THIS One Thing I DO Philippians 3__13
If a person is even remotely interested in the world around him, has an occupation and a family, his responsibilities and interests quickly out grow his ability to accomplish all that need be done or that he would like to do.
Only a few people can do more than one thing at a time. In my observation, working mothers may be better at multi-tasking than the rest of us. I have seen mothers carry children and care for their wants and needs, carrying on a conversation with them while working with their hands or typing or talking on the telephone. Too much mult-tasking can divide us or take away our peace so that we are multiple personalities, virtually lost souls.
Focusing on one task at a time and completing it is often difficult in this world. Keeping one’s inner peace amid the world that provides us daily with a 15-20 item do list is extremely difficult; seemingly impossible.
I. ONE THING I DO– Overcoming the Past. Phil. 3:13-14
We were never perfect in our past lives. In everyone’s past there are moments of hurt, times when we’ve felt betrayed, times when we have betrayed others, times of triumph and failure.
Paul, in looking back over his life observed that his past was not worth taking time away from the present or the future. Past glory may encourage us to more efforts, but we shouldn’t think those past successes will entitle us to lay down the cross and be at ease in Zion, the Heavenly Kingdom. Nor should we let the ghost of past failures outweigh our faith that Christ is with us to help us carry the cross we must bear today. We should not let fears left from the past hinder us in completing tasks Providence brings our way now or in the future.
We certainly should not dwell on past failures; to do so is a denial of God’s grace to save us. We pray "deliver us from evil." The triumph of Christ over our past is a real event if we will have it.
In the 1950’s a young man was part of a brutal gang of youths in New York who preyed on the society around them. They made their way by stealing and intimidating people. They were constantly involved in wars with other gangs. This young man was responsible for the death of others in a brutal way. Eventually, he was apprehended, not by the law, but by Jesus Christ. His encounter with Christ came from his contact with a Christian who cared for him and led him out of the gang life.
Eventually he became an evangelist and wrote a book. I found the book disappointing because it told in gory detail all of the evil this young man had been involved in. The Cross and the Switchblade became a best seller, but in my opinion it dwelt too long on the knife and too little on the Cross. At times he seemed to be almost boasting about the extent of the evil in which he was involved and that he had survived it. It would have been impossible to write as he did without mentally reliving that past.
There is a rule for priests, that if they hear a confession, they are never to mention the items in that confession to anyone, not even to the person who made the confession. There is a line in Scripture in which God says, “Their sins I will remember no more.” When a person has made confession and the priest pronounces forgiveness in the name of the Lord, that evil is to be forgotten. We take confession and absolution seriously
After the confession has been made and forgiveness is declared, priest and parishoner are morally equivalent: both are sinners made whole by the grace of God. There is no moral high ground at the foot of the Cross.
Instead of living in the past, being intimidated by past failures, we should be joyfully praising God, thanking Him for salvation, for the place of beginning again. We shouldn’t be depressed because things have not gone as we would like in the past, but should press on toward the goal of creating Christ in our lives.
Defeat comes from dwelling on the past. You can’t live yesterday over again. I seldom tell much of my life story because to be complete and honest in the rendition, I would have to bring up past sins. The Bible tells us that God has forgotten them, so why bring them up again; they have no power over our present or future unless we allow it.
Peter Marshall, one time chaplain to Congress said, “Never let the past be so dear as to limit the future.”
How Does One Overcome The Past?
Paul says, “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” Paul thought the prize, the goal of attaining Christ to be so attractive that there was no possibility of looking back.
Heb 11:15 “And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.” Moses turned attention of the Israelites away from Egypt and toward the promised land.
Abraham and Sarah did not discuss the old life prior to their encounter with the Lord. You and I must also adopt the same policy.
Luke 9:62
"And Jesus said unto him, ’No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’"
I grew up on a farm and watched my father plow straight furrows across long fields. This was possible because he focused on where he was going without looking back.
An old railroad gospel song from the 1930’s had these lines, “Keep yout hand upon the throttle and your eye, upon the rail.” Our destiny in Christ is not to be found in looking back on some past glory, it is in focusing our attention and energies on what Jesus Christ is creating in our today and tomorrow.
II. ONE THING I KNOW – Overcoming Doubt. John 9:25
John 9:25 “He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”
This is talking about settling your assurance of salvation.
Two Factors That Give the once blind Man his Assurance of Salvation:
1. “I was blind” – He admitted his condition. A lost person must admit he is a sinner, separated from his Creator, at odds with the universe and cut off from real communion with others.
2. “Now I see.” – He accepted the cure. A person must accept what Christ has done on the cross to affect our cure. When we talk of spiritual healing it is more than psychological, more than removing "stains of sin from a soul we cannot see" it is very real, putting us right with the world. Becoming a Christian changed my attitude toward animals. I understand St Francis of Assissi now. I understand my father’s love of cattle and why he called them by name and tenderly caressed them. I understand how he could guide horses by voice, not needing the hurtful bit in their mouths.
