Untitled Sermon

For you to speak to us through your word. So, Lord, our hearts are open. Impart to us that that you desire, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

Overcoming circumstantial Christianity is a process. You overcome it as you learn to rejoice in the Lord. That's the book of Philippians. Overcoming circumstantial Christianity by learning to rejoice in the Lord. You learn to rejoice in the opportunities that he's given you to serve Christ. Chapter 1, which is every single day that you wake and breathe is an opportunity to serve him.

You need to learn how to have the mind of Christ to be able to rejoice in the Lord, which is chapter 2. The mind of Christ is a mind that, like Christ, surrendered himself to the will of the Father, becoming a servant, becoming something that was beneath him, detestable, really, to the heavenly realms, and becoming that servant even unto the point of death, the death on the cross. The only way that you and I will ever be able to rejoice in the Lord in the midst of the circumstances is to let him develop that mind in you. And thirdly, as we come to chapter 3, we're learning that we are to rejoice in the calling of Christ that he's given to each one of us.

To rejoice in the calling of Christ. Now, I don't know how you see that. I don't know how you see your calling in Christ. If you see your calling in Christ as a faraway thing, becoming like him and conform to him in his image, ultimately, that's the ultimate goal of that. If that's the only calling you see is out there, way out there, then you don't have the right view of the future.

You don't have the right view of the present either. And you may be locked up in your past as a result of that. Understanding the calling of the Lord, as we've seen so far in our study in Philippians 3, involves knowing how to deal with our past. That's the first seven verses. Knowing how to deal with our past. And dealing with our past involves putting it aside.

Chapter 3, verse 7, he talks about... I'll just move this out of the way. I'll have you look around it, or I don't have to look around it. Paul says, Whatever was to be profit for me, whatever was to be gain in my life, I now consider it loss. I now count it loss. You remember the word is forfeit. I forfeit the past. Living in the present then, verses 8 through 11,

we see that the very first thing we have to do in living in the present is continue to forfeit the past. Continue to count the past loss. Why? Because that is something Satan, knowing our schemata, our schematic, our makeup, he knows that's a tool that will neutralize us the quickest, as if he brings up the past. You failed at this before. Why do you think you can make it again?

You never were a good father. You never were a good mother. You never could do that kind of stuff. Why are you even attempting now? So to be able to live in the present, we have to continue, verse 8. I not only count these things loss, he says, but what's more, verse 8, I continue to count those things loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, he says, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,

for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, dung, useless to me now, in order that I may gain Christ. So I continue to count the past loss. Every time Satan starts to throw it up, I continue to count it loss. I continue to count it rubbish, both gains and losses. I count them loss of the past. Secondly, we saw that verses, last part of verse 8 and verse 9,

we have to change the focus of our lives in order to live in the present. The focus of my life must become Christ. Not just, I'm not just going to play Christian. I'm not just going to do the Christ thing on Sundays and maybe Wednesdays. I'm not just going to do the Jesus stuff when I open my Bible. Whenever that is, I am going to focus my life on Christ. Paul says that at the last half of verse 8,

that I may gain Christ. I count everything else rubbish so that I may gain Christ, verse 9, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. My focus is Christ, to stand in his righteousness, to live by his righteousness, not how I see. Not how I see myself, but how I know that he sees me in him.

I have to focus on that. Otherwise, I'll be the first four verses of chapter of Psalm 13 all the time. Woe is me. Who shall deliver me from this bond of death? Third thing I have to do in order to live in the present is establish new goals for my life. And if Christ is the focus of my life, verses 8 and 9, then I will establish the goals, the right goals for my life.

Verses 10 and 11, I want to know Christ, goal number one. If he's the focus of my life, it's that I want to know him. I don't just have to have the little gloss. The picture that was done in the 50s, I think, or whatever, of the fair-skinned Jesus with the long flowing brown hair. I don't always have to have the picture of that picture, that glossy in front of me,

but I want to focus on him. I want to focus on him with every minute, every time I'm ready to do something. My focus is Christ. And if I do that, then my first goal is to get to know him, to get to know his desires and his thoughts towards me and his desires for this situation and how he would seek to love in this particular situation. Not my desires. I need to know Christ.

Secondly, verse 10, in the power of his resurrection. We talked about that in detail last time. Thirdly, the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings becomes a goal. It's not a masochistic desire. It's a desire that causes me to realize that as I am suffering in my getting to know him as Paul did, as he proclaimed him and ended up the different sufferings of his life,

the beatings and the shipwrecks and the imprisonments were part of that fellowship of his sufferings. It did something for his walk. I read this week in a devotional, that scripture that talks about God keeps, he keeps your tears in his bottle. He keeps the tears, your tears in a bottle, and he notes your time of sorrow. You ever thought about that? That's an interesting thought.

