Faithbase

Hey everybody, it's Danny, I want to say thank you for tuning in to the Heart Way podcast and I want to give a special thanks to those of you who are tuning in from really all over the world. We're so grateful that you are a part of our community and that you listen in on an ongoing basis. If you've been encouraged by what you've heard, I want to ask you to share this with a friend. You never know the impact that one of these messages can have in another person's life. And if you yourself have been impacted and you'd like to continue to partner with us to keep this work going, check us out at heartwaychurch.com slash give. Every dollar that you give goes a really long way towards helping us do what it is that we do. Well, we love you. Really hope you enjoy the podcast. Good morning, Heart Way. I love you guys. Thank you. I'll sit it back this time. Like I'm sensitive. Don't leave me hanging out here. You know what I'm saying? Don't cry in your face, you know what I'm saying? Let's just take one communal breath. This is our opportunity to sink into ourselves because of course there's so many beautiful people around us. We have this constant awareness of how we're being perceived, about what's going on in our mind. There's this constant awareness of what's outside of us. We call that exteroception, our awareness of the outer world. But when we spend so much time focused on that, we miss the treasure in the garden. There's a treasure buried among the leaves, among the roses, and it's the most powerful gift that we've been given. It's more powerful than our ideas. It's more powerful than our knowledge. It's more powerful than any form of human or external power we can imagine. It's the power of peace. It's the power that the Apostle Paul said allows him to both abide and abound. To be both at rest, but to be mighty. To be without need. That's the treasure that was embedded in us. That's what God meant when he said that his grace is sufficient. That he has put inside us what is sufficient. We have what we need. You following me? Like for real, we have what we need, but we got to access that gift. We have to learn to immerse into the power that we are. And that's the blessing. And that's the opportunity in this Centering Prayer. Hi, y'all. I invite you guys to get comfortable. In your own time, you can close your eyes. And let's take a deep breath. Just focus on not the idea of breathing. But the experience of breathing. You may rest your hand on your belly. Feel it expand as you inhale. And feel it deflate as you exhale. Allow your breath to carry your awareness across the river of grace. Let your awareness float away from all tension, from all ideas, from all thoughts. Imagine that you're on a raft, floating out to sea, away from a beach. And on that beach is all your struggles, all your pains, all of your insecurities. And you float away, and they seem smaller and smaller and smaller, until there's nothing around you but crisp blue water. You smell the salty air from the ocean waters. You feel the warmth of the sun beating upon your skin. You hear seagulls. I don't know what seagulls sound like, but imagine it for me. Breathe in the full experience of this oasis. There's no danger here. There's nothing to do or strive for. God appears to you and says, can you lean in to the peace of this experience with every fiber of your being? You don't have to do it for a day. You don't have to do it for an hour. Can you do it for but one moment? Can you be so in tune with the peace of this moment that all things fall away? I lovingly challenge you. Can you lean in to the peace in the middle of this oasis, like it is the last moment of your life? Can you lean in that completely? Because that's where you'll find God. Breathe it in. I love you. God loves you. Don't anticipate my next words. There is no next. Just know that anytime you want to, you can return to that island with all your stuff, with all your thoughts and your stressors and your worries, or you can keep floating on this raft. For the rest of this service, for the rest of this day, I invite you to keep floating. Might run into some other peaceful HeartWay members on your journey. In your own time, know that as you come back into your awareness of your body, know that as you open your eyes in your own time, you're still floating. It could be sunny outside. It could be raining. You're still floating on the sea of God's grace. Come back into your body. Feel your arms, your legs, your chest, your face. You may open your eyes. We love you and we thank you, HeartWay. Appreciate you. Good morning. Hi. Are you guys still floating? Good. All right. I want y'all to come to shore, because we got a great message today, all right? So good morning, HeartWay. My name is Clifford. I have the wonderful privilege of being one of the servant leaders here. I do not take this for granted. Truthfully, this is a prayer answer to be able to get up and share with you. It is something that God has put on my heart, put within me, and so I am grateful for this time that you allow me to be able to come into your hearts, come into your minds for a moment on this journey that we call life as we jump into today's message. Today's message is called Perplex by Perspective. And so, you know, when we look at perspective, we all understand what perspective means. It's just a point of view. You know, as I look at the left side of the room, as you guys look up at me and you gaze at everything that's around me, you're looking at me and you're saying, you know, the left side of Clifford is his best side. But the right side over here is standing like, these guys on the left is nuts. Kind of indicative of our politics between what they keep saying back and forth. But that's another topic for another day. But the right side is like, you know what? They