Press toward the mark
Category: Obedience to God’s Will
Key Passage: Philippians 3:13-14
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024
Turn your mind to Philippians chapter number three, if you would, please. We are trying a new mic out. We kind of veered away from it for years, and then our YouTube channel kind of cuts in and out. I preached a revival, and they had one of these. I used to work so well, and I said, next time, our lapel mic, I’m going to try one of those. And actually, it’s cheaper than a lapel mic. I like that. And it seems to work very, very well also. So we’re using that. It’s by my ear here, so it gives a little report when the Presbyterians start to show up with the restaurants and whatnot. So we’ll get out a little bit quicker on that right there, you know. And you know that’s not true for sure around here.
But Philippians chapter number three. And just two verses. We’re going to start with verse number 13. And I was planning on preaching a different message, but the Lord seemed to direct me back to this. And so I believe there’s something here for all of us.
And because the Lord just seemed to specially guide this way, let’s try to focus on Philippians 3. We’ll start reading in verse number 13. Would you please stand as we read the Word of God together? Philippians 3. We’ll start with just two verses, verse number 13. Philippians 3 and verse number 13. The Bible says, brethren, “I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
I want you, if you would, just to dream with me for a little bit. I’m not talking about your neighbor. I want every person to dream. It doesn’t cost anything to dream. So I want you to dream with me a little bit. Everybody just kind of put your dreamy eyes, your dreamy hat on, and I want you to dream about winning for the Lord in 2020. What would it look like for you to be a growing, thriving Christian in 2020? Dream about that a little bit. Think about you having just a time alone in the world every day, and man, it’s just, wow, God’s meeting with you. Think about that. Dream about it. Dream about you having an effective prayer life where you can see God moving, and He gives you the privilege of having a part in the prayer closet. You can see God work. I want you just to dream a little bit.
Hey, young people, young people, I want you to think about the kids at school. They know that you have a walk with God. Not because you’re proud and act like you’re all that. They can just see it. You really have a walk with God; it’s sincere. I want you to dream about these things. Let me just dream a little bit. Dream about you going to work and having a testimony, not so you can be all that, but man, people are coming to you, and you’re able to help them in times of crisis, and maybe even you get to lead someone to the Lord at work. Would you just dream for a little bit? You’re involved in church, and you’re a blessing to others at church, and man, just God is working in your life. I want you to dream, just dream a little bit about what God could do through your life in 2020. Are you there? You’re there in your minds? You’re there? Raise your hand if you’re there. Good, good, good.
Now that is what he’s speaking of in verse 14. Would you look back at verse number 14 there, Philippians 3:14? He says, “I press toward the mark.” For 2020, that’s the mark right there—for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now, I understand the end of that is going to be with Him, and He gives those rewards and so on. But for 2020, that’s the mark right there that you and I are supposed to be pressing toward. You’re going after that mark. I prayed last night and this morning specifically about that moment or two while you were dreaming, that the Lord would give you some dreams. By the way, the Bible says, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” So that desire, those dreams—it’s God that gives you that will, that desire. God gives you that, and that’s the mark we’re supposed to be striving toward. I have some marks in my life for 2020. I like to strive after that.
But can I say, in the formula that God gives us, it doesn’t start with that? Would you look back at the formula? Let’s just kind of find out where the formula—the end result is striving after, pressing toward that mark—but let’s find out where it starts at. If you look up in verse number 13 there, first of all, he says, “brethren,” speaking to Christians, “brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.” That this formula starts with this right here: I haven’t arrived. My course is not run; it’s not finished. There’s a lot more to be accomplished.
Think about this: Paul here is an aged man. He’s probably several years, the best we can understand, before he passes away. He’s in prison. And yet Paul says, “I’m not apprehended.” Everything that God wants to do in my life is not finished. Paul is saying, “I still have room to grow in.”
Can I make it a little bit more personal for me and you, maybe for our church family for just a moment here? I like to reminisce about what God has done in Rutherford County Baptist Church in the last 20 years. I like that. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that if it leads you to praise the Lord and maybe build your faith a little bit. But can I say this? God’s not done with Rutherford County Baptist Church. I can’t get stuck on, “Hey, look at what God did there. We were a startup church in the storefronts and what God’s done.” I can’t get caught up too much in that because, man, we’re not there yet. God has a lot of other things He would like to do at Rutherford County Baptist Church. That’s where the formula starts: I’m not apprehended. I’m not there. A whole lot more to be done.
I appreciate so much our church family as a whole. I think you’ve been very good about saying, “Hey, we’re excited about what God’s doing in the future.” And that can be tough. I think about Brother Marley and Miss Stacy. I hope they don’t mind me mentioning them, but God worked in their life in this auditorium here. They got saved here. They got salvation, got everything settled and saved. And, man, God did a work in their heart. It would be easier for them to say, “Hey, I don’t leave here. This is home.” Praise the Lord, they say it’s a special place; it always will be. But we realize God has a future that He’d like to do more. And it all starts with, “Hey, man, I’m not arrived; God’s not done yet.”
Can I say this? Some people will say this: Old and young is not a matter of years. Some of us are getting more years; we’ll say amen right there. But they’ll say this: Old or young is a matter of being old. You’re always talking about what you used to do. And young, you’re still talking about what you’re going to do and what’s going to happen right now. Can I just say, let’s not get to be too old of a church? God’s been good to us, and praise the Lord for the past, but hey, let’s say there’s still a whole lot to be done for the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we do get older, things do change. Sometimes we cannot do the same physical things we used to do. But can I say this, maybe just to those of you who have lived a few more years? Be careful that you don’t say, “Well, I used to serve with the nursery. I used to read my Bible. I used to have a prayer life. I used to work in this ministry.” Friend, as long as we’re breathing, I have the attitude: I’m not apprehended. Something else ought to be done. God can use me where I’m at. I’ve seen godly Christians in nursing homes, and they say, “Hey, God’s not through with me yet. I’m going to be a light in this nursing home right here.” That’s got to be the attitude. It starts with, “Hey, I haven’t arrived. There’s too much to be done. I haven’t apprehended yet.”
Now, the end result—we’re pressing after the mark; we’re shooting for the mark. I believe God has given us the mark in our minds this morning, and that’s the one we are shooting for. But he starts off saying, “Hey, his attitude: I haven’t apprehended. Too much to be done.” I can’t get stuck in what God used to do. I can’t get stuck in what God’s done in my life in the past. There’s too much today and in the future to be done for Him, right?
Let’s look at the next thing in this formula here. Just keep going here. Verse number 13. Verse number 13. He says, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind.” That’s interesting. The second part of the formula: God says, I want you forgetting, forgetting those things which are behind.
When he mentions that, I don’t think necessarily he is saying I want you where you cannot recall the past. If that would be the case, we’d just line us all up at the beginning of the year, and we’d go, Brother Frank DeLenardo—he’s our Italian muscle, big sledgehammer—and hit us all in the head. We have amnesia. All right, you forgot all that. I don’t think that’s what he’s saying.
In fact, the first time “forget” is mentioned in the Bible, which is in Genesis chapter 27, it’s when Rebecca is telling her son Jacob, who just stole the blessing from his brother Esau. She says, “Hey, you better get out of Dodge because Esau has something coming for you, and you leave town until Esau forgets.” I don’t think she was saying until Esau can’t recall what you did to him, but it’s until Esau says, “Hey, that’s not on the forefront of my mind. That’s not what I’m focused on. I’m not about getting revenge. I’ve forgotten it. I move beyond.”
