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ADJUSTING OUR ATTITUDE
* *
*Luke 9:46-62*
Southwest Airlines is considered a phenomenal success in today’s business world.
It’s often used as a model for aspiring companies.
Herbert Keller, CEO of Southwest, says when selecting employees he considers attitude more important than degrees or know-how.
While the hiring process at Southwest includes several interviews, it does not include psychological or aptitude testing.
Keller said, /“We don’t care much about education or experience, because we can train people to do whatever they have to do.
We hire attitudes.”/
In the people they employ, Southwest looks for people who listen well, smile a lot, have a sense of humor, say thank you, and are people of warmth.
That’s what they mean by attitude.
Now all of our lives we’ve been drilled with the importance of a right attitude.
A good attitude makes us more effective at our tasks and it influences people in a positive way.
A bad attitude reduces our effectiveness and dampens the enthusiasm of others.
/“You’ve got an attitude!”/, is a slang term which usually means you’ve got a bad attitude or an arrogant spirit that makes you difficult to live with.
And the funny thing is that most of the time people with bad attitudes don’t even know it.
At least they don’t know the degree to which their poor attitude negatively impacts others.
They usually think of themselves of being realistic or prudent.
/“I’m a little cynical, perhaps, but I tell it like it is,”/ they’ll say.
And they are shocked if someone suggests that they need an attitude adjustment, and they will say, /“You just have a wrong perception of me.”/
* One negative employee can tun off customers, frustrate leadership, and spread discouragement among all the employees.
* One sulking team member can disrupt the chemistry of an athletic team and invite defeat.
* One pouting teenager can disrupt the harmony in the home and sap the whole family of happiness.
* Just one critical church member can take the edge off the joy for hundreds of people and quench the Holy Spirit’s flow in a group.
But when Jesus Christ really becomes the Lord of your life, he begins to do work on your attitude.
Philippians 2:5 says, *“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.”*
Once we come to Christ, there should be a different spirit developing within us.
But I’ve seen people who’ve been to church all of their lives and they’ve never caught on to this concept that Jesus Christ is to be the Lord of our thinking as well as our behavior.
Now that is evident in several different incidents that are recorded at the end of Luke the 9th chapter.
Tun there with me and as we study this section let’s allow Jesus Christ to be the Lord of attitudes daily as we relate to four different groups of people.
! I. HUMBLE SERVICE TOWARDS CHURCH FAMILY
I want you to see, first of all, that our attitude should be one of humble servanthood towards our church family.
Verse 46, *“An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest.”
*I think there were a couple of issues that were on the disciples' minds at this time.
First, they realized that they were on the verge of something big.
Jesus had just boldly stated that he was the Messiah, and that he was going to build his church and even hell wouldn’t stop it.
The disciples, naturally, were excited about that.
Jesus had been performing powerful miracles.
He’d fed 5,000 people.
He’d raised Jairus' daughter from the dead.
The previous paragraph in Luke 9 describes the Transfiguration.
Jesus had gone up a mountain and suddenly his clothing became dazzling white.
Moses and Elijah appeared on either side of Jesus and a voice from heaven said*, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.”*
So these disciples knew that they were on the cutting edge of the kingdom of God.
And they were pumped up about that.
But their second thought was troubling.
Not all of them were being treated the same.
Peter James and John were receiving favored treatment by Jesus.
Only those three had accompanied Jesus into the bedroom of Jairus’ daughter.
The others had to hear about the resurrection second-hand.
The same three had been invited to go up to the top the Mount of Transfiguration.
And when they came down with Jesus, the other disciples knew something significant had happened, but Jesus had sworn Peter, James and John to secrecy.
Perceived favoritism can stimulate hard feelings.
So it’s not wonder that an argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest.
You see the same thing happening today:
* It happens in politics.
We can see that a person is about to be elected and there is a jockeying for position to see who will be most influential in the new administration.
* That happens in athletics.
The team is doing well and all of a sudden the focus is on who scores the most points?
Who gets the most press?
Who’s the greatest?
* It happens in families.
Another baby is born and there is sibling rivalry.
Who’s the favorite?
But our attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ.
And verse 47 says, *“Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him.
And then he said to hem, ‘Whoever welcomes this little child in my name, welcomes me.
And whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me.
For he who is least among you all, he is the greatest.’”*
You see, the disciples were concerned about associating with influential people.
But Jesus said, */“If you want to be great in my kingdom, then you prepare to spend the rest of your life serving and loving people who in the eyes of the world don’t matter very much, like this little child.”/*
* Are you willing to serve children as well as adults, even though you may not get much encouragement or feedback?
* Do you talk as long to an elderly widow as you do to a person of your own age?
* Would you give as much attention to a disabled person in a wheelchair as you would a famous athlete?
* An unattractive person as much as a beautiful woman?
* A blue-collar worker as well as a CEO?
Jesus said, *“When you serve the least of these, you serve me and you’ll be great in God’s eyes.
But you’ve got to be willing to disregard the world’s status symbols.”*
And I guarantee you the disciples didn’t catch on.
Because months later, on the very last night of his life, in the Upper Room, the disciples were still bickering with each other about who was going to be the greatest.
So Jesus gave them another illustration.
He took a basin of water and a towel and he washed their feet.
And he told them, *“Just as I have served you, I want you to have this humble attitude of servanthood to one another.”*
Someone wrote, /“The Almighty did not act High and Mighty.
The only One who is Holy did not act holier-than-thou.
The only one who knew it all, did not act like a know-it-all.
/ /And the only one who owned all the stuff, never strutted his stuff.”/
And our attitude is to be like Jesus Christ; an attitude of humble servanthood towards one another.
! II.
GRACIOUS ACCEPTANCE TOWARDS OTHER BELIEVERS
Now the next section in Luke 9 suggests that our attitude should be one of gracious acceptance towards other believers.
Verse 49, *“John said, ‘Master, we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he is not one of us.’
Do not stop him, Jesus said, for whoever is not against you is for you.”*
You see, Johns’ reaction against this unfamiliar disciple was one of exclusiveness and judgmentalism.
It didn’t seem to matter to John at this moment that a man was cured of a demon.
John regarded the healer as a competitor and tired to stop him.
You can see that same intolerance today in certain circles.
A couple of weeks ago the Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky hosted the North American Christian Convention.
Thousands of people from all across the Untied States gathered in Louisville for kind of a giant revival.
One of the speakers the this year’s convention was Chuck Colson, formerly of Watergate, now with prison Fellowship Ministry, author of *Born Again* and many other books.
But there was a note that circulated among many Christian churches protesting Chuck Colson’s inclusion in the program because he’s not from the Christian church.
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