Philippians 3:15-16

Just like with Moses, when he was in the presence of God, he wanted to see

God, right? I've mentioned it before. I love the imagery there. And God says, no, no, you can't see me.

You would die on the spot. You can't see my holiness, my perfection. And he places them there in the cleft of that rock to where he only sees the shadow, the backside.

Just a glimpse of God. And he's overwhelmed. He's overwhelmed so much so that the glory of God shone upon him that when he came back down off that mountain, that the people of Israel couldn't look at his face.

It shone too brightly. Just from seeing the backside reflection of God himself. I love that imagery.

We should be like that, shouldn't we? We're placed in the cleft of that rock. We've been in the presence of a holy and perfect God.

We reflect that light. We reflect the light of the holiness of God in our lives and the world.

He wants to veil it because they can't stand to look upon it because it's too bright. That's the way it should be, isn't it?

That's why I love that song, beautiful old hymn. I hope you knew it. If you don't, you'll get to know it around here because it's a great reminder as to who we are and what we are in Christ.

Go ahead and be seated and open your copy of God's Word. We're going to continue our study through Philippians.

Today we're going to be looking at Philippians 3, verses 15 and 16.

As you turn there, you know often we're following a continuous thought by the

Apostle Paul. And so we need to jump back a few verses just to be reminded of the flow of thought in his writing as we address the verses that we're going to be addressing.

So there, Philippians chapter 3, we're going to start reading in verse 12. Philippians 3, verse 12.

Paul says, Not that I have already obtained this, for I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise,

God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

This is the reading of God's wholly inspired perfect Word. Praise God, we have the privilege to read it this morning.

But just as we do every week, I want us to go to the Lord one more time and I ask that he would open our eyes to see and our ears to hear the truth of.

Lord, we come before you humbly. We know that in and of ourselves we do not have the power, the capability to understand the wisdom that is in your

Word. But praise God, those of us that are in Christ, we have your spirit, we have the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit in us and we pray that the Holy Spirit would illuminate our minds and our hearts to this truth.

Help us to understand it. Help us to see it for what it is.

God, I pray that you guard me, guard me from error as I speak.

I'm so inadequate to stand here and proclaim your Word from your

Holy Scripture, God, but you speak through rocks, you speak through donkeys, you can speak through me,

I trust in that. So God, give us the minds and the hearts to hear your truth.

And only your truth. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Well, as a young man, right after being saved,

I was saved at 17 years old. And I don't know about you, those of you that are in Christ, that have had that moment where you've been brought from death to life.

There's this time period where everything is new. Even the things that seemed mundane before have all new life.

Like everything in the world is fresh and you're excited. You've seen what God has done for you.

You've seen what Christ did for you at the cross, and now you just want to respond. And you respond with excitement and fervency, and you're thrilled to do it.

And I was no different. At 17 years old, there I was, I was excited to serve God. I loved what

God had done for me. And in the midst of that, there was one specific thing that I was really dogmatic about.

Extremely dogmatic. And it was what we call in our Christian subculture, listening to secular music.

It's any music that's not played on Christian radio, we call it secular. And I thought, and I was convinced in my mind and my heart, that if you're going to be a follower of Christ, if you listen to secular music,

God can't be happy with you. You obviously can't be in Christ. I mean, this is so black and white, this is easy to understand.

And I was so just enthralled by this concept that I convinced all of my friends, even my lost friends, that this is something that you're going to have to do.

And those of you that have gone through this, maybe some of you have experienced this, we actually had a bonfire where we all gathered and threw all our

CDs and tapes into it. Because you can't be a Christian unless you burn your Pearl Jam CD.

And that's what we did. And we went through this process, and it wasn't really that formal. We didn't chant and dance around the bonfire or anything.

But we thought, man, if God was going to be happy with us, if we are going to be in the faith, then we've got to get rid of this.

And let me be fair here. There were some CDs and tapes that deserved to be in that fire.

Not all secular music is okay to listen to. But I was extremely dogmatic about this.

And my father, who was obviously more mature than me, both spiritually, especially spiritually, but emotionally, physically more mature,

I remember him getting on my case about this pretty heavy. Because he could see the influence

I was having on my friends and everyone around me on this matter and how serious I took this.

And he would get with me. He'd say, son, I'm glad you got this conviction. Don't sin against your conscience.

Go do it. Get rid of it. Live according to that. But you can't push this on everyone else.

Because Jesus hasn't pushed this on everyone else. And I remember at the time, here

I am, a young Christian, an infant Christian. And I remember thinking, dad preaches every week.

He hasn't figured out what the Christian life's all about yet. He's not figured this out.

Old dad's going to have to grow up in the faith, and he's going to have to mature, and he's going to figure this out.

This is what God wants. And I was so serious about it. I thought, what in the world?

Why can't you see this, dad? And I share this story because I want to give us some of a mental contrast.

Because here was a spiritually mature Christian, and my dad. And here was a spiritual infant, me, who was in the process of growing up, but was still young.

And the perspective and the way I saw things. And in the midst of being immature,

I found it interesting. I'm going to talk about it here in just a moment as we jump into the passage. When we're immature, we don't know it.

I watch Joanna here, my youngest. She's five. She has no idea she's five.

She thinks she's 20. Because she doesn't have the life experience to reference and say,

I'm not mature like mom and dad. Just as I looked at my own father and said, he needs to grow up.

When in reality, I was the immature one, right? And so this is a very difficult topic for us to be able to address.

Now thankfully, the Apostle Paul addresses it here in our verses, verses 15 and 16, primarily 15, where he gives us a contrast of mature.

Because he says, those of us that are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, there's the immature.

This is what Paul's talking about. He's placing himself into this category of maturity. But not only himself, the ultimate

Christian, probably the greatest Christian that ever lived, like we talked about last week, the Apostle Paul, he's lumping other believers into it.

It's not just Paul. There are mature saints. There are people who have been in the faith, not necessarily just for years, because we see a lot of people, and hopefully we'll see this today a little bit, that have been in the faith for decades that are not mature.

But they don't even know it. But Paul says, hey, those of us that are mature, so there's people that are mature in this.

And like I said, those that are immature don't know it. They don't realize that they're immature yet because they don't have the reference point.

So how can we identify rather we are mature in the faith or immature? Well, Paul addresses it right there in 15.

Look at it. He says, let those of us who are mature think this way.

What way? What's Paul talking about? What way? Well, that's why we read verses 12 on up to this passage because Paul has been laying the groundwork for this.

This is what we talked about last week. And those that were here or you watched it online, you realize the weight of what

Paul is talking about and the language that he uses in verses 12 through 14 of a race, of this

Christian life being something that we have to press forward in, something that is us trying to strive after Christ with the utmost endurance and fervency.

Look at verse 12 with me. Jump back there. We're just going to skim through it very briefly so we can get our minds into what

Paul is talking about in this. Think this way if you're mature. Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect.

Well, that's one thing right there. Paul is saying, the mature ones know they're not there yet.

Mature ones know that they have not arrived. Just like my dad saying, son, you can't push this on them.

And I thought, well, that's for sure. We've got to push this on them because that's how to live. I didn't understand it. I knew that I was further down the race than I actually was and dad knew he was further behind in the race than he actually was.

Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect. But I press on. Remember the language that we talked about last week and the

Greek that Paul uses for press on? It's striving to obtain that person in front of you with the intent of grabbing hold of them.

With the intent of getting a hold of them. He says, I press on. I push on. And why does he push on?

Why does he press on with such aggression? Well, it's to know

Christ more, isn't it? Who's he after? Who's ahead of Paul in the race? His Savior, Christ.

And that's who he's after. And he says, to make it my own, to make this faith my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

This is what Paul's after. He's striving towards Christ. He's striving towards Christ because Christ has made him his own.

Christ sought him, made him his own. Christ pressed on to him. And we're going to talk about that a little bit more today.

