Because our time was cut short on Sunday, I’d like to give
you the remainder of the message in a couple of chunks on the blog today and
tomorrow. That will allow us to
continue on with the next passage this Sunday.
If you missed the message on Sunday, you can find it
here.
There are three ways that keeping my eyes on the prize helps
me in the race.
Keeping my eyes on
Christ keeps me constantly aware that He is what truly matters. I don’t know about you, but I’m easily
distracted. But when I’m enjoying
fellowship with Him in the Word, prayer, and Christian fellowship, it is kept
always in front of me that He is what matters and I find earthly distractions
less and less appealing. The Word
testifies to this in many different ways and many different places. And if my prayers are being informed by
that Word, the content of my prayers affirms to myself and the Lord that He is
ultimate. And if my fellowship
with other believers is intentionally Christ-centered, then I’m constantly
hearing other people testify to His surpassing value. So in those ways I’m kept constantly aware that He is what
truly matters. Second:
Keeping my eyes on
Christ keeps me constantly aware that the race is not over. When my eyes are on the Lord, my
mind is on the Lord, my speech is on the Lord, its patently obvious all the
time that I don’t have Him in all His fullness. I’m straining forward to that time. Clearly, the race isn’t over and I’m
compelled to continue pressing on.
I’m moved to continue serving Him and His gospel.
Keeping my eyes on
Christ keeps me constantly moving in the direction of godliness. When my eyes are on the Lord, I’m
always aware of His great holiness and my desire to be like Him grows and
grows. And I’m prompted to
recognize sin in my life, parts of my character and conduct that are not like
Him, and I’m prompted and empowered to kill that sin and grow in
godliness. Keeping my eyes on the
Lord keeps me moving in the direction of Christlikeness.
And our final
point:
The Mature
Believer Thinks This Way
V15: Let those of us
who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will
reveal that also to you.
Think what way?
He means adopt the kind of mindset that he’s just described in
himself. Think of the Christian
life as a race that is still being run.
Think that there is still much left to do. Think that what is left outstanding of the kingdom is worth
straining forward to attain. Think
that the fullness of Christ is so desirable that there is no sense in resting
on our laurels. Think that being
like Christ is so wonderful that making every effort to kill sin and grow in
Christlikeness is worth it.
Let those of us who are mature think this way. So then does it follow that those who
are immature shouldn’t think this
way? If you are new to the faith
or you know yourself to be particularly immature, do you have a green light to
consider that you have arrived spiritually? Certainly not.
He’s simply saying, “what I’ve just described, this way of thinking,
this is how mature believers think.
And it’s how you should strive to think.”
So if you look at your own mind and heart and you don’t see
this attitude of Paul’s, this holy dissatisfaction with where you are
spiritually, this holy discontentment with your current fellowship with Christ,
this holy hunger to run the race well, that is a mark of spiritual
immaturity. If you find yourself
to be quite content with your spiritual progress, if you are satisfied with how
much you’re currently like Jesus, if you’re fine marking time rather than
pressing forward for kingdom work, if you don’t really have a preference about
how soon you see the Lord, that’s a sign that you’ve got some maturing to
do.
In other words, if you’re thinking and living as if you’ve
arrived, that means you haven’t.
The spiritually mature realize that they have a lot more maturing to
do. The spiritually mature realize
they haven’t arrived. There’s much
left to do.
So if we see that marker of immaturity in ourselves should
we be depressed about that?
No. We should do just what
Paul models for us here: we should forget what lies behind and press on to what
lies ahead. The great news is that
Christ matures people. The Holy
Spirit makes people like Jesus.
Then he writes, …and
if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. So this idea that I’ve arrived, feeling
no sense of urgency to press on, you see how God has shown you that that isn’t
a sign of maturity but of immaturity, and that you should reverse course in
your thinking? Well, there may be
other things like that about which you are thinking wrongly, too. But good news. The Lord will reveal that to you, too.
(To be continued tomorrow…)
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