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What Are You Looking Forward To?

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What Are You Looking Forward To?

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What Are You Looking Forward To?

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MP4 Video - 720p (599.49 MB)
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What are you looking forward to doing and how can you accomplish those goals? This message challenges you to set a physical and a spiritual goal this summer.

Transcript

[Dan Preston] A few years ago, actually probably more than a few, probably about eight or nine years ago, I decided I was going to do something, something that I always wanted to do as a kid but was never allowed to do because mom and dad forbade it. I was going to learn how to ride a motorcycle. Now, I had ridden two or three times on friends' bikes around the neighborhood and things like that, and I brought the subject up several times. I was willing to earn the money if I can get a motorcycle. I would pay for it myself, and mom and dad were, "No," and that was the final answer. When I got married, the answer really didn't change much. [audience laughs] But with increased fuel prices a few years ago, when it got up to near around $4 a gallon, the argument became a little more of a lucrative financial one, so I got the okay.

I did agree that if I did this, I was going to do it the right way. I was going go through a motorcycle riding training class. If you do decide to ride a motorcycle, learn to ride a motorcycle, I highly recommend the class. It's something that your insurance will give you a discount for, and it honestly took me from being a novice to being able to at least ride circles around a parking lot within a week's time. They provided the bike, they provided a helmet, they provided everything. The class was relatively cheap, maybe $50, $60, something like that. And in the class, I learned lots of things, but there is one thing that really stood out in my mind. One particularly helpful maneuver.

So, there is a part of the class where at the very end, you take a riding test and if you pass this test at the end, you don't have to go back and take a test at the BMV to get your motorcycle endorsement. You actually get your certificate there in the class. You just take it to BMV, you present it and you get your endorsement, but it's kind of a hard maneuver. You've got a space about the size of a parking spot. It's about 20 feet deep and about 10 feet wide, so it's about the size of a parking space. And what you have to do is you start on, say, the right edge, at the beginning of the parking space, and they tell you to go forward at the end of the parking space, make a left turn, come back and stop, and you have to do that all within the confines of these lines. If you go outside, you fail. We had plenty of time to practice and I, like most of everyone else, first time probably swung 5, 6 feet outside the line.

So, the instructor sat us all down and gave us a very helpful piece of advice. He said, "When you're riding, don't sit there and look at where you're afraid you might wind up. Look where it is you want to go. Because either way, you'll be right." You've probably heard that piece of advice, whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're probably right.

I was skeptical. I was scared. I actually had to try it at first. I mean when you're riding on this bike and you are turning your neck all the way around like that, it's kind of difficult to do, but it works. It worked well. In fact, I was probably, most of us were able to stay a foot and a half, two feet inside the line and pass with ease. It wasn't just a piece of advice to pass that test. It was a piece of advice that came in very handy, very practical.

One of the first times I was out riding, I was here on a local road. Many of you might be familiar with the road, just up the road - Klondyke. At the top of that road, it's kind of on a hill and you gotta turn left, and there is a stop sign but its crossing traffic doesn't stop. So, I got to the top of that hill, I went to turn left and there were some cars coming but there were... it was safe distance. It was far enough down the road. But on the opposite side of that street, there's a ditch, and it's not just like a little ditch—it’s about 3 foot deep, it's about 6 or 8 feet wide—plenty to bury a motorcycle and real easy. 

So, as I started to pull out, I remember turning and I was going much closer to that ditch than I really wanted to be. I remember thinking, "Oh no, my wife was right. I'm going to wreck." I wanted to do something and then I got to go home and explain this to her. And in that moment that piece of advice came to mind: “Look where you want to go.” So, at that moment, I craned my head further left, looked straight up the road and was able to continue through the turn and get on down the road safely.

The parallel that I'd like to talk about today, I hope will be obvious. I thought of many different titles for this message. Things like, "Watch Out Where You’re Going," or "Be Careful Where You End Up" or "Look Out Ahead." But I thought those all sounded a little negative. So instead, I decided to entitle this "What Are You Looking Forward To?" What are you looking forward to?

Now, I have to admit when I first started to put this message together, I was thinking of recent high school and college graduates and as they set out in life, but the more I thought about it, I thought this has a very broad application to all of us as we think about what are we looking forward to? What in life are we looking forward to?

First thing you need to do is to decide what is it that I'm looking forward to? Is there a goal out there I want to accomplish? For me, I wanted to learn how to ride a motorcycle. It was the thrill of the open road, it was the performance of a bike, it was gaining a new skill I never had. Maybe I watched one too many action movies where at the last moment, the hero needs to jump on a motorcycle to escape or something like that. I don't know. But I just had this overwhelming desire. I wanted to learn how to ride a bike and as I said, it did help my case, the fact that gas was around $4 a gallon and my car was getting around 22 miles a gallon, and my first bike actually got upward to 70 miles a gallon, so that helped too.

