The importance of forgetting past failures and regrets to focus on future spiritual growth, using the Apostle Paul's analogy of an athlete running a race. It highlights that dwelling on past sins or sufferings, even after confession and forgiveness, can hinder progress, likening it to a ship's wake which has no further use. The core lesson is to learn from the past but not be defined by it, instead pressing forward toward Christ-likeness as the ultimate goal and prize. The message concludes by urging believers to actively exert spiritual pressure on their surroundings rather than being pressured by circumstances, making an impact for Christ.
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Our brother Ernest doesn't have to take any back seat for song leading, does he? I've always said, if you're a good cheerleader, you can be a good song leader. I think the trouble with so many song leaders we've had, they've had all the rudiments of music, but they don't know how to cheer people and get them going. But I'm enjoying myself. I don't know all of these get-togethers with food all the time. Somebody whispered my ear, I said, and that's so good to be here at the Park of the Palms. And somebody said, Park of the Pounds. And I can see that a little bit with what I'm looking forward to the fellowship.
I've enjoyed it already. And I'm enjoying how great they are. You know, sometime this week, I'll give you the story of how that was written. It's a thrill. You know, some people have a little bit here, a little bit there. It's really a marvelous thing. And it just, well, it's one of the things that makes me realize how sovereign God is, and little things, how he just watches them all, can guide a melody and some words all through different countries, and eventually it comes out. And just at the right time, it's a thrill. And so we're going to sing that again this week, I hope often, and I'll give it a story.
Someone has said that we're living in a very anxious age. I imagine people have always been anxious. That's why the Bible reminds us to be anxious for nothing. But then it gives us the remedy, which many times we forget to heed. I looked into a secular bookstore window some year or two ago, and they had, oh, probably a half a dozen books on anxiety and worry and how to overcome it. And in my heart I thought, well, the poor folks, they don't have the person to go to, they don't have the remedy. And then I looked in the Christian bookstore, went on they had over two dozen. And I thought something doesn't put together here.
One of the greatest books we have on worry is God's Word himself. And God doesn't have to give old lectures. He doesn't have great seminars and stretch it out a week. The Lord has a way in just few words many times just to give us the answer. And You know, he had some worried disciples on his hands and some others spoken of in Matthew six. And I imagine the disciples, you know, when they had signed up with the Lord, he had chosen them. And they thought, we've got it made. I think they kind of figured there were twelve of them and twelve tribes and he was going to be the king. And of course, the least job they'd have would be with one of the tribes and some were larger than the other, but so what?
They were in the top twelve. You know, they had it made. But then the Lord, of course, kept telling them and implying that he hadn't come for that particular thing, something more important, the sin question. And then they began to say, well, maybe he will die. Then what will happen to us? And the Lord so wonderfully said, have you looked at the lilies lately? Solomon in all his glory is not a raid, as they are. I was weary, I was worried with might, and my heart burden was oppressed.
Now I've learned my Savior's lesson on the lilies, and I find in its teaching perfect rest. When the lilies I consider how they grow so pure and fair, Cloth in all their wondrous beauty, I can trust my Father's care. Even as the lily groweth, free from worry, free from fear.
So I sweetly rest in Jesus, for I know he's always near. I was worried, I was worried with my trouble, and my heart by its burden was oppressed. Now I've learned my Savior's lesson on the lilies, and I find in its teaching perfect rest.
Oh, the wonder, Oh, the glory that someday like Him will be. All things change to heavenly beauty we shall live. eternally. I was weary, I was worried with my troubles, and my heart by its burden was oppressed.
Now I've learned my Savior's lesson on the lilies. And I find in its teaching perfect rest. Get his breath for the next number. But while he's doing that, we're going to sing it. Number twenty-eight on the song sheet. Don't use the sheet. Chapter three, shall we? Philippians chapter three.
It's my intention, God willing, to take up the epistle to the Philippians throughout this week. But I want just to pick out a verse or two in the middle of the epistle because the very first day of conference is like New Year's Day to me. It seems at Park of the Palms our year does not run from the first of January to the thirty-first of December. It runs from the first day of conference and then when the conference is over we live waiting for the first day of conference again. But I think that puts a real responsibility upon the opening speaker.
So I want to sort of try briefly to set the stage for our winter conference. Philippians chapter three. Verse eight, yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him. not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him.
And the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, or the resurrection from among the dead things. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Reverend, 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, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Now that's as far as I'm going to read, because I'm thinking about those three things. My, we are really on the subject of three things today, even without planning it. Forgetting the things which are behind. and reaching forth under the things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I can remember standing at a ship's rail about amid ships on the way to the Caribbean and it was a moonlight night. And I looked way to the stern of the ship because it always seems to me that the wake of a ship is extremely pretty, especially when the moon, a full moon, is shining on it.