Why does he do that? What significance is that? That God keeps your tears in a bottle and he notes your time of sorrow unless it has something to do with your growth. If he keeps my tears in a bottle, then to me, that indicates that there must be some kind of a marketplace or some kind of a marking on that bottle, you know? And he takes note of my sorrow. It's like he's noting it down because there's a certain amount that has to happen.

And when I finally get, you know, when he finally says, okay, that's full and the sorrow's full. Okay, that's, you've made, you've come to that point somehow. Somehow it has to do with our growth in the Lord. And so Paul says, I want to know that. I want to come to know that. I don't want to be afraid of suffering. I want to know that it's part of my growing up and knowing him.

And so it's, it's a goal. Again, not a masochistic goal, but a goal in my desire to know Christ. I want a fellowship in those sufferings or whatever you had. I'm not going to go out and make some suffering. I mean, I'm not going to go down and crawl down the Via Dolorosa on my knees and nail myself to a cross so that I can manufacture suffering. But as I take a stand for you and suffer as a result,

I learn the fellowship of that and I'm growing as a result. And you note that in your book and keep track of my tears in your bottle. Fourthly, he says, I want to become like him in his death. That again, that submission to him that like Christ, submitted unto not only being a servant, but a servant unto death. I want to know that, Paul says. And then fifthly, and somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead,

out of the dead, not just the resurrection itself, but the resurrection from the dead, out of that time of dying. Specifically, he was looking forward to the rapture of the church. Specifically, he was anticipating that catching up of the saints. So those are goals. And those are goals that if we want to live in the present, not be bogged down by the past, we need to be doing that.

But then there's this view to the future. In understanding how to rejoice in my call, the calling that Christ has called me to, I need to live with a view toward the future. I need to understand that. Now again, it comes back to how do you see your calling in Christ? Is it only something that's future? Is it only something that's out there? You see, sometimes we forget that we are all called saints.

That we are all ministers of the gospel. That you, when you are called of Christ, the instant you were saved, you became a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's not like you're waiting for some time down the road so you'll fulfill the call of Christ in your life. You are fulfilling that calling now. Right now. Whatever you're doing, whatever your circumstance,

wherever you're located, it's now. Don't wait for this idea that, well, you know, maybe someday I'll be able to do what I've been called to do. No, you've been called now. To live for Him now. And that's His calling. Now how He does it is up to Him. What He's going to do is up to Him. But your calling is now. Ultimately, the ultimate part of your call is the conformity to Christ.

To be conformed to the image of Christ. That's happening now. So see yourself as functioning in His calling now. You see, as you do that, that's how we learn to rejoice in the calling of Christ. Otherwise, we can get bound up into thinking, well, I wonder what my call is. And am I to be a pastor or an evangelist or a preacher or a teacher? And I've got to get down there and fulfill my call.

And then what happens when the circumstances seem to hinder that? Have you not fulfilled your call? There's an article. I take a periodical called World Magazine, which is a conservative Christian magazine that deals with the news of today from a conservative Christian perspective. And in that magazine was a story of a guy named Mike. And Mike was a guy who,

at the time the story was written, was in his 50s, late 50s. And earlier in his life, about 20 years earlier, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had come to the point over that 20-year period where he was bedridden and where the only thing, the only part of his body that functioned was his jaw, was his mouth, so that he could eat and so that he could form words very hoarsely, very sparse words. He could communicate, but it was difficult to communicate. And the author who wrote this was a professor of religious studies at Cal Poly and was a Christian.

Amazing. Christian's at Cal Poly. How about that? Professors at Cal Poly, they're Christians. Professors at any university that are Christians is amazing. I don't want to get into that. But he talked about how one of the concerns that Mike had, and he loved the Lord. Mike loved the Lord. And was always talking to him when he'd come to visit him. He was always talking to him about the world

and why people were so hard on one another. And why there was so much hatred in the world and all of this stuff. And one of Mike's concerns was that he didn't see how in his condition with MS, totally bedridden, totally unable to go anywhere to witness for Christ, how in the world God could use him. And why didn't God just take him? Why didn't God just kill him right there and let him die?

