Pressing on Toward the Goal
God had inspired me to share that everything is not hunky dory, it seems that something is just not right, spiritually! So I shared my concern that the trials and challenges of the coming changes and that Satan is as a roaring lion.
1Pe 5:8 Be sober! Be on the alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
I think we are in a time of trial where the Devil has come to kill, steal and destroy, (John 10:10)
It always seems a bit strange to read James 1:2 where James says we should count it all joy when fall into various trial, and
IPeter 1:6 that we should rejoice when we face various trials. and compare those instructions to the feelings we have while facing those trials.
WE DONT FACE THEM ALONE.
Philippians 3:12-4:1
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall
to see the farmer and his wife open a package. "What food might this
contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a
mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning.
"There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the
house!" The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said,
"Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no
consequence to Me.; I cannot be bothered by it." The mouse turned to the
pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap
in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr.
Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my
prayers." The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap
in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow,
Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose. "So, the
mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s
mousetrap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like
the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see
what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose
tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed
her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you
treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the
farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. But his wife’s sickness continued,
so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them,
the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So
many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide
enough meat for all of them. The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the
wall with great sadness.
Next time
you hear someone is facing a problem & think it doesn’t concern you,
remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
We are all involved in this
journey called life. We
must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one
another. One of the best things to hold onto in this world is a brother or
sister in the Lord..
1Cor.12:26
“If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored,
every part rejoices with it.”
THE “FOR”
LIFE CHANGING WORDS
I. FORGIVE—If you want peace of heart
Col 3:13 bearing
with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against
another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
A. God is challenging us to give up grudges. That
is what He means when He says forgive each other whatever complaints you may
have against one another. Grudges destroy marriages
Grudges break up familiesGrudges ruin friendships
Grudges split churches
Studies showed
that forgiveness is not only good theology, but good medicines as well.
According to the latest medical and psychological research, forgiving is good
for our souls and our bodies. People
who forgive:
benefit from immune system functioning better & lower blood pressures &
have better mental health than people who don’t forgive. Feel better
physically; have lower amounts of anger and fewer symptoms of anxiety and
depression, maintain more satisfying and long-lasting relationships.
B. The negative side of this is: if
you have unforgiving spirit, you will have these: high blood, unstable mental
health, physically weak, always angry, depressed,
unsatisfied life and lots of enemies.
I am certain there are people here who need to give up their grudges...
maybe somebody hurt you long time ago, boss?,
loved ones, neighbors...
But God says to you today, give up your grudges to forgive them.
II. FORGET “If you want peace of mind”
Phi 3:13-14 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but
one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things
which are ahead, 14 I press
toward the goal for the prize of the upward call
of God in Christ Jesus.
A. If you want
changes in life, commit yourself to forget your failures.
DL Moody told a
story of two men who are under the influence of liquor, found their way to the
dock where their boat was tied. They wanted to return home. Though they rowed
hard all night, they did not reach the other side of the bay. When the gray dawn
of the morning broke, they were exactly the same spot they started. They did
neglected to loosen the rope and raise the anchor.
Cut
the cord that connects you from the past in order to move!
J. Arthur Rank, an executive in England, decided to do all
his worrying on one day each week. He chose Wednesday. When anything happen that
gave him anxiety and annoyed his ulcer, he would write it down and put in a box
and forget about it until Wednesday. It is interesting that when he opened the
box on the following Wednesday, he found that most of the thing that had
disturbed him the past six days were already settled. It would have been
B. FORGET!
Paul
said, "I
forget about what lies behind."
Paul
had a lot that was behind him. Paul had a very bad past....
He
persecuted the church. He used his authority to kill Christians. His own
admission = "I am
chief of sinners."
He could have walked around all his life with this tremendous burden of guilt
crippling him & he would never have become the apostle we know & love.
But
Paul said, "…forgetting what is behind…"
This does not come naturally…..
You have to work at it!!!
So
“If you want peace of mind” Forget!!!
III. FORGO— “If you want peace of the body”
1Pe 3:8 Finally, all of you be of one mind,
having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; 9
not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing,
knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
Forgo – Give
up fighting, do not repay evil for evil or insult with insult Rom 12:20-21
Therefore "IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM; IF HE
IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP COALS OF FIRE ON HIS
HEAD." 21 Do not be
overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
but
with GENUINE blessing
Sometimes
the effective way to solve the problem is to remain silent.”
“When
you have nothing to say, say nothing” – Charles Colton
IV. FOR GOD 2 Cor. 1:8-11, 1 Pet. 5:7
If you want peace for life
Give your problem to God. When it looks like it’s out of your control, you
give it to God.” A little boy about 10 years old was for a
long time asking his parent a shoes but he always fails. One time, he was
invited to attend the Sunday school and the teacher teaches them to pray and God
will give whatever he asks. So he went into the shoe store on the roadway,
barefooted, peering through the window and pray. A lady approached the boy and
said, “My little fellow, why are you looking so earnestly in that window?”
“I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,” was the boys reply. The lady
took him by the hand and went into the store and asked the clerk to get 2 pairs
of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a
towel. He quickly brought them to her. She took the little guy to the back part
of the store and removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and
dried them with a towel. By this time the clerk returned with the socks. Placing
a pair upon the boy’s feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes. She tied up the
remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and
said, “No doubt, my little fellow, you feel more comfortable now?” As she
turned to go, the astonished lad caught her by the hand, and looking up in her
face, with tears in his eyes, answered the question with these words: “Are you
God’s wife?”
If you want to solve you
life’s problem, give it to God.
Trust
God and he will help you...
2Co 4:7–10 But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God
& not
of us. 8 We are
hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are
perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted,
but not forsaken struck down, but not destroyed—10
always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the
life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
When
Moses and the Israelites was trap by the Egyptians he said: “Watch and see the
salvation of the Lord!”
Let us trust the Lord! A Song says, “God will make a way when there seems to
be no way”
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own un
derstanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your
paths straight” Prov. 3:5-6
CONCLUSION
THE “FOR” LIFE-CHANGING WORDS
FORGIVE
“If you want peace of heart”
FORGET “If you want peace of mind”
FORGO “If you want peace of the body”
FOR GOD “If you want peace and success for life”
If you will strive to apply these things into your life, you will see changes in
your life. You will have satisfaction in serving God, you will have friends
everywhere, and you will have success in Life.
Invitation: