4 NEW ATTITUDES THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE – My Life Is Meant for Ministry
2 Corinthians 1:3-11 (p. 803) January 4, 2015
Introduction:
It takes somewhere between 2 and 8 months to develop a new behavior. At least that’s what Phillip Lally and his team of researchers concluded at University College in London. 96 people were studied over 12 weeks as to whether they did the new habit they’d chosen and whether it felt automatic or not. The average to develop a new habit was 66 days.
Let me show you a simple test about habits (cross your arms...now look down...which one is on top...for me it’s my left arm....now don’t change it...put the other arm on top...Hard to do huh? Feels weird huh?) But if you did it over and over again for 66 days...it would feel more natural.
Most of what we do comes from how we think and feel...this applies to everyone...regardless of your personality....It doesn’t matter if you are an introvert or extrovert...whether you’re Eeyore or Tigger.
Who you are, the real depth of your soul...your real personality, has been shaped by God. You cannot, nor should you really want to change your personality. It’s a gift made and shaped by God even while you were in the womb. Psalm 139 says, “You created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (v. 13)
But attitudes are different...attitudes are habits. They are things we develop over time. They are things we chose through our thoughts and feelings.
(And you might think “yeah well I know people who always have the same attitude...and it’s “mean, selfish, hurtful.”
And I’ll say “yeah it’s been developed over a lifetime...it’s become their default setting...a habit...because I also know people who are “loving, gracious and compassionate.” It’s their default setting – a habit.
Attitudes are chosen...otherwise God would not ask us to choose the right one after our new birth. Listen to Philippians 2:5. It says “In your relationship with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.”
Mindset = Attitude. “In your relationships with others have the same attitude as Jesus.”
That’s the attitude that will change your life more than any other. It’s the attitude of a servant. It’s the mindset that focuses on this truth, “My life was made for ministry.” As a follower of Christ I will seek to serve others.
I. I CHOOSE TO SHARE COMFORT WITH THOSE IN TROUBLE
Paul the Apostle knows about comfort and He knows about trouble, by the way you can’t experience comfort unless you’re uncomfortable.
Paul doesn’t put on a mask and say, “Oh I’m fine, everything is “hunky dory.” In fact he becomes transparent with his pain. He wants for people who love him to know the truth. This isn’t a pity party for sympathy. It’s a revealing of true pain.
“We don’t want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great stress...it was something beyond our ability to handle or fix...We felt like we could die...in fact we really could have.”
He describes his trouble as “deadly peril.”
This life threatening event happened in Ephesus...but Paul doesn’t go into detail. He doesn’t exaggerate. He’s not a one upper...“O...you think you’ve been through trouble. Let me tell you about what happened to me!”
People who have really suffered don’t usually want to talk about it a lot. That’s probably why we don’t specifically know what Paul’s thorn in the flesh really was.
Paul made no parade out of his pain...but he used it for 2 Godly purposes.
One, it drove him closer to God and taught him better dependence on God.
The Arab’s have a proverb that says, “All sunshine makes a desert.”
The danger with ease and prosperity is that it encourages a false independence, it makes us think we can handle life on our own.
For every 1 prayer that goes up to God thanking Him in prosperity, 10,000 rise up in adversity.
Abraham Lincoln said, “I have often been driven to my knees in prayer because I had nowhere else to go.” He also said, “It is often in misfortune that a man finds out who his true friends are, and it often needs some time of adversity to show us how much we need God.”
The outcome of Paul’s troubles was he had an unshakeable confidence in God... “The Father of Compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.”
Troubles happen in a Christian’s life so, as Paul says, “we choose to rely on God and not ourselves.” (v.9) He has delivered us from this deadly peril...and He’ll do it again!!!” (v. 10)
And the 2nd purpose he chose to focus on was, “I’ve got to comfort others in trouble with the same comfort I’ve received from God.”
The mind is Satan’s playground....“He’s a thief, a liar, and a murderer.” (John 8:44)
He seeks to steal joy, murder hope and he does this with lies... “God doesn’t love you, he’s punishing you! This will last forever. This pain is permanent.”
And many have listened to his lies for so long it has destroyed their joy, and self focus has become horribly unhealthy...so unhealthy it has effected marriages and relationships satanically. This inner wolf has been fed daily and grows ferociously.
