Setting The Record Straight

Setting The Record Straight

Philippians 3:12–16 ESV

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Business owners are busy at the end of the year taking inventory.

This is a painful but necessary reality so they can know if they made a profit or not.

They take the information they receive and make adjustments for the coming year.

As Christians, we need to stop at the end of the year and measure our progress.

Sometime this is a very painful thing to do.

But that is what I am going to ask you to do today.

Paul is taking inventory of his life in this passage of scripture.

That is what I want us to do today.

1. THE PAST

1. Look

He was apprehended by the risen Christ.

Jesus stopped him in his tracks.

Jesus saved him; and Jesus sent him on his life's mission.

Several years had passed from his Damascus Road conversion when he wrote this.

He is confessing that he has not arrived spiritually.

But he is continuing the process.

I think it will do us all good to look back at the moment of our conversion.

Jesus apprehended us.

He saved us; and he gave us something to do.

2. Learn

Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment.

I have made mistakes in the past, and I have learned from those mistakes.

A foolish person keeps doing the same things over again thinking he will get different results.

Paul said, ''I am not perfect.''

I am not where the Lord wants me to be.

But I am moving forward.

3. Leave

''Forgetting those things which are behind...''

Don't brood over forgiven sins.

That was not easy for Paul to do.

He was a very religious person who persecuted Christians.

He thought he was doing God a favor only to find out he was sincerely wrong.

I am sure there are people in this congregation who have skeletons in their closet.

I had a counseling session once with a mother who had aborted her baby years earlier.

She explained that she had two children and just did not think she could raise another child.

But she saw a little girl who would have been about the same age as the child she aborted and it was eating her alive.

I assured her that what she did was wrong.

It was sin.

But the only thing she could do about that sin was to repent of it and seek forgiveness from the Lord.

When she received that forgiveness she needed to move on with her life.

Don't dwell on old problems.

If there are unresolved issues you have with someone else, you need to seek reconciliation.

That's what the Bible says.

If you are not willing to do that, you will be carrying a weight you were not meant to carry.

There is no doubt in my mind that some of you are carrying grudges into a brand new year.

They are like the grave clothes Lazarus had on when Jesus restored him to life.

He had life but he did not have liberty.

Don't live on former victories.

I am sure we all have had some successes this year.

Thank God for them and then let them go.

I have seen people who tried to live on the press clippings of the past.

What a waste.

2. THE PRESENT

1. We are to concentrate.

''This one thing I do.''

He is talking about focus.

We might say, ''These 40 things I dabble in.''

The Christian life is to be a priority.

We have a certain kind of life to live.

We have a job to do.

We have people to love.

2. We are to abdicate.

We have to give some things up to put Christ first in our lives.

3. We are to navigate.

We are to put on a full court press.

We are to go all out in running our race.

3. THE FUTURE

1. We have a high calling.

We have been called from sin to salvation.

We have been called from death to life.

We have been strangers who have been invited into the family.

We have been wanderers who have become witnesses.

There is no higher calling than the calling of God.

2. We have a holy calling.

2 Corinthians 6:17 ''Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.''

God has given us a path to follow in 2014 and it is a holy path.

3. We have a heavenly calling.

Hebrews 12:1-2 ''Wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.''

Beware of Resentment and Regret

As you look back over what happened  to you and for you this year, there may be a temptation for you to  reflect to the point of resentment.

There may be some people this year  who were supposed to support you, and maybe you expected them to be standing by you,  but you find yourself a little more lonely at the

end of this year.

Even going through your photo  stream on your phone, I found, can be dangerous.

Some of the people I'm scrolling through  who I felt one way about in January  I feel differently about in December.

You have to  be careful if you want to go back on the timeline.

You may feel some things.

When you reflect, it's  important that you avoid resentment on one level, but I think also you should be very careful  when you reflect, because not only can you begin to resent opportunities you didn't  get or maybe ways you were not acknowledged, which can bring you into a state of resentment,  but you also have to watch out for regret.