Here’s what happens if I’m not careful as I go through life—and it’s just part of life, I don’t care who you are, where you live, male or female, old or young—as you go through life, if you’re not careful, burdens attach themselves, and hurts attach themselves and problems, issues. Before long, as I’m walking through life, it’s like barnacles on a boat. Pretty soon that boat that maybe weighed 10,000 pounds now weighs 12 or 15, and pretty soon it’s almost sunk. A whole lot of Christians have so many weights that are just dragging, and strings that life and Satan have attached to you, and burdens, and you’re dragging about a hundred-pound weight everywhere you go. So you can’t properly, as God says, press toward the mark because you’ve got so many weights, so many problems. It’s just life, often not intentionally, but it just has a way of wrapping itself around your bitterness and issues. It would be such a good Sunday, the first Sunday of the year, for us to say, “You know what? I’m going to kind of forget. I’m going to move beyond.”
Let me give you a couple of things along that line. Sometimes it’s a matter of forgiveness. Can I just say a word or two about forgiveness? Forgiveness is not living in denial. I can’t forgive for something I don’t admit and face that happened to me. Do you understand what I’m saying? Sometimes, out of the pain, we just want to ignore, act like it never happened. But friends, if that thing is hanging on, you’re dragging it for the next 30 years.
Sometimes part of this thing of forgetting is I have to face it. I was wronged there. That wasn’t right there. They did me wrong there. And now that I face the issue, now I can properly forgive them for what they did. Forgiveness is giving up our right to make them pay for what they did to you.
I think about a person in our church who was very severely abused. He said for years, these names and what had happened just kept coming back, always right there. He thought, “I’ll never forget.” When they went back and started dealing with that and allowing God to work—it was a season in their life—and properly dealing with that and forgiving and moving on. He said, “You know, it’s amazing, but I’m starting to forget. The details I thought I would never forget, I can’t remember all the details like I used to. It was almost like the healing was happening.” That’s what God’s talking about. But for years they were not able to properly forget until they dealt with it.
So, in saying that, he said, “Hey, forgetting those things which are behind” sometimes has to do with us dealing with that. I have to find out as I’m walking through life where all the strings are attached to my heart and to my mind and to how I react to things around me. I figure out, “Hey, there are some issues there,” and I deal with that properly so I can cut the string so I can move on without all these weights in life.
Paul, through the inspiration of God, says, “Hey, I want to press toward the mark,” but it starts off, “I haven’t apprehended,” and he said, “forgetting those things which are behind.” Some of that is forgiveness. In order for me to forgive, I’ve got to fully admit what’s happened to me so I can forgive for that. Sometimes realizing and admitting, “They’re messed up themselves; that’s why they did that to me,” helps me forgive. Jesus said on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus said they’re messed up; they didn’t know what they were doing. That helps me forgive.
Look, if you will—we didn’t read it—look at the very next verse here, verse number 15. Philippians 3, look in verse number 15 there. I want you to see this. He says, “Let us”—notice that—“let us, therefore, as many as be perfect.” That doesn’t mean sinless perfection; it means you’re mature. You’ve grown to the Lord; you’ve become a mature Christian. “As many as be perfect, be thus minded; and if anything, be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”
I want to emphasize just real quickly that us—our church is 20 years old now. Some of us have been involved and been around each other for years and years and years. Part of that, we’ve been hurt by each other: so-and-so said this, and so-and-so did this, and so-and-so has an attitude, so-and-so is always like this. If we’re not careful, we’ve gotten baggage. As we start 2020, it would be a great time for us to say, “You know what? I’m going to forgive those things. I’m going to cut the string off.” Yes, so-and-so sometimes is like this or that, but I’m just going to let all that go. I’m going to let that be between them and the Lord Jesus Christ, and I’m just going to press toward the mark. I’m not going to hang on to that thing anymore. Satan would love for our church to hang on to what so-and-so did or what our church used to be like.
