Living between Grace and Glory | Chad Lewis | Philippians 3:12-21

Thank you for joining us for a sermon from Sojourn North.

Well, we often say that we are created for relationships.

So we're in a relationship with God, with each other, a relationship with ourselves.

But a lot of times we don't think about, I know I don't, about our relationships with things in this world.

And so this week, what I thought about with this passage is our relationship with time.

All of us have a relationship with the past, with the present, and the future, and how we relate to them.

So the question isn't whether you have a relationship with time, it's just is it a healthy one?

And I dare to say, in a fallen world with fallen bodies, even though we are redeemed in Christ, that our default mode and the way that we relate to time is not often the healthiest.

So see if this resonates with you.

Relating to the past.

Sometimes when we think about the past, do you find yourself saying this, if only, if only, if only that scratch off ticket, I would have hit a 13 instead of a 12.

Or I should have, you get crippled with this regret of, man, I should have gone to play baseball this day, this whatever, whatever the situation may be.

Or if I could go back, I would change it.

So there's a lot of regrets.

And other people have nostalgia with the old days.

This is what Bruce Springsteen, the boss, wrote about in Glory Days.

You sit around talking about, hey man, back in high school, wasn't it awesome?

And these your 40s and your 50s, your 70s, and you're always looking back to what was.

And so that's one of the ways we can relate to the past and kind of get stuck there.

Well, what about the present?

We hear a lot of people say, hey, be present with people right now.

How are you being present?

How are you listening?

Well, there are the things that keep us from being present.

Dissatisfaction, struggle with dissatisfaction, it's like, man, if I could have this, if I could have this, then I wouldn't be dissatisfied, and we're always thinking rather than being in the moment.

That's a default setting.

And once again, as I'm saying these things, I'm not saying, shame on you for being like this.

It's like, no, this is kind of our default.

Just like our phone has default settings, and we have to go in there, and sometimes we have to have our kids explain to us, like, what is this doing?

Why does it say message read?

I don't want people to know I read their message.

You can actually switch that on your phone.

But these are the default messages of our soul, and so this is kind of what happens.

So there can be dissatisfaction, there can be distraction.

Man, there are so many things in this world, and that's why we slow down on Sunday mornings to gather together, to open up the word, to read the word together, to sing songs about God and to God, and to encourage one another, because we can be such a distracted people.

And what do you think about in your relationship with the future?

For many, many people, I know with me, if you struggle with anxiety, you think about the future, anxiety comes.

And it's like, what do I have to do to prepare?

What do I need this?

What about this?

What about my 401k?

And these are things that we should think about, but they're not to cripple us, and they're not to consume us.

And then sometimes we think about the future, it's like, okay, I've got my path set.

I have to have this, or my life will not be satisfied.

And we seek to just control our lives instead of following what God has for us.

So there's a lot of different things.

These are just a few things with past, present, and future, how we relate to time.

As we've been journeying through Philippians, we've seen in chapter one that Christ is at the center of our circumstances, that our circumstances go up and down.

We're not in control of them, most of them, but Christ can be the center and we can have joy in the midst of any circumstance.

In chapter two, we saw that Christ is to be the center of our relationships, how we're relating to each other.

Last week we saw Christ is the center of our identity.

My identity is I am a beloved child of God and I am rooted in that identity, and nothing can take me away from that identity.

That doesn't mean I live into that identity every day, but that is my reality, and that is your reality.

And then this week, what I want us to do as we look at this passage is to say Christ is at the center of our time, how we relate to our past, how we relate to the present, and how we relate to the future.

And as we look at this passage today, my prayer, even in this moment, is Lord, by your grace, help us to go deeper into acknowledging that these things can control us, but we want to be controlled by you and be led by you, to be led by love rather than driven by fear, driven by guilt, driven by anxiety, whatever else drives us.

So if you're able, if you wish, you may stand for the reading of God's Word.

We're looking at Philippians chapter 3, verses 12 through 21.

Philippians 3:12–21

Continuing on from last week, verse 12, Paul writes, Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I have also been taken hold of by Christ.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way, and if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you.

In any case, we should all live to whatever truth, live up to whatever truth we have attained.

Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.

For I have told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ, their end is their destruction, their God is their stomach, their glory is in their shame, and they are focused on earthly things.

Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated.

There is so much in this passage, but let's hit just a few highlights and seek to apply it to our lives.

