Apprehended

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Pastor Rickey D. Dixon 0:00

Who are here joining us this morning? This is our Holy City, Spirit of Truth Ministries, and our bearing witness to the truth podcast. I welcome all of you this morning. I'm your host, Pastor Ricky D. Dixon. Ready to hear you give you the word of God for all of us to be blessed with the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God bless you. God keep you. We're going to get into the word of God this morning. And I pray all of you have been truly blessed this week. This morning, let's get into the word of God because I don't want to hold you too long. But I do want to give you this word that has been given unto me. In this Sunday's message episode, I want to talk to those, that group of people who think that they are safe enough already to make it into heaven and into the kingdom of God. You'd be surprised how many people think they just, they good, they're good the way they are. And where they are, they really believe in their minds, they're ready for heaven. But I'm here to tell you that I'm about to test some things down this morning. I don't mean no one, but I'm gonna test some things down. So many people think that they can make it into heaven, the kingdom of God right now without putting any serious effort into seeking after the Lord according to his word. They think they're going to heaven, but ain't lived nothing, ain't stopped the word of God to make sure that they uh got every dot, jotted every dot and every title. We got to be careful and go back and examine some things. See, my word this morning to all who feel and think this way, this is what my word will be to you this morning. None of us have obtained, sought after, nor have we apprehended all of the Jesus that we think we will ever need in order to reach the prize of the higher calling. Don't never let yourself think you got enough Jesus. It's some more Jesus to be got. And a lot of us are lacking. And I and I'll be more than glad to tell you why. One of the reasons why this is that some of us is because we have not let go or forgotten those things which are behind us. Too many of us are still living in the past realities of our minds, of our lives. And some of us can't let go some of the things that we've been holding on to, that we cannot go back and change, that we cannot go back and undo. And it's that frame of mind and those things, you'd be surprised you've probably not been aware of it, but things like that can hold you back from going forward in the law. They can serve as a hindrance. And if something is hindering you from getting as close to the Lord as you know you need to be, that thing needs to be let go. Those things in our past, those things which are holding us back from what the Lord has in front of us, waiting on us, our focus, our attention, and our godly goal should be to see what the Lord has for us, which is before us, and it's in front of us spiritually if we just pay attention. The Lord Jesus has had this in front of us for the longest. He has been offering us salvation, he has been offering us a changed life, he has been offering us through him to be born again. There is nothing that we can do to alter or change what has happened to us in our past. There is nothing that we can do about the things we have done in our past, except repent and forget it with a mind to never repeat it. I mean, see, I mean forgetting in the sense, not like lose memory of. I mean in the sense that we are not allowing past things to control our destiny in Christ. That's the kind of for that's the kind of forgetting I'm talking about. The spiritual forgetting. Well, uh, you you ain't lost memory of what you've done, but you're not allowing it to control your present, your future, your destiny. And some of us, we have this problem where we can't shake it. Something we just can't seem to shake. And it's been 10, 20 years, we can't seem to shake it. I know you're not gonna forget it as far as memory is concerned, but as far as not letting, when it comes to that thing hindering your spiritual journey, your spiritual uh destiny in the Lord from getting more close to Jesus, because that thing is a burden, because that thing has become a hindrance. That's what I mean by forgetting. We got to forget it in that sense and let it go. We must look forward unto Jesus because looking back and allowing our minds to be in a constant past state of reality will only serve as a hindrance to our reaching for Jesus. Too many people are reaching, but they ain't grabbed him yet. Too many of us are reaching, hallelujah, but we hadn't touched him yet. Because something is holding us back. None of us will be able to grab a hold of or reach for what Christ has in front of us if we keep looking back. This is because we have not taken our eyes and our minds off of all the very bad things which have been a hindrance to us in our lives. Yeah, I know some bad