“Made For The High Places’
Philippians 3:12-14
Introduction :
A Danish philosopher gave a powerful lesson in a story concerning wild geese.
He tells us that the geese came and went with the seasons as their ancestors had done for centuries. One day some of the geese, on their annual trip, landed in a farmer’s barnyard. The farmer adopted the geese and saw to it that they had plenty to eat. Life was easy and the geese decided they had found a comfortable place to live out the rest of their days.
But as time went along the easy life took its toll. The geese became fat and lazy, and their desire to soar again in the high places had faded into a faint
memory cascading in the winds of their minds. When they heard the familiar calls of their brothers, sisters, and friends high above the fat, lazy, barnyard geese could only casually look up.
Occasionally, one of them would have an old stirring deep inside to join his friends and soar again where the air was pure, sweet, and bracing. One day those
stirring were too strong for the goose to resist, and it started its courageous run across the pasture, extended its wings, became air borne for only a few feet and then fell to the ground with a great thump.
Before long the call to the high places all but vanished in the barnyard geese. Their friends would fly over, honking their calls to the higher, nobler life, but the grounded geese paid little attention as they contently pecked away at the farmer’s corn. And soon the desire to return to the sky and the long flights to freedom disappeared altogether.
They were made for the high places complacency ruined their ability to reach the potential.
Paul is telling us that we are made for the high places. Paul had just received news that the Philippian church was in a sad state. Pride had invaded her members, leading them to pursue theit self centered motives. They were living in the spiritual swamps of egotism where the air is polluted wit arrogance and self importance. The once modet and humble fellowship of the Philippian church had
humble fellowship of te Philippian church had een poisoned by the obnoxious fumes of selfishness.
Paul tells us that God made us for the high laces amd that we are to press on with a determination to reach the destination of being Christ-like. There is a divine call for us to come to the high places. We can take our place on the high pinnacles of the Celestial City or we can live in the sour swamps of self-centeredness. The choice is ours!
To every man there openeth
A Way and Ways and a Way.
The High Souls climbs the Hig Way,
And the Low Soul climbs the Low,
And in between, on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.
But to every man there openeth
A High Way, and a Low.
And every man decideth
The Way His soul shall Go.
Christians who would live on the high plane of Spiritual maturity and Christlikness, there are some encouragements given to you and I in these verses.
I. The one who encourages us in our quest for the nobler life is ifentified in verse twelve : 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.
Paul was talking here about his friend Jesus. He is the one encouraging us to take the high road and live the noble life.
The apostle is looking back at his encounter on the road to Damascus. It was there that the Holy Ghost took hold of him. The word literally means in the Greek to seize, to catch, to take possession of, to lay hold of as to make a thing one’s own. The grammar shows that Jesus took hold of Paul decisively and deliberately, and that the Savior’s grip was permanent! The grip was so strong that he was
never able to run away from the call to the high places.
One day while talking with a friend, Henry Ford took a pencil and wrote on the tablecloth that was decorating the table: Your best friend is he who brings out the best that is within you.
That’s the kind of friend Jesus is. He brings out the best and do our best. His encouragement to come to the highplaces premiates through the Gospels. His common greeting was, ‘Be of good cheer!’ His common message was ‘Blessed are ye!’ And his common benediction was, ‘Peace I leave with you!’ Jesus is our encouraging friend who never fails. And we desperately need a friend like Jesus, for he always points us upward toward the high places for which we were made.
II. Second, we in this upward call to excellence, must remember the prize which awaits us.Paul talked about the prize that awaits us in verse 14; I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
What was Paul talking about? What is the prize? In the verse that opens up our text, Paul confessed that he had not obtained the prize of which verse fourteen
speaks. But he added that he has caught hold of Jesus in order to gain it. He says I am pressing on toward the goal that Jesus has set before him.
What does he mean? What is this special prize that the Savior had set before Paul and before each us?
It is being Christlike. That was the ultimate goal Jesus set before us when He saved us . The final, glorious thing toward which the Father is working in
redemption is to develop within usthe characteristics of Ghrist. The Father’s heart is set upon this above all else, for by it His name is glorified. This is the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And this is the good for which God is working all things for those who love Him.
You see, Jesus has not saved us just to keep us out of hell or to get us into heaven. Without question, these are basic reasons for death, burial, and ressurrection of Jesus. But they are not the only reasons.
There is more, much more. More than anything in heaven or on earth, God the Father desires for us to become like his dear son Jesus. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is.
There is a Mother Goose fable of an ugly duckling, who didn’t know who, more or less what he was. It caused him a great deal of pain, and his self esteem
was low.
He was a misfit and an outcast. He didn’t look like the other ducks, and his mother was ashamed of him even to the extent of driving him into the lowly
position of orphanhood. Neither the ducks nor the chickens would have anything to do with him he couldn’t keep up with the geese. So he came to the
conclusion that he was neither duck, chicken, nor goose.
But one day the ugly duckling found himself. As he watched some beautiful creatures float gracefully across the pound, he was so impressed that he came
closer for a better view. Then it happened! He looked down in the water and saw himself, and to his amazemnt he discovered that he looked like the swans that
were swimming nereby.
We may not feel we are making much progress in our Christian walk, but daily God istransforming us into the image if God. Some day, I’m going to stand on the Celestial Shores and look over on the other side of the River of Life and see Jesus and look down into that River see that I look just like him!
Conclusion:
I am pressing on the upward way.
New heights I’m gaining everyday.
No Higher plain that I have found,
Lord plant my feet on a Higher Ground.
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
My feet on Heaven’s table land
No higher plain that I have found
Lord plant my feet on higher ground.
Amen.
