Sabbath: Developing a Winning Attitude
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Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: John 4:27-30, John 4.39-42; Matthew 15:21-28; 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4; Romans 15:7; Ephesians 4:32; 1 Peter 3:15.
Memory Text: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15, NKJV).
The more we study Jesus’ life, the more we marvel at His ability to accept and affirm people. Although He issued scathing rebukes to the religious leaders of His day, He gladly received those who were struggling with sin, plagued with guilt, and hopelessly condemned. His grace was for them. His mercy extended to even the vilest sinners. The depth of His forgiveness was infinitely deeper than the depths of their sin. His love knew no bounds.
Jesus never exhibited a tinge of pride or superiority. He saw in every human being one created in the image of God, yet fallen by sin, and whom He came to save. No one was beyond His love. None had fallen so low that His grace could not reach them. He showed respect to all He came in contact with and treated them with the dignity they deserved. He influenced people for the kingdom because He believed in people. Their lives were changed in His presence because He cared for them so deeply. They rose to become what He believed they could be.
In this week’s lesson we will explore more deeply Jesus’ attitude toward people and discover how to apply these principles in our own lives.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, August 29.
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Do I need an attitude adjustment?
Probably, because when I read the title of this week's study guide my first thought was what it meant was that in a debate about the truth I must win at all cost and therefor the other person would lose the debate.
What does the author then mean we must develop a winning attitude? We will find out as we go through the daily lessons. I challenge myself - and you - to make a list, by the end of the week, of the 7 most critical points to developing an attitude that wins friends and influences people to follow Jesus!
It depends where we're coming from and we all come from a different place,different circumstances,,all we can really do is pray that God will change us into his beautiful image as we make daily choices to follow him,and he wants us to think and learn,and test every spirit.I didn't see the win lose part.
Happy sabbath. Through our Christian walk, we have compared our life with other Christians. The goal is to be like Jesus because He is the perfect One. We are in a war and we can only be on the winning side when we have Jesus on your side. He has already won the war and all we have to do is to claim the victory. In our Christian walk, we might lose some battles but not the war. Some Christians might lose the battle against cancer but they have Eternal life. In 2 Cor. 4:9, “ we are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not destroyed.”
We have to stop looking down at people but look at everyone as sinners who are in need of grace. We are all sinners who need Christ. Jesus asks us to come to Him as we are and He will transform us and we will be on the winning. Whatever addiction or sin(s) that you are dealing with, Jesus can give you victory. You can be on the winning side if you give your life to Him. Let us fight the good fight and pray for each other so when Jesus comes back, all of us on the winning side from all ages will meet with Him in the air. We will be with Him forever. Amen
And this side of Jesus second coming no one will ever be as sinless as He was or is.
Non-judgmental comes to my mind when thinking about attitude. I think the greatest obstacle to a free-flowing conversation with others is the judgmental attitude so many people display. I am not just talking about those that are still 'lost', I am especially commenting on the 'saved', because we should know better.
It does not matter which denomination one calls its 'faith-family', we are all called to treat each other with 'meekness' and show 'reference' to one's citizenship of the Kingdom of God. This will go a long way toward being 'attractive' to those not yet part of the family of God.
I seem to be able to perceive easily the 'attitude' of people; I can 'see' if the heart and the mouth are in one accord. Jesus was able to pick up the 'attitude' of those around Him, those that were truly open to receive His message, and those that pretended to be interested but had other motives; His attitude, though, remained the same to all He encountered.
I take issue with some thoughts the lesson writer expressed: 'he (Jesus) believed in people. Their lives were changed in His presence because He cared for them so deeply. They rose to become what He believed they could be.'
This sounds very much like I expect a 'new-age' person would talk.
What is it that Jesus believed in people had???
What caused the change in their lives???
What caused them to rise to become what He believed they could be???
If we are to emulate the attitude of Jesus, I think we would call upon God's mercy and Grace, be humble, kind, compassionate, non-judgmental and only speak the Word of Truth in Love.
why is it that sometimes the lesson will allow us to view the scriptures online. But this time this lesson seems to be leading us to open the Bible for ourselves for each scripture that is given for us to read and study? I guess that I just might as well forget online Sabbath School study and go back to just studying the way I used to study without the computer and without internet.
Hi Pete,
The bit of code that provides the popup window for references has been a bit flakey of late and we are not sure why. I get around it by using a paged screen with the lesson on one screen and the Bible on another. I know its not as easy to use at the popup screen, but one advantage from my perspective is that I see the context of the reference as well. Hopefully, the tech folk will sort out the problem soon.
Be ye therefore perfect as your Heavenly Father in heaven is perfect Matt 5:48
A winning attitude!!!
What is the meaning of the text above? Matt 5:48
How can we have a winning attitude while living in this dark sinful world?
What Is Christ Waiting For?
Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own. . . Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain. COL 69
I realized Satan is busy trying to deceive the very elect. If he can’t get us by one means he will try and try until he succeeds. In these days he is trying to put people/Christians against people/Christians just as he did with the Jews and the Samaritan. They became bitter enemies because of intermarriage. Therefore the Jews saw themselves better than the Samaritan.
Today many are trodding the same road. Some Christians see themselves better than others because they alone have the truth, or because of the color of their skin, or because of their soc-economy status. Etc.etc. When Christ walked among men it didn’t matter who or what or where or how people looked, he made humans and he came to die for humans.
