The Church We Are Today
Philippians 3: 1 – 4: 1
I. Introduction.
June was my one year anniversary as pastor of this great church. Many of you will remember what I did to commemorate my anniversary. I called a committee meeting! I met with the Pastor Search Committee and the Transition Team. These two committees played instrumental roles in leading our church through the interim period before I came. In this combined meeting, I did two things. First, I said to the committees, “In the name of Jesus, I release you from your responsibilities.” Second, I asked them questions to get their input and opinions on what needs to happen next in our church. They suggested we should celebrate the wonderful things going on in our church today. So, here we are.
Before I tell you the “Good News” about Lufkin’s First Baptist Church, I want to begin with a kind of apology. Wonderful things are taking place in our church, but I do NOT take credit for this. We are growing in several different ways, but it is not because of our new pastor. We are growing, because God is working. I tell people often that I am here at a really good time. A BABOON could be a successful pastor of this church right now, because our church is hungry for growth and health. Some of you know that we have not always been a healthy church. But we are healthier now than we have been in many years.
There was a turning point in the life and health of First Baptist Church. There was one moment in time when we made a strategic move to get healthy. Do you know what that was? Some people might say that it was calling me as pastor, but I disagree. Others may say it was when we called Joe Laughlin to be our intentional interim pastor, but I disagree. The best move we made to become a healthy church happened almost three years ago. It was the moment we decided to plant the Cross Timbers Cowboy Church. That was the moment we decided we were no longer going to feel sorry for ourselves. We had focused on ourselves and our internal problems long enough. We were ready to focus on missions and evangelism, and to get busy doing the things God called us to do. A church will never be healthy and will never grow if all they ever do is focus on their own problems. God’s plan for all churches in general—and First Baptist Church in particular—is to focus outside the walls of the church, not on how to get along with each other.
I want to publicly say “Thank you” to Glenden Sanders for having the vision and answering God’s call to start a new kind of church in Lufkin, Texas.
Since the day we decided we would focus on God’s mission more than ourselves, let me share with you what has happened at First Baptist Church.
In June 2006, we called a new pastor. In April of 2007, we called Clay Walker to be our new youth minister. Our minister of music search committee has tried to call a music minister, but we have not found the man we are looking for. I have worked closely with this committee as we have gone through at least 60 résumés and had face-to-face meetings with 9 music ministers. The committee even traveled to another church to see one man in action. But none of these was the right fit for our church. We think it is very important for us to call the right minister of music.
In the past year and a half, we have had 59 people join our church from other churches. AND, we have baptized 18. That is 77 new members in just 18 months! There are two things I find exciting in these numbers. First, people who study church growth tell us that in order for a church to be considered a growing church, we must grow by a factor of 10% per year and sustain that growth for 5 consecutive years. We have one year of growth. Now we need to sustain that growth. Second, it is exciting because we have new members from every age group: Adults, Senior Adults, Young Adults, Youth and Children. But the most significant growth has been in the Young Adult group.
When I moved here in June 2006, we had one Sunday School department for young married adults between the ages of 20 and 40. As new people began to visit and join our church, Aubrey had the vision to divide that department into two departments: one for 20 – 30 and one for 30 – 40. In the past year, those two departments have nearly tripled in membership and attendance.
Last December, we had a very unusual occurrence. We ended the year with a budget surplus of $130,000. I can explain the surplus in three ways…1. We did not pay a full time music minister last year, and we didn’t have a full time youth minister for the full 12 months. 2. We did not over spend our budget categories. 3. You were faithful to support the work of the church financially.
We used that budget surplus to invest in ourselves. We added to our operational reserves and paid off our church debt. Let me restate that…We are out of debt! All we have left is one small, monthly note which we will pay off at the end of 2007. When was the last time you remember being out of debt? This is significant, because just 2 years ago we purchased an Energy Management System to control our heating and air conditioning by computer. The system cost $120,000, and we paid for it in less than 2 years!
We are currently working on three building renovations. We will use some of the surplus funds to install new flooring in the nursery and preschool area; to make some changes in the youth ministry area; and to renovate the church parlor. We have already accepted bids on these projects and are now waiting for the work to begin.
