When It’s Time to Move FORWARD
Brad Bailey
April 11, 2021
Intro:
I am so glad that you’ve chosen to join today. This is a unique and exciting week for us a community. Today we have begun gathering in person again. And I want to say to each of you in this livestream...you are just as much a part of this moment. We are fully committed to our online community and connection. In fact we have invested a lot of our thoughts...and time.. and resources... to this online gathering....and community.
Most importantly... no matter how we gather today... we are all in a transitional season. Life is opening up after a year of a pandemic that has been both confining and consuming our lives.
For some of us this past year has brought dramatic changes and losses...for others ...perhaps it’s been more of a strange trip... an altered state of being... and we may wonder what normal really is.
As I’ve described before... as much as we may all have hoped for a moment when everything is over...when everything goes back to the way it was...the truth is that the months ahead will not be defined by a moment...but by a movement... a movement each of us will navigate. We know that during this Spring season...health conditions may vary...comfort levels will vary...vaccinations will slowly be expanding. So we see the months ahead as a transitional season.
We also recognize that the nature of this pandemic has adjusted some of our “inner settings” related to communal life. We have now had a full year without gathering in a normal fashion as a church... nor likely in many larger public gatherings. Our inner settings have become both more passive... regarding the initiative involved with going out ...and more pensive about being near others. So we see this as the beginning of a process. And we recognize that such movement will be different for each of us, but we want to encourage everyone to begin allowing the Spirit of God to guide that movement.
And today I believe God has one key word for us...and that word is FORWARD.
Way back in July....I felt the lord impressing on me...that we would face the effects of a long season defined by staying in place... in more ways than one. Staying in place may speak to staying at home...but it also speaks to the state of our lives. The truth is that life has been halted in various ways... from some that has involved work... for some socially...for some travel. And I sense at some level all of us have found ways to function reasonably well...but often with our future plans on hold.
As we come to this juncture, I believe that God wants us to grasp the unchanging truth...that the life that matters most... is what is ahead of us.
Last weekend... as we celebrated the events of Christ dying and then being raised from the dead... we considered the power to transform those who were bound in fear to become a force that changed the world... could best be understood by how their lives were unleashed. When the one you just watched die of Friday...whose lifeless body you held... shows up on Sunday ...and is now present before you...in a new bodily state... it changes everything ...including the nature of our own future.
As I noted... I believe that as we get older... we tend to focus on the past... and to believe that our best years are behind us.
And I believe that when a pandemic causes life to stop moving forward... we tend to focus on the past... and to believe that our best years are behind us.
When we realize that Jesus has risen... when we allow him to be present with us... we can realize that life is defined by what is ahead of us. Jesus lived out of a defining sense of purpose... he was focused on finishing well... completing his mission... that would then lead to the renewal of all things.
This is what the Apostle Paul describes. You may recall that shortly after Christ had been crucified and rose again... and the news was spreading... Paul had been a rising leader of religious system... proud of the rules they kept....and trying to silence these unleashed lives. And then the spirit of Christ confronts him...and he realized that it was Christ who had actually fulfilled what the religious system never could. And in writing as part of the Scriptures... he wrote to the Philippians...
I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.... 13 I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. - Philippians 3:13-14 (NLT)
Paul has come to realize that this is the how we should live. He has oriented his whole life around what is ahead. He now has a fresh start to how he lives.
And that is what Christ brings. A fresh start to our unfinished lives.
And so as we begin this transitional season...of coming out from what could be called a pandemic pause.... these words can speak to us...to our mindset.
I believe that God has some truth to speak into this season of our lives. And the first truth is this...
When It’s Time to Move FORWARD....
1. Remember where you’re going (...your highest purpose and priorities)
In the recent months of this pandemic season, I’ve been helping teach our youngest son how to drive. Driving involves a lot of mechanical steps and maneuvering...but it also involves having a mind that’s prepared to drive. And the very first things to gather in your mind...is to know where you are going.
There may be a time to enjoy a drive just to drive...but generally it’s about going somewhere.
And when we have that in mind ...we won’t find ourselves going in the wrong direction...and having to make dangerous changes.
Paul describes having this mind for life. He knows where he is going. He is focused on knowing Christ ... he sees how Christ endured the cross by the power of the joy that was ahead...and he wants to follow that ability to suffer for what will last. So he wants to go forward in following the way of Jesus.
And Paul is very clear...that he has not achieved this yet. It’s his direction not his completion.
Paul says “I press on to reach the end of the race...” He hasn’t reached the end of this earthly race. He doesn’t believe that he has gained all he can...or given all he can. He’s not done. There is a simple but significant truth here.
Your race isn’t over. Your earthly life isn’t finished. We each have an unfinished life.
That may sound obvious...but some of us feel like life stopped... and we have nowhere to go.
There is an enemy that wants to stop what God began.
There is an enemy that wants to use a pandemic to create passivity. He wants to use disappointment to create disengagement.
Paul realizes that he is not done... and he is not going to let anything stop him. [1]
There is a Biblical book that captures a process of arising to finish what was left unfinished. Some may recall Nehemiah. Nehemiah realized that God’s people had come back to Jerusalem... but the walls that surrounded the city...were still in ruins.
The people had been through a season of hardship... a season that brought loss and insecurity. Nehemiah recognizes it’s time to rebuild the unfinished walls of the city. And so beginning next week, we are going to allow God to speak to us...as we engage some lessons from Nehemiah... lessons that can guide us in a time of moving forward... lessons in seeing what is unfinished... in taking risks... in how to strategically assess and build well... in overcoming opposition...and in keeping God unchanging call at the center of our life.
We each have an unfinished life ... and unfinished part to play in our time and our place.
