Strain Forward & Press On - Part 3

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)

And now we come to the conclusion of our Easter Sunday sermon by Pastor Kyle of City Church in Anaheim, California where he asks us to think of the culture that we live in today. We live in a culture of comfort. We are the only culture in civilization to have such instead gratification. We have the most comfortable beds, the best cars to meet and exceed our needs, we have our songs on our playlists, and little devices that keep us in touch with anything and everything 24/7/365 with as little effort as humanly possible. As a popular Country song today says: “everything became automatic”. We just about have whatever we want, whenever we want it. This culture does not really understand effort. Spiritual growth feels like work because it is and that’s why we need the body of Christ. If you try to do this whole “you and God” thing alone, then you are going to end up exhausted and, at some point, throwing in the towel because it is so easy to get caught up in “what lies behind” that we stop “straining forward to what lie ahead”. I think that this is true in every way in life.

2 Corinthians 5:1-3 “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.”

Where do you need to ‘strain forward’ in your life? The deepest work that God want to do in you is the next one. I think that memories are awesome when you look back on your faith (the time and experiences of the things that you went through), if they serve to fan and fire up the flame of faith in your heart. But, when we look back and say: “Man, I can never get back to where I use to be spiritually”, I think that we are getting stuck in ‘what lies behind’ and forgetting that God wants us to “Press on”. If you think about the picture of Easter, I think this is exactly it … some of you have things in your life, right now, that you rightfully look at and say; “That’s dead, it’s done, their buried in a grave somewhere. But, the picture of Easter is that God can take dead things and bring them to life. So what is there in your life that feels dead that God says: “I want to bring life to this.”? Where do you need to ‘strain forward’, to ‘forget what lies behind and press on to what lies ahead’? 

Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

I can press on by keeping my eyes on the prize – an eternity with Jesus; that is the ‘eternal perspective’. Philippians 3:20-21 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 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.” This is the great hope of your lost loved ones who knew Jesus Christ; that God has transformed them. That, one day, all who placed their hope in Him will be made like Him. The purpose and point of this life is not this life. The point of this life and the prize that we are living for is to spend eternity with Jesus Christ. God promises to do four things for us … (1) He promises to forgive us of all of our sins – no matter what we’ve done, (2) He promises to adopt us into His family as His own sons and daughters, (3) He promises to fill us with the Holy Spirit to give us power to live the life that He wanted us to live, and lastly (4) He promises to give us eternal life in Jesus Christ – beyond anything that we can ask for, dream or imagine and that eternal life is the prize that we are ‘straining forward’ for in each and every one of our lives.

2 Peter 3:1-3 “I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory. I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles. Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires.”

If I have one prayer for all of us on Easter 2014, It is that we would keep our eyes on that prize. That we would constantly remind ourselves that this life is not about me; it’s about the prize, it’s about Jesus, and it’s about living with Him in eternity. You see, Easter was not just about “Salvation”; it was also about securing our eternal citizenship and our home in Heaven with God. Heaven is the great hope of the Christian life, but heaven is not guaranteed to everyone. Heaven is only guaranteed to those who believe and put their faith and hope in Jesus Christ on this side of eternity. So if you were to die today, are you 100% sure that you would be with Jesus in Eternity? If the Lord asked you: “Why should I let you into My heaven?”, what would you say?” Does God own you? Or, do you just kind of treat Him like a Counselor and advisor to you? We have to give God ownership of our life and say: “You are the One who is in control.”

Ephesians 2:1-9 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

The fact of the matter is, He is the only One that can bring new life from dead things. All of us have this thing called “Sin” in our lives that separates us from God, because our Sovereign Creator is Holy and Just, so cannot be in the presence of that sin. But, that is why our Father in Heaven sent Jesus to pay the price that we never could. Ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life, then ‘strain forward’ and ‘press on’ toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. For Christ has risen!

Amen.

Pastor Kyle