What Is The Goal Of Life?

God Centered Theology

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Today we want to talk about the goal of life, the goal of life, what is it, what should it be, what things should you be focused on, what things should we be pursuing or working towards, what is the goal of life.

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This week is obviously Thanksgiving week, we will be celebrating that on Thursday and I have great fond memories of Thanksgiving and I have great plans for Thanksgiving and that involves food and I was born to eat,

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I do it well and I will be exercising my great talents on Thursday and then

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I will be spending probably the next three or four hours after that begging the good Lord for the sweet release of death because I will be miserable probably, stuffed and probably go take a good three or four hour nap and then wake up and probably just eat some leftovers, so that's usually how it goes, there's some football thrown in there, but a true heart of Thanksgiving is one that loves

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God, is thankful for salvation and works to achieve that for which

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God saved us. It's not just merely a ritualistic act where we say we're thankful or say we want to be thankful, but it is a heart and a lifestyle that goes with being thankful and it's one that truly loves

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God and is thankful for salvation and actively works and pursues to achieve and to realize the purpose for which

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God saved us. Now, Paul very often in his letters uses athletic imagery to make a point, in Corinthians he talks about, uses the imagery of a boxer and how he beats or trains his body to be in submission, he routinely uses the idea of being in a race,

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I ran track and field when I was much younger, much thinner, much more athletically vigorous, if you will.

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There is a lot that, you know, you don't want to constantly talk about sports and use sports metaphors because not everybody's into that, but we find in life that sports has a lot to do with explaining or giving some good understanding to some of the principles of life.

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So the reason Paul uses this is because it's a very good object lesson for his readers and for those that he'd be teaching.

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You think about something like running a race, I ran the mile, four laps around the track, and you think about things in terms of you're constantly running forward, you don't run backwards, although I'm sure,

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I'm glad they have a sport for everything nowadays, I'm sure there's some sport somewhere where running backwards is a thing.

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I don't particularly want to do that, but you run forward, meaning you're facing forward, you're moving forward, you're not going backwards, you're trying to get those four laps completed, obviously, as quickly as you can.

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In track, my coach would talk often about how you're not racing against your fellow runners.

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That's the wrong way to approach it. If you run against them, they may have a different pace or have different goals in mind for each lap.

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When I ran a mile, I broke it down into four sections of each lap. Every 100 meters, which is four, there's four 100 meters, 400 meters to a lap, so four sections of each lap and then four times.

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I thought those terms and I'd break it down in all kinds of ways. The guy standing next to me, he might just say,

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I'm going to run as fast as I can for as long as I can. He has no plan. You don't run against your fellow runners, you're racing against the clock.

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Because it's ultimately the clock that's timing you. When you get down to the end of the race, yes, there is a first, second, fourth, and fifth, but it's your time that you want to know.

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Did I run the fastest I could? Did I beat my time last time? When you would train for the mile, you would run intervals of one lap or two laps at a time, sometimes three laps at a time, see where you're at at different stages.

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And so there's all these factors going in there, but ultimately, you're racing against yourself. You're trying to be better.

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That's why we talk in terms of track racing and running and athletic events.

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Some of them are very measurable. You can know how you're doing now versus before.

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You think of things like weightlifting, it's very measurable. You know how much you can lift, how much you were lifting previously, and how much you're trying to work towards lifting.

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So there's all these things worked in here. You think about relay races, even something as simple as passing off the baton to your fellow runner.

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The person receiving the baton and the person passing the baton is never looking behind them.

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They're always looking forward. You were taught to put that arm back and trust that the person was going to place it in your hand properly so that you could then turn and just keep running forward.

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Laser focused on what's ahead of you, not thinking about what's side to side or what's behind, but always working towards your goal.

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Ultimately, towards the end, the finish line, the end of the race.

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And anybody that's ever run a race wants to be able to say that when they've completed the race, that they did everything that was expected of them, everything that they set out to do, everything that they intended for that race.

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Different races, I would have different goals. Some of it would depend on where we're at, what type of track we're on, who was there running with us.

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There was a lot of different factors that went into it. And you say, OK, well, how does this fit into real life?

