Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Several years ago there was a runner in a long distance race who had just made the last turn on the track and saw the finish line up ahead.

He had already ran lap after lap after lap and was significantly ahead of everyone else in the race.

Because of this gap, he looked up into the stands - possibly to find a teammate or a parent - and he slowed down.

As he slowed down the cameraman panned out and another runner was closing the gap… The front runner had no idea what was happening but the fans in the arena began to erupt as his lead had all but evaporated and he found himself in an unfamiliar position: Second place.

As both men crossed the finish line it was obvious that the runner with the lead had taken his eyes off of the finish line and was looking all around because he thought his position was secured.

This race went viral and coaches everywhere have used it as motivation to their athletes to never lose sight of the finish line and to celebrate after they cross that line, not one moment before.

You would think that because of the embarrassment suffered by this runner that this type of thing would never happen again, right?

Wrong!

People love to celebrate prematurely.

Baseball players celebrate what they think to be a home run that hits off the top of the wall and they only end up at first base because they celebrated instead of running out of the batters box.

Basketball players celebrate a 3-pointer because it looks like its going to go in but it ends up hitting the rim and rolling out.

We celebrate our grades during the semester only to slack off down the stretch and we drop down a letter.

We love to celebrate before it’s appropriate to and this same mentality drifts from our secular lives into our relationship with our Lord and Savior.

So many people view being baptized as the end of the journey.

I’ve prayed the prayer, I’ve been dunked, therefore God doesn’t care what I do the rest of my life - I’m free to celebrate and live however I want.

Others are tempted to view the Christian life like that of our occupation and whenever we hit 65 we’re free to cash in our retirement and coast until Kingdom come as we celebrate the works of our past.

Others are dramatically saved from a past of sin and they celebrate God’s amazing grace but they don’t know what to do next.

The Bible isn’t against celebration, we read in the Bible that salvation is a celebrating matter!

However, celebration isn’t the end.

There’s more in store.

Philippians has been reminding us of the joy that we have in Christ and if you’re a Christian this morning you should be full of joy as you reflect on all that Christ has done in your life and you should celebrate His greatness!

But celebration can’t stop us from being agents of transformation in our world.

As a Christian, as long as there is breath in your lungs, God has a purpose for you and that purpose is to know Him more and to bring Him glory with how you live your life.

Today as we continue in Philippians 3 we’re going to see that in order to glorify God with our lives, we must grow in humility and understand that we’re still a work in progress.

That we must press on and pursue what Christ has in store!

We’re All A Work in Progress (12-14)

Immature Christians or false teachers might believe that they’ve arrived and can rest on the sidelines.

Some people think that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross not only makes us innocent before God but it makes us perfect so that God doesn’t care what we do or how we live anymore.

There were some in Philippi who taught a doctrine called perfectionism - they took Matthew 5:48 literally and believed that we as humans could be perfect.

Mature Christians recognize that they haven’t arrived yet - they’re still under construction.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a Christian for 50 days or 50 years, Christ has a plan and purpose for your life and part of that plan is for your to continue to seek first His Kingdom and become more like Him.

This is why even older Christians must practice the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible reading, corporate worship, and serving.

There’s no early retirement for a Christian.

There’s always more work to be done!

See Hebrews 12:1-2 - running metaphor.

We’re not passive as we pursue Christ, instead we’re passionate in this pursuit!

We can never earn our salvation but as those who have been saved, we are to expend effort to work hard to pursue holiness as Christ finishes what He started (Phil 1:6)

Imitate Paul and acknowledge that you’re a work in progress and forget as you run.

Don’t ignore your mistakes and repeat them, but trust that you are forgiven and run after Christ.

Deal with sin and chase Christ.

Flee from sin and run to your Savior.

Paul does this in his letters as he initially calls himself the worst of the apostles then the worst of christians then the worst of sinners.

As we follow Jesus, we should grow in our appreciation of His greatness and our sinfulness.