Following the outline in your notes, thinking about yesterday first.

Leave yesterday in the hands of grace.

Let's talk about what that means.

One of the most encouraging statements, I think, from this entire letter comes from verse 12, what we just read.

Not that I have already reached the goal.

And we have to step back and say, what Paul is speaking this right now?

Is this young Paul?

Is this middle-aged Paul?

This is old Paul speaking.

He's probably five, six years from his death.

He's lived 25 years as a church planner, as a missionary, as an apostle.

He has been preaching the word.

He has just been going for it.

And so this is someone who's reflecting on their lives.

And he acknowledges, not that I've already attained this.

And this is good news.

Because guess what?

In this life, we will never arrive.

It's one of my favorite things to talk about.

It's the Christian life is not about arrival to some point where we don't need God.

Even in the new heavens and new earth, we'll need God because we're created for relationship with Him.

But on this earth, we won't arrive.

But Paul doesn't get discouraged by that.

What does he say?

He says, I pursue as my goal.

Other translations say, I press on.

He doesn't go, well, I haven't got this far yet, or I haven't gotten this far.

He says, No, this is where I am.

I'm pressing on to the goal.

And now what is his motivation?

Is it because he says, I need to earn Christ, I need to earn this?

He doesn't say that.

He says this, because Christ has already taken hold of me.

The truth is, we are able to press on, we can move on because Christ has hold of you.

He holds you.

I remember Jesus talking to his disciples and to others and says, those who are in the Father's hand, no one can snatch them from his hand, that we are secure, that Christ has taken hold of us.

And I think so much of this life is just us seeking to live into the reality of what is.

Even as we read on, it says, with tears, Paul says this those who are not of the faith, their appetite leads them to their destruction.

And he's saying, Don't live like them.

Don't live like them.

Follow Jesus, keep your eyes on Jesus.

And then he does this.

It's a very interesting phrase.

And I think, in at least in our stream or the stream that I'm a part of theologically, I think this gets taken out of context all the time.

It says, forgetting what lies behind.

And people love to proof text that.

So you start thinking about your past or you have issues with your past, and you say, I struggled back in my childhood, and they're like, forget what lies behind and press on towards what lies ahead.

And then they walk off with a flourish and they flip their robes at you.

Their metaphorical pharisaical robes.

I like that image.

But it's like, is that what that means?

Nah.

Because Paul doesn't have spiritual amnesia, does he?

What does it mean in the context?

Well, let's think about what Paul always remember and what does God ask us to remember?

Paul repeatedly tells us testimony, so he knows that.

In Acts, he tells it a few times.

He remembers God's faithfulness.

The most common command in all the scriptures, remember.

Build this monument to remember what God has done.

They point back to the Old Testament, the author of Hebrews, all the time.

Don't be like the wayward Israelites.

So it's not spiritual amnesia.

Paul remembers his missionary journeys.

He remembers persecuting the church.

He remembers the good.

He remembers the bad.

Well, as we continue with Philippians, he remembers being hungry and being well fed, being amongst his friends and being alone in a prison cell.

He remembers all these things.

What's the main point?

The main point is when Christ is at the center of our lives, and this is a trajectory thing.

This isn't that you choose that I make this choice now and I never will struggle again with it.

You're going to struggle every day.

That's why Galatians, we talked about, you're going to drift.

You have to intentionally set your mind and your face on the author and perfecter of your faith.

He's saying this.

He's saying, I will not let my past successes or my past failures define me.

He persecuted the church.

He ripped people from their families when he was a zealous Pharisee before he came to know Christ.

He imprisoned them.

He stood as Stephen was stoned and killed and watched the coats of those throwing the stones.

And he approved of the death.

But he's not defined by that.

He doesn't get stuck by that.

Has he dealt with that?

Yeah.

Does he still have feelings?

I'm sure he did.

But what about all the successes too?

Because he could live in the past and say, look, look at all that God's done through me.

He doesn't let those things define him because what defines him, it's not his failures, it's not his successes, it's Christ.

It is Christ.

Christ defines you.

You can breathe.

You're defined by Christ.

I put a Pilgrim's Guide for the Week in your bulletin, if you want to pull it out.

I put a little section for each one.

Just for application.

I wanted to go a little bit deeper, so I put this in for you to reflect on this week.

