Getting God’s Viewpoint - Part 2

Let's say, for example, that you suffer some disease or some circumstance. Let's say that you're in one of those situations emotionally with someone. I mean, it's just a mess every day. I mean, it's trying, it's difficult, it's painful, it's hard, you're criticized, you're rejected, whatever it may be.

You want to be able to do anything and everything God sends you away. He says, look, you look at it against the background of eternity. That 24-hour period, some crisis develops, you know, it's a lifetime. Sometimes 10 years is forever. Sometimes 20 years is an eternity, past, an eternity, future. It is forever either way you look at it. But God says, wait a minute, here's how you'd look at it. You'd look at it against the background of God's eternity for our momentary affliction.

Now, we're not talking about somebody who had a toothache once in a while. If you read the fourth chapter, 1 Corinthians, the 11th chapter, 2 Corinthians, and you have a biographical sketch of nothing but pain, suffering, hardship, persecution, and all the rest of the life of the apostle Paul, what is he saying? He is rejoicing and talking about he's a winner. He always triumphs. He is victorious. And everywhere you turn, he's doing nothing but facing suffering, even unto death, stoned at Lystra and left for dead. And here he is rejoicing.

Why? He has God's viewpoint. He's seeing these things as they are stretched out against the background of eternity, and they only are momentary against the background of eternity.

Listen to what he says. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. Now, what in the world does he mean when he says light affliction?

All right, jot this down. If we want God's viewpoint, we must weigh every hardship and trial against the backdrop of the cross. If we want it from God's viewpoint, we must weigh every hardship and every trial against the backdrop of the cross.

Now, think about this for a moment. He says, picture your Lord Jesus on the cross. They put a spike in this hand right through his tendons, lead us right through the vessels. They drove a spike in that side nailing both hands there.

They drove a spike right through his feet. They jammed that crown of thorns on his brow, bleeding the blood dropping into his eyes and down his chest, down his body, dripping from his hands, from his feet. Finally, while he was hanging there, every single breath was a... Every single breath was a trial.

Every breath could be the last breath. Topped upon all of that was the jeering and the criticism and the rejection and the hostility and the anger and the vengeance of a crowd of people whom he loved unconditionally, the crowd of people whom he came to save, redeem, sanctify, and make a home in heaven for them, all of the emotional turmoil. And in those moments, suffering worst of all, the feelings of being separated and deserted by his own heavenly Father. I want to ask you, my friend, when did you ever suffer anything so intensely painful as that?

Never. Then how could Paul say, our momentary light, reflection. Whenever I look at my heartaches, my burdens, my sorrows, my tribulations, my trials, my persecutions, my hurts, against the background of this, it's always very, very light. And you see, it's getting God's viewpoint that makes it possible for you to walk through some deep, dark valleys when everything around you is hostile toward you with perfect assurance, triumphant confidence as a winner, victoriously, because you know God is in absolute control. Next thing I want you to jot down, verse 17, our momentary light affliction is producing for whom?

For us, not for God, though God has glorified him. He says these momentary light afflictions which seem to string out over a long period of time for us and seem to be so heavy, so unbearable at times. He says they are producing for us something.

Now, jot this down. If we would have God's viewpoint, we must view all our hurts and persecutions as working in our behalf. He says, how can it work in our behalf? Listen to what he said. He says, for momentary light affliction is producing for us, that is, something's going on for us.

Now, let me ask you a question. If you were a mechanic, for example, working in a garage and you had this huge box of tools which are absolutely essential and they're heavy, sometimes it's hard to pick them up. They're greasy, you know, you get grease under your fingernails and grime, it's all over your shirt and all of your face and that's just the way it is. And sometimes you pinch yourself with them, scratch yourself, cut yourself, hurt yourself dealing with those things. Suppose you say, well, I don't like these tools because after all, they get me greasy. Sometimes I hurt myself with them and they're too heavy, so I'm getting rid of my tools.

