Valley Church Clinton
Philippians 3:12-16 | April 26th 2026

      • Acts 16:11-12CSB

      • Acts 16:13-14CSB

      • Acts 16:15-16CSB

      • Acts 16:17-18CSB

      • Acts 16:19-21CSB

      • Acts 16:22-24CSB

      • Acts 16:25CSB

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  • Holy Forever
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  • Give Me Jesus
  • Good morning Valley Church Clinton!
    We will be in Philippians 3:12-16 this morning, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open those, if you don’t have a Bible we have a few in the back there.
    So glad you’re here with us this morning, join me in a word of prayer before we get into our text today.
    Pray
    So, roadtrip season is approaching for the summer, I’m sure at least a few of you in this room made some kind of long drive during Spring Break 2026.
    And this is fun and wonderful, exciting even,
    See, back in the day, I loved hoping in the car, driving 12 hours, talking to my wife, looking forward to the vacation ahead.
    But, after some time, something happens to that doesn’t ruin this experience, but it does alter it.
    Something happens eventually in a family vacation that makes your trip and your drive just a little bit more chaotic, noisy, stressful,
    And that something, or those somethings, are known as children.
    It’s not that they make the trips worse, in fact, I’ve loved more than anything vacationing and seeing our kids expand their world, get excited about discovering new things.
    But, it does make the travel there a bit more arduous.
    Snacks packed, movies downloaded, Switches charged, diapers, wipes, rash cream, sunscreen,
    Dirty car seats, drive thrus, if you have kids, you can feel what I’m talking about. Buckling up your toddler and wondering why your fingers are suddenly sticky.
    Seeing a hard, brown substance and convincing yourself that it didn’t come out of someones body.
    So finally, after hours or days of packing, you all get in the car, settled, phone connected to bluetooth, navigation on.
    You pull out, and about 5 minutes down the road, you get the question.
    Come on, you all know what it is.
    Are we there yet?
    And that question is almost hard to answer.
    Like, no, we aren’t there yet. Obviously I haven’t discovered the secret to travelling at the speed of light, I haven’t found the wormhole yet to the beach, no we aren’t even close.
    Okay, how much longer?
    How much longer? Forever.
    It’s easy to get frustrated by these kids, but they have no concept of time, or the trip, they just know there’s a destination that they’re soooo excited to get to.
    And this is the exact question I think we subconsciously, or maybe even consciously, that we ask God.
    Are we there yet?
    See, we live in this weird in between, it’s where we find ourselves right now.
    We have Christ, we know of his death and resurrection, we know he will come back, we know he’s seated at the right hand of God…
    But there is still death, and sin, and evil present, and we are not yet abiding in the presence of God like our souls yearn for.
    So, we pursue this journey to God, in many different, well meaning ways.
    And we keep asking God “are we there yet?”
    To which he has trouble responding to, not because of his inability to do so,
    But because our minds cannot comprehend the majesty of God and his mercy and grace in our lives,
    We cannot comprehend where God is taking us.
    So he says “no, you aren’t there yet, you’re just getting started”.
    To which we respond “How much longer, God?”
    This is the tension we feel as children of God, this is the tension of faith and trust.
    And this is why Paul writes Philippians 3:12-16 to his friends in Philippi,
    Because he wants them to understand that there is a goal if we are in Jesus Christ,
    Yet it’s a goal that no one can achieve until they meet Christ face to face.
    So, let’s break down our passage starting in verse 12:
    Philippians 3:12 CSB
    12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
    Okay so this starts in an odd place, kind of picking up where the previous verses left off, so let’s remind ourselves of that.
    Look back at verses 10 and 11 in chapter 3:
    Philippians 3:10–11 CSB
    10 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
    So, Paul’s goals that he says he has not yet attained:
    To Know Christ
    The Power of His resurrection
    Fellowship of his sufferings, conformed to his death
    And finally that he will actually be resurrected from among the dead.
    Okay, lofty goals.
    But Paul makes it clear, because normal readers may assume that Paul, the rockstar celebrity, is telling us to model ourselves after him, after Paul and Paul alone,
    Because he is the example of the perfect follower of Jesus, he’s made it, he’s been enlightened,
    He is the buddha of Christianity…
    But Paul says no to all that.
    He makes it clear that he has not reached the goal, or is perfect in any way….
    But what he does say is really interesting.
    He says but, I make every effort to take hold of it.
    Why?
    Look in the text - because I have also been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
    I think the NRSV, which is just another version of the Bible that is slightly more literal than the one we use, it translates it really clearly:
    Philippians 3:12 NRSV
    12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
    And this gets us into the Greek word: KATALAMBANO, which is translated differently in almost every Bible version I read this week.
    We may translate it “to take hold of”, or “make it my own” or “to overtake it” or “posses it”.
    But that it means, and nearly every time Paul uses this word, it’s in the context of sports.
    καταλαμβάνω - to make something one’s own, win, attain
    So Paul starts off with this sports metaphor - his goal is to make Christ his own. This goal of his, this mission of perfection,
    It’s like he’s running a race, trying to attain this prize at the end,
    But that prize isn’t sitting there because of Paul’s efforts.
    The only reason Paul is in the race is because Jesus had already won the award.
    And in response to Jesus winning, in response to Jesus’s efforts,
    Paul wants to make every effort to strive after the prize that Jesus won and made possible.
    Philippians 3:13–14 CSB
    13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
    I think we can get three things out of this metaphor:

    Forgetting What Is Behind

    See, Paul says although he is not perfect, has not reached full maturity in Christ by knowing Him completley,
    He still is completely focused on what is ahead.
    He is forgetting the things that are behind him in this race, and focusing on the things that are ahead.
    The things that are ahead, by the way, is Christ-likeness, and even Christ Himself.
    And on initial read, this may be a means of not allowing ourselves the grace and mercy that Jesus provides.
    Where we’re so distracted by our past, before coming to Christ, that it actually impedes us and our ability to move on.
    And this may be a you problem, or it may be an environmental problem.
    Because sometimes, it’s hard to move on.
    Sometimes, things happen to you, completley out of your control, and no matter how much “grace” you show yourself, sometimes it just doesn’t feel real.
    Sometimes the hurt stays, and linger, and takes time to heal.
    Sometimes the trauma continues to fester.
    And I want to be clear - when we talk about moving on, when we read to “let go of your past” or as Paul writes “forgetting what is behind you”, I don’t believe he’s talking about forgetting, and burying, and ignoring.
    Sure, you’re own past sins, your own choices, your previous ways of living, yes you need to let those go and repent through the power of Jesus, look ahead and move on.
    But what about sins against you? What about things that are totally out of your control that hurt you.
    Because there are so many people out there, and maybe even in this room,
    That have lost someone unexpectedly, that had been abused, that has been in situations out of their control, that has had unspeakable things done to them by those closest to them,
    I want to be clear - the church needs to stand up against these atrocities, not sit on the sidelines to protect our image and brand.
    And we certainly can’t continue to tell victims to move on, you’re a new creation, forget about the past, when that’s not their reality that they replay in their brains every single day.
    No, the forgetting and leaving behind comes at the ability only Jesus has to break chains.
    Healing from trauma, as it were, becomes less about forgetting, and more about looking ahead at the prize, having an actual person of Jesus you can look to to heal your soul.
    Jim Wilder, in his book The Other Half of the Church, writes this:
    “Another culprit that leaks joy is unresolved trauma. From the brain’s perspective, trauma happens anytime we suffer alone. Suffering turns into trauma when we are unable to process our suffering with God and other people. Trauma is stored in our brain, in circuits of flesh, kind of like an armed mousetrap.” -Jim Wilder
    The wonderful thing about Jesus is he gives you a heading to follow, not resorting to turining around and going back to the trauma as most do, but actually being able to move ahead by seeking a joyful attachment to Jesus and his Church.
    That’s why Paul can also write:
    2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB
    17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
    Our past is our past, our future is Christ.
    It’s easy to want to go back, isn’t it?
    To go back to the old ways. The easier ways.
    But Paul urges us, unlike Lot’s wife who looked back to Sodom and Gomorrah, he urges us to keep moving in the same direction, not veering left right or looking behind us, but to keep running in the same direction.
    We can’t continue to dabble in our old life, our old way of living, and continue running toward Christ.
    This is a drop everything and follow me situation.
    Secondly from verses 13 and 14, we get a clear goal.

