A great life requires great character!
Earlier this year (during the season of Lent), I preached a 6-week sermon series was on “Building Blocks,” the building blocks of great character. In this series I talked about humility, trustability, courage, obedience, endurance, and passion.
Here’s a brief synopsis of the series’ main points …
Humility: Your view of God will determine how humble you are!
Ask God to expand your view: “God, help me to see how big you are!” Read Scripture. Look for glimpses of God in the world. Your view of God will determine how humble you are!
Trustability: God entrusts his work to trustable people!
How trustable are you? What are you doing with what God has entrusted to you? Are you digging a hole and hiding it in the ground, waiting for your Master to return? Or are you going out, taking risks, putting God’s resources to work?
Courage is doing the right thing, even when it’s hard!
God is serious about courage. The word “courage” and/or “courageous” appears about 50 times in the Bible. The phrase “Be strong and courageous” appears 12 times, and one more time as, “Be strong and very courageous.”
Jesus certainly modeled courage for his followers. Andy Stanley says, “Leaders instill courage in the hearts of those who follow. This rarely happens through words alone. It generally requires action.”
What have you been avoiding? Why not do the right thing this week?
Obedience to God allows us to live the best life possible!
In this message, we looked at several passages of Scripture that addressed obedience, including Philippians 2.1-11; Luke 2.51-52; John 8.26; John 12.49; John 5.19-20; John 8.55; John 7.24-27; John 3.36; John 8.51; John 14.15-24; John 15.10-14; Matthew 28.18-20.
Endurance is pushing forward when every fiber in your being wants to quit!
Jesus said, People “will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10.22).
Read Hebrews 12.1-13
Some early Christ-followers were sometimes called “athletes of God.” Paul wrote to the Corinthians Christ-followers, “Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. … I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that … I myself might be disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9.24-27)
Passion is the driving force that allows you to keep moving forward!
Read Matthew 26.36-46. Luke adds, “Jesus was in great pain and prayed so sincerely that his sweat fell to the ground like drops of blood.” I understand that it’s a medical experience called, Hematidrosis; that is, blood-tinged sweat associated with a high degree of psychological stress. Jesus was so passionate about humanity, that he was willing to endure anything, including taking on the sin of the world, to make us right with God.
In the movie, Serendipity, a movie about how Jonathan and Sara get together. Toward the end of the movie, Jonathan’s friend, Dean, who writes obits for the New York Times, said, “You know the Greeks didn’t write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: ‘Did he have passion?’”
What about you? Do you have passion? Passion for God, passion to do God’s will, passion to finish the race set before you?