Pressing On

Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Good morning, church family! Today, we continue our series, "Joy Through Humility," as we delve into the powerful message found in Philippians 3:12-14. The Apostle Paul, in his wisdom, admits that he has not yet reached perfection. This acknowledgment is vital, as it reminds us that our Christian journey is one of continual growth and striving.

Paul's passion to "press on" serves as an inspiring call for each of us. He urges us to forget what lies behind and to reach forward toward the prize that God has promised in Christ Jesus. This passage challenges us to reflect on our own lives—are we making every effort to take hold of the life that Christ has given us?

As we explore these verses today, let us consider how we, too, can pursue our spiritual goals with the same fervor Paul exhibited. We are not defined by our past failures or our struggles; instead, we are called to press on, empowered by the grace of God, toward the glorious future He has prepared for us. So, our big idea today is:

Big Idea: We must continue to grow in our Christian walk.

Lets get to it!

Philippians 3:12

Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

Paul just finished saying that his goal is to know Christ, the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings. Though the apostle was fervent in his prayers and preaching and showed his knowledge of Christ throughout his life and ministry, he had not yet reached his goal.

He was not perfect and was willing to admit it. When we become Christians, we do not become perfect people who never sin. That’s not how it works. We are still fallen, sinful people who need the grace of God on a daily basis.

1 John 1:8

If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

When we first become a part of God’s family, the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to give us new life. We are raised from spiritual death to spiritual life. This is our “justification.” We have repented of our sins and declared Jesus Christ to be Lord of our lives. We are then given the righteousness of Jesus that he earned on the cross when he took our sins upon himself, bearing our deserved punishment. We are seen as justified, or righteous, in the sight of God.

From there, the Holy Spirit starts to change how we think and act, conforming us to the image of Christ. This is the process of “sanctification.” We begin to see the folly of our past actions and have the desire from the Holy Spirit to make better choices. That does not mean that we will always make the right choices.

Romans 7:14-19

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin. For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.

What Paul is describing here is the process of sanctification. With his mind, he understands that the actions he wants to commit are sinful. But his flesh, his old nature that he lived by before his salvation, still battles against his mind, trying to convince him to sin. How many of us have known something was a sin, it was absolutely wrong, and yet you felt this physical compulsion to do it anyway, like your body was being pulled by a magnet toward that sin? That is not the devil making you do it! Nor is it God dangling something shiny in front of you to see if you will take it.

James 1:13-15

No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.

James says that our temptations are born out of our own evil desire to rebel against God. Satan does not “make” us sin. If Satan is making everyone sin like we want to claim he is, because we don’t want to handle the personal responsibility and consequences of making bad choices, that would make him omnipresent, all present everywhere. But he is not omnipresent. That is an attribute of God alone.

Satan is a liar and a deceiver. He didn’t make Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All he had to do was tell them that God was holding out on them. Adam and Eve decided to eat the fruit because of their own desire to do so. Satan just provided the excuse Adam and Eve wanted to hear in their own minds.

That urge, that desire, is the sinfulness in ourselves that is still there after the moment of salvation. It will be there until the day we die or until Jesus comes back, whichever comes first. But it is not something that we fight alone. If you have submitted your life to Christ, the Holy Spirit is in you, giving you the strength to fight those temptations. He is giving you the wisdom to avoid situations where you know those temptations will likely come at you.

Paul said that he made “every effort” to take hold of his prize. He is using an athlete metaphor to describe the life of a Christian. Leave it to men to compare everything in their lives to sports.

But the apostle is making a very relevant analogy here. Last week, we saw the quote from Charles Spurgeon that likened Paul’s vigor to gain Christ to the athlete in the ancient Olympics trying to gain the laurel wreath crown, being willing to strain himself to death to achieve his goal. Part of that straining to win is the preparation and practice for the actual game.

How many of you remember who said this:

“Separation is in the preparation.”

Though many things Russell Wilson said as a Seahawk were extremely corny, this is one saying that I absolutely agree with, especially as it pertains to the Christian life. There is work involved! The Christian life takes prayer and studying the Bible, and then more prayer and studying the Bible. It takes sharing the love and hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ with a world that does not want to hear about it.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. In this chapter, Paul is telling his Corinthian readers all the ways he tried to serve those who need the gospel. Around the Jews, he behaved according to Jewish customs so as not to offend them. Around Gentiles, he behaved according to their customs. He did all this while still obeying the law of God. This sounds exhausting, trying to keep everyone happy.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown. So I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air. Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control (beat my body into submission), so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

Paul tells his readers that if athletes in his day trained and worked to earn a laurel leaf crown that would fade and die, but we are working to gain an eternal crown of glory from our King that is worth more than any earthly crown, we should be working and training ourselves even harder than the athletes.

Training cannot be random either! If you are looking to gain muscle mass, you need to have a plan in place as to how you will reach your goals. You need to eat a lot of protein, drink a ton of water every day, and work specific muscle groups together, switching muscle groups each day. You also need to rest your muscles, taking a day or two off every week to allow your muscles to recover and grow.

