SNL Offering Thought: The Choices That Are Good For You (PDF)

SNL OFFERNG THOUGHT THE CHOICES THAT ARE GOOD FOR YOU DECEMBER 15, 2024 Introduction: Good Day SNL’ers I am Pastor/Pastora _____________ greeting you all the way from ______________ campus. For our Offering thought this afternoon, we will be learning about the choice that is good for you. God cre...

SNL OFFERNG THOUGHT THE CHOICES THAT ARE GOOD FOR YOU DECEMBER 15, 2024 Introduction: Good Day SNL’ers I am Pastor/Pastora _____________ greeting you all the way from ______________ campus. For our Offering thought this afternoon, we will be learning about the choice that is good for you. God created us human beings with a free will to make our own choices, in the choices that we make determines the outcome of what will happen to us in the future. This world right now, gives us many varieties of choices but so many of these choices only focuses on to what makes us FEEL GOOD, but they are not really GOOD because it involves sin! Remember what the Bible says in Romans 12:9 “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” Young people, many evil things in this world focuses on the things that make us “feel good” and not to what is good for us, we are in a world that only offers what people want and not what they “need”. As a young Christian, your choice in your life determines the outcome of your future, it is important that you make the right decisions in making choices that is good for you. What are the choices that is good for you? In our offering thought, we will discuss three thoughts 1. The choice to hold fast to what is good Romans 12:9 9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good a. Renewing our minds according to God’s word, can help us to determine what are the choices that is good for us. Romans 12:2 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Principle: What is “good” for us according to God’s word is not about what makes us “feel good” but it is the good that God wants for us for our future according to his purpose and will. Application: Young people, many of us are in the point that we make hard choices when it comes in choosing the right course in college and choosing the right path and career, because these choices determines the outcome of our future. The world offers many choices that can make us confuse to know what is really good for us that is why as Christians, we have to renew our minds according to what the Word God says, we have to let go of the worldly ideas in our minds but instead we let God transformed our minds on the way that we must think so that we can make the choice to hold fast to what is good and that is the will that God has for us. His will is for us is good, pleasing and perfect. 2. The choice to follow God’s way not your way. Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do,  and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:7 ESV Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. - Many Christians are praying to God about their future but many of them, instead of letting God lead the way, they depend on their own ways that is why when things do not go their own way and they failed, they blame God in the wrong choices that they have made. Principle: Our ways depend on what we think is good for us, but God’s ways always work for the good! Romans 8:28 ESV 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[a] for those who are called according to his purpose. Application: Young people, there will be many moments in our life that will not go what we want it to be. There will be hardships, and trials that will unexpectedly come and if we choose to depend more on our ways, this will lead us to failure and to disappointment to ourselves but when you choose to let God take the lead and follow His ways, always remember that there will still be challenges but you can be assured that He is always with you and that He will work all things together for good. 3. The choice to have godly friends Proverbs 18:24 ESV A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 3:31 Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways - We already know the principle of “show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future” Young people, we should not just know this, but we need to apply this in our life, we have to make the right choices when it comes to the influences that we allow in our life. - Daniel’s friends are one of the great examples that when you have the right kind of friends, their influences helped you to be successful in life. Daniel 1:19-20 19 And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. 20 And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. - We can also find another example in the Bible, that when you choose to listen and follow the wrong kind of friends, it will lead you to destruction and failure. Let us look at the example of King Rehoboam. 1 Kings 12:8-11 ESV But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. 9 And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the  yoke that your father put on us’?” 10 And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs. 11 And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’” - King Rehoboam abandoned the wise counsel of the advisers of his Father, Solomon and instead he chose to listen the foolish counsel of his childhood friends, this has caused division to the kingdom of Israel. Principle: The people you choose to be with, and you choose to listen to, influences your decision making and your decisions affects the outcome of your future. Application: Young people, how many of you want to have a wonderful future? Then start evaluating yourself, who are your friends right now. Who do you choose to be with right now? Maybe some of you have experienced that your parents have given you advice to not be friends with that person or to that group of people, especially when these people are giving bad influences on you and they see that something has change in you because you are with these people, choose to listen to them. Amen? Your parents only want what is good for you. Always remember young people, choose friends who do not only call themselves “Christians” but friends who lives a godly life, who has good influences on you and they lead you to have a spiritual healthy walk with God. Amen? Conclusion: Young people, there are many varieties of choices in this world but choose the right choice! Do not choose what makes you “feel good” but choose what is really good for you according to God’s Word.