Dare to Pursue
“Life is a Continual Pursuit”
October 29, 2006
Me: Today we are wrapping up our series of “Dare to Pursue.” We have talked about risks, passion, presence and purpose. Today I want to help you to put it all together into the real life experience of following God.
Spiritual maturity is a continual process.
I always had this vision that when I reached certain goals or markers in my life I would be fulfilled. When I was a kid I thought that I would arrive when I graduated high school. As a teenager I thought I would have arrived when I graduated college and got a job. When I got my first job I thought I would have made it when I really had significant growth in numbers of students attending our ministry. When I was single I thought I would arrive when I got married. When we didn’t have kids we thought we would arrive when we did have kids. I constantly was sitting markers in my life that really didn’t have real life application or meaning.
What does it meant to truly arrive?
The same is true in our spiritual lives. We think that at some point there is going ot be a graduation ceremony and we will everything we are ever meant to know about God figured out. That day arrives, but only when we die!! So what are we left with in the meantime?
We: Perhaps like me you have asked the question, “What does spiritual maturity look like?” Maybe you have wondered about what you are trying to become by pursuing Christ. Today I want to let you know exactly what a “spiritually mature” pursuer of God looks like.
God: To help us understand this concept, we are going to look at a passage of scripture that is probably familiar to many of you. It is a letter from the apostle Paul to the church at Philippi talking to them about what a mature believer really looks like. He begins with a warning to the church.
“Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh-- though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” Philippians 3:1-6
Focus on the truly spiritual.
Paul is warning here against people who say you have to do certain things to really be a follower of God. The early church was divided into the converted Jews and the converted Gentiles. Most of the people at Philippi were converted Gentiles. The Jews were telling them that they needed to be circumcised and follow the Jewish law to truly be a follower of God.
When Paul talks about the mutilators of the flesh that is what he is talking about. He is talking about people who say you need to do something with your flesh in order to have the life God intended. They were trying to add to what Christ had already finished.
We do the same things. When we try to define what a mature believe is, we make a list of all the things the believer does. But does that really signify a changed heart before God?
Paul points out his own life and says that if it were simply a matter of doing the right things, he would have along ago been considered mature in the faith.
Physical thermometers cannot measure spiritual temperatures.
When you begin to try and measure your spiritual life, make sure you are using the right measuring tool.
My wife and I have had the discussion about living the checklist Christian life. You know what I mean: read your bible, check; pray, check; go to church, check; give in the offering, check; tell someone about your faith, 2 checks!!!
What happens when we live this life is the checklist creates a false measurement. All of those things are good, but do they truly measure your heart? Can you do all of those things and not have it affect how you live your life everyday?
Why is it important to make sure we are using the right measuring tool? To make sure we are getting an accurate reading.
“But 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.” Philippians 3:7-11
Paul makes sure we understand that all the stuff that looks really good on his resume means nothing.
The one thing in Paul’s life is “to know Christ”.
For Paul, nothing else matters except knowing Jesus Christ at the most intimate of levels. He says all the important things in my life are worthless compared to knowing Christ.
Spiritual maturity is gained through pursuing the right things.
What are the things we list on our resumes to make us look better?
Positions
Ministries
Church Membership
***Pastor in Florida had to resign because he said he had earned degrees from schools that he did not have degrees from. He had made himself look right without being right.
A resume is a list of our attributes while our spiritual identity is all about Christ’s’ attributes.
If Paul was willing to give all this up for the sake of being closer to Christ, should we expect anything less from ourselves?
We can look at this and say, “Well, Paul had it all figured out, but I’m not the apostle Paul.”
But, Paul says he didn’t have it all nailed down.
“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.” Philippians 3:12-14
Paul says that he does not have it all together, but he keeps pursuing Christ with all that he has.
When you struggle in your faith, remember that so does every other follower of God. God is not afraid of our questions, our failures, or our misguided efforts to follow him. What he desires is for us to keep pressing on.
“No matter how many times you trip them up, God-loyal people don’t stay down long; Soon they’re up on their feet, while the wicked end up flat on their faces.” Proverbs 24:16 (The Message)
What’s the point of trying to follow God? What’s the point of seeking to understand?
“All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.” Philippians 3:15
Spiritual maturity is the pursuit of understanding.
We have been so conditioned in our life that we are not to question God or to ask any questions to which there is not a Sunday school answer. But God is bigger than that. God desires us to know him and it is in pursuing him and questioning and seeking that we are able to gain maturity.
When we make a choice to seek after the things of God, we begin to see God and our world in a different way. We begin to be “mature” in our understanding.
“Over time when you purposefully try to live the way of Jesus, you start noticing something deeper going on. You begin to realize the reason this is the best way to live is that it is rooted in profound truths about how the world is. You find yourself living more and more in tune with ultimate reality. You are more and more in sync with how the universe is at it’s deepest levels.” Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis
So how do we really live this out? What is the true measurement of spiritual maturity?
“Only let us live up to what we have already attained.” Philippians 3:16
Spiritual maturity is living what you know.
One aspect of spiritual maturity is being content with being who you are.
We have to constantly remind ourselves that we are shaped by God for a particular role we play in the kingdom of God.
It really is very simple at its foundation. We must learn to do what we know to do and we must seek to know Christ more. When I was a baby, no one thought that I should be earning a paycheck. No one expected me to drive to the store or to cut the grass or to do anything else I didn’t know how to do. They were focused on teaching me how to use a toilet.
As followers of Jesus, no one is expecting you to do what you do not know how. But we are expected to live out what we know to be true.
You: So, are you living out what you know? Are you doing the things that God has called you to? Are you smoking what you’re selling?
Me: I have spent hours writing and preparing messages and communicating over the last few weeks to help us take this pursuit of God seriously. So the question has to be answered, “What does LifeQuest see as a spiritually mature follower of Jesus?” What is it that we are trying to help you grow into as you follow God?
To “Dare to Pursue” God is to do what God has shown me.
How do we begin that process?
1) Community worship.
2) Small-group connection.
3) Serve your world.
When we as a community begin to do those three things, we are on the path to living out what God has called us to do? Are you willing to pursue God at a deeper level? Are you willing to not only listen but to apply the truth of God into your life? God has called us to follow him.
Will you “Dare to Pursue?”
