Read Phillippians 4:6-9.
Introduction
A family who had twin boys wanted to teach them a lesson about attitude. They took each boy and placed him in a room by himself. The room was full of horse manure. They told the boys they had to stay in their rooms for an hour, then they would come get them. When the family returned to the first boy’s room, he was sitting in the corner of the room just watching the clock, but when they returned to the second boy’s room, he was shoveling the manure out the window. “why are you doing that?” they asked. He replied, “With all this manure in here, there has to be a pony at the bottom of the pile.” The boys were in similar situations, but took completely different approaches.
Attitude determines how we approach life. Our attitude determines the approach we take to life. In the passage we just read, we find two challenges concerning our attitude.
Challenge 1: Adopt the right attitude
Paul, the writer of Philippians, gives three suggestions to help us take the right approach.
A. Don’t Worry (Philippians 4:6)
Do not worry about anything. A scholar did a word study on “anything,” and discovered it really means, “any thing.” Don’t worry, that sounds an awful lot like what Jesus says, “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.”
We see this idea lived out in nature all the time. Jesus uses birds for an example; they do not go out and sow seed in the spring, and water the seed all summer so they can reap a harvest in the fall. They don’t do that, yet they still have food to eat. God provides for them, and if he will provide for birds, why wouldn’t he also provide for us?
When we worry, we are actually putting God into a box and slamming a lid on it. This problem is too big for me to handle, so it has to be too big for God. We can’t go there; we can’t raise that much money. In all honesty, that is what we – myself included – think sometimes. Yet, Ephesians 3:20 says God is capable of doing immeasurably more than we can imagine.
Think about that for just a moment. Immeasurably more than we can imagine; you can’t measure something that is immeasurable – it is impossible, and we can imagine some pretty big things. That means God is capable of doing immeasurably more than we can comprehend. When things come up that are too big for us, we should be asking, “How big is God?” The answer is, he is capable of doing immeasurably more than we can imagine. Jesus says if we seek after the Kingdom first, all of our other needs will be met.
Stop and think. There is not anyone who has added time to their life by worrying about it. Jesus says we shouldn’t worry about tomorrow, because today has enough troubles of its own.
B. Pray about everything (Philippians 4:6)
Instead of spending time worrying about tomorrow, Scripture suggests that time would be more wisely spent praying about it. Paul says the result of carrying everything to God in prayer is that his peace will guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. A peace that we know no matter what comes our way, we’ll be able to get through it with the help of Jesus. We may not understand it or comprehend how this is possible, but we know that it is true. We should not worry about anything, but carry everything to God in prayer through Christ.
C. Be Positive (Philippians 4:8)
We should have a positive outlook. We are encouraged to dwell in the following territory;whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.
Every adjective in this list points to something good, something positive. The opposite of things that are good and positive are things that are bad and negative. The question is, which one are we going to concentrate on – the negative or the positive?
Two men attended the same church service on the same Sunday morning. The first man noticed the organist missed a note during the prelude, the music was too loud, and the preacher had a slip of the tongue six times. The second man enjoyed the prelude because it was one of his favorite hymns, was deeply moved by the music, and listened intently to the sermon because it answered a question that had bothered him for a long time. The difference between these two men is what they concentrated on. The first man took a negative outlook, while the second man took a positive outlook. Which outlook in life are you taking?
There will always be things wrong in life. Illness and economic hardship are just two examples. And, I’m not saying if we get up in the morning and think it is going to be a beautiful day, that it will automatically become a beautiful day. We will experience trouble from time to time. We will face trials of many kinds, but how we respond to these trials is up to us. We can either sit around dwelling on the negative, or we can concentrate on the positive.
Today, we all have something to thank God for. Here are some stats.
• If you were able to get up this morning in good health, you are better off than 2 million people around the world.
• If you were able to come to church this morning without being persecuted, you are better off than 3 billion others in the world.
And, we should be most thankful for Jesus Christ. Paul tells us to think about positive things. Jesus fits into Paul’s list; Jesus is true, pure, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. And, he died that we may have life. Through him, we will be able to spend eternity in Heaven. That is something to be positive about, isn’t it? We should have a peaceful, positive attitude.
Challenge 2: Model a right attitude (Philippians 4:9)
Two challenges lie within this passage. We’ve discussed the first; adopt the right attitude. Now, the second challenge is to model the right attitude. Verse 9 says, “whatever you’ve seen me do or heard me say, put it into practice.”
A father and his young son were driving down the road one day when the car they were following suddenly stopped. The dad slammed on the brakes causing everything the boy was holding to fly back in his face. Amid the French fries in his lap and drink running down his face and shirt, the young boy said a word no one his age should ever say. Dad asked, “Where did you hear that?” “I’ve been watching you,” the boy replied. Rodney Atkins’ song goes on, “I’ve been watching you, dad. Isn’t that cool?”
Whether we like to admit it or not, we are being watched. Our attitude is actually a pattern for others. Saying, “do what I say, not what I do,” will not work. We are being watched, so it is essential we model the right attitude.
We are also impacting them by what we say. I recently watched a video from A Life Without Limbs ministries. It was the story of Nick Vuilcic who was born without any arms or legs. When people looked at Nick, they said, “He’ll never be able to do this.” Or, “He’ll never be able to do that.” Some people even avoided Nick because he was different than they were. People were sending Nick a negative message.
Nick was receiving so much negative feedback that he became overwhelmed. He said he began to wonder if anyone even loved him. He later discovered Jesus had a few words to say about this like “I love you. I love you enough that I died for you.” During his earthly ministry, Jesus talked to all kinds of lost people. He talked to beggars, lepers, prostitutes, and the list goes on, but he always had the same approach. He always did it in a compassionate, sensitive, positive way. People are impacted by what we do and what we say.
Colossians 3:17 says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” In other words, do everything in a way that brings glory and honor to God so others can learn from you. What are you teaching?
Conclusion
Put yourself in the story about the two boys in the rooms full of horse manure. Which boy are you? Are you the one sitting in the manure, looking at the clock, and dwelling on all the things that are wrong? Or, are you the one shoveling the manure out the window asking, “Is there a pony in here?”
A good example of someone who has the peaceful, positive attitude we’ve talked about today would be Job. Let me tell you Job’s story. Scripture tells us Job was a man of enormous wealth; he had a large amount of livestock and several servants. Job was also a man who was holy and respected God. There was a time in Job’s life, though, when it looked very bad. He was subjected to two tests of his faith.
The first test was a day in which Job was visited by a series of messengers. The first messenger told Job a great deal of his livestock had been stolen, and a number of his servants had been killed. While he was still speaking, a second messenger came in and said the rest of Job’s livestock had been stolen, and the rest of his servants had been killed. While this man was still speaking, yet a third messenger came and informed Job his sons and daughters were killed in a mighty wind. Job responded to this test by saying the Lord gives and takes away; may the name of the Lord be praised.
During his second test, Job was infected with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. This would be like having cold sores all over your body. In the midst of all his trouble, Job took a positive outlook. He said, “I know my redeemer lives, and some day I will see him.”
That is a powerful statement from Job, because he knew that things on earth may not get any better for him. They might even get worse, but Job knew at the end, he would be victorious because his redeemer lives. Guess what! Our redeemer lives too. If you have been obedient to Jesus Christ, and have accepted the grace that he offers, you are going to be victorious just like Job. As Christians, we share in the victory that Christ achieved through his death and resurrection. The song title puts it well when it says there is victory in Jesus.