Because he just couldn't see what value his life was. But he wasn't going to take his life because he understood the sanctity of that life. And in some purpose, somehow God must have a reason. God was sovereign over it. And so he was going to let God be God. But he in his own mind wrestled with, why Lord? What good am I? And the author of this article wrote that

maybe God's purpose for Mike was through him to show God's purpose. Because it touched this pastor, this professor of this college. And that article really touched my life. My life was touched by Mike, whom I've never seen, but I'll get to see in glory. Who though he thought his life was worthless and had missed his call, you see, was actually fulfilling it before the Lord.

Now can you say that this morning? Do you realize that this morning in your own life? That you're not waiting for something to happen to be able to fulfill your calling or find out what your calling in life is. Your calling in life is inside a bulletin. Two things that this ministry is founded on. To be worshipers and make disciples. Period. To know him. Walking obediently.

Regularly seeking his intimate presence. Exampling righteous service. That's our call. And you're fulfilling that as you seek to continue counting the past loss, to make Christ the focus of your life and to establish those goals for your life. That's your call. Now whatever circumstances you're in is a part of your calling. Let God be God in the midst of those circumstances.

And to do that, we have to have a view toward the future. And that comes three ways in these verses. First, let's look at verse... Let me read this. Let's read verses 12 through the end of the chapter in chapter 3. Paul says, Not that I have already obtained all of this, all of this that he's written in the first 11 verses, 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 this one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ. 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 known, 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, and 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.

Step number one in having a view towards the future is you have to have a desire to mature. You have to have a desire to mature. Not that I've already obtained all this, he says, nor 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 this one thing I do, forgetting what's behind and straining towards what's ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

You have to have a desire to want to grow in the Lord, to want to mature in Christ. I remember growing up, I had, well, the first implement I can remember having, or play, good-sized play toy, was a little pedal car. I had this pedal car, and a neighbor friend had a tractor, and I wanted to trade him. I wanted a tractor, so we ended up working out a trade. I got his little orange tractor.

He got my little blue pedal car, and he got the better deal. But after that, after the pedal car, for a while, I was growing into wanting to ride a bike, and so I got a bike, a small bike, and it had the training wheels on it. It got to the point where I could ride without the training wheels, but it didn't have any brakes. So, you know, you'd ride that little thing, and if you wanted to stop, you'd have to fall over, jump off.

So I wanted a bike with brakes, and so I got a nice, my folks got me a nice Schwinn, a little 20-inch Schwinn, a little green and white. I still see that little thing, a little green-white Schwinn with coaster brakes. It had a little horn, buzzer horn. He punched a little horn in the middle of the, of the bar, little streamers coming off the handlebars, handle grip.

Loved that little bike. Only thing was, all my friends were having, they had the bigger bikes, you know, 26-inch bikes. So I wanted to get a 26, grew into the 26-inch. Then they got three speeds. I wanted a three-speed, and then, well, then finally it got to the point where I was about 12, and I wanted to drive, you know. Forget the bikes. I want a car. So you couldn't wait until you were 16,

and then you got to be 16 and got to drive. Then you wanted to be 18. I wanted to be 18 real bad. I tell you, it was so I could vote, but back then I wasn't a Christian, so that'd be a lie. Yeah. Couldn't vote back then at 18. You could drink. I wanted to be 18. Then I wanted to be 21. Couldn't wait to be 21, because then you were legal. You could get credit.

You could, you know, all the, the world opened up to you, so you get to be 21, but then to really get a job, you needed experience. At 21, you don't have any experience, so I couldn't wait to be 30 so that I'd have the experience, and, you know, then you get to be 30, and you wish you were 20 again, you know.

But there has to be that desire, you know, that constant desire to grow. You can't just, and part of the problem that we have, you see, in our Christian walk is we get to a point or we get to a place, and we want to just stay there. This is comfortable. Things been happening, and, you know, I see a lot of stuff going on, and this is comfortable. I just want to stay here.

I'm comfortable. Leave me alone. It's my life, you know. I don't want to mix my Christianity with anything else. It's mine, and I'm just comfortable. I want to stay here. Go to church on Sunday morning, and maybe some other time during the week, and that's my Christianity. Just leave me alone. That's the way I've always been. And then we can get stuck there, and when we get stuck there,

we get usually bombarded and caught up with the things of the past. Because we're not wanting to progress. We're not seeing how to progress. And so we try and fill our lives with everything out here. We're dealing with the past, trying to deal with the past. It keeps getting brought up, and we get in this bind. And the secular psychologists have got all kinds of names for it.

You get stuck in the phallic stage or you get stuck in, you know, Jung had a whole bunch of stuff that he called it. And then, you know, it's just descriptions of not maturing in Christ. You're not going on with the Lord. So we have to want to mature. We have to want to grow. I remember, you know, telling my folks that I didn't want to be treated like a kid anymore.

