Recently we've been talking about some things—not necessarily as a series, but it has kind of become somewhat of a series—some new ideas maybe for the new year. We started out by looking at how now that we're in a new year, we need to have a new heart toward God. We need to direct that heart in the direction of God, renewed by the Word of God.
"Created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." — Psalm 51:10
We also talked about how we progress in this area of renewing our heart, and we looked at Ephesians chapter five.
- Ephesians 5:17
We need to take every opportunity that we have to examine ourselves to make sure that we are living appropriately, that our heart is right with God, and that we are in service to Him. We need a new heart. And then we need to be redeeming the time, the opportunities that come our way.
Continue to Move Toward Spirtual Excellence
But then we also need to remind ourselves to continue moving down the path of spiritual excellence.
And this is going to lead us into our topic for this morning. Sometimes we give in to certain ideas like, "Well, I've been a Christian for this long, I have arrived", if you will. "I am now at a higher state than I've ever been in my Christian walk and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm doing okay." We give in to that idea. Maybe sometimes we could use where we are now as a milestone or a stepping stone to something else that is even greater in our life.
But what often happens is that we look at where we are and we turn it into a plateau and we just keep going at that level. We think that level is good enough. I have arrived. I don't need to grow anymore. I don't need to become more spiritually excellent than I already am.I want us to be encouraged this morning, and I want us to be encouraged by God's Word to never settle for where we are in our spiritual life. Don't ever get this idea in your head.
Don't allow this idea to stick around that, you know, "I'm doing okay, I'm doing good enough as a Christian. This is all that I need to do. This is all that I should be."
Are We Pressing On or Falling Back?
I would encourage you to turn in your New Testaments to Philippians chapter three. Paul is going to talk about this very idea. He explains it from his own perspective when he says, beginning in verse 11, that "I have not yet attained." He hasn't gotten as far as he wants to. Notice verse 11:
- Philippians 3:11–12
We're going to read some other verses here in just a moment, but following Paul's example, we need to be aware of the lie of arriving—like we were talking about in our introduction.
We Are Lifelong Disciples and Learners
We are to be disciples of Jesus. When you look at the word "disciple," it means to be a learner of, or a follower of, someone who is devoting their life to the service, the knowledge, the discipline of somebody else—somebody that is greater than they are. Well, that's what we're supposed to be to Jesus.
- 1 Corinthians 11:1
We need to have the same mindset in our families—dads, husbands—that Paul had in making this statement. We ought to be setting the proper example for our families, and assure them that they can follow our example of following after Jesus, because that's who we should be following. "Be followers of me, family, because I am following after Christ." Make it just as personal as you possibly can.
- Luke 17:10
You and I, as we made mention earlier, should not reach the point of satisfaction of where we are in our spiritual walk with God. Because even when we've done everything—even if we've attained the greatest amount of knowledge, the greatest accolades for service in God's kingdom—we've only done those things that we've been commanded to do. We're just servants in the end, and when it's all said and done.
Pressing Forward in Philippians
Paul's letter to the Philippians is filled with instruction to always press forward. Notice in the beginning, chapter one:
- Philippians 1:6
Their fellowship with God began with accepting the gospel, which is the beginning of their faith. The gospel is what brought them to Christ. The gospel is God helping our hearts to become right with Him. We could, if time allowed, go to Acts chapter 16 and look in detail at the establishment of the church in Philippi.
We could see that it has at least three notable founding members, if you will. You have Lydia, the woman that Paul and his company met out by the riverside. They studied with her and she was converted, and it says in her household—we don't know how many that was.
A few verses later, you read about a young girl that was possessed of a demon who was used by men to be a source of money for them in the things that she said. Paul commanded that evil spirit to be cast out of her, and it was even that very hour. Something interesting to think about (that we can't prove) is: What if Lydia found that young girl and took her under her wing? Maybe it was as she said, "Let me introduce you to the dyer trade," if you will. I remember that Lydia was a seller of purple.
She made a business for herself, and she did quite well, seems to be the indication. Well, that didn't sit well with the masters of this young girl. So they, of course, as we've talked about recently, threw Paul and Silas in prison.
At midnight they were singing and praying to their heavenly Father. The earthquake takes place and all the doors are open. The Philippian jailer comes in and he's about to do himself harm, and Paul says, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here."He asks the great question at that point: "What must I do to be saved?"
Paul in Acts 16:31 very correctly says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." But he didn't know how. And so he takes Paul and Silas at that very hour of the night and he washes their stripes and he listens to them teach the word of God to explain how it is that he can be believing in God. He and his household are baptized.They have at least three founding members in the church of Philippi. But it all started with the preaching and teaching of the word of God and hearts that were willing to accept it.
