1.
Phi.3:4b-14 - - As the well-known text in Eccl.3 suggests,
there is a time for everything under heaven.
>>In
the text we’ve just read, we learn that there is a time to forget
some things in life.
>>Paul
said, “I led a life of vanity and ignorance. But I want to know Christ, the power of His
resurrection, the fellowship…”
2.
But Paul realized that he was going to have to put some things behind
him if he was going to be able to do that.
3.
This morning, I have but little doubt that I’m speaking to some folks
who need to put some things behind them.
One of the specific areas we mention may pertain to you.
4.
But first in vv.13-14 of this text, notice that if you want to
put something behind you in life, you must understand what to do and
you must understand how to do it.
>>v.13
= what = connect it with the past and look ahead
(associate it with the past, finally accept that it’s in the past
and little can be done with it at this point)
>>v.14
= how = have a goal
illus: Recently
I read a fable about a dog who loved to chase other animals.
He bragged about his great running skill and said he could catch
anything. Well, it
wasn't long until his boastful claims were put to the test by a certain
rabbit. With ease
the little creature outran his barking pursuer.
The other animals, watching with glee, began to laugh.
The dog excused himself, however, by saying, "You forget, I was
only running for fun. He
was running for his life!"
That does make a difference!
Motivation is the most important factor in everything we do.
I. A TIME TO FORGET…SETBACKS!
1.
There was a book published entitled, When Bad Things Happen to Good
People. A good title because
it implies the things that should be done to overcome.
Too many people want to discuss the topic, Why Bad
Things…”
2.
The Bible brims with examples of those who suffered great setbacks but
kept their faith and did not charge God.
>>Joseph
(set back but overcame, set back but overcame, etc., etc.), Job, Jesus,
Paul, etc.
3.
They all had something in common - - 2Pet.1:3-6
>>“Perseverance”
is a much better translation than the KJV “patience” unless you
understand the original word...
>>hupomone
= hupo (‘under’) + meno (‘abide’)
>>To
have Biblical patience is to have situations in your life that are difficult
to bear but you undergo them, you endure them, you persevere
through them.
4.
Sometimes it’s said, “The Bible teaches that bad things won’t
happen to those who love God.” -
- Rom.8:28
>>This
teaches no such things - - “all things” include good & bad
>>If
Christians will persevere and forget their setbacks, they will find
ultimately that even bad things factored into that great eternal
climax of heaven.
II.
A TIME TO FORGET…SLIGHTS!
1.
Sometimes people slight you, do harm to you, malice,
etc.
2.
There’s a time for confrontation something that has offended
us - - Mtt.18:15
3.
There is a time to forget certain slights and wrongdoings.
And I don’t have the perfect judgment on which situations are such
that we should simply let them go but I know good and well such
situations exists. I know because…
>>Eph.4:26
>>Eph.4:31,32
“Let all
bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with
all malice. And be kind to one
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave
you.”
>>Prov.19:11 “The
discretion of a man makes him slow to anger.
And his glory is to overlook a transgression.”
>>I
wonder if this isn’t involved in Peter’s comment…1Pet.4:7-8 - -
This from the man who originally thought it fantastic to forgive a man seven
times!
Illus:
A
farmer posted a "No Trespassing" sign to keep the neighborhood boys
from crossing his property.
One embittered lad vowed he would get even.
One night he stole onto the farm with a sack of Johnson Grass seed and
sowed it generously in every field.
(Johnson Grass spreads rapidly and is a weed that is almost impossible
to destroy.) A few
years later the boy married the farmer's only daughter.
In a short time the old man died, and the boy inherited the farm.
He spent the rest of his life fighting the Johnson grass he had sown.
(Anonymous)
III.
A TIME TO FORGET…SUCCESS!
1.
When we accomplish great things as God’ s people individually
or as a church, we need to rejoice but...Heb.6:10, but…vv.11-12
2.
Used to, those who were victors in a running race or some great athletic
contest would receive a crown made of leaves and this was called their “laurels…
At least two things happen when God’s people start resting on their
laurels:
3.
...leads to doing nothing - - ignoring God’s will
illus:
I worked with a church that every time someone mentioned the
service of that church to God, they spoke in terms of the past (preachers
that had come from that church, truth they stood for in the 40’s-50’s,
400 membes at one time, etc.).
These are all great things and are not to be underrated but may
what is true with this church always be true and that is they we may speak of
our value in service to God in terms of what we are doing now!
>>Rev.3:1-3
- - A dead church remembering good times.
4.
…leads to pride/arrogance and therefore sin - -
Rom.12:3; 1Tim.3:6 “not
a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation
as the devil.”
>>The
moment I think I’m doing so good that I let down my guard a little bit,
that’s when the devil’s going to strike.
>>1Cor.10:12
1.
Two of the most profound words spoken concerning Jesus are found
in Jn.11:35, “Jesus wept”.
>>The
Son of Man was a Man of Sorrows (Isa.53).
>>And
so no one is exempt from the occasional gloom of life.
No one can escape the occasional heaviness of heart that
accompanies life.
Illus:
The
late Joe Bayly wrote about the death of the young from firsthand experience.
He lost three children:
one at eighteen days, after surgery; another at five years, with
leukemia; the third at eighteen years, after a sledding accident
complicated by mild hemophilia.
>>Not
just loss of loved ones but just generally loss.
2.
People of the earth must understand that there is a time to forget
their sorrows!
>>1Pet.5:6-7
- - The way to forget sorrows is to cast them upon the Lord
who cares for you.
>>God
doesn’t want us to be grieved & heaven laden - -
1Thess.4:13,18
>>The
Hebrew letter is characterized by references to God’s people coming
to the throne of God for mercy and comfort.
Illus:
It is
speculated that fully evolved jazz music originated in New Orleans in the
early 1900's. It is thought that jazz has its roots in the funeral music of
the blacks in New Orleans at that time period. The black marching bands of New
Orleans, which often accompanied funeral processions, played traditional slow
hymns on the way to the cemetery; for the procession back to town, they broke
into jazzed-up versions of the same hymns, ragtime tunes, or syncopated
renditions of popular marches.
They called this change in attitude the “second mind”
V.
A TIME TO
FORGET…SINS!
1.
God impresses upon us in scripture the presence of sins
in our lives.
>>Rom.3:9,23
>>People
need to recognize that they are hopelessly lost in sin.
2.
But let us never forget why God makes known our sins.
>>Gal.3:22
“But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by
faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”
illus:
A preacher told me of a man who attended his meeting for three
nights in a row.
Every night, during the invitation, he just clasped the pew in
front of him and sobbed.
One night, my preacher friend and the local preacher where he was
holding the meeting went to visit this sorrowful man.
The man said he doesn’t come forward at the invitation because he did
something in WWII that he just knew God could never forgive.
>>That man needed to leave his sins behind him, washed in Jesus’
blood and move on.
3.
Friend, there is nothing that you have ever done that is greater
than God’s grace.
>>Let’s
notice 1Tim.1:12-17 verse by verse.
4.
It’s worse when people who have been forgiven do it. They can’t shake from their minds the sins they
committed or maybe others can’t let go.
>>What
happened after Paul was forgiven? -
- Acts 9:26-28
>>Paul
realized it was time to forget those sins, the brethren realized it, too.
Illus:
An ancient Persian proverb well says, “There is no saint
without a past and there is no sinner without a future.”
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