Pastor Kevin's finishing up our start the New Year right series in the book of Philippians this morning Philippians chapter three is where we're going to be Philippians is in the New Testament so back towards the end of the Bible there we're going to be looking at Philippians 3 verse 12 through 16 this is the word of the Lord. Not that I have already obtained this or am 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 for getting what lies behind and 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 defend anything you think otherwise God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have obtained. As Pastor Kevin comes to preach this message we'd like to invite any and all children can they garden through 5th grade to join our children's ministry team for a special time of children's worship. Parents if you have not met our children's ministry team they are fantastic the love you to meet them personally in the back and of course you can pick up your children just out the double doors to the left in the gym. Thank you Pastor Drew very very much. Pastor Drew is going to preach for us next Sunday and Dr. Steve Brown is on deck for the first Sunday in February so we've got a good couple of weeks coming up and want to thank you so much for joining us for worship this morning. If you are in Philippians please stay there. We're going to be looking at a few verses earlier in chapter 3 to get a broader context for the things we're going to talk about this morning. But would you join me in prayer right now as we begin our service or our sermon rather. Father thank you for the gift of your son Jesus Christ in the salvation that we find only in him. So as we study your word today would you guide us by your spirit would you help us to understand believe trust and live in fuller view of the truth that sets us free. Father we ask all of this for your glory in the precious name of your son Jesus Christ in his name we pray all God's people said amen great it is great to have you here with us this morning. Thank you so much for joining us if you are new or newer to the Willow Creek Church family my name is Kevin I'm one of the pastors here the senior pastor along with pastor Drew Joe Lucero our director of student ministries Joanna Deemer director children's ministries and so many others. We want to warmly welcome you as pastor Drew said we do try very hard to be with the Bible calls us to be and that is not a Sunday morning show but a family of faith 24 7 365 sometimes 366 days. So it is great to have you part of us and we hope this morning that you will let us know you are here with that connect card if you didn't have a chance to fill that out yet don't worry fill it out pass along to me or one of our ushers before you leave this morning. Of course you can also do that on our free ministry app you can get that at the Google play or the app store just look for Willow Creek PCA PCA is our denominational affiliation. So for the past two weeks we've talked about starting over it's a brand new year it's 2019 and it's very very common in our culture when we roll over from one year to the next. We oftentimes forget to write that on our checks but very preeminent in our mind is that we are in a new year and we have an opportunity to move forward from the past in fresh new ways in the future. And so we've been talking about that for the past few weeks couple of weeks ago we talked about making peace with our past. We said that in order to move on into the future with confidence it's good first to look back at those things that might be haunting us those things that carry over year after year that oftentimes have secret guilt or shame attached to them. And we need to bring them out of darkness into light into the light of God's sun and see how God's grace is powerful to meet us in our greatest need even in the face of our greatest failures. And to make that point we looked at the apostle Peter one of the preeminent disciples one of the inner circle of our Lord Jesus and we looked at Jesus response to Peter's perhaps greatest failure on the night of Christ betrayal. On the night of his interrogation and eventually the next day his crucifixion Peter betrayed Jesus not once not twice but three times how did Jesus meet him in that shame. Peter's response of course was to hide but Jesus first showed Peter that he could own his past with confidence. We said that it's possible to own our past because Jesus atoned for our past he atones for our past sins our present struggles in our future sins one of the points we made in that message is that in Jesus Christ we not only have the blessing of a second chance that God has left nothing to chance in our salvation. That he's our savior past present and future and that's good news because our greatest sins might not be behind us they might in fact be in front of us and if all Jesus has given us is a second chance then do we really have the hope that God describes in his word an all sufficient savior from beginning to end. In view of that we said we can grow from our past experiences that these things were not necessarily of God they did not necessarily please God but God is pleased in his merciful providence to use them to bring us to a stronger reliance upon God. God is pleased to use our past failures and to show himself presently faithful in the midst of them to use all things for his glory and ultimately for our good and so fourthly and finally we said in that first message that when we look back upon our past we can in a sense let go of it it doesn't need to define us and some of you this morning you need to know that your past failings are not what define you Christ's faithfulness defines you. You are not named by your failures you are named by Christ's success in living for you a life you never could have lived a life a righteous life and laying down his life at the cross to a tone for your sins. But last week we highlighted a problem we said you know what we want to let go of our past perhaps but maybe our past doesn't want to let go of us what do we do in those instances where there are consequences from past wrongs past failures that carry over to the future how do we deal with those and to examine that we turned our attention from Peter to a second new testament figure a very popular one names the key is the key is was a chief tax collector. In other words he was a traitor in a thief to his own people he enriched