Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Have you ever noticed in life that it seems that some people are great successes in life and there are other people who seem to be tragic failures? Now, if you listen to various disciplines, some will tell you, well, the problem is one of environment. Others say it’s heredity. 

Some say the problem is family education. Others talk about money. If we had greater education, and I’m sure that all of these are parts of the whole. The apostle Paul was concerned that you and I would live our lives successfully before the living God. And yet, you and I know that there are people who have every advantage that this world can give them and yet have turned out to be utter failures, not only in this life, but the next life.

On the other hand, there are people who seem to come from great disadvantages, and for some reason, they are great successes, some just in this life, others in this life and in the next. Now, what is it that makes for successful christian living? I believe the apostle Paul is addressing that question in the book of Philippians, chapter three, verses twelve through 14. 

And he will present for us four principles that are essential if you and I would have successful spiritual lives in Jesus Christ. First, Paul says in verse twelve, 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. Paul seemed to have a very healthy understanding of his inadequacies.

Now, we want to remember that this scripture is written toward the closing days of the life of the apostle Paul. He is not writing this as a new convert, and he’s not saying, as a new Christian, listen, friends, I really haven’t yet attained. I’m not perfect. Well, we could understand that from someone who is a brand new Christian. But this is the apostle Paul at the close of a very long ministry, someone that we might look at and put up on a pedestal and say, look at the apostle Paul. Now, Paul says to the Philippians, and he says to us, friends, do you want a successful understanding of your life as a Christian?

Then it is essential, no matter where you are, if you’re a brand new Christian or you have been a Christian for many years, it is essential for you and me to see that we have not yet reached perfection. We have yet to attain the goal. Now, why is that important? 

It’s important because we always are aware of our own inadequacies. Sometimes we become so knowledgeable about the scripture and Christian doctrine. And we’ve been a Christian for so many years that we think, well, there’s nothing new under the sun for me. The apostle Paul said, there’s a lot that I still need to learn about the Lord Jesus. There’s a lot that I need to still attain in my life. This was brought home to me this week.

Some of you at the start of school may have received a little ticket for your child to get on a school bus. Well, we received this ticket about a month ago, and it has been placed in a very prominent place. And our little son Tommy, going off into the first grade, it seemed every day, wanted to know, exactly where’s that ticket? I’ve got to get on the bus. I know it’s a month away. And he would continually talk about this little pass. Well, finally came the morning for him to go off to school, and off with his little knapsack, holding his pass firmly in hand, and went out and stood on the corner. And as we’re standing there, he’s sitting down, and we’re talking about your first day in school. What a day.

And then the yellow bus comes, and as it gets closer, I could see the anticipation as Tommy looks at his little pass, and he looks at the bus, and it’s the moment of fulfillment. And as he gets up, the pass falls from his hand, and like a leaf, it falls gently down to the ground and between the openings of the sewer. As I look down into the sewer, and, you know, I saw that sewer while he was sitting there. 

Now, you’d say, well, you’re a grown man. You would say to your son, Tom, don’t sit over that sewer. Maybe you’ll drop your pass. But I want to tell you, I have not yet attained what it means to be a father and some of the most basic and simple truths I yet need to attain.

And that is not only true in my responsibilities as a father, but it is also true my responsibilities as a Christian. If anyone would look to me or any other person and say, well, I am looking for the perfect Christian, someone who I can model myself after, someone who never lets the past fall into the sewer. 

If you are looking for such a person, then I think the apostle Paul would have disappointed you, because even the apostle Paul says, friends, I have not yet attained. I am not perfect, and please do not expect perfection from me. If you and I would understand an important lesson in leading a successful Christian life, that our eyes must be primarily focused on Jesus Christ. And if our eyes are focused on other people, they will let you down. They will not come through.

There will be times when they disappoint you. And it is my prayer that at that time they would say, I’ve not yet attained. I’m doing my best. But if you would look at other christians and expect from them perfection, as though they have attained some great level of spiritual living, then, friend, you will be disappointed, not just today, but tomorrow. And even though I will grow in my knowledge of Christ tomorrow, I can guarantee that there will be times when I will disappoint you. And I would say with the apostle Paul, I have not yet attained. Please, I am not perfect, and it’s important for you as a Christian to see that for yourself that you have not yet attained. There are yet areas that the Lord needs to teach you and love your brother as you would love yourself.

Well, there is a second principle taught for those who would live successful christian lives, and that is found in the single mindedness of the apostle Paul. He tells us in verse 13, brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended but one thing I do. You mean to say that the life of the apostle Paul could be summed up in. But this one thing I do. I’ve noticed in the field of business that those people who succeed are those people who have a single mindedness. They are pursuing a single goal. They are not all over the lot. No. They have confined their reading their time to mastering one subject, to knowing it so well.

The apostle Paul is telling us, if you want to succeed in this life, in your christian walk with the Lord, then let there be one thing that you focus your attention upon. This one thing I do. How many of you can say, there is one thing that I do. There is one purpose that I have in my life. Well, you might say, yes. Yeah, I have one purpose. Well, let me ask you, what is it? If you were to write it out on a sheet of paper, what is that one ambition, that one driving force in your life? The apostle Paul had such a driving principle.

If you and I want to succeed spiritually as a follower of Jesus Christ, we need to see that the history of God’s people is the history of a particular person who had a tremendous focus to accomplish but one task. Jonah had one task, and he was brought by the hand of God to accomplish that task. In that case, he was disobedient, but the Lord would bring him back to accomplish that one purpose. We think of Noah. He had one purpose. This one thing I do, I will build an ark. Because the Lord has instructed me, Jesus had one purpose, and that is that I must go to the cross and to do the father’s will. The apostle Paul had but one purpose, to preach Christ. We find in the reformation, Luther, Calvin.

They had one driving force, sola scriptura, the scripture alone, to teach the Bible. And that became their focus. And for their lives, they devoted to the single mindedness of teaching God’s word. Florence Nightingale had a single purpose. This one thing I do, I will be a christian nurse Wilberforce. This one thing I do as a christian, I will break the back of slavery in England. It is that kind of single minded purposeness that the apostle Paul is concerned about. Everything is created for a purpose. I was reminded of that going through a garage cleaning. And there was this electric can opener. And it has a purpose, and it’s a beautiful piece of appliance, all of its shiny chrome. And you turn it on and it makes a wonderful whirring sound. And you put a can underneath the fastener and it goes round and round.

The only problem with this can opener was it didn’t open cans. And what happens when something that has a purpose does not fulfill that purpose? Well, we discard it. The Lord has a purpose for you and for me, that we would have a single mindedness of ministry in our own lives. And he has equipped you to accomplish that ministry and that purpose. There are many people who are single minded, and they’re building wondrous ladders, very tall and strong, very high. We look at them, we marvel. We say, how did you do that? What a great accomplishment. The only problem is that those ladders are leaning against the wrong wall.

There are some people in this world who have given no thought to the next life, and they are very busy creating a ladder with their own hands, and in the end, it will not lift them to heaven. We have to be very careful that we not become so single minded that we forget that there is a purpose for this single mindedness, that we can be a success in this world’s eyes and yet be a failure in the eyes of the Lord. And so that brings us to the third point that Paul makes. First, he has told us that we’re to know that we’re not perfect, we’ve not yet attained. He’s told us we’re to focus our mind one thing. He says, forget those things which are behind. Forget those things that are behind. Well, what is it that Paul wants us to forget?

Certainly he doesn’t want us to have total amnesia. Forget everything that’s behind us. We know that the apostle Paul did not forget his knowledge of the Bible, for he teaches and he tells us about history with the Lord. We know that he didn’t forget God’s grace. We know that he has not forgotten about Jesus Christ and salvation. And yet he tells us that we are to forget those things which are behind. Doesn’t it sound like a contradiction? Aren’t there so many places in scripture that tell us to remember? We’re told to remember the promises of God. Jesus even said, remember me. So is Paul telling us that we should forget Jesus? No, I don’t think that is his .1 of the greatest lessons.

If you and I would learn to be successful spiritually as Christians in this life, that is that we must learn what we ought to forget, and we must learn what we must never forget. Do you remember in the Old Testament, the people came out of Egypt. They were given their freedom. They were in safety across the Red Sea. God had led them. He had given them shade by day and light by night. He had given them water to drink. He had given them manna to eat. He had supplied for all of their needs. And yet what did they do? We are told, they said, we remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt. We remember the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic.

They remembered things from the past that when they were applied to the present, simply produced a terrible frustration. You and I, as Christians, need to forget those things from the past, that when we think about them today, produce a frustration in our spirit. I had a nicer home when I lived in Minneapolis before we moved to New Jersey. I had a better boss when I worked in Cincinnati. The people were so friendly. In Dallas. There are better jobs in San Diego. These are the kinds of statements that when we think about them and we remember them and we try to apply them to our present situation, all that they produce for us is frustration. The apostle Paul tells us, forget those things that are behind.

And if you remember experiences from the past where it was better, the cucumbers were riper and the melons were sweeter, the apostle Paul says, forget it. Leave those things behind. Those were blessings that were for you at another time. But I’ve got blessings for you today. And if you become like the people, the Israelites, only looking back and remembering sweeter days and better bosses and nicer homes and better jobs, and it produces for you a sense of frustration and failure and discouragement, then the apostle Paul says to you, forget these things. Don’t talk about them. Do not allow those things to ruin the very blessing that the Lord has for you today. There are a number of things that we need to forget. We need to forget our failures. I’ve tried that before. It failed. I can’t do it. I don’t have the ability.

It won’t work. I tried speaking once, and I was so embarrassed. You know, the first time I ever spoke in public, I was 14 years old. I was at a boy scout camp, and I was dressed up like an Indian. And there were six of us who had to give a little talk about joining the order of the arrow in scouting. And I had about eight lines. It’s my first time there. I was all dressed up with my feathers, with my skins, and it came time for me to recite my first line. Not only could I not remember my first line, I didn’t remember a single word. And I looked at these three or 400 kids who were waiting for the mighty Indian to speak, and I had nothing to say. And forever a man named Mr.

Latomsky will have a very warm place in my heart because he came up behind me and he whispered, not sentence by sentence, but word by word, my lines. And people see me today and they say, oh, you have such a gift to speak. You make it look so easy. When I first started, I couldn’t speak a word. I was so scared. I remember the first time that I was asked to teach a Sunday school class. I can still feel the pressure that was in the back of my neck, the headache that I had all afternoon. If I were to remember those things and someone were to say, would you pray for us? Would you speak before the Sunday school class? I say, listen, I tried that once. I was a little indian, and it didn’t work then. It’s not going to work today.

But yet we do that, don’t we? Oh, I tried that. I tried that. Must have been 15 years ago. I tried that. Didn’t work. I could never be a Sunday school teacher. I could never verbalize my prayer. No. Forget the failures of the past and look forward to the things that Christ has for you today. Also, we need to forget our successes. IBM has an interesting principle, and that is that when a campaign is successful, they are not allowed to have celebration immediately following that accomplishment. All of the parties and celebrations are to occur somewhere halfway into the next project. For the last project, sometimes we get so caught up in our successes that we take a break. We say, well, that was a lot of work. Well, I’ll take a week off. I’ll take a month, maybe six months. No.