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Well, every day is different. You have different goals for different days. Some days you go to work, some days you don't.

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Some days you go to church, some days you don't. Some days you go to the store. Different goals, different factors, different things involved.

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There are hurdles thrown in your way. Ha -ha, sports pun.

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In a very realistic way, on the track, I was a distance runner, but I always thought

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I could run hurdles. And I begged my coach to let me run one hurdles race. And he used to always tell me, son, you're not a hurdle runner, you're a distance runner.

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I know I can do it. You know, when you're young, you think you know everything. So finally, my senior year, one of the last track meets, we were doing pretty well.

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Our points were good. I said, look, I got to run four races. I said, I ran four by eight, the mile.

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Can I give up the two mile for just one track meet and run 300 hurdles? It's low hurdles. Just a little steep.

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It came at dead last. Dead last. When I got done, I'm walking back over and I see him standing there.

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This is a tall, probably six foot four black guy. He was in some type of service, so he was always fit.

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And he's just sitting there, shaking his head. And I walked by him, I said,

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I'm not a hurdle runner. He said, no, you're not. That's all we said to each other.

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That's all need to be said. But hurdle races, they obviously put the hurdles in your way as something you need to get over.

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You can't go around them, you have to go over them. And essentially, you have to go through them, in a sense.

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Not literally, you go over them. But if you're applying this to life, you can't go around hurdles.

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Now, in track races, you know where they're going to be, right? There are certain intervals, you know when they're coming, you know how tall they are, what it will take to go over them.

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In life, sometimes you don't get that. Hurdles get thrown in, you didn't know it was coming.

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So you have hurdles in life. You have some races that are long. Some periods of your life, when you're going through certain things, they're going to seem like they will never end, never going to end.

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And you look back like five years after it ends, you're like, oh, that weren't so bad. Some things are short and fast and quick and done.

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So there's so many ways that an athletic race or an athletic endeavor can be applied to gain or grow your understanding in how we approach life.

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And that's what Paul does here in verses 12 through 16 of chapter 3 of Philippians.

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John MacArthur, in his commentary on Philippians, says the following about this. Paul was running spiritually to catch the very thing for which

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Christ Jesus had come after him. In other words, Paul's goal in life was consistent with Christ's goal in saving him.

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One of the biggest failures we see sometimes in churches is when it is preached that, well,

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God just makes salvation available to you, and he's just saving you just to keep you out of hell.

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So you want to go to hell. Well, yes, it's true that salvation does bring us eternal life, and we will not find ourselves in hell paying for our sins.

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But if that's all you think salvation is, you have a very shallow, very one -dimensional view of salvation.

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Scripture is complete with so much language about what the ultimate goals and purposes of God is in saving us.

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One of those is in Romans chapter 8, verse 28, it says, We know that for those who love

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God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose, because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his

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Son. Christ saves us, yes, to forgive us of our sins, yes, to wash us white as snow in the blood of Christ, but yes, also to raise us to spiritual life, to make us holy, and ultimately, as Paul points out here in Romans, to become conformed to the image of his

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Son. Salvation is not just a get -out -of -jail -free card.

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It is a complete and total life transformation. And because of us being raised to life in Christ, because of us being justified by faith in the work of Christ, we now have the

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Holy Spirit indwelling us so that we have both the power and the ability through the power of Christ to be conformed.

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The unsaved person, the unregenerate mind, not only cannot discern the things of God, but they cannot be conformed to Christ because they are currently in a state of rebellion.

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It is those that have been adopted by God into his family, those that have been united with Christ, that this verse can apply to.

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They can become conformed to the image of his Son so that he,

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Christ, would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

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This verse here is what is known as the golden chain of redemption.

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God's plan of redemption, which he planned in eternity past, is played out in time over the course of many days and weeks and months and years.

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And his plan of redemption is held together by the golden chain of Christ's power.

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So it's not just that he wants to save you from your sin and bring you eternal life.

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This is true. But notice those he calls, those are also he justifies.

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That's the point in time in which we are raised to life in Christ. We repent of our sin and put faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

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And that's the point in time which we would refer to someone being saved. But it doesn't end there. From there, we are going to have a future of being glorified.

