CEFC Sermons
Attitude is Everything
for this amazing invitation and opportunity to share a word to this congregation, and I can say honestly, I can feel God's presence in this house. We were praying in the back and what caught my attention was the focus on Holy Spirit coming and pouring out into our hearts. That's, I believe, that's foundational here in the house, and it's felt, and I believe that God is placing us in this position now, and I say us, because we're one body. We're not divided, we're not many churches or many denominations. There is denominations, there is different churches, but we all have to see that we're one in Christ, and what I sense here this morning is that the presence of God is truly evident, amazing worship, praise the Lord for the time of worship. This is an amazing, amazing moment in time. I believe it's a chiral's moment, it's an opportune time. If we can just quickly go into the video, go to the start. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Praise God, praise the Lord, so with this I want to, before I enter my message, I want to share a little bit about Dawn Shredder. That was a community day that happened a few weeks ago, and we had such an amazing time. We do this every year in the month of August to serve our community, to give back to our community as a time of family, as a time of fun, as a time of food, but this year we changed it up a little bit. We wanted to give away some backpacks to the community, so we were able to raise some donations to buy 200 backpacks, 200 pair of sneakers, and also ask the community barbers and stylists to come and donate their time, and we were able to bless so many families that day. I want to thank you, Calvary Church, for being a part of that day, community day, because the donation that Calvary gave helped us to serve community, and how many understand that community and serving community is very important, amen. So a little bit of Dawn Shredder's history, we are in the great falls of the city of Patterson and the historic great falls right by the Market Street and Spruce Street area of the historic great falls area of Patterson. The great fall center is also there right around the corner, and I don't know if you know, but Dawn Shredder and Servant's Heart and the great fall center are in collaboration for the great fall center, which we are empowering community through vocational training. So in 2025, we are entering our 48 years of Christian education in the city of Patterson. And this year's enrollment praise God is now up to 20%. The highest probably in 15 years. 40% of our students are unchurched, so DTCS becomes the only church that they know. Many of these students and their families go on to find a church home, and they receive and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and we can praise God for that, that is amazing. This year we have to raise up $800,000 in student scholarships, which we've been raising up for the last probably eight years, $800,000 is what we have to raise, because our enrollment or our tuition is probably the lowest, if not the state, also the country. In 2026, Dawn Shredder Christian School will start preschool age three and four, so please pray for us regarding that, and also we will start up in 2026. We will start up tuition reimbursement opportunity for teachers that want to achieve their master's degree in education. That is very important because we are entering our process or our school, our process of accreditation. So it's important for 20% of our teachers to have their master's degree. So please pray for us with that. Amen? Praise God. So I want to get us to the Word of God in the book of Philippians. How many are ready for the Word of God? How many get excited for the Word of God? Come on. Praise God. Again, this is an amazing time of opportunity, I believe, for the whole body of Christ. To go out there and can you imagine if we can start community days all around our state and our countries, that we will just share the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone that is in our neighborhood? So I get excited for when I hear you guys are going to have a harvest fest and you're going to have baptisms and I was telling the leadership, my God, you guys do a lot here. There's a lot of things going on. So that means that there must be an opportunity for growth and an opportunity for expansion and that's exciting. And that I believe connects with the Word that God wants to give us this morning regarding an attitude because I believe that if we have the right attitude, we will enter that right altitude in God and we need that. We need to be right where God wants us and He has designed for us to be because we could be out of His will and we can be in His will and sometimes we believe that our own will is His will but sometimes all the time, by the grace of God, He always redirects us just like a GPS and we thank God for that. So I want us to go to the book of Philippians chapter two, verse one through five and I'm going to read from the ESV translation which I believe you all are familiar with. And this is an amazing passage from the Apostle Paul and I want to give you a little bit of the backtrack of what Paul is going through right now, he is incarcerated in Rome. And he is going through this difficult challenge but when you read his writings, it doesn't seem like he's going through a lot. It seems like he's going, he's in this journey and this is part of the journey. The difficulties of life is part of the journey. So the challenges that comes sometimes his way is part of the journey but he's not affected by it where it will bring him down. He's not allowing this to affect him where he's disconnecting from the will of God and he's definitely not being disconnected from the attitude that he must have to stay within the attitude of Christ. So