Goal Line Stands
Philippians 3:10-16
October 7, 2007
I believe the apostle Paul would have been one of the biggest fans of ESPN if it was around in the days of the early church. There are a number of scriptures in which he uses sports analogies, and this is one of them. As I read this passage I thought about sports, and as you know, I love sports and watch ESPN as often as I can, and watch the same replays as many times as I can, and of course, I try to dissect them for Debbie and anyone who will listen to me explain why that particular play worked or didn’t work.
Since we’re in football season, I want to talk about one of the favorite situations in a game. It’s when the other team gets down to the other teams goal line - - and they must make a GOAL LINE STAND. They line up helmet to helmet, the crowd gets loud and the players dig their feet in on defense, and the offense is ready to catapult over the defense to score the touchdown. The crowd gets louder with each play, the players, especially on defense get more psyched up with each defensive stop.
Makes me want to put on the old uniform. Look at this picture of Jamal Lewis scoring a touchdown at the goal line. Notice what he’s doing? He is straining forward, leaning, jumping, doing everything he can to score that touchdown. He does not dance his way into the end zone, he charges into the end zone. And that is part of our lesson for today. We are called to learn from the past, and at the same time to let go of it, so that we may strain and strive to move forward and into the future.
Paul discovered an extraordinary purpose for his life. His life was focused on the future, not rooted in his past. His life gained purpose and intent when he began to discover what God intended for him, to live by God’s purposes in his life. For Paul to get up everyday and choose the things that God would have him choose.
Many of us have trouble ever really changing, or ever really living in the future, or the moment we’re in right now, because we’re so rooted in the past -- the stuff, the choices we’ve made, or the hurts that have happened to us, or the dreams that weren’t realized, or the disappointments that have come, those old patterns that keep replaying themselves. We catch ourselves saying, "Oh, I’ll never be any better. My life will always look like this," or "I’m never going to be able to change.” Or we compare ourselves to someone else and proclaim, “I will never like be like . . .”
Paul said he discovered in his relationship with God that the past just that . . . it was past — gone!! He could leave it behind. No matter how good or bad it was, it was yesterday’s news, and God was interested in what was going on right now. We can move beyond our past. It doesn’t have to be replayed for us and we don’t have to be stuck by it. We don’t have to hang on to that old bag of rocks that we’ve been lugging around.
You see, the beauty in the passage I read a few minutes ago, is that the Bible story is a story about transformation, new life, and new relationships. When we discover that story and live out God’s purposes in an intentional way, Paul says we can press on toward the life which God has in store for us.
The famous atheist Bertrand Russell made this statement about finding purpose in life, "Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless." In other words, unless there’s a God who sees things differently than we do — then the question of having a purpose in life is useless, because purpose would be whatever we chose. We could choose the wrong thing or the right thing and neither would be wrong or right. That there’s no real definition for us, unless somehow there’s a standard. For him there was no God — so life was meaningless.
Rick Warren, the author of Purpose Driven Life, wrote, "The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It is far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by His purpose and for His purpose."
I believe if we’re going to find fulfillment, peace, or satisfaction, it’s by aligning ourselves with God’s purposes and living intentionally that way. That is the purpose of our spiritual gifts class. We want to learn more about God’s purpose for us.
Yet, not everyone chooses this. Why is that? I mean, if our life could be more fulfilling, if we could somehow be extraordinary, if we could find a sense of peace and satisfaction, then why don’t we choose that?
I think there are 4 reasons. One answer is that many of us simply don’t believe it’s true. Life has been difficult, and we don’t see where God fits into it. We look at this as just another one of those snake oil messages — the religious messages — with a different color of the thousand colors that exist out there.
Jesus invited us to follow Him. In Matthew 13:44-46, Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”
In other words, when we discover what God wants from us, when we discover that THE story is true, we’re willing to trade away everything that seems of value to us. When we discover God, we are willing and desirous of radically changing our lives, not only for our sake, but most importantly because we are confident that this is what God wants for us.
The second reason we don’t choose to live intentionally for Christ is that we don’t think we really need it. The message from and of Jesus may be true, but I’m not ready for any life-changing stuff right now. It’s one thing for me to believe in God. I’m okay with that, but I want to be the one who steers the boat. I want to make the choices on what I do and how I live. We need to ask ourselves, ‘am I really sure I’m headed down the right track and it’s going to bring the greatest fulfillment to my life?
