Key points
- 1
1Life moves faster than we expect, and if we keep putting off following God, we will wake up one day having drifted far from Him.
- 2
2People who forget God grow bitter with age; people who remember God and place Him at the center grow better over time.
- 3
3Remembering God means paying attention to Him and considering Him with the intention of obeying — not merely thinking about Him.
- 4
4Fearing God is not being afraid of Him; it is being afraid of being away from Him — a reverence that draws us close rather than pushes us away.
“the issue becomes when we only sit in information and we never let information turn into transformation in Christ”
“fear of God isn't being afraid of him, it's being afraid of being away from him”
“Having the fear of God, it's not a scare tactic, it's an intimacy tactic”
“Think too many of us, Jesus is a side dish in our lives. He's not the main course”
- 5
5Obedience is not earning God's love through rule-keeping but trusting His love — responding to what Jesus has already done by living out His word with the Holy Spirit's help.
“It's not by trying harder, but it's by trusting His love more”
Illustration
Working out with a brother-in-law as a workout partner — moving from discipline to desire to delight — used to illustrate how the Holy Spirit helps believers grow in obedience
- 6
6God will one day judge everything we do, so we must ask: did we truly surrender to Jesus as Lord and Savior, and did we steward our time, talent, treasure, and testimony for His kingdom?
“I'm done wasting time. Today is the day that I'm gonna start following God closely before my life fades quickly because that's what life is about”
A story from life
Pastor Jeff's story about failing an online opera class and having to call his mother — used to illustrate the shame of facing accountability unprepared
A story from life
Story about a youth volunteer named Huff who, on his birthday at an eighth-grade dinner, said he had no birthday wish because his relationship with Jesus satisfies him
- 7
7The disciplines of fearing and obeying God produce a progression from discipline to desire to delight, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Application
Pastor Jeff's call to action is direct and personal: stop postponing a wholehearted pursuit of God and start following Him closely today, before life fades. Practically, that means carving out even ten minutes this week to get into God's Word and simply reflect on His greatness, His love, and His care for you — letting that develop a genuine fear of God. It means inviting the Holy Spirit into the specific area of your life that does not yet line up with Scripture, trusting that He will give you both the desire and the power to obey. And it means honestly asking yourself how you are stewarding your time, talent, treasure, and testimony — because at the end of life, only what was done for Jesus will matter. For anyone who has never surrendered to Jesus as Lord and Savior, today is that moment.
