This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Anna, thank you very much. Well, please do keep your bibles open in Philippians, chapter three. We're going to look at that together this evening. A new year is often marked by two things, isn't it? Looking back and looking forward.

Looking back really just means that we have to watch lots of repeats. You get all those best of the year shows, which are builders, something new, but they are just repeats of everything you've seen that year already. You get annuals of the year, which again, is just a rehash of all the magazine material that they've had from the year ahead. It's looking back, it's repeats. It's slightly smug social media posts about how good someone's year was, or slightly sympathy seeking posts about how awful it was.

I don't think looking back is all that great. And looking ahead, well, that means making resolutions about how we're going to seize the year, how we're going to do better than last year, and there'll be all sorts of prophecies and predictions about geopolitics and the forthcoming general election and what the next technological advance will be. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for a little bit of self reflection, a little bit of looking back and looking forward, but so often when we do it, we look back with rose tinted glasses. Oh, how wonderful the year was. Oh, how awful.

And we look ahead optimistically and a little bit naively, I think. But as we come to Paul's letter to the Philippians, he wants us, I think, to look back and look ahead with kind of sober judgement, with a real sense of clarity, not just thinking everything's great, everything's going to be wonderful, but actually thinking about the past and thinking about the future. See, as he writes to these Christians in Philippi, he finds himself doing a little bit of self reflection, looking back and looking forward. And he sums it up. There's a key verse in our reading there, verse 13.

If you got a Bible there, look down at verse 13. He says, brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Paul's attitude here to the new year would almost be 2023. Forget about it.

2024. Press on to your goal. And so I just want us to see two things this evening, and the first one is this. Forget what's behind. Forget what's behind.

Now, for Paul, he's not really saying that the past doesn't matter. Indeed, in his letter to the Philippians, he's remembering stuff from the past. He's remembering the ways in which God has worked in them. He recalls sharing the gospel with the guards in Rome. It's not that the past doesn't matter is insignificant, but it's not something which he relies on.

It's not something which he builds his life on. You see, for many people, for good and bad, life is defined and built on their past. For good, we build our life on our past results, our successes, our cv, our experiences, things that we can point to, to show us how we've done good, how we've done well, but also for bad. We're easily haunted by our mistakes, the what ifs, the hindsight of the things that I should have done or should have said. For good or bad.

It's really easy to build our lives and rely on our past. That's my tendency. I'm sure it's yours. But for Paul, he reckons there's a spiritual dimension to this as well. The danger that my faith in God is built on my past achievements, or indeed on my failures.

Now, if Paul were to give you his spiritual cv, his list of achievements, it would be the equivalent of a couple of hundred ucas points. He'd be the top voice on LinkedIn, he would be the prefect or head boy in his school. He's top of the class. And if you wanted to model a faith, build your life on someone else's example, it would be Paul's. He lists in verses five to six, just before our reading, all the amazing things, spiritually speaking, religiously, that he'd done.

And yet, in light of all these things, in light of all these things that he could build his life on, that he could rely on, he says, actually they're worthless. Verse seven. Look down at verse seven and eight with me. But whatever was to my profit, all these good things he'd done, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my lord, for whose sake I've lost all things, I consider them rubbish that I may gain.

Christ. Now, it's not that his achievements were rubbish, human he's being. He'd done lots of amazing things, lots of amazing achievements that would look good on any cv. But verse eight, because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my lord, he says that there's a category difference. On the one hand, here are all my human achievements and the other here's Jesus.

He says the two things just don't compare. Sure, these things over here may look good on their own, but in comparison to Jesus, they look as nothing, worthless. It's like one of those game shows where you get to gamble at the end. I can't think of. They're all kind of the same, aren't they?

They all blend into one. You have, on the one hand, the prizes that you've won, the holiday, the car, the cash prize, the cuddly toy that's over here. And you could take that home with you now, or you could risk it all for the star prize. I don't know what the star prize is. It's probably a lot more money, but whatever.

It looks completely different. That looks good, but this looks amazing. And if you had the choice, you definitely pick this one. And Paul chooses to gamble. He says, actually, all those things I've won, all these achievements, I forget about them.

I'm going to pick this price here, I'm going to pick following the Lord Jesus. And of course, it's really no gamble, is it? Because you can't even compare it to know Jesus. That makes everything over here look rubbish. Paul's choice is to give up all his achievements because he realises they're of no value in comparison to knowing Jesus.

