Living with a New Attitude

Hey, ever notice how some people look like other people that are like maybe famous or something like that? Or maybe if they're not famous you kind of notice how somebody looks like someone or even something else. You ever do this, make these kind of comparisons? I thought just for fun today that I would start out with some amazing lookalikes if that's okay with you.

So here's the first one. Wilford Brimley and this cat. Check this out. There he is. Wow. I don't know if that's his actual cat but it should be. I mean, they belong together. Or how about the lead singer of the band Metallica and the Cowardly Lion? Then there's Mick Jagger and this batfish. It's always been about the lips, man. All right, brace yourself for this. Michael Jackson and this Egyptian statue. I don't even know if that's real. I kind of hope it's not because it kind of freaks me out.

This next one is pretty amazing. Yasser Arafat and Ringo Starr. I mean, who knew? Stunt doubles or something like that. Now I mean no disrespect here but would you agree that the Dolly llama looks a lot like this actual llama? Just saying. Here's one of my favorites, Clay Aiken and Chucky. I kind of wish they would make a movie where Chucky stalks Clay Aiken. That would be kind of cool.

Remember Craig Barnes from earlier this summer? Our friend Craig. Craig sometimes reminds me of Sam the Eagle from The Muppets. I know you're not really impressed by that but I'm just warming you up for this next one. Actually, this old picture of Craig, it was right after he got his PhD. He's looking very suave and sophisticated. Looks a lot like NBC's Brian Williams if you ask me. I know, check that out. Like separated at birth or something.

Last week we had Bill Butterworth, right? Hard not to notice the resemblance between Bill and Ralphie from A Christmas Story. Come on, dead ringer there. Getting closer to home there's René and Alex Trebek. I mean who else? Raise your hand you've been thinking this for years. Finally, here's yours truly and Hammy the Squirrel from that movie Over the Hedge. It was either going to be Hammy or Danny from the Partridge Family. Hammy won.

Well there you have it, some amazing look-alikes just for your entertainment. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. There's one more, okay? This one is actually the most significant of all because this one involves you and Jesus Christ. Some of you are thinking wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait. No one is ever going to confuse me with Jesus. Well, me either but even so this is actually God's goal. This is what God wants for us that we would resemble Jesus more and more as we grow in Christ.

This is in fact our destiny as believers. How we think, what we value, how we live. God intends to turn us into amazing look-alikes of Jesus Christ. Now how in the world does that work? We're going to look at that this morning. So grab those message notes as we continue in our series Living Hope and today Living with a New Attitude.

Now that you've got those notes in hands I want you to notice that verse right at the very top. First Peter 4:1, I'm going to ask you to read this with me. Let me hear you, ready? "Therefore since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin." Our attitude, our way of thinking, it should be the same as our Lord's and again sounds good on paper but obviously none of us are there yet.

But if that's our destination, I want us to think a little bit this morning about how we might embrace this and in fact proceed a little bit farther down the path. So open your Bibles if you haven't already to First Peter 4. If you need to borrow one of those TLC Bibles go right ahead. They're located in most instances in the seat back in front of you or in some places right underneath your bench. First Peter 4, today we're looking at verses 1 through 11.

Right out of the gate Peter says, "arm yourselves also with the same attitude." The same attitude as Jesus. So circle that phrase, arm yourselves. That's a key phrase. In the original language this had to do with when a soldier would put on their armor, prepare for battle, select their weapons. Pretty much means the same thing to us today but it's a military image. And one pastor commenting on this says this, "This word picture offers a blunt reminder that we Christians are not living on this earth as carefree tourists." Everybody is, life is hard. Life's a battle. Following Jesus goes against the grain of our society.

But regardless of our circumstances Peter reminds us that we have the power to choose our attitude, to arm ourselves with a particular attitude. Victor Frankel who was one of the most famous survivors of the Holocaust said this, "The last of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances." Now bear in mind Victor Frankel said this in a context of intense suffering and persecution. Same context in fact that Peter would find himself in as he writes these Christians, they're under intense persecution, they're suffering and yet despite our circumstances we still have the freedom to choose our attitude.

So arm yourself Peter says with the attitude of Christ. Now of course this begs the question, how do we do this? How do we actually live this out in practical ways? Well there's three types of attitudes that I want to point out today in today's passage. They're really part of one overall attitude but Peter breaks them down into three areas of life and the first one is this, arm yourself with an open hands attitude. An open hands attitude, write that down. And what do I mean by that? Well I want you to follow me here because we all want to be free right? We want to be free from worry, free from the tyranny of sin, free from fear. Jesus was free of all of these things. What's the key to this? I want to propose to you today that it's living with an open hands attitude.

