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Keep Your Eye on the Goal

December 31, 2007

Bob Bradley

_________________________ 

 Philippians 3:12-14

 

12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do , forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

 

The apostle Paul, in his writings, he used many terms to describe or to shed light on things that he wanted to teach us.  We know that he used military terms and we know that he talked about soldiers.  We know that he talked about agriculture terms because we know that he talked about reaping and sowing—reaping what we sow.  He talked about accounting and we are going to use that word here in a minute as we read to you he used accounting terms.  Also, he used terms about athletes and athletic terms.  Tonight, in this scripture that Paul is speaking here to the church here at Philippi.  We know that he has this in his mind.  The church here at Philippi I think when you read it.  Paul in the whole letter is encouraging them to not let anything steal their joy.  I think many times in our lives we are letting a lot of things steal us from the joy that we could have in Jesus Christ.  Paul is writing to them and he used the word things many times in his writing to the church at Philippi.

 

I want you to look at something here, what he says…

 

12 Not as though I had already attained…

 

There were some at Philippi who thought that they had already arrived at spiritual maturity.  They thought that they had already gone as far as they could go.  They thought that in their Christian lives that they could not get any further.  Paul is telling them that he has not made it there yet.  He has not made it to the fullest of spiritual maturity that we can get to. 

 

We think sometimes that we have.  We think sometimes in our Christian life that’s when pride becomes a very serious issue in our life.  We get to thinking that we have already attained or we have got to the spiritual place in our life that we cannot grow anymore, that God cannot teach us anything anymore.  That is when we get so lifted up in pride and that is a dangerous place to be. 

 

Paul understood that he had not got there yet.  Paul understood that there was still yet room in his life for spiritual growth and spiritual maturity.  He was satisfied with Jesus Christ absolutely.  He knew he was saved.  He knew that he was on his way to heaven, but he also knew that there was some room for improvement in his life. 

 

We need to understand that tonight.  We need to understand that there is improvement that can be made in our lives.  Our Christian life is about running a race. 

 

Paul here has got that in his mind.  I think he is thinking about the games, the Olympic Games that they had in Rome in different coliseum.  I think he had that in his mind here.  He wants us to understand that he has not got to the place in his spiritual life that he cannot mature anymore. 

 

If you think you are then you are wrong.  We never get there in this life. 

 

A great a man as the apostle Paul was and all the things that he had done for him to say, “Hey, I have not obtained to a place in my spiritual life to where I cannot grow anymore.”  For him to say that then we have a long way to go.  Paul knew that.  Paul understood that he had not attained. 

 

The word “attained” means arrive.  It means to arrive; it also means to arrive at a goal.  Paul understood that he was still yet not heaven that he was still on planet earth.  Paul understood that there was a ways for him to go yet to get to where God wanted him to be. 

 

Are you really satisfied with your Christian life? 

 

Paul was satisfied with Jesus Christ.  Paul was satisfied that he was saved. 

 

What you are doing in your Christian life today and down through this past year; are you really satisfied with it.  You shouldn’t be.  Even though you may have done a lot of different things in life, there is room for improvement.  You may have grown spiritually.  I think a lot of us have done that.  However, there is still yet room for improvement in our lives.  We should never get to the place in our Christian lives that we are satisfied with the things that we have attained, the things that we have accomplished; we should never get to the place that we are satisfied with that.  If we do then we are going to get lazy.  We are going to get to a place that we are never going to do anything.  We don’t need to be there.  We don’t need to get to the place that we think that we have accomplished all that we can accomplish.  Don’t ever think that.  I don’t care how old you are.  I don’t care what kind of shape you are in.  It does not matter how young you are.  Don’t ever get to the place that you think that you have done all you can do because if you do, then you have done all you are going to do.  If I think that I have done all I can do, then I have come to the place that I said that’s all I can do then that is all that I am going to do.  God does not want us to be in that place.  God doesn’t want us to get to the place that we think we have arrived and we have done all we can do. 

 

Paul was satisfied with Jesus Christ, but he was dissatisfied with the things that he had accomplished.

 

We talk about successes; we have had a lot of them here.  When we look back at what God has done here in the last year, there have been many successes.  Many people have been saved, many have moved up, and many have rededicated their lives.  Things are happening with property, we have bought more property.  Our boundaries have been increased.  They have been enlarged.  There are some things in the works here that could just be phenomenal what God is going to do here.  We saw the beginning of these things this year.  Don’t get satisfied with that.  Don’t get satisfied because we have plenty of parking.  We are not worried about parking now.  We have carpet on the floors.  We have padded seats.  We have a sound system.  We have a piano.  We have people that can sing and play.  Don’t ever get satisfied with that.  There is more that we can do.  There are more people out there that need to be saved.  There are more people out there lost everyday, dying and going to hell.  Don’t ever get satisfied with where we are at.

