email: cholt@gt.rr.com
FORGETTING THE THINGS WHICH ARE BEHIND
Phil. 3:13
Introduction: I’ve tried very hard for the past week to find a suitable text for this service. Because we are here to talk about the beginning of a New Year, I wanted to say something that is meaningful, something that would provide food for thought in the days ahead. I searched back into my old files to see if I had something that would be appropriate for this service. I found, and carefully evaluated two or three sermon notes that I used at other times, but nothing fit. As I prayed and thought about it, several passages of Scripture came to mind that could provide an excellent launching pad for a worthwhile New Year’s Eve sermon. For example:
1. Exodus 12:1-2 -- "…it shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first of the year to you." Now that’s got all the right elements. Even the words "the first of the year" are right there in the text. I could talk about where they had been and where they were going, throw in a few good stories, and it would provide several for facing the New Year. But it wasn’t the text I was looking for. So I moved on.
2. Joshua 1:2,3 -- "Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them (the children of Israel). Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses." This occurs when Joshua takes over from Moses to lead the children of Israel across the Jordan into Canaan. It has lots of potential. It was a new beginning, a new challenge. I could talk about the past and their struggles to get to this point; of the challenges that lay ahead. Add a few stories and it would be a good New Year’s Eve message. But I didn’t feel good about that one either. So I moved on.
3. Joshua 5:9-12 -- "…this day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you…" Wow. This one is even better than the first, I thought. There are lots of things that need to roll away from us as we face a New Year. The reproach of complaining, doubting, lack of faith, lack of trust, prayerlessness, etc. are prime candidates for being rolled away as we enter into a New Year. The possibilities are almost limitless. As easy as it might be to use that as a text for this service I didn’t feel right about it either. Next I thought about an experience in the life of the great Samuel and the children of Israel when the Lord delivered them from their enemies.
4. 1 Samuel 7:12 -- "…and called its name Ebenezer, saying, ’Thus far the LORD has helped us" (NKJV). "Hitherto hath the LORD helped us" (AV). I have used that text before, not at New Year’s. It calls for us to reflect upon how the Lord has helped us, delivered us, supplied our needs, etc., etc. It is a good reminder as we face a New Year to know that we have had the help of the Lord up to this point and we may confidently believe He will continue to lead, guide, and supply every need in the coming year. But, no, I had to move on.
5. Haggai 2:3-7 -- "…how do you see it now…? Or, "How does it look to you now?" This text nearly got me. It has great potential like the others I have mentioned. I could see several points just jumping out of this passage. We could talk about how we are standing at the end of this year. We’ve had some successes, failures; some hopes and dreams, disappointments and sorrows -- looking back, how does it look to you now? We could talk about the coming year. What are our expectations, what do we see for the New Year? What are the prospects for the New Year? Do you see clouds, or sunshine? Do you see despair, or hope? I could incorporate the following illustration to make the point that we should expect to "see" something good in the New Year.
Illustration: Behavioral scientists have discovered that we usually see things that we are prepared to see, and that this is all centered in a network of nerve cells called the "Reticular Activating System." And everybody here today has a "Reticular Activating System."
It works like this: Once something has been brought to your attention and you have been prepared to see it, you will see it virtually everywhere you go. E.g., a new car. When you decide about a new car you begin to see them almost everywhere.
This happens in other areas of our lives. We see what we are prepared to see. If we are prepared to see doom and gloom in this New Year that’s what we’ll see. If, on the other hand, we have prepared ourselves to see sunshine and opportunities, then that is what we are going to see. If we see ourselves as failures, if we see ourselves as weak and sickly, chances are pretty good that that’s what we’ll be.
We all look at ourselves. How do you look to yourself? Who are you on the inside? What do you see? Someone who is weak and constantly failing or someone who isn’t worth very much?
Or do you see yourself as an eager, optimistic person who can hardly wait for the next day to begin because there are so many things to do? What do you see when you look at yourself?
