Attitude Adjustment

Series: Breakout
June 29, 2008

In my wallet I carry some of my most important stuff. I carry my ID, very important in today’s world. I have my insurance cards should anything horrible happen to me. I have my credit cards and a bankcard if I want to buy anything. But I also have a few things that are even more important. I have the very first note that Robin sent me. I have a card with all her relevant sizes and shapes so I can buy her clothes, shoes, whatever. But here I have the most important thing in my wallet. It’s the card that I wrote our wedding vows on, and kept in my pocket for our wedding just in case I got nervous and needed a cheat sheet (which I didn’t). On this same card is our wedding text, and it’s the text we come to today in our Breakout series taking us through the letter to the church in Philippi, one of our books of the bible. It’s Philippians 2:5-11.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being make in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11

We picked this text not because we totally understand it, not because we’ve ever gotten it right. We picked this text because it calls us to a life higher than we can ever dream or imagine or achieve on our own or in our own strength. This passage calls us to center ourselves on Jesus, and to center our marriage in Jesus. Our unity and bond in marriage is wholly dependent on having the same attitude, the same mind, as Christ. In a world of infinite variables and almost constant flux, there are at least two things Robin and I can count on, two things that will always ground us, guard us and gird us up in our marriage and in life in general- we each as individuals have given our lives to Jesus Christ, we have union with Jesus Christ. And second, that in Jesus Christ we are united together until death do us part. It may not sound like a lot- we each put our life in Jesus, and in Jesus we have our marriage- but it is everything. It makes all the difference in our marriage, and it can make all the difference in our world.

Our hope, our lives, our attitudes are IN Jesus Christ. And I want to start by looking at this area of attitude. This whole area of our attitude, our mindset, is vitally important. I’m not sure when it happened, but the phrase “attitude adjustment” has become a common part our culture today. Hank Williams wrote a song about it, Aerosmith covered it, and now there’s even a band simple named, “Attitude Adjustment.” I probably use it more than I realize with my own kids. I tell them to change their attitude, check their attitude, adjust their attitude. It’s obviously become a part of our common culture because people realize that attitude matters. In many cases, it makes all the difference. Charles Swindoll, a very popular preacher and author, wrote a statement on attitude that has become quite famous. Perhaps you’ve already heard this…

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 appearance, 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 that 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% how I react to it.
And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.

I’m sure that quote rings true for most of us. We have experienced, or even reaped the fruits, of our attitude. A negative attitude that wreaks havoc on our enjoyment of life, or a positive attitude that can even take bad things and make them good again.

Did you hear the one about the twins who were born with completely different attitudes? The one twin was always optimistic, always saw the bright side of things, and always saw the glass half full, often to point of annoying his parents. The other twin was the total opposite. The glass was not even half empty, but mostly empty. For their birthday one year the parent decided they would try to temper both their attitudes a bit. For the boy with the bad attitude they filled his room with all the toys, games and candy he could ever want. Then they filled the other boys room with manure. They sent them to their rooms to see their presents. The boy with the bad attitude walked out of his room already complaining that now his room was too crowded, the games went the ones he wanted, and that he’d probably get cavities from the candy. The other boy didn’t even come out of his room. Finally they opened the door to see him running wildly through the manure, diving in and out, with a smile on his face. He looked at his folks and said, “Gee thanks mom and dad, I haven’t found the pony yet, but I know he has to be in here somewhere!”

Some people just seem to have that knack to see things in a positive light. And that’s what we want to do this morning. We want to just take a moment for an attitude adjustment, but not just a vague attitude adjustment to a positive outlook. We know from the passage we are going to look at the standard of our attitude. Or rather, who the standard of our attitude should be. We have a vivid, amazing, picture of what our attitude needs to look like, and what affect it should have on our lives. It’s the attitude of Jesus, and it should bring us unity in the church.

Paul wants the church in Philippi to be one in spirit and purpose, to have complete unity. But instead of going off on a tangent about unity, which would have made perfect sense at this point, he goes off on a tangent about Jesus. About who he was, what he did, what he will become. Which makes we wonder, why? Why not some great treatise on unity? Why not teach on it, spell it out, paint a picture, tell a story?

But he doesn’t. He doesn’t get focused on unity itself as the goal. Unity itself is never the goal. We can be unified around a lot of things, and they might not necessarily be very good things! People have united to fight unjustified wars. People have united to promote hatred and racism and lies. People have united to do incredible evil and commit heinous sins. People across the ages and around the globe have united together in countless causes, many of them have do nothing for the common good or the glory of God. Unity itself is never the answer folks. Unity itself is just neutral.

What are we to be united for? Who are we to be untied for? Paul, instead of getting focused on unity itself as the goal, gets focused on the one that is to unify us. Paul takes the high road here. He points us in verse to the source and focus of the unity we should desire. He points us to Jesus. If we can adjust our attitude, or a more literal translation is to say, we can get the mind of Christ, unity is going to be the natural outcome.

A.W. Tozer wrote,

“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all turned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship” (The Pursuit of God).

