Sermon: "The Life You Always Wanted"

Seventh in the "Philippians" series.
Delivered July 30, 2006 by Andy Gathman.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

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Good morning. It's nice to be in front of you again in this capacity. This is the first time I've been able to be this loud in a while. This is the first time I've been able to preach since Eileen and I brought Juan Carlos home from Guatemala and completed our adoption - it's been about a year. George has also come on in the last year so he's been teaching us and I've been enjoying that, but it's nice to be up here again.

As Pastor Laura alluded to last week, today I'll be picking up in chapter 3 where she left off. (P. 832 in your red pew Bible) You are welcome to turn there now if you like or follow up on the screen. We'll be reading that together in just a moment, but before we dive into the text, I want to first remind us of where we've come so far in our summer study of Philippians.

As we've gone through the letter together, several themes have stood out. The first theme we talked about, in week one, is the joy that Paul has in his heart for this group of Christians. You can tell from the very opening pages of the letter the sincere love and affection he has for them. He's written this letter from prison to this church in the Greek city of Philippi. Now Paul himself was the one who had planted the church, he helped to found it, and he's writing to encourage them. You can just tell how grateful he is to be working together with them towards the things that God has called him to do and called them to do.

The next thing we looked at was the theme of unity. He goes on in Chapter 2 to talk about the humility that Christ exhibited when he came to Earth, and although he was God, he forgot about his right to be God, and made himself humble, and gave himself up as a sacrifice for us. And so Paul was asking the church to be of the same mind and in so doing that they would be more unified in their body. He says, "Make my joy complete, by being like-minded."

The third theme, which Paul takes up, and I think it is kind of the climax of the whole book of Philippians is the theme of living life as an unhindered pursuit of knowing Jesus more deeply. As we looked at last week, Paul is talking about letting go of everything else in our lives: the things we find our identity in, the things we find value in - to let all of that stuff go. He says "But whatever was for my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ." In today's passage he follows up on that thought by talking about what course we ought to set for the future.

All of us, on some level, have some picture in our minds of an ideal future. There is a life that we've always wanted. For some of us, the specifics on that life are a little fuzzy; for others, those dreams are really specific: anything from not knowing what career you want-just knowing you want a career, up to knowing the exact job you'd like to have. This picture of an ideal future extends to family and lifestyle as well. But on whatever level it's developed, this "Life we've always wanted," these dreams for the future, drive us and orient our lives in a particular direction. In fact, I want you to take a moment right now and call to mind the picture you see when you think of the future... have you ever talked with God about this picture?

The question we need to consider, and what Paul is addressing in our text today is whether the life we've always wanted is the life that God wants for us. Is our primary picture of the future the same picture that God has in mind? What happens when the thing we set our sights on is off-target?

It makes me think of the Olympic rifler from last year's Winter Olympics. Do you remember this story? He was in first place going into the last round, was one clean shot away from victory. He didn't even need a bull's eye to win. He simply needed to hit the target.

On his final shot, he leveled his gun at the target, took aim, squeezed the trigger, and watched the bullet pierce the center of the target-a perfect shot. The only problem is that he fired at the wrong target. Standing in lane two, he had fired at the target in lane three. His score for a good shot at the wrong target? Zero, and it lost him the gold. He ended up in eighth place. Talk about an unfortunate break! But consider the tragedy it is when this occurs in someone's life. That someone might dedicate their life to something, and even achieve it, only to find out that they had been aiming at the wrong thing. And so we ought to carefully consider whether we're aiming at the right target in our lives.

For Paul, the one object worth aiming at, the only goal worth his energy, was to know Christ more deeply. He was certain that the kind of life that would bring him the greatest reward was one lived in an unhindered pursuit of knowing Jesus.

And so with that in mind, let's look together at Philippians chapter 3 verse 10. Paul says,

"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. 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.

All 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. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

Just pray with me before we continue: Heavenly Father, I just pray that you would open our hearts, help us to hear the clear voice of your Spirit as we look through this passage together. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

First I should thank John and George for giving me such an easy passage to talk about. This was a tough one. Even reading through that passage, I feel like in some ways I should probably just sit down, and you might be thinking the same thing, but I do want to sort of take a stab at this.

