ATTITUDE! (part one, serving like Christ) (ALL my sermons use illustrations from sermoncentral.com and all scripture is NIV unless otherwise noted)
In five weeks, I will preach my last sermon! Well, perhaps my last sermon, only God truly knows what He has in store for my life. I know we just celebrated the 4th of July, and I was asked if I had a patriotic sermon planned, BUT, independence day is a tough holiday to preach. I could compare the freedom we have in our country to the freedom Christians have in Christ. BUT, that has been done.
Instead, after prayer and careful consideration I am working on and preaching a series of sermons on, ATTITUDE. The Bible is chock full of verses and passages about attitude. Webster’s defines ATTITUDE as A: a mental position with regard to a fact or state B: a feeling or emotion toward a fact or state. What is our mental position about the state of our church? What does the Bible say should be our attitude?
Well over the next five weeks I would like to look into the scripture and see what it says about what our mental position should be about the church and kingdom work. I hope to preach this five part series, as a message from God Himself and not allow my feelings or emotions to enter into what the scripture says:
Therefore if you have you Bible with you this morning, the first place we must go is PHP 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
This is where we start because ALL of us that have accepted Jesus as Lord of our lives MUST strive to be more Christlike! That may very well start with our attitudes. Attitude is the most important thing necessary for the proper growth of the church. Attitude is ALL about where we really are in our walk with Jesus, in our growth as a church and in what the rest of the world sees us as. If our mental position is not where it should be, the world sees that. So this morning let’s look at where we should be with our attitude, and the four weeks to come we will look at a different aspect of what our attitude should be.
Phil 2:6-8 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross!
From just this passage we see three things important about our attitude:
SERVICE - Jesus took the very nature of a servant.
HUMILITY - Jesus humbled Himself, even though He is God, He humbled Himself
OBEDIENCE - Jesus did as the Father commanded
ACTION - James tells us, James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
FORGIVENESS - Even as the Lord taught us to pray he told us how important forgiveness is, that we MUST forgive those who have hurt us if we expect God our Father to forgive us. SERVICE, HUMILITY, OBEDIENCE, ACTION & FORGIVENESS.
This morning let’s look at SERVICE.
Most everyone here is familiar with the verse where Jesus says; Matt 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
I want you to think about this for a minute, picture the person, celebrity, sports hero, or entertainer you think the most of. Now they come to your home and knock on the door, you open the door and after you pick yourself up off the floor, you invite them in. Now, they tell you to sit down and relax, and they go into the kitchen and whip up your favorite meal, they serve the meal to you, rub your feet, in general wait on you hand and foot. HOW WOULD YOU FEEL?
I think I would feel the way that Peter felt . . John 13:6-8 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" 7 Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." 8 "No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."
I think we all feel that some people are too special to serve, but nothing could be further from the truth. It does not matter where we’ve been, or where we are in life, there is a way to serve the kingdom, and our Lord.
The whole area of service is a very important one in the Christian life. The importance can be seen in the difference between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea in the Holy Land. The two bodies of water are connected by the Jordan River in a direct north-south line along the Great Rift Valley. Clear, sweet water from underground springs flows into the Sea of Galilee. And the Sea of Galilee flows south into the Jordan. Galilee is a gorgeous, active lake, full of life that has sustained fishermen in the region for millennia. The Dead Sea, by contrast, is a shallow, selfish basin with no outlet. It hoards the water that flows into it. Some water evaporates, leaving behind brackish, clouded water so dense that swimmers bob like corks. The whole sea is dead. When we as Christians have no outlet of service, we too can become spiritually dead, and stagnant. Instead of our faith being attractive, life giving and fruitful, we become as off-putting as a stagnant pond.
So many Christians have the attitude that, some where in their life they have paid their dues, they have served God and His church and they do not need to do anything else. Many others just feel that someone else will do what needs to be done and therefore they do not need to do anything, they attend and that is enough. Jesus, the Son of God, was willing to work, and even on the day of rest.
John 5:16-17 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17 Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."