So, what are you looking forward to? What are you looking forward to? The first answer is probably the obvious one. It's found in Hebrews 11 verse 13. In fact, I hope that is an obvious answer because if it is, that means that at the end of this message, it'll all have made some sense. Hebrews 11:13, of course we understand we read this as the Faith Hall of Fame chapter, some will call it. We read how those who died in faith had something else that they were looking forward to. Hebrews 11, starting in verse 13 says, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland, and truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has prepared a city for them." We understand, we know this is talking about the New Jerusalem. In essence, this is talking about obtaining the Kingdom of God. That is, of course, our ultimate focus. Matthew 6:33 tells us, "Seek ye first the first kingdom of God." And we could stop right there, and that would be a good answer and this would be a very short message.

But I think there's more that we can read from this. Notice the Kingdom wasn't the only thing that people were looking forward to. Let's just pick up a few verses. Let's back up in verse 7 and notice what’s said, Hebrews 11:7, it says, "By faith, Noah being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness, which is according to his faith." Noah awaits the return of Christ in God's Kingdom. He is an heir of righteousness. It says right here.

But you know, there was something physical he was looking forward to. He was looking forward to saving his household. Verse 11 says, "By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child when she was past the age because she judged Him faithful who had promised." It's a great lesson here and what was physically impossible by medical standards was accomplished, and Sarah had faith that it would be accomplished. But you know, she was looking forward to having a son, too. That was a physical blessing. Verse 30, it says, "By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace." These are physical blessings that were listed. 

While we understand that this chapter focuses on the faith of those listed in it, it points out something useful for us today. While our primary focus should indeed be seeking the Kingdom of God, it's okay to look forward to physical accomplishments as well. It's okay to look forward to other blessings as well, and that's why I want to spend some time today talking about that. Let's focus on what we are looking forward to doing here in physical terms on this earth and what we can do to accomplish those goals.

So, what are you looking forward to? What you looking forward to? Is there any goal you want to achieve? Maybe learn to ride a motorcycle. Maybe start small and teach your kids how to ride a bicycle. Maybe you want to visit every major league ballpark in the country. It's actually one of my personal goals. So far, I've got one down, so still I’ve got some room to work on that. Education—maybe you want to pursue a degree in accounting or nursing, whatever it might be. Financial goals—maybe plan for retirement. Maybe plan to save to buy that first house, that first car, maybe your next iPhone, who knows. Maybe your summer reading program, maybe you'd like to try to read three new books by authors you haven't read about, read from before. Or maybe it's a more serious goal. Maybe there is a problem you have, and maybe it's something that you need help with even. What sort of goals do you have that you'd like to accomplish?

Whatever it is, get started on them, and the best way to get started on them is to be smart about them. And what I mean by smart—how many have heard of the S.M.A.R.T. acronym when it comes to setting goals? Okay, so a few of you here. It's been around the workplace and academia for many years. It was first written about in an article by George Doran in a 1981 issue of the magazine Management Review, but the ideas actually trace back much earlier, as far back as 1926. So, I don't think we are dealing with any copyrighted or trademarked material, so the webcast guys don't have to worry about it.

Goals should be S.M.A.R.T., and that's a five-letter acronym. The first letter S stands for this: they should be specific. No, not broad and vague, not, “Maybe I'll go to college someday,” or “Maybe I'll retire someday,” but, “Hey, in five years from now, I want to have an engineering degree,” or “By the time I'm 62, I want to retire.” They should be specific.

The M stands for measurable. A goal should be measurable. It kind of goes hand-in-hand with that first one. You have to be able to define it. An example of, say, getting a particular degree in five years, you've actually got two things that are measurable. You have the time constraint—five years—and you have the specific degree that you might be pursuing.

Now, I will say sometimes we have to be flexible. Sometimes, five year degrees might take seven years, and if you are three and a half years into it and you realize, “You know what? I'm probably not going to get through this goal in five years,” that doesn't mean you should quit. That doesn't mean you are a failure, but it means, “You know what? I'm going to have to look and make an adjustment here,” which you should set a goal there and try to stick to it as close as you can.

The A stands for attainable, attainable. We could set a goal that says, "We want to end all wars." That's a fantastic goal, but that is nothing you and I can do. That is something that will only happen when Jesus Christ returns and sets up God's Kingdom on this Earth. So it has to be attainable. 

