“Keep Your Eyes on the Prize”
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Introduction
In 1992, the famous documentary “Eyes on the Prize” was released on home video. That means that instead of people going to see it, they could just watch it from the comfort of their own home. This was a monumental television series that celebrated and recognized black Americans. It highlights blacks fighting to end discrimination and segregation, but it also shows how they kept moving forward, hence the name: Eyes on the Prize. This suggests that no matter what happened, black kept pushing and moving forward to what was ahead. They were determined to put an end to all that was going on. They kept moving, even though things weren’t perfect, they still kept moving.
Keeping our eyes on the prize calls for us to move forward, as Paul says, and moving forward can be scary at times. We are afraid at times of what will happen and sometimes what may not happen. We may be afraid of what happens after middle school or after high school. We may be afraid of all of the things that come with moving forward. And we start to overthink. We start to ask ourselves: “What if I fail?” “What if I make a fool of myself?” “What if others don’t like it?” “What if I get socially humiliated?” And on and on! And this is natural. But instead of worrying, we have to understand that God has a plan for our lives, and he doesn’t want us to be overwhelmed by fear or let it hold you back from what he has for you. His will is for us to move forward and keep our eyes on the prize with confidence in his love, trusting him to take care of us all along the way.
God has a plan for us. Even though the enemy will do everything he can to stop you from walking in God’s plan. He tries to bring fear and try to prevent us from making progress. He wants us to fear our problems and fear what other people will think, but if we will trust God, step-by-step, we can learn to face our fears and keep our eyes on the prize.
Text Context
And that is what Paul talks about in this text today. Paul begins Philippians 3 with a reminder to "rejoice in the Lord", but he also warns the Christians in Philippi to "look out" for false teachers.
Paul's focus is to be "found in Christ," finding a righteousness not based on works of the law but on faith. His goal is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. He wants to share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.
In this part of the chapter, which we are in today, Paul speaks of pressing on toward Christ-like living. He begins by saying that he is not perfect, but he is working toward living more like Christ. He does not focus on the past, but on the future. He is committed to the goal of the calling of Christ Jesus. All mature believers are to live this way, holding on to the progress they have already gained.
Paul then tells the believers to copy him. He tells the people that the believer's citizenship is in heaven. Believers oughta wait for the return of Christ. He will change the human bodies of believers into mew bodies like Christ has, something that should get believers excited.
Message
But in the part we are in, Paul gives us a message to keep our eyes on the prize. We oughta stop focusing on our fears. We cannot spend all of our time worrying about the what-ifs, but we have to trust in the Lord with all of our heart. It doesn’t matter what the challenges may be, the adversity that we may face, we have to keep our eyes on the prize.
Body of Message
We have to understand that we do not have it all together.
We all try to be Mr. and Mrs. Do-It-All. The fact is, nobody has it all together.
EX: At least I know I don’t. I am involved in a lot of things. I am apart of Student Council, Golf Team, Choir, Church, Top Teens of America, Omega Lamplighters, and sometimes, I find myself trying to do all of these things at once like it is no problem. But I remember when I once had a golf tournament and a Student Council meeting at the same time. I wanted to keep my word to both activities, so that I could make everybody happy, but I couldn’t do both, so I ended up going to the tournament. After the tournament, I got in the car and me and my father were riding home, and while we were riding, I told him that I wanted to make both activities and make everybody happen, but he told me that I can’t do it all and that I can’t make everybody happy and I have to prioritize some things, which is something I am constantly reminded of.
Nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes.
At times, we walk around trying to impress people and pretend like we’ve got it all together.
EX: There are some people I know and go to school with who are dealing with some things and at times, they act like they have it all together.
And the fact of the matter is that we burn out. We have high expectations of ourselves. Whatever assignment we’re up against, we give 100% effort, but at times we burn out. We run out of energy. Sometimes we don't feel like practicing or feel like doing homework. We get tired sometimes.
The fact of the matter is that we have to admit and understand that we have some areas of work, that we have some problems, that we have some issues, because even when we realize that we can’t do it all we know that we can still do all things through Christ who gives us strength.
We’re not perfect. We are a mess, but that's alright. WE ARE GOD’S MESS, and that good thing about a mess is that God can turn a mess into a masterpiece. We don’t have it all together, but the Lord still gives us strength. Even when we don’t have it all together, we can take joy in the fact that we serve a God who holds all things together, and when all things are held together by him, we know that all things will work together for us.
We have to forget some things of the past.
See, Paul had just listed all his religious qualifications in verses 5-7. He says that he was a pure-blooded citizen, he obeyed the law, he harshly persecuted the church. But if we go back to verse 8, Paul says that everything else is worthless in comparison with knowing Christ. aul is making the point that no kind of accomplishment or achievement matters in comparison with knowing Christ and trusting in His righteousness alone for salvation. No matter what we have done or the recognition we’ve gotten for it, it is not in comparison with knowing Christ.
Paul states in verse 13, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.” The word forgetting in this passage means “no longer caring for, neglecting, refusing to focus on.”
