Intro: Following Jesus means that we change. We're transformed into looking like Jesus - being more like Him in our ABC's - Attitudes, Behavior and Character.
Today’s message will be on Attitudes. So what is a Attitude? Well Webster defines attitude as: A manner of acting, feeling, or thinking that shows one’s disposition, opinion, etc..
Now we need to understand one thing, Our attitudes may be socially acceptable and good, or they may send very strong warnings to every- one around and that we reject what others think or want.
As Christians the attitudes which we display towards their fellow man will have a great bearing on our relationship to God. Next to knowing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, nothing is more important than having a good positive attitude. Your attitude can do several things:
They can make or break you, heal or hurt you, make you friends or make you enemies, make you happy or make you miserable, make you success or make you a failure.
In fact some people think that the whole world stinks. Here an example: A cranky grandpa laid down to take a nap. To have a little fun, his grandson put some limburger cheese on his mustache, right under his nose.
Grandpa awoke with a snort, staggered out of the bedroom and shouted, "This room stinks!" On through the house he went, shouting louder, "This whole house stinks!" He charged out on the porch and shouted as loud as he could, "The whole world stinks!" The truth is, it was grandpa who stunk. The problem was right under his own nose.
95 times out of 100, when we begin to feel that things in life stink, the problem is not with the world or with others, but with ourselves. The problem is that our attitude has become negative. Change your negative attitudes to positive ones, and you can change your world.
Reading: Micah 6:8 - He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Prayer………………
Title: The Power of Attitude
Someone had rightly said that attitude not aptitude determines ones altitude in life. This message applies to all of us, because we all have attitudes; sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re not so good, and other times they’re just plain our right nasty.
In tonight’s message were going to be revealing 3 facts about your attitude...
1. Fact #1; Your Attitude – Reveals The Real You.
How important is your attitude? Well your attitude is more important than: facts - circumstances – or what others say - it’s more important than your past - your education and your money. Your attitude is more important than anything else.
Understand this that your attitude is much deeper than just a few thoughts you might think or not think. Your attitude comes out of the core of your being. Your attitude represents your disposition, your outlook, your very character.
The Bible says in Proverbs 23:7 - For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, But his heart is not with you. Folks Jesus himself even said, Your attitudes always become actions or reactions.
Let’s visualize it this way... The attitudes inside you are like a jack-in-the box. Have you ever played with one of them? You turn the little handle (all around the mulberry..) and the when you least expect it - he pops out. Now that’s a vivid picture of our attitude, when we least expect it, they will pop out and cause other people to like or even dis-like us.
You see, much Louder than the words you speak is your attitude that keeps telling people what you are really like.
Personally I find this truth that my attitude reveals the real me - to be quite sobering. I like to say, like many others do, when I do or say something that obviously wasn’t the right thing, "I didn’t mean it, but where did that come from," – well truth be told, it came from inside.
When I have a negative, nasty, critical attitude that’s the real me and when you have one that’s the real you. Now understand this we don’t have an attitude just because we had a bad day, we allowed it due to not having self control from the Holy spirit.
So fact #1, your attitude reveals the real you.
Fact #2 Your Attitude Determines The Success And Failure of Every Relationship In Your Life
Matthew 6:33 says - But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
What a difference your attitude makes! Your attitude affects every relationship in your life. And sometimes relationships will never get started in the first place -- because many times your attitude has built up walls... making it difficult for people to be around you.
Bad attitudes effect your marriage relationships/your relationship with your kids/at work/at church/ and even friends.
And the thing that makes a bad attitude so destructive is like a jar of water with the loose lid on it, a bad attitude is eventually going to spill out into some negative actions - destructive words and deeds.
See in Numbers Chapter 12 if you read that chapter, we see 2 brothers and one sister. One brother Moses, had a good attitude.
The Bible says that "Moses was a humble man, more humble than anyone on the face of the earth.." In other words, Moses was teachable and cooperative. He treated people as he wanted to be treated and he lived a life that was properly lined up with his heavenly father.
But Moses’ brother Aaron and His sister Miriam on the other hand, chose a bad attitude - and they eventually spilled out. Miriam seems to have had the worst attitude and she infected her brother, Aaron. In fact, "Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his cushite wife.."