things that happened to a lot of us, and a lot of us it messed us up, and we didn't we haven't got it rectified, and we have some unresolved issues. But those unresolved issues and those situations and those bad uh things that have happened have an effect on our spiritual life. They become a burden or a weight, if you would, on our spirits, and it hinders us from being from going as high in the Lord as we can. If we continue in this way, we will forever be looked, forever be looking at what we could have, but never being able to ever reach it. We see it, and we know God got that blessing for us, but we can't reach it because something is holding us back and pulling us back. What Jesus has in front of us is Himself, y'all. What we're looking at in front of us is all about Jesus. It's all about our Lord. And it's him who wants to bring us out of that. If we can just let we can just put forth the effort of reaching him, a lot of things in our lives will change, even those burdens you got on you from your past, if you can just get to Jesus. If you can just get to him, he will lift those heavy burdens, he will lift that heavy heart, he will regulate your mind, but we're trying to do without him, and that's what we continue to make the mistakes of, and that's why we continue to go year after year, burdened down with the same burdens, weighted down with the same weights, and hindered with the same hindrances. What Jesus has in front of us is himself, and many of us have yet to apprehend him and see him as the prize of our salvation. Let me get you some books. Let's get some word here in the book of Philippians, Philippians chapter 3. I'm gonna use these three verses, but that the whole Philippians chapter 3 and chapter 4, it's a good reading in there. But I'm gonna stay with Philippians chapter 3, verses 12, 13, and 14. Verse 12 reads like this. This is Paul talking to the church in Philippi. He says, Not as though I had already obtained, he let him know, I ain't got it, I'm Paul, but I ain't got everything that I need. I ain't got it, I ain't got all of Jesus yet. I'm gonna get, I'm trying to get it, but don't think. I see, I know I ain't already, I'm not, I haven't already made it to heaven. I haven't already uh became as spiritually mature as I need to be or want to be. So he says, Knowledge though I had already obtained, either were already perfect. That perfect, that means spiritual mature. I ain't I ain't always I'm spiritual mature, but I ain't fully spiritual mature like I'm like I want to be. In other words, I ain't I'm still seeking Jesus. Yeah, I've been out here on the road preaching and teaching, establishing churches, and all that for years, but I ain't got it all yet. It ain't over yet. Not as though I had already obtained, either were already perfect. This is what Paul said. He said, but I follow after. I'm still following Jesus. That's what he said. If any man come after me, I still follow Jesus, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend, that if, that which also I am apprehended of, Christ Jesus. This is what Paul said. Let me try to break this down. Let me try to break this down and teach this here. Paul is saying, Jesus, one day Jesus came after me. And we know that to be true because we got in the book of Acts. When the Lord knocked him down on the Damascus road. The law was after him. In other words, the law was trying to apprehend him as he has done with a lot of us. Paul is saying, now, the very one that was apprehending me, now it done flipped the script. Now I'm trying to apprehend him because of him apprehending me those many years ago. Now I want him. Whereas I didn't want him at first, but when Jesus came after me and knocked some sense into me and showed me that I needed him, I ain't got them all yet. And I ain't already spiritual mature. But trust me, I learned something. But I follow after I'm gonna keep following them. Hallelujah. Till I get all I want. I'm gonna keep following him till I get all the Jesus I need. I'm gonna keep following him because I'm trying to apprehend him. Because I can't let Jesus get away. Because I know how valuable he is now in my life. I can't let Jesus get away. Because he didn't let me get away, because he saw something in me that he needed. I'm glad he chose me. And that's all of us, y'all. We gotta be good. If Jesus done made choice, you need to be glad that Jesus came after you. And you also be equally as glad. Now that if you got the heart and there's something in your spirit, and it's something down in you that just want you to ignore Jesus, that wants you to keep seeking him, you better thank God for that. And Paul knew this. See, I say unto you all this moment, don't allow yourself to develop a mindset of complacency or being at ease and or having a self-righteous spirit. Get rid of that. We all must come to a place of humility and an acknowledgement about our own selves. The Bible comes clean and come clean with the