It's no gamble for Paul. He knows this prize is far superior. A missionary called Jim Elliott summed it up really well when he said this. He said, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

Paul knows that all these earthly achievements, they hold no value. They're no good to him. Whereas Jesus is eternal treasure, he is the prize that lasts for eternity, that cannot be lost. But Paul had learnt here an important lesson. It's one that we must grasp, too, when we understand and believe the gospel.

When it comes to knowing God, your past won't make you. Your past won't make you. There's nothing you've done or anything you can do to earn God's love for you. So, like Paul, I can forget what I've done. It's of no, it doesn't help me to know God.

There's nothing in my past that will make me before God. But the opposite is also true. When it comes to knowing God, your past won't break you. There's nothing you've done and there's nothing that's been done to you that will cause God to love you less. Your past will not make you, and it won't break you.

And so, with a clear conscience and joyful confidence, I can forget what's behind because my future lies with Jesus. That's the first thing he wants us to know. Forget what's behind. It won't make you, and it won't break you. The second thing he says is, press on towards your goal.

Press on towards your goal. New year is often a time for goal setting, for personal resolutions. We look forward, hopefully, expectantly, sometimes naively, that this year will be the year when everything comes together, whether it's the new job, getting into the old clothes, learning a new skill. I suspect we've all got things that we'd like to achieve in the year ahead. But for Paul, he has just one goal, one goal for himself, one goal for the Philippians, one goal for us.

It's verse 13 again, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind, we've seen that and straining toward what is ahead. That's what he wants us to do, strain towards what is ahead, strain towards our goal. Paul has a goal that he wants us to strain towards, something ahead.

It's something we're told in verse twelve, to take hold of, something to grab, something to hold onto.

In verse 14, it's described as a prize, something to win. And this goal, this prize is described throughout this passage. Have a look down at the passage with me, and let's go through some of the verses together.

Verse eight. What's the goal? It's the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ, the surpassing worth. We're told this is something valuable. Here's the prize, knowing Christ.

Or verse 99.

We're told about a gift, a gift that his prize is. It's a righteousness that comes from God, a gift of God, righteousness, his perfect life given for us. Verse ten. What's this prize?

It's knowing Christ. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. It's becoming like Jesus. That's the prize. Verse eleven, what's the prize?

To attain, to win the resurrection from the dead. This is new life.

Or verse twelve, it's something which Christ takes hold of us for, something which he wins us for. Verse 14, what does this prize do? It leads me heavenward. You see how multifaceted this goal is. It's knowing Jesus.

It's becoming like him. It's being perfected by him. It's rising to new life with him, being taken into his family, his fellowship. It's eternal life with him. In short, Jesus Christ is the goal, he's the prize.

But Paul doesn't just say, here's a great prize. Here's a great goal to work towards. Isn't Jesus great? Look at him. It's a bit more active than that.

He says, press on, take hold, strain towards that goal. It's all very well having a goal, but what are you going to do to achieve it? What are you going to do to take hold of it, to strain towards him? I was reading the story the other day about know Costco. It's that american big, what do you call it, cash and carry type shop.

You have to go up to Croydon if you want to go to it, and you got to be a member. So if you're not a member, you can't go. But they go, and it's one of those pile high shops. Anyway, one of the stories about Costco is founded in 1985, and in 1985 they sold hot dogs and a soda. It's american soda.

So you could go and you could get a hot dog and a soda for $1.50. $1.50, that was quite good. But that was in 1985. But one of the things, one of the goals that the owner of Costco had was he never wanted to increase the price. He always wanted it, $1.50 for hot dog and soda.

And that was in 1985, okay? And today the price is the same. So if you go in the. In the States it's $1.50. In the UK, it's one pound 50.

You can still get a hot dog and a soda and with free refill for one pound 50, I think, how on earth can you do that? How on earth can it be the same price in 1985? And now. And the answer is, I'm. I'm not sure you can.

But that was his goal. And he said to the. He said to the guy running the company, you're not allowed to change the price. That's my goal. I want that to always be the same.

And you think, well, there's two ways to do that. One is you never change the price and you just lose loads of money. Or you do things to make sure you keep the price the same. You do it things to hit your goal. He's got this goal, $1.50.

It's going to stay the same. So what do they do? They built hot dog factories. They started making their own. They did stuff in order to keep it at $1.50.