But what about the 2007 budget? For the first time in recent memory, we have gone through the entire Summer without going into a deficit. Summer is usually the time when we fall behind in our contributions and spend more than we collect. But not this year. We ended the third quarter of the year (end of September 2007) with a budget surplus. We anticipate that through your continued faithfulness, we will end the year with a larger surplus than last year and make additional building repairs.
Again, let me restate that the reason why this is happening in our church has nothing to do with our new pastor. This is happening because we renewed our focus on missions. This year, we added four local ministries to our missions budget. We give 9% of our undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program of the BGCT. We give 1% to the Unity Baptist Association. And now we give 1% to be divided evenly between the Mosaic Center (Christian Women’s Job Corps), GODtel, Love INC, and the Christian Information and Service Center. In addition to this 11%, we gave financial assistance to three churches: La Casa Del Alfarero, Cross Timbers Cowboy Church and a church in Grandprairie, Alberta, Canada. Next year we will continue supporting these areas, but we will add three new missions expenses: The first African American church affiliated with the BGCT in our county (New Beginnings Baptist Church), an orphanage in Ethiopia, and the first evangelical Christian church in the Ethiopian village of Bantu.
Read Philippians 3: 12 – 14
The Christian life does not happen over night. It takes discipline. It takes will-power. It takes pain. And it takes a commitment to do the long and hard work to achieve our God-given goals. But most importantly…When we run a race, there are a lot of things that can distract us from our ultimate purpose…Sometimes even the race itself can be a distraction…But Paul tells us to push all those distractions aside and focus on the goal…To finish the race…To win the prize…To fulfill our God-given purpose in life.
In verse 12, Paul tells us that he has not yet arrived at perfection…There was a time when he thought he was perfect, but now he realizes that God does not call us to be perfect…God calls us to be MATURE…
Then Paul explains to us what he believes is the single most important characteristic of a Mature Christian… Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus…We know this is Paul’s idea of Christian maturity based on what he said in the very next verse…All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you…
Mature Christians run the race God has given us with our heads facing forward…With our eyes on the finish line…Not looking back on what has happened in our past…Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead…Exactly what are we supposed to forget?
Read Philippians 3: 1 – 4: 1
Many believe that Paul’s words here were in response to false teachers in church. More than likely these false teachers were of a group that we refer to as the Judaizers…This name is a little misleading, because these false teachers were not Jews. They were Gentile converts who got so excited and so zealous about the laws of the Old Testament that they started teaching the weaker church members that there were two things necessary for salvation…Jesus + the Law…Jesus + Perfection.
So, Paul challenged their view of salvation and Righteousness by comparing himself to their view of Perfection. Paul was saying to the Philippians, “If anyone has a reason to boast about what their religious life, it is me.”
Paul first boasted about his Jewish Heritage…
Circumcised on 8th day – according to law, this is the proper day…not like Gentile converts who were circumcised as adults…This indicates that Paul’s parents were meticulous in keeping law…
Of nation of Israel – Paul holds all rights & privileges afforded to God’s chosen people by virtue of his birth…Paul was not a Jew by conversion, but by birth…
Of tribe of Benjamin – small but prestigious tribe…younger of two sons by Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel…tribe brought Israel’s 1st king, Paul’s namesake…Holy city Jerusalem in boundaries of Benjamin…Benjamin remained loyal to YHWH after divided kingdom…
Hebrew of Hebrews – two different interpretations…Either Hebrew born to Hebrew parents, indicating that Paul was from a pure bloodline…Or…Paul was a Jew who actually spoke Hebrew language…
Now Paul changes his list to things he has actually accomplished for himself. These are not received from his parents…
Pharisee – small religious party of Paul & Jesus’ day…There were very strict requirements for a man to become a Pharisee…had to strictly adhere to Mosaic Law of OT…also had to keep the oral law, traditions handed down by the Scribes & Pharisees… And on top of all this, we also know from Acts 23 that Paul was disciple of Gamaliel, who was perhaps the most famous Jewish Rabbi…
Persecutor of the church – Paul’s love for the Law & his religion led him to try to annihilate the early Xn church…
Blameless concerning the Law – not only had Paul given life to study of Law, he had also fulfilled it in a human sense…Just like the Rich Young Ruler, Paul felt confident he kept the Law
Paul thought himself to be the model Jew, he was more than satisfied with his religious life. He was proud that he could be so Perfect…So Pious…So Spiritual…So Religious…After all, Paul thought he had upheld God’s external legal requirements… Perfection…That is, Paul thought he was Perfect until something changed…Paul eventually encountered the risen Christ while he was on his way to persecute the church in Damascus…
When Paul came face to face with Jesus, he realized that his life was not Perfect. Paul did not measure up to Jesus. This is when Paul finally realized that when compared to Christ Jesus, his self-righteousness fell desperately short of the true life God wanted him to live.
In fact, Paul realized that his own righteousness was nothing more than an attempt at self-reliance…An attempt to EARN salvation from God rather than to receive it as a gift of grace. He no longer viewed these external qualifications as “gains,” but as “losses.”
In this passage, Paul used two words to describe all of his religious achievements before he met Christ…
“Loss”… In other words, none of these things promoted him or helped him, they dragged him down, moved him away from God.
“Rubbish”…This is one of those places where the Bible has cleaned up the Greek a little so that we can read it in church…This is the Greek word skubala, which literally means…Well, it means “manure.” Paul said, all of those religious things, those good things, those righteous things that I have been so proud of for most of my life…Well, now that I know Jesus I realize that self-righteousness is worth as much to me as manure…This is “unspeakable filth”…something that no one would ever think about keeping or bragging about or in any way place value on…
So, Paul is basically saying here…I have a lot of good and religious stuff in my past that I have always been very proud of. But no matter how good I was, and no matter how proud I might be…I will forget about my past and Press On toward God’s future…
But guess what? Paul isn’t exactly proud of everything he has done in his past…This is the same Apostle Paul who told us in 1 Timothy 1: 15… Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst…
Paul had a lot of things in his past that he could truly be proud of: Circumcised on the 8th day; of the people of Israel; of the tribe of Benjamin; Hebrew of Hebrews; Pharisee; blameless…But Paul also had a lot of things in his past that he was ashamed of…
The day that Paul encountered the Resurrected Christ for the very first time…The day that Paul’s life was radically transformed once and for all…Where was he going? He was on his way to persecute Christians. Paul was guilty of instilling such fear in Christian men and women that they were too afraid to preach the Good News about Jesus. In other words, Paul is guilty of preventing some people from getting Saved…Paul was also guilty of murder…In Acts 7, we read that Paul was a part of the Jewish mob that stoned Stephen to his death…Even if Paul never threw a stone at Stephen that day, he was guilty as an accomplice to murder…
I think we can all relate to what Paul is telling us here…I have a lot of things in my past that I am proud of…But I also have a lot of things in my past that I am ashamed of…So, forgetting what is behind and striving toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus…
Paul’s Goal…So, exactly what is our goal as growing and maturing Christians? In Philippians 3, Paul tells us that he has three goals…
First…In verse 12, Paul says that he will press on to “Take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me”…In other words, Paul wants to forget about the past so that he can live out his God-given calling and mission in life…
Second…In verse 21, Paul says that he is striving toward that day when Christ will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body”…In other words, Paul wants to forget about his past so that he can live with heaven on his mind…
Third…In Philippians 4: 1, Paul described the Christians at Philippi as his “joy and crown”…In other words, Paul wants to forget about his past so that he can invest his own life and ministry into the lives of other growing and maturing Christians…
II. Conclusion.
A true story about Coach Paul Bear Bryant, the legendary football coach from the University of Alabama. Before Bear Bryant coached at Alabama he coached at Texas A&M. When he left Texas A&M to go to Alabama, he asked his entire coaching staff to go with him. They all agreed, with one exception.
The althletic trainer on the Texas A&M staff was a man named Smokey Harper. No one really knew his name (it was Charlie), they just called him Smokey because he was never without a cigarette in his mouth. He would light the next cigarette from the end of the one in his mouth. Smokey was 64 years old, one year away from retirement, and decided that he would rather retire than try to make the transition to Alabama.
