Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
May 19, 2013 - W1320

Today we are going to start a Mini Series called, Matters of the Heart. We will be talking about the things that deal with our mind and our heart. The first topic we will talk about is on Attitudes and Faith.

 I love to watch successful people especially those who are successful in all aspects of life, successful in marriage, business or people relationships, I love to watch this. Because they leave clues behind, the way they stand, the way they talk, the way they greet people. I love to watch maybe two people who were raised in the same environment, same neighborhood, same school, read the same books, but one is successful and one is not.  Or I love to watch two people who go to the same church, read the same bible, go to the same bible study, but, one is used by God and the other is not. So what I decided to do is to study the different denominators and try to find out why this happens.

The most classic example in the bible is in the Book of Numbers. The story about the 12 spies, 10 said the task would be impossible, but two of them. Caleb and Joshua, had confidence that they could do it. As the story goes Moses assigns 12 men to go and check out the Promised Land and report back what they saw. Now God had already paved the way for them, God had already told them that they would be promised this land. But 10 of the spies come back and say ”No way” because there are giants in the land, not to mention all the Jebusites, Canaanites, Amorites  but the other two spies, Caleb and Joshua  said, “Yes we should go…” As it says here in Numbers 14:24

“But my servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered and his descendents shall take possession of it.” (Numbers 14:24)

What is important here is the phrase, “a different spirit”. That’s what made the difference here. 10 of them go in and say its impossible and Caleb says it is possible because he has a “different spirit”. He has a different perspective, a different attitude, a different way of seeing things. Ten saw the impossible but two saw it with a different spirit and said it is possible. Like it says here in Matthew 6:

“The eye is the lamp of the body so that if your eye is clear your whole body will be full of life. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.” Matthew5:22-23)

Did you catch that?? Matthew is talking about the way you perceive life. It’s your perspective in life. It’s the set of the heart. When your perspective in life is skewed, it will have an adverse affect on all the rest of your life. Your whole future will be tainted by the way you see life. You see, it’s not the events of your life that affects your future, but it’s in how you define these events. You can paint it negative or you can paint it positive. You can say it’s impossible or you can see the potential. It’s your choice.  I’ve seen people who have had catastrophic, cataclysmic events happen in their life and still come out successful.

There’s a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox that talks about the currents of the ocean and how a sailor can read those winds and currents and know just how to set the sail to catch the wind. You see it’s not about the currents, not about the wind, it’s about how we set our souls.

“One ship drives east

While another drives west,

With the selfsame winds that blow.

‘Tis the set of the sails

And not the gales

 That tell us the way to go.

Like the winds of the sea and the ways of fate,

As we voyage along through life

‘Tis the set of a soul,

That decides its goal,

And not the calm or the strife.

(The Winds of Fate by Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

There are two most important decisions that you need to make in your life.

1) The first and foremost decision you need to make in your life is to follow Jesus.

You see it is the set of your soul that will determine the outcome of your future. So your decision to follow Jesus will affect your eternity. And that IS the most important decision to make in your life. Whether or not to follow Jesus.

2) The second most important decision is the SPIRIT or ATTITUDE with which you follow Jesus.

This decision affects your testimony you have on this earth. Is it a positive or a negative attitude? Are you going to draw people heavenward or are you going to be a road block to them? So you see our decision to follow Christ affects our eternity, but the spirit which we decide to follow Jesus affects our testimony.

The question herein lies, Are any of us doing any good for heaven? Are you bringing anyone home with you? Is anyone, your family, your friends, your co workers, are they being influenced by your testimony? You see, it’s not your belief that influences, but, it is the spirit with which you believe that affects people more than anything else.

They say you can communicate in three ways. You communicate with your words, your body language and with your spirit. But the most important is with your spirit in which you live. You see, your disposition, your perspective, your spirit is the way you express your faith. You can express it legalistically, poorly, selfishly, worldly, carnally or you can express it with the right spirit and people’s lives will then be changed. It’s not just having the faith but it is the way you express your faith.

That’s why The Lord told Caleb and Joshua that they will enter into the Promised Land but the other 10 will not. The other 10 were still believers, followers of God, but their attitude caused them to lose the opportunity to enter the Promised Land.  It is that attitude that is the most common element for successful people. It is about their attitude is, how they express their faith. It’s even more important than their gifts, or education or how much money they might have, it all has to do with character. It has to do with the way one thinks.

I remember being asked once, “How do I choose good leaders?”

Well, I tell them it takes time. I let my potential leaders experience a few difficulties and see how they respond to them. Leadership reveals itself in the midst of crisis. You see problems don’t build character they expose character. So I observe them for maybe a year, and I look at how they think. Do they think poorly or well, do they see a crisis or do they see potential? Do they just want to give up and die or do they stop and do the see the adventure?

 For instance, if you lose a job what do you do? Do you get angry and depressed or do you say now I’m free to go and seek out other opportunities, a new environment. Or if your car breaks down, well here is opportunity for a new car. Is this simply just fluffy talk? Well, maybe to a degree, but it does keep you self buoyant. Will you cause your ship to sink or help it to float?

