Wiregrass Church
Resolutions are pretty self-focused. After all, I’m the one who wants to lose weight, exercise, or read more this year. Sure, those things might make you better, but why settle for better when great is available? Jesus’ Disciples wanted to be great, but their path to greatest wasn’t what Jesus had in mind for his followers. He showed them a better way to greatness, and it’s the same for us today, too.
Initial title idea for this series was ....
RESOLUTION
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How to disappoint yourself and your friends in less than a month.
BETTER
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How to have a better year than the last.
The word better feels achievable.
Resolutions have been shifting in the past couple of years.
Being a better person.
Being better is better than not being better.
If you could figure out a way to move 1% this year, that's a little better.
A great year is better than a better year.
Is there a way to make this year our greatest year ever by being a better person?
Lech Acharai was Hebrew for, "Come and follow me."
“We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.
Mark 10:33 NIV
They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him.
Three days later he will rise."
Mark 10:33-34 NIV
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
Mark 10:35 NIV
“What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
Mark 10:36 NIV
They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
Mark 10:37 NIV
Can we be greater than better?
When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.
Mark 10:41 NIV
Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
Mark 10:42 NIV
Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.
Mark 10:43-44 NIV
The people who are celebrated the most are the people who put others first.
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:45 NIV
Mark 10:33-45 NIV
YOUR GREATEST YEAR EVER
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Our greatest year ever begins like this, by admitting that ...
Last place is the greatest place,
to serve is greater than being served,
and living for others is living like Jesus.
Resolutions can make you better ...
but serving others will make you greater.
We are greater when we make another's life better.
When Jesus died for you, it changed everything about the way the world looks and lives and the way that we get to operate within it.
John 13:34 NIV
