Perspective
Tom Shrader explores the difference between myopic thinking (seeing only short-term) and godly perspective (seeing life as God sees it). Using Jesus' interactions with the Pharisees over Sabbath rules and His teaching to Martha and Mary, Shrader shows how to prioritize eternal values over temporary concerns. He emphasizes living for eternity rather than being consumed by what people think, and finding excitement in spiritual realities rather than worldly attractions.
“I'm going to be dead a lot longer than I'm going to be alive, and somehow, that ought to transform my life.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Life Management (2001)
Recorded: November 15, 2001
Duration: 41 min
Themes: perspective, priorities, eternity, wisdom, focus, values, purpose, vision, struggling with priorities, feeling overwhelmed, seeking direction, busy professional, parent juggling responsibilities, new believer, young adult, midlife transition
Scripture: Luke 10:38-42, Mark 2, Luke 10:22, Luke 12:4, Matthew 7, 1 Samuel 21, 1 Corinthians
Theological Themes: eternal perspective, godly wisdom, spiritual discernment, sanctification, biblical worldview, stewardship, discipleship, spiritual maturity
Full Transcript
This is session 5 of a 12-session series titled Life Management, of which we'll complete 7 sessions. The idea behind this series is that I can be doing okay in one area of my life but struggling in another area. What we're trying to do is help you get to the point where your life is being managed totally, where you're doing well in all areas of your life.
Our natural tendency is to focus on the things that we either enjoy or are already good at. I was at the gym the other day, and one of the women there from our church was putting weights on a leg machine. I'm thinking, what is she doing? Then she sits down and leg presses six and a half times her body weight. She's incredibly strong—a cyclist who does all kinds of training.
We were talking, and she pointed to a guy working out across the gym. She said, "See what he doesn't do? He won't do his legs. Guys hate to do legs. They love to do the stuff where they look great, but they won't do their legs." This perfectly illustrates our tendency. We do what we want to do.
If you go to the driving range today, you're not going to see anybody out there grinding on their three iron. They're going to be hitting drivers, wedges, or five irons. What we're trying to say is that there are some areas of life where you don't necessarily have to become an expert, but we at least have to address them, acknowledge them, and try to get them under control.
Review of Previous Sessions
Let me give you a quick synopsis of what we've covered. The first week was on purpose—needing to know why you do what you do. The second week we talked about excellence, being committed to being the best that we can be with the gifts God has given us. I can have one student at a 2.5 GPA who's excelling, and another student at 3.5 who's slacking off. You can have one guy hitting .300 who's really dogging it because he's not putting out effort or going to the batting cage, and another guy hitting .175 who's getting everything out of his ability—he's an overachiever.
The third and fourth weeks we talked about control and freedom. The idea was that we want to control our life and be proactive rather than constantly reacting. We want to disentangle ourselves as much as we can from the things that will entrap us, thus gaining freedom.
Typically, an area where we get entrapped is in finances. I heard this on the radio yesterday—I have no idea if it's accurate—but supposedly 75% of American people today, three out of four, if you liquidated them completely, they'd be upside down. The last time I heard statistics like this, the average person at age 65 still has 23 years left on their home mortgage. How do we get in that position? Generally by trying to keep up with the Joneses, trying to maintain perceptions.
Understanding Perspective and Myopia
Today we talk about perspective—seeing life as it truly is and responding accordingly. We're going to use two words: perspective and myopia. Let's deal with myopia first.
Myopia is a lack of foresight or discernment. It's also a medical term where you see pretty well for an arm's length or so, then things get fuzzy. But it's not just in the physical realm—it's a way that many of us live. We see pretty well short-term, not so well long-term.
Perspective, on the other hand, we're defining using Webster's definition: the capacity to view things in their true relationship of relative importance. Let me give it to you simply: to see things as they are and understand how they're interconnected. That's a huge deal.
Since our daughters have been young, I've been trying to keep them from seeing life as snapshots. Someone gave me pictures from our church's 10th anniversary picnic recently. There's a picture of a little girl in an egg race, some people eating, face painting, older people standing around talking. The point is, they're all disconnected. One picture is not dependent on the next. Well, if I see life that way, I'm in real trouble.