EX: One of the most powerful tools in our minds is our memory. Our memory stores millions of pieces of information that we have through our senses. We remember what we heard, saw, tasted, felt, what we smelt, etc. We remember these things and these experiences. My grandmother passed away a year after I was born. I never really knew her or had the opportunity to know her like my sister did, but the only things I had close to her were pictures and her funeral program, so whenever I hear her or my parents talk about her, I see a picture of her in my mind, and I just feel a little bit sad and wish that I could travel bak to when she was still alive. But unfortunately, we have to understand, not everything in our past is like that. There are some things that we just have to let go of.
In this verse, Paul is not saying that we should erase all memories from our minds, but he is rather telling us that there some stuff that we have to let go of, and when we let go, we have to focus on the present and the future, rather than the past.
But I get it. It’s easy to “live in the past.” Whether it’s a past win that our minds continually replay or a past loss that we took that hangs over us like a dark cloud, but whatever it is, it needs to be left in the past. Modeling Paul’s forgetfulness means we count the past as nothing. We should not let those past wins or those past losses boost up our pride or make us feel less about ourselves. Instead of living in what happened then, we oughta live in what happens now. If we live in the past, then we are letting those past losses make us feel bad and we are letting those wins cause us to get the big head, but if we start living in what happens now, then this won’t happen. We oughta live in the present and see and be excited for the things God has for us now. We oughta be excited about the things that he is doing now.
EX: This reminds me of when I preached at Mount Canaan at 7:45, and then after, I went to go get some food. I came back to church, and my pastor told me “You had a good sermon at the last service, but that’s over now. This is the new service.
I know we may have had a bad school year last year, but that was last year. We may have had a good year last year, but that doesn’t mean that we should get the big head or feel down deep in the dumps. We should leave behind the past and all that it has and what God has for us now.
We have to keep pressing to reach the goal.
In order to reach our goal, the first thing I want you to keep in mind is that you have to keep your eyes fixed on your goal. You have to stay focused. The writer Paul had a vision and a goal ahead of him, and he is letting us know that he is keeping his eyes on that goal.
Paul kept pressing on to reach the goal. But we ask what is this goal that we have to keep pressing on to??
The goal Paul pressed toward was to know Jesus Christ and to become perfect in him.
Paul says earlier in verses 10-11, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”
This is amazing. Paul was so committed to the word and in deep with the Lord that he not only considered the other things he had worthless, but he said that he wanted to know Christ and become more perfect in him.
But we ask the question: “Why do we press on toward this goal?” Well, we press on toward this goal to know Jesus because it was Jesus that first called us. Paul says “But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.” We press on to Jesus because he first called us. He called us out of sin and delivered us from it when he died on a hill called Calvary, carrying all of the sins of the world on his back.
Notice that Paul starts off verse 14 with the words “I press on”. To press on means to keep moving forward. It means to continue doing something in a determined way.
EX: The 2024 Olympics is in Paris this year. Everybody is so excited because we have all of these black athletes competing. We have Noah Lyles, She’Carri Richardson, Simone Biles, and all of these other black olympians. The thing about all of these olympians that that they are trained and are pushed to work hard. They have discipline and absolute determination and endurance to press on to win and succeed. They keep their eyes focused on what is forward.
Pressing toward the goal requires that same determination and that same endurance to stay in the race and press on through the challenges of life. I like this text, because to me it all ties together. When we think about keeping our eyes on the prize and pressing to reach the goal, we can even look at Paul. Paul even says that even though he has not achieved perfection, he is pressing on to reach perfection. And this Paul. You see, Paul had been imprisoned, had been put in the face of rivals who were preaching against him, and he was in for a death sentence. But despite all of that, Paul comes back in Philippians 3 to tell us today that even though he is not perfect, he presses on with determination and endurance to reach perfection in Jesus Christ. And I know pressing on can be hard at times. We may feel like we can’t do it. We may be afraid of the opinions of people, but lets go forward to what Paul says in Philippians 4: He says “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”
We may have been through some things and we are going to go through some things, but if we just keep on knowing that God gives us strength, keep persevering, and keep pressing on to perfection in Jesus Christ, it is worth it. God wants us to keep on striving, keep on trying, and to keep pressing on to reach our goal. Never give up. This oughta be our mindset and our mentality. I have had some good times and bad times, but I press on. There are some people who think I’m weak, but I keep pressing on. Some people don’t like me, but I keep pressing on and don’t give up. We have to keep pressing on toward the goal, which is knowing Christ and becoming more like him and achieving perfection in him.
Conclusion
We have to keep our eyes on the prize. Keeping our eyes on the prize means understanding that we’re not going to have it all together. We are a mess, we are imperfect, and we don’t have it all together, but we are God’s mess, and the thing about a mess is that a mess can be turned into a masterpiece. It means forgetting what is behind us. We can’t look back on those past wins or those past losses, but we should look forward to what God has for us now and in the future. But then, keeping our eyes on the prize means pressing on to reach the goal. The goal that we press on to is knowing him and becoming more perfect in him. We have to keep moving forward to reach the goal, and at times it may seem hard, but if we keep on pressing on toward the goal, then it is worth it. Keep your eyes on the prize, because if you keep your eyes on the prize and keep our eyes focused on him, there is no way that we can lose.