Striving for the Prize

Now, we are this morning going to be looking at Philippians in verses 3 or 7 through 17 of chapter 3. And again, it's an incredible passage. Challenging kind of how we view things, how we view what Christian maturity looks like, what we live for. And so if you have a Bible, I'd invite you to open it up and to keep it open throughout our time. If you don't have one, there's one in front of you.

We'd invite you to use that. But I want you to keep it open so you can see the passage and where all the points come from. But let me begin by reading these verses. Paul says, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God, that depends on faith. And that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I've already obtained this or already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider I've made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus.

Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if any one of you thinks otherwise, God will reveal that to you also. Only let us hold true to what we have obtained. Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example that you have in us. May God bless the reading of His Word.

Let me pray. Father, thank you so much for the privilege of this time. Father, for all that we have a chance to celebrate today. Father, for how you are working. Father, I pray now that you would speak through me and in spite of me.

Father, I pray that you would help each one of us to hear what you have for us from your word. Father, for your spirit would speak to our lives and that we would respond. Father, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. You know, when I was in college, I did an internship at a church.

And the senior pastor taught me and the other interns that the pastor's job was always to be the model of. Of kind of the model and the example that everyone else would follow. You know, he should present himself as the model of ideal Christian living. And so he said, you know, when you teach something, you always teach it with the certainty that you know what you're saying is correct. And the pastor should always look right and act right, never show any flaws.

Now, even back then, I understood that there was a huge problem with the advice that he was giving. And because I knew even back then there wasn't a pastor who have any flaws. There was no such thing about it as a pastor whose opinions are always right or that a pastor who never struggles. So even back then, in my early 20s, I understood that his advice was essentially saying a good pastor should be good at present, or pretending, working hard to present the right image and hiding any struggles, hiding any doubts, because that's what people expect. I want to tell you, the more that I've grown to understand, I knew there was a problem then, but I.

The older I've gotten, the more I realized that was terrible advice. It was actually very, very much unbiblical. Now I understand there's some churches that teach that. There's some people that expect that. And so when I'll talk about some of my own struggles, there's some people that are like, oh, we don't want to be at a church where this guy isn't perfect.

And no, I'm not, and I'm not going to pretend to be that, because it's not what the Bible teaches. Someone would say, well, how about Philippians 3:17? We just read it a moment ago. And doesn't that say, Doesn't Paul say, there, brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according example you have on us. Isn't it calling us to, you know, to have this example as the one who has it all together?

Now, again, if you take this out of context, you might come to that conclusion. But taking any verse out of context is a really dangerous way to study the Bible. When we look at it context, we're going to see. The question we've got to deal with is, what is the example that Paul is calling us to follow? When he says, follow my example, what is he calling us to follow?

And we're going to see in the Context of Philippians 3 that Paul isn't saying, you know, I've arrived, I'm doing it all right, you know, follow my example of performance. No, he's actually not putting himself as the model of the One who does it all right, but the model of admitting his own weakness, a model of surrender, a model of humility. He's not a model of performance, but a model of the process of living the Christian life of dependence. And again, as I think about that, you know, God has called me to be the pastor. This is huge in my understanding of my role.

I'm not the perfect guy, nor am I going to pretend to be that, because I think even in trying to present a picture of maturity, what God's calling me to is I want to be the model of the process of one who is still growing. Now, we're going to dive back into this in a couple minutes, but let me step back and look at the context of. Of what he's teaching here in Philippians 3. In the early part, if you were at this last week, we looked at that. He's talking about, you know, a lot of people are driven by performance.

You know, I want to somehow earn my place before God. I want to look right and somehow be righteous in front of people based on who I am, what I've done. And Paul said, I've done that in the past. And, you know, no, that's wrong. But I realized what I thought was great, it was garbage.

And he looked at all his previous performance, and look what he says about it. Whatever gain I had, counted for loss, gain I had, I counted for loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, there was something that was so far greater. And when he talks about the surpassing worth, it's the same thing that he's talking about when we go in verse 14, when he calls us to press on towards the goal of the prize, of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. And so when we look at this whole section, the question I want to start with is, what is the prize of surpassing worth that he's calling us to?

What is it that drove him, that called him to strain forward? And I think there's an answer right here in the passage. He says it in verse 10. In verse 10, he said, basically, this is my goal, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings and become like him in death. So there's three things that he says here.

These are these things of surpassing worth. Number one, to know Christ. Now, when he talks about knowing, it's not an intellectual word. When we think of knowing, we often think of, well, knowing about, I know the right things. And that's not what he's saying.

The word that he uses is very relational. It's very even experiential. So he's saying, you know, I want to walk with Christ, I want to know him, have a relationship with Him. That's what's of supreme value. And some people will look at this and think it's just intellectual knowledge.

Now, is doctrine important? Yeah, Paul spends a lot of time talking about doctrine. But I think even here he's saying you could believe all the right things about God. You can go to all the right Bible studies, have all the right things. But if you're not in love with him, if you're not walking with him, you don't know what Paul's talking about here.

And so do you have that. Do you have that living relationship with God, this experiential relationship where you love him, where you know him and he knows you? It's not only that, but it's knowing God. And the second part of that is to know the power of his resurrection, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. What's that resurrection power?

What is he calling about to us here? You see, I think in all of our lives there are things that are dead and then haven't been resurrected. It's an area that may be still dead in the sense that we haven't really let God fully invade it so that it's not that much different than it used to be before we were Christian. And for each of us it may be a different area of life. For some, it might be your finances and you're here and you're living, but you're not that much different.

It hasn't been resurrected. For some, it's relationships, and your relationships are just as broken as they've ever been. It hasn't been resurrected for some, it's anger and unforgiveness for people that you feel have hurt you. And what we need to realize is when we come to Christ and we know him, we experience him. And it means that we lay everything before him.

Because to know him means that we know him as Christ, as God. And so that we give him the place of God in our life, we say, God, I give you control over every area. I give you the right to point out areas where my beliefs or my actions aren't in line with what you call me to do. Why still we still believe the lies of the world. And as we embrace this relationship, we give him every area.

He begins to point out areas and to breathe life into areas that have been defined by death and disease. And so again, some it may be that you've never really had a healthy relationship and relationships that are broken. And he comes and he says, no, I want to come and I want to resurrect that. I want to bring life that you've never known some. You've come to Christ and you've never had solid finances.

You've never been a good steward of the things that God has entrusted to you. God says, no, I want to resurrect that. I want to bring life some you've come to Christ, but you still have the same anger, the same resentment, the same bitterness towards people that have hurt you in the past. And God says, no, I want to resurrect that. So whatever it is in your life, you know the power of the resurrection.

And so here's this thing of surpassing worth. It's actually a big part of our mission statement. What is it that to know Christ, his life changing power, it's right there. But this third part isn't our mission statement. It's kind of surprise to know Christ, to know the power of his resurrection and life.

And then the third one, he says, I want to share in his sufferings. And some of you might be, wait, wait a second. You had me on knowing Christ. You had me on resurrection power, share in his sufferings. That is something of great worth.

That's something we should pursue. Look at verse 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, become like him in death. How many of you claiming that verse today? Yeah, you know, it's like, yeah, I want a motivational poster and I'm a T shirt. I want to share in a supper.

Any of y', all, why don't we, why don't we lift that one up? What is it calling us to? So we look at it, we say, I don't want suffering, I want prosperity, I want blessing. And what is then Paul calling us to here? He says, I realize that these are the things of surpassing worth.

I want to know God, I want to walk with him, I want to know the power of his resurrection and I want to share in his sufferings. You see, part of what I think it means to share in his sufferings is to represent Jesus so faithfully in our world that those who would oppose Jesus and that would oppose his message would oppose us because we represent him well. And what he's saying is, where Jesus is criticized, I want to be criticized. Where Jesus would be misunderstood, I want to be misunderstood because I Want to represent him. Well, Jesus actually told us we should expect this.

Actually, this should be our goal. Look what he says in John 15, speaking to his disciples then and to us as his followers. Now, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. Verse 20. Remember that the word that I said to you.

A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. Now, when we look at this part of us, man, I'm sharing the Gospel and I'm doing it out of love. But we need to realize that there are people who are held captive by the enemy. They're not the enemy, but they're held captive and they're deceived by the enemy.

So at times we share the Gospel and they don't get it. They don't perceive it as love. They may respond with hostility and anger. They aren't rejecting us, they're rejecting Jesus. But Paul's saying, I want to represent Jesus so well in my world, where they would reject Jesus, they will reject me.

Now, I think to some degree, this is even part of the story of Charlie Kirk. That's part of what we see going on. Again, I don't want to agree with everything that he said or the way that he said it, but one of the things that became evident is that in the last couple years, his faith became huge to him and a huge part of what he did and what he said. In fact, in a recent interview, he had said, if I am to be known for anything, I want to be known for being courageous for my faith. The most important thing in my life is my faith in Jesus Christ.

Now, when we look at that, we look at his story, we're not called. Most of us aren't going to be ever called to that kind of public platform. And probably most of us aren't ever going to be facing that kind of violent threat. However, if we represent Jesus well, if we share his message faithfully, even if we do so in the spirit of love and grace, and the fact is, there are going to be people that will oppose us because they oppose Jesus. For some, it might be that, you know, you want to be in that friend group and there are people that suddenly are excluding you or there's a relationship that's really important to you, but, man, they're going to walk away because of your commitment to Christ or other social pressure or social media, or there may be a consequence in your job.

And I mean, even if I think in my own life, part of my story is that I'VE lost two jobs because of my unwillingness to compromise on my faith and my convictions. I'm not going to share all the story of that today, but I want to tell you, it wasn't easy. It wasn't fun. I mean, one of the times we were just getting ready to have our first child and lost a job basically because I wasn't willing to compromise on certain things. And it was difficult.

It was painful. It's not that I think Paul's saying, hey, I like being suffered. No, but what he's saying is that I want to be so faithful to Christ that I'm willing to pace that or to face that. See, now, when I look back at that time, at those times, it was hard. But you know what I'm also thankful for the blessings, for the growth that God brought through that.

I understand that part of the prize that God has accomplished in me of surpassing worth is that God grew me and our family through that. See, that's what he's calling us to. Can I say, man, I want to know Christ. I want to know his resurrection power. And I want to be so committed to sharing him that I'm willing to do so even in the midst of opposition.

Well, now we come to verse 17 and we say, okay. When he says, join in imitating me and keeping your eyes on those who walk according to the example in us, we might assume that he's saying, okay, this is the goal, and I've gotten here and live it out perfectly like I've done it. But what I want you to see is that's not what he says that he talks about a process of striving for this prize. He's not saying, I figured it out, I've attained the goal. It's, you know, here, you know, follow the way that I've done it.

In fact, look. Look at verse 14, or starting in 10. I'm sorry, starting in verse 10, he said, you know, I found my identity in this, that I may know Christ, the power of his resurrection, and that may that I may share in his sufferings, being like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. So that's what I want to know. But next verse, verse 12.

Not that I've already obtained this, not that I'm already made perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own brothers. I do not consider that I've made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He's saying, okay, this is what I'm doing.

That's my goal. And you know what? It's something that we can know, but we will never fully realize. We will never arrive.

It's a relationship with God. If the core of the blessing is a relationship with God, we understand this in our human relationships, don't we? Let me give an example. Let's say if you talk to someone, you say, man, the greatest blessing in my life is my marriage. Let's use even the example of the language of Paul earlier in chapter three, man, beforehand, I thought that life was about pursuing the pleasures of singleness.

And I thought that was so great. And now I look back and I think all that. It's garbage. It was garbage in comparison to the surpassing glory of marriage. Man, I have this wonderful wife.

