The Village Church
State of the Christian Life Address - Audio
I'm doing well this morning. I can't hear you. I'm going to open up some prayer before I can go to God's Word. Father God, we thank you Lord and praise you for Jesus. We thank you, Father, for His finished work, His life, His death, His resurrection. We thank you that even now He continues to intercede on our behalf. That our Savior, our God, is not in the grave. He rose again, and He is sitting in your right hand even now. And Father, we pray that Your Spirit will come, Your Spirit will come and take Your Word, take Your perfect Holy Word, and apply it to my heart, that He will come, Father, He will do it, and that we will leave here, encouraged, we will leave here built up, we will leave here, Lord, believe in the gospel more, trusting You more, loving You more, Father, because of Your Spirit working in us and crushing my prayer. Amen. On Tuesday night, the President gave the annual State of the Union address. You know, he presented reports on the condition of our nation, and he outlined his plans for our country going forward. You know, his plan included things like more jobs and better education, you know, reducing our debt. You know, he was challenging all the people in our country to work together to better our country. He called the whole nation, along with our leaders to continue to press on, to continue to press forward in our efforts to better America for future generations. And now this, this idea of pressing on, you know, I was thinking about that all week, pressing on, pressing on as a, as a people to make our nation better. And I was thinking, what, what does that mean for us as Christians, to press on in the Christian life? Maybe we need to hear something like that. Man, we need to be encouraged to press on. We need to hear that on a regular basis. So I came up with this idea of, you know, maybe we need to have a State of the Union address as Christians. You know, we can call it the State of the Christian life address, what we are to expect the Christian life to be, and what we shouldn't expect it to be. You know, I think many believers, we sometimes have unrealistic, unrealistic expectations about the Christian life. We have realistic expectations, or we have very low expectations. I don't know where you are this morning in terms of your expectations about the Christian life, what it should be like, what it shouldn't be like. What are yours? You see, some of us have no joy and no peace because of our expectations, or what we think the Christian life is supposed to be like. Because it's not that, then we have no joy, we have no peace. So this morning, we're going to deal with expectations. We're going to take a look at a State of the Christian life address, given by the Apostle Paul to the church at Philippi. He painted a real list of expectations for the Christian life, or what it's supposed to be like. So if you have your Bibles, open them to Philippians chapter 3, beginning with verse 12. Philippians chapter 3, beginning with verse 12. Here's God's holy word. Not that I have already attained this, I am already made perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ has made me his own. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have obtained. What should we expect the Christian life to be like? That's the question we want to answer this morning. That's the question that Paul answers for us here in this passage. You see, the first expectation of the Christian life is that it's a life lived in tension. It's a life lived in tension. Well, what do you mean by the Alex on TV? Tension. He says in verse 12, not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but one thing, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ has made me his own. These words, about Paul, they may seem strange, but they're necessary. He admits by this verse that there is tension in the Christian life. One Christian says this verse marks the opening of a section where Paul states the tension between his present attainment and his aspiration for the future. His present attainment and his aspirations for the future. The tension in the Christian life is between true realities. The present reality in which we live, and the future reality that has not yet come fully. The present life in which you live, and the future reality that has not fully come yet, that's the tension. Here in Philippians 3, Paul shows us what this tension looks like in his life. You see, in verses 7 through 11, Paul tells us that he counted everything a loss, for the surpassing worth of the North Christ. He said he counted those things rubbish, trash. For the sake of Christ, I count all things lost. In order that I may gain Christ, be found in Christ. Not having the righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes from faith in Christ Jesus. The righteousness for God that depends upon faith, that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, that may share in his sufferings, be coming like him and his death. And that by any means possible, I may obtain the resurrection from the dead. These verses speak of a future reality that Paul is partially experiencing in this life. Not fully experiencing all this. Freedom from having confidence in the fresh. Freedom from having confidence in the fresh. I can't say the word this morning. Freedom from having confidence in the flesh. He experiences that. Counting all things a loss that interferes with the relationship with Christ. Wanting to know more of Christ, know more of his suffering, the power