Forward Together at the Halfway Point

How do I stop letting my worst failure define who I am?

Paul called himself the chief of sinners and a killer of Christians, and he refused to let that be his name any longer. He says he forgets what lies behind, which is not amnesia but a decision about what gets to shape him now.

Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12–14

“Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:18–19

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

2 Corinthians 5:17

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalms 103:12

I was closer to Jesus years ago than I am right now. Is there still a way forward?

Paul says the Christian life is not about perfection but pursuit, and he says it as an old man who has not arrived. The runner is still straining toward the line, and grace does not produce passivity in him, it produces pursuit.

Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12–14

But I have this against you, that you left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your lamp stand out of its place, unless you repent.

Revelation 2:4–5

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Psalms 42:1–2

But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’ “He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.

Luke 15:17–20

Who is actually shaping where I am headed?

Paul says to imitate him and to keep watching those who walk according to the example he and his companions set. Direction is shaped by influence, and the sermon's warning is that popular people are not always wise people.

Brothers, be imitators together of me, and note those who walk this way, even as you have us for an example.

Philippians 3:17

Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:1

One who walks with wise men grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.

Proverbs 13:20

But he abandoned the counsel of the old men which they had given him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. He said to them, “What counsel do you give, that we may answer these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Make the yoke that your father put on us lighter’?” The young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Tell these people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter to us’—tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. Now my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.’”

1 Kings 12:8–11

Remember your leaders, men who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith.

Hebrews 13:7

What actually controls me, and how do I know?

Paul says of people walking as enemies of the cross that their god is their belly, meaning appetite and self have taken the throne. The sermon's point is that even good things like a career or comfort become a god the moment they control you.

For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

Philippians 3:18–19

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.

Matthew 6:24

Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

Romans 6:16

Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Colossians 3:5

Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s. The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever.

1 John 2:15–17

What difference does it make that this is not my home?

The Philippians held Roman citizenship in a colony hundreds of miles from Rome, and Paul uses that to say their real citizenship is in heaven. The sermon says Christians move and live differently when they know where home is, and that the one from that home is coming back.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.

Philippians 3:20–21

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. If indeed they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had enough time to return. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 11:13–16

Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,…

1 Peter 2:11

For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. For most certainly in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed being clothed, we will not be found naked. For indeed we who are in this tent do groan, being burdened, not that we desire to be unclothed, but that we desire to be clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

2 Corinthians 5:1–4

So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:42–44