Book of Philippians IX, A Race You Gotta Win

Not that I've already obtained all this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. The scenario is the Olympic run of, I think it was, 1936. If you saw the movie, Chariots of Fire, it'll be familiar to you. Let's watch. He's had two races today already. He'll die. Just swing along, you guys, and wait. After 300 meters, Rigor Mortis sets in. He'll pull him in on a rope. John Johnson, Canada. Good luck, sir. Watch out for Little. Coach says no problem. He's got something to prove, something personal, something guys like Coach will never understand in a million years. Says in the old book, he that honors me, I will honor. Good luck, Jackson Schultz. So where does the power come from? To see the race to its end, from within. I believe God made me for a purpose. He also made me fly. If you haven't seen it, I wanted you to catch that image. And just kind of let it be refreshed in your mind. I love it when he says, God made me for a purpose. He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure. I want to talk for just a little bit tonight about the race that we're in. And I have to say, I share tonight, you know, from a heart that feels somewhat inadequate to express this the way it needs to be done. I fear for a lot of our co-runners that they're distracted. I fear that possibly they underestimate the race. Someone asked me the other day, you know, is it always this hard following the Lord? You know what my answer is? Yes. It does not get easy because it's a race. It's joyful, but it's a race. I need the podium to come up and I want to ask you a question or two. First of all, why do you think Paul used so many athletic illustrations in scripture? We have a couple of overheads. Here's 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Look at this one. Read it together, shall we? Do you not know that in a race all of the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way you get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last. But we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly. I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. Well, there's other scriptures. Isn't that, I mean, that's so clear. And of course, there's the scripture. We won't look at it now, but 2 Timothy chapter 4 and it talks there about the same idea running the race. Tonight's scripture to me underscores the fact that there is a way to run in which we can win and I want to share that with you tonight. Because I believe that some of us will and some of us won't. I believe all you've come tonight want to win. Why else would you come on a Wednesday night? How many of you really want to win this thing? You're not just playing Christian games. It's the only reason you're here. Let me direct you to the most important verse really in this little section we're reading. Verse 12 and we can flash that up, please, on the overhead, gals. This is the central verse of this passage. Paul says, not that I've already obtained all this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. You see, Paul was convinced at the core of his being, first of all, that God had reached out and saved him for a purpose. That is very important as a foundational conviction on your part. You know, whether God saved you from, as Paul, religion and dead works. How many of you grew up in a religious background with lots of dead works? Not that many of us had no religion in our background or church training. Like Paul, we've been saved from trying to please God by the efforts that we put forth. Paul fully expected to be a player in whatever plan God unfolded for the redemption of the world. He believed God drafted him not to sit in the sidelines and drink beer, but to be out in the field and be a participant. And I wish somehow to the glory of God that I could convince us that you are to be a player. Not just a, not a spectator, but a participant. Not just someone who checks off a list of acquired knowledge, but a person who exercises themself in the things that God's done in your life. Paul was so clear about this. He even said in Acts 26, as he was describing in front of Agrippa his conversion, he says, Acts 26, 17, the Lord replied, Get up and stand on your feet. I've appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I'm sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Do you believe that when God saved you, he didn't just like say, well, there's another one I can throw in the bin of saved. I mean, seriously, church. Why is it that this is so hard for people to grasp? I don't, I mean, but rather when he called your name, it wasn't just, you know, to put you on the trophy shelf. But it was because he, he had for you a destiny in mind. He had for you some kind of contribution to make that would expand the kingdom of God. Some of you have richly discovered that, others of you don't even have a clue as to what I'm talking about. But I want you to know it's true. Paul believed it. That's why he could say what he says later on in this passage of scripture. God wouldn't think of laying hold of a person only to have him sit in the sidelines. He wouldn't waste lives like that. I mean, God created and fashioned us to use us. And I want to tell you, before you're done tonight, you're going to either want to be used or you're going to want to go somewhere else. And I happen to know, I mean, I recognize after 10 years that it doesn't always happen here. And sometimes the people around you seem to be the biggest obstacles to getting the