Becoming God's Best Version Of You Series

Becoming God's Best Version of You

PPT 1 Series Title Slide

The title of this series is: "Becoming God's Best Version of You."

Making the rest of your life the best of your life.

I want to begin by noticing a guiding principle in the life of the Apostle Paul:

PPT 2 Text

Php 3:12 Not that I have already obtained [it], or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Php 3:13 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,

Php 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (NAS)

First notice that in verse 12, and in verse 14 Paul talks about pressing on, the Greek word translated press on is: dee o ko and it means to run swiftly after.

What is he running swiftly after? The upward call of God in Christ Jesus. In a future message I want to talk about the danger of the nothing, of settling into a life where the status quo is your happy place. This week I just want to start this series by hopefully pumping you up to get hungry to make the rest of your life the best of your life. Whenever the past is more exciting than the future you are showing signs of spiritual dementia.

I want to point out to you that Paul wrote Philippians at pretty much the same time as he wrote the book of Philemon, and I want you to pay particular attention to how he describes himself in the book of Philemon:

PPT 3

Phm 1:9 yet I appeal to you on the basis of love. I then, as Paul— an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus— (NIV)

Paul called himself and old man, and he said I am running after an upward call, I forget what's behind, I press on - which means he was stretching himself, there is more ahead for me, he is like the servers at Cold Stone, "I like it, I love it, I gotta have more of it."

There is no such thing as spiritual retirement, or its time for someone else to do it. If God has made a deposit in your life He expects to collect interest till the day you die. So whether you are 12 or 92 you should be pressing on for the upward call. You should be wanting more. Sometimes people fall into a mindset where there best years as a believer are behind them, Paul repudiates that by saying he was an old man but his approach was to still be pressing forward.

So lets talk about God's best version of you.

How many of you remember the TV show called sliders?

PPT 4

TV Show called sliders. There are unlimited parallel universes and a different version of you exists in each one of them. In one universe you are the president, in another you are a beggar in Africa, every possible version of you exists in some universe out there.

There are serious scientists who actually believe that kind of stuff.

I only believe in this universe, but I want to take the idea of multiple versions of you and apply it to this sermon today. The only universe that really matters is this one, and in some regards there are a very large amount of different versions of you that could be. Some of them are better than the you, you are now, and some of them are worse, than the you, you are now. The whole point of the series we are starting today is to help each one of us become God's best version of you.

PPT 5 So What does the best version of you look like?

Are you thinner, healthier?

Better with your finances?

Is the best version of you no longer single?

Does the best version of you have a better marriage.

Does it pray more.

Is the best version of you closer to God? Yes!!!

I like the New Years season for several reasons, the main is that it is a convenient place to start over, and start fresh, and to begin again with new enthusiasm. I'm believing this is going to be an incredible year of accelerated growth for me and for many of you. Doesn't that sound like a great idea?

Some of you have been in a rut for far too long, you have reached a certain level of personal and spiritual growth and have had little desire or inspiration to move beyond where you are. You are cheating yourself out of a wonderful adventure you could have.