"The Focused Life!" Philippians 3:13-16

"The Focused Life!"

Captivated by Christ: An expository sermon series on Paul's Letter to the Church in Philippi (message #23)

Pastor Jerry Ingalls

September 26, 2010

Our Scripture Lesson for today continues our intensive verse by verse teaching of the book of Philippians in a series of messages called, "Captivated by Christ". The Word of God from Philippians 3:13-16 (NIV), for a message entitled, "The Focused Life", "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. ¹⁶Only let us live up to what we have already attained." [Prayer]

In this passage, we are going to witness the focus of a passionate follower of Jesus Christ. Paul is teaching us what it means to intentionally follow Jesus Christ so that we may understand what our lives should look like as men and women, young and old, who are committed to the Mission of God—the sharing of the Gospel!

First, DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST FOCUS ON THE GOAL!

Paul starts in the first half of Philippians 3:13 "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it." What is the 'it' Paul is expressing that he has not yet taken hold of? We learned the 'it' from last week's lesson from Philippians 3:10-11 when Paul expresses his primary aim in life, the primary ambition for all disciples of Jesus Christ, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." Paul wants to intimately know Jesus Christ more and more, live out the power of the Holy Spirit living in him, and become like Jesus Christ in his attitude and actions. This is the aim of our lives when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

The "it" Paul has not yet attained is a completed spiritual maturity in Jesus Christ. Paul does not boast about himself or his accomplishments, rather, he does the opposite, he authentically and honestly says, "I have not arrived yet!" He is teaching us, through his example, one of the primary steps to living a focused life and that is to make a sober judgment of yourself. In Romans 12:3 Paul teaches, "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."

After making this humble and honest assessment of his spiritual journey, Paul then express what he along with every disciple of Jesus Christ must do. He establishes our action plan in Philippians 3:13b-14, "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward [epekteinomai] what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Paul, who is at once humble and confident, knows that his life as a Christian leader is the both-and of a normative lifestyle for all to follow while at the same time being in process as a fellow-worker along with every other disciple of Jesus Christ! This is a valuable and often forgotten paradigm of Christian leadership.

As he often does, Paul makes connections between the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ with an athlete. To help us understand Paul's teaching this morning I want you to watch a short video clip of a modern day athletic hero. Show video of Michael Phelps at 2008 summer Olympics.

Listed in your sermon notes are three parallels between World Class Athletes and Disciples of Jesus Christ. Let's walk through these one at a time.

1. A World Class Athlete is Focused on the goal! As a former world class athlete myself, ranked once upon a time in the top 75 in the world and top 4 nationally in the hammer throw, I can tell you that a world class athlete is obsessed with one thing: accomplishing his or her mission of winning! Just like at the end of the day, for-profit businesses have one mission statement and that is to make money, athletes, at the end of the day, have one mission and that is to win.

As an athlete at that level of competition, your life is focused on that one goal that has been established. Michael Phelps has not won 16 total Olympic medals to include 8 historic gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games because he was distracted with lots of good things that he had done in the past nor was he distracted by his set backs or failures of the past.

No, he was singularly focused on accomplishing his mission. Paul says, "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind". Paul too is not focused on all that he accomplished in the past, nor is he allowing the Devil to steel his future by keeping him in captivity over his past failures. (Some of us need to hear that again: As a disciple of Jesus Christ you do not let your past steal your future by keeping you in captivity to either your successes or failures!)

Disciples of Jesus Christ must have a laser-focus on today and the goal of today. Your mission if you choose to accept it is to know Jesus Christ more and more intimately. It is our aim in life to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. To become like Him in the deepest places of how we think, how we relate to other people, our attitudes and actions, our words and deeds. This should not be something we simply talk about; this is the obsession of our life that dictates how we live and how we schedule our days and nights.

2. A World Class Athlete Strains for the goal! I qualified for 3 Olympic Team Trials, competed in 2 of them, and earned the hammer thrower alternate position on the 2000 Olympic Team. I have competed throughout the USA at the highest level, and in multiple countries in international competitions. I can tell you this truth from personal experience: attaining the goal does not happen without pain, injuries, setbacks, and hard work. There is a price to pay! Focus must be followed up with perseverance!

World Class athletes strain for their goal. Michael Phelps did not happen upon 16 Olympic medals; he strained for every single one of them. In fact, his performance in this video is the exact word picture that Paul is stating in the Scripture lesson this morning. The Greek word epekteinomai translated "straining toward" is the word picture of the athlete stretching out every fiber of his body at the finish line. This is the final strain to get to the wall first, to break the tape. In the video I showed you, Michael Phelps' victory is not even visible with the naked eye, what won the race was the final strain at the end of the race! This is sports drama at its best, but do not only remember the visible strain that captured the world's attention, remember the lifestyle of dedication and hard work that brought him to that moment to be in position to win the prize.

Friends, we have a goal that we must strain for every day and this requires a life of focus, suffering (just like an athlete, we too will have pain, injuries, setbacks, and days marked by grueling hours of hard work). Paul says, "straining toward what is ahead"!

3. A World Class Athlete Perseveres to win the prize!

The gold medals that Michael Phelps won at the 2008 Olympic Games put him in a category unto himself, but the truth is those medals will not bring him the indestructible joy nor the peace beyond human comprehension that Paul teaches about in this letter.

