Just Like Jesus in Attitude

Well, I do hope and pray you have a wonderful 2012. And to make this weekend special, I've invited a special guest. That's right, because I'm thinking, you know, it's New Year's and we're kicking off the first series of a brand new year. So we've got to make this kind of memorable. And so we're going to have a special guest take the stage in just a moment. But before that, let's get the ball rolling. Grab your message notes entitled, "Just Like Jesus." And as you're doing that, let me see a show of hands. How many of you have ever made a New Year's resolution at some point in your life? Yeah, most of us here. And typically, our resolutions, you know, have to do with quitting some kind of habit, or dropping some weight, or joining the gym, that kind of stuff, right? But have you ever wondered what kind of New Year's resolution God might have for us? And what kind of resolution would He have? What would He want for our lives?

Well, I think that it's wrapped up in the title of this message series, "Just Like Jesus." God wants you, God wants me to become more and more like Jesus. And not overnight, and certainly not perfectly in this life, but step by step, gradually, we become more like Jesus. And I really like what Max Lucado says on page one of his devotional book. He says, "God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus." So we're not talking about a little tweak here, a little fine-tuning there. We're talking about a total overhaul of our hearts and our lives. And that's why we're starting out this morning with "Just Like Jesus" in attitude.

Because would you agree with me, attitude is huge? I mean, attitude is like the rudder on a ship. It has so much to do with the direction of our lives. In fact, the dictionary defines attitude like this, "A settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person's behavior." A settled way of thinking. It's your basic mindset. That's the way that you typically operate. And that means that if you want to change behavior, you have to change attitude first.

I like what another pastor and author writes about attitude, someone you might have heard of named Chuck Swindoll. He says, "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 success, 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 the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it, and so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes, and I think that's rich. And I love that phrase, "Attitude is the one string we get to play," because there's a lot of stuff we don't have control over, but we choose our attitude.

Think about it. Why are some people more enjoyable to be around than others? Attitude. Why are some people able to roll with life's punches better than others? Attitude. Why are the 49ers finally playing the way the Lord intended them to play? New coach, new attitude, right? Now that said, look at the verse on the top of your notes. Philippians 2:5, this is our theme verse for today. So let me hear you read this out loud with me. Here we go. "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." Your attitude, my attitude, should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

Now I don't know about you, but I find this verse incredibly challenging. Same attitude as Jesus? Really? Seems like an impossibly high standard. So let's see what Paul, the guy who wrote this verse, means. What's he getting at? Well, first of all, a little bit of background. Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians while he was in a Roman jail. Literally chained 24/7 to a prison guard. No privacy. His crime was telling other people about Jesus. That was it.

But despite his hard circumstances, Paul uses the word "joy" in his letter to the Philippians more frequently than in any other book of the New Testament. Highest frequency of the word "joy" right there in a letter that's only four chapters long. So Paul is just overflowing with joy. So at the very least, he's practicing what he's preaching here about attitude, isn't he? A little background on the city of Philippi. Philippi was a provincial Roman city, and General Mark Antony settled many of his soldiers there, as did Emperor Augustus. And why this matters is because it made Philippi a very Roman city. It was thick with Roman culture in Roman ways.

And this is very important. We're going to get back to this in just a moment. But not only is there this pressure, kind of bearing down on this church from its culture, from the outside, but Paul catches word that there's a fight going on between two women in the church. Women named Eudia and Syntyche. And probably it was over like who had the worst name. I mean, I don't know. I'm just guessing. Eudia, Syntyche, I don't know. No. Obviously it was something else. But whatever it was, Paul knows that if it's allowed to fester, it's going to suck in the rest of the church and cause a huge problem.

And so he sets out in this letter, among other things, to do a little attitude adjustment. Not just for these two women, but for all the readers of Philippians, including us. Now, this is all interesting history, but it won't really benefit us unless we make it personal, right? So let me ask you, is there someone in your life that you're at odds with? Whenever this happens, we tend to adopt an attitude around this person, right? Start to see them in a particular way. Frame them in the context of this dispute.

