Sunday Morning | 1st Service | Back on Course #2 | Rob Thomas

Aug 09, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: When One Degree Drift Becomes Fifty Miles Off Course

A plane veers one degree off course unnoticed until it misses its destination by miles. Spiritual drift works the same way—small compromises in priorities, unchecked influences, or neglected prayer accumulate over time. Like Saul’s confident wrong path, we often don’t realize how far we’ve strayed until God interrupts our trajectory. This season demands honest evaluation: what quiet pressures have reshaped your values? Awareness precedes correction. [59:17]

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2, NIV)

Reflection: What daily habit or relationship nudges you one degree away from God’s priorities without dramatic warning signs? How might you recalibrate your “instruments” this week?

Day 2: The Breakfast Table Battle for Your Identity

Before your feet hit the floor, your phone floods you with curated lives, insecurities, and counterfeit purposes. Like Israel adopting foreign gods, we absorb cultural values through endless scrolling and comparison. The morning’s first moments set the day’s trajectory—will you let algorithms define your worth or let Scripture remind you whose you are? [54:51]

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10, NIV)

Reflection: What false narrative about success or identity bombarded you before breakfast today? How would starting tomorrow with 5 minutes of Psalm 139 change your armor?

Day 3: Damascus Road Detours When You Thought You Were Right

Saul persecuted Christians with religious zeal, convinced he served God. His encounter with Jesus exposed good intentions gone tragically astray. Like Kayla’s forced relocation, God sometimes disrupts our “right plans” to reroute us toward true purpose. What well-meaning path needs divine interruption? [01:07:08]

“As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. ‘Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’” (Acts 9:3-6, NIV)

Reflection: Where have you been stubbornly certain you’re right, but the fruit feels like striving? What would kneeling in Saul-like humility look like today?

Day 4: Routine Resurrections in the Laundry Room

Backpacks and lunchboxes mark more than school schedules—they’re invitations to resurrect holy rhythms. Like Brian Welch swapping guitar solos for prayer, small choices—scripture before screens, worship in traffic, gratitude during chores—become lifelines. Your most spiritual act this week might be muting group chats to hear God in laundry-folding stillness. [49:33]

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33, NLT)

Reflection: What mundane moment today (driving, dishwashing, waiting in line) could become a “seek first” sanctuary if approached with prayerful intention?

Day 5: Post-It Notes on the Throne of Your Heart

The prayer wall isn’t decoration—it’s rebellion. Every scribbled need stuck to that board declares culture doesn’t get the final word. Like Kayla’s desperate “God, we have nothing” prayers, your written petitions weaponize faith against drift. What if your fridge held verses more visibly than grocery lists? [01:38:02]

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:12-13, NIV)

Reflection: What one sentence prayer needs physical writing today—not typed, but pen-on-paper defiance against spiritual amnesia? Where will you post it?

Sermon Summary

Back to School Sunday becomes more than a calendar moment. A new school year, new routines, and the end of summer all become a natural time for a spiritual reset. The routines that settle in will not just shape schedules, they will shape hearts. Matthew 6:33 gives the course: “seek the kingdom of God above all else,” “live righteously,” and God will give what is needed.

Culture constantly tries to shape people. The phone on the bedside table starts talking before a person even gets out of bed, offering opinions about what matters, what to buy, what to feel insecure about, and how life should look. Group chats, endless scrolling, perfect vacations, perfect skin, perfect routines, and somebody else’s edited life all build a quiet pressure. Romans 12:2 names that pressure clearly: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

The one degree image makes the danger plain. A plane can leave Los Angeles for New York and be off by only one degree, and the pilot may not notice at first. But over time, that one degree puts the plane miles away from its intended destination. Spiritual drift works the same way. Culture rarely forces a sudden U turn. It applies pressure, pressure, pressure, until students, adults, and families start measuring life by the loudest voices around them.

God does not leave people at the mercy of that current. God invites people to a better direction. Moses, David, the fishermen disciples, and Saul all show how an encounter with God can redirect a whole life. Saul was passionate, educated, and confident, but Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and turned a persecutor into a church planter. John 10:10 names the contrast: the thief steals, kills, and destroys, but Jesus gives a rich and satisfying life.