of his resurrection, living in the righteousness of Christ. These are the things that Paul says he's looking he's trying to do. But to prevent us and the Philippians from having a false impression about him, to prevent us from thinking he has reached and attained spiritual completeness and perfection and to prevent us from having false expectations about the Christian life. He balances what he says in verses 7-3-11 with what is found in verses 12-16. What does he say? Not that I have already obtained all of this. All the things he just said, or have already been made perfect. I have not. Can you see what he's doing here? He's saying, I'm trying to do this, but I have not arrived yet. So don't place me up here. I'm not a super apostle. I still have issues too. The phrase that I have not already attained this points to a past event in Paul's life. His conversion. His conversion. That's what he's saying. That when I was converted, I didn't obtain all of this at my conversion. When Jesus saved me, I didn't attain all of this. That my justification by faith did not produce me perfection. It did not. He goes further than saying that he would never be brought to perfection in this life. I was not made perfect and I'm not going to be made perfect in this life. That's what he's telling us. I'm not going to arrive. I'm not going to ever get to a place in my Christian life where I can say, yep. Today is the day that I no longer struggle. No. I have not obtained this. I have not already been made perfect. Paul here acknowledges his own incompleteness and his journey through the Christian life. And at the same time, he also acknowledges that he still tastes. He has a taste for the future reality that has still become. Both of those go on for both all of us. Every day of our life. Incompleteness. But yet you still have a taste of what's to come. You're not going to get the full mail yet. That's still to come in glory. And this is what people call the already not yet of the Christian life. And that creates attention because we want more. If we're Christian, you sure want more of Jesus. And so there's attention because you realize I still have struggles and creates attention. Now what does this mean for each of us this morning? It means when you become a Christian and make progress in your Christian life, you would never be brought to a place of completeness. In the sense that you always will do everything right. In the sense that you always don't love Jesus all the time. That you always going to know that you're going to always live in grace all the time. Because sometimes you don't. That's the reality of it. You're never going to, you have to learn to embrace in itself. It ain't completeness that you feel. Because if you don't, you're never going to have joy. You're never going to have peace. If you don't learn to embrace the fact that you're going to feel incomplete. You're going to feel like I still got a long way to go and you do. And Jesus knows that. You see, what's incompleteness in a Christian life is normal. The abnormal thing is you were expecting to wake up and it'd be different. That's abnormal. It ain't going to be different. It will never be different. The expectation that you will reach a level of completion where you no longer struggle is alive. You know, are you going to grow a Christian life? Yes. God's going to change you, yes. But He's never going to bring you to a place where you can say I no longer need Jesus. But sometimes that's how we live. I don't want to struggle. We're always going to need Him. Your Christian life will be living in His tension. And it's a taste and nothing more. But Pastor Alex, you just don't understand. You don't understand what it's like. If I no longer had that struggle, then I'll be a better Christian. If I no longer had this struggle, then I can serve more. If I no longer had this struggle, I can do a lot more things with Jesus. If I no longer had these issues in my life, Caesar Pastor Alex, I'm different. I'm different, Pastor. If Jesus takes that away, then he can use me. If I no longer had that. But here's the thing. If that's what you're thinking, he ain't ever going to use you. Because here's the thing. Whenever he frees you from junk, you know what's coming up the road? More junk that he hasn't freed you from yet. He frees you from your junk and he reveals the junk you still have. You never going to get to the place where you have no junk. If you're waiting to be junk free in order for Jesus to use you, then he ain't ever going to use you. He uses you with the junk. He uses you with the junk in your life. You have to accept that. He has. He has. That's why he went to cavalry. Because if you get junk, you're never going to be without him. Last week, I spoke to some middle school boys about character development. You know, I was excited, nervous. You know, I wanted to go in there. I was going to offer these guys some good advice, some good counsel about making wise decisions and learning to take personal responsibility at a young age. I was going to shift stories about my life and how I messed up and it was going to be good. It wasn't good. I mean, it was bad. To be honest with you, they wouldn't listen to me. You know, making fun of me. You know, it wasn't what I expected it to be. They were not set still and listened. I was there trying to help them, but they were too busy having their own conversations on the side, too busy doing other things to pay attention. You know, I left that school that day frustrated, frustrated. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how I'm just like those middle school boys when it comes to me listening to the gospel and paying attention to the gospel. I'm too busy doing my own thing to sit still and to listen to what the gospel is telling me about the Christian life. And you are too busy doing your own thing to listen to what the gospel is telling us. Too busy trying to do penance for your sin instead of repentance. Too busy living by what you see and not living by faith. Too busy trying to establish your own righteousness instead of living in the righteousness of Christ. And when you do that, you don't hear the gospel. You're not listening to the gospel. You're having your own conversations on the side. Your penance living by sight and trying to establish your own sense of righteousness. Paul says in Romans 10, "Brothers my heart," he's talking about his Jewish brothers here, "brothers my heart is our prayer for them that they may be saved." He's talking about the Jews here. For I bear witness that they have a zeal for God. See, he says they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, seeking to establish their own, they do not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness for everyone who believes. Do you submit to the righteousness that Christ has given you, or do you still try to establish your own? You can have a zeal for God and still not do that. Are you unwilling to submit to his? Do you all unwilling to submit to Christ's righteousness is one of the reasons you have no joy? And not willing to submit that is sin. Not willing to submit that is sin. If your Christian life consists of doing penance for your sin, if it consists of you living by what you see, if it consists of you trying to establish your own righteousness, then you know what you are, you are a narcissist, a Christian narcissist. So self-consume, so preoccupied with yourself that you can't even see the gospel. Because it's all about you and you're not healthy. You're not healthy. So the first thing you need to do is not do more stuff. First thing we need to do is just repent of the fact that I'm refusing to embrace the righteousness that he has given me. And that's a good thing, his righteousness, not my own. So we need to repent and that's the spirit to move our focus away from ourself to Jesus. That's what we need to do. We need to move our focus off ourself, off what we do, off our good works, off our accomplishments and our failures, successes, and place them on someone else. This is what Paul did. That's the second thing we should expect the Christian life to be. It's to be focused on the right person. Verse 12, "Now that I have already attained this, or have I already made perfect, but I pressed on to make it my own." Why? Because Christ has made me his own. We're going to go back to what Paul means by I pressed on. But I want to focus on the reason why he pressed his own. The reason why he pressed his own is because of what Christ has done. His focus is on Jesus. Now not on what he does for Jesus. Your focus does make a difference. So Paul lived his life in tension, but he also lived his life focusing on the right person and on that person's works. The way this has made Paul his own. That's passive statement because Paul didn't have anything to do with that process. Paul didn't have anything to do with Christ making him his own. Think about it. What was Paul going to do as he traveled on the road to Damascus? He was going to kill Christians. He wasn't going looking for Jesus. Well, I'm going to go to the tip of the Bible because Jesus is there. No, I'm going to press and keep the church. That's what he was going. He was an enemy of the cross. And what happened on the road? Jesus showed up. Who are you Lord? Jesus. And that day Jesus made Paul his own. That day Jesus took hold of Paul, redeemed Paul, saved Paul. And as a result of that, everything that Paul does in his life is a response to what Jesus has already done. It's Christ finished work. It's perfect life. It's death. It's resurrection. His righteousness that he really gives to anyone who comes to him and saves his faith. It's his work. Not ours. Philosopher and theologian Francis Schaeffer said, "The church needs to function consciously on the basis of the finished work of Christ. Not on the proud basis of any inherent value in itself are any supposed or assumed inherent superiority." I'm going to read that again. "The church needs to function consciously on the basis for the finished work of Christ. Not on the proud basis of any inherent value in itself are any supposed or assumed inherent superiority." And we as individual Christians, we need to live our life the same way on the basis of the finished work of Christ. Not on the basis of any inherent value in ourselves or in what we do. Or not on the proud basis of any inherent superiority in our culture, in our race, in our agenda, in our denominational preference, in our politics, or in our worship, or whatever it is. His work. That's our focus. The finished work of Christ. The moment of your conversion until you breathe your last breath, it's his work, his finished work. This is all your hope and all your peace. What? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That's all your righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. How are you going to overcome? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. How are you going to reach your home in heaven? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That's it. To the day you die. So where is your focus? Where is your focus? And the places where you really live. The places where you really, really struggling life, where is your focus? Is it on his finished work for you? Or is it you trying to attain your own righteousness, focusing on what you do? Where is your focus? Everything that we do flows out of what he has done for us. That's it. That's it. If you boast about having the right theology, you know why you had the right theology? Click off to Jesus. Not because you went to seminary or read good books. If you serve the poor and emotional, it's not because of you. It's not because of Jesus, not because of you. If you think you are a cool person because you come to the village church, you're not. You're not. You're not. Jesus makes you cool. That's it. He makes you cool. Not what you do. Not what we try to achieve. It's Jesus. So if anything you think makes you cool and righteous, you need to count in as a loss. Because there's an enemy of the cross. There's an enemy of the gospel. Every time we do that, it's his finish work. More than this week, I picked Madison up from school. Her teacher told me that her and some of her classmates, you know, they were misbehaving and wasn't following directions. Now, the teacher told me this. She told Madison that Madison, I'm surprised at your behavior, knowing who your dad was. Because, you know, because I'm a pastor, you know, my kids have to behave a certain way. Now, when she said that, my focus was beginning to shift. The fact that, oh, I'm a failure. It's a pastor and parent now. Because my kid had a bad day at school. So I'm a failure. I'm not good enough. I'm a harbor pastor. You see, it don't take much to shift your focus when Jesus. It don't take much. But do you recognize it when it happens? Do you recognize it when the focus is beginning to move away to you? And when you see it, what do you do? Repent of it and move on? Our brother and friend, Stephen Birchfield, who was with the Lord now, he wrote many prayers to the Lord. And I had an honor reading some of those prayers. And one of my favorite ones was this. He says, through the years, man, we always be together. Jesus knows me this I love. Now, I know that the song says, Jesus loves me this I know. But what Stephen wrote here is so wonderful. Because we sometimes give little thought to the fact that Jesus knows us as well. Jesus knows me this I love. It's another way of saying Jesus has taken hold of me and has made me his honor. This I love. You see, Jesus knows you. All your issues. All your junk. All your drama. All your complaining. All your unbelief. All your discontentment. All your self-centeredness. He knows all that stuff about you. He knows the tension that we live in. He knows you're going to fall short. He knows when you leave here today you're going to probably sin on something that he still accepts you and love you. And how can you not love that? That he knows me and my junk. And he still accepts me. This I love as a believer. We should love it and rejoice in it. And rest in it. You see, Jesus's focus is on his bride. That's you. And your focus needs to be on him. That means you are covered and well taken care of despite your circumstances. Despite what you feel. This means you don't have to labor for his affection and his attention. You already have it. He can't give you any more of it. Jesus doesn't love you because of what you do. He loves you for you. He loves you when you fail. He loves you when you struggle spending time in a word. He loves you when you go a week without praying. He still loves you. He knows you're going to struggle. And through his spirit, he lives in every believer. And hey, let's just be honest about it. Christians, we all kill people. Do you realize that? Out of all the followers of other religions, Christians are killed people. Because you rather do anything for his affection. You are killed people taking care of pampered by God. Because you know how to earn his favor. He has really given it to you. Why? Because of Jesus finished with, on the cross for you. That's our focus. And so, when Paul focused on that, on Jesus finished work, it produced him a passion to press on. It produced him a fire to press on. Brothers, I don't consider myself to have made it my own. But one thing I'd be forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead, I pressed on toward the goal for the prize that the up will call in Christ Jesus. He pressed on because of Jesus when his work. He pressed on to know Jesus and his suffering and his resurrection power. He pressed on and not placing his confidence in the flesh. Not trying to establish his own righteousness. He pressed on and trying to live in the righteousness of Christ. But again, he reminds us that even though he pressed on in these things, He never arrived at completion. Do you think Paul has sin in his life? Do you? Because sometimes we want to think somehow our Christian hero had no sin. So we focus so much on what they do. Yes, Paul in his life said we're on the chief of our sin. Do you think Paul ever struggled with self-righteousness? Do you? I mean, come on, do you think he struggled with that? I mean, just because he said he kind of all things are lost. Do you think he still struggled with having confidence in his flesh? Yes, he's no different than you and I. He's a man. He's a man that was used by God, who still has sin in his life. And do you think Paul, every moment of his life, always live in the righteousness of Christ? Always, always believe the gospel, every devil's life? No, he struggled just like us. He says, he