Get the picture? here they are, family members whom Moses thought he could count on and trust, going around behind his back, criticizing him, stirring up trouble among God’s people against their leader, their own brother Moses.
Folks you can never trust people with a bad attitude because they will do things that you never thought they’d do.
You see, most people who stir up trouble do so not out of right reasons but out of bad attitudes. The fact that Moses had married a Cushite wife was not the real problem - it just shook Miriam’s jar. This was just a symptom, an excuse. The real problem was that Miriam had a longstanding bad attitude.
This bad attitude stemmed from her jealousy of her brother’s position and leadership. And out of her own poor self-esteem she allowed herself to become critical and choose to cause trouble.
Often times the things that we criticize and get all stirred up about are not the problem at all. The problem is our own sour, sick, bad attitude. I’ve seen and you have seen; bad attitudes; Destroy; marriages/families/work environments/board meeting/ladies meeting/church services...etc
You see whenever you have an individual or a group of people filled with a bad attitude and wearing a loose lid, trouble is bound to happen, things will rapidly get negative.
Fact #1, your attitude reveals the real you. Fact #2 Your Attitude Determines The Success And Failure of Every Relationship In Your Life
Fact # 3 – Your Attitude Is Always Your Choice.
Philippians 2:5 - Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
With this in mind, right thinking produces right actions. Our actions are the fruit of our deepest thoughts in you.
Ill: Two men are in prison. One looks out through the bars and sees only mud. The other looks out through the same bars and sees the moon & stars.
They are both in the same place. So What’s the difference? It’s the attitude of choice.
Without a doubt, the human mind is the most awesome creation of God. With it, God has given us the ability to think, to reason and to choose whether we will focus on positive thoughts or negative thoughts. In every one of our lives there is the positive and the negative. The choice is, which one we will focus on and feed and nurture on is up to us.
I find it both interesting and tragic that the one thing that no person or circumstance can ever take away from us, the awesome power to choose our own attitude; and it’s usually the first thing we give away.
In closing……
If we allow events and people to cause us to be negative were only hurting ourselves more because in addition to everything else that we know, those effects and misery that we can cause and say or that those who have bad attitudes will bring us nothing more but misery.
Your attitude reveals the real you, it determines the success of every relationship and it’s always your choice of what you do and who you listen too.
Now before we leave, Let us start by Speaking Positive words. The first step in becoming a more positive person is to work at learning to speak positive words. Because the reality is, you help create the atmosphere in which you live by the words you speak.
When your words are positive, you produce a creative, loving, accepting, positive environment. On the other hand when you speak negative words, you create an atmosphere that people no longer want to be around and worst off they will no longer want to be around you.
Therefore the task of the Christian life is to eliminate negative words in their conduct, their speech, and to do away with words that hurt and tear down, start by replacing them with positive words, words that build up, edify and encourage other people.
Ill: Did you ever hear about the 2 guys who were in jail. Tom tried to be real positive no matter the situation. One day he sees his buddy Joe walking down the hall; Tom said to Joe; "Where are you going?" "To the electric chair," Joe replied. "More power to ya," Tom answered.
Well at least Tom was trying to speak positive words. You might say his heart was in the right place.
Beginning today, I dare you to try a little experiment to everyone you meet, whether it’s at a gas station, at a store, at home, at work or at church or in social media -- try to say something positive and uplifting instead of saying something negative.
Do it this for one a week and see what happens. You’ll probably have a great week. Why? because positive words create a loving, creative environment in which to live.
A positive person (and that’s the kind of person I want to be) is not one who refuses to recognize the negative (he knows there are plenty of negatives out there), but he refuses to dwell on them, remember there is always the negative and the positive in every person or situation.
We can look at the land and always see giants if that is what we are looking for, or we can look at the same land and see a land flowing with milk and honey. It’s a meter of focus, it’s a matter of choosing what you will look for.
If want things to work out for you in life - if you want a good attitude - you need to focus on the positive - look for the good in every situation and every person and you will find it.
Then change your attitude and live for Christ with the right mind set.
See folks if you Put God in, you get God out. Put God’s word into your mind and your hearts and then it will come out in your speech and your attitudes.
Amen
