What’s
Your World View??
1/100 people go to college
1/3 of the world is dying from hunger
1/3 of the world is dying from over eating
à What did you eat for dinner?
We need to be challenged to re-determine our world view
How is the best way to live?
- You want
what you believe will make you happy
- We
all have an overwhelming desire for happiness; that is how God made us
Grace builds on nature: The supernatural life does not negate or destroy the
natural world. Rather, grace sanctifies, elevates and renews nature.
Grace
also works through nature. We are not just temples of the Holy Ghost, but instruments of the Spirit as well. We are
collaborating with God in extending the boundaries of His Kingdom on Earth of
love and peace.
-
Our culture
says happiness = pleasure
o
This is
WRONG
o
Pleasure
can’t be sustained beyond the activity producing it
§
Stop eating, pleasure stops
§
What else
in our lives cause use momentary pleasure but not lasting happiness?
-
Happiness –
is sustained past the moment producing it
o
Come home from a hard day and don’t feel like working
out, you just want to lie on your couch and be lazy. But you convince yourself
to get up and go to the gym, after you work out you may be tired, but you will
always be glad you went. Where if you were to lay down and watch TV and eat
cheese dip you will enjoy it for those two hours and then after feel like crap
and regret it.
What is the best way to live?
- It’s not the attitude: ‘what is the least I can do and still
get by/ still get to Heaven’
- To look at
this we have to detach ourselves from our culture for a while.
If we look into our lives we get a
sense that something is missing.
Matthew Kelly was presented with a challenge as a teenager
- Stop by
church for 10 minutes on your way to school each day.
- After a few days of walking by the
church, he finally went in and it actually felt peaceful
- First few days he just went in and
planned the rest of his day
- Then he decided to “actually” pray
and just started listing off all the things he wanted from God that day ->
instructions for God
- Then one
day he had a rough morning and was worried about the day and when he sat down
he started talking to God and asking what God though he should do with his situation.
o
This was a huge turning point, releasing your life
into God’s hands because he knows what is best for you.
*** Our lives change when our
habits change.
We become out habits:
- Your
actions determine your habits; habits determine your character; your character
determines your destiny
- Reverse
this; think of your destiny; WHO do you want to be in the future?
o
Now
decide your habits so they will help you reach that destiny
Silence will change
your life – take time to sit in silence every day; determine who you really
are, your hopes, your dreams, the areas in your life that need changing.
- Often
we try to block this out with noise and business, but it leads to unhappiness.
- No one plans to live a life of quiet
desperation
GAME CHANGER:
1. Get
yourself in a classroom of silence.
2. Understand
that we live in a relativistic culture – the idea that there is no real truth.
a. Tolerance:
(the ability or willingness to
tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that
one does not necessarily agree with)
i. --the supreme virtue of secularism
b. Fact: you don’t have to tolerate good
things.
c. Challenge:
look for the truth in everything, it’s there
d. The
knowledge of who Jesus is; is disappearing.
i. We
think we know Jesus – we don’t.
e. What
does society say about Jesus
i. That
He was a nice guy. – this can’t be true.
ii. Jesus
claimed to be the son of God. If he isn’t, then he was a HUGE liar. You can’t even say he was a good teacher
3. Words have value based on who speaks them
a. Someone
with high character says something you don’t agree with, you are going to
rethink it and try to understand their view.
4. A question everyone must answer: WHO DO YOU
SAY JESUS IS?
a. So
why don’t we follow him?
Jesus had radical teachings---
- Problem:
most of us think we know the Gospel: we
don’t.
- “love and pray for your enemies”
o
Do we?
- Culture
wants us to live a shallow life: to simply be a consumer
- God’s vision: for us to become the best
version of ourselves.
o
He created us with something in mind.
o
There are 1000 + moments in our day when we have
the choice to choose to be the best version of ourselves.
o
Just takes thirty seconds: will this make me the
best version of myself?
- Who
were our best mentors and coaches?
o
The ones who brought out the best version of
ourselves.
- We
get more fulfillment when we work to get better character.
- Goal
of marriage?
o
To help wife/husband & kids become the best
version of themselves.
5. Want to make your life better?
a. Look
at your goals and meaning of your life.
i. Will
you not be happier as the best version of yourself?
ii. What
in my life will sooner or later strike me down? What is my rattle snake?
b. There
is no rubbish of “I didn’t know it was wrong”
i. 99.9%
of the time we know the right answer and if we choose it:
We will
be happy
THE WORLD NEEDS
CHANGING (DUH)
- God
has given us the ability to choose, the ability to dream.
o
We can see bigger and better in the future and
can see what we need to do now to reach that dream.
- 2
excuses: I’m too old. I’m too young.
o
Mozart was eight years old when he wrote his
first symphony
o
Dimitrion Yordanidis was ninety-eight years old
when he ran a marathon in seven hours and thirty three minutes, in Athens,
Greece
- Age is not an excuse not to change your
life.
- The
world today is more interested in self-expression than having a self that’s
worth expressing.
God, things are a
mess: how can I help?
- most people overestimate what they can get
done in a day and underestimate what they can get done in a week.
o
When we say yes to the stuff that isn't for
us, we miss out on the stuff that is just for us.
§
The only thing staying in a relationship you
know isn't leading to marriage does, is stop you from meeting the perfect
person God has planned for you to marry.
§
Being overly involved in too many activities
only takes away from the quality time you were supposed to give to someone to
help them through some of life’s tough problems.
- When you leave this room, don’t not do
anything.
How do you get out of
your own little world?
- ----> > Become the most generous person you know.