The first thing I want us to notice is the very personal way Paul is speaking here. He's gone on in these really theological "heady" terms, and now he comes to this point and he says in a very personal way that what he really wants is more of Jesus.

We should be careful not to think that Paul viewed this pursuit as simply an intellectual exercise ("I want to know Jesus"), or on the other hand as a romantic, pie-in-the-sky, sort of affair ("I want to know Jesus"). Did you catch how he followed it up?

"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 envisions this unhindered pursuit of knowing Christ as an up-close and personal affair of his life colliding with the life of Christ. The way to experience Jesus more fully, Paul says, is not through thinking correctly about him, or feeling warm and fuzzy about him, but through dynamic faith and an intimate relationship with Jesus. It is a life that interacts with the very power of the resurrection. It mingles in fellowship with Jesus' suffering, allows itself to take on the very nature of Jesus' humiliation and death, and looks forward to-at whatever cost-the full realization of this power in the resurrection of his own body.

Because of Christ, this amazing, eternal goal of incredible value is really in reach! Even our sinful patterns are under Christ's control because he has the power to transform us-even our bodies. Paul believes that it really is possible to live into our salvation-to really experience the abundant life that Jesus promised for us.

This idea, that it is possible to live into our salvation in this life, is a very important one, because if we really believe it, I think it will radically alter the way we live our lives. We say, as Christians, that we have been saved from our sins, that we have been "born again" into a new life. And yet often we can become distracted from God and get caught up in the mundane things of everyday life.

When you live like that for a while, it can be very tempting to begin to believe that we were never meant to have a dynamic, exciting, fulfilling life with God here on earth. That kind of life is reserved for Heaven. And so the next logical conclusion is that we might as well get what satisfaction we can while we are here through family, career, or leisure; our religion (and that's what it has become now) merely plays the role of helping us to live a basically good life and manage our sinful tendencies.

But Paul doesn't buy that at all. For him, life with Christ is not about sin management, but unleashing the full measure of God's love and grace in our lives. And because of this, he realized that there is no life more satisfying, fulfilling, or exciting as one that is totally and completely unhindered in its pursuit of knowing Christ more intimately.

There is however, an admission from Paul, that this kind of life is not easy. And I think this is where some of us get sidetracked, because when we don't experience this, we feel like it's not possible. Well, that's not it. It's just that it's not easy. After he shares his desire to know Christ intimately, to the point of experiencing the power of the resurrection and sharing in the fellowship of his sufferings, he follows up by saying, in v. 12,

"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."

In some ways, this is a comfort: Paul (even Paul!) has not achieved this lofty goal. But at the same time, it shows that this unhindered pursuit of knowing Jesus is something that takes determination and strenuous effort.

And so here in verse 12 he says, "I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." I think if you read between the lines here, you see that Paul has come to understand that our existence in the present is in-between two great events. In the first event, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God began the unfurling of the banner of His kingdom here on earth. But in what remains a mystery, He has not yet allowed it to be fully established - that will happen in the second event when Jesus returns. So the nature of our life in the present is linked to the work of God in the past and also to our hope for the future. He says, I press on (the present), to take hold of that (the future) for which Christ Jesus took hold of me (the past). There is no doubt in Paul's mind that his future is secure, because it relies on the work of salvation that God has already accomplished through Jesus. But in these in-between times, even as there are elements in our life of victory and joy, there are also elements of hardship and struggle.

Notice the language he uses: I press on; I haven't taken hold of it; I'm straining toward. In the original language, the words were the same ones that would have been used to describe a footrace. Paul has realized that this goal of knowing Christ in our present life is possible, but it requires the same sort of perseverance, sacrifice, focus, and discipline as an athlete who competes in a long race.

I know some of you out there are runners. I myself am not one. But I experienced a little bit of what Paul is talking about here when I helped Eileen train for the Baltimore Marathon in 2001. One thing that Eileen and I had come to love as a couple was our weekends together. At the end of a long week, we could reconnect, have a nice meal, stay up late and have some fun on Friday. I'm sure many of you feel the same way-the whole TGIF thing, right? Then Saturday was a free day to sleep in late, take a day trip, or explore different places in and around Baltimore, or visit with friends.