And you know what they said? Stop acting like one. You've said that too, haven't you? So I've got to want to mature, to stop acting like a child. And that was the problem, see, with the Jewish Christians. That's why the writer of Hebrews wrote to the church in Jerusalem and said, you guys should be grown now. You should be to the point where you're discipling others,

where you're walking, your faith is strong, and you're able to impart the Word of God to others, but you still are acting like children, and you still need someone to spoon-feed it to you, and you're just still standing on salvation, and that's it. You've not grown in your knowledge of Christ. And you see, that's a potential for us as Christians. We have to realize it.

We can get stuck. We've got to want to grow, and to grow involves the fellowship of sufferings. And you see, sometimes that scares us. But it's the only way to grow, and you've got to grow, and you've got to want to grow. Now, part of the problem with this, though, and the paradox here, is that one of the marks of maturity, well, we know one of the marks of maturity is love.

By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another, is servanthood, service, sacrifice, serving one another. But one of the marks, another mark of maturity that's mentioned here is realizing that you haven't made it yet. You see, I wanted to be an adult. I want to show my folks and all around me I'm an adult. I'm capable of making my decisions.

When do you ever reach that point? I mean, legally it's 18 or 21, but when do you ever reach that point? You see, I'm in my 40s, and inside I still feel like I'm 18. But I know there's things I need to do to be mature, to act maturely, and I need to do those things, otherwise I get in trouble. So, one of the things about maturing in Christ is to realize that we haven't made it yet.

You aren't perfect. We aren't perfect. We have not made perfection. It has been granted unto us. Ultimately we'll realize it, but we're not there yet. Gene Getz, in his commentary, paraphrases it real well, and let me read verses 12 through 14 according to his paraphrase. I have not yet reached this goal. I have not yet become perfect like Christ, but it is my goal,

even while on earth, to become like Christ, to become what he called me to be. As I said, I haven't reached it, but I have one burning desire, to be like Christ in every aspect of his life. I am not allowing my past life to drag me down. Rather, I am moving full speed ahead toward the goal. And in heaven, when Christ calls me home, I'll receive the prize. I'll be like Christ,

that is, completely conformed to his image." You see, this is the apostle Paul saying this. This is Paul, who has been an apostle now for decades, and he's saying, I haven't made it yet. To him, there was still more of Christ to get to know. To Paul, there was still more of his sufferings that he needed to fellowship in. To Paul, there was still more of his mind

that needed to become like the one in the mind of Christ. There was still more of the resurrection power to get to know. And Jesus hadn't yet come for Paul, so he realized he hadn't made it yet. He wasn't perfect yet. He wasn't mature as he ought to be. You see, spiritual arrogance, claiming that we know, is only a sign of our immaturity. Humility is a sign of maturity.

Sacrifice is a sign of maturity. Love is a sign of maturity. And knowing that I have not arrived is a sign of maturity. And Paul did one thing as a result of that. He says, I have not made it yet, but this one thing, verse 13, I do. This is one thing I do, as a result of knowing that he hadn't made it yet. He'd been coming all this way, but he wasn't there yet.

This one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what's ahead. Forgetting what's behind and straining, agonizing towards what's ahead. I don't know if you've ever seen a podcast where a power post hole digger may have not had a great need in your life to see one up to this point. They're kind of interesting. You put the little point thing down on the ground

and they turn that motor on and that auger starts going down and it's spinning fast. I mean, I've dug a hole with one of these before, you know. But to watch the little thing go down and it just throws dirt up out of that hole and the point just keeps going down. You see, that's an illustration of what Paul's saying here in verse 13. Forgetting what's behind,

I agonize, I strain towards what's ahead. You see, his life, he was just taking the past and chucking it like that auger, just throwing that dirt out and his point, his head was pointed and focused at Christ. It's straining towards that calling, straining towards the end of his calling. There's the words press on rendered in the English for the Greek word. It's been translated press on in verse 12,

press on in verse 14, and in the middle, verse 13, is straining, straining. Those three words indicate that it's taking every ounce of Paul's existence to move towards that. See, so there's effort involved. He's putting every ounce of energy into that possible pursuit of that. You see, there's a delicate balance as we talk about this. There's a delicate balance here

between God's enablement and human responsibility. Never do I want to talk and stress anything as far as you and I making it by our own effort. We can't, we know that. We are saved by grace through faith, yet we press on now towards the fulfillment, the full realization of that salvation. But it's not by ourselves, it's by his enabling us to do it by the power of his spirit.

