Friday 1/17/14 Attitudes 4

Dear Father in Heaven.  Thanks for all You do for all of us.  Thanks for this line and thanks for trusting us to carry out work for You.  Forgive us when we fall short of what we should do, and please forgive me of my sins and even sinful thinking.  Thanks, Lord, for taking care of Baby Allie and thank You, dear Lord, for her parents, Jim and Beverly.  Please, Lord, look after Dave and Linda.  And Lord, please, please keep your healing hand on Dolores.  Lord Jesus, please now bless me with the message.  Help me to also get a message ready for Sunday, and please, Lord, help me to dispatch the message You give me for today.  I love You, dear Lord.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

Brothers and sisters, what a great day.  Our dear friends Grant and Wanda spent the day working in the food pantry and then dear Wanda even made lunch.  We truly are blessed to have such great people helping with Carry The Light Ministries.  I don't know about you folks, but I am ready for spring.  I only have one set of long johns, and one of these days I need to get out of them and wash them!  I am just kidding, folks!!  I need to get to the message.

Friday, January 17, 2014, Attitudes (Day Four).

Philippians 2:1 - If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with The Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.  3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than ourselves.  4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.  5 Your ATTITUDE should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.  6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness.  (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, how is your attitude today?  Has it changed even a little bit since I started this series on Monday?  Let me ask you just a few questions.  When you get up in the morning, are you a happy person?  Or did you just go five rounds with the snooze button on your alarm clock?  Are you a bull until you get that first cup of coffee or like me that first Diet Cherry Pepsi?  Or are you thankful for another day and you have made up your mind you are already blessed as God woke you up?  There are days, I think your attitude for the day gets set by the attitude you have when you get out of bed.  I am sure you have heard people say, "they must have got out of the wrong side of the bed today."  Years ago I was heading to Hope United Methodist Church (Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg, PA.)  Worship service was being held in the Salem Chapel and the windows were wide open as it was very warm morning.  Walking up the sidewalk, I could hear the organ and it was really bouncing.  I had never heard it being played like that, and I loved it.  When I went in, the head usher greeted me and said, "Sorry about the music."  And his attitude was set, he did not like the music and the young man, a guest playing the organ had it really working.  There was a really big difference in the attitude of the usher and the organist.  For me, wow, it was great, it was alive.  Why did I bring this up?  To point out that two people can have a different attitude about the very same thing.  People have different attitudes about working.  Some love it, others would sooner let someone else pull the cart.

Folks also have different attitudes about others and also about our Lord Jesus.  Our scripture for today tells us that we should have an attitude the same as Christ Jesus.  The scripture tells us that God made Himself as nothing taking on the very nature of a servant.  So I want to ask you this.  Gosh, I am full of questions today.  Let me ask you, is your attitude better when you are "serving others," or when you are, well, being served?  I love helping others, I really do.  It is fun, and I find it rewarding, and in most cases it gives me a positive attitude.  How about you?  When we are serving others, you are doing what our Lord wants us to do.  I have mentioned all week that our Lord Jesus has an attitude and it is an attitude of Love, an attitude to serve others, an attitude to forgive.  So as I bring this series to an end, I really want you to go to your mirror and take a deep look.  Do you like what you see?  I mean take a good look, a really deep look.  Do you like what you see?  Do you like your attitude even to the one you are seeing in the mirror?  In other words, do you like your own attitude?

Our scripture reads in part, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."

We should always consider others better than ourselves, always, for that is the example that Jesus showed us.  Yes, Jesus always considers others better than Himself, and that was shown many, many times, but the best time was when He gave His life for us, when He died on that cross for us.  Even in dying He forgave others.  In Luke 23:34, Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."  (NIV)

Do you have an attitude of forgiveness?  Do you have an attitude of Love?  Come on, let's all try and make our attitude one that others want to be around.  Oh, and that really bouncy music at the Chapel at Hope United Methodist Church?  Not sure about it?  Read Psalm 100!!

Now go forth sharing that good attitude and those blessings.  Love ya.  Pass that Love on.

Pastor Dan