Or maybe it's not just a particular person, but in your relationships with your family, your coworkers, your friends, your neighbors, your fellow twin Lakers. This weekend is a great weekend to do a little reality check and ask ourselves the question, "How is my attitude?" Now, that's not an easy question to ask, but it's a great question to ask. And I think unless we ask ourselves these types of questions, this whole idea of being just like Jesus, it's really just kind of a vague wish. A platitude that we talk about on the weekends, but never really works its way down into the daily realities of our lives.

So we're going to drill down a little bit and see what Paul means here when he talks about having an attitude like Jesus. And I think that there are two issues that comprise our attitude. And the first one is this, what's my motivation? I want to write that down. What drives me? Especially in my relationship, what's my core motivation? This is huge. So we're going to spend a little bit more time on this first point right here.

But in verses three and four of Philippians 2, Paul says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." And circle those words, "selfish ambition and vain conceit." I was trying to find a fresh image for us to kind of help us wrap our minds around what Paul is getting at when he talks about selfish ambition and vain conceit. Because would you agree we live in a very competitive world? Very competitive.

In fact, it's a world that often rewards selfish ambition and vain conceit with money and fame and status. And hey, you know, if I get a little conceited along the way, well, I get a pass so long as I keep winning games or drawing crowds or selling product or closing deals. That's just kind of the way of the world, which brings us to our special guest. She's an expert in how to get ahead in life, really a master at achieving status, power, prestige, a black belt in selfish ambition and vain conceit. No, it's not Valerie Webb. It's our special guest right here, this chicken.

That's right. When it comes to looking out for number one, this chicken right here has the perfect attitude. She really does. And I have to say here, I got this idea from John Ortberg, so you can email him if you don't like it. But seriously, I got a lot of ideas from John for this weekend. And so I don't want my first sin of 2012 to be plagiarism. So I just want to acknowledge that. It's in your notes as well. And John, if you're listening to this or if you hear this, I'm just so indebted to you. Thank you. You are welcome to steal any of my brilliant ideas for yourself. So there. See, it's fair.

Anyway, any of you know a little bit about chickens? Anyone been around chickens? I grew up around them all my life. And chickens have only one way of ordering their society. The law of the coop is the same in every chicken community around the world throughout all time in history. Does anyone know how they organize their society? Does anybody know? What? The pecking order. That's right. That means that this chicken right here has a very specific place in a particular pecking order. In fact, this chicken comes from my dad's chicken coop and it knows its place.

That means that if it's a strong chicken, gets its choice of the best food, gets kind of first dibs, gets to stake out the premier place in the coop. I mean, life is good if you are at the top of the pecking order. It's really good. However, if this is a weak chicken, it gets pushed aside, gets abused, often goes hungry, feels lonely, suffers low self-esteem. Any number of maladies. In fact, heaven forbid that this chicken should ever get injured or sick because then the ruthlessness of the pecking order really comes into play and she may very well get pecked to death. No sympathy for the weak.

And this dynamic in the pecking order is such a problem that chicken owners have tried to think of ways to kind of overcome this basic principle in chicken life. And in fact, there's one product you can get right now. It's called "Pick No More." And no, this is not for your eight-year-old child. This is for chickens. And it's this gooey stuff that you put on their wounds or on the weak chickens and it tastes so bad that the other chickens are discouraged from pecking. Another. That's just one attempt. Another attempt was invented back in 1939 where this guy actually came up with little chicken spectacles. Okay? Now, I'm not making this up. Check this out.

This is an actual brochure here. Look at "Stop Cannibalism With New Antipix." And you see the little picture there of the little rose-colored lenses there? The theory was that since chickens are drawn to the sight of blood, and they are, they're ruthless, if they had these rose-colored glasses, they wouldn't be able to distinguish between blood and everything else. So that would kind of stop it. In fact, this is amazing, but I actually found an actual newsreel clip from 1947 about this very product. Check this out. "Chickens love red blood. If one cuts herself, the flock promptly pecks her to death. The cure? Spectacles. Rose-colored glasses to neutralize the sight of blood. A harsh kinkade fits his entire flock. Four thousand hens with these barnyard bifocals and saves five chickens out of every hundred. After a fitting and a pep talk, each bird becomes a good neighbor with a rosier outlook. It's a whole new world for the girls." It's a whole new world for the girls.

Apparently, I fitted four thousand chickens with those little glasses. It's crazy. Apparently, this did not catch on. And so the problem continues with chickens. And I have to say, this is a really stupid way to live. The pecking order. Stupid way to live. But it's the only way they know. It's the only way that they will ever know. And so, saying that, we're going to excuse our little chicken guest. She's obviously having her breakfast right now. So, she's going to go back to her little dressing room. It's a free-range dressing room, I might add. She will go on living in her do-ditch at my dad's farm.

Well, here's the thing. It's not just chickens that have a pecking order. Packing order, in fact, is kind of the way of the world, isn't it? It was very much the way of the Roman world. Romans were all about the chicken, about the pecking order. Your rank, your status was everything. In fact, Cicero wrote this. Rank must be preserved. And he would write that because he was way up there on the pecking order. Your very identity was where you stood on that pecking order. And that means that Paul's readers in Philippi, man, they get this. And everyone that lived under Roman rule, man, they understood exactly what he was talking about.

At the top were members of the Senate, okay? And you had to be amazingly wealthy to be a member of the Senate. You had huge tracts of land. And if you were a senator, you had a very special toga that you wore with a broad purple stripe, and only you could wear it. And that reminded everyone around you that you were at the very top of the pecking order. Beneath them were a status of people called the equestrians. And equestrians were kind of like the business elites. They're kind of like the Wall Street insiders. And they had their own special toga as well with a different kind of stripe. But it was the same purpose behind it. Let everyone know what your place is on the pecking order.

And it just went down there from there. And there was jewelry, clothing, whatever it was. It all reinforced who you were in Roman society, and way down at the very bottom with no toga. Oh, by the way, this is amazing, but by law, you couldn't even wear a toga unless you were a Roman citizen. It was illegal for anyone else to wear a toga. So if you were a 16-year-old boy, you would receive what they called the toga virilis. That's the toga of manhood. Man, that's kind of cool. I got my toga virilis. You've got to think a couple egos were boosted with that thing, right? Toga virilis.

But like I was about to say, way down at the bottom, wearing just simple tunic or rags, there were the slaves. And no one wanted to be down there. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, what a bunch of crazy people, those Romans. I mean, you know, getting all into like clothes and all this stuff to signify status. I mean, who does that? What a bunch of goofs. I mean, that's just insanity, right? Now, I don't mean to say that having nice clothes or nice jewelry or nice things is wrong. What I do mean to say, though, is what is my core motivation? Because if those types of things are what I use to build my ego or build my identity or reinforce my status to the rest of the world, that's not the attitude of Christ. That's the attitude of the pecking order.

The phrase vain conceit in the original is literally empty glory. Empty glory. That's like a rooster, you know, strutting around the yard like he's the king of the world. When reality, he's just a stupid bird. He's a chicken. He's an empty glory. And here's the thing. The pecking order isn't just reinforced with outward appearance, with clothing or whatever. Attitude affects behavior, right? And so next time you're in a group of people, ask yourself this. Who gets to dominate the discussion? Who gets to interrupt whom? Who gets their way? Person at the top of the pecking order, right?

Maybe a more profitable question wouldn't be to size up the room and see who's where in the pecking order, but to ask myself, what's my attitude when I enter this room? What's my motivation? Because in a radical contrast and twist on the pecking order, Paul writes, in humility, humility was not a virtue among the Romans. It's like, who's humble? Just slaves are humble. Consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 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.

Now, what does he mean when he says Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped? That's kind of a confusing phrase, but grasp here means to hold like a prize. To hold, to uncling to for selfish purposes. For our sakes, Jesus did not have to cling to his divine nature because he never lost it when he became a human. Rather, in love, he hid his divine nature behind the veil of human flesh, appearing in humble form, fully human, fully God. But think about it, he didn't have to do it that way. He could have appeared in divine glory and majesty that would have just blown everyone away. Would have made it crystal clear who's at the top of the pecking order, right? But that's not the attitude of Jesus.

The latest edition of the New International Version, the 2011 version, translates to verse 5 like this. Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. That's a great translation. Jesus refused to use his equality with God to his own advantage. In fact, Jesus is going to turn the pecking order on its head. So if I'm going to have the attitude of Jesus, I need to ask, "What's my motivation? What informs my attitude?"

I happened to read something this week about actor Peter Falk, who passed away this past year. Remember that show, Columbo, he was the star of? You know, the great thing about this show, Columbo, is that people were always underestimating him, right? That was kind of his thing. People wouldn't really take him seriously, and it had to do with the way he kind of presented himself, right? I mean, there was nothing about him that was impressive. He had that old, scuzzy, you know, rain jacket that he would always wear all crumpled up and grimy, and he didn't have an impressive car. Remember he drove? It was this old beat-up Peugeot, and he always had a cheap cigar in his mouth.

And so, you know, people, again, they just didn't really take him that seriously. Well, apparently, Peter Falk was kind of that way in real life. Remember, he had a glass eye as well? That was from when he was three years old. It was discovered he had cancer in his eye, so that it removed his eye. And he was a little guy, not impressive, but he was -- it turns out he was actually a pretty good athlete. In fact, one time when he was in high school, he's playing on the basketball team, and the ref makes a really bad call. Bad call. People are booing. And Peter Falk, he pops out his glass eye, hands it to the ref, and says, "Here, you need this more than me."

I mean, a high schooler, you know, in front of all the girls. Apparently, you know, he was not motivated, either in TV or in real life, by the need to impress people, you know, to kind of climb the pecking order. He had an amazing, you know, kind of humble motivation to his life, and so should we. Well, motivation really relates to this next issue, and it's, "What's my core mission?" Because it's really our mission that fuels our motives. And again, we don't think deeply about this very often, but this is really at the core of how we lead our lives and what our attitude is.

Because, you know, that chicken that you just saw, its core mission in life is to achieve the highest possible place it can on the pecking order period. It's the only mission it knows. That's how it will only operate. So, hey, you know, if it has to step on some heads to kind of get a leg up, hey, so be it. It has to have kind of a little chicken smack down every once in a while. Hey, that's just the way it rolls. Sadly, human nature, left to its own devices, isn't a whole lot different.

The very first story in the Bible about the first human couple, Adam and Eve, God gives them everything that they could possibly want, a veritable paradise, but it's not enough. There's one tree that's off limits to them. So, Satan says, hey, you know what, if you take from that tree, guess what? You'll be just like God. Wow. Sounds like an opportunity to advance on the pecking order, right? So, they take it. A little bit later, they have two sons, Cain and Abel. Both the boys bring their offerings before the Lord, and for whatever reason, God prefers Abel's offering. And Cain has a choice. Do I celebrate my younger brother's success and God's favor on him, or do I strike him down and reaffirm my place on the pecking order?

And what does he do? He chooses the latter, and he kills his brother. And so goes. Much of the Old Testament is really story after story after story of how human beings are so often motivated by selfish ambition and vain conceit. And it's not just sad. It's unbelievably tragic because it alienates us from God. It cuts us off from the life that he created us to live. So enter Jesus Christ, God in flesh, on a mission, among other things, to overturn the pecking order. Could have remained in heavenly splendor and just allowed humankind to just consume ourselves all the way into hell. But instead, 2 Corinthians 8:9 describes his mission. It says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."

