A customs officer observes a truck pulling up at the border. Suspicious, he orders the driver out and searches the vehicle. He pulls off the panels, bumpers, and wheel cases but doesn’t find a single scrap of contraband. He is still suspicious, but doesn’t know where else to search, so he waves the driver through. The next week, the same driver arrives. Again the official searches, and again finds nothing illicit. Over the years, the official tries full-body searches, X rays, and sonar, anything he can think of, and each week the same man drives up, but no mysterious cargo ever appears, and each time, reluctantly, the customs official waves the driver on.
Finally, after many years, the officer is about to retire. The driver pulls up. “I know you're a smuggler,” the customs officer says. “Don't bother denying it. But [darned] if I can figure out what you've been smuggling all these years. I'm leaving now. I swear to you I can do you no harm. Won't you please tell me what you've been smuggling?”
“Trucks,” the driver says. (Todd Gitlin, Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms our Lives, Henry Holt and Company, 2007, pp. 3-4; www.PreachingToday.com)
Sometimes, we can’t see for looking (as my mother used to say). It’s easy to miss the obvious, especially when it comes to our own spiritual growth and maturity.
Some people focus on certain spiritual disciplines like prayer and fasting. Others focus on the teachings of a favorite preacher, and still others look to a specific program or system of discipleship to help them grow in Christ. Now, all of these can be helpful, but if you miss the obvious, you’ll never grow in your relationship with Christ; you’ll never mature beyond that of a baby Christian; you’ll never become all that Christ has called you to become.
So what should be our focus if not the spiritual disciplines, the teachings of favorite preacher, or some discipleship program? If we want to become all that Christ has called us to be, where should we look? If we want to become fully like Christ, reflecting His beauty, where should we focus our attention. If we want to reach the level of full and complete spiritual maturity, where should we concentrate all our efforts? Well, If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Philippians 3, Philippians 3, where the Bible shows us where to focus: Philippians 3:12. The Apostle Paul is speaking, and he says…
Philippians 3:12 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. (ESV)
Paul admits that he has not attained full maturity yet. He’s still pursuing it, because he belongs to Christ. Christ has a hold of Paul, so Paul wants to grab a hold of Christ, becoming like Him in all His fullness.
Philippians 3:13-14 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. (ESV)
Do you want to be all that God called you to be? Do you want to be fully and completely like Christ? Then, 1st of all…
LOOK AHEAD.
Focus on the objective. Concentrate on the goal. Keep your eye on the finish line.
That means you have to take your eyes off the past. Or as Paul put it in verse 13, “Forget what is lies behind.” Forget the “good ol’ days.” Forget your past achievements, because they can actually become your greatest barrier to any future achievement.
When he was in his mid-80's, the great cellist Pablo Casals kept practicing his instrument for four or five hours each day. Someone once asked him why, at his age, he still worked so hard. “Because,” he said, “I have a notion that I am making some progress.” (Leonard Lyons, Reader's Digest, Nov. 1993, p.136)
That’s the attitude we need to have – especially those of us who are older, especially those of us who are more mature.
Philippians 3:15-16 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. (ESV)
You see, if we begin to rest on our laurels, if we begin to rest on our past achievements, we can actually drift backwards; we can actually regress in the Christian life. Sometimes, the greatest enemy to any future progress is past progress. It’s our past achievements which often keep us from moving forward in life.
In his book, Stepping Up, Dennis Rainey tells the story of Brian Clay, who since the age of 8, growing up in Hawaii, dreamed of winning a gold medal in the Olympic decathlon. He accomplished that dream in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
In the decathlon, athletes earn points for their marks in ten events over two days. With a commanding lead going into the last event, the 1,500-meter run, Clay could have just coasted to the finish line and still earned the gold medal. However, that was not the way Clay saw it. A reporter asked Clay when he knew he had the decathlon wrapped up, and Clay replied:
“In the last race when I was about 10 feet away from the finish line – that's when I knew I'd won. I'd worked, trained, and competed for eight years to be able to… have the gold hanging around my neck. And if there was anything those eight years of competition had taught me it was that in competing against the best in the world in ten grueling events, anything can go wrong before you cross the finish line.” (Dennis Rainey, Stepping Up, Family Life, 2011, p. 180; www.PreachingToday.com)
Some of you are about to cross the finish line. You’re in the last years of your life, but God still wants to use you. People still need you, and you can still have an impact. So don’t coast to the end. Instead, like Paul, “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Don’t rest on your laurels. Don’t let your past achievements keep you from any further progress.