Once Smokey retired, he became bored with just sitting at home every day with nothing to do. So, what did he do? He called Bear Bryant and asked for his old job back. The bad news was that Bear Bryant did not have the budget to hire another coach. Smokey responded, “That’s OK. I can still draw my retirement as long as I do not make more than $200 a month.” Bear Bryant offered Smokey a job in Alabama.
When Smokey arrived in Tuscaloosa, Bear Bryant called him into his office and began to describe his new job. He said, “Smokey, I want to give you the most important job on this entire coaching staff. You will not travel with the team on away games. You will never stand on the sidelines. You will never have any contact with the players. All you will do is what you love to do. I want you to drink coffee and smoke cigarettes every day.
“I want you to go out and find as many coffee shops as possible in the state of Alabama. I want you to go to those shops every morning and sit down with the people of Alabama. I want you to drink coffee with them. I want you to become friends with them. I want you to tell them, ‘Coach Bear Bryant is the best football coach that I have ever seen.’
“Tell the people of Alabama what a good person I am, what a good coach I am and how I am going to make Alabama the best football program in the nation.”
When Bear Bryant won the national championship, he introduced Smokey as the reason for the success of the Alabama football program.
Here is my dream for Lufkin’s First Baptist Church. I dream we will be like Smokey Harper. If you don’t smoke, don’t start…But you can be the same kind of witness. I want you to walk out those doors today to the coffee shops, schools, work places to find everyone you can possibly find to tell them, “I have the best church. Every week I experience the Presence of God in worship. I have the best SS class—My teacher teaches the Bible and we all love each other. We have the best music ministry in Angelina County. We have the best Youth Ministry in Angelina County. We have the best Children’s Ministry in Angelina County.”
If you are praying that the lost will be saved, someone must be a witness. If you are praying that FBC will grow, someone must be a witness. And what kind of witness are we being when we gripe and complain about our church or the Ministry areas of our church. Tell the story of the church we are today...It is good news.
Philippians 3: 1 – 4: 1
I. Introduction.
June was my one year anniversary as pastor of this great church. Many of you will remember what I did to commemorate my anniversary. I called a committee meeting! I met with the Pastor Search Committee and the Transition Team. These two committees played instrumental roles in leading our church through the interim period before I came. In this combined meeting, I did two things. First, I said to the committees, “In the name of Jesus, I release you from your responsibilities.” Second, I asked them questions to get their input and opinions on what needs to happen next in our church. They suggested we should celebrate the wonderful things going on in our church today. So, here we are.
Before I tell you the “Good News” about Lufkin’s First Baptist Church, I want to begin with a kind of apology. Wonderful things are taking place in our church, but I do NOT take credit for this. We are growing in several different ways, but it is not because of our new pastor. We are growing, because God is working. I tell people often that I am here at a really good time. A BABOON could be a successful pastor of this church right now, because our church is hungry for growth and health. Some of you know that we have not always been a healthy church. But we are healthier now than we have been in many years.
There was a turning point in the life and health of First Baptist Church. There was one moment in time when we made a strategic move to get healthy. Do you know what that was? Some people might say that it was calling me as pastor, but I disagree. Others may say it was when we called Joe Laughlin to be our intentional interim pastor, but I disagree. The best move we made to become a healthy church happened almost three years ago. It was the moment we decided to plant the Cross Timbers Cowboy Church. That was the moment we decided we were no longer going to feel sorry for ourselves. We had focused on ourselves and our internal problems long enough. We were ready to focus on missions and evangelism, and to get busy doing the things God called us to do. A church will never be healthy and will never grow if all they ever do is focus on their own problems. God’s plan for all churches in general—and First Baptist Church in particular—is to focus outside the walls of the church, not on how to get along with each other.
I want to publicly say “Thank you” to Glenden Sanders for having the vision and answering God’s call to start a new kind of church in Lufkin, Texas.
Since the day we decided we would focus on God’s mission more than ourselves, let me share with you what has happened at First Baptist Church.