    A Clear Goal

    It’s hard to know what progressing in your faith looks like, isn’t it?
    It’s hard for me, it feels like it’s up and down, ebbs and flows, it’s like what I imagine the daily stock market looks like.
    But nonetheless, the goal remains the same.
    We all know the calling. Sure, we might have different versions of our specific calling in our life and context,
    But in general, we know the calling. Paul makes it clear here:
    We all have a common calling and goal - to pursue Christ. To pursue knowing him, to pursue understanding Him.
    These efforts in our lives are not chaotic, or random, or chasing this or that based on where the wind blows that day.
    I don’t know if any of you have ever been to a dog racing track,
    I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it ethically to be honest,
    But, the owners set up these grayhounds, which are just incredibly fast, apparently they can run like 45 MPH.
    But they chase this thing called a mechanical hare:
    Basically, it’s a rabbit that wizzes around the track, and all these dogs run after it, and the poor dogs never do catch it, but they do cross the finish line…
    It’s a pretty amazing thing to watch.
    But all the dogs, they’re chasing after this singular goal. they may have different number, they come from different houses, they’re different colors,
    But they all chase this single rabbit.
    This is what we do, together.
    Our goal, our calling is the same.
    And finally, our third thing is

    The Prize

    Now, I said the dogs never do catch that darn rabbit.
    But, we have a prize waiting on us.
    And its not here in Earth, at least in it’s current form.
    It’s not attainable exactly in our current life, which Paul acknowledges.
    The prize, as he writes, is promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
    And heavenly, that word, it literally means “upward”.
    It means our prize is not here, as the prosperity proponents would have you believe,
    It’s not about gaining material wealth, storing money, sicknesses healed, prospering with power, none of that.
    It means the prize we receive, as we stand on the podium of the Lord,
    We stand in first place. And we’re given something that is not of this world…
    but is of the Kingdom of Heaven which surpasses anything of value we could possibly come across in this life,
    Because it’s an unbroken, perfect relationship with God where we know Him and He knows us.
    And let me tell you why it is so important to wait on the things that are heavenly, the things upward…
    They don’t fade, they don’t spoil, no one can steal them, God is saving them for our finish line.
    1 Peter 1:3–5 CSB
    3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
    Friends, we need to focus upward and not inward, because the things we see here are a mere glimpse into what perfect creation will be.
    This is what Paul is urging.
    So, let’s try to land this plane…
    Verse 15 continues:
    Philippians 3:15 CSB
    15 Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you.
    Now, that word mature, it’s the same word as perfect in the preeceding sentences.
    So what is Paul saying, now he’s perfect or something? Now he’s completely mature?
    No, I don’t think so.
    What Paul is doing here is employing some irony to make his point.
    He’s making the argument that, which is telling from his use of “therefore”, that you have to ironically become imperfect to become perfect.
    You have to admit immaturity and turn toward Christ to become mature in Him.
    See,

    The mark of a perfect man is not perfection, but striving toward Christ

    Every instance of striving toward God is good. But what that usually needs is humility. And realize you aren’t enough.
    And admitting that you’ve fallen short.
    Ironically, those are the things that propel us forward.
    Jesus says in Matthew 23:12
    Matthew 23:12 CSB
    12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
    This is the upside down Kingdom, where the lower we go, the higher we’re lifted.
    Where we only experience upward living while falling to our knees.
    We need to let go of our masks.
    We need to let go of our notions that everything is fine, that I’ve got this, that everyone else’s life may be falling apart but not mine, I’m good.
    But notice what Paul writes - let all of us who are mature think this way…
    He includes himself in that group.
    In the group that is striving for perfection, yet is still far from it.
    The group that is running toward the goal set before them.
    Because we all have the goal - to run toward Jesus. And guess what - we all fail.
    We all trip and fall. We all look back. We all veer off.
    But if one were to claim perfection, whether morally or otherwise, Paul makes it clear that they are wrong, and the God will reveal this grave error.
    Philippians 3:16 CSB
    16 In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.
    Paul’s plea, to finish up his section, is saying that in any case, whatever truth we have, live up to it.
    Because the truth is Christ, and eventually, we will all reach that same common definition of truth.
    And Paul is saying, even if the people listening to his letter don’t agree, he’s confident that the Lord will make it clear to them.
    Because it’s highly likely that the Philippians were just like us in their humanity:
    Wanting to act better than they are, rest on their own laurels, and pretend to be perfect.
    So, what can we learn from this passage,
    What can we take from the ancient text and apply today?
    I think the first think is:

