Have you ever woken up on a new day and felt as if you were dragging yesterday's failures along with you? Perhaps it is something you said that you wish you could take back, or perhaps it is a spiritual battle you lost or feel as if you are losing. Perhaps it is just the weight of your own inadequacy pressing down on your shoulders. And you wonder, can I really start fresh, or am I doomed to keep carrying this burden?

And today I want to talk about something that is deeply personal to me, and I think it will resonate with many of you. It is about the freedom we have in Christ to let go of the past and to press forward. It is about understanding that every new day in Christ truly is a clean slate. Not because we have earned it, not because we have done enough good to outweigh the bad, but because of what Christ has done for His people.

Now, I want to say up front, as I always do, that I do not rush through these topics. This is not something to handle quickly. So, as always, settle in, get your coffee or tea or whatever it is you like to drink, because we are going to take our time with this.

And I am going to start tonight's session with a little reading by the Apostle Paul. We are going to start with Philippians chapter 3, verses 13 and 14, where Paul writes,

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Now there is something powerful happening in these verses, and I want to I want us to unpack it carefully because I think many of us misunderstand what Paul means when he talks about forgetting those things which are behind.

And let me be honest with you about something else. This is just me sharing with you my personal life. Let me fix this microphone here. All right. Look at that. One second. All right. Let's hope that sticks. All right. I'm going to keep this in just so you can see I'm human.

All right. I was telling you about how sometimes in the mornings I will wake up and the first thing that will often flood my mind is a catalog of my failures. Things that I have said in anger, times that I have been impatient with someone I care for deeply, someone I love. Times when I have opened my mouth and blurted out things that I later regret. And also moments when I should have trusted God and instead I tried to control everything myself. And that weight, that burden of yesterday's mistakes, it can sometimes feel overwhelming.

And here is what I used to do. I would wake up immediately and start trying to make up for it. I would think, okay, I am going to do better today. Today I am going to be more patient. Today I am going to trust God more. And that sounds good, does it not? That sounds spiritual. But there was a problem. There is a problem with that. I was starting my day looking at myself, looking at myself, and I was starting my day focused on my performance, my effort, my ability to somehow redeem myself from yesterday's failures.

And friends, I have to tell you, that is not the gospel. That is not the gospel. Going back to our text, when Paul says that he is forgetting those things which are behind, he is not primarily talking about his sins. Why? Well, it is because in Christ those sins are already dealt with. They are already paid for. They have already been removed from Paul as far as the East is from the West, and as far as God is concerned, no sins are remembered no more. They are completely forgotten.

First Peter chapter 2 verse 24 says, "...who His own self bare our sins in His body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." Did you catch that? Christ bore our sins. Past tense. It's done. It's finished. And when Jesus said, "It is finished," on the cross, He was not talking about His physical suffering. He was declaring that the work of His atonement was now complete.

And if you are one of God's elect, if God has given you faith in Christ, then your sins--yesterday's sins, today's sins, tomorrow's sins--oh, they were all laid on Him. He took them. He bore the punishment for them, and God now looks at you. He does not see your sin; He sees the righteousness of His Son. Can you get behind that? Can you rejoice in that?

Let's take a look at another passage, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, where Paul writes again, "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." One of my favorite passages, by the way, because it describes the great exchange. This is Christ taking on the sins of His people, those whom the Father gave to the Son. And those people, they received His righteousness. And not because we earned it, not because we deserved it, but because that is what God chose to do in His sovereign grace.

So, when Paul talks about forgetting those things which are behind, I do not think he is primarily focused on his pre-conversion sins or even his post-conversion failures. Those are already covered by the blood of Christ. What is Paul talking about, then, you might be asking yourself? Well, I think he is talking about his achievements, all right? I think he is talking about his accomplishments, the things he did in ministry: the churches he planted, the people to whom he preached the gospel, the theological debates he won. These are all the things that can make him feel as if he had arrived, as if he had achieved something worth relying on. And Paul was saying, "I am not looking back at all of that and resting on my laurels. I am not depending on yesterday's victories. I am not trusting in my past performance."