We are all saddened to learn this week of the death of one of our church’s most valuable members, Someone Else. Someone’s passing created a vacancy that will be difficult to fill. Else has been with us for many years, and for every one of those years, Someone did far more than a normal person’s share of the work. Whenever leadership was mentioned, this wonderful person was looked to for inspiration as well as results: "Someone Else can work with that group." Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend, one name was on everyone’s lists- Someone Else! "Let Someone Else do it" was a common refrain heard throughout the church. It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the largest givers in the church. Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed Someone Else would make up the difference. Someone Else was a wonderful person, sometimes appearing superhuman; but a person can only do so much. Were the truth known, everybody expected too much of Someone Else. Now Someone Else is gone! We wonder what we are going to do. Someone Else left a wonderful example to follow, but who is going to follow it? Who is going to do the things Someone Else did? Remember- we can’t depend on Someone Else anymore!
Bill Hybels puts it this way: “I would never want to reach out someday with a soft, un-calloused hand – a hand never dirtied by serving – and shake the nail-pierced hand of Jesus.”
Our attitude needs to be one of service because Jesus was a servant. If we are to succeed as a church we can not stand by and watch 10% of the people do 90% of the work. EVERYONE, must do their part, and not only serve, but serve with joy!
The scripture tells us that those Jesus sent out, served with joy.
Luke 10:1-12 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. 5 "When you enter a house, first say, ’Peace to this house.’ 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. 8 "When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ’The kingdom of God is near you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11’Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’
Luke 10:17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name."
One Pastor who was praying on a nearby beach tells this story: a man walked by with a big smile on his face and said to me "Good Morning!" I noticed he had one artificial leg and he had been walking by the beach. I noticed on the sand behind him one footprint and a track where the man had been dragging his one artificial leg. I decided to follow the track he made on the sand; it kept going and going and going! After two miles, I cried and realized that I had nothing to complain about as I walked with my two good legs compared to that man who had this great attitude of life in spite of his disability! As I thought of that man with his smile, I couldn’t help but smile and say "Good Day!" to everyone I met the rest of that day! How is our attitude about the life God has given us? Do we complain every time we are asked to serve? Or do we just ignore the need to serve completely?
I have learned that many people are willing to talk about what needs to be done, they are aware of what God wants done, but instead of taking action, they only tell others what they see needs to be done. BUT, I am here to tell you, and to remind myself, that nothing will get done as long as we are talking about getting it done. It is time for everyone here to step up to the plate and do their part. If the church is to grow, EVERYONE must work, everyone must serve, and do so with joy.
There was a man in a community that had the reputation for always being able to catch fish. Regardless of the time of the year it was, or whether anybody else was catching fish, this man was always managed to come back with a boat load of fish. His brother-in-law, who happened to be a Game Warden had always been amazed at the man’s success. So, one morning the man agreed to take his brother in law fishing with him. They went to a lake that was known for its poor fishing. The game warden watched his brother-in-law take the boat out to the middle of the lake and cut the motor off. The game warden was confused as he noticed that his brother-in-law didn’t worry about finding a ledge or brush-pile, or anything like that. Then instead of getting his rod and reel out, the game warden’s brother-in-law pulled a stick of dynamite out of a sack, lit it, and threw it overboard. A few seconds later, there was a big boom, and almost immediately the surface of the lake was covered with stunned fish. The Game warden couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed. He immediately began reciting the fishing laws and regulations to his brother-in-law. But this didn’t seem to bother his brother in law in the least. He simply reached into the bag for another stick of dynamite, lit it, and tossed it to the game warden and said, "You gonna talk, or you gonna fish?" The game warden noticed the fuse was almost to the end and He quickly decided to fish. Now that story probably isn’t true, but it’s still a good story. Unfortunately I think God would like to throw some of us a stick of dynamite this morning and say, "Are you gonna talk, or are you going to fish!"
Are we going to talk, or are we going to fish. Is our mental position about the lack of growth in our church one that we are willing to grasp, or are we going to give up? Are we willing to do our part, or do we believe that the leaders should do it ALL?
We MUST keep a positive attitude about the church, the kingdom and each other. Without the attitude of Christ, we might as well be dead!
Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, ’Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life." "Yeah, right, it’s not that easy," I protested. "Yes it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line—It’s your choice how you live life." I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business—-he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gun point by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices-—I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live. "Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, ’He’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action." "What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. ’Yes,’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ’Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ’I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’" Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
I ask you to think about your attitude, is it one of service as is our Lords? As the musicians come forward this morning, I invite you to come to the front and accept Jesus as Lord of your life, I invite you to come and pray with me about whatever Jesus is calling you to do. Won’t you answer His call?
