What do…
Ricky Davis,
Milton Bradley, and
Kevin Johnson
… have in common?
Well, they are all great athletes who have played for Cleveland teams. But the phrase that comes to my mind is “bad attitude.” I, for sure, don’t know the details of the stories with these men and you certainly can’t believe everything you read in the papers. But it seems that in spite of their great talent, these men lost their jobs here in Cleveland because of attitude issues. I remember a quote from the great Green Bay football coach, Vince Lombardi:
If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.
Someone said, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” It makes a big difference on a team, in an office, in a family. And it’s a big deal to God. He’s looking for players – for Christ-followers – with great attitudes.
You know me, O LORD; You see me; and You examine my heart’s attitude toward You.
Jeremiah 12:3 (NASB)
When God examines your attitude, is He pleased? Are you sinning against God – not by what you do – but by your bad attitude?
Book. Booklet. Last week, many of us confessed sins of thought. If you are just joining us today, start on p. 8. Pick up booklets in the foyer and the books in the bookstore. A word about why and how to add this to your time with God…
Lots of opportunities here at CVCC:
Spiritual growth classes catalogs.
Examining the claims of Christianity. May 2 at 11:45 in room 140.
Fresh Start (Sunday AM at 10:00 and 1st and 3rd Wednesdays at 7:30pm)
Scripture vs. tradition. May 2 at 10:00 in room 106.
We want prosperity as a nation and as individuals, but why are we experiencing so much calamity? Why are there so many broken marriages and so many rebellious children and teens? The division and the broken relationships and the bitterness in our homes and churches and businesses are epidemic.
Are you truly prospering? Or do you know calamity?
He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion. How blessed is the man who fears always, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
Proverbs 28:13-14 (NASB)
We conceal our transgressions by acting like we’re OK when we’re really not. We don’t confess our sin from a broken and contrite heart. We don’t passionately forsake our sin; but we tell God we’re sorry while harboring thoughts of going right back to the sin as soon as we finish the confession. We harden our hearts to the conviction of God’s Spirit by saying, “It’s not really that bad.” So, we don’t prosper. We know calamity. We have an incredible need for spring cleaning.
Revival begins when we understand that we are under some measure of well-deserved discipline from God. My sins have caused Him to hide His face of blessing. His face is in some way turned away from us. We’ve grieved God and caused His fullest blessing to be held back. We’ve seen some results, but they are meager compared to what God would like to do with and through and in us.
Not enough prosperity? Too much calamity? This comes from not enough fear of God. Too much concealed sin. Too much compromise. Not enough confession. Not enough forsaking of sin.
Not only do prosperity and calamity in this life hang in the balance when it comes to our passion for confession and cleansing, but heaven and hell hang in the balance. Our purity – our holiness – are proofs that we really know Jesus as Savior and Lord. Remember a verse from last week:
Make every effort… to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
Hebrews 12:14, p. 176
“Wait! I’ve just received Jesus as my Savior. I thought He paved the way for me – that what I needed to do was trust Him. I did that. Now, are you telling me there’s more that I must do to be assured of heaven?”
No. But what the Bible teaches is this faith in Jesus is the root of salvation; holiness is the fruit of salvation. No fruit means there’s no root. People who say they’ve come to know Christ, but who never experience a changed life are self-deceived.
Has your life been changed? We’re all going to commit sin until the day we die. But as our Pastor of Spiritual Growth, Gary Nave, says, “We won’t be sinless; but we must sin less.” So, a person who claims to be a Christ-follower must be a person who pursues holiness.
This Spring Cleaning series is designed to help you pursue holiness – to get clean before God. Last week, we confessed sins of thought. This week, it’s our attitudes. See, one part of our holiness that we often overlook is our attitudes. But God doesn’t overlook it.
Put off your old self… be made new in the attitude of your minds… put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24 (NIV)
I was thinking this week about all the different kinds of attitudes that keep us from experiencing God’s best for our lives.
Would the people who live with you or work closely with you say that you are…
… an angry person?
… a frustrated person?
… a worrier?
… a complainer?
… a bitter person?
… an irritable person?
… greedy?
… envious?
… a selfish person?
… a critical person?
… arrogant?
… cynical?
… depressed?
… fearful?
… impatient?
What do you see when you look in the mirror? Any of these attitudes held long-term will ruin a business, a family, a team, a school, a church. We must learn that:
What happens to you is not as important as what happens in you.
These are bad attitudes that detract from the glory of God. They are attitudes that are planted in our souls by the enemy. They arise out of our sinful nature. If left unattended, they will derail your spiritual life, wreck your family life, and destroy your influence.
No one wants to hang around defeated, discouraged, depressing, demanding people. And God can’t and won’t use you to the fullest.
And so, I encourage you to ask yourself a question:
Do I have a high altitude attitude or a low altitude attitude?
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude is more important than the facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home. The remarkable thing is that we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past ... we cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And, so it is with you ... We are in charge of our attitudes. -- Chuck Swindoll
As I read the Bible, what I have noticed is that God has an antidote for bad attitudes of all kinds. is looking for an attitude of gratitude from His people.
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;
Colossians 4:2 (NASB)
A thankful heart is a happy heart.
A passage that speaks to this issue of an attitude of gratitude and that God has been leading me to recently is from Psalm 103. Let’s read it together.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Psalm 103:1-5 (ESV), p. 437
The speaker? King David of Israel.
The listener? King David of Israel.
The topic? How to raise the altitude of his own attitude.
David is prodding himself – urging himself and stirring himself – to bless the Lord. To bless the Lord means to say good things about the Lord with admiration. So David prods himself: “Bless the Lord, soul. Remember His benefits, soul. Be thankful, soul.”