And you see, if we get out of balance on either side, we end up in sin. If I'm out of balance on the side of divine enablement, then I'm at the point of saying, not only can I do nothing without God enabling me to do it, I don't have to do anything. God's going to do it all. I'm not responsible to have to do anything then because God's going to do it. And so it really doesn't make any difference

what I do, God's going to do it. And I trust him in that. You see, that's out of balance on that side. And what that produces is a Laodicean attitude. An attitude that says, well, I really don't have to do anything because God's going to do it anyhow. God's sovereign. It's all in his control. I don't have to really be concerned about my marriage or about my job

or about the situation in the world or about what stand I take. I don't have to be concerned about that because it's God's anyhow. So I end up not doing anything. Saying that God's going to do it all. And I end up with a Laodicean attitude. And that's, God says, he wants to vomit me out of his mouth when I'm that way. But then on the other side of human responsibility,

I can say that I've got to do this. I mean, I've got to do it. And I've got to do it so much that God's not going to like me if I don't. And I've just got to do it. And I don't take the time to spend with him to ask him to enable me. God, fill me with your spirit now so that I might do this. And God, am I doing it right? Am I walking right? I just go out to do it.

Because it's got to be done. And I've got to get that thing done. You see? And I end up either with a breakdown or I end up mad at everybody because nobody else is doing it. I've got to do it. You ought to do it too. And you aren't doing it so I'm upset with you because you're not doing it. You see? And then the love of God does not flow through me. So I'm way out of balance on this side.

There's got to be a delicate balance between what God's enabling and what my responsibility is. But I do have a responsibility. You see? I do, in my maturing, I have to do something. And Scripture, dealing with the maturity of a Christian, is replete with that. Romans 12, verse 1, Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer yourselves as living sacrifices.

That's something you have to do. You have to offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice, saying, here I am, Lord, use me. You have to do that. He doesn't just make you do it. You have to do it. Ephesians 4, verse 3 says, Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. That's our responsibility. We have to make the effort. Yes, He enables us.

That's what the first three chapters of Ephesians is all about. But then we have to do it. We have to get out there and make the effort to do it. When there's conflict and friction between us and somebody else, we, because we are understanding what's going on, make the effort to say, hey, you know, what's going on? Can we work this out together? Seek to love one another

when we're hurt and injured. We have to make that effort. Ephesians 4, verses 22 to 32, those 10 or 11 verses are just filled with things that we are to do as a result of maturing in Christ. Put off the old self. Put on the new. Put off falsehood. Speak the truth. Steal no longer. But work doing something useful. Get rid of all bitterness and rage and anger and brawling and slander

and be kind to one another. Those are things that we do. It's our responsibility to do those. And yes, they're hard. Yes, they hurt. And in the pursuit of those, you will agonize. That's what we're called to do. We strain towards that to do these things. Ephesians chapter five, the whole chapter in Ephesians is filled with the responsibilities of a Christian.

Verse one of chapter five starts off with, be imitators of God as dear children. And then there's everything about staying away from darkness, redeeming the time, submitting yourselves one to another. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord. Fathers, don't provoke your children to wrath.

Children, be obedient to your parents. Slaves, to your masters. Masters, to your slaves. See, those are things that we do. We're responsible for doing as we mature in the Lord. First Thessalonians chapter four, if you remember from our study in Thessalonians. First Thessalonians four one, Paul says, finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God.

Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. See, that's our responsibility. We have to take that responsibility and act and do it. Verse 10 in chapter four of First Thessalonians. You love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. This we've heard. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more. See, we have to want to mature. That's a responsibility

that we have to take. We have to step out and do that that God has called us to do. He's equipped us to do it. Absolutely. It's by his calling and his equipping, always in the light of what he has done. But we're the ones responsible to do it if we're gonna mature. So forgetting what's behind, he says, and straining towards what's ahead, I press on towards the goal.

Towards the goal. That word towards the goal in the Greek means literally according to watching. According to watching. We get our English word scope like a telescope. So I press on toward the goal. I've got the goal in sight now. That's what I'm focusing on. That's what I'm looking at now. That's Christ ultimately, right? Because our goal, one of our goals is

to know Christ, to focus on him. So that's the ultimate goal. And looking towards the future. I press on. I'm scoping out Christ. Fixing my eyes on Christ. To win the prize, he says, for which God has called me heavenward. Now the word prize there in the Greek is an interesting word. It's from the root word which means to umpire. And also the verb which means to decide.

Literally the prize then is a result of the umpire's decision. It's a result of God's decision. The prize that I'm straining towards is something that God's already laid out for me to receive. He's the umpire. He's decided I should receive it. And he wants me to keep my eyes open and I'm just moving towards that which God has called me heavenward in Christ.

