The Path to Spiritual Growthl

Amen.

If you have your Bibles this evening, we're going to be in the

Book of Philippians, chapter three.

Philippians, chapter three.

I don't know if we're supposed to have favorite books of the Bible

or not, but if we are, Philippians is definitely up there

for me.

It's a really unique book of the Bible.

One of Paul's letters.

A lot of the New Testament books are letters written by Paul,

but Philippians is a little different because a lot of times

if, if the Apostle Paul was writing you a letter, it wasn't always

a good thing.

You have some of these times he was having to write to a church

because they had members living in sin and things were just

all kinds of out of order and he had to write and correct things,

or maybe they had some doctrinal errors that he was having

to write to them to correct.

But the book of Philippians is a little bit different.

As far as we can tell, there's no problem in the church of Philippi.

There's not a serious issue he's having to address.

Toward the end of the book, he tells a couple of ladies they need

to get along.

And that's the same in every Baptist church.

Right.

But he, he doesn't have a major problem he's needing to address.

In fact, he's writing the book of Philippians really as a thank

you note.

He's writing to this church because they had heard that he was

imprisoned for preaching the Gospel.

And when they heard about that, he says that no church sent

to him except for this church at Philippi, and they sent some gift

to him.

We don't know if it was money or resources or something, but whatever

it was, he wanted to thank them for it.

And so the book of Philippians is a thank you note.

It's just a really long theological, inspired thank you note.

And when we look at Philippians chapter three, what I'm

going to entitle this message is Paul's roadmap to Christianity.

As we read through the back half of this chapter, beginning in

verse 12, we're going to read all the way down through the first

verse of chapter four.

But really he's laying out a path that any Christian can follow.

Whether you've been saved for 10 days or for decades, you can follow

this path that the Apostle Paul lays out.

So if you're there In Philippians chapter three, I'm going

to begin reading in verse 12, he says, not as though I had already

attained either, were already perfect, but I follow after if that

I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.

But this one thing I do, Forgetting those things which are

behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of

God in Christ Jesus.

Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.

And if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal

even this unto you.

Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by

the same rule.

Let us mind the same thing.

Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which

walk so as ye have us for an example for many walk, of whom I

have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they

are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction,

whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who

mind earthly things for our conversation is in heaven, from whence

also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall

change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious

body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue

all things unto himself.

Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for my joy and

crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

Let's open with a word of prayer this evening.

Dear God, thank you so much for your word, Lord, that you used

men to write to other men.

But Lord, that you speak to us thousands of years later, that it

is as relevant and applicable as ever.

I pray that you would help each of us to examine our hearts,

Lord, that we would learn to be able to follow your plan.

Lord, if there's sin in our life, that you would reveal it, that

we'd be able to follow you more closely.

I pray that you would give me the words to say in this message

this evening.

In Jesus name, Amen.

As we look through this passage, if we're viewing it kind

of as a set of instructions or a roadmap, if you will, the first

direction Paul gives is to follow the calling.

And we see this in verse 14.

Back in verse 13, he says this one thing I do.

If Paul could summarize all the things he was doing.

Cause he was involved in a lot.

He was doing a lot of things.

But he said this one thing.

All of it is part of one thing.

And what is that?

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of

God in Christ Jesus.

You see, God had a calling on the life of the apostle Paul.

But it wasn't just Paul right God used Paul in an incredible way.

But God has a calling on each and every one of his children's lives.

He has a plan for every single one of us to follow after.

And it.

It starts with a relationship with him.

It starts with putting our saving knowledge in Jesus Christ

that we realize we need a savior for our sins, and we put our

faith in Jesus Christ.

But that's not the end.

That's the beginning of a new relationship that we now have that

God wants us to grow in, that we would be more and more like Jesus.

And so Paul says this one thing, follow the calling.

But he gives several aspects of following the calling.

The first thing I'm going to do, if I'm going to follow the calling

of God in my life, I have to humbly admit room to grow.

I see this in verse 12, Paul says, not as though I had already

attained either were already perfect, but I follow after if that

I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

I've got some bad news for us tonight.

Church.

If the Apostle Paul is sitting in prison for preaching the gospel,

writing inspired scripture, and he says, I have not yet apprehended.

I haven't arrived.

I don't think any of us here tonight get to say that we have.

You know, Paul didn't figure it out, but I did.

That's not the attitude we want to have.

