Onwards and Upwards

Moe Diggs · Tidal Church Moncton · November 8, 2026 · Joy Anyway series

Moe Diggs teaches from Philippians 3, urging us to let go of whatever slows us down, face and forgive our past, and keep our eyes on Jesus, the prize. He also reminds us we run this race together, locking shields in community.

More from Moe Diggs · The Joy Anyway series

Topics: Forgiveness, Relationships, Discipleship

Transcript

[0:00] Thank you, Pastor Jim. Can we show some love and appreciation to Pastor Jim as he makes his way down the steps? Pastor Jim, thank you for the opportunity to be with you this morning, and your team. And I was thinking of this too, Pastor Liz. We went to Bible college together, so it's just really good to be with everyone again. Pastor Dominique, when she was little, she reminded me this morning that she used to run into my office and hide underneath the piano. So when Pastor Jim and I were on staff together, he was the children's pastor and I was the worship pastor. And it's beautiful having her now lead this morning in worship, full circle. And I'm just so, so grateful. Come on, amen. Yeah. So when we were ending the last song, "Christ Being Raised Hallelujah," and Pastor Jim was exhorting us to express hallelujah, and I was just thinking, I was actually reminded of when we were going through a very difficult time. We had a miscarriage between Rebecca and Lydia.

[1:00] We had two daughters, and we miscarried, and then we had Lydia, who's here with Daddy. And it was a very difficult time and season to go through. And I remember all I could do was praise. I couldn't even pray. And I remember saying to the Lord, "God, I don't want to pray because I'm not sure that I want to hear what You have to say right now." That's how raw and real. But I knew I could praise. And so what I did is I just put praise music on. Even though it was a very difficult thing for me to sing my own song, I began to put praise music on. And so when Pastor Jim was exhorting us that hallelujah, giving God praise, it's key to our life, guys, no matter what may be going on in your life. I'm not talking about worship, but just in my heart, I felt that. So I just want to say it for someone in the room, don't lose your praise. No matter what you're going through, I pray God will always give you a song.

[1:48] And if you can't sing your own song, put it on YouTube. Come on, somebody. Amen. Amen. Come on. Yes. Amen. So today, we're going to be in the Book of Philippians. I know you guys are in a sermon series walking through the Book of Philippians. And I would say to you this morning that I love Paul's writings. Paul wrote these letters to the early Church. He wrote Ephesians, which is actually my favorite epistle of Paul. He wrote Philippians, and he also wrote Colossians. And he's written other epistles, as we know. But he wrote these letters to the early Church, and I believe there's some key ingredients in the text that I believe we could really learn from and lean into today and be impacted by. But when he was writing these letters to the early Church, they were going through much persecution for the Gospel's sake, and some of them were being ostracized from their families.

[2:37] Some of them were not even able to serve and work in the market anymore because they were making an open profession of Jesus being the Messiah. So he knew how much it was costing them to follow Jesus. But he also recognized there were things they were still trying to cling to and bring into Christianity that he was encouraging them to let go of, and I would call that mixture. They were released and delivered from idol worship, pagan gods, and idolatry, but he found that they were still trying to hold on to those things. So much that even in the Book of Acts, Acts 19, when Paul ran across these believers in Ephesus, who actually, he established this church in Ephesus because of encountering them, he asked them, "Hey, have you been baptized by the Holy Spirit since you believed?" And they're like, "Baptism? Well, we know the baptism of John.

[3:29] We were baptized in John's baptism, but we've not even been baptized in the Holy Spirit." And so he said, "You got to be baptized in the Holy Spirit." He laid hands on them, and these 12 believers were full of the Holy Spirit. They got filled with the Holy Spirit. And so he spent the next two and a half years, maybe two years and four months, shepherding these groups, teaching them the things of the scripture. He spent time with them. But one thing that happened is God so moved in their lives, He was moving so deeply in their lives that these believers were under conviction, and they brought their incantation books, their witchcraft books, into the public, and they burned them because God's fire, God's transformation, was happening on the inside and was moving on the outside. Do I have any help in the house today? Hey, that's what God will do.