Jesus was rich in righteousness. We were bankrupt. He was rich in love and grace and mercy and kindness, and we did not have nearly enough to go around. So what happened to him when he entered into our reality? The pecking order killed him, didn't it? That was all part of his mission. His mission to bring us life. So let's talk about that life. How do I live the life that Jesus has for me? How do I live out the attitude of Jesus? Well, again, it begins when I receive this life, this forgiveness, this new identity that he brings to me. And when he does, we're invited to follow him. We have a choice. He says, "Follow me." And we say, "Yes or no?" And rather than force this from the top down like he could have, you know, here's the memo from heaven. Shape up. What does he do instead? Philippians 2:7–8. "But he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross."

Amazing. It's mind-blowing. We could spend our whole lives just pondering this verse right here. But for the sake of time, let's just unpack three things. Three ways that I live out the attitude of Jesus. And number one is this, obviously, humility. "He made himself nothing." And this is so countercultural. Now, this is not the way that we tend to operate. Back to the Romans. The writing that you see on screen is called "The Deeds of Divine Augustus." Emperor Caesar Augustus. It was displayed on buildings all over the empire. You can see replicas of it today in Italy. It was mostly written by Augustus himself, and this is just a snippet of what it says. "Three times I triumphed adoration. Twenty-one times I was named emperor. The Senate voted yet more triumphs from me, which I declined because of victories won by me. The Senate voted thanks to the immortal gods. Fifty-five times in my triumphs, nine kings or childrens of kings were led before my chariot. I have been counseled thirteen times. I was highest ranking senator for forty years." Forty years.

"I held the office of a pontific maximums, all citizens with one accord unceasingly prayed in every holy place for my well-being." Well, good for you, man. I mean, aren't you king of the coop there? And yet, when the king of all the universe, when he arrived on the scene, what did he say about himself? He said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." See, it's really tiring trying to manufacture your own identity, trying to prop up your status or advance in the pecking order. And Jesus, when he looks at all that religious pecking order and political pecking order, and he says, "Hey, learn from me. I am gentle. I am humble. And when you do that, you are going to find rest." You're going to go, "Oh, man, that's so much better."

But you'll notice that there's that H word again, humble. And let's face it, humility is not our favorite virtue, is it? I mean, you'll never see proud parents coming up to you, you know, with their little newborns saying, "Yes, he sure is a handsome little boy, isn't he? And we're praying that someday he becomes humble." No, you're not going to hear that. It's going to be like he becomes quarterback or whatever. We just don't even think in these ways. And I think part of this is because we've confused humility with low self-esteem. But it's not that at all, because true humility can really only be lived out by people who have the best esteem, people who have been overwhelmed and are amazed by the grace of God, by how far he stooped, how much he gave, what his son was able to endure so that we could have life, so that we could be a part of him.

That's where true humility comes from. When we gaze on the grace of God, we are humbled. We live out the attitude of Christ through humility. And second way is through servanthood. He took the very nature of a servant. We've talked about how clothing, and that was just one of many ways that status was promoted among the Romans. But understanding this makes it all the more shocking when we realize, how did Jesus adorn himself or have himself adorned when he was born into this world? You may still have a little model of it on your mantle right now. Little baby Jesus wrapped in what? Swaddening clothes. Rags. Slaves attire.

And interestingly, not only did he wear slaves attire on the day he was born, but when he left this world, he was also adorned like a slave. John 13 sets the scene because on the night that he was arrested, it says Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, all things, and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the meal and offered up a toast to his greatness. Now, he took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet. No toga virilis. No proud as a peacock display. He's acting very much like a servant, like a slave in fact, because it was the slave's job to wash feet.

And again, don't let your familiarity with this jade you to the amazing reality of this is Almighty God, our Creator, revealed in Jesus Christ as what? As a servant, as a slave. And so God's Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ calls us to follow him and say, "Will you follow after me in this? Will you choose to be a servant?" And when we choose that, his grace empowers us to do just that, to join the fellowship of servanthood. Great example of this just from this week. Our office was following up on people that have signed up for this year's Homeless Connect. Have you heard about this, Homeless Connect? We did this last year as well. This is where people in this church, people in other churches, people in the community, they volunteer for a special event where we provide assistance to homeless men and women with practical things, filling out paperwork, filling out a job application. They do laundry. Healthcare providers are there. And there's also a foot washing booth so that volunteers can do exactly what Jesus was doing for his disciples on the night of his arrest. Wash feet.