don't know what they're talking about. The right side of Clifford is his best side. Right? They're like, listen, he's good. But listen, let me calm it. This is one perspective. I can agree with you. You're both right. You're both right. Both sides are my good side. Now, just wanted to jump into that real quick. Let's jump into the real meaning of perspective. So perspective and its origins, truthfully, perspective is, its definition and its origins are as complicated to understand as it is for us to understand somebody else's perspective. Perspective, the origins, late middle English from medieval Latin perspectiva, science, it is of optics. From perspective, look that closely. From the verb perspecier, to peer through, or specier, to look. The definition, there are two. We're going to go over the first one, and then we'll get into the second one. The first one is the art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to other, to each other when viewed from a particular point, a perspective drawing. A picture drawn in perspective, especially one appearing to enlarge or extend the actual space or to give effect of distance, a trick of perspective. So you guys know with me, whenever I get a chance to teach, this is all about interaction. We do this thing together, right? So for the uninitiated, if this is your first time hearing me teach, this is what we do, so up on the screen, we're going to put a couple of perspective drawings. I want you to be able to see and take a second to look at them to understand that this is taking a 2D piece of paper and turn it into a 3D drawing. So for myself, as a construction manager, my job is to be able to take the perspective of an architect or engineer and to make it tangible. I have to ensure that I can understand their perspective and how to create something, because without it, the building will not function as it has been designed, right? So when you guys came in this morning, there was a little note card and a pen on your chair, and I guess you guys have been wondering, what is this for? Even Pastor Dan, he looked at me, he was like, what is this for? Well, it's for this moment right here. What I want you guys to do is I want you to try to draw the next slide and its perspectives. This next slide will be able to give you the different variations, different perspective of the lines and this box. So I need everyone to try to do this. Everybody. Yeah, you got to draw that. They're like, what? Now for all my art people in the room, they're like, this is easy. I can tell you that for me, I suck at perspective drawing, and I'm a contractor. So listen, I'll leave that part to them. I'll just build it. I can hear some giggles because people like, what? You have to be able to understand that the lines at the bottom of the box are not as you would think equal distance. You're also probably trying to realize, but what about the backside of the box? But you only see the backside of the box through a different perspective. How are you guys doing? You guys didn't think you were going to come to church and have to have a little homework to do, right? As you continue to draw it and you're looking to make sure that you have the lines lined up perfectly to be able to create this perspective drawing. No, I cannot give you any advice, that to which I have none. I can see you, Katina. She's holding the paper up. She's like, are the points correct? Are they lining up? I think that's really good. I like that. Listen, if you're not that good, don't look at hers. How are you guys doing? I'm going to give you guys a couple more minutes. I want you guys to be able to understand it. Sasha says she's got it. I see it. I see it. But everybody has to participate because there's another portion to this. I see a few smiles. Some of you guys look a little perplexed. All right. We're about ready. You guys ready over there? You guys ready? What about here? My center people over here. You guys ready? All right. Hi, y'all. Y'all good? You ready back there? All right. This is my right side. Strong side. So I want you guys all to hold it up as you look at it. Pay attention to the lines. Pay attention to the box. Try to understand the perspective. I want you to think and contemplate about what the actual back side of this box can look like. Now take your paper and give it to your neighbor. Nobody is allowed to have their own perspective drawing. All right? Everybody has somebody else's drawing? You need somebody's? Okay. Ryan has Danny's. So how did you do, Danny? I want you to study the person's perspective drawing. Try to understand how they were able to create this. Try to understand where you can see where the pen marks stopped and where they may have had a hard time. Try to understand for a second how things finally came together. I know sometimes we get a little perplexed by someone else's perspective. But guess what you just did? You just understood someone else's perspective. How many times in life that is our challenge? The next definition of perspective is a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something. A point of view. Like in a guidebook in history is written from an editor's perspective. You see, perspective without experience lacks clarity. Perspective without experience lacks clarity. I mean, you can probably understand what a person is going through. You can be like, you know what? I get you. But you can possibly even empathize. But do you really get their perspective? If you've never had the U.S. Marshals come into your house at 6 o'clock in the morning and put handcuffs on you to take your freedom away when you've done nothing wrong, you can't understand what that feels like. Likewise, for the officers that came in, you may not be able to understand their perspective of having the power to take your freedom away. If you've never