Half Full or Half Empty?

Glass. Is this half empty? Or is it half full? Half full. Some would say half full, some would say half empty. That is the title of the sermon today. Half empty or half full? Is your glass your life half empty or half full? Your viewpoint on life is your life half full or half empty? I guess it depends on how you look at it. I look at this glass, and it's just a matter of perspective. It's a matter of your viewpoint. You can consider this glass half full or half empty.

Some look at the Word of God as half empty instead of half full. The very Word of God to some is very oppressive. It's very judgmental. To others it's informative. It's enlightening. It's uplifting. I view this book as Paul viewed it.

2 Timothy 3 verse 16. We all know it. Because in it he says that this book is profitable for doctrine. He also says that it's profitable for reproof. It's profitable for correction. It's profitable for training and righteousness. That's looking at this book as half full instead of half empty. I want to read from the New Living Translation here. 2 Timothy 3 verse 16, just because it puts it a little different. It says, all scripture is inspired by God. People would doubt that.

There are many people in this world that doubt that. Their glass is half empty. And it says it is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. We hopefully appreciate that. It teaches us how to live. It teaches our children how to live. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us what to do, what is right. To me, this glass is half full. If I want to look at the Bible that way.

Now, our lives I'd like to go into because this sermon will lead into next week's sermon about faith. Because faith is something we need to have. But it isn't easy to have faith unless you have, can I say, a positive attitude. It's hard to have faith with a negative attitude. So today's sermon is about faith, but the step before faith, having a positive attitude. To me, this glass is half full. I hope you view every glass you see like this as half full. Proverbs 23 and verse 7. A very simple statement of New King James says, As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.

So as we think, that's what we become. If you think negative, well guess what? You do it long enough, you will become negative. And so the opposite we would have to say is true, too. That if you think positive, chances are it will become a part of you. Half full or half empty? It's your choice, isn't it? It's your choice whether you view this cup half empty or half full. It is your choice whether you choose to be positive or negative.

We can get up every morning and we can get up on the wrong side of bed. Right? It's a saying everybody says. Well, I guess you must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. Well, it's easy for me because I sleep on the right side of our bed. And I know there's only one way to get up out of bed since I get up usually before my wife. And it's to just go off the right side of the bed.

Left side of the bed. Well, I look at the right, yes. Because to get up on the wrong side of the bed for me would be to climb over my wife and wake her up, which would then put her on the wrong side of the bed. It is a matter of viewpoint. There are quite a few motivational speakers. When I was in sales for such a long time, we would go to seminars, we would listen to various things, and their main purpose was to get you to view things in a positive state of mind.

Because you are not going to succeed without a positive mindset. Tony Robbins even said, notice what you have and not what you don't have, which is good instruction for us. He also said, focus on what's right in your life and not what's wrong. Because many of you have known people, maybe even intimately, that all focus on what's wrong in their life instead of what's right in their life.

There's a video on YouTube I just picked up this week when I was looking at the old motivational father of motivational speaking, one of those called Zig Ziglar. He was a salesman's motivational speaker, made in the Valley, and went back to the 60s and 70s, and he was well known. He actually gave a good little presentation there about a woman that he went and saw, putting on this presentation. He was talking about being positive, because one of his famous statements was, its attitude not aptitude that determines altitude.

So his main say was about attitude. And so here these people had come there to be motivated. And this woman came in and he was saying, you must look at the positive things at your job. And there's something positive in everyone's job. And this woman came up to him and said, you're absolutely wrong. I hate my job. There's nothing good about my job.

And he said, I'd like you to just take a piece of paper and write down just one good thing about your job. And she said, I can't. There's not anything good. I hate my job and I hate all the people there. He said, there's not one thing. He said, no. He said, then let's spend a little time here. He said, so you really feel like you're just a slave to your job? Yes, I hate it. He said, so they, you don't get a paycheck?

They don't pay you? Well, yes, they pay me. Ah, write that down. You do get paid. He said, do they have insurance for you? Well, yes, there's another one. He said, do they have a retirement? Yes, but it's not very good, but they have one. Write that down. And so everybody there hates you. She said, well, no, I have some friends there.

