“Motivated To Move On In 2005”
Philippians 3:12-14
Here we are about to enter a new year! If you’re like me you probably ask yourself, “I wonder what will happen in this New Year?” or “What unexpected event with take place this year?”
I was talking to a man while in line at Save Mart and he said to me, “I am not even ready to go into 2005”. Then I asked him, why? He said, “There’s not enough time in a day to go there!”
That conversation sparked this sermon today! I just couldn’t get his statement out of my mind and the look of pain on his face as he said, “There’s not enough time in a day to go there!”
Maybe you have the same thought going through your mind today!
Are you more moved by your past or are you more motivated about your future?
Well, today I want to motivate you to move on in 2005! Move on and face the future with strength, security and success.
The only person who ever lived on this planet that never had any regrets was Jesus Christ! Not so with us! I’m sure all of us can say today that there are regrets in our past or in this past year!
You may have regrets:
· Because you did something in this past year that you know you should not have done!
· Or because you did not do something this past year that you know you should have done!
Countless people woke up this morning with clouds of regrets and remorse hovering over them and everywhere they go – those clouds follows them!
If you are saying to yourself – that’s me! Do you know you’re in good company? The greatest Christian to ever live is the apostle Paul. A man that had a life of regrets, heartache, sorrow and remorse!
Paul is going to help us get out from under the cloud of guilt and move onto a crown of glory!
1. Be Dissatisfied With Your Position. Vs. 12
The good news for Paul was that he was saved, sure and sanctified, but he was not satisfied!
Get this: even though he was a spiritual superstar, a dynamic leader and a powerful prayer warrior – he was not satisfied with that, he wanted to improve in his spiritual walk!
Does that describe you? I’m still growing in my personal life and in my spiritual journey!
There are 2 problems that we all must never accept:
· Avoid living in the past.
· Never rest in the present.
This raises a question that I ask all of us… Are we mature enough to realize that we are still not mature enough?
You see what made Paul such a great man was that he was more concerned with his character than he was with his reputation! And the reason he was so successful was because he never thought of himself as being successful!
We all want to be successful in our own way! The greatest principle of success as you will be reminded of next month is –
LifePoint: The position of success is not a destination; rather it’s a never-ending process.
We need to wake up every day and ask ourselves “How can I make the rest of my life the best!” We must be dissatisfied with our position – that’s the starting point!
2. Be Delivered From You Past. Vs. 13
Ecclesiastes 7:10 “Don’t long for the old days, for you don’t know whether they are any better than today.” NLT
I guarantee that you will never experience a better tomorrow if you are always thinking about the past! We will never be able to focus on the future until we get unfocused from our past!
Virtually every verse in this text, Paul gives us aggressive terminology. Paul is reminding the reader -“press on”, “reaching forward”, and “the goal”.
He’s using these phrases because life doesn’t have to be a “rat race” instead life can be a winning race!
As with every race, the important thing is not where you’ve been but where you’re heading! You can be assured that you will never sail the ship of your life into the seas of peace and joy, if you’re still anchored to your past!
How could the American Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, wins 7 gold medals if he was always looking back? Impossible! How can Jeff Gordon win a Nascar race always looking in the rearview mirror? Impossible!
May I say something that might just surprise you and liberate you from bad theology? God is not as concerned with your past as you are!
Key: Paul understood this because - he was striving to move past his position in life and his life of the past!
Paul had to:
a. Forget his past guilt.
He was a murderer, a blasphemer and persecutor! The deep scare of sin and sorrow was on his heart.
How about you?
b. Forget his past grief.
Paul was beaten, jailed, mocked, shipwrecked and rejected!
How about you?
c. Forget his past grudges.
Paul was lied to, mistreated, forsaken, and thrown out by his family and friends!
How about you?
This is important: To forget doesn’t always mean that you stop remembering! There’s no way to completely erase your past from you memory!
Forget = (As Paul uses it here) is to no longer be influenced or affected by our memory!
Here’s a good example: God says that he forgets our sins! Does that mean that He has Alzheimer’s? No! Rather it’s God reminding to us that I will never allow your sin to influence my relationship with you! Amen!
Question: Why do people try to cope in life using drugs and alcohol? Because the reality of yesterday is influencing their vitality for today!
Maybe there’s someone here that needs to cut the rope to you’re anchored past and start sailing by your past guilt, grief and grudges!
I’ve come realize something interesting about a lot of people. People tend to forget that their past is only a snapshot of their life. And then they turn that snapshot into a portrait!
3. Be Devoted To A Purpose. Vs. 13b
“But one thing I do”
Paul learned one of secrets of moving on is concentration! He’s saying I’m going to give my life to one thing of value and purpose!
The rich young ruler asked Jesus what must he do to get into heaven and Jesus has a great conversation with him and after the rich man lays out his case, Jesus says to him, “But one thing you lack!”
You maybe asking yourself, “What was the one thing Paul did?”
Vs. 14 … “I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward calling…”
Goal = our word telescope comes from this word. It means: a mark on which the eye is fixed.