Kayla’s story gives that truth flesh and blood. Loss, moving, uncertainty, empty accounts, and no backup plan became a place where Matthew 6:33 was chosen daily, sometimes hourly. God provided in ways that did not always explain the pain, but did fill the emptiness with himself.

Resetting starts with seeking first the kingdom. The starting point is not trying harder or making longer goal lists. The reset is surrender: “I can’t do this anymore. I need you. I want you first.” Jesus belongs on the throne of the heart, and a new season asks one real question: who gets to do the shaping?

Key Takeaways

1. Routines quietly shape the heart. The most important routines are not always the ones that make life feel organized. The deeper question is whether those routines keep the heart close to the Father or simply keep the calendar under control. A new season gives the soul a chance to notice what has been forming it and to choose again what deserves first place. [49:33]
2. Culture presses without announcing itself. The world usually does not redirect a life with one obvious demand. It works through little pressures, constant comparisons, quiet insecurities, and repeated suggestions about what should matter most. The danger is not only rebellion, but unexamined formation by whatever voice is loudest and most persistent. [57:46]
3. One degree still changes destinations. A small uncorrected drift can feel harmless because the direction still looks basically right in the moment. Over distance, though, that tiny deviation can place a person far from where the heart meant to go. Spiritual wisdom checks the instruments before the soul ends up miles off course. [59:17]
4. God invites better direction. God’s invitation is not a vague religious improvement plan, but a real redirection under Jesus. Saul’s confidence did not make him right, and Jesus’ mercy did not leave him wrong. The better direction begins when Christ interrupts the path that seemed certain and gives a life that is richer than self-made purpose. [67:29]
5. Seeking first begins with surrender. The reset does not start with cleaning everything up and then coming to Jesus. It starts with coming empty, honest, and ready to stop negotiating with the Lord. Surrender places Jesus at the center, where ambitions, fears, addictions, plans, and identity all have to yield to the King. [84:22]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[40:05] - Back to School Sunday Begins
[48:51] - A New Season for Reset
[52:17] - Matthew 6:33 Sets the Course
[53:29] - Culture Is Trying to Shape Lives
[58:20] - Romans 12 and Renewed Minds
[59:02] - The One Degree Drift
[61:50] - Israel and Slow Compromise
[64:13] - God Invites a Better Direction
[65:54] - Saul Meets Jesus on the Road
[70:05] - Kayla’s Story of Redirection
[80:38] - Invitation Requires a Response
[81:41] - Seeking First the Kingdom
[83:01] - Brian Welch and Real Surrender
[90:39] - Who Gets to Shape This Season?

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Matthew 6:33
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” [52:30]

Romans 12:2
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” [58:29]

John 10:10
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” [01:08:06]

Observation questions

In Matthew 6:33, what are the two responsibilities given to God’s people, and what promise follows them? [52:30]
What were some everyday examples of cultural pressure that quietly shape the heart and mind? [54:51]
How does the one-degree picture help explain the way spiritual drift usually happens? [59:17]
What details in Saul’s story show that a person can be sincere, confident, and still moving in the wrong direction before meeting Jesus? [01:06:42]

Interpretation questions

Romans 12:2 says not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed. What is the difference between those two directions, and why does the mind seem to be such an important battleground? [58:47]
A family can become so busy that there is little room left for God, not because of open rebellion but because other things keep winning attention. Why is that kind of drift so hard to notice at first? [01:01:50]
Saul believed he was doing the right thing until Jesus interrupted him. What does that suggest about the limits of passion, confidence, and good intentions without surrender to Christ? [01:07:20]
Seeking first the kingdom begins with surrender, not just trying harder. Why is surrender a deeper reset than simply making new goals or becoming more disciplined? [01:21:46]

