Inland Empire: Riverside
Do You Have the Attitude of Christ? - Audio
My wife, Cynthia, and I have had the opportunity to visit so many different churches throughout our movement, throughout our kingdom. And we praise God for every opportunity that we have to go and learn how we can grow and be more effective at disciples in Jesus Christ. I want to share with you today what I believe and what I've seen as the difference maker, as we visited different churches throughout our brotherhood. Turn to bring your Bibles to Acts chapter 2, and I want to take us back to the blueprint of what we're all striving to build as God's people, the kind of church that God wants us to be and that we can be by the power of God's spirit. And Acts chapter 2, Peter is preaching an amazing sermon, and as we know, many repent and become disciples of Jesus. Here in Acts chapter 2, beginning in verse 36, Peter says, "Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter in all the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repet and be baptized." Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Your promises for you and your children, and for all who fall, for all whom the Lord our God will call. With many other words, you warned them and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." Those who accepted this message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers had everything in common, selling their possessions and goods. They gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily, those who were being saved. That is an awesome church. That is an amazing congregation, and that's what we're striving to be. That's what we want to be to the glory of God. But what made this church so incredible? What made them so fruitful? Why did they have such an impact? Well, we can look at so many different things. They had amazing talent, the leadership that they had. I mean, you had the apostles there. They had faith, teamwork, the Holy Spirit was moving. God blessed them with an open field. But I think there is something that they had that we all need to make sure that we have. They had awesome attitudes, awesome attitudes. What makes the difference in churches? What makes the difference in regions? What makes the difference in Bible talks? I believe there's one thing that is probably even more important than talent, and that is your attitude. Having the attitude of Jesus Christ, attitude is the difference maker, and my challenge to you today. Do you have the best attitude today that you've ever had in your Christian life? Is your attitude today as good as it's ever been? I don't know about you. I don't want to be a part of a mediocre church. I don't want to be a part of a laid-back church. When I see the Lord, I want to hear Him say, "Well done, God and faithful servant." I want to see multitudes baptized in the Christ. But I know in order to get there, we're going to have to have awesome attitudes to the glory of God. The best attitude of all time is the attitude of Jesus. Turn to Philippians, chapter 2, Philippians 2, Paul and writing to the Philippians disciples, the church he loved with all his heart, Philippians 2 verse 1 says, "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, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose, do nothing, nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. But in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very, very nature God did not consider a quality with God, something to be gross, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. I stand in awe of the attitude of Christ and when I get up in the morning I pray God help me today to have the attitude of Christ because in my sinful nature I do not have the attitude of Christ. I'm cynical, I'm critical, I'm proud, and before I came to Christ I was unwilling to learn what I needed to learn, I was caught up in the world, and now as a Christian even though I've repented and been baptized I still have to fight to have the attitude of Christ. I am a solid New Yorker, we are critical, we are negative, the glass is always half empty, nothing's ever good enough for us, that is not the attitude of Christ. I look at Jesus on the cross, abused, ridiculed, and all he did was think of others. He ministered to the thief on the cross, he told John in the midst of his pain, he to take care of my mother, he took care of Mary even in the midst of his pain, he held nothing against his enemies, he said Father forgive them for they do not know what they do, and then after he was resurrected, and this is where I would have struggled. He met with his disciples and all he did was ask Peter do you still love me Peter, I would have had a few more questions for Peter then do you still love me. I would have said brother where were you, why did you desert me? I'm getting ready to ascend to heaven and I don't even know if I want you to come there with me, because in my hour of greatest need you were, you were a coward before little girls and I'm struggling today with my attitude, but that was not the attitude of Jesus. As a matter of fact he never even brought up to Peter his desertion, and the fact that he'd run away in his hour of need. What a heart, what an amazing attitude, he even reinstated Peter. You know Jesus promised Peter that he would have given the keys to the kingdom. If it would have been me, I would have said bro you know what I told you about those keys, you are not getting any keys ever, you better praise God if you're even in the kingdom. But we know Peter got those keys anyway, and we just read about it in Acts 2 that he preached that great sermon, but that's the attitude of Christ, that even when you're done wrong you don't stop loving people, that even when you hurt you don't stop loving people, that is not about our own selfish desires and needs, the attitude of Christ is bigger than that. God calls us to more than that, and if you're in the kingdom you're gonna get hurt, you're gonna get disappointed, you're gonna be let down, but we're called not to have the attitude of the world, we're called to have the attitude of Christ, to be one in spirit, to love our brothers and sisters in the hour of need, and not to speak and sorry about how it was hurt, or who hurt me, we've got a job to do people, we've got to go win the wild for God, and we can't do it if we hold on to petty attitudes. This is what we see in Acts chapter 2, let me tell you something about attitudes, attitudes