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Philippians 3:12-17
We started last week a new short series entitled “Coffee Mug Christianity: Bringing Clarity to Cliches.”
Today we are going to a verse which has become cliche in the Christian world.
In the context of chapter 3, Paul is warning the church at Philippi about false teachers…He says beware of dogs.
Then he goes on to give a case for the church to follow his example.
He hasn't achieved perfection, he says, yet he follows after the truth.
He is working hard for the Lord and serving faithfully.
As members of God’s family we enter into our family life, including our tasks and chores!
Together we work in love and freedom with the goal to worship Christ through our works for Him.
Imagine your own family.
Did your children - whether born into your family, or adopted - do anything to earn their place?
Of course not!
There is nothing we can do to earn the love of our parents or a place in our family, whether human family or the family of our Father in Heaven.
And yet this doesn’t mean our children are allowed to sit around playing video games all day!
When we pass out the chore list, they don’t answer back, “But I’m in this family by grace and not by merit of works.”
“True!
And now that you are a part of this family, there is work to do! Everybody needs to get involved!”
We were adopted into Christ’s family while we were dead in our sins.
There is nothing we could have done to earn our way in or deserve God’s love.
Still, now that we’re here, made alive in Christ and adopted into the family of God, there is work to do!
So Paul here is speaking to the family of God, and he uses himself as an example.
He hasn’t arrived - He isn’t perfect - But he is striving to be perfect, so he get’s busy!
I believe we can follow Paul’s example, as he himself said, “be followers together of me...”
I want to look at this well known and often quoted verse in context and see three Important Steps to Follow so that we may Get Busy for our Lord.
I. Keep Humbling Your Self
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
It is often said, humility is not thinking poorly of yourself, but rather not thinking of yourself at all.
In this case it is a realistic look at your reality.
Paul says, i have not already attained.
This wording is picturesque of the games that the church at Philippi would be familiar with.
They had not attained the victors crown, a picture of perfection.
The first step you must follow Paul’s example is to realize that...
A. You Haven’t Arrived
v12a - “Not as though i had already attained, either were already perfect:”
The word perfect literally means mature, to bring to a full end.
Reached the pinnacle maturity that is possible.
Paul says I’m not there at that level of perfection.
We need to humble ourselves and realize we have a lot to learn still!
I’m amazed at how many Christians, once they have learned some things, become so judgmental.
Instead we need to do as Ephesians 4:2 says
We will do no good for God, if we do not keep our selves humble.
But Paul says, even though he know he is not perfect, he isn’t satisfied staying in that position!
So next we need to...
B. Keep Pursuing Perfection
v.12 b “but I follow after, if that I may apprehend”
Paul says he isn’t perfect, but he’s never going to stop trying!
Why?
Because the failure of the Christian is one of the most damaging things to the work of Christ.
Pastor Juan Carlos Ortiz in a magazine article illustrated this working for God in a sin cursed vessel to the imagery of a trapeze artist who trust int he nets below her.
Of course the presence of the net does not stop her form working with strength and beauty—she works with even more skill because the net is there.
She tries to push the limits of her balance because she know that the net is there.
Oritz says, “in Christ…the whole world should be able to watch and say, ‘Look how they live, how they love one another.
Look how well the husbands treat their wives.
And aren’t they the best workers in the factories and office, the best neighbors, the best students?”
When we fail and fall, the net is there; we get back up and start doing our best work for Christ once more.”
Paul knew he had failed to reach perfection, but he kept striving for it.
And So, we need to realize that you haven’t arrived yet but we need to keep striving for right living and being mature, and then he reminds us why we do this…He says...
C.
This Is Your Calling
v.12 c “if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.”
apprehend=In allusion to the public games, to obtain the prize with the idea of eager and strenuous exertion, to grasp, seize upon
I am apprehended of Christ Jesus = Christ has won me, bought me, he has declared me righteous.
So we strive to live up to the calling that God has already given us.
This word vocation is literally the calling.
Paul tells the church at Ephesus “live up to your name!”
This world hates us...
This is not going to change - But please…let’s not give them the ammunition to shoot us!
Keep Humbling Yourself is the first Important step you need to follow to be successful in this Work for the Lord.
Secondly...
II.
Keep Progressing Your Walk
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul says he is pressing toward the mark for the prize.
The imagery is the runner in the race who has the finish line in sight, not just to finish, but to finish first - perfection is the goal.
But in order to do this there is some things we need to do...
A. Forget Your Past
“I count not myself to have apprehended: but his one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind...”
I haven’t run track very much, but one thing I do know...If a runner on a track is more worried about where he has been rather than on where he is going he will run outside of his lane and be disqualified.
Forget those things which are behind!
There are a couple of applications here I believe!
1. Forget Your Mistakes
The devil would love nothing more than to sit on your shoulders as run this race and remind you of all your past mistakes!
“Remember when you tripped right as the gun went off.”
“Remember when you misstepped back there, how embarrassing!”
“This is a long track.
What makes you think you can finish when you failed so many times before?”
Use your double edged sword against him, Quote the Bible!
Forget your mistakes, but also...
2. Forget Other Runners
"I wonder where the other runners are.”
“Are they catching up to me?”
This is not a competition with each other—it is a competition with ourselves!
Our Old Man!
Yes, even in this passage, we see Paul tell us to follow examples.
But not for comparison, not for our entire focus, but for motivation.
Where they succeed, learn from it, use it to motivate you…where they fail get you eyes off them and keep it on Christ.
Forget your Past…Forget Other Runners, and thirdly...
3. Forget the Good Old Days
“Remember when I turned that first corner, whew those were the good parts of the race!
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