Well, I certainly appreciate the opportunity to stand before you this morning, to present to you a lesson from the Word of God. I appreciate you being here, even you knowing that I was preaching this morning. You're still here, and I appreciate that, and I hope I have the things that I have to say this morning might help you in some way, as I've always said, they certainly help me. And if you've ever preached or taught a class or whatever, if you study for that, then it certainly helps that person, probably more than it helps the person or people that we're talking to. Again, as I've told you before, when I get ready to present a lesson, that's the hardest thing for me, is deciding what to talk about, and it was no different this time couple of weeks ago when Kenny text me, or three weeks, I don't know exactly when it was, told me he was going to be out of town and asked, Would I like to preach? And of course, I told him, I would I appreciate the opportunity. But I look, started looking, then at some sermon outlines and some material I have in my office at home, and just trying to decide what I wanted to talk about this morning. And I came across this material that brother Jimmy and I taught. I don't know how many years, couple of years ago, I don't remember time gets away over here in the side classroom of Christian attitudes. So I started thumbing through that, reading that, and that's what I decided I wanted to talk to you about this morning. Is Christian attitudes. And y'all know, I'm not much on this, if you remember, so hopefully I'll get through it. I'll probably forget to push that button sometimes, so I'll apologize for that now, but I'll do the best I can.
But this is what I want to talk to, our attitude and the Christian as I was reading through that, and decided those what I wanted to talk about. I looked at that and there was 22 lessons. So hope you're prepared to be here for a while this morning, cuz it's going to take us a while to get through 22 lessons. No, I'm kidding, of course, we're not going to go through 22 lessons this morning, but I just picked out some things that I knew would help me, and hopefully they will help you as well as we talk about these things this morning, I believe our attitude is a very important thing. Attitude makes a big, big difference in our lives. The type of attitude that we have certainly affects our lives. It affects our relationship with God. It affects our relationship with our spouses. It affects our relationship with our children, it affects our relationship with other Christians, and it affects our relationship with other people out in the world. So our attitude affects a lot of things, and it has a big part of our lives.
So as we begin this morning, I'm sorry I can't really see that back here. I think it's 10 after I just want to make sure I try to quit on time. Um, as we begin this morning, let's look at the definition of attitude. Webster defines it as a bodily posture, showing mood or action, showings one feelings or thoughts or wants, disposition. Again, as I said, I believe our attitude influences a lot of people. It influences our actions, and it also influences our reactions. In my many years of coaching youth baseball, as I've told you before, I spent many years in that and believe you me, I saw a lot of attitudes and coaching those young men. But you know how I saw the most of the worst attitudes? As parents, they had the worst attitudes. I didn't have a lot of trouble with the players, with the young men. I had some through the years, coached so many. But most of the time, I had problems with parents their attitudes, and I know you've probably seen that as well. And whatever your life you're in, well, I know we have several teachers in here. Sure, you see it with students at school, in your workplace, wherever you might be, you see attitudes of people around you, and we need to work on that. Even though we've seen a lot of that, we've seen good. And I'll have to tell you, in all those years of coaching youth baseball, I saw a lot more good, and I see mad, but we still see it. We see bad attitudes. We see all different types of attitudes in the workplace, in schools, sporting events of your own. I know a lot of you, you have the young people, they're playing different sports, and you see attitudes in that of coaches, of other other parents, just attitude, the attitude that people have today.
So this morning, we want to look at what type of attitude should I have. I believe, one of the finest compliments that you can ever receive, or I can ever receive, is to be said that he or she has a good, a kind and a godly attitude. I believe that's one of the finest compliments we can ever receive as a person, is to be told that we have a good, godly attitude. So how do I know if I have the right attitude? I believe we have to have these three qualities within us. We have to have self awareness, we have to be honest with ourselves, and we have to have self evaluation. And as we have those qualities, and we think about those, then I believe we need to ask ourselves these questions, do I have the proper attitude toward God and His Word? What do I think and what I think if you have the proper attitude toward God and His Word, and that will reflect or affect on you the way you think about things and why you think it. What are my basic desires, and then, what is my real motive behind things that I do, the type of attitude that I have. I believe, if we answer these questions honestly, and I mean honestly, sometimes they can be very uncomfortable, can't they? We're honest with ourselves. When we do self awareness, we do self evaluations, the answers we get sometimes are very uncomfortable because they're not like the actions and the attitudes that a Christian should have. James one verses 21 through 25, "therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness and the implanted word which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and once forgets what he was like, but the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres being no hearer but who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."