job done. But I'm going to challenge you tonight, whatever the obstacle is, don't let it stop. Don't you let it stop. Paul makes it very clear that the reason why he's so devoted to the call of God is because God laid hold of him. Notice he says there, verse 12. I want to press on to take hold of that which, for which Christ Jesus laid hold of me. The word katalombino in the Greek means to seize as a prisoner. He's saying, Jesus reached down and he seized me and took me as his prisoner, a prisoner of his love. And there was a purpose in that and I don't want to miss it, Paul's saying. I know God meant it for me. He says in Ephesians chapter 2, 8 and 9, you're familiar with that scripture that we've been saved by grace through faith. Remember that one? But then he goes on and says, for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared when? Hello? In advance for us to walk in. So whatever it is out there that God wants you to do, guess what? In advance, he's made a way for you to do it. In fact, the more you know God, the more teaching and the more input, the more tapes you listen to and more TV programs you watch, the greater you can be assured that God has already planned something significant for your life. He is not looking for walking Christian dictionaries. He's looking for sold-out disciples who will make a difference. I had a phone conversation recently from someone in another part of the country that came to the Lord just a few years ago. They said to me, I'm not content right now. I said, well, what's going on? I said, because I know that God has something he wants me to do. I said, I've been going to these classes and I've been doing this in the church, uh, training-wise and so on, but I'm ready now to flesh out my gratitude to him. Really, dear ones, that would encourage me so much because when a person finally gets discontent with sitting there, they get excited about doing something. And when you think how many billions of people are wandering the face of the earth and don't have a clue as to why they're there, don't you think maybe you're significant? Don't you think maybe, you know, I've put the the dots on the on the overheads before, you know, I draw the big circle for the world. And I put 50 dots on there and I pick out one and put a little circle around it. And that one in 50 in all the world is you. That's about the ratio of born-again people to the population of the world. Now turn to that person next to you, look him right in the face. Right in the face and tell him that's you. You're special. You're special. You're special in God's eyes. He has a destiny for you. Now, how can we do it? I mean, how can we discover it? And I know I'm talking, you know, somewhat to young mothers here and I'm talking to old mothers here and I'm talking to, you know, their categories. I'm talking to old fathers here and I'm talking to young men. I mean, I'm talking to the whole gamut of you. Well, I picked out four things in this passage. First of all, Paul says, check your frame of mind. Look what he says. First thing so important. I just, here it is. Write it down. What's your frame of mind? Paul says verse 12, not that I've already obtained this. I read verses 10 and 11 so you can see the context was Paul was saying, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and share in the fellowship of his sufferings. And then he goes on and says, not that I've already obtained this. In the first place, we must begin to discover all that God has for us is we have to confess to the Lord that I haven't already obtained it. Teachability. Teachability. How many people tonight aren't here because they think they know it already. Really? Or they know enough, they think. You're here tonight because you're teachable. You want to know where to go from here. And that frame of mind is so important. Paul, by the way, just so you, again, context wise, how long had Paul been a Christian when he wrote this? At least 20 years. So he wasn't any, you know, novice in this faith business. I mean, he knew this stuff. But he was very clear in saying, I haven't gotten there yet. And I just want to say, if you have a humble heart and you, and I don't mean this kind of, you know, it's sort of a patronizing, oh, I know I'm not, you know, I don't mean that kind of thing where, oh, I don't know. You know, a lot of you know a lot. But I'm talking about a deeper motivation. I'm saying, but you know, you haven't really gone on to where God wants you to be yet. And so you're going to keep after it. I want you to know that's what I feel like. I feel like I've got a long ways to go yet. And I'm looking for the Lord to show me how to get on to the next place in Christ. Paul said, I haven't been there yet. I haven't made it to me. He said, though, but woe is me if I don't preach the gospel. I mean, he knew he had to do it. And that was his frame of mind. I'm pressing on. I'm not, you know, I'm not going to hang back on it. Okay, secondly, Paul was single-minded. He says this, this, verse 13, this one thing I do, nothing's going to get in the way of it. This one thing I set my mind to do is fulfilling my God-given destiny to find my niche and get into it. And nothing, not money or pleasure or fame or security or comfort or career is going to get in the way of it. You say, well, it's easy for you to say because your career is being in the ministry. I don't know how to answer that. I'm grateful to God that he led me in this direction, but I want you to know something. I don't think any