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

What does it really mean to be saved? Is Jesus truly the only way to heaven? If Christianity is true, does that mean every other religion is wrong? And perhaps most personally: Can you lose your salvation?

In Part 9 of May I Ask A Question... Again?, Pastor Jeffrey tackles some of the most important and deeply personal questions surrounding salvation, faith, other religions, and eternal security.

He begins with Jesus' unmistakable declaration in John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." From there, he explores what Christianity means when it claims that salvation is found in Christ alone, how Christians can engage respectfully with people of other faiths, and why recognizing truth in another worldview does not mean affirming that worldview as a whole.

But the heart of this episode is the question: Can a genuinely saved person lose their salvation?

Looking at the fullness of Scripture, Jeffrey examines five biblical truths concerning the believer's eternal security: salvation is God's work, Jesus promises that His sheep will never perish, nothing can separate us from Christ, the Holy Spirit seals believers for the day of redemption, and eternal life truly is eternal.

Additionally, part 9 also wrestles honestly with the difficult passages about falling away and considering what Scripture says about those who appear to follow Christ but ultimately walk away.

This is not merely an academic theological discussion. How you understand salvation shapes how you understand grace, the cross, the character of God, and whether you live your Christian life in assurance or constant fear.

Join us as we ask some of the biggest questions of all - and look to Scripture for the answers.

Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith

Donelson First


Part 9: Salvation - The Only Way to Heaven

August 23, 2026

Hell may be one of the most difficult, uncomfortable, and often avoided doctrines in all of Christianity. But if we are going to take seriously what Jesus said about heaven, we must also take seriously what He said about hell. As this message reminds us, "What you believe about the eternal determines how you live today."

In Part 8 of May I Ask a Question… Again?, Senior Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith confronts some of the hardest questions surrounding eternal judgment: Is hell real? If God is loving, why does hell exist? Why did Jesus speak about hell so often? Why does Scripture describe hell with fire and darkness? And ultimately, what makes hell so terrible?

This message is not intended to produce fear for fear's sake or to cause Christians to celebrate judgment. Instead, it reveals how the reality of judgment magnifies the extraordinary beauty of the Gospel. The more clearly we understand what Jesus came to save us from, the more deeply we understand what He came to save us for - forgiveness, reconciliation, eternal life, the presence of God, and heaven.

Hell should never make the Church cold toward those who are far from God. It should break our hearts for them. If hell is real, our neighbors matter. Our enemies matter. Evangelism matters. And the Gospel becomes extraordinarily urgent.

The Jesus who loves us enough to promise heaven is the same Jesus who loves us enough to warn us about hell.

Pastor Jeffrey Dean Smith

Donelson First

Part 8 - The Hardest Doctrine - A Study on Hell

August 16, 2026