Sermon Tone Analysis

GUIDING LIGHT | WEEK 3 SERMON GUIDE 3 STORY |

I don’t know about you, but there have been a lot of times in my life where I’ve set out to do something that I thought was going to be easy, only to discover I had no idea what I was doing!

QUESTION | “Have you ever not known what you were doing?”

Have you ever been really confident you knew what you were doing . . .

until you realized you didn’t?

INSTRUCTIONS: Give a few students a chance to respond.

Whether you got a little too confident on a hoverboard, were sure you’d studied enough for that exam, or thought you could find your way to your friend’s house by memory, sometimes our failures remind us we don’t pay attention to instructions as much as we should.

On a hoverboard, that might mean walking away with a few extra bruises.

But in life, not having clear instructions to follow can sometimes lead to making choices we regret.

Talk about a time you were tempted to do something unwise.

When I was in 9th grade, this kid Zack Kersey used to try and punk me every day on the bus.

He wasn’t really a bully, just super annoying.

Now I had kind of long hair back then, and my hair looked great thanks to herbal essences shampoo.

And one day this dude Zack was being a punk again and he decided to put gum right on the top of my head.

I was MAD and decided I would choke him out for a bit, but then backed off before our old bus driver Buddy saw.

But I still wanted to get Zack back.

I was talking about this problem to my friend Brian Manis, and he gave me an idea: tell Zack to some stupid line from an Adam Sandler movie that had a lot of cussing in it.

Now I wasn’t sure what to do in that moment.

I was raised not to cuss.

My grandpa would say cussing “makes your ignorance audible” and my dad taught me the same thing.

But I also wanted to tell this dude Zack off because he was acting like a jerk to me for no reason.

I had peer pressure to do something by my friend, but I knew that it was wrong bc of what my parents taught me...

People talk about “doing the right thing” as if that’s always easy or obvious, but the truth it it isn’t always clear which decision we should make.

We’ve been watching a few clips from Star Wars about what happened when Rey, a young Jedi, first discovered the force — a mysterious power that fills their universe and can be wielded for good or evil.

As soon as Rey discovers the force for the first time, she finds herself facing a difficult decision.

VIDEO | A Clip from Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker

INSTRUCTIONS: As a teaching tool, play a short clip (2:10-2:47) from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, where Rey sees the dark side of the force.

Rey realized the force was all around her and even within her.

But then she noticed something darker — a temptation that seemed dangerous.

She discovered an incredible power that could do so much good . . .

but then realized the dark side of having so much power.

While there’s no mysterious “force” that gives us magical powers in this universe, we all eventually find ourselves at a crossroad like Rey.

We feel the pull to do things that are good and right, but we also feel drawn to the wrong things.

And sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which.

As humans, our problem is our tendency to choose what is harmful, destructive, and sinful instead of what is good, right, and godly.

For a long time, God gave us the law to help us make good choices, but that was never the permanent plan.

Galatians 3:23-25

When Jesus showed up, lived, died, and rose again, he gave us a new way of relating to God and dealing with our sin.

Because of Jesus, we’re not required to follow all the laws God gave before Jesus was on earth.

Not even following every law or making all the right choices can save us or make us closer to God.

Only faith in Jesus can do that.

But there’s something else Jesus came to do.

He came to send us the Holy Spirit to live not just in the world but also within us.

The passage we just read was written by the apostle Paul, one of the key leaders of the early church.

Paul spent a lot of time helping other Jesus-followers figure out how to follow Jesus when there weren’t a lot of “black and white” answers for how to be Christians.

Church leaders, individual followers of Jesus, and even whole communities looked to Paul as a wise and trusted voice.

They went to him for advice, help, and encouragement.

In another letter to another group of Christians, Paul told them how he had been

praying for them and why.

Col 1:9-10

The one thing Paul said he constantly prayed was that they would be filled with wisdom and understanding.

But not just any wisdom — he was asking for the wisdom given by the Spirit of God.

The Holy Spirit can . . .

Show us what God wants us to do.

Convict us when we’re getting it wrong.

Give us wisdom and understanding.

Help us live a life that pleases God.

We can’t please God by following every rule, as if we were still following “the law.”

No way!

We can please God, Paul says, when we’re filled with, and follow, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

HOW TO WALK IN WISDOM

Since the Holy Spirit gives us wisdom it only makes sense that we work on learning how to develop it.

Before digital cameras and smartphones existed, people had to go through a whole process to get their photos.

They would have film inside cameras, and once the roll of film was completed, they’d send the photos out to be developed in a special place called a dark room.

This was not a simple process — it took time.

Like a photo in a dark room, we can learn to walk in wisdom, with time, the help of the Holy Spirit, and a lot of practice.

Here’s how . . .

ASK THE SPIRIT FOR WISDOM.

Last week we said God isn’t trying to hide the truth from you.

In the same way, God isn’t trying to hide wisdom from you.

Over and over again, Scripture says the Spirit will give us wisdom if we’ll ask for and seek it!

PAUSE.

When you have a decision to make, wait ten extra minutes than you normally would for before you take action.

Ask for the ability to know the difference between an impulse, an emotional reaction, and wisdom — and then wait for God’s Spirit to respond.

GET WISE MENTORS.

Who around you seems wise?

Who has a connection with God and could become a guiding light for you?

Who are some people with different backgrounds who can share wisdom from different perspectives?

Ask them a lot of questions, and listen every chance you get!

PRACTICE.

You won’t get it right every time, but when you’re in a situation you’ve never been in before, remember it’s an opportunity to practice wisdom.

The more opportunities you have to practice, the more familiar you’ll get with hearing the Spirit’s voice.

DON’T GIVE UP.

When learning new things we’re going to make mistakes.

When you do, don’t give up on being wise!

Ask the Holy Spirit for help and learn from your experiences.

At some point, you’ll make the wrong decision, but you can learn from that mistake.

The Holy Spirit can teach us even when we’ve messed up, so keep going!

We’re all faced with difficult decisions throughout our lives, some big and some small, and even the smallest of decisions can leave us wondering what the wise thing to do is.

The truth is, figuring out how to honor God is sometimes complicated, but when things are confusing and not-so-simple, we’ve got help, because the Holy Spirit gives us wisdom.

*Prayer*