I'm sure all of you, as you was getting ready for services this morning, looked in a mirror at some time. Did you not and what? What did you see? You saw your outer being. Saw yourself. You saw what you look like. You saw your clothes. We see our outer self, but James here tells us to see our inner selves. We've got to look into the perfect law of liberty. We've got to look into God's word to see the type of attitude that we have. We can't always see that that attitude on the outside, can we? Not always. Sometimes we can pretend to be someone we're not have the attitude that we don't really have. But if we look into God's word, then we certainly can see the type of attitude that we should have. Hebrews four, beginning in verse 11, says, "Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that noone may fall by the same sort of disobedience, for the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit and of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account." Is God word living and active in you? Is it living and active in me? Is that where my attitude comes from from God's word that's dwelling in me? Is it in you? I certainly hope it is, because that is where we're going to get our attitude from, is how we study God's Word and how we let it be within us and not just read it and forget it. Just like it said there in James, looking in the mirror and walking away and forgetting what kind of man we are. We don't want to be like that. We want to be the kind that reads God's word and let it dwell within our hearts. And that would be the type of heart we have and the type of attitude that we have.
Several examples of godly attitudes in the Bible. These are just three that I thought of. There's many. I'm sure you think of. Joseph, he had a godly attitude in Genesis, 39 and verse nine story, I know you're very familiar with but it says, How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? That's the only type of attitude we need to have. That's whatever comes across in our life. That's the attitude that we need to have. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Moses in Hebrews 11 and verse 25 it says "he is to have chosen to be mistreated with the people of God, to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin." Do you have that type of attitude? Do I have that type of attitude? I hope we do. I hope I do. And then Daniel, we've been studying that in our class, in the young class early on with the boys, Daniel in Babylonian captivity. He was in a foreign land. He was in a heathen culture. But guys would remember, what did Daniel do? Didn't affect him? Did it? He had faith in God. His attitude was godly. He didn't let where he was. He didn't let the surroundings bother him. He didn't let their cultures their laws. He still did what God wanted him to do, and he had the attitude that he that we all should have.
Second Corinthians, three and verse 18 says, and we would "we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the spirit." Do I have this type of attitude? Am I letting God's word transform my heart into the attitude that I need to have? I pray that I am and I pray that you are as well.
Our attitude toward worship. Let me ask you this morning, as I asked myself, as I was thinking and preparing this lesson, what was the type of attitude you had this past week, about this morning, about coming together on this first day of the week to worship our God, our Lord and Savior? What was your attitude? Did you think about it at all? Have you looked forward to it? Did you get excited about being here this morning? Did you think about that at all this past week? Was he eager to come here and do the things that we're going to do this morning, that we've already done, met around the Lord's table, remembered his death, his burial and resurrection. Do we look forward to that? Did you ask yourself, Why am I really going? You ever asked yourself that, why am I really going to worship service Sunday morning? And answered honestly. If you ever asked yourself, to whom is my worship directed? And then, have you ever ask yourself, whom am I trying to please? When I come to worship service, who am I really trying to please? Am I trying to please myself, others, the elders, or am I really trying to please God? I have to think about that sometimes myself. Don't know if you do, but something I think we have to think about. Why are we really here? Do we really get excited about coming? Do we look forward to coming to worship services? We thought about that in worship service. Now let me ask you this. You think about something you really enjoy doing, whatever it is. I know what some of you do and not everything, but I know some of you love college football in Alabama. I know you love that, like going to the games. Do you get excited about that? Several years ago, I know I've told some of you, of course, all of you know I'm a Tennessee fan, but my brother has season tickets, and me and him went for several years together to the Tennessee football games every Saturday, every home game. Did I get excited for that? Yeah, I did. I got excited. Couldn't wait. Look forward to it. Got goosebumps when I got in the stadium. They run through that "T". It was exciting. But again, I don't know what yours is, but just think about whatever yours is, and do you get excited? Do you look forward to it? Do you talk about it? Again I remember back when I coached youth baseball when game time couldn't wait for game time to be there. We sat in my office, had worked right out two or three different lineups and decide who was going to pitch. Got excited about it. Is there anything wrong with that? Not necessarily, not unless we take it too far.Not unless we take it too far. But all I'd ask you to do this morning is think about that and compare the two. Do we get that excited about worship service? Do we look forward to being here on the first day of the week to worship our God, to remember Jesus and his death? Do we look forward to it? Do we get excited about it? Or sometimes is it just Sunday is the time we go to worship? Maybe you don't have a problem with that. I do from time to time. Be honest you. I do from time to time, but we need to have the attitude that we need to get excited about our Lord and being here to worship him.
