Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Welcome to a brand new series called Game Time. I’m stoked about this series because we’re going to spend a month talking about something that drives me out of my mind: Christians who live completely defeated lives.

It boggles my mind to see so many believers walking through life, shoulders slumped, head down, completely defeated. They live their lives as victims instead of victors.

The reason this drives me insane is because it flies in the face of everything we see in the Bible. Seriously, if we are eternally victorious through Jesus, then how stupid is it to live a completely defeated life here on earth? If we have eternal victory, we should live a victorious life on earth.

But I see so many Christians whose lives are the polar opposite of this. These believers who live these defeated lives…it’s like they have just ripped these verses clean out of their Bible.

In Deuteronomy 20, the Bible says, “For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.” (Deuteronomy 20:4, NIV)

God fights on our behalf. It’s hard to feel defeated when you know that God is fighting for you.

In Psalm 20: “Now this I know: The LORD gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand.” (Psalm 20:6, NIV)

David wrote this as a fact. He said, “This I know.” Not, “This is what I think.” Or, “This is my opinion.” He said, “This I know! God gives victory to his anointed.” If you are Christ, God gives you victory. It is a Scriptural truth that you can bank on.

From Psalm 44: “I put no trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.” (Psalm 44:6-8, NIV)

A lot of times we don’t feel like victors because we look for victory the wrong places. We think that we are the source of our own victory. Not even close. God gives the victory, and when He does, we’ll brag about it all day long because it’s not about us. It’s all about Him.

And from 1 Corinthians: “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you.” (1 Corinthians 15:57-58a, NIV)

Our victory comes because of Jesus. Through His death and His resurrection, we are given the victory.

In all of those Scriptures, where exactly do you find defeat? Where did it say that we can’t make it? Just give up. Don’t even try.

In all of those Scriptures, there is one common theme. Victory. Complete, total, absolute victory. Victory that comes through the presence and the power of God.

That’s how we’re supposed to live our lives. Not as victims. As victors. If that’s true, then why is it that so many of us get it backwards? It’s because we’ve forgotten some basic principles. These are principles that every coach drills into his team. But more than that, they are principles planted deep in the pages of Scripture.

Those principles are: Prepare to Win. Play to Win. Expect to Win.

Any coach expects his team to prepare. He expects them to play hard. And he expects that they will come to the field with a mindset that expects victory.

Those principles work in our lives even more than they work on the playing field. They work because they are Scriptural.

Today, we’re kicking off the series by talking about our preparation. If a team doesn’t prepare to win, that team is not going to win. And that very same principle holds true in our lives and in our faith. If we don’t prepare to win, then we’re not going to win.

This series comes from Philippians 3. Here’s the central text where we’ll be camping out this month.

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14, NIV)

I love this text because it is words of victory. And it really provides an antidote for the mundane, ordinary, losing life that so many believers live.

And the first thing it tells us very clearly is that we’ve got to prepare to win. And the way we prepare to win is to forget.

To win today, you must forget the loss of yesterday.

When I was playing baseball as a kid, I went through a phase that every young player goes through. I was really afraid of the ball. Now, it wasn’t always that way. I wasn’t always afraid of the ball.

That all changed one day. Guess what happened? I got hit by a ball. I was playing in the outfield when a pop fly came my way. I positioned myself under it. I was ready to make the catch. Everything was going great…until the ball went past my glove and drilled me right in the face.

For those of you who have never had this experience…it hurts! And it’s not a hurt that you forget about very easily.

So guess what started happening? When a ball was hit my way, I ran the other way! In practice. In games. Even in my own backyard. If a baseball was hit in the air, I wasn’t going to be anywhere close to where it landed.

That kept me safe from getting hit with the ball. But it also made me a terrible player. It’s really hard to have success in that game when all you do is run away from the ball.

My dad was an assistant coach on my team. He was hitting to us one day in fielding practice and he hit a fly ball to me. Of course I was nowhere near it. He hit another. I was practically in the next county when it landed. And my dad was fed up. We had talked and talked about this, but nothing changed. So he tried another approach. He yelled out, “Mike, I’m hitting you one more…and you’d better catch this one.”

That wasn’t my coach saying that to me. That was my DAD saying that to me. He didn’t do it to embarrass me. He did it because he was sick and tired of seeing me allow my fear to dominate me…and he called me out on it.

Guess what I did? I caught that ball. And I learned something huge in the process. If I was going to catch the ball today, I had to forget about the time I missed it yesterday. If you want to win today, you’ve got to forget about the loss of yesterday.

That was never more true than it is in our faith walk. We have an enemy. His name is Satan. And the last thing he wants to see is us living lives of victory. So he constantly reminds us of our past defeats. We call it guilt. And it’s a powerful force that can ensure that you live a life that is chronically and constantly defeated.

But let’s go back and look at what the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3. “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13b-14, NIV)

We’re going to spend the rest of our time unpacking what Paul said here. We’re going to walk through this text step-by-step.

“But one thing I do.” This is his singular focus. Nothing is more important that this. Nothing else matters if he doesn’t get this right.

“Forgetting what is behind.” If you want to have a victorious life and a victorious faith, you’ve got to have a very bad memory. You’ve got to learn to forget. You will never experience victory today if you don’t forget the losses of yesterday.

Our past failures are a prison. More present-day victories are sacrificed on the altar of past failures than anything else. It is a vicious, self-defeating cycle. It looks like this.

You messed up. Everyone does. The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The fact that you failed is not unique to you. We’ve all messed up big-time. But for so many us, here’s where we go from there.

We go from, “I messed up,” to “I’m a mess.” We go from, “I have sinned,” to, “I am a sin.”

Guilt convinces us that because we have a sinful past, that is who are in the present.

Guilt always tells you, “You can’t do anything for God. Look at everything you’ve already done.”

“Sure, everyone has sinned. But you REALLY sinned. Nobody has messed up as badly as you.”

“Do you really think that the people at church would accept you if they knew what you did? They’ll just think you’re a total hypocrite, so the best thing you can do is keep quiet about it.” Which ensures that you’ll never get past it.

The guilt of past sin is a present-day prison. That’s why Paul said that he was singularly focused on forgetting it.

Keep in mind, the Apostle Paul didn’t have a spotless record. Far from it. In his past, Paul persecuted believers. He had them beaten, imprisoned, even killed. Paul was a murderer of Christians. I bet that pretty much trumps anything you’ve done. And that’s why he was so singularly focused on forgetting his past.

If he didn’t do that, we wouldn’t a whole lot of our Bible today because he wouldn’t have been able to write it. If Paul didn’t forget about his past, the greatest missionary to ever live would never have left his hometown.

What is the Kingdom of God missing out on because you haven’t forgotten about your past? If you are allowing your sinful past to dominate you, then you are not scoring any victories today. There are Kingdom victories that will never be achieved if we don’t learn to forget our past.

In Romans 8, the Bible says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2, NIV)

For my money, these are the most powerful words of victory in the entire Bible. There is no condemnation for anyone who is in Christ. When you surrender to Jesus, the guilt of your sin is wiped away. The law of sin and death that used to dominate you no longer has any power over you. You are forgiven. You are free. You are victorious.

But there is one word that a whole lot of us miss in this text. I think that most of us believe that we are eternally free. Because of Jesus, we believe that we will be victorious in eternity. We will have no sin guilt in eternity. But that’s not what Paul said.

Read it again. “Therefore, there is NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” Not one day. Not in eternity. NOW.

If you are in Christ, there is no condemnation NOW. There is no guilt NOW.

In Christ, you are holy NOW. You are pure NOW. You are free NOW.

Living in the guilt of our past is not only self-defeating, but it makes a complete mockery of the gospel. Because Jesus died and rose for you, you are free from sin and guilt NOW.

The problem for many of us is that we confuse guilt and conviction. I’m not saying that we should make light of sin. That sin doesn’t matter. Not at all. That is contrary to everything the gospel is about.

But guilt and conviction are different. Very different. The Word of God convicts us of sin. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. Conviction is a very good thing. But guilt is not. The problem is that it’s not always easy to tell the difference. But here are some keys to differentiate between the two.

Guilt really operates as counterfeit conviction. Conviction will always force you up. Guilt will always keep you down.

Guilt will try to turn a momentary lapse into a permanent condition.

Guilt makes you over-identify with what you’ve done and under-identify who you are in Christ.

Guilt will guarantee that your losses yesterday translate into losses today. And tomorrow isn’t looking much better.

The way to turn the tide is to reorient yourself around God’s grace. Everyone in this room needs to commit Romans 8:1-2 to memory. And then allow those verses to erase your sinful past from the hard drive of your mind and heart and spirit.

Go back and look at what Paul said in Philippians 3 again. “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13b-14, NIV)

Because Paul was committed to forget what was behind, he was able to strain toward what is ahead.

That word “strain” should tell us that it isn’t easy. Living a victorious life isn’t easy. Forgetting the past isn’t easy. Moving ahead in faith isn’t easy.

God gives us the victory, but it doesn’t mean we have no part in it. God allows us into the race, but we still have to run it.

For some of us, dealing with the guilt of our past is going to take a lot of work. You may need to seek out a person that you’ve hurt and offer a sincere and real apology. On the flip side, you may need to forgive someone who hurt you very deeply.

Maybe what you need to get some accountability in your life. The sins of your past can easily become the sins of your present if there is no one in your life holding you accountable.

Seth Godin wrote a great blog post a few weeks ago. In that post, he asked a simple question. Who is making you uncomfortable?

Who is asking you hard questions? Who has your permission to really get in your kitchen? Who is holding you accountable?