In June 2006, we called a new pastor. In April of 2007, we called Clay Walker to be our new youth minister. Our minister of music search committee has tried to call a music minister, but we have not found the man we are looking for. I have worked closely with this committee as we have gone through at least 60 résumés and had face-to-face meetings with 9 music ministers. The committee even traveled to another church to see one man in action. But none of these was the right fit for our church. We think it is very important for us to call the right minister of music.
In the past year and a half, we have had 59 people join our church from other churches. AND, we have baptized 18. That is 77 new members in just 18 months! There are two things I find exciting in these numbers. First, people who study church growth tell us that in order for a church to be considered a growing church, we must grow by a factor of 10% per year and sustain that growth for 5 consecutive years. We have one year of growth. Now we need to sustain that growth. Second, it is exciting because we have new members from every age group: Adults, Senior Adults, Young Adults, Youth and Children. But the most significant growth has been in the Young Adult group.
When I moved here in June 2006, we had one Sunday School department for young married adults between the ages of 20 and 40. As new people began to visit and join our church, Aubrey had the vision to divide that department into two departments: one for 20 – 30 and one for 30 – 40. In the past year, those two departments have nearly tripled in membership and attendance.
Last December, we had a very unusual occurrence. We ended the year with a budget surplus of $130,000. I can explain the surplus in three ways…1. We did not pay a full time music minister last year, and we didn’t have a full time youth minister for the full 12 months. 2. We did not over spend our budget categories. 3. You were faithful to support the work of the church financially.
We used that budget surplus to invest in ourselves. We added to our operational reserves and paid off our church debt. Let me restate that…We are out of debt! All we have left is one small, monthly note which we will pay off at the end of 2007. When was the last time you remember being out of debt? This is significant, because just 2 years ago we purchased an Energy Management System to control our heating and air conditioning by computer. The system cost $120,000, and we paid for it in less than 2 years!
We are currently working on three building renovations. We will use some of the surplus funds to install new flooring in the nursery and preschool area; to make some changes in the youth ministry area; and to renovate the church parlor. We have already accepted bids on these projects and are now waiting for the work to begin.
But what about the 2007 budget? For the first time in recent memory, we have gone through the entire Summer without going into a deficit. Summer is usually the time when we fall behind in our contributions and spend more than we collect. But not this year. We ended the third quarter of the year (end of September 2007) with a budget surplus. We anticipate that through your continued faithfulness, we will end the year with a larger surplus than last year and make additional building repairs.
Again, let me restate that the reason why this is happening in our church has nothing to do with our new pastor. This is happening because we renewed our focus on missions. This year, we added four local ministries to our missions budget. We give 9% of our undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program of the BGCT. We give 1% to the Unity Baptist Association. And now we give 1% to be divided evenly between the Mosaic Center (Christian Women’s Job Corps), GODtel, Love INC, and the Christian Information and Service Center. In addition to this 11%, we gave financial assistance to three churches: La Casa Del Alfarero, Cross Timbers Cowboy Church and a church in Grandprairie, Alberta, Canada. Next year we will continue supporting these areas, but we will add three new missions expenses: The first African American church affiliated with the BGCT in our county (New Beginnings Baptist Church), an orphanage in Ethiopia, and the first evangelical Christian church in the Ethiopian village of Bantu.
Read Philippians 3: 12 – 14
The Christian life does not happen over night. It takes discipline. It takes will-power. It takes pain. And it takes a commitment to do the long and hard work to achieve our God-given goals. But most importantly…When we run a race, there are a lot of things that can distract us from our ultimate purpose…Sometimes even the race itself can be a distraction…But Paul tells us to push all those distractions aside and focus on the goal…To finish the race…To win the prize…To fulfill our God-given purpose in life.
In verse 12, Paul tells us that he has not yet arrived at perfection…There was a time when he thought he was perfect, but now he realizes that God does not call us to be perfect…God calls us to be MATURE…
Then Paul explains to us what he believes is the single most important characteristic of a Mature Christian… Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus…We know this is Paul’s idea of Christian maturity based on what he said in the very next verse…All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you…
Mature Christians run the race God has given us with our heads facing forward…With our eyes on the finish line…Not looking back on what has happened in our past…Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead…Exactly what are we supposed to forget?
Read Philippians 3: 1 – 4: 1
Many believe that Paul’s words here were in response to false teachers in church. More than likely these false teachers were of a group that we refer to as the Judaizers…This name is a little misleading, because these false teachers were not Jews. They were Gentile converts who got so excited and so zealous about the laws of the Old Testament that they started teaching the weaker church members that there were two things necessary for salvation…Jesus + the Law…Jesus + Perfection.
So, Paul challenged their view of salvation and Righteousness by comparing himself to their view of Perfection. Paul was saying to the Philippians, “If anyone has a reason to boast about what their religious life, it is me.”
Paul first boasted about his Jewish Heritage…
Circumcised on 8th day – according to law, this is the proper day…not like Gentile converts who were circumcised as adults…This indicates that Paul’s parents were meticulous in keeping law…
Of nation of Israel – Paul holds all rights & privileges afforded to God’s chosen people by virtue of his birth…Paul was not a Jew by conversion, but by birth…
Of tribe of Benjamin – small but prestigious tribe…younger of two sons by Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel…tribe brought Israel’s 1st king, Paul’s namesake…Holy city Jerusalem in boundaries of Benjamin…Benjamin remained loyal to YHWH after divided kingdom…
Hebrew of Hebrews – two different interpretations…Either Hebrew born to Hebrew parents, indicating that Paul was from a pure bloodline…Or…Paul was a Jew who actually spoke Hebrew language…
Now Paul changes his list to things he has actually accomplished for himself. These are not received from his parents…
Pharisee – small religious party of Paul & Jesus’ day…There were very strict requirements for a man to become a Pharisee…had to strictly adhere to Mosaic Law of OT…also had to keep the oral law, traditions handed down by the Scribes & Pharisees… And on top of all this, we also know from Acts 23 that Paul was disciple of Gamaliel, who was perhaps the most famous Jewish Rabbi…
Persecutor of the church – Paul’s love for the Law & his religion led him to try to annihilate the early Xn church…
Blameless concerning the Law – not only had Paul given life to study of Law, he had also fulfilled it in a human sense…Just like the Rich Young Ruler, Paul felt confident he kept the Law
Paul thought himself to be the model Jew, he was more than satisfied with his religious life. He was proud that he could be so Perfect…So Pious…So Spiritual…So Religious…After all, Paul thought he had upheld God’s external legal requirements… Perfection…That is, Paul thought he was Perfect until something changed…Paul eventually encountered the risen Christ while he was on his way to persecute the church in Damascus…
When Paul came face to face with Jesus, he realized that his life was not Perfect. Paul did not measure up to Jesus. This is when Paul finally realized that when compared to Christ Jesus, his self-righteousness fell desperately short of the true life God wanted him to live.
In fact, Paul realized that his own righteousness was nothing more than an attempt at self-reliance…An attempt to EARN salvation from God rather than to receive it as a gift of grace. He no longer viewed these external qualifications as “gains,” but as “losses.”
In this passage, Paul used two words to describe all of his religious achievements before he met Christ…
“Loss”… In other words, none of these things promoted him or helped him, they dragged him down, moved him away from God.
