Philippians: The Key to Joy 11

Philippians 3:12 to 16. Today I'm going to actually read 22 sections. The first one is Philippians 2:12 and 13, which is a passage we talked about a few weeks ago, and it also relates to our passage for today. And then I'll read

Philippians 3:12 to 16, which is the main passage we'll focus on.

We're working our way through Philippians. We will finish about a week or two before Travis arrives and then we'll have a standalone message on the

last week of August and then Travis will be diving in the first week of September.

So Philippians chapter 2:12 and 13.

“So then, my beloved, just as you've always obeyed, not in my presence only,

but now much more in my absence, workout your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

And please drop down to Philippians 3:12-16, “Paul says not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect. But I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet but one thing I do. Forgetting what lies behind, reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the

goal of the call of the prize, of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude, and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that to you also. However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.”

Let me pray for us.

Thank you, Father, for another paragraph of your book. Thank you for writing to us. Thank you for your spirits inspiring these words. And we're asking today that all of our hearts would be open on the God word side. We'd be open to what you're doing, open to what you're saying, open to what you're expecting. Let us be people who are pursuing you with faithfulness. We thank you for this good day, and we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

There's a famous saying in the Christian circles of mostly decades or even centuries ago, that says “Let go and let God”. The saying means that I need to let God work and have the power and let God accomplish things and not get in his way, et cetera. And there's a certain piece of truthfulness about that. But there's also a piece in which Paul says that's clearly not the whole story.

Paul was not a fan of necessarily, “Let go and let God” if you're going to stop there. Because Paul himself was a person who was striving. And his writing is

full of Labor words.

Words like striving and works like labor and words like working. He was a person who was deeply committed to pressing forward. We talked about Philippians 2:12 and 13 a few weeks ago in which Paul said work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it's God was a work in you both

the will and to do of his good pleasure, not work for your salvation. That's only a gift of faith.

And yet, Paul says, even though I am working my salvation out of my inner life into my outer life. It's God who is at work in you, both the will and to do of His

good pleasure. And so I said at that time, God partners with us in spiritual growth. We cannot do it without Him, but He will not do it without us. We've been called into a partnership with the God of the universe.

In our own spiritual growth. Paul was a striver. Here's what he said in First Corinthians 15:10. “By the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward

me did not prove vain. but I labored even more than all of them, meaning I worked harder than all the other 11 apostles. Yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” I think I said a few weeks ago I have a note on my computer that says crazy dependent. Crazy diligent. But always in that order. And that's the concept that Paul is driving today.

We come then to this passage for today in which I'm saying Paul gave us a primer. On how to grow spiritually and how to get close to Christ. And it's eight points and relax. I'm watching my clock. I have 26 minutes and 48 seconds left. We'll now be here till 2:00 PM.

But there are 8 things he's saying to us in this passage about how we strive to be more mature. And to be closer to Jesus, what are the principles? What is it that we need to do to move forward in that way? The first thing I need to say is that I can't move forward spiritually until I've been born again spiritually.

You know that a person can't grow to maturity until they've been born. And the idea is you have physical birth, then you eventually have an adult who is, God willing, physically mature, spiritually mature, relationally mature, emotionally mature, who has grown up. But they had to be born first. And so for us to grow up spiritually, we have to be born first. We have to understand that we

are separated from the God of the universe, and because of our sin, there's nothing we can do to save ourselves but that God, in his mercy, sacrificed his Son in our place instead of us, for us on the cross. We were supposed to be up there. He went up instead of us. It's the concept of substitutionary atonement.

It's what we were celebrating today with the Lord's Supper. Somebody died.

As our substitute and therefore purchased our atonement. And the one thing we need to do is the simple decision to put all of our trust, all of our hope in Jesus Christ and say, I've given up on the rest of it. Given up on my religion, given up on better than my neighbor. Giving up on giving money to an orphan. I'm not going to crawl on my knees to a mountain shrine till the tendons hang

out. That ain't going to work. It's all in what Jesus did, and so I put my hope in that. Having done that, then, Paul says.

A PRIMER ON CHRISTIAN GROWTH

Here are 8 things that we need to keep in mind as we grow. The first one is

Be clear about where I am in my spiritual progress. (v. 12-)13.

He said, “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it.” The apostle Paul, who I think most Christians generally think of as a mature guy, said I'm not there. I got a way to go. I still need to grow and Paul understood that he wasn't there. Now he uses the word perfect. The perfect. The word perfect

doesn't mean he never sinned. It generally means completion, maturity, or finishing something.

