Sermon Tone Analysis

Yukon Arctic Ultra

On a frosty February evening, Diane Van Deren made history as the first woman to complete the Yukon Arctic Ultra.

Touted as the world’s coldest and toughest race, The Yukon Arctic Ultra is a grueling 430-miler run in the dead of winter.

For 10 days Diane ran across the frozen Canadian tundra.

For the first 100 miles she drank no water and only slept about an hour each night.

But that’s not the crazy part – Diane can’t read maps telling her where to turn.

At 28-years-old she had a seizure in a car while being three weeks pregnant.

As she remembers it, she felt a funny sensation that was brief.

The next thing she remembered was waking up in a hospital confused wondering where she was.

She was quickly sent to have an MRI where scans revealed she had epilepsy.

Doctors decided they needed to remove part of her brain but in the process, they also removed her basic awareness of time.

You would think that after all she had been through she would have given up, but as Franklin Roosevelt once said, “When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”

If we are going to look beyond our circumstances, we need to know how to maintain our focus.

Just as Roosevelt learned - when we reach the end of our rope, tie a knot.

Tie a Knot of Not Yet

Philippians 3:13 (NIV)

13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

If anyone should appear that they have arrived to a place of holiness it is Paul.

But he is repeated saying that he has not arrived yet.

I love those two words “Not Yet!” Because in it there is a realization that I have to arrived to the place I want to be BUT my plans have not changed.

I will get there… just not yet!

Not yet reminds us that things will not be this way forever!

This phrase is so good.

These two words have helped me so much:

While I was single people would ask me.

Are you married?

Not Yet! (You see how that works.

I not know bit by God’s grace I plan to be).

Do you have a job.

Not Yet!

Do you know what university you attend?

Not Yet!

Try it with me.

Do you know what you want your major to be college?

Not Yet!

Have you traveled?

Not Yet!

Do you have a car?

Not Yet!

Have you told her you like her?

Not Yet!

Don’t those two words have so much hope.

And if you asked Paul, have you reached Christlike perfection he would say, Not Yet!

But for it to work you need patience.

You need to be willing to wait.

Because sometimes people replace NOT YET with NOT EVER - where we lose hope and become discouraged.

OR we can replace NOT YET with NOT WAITING.

Where impatience get’s a hold of us we not longer are willing to wait on God.

Patience requires you to prune your priorities.

To look beyond your circumstances, you need patience.

Psalm 27:14 (NIV)

Wait for the Lord;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the Lord.

Paul Understood that Circumstances Change and are Unstable

Some people have fortunate circumstances and are born into wealth.

But wealth is unstable.

Like the man who lost $20 Billion in two days during the month of August and is now hiding out in New Jersey.

I am sure a lot of people want to know where he is :)))

Or you could be like the John Harvey Kellogg who did not have the funds needed to get through medical school and Ellen and James White supported him financially.

And from having almost nothing he created the first breakfast cereal companies in the world.

Circumstances change.

People can be healthy one week and sink into sickness the following week.

That is why Paul knows it is necessary to look beyond our circumstances to something that is immovable and unshakable, something that doesn’t change.

When we look beyond our circumstances, we see Christ solid rock.

No wonder God says that He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

When you look to God, the one that does not change you can face any circumstance in life.

Wait for the Lord!

Your circumstances may look like they are overwhelming but wait for the Lord.

There is something that happened that has left you feeling disappointed, but God says wait for the Lord - don’t post anything, don’t send a text, don’t start gossiping, don’t meet them at the back of the school - just wait for him.

You feel like you are being treated unfairly, wait for the Lord!

Joseph waited for years in jail, but he waited on the Lord and became second in-charge of all of Egypt.

Quote: Ellen Gould White, The Ministry of Healing(Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1905), 72.

“Circumstances may separate friends; the restless waters of the wide sea may roll between us and them.

But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the Saviour.”

God is working in your life in every situation.

Like Moses who as a baby was placed in a basket on the Nile river, with crocodiles and sea snakes, nothing could separate him from God’s protective love.

Like the three Hebrew teenagers that were placed in the fiery furnace, circumstances could not separate them from God.

Look beyond your circumstance by being patient as God prunes.

Tie a Knot by Looking Ahead

Philippians 3:13 (NIV)

13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

When we are in a difficult circumstance it is easy to look at your situation now and lose sight of what is ahead to Jesus Christ.

In Australia our coat of arms are represented by two native animals, the Kangaroo and the Emu.

You might ask what they both have in common is that neither animal can move backwards easily.

So it symbolizes our nation moving forward.

Paul looked ahead when in difficult circumstances and not behind.

He could not move forward if he kept looking back.

That was the issue with the Israelites.

They were saved from Egypt but they kept looking back.

When God saves you from a mess, don’t look back.

Look ahead.

How many of you have your drivers licence already?

I senior that was part of our youth group and I asked him if he had a licence.

He didn’t say not yet!

He said, “I don’t need a licence, I got Uber.”

He was being chauffeured everywhere he went.

You can't drive forward looking in the rear view mirror!