Back to School Kickoff Devotion (2025)

Introduction:

Raise your hand if you consider yourself a pessimist

Raise your hand if you are especially like this around the time school starts back

School feels pointless

Everybody wants to make a difference

God can do infinitely more than you could ever imagine in your life this school year

A question to ask yourself as we look at these verses: What does God have for me this school year?

Read Ephesians 3:20-21

Four things:

God deserves all of the glory

Q. What does that mean?

Hebrew: Glory equals weight

Q. What do we mean when we say that something “carries a lot of weight?”

Significance/importance

God carries the most weight

We give importance to a lot of other things

But at the end of the day, God carries the most weight

God’s mighty power is at work within us

Q. What does this statement say about God?

God is the most powerful being in the universe (omnipotence)

The most powerful being of the universe works within His children to accomplish great things

This is good news

Its not about asking God to start something new; it is about pressing into what He is already doing

God can accomplish infinitely more than we could ever imagine through us

Q. What do you think is the greatest thing you could ever possibly accomplish in your life?

God wants to go above and beyond that

“What could be greater than x?”

Being a part of God changing lives for the Kingdom

Ripple affects that we aren’t even aware of

This school year isn’t pointless; God is equipping you for the “infinitely more”

God’s glory is seen in the church and in Jesus Christ for eternity

What happens this school year has eternal value

The fact that God carries the most weight is to be seen in Christ and the church for forever

Final Challenges:

Press into the work that God is doing in your heart this school year

One of the best ways to do this is through spiritual disciplines:

Reading your Bible

Prayer

Serving

Giving

Sharing

Embrace your identity as a disciple of Jesus Christ

We will be talking about this for the next five weeks

Self-denial

Cost-counting

Loving others

Fruit bearing

Disciple making

Remember that God is equipping you for the “infinitely more”

PRAY