00:00Hello everyone, this is William Chambers and it is good to be here with you all once again today.
00:06And today we're going to be talking about stop living in the past. God has more for you.
00:15If you try to drive forward while staring in the rearview mirror, you will eventually crash.
00:23If your whole focus is in the rearview, you're going to crash. Yet many people are trying to
00:28live their lives that way. Focus on what is behind them instead of what is before them.
00:39There is more before you than there is behind you. Let's look at the text today.
00:45Paul is speaking and he says, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do,
00:52forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
00:55I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
01:02So first thing Paul did was he did an honest evaluation. He said, I have not arrived.
01:08I count not myself to have apprehended. Paul was greatly used by God, but refused to live as if
01:17he had already reached the finish line, refused to live as if he was already through what God had
01:24for him to do. It is pride that keeps us in our past. Either we are so focused on our
01:30past success
01:31that we think we have obtained everything there is in God, or we're focused on our past failure
01:39and we don't feel worthy to go forward. Either way, both. If you're stuck in your past by failure
01:48and don't want to move forward, you won't move. If you're stuck in your past by success, you won't move.
01:54Have you ever seen somebody stuck in the same place for years and decades on pretty much the same level
02:05of
02:05spirituality, the same place in their life with God? No forward advancement. Oh, help us. Paul is saying,
02:13I have not fully grasped all that God has for me. He does an honest evaluation. I haven't got it
02:21all yet.
02:22Paul says there's more and I am going after it. Are you going after more in your life?
02:31Well, if we're going to go after more, oh, because God has something more, then there's some things we
02:36have to do. We have to do a deliberate release. Paul said forgetting what is behind. I got to forget
02:44that stuff that's in behind me. This is something that you must intentionally do. It doesn't just
02:50happen. The past can hold you hostage. Oh, oh, hold me right there because either you won't feel
02:59worthy to go forward. Guilt will hold you back. Failure will hold you back. Shame and regret will
03:06hold you back and say, get back in your place. Remember when you did such and so? God cannot give
03:13you new purpose if you're still living in old chapters. Oh, God wants to give you new purpose,
03:19but are you still living in old chapters? That was the past. Oh, you're going to have to divorce
03:25yourself. Oh, I'm going to have to break up with you. When you break up with somebody, eventually
03:30they fade from your mind. I got to break up with my past. Oh, I got to let go of
03:36the authority
03:37that it has over me. Paul says, leave it behind. Oh, Lord, I need to leave it behind. You need
03:44to
03:44leave it behind. The past is a terrible place to live. It has no new grace. There's no new grace
03:52in
03:52your past. God's not putting grace back there. There's no new direction back there. Oh, I can't
03:59go back there looking for direction. No, no, no, no, no. There's no new calling in your past. What am
04:05I
04:05trying to say? I'm trying to say that God does not work in what God does not work in your
04:10behind.
04:11He works in your forward. God is in your forward. There's new grace in my forward. There's new mercy
04:18in my forward. There's new direction in my forward. There's new calling in my forward. I can't even look
04:23back there and stay back there. The past is relentless. Oh, it's relentless. Always reminding
04:31you. Bringing up old things. Therefore, you must have a relentless forgiving. I mean, forgetting.
04:38I got to forget relentlessly. Oh, you're going to keep bringing it up. Oh, you're going to bring up my
04:43guilt, my resentment, and my nostalgia and all that. That's adding weight on my future. Every time you
04:49focus on the guilt, the bitterness, the hurt, the pain, it's putting weight on your future. It's holding
04:56your future down. Oh, you need to look at your past and look at your future with faith in mind.
05:04Faith says God is greater than what I did in my past. Faith says God has more for me than
05:11what I was.
05:13Oh, I believe God is greater. I believe he has more. What are we talking about? We're talking about not
05:20living in your past. God has something more. Now, the next thing you're going to need, if you're going
05:26to get what God has for you, you need an aggressive pursuit. Paul said, I'm reaching forward and
05:34pressing. You're going to have to reach forward and press. What am I saying? Christianity is a pursuit.
05:42We're going after God. It's a pursuit. I'm after God. When we talk about reaching, we're talking about
05:49stretching beyond your comfort. Many people stay in the same place because they don't want to stretch.
05:54They don't want to sacrifice. They don't want to put effort in it. They don't want to strain.
05:59He said, I stretch. And then he said, he said, I press. He said, I'm reaching and I'm pressing.
06:05What pressing means is there is opposition. There is resistance against me. There is something
06:15trying to hold me back. So I got to reach and press. What is pushing you back? Your flesh is
06:20holding you back. Yo, you got to push past your flesh. Push past your fears because they hold you
06:27back. Push past the old identity. What they said you was. What you used to be. I'm pushing past all
06:35that
06:35because it'll say get in your place. Meaning you got spiritual opposition. I got to press past what the
06:41devil wants to do to me. I can't let them hold me in my mind. And you got to press
06:46past people's
06:47opinion. I got to press. There's opposition. This ain't an easy thing. Feeling going forward
06:53feels uncomfortable because you got to put effort in it. Oh, it's not natural. It will not just
06:59naturally happen. The future God has for you require effort. And that's where I lose a whole lot
07:10of people. It requires discipline. And now I lost a bunch of y'all. But it requires faith in God.
07:17Lost some people there. And it requires focus. I need to look at this. I'm losing y'all. I'm losing
07:23y'all. What I'm trying to say is you don't accidentally grow in God. You have to stretch
07:29beyond your comfort zone to grow. You got to stretch beyond old mindsets to grow. You got to stretch
07:37beyond your old patterns to grow. Familiar patterns. You need to get some new discipline
07:42to grow. Help us today. So Paul said I'm pressing. Christianity is a pursuit. The next thing Paul,
07:50last thing that Paul said I got to have is I got to have some clear direction. He says I
07:54press
07:55towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He said I'm pressing towards
08:01a mark. Uh-huh. A prize. Uh-huh. And a calling. Paul said I'm running towards something and I know
08:09what it is. What is it? I got to run towards the mark. What is the mark? The mark is
08:14the goal. Oh Lord.
08:17I got to run towards something. I'm running towards the prize. And that is the reward that God has.
08:22The eternal reward. And I'm running towards something. I can't be held out on my calling.
08:27Hmm. What is your calling? It is God's purpose in your life. I'm pushing towards my goal. My mark.
08:34My prize. My reward. And my calling. I got something to be after. Oh you got to believe you got
08:40something
08:40to be after. Oh. And you got to believe that it's all in Christ. So I got to press towards
08:45God.
08:46Hmm. So I can become who he wants me to be right now. Paul said no. Paul said he knows
08:54where he's going.
08:57And Paul said he knows why he's going there. Most of us are busy. But we ain't aimed at nothing
09:03specific. Paul said I'm aimed at something specific. What are you aimed towards? What are you really
09:10moving towards in your life? Is my question. Hmm. What is your target right now in your life?
09:19Paul said I'm after the high calling. Meaning it's higher than my past. It's higher than what I've done.
09:26It's higher than my pain. It's higher than my mistakes. It's higher than all this back there.
09:32Hmm. Stop letting your past define your high calling. Stop letting your past distract you
09:40from your high calling. Your past is low compared to your high calling. Help us God. Our prayers should be
09:48Lord help me to stop living in my past. Because God has something more for us. In Jesus name we
09:55pray and say amen.
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