Will You Like Me?

 

Attention Funnel:

• Instagram vs. Real Life

Introduction:

• I had a skinny jeans phase once… and I don’t mean like slim fit jeans… I mean like jeans that were tighter then leggings. Like jeans that you had to jump up and down to actually get on.
• It started as all bad fashion phases do… in YWAM.
• My skinny jean phase ultimately met its worst enemy the end of my first year in college, BRI.
• From the point I met Bri, the skinny jeans started to slowly disappear from my wardrobe.
• See if there is one thing Bri doesn’t like, it’s skinny jeans…
• And whereas I started wearing skinny jeans… at least in part because it was approved and accepted by the people I was around in YWAM, it turns out that skinny jeans didn’t get me any approval points with Bri (My rock-solid abs were all that mattered to her).
• And because I was more concerned about her approval and what she thought of me then some people I’m never going to see again … I began to change.
• We all in some sense live for approval. We want to know that we are valued and loved.
• Some of us perhaps spend all of our lives chasing approval… the approval of parents, of friends, of the opposite sex, of a boss, of our children, of others.
• But ultimately the approval of other people is often shallow, hallow, and can never fully satisfy us.

Big Idea: We were designed to find our approval in God.

Main Points:

• Social Media can expose our desire for approval.
• We perform in order to gain the approval of other people.
• God’s approval is not based on our approval.
• We must choose… who’s approval matters more?
• We will live for whoever’s approval we value most.

Christ is All

Attention Funnel: What is worth more?

Introduction:

• Whatever we value most will shape the rest of our lives.
• It will shape our decisions. It will shape how we spend our time. It will shape how we spend our money. It will shape what we think about. I may perhaps even shape how we dream at night.
• If you value fitting in with a group of friends at school most, then you are going to make decisions based off what you think will help you to fit in. If they all wear skinny jeans and Patagonia vests… guess who’s going to go get some skinny jeans and a vest?
• If you value being the best athlete on a sports team, it will shape how you use your time. You will practice and play that sport whenever you get the chance to because you value being best at it.
• If you value having the coolest car or truck… then you money is going to be spent primarily on upgrading that car or truck.
• If you value dating a certain girl or guy… then you will spend a lot of time thinking about her or him.
• See, what we value shapes the rest of our lives.
• But too often we don’t really think about what we value… we just kind of choose what to value based on what other people around us value. If my friends like soccer… I like soccer. If my friends start dating… I start to look for a date. If my friends play video games… I play video games.
• Or we value certain things based off of what stage of life we are in.
• In 2^nd grade… the greatest thing I could open up on Christmas morning or my birthday was a box of Legos. Now if my wife were to get me Legos for my birthday or Christmas… well I would still be pretty excited.
• But things I valued in middle school… getting a fourwheeler, having a sweet BMX bike… I no longer value, because my life has changed.
• I want to challenge you tonight to not just value what the people around you value or the things that are common to value in your stage of life, but to value Jesus above everything else.
• And I want to point out three ways in Philippians 3 that Paul valued Jesus above everything else and three ways that we can value Jesus above everything else as well.

Big Idea: Christians value Jesus above everything else.

Main Points:

• Put your full confidence in Jesus and not in yourself.
• Make knowing Jesus your life’s greatest goal.
• Set your mind on the prize of heaven.

Social Identity

 

Attention Funnel: Best Instagram Posts Video/ Girl who left Instagram Video

 Introduction:

• Whenever we talk about identity we should be drawn back to a specific question… “Who am I?”
• Am I athletic? Am I smart? Am I musically talented? Am I funny? Am I an extrovert and outgoing? Am I an introvert and more reserved? Am I attractive? Am I interesting? Am I courageous? Am I successful? Where do I fit in? Who am I?
• Social media can be a place we go to in order to answer these questions.
• Social media can be a place where we present an identity (true or false) in order to gain value and acceptance.
  • True or false does not just mean a true or false statement… it also means taking 30 pictures until you find just the right one to post up. It means editing for a half an hour before posting. It means rewriting your caption and hashtag 10 times before finally hitting post. This is false because this isn’t how real life works… and you would never want people to know how much effort you put into a post because that would make you seem pitiful rather than like worthy.
• I put something out there (true or false) and wait to see how many likes, favorites, comments, etc pile up and I base my worth wholely or more likely partially in that.
• Rather than looking to social media to build an identity and assess our value, we should look to God and what he says about our identity in Christ.

 Big Idea: We find our value in what God says about us instead of what others say about us on social media.

 Passage: Romans 3:21-28

Main Points:

• We boast to secure an identity.
• We use an identity to find value.
• God gives us an unchanging identity in Christ.

Why Should We Do Justice?

 Attention Funnel: Dumbest Dares that people have ever accepted

• I have done some stupid things myself because of dares… ranging from eating dog food to randomly going up to a girl and asking for her phone number (which I did not receive).
• Why would anyone ever do any dare? It always involves something uncomfortable, or painful, or challenging. So Why do it?
• Maybe it’s for recognition, maybe it’s for excitement, maybe its for money… there’s always some reason behind WHY we would accept a dare.
• If my mom dared me to eat dog food or ask for a girl’s number in 7^th grade, I probably would’ve said “No Way! That’s ridiculous.” But as soon as a peer asks me, it’s a different story. Then all the sudden I feel an obligation to accomplish the dare.
• It provides a different motivation for me to accomplish that dare.
• Motivation (the WHY question behind what we do or don’t do) effects what we do and how we do it.
• This is why we will spend tonight looking at “Why we should do justice?”

Review: What is Justice?

• Punishing wrongdoing
• Caring for the weak and marginalized
• Loving your neighbor (ALL OF THEM)

 Scripture Passages: Genesis 1:26-27; 1 Chronicles 29:11-14; Romans 3:24; James 2:14-17

 Big Idea: We should do justice because God has created and saved us.

Extreme Makeover: Gospel Edition — Lesson #2 — Everyday Gospel

Purpose: The gospel is not just a message for our past and our future.                                                                                              It needs to be a message that shapes us everyday

Main Point: Our value, meaning, and acceptance are rooted in Christ.                           

Sometimes in our homes, we have rooms that are only for special occasions. They are rooms that have the nice chandelier in, they have the uncomfortable chairs in them, and they have the nice china display plates in them. You only use those rooms on special occasions – Sunday dinners, promotions, family reunions, etc. But you would never go in that room to play, to relax, etc. You don’t spend time in that room everyday. Too often we think of the gospel in the same way that we think of those rooms. We believe yes I’m a sinner, Yes I need Jesus to forgive me of my sins, and yes I need him to be able to go to heaven. The gospel becomes the room for we initially entered when we were saved, and it’s the room we go to if we need to re-dedicate our lives, and it’s the room we go to in the future to get into heaven. Yes the news that Jesus died to forgive you of your sins does free you from your past, and it does offer the great hope of heaven, but if that’s the only two ways we view the gospel we are missing out on a large part of what it has to say.