[4:18] But in the Church of Philippi, Paul was noticing there were things holding them up in running the race. So he was wanting them to address these things. He's saying, "These things are slowing you down from running a race." You have to understand that these letters, the church in Ephesus, the church in Philippi, and the church in Colosse, these letters were circulated through all the churches. Even though there's a common thread, you'll see as you're reading, as you even read the epistles one after another, you'll see this common phrase, this common thought, that Paul is speaking to these churches because he's wanting them to get it. And Paul had his eyes on the prize. He had eternity in mind. And what he was wanting for these believers is to have eternity in mind, have Jesus in mind, but whatever is preventing you from getting there, deal with it.

[5:06] Let it go. Whatever is preventing you from running this race, whatever is causing you to slow down, he was calling to them to address it. And I'm here to tell you today that God, I believe, through Paul's letters and writings, is calling you and I to a higher place. He's calling us upward and onward. Come on, somebody. But there might be some stuff we have to let go of. Now, Paul, the stuff he was letting go of wasn't all bad. Some was good. It was achievements he had accomplished. Remember, he was a Pharisee. He was well-versed in the scriptures. In the text, he knew great things.

[5:52] He persecuted believers, but he was called to let that all go. In our lives, there might be good things we're doing, but they could actually be slowing you and I down from running the race. Because sometimes good is the enemy of great. Yeah. And God might be saying to you, "This is actually slowing you down. This relationship is actually slowing you down. This friendship is actually slowing you down." Hey, and God is calling you and I to maybe address it and let it go so we can run this race. Paul said, "All these things I've accomplished in light of Christ is rubbish."

[6:43] He actually used a very strong word that I was not allowed to use growing up as a kid. So I'll use another translation. All this is manure compared to what Christ has done for me, what I've gained in Christ Jesus. Are there some things in your life slowing you down? I just met Boyd this morning, and I found out Boyd's a marathon runner. And so I've learned, I'm not a marathon runner. I ran track and field, but I'm not a marathon runner. But I do know if you're running marathons, you're running a period. You got to let go of some things that might slow you down or slow down your speed. And what Paul was saying to these believers, "I want you to let go of some things that are getting in the way of you running your race freely, and I want your eyes to be on the prize." Listen to what he says in Philippians 3. I'm going to start at verse 8.

[7:46] He says, "I consider this garbage, that I might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ Jesus, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ." Listen to me. "I want to know Christ." And when Paul was using this word, "I want to know," it's a word of intimacy. It's like a man knows a woman in marriage. Into me. Intimacy is into me, you see. That's the level of intimacy he wanted to know God. "Yes, to know the power of His resurrection, participate in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead." So Paul was simply saying, "Listen, if Christ had to die for me, I need to die for Him." Let me say it another way.

[8:39] If Christ had to hang on a cross, I am called to also pick up my cross and die to some things as well. Myself, my pride, my selfishness, my insecurities, my fears. I'm called to die to those things, sin, shame, and guilt, so those things are not slowing me down, holding me up from calling me, from causing me to not be able to run the race He's called you and I to run. And I remember when I was talking to the girls and teaching the girls how to run, I would say, like Paul's saying, "Don't be looking backwards. You got to look forward." And if you're looking backwards, you're going to slow down. So I'd say to the girls as they're running, as they're trying to compete with that in oat running, which they can't, they slow the record, they can't.

[9:30] But I remember Rebecca, and I'm teaching her how to run, she'd be looking behind. I'd say, "Rebecca, you can't look behind you because it's going to slow you down. It's going to be a distraction, and it's going to be preventing you from going where you need to go." And I'm here to tell you, the only time you and I should be looking back is to deal with the stuff in the past. But look back just long enough to deal with it, and then keep on running. Don't stay there. Don't get stuck there, but just look back there long enough to deal with it. But deal with it and run on, baby. Run on. Yeah. Come on. Amen. Come on. When you look back at Philippians 2, he says, "Not that I've already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that which Christ took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it." This is what he's going after.

