Philippians 3:7-14
I began this series on "Three Essential Connections" with the famous Vince Lombardi story about starting each preseason camp telling his men, "This is a football." His point was that knowing and executing the fundamentals of the sport lead to reaching the final goal. Back then, the goal was the NFL championship.
So, I began our fall at LAC with "This is the church." And, I pointed out that the church is God's global family made up of rescued sinners from every nation, language, and people group – a family called together by God, entered into together through faith in Jesus, and knit together by the Holy Spirit who resides in us all. And if the goal of a football team is to win a championship, then what is the goal of a church? The Bible puts it concisely: To glorify God.
But glorifying God, I mean to reflect his excellencies to all creation. We are to do this both corporately and individually. Corporately, we worship and serve God together and demonstrate to our divided world God's reconciling love as he takes people as different as we are and brings us into a family; God's grace as the world sees people as sinful as we are finding forgiveness from the Holy God.
Individually, we are to glorify God as we grow to become more like Jesus. We worship together with God's family (that we call "breathing in") so that our lives will grow to show God's qualities to the world. As Jesus said in Matt. 5 and Peter said in 1 Peter 2, the world should see our deeds but then should give praise to the God they see at work in us.
Of course, like a sports team has to go through the struggles of a long season before winning a championship, the church is in the midst of a long process of becoming all that what God would have us be. Neither our church family as a whole not any of us as individuals have arrived yet. But our growth toward becoming what Jesus has called us to be happens in the life of the church. For me as your pastor, this means that we must continue to grow to be the kind of family in which God's work in your lives can happen. And, you must connect to the church so that the life-transforming work that God wants to happen in the church can actually flow into your life. Over the past three weeks, we have looked at the Scriptures and at three essential ways that each of us is to connect to the church: our gathered worship, our lives in community, and our service.
But, though God promises us that he will complete his work in us, His Word also tells us that the journey will not be easy. We have three main enemies warring against us: the world, the flesh, and the devil. So, today, I want to draw this series to a close by thinking about the kind of commitment God calls us to in our walks with him. I call it a "focused commitment."
#1: What a "focused commitment" is
I think most of us know a bit about the power of something or someone being intensely focused. The illustration I usually hear when I hear motivational speakers talk about this is the way a magnifying glass can focus the rays of the sun in such a way that it ignites a fire. But, of course, we know that a magnifying glass is a fairly modest example of this. The super-focused laser beam has much, much greater power. It can burn a hole in a diamond, be used to make very precise and delicate incisions by surgeons, measure distance and speed, carry or read almost limitless amounts of information and countless other things. The difference between a laser and a light bulb is not that a laser gives off more light but that 1) it's pressed and 2) parallel moving in one direction. Every part of the beam has almost the same direction and diverges very little.
Let me show you a visual illustration of this from the University of Colorado.
By the power of focus, I mean that all our energy and resources are gathered up and then pointed to move in one direction. It's not that one person has more life in his/her being. Those whose lives have great vitality have found something that brings together all they are and have (pressed) – and that same something (or Someone) guides the person's life in one direction (parallel).
#2: What a Focused life Looks Like
Phil. 3:12-14 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible: Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
There is such honesty in Paul's words. He doesn't try to pretend that he's perfect – he knows he isn't. But, he doesn't have the attitude, "Well, no one is perfect so I'll just keeping living my little, inadequate and sin-filled life." No, this man has a focus to all he is. It's evident in that word "press" that we find both in v. 12 and 14. Paul knew he could not change his life on his own but, at the same time, he knew he had to focus all he was on becoming what God wanted him to be.
I find it interesting that this word "press" also is found in 3:6 – though there it is translated "persecute." The word meant "to pound." What Paul is saying is that one he dedicated his life to "pounding" Christians. But that was before he had met Jesus personally. "Now that I know the love and power and reality of Jesus," Paul testified, "I now gather up all I am and have and pound it together and focus it in one direction."
