Coming At You With An Attitude In 2003

Coming At You With An Attitude

Genesis 4:1-16 Acts 16:11-16 Text Philippians 2:1-11

Tell the person next to you, “in 2003, I will be coming at you with an attitude.” We can be assured that 2003 is going to bring a host of situations in our lives. There are going to be some incredible blessings to enter our lives and into the life of New Life Fellowship Church, and there will also be some incredible losses. Some of us will find the man or woman of our dreams, while others will see a relationships that will come to an end.

Some of us will be blessed with great jobs, while others will head to the unemployment line. Some of us will have babies born to us, and others of us will have our families visited by death. Some of us will rejoice at graduations, and others will be disappointed at failing grades. Some of us will be miraculously healed by the touch of God, and some will discover diseases silently spreading in our bodies.

Some of us will be tempted to sin but will say no, and others will yield to sin and bring a lot of pain into their lives and the lives of those who love them. Some of us are going to be set on fire in our relationship to God, and others will be distracted by the things of this world and begin to grow cold.

Which ever one or combination of these things that happens to us, it is going to cause us to come at one another with an attitude. One thing nobody can give us, and nobody can take away from us is our attitude. We are the ones who choose it, and we are the ones who change it.

In Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 in the NIV , it states “ Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” In the King James it says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” In the New American Standard it says, “have this attitude in yourselves, that was also in Christ Jesus.”

What’s going to be your attitude when God sends opportunities for service or ministry your way this year? Will you see them as a burdens, something that’s interrupted your schedule, or something you hope somebody else will do? Or will you see them as an opportunity to further the cause of Christ in your life and in the lives of others?

One day a lady by the name of Lydia had walked outside the city gates of Philippi in order to attend a woman to woman prayer meeting. The women’s meeting was interrupted by two traveling preachers. They shared with the women the gospel of Jesus Christ, and how he was the very Messiah they had been discussing and looking forward to coming into the world.

As they were speaking, God opened Lydia’s heart as she listened to the men speak. She had never met or seen the men before. She gave her life to Christ and was baptized along with several members of her household. She then invited the men, Paul and Silas to come to her house so that she could put them up for they time they were there in the city of Philippi.

Paul and Silas, said, “thank you, but no thank you.” Now most of us would have graciously accepted their no response and said, “well God, at least I was willing to offer to help and you saw my heart.” But inside we’re really thinking, “thank God I don’t have to do that extra cooking and cleaning.”

What separates Lydia from many of us today is that Lydia then came at them with an attitude. It was not the attitude of rejection, but the determination to have the mind of Jesus Christ which she just heard them preach about. She asked them again, “Come on and let me be a servant to you. Surely you must be tired and need a place to stay.” Again they said “Thanks but no thanks. We’ll be alright”.

She came back at them with an attitude one more time. She said, “now look here, I heard you preach that when Jesus comes into a person’s life there is a change. I heard you say that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Now look, if you consider me a believer in the Lord, then come and stay at my house.” Paul and Silas, knew they had run into a person with an attitude problem for the cause of Jesus Christ. They gave up and went home with her to eat the chicken, the collard greens, and the sweet potatoes. People have been inviting preachers to dinner ever since Lydia.

Lydia did not know when she went to that woman to woman meeting, that her life was going to be forever changed. God is not going to put a big sign for us to see in 2003 that will alert us to the fact that this one little decision we make today, will alter the destiny of our lives. You do not know what a lifesharing class, a pioneer class, a woman to woman meeting, a marriage sensation class, a single’s meeting or a church service might do for you and your family.