The word heavenward means to be with Christ. Literally. That's the prize. That's the ultimate view as we look towards the future. That's not ultimately where, well ultimately our calling will be fulfilled there but we are rejoicing in our calling between here and there because that's all part of the process of our calling. Hope I'm not confusing you and leaving you.

You are in the midst of receiving that. You are in the midst of moving to where God is going to give you that calling that prize to which he has called you. Ultimately to become conformed into the image of Christ. To be like him. To see him as he is. Now Paul says here that literally there's no other view. So in other words, well let's read it. Verse 15 and 16.

All of us who are mature or maturing 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. All of us who are mature he says, who are maturing the verb is to continue on should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently.

Now the word differently in the Greek is the word heteros which means another of a different kind. And so in other words if you have a different attitude or a different idea as far as your Christianity is concerned. In other words, if your view of Christianity is anything other than the need and the desire to pursue, to forget what's behind and to strain towards that goal to keep Christ as a focus and to move towards that with a diligent responsibility with a diligent effort if you have any other view you're wrong. It's literally what Paul's saying.

So in other words there's no half-hearted Christianity. There's no well I got to keep my Christianity out of politics. Or I got to keep my Christianity out of the job. Or I got to keep my Christianity out of the school. Or I got to keep my Christianity out of the club or whatever thing I'm engaged. I can't. You see? That's my goal. That's my life's goal. It's to forget what's behind

and to agonize towards the prize for which I've been called heavenward. And if I have any other view of it I'm wrong. He says if at some point you think differently that too God will make clear to you. Now how does he do that? Often by letting you just go off in your own direction. You see if you're sitting here this morning and you're hearing this and you think well that's

you're forcing that on me. I'm not doing anything other than telling you what it says. And he said if you have any other attitude about it you're wrong. And if you're going to go on that way he'll make it clear to you. Now how does he make it clear? Well remember the prodigal son? It's not just a nice story. That's a description of sometimes what God lets us do.

When we say I'm not going to do that. I'm going to go on this way. And God says toodles. Have a ball right when you get hungry. And he lets us get to the point where we're so disgusted with where we're at. I don't know if you've ever experienced that before. I have. Where I've gone off in an area of sin doing something I want to do. I think and it's against God

and I know it and I go off and it just you get disgusted with it. It just makes you sick. You get a taste of what the prodigal experienced when he's sitting in a pigsty eating slop. And he goes what am I doing here? I want to go home. Sometimes he'll let us do that. But he'll make it clear. He'll make it clear. So as we say this this morning I know that if you disagree

well he'll make it clear. He'll do it somehow. He says only let us live up to what we've already attained. In other words keep walking step by step in line with the maturity in Christ that we've already been seeing develop in our lives. We've had to walk in the Lord to get to this point. It's going to have to keep walking to continue to mature. It's just it's a process

that will continue. You've got to want to. If you heard Dr. Dobson this week he had a tape of a pastor on that talked about you got to have a want to. That was an excellent tape. Got to have a want to. Hope you got a want to. You got to to grow. Second thing. Second thing we have to do in our getting our view towards the future and walking through this life

is to watch out for decoys. Watch out for decoys. Look at verse 17. It says, 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. You got to watch out for decoys. What's a decoy? A decoy is something that looks like it. Right? The real thing. And kill it. If it's a duck you put duck decoys out and then you hide in a blind and the ducks come down thinking that's the real thing that they're going to fellowship with and you blow the little thing

away. You beasts. There's decoys in the Christian walk as well. There are those who look like a Christian duck and they quack kind of like a Christian duck and they want to draw you over to them and have you seem to fellowship or make you feel like you've got to do this this way. The enemy gets you and he neutralizes you in that state. That's what the Judaizers were.

That's what Paul was talking about here. The Judaizers were wanting to come in and they sounded like a duck and they looked like a duck but they were really leading the people off into something that had nothing to do with the relationship with Jesus Christ. They had them thinking that they had to do this. They had to be circumcised. They had to do things this certain way

or they had no fellowship with God. They weren't saved. And it was a decoy to lead them astray and there's lots of that in Christianity today brothers and sisters. And unless you know the real thing you can sometimes get fooled with a decoy. And so Paul says tells us to follow the godly examples. Join with us he says in following my example. Literally mimic me.