But the fact of the matter is this is what Paul is saying. A mature believer thinks this way.

I press on because Christ pressed on to me and he made me his own. And then it goes on. He says, brothers,

I do not consider that I've made it my own. Again, he's understanding where he's at in the race. He's being realistic about it because of his spiritual maturity.

But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.

This is what Paul is giving us. Paul's giving us this imagery of not just setting back and letting the

Christian life just roll over you like a wave. Paul's giving us this picture of I get up and I train.

Remember how we talked about last week about bodybuilders? How everything in their life is conformed around their preparing for this competition for a perishable wreath, for a trophy on the earth that is perishable.

How they consume everything, everything they eat, everything that they do, everything that they say, everything that they think.

It's all consumed around this thing. Someone preparing for a race. I've got friends that do these big

Ironman races. Man, their entire world. They even run their businesses around the training for this process.

This is what it is, and this is what Paul says the Christian life is, right? I don't want to rehash that too much because we talked about that last week, but we need to get that in our brains because this is spiritual maturity.

A spiritually mature person is going to consume everything in their life with and around pursuing

Christ and knowing Christ more. Everything will be submitted to that. That's a mature

Christian. And he says, again, I press on. That reaching,

I'm striving. It's not indifference. It's not just like, I'll get it, but I don't want to get out of the chair to get to it.

No. He gets up and he trains this morning so he can run faster today. I've got to be able to run faster because I've got to press on.

Press on for the prize of the upward call of God. And remember what we said last week?

What's that prize? In Christ Jesus. The prize is Christ Jesus. This is the way a mature believer thinks.

This is what a mature believer has in his mind when he wakes up in the morning, when he goes to bed at night, when he goes through his day, when he's preparing for his school, when he's preparing for work, when he's preparing to lead his family, when he's preparing for any aspect, when he's preparing to sit and eat a meal, a mature believer is going to be thinking this way.

Mature believers seek to align their lives with this level of diligence. This is the imagery that Paul wants us to understand as a mature believer.

So my question for us today is, are you seeking to align your life with this type of diligence?

Are you seeking to align your life with what the Apostle Paul says a mature believer will do and think?

Are you a mature believer in the faith? Now, the reality is that most of us in here are not.

Most of us in here are not that mature believer that Paul's addressing. Let's be honest. We have to be honest with ourselves.

Where are we in this race? You may not be there, but don't be discouraged.

I don't want to leave you hopeless this morning. I don't want to leave you in a space where you go, man, well, if I don't live like the

Apostle Paul, then I must not be a Christian. Don't think that way. I don't want to leave you with hope.

Because, why? Because of what Paul said back in chapter 1, he who began a good work in you will see it to completion.

He's going to be the one to do that work in you. He's the one that's brought you here into this situation.

He's the one that has brought you here into the level of maturity and the level of this race that you are in in this very moment.

And he's the one that's going to pick you up when you fall and say, don't look backwards, watch me. Step where I step.

Because he started that work. Let those of us who are mature think this way.

But then he goes on, and if in anything, if in anything, if there is any element of your life that you think otherwise,

I like how Paul puts that. Because some of us do this, I don't know if you're like me, where you're like, you know what,

I'm going to go through and I'm going to think of all the things in my life, and there's things that are going to be easy to give up to that.

You know, yeah, I can get up and I can do my quiet time. I can get up and I can pray. I can get up and I can be diligent with this part of my life.

But you may not actually say it. You may not even actually think it. But if you evaluate your life, there's going to be elements that you say, you know what,

I can't live to that level here. That's for me.

I don't know what that is in your life. I can tell you right now, I've spent many hours evaluating them in my own.

Those things where I say, I can't live like that. That's mine.

I can't give that over. I can't live with that level of diligence here in this particular little isolated part of my life or isolated parts of my life.

I can't give that over. I can't get over my career desires. I can't get over the person

I want to be with, or I can't get over how much I worship my family and give everything over to my family and give all of my time just to my family for selfish motivation.

