DEVOTIONAL
How many of you would say you get bored easily? I know I do! I have fallen asleep in movie theaters because I get bored halfway through the movie. Sometimes I make plans and I get bored with those plans and cancel before I even go! And I hate being bored. I especially hate it when I feel like my day to day life is boring. I hate that feeling when everything is the same and there is no excitement or room to grow.
I think we all hate that feeling. Don’t you? This weekend we discussed that in order to stop feeling like we are all wasting our lives away,we need to make some changes. We need to choose
If we can do that this year and make little changes day by day, week by week, and year by year, we will see our lives go from boring to exciting. We will experience the kind of life Jesus says He wants in John 10:10,
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
I don’t know about you, but I want to live life to the fullest. I don’t want to waste my days away on the same old sins and the same old selfish habits. I want to enjoy my life on this earth and see God do amazing things in and through my life. I want God to be able to use my life to bring His kingdom here on earth. That kind of living to me is life to the full. I want to live to my full potential as a Christian and be the person God created me to be.
I think if we are honest, we all want that kind of life. Nobody truly wants to waste their life because deep down we know we were created for more. You were created to do more than just goof off in middle and high school. God has things for you to do. And I think you want to be a part of it. But I think a lot of us don’t know how to get there. We don’t know where to start when it comes to being the person that God created us to be.
Thankfully the Bible has an answer for us. Let’s look at 1 John 2:6
“Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.”
So it’s pretty simple. Living life to its fullest potential as a Christian is living like Jesus did. The question is. How did Jesus live? Let’s look at some scripture and see the example Jesus set for us to follow .
1. The first thing we see is that Jesus did good.
Let’s look at Acts 10:38, “And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
What can we see about Jesus just from this verse? “He went around doing good.” He used His life for good. He treated people with kindness. He served people and took care of them. He did good.
Do you wanna be more like Jesus? Start looking for opportunities to do good.
2. The second thing we see about Jesus is that He took His relationship with God seriously.
Something we learned about Jesus early on in His life is that being in the house of God and learning was a high priority in HIs life. In Luke 2, we read a story of Jesus at a young age going with his parents to Jerusalem. But on the way back, his parents realized that he wasn’t with them. They went back to Jerusalem and looked all over the place. When they found him they found him in the temple talking to the religious leaders there about God and the Bible and this is what He said.
Luke 2:49“But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
Later on, we read a story where Jesus gets mad and drives all the people out of the temple who were there to make money and scam people.
When we look at stories like that it is pretty clear that Jesus was all about the house of God. For the Jewish people, the house of God was the temple. For Christians the house of God is the Church. When we talk about the Church we aren’t talking about just a building. We are talking about the people of God. The Bible teaches that we are His church and He dwells in us. Do you wanna be like Jesus? You have to be all about the church. You have to be all about God’s people.
3. The next thing we are going to see is that Jesus was generous.
Look at 2 Corinthians 8:9,“You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.”
Jesus was generous. He generously gave up His life so that we could have forgiveness and have a relationship with God. Do you wanna be like Jesus.? Be generous.
These are just a few examples of the fact that when we look at scripture, we can see exactly who Jesus was and start asking God to help us be more like Him. So when we pick some habits that we want to start and stop, we are not just picking something random. e are looking for things we can change in our lives to make us look more like Jesus.
Let’s do that today in small groups. We are going to break out into our groups in just a second where you guys will discuss some more moments in Jesus’ life and help each other figure out what those stories tell us about Jesus’ character and how we can live like Him in our everyday lives.
BREAK THE ICE
Who is one of your role models?
SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS
1. As a Christian, why is it important to study Jesus’ life?
2. Read John 8:2-11. What do these verses teach us about Jesus’ character and how can we follow His example?
John 8:2-112 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
3.Read Acts 10:38. . What do you know about Jesus’ habits based on what you have learned about Him in the Bible?
Acts 10:3838 And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
4.When you think about Jesus’ character , what do you feel like you do well?
5. When you think about Jesus’ character, what areas in your life need improvement?
MOVING FORWARD
This weekend we shared a list of habits that we could start or stop to look more like Jesus. We can start: 1. Start growing in our relationships with God by praying and studying the Bible or being more consistent in our small group. 2. Start serving people. This means serving people at our schools by being kind and helpful. We can also serve in the church. 1. We can stop wasting time. That means stop spending hours and hours playing video games or on social media and stop being lazy. 2. We can stop treating others badly. We can stop gossiping and being selfish.
Let’s all pick one habit. Either from this list or one we come up with to start, and one habit to stop. Let’s share these with each other so we can pray for each other and help each other this year.
©2026 Sagebrush Church
