We are going to look at Paul again this morning, and learn about success in life.
• The best way to learn something is to learn it from real life, not from books, from models not from manuals.
• I want to look at someone who has accomplished what I want to accomplish.
• So we are going to look at a Christian who has done great things for the Lord – written half of the NT and evangelized almost half of the Roman Empire.
• We want to make our life count, just as Paul made his count in his lifetime.
In Philippians 3, we have Paul’s autobiography. In the first 11 verses he deals with his past.
• Let’s read Phil 3:12-21 in which he deals with his present and his future. He lays down some principles for a successful life. [Read Phil 3:12-21]
Paul encourages us to follow his example – verse 17 “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.”
So what is his pattern? We can derive 4 areas of concerns to a successful life:
(1) EVALUATION: Face My Faults
In verse 12 Paul says “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect.” Verse 13: “I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it…”
• It reminds me of Rom 12:3 “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”
• Paul was honest enough to recognize that he is still growing, that he has not arrived yet.
• Despite the fact that he was probably much better than many, he did not let that overwhelm him. He was honest about his shortfall.
It is when we recognize our own weaknesses that we grow. It is when we know our mistakes that we learn.
• Charles H. Spurgeon says, “It is not our littleness that hinders Christ; but our bigness. It is not our weakness that hinders Christ; it is our strength. It is not our darkness that hinders Christ; it is our supposed light that holds back His hand.”
To have Paul says he has not succeeded yet or reached perfection at this point is really amazing.
• Because he is at the last stage of his life, an old man by now.
• If anybody had the right to claim he had arrived, it would be Paul. He has already completed 3 missionary journeys across the Roman Empire, written Galatians, Thessalonians, Corinthians, Romans, Philemon, Colossians, and Ephesians.
• He made an incredible impact on the world. If he says he has not arrived, I wonder who has.
Here is the point: Successful people never stop growing. They never stop learning.
• A Christian should never stop growing. He is always learning, growing, improving and expanding the work of God.
• Rather than saying “Look how far I’ve come,” we ought to say, “Look how far I can still go!”
Be honest about your weaknesses and failures. The question to ask is, "Where do I need to change?"
(2) ELIMINATION: Forget the Former; let go of your past.
Verse 13: “This one thing I do, forgetting what is behind.”
• Don’t live in the past. Don’t be crippled by the memories of the past. You cannot move on in life if you are staying in the past.
• There are those who cannot let go of their past failures, always living in regret.
• There are those who cannot forget the past glory, always living in nostalgia; a longing for the good old days.
Paul says if he is going to be all God wants him to be, he’s not going to waste any more time on yesterday. It’s gone. It’s past. My past is past. I let go of my guilt, grief, grudges.
• I let go of the past so I can get on with the present.
• Isa 43:18-19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”
• It’s almost like God saying, “Don’t day-dream. See what I am doing in the lives of people today.”
How do you “forget the former things”? What does it mean to really forget something?
• It means I am not going to let the past affect me anymore. Don’t let the past control you or manipulate you.
• Successful people learn from the past without dwelling on the past. There’s a big difference. Successful people learn from the past and once they learn, they let it go and move on. They don’t keep hounding themselves about the past.
It is human nature - we tend to remember things we should forget and we tend to forget things we should remember.
Learn to forget (1) your failures.
• Many Christians are rehearsing things in their mind that God has already long forgiven and forgotten. But they cannot forgive themselves. They’re holding on to the past.
• Satan loves to paralyze us by bringing to our minds the memories of the past.
• Paul made a conscious decision: “This one thing I do – forget the past.”
If Paul was to remember his past, he was a cruel persecutor of the church. He killed many innocent Christians, among them Stephen, the first deacon of the church.
• He could have been crippled by guilt and live in constant regret, but he chose to face his faults and forgot the past and get on with life.
• If he did not let go, he would not have been able to do the work of God the way he did.
• Nothing you ever do will change your past. No tears, regrets, self-pity. You can’t do anything about it.
• Let it go. Learn from it and let it go.
Don’t keep thinking about (2) your successes.
Learn from them but let go of them. It’s so easy to rest on your laurels, to base your security on past performance, to think, “I’ve made it!”
• “The good old days” are done with, so move on. The more you dwell on it, pride will soon take over.
• Then you stop growing and learning, you become complacent and the next thing is, you are going to fail.
• In any sports, when complacency sets in, you are not going to win.
