James Meehan - Making Choices to Change Your Future
- Watch
- Audio
- Get involved
Hello and welcome to Switch. My name is James Mi, and I’m really glad that you are here right now listening to this message. Whether you’re here because you wanted to be or because your parents forced you to be here, I think it’s a big deal that you are because I genuinely believe that if you’re willing to lean in, if you’re actually willing to give God a chance, He will meet you where you are and reveal something to you about His character and your calling. Just maybe that thing God reveals to you is what you have been waiting for, praying for, searching for, and hoping for because we believe that Jesus makes everything better and that when we come before Jesus, He always meets us with love.
So, what we’re going to do is I will preach to you a message about how we can be wiser and less foolish. If you are ready to learn exactly that, can you say, «I’m ready»? I’m ready. Wonderful. If you’re taking notes, I want you to write this down because this is the main point of today’s message: The choices you make today determine the person you become tomorrow. The choices you make today determine who you are tomorrow. This is obviously true in a very literal sense. For example, if you choose to go home tonight after this Switch service and stay up until 4:00 in the morning playing video games with your friend, then the person you become tomorrow will probably be less energetic and more grumpy than who you are today. If you decide today to eat 72 donuts, then the person you become tomorrow will likely be someone who is sick to their stomach, possibly a little nauseous, and has no desire for more donuts.
If you choose today to go home and go off on your parents for all the things you disagree with regarding their parenting style and all the things they do that annoy you, then tomorrow you would become someone who is grounded. The choices you make today determine the person you become tomorrow. This is really true in a literal sense, but it’s also true when we zoom out. When you think about the choices you are making today, do you realize that you are laying the foundation for the life you will live in the future? They are small choices, but they make a big difference. What I want to do in today’s message is help you make choices so that this summer will work for you and not against you. There are so many people who, when summertime comes, throw out all their habits, disciplines, and routines. When fall shows back up, they are not a better version of themselves, not a wiser version, and not a more capable version.
In fact, they often become a worse version of themselves. I don’t want that to be your story this summer, and I know that’s not what God wants for your story either. What I want to help you see is that the choices you make this summer will determine the person you become this fall. I want you to become the kind of person this fall that the people you haven’t seen since spring literally cannot recognize. You should be so different that they don’t even realize you are the same person. Not because you got a new haircut or hit puberty, but because you are making choices that have strengthened your character, deepened your faith, and enriched your relationships, so who you show up as in the fall is different, better, wiser, more capable, and more mature than who you were in the spring. But the only way that will happen is if you make choices that shape you into that kind of person. The choices you make today determine the person you become tomorrow.
Now, because this is church and we are all about Jesus, we are going to look at what Jesus has to say about the choices we make and how those choices influence the people we become. So, we are going to go to Matthew chapter 7. It’s the very end of his most famous sermon ever, called the Sermon on the Mount. In the very last paragraph, Jesus lays out for us how to become wise and how not to be foolish. Here is what Jesus says. This is Matthew 7:24–27. He says that anyone—anyone means anyone, every single one of us—Jesus is speaking to us. Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise. So, if you want to become wise according to Jesus, whom I would suggest is the smartest person who ever lived, the wisest teacher there has ever been, you have to listen to what he says and follow it. Then you will be like a person who builds a house on solid rock.
Even though the rain comes in torrents, the floodwaters rise, and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. It is built on a strong foundation. But anyone who hears Jesus’s teaching and does not obey it, does not follow 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. Here’s what Jesus is saying: if you want to become wise, if you want to become more mature, if you want to become more capable as a human being, the best thing you can do is listen to what he says and choose to do it. If you want all those things—wisdom, maturity, more capability—then the worst thing you can do is hear what he says and not do it.
Choosing not to follow Jesus is choosing to become foolish, to build your house, to build your life on something that is shaky. Whenever the hardships of life come, because they will, your life will come crumbling down. But when you build your life on Jesus, when you build your life on a firm foundation, the unchanging truth of his word and his relentless love, then your house, your life, is built on something solid and steady that will not come crashing down, no matter what life throws your way. That’s what God wants for every single one of you: to become wise and to build your life on a foundation strong enough to withstand any storm that life throws your way. Ultimately, the choice is yours.
Are you willing to listen to Jesus and do what he says? If you do, then you will become wise. If you don’t, then you won’t, because the choices we make today determine the people we become tomorrow. When I was younger, when I was your age, I was not listening to Jesus and following his teachings. In my sixth and seventh grade years of middle school, I went through a messy process of unfollowing Jesus because the storms of life hit my family and me, making it feel like everything came crashing down. Instead of running to God, I ran from him because I thought that if he was actually real, if he was actually good, then there’s no way he would let this stuff happen to me or to my family.
I spent the next ten years, all of middle school and high school, not really wanting anything to do with God, Jesus, or church. I was not one of those teenagers who was the most wild and crazy; I was just a little bit wild and crazy. I could look at other people’s lives and easily see why they were so messed up. But I mostly made decent choices. I mostly tried in school, and I mostly had good friendships. Yet, no matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to shake this deep sense inside of me that something was wrong, that something was missing. I tried really hard to either ignore that feeling altogether or satisfy it with anything other than God. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, that urge, that longing never went away. The most difficult times were when I lay in bed at night, trying to fall asleep but couldn’t because my mind was constantly racing when it was just me and my thoughts.
Over and over again, I felt like my thoughts were screaming loudly that there had to be more to life than this. I searched and searched, but I could not find what I was looking for until Jesus found me. A little over ten years ago, when I showed up to a church just like this, I heard a message about the goodness and grace of Jesus, that He has the power to change everything. To be honest, I had heard that message many times before, but for whatever reason, that service was different because I think I was finally ready to hear it. When I heard it, I knew that was what I was missing. I decided, I chose then and there to trust in Jesus, to commit my life to Him, to listen to what He says and do my best to follow it because not doing that clearly was not working.
Now, ten years of following Jesus later, the words that He spoke in Matthew chapter 7 are so true. The storms of life that have come since I started following Jesus, in many ways, are bigger, messier, and more difficult than the things I experienced before I began following Him. But even though those storms knocked me down, these ones have not. Why? Because my life is being built on a firm foundation. When the storms of life come, I’m not sitting alone, just letting it hit me. I have the arms of my Savior wrapped around me, holding me up when everything in me wants to collapse. That same invitation is available to you if you choose to accept it. I want to pause and brag for a second.
Almost five years ago, I started leading a small group here at Life Church Edmond. I was there on that very first night when this group of wide-eyed, seemingly innocent sixth-grade boys showed up. I was definitely looking for them. Dude, I was like a shark going for the kill. If you looked lost, alone, and scared, you were in my group. I found a handful of those guys and told them, «Hey, come sit here.» I said, «Keep an eye out for other guys like you that look lost, scared, smaller, and whose voices are a little bit higher than those of the other guys here. If you see them, point them out because I’m going to go and get them.»
So, I gathered this group of guys that I have had the privilege of walking with for the last five years. Let me tell you, to see you transform from—no offense—the boys you were to the godly young men you are has been absolutely incredible. I want to make sure you understand that this is because you chose to keep showing up. You chose to keep following Jesus. You chose to build your life on His truth, not the world’s foolishness. You are who you are because of who Jesus is and because you chose to respond to His invitation.
Some of you are hearing this message, and I need you to understand that this can be your story too. You can become someone different. You can experience a life that is better, fuller, and richer than the life you have been living up to this point if you choose to follow Jesus. So, what I want to do is give you a very simple application for this summer. One habit, one choice you can make every day so that this summer will work for you, not against you. I want you to begin and end every day this summer by reading one chapter of God’s Word. Begin and end. This means when you wake up in the morning, read a chapter of the Bible, and before you go to sleep at night, read a chapter of the Bible.
Now, you can read any chapters. They’re all really good. But I want to encourage you to read the books of Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. These three books are known as wisdom literature. There are specific books of the Bible designed to help us gain wisdom and make better choices as we navigate the complexities of life. The reason I want you to read these three books is that if you add up all the chapters together, you get 193 chapters. If you read one chapter in the morning and one chapter in the evening, that’s about 96 days of reading.
If you’ve ever seen the show Phineas and Ferb, then you know that summer vacation is about 104 days, and then school comes along to end it. The annual question of our generation is finding a good way to spend it. A great way to spend it is to begin and end every day by reading one chapter of God’s word, because that’s roughly the length of your summer vacation. The other reason I want you to do this is that the book of the Bible Jesus quoted most often throughout his ministry was the book of Psalms—150 chapters of prayers and poems written by God’s people to help us encounter His presence, celebrate Him when things are good, and wrestle with Him when things are hard. It’s a truly beautiful book.
Now, I’m not going to just send you off into the unknown and say go and do this; I will quickly show you how to do it. We will read Psalm 1 together, so we need to move quickly because we only have a limited amount of time. Okay, let’s see. Psalm chapter 1. We will walk through this verse by verse. It’s only six verses, so we’ll move quickly. I need you to pay attention. It begins, «Blessed.» That’s a significant word. It means favored is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers. So, verse one: blessed are those who don’t spend a lot of time with scumbags.
Verse two: instead, their delight is in the law of the Lord. Their delight is in the word of God, and they meditate on it. They think about it, study it, and read it over and over until the word of God gets into their soul. Begin and end every day this summer with one chapter of God’s word. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers. If you want to live a blessed and prosperous life, don’t hang out with scumbags; instead, meditate day and night on God’s word.
The last few verses: not so the wicked; they are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. The person you become in the future is determined by the choices you make today. So I want to ask you today and every day this summer to begin and end your day by reading one chapter of God’s word. When you do, here’s what will happen: you will hear, see, and read the words of Jesus. I believe the spirit of God will prompt you to follow His teaching. You will meditate on God’s word day and night, and the roots of your faith will grow deep.
Thinking about godly things, saying godly words, and making godly choices will become much more natural because you are starting and ending every day saturating your soul with the truth of God’s word. The person you become tomorrow is determined by the choices you make today. So choose today to hear the words of Jesus and apply them to your life. Meditate on God’s word day and night and do this every day for the entire summer. If you do, I promise you will return in the fall wiser, better, more capable, and more mature than you were before. Because God is not a liar, and if His word says it, that means it’s true. You just have to choose to believe it and then to do it.
And so, Lord Jesus, we come before you right now, so grateful that you love us enough to show us the path to righteousness, goodness, wisdom, and life with you. God, I pray that every single one of us would choose today to put you first, to choose today to commit, to meditate on your word day and night until your word gets planted so deeply in our souls that it transforms us from the inside out, so that whatever we do might prosper. We love you, Jesus. It’s in your name we pray. Amen and amen.