-so last week we started on looking at our attitude, focusing mostly on things inside our heart, what we think of ourselves, and what we think of God.
-and we also asked a whole bunch of questions, yes there were to main ones, but there were a whole bunch of other ones that were there really to get you thinking.
-today we’re going to be looking at what you think of other people, how you treat others.
-because again, how you treat others really says a lot about what you think about yourself and what you think about God. They’re all connected.
**I John 2:9 -> 9Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. (MSG)
-it’s a true statement. Have you ever met someone who says they are a Christian but they are just mean? I don’t mean they got upset over something, a little on edge, I mean they are all the time just downright nasty? And what do you think about their faith when you talk to them? If you didn’t know God for yourself, what would you think about the God they serve?
-what you think of other people can really tell you a lot about what you think about God and yourself. So what about that?
1. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OTHERS?
-when you see someone walking down the hall at school, what do you think of them? What about the person at the drive-thru window? The custodian at school?
-actually, custodians, there’s a good one. I was reading an article by a public relations committee, they are involved with a little community college in classes on the service industry. And on every final exam, every single year there is one question the same: what is the name of the janitor who cleans here?
-this class tries to teach that everyone in an organization is important. Think about the janitors at school for a second, without them there is a chance you may not be getting the kind of education you are at 5 star schools. They clean up a lot of mess in the cafeteria, without them you may not get the lunches you get (at my school your choice was hot dog, hamburger, fries, pizza, that’s it).
-do you know the name of any of your janitors? Have you ever said thank you to them?
-just because they are paid to do something for you doesn’t mean you can’t say thank you. Have you ever worked at a job and no one said thanks for anything you did? Even though it’s your job and you were probably paid in some way, how did you feel when no one said thanks? Or how did you feel when someone went out of their way to say thank you?
-so if you like it when people say thank you to you, how do you think the people at school feel after cleaning up after three full lunches with two thousand students? Just a thought…
-or here’s another question, when you go out and are doing whatever it is you do, are you thinking only about what you need to do or do you notice people who need help?
-I remember one time I was out shopping with Lorie, which is by far one of my most favorite things to do, by far. Shopping is my life. Lots of time when we go shopping I will go off by myself and go to the shoe section because in all my time shopping I’ve learned that if you want to sit down there are two places to go, the lawn and garden center, they have tables and chairs, or the shoe section, they have seats for people who want to change shoes.
-see, look at all you learn here. Anyway, I one time was sitting in the shoe section and this poor guy, he was working all by himself. And you know what people were doing when they were finished with their shoes? Putting them on the floor and walking away. It’s too much trouble to put the shoes back in the box, and it is way too hard to actually put them back where you got them.
-people weren’t thinking about the poor guy who needed to put all the shoes away, and of course, when new people showed up they were frustrated they couldn’t find shoes, like it was his fault. Everyone was only thinking about themselves, something we do a lot in our service based society.
-not how it’s supposed to be.
**Phil 2:3b-4 -> 3Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. (NLT)
-that’s a big question there, do you think of others as better than yourself? Do you view other people with humility?
-Andrew Murray said that a humble person doesn’t think meanly of himself, he simply doesn’t think of himself at all.
-if you go back to the original Greek, it doesn’t use the word humble, it says that you are esteeming each other superior to yourselves. Are you thinking of others as more important than you, and then doing the next part, taking an interest in others?
-what does that mean, taking an interest? Does that mean you simply care, you listen? Does it mean you take an active part? Does it mean you want the best for someone so much you will help them succeed? Only you can answer that question, what that means for you.
-because this is a problem that’s been going on for a long time. Even Paul saw it. Later in this chapter Paul says he’s going to send Timothy to Philippi to help them and see what’s going on. And the reason he would send Timothy and only Timothy?
**Phil. 2:21 -> 21All the others are concerned only with their own affairs, not with the cause of Jesus Christ. (GNT)
-everyone else who was helping Paul, they were worried about themselves. Out of all the people helping him, there was only one he considered to be worried about what Jesus wanted to do, not with what they wanted.
-people who are worried about what Jesus wants, they’re usually worried about others. They’re usually thinking about what they can do to help people see God’s love, they’re worried about how someone feels.
