drinking methylated spirits at sixpence a bottle and living on handouts.

On August 6, 1930, he attended a meeting for men at "Barney’s," as St. Barnabas' Church on Broadway is generally known. Most were there, for the food, but there was a message first.

Noticing six tidily dressed people near the front (in marked contrast to the bulk of those attending), Stace asked the man sitting next to him, a well-known criminal: "Who are they?"

"I'd reckon they'd be Christians," the man replied.

Stace said: "Well look at them and look at us. I'm having a go at what they have got," -- and he slipped down on his knees and prayed.

Hardly a remarkable event, on the surface of it, but Stace found he was subsequently able to give up drinking. He said, "As I got back my self respect, people were more decent to me." And he was also able to find steady employment.

Some months later in the Burton Street Baptist Church in Darlinghurst, of which he was later a member for many years, he heard the Rev. John Ridley speak, or rather shout: "I wish I could shout ‘ETERNITY’ through all the streets of Sydney!"

Stace, recalling the day, said: "He repeated himself and kept shouting 'ETERNITY, ETERNITY' and his words were ringing through my brain as I left the church. Suddenly I began crying, and I felt a powerful call from the Lord to write ‘ETERNITY.’ I had a piece of chalk in my pocket and I bent down there and wrote it."

Stace, whose limited education had left him barely able to write his own name legibly, found that he could write “Eternity,” quite elegantly, two foot wide on the pavement.

He would get up in the early hours of the morning, and leave his home in Pyrmont at 5:00 or 5:30 a.m., after praying an hour or so. He would go where he believed God directed him and write every hundred meters or so on the pavement (sidewalk), as it seemed most visible: “Eternity.” And he'd be home by ten that morning.

He went all over: Wynyard, Glebe, Paddington, Randwick, Central Station. He was a very slight figure, 5'3", grey-haired. He experimented with variations at times, but in the end he finished as he had begun – writing “Eternity.”

Others claimed responsibility for the messages, for those messages were the object of prolonged, public curiosity, the subject of columnists' reviews and speculations. But Stace did not come forward. He saw his mission as evangelistic but didn't want publicity for himself; it was a thing between him and God.

It wasn't until 1956 that the puzzle was solved. Stace was the cleaner (janitor) and a prayer leader at the Burton Street Baptist Church, where the Rev. Lisle M. Thompson was the minister. Lisle one day saw Arthur writing “Eternity” on the pavement (sidewalk), not knowing he was being seen.

Thompson asked him: "Are you ‘Mr. Eternity’?"

Arthur replied, "Guilty, your honor."

When, on the 21 June 1956, the Sunday Telegraph published an interview with Arthur Stace, it was all out in the open. Arthur, though, continued as he always had, leaving his now slightly less enigmatic message all over the city just as before.

Stace died of a stroke on July 30, 1967, in a nursing home, aged 83, and left his body to Sydney University, so that the proceeds could be given to charity.

But "his word,” as one paper referred to it, “Eternity,” persisted in the public mind.

… Two years after he died, the Sydney poet Douglas Stewart published the following lines about the graffiti artist: 

"That shy mysterious poet Arthur Stace / Whose work was just one single mighty word / Walked in the utmost depths of time and space / And there his word was spoken and he heard / ETERNITY, ETERNITY, it banged him like a bell / Dulcet [“pleasing to the ear”] from heaven sounding, sombre [“gloomily dark”] from hell."

The police in Sydney confronted Stace 24 times about his writing “Eternity” on sidewalks. He came up with this statement to them: “I have permission from a higher source.” Some say he wrote over half a million times in Australia this word: “Eternity.” His writing gave people a change of perspective.

“What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops” (Matthew 10:27 ESV).

What you write [or say] may fade away, bit it may stay with people and change their perspectives.

(After Pastor Peterson's message, pieces of chalk were given out at the Grace Church Welcome Desk.)   

Do the Right Thing!

 

Pastor Randy Thornton, Grace Church Senior Pastor  

On Sunday, June 22, 2014, at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C., the church’s senior pastor, Randy Thornton, preached on “Do the Right Thing.” Here is an abridged, edited version of that sermon.  