And there it was, spreading out behind the ship. And then I turned a hundred and eighty degrees, and I looked at the front of the ship. There was no wake there. It was a rather still night, and the waves were not very high. But again I could see the moonlight rippling upon water that had not yet been disturbed by the ship. Then I looked over the side at the water that was bearing us up. And it seemed to me that suddenly I had a picture of my life, the things that were passed. The wake of a ship is very pretty, but it has no possible use.
It's already done its job. And the water ahead of the ship, those things that lay before me that I knew nothing about. Because I knew nothing about them, there wasn't anything I could really think about them or do about them. Then the water that was beneath the ship was doing the job. It was bearing up the ship. It was carrying us on yard by yard. Somebody has said that life is a book of volumes three. The past, the present, and what's to be. The past is read and put away. The present we are reading day by day. But the brightest and best of volumes three is locked away and God holds the key.
And that's verily true. But somebody has said that the past is a cancelled check. And the future is a promissory note. Only the present is ready cash. And I think that's what Paul has in mind when he says, Forgetting the things which are behind me, and reaching forth under the things which are before me, I press, and that's the present occupation for Paul. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. You know, God is pictured for us in the Bible as the father of a spiritual family.
And God is also brought before us as the captain of a spiritual army. We see him too as the instructor for a spiritual education. And the judge in a spiritual race. That means to say, if it is so, and we are children of God and members of the family of God, and belong to those who through the Lord Jesus have come to know God, then the believer is an infant growing, getting more and more like his father, if indeed what his father has in mind is being accomplished.
And since God is the captain of a spiritual army, then the believer is obviously a warrior at war and fighting. And if God's the instructor for a spiritual education, then the believer is a student preparing his life by means of the things that he's learning. He has a textbook. the Bible, he has an example, the Lord Jesus, and he has an object that he might show himself approved unto God. And because God is the judge in a spiritual race, the believer obviously is an athlete running. Now it's not difficult to identify the Apostle Paul with all of these four things and indeed other things too.
But I'm thinking about the last one because that's what is pictured for us here. The Apostle Paul is an athlete running. Now the Olympics, some of the events are about to begin. It's going to be an exciting week next week. And lots of people are going to be rushing away to see the beginning of the Olympic Games. Now something of the thought that was in Paul's mind is pictured in those games. Now what does the runner do? Well what did Paul seek to do in his running?
He was not going to turn and look back. That would only stumble him in his race. He was not going to give way to the pressures that were surrounding him as he ran. Other runners were running too, but he was going to just go on, oblivious of everything around him, because he had a goal in mind. The things are stern, he says, I forget them. The things ahead, I anticipate them. but the things around I utilize them I make use of them forgetting the things which are behind I said that the wake of a boat is not a useful thing it has no purpose it's like the echo of a sound somebody has said it has a use there's only one thing that prevents a woman from having the last word and that's the echo Now, isn't that unkind?
But really, in an echo, there is no practical use for us. Though I know sonar makes use of the echo, and so I guess it really does have a use. But God says He wants you to take a look at your life. But don't be so taken up with what's behind you that you get stumbled in your running. I wonder what lies behind you in your life. Are you a believer that has slipped? And constantly and continually there keeps coming back to you the reminder of this thing in your life that represents to you the darkest spot, that seems to you to be a thing that you'll never get away from.
It may have been some sin. It may have been an experience of weakness during temptation. It may be that in pride you did something that you've lived to regret, or perhaps some failure came into your life that you've never recovered from. If you've learned the lesson from these things, if you've confessed the wrong and turned from it, God says, I want you to do with it what I've done with it. You know, that believer who has come before God months ago, maybe years ago, heartbrokenly over a sin in their lives, over some desperate thing that happened, and has poured out his soul to God and said, Lord, you know all about it.
I'm telling you about it because my heart is breaking, but I'm so dreadfully sorry. Lord, you know that I regret it with all of my heart. Please forgive me. Then a few weeks go by and again down in the dumps. He's on his knees saying, Lord, I can't forget that thing. I want you to forgive me. If he could only hear God speaking, God would say to him, what are you talking about? Lord, you know everything. You know what happened yesterday. You know what happened last week. You know what happened so many months ago. And although it's years ago, Lord, you still know all about it.
The Lord would say, I don't know what you're talking about. The reason being, when sin is confessed and forsaken, God, upon being asked, forgives it. And thereafter... He forgets it. Now a perfect memory is one that remembers what it should remember and forgets what it should remember. Forget. And that's precisely what God does. And when God does anything, He does it perfectly, and God's memory functions perfectly in that direction. Don't keep dragging up your sins that you've already confessed and forsaken.
Don't allow the devil to rob you of your joy over these things, forgetting the things which are behind. Maybe it's not that you've slipped. Maybe it is that you've suffered. Maybe someone has come into your life and done you a grievous harm. Something has happened to you and it has darkened all the days of your life since when it keeps on coming up to distress you and torment you and to make you unhappy. God says, forgetting the things which are behind.
