I Choose Hope - Pursuing Hope, Part 1

What is the pathway to true spiritual maturity? Is it a special experience that once you have it, you become mature? Or is it reading the Bible and praying longer than anyone else?

Or what if it's something completely different than all of that? That's today. Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The goal of this international discipleship ministry is to encourage Christians to really live like Christians. And that idea of authenticity and genuineness when it comes to following Jesus is where Chip's headed in this program.

Now you may be asking, what does a mature Christian have to do with hope? Well, today Chip's going to tell us as he continues his series, I Choose Hope. But before we begin, let me encourage you to try using Chip's message notes while you listen. They contain his outline, the scripture he uses, and a few key fill-ins to help you remember and apply what you hear.

Download them under the broadcasts tab at livingontheedge.org. App listeners tap fill-in notes. Well, with all that said, here's Chip for today's talk. We've been talking about finding hope, experiencing hope, and now we're going to talk about pursuing hope. Open your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3.

We're going to look at verses 12 through 16 in just a minute. But at the heart of finding hope is a spiritual pathway to God. Some way of spiritual development or spiritual maturity, that is what's going to give us lasting, deep hope. And so there's a pursuit. And what I want to do in our time here is I want to give you four examples because this gets tricky. This pursuit of hope through a spiritual pathway, even among Christians, has some real potholes here and there that I watch believers go down this direction or that direction and often get very disillusioned with God.

Because either they think he's expecting something of them that he's not or they're expecting something to happen that's not realistic. And so they say, I've pursued lasting, deep hope in a relationship with Christ, and quote, it doesn't work. Let me share four, I think they're rather sad stories, but I want to give you a spectrum. The first one is a young gal that I knew many years ago. She was a coed engineering major, very bright, went to one of the finest academic institutions in all of America. She came home after six or eight months and told me that she was kind of dissatisfied with our church.

She was dissatisfied with her parents. She had met a group there on campus that really understood the deeper things. And she began to talk to me about the shortcomings of our church and most Christians everywhere and this new group. And she said, I've learned the deeper teaching. And then she looked me right in the eye and she said, I have learned the secret of the deeper teaching is I don't sin anymore. And I remember going, no, no. I said, so I mean you don't have a bad thought, you don't have a bad attitude, nothing comes out of your mouth, you never do anything wrong, you are sinless.

You're perfect now. And she sat very calmly and sort of this kind of weird stupor and said, yes. And she went on to share a Christian cult and by God's grace, I remember years later, she was delivered out of it. The second example is of a teammate that I had many years ago. We were playing basketball together, traveling throughout South America and great guy, great friends. And he was another point guard so we hung out, roomed together on the road and we're in all these different countries and had deep talks at night and two young guys.

And I remember one night, I think he felt really open and he began to really share his heart and he goes, Chip, I really like you and we're really good friends and you know what, you're just missing out. And I said, wow, what do you mean? And he said, I have an experience and you can have this experience and I have six airtight passages from scripture and when you do exactly what I say, according to these six passages, you will experience a power like never before.

And then he talked about all the things that would happen in my life and he cared about me and this is the experience and if you don't have this experience, second rate Christian will never amount to anything. The third spiritual pathway that was to give lasting hope was I had an elderly friend who had a daughter that was grown. She was literally a musical genius.

She went to that most prestigious musical school on the East Coast in the entire world or at least they think so. She was finishing up her PhD but she had recently gone to work with her husband who worked for a spiritual organization. And as she came home on break and met with me being a pastor and her parents being involved in the church, she was telling me about the vast untapped spiritual potential that I could have if I would go to this weekend seminar that had some scientific test and that they could help me for a mere $550 at the time spending this weekend that would transform my spiritual life. So number one, there's some deeper teaching that I can be perfect.

Number two, there's an experience I need to have. Number three, there's a seminar with sort of science mixed in about tapping into the spiritual potential that's in all of us. And then the fourth was, it was bizarre, I still remember reading it in the paper actually. It was the story of a semi-unkept unsophisticated woman who happened to be with research later a high school dropout. She exercised a mind-boggling control if you will over in the Dallas area at the time of professors, doctors, lawyers. She was a spiritual guide. She took them into various experiences. She actually had some times and ways where she told them future things that were going to happen to them. She assigned a spiritual guide to them.

And then the police in investigating the entire web of manipulation connected this woman to a series of suicides of high level professionals that were all her clients who all happened to leave in their will their money to her. And here's all I want to say, what all four of these stories have in common is each one of them is linked. All four had a pursuit of hope. They had a pursuit of hope. They wanted to look at a promising future. They wanted to have a sense that progress is certain. They wanted to know that life is good. And even in the midst of their struggles and their ups and their downs, they were looking for hope and they were looking for it where most people are at the end of the day. Is through a spiritual relationship where you become growing and become spiritually mature.

