Reaching and Developing People for Jesus
The Most Important Thing
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The Most Important Thing
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What’s the most important thing in your life? What is that one thing that you prioritize over everything else in the world? Today, we’re going to take a look at what this one thing was for Paul, the Apostle. Philippians 4:1 Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends! Paul is telling us here that he has just explained what we need to do to stand firm in the Lord. What was it that we need to do to stand firm? Let’s take a look at the verses before this. Philippians 3:17-21 17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Paul tells us here to follow his role model and that of other Christians. Role models are extremely important to us. We might not even recognize how much so. We think and behave the way we do because of the roles models we have adopted. For example, a study by Hestick, Perrino, Rhodes and Sydnor called “Trial and Lifetime Smoking risks among African American College Students” from the Journal of American College Health, vol. 49, pp-213-219 states that a subject was more apt to try smoking if a role model (parent, friend, neighbor) was a smoker. It found that the risk of becoming a lifetime smoker was reduced when neither friends not parents smoked and if the student viewed spirituality as important. A Study by Rucibwa in 2001 called “Family and Peer Influences on Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors in Black and Hispanic Adolescent Males” found that Black adolescent males were more likely to become a teen parent if their father was a teen dad and Hispanics were more likely to be influenced by having a sibling who had been a teen parent. A final study was done by Grant, O'Koon, Davis, Roache, Poindexter, Armstrong, Minden, and McIntosh in 2000 called "Protective Factors Affecting Low-Income Urban African American Youth Exposed to Stress." in the Journal of Early Adolescence vol. 20, pp. 388-417 found that positive relationships with father figures buffered the effects of stress on externalizing symptoms for boys and for girls. What these studies show us is that a positive or negative role model can have a life long effect on our lives. A friend who is a negative role model can result in our becoming a lifelong smoker. A brother who is a negative role model can result in our becoming parents before we turn twenty. A father who is a positive role model can result in our becoming healthier and less stressed individuals. These studies were done on young minorities but I think the studies really can be expanded to people in general. When we have a positive role model, we will lead a healthier, more productive life. When we have a negative role model, we will lead a stressful, difficult life. Paul is telling us to find a positive Christian role model. Or he tells us we can use him. Either way, by using these positive role models, he is telling us that this is the way that we can stand firm in the Lord. He tells us that when we don’t do this, we are apt to fall prey to Satan, living life for earthly rewards, taking care of our bellies – or in other words, the desires of our flesh. But Paul tells us that this will result in shame. We followed the wrong people, we followed the world, we followed our flesh and we ended up in shame. Are any of you living a life of shame? Do you do those things that have a lifelong effect? Are you making a difference in someone else’s life? Are you making a difference in the Kingdom of God? If you cannot answer these questions in a positive way, then you need to recognize who your role models are. Maybe you need to change. Maybe it’s time to stop following those who seem cool. Usually those people are the ones who are hiding a terrible hurt. However, if you are following the proper role models, walking as Jesus walked, then you have a wonderful future prepared for you. Remember, to walk as Jesus walked, you must accept him as your Lord and Savior. Once you do that, your citizenship is in heaven. Wow – think about that. You are citizens of heaven. It’s not that one day you might get to heaven. You already have your passport and tickets. You are already a citizen. Heaven is awaiting your arrival. Jesus is going to come and get you. Jesus, the Lord himself, is going to come to meet you to take you there. When I was in London, I knew I was coming back to the United States. That’s where home is. It’s where I belong. There was no doubt that when I got on the plane to return, that my country would allow me entrance. I didn’t have to stand on some long line to get through customs. All I had to do was show my passport and they let me right through. When the time comes for me to return to heaven, it will be the same – I will walk right through, no concerns over whether I belong there or not. But even better than that, Jesus will be the one meeting me there. He is the one who is going to take me the rest of the way. He will transform this body into something new, something better. A body like his own – a resurrected body. Philippians 3:15-16 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Paul tells us that all of us should view things like this. All of us who are mature in Christ. Again, that means we have already accepted that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. Paul tells us that all of us should use him or other Christians as our role model. He recognizes that some of us are not as mature as we should be in our walk with Jesus, so he explains that we should still try to live up to what we can right now. Does that mean that we should say that it’s ok to not try to obey God in all things because we’re less mature than we should be? Of course not! We are all in different areas of our walk with Jesus, but we are still expected to obey. God may not ask us to do something that he would ask someone else to do because we might not be ready. But whatever He does ask us to do, we should be ready to do it. A father won’t ask his 2 year old son to cut the grass, but he might ask him not to take his sister’s toy. If God is telling you to do something, you need to do it. That’s following Paul’s role model of being obedient. That’s following Jesus role model of being obedient. Jesus said that we would have to take up our cross and follow him. Jesus took up his cross and died for you. Are you holding up your end of the bargain? Philippians 3:7-14 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. So why do we do these things? Why are we obedient? We do it because it brings us closer to Jesus. We are made to need God. That desire that you have, the one that says, “there must be more to life than this…”, that is the deep-seated need that lives in us that desires to really know God, to be in a personal relationship with Him. When we do those things that God is calling us to do, when we are obedient to Him, it removes from ourselves that selfish desire to take care of ourselves, that desire to place ourselves first. When we are obedient to God, we put God first. That’s the way to a successful marriage. It’s the way to a great friendship. It’s the way to a personal relationship with God. When we put the other person ahead of ourselves, it allows us to move into a deep relationship with that person. Paul tells us to use him as a role model. His model is to recognize that everything we have done for ourselves, past and present, are rubbish. We consider that loss. In fact, everything is loss compared to knowing Jesus. For Him, we lose all things. For Him, we leave our selfish desires in the dust and we move forward in Him. Sounds simple enough, but it isn’t. Even Paul says that he has not obtained all these things, but that he is striving to the goal, pressing on to take hold of it. He forgets what is behind and strains for what is ahead. God knows we are not perfect. God knows that we have a ways to go. In fact, we will not be perfected until that day comes that we are with Him in our resurrected bodies like Jesus’. But we are told to strive to the goal. Whether we get it right or not is besides the point. God does not see our attempts at striving as successful, perfect or well done. He see them as a father sees the work of his four-year-old child. Is it a masterpiece? Not even close. But yet the father treats it with more care and love than he would if he had an original Da Vinci painting. It is more precious to him than anything, regardless of the quality. Because it is not about how well it was done, it is about the fact that it was done at all. Are you striving to the goal? Are you pressing forward? Or are you looking back? God wants us to strive to the goal. He wants us to forget the past, consider it rubbish. God has called you heavenward in Christ Jesus. He wants you to strive to that. Read your Bible. Meditate on God. Pray to Him and listen. Watch what He is doing around you. Then move with Him, doing what He is calling you to do. This act of obedience is the step of moving closer to Him, of knowing Christ. When you do this, you fill that need in yourself. What is God calling you to do? It might be a big step, it might be something smaller. It might be very hard for you to do. It might make you uncomfortable or irritable. It might cost you dearly. Whatever it is, do it. When it is done, you will find yourself in a much better place – closer to Christ.
Sanctification is the process of becoming more like Jesus…
Scriptures on doing what God has planned for you to do
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