Focused on the Right Prize

We've been in a series on the book of Philippians, and it's such an incredible book. It really calls us to live life from a different perspective, to see things from God's perspective and to find optimism, hope, even when. When things seem half full. And so we're looking at a section in chapter three where there's a lot here that's very, very challenging at times. You know, Paul says things that, you know that are a little shocking in the way that he says it.

And we're going to see that again this morning as we get to the end of chapter three. So if you have a Bible, I'd invite you to turn with me to Philippians. We're going to start at chapter 3, verse 13, and go through the beginning part of chapter 4. If you don't have a Bible, you know, I always encourage people to, you know, there's one right in front of you. It's on page 981, and we encourage you to use that one because, again, all the points that we make, these aren't my opinions, they aren't my ideas.

You know, I'm seeking to be able to say, here's what the Bible says, and I want you to be able to look in the Bible and. And to see where the points all come from. And so let me begin by reading the passage we're going to study this morning, starting in verse 13 of Philippians 3. Paul says, Brothers, I do not consider that 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 God and Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that to you also. Only let us hold true to what we've obtained. Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes according to those who walk, according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and their glory is in their shame, with their mind set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for my joy, my crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. I entreat Utica and I entreat Cynice to agree in the Lord. Yes.

I ask you, true companion, help these women who've labored side by side with me in the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of the fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. May God bless the reading of his word. Let me pray. Father, thank you so much for the privilege that we do have to come together this morning. Father, now to be able to dive into your word.

Thank you for what is here, for what you continue to teach me. And Father, I pray that your spirit would speak, Father, through me and in spite of me. Father, help this to be a time not where we hear the words of an opinions of a man, but father, that somehow through me you would communicate your timeless truth. And Father, help each one of us to have hearts that are able to not only understand but to apply whatever you have for us. This morning.

I pray your blessing in Jesus name. Amen. Now it's fall time. We live in Northeast Ohio. It's the birthplace of professional football.

So I'm going to use a professional football illustration. I know I have to ask for forgiveness for those that don't care about football. I think my might for those who do, because the Browns are so terrible that it reminds us of that. And anyone who follows football know whether we've been the worst team for 25 years. At least we have the Guardians.

They made the playoffs all right. We got hope and it's all right. Yeah. Now, one of the big problems for the Browns has been that they've been unable to find a starting quarterback since the return in the league in 1999. They've had 40 different starting quarterbacks.

Now, in comparison, the next team with the highest number is the Chicago Bears with 30, which is still a lot, but that's 25% fewer than the Browns. And, you know, one. I saw an article on this and one fan commented on it and said, you know, at least we're number one in something. And, you know, it's been so bad that people make a joke of it. You know, you probably could buy this jersey.

And this jersey is like listing all the names of all the starting quarterbacks. And it's not like one name, it's 40 different ones. And you say, what's going on? Why is this so difficult?

What are you looking for in a starting quarterback? Is it just somebody that has the right skill, the right speed, the natural ability? Or is there something in a sense more important than all these to help you think that through? Let me give you a contrast Of a couple guys. One is a guy that the Browns drafted, a guy named Johnny Manziel.

Drafted by him by the Browns in the first round of the 2014 draft. He seemed to have all the right skills. He's very, very talented. Strong arm, fast, quick. Win the Heisman Trophy as a freshman for the best player in college football.

But yet he was a total failure in the NFL in large part because it came out that he was far more interested in partying than doing the work of playing football. You see, in college, he could rely on his natural ability to kind of COVID the lack of effort, but when he got in the NFL, even the best have to work to thrive, and he wasn't willing to do that. There were stories about him literally showing up to team meetings drunk, falling asleep on the floor during meetings. He was totally unfocused. Now contrast him with another guy, Tom Brady.

Tom Brady was drafted in the sixth round by the New England Patriots in the 2000 draft, 199th player selected. He was drafted so far down because people had very low expectations of him. He didn't have a strong arm. He was one of the slowest quarterbacks in that draft. He had had a good college career, nothing special.

