Don’t Waste Your $23,000

Read page 12 Don’t Waste Your Life

Many classmates and friends who didn’t start taking their growth this year seriously until Pursuit Camp or even summer camp.

Praise God the work that He did in their lives, but how much time did they waste?

1 Corinthians 3:10–15 “According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”

1. Not judged for your sin. Romans 8:1, Romans 5:1

You are judged for the good and the worthless that you’ve spent your time on.

we spend far too much time worrying about the worthless

Every moment of every day you are building two eternal piles that you will stand before God and be held accountable for.

How much of this year will be burned up?

“How much of your life will be burned up?” - John Barnett during Revelation class

Important Distinction: How hard you work is not the only thing that decides which pile your work goes into.

- You might work very hard, but if you spend all that time and effort building something with wood, hay, and stubble, it is still worthless and it will still be burned up. (Ex. sports, career, success, money)

“Only one life will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last” - John Piper

We do not have time to waste

Romans 13:11–14 “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

Don’t wait until some time in the future to take your faith and your growth seriously.

Are you ready to stand before God and be accountable for how you used the life He graciously gave to you?

Luke 12:16–21 “And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.””

dont wait until next year

dont wait until next semester

dont wait until you’re settled in here and comfortable

DONT WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

DONT WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW

The time to die is now.

CONCLUSION - THIS IS WORTH IT

Matthew 13:44–46 ““The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

The more you are around the Word of God the more you rub shoulders with other growing believers, especially believers that are more mature than you, you will see more and more areas of your life where you are not giving Christ everything.

A recent one for me was this summer with the way that I talk. I went the entire year and some things changed about how I talked, like I talked about Scripture a whole lot more. But one thing that hardly changed at all was the way I joked around with my buddies. When the second year students came down for camp I was very quickly confronted with the fact that they did not joke around the same way that I did. It was uncomfortable to try and joke around with them at first because of this.

James 3:10–12 “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.”

It was humbling because I had always brushed it off as not being a big deal, but I realized that it was a big deal and I hadn’t been taking God seriously in this area.

It is worth it to give up difficult areas of your life to pursue Christ.

Don’t Waste This Year

Deal with the sin that you are living in now.

Romans 13:12–14 “The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

pray and ask the Lord to reveal it to you

2. Lay aside every weight

Hebrews 12:1–2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

pray and ask the Lord to reveal any areas that hinder you from chasing Him fully

Future Goals:

Accountability

Brothers in Christ