FACING THE FUTURE

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13-14 (NASB)

The title ―Facing the Future has already given us an image which Paul the Apostle uses to describe a core value in his life. He faces the future not the past.

His direction and purpose is found not in revisiting those things which have already been. They are found in the next minute, hour, day, month, year to the moment of his death – The Future.

I am sure that Paul was not saying he never looked back to the past. He did. Several times in scripture he told about his persecution of Christians and his conversion.

The purpose of this revisiting was to give testimony to God‘s power and grace. It was not to live there. It was to bring the past to the future. It was to give others a picture of God‘s redemption.

Paul shows us in this passage that we must purposefully and assertively turn our gaze away from the past and purposefully and assertively turn our gaze to the future.

This is a very important word for those of us who are, as the Bible says, ―full of years.‖

I have watched as I have grown older and seen what this period of our lives can look like.

I have seen others slowly lose their future perspective and surely begin looking back to the days of old.

Sometimes those days are days of joy and wonderful memories. Sometimes they etched a place of pain so deep that to reflect on them brings forth torment in our souls.

With sadness I saw one of my wife‘s dear relatives turn from facing the future to looking back to the past. She began to remember the wrongs others had done to her. As she did, the memory of those wrongs began to torment her.

Eventually it so obsessed her that she felt that even those of us who loved her and were taking care of her were colored with the same hues as those who had wronged her. She began to accuse us of doing things to her we would never dream of.

Thankfully as we prayed for her and spoke with her about the goodness of her present life and the promise of the future she began to let those memories go. She once again looked at life as it was unfolding now and the good things the future held for her.

I believe it can be even worse for us to become stuck in a good period of our past. To hold on to a time when things were wonderful and continually relive them can become a roadblock to the things God has for us today and tomorrow.



How many times have I heard people say, ―I wish I were back then. Things were so different – so good.‖ The importance of seeing days that were different in the past is to seek that same difference today.

Again I am not saying that to reflect on wonderful times in the past is wrong. We are to let those memories speak to us of the continuing grace God gives us today. Just as we look back on those times and see the glow of God‘s presence, so one day, if we respond correctly today, we can look back on today and see the same.

It is not wrong to look with joy on significant milestones of the past – when you first met Jesus. When you first fell in love. Your first kiss. When you graduated from school. Your successes in your work or passions. The memories of wonderful days can be such a precious treasure….. As long as they don‘t assault the future with hopelessness.

This was the condition Solomon found himself in at the end of his days. He had lost the joy of life due to his wrong behavior. In seeing his own path to despair he counsels us to:

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, ―I have no delight in them‖;

Ecclesiastes 12:1 (NASB)

No matter what time of life we are in we can have ―delight in them.‖ Solomon gives us the key to facing the future. If we follow what he says we will not face a past of regret. We need to remember our creator today.

To remember God right now – in this moment -- is to be prepared to move into the future with confidence and joy.

One obvious things that comes out of remembering God in this moment is to put the past to rest. If our past is one of pain we must forgive, see that God was with us in every moment and like Joseph came to understand, God was intending to bring forth a good future.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

Genesis 50:20 (NASB)

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:28

In understanding this we see that everything in our lives to this very day has been preparing us for our future.

The days of pain and the days of glory alike were to bring us to this moment. Because of this today is the greatest day of our lives and tomorrow will be even better.

Paul understood these two traps well. He made a purposeful choice to turn from facing the past with its sins, pain, wrongs against him, failures and especially successes.

He would never stop facing the future with determination to more fully follow Jesus in the next moment.

It has often been said that there is no retirement in the work of the kingdom. While God intends it to be so many not only retire they die to God.

The tragic statement, ―I have put in my time now let the younger generation take their turn‖ sets us up for living our final days in defeat when they should be our days of greatest victory.

If we are to be true followers of Jesus we must see every moment of our lives as the greatest moment yet. We must believe that the God who has brought us to this day is not through with us until he walks us over the valley of the shadow of death.

I have seen many glorious days in God in my life. But today I am living in the most glorious yet. And I intend for tomorrow to be more glorious. I forget the past and press on today into my future which is as Adoniram Judson said,

The future is as bright as the promises of God.

My great biblical hero and example of this is Caleb.

Before Israel was going to enter into the promised land, Moses had sent out twelve men to spy it out for forty days. Caleb was one of them. When they came back ten of the men put fear in the hearts of everyone.