Because of mistrust among nations, people and cultures many people have a negative attitude towards others even if you are bringing the word of God. People don’t care who you are, or how much you might talk about love until they see how much you genuinely love and care by our attitudes. In so saying, we as Christians have to be followers of Christ and show genuine love for all people. Song says- Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Whether red, yellow, black or white all are precious in his site.
I believe that portraying Jesus as having issued "scathing rebukes" is a misperception of what was actually going on - and of who Jesus is and what Jesus actually is about.
To be sure, I am not proposing that anything goes - reality does not work that way. There is a way that leads to life and there is a way that leads to death and destruction. Knowing this, Jesus 'compassionately-authoritatively' presents the outcomes of the path that a person is taking so that they can be fully aware of where they are headed and the inevitable outcome of doing so. Jesus then also gives them the freedom to make an informed choice.
Again, to be sure, there is a place for 'confrontation' and 'restraint' when a person's behaviour is destructive to a Christian community or abusive/exploitative of vulnerable others. But this is a different scenario from that being focused on in this week's/quarter's lesson.
Well, Phil, if what you have proposed is true - that people who are hurting people need to be confronted and stopped - then I trust you will accept that that's exactly what Jesus did when "He issued scathing rebukes to the religious leaders." For most of His ministry on this planet, Jesus reached out and did His best to win over the Pharisees and Sadducees as well as the common people. But when His death drew near, He did utter "scathing rebukes" that served to warn not only the Pharisees but the common people who looked up to them as icons of spirituality that their religion would not gain them entrance into the Kingdom. His rebukes were meant to save.
Thanks Inge.
I see where you are coming from.
Two dimensions to my response:
1. My reference to the different scenario from that being focused on this week/quarter is that I was confining my comments to the topic of 'witnessing' where scathing rebukes are all too often seen as justified, if not central, aspects of witnessing.
2. I do not believe Jesus engaged in 'scathing rebukes' at any time - and that in the Spirit of Christ-likeness, it is 'inappropriate' for us to do the same, especially in our 'witnessing'. I refer to the colloquial/typical connotation of this term (also supported by reputable dictionary definitions) - particularly with respect to the 'scathing' component. It is the tone of an interaction that I am particularly referring to.
I recall that last week's memory text noted that Jesus was "moved with compassion" (Matthew 9:36). I would propose that every single thing Jesus did - without exception - was because he was moved with compassion and was an expression of that compassion. I find that the typical connotation of 'scathing' is not something that arises from nor embodies the tone/flavour of compassion.
I would submit that 'we' are so used to portraying Jesus (and God's) demeanor in our 'ways' that we have not noticed the extent to which we have done this. We portray God/Jesus as experiencing the kind of anger, frustration, disappointment in others, etc that we experience.
God/Jesus reside in truth/reality (eg 1 Timothy 6:16 with light being a metaphor for absolute, applied truth). Thus they are pure authority - not in an authoritarian way, but in an authoritative way (eg Matthew 7:29; Matthew 28:18; John 10:18). And we also know that when God/Jesus revealed his self-disclosed nature and character to Moses in Exodus 34:6,7, the first attribute He disclosed was compassion - the attribute that all subsequent attributes are inherently founded upon and flow from. If we put these two attributes together - we have the most powerful position a person can come from: compassionately authoritative. What makes this position so powerful is not coercive power (as per the coercive power of authoritarian), but the power of truth/reality. Nothing can stand against this kind of 'power'. Contrary to some misconceptions, true compassion is no way 'weak' and therefore does not imply an 'anything goes' position.
Thus I believe Jesus was compassionately authoritative in every interaction he engaged in - whether it be the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, the overturning of the tables in the temple (note Matthew 21:12,13 is followed immediately by Matthew 21:14 which states that the blind and the lame came to him, not ran from him), addressing the Pharisees or His offering of forgiveness to those who were putting Him to death.
Another example of how God's "ways" truly are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8,9).
I do not expect that everyone will agree with me on this. All I can say is that the more I revisit scripture, the more I now see robust evidence that supports a very different view of God/Jesus than the one I previously held when I had taken as 'gospel' what I had been told and not checked it out in depth (in scripture) for myself as per the Berean's (Acts 17:11).
Phil, I agree with your understanding that "Jesus was compassionately authoritative in everey interaction he engaged in" and thank you for sharing your findings with us.
Phil, I agree that "scathing rebukes" are not part of our witnessing commission. Jesus told us to "preach the Good News," after all. 🙂
I also like this:
However, you also wrote:
I don't know about you, but I would tend to consider these as scathing rebukes: Matt. 12:33-37; Matt. 23:1-36; Luke 11:29-32; Luke 11:39-41.
But we don't hear His voice when he utters these "scathing rebukes." By the grace of God, we do have this context:
I see the lesson author of being "right on" in this lesson. In fact, I would guess that much of it was based on this passage in the Desire of Ages.
I am happy that you have a better view of God than what you held previously. Can you perhaps consider that others also view God as the embodiment of self-renouncing love? They may see this love embodied in all the messages of Scripture, without the necessity of revising the words. 🙂
Thanks Inge.
I respect your point of view and can see where you are coming from.
I see and know people who "see this love embodied in all the messages of Scripture, without the necessity of revising the words" - and I also see those for whom the revising of words unlocks their ability to then see this love embodied in all messages of Scripture when they weren't able to see it that way before. Perhaps you speak more to this former group and I speak more to the latter?