Transforming Attitudes: From Complaints to Gratitude

1. "When I look at a patch of dandelions, right, I see a bunch of weeds trying to take over all the grass that was once nicely growing. My daughter, she sees flowers. She sees a little thing to blow it into the wind. When an adult looks at an old drunk standing on a corner that's been there for a couple days, an adult may see a smelly, dirty person who probably just wants money for more alcohol. And so they tend to look away. Even if that man is smiling at me, we still tend to walk away. Our children, they don't see the drunk, they don't see the dirty. They don't see him wanting money from alcohol. What they see is the smile. And they smile back." [44:49] (67 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "You can look at challenges ahead. You can look at things that you may not like. You can look at things that you're struggling with. You can look at things that just don't sit right. You can look at things that just got you to your boiling point. And you can be discouraged. You could be angry, you could be frustrated. Or you can see them as opportunities for growth and for God to demonstrate his power through you. The question is this morning, how can we adjust our attitudes?" [48:22] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Instead of driving out the Canaanites like they were told to do, Ephraim's descendants, they choose to enslave them. In direct contradiction to what God said, they made them slaves. Deuteronomy, if you don't remember, this is like God speaking directly to the nation. Deuteronomy in chapter 20, verse 16 and 17 says in those towns that the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession, destroy every living thing. You must completely destroy the Hittites, the Amorites, the. The Canaanites, the perizzites, the Hevites, the Jebusites, just as the Lord God has commanded to you." [52:47] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Today the message is, don't do the same. Don't do the same. Don't compromise with the enemy because you too can end up bondage. And some of you guys like, oh, I ain't compromising, pastor. I ain't doing it. Little do you know that so many of us compromise in so many different areas of our lives. Do not compromise your allegiance do not compromise in your allegiance to the Lord. If you're going to change your attitude. Who wants to change your attitude? If we're going to change our attitude today, we have to understand that we need to follow the Lord in every area of our life. Every area of our life. Choose to obey God completely and you overcome the enemy in your life." [57:12] (56 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "If you want to exchange an attitude of defeat for an attitude of victory, then you cannot compromise your allegiance to the Lord. Instead, we need to follow the Lord fully. We got to obey him completely. But in order to obey him completely and follow him fully, did you know that you got to actually fully appreciate everything that God has done for you, because if you don't, you really can't follow him fully because you don't really understand what he has truly done for you. Do you understand? So what happens is here we have to be thankful for all of God's blessings in your life." [01:14:23] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "How can you ever appreciate anything the Lord is doing in your life? How can you truly appreciate anything that the Lord is truly doing in your life if it's from one complaint to another and to another? How can you have an attitude of victory when there's so much negativity? So Joshua turns around after they said they're too weak. And he says, in 1718, he says, Joshua says, to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the descendants of Joseph, since you are so large and strong, you will be given more than one portion. The forest of the hill countries will be yours as well. Clear as much of the land as you wish. Take possession of its farthest corners, and you will drive out the Canaanites from the valleys, too, even though they are strong and have iron chariots." [01:19:00] (57 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "We live in an amazing society, yet nobody is ever happy. Oh, my goodness. Now, I know these last four years have changed certain things because of COVID and lack of employment in fast food industry. But let me tell you something. Fast food was just getting faster and faster and faster and faster and faster. I'm talking about, like, you could be like, hey, I want to. Here you go. That's how it was. Like, that's pretty much where we were before COVID And still people would complain about how long it would take. Now there's so much going well, so much going, good for you. Good for you. So much that to praise God about. Yet many people are not happy." [01:21:23] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "Stop complaining and start thanking the Lord for all the blessings in your life. Be grateful for what he's done. Have a gratitude. Gratitude is the attitude of victory. In closing, I want to say, in closing, I want to say this. Sean Aker, or Acker, was a psychologist who teaches at Harvard, who taught at Harvard, and he suggested that we train our brains to become more grateful by setting aside. Ready? Write this down. Five minutes. Every day at the same time. Every day. Right? So every day at 06:00 p.m. every day at 06:00 a.m. every day at 05:00 a.m. whatever. Pick a time in the day, every day, five minutes. And write down three things that you are grateful for. They don't have to be big things, but they have to be, like, real things. Specific things." [01:30:05] (62 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "The world has us thinking of all the negatives so much. It has. Many of our minds are programmed to think negatively. Some of us, we grew up in struggles. Some people have struggled their whole life and therefore have been forced to think a certain way. But God wants to change that. He wants to reprogram that mind. He wants you to see people and be happy. He doesn't want you to see people and see problems. He wants you to see people and be heartbroken for the things that they're going through." [01:35:59] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)