    Our Effort Isn’t Wasted

    Paul says run.
    Maintain the race.
    Christ put forth the work and completed the work, and in response, we now put forth great effort to live a Godly life.
    In view of Christ giving himself up on a cross to death, we should make every effort to want to be like Christ.
    For some reason, in our evangelical view of things, we think effort is opposed to grace.
    We get worried that any effort we do will be met with disappointment from God because we’re trying to earn our salvation,
    But that’s just not true.
    Dallas Willard puts it really well:
    “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone.” -Dallas Willard
    I don’t know about you, but there’s a goal I’m waiting on at the end of my time here on earth, it’s a simple phrase that I can’t wait to hear…
    “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
    And last time I checked, good and faithful servants, they don’t wait on the sidelines.
    They don’t say no when their masters give a command.
    We are not earning anything, we are making our faith an action.
    We are walking in obedience.
    Your effort isn’t wasted friends, it’s rewarded, and this world needs your effort,
    Your soul needs your effort as you humbly walk with Christ.
    The second lesson here is to

    Lean Into The Hard Things

    Effort is difficult.
    Living like Christ is difficult.
    And as we pursue our goal to know Christ, we’re going to encounter hurdles.
    We’re going to come up against things that are not fun.
    To be blunt, life sucks sometimes.
    But listen, as they say, nothing worth having comes easy.
    Listen, in a world riddled with dopamine drips, continued technology that makes our lives easier and easier, the need for comfort and entertaining ourselves to death,
    We need a challenge.
    1 Peter 1:6–7 CSB
    6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
    Every hard thing you encounter is shaping you to be more like Jesus.
    God is refining you, and the results are more valuable than gold.
    It’s difficult to read your Bible. I know, I struggle with it too.
    It’s hard to pray, let alone meditate on anything in silence.
    It’s difficult to be kind, gentle, forgiving.
    It’s hard to resist temptations, lust, envy, pride,
    It’s hard to wash the feet of your enemies.
    But maybe that resistance is shaping us. It’s allowing the pooter to mold his clay,
    God is using these moments to see what you do, and if you allow him and persevere in the challenge, he can mold you.
    So, lean into the difficult, take up the challenge.
    Lastly,

    Focus Upward

    We spend so much time looking out, and caring about ourselves, and making us the center of reality.
    Looking around, how can we get ahead, how can we impress our peers, how can we gain traction here in the world,
    But the king we serve, he had higher things, heavenly things, eternal things on his mind.
    The goal, our mission, is up.
    Colossians 3:1–2 CSB
    1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
    When our focus is upward, it’s off ourselves, which is often good.
    And when our gaze is toward heaven, the spirit of God can fill us, and transform us,
    And we can impact the lives around us with the love of Jesus that will naturally flow out.
    So, church, just keep running. Even if it’s just a little at a time, even if it’s slow, keep going.
    Because no, we aren’t there yet. But we will be.
    And the prize is worth everything.
    Let’s pray.

      • Philippians 3:12CSB

      • Philippians 3:10–11CSB

      • Philippians 3:12CSB

      • Philippians 3:13–14CSB

      • 2 Corinthians 5:17CSB

      • 1 Peter 1:3–5CSB

      • Philippians 3:15CSB

      • Matthew 23:12CSB

      • Philippians 3:16CSB

      • 1 Peter 1:6–7CSB

      • Colossians 3:1–2CSB

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  • Jesus Paid It All
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  • Worthy
Valley Church Clinton
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