Three week series kicking off KirkWood’s 2024-2025 programming year by studying the governing dynamic presented in Philippians 3:12-14.
| Video Message | Resources |
| Week 1: Forgetting What Lies Behind | Monday Memo notes For This Week 1) The most consequential thing you can do this week is live with those questions on the back of the cards we distributed yesterday during the worship service (which are points 8 and 9 above in the summary). Take them seriously, pray about them, reflect on them, and trust God to show you something that He wants you or us to forget. 2) Here’s a prayer for the week…it’s the benediction from yesterday’s service, drawn from Ecclesiastes 3.2, 6 refashioned as a prayer: “God, show me what needs to be born within me, and what I need to let die, what needs to be planted and tended, and what needs to be uprooted, what I need to seek and what I need to lose, what I need to keep and what I need throw away. And may I trust You enough to let go before I see where to grab hold next, amen. 3) If you want a do some “less, slower, repeated, better” reading of scripture this week, here are some suggestions: – Live in Philippians 3 for the week (or the next 3 weeks, since that’s where we’ll be on Sunday mornings): Phil 3 – Hang out with Jesus this week, in particular what He says about letting go of our lives in order to find His kind of life: Matthew 10.37-39 and Luke 9.23-27 4) Explore more about “letting go”: – Here’s an article that works through the various things God might ask you to let go of at any given point in your life: Letting Go | Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life – Here’s a devotional entry about the need to let go of being right: Letting Go of Being Right – A little more Father Rohr, this time about the need to let go of your false self: Letting Go of the False Self and Separate Self – Last, here are two practical pieces on the psychology of letting go: How to Let Go and The Power of Letting Go |
| Week 2: Striving for What’s Next | Monday Memo notes For This Week 1. Spend your week investing in those questions that were on the cards we passed around during the church service yesterday (which are reiterated in the sermon summary above, point 10). Use the insights from Emily Freeman above to guide your pondering. Commit to taking at least one step toward something by week’s end. 2. Bible reading this week – read less, slower, repeatedly, and better: – Stick and stay in Philippians 3 (you can read it in different versions of the Bible to keep it fresh; here are three): Phil 3 NRSVUE;MSG;NCV – 1st Corinthians 9.24-27 is very similar in tone to that phrase from Phil. 3.13, “stretching forward to lies ahead,” and in fact utilizes athletic imagery too: 1 cor 9.24-27 NRSVUE;MSG;NCV 3. What to check out Emily Freeman a little more? – Here’s the book Pastor Chris referenced: The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions: Emily P. Freeman – Here’s her website, where you can learn about her podcast, sign up for her free newsletter, read her blog, etc.: Home 2021 – Emily P. Freeman 4. We read this poem near the end of the worship service yesterday, it fits really well with that phrase “striving for what lies ahead”: Striving – Robert William Service |
| Week 3: The Goal, The Prize, The Call | Monday Memo notes For this Week 1. Maybe the most consequential thing you could do this week is stay focused in your prayer and devotional life on what you need to let go of, where you need to stretch next, what next step you might take, and the different questions/ideas from verses we covered in today’s sermon. 2. “Less, slower, repeated, and better” scripture reading this week: – You could hang out in Phil. 3 one more week: Phil 3 NRSVUE;MSG – You could dwell on those verses in Ephesians 1 that describe the purposes for which God has chosen us: Eph. 1.3-6 NRSVUE;MSG – You could linger in the opening paragraphs of Psalm 34 about God’s goodness: Psalm 34.1-10 NRSVUE;MSG 3. A few devotionals about “pressing on” that you can sprinkle throughout your week: Press On | Our Daily Bread) and Keep Pressing On | Our Daily Bread and What Do You Want? 4. Spend some time this week with this lengthy quote from “Love Wins,” by emerging church pastor Rob Bell, about our desires: “If we crave light, we’re drawn to the light…If we have this sense that we have wandered far from home and we want to return, God is there standing in the driveway arms open, ready to invite us in. If we thirst for God’s peace that transcends all understanding, God doesn’t just give it, it is poured out on us lavishly, heaped until we are overwhelmed. It’s like a feast where the food and wine do not run out. These desires can start with the planting of an infinitesimally small seed in our heart, or a yearning for life to be better, or a gnawing sense that we are missing out, or an awareness that beyond the routine and grind of life there is something more, or the quiet hunch that this isn’t all there is. It often has its birth in the most unexpected ways, arising out of our need for something we know we do not have, for someone we know we are not. And to that, that impulse, craving, yearning, longing, and desire, God says, ‘Yes! Yes, there is water for that thirst, food for that hunger, light for that darkness…'” |