Philippians 3:12-14 – It all starts with right desires, but to press ahead we need discipline and trust in God.
Great athletes start with desire, but they don’t just wake up one day as champions. It takes a passionate and disciplined routine of mental and physical training. You can perform at your best only as you get focused on your goal and then give it everything you’ve got.
Ready
- What does your daily training routine look like? How does neglecting that training regimen affect your ability to perform in competition?
- Can you describe a time when maintaining your daily routine directly impacted your competitive results in a positive way?
Set
Going For It!
Champions are not built from the outside in; the fire starts inside — in the heart and mind — and spreads outward. What’s inside defines who you really are. Actions and behaviors are driven by what you truly believe in your innermost being about God, yourself, and the world in which you live (reference Psalm 51:6).
WOULD YOU RATHER ... pray for an hour or work out for an hour?
12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers, 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.
-Philippians 3:12-14
In verse 13, Paul explains that the key to maintaining discipline is forgetting _______________ and reaching forward to _______________.
- How can things in your past paralyze you in a game situation from moving ahead to pursue “the prize” or the win? How about in other areas of your life?
Paul is “going for it” — giving his all for Jesus and His mission. He does this because he has “been taken hold of by Christ Jesus” (verse 12).
- How does understanding that Jesus is crazy about you personally and wants you on His team change the way you approach life?
Getting In the Right Mind
12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, in order to know what has been freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 But the natural man does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to know it since it is evaluated spiritually. 15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. 16 For: who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
-1 Corinthians 2:12-16
- We wonder what makes great athletes and coaches tick. Name some “greats” whose minds you’d like to better understand. What could you gain from these “greats”?
In 1 Corinthians 2:12-16, Paul talks about the difference between spiritual wisdom (right thinking) and human wisdom (stinking thinking). He concludes in verse 16 that our only hope to grasping the greater spiritual reality is by attaining “the mind of Christ.” As you choose to follow Jesus you have the unique opportunity to “pick the brain” of the greatest life coach in history. The Bible is our life playbook, and God’s Spirit is our coach.
- Using the brain chart, list some of the attributes or characteristics of Jesus that you would most like to understand and transfer into your own life playbook.
Go
WOULD YOU RATHER ... Work out so hard you barf, or so light you don’t even sweat?
When we’re driven by a passion to succeed in athletics or in life, we’ll endure all kinds of grueling training to reach our goals. Nothing on earth can stand up to the promises and rewards that come through a relationship with Jesus, so pursue the real prize!
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.
-2 Corinthians 5:17
- In a world where people are looking for extreme makeovers and quick fixes from plastic surgery and steroids, what does this verse in 2 Corinthians suggest is the best way to deal with our insecurities and our desire to improve?
Once you join with Jesus, your old ways are no longer the truest thing about you. You can leave those things behind because you are a new creation.
- As God performs extreme makeovers on us, what are some old things that He can make new? List some old things and new things on this chart.
Take-Away
God chooses each of you as His number-one draft choice, but not everybody signs on. Even though God relentlessly pursues a relationship with you, He will never force you. Circle the number on the scale that best describes where you stand in signing on with Jesus...
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
No way I’m in 100%
Before the next meeting
God daily invites you to talk, walk, and work with Him. Share your score with your leader or another Christ-follower you respect. Discuss what’s keeping you from circling a “10.”