NOTE: I am indebted to Jim Mooney of sermoncentral.com for the idea for this sermon. I took his basic idea from the sermon “How to Have a Winning Attitude” and customized it to fit my own style and congregation.
The Christian Attitude
Phil: 3:8-14
Introduction:
THERE IS A SHORT STORY BY G.W. TARGET TITLED "THE WINDOW" WHICH TELLS OF TWO MEN WHO WERE ROOMMATES IN A HOSPITAL ROOM. ONE MAN WAS ALLOWED TO SIT UP FOR AN HOUR EVERY AFTERNOON TO DRAIN FLUID FROM HIS LUNGS WHILE THE OTHER MAN HAD TO LAY FLAT ON HIS BACK. THE MEN WOULD TALK FOR HOURS. THEY DISCUSSED THEIR FAMILIES, THEIR JOBS, THEIR MILITARY SERVICE, & JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE. THE MAN WHO COULD SIT UP LOOKED FORWARD IMMENSELY TO THE HOUR EVERY AFTERNOON WHEN HE COULD PROP HIMSELF UP & LOOK OUT THE WINDOW BY HIS BED. EACH AFTERNOON HE WOULD DESCRIBE WHAT HE SAW TO THE OTHER GENTLEMAN. HE TALKED ABOUT HOW THE WINDOW OVERLOOKED A BEAUTIFUL PARK WITH A LOVELY LAKE. HE TALKED ABOUT THE SWANS SWIMMING ON THE LAKE & THE YOUNG CHILDREN PLAYING ON THE WATERS EDGE. HE DESCRIBED THE BEAUTIFUL TREES & FLOWERS THAT ADORNED THE LAKE. THE MAN ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM WOULD CLOSE HIS EYES & IMAGINE THE PICTURESQUE SCENE. AFTER SEVERAL DAYS OF HAVING THE BEAUTIFUL SCENES DESCRIBED TO HIM, HOWEVER, HE BEGAN TO WONDER, "WHY SHOULD HE HAVE ALL THE PLEASURE OF SEEING EVERYTHING WHILE I NEVER GET TO SEE ANYTHING? IT JUST ISN’T FAIR." LATE ONE NIGHT THE GENTLEMAN BY THE WINDOW BEGAN TO CHOKE & COUGH BECAUSE OF THE FLUID ON HIS LUNGS. WHILE THE SECOND MAN WATCHED HIS ROOMMATE STRUGGLE & GROPE FOR THE CALL BUTTON, HE NEVER USED HIS OWN BUTTON TO CALL FOR HELP. IN LESS THAT FIVE MINUTES THE MAN WAS DEAD. THE NEXT MORNING THE NURSES CAME IN & FOUND THE LIFELESS BODY OF THE MAN BY THE WINDOW. SOON THE BODY WAS MOVED & AS SOON AS IT WAS APPROPRIATE, THE OTHER MAN ASKED TO BE MOVED TO THE BED BY THE WINDOW. THE NURSE WAS HAPPY TO COMPLY WITH HIS WISHES & THE MAN WAS MOVED & MADE COMFORTABLE. SLOWLY & PAINFULLY THE MAN PROPPED HIMSELF UP ON ONE ELBOW TO TAKE HIS FIRST LOOK. FINALLY, HE WOULD HAVE THE JOY OF SEEING IT ALL HIMSELF. HE STRAINED TO LOOK OUT THE WINDOW BESIDE THE BED. AS HE DID SO, HE SAW NOTHING BUT A BLANK WALL.
Attitude is everything. One man looked at a blank wall and saw the beautiful country side, the other was shown the countryside and was inspired to jealousy, angry and some might even say murder. Both men had the same plight, they shared the same room and were treated by the same doctors. It was the attitude of each man that made the difference. Our attitudes affect everything we do in life – great and small. It effects the way we do our jobs, the way we treat our loved ones, the friends that we have, and it even effects our relationship with God. Do you have a spiritual role model? Someone you have always looked up to as a someone who you would like to be like spiritually? The truth of the matter is that you can be. The spiritual giants we have know don’t have some special power from or grace from God that we don’t have. The Apostle Paul and Peter and James and John all had the same Holy Spirit that we have. We all have the potential to be just as close to God as they were. Its all about attitude. Do you have the attitude you need to have in order to grow closer to God? The sermon this morning, in a nutshell, is this - If we want to grow and mature in our Christian lives, we must have the proper Christian attitude.
