Intro. Today we enter into a New Year...some do so with great expectations..others with trepidation...and some see it as just another day to get through.
Many are stepping into the New Year with the excess baggage of the past year hanging from them. Having faced some of the most difficult times of their lives they are finding it hard to "let go" of "what was" and with hope pursue "what is". Today I want to encourage each here to "Shake It Off".
Shake yourself from the dust of defeat, demotion, disappointments, discouragement, despondency, depression. Shake yourself from the dust of self pity, sadness and sorrow. Shake yourself from the dust of poverty and insufficiency, weakness and sickness, oppression and affliction. Shake thyself from the dust whether the Devil likes it or not. Arise, sit down, loose thyself from the chains of oppression whether Satan approves or not.
Shake off the "what was" of yesterday and pursue the "what is" that lies ahead.
What is ahead is not simply a dream...it is reality waiting to be claimed.
I. The What Was: The things of the past can become weights of control... roadblocks...blinders....They keep you from seeing the potential that lies ahead and pulls all of your energy out of you.
Note two areas in the Word that instruct us to disconnect from "What Was":
Isaiah, prophesied restoration during a time of loss and bondage...Isa. 43:18-19,
"Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I
will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make
a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert."
a. Remember not the former things...
b. I will do a new thing...
c. It will be "a suddenly"...
d. Some will miss it...
e. It will be a supernatural occurrence...
Remember...this was given during the early stages of their bondage...the
heartache, the loss, the discouragement was fresh...Often times that is the most
difficult time of your captivity...when everything is fresh on your mind and you
clearly see what you have lost.
Phil. 3:13 Paul, understanding the control of the past, instructs the young
Christians in Philippi in regard to what was ahead. "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, I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
a. There is more...
b. The need of forgetting what was behind.
c. It wouldn't be easy. " I press toward the mark (goal)..."Anything worth having is
never an easy attainment. If you want it enough to fight for it and fight to
keep it you better well know someone or something else feels the same way.
II. The Pursuit: Dreams/visions are made of what we wish for...they have their place but should never be considered "the end of the story". I've heard of & read that you can "dream your way to success". In truth the dream/vision only opens the door to give a glimpse of what can be...the attainment requires pursuit. That is where the work begins!
Reality is comprised of what is real just waiting for us to claim/stake a claim on.
Paul's Reality, Phil. 3:7-12,
a. Prioritizing the now need with the valuables of the past, v7 But whatever former things I had that might have been gains to me, I have come to consider as [one combined] loss for Christ’s sake.
b. Understanding true value, v8 Yes, further more, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One),
c. His true pursuits, v9-11 And that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law’s demands (ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired), but possessing that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ (the Anointed One), the [truly] right standing with God, which comes from God by [saving] faith. 10[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I) may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] 11That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral) resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].
d. Admitting his need, v12 Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have
already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my
own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made
me His own.
Conc. Today each of us stand on the threshold of extreme possibilities. We can decide to remain where we are and become nothing more than a relic of the past ( something that has lost it's usefulness and is only good for looking at) or we can admit our need...see and accept our strengths...and pursue the prize before us.
IT IS UP TO YOU....
