Sermon for Sunday - 10/14

The Joy of Maturing
Philippians 3.10 – 16

We have been talking about joy in the Chr. life. We are to rejoice in our faith in Jesus Christ. We are to enjoy our life because we have new life in Christ, we know God and we will receive eternal life. This morning we are going to learn about the joy of maturing. (The joy of getting old is different. There is joy in that, but also some struggles.)
Before we go to the scripture of the day, let me say a couple of things. When I was teaching human development, I started talking about maturing, not maturity. We are all in the process of maturing, changing, and as far as I am concerned, we do not finish the process once and for all. A child of 5 might be mature for a 5 year old, but immature at 10 if he or she does not change. We can be a mature 20 year old and immature at 40 unless we change in lives. We need to be maturing.
Also, the mature Chr is like Jesus Christ in his or her thinking, attitudes, talk, and life. That is the goal we are aiming at in our Chr lives. Unless we become like Christ, we are not mature. It seems like some of the Chrs in the church in Philippi were going around parading in front of the others as if they were completely mature. They were better than everyone else in their own eyes. This is where Paul tries to correct them. Read with me: Phil. 3:10 -16.
The passage shows the dynamic nature of the joy of maturing. First Paul tells us what he is aiming at. Paul wanted to know Christ, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, and even to become like him in his death, that is the resurrection from the dead. Paul first got to know Christ at his conversion after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. That changed his life, that was the start of his life in Christ, but after that he kept on growing in his relationship with Christ. Our conversion experience is important to us, but after that we need to keep growing Christ or maturing.
What does it mean to know Christ? It is not just to know about Christ, but to know him personally, intimately. Jesus is our God, but also our best friend. To know Christ means to love him more. He is so good to us every day so we love him more. To know Christ is to obey him more. Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” To know Christ is to trust him more. We like to trust ourselves, be the master of our own life, but the Chr life is a life of trusting the leadership of Jesus Christ.
Verses 12 – 14 of this passage give us the central message about the joy of maturing. Read. Do you hear that? I have not already obtained perfection, but I press on toward the goal of the high calling of Jesus Christ. This is the Apostle Paul speaking. He had been a Chr for 20 or 30 years by now. Certainly St. Paul would be perfect by this time. By his own admission, he was still straining to get to the goal.
The imagery is a race; I think a marathon race (26.2 miles). The Chr. life is a marathon race, not a 100 yd. dash. When I was running marathons, the best one was the Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth. In that race we ran along Lake Superior the whole time, and from 20 miles from the finish line, we could see the end of the race. It finished just below the lift bridge and we could see that. During the race there were lots of times I wanted to quit, but I would look over toward the finish line and know I needed to just keep going, one foot in front of the other. Eventually I rounded the corner and about 3 blocks up was the finish line. All of a sudden, all the work and strain became worth it. Even though I was way past tired, a smile came across my face and I started running harder and faster than I had all day. In our Chr life we keep going – pressing on to reach the goal in Jesus Christ.
Paul say, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. He is not talking about forgetting what is behind in an absolute sense. We can not forget what we did in the past, and some of the things in our past are good things to remember. Paul talked often about his conversion experience. He did not forget that. What is means is that some times we get bogged down in what we did in the past. Satan likes to remind us of what we did in the past and then tell us we are worthless because of our past. That is not true – when we ask the forgiveness of God, we are forgiven.
At other times to we concentrate on our past accomplishments and think we have done enough, we have grown enough. I am thankful that I have been forgiven for my past and I am thankful for what I have done in the past, but today I strain toward what is ahead. This is a powerful tension in our lives. We appreciate what we have done for the Lord, but we want to do more to glorify him. We can not be satisfied with what we have done. There is so much that still needs to be done.
Two important marks that we are maturing are submitting to God more and trusting God more. This is a huge struggle for most of us – to submit to God’s will. We want to be the master of our own fate, the captain of our ship. We think we know what is best. We struggle with what God wants us to do and be. (A young man who was afraid to submit to God because that meant God would send him to Africa or someplace.) Listen to God no matter how old you are, he is still working with you and me to and as we submit to his will in our lives, he will bring glory to himself in our lives.
The second mark of a maturing Chr is learning to trust in God. What a joy it is to see how faithful God has been all through my life. I can see that he was with my family in bringing us to Christ – at the church at Faribault and here. He was with us when my dad died when I was a teenager. He was with me during my college years and ministry in Illinois. He was evident in many ways in raising my kids. God’s hand was in helping me move to Austin, and in the education I have gotten. My precious God has been faithful during all the struggles of my life. Did he protect me from all the problems? No. but he was there to walk with me and work out the best in my life along the way. God has been faithful in the past and he will be completely faithful in the future. Amen. And that brings the greatest joy possible.
How do we mature in Christ? We have said this over and over again. Read the word of God – there is joy in that. Pray to God – have a joyful conversation with him all the time. Look at your life and ask God what he wants you to do to grow in him. He might push you out of your comfort zone, but he will be with you and me every step of the way.
If you need to start your journey with God today by giving your life to him the invitation is for you. All of us commit our lives to work with God as he helps us in our maturing process.