Instead, stop living in the past and start looking to the goal. Keep your eyes on Christ, who is the goal of our very existence. Focus on Jesus, not anything else. You see, if Christ-likeness is our goal, then we need to keep our eyes on Christ, until we reach that goal, until we are totally and completely like Christ.
Dan Turmon, who is a tightrope walker and business leader, talks about what it takes to successfully walk across a tightrope. In his book Off Balance on Purpose, he writes:
When new students step onto the rope or cable… they almost always begin with the same flawed game plan. They stare downward at the wire to ensure that they have the proper footing. And so they fall… So what is the solution to this dilemma? If you have ever closely watched professional tightrope walkers, you may recall that they never look down at their feet or the wire or to either side at their hands (or the balance pole). Rather, they keep their head up and look forward toward the goal – the faraway platform – in front of them. (Dan Thurmon, Off Balance on Purpose, Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2009, pp 8-9; www. PreachingToday.com)
In the same way, we need to keep our eyes on the goal – Jesus Christ Himself. Don’t focus on your spiritual disciplines. Don’t focus on the teachings of some preacher. Don’t even focus on a particular discipleship program. While these may be helpful, if you focus on them, you’ll fall! Instead, focus on the goal. Focus on Christ. If you do, you’ll eventually become just like Him.
In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne published a short story called “The Great Stone Face.” It’s the story about a king, who led his country so well, that when he died, his people determined not to have another king, until they found a man that looked and acted just like him.
In fact, they had his profile carved on the face of a great cliff, just so they wouldn’t forget. And for years, a specially commissioned group of people combed the countryside looking for just such a man, but no one fit the profile.
Then, they stopped to rest and eat at a humble cottage at the base of that Great Stone Face. And there, they saw a young man whose face looked just like the face carved out on the cliff above his cottage.
You see, day in and day out, as he plowed his fields and cut his wood, he kept looking at that face. And eventually he came to look just like it.
So it is as we keep looking to the face of Jesus. Eventually we’ll begin to resemble Him.
Do you want to be all that God called you to be? Do you want to be fully and completely like Christ? Then, keep your eyes on Jesus until you become just like Him. Focus the goal. Of first importance, look ahead to Christ. Then 2nd…
LOOK AROUND.
Look around for those who are following Jesus. Look around for those who are becoming more and more like Him, and find in them an example for you to follow. That’s Paul’s advice to his readers:
Philippians 3:17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. (ESV)
In other words, imitate the right people. Spend time with godly people, and let their attitudes and actions rub off on you.
In the late 17th and early 18th Centuries, a semi-literate Italian craftsman, named Antonio Stradivari, designed and hand-crafted his now-famous Stradivarius violins. Today, those violins are priceless, selling for millions of dollars. Only about 500 of them still exist, and some of them have been submitted to the most intense scientific examination in an attempt to reproduce their extraordinary sound quality. However, no one has been able to replicate Stradivari's craftsmanship.
Experts know that Stradivari used spruce for the top, willow for the internal blocks and linings, and maple for the back, ribs, and neck. They also know that he treated the wood with several types of minerals, including potassium borate, sodium and potassium silicate, as well as a handmade varnish that appears to have been composed of gum arabic, honey, and egg white.
What experts don’t know was Stradivari’s technique for crafting his extraordinary violins. He never wrote it down. Instead, Stradivari passed his skill on to a number of apprentices through what one scholar called “elbow learning.” Stradivari’s apprentices didn't learn their craft from books or manuals but by sitting at his elbow and feeling the wood as he felt it to assess its length, its balance, and its timbre right there in their fingertips. All the learning happened at his elbow. (Lance Ford, Unleader, Beacon Hill Press, 2012, pp. 177-178; www.PreachingToday. com)
My friends, that’s where we learn to follow Christ, as well – at the elbow of other Christ-followers. It doesn’t happen by studying books and manuals on the subject. It happens when we focus on Christ and get close to others who are doing the same.