And people thought, well, okay, at best he might make a backup quarterback. But yet he became arguably the greatest quarterback of all time. Won seven Super Bowls. But what set him apart wasn't his physical abilities. They weren't that great.

It was his focus. He was totally committed to doing everything he possibly could to becoming a better player. He worked harder than anyone else. He spent more time in the film room. He did incredible training, not only in weights, but even down to the food that he ate, the amount of sleep he got, not just during the football season, but throughout the whole year.

And it was that focus that made him stand out. Now, you might be wondering, what in the world does this have to do with Philippians or anything spiritual? And, well, here's what I want you to see. Look at Philippians. And I want you to see that Paul uses a lot of athletic language here.

He says, I strain forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal of the prize. He actually uses this kind of language often in the Gospels or in epistles, sometimes more explicitly. So, for example, in First Corinthians 9, he says, don't you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize, so run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self control in all things.

They do it to receive a perishable wreath. But we and imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one, beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.

And here's what he's saying. You know, it's like an athlete think. But what set him apart, what set him apart in running the spiritual race was not natural ability. It wasn't past performance. It was focus.

It was someone who said, I'm totally focused on this. And because I'm focused on something, I, you know, I beat my body, I train. And it's not, you know, what sets us apart. It isn't, you know, somebody's born with this innate spiritual ability. It's not, you know, that we're born into the right family or the right, you know, the right church.

In fact, if you go back to the first part of Philippians 3, you know, Paul looks at it and he says, okay, some people think that's what it was. And if it was that resume, I had it now as Jew of the born, of the Jew, of the Jews, I had the performance as a Pharisee, but I realized those things were worthless. I realized that they were rubbish. But what set him apart was his focus. And what sets people apart here is it's.

It's similar to athletics when you look at, in a spiritual sense, you know, are there people that are like the John Amanzels of spiritual, you know, spiritual life, and they've got a lot of promise, they've got ability, but yet somehow they get lost. And what sets that apart from the one who achieves the spiritual prize? When I think about it, not only we could talk about in athletics at Tom Brady, but here we're talking about Paul and his example. Even this past, you know, past week, a week ago, we saw, you know, you know, Charlie Kirk and that incredible worship service, and was someone who used to be focused on politics. And you saw in that testimony, man, his life became defined by his pursuit of Christ and the message of Christ, and that's what set him apart.

Why? Because he was focused. He was focused on what matters the most. But could we be like again, like a Johnny Menzel who becomes distracted by the pleasures of this world? Look again at what he says here in Philippians 3.

And I'm going to see that he's calling us not only in his own example, but calling us to follow that example of living with a focus, of a driven life again. We saw this a moment ago, but let me read it. Verses 12 through 14. Notice the athletic language. Not only that I've obtained this, that I've been 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 for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. He's saying, I live my life driven by my focus on what matters most. I know my purpose in life.

And because I focus on that, I'm not just out there in the race of life, no, but I'm straining on, I'm running differently. And he gives us this example of a committed life, you know, striving. It's actually not only here, there's numerous places where we have the same idea. In fact, let me take you to another place. In Hebrews 12.

In Hebrews 12, again, using athletic language and calling us to the same idea. But I want you to see there's a difference. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such great, great cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight sin which clings so closely. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. But who is our example?

You hear? It's not the author of Hebrews, it's not Paul, it's Jesus. But look what drove him? 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. What drove him?

The joy that was set before him. In a sense, he was motivated by this vision of something that was ahead. And it was this joy that was set before him that drove him to endure the cross because he was pursuing, in a sense, a greater prize. You see, our faith is, you know, the way that we live is defined by what is our ultimate goal, what is the thing that we live for. We'll ultimately be driven by what we believe in.

We're all driven by something. And even somebody like Johnny Manziel, who seems so lost. No, he's actually driven by something. What mattered most to him was short term enjoyment of life. And he was willing to sacrifice a football career on that goal.

And so we have to ask ourselves, even in our own evaluation, what is the prize that drives you to strain forward and to press on? What drives you in life? We all do something. And now for many of us, unfortunately, we may never have thought that through. We never have maybe made a choice.