So here's what I want to address. What does it mean to be spiritually mature? Because if you're not clear on that, if you're not clear on exactly what it means to be spiritually mature and what it doesn't mean to be spiritually mature and if you're not on the right spiritual path, your pursuit of hope can take you down some very, very bad paths.

The apostle Paul is actually going to answer this question. He's going to define spiritual authenticity for us. And as he does that, notice the context here. The context is he's found hope. But what he knows is as he shares that, that there's some bad teaching and there's some paths that even in what he said, people could go the wrong direction. So here's what he's going to do. Verses 12 through 16, he's going to explain to them what spiritual maturity is and what spiritual maturity is not.

Notice what he says. He says, not that I've already obtained all of this or I've already been made perfect, circle the word perfect if you will, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Will you underline take hold of and take hold of me?

It's going to be very, very important. Notice in the next line, brothers, I don't consider myself as having taken hold of it yet is the idea, but this one thing I do, circle one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, reaching forward to what lies ahead, literally straining forward, I press on toward the goal, toward the prize for God which he has called me heavenward. Straining forward, he wants to know Christ personally. He says, I'm on a journey.

Now, in your notes, I want you to write the word disclaimer. What he's really saying is, look, I want to know Christ. I'm as passionate or more passionate today 30 years after I met Jesus on the Damascus road and we learned that he wanted to know in his daily life, not just that someday, some way he's going to be resurrected, he wanted to know in his daily life the power of the resurrection.

We talked about experiencing God's strength and weakness, overcoming temptation, overcoming the flesh, overcoming difficulty, seeing God's power actually work through us in everyday life, giving us patience for people that make us crazy, giving us a generous heart that doesn't come naturally. And then he said, not only do I want to experience the power of his resurrection, I also want to know the fellowship of his suffering, that in the ups and downs and difficulties of life, in the pain that you're going to have and I'm going to have, we are human. We will have pain in relationships. We will have pain in our physical bodies. We will have disappointments. We will be betrayed.

We will suffer. And what Paul said is, I want to share in, I want to experience the presence of Christ when I suffer. And whether that suffering is external and people do it to me, whether I experience it internally in the anguish of my heart, or whether I suffer because I'm a follower of Christ, I want to experience the intimacy and the power and the love and the comfort that Jesus promised. And then notice that last line, as I am being conformed, progressively transformed into the very likeness of Christ in his death. So that's his prayer.

But here's the misunderstanding. Paul, do you have it all together? Paul, have you become perfect? Paul, I want you to write the word disclaimer.

Not that I already have this. In other words, I haven't arrived. No sinless perfection. I haven't been made perfect. The word means mature. It's a picture of something that fulfills its design. It's not perfection as in without fault or sinless. It's the same word in James chapter one, two through four, where he says, Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfecting or perfect result, that you grow and become mature, lacking in nothing. In other words, he says, I don't have it all together.

I haven't been made sinlessly perfect, but I press on. In other words, it's a hunting term. It's like a hunter who is waiting, and then stalking, and then waiting, and then stalking. I press on.

In other words, there's a very clear-cut goal. I don't have it all together, but get it? I'm progressively on a journey. And here's his passion. Notice what he says. He says, I want to take hold of. It means to reach out, to grasp, to obtain, to actually experience.

I want to take hold of that for which God has taken hold of me. And so his disclaimer is, am I perfect? No. Am I pressing ahead? Do I have a goal? Am I seeking with all my heart to know Christ?

Absolutely. Brothers, I don't consider myself as taking hold of it yet, okay? I haven't met Christ. I haven't been transformed. I still have issues. I still have times where I get angry.

I still have times when lustful thoughts come to my mind. I still have times when I get discouraged. I haven't taken hold of it yet, but here's one thing I do. Get this.

Here's his explanation. I'm not there yet, but I have a focus. I have a priority. I have an intentionality, and I have an intensity.

This is after 30 years. An intentionality and intensity that I want to press on to know him. I'm going to eliminate distractions, and then he tells us how. I'm going to forget what lies behind.

We'll develop this in a minute. He's going to forget all of his past failures. He's going to forget that he was a persecutor. He's going to not think that God's down on him, that the things that he did in his past are still held up against him.

But he's also going to forget his past accomplishments. He's been an apostle for 30 years. He's planted churches.