Haley, all their life, is that life isn't a snapshot, it's a film. So every frame is dependent upon what happens before it and after it. You can't look at life as independent sets of circumstances. What you do today affects tomorrow. It's the law of consequence.
It's a very hard thing to teach to people, and it's a very hard thing to teach to young people. It's a very hard thing to sit down with a 17-year-old or a 20-year-old or a 25-year-old even, and say, listen, you're making some decisions, and they're bad decisions. It doesn't matter who you hang around with. It doesn't matter whether you go to school or not. It doesn't matter whether you're involved sexually with somebody else or not. It's not just a one-night stand. There's all these things that come with it.
Our Role Model and Definition
So perspective. Our role model for today and for this whole series is Jesus. And when we say this, let me give you the caution. Every week we've used the same caution. Jesus is fully God and fully man. We're not asking you to model His deity. You can't do that. But we do think you can look at Jesus' life and look at the things that He devoted His time to, look at the things that He devoted His energy to, look at the way He approached certain things, look at the way He avoided other things, and from that get a sense of how you ought to live your life.
So when we talk about perspective here, here's our definition. It's on your outline. It's maintaining a grasp of the big picture. It's seeing things as they really are and how they're connected. And avoid this confusion we see short term. How do I get that view? Let me give you this whole definition in one word. Wisdom. That's what it really is. To understand life, to understand what's going on around you, and then understand how to respond to it.
The Human Maze Illustration
We were, years ago, at Knott's Berry Farm. And we were going through, and the girl, we were having a blast. We were having a good time. And the girl, we came to this thing, and it was a human maze. You've seen a maze where they put a little rat in, and they let the thing run around, and they try to figure it out, and hopefully it gets its way out somehow. This was a human maze. And you went into it, and there were these blocks of walls, and there was one way out. And they said, Gee, you want to go in there? And I said, That's a total waste of time and frustration to me. No, thank you.
But then I saw something I was attracted to. There was an observation deck where you could watch the people in the human maze. Now that sounds attracting to me. And I think I've told you the story before. There was a little kid who was in there, and the kid is lost, just lost. Every place he turns, he runs into a wall. He's confused. And all of a sudden, his mom is up there next to me, and she's going, Okay, Biff, turn left, turn left, turn left. Make another left. Make a hard right. Now go straight. Now make a hard right. And the kid goes right out. The kid was totally lost before, and within seconds is back on track.
And I thought, What a magnificent illustration of when God says to us, My ways are higher than your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. When I read this Word, when I take this Bible and read it, it's God going, Here you go. Go left, go left, go right, go straight. Now you're out. It's wisdom. That's what perspective is. It's seeing things as they really are. It's being able to take the newspaper and put it in perspective. It's being able to take the World Series and say, Yes, it's fun and all that, but this isn't the end of the world. It's being able to understand what's really important.
Five Things from the Life of Christ
So, five things from the life of Christ will devote most of our time to the ones at the end. The first one was, a myopic view says, We've got this system. We're going to follow this system. Here are the rules. A perspective says, No, the system's here to serve the people.
It was the Sabbath, and Jesus is going through the grain fields. Mark 2. And His disciples are walking along, and they begin to pick heads of grain. And the Pharisee says, Look, why are they doing what is unlawful in the Sabbath? Now stop right there. Here's the irony of this. The keepers of the law are challenging the author of the law. They're turning to Jesus and saying, What's going on here? So we let that irony go, but it's interesting.
Jesus said, Have you never heard of the story of David? It's recorded in 1 Samuel 21 where David eats the sacred bread, the bread that's been consecrated in the Holy of Holies. Have you never heard of David when he and his companions were hungry and in need? The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is the Lord even over the Sabbath.
The Problem with Too Many Rules
In our life, we're expanding it now beyond those commandments. That's what they had done with the commandments. God had given them ten, and they'd expanded it into all the laws and the rules and regulations because that's what you do with rules. I'll show my own prejudice here. I don't like a lot of rules. I don't like a lot of laws. I come back to it even when we were raising the girls.
We never had curfew for them that I'm aware of. I mean, they'd go out, and they'd say, Well, what time should we be home? And I'd say, Well, where are you going? Well, I don't know. We're just going to hang out. 9:30? Quarter to ten? You mean we've got to be home by 9:30? I'd say, Yeah. If you don't have any place to go, why would I want you out? That doesn't make sense.
