LIFE series

Pantry (PVC serving tomorrow)

*Wayne-he thanks you all for the prayers, his surgery went well!

#FreedomCares-that's why we do the pantry, streetlight, outreach, etc.

Streetlight (4/10) *quarterly

Communion next Sunday!

Life Series

INTRO: During the last few weeks, we've learned:

-Series verses:

God has a plan for you!

God has a plan for me!

Last Week: no matter how underrated I feel, God says I am valuable!

Today, week 3 of series:

TRUTH:

Last week, we started talking about Paul and Timothy.

When Timothy became a pastor, Paul told him, “Don’t let people look down on you because you’re young.” (one of our verses from last week)

Paul goes on to try to guide Timothy in how he should and shouldn’t act.

Paul wanted to help protect Timothy by warning him about things before he had to go through them himself. He wrote:

...sidebar: this is most wrongly interpreted passage in The Bible, in my opinion: God doesn't give us more TEMPTATION than we can handle.

-Paul was reminding Timothy of the big responsibility he had.

-Timothy was responsible for the people he was leading, so he had to live in a way that showed he took it seriously.

-When people saw the way Timothy lived, it would change what they thought about him.

Paul tells Timothy to turn away from the things that easily bait us into bad behavior. And those things are the same for us today. Things like . . .

*Godless chatter

*Temptations

-Paul was inviting Timothy to live in a way that wasn’t simply a reaction to what other people said or thought.

-Timothy was only able to control what he could: His behavior and actions. But to do that, he had to set aside what others thought of him.

*Only you can own your actions!!

Remember what we read last week?

-APPLICATION

While you don’t have control over what others think about you, you do have control over your actions.

*So here’s what you can do about it: Choose to be the opposite of what they assume of you.

*Remember, we used to do things differently before we started a relationship with Jesus. Now, he is sanctifying us (whole-life-process *Harvey's series) verse: "once I was lost, now I am found!, was blind but now I see" *what WAS, to what IS*

**Take-Away: You get to DECIDE who you want to be & what you want to be KNOWN FOR

...Because the truth is, it all comes down to you. Only you can own your own actions!

...We can’t control the way others act, but we can control the way we act in response!