Eyes On The Prize
Philippians; The Secret to Joy • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsForgetting what is behind, I press on
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Good Morning Church
If you’re a guest here with us today, we welcome you
And if you’re a guest, you may not know who I am, I’m Tony and I’m in year one of our Church’s pastor training program
And I’ll be sharing todays message.
We are in a sermon series that we titled “The Secret to Joy”
A study in Paul’s letter to the Philippians
Today we will continue, picking up in chapter 3, verse 12, if you’d like to turn there now
I think we’ve seen, as I say the Secret to Joy, I think we’ve seen that there are multiple secrets
multiple ways that Paul is describing to help us understand, so we too can access the joy within us
A couple of weeks ago, Pastor DuAne said that Joy is a Christians birth rite
A gift given to us by our Good Father,
It is the #2 attribute or characteristic listed in the singular Fruit of the Spirit
The package deal of Christ likeness, given to us in the Spirit when we became a true follower of Jesus
We all, because of the indwelling Spirit of Jesus,
have,
could be,
should be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled
But that is a whole other sermon series
For now, I’m hoping, trusting that in Christ we are more loving, loving God and loving others
And, through this sermon series, we are learning to access and increase our joyfulness,
so that we can be truly joyful in this life, whatever it may currently look like for you,
shining like bright lights for Jesus in this dark world for all those around us to see
So, as we move now to verse 12, I’m going to ask us to imagine something, to picture it in our minds
But first a question,
Has anyone here run a marathon?
(You did, what was it like?)
(The hardest thing you’ve ever done)
I thought about running a marathon,
notice I said thought about it
I even talked to someone I know who has run multiple marathons
how he does it, how he trains, etc.
That is long term goal oriented training,
For most it requires months of training, and a variety of exercises and runs, adjustments to your diet to get you ready to “run” a marathon
I loved the goal setting, the “path” to accomplish it, the idea of having something meaningful to work towards, a plan to get me ready for this incredible task
But I had one major problem, or two, I suppose
First, I hated long distance running, that’s a problem, but I thought maybe with the training I’d grow to like it, even love it,
but in that I was going to need to adjust my mentality, my attitude towards it
Second issue, and this one was even more problematic, I lacked the desire to run a marathon,
I really didn’t want to dedicate myself to it, all the time and effort,
This was not a worthwhile goal for me
That’s why I only thought about it
But this picture of running a marathon, this is helpful imagery for this passage
Paul will use some terminology that fits with running a marathon
What I plan to do is point out 5 principals that Paul gives us,
5 steps to do if you will
First, let me pray, and then we will read God’s word
Father
Holy Spirit
Lord Jesus
Amen
Ok, Philippians chapter 3, starting in verse 12
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
Because we are just picking up Paul’s train of thought here in verse 12, we need to define the “this”
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
So, if you will look back in this chapter with me to verse 8
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Last week, Paul listed his pedigree and his resume, the things that might cause one to boast
but he, because of what Jesus has done for him, sees all of that as rubbish, he writes,
Our translators were too gentle here, they sanitized the Bible once again,
A more accurate translation is actually a big pile of dung, that’s the word Paul used
That is a more powerful an image
Because of Jesus, how he now considers his impressive pedigree and resume, as a pile of dung
That’s so ironic, our world is geared towards those things, these reasons to boast
What we do, what we have, what others think of us
Our minds are geared towards those as well, at times, and maybe we are currently working towards them as well
But Paul elevated one thing, above all else,
It’s this one thing makes all other things worthless
What is that one thing? the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, our Lord
Knowing, gnosis, acquaintance with, understanding, comprehension,
You can’t know me, understand me, comprehend all of who I am, unless you’ve walked a mile in my shoes, as the expression goes
Meaning, unless you’ve lived my life, you can’t completely know me
And yet, that is exactly Paul’s aim, to gain Christ, to know Him experientially
to walk the dusty road of Christ all the way to Calvary if that’s what it takes,
The “this” is the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, and in his words, gaining Christ in order to be just like Christ
This isn’t salvation in regards to justification, he’s been forgiven, freed from the penalty of sin
What Paul is describing is salvation sanctification, being freed from the power of sin, of all the ways we miss God’s perfect standard
tWe press on, making progress toward the ultimate goalyet, he hasn’t completed the journey, he isn’t perfected yet, not completely like Christ yet,
And that is our first principal, This journey in life as a Christ Follower, our sanctification is about progress not perfection
We press on, we grow, mature, make progress toward the ultimate goal
We will never be perfect in this life, we will never have fully obtained it, but that doesn’t stop us from doing all we can to get as close to Christlikeness as possible this side of eternity, Amen
This is discipleship, a process of transformation where we grow into the likeness of Jesus.
Peter writes about this in 2 Peter 3
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Now, in regards to our marathon imagery, some will start up closer to the front, and some will run faster to the end, but the goal for all is finishing the race
Now this is where the “everybody gets a trophy” is ok, you don’t have to “win” this race,
the goal is to run, walk, limp, crawl, whatever it takes to go through the finish line
Paul knows he hasn’t arrived yet, he hasn’t finished, but he will press on because Jesus has made him His own, he says.
Jesus has purchased Paul, with His blood, freed him from the world’s system
Paul has been adopted into the family of God, he must now grow over time to resemble His big brother
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
But one thing I do, ooh this is gonna be good,
Just do this one thing, which is actually two things, but you can’t do the second, unless you do the first
But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
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