"The Focus of the Faithful"

Philippians 3:12-14

©February 11, 2001 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

WE MUST REALIZE GOD HAS A GOAL FOR OUR LIFE

Paul says, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”  The words I want you
to see are the words, “that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”  Paul understood that the Lord took
hold of his life with a goal in mind.  And this is true for all of us..

Romans 8:28 is a verse many know by heart.  Verse 29 is less known.  Paul writes, “And we know that in
all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”  Do you see God’s purpose in calling us?  He wants us
to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.  God’s desire is that we grow to be like Christ.

Why is this important?  First, It's important to realize that God's goal is not just to "get us in the door". 
He is not looking to merely "save us", He is working to "transform us".  The Christian is one who is ever
moving toward Christ-like-ness.  We should be making progress toward holiness.  

But second, it is important to realize that God has a job for us to do.  He has called us TO something.  We
are a part of His plan.  God DOES have a plan for your life.  His plan will lead you to joy, fulfillment,
contentment and eternal blessing.

RECOGNIZE THAT YOU HAVE NOT ARRIVED YET

Paul not only recognizes that the Lord has a grand purpose for his life, He realizes that he has not arrived
at that purpose yet.  Paul knows he is not what he should be.  He is aware of his faults and the areas
where he still needs to grow.  The word for "perfect" also means "complete".  Paul recognizes that he is
not finished yet.  Chuck Swindoll says it well, "God is seeking progress not perfection."

Please hear this.  Some people get so discouraged because they feel they aren't progressing very
rapidly.  The Christian life is a life of growth and maturity . . . much like life itself.  Growth takes time.  As
diligently as Paul worked at his faith, he still had not arrived.  Don't get discouraged . . . keep moving
forward.  Growth takes time.

Some people have a different problem. They have concluded that they have “arrived” at where God
wants them to be.  They have reached a certain point in their knowledge or experience and they
conclude that they are mature and can stop working so hard.  But those who think this have a faulty
view of their own situation.  They are looking only at the surface, God is concerned about the heart. 

We must measure ourselves by Christ.  He wants us to be pure in our actions, in our conversations, in
our thinking, in our attitudes, in our relationships.  He wants us to love Him more than anything else.  He
wants to be in the position of influence in every part of our life. If you understand the standard you will,
like Paul, understand that you are not there yet.

DON’T LIVE IN THE PAST  

What this doesn't mean

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 some one we should make restitution. 
If we have a problem with someone we should seek to be reconciled.   

What it does mean

When Paul talks about forgetting he is telling us that we can’t and must not live in the past.  What
happened in the past is past and we must keep going forward.  There are two reasons we need to forget
the past.  First, we have a tendency to fixate on the past.  We will hold on to some bad experience and it
will become an anchor that weighs us down.  We will remember a hurt that someone inflicted and it will
eat us up.  We will remember a time when we stumbled and we will determine to never try again.  How
we deal with the painful times of the past will determine how we live in the present.  We must learn
from the pain and then move on.  What God has forgiven should never be taken as a burden again.

Second, we have a tendency to rest on the past.  We will replay the past victories and be content to
remember instead of continuing to push ahead.  This happens to many people.  Paul determined that he
would not rest on past accomplishments but always look forward to what yet needed to be done.  There
are Christians who are always talking about the great times of faith in the past.  They talk about how
intimate their relationship with Christ WAS.  It is all past tense.  We must forget the past and focus on
the present.

Sports teams have this problem.  They have a great victory and then glow from that victory . . . and in
the next game they lose to an inferior opponent because they lost their focus.  The same is true even in
preaching.  I usually allow myself Sunday and Monday to enjoy or learn from our worship
experience.  But by Monday afternoon I let it go.  The focus is then on the next week.  I have found that I
must keep looking forward and not backwards.

BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT YOUR GROWTH

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.
He tells us that he is stretching forward and he is reaching for his goal.  He is not only concentrating, he
is straining forward.  The image is like that of running in a race.  You see people in a race leaning forward
to try to beat their opponent to the tape.  This is the image Paul uses for his desire to grow spiritually.

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 the church? 

Growth will not happen if we are haphazard about our spiritual life.  Practically diligence means,

 making time for God in our schedule

 finding time to thoughtfully read the Bible
 planning for times of prayer
 making worship and service a priority in our calendars
 doing a regular and honest spiritual evaluation of our lives regularly
 turning away from some worldly pursuits 
 pushing ourselves to study and read for growth
 and daring to reach beyond what is always comfortable and safe