“Seize The Moment”And “Live Life to the Fullest”
Phil. 3:7-16
Pastor Greg Mc Donald
A young soldier and his commanding officer got on a train together. The only available seats were across from an attractive young women who was traveling with her grandmother. As they engaged in pleasant conversation, the soldier and the young woman kept eyeing one another; the attraction was obviously mutual. Suddenly the train went into a tunnel and the car became pitch black.
Immediately two sounds were heard: the “smack” of a kiss, and the “whack” of a slap across the face. The grandmother thought “I can’t believe he kissed my granddaughter, but I’m glad she gave him the slap he deserved.”
The commanding officer thought, “I don’t blame the boy for kissing girl, but it’s a shame that she missed his face and hit me instead.”
The young girl thought, “I’m glad he kissed me, but I wish my grandmother hadn’t slapped him for doing it.”
And as the train broke into the sunlight, the soldier could not wipe the smile off his face. He had just seized the opportunity to kiss a pretty girl and slap his commanding officer and had gotten away with both!
Now, that young soldier knew how seize the opportunity! In the same way, we must take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way to fulfill our purpose in life.
Unfortunately, many times we get so caught up in the details of every day to day living that we just don’t have the time to seize the moment!
We’ve got deadlines and commitments, problems, and priorities, distractions and obstacles, and though we really want more fulfillment from each day, it just doesn’t seem to be within our grasp.
No one wants life to be just average, at least not many of us are willing to admit it. But by nature, we want our lives to be full and prosperous.
Advertisers know about this basic human desire that we have and produce it into slogans: Who Says You Can’t Have It All, Just Do It, Satisfy Your Thirst, Life Is A Journey - Enjoy The Ride and so on.
I believe this was the Apostle Paul’s philosophy on life and in Phil.3 he puts it easily within our grasp. Here he describes his own philosophy of life.
Read Phil. 3:7-16
If we would only learn to follow his example here in this scripture, we can learn to make the most of every opportunity and live life to the fullest, no matter how hectic your life may seem.
Paul shows us three simple ways in these verses to live a more fulfilling life.
1) Find Your Purpose.
If I were to ask everyone in this room today “What is your purpose in life?” I would probably get several different answers. “Be a good wife or husband, be a good mother or father, do my job better, be a good teacher, nurse, mechanic, salesperson, and so on.”
Those answers would be good, but they are all secondary purposes. The question is what is your primary purpose in life? In other words, what is your reason for living? Everything in creation has a primary purpose, or a reason for existing. For anyone or anything to be successful, it must fulfill that purpose.
Here’s an easy question. What is the primary purpose of an ink pen? The answer, of course, is to write. Here is a $3.00 gold engraved pen that is out of ink. It may be pretty to look at, but it is a failure as a pen; it is not fulfilling its purpose. It is useless.
So what will you do when the time comes to sign your paycheck that you desperately need come payday, and this pen doesn’t work? You’ll bypass the nice looking gold pen, and use a $.29 Bic that works.
That may seem like a simple illustration, but just as a pen has a primary purpose, every individual that God has created has a primary purpose. Our lives will be without meaning - we’ll be failures - unless we find out what is our purpose ... our reason for living.
Paul stated his reason for living ... Read (vv.10-11).
Paul is saying “I want to know Christ so that I may be like Him.” Simply put, Paul’s reason for living was to be like Jesus. This is also to be our reason for living.
Orison Swett Marden said, “There’s no greater sight in the world than that of a person fired with a great purpose, dominated by one unwavering aim.” If this statement describes anyone of us here today, then we would certainly be learning to “seize each and every moment.”
There’s a second step Paul shows us in Phil.3. In developing the ability to “seize the moment.” Every day of our lives, he says we must:
2) Forget The Past (READ v.13). There are two elements of the past that we must forget.
First: “Forget the Bad.” Paul, just like all of us had a past to forget. He had tortured and murdered many innocent people. He had caused a lot of pain and had done much damage to the cause of Christ.
But, now he was faced with a choice. He could either dwell on his mistakes and let them ruin his life and his chance for effective ministry, or he could forget all about them and move on with his life.
Just like Paul had to make a choice, so do we. Maybe you’ve had a bad experience just lately or maybe you did something long ago that you regret. Maybe the memories keep coming back to haunt you from living a full life today.
Well guess what? Many people have, but we must forget the past!!! Get a revelation. It’s over. It’s done. It’s gone. It can’t hurt you anymore. There’s nothing you can do to change it. The only thing that you can do is, “Forget it and move on.”
Illustration:
On New Years Day, 1929, Georgia Tech was playing California. Late in the second quarter, Roy Regals recovered a fumble for California, and in his excitement became confused and began running in the wrong direction.
