Pressing On (Philippians 3:12-14)

We're between books.

So we finished up John last week.

We're diving into Ephesians next week, but we did a little break and I have the privilege of teaching this morning.

We're going through Philippians 3.

So you can turn there in your Bibles.

If you don't have a Bible, Steve is come on down, he will usher one to you.

We're going through, well, obviously we're picking a little passage this morning, but we're still going through the word.

We're going through the Bible.

And we want you to have your own copy.

This is our gift.

If you don't have a Bible, cheers to keep.

But we will dive right in.

If you will stand with me and we'll read the passage through together.

We're going through 12 to 14.

We're going to start in verse 10, reading in verse 10 this morning.

My goal is to know him and the power, know Jesus, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Not that I have already attained reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it, because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

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.

Let's pray.

Father, we ask that your Spirit would be here among us and filled in us, that you would prepare our hearts and our minds.

We give you full reign to have, to convict, to encourage, to admonish, to build us up in your word.

We pray that you'd plant it deep within us.

Father, that anything that I say that is not of you, that it would float past our ears, but that you would speak by your spirit, Lord, to us this morning.

In your name.

Amen.

You may be maybe seated.

So a group of us went to uh the Central California Men's Conference in March, and I've been chewing on Philippians 3 since then, and not that uh we have time to go through the whole chapter because I was tempted.

And then I was tempted to go through chapter 4, and then but uh we have time for just a few verses.

So we're gonna hone in and focus on those.

So just because I'm up here doesn't mean you should take my word for it.

You have a copy of a Bible, you have Bibles.

We want you to read it for yourself.

This is not about what I say.

We want the we want the Lord to speak to us, we want his word to be the final authority.

So we're we're gonna dive into just a few verses, but uh, the book itself, we're this is Paul, the Apostle Paul, writing from prison to the church that's in Philippi.

In Acts 16, Paul receives this vision of the Macedonian man.

He crosses over into Europe and plants the first recorded church in Europe.

This was like a monumental, this is a milestone.

And so he's writing to the church that he he founded, and he would he actually he was, as a part of playing that church, he found himself in the inner prison in the dungeon, singing and singing psalms and hymns to the Lord, and the earthquake happens, and a jailer gets saved.

Paul has a lot of background here.

He's been there in person, he spent time with the Philippians.

The church is near and dear to his heart.

He's writing, the Philippian church was one of the few to support Paul.

He writes this letter in the first chapter.

He's he's writing and saying, he's thank you, he's saying, thank you for your generosity, for your fellowship and the gospel.

He's giving an update on how things are going.

He's in prison.

And he's saying things are actually going pretty well, all things considered.

He's also, and some people will say this is a book of joy, and there is a lot of joy, but there's also some correction, and he's addressing unity or disunity.

And in chapter 2, Paul focuses the Philippians on the mind of Christ, on others first, where Jesus took the form of a servant.

He went to the cross and he died.

Not because he was focused on himself, but because he was focused on providing himself as a sacrifice to cover our sins.

So as we get into chapter 3, Paul's gonna shift gears a little bit and he's gonna say, Beware of these legalists.

There are some out there who, well, they want to make their own righteousness, they want to make self-righteous, they want to make, um, they want to suck you into the law, into the old ways.

He says, beware of the mutilation.

He's saying, that's referring to circumcision.

He's saying, there was, there's these folks, and they want, they're wanting the Gentiles to go get circumcised because they think that it's Jesus or grace and the law and works, something that you can do in your flesh to be right, to be made right, or to earn God's favor.

And forgive me as I adjust the mic, whether I need to or not.

I have this.

Um, okay, so um, Paul says there's these people, and I want you to be aware of them because they're gonna try and drag you into the old ways and to the law.

He says they're gonna want you to take confidence in the flesh, is one of the ways Paul puts it.

But he says, I don't put confidence in the flesh.

And here's why.

If anyone had the ability to put confidence in the flesh, in the confidence of your own abilities to be right before God, it's me, Paul says.

And here's my list.

He says, look, I am a Hebrew of all people who have come from the seed of the very family of God, of the Jews.

He says, that's me.

Pertaining to the law, of adhering to every morsel of the law, of knowing it, of memorizing it, of committing your life to the word.

That was Paul.

He was a Pharisee, a Pharisee of Pharisees.

He was so fanatic and dedicated that he persecuted the church.

He brought people, he brought people to death.

He saw people die because he was so enraptured with his purpose of being fulfilling the law.

He'll say that regarding righteousness that is in the law, blameless.

And really what he's saying back in verse 6 is he's saying, as it pertains to man and man's attempt to be right before God, he says, I was blameless, but that that was just before man.

That was just man's standard.

So Paul's saying, look, if anyone had the confidence to be in the flesh, it was me.

I had every advantage.

I came from the seed, the very seed of uh of Israel.

