As we all know, life is full of experiences, it's full of
emotion. It's full of its ups and it's
Downs. It's full of it's good times and
bad times. It's full of joy.
It's full of depression. And, you know, considering these
things, whether a person is a Christian or not, we all face
the same types of things in life, we experience life and we
experience death and we experience everything in
between. But you know, as a Christian
though, Satan he is ever trying to throw everything he has in at
us in order to keep rustom serving the Lord Almighty.
And one of the things that he tries to do in order to keep us
from being faithful to the Lord is try to look at life in the
wrong way. Way.
And he tries to get us to think that it's really not worth the
effort and the time being a child of God and he tries to
discourage Us in every possible way that he can.
And so at that in mind I'd like to talk about the importance of
having a positive that positive outlook and attitude on life and
help us focus on why what we do, why we do what we do, as we live
for the Lord. Now in life, You basically have
two kinds of people, you have pessimists and you have
optimists. Now, Optimist sorrow where their
people always trying to look at the good in every situation.
While on the handy got pessimists, who, you know, life
is just full of women's And if I look at my own life, I consider
myself to be an optimist. Now, Melissa may tell you that
at times, I'm too optimistic that things just simply aren't
reality in some situations as far as what I see the outcome is
going to be. But, you know, be that as it
may, there is no doubt that all people have different outlooks
on life and experiences on life. There's a man named Clement
Stone. And he said this, he said there
was little difference in people, but that little difference makes
a big difference. The little difference is
attitude, the big difference is whether it's positive or
negative. And building upon that there's
enough man by the name of Norman Vincent Peale, who once stated
that any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude
toward it for that determines or our success or failure.
And how true that is. And that is what we're going to
see in our study this morning. And so as we begin, let's go all
the way back to the Old Testament.
In fact, we'll all go, all the way back to need to Numbers
Chapter 13. And when we look at Numbers
Chapter 13, we find the story of the 12 Spies of Israel.
Now, it was one day that God approach Moses and he says, to
Moses as we pick up in verse number two, here in this
chapter. He says send man to spy out the
land of Canaan, which I'm giving to the children of Israel from
each tribe of their fathers you. So send a man, everyone a leader
among them and so after receiving these instructions by
God, Moses does, is, he's commanded to do.
And so he goes and he choose 12 men to be spies for Israel.
And so as these men are gathered there before Moses, Moses has
this audience to these men and he tells them to check out the
land of Canaan. He tells him to see what kind of
a land. It's like to see if see what the
people like are the people, strong are the people week.
See how many there are? They big anumber?
Are they small? See if the land itself is good?
Or if it's bad take account of what their cities are like, are
they weak like tents or are they strong?
Do they have fortified structure and also bring some fruit back.
So we can know how plentiful this land is.
And so the man do just this, they go over to the land of
Canaan and says spice. And we're told that they pick
all kinds of fruit in. The Bible says this, this, just
jumps off the page at me and then just remarkable.
Now, one of the things they did is they, they cut off a cluster
of grapes and that cluster of grapes to show how plentiful
this land was. They had, they had to have two
men, carry this cluster of grapes on the pole, and that's
just how plentiful this place was.
But anyway, anyway, they spend 40 days there.
And so they make their way back to Moses and they have reports
about what the land of Canaan is like, and what the people are,
what the people are, who dwell in it.
And so here's the report, they say, we went to the land where
you sent us, it's really flows with milk and honey.
And this is It's Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land
are strong, the cities are fortified and very large.
Moreover, we saw the descendants of anak there.
Now, after giving this report, One of the spies was named
Caleb. And Caleb was quite eager to
take advantage of God's promise that Israel could have that land
of Canaan because he States in verse number 30.
Let us go up at once and take possession for.
We are well able to overcome it and so he's full of zeal.
He said, let's go do it. God gave it to us.
Let's go get it. But, you know, not all the spies
were, as eager as Caleb was in fact, There Were Ten Spies of
all the twelve spies that went. There were 10 of them that had
quite differing outlooks about this latinum, Canaan and listen
to how they react to What Caleb says unto this multitude here.
