"We Here NOw"

We Here Now

Philippians 3:12-16 (NASB)

If ever a person deserved to be termed “outstanding,” it was Saul of Tarsus. The apostle Paul deserved that title. In this passage he talks about what has become the most compelling, absorbing, and rewarding thing for which to live. He says, “One thing I do.” When I hear the apostle Paul say something like that, I want to know what that “one thing” is. If this man—with all his experience, all his knowledge of God, all the extraordinary experiences through which he passed—says, “This is the one thing that drives me, compels me, motivates me,” I want to listen to him.

Paul pictures himself as a runner in this passage. Like all good athletes, he first prepares for the race before him by getting himself into a certain frame of mind. Once he’s focused, he’s going to run. “This one thing I do;” he’s got his heart set on it.

I would commend you to take Paul’s words from Philippians 3:12–16 to heart. Writing from prison just before his execution, Paul looked back on a host of negative experiences from his youth and the positive experiences of having come to Christ on the road to Damascus. Just a few verses before, he lists his many accomplishments, noting at the same time how these positive accomplishments had become limitations. In the present passage, he gives us four steps for living beyond ourselves.

#1 – Acknowledge that you’re not perfect

If you want to live beyond yourself, the first thing you must do is face up to the fact that you’re not perfect. If you question the truth of that statement, I’m sure your spouse (if you have one) would be happy to correct you. The reality is that none of us is perfect.

We find humility a very hard commodity to obtain. Paul did not lack self-confidence, but he says in Philippians 3:12–13, “Not that I’ve already obtained this, or have already reached the goal, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I’ve made it my own.”

He is soon to become one of the great veterans of the faith, an apostle born out of season, one who had encountered Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. Yet in the last weeks of his life, he doesn’t think he’s made it on his own. He’s facing up to the fact, he’s not perfect and encouraging us to do the same.

Our society has a tendency to lean on glass crutches. Glass crutches can support your weight, but if someone throws a cement block at you and hits the crutch, it shatters. That is to say, there’s a kind of self-confidence that is positive, but there’s another kind that is not humbled by a relationship with Jesus Christ. That kind is like glass crutches. When they shatter, we fall.

We live with a rags-to-riches mentality in our society today, and we pride ourselves in being self-made people. In fact, our society in America awards self-made people for their accomplishments. But if you stop and think about it, there really is no self-made man or woman. Every one of us at least had a mother and a father, even if we don’t know who they are. Each of us had someone who contributed to what we are. It’s very important for us to understand that we didn’t get where we are on our own. We’re not perfect.

#2 – Get free from the bad done to you

Get free—that’s what Paul’s really talking about in verse 13: “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of this”—all the things that he’s been thinking of and talking about previously—”but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind.” Get free!
The word “forget” is an unusual, uncharacteristic word for Paul. He unashamedly says: I’ve spent my life reminding you.
“Remembering” is a key biblical word. “Forgetting” is not. The words “remind” and “memory” are used three to four times more than the word “forgetting.” Because it’s an unusual word, it immediately grabs our attention. Why would the man who reminds people of the great acts of God in human history ask them to forget something?

When Paul speaks of “forgetting what is behind,” he cannot mean you should forget everything in the past. But what is it that you should forget—and why? The Scripture says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far have our transgressions been removed from us.” Let me put it to you in very personal terms. As you look back over this past year, what is it that you need to forget? It would be worth it to take a moment to ponder that question.

You might say something like this: “I need to get free from the memory of what was done to me.” Some of you have suffered enormously, and you carry scars from the past that are too personal to share but control your life—depressing memories that hang over you and your heart and mind. When you’re alone, when you stop to think or kneel in prayer, or when you have any free time, your memory goes back to that painful time.

The great thing about Paul, though, is that he isn’t trapped by those memories. How did he break free? There are some of you who may have that question this afternoon: “I’ve come from this background, from this marriage, from this childhood; I want to get free. But how do I get free? I want to forget, but I can’t. What’s the key to forgetting the things that have been done to me?
This same man who wrote the words “forgetting the past,” wrote, “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” That’s the key! As you look back on your past, you can turn horrible situations for good, because your Lord commands you to. You can say: “Whatever that person did, I’m going to love them: I’m not going to keep a record of that wrong. I’m not going to keep going over it. I’m not going to plan revenge.

Some of us also need to forget the positive. A friend of mine once explained that he had tried to figure out what he liked about some elderly people that made them stand out from other elderly people he knew. He concluded that the people he enjoyed most were the ones who weren’t always reminiscing about the past, but instead were talking about the present and looking to the future. Some of us have accomplishments in the past that we feel we could never replicate. It is crucial for us to live today realizing our future is ahead of us. We must forget what lies behind on the basis of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.
#3 – Have a worthwhile goal

We also must have a worthwhile goal. Paul writes: “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.” Every nerve, muscle, and all of his being was disciplined to the race—to reach the goal and win the prize. The race is following Christ to the end of life. It’s costly. It’s time-consuming.

Paul uses racing imagery elsewhere. In 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 (NIV), he writes: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.

They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

Half-hearted Christianity is uncomfortable and useless. It’s tepid Christianity. It’s salt without savor. You’re not at home in the world or at peace with God. Paul is not going to have anything of it; he doesn’t want tepid Christianity. He wants to go on with the race in following Christ Jesus.

#4 – Go for broke

Finally, if you want to live beyond yourself, go for broke. But for God’s sake and your own, don’t take step four before you’ve taken steps one, two, and three. The moral highways are littered with the casualties who were simply going for broke. My Grandma Flowers lived in the “country” in Mississippi. When she was preparing chicken for dinner, she’d go out and get a chicken, stretch the chicken’s neck, and chop it off. Then the chicken would take off running—showing the greatest exuberant expression of its entire life—only to flop over dead in a few seconds.

That’s what happens when you try to take step four without taking the first steps first. But if you face up to the fact that you’re not perfect; get free from the bad you’ve done; and have a worthwhile goal, then you’re free to go for broke. That doesn’t mean you’re going to lead a perfect life. Even Paul acknowledged, “I haven’t accomplished it.” But he was clothed in Christ’s righteousness, and he was striving: “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” What’s the goal? All the way through this passage, the goal is maturity. Paul summarized what that means: “I want to know Christ.” I say, Go for broke!