Pressing Toward the Heavenly Goal

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Pressing Toward the Heavenly Goal

• Philippians 312-21

Presented by Bob DeWaay May 22, 2005
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Pauls Ultimate Goal is Fully Knowing Christ

• Philippians 312
• Not that I have already obtained it or have
  already become perfect, but I press on so that I
  may lay hold of that for which also I was laid
  hold of by Christ Jesus.

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Athletic MetaphorPressing Toward the Finish
Line

• Philippians 313
• Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid
  hold of it yet but one thing I do forgetting
  what lies behind and reaching forward to what
  lies ahead,

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The Prize is Knowing Christ FullyIn the
Eschatological Consummation

• Philippians 314
• I press on toward the goal for the prize of the
  upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

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The Correct Mindset is On Our Heavenly Hope in
Christ

• Philippians 315
• Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have
  this attitude and if in anything you have a
  different attitude, God will reveal that also to
  you

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We Should Serve in Humility Following Christs
Example

• Philippians 316
• however, let us keep living by that same
  standard to which we have attained.

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Pauls Example Suffering for the Gospel and
Living According to Its Standards

• Philippians 317
• Brethren, join in following my example, and
  observe those who walk according to the pattern
  you have in us.

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Pauls Example Imitating Christ

• 1Corinthians 111
• Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

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Professed Christians who Ironically are Enemies
of the Cross

• Philippians 318
• For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now
  tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of
  the cross of Christ,

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Those Whose Appetite is For This Present World
Forfeit The Glory of the World To Come

• Philippians 319
• whose end is destruction, whose god is their
  appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who
  set their minds on earthly things.

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Pauls Word Play Embrace the Shame of the
Cross now and Experience Future GloryorReject
the Shame of the Cross now by Glorying in Earthly
Appetites and Experience Ultimate Shame
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Slaves of Appetites

• Romans 1617, 18
• Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those
  who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to
  the teaching which you learned, and turn away
  from them. For such men are slaves, not of our
  Lord Christ but of their own appetites and by
  their smooth and flattering speech they deceive
  the hearts of the unsuspecting.

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A Colony of Heaven in the Outpost of Rome

• Philippians 320
• For our citizenship is in heaven, from which
  also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus
  Christ

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Fully Realized Future Glory When Christ Returns

• Philippians 321
• who will transform the body of our humble state
  into conformity with the body of His glory, by
  the exertion of the power that He has even to
  subject all things to Himself.

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Applications

• Live With an Eternal Focus
• Follow Pauls Pattern In Living for Christ
• Glory in the Cross not the World

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Application Live With an Eternal Focus

• 1John 215-17
• Do not love the world nor the things in the
  world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
  Father is not in him. For all that is in the
  world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the
  eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from
  the Father, but is from the world. The world is
  passing away, and also its lusts but the one who
  does the will of God lives forever.

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Application Follow Pauls Pattern In Living for
Christ

• 1Thessalonians 16
• You also became imitators of us and of the Lord,
  having received the word in much tribulation with
  the joy of the Holy Spirit,

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Application Glory in the Cross not the World

• Galatians 614
• But may it never be that I would boast, except
  in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through
  which the world has been crucified to me, and I
  to the world.

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