He's already written New Testament books. He's had amazing, amazing experiences. He goes, am I going to rest on my laurels? He said, I'm not going to live under condemnation of my past, but there's no way there can be any complacency. Like, oh, you know, I love the Lord, and I served when I was young, and I did a lot of things, and now, you know, it's sort of the McDonald's philosophy of life.

I deserve a break today. There is none of that in the apostle Paul. And so his disclaimer is, I'm not perfect, and I haven't arrived. His explanation is that I press on toward the goal for the prize of which God called me heavenly. That phrase, God called me heavenward, every time it's used throughout the New Testament, save once. It's about the calling of God for salvation. He's saying, God has a calling on my life. I've turned for my sin. I've received Christ. That calling, one day, someday, when I die, or what we're going to find out, he's not quite sure when Christ returns, I'm going to be with him. And he says, he repeats, I press on. That's my goal.

That's the prize that God has called me heavenward. And then he has sort of a bit of an admonition, because he's got problems. Notice this whole book, Underlying There's Some Problems. We had some disunity problems. They had some persecution problems.

We had some false teacher problems. And so he knows there's some stuff going on, because he's getting reports from Epaphroditus, and it says, all of us who are mature, that's our word teleos again. All of us who have come to a standard of progressive maturity in Christ, not perfect, but mature, should have this attitude, the New American Standard says. And if on any point you think differently, that too, God will make clear. In other words, this idea that there's no sinless perfection over here, and this idea that it requires a passionate pursuit of following God. Anybody that has a different idea, God will reveal it to you. But then notice his final admonition, only, let us live up to what we've already attained. In other words, wherever you're at in the truth that you've received, in the spiritual growth where you're at, in your life right now, in your life right now, wherever you're at, he goes, you need to respond to the truth. The fact that I haven't already arrived, or no one's already arrived, can become an excuse, is what he's saying. You can't say, well, you know, everyone struggles. I mean, most men have a pornography issue, so I mean, God understands. I mean, most people understand that, you know, this is how we live, and this is what's going on.

No, no. He said, whatever truth you've received, you need to respond to. What the apostle Paul is doing is he's addressing two extremes. There were two extremes about what it meant to be spiritually mature, and in very subtle ways, he's addressed both of them. On the one hand, spiritual maturity is not compulsive perfectionism. When the Judaizers and legalistic people came in, you gotta live up, you gotta live up, you gotta live up, you gotta live up, you gotta live up. And by the way, there's some of us, and there's some of you, that maybe it's not even conscious, but you live with this, who you are, and where you're at on your journey, it never measures up.

You live with this low-grade guilt that messes with your life all the time, and as a result, some of you parents, you are passing that on to your kids. No matter what they do, however much progress they make, it's never enough. There's this perfectionism, and what he's saying is that that's not spiritual maturity. Reading your Bible every day, praying every day, having all your ducks in a row, it's about a relationship. The test of spiritual maturity is loving God and loving people and a transformed life.

It's not this external perfectionism. But there's another extreme, and he addressed that in the very last verse. Spiritual maturity is not complacent passivity. On the one hand, these Judaizers were coming in and giving people a list of rules, you gotta do all this, but there was another group. The other group, it's a big word, antinomianist.

You learned a big word today, anti against the law. And what they would say is, you know this stuff about Jesus, it's even better than we thought. This is what grace means, you pray and you receive Jesus into your heart, you are forgiven, God loves you unconditionally. There are no rules, you can live however you want, there is no morality, it's just grace, grace, grace.

Some people have called it cheap grace. So you can keep living in sin, quote, because God understands. He's a gracious God, you're already forgiven. And this is where he says you need to live up to the standard. Okay, thank you Chip, we have now learned a great deal about the Apostle Paul and what was going on in the life of the church. Help me a little bit on what's this really got to do with me.

I want you to lean back, I want you to really think, I want to summarize some things because God wants to give you hope. You need to find it, you need to experience it, but you need to pursue it. But you need to pursue it in such a way that no matter what you do, you never measure up is not an option.

And on the other hand, there's not just this laxity that I guess God just winks at everything. Genuine spiritual maturity is a passionate pursuit of knowing and becoming like Jesus. Will you get it in this life?

Well I know, but it's a passionate pursuit. You've been listening to part one of Chip's message, Pursuing Hope, which is from our series, I Choose Hope. Chip will be back with us in studio shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. In uncertain times, what do you put your hope in?

And how confident are you that that person or thing will actually deliver the peace and stability you're desperate for? As Chip teaches through Philippians chapter three, he'll share what God has to say about our fears about the future and how it's possible to be confident in these anxious times. Stay with us as we learn to face tomorrow and each day that follows with complete certainty in a never-failing hope. To get more plugged in with this series, I Choose Hope, or any of our helpful resources, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org.