There's another one. So he went down through this list that when he was finally through, she had 22 things on her paper that she could be really thankful for or that was positive about her job. And so it kind of changed her state. And so when he came back through a year later, she showed up at his seminar. And he said, well, how's everything going? She said, you would not believe how those people changed.

Almost everybody in the company changed. So she did not realize that it was her mindset that it changed. And anyone who's ever worked with a bunch of people realized that you always have someone who will try to drag you down. So we can look at our jobs and we can think we are a slave to our job. Or we can be part of the team. Right? And that's what a lot of companies want to do, is have you become a part of a team so you feel like you are contributing. So positive or negative when it comes to the Sabbath?

Is it a positive time or is it negative time? You can look at it both ways. I've had people say, well, it's, you know, the Sabbath, I used to keep it. And boy, I just realized now it's so oppressive. And other people look at it as it's a gift from a benevolent God. But it's your choice. You can look at anything in this world with a positive mindset or a negative. Did you have an attitude of gratitude this morning when it came to the Sabbath? Because you see, attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching? Are yours worth catching? Glass half empty and glass half full.

It's your choice. But I look at negativity as a force. And I call it a satanic force. Because Satan was, he is, and always will be negative. It's part of his nature. With him, the glass is always half empty. I chose not to be negative many years ago, but it's a battle. Because it's a very negative world around us.

Boy, it's tough. Everywhere you turn, there's somebody being negative. Just turn on the news, listen to the news, music, television, movies, people, traffic, jobs. Go on and on. It's a very negative world. And it's tough on people who want or try to be positive.

Romans 8, verse 5 says, set your mind on the things above. Why would he say that? Set your mind on things above. Could it be? Because in James 1, verse 17, James says, all good gifts come from above. All good gifts, all positive gifts come from above. So our source of staying positive, obviously, is above. You definitely can't find much down here. But you can't find some positive people, can't you? Do you have maybe someone that stands out in your family?

That just seems to be positive all the time? Or maybe you work with them. Why do you recognize that? Is it because they do stand out? Because there's not a lot of positive people around? I've had people in my life in the past that were very positive even when things were going bad. And they were alight. And they were a joy to be around most of the time.

There was a weatherman slash preacher in Nashville, Tennessee, named George Goldtrap. I don't know where he got that name from. George Goldtrap. But everybody liked a weatherman. Typically they do, like Al Roker, Willard Scott, some of these guys. Weathermen, very seldom, you know, kick you off even though they're wrong, as much as they are right. But they're kind of likeable. And George Goldtrap had this saying that I liked. He said, if we expire when we die, shouldn't we inspire while we live?

There's a lot of half-empty people in the Bible. There's a lot of glass half-empty people in Scriptures. Just think about it. They're all through the little over 4,000 years it's listed in the Bible. One of those that you must realize you studied that glass was always half-empty was Pharaoh. All right? In Egypt. Pharaoh was very negative, wasn't he? Can you think of any time he was really positive? Let's go back. I want to turn to one place, if you will, in Exodus 12, where for just a little bit, just a moment with Pharaoh, the glass was half-full.

And most people read right over this and don't think anything about it because that glass didn't stay half-full very long. Like you turn to Exodus 12. Exodus 12, we'll start in verse 31. Of course, this is right after the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn. And of course, verse 31 says, then he called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, rise and go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel, and go serve the Lord as you have said.

Also, take your flocks and your herd as you have said and be gone. But it didn't end there. For just a second, for just a small portion of time, the glass got half-full. Because he said those last words, and bless me. And bless me. So for a small portion of time, Pharaoh asked Moses and Aaron to bless him.

And the only way he could have blessed him was if God recognized that there was a God that was greater than he was. So you have to understand, the power of this scripture is that before this time, and you must realize that in Egypt at the time, the Pharaoh was a God.

He was considered. Even though they had many gods, he was considered a God. And in their own minds, they become so deluded that they begin to believe it. But something happened. He lost his son, and he realized he was not a God. A great turning point. It could have been, should have been, but it wasn't. He said, bless me. Also, we must think of the last half-empty children of Israel. Right? The children of Israel, once they, oh, we're all going to die. Here comes the Pharaoh. Blessing mindset didn't last very long. He's chasing them. Oh, we're in this water. It divides. What are we going to do?