Other times they'd say, Well, where are you going? I'd say, Well, we've got a ball game, and then after the ball game, you know, they've got some stuff we're going to do, then we're going to have dinner, then we're going to a movie. And I'd say, Okay. We'll be home by 1:30 or 2. Okay? Why? Because they had somewhere to go, and they had an agenda. You didn't always have to enforce it.
So I don't like a lot of rules. Because rules force you into sub-rules. So, keep the Sabbath. So somebody's going to sit around, this would be me, and say,
Well, what does that mean? So the Jews had all these laws. And some of them make great sense, I guess, but some of them are silly. If you were in a two-story house, and there was a brooch upstairs, and you wanted to have this lady's brooch from upstairs to downstairs, if you picked it up and carried it, it violated the Sabbath. If you pinned it on your clothing and wore it downstairs and took it off, it wasn't a violation.
If you spit, is it okay to spit on the Sabbath? Families have broken up over things like this. Is it okay to spit on the Sabbath? Well, the key thing here is where the spit lands. If it lands on a rock, it's okay. If it lands on dust, it creates a furrow, unless you've plowed and you've violated the Sabbath. So you get into those kinds of things.
The whole point is this. These systems around us are here to serve us, not vice versa.
Traditions: Serving Us or Enslaving Us?
I'm going to put my foot in the water one more time, something we talked about last week, because it got such a strong reaction. So we want to venture in there one more time. I come back to these churches and all of the tradition that goes with it. And primarily we see it all the time around music. And especially I talk to people who are my age and older. In many instances, you're stifling what God would do in those churches rather than facilitating it. And often it crystallizes in this area of music.
Do you understand that there was a point in time where somebody came in and they played this song called "The Old Rugged Cross" and somebody said, "Get that newfangled stuff out of here. We don't want to be hearing it anymore." Do you understand that many of those old songs, "A Mighty Fortress," that was a beer drinking song that they put lyrics to. The very thing you condemn as you look around you today. That's all right. What makes these songs Christian is their words, not the beat.
So we've got these traditions. We've got to take a look at these traditions. We've got to figure out whether these traditions are serving us or we're serving them.
Understanding the Importance of Events Around You
Here's the second thing. Make sure you understand the importance of the events around you. Luke 10. This is a fascinating scene. At the time, Jesus said, "I praise You, Father in heaven, Lord of heaven and earth, because You've hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to the little children. Yes, Father, it was for Your good pleasure." What an odd prayer. Jesus prays, "Father, thank You that You didn't let these people understand who I am. God, thank You that You passed over the wise and the learned."
We talk about this. Early in 1 Corinthians, Paul says, "There's not many of you that are wise, many of you that are fools." Let me just do this. You know, we don't want to embarrass anybody. But this is proof. Is there anybody in here who has a Ph.D.? There's my point right there. Not a one. And if they are, they're embarrassed to tell us.
The last time, I've done this thing a lot. One time, we got a guy that had a Ph.D. He had a Ph.D. I said, "What's it in?" He said, "Economics." There's a sad thing, because there's a guy that didn't have enough personality to even be an accountant. He has to go into economics. But you see that? We don't have a bunch of Ph.D.s hanging around. We don't have any elected officials here. Wealthy. You know, I can't embarrass you there. But there's some people in here who have some cash. But by and large, not a ton.
Isn't that interesting? Here's what Jesus said. "Father, thanks. Thanks that they never saw it." And then He turns to His disciples. Imagine this moment. And again, I know I do it. I'll bet you do too. I just sterilize this stuff. He turns to His disciples and He says privately.
We're in Luke 10, 22-ish. "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you have seen, and they didn't see it, and want to hear what you have heard, and they didn't hear it." Jesus turns at this moment and says, "Guys, I'll bet you never get this. I'll bet you never understand this. For thousands of years, the prophets have been saying, Messiah, Messiah, Messiah. The people have been crying, Messiah. Guys, this is what they're waiting for right here."
