4 weeks helping students understand gospel centered living. When you’re busy with school, activities, church stuff, and friends, it’s easy for life to feel like a current that just carries you along. A full schedule is nice, but what if you’re missing out on your greater purpose? When Jesus commissioned His disciples, He was giving every believer who would follow their ultimate purpose in life. We are to, in our going, do for others as Jesus has done for us and help others to do the same. We call it living perpendicular, and it has the capacity to change the way you feel about the busyness of life and your purpose in the midst of it.

Video Messages Included

Week 1 (Matthew 28:19-20 NLT)

Intro: If you know what it’s like to be busy, then you know that sometimes we get so busy, we mistake our many activities for our life’s purpose. Even when religious activity contributes to that busyness, it can be easy to miss out on the meaning of it all!

Truth: When Jesus commissioned His disciples after the resurrection, He made it clear that our purpose on earth is to do for others what Jesus has done for us and to lead others to do the same as we go about our lives. If what God does for us is a vertical line, and what we do for others is a horizontal line, then our purpose as believers is to live perpendicular.

The Point: Your purpose is perpendicular

Week 2 (Acts 2:38, 42-47 NLT)

Intro: Whether we typically are or not, most of us like the idea of being at the center of our social groups. But the reality is, having friends doesn’t give us our purpose, and it often adds stress and drama to our lives.

Truth: The first Christian community found a different way to do things. They modeled toward one another what the Trinity has modeled toward one another for all of eternity, and it resulted in the kind of community we all wish we could be part of. The best part? Their community discovered greater purpose by drawing in more people to be part of it—just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have done for us.

The Point: Draw the community to your community

Week 3 (Acts 3:1-7 NLT)

Intro: The busier you get, the more you have to learn to prioritize tasks and relationships. But if we get to a point where we only help someone if we need or want something from them, we’ve gone past busyness and into the world of manipulation.

Truth: When John and Peter walked past the lame beggar on their way to the Temple, it would have been easy to shrug him off and keep moving—especially since they didn’t have any money to give him. But despite the fact that they didn’t need him, Peter and John stopped and gave this beggar what they did have to offer. Peter and John lived perpendicular, doing for this man what Jesus had done for them in the context of the gospel.

The Point: Stop for those in need you don’t need

Week 4 (Acts 3:12-16 NLT)

Intro: No matter how much we love something or how much we’ve dedicated our lives to it, pressure has a way of making us lose focus on our purpose. That’s true in sports, art, and academics, but it’s also true in our walk with Jesus. And very few things in Christianity feel more pressurized than sharing our faith.

Truth: Peter shows us a way to take the pressure off when he simply lives perpendicular, and then shares the why behind his actions. His lifestyle of doing for others what Jesus had done for him made others naturally curious, and he made evangelism simple by explaining what happened vertically to make him live the way he does horizontally.

The Point: Share the vertical reasons for your horizontal actions