A RACE TO RUN

                                                                    

     Philippians  3: 7-14

 

 

          "There have been a lot of changes around here," said the old man proudly, "and I want you to know I've been against every one of them." 

    

          Have you ever noticed that some people have a difficult time with change?

 

          Some people would rather fight than switch.

 

          Their motto seems to be "Don't rock the boat even if it's the Titanic!"

 

          Of course, some changes are difficult to accept.

 

          As someone has said, "It just doesn't seem right to go over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's condo."  

    

          And not all change is progress.

 

          One analyst predicts that women born after 1960 will have more husbands than children.

 

          That's something to think about.

    

          Doug Larson, says,  "Remember when a drug problem was trying to get a prescription filled on Sunday? 

 

          Remember when jokes that couldn't be told in mixed company weren't?"

 

Galatians 6:14              But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

 

Paul declares in other portions of his writing that "if any person is in Christ Jesus, they are a new creation." 

 

          Yes, the Bible talks a great deal about us being a new people, but it doesn't have anything to do with atoms in our physical bodies.

 

          We are new people when we have the mind and attitude of Jesus Christ living inside us.

 

          This is the priority that the Apostle Paul urged the Christians at Philippi to adopt for the living out of their faith.

     Paul writes, "Forgetting what lies behind, I strain forward to what is ahead."

    

          If you have ever been to a circus, you've no doubt seen the huge bull elephants chained to a peg in the ground.

 

          Perhaps it has occurred to you that the elephant could easily pull the peg out of the ground and escape.

 

          However, he doesn't try.

 

          You see, as a baby elephant he was tied to a huge stake that he could not pull out of the ground.

 

          Weeks of pulling and tugging only wore a trench around the stake, and finally, he gave up.

 

          Now that he is full-grown, with great strength and the physical ability to pull the peg out of the ground, he remembers only the futility of past efforts and does not even attempt to escape.

 

          He is conditioned to failure.

 

          How I cringe when I hear people say, "we tried that once and it didn't work then, and it won't work now!"

We are to confess our sins and place them under the blood of Jesus, knowing we have been freed from their condemnation and power.

 

          Jesus can clean the slate (the blackboard of our lives) and compel us to work for righteousness, rather than unrighteousness.

, "But God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us?" (5:8) 

 

          That's a special kind of love, isn't it?

 

          It's unconditional love.

 

          There is life-changing power in unconditional love.

, "No man only needs a little salary. 

 

          When a person's dreams and goals and purposes in life are destroyed, that person is destroyed. 

 

          We not only need something to live on, we need something to live for."

 

          After his encounter with Christ, Paul had something worthwhile to live for.

St. Paul discovered there is no ceiling on discipleship.

 

          We can be better followers of Jesus at seventy than we are at forty.

 

          We can be more loving, more joyous, more focused. 

 

          The mistake many of us have made is taking our identity from our career rather than from Christ.

 

II Chronicles 7:14     If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

 

          If your dream is to be like Christ, you will never reach the point where you say, this is it.

 

          This is far as I can go.

 

          For Paul there was no turning back--no winding down--no giving up.

 

          He had discovered freedom, yes, and unconditional love.

 

          But just as  important, he had found a reason to live.

 

Before we close this service this morning,  I want to share with you a prayer, written by the Rev. Dr. Kenneth G. Phifer, and found in a publication produced by Upper Room Ministries titled, "A Book of Un-Common Prayer." 

 

          It was written for New Year's Eve, and because it reinforces some of the ideas and imagery I have used today, I thought it would be a good closing to our message  today.

 

          "Eternal God, before whom we are creatures of the day and children of the hours,        

     I lift my prayers to you as I stand in the shadow of the waning year.         

          I am aware once more of the fleetingness of time, and the transiency of my being.         

          So much has happened to me during the year which has so rapidly slipped away, So much of hurt and happiness, of loss and gain, of hope and fear.                 

          I did not expect the sorrow that was thrust upon me.

          I was surprised by the turn of events that changed my life.

          I look back.

          I remember how different life a year ago was, The slow, quiet erosion of the days has gone on, and I am not quite the same person I was, for better or for worse.

          I have had a whole year to grow in love or to fall out of love, to turn my hands to constructive tasks, or to turn away in idleness.        

          I have had a whole year, and now it is gone.

         No matter what I have done or failed to do, O Lord, keep me from dwelling on it too much.

          If I have failed, help me put my failure behind me.

        If I have done well, help me to be glad but not complacent.

          There are other hills to climb and new hopes to be realized.

          I know, O God, you understand my need to look back for a while, wistfully peering at the past.

          But start me looking forward.

          I do not know what events are ahead, but I do know you are there, and I am grateful. AMEN.