GOALS | Frank Becker

Week Thirty-Four, 2024

Commit to the Lord Whatever You Do. Proverbs 16:3

There have been a lot of books written, speeches spoken and things said about goals over the years. Most of us have gone to conferences and/or seminars that have guided us in goal setting and have reiterated the importance of having goals in business, in our professional life, in our personal life.

But rarely have we heard much about having goals or setting goals in our faith life. Yet, here’s Paul plainly laying it out:

“Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13-14 NASB

Our Goal: The prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Now, what does that mean?

Paul’s actions steps to reach his ultimate goal were to…

Know Christ

Be like Christ

Be all that Christ had in mind for him to be

Forgetting what was in the past

Striving for what is ahead

Like an elite athlete in training, we must have a single-mindedness and not allow anything to distract us or keep us from reaching our goal.

Yet still remembering what Paul teaches in Ephesians 2:8:9, as Dr. David Jeremiah so clearly reminds us, “No one is saved BY good works, but every Christian has been saved FOR good works.”

To me, the cool part of this is that Jesus wants to help us reach our ultimate goal.

He wants us to know Him more.

He wants us, even calls us, to be more like Him.

He wants us to have an abundant life and to live it joyfully.

Opposite of what we often face when we set our business, professional and personal goals – instead of folks competing and striving against us, we have our goal, Jesus Himself, cheering us on, supporting our efforts, giving us strength in our weakness, reminding us that all things are possible through Him.

If we make Jesus our ultimate goal and our focus is striving to and pressing on to reach that goal, then all “other” goals (business, personal, professional) should fall in to their proper place underneath the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Set your sights on high. Know from where your help comes.

SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES

Counterculture: a subculture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, often in opposition to mainstream cultural mores.

In a society and culture moving further and further from the values in which it was founded, how then should we live?

A Countercultural Standard For Living:

• Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

• Do not conform to what the world/age says is ok.

• Be transformed by the renewing of your mind so you can discern God’s perfect will.

• Do not think of yourself more highly than you should

• Think sensibly

• Be a functional part of the body of Christ

How, then, will you live? For Christianity is naturally counter cultural.

What, then, will you follow? Mainstream society and the direction it’s world is pulling and leading? Or the counter… a world led by Biblical values, with decisions and choices made through prayer and supplication? Marty Stubblefield

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A.W. Tozer said, what you think about God is the most important thing about you. Because the problem with most of us is that our God is too small. We fail to grasp the greatness and power and majesty of our Lord. Folks if we ever get a glimpse of His glory, we would fall to our knees in worship. Paul says we are changed from glory to glory. We need to get a glimpse of His glory. It will change us and sustain us. Pastor Tony Walliser

QUOTES YOU CAN USE

Morals have changed, Churches have changed, Society has changed, People have changed. But God’s Word remains the same. Billy Graham

Because the Bible is inspired by God, it is infallible and inerrant. Dan Shock

It’s impossible to soar like an eagle unless your launching pad is Jesus.

Jesus didn’t come to have coffee. He came to save the lost. Al Vonsteg

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.

The only people who are mad at you for speaking the truth are those people that are living a lie. Keep speaking the truth!!!!!

Never confuse education with intelligence. You can have a PhD and still be an idiot.

Children must be taught HOW to think, not WHAT to think. Margaret Mead

You must remember that some things that are legally right, are not morally right. Abraham Lincoln

People claim they know God, but they deny Him by the way they live.

God used Goliath to get David to the throne. Your giants aren’t meant to defeat you. They are meant to promote you.

Every time you get upset with something or someone, ask yourself if you were to die tomorrow was it worth your time being angry.

Satan’s strategy is simple: Make sin look normal and make righteousness look weird.

The optimist says the cup is half full while the pessimist says the cup is half empty. The child of God says, “My cup runneth over.”

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naïve forgive and forget; the wise forgive but don’t forget.

An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground in order to rule over the ashes.

God didn’t remove the Red Sea. He parted it. God doesn’t always remove your problems, but he will make a way to get through them!!!!

The one who reads a newspaper knows what is happening in the world. The one who reads the Bible knows why.

Don’t come to church for an emotional experience. Come to church for the truth.

I do not ask you whether you are a Wesleyan, a Baptist or a Presbyterian. My only question is “Are you born again?”. Charles Spurgeon

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