(If you have found this sermon helpful, please visit us at www.HeritageRestorationProject.org or www.ChristianWisdom.info)
Well, here we are. Spring has sprung, so it would appear. Daylight Savings Time has begun, and we have been enjoying wonderful weather—a bit early, but who’s complaining! I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some families have already been out for a picnic. I’ve been doing lawn work this past week. A lot of kids were out enjoying the warm weather yesterday. Soon the older kids will be playing ball. And yes, they seem excited. Kids from elementary school age through high school love this time of the year because they know that the school year is coming to an end.
That makes it a little hard for classroom teachers I suppose. I would guess that they are not particularly excited about the daydreaming and diminished attention likely to be taking place in the classroom as the school year draws to an end. Parents, teachers, coaches, and anyone else who is around kids this time of year will tell you that when the trees bud, kids’ attitudes change. They develop what might be called “Short-Timers Syndrome” (“STS” for short). When kids realize that the school year is almost up, it seems as if all they can think about is getting out of school and enjoying the summer. They are ready to be done with school work. They are tired of doing the work. They are just not in the mood.
Kids may have started the school year with an enthusiastic attitude, focused and determined to have the best year ever. They may have resolved to achieve awesome grades and to contribute to the life of the school, but, unfortunately many if not most students catch the “Short Timers Syndrome” about this time of the year, and resolve goes out the window.
Now this particular syndrome isn’t restricted just to kids, nor does it always come in the spring of the year. I remember seeing short-timers attitude among fellow servicemen when I was in the Navy. You could always tell when a serviceman was getting close the end of his tour of duty. You could tell because of a change in his focus. The mind of the “short-timer” was somewhere else. Short-timers would go through the motions but didn’t put forth as much effort. They would talk about anything other than work. As far as military life was concerned, they had been there and done that. Now they were ready to get back to another life. The truth is, they stopped being sailors and soldiers long before their release from service. All it took was the recognition that their time was growing short, and like clock-work Short-Timers Syndrome began to set in.
How about you? Has Short-Timers Syndrome begun to set in? Many of us are older now. Most of us have “been here and done it”. In fact, we may have done it for quite a few years. Have you gotten to the point in your life where you don’t care quite so much anymore? Do we feel like you have done your part, so now it’s time for others to pick up the ball and run with it? Have you come to the point in your life where you are just skating, just marking time, just waiting for the inevitable conclusion, with no particular desire to be better, no particular desire to continue growing as a Christian? Have you lost ultimate concern? If you are starting to feel that way, even just a little bit, this message is especially for you. Let’s rekindle your “ultimate concern”!
We never outgrow the opportunities for spiritual growth that are set before us (see Isaiah 40:31). And yet, we may forget that if we want our relationship with Jesus to grow, if we want to be motivated to grow spiritually, if we want to get rid of our short-timers attitude, then we must set new goals to which we are willing to commit. And there is one over-arching goal that works every time. In fact it is the ultimate concern of the human soul. The Apostle Paul explains:
Paul writes in Philippians 3:7-11 (NIV), “whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Side note: I like to “mix it up a bit”, frequently consulting several versions of the Bible, often finding a word or two that seems easier to understand and more fit and commodious. “Fit and commodious” is a phrase used by the translators of the King James Bible in their preface to the 1611 edition of the King James version of the Bible. If you are at all interested in the question of which version might be the best, I suggest you read that preface titled “The Translators to the Readers”, no longer printed in modern printings of the Bible but available on line. The translators to the KJV advocated the use of any version that is true to the intent and meaning of the original scriptures, even though the words chosen to convey that intent and meaning might vary. I’m taking the next scripture portion, Philippians 3:13-15, from the NKJV version of the Bible:
“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. 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
I think this passage doesn’t deal so much with Paul’s commitment to teach the Gospel, something to which he is totally committed, as it does with a personal goal Paul has set for himself—the goal of pressing forward toward truly knowing God through Jesus Christ and becoming like Christ. And this is the topic I would like for us to consider on this last Sunday of Lent, commitment to becoming like Christ, He living in us and us in Him.
As we grow older, the realization that we are becoming short-timers dawns. Perhaps it is dawning on you? If not already, it will in time. Have you accomplished what you have wanted to accomplish? Are you still pressing forward toward that goal? There is one goal that remains throughout the Christian’s life. Maybe other goals have either already been accomplished or set aside, but this one goal will always remain and is capable of getting out of the funk of STS, rekindling excitement and commitment, regardless of what age or stage in life we may be. We see this goal operative in the Apostle Paul’s life.
Let’s take a closer look at the goal Paul has set for himself. In addition to working to spread the Gospel throughout the Gentile world, and the shepherding of a number of fledgling communities of Christians, Paul has set a personal-development goal for himself, that goal being to become more and more like Christ. As he pushes forward toward this goal, he sets aside lesser concerns and aims for his ultimate concern. “But all these things that I once thought very worthwhile—now I’ve thrown them all away so that I can put my trust and hope in Christ alone. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have put aside all else, counting it worth less than nothing, in order that I can have Christ, and become one with him, no longer counting on being saved by being good enough or by obeying God’s laws, but by trusting Christ to save me; for God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith—counting on Christ alone (Philippians 3:7-9 TLB).
Following his “Damascus Road experience” (Acts 9:2-9), Paul set out to surrender himself to the overarching goal of knowing and becoming like Christ. This became his ultimate concern. Paul resolved to say “yes” to the Holy Spirit whenever and to wherever the Holy Spirit led him. Paul had found his “ultimate concern” by faithfulness to the Holy Spirit.
E. Stanley Jones, the great Methodist missionary to India, once said: “The strangest thing on this planet is our fear of surrendering to the one safe place in the universe – God. We hug our present delusions, knowing deep down that they are delusions; but they are present, and we hug them for fear of the unknown. The earth, when it runs away from the sun simply runs into the dark. When we run away from God, refuse to surrender ourselves, then we get one thing – the dark.”
The result of a decision to listen for, watch for, and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit is an internal organic change spiritually. Our thirst for God becomes something like the obedience of a plant that, in its efforts to grow, strains to reach the light. When we surrender to God, our priorities begin to change. We begin to strain to reach toward God. Our ultimate goal becomes knowing Jesus, responding to the Holy Spirit, and growing spiritually until Christ lives in us and we live in Him.
In Romans 8:29 we are told that God’s goal for us is that we become “conformed to the likeness of His Son”. And in 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul tells us that we “are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit”. According to the writings of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, this was a goal he pursued throughout his life, a goal toward which he, like the Apostle Paul, continued to strive until death. Surely this would be a worth-while goal for each of us—to surrender to the Holy Spirit in order to be remolded, remade, becoming more and more like Christ each and every day.
Do you want to be the man or woman God longs for you to become? Then say “yes” to voice of the Holy Spirit, that “kindly light” that beckons you toward Christian perfection. In Psalms 37: 4-5 we read, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him”. If you are willing to do so daily, you will progress toward the high calling of this our ultimate concern, that Christ live in us and us in Him.
When we delight ourselves in the Lord, and commit our ways to Him, He will bring our deepest needs and desires to pass. The deepest need and desire of our soul is that we become conformed to His likeness. When our delight becomes the things of the Spirit, when we develop the habit of saying “yes” to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, it follows that we ourselves begin to change, and continue to do so until, because of the influence of the Holy Spirit, the lost image of God within us is perfectly restored, Christ lives in us and we live in Christ.
Now, just a final word of encouragement: Most of us have experienced an earnest desire to become more Christ-like, only to experience a relapse into sinful attitudes and behavior. This is because we are human. Paul himself is astounded at how he can lapse back into sinful attitudes, and he longs to be delivered from sinfulness (see Romans 7:15) In I John 1:9 we are reminded that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” We are probably going to have confess our sins to God many, many times because we will continue to sin even as we grow closer to Christ in this life. But know that each time we miss the mark, each time our earthly nature triumphs over our inner desire to at one with Christ, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
On some days, when all is going well, life’s a breeze, but on other days life can be a difficult race requiring perseverance! On such days, resolve that with God’s help you will not become discouraged and will not give up on our desire to live in Christ and for Christ to live in you. When discouraged, remember the words of the old African American spiritual, “Lord I want to be a Christian” and sing them over and over again until the discouragement has past.
Lord I want to be a Christian in my heart in my heart
Lord I want to be a Christian in my heart in my heart
In my heart in my heart
Lord I want to be a Christian in my heart in my heart
Lord I want to be more loving in my heart in my heart
Lord I want to be more loving in my heart in my heart
In my heart in my heart
Lord I want to be more loving in my heart in my heart
Lord I want to be more holy in my heart in my heart
Lord I want to be more holy in my heart in my heart
In my heart in my heart
Lord I want to be more holy in my heart in my heart
Lord I want to be like Jesus in my heart in my heart
Lord I want to be like Jesus in my heart in my heart
In my heart in my heart
Lord I want to be like Jesus in my heart in my heart
Remember also that it is never too late for the Holy Spirit to make some surprising changes in your temperament, your understanding, and your behavior. People can change—you can be perfected in love and in charity. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).
Lent is a time for reflection, a time in which we are called to examine our spiritual life. I hope that as a result of our time together today, all of you will examine your heart, your mind and your soul. A beautiful spirit is alive and well in you, waiting to be restored to its lost glory. Don’t be discouraged when the way becomes clouded. Hang on to your “ultimate concern”, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
(If you found this sermon to be helpful, please visit us at www.HeritageRestorationProject.org)
