Mr T’s Attitude Series: Part 2

Perseverance.

 

Bruce Chant

generation-j - Pulse

07/03/2003

 

 

Mr T from played the classic character BA (Bad Attitude) Baracus in the seminal 80’s TV classic the A-team. The guy made a career on one attribute – attitude! And while we could pity the fool who did not understand the role that attitude plays in our lives, the bible makes it clear where our attitude should be:

 

Philippians 2:5

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

 

Jesus Christ is our living example of how to set our attitude in life. Part two of this series on Attitude is Perseverance.

 

 

Philippians 2:12

12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

 

 

Attitude.

Things happen in life and you can’t do anything about them – you have problems at work, you get fired, maybe someone you know dies, or get seriously ill – there is not much you can do about those things, they happen.

 

What you can change and what you do have power over is your response. You choose how you act when the sky falls on your head. You choose also how to respond when you win and things go well.

 

What it gets down to is “Attitude” n.?   

 .

 

Attitude is how you approach a situation, how you position yourself when living life and it obviously has a huge effect on the outcomes to endless scenarios we face. As followers of Jesus Christ Attitude takes on new significance – Attitude is having the understanding God is with us, He is good, faithful, kind, just and loving and this can’t help but effect what our outlook is, what our values are, what our mental and emotional state is – ultimately our attitude towards the life we are living.

 

Tonight’s attitude is: Perseverance

 

Perseverance is a required character trait for christian maturity.

 

 

Intro.

We are told to “continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling” – this is persevering.

 

In a world of instant results, in a day when we want and expect things now or never, patience is not a virtue but an unnecessary incumbrance.

 

Our impulse is go to something new. Try something else. Christianity in our world can be gimmicky. Don’t get caught up in it. The basics never change and applying your life to them and to God himself is where you require perseverance.

 

We need to realise these expectations we have in the world can not and must not be transferred into our Christian walk. Expecting things to happen now, when I want and when I say – just do not work.

 

 

Babies and Seed

When we become Christians it is said we are born-again – starting life as a baby, growing, learning, maturing. All of which takes time. It’s a journey. It is a process. It requires perseverance.

 

The other example is a seed planted in the ground. Unfortunately, planting an apple seed in the ground on Wednesday will not result in a bunch of apples for you to eat on Friday. Sorry try Friday in 4 years time. Same with us as growing Christians. A little baby may grow up to be a successful moto-cross rider but putting a 3month old on a motorbike is stupid.

 

 

Time is required.

We can’t say there is something wrong with the seed or the child. There’s nothing wrong with them – but if our inclination is to say that and quit we’ve missed the point. With Christianity it’s not that there is something wrong with it – it’s just that the Christian walk/life takes time. It requires us to persevere when the results we want don’t immediately occur.

 

“Friedrich Nietzsche, who saw this truth about us and man and said, "The essential thing 'in heaven and earth' is . . . that there should be long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living." This "long obedience in the same direction" is the attitude  the world does so much to discourage.”

 

 

Journey (not just) destination.

Much to my struggle Christianity is the journey as much as the destination. The destination is heaven. But the journey and the stops along the way are no less important. Life can seem like we just shovel one massive mound of sand from one pile to another, never making an in-roads. But it is what we learn, and how we grow, and what God does in our life during this process of the day in day out, do this, do that that is important.

 

 

 

Discipleship

This gives us our model of living Christianity: we are disciples who are in a life-long apprenticeship to our master, Jesus Christ. How long? Lifelong. When do we graduate? Only when we pass from this life to the next. How does an apprentice learn? Not through a blackboard classroom, but through following, doing, at the worksite rather than the classroom.

 

 

Song of Ascents

Psalm 120-134 are what is called the Songs of Ascent. Jerusalem is one of the highest places topographically in Israel. And so Jewish believers from all over Israel would walk for days to Jerusalem as Pilgrims to celebrate the great feasts and worship events there. They would sing these psalms along their long journey as they ascended up to Jerusalem. 

But their journey was more than a literal one. It was metaphoric of the journey our lives, as we continue to work out of salvation with fear and trembling, with God – our ascent in life towards the prize, the final destination in God.

 

Proverbs 15:19 “The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, But the way of the upright is a highway.”

Proverbs 16:17 “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who keeps his way preserves his soul.”

 

Our lives are an existence that advance from one level to another in developing maturity--what Paul described as "the goal, where God is beckoning us onward--to Jesus" (Phil 3:14)

 

 

Lessons in Persevering from Psalms 120-134 (Songs of Ascents).

So for us we need to persevere and we can do that by taking comfort in some points contained within the Psalms 120-134, the songs of ascent:

 

 

1. Remember where your help comes from.

Psalm 121:1 “I lift up my eyes to the hills- where does my help come from?”

To persevere we to lift our eyes up – lift them above the mundane.

Be solution focused (that comes from God) and not problem focused.

 

 

2. Trust God and you will not be shaken.

Psalm 125:1 “Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.”

 

TRUST is a key to a stable (not yoyo Christian life). The more you trust God is in control (ie the more faith you have that He is who He says He is) the more unshakeable you will be in your walk before man.

Faith is taking God at His word. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. It leads to an unshakeable trust that God IS good.

 

 

3. Sow in Tears But Reap in Joy.

Psalm 126:5-6 “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping,  carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.”

 

We faced with trials in our lives – remember the law of sowing and reaping. Whatever, actions, thoughts, words, attitudes you sow – you will reap the crop of that seed sown.

 

Sowing can be difficult hard work. It can be draining working away in the field in the hot sun plowing the ground, getting it prepared, putting the seed in, watering it in. At the end of it – there is no reward.

 

Reaping however, is the harvest. We love the harvest. We use the harvest to describe the reward, the outcome, the goal. The harvest is souls. The harvest is the reaping of good seed. It can be hard to sow and you can become despondent and think nothing is happening – BUT overtime you will reap of all your sowing. In anything, sowing and reaping should be a motivation to persevere.

 

4. With God there is Forgiveness.

Psalm 130:4 “But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.”

 

The fact we live in a transient, flimsy, consumer driven, shop for bargains world creates a problem when we examine our lives. If something is doing what we want, what do we do? We look at our options and change. In real terms our options are persevere or quit, but with the prevailing attitude of the world what do we do?

 

Thankfully, if we err we don’t need to cower under a rock somewhere. We need to honestly face God and grapple with our sin, our problem, our propensity to do what we know is wrong and take it to him in prayer: why? Because God forgives.

 

There is no condemnation in Christ. God’s grace covers all sins. It is sufficient. The remedy to guilt is simply forgiveness.

 

Because God forgives your past is gone and is no impediment to your continuing to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

 

 

5. Praise the Lord!

Psalm 134:1 “Praise the LORD , all you servants of the LORD who minister by night in the house of the LORD.”

 

Praising God is something we don’t only do when things are going well. When do you most like to praise God? When things are great.

When should we praise God? All the time!

When is it hardest to praise Him? When we are facing struggle.

Praise clears the spiritual “air” around us. In trials Praise God because He is no less worthy, wonderful, awesome when we are needing to persevere.

Praising in spite of your circumstances is a true faith building activity.

 

 

Summary.

The songs of ascents can be incredibly encouraging – read them and they will help build into you a persevering attitude!

 

To persevere is to go against the flow of our soft, weak, psychologically fragile, excuse making, victim status, reasoning world. DON”T GET SUCKED IN BY IT. Persevere – commit to “long obedience in the same direction”. It is what Paul is saying to us that we are to work out and continue to work your salvation with fear and trembling.

 

 

Back to www.hismethod.com/words/index.html

Return to www.generation-j.com