Philippians 3:12-14 * December 31, 2007 * New Year’s Eve * Pastor Pagels

In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:

According to my watch it is a little after 7:00 PM on New Year’s Eve. I am guessing that most of you have already made your plans for this evening, but just in case you don’t know what you are going to do tonight, I have come up with a couple ideas.

You and your significant other could get all dressed up and go out on the town. Maybe a nice dinner. Maybe some dancing. And to top off the evening’s festivities how about a champagne toast at midnight to ring in the New Year?

If you have a hard time staying up that late, or if you are more of a home body, here is another suggestion. Go straight home after church. Get into some of your comfy clothes. Get out some of your favorite food. Turn on one of those New Year’s Eve television specials. And if you are feeling really crazy, you can try to stay awake long enough to see the ball drop in Times Square.

These two suggestions are very different, but they have one thing in common. Every year millions of people go out to celebrate the New Year. Every year millions more celebrate with Dick Clark, the longtime host of ABC’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. The year may be new, but what many of us do on New Year’s Eve from one year to the next isn’t really new at all.

And that makes this evening kind of like this sermon. New Year’s Eve sermons have a way of almost writing themselves. We look back at the year that is coming to a close. We repent of our past sins and give thanks for our past successes. And then we look forward. We look forward in faith to the challenges and opportunities of the year to come.

I don’t plan to diverge from this time-tested formula tonight. I didn’t come up with a drastically different outline. In many ways this will be an old-fashioned New Year’s Eve sermon. But I also hope that you will leave tonight feeling renewed. And I pray that Paul’s inspired words will help you to see God and your relationship with God in a new way as the apostle shares with us…

SOME “NEW” THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR

I. Forget about the past

II. Focus on the prize

Paul was in prison. The man who was always on the move preaching and teaching and encouraging and counseling was confined to one place, and it probably drove him crazy. He didn’t want to be detained. He was hoping to be released. But he also recognized that his time in prison was a blessing. He had time to think. He had time to reflect. He had time to write.

One of the letters Paul wrote while in prison was addressed to the Christian congregation in Philippi (located in northern Greece). Maybe Philippi was on his mind because he had spent some time in prison there too. And just as the Lord had taken care of him back then, Paul trusted that the Lord would be with him now.

Of all of Paul’s letters Philippians is unique. It is sometimes called his epistle of joy. In spite of his circumstances Paul was joyful. In spite of their circumstances Paul wanted the Philippians to be joyful too. And he used his own life experiences to demonstrate why they could (and should) be filled with genuine Christian optimism.

The text begins: “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect” (12a). During his lifetime Paul was the recipient of some very special blessings. Jesus had appeared to him and converted him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). The Lord had given him and only him a special foretaste of heaven (II Corinthians 12). Through the power of the Holy Spirit Paul was able to perform miracles and convert thousands, but even with all these privileges and successes he still considered himself to be a work in progress.

Listen to what the greatest Christianity missionary of all time had to say about himself: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature…What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death” (Romans 7:15,18,24)?

If someone would have asked Paul, “Are you a saint or a sinner?,” he would have said: “Both.” He didn’t try to hide his sin. He didn’t make excuses for his sin. There is no doubt that Paul included himself when he wrote: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Paul understood his sinful condition. Paul understood the consequences of his sin. The pen must have been shaking in the hand of Paul the sinner when he wrote: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Paul was willing to admit that he wasn’t perfect, but he was still a saint. Paul readily acknowledged that he didn’t deserve to go to heaven, but he had no doubt that one day he would reach his heavenly goal. “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (12).

Paul’s description of the Christian’s life sounds a little bit like a paradox. While we are on earth we strive and struggle and strain. We press on to reach the goal, but in the end nothing we do really matters. Nothing else in the world would matter if Jesus had not taken hold of us. Even though it doesn‘t sound fair, even though it might appear to be a source of great frustration, it is really a source of great comfort.

You were lost, but Jesus found you. You were God’s enemy, but Jesus reached out to you. You were drowning in your sins, but Jesus reached out his hand and took hold of you. And there is no better place to be than in the warm embrace of a loving Savior.

Because Jesus has done all the work that needed to be done, because he has forgiven our sins and made us his own, because our eternal future is secure, we can forget about the past. Remember all your faults and failures? Because of Jesus you can forget about them. Remember all the promises you broke? Because of Jesus you can forget about them. It would be impossible for us to remember all the sinful things we said and did in 2007, but because of Jesus we can forget about them. We can forget about the past and focus on the prize.

“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” (13b,14). It has been suggested that Paul was an avid sports fan because he regularly used athletics to illustrate spiritual truths. Here we have one of those illustrations.

Paul was probably thinking of track and field, but considering the fact that between today and tomorrow there will be a dozen bowl games on television, let’s talk in football terms. In football the offense has one goal, to reach the goal line. One mistake, one fumble, one stumble puts the goal in jeopardy. To reach the goal, to score a touchdown, it takes focus and discipline and determination.

The ultimate goal of every Christian is to get to heaven. We have God’s promise that through faith in him we will, but there are also powerful forces who want to stop us from reaching our goal. The devil wants us to believe: “It’s too much work. It’s not worth all the effort. And besides, heaven will be boring, just a bunch of people singing hymns and playing harps. Is that really what you want?”

And then the world chimes in with a few lies of its own: “Heaven? Why do you need to believe in a place like heaven when you can have everything you desire right here? You need to enjoy life. You can do whatever you want whenever you want. You can worry about the afterlife after your life.”

Those arguments appeal to the sinful nature in each of us. That part of us doesn’t like to hear about service or sacrifice. We don’t want to be told what to do. We don’t like to be told what we can and can’t do, even if it’s for our own good, even if God has our best interests in mind.

To reach our goal, to avoid the temptations that surround us, to conquer the spiritual enemies around us and within us, we need God. We need God to strengthen us with his Word and sacrament. We need God to help us keep our eyes on the prize.

In 1851 the state of Wisconsin adopted a new state seal. Printed on a white banner at the top of the seal is a single word, a word that describes the progressive mindset of the people of Wisconsin, a word that has served as the state motto for over 150 years, “Forward.”

“Forward” wouldn’t be a bad motto for Christians to adopt in 2008. We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know that God holds us in his hands. We don’t know if this year will bring personal prosperity or catastrophe, but we do have God’s promise that he will never leave us. We don’t know what will happen from one day to the next, but we can look forward to every new day because it is a day that the Lord has made.

“Forward” would be a fine motto for any Christian, but Paul suggests an even better one. Tonight I ask you to consider making “heavenward” your personal motto for the New Year and every year to come.

Remember that heaven is your goal. Remember that heaven is your home. In heaven the past will be forgotten. In heaven there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. In heaven we will see God face to face. In heaven we will sing and rejoice and be glad, and the celebration will never end.

A New Year is an exciting time, a time for fresh starts and new beginnings. But with all of the newness in our world, with all of the changes in our lives, it is nice to know that some things stay the same.

It is comforting to hear again the old, old story of Jesus and his love. It is good to be reminded that this world is not all there is. It is a blessing for us to know that even if we don’t live to see another New Year’s Eve we will live forever in heaven. Amen.