Moving Forward

When the kids were little there was a process we followed almost every year. Toward the end of December there would be a time when the kids got really excited. So excited in fact that it was hard for them to go to sleep. We would send them to bed and check in to see if they were out yet. It was often after midnight before they slept and we knew that they would be up early in the morning.

It was a short night for me because I had to wait until they were asleep to begin assembling whatever had to be put together and I knew that they would get me up early in the morning so I was usually in a hurry to get everything put together. Since I was in a hurry I didn’t have time to mess with time consuming things like directions, I just started the assembly process.

Some years I would have a lot of stuff to put together and I rush like crazy to get it done. So imagine how frustrating it was to get almost done and realize that I had made a mistake early on and that everything I had put together now had to be taken apart so that I could start all over. I just wanted to quit, but I couldn’t. It was just to important, the kids were too important so I would take it all apart so that I could put it all together again, sometimes I would even read the directions.

Did you know that you can work really hard, try your very best to get it done, put in a good faith effort and still get it wrong. I have, and I imagine that it has happened to you. So what do you do then. The Apostle Paul has the answer.

Philippians 3:1–6 NASB95

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

Paul warns us to be careful of those that are evil and those that are false. Now when you think of evil what comes to mind, drugs, robbery, murder, abusing women and children? When you think of false teachers you might think of David Koresh or Jim Jones, you might think of Hindu’s, Budism or Satan worship. In fact just this week I spoke to a man named Trong from Vietnam who is a teacher of Budism and meditation, I witnessed to him for about 30 minutes during a disaster relief job just up the road by Russellville. You might consider any of these things but what did Paul actually mean?

Paul began to immediately talk about his experience as a Pharisee. A follower of the law, a worshiper of God, he called himself a Pharisee of Pharisee’s in other words one of the most committed people of the most committed sect of God followers on the planet. He listed his accomplishments, being blameless under the law, persecuting the church. He worked as hard and as long and as much as any man could and he diligently pursued what he thought was right......but he was wrong.

So what do you do when you have worked hard and long doing the wrong thing in the wrong way, what do you do when you have almost completely assembled your life and you realize you got the foundation wrong? Do you continue to build on a bad foundation, or do you take it apart and start over again. When I was assembling those toys and I realized I had gotten in wrong from the start I had to take it apart and start over. When Paul realized he had built his life and his work and his thinking on false ideas and false assumptions he did not just keep on going, he tore it all down and began again. Paul said it this way:

Philippians 3:7–9 NASB95

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

In other words Paul said I have built my life based on what I thought was true but I was deceived. I worked hard and and I made a lot of progress but all of that progress was in the wrong direction. So I threw it all out like yesterday’s garbage and I started over. It is hard to give up the progress you have made. Even if the progress is in the wrong direction. If you have thought one way all of your life and assumed one thing all of your life it is hard to believe that it could be wrong. You don’t want to change, you don’t want to give it up, even if it is wrong you have too much invested in it to stop now.

Have you ever worked really hard to get something and when you finally got it you found out that it wasn’t really what you wanted it to be. Maybe you have worked hard to get a promotion at work, you put in long hours and did everything that was asked of you until finally all of your hard work payed off but once you got the promotion you realized that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be? Or maybe you there was something you always wanted to have so you scrimped and saved and did everything you could to come up with the money so that you could get it and then the day finally came when you could get what you wanted and you did, it was yours. Some time later you looked back and remembered all the time and effort you spent trying to get the think and remembered that you hardly ever use it.

Paul felt that way about his whole life. He said I counted it all as trash and threw it out because it could not compare with what was really real. Everything I had done in my life could not compare with what I had found so I threw it all out and started completely over and I never looked back. What did Paul throw out everything in his life for, what was worth it, what made the difference?

Philippians 3:10–14 NASB95

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 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. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I have not yet arrived, I don’t have it all figured out, I have not mastered it yet. That is what Paul says, and if Paul doesn’t have it all figured out you can imagine how far we are from getting it all figured out. I have not become perfect and I haven’t got everything to fit together just right, I am still working on it and I still have a long way to go but this is what I do: “Forgetting what lies behind and reaching for what lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ.

Do you have some stuff in your past? Have you worked hard to get it wrong? Have you put a lot of effort into doing things the wrong way? So what. Forget what lies behind. As the warthog says in the movie The Lion King, “you have to put your behind in your past.” Forget your mistakes and your shortcomings. No matter how much time you have spent building your tower or how many blocks you have put in place if the foundation is wrong tear it all down and start over. (stack Jinga blocks on the pulpit corner with the bottom blocks placed badly). No matter how carefully you build or how hard you try to get it right you cannot build a tall strong tower with a bad foundation, if the foundation is wrong tear it down and start over. Don’t cry or complain because of the work you have done or the time you have lost but start from where you are ( Tear down the tower). Get the foundation right and start over, never mind what happened before, forget it, that tower is gone, it is destroyed, that game is over, begin again with the right foundation, begin again with Jesus Christ as your rock, build your life on the hope of the resurrection and on the example of Jesus and press on toward the goal. (Rebuild the tower with a solid foundation)

Of course you will make mistakes, you are not perfect. If you place a few blocks wrong you may have to disassemble a little bit in order to fix the problem before you go on but your foundation will be true, you will never have to start completely over again. If you make a mistake, fix it, put it in the past, learn from it, and press on toward the goal. don’t let your mistakes, your sins hold you back, don’t let your past control you, don’t let it depress you or make you feel hopeless, there is hope, there is life, there is a goal. Press on, continue, keep at it, don’t let your past be an anchor for your future, keep the goal in mind and climb further further each day. Keep trying.

Philippians 3:15–21 NASB95

Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

If you start going wrong God will correct you, he did for Paul and he does so for all of his children. You have to build on the right foundation and build with the right plans. God has given us the plan in his revealed word. Of course if you brought home the parts to assemble a dollhouse and and then used the plans for putting together a bicycle you would probably not build a dollhouse or a bicycle but just spend your time getting frustrated and irritated and getting nowhere. So build it in the right way. Start with the right foundation even if you have to tear it all down and begin again and then build according to the plan.

You see when I used to put those toys together late at night the manufacturer knew what parts he had provided and how they all went together and by following his plan I could be successful. If you want to live and you want to live successfully then go the the manufacturer, look at the plans he has provided and build your life accordingly. Just like assembling a bicycle, if you get something wrong agree with the plan maker, the one who made everything that you got it wrong, go back and fix it and then start from there. Forgetting what lies behind press on toward the goal. If you want to be successful in life that is the way to do it. That is the way to win. That is the way that God has made for us, and it works.