says, he himself says, no. I have not made it my own. I do not consider that I have made it my own. I have not arrived, brothers. But the one thing I do, I forget what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize for the over call of God in Christ Jesus. He didn't live his Christian life in the rear of your mirror. Past failures, past successes, past disappointments, he left them behind, constantly moving forward. Those things were not going to be a distraction to him. He's like a runner focusing on what lies ahead, not the things on the side of or behind him. And that's how we have to live as well. Do you forget things? Are you able to leave things behind? Are you constantly looking in the rear of your mirror? Constantly looking back. How easy is it for you to do that? To forget what lies behind. We have to continue to strain forward for what lies ahead. Our goal, the prize. What is this over call of Christ Jesus? It's glory. This is Paul long and more for heaven. This is Paul long and more for Jesus to return. This is Paul long and more to see Jesus face to face. You see, our journey through the Christian life is taking us somewhere. Know that right. We're going somewhere. Our hope isn't to be reincarnated into a cow. Our hope when we're moving toward is glory. That's the finish line. He who began a good work in you, we're bringing on to completion in their Christ Jesus. And in the end, you're going to reach your final destination. You're going to get there. Paul says that those of us who are mature think this way. For Paul progressing the faith or spiritual maturity is this. You're growing an understanding of how far you still have to go. That's maturity. You've been able to see that. You've been able to see that. You're never going to be able to play here. You can say, "Man, I have arrived as a Christian. I'm a super Christian. If you sinned, you're never going to be that." Matured in the Christian life is saying more of your sin. Not less of your sin. It's you sinned how much you need Jesus. Not how little you need him. Growing in feet says progress in the faith means to hold steady to our future orientation. That we are people headed for final glory, for Christ Himself. Progress in the faith means to hold steady, steady our future orientation. That we are people headed to final glory, for Christ Himself. Do you hold that? Do you hold heaven here, steady? Is that your focus? Christ's work and also focusing on where I'm headed to glory. That's where I'm going. Jesus is going to take you down. His hold on you is firm grip. A firm grip. You're standing before the Father. It's fully established in Jesus. He does not let you go, despite what your circumstances say. Despite what the world says, despite how you feel, he has you. Mark used to coach, when he was younger, used to coach a little league baseball team. He said his pitchers, whenever they were getting the jam, they would look at him and want him to pull him out, because they kept throwing a lot of balls. And he told me, he said, he never pulled him. And he told him, he says, you'll never throw a strike until you're comfortable with throwing balls. Never. You see, we want to throw strikes all our Christian life. I know I do. We got to get comfortable with the fact that you're going to throw a lot of balls. You got to. You're going to throw them. I don't care if you pray that you don't ever do. I don't care if you try to do penance to beat yourself up. You can't change the fact that you live in a falling world. You're going to throw balls. And Jesus knows you're going to throw balls. He died because of it. And in the midst of it, you do throw strikes. He does give you freedom. He does heal you. He does deliver you. But both are true. Both are true, and both have to be embraced. Are you comfortable with throwing balls in the Christian life? Are you? Are you always trying to strike everybody out with a 95 miles wide curveball or fastball? One way leads to joy and peace. The other one leads to you always been frustrated. No joy always but yourself up. Which you going to be? If you can't accept the ask the spirit to help you accept the fact, I may go weak and throw balls all week. The spirit helped me not to go to a place of despair, the concept. Helped me to see Christ's punishment. If you go, we can throw strikes. It still depends on Christ. So you can't get arrogant. Thank you better than everybody else. It's both people. It's both. Let us pray. Father God, thank you that you are God who knows what your people are. You know that we still struggle, Lord, with sin. We fall short. But Lord, you still love us. You don't ever forsake us. Your verse says, "You are faithful when we are faithless." And that's all the time. Well, that's it. And I thank you, Father, that we don't have to earn your favor. We don't have to earn your love. You've given it to us. Help us to embrace it and to live in that reality. And as we go out this week, Lord, I pray, Lord, for more joy and more peace and more boldness and confidence in our Christian life because of Christ's finished work. Teachers, what it means to live out of that. Teachers, how to repent when we're not. So I pray for each and every one of us, for protection, for our families. Pray that your spirit will continue to strengthen us. They mold us into the image of Christ. And I pray as a body, Lord, you draw us perfect together, that we would keep short accounts of one another. We truly, truly love one another to Christ and the three. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]