Several years ago, Harvard University conducted a rather extensive study to determine the most effective way to help people change for the better. Their findings surprised even those doing the study, who expected an advanced technique or a high tech instrument to best do the job. Instead, they discovered that the number one way to help people change is through modeling. It’s through example. (In a letter from Tim Hansel to Charles Swindoll, as shared on Insight for Living Broadcast, 6-22-90)
That’s why it is so important that we gather together in our Sunday Schools, Worship Services, and Bible Studies every week. You cannot grow in your relationship with Christ by staying home, studying books and watching TV preachers. You have to rub shoulders on a regular basis with other followers of Christ, so you can benefit from their example. If you want to become more and more like Christ, you have to imitate the right people.
At the same time, you have to watch out for the wrong people.
Philippians 3:18-19 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. (ESV)
No doubt, this is a reference to the Judaizers, the legalists, Paul talked about in verse 2. They weren’t really interested in heavenly things. All they cared about was their stomachs. Their minds were on earthly things.
So today, we need to watch out for the same kind of people. Watch out for those who seem to talk about earthly things more than heavenly things. Watch out for those who focus on health and wealth in this life, even if they couch it in spiritual terms.
If you want to be all that God called you to be, if you want to become fully and completely like Christ, then 1st, and most importantly look ahead to Christ, the goal. 2nd, look around for the right examples, for godly examples. And 3rd…
LOOK UP.
Look up to glory. Look up to heaven, which is your real home.
Philippians 3:20-21 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. (ESV)
Jesus is coming again from Heaven. And when He does, He will complete the work He began in us when we trusted Him. He will complete the transformation process, so that not only will our hearts and minds be changed, but our bodies as well. Jesus will change us completely – body, soul and spirit – to reflect His glory!
Oh, what a day that will be! I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait. I can’t wait until Jesus comes. I can’t wait for heaven. But until then, I can live as a citizen of heaven even though I live in this fallen world. The Philippian believers understood this. You see, they were actually citizens of Rome while living in Philippi. So we are citizens of heaven while living on this earth.
Wilfredo Garza lived the life of an illegal immigrant for more than 35 years. Year after year, he eked out a living crossing the border from Mexico into the United States – some days finding work, some days not. Regardless, he was constantly looking over his shoulder. He was caught by the Border Patrol four times during that period and bused back to Mexico every time. Undeterred by each apprehension, he swam back across the Rio Grande to try again.
The cycle would likely have continued for several more years if not for an amazing discovery. One day, Wilfredo worked up the courage to walk into an immigration lawyer's office. There, incredibly, he found out that his father was born in Texas and spent time working there, which meant that Wilfredo was actually a U.S. citizen!
All these years he possessed the very papers – his father's birth certificate and work records – that proved his citizenship, and yet he lived in guilt and fear. Now he has a certificate of citizenship. Now he doesn't have to sneak across the border; he can walk through the main gate. (Anderson Cooper, “360 Degrees, On the Border”, aired 5-25-06, CNN; www.PreachingToday.com)
How many Christians live in guilt and fear all of their lives? Oh, if only they knew they were already citizens of heaven, their lives would be so much different.
Philip Yancey, in The NIV Student Bible, tells the story of Rabbi Joseph Schneerson, who lived and served during the early days of Russian Communism. He spent a lot of time in jail, being persecuted for his faith. One morning in 1927, as he prayed in a Leningrad synagogue, secret police rushed in and arrested him. They took him to a police station and worked him over, demanding that he give up his religious activities. He refused. The interrogator brandished a gun in his face and said, “This little toy has made many a man change his mind.”
Rabbi Schneerson answered, “This little toy can intimidate only that kind of man who has many gods and but one world. Because I have only one God and two worlds, I am not impressed by this little toy.” (Philip Yancey, in The NIV Student Bible, Zondervan, 1996)
As a citizen of heaven, he didn’t have to fear any earthly power. So it is for you and me who know Christ. As citizens of heaven, we don’t have to live in fear anymore. Instead, we can pursue our high calling in Christ.
If you want to be all that God has called you to be, if you want to be fully and completely like Christ, then look ahead to Christ, the goal; look around for positive examples, and look up to heaven.
May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus,
As I onward go. (Kate B. Wilkinson)
