Turn the Page
Philippians 3:12-14
December 27, 2009
NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT IS FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."
Me: Can you believe that we’re about to enter the 11th year of the 2000’s?
Does anyone here remember the panic over Y2K? It’s kinda silly now that we look back on it, huh?
Bill Vaughn was quoted as saying, “Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to.” He also said, ‘An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.’ (SermonCentral.com. Contributed by Jim Kane)
But on Friday we start 2010, and as with any new year, we have new opportunities.
One thing I really like about the New Year is that it’s an opportunity to start fresh on things.
I’ve got a number of things I’d like to accomplish, both personally and with the ministry of the church, and the new year is a great time to start things.
We: It’s the same for a lot of people, right?
People look at a new year and they start to think of things they’d like to accomplish in that new year.
Maybe it’s a health goal, so they join the Y or some health club.
Or they set business goals, or even spiritual goals.
The new year is a great time to turn the page on stuff you’d like to get going on and accomplish in the next year.
It’s also a great time to turn the page on some things you should put behind you.
And that’s what I’d like to talk with you about today.
God: The passage we’re going to look at today is one of those perfect passages in looking at what we can accomplish as we look at entering a new year.
I’ve used this passage before in this context, but I want to revisit it a bit and look at some lessons we can take away from it and apply to this next year.
Philippians 3:12-14 –
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 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.
Five lessons we can learn from Paul:
1. We all have an imperfect past.
None of us can look at our past and see nothing we aren’t ashamed of.
We all have blemishes and stains that we’d just as soon no one knew about or that we’d just as soon forget.
The apostle Paul was no different.
He had a pretty ugly past in persecuting the Church of Christ, and my guess is that he had plenty of time to reflect on the shame of that.
But we also have to remember that Paul was a religious guy even before he met Christ.
He was a Pharisee, he was an up and coming religious leader who had the trust of the religious establishment in place during the early days of the Church.
He could quote Scripture, he attended the synagogue probably every week, he had it going.
But all of his religion didn’t keep him from having a past that he didn’t treasure as time went by.
You might have grown up in church, you might have been involved in church, you might have been a church leader of some sort.
But just the same, you have an imperfect past.
It’s imperfect because of the presence of sin in your life. It’s imperfect because you have chosen your way over God’s way many times.
And there’s no way to get away from that fact. But the second lesson we can learn from Paul is that…
2. We don’t have to be a slave to that past.
Paul could have said, “Look. I put people in prison, and I voted for the death penalty for Christians I arrested. There is no hope for me, and there is no way I could ever be used by Christ.”
But he insisted here that he had something work moving on for.
He could look back on the fact that Christ redeemed him from his past, and was continually working in him.
He says here that in spite of his past, he was moving on.
How does he say it? “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what’s ahead.”
He recognized his past, but he refused to be a slave to it.
Paul was a few years away from his death when he wrote this book.
He was under house arrest, with a Roman guard hanging out all the time, in a time when being a Christian was a pretty dangerous thing.
He could have said, “Well, I’m an old man, now. I guess I’ll just plod along here and bide my time until they chop my head off – whenever that will be.’
Here’s a guy who had an imperfect past, and then had decades of fruitful ministry.
He was the most successful evangelist and church planter in the history of the early church.
And yet he still felt he had something to shoot for and work for.
He still felt that he had a ways to go in his relationship and service for Christ.
And in spite of his circumstances, he still wanted to strengthen those things.
How many people look at their circumstances and decide that it’s just not worth trying anymore?
Way too many, that’s for sure.
They might think they’ve got it all together and don’t need to work on strengthening their relationship with Christ.
Or they may be in a particular life situation that causes them to think that it’s not worth the effort.
But if we look to Paul here as our example, we can see that it’s never too late, and our circumstances don’t need to stand in the way of our effectiveness for Christ.
Lesson number three from Paul is that…
3. No matter our current circumstances, we can move on to better and greater things.
Paul was an old man, under house arrest in Rome, just a few years from putting his head on the chopping block when he wrote this letter to the Philippians.
He could have just sat back and “retired” from living for Christ and from ministry, but he was of the opinion that he still had work to do.
And more than that, He still needed to know Christ better.
Here’s a guy who had known Jesus for 10’s of years and probably had a relationship with him that most folks could only dream of, and yet – it wasn’t enough.
It didn’t matter that he was under house arrest. It didn’t matter that he was an older man. It didn’t matter what his current circumstance was. He needed more of Jesus and he was willing to make the effort to make it happen.
And that leads us to the fourth lesson we can take from Paul, and that is that…
4. Moving on only happens by intentional, determined effort.
There’s a word that doesn’t fit real well with learning to live for Christ and serve Him: convenience.
I love convenience, and I love only working or praying or studying or whatever, when it’s convenient.
But listen to the words of Paul here in this passage:
I press on. Straining toward what is ahead. I press on.
That goes against what I think most Christians would think it takes to know Christ and serve Him better.
I mentioned Paul’s circumstances and how he didn’t let them get in the way.
He did what it took within his current circumstance, without making excuses. He just did it. Christ was worth the effort for Paul, and if you’ll make the effort, you’ll find He was worth it for you as well.
Paul was determined to move on from his past and from his present circumstances to gain more of Christ.
5. The goal is worth the effort.
Paul here calls it a prize. Not just a wage or a paycheck. A prize.
When you focus on Christ and living for Him, you win.
I think so many people have a lukewarm relationship with Christ and no desire to live for Him because they see the work, but they don’t see the prize.
People will put a picture of a boat on their fridge and work, work, work, putting in as much overtime as they can, scrimping and saving, sacrificing – so they can get that boat.