And I have to tell you that it is close to home for me because I have been guilty of both sides of this coin. Okay. And what I mean by that is this: on one side, I have woken up crushed by yesterday's failures, thinking I need to somehow make up for them today. That is the burden of guilt and shame. But on the other side, I have also had those moments where I look back at something I wrote or taught or said that really seemed to help someone, and I started to feel a little proud. I started to feel as if maybe I was doing all right in this Christian walk of mine. And I started to rely on that instead of on Christ.

And I just want to tell you that both those things are deadly because they take your eyes off Christ. Paul says his hand is to the plow. He is pressing forward. He is not looking back, not at his failures and not at his successes. Because here is the thing. If I am looking back at my failures, I am focused on myself and on my sin. And if I am looking back at my successes, well, now I am focused on myself and my righteousness or supposed righteousness. I mean, either way, I am focused on myself. Okay, but the gospel calls me to focus on Christ. But let me give you a picture of this. Imagine you are running a race and every hundred yards or so you turn around to look at where you have been. Maybe you stumbled back there at the 200-yard mark and you keep looking back at it and beating yourself up. Maybe you had a really strong section back at the 500-yard mark and you keep looking back at that and you keep on patting yourself on the back, congratulating yourself. Well, what happens when you pat yourself on the back? What happens? Well, if you are a runner, you are going to slow down. You are going to lose focus. You might even trip and fall because you are not watching where you are going.

And Paul says, I am reaching forth unto those things which are before. Okay, his eyes are ahead. His focus is forward. He is pressing toward the mark, the mark. Now, you might be asking, what is this mark? What is this prize? All right, it is the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And I want to be careful here because this is not about earning heaven. This is not about working your way into God's favor. If you are in Christ, if God has called you effectually, you are already accepted. Okay, you are already loved. You are already secure. Romans 8, verses 38 and 39, say, Alright. I love that passage because there is nothing that can separate us. All right. Nothing can separate God's elect from his love. Not your failures, not your successes, nothing.

So what is Paul talking about when he mentions this high calling, this prize? Well, I think he is talking about the fullness of what God has called His people to in Christ. The complete transformation into the image of Christ. The final glorification when we see Him face-to-face and are made like Him. 1 John chapter 3, verse 2 says, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." All right, that is the finish line. That is the prize. That is not something we earn, but something we are moving toward because God is at work in us.

And Philippians chapter 1, verse 6 says, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." God started the work. God will finish the work. And we are not pressing toward the mark in our own strength. We are pressing forward because God is drawing us forward. Jesus said in John chapter 6, verse 44, "No man can come to the Father, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." Those whom God chose, they did not choose Him first. He chose them. Those the Father draws to Christ come not by their own will, but by His sovereign grace, and He is not going to let go of those He has called.

So what does it mean practically for you and me to press toward the mark? What does it look like to forget those things which are behind and reach forth unto those things which are before? Let me give you some thoughts on this, and I want to be very practical because I think this matters how we live today, right now in the midst of our daily struggles.

First, pressing forward means pressing forward toward the mark means that we start each day with the gospel and not with ourselves. And when we wake up tomorrow morning, we should not let the first thing in our minds be a review of yesterday's failures or yesterday's victories. Let the first thing be this: Christ died for his people, Christ rose for his elect, and Christ lives to intercede for those the Father gave him. If God has given me faith, I am loved. I am accepted. I am secure. We need to ground ourselves in what Christ has done, not in what we've done or failed to do.

And I started trying to do this myself. I mean, I have started many times in the past, but I am not very good at it, and I am not very persistent like I should be. My wife is much better at this than I am. But before I get out of bed in the morning, I remind myself of the gospel. Jesus took the sins of his people, and those who trust in him have his righteousness, and today is a gift of grace. Thank you, Lord, for saving me. Thank you for giving me so much goodness in Christ, and Lord, help me to keep my mind focused on the right things today. And when you start off your day like that, it changes. It changes a lot. It shifts. I start my day off with my focus shifted, not on me, but on him.

