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1. Ways of relating because we are in the position of the Apostle Paul.
1. ¹⁶From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.
1. From now on means that there was a time when he did regard people from a human point of view.
2. He admits that he once knew Christ from a human point of view.
2. He came to understand the limitations that this imposed on him.
3. What is necessary for each of is to understand the limitations of our own points of view with which we have to work.
4. We are often like the blind men in the story of the blind Men and the elephant.
1. One man stroked the trunk and said it was like a hose.
2. One felt an ear and said it was like a fan.
3. One rubbed the elephant's side and said it was like a wall.
4. Another put his arms around a leg and said it was like a tree.
5. The last man grabbed the tail and said it was like a rope.
6. And then they argued what they had seen.
1. Admittedly they are blind.
2. But they still saw.
3. What they did not do was question what they saw.
4. They did not think to discuss among themselves what they had seen so they could have come to a more complete picture.

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5. How often do we find ourselves in this condition?
2. They story of the Prodigal Son is a story about view points and their impact on the lives of three individuals and the familyof which they were a part.
1. The Youngest Son, the Prodigal.
1. At first he looks with a human point of view.
1. He wants his inheritance.
2. He want his inheritance so that he can do with it what he wants.
3. He wastes it.
2. His circumstances change.
1. The trauma of his experience forces on him a differtent point of view.
2. This is what enables him to go home.
2. The Father
1. The Father in the story is the one who is looking at people from an alternative to the human point of view, which must be the divine point of view.
3. The Eldest Son.
1. The story of the elder son is a story of a person who is looking at persons, life, God and almost everything else from a human point of view.
2. The story of the Elder Son is the story of a person who is trapped in the old.
4. The story of the Prodigal son is the story of a person who has become and who is becoming new.
3. The conclusion of the story bears out the conclusion of Paul in his Letter to the Corinthians.
1. ¹⁷So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
2. Illustration of the church member and the rough man.
1. In speech and in action, the man lacked culture and many of the social graces.
2. The complaints from one particular church member were loud and continual.
3. What was the pastor to do.
4. Finally he had the inspiration to, at the time of the loudest and strongest complaint to respond with:
5. "But you should have seen him before he became a Christian."
6. Here was a person who was in the process of change.
7. He had not achieved all that he would in his life.

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4. ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;
1. ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them,
2. and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
3. ²⁰So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
4. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
5. Are you in Christ?
1. Have you become a new creation?
2. Are you becoming a new creation?
3. Has everything old passed away?
4. Is everything old passing away?