Like Seth said, “It takes love and kindness and confidence to bring the truth to a friend you care about. If you’re insulating yourself from these conversations, who benefits?”

For others of us, forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead will require the help of a counselor. As someone who’s been there, I can tell you that there is no shame in it. The only shame is in an unwillingness to do whatever it takes to move forward.

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead is not easy. Not at all. For some of us, this might be the single hardest thing we ever do. I honestly think that was the case with Paul. That’s why he said that this is the “one thing I do.” It took everything he had to do this.

God’s grace is a free gift. If anybody ever tells you that you have to earn God’s grace…that there is some work you have to do to make God love you and forgive you…walk away. In fact, run away. That is a false gospel.

God’s grace is absolutely free. But the paradox is that living out God’s grace takes everything you’ve got. Living in guilt is really just spiritual laziness. A person confined in guilt is a person who is not willing to put in the time and the work to fully live out the grace of God.

The laziness has to stop. Get up. Get moving. Offer the apology. Call the counselor. Forgive that person. Do the hard work that is required to fully live out the grace of God in your life.

That grace is the prize that Paul was straining toward.

One more time, Paul said, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13b-14, NIV)

The prize was grace. And in grace, we have victory.

So let’s go back to where we started today. If you want to win, you have to prepare to win. Preparing to win today means forgetting about the losses of yesterday. And there is only one force in the universe strong enough to make that happen: grace.

If you want to live out the victorious life that God has laid out for you, then you’ve got to own this before you ever set foot on the playing field. If you want to win today, you have to forget about the losses of yesterday. And that is only possible through the lavish grace of God.

In Romans 3, the Bible says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.” (Romans 3:23-25a, NIV)

All have sinned. You have a sinful, messed up, screwed up past. If you say that you don’t, you’re a liar. And lying is a sin.

But as I said on my blog this week, when it comes to this passage, a lot of people stop reading too soon. They just read that everyone has sinned. Keep reading. Everyone has sinned, but everyone can be justified freely by the grace of God.

To be justified means that it is “just as if I’d” never sinned.

We are justified freely by God’s grace through the redemption that came through Jesus. To be redeemed means to be bought back. It means that God paid our ransom. He bought us back. It all came through the blood of Christ when He died on the cross.

If God was willing to go to through all of that to give us grace, the least we can do is choose to live in grace. The paradox is that God’s grace is a gift that costs you nothing. But living in God’s grace will cost you everything.

But it’s worth it. The work is worth it. Taking the proactive steps to forget about the past is worth it.

I’m a huge baseball fan. If you want to talk baseball, I’m in. Obviously baseball is a game with a lot of history and tradition. It’s also got more than it’s fair share of clichés.

One baseball cliché is that the key to being a successful closer in the big leagues is to have a short memory.

Closing pitchers have to record the last three outs of the game. The last three outs are always the toughest, and even the best closers will blow a save now and then.

But the next day, they get thrown right into the fire again. They come in to pitch in close games. High pressure situations. They pitch when the game is on the line. And the last thing they can be thinking about is the blown save from yesterday. They’ve got to have a short memory.

If you want to move forward in your walk with Christ…if you want to quit living in the past and start living in the present…if you want to make an impact for God’s Kingdom…you’d better have a short memory. If you don’t, your past will never leave you. Your guilt will always haunt you. And you will live a defeated life. If you want to win today, it starts by forgetting the loss of yesterday.

And if you’re still not buying it, you should know this. God has a short memory. It sounds crazy, but it’s true.

In Hebrews 8, God said, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12, NIV)

And in Hebrews 10, He said, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17, NIV)

God has a beautifully bad memory. He doesn’t just promise to forgive our sin. He promises to forget it.

How does an all-knowing God forget? I don’t know. When you get to heaven, you can ask Him. I don’t know how He does it. I just know He does it. He forgives. Then He forgets.

And He calls us to do the same. In Ephesians 5, the Bible says, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” (Ephesians 5:1, ESV)

In the Bible, God tells us, “I forgive your sin. I forget your sin. And I want you to imitate me. Don’t just do as I say. Follow my example. Do as I do.”

That’s the kind of God that we have. That’s the grace and the love that are engrained in His character. And that’s why there is always a second chance for us.

It’s game time. It’s time to stop wallowing in the loss of yesterday and get in the game today. You can do it, by the power and the grace of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

And that’s why we offer a chance for you to respond every single week here at ACC. Every week, people walk into this place with huge burdens of guilt. They drag it in like a ball and chain. That chain is invisible, but it’s very, very real. Every week people walk in here in chains. And they walk out in chains. And it has got to stop.

The gospel still works. God’s grace still works. The death and resurrection of Jesus is still enough. God still forgives and forgets sin.

You can be free from guilt. You can live without shame. You can be free from the loss of yesterday so you can get in the game today.

It’s grace. It’s freedom. It’s forgiveness. And it’s time. It’s game time.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: Game Time, grace, guilt, past, Philippians 3, sin