Sunday Message – by Deacon Mun Kong 03/06/07

<Philippians 3:1-21>

THE WHISPER TO FORGET WHAT IS BEHIND BUT TO STRAIN TOWARD WHAT IS AHEAD

• God had told us from the beginning to be strong and courageous. God has never changed. He
asked us not to remain in our worries and problems any longer
• We continue to remain in our problems because we are zealous in the wrong way. Thus, we need
to be freed
• We are zealous in the wrong way means: we have always thought that we need to be a good
Christian and be very serious in our belief
• We should be zealous in discovering how much we are loved. God’s work and love are in each of
our footsteps. The law of our life and spirit has changed
• It is not about us having more prayers. We just need to respond to God after hearing His love
• We need to be strong and courageous because we are God’s children and we already have the
answer
• We are already born again. We are the salt and light of this world. Therefore, we will definitely fall
if we don’t have this perspective
• Demons will be cast out from us after our perspective have changed. And this is the courage that
we should have
• Only us, who have restored God, will have a changed perspective in all things

Read <Philippians 3:1-21>

• v1 God has repeatedly told us to be joyful and strong
• v3 We cannot rely on our flesh
• v8 This is the secret of knowing God’s perfect will
• v10 “becoming like him in his death” means to live as God’s children
• v12 We must acquire what God has already promised us
• v16 This is Immanuel
• v17 It means to live a church centered life
• v19 Teachings that do not come from God are very dangerous
• v21 This should be our eternal anticipation
• We must have the “Healing of Total Being” and be like Christ’s glorious body

1. Things in the past that we can forget <v1-11>

• A lot of people have some fears in their lives, a result of some hurts that they’d received. We
will not be able to discover God’s perfect will completely, if we seek God while holding on to
our hurts or fears
• We must let go of the things in the past and discover God’s purpose for everything

1) The Lord’s repetitive revelation: rely on the Lord and be joyful <v1>
• The Lord asked us to be joyful and be free. Freedom will give us peace and make us look
smart
• Why is it that we often cannot rely on the Lord and be joyful? We just need to stand up
after falling. Have we sinned? If yes, all we need to do is to be cleansed with the Lord’s
blood
• Why can’t we be joyful or forget the past? It’s not easy to forget simply be saying so
• Therefore, we must watch out for those who will oppose Jesus Christ
 2) Watch out for those who oppose Christ (the reason for not being able to be joyful) <v2-6>
• There are dogs in this world. Meaning, there are evil ones in this world; those who killed
the Prophets
• A lot of churches today are becoming very humanistic or formalized. They are the
mutilators of the flesh
• Therefore, we must watch out for:
(1) those who belittle the truth of “predestination”
(2) those seek God very hard with their own efforts.
(3) those seek self-cultivation. They always feel they are in need, thus they always want
to achieve more things. In fact, Jesus Christ is the solution to all the problems
(4) the thought of “as long as I do something, it will be alright”. God wants us to have a
willing heart to focus upon Him all the time
(5) self-zealousness. Our purpose is not to serve the Church or people more
• Paul realized that all the things he did in the past were rubbish
• We did all these in the past too. Thus, we were often tired and in pain
• We must know the most important mystery and that is to reconcile with our Father
• There is no way we can find God on our own. Thus, Jesus came to reveal God’s perfect
will to us
• Jesus Christ has changed everything. He had gotten rid of all guilt and inferior feelings in
us
• We shouldn’t be studying on how to achieve more things. The important thing is that we
can establish a covenant with God because of Jesus Christ
• Our lives should be Gospelized and not dependent on self-cultivation
• When we pray, we shouldn’t be always thinking of achieving something. In fact, all the
answers are already in our SSGs and meetings
• We are new creations in Jesus Christ. Our identities, interpersonal relationships, etc are
all new. It is not about us doing great or wonderful work for the Lord
• What is it we wanted to achieve when we are zealous for the Lord, or wanted to serve
more, or wanted to listen to more messages, etc?
• We should aim to achieve the purposes given in <Genesis 1:27-28>. We must subdue
and rule everything
• In Jesus Christ, we already have the recipe to rule
• A person who is over zealous will always be tired instead of joyful
• We have a new identity. In other words, we have a relationship and story with God
• We already belong to the heavenly kingdom. Therefore, we can rely on the Lord to love
men and God. To love men doesn’t mean having the need to give out something. We
already have a big vessel. Therefore, Gospel will flow out from us naturally

3) “Surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” = the highest wisdom (the reason
for absolute joy) <v7-8>

4) The greatest power = imitate the death and resurrection of Christ <v10-11>

2. The balance of striving forward <v12-14>

• God’s love is in His righteousness and His righteousness is displayed through His love
1) “take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” = the greatest reward <v12>
• All of us have different roles, timetables and personalities
 • Therefore, there’s a purpose for us to achieve when the Lord calls each of us
• We must have a balanced reason for the past, present and future

2) “I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it” (review the past & get cleansed) <v13i>
• God’s absolute work is in our past
• How should we perceive our past failures?
• Are we weak in the past? It is all right. We just need to stand up and be strengthened
now. Of course, it does not mean we should continue to be weak since it is all right for us
to be weak in the past
• There is a reason for sanctification of our past failures that we need to discover
• If we want to know the reason for our failures, we must first know why we will fail:
(1) We have old thoughts
(2) We have our own motives. We just need to get go of our motives after discovering it
(3) We did not live an altar- and church-centered life
• E.g.: We fail because we’d looked down on the altar. The altar message often tells us “we
can”. However, we always say “we cannot”
• It is a mystery to live a church- and altar-centered life
• We can only accept the past failures after we’d discovered the reasons for those failures

