Remember to forget

Remember to forget

Phillipians 3:13-14

Scripture

3 I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Pray

Story

Story of me watching Star Wars: The last Jedi

Kylo Ren: “Let the past die. Kill it if you have to. It’s the only way to become who you were meant to be.”

Application

Paul tells us two things we should do to follow Christ this year.

Remember to Forget

Paul says his goal was to forget. I’m sure Paul, just like all of us, looked back and saw things that he was proud of and things he was ashamed of. Yet instead of obsessing over these things, he made a decision to deal with the past…by simply forgetting.

What had Paul done in his past that he wanted to forget? He had persecuted Christians, killed and tormented them. He would want to forget those things, of course. He realized those things were in the past and that God had forgiven him. He knew he had to leave his sins behind him and press on to do what was right in God’s eyes. He couldn’t do anything about what he had done but he could do something about what he was going to do.

Some of you may look back and see that you turned away from God and didn’t follow God very well. Perhaps you fell into the same sin over and over again. Or, you were influenced by others in a bad way and began doing things a Christian shouldn’t do. Maybe you fell out of the habit of regularly coming to church or you never spent time in God’s Word or in prayer.

Paul would tell you: forget about it! You can’t do anything about the bad things we have done in the past so we can’t dwell on those things. Remember to forget.

We have a tendency to try to put the bad behind us and continue to try to relive the good things. Remember when you made that winning touchdown? Remember when you aced that test? Remember what you accomplished on that mission trip?Remember how you read through the Bible over the last year? Remember how you served at a ministry in church? Remember how you tithed all year long? Let’s just focus on these good things and forget the bad.

But notice Paul didn’t say, “forget the bad things in your past.” Instead, he said “forget all the things that are behind you.”

Paul hadn’t only done bad things in his past. He had also done some good things for God. He went on missionary journeys and started churches all over the known world. A few verses before this (Philippians 3:4-6), Paul wrote about how if he had wanted to, he could have bragged all day about how good of a Jew he was. As a Jew, he did everything right. Paul accomplished things in his life that others would be impressed with.

I know, all of us have probably done some great things over the last year. You are proud of what you have accomplished. You are proud of where you have come from and how you have grown. And yet, Paul says to forget those things as well.

So why forget?

We can get so caught up in what we have done in the past that we forget about what we are to do today and in the future. We need to stop living in the past so we can live for God in the here and now.

Whatever you do to remember, make yourself a note, write it in your calendar, set an alarm, or tie a string around your finger, I want you to remember something today. Remember to FORGET AND THEN PRESS ON.

Press On

The word picture that Paul is giving us here is that of a race, specifically a long race like a marathon. In a race, a runner can get caught up in how far he or she has run: wow… I already ran 15-miles of this marathon! Look how far I have come.

What would happen if a runner was satisfied with where she was? She would never finish the race and would lose every time.

So Paul would say, don’t be satisfied. Forget about what happened before and press on.

But why press on if the race seems lost? So far, the race hasn’t gone the runner’s way. Maybe she has cramped up and every muscle seems to scream out in pain. I read about runners “hitting the wall” when running marathons. One runner described it as feeling “like an elephant had jumped on his shoulders and was making him carry it the rest of the way.” Another described it as if an anchor was tied to him. When you hit this wall, your body and mind seem to start shutting down. Every part of your body says to quit.

Paul would say, when things are hard and not going your way, don’t quit. Forget about the difficulties and press on.

Talk about the transition with Hayden

Question

Ask God to help you to forget your past and press on to follow Him. Ask him to lead you in the direction he is calling you. Ask him to help you to forget about the past, whether good or bad, and focus on living for him in the here and now.

Will you commit to letting the past go and focusing on the future?