Finding Freedom from the Prisons of the Soul: The Prison of Mediocrity

finding freedom from the prisons of the soul: the prison of mediocrity Tom Cowan Interim Lead Pastor English Congregation Vancouver Chinese Baptist Church Vancouver, British Columbia Sunday Sermon for 3 July 2011 Series on Philippians Scripture Passage Philippians 3:12-21

There are two major ways in which things are destroyed in nature and in life. One is the sudden devastation of a volcano or an earthquake. We have seen that over a year ago in Haiti or a raging forest fire. In a few seconds everything is destroyed. Instant destruction.

But there is another way in which things are damaged and destroyed in nature just as much. This is through the slow work of erosion. Erosion is the minor key in nature. It is the slow trickle of acid rain. It is the silent collapse over many years. Erosion is nature’s slow killer. The slow killer in our lives is mediocrity.

Mediocrity is like acid rain to the spirit.

Our last study in Philippians 3:1-11 saw what happens when people are trapped by the prison of pride. It creates a deadly suffocating legalism. It creates a religion that is driven by rules and regulations. It forces people to a perfectionism that actually drives them further away from God. We said that the only antidote to this kind of pride is GRACE. But as often happens, when we become aware of a wrong attitude and reject it, the pendulum in the human experience often swings too far the other way. We drift towards the opposite end of the spectrum.

So it became easy for those who rejected legalism and found the fresh air of grace. To swing too far the other way and their new liberty became license and laziness.

The proper name for this is antinomianism, which literally means against the law. In their immaturity, they thought that since grace was free. Grace did not make any demands on them. Being a Christian brought no demands on them. Anything goes. Bonhoeffer calls this “cheap grace”. It is grace without demands.

Grace without discipleship.

It is this attitude of laziness which silently erodes the quality of our Christian lives and the effectiveness of the church. This cheap grace makes both us and the church anemic and impotent. I call this the prison of mediocrity.

Little by little the invisible tentacles of mediocrity reach out and wrap themselves around our feet. We say, that’ll do. It’s only for the Lord. They had not understood that grace is free, but it is not cheap. Grace demands of us what duty would not dare to ask.

Can I risk sharing a personal issue for me. It is the issue of lateness. It seems to me that we would never think of being late for a concert or a hockey game. We would not want to miss a minute. But when it comes to church, our attitude can be it’s only church, it does not matter. If you were late this morning, I want you to know that God has forgiven you, and I’m working on it.

But in so many areas, little by little, inch by inch, it is so easy to slowly settle down into comfortable mediocrity. Standards drop. Expectations lower. We quietly settle for less and less.

Some of us have lived through the days in which life of the church was tied up and strangled in legalism, a suffocating list of do’s and don’ts. We do not want to go back there. It is unadulterated ugliness. But our danger today is that we swing the pendulum too far the other way, and we drift from legalism to license and laziness.

This is the warning in Galatians 5:13. The theme of Galatians is about Christian freedom.

You my brothers and sisters were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge your sinful nature. Rather serve one another in love.

When sense that this pendulum has swung too far in the direction towards laziness, the usual temptation is to try to swing the pendulum back to what we erroneously call the good old days. But this is not the way to go. It is not enough to try and find some balance between these two ways. Rather we need to find an entirely new and different way. A third way which frees us from on one hand the prison of pride 2 FINDING FREEDOM FROM THE PRISONS OF THE SOUL: THE PRISON OF MEDIOCRITY

and performance. And on the other hand, from the prison of mediocrity. It is the way of grace that inspires excellence.

This is what Paul now presents to us.

Paul has prayed (verse 10) to know Christ and the power of the resurrection.

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

None of has arrived, but if we take a truly mature attitude, the only attitude we can have is to be committed to be people who will press on.

The grace of God always, always accepts us wherever we are. That is the gracious love of the Gospel.

Grace welcomes everyone! But the power of grace does not leave us there. Grace is never satisfied to leave us where it found us. Grace is God’s power at work in us to shape and fashion us (metamorphosis) into the likeness of Christ.

Paul gives us something of a personal mission statement—to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus laid hold of him.

God took hold of Paul for a definite purpose, and Paul needs to join his life to that divine purpose. This is what gives us what Rick Warren wrote about in the Purpose Driven Life. We know who we are, and we know what we are here for. It is to lay hold of why God in Christ Jesus has laid hold of our lives. And we acknowledge that we have never arrived in this journey.

13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind.

He says – forgetting what lies behind…

There are several aspects of the past we need to put behind us if we want to be free from the prison of mediocrity.

1. We need to put past failures behind you. They will slow us down with guilt.

We have all made mistakes. We have all failed at one time or another. Grace is the invitation to draw a new line and find a new place to start over again.