Sometimes it's easy.

Well, you know, I've been in church for quite a while, and, you

know, I've seen a thing or two in a couple different churches.

And, you know, I've come quite a long ways and it's easy to get

this idea that, well, I'm just the pinnacle of spirituality.

I just.

If everybody could just be like me, things would be okay.

As soon as you start having that mentality, that's when your

relationship with God starts falling short.

That's when you stop growing.

You're no longer following that calling that God has in your

life.

You have to be humble enough to realize I've still got room to

grow.

I still have things I need to work on.

And so if we're gonna follow the calling, we have to humbly make

room to grow.

But secondly, if we're gonna follow God's calling in our life,

we need to quickly forget the past.

I see this in verse 13, right after he says, I count not myself

to have apprehended.

In verse 13, he says, this one thing I do.

And we already saw that in verse 14.

But part of this was Forgetting those things which are

behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before.

You see the Apostle Paul when he's sitting in prison writing this,

and he says, forgetting those things which are behind.

I think there's a couple of ways Paul could have been thinking

back on his life.

Maybe Paul said, forgetting those things which are behind it.

He could have looked back and said, oh, my goodness, I can't believe

how much time I wasted just persecuting the church and going

against God and just imagine how much greater my life could have

been.

But, man, I was just so messed up and I did so many bad things,

and I just.

I hurt my testimony with so many people.

And I guess I'll just do my best.

But, man, I really mess things up.

But he said, no, I'm forgetting those things which are

behind, and I'm reaching forth unto those things which are before.

But you see, at this point in his ministry, I think the Apostle

Paul could have looked back on his past in another way, too.

At this point, he's in prison for preaching the gospel.

He could have looked back and said, man, remember that time that

I was preaching in Jerusalem and people were saved?

And man, I started bringing the Gospel to Asia Minor, and then

even that church at Philippi.

I went and I started that church.

And, man, I did so many great things.

And now that I think about it, you know, I don't think John's started

quite as many churches as I have.

And man, you know, I've written way more books of the Bible

than Peter has already.

So I think it's my turn to.

To take a step back and let some of these other apostles start

pulling their weight.

But that wasn't the attitude of the Apostle Paul.

He said, I'm forgetting those things which are behind, and I'm

reaching forth unto those things which are before.

You see, here in 2025, we can do the same thing.

We can look back on our past and say, oh, man, I was such a bad

sinner.

I just.

I ruined so many things back before I knew Jesus, or maybe, maybe

even after I knew Jesus, I messed up and I just.

I did some really bad stuff.

And I don't think God could ever really do anything through me.

I'll try to be in church and I'll put money in the offering plate,

but I don't think God could really use me.

That's not the attitude the Apostle Paul tells us to have.

That sin has already been forgiven.

You've already been put in the past.

It's time for you to forget those things which are behind and

reach forth to those things which are before.

But I think more frequently what we encounter in churches is

people looking on their paths the other way.

Well, I have been in this church for quite a while now, and,

man, I've been running the VBS every year for the past 15 years.

And it feels like I'm the only one who does anything around here.

And, man, if I dropped over dead, this church would fall apart.

I think I've earned a little vacation.

I think it's my turn to take a step back and let some of these other

church members start doing it.

I've done my fair share.

That's not the attitude we want to have either, right?

He says, forgetting those things which are behind this doesn't

mean we ignore the past.

This doesn't mean we don't learn from our past.

But it means our focus and our attention isn't on the past.

It's God.

What do you want for me today?

What do you want for me to do in the future?

Right.

We have to be willing to forget the past if we're gonna follow

this calling of God in Christ Jesus.

The last thing that I think the Apostle Paul is doing, if we're

following the calling, we need to make sure that we are closely

following what is right.

I see this in verse 16 and 17.

He says, nevertheless, where to we have already attained.

Let us walk by the same rule.

Let us mind the same thing.

What's he saying in this verse we already saw back in verse 12.

He says, I haven't apprehended.

I haven't arrived yet.

But he says, whatever progress we have made, where to we have already

attained whatever things God has used to grow you.

Let us walk by the same rule.

Let us mind the same thing.

Man, I was just really faithful in my devotions last year,

and, man, I just.

I learned so much about God and man, I can't believe how great

things are.

That was great for 2024.

Now I'm just gonna do something different.

No, if God is growing you through doing the right things, don't

stop doing those.