 

People have come and said, “Bob, why aren’t you ever satisfied?  We get this, this happens, we pray about this and this all comes about.  Why don’t sit down sometimes and be satisfied?”  I am greatly satisfied with God has done in the past.  We have not done all that we can do.  God is done here.  We are still yet here so God is not done here.  Why should we just sit down and do nothing?  We should not be satisfied with where we are at in our spiritual lives.  With all the things that we may have attained,   With all the things that God has done, all the things that are in the works; if you are satisfied with where you are at then I feel sorry for you.  You are going to spend the rest of your life if you don’t change that attitude being miserable. 

 

Paul knew that he not attained.  He had not arrived at the finish line.  He had not accomplished everything that he could accomplish and we have not either. 

 

We should be dissatisfied with the things that we have accomplished.  We should never get satisfied with that.  When we get satisfied that is when we quit.

 

12 Not as though I had already attained…

 

In other words, we have not done all that we can do.  We have not arrived at the goal line yet.

 

12 …either were already perfect…

 

The word “perfect” means “mature.”  It does not mean sinless because Paul knew that he was not sinless.  You and I are not sinless, but what Paul understood was when he used the word “either” …were already perfect…  Paul knew that there was room for improvement in his life.

 

I wished that we could understand that sometimes.  If we read ten chapters a day, we spend three hours a day in prayer, we go to church every night of the week; there is still yet improvement for us in our lives.  There are places that we can get closer to God.  There are places in our spiritual lives that we need to improve.  Paul understood that.  Do you understand that?  Do you understand that in your spiritual life that you are not all that you could be?  Paul used the word perfect.  Paul understood that he had a ways to go spiritually to get to where God wanted him to be. 

 

A guy here as great as the apostle Paul is where should that put you and me at?  Satisfied that he was saved, satisfied that he was living in the will of God, but he still yet knew that he had a long way to go to get to the place where he could say Hey, I’m spiritually mature.

 

12 …but I follow after…

 

He is not spiritually mature.  He has not made it there yet.  Paul knew that he had not come to the place where there was no room or no ground for him to grow.  He uses the words “follow after” which means to “pursue.”  If we are going to catch anything, if we are in a race and we want to win the race and there are people in front of us then we are going to have to pursue them or follow after them.  Paul understands some things here that he had not got to the place in his Christian life where there was no more room for improvement but he was following after some things.  We need to be following after Jesus Christ.  We need to be pursuing Him.  If we will do that, then we can get closer to Him and move up.  We can do that.

 

“Follow after” means “to pursue” it means “to press towards a fixed goal.”  Paul knew where perfection was at out here and he was following after it.  He was pursuing that.  He was pressing toward the place of maturity. 

 

Everyone sitting here tonight knows something.  If we all would be honest, we all could say that there is a lot of improvement that can be made in my life.  Everybody sitting here should have said Amen on that one.  If we all would be honest, we could also say this, there are things in our life that we know that we are doing that is keeping us from getting to be more spiritual that we know that we need to cut off; some of us know that.  Some of us know some things here that we need to be doing that is keeping us from being spiritual, keeping us from pursuing or following after, or trying to get to the place of maturity.  We know that.  This is not rocket science.  We know what we are doing or not doing.  We know why that we are not spiritual.  If we are actually saved and our conscious has not been seared, if we have listened to the voice of God for so long that we have turned Him aside and turned Him off; unless our conscious has been seared, if our heart is still yet where the Word of God can prick our hearts then we know what is lacking.  We know what we need to do to change it. 

 

Do we want to do that?  Do we want to pursue or work towards or run towards the goal of spiritual maturity.  Do we want to do that?  Or do we just want to say, that I am glad I am a Christian and I’m glad I’m going to heaven and that’s all we want to do.  You should never be satisfied with that.  You should never be satisfied to say, I’m a Christian and I’m on my way to heaven.  You should not be satisfied with that.  I’m glad that you are going but there is more to living for Jesus Christ than just going to heaven. 

 

We are so miserable because they know what they need to change in their life, they know that they need to quit gossiping, they know that they need to quit doing things that they are doing; whatever it may be.  They know that they need to straighten up.  Instead of doing that, they just stay where they are at.  They spend their whole life being miserable.  They are going to heaven, there is no doubt in my mind about that but there is more to living for Jesus Christ than just beating and banging and struggling through this life and dying and leaving here.  Jesus Christ wants us to be happy while we are here.  We can be that if we want to.  It is going to take some effort.

 

He uses the words “follow after” which means activity.  It means that we can’t stay where we are at.  That means that we have to moving, that means that we have to mobile.  If a runner is going to get to the finish line then he cannot stay at the starting line.  If he is going to run in a race to win then he can’t just say; the judge blows the whistle and everybody takes off except you, you just stay there then you are never going to win that way.

 

12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

 

Paul is looking at something here.  Paul wants to apprehend something.  He says “...if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of...”  Do you remember the day that Paul met Jesus Christ?  Do you remember the day if you read Acts 9, that the Bible says that Saul (his name was Saul then) he was breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the church.  He goes under the chief priest and they give him the authority to go down to Damascus and to bring all those that were down there back and imprison them.  We know that is what happened.  We know that he left Jerusalem and that while he was traveling there was a great light that shined round about him from heaven.  The Bible says that he fell to the ground and there was a voice that came out of this great light and it said Saul, Saul, why persecuteth thou me?  The Bible says that Saul said, “Who art thou Lord.”  Jesus said I am Jesus whom thou persecuteth.  Jesus here appeared unto Saul on that day.  Saul said what do you want me to do?  The Bible says that Jesus told him to get up off the ground and go down into the city and it was going to be told him what he needed to do.  He was blind and he cannot see.  Those that were with him they heard a voice but they did not see the man who Jesus Christ really is.  When He apprehends us we know that he real. 

 

The Bible says that Saul gets up and goes down into town.  That is not the end of the story.  The Bible says that there is a disciple living down in Damascus named Ananias.  The Bible says that God appeared unto him in a dream.  Ananias said, here am I Lord.  The Lord told Ananias you need to go down into the city and go down the straight street.  There is a guy down there by the name of Judas.  You need to go into his house.  You need to find a guy by the name of Saul of Tarish because he is praying.  Ananias says I have heard much about this guy, how he has killed your people, how he has abused your people.  How he has done all kinds of things against your people and now he coming down here to do the same thing.  Jesus told Ananias you just go on down there and everything is going to be alright. 

 

He is a chosen vessel unto me.  He is going to bear my name before gentiles and before kings and before the children of Israel.  I am going to show him how great things he is going to suffer for me on that day he was apprehended.  He was captured.  He was lay hold of by Jesus Christ.  When you read the book of Galatians 1:16, Paul made the statement talking about what God did for him; he had saved him so that he could reveal in the apostle Paul Jesus Christ.  That he might preach him among the heathens.  Paul knew that he had been apprehended or lay hold of by Jesus Christ so that he could preach the gospel.  Jesus got a hold of him that day.  He apprehended him.  He caught him.  Ananias talked to Paul.  Paul’s eyes were opened and he was able to see.  He repented.  The Lord called him into the ministry, he started preaching the gospel and he done a lot of that.  Paul knew the reason that he had been apprehended.  Paul knew the reason that Jesus Christ had called him or laid hold of him.

 

You that are saved here tonight, do you know the reason that you have been apprehended?  Do you know the reason that Jesus Christ has laid hold of you?  Do you know the reason?  I know that he apprehended you so that you could go to heaven.  I know that.  I understand that he saved you so that you could go to heaven and miss hell.  I understand that, but there is a work in our lives that He has apprehended us for.  It is more than just escaping hell.  It is more than just going to heaven.  I mean that’s great; that’s all part of it, but there is more here.  He wants us to apprehend that which we have been apprehended for. 

 

Paul wanted to lay hold of the gift of preaching the heathen because he knew that was what he was apprehended for. 

 

If God has called you to preach, you need to lay hold of that, get a hold of that with everything that you have got.  Do the very best you can to preach the Word of God to very best that you have the ability to do. 

 

If God’s called you to sing, if you have been apprehended, if God has laid hold of you, then He has saved you.  He has blessed you to sing; you need to do it to the very best that you can.  You need to apprehend that.  You need to lay hold of that.  You need to pursue that. 

 

Why don’t we do that?  Why do we want say well, praise God, I’m going to heaven.  That’s what we do.  We get real selfish.  We are going.  My wife is going.  The kids are going.  My husband is going.  My family is going so who cares about everybody else.  There is more to it than that.

 

Paul says…

 

12 …if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

 

In other words, Paul says that I want to lay hold of, I want to grasp it, I want to get a hold of this with everything that I can to catch, to hold, or to lay hold of is what apprehend means. 

