Striving For Excellence
15th Anniversary 3/7/2004 Proverbs 6:6-12 Philippians 3:7-11 Text 3:12-14
Rick
Let’s go to Forest Hills Park for our annual Church picnic for a moment. It’s a hot sunny day, and you notice a little creature scurrying across the ground. We want you to meet Lucy the ant. Even though it is hot Lucy is busily carrying some food from one place to another. Some might wonder, why doesn’t Lucy simply chill out and take it easy. If you come back a few months later in the beautiful falls season, with all the colored leaves, you’d still see Lucy busily carrying some food from one place to another.
Toby
The Scriptures tell us, to observe Lucy the ant and take notice. There is no one telling her, she must move this food from here to there. There’s no one insisting that she store up her food. Yet Lucy is striving for excellence because God has placed within her, the knowledge that winter is coming, and what she does today, will determine what winter is going to be like for her.
Rick
Like Lucy, what we are doing today, is determining what our future is going to be like when we finally see Jesus face to face. What will you think, when Jesus says, “go ahead put your hand in my side where the soldier plunged his spear as I hung on the cross”? What will you feel when, when you see the holes in his hands, where the nails once pounded painfully through his flesh? If he still carries any signs of the wounds from the beating he took in the Passion of the Christ, “how will you feel if he asks, “I gave my life for you. What have you brought me in return?”
Toby
Our response is going depend on how much of our life was spent striving for excellence in the things that really mattered. Today we celebrate 15 years of ministering together for the cause of Christ. Not many churches reach this kind of a milestone in its history. It’s a witness of your love for us and of our love for you. Our goal for 15 years, has been to get to know who Jesus really is, that we might pass that knowledge on to you, so that you might pass that knowledge on to someone else.
Rick
You see there are some first generation, second generation, third generation, and fourth generation Christians here today. The generations are not based on age, but on who told who about the power of Christ to change lives and who led who into the life of the church.
Toby
For 15 years, we have been striving for excellence for the cause of Christ as a church. The struggle has not always been easy, but it’s always been worth it. It has never been our goal to have you look at us and say, wow what wonderful leaders we have. Our goal has been for you to see at least a glimpse of Jesus in us, in such a way that you would want to have that same Jesus in you.
Rick
We are but vessels, that God has given the honor and privilege of being used by Jesus Christ. We said yes to the call of God on our lives, but it was Jesus who changed your lives. It was Jesus who answered your prayers. It was Jesus who comforted you in your grief. It was Jesus who made everything work out. It was Jesus who has built His church.
Toby
One of the signs of growth in believers, is to recognize that our standard for our behavior is Jesus. If we compare ourselves with each other, it’s easy to stop striving for excellence, because we can all find somebody who is doing a little worse than we are. When we do, we can become lazy in our walk with the Lord.
Rick
Satan may then comes in and steals the spiritual richness out of our lives. But we do not recognize the loss, simply because we look a little better than somebody else. We can become content saying, “at least I’m not as bad as so and so” not realizing that so and so is not in the least bit pleasing in the eyes of God either. When we compare ourselves to Christ, it keeps a lot of things in perspective.
Toby
Paul had a vision of striving for excellence in his life. Have you ever noticed how people can be consumed by a desire to accomplish something. People spend enormous amount of time and energy to run in marathons, spend great sums of money on climbing mountains, or go to the extreme in one hobby or another. They’re all striving for excellence. Actors and actresses have their own personal body trainers and cooks, because they are striving for excellence in their appearance. They are doing all this work, for things that will eventually perish.
Rick
People looked at Paul, and they saw the life he had lived. They knew of how he had loved people. They knew how faithful he had been even when he was beaten for the cause of Christ. They knew he had been thrown in jail for preaching the gospel. They knew the power of his prayers because some people who were instantly healed by his prayers. They knew of Eutychus, a young Christian who fell out a third story window and was picked up dead. Paul went over and prayed for him and raised him from the dead.
Toby
When they saw all that God had done through Paul, We can imagine someone saying, “well Paul is there anything else you want God to do for you?” Paul says “yes, as a matter of fact there is” . In verses 10 and 11 of chapter 3, Paul writes, Philip. 3:10-11 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, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Rick
When the saints looked at Paul and all the lives he had touched, and the churches he had started, and the miracles he had done, they thought surely, Paul has reached the place where He knows all there is to know about Christ and what it means to suffer for Him. Surely Paul know about the power of Christ’s resurrection.
Toby
When we look back over what the Lord has done for us these past 15 years, there is a temptation to falsely believe, “we really know all there is to know about God and how God can work in the life of the church. We know what it’s like to be at the point of closing our doors as a church and then through the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, to be raised up to a healthy growing congregation.” It’s easy to be tempted to become content and hold back on striving for excellence when you’ve been used by God. The temptation is there to say, let’s just kind of take it easy for a while.
Rick
Few things are healthier than the knowledge of where we truly are in Christ. When others thought Paul had already made it in his walk with the Lord, Paul came back in verse 12 of chapter 3, “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.”
In other words, Paul is saying, “I have only just begun to know who Jesus Christ truly is.” Coming to Jesus is both an event and a process. A personal relationship to Christ is similar to getting married. It’s one thing to say, “I do”, but you still have to live out the marriage. It’s in the living out of the marriage that we find out who this other person truly is and how wonderful he or she can be.
Toby
It’s in the marriage itself, that we must determine to strive for excellence. It’s not enough to simply keep saying, you remember how wonderful it was on the wedding day. Now the marriage was perfected on the wedding day, but there is a whole lot of perfecting that needs to go on afterwards. We truly do not understand how much change God requires of us, until after we’ve entered the relationship. Like Paul, all of us should realize, we have not been made perfect yet. But that’s not an excuse for not changing our behavior. Some will seek to justify bad habits, attitudes and actions by saying “Well nobody’s perfect you know.”
Rick
Paul goes on to say, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. The words “press on” is are hunting terms. What happens if you go hunting for deer and you stand out in an open field waiting for one of them to come by? No a hunter realizes he or she needs to learn something about the animal being hunted. The hunter has to take action to go after the animal if there is going to be food on the table.
Toby
As believers we are called to be in pursuit of the will of God for our lives. We do not simply attend one church a service a week and hope God’s will fall down upon us. We pursue it in bible study, in volunteering, and in service. For fifteen years we have together been pursing the will of God.
Rick
That pursuit has demonstrated itself in the birth of all kinds of ministries. It has manifested itself in changes that have taken place in your lives. We cannot pursue after God, without making some changes in our lives somewhere along the way. We also have to get beyond the idea of somehow we chose God. Jesus tells us plainly, “I have chosen you and ordained you, that you might bear much fruit.”
Toby
When we were walking around in our sin, whether we were liars, cheaters, addicts, self righteous, selfish, greedy, immoral, or whatever, Jesus literally reached out and grabbed us. Paul says, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Do you see that, it really is not about us in the Christian walk. Jesus took hold of us for His own purposes. The blessings we experience in our lives are secondary, to the reason God took hold of us. There was a reason, God brought us pastors and a congregation together.
Rick
One thing we know about us a church is that God took hold of us, to impact the lives of kids and youth. Some of those kids that were in preschool when we came, are now college students still serving the Lord. Some of the teens are now college graduates and still serving the Lord. Some of the college students are now elders, deacons, and lay pastors still serving the Lord.
Toby
We have not been able to hold on to all of our young people, but we have held on to most of them. Any youth in this church who wants to go to college, we have stood by them to try and make it happen. Our investment in the youth, have produced a bountiful reward for our church. Thank God, that for all 15 years of our being here, Session has always voted yes to support any program, or outreach that has had anything to do with improving the physical and or spiritual lives of our youth.
Rick
But there other reasons God took hold of us as a congregation. Some of us discovered family in the church. Some of us discovered love in the church. Some of us discovered the power of Jesus Christ to turn our lives around in the church. Some of us would not have the marriages or the relationships we share at home today without God having taken hold of us as church. All glory and honor belongs to God, who ordained that this church would be here for us in our times of need.
Toby
The Apostle Paul went on to say in verse 13, Philip. 3:13 Brothers and sisters , 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. The past 15 years has not been enough time for us to have taken hold of everything God wants to do in and through us. Glenville and New Life, we have come a long ways, but our striving for excellence is far from over. We do not consider ourselves as having received the full plan and purpose God has for us.
Rick
The word of God encourages us to first celebrate what the Lord has done for us. Time and time again the Bible says for us to remember what the Lord did in our time of need. But there can be a temptation to try to live in the past. No matter what the past held, be it good or bad, there comes a time when we have to let it go. Last night was our time of remembering where the Lord has brought us from. Today we issue a new challenge and that is to forget what is behind, so that we can begin to set our focus on the rest of the reasons that Jesus Christ took hold of us.
