Trusting God For 2025

"Trusting God for 2025"

CCCAG 12-29-24

Scripture: Philippians 3:13-14

Introduction-

The last Sunday of 2024!

A lot of changes this year

Our church family saw a few changes-

• Keith and Marvin have gone onto their eternal reward.

• Roberta, Matthew, and Doris moved out of the area.

• In our country, we lived through the weirdest election season I have ever seen.

• If I passed a microphone around, many of us could tell of personal stories and situations that challenged us in a unique way.

Talking with a lot of people, they say the same thing-

It’s getting so exhausting, and many people have told me how tired they constantly feel, even to the point of being perpetually tired of life.

I feel you. In fact, sometimes I resemble that remark- you feel so exhausted with the constant battles that you just want to pull up the covers in the morning and say, “Not today- I’m taking a day off of life to recover.”

If that is you this morning, this message is for you. God has some encouragement for you in HIS Word this morning.

In the bible, many of the people expressed exhaustion, frustration, irritation, and hopelessness over their current situation.

One of the things we see is that many of them were held back

because of mistakes or events that were so traumatic and emotionally devastating that they felt that their lives were essentially over.

Again, If that is you this morning- I encourage you to let God’s WORD refresh you and encourage you so that you have HIS perspective.

Someone in the bible who often struggled with these same thoughts was the apostle Paul.

Paul was probably the person least likely to ever join the Christian church, much less become its greatest influencer.

He was trained in the IVY league school of his time. From a wealthy family who was well respected, and an up-and-coming rabbi within the Jewish ruling class.

He was so well respected, that he was given the task of stamping out this new religious movement centered around this man named Jesus, and in his own words, he said that “he was very zealous”.

In the book of Philippians, Paul is talking about how he lived in rebellion against God while thinking he was doing God’s will, but then found out the truth when he met Jesus. Everything for him changed. Before he met Jesus, he had all of these worldly credentials and fame, but now he considers it to be worthless, and he has a new life focus-

Scripture Reading: CSB

Php 3:10-14 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead,

(14) I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Prayer

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Introduction: (Title) Trusting God for the Journey Ahead

There is a truth in life-

Your Focus determines your direction in life.

It’s like target shooting with a bow or with a gun- what you focus on the most is where that arrow or bullet will land. You are on target, getting ready to release or to pull the trigger and you hear a noise to your right and shift your focus that way, what happens?

You are missing what you are aiming at.

That’s why managing our life focus is so important for us, and will be critical for us to survive and thrive in the year ahead.

I say survive AND THRIVE.

I don’t want to just barely make it- I want to live in such a way that Jesus is magnified through my life.

One of the ways we can start to thrive in this next year is in

Forgetting what is behind-

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I. Forgetting What Lies Behind

The first step scripture gives us to thrive in 2025 is in , “forgetting what lies behind.” This doesn’t mean we erase our memories or ignore the lessons of the past. Instead, it means we choose not to let past failures, regrets, or even successes hinder us from moving forward in God’s plan.

The first way we do that is to

1. Letting Go of Regrets

o Illustration:

Imagine this last year- every time you made a mistake, or sinned, you had to add a brick to a backpack you are carrying.