Being Intentional

Series at Hope Community Church

Ex of Pastor Charlie and Youth Camp

-4 years ago going to camp for the first time

-started attending conferences and leadership training

-Met Pastor Charlie and his heart for being intentional

-Whether it was youth camp, or the games, or the way we lead with intentionality.

intending: planning or meaning to do or be the specified thing.

Intentional:

The average person makes over 35,000 decisions a day, how many of those do you really take the time to consider? At its core, intentional living means making real, intentional decisions.

Intentional living looks at the future!

The Intentional Life is a practical way of living as God would have you live, designed to help you solve common problems you encounter in your personal and family relationships. It will help you make better decisions in every area of your life.

“The Intentional Life” is not a quest for perfection, but for personal and spiritual growth, and increased intimacy in your family and other significant relationships. Practiced daily, intentional living will free you to live a better, more fulfilled life in Christ.

We will be talking about 5 areas of our life. Being intentional in our walk with Christ.

Ex with a card deck and throwing it up in the air and trying to land on something

--Faith (Oh that was interesting I was intending on becoming a disciple, it just didn’t happen)

--Marriage (Hmmm well I don’t know why my marriage is falling apart, we live in the same house)

--Health (Now this one I know steps on toes they had 2000 calories for breakfast)

--Family and Kids (I don’t know why my kid is in this predicament at 14)

--Finance (I just live in debt, its just a part of my story, everyone in my family is this way)

And we wonder why we look at our lives now…

Five years from now…

Twenty years from now…

But if you are like me, and I intended to get to it…

It is not the same as being intentional…

And intentionally has a cost in the present the makes for a better future.

In order to live intentionally with God, it requires us to be in constant communication with ourselves and to be emotionally intelligent. Our self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness and relationship management should all work for the glory of the Lord.

Genesis 1:1-31 tells us God’s intentions from the beginning.

-The first day of light,

-the second day of firmament,

-the third day of dry ground,

-the fourth day of the sun moon and stars,

-the fifth day the fish and birds,

-the sixth day creatures of the land.

After all of this creation, God concluded with the observation that the intention of His work was good and it created meaning and value with forethought.

Jesus was Intentional

There were goals in place.

One goal was the cross that we will be looking at today

(Example of putting the cross on a stool and stage)

Matthew 16:21-23

21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord![e] This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance[f] to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Unwittingly, Peter was speaking for Satan. Like Jesus’ adversary, Peter was not setting his mind on the things of God—His ways, His plans, and His purposes (Colossians 3:2; Isaiah 55:8-9). Instead, his mind was set on the things of man, the things of the world and its earthly values. Jesus was saying that the way of the cross was God’s will, the plan of redemption for all mankind. Peter’s reaction was most likely shared by the other disciples although, as always, it was Peter who spoke first. Peter was inadvertently being used of Satan in thinking he was protecting Jesus. Satan had purposely tempted Jesus in the wilderness to divert Him from the cross, from fulfilling the grand design of the Father and the Son (Mark 1:12-13). Innocently, Peter was doing the same thing. He had not yet grasped Jesus’ true Messianic purpose.

Intentionality is Keeping the Goal In Front

Intentionality is Removing those Things that are a Distraction

That was the first time that Jesus mentions it but not the last.

He revisits his intentionality. It is vital that we revisit over and over again our intentionality.

Intentionally is continually being intentional.

Because we are human. Because we get distracted. Because we tend to be like sheep and go astray. And when we become intentional over and over again we begin to see a better plan emerge. The Gospel of Luke 9:22–27 shortens the same account, dropping the dialogue between Jesus and Peter. Each time Jesus predicts his arrest and death, the disciples in some way or another manifest their incomprehension, and Jesus uses the occasion to teach them new things.[10] The second warning appears in Mark 9:30–32 (and also in Matthew 17:22–23) as follows:

30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. Mark 9:30-32

He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.[11] The third prediction in Matthew 20:17–19 specifically mentions crucifixion:

Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!” Matthew 20:17-19 The fourth prediction in Matthew is found in Matthew 26:1–2, immediately before the plot made against him by the religious Jewish leaders:

"As you know, the Passover is two days away — and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified." Matthew 26:1-2

As if that wasn’t enough in the Gospel of John In the conversation with Nicodemus in the Gospel of John, Jesus pointed Nicodemus towards his death when he said Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up[14] Jesus was intimating that something similar would happen to him as in Numbers 21:4-9,[15] where Moses raised a bronze statue of a serpent up on a pole.

If Jesus was so intentional, how much more should we be who are a lot more human?