Let me begin with this: It is called “Life’s Tough Questions to ponder!”
1. Why is the third hand on a watch called the second hand?
2. If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how would we even know it?
3. Why do we say that something is out of whack? What is a whack?
4. Why does “slow down” and “slow up” mean the same thing?
5. What does “fat chance” and “slim chance” mean the same thing?
6. Why do tug boats push their barges?
7. Why do we sing, “take me out to the ball game,” when we are already there?
8, Why are they called :stands” when they are made for sitting?
9. Why is it called “after dark” when it is really after light?
10. Doesn’t expecting the unexpected make the unexpected, expected?
11. Why are a “wise man” and a “wise guy” opposites?
12. Why is “Phonics” not spelled the way it sounds?
Let me add ANOTHER QUESTION that has bothered me over the years: Why do believers let
the past interfere with experiencing the Will Of God in the present? Specifically, Why do we let
past sins and failures block us from God’s best?
Over the last two weeks Gus has shared how valuable and vital the Word of God is in the life of a
believer. This morning I want to take it a step further by showing you how practical the
Scriptures are as they address the needs and questions of our lives - specifically the question that I
just posed. .Please turn in your BIBLES to Phil. 3:12-14 - familiar verses that I want us to read
together as the truth that we will consider this morning.
I have noticed over the years that when it comes to past sins and failures that we tend either to
IGNORE them or WALLOW in them. Let me help you this morning with the idea of trying to
ignore past sins and failures: TURN to the person on your right and tell them. “You’ve messed
up!” Now turn to the person on your left and tell them the same thing. Now turn to the person in
the middle and tell them, “You’ve really messed up!” The key question is whether or not you
believe what you have just heard and rather than ignore your past sins and failures - confess them
to the Only One who can forgive them! (I Jn. 1:9)
The opposite is also true - some people tend to WALLOW in their past sins and failures. They
have a hard time believing that God could and would ever forgive them, so they keep a record
even when God does not. They have somehow swallowed the line from the Deceiver that goes
like this: “You’ve failed - that makes you a failure - therefore you can’t do anything right!” What
a lie and what a tragedy for the child of God to believe that. Yes we fail, we sin but that does not
make us failures; we are simply believers who sin and fail and by the grace of God can be
forgiven, cleansed and on with God’s program in our lives.
Look at the text: Paul simply says, past sins and failures - FORGET THEM! To forget is to
forgive! After all, God already has. By the way, notice how Paul puts it, “Not that I have already
obtained or have already been made perfect.” How many of you live with a Perfectionist? Please
notice that this is the way that a perfectionist says, “I’ve messed up!”
Paul is not only urging us to forget and forgive our past sins and failures but also to forget and
forgive the SINS COMMITTED AGAINST US. We are pros at compiling a record of wrongs
done to us. We carefully file every sin committed against us just in case we will need the
information at a later date. You know, the exchange that begins, “Remember when . . .” So we
have the files carefully stored away - files on our spouse. children , parents, friends and even a
pastor. Why? Could it be that we are looking for an excuse not to be involved in ministry? You
know, “I could never serve along side of (name) because he or she . . .” I have known whole
churches in the past who were stagnate because they could not get beyond the excuses that
unforgiveness provided them. We generate files like you might find on a floppy disk (Show disk).
To really forget and forgive the others in my life so that I can get on with God’s program means
that I must destroy the records! Destroy them in such a way that they can never be used again.
(Cut the disk) After all, that is what the Lord does when He forgives and forgets our sin! It is the
only way to get rid of the anger, resentment and bitterness that accumulates with years of
unforgiveness.
The text tells us that the idea of forgetting the past and forgiving ourselves and others is ONLY
HALF of the process of getting on with God’s program in our lives. Do you remember the old
“MOON WALK” (Have Mike demonstrate) People do not walk this way, WHY? simply
because they will bump into things - their focus is all wrong - they need to FACE FORWAED!
That is what Paul is saying in the next part of these verses - “I press on toward . . .”
That sure sounds great, but what does it mean? What is the “high calling” or the GOAL of the
Christian life anyway? Paul clarifies the goal in Romans 8:29 (READ) Did you catch it? God
wants to make you and me like Jesus! His masterplan is to have a whole host of little Jesus’
running around to show this world His idea of what He created the human race to be. He is
fashioning your life to build the character of Christ in you so that everything that He allows to
come into your life is part of the tooling to make you like Jesus. That means He has placed you
as a Jesus in your home, in your workplace. as a parent to your kids and a partner to your spouse.
You want purpose to your life - This is it! There is no higher calling; there is no greater goal!
Look at verse 33 - we discover that God will Marshall all the resources of heaven to guarantee
that we become like His Son and then as you look at the verses that conclude chapter eight of
Romans , we also discover that NOTHING will interfere with the completion of the job because
the project is encased in His love, Look at the list of the possible saboteurs, By the way, let me
ask you, How is His Jesus Project progressing? Are you more like Jesus this week than you were
last week, today more than yesterday?
Some of you have wondered since we began this morning what this SHOVEL is doing here. Let
me try to pull all this truth together by telling you a favorite story. There was a farmer who had a
mule who fell into a deep well. The farmer decided that neither the mule or the well was worth
saving. He simply decided to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery. So he
called together his neighbors and procured a few truck loads of dirt and they all began to shovel.
As the dirt hit the back of the mule, the mule thought, I’ll just shake it off and step up! So that is
what the mule did; every time a shovel full of dirt hit his back, he simply shook it off and stepped
up. After a while of doing this, the mule was able to triumphantly step out of the old well.
Focusing on past sins and failures will BURY US unless we learn to shake them off and step up.
Paul’s way of saying “shake it off and step up” is “forget what is behind and press on.” The past
can easily bury us or God can bless us if we simply use the past as a springboard to press on.”
The choice is yours this morning. (PRAYER)