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There will come a point in time where we have a glorified body. We will be completely rid of and freed from all the effects of sin.

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And so Paul recognizes that that hasn't come yet. And see, he's dealing with false teachers, some of which going around pretending as if they've reached that point.

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This is where some would get the false teaching of sinless perfectionism.

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That somehow you can achieve this state of sinless perfection in this life. Well, Paul in Galatians would beg to differ because he says that our flesh and the spirit is at war with one another.

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Our spirit wants to obey Christ, wants to obey God. Our flesh wants to engage in sin.

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And as long as that war is going on, we know that the perfect has not come. That we have not reached the full state of maturity.

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Hence, we have not reached the finish line. We have not reached the ultimate end goal.

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Which means there's still work to be done. There's still change. There's still sanctification.

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There's still growth that can be had. Because the goal of the Christian life is a lifelong pursuit of becoming conformed to Christ's likeness.

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And I personally am completely thankful. Particularly this year.

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I'm thankful for every single thing that has stretched me, pulled me, molded me to where I am today.

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And yet I remain focused on what is to come. I'm thankful for where I'm at.

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I have knowledge of where I've came from and everything that's gotten me to this point.

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But I'm not looking back. We're still always remained looking forward.

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So, the question to be answered this morning in these verses is, how do we pursue the goal?

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How do we pursue the goal of the Christian life? Which is to become conformed to Christ's likeness.

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And we're going to see four things here in these verses. Number one, we need to have a proper evaluation and self -awareness.

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Verse 12, Paul says, not that I have already obtained it. So right away, we see if we're going to understand and interpret

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Scripture correctly, we can't just jump right in here. We need to understand what he's referring to.

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And of course, we covered this last time. But just very quick summary fashion. He says, if you go back to verse nine, he says, to be found in him not having a righteousness of my own, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God, which is based upon faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.

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And the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

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He was saying that by knowing Christ, by you not being united with him, having the righteousness that comes from God, when we are justified by our faith in Christ, we will ultimately as the end goal, as the finish line of our faith, our faith becomes sight.

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And as the finish line, we are have the resurrection. Whether we pass in this lifetime and will be resurrected from the dead, or if we're alive when

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Christ returns, either way, we will have a resurrection in the sense that our bodies will be conformed to his righteousness.

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We have a fully glorified body and death has no hold over us. Death has no reason to cause fear.

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For even if we die in this life, we will find resurrection, eternal life is upon that basis.

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He says, not that I have already obtained it. So he right away is providing and highlighting a proper evaluation of where he's at and a self -awareness of knowing that we have not attained.

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We have in a sense of in the mind of God in the sense of where we are positionally in Christ, because in Romans 8, when it says we are called, we are justified, we are glorified.

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All of these things in the mind of God are as a present completed act. But for us that experience time as we go through time, there is obviously a linear progression.

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We are justified at one point, we grow in sanctification. And yes, there will come the final point in which we are fully glorified.

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So we have to have a proper evaluation and a proper self -awareness of knowing where we are, where we've come from and where we're going.

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So he says, not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect. And if you remember, we've said this many times in many sermons.

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When you see normally, not in every case, but because every context and every word needs to be treated based on how it's used in that context.

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But generally speaking, when we're talking about Christian maturity and things like that, our English translations will translate it with the word perfect.

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This is a word that means completeness, having reached the intended goal.

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So for example, when he says later on that those that think they have already laid hold of it or those that many are as perfect, those that think they have reached it, he's saying here, not that I have reached it.

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So what he's basically saying is, I know what I want to be. I know what I'm going to be.

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I'm not saying that I've gotten there yet. So it's a proper self -awareness of understanding.

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I'm not what I should be yet, but I'm working towards it. Not that I've already attained it, not that I'm already complete.

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See, and this is important too, because we don't necessarily see it spelled out so much in the language of Scripture.

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But when you really dive in and think about this, there was at least a percentage or a small group at least of some people that looked at Paul as being sinlessly perfect, thinking that somehow he had arrived or he was some sort of special spiritual class to which man would want to obtain and become like.

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And Paul would constantly tell them, you don't want to be like me. Be imitators of God, be

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Christ -like. And so he's saying, look, don't look at me as someone that's perfect or complete or someone that's obtained everything that I need to do in his life.

