Year End Inventory

Opening illustration: Business owners are busy at the end of the year taking inventory. This is a painful but necessary reality so they can know if they made a profit or not. They take the information they receive and make adjustments for the coming year.

As Christians, we need to stop at the end of the year and measure our progress. Sometime this is a very painful thing to do. But that is what I am going to ask you to do today.

Introduction: The most common Christian cop-out is: “Well, nobody's perfect.” Paul doesn't settle for such a flip answer regarding a serious quest for Christ's fullness. Paul has been talking about trading every religious advantage he has for the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus in His fullness. Now comes the reality check. Paul is taking inventory of his life in this passage of scripture. That is what I want us to do today.

1. THE PAST (vs. 12-13)

(i) Look

He was apprehended by the risen Christ. Jesus stopped him in his tracks. Jesus saved him; and Jesus sent him on his life's mission.

Several years had passed from his Damascus Road conversion when he wrote this. He is confessing that he has not arrived spiritually. But he is continuing the process.

I think it will do us all good to look back at the moment of our conversion. Jesus apprehended us. He saved us; and he gave us something to do.

Illustration: I read where two monks were in a thunderstorm when they came to a swollen river. There was a Japanese woman there in her kimono who needed to cross the river but was afraid. One of the monks asked her, ''Can I help you?'' She told him she needed to cross the river. The monk picked her up and put her on his shoulders and carried her across the river and sat her down on the other side.

The two monks continued their journey to the monastery. One monk said to the other, ''I have a bone to pick with you. As monks we are not to look at or touch a woman, yet you did.'' The other monks said, ''My brother, I helped that woman across the river and put her down on the other side. But you are still carrying her in your mind!''

(ii) Learn

Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment. I have made mistakes in the past, and I have learned from those mistakes.

A foolish person keeps doing the same mistakes and never learns from the mistake’s others have done. Sadly, history repeats itself most of the time.

Implication: Paul tells us that if we want to be focused on our growth we must “forget the past”. Obviously, Paul is not telling us to literally not remember anything. Certainly, we should remember who we were before Christ found us. We should remember the times we have seen God’s faithfulness demonstrated. We need to remember the mistakes we've made so that we can avoid them in the future.

Paul is also not telling us that we don't have to fulfill the responsibilities of the past. If we have wronged someone, we should try to make it right. If we have stolen from someone, we should make restitution. If we have a problem with someone we should seek to be reconciled.

There are two reasons we need to forget the past:

• First, we have a tendency to fixate on the past.

• Second, we have a tendency to rest on the past.

2. THE PRESENT (v. 14)

(i) Look

He was pressing toward the goal for the prize that comes from following the call of God. Paul tells us that he “presses on”. This is the same word that was used in verse 6 when Paul talked about his zealous persecution of the early church. It is with that same kind of intensity that Paul pursues God’s plan for his life. Paul also says, "this one thing I do". He is single-minded. Paul was not distracted. He was clear where he was headed.

Illustration: Some of mankind's greatest contributions have come from people who decided that no sacrifice was too large and no effort too great to accomplish what they set out to do. Edward Gibbon spent 26 years writing “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” Noah Webster worked diligently for 36 years to bring into print the first edition of his dictionary. It is said that the Roman orator Cicero practiced before friends every day for 30 years in order to perfect his public speaking. What stamina! What persistence!

Now think about how much energy we put into the Lord's work. The comparison can be rather embarrassing. And it should lead us to ask ourselves some heart-searching questions: Why is our service for Christ sometimes performed in a halfhearted manner? Why do other things always come before our time with the Lord? Why do we prepare more diligently for our responsibilities in the world than we do our responsibilities in ministry?