Heart Matters - Character & Integrity

Core Learning - It's always a mistake to decided what you want to do before you decide who you are going to be.

 

 

We don't become great people by accident, we don't become who God wants us to be by accident.

 

There are 3 aspects we want to look at....

 

1. Who you are.

            Who you are on the inside.

            What you value

            What you will and won’t do

            Your character and identity

 

2. Who you know.

            All of your relationships

            The people you do know and the people you want to know

            The people who fill the contacts in your phone and on socials           

 

3. What you do.

            What you grow up to do with your life

            What a lot of you are trying to figure out

            Where Gods taking you

           

 

 

Q - Can you think of anyone who got somewhere awesome in their lives someone really successful and then did something really stupid and stuffed it all up?

 

Sportsmen being stripped of medals because they took performance enhancing drugs.

 

Musicians or actors that partied too hard and ended up in jail for a while or made a home video that somehow got out into the public.

 

 

Point - It’s always a mistake to decide what you want to do before you decide who you are going to be!

 

Great Godly leaders have made just as big mistakes and their character let them down on what God was doing with their lives.

 

You are so gifted and so talented, and many lives will be impacted by you all.

 

 

But what makes us any different from the people gone before us?

 

They loved God too, they went to great churches too, they did leadership courses too.

 

What’s some things we have seen people get caught in that stopped their relationship with God?

 

Sometimes our gifts and talents can be more than our character can handle.

 

That’s what has happened with these people that have gone before us and failed, their gifts and talents exceeded their character.

 

There is so much pressure on 'Who you know' & 'What you do' but it’s 'Who you are' that really counts!

 

People will do nearly anything to be excepted sometimes, because they focus on 'WHO THEY KNOW'

 

People will put a lot of pressure on you over the next few years as to what you do with your life because they are focused on 'WHAT YOU DO'

 

BUT focus must be on 'WHO YOU ARE'

 

'Who you are' will determine 'what you do.'

 

'Who you are' will determine 'who you know.'

 

1 Samuel 16:7 NIV

“….The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

 

Matthew 7:24-27 NLT

 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”

 

 

 

Another way to think about it is what would you like said about you at your funeral.

 

You don’t want people to talk about what you did or who you know but you want them to remember you for who you are.

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Prayer