One of the major hindrances from drawing closer to the Lord, is the past. Many are being tormented from their past. One of many ways to mature and grow in the Lord and be successful in the present and future, we must lay the past down.
Whether it be our past mistakes and failures. Whether it be someone in our past that caused harm and unable to forgive. What ever the case maybe (hidden or forgotten) if we do not lay the past down, it will stunt our growth and progress in the Lord… period.
We can no longer live in the past, nor can we go back and erase or change the past. We can only reflect on our past failures and mistake and learn from them, what not to continue on doing for the benefit of the present and future. Even living off the past successes can hinder us from moving forward to greater height’s in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Praise be to God of our Lord Jesus Christ for the gift of truth and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit. Truly the Holy Spirit is God’s greatest gift to all born-again children of God, who gave the Apostle Paul this great revelation for us to hear, meditate and to heed godly instructions concerning: laying the past down
Philippians 3:5-14 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
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, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The Apostle Paul is one of our greatest examples today of past failures and past successes as we just saw in his brief autobiography, and laying them all down. If he had not done so, he would have lived in defeat and failure and most likely would have shipwrecked his own faith. How do we live the examples of Paul?
1). Deny yourself, pick up the cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 9:23-26)
2). Counting the past as loss (Philippians 3:7-8)
3). Forgetting those things which are behind and reach forward (Philippians 3:13)
4). Press on, press into the Lord (Philippians 3:12)
5). Press forward, upward to new heights (Philippians 3:14)
The Lord Jesus Christ ministered the very heart of this truth in Luke 9:57-62, Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go. And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
If we do not lay all the past down and put into practice these instructions, than we will never live victoriously in the powerful life God has called and given us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Nor will we be able to be the glorious church Jesus Christ died and raised from the dead for and returning to receive unto Himself.
Audio Length: 05:44
Hope For A Hopeless Generation 