Walking with God…in the Ordinariness of Life

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“What we say about other people, says more about who we are than they are.”

“…the world you see outside of you is a reflection of what you have inside of you, and if you’re one of those people who only sees darkness, despair, that’s all there’s ever gonna be. But if you see hope, opportunity, if you’re stubborn enough to, every time you open your eyes, see love and the face of God, then you can be a change agent…. Then you can make a difference.”

~Virginia Jones, as quoted by U.S. Senator Cory Booker

“People hear your words, but they feel your attitude.”

~John Maxwell, author, speaker, and pastor

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”

~Lou Holtz, football player, coach, and analyst

“We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.”

~Chuck Swindoll, author, and pastor

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.”

~Colin Powell (1937-2021), former U.S. Secretary of State

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances….”

~Viktor E. Frankl (1909-1997), Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor

“Bad attitudes will ruin your team.”

~Terry Bradshaw, former quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers

“Attitude is everything.”

~Diane von Furstenberg, Belgian fashion designer

SERMON PASSAGE

selected passages from Ephesians 4-6 (ESV)

Ephesians 4

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace…. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear…. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 5

1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God… 15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise… 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord…. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…. 33 …let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Ephesians 6

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord….

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. 9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

1 Thessalonians 4

9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.