Reaching The Right Goals Series

Reaching the Right Goals

Philippians 3:12-16

We continue this morning with our annual church theme, Living a Holy and Wholesome Life. The theme is taken from 1 Thessalonians 5:23: May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our third quarter emphasis is on physical health, the body. And we are looking at key influences to physical health. The key influences we’re looking at are adopted from the Daniel Plan: Faith, Food, Fitness, Focus and Friends. Copies of the Daniel Plan book are on sale in the lobby.

We’ll be looking at the influence of focus this morning. Majority of what I’ll say will come from the Bible, rather than the Daniel Plan book. The Daniel Plan provide additional information for how focus is attained and how focus affects physical health..

Focus in the dictionary is defined as “the point of concentration or attention.” So how does focus affect our physical health? Here’s an example: Texting while driving takes our focus off the road and places our focus on a little screen. The outcome can be the end our physical health.

Another example is focusing on satisfying our food cravings rather than sustaining our bodies. This can diminish our physical health. Here’s another example of how wrong focus can gradually waste away our physical life. Brendon Burchard calls this browser blackout. This is when you Google, Youtube or Facebook your life away. Four hours a day of browser blackout equals 10 years of life lost online.

The ability to focus on the right activities or goals is rare in our world of options and multitasking. But this ability is vital for anyone who wants to achieve health, whether physical, emotional, spiritual, financial or relational health. And I believe we all can grow in this valuable ability.

Our text is Philippians 3:12-16. Let me read the text, give some context and share with you how Paul lived a life of focus. (READ)

Paul wrote this letter to the church in Phlippi, He was in Rome under house arrest for his spreading his faith in Jesus Christ. When one is in prison there is time to reflect on and focus one’s life. And from his reflection, he shares the following principles for a focused life.

The first principle is fail forward: Let failure teach you, not torture you. vs. 12

Paul refocused his life after coming to a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He wrote in preceding verses, chapter 3:4-11 that what he used to treasure is now trash: prestige, power and public acceptance. What he now treasures are the love, life and legacy of Jesus Christ.

Paul admits his past failures and even his present flaws. He doesn’t let them stop him from living the life Jesus called him to. He learns from his past mistakes to live a more focused future.

It’s easy to fail backward. To give up. To live in the shadow. But with God’s help, we can fail forward.

In your message guide are three questions to help us fail forward. Take a moment to answer these questions:

1. What is one past failure that still tortures you?

2. What lessons could that past failure teach you?

3. How does treasuring the forgiveness made possible by Jesus’ death on the cross transform the mess caused by the failure into a message that glorifies God?

St Ambrose said, “Be like a fish, not like a snail.” Seek to swim through your situations with minimum damage and maximum profit. Learn from your mistakes, but don’t carry the mistakes with you. Carry the lessons to better your future.

The second principle is focus on: Doing the right thing requires stopping the wrong things. vs. 13

The focused life for Paul means knowing what to do as well as what to forget or what not to do. Sometimes it’s to not recall the voices of past critics that pull him down. Sometimes it’s to not recall the voices of past successes that puff him up.

My mentor reminds me often that to say “yes” to something new means that I would need to say “no” to something old. Yes to a new ministry engagement means no to family time, no to sufficient sleep or no to a regular responsibility. Focused living recognizes we have limited time, energy and resources.

Here’s an example of being focused in financial life. Being debt-free is simple, not easy. The one thing to do is progressively pay off what you owe. But we must stop spending more than we earn, and we must stop creating new financial problems you make.

In your message guide are questions to help us focus on. Take a moment to answer these questions: