Before It's Too Late

Ecclesiastes 12

Life moves faster than we realize. Weeks turn into months, months into years, and before long, we wonder where the time went. Ecclesiastes reminds us that our lives are like a vapor: here for a moment, then gone. This truth calls us to remember our Creator while we still have breath, to live for what truly lasts before it’s too late. Today’s challenge is to make our limited time count by investing in what will outlive us. In the end, it’s not wealth or recognition that will matter most, it’s people.

1. Read Proverbs 16:31; 20:29; 31:30 — If you feel you have achieved “the splendor of the old,” do you find old age splendid? What makes it splendid or not so splendid?

       a. If you feel you have not achieved old age, yet, how do you view it and the people who have achieved it?

2. Read Psalm 71:17-18; Isaiah 46:3-4 —

       a. What fears do old age bring?

       b. What prospects come with old age?

3. Pastor Luke mentioned three great missionaries, all who died young but not before they had accomplished something great for God. Do you feel that you have accomplished something great for God? Do you feel like it is too late or you have missed your chance?

       a. What might God be calling you to do in this life?

       b. Read Matthew 14:28-31 — What will it take to achieve it?

       c. Read Ecclesiastes 12:13 —Why might it be hard to live a life wholly surrendered?

4. Read Deuteronomy 10:12-13, 18-19; Ecclesiastes 12:13; Matthew 22:37-40 — What does it mean to “fear God and keep his commandments”?

5. Read John 13:34-35; Romans 5:8; 1 Peter 1:22-25 — Has the concept of fearing God and keeping his commands changed in the New Testament?

6. Who is your One this year?

       a. If you have not chosen someone, yet, visualize the people in your life and ask God to help you see them the way he sees them, then pray over how he would use you to reach them.