Remember that from Thessalonians? Mimic me and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. Take note in the Greek means to be constantly observing. So be constantly observing those who live according to the pattern that we gave you. That word pattern is from a word that means it has a root word meaning to strike. Like if you take a die

a steel die and hit it with a hammer and imprint a marking onto a piece of wood let's say. It imprints itself into the wood. That's the idea of the word pattern there. And so by that Paul's saying there is a specific pattern of Christianity that you can know. That's right. And you need to see where that's being lived out and mimic it. Follow it. Follow it. Stay close to it.

That's why fellowship is so important. That's why it's so necessary for us to be together with brothers and sisters and fellowship in the Lord. You see you get you get at least eight hours a day maybe ten hours a day five or six days a week in the world with mainly people who are some are decoys. You know they claim to be Christians and yet you really see their lifestyle and they're just like the world.

And you get eight ten hours a day five six days a week with people like that and what are you going to be doing? You just send your kids overnight somewhere and they come home acting and talking like wherever they've been. I remember that when my kids were young. They'd come back with a drawl. They didn't have no drawl when they left. You mimic what you're around

and we need to be constantly around God's people and scope out those who are really walking in the Lord and seek to follow them. Now there you all have people in your lives that you can immediately identify with. Before you came to Christ who you saw and observed walking that way. It was their walk that drew you to Christ that caused you to hunger for the things of the Lord.

When you came to Christ there were those who were placed in your path that you saw and you desired to have a walk like they have. That's what this is talking about. Pastor Chuck has been that kind of a guy in my life. Just every time we go to conferences and see Chuck it's just so refreshing to see this guy who's been walking for decades with the Lord and watch God do all of this stuff through.

One of the conferences we got to see Alan Redpath before he died who was one of the great commentators of this century. And just to see him stand there and teach us and he'd have the Bible on the pulpit and he'd just be as he would read he would just he would just come across it with his fingers and you could just see that it was holy to him. I mean he did not take this lightly and he did not take proclaiming it lightly. It had made an imprint on my heart.

That's how a Christian who is godly who is walking after the Lord should be. And that's what Paul's saying here. Mark those scope out those that are like that because there's decoys around. And he said there's a notable pattern for Christianity and this is how they will live just like I've told you in these first 15 verses 16 verses and he says and I want you to watch out though for the enemies of the cross I have often told you before and now say again with tears.

With tears that with tears is interesting it means a loud expression of grief. You see Paul didn't enjoy telling him about the decoys the Judaizers but he said I have often told you before and now say again even with tears that many live as enemies of the cross their destiny is destruction. There are those who live who would seek to say to you that unless you do this this way you cannot be saved you cannot have Christ unless you dress like me and act like me and look like me and are baptized this way and take communion a certain way unless you do these things this way you cannot be saved. Unless you celebrate the mass you cannot enter into heaven.

You have to participate in this particular ritual this particular way or you are not saved. And Paul says I agonize in that it hurts me with tears to tell you about this because their end is in destruction because they're leading you on a path that's not the path of the cross. They are enemies of the cross. And he defines out what that is. Three characteristics here

of the enemies of the cross of the decoys. Number one verse 19 their God is their stomach in NIV if you're reading NAS New American Standard it says whose God is their appetite whose God is their appetite if you're reading King James it says whose God is their belly as you look at that initially one of the characteristics appears to be those who indulge their flesh those who seek to consume upon themselves all of the things of this world to appease their flesh. Ultimately that's true but again remember in context who's he dealing with the Judaizers the word literally means womb whose God is their womb what did the Judaizers trust in their heritage they were children of Abraham God of the womb I'm okay because I'm a descendant of Abraham

maybe you're here today and you think you're a Christian because your parents were Christian or you were born into a Presbyterian family your father was a Presbyterian minister and his father before him you've been raised in a church you go to Mass you come here on Sundays and go to Mass on Saturdays you're saved you're trusting in something other than the cross unless you've had a personal experience with the cross you're not saved unless there's a point where you realize that your sins were literally nailed to the cross in Christ and you realize that and you say Lord I'm a sinner and you died for me forgive me and cleanse me with your blood and come into my life unless you've done that you're not saved that's why Paul said when he

when they came to Corinth we sought to know nothing among you but Christ and Him crucified that's it I don't want to baptize you in the name of Paul I don't want to have you take communion a certain way or have you take you know baptism a certain way or be circumcised the thing is the cross the most significant thing is the cross and so Paul calls anything else enemies of the cross because they're trusting in something other than the cross and ultimately that leads to ritualism and we've seen that from chapter 1 ultimately that leads to idolatry and so you have the people with the mindset that I go to church I was raised in church my whole family was Christians and I go out and party hardy on Saturday night and I'm okay I can live like a saint

