Sermon Tone Analysis

*/Don’t Quit/*

 

Philippians 3:10-16

 

*Introduction:*

1)                The record for the shortest major league baseball career probably belongs to a member of the old Brooklyn Dodgers, a pitcher named Harry Hartman.

He was a gifted young ballplayer whose day of glory arrived in 1918 when he was called up from the minors to pitch against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

This was the moment he’d dreamed about, the beginning of a great career, but his dreams began to fade when his first pitch was hit for a single.

The next batter tripled.

Rattled, he walked the next batter on four straight pitches, and when he did throw a strike to the next hitter, it went for a single.

At that point, Hartman had had enough.

He headed for the showers, dressed, and walked out of the stadium to a naval recruiting office, where he enlisted.

The next day, he was in a military uniform, never to be heard from in professional baseball again.

(Gary Inrig, /A Call to Excellence/, p. 62)

 

2)                Have you ever felt like quitting?

It is easy to get discouraged and want to give up.

You may feel like quitting work or school.

You may feel like quitting on your family.

You may have felt like quitting on life.

3)                There is an old saying that says, “Quitters never win.”

One of the few things I have learned in life is this:  if you stay in the game you just might come back.

Philippians 3:10-16 gives you a strategy for staying in the game.

I.

Focus on the right goal.

a.

Your ability to keep on going is directly tied to what you are going for in the first place.

What are you living for?

If you are living for wealth, a down turn in the economy will really deal you a blow.

If you are living for pleasure, then sickness and pain will completely knock you off your feet.

If you are living for success, then a job loss will take the wind out of your sails.

What is your goal in life?

What are you living for?

b.

Paul articulates his goal in verses 10 and 11:  “/My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.”

(Philippians 3:10-11 HCSB/)

 

c.

What was Paul’s goal?

It was to know Jesus Christ and to join Him in His resurrection from the dead.

These were the two things that Paul was all about.

Now if these were his goals how would a down turn in the economy affect him?

Or sickness or suffering?

Or the loss of a job?

Would these things discourage him and hinder him from reaching his goal.

No.

He would see each situation as an opportunity to grow in His relationship with Christ.

d.

What is your goal in life?

Do you see what I mean when I say your ability to keep on going is directly ties to what you are going for in the first place?

The old hymn points out this truth:  /My hope is build on nothing less that Jesus blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand/.”

If your goal in life is anything else besides knowing Jesus Christ and joining Him in His resurrection you are on sinking sand.

You need to make sure you have the right goal in life.

That, in itself, will keep you from quitting.

II.

Know where you are.

a.

Look at verses 12 and 13:  “/Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

13Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it.”

(Philippians 3:12-13 HCSB/)

 

b.

Paul took inventory of his present situation.

You need to look at where you are at right now in terms of your goal.

c.

Notice Paul’s assessment of the present:

 

                                                             i.

He knew he was saved.

He said that Jesus Christ had taken hold of him.

He was in the grip of God’s grace.

Jesus had captured his heart.

He was on his way to the goal of knowing Christ and joining Him in His resurrection.

1.

Do you remember when your heart was captured?

When someone gets hold of your heart, you know it.

I remember when Deb captured mine.

I knew she was the right person for me.

I don’t know all of how I knew, but I knew spiritually.

I had been in love before, but I had never before known spiritually that I was in the right relationship.

But I knew it with Deb. 

 

2.

I remember when Jesus captured my heart.

I understood the depth of my sin and my inability to make it to heaven on my own.

Then Jesus revealed Himself to me.

I understood that He died so that I could be forgiven, and that He resurrected so that I could be saved.

When I came to realize that Jesus wanted to give me the gift of eternal life and heaven His love captured my heart.

3.

Do you know that Jesus Christ has taken hold of you? 

 

                                                          ii.

Paul knew he was on the way to the goal, but he also knew that he had not yet reached it.

1.

Christ had taken hold of Him, but He was in the process of taking full hold of Christ.

He wasn’t there yet.

He knew he wasn’t perfect or fully mature.

2.

That is important for us to realize.

We have not arrived.

We have not yet reached the goal.

3.

Sally Robbins was a member of Australia's 2004 Olympic rowing team, competing in the women's eight final.

With approximately 400 meters left in the race, the 23-year-old suddenly quit.

Robbins slumped and let her oar dip into the water.

Australia dropped from third to last place in the event.

"I just rowed my guts out in the first 1,500 and didn't have anything left, and that's all I could have done for today," Robbins explained.

She gave up before she reached the goal.

/4.

/Martin Luther wrote:  “Farewell to those who want an entirely pure and purified church.

This is plainly wanting no church at all.”  (/Martin Luther, "Martin Luther--The Early Years," Christian History, no.

34)/  What did he mean by that?