When I have my hands like this in life and this is my posture before God, what I'm saying is that God is free to place things into my hands, which I often welcome, but He's also free to take them out. This open hands attitude, I have to credit Craig Barnes because he was talking about this a little bit a couple weeks ago. We were at a family conference together in Oregon and as he talked about this open hands attitude it really struck me because my tendency is to do this. I want to cling, I want to control, I want to go, hey this is my life. This is my health. These are my possessions, you know my nest egg, my stuff, but really that's an illusion because in reality my life is not my own.

I didn't create my life. I can't sustain my life, not really. I'm actually powerless over so many of the things that I think that I can actually control and so are you. I mean think about it, we obviously have some power when it comes to outcomes, when it, you know we can make healthy choices, we can make wise choices, we can have influence, but it's a myth to think that life is just the sum of our choices because there's so many things beyond just what we might choose for ourselves. Think about it, you know you can make great career choices and still find yourself out of a job. You can make great choices about your health and what you eat and still find yourself with cancer.

As a husband or a wife you can be just exceptional, make the best choices all the way along and still find yourself abandoned someday. Parents, you can give your child the very best start in life, make wonderful choices for them and still have your heart broken by the choices that they might eventually make for themselves. We simply don't have absolute control over a raft of things in life. And so enter anxiety, enter sinful strategies for trying to force our agenda on others in order to control them, enter ways to medicate our discontent with food, drugs, sex, drink, gossip, shopping, you name it.

But when I arm myself with an open hands attitude, I'm really affirming, "Lord Jesus, my life is not my own, my life is yours. Do what you will." Now I don't mean to suggest that this is an easy attitude to adopt. In fact it's quite hard. But Peter says in verse 2 that when Jesus' followers arm themselves with this attitude, as a result they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires but rather for the will of God.

Think about it. This is the exact attitude that Jesus had the night that he was arrested. This is how he lived his life. His open hands are about to be stretched out on a cross and so what does he do? He prays and he says, "Father, take this cup from me." That's a perfectly Jesus-like thing to pray when you find yourself dealing with something that you don't want. "Father, take this cup from me. I don't want this." And yet what does Jesus do next? He says, "Yet not my will but yours be done." Sometimes God will put a cup in our hands that we simply would not choose for ourselves and like Jesus, Peter knew this firsthand.

Says in John 21 that after Jesus is resurrected, his disciples find him one morning making breakfast for them. He's got this little fire going and after they all eat he takes Peter for a walk. And he says, "You know what Peter, when you were young you'd get up, get dressed and you'd take yourself wherever you wanted." You felt like you were in the driver's seat. But as you grow older, others will come for you and they will pull you up and they will take you where you do not want to go. John says that Jesus told Peter this indicating the kind of death that he would suffer and tradition has it that Peter was crucified.

But long before that terrible day ever arrived, I'm sure that Peter was dying to self so to speak, giving up control, yielding his agenda to Jesus over and over again. And that's really what this means when we live our lives with an open hands attitude. We are surrendering ourselves to Jesus even though we know that someday he may take us where we do not want to go. Some of you may find yourself in that place right now. You're bearing something that you would not have chosen for yourself. In fact, it's likely God would not have chosen it for you but he hasn't spared you either. And so there you are. Thank Father, take this from me. But not my will but yours be done.

Here's the amazing thing. When we choose to live with this open hands attitude, we actually discover a level of joy and peace and freedom and strength, I might add, that we would never experience in any other way. Let me give you just a little example of this. Kim Bruniger, our women's ministry director, just returned from Zambia with a couple other ladies from TLC and she was sharing with our staff at our last staff meeting about some of the amazing things that went on. They had an incredible time and one day they go to this church. It's a Sunday morning and they're greeted very warmly, very simple church. They enter in and the worship begins and they're singing the songs with the other people there even though they don't know what the words mean. They're just having a great time.

They tell this, "Everyone's just worshiping the Lord." Sometimes you don't have to know the words. And about the second song, Kim gets a little tap on her shoulder and the pastor says, "We're looking forward to hearing your message this morning." Kim didn't get the memo on this, okay? And she tries to politely get herself out of this, which is what I would have done in the moment, and says, "Well, you know, thank you so much for the great honor, the invitation, but I'm really not prepared for this." And the pastor goes, "We're looking forward to hearing your message this morning." Oh, did I mention I'm coming down with laryngitis? It's really going to be bad.