We will get closer to the unity that Paul is talking about here not by getting focused on unity, but by getting focused on Jesus. In doing pre-marital counseling I draw a triangle. At the top I have Jesus. At the other two points I have the names of the couple. Then I talk to them about the triangle. It can change shape and move. It’s possible for two people to become close, but to remain far from God. It’s possible for one person to come close to God, but the other remain far, and how this itself can stress the relationship. I finally talk about the ideal movement. When two people simultaneously move closer to God, and when that happens, they also naturally move closer to each other. The very best way to strengthen the marriage relationship, to strengthen the unity of the marriage, is to move closer together toward God.

Now imagine one God, and not just two people, but two hundred, two thousand, two million, two billion people all moving closer to God, and closer then to one another. Imagine all of them not looking to unity itself as the goal, but to Jesus as the goal. Then letting the unity that grows from Jesus work itself out in their lives, and in the life of the church, and into our world.

This is the image that Paul is painting for us. If each of us gets our eyes off of ourselves and on Jesus, if each of us gets our life in Jesus, if each of us gets our attitude changed to be like Jesus, then each of us will mystically, miraculous, marvelously find ourselves not just drawing closer to God, but closer to one another. I want to unpack this attitude, the mindset of Christ. Remember, this is the solution to what Paul has proposed to us. Asking us, the church to be like-minded, that is to have unity, but more, to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, in humility to consider others better than ourselves, and to look to the interests of others. Or to put it simply- Union with Christ, unity with the church, means we
abandon pride
adopt humility
act selflessly

First, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit- Union with Jesus, having his attitude, means abandoning all pride. This is the first and hardest step for many in a culture that glories in individual pride and accomplishment. “Hold your head up, walk tall, and be proud.” Pride is this excessive belief in one’s own self and abilities. It’s a healthy self-understanding on steroids. And the problem with pride occurs when one’s self gets so big, ones need for God, and understanding of God gets squeezed out.

For some of us here, pride is our big problem. If it is, others know it. We all know someone who is filled with their own pride. And if they weren’t so busy being filled with themselves, then they’d realize how terribly lonely they really are. Because people that are proud do not have friends, they are not close to their families, they are estranged from the co-workers and neighbors, and they are far from God. And in context of what Paul is shooting for here, people that are filled with pride do not know how to live in or experience true unity with Christ or with other people. Pride is the enemy of unity, which is exactly why we are prone to talk about school pride, or family pride, or patriotic pride. It actually calls us to get our attention off of our self, and onto something or someone else.

In classic Christian theology, which has so permeated our life and culture, pride has been marked as the mother of all sins. Thomas Aquinas, was the first to take note of this. It actually comes from Proverbs chapter six where the writer states there are seven things which are detestable to God. Thus, the seven deadly sins, and at the top of the list- haughty eyes, or as it’s put elsewhere, pride. Proverbs 16 tells us, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” And again in Proverbs 20. “A man's pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.”

Which lead to the second point, abandon pride and adopt humility. If you were here last week you heard be talk briefly about a common prayer of mine, “Lord, if I can learn this the easy way, let’s do this the easy way.” More than anything that pray comes out of my experience of struggling with pride and asking for humility. If there is any sure fire way to learn humility, it is to be humbled. But being humbled is not fun.

The bible talks a lot about humility. I knew the bible talked a lot about pride. In fact, when I did just a little bit of a word study on humility I was shocked to see how often it occurs. Basically, God hates a prideful and arrogant person, but a humble person he loves. Moses was the humblest man on the face of the earth, the bible says. And thus, god used Moses as perhaps the greatest leader the world has ever known next to Jesus. In James 4 we have a treatise on humility. James, the author, quotes proverbs in saying, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, and again, humble yourself before the Lord and he will lift you up. This is not an exhaustive list, but here are just some of the things that god can use to do or build up in a humble person:

• God can use a humble person.
• God can teach a humble person.
• A humble person can be a true friend.
• A humble person can listen and learn.
• A humble person knows who they are.
• A humble person does not slander or lie or boast or brag.
• A humble person has peace in their heart.
• A humble person can sleep at night.

All of this ties inextricably with the third point: act selflessly. Simply put, no one ever demonstrated or did this better than our Lord and guide, Jesus Christ. And back to the passage we began with, Jesus was the incarnation of looking to the interests of others. Jesus who was and is god, humbled himself and took on our humanity. And as if that wasn’t enough for the eternal almighty God of the universe, he took on our sin and became obedience to death on a cross. But though this death Jesus defeated sin and death, as he rose for the grave and ascended to heaven. Therefore at his name eve knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

This passage so wonderfully summarized for us the life of Jesus: who he is, what he has done, what he will do. It’s calls us to union in him, an in him union with all other believers. And in that unity we have the freedom finally to abandon all pride, adopt humility, and act selflessly.

This week, pray for humble confidence in the Lord and do something to make this happen:
Get to know Jesus so your eyes are on him.
Kill the pride that can kill your love of God and neighbor- apologize, say you were wrong, say you’re sorry.
Do something out of selfless ambition. One thing….