The Lighthouse Christian Ministry

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Theme: Working Attitude

Text: Philippians 2:1-4 NKJV
1
Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love,
being of one accord, of one mind. 3Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but
in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4Let each of you look out not only
for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
NIV
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, 2then make my joy complete
by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves 4Each of
you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

4 Things that stirs up positive attitude

1. Being “like-minded” – Gr. Word means “think the same way”. This is the first positive attitude
that we can see in the passage.
- NIV version says, “to have the same attitude”
- We as a part of the church should have the same way of thinking. Of course, the first and
foremost thing that we must agree is our beliefs or else we will not be here in this church.
- Becoming a member of this church means becoming a member of a body of Christ. As a part
of the body, we must be working with harmony.
- Do we want to do the same things? Do we want to reach out the children like conducting
VBS? Do we want to cater the young professionals?
- Obviously we really need to have a common mind set on what to do in the ministry.
Maybe in different means, but at least we want the same thing to accomplish.
- Imagine a church that does not have the same mind set? What are we going to accomplish
then? How can we ever accomplish anything if our mind sets are different? Not only that we
will have a problem in accomplishing things, we will also have a problem of going to church
together. We will be divided.

2. Having the same love – Believers are to love others in the body of Christ equally. It involves
compassion and respect.
- We have to love each other. We need to treat everybody equally with love and respect.
- Loving one another is promoting unity inside the church. Its significance is our oneness in
Christ. We need to become a single operating unit in a Christian world. Having compassion
with one another.
- When one is in trouble, we have to show our sympathy. Sympathy means feeling the
feeling of another who is in trouble. It is more on putting ourselves in their place. This is
more on thinking first if we can hurt someone by doing this or doing that, or saying this or
saying that.
 - Of course, we have our own best friends but we must understand that no one can ever say
that they don’t need to be in relationship with other people. Having a relationship is
different from having acquaintances.
- In the body of Christ, there is no such thing as “no strings attached”. The Bible clearly says
16
in Ephesians 4:16 “ From him the whole body, joined and held together by every
supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
- So meaning no one can say that “I don’t need you” because everyone need each other.
- Take note that we are discussing about positive attitude, therefore it is difficult to have a
positive attitude without love.

3. Being of one spirit – NKJV used the word “accord” one spirit.
- This can be rightfully interpreted as people who are knit together in harmony, having the
same desires, passions, and ambitions.
- When we say knit together, it’s like a “banig” (Filipino mattress) woven together. Once you
take a piece of its part, its tendency will be destroyed.
- Or we can say one-souled people. This is very important for we have received the same
Spirit inside us. But as you can see here, not all the time Christians inside the church have
the same desires or passions or ambitions.
- Sometimes that is the main problem of the church. Here we can reflect that not having one
accord will make it hard for us to stay inside the church because we do not have the same
spirit. As a church, I believe that this is one of the most important things that we must have,
having one accord.
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City, Leyte to be radically transformed through knowing Christ personally and making Christ known to all
people.
We also want to strengthen families in the fellowship and strengthen fellowship in the families.

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4. Of one purpose – We need to have one purpose.

- Where are we going? What are the things we want to accomplish under God’s word?
- Are we here to glorify God? Are we here to praise God?
- Did we ever ask ourselves if we have the same purpose in this church? Purpose is different
from function. We should have the same purpose though we have to perform different
function in the body.
- Like the “banig” that we have talked earlier. They are knit together. It is composed of many
strands, but they only have one purpose, that is to satisfy their master whether if they will
be used as a picnic mat or a sleeping mattress.
- How about as a church. Do we serve the same purpose?

Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitude toward life. The longer I live the more
convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happen to us and 90 percent how we respond to it.

I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is
more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other
people think of me or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude keeps me going or cripples my
progress… It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitude is right, there’s no barrier too high, no
valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me.

Charles Swindoll – Strengthening Your Grip

Conclusions
The word of God today is very simple and a long time issue but sad to say that we do not
practice this all the time. We need to have unity through humility. Yes brothers and sisters. HUMILITY is
the key towards a positive attitude.

5
Philippians 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

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The Lighthouse Christian Ministry

http://lighthouseresource.blogspot.com

Theme: Positive Attitude

Text: James 1:2-15
Introduction: Again, the positive attitude that we are talking about here is the positive godly attitude
that should be at work in us. The key to a positive attitude is humility. Last week we’ve discussed about
this and we have learned that pursuing a positive attitude makes us love our brothers and sisters in
Christ and we will have oneness in mind, love, and purpose.

