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Something that will help us all stay connected - keep up the discussion – on the Live Stream. Like, follow, and share these morning devotions. And don’t forget to check in @ Richland Church of the Nazarene. If you think about it, you should comment in the video – whenever you watch this video – and let us know where you’ve seen God lately. I’m looking for you to be looking for what I call God sightings… Put it in the comments.
The reality is that most of us have multiple areas we would like to seriously change. Usually we focus on these at the beginning of the New Year. But there are other times throughout our lives we want and need to see change.
Many of these changes include our spiritual lives. We have all talked about wanting to become more like Jesus, to overcome a sinful habit, to have a deeper relationship with God, or to impact the world more. It’s not that we don’t desire these things. It’s that most of us struggle to create and maintain lasting change in our lives. Especially when we try to do it on our own. God has purposed that our lives will be changed into the image of Jesus – to reflect his actions, attitudes, and beliefs in our own lives.
Take a moment to turn to the book of Philippians. Even though over two-thirds of the New Testament is written by Paul, we need to remember that he was simply a church-planter shepherding his disciples. So while we look into these words to find all the deep theological thoughts, we need to remember Paul was simply trying to continue to disciple all of those in the Philippian Church that he felt responsible.
So lets pick it up in chapter 3. It started with Paul imprisoned and he wants to dispel concern for his situation and focus on what needs attention in the Church at Philippi.
He begins to explain that while he had everything going for him as a son of Abraham like he was circumcised on the correct day, he was a pure-blooded citizen of Israel from the tribe of Benjamin, professing being a real Hebrew if there ever was a real Hebrew. He was all of that.
Not only was the previously mentioned true about him, Paul was a respected member of the Pharisees. Now remember that the Pharisees demanded the strictest obedience to Jewish law. And Paul was so jealous for the Law, that he persecuted the Church. Paul obeyed the law without fault. And yet all of this he sets aside so that he could KNOW Christ.
Paul doesn’t want to just know about Christ, but truly know the mind of Christ. He wants to experience Christ living in him. Paul wants to experience suffering with Christ Jesus, sharing in His death, so that he would some day also share in the resurrection.
I know to us today, that doesn’t seem all that interesting or stand out to being different than most of the avenues of Christianity most of us grew up knowing. But back then, that would have been a big deal especially to a Pharisee.
This idea of experiencing a physical resurrection, a bodily resurrection was actually a dividing point in Jewish theology so to speak. It was a dividing point with another faction within the religious order of Jewish men. The Sadducees did not believe in a physical or bodily resurrection. So for Paul being a converted Pharisee this was indeed a very important issue. Here’s where we pick up his letter in verse 7.
Philippians 3:7-14 (NLT) I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
This is why we need change in our lives – look at how Paul writes that it is Christ Jesus who is calling us to change, to press on, to move forward to become the man or woman of God that we can become. And this idea of pressing on to the end of the race indicates this is not just a one and done trip down to the altar, it is a lifelong endeavor, a process to become more aligned with the Spirit of Christ.
It's a process to grow in discipleship, and we have a part in this, a responsibility if you will. We must identify the areas of our lives in which we need growth. The idea here is that we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds – through the work of the Holy Spirit. And we have a responsibility to discipline ourselves to implement specific changes the Holy Spirit will enable us to do, and stay connected to community while we are on this journey.