Embracing Uncommon Goodness: A Life of Holy Intent
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
### Quotes for Outreach
1. "There's such a simple brilliance to all this. He's not offering a bunch of cheap platitudes or restrictions. He knows that one of the greatest remedies in this world and in the kingdom is to tend to your own life. He knows that when our first priority is to take care of what's happening with us in our actual sphere of influence and our tiny little specks of control, when we do this, not in a selfish or self-centered way or self-absorbed way but in a truly biblical one. In a loving one." [09:32]
2. "Anyone medicating through Amazon lately? Comparison. No one struggles with that anymore thanks to social media. Competition. It's really hard for you to just have a centered day on the good that you did without thinking about how you wish you were in a better place. And once you get to that place, you're like looking out to the person who's ahead of you and you don't know how to stop. All of which, all of these things, consumption, comparison, competition, that ultimately lead us to lives that actually disrupt and get in the way of the good that God wants to do in our community." [10:21]
3. "I always trust in the coming good. I can reframe most things towards the good and the positive. But my dreams started to look a little different. And the things that I was like hoping for, I noticed like a shift happening in that time. I think the reason I was reflecting back on that three, four years ago is because I haven't actually left that season. I'm still in that season. It's been a long season. To confront some of my pre-quarantine early life ambitions." [13:03]
4. "So much more than my influence and my success and my notoriety. Regardless of whatever scale any of us get to or feel like we've accomplished X, Y, or Z. It does not equal a life fulfilled. It doesn't equal a life of depth. It doesn't necessarily equal a life of meaning and of peace. Even if I'm pretty sure, and most of my ambitions I think in the last like 10, 15 years have been pretty good. I'm trying to make this church be healthy. Not just trying to grow this church this way. We're trying to grow it this way." [14:08]
5. "If it falls your lot, this is your life, to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If it's true that how you do anything is how you do everything, then the smallest acts done with holy intent will change things." [19:46]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Paul says that the goal in doing this is to win the respect of outsiders. To win their ultimate. No, don't be dependent on anyone. All of which promotes, again, the way of Jesus. To do these things means you are contributing both to the people in the world around you, which is a byproduct of a life of peace." [11:11]
2. "The Bible tells us to confess our sins to one another and hide our righteous deeds. It's the exact opposite of what Scripture tells us to do. The mantra of our day. We've got to tell each other what's going on and confess these sins even to our own hearts to make it known. And then if you are praying, if you're serving the poor, just close the door. If you're caring for the broken around you, don't feel the need to just push it out there." [29:31]
3. "Make it your ambition. Lead a quiet life. How do you feel when you hear that? Ask your heart and soul that question for a hot second. How do you feel when you hear that? Make it your ambition. Anyone feel like they are ambitious people? Normally when it comes to the scriptures I'm not really super interested in how something makes you feel. I want to know what it says and what it's getting to and what the truth is. But we are emotional people." [07:20]
4. "The word holy has this wide semantic range. But one of the key ideas is that it's something being weighty and heavy. Doing things for the glory of God. Holy intent again means to take ordinary tasks that seem meaningless or empty and then impute them with intention for the things that matter most. You can take something insignificant and make it weighty, holy. Because it's directed toward God." [18:43]
5. "In this passage in 1 Thessalonians 4, in this chapter, and the reason why we're going through this book is we're asking this question, how do we become people of uncommon goodness? Goodness, because our sense is that there is a latent desire for sainthood in every single one of us, even those around you maybe in your life who aren't followers of Jesus, a latent desire, a subterranean desire to be the people we were called to be." [01:18]
6. "The idea here is that we're not taking advantage. We're people who are open and willing to receive grace and help when we need it. To take hold of the generosity of others, but that we are then also people who do not take advantage of this. I mention this as just by way of ultimate summary before we kind of dive a little bit deeper into the text. Because the way in which Rome radically shifted, the way that the church spread was around these three things." [03:51]
7. "I think the next revival that we're praying for in our city is going to be like this. I had this vision a couple weeks ago praying through the city of little prayer rooms popping up in every neighborhood. Just simple little humble gatherings. People gathered outside in squares just praying. I really think the next revival is going to be people like you and I that are just secretly going about the work of the kingdom dispersed amongst the saints." [35:24]