But the idea I've been having in my mind, I want to do some writing on, I already have been for the last year, but it's it's uh I'm an ADD writer, so it's like, oh, this is all over here.

I've got like 12 books written.

Not really, I've got the first sentence of 12 books written, so take that for what it is.

If you'd like to read the first sentences of my 12 books, I can give you that for one penny each.

But I keep thinking about this idea of a pilgrim, because a pilgrim is someone who wanders.

We're sojourners and strangers in this land, some translations pilgrims.

We have to continue to return.

So this week I'd invite you to return.

And when it deal when it comes to dealing with your past, you're gonna continue to have to think about your past in light of your present, in light of your future.

And it helps to have good friends, it helps to have leaders, it's helped me immeasurably.

I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't have spiritual counselors to be able to counsel me through the difficulties of my past and explain like why certain things about me are the way they are, and the strengths that I have and the challenges and weaknesses I have.

So don't pretend that the past doesn't have an effect on you.

Of course it does.

But it doesn't define you.

So this is the anchoring thought I have for you this week.

If if you are stuck in the past, this may help release some of the logs that are in that log jam.

A pilgrim remembers the past in order to grow in freedom as they remember the faithfulness of God.

This is it, this is your truth.

This is your anchoring story.

Christ has redeemed my story.

You can say that every day, a hundred times a day.

Christ has redeemed my story, and my identity is no longer found in yesterday, but in him.

And if you're overwhelmed by your past, I love this illustration where if you see a log jam and there are logs everywhere and there's no water coming through, it's just blocked.

And you look at this, and maybe it's so high, and so and you're just like, Lord, I can't deal with this log jam, it's too strong.

It's how do I get the water through?

All my yesterday seems to block my life from today.

Through a friend with Jesus, whatever it may be, he may bring you to look at one little stick and you pull that little stick out, and a little spurt of water comes out.

It's like, oh, that's been holding me back.

Okay, all right.

And then maybe someone helps you with another stick, and then a little more water comes through.

What happens is water starts coming through?

Some of those sticks just dislodge themselves and it starts flowing more and more.

And I believe that's the journey of the life.

Because even these statements, these are just some of the verses.

Maybe you have verses you want to add to this section that deal with your past.

Maybe you condemn yourself because of your past.

You get stuck in the sinfulness of your past, and you're like, there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

None.

None.

I don't know if this is Greek, but nunya.

Nunya.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his faithfulness toward those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

And more verses there.

He doesn't leave us just in the past.

So Paul says, I want to press on.

And I love, moving to the second point, live today with your eyes on Christ.

This passage has so many present tense actions in it.

Here's just a few in your text.

He says, I pursue or press on.

Hold true.

Current tense.

Join in imitating me right now.

Keep your eyes right now on those who walk this way.

There's a presentness to our lives, and really, we can only live in the present.

Every day, keep walking.

Every day, keep following Jesus.

Every day.

That is the Christian life.

It is daily, it's moment by moment.

He says this let us live up to what we've already attained.

I think one of the interesting things in our life, I know my life particularly, is I was always looking for the silver bullet.

I remember in my 30s, early 30s, I was living in the woods, uh single, trying to help this ministry build up this uh library, and I would read these biographies of these uh people of the faith from the past, and I would just be like, Lord, please let me be like them, please let me be, and I'd be weeping.

I remember one time weeping while a rainstorm was going on, and just in this lonely place in the woods, in this old place we were building to be a library, and thinking like, man, if I can just get this, if I can just get this, and coming to realize like I am where I am, and I don't need something new right now.

I need to live into what's already been given.

So, what has already been given?

My identity.

All right, let's let's stabilize that.

We can always be, it's wonderful to learn new things.

There are new things we'll read the scriptures the rest of our lives, and there will be new things that come to us all the time.

Great to do that.

But so much of the effort of the Christian life is the living into what we already know.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

You ever gonna do that perfectly?

Not consistently, but that's something to grow in.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

You doing that pretty good?

Lean into it.

Live up to the standard you've already attained.

Live into this.

And he says this don't just read good theology, please read good theology.

Please do.

But he says, do that, be grounded in the scriptures, do all these things, but he says, imitate me.

Keep your eyes on those who live this way.

Why is that important?

Well, we all have examples of a Christian life where we see someone doing something and it demystifies it for us.