of you are a mistake. I think every one of you can be as pleasing to God doing what you're placed in doing right now if you're serving him with all your heart. God made me for a purpose and he also made me fast. What is it? What is it for you that brings God pleasure? And then once you know what that is, once you know what the exercise of that is in your life that really brings God pleasure, I want to say to you, let go of the other things as wonderful as they may be. One of the greatest devices of the enemy, I believe, to derail us as a church and as an individual person is to overcomplicate our lives. You know, some of us are into 5, 10, 15 different things. I mean, I'm weary just trying to balance it all out. And I know some of us, you know, we feel like, well, you know, I really like to serve here and I like to do this and I enjoy that. But listen, dear one, you're going to really get effective when you focus. I mean, bring your energies to bear on one thing and do it well. When I was in college, I did some track events and it was a triple jump and I did a long jump and then I participated in a couple of relays and those kind of things. And I wasn't, I mean, I certainly wasn't anything of a class act in any of those. But I discovered that the thing I could do best was throw the javelin. And I wanted to keep dabbling on those things, but my coach told me, said, you know, you really need to work on this if you're going to get anywhere. And so he taught and he just, he coached me out of everything else. So for the last three years of my college days, I threw the javelin. That's all I did. And I walked around with it. It was a nice way to meet people. Now, I wish I could stand up here and say, I almost broke the national indoor record. No, I didn't. But I mean, I started, I enjoyed it. And I, you know, I managed to do a few things. And the only reason was, is because someone said, hey, you know, forget the long jump, forget the triple jump, forget the relay, throw the javelin. I want to say to you, forget this, forget that, but do the one thing that you're great at doing and do it with all your heart. Be single-minded. Okay. Then number three, be never-minded. Paul says, I forget the past, forgetting what is behind. Don't look back and be caught off guard by what's happened in the past of your life or of the life of the church. I was watching a video or some kind of a sports program last Saturday. I don't know if anyone else saw it, but it was again, interestingly, of a track meet. And these two international class, world-class runners were competing. And it was a close race. And they were going around the last turn. And the runner that was leading turned and looked over his shoulder to see how far back the other guy was. Did anyone see that? And he got passed on the outside. And here's the classic thing never to do. You know, he looked back and kind of just, just lost his concentration. And the runner came right up on the outside and went right around and won the race. You see, you can't look back. Some of us tonight, if we look back, we're going to get angry. We're going to say it won't happen. We're going to be frustrated. And I want to say tonight, our future, as someone said in my kitchen last night, is ahead of us. Profound. It's a good thing. I mean, I never know my future, but it is. Our future is ahead of us. You're saying, but I can't get past the person to let me down. Or I can't forget the disappointing experience I had. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Forget what lies behind. Paul did. Bring it to the cross of Christ and say, Jesus, let your blood cover that offense. Let your blood cover that disappointment. You forgave me of my disappointments and my failures. Let me have the grace to forgive them. Be never minded. Never mind. I'm going to go on. I'm not going to be stuck back there in 1984. Worse yet, 1974. Forget 54. I'm not even talking about that, all right? Rather, strain forward. I mean, strain forward to what lies ahead. Look toward the goal out there and know that you can be a player and make a contribution to arrive at it. You say, yeah, but I'm afraid I might burn out. Well, you know you might. I know that is a real danger. And especially in this culture where we're balancing. I mean, we were talking in our staff meeting about the fact that increasingly the pressure is on moms to work just to make ends meet. And then the dad may be taking second jobs or this kind of thing. And it's hard. I mean, it is hard. I know it's hard. But spiritually, I mean, are you making a difference somewhere so that you can't just say at the end of it all, well, you know, I made it. I mean, I survived my job and I raised my kids. That's no great victory. It's good, but it's not. We need to be, Lord, what is it? Where can I go and please you with what I'm doing? How can I make a difference that's going to really count for something? And I want to say to avoid burnout, just remember two things. All of our work under the Lord flows out of our relationship with him. Just keep that as paramount in your life and you won't really have a problem. You want the Malcolm Smith condensed version of his two day seminar? Love Jesus first and then do what he tells you. Or you can listen to the six hours of tapes. That's the truth. And secondly, I'll say to avoid burnout, remember that serving the Lord is a seasonal thing. You don't necessarily have to be 24 hours a day. I mean, in 365 days a year, year after year, there may be a season in your life