Turns out this is their tradition. This is how you honor your guests. You hand them the sermon and say, "Go ahead." And so Kim realizes there's just no getting out of this. And so she jumps up there completely unprepared, and yet she is reminded of the time when God promises Moses that he will put words in his mouth when he needs them. And so Kim tells herself that, "Well, God can do that for Moses. He can do that for me." And 45 minutes later, Kim sits down having preached her first sermon on African soil. How cool is that? And you have to think that she was just a little bit exhilarated by all that.

Funny thing is this, that she's telling this to the staff, she ends her story with really a confessional. She says, "Years ago I said to the Lord, 'God, I will go, I will do anything that you want me to do. I'm yours. In fact, I will go wherever you want me to go except Africa.'" Africa is off the list. It is not up for consideration. Well, Kim happens to be with us this morning. Kim, welcome back. Congratulations on now your seventh trip to Africa. Thank you. Seven trips later. That's awesome.

There is freedom, joy, adventure, surprise, and yes, sometimes hardship when we adopt this open hands attitude before the Lord. But let's face it, like the old Bob Dylan song says, "You're going to have to serve somebody. You know, maybe the devil or it may be the Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody, right? I mean, you can't ride the fence on this. You're either serving the will of God or you're serving your own will or someone else's will. And that's really what Peter's getting at when he says that those who choose the same attitude as Jesus do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.

And he doesn't mean this perfectly or completely. Leader of all people would know better than that, but what he's getting at is that over time as we choose this attitude, it becomes more and more of our consuming passion to live for the will of God than for our own baser human instincts, if you know what I mean. So arm yourselves with an open hands attitude. And second, arm yourselves within every moment matters attitude.

Let me ask you just how precious is time? How about your time? What's it worth? What's it mean to give your time to someone or something else? It means a lot. Karl Barth, arguably the most influential theologian in the last 100 years said this, "When I really give anyone my time, I give him the last and most personal thing that I have to give at all, namely myself." It's a big deal to give your time to someone else. And we never take it for granted when someone gives us their time because when they do, they are giving us their last most personal thing that they have. They're giving them their very selves.

And it's not just to people, it's to whatever activity we give ourselves to. In those moments, we are spending moments that we will never get back. And when we adopt this attitude, it really clarifies the types of choices that we make in life. So picking up at verse 3, Peter says, "For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do, living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry." Wow, Peter must have been at my last high school reunion. Just kidding, kinda. You know, I imagine the reason that you're in church is you don't want to be about those things, okay? So we're not going to camp out there too long.

They're surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Would you agree that at the very least, these behaviors, these lifestyle choices that Peter's talking about here are a monumental waste of time? I mean, at the very least, there's a lot more collateral damage that goes along with it, but it is a monumental waste of time. I mean, nobody ever says on their death that, "Oh, if I only would have had more time for drunkenness in debauchery." You know, I just let too many things get in the way of my carousing and idolatry. Can I now? I'm out of time.

A much more likely realization in our final moments will be that we are about to face our Maker, the one who's ready to judge the quick and the dead, as the King James puts it. And that's a moment that is likely to instill either excitement, like can't wait, or fear and dread. Now, of course, the Lord wants it to be excitement. And so continuing at verse 6, "For this is the reason the gospel was preached, even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the Spirit." Now, what does that mean, those who are now dead? I have no idea. No, actually, there's a couple of different opinions.

Personally, I think that when Peter talks about the gospel being preached to those who are now dead, he's referring to Christians who have heard the gospel, but they've died since the resurrection of Jesus. You know, they embraced it, but now they're gone. And this had to raise, you know, some obvious questions, like, you know, Jesus came back from the dead, why not His followers? I mean, why are they still in their tombs? Because by human standards, their demise looks just like everyone else's. In fact, they're dropping like flies under this persecution. So why follow Jesus at all if we all end up in the same place? Now, Peter is saying, "Yeah, they are dead." The same judgment of death has fallen on them, just like everyone else, but even so, they live according to God in regard to the Spirit.

I think Peter is affirming, along with other scriptures that speak of this, that when we respond to the gospel, the good news of Jesus, and we receive the eternal life that He offers us, our Spirit is alive and with God even though our bodies die. And then the possible... And just so we're clear on this, it doesn't end there. You know, the great news is that even these bodies, these mortal bodies will be resurrected into a glorified state that's no longer subject to death or decay or sickness. And the Apostle Paul is gonna add to this equation in our understanding. In 1 Corinthians 15, I don't think it's in your notes, but just listen as I read this. "Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." And this hope, this living hope, it's throughout the New Testament and there's a sense of expectation that we're told to have, an awareness that at any moment Jesus may return and this age will give way to the next, whether we're in the grave or we're still alive.