This is my goal. And so often what happens then is that we live life reactively. We're driven by something, but it's not something that we intentionally decided on. And then so often we look back and we say, man, that's been driving me. And I would have never chosen to pursue that goal.

See, he calls us to pursue this goal for the prize of the upward calling in Jesus Christ. That's what should drive us. But he also then warns us we can lose sight of this. And we see this as this warning against this loss of focus through deception, through distortion. Look at verses 18 and 19 where he describes people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ and but who had lost the focus of their faith and were instead were deceived into making other things the center of their life.

He says, for many of whom I have often told you and now tell you with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, Their God is their belly, their glorious and their shame, with their mindset and earthly things. Now, first of all, I want to point something out here that might be easy to miss, and that is that he's talking about these enemies of the cross were actually people who were professing Christians. It might be tempting at first to say the enemies of the cross. Well, those were.

Those were heathens. Those were, you know, those were unbelievers. Those were the persecutors of the church. And. But here's what I want you to notice when he says, for many who have often told you now tell you with tears walk as enemies, these weren't, oh, there are people that don't believe in Christ.

No, these are people that caused Paul to cry. These were people that had claimed to be part of the church. But he cries over them because in reality he saw no, in spite of that, their life shows that they're actually enemies of the cross. I think it's the same people that he talked about in the beginning of chapter three. Back in verse two, he said, look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

He's talking again about believers and saying these are people who claim to believe in Jesus, claim to be able to teach Jesus, but they've added something to the Gospel and in the process they're actually taking people away from Christ. Now, why would he talk about them in such harsh terms? They walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Here's what I want you to realize. The problem wasn't that they had false teaching.

It wasn't that they say the wrong things. But look what he said. The problem was they walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. The problem wasn't in their claims, but in their walk. You know, they might have said the right things.

Oh, we follow Jesus. But the fruit of their life demonstrated their focus wasn't on knowing Christ. It wasn't on resurrection power. No, the goal of their life was the pursuit of possessions and pleasure and physical desires. That's what it means when he says in verse 19 that their God is their belly.

Another way to interpret that is their God is their appetite. They live for what they consume. These were people again that claimed to be Christians but had been deceived into making their focus of their living the pursuit of desires. It's again not that they had wrong beliefs. It's not that what they said they believed was wrong, but it's the way they live showed that in practice the real God, the God that they actually loved the most, the thing that defined their life was their physical desires.

That's what they let define them. It was what's most important to them. It was the ultimate end. It's what they were living for. Now when I think of this, we've got to realize he's not just talking about a problem then, he's talking about a problem that persists even to this day.

I mean I'll talk to people that well yeah, I'm a Christian, I prayed a prayer, you know, I walked an aisle, I was baptized at a church, I joined a church at one point. And so they make the claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ. But then if you look at their life other than Sunday, you wouldn't know that they're a Christian because they don't really look that different than a good moral non Christian, you know, and even they will come and then often interpret their Christianity well. What's your Christianity mean to us? Well, I serve God and basically a lot of times Christianity is almost if I serve God, then he's going to make me happy.

He's going to give me, I hear this taught even you know, that God is almost this means and he wants you to be happy and if you do the right things, if you pray the right way, he's going to give you stuff. Because if you're going to be happy with stuff, then God has a means to do that or another version of that that we see this is that, you know, any desires that you have, well, that desire, God made you that way, you know. Well yeah, I know that the Bible may say that some desires are sinful, but that doesn't really apply to us anymore. God doesn't want you to change your desires because your desires are what's most important about you. You see, that's your God.

Well, God wants you to help you to be happy in pursuing those desires. Again, these things are being taught unfortunately in many churches today. And I realize that in saying this I might even be offending some people. Because you've heard this, you may have been believing it, but I want you to realize again, this isn't my opinion. This is what Paul is saying.

And he's not just saying that it's a small issue. He's saying, no, the people who promote this are enemies of the cross of Christ. Now why would he say that, that harshly? That they're enemies of the cross, that they claim to worship God, but their true God is their belly. And I think the reason is that they had distorted the gospel so that they saw God and as a means to something greater, not as the ultimate end of their life.