[10:25] "But one thing I do, I'm forgetting what's behind me. I'm straining toward what's ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ." Like Christ with His view, eternity was His view because He knew these things on the earth were temporal, but where He was going was eternal. And He didn't want anything preventing Him from getting to where He's going. Come on. Hey. And in our life, we must address those things that are preventing us from getting to where we're supposed to be going. He said, "I press on toward the goal to win the prize." The prize is Jesus. The prize is to be with Him forever in eternity. And whatever is preventing you from being with Him is the stuff you need to address. Whatever's slowing you down from being with Him both now and later, you must address. Hey, and God loves you right where you're at, but He loves you too much to leave you there. Amen. "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ.

[11:26] All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things." That should be our view. Even in parenting, we teach at HBC, you got to keep the end goal in mind. The end goal is to raise your children to love Jesus and know Jesus for themselves and not to ride on your coattails. Hallelujah. But you got to keep the end in mind because why? Because there are phases you go through in parenting, come on, somebody, that it may not look like what you're praying for, but keep on praying until what you're praying for is looking like what you're praying for. Hey. But you got to keep the goal in mind. The goal is heaven. The goal is to be with Him forever. And anything that's getting in the way of that relationship, we got to let it go. Yeah.

[12:17] Because whatever relationship we love and we cherish, we give value to that relationship. I was telling them in the first hour, I'm not permitted to be able to have two wives in my home. My bride ain't going to take that. No two brides up in here. It's one. Her name is Melissa Lewis Diggs. Yeah. And for some of us, we're trying to be married to Jesus and have a side chick on the side. And it's getting in the way of this relationship. And if we value this relationship with Him, we're willing to let go of this. If we value this relationship with Him, we're willing to deal with whatever we need to deal with here.

[13:04] And really, until this relationship vertically is in line, our horizontal relationships will not be in line. That's right. And we're trying to have these in line without having this in line first. Get your view on Jesus, and as He fixes you, He will help you fix this. Come on, somebody. He wants to deal with you. I remember Melissa and I got married, we bought each other gifts. She bought me the book, "The Power of a Praying Husband," and I bought her the book, "The Power of a Praying Wife." And I was sure God was going to get her reading that book. But guess who God got? You're looking at him, baby.

[13:50] Here I'm saying, "No, this book can help her change." And God's like, "No, you need to change." And she's literally thinking at the Bible store, this is back in the day when we had Bible stores. Now you can do Amazon. She was like, "I'm going to get this book because this is going to help change Mo." And God, in His kindness, reading a book that we thought was going to really change the other person, ended up changing us. Come on. Where is your view? God wants you to get your view on Him so God can change you and take care of them. But you're trying to change them, and God's trying to change you. God don't need no Holy Ghost Junior. Come on. Stay in your lane, baby. Yes. Let God get you, and God will get him. Yep.

[14:39] Let God get you, and God will get her. I remember the movie called "The War Room." Remember, they were in the office and there was Pat Moore and Priscilla Shaw. I don't remember their names in the movie, but don't matter. My point is this. Remember she said the Lord just told her to humble herself, duck, so when she ducks to stay as low, the Lord can get him? Come on. Stay low. Where is your view at? Your view must be on God and not what you actually even may be going through. Because if your view is on God, He's going to be able to enable you to get through what you are going through. Amen, church? Amen. So let's keep going.

[15:26] So the first thing is this. As we are in this race, I want you to understand that the prize is Jesus. We need to forget what's behind us. We need to forget about it. In order to forget it, we need to face it. The only way I could forget what was behind me in my past, I had to deal with it. I had to face it. You're not going to be able to run the race God has called you to run if you don't deal with those things in your past. They'll eventually creep up on you. They'll eventually get you. And because I was willing to deal with him, God has taken the sting out of those things out of my life. They're no longer driving me. The Lord is leading me. Amen. Come on, somebody. But if you're not willing to face those things in your past, you're not going to find the freedom God wants you to have.

[16:13] Paul said, "I'm forgetting what's behind me, both me persecuting believers in all my accomplishments, and I'm running toward what's ahead." Why? "Because I don't want anything to get in the way to where God's taking me." Amen. And I love God enough that I'm willing to address whatever's in my life that's slowing me down. I'm willing to address anything that's in my life that's getting in the way of Him and me. I'm willing to address, and I'm willing to let it go. I love God more than that thing. And because I love God more than that thing, I'm willing to let that thing go. Because I love God more than that thing, I'm willing to deal with the thing God is pointing out in my life that needs to be dealt with. Yeah. Forgetting what is behind me, I need to deal with anything that's slowing me down, anything that's preventing me from running this race and running it effectively.

[17:05] In Hebrews 12:1-2, it says that you and I should strip off the weight and the sin that's slowing us down, the things that's trying to trip us up. We should strip it off. And listen to me. When you're running a race, you got to get rid of stuff. The more baggage you're carrying, the more it's going to slow you down. I remember when David was fighting, he was about to go fight Goliath. I know you guys remember the story in 1 Samuel 17. It says that David left his luggage with the luggage bearer. Yeah. He didn't try to go to battle, come on, somebody, with Goliath with luggage. He didn't try to go fight an enemy with baggage. The reason why some of us ain't winning the victory, because we're trying to fight the devil, we still got a bunch of baggage lugging around.

[17:56] We're trying to fight him, and God's saying, "You need to leave your luggage with the baggage steward." Yeah. And the baggage steward is who? Jesus. In order for you and I to run this race, there might be some baggage He's asking you and I to leave at the altar even today. Looking ahead. We gotta look ahead. So a runner, in order to win, he has to look ahead. To run this race, we must look ahead. I remember when I was in driver's ed school in high school, Mr. McLean would say to me, and us being trained, "Look to where you want to go." Look to where you want to go. And I still have to remember that today, because wherever my eye goes, the vehicle goes. Ask Lydia.

[18:47] If I see cows in the field, my car is going to the cows in the field. If I see ice cream, my car is definitely going towards ice cream. Wherever your view is, is where you're going to go. Where is your view? Is your view on eternity or is your view just on the temporal? Retirement. Come on. Because if it's just on the temporal, you're going to be disappointed. Yep. Our view is to be heavenward. So I'm looking ahead. A runner doesn't win by looking behind, okay? In the same way, we are called to run, to look and move ahead. So how do I look ahead and not behind? So it's onward and upward.

[19:35] So how do I look ahead and not behind? Number one, you have to face your past. You have to face it. And for me, facing my past, I still remember my past. Because I faced my past, the sting of my past has been removed. I still remember what my uncle did to me, but because I allowed the Lord to remove the sting from my life, I remember, but it no longer slows me down. Yes. Hey. I remember what my dad put my family through, but because I forgave him and allowed the Lord to take the sting out of my life, I can remember, but it's no longer dragging me down. It's no longer slowing me down. Come on, somebody. We have to, in order to run this race He's called us to run, to forget what's behind us. Some of us need to face what's behind us so that we can run forward.

[20:27] How do I look ahead and not behind? Some of you need to forgive yourself for what you did in the past, maybe you got guilt and shame, or maybe you gotta forgive someone else. You gotta forgive a family member. You gotta even forgive maybe God, a leader, yourself. How do we look ahead and not behind? You gotta let go of guilt and shame. You gotta be willing to let go of pain and work through the process of that pain and deal with the pain from your past, the trauma from your past. I was at Encounter, as Pastor Jim mentioned, and I was teaching yesterday morning, and at the end of service, I felt the Lord redirect my teaching for the closing rally. And I had a message already prepared, and I felt the Lord say, "I want you to teach on forgiveness." And so in that space, I taught on forgiveness, and I gave the students four things that when it comes to forgiving someone and releasing someone, there's four things you gotta do.

