Kenny Rodgers once recorded a song titled, “I am the greatest.” The song tells the story of a happy little boy who went out into the field wearing a baseball cap. In one hand he carried a baseball and, in the other, his trusty bat. His face bore a look of tremendous confidence. Cocking his bat, he tossed the ball into the air, saying, “I’m the greatest player in the world!” Then he swung and missed. “Strike one,” he said. He picked up the ball, examined it, and then threw it into the air again. As he swung, he repeated, “I’m the greatest player in the world.” Once again he missed. “Strike two,” he said. This time, he stopped to examine his bat as if looking for a hole in it. Then he picked up the ball, adjusted his cap, and tossed the ball into the air for the third time. He repeated again, “I’m the greatest player in the world,” and swung with all his might—and missed for the third straight time. “That’s strike three.” It’s supper time and his momma calls him in. The little boy starts home with his bat and ball. Now, most boys might be discouraged, but this boy said, “I am the greatest, that is fact, but even I didn’t know I pitch like that!”
Today is the last Sunday of 2012, and as we look back over the last 12 months, I’m not sure whether most of us would consider ourselves pitchers or batters. One thing for sure is that we have all struck out from time to time. So I guess it’s good to be able to start fresh. And as we look forward to 2013, some people might eagerly look forward to what each day will bring. Others might be filled with dread, worried that this year will be worse than the last. Like the little boy with his baseball bat, I would suggest that our attitude will make all the difference in the coming year. How we react to its event will largely determine whether it is a year of victory or a year of defeat.
The Apostle Paul was never one to let circumstances conquer him. Rather, with the help of God, he was determined to win the victor’s crown. Let me invite you to read Philippians 3:12-16 with me and listen as Paul’s attitude shines through these words.
“I don’t mean to say I am perfect. I haven’t learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be, but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us. I hope all of you who are mature Christians will see eye-to-eye with me on these things, and if you disagree on some point, I believe that God will make it plain to you—if you fully obey the truth you have.” (Philippians 3:12-16 TLB)
I see so much honesty and modesty pouring through this passage. And Paul’s attitude here in these verses offers us some wonderful principles concerning our own attitude—principles which we can carry with us into the New Year. The first of those principles is forgetting your past!
FORGETTING YOUR PAST
Humans are very special beings, in that God has given us the ability to remember. But, your memories can either be your friend or your enemy. At the end of verse thirteen, Paul said, “Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on” (vs. 13 NLT). In other words, “I don’t look back” (GWT).
Paul had a dreadful past and it could have easily haunted him for the rest of his life, if he allowed it. He persecuted the church. He used his authority to kill Christians. By his own admission he said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15 NIV). He could have walked around all his life with this tremendous burden of guilt crippling him and he would never have become the great Apostle and missionary for God that he went on to be.
Many of us dwell on our past failures, mistakes, and sins so much so that we become spiritually paralyzed, unable to live productively for God. Paul is telling us that we can turn our past sins and failures over to God and start moving “forward to what lies ahead.”
Someone once said, “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.” We’ve failed more times than we can possibly remember. We fell down the first time we tried to walk. We probably almost drowned the first time we tried to swim. Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times, but he also hit 714 home runs. R. H. Macy failed seven times before his New York department store finally caught on. We can’t allow ourselves to become fixated on our failures. We are all human. We make mistakes. We sin. We fail. But what is worse, is missing the opportunities that God puts in front of us because we are afraid to fail.
In a Nike advertisement some years ago, a voice came over the television saying, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Those words were spoken by Michael Jordan, by most standards the greatest basketball player ever to play the game.
God once told the prophet Jeremiah that He would one day establish a New Covenant with the children of Israel and when He did, He said, “I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins” (Jeremiah 31:34 NLT).
That covenant was established when Jesus Christ died on the cross. Since that day, God’s forgiveness is so thorough that it is forgetfulness. If we have been washed in the blood of Christ, God has forgotten all of our failures and sins. It is time that we forget them as well. Let’s follow Paul’s example here, “forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.” The first lesson Paul teaches us for the New Year is forgetting the past; the second is focusing your priorities.
FOCUSING YOUR PRIORITIES
Max Lucado once wrote in Leadership Magazine, “Undefined priorities are at the root of much of our success-or-failure frustration.” But that wasn’t a problem for Paul. Paul clearly defined his focus in life when he said, “I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing” (vs. 13 TLB). What was that one thing? “I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above” (vs. 14 NCV).
