Running For The Goal
Notes
Transcript
Joke
Joke
Late one night a burglar broke into a house and while he was sneaking around he heard a voice say, “Jesus is watching you.” He looked around and saw nothing. He kept on creeping and again heard, “Jesus is watching you.” In a dark corner, he saw a cage with a parrot inside. The burglar asked the parrot, “was it you who said Jesus is watching me?” The parrot replied, “yes.” Relieved, the burglar asked, “what is your name?” The parrot replied, “Clarence.” The burglar said, “that’s a dumb name for a parrot. What goofball called you Clarence?” The parrot answered, “the same goofball who named the Rottweiler Jesus.”
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Open
God really did an amazing job of creating humans. I know that this is an obvious statement, but it is too true not to point out. We have a super computer in our skull more powerful if fully used than the most powerful super computer. WE can love in so many different ways. We have the ability to create life! God also gave us the desire to want more. WE aren’t born with the desire to stay stagnant. We want to achieve, we want to succeed. Now obviously some of humanity has taken this desire and warped into things such as war and superiority. But the perfect desire to succeed that God gave us gets us where we want to be which is where God wants us. We do this often, setting goals in our lives. We cross a finish line because we created a finish line. Think about sports for just a second. They were created by men to see who was the best. We had the human goal to be the best. WE have all hear the saying growing up that anything worth doing is worth doing right. Even though it it pretty cliche its true. Why waste any time or any energy on something that you care nothing about. The goals that are most important to us we do our absolute best to complete.
I just mentioned sports. Sports are a huge part of the world that we live in. I have known many different types of athletes, basketball players, soccer players, volleyball, football, etc. The athletes that cared about what they did were very passionate. None compared to the runner. I have known a few runners and they all are not just passionate about running, they are borderline obsessed!
The first Olympics on record were in 776 B.C. That is almost 800 years before Christ was born! People have been playing games and going after goals for milenia! How many of the hundreds and thousands of athletes that went for the win achieved a top three finish. not many. Many simply finished.
So again I ask, Why do it then. Why train and kill yourself on a daily basis if you know you aren’t going to win? The reason most people who run races run, The thrill of knowing you did your best and you finished the race!
Enter the author of our passage Paul. Paul was apparently a sports fan. Sports are used in the Bible over a hundred times. Maybe people just understood the sports analogy. Regardless Paul knew that he could reach the people by talking to them how they would understand. And he needed them to understand how important their spiritual goals should be.
Know your Weakness
Know your Weakness
If you ever hope to do well in any given thing, whether sports, business, parenting, even preaching you have to take a good look at yourself and see what weak spots you have so you can focus on strengthening them. Paul knew this and he wanted the people to know that as well. Paul wanted the people to see that the things he felt he lacked in were also some of his greatest strengths. Look with me starting in verse 10.
Philippians 3:10 (ESV)
that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
#1 - Paul wanted to know Jesus: “That I may know Him”.
Paul had Salvation. He had had it for quite some time when Philippians was written. One commentary I read thought that Paul was saved for over 30 years when Philippians was written. Even though there was NOTHING more important to Paul then his Salvation he wasn’t satisfied. WHAT?! Not enough? Paul was satisfied with his salvation.
What else could you possibly need. However, Paul needed to know his savior. Everything about him.
It’s like those couple quizes, you know, the ones that see how much you know about your mate. I feel I know Heidi quite well, I hope better than anyone, yet I always seem to miss one.
When it came to Jesus, Paul is saying that he wanted to know what Jesus thought. How he thought it. What he ate. Did he sleep on his side or on his back? Was he right or left handed? There could be nothing about Paul’s Savior that he didn’t know. Including how he was resurrected. Paul knew that Jesus was God. He knew that was the reason He had the power to walk on water. To make a fig tree wither. To die a horrific death only to raise from the dead 3 days later. You can’t blame him either. What would you do if you had that type of power.
Paul also knew that this was something that he had to do. Not someone else for him. Let GO and LET God didn’t work for Paul. Like any good relationship Paul had to put in the work to have a close relationship with Jesus. We like to sit back and think that God wants a relationship with us so bad that He is going to do all the work to have one!
I had the opportunity to go to the coast for the last week and a half. I was by myself in our van while Heidi, her mom, and the kids were in the other vehicle. I downloaded a bunch of old sermons by various pastors to listen to while I drove (along with cartoons). One pastor said that if he were to describe our relationship with Jesus it is like the pedal apparatus on a bike. Jesus gives us the bike (salvation) and the strength to pedal it. But we don’t pedal it alone. We are on one side pedalling and Jesus is on the other. Its a team. He is the coach but we need to do our do our part. Not just sit down and expect Jesus to do all the work for us.
Paul knew that the more he knew about God the closer he would be to him.
#2 - Paul wanted to share Christ’s suffering.
This one is tough. And it isn’t metaphorical. Paul wanted to experience everything that Jesus experienced in hi walk on this earth including Christ’s suffering. Think about this for a second. Think of all the pain Jesus must have endured. Paul wanted that. Not just the physical suffering which was massive as we all know, but also the mental suffering. Remember the hatred that Jesus had to experience. How much mental stress would you have to endure to burst blood vessels in your head? To have people that you love and are willing to die for spit on you and wish your death. Paul wanted that.
Paul knew that the more he experienced what Jesus experienced the closer he would be to him.
#3 - Paul wanted to die like Christ.
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Jesus Christ gave up His life for us. He sacrificed His life and paid the ultimate price simply so we can have Salvation. Paul knew that his life was almost over on this planet and He wanted to give his life the way his Savior did.
Pastor David Jeremiah said - The faith that you live by, better be good enough to die by.
Paul wanted to be like Jesus.
Now turn with me to verse 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.
Paul just spent the time to share with his brothers and sister in Christ everything that he wanted in his life, just to turn around and tell them that as much as he wanted to reach that goal, he would never reach that goal. Paul knew that there was absolutely nothing that he could do to achieve his goal. No matter how hard he climbed he would never reach the top. No matter how hard he trained, he would never win the race.
However the fact that he knew he would never achieve this goal wasn’t going to stop him from doing his best to try. Why, because Jesus died and made Paul his own. The idea that the goal was there was enough to keep Paul running for the goal.
1 Corinthians 9:24 (ESV)
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
You may not win, but it shouldn’t stop you from trying to.
With that being said, no one ever said it would be easy. Paul knew it wouldn’t be easy so he wanted to encourage the people. Look with me at verse 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,
Jumping Over Hurdles
Jumping Over Hurdles
Life brings hurdles that we have to jump over to get to the goal. It’s just the way it is.
Paul isn’t stupid enough to think that just by giving a pep talk the people are going to jump to it. That wouldn’t have worked then, and for the most part it won’t work now. You would hope so, but no. Paul knew that one of the major hurdles that the Philippians and us face is our past. We all have things in our past that hold us back from fulfilling our goals in life. Some things huge, some things not. But all huge to the individual.
Let us be real. No one had more of a past than Paul did. He committed pretty much every sin you can think of including murder. Just look what Paul said earlier in the chapter.
Philippians 3:4–8 (ESV)
though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Back in the 90’s Disney released the Lion King. It has one scene in particular that always makes me think when it comes to the topic of peoples past.
Simba and why he was where he was.
THE LION KING
Rafiki and Simba.
Inb the movie the Lion King Simba the main character thinks that he has killed his father. His past haunts him and keeps him from fulfilling his goal in life. Rafiki the monkey has a conversation.
Rafiki hits Simba
Simba - “ouch that hurt!”
Rafiki - “It doesn’t matter, it’s in the past.”
Simba - Yeah but it still hurts.”
Rafiki - “Yes, the past can hurt, but the way I see it you can either run from it, or learn from it.”
The last time I was in front of you I told you that people liked to twist the Bible to fit their needs. This verse is one of those verses that people like to twist to fit their needs. There are a couple of points here that need to be made.
#1 - This verse is not an excuse to sin. Paul is not telling us that we can do what we want and then forget about it the next day. “I cheated on my wife, but it’s ok because Philippians 3:14 says that I should forget about my past and not let it hold me back.” Then you continue to do the same sin. This is not only not true repentance, it is a blatant misuse of the verse.
#2 - If something in our past needs fixed, we need to fix it. Matthew says...
Matthew 5:23–24 (ESV)
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
When Paul is talking about forgetting the past it has nothing to do with these types of things. It has everything to do with freeing yourself so that you can get the goal.
Let’s go back to the running analogy for a second. I ran track for one excruciating year. I enjoyed the team and the events, but hated the running. The one thing that I can plainly remember my coach telling me is when you are in the race never look behind you. You see, when you look behind you in a race it slows down your momentum. Even in a relay race you simply stick your hand behind you and trust that your teammate will hand off the baton correctly.
The greek word for straining forward is....
epekteino - which means that stretch every muscle to its absolute limit.
Paul is saying leave the past in the past and give it everything you have to reach your goal. Don’t leave this planet leaving anything behind.
ME to WE
ME to WE
For the last 2 verses in our text as well the rest of the chapter Paul changes from talking about himself to talking about himself as well as the rest of the people.
Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
He doesn’t scold, he encourages.
Christians have one major thing in common, Salvation. With that being said there are quite a few differences as well. Some people have been Christians for years. Some have barely taken their Salvation out of the box. Paul first addresses the believers that have a little more knowledge.
If you have been a Christian, and you understand what I am saying. Great. Continue to get it. This is the correct way to think.
If you don’t understand what I am saying, do not worry. If you continue to seek and trust in God He will show you the correct way. He will lead you to the truth. Just keep running!!
2 Peter 1:3 (ESV)
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
God isn’t going to keep himself a secret. He wants us to know him. Ask Him and He will lead us the way we should go!
Paul finishes this portion of his letter with a command. In the NIV instead of the word Only they use the word however.
Now that I have told you about myself, now that I have told you about us as a whole, let me tell you one more thing...
Let us hold true to what we have attained.
The standard has been set, now we must live up to that standard!
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If you are passionate about something you give it 100%. Work, love, family. It doesn’t matter what it is, if it is important you give it your all. What could possibly be more important in your life then Jesus Christ. The question is does he get your 100%? Do you give Him your all? Is the goal of knowing him something important to you or does it take a back seat.
Last week Pastor Mark talked about love. If you want to love more be more like Jesus. Do you want more patience, be more like Jesus. Do you want less fear in your life, be more like Jesus. There is an easy answer to most if not all the problems that you may be having in your life…be more like Jesus.
I would say to you this morning. If God is truly number 1 in your life and that is the goal that you live by. All the rest will fall into place the way that they should.
Check your goals, and go for it!