That's LivingOnTheEdge.org. Chip's back with me in studio, and Chip, you wrapped up your message today by talking about the test of spiritual maturity. So before we go any further, you had a few thoughts that build off that idea.

Take a few minutes and share them with us. Thanks so much, Dave. You may not know it, but there's about 8 billion people on the planet Earth, and almost one-third of them, 2.4 billion, call themselves Christians. And yet their research shows that only a tiny fraction of those people who call themselves Christians actually live in a way that produces what Jesus would call spiritual fruit. They haven't moved beyond spiritual empathy. In other words, they need help to grow and to mature. And at Living on the Edge, helping Christians live like Christians is the core purpose. In other words, it's why we exist.

We're convinced that God has called every single believer to mature, to become like Christ, to become the kind of parent, the kind of person, the kind of boss, the kind of employee that reflects the character and the life of the Lord Jesus. But people need help to do that, and maybe you're one of them. Maybe you're a person who's listened to the broadcast or has done a Living on the Edge small group or gone through daily discipleship. I mean, literally hundreds of thousands, millions of people have been through some of our material that's helped you mature. And what I would ask you is, would you be willing to pay it forward? Would you become a monthly partner? At a small amount, a medium amount, a big amount, if each one of us would just give some each month, it would allow us to help those spiritual babies grow to maturity and then make a difference in their marriage and then in their families, in their communities and in their churches.

And when that happens, God does a great work. I'd like to invite you to become a monthly partner with Living on the Edge. Thanks, Chip. As you prayerfully consider your role with this ministry, I want to remind you that every gift is significant. When you partner with Living on the Edge, you multiply our efforts and resources in amazing ways. To set up a recurring donation, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or the Chip Ingram app. You can also text donate to 74141. That's the word donate to 74141.

We appreciate your support. Well, with that, here's Chip to share a few final words. As we close today's program, we join the Apostle Paul telling us that he's learned that being religious, you know, tithing, fasting twice a week, being the greatest intellect of the day, knowing all about God is no substitute for really knowing him and pressing in.

And then I love his disclaimer. He says, not that I've laid hold of it yet. So he's not saying that I've got it all together, but what he's saying is that our struggles don't define us. The real issue here is spiritual maturity. And how do you become spiritually mature?

And I have a little schematic. I have a little picture on my notes. And on the far left, it says spiritual maturity is not compulsive perfectionism. In other words, it's not legalism. It's not just all you do.

It's not external. And then on the far side, I say spiritual maturity is not complacent passivity. In other words, it's just all God.

It's just all grace. I can live however I want. And, you know, God's going to make it all happen and there's no responsibility on my part. In the middle then I say spiritual maturity is a passionate pursuit of knowing and becoming like Christ. And that really means that the test of your spiritual maturity isn't how often you go to church, not how many wonderful experiences you've had or not had. Spiritual maturity is measured very, very simply.

It's how much do you and I love God and love people? Because, see, the Spirit of God entered our life when we trusted Christ as our Savior. Theologically, we were taken out of the kingdom of darkness and placed in the kingdom of light of His beloved Son. And the Spirit of God takes up residence in us. And so we have all the power we ever need to be all that God wants us to be.

And that's His part. And the Spirit lives within us longing to produce the life of Christ. And what Paul is clear to say here is that it requires a passionate pursuit on our part, but it also requires that we forget what lies behind. You know, there's some of you that are just stuck in the abortion, the divorce, the separation, the addiction, the prescription drug thing that you just, I mean, it still haunts you, the bad decisions.

You're living in the rearview mirror. Now, what I want you to know is that God has forgiven and taken care of those things. And the Apostle Paul says, forgetting what lies behind, reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on. And so I'm going to encourage you not to be passive and not to think that just reading the Bible more or going to church more will make you more like Christ.

It's important, but it's about relationship. Could you pause wherever you're at right now and sit quietly and say, Lord, is there anything in my life or my attitude or my belief system that's keeping me from drawing near to you and you having your way to produce the life of Christ in me? Thanks, Chip. As we close, our mission at Living on the Edge is to help Christians live like Christians. And one of the best ways we can continue to do that is through programs like this. So when you hear a particularly helpful message, we hope you'll pass it on to others. You can easily do that through the Chip Ingram app or by forwarding them the free MP3s that you'll find at livingontheedge.org. And don't forget to include a note about how it made a difference in your life. Well, until next time, this is Dave Druey thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.