are contagious, good attitudes are contagious, back in Acts chapter 4, turn that right quick, I don't have time to even read it, but I'll refer to it. In Acts chapter 4 verse 32 the Bible says all the believers were one in heart and mind, one in heart and mind, they got along, they were united, no one claimed that any possessions was his own, in verse 34 says there were no needy persons among them. In Acts 4 verse 36 he talks about Joseph, Barnabas, a Levite from Cyprus whom the apostles called by, which means son of encouragement, soul of field, and he put the money later in the apostles' feet, I believe that attitude was contagious, and people were giving, and you don't give just because of what other people do, but you give because of what God's already done for you. And I think that was contagious, how do you fix problems in the church? You don't send critical people to fix problems. You send positive people to fix problems. Your Larry and Mary Lou Craig have been leading the New Jersey region in the New York City church, that may not make sense to you, the New Jersey region in the New York City church, but if you come you'll understand it better. That region was in disarray, there were even some underlying racial issues there, and we sent Larry and Mary Lou there, and one thing I can say about them, they have some of the most incredible attitudes of Christians I've ever met, and they were able to go in and unify 500 disciples and get them on the same page, but what impressed me even more was that as Larry tried to move this congregation forward, he said, "I need help. I need someone who can help in areas in which are not my strength," and praise God by the grace of the leadership here in LA, and God's mercy, Stephen Shonda Stevenson moved to New York. Amen. They moved to New York, and now Steve is the lead evangelist of that group, he and Shonda working with the Crags. He says, "Well, Sam, why do you say that?" See, a lot of times what we struggle with is admitting where we're weak, admitting that we need help, admitting that we need input. This is God's church. It's not your little corner of the universe for you to hold on to. Your attitude should be, "What can I do to make the church better, who can help me, to make the church better, who can disciple me, who can instruct me, who can help take things maybe to a place where I haven't been able to take them?" That's the attitude that God calls all of us to have, and I respect this brother and his wife because I see in them the attitude of Christ. It's only one thing I believe that's more contagious than a good attitude, and that's a bad attitude. Bad attitudes are dangerous, and you know, they're not always easy to detect. Sometimes they're subtle. Sometimes it's just indifference, apathy, and you just feel something's not right. Well, eventually, what's on the inside comes outside, and you can't hold back. We do talk about what's on the inside. You think about attitudes of the Bible, cores of a billion, 15,000 people died because of the core's bad attitude, the 10 spies in Israel, horrible attitudes. A nation died in the desert because of bad attitudes. How would you rate your attitude? What's your attitude in your marriage as a husband? Is your attitude great about getting advice, about building a greater marriage as a wife is at the same? How would you rate your attitude with discipleship, with getting the help that you need, with confession? Can you say my attitude toward the church, my attitude toward discipleship, correction, grace, leadership, sacrifice, evangelism, and starving and self-denial has never been better than it is today? You know, the older I grow in the Lord, the more I see my need for help. I thought it would be the opposite. The more I see how inadequate I am and how my attitude needs to be like the attitude of Christ. Now I want to close out with this. Your attitude needs to be its best when things are at their worst. Your attitude needs to be its best when things are at their worst. In verse 18 it says, "There are rest of the apostles and put them in jail." That was not a good day for the church. When your leaders are in jail, that's a struggling situation. In verse 41 though, after they were released, instead of the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering, disgrace for the name, day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. You know, this past year, you know, I've had some difficult weeks and some difficult want months and I know that Satan has been trying to get me to stop, to stop sharing my faith, to stop believing that God is with us, to stop believing that we're going to build a great church and that's what happens a lot of times when you go through tough times. Your attitude is not what it needs to be, but I look at these disciples after persecution and opposition. They were challenged possibly to be discouraged, but the Bible says they never stopped. That's an awesome attitude. We can never stop. Sometimes you have academic challenges, don't you students? And maybe you thought you were going to get an A and you got a D. Don't stop going to go. Change your attitude, marriage conflicts, I know the girl told you she loved you on the day. But maybe she got to hate you a little bit, you don't have any other option, you've got to stay with her, change your attitude, parenting issues, I know we love our children, but sometimes they're difficult to love, keep believing in them, change your attitude, family problems, financial woes, who doesn't need more money? Change your attitude, then their church issues, they're no perfect churches, all of our churches got issues, all of our churches have struggles, but we've got to have the right attitude. The church and the first sickly church had issues, get your attitude right. Your attitude has to be the same as that of Christ. Have you stopped? Have you slowed down? Have you given up? You can make a difference this week. You can make a difference today. Have the attitude of Christ. Decide, I'm going back to my Bible talk. I'm going back to my region, and I'm going to have the attitude of Christ every day. And that attitude is going to be contagious, and it will have an impact on others. And God will be glorified, and we will add more and more souls to His Kingdom. God bless you all. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Sam Powell's lesson from the 2013 LAICC Congregational Service at the Citizens Bank Arena