See, it's all very well having a goal. It's a silly goal. $1.50 for a hot dog, but you've actually got to do stuff in order to achieve that goal. They built hot dog factories. But what are we going to do?

If our goal is to know Jesus Christ, better to take hold of him. What are we going to do?

Paul reckons that Jesus is so worth it, that he's worth pursuing, he's worth working towards, worth straining towards. I'd say perhaps consider three practical things that we see in this passage. Firstly, Paul says, we want to know Christ. We want to know Christ. He talks about the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.

Now, when the Bible talks about knowing Jesus, it doesn't just mean knowing about him. Filling our heads with knowledge about Jesus, what it really means is having a relationship with him. We relate to Jesus when we read and meditate on his word, when we pray to our father, our shared father, through him, we relate to him when we're led by the Holy Spirit who helps us be sure of God's love for us.

Steve gave us some great advice earlier. If you want to know Jesus better, pick up your bible each day. Let his word change your daily life. Pray regularly. Ask for his help.

Don't just come to church, come to the building, but come and meet with his people. The church is described as Jesus' bride. If you want to know Jesus, get to know his wife. That's how I find out stuff. Get to know someone's wife.

They'll tell you everything you need to know. Get to know his wife. That's how we relate to Jesus. So many of these things. We take them for granted, and yet they are Jesus gift to us to help us know him better.

Know him, follow him. Talks about that in verse ten, doesn't it? Verse ten. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. To follow someone is to become like them.

To follow Jesus is to imitate him. And yet there's a kind of paradox here, isn't there? On the one hand, Jesus perfectly models love and kindness and humility. And yet, Paul knows more than anyone the path to following Jesus is hard.

It also results in suffering and death. And yet he still says Jesus worth following. No one here is claiming that being a Christian is easy.

In fact, in many ways it's really hard. But Paul still says, we still say following Jesus is worth it. We want to follow him. We want to become like him, even in his death. So we start asking questions like, well, what would Jesus say about this?

What would Jesus do in this situation? Are my words, my thoughts, my actions, my motives? Are they Christ like? Are they imitating how Jesus might respond? Know him?

Follow him? Here's the third one. This is most important.

Rest in him. Rest in him. There's lots of talk in this passage about straining, pressing on, taking hold. But Paul wants us to be clear again. This is not the way we earn God's favour.

It's not that the more spiritual sweat you work up, the more God is pleased with you. Look at verse nine with me, Paul says, and he wants us to be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes through the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. He says, we want to be found in Jesus. And the way to be found is not having a righteousness, a goodness that comes from following the law.

To be found in Jesus doesn't mean we tick all the boxes, doesn't mean we are righteous because we follow God's law to the letter, that we're perfect, that we're always obedient, that we always do the right thing and God's really pleased with us. No, that's not the righteousness, the goodness, the way in which we find place with Jesus. No, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. This righteousness, this perfect life is a gift from God. It's Jesus' life given to us and the way to be found in him, the way to find a place of safety and rest with Jesus is ultimately, through his straining, his obedience, his pressing on his righteousness.

So before you strain, before you strive, before you press on, before you take hold, first enjoy his rest, enjoy the righteousness that doesn't come from my life, from my achievements, but the righteousness, the goodness that comes from his life. Jesus' life before you strive, before you strain, rest in him. Now, these practical disciplines, they might sound familiar. You might be thinking, well, isn't there something new? Isn't there a quick fix to meet with Jesus in 2024?

Well, no, not really. But I do want to give you one simple test, one simple test which will see you through any situation. It's a question to ask yourself, simple question, will this help me to know, love and follow Jesus better? And you can ask that question about absolutely anything, and you change the this for anything. Will this friendship group help me to know, love and follow Jesus better in 2024?

Will this university choice help me to know, love and follow Jesus better? More? Will this boyfriend girlfriend job, will this thing help me to love, know and follow Jesus better, we might start asking related questions. Well, what are the things that are getting in the way of me loving Jesus?

What are the things that are helping me to love Jesus? 2024 let's say no to some of these things, the things that stop us loving him. And let's say yes, let's amplify those things that are helping me to love him. More simple questions, but I suggest they'll have massive impacts on the way we think and live in the year ahead. If your one goal is Jesus, it will change every area of your life.

And if Paul is right, and if many of us here tonight are right, you won't regret it. Amen.