Midweek Instruction Reid Temple AME Church

Pastor Washington

ATTITUDE – IT’S YOUR CHOICE

SERMON REVIEW – 7:15, 9:30, 11:15• Subject: Empty • Main Idea: Empty is not always a bad thing. • The tomb of Jesus was empty so that Jesus can keep

our lives from being empty of the positive things that lead to the abundant life.

SERMON REVIEW – 7:15, 9:30, 11:15• Subject: Stay With The Message • Main Idea: The message of Easter has been

misrepresented. • The message of Easter is to, Come, See, Go, Tell.

SERMON REVIEW – 7:15, 9:30, 11:15

• Subject: Do You Need A Resurrection • Main Idea: Easter challenges us to move beyond our

sorrow. • The women at the tomb needed a resurrection.

ALTER YOUR ATTITUDE• Our choice of attitude in life and toward life is absolutely critical.

Many times it is not what happens to us that determines the flow of our lives but what happens in us.

• William James who taught psychology and philosophy at Harvard said in the 1800’s. The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

ALTER YOUR ATTITUDE

• By changing your mind, you can change your life. I believe if want great results from life—in our homes, work, contacts the single most important factor that will guarantee this is choosing to have a healthy attitude.

OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS LIFE DETERMINE LIFE’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS US.

THE POWER OF ATTITUDE• Our attitudes tell the world what we expect if we have cheerful

expectant attitudes they announce to everyone that we expect the best in our dealings with the world.

• We tend to live up or live down as the case my be to our expectations. If we are cheerful and glad to have experienced the miracle of life, others will respond to us in a similar way.

THE POWER OF ATTITUDE

• We get back what we give out. Our surroundings are mirror of who we are. Things can change because we can change, but nothing will change until we do.

GRATITUDE

EXPECTATIONS

GRATITUDE AND EXPECTATION• In order to live a healthy life we need to focus on two

words. Gratitude because to live on this planet is a blessing.

• Expectation because it empowers us to aim for the best, believe in our goals and go to work on them.

GRATITUDE AND EXPECTATION• To many people live narrow, bitter frustrated lives, they

live defensively because they have adopted a pessimistic and ungrateful attitude toward life.

• All of us have challenges in life, but the person with a poor attitude becomes a magnet for the unpleasant.

NEGATIVE ATTITUDE• A bad attitude multiplies the negative experiences of

life. If you live long enough, hard times will come. When hard times come, if you have chosen to have a bad attitude or a poor attitude those hard times those challenges will reinforce magnify and intensify a negative pessimistic perspective.

NEGATIVE ATTITUDE• A negative attitude will make problems appear more powerful

than they are situations more stressful than they are and obstacles more ominous than they are.

• Life will seem to be more difficult than it really is. A negative attitude will become a self generating, doom fulfilling prophecy. Bad things will happen not because you were predestined for them but your choice of attitude.

WE GET WHAT WE EXPECT• Our outlook on life is the paintbrush with which we

color our world. Each one of us shapes his or her own life.

• The course, and direction, the quality or lack of quality in our lives are determined by our habitual choices of attitude.

WE GET WHAT WE EXPECT• Change your attitude and you change your life. Now

that sounds simple, doesn’t it. We all know that it is not quite that easy.

• Altering attitudes take time. Once an attitude has become a habit it takes effort, power determination and strength to change it.

JACOB’S ATTITUDE• Jacob was a man who was in the midst of an attitude

alteration. His story reveals how God works with us and in us to change our attitudes from hurtful to helpful.

• For more than 20 years, Jacob’s life had been characterized and dominated by deceit and selfishness.

JACOB’S ATTITUDE

• Jacob wanted what he wanted; he worked, schemed, connived, and manipulated to get what he wanted even at the expense of others.

PRAY ABOUT IT, PRODUCE IT, PROTECT IT, PASS IT ON

GENESIS 32• An angel engaged Jacob in a physical struggle. Even in the

midst of this struggle, Jacob had the audacity to insist he be given a blessing.

• For his entire adult life Jacob’s goal, his controlling attitude had been one of arrogant, selfish deceitful taking of what he wanted, whether it was rightfully his or not.

GENESIS 32

• Jacob’s name bore witness to this unpleasant character trait, for the name Jacob means the supplanter or one who steals the position and standing of another..

GOD IS ON YOUR SIDE• God renamed Jacob with a name meaning God strives

or God fights. We serve a God who fights for us and stands with us. God has blessed us, God has given us ultimate victory. God is blessing us right now.

GOD IS ON YOUR SIDE

• Jacob’s attitude appeared to be altered but the challenge was yet to come. One can pretend that things are different, but pretension works only until the testing comes.

• You can pretend for only so long. When the test comes, the real truth will come out.

ELIJAH’S ATTITUDE• Elijah arrived at such a moment in his dramatic life that

he felt confounded, defeated, and depressed.

• Elijah had destroyed the cultic priest of Baal who were set at leading the people away from Israel’s devotion to God.

