Good Vibes Positive People Proverbs 13:20 January 29, 2017 Pastor Ryan Heller Three Practices of Positive People 1. Believe Earnestly For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NIV) The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me Psalm 28:7 (NIV) So we say with confidence, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? Hebrews 13:6 (NIV) 2. Forgive Quickly In your anger do not sin : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Ephesians 4:26-27 (NIV) Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times? Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Matthew 18:21-22 (NIV) 3. Connect Relationally Do not be misled: Bad company corrupts good character. Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. 1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV) Proverbs 13:20 (NIV) Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3-4 (NIV) Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV) Good Vibes- Positive People
I have a little question for you. Have you ever wondered why there are so many Debbie Downers, always angry Abbeys, negative Nancys, bad news Billies or critical Charlies in your life? They re our neighbors. They re our family. They re our friends. Sometimes they re our ourselves. It's who they are. According to a University of California professor, much of our attitude and much of our happiness is dictated by our own choice. He said there are certain parts of our being that are shaped by upbringing and sometimes even by genetics. He says about 40% at least of our happiness is up to us. It's up to us. If that's true, there's a lot of improvements that could go on in our lives. Today I want to talk to you about how to become a more positive person. Being a positive person is a choice. Being a positive person is not really an option in the Christian life. We ought to be the most positive people on the planet. When I say we, I'm talking about followers of Jesus because the Bible is positive. God is positive. Do you think that Gideon when he was going up against the Midianites with an army of 300 versus 135,000 opponents was positive? Oh I believe he was. What about Joshua when he marched around the city walls of Jericho? Was Joshua filled with expectation? Did he expect that God was going to do something amazing? What about Moses? When Moses went to Pharaoh and said, "Let my people go? You see, you can't follow the Lord and not have a spirit of optimism and the spirit of positivity. A spirit of positivity is something that has to be worked on. It's not something that you're just born with. It's something that evolves as we mature in Christ, as we learn God's word, as the Holy Spirit works in our lives, as we grow and as we become more of the person that God desires for us to be. We become people that have greater hope and greater expectation. The question this morning is how can I become a more positive person? How can I do that? I want to give you today three things that I believe could really transform your life if they were practiced. There are things that should stretch all of us because we really have everything to gain and nothing to lose by becoming a person that is more positive. In fact, positive people have more friends. They have better health. They live more productive lives. They enjoy life and most importantly they honor God. It honors the Lord when you have a positive spirit. How can we do that? I want to give you these three practices of positive people. The first is believe earnestly. 1. BELIEVE EARNESTLY Believe earnestly. People who are positive people have a great confidence in the Lord. They have a great faith in the Lord. Notice the most well-known verse in the Bible; John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." I love this verse because it says for God so loved the world. God loves the world. God is love. Notice it says God loves the world. God loves you. God loves me. God didn't just love us in the past. He loves us in the present. God loves us even inspite of all that we've done, all the places we've been. All the times that we've disappointed Him, God is still love. A lot of people think that the love of God is based on Good Vibes- Positive People Page 2 of 11
merit. If I could just do this or if I could just achieve that, then maybe I could earn God's love a little bit more. Did you know this? You could never have more of God's love than you have today, because God's love is not based on what you have accomplished. God's love is based on its nature and its character. That's why God is love. God is love for God so loved the world. God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. Believe in Him. Man, have you believed in Christ? Have you asked Christ into your heart? The Bible says you won't perish but you'll have everlasting life. That's why we today have such great hope, great hope for the future because we know in the end where we're headed, where we're going and that is to be with God the Father in all eternity. We'll have eternal life. Psalm 28:7 helps us understand a little bit more about what it means to believe earnestly because it says that God helps us. Look at this, "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted Him, and He helps me." Did you know God is a helper? God in an enabler. God is not just a god that just sits in the heavens and relaxes and just lets the world operate as it wills. God is a helper. God is a refuge the Bible says. God is our strength. God is our fortress. That's why Hebrews 13 describes God this way, "So we say with confidence the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid." See, when God is your helper you don't have to live in fear because you know God is going to help you. I know you're in a mess right now, but listen. God is your helper so don't be afraid. Look at the rest of that verse, "What can mere mortals do to me?" If we fear God as much as we feared everybody else, it would revolutionize our lives. We make so many decisions based simply on what will