But Caleb did what Solomon told us to do. He remembered his creator when he was young.

He and Joshua believed in the power of God to take them into the land of inheritance when no one else did.

When his fellow spies were telling of the greatness of their enemies and the danger of the land, Caleb told of the greatness and protection of his and our God.

Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ―We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.‖

Numbers 13:30 (NASB)

Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. 2 All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, ―Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!

Numbers 14:1-3 (NASB)

Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; 7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, ―The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the LORD is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey.

Numbers 14:6-8 (NASB)

Only do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.‖ 10 But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.

Numbers 14:9-10 (NASB)

Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, 23 shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. 24 But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.

Numbers 14:9-10 (NASB)

So for forty years Israel wandered in the wilderness until all the men who did not remember God in their youth died. Just ad God said, only Joshua and Caleb remained alive of the whole generation.

They led the people into the land when they were both well advanced in years. But the best days for Caleb were far from over. When he was eighty five he decided to take God up on a promise He had made to Him when he was young.

Then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, ―You know the word which the LORD spoke to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadeshbarnea. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadeshbarnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. 8 Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the LORD my God fully.

Joshua 14:6-8 (NASB)

So Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God fully.‘ 10 Now behold, the LORD has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today.

Joshua 14:9-10 (NASB)

I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in. 12 Now then, give me this hill country about which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the LORD will be with me, and I will drive them out as the LORD has spoken.‖

Joshua 14:11-12 (NASB)

So Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 14 Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite until this day, because he followed the LORD God of Israel fully.

Joshua 14:13-14 (NASB)

Caleb fought giants at eighty five and won! He understood that until he was dead God would fulfill his purposes in his life by the strength of His power and not by Caleb‘s. That is what I want to be like. I want to face the future with the expectation of God using me to my final breath. I want to be doing the exploits that only young men are thought to be able to do and do them as a testimony that God is real.

Many here are in a time where they are no longer bound to a job to provide for their families. Sadly many feel that the end of their working career is the beginning of the end of their life. Statistics show that most people, especially men, will die sooner if they do not find a meaningful task to continue doing after they retire. God created us to be active for our whole lives.

For a Christian facing the future means knowing that there is always a purpose in our lives no matter what. And for those who would give themselves fully to that purpose there is much to do.

Take, for instance, our hosts tonight. George is 89 and Lillian is 82. They are still pressing into the future and taking ground for God. They are not going to quit until they cross the valley of the shadow of death. They epitomize for me this scripture:

He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. 15 And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Luke 19:12-15 (KJV)

Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. 18 And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. 19 And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.

Luke 19:16-19 (KJV)

20 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:

Luke 19:20 (KJV)

Think of what it would feel like to stand before the Lord who gave his all for us to have nothing to give Him back….. To hear ourselves speaking these words….. I took what you gave me and hid it…….

My mother-in-law has been dying for many years – at least according to the doctor! But she refuses to accept the diagnosis! At 91 She knows God has a purpose for her life and actively seeks it.

I know that even if she were bedridden she would take up even more fully her ministry of prayer. Some of the greatest exploits for God have been done by people who could only pray.

She does have a vital ministry of prayer for her family, friends and ministries she loves. She also hosts a weekly Bible study, has her family and guests into her house to share the love God has placed in her heart, visits others bringing gifts and especially those that are not well in her apartment building often feel her love as she prays with them for healing.

As if that were enough she returns to her native land – Holland – yearly. Her desire in these visits is not self centered but in order to share the love of Jesus with her family there. Thanks to her grandson Ariel some of her testimony of God‘s grace for her is on the World Wide Web!


 
She is one of my great heroes because she is living the life I desire and intend to live. She has given each next moment – her future to live in an intentional way fro God. It started when she was young when a possible long future lay ahead of her. She faced the future. Today she is still facing the future and finding that it is as bright as the promises of God. And that is what is what the future will be for us if we follow Caleb, George, Lillian and Rebecca‘s path.

Facing the future means something for me today that it did not mean forty years ago. In those days I rarely thought about the wonders of heaven. Those thoughts now overtake me quite often. There will be a day not to far in the distance that we will cross that valley and be with Jesus forever. As the songsmith has said, ―What a day, glorious day that will be.‖ As we face the future we can face it with joy looking to that day.

FACING THE FUTURE by Leonard Terry