Pressing Through the Changing Seasons
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Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Introduction
Introduction
Everything continues in a state of rest unless it is compelled to change by forces impressed upon it.
Isaac Newton, First Law of Motion
The main force that presses is time itself, our mortality. Time guarantees that nothing mortal will stay the same forever.
None of us really like change but some tolerate it better than others.
10,000 Sermon Illustrations 5 Kinds of Attitudes About Change
1. Early innovators (2.6%), run with new ideas
2. Early adaptors (13.4%), influenced by (1) but not initiators
3. Slow Majority (34%), the herd-followers
4. Reluctant Majority (34%)
5. Antagonistic (16%), they will never change
“Bro. Ben, God doesn’t change and neither do I”
God doesn’t change His nature, but He does change His mask. He reveals a different part of himself that was always there, but now it is evident.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
God, en morphe, masked in the Pillar of Fire. God, en morphe, in a Man called Jesus. God, en morphe, in His Church. God above us, God with us, God in us; the condescending of God.
Up there, holy, no one could touch Him; He settled upon the mountain, and even if a animal touched the mountain, had to die.
And then God come down and changed His tent, and come down and lived with us, become one of us. “And we held Him,” the Bible said. First Timothy 3:16, “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; for God was manifested in the flesh, handled with hands.” God eat meat. God drank water. God slept. God cried. He was one of us. Beautiful, typed in the Bible!
That was God above us; God with us; now it’s God in us, the Holy Spirit. Not the third Person; the same Person!
God came down and become flesh, and died the death, in Christ; so that He could clean the Church, in order to get into It, for fellowship. God loves fellowship. 65-0221E - Who Is This Melchisedec?
He doesn’t attempt to hold onto His old form, even though it was perfect. Neither should we.
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
He was willing to completely change His mask because He was still the same God.
Lets read our text again:
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul says “I press toward the goal through the changing seasons of life, wilfully letting go of those seasons which are already past.”
Some people go through life holding their future hostage to a past that wasn’t even what they remember.
Now today, as we face new year’s, I want to think of not like the past, but I want to look to the future. As Paul said, “Forgetting those things that are in the past, I press towards the mark,” see, “of the high calling.”
And as it’s expressed, like looking back through the mirror of a car. We are looking what we have passed, when we’re looking in the rear-view mirror. Now we’re not trying to place the Message today as looking through a rear-view mirror. It would take too long, see, the things that the Lord has did.
And you are all acquainted with the great things that our Lord has been doing, is some of the mightiest things that I’ve ever seen in my life, He just passing in the last few months. And, but now we are thankful for what has been, but now we’re looking forward. We’re looking where we’re headed for, and into this 1964. 64-0112 - Shalom
Now, Jesus was all the inspired prophets’ testimonies. And all their prophecy was brought to Light in His age, that had been prophesied for His age. He lit up every candle of Word that was in the Bible, that was prophesied of Him. “A virgin shall conceive.” She did.
All right. “His Name shall be called Counsellor, Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Everlasting Father.” He was. “And the eyes of the blind shall see.” They did. Everything that was prophesied of Him, happened when He come on earth.
And why the people could not see that, that was…It seems strange to us now, because we are looking back through a rear-view mirror. But did you ever know, if you keep looking back that way, you’ll wreck? Let’s look what’s ahead for us.
That’s what they were doing. The reason that they did that, because they were living in a glare of another light. There were living in the glare of the light of another day.
And that’s what I believe is the matter with the world today, friends, is because we are trying to live in a glare of a light that shined in another day. A glare is a false light.
Just like a mirage on the road. We go down the road and see a mirage. It’s a false conception of the sun. And when you get there, it hasn’t produced a thing but something false. Because, you cannot walk in the glare of the sun, because it’s a mirage, always showing you something there is nothing to.
And when people try to tell you that Jesus Christ isn’t the same yesterday, today, and forever, they’re leading you into a mirage. That’s all. And when you get into church and join church, some cold creed or something like that, there is nothing there, no more than what you had in the world.
Let me tell you. Don’t refuse the Light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which brings the warming rays of the Holy Ghost upon you, makes you a new creature in Christ Jesus. Don’t try to walk in some glare of another age. 64-0125 - Turn On The Light
Bro. Branham deals with this a lot before he is taken of the scene.
So many people ride life’s road, looking through a rear-view mirror. Especially, I don’t mean to say this to hurt feelings, but many of our women, they’re always, when past about thirty years old, they want to go back and be a young girl again.
And get fifty, they still want the same thing. Not only that, but the men, too. But anybody who looks through a rear-view mirror, is going to wreck up, somewhere. You can’t drive the road, through, looking through the rear-view mirror.
But I believe what Paul said, “Forgetting those things that are in the past, I press towards the mark of the high calling in Christ.” See? Don’t look what you were; look what you’re going to be.
(Old Couple married 60 years renewing vows)
So, and I said, “Well, there’s quite a difference in you since you married her.” Said, “You know, the Lord has been good.” Said, “She’s just as pretty as she ever was.” Said, “You know, as she gets older, my sight gets dimmer.”
So I thought that was really sweet. I hope my wife thinks the same thing. And I feel we all feel that way about it. So, but, they had found life. They had found how to live it, you see.
It isn’t what we say, “We’d all like to go back,” us older people, “go back to sixteen, or eighteen, twenty years old, something like that.”
But remember that we growed and lived to that age. And then why, taking the same food, we’re dying now, when it all makes blood cells just the same? Science can’t prove it. It’s an appointment with God. When you got that age, God said, “That’s what I want now.” Death set in on it.
