New Year Sunday
2025
“Three Crucial Keys for 25”
Phil. 3: 8-14 “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
In these powerful verses, the Apostle Paul is remembering his past accomplishments and achievements as a high-level practitioner of Judaism.
He was the best of the best, a sterling example of what a good Pharisee should be.
But then he met Jesus!
And having met Christ, he chose to lay down all the accomplishments of the past, and counted them as rubbish in comparison to knowing Christ.
Then, toward the end of our text he hands us THREE KEYS to moving forward spiritually in the things of God.
And I believe there is a word here for all of us for the new year of 2025.
The first KEY Paul hands us is the KEY of:
I. Losing to gain
He writes, “I have suffered the loss of all things…”
The word “suffered” means to sustain damage.
Paul did not lose what he lost pain free.
No, there was damage incurred at the time of the loss.
He suffered the damage of a ruined relationship with the religious leaders he’d grown up with.
He suffered the damage of lost status, lost respect, and loss of income and security.
He suffered the pain of ostracism, rejection, and scorn from his peers.
Yet, he compares all those losses to RUBBISH, GARBAGE in comparison to what he gained by knowing Jesus!
He LOST in order to GAIN!
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The laws that govern the kingdom of God are so very different from those of this world.
The world teaches that in order to gain you must hold on tight to what you have and then live your life to add more to it—
money on top of money,
a bigger house than the one before,
a higher position than the one you already hold, and so on.
What the world doesn’t teach is the key of LOSING TO GAIN.
Yet Jesus taught this principle over and over:
“In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.”—Lk 14:33
“He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”—Matt. 10:39
In the kingdom of God you must LOSE some things in order to GAIN!
—As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to keep a loose grip on the things of this world.
Often are the times we must LAY something DOWN in order to PICK SOMETHING BETTER UP.
LET GO OF a lesser in order to LAY HOLD OF a better!
ILLUS: I once read about how animal catchers used to catch wild monkeys for zoos. They would set an empty soda bottle in an open field with a peanut dropped into it.
Then hide in the bushes and wait.
After a while, a monkey would sneak up to the bottle, squeeze its paw down into the narrow neck of the bottle and grab the peanut. Once it had grabbed the peanut, it refused to let go in order to get his paw back out.
All that the catchers had to do was walk up and take the monkey into captivity—bottle and all!
The monkey’s freedom was worth far more than a peanut, but it chose the peanut over freedom!
So this new year, let’s resolve to LOSE what we must in order to GAIN what we cannot LOSE!
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The second KEY Paul hands us is the key of:
II. Purpose
We are Saved ON purpose FOR a purpose!
Paul says, “I press on, that I may lay hold of THAT for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”
Contrary to what many think, Jesus didn’t save you JUST to get you to heaven!
Listen to the verse again, “I press on, that I may ‘lay hold of THAT for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me.'”—vs 12
Paul says that Jesus literally “laid hold of him.”
The phrase LAID HOLD OF is taken from a word meaning:
“To overtake, to arrest, to capture, to seize something in a forceful manner and make it one’s own.”
Paul testifies, “Jesus seized and captured me, He made me His own!”
—The truth is you didn’t find Jesus, Jesus found you!
You didn’t FIRST come to Jesus, Jesus FIRST came to you.
In another place Paul says, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Col. 1:13).
In any RESCUE the RESCUEE is helpless to save himself and must be saved by the RESCUER!
We were the helpless rescuee and Jesus was our Rescuer who RESCUED us from the dominion of darkness…”
John writes, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Jesus said, “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you,”—John 15:16
And He is crystal clear that He rescued us with a PURPOSE in mind!
“…that you should go and bear fruit. And that your fruit should remain.”
We were saved me ON purpose FOR a purpose!
The purpose is THAT for which He laid hold of you!
Paul’s whole life, every fiber of his being, was aimed at “laying hold of that for which Jesus laid hold of him.”
He says I’m PRESSING to find, do, and finish THAT for which He laid hold of me!
I’m chasing after THAT with intensity, like a track runner stretching to break the tape at the finish line!
—And this is the THAT that just jumped out at me for our church in the New Year of 2025!
Every born again child of God is called to live for Him, and to serve Him.
1 Pet. 4:10 “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.”
Finding and using your spiritual gift to serve others is a big part of THAT for which Jesus laid hold of you!
Then Paul hands us a third KEY to an unhindered pursuit of our PURPOSE—the KEY of:
III. Forgetting and reaching
“FORGETTING what lies behind, and REACHING for what lies ahead…”
In order to lay hold of “THAT” for which we were laid hold of, we must first—choose to FORGET anything from our past that would preoccupy or slow us down.
This can include successes IF your successes lead you to believe you can kick back and let go of the kingdom plow!
And then we must also forget or ‘put out of mind’:
failures,
offenses,
hurts,
let-downs,
disillusionments,
betrayals and heartaches.
The idea is what Isaiah wrote to a heartbroken, captive Israel:
“Do not remember the former things, Nor consider (excessively dwell on, mull over, rehearse) the things of old. 19 For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”—43:18-19
Paul is not saying we should act like yesterday didn’t happen, or live in some kind of unhealthy denial.
He’s saying, “Don’t live in your past. Don’t obsess over it.”
Think of what Paul had to choose to put out of mind!
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So instead of letting yesterday rob all your tomorrow’s, LAY YESTERDAY DOWN so you can REACH for your God-ordained tomorrows!
“…forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead…”
So the watchword for 2025 is:
1.) Lose what you must in order to Gain,
2.) Don’t live in the past
3.) Chase after THAT for which Jesus laid hold of you!