Pressing On Toward Christ: Forgetting the Past

We like holding on to the past. We like holding on to the past. I'm guilty of it. You're guilty of it. We're all guilty of it. And it's not a matter of sitting in shame, it's realizing that just with a perspective shift, by gaining that heavenly perspective that Christ has for us, everything can change. Imagine this with me, if you will, entering a race and trying to run a race or even let's use a more modern example. You're racing a car. Could you imagine trying to race a car with a whole bunch of other people around you, swerving everything, and could you imagine looking backwards the whole time? [01:21:21] (54 seconds)  #LetGoOfThePast

with all that being said, I ask, what is our goal as Christians? What is our goal? Well, our goal is to become like Christ. Our goal is to become like Christ. That's it. Alright. That's about it. That wraps it up for me. I'm gonna see you all next week. No. But seriously, if you if you think about it, our goal our goal is to become like Christ. And I know it's it's easy and simple and just kinda like rolls right off the tongue. It it it is that simple. It's not that easy, but it is that simple. Our goal is to become like Christ. [01:08:48] (43 seconds)  #BecomeLikeChrist

But as soon as I stepped up onto that race, I was promised a reward if I ran it well. If I stuck stuck to the boundaries of what that race was, I received a reward. And it's another one of those distinctions to make when we're talking about this chapter is that when you're in a race when you're in a race, you don't lose your citizenship if you break the rules of the race. Right? And as the passage we talked about here, our citizenship is in heaven. That's what's talking about our salvation. If you're running the race and you break the rules of the race, you don't lose your citizenship. You lose your reward. Right? [01:14:55] (41 seconds)  #RewardsNotSalvation

Another thing that I wanna unpack for us a little bit today here is that forgetting when the bible talks about forgetting in this context, that forgetting is actually less how we would think about it today. It's not about just like not remembering something. It it's not. Forgetting is actually forgetting in this context is actually talking about, breaking the power that the past holds on us as Christians. It's knowing what our past is but it's saying I'm not going to let that affect my future. I'm not going to let whatever I did back here affect what's coming for me next. I'm not going to let what I did in my past get in the way of what God has for me in my future. [01:10:48] (48 seconds)  #ForgettingIsFreedom

And anytime, typically, anytime you're hearing the bible talk about making an effort, making a stride, exerting energy, putting effort into, it's not talking about salvation. And I think that Mike Moore actually did a really good job in explaining that last week in his excellent message, but it's not it's not up to our flesh. And thank God that it's not up to our flesh because we can't do it on our own. It's not up to our own effort. We can't earn our salvation. And so I want I want you to look at that verse and I want you to understand that this is primarily speaking to the person who's already a believer. [01:06:53] (39 seconds)  #EffortIsForBelievers

The challenge within all of this is that we actually have to let Jesus change us. That's the challenge. Our challenge is that Jesus actually has to dwell within us and change us. The challenge is that the challenge is that we make, as Paul said, every effort, every effort to reach for the calling that God has for us. We have to make every effort to reach out for that calling. The challenge is that some of us hold so deeply onto our past hurts, our past struggles, our past traumas that we can't even step up to the race. [01:13:47] (47 seconds)  #JesusTransformsUs

When Paul is sharing us this little chunk of scripture, he's literally telling us, I'm not finished my race yet. I'm not finished my race yet. I haven't taken a hold of my prize yet. He's not finished yet. But he does something important to recognize for anything and it's part of the process of the life of a Christian is forgetting what's behind and reaching forward for what's ahead. And this is part of those those sports and action metaphors that I'm talking about. The the where Paul is talking about reaching forward for what is ahead, it actually carries with it the idea of like straining in a race that you're reaching forward to what God has for you. [01:09:53] (45 seconds)  #ReachForward

Right? Lots of us would love to model our lives after David of of a man or a woman after God's own heart, which is what the bible tells us about David. But yet as you're reading scripture, it's sometimes page after page of David continually making wrong decision after wrong decision after wrong decision after terrible decision, but yet he doesn't let that hold him. He doesn't let that bind him. He doesn't let the mistakes he made in his past affect what God has for him in his future. We can't change the past, but we can change its meaning. The challenge within all of this is that we actually have to let Jesus change us. [01:12:57] (58 seconds)  #PastDoesntDefineYou