INTRODUCTION: At this time every year many of us make resolutions. We resolve to lose weight, to exercise more, to be a better person, to dispense with old bad habits and begin some new good ones. None of those are surprising, but I have found a few that are. A newspaper in Boston has allowed people to post New Year’s resolutions on their web-site. Here are a few interesting
ones:
I resolve to stop feeding the office plant leftover coffee. I will use water instead.
I resolve to try and get a law passed that requires every person on the face of this earth to have to use their common sense at least once a day!
I resolve to try REAL hard to stop eating McDonalds and Wendy’s for 2 out of 3 meals a day. If that isn’t possible, I promise to at least clean the remains from my car.
I resolve to become as wonderful a person as my dog thinks I am.
I resolve to never take responsibility for my decisions, to never take the blame, not stand by my promises, and to ignore the needs of the poor. In short, my resolution is to become a politician!
Webster defines a resolution as "a course of action decided upon; a fixed purpose."
As we begin this New Year we must get our bearings straight.
Our text this morning will help us. Philippians 3:12-16.
Let’s stand as we read the Word of God.
Paul in Acts 20:24 says, “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”
He says in Philippians 3:7-8, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
Paul puts here a personal relationship with Jesus Christ at the very center of the Christian’s life. He joyfully accepted the loss of all other things, his religious pedigree, his zeal for the law, legalistic righteousness, for the greatness of his personal relationship. It says in 2 Cor 5:17, “For if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” When we come to Christ he changes all that. It’s His New Years Resolution so to speak. And He keeps His promises.
In our text, when Paul says “not that I have already obtained all this” he is referring to “know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” ( vs 10-11).
Knowing Jesus means knowing the power of His resurrection. John 11:25,26 Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus says in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.”
1 Corinthians 15:21-22, “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
Knowing Jesus means knowing the fellowship of His sufferings. It’s all part of following Jesus and being in Christ.
Matthew 5:10-12 says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way the persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Suffering is part of our heritage as “Kingdom Kids” - we get to be part of the family of suffering. Romans 8:17 says, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.”
Being conformed to His death reminds us that being in Christ also means being “in” His death.
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Romans 6:4, “Therefore we are buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Paul realizes that he hasn’t arrived when he says that he has not already been made perfect.
In Philippians 2:12-13 Paul says, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good pleasure.”
Our only option is to “press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
What does he say here? He must press on. There is no turning back for Him.
My earthly goal is to press on so that I can take claim to the calling that God has for my life. I am to strive to find the purpose for which God transformed my life and equipped me to achieve. God did not change your life just so you can live anyway you desire. God called you for a purpose. If you allow yourself to believe the deception that God is there for your pleasure, you have missed the mark. You first must change your focus so that you can find your purpose. To find that path of life, you must be found faithful. Each step requires faithfulness to find the next step. As we press toward Christ-likeness, we should examine our lives and identify those things that tempt or lead us to temptation. God can only use a holy vessel. If I want to fulfill my calling, I must put off anything that holds me back.
ill. When Spain led the world (in the 15th century), their coins reflected their national arrogance and were inscribed Ne Plus Ultra which meant "Nothing Further" - meaning that Spain was the ultimate in all the world. After the discovery of the New World, they realized that they were not the "end of the world" - they changed the inscription on their coinage to Plus Ultra - meaning "More Beyond." Which motto better expresses your Christian life - "Nothing Further" or "More Beyond"?
This is where child-like faith meets maturity. A child can’t wait to get bigger, and always wants to be more mature.
Paul has put his hand to the plow and will not look back.
Luke 9:62 says, “But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
What does this say about your service to God?
That I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me: Paul pressed on for what Jesus wanted. His effort was put forth to do God’s will, not his own.
In John 4:34 it says, “My food is to do the will of Him who has sent me and to finish His work.”
Paul said in Acts 20:24, “If only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.”
Also, Paul knew that Jesus had laid hold of him, and would not let him go. Yet he did all he could to lay hold of Jesus and His plan for Paul, knowing that there was a mutual cooperation and effort.
1 Corinthians 3:9 tells us something very important about Kingdom Growth. “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.” We are co-laborers with God.
Listen to our text again. Vs 13, “Brothers, 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 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Paul was focused on one thing, and would not let those things which are behind distract him from it. The one thing was the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
i. We often let those things which are behind distract us, whether they be "good" things or "bad" things, we may let them keep us from what God has in front of us.
ii. Satan wants us to live either in the past or in the future; God wants us to press on in the present, because the present is where eternity touches us now.
iii. Paul knows that a race is won only in the present, not in the past or in the future.
What is the prize Paul speaks of? The prize is the upward call of God. The prize is the call itself, not the benefits that come from the call or any other thing. The prize is being able to run the race at all, working with God as a partner to do the work of His kingdom.
Ephesians 4:1 says, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
That calling is irrevocable. Romans 11:29 says, “For God’s gifts and His call is irrevocable.” If you are called by God it’s forever. The one call that is forever and eternal is your salvation. Once saved always saved.
Ill. The story is told of a man that went into a barber shop to get his whiskers trimmed. And the barber said, “Well, my wife can give you a shave and a cut for 2 bits.”
2 weeks later, the man sees the barber and tells him, “Ever since your wife shaved me, I haven’t had not so much as a whisker or a nub.” And the barber said, “Well, my wife says, ‘Once shaved, always, shaved.”
As everything else, this upward call of God is only in Christ Jesus. The legalists might say they followed the upward call of God, but they certainly didn’t do it in Christ Jesus, they did it in the efforts of their own flesh.
Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat sown at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Paul says in Philippians 2:5-11, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, felt it not robbery to be equal with Gidm but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”
That exciting day is coming. It could happen any day now.
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full on His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
Paul shares these words with Timothy, in 2 Timothy 4:6-8, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
This is a reward for us. Praise the Lord.
Ill.
I read that it took Winston Churchill three years to get through the eighth grade because he had trouble learning English. In kind of an ironic twist, years later in the midst of World War II Oxford University asked then Prime Minister Churchill to address its commencement exercises. Dressed in his finest suit, he arrived at the auditorium where the service was to be held with his usual props, a cigar, a cane and a top hat. As Churchill approached the podium, the crowd rose in appreciative applause. Standing there looking very dignified, he settled the crowd down and asked them to be seated.
Standing confidently before this crowd of great admirers, he removed his cigar and placed his top hat on the podium. Then Churchill gazed at his waiting audience that included some of the most noted scholars in the world. With an authoritative tone in his voice he began with three words: “Never give up!” Several seconds passed without him saying another word. Finally he repeated those same three words again, “Never give up!” There was a deafening silence as Churchill reached for his hat and cigar, steadied himself with his cane and left the platform. His commencement address was finish
ed.
This is also my encouragement to you. “Never give up!”
Let’s work together to make this the best year that New Hope Baptist Church has ever had and let’s give God the Glory Great things He has done! Amen!
