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August 13, 2025 36 mins

You’re doing all the right things - reading your Bible, going to church, being generous with your finances - but you feel spiritually dead inside. What’s wrong? Chip shares how to break the spiritual activity trap and begin experiencing the peace and power you’re longing for.

To what degree have you taken specific steps in the following areas? (1=none; 2=little; 3=started & doing okay; 4=making good progress; 5=vigorously pursuing)

  • Objectives: Moving from vague ideas to specific decisions about the kind of person I want to become and what I want to accomplish.
  • Priorities: Ordering my life in such a way that the important and eternal are not forfeited by the "pressing" and the "urgent."
  • Schedule: Determining specifically how and when I will place the important and eternal in my daily life.
  • Discipline: Doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done.
  • Accountability: Enlisting the support of those who love me to help me keep my commitments to God.

Jesus' Warning #1: In our pursuit of "seeking first" His righteousness there is the danger of DISTORTION.

Application of Matthew 5:20 to...

  • Murder –5:21-26
  • Adultery –5:27-30
  • Divorce –5:31-32
  • Oaths –5:33-37
  • Retribution –5:38-41
  • Enemies –5:43-48

Jesus' Warning #2: In our pursuit of "seeking first" His righteousness there is also the danger of DECEPTION. -Matthew 6:1-18

  • Giving: Key Issue = MOTIVE -Matthew 6:1-4
  • Prayer: Key Issue = DISCERNMENT -Matthew 6:5-8
  • Fasting: Key Issue = PERSPECTIVE -Matthew 6:16-18

Application: SECRECY is God's method of keeping our motives pure.

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