The Wait is Over
Let's Go! December 29, 2024 Philippians 3:13-14 Notes
It can be uniquely challenging to know what to do as a Christian because so much of our Christian faith is based on trust and dependence on God. But there is a distinct line between rightly trusting in God’s will, power, and provision and being spiritually passive or lazy.
Maybe you are at a decision point in life about a job opportunity or a relationship or something major like that. Carefully praying and trusting in the Lord is right, but it doesn’t stop there. Pursuit is what follows. When it comes to our walk in Christ this is always the right pattern … prayer and then pursuit.
In Philippians 3, the apostle Paul instructed the church in Philippi that the one thing he did was press on towards the goal God had called him towards. We can do this one thing and pursue God’s goal for us.
Audio
I hope you all had a merry Christmas. We did. We're right here in between Christmas and New Year's, and I hope you all are excited for the new year. There's a lot coming up here this year here at Eastgate, so hopefully you are fired up. Notice we got all the kids in here.
Welcome to all the children. Hello. You know, this is. We're giving our kids workers a spell. Of course, the nursery workers are still in there.
We're giving them a spell. And I just want to publicly thank all of y'all who work in the children's ministry. You do an indispensable service to our ch. And so we're gonna preach to the kids as well. This is not a kid's sermon, though.
This is, you know, I'm not, I'm not sitting up here like Pastor Gary handing out candy canes. That's not kind of my shtick, you know that. So we're introducing a new sermon series this week, though, called let's Go. It's a two week series and Pastor Gary is out this week and next because he's on his study break. He's getting all ready for the next year, working on the sermon calendar and other things, the strategic initiatives that we've got for Eastgate Church to go forward in 2025.
So we've got him doing some important work. So I'm here this week and Adam Purvis will be here next week to preach the second part of this let's Go message. And this let's Go is where we're going to explore the idea, as you saw in the sermon intro, that, you know, the Israelites, when they left Egypt, came up to the Red Sea. And there was a point there where the Red Sea is in front of them and Pharaoh and, and all his army and chariots were behind them. And there's an idea there where sometimes we're called to wait on the Lord, but other times we tend to wait even though God's already said go.
All right, so sometimes we need to wait. But there's times where God really says, no, no, it's time for you to go. So that's what we're exploring. Let's go. And so there's that question, should we stay or should we go?
You know, so Pharaoh's army and his chariots had caught up with God's people. And, you know, they're now the Hebrews are facing destruction, right? So you got all these, these, these soldiers, they're ready to mow down the Hebrews. And then the Hebrews are looking at the Red Sea, saying, what do you want me to do? Drown in the Red Sea?
You know, so what's. What's. What's going on here? Moses knew, though he faithfully believed in God, he knew that God had already said, let's go, and that God has was going to fight for them. So that's kind of what Mose thinking.
But even Moses was a little shocked when God said what he said next. And this is our series theme text here. And it's in Exodus 14, Exodus 14, 15, 16. Reads, the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry out to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.
Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. Moses was shocked at that. What? Wait, Go forward. There's the Red Sea.
Okay, I'll do what you said, God. That's what. So you ever feel like it's hard to know when it is to wait and when to go? Kind of reminds me of that silly song that came out when I was in high school by the Clash. Should I stay or should I go?
A lot of y'all probably were thinking of that earlier, right? Yeah, it's still popular today. Okay, so I'm not that old. I mean, I'm old, but I'm not that old. Okay, but I still hear that song.
You know, I hated that song when it first came out. I really was not into the punk scene, but I really like it now. I don't know what that says about me, See? But it can be uniquely challenging for Christians to know what to do, because much of our Christian life and faith is based upon trust and dependent upon God, and we need to be dependent upon God. But there is a distinct line that happens that is between rightly trusting in God's will and his power and his provision for our life, rightly trusting in all that, and then moving on and going forward and figuring out what it is.
See, you can either the line there is, I can rightly trust, or I can be spiritually passive or lazy. We're not called to be passive and lazy. We're called to go. So where is that line? What does that look like?
See, maybe today you're at a decision point. Many of us could be, you might be in a decision point for a career. Should I pursue this new job, or should I go to this particular school or that school? Should I pursue this relationship or that who should I marry? Right?
These are all important jobs. These are all Important questions and ideas that we need to wrestle with. And many of us struggle with the idea of what is God's will for all of these things. You know, so carefully praying and trusting in God is the right thing to do. Starting off with prayer is the right thing, but it doesn't stop there.
See, the next thing you need to do is pursue to go to pursue what God has already put before you. So always pray first, but then pursue. See, a lot of you will. I don't know what God is saying to me. I don't know what he's got for me.
I don't know what his will is for me and for my life. I don't know what he desires of me. So I pray today. Today's the day that you will hear plainly that what he desires for you is to pursue Him. Is to pursue him with all your being.
See, the wait is over. That's where we get our title for today. The wait is over. It's time to pursue Christ with all your heart. Today we'll see how the Apostle Paul endeavored to to pursue Christ in Philippians 3.
The apostle Paul instructed the church in Philippi that the one thing he did was press on toward the goal that God had called him towards. See, we can do the same thing. We can do this one thing, and we can pursue God's goal for us. How do we do that? How do we pursue that goal?
Well, the text is gonna give us two ways that we pursue the goal for our life. And we're in a short part of scripture today. We're in Philippians chapter 3, starting midway through verse 13 and 14. Philippians chapter 3 reads, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And may God bless the reading of His Word.
Amen. So we're looking for two ways that we can pursue God's goal for our life. Here's the first way. Forget what lies behind. Forget what lies behind.
So Paul's talking about this goal thing, and for us to know what that is, we kind of need to define what the goal is that he's talking about. Let's ask that question. What is this goal? So Paul says in verse 14 that he presses on. He presses on.
That word in the Greek kind of makes this idea of running, or could be fleeing from something to put to flight. In other words, to chase something away, to drive away. It also has this idea of running the race. Running the race. Pressing on towards the goal.
But when I hear the word press, okay, So I start thinking back to my past. And many of you know, back about 50 pounds ago, when I was cool, I used to fly fighter jets for a living in the Air Force. You know, we used to. A lot of times what would happen, we fly in a formed two ship, right? And number two's job is to clear the 6 o'clock of the lead.
And the lead's out there looking for bad guys. Well, sometimes number two would see a bad guy, right? And number one didn't see it. So number two would sometimes say, two's engaged on my nose, three miles. And number one would say, two, press, press.
And that was, go pursue that adversary. Go pursue him. And I'm gonna follow you and clear your six, okay? So there's that idea of pursuit in the press. Idea.
I press on, I pursue. Toward what? Toward the goal. Toward the goal. This word is interesting in the Greek.
This is one Greek word I'm going to throw out there for my brother James here. Skopos. This word only occurs here once in the whole New Testament. This word skopos, for toward the goal. This has the idea of being an observer or a watchman, okay?
And you're thinking, well, that sounds kind of weird. Why would you say that? But what it is, is he's looking towards a distant mark. He can see something. He can see something in the distance.
The goal, therefore, is something that you have in view. You can actually see the goal. This is not something blind or something that's just in our mind. The goal that we are pursuing, that we are pressing on towards, is something that you can see. Now, it may be distant, it may be way off on the horizon, but you can see it.
We're not running blind toward the goal. See, Paul already told us what his goal was earlier in this chapter. I didn't read this part, but Philippians 3:10 says this. He says, the goal is that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. So that's Paul's goal, is to become like Jesus, to know the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings.
And don't misunderstand that. That doesn't mean we are looking to suffer, but when we do suffer, we realize that we are identifying with Christ. Okay, we're just like Christ in that case, and we're becoming like him. Christ. Likeness, then, is the goal.
Even Jesus says this. In Matthew 10, 24, 25, Jesus says, a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. So Jesus said to his disciples, your goal is to be like me. Not me, but Jesus.
Right? Your goal is to be just like Jesus. Remember that. You know, Christians were first called Christians, like Christian was little Christ. It was meant to be pejorative.
It was meant to be a. But we wear that as a badge of honor, right? We are Christians. That means we are trying to be like Christ. That's our goal.
The Benson commentary says it this way. The Christ likeness then is a full conformity to the image of his Son in my heart and in my life. A full conformity. In other words, in my life, when I walk, when I live through whatever I'm doing, people look at me and they see Jesus. They see Christ.
That's what I'm trying to do and in my heart as well. That means even in that deep, dark parts that you don't let any other people into, the where you're thinking and the thoughts and plans and all those kind of things, even that is becoming like Christ. So that's our goal. We're probably not going to get all the way there, right? None of us are going to become Jesus before the sight of eternity.
But that is the progression. That's what we are trying to do. And Paul says there in verse 13, this one thing I do, this one thing I do. This is numero uno. This is my primary objective.
This is the priority for my life. So he says that he hasn't really obtained all these things yet, but that's the one thing that he does, is to seek that. And then in verse 13, he says, forgetting. What lies behind forgetting? Now, you know, we aren't computers.
We can't wipe our hard drive. It's very hard for us to forget things, things that happened in the past. Now we are forgetful sometimes. There's things that we probably should remember that we forget. But it's very hard to remember some of the things that are in the past.
But what does this word mean, to forget? It means to neglect, to no longer care about. Right. To give it over to oblivion. Right.
Just don't interact with it anymore. Just disregard it. Forget it. Okay? Yeah, it might still be in your mind, but you're not going to continue to dwell on it.
That's what Paul is getting at. And when he says forgetting, it's a participle. It means forget and continue to forget. Every morning, get up and forget about what lies in the past. Don't keep dwelling on it, because in verse 13 says, what lies behind?
What's behind you? Okay, this is. Notice Paul doesn't just talk about bad things. This is good things, too. What lies behind you?
What are we leaving behind? Well, the first thing, that which encumbers us, okay? Sin, folly, dumb decisions, dumb things that we've done in the past, forget it. God has already forgotten it. If you are a Christian in this room, you are already forgiven.
Many of you may look and say, but you don't know what I did. God does. And he still wants you to be part of his plan. So he knows what you've done, and he's already removed it as far as the east is from the West. God cannot physically forget, but he is choosing to forget what you have done.
He wants you to be busy about his business. He wants you to become more like Christ. So certainly we want to leave the bad stuff behind, but how about the good stuff? You know, you might say, okay, well, you know, I went on this mission trip and look at, you know, all the service stuff that I'm doing for you, and that's great. Okay, thank you for that.
Okay? But you need to leave that in the past too, because God's got more stuff for you. God's got more stuff for you to do. You need to leave that behind. A great commentator named Ellicott used to say, I'm going to paraphrase it, because he's writing in 17th century English, but he's basically saying, past blessings, those things that you have done for God, they're just a down payment for the future.
Okay, so they're a down. So all those good things that you've done, that's great. But you've got stuff to do in front of you, okay? And you've learned from that. But keep moving.
Don't. Don't focus on what's going on in the background. Those past sins, those past sins that you have truly repented of, that you have turned away from, that you've asked forgiveness for that too. That's different from just being sorry for it. That too is in the past.
That's what Elicost says. Just leave it. The JFB commentary says this. Looking back is sure to end in going back. Looking back is sure to end in going back.
Now think about this. Now, how many of y'all have taught teenagers how to drive? Okay? Kind of hazardous, right? I remember teaching my daughter how to drive.
And my daughter had this awful habit. She still has it to this day. When she drives, by the way. She's 32, and if she knew that I was sharing this, she'd be mortified. Okay.
But when she would talk to you, talk to me, you know, I'm up in the front. She would turn and look at me. Well, where does the steering wheel go when you turn in the same direction? Right. So.
And you can attest to this right now. You drive down the road, and if you're looking at something on the side of the road, chances are you're probably drifting that direction, probably most of the time, or you're not. Definitely not paying attention to where you're going. But looking back is sure to end in going back. So if you dwell on those past sins, you dwell on those past accomplishments, you're just going to be living in the past.
Don't do that. That's what Paul's asking us to do. Forget what lies behind. See, Paul goes even further earlier on in Philippians 3. He says this in Philippians 3:8, he says, indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of.
Of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. See, he views it as rubbish. Now, again, my daughter lives in England, so I can pick on her a little bit even though she's 3,000 miles away. You know, they don't toss things in the trash can.
They throw things in the rubbish bin. Okay? Rubbish is trash. Rubbish is garbage. Okay?
So Paul considers his trash as rubbish. Now think about Paul for a second. What do we know about Paul? Paul killed Christians, right? Paul persecuted the church.
He murdered Christians. But he considers that as in the past that's behind him. But at the same token, Paul was highly educated, right? He was a Pharisee. He was of the highest class of the Jewish people.