And Jesus isn't using hyperbole or exaggeration. Virtually everything prior to Christ looks to that moment in anticipation, and everything since looks in the rear saying, "Oh, if Jesus was here now. Oh, to be with Him."
Recognizing What's Worth Getting Excited About
See, perspective allows us to see things and get excited about things that are truly worth getting excited about. Any mullet can figure out that September 11, 2001, was a significant day in history. I don't think anybody, we're not going to hold our breath to see what the event, when they do the year in review, I'm sensing I might be able to guess what the event of this year is going to be.
But how can I be in the midst of things that are maybe not of that cataclysmic historic perspective, but are just as significant in my life that warrant real excitement and enthusiasm?
Don't Occupy Yourself with Minor Issues
Here's the third thing. Occupy yourself with the minor issues. That's myopic. The perspective says, let's look at the major issues. This is a story from Luke 10 of Martha. Mary, Martha, Lazarus. Martha. I feel sorry for Martha a little bit because she's almost joined that elite group that's occupied by Judas and Peter. And that is every time we wheel her out, we just beat her up like a human pinata. Just every time her name's mentioned, we just whack her around for how busy she is.
This is also a great illustration coming into holiday, especially like Thanksgiving and Christmas time. As Jesus and His disciples were on their way, it's Luke 10:38, they came to the village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him. Just important, it's a small thing, but it was her home, but she shared it with her sister Mary, her brother Lazarus. And her sister Mary, and she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what He said.
So here's the scene. Martha has
this house. Mary's there. She's described as somebody who's listening to what Christ is saying. Sitting at His feet, probably in a position where He's speaking, teaching. But Martha was distracted. The word means literally, dragged all around. She's in turmoil. She's just like that thing. She's just loose. She's bouncing all over the place.
And she came to Him and she asked, Lord, why don't You care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered. You're worried and upset about many things, but there's only one thing that's needed and Mary's chosen the better one.
When the Marthas Pop Out
This is the time of year when the Marthas pop out. Not just Martha Stewart. The Marthas pop out. Especially like next week. And I don't mean this, and some of it's fun, but a lot of people this time of year go through a lot of gymnastics, even for themselves.
Thanksgiving is one of those interesting days. It's my favorite day of the year. I love it because it's got all the benefits of Christmas without any of the pressure of getting a gift. I really like it. All the food, all the things. Well, boy, on Thanksgiving, the Marthas pop out.
And I'm telling you, I can guarantee it, you'll be sitting around a week from today and you'll be eating and you'll be done and someone, maybe you will say, isn't it amazing? It took us two or three days to put this together and we eat it all in 10 or 15 minutes. It's the same thing every year. Well, if you can't say that with joy, pal, don't say it at all.
The Heart Behind the Work
Because my point is, why do you put it all together? Every year I tell them, look it, I'd rather have meatloaf anyway. You didn't make that cranberry thing there for me because I'm not going to eat it. You didn't make that thing over there for me because I'm not going to eat it. You didn't make those things there because we don't eat it. Who'd you do this for?
And you've got a lot of people who are doing it for themselves. Look at old Martha here. Listen to the singular personal pronoun. Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me.
Now, there's nothing wrong with getting all excited and all primped and having all this stuff for Thanksgiving. That's fine. But you better look at your heart. And oftentimes, you've got post-Thanksgiving partum blues because you've done all this work and the reality is what it revealed was your heart wasn't right. You weren't doing it for everybody else. You were doing it so they'd acknowledge you or say they were your own. For whatever reason.
When Good Things Can Wait
I'll give you a second spin to this. It can well be that what Martha's doing are things that need to get done. But sometimes there's things that need to get done, but they can wait.
Susan is a terrific illustration of so many things, but she always somehow figured this out. There were certain nights that when we ate, all the dishes got done and everything got cleaned up and they just did. But there were also a lot of nights where the dishes would get done and they'd kind of go stack up and there'd be stuff out there and they never got done. Or they got done the next day.
You know what it was? Somehow Susan sensed this was a night to sit and talk to the kids or this was a night to just relax or this was a night to let it go. And I kind of look over and say, Sue, that's a little messy. What if somebody comes in? What if somebody stops by? She said, well, they can help us do the dishes then if they stop by. And I'm not an advocate here of messiness. It's a sense of priority.