It says, but the man who had gone up with him said, we are
not able to go up against the people.
Or they are stronger than we. And they gave the children of
Israel, a bad report of the land which they had spied out saying
the land through which we have gone.
A spy's, is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the
people whom we saw in it are men of great, step of great statue.
There we saw the Giants of the Senate.
Savannah came from the Giants and we were like grasshoppers in
their sight and so we were in their sight now listening to
this explanation or this description.
Ian by these ten spies and after hearing what Caleb had said
they're take a Caleb, you're nuts.
There is no way we could go over into that lad.
Did you not notice how big those guys were and how little we were
in them? They would destroy us, there's
no way we could overtake that land.
And so because of that attitude, that they had, even though God
had promised them this land, because of that negative
attitude, it create a snowball effect in the children of Israel
became because began to become discouraged and developed an
agate negative attitude, just as those ten spies had had and
listen to what they said, as we continue now, in chapter 14
because it says they're beginning of verse 1.
So, all would see the congregation lifted up their
Then cried and the people wept that night and all the children
of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron.
And the whole congregation said to them, if only, we had died in
the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this Wilderness, why
has the Lord brought us to this land to Fall by the sword that
our wives and children should become victims?
What did not be better for us to return to Egypt?
So they said to one another, let us select a leader and return to
Egypt. This is remarkable to me.
Of what their attitude is, like all the sudden now, you remember
how their life was back in Egypt, there were slaves there.
Nobody wants to be a Slave. Yet, when they're in their, in
their circumstance, here they would rather go back to Egyptian
slavery. then to, you know, not going to land of Canaan and be
destroyed by these people And so, Joshua and Caleb being the
other two of these 12 Spies. They try to calm these people
down and tried to encourage them.
That be they be able to take the land, but the children of Israel
got, they got so mad that they want to Stone him to death.
They won't have. Any part of going into that
land? Well, do their disbelief of the
Lord, a cosme to perish in the wilderness as God would not
allow the generation to inherit the land of Canaan.
But he did. However, allow Caleb and Joshua
and their families to go to Canaan, but nobody else and that
generation was allowed to go in. Now, I so that ends our story
just for this illustration, this morning, But from this story, we
can learn three things about having a negative attitude and
what it can lead to you see when we when negative attitudes are
allowed to develop, we number one, stop believing in God and
we stop believing in ourselves. You know, that is not to say
that we all together become agnostic, or we all of a sudden
became a become an atheist. Although that can happen.
But what I mean to say that is is that we begin to not believe
in what God has promised for his children.
Now, when you look at Israel, Israel did not truly believe God
and that he had promised the inheritance of Canaan, because
if they had believed it, they would have believed in
themselves to overtake the land and it didn't matter how big
those people were or how small they were or how big a number or
how small number those Or they would have believed in God, and
believed in themselves that they could overtake this land after
all God has given them this land.
But you know, when we allow the negative attitudes to overtake
us, we then begin to doubt of God is really taking care of us.
We begin to doubt. If he is truly gives us peace or
if he truly gives us joy or if he truly gives us hope in this
life, and not only that. But when with that begins to
develop on our minds and then leads us to stop believing in
ourselves and it causes us to stop trying.
And you know, as just was the case with the Israelites, if
that's going to be the case, we have already lost the battle.
With this type of attitude. But you know, a second thing we
can learn from the Israelites is that if we allow negative
attitudes to develop, We then begin to discourage others
around us. You know, you look at the
example of those spies there in Israel.
It all began with just 10 men. And from that, Ted had the 10
spies had the same attitude of Caleb and Joshua.
Israel would have had a different Outlook, they would
have had a positive frame of mind and determination to get
what God had promised them. But due to the negative attitude
of just 10 men, an entire nation and entire nation was
discouraged, and they develop the same attitude.
Now, let's bring a little bit closer to home.
Imagine what they want and what they need congregation.
The negative influence that even one person could have within a
congregation or even a family, or a relationship.