It divides. We're all going to die. I wonder what they thought when the water started dividing. We probably all would if we saw these walls of water, as the scriptures say, they were congealed. The water was actually congealed. But they had this half-empty glass mentality, children of Israel, because after they saw him deliver them, and they saw the salvation of the Lord as they stood still, what happened next? Well, as you can read, and I won't go through that, in Exodus you can read 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, go on through. You can pull out different attitude checks.

It was a way of life for the children of Israel to be glass half-empty. You remember? No food, no water, no garlic, no leaves, no meat. Just what's it? Just manna, as the actual Hebrew word means, what's it? And that's kind of what they came out, saw it on the ground, what's it? That's what it was. They didn't know what it was. But then they even got tired of it. And they got tired of this God, because he said, your shoes will not wear out, your clothes will not wear out, we're going to feed you, we're going to take care of you.

All you got to do is just worship me, and I'll take you to a Promised Land. And so, what happened? They couldn't do it. They had a negative mindset. Just like Jonah. Jonah, the glass, was always half-empty. Even after God did this miraculous thing and didn't kill him. Why'd you do that? They deserved to die. Why did you kill this plant? It was giving me shade.

A real half-empty, negative kind of guy. But there are half-full kind of guys, people in the Scripture. Remember Joshua and Caleb? You know, they said, oh, here's our land, let's go! Let's take it. No problem. I'll take these guys. Man, we'll live in the land of plenty. But Ten said, they'll squash us like bugs. They're giants. No! So it was only the two positive people we got to go over to the Promised Land.

Which can we relate to that, to the Kingdom of God? Is it possible that only the positive will be in the Kingdom of God? Who do you want to follow? God who is positive or Satan who is negative? I look and I go back, if you will, if you turn back to the book of Ruth. Joshua judges Ruth. And we come to Ruth. And Ruth was a half-glass-full kind of girl. She was. Man, she had a positive attitude. All through the story, you see, she was very positive. But yet her mother-in-law, we see in chapter 1, verse 20, as Naomi and Ruth are having a conversation. So she said to them, do not call me Naomi, which means pleasant.

She no longer wanted to be known as pleasant. Call me Mara, which means bitter. Which means bitter. So here you have one very positive woman and one very negative. We have that in some marriages today. If you can call that a marriage.

But Ruth won out. And yet you look at this, and because her sons died and there were these problems here, Naomi never once did she take responsibility for her actions. Not one time. She wanted to blame, which is a reason for the cause of negativity, is looking to blame someone else. You look at other examples like Peter walking on the water. Boy, that is a positive guy.

You can do that. I can do that, too. And he could. Till he had the wrong mindset and took his eyes off Christ. And you realize in Acts 5, when the church had first started and they told him not to do this, and they grabbed all the disciples and they took them in and they beat them. Beat them good. And tell them, don't you dare preach Christ again. And they walked out, and they said they did, and rejoiced. That they were able to suffer for Christ. And then they went back to their business of preaching Christ. Now, that's a positive attitude. How many of us, we got stripes, we'd be going, okay, we're good. I'm good. Keep my mouth shut.

You also realize Paul had that same mentality. He was in prison, shackled up, and he said he's praying and singing songs and rejoicing. So there are some very positive people.

And Christ has to be an incredible example of being positive. How about us, which describes us more, positive or negative? Your co-workers, would they describe you as positive or negative? Your family members, how about your neighbors? A research founded by the National Institute of Health did a study on a hundred thousand women. This was a major study. A hundred thousand women on this thing about being optimists. Optimists are epistemists. They studied their lives and found that the optimists had lower rates of death and fewer cases of chronic disease, those who were positive. Optimists had higher T-cell counts, which protects the body from infection. The study said this was done by Dr. Hilary Tyndall in 2009. Another study in 1989 by Michael Schur, another one in 1993 by Charles Carver, all point to the same thing.

You do better when you're positive, not only mentally but physically, psychologically and spiritually. As a matter of fact, neurologist Dr. Richard Davison in his study found when he mapped out the brain on these people, that circuits in your brain light up when you're happy. They could actually see that. But I found it interesting in Judy Orloff's book, Positive Energy. She talked about having to work around negative people and how you deal with it, because we do, even in our families, at our jobs, no matter what we do. So she gave these signs to look for. These are signs that you should look for, that tell you you're in the presence of negative people. Because sometimes we think, oh, well, that person's all behind me. But there's something in us that says, they're not for my benefit. As many of us have had jobs and we found someone that you thought was your friend was actually stabbing you in the back.

