Beforehand: Be sure to check out Pastor Ben’s message online if you were not able to catch it on Sunday morning.

Below is the outline of Pastor Ben's message.

The Deep Six Study follows.

“Predict or Prepare”

1 – Realizing – Philippians 3:12-13

2 – Forgetting – Philippians 3:13

3 – Reaching – Philippians 3:13

Deep Six Study

Introduction

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2 Corinthians 5:17). God’s creation of the universe, including every star, planet, and person, was perfect in its entirety. With the fall of mankind, corruption spread throughout all of God’s creation with nothing being exempt. Also, God’s redemptive plan for all of creation became operative. Restoring creation to a place of perfection through His redemptive plan is the course God set in motion until the work is complete with the final consummation of all things at the end of time. How God intends our lives to unfold so that they do so in ways that are in harmony with His redemptive plan as time moves on and on is the focus of this week’s Deep Six Study.

_______________________________________

Part 1 - Corresponds to the first point of the message

 Philippians 3:12-13 – “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.”

James 1:2-4, 12 – “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing …. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

Matthew 5:20, 48 - “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven …. Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Colossians 1:25-29, 4:12 – “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me …. Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.”

Comment – We are often admonished to live in the moment. There is a very real sense that this is true when it comes to living the Christian life. The life God calls us to, necessitates a healthy connection on our part with the past, the present, and the future. While we do have connections with the past and with the future, they will only be healthy connections if we are dwelling fully in the present. This means that we are able to say, “I am where am and it’s alright to be here.” This does not mean we are not going to continue on the journey toward perfection God has us on. It does mean that I have learned to be in a place of peace and rest. When Paul spoke of not having achieved perfection yet, it did not mean that he wasn’t right where He needed to be in his journey toward it. When Paul speaks of perfection in Philippians, he is speaking of the final perfection that will be realized when we come to the end of our journey. When James speaks of perfection, he is speaking of being complete at any point along the journey. An Oak tree sapling can be perfect or complete for a sapling even though it is not yet a mighty Oak. When Matthew speaks of perfection, He is speaking about our source of perfection and how whatever is accomplished on our journey must be rooted in His perfection and truly His doing as we draw upon His presence and power. So, when we join Paul in saying that we have not achieved perfection yet, we are dwelling in the present in a healthy way. We are not resigning ourselves to a past that cannot be changed or a future that not cannot be realized. What it does mean is that we are resting in God’s presence and the work He is accomplishing in us as we enjoy the peace and rest that come from being in a place of surrender and dependence before Him at this very moment in time.

Question # 1 – When you say I have not achieved “it” yet what are you really trying to communicate to others?

Question # 2 – What are some healthy ways that you are learning to live in the present?

______________________________________________

Part 2 - Corresponds to the second point of the message

Philippians 3:12-13 – “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.”

Psalm 103:8-12 – “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

Colossians 3:5-7 – “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.”

1 Peter 4:1-3A – “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles.”

Comment – When Paul speaks of forgetting the past, he is talking about not dwelling there, not letting it cripple or impair us. It does not mean forgetting the benefits of God’s compassion, grace, and mercy that were extended to us in the past, nor does it mean forgetting the lessons we have learned and benefitted from. Also, we must not forget that which we have been delivered from in the past. We must let the things that God delivered us from remain in the past and not carry them along with us. The reason we remember them is so that we can keep reakoning them as being in the past and no where else. The “forgetting” that Paul has in mind here is in regard to unhealthy guilt and sorrow that binds and keeps us from living fully in the reality of God’s love, forgiveness, and deliverance.

Question # 3 – What is something from your past that needs to be forgotten that you have trouble forgetting?

Question # 4 – What is some past that benefit that God transacted on your behalf that brings confidence to the present and hope for the future?

______________________________________

Part 3 – Corresponds to the third point of the message

Philippians 3:12-13 – “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.”

Hebrews 10:36-39 – “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.”

Hebrews 12:7-13 – “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

1 Peter 1:6-7 – “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Hebrews 6:9-12 – “But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Comment – 1 John 3:2-3 says, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like him, because we will see Him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” Someday the goal of perfection will be realized and it will be when we see Christ face to face. In that moment we will be like Christ because He will complete our transformation into perfection right then and there. Paul said he was looking forward to what lies ahead. Certainly, this would include that final moment of his journey down the path of perfection which would be completed when He stood before His Savior. But most likely, he primarily was looking forward to the day in and day out process of transformation that would unfold as he dwelled in the present, moment by moment, in full dependence on God and the work of transformation that He would produce.

Question # 5 – What is God teaching you in regard to becoming one who truly depends on Him for the life you live day by day?

Question # 6 – What are some things about the future that you are looking forward to and why?

_____________________________________

Conclusion

God has a redemptive plan for the universe that He is unfolding and it is so much bigger than us. And yet He cares very deeply that we each live our lives in ways that are truly in harmony with the outworking of His wonderful redemptive plan that He is bringing about through His Son, Jesus Christ. In Philippians 1:6 Paul says, “I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” May this be our abiding confidence as we go forward victoriously on our journey of perfection.

________________________________________________

Under “comments” in the Deep Six section of the church website post your thoughts, applications, and questions on anything from this week’s Deep Six Study.