We can go around saying, "Well, that’s the way I am. You’ll just have to accept me this way." Nothing is further from the truth. God can change us, if we will let Him work His will in our lives.
This passage could produce a real challenge for us as we think about the past and look at the challenges of a New Year but I couldn’t stop there either. I moved on.
6. Ephesians 5:15-17 -- "…walk carefully…as wise…redeeming the time…be not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is." Now that’s a heavy-duty exhortation. You see for yourself the points Paul makes: (1) Walk carefully (2) Be wise (3) Redeem the time (4) Understand what the will of the Lord is. On the last point of understanding the will of the Lord, for example, have we known His will for us in the past year? Do we know what His will is for the New Year? But I can’t stay there because another passage beckons.
7. Philippians 3:12-13 -- Here is the passage that caught my attention. It contains some applications for us that I believe are pertinent to this moment. You are familiar with them. From the New King James Version, beginning at verse 12.
"Not that I have already attained,…but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead…" etc.
It’s the phrase, "forgetting those things which are behind" that I want to talk about for the next little while.
The New Living Translation says: No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.
There are a lot of problems associated with forgetting the past. To this we may all bear witness. Some will say it is impossible to forget the past. Why then consider it at all? We need to consider it, not because it is an impossible task, but because it is possible to attain it and because of the benefits and blessings we will receive by doing it.
One of the things that makes this hard lies deep within the neurological wiring of our brain. Dr. Wilber Penfield, director of the Montreal Neurological Institute, said in a report to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC: "Your brain contains a permanent record of your past that is like a single, continuous strip of moving film…The film library records your whole waking life from childhood on. You can relive those scenes from your past, one at a time…[feeling] exactly the same emotions you did during the original experience."
It is important, I think, to understand at the outset that when Paul talks about forgetting the past he is not referring to erasing the past. Those of you who are familiar with how a computer handles the information that we input to its memory know that there is a "delete" key that is used to remove information we don’t want stored in the computer. To some, "delete" means to remove permanently as if it was erased, completely purged. This doesn’t happen. When a person hits the "delete" key the information disappears from the screen but it is still in the computer’s memory. Although it has been deleted it may still be found. The information is not erased or permanently and irrecoverably gone. It can be recovered. We cannot erase our past. This does not mean we cannot forget the past in the sense that Paul has in mind.
What is Paul saying when he tells us to forget the things that are in the past? It sounds like a contradiction. We are asked to do something that seemingly is neurologically, psychologically, mentally and emotionally impossible.
I believe Paul is saying that we are to forget the past in the sense that we do not allow our past failures, hurts, and disappointments to keep us from experiencing God’s best for our lives today. For many, their past is holding them hostage. They are being held hostage by past failures, mistakes, and disappointments.
Let me illustrate: Once at a divorce recovery seminar I spoke on the subject of "Divorce and the Phantom Leg." One portion of my talk was on, "Will the divorce ever be over?" I said,
So, the question remains: "When will the divorce be over?" The answer: "It depends."
I read of one case where a woman came in asking for orders against her ex-husband. She was haggard with emotion, nervous and upset to the point that she seemed ill. Trembling, she related at length how bad her ex-husband was, how ever since their divorce he had been poisoning her son’s mind against her and was constantly interfering with their relationship. She seemed a bit old to have a young child at home, so the attorney interrupted and asked the age of her son.
"He’s just turned 32," she said.
"Oh," said the attorney, "And how long ago was the divorce?"
"About 17 years," she said.
This woman had made her divorce a career, a way of life!
And there’s the lady, in her 70s, who still talks with surprise about how her husband up and left her in 1945. She remembers exactly what he said what she was wearing, how they had tickets for the theater the next day. She describes the scene as though it were yesterday.
In our text, Paul is encouraging us to break out of the hostage situation. He is saying, "don’t allow the past to hold you in bondage. Don’t be a prisoner of your past." He offers himself as the best example of this concept. Despite his misguided persecution of the Church, which could have resulted in immense and debilitating personal guilt, He did not succumb to its power to imprison him. He said,
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly
a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent [violently arrogant] man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 1:12-14 NKJV).