ELIJAH’S ATTITUDE

• Elijah won that battled but was threatened by the rage of Jezebel. Elijah panicked and fled to the secluded hiding place in the wilderness. Elijah’s attitude change and his world changed.

MOSES ATTITUDE• Moses suffered when he was leading the people of Israel through

the desert they started grumbling, complaining and backbiting.

• The impeccable leader who received courage at Mt. Horeb to take on pharaoh became discouraged and cried out to God, I alone am not able to carry all this people because it is too burdensome for me.

MOSES ATTITUDE

• Moses asked God to kill him. Moses considered death preferable to continuing in his dire circumstances.

LEARN FROM PAST MISTAKES• All of us have made some mistakes. In fact mistakes are the

place where we learn our most profound lessons in life.

• The only people who haven’t made any mistakes are the people who haven’t done anything. Therefore, the issue is not whether we make mistakes but whether we learn from our mistakes.

LEARN FROM PAST MISTAKES

• Jacob had made some serious mistakes and his arrogant attitude had made him unteachable up to the pint when he wrestled with an angel.

PUT A PREMIUM ON PEOPLE NOT POSSESSIONS

• All of his life, Jacob had valued possessions over people. Jacob was willing to do anything to get “things” Jacob was willing to hurt whomever he had to and do whatever he had to do just to accumulate things.

PUT A PREMIUM ON PEOPLE NOT POSSESSIONS

• When Jacob wrestled with the angel, and his name was changed, these were clues that his character was being corrected and his attitude was about to be altered.

• He came out of that experience with not only a limp but also a new outlook. He learned to put a premium on people.

CORE CONVICTIONS

CORE CONVICTIONS• Our attitude is a result our core convictions. Core

convictions are revealed by our daily actions why what we actually do.

• Core convictions make up what we call our “mental map” Everyone has a mental map about the way we think things really ae and the way life really works.

CORE CONVICTIONS• My actions are always the result of my purposes and

core convictions. That means we have to become a student of our own behavior to find out what we really believe.

THE WAY WE LIVE• Our convictions lie deep within us and you can see what we

believe if you look at the way we live.

• Our behavior calls into question what we really believe about God. If we claim to believe God is always present and watching, why do we push aside convictions when we want to?

THE WAY WE LIVE

• When someone claims to believe one way yet acts another, we all this bad faith. Good faith on the other hand is congruence between what we claim to believe and how we actually live.

GOOD FAITH• If someone intends to buy a house, the down payment is a

gesture of good faith. Good faith means not deceiving others and not deceiving ourselves.

• Good faith means loving the truth more than we love ourselves. Good faith involves certain beliefs.

GOOD FAITH

• Good faith involves an attitude of hope and confidence and it its core, faith is trusting Jesus and His word.

GOOD FAITH OR BAD FAITH• Some people who claim to be Christians are selfish, greedy, and

judgmental. Don’t ask me how I know.

• Others are humble and generous. Both may say they trust Jesus. Both may think they trust Jesus. But their mental maps—their core convictions about the way things really are—are night and day away from each other and produce two different kinds of attitudes.

GOOD FAITH OR BAD FAITH

• This is why sometime people are more drawn to someone who is “outside the faith” than to persons who are considered to be in the faith.

COMMUNICATE YOUR CONVICTIONS• Jacob’s attitude changed; deceitfulness was replaced by honesty.

Jacob had told so many lies to those who cared about him that he probably didn’t remember half of them.

• A deceitful attitude had been a major part of Jacob’s character. In Gen. 33:10 we can’t help but not how sincere he was about his desire to offer a gift in an effort to mend the relationship with his brother.

COMMUNICATE YOUR CONVICTIONS

• Jacob was honestly communicating his convictions. For a fellow who had lied so much, so often, for so long and unapologetically, any display of sincere truthfulness was a major step in the right direction.

TRIVIAL SITUATIONS• God wants to alter our attitudes and set our hearts on the truth.

The place to start is with our trivial situations, because that is where deceitfulness and half-truths come to us the easiest.

• Don’t neglect the small stuff. If we get a handle on our attitudes in minor situations, we will be both equipped and conditioned to cope with the major ones.

TRIVIAL SITUATIONS

• No matter what is going on, remember that God has already been good to you. Before his name was changed. Jacob was concerned primarily with taking and with getting stuff to be used selfishly.

FINAL MOVEMENT• In the final moments of his encounter Jacob offered

Esau a present. A present worthy of the years of pain he had caused his brother.

• When Esau insisted that Jacob keep the gift for himself, Jacob persisted in his request.

FINAL MOVEMENT

• The old Jacob wouldn’t have done that, but the new Jacob desired to give. God has already blessed you, lifted you up, made a way for you, and opened doors for you. Today is a wonderful day to do a little attitude alteration.

SEE YOU COMMUNION SUNDAY• Spread the word, examine your attitude.

• The sermonic focus will be on John 20:19-33

• Blessings