Lord, Change My Attitude!

December 16, 2009

Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution? Ok, have you ever kept one? Like longer than a few weeks? This year we’re praying and trusting God’s Spirit to empower us to make some pretty hefty resolutions as a church. What’s the resolution? Developing new, Christ-honoring attitudes!

In January we begin a new teaching series based on Numbers 11-16. We’ll be looking specifically at the attitudes of God’s people while they journeyed through the wilderness from Egypt to the Promised land. In one of the most radical things God does in all of the Old Testament, he rejects their rotten attitudes and lets an entire generation of his people die in the wilderness. In the same way today, those who make ungodly attitudes their lifestyle will spend their lifetime in a spiritual wilderness.

Paul tells us in Colossians 3 that we should put off the “old self”, our sinful desires and attitudes, and put on the righteousness of God. As we work through this series we’ll follow the model of Colossians 3. We’ll look at five “wilderness attitudes” that we must rid ourselves of, and five Christ-honoring attitudes that we must put on in their place. We’ll battle the sinful attitude one week, and then come back the following week with the biblical attitude that must replace it.

When Pastor Josh as a student at Moody Bible Institute he sat under the teaching of Pastor James MacDonald at Harvest Bible Chapel. Shortly after arriving at Harvest and plugging into their middle school ministry in the fall of 2000, Pastor James preached a life-changing series from the book of Numbers entitled, “Lord, Change My Attitude (Before It’s Too Late!)”. It was powerful! (Josh even still has the notes he took!) Since then, the material from those messages has been assimilated into a book and small group curriculum. Pastor Josh will be teaching both from original study of the text and drawing insights from Pastor James’ work as a secondary source.

We will have copies of MacDonald’s book available for purchase at the Connection Center for $9. You’re encouraged to pick one up for yourself, your family, or your small group and study along as we aim as a church to honor Jesus with our attitudes.