had your heart broken in trying to put the pieces back together, you may not understand what it feels like to feel lost and empty and all alone. If you've never gone through any tragedy of losing a loved one, you can sympathize. But can you really understand? You see, for me, my perspectives, they all have been formulated by the experiences that I have. The things that I've gone through, the trials, the ups and downs, the joyful moments included, they're all formulated by my experiences. Let's look at it from a simplistic point of view. Standing here right now, I can see more of the room than you can see. I can see what's going on behind you. I can see the faces and the smiles that is behind you that you can't see. But we all share this same room. At the same token, there is about 25% of this room that I can't see because it is behind me, but you can see. But together, when you look at the different perspectives, it actually creates the entire picture. So as we go through life and we're so combative about trying to understand someone else's perspective, let's remember that we can't always see every part of it. Or maybe we should look a little bit more contemplative perspective. The complexity of complexion. How the quantitative levels of melanin in our skin provokes a preconceived perspective of one's values, worth, intentions, or validity. How can something so simple as a increased number of melanin in my skin create something that is so combative in the world that we live? The skin is nothing but seven layers, and if you've ever had a cut, you know that those layers are very thin. But when we close our eyes and we start to look at each other with our eyes closed, guess what? We are all the same. We all have a heartbeat. We all breathe. We all need love. We all need peace. We all want joy and happiness. We all want to be seen. So as you, I too have been a victim of misappropriated perspectives. I too have gone through somebody judging me based off just my look. Maybe not so much just my color of my skin, but of who they think I am because of how I've walked into a room. Whether I've decided to walk into a room with just some shorts and some flip-flops, or if I decided to walk into a room dressed to kill with a suit and tie, I have been a victim of misappropriated perspectives. Maybe if we take a second to look at what we call Good Friday. Good Friday is the day that Jesus was hung on the cross. So I would wonder at that time and at that moment the perspective that he saw if he would call it a Good Friday. You see, from our perspective right now sitting here reaping the benefits of that Good Friday, he went through something unimaginable. As he walked down the road carrying the cross on his shoulders and people are spitting on him and hitting him and throwing stuff at him, it was not a Good Friday. As he got to that hill and that mountain and they're raising this cross up and they're hitting his hand with the nails, it was not a Good Friday. As his mom stood there watching him hang on the cross with tears in her eyes pleading for her son that did nothing wrong, it was everything but a Good Friday. And maybe for you in this moment, you are going through something in your life and it is not a Good Sunday. Tomorrow will not be a Good Monday because there's that thing in your life that you've been praying to God over and over to take away this pain that you've been feeling in your body and you have no clue what it is, but it is not a Good Friday right here in this moment. Maybe it's a financial aspect. You've been praying for a new job or something to come in that will change the course and trajectory of your life, but it just hasn't happened yet. And you would dare to say that on Fridays when it's payday and you're looking at your check that it is not a good Friday. I want you guys to understand that as you go through this, just as Jesus went through when he pleaded with his Father in heaven as to do we to make a change, to take this cup away that his heart breaks for you as well, but as the two perspectives combine, there's a greater picture. Our Father in heaven is telling us to be, to relax, to be still because I can see the entire perspective. We may not understand why we've lost that loved one and why they're not here beside us right now, that every time we get in the car and we hear a song or we're watching a show on TV, we start to tear up just a little bit because we wish they were here. We wish that we could pick up the phone and give them a call. It's our perspective. As Jesus wrote in the Bible, I started to contemplate the red lyrical content of him telling these parables and these stories as if he was writing it with his own blood. And I look at the words that is in his, that I hear from his heart to try to gain a little bit bit more about his perspective. There's so many great contentions right now in our world that's happening. I've put up a few here on the slide, religion versus relationship. How many times have you had to have discussion that I go to church, but no, no, no, it's not about a religion. It's about my relationship with God. Because some people just don't understand that we are not the typical church where people come in and we're giving praises and nothing continues to happen. They don't get that this is about my relationship with my father. Or maybe right now that is a huge turmoil within our country, our human rights versus religious beliefs. It is something that has stirred up the pot. It is something that it is caused so much hatred and questions. In this moment, I want to be able to stop because last night we had another shooting in a nightclub. Five people died, 18 others wounded. A gay nightclub was shot up because of the hatred that we have here in our world. Because somebody's perspective is so skewed is so skewed that they see