The people closest to you have a profound influence on the person you become. They shape your thinking, influence your decisions, strengthen your faith, and sometimes even determine the direction of your life.

In Part 6 of The Well-Lived Life, Senior Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith explores the biblical wisdom of choosing relationships intentionally. Drawing from Proverbs 13:20 and other key passages, he reminds us that God never designed us to live in isolation. We need people who encourage us, challenge us, hold us accountable, and help us grow closer to Jesus Christ.

Discover why meaningful relationships require intentional investment and how the people you choose to walk beside you can help shape a life well lived.

The central truth: You cannot choose everyone who enters your life, but you must carefully choose who shapes your life.

Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith

Donelson First

Part 6 | Relationships: Choose Your People

October 25, 2026

Words are powerful. A sentence spoken in five seconds can remain with someone for fifty years. Our words can encourage, heal, restore, and give hope. But they can also wound deeply, damage relationships, and leave scars that last a lifetime.

In Part 5 of The Well-Lived Life, Senior Pastor Jeffrey Smiths turn to James 3 to discover that the words we speak are far more than casual conversation. They reveal the condition of our hearts, influence the direction of our lives, and create an atmosphere in which the people around us must live.

Scripture reminds us that "the tongue has the power of life and death" [Proverbs 18:21]. But learning to speak life requires more than simply choosing better words. It begins with allowing Jesus Christ to transform our hearts.

What kind of atmosphere are your words creating in your home, your relationships, and your workplace? Are the people around you being strengthened by what you say, or wounded by it?

A well-lived life is not simply measured by how we spend our days, the decisions we make, or the work we accomplish. It is also revealed in the words we choose to speak - and sometimes, the words we choose to leave unspoken.

Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith

Donelson First

Part 5 | Words: Speak Life

October 18, 2026

What if your work is about far more than earning a paycheck?

In Part 4 of The Well-Lived Life, Senior Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith explores a biblical vision of work that reaches far beyond careers, titles, and occupations. From the opening chapters of Genesis to Paul's words in Colossians, Scripture reveals that work was not created as a consequence of sin - it was part of God's good design from the beginning. Sin distorted work, making it frustrating and exhausting, but it did not remove its purpose.

Whether you lead a company, teach a classroom, raise children, care for a family member, volunteer, study, build, create, serve, or have entered retirement, God has given you meaningful work to do. But while work is a gift from God, it was never meant to become your god. Your careers cannot carry the weight of your identity, significance, or worth - only Christ can do that.

This message challenges you to rethink not only what you do, but why you do it and for whom you do it. When your ultimate audience becomes Christ, ordinary work can become an act of worship, excellence becomes faithfulness rather than perfectionism, and even rest becomes an expression of trust in God.

The well-lived life is not primarily about doing extraordinary work. It is about doing ordinary work with extraordinary faithfulness.

Whatever your hands find to do - do it faithfully. Do it purposefully. Do it for the Lord.

Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith

Donelson First

Part 4 | Desire: Labor With Purpose

October 4, 2026

What do you really want - and why do you want it?

In Part 3 of The Well-Lived Life: Biblical Wisdom for What Matters Most, Senior Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith explores the powerful role desire plays in shaping the direction of our lives. Proverbs 4:23 warns us, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

Our desires influence our decisions, our decisions shape our direction, and over time, what captures our hearts can become what controls our lives. In a culture constantly teaching us what to want, followers of Jesus must learn not simply to follow their hearts, but to guard them.

Through Proverbs 4, the teachings of Jesus, the temptation of Eve, and Paul's challenge to walk by the Spirit, this profoundly moving message examines how our hearts are formed - and how even good desires can quietly become masters.

The goal of the Christian life is not simply to suppress the wrong desires or manage our behavior. Jesus wants to transform us from the inside out - to reshape what we love, reorder what we want, and form within us a heart that increasingly desires what He desires.