After racing 65 yards he was finally tackled by his own player at the California 2 yard line. California attempted to punt from deep in their own end zone, but the kick was blocked and Georgia Tech scored a safety.
In the locker room at half time, Roy Regals sat in the corner with his face buried in his hands, crying. The room was silent. The Coach didn’t make his usual half - time speech, but shortly before the team was to take the field for the second half, he said, “The starting team is going back onto the field to begin the second half.”
The whole team left the locker room except for Regals, who remained in the corner with his face in his hands. “I can’t do it Coach,” he said. “I can’t play. I ruined the team.” The Coach said, “Get up Regals. The game is only half over. You belong on the field.”
Guess what? Our game is only half over. Regardless of the past, we still have the rest of the game to play. So What If The Enemy Scored Off Of You in The Past! God is willing to forget about the mistakes of the first half. And He expects us to do the same!!!
In Isaiah 43:25 it says, “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.”
In Jeremiah 31:34 it says, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Now in forgetting the past. We must not only forget the bad, but we must also:
Second: “Forget the Good.”
Many of you probably have heard and remember the Bruce Springsteen song, “Glory Days,” about the guy who can’t quit thinking about all the fun he had back in high school. He says, “Time slips away and leaves you with nothing but boring stories of Glory Days.”
Many people zero in on one good period of time in their life - and spend the rest of their lives trying to relive the past. Maybe it was high school, college, when you first got married, when the kids were young, and etc.
Surprising enough, this is the same temptation that Christians and the Church give into. So many times I’ve heard people say, “Remember the Good old days” when so and so was still here. O’ how they could pray, and O’ how so and so could sing, and remember when the Pastor was so on fire, and so on!
But you see, Paul knew that a good past was not enough to guarantee a meaningful future. Look at vv.4-7.
Read vv. 4-7 “Emphasize what Paul says in (v.7).”
Paul was saying “I will not live in the past. My reason for living is to be like Jesus, and whatever happened yesterday, good or bad, is now ancient history. I will live for Jesus today.”
One thing we can know for certain is this, “God never consults your past to determine your future.”
Now the third thing found in these scriptures to help us have a more fulfilling life is:
3) Face the Present (Read v.13).
It is easy to live in the past. And it is easy to dream away the future. It’s a real challenge to face the present, because it means we can no longer allow ourselves the luxury of saying, “One of these days I’ll do something about my temper ... my commitment to God ... my health ... my responsibility to my family ... and so on.
In the 11th chapter of John, there is a story I believe must of us are familiar with, that is the story when Jesus’ good friend Lazarus died. When Jesus arrived at the tomb, Lazarus had been dead for four days.
Lazarus’ sister, Martha, came to Jesus and spoke that classic phrase used by people who live in the past: “IF ONLY” She said, “Jesus, if only you had been here my brother would not have died”.
Jesus said to Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha began dreaming about the future and said, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
She knew that Jesus had the power in the past, and she knew that He would have the power in the future, but Martha, like so many of us at times, aren’t quite sure about His Power in the Present Circumstance.
We have no problem believing that Christ performed many miracles in the past, and the greatest one of them all dying on the cross, and raising from the dead on the third day.
We also have no problem believing, that in the future He is coming back again to take us home with Him. But, Why is it we have such a problem believing Him at His Word in the Present Day???
Look At What Jesus Said To Her. (Read John 11:26).
Martha’s reply was, “Yes, Lord”: You say that this morning “Yes Lord”, see that not very hard is it.
Martha said “Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.” By this confession she was saying “Not Just Yesterday, Not Just Tomorrow, But Today I believe that you are the Christ.
It was at that moment that Martha began to face the present and put her faith into action. We need to say Yes Lord We Believe and Put Our Faith Into Action.
Yes Lord, I believe your still my Lilly in the valley,
Yes Lord, I believe your still that still small voice on the Mountain top.
Yes Lord, I Believe you walk us across our Rivers on dry land
Yes Lord, I Believe you still calm the stormy waters.
Yes Lord, I Believe you still raise the dead, heal the blind, deaf, mute, lame, broken hearted, cast out demons, and etc.
Facing the present means that we put our faith in Jesus Christ, and trust Him to be involved in every part of our lives.
Facing the present means that we choose to live life as it comes to us day by day. Not in the past, not in the future, but right here and right now.
God does not want us to waste our lives away. He wants us to “seize the moment” and live every day of our lives with a purpose. He’s given us a reason for living; to be like Jesus.
It’s not going to happen yesterday, so we must forget the past. We can’t put it off till tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes. It has to happen right now, and it will - if we will Seize The Moment and make it our own, and just say “YES LORD, AND BELIEVE.” IF HE DID IT BEFORE, HE’LL DO IT AGAIN!!!
