“No More Excuses”
Philippians 3:13-14
Introduction
Philippians 3:13-14
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
KJV
If you’ve competed in sports at all, you probably know what I’m talking about when I refer to what’s called ‘loser’s limp’. In ‘loser’s limp’, a wide receiver will go out to catch a ball and drops the pass. But when he gets up, he gets up limping. There’s nothing wrong with him at all. He’s trying to camouflage is failure. He’s trying to make it appear that the reason he dropped the ball was because he had a pulled muscle or a cramp or something like that. His limp becomes his excuse for his failure. There are lot of people walking around in life who have what I call, ‘loser’s limp’. There isn’t a thing in the world wrong with them. But they are going around limping through life. They are making excuses for their failures---making excuses for the things they know they should do but for some reason do not get done.
Well, that’s exactly what I am calling us today to get rid of---to get rid of that ‘loser’s limp’---to get rid of those excuses.
In today’s message call me, “The Excuse Terminator” because I am here today to terminate all of those excuses which you have blamed that kept you from rising to the heights that God wants you to rise to---that kept you from being everything that God would have you to be.
I believe there’s greatness in every single person sitting here today. God does not create junk. God has no respect of persons and you can be successful. I’m here to tell you that you can’t do it making excuses.
At the beginning of each year we make those resolutions. Some people say they aren’t going to make any because people don’t keep them.
I think that’s the wrong attitude to take. You should at least try to improve yourself. Even if you don’t keep it, at least realize that you need to improve and try.
But a lot of people don’t. They make their New Year’s resolution and by mid-February they have forgotten both their resolutions and why they even made it.
Recently, a psychologist was being interviewed on television discussing a theory she was working on. In that interview she was asked why people don’t keep New Year’s resolutions.
She made an interesting statement. She said, “The chief reason people don’t keep their resolutions is because they make the resolutions but then they don’t make any changes to support the resolution.”
You see, you resolve to do something but then if you continue in the same activity you persisted in prior to the resolution, then there is absolutely no difference.
But when you make a resolution then you also have to make some changes that support the resolution which you made.
And you know what? That made a lot of sense to me. So then I started thinking about some Keys to Making a Change in your life. I think it begins with:
1) Dissatisfaction with the Status Quo. If you’re going to change it starts with being dissatisfied with where you are. When a team is tired of losing, they are ready to make a change. When you look at yourself and you’re dissatisfied with something about yourself, then you are ready to make a change. (Dissatisfied with your attitude, then make a change. Dissatisfied with your marriage, then make a change. Dissatisfied with your service to God, then make a change.)
2) There Must be an Awareness of a Better Condition. You know you can do something better. You know you don’t have to stay right here. Perhaps it’s your marriage. It begins with being dissatisfied with the state of that marriage but then you are aware that it can be better. You are aware that it can rise to a new level.
3) Knowledge of How to Improve. You need knowledge of how to get it done. It’s one thing to know you need to be better but if you don’t know how to get better then you won’t get anywhere.
4) Make a Declaration to Change. This is it. Say to yourself, ‘I’ve literally decided, I am going to change. Here is what I am going to do.’
5) Continual Strength and Reinforcement. You have to get up everyday and make a decision that you really are going to be better---that you really are going to do things differently.
The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over expecting a different outcome.
Those are what I call Keys to Making a Change. And it is the changes which support the resolutions which you make. Then the resolutions can become revolutions in your life and you will indeed make a change.
Today, I want to eliminate some of those excuses you’ve been making. I want to eliminate some of those excuses that have kept you in the land of mediocrity---that have kept you from being everything God wants you to be.
Eliminate all Excuses Regarding Your Past
Notice what Paul says again in verse 13, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,….”
It’s sort of like going into your backyard and picking up a piece of wood. Maybe that piece of wood is lying beside an air conditioner or something. You’ve probably been walking by that piece of wood for months. You probably thought nothing was going on as far as that piece of wood was concerned. Then one day you decide you’re going to move that piece of wood. You pick it up and notice that all kinds of varmints start scurrying in all different directions.
It looked as though there was no activity whatsoever but once you picked up that piece of wood, everything went everywhere.
And that’s really what many of us need to do with our lives. We need to pick up our lives and try to discover what’s hiding under them.
Do you know what you’ll discover in many cases? You’ll discover that a lot of people are hiding behind their past.
Some are hiding behind a rejection that happened in the past.
Some are hiding behind a terrible, devastating event that happened in their past.
I don’t know what it may be but a lot of people are like that.
We are basically our past. It is our past that has groomed us and made us what we are.
What we are today is based on the decisions of our past. It’s based on the influences of our past. All of these kinds of things converge upon us to make us who we are.
But if you aren’t very careful, your present and your future can become victimized by your past.
That’s exactly the way it is with a lot of people. They blame how they grew up. They blame what they went through. They blame the way their parents reared them; a tragedy that happened early in their life; the fact that they lost their mother or father at an early age or the fact that they lost their job. But we have to come to the point where we eliminate the excuse or our past.
Paul says, “…but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,….”
Of course, I’m not denying that something happened in your past. It may have been a traumatic divorce or a difficult rejection.
But what I am saying is that you can take those things and overcome them rather than be an underachiever as a result of your past.
You can’t continue being held down by the millstone of your past any longer.
So you didn’t get the degree that you wanted. So you didn’t’ finish school. So you were released from that job. So that relationship didn’t work out. So that guy walked away and left you. I don’t care what it is, you cannot continue to live chained to the past.
