Month: November 2020

Living above your circumstances takes a healthy disregard for the past.

You cannot be looking backward if you’re looking forward. So Paul said, “If you’re going to succeed in your relationship with God, you’ve got to forget the things that are behind you.”

Was Paul talking about forgetting his past failures, or was he talking about forgetting his past accomplishments? I think the answer is both. To succeed in your relationship with God, first of all, you and I have to forget our past failures. The apostle Paul certainly had his share of failures. Before he was a Christian, he tortured and persecuted Christians. Can you imagine the flashbacks Paul must have had? After he became a Christian, Paul described his ongoing struggle with his sinful nature: “The good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want” (Romans 7:19). Can you relate to that? That was Paul’s experience. You may have your own share of failures. You were trying to make progress in your Christian life when all of a sudden Satan grabbed you and said, “Where do you think you’re going? You’re a sinner. Why do you think God would use you?” Satan loves to paralyze us with guilt. Yet Paul said, “If we’re going to make progress in our spiritual life, we have to forget our past failures.”

However, I think Paul also may have been thinking about his past accomplishments. In Philippians 3:4-6, Paul recounted all the good things he used to think would earn him a place in heaven. But then he said, “Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ” (v. 7). Paul was saying that in order to move forward in your Christian life, you have to say good-bye to your past accomplishments.

Do you know Christians who are always living in the past? They’re trying to live off their salvation experience from decades ago. Or they keep going back to some past experience when God supernaturally intervened in their life. Paul was saying, “You have to put all that behind you if you’re going to move forward spiritually. Your relationship with God has to be new every day.” Jesus said it this way: “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). If you’re going to learn to live above your circumstances, you need to have a healthy disregard for the past.

From Pathway to Victory.

Many times were being slammed upside of the head with things we have done in the past, things we have confessed, repented of, and been forgiven of by Jesus Christ.  It is important for us to drive a stake in the ground and not look back past it unless it is to rejoice and thank Jesus Christ for the change and new birth He gave us.  Satan will slam us with the past and tell us we are still the same person, but this is not true, Jesus Christ made us a new creation and gave us a new birth and filled us with the Holy Spirit – the old is gone – everything is new.  Baptism symbolizes the old being washed away and a new life emerges.  This new life is not defeated or lessened by anything from our past.

When Satan throws the fiery darts of your past into your heart douse them with “The past is gone and I’m and born again and a new creation, forgiven by and through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  I am His and keep my eyes looking forward, not the past, to honor and glorify Him.  I confessed, repented, and have been forgiven of these past sins and trust in, cling to, and rely on Jesus Christ.  Thank you Lord Jesus.

In Philippians 3:12-16, Paul showed us how to maintain joy and win in the Christian life. First of all, you need a healthy discontent with your present situation. Think about this: every worthwhile achievement in life begins with a sense of discontent. You’re not happy with the way things are. That is also true of your spiritual life. If you’re going to succeed in your relationship with God, you refuse to be satisfied with where you are.

Now, the Bible says there are some things we ought to always be content with. We ought to be content with our circumstances. Paul said in Philippians 4:11, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” We ought to be content when our basic needs are met. Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:8, “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” But there is one thing you and I should never be content with, and that is our relationship with God. Regarding his own relationship with God, Paul said, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12).

The false teachers in the Philippian church were saying, “We have arrived.” But Paul said, “Not me. I have not already obtained it. But I press on.” The Greek word used for “press on” refers to an athletic contest, most likely a foot race. In the ancient Greek races, contestants would come out in a minimum of clothing so they wouldn’t be slowed down, and they would stand in their running lanes. At the start of each lane were stones with grooves in them. The runner would place his foot against that groove and reach forward, straining with every fiber of his being, waiting for the beginning of the race. That’s the phrase Paul used here. He said, “I press on.” Why? “So that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” This is an interesting play on words. Paul was saying, “I want to lay hold of that for which I was laid hold.”

If you are a Christian, your salvation did not begin with you. You didn’t wake up one day and say, “You know what? I think I’ll lay hold of God today.” No, your salvation began with God. God took the initiative. Salvation is not us reaching up and grabbing hold of God. Salvation is God reaching down and grabbing hold of us. John wrote, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Paul never got over the fact that God reached down and laid hold of his life for one reason: that he might achieve his purpose of becoming like Jesus.

