How would you feel if you were kidnapped, bound and held hostage by a mass murderer on the run? That’s exactly what happened to Ashley Smith in March of last year, when she was abducted by Brian Nichols after he had killed four people escaping the Atlanta courthouse where he was on trial for rape. Perhaps you remember her story making headlines. What did she think about it? She told reporters “I think God led him to my door.” She reportedly read to Nichols from “The Purpose Driven Life” and told him perhaps God’s Destiny for him was that he go to prison and share the Gospel with other inmates.
How’s that for a changed perspective? In the story we’re looking at today Paul calls on a man named Philemon to change his perspective about a runaway slave named Onesimus.
I believe that as Christians we all need to have a transformed perspective.
If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace. Romans 8:6 NLT
So how can we have a change in the way we look at things?
1. See God’s Hand in Circumstances
15Perhaps you could think of it this way: Onesimus ran away for a little while so you could have him back forever.
Paul asks Philemon to look at things in a different way, in a God centered way. To not see Onesimus’ departure as the result of a disobedient slave’s decision, but as the providence of God—Perhaps God let him run away so that He could come back as a Christians and not only a slave but a brother.
Paul is calling here for a sort of Godly optimism that recognizes that in all things God is working out his sovereign plan. Romans 8:28 tells us that in all things God is working for the good of those who love Him.
In spite of the fact that most of us here can quote that verse, all to often we approach the world with a sort of ungodly pessimism. You don’t think so? How often do you complain? I don’t mean about Gas prices or that they put onions on your burger at McDonalds. How often do you complain about substantive things? The circumstances of your life, the way things are going at work, about things in your church even? I don’t think you can complain about things if you have a healthy sense of providential optimism—a sense that God’s working out a plan.
Beyond that Phillipians 2:13-15 states it plainly: “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. 14Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe”
I have a theory that this is the most widely ignored passage in the Bible. Either that or we have simply all conviced ourselves that the complaining and arguing we do must not be the kind that the verse is talking about. But notice that the whole idea of recognizing that God is working out His purposes is directly linked to the command not to complain or argue—if we recognize God is in control in my life, God is in control in my home God is in control in my church, than we realize that ultimately the only one we’re arguing with and complaining about is God Himself—“God you’re doing a lousy job here.”
But if we get this command right, notice what it says about us—we are blameless and pure—this is the same thought James puts forth—if we could keep a leash on our tongues we’d be perfect. And if we could face the world without arguing and complaining we would shine like stars in a crooked and perverse world where everyone else is what? They’re arguing and complaining—if we would do what God asks and stop that we’d stick out like stars in the night sky.
How do we manage that? Only with a changed perspective, a perspective that looks for God’s hand in the circumstances of our lives.
2. See God’s Work in People
16a He is no longer just a slave; he is a beloved brother, especially to me.
For a people who have received so much mercy, we can be a pretty graceless bunch. We find it so much easier to criticize than to give the benefit of the doubt.
It always amazes me to hear of churches where Christians are critical when the church begins to bring in the lost—the very thing the church exists to do. I spoke not long ago with a pastor who when he was a youth pastor had found success in reaching out to the lost teens of his community and the good church people began to complain that they didn’t want that element in the youth group with their good Christian young people, so when the youth pastor was on vacation they sold the church bus so that he couldn’t bring them in anymore.
I’ve seen “church people” drive off new converts or those seeking the truth about Jesus by their snide comments or gossip or rudeness because they weren’t measuring up to their external standards of Christianity. So here’s someone who by God’s grace has given up partying and cursing and smoking driven out of the church by some super saint because they hadn’t also gotten a haircut and a shave. Paul said “who are you to judge another man’s servant?” We need to make room for God to grow people in His time and recognize the changes that He is working by His transforming power.
Jesus said a prophet is not without honor except in His hometown. It hink this highlights the fact that we have a hard time letting people grow in our minds, even as they are growing in the real world. Often I have seen people whom God is growing in miraculous ways but the people around them all the time won’t recognize that, because they are forever fixed in their minds as who they used to be.
Just before I came to Minier the church we began in Troy had a vacancy. Someone asked if I would be willing to go back there and I said , “Not unless God spoke in an audible voice.” Why? Because in the six years I had been gone I had learned and grown much as a pastor and a leader, but in the minds of those folks there, I would have still been the guy who came fresh out of school 9 years before.
If we are going to have the new perspective the Lord wants us to have, we need to be able to recognize God’s work in others.
3. See God’s Perfection in the Outcome
16b Now he will mean much more to you, both as a slave and as a brother in the Lord.
We need a perspective that through the eyes of faith sees that God has done and is doing wonderful things. Philemon needed to welcome back his runaway slave and give thanks to God that h had gained a brother.
We need to take a look back from time to time to take stock of what God has done through the circumstances that we didn’t understand at the time and see that truly God has had a better plan than our own.
Where is God’s Perfection?
In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning disabled children. Some children remain in Chush for their entire school career, while others can be mainstreamed into conventional schools.
At a Chush fund-raising dinner, the father of a Chush child delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.
After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he cried out, "Where is the perfection in my son Shaya? Everything God does is done with perfection. But my child cannot understand things as other children do. My child cannot remember facts and figures as other children do. Where is God’s perfection?"
The audience was shocked by the question, pained by the father’s anguish, stilled by the piercing query.
" I believe," the father answered, "that when God brings a child like this into the world, the perfection that he seeks is in the way people react to this child."
He then told the following story about his son Shaya:
One afternoon Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys Shaya knew were playing baseball.
Shaya asked, "Do you think they will let me play?"
Shaya’s father knew that his son was not at all athletic and that most boys would not want him on their team. But Shaya’s father understood that if his son was chosen to play it would give him a comfortable sense of belonging.
Shaya’s father approached one of the boys in the field and asked if Shaya could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said "We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning."
Shaya’s father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly. Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shaya’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shaya’s team scored again and now with two outs and the bases loaded with the potential winning run on base, Shaya was scheduled to be up. Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game? Surpassingly, Shaya was given the bat.
Everyone knew that it was all but impossible because Shaya didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, let alone hit with it. However as Shaya stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shaya should at least be able to make contact.
The first pitch came in and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya’s teammates came up to Shaya and together the held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya. As the pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung at the bat and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher.
The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game. Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman.
Everyone started yelling,"Shaya, run to first. Run to first." Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide-eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher’s intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman’s head. Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second." Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing short stop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base and shouted, "Run to third." As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, "Shaya run home."
Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit a "grand slam" and won the game for his team.
"That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "those 18 boys reached their level of God’s perfection." (verified on Truthorfiction.com)
It takes a change in perspective for boys to see that winning isn’t the most important thing, it takes a changed perspective for a father to see God’s perfection even in the handicaps of his child.
For our present troubles are quite small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NLT
