PRESSING MATTERS

Philippians Chapter 3:4-11

Rick Jackson

Everyday we have things we want to do but sometimes these things are crowded out by pressing matters. Things we must do. Sometimes there are not enough hours in the day and we must choose the most pressing matters. I had a wedding to perform yesterday that took most of the last three days. The wedding itself took less than an hour but the preparation time was quite a different matter. I begged off from the rehearsal dinner and the reception meal because I had "pressing matters" to take care of. Jesus told the story of a rich man who thought he had the pressing matters taken care of but actually he had OTHER MORE pressing matters that he had not considered, Luke 12:20, "But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?"

Even if we have settled the matter of salvation there may be pressing matters before us that we are not giving enough of our attention. Paul helps up put some of these in perspective in the third chapter of Philippians.

I. There is the matter of Positive Dissatisfaction (3:12-13a)

"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:"

II. There is the matter of Prime Devotion (3:13a, Mt. 6:33)

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do..."

III. There is the matter of Pointed Direction (3:13b)

"...but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before..."

IV. There is the matter of Personal Determination (3:14, James 4:17)

"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

V. Finally, there is the matter of Perpetual Discipline (3:15-21)

"Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

16-Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

17-Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.

18-For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

19-Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

20-For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

21-Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.