on the weekend and live like hell during the week and I'm fine you see they're deceived their God is their belly they're trusting in something other than the cross of Christ for salvation secondly he says their glory is in their shame their glory is in their shame now here again he's referring more to the Judaizers they were trusting in their ceremonies and their rituals the circumcision and all it was the wrong thing that they were trusting in to their shame they were ignoring the work of Christ they were ignoring what had been done for us through Christ on the cross there is nothing else that can save you nothing you cannot do enough good stuff to be accepted by God you cannot go to church enough to be accepted by God you cannot sing in specials

and teach children's church and work in the nursery by God to be saved you can't there's nothing else that saves you and to a person's shame if he thinks that he can trust in anything else it's to his shame again it's a false trust in that that allows for immorality and liberality in our lives rather than a commitment to the basic elements of the cross humility and self-sacrifice and love they're decoys they're decoys thirdly he says the word mind has been a big deal in Philippians chapter 2 let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who thought it not robbery to be equal with God who was equal with God did not see the things of God to be things to be grasped but gave those things up surrendered those things was poured out the kenosis

that's the mind that's to be in us but he says their mind is on earthly things the enemies of the cross the decoys have a worldly mindset their goals in life are to obtain position and things in life that's the goal that's the end to obtain earthly things see that's as Christians that's why our focus has to be down the road to obtain the prize that's been set aside for us by the umpire otherwise if your goal is simply to get to be 16 and drive a car or 18 and drink and 21 and put yourself in horrible debt and credit and get married and 30 be a vice president and have a house and 2.8 or 3.4 kids however many it is now and 2.5 cars and own a house and own a Maserati and your goals are those things you see if that's your ultimate goal in life

and you can't wait until you're 65 until you retire so that you can travel around if that's your goal you may not ever reach that and if you do I will tell you that if that's your ultimate goal in life you'll be dissatisfied when you get it you see our mind has to be set on things above not on things of the earth Colossians chapter 1 it has to be the mindset of Christ who is focused on being obedient it has to be on the prize all the other stuff it's not wrong to the Lord provides it the Lord gives it to you if He gives it to you enjoy it rejoice that He's given it to you rejoice as long as you have it you won't have it forever rejoice in the time that you have it thank Him for blessing you with it be blessed with the benefit of it while you have it

but don't make that a goal John warns us about that too in 1 John that it's the love of the world that is enmity with God it sets us apart from the things of the Lord so these are decoys and brothers and sisters there are there are those out there who look like Christians and quack like Christians and they're not Christian there's a certain imprint that marks a Christian a certain pattern of life that Paul had that the disciples had it's love it's self-sacrifice it's humility it's not a spiritual arrogance you don't have to prove yourself to anybody with what you know the greatest area of showing that you love the Lord and God is in you is how you serve and love Him period and knowing that you haven't yet arrived thirdly and quickly

if you have a right view of the future you have to be politically correct how perfectly ordinate for an election year huh? you have to be politically correct verse 20 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 they will be like His glorious body we have to be politically correct if we're going to have a right view of the future our citizenship is in heaven he says in verse 20 the word citizenship there in the Greek comes from the word that we get our word we are citizens of heaven now see not not then not when you die not at the rapture now it's as if you've gone on vacation

and you're in a different country but you're really a citizen of the United States when you're in the other country well you are when you received Christ into your heart as a savior you became a citizen of heaven your political affiliation is heaven is Christ and you are just visiting here this place is not our home Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world the writer of Hebrews said that Abraham and Joseph and Isaac and Jacob and all of them were pilgrims passing through they were aliens in a strange land seeking a city that was not made with hands that's what we are and it's not wrong to take a stand for those in the earthly political sphere who represent godly characteristics we need to do that because our pursuit is Christ for me to live

I set my Christianity outside of politics because my Christianity is is what I am it's a part of my hair color and my eye color and my weight it's what I am I am a Christian I can't separate that but ultimately realize that our that our political affiliation is not Republican or Democrat or Independent or Libertarian or whatever I'm a Christian period I'm from heaven and I'm soon to go home and he says we eagerly await we eagerly await a savior from there from heaven we eagerly await it means literally to anticipate with intensity in other words Paul wasn't saying well in the great by and by you know he was waiting for it now any moment Paul's thinking any instant he's going to crack the clouds and I'm going with him it was imminent with Paul

and it needs to be imminent with us any instant F.B. Meyer wrote a story in his commentary about cattle when they ship cattle across the ocean and the cattle as they ride across in the ship with all the tossing and the turning of the ship the cows become listless you know I mean they're in these tight quarters in the tossing and the turning of the ship and they just get kind of bleh and he said