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And we're going to see in a minute here, he deals with some of the ones that were going around acting as if they were. So he had a proper evaluation of himself.

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He says, I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also

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I was laid hold of by Christ. This terminology lay hold of means to seize tight, to capture, to overtake, to bring into possession of.

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So when he's saying that I may lay hold of, he wants to lay hold of that, which

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Christ laid hold of him for, meaning Christ saved him for a purpose.

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Christ saved him to have a goal for his life and a plan for his life and things upon which he created

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Paul for. And Paul says, my singular focus, my goal, where I am going, what

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I am working towards is to be everything that Christ saved me to be.

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Meaning he doesn't approach it and doesn't approach the Christian life with his own plans, with his own goals.

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Saying, God, you're going to have to conform yourself to what I think and want.

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That's man -centeredness. No, Paul was God -centered. He wanted to submit and conform himself to what it is that God had laid hold of him for, had saved him for.

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And that's what he's saying here, because Paul had a proper evaluation of his situation and a proper self -awareness of where he was at.

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He says, he's basically saying, yes, I'm saved. Yes, I'm working towards what

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I should be. But yes, I still sin. Number two, we must be intentional about pursuing it.

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It helps to have a good self -awareness of where you're at. And it helps to not overly exaggerate your spiritual maturity, but also you need to be intentional about pursuing the goal.

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The goal of life won't come easy. The goal of life won't come just because you want it. Anything worth having in life is going to take effort.

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And to a large degree, it's going to take setback. It's going to take some hurdles. It's going to take some difficulty.

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No one ever succeeds in track and field. No one ever has any measure of success in business or in life without some level of exercise, some level of strength building, stretching, pulling, molding, changing.

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In some cases, you think about ice sculptors. They tart the block and they chip away until you have this shape left.

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You can apply that. There's so many ways to draw application to our life by using things we see in our life.

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You use an ice sculptor and say, well, we're chipping away everything that shouldn't be there so that what's left is the conformed image of Christ.

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You could do it in so many different ways, but you have to be intentional about pursuing this goal.

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You have to leave behind what is hindering you or leave behind those things that are causing you to stumble.

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The sins that set you easily so beset us and you have to actively and intentionally stretch forward towards what you need to be.

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Notice in verse 13, he says, brothers, I do not consider myself as having laid hold of it yet.

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So he's saying, he's continuing the self -awareness. He says, I'm not there yet. I'm not saying

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I'm there yet. You shouldn't be saying you're there yet. But he says, but one thing

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I do forgetting or neglecting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.

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This term reaching forward is to extend or stretch out or strain after.

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So he says, I'm reaching forward to what lies ahead. It's not this passive, lazy, sort of like, okay, well,

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I'll put my hand out and I'll just wait for God to give me what I need. No, this is a stretching, a reaching, straining hard work, effort.

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You remember when we did the Christian Living 101 series, one of the sermons was about genuine character and effort.

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He's keeping this theme rolling here because he's saying to obtain and to get to where we need to be in life as the goal of Christian life, we're gonna have to put forth effort.

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We're gonna have to reach and strain with being intentional. We're gonna have to actively pursue it and forgetting what lies behind it.

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You're running a race. If you're constantly looking over your shoulder, looking behind you to see who's close to you or who's coming up on you, you don't realize you've already started slowing down just simply by looking over your shoulder.

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You're not gonna be running straight anymore. If you start looking this way, you're gonna naturally go this way. That's why I say, if you're distracted driving, if you're looking at something off in a field, you're naturally gonna feel the need to start turning that way.

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You're gonna turn this way. Looking behind you, you're slowing down because you're looking and worried about what's coming behind you.

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We used to always teach us, don't listen for feet. Don't listen for feet of people behind you.

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Don't think of shadows there. Don't think somebody's running your tail. Worry about the clock. Worry about the track.

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Worry about what's ahead of you. Now, when you got in the state championships and stuff, there were certain elements of, okay, obviously

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I wanna win. So if I know that guy's there, say for me to that table ahead of me and we're coming into the last lap,

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I might need to abandon my race plan a little bit and start huffing and puffing because I wanna win. So there's a way in which we will alter or engage more aggressively at times if there's a certain part of our life here that needs to be completed and we'll put in a little extra effort at times.