truth. And know that there will never be a time while we are here on this earth where we can stop seeking to apprehend more of Jesus. This don't stop. And you, if you should, don't even let it slow down. See, as anointed as a man of God as Paul was, he himself also felt that he had not obtained all of the Jesus he needed. His heart and mindset were to keep following after Jesus in the hope that he would get all that he needed. I'm talking spiritual things, y'all, not tangible things, not objects. This is spiritual. We got to more want to more want more of the spiritual things of God than these tangible things that we want to put our hands on. In order to fall after Jesus and to apprehend him, is something which must be in all of us to do. And the reality is that many of us just simply do not have it in us to want Jesus. That's sad to me. Or to even apprehend him. But that's all right. I'm gonna reach somebody today. I intend to reach somebody today. This morning's message, apprehended. To want to be caught and captured, to want to be apprehended by Christ, we must surrender ourselves to his will and his word. Bottom line is what I'm saying is, you gotta want Jesus in your life. You got to want him. And can't nobody make you want him? Can't nobody, can't nobody make you live for him? Can't nobody make you live according to his word? You got to want to do this for yourselves. You got to have a desire for the Lord. And it's got to be real, y'all. It's time my fault is faking. See, let me give you, let me give you some spiritual wisdom. Let me give you some spiritual wisdom from the Holy Ghost. Let me give you this spiritual wisdom from the Holy Ghost. The spiritual knowledge, hallelujah, hallelujah, and awareness in all of this is to first know and admit that you know that Jesus, in all of his love, as our Lord and Savior is trying to apprehend you. We might go tell the truth. Some of us know the Lord is after us because we can't live like other people live. We can't do like other people do. You know it's something in your life, something you you might not describe it adequately, but you can know that the Lord is pulling on your heart string. The Lord is trying to draw you, and some of us keep kicking and bucking and resisting the Lord when He is trying to apprehend you, so that you in turn can go to trying to apprehend him. But because so many of us can't let go of the past, we can't let go of the world, we can't let go those things which are behind us. We are failing. And what you're really doing is resisting Jesus. You are rejecting Jesus, and that's gonna come back to haunt you because you're gonna miss out on eternal life, and you're gonna wish you had not resisted Jesus. You're gonna wish you had not rejected him. In this experience of Jesus attempting to apprehend you and I, his spirit to apprehend you will move within you and then turn inside of you to seek and apprehend back after him. Ain't that something that's amazing to me? His spirit, he used to come after you once it gets in you, it's gonna turn inside of you to go start back trying to apprehend him. I like that. This is the understanding of which a brother Paul he's trying to reveal unto us. He says this in verse 13, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. I ain't caught him all yet, but I ain't stopping, I ain't stopped being after him either. Just because I've been saved a long time, just because I've been filled with the Holy Ghost a long time, that don't mean I need to stop seeking more of Jesus. That don't mean I need to stop trying to apprehend him. Where do you find that in the book? That ain't in the Bible. Once you can say, you alright, just stop trying to get more, stop trying to go higher, stop trying to grow in grace. That uh we're letting we've been deceived, and we're letting the enemy deceive us. Brethren, verse 13, I count not myself to have apprehended. This is what Paul said, but this one thing I do. What you do, Paul? Forgetting those things which are behind. Did God just tell y'all we got to let this episode go that's behind us? We got to forget it in the sense of not memory, but allowing it to affect our lives. He said, This one thing I do. I realize this is what I got to do if I'm gonna go forward. Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. It's something in front of us, y'all, and we are missing it year after year after year after year. We missing because we really we ain't reaching forward. You got to want Jesus, you got to reach for Jesus, you got to submit yourself to Jesus, you got to commit yourself to Jesus. Do you not hear what Paul is telling the church in Philippi? He is talking to the brethren and the sisters. He is telling them, I haven't got all of him yet. I ain't got all of Jesus yet. I got him, and I know he witnessed it, but it's more Jesus to be had, y'all. We ain't scrapped the surface. But I'm, he said, I'm but I figured out just what I must do to apprehend more of Jesus. What's that, Paul? This one thing that I must do. When you tell yourself this one thing I must do, it's gonna be the one thing that you're gonna do. I've come to this conclusion and knowledge of knowing that I got to forget those things which are behind me. Yes, I know what I was. I know what I was, and I know what I did, but now I know who I am through Christ, and this is where my mind and heart should be. I've got to forget all about those bad things which are behind me in the hope of me seeing the good of God, which is before me in Christ Jesus. Come on now. See, no doubt, Paul was thinking at times. I had church people thrown in jail and persecuted. Yeah, you did, Paul. I had righteous people mistreated and humiliated. Yeah, yeah, Paul, you did. I approved and helped them murder Stephen and watched them stone him to death. Yeah, you did. You stand there holding the coach. I hunted down more people of God on the way to Damascus, that I might do unto them those things which I had done to others. Yeah, that was you, Paul. I've done ungodly things before the Lord our God openly and sinfully. And Paul had a past, y'all, just like all of us got a past. Might not be just as severe as Paul, killing nobody, stuff like that, but we've all got a past. And I'm telling you, all our past, I tell you one thing, all our past got all of our past has included sin. Did you what I'm saying? All of our past have included some form of sin. Paul had a lot of things of which he had to forget in order to be able to reach for what Christ had before him. And so do we. Understand that this forgetting is not that we don't regret the things we have done. No, I don't mean we don't regret it because we do. And it's not that we don't feel bad, yeah, because we do feel bad about the thing we've done. And we wish that we could go back and change them. A lot of us we can go back and undo what a lot of things we done did. But you that's the thing about the past, you can't go back. The forgetting is not letting what has happened in our past life hinder us from accepting the Lord's forgiveness. Don't let what done happened in your past cause you not to accept that Jesus is offering you forgiveness. Jesus is offering you salvation, Jesus is offering you love, Jesus is offering you a changed life. Well, through him you can become a new creature. And we cannot let what's gone have gone in our past keep us from his forgiveness. And accepting that we are saved now. Our lives have been changed, and we are now new creatures through Christ Jesus. It is in this frame of mind where we should find ourselves living now, living in the now, not the past. People of God, we are still running this race. This race ain't over. It's not over. It's still some more pressing, it's still some more striving, it's still some more suffering, it's still some more prescribing things we're gonna go through, but you got to get up and keep moving and not allow it to slow you down from reaching for Jesus. We still got to keep striving that we and see. And doing what we must do. Our focus and our concentration must be with intent and with purpose. Our determination must be real, with a stubborn, godly tenacity and persistence. That we are going to make it. You got to keep telling yourself, I got to do this because I'm trying to make it. I got to live for the Lord. I got to because I'm trying to make it. I got to apprehend him because I'm trying to make it. I got to reach for him and grab him because I'm trying to make it. Because the only way we're going to make it into the city, you got to have a connection with Jesus. Not letting up. Don't let yourself let up, get tired, get bored, get weary, get in despair, loose here. Not letting up until we hit the godly mark of the calling, that high calling of God in Christ Jesus. My brothers and sisters in Christ, there is a place in Christ that we will come to know. It's a higher level in Christ, and it will be revealed unto us, and an elevation in him spiritually, we will begin to realize that there's more high heights in the Lord. See, when we come to this place, what's going to happen is he will be before us. And we are going to have to reach for him. Come on now, you got to reach for him. That means you're letting him know you want him when you're reaching for something. That's what you want, because you keep reaching for it. Without looking back or thinking back on anything that is behind us. Yes, in our reaching for him, it is going to require our forgetting certain things which are behind us if we are to reach for him in our apprehension and to grab him, to touch him and to hold on to him. Now, somebody needs to hear me this moment. We need to grab a hold of Jesus and lock on. Because he's our only hope. There's no other hope than nothing else or nobody else. Verse 14. Paul found his tell from this. He said, I press, hallelujah. Come on now. Hallelujah. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I'm pressing. Other words, you know what he's saying? He's putting forth the effort, y'all. And that's what a lot of us are missing. We are lazy in putting forth the effort we need to put in for our own salvation. Excuse me. We're not pressing like we ought to. We're not putting that strong effort. Oh, but we put that strong effort in everything else we want to do. But when it comes to God, when it comes to Jesus, we are lazy in our effort and pressing for Him. Let us be absolutely clear about our gaining eternal life in Jesus Christ. Let's get this, let's get to be absolutely clear on this thing. There is going to have to be some pressing and striving going on as far as our end. We got to let Jesus know we want him. We got to let him know we're trying to apprehend him. We got to let him know we're reaching for him. Our focus and our faith is going to have to be fixed on apprehending and reaching for Jesus. Every time you turn around, you're letting the Lord know I'm after you, Lord. I'm trying to reach you, Lord. See, for us to hit the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, there are things we must leave behind and forget. I'm sorry, we're just going to leave. And that's something going to be people, it's going to be things, it's going to be certain situations, it's going to be certain habits, gonna be certain mindset. That stuff that ain't doing you know, you got to forget it and leave behind it. Holding on to certain things in our lives, in our minds, and even in our hearts, can prove to be our downfall and our hindrance from apprehending and reaching for Jesus. How can we reach for what is in front of us when we are yet reaching and holding on to what is behind us? You're going against yourself. Either you're gonna reach for in front of you, or you're gonna reach for keep reaching with what you got behind you. We have to, we have a mark to hit, y'all. And our sight must be fixed on it without any obstructions of any kind. This is a prize of eternal value, and we cannot allow anything nor anybody to be the cause of us missing out on it. If you listen to me and let somebody call you to miss out on what the Lord got for you, it's gonna look bad on you and not them. Before I let you go this morning, there are a few more nails that I must hit on the head, a few more nails with this hammer. I must, with the ability of which God has given me, appeal to your sense of urgency. While we all yet have a little time, we must know that our connection has to be in Jesus and nothing else. And we must be about the business of reaching and apprehending Him. One thing I like about Paul, he said, if you rest that Philippians chapter, the third chapter of Philippians, I'm gonna give you, let me give you a piece of one more verse. If you just back up to that 10th verse, Paul told us, he first told him he said that I may know him. That's one of the things I like about Paul back in that 10th verse, that I may know him. See, we're trying to get to know Jesus. Don't think you know Jesus like you think you know Jesus. There's so much more you can find out about him if you just develop a spiritual connection and start living more of a spiritual life. He said that I may know him. Do we really want to know Jesus? Do we really mean to reach out for him in our lives? He is there for us to apprehend him if we so desire what he has for us. And if we desired what he has for us, we would be reaching for it. If you wanted the battle, you'd have done been reaching for what Jesus got for you. Throughout all our lives, all kinds of distractions and temptations, such as worrying, money problems, wrong desires, wrong choices and decisions, have always lurked and plagued our lives, ready to choke off our commitments and dedications to the Lord. Can we see that this is why there must be a forgetting those things which are behind? We must repent and forget the corruptness of our past lives, our vile old lives of sin. Forget that stuff and now reach forth until our salvation, which is in Jesus. Well, how do we forget? Come on, let me let me let me just get this one. I'm about to let you go. Let me let me leave you hanging. How do we forget? We forget and let things go by allowing the word of God to renew our hearts and minds. The word of God got a way of doing that. Allowing the word of God to filter out all of those negative and ungodly hindrances which are keeping us from apprehending Jesus. The word will do that, y'all. I know. I know what I'm talking about. It'll filter all that stuff out of your mind and give you a renewed mind, renewed in Christ Jesus, because it's been renewed by the word of God. As little children, we all grew up playing tag. You it. Jesus has been trying to tag us and make us it ever since he went to the cross on our behalf. In his doing so, his desire is that we make him it in our lives forevermore. By us apprehending him, reaching for him in earnest, and our true love for him. God bless you. God bless you.