Application questions

What voices have been shaping this season of life more than God’s voice right now—social media, work pressure, friend groups, family expectations, fear, comparison, or something else? Where is that influence showing up most clearly? [01:32:14]
Routines shape the heart, not just the calendar. What daily or weekly routine is helping keep the heart close to the Father right now, and what routine may be quietly pulling it the other way? [49:33]
A one-degree drift can lead far off course over time. What is one small compromise, distraction, or habit that may not seem serious in the moment but could be moving life in the wrong direction? [01:00:40]
Jesus offers a rich and satisfying life, while the thief steals, kills, and destroys. Where has life felt more like empty striving, comparison, or exhaustion than the kind of life Jesus describes? [01:08:06]
Seeking first the kingdom can be a daily choice, sometimes even an hourly one. What would it look like in a very practical way to choose Jesus first at the start of each day this week? [01:17:05]
Surrender sounds simple, but it touches everything. Is there an area of life still being negotiated with God—identity, plans, money, relationships, habits, pain, or control? What would it mean to place that area fully under Jesus’ rule? [01:24:32]
This season will shape someone either way. What is one practical step that could help make sure Christ, rather than culture, is doing the shaping in the weeks ahead? [01:31:22]

Sermon Clips

64s

#WhoShapesYou

“``Guys, I think this has been pretty clear. Culture is trying to shape you. God is inviting you to a better direction. And the way forward begins with seeking him. This season will shape you. The real question is, who gets to do the shaping? And, you know, it's your choice. Right? If you choose not to make a choice, it'll be made for you. I wanna give you a moment to meditate and kinda reflect here on what the holy spirit is speaking today. I'm gonna ask you a few questions here for a second that I want you to honestly ask yourself as you allow the holy spirit to minister to you. Will you close your eyes for just a moment?”

80s

#ComeAsYouAre

“And if he's not in your life, then the invitation is also for you. Seeking his kingdom first begins with coming to the king. You gotta come to him. Right? And listen. Just like I mentioned a minute ago, you don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to get yourself all cleaned up first. There is plenty of time. He will begin molding you. He'll begin shaping you. Don't worry about getting everything in order. Simply come. There's a place for you at the table. He has the chair pulled out. He has the food set, and he's saying, come. Come just as you are. So remember, you don't have to figure out the entire next season of your life. You simply need to need to decide whose voice is going to set your direction moving forward. Seeking God begins with surrendering to Jesus himself.”

74s

#MadeNewInChrist

“And guys, I don't know about you, but I've watched this happen over and over again in the lives of real people. I've seen people who spent years chasing the approval of man finally come to the recognition that they are fully accepted in Christ Jesus. I've seen people who felt stuck in regret and in their past and their failures come step into a complete new beginning because Christ Jesus made them brand new. I've seen people students, parents, adults who have been shaped by everything around them, and suddenly, they become shaped they begin to be shaped by the one who made them, and that changes everything. The difference is unmistakable. So, guys, I want you to understand there's real hope here. No matter how far off course you feel, no matter how long you have been living for the wrong things in life, god is still inviting you to a better direction. And that invitation has a name, and his name is Jesus. Yeah.”

35s

#SaulToPaul

“Guys, Saul thought he was doing the right thing. He thought he was doing the good thing. He thought he was on the right path. But thank goodness, Jesus shows up and shows him that he was not. And in a single moment, the trajectory of his life was completely redirected. The man who was breathing threats against the church of Jesus Christ became the man who would plant churches all across the Roman Empire in the known world.”

55s

#OnlyGodFills

“Why does that matter so much? Well, because every other direction that you're given, usually by our world and culture, it eventually runs dry. It may seem great, and it may have you sprinting for a moment, and suddenly you're gonna come to the end. That source is gonna dry up. It cannot keep its promises. Our cultures keeps making promises to us that it cannot that it cannot keep. Our our our own ambitions and our own zeal just leave us burned out and tired in and of ourselves. And so even good things, when we put them at the center of our life, they end up only disappointing us. There we guys, we were not meant to carry the weight of a human life. We're made to be dependent on the father. Only he can give us a new heart, a new identity, a new future.”