I was circumcised the eighth day.

But Paul says, no.

I've counted those things lost.

I've counted them as though they're worthless, they're garbage, and instead, he'll say in this preceding chapter, this is chapter three, we're in, the pretext, he says, I'm considering it lost because I want to gain the righteousness of Christ, not the righteousness of man, that I can be found in Christ.

Verse 10, to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.

Paul was not going to live or walk in his own efforts, his own righteousness, his own background, his own professional qualifications, his own spiritual qualifications.

Paul says in Romans that I know nothing good in me dwells, that is in my flesh, for the desire to do what is good is with me, but the ability to do it is not.

And so we get into verse 12, and some might say, as Paul says, not that I have already reached the goal or imperfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it.

Some would say, Paul, have you not arrived?

You're the man.

And really, we can look at Paul and he and it is good to look to him because we look to him, we can see him pursue Jesus.

But when we look at this and we look at those who are who are trying to draw the people back into works, into the ways that they could become righteous before God, we can look at Paul and say, Paul, you've brought the gospel to Europe.

You've led the early church, you've sacrificed your life.

You've and in second in the book to in the letter to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, starting in verse 22, he says, Are they Hebrews?

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

So am I.

Are they Israelites?

So am I.

Are they descendants of Abraham?

So am I.

Are they servants of Christ?

I'm talking like a madman.

I'm better, I am a better one.

With far more labors, many more imprisonments, far worse beatings, many times near death.

And I'll stop there because it goes on and on and on.

If anyone's qualified as Paul, if anyone can say, I am, I've got, I am here, I have fought the good fight in so many ways.

Paul could say, That's me.

But Paul says, No.

I'm gonna make every effort.

This is still verse 12.

He says, I will make every effort.

Some translations, New King James says, I will press on, I'm pressing on, or running swiftly to catch.

And we're gonna keep seeing this sort of this metaphor of running, running a race.

And that's what it is, even though we're not always feeling like we're running.

We're making the effort as though we are.

He says, I'm making every effort to take hold of it, the goal, that's verse 10, goaling to know him, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, be found in Jesus, in his righteousness.

And why is Christ taking hold of us?

Well, to make us right before him.

To be with him and in, so he can be in us to make us his own.

Paul is making every effort because Jesus made every effort to make us his own.

He labored, he toiled, he suffered, he went to the cross, he didn't get down off the cross when he had the choice to make us his own.

He goes on as we get into some of the meaning in verse 13.

He says, 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.

There's a couple things here.

Paul's forgetting and he's reaching.

And he doesn't say, I forgot what's behind, I reach forward to what's ahead.

He doesn't say, I forgot all about that stuff.

It's gone.

He says, I am forgetting what's behind.

I keep on forgetting, I keep on reaching.

This is ongoing active.

This is every day.

Maybe this is every hour.

Whatever frequency it is, he keeps on forgetting, he keeps on reaching.

And when I think about forgetting, and I bow with it's like, well, okay, is he forgetting about, and maybe I'm overanalyzing, I don't know.

Uh he he he's forgetting.

I'm like, okay, is this, is he forgetting about is he forgetting about his self-righteousness?

Is he forgetting about the things that he was in his own flesh, his own strength?

And what I think it is, is this is twofold.

I think Paul is forgetting of his confidences, and I think he's forgetting about his failures.

Because he's got some of both.

Paul was in the Lord so effective.

He had such a resume.

And we are in a nation, a world of resumes, right?

Um your confidence is what you what you can bring to the table.

In Christ, we have nothing to bring to the table.

So I think it's twofold for forgetting, keep on forgetting, the things that we're gain, the things that we often bring us pride or self-confidence or self-righteousness, and these creep in because we can we can suddenly feel that what we what we're doing is actually pleasing the Lord when it's what's pleasing the Lord is being in Christ.

We can be complacent because of the things of the past and how well things are going.

So I think Paul's forgetting of those confidences, the things of the past that have made him right.

And and but I also think it's failures.

And maybe this is just me, but I think in real application, forgetting of our failures is a big deal.

And often, I don't know, I don't know how much many in sports or in activity or but have you ever tried to run backwards really fast?

How fast do you think you can drive backwards looking in the rear view mirror?

I'm not talking about like finding that one person on the meme who's you know, but it doesn't work really well, and there's a reason for it.

But forgetting what is behind and those failures, a lot of us get hung up, and I say us because it is so easy to walk away from that conversation, from that relationship, from that thing you did, the thing you thought, and to get stuck in that spot.

And we beat ourselves up, and we need to be convicted when we do something, right?

I'm not saying we don't want to feel the conviction of the Spirit in our lives, but we can get hung up and not walk in the grace of Jesus.

What are some things that Paul you think Paul might need to forget about?

I'm thinking he held some rocks at some points.

And I'm thinking he saw people die.