himself by taking advantage of a position he enjoyed from the Roman Empire as they oppressed God's people. The key is was viewed as a scoundrel but Jesus did not view him merely as a sinner he viewed him as a sinner in need of a savior and Jesus said to the key is I must enter your house today I must spend time with you. And what we said of the key is that is Jesus entered into the key is his home the key is entered into Jesus circle and that's how God deals with us he doesn't wait for us to clean ourselves up. He doesn't wait for us to straighten up and fly right and praise me to God for that because we never would instead he comes to us he initiates divine love in that love transforms us. Jesus lets the key is belong far before he behaved and then it was that change of heart born of that belonging that changed the key is his whole direction moving forward. He could atone for his past in a sense because Jesus had atone for it he didn't trivialize his past misdeeds he took them seriously in sought in every way possible to set things right. And some of you this morning know that maybe you won't be able to undo everything but God in his grace can empower you to look at some of the damage that's come as the result of past failures and to see God's healing at work as much as it depends upon you. And so this morning we turn our attention not from the past or the present but instead to the future and we ask the question now what if we know these things are true what does it mean for us moving forward into a future we don't see how do we know that we are in the center of the will of God moving forward more and more as we come to rest upon Christ in his salvation. This morning I want to share with you just a simple principle and it's this that if you want a new beginning with God you must come to the end of yourself if you want a new beginning with God you must come to the end of yourself in every saint of God is illustrious of this every saint of God here in the pews this morning every saint of God in the scriptures but there are perhaps few more crisp and clear and exhibiting this truth than the apostle Paul. And it's to him this morning that I want to turn your attention as we read again in Philippians chapter three if you have your Bibles open let's look just a few verses sooner into Philippians chapter three verse four and you'll see that Paul is describing something of what he was before the love of God entered his life in such a profound way on the road to Damascus. Philippians chapter three begin with verse four though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh I have more Paul says. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee as to zeal a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law blameless. I want you to see this morning that Paul in many ways had at all at least in the way of 1st century Jew would have viewed himself in the world he had an outstanding pedigree he was of the people of God of a particular tribe he could trace his lineage he knew exactly who he was as a member of the nation of Israel the Jewish people he had a great pedigree he also had a wonderful preparation for ministry as a religious leader he was trained we know by the rabbi Gamelio which would be roughly the equivalent loosely of an Ivy League education in our culture a preeminent rabbi trained him and not only was Paul well trained but even among his peers of similar training he in another place says that he excelled beyond them. Paul was the rising star of 1st century Judaism he had a pedigree wonderful preparation and as a result no small amount of prestige you know we're accustomed as 21st century Christians when we read the Gospels to conceive of the Pharisees as the enemies because so often times in the 4 Gospels they're portrayed as the antagonist toward the mission and ministry of Jesus but that blinds us to the fact of the 1st century the Pharisees were not the enemies they were the heroes they were those who took God's word seriously they were those who under Roman oppression took the Jewish religious and ethnic identity seriously they were zealous for the traditions of their fathers against all the cultural weight of an imperial power they stood against it and said we are who God's called us to be and that's what we will remain they were heroes and that's how Paul was conceived in fact in the book of Acts as he presided over the death of the 1st Christian martyr Stephen Luke is careful to record that there were a group of people laying their cloaks at the feet of Paul his religious performance was unquestioned he said as regarding the law he was a Pharisee as to zeal a persecutor of the Church as to righteous as under the law blameless he really felt that he was righteous before God because of his performance his pedigree his preparation and he wielded no small amount of power as that rising star within Judaism but you know all that he had blinded him to what he did not have and that's what we begin to see in verse 7 of Philippians chapter 3 looked there with me he says but whatever gain I had I counted as loss for the sake of Christ there came a time in Paul's life when he recognized that his zealous as he was for God he did not know God as he truly is and there are so many people today that fancy themselves religious or spiritual they fancy themselves as seekers after God but one of the preeminent questions we all must ask is is the God we seek the God of Scripture the God as he's revealed himself and Paul one day on the road to Damascus encountered a blinding light and heard a voice and he cried out Lord Lord who are you why is this happening and Jesus revealed himself and in destroyed every category Paul had for understanding God and himself suddenly he understood that he was zealous in persecuting the very thing that is worthy of our worship the very one who is worthy of our adoration Jesus Christ and once that realization took hold in his mind and in his heart he realized that his confidence for so many years had been misplaced that it didn't matter that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews for in Christ he would go on to say in another place there's neither June or Gentile neither slave nor free we are all one in Christ that his religious preparation as good as it was and in many ways the had many truths which appointed him was insufficient to point him to the thing he needed most Jesus he realized that all of the prestige that he enjoyed before evaporated once he followed Jesus Christ his performance his power these were no longer the grounds of his confidence look at verse eight he says indeed I count everything is lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for his sake I've suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ what did Jesus do in the life of Paul to give him new life this morning we want to ask how did he change the course of Paul's life and how can he change the course of your own life if you have your Bibles turned back with me to the book of Acts chapter 9 and I want to show you something regarding the conversion of Saul and a powerful truth that is true of all of us if only we would embrace it to see its fruit and that truth is this if you're not writer you might want to jot it down that waiting is not wasting waiting is not wasting verse one of chapter 9 in the book of Acts but Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of a Lord went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found anyone belonging to the way that is the Christian movement an early name for it men or women he might bring them bound to Jerusalem now as he went on his way he approached Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven shown around him and falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him Saul Saul why are you persecuting me and he said who are you Lord and he said I am Jesus whom you're persecuting but rise and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do more on that in just a moment you know after Paul's conversion he writes in another place that he entered into a period of preparation he withdrew into the desert of Arabia and Galatians chapter 1 verses 15 through 17 you don't need to turn there I'll go there Galatians chapter 1 verses 15 through 17 he says but when he who had sent me apart before I was born that is God who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles I did not immediately consult with anyone nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me but I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus there are a variety of reasons the apostle Paul did not immediately go to the Jewish religious leadership what I want you to see is that Paul after this conversion experience goes through a period we might describe as a period of contemplation of waiting, of praying, of meditating, of deeper understanding and that waiting was not a waste it was actually pivotal in Paul becoming a fruitful and entrusted messenger of the gospel Paul needed to come to a deeper understanding of the truths of the Christian faith he needed to undo his previous understanding and start to think in new and fresh ways and for some of you this morning that might be you you know we're accustomed in our culture to be frantic with activity screens distractions fill every moment when we hop into our cars our first impulses perhaps to turn on the radio when we have a quiet moment at home we reach for our cell phone and we play games when we have a quiet moment in the early morning we decide how we can get ahead on the other tasks of the day we're constantly working, constantly filling and when we're not working and filling we oftentimes are seeking distraction it's so sad for us that many of the things God has appointed to be central to growth in his grace oftentimes get the leftovers of our time if they get any of that at all Paul took time to meditate upon God's truth and to seek the Lord in prayer and would we do the same and in so doing not be wasting time but in waiting on the Lord preparing for the next season to take hold of it when I was a kid my sister and I we went to the beach and I know you Florida and you're just so spoiled when it comes to the beach you literally can head in any direction and end up on a world class beach if you go over to the golf side you have white sand when you go over to New Sumerna of beautiful waves and shark but not just kidding you got all sorts of great things right here I grew up on the shores of Lake Erie and I grew up on the shores of Lake Erie in the 70s if you went swimming in Lake Erie you were worried you'd come back with another arm or maybe a third eye he was so polluted so gross so our idea of a great beach vacation growing up was to go up to Canada where they actually take care of nature and go up to the shores of Lake Erie on the northern side where we thought somehow pollution wouldn't have the same effects and my sister and I built some sand castles of the grainy sand on the shores of Lake Erie we weren't much to look at but we were enthralled and at one time we were so wrapped up in it we lost our bearings we got lost we didn't know where we were and my sister and I just as little kids decided that we needed to go out and look for our parents because we didn't know where they were the truth was they weren't all that far we just lost sight of them but we put ourselves far out of their sight ironically in our desire and effort to find them because we didn't take the time to wait and stay put and trust that our parents would meet us in our waiting we actually compounded the error over and over by putting ourselves further out and how much do we do that in our own lives when we run ahead of the Lord we don't know where he would have us go we don't see him necessarily in our circumstances instead of waiting quietly listening to him speak to us in his word and asking him questions and prayer and trusting that his spirit will illuminate the meaning and application of his word for our lives and direct us because we don't wait we just compound the error exponentially part of the Christian life is learning that waiting is not wasting and that waiting on the Lord is central to what it means to follow him in Galatians chapter 5 verse 1 the continuation of the book that Paul wrote to clarify the truth of the Gospel in Galatians chapter 5 verse 1 one of the things he says is that a mark of Christian growth is first learning to stand you know the Bible uses a lot of metaphors to describe us and one of the metaphors that used to describe our growth in God's grace is the metaphor of just human growth when we become followers of Jesus Christ the Bible says we're infants and what we first learned to do is to eat the milk of God's word to drink it in before we have solid food and as we move from milk to solid food we move from resting in Christ to standing in him in Galatians chapter 5 verse 1 Paul says for freedom Christ has set us free stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery that is the idea that you can save yourself trust that Christ has been your deliverer and will be your deliverer stand firm in that confidence learn to stand but later on in the same chapter just a few verses later in verse 16 he says so I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh before you can walk in the spirit you need to learn to stand on the foundation of Christ you need to understand what Christ has done for you before you can keep step with the spirit and walk in him and in Philippians our passage this morning Paul carries on that metaphor and says there comes a time in the Christian life as we mature that we move from standing to walking from walking to running when he employs a race metaphor in our passage in verse 14 he says I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ how do we move from standing to walking and from walking to running we do it by waiting on the Lord by growing in this truth by resting in his truth we have so much to do in a week so many things it's easy to live reactively rather than proactively to view any contemplative time and study and prayer as inactivity an indulgence when we do we forget who we are in Christ we forget who God is toward us and it's that very knowledge that God uses to direct us so we should not deprive ourselves of it there's a second truth in our passage this morning to which I want to draw your attention and that is that affection right this down if you would affection sets direction waiting is not wasting an affection sets direction when you think about it Paul's call was an interesting call to be given he prided himself in his Jewish identity he loved the Jewish nation over and against the Romans why is it that what God would call Paul to be a messenger to the non-Jew to the Gentiles and more importantly how did God get Paul to embrace that call when others like Jonah before him rejected it you know husbands you know that God's called you to love your wife as Christ loves the church and why if you know that God is called you to respect your husbands and to honor them when love in your home and children you know that God is called you to honor your parents authority and to obey them in the Lord and fathers you know and mothers you know that God is called you not to exasperate your children but I know you know if you're any bit like me that knowing what to do doesn't give you the power to do it knowing the law of God does not give you the power to obey its commands time and time again God tells us what to do what is it that gives us the power and desire to obey that's the second point affection sets direction Paul was not first and foremost chasing after the Gentiles he was first and foremost chasing after Jesus and as Jesus went to the Gentiles and as Jesus taught Paul that God so loved the world not just the Jews but all the nations the ethnos Paul's heart was wrapped not only around Christ but what Christ loves right you know years ago I was not a Pittsburgh Steelers fan I grew up in Buffalo New York and I was somewhat indifferent to the Steelers I liked them but I didn't love them now I loved them and one of the reasons I love them is because my wife loves them she grew up in Pittsburgh because my wife is a Steeler fan over time in subtle and imperceptible ways I've gradually become a black and gold guy I love the Pittsburgh Steelers I hate the New England Patriots I'm joking I don't hate them I love them there's a difference if my wife were a New England Patriots fan I don't know that I could make that transition perhaps God would but the analogy works because it's the Steelers here's the thing I joke but hopefully illustrating a point you love what God loves as you grow in love and affection for God you grow in love and affection for what God loves you know his delight becomes your delight and so if we would do the things God would call us to do whatever they are let it first and foremost be because we know it brings joy to our Father the Bible says I have no greater joy than to know my children are walking in the truth John said that of the members of his churches because he knew that in walking in God's truth there are pathways of blessing and protection they can't be found outside of them that God's glory means are good and so in Acts chapter 9 listen to what Paul was described as by by Jesus to a disciple named Ananias who was gifted by God to relieve Paul of his blindness that he received on the road to Damascus verse 15 but the Lord said to Ananias go this man's my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel so it's not that God called Paul only in one direction he added a most unexpected direction to his life and the reason that Paul could embrace it is because his affection for Jesus compelled him to do it now this past week I had lunch with one of the leaders here at Willow Creek and I was so encouraged by this lunch and I want to tell you why the gentleman sat down with me we enjoyed a great lunch together we were talking and he said you know what is I've come into this new year I've decided that I need to take time to recalibrate I need to wait upon the Lord and quit doing everything that I'm asked to do and following every impulse that I have toward activity I need to be much more prayerful and much more proactive in choosing the things that God would have for me and my family and so as a result I'm going to be saying no to these things so that I can say yes to these things and sometimes saying no is the key to saying yes saying no to the good is sometimes saying yes to the great and I admired his example that he was taking the time to seek God's face and to follow him and to not confuse activity with diligence for the Lord sometimes that waiting allows us time to have our hearts conformed to the heart of Christ and then when our hearts are wrapped around the things of Christ our bodies tend to follow we know the direction in which to go now will we do this in the perfectly no of course not we all stumble in many ways the Bible says that and that brings me to a third point this morning that we always fall forward we always fall forward meaning we all stumble in many ways but in Christ God is pleased even to use our failures and our mistakes to move us forward by his grace Paul in Romans chapter 7 even though he is conformed more and more to the love of Christ confesses that there's still part of him that resist Christ there was part of him that did not want to do the things of God even as a greater part of him was growing within him by the spirit to do those things sometimes our sin gets in the way of our obedience sometimes our selfishness sometimes our lack of belief or lack of trust stops us from doing the things God calls us to do other times though it's just our limitations you ever thought of that you might be setting out to do a good thing but how do you know that it's the good thing that God is called you to do well the truth is you may not at least right away but that's okay because even if you fall in God's grace you always fall forward if you have your Bibles turn with me to Acts chapter 16 just quickly I want to show you a story of the Apostle Paul as he went out to fulfill the mission that God had given him for his future to be an apostle to the Gentiles he was walking in general obedience how would he know the specific ways in which he was to honor God in Acts chapter 16 verse 6 we read about Paul and his young protégé Timothy Luke records and they went through the region of Frigia and Galatia having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia and when they had come to Missia they attempted to go to Bethinia but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them so passing by Missia they went down to Troas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night and the man in Macedonia was standing there urging him saying come over to Macedonia and help us and when Paul had seen the vision immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel with them do you see what's happening here this is really cool there's two false starts they're headed in the general direction of obedience but they don't know the specific pathway to walk in that general decision to obey the Lord they make two mistakes so to speak but God graciously corrects them and gets them on the pathway they need to go sometimes we become paralyzed by fear moving into the future we don't know exactly what God has called us to do and so we pray and we read and we don't know specifically what we are to do it could be the young person looking you know what should I major in in college or what college should I go to should I even go to college should I go to a trade school should I go in the military it could be a person who faces a vocational fork in the road offered a great opportunity but not knowing if they should take it it could be a couple that have been friends for a while and are wondering if it's the Lord's will to take their relationship to a more serious level none of these things in and of themselves are bad things but are they the things that God desires for us and if they are in what direction do we go how do we know what to do well the fact of the matter is God very rarely is going to make it immediately clear but we have trust in the Lord that as we walk in good faith in the general direction of obedience God in his grace will gradually get us where we need to go he might do it by closing some doors he might do it by opening up new opportunities and making it clear that this is the pathway and giving us peace in Proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 through 8 listen to these words if you are an awana family or an awana graduate here at Willow Creek you know these words well trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him listen and he will make straight your paths be not wise in your own eyes fear the Lord and turn away from evil it will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones the first way you narrow God's will for the future is to remove what's evil if it's not in accordance with God's word God is not calling you to it sometimes it's a hard truth to hear because many of us say I believe that God is called me to do X Y and Z well the first test is is X Y and Z in accordance with God's word if it's not God's not calling you to it no matter what you're feeling God will never call you to do something that goes against his word but above all the good after we have turned away from evil we need to trust that we go in good faith as Paul and Luke and Timothy dead and trust that God will make those paths straight in time and here's the truth that's laden within this as we close is that as we walk the path of faith as we follow God the outcome is not in doubt God has ensured that he will deliver us safely home we are not working out our salvation in such a way that we are accomplishing our salvation we are working out our salvation in that we are laying hold of listen carefully what we already are we become what we already are we come to enjoy in greater fullness through our obedience what we already are and what we already have not through our efforts but through the efforts of our Lord Christ our world teaches that activity precedes identity that you are what you do and the Bible completely inverts that and says that we know what to do when we are in greater tune with who we are so as you take time waiting don't view it as a waste understand who you are understand who God is that you might understand who you are understand what is outside the will of God as he's revealed in his word what pathways you are never to walk as his child and then in good faith through prayer as you seek God's grace as you begin to stand and walk in new directions trust that the Lord will course correct because he loves you and your shepherd leads you he will not allow you to wander too far off he will always bring you back what an encouraging promise that is for our future this morning know that your shepherd is faithful he will lead you let us pray father we thank you for the goodness of your grace would you help us this coming week stirred by your spirit not from a misguided idea that we somehow curry a status or position by our efforts would you stir us though to to go deep into your word and to pray to you that we might stand on the foundation of Christ that we might learn to walk in the step with the spirit and that we might even run and Lord if we run in the wrong direction for just a moment Lord would you be so gracious to turn us back where we need to go where we need to be that we might live all of life for your glory more and more and the good of those to whom you call us we pray it in Jesus name amen