Flee from your sin.

Also, flee from your previous pride and boasting in self.

Don’t live in a previous state of complacency or victory whenever Christ is calling you to move forward.

Remember you’re a forgiven sinner and run after Jesus.

Paul says that this is the one thing that he’s going to do - forget the past and reach toward what is ahead.

What is that one thing for you?

If you have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus and if He is at work in you, what is the “one thing” in your life that you need to surrender today?

What is a habit that you need to break?

What is a spiritual discipline that you need to start?

Matt Perman wrote a book several years ago called What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done and in this book he argues that Christians not only live differently but we think differently because of what the Gospel does in our lives.

The Gospel not only changes what we do, but how we do what we do!

Think about your work or your schooling - a major temptation in our lives is to strive for efficiency or to get as many things done in as quickly as humanly possible.

Others strive for quality over quantity and our goal is to be very thorough in what we do and to be the best we can be.

Efficiency and thoroughness are good things - but the main thing can’t be us.

It can’t be another human or organization.

The main thing in why we do what we do is we serve and glorify our God.

See, you can read any how to book and walk away with 5 tips on being better at something.

We have how to books for everything!

How to be a better parent.

How to be a better husband.

How to be a better employee.

How to be a better boss.

How to be a better citizen.

How to be a better fisherman.

Our society loves how to’s - but here’s the problem with how to’s. 1) We’re all different and a how to for one person probably will be different for another person, but more importantly, 2) You’ll never be perfect at what you’re studying.

You’ll never be a perfect parent, husband, employee, boss, citizen, or fisherman.

You and I are all works in progress.

We all have room to improve in areas in our lives, but our goal of getting better shouldn’t primarily be that we get to be better at strictly one area of our lives.

Paul’s goal is to pursue Christ.

Anything we do in church and in our lives must be with the same focus - to pursue Christ.

As you pursue Christ and study His Word, other areas will blossom too.

It’s incredible how the Bible addresses the questions that we have and if we’d take seriously our responsibility to meditate on God’s Word we’d be better parents, husbands, employees, bosses, citizens, and probably better fishermen too!

Yet, so often we want the quick fix that we’re not willing to do the daily work of forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead and spending intentional time with our Savior through prayer, worship, and reading His Word.

As we spend time with our Savior, He changes us.

This is a daily process that will take our entire lives.

If you’re here this morning and you’ve been saved by grace through faith in Christ, then understand that you’re still in need of the Gospel as God continues to change you and shape you to be more like Jesus each and every day.

We’re still a work in progress, and that’s a beautiful thing because He promises to never leave us and to finish His work in us!

Don’t get to a place in your life where you think that you’ve arrived and don’t have to look to Jesus any longer - we will never get to that place!

Our prize in the end is to know Christ fully.

T

We’re All In Need of Jesus (15-17)

If our prize is to know Jesus and to acknowledge that we’re all a work in progress, it follows that we all need Jesus - whether we think that we do or not.

Some of us understand our great need for Jesus, but many others don’t see that need.

Baptist Press released an article on Tuesday of this past week of a study conducted by the American Bible Society on the 2022 State of the Bible.

Among people who claim to have a personal relationship with Christ in the Gen-Z, Millennial, and Gen-X groups, fewer than 1/3 actually are practicing Christians.

This means that we have millions of people in our country who believe that they have a personal relationship with Jesus but they’re not doing anything with that relationship.

No church membership.

No Bible reading.

No corporate worship.

There are so many in our world who fit this mold as well!

Jesus, yes.

Church, no.

Let’s flesh this idea out just a little bit - why are we all in need of Jesus Christ?

Every single one of us needs food.

This is why Walmart is as popular as it is in Salem, in the United States, and even in Guatemala (yes, there were Walmarts there too)!

We all need food and we know that we need food and even if you are able to grow certain things at your house, chances are that you still need to go to the grocery store for some things as well.