But in Miss Orloff's book, she said that number one, says you experience a sense of being demeaned, constricted, or attacked. You actually feel it, even though the people may be saying something a little different.

Inside, you know there's something there. Number two, you intuitively feel unsafe, tense, or on guard.

You may even walk in a room. Sometimes you don't know a soul in there, but you feel a negativity. Number three, you sense off-putting vibes. You can't get away from these people. Ever felt that? Because no matter what you said, they turned it into something negative.

Number four, your energy starts to fizzle. You may actually begin to start feeling ill.

When it comes to negativity, there's a saying that says we cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust ourselves. It's us. We can not look at it as everyone else does. It's not only psychological, even affect us physically, but also people can tell it visually. There was a study by the Framington Heart Study, which was interesting, by Christicus and Fowler. They were two researchers in September of 2009. They did an in-depth study of Facebook. They looked at thousands and thousands of Facebook pictures and then actually went and spent time interviewing them. They could find out. They developed, I get to know you over Facebook. They're looking at all this stuff. I think I understand them. Then they actually went out and interviewed the people. Got to know them. This was actually in Wired magazine. The conclusion was happy people have happy friends.

Unhappy people have unhappy friends. They could tell it by the pictures. They could begin to develop its own picture, looking at all these pictures, because they showed that when they met the people, that the ones who were smiling and happy and had happy friends and everything else on Facebook, that's how they were when they went to interview them. The other ones that were stoic, upset, frowns. Guess how they were? Exactly as the pictures came across. They actually found out that happy people, like happy people, and each happy friend increase an individual's probability by being happy, according to the study, by 9%. So if you had quite a few positive and happy friends, that's what? You were pretty happy and a positive person. To smile is a choice, right? To be positive is a choice. To laugh is a choice. Sad, there are some people that never laugh. They never smile. They're bogged down by life.

Remember, there was this great teacher about 2,000 years ago that said, I come that you may have life and live it more abundantly. John 10-10. It's an incredible teacher. If you read John 10, the impact of that chapter is all around those first verses, where he talks about being the shepherd and sheep, and how he's their shepherd. They know his voice. He said, that's why he came, because those who know his voice, they will follow him. He will be with them. He will look after them. He's not a hireling. It's just incredible.

10 or 12 verses in Chapter 10 of John, where Christ really tells us that one of the reasons he came was to be able to be over some sheep and look after them.

It's good to know you're not here in this world all by yourself, right?

Anybody that's ever been through a divorce, anybody that's ever gone through alienation, anybody that's also just gone and been away from their family, like Matt? Right? Like Matt, he's been away from his family. You feel kind of Texas, even though he's got friends and co-workers, it's not the same, is it? It's not. And see, that's what's missing in a lot of people's lives, is Christ is always there. He's always there. He came to...we may have life and live it more abundantly. Greeter's Digest said, a positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. So if you think, well, why should I be? Because why is it some people are just so irritated because you may have a smile on your face or be happy at work? What's wrong with you? It's just irritating because it's their way of life, and you're showing them there is another way of life.

There's a book written by psychologist Barbara Fredrickson called Positivity. Called Positivity. And in it, she listed, and that's why I think this is interesting, and I tied into the sermon here, top positive emotions. Okay, because that's what the whole book was about, being positive. The top positive emotions. And I'll give those to you. Joy. Gratitude. Serenity. Interest. Hope. Amusement. Inspiration. Awe. A-W-E. All. And love. And then I looked at it once, and I read from the book, and I look, and I go, wait a minute, this almost sounds like Galatians 5. What do we do? The fruits of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness. And she's not writing this from a biblical perspective. Oh, it wasn't even biblical about the book.

To his or she's probably an atheist, or an agnostic. But it's interesting how all this positivity, the title of the book, is because that's what you need to have a successful life. Because no matter how successful your life is, if you're negative, you're never going to feel it.

You're always going to walk around like something's missing in your life.