And second, pressing toward the mark means being honest about our struggles without being defined by them. When you wake up in the morning, you need to know that you are going to mess up later that day. When I wake up in the morning, I know I am going to mess up that day. I am going to be impatient. I am going to be selfish. I am going to be anxious. I am going to be proud. Maybe all of it. But we are going to sin, and indeed we drink iniquity like it is water. But here's the freedom we have in Christ: those sins do not define us. That's the freedom. We are not defined by our sin. And they do not change our standing before God, and they do not separate us from His love.

When you sin today, and you will sin, some sins you will be aware of, and maybe most you will not. I do not know. But you will be aware of some sin, and when you are, confess it. Be honest about it. But then remember the gospel. Remember that Christ already bore that sin on the cross for His people. Remember your righteousness is not based on your performance, but on Christ's perfect life credited to your account. 1 John 1, verse 9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." He is faithful. It is not dependent on you mustering up enough sorrow or regret. It is dependent on His faithfulness.

And third, pressing toward the mark means focusing on Christ's work in you, not your work for Him. Now, I am not saying we should not serve, and I am not saying we should not labor in the Gospel. Paul certainly did, but the focus has to be right. We are not working to earn God's favor. We are not striving to prove ourselves. We are not building a resume of spiritual accomplishments. By my making this podcast, financially, I receive nothing from it. Nobody donates, and I do not want donations. I do not have sponsors, and I will never have sponsors. Therefore, there is no financial motive for me in making this podcast. Second, I know that I cannot become any more perfect in the eyes of God than what I already am. I cannot gain any blessing from God by doing this. But I do this because I have a genuine desire, first, to glorify the Lord, and second, I care deeply for His people and I care deeply for others to know the truth. I am motivated by love. Those are my true motives, and that is as honest as I can be about this. So that is the only reason I am doing it. I have an urgent desire to preach the gospel, to preach Christ. If I do not preach Christ, I will not be able to live with myself. So that is where I am right now. That is me.

But back on topic. We are not building a resume of spiritual accomplishments. We are resting in what Christ has done, and out of that rest, as I said, flows genuine service. It is like a tree. A healthy tree does not strain and sweat to produce fruit. It naturally bears fruit because it is connected to good soil, and it is receiving water and sunlight. Fruit is a result of health, not the cause of it.

Jesus said in John chapter 15, verse 5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing." Apart from Christ, we can do nothing of eternal value, but abiding in Christ, connected to Him, His Spirit indwelling us will naturally bear fruit. Not because we are trying so hard, but because He is at work in us.

Pressing toward the mark also means being patient with yourself and with others. This is a race, but it is not a sprint. It is a marathon. God is patient with your progress. Consider how long it takes a child to learn to walk. They fall constantly, stumble, and make mistake after mistake. Do good parents berate the child for every fall? Do they give up on the child? No. They encourage, help, and patiently guide. Our Heavenly Father is much more patient with us.

Psalm 103, verses 13 and 14 say, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, and he remembereth that we are dust." He knows you are dust. He knows you are weak. He knows you will stumble, and He is patient with you. Therefore, be patient with yourself and with your brothers and sisters who are also running this race, also stumbling, and also learning.

Pressing toward the mark also means remembering that the race is already won. This may sound contradictory. You might ask, "How can you press toward the mark if the race is already won?" Here is the beautiful truth of the gospel: Christ already ran the race perfectly for His people. He lived the perfect life that His people could not live. He died the death that His chosen ones deserved to die, and He rose from the grave, conquering sin and death. The victory is already secured. The salvation of God's people is already accomplished, and their place in heaven is already guaranteed.