they say, what do they think, what is she going to do about that. What if we ask ourselves the question, "But what does God think about that?," because the Lord is my helper, not somebody else. That mere mortal is not, is not my helper. The Lord is my helper. The Lord is my helper. He is the one that's enabling me. He is the one giving me strength. We need to spend less time worrying about people and more time worrying about what God says, because the Lord is my helper. Sometimes we fall into the trap and we think God helps everybody else except me. Have you ever thought that before? God is helping her. God is helping him. God is helping them over there, but God didn't do anything for me. Listen, don't fall into that trap. Don't fall into that, because the Lord is our help. He is our helper. "That's how I made it when my husband left," somebody said, "God helped me." That's how I made it when I was sick, God helped me. That's how I made it when I didn't know what to do, God helped me. That's how I made it when I was strung out on drugs, God helped me. God is our helper. Only God, only Him. That's why we believe earnestly. Do you have a faith in the Lord? Do you have a confidence in the Lord? You see, this is what the atheist and the agnostic cannot touch. If you are an atheist, you just believe that the world is just what the world is. It's all what we see right before us. When we believe in God Good Vibes- Positive People Page 3 of 11
and that God supernaturally helps us and God enables us and God blesses us and God strengthens us, we have a hope and an expectation that the atheist cannot touch. That's why my friends we should be the most positive and hope-filled and optimistic people on the planet because we believe in a great God. We believe in a great God, so we believe earnestly. We believe earnestly. We believe earnestly. Romans 8:28 says this, "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purposes." The Bible didn't say that everything that happens in life is good. The Bible does say that God works together all things for good. Sometimes God has to work really hard because we make a big mess, don't we? God was like, "How can I bring some good out of that? That's a mess over there. Let me think about that for just a minute." God is in the business of taking messes and turning them into miracles. A lot of times we see the problems in life. We see the negative things in our own life. Let's just say you're going through something today, you're going through some great adversity in your life and you have a minus sign. (Illustration: takes panel and puts up a negative sign) You have a subtraction. All you see is the negativity. All you see is, I don't know what to do. I'm anxious. I'm fearful. I don't know what to do. You know what? In the middle of that, you start to pray. You start developing a prayer life. You would never pray as hard as you will pray when the bottom falls out. When you're desperate for God, you pray some good prayers. I would submit to you, you don't even know how to pray until you've been desperate, amen? That's when great prayers are prayed, read the Bible. I mean it's when you got nothing else and that's a negative. It's a negative and it turns into a positive (Illustration: places up another panel turning the negative into a positive sign) because you learn how to have a prayer life. How about that? You see, God is in the business of taking that which is bad and still bringing about the good. That's what He does. Where are my business owners today? How many of you have your own business? Is there some of us? When you own your own business, you don't have that big fat company paying for everything. You're trying to just figure things out yourself a lot of times. Sometimes it's easy to look around and see what everybody else's got and say, "I wish that I had the money, the budget, the resources that they have." That's a negative sometimes (Illustration: takes panel and puts up a negative sign) because you look around and you're like, "I got nothing." Did you know one of the great blessings of not having anything is that you have to be more creative, don't you? Having started two churches, I'm going to tell you I got all kinds of creativity. I know how to do all kinds of things without money because I've done it twice in starting two churches. You have to bring a spirit of innovation. I have found that some of my ideas that I've had when I didn't have anything were better than some of my ideas when I had some money and a negative became a positive. (Illustration: places up another panel turning the negative into a positive sign) You see, that negative thing becomes an opportunity, an Good Vibes- Positive People Page 4 of 11
opportunity for us to learn and to grow. God is working all things together for the good, for those that love God and who are called according to his purposes. That's what He does. Some of us today have been through the difficulty of a divorce. You've been through the pain of that and it's a negative. It's a real negative (Illustration: takes panel and puts up a negative sign), a lot of adversity, a lot of struggle, a lot of heartache, a lot of pain. You know what? Going through that divorce taught you some stuff about yourself? It taught yourself about others and you step into another relationship. Guess what? Good has come from it. (Illustration: places up another panel turning the negative into a positive sign) The second marriage is better than the first marriage because you learned something and God still worked good out of that. Isn't that beautiful? Only God could do that. I say that today as a word of encouragement for you that are going through some stuff today. God is not finished with you. God is your helper. I have a friend that was molested by his older brother when he was a kid. That's a terrible thing, horrible thing, really damaged my friend a lot. You know what? Today my friend has a great ministry to people that have all kinds of addictions at his church and he helps people. He went to seminary and he got a Master's Degree in Counseling. He has helped so many people for a long time. Probably 20 somewhat years he has been helping people. Isn't that amazing? God can bring good things out of terrible circumstances because He is that God. That's why we believe earnestly in the Lord is because even though we may not know exactly what God is up to, God is at work and God is taking the messes in your life and He is turning them around for the good. That's why we have a passionate, confident faith in the Lord the atheist can't even touch that, doesn't even know what to do that. Believe earnestly. Believe earnestly. The Bible also tells us we should forgive quickly. 