Because as Robin said, you look at what you don't have instead of what you do have. Many movies have been made like it. The ones I always played at Christmas. I forget what that... It's a wonderful life. He had to look and see what he had because all he could focus on is what he didn't have.

See, a positive attitude is not a fix-all. It's not. It's not. A half-full attitude tempered with knowledge is a balance.

See, this positive attitude, you can't overcome a bad business plan with a positive attitude. Yet, I've known people who have tried that. They had a bad business plan, but they had this positive attitude that the ship's going to come in. The ship's coming in. The ship's going to come in next week. It was just a bad plan. Bad month. You can have a positive attitude about your checking account, but if you spend more than you make, it doesn't matter how positive you could be. It ain't going to work! Numbers aren't going to work! And yet, you see so many people, oh, the lottery, that's my answer.

See, countless studies were conducted on optimism. And you know, they almost all concluded the very same thing. And so I want to give you these four more, that these studies all concluded. And these are facts. Optimists live longer. An optimistic person lives longer. A negative person. I didn't make these up. This is all studies that were done. Optimists have better functioning immune systems. You can probably ask our nurses about that.

This is funny when you're down and you're depressed, or you've had these problems, and all of a sudden you just don't feel as well. You just kind of feel sick. My stomach's bothering me. Or if you've got financial problems, you've got this, and you're sitting there, and your stomach begins to...

Isn't it amazing when you feel really great, how everything seems to be going well? You hit every light green. You know? Everything you say your wife loves to hear. You know, it's just one of those days.

Number three, optimists cope better with stress and everyday life.

And finally, four, optimists have healthier babies. All right? I didn't make that up. That's a fact from these studies. I think sometimes it helps us to remember Psalm 118, verse 24. Psalm 118, verse 24. It says, this is the day the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in it. Did we get up every day? Probably not. But should we? Get up and remember Psalm 118, verse 24. This is the day the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in it. Or did we get up, this is a day the Lord's made ridiculous. Hate this day. Hate my job. Hate my life. You have a choice when you get up in the morning. To be positive or be negative. Glass half full, glass half empty. There's a book by Victor Frankl. Don't know if any of you knew who Victor Frankl was. I'm sure my friend Namath in the back probably knows. It's a reader of stuff like this. Victor Frankl, it's a very good book. I do encourage you to read it.

It's called Man's Search for Meaning. Man's Search for Meaning. Victor Frankl is a psychologist. He earned an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna. Good? He died in 1997, but he's been out for quite a long time. What's unique about Victor Frankl was he was a doctor, of course, but he was also Jewish. During the Second World War, he was taken prisoner and sent to Auschwitz, the concentration camp. He lived through it. He wrote then, afterwards, that he saw people give up because they had a negative attitude.

He saw so many die because they just did not see any type of future. They could only focus on the negative around them, and that's all basically you look around and there was. So your mind had to focus, his mind had to focus on something good. It's like Colonel Gerald Coffey, who was a professor at the University of Vienna. He was a professor at the University of Vienna. Colonel Gerald Coffey, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for nine years. Fish heads and rice, fish heads and rice, fish heads and rice. He was at a seminar in which he spoke and had the opportunity to talk to him afterwards. All his focus was he knew he wanted to get back to his family and must stay positive and think about the future. And, you know, we have such a great future ahead of us. We must stay focused and be positive and dwell on the future, the kingdom of God, even the blessings that we have here now. Victor Frankl, I quote, he said, The one thing you can't take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. Okay? Let me say that again. The one thing you can't take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. And he said, the last of one's freedom is to choose one's attitude in any given circumstance.

He said, a human being is a deciding being. It's interesting that he was hired later by American University because after Second World War, of course, he survived it. He also tried to help other people. And American University had a large amount of suicides at their university. People dealing with stress, dealing with different things. So they hired him to come in and help. And what he encountered there was most people came to him and said, this world, there's nothing left for me. That was their viewpoint.

And instead of trying to build them up and do all these various things for them and extend his hand, he had a comment. He had a question for them. He said, what do you have left for the world? What do you have left for the world? The suicides completely stopped as he began to get them focused on the positive and what you have to give to the world, not what the world needs to give to you because you're a victim, because you've went through these terrible things. It's a positive outlook. It's a glass half full instead of half empty.

