Title: Pursuing Faith/Philippians 3:12-16
Faith that follows the content / Philippians 3:12-16
Let's pray.
The
Heavenly Father! Thank you.
Thank you for protecting us from the past night and putting us to sleep in the midst of the Lord, and for waking up the dark dawn and illuminating the unknown morning. Father, thank you for allowing us to live in the spirit today and not to live foolishly by following the flesh.
Heavenly Father! We cannot live without grace. A life of passionate gratitude to the Father is our joy, joy, and happiness. May we always be one with you in body, mind, life and material things, unite us with you, and let us enter into the deep world of your hot and mysterious love every day!
At this hour, Lord, speak to me personally. Take us captive with your subtle truth, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the verse we read today, the words “I chase after you” appear twice.
I don't know how good it is in verse 12, "I chase after that for which I was captured by Christ Jesus." Everyone! “But I am pursuing to seize that for which I was captured by Christ Jesus” and again in verse 14, “I am pursuing the goal and in Christ Jesus for the reward of the high calling of God”. I did it. This morning, it is a word called “Faith to pursue.” It is a precious faith.
There is nothing as precious as our belief. Among them, we have faith lying down, faith sitting, faith that barely crawls, faith that is supported and led by others, but faith that runs, faith that pursues. Everyone! This belief is a very different belief.
When we divide the area of faith, we can classify it into several categories. Your faith, my faith, and our faith, like the faith of the apostle Paul, we want to be the faith we follow. What are we pursuing in the Word? We must clearly have a target. The goal should be clear. Even when a student is studying, he will always follow when there is a goal.
One thing I can't forget in the life of President John F. Kennedy is that even if he does business, he has to be the best, and if there are 10 people doing business, I have to be the best. Even if he studies, he has to get first place, and second place is always a failure and last place. From a young age, he always looked at this top, which is said to be the top, and ran to it, resulting in him becoming the president of the United States.
The Apostle Paul said here, “We chase toward the goal. My goal is the target.”
What we are talking about here is speaking of Jesus and the words of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is my target. Once upon a time, I emphasized the Word. Our competitor is not who is next to me. Our competitor is Jesus Christ. We are going after Jesus. My heart must be like Jesus' heart, all my hopes are up to the hope that Jesus looked for and went. My character is like Jesus' character, the things I love are like the things Jesus loved, the Lord said as much as Jesus did. “You will do greater things than I do” The apostle Paul did greater things than Jesus did.
Although Jesus preached the gospel only in the land of Palestine, Paul preached the gospel all over the world. Everyone! Jesus said - “You will do greater things than I do. When the Holy Spirit, the Comforter I have sent, is with you, you will do great things.” Peter also preached to more people in one day than Jesus.
Paul said to pursue for the reward of the calling. (verse 14)
I chase after the prize. That's why it doesn't matter what you say next to you. What if I get a little hatred, what if I get a little slander, I don't blame it. The apostle Paul pursues only for the reward of the calling. It was a heavenly reward. Paul did not seek a reward on earth.
We see that the land pays many prizes. The reward given in that land may be wrongly given. Sometimes it may have no value and it may not be fair. There are also many political awards. There are many times when you do not know when it goes into the garbage after receiving it.
A great reward from heaven, an eternal reward, and a reward that gives and gives again. There are prizes that cannot be changed even if you give all the land. The apostle Paul said that I am pursuing for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. That's why he said he rejoices every day.
Luke 10:20 - “Rejoice that your names are written in that kingdom of heaven.” When we do good things on earth, God records them in the book of life in the kingdom of heaven. There is nothing more accurate than a heavenly computer. How much the Lord loves us, what if we were to write down our sins and mistakes one by one?
However, according to the Bible, the Lord forgives all the sins of the father and children who have been saved by grace at each time, and the Lord who has completely forgiven our past through the merits of Christ's death on the cross forgives the sins of the present and the future. The Lord who promised to forgive us even our sins! He said that he only covers our mistakes today and records every good thing in the life we pursue for the Lord, even the smallest. If we write them down individually, it's not grace, it's not love.
Then, everyone, Paul said that in order to pursue, we forget what is behind. If the person we are chasing to catch the things ahead does not forget the things behind and keeps looking back, it is a foul.
If a marathon runner runs to the front and looks at people behind me, it is against the law. You really shouldn't look back when you're training. How many meters are people behind you? How many people follow behind you? It is against the law to keep looking left or right at a certain point, and to look back is also against the law.
In other words, he has now lost the spirit of being number one. Only runners running towards the target should not look to the left or right, do not look back, but go towards the one in front. He must also forget the records of the past. If I remember running a few meters in seconds and minutes, my feet don't go straight forward. You must forget everything. You have to forget the time, forget the records of the past, and run towards the goal, only towards that goal. The Apostle Paul said here, “I have forgotten the latter.”
Three things must be forgotten.
The
1. We must forget our past failures.
People of faith who we run into the life of faith must forget the failures of the past.
There are times when even a pastor fails in his deeds. There are times when I fail to speak.
There are times when sermons are unsuccessful. There are many failures in ministry. When we get caught up in past failures, we become frustrated, anxious, painful, and frustrated. You will fall into that failure again. I can't move forward. You can't promote anything new. So, you have to be a person who forgets the failures of the past.
2. We must forget our faults.
The
We have had many faults in the past. I sinned a lot. We must also forget the faults we have made to others. You must also forget the faults that others have made against you.
You have to forget it. If we don't forget it, we can't get new grace. Some people keep repenting of their past sins, and even though they have been forgiven by the Lord, they keep remembering them. I remember that person. You must forget that person. You have to forget that place. Then you have to forget about it. The gift of forgetting is a great gift. Don't be too smart. You must be a bit stupid. You must have the gift of forgetting. That person, that day, that look, that place. You don't know how good a blessing the gift of forgetting is.
“God, make me forget! Why do you keep coming back to that time? Why do those faults keep tormenting me? ” says the Lord. “I forgave you, but I erased it all, so why didn’t you erase it? At that time, I covered your sins as white as snow, and made the mountains fall flat as if they were flat. Why are you worrying? Be confident. Forget it. Look only forward, look only at the Lord, and run. Thank you, move forward and praise…”
Everyone! Lord, I have forgotten your faults and past, so why are you still entangled in the past? He rebukes you.
3. We must forget our past successes.
Everyone! We cannot achieve greater success unless we forget our past successes.
If there are things you did well in the past, things that you lived for the Lord, things that were good, and things that were faithful, you have to forget those things in order to have greater loyalty. You can live a better and more righteous life.
You can become a powerful person of Christ Jesus who creates a greater history. We cannot move forward unless we forget the past. There is no such thing as backwards in faith. Bicycles do not have reverse wheels. The motorcycle also has no reverse kia. There is only going forward. Our faith should be a faith that only goes forward because there is no backward hunger like a motorcycle, and there is no reverse wheel like a bicycle.
Today, one step at a time, only toward the goal, we have to follow for the reward of heaven. This is the faith to pursue.
“I chase after that for which I was taken prisoner by Christ Jesus.”
When the race bell rings, the runners bow and bow their heads to chase after them. Look at the athlete running 100 meters. What would you like to think about? I don't think anything. They only follow the goal until the last bell rings.
Everyone! Let's have this kind of faith. If you have the faith to follow, you will not be caught up in worries, worries, depression, disease, or pain. Even Satan has no rest in our hearts.
I pray that the faith of Paul who conquers all things in this world, takes only Christ Jesus as the goal, and is pursuing today for the reward of heaven, becomes yours.
Let's pray.
Father God! Thank you.
Give me the faith to pursue! I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.