If you’re going to succeed in the Christian life and live above your circumstances, you need to start with a case of discontent with your present situation.

2 Corinthians 4:7   But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.  We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—  always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.  For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  So then death is working in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak,  knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. ¹⁵ For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

Ebenezer Erskine was a Scottish minister in the 1700s who faced some serious challenges in his ministry. But he knew how to draw encouragement from the Lord each morning. In his journal for September 20, 1721, he wrote: “This morning, a little after I awakened, I began to turn my thoughts toward the Lord Jesus; and the Lord encouraged me…by a sweet gale of his Spirit; for my meditation of him was sweet. I could say that his love is better than wine; yea, that his loving-kindness is better than life…. My heart did burn within me, while I thought of him who is Immanuel, and whose name is Wonderful; and what more can I say?” We live in a chaotic world, and without the daily encouragement of Christ what would we do? That’s why it’s vital to start the day with Him. Even before rising from bed, we can say, “Good morning, Lord!” And on a chair or table nearby, we can keep an open Bible.

We’re encouraged by the Lord as we walk with Him, and our walk with Him is a pathway of perpetual praise.

Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once put into writing his philosophy of coaching. His credo, called “What It Takes to Be Number One,” hangs in locker rooms all across the country today. It reads, in part: “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all of the time. Winning is a habit. . . . I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour–his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear–is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle–victorious.”

Few people have that kind of passionate commitment. As the adage says, “It’s lonely at the top, but it’s crowded at the bottom.” Most people aren’t willing to pay the price to succeed in life. You need to have determination if you’re going to win. And what is true in the athletic world is also true in the spiritual life. If we are going to succeed in the Christian life, it takes a healthy dose of discontent, determination, and discipline.

The apostle Paul had his own credo. Paul’s goal in life was not to finish this life only. He expressed his goal in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10: “We also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” For Paul, the finish line was not death. The finish line for Paul was that time when he would stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and more than anything he wanted to hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” That ought to be the goal of our lives. Whether we are here or in heaven, our ambition should be to be pleasing to Christ.

William Rathje was a man who loved garbage. This Harvard-educated researcher was a garbologist–somebody who studies garbage for a living. Through his research, Rathje discovered some interesting things about the trash we generate. For example, did you know the average American generates a half a pound of trash every day? Or did you know that the largest landfill in America is big enough to fill the Panama Canal? But I think what is really interesting about William Rathje’s research is this: he discovered that trash decomposes a lot less quickly than we once thought. In his research, Rathje came across a fifty-year-old newspaper from the Truman presidency that was still readable. He also discovered a steak from 1973 that was fully intact. He had a plaque in his office that said, “There is gold in garbage.”

Now with all due respect to Dr. Rathje, I’m afraid he was mistaking what is valuable with what is interesting. Let’s face it, a forty-year-old steak may be interesting, but you wouldn’t want a steady diet of that kind of steak. In fact, knowing the difference between what is treasure and what is trash is crucial to your physical health. And the same thing is true about our spiritual life. Being able to tell the difference between treasure and trash is vital to our spiritual well-being.

This week, we are going to look at the words of another garbologist who lived in the first century. His name is the apostle Paul. And in Philippians 3, Paul showed us how to distinguish between treasure and trash. Unlike William Rathje, who called trash treasure, Paul said that what most people consider treasure is really trash in the eyes of God.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul revealed how to live above our circumstances. He showed us how to maintain our joy in life in spite of what is happening around us. In chapter 1, Paul explained that difficult circumstances can rob us of joy. Then in chapter 2, Paul talked about how difficult people can steal our joy. And in chapter 3, Paul began to talk about another joy robber: things. Later in the chapter, Paul looked at how material things can rob us of joy. But the things Paul began talking about in verses 1-11 are spiritual things. Specifically, Paul said that good works can rob us of eternal life.

Now, that may seem strange to you. But do you know that most people think that good works–such as going to church, getting baptized, tithing, keeping the Ten Commandments–are stepping stones that lead them into heaven? In Philippians 3, Paul explained that good works can actually be stumbling blocks that keep you out of heaven