“In those days [Old Testament time] there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25 ESV).

They followed their own moral compass. Many of us want the freedom to do what we want, when we want, and with whom we want. It all begins with these words: “I don’t want to be told what to do.”

James 4:1 (NIV): “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something, but you don't get it. You kill and you covet, but you can't have what you want. You quarrel and you fight. But you have not because you don't ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” 

We have added, “as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.”

There is a Las Vegas advertisement slogan that goes like this: “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

That’s not true.

When women have gained rights they have had to fight for them. When men throughout history have done what they thought was right in their own eyes, women became “objects, possessions.” When men do what is right in their own eyes, women always suffer. You can’t do what’s right in your own eyes without eventually hurting someone.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 16:25).

Eventually you hurt “you,” and, eventually, the thing you started in order to give you freedom is the thing that soon masters and controls your life. Your choice to do what you want doesn't work for people on the other side of the coin; judges, social workers, and teachers have to deal with the consequences of people’s actions.

“He who tries to conceal his sins cannot prosper, but he who admits them, confesses them, forsakes them will have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).

People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry with the Lord (Proverbs 19:3).

What relationship do you have that needs to be severed?

“Do not be misled: bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33).

“He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm” (Proverbs 13:20).

Some of us have unhealthy relationships that are hurting us: Facebook, wrong friends, business partners, buddies, dating relationships. Some of us need to make a break from the world.

The thing that has mastered you started as an expression of your “freedom” when you said, “I want to do what I want, when I want, with whom I want, and I don’t want to be told what to do.”

Your choice to do what you want “hurts.” It hurts you; it hurts those around you; it hurts those who love you; it hurts those who follow after you.

What if you were given 30 days to live? We’re all going to die, someday.

“Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

The truth is – it could happen at any time.

“LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath” (Psalm 39:4-5 NLT).

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24).

All of us have lost loved ones – old and young. We all wish we could have one more conversation . . . one more hug . . . tell them, “I love you.” I know that once we stand before God, we’re going to see how important relationships are to Him. How do we make relationships right? What adjustments should we make now?

We should ask these questions.  

1. What relationship needs to be initiated?

Some of you need a relationship with God, a relationship that doesn’t exist yet, but you need it. I’m not talking about a relationship with a church or religion. You need a relationship with God. Others of you need people in your life.

“Let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25 NLT).

Some of you need to get involved in a small group. We call them Life Groups.

2. What relationship needs to be nurtured?

“Serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:13-15).

What relationship needs to be nurtured? Is it with God? Does it involve your marriage? Do you need to rekindle your love with a family member whom you haven’t talked with for a while? . . . with your children?

“[God] will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse” (Malachi 4:6).

What do you need to do?

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil . . . If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:17-18).

It’s critical that we walk in forgiveness.

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12 KJV).

Forgive the person or people for the specific things they did.

Here are three secrets to forgiveness:

Forgive selfishly. I know that sounds strange, but the main reason we should forgive is that we need it so badly ourselves. When you forgive, you’re letting the offender off the hook . . . and you’re letting yourself off, too!

“Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13).

How much has God forgiven you of? We really don’t have the right to hold anything against anyone, if we want to receive forgiveness from God.

Forgive freely.

“Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’” (Luke 23:34).

Just say what you need to say. Don’t analyze it; don’t try to make sense of it; look past it; and forgive people. Rip up the IOUs you have held over them—set them free from ever owing you anything.

Forgive repeatedly.

“Peter asked, ‘Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?’ ‘No.’ Jesus replied, ‘seventy times seven!’” (Matthew 18:21-22 NLT).

Break the instant replay button-quit rehearsing and reliving the situation.

Today we’re asking ourselves . . . What relationship needs to be initiated? What relationship needs to be nurtured? What relationship needs to be restored?

Again . . . Forgive repeatedly.

Choose to release any negative expectations regarding a person or situations involved. (This is where judgments “over” a person need to be released.)

Ask God to help you change your heart toward the person. Ask God to give you His view of that person.

WOW! It starts with "Lord, I choose to forgive; help me to forgive FULLY!" In doing this, we release ourselves from them and release them from us. Just say what you need to say.