The Power Of Attitude Series

THE POWER OF ATTITUDE

Next to knowing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, nothing is more important than having a good positive attitude. Your attitude can:

MAKE OR BREAK YOU

HEAL OR HURT YOU

MAKE YOU FRIENDS OR MAKE YOU ENEMIES

MAKE YOU HAPPY OR MAKE YOU MISERABLE

MAKE YOU A SUCCESS OR MAKE YOU A FAILURE

Some people think that the whole world stinks. Once a cranky grandpa laid down to take a nap. To have a little fun, his grandson put some limburger cheese on his mustache, right under his nose. Grandpa awoke with a snort, staggered out of the bedroom and shouted, "This room stinks!" On through the house he went, shouting louder, "This whole house stinks!" He charged out on the porch and shouted as loud as he could, "The whole world stinks!" The truth is, it was grandpa who stunk. The problem was right under his own nose.

95 times out of 100, when we begin to feel that things in life stink, the problem is not with the world or with others, but with ourselves. The problem is that our attitude has become negative. Change you negative attitudes to positive ones, and you can change your world.

Someone had rightly said that attitude not aptitude determines ones altitude in life.

Beginning today and lasting for the next several weeks we are going to talk about attitude. And this topic applies to everyone here, because we all have attitudes; sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re not so good, and other times they’re just plain nasty.

Many of the ideas that we’ll be sharing for this series are from a book called The Awesome Power of Attitude written by Dale Galloway. I received this book free a couple of weeks ago when I attended a seminar that he was giving up in Winter Park on Building leadership. As I said I received the book free (explain) most of the books had do with attitude and getting along with people, maybe God was trying to tell me something.

Now today we just want to introduce the subject, lay the ground work for where we’ll be heading. And we will do that by revealing 3 facts about your attitude...

1. FACT #1; YOUR ATTITUDE - REVEALS THE REAL YOU

How important is your attitude? Your attitude is more important than: facts - circumstances - what others say - it’s more important than your past - your education and your money. Your attitude is more important than anything else.

And Understand that your attitude is much deeper than just a few thoughts you might think or not think. Your attitude comes out of the core of your being. Your attitude represents your disposition, your outlook, your very character.

The Bible says in Pr 23:7; "For as a man thinks in his heart, so he is..." (NKJV)

ILLUSTRATION;

> JAR OF WATER -- PUT A LID ON IT LOOSELY -- SHAKE THE JAR VIGOROUSLY UNTIL WATER FALLS OUT.

> ASK PEOPLE WHY THE WATER SPILLED?

. LID LOOSE

. JAR SHOOK

. GRAVITY

NO, THE REASON THE WATER CAME OUT WAS BECAUSE THE JAR WAS FILLED WITH WATER. WHAT’S ON THE INSIDE IS WHAT COMES OUT.

Jesus said, in

MATTHEW 15:17-20

Your attitudes always become actions or reactions.

Let’s visualize it this way... The attitudes inside you are like a jack-in-the box. Have you ever played with one of them? You turn the little handle (all around the mulberry..) and the when you least expect it - he pops out. Now that’s a vivid picture of our attitude, when we least expect it, they will pop out and cause other people to like or dis-like us.

You see, much Louder than the words you speak is your attitude that keeps telling people what you are really like.

Personally I find this truth that my attitude reveals the real me - to be quit sobering. I like to say, like many others do, when I do or say something that obviously wasn’t the right thing, "I didn’t mean it, where did that come from," - it came from inside.

When I have a negative, nasty, critical attitude that’s the real me and when you have one that’s the real you.

Understand we don’t have an attitude just because we had a bad day (all that a bad day can ever do is shake our jar). The reason you have a bad attitude is because you have a bad attitude inside of you/inside of your jar.

FACT #1; YOUR ATTITUDE REVEALS THE REAL YOU.

FACT #2 YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINES THE SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF EVERY RELATIONSHIP IN YOUR LIFE.

What a difference your attitude makes! Your attitude affects every relationship in your life. And sometimes relationships will never get started in the first place -- because many times your attitude has built up walls... making it difficult for people to be around you.