40s

#SeekBeforeScroll

“I have a quick challenge for you. Every day, guys, before you pick up your phone, before the voices of this life get loud, I want you to stop. And I want you to shift your perspective and get your heart right, and I want you to say, Lord, help me seek first your kingdom today. Shape me before the world ever can. I invite you to shape my life today.”

74s

#PutJesusFirst

“Guys, god is inviting you to something better. He has an invitation for you. I want you to know that today you can make a change. Today, you can stop negotiating with the Lord, and you can stop, and you can simply say yes to him. And maybe some of you here that have never truly surrendered your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Maybe some of you watching on the livestream, you've never truly surrendered your life to him. You may know about Jesus. You may have been around church. You may have lived your life trying to be a good person, but you've never actually put him first. Because he is so much bigger than anything else in this life. To put him even second is such an insult. He's such a good god who gave everything for you and me. He deserves to be in his rightful place. The throne of our heart, the throne of our life, he deserves to be first.”

44s

#LifeToTheFull

“Guys, that's the better direction. You wanna drift along on your own and allow the enemy, the thief to come and to steal, kill, and destroy from you? That's your choice. But Jesus said, his purpose is to give you a rich, satisfying life. Not a life that's empty. I would even say this, not a life of empty striving, not a life of of of constant comparison, not a life quiet, void, and and emptiness. A rich and satisfying life that only he can give.”

41s

#NotCarriedByCulture

“But here's the good news. We are not left at the mercy the voices of our culture, which brings me to number two. Number two, God invites you to a better direction. God invites you to a better direction. Guys, god does not leave us to be carried by the current of our culture. Now we can we can choose that. Right? We can choose to be carried by the by the the current of our culture, but god doesn't leave us in that place where there's no option. He invites us to a better way.”

60s

#StopComparing

“And if that weren't enough let's get let's get really real for a minute. If that weren't enough, you're then confronted with your own personal internal highlight reel. reel inside of you compares your real life to everybody else's carefully edited lives. then you wonder why you feel behind, and you feel like you're insufficient and not enough, and you can never measure up. Guys, every day, culture is working to shape you and to form you. It shapes what you value. It shapes what you chase. It it measure it it it determines how you measure success, even how you view yourself.”

81s

#SpiritualDriftAware

“Guys, as I close, I believe that there are many here, maybe half of us or more, that have been, in some form or fashion feeling the weight of this for a while. You know there's at least an area of your life where other things, our culture or people or other things have been shaping you rather or more so than the Lord. You're here, and you know that your priorities have drifted. And I believe that most often, as I said a couple of times, I don't believe you rebelled against the lord. I don't believe you turned your back on him. I think you just kinda drifted. You kinda lost sight of your intentionality in seeking him first, and other things began to take more and more priority. And now you're looking, and you're like that plane that was one degree off, and you find yourself 50 miles off course. You're going, where in the world did this happen?”

66s

#GuardYourPriorities

“So what does that look like? Well, a student, like we're talking about students today, a student conforms and absorbs the values of his peers or the message that is being fed through its feed, its social media feed, or an adult who who slowly adopts the definition of success by those who are around them or by their work or by their work culture, or maybe a family who drifts into some type of rhythm where there's there's not really much room for god anymore. They get so busy with everything else in the family dynamic that there's no room for the lord anymore and and gathering together, you know, as as as as believers and and and going to church becomes more about convenience than anything else. And it's and it's not because they decided against god. It's not like they they they they were necessarily rebelling. They just it was other things that kept winning the daily battle for attention.”

67s

#CompromiseBecomesIdol

“In the Old Testament, the people of Israel Israel, they they faced the same type of temptation. We know that God brought them into the promised land. They finally got there. Right? Years and years, decades ago, they finally get to the promised land. God brings them to the land, and what does he do? He warns them not to adopt the customs of the nations around them. He warned them, and he warned them. Yet over time, we see in scripture that they began to years were going by, guys. Slowly but surely, they began adopting the values, absorbing the values of the cultures and nations around them and the the priorities of the cultures around them. And then it became the idols of the cultures around them. What began as as as very small compromises eventually reshaped an entire nation, and they went through a very long period of turmoil and chaos.”