So in the Bible, there are three kinds of perfection.

a.  The first one is Positional Perfection. That is when I trust Christ, I stand before God as not guilty. My position before him because the righteousness of Christ was put on my account. My position before him is I'm not guilty. And when the judge comes in, he's going to hear the case and he's going to say not, not guilty by way of substitution. That is positional perfection. You and I have it once we trust Christ.

b.  Secondly, as Progressive Perfection, that is, how much do I look like Jesus Christ? And the older I get in Christ, if I'm trusting, depending on the Spirit, striving, understanding his

word, I'll begin to look more and more like Jesus Christ. My progress toward that perfection will increase.

c.   And the last one is what's called Ultimate Perfection, which is I see Jesus face to face. When I see him face to face, I will be like him because I will behold him as he is. And you

and I come into the presence of Christ even either at our death or at the rapture. Presence and we will be perfect.

In our character, we will be incapable of sinning anymore for eternity.

Anybody sign up for that? A few of you. I'd be very happy to be incapable of sinning for the rest of eternity. That's where we're going in terms of our personal holiness eventually. So the first thing is I've got to be honest about where I am spiritually, as Paul was. I'm not there. He said. I have to ask myself, what are my temptations? What are the ways I'm falling short? What are my blind spots? What are the ways in which I'm not like Jesus Christ I have to do?

To a serious personal assessment, Paul said in Romans 12:3, he said think of yourself so as to have sound judgment. Be clear and humble about where you are. Do an assessment.

My grandson's car broke down about four months ago. I went to Twin Falls, we put his car in the trailer, we pulled it home and I messed with it. And my conclusion was.  It won't start. Technical, mechanical conclusion. It won't start.

So my buddy came over who's a mechanic, brought his tools, worked for an

hour and said this car has antifreeze in the oil pan. The engine is shot. There's

two assessments.

One that's completely unhelpful. It won't start. One that is very helpful. Call

the junkyard. This engine is done. He had a professional assessment of where that car was. I need to take careful assessment of where I am. What is it that I need to grow in?

2. Because Jesus laid hold of me, I will press on to lay hold of intimacy with Him and maturity in Him. (vs. 12)

Maturity in him I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid

hold by Christ Jesus. 2 Keywords Press on. It's a word that means to move decisively and quickly towards something. Move decisively and quickly, in this case toward maturity. Friends, nobody gets in the major leagues by coasting.

They all get in by decisive and quick movement. Nobody. Skilled in wealth management by coasting. Nobody becomes a brain surgeon by coasting. You don't get to these places by coasting. Move decisively and quickly toward it, and Paul said that's what I'm doing in relation to spiritual maturity. We need this combination of gratitude for how far we've gotten. And divine discontent for where we yet need to go. To say I'm not content with where I am spiritually. I am not willing to be a person who will coast. Second keyword is a word which is called here, translated here. Lay hold of, to lay hold of

something, to take possession of it, and to make it one’s own.

So Paul is marching down the road to Damascus, and Jesus laid hold of him.

If you read the passage in Acts 9, it was a pretty serious laying hold of it was

pick him up by the lapels and shake him. Hey cowboy, let's go a different direction. He's blinded. Jesus laid hold of Paul personally and made Paul his own possession. And so Paul says because he laid hold of me, I'm going to press forward to lay hold. Of maturity lay hold of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The concept is God went to crazy lengths to lay hold of me.

I should go to crazy lengths to lay hold of maturity. Jesus existed as God

in glory, eternal glory. He humbled himself to take on humanity, humbled himself again. To be crucified on the cross. He went to crazy lengths to redeem us, to lay hold of us. And therefore Paul says I need to go to crazy lengths to lay hold of Christian maturity.

3. Forget both my past failures and my past successes. Forgetting what lies behind.

The truth is, friends, when we look back, we tend to go back. Think of Lot's wife, for example, when we look back, we tend to go back and Paul is saying to us here, we need to forget the past. For example, the past sins. If I have a sin in my past, I need to confess it. I need to make restitution if possible. I need to accept God's forgiveness and forget it. We are not defined by our failures of the past. We are defined by the fact that we've trusted Jesus Christ for forgiveness. It's the most important thing about you. It's more important

than your big failure. Forget what's back there. Obviously we've done things that were so egregious, so embarrassing, so shameful. We regret them deeply. We wish they would never have happened. And we can't. In our minds, maybe forget them. But Paul says forget it.

Be defined by who you are in Christ today. And in the same way, we need to forget our great victories of the past and not let ourselves be defined by something wonderful we did in the past. Be defined by the fact that I know Jesus today. That's the most important thing about us, not the fact that I had some massive accomplishment and therefore that's going to be defining me for the rest of my life. And so Paul is saying, forget that stuff back there. Don't obsess on your past failures. Don't obsess on your past successes. Got to turn

a different direction. When my grandson was starting Marine Corps boot camp, a friend of mine who's a retired military said here's 3 rules to give him success in boot camp.