The prize of a human athlete can be stolen whereas the prize of a Disciple of Jesus Christ can never be snatched away! The prize of a human athlete can rust or fade, whereas the prize of a Disciple of Jesus Christ will never rust…it is not perishable, it is imperishable! The prize of an athlete, and take this one from one who has sought after the prize with an obsession, the prize of an athlete will not satisfy! But the prize for which we persevere, as Paul stated, "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." This prize will satisfy for it is the prize of receiving by sight that which we have already received by faith. We have been given the down payment through the Holy Spirit filling us with the power of the resurrection by quickening our human spirit and bringing us back from the dead so that we can have a relationship with God again, as we were designed, for eternity!

Paul declared of this prize in 2 Timothy 4:8, "Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."

We can daily strain for this prize of right standing with God because we do not train like athletes who do not yet know the outcome of the race! We have the victory!

There is grace in this race! Though we are sinners and our sins have caused great destruction in our world, God still grants us the privilege of right relationship when in faith we accept Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior, freely receiving that which He finished on the Cross of Calvary 2000 years ago—forgiveness, acceptance, and the love by the Father.

How then do we respond to such an undeserved love (grace!) as this? We focus and we strain until that day comes when we receive face to face the promised prize! We strain every day of our life, even when the circumstances of the day are overwhelming. No one wins the gold medal without bad days in training and bad competitions! We persevere to win the prize that which has already been reserved for us!

Paul commands his most beloved disciple in 1 Timothy 4:15-16, "Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers."

The life of a disciple of Jesus Christ is the life of progress focused on the stated goal of Christian Discipleship: to know Jesus Christ and to be changed so that our lifestyle, our words and deeds, reflect Jesus Christ. But not only for us, our lives encourage and motivate others to this goal. And that leads us to our second point. DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST FOCUS OTHERS ON THE PURSUIT OF MATURITY!

Paul continues in our Scripture lesson, Philippians 3:15-16, "All of us who are mature [teleios] should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear [apokalyptō] to you. Only let us live up to [stoicheō] what we have already attained."

When we start this journey, we know that we will not attain perfection in this life, but us who are mature in Christ should be of the same mind and heart as Paul. And in journeying towards 'knowing Christ' wholeheartedly, we focus others on the pursuit of Christian maturity; in other words, we spur people on in their discipleship.

The Greek word teleios does not point to the eschatological perfection, but speaks of being brought to maturity in this life for a specified purpose. This word is used by Paul again in 1 Corinthians 14:20 "Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults [teleios]." Paul says that maturity is to think properly about Christ and therefore, about how we are to live our lives. Our conduct must follow our beliefs. Our actions must follow our words.

Paul is very directly challenging anyone who does not agree with what he says is the way of life of every Christ-follower. Essentially, until the day of your death, as long as you have breath, your life should focus on knowing Jesus Christ! All else is rubbish!

What about those who don't agree with this teaching?

We all know from personal experience there are distractions upon distractions made readily available to us by the world that will lead us away from believing this truth taught by the Bible.

But Paul says, if you are immature in your walk with Christ (and we know you are immature if you are not living your life this way…ouch!) then God will reveal (the Greek word translated "make clear" is apokalyptō. How does God reveal to us His will for His life? Well, amazingly enough, we can learn from the Bible how we are to think properly in order to know the biblical truths to base our lives on; therefore, live as mature disciples of Jesus Christ. In Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

Only when you give up the ways of the world and allow God to reveal to you His truths will you then know and live according to this way of life: to forget about the successes and failures of your past that prevent you from being who you are today and strain toward the goal!

If you will live this way, then you will not only be focused on the goal yourself, but you will then be a Christian leader whose primary job is not to get busy in Church work, but to focus other people on becoming mature in Jesus Christ! You are a leader because God has transformed your personhood so wherever you are on your journey, live up to the faith that has grasped you.

The Greek word is stoicheō and in its very limited usage in the New Testament speaks to the regenerate life in the Spirit of God. It is used again after the listing of the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:24-25 where Paul strongly teaches, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step [stoicheō] with the Spirit."

Friends, we are to be fully alive in Jesus Christ! It is the life that is animated by the power of the resurrection! This is the life of every disciple of Jesus Christ! The same power that brought Jesus Christ back from the dead also brought you back from the dead and now is the power source of your life. The Bible declares in Ephesians 2:4-5, "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved."

Our mission as the Church of Jesus Christ is greater than the mission of a world class athlete who is sacrificing every other area of their life in order to win the competition and receive a perishable prize.

Our mission as the Church of Jesus Christ is to manifest the same power that brought Jesus Christ back from the dead so that through our lives we too may be alive in Christ and lead other to a saving faith in Jesus Christ so that they are madefully alive in Jesus Christ. There is no greater cause on earth, no greater prize to be attained.

Altar Call and Response Time

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is in your past that distracts you from focusing wholeheartedly on the goal to win the prize for which God has called you heavenward in Christ Jesus?

2. What steps are you taking today to press on into the future that will allow you to win the prize? With prayer, discuss with an accountability partner, assess, make adjustments, and press forward.

3. For further study, read Romans 12:1-8. Discuss the steps you should take in order to live the focused life in Christ.

· Dedicate your body (v. 1)

· Eliminate competing distractions (v. 2)

· Assess your strengths & growth areas (v. 3)

· Cooperate with other believers in the body of Christ (vv. 4-5)

· Identify and utilize your spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ (vv. 6-8)