He was educated under the feet of Gamaliel, basically Hebrew, Harvard. Right? He had all the pedigrees. He was the man. But he considers that as rubbish as compared to becoming like Christ.
See, sometimes the past, good or bad, that can be a weight that limits your progress. Don't let it do that. Lay it aside. Hebrews 12 says this. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Any of you ever done a ruck march? I know there's a couple of y'all do that. You know, you. You put on this heavy weight and you go out and you do your thing.
Why do you do that? To build endurance, to be able to run when you're unencumbered. Right. Nobody runs a marathon with a pack on, okay? When you run a marathon, those guys are wearing about as little clothing as they can get away with, right?
Because they don't want any weight. They want their shoes to be as light as they can run the race unencumbered. Even Jesus uses this illustration when he talks about looking ahead and not looking back in Luke chapter nine. Remember, there were a lot of people that were coming to him and say, hey, Jesus, I'll follow you, but let me bury my dad first. Or, I just took a wife, or I've got this property that I need to deal with.
And what does Jesus say in response to these people? He says, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Jesus is saying, don't be double minded. Be pursuing me with one focus. This one thing I do.
This might also be why the Israelites couldn't leave Egypt behind. Remember, at this point, we're talking about, you know, they're about to cross the Red Sea. And later on, when they do cross the Red Sea and they're wandering around in the desert, you know, there's one point where they're hungry and they start wailing to Moses and they say, wouldn't you just let us die in Egypt? In Egypt, we had meat pots and we had bread and you brought us out here in the wilderness to die. How shortsighted were they really?
Looking back on what really happened? They were slaves in Egypt. They were being beaten and oppressed. They were made to make bricks with no straw. How could you look back with longing on something like that just because you were now free?
If you are looking behind, you're not going where God is calling you to God. Do you struggle with what lies behind? Maybe you're burdened with some past sinful activity or some habit pattern that God has already forgiven. Are you still dwelling on it? Let it go.
Leave it in the past. God can use you if you no longer dwell on those things. Maybe. Maybe you're one of the senior saints in here and you feel like, I've been here, I've done it, you know, I. I've changed my share of diapers and I've done all the different things that I could do.
Well, don't rest on your laurels either, okay? If you're still alive, you're still running. Run the race, keep going. Find something that you can do that you can continue to grow like Christ. None of us has gotten there all the way.
None of us here is walking around in robes and nail scarred hands. None of us are all the way there. But we can still make progress. If you're still breathing, you can still run the race. Don't stop running.
That's the first thing. Forget what's behind. Here's the second one. Stretch out towards what's ahead. Stretch out.
So Paul, stretch towards what's ahead. Paul then logically moves from. Okay, you're not looking behind you. Let's look towards the, to the front, toward the goal that we kind of talked about. This idea of straining forward, the stretching out towards.
This also only occurs here in the New Testament. This idea, and this is also a participle meaning you do it and you continue to do it. So every morning you forget what lies behind. And every morning you stretch out towards what God has got for you every morning. And what lies ahead.
Remember, that's what's inside of. Right. It may be far away, but you can see this is not some ethereal thing. A.W. tozer, the great theologian, said, it was not enough that I found God.
I must keep finding him. It's not enough that I found him. So just because you made a profession of faith and you came down front and you got baptized, you have not crossed the finish line. You're not done. Thank you for joining the family of God.
We're happy you're here, but there's so much more to do. Becoming like Christ is a process that is lifelong. And what does Paul say about it? He says it's the upward call of God that we are called to do. That is the prize.
Remember, the prize is that laurel wreath, that crown, okay? Today in the Olympics, it would be that gold medal. That's the prize that we're running for. Interestingly, John Calvin, and I'm going to translate this into Mike Laramie speak because John Calvin also wrote a long time ago, he basically said it's not enough for us to be in the body and just be blocks of wood, right? In other words, sitting there with our arms folded.
Okay, God, I'm waiting for you to do something with me. Okay? God says, no, no, no, no. I've given you talents and abilities and opportunities. Use them.
Go forward. It's time to Pursue Christ likeness. Move forward, stretch yourself forward into Christ Jesus. This vision is very specific. And every one of us inside this room, within the call of my voice, you have a calling on your life.
And the general calling is towards Christlikeness. If you struggle with the idea of what is it that I'm called to do, that's the first thing. That's the first thing. You are called to be like Christ. And all those other questions, what school should I go to?
Who should I marry? What job should I get? All those other things, they'll get answered in time. They will get answered in time. And we do answer this question from time to time.
How do I know what the calling is on my life? That's a difficult thing sometimes for people to sort out. I've already given you what your calling is right now. This is your overall calling, is Christlikeness. But if you want to know more about your specific calling, if you want to know more about those smaller answers of smaller questions that I talked about, well, the first thing, and I hate to sound like a Sunday school answer, but like I said earlier, the first thing you need to do is pray.
You need to pray for that. God does and sometimes will answer you audibly. I know people that have heard it. Okay, I have not heard it myself, but I know people who have heard it. God still does answer prayer.
And most of the time, God answers prayer right here. Read, pray. Maybe the answer is there for you there. But you know what? We live in community.
One of the most common ways people get answers to this question is from other people. Many times in my Christian walk, I've had people come to me and say, I think you would be good at this, or maybe you should try that. And that's where I found some of the calling on my life that could happen for you, too. We live in community. Listen and obey.
Listen for the word of God. Listen to it from Scripture and from other people, other saints. What ministry should I pursue? Try one, try one. You'll figure out what your calling is.
So Jesus is our pacesetter. He's our forerunner. He's our goal. Hebrews 6:20. We preached through this several weeks ago.
Hebrews 6:20 says, Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He is our forerunner. He's who we are aiming towards now. Paul says to the Corinthians that we are to live our life in a way that we can actually obtain that prize first. Corinthians 9 says, do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize.
So run that you can obtain it. Every athlete exercises self control in all things. They do it to receive. Receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Run the race like you're actually running.
Don't give up yet. He also says in his second letter to the Corinthians to urge them to pursue eternal rather than temporal things. Second Corinthians 4 says, for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Pursue the eternal.
And many times we need somebody to help us stretch out towards that goal. We might need other people, family, friends, other believers. And let me tell you a story about when I was growing up. Many of you, some of you know that, much like Pastor Gary, I lost my dad when I was 14 to colon cancer. So very tough to lose my dad, especially at an early age when I really needed him.