And moving forward begins with remembering where we’re going,,, recapturing our purpose and priorities. It’s about what we want to become... that we align our lives with.
In the surrounding text Paul expresses how so many of the world’s accolades and achievements mean nothing to him know. He is stripping down life to what matters most.
I believe that whether you are young and old. When it’s time to move FORWARD....you need to grasp where you had planned to go.
Then Paul says... I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: “Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.” This captures another truth.
When It’s Time to Move FORWARD....
2. Focus on what is ahead... on the unfinished... not on the past.
In teaching my son to drive...after deciding where we are going...one of the first things to point out...are the gears and mirrors. There are different gears.
There is neutral... When we’re in neutral... we aren’t engaging the gears at all. it can serve when needed...but it means the car will just roll where it will. Some of us cam sense that our lives are often in neutral. We can fill them with various activities...but we really aren’t going anywhere. Similarly there is PARK... valuable part of how the car is kept between drives...but if we stay in park...we aren’t going to get anywhere.
Then there’s reverse... which is vital for moments when we need to shift our direction.
But for driving anywhere... we want to be in FORWARD gear.
And we also have to understand the nature of all the glass around us. The mirrors are really helpful for staying straight... being sure we are treating other cars well.... but there is one piece of glass that is massively bigger than all the others. It’s called the windshield... and it’s the most important focus for driving.
And so it is with life. We cannot live in neutral or park or reverse and just stare in the rear view mirrors. When It’s Time to Move FORWARD... we need to focus on what is ahead... on the unfinished... not on the past...what’s behind us.
I believe that all of us can tend to become distracted by the past...by what’s behind us.
We can all let yesterday use up too much of today. It’s been said, “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.”
I want to encourage each of us to consider the next chapter. It’s not that the last chapter is not significant...but it is over. Some of us may have experienced a major setback... or even a major loss.
When we face the next steps that are in front of us...we may be quick to say. “But”... and then begin explaining something that has happened to us. When I’m faced with what’s ahead of me...with the next steps to take...I may want to say....”But it’s not the same anymore.... the business has changed.... my friends have moved... things are just not the same.”
What we need to understand is that changes in life usually change HOW we go forward...but not the direction itself. [2]
Coming out of this pandemic season may be a time in which we step back to reapproach the future afresh. In many regard, we can think of this as a fresh start ... a fresh start to our unfinished lives.
This pandemic season may have added some fresh perspective... it may have clarified some priorities.[3]
John Wimber was the founder and father of our Vineyard movement. In the final couple years of his life... he gathered some of us and focused on the central values. And his central parting message before he passed on was: ”Take the best and go.”
John wanted us to take what God had sown... what had become our DNA....and to navigate how we did that in ways that may be fresh.
In a similar way.... it may be a time to step back... and see a fresh start...a fresh approach. But stepping back is not the same as stopping.
No matter what changes you go through... what matters most is what’s in front of you.
The most important step in your life...is the next step that is in front of you.
As the Biblical wisdom book of Proverbs says,
Keep looking straight ahead, without turning aside. Proverbs 4:25 (CEV)
And finally...
When It’s Time to Move FORWARD....
3. Make your eternal relationship your central relationship.
Paul said I want to know Christ....to receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
When Paul says he wants to know Christ... he means he wants to follow the way of Christ... who has lived in constant relationship with his Father in heaven.
Jesus lived in more communally and relationally than any of us. He formed a team that knew what it meant to belong to one another...to depend on one another. But Jesus was centered in another relationship... he lived in constant relationship with his Father. The Father was the one with whom he existed in eternity past...and to whom he would return.
And Paul is saying that he is making that eternal relationship his central relation on earth.
He is no longer living out of mere duty...but out of a desire that draws him.
His life is no longer about trying to prove his worth...but rather about pleasing the one who loves him and calls him.
It’s like the difference between being plugged into earth...or heaven. He is plugged into that which fills him with a love and guidance from within.
Paul was tapping into the power of true enthusiasm. We might think of enthusiasm as simply an emotional state. But the word is actually derived from that which means “in” and “theos” which is the Greek word for God. So it means “in God”ness... the nature of being filled or consumed with God.
As you and I consider how we move forward from this season... we need that which fills us from within... that divine calling. We need to make our eternal relationship our central relationship. Make life here the beginning of your eternal relationship with God. [4]
Whatever we do with God...will be lasting.
Let’s make our eternal relationship our central relationship.
CLOSING:
Let me close this portion of our time... with the central point. God is calling us forward.
Again... this is more of a season than a moment.
But he is ultimately calling us forward.
When a parent begins to teach a little life to learn to walk... what do they do? Well...they will hold them up… pointed forward…and help them develop their walking legs.
It’s funny to watch.
There are really two elements… face forward…and take steps.
And this begins a life that is moving forward.
As basic as it may seem as we grow older… in the spiritual life... it’s easy to lose this basic aspect of life.
I wonder if we are really moving forward … taking steps forward.
I wonder if some of us aren’t more like the baby who sits down...and decides to quit.
I wonder what God sees when he looks at me.
Today God is calling us to face forward... and take steps.
PRAYER
Notes:
1. Jesus said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62. You aren’t committed if you are focused on what is behind you.
2. God’s people often complained about things not being like the past...idealized it...but God spoke of “new things.”
3. Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
Access a different level of thinking by assessing your current situation from a new viewpoint.
When you step back from your life... and look from a bit of a distance, you see things from a different perspective. So think about where you are, what got you here, and what you really want.
4. There is a life we build on our own that may look impressive...but they don’t really have eternal weight unless they are part of what God is building.
As the Psalmist writes,
“Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.” - Psalm 127:1