And Paul shows what that attitude is in Philippians 2:8-14, lets read those verses now.
Philippians 3
8
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
10
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
11
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
12
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
I. If we want to grow and mature in our Christian lives, we must value Christ above all else. V 8
Paul had one chief concern that overpowered everything else in his life. He valued one thing above all else – Christ Jesus. “I count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” Paul said that he had lost everything in his service to Christ. He had lost his place in the Jewish world, given up his dreams of authority and prestige. Whatever comfort his life had had was gone forever. As he write these very words he is sitting in a Roman jail. But it’s all dung –garbage, refuse, waste- as far he in concerned. The importance of those things is so pale compared to the importance of Christ that they are not with even thinking about. I am reminded of the words of Job “Tho He slay me, yet will I serve Him!”
I was dedicated to a lot of things growing up. I tended to get really excited about things and be really into them for a few weeks or a few months and then it would get old and I would move on to some new and exciting thing. I wanted to play an instrument one month and learn to paint the next. Roller blading one week and then wanting a new paintball gun the next. I went thru a stage where I wanted to learn how to play chess so went and checked out a bunch of books a the library. When I took those books back I stumbled onto some books on drawing and checked those out so I could learn how to sketch. The lsit goes on and on and on and on. As a result I’m really not all that great at any of those things, I was really dedicated fully to any of them. My attention was always pulled away by something or other. When someone becomes really great at what they do, it almost always because they spent years dedicating themselves to it. Pete Rose didn’t just wake up one day as a great ball player, he dedicated his life to being a great ball player. Tori Murden didn’t just hop into a boat one day out of the blue and row across the ocean – it took her three tries before she made and countless hours of preparation and training.
Back in the late eighties Meryl Streep stared in a movie called Ironweed. She played a ragged derilect that died in a cheap motel room. For more than half an hour before the scene she hugged a bag of ice cubes in an agonizing attempt to discover what it was like to be a corpse. When the cameras came on she just laid there as Jack Nicholson cried and shook her limp body. The just laid there for take after take and in between take too. One of the crew members got scared and went the director and said, What’s going on? She’s not breathing!” When the director looked at her he saw no signs of life, but he let the camera keep rolling. After the scene was done and cameras were off she still didn’t move. It took ten minutes for her to come out of the state she had sunk herself into. The director was amazed and said, “Now that’s acting!! That is an actress!” She was willing to go the extra mile and do the unthinkable in order to be a great actress. Personally, I think she was being silly about the whole thing, but I wish more Christians had that level of zeal when it comes to their walk with the Lord.
In Roman twelve Paul exhorts us to be living sacrifices to God – lay all that we are on the alter. The only problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the alter. We must stay on the alter, we must value Christ above all else if w are to continue to grow as Christians.
II. If we want to grow and mature in our Christian lives, we must always be moving forward.
a. Develop Godly dissatisfaction
There is good kind of contentment that we should all have as Christians. We are content with our station in life. If we are rich or poor, if we are loved or hated, if we famous or unknown doesn’t matter to us, regardless of theses things we remain content in Christ Jesus. This was the type of contentment Paul had while he sat in a Roman jail. He says in just the next chapter that, “. . . I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”
But there is also a negative kind of contentment that Paul, and everyone that is Spiritually mature, shuns. Paul was never content with his own growth as a Christian. No matter how much he grew or how close he got to God it was never close enough. “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect” Paul says. I’m not there yet! I strive for perfection, but I haven’t gotten there yet so I continue to reach for it. Paul said this at the height of his missionary work, I still need to grow closer to and become more like Jesus. We must never become satisfied with where we are spiritually. To many of us become satisfied and think that we are “mature” don’t need to grow and more. Then we stagnate and eventually we will start to slide backwards and away from God. “But I’m a pastor!” “I’m a deacon” “I teach Sunday school!” That’s all fine and good, but you must continue to push forward in your relationship with Christ.
Your spiritual life is somewhat like a treadmill. You must always be in motion, the second you stand still you find yourself thrown off the thing. But the more you move and the longer you walk the stronger you become.
ILL: I used to work at Johnson and Murphy show store in Nashville. It was a higher end men’s shoe store and we worked on commissions. A single pair of shoes might sale for as much as 300 dollars, and they were very picky about how we dealt with the customers. In the time I spent there I became a pretty good little shoe salesman. I learned about the products and how they were made. I learned how to anticipate what the customer would need or want, and I usually had pretty good sales at the end of each month considering the few hours I work each week. But Paul, he was my boss, never just patted me on the back and said great work. It was always, “That’s ok but look here at my sales”. “Imagine what you could sale if you. . . did whatever.” He was always pushing me to do more and get better—never to be satisfied with what I had done. If he had allowed me to become content then I would have stopped getting better and eventually I would have gotten worse.
It’s the same in our Christian lives, we must always press toward the mark of the high calling. The runner that is in first place half way thru the race and then stops will in up in last place. Our spiritual journey is an ongoing one. If I do nothing else, Paul says, this one thing I do –press on! In short we must be wholly devoted to growth.
III. If we want to grow and mature in our Christian lives, we must leave our past behind.
Paul had an ugly past just like many of us do, but he refused to be influenced or held back by his past sins and failures. It was most likely Paul who stood and encouraged the stoning of Stephen. It was Paul who made it his business to hunt down and murder the followers of Christ. He had a walk-in closet full of skeletons. But he had closed the closet door and bolted it shut. Satan would come and whisper into his ear, “You do you think your are? An Apostle? You hunted them down like dogs!” or “ You’re a failure Paul! Look at Corinth you told them about Christ and they are already going right back to their sin and they don’t even respect you anymore Paul!” And every time Satan whispered thoughts like these Paul replied, “I must press on!” The past is over and the future is before me! I am forgiving my sins! I am forgiven my failures! I MUST PRESS ON!!
A story is told about Satan having a yard sale way down in deep Egypt. He spread out all of his favorite tools on tables and placed prices on each. One buyer purchased and sparkling well kept tool labeled anger for a reasonable price. Another bought a slightly worn jealousy tool for a little more. All day long people cam and went, and then near the end of the day a man saw an old tool laying on a table in the back. It was rusted and worn, the hinges squeaked and the handle was partly broken, but the price tag was exuberant! It cost far far more than any of the others. Even lust has gone much cheaper. “Why is this so high?” the perspective buyer asked. “Ahhh” replied Satan, “That is my most effective and often used piece of equipment and I hesitate to let it go. Christian can eventually get over almost all of my other weapons. They can recover from lust, greed, and envy. But this tool works quietly without them even being aware I am using it. I can slip it in and keep them defeated for a lifetime. That tool is ‘discouragement’” he hissed. “I remind them of their sins and failures. Of how weak they truly are and they never even know what I am doing.”
We must not allow Satan to continue to use this tool. We must have the same attitude and as Paul. “I MUST PRESS ON! I am forgiven my sins and failures! Christ is my strength where I am weak! I am a child of Almighty God!”
Conclusion:
Attitude is everything. We all have the potential to be spiritual giants, but only a few seem to actually become a giant. To many of us don’t have the proper attitude for real growth. We reach a certain point and then we either level off or fall backwards.
There is an old story about a happy little boy who went out into the field. He had on his baseball cap & was carrying a baseball & bat. And on his face there was a look of tremendous confidence. Cocking his bat, he tossed the ball into the air, saying, "I’m the greatest batter in the world!" Then he swung & missed. "Strike one," he said. He picked up the ball, examined it, & then threw it into the air again. As he swung, he repeated, "I’m the greatest batter in the world." Once again he missed. "Strike two," he said. This time, he stopped to examine his bat to make sure there wasn’t a hole in it. Then he picked up the ball, adjusted his cap, & tossed the ball into the air for the 3rd time. He repeated again, "I’m the greatest batter in the world," & swung with all his might - & missed for the 3rd straight time. "Wow" he cried, "What a pitcher. I’m the greatest pitcher in the world!"
Or would you be more like the woman who was bitten by a rabid dog, and it looked like she was going to die from rabies. The doctor told her to put her final affairs in order. So the woman took pen and paper, and began writing furiously. In fact she wrote and wrote and wrote. Finally the doctor said, "That sure is a long will you’re making." She snorted, "Will, nothing! I’m making a list of all the people I’m going to bite!"
In both cases attitude is what makes the difference. What is your attitude toward your Christian life? Do you
· Value Christ above all else?
· Always move forward?
· Leave the past behinds you?
If you answered no to any of those then you have the wrong attitude and you will mature to be the child of God you have the potential to be and that the Father wants you to become. Search your hearts this morning and if necessary change your attitude or better yet ask God to help you change it.