Whether it is you've slipped or you've suffered, after all, nothing can happen to you as a believer, but God being sovereign is in control and allows it. And if he allows it, even though it come through the cruelty of some other person, God is going to work it out for your good. That's his promise. Why then should you allow resentment to eat at your vitals and destroy your effectiveness for God? So you've suffered. But God says forget it. But maybe it's not that you've slipped or suffered.
Maybe it is that you've succeeded. And that success makes you feel that you've arrived. A sculptor's daughter once walked into his studio, which was huge, because he was working on a large piece of marble, and she arrived at the precise moment when he laid down his tools. Because it was finished. She stood there breathless, and the tears came down her cheeks, and she said, Daddy, it is wonderful. Daddy, you must feel so, so wonderful about this. He said, my daughter, I feel sad.
She turned surprised toward him. Why are you sad? He said, because the first time in all of my life as a sculpture, I feel satisfied. And that's the death of my heart. Never be satisfied. You've never arrived. You've never gotten to the place yet where perfection is your experience, forgetting the things which are behind. You may have attained a height. You may have achieved an end. You may have reached an object, but it's still only one on the road. There are still more heights to be scaled.
There are still more things to be accomplished, more objects. to be reached and achieved. I remember telling you about the man who got converted when it was a very wonderful experience to him when he was very anxious to share it with other people and so very carefully he wrote it down and nobody came to his house but he would go to the draw and he would take out his testimony and it would sit there and he would read it to them but it happened so often not only the folk who came the first time but the second time and the third time and the fourth time till nobody came to see him and then eventually his testimony left the drawer and it moved upstairs into the attic but one day after a long long time somebody knew came to the house and so he said to his wife wife where's my testimony she said I think it's up in the attic So he went up to the attic, was gone for a few minutes, and he came down looking crestfallen and said, Darling, the rats have eaten it.
It was the best thing that could have happened to it because he was all the time thinking about what he had, what had happened to him that day when God intended his testimony to be a bright and living and literal thing, forgetting the things which are behind. and reaching forth under the things which are before. He says, I press toward the mark to attain the prize. Now, the mark for the believer is the tape of Christ-likeness. And when you reach the mark, you honor God. And the prize, of course, is the reward that God has for you after the tape has been broken.
And your likeness to the Lord Jesus has increased and increased as you walked with him and looked to him and lived for him. That's the reward that he's made yours in the coming day, the trophy that will be yours for faithfulness, not in your service so much as in your walk. your close and intimate walk with the Lord Jesus. The mark is that which God has set. It is the tape of Christ likeness. And the prize is that which God has promised. It's the reward that comes to you, the trophy that is yours as a Christian for faithfully seeking to walk with God.
You know, God benefits when I reach the mark. and I benefit when I reach the prize. But you'll notice I've taken the first and the last, but it's the middle one I want to emphasize. I press toward the mark. You and I live in days of great pressure, and the sad thing about us as believers is this, we're all the time submitting to pressure instead of exerting it. the pressure of time the pressure of circumstances the pressure of family the pressure of business all of these things they crowd in upon us and they cramp our spiritual style we're not meant to be pressured we are meant to do the pressure the the to exert the pressure and to do the pressing we've meant to we are meant to be like corks on the water If it goes down, it is the pressure of the water that shoots it up again.
Remember those two Christians, one said to the other, how are you today? The other one said, I'm all right under the circumstances. First fellow wanted to know, what are you doing there? We have no business being pressured by the circumstances. God intends us to do what Paul did every day of his spiritual life, pressed toward the mark for the prize. having said this is what I do. Paul says in verse seventeen of this chapter, be ye followers of me. So our New Year's message, that is the message for the beginning of the conference is this, don't any longer be obsessed with the past.
The past of yesterday, the past of last year, The past of fifty years ago, don't be obsessed with it. Put it where it belongs behind you. Do be obsessed with the thought of the future because God has tremendous things in mind for us. But make sure that you are forgetting of these things and your anticipation of those causes you every day to make your mark upon the people around you and the world in which you live, pressing for God.
Shall we bow in prayer? Our Heavenly Father. We thank thee for our happy fellowship. We've been thinking about this and reveling in this. It wouldn't be possible for us without the Lord Jesus. But we ask, Lord, that thou wilt constantly remind us of the responsibilities that come with our privileges. We are to make an impact on the lives of others who do not know the Lord Jesus. we are to make an impact upon the lives of those whose spiritual lives are being crushed or strangled or whose hearts are breaking we are to lay ourselves out making an impact upon the lives of those who have need god forbid that with our our increasing age we might ever feel that we can bring our sheets around us and just wind ourselves into a little cocoon and just
live for ourselves. Lord, make us realize these the very days when we need more than ever we've done to reach out with heart, and hand and make an impact on those around us for Christ and for their comfort and well-being and spiritual good. We ask in Jesus' name, praying, Lord, that this winter conference