Some will sleep, others won't, but in a flash in the twinkling of an eye, we will all be changed. So along these lines, Peter continues in verse 7, "The end of all things is near or at hand. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray." The point is this, every moment matters because I don't know which moment is gonna be my last moment. Even when Peter was writing this, the world was on the verge of a different sort of apocalypse. This letter is dated somewhere between 62 AD to 66. That's about as late as you can date it because Peter's executed by Nero in 66 AD. But by 66 AD, the Roman Jewish war has broken out and by 70 AD, the nation of Israel has been obliterated by Rome. I mean the nation is gone. Jerusalem is burned to the ground. The temple has been leveled.

In fact, there's a carved panel outside of Rome. It's called the Ark of Titus. This is a depiction right here of the Roman conquest over Jerusalem and specifically the temple. Notice they're carrying away the menorah there. It's an in-your-face message to the surviving Jews who were either scattered abroad or sold into slavery, those that actually survived. But just a few years before this all goes down, Peter writes by the inspiration of the spirit that, "Folks, for some of you, your world is gonna be rocked in ways that you never imagined." And that's the way that tragedy always enters our life with little or no warning, right? There is rarely, if ever, some kind of announcement before the other shoe drops in our lives.

So along with Peter's advice, Paul says in Ephesians 5, "Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil." How do you make the most of every opportunity? Peter mentions prayer, right? Sometimes it's as simple, as basic as when we wake up in the morning saying, "Father, I pray that you would help me to make the most of this day. Help me to live this as if this is the only day that I have." Because let's face it, we don't have this promise of endless tomorrows but we have right now, don't we? And being alert or sober-minded doesn't mean we adopt this, you know, doom and gloom demeanor. I mean, far from it, it means that we live our lives to the fullest.

It means we make the most of every moment. It means I refuse to worry about tomorrow because that's ripping off time I have right now, squandering it. I remember hearing Chuck Swindoll, author and pastor, he was up at Mount Herman a couple years ago, a couple of us went up there. I'll never forget his big point that morning when he said to us, "Wherever you are, be there 100%." It's totally simple but it just stuck with me. Wherever you are, be there 100%. And this was huge for me because my tendency is not to live in the moment. My tendency is to, you know, think or even fret about something that's yet to come or to think about some moment that's long past and that's all well and good when it comes to planning or reflecting on our lives. But more often than not, the order of the day is to live in the moment that we're in.

And I have to think in a group this large that there's some of you that might struggle in the same area as I do. So arm yourselves with an every moment matters attitude because it's your choice every single day. Finally, if we're going to have the attitude that Jesus had, then arm yourself with a gifts are forgiving attitude. A gifts are forgiving attitude. These next three verses are so rich we could spend the rest of our days just pondering them and applying them to our lives. But you want to live a full, purposeful, joyful and meaningful life? Now take to heart what Peter says starting here in verse 8. It says, "Above all, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various form."

Notice that love is the foundation of all that we're talking about here. And that love starts with God's love for us and it's supremely demonstrated in Jesus Christ. And then God's Spirit awakens our own so that we're able to love Him in return. I mean, even offering ourselves back to the Lord is an act of love that's empowered by the Spirit. But when I recognize that everything I have, my time, my talent, my treasure, it all comes from a God who loves me and calls me to love others deeply. You know, my attitude, it shifts. It shifts from a, you know, an entitlement mentality to a stewardship mentality. I'm willing to just steward the things that God has given me.

And to be completely candid, I've been pretty slow to come by this attitude. Not so much with money, but with my time, which I can guard to a fault or with what I perceive to be my own gifts. When we came back from this conference I mentioned up in Oregon, I was so happy and excited about the opportunities that we had up there and the experiences that we enjoyed. But I got to confess that I did not have that attitude days before. In fact, my wife Laura and my coworker Valerie can both attest that days before I'm just grousing around, you know, muttering to myself, "Why did I even agree to do this? What in the world was I thinking? I mean, I got to leave my home. I got to drive 13 hours up north and speak to people that I don't even know who have overinflated expectations about what I'm going to say because I got a picture in a brochure somewhere. I'm gone." I know this all sounds stupid and childish, but you know, sometimes that's just the way I roll. So you're just going to have to bear with me.

But time after time, Jesus responds and says, "Mark, I couldn't care less about what you think you can or cannot do. Just be a faithful steward of the gifts and the opportunities that I give you." And like me, you may find yourself thinking far too often, "You know what? What in the world do I have to offer?" It's not hard to pick out people that have more resources than you or more talent than you or yes, even more time than you, but remember when Jesus wanted to feed 5,000 people? Remember that story? It doesn't start with Him hijacking a catering truck, okay? Starts with Him finding this little boy's lunch, a couple fish and a couple loaves because the point is Jesus delights in taking what little we have in order to demonstrate how much He can do with it.