Grace is God’s way of saying to us, you get another chance! We cannot go back and change the past.

We cannot turn the clock back. Grace says you can be different starting today. No matter what dark mistakes stain your past, grace washes you clean and you can start again.

If you are still holding on to some past mistakes this morning, I want you to know that grace wants you to be free. Don’t be a prisoner of the past.

2. We need to put past grudges behind us. They will slow us down with self–pity.

Every one of us has had things happened to us that were neither right nor fair. We have been let down.

People have disappointed us. Harriet and I were once abandoned by a church and left with no house, no job and no money, other than that everything was fine! Life has not always been fair to us, but if we will not let these things go and move beyond them, our lives will now grow past that point.

We will be stuck. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting. Forgiveness means letting go to release ourselves.

It is not sweeping things under the carpet, nor is it about forgiving and forgetting. It is about forgiving because we do not forget. It is about letting go so that we can release ourselves.

3. We need to put past successes behind us. They slow us down because of false glory.

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We know only too well that we can be held back by the failures of the past, but do we ever think that we can also be held back by the successes of the past?

We look back and we see something that went well, so we polish that triumph and that accomplishment like some trophy on the mantle. Every time we look at it we glory in the past, we are dwelling in the nostalgia of the good old days. The shadow of some past glory erodes the potential of the future.

I am convinced that one of the silent killers in the life of the church today that prevents it from being all that God wants it to be, is this erosion of living in the past. We live out of the past, but we do not live in the past, and there is a huge difference.

We can do more today and in the future than we ever did in the past. We can do better than we ever did in the past. This frees us from the prison of mediocrity. … and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

So Paul goes on …. Reaching forward/straining forward to what lies ahead.

The Scottish Bible expositor William Barclay paints a picture for us of what this means. He describes it this way. It is the word that is used for a runner going flat out to the finishing tape. It describes him with eyes for nothing but the goal. Arms clawing the air. Head forward. The body bent and angled to the goal.

It describes the person who is going as we would say, going flat out to the finishing line.

As you agree that this is the only way to live, Paul says, 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

The only view of life we can take is the view that he has just outlined. One of pressing on, going flat out to the finishing line. If you don’t agree with that, God will speak to you and make it clear to you!

We are living in times in which grace is raising the bar and calling us to higher standards.

One of the areas in which I believe we must be concerned today as we live in the death of Christendom must be the area of sexuality in our lives as Christians. As we breathe the seductive air of our culture, and do not breathe deeply enough of the costly grace of God, it is too easy for our discipleship to decline and even collapse in the area of sexuality.

Single Christians cross the invisible line into premarital sexuality. Christian marriages fail at about the same rate as our society. We support what happens by rationalizing our moral laziness and our spiritual weakness by saying the times have changed, and anyway, everyone does it. This is the deadly work of erosion. This is the acid rain of our culture corroding our discipleship.

A recent study in Britain was concerned about the sexual activity amongst teenagers. The panel of experts called for abstinence as the best solution. The only problem was that the panel could not agree on a definition for abstinence. What’s not to understand!! So the Committee agreed that abstinence would mean any and all sexual involvement short of sexual intercourse. You can call that anything you want, but it ain’t abstinence!

We are not the first society to struggle with the issue of sexuality. In our sexually permissive culture, sexuality must be a mark of our discipleship.

I do not expect non-Christians to live like Christians, and many of the issues we see in society today are lifestyle issues. However we do expect and we believe God expects Christians to live like Christians!

New life means new lifestyle. As the moral stage of our culture changes, our calling as disciples of Jesus must shine through in every area, not the least of which is our sexuality.

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Outside marriage, new life calls for abstinence. Sex is a gift of God for this most intimate friendship we call marriage.

Our new life in Christ Biblical marriage as a heterosexual relationship. Within marriage, we call for faithfulness and fidelity, not just of body – but also of mind and heart.

We may be tempted to think that this is the pendulum swinging back to an old legalism, but it is not. It is calling on us to find the third way of costly grace and to walk in its way.

Every time we do just enough to get by, or we say, who cares, we are trapped in the prison of mediocrity.

Grace sets us free from legalism and in doing so, grace demands of our lives what duty would not dare ask! Grace never apologizes for raising the bar in our lives.

When we follow Jesus, good is not good enough. When we think that things are good enough and so they stay at that level, we stop trying. We do not press on any further beyond that. That’s the prison of mediocrity.

The German philosopher Goethe said, what is good is the greatest enemy of the best.

Many people would say that VCBC is a good church. I would agree. It is a good church, but good is not enough. The goal is not to be good. The goal by the grace of God is to be nothing less than to be a great church.

Think of some whatever area of ministry you may be involved in: Alpha, ushering, ministry teams, children, making coffee, music ministry. Perhaps you are a pastor, even the preaching pastor. It does not matter, you might easily say, well, you know, things are pretty good, but the goal is not to be good. We need to ask, what will it take to make every ministry great? What it will take is the energy to move everything up at least one notch? What lies above what you are doing right now, then the road to being great lies in moving up at least one notch.

Remember what William Carey, the father of modern missions said: attempt great things for God, expect great things for God! What does it take to move from good to great?

1. A clear sense of vision. We can never reach great unless we know what the goal is. Most organizations/churches can only do a few things really well.

2. It takes alignment. Everybody is moving in the same direction.

3. It takes attention to detail. The difference between good and great takes attention to detail.

Some of you are thinking, that sounds a lot like a drive towards perfectionism. What about acceptance?

How does grace and acceptance fit in?

Here we need to understand a crucial difference.

An attitude of perfectionism is all the effort and work we put into something as we strive and strain FOR acceptance. Acceptance and recognition is usually at the finishing line. It is the goal, and we are never quite sure how we are doing. So we never know how far the bar is really raised. In an ethos of perfectionism. We are driven by performance.

But in the life of grace, acceptance is at the starting line. We start FROM acceptance, from a position of being accepted by grace, rather than work FOR acceptance. We work FROM acceptance.

GRACE FREES US FROM PERFECTIONISM SO THAT WE CAN REACH FOR EXCELLENCE. Perfectionism and excellence may look exactly the same on the outside, but they are driven by entirely different motives. One is working FOR acceptance. The other is working FROM acceptance.

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Paul’s picture in 3:20-21 is a great one.

20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Citizenship. The greek word for what we would call an embassy. An embassy is a place where the habits, the language, the lifestyle of a homeland are lived out.

You need to remember that this word would make sense to the Philippians. In fact it was used to describe Philippi because Philippi had been given the status of a Roman colony. It was a city where the lifestyle of Rome, the customs of Rome, the language of Rome was practiced.

To be in Philippi was to feel that you were actually in Rome, as though a piece of Rome had been broken off and was planted there.

Paul is saying to us, we are an embassy of heaven. A piece of the future has been broken off and dropped into the world.

We are to be a community where the language of heaven is spoken. Worship, where the customs of heaven are practiced, where the lifestyle of heaven to come is already lived out now.

So God says, heaven in all its glory is what is to come. But you don’t have to wait. Get out there every day and start practicing to live like that now! Start living the final transformation now!

Because of the coming glory of heaven, imagine all that VCBC can and must become in the days ahead not just to be a good church, but to become a great church!

Let me ask you, where have you started on the road to follow Jesus? But to be honest you have pulled back and you are just coasting? You have been trapped in the prison of mediocrity.

Where are you settling for second best, and not pressing on for excellence? That’s the prison of mediocrity.

Perhaps this morning you just want to settle back into being good enough. You say to yourself, whatever, that’ll do. You are too tired for grace to raise the bar in your life. You are a victim of mediocrity. The law of entropy is starting to take over your heart.

Let me paint a picture for you as we close.

Hebrews 12:1-2.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. There is a great cloud of witnesses who watch you run the race every day. They are men and women down through the ages who have made it to the finish line and who are there to cheer you on and encourage you. You can do it! You can do it! Don’t quit!

Look above you, there are angels who fill the grandstands of heaven, cheering you on with chant from the Greek games. Nike! Nike! Nike!, which means Victory.

Look inside you, the Holy Spirit runs inside you like a life-coach, teaching you how to breathe, encouraging you at every step, helping you to fill your weary lungs with the breath of God. Look ahead, at the finish line stands the Lord, never taking his eyes off you. Urging us on with every whole being. Waiting for us to fall into his arms, just like parents urging toddlers to run to them.

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To catch even a glimpse of that picture is enough for us. There is no way. There is simply no way that mediocrity is either acceptable or adequate. There is no way that good is good enough. The grace of God calls us, urges us, pulls us. It inspires us forward towards excellence – that unique kind of excellence that honors the name of our God. Grace demands of us what duty would not dare ask.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: 1. Why do you think we have swung from an attitude of legalism to one of liberty? What has caused this? What are the positive and negative aspects of this swing?

2. I talked about letting go of things in the past in 3 main areas: ❖ Past personal failures ❖ Past hurts ❖ Past successes 3. What personal experience do you have of each of these? How do they hold us back?

4. Where do you find I easy to settle down into a spirit of mediocrity? Why is this? What would move you out of that to strive for more?

5. Do you understand the crucial difference between perfectionism and excellence?

6. How should our view of our heavenly citizenship change our lives today?

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