 

We need to apprehend that.  We need to get a hold of that with every bit of strength that we have got.  It brings out the idea of a football player pursuing another football player.  In other words, this guy has the ball and here is a guy over here pursuing him trying to tackle him.  The word apprehend means the guy that is pursuing the one who has the ball is trying to catch him, and lay hold of him.  He wants to get a hold of him and put him on the ground.  He wants to grip him, or hold on to him. 

 

That is the same enthusiasm, zeal, or energy that we should use to lay hold of that which God has apprehended us for.  We should use the same zeal as that in our Christian lives. 

 

If we would do that, ninety-five percent of the problems that happens in the church of Jesus Christ would not happen.  We couldn’t build a building big enough to hold all the people that would come.  If we just lay hold of, use the energy, use the enthusiasm that a football has trying to chase down the guy has the ball, to use every bit of energy to get him on the ground.  If we would just use that same energy, trying to lay hold of what Jesus Christ has called us to do, there would be more spiritual giants sitting in the seats here at Campbell Chapel. 

 

We have some.  Even those that are giants, we have a lot of room for improvement. 

 

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do , forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

 

Paul understood that there was still yet a ways to go for him to be able to preach to heathen like he had been called to do.  Paul knew that there was some room for him to still work here.

 

Everybody sitting here, when God saved you, every one of us has something that we can do.  I know some of us here don’t do anything except whine, but there is something here that we can do as people that are saved that will bring glory to God if we will just do it.  We need to get a hold of that.

 

Paul understood that he had been saved, that God had called him, that God had commissioned him to preach and he knew that he had not done all that yet.  He uses the word count.  The word “count” means…Paul looked backward at the things that have happened in his life from the time that he got saved up till that point and he could look backwards in his life at the processes and things that had taken place and Paul could honestly  and calmly say I still yet have a lot to do.  I still yet have a lot of improvements that I need to make.  Honestly and calmly, he counted that.

 

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do , forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

 

This one thing I do.  I am not where I need to be.  I have not done all that I need to do.  I am satisfied that I am saved, I know I am saved.  I am glad for Jesus Christ.  I am satisfied with Him, but I am not satisfied with where I am at.  I am not satisfied with all I have done because there is still yet room for improvement.  He says this one thing I do.

 

This one word “things” he uses many, many times that is robbing people of a lot of joy. 

 

Do you remember when Jesus spoke to the young rich ruler?  He came to Him and talked about what he needed to have eternal life and Jesus said you know the commandments…this young guy said all of this I have done from youth, up.  This one thing thou lackest. 

 

Do remember what Jesus told Martha when she came to Him complaining about Mary that she just run off and left her to serve alone.  She chose that one thing that shall not be taken away from her. 

 

Do remember the guy that was blind and he received his sight.  They came and asked him who did this.  He said I don’t know, but this one thing I know where I was blind now I see. 

 

We need to know one thing.  In our Christian life, if we would focus on one thing instead of a hundred things in our Christian life, we could do one thing good instead of doing fifty things bad. 

 

In my life and in your life we want to focus on a lot of things.  We want to have fifty irons in the fire and many times we don’t get anything done.  They are just there, but we don’t get anything done. 

 

Paul is focusing on one thing. 

 

If a runner in a race is going to be an athlete who will win in a foot race then he is going to have to focus on that.  He is going to have to concentrate on what he is doing.  He is not going to be able to be sidelined and think about many different things.  He is going to have focus, train and prepare himself to do this one thing and that is to run in this race and run in this race to win. 

 

Are we focusing on what we have been apprehended for?  Are we focusing on things that others have been apprehended for that we want to get involved in?  If God has apprehended us for whatever it is, whatever it may be, if God has laid hold of us and captured us for whatever it is, let’s do that one thing.  If you will do that one thing, God will bless you.  If you concentrate on that one thing that you have been apprehended for, I promise you, God will bless you.

 

You won’t be doing a bunch of stuff that never gets done, but you will actually do some things that will get done that will bring glory to God. 

 

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do , forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

 

It uses the words “…forgetting those things which are behind…”  it is not telling us, he not saying that we have the ability to forget, it is not telling us that we need to fail to remember—that is not what he is saying.  When the Bible uses the word “forget” that is telling us to forget those things that are behind.  There have been successes.  In a lot of our lives right here there have been successes and there have been a lot of failures this past year.

 

When Paul says here, “…forgetting those things that are behind…”  he is saying that I am not going to allow all the past failures of this past 20 years or whatever, I am not going to allow that to effect my life from now on.  I am going to put those things behind me.  I know that yesterday is gone.  I know that last year is gone.  All the failures, all the successes are gone.  I am not going to allow them to drag me down anymore. 

