REACHING FOR SOMETHING NEW

REACHING FOR SOMETHING NEW

JANUARY 20, 2019

CONNECT Have you ever had something you couldn’t reach? Maybe it was something on a top shelf or underneath the seat of the car. What I hate the worst is working on my car and dropping a socket in the engine compartment! When I find it, I usually can’t get to it!

Life is sometimes that way. We want something, but it seems out of reach. I want to talk about that today. My theme this morning, “Reaching for Something New”. PRAYER

Our text for this series...

Philippians 3:13–14 (NKJV) Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Three key words: forgetting, reaching, pressing…

God is always about making things new.

Isaiah 43:18–19 (NKJV) Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Revelation 21:5 (NKJV) Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

How do we reach for new things? Think about that thing on the top shelf you want. How do you get it?

1. By stretching! This is the literal meaning of the word used here for reaching. God wants to stretch us, make us go beyond what is comfortable, get us out of our comfort zone. We all have tendency to stay in the boat. Peter stretched himself and got out of the boat!

2. By stretching forward. We never reach back to go on!

Luke 5:37–39 (NKJV) And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, “The old is better.”

Old wineskins are already stretched; they can’t adapt anymore. The old wine is better, but the supply is limited. Only new wine in new wineskins can meet the needs of the future!

Jeremiah 1:10 (NKJV) See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.

To stretch ourselves we sometimes have to do some demolition work. Miners blow things up to get to the precious metals and gems underneath. We often have to walk away from what we have known to find new growth.

Alba loves to watch all the Alaska shows. I can’t even name them all! They all have a similar premise: go into uncharted country and survive! They have to root up rocks, pull down trees, destroy some good things, and throw down some living creatures before they can build a new home and plant a new life!

You build your life by preparation and plant seeds in your life by contacts and relationships.

3. By using a tool. The Bible is full of examples where a man of God used a tool of God to produce a miracle of God. Moses had a staff; Joshua had a spear; Elijah and Elisha had a mantle. Here’s the question: “What do you have in your hand?”

Exodus 4:1–5 (NKJV) Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’ ” So the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.” And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), “that they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

God is asking you that question. The tools of the past won’t take you into your future. They must be reassigned and refitted. Most of all, they have to become God’s tools in your hands!

Teaching music at Ft. Hancock…

So, reach forward, reach upward, reach out..

ACTION POINTS

1. What are you reaching for?
2. What preparation (building) do you have to do to attain it?
3. What contacts do you need to make to attain it?
4. What tools do you have in your life to help you?

Years ago Ken Medema wrote these lyrics…

Will you stay where you are, or will you reach for a star? Play the game, be the fraud, or die to self and live to God. This can be victory’s hour, claim his grace, claim his power. Will you stay where you are, or will you reach for a star?