Let me ask you, how long would you stay in business? If you get rid of the tools, you're out of business. You know what God is saying in this passage? When we try to escape God's tools, hardship, persecution, suffering, difficulty, those impossible situations and we want to run from them, we want to get away from them, we want to escape. He says, wait a minute, like the tool in the toolbox produces income for the mechanic, our suffering and hardship and heartache and disappointments and trials are producing for us. Something's going on. You don't see it going on, but something's going on.

Something is happening on the inside. There's something productive about suffering. Now Paul is not saying here, well, if you want to prosper, you just go out and get yourself in a mess and suffer a while. No, that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about those things that come upon us and sometimes we are responsible for some, but sometimes we're not.

And the key is, he says, for momentary light affliction, these things are producing for you. Do you understand that? God, I want out. I'm sick and tired of this. I want out, God. What you're saying is, Lord, I don't want any more fruitfulness. I don't want anything else producing for me. I'm sick and tired of that.

No. When you get God's viewpoint, you see every tool of hurt, every tribulation, trial, heartache, burden, persecution, every moment of suffering. These are God's divine tools, the sculptor and the train and the discipline and to equip and to build and to provide and to produce for us in the future as well as the present that which if we could just see, we know that is what we want. All right, let's move on. Now, the next phrase is a little difficult to understand, but notice what he says now.

Let's go back to verse 16. Therefore, we're not losing our confidence in the midst of all of these trials. They're our outer man. This old physical body is decaying. If something is wonderfully transpiring on the inside, we're becoming stronger and deeper and richer. For momentary, that is, it appears to be momentary against the background of eternity. Light affliction, it's light against the backdrop of the cross, is producing for us.

There's something going on in our behalf. And what is it? It is an eternal weight of glory far beyond our all comparison. For momentary light affliction is producing for us, when he says an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. The phrase there in the Greek is excess under excess. That is, you can't describe it. What God is producing through us and for us in eternity future as a result of our suffering, he says, is so absolutely immeasurably incomprehensible, it is impossible to fully even describe it.

He says it is excess under excess, abundance beyond abundance. That is what God is producing through us through our suffering and hardship and heartache is so absolutely magnificent, incomprehensible, immeasurable, you cannot describe it. So he says, Look, if you want God's viewpoint, here's what you remember, against the backdrop of the cross, this suffering is intense. But look, not really against the background of eternity.

It's only for a moment. But oh, if you see it from God's viewpoint, he sees what is going on in eternity future. God sees what is happening, your inheritance is enlarging. And notice how he uses the phrase here when he says, an eternal weight of glory. Now there is a glory that belongs only to God, the radiance and splendor of holiness belongs only to God.

But there is a glory in this phrase that is ours. And that glory is the matchless inheritance undeserved but provided and purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ, which he has in store as our eternal possession for which we will never lose as we walk in the Spirit of God. He says, the right viewpoint is to see things from God's perspective. If I get all borne down and torn up and wrapped up in self pity and criticism and want somebody to feel sorry for me says look at God's viewpoint. Hallelujah, praise God, do you understand what the Father is reaping for you in glory? Do you understand what all of your suffering and hardship is producing in your life now and producing for you in the future?

If you could just get a glimpse of what God is doing in your behalf as a result of your suffering, you'd say bring on the suffering. Because 75 or 100 years of life is nothing against the background of a million times a million times a million endless seconds. It's immeasurable.

You can't even feel it. And my friend, it is that kind of spirit that will make your life like a sweet smelling aroma. When you're down in the valley, your friends, your neighbors, your family knows that you've walked in the pits of darkness.

The man when you come to work on Monday morning, they're saying, I don't understand this lady. This joy, this sweetness, this quietness, this humility, this confidence, this boldness, this positive of what is it with her? It is the sweet aroma of the all sufficient gospel of Jesus Christ. Just dripping and dropping and overflowing into someone else's life.

Well, let's come to the last point. We have God's viewpoint when we look beyond what is seen and are able to visualize what is unseen. We have God's viewpoint when we're able to look beyond what is seen and get God's view.

That is, we see what is unseen with a visible eye can only be seen with the spiritual eye. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 11 for a moment. And you recall in this passage, this is the great passage about faith and the right of Hebrews list all of these wonderful Bible characters who've undergone all kinds of difficulty and heartache. And he finally comes to Moses over here and he says, let's begin with verse 24.