But they won’t do that for Christ. They’ll work for what they can see, but not for something that helps the soul.
But Paul here says that everything that he’s done or had isn’t worth what he can gain through knowing Christ and serving Him.
I wish more Christians could see the value of Christ like Paul did.
And you know what? I fail to see it sometimes myself. God help all of us to see that the prize is worth the effort.
The bottom-line of what I want to communicate to you through Paul’s words here is that he decided to turn the page – on his past, and even on his present circumstances.
He wanted to move on. And the new year gives us a great opportunity to do just that.
You: Let me suggest five things to turn the page on over this next year.
First…
> Turn the page on a lukewarm relationship with Christ.
That’s not what Jesus wants for you, and I can’t imagine why anyone would want that if they really knew what God had in store for them.
Jesus wants us to be on fire for Him – loving Him and living for Him in every area of our lives.
* Spend time in the Word and prayer. If you’ve never developed that habit, start today to spend five minutes reading in the New Testament and five minutes praying.
* Give up on half-hearted obedience to Jesus. Get past lip-service to life-service. Jesus says that if we love Him, we’ll obey Him. If we don’t obey Him, then we don’t really love Him.
* Strengthen your relationship with His bride – the Church.
Whatever it takes, turn the page on a lukewarm, mediocre relationship with Christ. Next…
> Turn the page on unforgiveness.
Some of you have been hurt. Some of you have been hurt badly. Others have just gotten their feelings hurt a little.
But in any case, you’re holding onto that, and you’ve refused to forgive that person from their heart.
Scripture says not to let the sun go down on your anger. Some of you have let hundreds and thousands of suns go down on your anger.
“But they don’t deserve it.”
I know. Believe me, I know that. But as I’ve said before, neither do you.
Let me ask you a question: Does anybody here honestly believe that they have the right to demand forgiveness from God? I hope not, because you don’t have that right.
Now listen very closely here: you don’t have the right to withhold forgiveness of others any more than you have the right to demand forgiveness for yourself.
Paul wasn’t sitting in his house prison and saying, “Those mean ol’ Romans! I’ll get them, that’s for sure!”
No – in fact, this whole letter to the Philippians is filled with his own joy and his urging us to joy as well.
Don’t let bitterness and unforgiveness take root in your heart and rot your soul.
Bitterness is like pus in your heart and soul. And who wants that stuff churning and coursing through them?
Nobody does. At least, no one should, and Scripture says we’re supposed to get rid of it.
Folks, when you choose to forgive and when you choose to drop the grudge, you are set free.
You may not think you can do it, because the hurt is too great. All I can tell you is that there are those who have had greater hurts than you who have been able to forgive.
They couldn’t do it, either. They needed the help of God Almighty to help them. So they asked Him for the strength to forgive just as Christ had forgiven them.
And He did.
Bitterness is a chain on your soul. Break the chain by asking God to help you turn the page on your unforgiveness.
Another thing you can this year is…
> Turn the page on THAT sin.
What do I mean by that?
I think that in many, if not most people, there is something they’ve struggled with, and maybe even given up on conquering.
You know what that is for you.
Maybe it’s lying. Maybe it’s gossiping or breaking a confidence. Maybe it’s looking at that inappropriate material on the internet or TV or the DVD player. Maybe it’s letting your eyes linger on another woman. (Jesus calls that adultery, by the way…)
Maybe it’s just plain laziness – and not taking responsibility for what’s under your care.
Whatever it is, you can start with this year to make it a thing of the past.
Ask God to help you get a handle on whatever that is, and to get hold of any resources that might help you move one.
You don’t have to be a captive to it any longer. Paul says in Romans that in Christ we’re set free – that instead we can be slaves to righteousness.
Turn the page on that destructive behavior.
> Turn the page on handling God’s money your way.
Of everything I’m going to say, this is the one that will probably get under people’s skin the most.
Money is one of those areas that people cling to the hardest.
Did you know that Jesus talks more about money in Scripture than He does about heaven and hell?
Why do you think that is?
I think it’s because He knew how tightly we want to hang onto it.
But let me point out something very quickly: it’s not your money to begin with.
Everything you have in terms of money or the ability to earn it is a gift from God.
It’s His, and if we’ll listen to what He says about how to handle it, it’ll go farther, and we’ll have more peace about it, whether we have a little or a lot.
You don’t have to take my word for it, but at least take God’s word for it. He’s not a liar, and He knows what He’s talking about.
We’re going to look at some of that stuff later in the year, and I believe that if you’ll put into practice biblical principles of handling God’s money, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how God provides for His people.
And lastly…
> Turn the page on mediocrity.
Mediocrity is the default position of life.
Anybody can be mediocre, and most people are, especially when it comes to living for Christ and serving Him.
Excellence, on the other hand, is rarely achieved without intentional effort.
I’m not saying perfection, I’m saying excellence. Excellence is stepping up to a whole new level.
So let me suggest that you step it up in your…
- Relationship with others – especially your family.
- Work.
Jesus is our model for this. Look at Mark 7:37 –
People were overwhelmed with amazement. "He has done everything well," they said.
When we work toward excellence, we reflect the work of Christ.
We: Folks, so many people live in the rut of just getting along like they always have.
Zig Ziglar says that a rut is just a grave with the ends kicked out.
I want to encourage you to get out of the rut you may be in.
And I want to encourage this church as a whole to show the people around us that we are always wanting to turn the page on the past, and strain toward what is ahead in our service for Christ.
Don’t let this year be the same ol’ same ol’ you’ve done all the past years.
Make this year the best year yet in your walk with Christ and your service for Him.
Let’s pray.
