Philippians 3:12-4:9
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Students we have just two weeks left in this series
Man I hope for you that this has been a joyful (pun intended) series for you guys
That going through a specific book of the Bible for an extended period of time has helped grow you and strengthen you
If you’re tired of it, just hold fast we are almost done!
Here’s what I love about the text tonight: Paul is going to tell us how to deal with our past
I’m not sure what your past is
I know some of your stories of life change, but I don’t know all of them
But here is what I do now — our past will destroy us if we let it
I didn’t follow Jesus until the summer going into my senior year
That means I had a lot of time to sin, do the things of the world, and run from God
I had plenty of sin and a past that chased me down
I had addictions that followed me
Broken relationships with family and friends that were pulling me down
All of this is striving to pull me away from the Lord
The reality is, everyone of you has the same thing
A past that is pulling you away
A past that wants you to seek anything but Jesus
Paul himself has this same past
Paul spent his life trying to kill Christians
He would hunt them down, tie up their feet and drag them back to Jerusalem so that they can be put to death
Yet look at what Paul tells us about our past
Look Forward, not backwards
Look Forward, not backwards
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained. 17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Paul here admits “I’m not perfect”
I think for myself and probably a lot of us if we are honest we look at Paul, Peter, the other apostles, pastors in our life, and we think they are perfect
“They’ve got it all figured out”
Yet Paul tells us he’s not perfect he has a deadly past
Yet he tells us how to deal with it:
Look Forward, not backwards
If we are want to move past our past and follow Christ completely it means we must look forward to Christ, not backwards to our sin
Press on toward the goal of Christ
We are not meant to stay in the past, but instead walking in the new life of Christ striving to bring other people to Him
Paul tells us here that if we don’t move forward seeking Christ daily that our end is destruction, we will glory in our shame, and keep our minds on earthly things
Let that sink in:
When I got saved my past kept trying to pull me back
It wanted me to celebrate my sin and addictions
“It’s my body, it’s not hurting anyone else” my past would tell me
“Your girlfriend wants too, its not bad its natural”
“Wrestling is the only way you’ll get out of the trailer park, focus on it solely”
Man my past was weaving lies straight from the devil
Yet Paul looks at us and tells us — if you follow Christ, don’t look back, look forward
Look at the sacrifice that Christ made for you
Look at the death on the cross and how he bled for you
Trust in Him and move towards him always
But what makes this even better? Paul doesn’t leave us thinking we need to focus forward
He tells us how
And thats what we are going to look at today
4 ways to look forward and not backwards
1. Rejoice in the Lord
1. Rejoice in the Lord
The first thing comes from Phil 4:4
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
How do we look forward and not backwards?
The first thing:
Rejoice in the Lord
Two times here Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord
To praise the name of Jesus!
That the bulk of our time should be spent praising the Lord!
We should be seeking to rejoice in the Lord always
When we spend time praising the Lord, it forces us to look to Christ and not to our past
When we pray, read our Bible, listen to good godly music, spend time with Christian believers who will pull us to Christ, confess sins, sit in silence and solitude, fast, and share the love of Christ we are rejoicing
No matter the circumstance we find ourselves in
No matter the past we have
No matter the pain and trauma that we all have — we are meant to rejoice in the Lord
Praise Him for loving us and saving us
For dying for us
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
While we were in our past, Christ died for us
While we were in our sin, Christ came and loved us
Paul tells us to rejoice!
2. Fight your anxieties
2. Fight your anxieties
The second thing Paul tells us comes from Philippians 4:5-7
5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
He says to be reasonable to all people and be do not be anxious
If you want to look forward and not backward here’s the second thing:
Fight your anxieties
Paul tells us that we must fight our anxiety
The thing inside us that makes us panic and worry, often about things that we cannot control even if we wanted to
He tells us that we are to fight our anxieties
Our anxieties are one of the quickest ways we go back to our past
“What if the people won’t accept me now”
“What if I try to fight my addiction and it doesn’t work”
“What if I lose friends?”
