Goal!!!

Not that I have already received this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on if indeed I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have laid hold of it. But I do one thing, forgetting the things behind and straining toward the things ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore as many as are perfect, let us hold this opinion, and if you think anything differently, God will reveal this also to you. Only to what we have attained, to the same hold on.

Verse 12 seems to be an abrupt verse. Paul has passionately set before us what really matters, the guiding purpose of his life and that of all Christians. The commanding motive of knowing Christ and all that means has led to his renunciation of everything less worthy.

Now he uses his words as a disclaimer: “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect.”

Paul does not want his readers to misunderstand and believe he has figured it all out. He hasn’t gotten there yet. As we have been reading it up to this point we might think that is what he is saying but this disclaimer is to keep us from doing what we so often do.

We tell ourselves it’s them and us. They knew it and us well we don’t. You're the pastor, of course, you know it. They were the saints we aren't. Paul was just a person that was living his life the best He could. Following the will of God. Living his life for God. He wasn’t incredibly different than us.

What really matters, says Paul, is the prize of the high calling of God. The price of a vital faith is a continuous struggle. The quest is perennial. We were created by God to grow; we were recreated by Christ to grow. Not only to grow, but to become our whole selves—the new creation we are in Christ Jesus. So Paul sets it out in this word about pressing toward the goal for the prize of the high calling. The pattern is clear.

As he is following Christ, a person just like you, he keeps pressing on towards the goal. Not just to grow but to become whole. That new creation that we are in Christ Jesus

Godly Motivation

Press on Because we know Jesus Christ

God calls us to move towards the goals he has placed before us.

Sometimes we lose sight of the God in our motivations though. I want to read from a Book called Beyond Surrender by Barbara Singerman

“I had my life all planned out. Jeff was to become a famous youth pastor with such an incredible ministry, he would fly around the country as the guest speaker for massive youth rallies.

We would build a beautiful home with a spacious front porch on which we would relax on cool summer evenings or snuggle together for quiet moments during the rain. We would rear our children in Christ. I’d have a flourishing women’s speaking ministry. Pride runs strong in my family. So strong is it, it had convinced me that all these were God-given goals. My pride and I didn’t have any problem with any of them. But God did.”

God has to be the center of our motivations. Not ourselves but it so easy for us sometimes to lie to ourselves, to be swept away from the truth. To listen to the lies. And we don’t even realize it.

We have to be honest with ourselves and with God. We struggle to press on to the Goal. Letting the word of God be our guide. Not some other scriptures, not some other bible study leader. The scripture. Sometimes that means you have to do the work.

Pressing on to the goal

Challenge. If you want to press to the goal you have to move forward, can't get stuck in the past. How many people have failed to press forward because they can’t keep their minds, thoughts, and hearts out of the past. Don’t hear me say you shouldn’t remember the past. It is important. But in remembering the past we have to move forward. Means we have to take our eyes off of what happened and place them on the Fire in the night that lights the way that we may see.

As we press forward we have to deal with the what is in front of you. Sometimes we get into much a hurry. I don’t want to go to school but I want to start my career now. I don’t want to wait for God to take me I want him to come now. I don’t wan to study the bible now I just want to be in a perfect relationship with Him. Don’t loose sight of God and get over the hills. We can’t skip the hill and end up at the goal. we have to go forward.

What are some Biblical Goals that should influence the rest of our goals.

To please God

2 Corinthians 5:9 LEBTherefore indeed we have as our ambition, whether at home in the body or absent from the body, to be acceptable to him.

See also Ro 14:18; Eph 5:10; Eph 5:17; Col 1:9–10

To know God

Philippians 3:8 LEBMore than that, I even consider all things to be loss because of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for the sake of whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and consider them dung, in order that I may gain Christ

To be faithful to Jesus Christ

John 15:4 LEBRemain in me, and I in you. Just as the branch is not able to bear fruit from itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.

See also Mt 10:22; Mt 24:13; Php 3:14; 2 Ti 4:7; Heb 12:2; Re 2:26

To love one another

John 13:34 LEB“A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another—just as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

See also Mt 22:34–40; Jn 15:12; 1 Co 13:13; 1 Co 16:14; 1 Ti 1:5; 1 Jn 4:11–12

To live at peace

Romans 12:18 LEBIf it is possible on your part, be at peace with all people.

To spread the gospel

Matthew 28:19–20 LEBTherefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age.”

See also Ac 20:24; Ro 11:14; Ro 15:20; 1 Co 9:16; 2 Ti 4:2

To grow to maturity

Ephesians 4:13 LEBuntil we all reach the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to a measure of the maturity of the fullness of Christ,

See also Mt 5:48; Ro 8:29; 2 Co 3:18; 2 Co 7:1; 2 Co 13:11

Believers’ final goal is heaven

Revelation 7:9–10 LEBAfter these things I looked, and behold, a great crowd that no one was able to number, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes and with palm branches in their hands. And they were crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

See also Jn 6:40; 1 Co 15:51–52; 2 Co 5:4–5; 1 Th 4:17; 1 Jn 3:2

God guarantees that believers will reach their goal

John 14:2–3 LEBIn my Father’s house there are many dwelling places; but if not, I would have told you, because I am going away to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, so that where I am, you may be also.

See also Jn 6:39; Ro 8:38–39; Eph 1:13–14; Php 1:6; 2 Ti 1:12; 2 Ti 2:11–13; Re 3:5; Re 3:21

Next Steps

What goal are you absolutely determined to accomplish in life? How does this compare to the goal towards which Paul pressed forward?

—Bibliography--

Dunnam, Maxie D., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. Galatians / Ephesians / Philippians / Colossians / Philemon. Vol. 31. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1982.

Singerman, Barbara. Beyond Surrender. Garland, TX: Hannibal Books, 2003.

Harris, W. Hall, III, Elliot Ritzema, Rick Brannan, Douglas Mangum, John Dunham, Jeffrey A. Reimer, and Micah Wierenga, eds. The Lexham English Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012.

Anders, Max. Galatians-Colossians. Vol. 8. Holman New Testament Commentary. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999.

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