As a teenager, when he was medically retired from the Air Force, I was about 12, 1979, we started driving from Northern California across the country towards Rhode Island. Both my parents were born and raised in Rhode Island. I had never lived there up to that point. I didn't know anything about it. But we were driving there and we're taking our time to cross the country, visiting family and friends that my parents had met through 22 years of military service, people all over the country.
And we stopped in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and as we stopped there, my dad pulled me aside and we went to the United States Air Force Academy. And I looked at that place and dad pulled me and said, you know, I think you would do well there. I think this is a place that you should probably consider going to school. That was between my seventh and eighth grade year. You know, how old are you?
What, 12? You know, what do I know about my future at that point? But at that point I decided, you know what, Dad, I think you're right. I think that's what I want to do. Because I'd always loved airplanes, I'd always loved the military.
I looked up to my dad. You know, I really wanted to follow in his footsteps. And so I started organizing my life to pursue that goal. So I changed. You know, I went to the same school that my dad went to as a Catholic college prep high school up in Rhode island.
And Started gearing my whole academic plan. Started playing sports, started doing all this extracurricular stuff to make my resume good enough to get to the Air Force Academy. About a year later, dad was sick. He was still around with us. He was still with us.
There was an assignment. I can't remember what, what course I was doing. But school came pretty easy to me. I didn't really have to do much effort, you know, I really didn't. And I don't say that to pat myself on the back.
It's just reality. I just. I didn't pay a lot of attention in high school because that grades were easy. And there was an assignment that I really didn't care much for and I didn't do a particularly good job on it. And I brought home a not great grad, not great grade.
I can't remember what it was, but I remember my dad looking at that and said, so are you happy with that? Well, 13 years old. How do you answer that question? I can't say yes. Can't really say no.
Because then I'm wrong. No, not really. Okay. He said, why would you settle for less than the best that you can do? Never do less than the best that you can do.
And that kind of. I kind of internalize that later on, later that year, he passed away. And I put a 5 by 8 card that said, never settle for less than the best that you can do. You know, And I put his name on it and I put it up in my closet in my bedroom. So every morning when I would go out running because I was working out like a madman to get into the Air Force Academy.
And every morning preparing for school, I would see never settle for less than the best that you can do. Every evening before I went to bed, I saw the same thing. Eventually I did get into the Air Force Academy and I got commissioned. I met my lovely wife. We had kids.
Several years later, we were visiting back to my mom's house, same house, we were staying downstairs. Our family of four, my kids were in elementary school at the time. And my high school bedroom was still the same, hadn't changed, nobody had moved in it. My brother still lived upstairs and my high school closet was still there. And still on the wall was a five by eight card, said, never settle for less than the best that you can do.
I thought about it. I said, well, Dad, I think I'm living to that. I think I'm living up to that. I'm trying. Every one of us needs somebody to speak into our life, to be able to Steer us in those directions, to stretch us.
To stretch us out and to encourage us. Are you one of those that are doing the bare minimum in your Christian walk? Are you just kind of going through the motions? Are you ready to stretch towards the calling that God has on your life? Do you want to know the calling that he has given you?
See, for most of us, just the simple act of being aware that the Holy Spirit has put you in a situation is enough. If you're just aware of that because God has uniquely prepared you, he's stretching you. It might be a kind word to someone. You might be speaking the truth to a relative. It might be an action.
It might be something like that, that God is calling you in that situation to stretch out and trust him and to grow more like Christ.
Speak truth and love in those situations. He set before you see church. The wait's over. The wait is over. Christ calls you into a life of pursuing him.
And there is no greater pursuit on this earth. The apostle Paul plainly says this, that his whole life is focused on that one goal. This one thing I do is to be like the Savior, Jesus. Will you make that your life's goal? Will you pursue Jesus by forgetting what's behind and stretching out towards what's ahead?
Let's pray, Father. I pray for all of these, my friends, these people that are within the sound of my voice, and I lift them up to you. And perhaps there may be someone in here that has not accepted that call of Christ, that call of Christ in his life. And if you're one of those people that is not yet serving the Lord, let me pray for you. And you can pray along with me.
And it's something just as simple as this. And that is Jesus. Forgive me. Forgive me for my past, for my sin, for my folly, for my wrongdoing. I want you to be the Lord of my life.
I want to become more like you. I want to become more like Jesus. And there's nothing magic about those words. But if you've prayed that prayer, believing in him, then he will save you. Perhaps you are also one of those people in this room that maybe you are resting on your laurels.
Maybe you've been there, done that, you've done all the work, or maybe you just haven't tried yet. Let me pray for you too, Spirit. I pray for those people in this room who need to stretch out, who need to forget what lies behind and stretch out toward the goal of Christ likeness. And that may be in trying a new ministry or maybe speaking to a loved one. Give them the strength and the power that is required to do that.
Father, we love you and we trust you for this. In Jesus name, amen.
Audio
All right, Good morning, church. Hope you all had a great Christmas. We're about to get back into the flow of a new year. It's coming. I know some of you are like, hey, let's relax for another week.
I'm down with that. But we're going to go ahead and get going with our sermon series and we've got a short two parter called let's Go. And hopefully you could tell by the kind of faint background that our series theme has got something to do with crossing over the Red Sea, about this idea of pushing on through the middle of the ocean, if you will. And so we're introducing this series called let's Go and getting into 2025. And sometimes for us it can be kind of difficult to know whether or not we should wait or we should go.
As Christians, this is a common kind of question for us. Is this a time where I need to wait on the Lord, or is this a time that the Lord is telling me to move? And so that the theme behind this series, and we're going to be in the book of Philippians to chew on this. But the theme behind it all is this idea of what God said to the Israelites when Pharaoh and his chariots called up to him. This story goes, if you read in the book of Exodus, God frees his people through many plagues and many miracles.
And finally the Egyptian oppressors let them go and they're wandering out towards the promised land. And they reach the Red Sea and. And in this moment they are caught by Pharaoh and his men fast. This is one of the greatest, the world's greatest armies in the world at the time. And so it's terrifying.
And they're being caught from behind. And this is in Exodus, chapter 14. You can read more about this. But the people are a bit whiny. I don't know if you know this about the Israelites.
They're not so very different from you and I. We like to whine to God a little bit and understandably so stuff. Life is hard and things happen and that's what happens to them. They get caught and they're like, why did we come all this distance only to be just completely wiped out by the seashore here? And so they cry out to God, they cry out to Moses and Moses faithfully, as he often is in scripture says, you know, just wait on the Lord here.
God's going to do a miracle. They're here by the sea and we're going to see God do some amazing thing right here to Pharaoh and his army. But God has something funny to say. You see, the people were wrong that God just led them out to die. And Moses, surprisingly, is, although faithful, not quite right.
Because God responds to him this way. This is in Exodus 14. It says the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the people to go forward. Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.
Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that scripture. That's our theme. That's getting us. That's kind of getting the pump primed. He says two things there.
He says, go forward and go through. And those are the two things I want to call you to over the next few Sundays together. This one and next one today with this idea of go forward. I've titled this sermon the Wait Is Over. The Wait is Over.
Do you ever feel like you don't know when you should wait or when you should go? Kind of reminds me of a silly song. This was what came to mind because I got problems. But a song by the Clash goes, should I Stay Or Should I go? Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Now, that song came to my mind as I'm studying this week because I'm strange. And that's a question that I think we ask all the time. It's a good question. But I wonder how much of what we call faith, which is dependent on trust and on our dependence on God. How much of that is true versus us being kind of spiritually passive.
There's a fine line there between trusting God's will and his power and being spiritually lazy. Maybe today you're at a decision point in life. Maybe it's a job opportunity. Maybe it's a relationship that's going. It looks like it's moving towards something good.
Or maybe it's failing and you're trying to decide what to do next. Something major like that might be going on in your life. And carefully praying and trusting in the Lord about these things is super important. That's not the point of today, is to belittle trusting and praying in the Lord. But it shouldn't stop there.
We don't stop with prayer ever. Pursuit is always what follows. Pursuit follows when it comes to our walk with Christ, this is the right pattern. Prayer, then pursuit. Pray, then pursue.
Some of us have been saying for a long time, I don't know what God desires for me to do, but I pray today you'll hear plainly this very clear Message that he wants you and desires you to pursue him with all of your being, with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength. Pursue God. You know this confidently, friends, the wait is over. It's time to pursue Christ with all of your heart. And today we're going to see how the Apostle Paul endeavored to do this.
Just a short little scripture. Today we're in Philippians chapter three. We see here Paul the Apostle instructed the church in Philippi that the one thing, the one thing on his mind, the one thing he endeavored to do was, was to pursue the goal, to press on toward the goal that God had for him. That was his only purpose in this life. We can do this one thing as well and pursue God's goal.
So the text is going to give us two real clear ways, I believe, to pursue God's goal. So let's dig in, just two verses. Philippians 3, 13, 14. It says, Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it on my own. Listen to this.
But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. God bless the reading of his word. Amen. That's a good word for you today. One thing.
Who in the room can maybe try to do one thing? Some of you have got a laundry list of things you're trying to do right now. Especially, I've found that this time of year, we. When the kids are home and I don't have as many places to go, it seems because of them, it's like we create more tasks around the house that need to be done. I almost feel guilty if I don't knock off some of what you might call a honey do list.
And some of you are kind of in that. You've got a hundred things you're trying to do. But I wonder, could you focus on one first, the other stuff can follow? I'm not saying these aren't good things, but would you focus on one thing first? Pursue God's goal for your life.
He has a specific purpose for you. And it starts with this. The first is, forget what's behind.
Boy, that's a tough one. You want me to move on from that? Yes. Forget what's behind, Paul says, because in order for me to pursue what's in front of me, I've got to stop looking over my shoulder. I've got to stop turning my head constantly.
Paul says he has one goal. The question we should ask first is, what is this goal? He says in verse 14, I press on, I run towards, I pursue, I stretch out. This word is not a passive word. He's not saying, I'm jogging.
I'm in a full sprint towards what God has put in front of me. I'm hauling. This made me think this week because some of you, you gotta admit, when is the last time you just straight up sprinted somewhere? You know, it's been a while for some of us, right before we just took off running somewhere. I encourage you today, if you can manage it, just sprint from one side of your house to the other, right?
Just see what happens. Try not to fall. I don't want to be responsible for that. Alright, but just see if you can still do it. Paul says, I sprint, I press on towards this goal that God has in my life.
And the goal isn't all that unclear for him. He's already told us what that goal is. And I didn't want to dig into all these passages, but Philippians 3:10 really puts it well, it says, I want to know him and the power of his resurrection and share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. Now that's some crazy stuff to say there, but I get what Paul's up to here. Paul is saying, I want to so know and imitate Christ in every way I can.
My pursuit in this life is that I would look more like Jesus every day that I'm committing myself towards this goal of what we might call in church, Christlikeness. Christlikeness. That. That's what I'm about. In fact, Jesus instructs his disciples and you and I today In Matthew chapter 10 it says, A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. He's called us to be like him. Paul says, I want to go to the point where I understand his death and his resurrection. I'm willing to endeavor and struggle in any way in this life that I might better know Jes Jesus. That's a deep kind of bond that he's after.
I want to know what he went through. I want to understand his mind. I want to know what it is to have the mind of Christ. Paul is saying, what a wonderful, wonderful pursuit. Benson in his commentary puts it really well.
A full conformity to the image of His Son in my heart and in my life. Now guess what, Church, those of us on the outside of your life, when you start pursuing this, it'll be obvious to us. It may not always be Obvious to you in your pursuit. It may feel like you're taking baby steps, but those of us on the outside are going to go, wow, you are behaving, thinking, speaking more like Jesus every day. And it's good to see.
It's also not that hard to notice when people aren't pursuing this. The rest of the world isn't surprised at all. When the church doesn't act like Jesus, that's what they come to expect. But when we act like Christ, it surprises them. Oh, this is what this Christianity thing is about.
It's about grace and mercy and love and truth, but seasoned with salt. It's about all of that and purpose and that you seem hopeful for the future. What's it like to be a believer? It's like being like Jesus. That's the goal.
Paul says, this one thing I do, I've made it my life's purpose. Now here's what I got to do to get there. Paul puts it plainly, you cannot run fast like this. You can't try it. Those of you who are already taking my sprint challenge, this one really might hurt you, so be careful.
But try to take off running somewhere like this and see if that's not a little uncomfortable. And you might run into a wall in your room. I mean, it's hard to. You've seen races like this. Most of us have watched the Olympics.
Those times where the guy looks back and just gets past right at the finish line. There's so many of those images. Paul says, I'm not about that. I'm not going to be running with my head over my shoulder for the rest of my life. Some of you have so been unable to move forward because of something so devastating in your past.
Paul says, I'm leaving it where it was. Now. This is important. He's not saying, hey, the miracles and the blessings and the things that God has done, I'm going to pretend they didn't happen. He's not saying that.
He's saying, I'm not going to set even those great things. I'm not going to rest on them and say that God has done because we could do that. This isn't just bad stuff. He's saying, even the good stuff, which I might be tempted to say, that's good enough. He says, I'm not looking back on that anymore because Christ wants more from me.
If I'm still here, if God has still called me to press forward, then there must be more. There must be something else. Otherwise I ought to be in heaven already. So I'm going to stop looking over my shoulder. This word in the Greek is in the participle that means it's an ing.
The Scriptures do well here. In verse 13, it says forgetting and straining. That means this is not a done deal. He's continually having to do. This stuff is going to keep happening in your life that you've got to put off so that you can continue to pursue.
It's not over. There's going to be more baggage that you have to say, all right, God, by your grace and mercy, I'm going to set that aside so I can pursue you. And he's also not saying, this word doesn't mean that I've totally forgotten it. In the sense that I've had brain damage or something. I've gone oblivious to it.
No, he's saying I've chosen to neglect it. I've put it aside. What lays behind? What are you leaving behind? Surely there's some things you need to put off and put them off for good.
Things that encumber you like. Sin, folly, wasted effort, but also your past accomplishments. I've heard this phrase growing up. I actually don't know what it means, but hopefully you do rest on your laurels. I need to look that up before I keep saying it.
What in the world is a laurel? But I heard that phrase growing up. That's this idea of resting and the things you've already done. One commentator puts it really well. He puts it into three categories.
He says it's past blessings, past achievements, and past sins. Those are the things that Paul says, I'm putting them aside. I'm not going to sit here and keep saying, look what God did in my past and just live there and never do more. Sometimes this, I think maybe this happens later in life where you begin to say, I guess I'm done. I guess I've done enough.
Why are you still here, my friend? If you've done enough, there must be something else. You've got another generation to shepherd. Your grandkids. Maybe if you're lucky, your great grandkids, you get to shepherd them in the way of the Lord.
If God leaves you here, you have a purpose so you could rest in those things. You could rest in your past achievements, things you've done, past blessings that God has given. And certainly you could get stuck and your past sins. I love what Jamison Fausett Brown comments on this. He says, looking back is sure to end in going back.
Looking back is sure to end in going back. You spend enough time looking back there, you're just going to start moving back there. And that's pretty true. It's been true in my life. I bet it's been true in yours.
Paul goes even further in Philippians 3, slightly earlier than where we are here. He says in verse eight, indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Not only am I content that I've lost a lot of stuff that was junk anyway. Some of y'all got houses absolutely slammed full of clutter.
This is a sidebar. You don't have to do anything about that. It's not the point of my message. But sometimes our lives become this, that your house is just so much of a junk pile. Your house is filled with clutter such that you can barely walk around in there and you're scared to invite guests over.
Look, you can do this with your own life. You hear what I'm saying? You can have such a cluttered life that you can't possibly imagine pursuing God or allowing anyone else in that you might mentor or that they might encourage you, because it's a mess in there. Paul says, I counted that stuff as trash. My great education he had like the Harvard of education in his day.
He says it's rubbish compared to just knowing God, just knowing Christ. Sometimes the past, its weight can really limit your progress. The weight of past good and bad. The writer of Hebrews puts it. Well, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight.
Every weight. He starts with, and then he goes on to say, and sin, which clings so closely. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Some of you have got to declutter your life so that you can truly pursue God. Have you made one thing, your one thing?
You could make a whole lot of things be your one thing. I'm going to get wealthy. I'm going to make him or her love me. I'm going to make sure I'm a good mom. Some of those are good things, but that's not the one thing.
It's not what you were made for. Did you know that, friend? You weren't made for that stuff. God made you for himself, period. And he's got a plan for you that's better than that stuff that's more fulfilling.
He may give you all of that other stuff. Have you made the one thing, your one thing starts with leaving the past in the past. Jesus puts this really plainly in Luke chapter nine. He gives us this plow illustration, which is one of the best ones I could possibly fine. Luke 9:62.
Jesus said, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. If you begin to plow like this, guess what will happen? Do you know you'll plow real crooked. You won't be able to plant well in that field that you've plowed with your head over your shoulder. He says, if you're working towards what Christ has called you to stop having your head looking back, declutter your life.
I love what I don't know this particular professor, but his name's Dr. Tam Fu. I liked his quote. It said, make God your greatest treasure, and you will be empowered to let anything go to gain Christ. Make him your greatest treasure.
You'll be empowered to let anything go to pursue him. Here's the second, he says, forget what's behind and stretch, strain towards what's ahead. This is the logical move. Paul is really just painting a clear picture. I've got one goal, and here's what I'm going to do to get there.
I'm going to throw off everything that is hindering me from running fast. This is all about a running illustration. He says, I'm not going to carry extra weight. It is bogging me down, and I'm going to push with all my might. This idea of straining forward is like the final scene you've seen in every race you've ever watched, where the guy is stretching out over the finish line.
That's what Paul is describing here. With my life, I am just tilted forward. I am sprinting with all my might. And the word here, for what lies ahead isn't some mysterious place in the Greek truly means something that's in your sight but distant. He's saying, I know what my goal is.
It's Christlikeness, but it's far off. But I see it, and I'm running with all my might towards it. I know that what it looks like is spending time with him in his word. I know what it looks like is that we would have a constant conversation that we call prayer, that this would be my life's mission and habit. And that whatever he tells me, whatever he leads me to do, it's a yes from me.
Paul's saying, I'm stretching with all my might. Tozer once wrote, it was not enough that I found God. I must keep finding Him. I must keep finding Him. Now, Paul wasn't.
I don't know. I don't know what this is in Christian culture. You tell me if I'm wrong about this. We kind of have a. We have a humility that's good, but there's almost a false humility at times that Paul doesn't have.
We tend to say, hey, I don't really want rewards and I don't want prizes. I don't want a pat on the back. And I get that. I don't either. It's hard for me when sometimes y'all will say, hey, that was.
That was a good sermon, or whatever. Like, some of you never do that. And that's okay. Don't. I don't really.
I'm saying, you don't need to do that. All right? I would rather hear you say, hey. When you said that, it spoke to me like, that piece helped me in this way. When you.
When you just give me a pat, I'm like, I don't really know. Praise God. Normally, it's kind of how I would respond to that. But I want you to hear one thing. Paul is not ashamed to say that I want a prize.
You hear this? This is wild. He says right here in verse 14. I'll read it again for you. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
He's saying, I'm going to run in such a way that I win. And what am I winning? What am I winning? One thing he's clearly winning is knowing Christ fully and knowing his purpose more fully than most people ever will. I can tell you right now that's probably the most.
That's like the ultimate good you can have in your life, is that you would fully know what it is to be in Christ. But he's also about winning souls. He's about it. I'm pursuing Christ with all my heart. I'm all about the Great Commission.
Look at the man's life. He just goes from place to place. They tried to kill him outside of Lystra, and he just walked right back into the town and started preaching Christ again. He's obviously a madman for Jesus.
He's into prizes, he's into winning. But what he wins is for the glory of God. He's like so many faithful saints before and after him who want to win the Crowns that God gives out so that we'd have something to throw back at his feet when we're with him in glory. I don't want to come empty handed. I'd like a prize or two that I've helped somewhat in my part.
My leg of the race. This is what he's called us to. Look, you and I, this is a great race that we're running in life. We have an individual leg and we've been handed a baton. What are we going to do with that?
We can be a part of handing it off and continuing the race and doing our stretch or totally drop the ball. Calvin went on this topic. He said, it is not the will of the Lord that we should be like blocks of wood or that we should keep our arms folded without doing anything, but that we should apply to use all the talents and advantages which God has conferred upon us. God has given you a mouth to speak. He has given you gifts to use for what?
For his glory, for the mission. He's called you to the upward call of God. What a wonderful thing. And what is this call of God in? It's in Christ Jesus.
I'll refer back to kind of how I started that. Many of us are struggling with the specifics of what God has for us. Who am I to marry, what job should I do? Where should I live? What ministry should I pursue?
And these are good questions, these are valid questions. But if you haven't started with the first question of what am I running towards? Some of you haven't answered that question yet. What is my life's aim? Paul says you can know it.
You don't have to guess on that one anymore. Now what does that mean as far as your job and who you'll spend life with? All of that stuff should be informed by your aim and not the other way around. Some of you have had some hard times in your life. Bad relationships, bad jobs.
Why? Because your aim was those things and not God. God was second. The pursuit and aim for Christ was not in the lead, it was in second or third. And so you ended up with someone who did not have the same aim as you.
Some of you have been there. I want you to know. Get your pursuit, your one thing right and God will start putting these people in place and these jobs in place that you might pursue the thing he's called you to. Does that make sense? I pray you can hear that today because some of you have prioritized things all out of whack.
Jesus is our pace setter. He's our Forerunner. He's the one we're aiming at. He's ahead and we've got our eyes set and we're stretching. Hebrews 6, which we read together over the last few years and studied together.
It says, jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He's our forerunner. Paul says to the Corinthians, to live life in this way was actually meant to obtain the prize. First Corinthians 9, it says, do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you might obtain it.
Christians quit running lazily and thinking, hey, somebody else will win this thing. Why don't you try? Why don't you give it your best? Quit running like, hey, I just want to be a part. I just want to look like I'm moving.
I don't want anybody to notice I'm not moving my legs. Paul says, I'm sprinting like a wild man. I was studying with Michael Aramie this week. He used this phrase, a mad dog in a meat market, which I had never heard. You can use that if you'd like to.
Just know. It's a Laramie phrase. He said he was running like a mad dog in a meat market. I'm like that. Painted a picture for me.
Sprint with all your might. Pursue him. We're not jogging here. We're trying to obtain it. Every athlete, Paul says in First Corinthians, every athlete exercise self control in all things.
They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. He continues in his second letter, to put it so very well, for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. He knows well what he's aimed at. Something that lasts, something permanent pursuit of Christ.
Now, I'm going to end with something very, very heavy application. Some of you have been on this journey with us for a while. You know, we're in our 10th year as a church. Some of you know this, some of you have been on that journey, some of you have picked up along the way and been on this journey for a long time with us. Do you know we moved into this building in 2017.
In 2017, we moved in here almost pretty much on our two year anniversary. We moved right in Here. And guess what? The first few months, even the first two years, we kind of grew here. We got solid.
We grew a little bit. And then 2020 hit. And I think y'all remember a little bit about that goofy year that we'd all like to forget. It seems like a long time ago now. Guess what we've done since 2020?
Been this. We've been the same. We've not grown. We've not changed. Now, there's.
There's a lot of reasons for that. I want you to know something. We have opportunity in front of us. I think most of you know this at this point. We're going to be starting a new series next in two weeks from now on January 12th, called It's Time.
And we're going to be looking towards what it would look like for us to do work, to give more and to be a part of what God's up to, to be courageous and faithful to what God's doing. But that's going to require us to say, I'm not going to wait anymore. I'm going to get in the game and I'm going to run. I'm going to sprint with all my might. Once we got into this place, for a second, things looked like they were going to improve for us, that we would get more healthy, that more people would come to the Lord here.
And it was starting to happen. And then we got stuck. And I recently heard something that is going to be a hard truth for you to hear. It just smacked me in the face. Here's what I heard.
Your building is not your lid. Your people are. How do you feel now? You feel encouraged. I heard that message and went, I'm part of the problem.
Why is it that the harvest hasn't appeared in this house? This is God's house, too, as well as the place that we're looking at. And if you haven't heard this yet, it's the old Redeemer Church building. I'll just say it publicly now. The old Redeemer Church building on Old Mill Road is where we're looking to purchase.
And God willing, if we're faithful and courageous, we'll be there. Probably late April. Isn't that awesome? But guess what? Nothing changes there.
You're still you and I'm still me. And if God has prepared a harvest for us, then it requires us to be what he's called us to be. And not just be. I go to Eastgate Church like this. No, I don't even care that you go to Eastgate Church.
I want to know, are you running with all your might for Christ? Wherever God leads you, this church, next church, other part of the world, I want to know that you're sprinting. Let's sprint and stretch. Because the building is never the lid. Because here's what I know confidently.
God reaches the lost with people, not buildings. He doesn't do it with buildings. He does it with you and I. And so if we're to reach this city which has 50,000 people not going to church, this county, Nash county, about 100,000 people, half of them claim to not go to church. That's wild in the Bible Belt.
People aren't supposed to tell that truth. They're supposed to lie and say, yeah, I go to church sometimes. But they don't even lying anymore. 50,000 people in our county aren't going to church. What does that mean?
Well, they may be believers, I don't know, but they're not faithful to his body. Some of you have been there. Look, the building's not our lid. We are. Which means we have to stretch and become the people that God has called us to be and ready ourselves to be hospitable every week.
That means you need to stop acting like you know, like know everybody, pretend you don't know them all, and just be the most hospitable person you can be. I figured when I looked around today, it would mostly be our core. And that's why I'm giving you this wonderful boost.
We've got service teams all over this building. Do you know we. I'm considering these next few months before we get to April. This is called rehearsal. Now, we could say the last nine years of rehearsal, but I'm going to go ahead and write that off.
Guess what I'm doing? Forgetting what's behind. Alright, it's been good. We've been through some junk together. Some of you have gotten your marriages together.
Some of you have been through some disasters back there. And a lot of times we did that together. Praise God for that. But I don't need to reminisce anymore. Putting that this way, I've got a couple months to rehearse, which means we need to get ready.
If God loves us this much that he's offered us this opportunity and he has a harvest in store, then we need to be ready for who he sends. There are service teams all over the building. I need more joyful morning people to open doors and walk people through the building. They come in with kids, they don't know where to go, help them, shepherd them where they need to go. I need more people.
I need more pleasant service, servants making coffee and treats. I've been telling people this. I'm not going to. It's going to be a broken record from here on. I want this to be the most hospitable place on earth.
The most hospitable version that we can be. We had donuts today. We have treats that the Cappelletti's make. And I'm praying there's more people making delicious things. I want the building to smell yummy.
I want it to taste good. You're like, jonathan, this is so petty. This is petty. You're preaching right now. It's not petty.
It's not petty. If everything you do is unto the Lord. He says, I've created you for a purpose. And I wonder, is your service just for man or is it for Christ? And I'm going to give you my best when I get up here to sing.
Yeah, I don't always feel great. My voice isn't always there. But I ought to be prepared when I get up here to preach. I hope you know this church. I don't get up here and just wing it.
I've written stuff, I've prepared for hours because I want you to receive my best. But I'm doing it for him, for his glory. We need more encouraging teachers to shepherd the next generation. Most people are getting saved in life, in the classrooms at church. I got saved at 6 years old.
I bet a lot of you did before the age of 12. Most people in the church get saved before 12. This is the most important job in the whole building. We need more active guards joining our security team, which is currently one man.
Because I want two things to be true. I want it to be the most hospitable place and I want it to be the safest place on earth.
And some of you in the room, I want you to know singing isn't just for the shower. Right? You can sing to Christ on Sunday mornings. Some of you are killing it in the showers every day. And your wife or your husband already knows that you got a gift.
If they won't reach out, then a spouse of the one who can sing. You let me know. We'll get on them. You got a gift. I used to hear this song as a child.
Don't hide it underneath a bushel basket. Let your light shine. I'm gonna let it shine. All right, sign up for a service team today. Hey, some of you in the room aren't members yet.
You love our church. You've Been hanging out with us for years. I just wonder, what are you waiting for? Pursue Christ. Pursue his church.
Use your gifts unto his glory. Get off the bench. Get in the game. We love you. You love us.
Let's play.
Get in the game.
I hope that inspired some of you. It's like, man, I don't like. I don't like it when he does that. Let's just stay. Stay in Philippians.
I want to keep it over on that side of the Bible bridge. No, God has called us to do something this year, and he's got an opportunity in front of us. I'd like to run with all my might. I'm asking, will you run with me? Let's run.
I'm going to talk about this next week. I'm going to, like, double down next week. Will you forget what lies behind? We've done nine years of ministry together. Some of you have been through sickness, you've been through divorce.
You've been through terrible disaster. Some of you have had a great nine years and you've achieved much and God has blessed you so much. But it's back here. What's next? What's next?
Church wait is over. Let's pursue him and run together. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you that first of all, you are a God of mercy and love and grace and that you are the forerunner. Jesus.
I'm so thankful that you didn't call us to do something that you didn't first model that this isn't a faith, this isn't a religion, but something so much more that you. The reason we celebrate Christmas is that God, you came and you indwelt, that you became one of us, that you would run the race that you designed for us. And you paid the ultimate penalty that we couldn't pay. And you took on our sin and our brokenness and paid for it. So now not only do we have something to run after, we can run with freedom.
The sin which should so weigh us down, the brokenness which should so bog us down, is paid for Christ Jesus. I'm thankful for you and I'm thankful that you've set ahead of us a goal. We don't run aimless as Christians in this life. We don't run aimless. God, you have something for us.
I'm thankful for that. It's not merely a list of rules and things to obey. Yeah, there's some things that we ought to do because we love the Lord, but it's a life pursuit. We have a goal in mind. God, I pray for Your people today that you would inspire them, that they would know what this means for them personally in their life and the work that they do in their marriage, in their.
And their parenting and whatever role in life that you would so inspire them right now that this is what it means to do this one thing. If my aim is Christlikeness, this is what it's going to mean for me as an employee, as an employer. This is what that's going to look like. If my aim is Christ. If my aim is Christ, then being a husband is going to start to look different.
God, inspire us that our aim would be first, the one thing that Paul is aspiring to, that it would be our one thing so that we would get all the other stuff right. But that's simply because of our pursuit of you. And then you begin working out in us those things that we're so worried about right now. The relationships and the work and all this stuff that tends to be our one pursuit. Help us to put it into second and pursue you.
God, do this in us. I pray for your church. Maybe the end of this one was somewhat heavy to people. Maybe it felt convicting. I pray that they don't turn on me as the messenger.
I pray that they could hear it and know, God, what you want them to do with it. I pray for your church. You've put an opportunity in front of us. It's a miraculous one. I'd be happy to tell that story over and over again.
God. God, it seems to me that you're up to something. I'm surprised by it, I have to admit. God. Just my own faithlessness at times, my own doubt that you would ever stir in this way.
But you've done it. I pray for your people that they would have courage, that they would have faith, that they would do the work. That they would. They'd be courageous. God, and I thank you for this opportunity, Lord.
I just pray that we would honor your with it, that over the next few months, over this next year that we're about to enter, that this would be, for maybe some of us in the room, the first time we really got serious about pursuing you. And that that would mean such a world of difference in our lives. Family members, kids, co workers, would begin to see that change in us. That God, it would be life change for many people, that you would give us opportunities for the gospel as people begin to see you stirring in our lives. Help your people to be courageous.
I pray in Jesus name, Amen.