All of these anxieties ran rampant in my mind when I followed Jesus
It felt easier to stay in my past because my anxiety was high
Yet Paul tells us to fight our anxieties
How?
By prayer and supplication to God
What does this mean?
Prayer is talking to God
Supplication is a big church word that means make your request be known
Paul says that if we want the peace that only God can give, the satisfaction that only comes from Jesus we need to go to God with all our requests
All the things that you feel anxious and troubled with — go to the Lord!
But there is a caveat that is important for us to understand — we cannot mearly say the words
Ask for the Lord to give us peace and not believe that He can do it
Instead when we pray and bring our anxieties to the Lord, make our requests known — when we ask for Jesus to heal us and calm our spirit and anxieties that are keeping us captive we need to actually believe that He can and will
Thats why Paul says to do it with thanksgiving — you aren’t thankful to someone if you believe that it might not work:
I’m not thankful when something has a 50/50 shoot of working
I’m not thankful when I believe a lie and it falls through
I am thankful when something works
And for Paul he tells us that if we want peace and satisfaction — to feel like we don’t need to stay on that hamster wheel we must bring our requests and anxieties to God — fight your anxiety
BELIEVING THAT JESUS WILL SAVE YOU FROM IT
Full thanksgiving in your prayer — the belief that Jesus has already conquered your fears
3. Train your mind
3. Train your mind
The third way to look forward to Christ and not backwards to your past comes from Phil 4:8
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
To look forward we must:
Train your mind
Paul tells us we must train our minds to focus on the good things
Look at what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise
We should be focusing on the good things in life
The things that praise Jesus
When I started following Jesus it was super hard to focus on Jesus and not fall back into my past when every song I listened to was celebrating my sin
It was hard to move forward with Christ when every youtuber I listened to was dropping 50 F-bombs a video
It was had to move forward with Christ when my friends were encouraging me to do all the wrong things in life
Paul warns us that we must train our minds to look at the things of God, not the things of earth
Listen to what Jesus says about the things we focus on:
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
Quite literally Jesus is telling us that the things that our eyes are focusing on will affect the way live
The things we intake are the things that we will output
This is true with our food, with our study in school, and SO SO true in our spiritual life
If we are seeking the Lord we will become like Him
But if we focus on our past, the sin in our life, we will never grow
Students train your minds to focus on the things of God
4. Practice these things
4. Practice these things
The last thing comes from Phil 4:9
9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Paul finishes up this idea of how to move forward with Christ and not stay in our sin by telling us:
Practice these things
Man it’s not enough to just simply know the truth
Its not enough to know Jesus, to know what we need to do, we must actually do them
I could tell you all the Bible verses that called my sin sin
I could tell you all about how my past was pulling my from God
But it didn’t matter if I knew it
I had to do something about it
Its not enough to know about Jesus — to know how he died for you
We need to actually apply it
Listen to James 1:22-25
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
We are called to be doers of the Word
Actually applying what we know
For us that means we need to actually:
Rejoice in the Lord — spend time praying, reading the Bible, thanking him for saving us
Fighting our anxieties — don’t just let the fear win, go to God with it FULLY believing that He CAN AND WILL take it.
Train your minds — Actually spend time looking at the things you do, the screen time on your phone and ask “is it pulling me towards Christ”
We need to actually follow Christ
Conclusion
Conclusion
Students
It takes work to move forward with Christ
Jesus came while we were still sinners and saved us
While we were in our past — but he calls us out of it
Into new life
Its time we live like it
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
What thoughts do you have about the message?
Do you feel like you focus more on your past, or on the life Jesus is calling you to?
How can rejoicing in the Lord help us focus on our future instead of our past?
In what practical ways can you fight anxieties?
What are some specific actions you can take to train your mind to focus on things that glorify God?