I can't give these things up. But that's what Paul says. And if in anything, if there's anything in your life that you think otherwise, that you think isn't geared towards pressing on towards knowing

Christ more, well, that's an immature believer. You need to grow up.

I need to grow up. It's time to grow up. If you think otherwise, I love what he says there.

He says, look at the end of verse 15. He says, God will reveal this also to you.

He who began a good work and you will see it to completion, right? There's coming a time if you were in Christ that God's going to reveal that to you.

He's going to show you what it means to be a mature Christian, to be in the faith.

Just like with the analogy I gave at the beginning with my dad, I can guarantee you, he never said it, but I guarantee you in his mind, he walked away from those conversations going, he'll grow up.

He'll realize one day. He may not listen to me. God will reveal it to him.

God will show him that truth. Now, I think it needs to be said.

I say don't be discouraged, and I mean it. Don't be discouraged. But do not take this as an opportunity to say, oh, well,

I'll grow up one day. I can just stay a child right now. I want to be selfish.

I want to keep this part of my life to me. And when God's ready to move me, he'll move me. Do not think this way.

Our God is sovereign and in control, and he does as he pleases. And as children, as his children, we've been given the power to obey now.

We didn't have the power to obey before. We were dead to our sins. We could only obey sin. We could only obey our flesh.

We could only obey the powers of this world. But now, if you're in Christ, you've been set free.

Set free to what? To obey God. To obey his precepts.

To obey what he has called you as a believer to be. So do not get content with your immaturity.

You must strive to be mature. Paul talks about this in greater detail, as a matter of fact, over in Ephesians.

Turn your Bibles over there. Ephesians chapter 4. Most of you know these passages quite well. Ephesians chapter 4, we're going to be looking at starting in verse 13.

We're going to be jumping into the middle of a thought with Paul, but you'll catch up. Verse 13,

Paul says, "...until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God."

There's some nuggets right in there. I think Pastor Jeremiah's going to be addressing that next week. It's this knowledge of God.

He goes on, he says, "...to mature manhood." To the maturity that Paul is talking about.

Those of us that are mature think this way. To mature manhood. This is what he's calling the church at Ephesus, too.

To mature manhood. "...to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

That's what we're seeking, right? That's what we're looking for when we press on. We're seeking to the fullness of Christ.

We want to be like our Savior. We want to become like him. That's what mature manhood is. That's what being mature is, is becoming more like our

Savior. Verse 14, "...so that we may no longer be children."

The way Paul writes this in this passage right here in Ephesians is not one of indifference. It's not one of waiting for God to mature you and grow you up.

It's one of saying, Grow up! Figure it out! Fight! Now, I've given you tools to do it.

We're going to talk more about that over the next couple of weeks. There's tools to grow up. But we have to use those tools.

We must strive to grow up. We can't be children. We can't be children. Why can't we be children?

Why can we no longer be children? Look at the passage. He says, "...tossed to and fro by the waves."

Anyone in here been to the ocean? I'm from Daytona Beach. I take my kids to the beach every once in a while.

And the waves, they can get pretty aggressive, can't they?

The waves get quite aggressive. And my little ones, even some of my bigger ones, don't have the fortitude and the physical strength to stay standing when that wave hits.

I have to hold their hand. Matter of fact, with the little ones, I have to pick them up and actually physically hold them or they'll get away from me.

Because the sheer power of that wave rolling through, a child can't withstand it.

I can stand there and let the waves hit me all day long. I think it's a blast. I guess unless you go to Hawaii or somewhere where there's bigger waves.

But in Daytona, I can handle those waves, but my kids can't. That's the imagery that Paul's given us.

A child getting rolled over. What happens when that wave hits in the ocean? We have undercurrents.

We have the undertow or whatever they call that, where you get knocked over, and you don't know which way's up.

That kid can get underwater. You don't know where they're at. They'll get pushed away. They'll get sucked back out to sea, to death, to drown.

That's what happens. If you're a child, if you have not grown up in the faith, if you are still a child, you're tossed to and fro by the waves.