See, what it's doing is it's taking the value system of the world and it's kind of saying, okay, well, what the world lives for, we're just going to put on a Christian veneer. But what should be our life when Paul says that their God is their belly, their glory is their shame, their mind is set in earthly things. They're saying they claim to follow Jesus, but ultimately what really matters to them is man. They're pursuing the things of this world, you know, earthly desire and health and prosperity and God is just a means. Think about it this way.

If their God is their belly and he's saying in reality, these are people who claim to believe in Jesus, but their God is their belly. That's what they value the most, that's what they live for. Then what role does God play in their lives? These are people that claim to believe in God. So see, I think about this and I think about even last week we looked in Philippians 3, verse 10, and Paul defined the prize of the upward call of Christ.

In verse 8 he said, you know, I counted everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Jesus my Lord. This is what's most important. This is what satisfies everything else is like garbage. I used to live for it.

Then he goes in verse 12:10 and he defines that. What is that surpassing prize? That I may know Christ, not know about him, that I may know him, have relationship with him, experience the power of his resurrection, this life changing power, so that I Let him breathe into my life. And he brings life out of things that are dead. That I may know his sufferings, that I want to be so committed to him, that I'm willing to suffer where Christ was persecuted, that I want to live that out.

And so when he talks about this surpassing worth of Christ, he's saying, you know, it's not only knowing him, but knowing him as Christ, my Lord, as my God, is surrendering to his authority. But again, the people that Paul is talking about here are people that use that language. But the main goal of their life isn't to know Christ. It isn't to know his resurrection power. It isn't to say, God, speak into my life and change things that are out of line with you.

No, their goal was focused in on, this is what I want. I want to live for this God. How can you help me? The real God was their belly, the pursuit of their physical pleasures. And that's what they wanted most.

And again, God became kind of a means to that end. God, how do I do the right thing so that you'll give me what I want now? Isn't it still harsh to call them enemies of the cross? Again? I think about these people then and now.

You know, none of these people would have considered themselves an enemy of the cross. They were sure offended by Paul's words. So why did he say that? Well, here's what I want you to think about. Here's the message of the cross.

It starts with the realization that we're all sinners, that we're separated from God by our sins. Religion can't fix the problem. It's not about keep these rules, do this. God's going to make God happy. No, none of us can do that.

We all fall short. We need righteousness. Not from ourselves, but from God. So that's why God made a way through Jesus Christ. He came and lived the perfect life.

He deserved God's reward. But instead of the reward he deserved, he willingly took the cross. And at the cross he took our sins upon himself. God's punishment on those sins, so that all who believe in Jesus Christ, all that embrace him and ask for his forgiveness, our sins are forgiven. We have relationship with God through that faith.

That's what John1 says to all who did receive him, who believed in his name. He gave us the right to become children of God. We have that kind of relationship. But my friends, to have our sins forgiven, to have this relationship, we have to first of all confess our sins. We have to first of all agree with God about The nature of our sin.

God, I agree with you. And I'm a sinner. I agree what you say is wrong is wrong. He also then calls us to repent. God, I ask you to change me.

I give you the right to change me. And I want to live a life that surrenders your authority. Now, here's the problem with this kind of false teaching. It looks like a veneer. It uses the right language, but it's denying the problem of sin.

It's saying, your desires, they aren't wrong. It's not wrong to live for the world. That's not wrong. And God wants to help you do that. And since your desires aren't wrong, they don't need to be confessed, they don't need to be repented of.

You see, it's not dealing with the core problem of sin that separates us from God. And God wants you to be happy. But when we preach that, what's happening is it's keeping people from the true gospel. If God's there to help you chase after your desires, you'll never understand, you'll need, and you'll never come to true faith in Jesus Christ. By only talking about the cross partially, it's not bringing people closer to Christ.

It's actually keeping them away from Christ. Billy Graham talked about this many years ago. He said this. The problem with many Americans is that they become inoculated against Christianity. They've gotten just enough of it to ensure that they'll never get the real thing.