Well, I'm going to tell you I'm full of questions this morning, so I've got another one for you. Do you really want to go to heaven? You know, I know what all of you are going to say. I know what I'm going to say. Yes, we do. We all want to go to heaven. But let me ask you this, and again, this may not affect you at all, but it does me sometimes. What is my attitude about going now? What if the Lord came this afternoon? Would I be excited about that? Am I ready? Do I want to go. Again may not be an issue with you, but it is with me. Sometimes. I'm going to tell you and be honest with you and tell you something. Brother Dan, he prays sometimes, in his prayers, Lord come quickly. It's hard for me to sometimes to say, Amen to that. I'm just being honest, not all the time, but sometimes, because my attitude is not like it, like it should be. I love my family, my children my grandchildren. Don't want to leave them. Attitude is not what it should be. We should all be able to say, Amen to that. If our attitude is right with God. Everybody wants to go to heaven. And I don't know how many country people songs that people like to listen to country music in here, but if you do, you probably remember the Kenny Chesney song, everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go now. Sometimes I believe that's our attitude. I told you honestly, it's mine sometimes. May not be yours, but we need to have the attitude that if the Lord was to come today, or if we was to die today, we're ready. Our attitude should always be that we're ready to go to heaven whenever that time is. Paul was, and that's the type of attitude that we need to have as well. Second Timothy four and verse six says, "For I'm already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of thy departure has come. I have fought a good fight. I have finished a race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness with the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing." Are we ready, like Paul? Are we ready for the Lord to come? Are we ready to go to heaven today, if that would be our calling. I hope you are, and I hope and pray that my attitude would be that as well.
You ever had a family member, close friend, maybe even a parent, ever tell you you need an attitude adjustment? You ever heard that? Maybe some of us all, I'm not sure about now with young people, but I have, I've said it to my children. My parents have said it to me, you need an attitude adjustment. Well, what do they mean by that? I think we all know that attitude is not what it should be. It needs changing. We've either said or done something that we shouldn't have done, attitudes not like it should be. So we need an attitude adjustment.
So if I have a bad attitude, how can I change it? If you have a bad attitude, you can change it. I One way we can change it, I believe, is we can always act with a purpose. Always make it worthwhile. Always have the attitude that something good is going to come of it. Always act with a purpose. When I think that a lot of us need, from time to time, is to think before we speak and before we act. Something bad's going on, something's happened, something's said. We react quick, don't we? We think, speak. We think before we do speak, we think we need to think before we act, and a lot of times we don't do that. If we need to change our attitude, if it's not like it should be, we can do something without expecting results or be rewarded for it. Don't always have to expect results, right then we can change our attitude and have a good attitude toward things, whatever the outcome might be, without expecting a reward for it. We can use bad things to learn and improve our attitude. We're going to talk about that a little bit more in a few minutes. And we can be around others that have a positive and a godly attitude. That's just some things I came up with. I'm sure there's things you can think of. If the attitude is not like it should be, then there's things that we can do to change our attitudes. We make choices every day, but I believe one of the most important choices we can make is have the right attitude toward God and toward his word.
Is our attitude toward God like it should be? Again, full of questions I'll ask you what I asked the boys in class couple of weeks ago. Do we need God? Do we need God? Yes, we do. I'm pretty sure all of your answers would be yes to that, just like the boys was in class at night, yes, we need God. But you know yourself, there's people in the world that don't think they need God. They don't think they need God at all. They have all this wealth or or whatever they've accomplished in life, power, authority, maybe. And they think they've done it on their own. They hadn't done anything without God. And we know that, we know we need God. Without God, we would have nothing. So why do we need God? James one and verse 17 says, "Every good and perfect gift comes from God." We need God because He is our Creator. We need God because He is the author of our salvation, and we need God, because we can do nothing without him. Nothing we can do on this earth would be without God. He allows it all.
Then I ask them this, does: God need us? If I remember correctly, I believe all, all of them are, I believe answered No, and I believe that's correct. God doesn't need us. God doesn't need us at all, but God does expect something from us. He doesn't need us, but he expects something from us. Over in Micah, chapter six and verse six, "with what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings? With calves a year old, will the Lord be pleased with 1000s of rams, with 10 1000s of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body, for the sin of my soul? He has told you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God." So does God need us? No, I don't think he needs us, but he expects things from us. He expects us to worship him. Expects us to praise Him. It expects us to love Him, obey Him. Expects us to love others. He expects us to be kind to others. He expects us to read His word and to know him and he believe, and He expects us to fear him. These are just a few things I wrote down. I'm sure you can think of others, but God expects things from us. He doesn't need us, but he expects these things from us. And I hope I have the attitude like that, and I hope you do as well, that we have the attitude that we need to have toward God.
What is your attitude toward Thanksgiving? We receive everything from God. We've already looked at that in James one and verse 17, everything comes from God, and we don't have any problem thanking God for all the good things that we have do we? Well, as I was thinking about this, I thought about it, bad things happen in your life, don't you? Bad things happen? Should we be thankful for that? Not sure if you agree with me on that, but I think we should. We should be thankful for the bad things that happens in our lives. We shouldn't pray for them necessarily to happen, but I think we should be thankful for them. I believe the bad things when they do happen in our lives, if we look at em through God's word, they'll make us stronger. They'll make us closer to God, and I believe it will help prepare us for other bad things that comes to us in the future. If we trust in God, if our attitude is right, these things will help us. So we should be thankful for all that God does, good and bad, I believe.