- Philippians 2:12
I want you to appreciate the fact with me this morning that Paul is not saying, "Come up with your own plan of salvation." Paul is not saying that you have the ability within yourself as a human being to cause your sins to be removed. That's not what Paul says when he says "work out your own salvation."
That means put in the work for yourself. You read and you study and you hear instruction from the word of God, you have to then internalize that and apply it to your own life, and you have to accept God on His terms through obedience to His will.
Certain things are going to be different for you than they are for me. We all need the saving blood of Jesus Christ to have our sins forgiven—that's true. But you and I don't all have the same walk in life. You and I don't have to deal with the same things in life. Maybe our circumstances or our events in our life aren't identical. So we individually have to apply the teaching of God's word to our lives so that we can straighten our course to make it match what we find in the New Testament.
- Philippians 2:13
How is it that God is working within us to accomplish what He wants us to accomplish in His will? Verse 14 says we should do all things without murmuring and disputing. If we have a disgruntled attitude—whether it be toward God and His plan for our salvation or toward mankind in the way that we've been treated, "poor, pitiful me"—and we have an attitude that says, "I'm not really feeling this," no, we're not going to fare well in God's kingdom.But he says do all things without murmuring and disputing.
- Philippians 2:15
If we live a life that is according to the will of God, our sins are forgiven. The stain of our sin is wiped away. The guilt of our sin is no longer held against us. We have to be able to forgive ourselves for the things that we've done, in which case we are in the sight of God blameless. We're blameless. We're not sinlessly perfect, but we are blameless—why? Because of the blood of Jesus. And since we're blameless, then we shine as lights in a perverted world.It goes right back to what Jesus said:
- Matthew 5:14–16
God is going to keep up His end. He's going to fulfill all of His promises that He has made to us wherever we look in the Bible. God records for us that if we do this, He's going to give us blessings. And if we don't do this, we're going to receive the cursings of the disobedience that we've brought upon ourselves. God is going to fulfill those things if we're pressing on.
Continue to Press Onward
- Philippians 3:15
Is Paul saying, "Let us that are sinless be of a certain mind and attitude"? No. The word "perfect" there, as we've looked at many times, is not the idea of being sinless, but one who is mature or complete—which means we should grow to maturity. We should be one who is complete in Jesus, in Christ, because of our study and knowledge of the word of God.The case that Paul is making for them is to continue to press onward, to grow in their faith, encouraging them to have the same mind or attitude that he has in this matter. Going back to verse 12, where Paul says, "I have not attained what it is that I'm striving for yet"—which was what? According to verse 11, it was the resurrection. He's ready for that better resurrection that's waiting for him.But Paul warns against prideful boasting.
- 1 Corinthians 10:12
The Proverbs writer would put it this way:
- Proverbs 16:18
You see what happens sometimes is we get on that spiritual high, we stand on the top of that spiritual mountain. We think this is all that there is, and we think we've arrived and we think we've done all of these things—and we're in a troubling spot at that point if we think that we have accomplished anything, certainly on our own, believing that we have arrived. It's a perfect way for us to fall short in the end if we're not careful.
Take Heed Lest We Drift
We also need to notice that we should be looking out for ourselves, taking heed lest we drift.
- Hebrews 2:1
Those that were written to in the book of Hebrews by this particular inspired writer needed to pay attention to the message of the New Testament. They needed to pay attention to the message that had been taught to them, not only by the apostles, but those that the apostles taught. Remember we just recently talked about from the book of Hebrews that it was written to second-generation Christians—individuals that were 30-plus years removed from the beginning of the church in Acts chapter 2. They needed to be encouraged to not let the word of Christ drift and not let their faith drift away from its foundation.
Consider for a moment the idea of a boat that begins to drift away from its moorings. Maybe you've seen this happen before. You go down to the lake and you're gonna go canoeing and there's a boat that's right there, and you're just watching it kind of drift away from the dock. There's nobody in it. There's nobody controlling it. There's nobody keeping it there next to the dock. Somebody didn't tie it up maybe the way that they were supposed to. They didn't secure it the way that they were supposed to. And next thing you know, it's drifting out into the water all by itself.
Well, that could be us—that could be our souls—if we're not watching out, if we're not taking heed.
Common Ways We Drift
How is it then that we can allow our faith to slip? What are some things that if we're not careful could cause us to slip away from our spiritual foundation? I have a few listed and I'm sure that you could come up with some more given the time. Maybe if we convince ourselves that it's okay not to attend all the worship services. When we convince ourselves that, "Well, I've got a busy day, I've got things planned. I don't have to be there on this particular Sunday to go worship with the saints."
- Hebrews 10:25
There's a great outline that is prepared for us right there in Hebrews chapter 10 leading up to this idea of not forsaking the assembly. The writer says in the previous verses: "Let us draw near" (verse 22), "let us hold fast (verse 23) to our confession", "let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works" (verse 24). How are we going to do those things if we're not here? We can't.