We must settle on the fact that the only certain moral compass in this world is not in the council’s of men, for men change their minds, lose focus and embroil us in quesitonable activity. Our moral compass is set by God who created the world in which we live. He gave 10 laws of Moses and the law of love expounded by Jesus. By having unselfish love for our neighbors, for all of God’s creation and staying within the boundary of the moral commandments we will see; we will not be blinded and stumble by adopting a moral “relativity” theory that says in effect “its all good.”
Living the Christ life and thinking God’s thoughts after Him allows us to see the world as seamless, a creation of a rational heavenly Father. Living the Christ life brings unity to the world we experience.
WE make salvation too complicated. It is as simple as Jesus saying, “Take up your cross and follow me. Be my disciple, learn from me.”
Matthew 11:29-31 (English Standard Version)
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
I know from experience that forgetting the past and accepting Jesus as my yokefellow does help me find peace and rest in a life with so many conflicting demands that it would be easy to go off on a wrong path to avoid the pain.
There is always someone who comes to the new convert and questions his method of receiving Christ. Don’t be fooled by the doubters. John 9:19 “And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see?”
In the past some Christians associated salvation with emotional displays, certain feelings, ecstatic experiences or visions. While these events may or may not accompany a person’s pilgrimage, these are prescribed in the Bible teaching Bible as the way to Jesus Christ. Salvation is trusting Christ’s work on the cross for us, accepting that He has already done the work of atonement, making the way for us to the Father. Our is simply following his call and learning from him.
III. ONE THING THOU LACKEST – Overcoming the World, following.
A bright young man who had it all came to Jesus and asked, “What must I do?”
Jesus, seeing that he was a Rabbi said, “You know the law. ” Jesus recited the 10 commandments. The young ruler of a synagogue avowed he had kept the law from his youth. Jesus looked into the man’s heart, his character and believed him.
Mark 10:21 “Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.”
Mark 10:22 “And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.”
This man had great possessions. There Was “One Thing” Between Him And Jesus…no…MANY things!
1. Great material possessions.
2. He was a good man.
3. He had kept all of the commandments. Vs. 20.
4. He feared God
5. He was moral
Yet Jesus told him that there was one thing that was missing. “One thing thou lackest.” And people today know there’s something missing…they feel the emptiness, they sense the void. It’s our job to show them how to fill it and be fulfilled!
The Man Considered Jesus’ Command An Impossibility.
This one thing kept him out of heaven. Think of the millions that will go to hell for the same reason as did this man.
We think of hell as something outside of this world’s experience - - far off in the future, if ever.
Let me say it a different way, “Think of the millions living in hell because of the one important thing missing and for attempting to hold on to that which is less significant. The young man’s achievements were not evil, but looking back on them was a hindrance in receiving the one thing he lacked.
Mark said this young man went away grieved, conflicted because he had many possessions. Many Christians have testified that the way they became free was not by accumulating more but by giving more away.
There is one more bit of light that is available to us from this saying of Jesus in Mark.
We are in the Lenten Season, the Season in which we think about discipline. We can test our spiritual muscle by giving things away.
But even if our rich young ruler, or wealthy synagogue ruler, our rabbi, our teacher in this story had given away the wealth that was hindering him, he still would have done only part of what would bring him peace and completeness.
True enough, his wealth was hinderance. But to achieve his destiny he not only had to shed the old burden he needed to take up the Cross of Christ, become a yokefellow with Jesus, then he would have rest for his soul.
IV. ONE THING IS NEEDFUL – Choosing the Good part. Luke 10:42.
Luke 10:42 “But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:38. In this scene from Jesus’ life
Martha is busy serving, but Mary is worshiping. Martha is not happy about this, clanging pots and pans, clearing her throat, calling a “little help here please!” Martha is happy but Mary is doing what is important.
Martha was doing what seemed urgent, but not what was really important. Too many important things are being sacrificed on “the altar of the urgent”!
Psalm 27:4
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. That is spiritual focus!
We feel we have many things to do, but spiritual focus will keep us on task of what’s truly important! Jesus Rebuked Martha For Her spiritual ignorance.
Jesus told her, “Mary hath chosen that good part.”
Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His words.
The work without enlightenment was as worthless as the Rich Young Ruler’s being entangled in his possessions. We can be busy about things that actually impede our growth in Christ.
Let’s face it: we can’t do it all…so let’s make sure we’re doing what’s most important. Certainly there is much serving to be done…but worship must take priority. The serving must be done in the spirit of Christ we gain at worship. Taking up our Cross daily and following the Christ is our spiritual worship, possible only if we have first been to the Cross.
Visiting the Cross changes our motivation and orientation toward the world. When we take up the cross, as Jesus did, we are stripped of everything. We learn to live simply. We work, not to accumulate wealth and things, but to sustain our ability to serve.
And now to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit be ascribed, as is most justly due, all might, majesty, power and dominion, now and forever more. Amen.
Charles Scott, Church of the Good Shepherd, Indianapolis, www.goodshepherdindy.org