Well, it seems a woman in this church got an email this week confirming that she was to be a runner for the foot washing booth. And it even came with a little job description. It says this, "Runner. Runners carry supplies between services, for example, bringing buckets of water to the foot washing booth. All volunteer positions are easy and orientation and training will be provided." Well, again, there must have been some kind of mix-up because this volunteer didn't want to be a runner for the foot washing booth. She said, "No, no, no. I don't want to do that." And so she writes back and says, "What I wanted to sign up for was the foot washing itself. I did it last year and would like to continue with the same service." I love that attitude because she's like saying, "Hey, don't take away that job from me. The foot washing job, that's like the plum job. That's what I really want to do."

And you know what that kind of attitude is called in the kingdom of God? Great. That's a great attitude. And by the way, if you'd like to learn more about Homeless Connect this year, you can go to our website, tlc.org, and get more information. But all this reminds me of a day when Jesus gathered together his friends and he said to them, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their high officials exercise authority over them." And everyone says, "Well, yeah, Jesus, of course. We know that's just the way it is. What's your point?" And Jesus says, "Not so with you." Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

The way of the world is the pecking order. But Jesus says, "Not so with you." We are called to be servants. And you know what? It doesn't work if we serve out of guilt. It doesn't work if we serve because we feel like we're coerced by someone to do it. A true servant's heart is developed in a person who, again, is just overwhelmed by the grace of God and they realize, "Well, I've been given a place at God's table." And if you think about what it means to be able to say that, "I have a place in the household of God," it's not only humbling, but it's inspiring and motivating. We see other people who go, "I want them to have a place at that table too." And that's how our attitude starts to change.

We go from humility to servanthood and to this third thing, sacrificial love. That's the third way we live out the attitude of Jesus and make it real. Because Jesus became obedient to death, even death on a cross. And Paul underscores that because crucifixion was a slave's death. Citizens couldn't even be punished that way. It was against the law. But the low people on the pecking order, well, they certainly could. And true love always involves sacrifice, doesn't it? Most of you have seen enough New Year's to know that the greater the love, the greater the sacrifice.

And I was humbled, amazed, proud to learn this week, just this week, that a member of our own staff is about to donate her kidney to her sister-in-law. After weeks, months of prayer and consideration and tests for compatibility, this staff member is just weeks away from giving one of the most generous gifts you can possibly give in life. I mean, it's just an amazing sacrificial gift. It's not to her daughter, not to her sister, not to her blood relative, to her sister-in-law, who is helpless without this amazing gift. Now, with that picture of sacrificial love in view, I hope that this next verse will sink deep into your soul. As Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

See, we don't ever have to doubt that God loves us because of the depths of the sacrifice that God made. His Son died for us. But you linger over that kind of love, and it will change your whole life. Not just a little bit, but it will rock you to your core. One of the church fathers, Cyril of Alexandria, wrote this. He said, "The Son of God became like us so that we may become like Him." You see this idea of becoming just like Jesus? It didn't originate with Max Lucado. It's been God's idea all along. It's God's resolution for you and for me. And so may we choose, may we just offer ourselves up to Christ for His purposes and say, "Lord, give me Your attitude. I want to follow You wherever You lead." Let's pray towards that end.

Heavenly Father, I thank You for bringing each one of us here on this first day of this year. And Lord, for this closing prayer, I just want to borrow words from the Apostle Paul again, who writes in Colossians, a sister letter to Philippians, about some attitudes that we can adopt, that we can choose to have, and flesh out this attitude of Christ. And so Lord, I pray that You would make this a reality when it says, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you, and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Oh Father, may Twin Lakes Church be a living example of these words we pray in the matchless name of Jesus Christ. Amen.