In the world's way of viewing things, Paul's life becoming a follower of Jesus was a pretty "sweet" life. In vv. 5-6, he lets us know he had come from the most revered family line among his people. He was viewed with respect as a moral and upright man who had become a leader among the Pharisees (the group viewed by most as the most morally upright people in Judah). As a former student of the famous scholar Gamaliel, he was among the best-educated people in his country. There is some evidence that Paul had come from a wealthy home and had become a wealthy man himself. In the world's eyes, he was a man to be envied. He had it all!
But, something happened to him in Acts 9. Filled with hatred for Christians and committed to doing violence to them, he headed toward Damascus because there were reports of Jesus-followers being there. But, in the journey, the ultimate "laser beam" was focused toward him so that he was blinded and fell to the ground as a voice spoke out, "Saul, why do you persecute me?" That day, Paul met the eternal God through faith in Jesus and his life was no longer the same. No longer would he live for his career, his education, or his respectability. Some may be shocked to see that all those things the world cherishes are things that Paul called "rubbish" if they are not connected to something much more eternal. Paul's testimony: All that he was and had became focused on using it as God would have him use it. All of his great background and resources gained a laser-like focus toward pleasing God. "I press all I am and have toward the goal for which God has called me," he declared.
His life gained a spiritual intensity – a spiritual ferocity. Too many American churchgoers know little of this kind of vitality. When asked, "Are you a follower of Jesus?" they say, "Well, what else could I be? I grew up in a Christian home." "I go to church fairly often – when it's not too inconvenient." "My religion is more private. I don't want to make a big deal out of it." But, all these tepid and boring statements assume that Jesus is just one piece of a person's life. The Bible says, "No. Jesus calls us to gather up all of our lives and focus it on becoming what he made us to be – what he gave his life to enable us to be." Jesus always said, "Count the cost before saying you follow me. Will you follow me even when my way leads to a cross? Will you become like me or not?"
What Paul says is to become the testimony of all who follow Jesus. "One thing I do: I press all toward the goal for which God has called me." His life became a life of great vitality – a life that changed those whose lives he touched.
#3: How a Focused Life Begins I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me
Do you see from v. 12 that there are two "take holds"? Before I "can take hold of" anything and focus it in a direction, I have know that this new and more vibrant life started because "I was taken hold of" first. Most people who are focused toward some kind of success and then achieve it become quite proud. "Look at what I did?' we strut around and say. The kind of focused commitment the Bible calls us to will not allow for that kind of pride. In fact, for his whole life, Paul would be convinced that, on his own, he was the worst of sinners. He deeply believed that if he can be loved by God, anyone can be. He always knew he was whatever he was only because of the grace of God. He could only take hold of a new life because he had been taken hold of.
This sets our faith apart from other religions and self-help programs. They all call us to take hold of our lives and then good things can happen. Visualize success and you can have it. Engage in these religious techniques and you will achieve nirvana. Take control of your life and you can find peace. But, here (as always) the Bible says, "You cannot become a Christian by making yourself one." It doesn't start with me. It starts with the grace of God. I love only because God first loved me.
Let me tell you something: God leads people to himself in a lot of ways. Sometimes a miracle will happen that we cannot deny. Sometimes, we're walking past a church in a time of trouble (as Claudia gave testimony to last week), and we're drawn in by music that communicates to us that God is there and that there is joy and peace to be found in this troubled world. Still others come to God silently and deliberately as they come to the point of saying, "It's true. God is here and ready to be known." It happens so many ways – but ultimately, when we look back at what happened when we came to Jesus is that we become convinced that God reached out to us first. It's never, "Oh I went for it. I did it. I've picked it up." Never. We look at our lives and know we would never have come to God first. No, God came after me.
And one of the surest ways that we know that we belong to God is that our lives become focused – our lives become intense. Before meeting Jesus, we may have been religious. Spirituality was a part of our lives perhaps. But after meeting Jesus, we focus all our lives in the direction God guides us. Our faith is no longer a private thing added on to other things but the very heart of our lives. We know that the God who introduced himself in Genesis 1 as making and controlling the universe has broken into our lives. He has grasped us and the only possible response is to say, "Lord, how would you have me live?" God says we must respond in faith to him. We must turn from our little self-centered lives to trust the path he will lead us on. God says his way will be better – but we must learn to trust him and commit all to him.
