INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Now that we are a few weeks away from the New Year, I was wondering how many of you made New Year’s resolutions?
• Raise your hands please.
• Now, 17 days into 2010, how many of you are still staying with it?
• It seems like people are not too successful in keep their New Year’s resolutions.
• I wonder why so many people fail in keeping their newfound resolutions?
• I think the struggles we have in keeping our resolutions are very similar to our struggles in living successfully in Christ.
• I think many of us would like to have a better devotional life, a better prayer life, and maybe a better study life.
• I do not know of too many Christian’s who would not like to have an overall stronger faith in Christ.
• Today as we examine Philippians 3:4-14 together, I would like to suggest four things we can work on that will help us to living more successfully in Christ. By the way the beauty of these principles is they will help you to be able to live successfully in all areas of your life.
• Let us begin with verse 4-8.
• In the first couple of verses of the chapter Paul is telling the folks that there will be people who will come in and try to steal their joy. Paul is reminding us what is really important in life.
• SLIDE #2 AND SLIDE #3
• Philippians 3:4-8(ESV) 4though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless. 7But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
• Let us begin by seeing that to live successfully in Christ we need to:
SERMON
• SLIDE #4
I. Seek the right perspective on life. (4-8)
• Many times failures in our walk can be attributed to not having the right perspective on life.
• We really do not understand what life is all about.
• When we struggle with things as small as New Year’s resolutions, not having the right perspective on things can keep us from being successful.
• For instance in life we many times forsake the future for the now. That cake will taste good now, but what about what it will do to us over time.
• In our relationship with Jesus, without the right perspective on life, our faith will be difficult to develop because everything else will be seemingly more important.
• The question then comes, “How can we develop the right perspective on life? Let us examine three things.
• SLIDE #5
1. Seek the real definition of success. (4-6)
• How do you define success? Do you measure it in dollars? Do you measure it in material things? In verses 4-6 Paul recounts his life.
• By the standards of the day, he was quiet successful. He most likely had money, he was respected as a Pharisee, and he was from a good blood line.
• Paul was someone whom others envied; he was a person only others could dream of being.
• If the passage stopped at verse six, he is looking pretty good.
• What about you? How are you defining success?
• When I coached softball, one way we could define success was by our record.
• The record and the scoreboard was not the only thing we looked at.
• In life it is not always that easy. What kind of price do you have to pay in order to achieve your “success”? Are you paying for it with your family, your faith?
• In verse 4 Paul said he could have had confidence in the flesh because of his “worldly” success.
• When Paul met Jesus, his definition of success changed. Paul realized the futility of the way his life was going.
• There was something more to life than what he first believed.
• The next thing we need to do in order to seek the right perspective in life is…
• SLIDE #6
2. Seek what is really important in life. (7)
• As Paul reflected on his life, he came to realize what he thought was important, really was not.
• In verse 7 Paul says, 7But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
• Verse seven sums up the dramatic change that took place in Paul’s perspective when he met Christ.
• All of the cherished treasures in his gain column suddenly became deficits. But by God’s marvelous grace, those things that he wrongly imagined would give him eternal life were replaced by five matchless benefits that were his in Christ. (John MacArthur Jr)
• If you want to succeed at growing spiritually, you will need to evaluate what is really important in life and spend your time pursuing that.
• I wanted to run a company, and then God rocked my world. Paul wanted certain things in life and then God rocked his world.
• If you deem something as being important, you will go after it. If the doctor tells you that you are going to die if you do not lose weight, suddenly that becomes important enough for you to take seriously.
• If you relationship with Jesus is important, you will work on developing it, if it is not, you will live an unsatisfying faith.
• Seek what will make you successful based on a correct understanding of success!
• This leads us to…
• SLIDE #7
3. Seek to live with the correct perspective. (8)
• In verse 8 we are reminded, 8Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
• As you develop a correct perspective on life, you then start to evaluate what is really important, and then your priorities will change.
• If Jesus is important to us, then He will be a top priority for us. If we have an unsatisfying faith, I would venture to say it is because Jesus is not high on our priority list.
• From what verse 8 tells us, where do you think Jesus was on Paul’s priority list?