It’s amazing in churches how much they change in our day and time. Not a lot of churches have church directories anymore. In fact, the last salesperson who came said, “Hey, when are you going to do another church directory?” I said, “The church has changed so much. People are moving, and it’s just part of our day and time.” I don’t know that I want to do one because a year later, it’s changed. They say everybody’s saying that nowadays; they’re having a hard time selling like they used to because it’s just a changing world, and people are moving much more than they used to. I say that to say, somewhere along the line, I say, “Hey, you know what? The old church—I’m going to let that go because God has a new Rutherford County Baptist Church.” I might love and miss some of those people back there, and that’s nothing wrong with that, but hey, it’s today, it’s 2020, and I’m excited about what God is doing in our church today. I’ve got to forget. Can I use this term a little bit? Sometimes you just got to let it go. That can include a lot of different things. Forgiveness is a tough thing; we’ve been focusing on that at the very beginning.
I’m reminded of a story in a faraway continent. It’s supposed to be a true story that a settler to that continent caught one of the natives close to his stables. He accused that man of trying to steal one of his horses, and he thought, “Well, I’m going to put some fear in the natives.” He tied that man to a tree—true story, they say—and he wanted to put fear in everybody around him, so he cut his right hand off and released him.
Years later, that man was out in the jungles and was caught in a storm and gotten lost. It became life-threatening. Finally, he found a little hut and crawled in. The people there were kind to him; some ladies fed him. He went to sleep and woke up, and that native was standing right on top of him. The story says as their eyes met, that native raised his arm without a hand on it. The settler looked up, and when their eyes met, he thought, “This is it. My life’s over.” The native said, “You took my hand, you accused me, so you don’t know if I was going to do it or not. Revenge is sweet, and I like to get revenge, but I’m a Christian now, and I forgive you what you did to me.”
Can I say that native was able to move on? He had cut the strings and could say, “I’m moving on. I’m forgetting those things which are behind.”
I don’t know how God wants to apply it to your life. I sometimes like to reminisce. I’m a reminiscent guy. I like to go back when we travel somewhere where we used to live. I like to ride by my old house and all those things. Anybody else like that? That’s me. I like the stage when the kids were little. You come home, John wants to wrestle, you know, and Sarah, I want to sit in your lap, and we eat some food together. I like that. But can I say, if I’m not careful, if I hang on to that, it’ll hinder me today? I’m not saying don’t reminisce, but there comes a point where I say, I’ve got to let go. I’m not at that stage anymore. Praise the Lord, I’m at the stage where we’re about to have grandkids. I can’t let it go; I can’t just drag through life all the problems of my past and my issues. Churches change, and sometimes I have to let go of past failures, problems, and times I fell flat on my face. Satan, if he can, will remind me of that over and over again, and I’ve got somewhere that’s on the line, and I say, “I’m going to forget that thing.”
Forgetting those things which are behind: Christ has forgiven me. He’s paid for the shed blood. He doesn’t even see it anymore. As far as the east is from the west, He’s removed my transgression from me. When Satan brings it up, I’m going to remind Satan of his future. It’s done. It’s over. It’s gone. The whole song: Gone, gone, yes, my sins are gone. They’re gone because I can have a fresh start.
Forgetting those things which are behind—sometimes it hurts. If I’m not careful, I’ll think about, “Boy, I miss my dad.” Brother Dad, he would say amen about 200 times every church service. I miss hearing my dad say amen. Or I go in his living room; he’d be set on one couch, I’d sit on the other couch. He would talk for a while, and I would kind of fall asleep. Then I would talk for a while; he’d kind of fall asleep. I just miss that. But if I get caught there, I get stuck there, and I drag that through life. Ah, he said, “forgetting those things.”
Can I say this? Everybody has a past. You say, “Well, that’s easy for Apostle Paul to pin that, as the Lord told him what to write to them.” Oh, Paul had a past.
Think about Paul for a second. If he wasn’t careful, he’d go back to when he was part of Christians being killed—the first martyr over there in Acts, Stephen, being killed—and old Paul saying, “Go get him, boys, let me hold your coat while you go over there and get him.” He watched Stephen; the blood came out of his head. Don’t you imagine Paul could very easily say, “I’m such a failure. I’m the biggest flop in the world. I was killing Christians.” He had a past.