I recall a story from a Bank of America President.  Upon asking him how important does he think attitude is for the tellers who are the frontline people of your bank. He responded with this story.

A man came into the Main Office in Los Angeles and got into line. He waited for maybe 7-10 minutes and made his way to a teller. He made a small deposit. He asked the teller if she would validate his ticket as he had parked downstairs.

 The teller told him, “we don’t validate anymore. People have abused the parking privileges. We don’t validate anymore”.

He said” But I’ve been banking here for 14 years and you’ve always validated my ticket”.

She said, “Sir, we don’t validate tickets”.

He said, “But, you always have”.

She said, “Read my lips, we don’t validate tickets anymore and there’s some  people behind you. Would you move on please”.

He said,” Ok, thank you”.

The he moved back into the end of the line. He worked his way to the front of the line and went to another teller withdrew $4.7 million and took it to another bank. You ask how important attitude is?

The attitude with which you choose to serve God is so critical. It is so important that God has said that if you don’t have the right attitude then you stay out of the promises of God, but if you do have a good spirit then you may enter the promised land.

It is very evident in organizations today, people with great attitudes who try to help as best as they can even in times of intense problems are more appreciated. People with good attitudes are people you want to be around because they are so kind and they try very hard to help. Maybe they can’t fully resolve the situation, but, they were kind and understanding. It makes them very valuable to us.

In all the travelling I do, I really have learned to admire the flight attendants , they are all so fabulous. But you know the flight attendants on Japan Airlines are among the best. Those ladies are always so prim and so proper. Every hair follicle is in correct position and everything is so perfect. And it seems that they don’t walk but it seems they float on a rail and they are all so very polite and kind.

Well there is a story told about Japan Airlines. This guy gets on Japan Airlines and the attendant comes out and says,” Thank you for flying Japan Airlines. We are about to take off. If you need anything ,  just push the button on the armrest and we will come right away. Thank you very much for flying Japan Airlines” and then she disappears.

So this guy thinks wow this is wonderful and he sits back to enjoy the flight. About 20-30 minutes later there is a cataclysmic kaboom on the left side of the fuselage, he looks out the window and the left wing has fallen off and is floating away.

She comes out. “Thank you for flying Japan Airlines. If you notice, left wing fall off, but it’s alright. We just fly a little bit tilted like this. Please relax. Thank you for flying Japan Airlines” and  she disappears.

The guy figures I guess this is a normal occurrence so he sits back to relax again. And in another 15 minutes there is another Kaboom on the other side of the fuselage and the right wing is now floating away.

The lady comes out again. “Thank you for flying Japan Airlines. If you notice, other wing fall off. But it’s okay. We go more fast now. Thank you for flying Japan Airlines” and she disappears.

The guy is now wondering what’s going on as the plane is bulleting towards the ocean and it hits the water. When it settles in and floating on the water the lady comes out again. Her hair is a bit disheveled and she pushes her hair back and puts on her cap.

“Thank you for flying Japan Airlines, if you notice we landed. However, we land wrong place but we have good news we find land 5 miles to your left.  For those of you who can swim please begin now. For those of you that cannot swim, thank you for flying Japan Airlines”.

So you see, if you have a good attitude, it doesn’t matter what happens. It is really the spirit that we have that can turn a difficult ordeal into an adventure. You see it is not the event but how you define the event.

That’s what happened for Joshua and Caleb. With their right attitude, God says He wants their attitudes to fill His church. Not that of the other 10 who failed to trust that God had it all under control and had entered the land before them. If you want to receive the promises of God then it is absolutely crucial that you have the right spirit that will move you towards God and not away from Him.

So you ask how do we build that kind of spirit? Well I will give you  three simple ways.

1)  The first is to Train your eyes to look for what is good.

 All our lives we were trained to see only the bad things. The gossip we hear at the lunch tables, or every time we turn on the news we only hear bad news. We turn on the radio-- bad news. It’s a matter of the heart. If you only see the bad in things then everything will be bad to you. You see bad in your marriage or family then your marriage or your family will be bad. If you only come to church and see whats wrong with it, then that’s all you’ll see about church. Proverbs says

“He who diligently seeks good seeks favor. But he who seeks evil, evil will come to him”

(Proverbs 11:27)

And in Psalms 109:17

“He also loved cursing, so it came to him…”Psalm 109:17)

2) The second way is to Believe you can change.

 Instead of complaining about what is bad, develop that attitude of what can I do to help make things better? Allow the new opportunity to arise and allow change to take place whether in your marriage, family life, job or church. Become a person like Joshua who believes that you can change. As it says in in here Mark 9:23

“ And Jesus said to him…all things are possible to him who believes.” (Mark 9:23)

So even if your if your eyes have been trained only to see the things in life, then remember that you have to believe that you can change. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is working within you to change you from glory to glory. The only person that prevents you from changing is you. When you say you can’t change that’s why you won’t.

Walter D. Wintle writes this:

If you think you’re beaten, you are

If you think you dare not, you don’t

If you like to win, but don’t think you can,

It is almost certain you won’t

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost

For out in the world we find,

 Success begins with a fellow’s will.