-like even here, when you come to church, to Drink Deep, are you thinking about what you can get out of the night or are you thinking about what you can do to help someone else have a great experience with Jesus?
-in the beginning, yes, you should be going to church to get more of God. But as you mature in Christ, you go not just for what you can get (hopefully you are still getting something), but also what you can give. It’s a two way street.
-Christians worried about themselves go to church. Christians worried about others invite other people to church so they can know God too, they serve so that others can have a real church experience, they walk in the door and they don’t look for their friends, they look for people they don’t know and do what they can to make church a great experience for them.
-because there’s one big aspect on your attitude towards others that’s a little different on your attitude toward yourself and God. Most of what you think about yourself and God is just that, what you think. You can think good thoughts, you can pray in your head, you can encourage yourself without giving yourself a hug (although, sometimes it’s nice to get and give a hug).
-for other people, good thoughts do very little. They need to be able to hear, to feel, to see, to know what you feel about them. So the question is:
2. DO OTHERS KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THEM?
-it’s easy to think good thoughts about someone, but it’s a lot more work for them to feel that. Even here at church, letting others know that they are cared for by God and by each other, it’s work.
**James 3:18 ->18You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. (MSG)
-if we want to be a group of people, a church, a community that is healthy and living how God wants us to, the secret’s there. It’s hard work. It’s working at getting along with each other, it’s working at treating each other with dignity and honor. It’s the work of having the right attitude about other people and carrying it out.
-after all, this is what Jesus asked of us. A famous section I know most of you have heard before:
**Mark 10:43b-45 -> 43”Whoever wants to become great among you must serve the rest of you like a servant. 44Whoever wants to become the first among you must serve all of you like a slave. 45In the same way, the Son of Man did not come to be served. He came to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many people.” (NCV)
-it’s something we talk about a lot here, the heart of a servant. Thinking like a servant. Here’s the thing, serving is an action, not an attitude. To really be a servant, it’s not about what you think or feel, it’s about what you do. Now how you serve, cheerfully or grumbling, that has a lot to do with your attitude. But when it comes to actually serving, it’s something you choose to do.
-that’s why there are all those sections like I Corinthians 13 that deal with your attitude while serving. Because it’s one thing to serve and hate it, and trust me people know. It’s a whole other thing to serve and be happy about it.
-if you want to go about the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity, but you actually treat it like it’s hard work, people are going to know.
-when I go to lunches, I end up sitting by myself a lot, since people don’t want to say hi or anything (insert guilt here), and I watch people. And most of the people who clean trays, they’re pretty happy to do it. They talk with you guys, they smile, they’re generally nice. But there’s one guy, I won’t say at which school, and they are just not happy. In seven years I have never seen this person smile. I have never even seen them talk to anyone, and I’ve tried. I’ve said hi to him, he completely ignores me.
-I get the feeling he doesn’t want to be there. And you know what? It kind of gives me the feeling that he doesn’t want me there.
-that’s the last thing anyone should feel at church, the feeling that we don’t want you here.
-the problem is again, too often we focus church on me. Believe it or not, you feeling good is not the only reason Jesus died on a cross.
**Gal. 5:13 -> 13It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. (MSG)
-by thinking only of ourselves, we destroy our freedom in Christ. By not letting others know they are loved, we destroy our freedom. Freedom grows when we serve other people.
-and that’s a big thing to think about. When you look at other people, when they’re nice to you, when they’re mean, whatever it is, do you see them as someone Christ died for?
-too often, we have turned the wonderful thing that Jesus did for us, sacrificing Himself, we view it as for us. We say it all the time, Christ died for you. How often do you hear Christ died for him? For her? For them?
-when you see other people, your attitude towards others, does it include the idea that Christ died for them too? Maybe they have no idea about it and aren’t living how we think they should live, but that doesn’t change the fact that Jesus still died for them and really we should be doing all we can to help everyone realize that.
-do you look at other people as someone who Christ sacrificed Himself for? Do you view another person as so special God died for them? When you start viewing people in that light, things start to look a lot different…
-I don’t know where you are with God, but He died for you, He made an ultimate sacrifice for you, He loves you more than you could ever know. But He also feels that way towards the person next to you, your parents, the person in the back of your class no one talks to, that guy or girl at school that really just drives you nuts. He did it for them to. And we should do all we can to help them understand that.