Now here is a perfect example of this last point. Verse 24. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to do what? Than to enjoy the passing pleasures, passing transient pleasures of sin. Considering the reproach of Christ's greater riches, that is considering the approaches, the rejection, the suffering, the hardship, greater riches than the treasures of Pharaoh's Egypt.

For he was looking to the reward. By faith, he that is Moses left Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king for he endured as seeing him who is unseen. Moses lived as a man who was able to see the invisible. Out there in that desert when all they could see was sand and looked for water and smell sheep and goats and some three million of them all they could see was sand and barren mountains and people. But there's one man among those who could see something else. Wherever he went, he could always see Jehovah God out front leading him.

You want to know how to endure all kinds of hardship and heartache and troubles and tribulations and trials? Listen to what he says in this passage. He says, we look not at the things that are seen but the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen, physical things, are transitory, passing.

They can all be gone one of these days. We were able to see that which is unseen. For example, look around you wherever you may be. What do you see that will always be here?

Everything you and I see with the naked eye is going to one day disappear. So now what about the Word of God? Well, tell you what, if I had a match, I could burn this Bible into ashes, but I could never burn the message. I could never burn the truth. I can burn the pages.

Ink and India paper will burn easily. Leather we can destroy that. All of this can be destroyed, but the message can't be destroyed. You see, the pages, what I see can be destroyed. But what my spirit sees when I look at that can never be destroyed. When I look at you, what I see is going to disintegrate. But when I look with my spirit, what I see will never die. He says, now you want God's viewpoint, then here's what you must do. You must learn, listen, you must learn daily to be perceptive, to see the things about you that are not seen.

Don't focus on the scene. Don't let your life get wrapped up in things visible that are in a stage of transition. You may buy the finest and most beautiful automobile in the world, but I'm telling you, one of these days, that thing's going to the junkyard. And that may be a little discouraging for you who spent a lot of money recently, but it's going to the junkyard. But my friend is a believer who sits behind the wheel to drive it. God didn't make it a jump and you'll never go to the junkyard. God's precious believer always is. Now I want you to think about something very carefully. God's viewpoint.

How do I develop at this in my life? This is so simple. Some of you are going to stumble all over it. It's so simple. You say, well, now that's the way I want to see things. I want to see things from God's perspective.

This is how simple it is. You open the Word of God and you read it and you apply it to your life and you learn to think the way God thinks. And you begin to listen to the things that God is saying. And you begin to see how God operated in the lives of his children. You begin to saturate your mind and your spirit with the truth of God's Word.

You don't have to go to some certain book. You just start reading. You just ask God, Lord, I want to saturate my mind and heart with your word.

You know what happens? You begin to think the way God thinks. You begin to respond the way God's, you see, you get his viewpoint. Now I've given you some points here that say, well, now when you have God's viewpoint, this is where you're going to be looking at things. But how do you get his viewpoint? It's real simple. You get in the book and you read it.

You digest it. You will understand that, oh, listen, there's a lot of things I couldn't tell you. Oh, man, I fully understand every verse of this, but I'll tell you one exciting thing about being a pastor. Every time I get in the passage that absolutely confounds me before I come out, God has given me the truth. He'll do the same for you. Here's what he'll do.

God will create the circumstance, send you to the book, you discover his truth and what happens? You respond from God's viewpoint. Now, one last thing.

Listen to me carefully. Whatever you face and are facing right now, you have the capacity right now. You have this capacity.

On this side, it looks black, dull, dark, hopeless and helpless. All you have to do to turn that over so that it is bright and positive and possible and exciting and challenging and anticipating is to change your attitude. You know how long it takes to change attitude if you commit yourself and choose to do it? I will cease to doubt my God and will choose to believe him.

I choose to cast myself upon my sovereign God who is unconditionally loved me, and I choose to view life through his viewpoint. I don't have to understand my circumstances. They don't have to change. They don't even have to get me better.

Why? Because having God's viewpoint, I know who is in control and who has absolutely surrounded me with his omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresence. There is no way to lose with God's viewpoint. Thank you for listening to part two of Getting God's Viewpoint. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.