Brother Jerry, pretty much covered this for me, but we're going to talk a little bit more about it. I appreciate his thoughts. I appreciate Kenneth leading the songs this morning, I sent him a couple of songs to lead, and then he filled in the others. That goes along with my lesson very well, and I appreciate him for that. Is our love toward God like it should be. Is our attitude right toward God's love? What did God give up to show his love for us? Uh, Jerry already talked to us about that, and I know you know that. God gave up his only Son, our Lord and our Savior. But this morning, do we really think about that like we should? Do we really let that sink in. I know sometimes I need help with that. I need help with how much God loves me. Yes, I know he loves me, but sometimes I really have to think about it and let it sink in of what he did. He gave His only Son to die for you and me, that's unconditional love isn't it.
Have you ever asked yourself why God loves me unconditionally? Have you ever asked yourself that? As I thought about this lesson and prepared for it, I don't know if I have an answer for you. Maybe you can help me with that. Why does God love us like that?God loves us because He loves us. Because we're His children, because he is good. God is so good. He loves us because He is God. We don't deserve it, and we all know that we don't deserve God's love, but he loves us anyway.
I got some scriptures here. I'll just tell you to I need to skip over them. So I got a couple of other things I'd like to say. John, I told you I'd get behind, John 17:23, we won't take time to read that first. John four and verse 10 just talks about God's love toward us. But what is our attitude toward judgment? What is our attitude toward the Judgment Day? Is it fear? I have to be honest with you, mine is a little bit fearful the Judgment Day. And you know why? Just as this verse says, "knowing that every act, every word, every thought, everything that I've ever done will come before the judgment seat of Christ on the Day of Judgment." Sobering thought isn't it? Is to me. Everything that we've done, good or bad, we'll have to answer for the day of judgment. So that can be a little fearful to me, even if we have the right attitude, our heart is right, and we try to do the best we can toward God, then there's still this that little bit of fear in me. Our attitude has to be that we're striving every day to be God-like, to be Jesus-like, to do the best that we can in serving Him and loving him. But still the Day of Judgment.
Second Corinthians five verse 10, "Must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." Hebrews 10 verse 31 says, "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." So if our attitude and our hearts not right with God, we need to make changes. We need to make sure it is because we don't want to have that fear, and we certainly don't want to fall into the hands of the living God and not be right with God. You see, we may have food, others, we may have fooled ourselves in this life, but one we haven't fooled is God. God knows. He knows when our heart is right, he knows whether our attitude is right, and we're trying the best to do the best that we can.
I had this handed to me. I believe by Miss Betty when we had this class over here in the side classroom some time ago. I might be wrong, but I know it was handed to me, and it says Attitude by Charles Swindoll. "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearances, giftedness or skill, it will make or break, a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is, we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for each day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes."
And very quickly. One last thing, Michelle saw this on social media, I think. Wilson Adams, "Another year, another calendar, another turn of the page. I have no idea what this year will bring, but one thing for sure, each will grow a year older, hopefully a year better, and 25 hopefully time moves on. Age happens and the clock keeps ticking. 2025 is not about counting your days, but making your days count by becoming involved in something bigger than you are. Pew sitting, going through the motions, reducing the discipleship, the only church attendance checklist won't get it done. What will you do in 25 to make a difference? It's a serious question. It's a Jesus question. Lord, use me. Lord, use me in whatever ways you want. Lord, you use me to lift me up rather than tear down. Lord, use me to render Samarian aid of the hurting. Lord used to encourage, strengthen and build faith. Lord, use me to step down and serve in every relationship. Lord, use me to give grace, extend kindness and be an example of integrity. Lord, use me to show courage. Bright light to darkness and tell others about Jesus. Pray it, mean it, and watch what happens in the next 12 months. Wilson Adams."
I hope and pray that I have that type of attitude this next year or this coming year, and I hope and pray that you might have that attitude as well. I hope the things that I have had to say this morning have been, will be helpful to you in some way. I know they have been to me, but I do pray that we would look at our attitude, examine it, reevaluate it, each and every day so we know that we have the attitude that we should have. So in closing, this morning, I would ask you, are you prepared for the Judgment Day? Am I prepared for the Judgment Day? We know that it's coming. We don't know when it's coming, but we know the judgment day is coming. We know the Lord is coming back, and we need to be prepared for that day. So there you may be here this morning and and never obey. Have obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ. You may have never been baptized for the remission of your sins. There's no better time than this morning. Or you may be here and have done that, and there's something not right in your life that's in a public way, and you need to have the prayers of the saints pray with you this morning, if you need to come as we stand and as we sing before.