When I was a first-year teacher right out of college, I had student taught, but there was always a teacher in the room with you, and and they would keep the kids at at bay, and here I am uh 22 years old with this class of 18-year-olds, and uh I looked like I was younger than they were when I first started.

I aged a lot since then, so I kind of pushed pause for a while, and then it was like all right, hard living.

Like Indiana Jones says, it's not the years, it's the miles, honey.

So I didn't have that in the manuscript, but it came to mind.

But what I'm thinking is this I'm I'm there, I'm with these kids, they're going nuts.

And I'm yelling, I'm writing kids up, and I'm like, oh my goodness, what is good.

I had the idea that I would teach six sections of algebra too and write on the board all day.

My feet were hurting so bad after the first two classes, and I had such a headache.

I went to the librarian and said, Hey, can I have an overhead projector?

And she said, Honey, your teacher should have one.

And I went, ma'am, I am the teacher.

I know I look young.

This is these are true stories.

And so I got the overhead projector during my class break, moved it up, and I started writing.

I didn't realize I'd have blue and green all up my hand.

I became that person.

And then I went to the nurse and I said, Nurse, I have a headache.

Can I have some Advil?

And she said, Honey, you have to have a note from your parents.

And I was like, ma'am, I am the teacher.

My parents do live in town, but I'd rather you just give me the Advil.

And she did.

She gave me the Advil.

But I was struggling, man.

At two weeks in, I was like, this was the wrong career choice.

And then they had the coolest thing.

They said, We're gonna take you out of your class for a day, and we're gonna sit you to watch uh master teachers all throughout the day.

So I was able to have a sub, and then I just sat and watched.

With new eyes because I knew all these problems and with these questions, I was able to see these master teachers how they controlled the classroom.

They would just have this, they'd have their little detention slip on their thing, and they would just look and give a warning and then keep teaching.

And if the person they would just write a name.

Just a finger array.

It's like master teacher.

I got to see it in action.

And when we see the Christian life in action, when we see someone who's faithfully doing it, and this is something I look for because you don't see a lot of times, once again, in our stream, it's not huge, but people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s remaining in the pastoral ministry or remaining on staff in churches.

And it's it's just so much burnout.

It's like, who can I look to so that I can see, like, oh, these are the rhythms this person has.

Imitate them.

Follow their way.

And the truth is, we know this, and it's a repeated thing we continue to see in Galatians and now in Philippians.

But who are you looking to imitate?

Who are you listening to?

And if you don't know, think about who's filling your ears, what's on your stream, what's on your podcast, who are you looking to imitate?

Who are you looking at and say, I want to be like that?

What are you giving your time, your talents, your treasures, your money to?

Look at those things and say, is this what is supposed to be the trajectory of my life?

Is this what should be most important?

Or am I seeking to imitate Christ and those who follow Christ?

Because the American life is so much, it's in it's seeped into the church.

It's like, hey, do big things, do it fast, be flashy, and let's go.

But the agricultural picture in the scriptures is it's slow things that are mostly unnoticed over a long period of time.

That is how we mature.

That's why we get in the word.

Imitate them.

If you look on your sheet again, your handout, today receive God's presence.

Anchoring thought, a pilgrim doesn't have to have life figured out.

Christ has already taken hold of me, so today I simply take the next faithful step with him.

And the picture I have today is that it's not a manufacturing, I don't work in my Christian life as a manufacturer.

I literally picture this each day as a watering can and a trowel.

And I go and I want to look to see what's what God is growing, and I want to attend to it.

And I want to see what's in my life that's been neglected, and it can be a relationship, and I want to attend to that.

But I don't have to solve all the world's problems today.

I want to live in today, to be faithful today.

The story goes that Martin Luther was asked, What would you do if you knew this was the last day you would live?

And he said, plant a tree.

And the person thought, I don't know if this is a true story or not, but I like it, so it fits the point.

Plant a tree, oh, this is really spiritual.

I guess plant a tree so that there's a memorial.

And he's like, Well, why would you plant a tree, Martin Luther?

He says, Oh, it was on my calendar for today.

And it's like, oh, okay.

Live today, faithfully today.

The last thing we see is that hope pulls us forward to look toward tomorrow with hope.

And he says again, we've had this in our sermon, our citizenship is in heaven.