When God breaks into our lives and we receive him, he leads us into great adventures. Life is energized. I think that the longing for living life led by God is imbedded in all our hearts – in all our cultures. That's why, I think, all the great adventure stories begins not with the heroes seeking an adventure but with the adventures coming to them. It's Bilbo and Frodo in the Lord of the Rings having the ring come to them with no idea of where it might lead. It's Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz being swept into another land by a storm. It's Wendy and Michael and John playing in the children's room only to have Peter Pan come to them. They didn't ask for it or want it. It came to them.
That's the way it is for us. God has come through the nursery door. God has broken into our lives. God invites you to trust him and live – really live. If you're not familiar with it, God invites you to entrust your life to him – to have him be the focus of your life – and to see what he will do in and through your life. Real Christian faith is having our Maker come into lives not being lived well and remaking us – taking hold of us and pressing us into lives lived for his glory. Christians, we all know we've been taken hold of!
#4: What We Are to Do to Focus Our Lives I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection... I press on to take hold... I press on toward the goal...
Although our lives with God always begin with God's grace, our faith is not passive. So many preachers have said that faith is like sitting on a chair. They say a chair may be on the ground in front of you but you don't know if it will hold you until you simply trust it enough to sit on it. Hmm. Well, our first step of faith might be a little bit like that but living lives of faith are not at all like that. Let me show you a few verses that show what a life of faith is like:
*Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Phil. 2:12-13).
*God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us... is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us... Make every effort to... (Eph. 3:20; 4:1,3).
Living a focused life for God always calls for a committed and focused response to God's grace. We start by acknowledging what we are like – that we need forgiveness and mercy. We discover God's message of grace: that God makes those things available through faith in the Jesus who died in our place on the cross. Jesus lived the perfect life we should have lived and could not and then died the death we deserve to die but now do not have to. Through faith in Christ, we are made alive to God.
Our response should be that we are so grateful that we gather up all we are and have – "press" it together – and direct it toward glorifying God. Our entire lives are reoriented in a laser-like fashion toward a single point. What is that point? See v. 10: I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and even the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings so that I might become like him...
This focused commitment to become like Christ changes everything about us. Everything. How we enter into marriage. How we make moral decisions. How we choose a career. Even how we view people. How we spend money. We gather it all up and say, "Lord, all I am and have is yours. How can it be focused for your glory?"
I can hear several pushbacks to this: You may say, "But Pastor Greg, many people go to church and don't have everything changed." Be patient. God is working on us all. If we are real followers of Jesus, everything will eventually be pressed toward the goal of knowing and honoring Jesus." Or... perhaps they really haven't gathered up their lives and given it to God yet." Anyway, the issue is not them but you. This is basically what Jesus said to Peter in John 21. Jesus had called Peter to love him and serve him. Peter looked at John walking by and said, "What about him?' Jesus said, "What is that to you? You must follow me!"
You may also say, "But Pastor Greg, it sounds like you are calling us to be fanatics." I say, "No, not the way our world defines fanaticism." A fanatic is only focused about one area of life. Fanatics become obnoxious about their one obsession usually. "If you aren't as passionate as I am about (whatever), then you aren't real." But they aren't usually fanatical about loving people. Forgiving people. Wanting the best for people. Showing the beauty of Jesus to people. The problem with fanatics is not that they're too intense. It's that they're intense about too little. All of life can be embraced when we are focused with a truly biblical and Christ-like focus.
I'm not talking about a narrow view of the world. I'm talking about something that brings reason and focus to everything in our lives. We are thankful for all God has made and has given us and our one desire is to honor the one who saved us. Our one fear is to dishonor him. All other goals and pursuits find their place within that larger goal.
And, the place God has given us on this focused path to knowing Christ and becoming like Christ is the church. It is in God's family that we are to grow. But for that to happen, we must connect. So, I'm asking us now to make a renewed and focused commitment to connect with the life of the church.
In your worship folders there is a response card....
Greg Waybright • Copyright 2010, Lake Avenue Church