In What Particular Areas do We Need to Have a Positive Attitude?

a. Work e. Outlook
b. Ministry f. Projects
c. Trials g. Business
d. Failures h. Household

The Results of Positive Attitude

1. Positive attitude allow God to work in your life freely (v12). When we have a positive attitude,
we will not be easily discouraged if trials will come in our lives. Not only in trials but even in
conflicts with other people. Well I did not say that we will not have to face the fact that we have
trials or conflicts, but what I am saying is that we will be able to think without worrying what to
do in order to resolve the situation
 - We can actually ask God to help us and with a peace of mind. Positive attitude then will
allow God to work freely in our lives in the midst of our problems.
- Take note that it is God’s will that He will be glorified in all things that we do. Including in
our problems and conflicts.
- Joseph having a positive attitude accomplished his purpose as blessing to his family despite
that his brothers sold him to become a slave.
2. Positive attitude help us overcome difficulties (v2-4). We must be real, we have difficulties in
life. We face trials whether we like it or not. Trials may come in the form of finances, are you
broke? It may come through health, are you sick? It may come inside the family, do you have a
black sheep in the family? Whether we like it or not, we must face the reality that we need to
face the trials in our lives. It is real, you will be dead before the time comes that you’ll be free
from trials in life.
- But we must understand that even trial comes from God. We must remember however, that
trial is only one part because we have discipline. Trials and discipline produces difficulty in
life. Both of them will cause you to suffer and perhaps both of them have the same infliction
in your life. They have different causes but the same effect.
- Ruth was able to overcome her difficulties when her husband died.

3. Positive attitude brings us to success(v12). Having a positive attitude brings us to success.

Negative thinkers in the Bible like Thomas were also able to succeed in their Christian living. But
people like him were not to enjoy their Christian living.
- It has been the instruction of Paul to “Rejoice in the Lord always…” (Philippians 4:4).
Negative thinkers don’t rejoice in their ministry. They only celebrate after they succeeded in
doing things. But it is very clear however in the Bible that as we walk in this life, as we face
all things, we must have a positive attitude for us not to grow weary.
- People tend to grow weary because of their negative attitudes, not all, but almost.
- It is impossible to an athlete to win a competition when he has a negative attitude.

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But What If we have a Negative Attitude?

1. Negative Attitude may cause us to turn away from God (v6-7). What are the negative
attitudes that we are talking about? Examples: Laziness, hard headed, critical attitude, self
focus, not teachable, trouble makers.
- We need to be careful with these kinds of attitude for this may lead us to turn away from
God. It may lead us to self reliance than doing and seeking God’s will. It may lead us to
neglect our responsibilities to the body of Christ, and worst result, not only to the body of
Christ but also to Christ himself and to our own families.
- And sometimes if we are already far from God the tendency is that we will also lead our
family to be away from God. We need to be very careful therefore if we have a negative
attitude. Now, we may have different personalities which greatly affect our attitudes. The
Bible however is clear that we can go beyond our negative tendencies that we have. All
 personalities have negative tendencies. That is why it is very important to watch ourselves
and reflect on things that we do in every situation.

2. Negative Attitude leads to wrong decisions (v9-10). Having negative attitude sometimes
results to wrong decision makings. Having no outlook in life limits our capabilities.
- Let us remember that nothing on earth is permanent except time and change. And we need
to value every decision making that we have to make. We have to include God in it or else
we will like be the rich man who fades away even he goes about his business.
- In 1973 there was a man known to be as Gary Kildall, a designer of a computer system called
CP/M. In 1980, IBM started to get serious in developing personal computers and
approached Mr. Kildall to develop his CP/M for IBM’s computer use. However, Kildall was
less enthusiastic and failed to show up with the planned meeting with the IBM. Frustrated
with Kildall’s lack of interest, IBM scout different computer software system and discovered
Bill Gates and his co-founder Paul Allen with a small company named Microsoft. To make
the story short Bill Gates and Paul Allen signed a contract with the IBM. Eventually 95
percent of the world’s computers use Microsoft. Before the dawn of ” dot.com” in 2000, Bill
Gates was the wealthiest man in the world for more than a decade who owns approximately
$90 billion. And Paul Allen was the third wealthiest man.
Gary Kildall died in 1994 died with a reputation of a brilliant computer programmer. But
unfortunately he was also a person who failed to see far enough into the future to take the
right steps in the present.
- We cannot say if Kildall really made a wrong decision in history. We can see however a
decision that missed the mark of his life. Having a negative attitude may lead us to miss the
most significant thing in our lives.

By: Ptr. Vincent Olaer

http://lighthouseresource.blogspot.com
Lighthouse Christian Ministry
Cadeliña Offices, Rizal St.
Ormoc City, Leyte 6541