Paul had been beaten more than once. People had wronged him. He hadn’t done anything wrong; he changed and began to preach the gospel, and people had beaten him. Can you imagine if you’re not careful, the bitterness that would set in? You talk about being wronged, beaten. The time he was being used by God to write this, he was in prison. Paul had a past. He could say, “My past includes being in prison, being shipwrecked, being beaten. I was stoned one time, and they thought I was dead; they dragged me outside the city of Lystra and left me for dead.” He had a past.
You say, “Preacher, you don’t know my past.” No, I don’t, but Paul had a past. Everybody has a past. Satan loves to deal in your past. I like this phrase: God’s a God of new beginnings. God’s a God of new beginnings. It’s a wonderful thing. Old Paul said, “Hey, forgetting those things which are behind.” People had disappointed him. Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. Part of his missionary team, I believe Demas was, and Demas took off and left him. He had disagreements, sometimes with good people. Paul and Barnabas had such a disagreement they had to part and go two different ways. I’m saying he had a past.
Paul was sitting there writing, and he had a past. At all these things, at one point, Paul said, “Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil.” But Paul, sitting there, said, “Hey, look, I haven’t finished. I haven’t apprehended. Forgetting those things which are behind.”
See? The wonderful thing is, when that person had been so severely abused, they came and said, “I can’t believe it. The things I thought I’d never forget, I’m forgetting them.” They were almost concerned, “I don’t want to forget them,” but praise the Lord, they did want to move beyond it after they properly dealt with it—forgetting those things.
It would be a great day, the first Sunday of the year, for us to just say, “Hey, I’m just going to put some things in the past. I want to forgive and let live, and I’m going to let go of some things and cut the strings. This is a new day. It’s a new year.” The older I get, the more I like fresh starts. I’ve already gone through my office; I chunked the 2019 calendars. I even had a calendar where you had to flip the day every day. I flipped that thing away. I just like to get rid of stuff. I know I’m turning some of you hoarders off right now. I like to even go through the closet. If I’m not using it, let’s get it out of here. I just like fresh things and new things. We’re moving on, and it frees me up a little bit. I can go to my office and say, “Hey, man, it’s a new year, and I don’t have to worry about all this in the past.” God is doing something now, and we’re going somewhere now through the grace of God.
He said, “I press toward the mark.” That all started with, “I haven’t apprehended,” and “forgetting.” Is there anything interesting in verse number 13? If you look back there, verse number 13, one more time here, we’re almost done. Very interesting. He says, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do.”
I’ve read commentaries on that—exactly what does that mean? I’ve had different thoughts, prayed about it a lot. I originally thought he’s saying, “Look, this is one thing I did that’s helped me: forgetting these things.” But I tend to think that’s not the final thought. He just keeps reading there. He says, “But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark.”
I think this is a little bit of what he has in mind. Now that he has realized he’s not finished and he’s getting rid of all these past things, now he doesn’t have a whole lot of things hanging on. He has one thing to do. He doesn’t have about 40 different things hanging on, dragging everywhere he goes. Now, this one thing I do is, man, I’m shooting for that mark down there. It will be a great time this year, so I’m going to let go of some things. I’m going to forgive. Why? So I can have one thing. I’m focusing on what God has here; I’m pressing toward the mark.
The first Sunday of the year, 2020, I believe God has given you a little bit—He’s already worked in your heart just a little bit—to give you this: what I like for this year: be winning, thriving, the joy of God, the happiness of prayer life, the influence God has given you, not for you, but to help other people. God starts it off. He says, “Hey, you’ve got to forgive some things and forget some things and move on. This one thing I do: I’m pressing toward that right there.”
