Facing Forward - 2

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Thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Your donation today means great podcasts like this remain available to help people look to God daily. Please make your donation today at vision.org.au to help you start the new year with more spiritual momentum. Let's listen as David introduces his message, Facing Forward. In this passage and Paul's writings, we prepare ourselves for 2021. Well, there's a passage of scripture that my mind has been drawn to in these past days found in the book of Philippians in the third chapter that I think has some great insight for all of us at this particular time. And there's just three verses that I want us to examine today, and I'd like to read those verses from Philippians chapter 3 verses 12 through 14. I need you to know that as I read these verses, Paul is writing this from his prison cell.

He is in the last trimester of his life. And he is speaking very personally to the people of Philippi who I believe were his favorite congregation because he was more personal in his instructions to the Philippians than he was in any other book. He spoke to them at the beginning talking about how he longed for them and how he prayed for them and how he loved them. So he's opening his heart to them as if he were sitting across the table with a cup of coffee in his hand and sharing with them his very heart.

And listen to these words. He says, Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. From Paul's words in these three verses, I want to share with you four principles which I think are important for all of us to consider as we prepare ourselves for a new year, for a new chapter in our lives. Isn't it interesting and isn't it a blessing that God has given us life in manageable sections, years and months and weeks and days and hours? If for some strange reason all of life was just one long continuum, I think we would be so discouraged.

I love the turning of the new year because while I have to look at my failures from the past, I also get a chance to make some new goals for the future. And I hope I can encourage you in that respect today. The first thing that has to happen, according to Paul, is we need to begin with what I call a divine discontent, a divine discontent. In verse 12, he says, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on. Now, I don't know if you get the impact of those words, but Paul is talking here about the discontent in his life. He said, I haven't arrived. I haven't made it.

I haven't come to the place where I want to be. Is there such a thing as divine discontent? After all, we're told in the Bible that we're to be content with such things as we have. That's what the New Testament says.

And the answer is, of course, that is true. We're to be content with the things that God gives us. When our Lord is teaching us about material goods, he tells us that we're to be content with such things as we have and not always be clamoring for more. But when it comes to our growing relationship with Jesus Christ, we are never to be content. That's what Paul is teaching us. It's hard to believe when you read this that the human author of these words is the apostle we call Paul. Hard to believe that these words were uttered toward the end of his life. After he had been used of the Lord to establish churches and write letters that have become most of the New Testament and have many visions that God trusted him with, win so many spiritual victories. At the end of all of that, not at the beginning, at the end of it, Paul says, I want you to know I'm not content with where I am.

I want to go beyond where I have come. I have greater vision for the future in my relationship with the Lord. Twice in this text he uses the word perfect. In verse 12, he talks about not having arrived at perfection. But if you look down to verse 15, he uses that word again. And he says, therefore, let us, as many as are mature, or perfect is the same word, have this same mind.

What same mind is he talking about? He's saying in this play on words, he's telling us that we are mature when we realize that we have not arrived at perfection. Maturity is not coming to the place where you say, I finally got it all figured out. I finally know what it's all about. Perfection and maturity in the Christian life is understanding where you are and how much yet you have to achieve.

And where you're going and how much further it is to get there. Maturity is not smug, complacent, self-satisfied sufficiency. Maturity is where Paul is with a divine discontent. A sanctified dissatisfaction with our spiritual progress is one of the building blocks of a growing Christian experience. You say, Pastor, I never heard anything like that before. You mean if I don't feel good about my Christian life, that's good?

Yeah, that's good. If you're not happy with where you are, that's a sign that you're on the way to where you should be. But if you're sitting back, smug and saying, man, I've made it, I'm a church member, I'm a deacon, I'm in a Bible study.

This is it, this is all there is, I'm where I'm supposed to be. I want you to take a good long look at the Apostle Paul and ask yourself, how could he be what he was, where he was, doing what he did, saying what he said, and have the spirit of divine discontent if that's not where we should be as well? Jesus taught us this in the Beatitudes, do you remember that? He said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. I have written in my notes in several places how grateful I am that he doesn't say, blessed are those who are righteous.

There wouldn't be a lot of whole blessing going around because there are not a lot of righteous people. He didn't say, blessed are those who have finally made it. He said, blessed are those who what?

Hunger and thirst after it. Do you have a deep-seated hunger and thirst in your heart for more of God and more of his word and more growth in him? If that's true, the Bible says you're blessed.