Somebody said, "If your train is on the wrong track, every station you come to is the wrong station." If we’re heading down one path, we may achieve all the things we want and they still may not provide peace or contentment, or fill that spot in our heart we thought they would.
On the other hand, you may never get all the stuff you want in life, but when you have Jesus living with you, you have the opportunity to experience His joy, love, peace and you end up more fulfilled than without Him.
Think about how many times a day we may get stuck by a train in Alexandria. Sometimes, the trains just stop on the tracks, and we are left sitting there in our vehicles. Each train which passes through our city, has a distinct heading. They know where they are going and where they are going to end up. Do we?
A third reason we don’t choose the life Christ calls us to, is that we like some of this Christianity stuff, but not all of it. I like some of the ideas about it. But there are a lot of ideas out there for me to sample from and I’m just going to pick and choose the things that make me feel better. I understand that. It’s a very popular thing for us to just kind of do the smorgasbord thing. It’s a very popular concept, as is spirituality today, the whole idea of self-actualization, discovering your potential, tapping into your spiritual nature. But is that for real, or is it simply a counterfeit that we settled for?
It’s just like those stay at home computer jobs. Work 10 hours a week and earn $20,000 a week. We’ve all read about them, and if we were to be really honest, there are some of us who have lost a few dollars thinking we could do it, but didn’t.
In our world of superficialities of smoke and mirrors, we often settle for that which isn’t real. And like most counterfeits it even looks right. It even touches upon a need that we have in life. It has some of the right things involved, but it isn’t the real deal.
One of my favorite scenes in The Wizard of Oz is when the Wizard is doing his thing — his loud menacing mean voice, the thunder and the smoke. Then Toto goes over and pulls the curtain away and there’s this little man moving the levers. I think a lot of us are going to discover that the stuff we have been buying has been pulled off by a fake. God’s story is the real deal and it can make changes in our lives.
And a fourth reason we don’t live intentionally is that we want to, but we just don’t know how. That one sounds strange, yet think about it for a moment — we don’t know how to live our lives in such a way that would be pleasing to God. We want to, but sometimes we think the call is so difficult, so we just give up. Yet, the challenge is to begin, to ask, to really start making some investment, to really check things out, to use what you already know. If you know one percent, use that one percent to talk to God and learn what God is calling you to be and do in your life. If you know more, then use it to draw closer to God.
So, what should we do?
First, SET GOALS. Just as a runner or swimmer would choose a time to beat, choose some specific and measurable goals (Bible study, prayer, worship attendance, some particular service to be performed in the name of Jesus) that will help you grow and make you a better follower of Jesus. And, just as with athletics, working with training partners - other church people - people who have similar goals can help you maintain your energy and motivation. As you go on, be prepared to adjust your levels and keep setting higher goals.
Second, FOCUS. When you are ready to start any athletic endeavor, for example, you decide it’s time to start to exercise . . . again. Begin by clearing out the mental clutter. Ignoring any real or imagined distractions around you. Once you start, keep concentrating on the task at hand. When you’re finished, take time to review everything good and bad about what you did, whether it was something on your own or something done in a group. Take that review, learn from it and build from it. Focus helps you stay on track to meet your goal.
Third, use a little STRESS. Competitive athletes know a little stress helps their performance. If you are exercising, you must push yourself, that is the stress. You must challenge yourself. This means don’t worry if things sometimes get difficult and if everything is not effortlessly falling into place. Any goal worth achieving will take genuine effort, and there will be times that you may take two steps forward and one step back. Frustrating, yes. Let the stress be a challenge, not a reason to give up.
Finally, visualize yourself WINNING. Close your eyes and picture the completion of your tasks, the satisfaction of a job well done, even crossing that finish line and hearing your Jesus say to you, “Great job, you did it, I’m proud of you!”
Paul tells us to press on toward the goal so that we would win the prize for which God has called us. The prize, the ultimate prize is eternal life with God, but there is the prize which we receive today, and that is life with Jesus today.
Here is a new concept for you, eternal life begins today. How so? Once you have claimed Jesus is your leader, then eternity begins on earth. His peace, His love, His joy, His grace and always present, always available for you. So what is the hold up? Press on toward the goal Jesus offers us.