The R in SMART stands for realistic. It sort of goes with the attainable one. It's similar to attainable, but it helps us focus. It must be realistic. If we don't do any exercise at all right now—say you're not somebody who runs regularly—it's probably not very realistic for us to say, "You know what? I'm going to run a marathon next month." It's probably not very realistic. A more realistic goal might say, "You know what? I'm going to get in better shape, and I want to start running three days a week,” or five miles a week, or something along that line.

The T stands for time-measurable. It should have time limits. A goal should have time limits. It can't be, “Well, I'm going to do this someday.” I have to have full disclosure here. I've got a garage full of projects that I'm going to do someday, but the ones that actually get accomplished and get done are the ones that I put time restraints on.

Another thing in setting these goals that can help us is that, sometimes if we put a time limit on it, it can help us be accountable. Many people might use a workout partner and say, "Okay, we want to lose 10 pounds by the 1st of July," or "You know what? We’re going to run three days a week," and so you might have a workout partner to help do that but it helps us to be accountable, to put a time measurement on this goal.

So, goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-measurable. Whatever goal it is that we make, we must consider one very important thing, and this is something that most of the management books won't tell you. We need to temper these goals using the wisdom of the Bible as a whole.

1 Corinthians 6:19 reminds us that our body is not our own. We can't leave God out of the picture when we go to make a goal. We can't leave God out of the picture and just say, "Well, I'm going to do anything and not spend some time in prayer and study, perhaps even fasting if it's a life-changing sort of a goal to consider." In James 4, verse 13, we read about some advice here. Mr. Bizic had me a little bit worried for a minute. I really enjoyed the book of James. It's a book that speaks very much to the practical side of Christianity. I think it's a book when I read through it, I think, "Wow, James really gets me." James 4:13. It says, "Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit.” Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." Again, it's not our own. “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that,’ but now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

Whatever plans we make, we must consider, and we must remember and practice, that they must be within God's will. Christ, when He was ready to be crucified in Luke 22 ,verse 42 said, "Not My will but Your will be done." We can't ask for things for selfish reasons. A little earlier here in James 4:3, it says this. It says, "You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures." Ask amiss, what's that mean? Well, we’re told it's when we start seeking to do it for our own pleasures. Today must be the day of quizzes. I didn't get together with Mr. Bizic, but I want to give a short little quiz as well. This is just a little A, B multiple choice here. Thinking about setting goals. When we set a goal or something we want to accomplish, how do we think about it? So, I have given a couple of examples here we can look at. 

So, A or B? You choose. Should I (A) ask for a million dollars so I never, ever have to work again? Actually, in today's economy, you'll probably need some more like $12 to $15 million dollars, but anyway, should I ask for big bags of cash so I never have to work again (A), or (B) should I ask God for guidance and help finding a good job so I can support myself, my family, and His work?

How about this one—A or B? Should I (A) ask God for a spouse so that I can be happy, or (B) ask God to help us be the kind of person who cares more about others than ourselves?

One more, A or B? Should we (A) ask God for special, revealed knowledge so that we can insight to end-time prophecy or (B) ask God for wisdom and direction so that we can grow where He is leading us, such as in areas of the fruits of the Spirit? A or B?

I think the answer is obvious. In each of those, choice B illustrates the right attitude in when we go forward setting goals for ourselves. Paul wrote of an example in this type of goal in 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4. I'm actually going to read this from the New Living Translation. 1 Thessalonians 4:11. The New Living Translation puts it this way. It says, "Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need dependence on others." Paul was writing to the Thessalonians at this point in time, telling them, "We need to work to cover our own cost to take care of ourselves. We shouldn't expect on the kindness of others to take care of ourselves." And note some specific results are given here when we set the right kind of goal. 

People will see us living God's way of life, and they will respect that. Not that they respect us, but they respect God's way of life. The honor and glory goes to God. This illustrates a very important result of good goal-making. When we set the right sorts of goals for ourselves, good things will happen, and God will be honored.

Now, whatever goal that you make—we’ve talked about physical goals thus far—I would challenge you to maybe think about making a spiritual goal as well. You might think, "Well, you just said we weren't going to talk about the Kingdom of God." So, that's not a goal that we can just set as that we were going to talk about today as just setting one goal, “I want to obtain the Kingdom,” but we'll talk about some things that we can do on the spiritual side that will help us go down that road.