This is like the Devil's R&R: regret  and resentment.

They're really the same.

Regret is just resentment turned inward.

It's when  you take a look at where you said you would be on December 31, 2022, and the scale says  something different than your list said 365 ago.

Or it can be when you are thinking about  all of the dance recitals you missed.

Or it could be that you think about how you  promised to be more faithful in church this year,

but you didn't quite make it happen, but you did  get here tonight.

High-five your neighbor and say, "You're ahead for 2023.

You already have  a gold star on the Jesus Christ chart.”

The Right Kind of Reflection

There is a type of reflection that leads to  regret, there is a type of reflection that leads to resentment, but the right kind  of reflection will lead to resolution.

The right kind of reflection, as demonstrated  by the apostle Paul in Philippians 1 from, I believe, a Roman prison cell, which was really  a rented home where he was allowed to see people…

Remember now, he has been waiting for a  trial for maybe as much as four years, and after four years of bouncing around from prelate to prelate, from governor to governor, there's still no resolution for his  situation, yet Paul exhibits the kind of attitude in Philippians 1 that I am  striving to see manifest in my own life.

As he reflects, he demonstrates that your  spirit does not have to be a reflection of your situation.

What I'm trying to say is you  do not have to allow your outlook to be defined by the events that brought you to this point.

Paul proves it clearly in Philippians 1:12-20.

Really, I see him in Philippians 1:12-20  correcting some of the rumors that have apparently begun to surface in Philippi about his situation.

I can almost hear them whispering behind his back.

"Did you hear about Paul?

He still hasn't had his  trial yet.

It looks like his ministry is over.

It's horrible what happened to  Paul.

He was only trying to help, but he probably pushed it a little too far.

He kept on preaching to the Gentiles.

The Jews  told him to stop it, but he wouldn't stop it,  and then he told those Gentiles they  didn't have to get circumcised, and, well, you know.

If he would have toned it down a  little bit… If he wouldn't have appealed his case to Caesar he might have got set free by  Festus.

Did you hear what happened to Paul?

It's horrible what happened to Paul.

Terrible thing what happened to Paul.”

You can almost hear them whispering from the  church at Philippi, which Paul founded a decade

earlier, but now some things have happened.

Not  only has time passed, but it seems that Paul's  Let's Set The Record Straight (Philippians 1, verse 12) ministry has come to a grinding halt.

There  is to be no more movement during this period.

I can almost hear the whispers from the church at  Philippi when Paul speaks up in verse 12 and says,  "Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters,  that what has happened to me has actually…”

I know what you heard, but forget what you heard  for a minute.

Let me set the record straight.

I  hear the Spirit of the Lord saying today  that before you leave 2023 you need to set the record straight about what really went down  this year.

You need to set the record straight.

As a matter of fact, we came tonight to give  God praise for what he brought us through.

We came tonight to make our commitment  to him that we will follow him throughout the course of this year, no matter how the  road might wind or where it might lead us, but we also came to set the record straight, to let the Devil know that everything we went  through this year was just proof of the promise and the power and the unlimited potential of the  ever-ruling, ever-reigning, ever-present God.

Tell your neighbor, "I came  to set the record straight.

I don't know what you heard.

You might have  heard I was on the way down, but I came to set the record straight.

There are some things I  need you to know before January hits my watch."

One thing I'm trying to do… Before I make a New  Year's resolution I want to make a few revisions.

Do You Need To Make Some Revisions?

Paul wants to make a few revisions.

Let's  talk for a moment about the revision.

I've noticed a lot of times that when I write a sermon  the magic happens not on the first draft  or the second draft or the third draft, but it is in the revision that the potential  of the sermon is revealed.

I love that, because when I think about it, I  think maybe there are some things this year where I'm getting the story wrong and I need to see  it differently.

"It's not looking good for Paul.

It doesn't look like he's going to make it."

I would imagine that it would be embarrassing when your pastor is in jail.

I hope you never have to find out  firsthand what that's like.

I'm not planning that.