●    Rule #1 is don't take anything personally. There are some people

in your face assuring you you're the worst human being, human being whoever

existed.Don't take it personally, they're just doing their job.

●    Rule #2 be fully focused on the task at hand right now. If you're supposed to be climbing a wall right now, just be focused on that.

●    Rule #3 forget everything that happened in the past. Even if it was 5 minutes ago. Even 5 minutes ago the drill Sergeant told you are the worst human being who ever existed. Forget it. Focus on right now.

What Paul's asking us to do. Forget the stuff that lies behind you and look forward. Fourth thing, verses 13 and 14, reach forward.

4. Press on for the goal (visual) of intimacy with Christ and maturity in Christ.    (v, 13-14)

He said, reaching toward what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. This word goal is a word pronounced Scopas and it refers to. A visual thing at the end of the

course that you're looking at and you're running toward. It's like the tape across the 100 yard dash line. You're looking at that tape and you're pressing for that. That's where your whole focus is. You're not looking around to see how your other competitors are doing. You're looking at that goal. In ancient times they would put a stick at the end of the field. And they would be hoeing and they would hoe directly in a line, always going toward that one stick. So they made a straight line.

And so Paul said, I put a visual marker at the end of my course so I could see

exactly where I'm going on this goal. And he was looking toward maturity, toward intimacy with Christ. The marker that he had up ahead was exactly where he wanted to keep going. He wants to hold in a straight line to get to that marker. He had it very clearly in his mind where he was going. We are

responsible as well to say I need to be clear about where I'm going.

Let me tell you what I think is one of our major challenges in Friends. I think in many cases the goal to which many American Christians are going is called the American Dream and they are running hard toward that. They're being kind to others. They're reading their Bible, they're going to church. They're doing other things. But really, if you looked at the the goal, the marker, the tape

they were running for, it was the American dream. The problem is not preaching against the American dream. I own a car. I own two cars. I own a house in the bank. We're in partnership on this house. You know, I've got stuff.

But I'm simply saying it cannot be the American dream. It's the wrong goal.

There's a very famous peak in Nepal called Manaslu. It's the eighth highest peak in the world. It's over 26,000 feet tall. And it's famous because it has what's called a false summit. When you climb to the top of this thing, you're 26,600 and some feet in the air and you get to this one summit, it looks like you're there. But across the way, 25 feet from there, there's actually the highest point a couple feet higher. The problem between this false summit and the actual summit is that there is a knife edge Ridge. Covered with snow, with thousands of feet of exposure down both sides, it is crazy treacherous. And the lion's share of people who climb Manislu stop at the false summit. They say I'm good, close enough. Got no interest in that next 25 feet.

I told you that story because the American Dream is the false summit, the distance between the American Dream and maturity in Christ. Is separated by a very thin knife edge. I don't know if it's 25 feet or if it's longer. But I need to say to myself, what is the goal toward which I am running?

5. Motivate myself with the vision of “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”. (v. 14)

So the critical question is, what is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus?

A lot of people assume it's the upward call of the rapture. I'm going to be taken up in the rapture, and I do personally believe in the rapture. You may not. If the Rapture is true, you're going up with us if you've trusted Christ. If the Rapture is false, none of us are going. But this is not the Rapture, is not some get out of jail early card for gung ho Christians. It's for all believers.

So I don't think that's what he's talking about. I think what he's talking about is a reference to the Greek Athletic Games, which these people would have been very familiar with. In which there was a race and a bunch of runners and when one person won it, they would stand at the bottom of the platform. And the judge would call out their name. Their father's name and the name of the country that they ran for. And then the judge would call them up on the platform to get the wreath.

I think Paul is saying I am looking forward to being called up to my heavenly Father. And hearing him say? Well done, good and faithful servant. That's what is motivating me every day. I want to ask you a question. What is the happiest thing that has happened to you so far in life? The very best thing that's happened to you so far in life. Not going to give you time to think about that.

It would take a while to figure it out for me. I mean, obviously I trusted Christ, which was massive. And I have a wonderful wife, which is amazing, and I have kids, grandkids. I mean, there's all great things. But I'm simply asking that

question to say I think.

When you and I are called up on the platform. And God the Father says,

well done, good and faithful servant. It will be the happiest moment of our lives. It will be the happiest thing we've ever experienced to have the God of the universe gladly identify with us. You are my son, You are my daughter. Well done, good and faithful servant. I think Paul was keeping that in his own mind.