And inoculation is you get a little bit of the disease so you develop the antibodies so you never get the real disease. He's saying that's what's happening. They've got a little bit of Christianity, so we get the antibodies, but it's not the cross. And so that's the danger that he's talking about here. You know, what is your true love?

What do you. You know, if you're thinking, okay, no, God's here to help me. My friends, you don't understand the gospel. And I don't say that in a sense to, you know, to condemn, but to invite. To invite you to the true relationship with God that God makes available through Christ.

He calls us to recognize this, to recognize the danger. Then he comes back and he calls us to live for the ultimate price to what really does matter. Look, in verse 20, he reminds us, but our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him Even to subject all things to Himself.

So he's saying, okay, here you have some people who. They're enemies of the cross. They're. God is their belly. They're living for worldly things.

But a true perspective realizes, no, we're living for Christ, ultimately for eternity. See, it's remembering, though, that even in talking about eternity, the real prize is relationship with Jesus Christ. Christianity is all about relationship with God. That will be the thing that satisfies our deepest need. Our ultimate goal, even in eternity, is to be with heaven.

You know, sometimes I'll hear people talk about heaven and they'll talk about, oh, man, heaven's going to be great and we're going to get mansions and we're going to get food and we're going to have crowns and we're going to have. And if that's what you heard, I'm sorry to burst your bubble here. I mean, that's terrible theology. You know why? Because it's saying what's going to be great in heaven is God's going to give us stuff, you know, all the stuff that we don't get here in our heaven.

I get all this stuff because it's stuff that's going to make me happy. My friends, that's not true. The ultimate prize is relationship with God. And what sets heaven apart isn't that we get more stuff. God isn't just a means to here.

He's not just a means to stuff to make us happy and stuff makes us happy. It's not that in heaven, you know, that he gives us stuff there either. Now, the Bible talks about those things, but we need to realize that ultimately what satisfies this relationship with God when we're in heaven, that we know God fully, even as we're fully known. That's why he says in verse 20, our citizenship is in heaven and. And from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our satisfaction is that we'll know God fully. And in knowing him, we'll find contentment in ways that we cannot imagine otherwise. And so, my friends, just as it's wrong to say that God is a means to material blessings here on earth, it's wrong for us to think that's eternity. No, it's eternity is that I know Him, I worship Him. I'm totally satisfied in him and I.

Now, here's the beautiful thing about that. While this side of eternity, I cannot know God in that way fully. I can't experience it in part, I can get to know him better and I can worship him. I can Experience that in part. And what I will find is the satisfaction of knowing him in part will be far greater than the satisfaction of anything that the world can offer in full.

That's what he just drives Paul when he says, you know, for me to live is Christ, and it's, you know, to die is gain. And he says, okay, this is this ultimate prize that drives me. You know, in fact, we could go back to the beginning of Philippians and one, and he talked about, you know, his homesick for heaven, verse 23. I'm hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ.

Why? Because that's what he valued. I love how Jesus talked about this in Matthew 6. He said, don't lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourself treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy, where thieves do not break into steal.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. He's saying, okay, what are you living for? Either you're going to live for a slice of heaven on earth and you're going to try to get it and it's always going to disappoint, or we're going to live on earth to store up for treasures in heaven. Now that's, you know, there's a call here that he calls us to say, how do we live? It doesn't mean that.

That there's nothing that can satisfy here. But what it means is when it doesn't have to be my God, I can enjoy it more fully, I can enjoy it appropriately. See, he's calling us to live ultimately for what ultimately satisfies. In fact, let's go back to the illustration he uses when he says their God is their belly. He's using a food illustration.

And in a sense, so you see that illustration about taste, one of the realities. I don't know if this ever frustrates you, but when I look at it, just life. Have you ever noticed something's broken in the world? Because everything that's good for you tastes bad and everything that's bad for you tastes good. You know, there's something wrong there.

I don't know what that is. And, you know, no parent ever had to force their kids to eat dessert, right? You know, no, they eat that readily. It's the vegetables. Now, growing up, my parents had this great rule.

They had a rule that you could have one vegetable that you didn't have to eat. And for, you know, for 55 years, my vegetable has been asparagus I hate asparagus. I know. Some people love it. Man, I despise it.

If you have me over for dinner and you give me asparagus, I'm not even polite enough to eat it, you know, I'll give it to my wife and, you know, because I just can't, you know, gagging on the table wouldn't be very polite anyhow, so. And I know sometimes our kids would try to change the system. We did it with them. Well, today my vegetable is this. No, you only get to change it once a year.

And now when you look at that, I think what was happening, I think it's the curse. I think when man fell, God cursed the ground and it was like, okay, and everything that grows out of the ground that's good for you is going to taste bad. It's the curse. Now, the good news is that I think when you get to heaven, I think even the vegetables are going to taste like apple pie. It's going to be awesome.

And again, what in the world are you thinking about? That, I think when we see this, gotta realize that Paul's talking about this whole picture in the context of food and taste. When he says God is their stomach, he's drawing a parallel to food, and he's saying they have a taste for the things of the world. That's what they want. Now, think about when we were younger.

I mean, let me ask you, just how many of you were, when you were young, loved Captain Crunch? Okay. I mean, I loved Captain Crunch when I was young. How many of you still love Captain Crunch? I mean, some of you do.

If I eat Captain Crunch now, I mean, that's like, ooh, it's like so sweet. I don't think I can handle that now. Why? Because my tastes have changed. I mean, I eat oatmeal now.

I mean, that would. You'd have to force me to eat oatmeal when I was younger. And as adults, most of us at least hopefully learn to get away from the super sweet and the super fat diet and go to a little healthier. And you know what happens? As I ate healthier, my tastes began to change.

So things that I used to think were terrible, I now like. And things that I used to think that I like, I think are now disgusting. Now, is the world sweet? Yes. Is it tempting?

Yes. But at the time, I think we've got to realize that it's the Captain Crunch. In fact, I think a better illustration, it's cotton candy. You know, you look at cotton candy and, man, it's big. It looks wonderful.

You get a taste and man, it's so sweet and, and you taste it and there's nothing there. Have you ever known anyone who's eaten a meal of cotton candy and has walked away satisfied? No, I mean eat meal, cotton candy. You walk away sick. You're just away.

And here's what I think Paul is saying is that we can live our lives pursuing the cotton candy promises and the pleasure of the world. Even as Christians, we can go to church and talk about Jesus, but it's our hunger that reveals our true God. And on one hand we can have this relationship with God. And if our hunger is still chasing after the pleasures of the world, it shows that we really haven't been changed. But if we have this relationship with God, the more that I get to know God, the more that I spend time with him, he begins to change my tastes.

The Bible actually uses this language throughout. So for example, take Psalm 34. 8. It says, oh, taste and see. The Lord is good, but blessed is a man who takes refuge in him.

Taste him. He's wonderful. And the more that we taste him, the better he gets. John 10. The thief comes to steal and to kill and destroy.

I came that you might have life and have it abundantly. Satan lies and he tells us, this is sweet, but man, it's cotton candy. It's going to rot. You or I especially love Psalm 37. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

It's not that if you delight in your Lord, he says, everything you want, I'm going to give you. That's what the Health, wealth Gospel teach. Oh, he wants to meet all your desires. It's actually no. Delight yourself in the Lord and let him change your desires.

And what's going to happen is he's going to take those old desires, you know, the, the cotton candy and the Captain Crunch, and he's going to give you new desires, the things that he wants to give you. He's going to give you a taste and a desire for things that actually satisfy, so that you're not now chasing after things that are empty. But here's what I want you to see. This is all calling us to pursue satisfaction. God's call isn't to say, just say no to the world.

No, find something better. Find the true prize. Find the thing that's worth living for, because that's what satisfies even as believers, though we can find that and still lose sight of it. And here he gives us a warning of how that can happen through actually division, through fights. Look at verse two of chapter four.

He says, I entreat Utica and I entreat Cynachi to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, my true companion, to help these women who have labored side by side with me in the Gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Now we have these two women. What do we know about them? They're mature believers.

They're very committed in their faith. They had been committed to the church. They had been leaders with Paul in the church. It's been about three years since Paul's been to Philippi. He says, on my previous trips there, these women labored side by side.

They fought with me at the Gospel. But in spite of the fact that these women had been mature leaders, they somehow became involved in a disagreement they were unable to work through. And what is maybe not immediately obvious, but if you think about it, they thought it was just a difference between the two of them. It wasn't a big deal. But in reality, it was affecting the whole church.

It was hurting the health of the church. It wasn't just a private, personal matter. As much as they wanted to believe it, it had gotten to Paul hundreds of miles away. Now, you know what's interesting is we don't know what the problem was. You know, we don't know.

Did somebody offend somebody? Did somebody different? We don't know. And I think we don't know that intentionally. Because if we did, we'd say, well, that doesn't apply to my problem.

He says, no, it does. And I think they sent this. Somebody told Paul and they expected him to play the role of parent. Okay, Paul, I've listened to both sides. Utica, you know, you were wrong in this Seneca.

You overreacted this, you know. Now say you're sorry, forgive, give a hug, move on. I think the church probably even asked Paul to do that, but he didn't do that. Here you have Paul's mediation. Do you know what his mediation was?

It wasn't. I've listened to both sides. Here's where you're wrong. Here's where he. His motivation, mediation.

In this is both of you get your mind set on the right things. You've lost sight of something, starting with get your mind on your identity. You're a citizen of heaven. Look what he says in verse two. I entreat Utica and entreat Seneca to agree in the Lord.

You know, what he's saying is, remember who you are. You know, if I forget that I am a child of God, if I think I'm on my own, then suddenly I've got my own agenda, I've got to protect my own case. I've got to make my own, you know, I've got my own cause. And when I have a dispute with someone who doesn't agree with me, it's like, man, I've got to stand up. You don't know what they did to me.

I've got to defend myself. And that may sound good to me, it might look good to me, but the problem is, have I forgot that I am not by myself, I'm in the Lord. And it would be inconsistent for me to say, well, no, you don't know what they did to me. Well, do you understand that you're in the Lord? Do you understand your true identity?

And he's telling them, you know, not. Here's what you need to do. Here's what he's saying. There's something more important than the issue. As important as the issue as you think it is your citizenship is in heaven.

Is there something that is so great over your citizenship that you've lost it, Let it cause division. It's taken you away from the cause of the gospel. And he calls them to call to this eternal perspective. And the fact of the matter is, I think, think about some disagreement with is it really something of eternal value? Or are you just seeing things from your own perspective and a limited perspective of earthly things?

Remember your identity. If you remember your identity, you'll remember your calling. Verse 3. Yes. I ask you also, my true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the cause of the Gospel, saying, okay, these were people that labored with me, they served with me, but that's not what's defining them now.

Now what's defining them is their argument standing up for their own and man, this is what's right. Again, who are they? They are in the Lord. They are followers of Jesus Christ. Okay?

If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, no matter what the issue you have with any other person, then follow Jesus. What's his example? Let's go back a few chapters earlier in Philippians 2. Have this mind amongst yourself which was yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. He was God.

He deserved worship. He deserved everything. But what was his example? He emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. Being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross, are you going to stand before Christ?

And Christ emptied himself and did that and said, but, but you don't know. I've got to stand up for myself, really.

See, he's challenging these women right after talking about striving for the prize and our citizenship in heaven. And I think he's saying, no matter what the issue is, as important as you think it is, is it really important in the context of eternity? You know, I think about kids. For those of us who have young kids or young grandkids, how many of you can remember the time you're driving in the car and they get in a big fight in the backseat? And it might be, you know, we went to McDonald's and there's this, you know, the who got which Happy Meal toy.

And they're arguing over who got which toy. It's a 10 cent little piece of plastic, you know, or she touched me, she touched me. She's on my side of the car. And you're like, oh, man, you pulling your hair out of your head. That's my problem.

That's what happened. And you're thinking, well, you're talking about kids. Well, they're arguing over childish things. But, you know, but I've got this problem and it's a real big issue. It's a significant thing.

You don't know what that person did. You don't know how they hurt me. You don't know how they offended me. All right, let me ask you. When you get to heaven and you stand before Jesus, are you going to say, jesus, they did this.

