The power of attitude
Sermon #9
I want to continue preaching in the current series on living a life committed to Christ. This is sermon #9 in the series and my goal is that each of us would live our lives totally committed to Christ in every thing we do, every word we speak, every step we take. Total commitment and obedience to Jesus Christ. This morning I want to challenge you to live your life committed to Christ through your attitude.
Next to knowing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, nothing is more important than having a good positive attitude. Your attitude can make or break you, heal or hurt you, make you friends or enemies, make you happy or miserable, and make you a success or a failure.
Illustration: Some people have such a rotten attitude they think that the whole world stinks. Once 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. The problem is with us, our attitude has become negative. When you change a negative attitude to a positive one you can change your world.
This morning I want to continue to challenge you to live your life totally committed to Christ with everything you have, even your attitude. Because we all have attitudes. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they are not so good, and other times they just down right stink!
This morning I want to share 3 truths about your attitude and then bring that home with some application.
I. Your attitude reveals the real you! (Proverbs 23:7; Matthew 15:17-20)
Just how important is your attitude? Someone once said this about our attitude: “Your attitude is more important than facts, circumstances, and what others say about you. Your attitude is more important than your past, your education, and your money. Your attitude is more important than anything else. 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.”
And that is because your attitude reveals the real you! READ Proverbs 23:7
Illustration: Jar of water. Put lid on loosely and shake the jar. Does water come out?
The reason the water came out was because the jar was filled with water. The point is that what is on the inside is what comes out.
READ Matthew 15:17-20. You and I are just like this jar. When shaken in life, what is on the inside will spill out and that is the real you. Your attitude is the real you. Jesus even says that your attitudes always become your actions and reactions.
Illustration: Jack in the box. When you least expect it, jack pops out. This is a vivid picture of our attitudes. When we least expect it, they will pop out and cause other people to like or dis-like us.
Your attitude tells people what you are really like. I don’t know about you, but I find that to be really sobering. When I have a negative, nasty, critical attitude, that is the real me and when you have a negative, nasty, critical attitude, that is the real you.
How many times have you heard someone say, I just have a bad attitude today.” Understand we don’t have an attitude just because we had a bad day (all that a bad day can ever do is shake our jar). The reason you have a bad attitude is because you have a bad attitude inside. Your attitude reveals the real you.
II. Your attitude affects every relationship in your life! (Numbers 12:1-11)
A bad attitude can affect your relationship in your marriage, it can effect the relationship you have with your children, the people you work with, your friends at school, and the people here at church, and with God.
READ Numbers 12:1-11. In this story Miriam and Aaron have a bad attitude. And their bad attitude affects their relationship with their brother and God.
Moses thought he could count on and trust Miriam and Aaron, but they went behind his back, criticized him, and started stirring up trouble among God’s people.
You can never trust people with a bad attitude because they will do thing that you never thought they would 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 and her negative attitude came spilling out.
This bad attitude stemmed from the fact that she was jealous of Moses and his position of leadership. And her bad attitude came spilling out and affected her relationship with her brother and with God.
I’ve seen and you have to. A bad attitude can destroy marriages, families, work environment, friendships, and churches.
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 and relationships will be affected.
III. Your attitude is always your choice!
Illustration: If I were to ask two of you to go out and describe the weather, I would probably get two totally different descriptions.
Warren Wiersbe wrote, “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 as to which one we will focus on, feed on, and nurture on is up to us.”
We need to always remember that you can’t choose what will happen to you today. That is beyond your control. But we do have the power to choose our attitude and how we will react.
Illustration: Pat Brann
When life knocks you in the head and then kicks you in the stomach it is easy to get a bad attitude. But no matter what has happened to you, and some of you have had some tough times with your marriages, and health, and finances, the attitude you have is still your choice. And nobody can take that away from you.
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, is usually the first thing we give away.
Your attitude is your choice. Nobody elses. And Jesus Christ wants to help you cultivate a positive attitude in life.
· Your attitude reveals the real you!
· Your attitude affects every relationship in your life!
· Your attitude is always your choice!
Application: Taking it home. Now before we leave this morning, what can we take home in order to help us have a positive, Christ-like attitude?
1. Learn to speak positive words! (Philippians 4:9)
Notice that I used the word “learn.”
· The reason that I used that word is because speaking positively is something that we all have to learn by practice.
· It doesn’t come naturally to us.
· It is always easier to talk negatively and criticize than to talk positively and build up.
The words you speak have a great deal to do with the atmosphere in your environment.
· When your words are negative, you create a negative environment that brings everyone down.
· But when your words are positive, you create an environment that lifts everyone up.
READ Philippians 4:29. The challenge of the committed Christian is to eliminate the negative words and learn to speak only what is positive.
2. No matter what happens, look for good and you will find it! (Romans 8:28)
One thing I have learned in life is that people tend to find what they are looking for. If you are always looking for the negatives in life, you are going to find them. If you are always looking for the positives in life, you will find them also.
READ Romans 8:28
3. Take control of your thought life!
Let me share with you the 3 F’s of taking charge of your thought life:
Fix your thoughts on what is true, and noble, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. (Philippians 4:8)
Don’t let your mind wander all over the place. Choose positive thoughts over negative ones.
Filter what goes in and out of your thought-life!
Would you eat out of a garbage can that smelled and had bugs in it? NO! In the same way filter the things that come into your mind and thought life.
Feed your thought-life only what is positive!
Most of us would never put anything into our bodies if we knew they would make us sick. We should never put anything negative into out thought-life because it will cause us to have a bad attitude. Garbage in is garbage out. Good in is good out.
Conclusion: If we are going to ever live our lives totally committed to Jesus Christ in every word we speak, every step we take, and every breath we make, we must get our hands around our attitude. Next to our relationship with Jesus Christ, nothing is more important than a positive attitude. How is your attitude?