Sermon Study # 236 - NEW IN ATTITUDE
Illustrate: Attitude is everything!
1. A chaplain told a young soldier who’s laying on a cot, “Son, you lost your right arm in this war.” The young soldier said, “No, I kept my left arm in this war”
2. A neighbor told her Christian neighbor after a care accident, “Aren’t you mad at God for this car accident.” The Christian said, “No I thank God for my life and that I have a car.”
3. A friend asked his co-worker, “It’s not fair that I didn’t get that promotion.” The other co-worker said, “It’s not fair that millions of people don’t have jobs.
4. Next time – you are tempted to complain about your income… try to remember that 1.2 billion workers (that is 4 times the US population) live below $1 per day
5. Next time - you are tempted to complain about “what’s for dinner” – remind yourself – 683 children die of hunger every hour – Over 16,400 children die of hunger a day
Key Scripture: Eph 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; Eph 4:23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; Eph 4:24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Illustrate: It’s all about attitude!
1. Heavenly Father, Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and was rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.
2. Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can’t make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.
3. Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.
4. Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.
5. Remind us, Lord, that the unruly child who annoys us with their demands of our attention has been abandoned by their parent and they are seeking unmet love.
6. Help us remember that the angry telephone operator is a widow whose only child has been diagnosed with cancer.
How should your attitude be?
(1) Same as Christ!
Phil 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Phil 2:6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, Phil 2:7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Phil 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
(2) Live the rest if your earthly life for the will of God!
1 Peter 3:20b …God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 1 Pet 3:21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 1 Pet 3:22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand--with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. 1 Pet 4:1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. 1 Pet 4:2 As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
