Finding And Following Your Critical Path

13.9.09

FINDING AND FOLLOWING YOUR CRITICAL PATH Philippians 3:7-14

INTRO

Conversation with a Christian friend the other day: Had discovered and was following her ’critical path’.

What is your critical path?

It’s knowing where you want to be, or are meant to be -- And knowing where you are now -- and taking the most direct route to get where were want to be.

POINT

For a Christian it’s knowing where God wants you to be, and making that your goal. Everything else takes second place.

STORY/ILLUSTR (Of life lived OFF the critical path)

I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the rubbish bin under the table, and notice that the bin is full. So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the rubbish first.

But then I think, since I’m going to be near the mailbox when I take out the rubbish anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where

I find the can of Coke I’d been drinking I’m going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don’t accidentally knock it over.. The Coke is getting warm, and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need water. I put the Coke on the counter and discover my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I’m going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote.

Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I’ll be looking for the remote, but I won’t remember that it’s on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the living room where it belongs, but first I’ll water the flowers. I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do. At the end of the day: the car isn’t washed the bills aren’t paid there is a warm can of Pepsi sitting on the counter the flowers don’t have enough water,

there is still only 1 check in my check book, I can’t find the remote, I can’t find my glasses, and I Don’t Remember What I did With The car Keys. Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I’m really baffled because I know I was busy all day, and I’m really tired..

POINT

Life lived OFF the critical path can be anything but fulfilling.

We can fill our lives with secondary pursuits and at the end of the day feel as though we have wasted our time and opportunities.

But finding your critical path is like finding gold, and keeping to it is very rewarding.

ILLUSTR

Ask any Christian who has found and who follows their critical path and they will be able to tell you how rewarding it is.

POINT

One Good example of someone in the Bible who found their critical path was Paul.

READING Philippians 3:7-14

POINT

Clearly Paul was living a very focused life as a Christian.

He had a clear sense of direction

He had a strong sense of purpose about his life

And his experience of making God’s priorities his priorities for his life were extremely rewarding

’I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.... I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ’

POINT

Living our life on track is living life as God intended, and there can be nothing more rewarding than this.

But we experience that sense of reward only as we set out on the critical path.

HOW AND WHAT?

You might be asking, how do I find that critical pathway? And what does it look like?