Living Our Purpose!

Philippians 3:12-16

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.

            It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

            Every morning a lion wakes up.

                        It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

            It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle;

                        when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.

In the Christian life, it’s not enough simply to wake up.

            We are called to run,

                        to become more like Christ,

                                    to press ahead in godliness.

Paul was a man of great spiritual insight and courage.

            A towering man among spiritual giants.

                        But as far as he had come in his spiritual growth,

                                    he let the Philippians know that he had not yet completely arrived spiritually.

                        But he also assured them, that he was striving each day to reach the goal Christ had for him.

The Lord had a great purpose in mind for Paul.

            Paul was seeking to reach God’s goal for his life.

            The Lord has a great purpose in mind for all of us.

                        He wants us all to press on in our Christian life.

                        He wants us all to become like Jesus Christ.

                                    But to achieve that purpose in our lives involves several steps.

                                                The first of which is:

I.       Forget the Past (v. 13).

Paul says that we are to forget the past.

            But wait a minute!

                        We know that it’s important to remember the past.

                        We have been taught that if we forget the mistakes of the past that we are destined to repeat them.

            So why would Paul say we are to forget the past?

                        How is that going to help us to grow spiritually?

                        How is that going to help us reach the goal Christ has set before us?

Paul’s determination to forget the past,

            was a part of his resolve to never rest or relax, as he faced the future.

            You see, he would not allow any memory of his past failures

                        to cause him to be depressed in the present, or to slow him down.

            He was determined to have the same mind concerning the future

                        as that of the athlete whose eyes are fixed on the goal.

When we do this, we cannot look back.

            Looking back does several things that hinder our forward progress.

                        Slows us down

                        Gets us off balance

                        Changes our focus

            Whatever the past has been, God wants to make certain it will not hinder us.

            That is done by concentrating on what lies ahead.

Sometimes our previous sins may have left such a deep mark on our souls

            that it seems we can never remove them from our memory.

One of the things that we hear a lot about today is the “Internet.”

            Now, whether you realize it or not, when you surf the internet,

                        your computer puts into its memory all the “web pages” you have viewed.

                        So if you go there again, it remembers it, and can load it faster for you.

            But, this memory cache, that can become so large that it can eat up your computer resources

                        and cause the computer to run slower and slower.

            Which means, from time to time we need to clear that memory

                        so that the computer can work better and faster.

Now, in Jesus Christ our sins have been removed.

            Spiritually we have been cleansed.

                        All the sin that has hindered us, that has pulled us down,

                                    has been cleaned away by the blood of Christ.

            God doesn’t want us to get bogged down remembering all our past sins.

                        He doesn’t want us always drudging up the past.

Thinking, “well if I had only done this or if I had only done that, things would be so much different.”

                        It’s may be true, perhaps things would have been different.

                                    But we can’t change the past.

                        However we can know that in Christ our past sins are forgiven.

                                    We can look forward to what Christ has prepared for us today and tomorrow.

Robert Louis Stevenson said,

                        “Never allow your mind to dwell on your own mistakes: that is ruin.”

            We should pray constantly that God will give us the courage and the strength

                        that enables us to never sit lamenting amongst the ruins of the past.

            If we will surrender to God completely, He will provide us with the strength we need

                        to forget our failures and to move on in our life with Him.

            James 4:8 says; “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you...”

                        Are you forgetting the past and drawing near to God?

 II.     Face The Future (v. 12)

Instead of getting tangled up in the past, Paul says that we are to face the future.

            In verse 12, Paul says that he “presses on.”

                        Some translators translate it, “stretching forward,”

                                    which gives us a clearer picture of what Paul was trying to say.

This is an expression used to describe a runner as he goes hard for the tape at the finish line.

            His eyes are on nothing but the goal.

                        His arms are clawing the air.

                        His head is forward.

                        His body is bent toward the goal.

                        He is literally “flat out” for the finish.

                        He is looking to what lies ahead.

History provides an incident illustrating this important principle.