Because ultimately, the well-lived life is not simply about getting what you want. It is about becoming the kind of person who wants what matters most.

Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith

Donelson First

Part 3 | Desire: Guard Your Heart

September 27, 2026

What separates a life lived from a life well-lived? The decisions we make each day.

Most life-changing decisions do not announce themselves as life-changing. Instead, our lives are shaped by thousands of seemingly ordinary choices - what we pursue, what we refuse, whom we trust, what we forgive, and whether we obey when God leads. Decisions become directions, and directions eventually become destinations.

In Part 2 of The Well-Lived Life, Senior Pastor Jeffrey Smith explores the biblical wisdom we desperately need to choose well. Through Proverbs 3 and other passages, we discover that wisdom begins with trusting God, recognizing the limits of our own understanding, submitting every part of life to Him, and learning to discern His will.

Your days are numbered. Your decisions matter. And a well-lived life is built one wise, God-honoring decision at a time.

Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith

Donelson First

Part 2 - Decisions: Choose Wisely Each Day

September 20, 2026

Time is one of the few things in life we can never replace. We cannot save it, make more of it, or get it back once it is gone. We can only decide how we will spend it.
In Part 1 of The Well-Lived Life: Biblical Wisdom for What Matters Most, Senior Pastor Jeffrey Smith begins with one of Scripture's most important prayers: "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." - Psalm 90:12
Our days are limited, but that truth is not meant to make us fearful - it is meant to make us wise. When we understand the brevity of life, our priorities become clearer. We begin to recognize that busyness is not the same as faithfulness, that every "yes" carries a cost, and that there is a time for everything - but not time for everything.
The goal is not simply to manage our schedules more efficiently. It is to steward the life God has given us faithfully.
What if a well-lived life is not about doing everything, accomplishing everything, or pleasing everyone? What if it is simply being able to say, as Jesus did, "I have finished the work You gave me to do"?
You have one life. One collection of days. The question is not simply whether you will live them - but whether you will live them well.

Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith

Donelson First

Part 1 - Time: Number Your Days

September 13, 2026

For nearly three months, we have brought our questions to Scripture - questions about life, faith, suffering, eternity, and the things we simply do not understand. In the final message of the series, the questions ultimately lead us to the most important question of all: Who do you say Jesus is?

In this message, Pastor Jeffrey Smith examines the extraordinary claims Jesus made about Himself, the testimony of Scripture, and the resurrection that stands at the heart of the Christian faith. As you listen, you will discover something deeply personal about Jesus: He understands what it means to struggle. In Gethsemane, Jesus faced something He desperately wished could be different and prayed, "Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."

For everyone carrying unanswered questions, walking through a chapter they never would have chosen, or wondering why God has not changed their circumstances, Jesus shows us another way to understand faith. The presence of a cup does not mean the absence of the Father.

Ultimately, following Jesus means learning to trust the Father more than we trust the moment - believing that some of the deepest faith we will ever demonstrate is not simply trusting God to do what we ask, but trusting Him even when He does something different.

Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith

Donelson First

Part 11: The Answer that Leads to Jesus

September 6, 2026

How do you know God's will for your life? How can you recognize the leading of the Holy Spirit when Scripture doesn't give a specific answer? And what happens if you make the wrong decision?

In Part 10 of May I Ask a Question… Again?, Pastor Jeffrey Smith explores one of the most personal questions every believer faces: How do I know what God wants me to do?

Discover the difference between God's revealed will and His particular leading, how Scripture, prayer, discernment, and the Holy Spirit work together in our decision-making, and why an open door isn't always God's "yes" - and a closed door isn't always His "no."

Most importantly, be reminded of this freeing truth: God's sovereignty is bigger than your ability to make a perfect decision. The goal is not to figure out every detail of God's plan; it is to walk so closely with Him that you are willing to follow wherever He leads.

Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith

Donelson First

Part 10: God's Will For Your Life

August 30, 2026