And you need someone there that is mature to hold your hand so that you don't get sucked out to sea.

That's what a child does. And Paul says, no, don't be that. Grow up. It's time to grow up.

Don't be a child tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Just like me, when

I was so convinced in the doctrine of secular music being sin, I was so dogmatic on this thing that was never prescribed by God at all.

But I was tossed to and fro by it. I was driven away by it. We get driven away by other doctrines.

We don't know what the real thing is because we're children at times. We're being children.

We don't know when someone's teaching something wrong. Some of us may not even know if I'm teaching something wrong here. Maybe I'm a child and I'm teaching something wrong and I don't even know it.

But if you're mature, you'll see it. You'll know it. You'll be able to see the real thing because you know the truth because you're mature in the faith.

And those waves can't knock you around. You stand firm. And when bad doctrine hits you, you don't get knocked to the ground and sucked away by it.

Look back there. By human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

The schemes of the evil one. Satan is laying schemes.

He's the ruler of this world, right? Of this realm here. And he's laying schemes.

He's trying to trip you up. Man, when you're a kid, he wants to go after you. What does evil want?

What do evil people do? They go after the least common denominator, don't they? They go after the smallest.

They go after the weakest. That's why our kids are vulnerable. That's why we as parents need to be diligent because the wicked will come after.

Satan does the same thing. He looks in the church and he goes, He's a mature child.

That's where I'm going to wreak havoc. Because they can get tossed around. I can go after them.

But Paul says, Nope. If you're going to be in the faith, you're going to pursue maturity.

Mature manhood is the way he talks about it. So do not be content when you're in maturity.

Do not be content in it, brothers and sisters. It's okay to be immature right now.

It's okay to acknowledge that we are. But don't be content in it. Pursue.

Strive. Press on to grow up in the faith. And again, we're going to be talking about tools in order to do that.

Because there are tools. God has given us tools to do that. Go back to our passage in Philippians 3.

Look at verse 16. Paul says, Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

What does he mean by that? What's Paul talking about when he tells us to hold true to what we've attained?

Paul's telling, I believe, the weaker believers, those people that are not mature yet.

I think he's telling them not to be discouraged, just as I did. Because this imagery of that race, remember?

That's what he sets it up as. This is a race that's still in play as he speaks here.

And I think of it, I actually jotted it down when I was going through this and studying. I drew out on my notes.

I drew out a little road. You know, like you're going down the trail. You have a race. There's a race going on.

You've got the road. You've got some people here in the race. You've got some people up here. You've got a few up here.

You've got some up here at the beginning of the race, which is where I think probably most of us realize we are at this point.

But you've got somebody in the race. You've been running. The moment you were regenerated, you entered that race.

Acknowledge where you are. Acknowledge where you're standing. Have you just started?

Are you still immature? Are you still a child? Are you still at the very entrance of that race? Are you growing in maturity?

And what Paul is saying here, don't be discouraged, but let us hold true to what we have attained.

What ground have you covered in this race? Where have you gotten? Where have you striven towards?

I don't think that's a word. Where have you strived towards? What have you gone after?

What have you pressed on into mature manhood? And wherever that is, hold your ground.

Don't sit down and remember he says, If there's one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind. Don't get distracted and go, man, the road was easier back there.

I'd rather go back there to where it was easier. Let me step back over here. Now press forward.

Hold the ground that you've made. Hold the ground that you've attained in this

Christian life and keep moving forward. That gives us great encouragement. I don't know about you, but that encourages me.

As I sit down in the race sometimes and stew and pout over how hard the race is,

Paul, hold your ground. Let's keep moving forward. Think as a mature believer does.

Think as Paul did. Press on to Christ. And why?

Because Christ pressed on to you. Christ sought you. I can't say that enough.

It's beautiful to even think, isn't it? That Christ pressed on to us. Christ sought us.

So now we seek him. And don't be discouraged by this call to action. Each of us are exactly where God wants us at this very moment in our lives because we do serve a sovereign

God. We're exactly at the spiritual maturity that he has ordained.

But remember, you've got the sovereignty of God. Don't be hyper in that.

You've got the responsibility of man. God's called you to something. God's called you to something.

Keep these two things in play here. God is sovereign and he's ordained where you are.

But he's also ordained and called you to press forward. And he's going to give you the strength and the tools to do that because our

Savior sought us. He redeemed us. And that's what spurs us to mature manhood and womanhood in the faith.

Now, this morning I would like to do something a little different than normal. I had notes this week through my studies of what does it look like to be mature in the faith.

And I thought, man, we can go through and I can give them five points to striving and the tools.

That's for later. I think Pastor Jeremiah is going to cover that quite well next week and some of those tools moving forward and over the next few weeks and growing.

But I want us to do something a little different because of the stage of life that this church is in.

We're an infant church. We are very young. Not even six months yet.

And because of that, I want us to spend some time praying together. I want us to spend some time because that is one of the main tools and weapons and means that God has prescribed for us to grow into mature manhood.

And God just pressed on my heart this week that we need to be a praying church. We avoid that so often.

I love to teach doctrine. I love it. And that's necessary and essential and we're going to continue to do it.

But we should also go and we should seek the source. We should seek to have a relationship with our

Savior, the one that we have the ability to commune with and pray that God will mature each one of us.

So we're going to pray for very specific things and I'll explain that here in just a moment. But the three things

I want us to pray for is that each one of us would grow in maturity. Not only individually in maturity, but I also want us to pray for each other and I also want us to pray corporately as a church that we would grow in maturity.

Second thing is that God would build a culture of discipleship here. We desire a culture of discipleship because discipleship is essential to grow mature

Christians. And we need to pray for that and that God would prescribe them, would give us the means that He's prescribed and that we'd be obedient to follow through with those and He would bless it through the power of His Spirit, of the

Spirit. And thirdly, and this one's tricky, but hear me out.

I want us to pray that God would bring about an awakening in Northeast Arkansas. I think we are a burn -over area.

We've had easy -believism in this community for so long that now people think they are in Christ, that people think that they are doing the will of God.

And we're beyond the idea of praying for revival. I think we need to be praying that we would be awakened.

We don't know who God is. This community does not know who

God is. We've conjured up this God of our mind, this easy -believism

God, not the true biblical God. We need to pray that God would use either this church or any other church or any other means in this community to bring about awakening.

So the way I want to do that this morning, I hope you are comfortable with it. Do as you are comfortable with this morning.

But the way I want to do this is I'm going to pray for each one of these things at a time. And as soon as I pray for the first one,

I want you to individually pray to yourself that God would search your heart in that area and that God would do that work in you.

And then I'm going to ask that you group up, two people, six people,

I don't care, pray together out loud. And in that moment, if anyone feels led by the

Spirit to stand and pray out loud to the group, you are welcome to. Be respectful.

And let's keep this orderly. And pray along the lines of this particular thing that we're praying for.

We're being very specific today. And then as we do that, then

I'll pray for the next thing and we'll start that process over. So everyone understand?

I'm going to pray, pray individually, then pray as a group. And then we'll move on to the next thing. So let's go to the

Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you right now acknowledging that we are mere children.

But praise God, we are your children. And you are a good and loving

Father. And you started this work in us, God, and we pray that you would continue to see it to completion and mature us.

God, we are so tired of being foolish children. I am so tired of being a foolish child,

God. I want to grow up into mature manhood. God, but we know that you are the one that's going to have to do this work in us.

You've given us tools. Help us to be diligent to pursue it. But only you can ignite in our hearts a desire to truly be mature.

And see it through. So we pray for maturity personally.

But we also pray for the maturity of each other. That this group, this church as a whole,

Lord, as an entity would grow in maturity. That we would let go of childish things.

God, and we would pursue, we would pursue what you've called us to be in maturity.

Work in us, God. We need you to work in and through us. In Christ's name, let's pray individually for a moment.