I think he spent years and years outside of grace pursuing his own righteousness, bringing glory to himself.

And I think he needs to forget that.

Maybe it's a certain um issue with John Mark in Acts 13.

Maybe it's things about how he did ministry.

I don't know exactly.

I think there's a lot of things we all have failures.

Maybe it's the what we did and for how long we did it.

We need to move on.

And Paul's saying, forgetting what is behind.

It's behind, we're not gonna drive forward looking in the rearview mirror.

And then this is twofold.

He's forgetting behind, reaching forward to what is ahead.

This word reaching, it's it really means stretching.

It's stretching.

We're not just talking reaching your hand out, we're reaching.

This is the body.

This is reaching with everything you have.

I thought about uh like a wide receiver, someone out.

He's catching the ball, there's a huge pass, toes are on the turf, hands are outreached to catch the ball to keep your body in bounds.

Reaching, right?

Or a runner reaching at the finish line to get over that line first.

But this this passage seems more like endurance to me.

Not like that last sprint.

Maybe like a football game, it's every play the whole game, right?

But what comes to mind is, and and maybe this is this is not as as uh as common, but there's something called the Appalachian Trail.

Appalachian Trail is 2,200 miles from Maine to Georgia, 500,000 vertical feet of climbing.

Most people, this is called through hiking, people do this for fun.

And they take with their backpacks, they resupply and whatever, but they do it for five or six months if if everything goes well, five or six months.

And this is from the crack of spring to fall snow.

The fastest known time, the FKT on the Appalachian Trail, was uh was beat last year by a woman named Tara Dower.

She did it in 41 days, 18 hours and five minutes.

She slept 20 minutes at a time.

Her breaks, five minutes.

For almost 42 days.

Tara.

Tara pressed on.

She averaged fifty-four miles or over two marathons a day for almost forty-two days.

I love it.

This was not without hallucinations.

Bruises.

Blood.

Tara attempted this, and I'm not, there's many who've done first fastest known times.

This is just the latest, and it's awesome that she's a woman and she killed it.

Is that a right word?

Okay.

In 2017, she attempted the the the Appalachian Trail, got 80 miles in, and she was done.

Panic attacks and anxiety.

Has anyone else been in a race?

And felt like you failed because of panic.

Sorry.

Panic and anxiety.

It it hits a lot of people.

And that's the things that overwhelmed Tara and other fastest known time people.

It's a whole being thing.

In 2019, she uh did the Appalachian Trail with a partner and did it supported backpack, resupplies.

Tara was forgetting what was behind.

She the first 10 miles, uh first 10 miles, first 10, sorry, first 10 days.

Wow.

First 10 miles, she was behind the pace.

Did she stop?

She didn't stop because she was behind the record pace, because you gotta watch where you're at.

She only beat the record by I did the math earlier, uh, 13 hours, I think.

I mean 13 hours and 42 days, that's not much.

She pressed on, she reached forward.

That was my analogy.

She pressed on, she reached forward.

But forgetting what's behind, it's hard.

And there is a spiritual battle, and I think I'm I'm gravitating towards a forgetting, but there's a spiritual battle, because we can get hung up in the past and what we should have done, would have done, could have done.

But in that battle, as Paul says to the Corinthians, he says so many things better than I do, but although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.

The weapons of our warfare are not the flesh, are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God.

For the demolition of strongholds, we demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God.

Sometimes those things are within us, and we need the Lord to fight in our minds in the battles that keep us from forgetting, that keep us from reaching.

So from verse thirteen, Paul says one thing.

I do, forgetting, keep on forgetting, reaching, keep on reaching to what is ahead.

As I forget and forgetting and reaching, I pursue my goal, he says.

Pursue is like pressing towards.

That's literally what the word is.

I'm pressing towards that goal.

The goal of knowing him and his power and his righteousness and not the righteousness of man.

Paul writes to Timothy in the second letter, chapter 4, he says, There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.

In Philippians verse 14, he says, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

What is that prize?

Maybe there's other, there are other aspects of the prize.

Paul is pressing towards not that he's arrived at the righteousness of Jesus, because we are all righteousness right now as we sit in Jesus, because we have put on Jesus.

We're putting him on.

God sees his righteousness and not our own.

But one day, there's this saying, and I don't know who said it, but we have been freed from the penalty of sin.

We're being freed regularly, daily, from the power of sin.

And one day we'll be freed from the presence of sin.

Paul is looking forward.

He's reaching forward.

He is pursuing that prize of the righteousness of God, of being found righteous in Jesus on the day that Jesus brings him home, where he will be not just free from the penalty of sin, but he'll be free from the presence of sin.

This heavenly call will hear one day, good and faithful servant.

When I hear that heavenly call, I think ahead of what of what God will say when we've reached that finish line and he takes us home.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

Paul says to the Corinthians, don't you know?