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1. "There's such a simple brilliance to all this. He's not offering a bunch of cheap platitudes or restrictions. He knows that one of the greatest remedies in this world and in the kingdom is to tend to your own life. He knows that when our first priority is to take care of what's happening with us in our actual sphere of influence and our tiny little specks of control, when we do this, not in a selfish or self-centered way or self-absorbed way but in a truly biblical one. In a loving one." [09:32]
2. "Anyone medicating through Amazon lately? Comparison. No one struggles with that anymore thanks to social media. Competition. It's really hard for you to just have a centered day on the good that you did without thinking about how you wish you were in a better place. And once you get to that place, you're like looking out to the person who's ahead of you and you don't know how to stop. All of which, all of these things, consumption, comparison, competition, that ultimately lead us to lives that actually disrupt and get in the way of the good that God wants to do in our community." [10:21]
3. "I always trust in the coming good. I can reframe most things towards the good and the positive. But my dreams started to look a little different. And the things that I was like hoping for, I noticed like a shift happening in that time. I think the reason I was reflecting back on that three, four years ago is because I haven't actually left that season. I'm still in that season. It's been a long season. To confront some of my pre-quarantine early life ambitions." [13:03]
4. "So much more than my influence and my success and my notoriety. Regardless of whatever scale any of us get to or feel like we've accomplished X, Y, or Z. It does not equal a life fulfilled. It doesn't equal a life of depth. It doesn't necessarily equal a life of meaning and of peace. Even if I'm pretty sure, and most of my ambitions I think in the last like 10, 15 years have been pretty good. I'm trying to make this church be healthy. Not just trying to grow this church this way. We're trying to grow it this way." [14:08]
5. "If it falls your lot, this is your life, to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If it's true that how you do anything is how you do everything, then the smallest acts done with holy intent will change things." [19:46]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Paul says that the goal in doing this is to win the respect of outsiders. To win their ultimate. No, don't be dependent on anyone. All of which promotes, again, the way of Jesus. To do these things means you are contributing both to the people in the world around you, which is a byproduct of a life of peace." [11:11]
2. "The Bible tells us to confess our sins to one another and hide our righteous deeds. It's the exact opposite of what Scripture tells us to do. The mantra of our day. We've got to tell each other what's going on and confess these sins even to our own hearts to make it known. And then if you are praying, if you're serving the poor, just close the door. If you're caring for the broken around you, don't feel the need to just push it out there." [29:31]
3. "Make it your ambition. Lead a quiet life. How do you feel when you hear that? Ask your heart and soul that question for a hot second. How do you feel when you hear that? Make it your ambition. Anyone feel like they are ambitious people? Normally when it comes to the scriptures I'm not really super interested in how something makes you feel. I want to know what it says and what it's getting to and what the truth is. But we are emotional people." [07:20]
4. "The word holy has this wide semantic range. But one of the key ideas is that it's something being weighty and heavy. Doing things for the glory of God. Holy intent again means to take ordinary tasks that seem meaningless or empty and then impute them with intention for the things that matter most. You can take something insignificant and make it weighty, holy. Because it's directed toward God." [18:43]
5. "In this passage in 1 Thessalonians 4, in this chapter, and the reason why we're going through this book is we're asking this question, how do we become people of uncommon goodness? Goodness, because our sense is that there is a latent desire for sainthood in every single one of us, even those around you maybe in your life who aren't followers of Jesus, a latent desire, a subterranean desire to be the people we were called to be." [01:18]
6. "The idea here is that we're not taking advantage. We're people who are open and willing to receive grace and help when we need it. To take hold of the generosity of others, but that we are then also people who do not take advantage of this. I mention this as just by way of ultimate summary before we kind of dive a little bit deeper into the text. Because the way in which Rome radically shifted, the way that the church spread was around these three things." [03:51]
7. "I think the next revival that we're praying for in our city is going to be like this. I had this vision a couple weeks ago praying through the city of little prayer rooms popping up in every neighborhood. Just simple little humble gatherings. People gathered outside in squares just praying. I really think the next revival is going to be people like you and I that are just secretly going about the work of the kingdom dispersed amongst the saints." [35:24]
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