For example, things we can do here now today. Maybe it's, “I want to double the amount of time I spend in prayer.” Maybe I spend, I don't know, 10, 15 minutes a day on my knees. A great goal might be, “You know what? In a month's time, I want to be able to double that to 30 minutes a day.” Maybe you've got an idea floating around in your head for something that might be useful to others. You've got an idea that you'd like to share with people. You know, a great goal would be try to write that up into an article. Maybe something simple that's a blog or could be used as a blog, submit it to Beyond Today, and just see if it might be able to be usable. But if we don't set the goals and say, "You know what? I want to try doing this," it won't happen. Maybe it's reading the Bible in a year, or maybe it's going back through the correspondence courses or the booklets, reading one a week, one a month, whatever your goal might be. 

I think sometimes there’s a temptation that we might look at the booklets and think, "Well, I've read those. I kind of know what they're about. I know what's in them." I’ll give you an example, though, of where that can be very helpful. One of the first booklets that many people who are exposed to the Church wind up reading are What Is Your Destiny? And that's not going to reveal anything to you that you probably don't know and understand already, but you know what it might do? It might freshen up some of the key concepts that are talked about in there, so that if a new person walks in off the street next week, and they say, “Well, you know, I was just reading this booklet…” Aha, now you've got a point where you can make a connection. You've got a point where you can have a touch point, a talking point.

These are the type of things that, while they're not directly stating our goal is to enter the Kingdom of God, they can help us grow spiritually, so we can go down that path. Going back to the analogy of the motorcycle or actually the true story of what the instructor told me, you know, there is a second half to what he said. He said, "Look at where it is you want to go. Don't look at where it is you're afraid you're going to end up." If you look in the ditch, you are going to wind up in the ditch. Although we should understand dangers that lie ahead of us in life, we can't be the kind of people that focus exclusively about all the bad things that could happen maybe someday, things that may or may not happen. 2 Timothy 1, verse 7 is a good reminder here. 2 Timothy 1, just a page or two over from 1 Thessalonians, 2 Timothy 1:7. It says, "For God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

If this isn't a memory scripture for you, I suggest that you put a star by in your Bible, highlight it, commit it to memory. The spirit of fear, the spirit of worry about where we might wind up, what could possibly go wrong when we don't have any reason to think it could go wrong—that's not the kind of spirit that God gives us. That's not His Spirit leading us. If we find ourselves thinking that way all the time, if we live with an attitude and a fear, a constant fear of failure. If you’ve been through ABC class, you've probably heard Mr. McCrady say, "Fear is a destroyer of faith." And that's an absolute truism. Fear is a destroyer of faith. Those that we read about in Hebrews 11, were they afraid? Yeah. I bet they were. I would be. But did they find a way to get past the trepidation, the anxiety, and do it anyway? There's a book by Susan Jeffers called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, and I have to admit, full disclosure again, I haven't read this book but it is on my summer reading list. That's one of my goals for the summer, but I think the title is pretty self-explanatory.

You know sometimes, life is scary. Sometimes, the goals we set for ourselves can be scary. But we have to knuckle down and do them anyway. We can't let fear of an unknown outcome or destination stop us from accomplishing life's goals. How many of you have been watching the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs this week? I know of at least three people. They have been watching it with intent interest this week. Some good hockey, by the way; if you are not in hockey, now is a great time to watch. It's really entertaining. It's really the best hockey you'll see all year. But a good goalie can make or break a team. God is not a goalie. Of course, He has standards but He's not a goalie trying to keep you out of the Kingdom of God. He’s not a goalie that's trying to keep you from accomplishing the goals you have set for yourself, assuming that we've gone through and set them properly using some of that wisdom out of James 4. 

Israel had trouble with this way of thinking. Deuteronomy 1 verse 26, we read where Moses is kind of recounting their wandering through the wilderness and we see some of the thinking that went on with Israel, and see if this sounds familiar. Deuteronomy 1:26, it says, "Nevertheless, you would not go up but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; and you complained in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover, we've seen the sons of Anakim there.”’” By the way, it's Anakim with a M, not an N. This is not Anakin Skywalker. 

Some translations say “the sons of Anak there.” They had a challenge set in front of them. It was a goal that they said, "You know, God, You've made this too tough. You've made it too difficult. You've just set us up for failure because You hated us and You wanted to watch us fail." Keep reading and notice what Moses said. Verse 29, he says, “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you, He will fight for you. According to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, and all the way that you went until you came to this place.’” Moses had to remind them God carried them, like a little child on those—if you’re parents who’ve had small children, maybe you've gone and been in a big amusement park and may want to ride all the rides and all the biggest thrills and everything, and by the end of the day, they're not walking out of that park on their own. You are carrying them out. 

