Next Is Now — The Future Is Calling | Part 1: Not Just Someday — Today

SELF-DEFINING EQUATION:

PAST → DEFINES IDENTITY → LIMITS FUTURE

CHRIST-DEFINING EQUATION:

FUTURE → SHAPES IDENTITY → TRANSFORMS PRESENT

OUR LIFE ISN’T DEFINED BY OUR PAST —

IT’S BEING SHAPED BY OUR FUTURE

1 John 3:1-2 (MSG)

Just look at it — we’re called children of God … and that’s exactly who we are … and that’s only the beginning.

John 1:12 (NLT)

To all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God.

WE’RE NOT ONLY FORGIVEN —

WE HAVE A FUTURE

Romans 8:15 (MSG)

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life … it’s adventurously expectant — greeting God with a childlike, “What’s next, Papa?”

NEXT MOVE #1 —

CONFIDENTLY

Hebrews 11:10 (NLT)

Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

Philippians 3:13-14 (TLB)
I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us.

OUR PAST MAY EXPLAIN US —

BUT IT DOESN’T GET TO LEAD US

NEXT MOVE #2 —

WHAT’S ALREADY OURS

Romans 8:17 (MSG)

We know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance…

1 Peter 1:3,4 (NLT)

We live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance — an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.

2 Corinthians 5:5 (MSG)

The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead…

He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less.

John 15:11 — “I give you my joy.”

John 16:22 — “No one can rob you of that joy.”

John 14:27 — “I give you my peace.”

Missionary Jim Elliot — Journal Entry (October 28, 1949)

“One of the great blessings of Heaven is the appreciation of heaven on earth — Ephesian truth. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep… to gain that which he cannot l

NEXT MOVE #3 —

WHAT GOD IS SHOWING YOU

James 1:22

Don’t just listen to God’s word … you must do what it says.

John 13:17

“Now that you know these things — you will be blessed if you do them.”

CLARITY COMES AS WE MOVE —

NOT BEFORE WE MOVE

What’s my next step — today?

NEXT IS NOW!