Paul chose what brought joy and meaning out of pain. He chose to be like Jesus. He chose a Christlike “mindset” – “I’ll help others who are hurting.”
“We can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
The Message Version says, “He comes alongside us when we’re going through hard times, and before you know it, He brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.”
Most of us question “why” certain things happen. Why did they have to die? Why was she born with a disability? Why did that happen?
There are no easy answers to “why.” Especially for those who do not have a Father-Child relationship with God. If you do not have an eternal perspective then temporary pain and suffering are all encompassing, and even with an eternal perspective it’s tough.
It’s been my experience that God isn’t as interested in answering the “why.” He seems more interested in “how.” How will we respond? How will this turn this person’s heart towards me? or How will it make us more like Jesus?
Oswald Chambers wrote: “If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a multitude of experiences that are not meant for you at all; they are meant to make you useful in His hands.”
Illustration:
[I’ve got a huge problem with the shovel I keep in my basement. It has the latest features of shovel technology. It’s hand operated and air cooled. The problem is the shovel doesn’t work very well unless I put it in my hands.]
The Apostle Paul saw himself as an instrument in God’s hands that God used the circumstances in Paul’s life to make him more effective.
God’s purposes are eternal...so why would He want anyone to be “too” comfortable here? God really does plan for every Christian to be a minister. For that to happen you and I have to put ourselves in His hands and be used for His glory. We are to take the comfort that flows into our lives and allow it to flow through us into the lives of others.
1. You cannot understand this truth if you view life as a martyr.
2. You will never experience the healing joy of helping others if you don’t lose yourself.
3. And sharing life in Christ means becoming transparent and authentic, you have to take off the mask.
Troubles always change us! Always. For those who choose the attitude of Christ, they become ministers. For those who listen to the Evil One they become miserable.
The Biblical word for compassion is...“splangk-nid-zomi.” (“Moved deeply within.”)
God felt our pain...so He moved to help us. “He demonstrated His love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
God put himself “in our skin” as Immanuel. He felt what we feel. When Lazarus had died, God’s Word says, “He was moved in Spirit and troubled. They took him to the tomb and it says, “Jesus wept.” (John 11:33-35)
If we would be like Jesus we must put ourselves in the position to feel others pain...it must move us to minister, sometimes it should make us weep.
Let me ask you...when is the last time you wept for someone in trouble? When is the last time someone else’s pain moved you to be the comforter?
There’s a story going around about a four year old child, whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman, recently widowed. One day the little boy noticed the man was outside on his porch crying. He went into the yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. His mother looked over and saw her son and the old man sitting together. When the child came home, the mom asked what it was he said to the neighbor. He replied; “Nothing, I just helped him cry.”
For comfort and compassion to become real ministry it must move you to go across the street and help someone “cry.”
But Paul also mentions, as he concludes this portion of scripture.
II. PRAYER CREATES A BOND OF LOVE
“You helped us by your prayers.”
“Many will see how God has answered your prayers for us and give thanks...It helps to know many of you share the burden in prayer.”
Paul tells the Galatians “Bear (carry) one another’s burdens and thus fulfills the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2)
Paul is never ashamed to ask for prayer and he firmly believes it helps lighten the burden.
[I don’t share my burdens with everyone. I don’t share them with gossips or those who wear a mask. I share my burdens with those who are filled with God’s Spirit, those who are authentic and transparent, those who love me and my family and extend grace and love. My burden doesn’t make them feel superior, or be used for entertainment. I feel loved, and very safe, as these few trusted souls wrap their hearts around mine.]
Do you know what the law of Christ is? The law we fulfill when we “carry one another’s burdens?”
“A NEW COMMAND I GIVE YOU: Love one another, even as I have loved you.”
By the way...do you know when Jesus, the Great Shepherd gave that new command?
Right after he’d washed his disciples’ feet in an example of ministry, and right before he died for the sins of all mankind.
God had one son, and His life was all about ministry.
["Today we are going to ordain two men into a ministry of leadership. Calling them to follow in the footstep of Jesus as their primary example, and also dedicating themselves to be examples worthy of following at Gardenside Christian Church, as Elders. This is an honorable calling, but it is also a heavy responsibility to shepherd God's flock, showing comfort and compassion to the troubled and hurting, and "washing the feet" of others in humility...]
