JUST WIN, BABY!
Philippians 3.12-4.1
S: Christlikeness
Th: Toward the Goal
Pr: PURPOSEFULLY KEEP PRESSING TOWARD THE GOAL.
?: How?
KW: Reminders
TS: We will find in our study of Philippians three reminders of how to keep pressing toward Christlikeness.
CV: “We will passionately pursue full devotion to Jesus Christ.”
Type: Propositional
I. DISSATISFACTION (12-16)
II. DISTINGUISH (17-19)
III. DISJOIN (20-1)
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Don’t be happy with where you are in your Christian life.
• Don’t dwell on the past.
• Follow the good examples you have been given.
• Be discerning about the truth.
• Keep your focus on Jesus.
Version: ESV
RMBC 13 July 08 AM
INTRODUCTION:
Very soon, the summer Olympics will be upon us.
August 8, 2008…and the games will begin.
And we will be celebrating the winners of diving, soccer, badminton, gymnastics, and a whole lot more…
One Olympic event that would have attracted the apostle Paul was track.
His favorite metaphor to describe the Christian life was the race.
He saw the picture of an athlete running full out as an apt description of how we live once we are in Christ.
It also is a good metaphor for one of our values here at Randall:
1. “We will passionately pursue full devotion to Jesus Christ.”
Our goal – the way we win as individuals and as a church family – is to be fully devoted to Jesus.
We pursue this.
We pursue it passionately.
We are to allow nothing to stand in the way of accomplishing this goal.
For we have been created with purpose.
We have been created for Christlikeness.
And when we are moving toward it, we win.
We have been studying Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi under the theme of “Toward the Goal.”
In last week’s passage that we studied, we saw Paul communicate about his past – his spiritual biography, if you will – to show how his past had proved to be of no value whatsoever.
Even his finest work was dung, he said, if he ended up not knowing Jesus.
So, in this week’s passage, he now leaves the past, and deals with the present and the future.
And it is here that he encourages us to…
2. PURPOSEFULLY KEEP PRESSING TOWARD THE GOAL.
We are not ever to be caught stagnant in our faith.
If we are, then we are not doing something right.
So, in our study today of Philippians, we find three reminders of how to keep pressing toward Christlikeness.
OUR STUDY:
The first reminder is to live in…
I. DISSATISFACTION (12-16)
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
Paul communicates that…
3. We have not yet “arrived.”
He sees it in himself first.
He recognizes that he has not come to the place in his Christian life where his growth into a completed spiritual maturity has been accomplished.
He has not come to the place where there is no room for further spiritual development.
He is still imperfect.
He is different in what I too often observe in the Christian faith.
Too often, Christians are satisfied about where they are in their growth and faith.
They are self-satisfied because they compare their lives to other Christians, usually those who are not making progress.
“I am ahead of them, that’s for sure,” is what you might hear them say.
But this is not Paul’s method.
No.
Instead, he compares himself with himself and with Jesus.
And in doing so, Paul shows remarkable maturity.
For the true mark of maturity is the knowledge that you have not made it.
The true mark of maturity is finding ways to keep on deliberately living what you believe.
Paul tells us how by reminding us to…
4. Don’t dwell on the past.
When you run, how do you run?
You run straight ahead.
Do you look back?
Of course not.
For if you look backward, you will slow down, and eventually stumble and fall.
I think, a lot of Christians forget how to run a race.
They live looking backward.
They live with regret.
They live holding grudges.
The trouble is, if you look backward, you cannot press forward.
You will stumble.
And you will get in the way of other Christians who are running.
I like how John MacArthur describes it:
“Churches are full of spiritual cripples, paralyzed by the grudges, bitterness, sins, and tragedies of the past.”
How we need to remember that the past is not relevant to where we are now.
For past success does not guarantee present and future success.
Neither does past failure guarantee present and future failure.
We can have a great past.
We can have missed opportunities and failure.
But listen…
They do not control the present or the future.
Instead, we must learn, that regardless of what kind of past we have is…
5. Don’t be satisfied!
We make a mistake if we get comfortable as a Christian.
The instruction is to “press on.”
In the Greek, it is a very descriptive word.