only the way to try to accomplish a goal is by hatred. And there's too many people that is giving them a voice to be able to do so. Let us take a second right now to remember. Years ago, the debate was Jew or Gentile. Jews on this side and the Gentiles on this side fought for the same thing. And the Jews on this side fought for the same thing. Years ago, the debate was Jew or Gentile. Jews on this side and the Gentiles on this side fighting each other, not realizing that the God that loves the Jews is the same God that loves the Gentiles. It is another topic in our world today that has caused so much controversy, so much uneasiness. And at the same token, if we just stop for a second, there's so many more things that is alike within each of us. God says he loves the Jew and the Gentile the same. There is no difference. Sometimes wouldn't I contemplate the idea that if all of us could see the world through somebody like Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles, because that's probably the clearest picture you will ever see. Maybe it's humiliation or humility. I got to stop here. I'm smiling because our illustrious pastor last week decided to touch on humiliation or humility. And I'm sitting next to his mom back in the back, and I start to tap on my, I tap her and I said, listen, why is your son up here stealing my message? You see, because me and Pastor Danny, we go to breakfast or lunch, you break bread, we talk about life, we talk about everything under the sun and what we're going to talk about in messages. And I was like, you know what? I was like, there's something there between humiliation and humility. There's a root there. So after service, he gets off stage. I was like, bro, what's the deal? I got a bone to pick with you. He's like, what? I said, because you took my part of the message with humiliation and humility. He's like, but I said humble. I was like, bro, it's the same thing. I love you, man. It's good. It's good. We're going to look at it a little bit better though. All right. Humiliate. Mid-16th century from the late Latin humiliate, made humble. The key part of that is being made humble or to bring low. Humility on the other hand, both from the root word of humble, but also as grounded from the earth. How can these two words with the same root yet have so much different meanings or a different meaning from each other? How can they be on the opposite sides of the spectrum? I started to understand a little bit that one means to humble yourself, but the other one is to bring somebody else low. Same scenario, same situation, but it's about how it is done and who is doing it. Here's an example. My wife, my beautiful wife, she can get up on stage and sing. If I called her up right now to talk, she would have this level of like, not quite humiliation, but like, no, she would look at me. So everybody turn around and look at that. I'm going to need a ride home, anybody. I'll take an Uber. But at the same token, I can call pastor Danny or Ryan up here and they may have a feeling of humility for me to bring them up during the time that I am teaching. It's all about perspective. It is the exact same thing. There's nothing different from having a perspective. We go through life and we see things just through these two things we call eyes to be able to to see and how to adjust and make adjustments to the scenarios that we face. I was riding in a car with one of my friends and he's going through a little bit of kind of baby mama drama relationship. You know, something's wrong because he's sitting there, she's pregnant. It was unexpected. But while they're on vacation, she's taking selfies and she may be in some attire that's a little came from a place that starts with Victoria and ends with a... And she's taking selfies. And he's like, who are you taking pictures for? She's like, you baby. He's like, but I'm right here. I don't know about you. I've never needed to see another picture. He's like, I mean, unless you're going to save it for later, but something's a little off. And he's been seeing these different signs, but you know, he's a very confident man. And he's like, you know, he was like, I'm me. Who does she think she is to be stepping out on me? Like I look good. I'm smart. I'm intelligent. I got some dollars. He's up here losing it. And he has this perspective about himself, rightfully so. And I asked him, stop. I was like, so you realize there's something there. He's like, yeah, but I got to find, I got to find that like that, that, that one piece of evidence that's just going to show it to her. I was like, but you already know. Stop trying to look for something that's already there. You know the truth. But he has this perspective that he needs to get this, this one little thing so he can put it in her face. And I was like, maybe God's perspective in taking you through this is to be able to humble you. He knows who you are. You know who you are. I've learned in my life that God doesn't always teach you a lesson, but there is always a lesson in everything he teaches. I want to encourage you to hold on to your perspective with an open fist. Too many times we hold things like this and we cannot receive any other perspective. We cannot see it because everything is so tight and we are so tense. How can we dare to stop and think that there's another side to this story? How can we dare to stop and think that, you know what, maybe they have a point. Maybe I should have said, sorry. We have to be able to open ourselves up because what is the alternative? How many times perspective has caused a division in our families, our marriages, our community, our politics, our country. How many people are sitting next to somebody right now that they're like, you know what, I wish you should have said sorry in the car. I'm like, I ain't saying sorry. You just