So when you press toward the mark, you are not pressing to earn something. You are pressing because you are being drawn by the one who already won the race for his people. And it is like this: imagine a father and his young child are at the beach. The father is up ahead, and he calls to the child, "Come here, come to me." And the child runs toward the father with joy. And it is not because the child has to earn the father's love; the love is already there. But the child runs because the father is calling, drawing, and inviting. And that is what our Christian life is like. God is calling His people forward, drawing them, and we run to Him, not out of fear or obligation, but out of love and joy because we know He loves us.

Now, let me address something that might be on your mind. You might be thinking, "Brandon, this sounds good. What about my guilt? What about the real weight of my sin? I have done some awful things. You would not even believe them if I told you." Yes, I would. And you might be saying, "How do I just forget it?"

All right. Now I want to be clear. I am not saying you should pretend you have not sinned. I am not saying you should be flippant about sin or be careless. But what I am saying is that the gospel addresses your guilt more thoroughly and more completely than you ever could.

Your guilt, yes, it is real. Your sin is real, and the weight of that is real. But Christ really bore it on the cross for his people. He really took God's wrath in the place of the elect. And he also suffered the shame and the guilt of your sin. He really satisfied divine justice.

In Isaiah 53, often referred to as the gospel of Isaiah, verses five and six state: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Our sins were placed on Christ, and he bore them, and he paid for them, and it is finished. So when that guilt comes knocking, when shame tries to drag you back into yesterday's failures, you point to the cross. You say, "That sin was paid for. Christ bore it for his people, and I am free." This is not wishful thinking. This is not positive self-help talk. This is gospel truth.

When God looks at His chosen people, His precious elect in Christ, He does not see their sin. He sees the righteousness of Christ. And this is not because He is overlooking their sin and pretending it did not happen. It is because Christ truly took it. And Christ's righteousness has truly been credited to them. This is what it means to have a clean slate, not because you cleaned it yourself, but because Christ cleansed his people.

First John, chapter one, verse seven says, "But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin." The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin--not some sin, not just the worst ones, nor the better ones, as if there were such a thing, but all sin.

So what does this mean for you today, right now, if you are resting in Christ? It means you can lift your head up and approach God in prayer without fear, without shame. I do not care what you did today. If you murdered someone, you can go to God right now in prayer, without shame before him, and stand boldly in the throne of Christ, because Christ has made a way for his people.

If you are in Christ, you are probably not murdering people, perhaps not with your hands, but you might have murdered somebody in your heart and mind, which is just as bad. However, let us go to Hebrews chapter 4, verses 15 and 16. The writer of that book, about whom there is a dispute as to whether it is Paul, Barnabas, or another New Testament apostle, but I suspect it is Paul, writes: "For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Boldly. Come boldly. Come boldly unto the throne of grace. That is what the Bible says. I do not care what you have done. Come boldly, not because you are perfect, but because Christ is perfect. And He is your high priest, interceding for you right now at the Father's right hand.

I am reminded of something that happened to me years ago. I had said something to my son that was harsh and unkind. Ironically, it was about the gospel and the over-discrimination we were having. Shortly after I said it, I knew it was wrong. I saw the hurt in his eyes, and the guilt just washed over me. It was just one of my many problems. I am a murderer in my heart. And, you know, I apologized, and of course, he forgave me, but, and he probably does not even remember this, if he is even listening to this, because he is such a forgiving person. But for days afterward, I kept replaying that moment in my mind, and privately, I kept beating myself up over it. How could I say that? I should have known better. What kind of Christian am I? What kind of father am I?

And one morning I woke up, and that was the first thing on my mind: that failure, that sin. I started to spiral into that familiar pattern of guilt and self-condemnation. Even today, it still bothers me. I remember, by God's grace, the gospel. I remember that Christ already bore that sin for His people, myself included. I remembered that my standing before God was not based on my performance that day or any day, but on Christ's perfect life. So not only did my son forgive me, and we both learned from the experience, but the Lord also forgives me.

So I have made a choice. I choose to forget that thing which is behind, not by pretending it did not happen, but by resting in the fact that it was already dealt with on the cross. And you know what? That burden is now lifted. I have been able to move on. I have been able to move forward. I have been able to press toward the mark. That is what Paul is talking about. That is what it means to forget those things which are behind and press toward the mark. At least, in my opinion.

Now let me also say this: forgetting those things which are behind also means not relying on your past spiritual victories. Perhaps you had a season where you felt really close to God, where your prayer life was vibrant, where you felt like you really understood the Scriptures, where you were serving effectively in ministry, where you felt really filled with the Spirit. And if you have been a believer for a while, you know what I am talking about. Where your mind and heart are synced up perfectly, it seems, with God's Word. We have these seasons, and I thank God for those seasons. But here is the thing: do not camp out there. Do not keep looking back at that mountaintop experience thinking, "If I could just get back to where I was." No, just press forward. God has new mercies for you today, new grace, new strength, new experiences of His faithfulness.

Lamentations chapter 3, which was written by Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, verses 22 and 23 say, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness." You are going to hear me quote that passage a lot: "new every morning, not recycled from yesterday, but new." Okay? God is not asking you to recreate yesterday's experience. He is inviting you into today's grace. And so here is where this gets really practical. Tomorrow morning when you wake up, you have a choice. You can wake up and immediately start reviewing yesterday. You can catalog your failures and start planning how you are going to do better today. And you can replay your victories and feel good about yourself. Or you can wake up and remember the gospel. You can remind yourself that you stand before God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and you can thank Him for new mercies. And you can ask Him for grace to walk with Him today. And you can press forward, eyes ahead toward the mark.

Which one sounds more like rest? Which one sounds more like freedom? The Christian life is not about constantly looking backward. It is not about dwelling on past failures or past successes. It is about looking forward to Christ, being drawn by Him, walking with Him today.

Paul says he pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus. That is the key. That is the key. And everything is in Christ. Your forgiveness is in Christ. Your righteousness is in Christ. Your hope is in Christ. And your future, your future is in Christ. Your calling is in Christ.

Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 say, Even your faith, it's a gift. Even your ability to believe is something God gave you. You can't boast in anything, not in your conversion, not in your spiritual growth, not in your service. It's all grace. And when you understand that, when you really grasp that it's all grace from the start to the finish, it frees you to press forward without fear. Because you're not pressing forward in your own strength. You're being drawn forward by the one who saved you, the one who's keeping you, the one who will present you faultless before the throne.

Jude verse 24 says, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless, faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. He's able to keep you from falling, not you, he, him. And he's able to present you faultless, not because you made yourself faultless, but because Christ's righteousness has been given to you.

So today, right now, in this moment, if you're resting in Christ, if you're trusting Him, you can have peace, okay? And you can have assurance. Not because you've arrived, not because you've achieved spiritual perfection, but because Christ has done it all for His people. And tomorrow, when you wake up, you can press forward the mark with joy. Not looking back, not dwelling on yesterday, but looking forward to the fullness of what God has called you to in Christ.

And with that, that's about all I have for today. And I hope you're encouraged, and I hope you press forward in your walk with Christ. And I hope you see that those whom God has chosen really do have a clean slate every single day. Not because of what we've done, but because of what Christ has done.

And if you are struggling right now, if you feel weighed down by guilt or shame or the burden of trying to measure up, reach out to me. There is a contact form on my website; just go to my website and send me a message. I would love to hear from you; I really would. I would also like to pray with you, and I will even talk to you on the phone. I talk to people all the time, believe it or not.

That is about all for today's message. I would like to say, though, that if you are interested in my music, I know not everyone is into that, but the music, my songs that I have made, they are now complete. I have now completed all three albums. They are now available on YouTube. I have three playlists. My three albums are Pride, and Praise, and The Little Things. My third album, which I like the best out of all three, is called Break the Cage. It is different from the other two albums in many ways. But yes, it is out there if you want to take a look at it.

Tell your friends about this podcast, and if you find it helpful or useful. I appreciate you listening; I really do. That is all I have for today. So grace and peace to you, and good night.