Remember now, he has been driven  across the Adriatic Sea.

Three months in Malta.

Now he finds himself in Rome, and  he's still waiting, and the situation is still unresolved, but he's not.

Resolution  is not an event; it is a decision.

As Paul reflects from Rome and looks at  what's happening, he understands that sometimes people will misjudge your situation  because they do not know the backstory.

So he is taking the opportunity to inform  them about what is apparent and what is actual.

I love it, because sometimes what's  happening on the surface is not the real story.

Paul is focusing here not on what is happening  to him but what is happening through him.

The story you tell is dependent  on the point of view you have.

I'm Glad It Happened

While others are looking at Paul's life from  the outside in, they are judging him a failure.

While others are looking at Paul's life from the  outside in, they're saying, "He's going down now.”

While others are looking at Paul's life  from the outside in, far away from Philippi, across the Mediterranean Sea, it doesn't look good  for Paul, but Paul is not looking at his situation from the outside in; he's looking at  his situation from the inside out.

The inside is where the Spirit of God lives, and  if the Spirit of God lives in you, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

So  it means no matter what resistance is against me…

There are some things I went through this  year that I didn't like.

There are some things I went through this year that hurt. 

I'm not saying they didn't hurt.

They hurt.

I'm not saying they didn't hurt.

They hurt like  hell.

I'm not saying I would have chosen them if I had had the opportunity, but now that I've been  through it, there is something I learned through what I went through that made me who I am, and  I'm standing today.

They probably felt sorry for Paul.

They were probably signing petitions  to their senators to get Paul out of prison.

Paul said, "Stop all your petitions.

Don't feel  sorry for me. I know I have these chains on me,  A Perspective of Freedom (Philippians 1, verse 12) but I'm freer than all y'all."

Now I didn't like it at the time.

I didn't get it  at the time.

It didn't make sense while I was in it, but I've been here long enough to recognize,  and I've been through enough storms to know…

I held on to the planks of the boat and  made it across the sea and saw God's provision at a level that now I can tell  you that, actually, God is up to something.

Paul says, "I'm not a hostage."

I want you to say  that, because this is a revision you need to make.

Some of you have made yourself the victim  of 2023, and we need to make some revisions.

You cannot leave 2023 like a victim  and go into 2024 like a victor.

You have to make a decision today.

You have to  revise some of the stuff in your story and take a cue from Paul.

I was confused at first, because he  said, "I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me…" but then he gives  no detail about what actually happened to him.

All he talks about is what God did through  the events he could have been bitter about.

"I'm not a hostage.

Don't feel sorry for me.

In fact," Paul might say, "I always  wanted to go to Rome to preach the gospel.

I didn't think I'd have to drag these  shackles through the streets to do it, but it actually works out pretty well, because all of these guards have to listen  to me preach anytime I open my mouth.”

I'm Not A Hostage

I'm not a hostage.

I'm not  a hostage to your opinions.

I'm not a hostage to what went wrong.

I  hear Paul saying all the way from Rome,   shouting across the Mediterranean Sea, shouting  all the way into 2024; I  hear this message; I hear Paul saying, "I'm not a hostage; I'm a weapon.

I made up my mind.

Anywhere God puts me, there's a purpose for it.

I'm not a hostage."

You'd better shove your neighbor  right now and say, "I'm not a hostage; I'm a weapon formed in the fire, held steady  in the hand of God, and aimed at the darkness!"

Somebody shout, "I'm a weapon!"

Watch out, Devil!

Every time you cut on me you make me sharper.

I'm loaded now.

I'm focused now.

I'm  aimed now.

I know what matters now.

It feels like the Spirit of God is breaking out on this side of the church.

Somebody thought  they were trapped.

It's not you who's trapped; it's the Enemy.

You have the Devil  on the run. Don't you back down!

"Let's set the record straight.

I came here in chains, but because I'm here somebody  is going to get set free.”

"God put me here, not Caesar, not Festus.

It wasn't the boat that brought me  here; it was the purpose of God."