don't get what I'm saying. Side note, my wife and I, one time we were in church, right? We were in church and we had got into an argument and we're sitting there and her thing years ago was, I'm not going to hold your hand if I'm mad at you. She's like, I feel like I'm being a hypocrite to God and I'm not going to hold your hand when we're in church and we're praying. So I was like, I said, baby, that's when we're supposed to hold hands, right? And you know how sometimes God does something and your spouse, and it's like you were right the whole time. You want to be able to give up and give God a high five. So we get in the church, right? We had our little tiff and we're sitting there and the pastor says, you know, you should hold hands and pray during those times that you're mad at each other. If I had a chair, I was sure I just sat up there. I crossed my legs and I turned to her and I just smiled. You know how body language can say, I told you so. And listen, if there was a picture in the dictionary, it was me that day sitting there. Yes, I'm married to a Latin woman. Listen, we always seek to be understood, but we don't seek to understand. So stop, stop for a second, breathe. Things can get difficult and you're like, no, I got to get this out. No. Float on the boat, like Ryan said, on a raft for just a second so that way you can see clearer. Close your eyes and pray so that you can see clear. Because when you keep your eyes open, they deceive you in seeing that the person that you know loves you somehow doesn't right now. Nothing has changed. They haven't stopped loving you. They may not like you right now, but they haven't stopped loving you. Matthew 22, 39 says, love thy neighbor. There's so many ways to love. I challenge you today to try to love your neighbor, love your spouse, love your significant other by understanding their perspective. Next slide. You will never see what your eyes can't perceive. You will never see what your eyes can't perceive. Train your eyes to be able to perceive so that way you can see another's perspective. In the wise words of Eminem on the next slide, he's saying you gotta put on somebody else's shoes. Now if I had the beat, I could probably rap it so I don't have the beat right now so I won't rap it. But you have to walk a thousand miles in my shoes just to see what it's like to be me and I'll be you. Let's trade shoes, let's just see what it be like to be you. Feel your pain, you feel mine. Go inside each other's minds just to see what we find. Look at stuff through each other's eyes. You have to be able to see from that other person's perspective what they see. As I close, I just want you guys to understand that perspectives, they're like an onion. They got many layers of complexity. You ever try to peel back an onion without crying? Yeah, you're crying about the perspective of it. But guess what? Just like that onion, perspectives can get stinky. They can get a little rank. They can be uncomfortable as you try to peel back layers to which it causes you to cry. You like that, right? I want you guys to take away from my message today that if love is our driving force, love to see someone else's perspective. I'm not saying that their perspective is right. I'm not saying that yours is wrong. What I'm saying is that you owe it to yourself and the people that you engage with to see what the other's perspective and consider it. It may have some level of validity. And if it doesn't, it may point to a bigger picture as to why they have that perspective. Terrell Owens is a former football player, actually lives here in South Florida. T.O. was known for his arrogance and his cockiness, right? You're a fan? No? So what I remember when I think about Terrell Owens, him doing sit-ups in the driveway with news media around. Like when he was on the field, he was larger than life. And you're like, why is this dude so cocky? Like you hated to love him, because he was just that cocky on the field. Like he would talk trash and he would just showboat everywhere he went. After he retired, he did a reality show and he sat down with a therapist and you start to understand the tragedy of his upbringing. And now you can see a different perspective of him. You can see why he created this persona to be able to be his representative to shield the real person inside. So I challenge you, be open to someone's perspective, be open yourself to know that if you have a certain perspective that could use some refreshing, get into the space to be able to be refreshed so that way your perspective can mature and grow. Don't try to force your perspective in someone else's story. Let's pray. God, we are grateful. We're grateful that you can see the entire picture. We are grateful that you can help us along the way when we only see 75% of what has happened to us or the valley that we are in. We are grateful that you are right there with us, putting your hedge of protection over us that we may be able to walk through those bad times. We are also grateful in the same token that you are right there through the good times for us to be able to have a level of humility to be able to appreciate all that you have done, all the work that you have put into place and the things that you have woven together so that way when we step back and we look at the bigger picture of our lives, Lord, we can say thank you. Thank you for helping us to be able to have a open heart to our lives and the relationships that we hold so closely to ourselves. Help us to be able to live a life reflective to go out and change the world one perspective at a time. In Jesus' name we do pray, amen. Thank you guys, I hope you guys have a wonderful week. Listen, make sure you share HeartWay's message. Don't forget what we have coming up. We have our worship concert going on December 8th, all right, love you guys.