this is the title of my message. Attitude is everything because attitude is everything in the kingdom of God. And it's not an attitude that you and I might know. It's not an attitude of sometimes being rude or obnoxious because we could be in this world that we're living in, yesterday I went to Costco's and I tell you I don't know what in the life of me possess me to go to a Costco's on a Saturday. I never experienced such busyness and people beeping the horn and telling you all kinds of things and I'm trying to blur it from my, what in the world is happening and you have to make a decision in that very moment either you're going to have an attitude of Christ or you're going to have your own attitude and our own attitude sometimes wants to rise up, hello, but we must understand that we in that very moment must submit to the attitude of Christ. Those are the times, the challenging times that we are tested, that we are placed. What possessed me? I don't know, but you know what? I believe God led me there. This was a learning curve for me. I had to learn patience and I had to learn, you know what, regardless of what people say to me, I must move forward in the goal that I put before me. That day I had to get my re-enrollment or re-registration card and I decided to go on a Saturday to get that card because I said my week is going to be very busy, the only time I have is a Saturday, but I know now without a shadow of a doubt that God placed me there because there's something that God wanted to teach me and that's an attitude of Christ rather than my own attitude. And it says in the book of Philippians chapter 2 verse 1 through 5, so if there's any encouragement in Christ, and I want to tell you, my God, God encourages you every day. Every day there's encouragement from God, from Christ. This is continual over your life, it is non-stop. Jesus is an encourager, how many know that? And if it wasn't for Jesus, I don't know where we would be because His encouragement lifts us, His encouragement edifies us, His encouragement takes us further and helps us and strengthens us to get to the goal. You know what the goal is? The goal is live saved for Jesus. The goal is communities impacted for Jesus. The goal is nations being changed and transformed by the power of Jesus. We were just worshiping, we were saying there is power in His name. It's His name and it encourages us and it says any comfort from love, absolutely because the Bible says that God is love. Any participation in the Spirit, we know that the Spirit leads us to all truth and the Spirit will not lead us to perdition. He will not lead us to something that's not true or not worthy or not encouraging or full of love. The Spirit always brings us together, unites us. Any affection and sympathy, sympathy, completes my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and enough one mind, isn't that powerful? Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. That's so important to learn because that's humility right there. He's defining what humility is. Humility is thinking of others as you think of yourself. He's not saying count yourself out of the equation. He's not saying that you're not important, I'm not important and that we shouldn't think about ourselves. We shouldn't think about our families. He's saying that as we think of ourselves and we think of our families, humility is that we also will say I must think of others. And I believe that we're in this church, Calvary church, this congregation, I just sense that you're in this pivotal moment where God is saying this is the heartbeat of this church and you must stay here in the place of humility, in the place where the Bible says according to Philippians, says count others more significant than yourselves, let each of you look not only to his own interests, not only to his own interests, that's so important, not only meaning yes, look for your own interests, make sure that your house is taken care of guys, make sure your children are taken care of, make sure that your health is taken care of, make sure that you are taken care of as a human being, as a person because you are encouraged and you are loved by God. However, there is more to this, but also it says, now let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. When he talks about the interests of others, we must understand that he's talking about community. He's talking about people. And I believe that you are right there in the cusp. You have been doing this again. This has been the heartbeat of this church. And I believe God is going to bring the right leader with the right passion, with the right attitude to continue what God has started because the Bible declares that what God starts, he will always complete. And it goes on and says, but also in the interests of others, having this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. And this is important to understand when he says mind is important because mind is that word, that Greek word, finale, which is so important, which is the mind of Christ. And that word is written out several times in the scriptures, especially when Paul is writing in the New Testament, 23 times in all the New Testament and 10 times within the book of Philippians, he's talking about finale, the attitude, the mind. Every time he's talking about the mind, he's talking about the attitude. This is an attitude that you and I must grasp, must take a hold of each and every day. And let me share this, an attitude of Christ is not based on how you feel. It's based on what you decide. I'm going to say that again, an attitude of Christ is not based on how you feel because sometimes we want to have our own pity parties and our own attitudes. But in the kingdom of God, that is not good enough. You have to go further and you've got to go deeper and you've got to say, not my will God, but