And these people in Philippi, they were in this Romans, Roman city outskirts of Rome, a good ways away, but a lot of retired generals would go there, a lot of officials, even their children, would go here, and they were proud to be Romans.

There were a lot of great things about being Roman.

But he's saying, your citizenship is in heaven.

And he's saying this amidst all of the suffering that's going on.

He's saying, your identity is secure.

You're a citizen of heaven.

And these are the hopes that he says will pull us forward.

He says, Jesus will transform our humble bodies.

And as you get older, that means more and more because things don't work like they should.

Or like they used to.

It's the second law of thermodynamics.

Things go from a state of order to disorder.

It just happens.

Our bodies, they're going to a state of disorder.

We can try as much as we can.

But the promise, the hope, as we look to the hope of the future that He will resurrect, He will make everything new, He will make our bodies new.

In the midst of our suffering, we can have hope.

Is it hard?

Yeah, it can be very difficult.

But keep your eyes on Jesus.

It also says He will make all things right.

This hope pulls us forward and it can change the way we live today.

We don't want to be stuck in the future anxiously worrying about what could be or what will be.

God already knows.

He is outside of time and he sees us as we were, as we are, as we will be, seated heavenly in the heavenly realms with Christ Jesus.

He sees it all.

If you're anxious about AI, it's okay to be a little anxious about that.

But God is still on his throne.

If you study World War II, you can see that things were really shaky at different points if certain little instances didn't happen.

God was in control.

God is on his throne.

He's not wringing his hands going, oh, what if this happens?

What if Chad doesn't end the sermon on time?

He's not worried.

He sees all, he knows all.

And we can breathe and have hope.

So on your handout, tomorrow is resting in God's promises.

A pilgrim walks toward the future with hope because Christ has gone before us.

Our future is not defined by uncertainty, but the sure promises of God.

Is there uncertainty in the future?

Absolutely.

But that's why there's faith and there's trust, and that's why we do this together.

So to summarize, to close, we pursue him because he first pursued us.

We keep walking because he laid hold of us.

We don't seek to try to earn his love because it is for us.

And we live into what we've already received.

Grace redeems our past, his presence forms our today, his promises secure our future.

And here's our sentence to remember for the week.

When Christ is at the center, we grow, and I put this intentionally, that it's not an instantaneous thing, it's a growth.

We grow in freedom from the past, faithfulness in the future, in the present, that is, and hope for the future.

So this is growth and linear growth, not so much sometimes.

It's ups and downs.

But when Christ is at the center, and this is a daily moment-by-moment thing, we grow in freedom from the past, and sometimes we need a lot of help with that.

We grow in faithfulness in the present, we do this together, and we grow in hope for the future.

Man, I need you redemptively reminding me of our future, and I'll do the same for you.

But this is the journey, this is the pilgrimage we're on.

And beautifully enough, this meal that we partake in every week, the symbolic meal, which is just a little piece of bread and a little grape juice, it points to past, present, and future.

It points to all that Christ has done, his life, his death, his resurrection, his redemptive work on the cross, that he bore every sin so that we would be free and made righteous.

It proclaims the present that Christ is with us, that we are in Christ, and he is with us, and he is faithful.

And it projects us to the future that the hope pulls us forward, that he will come again.

He is making all things new, but he will make everything new, the new heavens and new earth.

And our life, though it seems to drag on sometimes, it will seem but a drop compared to the ocean when we start living in eternity.

He is for us.

If you're a Christian here today, I'd invite you to come forward, whether you're visiting or not, and you can take some bread and some juice back to your seat.

We're gonna have a song playing for reflection.

You can sing along, or you can just sit and listen, and then I'll lead us all to partake in communion together.

But through it all, think about where are you stuck?

Past, present, future, and what is Christ inviting you to?

Let's pray together.

Lord, it's in your grace, Lord, we receive this message today and we thank you so much for it.

We thank you so much that you hold us in the midst of all our yesterdays, in the midst of today and all of our tomorrows, and that you took hold of us, Christ, that we are yours, and we have confidence in you because of that.

Lord, help our confidence to grow.

I pray for my brothers and sisters right now, even as they walk up and take the bread and the juice back to their seat, that they would remember what you've done in the past, that what you're doing in the present, what you promised to do in the future.

And that hope would abound in this place, a supernatural hope that's given by you, Father, Holy Spirit, that you would move in our midst.

We ask this in the precious name of Christ.

Amen.