They talk about how blessed they are. Now it would be appropriate for that person to say, not that I've already obtained it. Meaning, while I have this incredible relationship with my wife and it's what I long for, I realized that we're just getting started. And while I hung for this incredibly deep relationship, boy, in the first year in marriage, it's wonderful, but it's nothing compared to what I hope it's like 50 years from now. You see, that's what I think Paul is saying, I've got it.

I've started it, but I've not obtained. I'm growing. So how do we grow? Well, he gives us his model of humility, his model of growth. Again, go back to verse 17.

He says, Join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example he have in us. And again, at first glance, it could be saying, join me. I've got it all together. But the context, when we look at everything, it makes it clear that he's telling us, what I want you to imitate is my example of my maturity. But he redefines Christian maturity.

He defines it in a way that's shocking and surprising and might almost be offensive to some. Look at how he defines it. It's not I've got it all together. It's actually the exact opposite. Look at what he says in verse 13.

Not that I've already obtained this or already made perfect, but I press on to make it my own. My maturity isn't that I'm there, but I'm pressing on. How? Because Christ Jesus has made me his own. He continues, brothers, I do not consider that I've made It my own.

I've not achieved it. I've not arrived. It's. And what he's saying is. And ultimately, what's changing my life, it isn't my performance.

It isn't my keeping the rules. What's changing my life is that I have this relationship with Jesus Christ, that He has made me his own. And again, you might look at it and say, but it talks about striving. Yeah, look at verse 12. I press on to make it my own.

Verse 13, straining forward to what I said. 14, I press on toward the goal. And he's saying, I'm a long way from being perfect, but I'm striving. But what is the striving? He's striving to be more broken, to be more humble, to be more teachable.

He's not striving harder to perform and keep the rules. He's saying, my striving is to realize that Jesus made me his own. I need to get closer to him and let him change me into who he's called me to be. He does present himself as the example of Christian maturity, but he totally defines what Christian maturity is. Christian maturity isn't the person that's arrived.

It isn't the person that's doing it all right. Christian maturity is being aware of how sinful you are and how much you need Jesus. And the more that we grow in maturity, the more that we actually lean into that, the more humble we become, the more dependent we get. And he's saying, follow my example of humility, of acknowledging your sin, having a posture of being a continued stone student as one who's growing and learning. Look in verse 15, he says, let those of us who are mature think this way.

And if any of you thinks otherwise, God will reveal that to you also. Only let us hold true to what we've obtained. Basically saying, anyone who's mature will understand this. And if anyone thinks that he's so wise, so mature in the faith that you think that you aren't, don't need to be humble, that you don't need to learn more. Well, you just need to spend more time with God and God will show you, you know, that's basically what he's saying.

Anyone who's mature, by definition, is someone who is aware of their sin, who lives in humility before God and before people. It's someone who's teachable. If you ever get to the point. In fact, I remember being at churches at times, and you walk out and they're like, oh, that's a great message. People need to hear that.

And if I ever get to the point where I'm saying people need to hear that, I totally miss the gospel. It's not that people need to hear it. I need to hear it. And if I'm not learning something, then I become immature. I've totally missed the mark of this maturity.

See, he's teaching Christian maturity is marked by confession. It's marked by surrender, not by performance. It's not that we never struggle, we never mess up. We all do. But maturity is recognizing that I'm not there, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

The closer I get to God, the more aware I am of my. My struggle, my impurity. And so it's marked by that confession, that surrender. But you know what? It's hard for us to learn because often, unfortunately, in the church, we've been taught the opposite.

I think about that pastor who told me as an intern, well, you know, the pastor, you know, you're model Christian. You're the guy that has it all together. And, you know, you got to be the model pastor. And that sounds great. Have you ever looked up the definition of model?

Webster's definition. A model is a miniature representation of something. So a model pastor. Does that make me a miniature reputation of a real pastor? You know, is it kind of like the bobblehead pastor?

It's kind of like instead of bobbling the head, I've got a bobbling jaw. You know, just, you know, let's go all Dwight Schrude on this one. It's like, no, no, no, this. God has called us to be something, a model. But it's a model not of the perfect.

In fact, let's put it this way. A leader should be a model not of the product, but of the process. There's one model of the product. There's one model of the one who's got it all together. That's Jesus Christ.

See? And the leader doesn't come back and say, man, I've got it. I got it all together because I'm pretending none of us have that. That's what First John teaches. And if you look at me as a model, you should see Jesus through me.

But it should always be to Jesus. And the model that I'm trying to give is saying, here's how I'm surrendering. Here's what God is teaching me. Here's where I'm. And I've gotta be willing to say, and here's where I messed up, and here's where.

And we've gotta be A place where we don't feel the need to pretend or to act, but where it's okay to say, man, I'm struggling. And if someone says, man, I messed up this week, instead of saying, I can't believe that, say, I'm proud of you for admitting that you got it. See, but that process is not only then coming in this model of humility, but it's then also forgetting what lies behind. Now we can misunderstand this. Verse 13 says, Brothers, I do not consider I've made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward, what lies ahead.

What I've heard this taught sometimes, which is totally wrong. It's an excuse almost not to deal with past sin. Past hurts, you know, I just press forward. It's my back. I forget it, I bury it.

I've heard people say that the Christian life doesn't have a rear view mirror. That's garbage. I mean, it's not biblical at all. And you're going to see it right here. It doesn't mean, you know, forget what lies in the past, just ignore it.

What it means is that if we have a real relationship with Jesus Christ, we're going to be changed. We're not going to be who we are. We were. We're going to be somebody different. But it also means that in this relationship with Jesus, we no longer let our past define us.

That doesn't mean we forget it, because that's part of who we are. In fact, look at Paul. What does he do right before this? He, Is he saying, I forgot my past? No, right before this, he spent all the time talking about his past.

He just talked about all the past. And it doesn't say, it doesn't have anything to do with I am. It's like, no, this is my past and I've forgotten what it is, basically because I've let Jesus resurrection power come and transform it. I haven't forgotten it, but I've let it transform it. So let it redefine.

You know, what I love is that sometimes you get a testimony and people will share things. And it's like, man, I'm kind of ashamed. What do people think? And. And then you get people up there and share their stories and it might include some really, really hard things, some dark things.

And when a believing church hears that, you know what they say isn't, I can't believe you did that. That's a terrible story. You know what? We all say, what a great story. What a great story of God's grace and Our story of shame becomes God's story of glory.

That's what we're called to do. And so he's called us to do this. Now how do we know if we've done it? Well, simple concept here. It's really important, but it's a simple principle.

If we've forgotten our past, we'll know you've forgotten your past when you can talk about it. See, I've talked to people again all the time, and they have something in their past. And whether it's sins that they've done or whether they've been experienced some great pain, some loss, whether they've been abused in some way, something that is deep and that is dark. And they'll say, I brought it to God and I prayed to God. And, and then you never talk about it and you may not even share it with your spouse or your kids.

And you have things that you just, you know, they're shame. My friends, if you can never talk about it, it shows that it's still controlling you. It's defining you. And you don't want to bring it out because you're ashamed. You think that it's going to define you.

And God calls us, know that we're called to forget our past. And Paul doesn't just say, I just forgot about it, he's talking about it. And, and let me challenge you. I think there's some people here that maybe you need to find a mature believer. You need to find a solid Christian counselor.

You need to go to someone and you need to say, here are things in my past that I've never talked about that I'm ashamed of and I need God's healing. I don't want to be controlled by these things. I want to let God come and bring his resurrection power and heal this so I'm no longer defined by that. It's not only that he does that, but then it also calls us to, then strain to what lies ahead. Again, look what he says.

You know that you know, forget what is in your past and strain forward to what lies ahead. And not only are we no longer to let our past define us, but we now have a new identity. It's not that I am this victim of abuse. I'm a. I'm this addict. I'm this.

I knew have a new identity in Jesus Christ. I love what Ephesians talks about this, this idea that you know in Christ that we are no longer not just sinners. It's not just God cleans us, but he actually makes us something new. Look At Ephesians, there's so much more, but just a few verses in Ephesians 1. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, he chose you, he loved you.

That you should be holy and blameless. If you're a believer, you're holy and blameless before God. It's not that you just are not a sinner. You're holy and blameless in love. He predestined us for the adoption to himself as sin, as sons.

You've been adopted. You are a loved child of God. You are of incredible value in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses to the riches of his grace. It's not only that we've been forgiven, we've been redeemed, we've been bought. We now have a purpose.

And with this new identity, we have a new purpose. So we're called to now live for what matters, for eternity, not giving ourselves to that which Paul would say, you know, say, man, I used to live for this, and I realize it's garbage. And no, I have a new purpose. And he calls us to live with passionate pursuit of that purpose, of that price. Again, look at verses 12 through 14.

You see some incredibly strong language describing effort and passion that now defined his life and the pursuit of something of eternal worth. I press on to make it my own. Verse 12. Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Verse 13.

I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus. He's teaching us to strain, to live this passionate pursuit, this total commitment. But if we're to do that, what drives us, you see, because when you see people that are driven to the ultimate, there's a motivation. What is our motivation? And that's the last part that I want you to see here.

In this passage, there's a model of the right motivation. And there's a lot of wrong motivations and some impure motivations, and the wrong one that's really common is religion. That you go back and you say, well, I need to do this right because I need to earn God's favor. I need to earn my place. And that's what we saw him speak to last week, and the wrongness of legalism and performance.

And he's saying, no, that's wrong. But even once we get that, we say, well, no, it's by grace. Then one response is gratitude. And gratitude, I'm going to say, is a good but an incomplete response to grace. We're going to see it's not what he's calling us to here.

See, when I think about gratitude, we say, well, that's a good thing. I'm so blown away by what God has done for me that I want to come in gratitude and I want to serve him. And is there a place for gratitude? Yeah, there is, actually. When we think, for example, on the Lord's Supper and he calls us to say, do this in remembrance of me.

Remember this. And so we're to look back at what Christ has done, and out of gratitude, we're to then say, okay, God, I want to surrender. I want to live my life. I want to remember that it's all based on grace and live in that dependency. But here's what I want you to find.

Spend time even on your own this week. Look for what the Bible says about gratitude. It says a lot about gratitude driving our worship and praise and thanksgiving for God. It says very, very little about driving our motivation to serve God. It's not there.

And then it's surprising. And the thing is, a lot of times people can say, well, in fact, I've heard it said, you know, it's like, well, it should drive us. And there's some dangers to gratitude. And one of the dangers is that a lot of times in gratitude, we can start by saying thank you and then feeling like we're paying back. Then in a sense, there's a gift.

And, man, I'm so thankful for it. But then, well, because that gift is given, I feel an obligation to do something back. In an example, some of you probably, let's say for Christmas, you have a Christmas in your family. Everybody says, okay, you know, we're not going to exchange gifts amongst each other. And then you come to Christmas Day and suddenly, like all your siblings, they have gifts for you.

And what happens? You're grateful, but you feel guilty. Anybody you know, relate to that? And so what happens next Christmas? Oh, I need to give a gift.

Is it out of gratitude? Yes, but it's also a sense out of obligation. Well, you gave me, and so I need to give back. And there's an obligation now that can happen even in our relationship with God, that we feel we owe him something. And so I hear people say something, well, God did so much for you.

What will you do for him now? Like, you got to pay him back. You know, God gave you his very life. How much will you give him? Is there a place for gratitude?

Yes, but there's a danger. And not only that, there's a second problem, that when we graduate with gratitude, we're looking back to what God has done in the past, which again is good. But look at this passage. It's all about future. Look at, look, look with me again.

Look at verse 12. Not that I've already obtained this or made perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own brothers. I do not consider that I made it my own. One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, straining for what is that? Future.