3) Discover God’s perfect will to be strengthened <v13ii>

• The things we have now are God’s best conditions for us. Our best condition is Immanuel
• Our past failures make us what we are today. This is God’s guidance
• We shouldn’t be discouraged because of our past failures, but be strengthened instead
• We shouldn’t see God’s perfect will with our conditions
• E.g.: We often feel that we are really in a very difficult situation. Therefore, God will be
understanding and be compassionate on us. This is viewing God’s perfect will with our
condition
• E.g.: We are facing a big problem now and because of that, we simply tell ourselves that
the problem will make us into a big vessel. This view comes from ourselves
• It will be different if we are able to see that God is alive, but nobody can see Him.
Therefore, everyone will meet problems and I am no exception. Those who see this truth
will have compassion for others and become a big vessel in the process
• We will only receive evidences and reasons for a problem when we perceive the problem
with God’s covenant and a fixed perspective
• We should not look at God to perceive our conditions
• Rather, it is because of what God has told me, thus my conditions are as such. And
because of that, I have those experiences
• E.g.: When we face a big problem, we shouldn’t still blindly say that the problem is God’s
love. We must first know God loves us. Therefore, the problems we face and the
conditions we have are given by God out of love
• E.g.: I become very sick and hospitalized. There is God’s plan in this illness
• There are times when we cannot understand the altar’s message, but the preacher says it
is more important when we cannot understand. Why is it so?
• When we do not understand, we will have to confirm the message with our history and the
experiences of others. Only then, will we have our own assurance
• In fact, we will often try to find God by ourselves. This is also allowed by God and He will
have mercy on us
• God already loved us. We are not loved only after we’d face some big problems
 4) The determination to press on towards the goal <v14>
• We will be compassionate as we face the future. We will have mercy and love others
easier after we’d experienced some problems ourselves
• Why did God allow the existence of Satan? Because, God only allows those who had
bled to enter the Kingdom
• We know that we are loved only after we’d experienced problems
• Only after experiencing problems, will we discover God’s love and realize the people
around us are very helpless. They are always searching for their own gods
• Since we are loved, we know that God has already laid the paths ahead of us
• We do not love others by ourselves. We can only love when God makes us so
• God allows me to go through past failures & problems to mould me into what I am today
• Therefore, our future must be reflected and cleansed; examine and submit; ask and
receive; intercede and bless; let God take control and be victorious. We shouldn’t have
any fear for our future

3. Submit our fruits after listening to God’s whisper <v15-21>

• When God ordered Joshua to lead the Israelites to the Canaan Land, He asked them to
ponder His words, decree, laws during both days and night
• Joshua must have heard God’s whisper before he could lead the Israelites to cross the
Jordon River
• It isn’t difficult when God asks us to hand in our fruits. It is also not difficult to heard God’s
whisper. It all depends if we have the desire to listen or not

1) The process and reason to listen correctly or wrongly <v15>

• The reason why we listen correctly or wrongly is that God wants us to restore the principle
and be renewed continuously
• Therefore, generations to generations must continue to be renewed and reformed
• God’s principle is not for us to influence others but be sanctified. Blessings of meeting will
come when we are Holy Spirit filled. And others will come to us naturally
• Doors of evangelism will be opened for us naturally when we’d restore God’s principle.
This should be our vision

2) “Let us live up to what we have already attained” = the most suitable timetable <v16>
• What failures do we have from January to now? It doesn’t matter at all
• Look at the life of Ruth. She was a gentile with absolutely no qualities. However, she had
obtained the most blessed life. She proclaimed, “Your God is my God”. Therefore, she
met a most blessed person and she made the greatest resolution. Her fruits was she
became the great grandmother of David and Jesus Christ
• The Lord doesn’t need us to have very great fruits. We just need to live out what the Lord
has told us in any situation at any time
• We must follow according to what we have already heard

3) Pay attention and follow my example (I = Church/congregation) = <v17-19>

• What whisper must we hear? We must hear it together with the church and congregation
• There is a goal, direction and veins in God’s whisper
• The Lord has a practical emphasis in my life now
• The Lord’s whisper enters our heart and church through His Words
 • The terrified Elijah was able to hear God’s whisper when he quiet down. God asked him
not to afraid. He only needed to raise up a disciple, Elisha

4) Conclusion: “healing of the total being” that corresponds to the glorious body <v20-21>

Sharing and Prayer Topics

1. Am I able to pinpoint, God’s absolute reasons, plans and processes in all my past
“failures, experience, turning points, etc”? What lessons and wisdom did I learn? Can I
use them to help others see their blueprints?
2. Confirm the fruits that I’d bear from January till now. How much am I able to follow <3:16>
“Let us live up to what we have already attained”? Confirm: how can I use God’s love in
responding and acquiring a courageous heart every moment, in my current timetable?
After confirmation, strive hard to restore the joy and anticipation in listening to God’s
whisper in each and every footsteps I take
3. Before attending the blessed church camp, have I discovered the work that God did in my
life and living? What are my prayer topics?