All He asks is that we make it our desire to live as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms because after all, our gifts are forgiving. And by the way, if you're curious to learn about your gifts, Val mentioned this 301 class that comes up next Sunday afternoon at 4. I highly commend that to you. It'll give you kind of a jump start on this discovery. But notice Peter talks about hospitality and some of you have this gift and one of the greatest gifts you can ever give someone else is to offer them hospitality. Now I know some people, they take our 301 class and if we're honest, we all want to kind of be told that we have this very prestigious gift. You know, "I've got the gift of leadership. I've got the gift of wisdom." So let me share my wisdom with you or, you know, "I've got the gift of greatness." That's what they told me in the class, gift of greatness. What gift did you get, sir? Oh, hospitality.

Listen, those of you who think you might have this gift, hospitality is God's first act of grace because at creation, God made a home. God made a place for all of us. So you, if you have that gift, man, you run with it. You enjoy it because it is something near and dear to the heart of God. Whatever gift you may have, however you understand God to have gifted you, here's the goal, verse 11, "If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides so that in all things, God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen."

When we serve in the strength that God provides, it's for His praise and His glory. That's how huge this is. God is glorified when we give our gifts. Now with all of this in mind, I want to close today by introducing you, or reintroducing some of you, to someone who has lived this out, this attitude of Jesus in ways like no one else I've ever met in my life. You've heard me share stories over the years about Laura's grandfather. Her grandfather would have been 110 years old this September, but just this past week he finally graduated to heaven at the ripe age of 109.

And such a remarkable man, he received his PhD from Princeton in the 1920s, went on to be a missionary in Korea until World War II broke out, which ended his missionary career there. He could never go back, and it was profoundly disappointed for him to prepare for that career only to have it shortened unexpectedly. But he went on to be a pastor, college professor, Sunday school teacher, artist, husband, father, I mean just a true Renaissance man. And when grandpa was a spry 102 years old, we decided to shoot a little video of him right here on this very stage. We asked him to reflect on life and on faith.

Like I said, I don't know anyone who has chosen better, more fully, this open hands attitude or this every moment matters and gifts are forgiving attitude. So it would only be fitting that I allow a grandpa, also known as the Reverend Doctor Victor Wellington Peters to close out this message. Take it away grandpa.

All these different careers, so unexpected, they just came to me one after another. And at 80, I went to the pastor and I said, I'm 80 and I just feel like maybe it's time for me to retire. He said, well, we don't want you to retire, but if you feel like it, we'll permit you. And so at 80, I retired and then got just a self-employment painting and I'm still doing that. I just been working last week on the painting and just enjoy it. Every day I go in there and paint and spend a wonderful day and then I can't hear anything so I'm bothered by the door. I have perfectly quiet neighbors. Nobody bothers me at all. And when people want to know me, they have keys to the door. They walk in and find me painting. And so I couldn't ask for more. The Lord's been wonderful.

And so what He's leaving me here for now, I don't know, but anyway, I have a chance to just tell people how wonderful the Lord is, that whatever stage you are in life, there's something you can do. And the Lord fits your strength, I guess, to your situation. And if He wants you to do something, He gives you the strength to do it. And if He doesn't want you to do anything with you, I guess He takes you home to heaven.

Would you join me in prayer? Heavenly Father, thank You for gathering. I encourage one of us here today as Your church, as Your people. And Lord, my simple prayer would be that by the power of Your Spirit, You would give us the strength and the desire to choose an attitude that resembles that of Jesus Christ. And Father, I am mindful of the fact that there are those here today that they've made that choice many, many times in life and perhaps they feel discouraged. And so again, Lord, I pray that they would not be discouraged because of their own failures, but they would be encouraged by the promise of a fresh movement of the Holy Spirit in their life and the power of just being around Your people and how that shapes us and forms us and Your Word speaking to our lives.

And Lord, I pray for those who maybe they feel like at 80 or 60 or 15, whatever it might be, that they still don't know what You would like them to be doing and how You would have them serve You. I pray that Grandpa's example would inspire them that at the very least we can tell people how good You are at what You're doing in our life. But whatever it is, Lord, we want to offer ourselves to You. So we ask that You remove every obstacle. We pray that You would help us, Lord, to do what our hearts want to do. Our spirits are willing, but sometimes the rest of our being is weak. And so, Lord, we pray that You would strengthen us and fortify our desire to live every single day in a way that makes the most of every opportunity. We praise You. We thank You. We look forward to what You will continue to do in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen.