20-20 Vision In 2020

“20-20 VISION IN 2020!”

PHILIPPIANS 3:4-14

David P. Nolte

A couple of years ago, I had cataracts removed. The doctor offered 3 options.

1. He could put a lens in one eye for seeing near items and for reading and in the other eye a lens suited for distant objects like road signs and traffic signals.

2. He could put a flexible lens in each eye which would focus to match distance just like our normal eyes. Too expensive.

3. He could put a lens in each eye to see at a distance and then I’d use reading glasses for the computer and other texts. The last option worked for me and the doctor said I have 20-20 vision.

As Christians we need the cataracts of remorse, guilt, fear and other negatives removed so that we might have 20-20 Vision in 20-20.

The apostle Paul gives us his vision for life. He wrote, “If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:4-14 (NASB). Paul suggests to me

I. 20-20 HINDSIGHT:

A. Looking back, Paul noted his former claim to fame: In three particulars he :how he "might have confidence in the flesh"

1. His pure Jewish blood.

2. His place in the party of the pharisees, his blameless behavior and his enviable status as such.

3. His zeal for the law. (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown).

B. But he was not so rooted in the past that he failed to recognize the relative insignificance of those boasts compared to Jesus. His hindsight was 20-20 and he saw clearly from whence he came to where he was at that moment.

1. Like Paul we should consider the past, but without getting hung up on it, do our best in the present and determine to keep moving forward to our future.

2. We ought to live as if this were our last hour and to plan as if we were guaranteed 1,000 years.

3. While living in the here-and-now, let us not be so caught up in the immediate fulfillment that we forfeit the ultimate fulfillment.

a. Don’t be like Esau who forfeited his ultimate position of the first-born son for a bowl of soup to sate his hunger. His birthright was the price he paid for that soup! And it wasn’t even Campbells!

b. We can also learn from David who seized immediate sexual pleasure with his neighbor, Bathsheba, and suffered for it. For immediate pleasure he forfeited God’s best blessing.

C. If we have received Jesus and have been given new life, let a boy about 11 years old teach us something about hindsight. He was adopted and taken out of a pitiful homeless situation. He came into the new home in ragged, dirty clothing. After being cleaned up and shown gentle affection, he put those clothes under the mattress of his new bed. One day his new mother came into his room and saw him holding those clothes and weeping. She asked him, “Bobby, why do you still have those old clothes and why are you crying so?” He said, “I just kept them to remind me because I don’t want to forget what you did for me when I wore them.” He had the hindsight to appreciate from where he came to where he was at present.