Well, when Eileen was training for that marathon, it became pretty obvious that the only time for her long runs was early Saturday morning. So for that summer and fall, our weekends changed drastically. It was always pasta dinner (It doesn't take long for that to get old) and early to bed on Friday, because we would get up at 5:30 to be on the trail by 7 so she could be done with her run by the time the heat of the day kicked in. She would run and I'd bike along with her as the waterboy, and also to offer encouragement. The long runs, anywhere from 13-21 miles, would take up most of the morning, and because Eileen would be exhausted by the end, our afternoons were usually shot as well. And this went on for a period of several months. Why would we give up those weekends that we loved so much? Because those things would have gotten in the way of a more important goal, a goal that required a high degree of dedication and focus.

This kind of life is also deeply rewarding-another reason Paul uses this imagery of athletic competition. There's something in the training and struggle and dedication that makes the goal much sweeter when you finally attain it. To this day, one of the most exciting moments in our marriage (bringing Juan Carlos home notwithstanding) is when Eileen came around the final corner down at Raven's Stadium, and running hard 26.2 miles later down the final straightaway, she crossed the finish line. There's really no way to describe how rewarding that was, even for me because I helped in her training, to experience that moment, because of how much we had put into it. So Paul, I think is using this language not to describe just how hard our life is going to be when we're Christians, but also how deeply rewarding it will be when we finally get to see Jesus. Paul isn't just picturing the hard work, but he's also visualizing when he will cross the finish line and literally be called heavenward-he'll ascend the winner's podium-to claim the prize. And that is what keeps him going and that is what motivates him to pursue Christ all the more passionately.

Now, let's assume for a moment, that this is something that you would want, too. You want to set aside some other things to make your life's primary goal the unhindered pursuit of knowing Christ. And by the way, this isn't something Paul thinks is optional for the Christian. This is literally the definition of being a Christian-a Christ-follower-someone who is pursuing Christ. There's not a class of normal Christians and a class of super-Christians. This is the number one priority for all of us who have chosen to follow Jesus. And so the question then becomes, well how do I actually do this?

And I want to be careful here, because in some ways, this answer will be very specific to you. It will be different depending on your circumstances, and in particular where you are in your own relationship with Jesus. But I think the text here does give some general guidance of how to take on this pursuit, and I want talk about that before we close.

1. The first thing to do would be to revisit the point of Pastor Laura's sermon last week: Let go of anything that is keeping you from pursuing Christ wholeheartedly. When we first become a Christian, that can mean letting go of a whole lifestyle, and attacking sinful and self-centered behavior that keeps us from focusing on knowing God. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: Hebrews 12:1:

"Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

For others of us, we may not be able to identify a huge gaping problem in our lives, but we need to be cautious that we don't take up new things that, although good, may still hinder us from fully pursuing Jesus. Career path, security for your family, certain possessions (i.e. houses and cars); lifestyles (TV, going out); even friendships... it is so easy to accumulate things that are in our life primarily because of their benefit to us, and not for their benefit to God or our relationship with him. Ask yourself, What am I holding onto that I am unwilling to give up for the sake of a more intimate relationship with God? God may not be calling you to give up these things, but as you ask yourself that question, if you run into something that you're saying "Hmm, I don't know if I could ever give that up," that might be an area to work on in prayer.

2. The second thing we can do is to make sure we are practicing what we already know to be true: In verse 15 Paul says that as we mature in our faith, we'll all come to see life as this intense pursuit of knowing Christ, but then he follows up in verse 16 by saying "Only let us live up to what we have already attained." In other words, wherever you are in your faith, do what you already know. This phrase "live up to" in the original language literally means "to walk in the way of something." Paul is drawing a parallel to the Hebrew concept of practical conduct over-against mental activity. And so what we really need to do is live out the things you've figured out.