In other words, Paul’s number one priority was reaching toward heaven—drawing near to God through Jesus Christ! That’s what Paul was all about.
Unfortunately, most of us are not nearly as focused as Paul.
For thousands of years, people in almost every culture have made New Year’s Resolutions. In ancient Babylon, a common New Year’s resolution was to return something you borrowed the previous years. A popular resolution in ancient Rome was to ask forgiveness from enemies of the past year. We still make all sorts of resolutions today, setting our goals high and then spending January 2 beating ourselves up. It reminds me of the lady who called her parents to wish them a happy New Year. “Well, Dad, what’s your New Year’s resolution?” She asked. “To make your mother as happy as I can all year,” he answered proudly. Then mom got on, and she said, “What’s your New Year’s resolution, Mom?” “To see that your dad keeps his resolution,” she said.
Do you know the top ten most common resolutions?
- Lose weight
- Exercise more
- Quit smoking
- Manage debt
- Save money
- Get a better job/education
- Quit drinking
- Reduce stress
- Take a vacation
- Volunteer
Did you notice that none of these resolutions has anything to do with God? None of them are about growing spiritually, deepen your relationship with God, or developing your faith. God just isn’t that important to us. In fact, the Barna Group which specializes in research about Christianity reported that only 1 out of 7 adults (15%) place their faith in God at the top of their priority list. Even among Christians, less than 1 in 4 (23%) place their faith in God at the top of their priority list.
As you look ahead over this year, what are your priorities? What are you focused on? Jesus said, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). In other words, if Jesus comes first then everything else will take care of itself. I do believe it’s important to exercise, eat right, get on a budget, and all that other stuff. But those things will only make a difference for a time. Putting God first in our lives will make a difference for time and eternity!
I pray that this New Year will mark a new season in your life and mine, were we really focus on reaching toward heaven and drawing near to Jesus; were our top priority is to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. Let’s bring all our energies to bear on this one thing and see what a difference it can make!
There is just one more principle that Paul offers us for the New Year, which is a lesson about functioning in the present.
FUNCTIONING IN THE PRESENT
Take one last look at this verse. Paul said, “I do not mean that I am already as God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal, but I continue trying to reach it and to make it mine. Christ wants me to do that, which is the reason he made me his” (vs. 13 NCV).
Notice that Paul didn’t say, “I’m going to try to reach this goal” or “Someday, I’ll get to work on reaching this goal.” Rather, Paul said, “I continue trying.” For Paul, reaching toward heaven was an every-day experience.
He was living and acting in the present.
It was Abraham Lincoln who first said, “The leading rule for a man of every calling is diligence; never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”
Life is short. We need to make the most of the time we have. Most New Year’s resolutions are abandoned by February. I heard about a high school principal, this week, who decided to post his teachers’ New Year’s resolutions on a bulletin board.
As the teachers gathered around the bulletin board, a great commotion started. One of the teachers was complaining. “Why weren’t my resolutions posted?” She felt slighted and got really bent out of shape over it, so the principal hurried to his office to see if he had overlooked her resolutions. Sure enough, he had mislaid them on his desk. He hurried back to the bulletin board and posted her list. Her first resolution was: “Don’t get upset over little things.”
A lot of us are like that. We have these plans for what we want to do, or how we want to change or how we’re going to live life, but we lack follow-through.
The Bible says, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24 NIV). It’s so easy to wake up in the morning and think about today as just another day—an average day where you just go through the routine— work, school, chores, or whatever else.
This isn’t just another day. This is the day the Lord has made! Each of us here today has been given this once-in-history opportunity called life—complete with summers and songs and gray skies and tears. It has a first day, a last day, and hopefully a few thousand in between. Let’s choose to make each day count. Live each day as if it could be the greatest day of your life.
CONCLUSION:
As we embark on the journeys of this New Year, let us determine ahead of time that it will be a year of victory! Paul, the great missionary and apostle, never felt as though he had arrived; rather he continued to reach toward heaven every day. And let me suggest some resolutions that might help us do the same in the coming year:
Resolve to be at church at every week.
Resolve to invite at least one person to church this year and pray for them.
Resolve to invite someone different into your home at least once a month.
Resolve to read your Bible thru this year.
Resolve to pray every night before your go to sleep.
Resolve to get involved in some kind of ministry.
Finally, resolve to follow the advice of the Apostle Paul—forget your past (look beyond the sins and failures of yesterday), focus your priorities (make God first in your life), and function in the present (stop putting off until someday, what you can and should do today).