where the Lord just kind of gives you rest. How many know we need rest? I would encourage everyone to get some rest from some things this summer. Get freshened again. But when you come back, strain forward to what lies ahead. In the critical days of World War II, England faced a need for increased coal production. The prime minister, who was Winston Churchill, called a meeting of labor leaders to give them the facts and enlist their support. He closed his presentation by picturing in their minds a parade, which would surely be held in Piccadilly Circus after the war was over. That's sort of the Broadway of London. There would come the men of the Royal Navy, whom everyone would know had kept the vital sea lanes open. There would pass the army who had come home from Dunkirk and then gone on to defeat Rommel in Africa and fight under Montgomery in Berlin. And then there would come the Air Force, who had driven the Luftwaffe out of the sky and beat it at its own game. Then he said, last of all, in this great parade, there would come a great host of sweat-stained, suit-streaked miners. Someone would cry out from the crowd, where were you? And from 10,000 throats would come the answer, we were deep in the earth with our faces against the cold. Winston Churchill sat down to a wildly cheering throng who committed themselves to provide what was needed to keep their war efforts going. You see, we have to realize that there's some out there that are fighting, you know, in the skies and some on the seas and some out there on the flats. And some of us just need to have our faces down deep in the earth against the heart of God in prayer. Finally, Paul says, I'm not going to be never-minded, I'm going to be future-minded. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. There's two things there, the word goal appears and the word prize. To me, the word goal underscores the human part of it. A goal is something that we strive to attain. I mean, that's where we're hoping to go, toward the goal, for the fullness of purpose and perfection. But there's also the prize. The prize is the divine side. The prize is what God will give us. It's the word of Jesus to us when we hope we hear him say to us, well done, good in faith. So there's a goal out there that we're striving for, but there's a prize out there we're waiting for that Jesus would give to us. And along the way, can I tell you something? There's nothing more encouraging along the way than hearing someone say, hey, keep it going, doing a great job. I guess it was my year for track, but my daughter also is running this year in her high school. And Carol and I went out one night to a big invitational meet and couldn't help but notice there weren't a lot of spectators there, I'll tell you, there were a lot of, there were like nine schools participating, so there were a lot of the track teams there. And during the longer races, and even on the sprints as well, the teammates would line the sides of the track. And as the participants came around, you know, going their 440 or whatever they were doing, I mean, they're good teams. The teammates were out there cheering on and yelling the name of the person, you know, he's gaining on you, or you've got, you know, 100 yards left or whatever the case was. And I'll tell you what, I mean, it was exciting. Amy came over to us afterwards, she said it was really neat. All the people cheering, really made you want to go. Folks, we need that, you know, we need to go out there tonight and tell those junior high staff people, hey, thanks. Thanks for serving our kids. Thanks for being there. Not like, what'd you do tonight? We need to go out there and talk to the people in the nursery and, whatever it might, you know what I'm saying, just wherever you get the opportunity, help that next runner to keep going. It's so important to encourage that. You know, casual or stagnant believers, they tend to look for ways to do a minimum amount of cross-caring in their lives. Their primary goal is just to not look bad to the rest of the Christians around them. They ask questions like, can I tithe on the net and not the gross? You think someone else could do that next week? What's the minimum I can do and still be a member? Can you make that a little more convenient for my schedule? Hey, these are all questions I get all the time. What's the least disruption in my lifestyle that would be acceptable? You see, on the other hand, wholehearted runners, they lay awake at night trying to figure out ways to do it a little better, to make a little more of a contribution with their life, to penetrate that resistant group or person that keeps standing in the way, or to somehow embellish their own giftedness to go on to be more of what God wants them to be, to maximize their potential. And Paul goes on to say, might I add, look at it, all of us who are mature should have the same view of things. Now, how many of you would fancy yourself mature Christians tonight? Look at your neighbor. Do they look mature? There's a difference, dear one, between being mature and being old. That is, even in the original language in the Bible, there was. To be mature meant to be fully developed at maximum production. Getting old, on the other hand, is simply just wearing out. All right, I won't step on any toes. To be mature is the fullness of understanding and development or to be complete. An apple can even look right when it's not mature, but when it matures, it's fully developed and ripe and sweet, usually, or tart and ready to eat, whereas it can get old and get past mature, get shriveled. I want to ask you a question. How many of us are maturing, and how many of us are just getting old? Well, you say, what should I do? Well, remember those four points. Remember your frame of mind. Where are you tonight? Remember to be single-minded and focused. Remember to be never-minded. Just shred off the old stuff and be future-minded. Look ahead, and I just want to suggest this as I conclude tonight. Check your mindset, as I just said. Number two, then, identify and develop your spiritual gift. Number one, check your mindset, those four points. Number two, identify and develop your spiritual gifts. This is going to take some doing. One thing that I've recognized around here is, folks, you may have to try three or four or five things before you really know where you're going to work, I mean, where God's going to use you, and that's okay. This isn't a one-shot-and-if-you-miss-your-odd kind of place. I mean, we're here to help each other and encourage each other along the way. That's why we have a network ministry. That's why we have training seminars going on. That's why we are willing to put people in the ministry and reevaluate in three months and see where they are and those kinds of things. You got to pray for God. I have to say this. Once you've been trained, once you've been through network and maybe gone through home training, whatever, then fast a while and pray and say, Lord, where do you really want me to be? When we dismissed tonight, I've asked the ushers once again. In fact, I'm going to hand them out to you. We've got nearly 50 ministries that are still operating here. We've lost some. We've gained some. I'm not recruiting you. You understand that. We don't need it so that we can feel better. I want it so that you can be fulfilled. That's what we're talking about. Then you got to pray a price for it. You got to be willing to go after it, and you got to be willing to stand on through the obstacles. You know, I can't tell you how many people I know that they're tough for three months, and then they die out. I don't know what it is. Or they're tough for six months, and then they die out. Sometimes the greatest fruit of your life is about to come, and you just give up too soon. You stop praying. You stop trying. You stop serving. You give up, and you miss the blessing of your life. I remember this very, very well. When I first discovered that God was calling me into ministry, I left Lexington, Virginia, where I was serving in a little Presbyterian church as a volunteer. I had a job in the university, but I was a volunteer youth pastor, and it was wild. I mean, they couldn't fire me, you know, as a volunteer. So we had a lot of fun, and I went on into the Marine Corps. We got there, and after just a little while, I just had it in my heart. Maybe about eight weeks, ten weeks into it, I wanted to be with kids again. I wanted to have a youth ministry. Well, everywhere I went, people said, don't be silly. I was right in the middle of officer training, pretty intense stuff. I mean, we're not talking about winning any looking contests, you know, what you look like and the whole thing. You know, it was 10, 12 hours a day of training, but I just persevered on it. I said, I really want to do this. I really feel called to do it. Finally, the chaplain at Quantico said, well, if you really want to do it, be here at this time, and we'll see what we can do, and we got together. We didn't have any place to meet. He said, but if you really want to do it, I'll see what I can do. We persevered for a couple more weeks, and we got this old Quonset hut. If you don't know what that is, it's like a half shell. I mean, it's this green, ugly, hot building that became the youth center, and the word kind of dribbled out. Now, in the middle of all this, I didn't have enough to do, so I married Carol, and in fact, that was a requirement for having a youth ministry. I didn't trust these single Marines. I said, well, I have to have a wife to do this. He said, great, I'll find one, and we went out. We were locked in, and it just fit so beautifully, and so then from July 20th, 21st, I had a one-night honeymoon until the next May, we served those kids in that Quantico Marine Corps base, and I've alluded from time to time the incredible miracles we saw in the lives of the kids. The only thing I can tell you is I knew God wanted me to do it, and I wanted to run that race, and believe me, I don't mean to put myself out there as some great example. It's just an illustration. When you know what God wants you to do, don't let anything get in the way of it. Forgetting what lies behind, I strained forward to what lies ahead. The goal of the upward call is to stand and pray. Lord, it's a tremendous passage of Scripture, one that can change our lives. Oh, Jesus, I pray so much that you'd enable every one of the saints that you brought out tonight to not be dissuaded or discouraged, Lord, or in any way distracted from the goal that you have for them, but make them faithful. Make them devoted to serving you with all their heart, and Lord, lift them along the way by the spirit of encouragement from one another along the same track. Let us hear the voices, Lord, of those that are already gone ahead of us and taking their places in the heavenly stands of life, Lord, and who are speaking encouragement to us not to give up, not to get dissuaded, Lord, but to persevere. Lord, I pray tonight, make each and every one of us faithful.