The question to ask is, “What past memory do I need to let go of?”
(3) CONCENTRATION: Focus on the Future.
If all you do is forget the past, you may just have amnesia. That doesn’t make you successful. Successful people are focused.
• Paul says in verse 13: “... straining toward what is ahead I press on toward the goal.”
• It’s singular. It refers to what God has called him to do, he says.
There may be 101 good things you can do, but you need to think about God’s calling for you.
• We cannot do 100 different things at the same time and become Jack of all trades but master of none.
• God has so wired us differently and called us into various ministries.
• Paul says, find out what counts. He’s talking about the power of concentration.
• You let a river spills over, you’d get a swamp. When you confine the flow and channel it right, you get tremendous source of power.
• Light diffused is powerless and weak. Concentrate it and you get a laser.
What is the one thing you can do for the Lord? Think about that.
• Think about specialization. What has God given you that are uniquely you?
• You cannot know everything, be everything, or do everything, you need to think about the unique gifts and personality God has given you, and use them.
• 1 Cor 9:24 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”
The question we ask ourselves is, “What am I uniquely gifted in? What is God’s call for my life? What am I living for?”
(4) DETERMINATION: Fight to the Finish.
Paul says, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize…” (v.14)
• Till now Paul has never given up, given the fact that he has been persecuted, threatened and imprisoned.
• If you’re coasting in life, you’re going downhill. The only way you coast is when you are going downhill. Paul said, “I fight to the finish.” No retirement for him.
The great people in life are just ordinary people with extraordinary amount of determination.
• They don’t know how to quit. They keep on keeping on. They never give up.
• They may have fallen, maybe many times, but they would just pick themselves up and move on.
Remember Paul’s parting words to the Ephesian elders - Acts 20:22-24
22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”
• I wonder what would happen if Christians would put as much energy and enthusiasm into God’s work as they do into making money, or their favorite sport?
• It’s not easy to find people who are determined today.
Weekend Today 10 Apr 2010 – “It’s a Mockery of Traditional Marriage Vows”, pp.2-3
There were 7,220 divorces in 2008 in Singapore (20 a day). Ms Anita Fam from MarriageCentral: “Couples now lack the will and stamina their parents and grandparents had to make things work. People don’t try hard enough to keep their marriage going. When things get rough, rather than find ways and means of working at things and keeping them going, they give up.”
Gal 6:9 “Let us not grow weary in doing good. For at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Listen to what Paul says at the end of his life - in the last book that he wrote - 2 Tim 4:7-8
“7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing.”
• It’s really nice to say this at the end of one’s life, right?
• I finished the race and fought the good fight and kept the faith and now there is this award waiting for me in heaven.
Here in Phil 3:15 he says, “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.”
• These four areas we mentioned: (1) face your faults, (2) forget the former, (3) focus on the future, and (4) fight to the finish.
• What God starts, He finishes. You do your part and God will do His part. You do your best and He’ll do the rest.
Which of these issues do you need to focus on?
• (1) Be honest about where you are right now? When was the last time you sat down and did an honest evaluation of your life? How is your relationship to God, and with people? Everybody has things they don’t like about themselves, but you can’t grow if you keep them locked up in a closet. Let the hurts, regret, worry out into the open and tell them to God.
• (2) Is your past controlling your present? Are you allowing a past memory or failure continue to hurt you now? Your past cannot hurt you unless you let it. Learn from it and let it go.
• (3) Are you distracted by so many things that you cannot get anything done well? Maybe you need to cut something out of your life so you’ll have time for the important things. Focus on what counts. Like Paul, say “This one thing I do.” Like Jesus telling Martha, “Only one thing is needed.” (Luke 10:42)
• (4) Or maybe you’ve been tempted to give up. You are not even halfway down the journey but you are thinking of giving up. Pray for a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit.
PRAYER: Lord, we know we are imperfect. We do not have it all together, but we know we are saved by Your grace to do Your work. Our past has been forgiven, so help us to focus on what we can do for You today. Help us take the good news to all who needs it. Give us the passion and the love we need for a lost world. Lord, we do not quit on anyone and we do not quit on the work You’ve called us to do. Cause us to fall in love with the ministry You’ve called us into. Let us do Your will and complete it in our lifetime. Continue to fill us afresh with the Holy Spirit, so that we’d have the power to keep going, to keep on keeping on, until we finish the task. We thank you Lord for hearing our prayer. In Jesus’ Name we pray, AMEN.
