Pathways Church | Messages

What is your idea of the perfect day? Imagine it. Each of us have a different idea. Imagine being there with no pressures and enjoying it. Some of us can’t imagine that it will really happen. When we dream we at the end think that it’s great but that will never happen to me.

Then one day it occurred to me that I was always looking off to the future and not really living for today. It occurred to me that my life is happening right now, not some day!

We have great resources at our disposal, one of those resources is the YouVersion Bible App. I recently looked to see what was the most popular, most viral verse in scripture, based upon the usage of their app. To my surprise it was NONE of the verses I would have thought it was going to be, but when I realized what the most viral verse was, I quickly understood why so many people resonate with this verse.

Today, more than ever it’s easier to distract ourselves from a world that’s jacked up! We don’t want to think about death and misery, don’t want to feel pain or hardness of life so we run to a virtual world in order not to deal, and life passes us by.

Decades of research have shown that children who regularly eat dinner with their families at home do better on a number of health measures. Sharing a table is one of the most uniquely human things we do, as no other creature consumes its food at a table. And sharing tables with other people reminds us that there’s more to food than fuel. We don’t eat only for sustenance.

So much life happens in bed. In fact, we spend about a third of our lives in bed. Living life on top of the bed and not in it. Today, because the distractions, and the "stains" of life, we miss out on God's best. When it comes to marriage, God intends us to live in the marriage and not on it or around it.

Our world is becoming increasingly filled with distraction. Information moves faster, louder, and brighter than ever before. Entertainment, social media, and marketing have never been so prevalent. They beg for our attention and our focus. In so doing, our minds are diverted from a life that matters. If we are NOT intentional with life and family, our culture will pull you & I in a direction that you and I really don’t want to go.

It wasn’t that many years ago someone would say, “Hi, how are you doing?” Our typical response would be, “I’m fine, how are you?” I’m fine, I’m fine. Now someone says, “How are you doing?” What do we say? “I’m busy. I’m busy.” Simple living should be our goal, the complicated life is killing us.

It is amazing what has happened in the last 12 years, and how different technology has changed our lives. Think about the power and resource that is now in the palm of our hands. Technology was intended to give us infinite knowledge and entertain us while we "solve the world's problems". While technology can be a wonderful tool, we have become addicted to technology and disconnected from each other.

Most people won’t come right out and say it, but you’d better believe they’re thinking it. They’re not interested in committing their lives to Christ unless they observe attractive and consistent patterns of living in the Christians they know. Christians are to be good news before they share the good news.