Forget your success if it is going to incapacitate you in the present. We also need to forget sins that have been confessed. The Lord says that they are buried in the depths of the sea. He says, I will remember your sin no more. Can you imagine the apostle Paul, who wrote these very words? Forget those things that are behind, and we ask, well, Paul, you live such a wonderful life. It’s easy for you to say that. But let’s put these words in context. The context is, Paul is writing these words from a roman prison in the city of Rome, where he has been for two years. During those two years, the Christians who lived in the city of Rome, to whom the letter of Romans was addressed, could not be bothered with the apostle Paul.

We are told that when he came for trial, no one, no christian from Rome came in his defense. No one came to speak of his christian character. No one. And then he’s placed in a prison for two years. When Epaphroditus comes from Philippi to Rome, he comes to those roman Christians and he asks them, where is Paul? They say, we don’t know. We think he’s still in prison. What prison? We don’t know. We’re told that Apaphroditus had to search out and find Paul on his own. Now, do you think, as the apostle Paul thought about the roman Christians who were all around him in that city, do you think it ever occurred to him how hurt I am? Nobody ever came. They never spoke a word of defense for me, how disappointed I am in these roman Christians.

Do you think those thoughts ever crossed his mind? I’m sure they did. You know, you have to really hunt to understand what happened to Paul while he was in this roman prison, because in his writing, he seems to have forgotten that. And he says, friends, there are hurts, there are disappointments. You need to forget those things. You can’t look at yesterday where someone disappointed you. Forget those things, move on. The Lord has a far better purpose for you. Finally, in verse 14, he gives us a fourth principle. He says, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Paul forgot the past and lived, looking expectantly to what God was going to do for him in the future. David Livingston was once asked on a brief visit that he made to England. Dr.

Livingston, where are you going to go now? He said, I’m ready to go anywhere, provided it’s forward. As Christians, we need to be willing to go anywhere so long as it shows growth in Christ, so long as it’s based upon the precepts that the Lord has already instructed us. William Borden was the son of the famous Borden family. We think of Borden milk. He was known as Borden of Yale. He became a Christian. He loved Jesus Christ. He decided that he would become a missionary and go to China. All of his friends said, don’t do it. You’re giving up wealth. You’re giving up a wonderful job. Don’t do it. But he went anyway. And Borden of Yale, while he was still on the boat headed for China, contracted a fatal illness. And when he got to Egypt, he was on his deathbed.

And we would look at him and say, why did you do this? Don’t you regret this decision? Don’t you look back and wish that you had listened to the voices of your friends? And a note that he wrote to one of his friends while he was on his deathbed said this, I have no reserve. There is no retreat. I have no regrets. If you have taken a step of faith moving forward in the Lord, and as you have prayed and committed all of your strength and energy to accomplish that single purpose, let there be no regrets. Don’t look back and say, if we had only done this, why didn’t we listen to that voice? Friends, there are always those voices. The voice that we must listen to is the voice of Jesus Christ, who leads each life in Christ, who directs us.

That you and I, as Christians, might have a single mindedness, that we would learn of that upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Now, all of this sounds as though there’s great effort, and that is true. And if you have already made a commitment to Jesus Christ, it does require effort. But if you are not a Christian, then I would ask you to forget everything that I have said, because for you must begin at this place. You must begin at a place that has nothing to do with your effort. You must begin at a place that has nothing to do with your achievement. As a matter of fact, you must remember your sin. You must remember that Jesus Christ died on the cross. You must remember Calvary. You must be born again and receive the gift that God offers through his son.

Nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling. The message of the gospel is a message of receiving a gift that God would freely give to all those who had trust in his son. And as you would put your faith in Christ Jesus, that you and I would press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us pray. Our God and our father we thank you for all that you have done. We pray, Father, that you would cause us to be single minded in purpose, that we would press towards the goal. We thank you for Jesus who stands at the end of that goal, beckoning us.

Father, help us to accomplish the wonderful purpose that you have, that we might know of that upward call of God in Christ Jesus, for we ask it in his name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rone’s web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.