Be Afraid of What God Thinks
I want to move because I've got about 15 minutes left, I think. I want to do the last two. My epic view says be afraid of what people think. A perspective view says be afraid of what God thinks.
Jesus speaks in Luke 12, verse 4. I tell you, my friends, here you go, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you who you should fear. Fear Him who after killing the body has the power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies and yet not one of them is forgotten by God? Indeed, the hairs on your head are numbered. Don't be afraid. You are worth more than the sparrows.
Jesus cuts right to the heart of most of us. He says don't be afraid of what people... Listen, don't be afraid of these people who they kill you and that's the end of it. Don't be afraid of these people who are around you but have no control over your eternal destiny. I think that cuts so quick because it comes to us and it hits us where many of us live and that is consumed by feelings of what other people think.
The Pressure of People's Opinions
What if I do this? I have a friend who is a junior high pastor. And I'll say, what are the struggles of being a junior high pastor? And when he's real honest, here's what he'll say. Biggest struggle? Telling people what I do. I love to go out. I love to say, I'm a pastor in a church and it's got 5,000 people in it. Or I'm a senior adult education pastor. But he says, you know when you go in and you go, I'm a junior high pastor, they kind of go, why? That's it? Your life is that? That's all you've been able to do?
In other words, he's responding to what he sees in people's face. And he says, you know what? You've got to power through that.
And it comes in all areas. What do you do? Well, I'm an attorney. How big is the firm? Well, it's just me and a secretary and another guy who's kind of a paralegal who does all the work, really. So there's the three of us. But when you say, well, there's a firm and there's 450 of us and we're here in L.A. and New York and Vancouver and I'm a partner and my office is on the 13th floor. See, that's big stuff, isn't it?
It's going back to the class reunion. We had a guy this year. And I said, man, you look good. And he said, I'm really working out and I'm really training and I'm really doing all this. And I said, how come? He said, I'm going to my class reunion.
And he said, yeah, I'm going back to the class reunion and I want to look good for this. I said, you know what's going to happen? This is sad. You're going to go back there. You're going to see some girl. She's going to fall in love with you the way you are right now and then find out what a fat puke you really are in about six months. But she'll be happy on the honeymoon.
See how that is? We're all concerned about all these things. I'm saying you ought to be a little bit concerned about what people think, obviously. You want to have a perception of you that fits a certain thing. But even then, it's in perspective. He said, if you want to fear something, fear the God who has control over eternity.
The Challenge of Understanding Eternity
Now, there's a word in there that presents a problem, and that's eternity. How do you get your arms around eternity? A couple of years ago, we were on vacation and we were at Sea Ranch, which is where God would have me be on vacation. There's a beach there. It's my favorite beach. It's about a mile long. Depending on where tide is, it's about 60 to 70 feet wide.
So here's this beach, a mile long. Let's say for sake of our illustration now, a mile long, about 60 feet wide. I'm sitting at the end of the beach reading a book. This guy said, I want to talk for a second about eternity. He said, picture yourself on a beach. I said, okay, hang on. I got that. Now what? He said, now picture that there's a bird that's there. I look up and sure enough, there's birds. I said, alright, got the bird, got the beach.
He said, now see this bird come in front of you, lift up a pebble of sand and fly out into the ocean. Got it. He said, now imagine this bird comes back to that beach every year, once a year, lifts one pebble of sand and carts it away and does this until the entire beach is empty. And now you see the beginning of eternity. Didn't help me other than say, wow, that's a long time. How am I going to get eternity? I can't grab that.
These guys always say this flowery stuff. Here's the way I said it. I'm going to be dead a lot longer than I'm going to be alive. That's how I got this figured out. I'm going to be dead forever with Him. Somehow, that ought to transform my life.
How Eternal Perspective Changes Everything
I'll tell you what. If you want to see your life change, you want to see your perspective change, grasp that you're living for eternity rather than for this lifetime. Everything starts to change. It doesn't really matter. What happens is, over a period of time, and I think, unless you're just hard-hearted, I think time does that to a lot of us. Things that were so important become less and less and less important.