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Sometimes you pull back and rest. Vacations, taking time off.

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All these things were involved in our life, but the ultimate foundation needs to be this pursuit of Christlikeness and growing in that vein.

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John MacArthur in his commentary of Philippians about this understanding here about leaving what's behind and pressing forward, he has a good quote

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I like. He says, believers cannot live on past victories nor should they be debilitated by the guilt of past sins.

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So in understanding where Paul says here, forgetting what lies behind, that goes both ways.

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You can't live off past victories. You can't sit there and say, well, I beat this guy last time, so surely if we line up and run another mile,

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I'm gonna beat him this time. You don't know that. He might've been training extra hard and now he's gonna whoop your butt.

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You know, a team, we think about in basketball or football, just because you played the same team last year doesn't mean you're gonna beat them this year.

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They may have new players. They may have new coaches. They may have a new scheme. So in your life, you say, well,

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I've faced this sin before. I've faced this challenge before. I've faced this problem before. I've always gotten through it in the past.

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I will be fine. Can't just live on those past victories. Every challenge presents something new, but also the other side of that is you can't be debilitated by guilt over sin.

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Christ has forgiven you. You need to forgive yourself. Sometimes that's the hardest thing to do, but you can't constantly be looking back and say, well,

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I'm gonna fail in the future because I failed in the past. No. Yes, you may have failed in the past. We need to learn from it.

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So when you face in the future with Christ's power, you overcome it. Don't be debilitated by it.

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So number one, we have a proper evaluation. Number two, we're intentional. Number three, we must have a laser focus on the goal.

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Notice he says, verse 14, I press on toward the goal.

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So there's action, there's effort. He's pressing on, but notice it says toward the goal.

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There's an end goal in mind. There's a direction in mind. There is a way, a path in which he is moving.

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When I would train people at Food Lion, you train them, you know, you have say five things you need to accomplish in the shift, okay?

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You can't do all five at one time, but there may be times where you're working on number one and it overlaps a little bit with number four, or maybe you finish number four, you're still working on one, but now you're working on task number three, and you see overlaps.

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Some things like maybe task number two has to be done by itself. You have to put all your focus on that.

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Those would be examples of within your life's context, there's different things you do.

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Sometimes I'm a parent, just a parent. Sometimes I'm a Farm Bureau employee. Sometimes I'm a pastor.

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Sometimes those things can overlap. Sometimes those things are done individually. Those things are a part of what's being done, but the foundation, the ultimate goal, the ultimate direction that I'm going, all these things are involved, task one, two, three, parent, you know, employee, whatever it is

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I'm doing in that day is all in service of pressing on and pressing forward towards my ultimate goal.

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And that's what Paul is saying here. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

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What Paul was saying is that there's nothing that could ever be achieved, nothing he could ever attain, nothing he could ever come into possession of that is better than knowing

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God, knowing Christ and being conformed to Christ's likeness. So why in the world,

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Paul was saying, would I ever let myself be distracted by anything else that's not in service to that goal?

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We can't afford to be distracted. The end goal, which is Christ's likeness, should be the foundation of all of our decisions, all of our choices, and all of our pursuits.

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We must be God -centered. Now, look, you go to McDonald's and order some food, you probably don't have

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Christ's likeness at the forefront of your thinking. This doesn't mean you have to stop. Well, what would Christ want me to order from McDonald's?

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Well, you're hungry, you want number one, order number one. You can't take these things to their logical extremes.

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We're not saying that if you don't stop every single possible little decision you can make in your life, you don't pray and ask

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God, stop. We're saying the undercurrent of everything you're doing has

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Christ as the goal. Yes, in some cases, you're gonna need to stop what you're doing and put some serious consideration and prayer into certain decisions.

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Some things we do, they're just natural consequences of life. I'm tired,

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I'll let you go to bed. I don't need to spend five hours praying about it. Sometimes you're gonna need to spend days, weeks thinking over some things.

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But regardless of the individual circumstances, the same foundation of working towards the goal.

