Pursuing the Goal

At New Bethel we have been walking through the book of Philippians

Paul is thankful for the Philippians partnership in the Gospel

He is in jail

there are those preaching Christ out of envy

He just wants Christ proclaimed.

To live is Christ, to die is gain.

Salvation is by faith, not works

Anything that was gain he counts as a loss compared to knowing Christ.

Philippians 3:10–21 CSB

My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. 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. Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things, Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

The Goal

What are you working for?

What is the goal of your life?

It is good to have goals, it is good to work hard for them.

However, we want to make sure that we have all of our priorities in order. Paul Makes clear what the goal of his life is.

Philippians 3:10 CSB

My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,

Philippians 3:14 CSB

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

Why is he pursuing this?

Philippians 3:12 (CSB)

I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

Because of what Jesus has done, we pursue different things.

Consider Paul’s story.

He left everything to follow Christ and his goals rather than to pursue what he had his whole life.

So what does this mean for each of us?

Does this mean that you have to lay aside any and every goal that you have that isn’t following Christ?

Does this mean that you can’t have any aspirations?

No.

It does mean that this should be our ultimate goal.

All of the other goals that we pursue should fit into this pursuit of the greater goal.

Any time you are looking for food on a trip, you look for one that is in your path.

We must all determine what God is calling us to do in this life.

Lowest common point for all Christians is what Paul says in this passage: Pursuing the prize of the Heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

From there we have specific things that become clear that God calls us to do:

Calls to ministry.

Being a Missionary

Working with kids.

Working with students.

Teaching Sunday School.

Laboring behind the scenes.

Fill in the Blank.

Our Goals in this life, should be subservient and align with the Goals that we know that God is calling us to do.

Again at a base level there would be goals that would be sinful for any Christian.

The neglect of the heavenly goal.

Pursuing things that are sinful.

At a more individual base, there are goals that may not be sinful outright, but they may take us off track from our specific callings that God has placed on our life.

Jonah as an example.

Is it sinful to go to Tarshish? Perhaps many at that time could have considered it as a better option than Nineveh because of Nineveh’s reputation.

It is sinful to go to Tarshish if God is telling you to go to Nineveh.

Paul says that making this your goal is the mark of maturity in Christ.

Philippians 3:15 CSB

Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you.

Paul says that making everything you do be about pursuing Christ is what all mature Christians should do.

He says that if you disagree, God will reveal it.

When we come to faith in Christ, we are infants. All that is necessary is that we know we are sinners, and believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for our sins and was raised from the dead.

There are many things that we will not know at that time.

Because of this there are many things that many of us have been wrong about, and there are many people we will encounter that will have wrong understandings about truths about following God.

Our desire and confidence is that God will reveal this truth to them.

God is the one who saves us through the work of Jesus Christ.

He is the on who sanctifies us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Our call is to bear with those who are immature, teaching them sound doctrine, correcting and rebuking, all while loving them in the name of Christ.

After identifying the Goal, we must then Pursue the Goal.

Pursuing the Goal

Paul says that he has not achieved the goal, but he is constantly working toward that goal.

He forgets what is behind and is reaching forward to what is ahead.

This is really good advice for any goal that you may have.

If you want to succeed, forgetting what is behind your and looking forward toward the present goal is a must.

You cannot allow your past failure to overwhelm you to where you give up

Edison on 10,000 tries to make a light bulb, “I have not failed, but found 10,000 ways that did not work.

Focusing on failure will prevent you from moving toward the goal.

If you have ever ridden a bike there is a phenomenon you will encounter when you are riding. If you look backward, you will almost immediately begin drifting off course.

In the same way, you should avoid focusing on your successes if you are looking forward to a goal.

One of my favorite movie series of all time is the Rocky movies. In the third movie, Rocky has enjoyed being the champion. A newcomer challenges him, and he loses badly. His preoccupation with his past success prevented him from pursuing the task at hand.

In the same way, when we focus on past success we lose sight of what we are working toward. We become comfortable and complacent.

While these things apply to any endeavor we might face, Paul is speaking specifically about the pursuit of his Heavenly Goal. The same goal that we should have.

So what does in mean that we “forget what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Jesus.”

We forget what is behind.

Our sinful lives.

Satan will try to beat you down and wear you down by reminding you of your past. In Christ you are forgiven and freed from any shame to live a life confident in Him!

Our worldly lives.

There is the temptation to remember and want for the days before Christ.

The Israelites said they wished they’d stayed in Egypt.

Lot’s wife looked back.

Past Successes.

We should remember what God has done and what God has promised.

We should NOT fixate on those things. God can and will do greater things in the future.

Our eternal reward is greater than anything we have yet experienced.

Paul makes another statement of how we should pursue our Goal.

Philippians 3:16 CSB

In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.

When you know truth about God, about what it means to be obedient to God, the challenge is to put it into practice.

There are many places in life where your ability determines your placement.

Sports.

School.

Work.

It would be sill for a person to remain in the lower levels in any of those arenas when they have already achieved something greater.

In the same way, when we have matured in our faith, we should live as though we possess that maturity.

When we know what God is calling us to, how we should live our lives, what sin we should abstain from, and what good we should be doing. it is our obligation to do it.

Too often, the temptation is for Christians to develop a great and deep understanding of God and His word with very little application.

Being a Christian is very simple, but it is not easy.

Knowing what God wants you to do is easy, putting it into practice is where the difficulty comes in.

That is when we can face difficulty and pushback and struggle in this world.

We do all of this by imitating those who have set a good example for us in their lives.

When we don’t know what to do specifically, we look to the example of faithful men and women who have done it before us.

We do all of this because we want to arrive at our Goal..

Arriving at the Goal

Philippians 3:18–21 CSB

For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things, Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

Paul says that our citizenship is in heaven.

We value citizenship a lot in this country. We are thankful to live in a land with freedom, freedom to worship together as many of our brothers and sisters in Christ do not have. Where we have many brave men and women who defend that fight.

Regardless of how we may value this citizenship, we must realize that we are first and foremost citizens of heaven.

This is purchased by Christ.

We are adopted into this new citizenship, given this citizenship through the salvation found in Christ.

This same message is repeated in Hebrews 11.

The “Hall of faith” When speaking about their faith.

Hebrews 11:13–16 CSB

These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

We have to remember that all we do and all we are pursuing should be in a pursuit of our heavenly goal. Our citizenship is in heaven, not here.

We are to live as foreigners and temporary residents on earth.

Have you ever been somewhere where they did not speak a language you were familiar with? You most likely felt out of place.

The phrase, “Fish out of water.”

In both cases- it is because you are used to somewhere else.

If this world is not your home, there should be a clear disconnect between what those around you who don’t follow Christ want, and what you want. You should feel as though you don't belong, because your home is elsewhere.

This is a clear theme in Scripture:

James 4:4 CSB

You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

1 John 2:15 CSB

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

This does not mean that we will not love anything in this world, but if this world is our Goal, if this world is our home we are pursuing the wrong things. We have traded the greatest thing for something that cannot compare.

There are many who live this life without shame or regret.

Paul said that many live as enemies of the cross. This is abundantly clear.

So many live lives opposed to salvation and submission to God.

Paul says this through tears.

Their end is destruction, their god is their stomach, their glory is their shame; and they are focused on earthly things.

On a daily basis, we will encounter many of these people. they are our co-workers, our family members, our friends. This is why Paul says this through tears.

His desire is for these people to be saved.

This is why we must share the Gospel.

Romans 1:16 CSB

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.

Our urgent prayer and desire should be for the salvation of the lost.

We do this because we are confident in our goal. We know that we will achieve it.

That our bodies will be transformed to be like Christ

Ailments cured.

Sin destroyed.

We long for this day, but until we take ahold of this goal we must be obedient.

Pursuing the goal

Seeking to share the Good news with as many as will listen.

Where are you this morning?

What is your goal in life?

Are you living your life as though Christ is your goal?

Do you know Christ this morning, or are you still living consumed by this world?

He is far better than anything this world can offer.

Wherever you are this morning, be obedient to where God calls.