your will be done. How many are understanding this right now? This is important and it's important because it's the thinking of Christ. This is who he is, this is his attitude and this is where I'm saying the attitude is everything because it's God's mindset, it's God's thinking, it's God's attitude for the body of Christ for all of us so that we can grasp it, so that we can obtain it and now put it into practice. We can't just have something and not put it into practice. We cannot be in a place or learn a lesson and not apply it because then we'll be just like people that have something, have a trophy but never display it, never show it to anyone and no one will ever know what you have done, what have you achieved. So this has to be displayed, this has to be revealed and manifested. And when we talk about attitude, I want to say this, there's a definition that's very important that we must understand, attitude is this, attitude can be defined as the way in which a person views and evaluates something or someone, a predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person or situation. So is the way you view things, the attitude, how do you view life, how do you view community, how do you view yourself is important, do you view yourself in a positive way like God views you, God sees us all in the light of his son. He sees us not as we see ourselves, he sees us greater than what we see ourselves. So every day attitude is deciding that you have to stay in the mind of Christ, in the attitude of Christ and how he views and how he perceives you and how he evaluates us, not by what we do, not by what we've achieved, or what we've done, not by our titles, but by what Jesus did for us on the cross, only, how many say amen. See 15 years ago, I was in a very challenging crossroads in my life. The working in the county of Pasek for 20 years in corrections, juvenile division, I was given an opportunity to retire early and they were retiring me with a partial pension to go and move on because there was a lot of transitioning happening and they wanted to move me to Essex County and I said no, I'm not going to go to Essex County, I've been in Pasek County for a long time and I cannot continue. I just felt that Essex was not for me and after 20 years, I decided to take the pension route, the partial pension and move forward. And I believe that that was a God moment for me because that was not an easy decision because of, again, the attitude that I had, I had a view, I had an evaluation of my life and how I wanted my life, but God was doing something completely different and I believe God is doing something completely different in this church and in your lives and he's calling you to do more and he's challenging you to do more and he's challenging you to see things just the way he sees them and continuing on. So after 20 years of service full of opportunities because this was great opportunity, can you imagine 20 years I had an opportunity to share the gospel with young men and young girls? Especially men, I call them the boot camp of raising from children to men or from young men to young adults. Amazing opportunity and I was able to serve God by preaching the gospel and seeing kids come to Christ on a yearly basis. I believe I ministered to at least 500 or more people in my career, at least. And now the privilege is that I have now is that I'm working in a Christian school and the kids that I ministered to 20 years ago are coming to Christian ed for their children because now they have children and they say, "Sarge, I need Christian education for my child because just the same way you preach the gospel to me and it impacted my life. I want the same impact for my children." That is life-changing. That right there is everything. That is purpose, guys. And that is where attitude, the attitude of Christ will always lead us. It will lead us to purpose. So I strongly, and then listen, I strongly felt in this very moment that you know what? God was calling me to full-time ministry at the same time. So I was in this crossroads, "What am I doing, God?" "Okay, you're closing this door, this door is closing. You're opening a new one and I felt like God was giving me a new start." But I didn't know exactly where I know I knew that for 20 years I ministered to these men or to these young men, but it was challenging. It was not easy, not because of the men. It was not easy because of the politics and everything that tried to stop you from preaching the gospel, to be honest with you. It was hard because the conditions were difficult and the situations at hand were difficult. And you can see the discouragement in these young men because they were in a system that they felt they couldn't get out. It was hard for us to see these young kids being stuck in this system. So I felt like, "Lord, I don't know if I'm able to do more years just seeing this kind of thing. I think I've done what I could in these 20 years in the County of Pasek." And the majority of these kids were either from Pasek, from Patterson, from Clifton, from those surrounding areas. And I loved ministering to these kids, but I also felt that I needed to be in the suburbs. I said, "God, you know what? In my mind, in that time, I felt like, you know what, the suburbs, maybe it's something a little bit more easy." And I found out that you know what regardless of where these kids are, it is still challenging to deal with people. And anywhere you go, whether it's an urban setting or a suburban setting, is still going to be difficult. But in my mind, 20 years ago, I thought that it was going to be easier. And I said, "Lord, I want to start in a suburban area." See, I had had an encounter with God and dream, and I felt that there was a need in Wayne, New Jersey. I don't know if you've heard of Wayne, New Jersey. I wanted to be in Wayne, right next to Patterson. I said, "It's not Patterson, but it's so close to Patterson, and I wanted to be in Wayne." And God had something else for me. But you know what? By the grace of God, God gave me an opportunity to open up a church. The church opened, King of Kings worship ministries opened up in Lincoln Park, New Jersey. Not in Wayne, but in Lincoln Park. A friend of mine opened up her house to me and gave me an opportunity to share the gospel every Sunday for a prayer meeting and Bible study. And that blew up, in a year that blew up, we couldn't fit there anymore. And I was looking for Wayne, Pomp and Lakes, somewhere around the vicinity, and nothing opened. And at that same time that I'm looking, I'm looking for something for us to establish the church in, Don Tretter calls me. And I had a friend that I knew that was connected to Don Tretter because I didn't know what Don Tretter was, but they called me and they said, "We'd need you to be in a meeting. Because we know that you've been involved in children's lives for a long time. And there is a school that is falling apart and is about to close." And I said, I remember saying to that person, real dear friend of mine, Pastor, she passed away now, Mel and Murphy. I said to her, "Sis, I am not an educator. I'm a preacher of the gospel. I am a pastor, but I am not an educator. What can I possibly do? How can I possibly help?" And she said, "You can help by just being there and being a listening ear and maybe a voice. Maybe you have an opinion or you have an idea that can help this school move forward. In my mind, in my thinking, in my attitude, I had nothing, nothing to give. But in God's mind and in God's idea and in His attitude, I had everything to give because it was not mine. It was His. It was His mind. It was His ideas. So I went to this meeting and I tell you with all sincerity that when I went and I sat down in this board meeting, this committee meeting, and I heard all the problems that Don Tretter was having, I was scared out of my mind. I said, in my mind, I'm thinking, no, I'm in the wrong place. It's kind of the same as what I experienced yesterday in Costco's. Because pressure will make people say things and do things that are out of character. And I sat there and I heard the confusion, the arguments back and forth, mind you, I did not know anything about Don Tretter. And I'm like, in my mind, what am I doing here, God? And I heard all the problems. We have 26 kids, $500,000 in debt. We have some judgments that are happening. There's no insurance. The teachers haven't gotten paid in a month. And in my mind, I got to go. I got to go. And I remember at the end of the meeting, I said to her, like, we all do sometimes. We do the spiritual thing. When we, our mind is there, our attitude is there per se. But we don't want to be involved. And we say, you know what, I'll pray for you. And that was my attitude that day. I said, sis, thank you for the opportunity of having me here. I will pray for Don Tretter Christian School. And I left. But that was not the last that I would hear from Don Tretter. Because God was now, He was now calling me to this place. And He was getting into my dreams. And I had dreams. I don't know if you believe in dreams and God, like, getting in your dreams. But He works through dreams. And He was giving me dreams of children crying, children playing, children laughing, parents. Sharing with me the history of Don Tretter through these series of dreams throughout four or five days. And I couldn't get it out of me. Not every day I would wake up, like, Lord, what are you doing? Why are you giving me these dreams? And God was saying, because I'm calling you to this. This is where I'm calling you. I'm not calling you to Wayne. I'm calling you to here. I'm calling you to, because this is my school. He said, these are my children. These are my families, and this is my city. And He said, if you're willing to trust me, I will use you for my glory to turn things around. Would you trust me? And that last day I hadn't, that dream, I had to surrender. Because I felt I had no choice. Because God was not going to stop. He was relentless in what He desired. He didn't desire just me. No, He desired community. He desired that we will empower and impact Patterson again. Through children, through Christian education, through evangelism. He couldn't stand to know that the doors of dawn, try to Christian school, could be possibly closed. He was not going to permit that. And I believe if I wouldn't have taken that call, someone else he was going to call. But someone God was going to use. And I thank God by the grace of God that He used me. And many times we are placed in the same position we were created to solve problems. What's the attitude of Christ? The attitude of Christ is not to only think of ourselves, but to think of others as we think of ourselves. That's the attitude. That is the heartbeat of God. And I believe that that's the heartbeat of this church. Because there's a passage in scripture in Isaiah 55 that says, and you probably know it, 55, 8, and 9, if we can put it up. Isaiah 55, 8, and 9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and neither your ways, my ways," say it, Jehovah. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." So as I thought to go to Wayne or somewhere in the suburbs, God had in mind, I needed to be in Patterson, New Jersey. See, we run away from difficulties, we run away from challenges, we run away from storms. That's our natural nature. But God wants us to know, and He wants Calvary Church to know, that regardless of the storms that have come, and the struggles that have come, and the difficulties that have come, that God has a plan for Calvary Church, and that you are right in the center of the plan, and you cannot give up, you cannot surrender. You have to come even closer together, and more even closer knit together, because you have to be in display the attitude of being in one mind, one heart, with one purpose. And that purpose is community. That purpose is the people here in this city. Is it Caldwell? Is it the Caldwell area that we're touching here, right? So Caldwell, we're praying, God, bring Caldwell for Christ. And we're not worried about numbers. We're not worried about numbers. We're worried about, we're concerned, and we're focused about lives truly being changed for Christ. So when I come into this place, and I see a gymnasium, and I see so much movement happening, I know that you're in the right place. But I also know that sometimes our attitude gets diverted, because there has been challenges, there has been storms, there has been situations that rise up, there has been giants that raise up and threaten. But throughout it all, God wants us to know that God has given you an attitude to excel, and an attitude to move forward and capture and take on the goal, and get to the goal. I believe with all my heart that God is doing a new work within the whole body of Christ. Even within our nation, we are being threatened as a people. In no time in history, I believe, in no time in history, do we need of Jesus more than we need Him now? We need God, and we need God now. Whatever we have to do, we need to do it. Our mind has to be, Lord, I have my thinking, but my thinking is not your thinking. I have my ways, but I know I acknowledge you today that my ways are not your ways, and I submit, and I surrender to your thoughts in your ways. And that's a decision that we have to make each and every day. Because the Bible says that the Apostle Paul says that we have to fight the good fight of faith. Every day we're challenged with doubt and insecurity and everything that we'll try to cancel our faith. But our fight has to be in believing God for what He has promised us. And I believe you are in a strategic moment right now for exponential growth. Again, not just in number, but in people truly, truly having the attitude of Christ, the mind of Christ. The Bible declares, and the Apostle Paul also declared that we should have, he says, "Have the mind of Christ." That's a daily decision, guys, that we have to, he says, "Put on the mind of Christ." We put it on just like I decided to put on this sporty jacket. I decided every day to also put on the mind of Christ, regardless of the situations, regardless of the challenges, regardless of what might be happening, regardless of, there was an announcement that there's people sick, regardless of everything. In the next passage in chapter 3, the Apostle Paul declares, "No matter what happens, don't lose your faith or your joy. Don't let nothing take away your faith, and don't let nothing take away your joy." Because the world didn't give it to you, God gave it to you. It's the joy of the Lord, the Bible says, that is our strength. So if God, if it's God's joy for us, then no one here in this world can take it from us. Now we can surrender it, but I would suggest that we would not do that, that we will keep it because we need the joy of the Lord, that is our strength, that we will know that God has also given us the peace that surpasses all understanding, and there's much more to peace than just peace. There's safety, there's security, there's provision and peace. There's everything that we need in His Shalom and His peace, and we need it every day. How many understand that? We need it, and we receive it for our lives. We receive it at Don Treta Christian School. We have learned, our children learn each and every day to have this attitude of Christ, the mind of Christ, to receive joy and to walk in His joy every day. And I thank the Lord for that. So as I finish today with this, I would say to you, I will encourage you to have an attitude of Christ. I want to go back to the scripture that we started with, where it says, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the mind of Christ, having the attitude of Christ. It says, having the same love, being in full accord, and in one mind with one another. I want us to take a moment right now. I want us to look, I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but I want you to look at your neighbor right now. And I want you to tell your neighbor, neighbor, you are very important in this whole purpose and goal that God has for us, where we're capturing lives for Jesus. Where you're just as important as I am for the mission and assignment that God has given us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ everywhere we go. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Can that be an our attitude from this moment on? Because God is speaking to us, I believe deeply. And I would say, Calvary Church, if you would just believe God, that God challenged me 15 years ago to trust him and believe him for an assignment, for a mission to be accomplished, would you believe God today, for the assignment that God has given you to impact not just the Caldwell area, but impact New Jersey, impact the world? Because as I see, you also believe in missions. And God is touching lives through your giving in all areas of the world that gospel is being preached in Patterson, New Jersey, because you are sowing a seed into Patterson. And what I'm able to do, I wouldn't be able to do it without you. So we are grateful and God is saying, don't stop. Continue doing what I've called you to do, because there's many obstacles and many giants that would try to stand in your way, and would try to discourage you and threaten you to stop. But God is saying, don't stop. You're right where I need you to be. So I pray that you take this message as I have been giving it. I've been giving from the Lord to give to you this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.