60s

#NewSeasonReset

“And last week, we talked about spiritual drift. We gave the image of like a boat. If you don't if you don't tie it off, it's not gonna stay there at the dock. It's gonna be gone, you know, whenever you come back to it. And we talked about how easy it is to drift away from God without even recognizing it, without even necessarily a moment of rebellion, without some big decisions, without some dramatic moment, we can we can when we're not being intentional, we can drift away from God. And so today, I'm gonna turn this a direction that is is a bit more hopeful, and we're gonna talk about a new season because a new season is a natural time for us to reset our direction. That's why in January of each year, we we talk about New Year's resolutions, and we talk about setting goals and doing these different things because a new season is the perfect time. It's the natural time for us to reset our direction.”

38s

#QuietlyDrifting

“And like I said a few minutes ago, rarely does this happen suddenly. It's usually doesn't come with a loud announcement. It happens quietly, and it happens consistently. We're like again, like I mentioned last week, we're we're like the frog in the kettle as the water is slowly turned up in temperature, and we don't even recognize it. It happens quietly, consistently, persuasively through screens, through conversations, through expectations, and this constant pressure to keep up.”

31s

#DontStartWithYourPhone

“I'm thinking about these things, about our phones, and and how you know, our phones start early, partially because we pick them up first thing off our bedside table. How many of y'all are guilty of that sometimes? First thing you do is you pick up your phone, and it man, it just starts right there from the beginning before you ever get out of bed. It's already offering you opinions about about what you should do and what you should care about and how you should look and what you should buy and what you should feel insecure about for you ever roll out of bed.”

48s

#ConfidentButWrong

“Guys, one of the clearest pictures I see of this is the apostle Paul. At that time, he was called Saul, and we know here's the thing. When here here's what gets me about Saul and why I wanna mention him. Guys, how many of you would agree Saul was moving in a certain direction and he was doing so with complete confidence. As a matter of fact, he was convinced that he was right. He would've even said, he was doing it for the lord. He had education. He had passion, and he had a clear sense of purpose. Right? Before he ever put his faith in Jesus. Those all seem like great things.”

61s

#GodCallsOrdinaryPeople

“All through scripture, we see people whose direction completely reset because of an encounter with God. You stop and think for a minute about Moses who had been tending sheep in the wilderness for decade after decade after decade when suddenly God called him to lead a nation. You think about David who was overlooked. He too was tending sheep, and all of a sudden, god sends a man who comes to him and anoints him as the next king of Israel. And then, of course, in the New Testament, we've got the disciples of Jesus. We see some of the first who were simple fishermen. All they're doing is fishing when Jesus says, follow me, and their lives changed forever, and so did the course of human history.”

68s

#AnswerHisInvitation

“Secondly, I want you to ask, where do I sense God inviting me to a different path? Where do I sense God inviting me to a different path? For some of you, it may be for the first time truly surrendering your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ and saying, I choose to lay my life down and to live for Jesus from this day forward for rest of my life. For others of you, like I said, it may be making that decision to get help in your marriage and in your family. It may mean getting help and getting somebody to walk with you because of that issue in your life that is just destroying you inside, but you won't let anybody in. You keep hiding it. You keep suppressing it. It might mean bringing that thing out into the open and allowing somebody to walk with you. Where do I sense god inviting me to a different path? Last question.”

61s

#AwarenessLeadsReset

“And that same pressure, guys, is at work in our lives every day. So I want you to hear me. You are being shaped by something every day. You are being shaped by something every day. If you're not intentional, then the loudest voices around you are gonna be what sets your course. And awareness is the starting point for any real reset. A pilot can be flying along, not looking I mean, the horizon, everything looks great, but you gotta be aware. All of a sudden, he checks his instruments and goes, oh, what does he do? He becomes aware, and he makes a course correction. Right? Culture is constantly trying to shape us, and if we're not careful, it will set our course without us ever noticing it.”

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