ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY
A man was reading his paper early one morning at the breakfast table. His wife came over to him, gave him a hug, smiled, and said, “I bet you don’t know what today is, do you?” He looked at her and said, “Of course I know what day it is!” and went back to reading his paper. The reality was that he didn't have a clue. He was afraid that he would make his wife upset - she was really sensitive about special occasions. He thought to himself, “Is it her birthday? That must be it.” So after he got to work he called the florist and had a bouquet of white roses sent to his wife. Then as the day went on, he began worrying that flowers may not be enough for such an important day. “What if it’s our anniversary?” So he went to the jewellery store down from his office, picked out a beautiful gold necklace and had it special delivered to his wife.
As he started home from work he decided that maybe he should also stop and buy an expensive box of chocolates to bring to her - just in case. He pulls into the driveway and his wife runs out to greet him. As he gets out of the car and presents her with the box of chocolates, she throws her arms around him and says, “Oh, honey, this is the best ground hog day I've ever had!”
Today is a special day for us as a church. If you have figured it out yet, today we celebrate 50 years of God’s faithfulness to us as a church.
Phil 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
1. EVALUATION (vs. 13a) – I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it
Paul says here that he has not arrived yet. To me, that's an amazing statement. Paul is an old man now. If anybody had the right to claim he had arrived it would be Paul. He wrote most of the New Testament. He helped spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. He made an incredible impact on the world. Yet Paul, at the end of his life, says "I don't have it all together. I haven't arrived. I'm not perfect. I'm still growing."
God has done some wonderful things through this church in the last 50 years. Part of celebration is evaluation. Anniversaries are great moments to look back but we need to be careful with nostalgia. Someone once said that “nostalgia is the sand paper that smooth’s the edges of the good old days”. Over time we tend to forget the hardships and remember only the blessings.
Paul could have taken great pride in what he had already been able to accomplish. Instead we see that he was not content and was still striving for more. I think it is important to remember that. We have been so blessed as a church in the last 50 years, but we still have a long way to go. God is not done with us yet. We have not arrived. We are still growing.
2. ELIMINATION (vs. 13b) – one thing I do: forgetting what is behind
This is our golden anniversary. We have spent time this morning remembering. So why am I now using a scripture that talks about forgetting what is behind? While it is important to learn from the past you cannot live there. To move forward involves 2 things;
a. Forget your Failures
Don’t rehearse things in your heart that God has long since forgiven and forgotten. Satan's favourite desire is to paralyse us with the past, to manipulate us with the memories. Paul says "I learn to forget the past." Do not sit around beating yourself up for mistakes. Everybody here has blown it. We as a church have blown it in the past. There are things we are not proud of. I apologize if you were hurt.
Paul, of all people, probably had many regrets that could have haunted him. He was a persecutor of the church. He hounded people who were believers and had them locked up and stoned. Nothing you ever do will change your past. It is gone, over, dead. Since you can’t change it let it go. Learn from it but then let it go.
b. Forget your Successes
Just like failure, you can learn from success but you can’t live in them. It is easy to rest on your laurels. Sometimes we try to live in the past and base our security on past performance. The “good old days” are gone. Let them go. Success tends to make you complacent and fills you with pride. Then you stop growing and learning and then you're going to fail.
Over 2,000 years ago a young Greek artist named Timanthes studied under a respected tutor. After several years the teacher’s efforts seemed to have paid off when Timanthes painted an exquisite work of art. Unfortunately, he became so enraptured with the painting that he spent days gazing at it. One morning when he arrived to admire his work, he was shocked to find it blotted out with paint. Angry, Timanthes ran to his teacher, who admitted he had destroyed the painting. ‘I did it for your own good. That painting was retarding your progress. Start again and see if you can do better.’ Timanthes took his teacher’s advice and produced Sacrifice of Iphigenia, which is regarded as one of the finest paintings of antiquity.
Today we celebrate our past but we cannot live in the past. You can't run a race looking backwards. You've got to focus ahead.
4. DETERMINATION (vs. 13c) – straining towards what is ahead I press on
The word PRESS ON is the Greek word DIOKO which means to run swiftly. It is the same word as persecution. Before Jesus Paul would persecute or DIOKO the church – chase after them with all his might. Now Paul is chasing after Christ. The intensity was the same, the direction was different.
As we look to the future I pray that we would have the same determination that those who went before us had. We need to have the same daring faith that Stu Sylvester had when the church bought this land and built this building. We need to be ready to try new things and let old things go.
One month from now marks the 50th anniversary of another important event. On Nov. 22, 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. What you may not know is that, on that exact same day, another famous man died. The newspapers were so focused and full of information about the Kennedy assassination that hardly any mention of him. His name was C.S. Lewis. As the world mourned the death of an American president, heaven celebrated the homecoming of a child of God.
We celebrate 50 years as a church today, but what we really celebrate is the goodness and grace of Jesus Christ. To Him and Him alone be the glory.
