Pentecost 12 - 2012: Sermon

August 19, 2012 - Sermon from Pentecost 12 "How to Live Beyond Your Means" Philippians 3:8-21 (Summer Series 7)-Rev. Mark C. Wagner Intro: Conversion means a complete turn-around, an about-face.  We see this complete reversal of thinking (metanoia) in Paul.  He tells us how he abandoned all his former reckoning and came to a new understanding.  What he once counted as gain he now counts as loss.

1.  Conversion in Christ takes you out of yourself. (v. 8 )

1. Conversion is not the end of the road, but the beginning.
2. This transformation into a new version of life comes when Christ takes over.
3. Remind yourself that when you depend on earthly things you lose sight of what really matters (heavenly things).

App: You cannot serve two masters.  You cannot drink from the empty bowl of human boasting and from the inexhaustible rivers of life that flow from the Lord Jesus.

2.  Conversion into Christ's life takes you beyond all circumstance.  (vs. 9-12)

1. We are called into a majestic morality:  his righteousness.
2. We share in his majestic ministry:  power, compassion, purity.
3. We move beyond ourselves by this majestic motive:  he has taken hold of me.

App: This is not knowing about Christ but knowing HIM - daily, again and again.  Our lives go from mundane to majestic because he fills us to the point of forgetting.  Forgetting what is behind we press on toward what is ahead.  (vs. 13-14)

Conclusion: Paul contrasts our former way of life with our new one.  We no longer live for pleasure but for him - for the joy no words can adequately express!  He has taken over me and I am now a citizen of heaven.  (vs. 15-21) I live beyond myself and my limitations knowing that I am becoming more like him as I near the day of our meeting face to face.

"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."