It is intense.
It is energetic.
It is aggressive.
It is straining every muscle in order to achieve the goal.
ILL Intensity (S)
Imagine you are playing football for a moment and you are on defense. The running back has broken through the line and you after the man. Pressing on is catching him. Pressing on is not giving up. Pressing on is to get a hold of him and make him yours.
You know, the Bible is full of people that started well.
They were pressing on to the prize.
Folks like Lot, Samson, Saul, Ananias and Sapphira.
But they did not finish well.
Somewhere along the line they thought they were good enough, and it led to their failure and destruction.
So be dissatisfied of where you are.
Keep pressing on.
The second reminder Paul gives is to…
II. DISTINGUISH (17-19)
Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
6. Follow the good examples you have been given.
The word example has the meaning of leaving a mark.
When I studied that, it reminded me of what happened when I played softball the other night.
Josh Richbart was throwing the ball to me and I took my eye off it and it hit me in the arm.
Not smart, because Josh throws hard, and that softball was not soft.
It left a mark on my arm, right where the laces hit.
It is an imprint on my life that I won’t soon forget.
So, follow those who make good imprints – good marks – on your life.
Paul says to follow the good examples, and he is not ashamed to use himself as one of them.
After all, he is following Christ.
That being so, follow him.
Jesus, of course, is the perfect standard.
He is the model and pattern.
But it is good also to follow someone who is not perfect so we can see how to overcome our imperfections.
We can follow those that are handling the struggles of life.
They are handling the disappointments.
They are fellow travelers who are successfully battling pride and temptation.
Follow these good examples and we will also…
7. Be discerning about the truth.
As believers in Jesus, we need to realize that there will be those that are openly hostile to the faith.
We are not sure who Paul is talking about with these particular phrases.
In earlier verses, it was clearer that he was speaking of the Judaizers.
And he may be referring to them here as well, for the Judaizers were enemies of the cross.
They added the Law of Moses back on to the work of redemption.
Adding the dietary laws made their bellies God.
The emphasis on circumcision was glorying in the wrong thing.
Theirs was a belief that was more earthly-minded than spiritually minded.
On the other hand, Paul could be referring to the dualistic philosophy of the Greeks which would have had some impact in Philippi.
This dualism was a forerunner of Gnosticism, which was a heresy that became full blown in the second century.
Their belief was that the body was intrinsically evil and salvation was not about the body, but our ultimate deliverance from it.
This being so, the body does not matter.
In the meantime, do whatever you want with it.
Be as sensual as you need to be.
Satisfy its cravings.
It does not matter.
Regardless of who Paul is speaking about here, we are called on to distinguish the difference.
We are to be discerning, so that we can successfully pursue Christlikeness.
The third reminder is to…
III. DISJOIN (20-1)
In other words, don’t count our connection with the world as something permanent.
Be willing to disjoin from it.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
For many, the goal of the Christian life is getting needs met, being fulfilled, being happy, having a good self-image, and eliminating life’s problems.
But this is not what the Bible says.
For…
8. We belong to a greater world.
Here on earth, we represent a different world.
It is different than what is here.
Our behavior is to reflect the citizenship we have in heaven.
Joel, JJ and I were at Universal Studios in Orlando earlier this week.
And every time we were in line, there people in line that did not speak English – German, Japanese, French, Portuguese – I even heard some English that did not sound like English (but that’s what the British and Canadians say about us anyway).
But you could tell that they were not from America by how they dressed, how they spoke, and how they behaved.
In the same way, there is to be a difference about us as well.
We are to set our hearts on things above, and our life should reflect it.
ILL Ready
On the shore of beautiful Lake Como, nestled in the Italian Alps, is a lovely old villa, perhaps two or three hundred years old. For years the grounds have been immaculately kept by a trusted old gardener. One day some tourists were complimenting him on his work.
“The owner must come here frequently to supervise your work,” one of them said.
“No, sir,” answered the gardener. “He has been here only once in fifteen years and then I did not see him.”
“Well, then, how do you get your orders?” came the next question.
“They come from the owner’s agent, who live in Milan,” the old man replied.
“Then he must come here often.”
“No, not often, perhaps once a year or so.”