Abraham Lincoln said, and Jonathan, you can remember this, you know who Abraham Lincoln was? Yes. He actually said, we can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have red roses. Understand? We can look at it one or two ways. Glass half empty, glass half full. Those roses have thorns. Those thorn bushes have roses. I quote many people. I've read many books. And we have so many books to give us information. The Bible was given not only for information, but for transformation. It is here to transform us into Christ-like people, to that type of example.

Is being positive a habit? How about negativity?

See, being positive is a habit. And I quote John Stott. You've heard this before, but I think it's very good. John Stott said, so a thought reap an action. So an action, you reap a habit. So a habit, you reach a character. You sow a character, and you reap a destiny.

Glass half full, glass half empty. What is your destiny? I gave a book out last week. It helped point that way.

Have you ever entered a house that smells, stinks, or reeks? So bad you just about have to put your hand over your mouth, and you don't want to breathe. Anybody? Yes? Yes? I had a customer. Mine? Will I give her name?

We did some work in her house. We were inside and outside the house for about two or three days. She was a very competent woman. She had a good job.

Very nice, very clean, except the house. She had two or three dogs, two or three cats, and birds. And she had carpet, and they used the carpet. And the house would gag you. It reeked of just urine. It reeked of all these various smells. When you walked in, it was like, how could someone live like this? And we were gagging.

And I mean, construction guys don't usually gag over a lot, but this was.

And we normally take our shoes off until the first day when our socks got soaked with urine. And you had that all during that day.

We no longer took our shoes off the next day. But the amazing part was, it was all through the house. It was all you could do to not hold your breath. And it was cold outside, and so the guys outside were just like going crazy because they didn't have to be inside. Smelling that stuff.

Do you know the interesting part? She did not know.

She did not smell it like we did. She didn't. As you walk in, you would think you'd be outside.

She did not smell it at all. She had become so accustomed to it. It was part of her life. Brethren, that's what negativity can do to you also. You can become so depressed, beaten down. I've counseled women who have gone through a terrible marriage because their husband, all he told them was they were just crap. They weren't worth anything. They were useless trying to tear them down. And pretty soon they began to believe in it.

And that's not what God intended. Marriages are to build each other up, tear each other down. Negativity, brethren, we have to get a hold of it. We have to make sure that we stay positive and not let anybody take us down a notch or two. And you know what's interesting? This young lady, her husband was killed in a bad car accident. And so she actually sold the house after we repaired it. And she bought, she built another house, a beautiful house, beautiful, brand new house, everything new, tile floor, everything. 4,000 square foot.

And I did very little on that house, but it was so nice when you walk in the house until about a year later. And then the same smells. She had dogs in the house, birds in the house. She didn't know. Give that story so that we can learn something from it. We cannot let that become part of us. Having a negative character to where our life is so wrapped up in it that that's all we know and we can't see any different.

Winston Churchill said, a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

I'd like to close today. Turn him back to one place. Matthew 5. Matthew 5. Because Jesus Christ was the ultimate example of being positive. He was so positive. His sermons were positive. Give you the point. The sermon on the Mount, one of his most famous. Look at it. Study it. Look at his example. Look what he said. He said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. And that's what he said. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. He's saying, no, no matter what it is, no matter what your negative influence, no matter how negative your life is, the kingdom of God is in your future.

He said, blessed are the meat for they shall inherit this entire world. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. When everybody makes fun of you for being a Bible thumping Sabbath, keeping weird eating people.

He said, you will be filled. You will be filled. He promises it. And look down. You are light of the world. You are salt of the earth.

The first nineteen verses of his sermon. We're all in your face, positive.

Christ was positive. How could he not be? How could he not be? Our brethren brings us to the final question. How can we not be positive? What we know, what we've been given, and who we know and who we are, sons of God, our dead. Destiny. One of the greatest gifts you could give a child. You could give a grandchild. One of the greatest gifts is a gift of being positive. It can completely reshape your life.

The children of Israel missed out on the Promised Land because they were negative. The children of God can miss out on the kingdom of God by being negative.

We see one of our great examples is King David.

Was he a half-full or half-empty kind of guy?

What did he say? Psalm 23. My cup runneth over. He was half-full. Half-empty? Half-full, half-empty. The choice, being positive or negative, the choice is yours.