It could snowball. Unto other people so that other
people could become discouraged because of what a person thinks
about, maybe a work that a congregation is doing or
whatever the case may be. It can cause others to have a
gloomy outlook on the situation. And so that leads us to the
third thing of what we can learn from the story is that number
three if we allow negative attitudes to develop, we fail to
reach goals that God has placed for us.
Now, the reason why is really tied into the first point
because we've already lost the battle before we even begin.
You see, we see the situation and we see that we don't see any
possible benefit from it. Therefore, we don't even try.
And perhaps we may become so discouraged, that we have no
motivation to accomplish great works for the Lord, but negative
attitudes. We must understand are nothing
but distractions that Satan throws in front of us to keep us
from being zealous to keep us from being eager.
And to keep us from being diligent for the Lord.
And that generation of Israel was not allowed into that
Promised Land. And neither shall we?
If we allow Satan to overtake our lives with negative
attitudes, that prevent us from doing what the Lord Wills. but,
Seeing these three things here and see having seen what a
negative attitude can lead to, I want to now, take a look at the
other side of the coin. Of what a positive attitude can
lead to and the great success that will could come from it.
We're going to look at another story from the Old Testament and
that's what the story of Nehemiah. now, when the book
first opens for Nehemiah, We find that work gets to him that
the walls of Jerusalem had been broken down and it's Gates had
been burned. Now, the news Falls quite
heavily heavy on, nehemiah's, heart to the point that he, it
really impacted his life, he wept about it, but then he
prayed about it too. And so it impacted his life so
much that there was one day that he was attending to the Kings
needs. And the King you know he noticed
the Amaya and he noticed Nehemiah just wasn't quite
himself. Something was bothering
Nehemiah. He thought her perhaps Nehemiah
was sick and so he asked what's wrong Nehemiah.
It was at that point that Nehemiah begin to explain the
situation down in Jerusalem how it lied and waste.
And so after hearing the story, The king says, well you need to
go and do something about it then and so what he does, the
king sent me a he sent a letter with Nehemiah, what the
commission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
And so as Nehemiah, he made his way down and he finally made his
way. He arrived at Jerusalem and when
he right arrived at Jerusalem, he took an assessment of the
ruins within the city. He saw the walls, certainly they
were in ruined. He saw the gates certainly they
had been burned just as he I'd heard and so after taking this
assessment, he goes to the officials and and this is what
he has to say to the officials. Now, as we look at chapter 2 and
verse 17 and 18, then I said to them, you see the distress that
we are in how Jerusalem lies and waste and its gates are burned
with fire come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no
longer be a reproach. And I told them of the hand of
my God, which had helped which had been good upon me and also
the king's words that he had spoken to me, so, they said, Let
us rise up and build. Then they set their hands to
this. Good work.
You see me? And my has positive attitude,
had impacted the men, and a positive way to do a good work.
You see it states in chapter 4 and 6 at the people had a mind.
The people had a mind to work. They were determined and they
were encouraged and zealous to perform this good work.
But as they built this wall, though there were some
opposition. There were some ridicule on the
way opposition came and the opposition belittled the Jews
and they said, you know, you Jews.
Are you doing it? Just vanity.
Because as soon as you guys bit up, those walls were going to
come by and we're going to destroy them all together.
But you know this really just encourage them.
It motivated the Jews even more to finish the walls and we find
that it took them 52 days to complete that task.
And that just simply is amazing to me of the determination of
just just to complete this good work.
Now this is story is a great one to keep in mind when we think
about how having a positive attitude and what it can lead
to, and From it, just like we learned from the, from from the
story of the Israelites, with those 12 Spies.
We learned three things as well, about having a positive
attitude. You see when positive attitudes
are maintained. We continue to believe in God
and our ability to serve him. Now Nehemiah did just this.
He believed in his God and believe the Lord was behind him
in this great work and this motivated him to accomplish this
great task of rebuilding the walls.
And he know when we ourselves begin to believe in God and
Trust his promises and understand that he is with us
and he will never ever fail us. We then begin to feel uplifted.