My great example for this is Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph had a very, painful past. Every part (most of it, at least) of that painful past was not his fault. You remember what he went through. He could have used that past to cover the rest of his life. He had a very serious sibling rivalry because his father expressed more love to him than to the other children. Because of that there was jealousy and envy, almost hatred from his brothers. Do you remember how they took him out and buried him alive? They threw him into a pit but instead of killing him they sold him to some passing Ishmaelites who took him into Egypt. When he got there he started working and the Lord blessed him. He was working in Potipher’s house when he was falsely accused. Then he was thrown into prison and forgotten while he was there. He really went through it. It was 13 years later before he ascended and became ruler over all the land of Egypt. He was a 17 year boy when all of this started and now here he is a 30 year old young man, looking back on all of those years of his past. Even when he was in prison, he spoke to someone and said, “I was sent here without a cause. I didn’t do anything to deserve this. Remember me when you are released.” He could have used his past that would have literally buried him the rest of his life but he didn’t.
Joseph had two main weapons. And it was these two weapons that propelled him beyond his past. These same two weapons will propel you. Even though there is a lot of stress in your life, these weapons will obliterate that stress and cause you to rise and be everything that God wants you to be.
1) Weapon #1 – God’s Presence. Even as he was going through this, just listen to this:
a. Genesis 39:2, “And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
b. Genesis 39:21, “But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.”
He was rejected by his brothers but accepted by the Lord.
Even though he had all of that in his past, the Bible says the Lord was with him.
May I suggest to you today from the depths of my heart that this is exactly the weapon you have.
You have the very presence of the Lord! No matter what you’ve faced in your past, God was right with you. And God is still with you. The Bible says he blessed him and he prospered him. Here was a rejected man in the eyes of his family but he was an accepted man in the eyes of the Lord.
If your past has become your dictator then you need to change dictators.
The song writer said…
‘Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.’
Don’t use your past as an excuse.
Do you know what the Lord is saying to you? “I was with you. Through that terrible divorce, I was with you. When you lost your job, I was with you. When your mother died, I was with you. When you went through a situation where you were falsely accused, I was with you. Show me one time in your past when you went through something and you had to go through it alone.”
David said, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” ---Psalm 37:25
I imagine some of you here who are in your 60’s,70’s , have walked with God for so long, you can’t remember a time when the Lord wasn’t with you.
I imagine you surely have a testimony. It’s a glorious thing to know God has been with me.
What a testimony! How can your past be so negative that you have forgotten the very presence of the Lord?
Through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus. Through it all, I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.
No matter what we’ve gone through; no matter what our families have gone through; no matter what situation we face, God has been with us.
We have the mighty weapon of the presence of the almighty God. In addition to the presence of God, Joseph had another weapon. There was no reason for him to use his past as an excuse because he had:
2) Weapon #2 – God’s Providence. That is, God’s control. God’s overriding hand over all of the affairs of his life. How do we know that? Let me show it to you, Genesis 45:5-7, “5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.”
What Joseph is saying is that this is the providence of God. It was not you (speaking to his brothers) that sent me here, but God.
He’s made me a father to Pharaoh; Lord of over His house and ruler throughout the land of Egypt. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
In Genesis, 50:19-20, “19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? 20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”
Do you see what Joseph did? He looked at his past in light of God’s providence. He said, my past is a part of the providence of God.
What he’s is saying is that, ‘I can’t be upset over what happened in my past because now I realize God was in control all the time.’
That’s a good word. You can’t be upset over what happened to you in 2004.
God was in control all the time. It may not have been a banner year for you. You may have gone through some trials. You may have gone through some difficulties but guess what? God was in control all the time. How do I know that?
Because He tells us in His Word that, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” --- Romans 8:28
So you see, Joseph looks at his past in light of God’s providence. God will take your past lemons and make lemonade. But He can’t do it if you’re holding on to the lemons.
What God is saying is, ‘I want to take your past and I want to use it to make you better. But I can’t because you won’t let go of your past. You won’t let me have that past. You’re too busy living in it. You’re too busy using it as an excuse. You’re too busy blaming that ex-husband—that ex-wife. You’re too busy blaming that stepmother. You’re too busy blaming how you grew up. You’re too busy blaming that old boss. You’re too busy blaming this and blaming that and you wonder why you have no joy or peace.’
Don’t take that into a brand New Life! Philippians 3:13, “…forgetting those things which are behind,…” God wants to take all of that and mend you. He wants to repair you.
One of the things we keep around the house is super glue. I’m an expert when it comes to super glue because I’m always breaking something.
The very thing I don’t want to break, I break. Then I’ll get some of that super glue, glue it back together. If you walked in and saw the item I broke you would think it was brand new.
You don’t know anything about it. But it’s just super glued back together.
Well, there’s some divine super glue. What God wants to do is take your broken, cracked past and super glue it right back together again.
He wants to take the cracks of that domineering mother that you had and super glue your life right back together.
He wants to take the cracks of that careless or uncaring father or those unruly siblings that you may have had and all of those bad, negative expressions that went into your psyche, apply some divine super glue to your broken life and put you back together again.
It doesn’t matter how bad that spouse was. It doesn’t matter how bad you were mistreated. It doesn’t matter that you were called everything but a child of God. It doesn’t matter how you were discouraged. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t cared about.
It doesn’t matter that you were cheated on and criticized. God says, ‘I can use it to put you back together again!’ Get rid of that excuse!
Because of the weapon of God’s Presence and the weapon of God’s Providence He can take your past and catapult you into greatness.
It doesn’t matter how ominous the skies may be above you. And it doesn’t matter how terrible your past may seem to be. Don’t make anymore excuses regarding your past.