Continue doing.

Let us mind the same thing.

Right?

Let us walk by the same rule.

Whatever it is God is using in your life to grow you, don't stop

doing it.

Continue in those things.

But then in verse 17, he gives us another part of following what

is right.

In verse 17, he says, Brethren, be followers together of

me and mark them which walk.

So as ye have us for an example.

Now, we already saw the apostle Paul isn't perfect he already

told us that the goal isn't to be like the apostle Paul.

The goal is to be like Jesus.

We have a tendency when we look around at other people, right?

I wanna look that way and say, well, look, I'm more like Jesus than

they were, and I've passed them and being more like Jesus, and

man, I'm doing a whole lot better than all these people, so

I must be doing all right.

Paul says, hey, you can look at other people, but don't look that

way.

Find somebody who's more like Jesus than you and follow their example.

Not that they're perfect, not that they're never gonna make a mistake,

but he says, follow me and mark them which walk.

So as you have us for an example, look for godly examples.

You have a great pastor here.

You have great staff members.

You have deacons here who have been here, been faithful.

Find someone who's further along the path than you.

Not that you're worshiping them or following them.

But, hey, what can I learn from this person?

How can I learn to be more like Jesus by watching their example?

If I'm going to follow the calling of God in Christ Jesus, I

have to incorporate so many of these things.

I have to forget those things that are in the past.

I need to be willing to recognize I still have room to grow,

and I need to be looking for godly examples for me to continue

to follow.

But then the passage kind of takes a turn.

There's even some parentheses here.

The second point that I have for the second step of this roadmap

is to avoid the danger on any journey, on any trip or anything.

There's always the possibility of danger, of things going wrong,

of some risk.

And I remember a time back when I was in college, I had a friend

who had a car.

And on Sunday afternoons after the service, after our ministry,

we usually had a good three, four hours before the evening service.

And what we like to do, we would go to a Starbucks and drink

probably three, four coffees in a row, work on our homework for

the week.

And it was a pretty good time, right?

I remember one Sunday we were doing this, and as we pulled into

the parking lot, my friend mentioned, he said, hey, we're going

to have to leave a little bit early today.

I'm going to have to stop for gas on the way back to campus.

I said, ok, sure, no problem.

I figured the gas light must have turned on when we turned into

the parking lot or something.

It had been on since we left campus.

It had probably been on before that so we're working on our homework,

and we finally get time to leave and we go get in the car.

My friend turns the key and nothing happens.

He turns it again.

Pretty soon we realized completely out of gas.

And so we had to walk like a mile down the road to a gas station

that had a gas can.

And we made it back in time, right?

When the song service was ending.

We were a little late, but we made it for the preaching, right?

That was a silly situation for us to be in.

Why?

We had a warning light.

This wasn't something that should have taken us by surprise.

This wasn't.

The engine blew up out of nowhere, right?

There was a light that told us, hey, you need to put some gas

in the car.

Right?

What we're seeing in this passage is a warning light.

There's nothing wrong in the Church of Philippi, per se.

There's not a problem that he's saying, you guys need to do

this right now.

But he's saying, hey, make sure as you're following Jesus, stay

on guard against this danger.

So what's this danger that we have?

In verse 18, he says, for many walk, of whom I have told you often

and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies

of the cross of Christ.

That's a heavy accusation.

That's the enemies of the cross of Christ.

We read that and we say, this must be like the Romans that put

Paul into prison, right?

Those are the enemies of the cross of Christ.

No, that's not who he describes in this next verse.

This must have been those Jewish people that were following

Paul and telling people they had to keep the whole law and they

were contaminating the Gospel, right?

Those are the enemies of the cross of Christ.

It's not who he describes in verse 19.

Verse 19, he says, whose end is destruction, whose God is their

belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

What is this danger that we have to avoid in our Christian life?

What is this that makes people enemies of the cross of Christ?

It's carnality.

It's fleshly living, living for the things of this world, this

life, more than the things of Jesus, than the things of heaven.

Just a couple of notes here about this danger.

Number one, carnality is diametrically opposed to spirituality,

right?

He says they are enemies of the cross of Christ.

This isn't just, well, you know, I take two steps this way and

then I take one step this way, and, you know, I'm kind of doing

some spiritual things and doing some bad things.

And overall it's going to kind of balance out in the end.

No.

When you're living in, you know, for the things of this life,

he says, you're an enemy of the cross of Christ.

You're going the completely wrong way.

You are.

You, you can't follow Jesus and also be living for the flesh.

You, you, you can't follow Jesus and also be concerned with

the things of this world most.

It's one or the other, right?

So he says, you need to watch out for this because it's so, so

serious.

But the second point is more important, says carnality is deceptive,

easy to surrender to.

The sins that Paul describes in verse 19, right?

Whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who

mind earthly things.

These aren't the most extreme, gross forms of sin that we can imagine.

These aren't the really, really bad sins, right?

These are the sins that we tell ourselves aren't that big of

a deal.

Well, you know, I was raised in an angry family and I just kind

of lose my top sometimes.

And that's just kind of my personality.

It is what it is.

Doesn't change the fact that anger is a sin, right?

Well, you know, it's 20, 25.

Everybody battles lust a little bit, right?

It's just kind of part of the culture now.

It doesn't make it not a sin.

Right.

These are the temptations of your flesh that draw you away, right?

This is your natural inclination.

And yet Paul says you have to resist that because if you're giving

into this temptation, you're an enemy of the cross of Christ.

You have to be willing to recognize this and turn from it.

You have to be on guard against it.

If I'm following the calling, I have to be prepared that I'm going

to face temptation.

I'm going to have to battle against this desire to live life

my own way, to be more concerned with my retirement fund

than giving to missions, to be more concerned with the things of

this life than the things that relate to Jesus Christ.

And this is a danger that we can't just take lightly.

This is very, very serious.

That's why Paul says they can become enemies if they don't watch

for this.

But the last step of this roadmap I see is the end of this

chapter, remember?

The end if we look in verse 20 or, yeah, verse 20, he says, for

our conversation, that word conversation, it's more than just

me and you talking.

It has to do with our whole lifestyle, everything about us, our

conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the

Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He turns their attention.

He says, hey, we're not living for the things of this world.

Remember what we're seeking.

We're seeking the calling of God in Christ Jesus.

He points their attention to heaven.

He points their attention back to their Savior.

If we're gonna remember the end, we have to remember that our

home is in heaven.

We're not saving things up for here and now.

We don't get to take it with us.

We're instead living with.

We have all of eternity to look forward to in heaven.

That's what we're supposed to be living for.

That's what we're supposed to be investing in.

And he points their attention there in verse 21.

It's really interesting.

He says, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned

like unto his glorious body?

He's reminding them that flesh that you're tempted to give into,

that flesh that you're battling against, it's temporary.

You're going to receive a glorified body one day and.

And in that moment, you're gonna regret every single time you

gave in to that temporary flesh.

It's never fulfilling, it's never satisfied, and yet we give

into it.

He says, don't do that.

That's temporary.

Your vile body will be changed in that last day.

You're gonna receive a glorified body.

He reminds them of this.

And then the key here is that our Savior is worth it.

I include chapter four, verse one in this sermon passage because

it begins as this word therefore.

I went to Bible college and I learned a lot of really fancy Bible

study rules, right?

One of the most fancy ones I know.

When you see the word therefore, stop and ask, what's it

there for?

Really deep stuff we have here at West Coast.

Right?

But it's spot on.

The word therefore means because of everything else, I just

said this.

And so what does he say?

Because of all of this that I've just laid out there.

Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for my joy and

crown.

So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

He says, your Savior is worth it by keeping your attention on everything

that he's done for you, on where this is all gonna end up.

That's how we keep our focus, following the path that God has laid

out for us.

And so this evening, I don't know where you're at.

Which of these steps maybe applies most to you.

Maybe you've never really recognized that God has a plan for

your life.

Maybe you've never really asked God to show you what he wants

you to do.

Maybe tonight you need to say, God, I want to follow that calling.

I want to seek to be more and more like you.

God, help me to follow your plan for my life this week.

Maybe tonight you wouldn't have described yourself this way

coming in.

But based on the description Paul gives, maybe you've become an

enemy of the cross of Christ.

Maybe there's some fleshly temptation that you've given up fighting,

you've just given into.

Maybe tonight you need to turn from that sin and say, God, I want

to follow your plan.

Maybe tonight you just needed that reminder.

Maybe you've just been going through and you just needed to remember,

hey, the end is so worth it if we follow Jesus.

Let's close with a word of prayer.

Did you.