“And Moving Forward”
Phil 3:10-15
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, 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.
• So for the past two weeks I have prayed, meditated and listened to the Lord speak to me and God opened me to this passage, and showed me it is meant for this season in the life of the Greenfield First UMC.
• Now I am going to preach my favorite kind of sermon. Expository. Its where you take scripture, explain it, and make it life applicable!
• I love the authenticity of the Apostle Paul.
• Vr 15” I want to know Christ”…powerful statement here, because in the following verses perpetuate the knowledge of a growing in Christian faith.
• Know- learning to perceive directly; discern within the mind with clarity or certainty. practical understanding of, through experience; be skilled in:
• You can feel Paul’s desire, his want, him desiring is to be intimately shaped and molded into a Christ follower. But Paul is willing to say that he hasn’t attained it.
• There are a lot of people that perpetuate an image of having it all together. Folks that have this thing being Christian figured out. Don’t need help being a Christian, going to do it how they want, don’t need Tony Mosely to come in and show me anything!
• If that’s you, you won’t understand what I am going to be preaching on, ok. But if you desire to KNOW Christ..listen to me. In fact get your phones out and record me and post it on your Facebook page! Cause I am looking GOOD this morning!!!!
• Ok we’ve had issues. But what church hasn’t? It’s time that we get back to being about the Fathers business than fussing. It is time we get back to being Methodist and finding ways to lead people to Christ and seeing them saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit!
• So let me say this clearly. Greenfield First United Methodist Church WILL MOVE Forward!
To move forward we have to be willing to
1.) Know Christ More
Phil 3:10-11
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
• Ever wondered why this church has had to go through what it has had to go through?
• Catch this. You can’t grow spiritually when you are only engaging with Christ on Sunday morning alone.
• What are you saying preacher! I’m saying you can’t go down to the Marathon station to fill your gas tank up and expect to be able to run on the same tank of gas forever!
• Just as you feed your tummy to gain fuel to power your body, you need Spiritual food to empower your relationship with Christ@.
• Here is the thing you have already accomplished some of this….. Phil 3:10b “and participation in his sufferings,”
• We’ve experienced that, but now it is time to move on.
• To Know Christ More means that we have to do something more that will enable us to know him more. How do we do that? Stick around our Leadership Team is going to enable us to do so in the coming weeks.
To move forward we have to be willing to
2.) Press Forward
Philp 3:12
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
• If the Apostle Paul is willing to admit that He Himself hasn’t full attained the fullness of salvation which we Methodist call Entire Sanctification or Perfection than shouldn’t we exemplify the same?
• I mean really. Until we reach heaven, folks we will not fully attain perfection. So guess what you ain’t perfect!
• Sanctification is subsequent to salvation but the Entirety of it isn’t attained until Eternity.
• When we press forward as Paul says, he is teaching us that Christ died so that we might have salvation, but Jesus isn’t still on the Cross, Jesus isn’t in that borrowed tomb.
• But so many Christians get so caught up in the First work of grace…Being saved, being confirmed..being a Church member…that they fail to “press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
• What is the “that”. What is in the “THAT”?
• Church there is more in your relationship with Christ than just the First Work of Grace.
I Thess 4:3
It is God's will that you should be sanctified
• Sanctification is the “ that” Paul is assuming we already know. But it is the place in which we press forward by growing in grace, growing in our relationship with Christ, it is by allowing the baptism with the Holy Spirit to set us apart for His use and not our own.
• See, Christ has obtained the spiritual body at His transfiguration, and Paul says that is our goal and to do that we have to press on towards that.
• How do we grow spiritually? More than just Sunday. We have to find ways to pour out and be poured into.
• We are pressing forward our Children’s Ministry has new leadership. Brand and Tia are teaching our kids on Sunday morning” We are pressing forward and establishing Student Ministry. I am going to lead for a month and “Charley and Rachel Roman” have agreed to lead our student ministry with Mindy’s help.
To move forward we have to be willing to
3.) Forget what is behind
Philp 3:14
Brothers and sisters, 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,
• I hate the cliché “I can forgive but I cannot forget”. That’s hawgwash. Just a way of justifying unforgiveness.
• You have to be willing to learn to forgive and forget.
• If you put your hand in a rat trap and get a broken finger, are you going to do it again? No, that be absurd. You don’t yell at the rat trap. You learn not to put your hand in a rat trap. Cause the result is a painful broken finger.
• I get that some of you have been hurt, but you have to forgive and forget. But forgetting doesn’t mean that the experience doesn’t shape you in how interact.
• If someone betrays your confidence…don’t tell them nothing again! Duh!
• If you cannot forgive and forget, you need to get out of God’s way. We can work through things, if you want to move forward, but if your identity is totally focused on the past issues you’ve got to take a step back. If not God can and will.
• You cannot change what happened in the past, nor can you just go back to the way things used to be.
• You can try to, but you cannot replicate the past into the future and expect the good ole days to solve anything.
• Did you know that an oak tree can alter its growth pattern when an obstacle gets in its way? It can actually absorb fences and other objects it can grow around it. You can even top a tree by cutting off the top and new branches will flourish in its stead.
• You might not want move forward, you may not want change, and it is ok. But know this, growth will happen, it will just take your place cause even obstacles can be absorbed.
• We are going to move forward, because it is what healthy churches do.
• It takes work to forgive, but we have to be willing to try to forget. That is what moves us forward.