So Paul says I’ve got one thing in sight – I’m reaching the goal in this life and the prize in the next life! This is the secret to purpose!
Take a huge river running freely through the land, then if you dam it up you have now turned that river into something very powerful for the use of energy! But if that river overflows the banks all you get is a swamp!
You could say that our lives are a lot like a river with 2 great banks on each side. The banks of God’s will and work in our lives. Sometimes instead of being that person of purpose and productivity, our lives are spilling over the banks, turning our lives into a swamp! That is not God’s will for your life!!
The sad part is that most of the time we don’t give a rip about the will of God in our lives!
If we don’t overcome our past, the garbage of life, the guilt of life, and the grief of life spill over into other areas of our lives!
If we will set the right “Purpose Goals” in life and then build our lives around them – then there’s no reason we shouldn’t be motivated to move on in 2005!
“Purpose Goals” = Foundational motivation for a successful future!
Vs. 14 … “I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward calling…”
Questions to ask yourself whether you have set the right Purpose Goals: (If your goals are to get rich or etc…)
· Will it get me to a deeper and more intimate relationship with God?
· Will it help make someone else successful in the process?
· Do I have to violate any spiritual principles to get there?
· Will it accomplish something God has told me to do?
4.Be Determined In Your Passion. Vs. 14
“I press on” vs. 12
“I press toward” vs. 14
Paul is saying that my life is in a full court press!
· We may be saying, “I’m not where I want to be” – then press on!
· You may be saying, “I’m discouraged in my marriage” – then press on!
· You may be saying, “I’m tired of my job” – then press on!
· You may be saying, “I’ve been abused most of my life” –then press on! That’s passion!
It will take more than aspiration, inspiration and perspiration – it takes determination! That’s passion!
My generation, the Baby Boomer Generation struggles with passion! I agree that my Dad’s generation, as Tom Brokaw says, is the “greatest generation”!
We Baby Boomer’s can learn a lot from the greatest generation! Because that generation has gone through more struggles, troubles and sorrow than virtually any other generation!
Unfortunately, Baby Boomers have been raised to think that success is something easy. We don’t know much about determination! We have an attitude that if the boss is unreasonable – just quit! If she burns the biscuits – just get a divorce! If the subject is too hard – just drop it! If the girl friend gets pregnant – just get an abortion! If the peer pressure is too strong – just give in and follow the crowd!
Where’s the passion?
Someone has said that people are like wheelbarrows, trailer, or canoes: they need to be pushed, pulled or paddled.”
Lou Holtz once said, “If you don’t make a total commitment to whatever you are doing then you start looking to bail out the first time the boats starts to leak. It’s tough enough getting the boat to shore with everyone rowing, let along when a guy stands up and starts putting his life jacket on.”
When life delivers hard blows – we need passion to fight back. When life dumps trouble on our doorstep - we need passion to shovel it away. When life destroys our dreams – we need passion to believe for new ones!
Failure is never fatal; failure is never futile and failure is never final!
LifePoint: You could say that failure in never a person in life, but a place in life! 2005 is your year to get past that place!
I remind you that you are anointed as a Christian to press on!
Because of the mercy of God, the grace of God and the forgiveness of God – it doesn’t matter where you’ve been! But you don’t know what I’ve done – I don’t care! But you don’t know where I’ve been – I don’t care! But you don’t know my past – I don’t care!
What matters the most today is not where you’ve come from, but where you’re going and do you have passion to get there?
Let me challenge you with a true-life story...
He was 93 years old when he died October 1970. Early in his business life he experienced an economic crisis when his bankers stoled 47 million dollars over a period of several years from his businesses.
In complete despair he suffered a mental and physical break down and was put into a Sanitarium in Battle Creek Michigan for 10 years. Several times he had tried to commit suicide but never was successful. One night he wrote a suicide note to his family and then collected as many pill from other patients and swallowed them all, hoping to end it all.
Well several hours later while he was in his room he woke up very droggy and he found himself trembling and walking down a long hallway of the hospital. He stopped near a room where the nurses inside were making a patience bed. As they were working away, he heard them singing an old hymn that his mother taught him years earlier, “God Will Take Care of You”. Then he remembered his mother saying to him, “Jimmy, when everything goes wrong and all seems hopeless, don’t ever forget that God will take care of you!”
He said later, “Then and there I was born again.”
This man left that Sanitarium the next day, totally delivered of his past! The doctor and nurses could not believe their eyes!
He immediately left that Sanitarium with no medicine, no symptom of his psychotic condition and went down to the bankers who rip him off of 47 million dollars and said to them, “I have no ill will towards you and I forgive you and the bitterness that almost broke me is all gone.”
He went on to recoup those 47 million dollars and became one of the most successful businessmen in history and you might have even shopped at his store this Christmas...J.C. Penney.
Towards the last couple of years of his life he was losing his eyesight and one of his most repeated statements was…
“My eyesight is greatly impaired, but my vision is greater than ever.”