I always think of it like a ball game. You're coming into that time of year after Thanksgiving where you've got the traditional rivalries. Washington, Washington State, ASU, U of A, Oregon, Oregon State, USC, UCLA, all those rivalries. And yeah, well, St. Ambrose, Wisconsin, Eau Claire. They're not the national rivalries, but they capture it.
They pan the crowd, and here are these kids. Here are three kids spelling ASU, generally misspelling it, but they've got it written on their bellies when they're out there, ASU. They've got their face painted. I'm always thinking, wouldn't it be so cool to do a "where are they now" on these people? Where are those guys who in 1960 were passed out at the 50-yard line with ASU written on them? Where are they now? Former presidents? People like that.
Something happens. I mean, I had a lot of friends who they used to live and die the ASU, U of A rivalry. Then over the years, you kind of go, you know what? It'll be important for those hours we're in there, but it's not something that warrants a week of our time to prepare for and then a year to mourn for whoever. It doesn't matter a whole lot. All of a sudden, I got perspective and I understand eternity.
Emphasize the Unseen, Not the Visible
It ties right into the last thing. Emphasize the things you can see. That's myopic. That's a mistake. Emphasize the things that you can't see. Again, Luke 10. It's an interesting time. It demands a little bit of explanation. Jesus indeed has these 72 that have returned. They've been out. They've been on a field assignment. They return.
So they say, Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your name. We've got real power here. He replied, I saw Satan falling like lightning from the sky. I've given you the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you. Listen to this. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
Here's what they see. They're out there and they're grabbing snakes and they're biting them and they aren't dying and there's demons that are submitting and all this. They're all enthralled in all of this. That's the real attention getter. They're carried away with this. Jesus says, you're missing the whole thing. Don't get excited about that. Get excited about the fact that you're a Christian, that you're saved.
The Distraction of Visible Miracles
Let me take a second. Give it four or five minutes. Because I look at it. I watch and there's something here. I'm probably addicted and in bondage to this. But every night I check to see what they're doing on Channel 21. I can't let it go. So I turn the other night and I'm watching and I'm talking to myself. I mean, this is a sad, sad state of affairs I'm in here.
I'm talking to myself saying, what are you people? What's the attraction? They're standing around and they're bringing these guys up and I'm watching it again. Well, what's going on? Well, when she came, she had a pinch in her back and now she can move. So she can move and she's dancing and prancing. I'm going, what? Are you kidding me?
When she came, there was a buzzing in her ear. Well, she's sitting down there in front of that speaker for an hour. That's the buzzing in
The Distraction of Superficial Signs
My ears are buzzing. That's not healing. Do you get it? When Jesus didn't go... out there I see somebody with a buzzing. He said, "Oh, here's a guy who's been lame all his life. Never walked. Can't walk." Jesus says, "Get up." This guy gets up. Here's a guy that's dead. In the tomb. Stinks. They buried him. He says, "Come out."
When we start doing those things, we'll go, "Wow. This isn't healing. This is a sideshow." But people flock to it. Why? Because we're just like these guys. We're not... This is a condemnation. We're not satisfied with what God's given us.
We're not satisfied with just being able to say, "You know what? The Savior of the universe, the Creator of the universe, the guy who came and died on the cross and gave His life and took me from sinner to saint while I was dead and hated Him, He moved my heart and saved me." That's not exciting enough. Show me a guy who got the buzzing out of his ear. See, that's what this is all about. These are serious things.
Two Gates, Two Roads
It makes me think, and we've got to move quickly, but it makes me think of Matthew 7. Jesus says it this way: "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there's many who are on it. And the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there's few who find it."
Now let me show you this. You've got two gates. You've got a narrow gate and a wide gate, and you've got two roads. You've got a narrow road and a broad road, and you've got this road that doesn't have many people on it and this road that has a whole bunch of people on it. That's what Jesus said. That's not me now. That's what Jesus said. And this road leads to heaven and this road leads to hell.
For years, here was my picture, because I try to get this in my mind. For years in my mind, I pictured here's these roads and this says heaven, this says hell, and everybody's going. That's just a distorted view. Only somebody truly pathological would say, "Oh yeah, I'm going to hell, no big deal." This road over here, this broad, easy way to destruction is marked heaven. People think they're on it.