The analogy is of a runner running a race. In the marathons, Brother Marlins ran some, they’ll have that rope or that ribbon across there, and man, you get to the finish line and you’re trying to press. You’re trying to get out there because you want to break that ribbon first. If I start looking behind and worry about it, it slows me down a little bit. The analogy is: “Hey, I’m forgetting those things which are behind and I’m reaching forth to those things which are before”—the ministries God would like to use you in the future, the answer is the prayer God would like to give you in the future, growth in you being the husband, the wife that you ought to be in the future. So look, I’ve got to let go of all those things back there because I want to do one thing: I want to press toward the mark, the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It would be a great time to do that. Is the Holy Spirit bringing some things up in your mind? Those are the things. It may even take a season for you to deal with that, but the end result is what I can go after in the future.
Two men were walking through the field, one older, one younger, and there was cattle in the fields. The younger respected the older greatly and was trying to learn from him. He was trying to listen to everything he said. They were walking through one gate. They walked through several gates, and the younger was closing the gate, but he didn’t latch it real good because he was trying to hear. He didn’t want to miss the word, so he just kept going; he didn’t close it well.
The older guy saw it and went back. He said, “Man, let me close that gate good. We don’t want the cattle to be able to come over here.” The older man said, “Did you hear about Dr. So-and-so? He was a good man.” The younger said, “No, I didn’t hear about that.” He said, “Yeah, he died several years ago. Before he died, when he was dying, he got his family together around his bed and said something to them.”
The older man said this: “It’s helped me so much in the last couple of years.” He told his sons and his daughters, “As you travel through life, I always want you to close the gate good.” He said that’s been so helpful for me because if we don’t close the gate good, the cattle from that side over there will start coming into this field. If they don’t close the next one, they’ll start coming to that field. God is saying, “Hey, I want you to close the gate good.” Want you to close the gate good? I haven’t apprehended. I’ve had to forget some things because God has some things in front of me to do.
Can I say the greatest way to have a new year, 10,000 times greater than a new year, is a new man at salvation? Being saved. Your life is new. All things are passed away; behold, all things become new. Getting saved, it’s a new life.
Can I say the greatest way to have a new year, 10,000 times greater than a new year, is a new man at salvation? Being saved. Your life is new. All things are passed away; behold, all things become new. Getting saved, it’s a new life.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Would you let the Lord just kind of stir you a little bit right there? Maybe you’re there, you say, “I want to press toward that mark. I want to shoot for that mark.” The first minutes of the message, we focused on that mark, and you say, “I want to press toward that. I want to shoot for that. I’m going after that. By the grace of God, I believe God has some marks in front of me, and I’m going to be pressing toward that. I’m going to be reaching forth to those things.” God spoke to your heart about that. If that’s you this morning, slip your hand up. “That’s me. That’s me.” Many, many hands. God bless you. Many, many hands. That’s vital. That’s wonderful. Thank you for letting the Lord work in your heart and say, “I want to press after that.” That’s great.
Maybe you hear this morning, you say, “Preacher, I’ve got to let go of some things. I’ve got to admit my race isn’t finished or some things ahead. Maybe in that section, I’ve got to deal with some things so I can properly move on and forget.” “Preacher, God spoke to my heart. I need to let some things go, need to forgive, need to move on.” Forgetting those things—God spoke to my heart about that. If that’s you this morning, just lift your head. “Preacher, that’s me. That’s me.” Many, many hands. God bless you. That’s vital. As a church family, it’s so vital; we just crossed our 20-year mark. It’s a good time for us. Hey, it’s a new day, it’s a new dawn. Praise the Lord for what He’s done, but we can’t hang on to that; there are too many things in front of us. Anybody else? “Preacher, God spoke to my heart about forgetting.” Anybody else? God bless you. Thank you so very much. Many, many hands.
Maybe you hear this morning, you say, “Preacher, I don’t know that I’m saved. I need that new life in Christ. Better than a new year, I need that new life, a new man through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. Preacher, I need to be saved. I’m not saved, preacher. I need to be saved.” Anybody like that? “Preacher, I’m not saved.” Would you just lift your hand? Anybody like that?
Original File: Press Toward the Mark - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday 1520