We then begin to feel encouraged and we've had the strength and
we have the motivation to accomplish great things and
there may be some I'm things that just might seem impossible
to some people, but as we all know With God, all things are
possible. We can do some great things.
But not only that, but when positive attitudes are
maintained, we encourage those around us and we overcome those
who try to discourage us in our way, you know, from the vision,
he determined of one, man. Being Nehemiah an entire Army of
men. Saw the good of accomplishing
this, task, it did not falter when opposition tried to
belittle and discourage them now a little bit closer to home.
This is we talked about the negative attitude of one person,
perhaps within a relationship or family or a congregation just
flip that around. Think of the positive impact of
encouraging words from one person in a congregation think
of what the congregation could do?
A corrugation could be set on fire.
With positive outlooks and positive attitudes.
And they'll be able to overcome any obstacles that may face
them. Thirdly when a pause attitudes
are maintained people, ultimately reach goals that God
has placed before them. You know this is true with Emi
and the others in accomplishing, the goal of rebuilding the walls
of Jerusalem. Now with them when it first
started it might have seemed like a long and tedious and
difficult task but day by day they were able to do it.
It was step by step and you know we may be faced with some
enduring trials or some persecutions in life.
But with a with a positive attitude, about the situation,
we're going to be able to overcome overcome it.
Even though it may seem impossible step by step, we're
going to be able to do it. Well, how is this possible?
How do we stay optimistic when we find ourselves perhaps so
overwhelmed or may be discouraged about something?
How do we maintain a positive attitude in life?
Well, the fact of the matter is we have the ability to control
our own attitudes and our own moods.
Nobody else has that power, but you yourself Now, we may not be
able to control or change the circumstances, but we can
control how we react to certain things.
For example, when things get hard for you, You can choose to
rejoice in those trials, and those persecutions.
You think how in the world? How do you do something like
that? Well for one thing, James wrote
this, James 1 verse 22 through for my brother, count, it all
joy. Count it all joy when you fall
into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith.
Produces patience but let patience have.
It's perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking
nothing. And so, how are we supposed to
rejoice and persecutions our trials?
How do we prepare our minds to do this?
Well, the key as James tells us here in verse number 3, is that
it comes with us having the understanding that the testing
of our faith. Produces patience.
If you cannot grasp that, then you're going to have a difficult
time with various trials that you face and you know, Paul
wrote about a similar thing over in Romans chapter 5.
Paul wrote this in verses 3 through 4, it says not only that
but we also glory in tribulations knowing that
tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance
character and character hope. Is he Paul adds that as we
maintain a positive attitude and trials are character develops
into a better person, a stronger person, we become stronger, our
hope is strengthened, we have a greater peace of mind, but one
other thing that helps us in this as Paul later writes in
chapter 12 and 12 of The Book of Romans is that we must be
steadfast in prayer. You know, prayers in these seats
are in essential key to maintaining a positive attitude.
You know, the more you pray The more you begin to focus upon God
and the more you begin to focus upon God, the more you become to
rely upon God and the more you become to rely upon God upon
God, the more you're strengthened by him.
It starts with prayer. It's an essential key.
It's sometimes what we may do, sometimes.
What I may do is it's like prayers just the last option and
that shouldn't be the case. It's an essential key.
You know, we may not have the character of job who had Praise
and Worship the Lord after losing practically all.
He had including his children. But you know, we could all start
somewhere. You know, these are things that
you're just not burnt born with. They take time to develop but as
we continue to develop them, our Outlook and our attitude of
life, and the Lord will shine brightly to those, even around
us. You know, another thing that we
can do to maintain a positive attitude is to block out
negativity. And one way to do this, is to
avoid negative. Self-talk, and you could do this
by. And I mean, when I talk about
negative self-talk, it's attitudes like, well, I just
can't do this, or this is just too hard for me to be able to do
Because with this type of attitude, you're not even giving
yourself a chance and just like those people of Israel that
we've talked about already. You've already lost the battle
because you won't even begin it. Avoid negative self-talk.