How much stronger would our faith be, how much deeper would our knowledge of Jesus be if we simply walked in the way of the things we know to be true? If we forgave as Christ forgave us? If we loved our enemies? If we thought of others before we thought of ourselves? If we gave to others freely and sacrificially? All of us have things that we know we should do to honor Jesus, but have not mastered when it comes to living them out. By working on these areas, we are in fact straining toward the goal of knowing Jesus more deeply. When Eileen began training for the marathon, her first run was only a few miles, not 15 or 20. As we learn to live out the things we already know to do, it will enable us to eventually take more challenging steps of faith.

3. Finally, we can look for others who live their life in this way, and let their lives be a pattern for you. In verse 17, Paul encourages the Philippians to "Join with others in following my example (literally, follow my example together), and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you." The pattern he's referring to is exactly what he's been saying: letting go of your old life, passionately pursuing Jesus above everything else, and straining to know him even now. If this is what you want, it is so important to put yourself around like-minded people and to find people who are ahead of you and have learned how to do this well. Ask these people to be a player-coach for you, helping to shape your training and encourage you in the race.

Pastor John talked about this a few weeks ago when he talked about finding a mentor or being a mentor. And if you haven't already taken a step to do that, but feel like you might want to, I encourage you again to explore that. And to that I'll add to find a small group of like-minded believers with whom you can share this goal. Every week out in the concourse you'll find someone at the small group connect table, who would love to help you get in to such a group. If you don't have a group, please stop by there after the service today. Because this is a difficult goal, and we need people around us in our lives on a daily basis that can help us to live into this pursuit of Jesus.

The good news is that the outcome of this pursuit does not depend on our ability or worthiness for the task. Paul wraps up in verse 20, by saying

"We eagerly await a Savior from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."

This goal of knowing Christ more fully does not depend on us, but on God and His power working in us, and in that we have hope and confidence that this life is possible.

Even so, it's hard to escape the reality that we live in a broken world, and for us, as runners pursuing the goal of knowing Christ, it often feels like we're limping toward the finish line. As I was looking for stories to help illustrate this running metaphor that Paul uses, the story of Bill Broadhurst stood out in particular. I think this describes how all of us feel at times in this race.

In July 1981, Bill Broadhurst entered the Omaha, Nebraska, Pepsi 10k, a race of 6.2 miles. Broadhurst is slowed by a brain aneurysm he suffered 10 years earlier, which left him partially paralyzed on the left side. He made it his goal to finish the 10k despite this obstacle. He was determined to run because Bill Rogers, his hero and a world-famous distance runner, was in the race that day.

Rogers, great runner that he is, placed first in a time of 29 minutes and 37 seconds. It would take Bill Broadhurst much longer. One hour in, his partially paralyzed left side started to feel like dead weight. After two hours, the cars were back in the streets, and getting through intersections became difficult. At two hours and twenty minutes the pain was so intense and throbbing, he didn't think he could go on.

Then he saw the end. But as soon as he saw it, his heart sank: the banner was gone and everybody had left. Still, having come this far, he decided to push through to the end. As he approached the finish line, he perceived a small gathering of people off to the side. Then they moved out to greet him, and he saw Bill Rogers at the front crowd. They had been waiting for him. As Broadhurst crossed the finish line, Rogers opened his arms, and hugged him.

Rogers took the gold medal from around his own neck, and put it around the neck of the last runner to cross the line. "You're the winner, man," he said. "You take the gold."

What a beautiful picture of our life with Christ. Jesus, the first runner of this race, has not forgotten us, struggling runners that we are. No, he has taken hold of us, he is making us fit for the race, and he is cheering us on toward the goal, and he's waiting for us to give us the prize that he earned. And so, let us not forget Him Let us fix our eyes on Him, the author and perfecter of our faith, as we live our lives in an unhindered pursuit of his love and grace.

Let's pray: God, we thank you that you've sent your son to go before us. We thank you that he not only ran the race, but he completed it, and in doing so, he gave us the power and the strength so that we could run in pursuit of him as well. I ask, God, that you would begin to inspire us, begin to motivate us, begin to challenge us to make this pursuit a bigger priority in our lives, so we might know you more deeply, and we might experience the full measure of the salvation that you prepared for us. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

© 2006, Andy Gathman
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org