His testimony provides a window of hope for anyone who would insist "I am who I am, I cannot change…my circumstances, my situation is set in concrete it cannot change." Look at me," Paul says. "See the grace of God at work." Past blunders, mistakes, failures and hurts need not have a stranglehold on your life. Grace is a key that opens the door to freedom from the tyranny of the past. In essence he is saying that the "exceedingly abundant grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" is available to everyone who wants to "close some doors of yore." God’s grace is as freely available today as then. God’s grace will allow us to move past our failures. If not, our failures may keep us from experiencing God’s best today.
Henry Ford understood the importance of moving past our failures. He said that failure is the "opportunity to begin again, more intelligently."
Let’s do a little word study here. The words forget, forgot, forgetting, etc. are all part of the same family. In The American Heritage Dictionary forgetting means
1. To be unable to remember (something)
2. To treat with thoughtless inattention, i.e., neglect
3. To leave behind unintentionally
4. To fail to mention
5. To banish from one’s thoughts; forget a disgrace
6. To disregard on purpose
7. To cease remembering
From these variations of meanings I see the possibilities of doing what our text exhorts us to do. For example, we can "treat with thoughtless inattention, i.e., neglect" to dwell upon hurts, failures, disappointments, etc. We can intentionally leave them behind …deliberately "fail to mention" them. We can, by strength of purpose or resolve, i.e., "disregard on purpose" what has been said or done.
This is basically what Paul is telling us in Phil 3:7-14 when he uses phrases such as, "I counted [considered] loss for Christ…I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ…and do count them but dung…I follow after…I press…I strain forward to what lies ahead…I press on toward the goal."
Illustration: Over a century ago, Robert Louis Stevenson devised a number of rules to help people to live happier, more productive lives. These rules may be a century or more old, but they are still excellent guidelines. Two or three of them have a direct application to our present subject. He wrote:
1. Make up your mind to be happy - learn to find pleasure in simple things.
2. Make the best of circumstances. No one has everything, and everyone has something of sorrow.
3. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
4. Don’t let criticism worry you - you can’t please everybody.
5. Don’t let your neighbors set your standards - be yourself.
6. Do things you enjoy doing, but stay out of debt.
7. Don’t borrow trouble. Imaginary things are harder to bear than actual ones.
8. Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish enmities and grudges.
9. Avoid people who make you unhappy.
10.Have many interests. If you can’t travel, read about places.
11.Don’t hold postmortems or spend time brooding over sorrows and mistakes.
12.Don’t be the one who never gets over things.
13. Keep busy at something. A very busy person never has time to be unhappy.
WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO FORGET
THOSE THINGS THAT ARE BEHIND
1. Looking back encourages the possibility of going back. Luke 9:62 says, "But Jesus said to him, ’No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (NKJV). When the Israelites left Egypt under the leadership of Moses. It wasn’t long before they ached with intense longing and desire for the flesh pots in Egypt, (Exodus 16:2,3). "Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, ’Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’" (And see also Numbers 11:4,5…we remember the fish, etc.)
2. It was so with Lot’s wife. "Remember Lot’s wife" (Lk. 17:32 NKJV). The message to Lot and his wife was clear, "Escape for your life! Do not look behind you…" (Gen. 19:17 NKJV).
3. When the children of Israel faced the Red Sea, with Pharaoh in hot pursuit, they were terrified. "And the LORD said to Moses, ’Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward’" (Gen. 14:15 NKJV). God is all about deliverance and moving ahead. Faith faces forward. Faith moves out of the Egypt of slavery to feelings of failure, disappointment, and all kinds of bondage.
In my message tonight I have tried to be as positive as possible about facing the challenge of "forgetting the things that are past." I have tried to say we do not have to be held in bondage by our past. There is hope for deliverance. There is hope for change. There is hope for closing the door on the past that made you a hostage, a victim, instead of a victor. Before I close I want to talk about one of the most beautiful and encouraging stories found in the Old Testament that bears witness to what I am saying. I want to talk about Joseph.