Blessed is the one. So often today, Christians confuse contentment for complacency. This wrong understanding of contentment can rob believers of their passion for Christ and for their loss. And Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2 that we're to be as Christians like newborn babies who desire the pure milk of the word. We're to have a hunger for God. The psalmist writes, as the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God, when I shall come and appear before God. Psalm 42 1 and 2. The Bible tells us and Paul is teaching us that if we're going to face forward in the new year, the place we begin is just understanding that we've got a long way to go. A divine discontent. Notice secondly, Paul talks about a disciplined devotion in verse 13. He says, but one thing I do, one thing I do. Did you know that one thing is an important phrase in the Bible?

I kind of traced it out a little bit this week. In fact, it's interesting to examine the times that that little phrase is used in the Bible. Somebody should write a song about one thing. Of David in the Psalms when he describes his hunger for God. Psalm 27 4, he says, one thing I have desired of the Lord, that I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To the rich young ruler, Jesus once said, one thing you lack, go, sell what you have and give it to the poor.

He knew where the man's heart was. To Martha when she was criticizing her sister's devotion to Christ, Jesus said, Martha, one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her. The man who received his sight by the power of Christ gave this testimony.

He said, one thing I know, though I was blind, now I see. What does it mean to be the person of one thing? To be single-minded, starting with your discontent from the past, you now begin to focus and you get single-minded about your life. One thing, always thinking of one thing means we're learning how to say no to some things so that we can say yes to the one thing. E. Stanley Jones said it this way, your capacity to say no determines your capacity to say yes to greater things. And I'm finding as I get older, that's one of the greatest challenges I face.

Learning to say no so that you can say yes to the one thing. You see, men and women, as we face the new year, the pursuit of Christian maturity is not something that just happens to us. Christian growth is not incidental or accidental. It is the result of making our growth in Christ our priority in life. In our culture, this is becoming more and more difficult because so many things cry out for our attention. One writer put it this way, there is a time when we must firmly choose the course we will follow or the relentless drift of events will make the decision for us.

And that's true. We must come to the place where we make our walk with the Lord important, central. Paul said, this one thing I do. Dawson Trotman said, this one thing I do, not these 20 things I dabble in.

So many times we spread ourselves so thin. And I have to tell you something, my friend, we can never ever get to the place where we only get to do the one thing. But I know in my heart that in every one of your hearts, you know the one thing.

You know what it is. The one thing that God has called you to do, the one thing that God has wrapped you up in a package to perform for him. Let me urge you as you face this new year, as I speak to my own heart today, be careful that you don't get caught up in the many things and sacrifice the one thing that God uniquely created you to do in this world. I said there were four things and I've given you two of them. A divine discontent, a disciplined devotion.

Notice thirdly, a definite direction. Verse 13 again, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. Isn't that a good New Year's verse? Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. One of the things that keeps so many of us from making progress in our walk with the Lord is our obsession with the past. There are going to be two kinds of people during these days. Some are going to stress out over everything that went wrong and you're just going to live there and you're going to be so fearful to face the new year because of everything you think was so bad.

Then there are others who are going to be just totally forwardly looking and maybe not taking into consideration the things they should have learned from the past. Paul gives us here a key that will help us if we understand what he's saying. When we become followers of Christ, we enter into a new life in Christ and our past is once and for all put behind us. But Satan loves to come to us with the reminder of our past sins and our past failures. If he can get us to dwell on what used to be before Christ, he can neutralize us in any way we might be used to the Lord. I love what some preacher I heard on television said one time. He said, when Satan comes and he's telling you about your past, you tell him about his future and he'll leave you alone.

Isn't that a good thought? Paul said, I am committed to forgetting those things which are in the past. If you know the life of Paul, you know Paul had a lot to forget.

He did. Paul had a lot to forget. He was a persecutor of the Christians. He was a brutal enemy of the cross before his conversion.

He gave consent to the death of Stephen and no doubt was responsible for the suffering and death of other followers of Christ along the way. Suppose Paul had just allowed himself to live in the past. Suppose every time he went on a missionary journey, he was stymied because all he could think of was the last time he was in this place, he was chasing the Christians and persecuting them. Suppose he lived with all of the things that he had done in the past, flogging himself for what he had done before he became a believer.

His influence would have been insignificant. He had to learn to forget the past. Do you remember what Jesus said about discipleship and following him? Listen to what he said.

Jesus said, no one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. When Paul uses the word forget, let me explain what he means. He is not talking about failing to remember. No one has the power to erase from memory what has happened in his life. I mean, I can't bring you into a therapy session and say, you no longer remember any of the stuff you ever did wrong.

Nobody can do that. In fact, what Paul is talking about when he says forget is, he's talking about refusing to be influenced by the things in the past. God has promised to forget our sins in that same way. Listen, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more, Hebrews 10.17. God is not saying that he's developed a bad memory.

He's not saying that. He is saying that he will no longer hold our sins against us. In other words, our sins will no longer affect our standing with God and influence his attitude toward us. That's what it means when it says he forgot our sins. If we're to forget the past, we have to do with our past what God has done with our sins. We have to make a decision that, yes, we've made mistakes in the past.

Yes, we've blown it sometimes even after we've become Christians. We may have messed up relationships. We may have failed our relationship with the Lord. We may have gone down some roads that we shouldn't have gone down, but if you put them under the blood and you ask for forgiveness, you have to make a conscious decision that the past is the past and you will not let it control the present or the future because if you do not make that decision, you will never be able to go on with the Lord.

You have to. Somebody says, well, I know God's forgiven me, but I can't forgive myself. I've told you before what nonsense that is.

That's just nonsense. If you say God's forgiven you and you can't forgive yourself, what you're saying is that you have a higher standard than he does. Come on.

Be real. I've not found one passage in the Scripture where it tells us where to forgive ourselves. I've found many that tell us God has forgiven us. You've got to get on with your life. Be discontent about your life, yes, and develop a one-thing mentality about your walk with the Lord, but then be a person of one thing and then be a person who doesn't let the past control you. A definite direction.

Let me give you the last thought. A divine discontent, a disciplined devotion, a definite direction. Now notice, fourthly, a diligent determination.

Watch this. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I can't get over the picture I have in my mind of an old man in a prison cell with his parchments and his pen, having all of these accomplishments in the past, writing these words, man, I'm fired up about the future. I'm pressing toward the future. I'm apprehending the future. I'm going toward the goal. I'm thinking to myself, that's it.

That's life wide open. That's life for God with no reservations all the way to the edge. Paul's diligent determination is given to us in verses 13 and 14 like it was a foot race. He uses three different athletic expressions that would have certainly been well known to the Christians of his day. The first phrase is the phrase, I follow after.

It refers to a sporting event. He tells us that we must make every effort to live the righteous life. Paul has been so careful to teach us that we are not saved by works, that we can't be righteous in order to become a Christian. But once we become Christians, then we begin to live our lives for God.

And contrary to what you may have heard, that takes some effort on our part. We don't just become Christians and then float to heaven. Sometimes we become Christians and it's like swimming upstream.

Can I get a witness? It's not easy. The Christian life is difficult. No one has ever told us that if we became Christians, all of our problems would go away. If anyone tells you that, they're not teaching you the true word of God. The word of God is careful to help us understand that the Christian life is life against the grain.

We live in a world that does not know our God, does not love our Christ, and more and more is intolerant of who we are in the Savior. And we need to follow after. It's an intense word. The second word that he uses is the word apprehend. And that means to grab hold of and pull down. And the best picture I can think of is a guy running down the field in football. And he is chased down by the defensive back.

And he grabs him and he tackles him and he brings him to the ground with intensity. Paul said that when we're in this race, we're pursuing, we're intensely after the goal of knowing Christ and walking with him. Paul says he's forging ahead to apprehend Christ. He wanted to experience everything God had for him in his life. Follow after, he said, apprehend. And then he uses this other phrase twice, pressing toward the mark. What a great phrase. It's an athlete who runs without swerving off course, straining every nerve and every muscle as he keeps on running with all of his might toward the goal. And he doesn't look back because if you look back, you could lose your stride and stumble and fall.

You keep your eye on the goal. Some of you say, well, Pastor Jeremiah, I hear you. Frankly, what you're talking about is outside of anything I'm interested in. You may feel the cost is more than you care to pay. The energy more than you desire to give. Let me remind you again that the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus is worth more than you could ever imagine.

What it is you want is what I'm talking about. What it is that gives you a little bit of an emptiness in your spirit right now is this striving after a relationship with God that never gets to the place where you're fully content, but there is joy in the arriving and in the striving and in the going after. Somebody said there are no hard and fast rules for developing a passionate Christian life. There are only hard rules for developing the passionate Christian life.

There are no fast ones, just hard ones. And I thought, as I conclude today, I'd like to just give you five practical things that will help you take what I've talked about maybe and put it to work as you prepare for the next year. First of all, first thing you need to do, and this is what I've been doing, is pray for God's direction as you face the opportunities and challenges of the new year. Just say, Lord God, here I am on the threshold of a new year and I want you to give me direction. Show me what you want me to do. Secondly, present yourself to the Lord for whatever he has in his plan for you. Don't say, Lord, use me, and then start making conditions with him. You say, Lord, I present my body, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto you, which is my reasonable service. In other words, Lord God, I've signed the bottom of it.

You fill in what you want me to do. Are you willing to do that? You mean sign the contract before I know what it says? Oh, absolutely, that's what faith is. You sign the contract and let God fill in the page.

Are you willing to do that? That's the second step. Thirdly, plan your strategy for the new year. I read recently that most people spend more time planning a two-week vacation than they spend in all of their life planning their journey from here to heaven.

Isn't that an awesome thought? We spend more time strategizing. We get our maps out. We call the hotels. We find out what the cost is. We get the airline reservations or whatever. We put it all together and then we take the trip. Well, my friend, we're on a journey from here to heaven and we need to make some plans along the way. Have you got a strategy for the new year? You say, what? I didn't do real good with my Bible reading last year.

You know why? You didn't plan to. You didn't even strategize it. You don't even have a plan. If you don't have a plan, I can promise you, you will be a failure.

If you don't, what is it? If you fail to plan, you'll plan to fail. So you say, well, what do I need? Well, it's not that hard. You know, there are hundreds of different schedules for reading the Bible. Read the Bible through it a year.

Maybe that's what God wants you to do. What I'm saying is between now and the first of the year, sit down and say, here's my strategy for the new year. I want to read this book on prayer. I want to go through this plan.

I want to study this book. I want to tell you, this is what my plan is. If you don't have a strategy, my friends, you're already on your way to being discouraged. You say, well, I'm afraid to make a plan because if I make a plan, I'm afraid I won't be able to follow it. Let me promise you, you won't. You will mess up.

You will make mistakes. You'll go AWOL on God for a week. But if you've got a plan, you've got someplace to come back to.

You see? If you're just kind of meandering, and this is where I think most of God's people are, we're just sort of meandering out there. We're not going to heaven. We're wandering to heaven.

We're sort of meandering on our way. We don't have a plan. And I want to urge you, and I say this with all sincerity, plan your strategy for the new year.

Bible reading, ministry goals, goals for your family, goals for your work. Fourth, put your plan into operation one day at a time. You plan for the year, and then you put the year's plan away, and you start looking one day at a time. If you keep the year's plan out and you keep looking at the whole year, you'll get discouraged. You say, in a way, I can do that.

No way. Just one day at a time. You know what I've learned in the Bible? God hasn't promised you grace for the whole year or for a month or for even a week. He's promised you grace for each day. Take each part of your strategy each day, put it into operation. Watch God work. Number five, prepare for times of discouragement. There will be days of defeat, but they need not deter you if you're prepared to get back up and keep going.

And I've noticed that in my life sometimes. You know, I get going, and I'm making progress with the thing God has called me to do, and then something I thought was right didn't turn out right, and I fall on my face. And while I'm down there, I have to just say, Lord God, I might have gotten into this thing, and I might have been doing my stuff, and I know that my stuff doesn't work. So, Lord, get me back on your plan, and out of that you keep going. But you see, if you've got a plan, you've got some place to come back to, the devil will tell you, oh, you messed up. You might as well just throw the whole year away.

That is a lie. Don't let him do that to you this year. Make your plan. Get your strategy together. Realize that down the way you're going to have some difficult days. We all do. Anybody who says they don't have discouraging days when the sky looks black and the sun disappears and it looks like it's going to rain forever. If you say you don't have days like that, you're on something. I don't know what. All of us have days like that.

C.S. Lewis said our souls and our bodies live so close together they catch each other's diseases. When you don't feel good physically, it's hard to feel good spiritually. You're going to have times like that. But when those times come, don't let the enemy steal your joy.

Just go through it and get back on the bike and go on to the tape and win the race. Amen. I am so excited about this year.

And I believe that God is going to do a great thing in our midst, one person at a time. We hope you enjoyed today's Turning Point Weekend edition with Dr David Jeremiah. You can hear this and other programs and get more information about our ministry by downloading the free Turning Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet or by visiting our website at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio. You can also view Turning Point television on Free to Air Channel 7 too Sunday mornings at 8 and on ACC TV Sundays at 6.30am and Friday afternoons at 1. We invite you to join us again next weekend as Dr David Jeremiah shares another powerful message from God's Word right here on Turning Point Weekend edition.