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You see, those that are not saved, those who do not truly have the same goals as the

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God -centered Christian, or they have false teaching, they will be uncovered and revealed along the way.

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Notice, he says in verse 15, let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way.

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And if anything you think differently, God will reveal that also to you. What is he saying here?

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He's saying, and he's referencing, there are those some there that were passing themselves off as complete, as fully mature, not really neat.

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You know this kind. You probably, when you've had jobs or been in certain situations, you ever come across those ones that you can't teach them nothing?

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They have nothing else to learn. I've arrived. I know everything. I've been there, done that.

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I hate it when people put it like this. You know, you'll take basketball, for instance.

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You have some of these coaches, they'll say, you know, I've forgotten more about basketball than you know. I'm like, that's so just how arrogant, narcissistic.

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Paul was dealing with some like this. They had learned all they needed to learn. They knew all they needed to know.

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There's nothing else I can learn. Nothing else I can grow in. So Paul here, in a sense, sort of has a sarcastic flavor to what he's saying when he says, as many as are perfect.

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So for those of you who think you are perfect, those of you who think you're complete, you see,

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Paul's already established back in verse 12 that he's not perfect, he's not complete, that no

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Christian is until we're glorified. So he's not going to turn around here in verse 15 and say, okay, well,

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I know some of you aren't complete. That's how we know he's basically taking that jab here at these people.

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He's saying, you know, basically you think you're complete. Well, God will show you you're not. For the

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Christian, you think you've arrived, God's going to have his ways of revealing to you you still got work to do.

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Which leads us to our last point for this morning. First, we have to have proper evaluation, must be intentional, we have to have a laser focus.

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Well, number four, the last and answering the question, how do we pursue the goal? Number four, we must be consistent and have endurance.

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Consistent and have endurance. Notice verse 16. However, or in other words, he's saying, nevertheless.

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So even though there's the presence of some that think they got it all together, even though we encounter some of that, even though we know we're not where we need to be in all this, that and the other.

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Nevertheless, let us Christians keep, continue, walking, living, or following in line.

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This phrase walking in step here, he says walking in step with the same standard. The phrase translated walking step literally means to be in rows, have order, to walk in line, to have order, to have sequence of events, to have method.

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So let us keep walking in order and in step with the same standard, the same regulations, same doctrine to which we have attained.

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Now, when he says to which we have attained, he's not talking in the same sense of whether or not we have obtained maturity or not obtained maturity.

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He's now in this context, he's talking about the standard or rule or doctrine that we've attained.

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So what he's saying here when he says, let us keep walking in step with the same standard to which we have attained.

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This phrase which we have attained is a word that means to come before, precede, or arrive ahead of time.

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So what he's saying, the standard that we have, the doctrine that we have, that teaches us how we ought to live, how we ought to pursue the goal and become

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Christ's likeness, we've already got it. It arrived ahead of time in Christ and in scripture.

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So we have everything we need essentially is what he's saying to keep living by that standard and to keep living and walking and pursuing that goal.

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So what he's saying is we have to hold fast to the good teaching that we already have, that we already attained because we already have it and hold fast to the sound doctrine that we already have.

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Let that which we have come to know or come to guide us rather into greater conformity to Christ.

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So there's a whole lot here, but if we want to boil it down in a summary statement to close this morning, it's have a healthy understanding of where you're at.

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If you've got certain sins in your life, don't go around acting like you don't. If you have certain struggles in your life and you need someone to help you, don't act like, hey,

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I got it all together. I don't need no help. Recognize where you're at. It is perfectly okay and healthy to have a healthy evaluation of where you're at in life in all stages and then take that as your starting place to always look forward and keep moving forward and put forth the effort needed and you have to be consistent.

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Don't be an outstanding Christian one day and completely fall off the wagon the next. The amount of consistency in your

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Christian life should be growing over time and you're going to have to endure because it's hard sometimes.

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I'm preaching to the choir on that one. We all know life isn't easy. It's going to take endurance, but that is our goal in life.

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And my friends, I would make the argument to you this morning, I would submit to you this morning that a true heart of thanksgiving is always going to want to pursue the goal of becoming a more