But, see, in the resurrection, there’ll be no memory at all of the old age. We go back to that for Eternity, for all the time. So why would you look back to that, to have to live this miserable thing over?
Well, look right there, ahead of you lays the new creature in Christ, the new body, the immortal one that’ll never pass away, never get old, never have a sickness or heartache. Then, look, keep looking ahead of you like that, for His Coming. 64-0415 - Christ Is Identified The Same In All Generations
Seasons of Life (Not exact)
Childhood (0-14)
Pre-Adult (15-20)
Young Adult (21-25)
All about the Kids (26-39)
Middle Aged (40-60)
Pre-Old (61-70)
Every Day is a Gift (71-?)
Say you got saved in your childhood, you begin to press toward something.
At some point you have to forget childhood and become an adult.
At some point you have to think about marriage and family, you can’t carry your single season into that season.
At some point you have to take care of your children. There’s no way around that.
When they get old enough , you need to let them be adults. (Karen and doctors appointments)
When you get old enough, you need to accept that you may need help with some things. You were good back in the day but you might need someone to help you set your doctor appointments.
God ordained you to be in the season you are in right now.
Then if you are a son of God or a daughter of God, you were in God all the time. But He knew what bed and time that you’d be planted. 65-1206 - Modern Events Are Made Clear By Prophecy
Bro. Branham taught us that each church age overlapped into the next one, especially the Philadelphia age to the Laodicean.
You might have two different people living at the same time who have completely different sensibilities about church. that doesn’t make either one wrong, they’re living in different times.
This was the conflict between David and Saul, Saul knows he is never getting younger. His strength is waning while David’s is rising. Instead of encouraging that he gets angry.
It’s okay to be what you are at this time. You might have been a great officer in the church or a great preacher or done a good job with your children, but don’t spend your life trying to make this generation conform to your standard. The Word is the standard, not what you did or what your parents did.
I want to take up for our elderly a little bit here. We don’t realize what they’re going through.
Health
Mind
Finances
Loneliness
Loss
All of that conspires to make them cranky, but if they can overcome that, there is a great blessing in old age.
The hoary head is a crown of glory, If it be found in the way of righteousness.
It’s an honor to be old. There are promises in the Scripture specifically for you.
He keeps His Word.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
(Show Trees)
Palm trees grow to be 100 years old, some 200 years.
There’s a cedar of Lebanon in Hot Springs that’s still young at 100 years old. The oldest ones in Lebanon are more than a thousand years old.
The trees of the Lord are full of sap; The cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;
If you gash the tree’s trunk, the sap will cover the gash, protecting it from fungus. The sap hardens, acting as a Band-Aid for the tree (cedarscamps.org)
Those that be planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; They shall be fat and flourishing;
To shew that the Lord is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
Listen to this outstanding promise:
Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, Which are borne by me from the belly, Which are carried from the womb:
And even to your old age I am he; And even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver you.
What a promise that is! All of us can take comfort, because we are all stretching forward towards that goal.
Cast me not off in the time of old age; Forsake me not when my strength faileth.
I’m getting old. I know that. Each day I get a new ache and pain. Every one of us do. You might as well tell the truth. I thought, “God, don’t let me…”
One of the most miserable things, is to see a man or woman who has never accepted Christ, and just lived an old mossback church member, meaner than Satan himself, and see him out there, with crabbed old something, “Well, I tell you, I don’t believe in any…” God, never…That’s a…That’s the horriblest crown that Satan can crown a life with.
A grouchy old woman, about sixty or seventy years old, with fat hanging down under her arms, and the wrinkles all over her face, and her hair bobbed up, in four or five different colors, and strutting herself down in a pair of little shorts; if that ain’t the crowning of Satan, I never seen it, or some old crabbed man.
O God, I know I…Give me grace to never complain. And I want my life, Lord, I want my people’s life…God, grant that our life could be crowned, no matter if we suffer, whatever takes place, how many turns against me.
I know this one thing in my life, as I get older, my friends, the stream behind me, will soon be running out, narrower and narrower, as I go down the road. And I know one thing, it’ll come to pass after a while that there’ll be nobody come to me and say…ask me advice. The ones who know me in my younger days will be gone on, if I shall live. My friends will get fewer and fewer, as I get older now.
And I know that someday I’ve got to die. I hope that God never lets Satan crown me as an old crabbed, indifferent man, and my wife an old nagging woman, or your wife, or you that way. I pray, brother, that our lives will be crowned with the fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, longsuffering, gentleness, patience, Truth, faith, in the Holy Spirit.
My life thins out. About thirty-five years ago I stood in the pulpit here, as a little boy. Tonight I’m an old, gray in hair, and bald-headed, stooping shoulder; I’m broke down. My life is running out, and the threads are getting brittle that I’m walking on.
As I move on down the stream, my friends get fewer. And after a while it’ll come to a place, maybe, that I won’t enjoy the songs like I used to; and maybe my grandchildren, the children will have to say, “Don’t make grandpa nervous.” It may come to that if I live.
(Please don’t make doctrines out of your opinions, because opinions change with the seasons of life)
Then I’ll come on down till I can’t get up out of my chair. Then one morning the fog will come into the room, I’ll motion across the border, to death, to come get me. He can only take me by the hand and lead me across to my Master.
He is not my slave-driver. I am not his slave. He is my slave. Christ conquered death for me. And only one thing he can do, is pull me in the Presence of my Maker, “When this earthly tabernacle be dissolved.” 63-0623E - The Flashing Red Light Of The Sign Of His Coming
Conclusion.
Conclusion.
That is the goal, don’t forget that. Those behind the curtain of time told Bro. Branham “keep pressing on”.