Even a casual reader will find the story of Joseph compelling. It is full of love, hope, dreams (literally), betrayal, mental and physical suffering and ultimately triumph over some of the worst adversities that could befall an innocent person. It took years for the story to unfold, years that were marked by success and failure, hope and despair. He is a role model for faith, tenacity, devotion, purity, patience, and trust. Scripture says, "He [i.e., God] sent a man before them--Joseph--who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons. Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him" (Ps. 105:17-19 NKJV). Was he ever tested! Some of you can relate very well with Joseph’s tests. I also hope that some will relate to Joseph’s ultimate victory over his adversities.
Was Joseph tested beyond recovery? Was he tested beyond repair? Was he tested beyond hope of their ever being any change in his circumstances? If it ever became necessary to forgive, was he tested beyond the ability to forgive? Was he tested beyond the ability to "forget those things that were behind," to put it all safely, securely, away without it ever bugging him daily with thoughts of regret, or even revenge? Was he tested beyond being able to sleep at night, to toss and turn as his mind raced with thoughts of failure and feelings of hopelessness? He may have felt all these things at one time or another. Ultimately, however, he turned the corner. Ultimately he came to the place where he would say, "forgetting those things which are in the past, I reach with excitement for the things that are before me." How? What was the turning point in Joseph’s life?
And to Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came,whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore him. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: "For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house." And the name of the second he called Ephraim: "For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction"
(Gen. 41:50-52 NKJV).
God gave Joseph two living testimonies in the form of two lovely sons. Joseph recognized that both of these boys were God’s provision to help him get on with his life. These boys were the key to his finding the joy of victory in forgetting his past. He named the first Manasseh. The name means "causing to forget," or, "forgetting." The second son was named Ephraim, which means "fruitful in the land of my affliction."
I see a beautiful application unfolding here. God can--or He may have already done it--give you a "Manasseh" and an "Ephraim." In other words, God can give you a blessing--some form of blessing--that will cause you to say, "I CAN forget, or better…I HAVE forgotten!" I will not even attempt to name something, to formulate something, that would fit this concept. I want the Holy Spirit to make it real to your faith. I simply want to say to those who may have despaired, who may be held as a hostage to something in the past, who feel that they have failed in some area--I want to say God has a "Manasseh" and an "Ephraim" for you. You can both forget the past misery, despair, disappointment, hurts, and heartaches and enjoy the freedom that each brings. At the same time you can say, "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction." Use your "Manesseh" and your "Ephraim" to unlock the prison of your past hurts and disappointments.
IN CONCLUSION: Let me reiterate, review, some of the things I have said in this message.
1. We cannot live in the past. We may visit there, but to live there is to die.
2. We can leave the past but we cannot erase it.
3. The past cannot be erased but it can be forgotten.
4. We are to forget the past in the sense that we do not allow our past failures, hurts, and disappointments to keep us from experiencing God’s best for our lives today.
5. Don’t allow your past (successes or failures) to hold you hostage.
6. God’s grace is a key to deliverance.
7. Forgetting the past is a deliberate act of our purpose and will. We leave it behind intentionally. We banish it from our thoughts. We deliberately disregard it. We cease to remember.
8. Paul uses the word "count all things loss" etc. He "considered" them gone.
9. Robert Louis Stevenson said, "Make up your mind to be happy - learn to find pleasure in simple things." He said, "Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish enmities and grudges" and "Don’t hold postmortems or spend time brooding over sorrows and mistakes." He also said, "Don’t be the one who never gets over things."
10. God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit is available resources to anyone who "with purpose of heart" (see Acts 11:23) will seek the joy and freedom of "forgetting those things which are past."
The key to it all is found in one sentence from Isaiah 1:19 where the Holy Spirit says: "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land" (NKJV).