God carried Israel, God will carry us. Do we have challenges, setbacks? Sometimes. But God will carry us. I couldn't help but think about a line from a movie "Smokey and the Bandit." It said, "Well, we ain't never not made it yet." No. Has God abandoned us at any point in time? Has He let us set and fail? I know there are times when again, sometimes there are setbacks or sometimes we might realize, "You know what, this was the wrong goal in the first place." But God is not setting us up for failure. He doesn't want us to fail. He wants to see us succeed. We want to turn there but James 2:23, we're reminded that Abraham was a friend of God. God is our friend. He doesn't want to see us do bad. He wants to help us. He is not a goalie trying to keep us out of the kingdom of God, or keep us from accomplishing goals, again, provided that they are the right sorts of goals.

For a great number of things in life, many things in life, God wants for you what you want for you. If you want to study to be an accountant, study to be an accountant. If, when you retire, you want to have a convertible and drive around the country, see the country and you have the means to do so, go for it. If you met someone that you'd like to get to know a little bit better, spend time. Try to get to know them a little bit better. God wants what you want for a great number of things in life. Now again, there are going to be certain things we have to keep in mind. We are not going to go out and become a professional baseball player, at least I'm not because I'm way over the hill, but you know, we are not going to be able to go out and play professional sports because of conflicts with the Sabbath. We don't want to get started down a road getting into relationship with someone that doesn't have the same faith, the understanding of the Bible you do.

But with those sorts of things in mind, God wants us to be happy, and we can be happy when we set goals that honor Him, and He doesn't leave us alone or set us up for failure. Start at John 14 and verse 26. John 14:26. I want to read this actually from the Amplified version of the Bible and it says this. It says, "But the Helper, our Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor, the Counselor, the Strengthener, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and He will help you remember everything that I have told you." Now, we'll note here because of the Greek grammar, the Greek word for the Helper here is parakletos, it's a masculine noun so it has the pronoun "he." This is not a scripture that tries to prove the Trinity. This is actually one of the scriptures that people might point to, to try to prove the Trinity, but this is an issue of Greek grammar here.

It should be more properly interpreted and understood “which” or “it,” but the parakletos, this Helper, it means one who comes alongside. It's not a tormentor, a gainsayer. It's not described as Debbie Downer that says, "No, you can't do it. You are going to fail. This is stupid." The Holy Spirit is given to us to help us, to comfort us, to guide us, to bring those things, bring remembrance to mind of Christ Jesus, to help remember the promises that God is there to help us. The God we serve is not a God that sets us up for failure. Our lives are not meant to be lived in a state of fear and will I or won't I? Will I accomplish this goal? Will I make it into the Kingdom of God? That's not how God wants you and I to think.

One last scripture we'll turn to in Psalms. Psalm 20, and we'll start at the beginning in verse 1. Again, I'm going to read this from the New Living Translation, Psalm 20:1. It says, "In times of trouble, may the Lord answer your cry. May the name of the God of Jacob keep you safe from all harm. May He send you help from His sanctuary and strengthen you from Jerusalem. May He remember all your gifts and look favorably on your burnt offerings. May He grant your heart's desires and make all your plans succeed." God wants us to succeed, not just inheriting the Kingdom of God, but all our plans.

So as we begin to get into the summer, what are you looking forward to? I will challenge you to set yourself a couple of goals. One spiritual, one physical. Now, does it mean that they have to be done this summer? You know, some are longer-term goals. So, at this point, I'm going to just challenge you to set a goal.

Now, I will say that sometimes setting a short-term goal that we can achieve rather quickly will help us build confidence so that we can achieve future goals later on. But perhaps, set one goal in the physical realm and one goal in the spiritual realm. Maybe it's, “I want to retire at 59 and a half, so I'm going to meet with a financial advisor to start planning that.” You are never too young to start that by the way. Maybe your spiritual goal might be, “You know what? I want to double my amount of prayer time.” Maybe a physical goal could be, “You know what? I really want to hike the Grand Canyon someday,” or at least ride one of those little donkeys down in the bottom and maybe take a helicopter back out, I don't know. And “I'm going to start reading the Bible and get through it in a year starting Monday morning,” or whatever it might be. I challenge you to make those goals.

What are you looking forward to? Whatever you're looking forward to, know and understand we don't have a God who tries to play goalie and keep us from accomplishing that. He's not trying to keep us from succeeding, and we shouldn't spend our time and worry looking at where it is we don't want to go, where we're afraid we could wind up, but rather God is on our side. He has given us an Advocate, a Helper to help us accomplish the goals that we set when we set the right sorts of goals with His guidance. God wants us to succeed at whatever it is we might be looking forward to.