[21:16] You gotta acknowledge, I got the offense. Number two, I've gotta grieve and lament the pain that that thing caused me. What did I lose from that? And number three, you gotta release it. First, you gotta start canceling debt. And then four, you gotta release any expectation you have of the relationship that's not mutually agreed upon. But I need you to know that forgiving from the heart is a process. You can make this intellectual decision and commit to forgive someone, but working through the process of forgiving from the heart, it's a process. But you gotta first acknowledge, I'm ticked. I'm mad. I'm angry. I have pain. I have unforgiveness in my heart, and this is who it's toward, but I don't want to stay there. Yep. How to look ahead and not behind.

[22:03] I need to confront anything or anyone that might also be preventing me from moving forward. So when Paul is talking here about running and moving forward, he's giving the picture, as I mentioned, of an athlete, a marathon runner. But as you continue to walk through the text, he paints another picture. It's okay, well, it's me running individually in a marathon, right? But it's also me running in a marathon with other people. I love how Boyd mentioned there's people running with him, so he's not running by himself. And I know you want to come to finish because you're trying to win, but I find that when you're running with people, even in a race, it inspires you to keep running. It inspires you to have endurance. It inspires you to keep going. When I was in school and doing track, and Phil Roger Beals and I would run side by side because we were trying to compete and outrun each other.

[22:53] I was determined he wasn't going to beat me. Come on, somebody. He was determined that I wasn't going to beat him. And we would run, and we would help each other with endurance. When it comes to you and I running this race, it's running by ourself, but I also believe it's running with other marathon runners. Come on, somebody. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Hey. And we're all moving in the same direction. Jesus is the prize, eternity is the prize, and that's what we have in view, and that's what we have in mind, and we're willing to deal with the stuff in our past so we can get there freer and quicker in Jesus' name. Do I have amen up in the house today? So there's another picture that Paul is painting, and I absolutely love this picture. The picture here of this perfection of intention, that there's a process of being perfected, right? A process of maturing in the things of God.

[23:43] It's soldiers fighting in a battle line. And I think it's pretty cool that we did this Memorial Veterans Day service and here we're able to talk about the army of the Lord. Amen. So the idea here is that these soldiers are in battle and they're fighting, and what happens is they begin to come together to push back against the enemy and push back the enemy's line of him trying to attack. And I was actually teaching this a while ago at HC from the book of Ephesians when Paul is using the armor of God, and he talks about how we have this shield of faith. So Paul's incarcerated, he's in prison, and his Roman soldiers are watching guard. And God inspires him in his writings to create imagery of what spiritual warfare looks like for the church, for the body of Christ, by looking at a Roman soldier. And a part of the Roman soldier, he has a shield.

[24:35] And the shield is a four-by-four shield. And so the soldier can take that shield, and he can do so much work by himself with that shield. But sometimes the enemy comes in, and he's trying to overtake you, and you need some help. You can't get to where you're going by yourself. That's right. And so what happens with this whole idea in Ephesians 6 and Philippians, Paul is calling the troops together, and he's telling you guys, telling me, and telling us that some things in life you cannot do by yourself. You need to enlist other soldiers to help you. Come on. And what the enemy will try to do is when you're going through a tough place, he will try to get you in isolation. Jesus never ever practiced isolation.

[25:21] He only practiced solitude. And He was in solitude to be with the Father, to get His marching orders, but then He would go back and be with people in community. And when you have had pain, you have had heartache, we tend to go in self-protective mode, and we pull away. And I remember the Lord speaking to me. He said, "Moe, self-protection helped you as a child. It actually helped to save you. But as an adult, it will kill you." And some of us are locked down. We're going to do this by myself. No one else is going to hurt me. And the devil is tearing you up from the floor up. And I'm here to tell you, God has put you in community for a reason, because He wants to heal your heart. If you were wounded in community, you must be healed in community, not in isolation. The devil is a liar. Yes, he is.