It’s all in the state of mind

If you think you’re outclassed, you are.

You’ve got to think high to rise

You got to be sure of yourself before

 You can ever win a prize

Life’s battles don’t always go

 To the stronger or faster man

But soon or late the man who wins

Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!

(Thinking by Walter D Wintle 1904)

When you come up to me and tell me but I don’t know that you’ve been through some really tough times and you ask me what should you do? Well I will answer with this and so here is the third point

3) Never Give Up

Have the failth of Job, even though all his friends including his wife told him to curse God and be done with it, he would never give up on God. It doesn’t matter how much you “blow up”, the question really is which way are your feet pointing when you touch the ground again? We all blow up, we all hit walls, we all have setbacks. The question is what are you going to do about them? Are you going to learn from them and get better or are you going to quit and get bitter? It’s  resilience that brings righteousness. You must choose that, remember, it’s not the events, not the circumstances, not the sickness not the situation it’s a matter of the heart it’s the attitude with which we face them.

Remember Nick Vicijic? The man with no arms or legs? He could have chosen to give up but he didn’t, now he has become a shining example of success. Because it was not the event that determined his outcome it was the heart of perspective and attitude that brought him to where he is today.

Never give up, that’s what develops our spirit because it opens possibilities that allows hope to always be there. Even if you feel like you can’t undo your past, you can. Just reconcile it. Use it as a tool to learn from. You can either live in the past or cause it to be an instructor for your future. Just keep moving forward. That’s how our body was made, to move forward, our eyes, our hands our feet all designed to move us forward, There is only one part that is facing backwards and that is to help remind us to crush those things we need to leave behind.

I’m not just talking about coping either because that will just poison us, no I’m talking about God changing us from glory to glory where He transforms us. So reconcile your past for you are a new creation in Jesus Christ.

There’s a funny story:

A man who is on his dying bed, tries to reconcile with his wife. So he apologizes to her for all the times he wronged her, yelled at her or was mean to her. 

She simply said “its okay”.

 He said “How can you be so calm after all I’ve done to you”.

She said “its okay”.

 He asked “well then how did you stay so calm”?

She said she cleaned the toilet.

He asked “how did that help?”

She said “I used your toothbrush”.

So it is not just about coping. Its about training your eye to see the good, its about changing, about never giving up. Twelve went into spy on the land, 10 said it’s impossibl,e 2 said it is possible because God is already there. So only two made it into the promises that were laid out before them. One last point, WE can all choose our own measure of difficulty. WE all go through difficulties some time in our lives. We can choose our level of difficulty. We can make excuses not to change and say everyone will understand, or we can choose to resolve it and seek out the new opportunities that God has in store for us. It’s all a matter of the Heart. As Proverbs 23:7 says

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7)

You can’t blame anyone else for making it tough on you, If you can then Jesus can also blame the Father for he prayed, “Nevertheless not my will but Your will be done.” And He asked “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” Redemption came to us with that prayer. It was not an easy circumstance as He hung on that cross. But because of His faith and love for you and me, He had the Spirit to give up His life for us. As it says in Matthew 9:29

“it shall be done to you according to your faith” (Matthew 9:29)

One final story: Its an example of the storms in our life and how our spirit can help us move through it or we can choose to simply give up:

One day a young lady was driving across the state with her dad in the car, when they saw the blackening of the clouds up ahead indicating an oncoming storm. And eventually they were right in the brink of the storm, She asked the father “should I pull on the side and stop”.

 He said “no keep driving”.

It got darker and darker and the rain pelted the window and it was getting difficult to see.

“Dad what should I do? should I pull over”

Dad said “no just be cautious but keep driving”.

Cars were pulling off and soon even the big 18-wheelers were stopping.

“What should I do” she said.

Dad said “honey just keep  driving you’ll be okay”.

So she kept pressing on through the storm and soon the storm decreased and then soon enough the storm subsided and everything was clear again. Soon after that the sun came out.

“Now honey”, the dad said. “pullover and get out of the car”.

She asked “why”?

“He said I want you to turn around and look back at all the people who gave up. They are still in the storm. But because you never gave up your storm has passed”.

So you see, though others give up you don’t need to. Some of you are in the storms right now, but, I want to encourage you to keep pressing on. Even if the rain is pelting your windshields and hail is forcibly falling be cautious, but, press on because if you stop you will remain in that storm, but if you keep your eyes forward towards Jesus you will get through it. C.S. Lewis once wrote:

“When you keep your face towards the sun and you keep walking the shadows will always fall behind you, but if you stop and turn around, your shadows will always be your future.”

So keep your face forward towards the sun and keep moving onward because it’s not about the storm, it’s about how you set your soul. Let us be a people of a different spirit. And it will bring you into the promises of God.

DISCUSSION SUGGESTIONS

1. What kind of storms are you facing?

2. What is your attitude towards the events occurring in your life?

3. How can you deal with them?

4. What changes can be made to help you move forward to the promises of God?