I press on toward the goal future for the prize of the high call. He's teaching us that, yes, we should look back in what God has done in the past and there's a place for gratitude. And gratitude is looking back at what is done. Gratitude is a right response. But what he's calling us to here is not gratitude looking back.

He's calling us to focus on and strain for what is ahead. And so when we think of gratitude, part of gratitude is looking for what God has done and realize, okay, that's a taste. I love what it says in the Psalms. Taste and see, the Lord is good and we get a taste. And if I get a taste, it's like, well, I got a taste, I want more.

And that's really what it's saying. We should strive and we're motivated by the pursuit of something else. We look at realized grace and pursue future grace. We see what God has shown for us in the past and we realize that's just a taste. But I want more.

That's what everything that he's saying, he's driving forward. Pursuit of his blessing, pursuit of the thing of eternal worth. And I've only got part of it, but I want more. And I've not arrived. It's actually taught throughout the Bible.

One place you see it clearly in Hebrews, in Hebrews 11, talking about faith, what drove people in faith? Take for example, Moses. And he talks in Hebrews 11 about Moses. And here you have someone who had all the pleasures of Egypt. And what drove him to turn his back from that and to serve God, to pursue God with all the risks.

Look what he said. Choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ of greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking forward to the reward. I've got the taste and I want more. He was driven by something more.

The promise of God's, of God's blessing and love overwhelmed him to the degree that it drove him past the temptation of sin. That's what Faith is? Hebrews 11:1. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen. Faith is living with this assurance that, okay, God has blessed me.

And I look at that and there's realized grace and but I'm driven to follow him because there's more blessings ahead. Or Hebrews 11:6. Without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek Him. So faith in God is not only believed that he exists, but that if we follow him, he rewards us.

There's a blessing, there's the thing of eternal value and worth. And my friends, that's what I want to encourage you here. When we look at this, this is an incredible call where it redefines so many things, but it's calling us to live a life that is passionate in our pursuit of the things of eternal value, of eternal worth, to press on towards the prize of the high calling, to be passionate at our pursuit. Why? Because we believe that there's an incredible blessing.

And yes, I'm thankful for what God has done, but that's just a little foretaste. And I can get more. The more that I pursue that, I can enjoy it more and more and more and. And that's all going to be a taste of even what ultimately we'll experience one day in eternity with God. And so just in closing, let me ask you, are you pressing on toward the goal of the prize, of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus?

Is that what your life looks like? You know, are you living for all these things? Are you settling? Or are you just saying God? No, you called me to this incredible prize and God, I want to live there.

And there may be some where it starts with saying it starts with a relationship with Christ, not religion, not trying to perform, not trying to earn God's favor. It's recognizing that God wants a relationship with you, not based on what you do, but based on acknowledging God, I'm a sinner and I ask you to forgive me and accept the free gift of Jesus Christ. And we celebrated people that have done that. Even today, there may be some that today is the day that you do that. And I'd love to talk with you and explore what that means in your life.

I hope that you will do that if you've not. But for those that have done it, you see, everything here is. He's talking to believers and he's saying to believers, yeah, even here you can still live for the things of the world. We can still live for the things that are rubbish. And no, I call you to live for these things of eternal worth and value, to be driven, to be passionate.

And it's not somehow performing or somehow pretending and it's doing it by surrendering, by humility, by admitting our weakness and admitting, but doing so passionately and saying God, help me to be so in love with Jesus. Help me to be so in love, letting you come in and bring resurrection power to every part of my life, being so committed to serving you, even at the expense of suffering. Father, help me to do that in such a way that it's real in a community of a church where we're not pretending to struggle or have questions, but that we're holding each other as we grow in this together and as we learn together the incredible worth and value of this goal that should drive us to strive, to strive for the prize of the upward calling in Christ Jesus. If you have a question about the message Community Church or Jesus Christ, send us a text to 330-400-3242. You can learn more about our events and community groups at CCCPL Life Connect there.

You can also send in a prayer request. We would love to pray for you. Have a blessed Lord's Day and we'll see you on Sunday.