6. Whatever my maturity level, I adopted an attitude of striving toward greater maturity.

Here's what he said in verse 15. “Therefore all who are mature, let’s have this attitude; and if anything striving toward greater maturity. Now Paul's point here is that I can never say that's good enough. OK, I'm good, I don't need to go anymore. Paul uses this word perfect twice in this passage in verse 12. He uses the word perfect to mean that he was not perfect, perfectly mature and perfectly complete, but he was striving there. Here in verse 15, I think he's saying he has a relative level of maturity. He's certainly above a brand new Christian who has a relative level of immaturity. He's not a perfect man.

But he knows where he is, and knowing where he is, he says I'm going to keep

striving toward a higher level of maturity. I'm not quitting. I'm not giving up. I'm not coasting.

Friends, there is a time in life to say. I have enough money. I have enough tools. I have enough books. I have enough guns. I have enough coffee mugs.

I have enough fabric. My wife's not here this hour so let's just say I have enough fabric. A totally random thing. At some point we say I have enough.

I don't have to keep striving for that. But I can never say I have enough maturity. I'm good. I can just coast from here.

 I need to keep striving, Paul the apostle Paul said. I'm not done.

7.  Strive to influence but let God adjust the attitudes of those who are not striving. (v15)

We strive to influence other people. But at some point we let God adjust their attitudes if they are not striving toward maturity, he says. And if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that to you also. We have a responsibility to motivate one another to maturity. But we don't control one another. We use our legitimate methods of influencing. We stay away from the illegitimate methods of influencing. And when we have exhausted our legitimate methods of influencing, we say father help them. Because I don't control them. I have a thin control on me by the power of the Holy Spirit. I have no control on you. You have no control on anyone. You don't control your children, you don't control your spouse, you don't control your neighbor. You don't control much of anything. So I say I'm going to influence you as much as I can, but then I'm going to say, Father, please help, please work. It's beyond me. It's nothing that I can ultimately personally accomplish. I'm not that powerful.

8) Keep striving. (v.16)

Let us keep living by the same standard to which we have attained. In other words, I think he is saying, let us keep striving. Frederick Nietzsche and Eugene Peterson had a phrase which is life is a long obedience in the same direction. And so I've got the sign out there that I'm running to. And I'm moving toward it. Sometimes sprinting, sometimes walking, sometimes crawling, but I'm still moving toward it. And I'm being obedient and I'm going the same direction.

Progress, friends, does not have much to do with speed. But it has everything

to do with direction. It has everything to do with direction. And so I want to have in my life, like Paul, a long obedience in the same direction. There are people in this room who are in their 80s. Who has known Christ for 70 or more years? Who has been on a long obedience in the same direction for seven or more decades?

And they're not done. They're not finished. They've got to keep striving.

Friends, how many of you know the name John Coulter? A few, every Idahoan should know the name John Coulter. John Coulter was in the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery. He went with him from Saint Louis out to Astoria OR on the way back. They got as far as the Yellowstone Park area, which had not yet been established. And he said to the 2 captains, could I stay here and just be a

trapper, a mountain man, because you know where you are and you've been here before and you can get home fine. And they said, sure, stay here. And so he stayed there. And he was a trapper there for about 8 years.

There was a biography written, which was written by a man who called it “Astoria Enterprise. Beyond the Rocky Mountains, Washington Irving, Astoria,” that's where they ended up. And here's what he said about John Coulter. His focus seemed clear. To keep to the task at hand, to overcome obstacles and to press resolutely forward.

I'm suggesting that as people go toward maturity. We need that model. Keep focused, stay with this task at hand, overcome obstacles, press resolutely forward toward maturity. It's the sign at the end of our course, which I said is the big idea. The Christian life is continual striving and crazy rewarding.

I would imagine everyone of you who's been on an airplane, everyone of you heard a pilot give the briefing and then at the end say sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. I was once in a worship service where the worship leader said sit back, relax and enjoy the service.

And I wanted to scream. We're not here to sit back, relax and enjoy the service. We are here to press into Christ. We're not here in the Christian faith to sit back, relax and enjoy the level of maturity we have. We are people who

are called to be strivers. Crazy dependent. Crazy diligent. People who are called to be focused on the task at hand. Resolutely moving forward, overcoming obstacles and saying I'm not done. I'm not as close to Christ as I could be. I don't look as much like Jesus as I could look. And therefore I'm pressing on.

Central Truth: The Christian life is continual striving…and so rewarding!

Let's pray please, friends.

Father, I pray for each one of us that we would be pressing resolutely forward toward maturity in Christ. I'm praying for myself, for each one of us. That there would come a moment in our existence when we would be called up to the platform. When you would say to us, you are my beloved child, well done, good and faithful servant. Father, I am convinced it will be the happiest moment of our lives. We're deeply grateful that you walk with us in the meantime. Thank you so much for this body of believers. Thank you so much for your book. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.

“So what?”for me personally: