[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 830 or 10:30 a.m. if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, find
[email protected] dot. Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: In 1992, in Barcelona Olympics, there was a man by the name of Derek Redmond, and you guys probably are aware of who this guy is. He represented Great Britain, and he was touted as one of the fastest runners in the world. Now, what we know about him is that he went through a lot of difficulties in his life in the sense of, in his training. He had lots of injuries, and, in fact, one of those injuries was a torn achilles, which I can identify. I've had that happen before. And the fact that he was able to train and work through that challenge and get back to that world class speed is something just amazing. And so that was a really heartwarming story as you prepare for the Olympics. And, of course, Derek was great. He was doing fantastic, made it to the Olympics, and even in the preliminary rounds, he was running really well. A lot of people were looking to him as a possible favorite to take home a medal in the Olympics. He got to the quarterfinals and actually ran the fastest race that was run in the quarterfinals of that 400 meters race that he was a part of. And so he moved on into the semifinals, and the semifinal race was there. And we were going to find out who would roll over into that medal round, where you'd find that final race to give the gold, the silver, and the bronze medal. And in this quarterfinal race or in this semifinal race, as the. They started off with the starting blocks. Everything looked fine. Everything was going really well. But about two thirds of the way through the race, Derrick Redmond pulled his hamstring, or tore his hamstring and collapsed on the track.
And all of his goals, all the adversity he had overcome, everything that he was hoping to accomplish, disappeared in an instant as he watched the rest of those runners cross the finish line. And it's a tough story, if you can imagine, pouring all of your training and all of your life and every meal you ate, every time you rested, every time you stretched, everything that you do in order to prepare yourself for this kind of feat, all of it is right there in that moment. The defeat of it, yes. The pain of the injury, of course, but the deep pain from within. Inside.
But if you were to watch this race and if you were to look at all the different camera angles, there's one particular camera angle that you'll see as he has fallen to the ground, that in the stands, there's a man sprinting down an aisle, and he literally looks like he's in a dead sprint. He's running down those bleachers, and he gets down, and he jumps over the railing and gets onto the surface, jumps over a couple of barricades, and a couple of security personnel come to find him and to grab him. He pushes all them away and runs out onto the track. And it happens to be his father, Jim.
And what was going through Jim's mind as he entered this? He's already lost the race.
But that thing that I began in him, I need to help him finish. And so he got there, and Derek said, just keep me in lane five. And the two of them, arm in arm, ran the rest of the race, hobbled, limping, and all those kinds of things brought him to the finish line.
And, you know, I think we can look at this story. There's a heartwarming aspect of it, obviously, and the father coming to his son's aid and helping him finish that race. And you can imagine the crowd as they ripped into applause and support of them and appreciation for what took place in that moment. But I want you to take your mind to Derek for a moment, and while he appreciates it, while he is there with his father, there are a lot of things that are going on in his mind. And I think one of those things is a lack of joy. And the reason is because when we lean upon our own abilities, our own gifts, our own talents, and especially in this situation, with all of that physical training that had to be done, when your body fails you and you've put everything in on that one thing, it's really hard to find the joy in the midst of all of that defeat, because it feels like we lost.
And I think on some level, that's what Paul is saying in Philippians, chapter three, as he reads you the resume that he had, right? He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. He was, you know, a Pharisee. He was a person who was zealously, you know, persecuting Christians. I mean, this guy was the Jew of all Jews. I mean, he was the valedictorian of Jew. You, you know what I mean? He was that kind of amazing.
And yet he looks back at those things and he says, while I accomplished all those things, there's no joy in those things. Because once he realized what he had in Jesus Christ, all of those things paled in comparison, and they were just considered to be rubbish. And so he looks at those things and says that all that accomplishment, when you really look at it in view of what Jesus has done and what I have found in Jesus, those things are to be less valued. And so he says, I'm nothing finished here. I'm going to keep pressing. I'm going to keep working toward a goal. And he says, I haven't accomplished that yet. And anytime you see in scripture the idea of perfection, the word that's going to be used for this is like maturation. It's the idea that we are growing, that we are continuing to push forward. It's like this continuous process that we go through. And he says, even though he had done those things, that was not much of accomplishment. And even as he followed Christ, I think you can get caught up in the things that he did, like going from one place to the next and establishing congregations, going into places where it wasn't friendly and being bold on behalf of speaking on Jesus behalf. He could do all those things. He could say that I've accomplished all these things. But he basically gets to the point that I have not really attained anything yet because the goals that I've set are not temporary. Here on earth. There's something greater. So he says, you know, I want to keep pressing on, that I may gain Christ, that I may be found in him, that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, to share in his suffering, to be like Jesus in death, and to experience that resurrection from the dead. He said, all of those things are still yet to come. And you would think a guy like that with all of that accomplishment would have arrived on the scene. But here Paul is telling us, no, there's so much more that needs to be done to bring us to that maturity, to bring us to that perfection. So he says, not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. I want to stop for just a moment and ask all of us, have we been guilty of taking the idea, the reality that Jesus came to die for all of the world.
And we've imagined that with lots of people, but faceless people.
Like, have you thought about, like, the idea that we think about Jesus saving all of the world, but it's just a glob of people. It's just a pile of faces. It's not even people that we know or understand what their particular struggle is.
Isn't it amazing that our God knows your struggle, knows my struggle, knows the difficulties you've endured, the challenges you faced.
He knows your weaknesses. He knows your failings, and he's intimately aware of you. And I think what Paul does here so beautifully is he takes it from that bigness and that maybe generic statement of, Jesus came to die for the world. And he says, jesus came to die for me.
He made me his own.
Can you for just a moment, think about all the sins in your life and the things that you've done? And I'm not saying hold on to those things. I'm saying you are liberated from those things because Jesus Christ died for you to wash away those sins. And that is such a liberating feeling, to know that he has done that he has accomplished that on the cross, and he is my personal savior. I hope that all of us will look beyond the, what he's done for the world and think specifically about what he's done for you, because Paul here is making a statement that he has been touched, but what Jesus has done for him. And so he presses forward to make Jesus his own in the same way that Jesus has purchased him. So he reminds us that this spiritual growth, it never stops. Like this is an ongoing process I need to continue in my growth. And as I push forward and keep, keep moving on. So he says it this way, he says, brother, I don't consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do, and I love this little outline. He says, I forget the things that lie behind, and I strain forward to what lies ahead, and I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ. I want you to kind of imagine this. He's saying, forget the stuff that's in your past.
He's saying, keep pressing forward. And that thing that you do to press forward is the thing that leads you upward in your relationship with God.
And so I love that the idea of forgetting what's back here, moving forward. Now he's talking in the context here of what he's accomplished as a jew, right? The different things that he felt like made him something special. And he's saying, I've got to abandon all those things. I got to leave that behind. I can't hold on to that as if that's anything, you know, satisfying to the soul. It's not. I have to keep pressing forward. And that pressing forward is what leads me to a relationship with Christ. So let's unpack those a little bit. And let's think about forgetting what lies behind. Just to illustrate this. Why is that important? I want to give you another race story. In 1954, a man named Roger Bannister did something that they thought was impossible for a human to do. And that was he ran a mile in less than four minutes. And most people thought up until this point that it was not possible for a human to do it. He had gotten to four minutes and 2 seconds. And a lot of people said it can't be done. But Roger Bannister felt like, hey, if I can run just 2 seconds quicker, I can get to that spot. And if I can just shave off a little bit of time here and there all the way around the race, I can find my way to that sub four minute mile. Well, he did it. And it's, you know, the whole world was blown away because we. The thought was that if a person reached four minutes, that's the end of, you know, the human capacity. He dies, his heart explodes or something at the end of that race. But you know what happens? It unlocks a mental thing. And other people began getting closer and closer to it. And there was actually a man named John Landy from Australia who accomplished the same thing. And in fact, not only accomplished it, but beat his world record at three minutes and 59 some odd seconds.
So as it would turn out, these two guys were invited to an international race together in 1954, Canada. And so it was an unbelievable scene, if you can imagine. All the crowd and all the people who were like running enthusiasts would be there and this would be like, you know, kind of that prize fight. Like the biggest thing to have the very best two in all of the world who are coming together and they come to this race. And so they are there as a spectacle. And everybody's watching these two. And yeah, there are other runners, but it's these two guys that everybody's watching. Well, one thing that was unique about them is Landy had like a really relaxed pace. Like when he would run, it was like there was no wasted motion. And I remember Clifton Denton telling me about running because he got a scholarship to go run and cross country. He's like, you gotta just make yourself like relaxed. You know, it's like, how do you relax when you're dying. You know what I mean? But that's what he would say. Just. Well, Landy was like that. He. It looked like he was effortless. He was just. Nothing changed. Very small movements, that kind of thing. Well, Roger Bannister was kind of a long, lanky guy, and he would, you know, turn. He'd be like me, like, running ten steps by, you know, straining and working toward. And his head would move, and he was kind of flailing a little bit. But the difference was, Landy was a pacesetter, and Bannister was a strong finisher.
So it was unique, because not only were you had the two fastest men in the world in a mile, but you had them coming together with these very different approaches to the run. And so they began the race. And as the run went on, Landy was out, because he's the pace setter. He was out, like, maybe upwards of 1015 meters, okay? He had a big span, you know? And for most of the race, that's where everything stood. It was Landy. And then way back was Bannister, and then way back was the rest of the crowd. Right? And so they're running. They keep running. And little by little, you know, as you get to that very fourth and final lap around the track, Bannister closed the gap to within about 5 meters.
And as they're running, they stay that same pace. And it's interesting, because Landy could see throughout the race where the sun was, and he could glance in his peripheral and look for shadows. For most of the run, he had not seen a shadow, and he felt like everything was good, but he saw a shadow, and he said, that has to be Bannister. And so he's running. He's running. He's running. And they make the final turn on the way back. And when he does, he lost track of that shadow. And as he did, he turned his head to the inside. And Landy never missed stride and finished on the other side of him. And it was that turn of the head that caused him to lose his stride and for Bannister to pass him on the outside.
There are literally statues of this.
This image here that demonstrate what took place. And immediately, he was ahead, like, four or five paces to finish that race.
So I guess this is a great example of why it's not a good thing for us in the midst of the race to turn our head and to lose track and to lose focus on the sight that's in front of us. And that's why, Jesus, when he was talking to his followers, and some of them were saying, well, hey, before I follow you, let me go back and do some of these things, or I've got these other challenges that I've got to meet. Jesus says, hey, no man having put his hand to the plow is fit for the kingdom of God. Now, that sounds harsh, right? No man who puts his hand to the mouth is fit. That sounds like we're worthless, right? If we dare look back. But that's not what it's saying. It's used in the sense of usefulness. It's like productivity. Like, we can't be the best we can be in the kingdom if we keep finding ourselves looking back. So he uses this very word picture where you take a plow and you go, now, nobody who's doing a plow will do this number. Hey, how good was that way back there? You know? No, because they'll turn, they'll twist, they'll move from different places. You know, I found this to be a problem one time. I was on the treadmill, and I was running, and I was looking at a different. Y'all are already laughing. I haven't got to the punchline yet.
