Redeeming the Time: Growth
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Redeeming the Time means that we grow up and don't grow old.
Growth is by definition: Time Redeemed.
How do we grow?
1: Develop a Satisfied Dissatisfaction.
1: Develop a Satisfied Dissatisfaction.
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 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,
“Not as though I had already attained!”
This is the statement of a great Christian who never permitted himself to be satisfied with his spiritual attainments.
Obviously, Paul was satisfied with Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:10), but he was not satisfied with his Christian life.
A sanctified dissatisfaction is the first essential to progress in the Christian race.
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Many Christians are self-satisfied because they compare their “running” with that of other Christians, usually those who are not making much progress.
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Had Paul compared himself with others, he would have been tempted to be proud and perhaps to let up a bit.
After all, there were not too many believers in Paul’s day who had experienced all that he had!
But Paul did not compare himself with others; he compared himself with himself and with Jesus Christ!
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Here is a question: Was Paul “perfect”?
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
No.
However:
15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
He has not arrived yet at perfection (Phil. 3:12), but he is “perfect” [mature] (Phil. 3:15), and one mark of this maturity is the knowledge that he is not perfect!
The mature Christian honestly evaluates himself and strives to do better.
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Often in the Bible we are warned against a false estimate of our spiritual condition:
The church at Sardis had “a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Rev. 3:1).
They had reputation without reality.
The church at Laodicea boasted that it was rich, when in God’s sight it was “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17).
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In contrast to the Laodicean church, the believers at Smyrna ( smear-an) thought they were poor when they were really rich! (Rev. 2:9)
Samson thought he still had his old power, but in reality it had departed from him (Judg. 16:20).
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Self-evaluation can be a dangerous thing, because we can err in two directions:
(1) making ourselves better than we are, or (2) making ourselves worse than we really are.
Paul had no illusions about himself; he still had to keep “pressing forward” in order to “lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold” of him.
A divine dissatisfaction is essential for spiritual progress.
1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God.
2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: When shall I come and appear before God?
2: Concentrate on One thing at a time
2: Concentrate on One thing at a time
13 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,
“One thing” is a phrase that is important to the Christian life.
“One thing thou lackest,” said Jesus to the self-righteous rich young ruler
21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.
“One thing is needful,” He explained to busy Martha when she criticized her sister
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
“One thing I know!” exclaimed the man who had received his sight by the power of Christ
25 He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after!” testified the psalmist
4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
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Too many Christians are too involved in “many things,” when the secret of progress is to concentrate on “one thing.”
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The believer must devote himself to “running the Christian race.”
No athlete succeeds by doing everything; he succeeds by specializing.
The winners are those who concentrate, who keep their eyes on the goal and let nothing distract them.
If the Devil cannot derail you ; he will try distracting you.
They are devoted entirely to their calling.
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Like Nehemiah the wall-building governor, they reply to the distracting invitations, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down!”
3 And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
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Concentration is the secret of power.
If a river is allowed to overflow its banks, the area around it becomes a swamp.
But if that river is dammed and controlled, it becomes a source of power.
It is wholly a matter of values and priorities, living for that which matters most.
3 Forget the Past.
3 Forget the Past.
13 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,
The unsaved person is controlled by the past, but the Christian running the race looks toward the future.
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Please keep in mind that in Bible terminology, “to forget” does not mean “to fail to remember.”
Apart from senility, hypnosis, or a brain malfunction, no mature person can forget what has happened in the past.
We may wish that we could erase certain bad memories, but we cannot.
“To forget” in the Bible means “no longer to be influenced by or affected by.”
When God promises:
17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
He is not suggesting that He will conveniently have a bad memory!
This is impossible with God.
What God is saying is, “I will no longer hold their sins against them.
Their sins can no longer affect their standing with Me or influence My attitude toward them.”
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So, “forgetting those things which are behind” does not suggest an impossible feat of mental and psychological gymnastics by which we try to erase the sins and mistakes of the past.
It simply means that we break the power of the past by living for the future.
We cannot change the past, but we can change the meaning of the past.
A good example of this principle is Joseph.
When he met his brothers the second time and revealed himself to them, he held no grudge against them.
To be sure, they had mistreated him, but he saw the past from God’s point of view.
As a result he was unable to hold anything against his brothers.
Joseph knew that God had a plan for his life—a race for him to run—and in fulfilling that plan and looking ahead, he broke the power of the past.
Too many Christians are shackled by regrets of the past.
They are trying to run the race by looking backward!
No wonder they stumble and fall and get in the way of other Christians!
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“The things which are behind” must be set aside and “the things which are before” must take their place.
Conclusion:
Conclusion: