Philippians
3:10-16 “That I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from
the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have
already become perfect, but I press on so that I
may lay hold of that for which
also I was laid hold of by Christ
Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid
hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting
what lies behind and
reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on
toward the goal for the prize of the upward
call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect,
have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different
attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however,
let us keep living by that same standard to which
we have attained.” (NASB)
Continuing on our Easter
Sunday sermon, Pastor Kyle came to the second point that we can press on by forgetting
what is behind and straining
toward what is ahead. We are far from perfect. The Apostle Paul, who wrote most
of the epistles of the New Testament, writes: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at
my goal”. He is says that he doesn’t have it all together and still working
it out. May we never put forth an image that we have it all together either. How
do we keep from portraying that image? By remembering where we come from.
Remembering how desperately sinful each and every one of us is in the sight of
God.
Psalm 105:4 “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek
his presence continually!”
The Apostle Paul, before meeting Jesus and being
converted, arrested Christians and had them put to death. As he was writing
this letter to the Philippians, he was in prison awaiting execution but is able
to write: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal”. What Paul is saying is, “You know
what guys? Let’s not get so caught up on the negative things that the world has
to say because all those things don’t serve to further the gospel or advance
the kingdom of God .” Let me ask you a question: What
does it mean to strain forward in your walk with God? I think that it is kind
of like a spiritual working out of our salvation (Phil. 2:12-13). Straining
requires effort.
Isaiah 40:29-31 “He gives
power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even
youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who
wait for the Lord shall
renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like
eagles;
they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
We want the results, but
do not want to go through the process that it takes to get there. For example,
anyone can get a gym membership to get in shape, but in order to get the
desired results you have to go there and do the workouts, doing hart stuff that
you don’t want to do. Spiritual growing requires straining forward and pressing
on. How do you keep forward and not reverting back? On of the ways is that we
stay connected to the body of Christ and develop key relationship within the
church. Sometimes, we just need a little encouragement to get over the hump
because we are going to have those moments when we feel that we are
incapacitated and in trouble (aka “hosed”). We’re going to have moments when we
think that this whole Christianity thing is too hard and wonder if we can live
it out. So we need those key relationships within the church, the body of
Christ, to help us be accountable and grow.
1
Corinthians 9:24-27 “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. Every athlete
exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable
wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly;
I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it
under control, lest after preaching to others I myself
should be disqualified.
Additionally,
Rows of Pews on Sunday, when we come together to praise and worship God corporately, is
a great and awesome time. And circles of small group studies, where we are
learning how life is happening and how to get through it, allows us to
experience what it feels like while promoting unity and intimacy. All this
within the local church is about getting back into spiritual shape the way that
God designed us to grow. If I do not apply my salvation, then I do not grow the
way that God designed me to grow. At times when we are weak in our faith or
when life gets hard, God wants to strengthen us, and we need that support of
the body of Believers with Jesus Christ as the head. The church is here so that
you can find those key relationships in your life, to keep you straining
forward.
1
Timothy 4:7-8 “Do not waste time
arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be
godly. “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is
much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”
Coming
to the home stretch in this thought-provoking Easter message to us all, we’ll pick up Pastor Kyle’s Easter Sermon again here
on the next post.
In Christ, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment