Whatever! Apathy, Possibilities and Positive Thinking
Posted: Monday, October 12, 2009
by Mark Parsec
Wordcasters
Teenagers sometimes have a tendency to use sarcastic expressions in an effort to dismiss the advice of their elders. One such expression that you may be familiar with is Whatever!
Some examples of conversations between adults and teenagers would include things such as
Whatever!
Tomorrow is going to be Columbus Day. Whatever!
You need to take out the trash Whatever!
And although it is easy for us to pick up on the sarcasm and apathy of teenagers we sometimes don't recognize our own.
Time and time again, we hear the words
We need to pray more
We need to read our Bibles more
We need to love our neighbors more
We need to increase our financial support to the church
And although the heads go up and down with some the eyes start to roll and there is a strange resemblance to the teenager's " Whatever" attitude.
Now, there are many reasons why people develop the "Whatever" attitude. Resentment, apathy, rebellion, pride and arrogance However, in every case the sarcastic "Whatever" reveals a mind that is in bondage to negativity.
We are going to look at this subject today in the Word of God beginning with Matthew 25:31-46
The Sheep and the Goats
31 "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
You see, the sheep had the attitude of whatever they could do they would do. They had a can do attitude. They had a positive attitude.
The goats, on the other hand, had a negative attitude, they had no inclination to do whatever they could. In fact, they probably looked for ways to get out of being of service to others when they saw people that were hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, instead of helping they would say "Whatever!"
But, people are important to the Lord. No matter how great or how insignificant they are they are valuable to the Lord. And when we serve them, we are serving the Lord.
The sheep saw people in need of help They goats saw people with problems inconveniences if they saw them at all.
You see, people with the "Whatever" attitude, minimize everything outside of themselves. They think they are the final authority.
These people don't understand the kingdom of heaven or the authority of God's word.
Matthew 16:19 Jesus said, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Jesus was making a very important statement here so we need to pay attention. He said He was giving us the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And He didn't say, some of the things you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. He said WHATEVER you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
Oh brothers and sisters, sometimes we bind things up here on earth. We develop the attitude of goats, and we become flooded with negative thinking. And we say, "We're doomed, we'll never make it, we're failures, we'll never get ahead, God will never answer our prayers and on and on it goes. And so long as we hold on to that attitude then we become bound up in the negative, and the good cannot come forth.
But, Jesus also said, WHATEVER we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. So we need to untie ourselves from the negativity, we need to become unbound, and let the blessings of heaven pour out in abundance. That is the key of the kingdom of heaven.
In Matthew 21:22 Jesus said, " If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."
Again, Jesus did not say, If you believe, you MIGHT receive SOME of what you ask for in prayer. He said, If you believe, you will receive WHATEVER you ask for in prayer.
Do you believe that?
Some people look at this Bible verse and think WHATEVER! Maybe somebody else, but not me I've been asking and asking and God doesn't give me what I ask for.
And you can see THAT person is bound up in negativity so of course, they will never receive what they are asking for.
Oh, Lord, help our unbelief.
The Apostle Paul addressed the WHATEVER attitude in Philippians 4:8 when he says, " Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things."
Paul asks us to Meditate Yes that's what the Bible says.
Now, we don't ordinarily see many Christians meditate any more do we? In fact, most Christian's don't meditate. And most of us wouldn't know how to meditate if we were asked to.
But, the Apostle Paul is here giving us the secret to peace with God through meditation. So, perhaps we should look at what he is telling us
The Apostle provides us with a litany of things the "whatever list" Let's first take a look at the list. The Whatever list
True
Noble
Right
Pure
Lovely
Admirable
Excellent
Praiseworthy
The Apostle Paul tells us to "think on these things".
And you may notice that Paul Did NOT say,
Whatever things are
False
Shameful
Wrong
Polluted
Repulsive
Inferior
Disgusting think on these things!!!
No Paul wanted us to lift our thoughts to higher ground.
And that is exactly what a lot of people have a problem with. They have been letting all of this negative stuff fill their minds and then they wonder why they have no peace with God. They have been thinking like goats instead of sheep.
If we want to clear our mind of the garbage that fills it up, then we need to take control of our thought life. We need to focus our thoughts on the positive.
Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 6:22 " The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light."
So, just as we can train the eye by being careful what we look at so also we can train the mind by thinking about whatever is Good. Some modernists refer to this as the power of positive thinking or positive feedback. But, the Apostle Paul was teaching about it almost 2,000 years ago. So, it is nothing new.
Now, I want you to close your eyes for a moment and I want you to think about
That which is true
That which is noble
That which is right
That which is pure
That which is lovely
That which is admirable
That which is excellent
That which is praiseworthy
And as we think about these things our thoughts must sooner or later come to Jesus because Jesus is all of these things and more.
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