Sermon Tone Analysis
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Biblical Passage
LAUNCH
Priorities Discussion
A. Pass out paper and pens.
Read each question below, allowing young adults to write their answers before moving to the next question.
B. Outside of school, work, and sleep, how do you spend your time?
C.
Where do you want to be in one year?
In five years?
D. How is the way you spend your time helping you meet these goals?
E. Share answers.
F. We all have priorities.
Some are right, and some are misplaced.
G. Today we will discuss how priorities affect the course of our lives.
UNLOCK
A. Review
So far in this series we’ve talked about leaving the past in the past.
We’ve learned that we cannot effect long-term change on our own.
Lasting change comes only by the work of the Spirit in our lives.
We must learn how to walk in the Spirit and yield ourselves to God.
3. Consecration helps us walk in the Spirit.
We must build an altar of consecration in our lives.
Bible study and mindful prayer are vital to the altar-building process.
B. Priorities
Today we will discuss the importance of well-placed priorities.
As we venture into a new year, it is important to go with purpose and direction, following God’s will.
If your priorities are in order, God’s will and direction for your life will often fall into place.
What is your idea of the perfect year?
What could happen this year that would make it the best year ever for you?
C. The Best Year Ever
Things will happen this year that you can’t control—some good and some bad.
Regardless of what this year holds for you, this can be the best year of your life—in all the ways that count.
First, you must understand that everything in this world is temporal.
On the day of your death, money is worthless.
Prestige and popularity do not matter as you slip from this world to the next.
Intelligence is great, but death does not discriminate between the smart and the simple.
The things that have true eternal value are often considered less glamorous:
spiritual wealth
solid, meaningful relationships
wisdom in spiritual matters
By the world’s standards, this year could be the best ever.
Prince Charming could knock on your door with an armful of roses, proposing marriage.
A rich relative you’ve never heard of could leave you a massive inheritance.
Your YouTube video could go viral and propel you into overnight fame.
Amazing things could happen to you over the next twelve months.
Yet if at the end of the year you find yourself—
still discontented,
still restless,
still addicted to food,
still bitter over what she did to you,
still far away from God
— what have you really gained?
D. What Really Matters?
Do you know anyone who likes heartache?
Probably not.
As humans, we don’t generally enjoy pain.
Even so, it is possible to emerge from a year of heartache more fulfilled than if everything had gone your way.
In many ways, you can choose to have the best year ever.
The secret is to learn to value those things that affect more than the here-and-now.
What does our culture value?
What does our world point to as evidence of success?
There is nothing wrong with enjoying good things, but we must learn to manage our priorities.
In Matthew 16:23, Jesus rebuked Peter, telling him that he did not have his mind trained on the things of God, but on human concerns.
In Matthew 16:26, Jesus said, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
What do you think Jesus meant by His words in Matthew 16:26?
Life goals are good.
There is nothing wrong with spending hours studying so that you can stay at the top of your class.
There is nothing wrong with getting a lucrative job.
There is nothing wrong with making tons of friends and being a popular person.
We should make the most of our lives; we should live them wholeheartedly.
Read Ecclesiastes 9:10
Read Colossians 3:17
We must keep life in proper perspective.
Our greatest goals should center on who we are in Christ.
Our dreams should have the ultimate target of honoring Christ.
You cannot be in God’s will or sense His direction for your life chasing after materialism and selfish ambitions.
When you woke this morning, what was one of your first thoughts (other than about chucking your alarm clock through the wall or finding a toothbrush stat)?
E. The Important and the Trivial
Your first thoughts of the day can be revealing.
Do you wake up and start stressing over everything you need to do?
Do you fantasize about how awesome you’re going to look in that new shirt?
Do you immediately start planning breakfast (and lunch and dinner)?
Before your feet hit the floor, are you already daydreaming about you-know-who’s amazing smile?
The things you dwell on throughout the day show a lot about your priorities.
the things you daydream about
the things running through your mind as you fall asleep
the things you spend a lot of time praying about
Our worries also reveal our priorities.
We have our big worries:
health problems
divorcing parents
the death of loved ones
emotional scars
We have our small worries:
bad hair days
obsessions over whether or not we wore the right outfit
fears about the surprise quiz in that hard class
that aching desire to fit in with a certain group of people
In and of themselves, most of our worries are not inherently wrong.
The problem is that we often get wrapped up in trivial concerns when our hearts should be wrapped up in Jesus.
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