This is a 1 Corinthians chapter 9, don't you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize?

1 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

Run in such a way to win the prize.

Now everyone who competes exercises self-control and everything.

They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown.

So I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air.

Paul is running this race, and I don't think it's just a sprint.

He's running the race every day.

He's forgetting what's behind, reaching forward to what's ahead.

He's pursuing the prize promised by God.

This morning, some questions.

Are you plagued by your past?

Would you say, are you disappointed?

Are you ashamed?

Are there things that you have to forget?

That you need to forget, that we need to forget.

Forgetting is not, forgetting is not easy.

The psalmist says, as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us.

And that is for the believer who's put their faith in Jesus, personal faith in Jesus to cover our sins, to move them as far as the east.

Do you know how far the east is from the west?

If I go east, I just keep going.

And I don't get back to where I'm coming.

That's not his point.

But you can keep, you go north, you do end up going south.

But you go east, you keep going east.

So are we forgetting what's behind?

Are we forgetting about the regret of walking outside of Jesus?

Of walking in our confidences, of the things that we were strong in ourselves, but not strong in Jesus and not relying on his spirit?

Of being self-righteous?

But are we reaching forward?

As a two-sided coin, are we also reaching forward?

Are there things that uh we're doing that are we walking in our glory days?

A season in our life where we were um things went really well.

Things just went well and and we're looking back.

I went to Mount Whitney uh several years ago, and it's a slog.

Um you you get up just halfway and it feels it feels great, right?

You've you've made it halfway to get up to trail camp, you get up to summit, the day is not over.

You can't sit on the summit.

You gotta get down, and it takes you gotta get down before the lightning comes, before the weather turns, before the wind comes up.

And we can get down off Mount Whitney and it can feel great.

Got oxygen again.

It's coming down fast.

And I can talk about that experience for years to come, and it's a it was a it's a great experience.

But if I keep talking about it, but I don't do it again, or I don't keep hiking and pursuing, I can keep talking about the glory day of that time.

And that's good because setting up an ebonizer, setting up those things to encourage us in the Lord and giving God glory, it's all good.

It's all good.

But if I'm complacent, that that's where the the tide turns.

That's where that's where we get stuck.

Or am I reaching forward to what's ahead?

Is there anything hindering you or me from reaching ahead?

Something holding on to.

What do you think might have been hindering Paul?

Paul was writing this from prison.

I mean, all things that you could hinder you.

You could be just sitting discouraged.

He could be, I don't want to use the word pouting, but um, sometimes that's what we do.

Um but Paul said to the Philippians in chapter one, he says, hey, the things that have happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.

Um for the whole palace guard knows that my chains are in Christ, and it's and those who have heard of my chains are actually or encouraged to preach the gospel without fear.

Paul was pressing on, and he he wasn't stuck in his circumstances, he was forgetting, not about where his circumstances were, but he was reaching ahead.

Tara Dower, who did the Appalachian Trail and said they had the fastest known time.

She, this was a unique record.

It's what's called supported.

Wasn't with our backpack.

There's records when you're you have your backpack on, right?

Carrying your food, all of your things, your sleeping bag, all of your everything, medicine, first aid.

She did a supported fastest known time.

I think uh in comparison, the her the fastest time is supported, and just like she needed to support people going ahead we're in logistics, banaging the bloody spots, working on the blisters, feeding her spoon feet.

I mean, this is intense.

Working ahead.

We can get into our walks and we're not forgetting and we're not reaching forward because it's it's not just about our own effort, because endurance sports can often seem like they're all about our own personal effort, right?

But in the body, it's really about us, us working with the body.

And maybe that's our helping others and serving others, or maybe it's about others coming alongside.

In Galatians, Paul says uh in chapter 6, brethren, if a man is overtaken by any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

For if anyone considers himself something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

We're not in this alone.

Paul wasn't in this alone.

Epaphroditus came to him, came to encourage him and come alongside of him.

He's thanking the Philippians for encouraging and sending a gift.

We're not in this alone.

Paul's exhorting us to forget and keep on forgetting, to reach and keep on reaching, to keep pressing towards that prize, the crown of righteousness, the heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Paul, or sorry, the author of Hebrews, and I'm not saying, I'm not saying correct thing.

Really none.

But he says it way better than I can, so I'm going to close with Hebrews 12.

I think that's the best place to stop this morning.

Hebrews 12, 1 through 3.

Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us.

Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

For the joy, for the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won't grow weary and give up.

Father, we thank you for your word and uh that is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword.

We desired that we wouldn't come with some energy to work up within ourselves, but that you would move within us to apply your word, that you would uh make us more like Jesus.

Lord, that you would fill us with your spirit to keep running, forget us what what is behind to to reach forward to what is ahead.

Ask that you would go before us this week.

Lord, be a light through us and be glorified in us.

In Jesus' name, amen.