But another, you could also block out negativity by avoiding
negative people. Now, we've seen these types of
people before these types of people seem to have nothing good
to say about anybody or anything.
They simply may have a sour outlook on life altogether and,
you know, if we're around such individuals, it might not be
long until that kind of attitude May rub off.
My May rub off on us if we're not careful.
I mean, after all Paul did Right in his first epistle to the
Corinthians. He said that evil company
corrupts good habits and certainly that is the case in a
whole spectrum of things but especially in this situation.
But another way that you could block out, negativity is by
surrounding yourself with positive people.
Be around people who are going to encourage you to take on a
task, or to keep pressing on for the prize that Waits before us,
surround yourself with those who will Your spirit and not
discourage, it be around people who are willing to lip lend, a
helping hand. If you're feeling overwhelmed in
a trial or a task in your life, It is very important that we
fill our minds and companionship with the right thoughts.
And with the right people And if we do so our laps are going to
be so much easier. There's going to be less
obstacles and less opposition that we face in life.
The one last thing that we must do in order to maintain a
positive attitude is to live in the present and leave the past
behind us. You know, we all have regrets in
life. And we just need to accept our
mistakes and we just need to move on.
And the yet, there are just some people that just can't seem to
forgive themselves and let things go.
And you know if anyone could have lamented over his past, I
would guess it would have been Paul.
You know Paul he did so much harm and damage to the church
back when he be before he became a disciple of the Lord.
You know, he He persecuted men and women some even to the point
of death because of their belief in the Messiah.
But God be praised. The he change his life around,
he became the Apostle Paul. And one thing that helped him in
life was to not dwell on the things that he had once done.
But to press forward to the goal and he writes about this in the
book of Philippians in Philippians chapter 3 here
verses 12 through 14. It says not that I have already
attained or am already perfected but I press on the diet that I
may lay a lay hold of that, for which Christ Jesus has also
laid, hold of me brother. Aaron, I do not count myself to
have apprehended but one thing I do forgetting those things which
are behind and reaching forward to those things, which are
ahead. I press toward the goal for the
prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
What? Wonderful words from Paul.
And certainly words that we all can learn can learn from that.
We cannot let the things of our past, become a ball and chain in
our lives because all it's going to do it.
Just discourage us through life. We just can't let go of it.
We should turn that Focus rather to that which lies ahead and
make every effort to reach the goal and you know, this type of
attitude in life. It really helped Paul through
the rest of his life as he. And one thing that I like to
read is what he wrote to Timothy in his last epistle to him.
It says their second Timothy 4018 and the Lord will deliver
me from every evil work and preserve me for his Heavenly
Kingdom to him be glory forever and ever.
Amen. He was sure. this because of the
Outlook that he had on his life, As we conclude this morning.
when you think about your life as a Christian, we have every
reason to have a positive attitude in our spiritual
growth. I mean, we know that God is ever
ready to help us grow. He has provided us his word and
he has also provided us the privilege of prayer.
A prayer to help us on our way. He's also even create the church
to divide to provide an environment that even promotes
growth. And so when we Face trials, and
when we Face persecutions, we will know that our labor is not
in vain yet. If we do fall, God is still
loves us and he forgives us and he's there to pick us back up.
I'll leave you with the words. Of William James.
He said this he said the greatest discovery of my
generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his
attitude of mind. And so the choice is yours.
What kind of Life do you want to live today?
Do you want to live a life of positivity that pleases God and
will get you to heaven or rather?
Do you want to live a life that does not believe in God?
Even though enough to put a positive attitude of Faith and
Hope and joy in your life? Really.
You have the choice. No one else has that power to
make that choice for you. The choice is in your hands, but
if you Choose Wisely God's going to be there.
He's going to be there for you and through it all.
And so it is very important that we maintain a positive attitude
in our life at all times. And let us never be bogged down
by the things of life. But ever be pressing toward the
goal as Paul said, We thank you for listening to our podcast,
put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.
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