2. FORGIVE QUICKLY If we're going to be positive people, we have a great help in the Lord. We believe earnestly but we also forgive quickly. I think some of the hardest words to say are I am sorry or I was wrong. Sometimes they're so necessary because in doing so it actually has the potential to liberate us. In Ephesians Chapter 4, the apostle says this, "In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold." The Bible first of all says don't be angry, excuse me, don't sin when your anger or in your anger don't be sinful. Sometimes Christians think it's wrong to be angry. Actually, we should be angry about the things that God is angry about. In the scripture, God gets angry about sin. We should be angry about sin. There are some things we should be upset about. When we see injustices, when we see belittling of people, when we see racism, when we see things that grieve the heart of God, we should be angry. I saw the documentary the miniseries that Leah Remini did on Scientology. She grew up as a scientologist. She left a few years ago. There's a whole expose on the religion of Good Vibes- Positive People Page 5 of 11
Scientology. I was angry. I was angry about it, damaging people, hurting people. As a pastor, I want people to know the truth of God's word. I want people to know the person of Jesus. When I see that kind of stuff going on, I mean that makes me angry. We should be angry about these kind of things because it angers the heart of God. Here's the trick Christian. Be angry but don't sin. If I see somebody passing out Scientology literature, I can be angry about that because I know it's destructive. Should I run them off the road? No. Sometimes we let our anger get the best of us, don't we? You could be angry about the right things but you can have the wrong response and we can fall into sin. Let's be angry about the things that make God angry, but lets don't sin in the midst of that. Listen, lets don't be angry about petty things. There's no room for anger about pettiness. I didn't get picked for the team. He didn't ask me out for a date. My latte at Starbucks wasn't warm enough. They left out a vanilla syrup. My package that I ordered online came two days late. Those things should not make us angry. You could be a little disappointed, a little frustrated, but we shouldn't be angry. Let's be angry about sin and let's be angry about sin in our own lives. Let's look at our own heart and see where we struggle. Sometimes it's easy to go pointing out all the sin in everybody else's life. Let's look at at our own hearts. Let's be angry about that. Then if we're angry about that, then we got enough work to do right here in our own lives. Let's be angry but, don't sin. Then notice what the scripture goes on and it says, right after that it says, "Don't let the sun go down while you're still angry. In other words, we are to resolve conflict as quickly as possible. If you have a conflict with a coworker or friend or spouse, fix that as quick as you can. Don't let that thing drag out because what happens you give the devil opportunity for a foothold in your life. How about that? You give the devil... A foothold is a place to stand that's what it is. What we do is we give the devil a firm place, firm footing in our life when we allow conflict and anger and hostility to continue to go on and on and on and on and on. We want to try and handle things quickly. The Bible says even before the sun goes down as quickly as possible if you want to resolve it so we don't have the influence of the devil in our life. The devil only can come in and influence our lives through sin and through us welcoming him. When we sin, that's what we do. We leave the door open. Come on in devil here. Pitch a tent. Build a sand castle. Build a fortress. Build a beachhead. Build a camp right here in my life. Sometimes we wonder why I am struggling so much. Maybe you've just opened yourself up to the influence of the enemy because of sin in your own life. He just starts off and he builds a little campground and then he builds a house and then he builds a castle and then he builds a fortress and then he builds a city and all that kind of stuff. Anger and unforgiveness is a great way that the influence of the enemy is in our life. How do we resolve that? How do we knock that out? We don't allow bitterness and hostility to take root and take footing in our life. We resolve that bitterness and it won't spread. I have talked to couples before that have come into my office and said, "Pastor, we're having some problems." The root of the problem wasn't so much about the husband and Good Vibes- Positive People Page 6 of 11