When you feel your attitude sinking, plead with your own soul: “Bless the Lord, O my soul! Come on, soul. You should be soaring, not sinking. Why do you get angry or bitter or greedy or impatient when you have this God as your God? Why are you selfish and critical and depressed? Look at what God has done! Look at what He is like!”
Part of us sees and feels the goodness God. But part of us doesn’t. So we preach to ourselves, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” All that is within me. Not just part of me. We ought to have a sense of discontent that our soul isn’t fully kicking-in when it comes to blessing God.
To raise the altitude of my attitude, I will remember that…
1. Jesus forgives me. v. 3a
What do we deserve for our sins? Destruction. Damnation. Death. But what do we get?
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity…
Maybe you’re thinking that you have committed such a terrible sin that God cannot forgive you. You are just a broken heart and a bended knee away from full and free pardon.
Jesus forgives me.
2. Jesus heals me. v. 3b
This is a verse that some struggle with. How can the verse say this?
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits… who heals all your diseases…
Lost Dominic. Losing Ted. Obviously, many of God’s people have prayed for healing, but they have died fighting a terrible disease.
Paul prayed three times that God would take a thorn in the flesh from him, but God didn’t do it in Paul’s lifetime. But in heaven TODAY, Paul is healed. God has answered that prayer . . . eventually. People that I have buried, who died of cancer, are in heaven today without cancer. Even though cancer is a terrible ravage of the human body, it is only temporary to us who believe in Jesus Christ. God will raise our bodies up perfect, we will be like Jesus when we see him, and we will have a perfect body. On Resurrection Day, we will be healed of all diseases.
Therefore, look beyond your sickness and this present life. Bless the Lord who will heal you of all your diseases.
There can’t be many Christians, who at a time of physical weakness haven’t lifted up their hearts to God in earnest, believing prayer. The fact that their recovery may not have been instantaneous or that the sickness appears to have run its course or that medical aid has been used, is no argument against divine healing. God doesn’t bind himself as to how he operates. Jesus didn’t come into the world to stop suffering, nor to explain it, nor to take it away, but to fill it with his presence. But having said that, we can also take heart that he has given us specific promises in his Word to encourage us to look to him for healing - for indeed he is able.
Jesus heals me.
3. Jesus redeems me. v. 4a
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits… who redeems your life from the pit…
David didn’t live a sheltered life. Even as a young shepherd lad he’d been within a hair’s breath of certain death, and ever since danger seen and unseen had never been far away. That’s the thought behind his praise to God who "redeems your life from destruction". David didn’t claim that he was automatically preserved from being troubled by dangerous circumstances. What he’s saying is that, in these circumstances, God watches over him and preserves him. The historian recounts how King Saul, jealous of David, tried on two occasions to kill David but he escaped these attempts on his life. The historian notes that "the Lord was with him". The Lord had redeemed David’s life from destruction.
Does this mean that the Christian is always protected from harm and danger? No, but rather that the Lord keeps his children in the centre of his will, all the time and in all circumstances. No harm can come to them unless he permits it. It means that there’s no such thing as "chance" or "being lucky". The Apostle Paul confirmed this when he wrote, "We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him" (Rom 8:28). Sometimes God has to allow unpleasant things to happen to bring us back into the line of his will or to further his purposes that are beyond our understanding. They may be perplexing but allowed by a God of love. David recalled the events of his life and realised how time and again God had "preserved his life from destruction" and so he gave thanks to God who preserves.
Jesus redeems me.
4. Jesus crowns me. v. 4b
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits… who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy…
Jesus crowns me.
5. Jesus satisfies me. v. 5
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits… who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
List the things you have; God gave you those things for your pleasure. Your attitude about those things determines your satisfaction. Half the world is unhappy because it can’t have the things that are making the other half unhappy. The unhappy person isn’t someone who didn’t get what he or she wanted. The unhappy person is the one who got what he or she wanted and then found out that it wasn’t as wonderful as expected. The secret of a happy life is not to get what you want but to live with what you’ve got. Most of us spend our lives concentrating on what we don’t have instead of thanking God for what we do have.
Jesus forgives me, heals me, redeems me, crowns me, and satisfies me. One of the reasons we end up with bad attitudes is because we forget what God has done for us.
A positive example: Joseph
As for you,
you meant evil against me,
but God meant it for good.
Genesis 50:20 (ESV)
Joseph – a high altitude attitude. His attitude was soaring. Sold into slavery… they meant it for evil… Falsely accused of rape… they meant it for evil… Forgotten in an ancient prison… they meant it for evil… He had every reason to be bitter and angry and resentful. But he wasn’t. Bless the Lord, O my soul! And God lifted him from prison and set him in charge over the nation of Egypt.
400 years later… A negative example: The people of Israel
They would not trust you, LORD,
and they did not like the promised land.
They would not obey you,
and they grumbled in their tents.
Psalm 106:24-25
The people – a low altitude attitude. Their attitude was sinking. They had every reason to bless the Lord. Miraculously delivered from slavery. Saw the Red Sea part. Led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Fed from heaven with manna. Water from a rock. Led to the Promised Land. Every reason to bless the Lord. But they didn’t.
Look at the screen. Which bad attitude would the people who know you best say is too often yours? Attitude: A little thing that makes a big difference? It’s not just a little thing – not to God. He hates sin – all kinds of sin. That means the sins of attitude, too. How has your attitude been lately? Ricky Davis and Milton Bradley and Kevin Johnson lost jobs because of bad attitudes. How much have you lost? It’s time to do some Spring Cleaning. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.
A point to ponder: My attitude determines my altitude.
A verse to remember: Put off your old self… be made new in the attitude of your minds… put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24 (NIV)
A question to consider: How will I work with God to increase my attitude of gratitude this week?