            When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of Britain with his Roman legions,

                        he took a bold and decisive step to ensure the success of his military venture.

                        Ordering his men to halt on the edge of the Cliffs of Dover,

                                    he commanded them to look down at the water below.

                        To their amazement, they saw every ship in which they had crossed the channel engulfed in flames.

                        Caesar had deliberately cut off any possibility of retreat!

            Now that his soldiers were unable to return to the continent,

                        there was nothing left for them to do but to look to the future,

                                    to advance and conquer!

                        And that is exactly what they did.

Paul is pressing on as well.

            Pressing on into the future.

            Pressing on in his spiritual growth.

            Pressing on in his service to Christ.

            Pressing on as he seeks to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the world.

Paul was not a man who looked back.

             Just think what he would see if he did.

                        He would see himself putting Christians to death.

                        He would see himself seeking to destroy the church.

                        He would see brothers and sisters in Christ who turned against him.

                        He would see all the physical pain and suffering that he endured for the cause of Christ.

                                    The beatings, the stoneings, the imprisonments.

            Paul knew that if he thought about those things, if he dwelled on the past,

                        that he would be stopped dead in his tracks.

III.   Keep Your Eye On The Goal!

But Paul didn’t look to the past, instead he says in verse 14,

            “I press on toward the goal to win the prize...”

            Paul looked forward to the goal that lay before him.

                        And more than anything else he wanted to reach that goal.

There is a fable about a dog who loved to chase other animals.

            He bragged about his great running skill and said he could catch anything.

                        Well, it wasn’t long until his boastful claims were put to the test by a certain rabbit.

            With ease the little creature outran his barking pursuer.

                        The other animals, watching with glee, began to laugh.

                        The dog excused himself, however, by saying,

                                    “You forget, I was only running for fun. He was running for his life!”

That little rabbit had a goal, to out run that dog and thus to save his life.

            That rabbit was motivated.

                        And so was Paul.

                                    Paul was looking ahead to the prize that lay before him.

                                    He was looking forward to sharing in the glory of Gods marvelous heaven.

                                    His eye was on that future goal.

                        And it was that goal that motived him to press on.

                                    To seek to grow spiritually,

                                    to serve Christ more fully,

                                    to share the Good News of Christ with others,

                                    to go places he had never been and do things he had never done before.

You see, if that prize is our goal, as it was Paul’s,

            then we have to look forward, we have to keep our eyes on the goal.

            We have to look to the future, and not to the past.

                         We have to look to what can be and not what has been.

                        We have to look to what we can accomplish and not back to our failures.

            For our motivation for service,

                        our motivation for spiritual growth,

                        our motivation to lead others to Christ,

                                    comes from looking ahead to the goal that lays before us.

Friends: “Do you have your eyes on your goal of heaven?”

Conclusion

A few years ago, Newsweek magazine reported on what it called the new wave of mountain men.

            It’s estimated that there are some sixty thousand serious mountain climbers in the United States.

            But in the upper echelon of serious climbers is a small elite group known as “hard men.”

For them climbing mountains and scaling sheer rock faces is a way of life.

            In many cases, climbing is a part of their whole commitment to life.

            And their ultimate experience is called free soloing:

                        climbing with no equipment and no safety ropes.

John Baker is considered by many to be the best of the hard men.

            He has free-soloed some of the most difficult rock faces in the United States

                        with no safety rope and no climbing equipment of any kind.

            But his skill has not come easy.

                        It has been acquired through commitment, dedication and training.

            His wife says she can’t believe his dedication.

When John isn’t climbing, he’s often to be found in his California home

                                    hanging by his fingertips to strengthen his arms and hands.

Who are the hard men and women for Jesus?

            Who are those who will bring all their energies to bear for the sake of Christ?

            Who are those who are accomplishing great things for the Kingdom of God?

            Who are those who are growing in Christ and making a difference in our world today?

They are the men and women who will...

            Forget the Past

            Face the Future

            Keep Their Eye on the Goal