the wife. The problem was there were still bitterness towards an old spouse or an old relationship somewhere before. That bitterness had creeped in and so maybe the wife became a man-hater or the husband became a woman-hater because of some past experiences. They were so bitter about past experiences and they never thought about this but they actually drug the hostility into the marriage because it was never dealt with. Then they were having conflict with their new spouse because of what had happened with the old spouse. Even bitterness takes root. It starts to damage all relationships. If you hate somebody at work and you're bitter towards them, that will start to influence your children. If you're angry at your parents, sometimes you begin to take that out on your friends because that's just the way bitterness works. It just metastasizes. It grows. It matures. Paul is saying, "Listen. Don't allow the enemy to build a fortress in your life." Don't allow it. Don't do it. Don't let that bitterness spread. That's why Jesus was talking to Simon Peter in Matthew 18. He said, "Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sinned against me?'" Up to seven times? Peter thinks he is really being generous. Seven times, whoa. Pat me on the back Jesus, I'm spiritual. Jesus answered, "I tell you not seven times but 77 times," or 70 times 7. When Jesus said 70 times 7, he wasn't talking about a mathematical formula. He was talking about a general disposition of our lives, a pattern of our lives, a pattern of forgiveness; a pattern of forgiveness. Positive people are people that can let things go. That's the word forgive. It means to let something go. Are you hanging onto something today that you got to let go? There are some things that are just not worth it. Let that thing go. Let that hostility go. If you can't let it go, find somebody that can help you work towards letting it go because if you don't the enemy will build a fortress in your life. Bitterness will begin to seep out all over the place. We had to forgive quickly and as soon as possible. I know many of us have been deeply hurt and wounded. You may be thinking, "Pastor, that sounds awesome but I think about this every day." That's hard. There are difficulties that we've been through. Listen, let's at least get on the path of forgiveness. I have some good days and some bad days when it comes to forgiveness. There are some days I'm walking in freedom in the power of the spirit and I'm feeling great about life. There are some other days when I can creep back in to unforgiveness. It s a struggle. It's something we have to work on every day. I don't think that forgiveness is so much a transaction as it is a lifestyle. I think every day we have to choose to walk in forgiveness. If you're like me, I don't even know how to forgive that person, then say, "God, would You teach me?" God would You help me? I want to be a person of forgiveness. I just don't know what to do. Lord, would You direct me? God, put somebody in my path that would help me because I don't want the enemy to have a foothold in my life. That word forgiveness means just to let it go. Just let it go. We need to sing the words of the old song, "Babe, it ain't no Good Vibes- Positive People Page 7 of 11
lie. Baby, bye, bye, bye." That's what we need to be singing when we look at that bitterness, bye, bye, bye. See you later. Out of here. A couple of things that forgiveness is not. Forgiveness does not mean there's not consequences. I mean if I do something wrong to you, there are consequences. Just because you forgive somebody doesn't mean that you're belittling what has been done. It just means you don't want to walk in bondage anymore. You don't want to walk in captivity. There are consequences. Some of us grew up and maybe you had a father that wasn't involved in your life. You have to choose to forgive your dad and that's tough. It doesn't mean necessarily you're going to be best friends with your dad but you can choose to not hate him, amen? Sometimes there's consequences but forgiveness doesn't ignore consequences. That's not what we're saying. We're not saying that what was done wasn't hurtful. We're not saying that at all. We're just saying I don't want to live in a prison any longer. I want to open up the cell door and I want to exit where I'm living today. Forgiveness does not mean that we are necessarily reconciled to somebody. Reconciliation takes two people. Forgiveness takes one. You could forgive somebody that is unwilling to reconcile. You could do what you can do. What you can do is you can say, "God, in my heart I want to forgive that person." Forgiveness doesn't mean we forget what happened. There are some of us who have things done to us, you're going to think about that for the rest of your life but you can still walk in freedom. You can still walk in freedom. It doesn't mean that we ignore sin but forgiveness is canceling a debt. It's canceling a debt. It is ongoing process that's why Peter was told by Jesus 70 times 7. It's an ongoing thing. You have to keep working on it. You have to keep working on that. Forgiveness is also leaving justice in the hands of God. Sometimes we can go down the road of revenge. Somebody wrongs us and you're like, "Man, I want to see him suffer." Have you ever thought that way before? Man, I'm angry. I want to get them back. I want to do to them what they did to me. As long as we have the revenge spirit in our heart, then we can never walk down the path of forgiveness. It's a great test for us. What about the failure test? I don't necessarily want to get him back but, I hope their life is miserable. I want to see them fail. I want to see them lose their job. I want their spouse to leave. I want them to go bankrupt. We can go down that path. That's unforgiveness. You can forgive people... Listen, just because you forgive somebody it doesn't mean that you're going to go to lunch with them tomorrow. Doesn't mean you're best friends but it means in your own heart God has done something beautiful. This is such a prerequisite for a positive life. If I've got anger and hostility in my spirit, how can I be positive about anything? Finally, positive people connect relationally. 3. CONNECT RELATIONALLY. Good Vibes- Positive People Page 8 of 11
They connect relationally. A lot of folks don't work on their relationships. We work on our education. We work on our careers. We work on our portfolios. We work on our investments. We work on other things. How many times do we really work on our friendships? Yet friendships and relationships are such a critical part to us becoming the people that God wants us to become. I believe one of the reasons that God gave us the gift of the church is for relationships. We get together, bless each other, encourage each other. The Bible says, "Spur one another on to love and good deeds." We need each other. We need other folks. Let me ask you this question. Are your friends just the people that just seemed to be around you or are they the people that you intentionally chose that are helping you become the man or the woman of God that God's designed you to be? Why are you friends with them? They live in my neighborhood. That's a terrible criteria by the way; proximity. They live across the street. I guess we should be besties. Not necessarily so. What if that person is going this direction and you're trying to go that direction then how's that going to work? Our kids play soccer together so we're friends. We share cubicle or whatever it is. I mean we just spend so much time together. No, we need to have a higher standard today. I hope that your closest, most intimate associates are people that are going the same direction that you want to go. I see people sometimes they come and give their life to Christ. They're new Christians so fired up about the Lord, really excited about the church and everything. They start growing. They start learning, but they try to hang around with all the same old folks. More times than not, people get dragged back into who they used to be because they won't break it off with the old friends. It's okay to say no to some relationships. Listen, if you don't say no to some relationships, you could never say yes to the new relationships that God is putting in your path. It's all right to end some friendships. You don't have to sit down and talk to, "Hey, listen. We're not going to be friends anymore." You don't have to do that. Just start spinning your time with the people that are going the direction that you're going for your life. If people drag you down or people put you down or people are always questioning you or people are encouraging you to go on a path that you want to go, don't let them in to your heart. Don't let them in right here. Keep them right here. You can pray for them. You can still be kind to them. It doesn't mean you don't care about them. It just means that you're not going to let them in here into the intimate part of your heart where they're influencing you. Look what the Scripture says, I Corinthians 15, "Bad company corrupts good character." How many people of good character wouldn't break it off with bad company? Look at the results, it's a lot easier for people to pull you down than to pull you up. Be careful. That's what the Real Faith project is about. I hope you're going to sign up for a group when we ve finished today they are small groups that are meeting throughout the week. The Real Faith we've been talking about this morning. It's all about community. Growth spiritually Good Vibes- Positive People Page 9 of 11
connect relationally. If you're thinking, "I want to be around the right people." I need some right people in my life. I like to have some friends that actually pray for me. I would like to have some friends that are encouraging and uplifting and are helping me walk with God. Join a group. That's what it's there for. Just be a part of that group. The Proverbs say it like this, "Walk with the wise and become wise for a companion of fools suffers harm." Notice there's two kinds of people in this verse. Just leave the verse out for a second. There's wise and there's fools. Are you walking?... Walking means to do life with. Are you walking with people who are filled with wisdom or are you walking with people who are foolish? People who are foolish. Who are you walking with? Who are you walking with? Walk with the wise and become wise for a companion of fools suffers harm. There's a path of destruction, you suffer harm, hang around with the wrong people. There's companions and there's acquaintances. Let s let our companions be the people that are going to edify us to love and good deeds in the things of God. As we grow in Christ, our friends should evolve. I hope you're just making your point, your practice to have friends that pray for you and encourage you and bless you. Listen, you may not have as many friends because people like that don't grow on trees by the way. You didn't know that. Those are the exceptional people. One or two or three of those kind of friends will take you further than dozens of the other kind of friends. I think you could be satisfied with less friends but people who love God if you just have one friend like that that'd be amazing. Just one, just one. How do we do that? How do we become that kind of friend to people? Look at this right here. First of all we have to practice humility. You have to practice humility. Philippians 2:3-4, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but to each of you to the interests of others." That's how to become a selfless person, put others first. Be humble. You exhibit this virtue of Jesus, you will have a lot of friends because very few people really practice this. Then secondly, we share encouraging words. I Thessalonians 5:11, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." You just become an encourager. You'd be the person that's blessing other. Man, you look great today. I prayed for you. You're going to do awesome in your new career. I'm so proud of your kids. It's so good to see you. Listen, you do that kind of stuff, oh my goodness you'll have more friends than you know what to do with. You see, at least 40% of our life is a choice and being positive is a choice that we make. It's a choice. God is saying to us today, "What choice will you make?" What choice will you make? Will you choose to follow me to believe earnestly, to forgive quickly and to connect relationally? Are you going to go on the path and do your own day? The choice is up to you. Let's pray together. Good Vibes- Positive People Page 10 of 11
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