The same is true for our lives as Christians. If we want to proclaim the truth of who Jesus Christ is and be able to share his love with a world that so desperately needs it, we have a plan of action.

We need to pray.

We can pray whatever we may feel led to pray in our hearts and minds, that is not necessarily bad. However, when we pray with intention, it will help to focus our hearts and minds on what we are praying for.

In the book, A Praying Life by Paul Miller, the author suggests using index cards for your prayer time. A simple way to use index cards for prayer:

Index Cards for Prayer

Use one card for yourself - personal prayer requests: health, work, finances, relationships, anxiety, depression, etc.

(If married) Use a card for your spouse’s prayer requests

Add index cards for children, extended members of the family, close friends, church, etc.

When prayers get answered, write down the date God answered them.

You dont need to pray for every card every day or night. You can flip through them and do a new card every day. But this will help you keep your prayer time focused as you are developing a habit of prayer. Another tool for prayer is The Valley of Vision. It is a collection of prayers from Puritans and pastors that can help direct your prayer life.

Next Step: I will develop a habit of prayer.

(Prayer doesnt have to only be in the early morning)

When getting ready to study Scripture, you should start with prayer. Over the last year and a half, I have been a part of an online men’s Bible Study and accountability group, led by former NFL Fullback Heath Evans. This group provides tools and helps for men to get in shape both physically and spiritually. One of the spiritual tools that was given to us by Heath was IOUS prayers. He admits that he did not come up with these on his own, but got them from pastor and author, John Piper.

IOUS prayers are different verses in Scripture, specifically the Psalms, in which the writer of the Psalm is asking for his sinful heart to be turned back toward the Lord so that he can understand what God’s Word says.

(S) IOUS Prayers

I – Incline my heart to your testimonies,

and not to selfish gain! – Psalm 119:36

O – Open my eyes, that I may behold

wondrous things out of your law. – Psalm 119:18

U – Give me an undivided heart,

that I may fear your name. – Psalm 86:11

S – Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love. – Psalm 90:14

We need to study the Word of God systematically. This is partly why I preach through books of the Bible verse-by-verse. In order to fully understand what Scripture says, we must make sure that we have the proper context of who the text was written to, when it was written, and why. Many devotionals and bible studies written for the non-pastor tend to be either very basic and lacking in depth, or so generic that you don’t learn the actual message that Scripture is trying to teach.

In the church app, I have a PDF called Simple Bible Study Methods. In this PDF you will find how to go about studying the Bible, what to look for in a passage, and what other tools you can use to guide you in your study. However, I do want to share the basic outline of this method of Bible study.

Prayer for Guidance

Start with a prayer asking for the Holy Spirit’s guidance and understanding as you read and study.

Select a Passage

Choose a specific passage or chapter to study. Begin with shorter passages if you're new to studying the Bible.

Read the Passage

Read the selected passage multiple times. Consider different translations for varied insights.

Contextual Study

Historical Context: Research the historical background of the passage. What was happening at the time?

Cultural Context: Understand the cultural practices and beliefs of the people involved.

Textual Context: Look at the surrounding verses and chapters to grasp the overall message.

Observation

Note key words, phrases, and themes. What stands out? What questions arise?

Interpretation

Use available resources such as commentaries, study Bibles, or online tools to explore interpretations of the passage.

Application

Reflect on how the passage applies to your life today. What lessons can you learn? How can you implement these in your daily life?

Discussion

If possible, discuss your findings with a friend or a small group to gain different perspectives.

Journal Your Insights

Write down your observations, interpretations, and applications in a journal for future reference.

Start by working through smaller passages of the Bible. Read through passages like Psalm 23, Romans 8, John 1 or 3, or Ephesians 2. All these chapters talk about key theological principles for the daily walk of a Christian. Don’t feel like you need to do 5-10 verses every time you do this kind of study. If you only get through one verse because you are just learning how to study the Bible. That is perfectly fine. If you can only get through one verse because there is a lot of background information to look up for the verse, that is perfectly fine, too. The number of verses you study at a time are not what is important. Spending time in the Word is what is important.

Next Step: I will begin to study the Bible more deeply.

We need to find faithful preachers and teachers to learn from. There are a lot of “Christian” teachers and pastors out there who proclaim anything BUT the truth of Scripture. In the app I have a list of pastors and bible teachers (both dead and alive) that I trust to provide sound, biblically based teaching, along with links to their websites or ministries.

Sermons:

Charles Spurgeon, RC Sproul, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Sinclair Ferguson, Derek Thomas, and Costi Hinn.

Theology and Christian Living:

AW Pink, AW Tozer, Wayne Grudem, Mike Winger.

Apologetics (giving a defense for what you believe):

Frank Turek, Greg Koukl, J. Warner Wallace.

