Check Your Attitude - Genesis 40-41 Series

We're going to start with an attitude test. Everybody takes this test. Put your thumbs out. Show me your thumbs. Everybody, I want to see your thumbs. Okay, good. If you have a positive attitude, you put your thumb up. If you have a negative attitude to the word I'm going to say, you put your thumb down. If you have a very strong positive attitude, you put your thumb up-up. And if you have a very strong negative attitude, you put your thumb down-down. Do you got that? Alright. I’m going to give you some words. Here we go.

The first word is coffee. What do we got here? We have a lot of strong attitudes when it comes to coffee.

What about rude people? What do you think about that one? Rude people. Rude. Okay. Alright. Good.

What about roller coasters? How many of you are into roller coaster? Oh, we have a lot of people into roller coasters. Some of them really don't like roller coasters. Okay.

What about McDonald's? What do you think about McDonald's? Oh wow. We've got a lot of opinions about McDonald's. Alright. I think you like McDonald's because you own stock in McDonald's probably. Right? Frank, you're so funny.

Alright. What about worshipping at the Barn? What's your attitude? Oh, look at those. High thumbs up. Don't we love worship? It does amaze me how many positive things people say about the worship at the Barn. I appreciate that.

What about the people of Ambonia? I see you don't have an attitude about them. That’s because I just made that up. There are no people of Ambonia.

What if I told you this. The people of Ambonia hate children. What would your attitude be toward them? Oh, yes. Do you see attitudes in part come based on information and experience.

I want you to understand what an attitude is here because I am convinced that Joseph had an attitude. He had an attitude that drove him through life that allowed him to stay steady in the midst of the many trials that he experienced. In fact let me help you understand what an attitude is. An attitude is a belief that has emotion attached to it and ends with an action. Or has an action attached to it. So it's an emotion attached to a belief that leads to action. That's what an attitude is.

It ties belief and emotion together and produces actions. I think that's why the translators had a hard time translating Philippians 2:5. Let me show you the verse. I'm going to actually show you three translations of it. In Philippians 2:5 it says there in the ESV – Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. They translate it mind. But notice that when the NASB translators came along, they translated it – Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. And when then NIV translators came in they said – In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Jesus Christ.

That's because the word (you can write this word down in your Bible if you're opened up to that passage) is phroneo. And the reason it's hard to translate this word is because it has both the idea of intellect and emotion together. So it's hard to exactly know how to translate it. So in Philippians, 1:7, in the previous chapter, Paul says to them – It is right for me to phroneo you. Some translators say it is right for me to feel this way about you. Other translators say – It is right for me to think this way about you. What is it? It's both. It brings them together. I think the best translation is an attitude because an attitude is emotion attached to a belief that leads to an action. And when we have the beliefs set properly, it allows our attitude to remain in this arrow fashion that takes us through life. That's what I imagine is taking place in the life of Joseph.

As I think through Joseph's life and I see how he seems to be rather even-keeled, even though he's experiencing a lot of challenges, he just has these beliefs that keep him going. He has this attitude about life that's strategic. I hope today as you listen to our story in Genesis 40-41 that you'll see the attitude that Joseph had, you'll be prompted to look at your own attitude, and tie in your own beliefs to where you're going so that your attitude about life can move you in the right direction. So today we're going to do an attitude check by looking at God's word and allowing it to reflect into our hearts so that we can see where are we in life and where do we need to make some changes so that our attitudes are going in the right direction.