 

Some of us sitting right here have done things in their life.  If I talked to you tonight, some things that happened a week ago, a month ago, or many years ago you could tell me that you are still yet holding onto tonight and you are not getting where you need to be with God because of something you done many years ago.  It is time that you put it behind you.  It is time that you let it go.  It’s done.  It is over if you have asked God to forgive you for it and God has forgiven you for it then let’s let it go. 

 

A runner who is going to run in a race cannot look behind him.  If you are going to run in a race to win, you have a lane you have to run in first of all.  If you are going to run this race to win you have to focus on what you are running toward.  You can’t be looking over your shoulder.  Get out here in the parking lot and try it.  Try to run as fast as you can run and look over your shoulder then see what happens to you.  Don’t call me when you fall.  You are going to fall down. 

 

Do you know what happens to many Christian people today?  They are looking over their shoulder—the mistakes they have made in the past, they trip up and fall.  Do you know what else happens here?  Some of the others that are running behind them also trip and fall.  We cause a lot of people to stumble sometimes because we are looking backwards at all the sins that we may have committed, all the mistakes in life that happened yesterday, last week, last month, or many years ago we are looking back at all those things and we stumble and fall.  We cause a lot of other people to stumble and fall.

 

Paul says lets forget about them.  Paul says I am not going to allow those things to effect the way that I live now.

 

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do , forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

 

The things that are behind are done with and I’m not going to worry about those anymore.  I’m going to stretch forth with all my energy to look towards the goal, towards the prize that is out here in front of me.

 

14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

 

The word “mark” is a wonderful word.  It is a like a “target,” if you read that in the Greek.  It brings out the idea of a target that you shoot a gun at or shoot a bow and arrow at.  It is a target that someone shoots at, but also when you go ahead and read a few more things it will talk about a spiritual and a moral target that you and I should be shooting at.  We should be shooting to have a life that is more spiritual.

 

He says that “…I press towards the mark, towards the prize.”  There is a prize waiting for you and me at the finish line.  He says, “…of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ.”  He says that I am pressing towards the prize.  Here is the prize. 

 

He uses the words “high calling” which means a calling from heaven to go to heaven.  That is the prize.  There is going to be a day that we are going to get a call from heaven to go to heaven.  That is called the rapture.  There is coming a day that we are going to receive a call from heaven to go to heaven.  Paul knew that was prize.  Paul had determined that he was going to run this race with every bit of his strength.  He was going to do everything that he could to apprehend or lay hold of that which he had been apprehended for and he kept in mind, that he was not looking backwards at all the mistakes, or all the failures that he had.  He kept his mind and his eyes focused on the finish line because he knew there was coming a call one day.  He even wrote about it a few chapters on over from this when Jesus Christ, himself was going to give a shout and with the voice of the arch angel and with the trump of God and we are going to be raised incorruptible and changed. 

 

Paul knew that there was going to come a call one day from heaven for us to go to heaven. 

 

Are we saved? 

 

If we are saved, then we should be out on the track running in the race if we are saved.  We are not running to be saved.  We are running because we are saved. 

 

Many church people are sitting in the bleachers.  They are not on the track.  They are not even in the race.  They are sitting in the bleachers.

 

Where are you at?  Are you in the race?  If you are in the race, are you running in your lane?  Are you looking behind you at all the failures of this year?  If you are, forget those. 

 

You cannot change the past.  What you have done and what I have done, we have done.  All the praying, all the worrying, all the sorrow and all the things that we might be able to do will never change not one moment of the past.  What I can change now is how I am running this race for Jesus Christ.  I get in the race.  I can run in the race.  I can run my race.  I can stay in my lane.  I can keep my eye on the prize, on the finish line and one day I’ll cross that finish line and I’ll hear a call from heaven to go to heaven.  That is the high calling we are going to hear one day.  If you are in the race you are going to hear that. 

 

However, there are a lot of church people sitting on the sidelines, but I’m afraid that there are a lot of church people sitting on the sidelines that are not going to hear that.  If you are not in the race then you are not going to win the prize.  It is impossible for you to win the prize if you are not in the race.

 

Are you saved tonight?  Are you ready to go to heaven tonight?  Are you in the race tonight? 

 

Let’s get ready to go to heaven.  Simply, let’s say, “Lord, I know that I need to get saved.  Lord, I know that I need to be forgiven.  Lord, I know that you can forgive me.  Lord, I know that you will forgive me.  Please save me.  Please cleanse me.”  I promise He will do that.  He will save you tonight. 

 

If you are in the race, and you are looking over your shoulder thinking about all the mistakes that you made in the past, you are continually looking backwards.  This altar would be a great place to leave all those tonight and leave here tonight get back in the race keeping your eyes on the goal.

 

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