But I've seen people convince themselves that they could do other things on the first day of the week and not worship God, and that's okay. I think if we're going to do that, then we need to pay attention to make sure that we're not drifting away—that we're not allowing the word of God to drift out of our hearts.
Maybe it's not our attendance.
Maybe we convince ourselves that the Bible is too hard to understand and so there's really no sense in studying the Bible on our own anyway. "Well, that preacher, he's been and he's received training and he's been taught the Bible and so on, and he brings a good message. But you know, that's not anything that I can do on my own. I can't read and understand and study the Bible like that." Yes, you can. N
otice there's a phrase that appears at least 17 times in the King James Bible, and it is the phrase "that you may know." God has provided for us His will, God has provided for us His mind, His thoughts on how we should live our lives. Do you think God—who has all knowledge and all power, is everywhere, and has our greatest desires at the forefront of His mind—does He or does He not have the ability to provide words that we can understand? He certainly does.
- John 10:38
This comes at a time when Jesus is making His own case for Himself being the Son of God, and He speaks on His own behalf and they call Him out saying, "Well, you can't testify of yourself." Jesus says, "Even if I do, make my own case and you're not gonna listen to what I say—watch what I do, and then see and believe that it was the Father that sent me and that He and I are one."
We can convince ourselves that the Bible is too hard for us to understand. But over and over and over again, we're called to know it. We're drawn by it. Jesus says we're drawn to Him by the word of God.
- John 6:44–45
- Matthew 11:28–30
Maybe we convince ourselves that we don't matter in the local congregation. "I've heard some people say, 'Well, nobody even knows that I attend here. Nobody even knows my name.'" That's less likely to happen in a congregation of a hundred, but I've heard of it happening in congregations of 200, 300, 400, 500 people.Or maybe they say concerning themselves, "Well, I just feel like I'm a one-talent Christian. I don't really have much to offer. There's not much that I can do in the service of God."
Or maybe, "I just don't think that I'm good enough as a New Testament Christian." I would encourage you to look concerning the parables of Jesus to find some comfort. In fact, there's one that I have in mind, and here's one thing that we should all remember: It doesn't matter at what stage in our life we become a child of God. The reward for us is going to be the same as those that have been in the kingdom longer or those that are in the kingdom just a few days before Jesus returns. It doesn't matter. Our reward is going to be the same.
- Matthew 20 (Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard).
(He hires throughout the day, even at the eleventh hour, and all receive the same wage—a penny. Those who worked all day complain, but the householder says he has not defrauded them. Our reward in heaven is going to be the same whether we're a newborn babe in Christ or one who's been in the church 50, 60, 70 years.)
Fight Drift Through Activity and Diligence
But we can't give up. We can't afford to stop doing what we know we need to do because we don't feel like we're good enough or we don't feel like we have a place in the local congregation.How do we fight against drifting? We have to be active.
- Ecclesiastes 9:10
- Hebrews 6:10–12
If we're going to be pressing on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ—which Paul says in Philippians 3:14—we have to be disciplined. We have to understand that we are no better than anyone else in the local congregation, and nobody else in God's eyes is better as a New Testament Christian than we are. Because we've all been hired on for one wage: our sins to be forgiven, and heaven is our eternal reward.
So the question comes to you as it does to me on this opportunity that we have to worship God: Are we pressing on or are we falling behind? If we think that we can remain in neutral throughout our Christian life, then we are falling behind, we're losing ground. We cannot remain neutral.
We cannot be coasting our way into heaven. As someone who's been in the church for years and doesn't feel like they have any value or anything to offer the local congregation—because we do—we can't afford to just sit on the sidelines and just rest on the fact that the previous good works that we did in the kingdom when we were younger and had more energy and did more for the Lord are just going to usher us into those pearly gates.
We have to be like Paul said: pressing on for the high calling of Jesus Christ.
Are you a member of the body of Christ, but your service to the kingdom is slipping away? Are you one who insists that they don't provide much value to the local congregation, that there's nothing you can do in the kingdom? I know three individuals that would just say, "Come see me. I have something that you can do." There's work for everyone to do in the kingdom. And each one of us individually provides value.
Or maybe you're one who's outside the body of Christ. Maybe you're one who's not yet seen the value of being in the kingdom. We would love to study with you about that particular idea because there is value in being in the kingdom that Jesus said He was going to establish.
We would encourage you, if you've heard the word, believe in Jesus, are willing to repent of your sins and confess your faith in Jesus as Lord, and if you're willing to submit to a watery grave of baptism and that you would come in humble obedience to the Master's will. We would be honored if you'd contact us so we can study with you.
