The Christian’s Perspective

He called the number and the man told him that he had to see the dog in action before he would pay that much. The next morning they met and went hunting. The dog flushed two birds from a clump of bushes, and when they fell into the water, the dog walked on top of the water, grabbed the birds, and walked back on top of the water and brought the two birds to the hunters. The man was amazed, and bought the dog on the spot.

The next day he persuaded his brother to go hunting with him. They flushed a couple of birds out of the bushes and the dog again walked on top of the water, retrieved the birds, and walked back to their boat on top of the water.

He asked his brother what he thought of the dog and the brother replied, "You paid $2500.00 for a dog that can not swim!"

In life we see things from different perspectives.

Illus: A certain king had two sons.

• To the first he said, "I want you to travel for six months through my kingdom and bring back a sample of every weed you can find." He left to carry out this command.

• To the second son the king said, "I want you to travel through my kingdom for six months and bring back a sample of every flower you can find." He left to carry out this command.

Six months later, both sons returned and stood before the king.

• To the first son, the king asked, "Have you carried out my command?" The first son answered, “I have, and I was amazed to find there were so many weeds in the kingdom. In fact, there is nothing but weeds in this kingdom!"

• To the king's second son, he said, “Have you carried out my command?” And the second son said, "Yes, I have, and I am amazed how many beautiful flowers there are in the kingdom. In fact, there is nothing but beautiful flowers in this kingdom!"

These two sons lived in the same kingdom but each found what they were looking for.

People truly see things from different perspectives. It is simply amazing that folks can attend the same church, and:

• Some think of their church as the greatest church on the face of the earth, and they prayerfully support It in every way they know how.

• Some are always complaining about certain things in the church almost on a daily basis.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE? The difference is that people see everything from their own perspective. For example:

• Some folks are always looking for the best

• Some folks are always looking for the worst

The difference in people can be seen in their perspective.

Our perspective, or how we look at things, is generally the deciding factor in whether we achieve success or not.

For example, there is a man in the Bible whose name was David, the son of Jesse, and he had the right perspective.

1 Samuel 17 tells the true story of David and Goliath. We see that it was because:

• David had the RIGHT PERSPECTIVE that he beat this giant in his life

• The Israeli army had the WRONG PERSPECTIVE that they could not defeat this giant in their life

Let’s look at what made the difference in their perspectives. We have to consider -

I. THE FEAR FACTOR

Vs. 11, “When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were DISMAYED, AND GREATLY AFRAID.”

Why is it that when we face the giants in our life, the first thing we want to do is run from these giants? Look at verse 24. We read, “And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man,(Goliath) fled from him, and were sore afraid.”

Saul and the rest of Israels army were terrified.

DID YOU KNOW THAT FEAR CAN RENDER US HELPLESS?

Illus: Dr. Odell Belger was in Hendersonville, North Carolina, with a youth group from his church. The youth were at the Pisgah National Park. They were at that particular place in the park known as “Sliding Rock”. The rock is about 70 to 80 feet long with cold water sliding over the rock that makes it possible for the teenagers to slide down the rock into a pool at the bottom. But this particular day the water was a cold, 45 degrees. Dr. Belger was at the bottom watching the young people slide, when a middle age woman decided she would slide down. She was large in size, and when she came down she came down fast, and when she hit that pool at the bottom she made a big splash. But when she came up, the life guard almost had to jump in and help her because fear was all over her face, and she looked like she was about to have a heart attack. She was so fearful, she was totally confused as to which way to swim to get out.