[26:13] So the idea is this soldier would take his four-by-four shield. And you have to understand, it's a Roman armor, so it only protects the front, not the back. Because it was designed to go forward. And so sometimes military, the soldiers would create a wall of defense against the enemy. And so one soldier would come with his four-by-four shield, but he realized the enemy's coming in. He's advancing. He's trying to take ground. He's trying to push back against me. But I need to push back against him, so I need to call in some reinforcements. So that's when I would call Soldier Caleb to come and help me. Bring your four-by-four shield. Help me, Caleb. Then I would call Lewis to bring his shield. And what we would do, begin to put our shields together. You see what's happening? Then I would call Benjamin, Soldier Benjamin.

[26:58] Then I'd call Soldier Faith, Soldier Samuel, Soldier Noah, Soldier Lydia, Soldier Faith. Get up here and help me out. And what would happen, you began to put your shields side by side. Instead of me just having a four-by-four shield, now I have a wall. It's a wall of defense. And so the enemy's pushing at you, and if I was by myself, he could really take me out. He could take me out. But now I have help. I've enlisted help, more than myself. I've enlisted the community to help me. This war is too big for me that's waging against me. The war that was waging against me and our family, that was trying to drive me out of ministry. God helped me enlist soldiers to help me push against the wall of the enemy. So we just lock our shields together, and now we get a wall, and now we start marching forward. And we say, "Oh, no. You're coming down, buddy.

[27:49] You're coming down. We're not coming down." And you push back the enemy, and you cause the enemy to run. You cause the enemy to flee, and you don't quit. Having done all to stand, Paul said, "Stand therefore." Yes. Some of you need to lock shields. Some of you are trying to do this by yourself, and the enemy's eating you up alive. Yep. I have been healed, hear me, in community. It was in community that I began to experience freedom. Come on. Dealing with my past, forgiving people, getting set free. I am telling you, God could only do so much in my life privately. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

[28:37] But He puts you in a family for a reason. And I believe the church is the body of Christ on earth. Yes. And this analogy of a shield is, so listen, your whole front of a soldier's armor, it only covers the front, not the back. So if you turn around and give up, you're going to be a wide open target for the enemy. Yep. Everything about you is designed to go forward. So what happens is you got these walls of defense, and these shields are even protecting your back. So you're protected on the front, you're protected on the back, you're protected on the side, you're protected above and below. It becomes like a turtle shell.

[29:24] That's what this wall does. It protects you all around. Some of you are feeling the pressure of the enemy, and I'm encouraging you to lock arms with somebody. Find someone here, find someone in small group, find someone in Celebrate Recovery. Get the help you need. Find a counselor. Find somebody you can lock. Find a prayer warrior. Find a praying grandma. My God, find a praying grandma, and begin to lock shields. Hey, find a praying grandma and lock shield with praying grandma and just say, "We got to take ground. I can't do this by myself," and start pushing back against the enemy. The harder he pushes against you, you push back against him. You say, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," in Jesus' name. Amen.

[30:17] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hey. Yes, Lord. The team's going to come and lead us in a song, and I want to encourage us in this space to get our eyes on the prize, get our eyes on Jesus. If there's anything preventing you from running this race, I'm encouraging you, I'm imploring you, I'm urging you, as Paul did the church, let it go. Get your eyes on Him and run the race He's called you to run. Turn your eyes on Jesus so the things of this earth will grow strangely dim- Yes ... in the light of His glory and His grace.

[31:15] He's with you, He loves you, and He's calling you to let go of some stuff so that you and I can go onward and upward. In Jesus' name. God bless you. Amen.