Really? When you get before heaven, that thing that you think is so big now, I think God's going to look at it and said, she touched you. Really? McDonald's toy, that's what you're arguing over. And it seems big.

And we don't realize that it seems big because we've lost sight of who we are and our calling. And it does. I'm not trying to downplay it. It doesn't mean that we don't seek to resolve issues. There are other passages that call us to do that.

But you know what? There's always something bigger than the issue. And if we remember that, we're not going to allow this kind of division because it's losing sight of the price and Satan has won the argument. See, I want you to realize, okay, God is calling us. If you're here and you've got an issue with somebody.

Jesus is speaking, and he spoke to these women. He didn't say the specifics, because if he did, you would say, well, that doesn't apply to me. He left it general because it applies to all of us. And is there any issue that again, that we're going to stand before God and he can say, no, God, this is really worth dividing the church over? Or maybe we need to remember who we are, that we need to remember the example of Jesus Christ.

We need to remember this higher thing that we're called to, and we try to resolve the differences, but we do it in saying, I'm committed to something bigger than myself. My friends, let me just close by just challenging you. God is calling us here to living life focused on an ultimate prize, the ultimate prize of life. And again, we started off and you could talk about, you know, people like Johnny Manziel or Tom Brady, or, you know, you could talk about people that are. That are focused in art.

And I can tell you, even in my own Christian life, I've known people served with people that are incredibly gifted, incredibly talented, who've washed out the faith because they went out and they didn't have the focus. And then we look at people like the apostle Paul and he says, look at other people. We saw the example again in the testimony of Charlie Kirk and this incredible worship service and the gospel going out to millions of people because it was a. Here's a guy that lived with a focus. First of all, do you have that relationship with Jesus Christ?

That's where it starts. Because what is most important, what is most valuable, is to know Christ, his resurrection power. And it's not by performing or doing. It's not religion. It's by saying, God, I agree with you.

I'm a sinner. I ask you to forgive me. Through Jesus Christ, I accept his gift of salvation through the cross to all who believe in him. He gives the right to become children of God. If you've never done that, he invites you to do that today.

And for those of us who have done it, realize that it's not this one time. I can pray the prayer, put myself in that identity and still become deceived and distracted. So I'm living for the world. So much so that man, my life is telling me I'm an enemy of the gospel. And for those of us who have made that call, what is your.

What is your ultimate goal? What is driving you? And if you look at it, is your life that different? Or is it out there that you're living and it's like, man, I'm still living for the world and I'm hoping God helps me. And God is calling us to something greater, something that is a greater purpose, something that ultimately fulfills something that's not our God for a belly that is going to pass away and ultimately leave us empty, but something that's going to be the ultimate fulfillment in life.

It is the greatest price. And for some, we've gotten distracted and God calls us back to that. For some, it might be even the distraction of, you know, division and a fight over, you know, fighting over this. And God says, okay, remember, and remember the focus. Remember what's really important.

And God might be calling you to reach out to someone and to try to heal a relationship that's drained. See, ultimately, what we've got to realize with everything that he's saying here is what we desire most will always drive our actions. And so if we look at our actions, what does it say about what we desire the most? What is it that we think about? What is it we dream about?

What drives us? What is our goal? What is our passion? Maybe you've never thought about that. Something is driving you.

And it would be for all of us. It's tragic if we are driven by things that we didn't choose. You see, God is calling us to look at what matters and to live for what matters. Not self sacrificial. I desire what I believe will satisfy me the most.

And you know what Paul's saying that it's to know Christ, to know his resurrection power, to be involved in his ministry, to make him known. That's what satisfies. That's what that not only brings fulfillment and contentment. That's what my soul is created for. To live a life that matters, to live a life of significance that I don't wash out, but I live a life that I'm able to look back and say, I'm thankful for the way that God has not only met me and walked through me, but for the impact that I've been able to make.

I've lived the life that I wanted to live. And there may be some here where God's calling you to say, okay, make that commitment to him today. 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 CCPL LifeConnect. 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.