“This is quite amazing,” said the tourist. “You have no one to supervise your work, and yet the grounds are as neat as if you expected the owner to come back tomorrow.”
“Today, sir!” came the old gardener’s firm reply. “Not tomorrow, today!”
We act differently because we believe in and anticipate the blessings of the future.
We look forward to the coming of Jesus, because the Word of God promises His return.
We are not waiting for an event, per se, but a person!
Jesus!
And we are to be ready today!
If this is really true, then, we need to…
9. Let go of any vestiges of the past.
We live in a world where the values are all upside down.
We possess this insatiable desire to find significance in life.
We seek it by having…
More money,
More sex,
More pleasure,
More toys,
More trips,
More stuff.
Consider for a moment…
What are you holding on to?
Will any of this help you?
Will these things help you get to the next level?
What then?
What will help you get moving toward Christlikeness?
CHALLENGE:
ILL Ready (S)
Billy Graham is now in his late 80s and he suffers from Parkinson’s disease. His worldwide evangelism ministry has spanned more than sixty years. Awhile back, Billy was invited to speak at a luncheon in North Carolina. After many wonderful things were said about him, Billy stepped to the podium and this is what he said.
“I’m reminded today of Albert Einstein, the great physicist who this month has been honored by Time Magazine as the Man of the Century. Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached into his vest pocket. He couldn’t find his ticket, so he reached into his trouser pockets. It wasn’t there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn’t find it. Then he looked in the seat beside him. He still couldn’t find it.
The conductor said, "Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it." Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket. The conductor rushed back and said, "Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don’t worry, I know who you are. No problem. You don’t need a ticket. I’m sure you bought one." Einstein looked at him and said, "Young man, I too know who I am. What I don’t know is where I am going?"
Billy Graham continued. “See the suit I’m wearing? It’s a brand new suit. My family has been telling me I’ve gotten a little slovenly in my old age. I used to be more fastidious. So I went out and bought a new suit for this luncheon and one more occasion. You know what that occasion is? This is the suit in which I’ll be buried. But when you hear I’m dead, I don’t want you to remember the suit I’m wearing. What I want you to remember is this: I not only know who I am. . .but I also know where I am going.”
You can have the same kind of confidence when you…
10. Keep your focus on Jesus.
As followers of Jesus, we are to never rest on past laurels.
We can never allow ourselves to think – well, I started this program, or I participated in this ministry, or I led so and so into a relationship with the Lord – and allow ourselves to come to the conclusion that we are done.
No one crosses the finish line until their last breath occurs or when Jesus returns to this earth.
Then we will be made perfect.
Then we will be fully transformed.
But if I choose to rest and settle for what I have already done, this becomes a matter of pride.
I have stated that I am good enough.
In effect, I am stating that I have arrived, something even Paul was unwilling to say.
Folks, we are in a lifelong pursuit of Christlikeness.
So, keep your focus on Jesus and…
11. Live with purpose.
As individuals and as a church, we are to follow the example of Paul who was determined to follow Jesus.
We are to follow the examples of others who have been absolutely determined to fulfill the purposes for which they had been saved.
We are to make sure that the priorities of Jesus for our lives are the ones that we are living for.
So…
Press on.
Don’t give up.
Finish the race well.
For Further Study: Genesis 45.1-15; John 15.5; Acts 20.24; I Corinthians 9.24-27, 15.22-23; II Corinthians 11.13-15; Colossians 3.1-2; II Thessalonians 2.14; I Timothy 1.15; II Timothy 4.7-8; Hebrews 12.1-2; James 4.4
BENEDICTION:
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral:
Bond, Steve The Ultimate Endgame
Drake, James Pressing On: Marking Those Who Walk as Examples
Henes, Kenneth Living Together by the Right Pattern
Other:
Barclay, William. The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. The Daily Study Bible Series. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1959.
MacArthur, John, Jr. Philippians. The Macarthur New Testament Commentary. Chicago: Moody Press, 2001.
Stern, David H. The Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1992.
Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament. Colorado Springs: ChariotVictor Publishing, 1989.
Wuest, Kenneth S. Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament. 3 vols, vol. 2. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1978.
