Phil. 3:12-21 – “12Not 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. 13Brothers, 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, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  15All 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. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained. 17Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, 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.” 

Tom Landry, former coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was once asked by a reporter, “What makes a champion?” Landry’s answer was power-packed. “A champion is simply someone who didn’t give up when he wanted to.” He went on to say: “Success is not accidental. We learn how to achieve. I’d like to list 4 short steps it takes to be a champion in the field of sports. 1. Faith – believing you can win. 2. Training – the Cowboys work out 4 times a week. They lift millions of pounds of iron each session. They run many miles to win. 3. Goals – all winning teams set goals. 4. You must possess the will to reach the goal you set for yourself. This is probably the most important quality of all champions.” (www.sermoncentral.com)

Did you hear what Landry said? To be a champion, you’ve got to set goals and then have the will to reach the goals that you set. I’m not talking about goals like cleaning off your desk at work, or washing your car, or weeding your flower bed. Those may be worthy goals, but are not significant goals in your Christian life. Cancer survivor Greg Anderson once said, “When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life” (Greg Anderson, www.worldofquotes.com). We’ve got to set some goals in our spiritual life that will move us toward being the champion Christians that God desires for us to be.

Paul gives us some goals to reach for as we pursue an ongoing relationship with God. In this tender letter to the Philippians, he has already encouraged them with his words of praise and rejoicing for their partnership with him in the spreading of the Gospel. He has shared his deep love for them and his desire for them to continue standing firm. He has challenged them to have the attitude of Christ in their relationships w/ one another – to be encouraging, comforting, fellowshipping, and unselfishly looking after the interests of others. And now he comes to this place in chapter 3 of ramping up his message to them to press on in their faith walk with God. As their pastor, he had a deep desire to see them grow and mature in the relationship with God. He wanted them to be victorious, to win the prize, to be champions!

I. THE GOAL OF PERFECTION – v. 12a

Ever hear people say: “Well, I’m not perfect,” or “Nobody’s perfect,” or “You can’t expect me to be perfect,” or “I never said I was perfect”? Usually say this when they are under conviction about some sin in their life and they think this little sentence gives them an excuse.

It is true that no one is perfect in the sense that they live a life of total and complete sinlessness, Only Jesus Himself did that. But the truth is that we are commanded by Jesus in Matt. 5:48 to “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” What is that all about? Why would Paul say in Col. 1:28, “We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone w/ all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ”? Why does God through His Word tell us to be perfect? Doesn’t make sense for Him to tell us to be perfect if it’s not possible? Is He just talking about the perfection that we will have when we get to heaven? Or is this something that we should strive for in this life?

We have to understand what Paul was talking about when he used this word. He’s not talking about sinless perfection. He is talking about a worthy goal that every Christian ought to set for him or herself. This is not a goal for just the “Super Christians.” This is not a goal just for the preacher or staff or the deacons. This is a goal for every Christian.

The word here refers to what Barclay calls a “functional perfection.” It signifies adequacy given for some given purpose. It means full-grown as compared to undeveloped. It means mature in mind as opposed to one who is a beginner in a subject. It means one who is qualified in a subject as opposed to one who is just a learner.

So you see, if we are going to be champions in our Christian lives, we will set the goal of perfection before our eyes and continue to strive to grow in our walk w/ God so that we can have His adequacy for His purpose for our lives. After all, He “took hold” of us so that we could live for Him and serve Him all of our lives. So instead of settling for a stunted, immature Christian life, we will have the goal of growing into a “full-grown” mature Christian. We will have the goal of being mature in our minds, growing in our knowledge of God and obeying Him, doing as Rom. 12:2 tells us and being “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” We will have the goal of being qualified as a Christian, moving to the place where we can handle the “meat” of the Word of God – Heb. 5:11-14.

I love what Oswald Chambers has to say about perfection:

“Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship w/ God that shows itself to be true even amid the seemingly unimportant aspects of human life…I am called to live in such a perfect relationship w/ God that my life produces a yearning for God in the lives of others, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God’s purpose is not to perfect me to make me a trophy in His showcase. He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He wants.” (My Utmost for His Highest, Dec. 2 devotional)

II. THE GOAL OF DISSATISFACTION – v. 13a

“Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it” – v. 13a. NLT – “No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be…” This is the statement of a great Christian who never permitted himself to be satisfied w/ his spiritual attainments. “A sanctified dissatisfaction is the first essential to progress in the Christian race” (Wiersbe, p. 88).

I read a story of salesman named Harry who came out of his manager’s office w/ a distressed look on his face. Secretary asked him if he had gotten fired. “No, it’s not that bad. But he sure did lay into me about my sales record. I can’t figure it out; for the past month I’ve been bringing in plenty of orders. I thought he’d compliment me, but instead he told me to get w/ it.” Later in the day, the secretary talked to her boss about Harry. The boss chuckled. “Harry is one of our best salesmen and I’d hate to lose him. But he has a tendency to rest on his laurels and be satisfied w/ his performance. If I didn’t get him mad at me once a month, he’d never produce.”

So many of us grow satisfied in our Christian lives b/c we compare ourselves to other people. We can always find someone who is “worse” than we are, someone who is not as mature as we are, someone who is a bigger sinner than we are. If P had compared himself w/ others, there would have been very few people who could have measured up to his level of spiritual maturity. But P didn’t compare himself w/ others; he compared himself w/ himself and w/ Jesus Christ.

If we are going to live like champions in our Christian life, we will honestly evaluate our lives, see the areas that we are coming up short, and strive to grow in those areas.

– It may be that we see that we are coming up short in our study of God’s Word or in our prayer life, and that’s where we need to grow.

– It may be that we see that we are not actively sharing our faith or actively serving God in His church, and that’s where we need to grow.

– It may be that we see that we are giving in to the same sin over and over again, and that’s where we need to grow.

– It may be that we have a secret life that no one knows about, a secret addiction, or a secret relationship w/ someone other than our spouse, and that’s where we need to grow.

– It may be that we are being a stumbling block to others, causing others to question our salvation or their salvation, and that’s where we need to grow.

Any time we become satisfied w/ anything in our lives other than the passionate pursuit of an intimate relationship with Christ, we are on dangerous ground.

– “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” – Ps. 42:1-2

– “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” – Mt. 5:6

III. THE GOAL OF FORGETTING & FORGING – v. 13b-14

If we are going to be champions in our Christian lives, we need to practice some spiritual forgetfulness. Not talking about the impossible feat of erasing all the stuff in our memory banks. Apart from senility or some type of brain malfunction, a mature person can forget what has happened in the past. Sometimes we wish we could, but we can’t.  “To forget” means to no longer be influenced by or affected by. It simply means that we break the power of the past by living for the future (Wiersbe, p. 89). We need to set the goal of forgetting the past and forging on into all that God has for us today and in the future.

Too many of us are weighed down by all of our failures in the past. Or we are shackled by the failures of others in our past. Or we can even be distracted by our successes of the past. ALL of the things that are behind us must be set aside as we strive to be the Christian that God would have us be.

CONCLUSION – Some of you today feel as if there is no hope for you, that your past is just too troubled, that you have fallen too many times in the race of the Christian life, that you just can’t make it. But there is One who RIGHT NOW wants to come alongside you and help you make it. Let Jesus guide you in to all truth by His Holy Spirit… Call on Him, He said He would answer you.. and… show you great and might things that you do not yet know! (Jeremiah 33:3) Be Blessed! Mike T.