“Rubbish”…This is one of those places where the Bible has cleaned up the Greek a little so that we can read it in church…This is the Greek word skubala, which literally means…Well, it means “manure.” Paul said, all of those religious things, those good things, those righteous things that I have been so proud of for most of my life…Well, now that I know Jesus I realize that self-righteousness is worth as much to me as manure…This is “unspeakable filth”…something that no one would ever think about keeping or bragging about or in any way place value on…
So, Paul is basically saying here…I have a lot of good and religious stuff in my past that I have always been very proud of. But no matter how good I was, and no matter how proud I might be…I will forget about my past and Press On toward God’s future…
But guess what? Paul isn’t exactly proud of everything he has done in his past…This is the same Apostle Paul who told us in 1 Timothy 1: 15… Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst…
Paul had a lot of things in his past that he could truly be proud of: Circumcised on the 8th day; of the people of Israel; of the tribe of Benjamin; Hebrew of Hebrews; Pharisee; blameless…But Paul also had a lot of things in his past that he was ashamed of…
The day that Paul encountered the Resurrected Christ for the very first time…The day that Paul’s life was radically transformed once and for all…Where was he going? He was on his way to persecute Christians. Paul was guilty of instilling such fear in Christian men and women that they were too afraid to preach the Good News about Jesus. In other words, Paul is guilty of preventing some people from getting Saved…Paul was also guilty of murder…In Acts 7, we read that Paul was a part of the Jewish mob that stoned Stephen to his death…Even if Paul never threw a stone at Stephen that day, he was guilty as an accomplice to murder…
I think we can all relate to what Paul is telling us here…I have a lot of things in my past that I am proud of…But I also have a lot of things in my past that I am ashamed of…So, forgetting what is behind and striving toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus…
Paul’s Goal…So, exactly what is our goal as growing and maturing Christians? In Philippians 3, Paul tells us that he has three goals…
First…In verse 12, Paul says that he will press on to “Take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me”…In other words, Paul wants to forget about the past so that he can live out his God-given calling and mission in life…
Second…In verse 21, Paul says that he is striving toward that day when Christ will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body”…In other words, Paul wants to forget about his past so that he can live with heaven on his mind…
Third…In Philippians 4: 1, Paul described the Christians at Philippi as his “joy and crown”…In other words, Paul wants to forget about his past so that he can invest his own life and ministry into the lives of other growing and maturing Christians…
II. Conclusion.
A true story about Coach Paul Bear Bryant, the legendary football coach from the University of Alabama. Before Bear Bryant coached at Alabama he coached at Texas A&M. When he left Texas A&M to go to Alabama, he asked his entire coaching staff to go with him. They all agreed, with one exception.
The althletic trainer on the Texas A&M staff was a man named Smokey Harper. No one really knew his name (it was Charlie), they just called him Smokey because he was never without a cigarette in his mouth. He would light the next cigarette from the end of the one in his mouth. Smokey was 64 years old, one year away from retirement, and decided that he would rather retire than try to make the transition to Alabama.
Once Smokey retired, he became bored with just sitting at home every day with nothing to do. So, what did he do? He called Bear Bryant and asked for his old job back. The bad news was that Bear Bryant did not have the budget to hire another coach. Smokey responded, “That’s OK. I can still draw my retirement as long as I do not make more than $200 a month.” Bear Bryant offered Smokey a job in Alabama.
When Smokey arrived in Tuscaloosa, Bear Bryant called him into his office and began to describe his new job. He said, “Smokey, I want to give you the most important job on this entire coaching staff. You will not travel with the team on away games. You will never stand on the sidelines. You will never have any contact with the players. All you will do is what you love to do. I want you to drink coffee and smoke cigarettes every day.
“I want you to go out and find as many coffee shops as possible in the state of Alabama. I want you to go to those shops every morning and sit down with the people of Alabama. I want you to drink coffee with them. I want you to become friends with them. I want you to tell them, ‘Coach Bear Bryant is the best football coach that I have ever seen.’
“Tell the people of Alabama what a good person I am, what a good coach I am and how I am going to make Alabama the best football program in the nation.”
When Bear Bryant won the national championship, he introduced Smokey as the reason for the success of the Alabama football program.
Here is my dream for Lufkin’s First Baptist Church. I dream we will be like Smokey Harper. If you don’t smoke, don’t start…But you can be the same kind of witness. I want you to walk out those doors today to the coffee shops, schools, work places to find everyone you can possibly find to tell them, “I have the best church. Every week I experience the Presence of God in worship. I have the best SS class—My teacher teaches the Bible and we all love each other. We have the best music ministry in Angelina County. We have the best Youth Ministry in Angelina County. We have the best Children’s Ministry in Angelina County.”
If you are praying that the lost will be saved, someone must be a witness. If you are praying that FBC will grow, someone must be a witness. And what kind of witness are we being when we gripe and complain about our church or the Ministry areas of our church. Tell the story of the church we are today...It is good news.