Toby
You can have a good marriage for 15 years, but you still have to work just as hard if not harder the next 15 to keep it good. We are called to continue to strive for excellence. We will always be grateful for these 15 years of our lives, yet we know there is still much work waiting to be done. There are too many who still do not know Jesus that God has equipped us as a church to reach.
Rick
There are still way too many young people, who have not been shown the love of God and the potential God has placed in them. There are far too many still addicted to all kinds of things, both inside and outside the church. Many of you must be further equipped for the leadership and ministry roles good has for you in the future. There is still a great need for the Holy Spirit to penetrate our hearts to get our wills to conform to God’s will.
Toby
The next step after forgetting the past is to strain toward what is ahead. Why must we strain ahead? Because none of us knows Christ in His fullness. “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love the Lord. None of us know the tremendous potential we have inside of us for the cause of Christ. One of you may one day be in charge of a world wide ministry. One of you may become a multi-millionaire. One of you may have a best selling novel or book hidden in your heart. One of you may have a top 10 song inside your lungs.
Rick
One of you may be called to give up all you have and become the next Mother Teresa. Several of you may have a tremendous impact for Christ in the business world. Our straining ahead for excellence today, will prepare us for the opportunities God is going to send our ways. If you wait for an opportunity to come, and then start to prepare for it, you’ve already missed your chance.
Paul uses the image of an athlete who is running in a race and giving it all that he has. You can see the fist are clinched, the teeth are showing, the frown is on the face, the veins are popping out of the side of the neck as the runner gives all that’s left inside to try to make it to the finish line. My friends are we willing to run with that same kind of determination for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Toby
During these next 15 years, God is going to be calling us to do things on another level than what we have done in the past. We will have more bible studies throughout the city, because some of you will become restless in your spirit and realize God wants you to do a bible study on your street or in your apartment complex. We will see an increase in the number of people joining our churches, because more of us are growing be bolder in our witness for the Lord in all aspects of our lives and want to see our churches grow.
Rick
We will see changes in our sanctuary and our building on a scale not witnessed on this corner since 1912 when the education wing was added to this building. This sanctuary will be remodeled and the rest of the building will be changed. The New Life Center will be added and our parking spaces increased. We will experience an increase in our giving as we come to understand, Jesus Christ took hold of us for His purposes. When we are faithful to His purposes, He will pour His blessings into our lives.
Toby
We will experience a fresh move of God in our worship services. God is going to give us a baptism of the Holy Spirit in our congregations in ways that we have not seen before. As we seek to delight ourselves in God, God is going to delight Himself in us and we will see God’s glory as we have never seen it before. God is going to bless us with musicians, that will lead us to another level of praise. Saints there is too much of God waiting for us, for us not to be straining forward for God’s purposes for our lives.
Rick
In verse 14 Paul wrote, Philip. 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. We are all going to press toward some goal in life these next 15 years. Some of us won’t have 15 years to press. Someone here today has less than 15 months. The amount of time of pressing is not nearly as important as what it is we are pressing on toward. It’s great to have goals and dreams for your life.
But never forget it was Jesus who asked the question, “what does it profit a person to gain the whole world, and then lose his or her soul.” If you were the best athlete, the best singer, the richest person in Ohio, but died and went to hell for eternity, who would want to trade places with you.
Toby
We are all striving for excellence, but the question is, “excellence in what”. The apostle Paul made it clear his goal was for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. We’re all going to get a prize at the end. When an athlete would win a race, his name would be called up to the winner’s stand. The judge would declare him the winner.
Rick
For fifteen years, as church and pastors, we have been running together in the race. Some dropped out of the race early and went on to other churches, but some unfortunately abandoned the race for Christ. Some came to the end of their lives and still had not received Jesus. They ran the race in vain. Some came to the end of their lives and went straight to be with the Lord having heard the words, “well done thou good and faithful servant. What course of action will each of us take in these next 15 years.
Toby
God’s call upon our lives is to strive for excellence in the things that we do for Him. That does not begin until we have made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ. When we live our lives for God, God has a way of taking care of all those other things. There’s a race for us to run saints, together let us all strain forward, striving for excellence and receive what God his in store for us.
