Maintaining A Winning Attitude Series

INTRODUCTION

This morning I want to start off a short series entitled, “Discovering the Champion in You.” Sitting in this room this morning are men and women of God who have been miraculously saved. Can somebody say, “Amen!”?

And because you’ve been saved and empowered by the Holy Spirit, you have been transformed from a nobody to a somebody. You’ve been bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus, and the old you has passed away, and behold, or take a look at me, I am a new creation, I am one of God’s champions!

But there are many attributes that make some one a champion. Whether it’s in a competitive sport, event, academics, vocation or yes, the Christian faith, there’s one trait that distinguishes champions from chumps. That characteristic is one’s attitude.

The first message in this series is entitled, “Maintaining a winning attitude.”

Attitude – “A state of mind or a feeling; an arrogant or hostile state of mind or disposition.”

Have you ever known someone who just perpetually had a bad or negative attitude? Everyone has a bad day from time to time, but I’m talking about someone who never has anything positive to say, always in the pits, never sees the good in anything or anybody.

You know, of all people on the face of the earth today, Christians should have the most reason to have a positive and upbeat attitude. But why do many believers have bad or negative attitudes?

We need to understand that our attitudes are a direct reflection of how we perceive the realities of life. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”. If you perceive something to be a problem, then it will be. If we endure many hardships and negative experiences in life, then our attitude has a tendency to be negative.

Sometimes people are in such a bad situation that they have an attitude of hopelessness. Instead of fighting the good fight and battling and persevering through it, they merely resign to the situation and live out a self destructive lifestyle because they have adopted a negative attitude.

The bottom line is merely this - we need to realize that the problems we face are not what will make or break us, but our attitude, or should I say, how we respond to the problem will be the determining factor whether we taste the thrill of victory or taste the agony of defeat.

TRANSITION

Now remember the title of the message, “maintaining a winning attitude”. To maintain something means you need to constantly work on it. So what steps to I need to take to maintain the attitude of one of God’s champions?

Let’s read Philippians 4:4-9

Now this is a powerful passage of Scripture. But we must remind ourselves of Paul’s circumstance when he wrote this.

He did not write this …

…from his mansion on the hill sitting in his Jacuzzi

…right after winning the lottery

…climbing the corporate ladder of success

Rather he wrote this sitting in prison cell unsure of his fate. But in these four short yet powerful verses, we discover four practices that permit Paul to have a winning attitude even in the midst of overwhelming circumstances.

To be a winner at anything, you have to practice, practice, practice.

I. PRACTICE THE “PRAISE PRINCIPLE” (vs 4)

*** The following was borrowed from Kirk De Vine’s (contributor ID 6297) message "What Praise Will Produce (sermon ID 48777) ***

As I look at the Body of Christ today, I am amazed at the attitude that some of us have adopted… It blows my mind how many folks come into the House of God week after week and leave the same way they came… It’s mind-boggling to me how some folk treat the church just like they treat their job… They just show up and put in their time, then complain about everything that’s going on, but do nothing to help the matter… It seems like you ought to get tired of the same old things… You ought to get tired of living from day to day without any joy, peace, and happiness in your life… You ought to get tired of

Being down and out…

Going through…

Going under…

Going backwards…

You ought to be tired of coming in here week after week and leaving the same way you came…

Leaving here with the same ole problems…

Leaving here with the same ole heartaches…

Leaving here with the same ole heartbreaks…

Leaving here with the same ole let downs…

Leaving here with the same ole set backs…

(Don’t know about you but…)

I’m tired of being down and out…

I’m tired of being the tail and not the head…

I’m tired of being the defeated and not the over-comer…

Part of your problem is that you won’t praise God in spite of the problem. Do we really know and understand the Power of Praise…?