I'm running on a treadmill, and I was interested in a machine that they had just brought in, and nobody was using it, but then I saw somebody using it. So I'm over here jogging, running, and I kind of glanced and, you know, jog a little bit more. Glance, jog a little bit more. And then I started lingering, and guess what happened? The treadmill's going right? So one leg is doing this number, this leg lands on the side. And so I've got this little hoppy thing going on, like, for a long time, and eventually I get busted and shot out the back. And, you know, I was thankful. It was, like, 445 in the morning. And I thought, nobody's here, but nobody was in front of me. But there was a woman on a bike behind me, like, sir, you okay? I'm like, man, embarrassing. No one looking back is fit. Like, we keep our eyes on the prize. So when we look back, we're destined to fall prey to some things and to be challenged by those things. So we don't let our past experiences paralyze as we try to grow in Christ, right? We don't look back. We have to keep looking forward. And so how do we get past our past? And I think the first thing I would say to all of us is. Is embrace the grace of God in the reality. In this circumstance, I don't want you to see this from two different angles. One, Paul is saying, the things that I've done, those don't matter. But also, folks, the sins that we've committed in our past that have been forgiven also don't matter. Embrace the grace of God. In Ephesians chapter one and in Ephesians chapter two, it clearly tells us that it's because of the blood of Jesus that we're forgiven, that we're, our trespasses are removed from us. It's not of our own works. It's not of the things that we do. It's about God's mercy and his grace being poured out to us. And even passages that deal with baptism. As we talk about this, I want you to recognize in Colossians two, verse twelve, it talks about how we are baptized. We're buried with Christ in baptism. And it's through faith in the operation of God who cleanses us of our sins. It's God's work that takes place in that baptism. It's nothing us doing anything for ourselves. It's us surrendering and dying to ourselves. So we find ourselves in the good graces of God. We find ourselves accepting the blessing that he's given us. So very clearly we need to embrace the grace of God and that allows me a good bit of freedom.
Paul said, I'm not perfect. Why would we think we could be? So if we're going to keep moving forward, we've got to get rid of that past. Second is, don't resurrect things that are forgotten. Jesus, or the word of God says this. It says, as far as east is from the west.
That's how far he removes our sins from us. Jesus says, you know, I'll be their people. I will remember their sins no more. If you've been purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ, his sins have washed you clean.
And if you walk in the light as he is in the light, and if you confess your sins a long way, the Bible tells us that there is a continual and perpetual cleansing that takes place for you. You don't have to wear the guilt, that backpack that you once carried that had all of the troubles of your life and all the mistakes that you made and all the things that made. You have a label that made you feel a certain way because of your past. Those things can be dropped. You don't have to lift that burden anymore. In fact, isn't that what Hebrews says? It says, you know, lay aside every sin and the weight, the encumbrance, and let us run with patience the race that is before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Wow. We can't hold on to the past. Whether you've done great things, don't rest on your laurels. And you've heard that phrase before.
Back in the ancient times, if someone was victorious or if they won a certain prize or they were elected to a specific office, they would take these laurel leaves and put them in a wreath, and they would rest them upon your head, and it was dissembled, a crown of accomplishment.
But resting on your laurels means I hang that up somewhere and go, look at how awesome I am. Look at all the things that I've accomplished and done. No, that's not what Paul is saying. We can't rest on our laurels, and we can't hold on to the guilt of our past.
So he says it this way in two Corinthians, chapter five. He kind of deals with both of these things. He said, we don't regard anyone according to the flesh. That means the things that we experience here on earth, the things that we think make people valuable because of their accomplishments or because of how great they are at something, how talented they are. We don't put that kind of trust in people like that. It says, hey, we once even thought of Jesus that way, but we don't do that any longer. He says, so therefore, anyone who is in Christ is a new creation, and the old is passed away and the new has come. What a blessing to think about that. But also in getting past our past, the scriptures encourage us to turn our misery into ministry. And just real quickly, you remember the situation with Joseph, right? He was, you know, his brothers were jealous of him, sold him into slavery while he was a slave. He ended up getting into Potiphar's house to be a servant there. Things seemed to be going pretty well. Accusation. He's thrown into prison for a long time, forgotten while he's there and all that. Can't you just see him going, oh, my brothers, if they hadn't started this whole mess. And yet, as he grows in his authority and power and God creating success in all the things that he did, as he rose up to second in command in all of Egypt and had authority like nobody else, when given an opportunity to return the evil to his brothers, rather than doing that, he returned it with kindness. And as they're talking to him about that, he says, hey, what you meant for evil, the Lord meant for good.
That's taking your misery and turning it into a blessing for someone else. But also let me think about this. Psalm 119, verse 71. It's good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. Sometimes in those challenges of life are the very moments that if we are receptive and our hearts and our attitudes are right, that we can learn a little bit from God. But then also second Corinthians, chapter one, verse four. Paul is talking to people, and he's saying, hey, the things that you've gone through matter and those things that you've experienced can also be a help to other people. When he says this, he comforts us in all of our troubles. Who's he talking about? God. God comforts us even in our difficulties. He's there for us when no one else is. God is there. And because he comforts us, he does it in such a way that people who do not have a relationship with God can be also comforted through your efforts. In other words, what you've experienced is setting you up to be someone who can serve another person. He says, when they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. Do you understand the challenges you face, the difficulties you've gone through? All of those things can be used ministry to other people.
That's how we get past our past.
But then he says, to strain forward. And the idea here is literally, as you get to the finish line, to lunge forward, to finish that race. Here's a picture of Roger Bannister after he has passed John Lundy and he finishes to the finish line. Notice as he's going there, he throws his body to the finish line. And the word that's used for straining there is. It kind of goes back to chariot racing. And the Philippians, being a church that was or an area that was a roman colony, would have kind of understand this idea of finishing strong, like going hard at the finish line to make the best score you can make to finish the race and to be the victor when it's all over with. So how do we strain ahead?
Well, here's a few things. First of all, define your direction. We said before, we got to keep our eyes focused on the things that are most important. And as Paul would talk to not just the Philippians, but other groups, he would say things like this, seek things that are above. You would say, well, hey, I don't know exactly what that means. He says, well, if you've been raised with Christ, seek things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And he's saying, think in terms of heavenly things set your minds on things that are above, not on things on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God. And that's where he is. He's there, and that's where our mindset needs to take us in our life and the focus of the things in our life that need to be centered around heaven. He says, the things that we're, you know, the afflictions that we go through now are temporary things. So we don't look at the things that are seen. We look at things that are unseen, things that are eternal.
Proverbs 1524. The path of life leads upward for the prudent that he may turn away from Sheol beneath.
Do you understand this? There's a spiritual level to this, that God's people, we need to be different in the way we think about things. Our priorities are different. Our mindset is shifted to moving forward, and that forward leads us upward. And he says, our citizenship, this is later in chapter three. Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, he's there, and we're waiting for him to return. So he reminds us that our focus has to be on something beyond this life here. So how else do we strain ahead? Well, we deepen our discipline, and I love that. Paul uses a lot of different race analogies in his ministry. And so in one corinthians chapter nine, he deals with this idea of discipline. He says all athletes are disciplined in their training.
They will do it to win a prize that will fade away.
But he says, in the same way, those of us who are christians, who are following Jesus, spiritually speaking, we have to do this in a way that demonstrates our spiritual discipline. So he says, we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. Think about that.
That's laying claim to everything that I do. It's like, as I'm straining forward, I'm disciplined, I'm doing some things differently. It means I make choices that reflected where my allegiance is. It means that in a moment where someone needs to do the right thing, I'm the person who steps up to be the light in the midst of that moment. It means I discipline myself to take what I want and push it aside for the sake of what I know God wants me to be. And I shape my life based on those things. So I discipline my body. It's not like shadow boxing.
I'm like an athletic, training it to do, training my mind, training my heart, training my spiritual walk, to do what God wants me to do.
So, how do we be disciplined in our thinking? And these are just four things. I'm gonna try to hit them as quickly as possible. The first one is detect distractions.
What I mean by that is, each one of us knows, and there's not a person in this room that doesn't know where your weaknesses are, where your temptations come from.
What are the triggers in your life that bring these things about?
You need to identify those things and to detect it when it's coming in advance. You know, it's the idea of redeeming the time, making the most of every opportunity. As Ephesians chapter five says, it means I've kind of got my head on a swivel. I'm watching for anything that might come my way, and I recognize there are certain markers that represent a temptation for me. So I detect those in advance. I kind of look for those things and know what's happening. Then I recognize that those things are works of the devil. That's why I disarm temptation. How do I do that? The Bible says simply this, resist the devil, he will flee from you. And that may seem like an oversimplification, but I believe if God said it, that's what we need to incorporate in our life.
So how do we do that? Well, it just means that we recognize, we detect it, we see what he's trying to do, and we, because we are aware, now spiritually aware of the battle that's going, we recognize that that's a work of the devil. That is the devil trying to pull me aside. The Bible says we're drawn by our lusts and our desires and those kinds of things, but it's the devil who puts those things in our way. So if we are spiritually aware, we see that and we avoid it.
And not only that, but we redirect our mind, and that's the next part of this. We set our minds on it on a different direction, go back to what our goals are. Hey, is that going to take me where I want to go? No, it's going to take me on a path that leads me away from God. Why would I do that? That's silly to do that. If I want heaven, then I want to pursue that. I've got to push this aside. So I do that. I direct my minds to stay on course. And then finally, when you've gone through that process over and over again and you've beaten that temptation and you've got, with God's help, you have overcome those challenges. I want you to take a moment to delight in the victory, and then I want you to do it all over again.
There's something very fulfilling about taking a bad situation and turning it into a ministry to other people or serving God in some powerful way, redirecting your life. Focus on things that are most important.
And then as far as straining ahead to develop this mentality that it's progress over perfection.
Paul himself, you know, also our christian right, we would say that he says, I've not yet attained, that I've nothing, I've not grasped, that I've not laid hold on, that that's something that I will lay hold on in eternity. When I am resurrected from the dead and I get to be with Jesus, it's progress over perfection. What do I mean by that? Well, in two, Peter, there's a passage that I have often thought about with my own personal spiritual development. And is this that we have faith, right? We have trust in God. We know that our objective is to follow his guidance and to do his will. And so when we have that kind of trust, that his way is the right way, then we start making standards in our life. We do moral excellently things, morally excellent things, by determining that's a right thing and this is a wrong thing, and I'm going to choose to do these things. And the more we do that, the more we're hungry for what is it that God's will is? So we add upon that the idea of knowledge. Like we get into God's word and we let it shape who we are. And what happens as a result of that knowledge that we get. We regain this idea of self control. Like, I've got the ability to make good choices and decisions and with that self control over a long period of time. And that pattern of life gives me the sense in which, hey, I am going with endurance and I'm being successful in these things. And that causes me to want to be more like God. And the closer I draw to him, I find myself loving every single person in this world and especially love those people who do not have this peace of mind that I have. Do you understand how it's a process? Over time, we continue to grow and we continue to add these things in our life. And God, through the Holy Spirit, begins to refine us and make us more of what we need to be. And he says in verse eight, the more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Was it Paul said he wanted, I want to lay hold of him and these are ways that we lay hold of our knowledge of Jesus Christ.
So he says, let those of us who are mature think this way.
And he says, if you don't necessarily think about that, okay, that's all right. God will teach you some things, but let's hold on to the things that we obtain. In other words, let's don't backtrack. He's saying, don't keep going back, right? So let's keep moving forward.
What he's ultimately saying is that God is in control of all the outcomes of life, but you and I all have the power to shape our attitudes about how we're willing to learn. And I think that's what Paul is encouraging us. So he says, brothers, join me in imitating me. And I have it in my mind that he's saying, hey, we've got some guys over here in the philippian church that are setting a good standard. I mean, maybe he's talking about himself. Maybe he's talking about he and Timothy. Maybe he's talking about other people within the congregation. He says, hey, fix your eyes on these kind of people. Follow their example, because they walk according to this example, and it's going to help you see kind of a visual representation of what these kind of decisions in this life is. So the question for all of us this morning is, whose eye or on what is your mind focused?
What is it that you are trying to imitate?
And that's probably one that we need to take a moment just to stop and think about.
Because if we follow the example of people who are imitating Christ, well, that's going to lead us in a better direction. Right.
But his warning comes in the next verse, because he says, those who do not do this are enemies of the cross.
And he says, with those enemies, they walk against what God wants them to be.
And he draws a distinction because following Jesus and trusting in him leads us forward and upward. But when we look at the enemies of the cross, this is how they're described in this next verse.
It says, their end is destruction. Well, ask yourself clearly, do I want to end destruction? Well, no. None of us would choose to do that, right? He says, their God is their appetite. And that's not talking just about food. It's talking about the desires they have, like satisfying themselves on whatever it is in that fleshly moment they want, whether it's money or whether it's sexuality or whether it's a new job that brings more money and wealth, whatever it may be. Those appetites are there for us. And he's saying that becomes their God. That becomes their whole entirety of their pursuit. That's. None of us would want that, right? Since they glory in their shame. It means these people who do things that are wrong sit around and laugh about those things, and they try to get other people to acknowledge their greatness in those things. Like, we wouldn't want to be around someone like that, right? It says their minds are set here on earth. In other words, they have fixed all of their growth and their desires and their goals based on this life here and the things that they could accomplish.
But that's not the point of all this, right? He's talking to them about looking toward heaven.
If I may ask a question, most of us have chosen heaven over hell, right? That's kind of an easy. There's a stark contrast between those two things.
But we need to ask ourselves if we've chosen heaven over earth or earth over heaven.
See, this is how the devil works.
He draws all of these things that we enjoy here. They bring us pleasure. And he makes this the thing that we long for so much.
But Paul is encouraging us to not look at the past, to keep straining forward, and that forward leads us upward. He says our citizenship is in heaven. He said, when Christ comes and there's so much to absorb in this text, it's a whole sermon. We won't get into it. But in one corinthians chapter 15 and one Thessalonians are passages that talk about will be resurrected with Christ one day. He'll come back in the clouds in the twinkling of an eye, and we'll all be brought up to him to be with God forever. We will put on a glorious body. I don't know what that means, except for to say it's something beyond the here and now, and it's something that we can long for and hope for. And you remember in Philippians chapter two, we talked about this, how it talked about our manner of life. And when we looked at that greek word, it indicated that it's about where you're located. It's your citizenship. It's, you need to be a representative of the place that you belong. And so if we have our citizenship centered in heaven, then all of us need to be people who live in such a way that people can see that that's our goal and our ambition in this life, to come. Come.
And ultimately, I believe what Paul is saying here is that God is not done with us and that true joy is the result of valuing God's work in us through the finish line.
So it means I've confidently trusted in him to help refine me, to help bring me to where I am. And because of this, life has all kinds of things that are thrown at me. It makes me just stop and think, okay, God, what is it? In this moment, while I'm going through this persecution, while I'm going through this challenge, this difficulty, this affliction, this disease, whatever it may be, what is it that I need to learn to trust in you more? And when you adopt that mentality, you just trust that God's going to pull you through things. And that, my friends, gives you a joy in your heart despite your circumstances.
But while you're going through that struggle, maybe remember these images like this, of Derrick Redmond, trained by his father, brought to the highest level of competition possible in this life.
He fails.
And what does the father do?
He comes to his aid.
He sprints down those bleachers, he jumps over the barriers, he pushes other things aside, and he comes to our aid to help bring us to the finish line.
And he only does that when we don't get hamstrung by the things that are in our past.
And we keep pressing forward to finish the race, even through the difficulties, knowing that he is the aid to get us where we need to be.
This morning, if you have any need at all, I hope you'll come. While together we stand and singhe.