The Narrow Way Reality
How many people go to heaven? I've thought about that a lot and I've seen my view evolve. Before I was a Christian, I figured everybody did, except maybe like Hitler. Hitler probably didn't. But everybody else did.
Then I became a Christian and I'm saying, "Wow, this is..." Then I said, it's got to be like the PGA Tour. 140 feet off, top 70 in ties go to heaven, bottom 70 go to hell. That's about right. I mean, I've got to say about half of them, that would be about right.
Here's what I think. And I have no way of proving it. I'm going to give you something here though that's interesting that's totally unrelated to me forming this view. I ended up saying, I'm guessing about 90% go to hell and probably 10% go to heaven. Maybe 20.
The Numbers Game
Here you go. Let me give you a couple of statistics. And I have no idea how they get this. 3,000 people every hour come to Christ. I don't know how they know that. But that's what they're saying right now. 3,000 people every hour come to Christ. There's one of them calling even now. 3,000 people every hour come to Christ.
So I got this guy who's a nerd friend of mine. So I called him and I said, "Will you go on the internet and find out how many people are born every hour?" And he said, "Yeah, hang on. You want me to call you back or hang on?" I said, "I'll hang on." So he's gone. He comes back. He goes, "15,000. About 15,000 people are born every hour." I said, "How many people die every hour?" And he said, "Why didn't you ask me that?" And I said, "Because I didn't know you were going to take forever." And my mind started thinking. So he's gone. He said, "Well, let me call you back."
So he calls me back and he says, "As close as I can tell, about 6,000 people die every hour." So let me give you these numbers. It's interesting. 15,000 are born. 6,000 die. So there's a net gain to the world population of about 9,000 people an hour. But I want to go back to that other one. 3,000 people. And again, how do you know this stuff? 3,000 people an hour come to Christ. If you take that out, that's about a fifth of the people born. That gets into that 20% number. Isn't that interesting?
A Pentecost Every Hour
We've got to go. You've got to go. I want to get to this. Because my mind started playing with that for a minute. 3,000 people every hour coming to Christ. That's a lot. Imagine a time, 100 years or so from now, when you're in heaven. And somebody comes up and they go, "That's an interesting outfit you've got on. That's circa 2000." "Yeah." "Oh, wow. So how about you?" "450." "450. Interesting time. You were alive in 2000?" "Yeah."
"You were alive when there was a Pentecost every hour? 3,000 people every hour. You were alive at Pentecost every hour. What was it like? What was it like when 3,000 people every hour were coming to Christ?" And you're going to go, "I was at the ball game. I don't know. I guess it must have been going on." So you can miss all that stuff.
Don't Get Distracted
Here's the whole point of today. Don't get distracted. Don't get consumed in this endless parade of mundane things that inevitably come in and rob you of seeing things as they really are. Of seeing things as they truly are. Of seeing things as they're really important.
Let me give you just a perspective. I'll give you 60 seconds here. We're coming up on Thanksgiving. It's so funny because you've got to hear people, you know, talk shows will do it. "What are you thankful for?" Then they'll give you 1,000 things that you've got to cook up. Look it. Here you go. 1,000 things you've got to cook up on Thanksgiving. What a pun. This mind is incredible. Did you notice? There's no off switch on this baby back here. This thing will not stop.
Here's one. While you hated God, He saved you. You need nothing else to be thankful for. If that doesn't move you to Thanksgiving, then you're immovable. If that doesn't move you, then you're hopeless.
about all the benefits and the house and the car and all the other stuff. All that stuff's fading away. It doesn't matter. This is what really matters.
Have a great Thanksgiving.
Prayer
Father, we pray that at this time of year we would understand You and who You are. Even after we do, it would affect the way we live, but it would affect our heart, and our heart would be moved to give thanks to You. For all the material blessings, to be sure. For all the things that we understand that are benefits from living in this culture and this time that we're in, to be sure.
But beyond all of those, overshadowing all of those, is that You sent Your Son to become flesh, to live among us, to die, and that in His death, in His death alone, we have eternal life. God, we thank You that You, through Your Holy Spirit, have placed us on the narrow, hard, lightly traveled way that leads to heaven. God, that's what we thank You for.
And we do it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a great week. We'll see you next week. See you in two weeks. Amen.