Big Idea: The life you get is the life you get to help shape

Key Scripture (Romans 13:11-14 NIV): "11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh."

(Romans 13:11-14 The Message) "But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!"

Question: What can you accomplish in five years of effort? What goes on your list?

The theme of today: The life you get is the life you get to help shape.

Said another way: The ways you let in are the ways you are set in

Point 1: Time is not on your side

• Chronos vs kairos

• (Psalm 39:5): "You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure. Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be."

• (Psalm 90:10) "Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away."

• (Psalm 90:12) "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

Point 2: Future you is simply an exaggerated version of current you

• (Proverbs 11:27) "Whoever seeks good finds favor, but evil comes to one who searches for it."

• You are what you eat. You become like what you watch. You reap what you sow. And time will reveal it all.

Point 3: If you don't like what you're getting, you can change what you’re doing

• (Greg Laurie) "The evening of life is determined by the morning of it."

• Paul was asking the Romans to take action; they had a part to play in the future.

Point 4: Ongoing consistency is more important than short-term intensity

• Start slow, settle into a pace that is doable, and don't stop

• Ongoing, steady, slow, measured consistency allows you to tap into what has been called the most powerful force in the universe, compound interest.

Conclusion:

• The life you get "stuck with" is the life you get to help make.

• Make it a good one