• Having a correct perspective and knowing what is important in life means nothing unless we are willing to live it!
• What Paul lost was not important to him because he was living for Jesus! The implication of verse 8 is those things got in his way.
• With this point in mind the next thing we need to do in order to live successfully in Christ is…
• SLIDE #8
II. Focus on the right goals for life. (9-11)
• When you figure out where you want to go in life and what is important you will need to set some goals to help you fulfill your purpose in life!
• Let’s look at verse 9 for the first one.
• SLIDE #9
• Philippians 3:9(ESV) 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
• One goal is…
• SLIDE #10
1. To be found in Him. (9)
• To be found in Christ means that we are living in union with Him!
• It means being right with Jesus.
• To be found in Him means that we are no longer trying to make our own path to God, we instead are found in Him!
• Paul used to live by trying to save himself by following the law. Now he realizes that salvation comes from being found in Christ!
• One definition of righteousness is being right with God and also it can mean God’s way of saving man.
• Being saved by faith and obedience to Jesus is the only way to be found in Him!
• Let’s look at verse 10 for another worthy goal.
• SLIDE #11
• Philippians 3:10(ESV) 10that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
• SLIDE #12
2. To know Him. (10)
• To know Him means much more that knowing the facts about Jesus, we need to work on getting to know Jesus in a deep personal way.
• The word “know” denotes a knowledge that we gain by personal experience!
• This comes from a close walk with Him.
• To know Christ is more than merely to know facts or doctrine about him. Paul wanted to know Christ better and better, for Christ had changed the very foundation of his life.
• That should be the goal of every believer—to know Christ more fully and personally, and that can be a lifelong process.
• We can experience the power of the resurrection in our lives! This leads to goal #3.
• SLIDE #13
• Philippians 3:11(ESV) 11that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
• SLIDE #14
3. To be with Him. (11)
• This is the ultimate goal that will not happen without the other things. We cannot earn salvation; it comes from our faith in Jesus!
• We should remove anything that gets in the way of our relationship with Jesus.
• To live successfully in Christ we need to:
• SLIDE #15
III. Strive to leave the past behind. (12-13)
• Let’s look at verses 12-13 as it pertains to both the past and present.
• SLIDE #16
• Philippians 3:12-13(ESV) 12Not 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. 13Brothers, 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,
• In verse 12 we see that we need not…
• SLIDE #17
1. Do not rest in the present. (12)
• Paul says he is not there yet. Paul was one of the most spiritual people you will find, yet he was not willing to rest in the present concerning his relationship.
• When we start resting in the present, the future will become bleak.
• We must always strive to grow more and more, we cannot afford to rest.
• I used to be in great shape, then I rested and my shape became round, I hope to be in the process of fixing that.
• Next we see
• SLIDE #18
2. Do not live in the past. (13)
• Paul had a lot of baggage that could have held him back.
• The past does not matter. Too many of us have let the past hold us back.
• I have been over weight for about 15 years. Should that stop me from trying to fix that?
• Maybe you have not had the greatest faith in the past, do not let that stop you from changing that.
• Many lives are ruined because people want to live in the past. Even if the past was great, you cannot live in it!
• Let’s finish with verse 14
• SLIDE #19
• Philippians 3:14(ESV) 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
• To live a successful life in Christ we need to…
• SLIDE #20
IV. Reach toward the glorious future. (14)
• Pressing on means that we will make every effort to the point of straining with every effort to make sure we reach the finish line!
• We are to let nothing get in the way of the glorious future or prize we have in Christ!
• This verse expresses a single-minded focus, saying, I continually bear down on the goal “a mark on which to fix one’s eyes”
• The goal is what we should fix our eyes upon!
CONCLUSION
• Do you struggle with failing in various areas of your life? Do you have a hard time keeping you New Year’s resolution?
• Are you not growing spiritually the way you had hoped?
• If you will follow the principles laid out today, you will start to see success in anything you do.
• Remember, you will not get where you want to be by accident. If you do not have a plan for growth, you have a plan to fail.
• God wants to richly bless you, growing spiritually will make you a new person, a joyful person, a person who will love life and the people in it!
• God wants to take you on a great ride, are you ready?
