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?
It will be different for each one of us. But the way to find it is first of all to submit your life to Jesus Christ as Lord.
It is then that the path becomes clear and you can begin to make the changes necessary to ensure that you follow your critical path and leave as secondary everything else that is secondary.
POINT
At some point early in his Christian life Paul did this.
PAUL’S STORY
1. THERE WERE THINGS THAT COULD HAVE HELD HIM BACK
i. The way he defined who he was
Question
If you were in a group of strangers and you were asked to introduce yourself to the others, what would you say?
How we describe ourselves tells us a lot about where we are in terms of following the critical path God would have us take.
POINT
Paul refused to be defined by who he had been in the past.
Although he had been a well-educated Pharisee with considerable rank and prestige he said that he now considered it rubbish in contrast to knowing Christ as Lord.
POINT
It’s also clear that Paul did not allow his past failings to define who he was now.
’forgetting what lies behind’ means choosing now to allow past failings to define who he was or hinder his progress in the future.
APPLIC
As a Christian you are first and foremost a child of God, loved by him.
And as we make Jesus our Lord we find our critical path in life.
2. PAUL WENT ON TO DESCRIBE WHAT IT MEANT TO FOLLOW THE CRITICAL PATH
v13-14 ’But one thing I do’ ’Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead’ ’I press on towards the goal to win the prize’
APPLIC
When we surrender everything that is secondary to Jesus Christ as Lord, some of the things we surrender he gives us back -- but they will ever take their rightful secondary place to Jesus as our Lord.
To find the path we must have no idols -- nothing that takes first place before our loyalty to God through Christ. Everything must take second place.
Now, being filled with the Holy Spirit, we will want nothing more than to be what God wants us to be and do what God wants us to do in and with our lives.
POINT
This golden highway in life is a theme throughout Scripture.
Prov 4:18 The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter til the full light of day.
Psalm 1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked.... But his delight is in the law of the Lord
Psalm 86:11
Teach me your way, O Lord,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
Isaiah 35:8-10
And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness.
...... the redeemed will walk there,
[10] and the ransomed of the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
POINT
It was also the way that Jesus took and invited us to take:
Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. [14] But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.
PAUL DETERMINED TO KEEP ON THE CRITICAL PATH UNTIL THE VERY END v14 ’I press on towards the goal to win the prize’
’Press’ = FOCUS
* Like hunter after prey
* Like an athlete seeking to jump ever higher
* Like a computer gamer seeking to reach the next level
* Like a runner seeking the prize
APPLIC
* Find the path -- Surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord
* Take the path -- Leave everything else as secondary
* Don’t stray from the path -- (hurts and disappointments can be the cause)
* Return to the path
* Keep to the path
CONCL
It’s because Jesus kept to the path that we have salvation.
Luke 9:51
As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
Hebrews 12:1-2
[2] Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