We need to be diligent in our prayer and our study of God’s word. That way, when we get to the end of our lives, we can say just as Paul did in his final letter to Timothy:

2 Timothy 4:7

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

However, the reason for his continual striving to take hold of Christ as his prize was that Christ Jesus had taken hold of him. Christ taking hold of Paul was why Paul wanted to know Christ more. We do not pray and study scripture so that we can earn God’s favor. However, when the Holy Spirit works in our hearts and minds, he changes our desires to want to pray and study scripture. We desire to know more about God because we experience his love more and more in our lives.

Philippians 3:13

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead…

Paul restates that he has not yet reached that goal. If you have been serving the Lord for a long time, and you have days where you say, “Why do I still struggle with this?” Paul had these same feelings. He says he has not yet reached his goal. He says that he is not perfect.

But then shares what straining toward Christ looks like: “Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead.” Paul did not take time to focus on the things of yesterday. He did not obsess about whether his past life as a persecutor of the church would hinder his ability to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul could have let his past life define him. He could have let his past actions hold him down and keep him from following the call of God on his life. However, I believe in God’s providence and sovereignty, he chose Paul BECAUSE of his past.

1 Corinthians 1:27

Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.

What Paul is saying here in 1 Corinthians is that the things that seem the smartest or best in this world in our own understanding are not always what is best in God’s understanding.

Here is one of the best examples. Many of the smartest people in the world in the areas of physics, biology, and mathematics cannot wrap their heads around the idea of God being the creator of the universe. To you and I, who may not be as smart in the areas of science and math, it seems obvious that God is real and is the creator of the universe. Some of the earliest comments that we would get on our YouTube videos were people trying to convince me with science and math that God is not real.

How many times in Scripture do we see that the Kingdom of God works opposite of how we as humans think it should? We saw Jesus tell his disciples last week that those who want to gain their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for the sake of Christ will find it. Another time in the gospels, Jesus tells his followers that the last shall be first and the first shall be last.

We can get stuck in thinking that God will not use us because of our past sins and mistakes. But the only person that God used to bring about his purposes who was perfect was Jesus! No one else can fit that description.

Abraham twice lied about Sarah being his wife so that kings wouldn’t kill him to take Sarah as their own wife.

Jacob lied to his father, Isaac, about being his twin brother, Esau, by putting goat skins on his arms and neck so he seemed as hairy as his brother to his blind father.

Moses murdered an Egyptian and buried the body before God used him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Samson repeatedly broke his Nazarite vow of not touching dead things or drinking wine, was a womanizer, and eventually told a Philistine woman the secret to his great strength.

Jonah ran away from God when he was called to preach to the people of Nineveh and got in a boat to go in the opposite direction toward the end of the known world at the time in Spain.

Of course, there is also Paul. He was a Pharisee who thought the followers of Jesus were heretics who deserved death. He oversaw the killing of Stephen the martyr and was on his way to arrest more Christians when he encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. That same man wrote almost half of the New Testament and was the first to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the continent of Europe.

We cannot let our past define us. We cannot see our weaknesses as holding us back from serving God. In 2 Corinthians, Paul talks about his own weakness. He tells his readers that he had this “thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan” to torment him and keep him humble. And when he asked God multiple times to take it away, this is what God said to him:

2 Corinthians 12:9

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”

Next Step: I will let God dictate my future, no matter my past.

Philippians 3:14

I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

The goal that Paul pursues is the prize promised by God in Christ Jesus. The prize is heaven, but not the heaven we see depicted in cartoons and cable shows. Heaven is not sitting on clouds playing the harp for all eternity. Heaven is not us becoming angels.

There are a lot of different theories about what heaven will be like. The book of Revelation is often used to try and figure out exactly what we will do in heaven and what exactly it will look like. I am just going to say that we won’t know exactly what heaven will be like until we get there. The most important thing about heaven, though, is this: in heaven, there is eternal communion with God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. If no other things about heaven were real or to be taken literally from scripture, that would be okay. Anything that would take our eyes off beholding the immense radiance of God the Father and seeing the nail-scarred hands and feet of Jesus is just a distraction.

As we reflect on our passage today, we are reminded that our journey in faith is not about perfection but about progress. The Apostle Paul teaches us to forget our past mistakes and to press on toward the prize of our heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.

Many of us may feel weighed down by our past failures or struggles, thinking they define us. But the good news is that in Christ, we are given a new identity. We are not defined by our sins, but by His grace. If you have not yet surrendered your life to Jesus, I urge you to do so today. Repent of your sins and embrace the gift of salvation that He offers.

Next Step: I will submit my life to Christ.

Remember, it is not about achieving perfection but about striving to know Him more deeply. Allow the Holy Spirit to empower you as you pursue a life that reflects Christ's love. Let go of what holds you back, and press on toward the abundant life that God has promised. Seek Him, and you will find the joy and purpose your heart longs for.

Let us end with a prayer from Valley of Vision. p22

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