Amen. I am glad He loves us so. How about you? Amen. That's right. We are excited to know that God loves us. We're excited to know that He is with us. And I got to tell you that is a major thing to be able to give you peace when things are going in ways that you're not sure what's going to happen. You know, we are not promised another moment. We're not promised another day. We're not promised anything beyond this moment in time. It's all that we have. So we don't know what's going to happen as the days go on. As the days go on you find that things are happening that are out of your control. Probably one of the hardest things for human beings to understand is that control is not a reality. You don't have control. Everything else that's going on around you controls what's happening. You can plan perfectly to leave your home and arrive at work in exact right time because you know how long it takes for you to get there. And as soon as you leave your house and pull out onto the highway right in front of you, there's an accident. And you're not going to make it on time, everything you planned perfectly, but it really wasn't in your control. You can plan for all of these things, but control is really just something that we think we have. God is in control. Amen. God is in control. Now, for those of us in life, as as we go through life and we come to that point where we realize that all these things can happen, then what we really need to strive for is not control, but we need to strive for a goal. We need to strive for a goal. When I was in high school, you know, there was a, you need to have a goal, a goal of whatever sport that I was participating in. Have a goal of being this much better by the end of this amount of time. Lifting weight start here, but by this time you want to be able to lift more. By going to classes and studying, you want to be able to know that information by the end of the semester. You want to have all these goals set for you because without the goals you wander around aimlessly, jumping from here to there and not really knowing what it is that you need to be doing. Christians need a goal, believers need a goal. And so today I want to talk about that goal. We're gonna begin by looking at Philippians chapter 3. We're going to begin in verses 4 through 6. Verse 4 through 6. "Says this, although I myself might have confidence, even in the flesh, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. Circumstised on the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to Zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law found blainless. Paul began this letter confirming his credentials. He began this letter confirming his credentials. He's saying, "Listen, if there's anybody who can say that they have reason to have the authority, that they have this purpose, that they have whatever it is that they can stand before you and say, 'It's me.' I've done everything exactly according to the law. I've done all these things according to the law. I have been living under the law and keeping the law since I can remember. As soon as I became accountable, I have been under the law. I know all of the things I have studied. I'm a Pharisee. In one place he even calls himself a Pharisee. He says, "I know all of that. I've done that. I had zeal. I worked hard for all of those things. So if anybody can say, "Hey, I have the credentials, it would be Paul." He has the credentials and so why does he tell them that? Well, here's the thing. Often we want to know what gives a person the authority to say what they're saying. What gives you the authority to tell me that? Why are you able to tell me that? You know if, let's say you were going through some issue, you had some medical stuff going on, and somebody says, I know exactly what's wrong. What you need to do is this and that. You take this medication, you go through this exercise routine, you do all these things, and you'll be okay. Well most of us look out of a little sideways and go, are you a doctor or something? And they say, oh no, I'm an electrician. I just, I read about that on the internet." And so that's what you need to do. All of us go, "Yeah, thanks. No. We're not going to listen to you. You don't have the authority. You don't know what you're talking about. You're just telling us something. But if the doctor on the other hand says, "Hey, and all the years of medical school I went through and all the years of practice and everything I've seen in my career, I can tell you this is what you need to do." We say, "Thank you." And we try to go home and follow the doctors orders. We want to know what authority do you have to say this? You stand here and you tell us these things, but what authority do you have? So Paul knew that he was talking to people who would want to know that. He knew what he was talking about. He knew the scriptures. He knew all of those things and he's letting them know, hey, pardon me, I know all of these things. I know all of this. So I have the authority that I need to talk to you and tell you about these things. Today we have a different authority that we describe to. We recognize God's Word is the authority today. Paul was using God's Word as his own authority as he emphasized the authority over the Philippians and letting them know. He had begun that church. He's the one that started that church. They supported him. So he had that authority but it was actually God's authority that he was telling them about. Everything that he was telling them about was God's authority. Today we study God's word. And as we study God's word, he has the authority to tell us everything we need to know. Well, how do we need to live our lives? If you don't know how to live your life, listen all you got to do is go the internet and ask and it'll tell you exactly what you need to do. It's wrong, but it'll tell you exactly what you need to do. It's wrong but it'll tell you exactly what you need to do. You can ask everybody, everybody has an opinion. Everybody has an opinion to tell you what you should do. Everybody wants to put in there two cents and tell you all of these things. The great news for us is we don't need all of that. God has already told us. He's given us His Word. He shows us what we need to do. The answers are there if we study, if we listen, if we pray, if we follow what He has to say. Look at verse 7. "Whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ. Too often believers get their priorities mixed up. Paul is saying, "Listen, I have the authority. I know what I'm talking about." And what I'm telling you is that whatever was gained to me, I counted his loss. All of these things that I have, it's really not positive things. I counted his loss because it's not what I need. To often believers get their priorities mixed up. They get their priorities mixed up and you know what they really want to do. What they really want to do is they want to put those earthly treasures up equal to God. Oh come on now preacher we don't go that far. We don't go that far don't we? Don't we? There are plenty of times when we decide that we would much rather do something else than spend time with God. We want to spend time with God on a daily basis, but you know what? I really have to get up and get to work in a hurry because I need to make that bonus. I need to get that extra time. I need to do whatever it is so I'll have to put that bonus. I need to get that extra time. I need to do whatever it is. So I'll have to put that off. You know, I really know I need to be going out and doing whatever with God. But you know, I have this other thing that I need to do. And so I'm going to put it first. We take and we put all these earthly treasures. And when I say treasures, I don't mean necessarily things. It can be things. It can be attitudes. It can be jobs. It can be all of this in our lives and we put that up equal to God. Paul said, "I count all that stuff as laws." None of that is positive that I'm going to take. Listen, I know this is kind of cliche and whatever, but how many times have you ever been to a funeral and seeing all the persons possessions in the casket with them? You know it's just not there. It used to say, "How many times have you seen a hers pulling a U-haul, right? But all the stuff behind them, but somebody told me they actually saw that one time. I don't know what that means." The reality is all these things that we treasure and we keep in this earth and we build it all up. It's not going with you It is just temporary. It's just while you're here. What we need to be concentrating on is the eternity It's what comes after this life this life is short Many of us have experienced loss many of us have experienced loss. Many of us have experienced close personal loss. Many of us are living lives right now where we don't even know how much longer we think we have. We're living in a place where we're understanding, there's more behind us than we have in front of us. There's more years behind us than we probably have left in front of us. We're looking at all this and we need to understand what is it that we need to work for? It's not all the stuff, it's not all the things in life, it's not all the prestige, it's not all of that. The goal is to do all things for Christ. That's what the goal is. does, do all things for Christ. Do all things for Christ. Well that's kind of a broad statement. Yeah, it's a broad statement. But the reality is God brought us into this world. He created us for a purpose to worship Him. And as we worship Him, everything we do should be for Him. And so will we start making decisions about what we do? Are we doing it for Christ? are we doing it for Christ? Are we doing it for us? If we're doing it for us, should we be doing something for God instead? Is there something else that we need in our life instead of these things instead of this time that we're spending in our own pleasure and our own desires? What do we need to be doing? The goal is to do all things, all things for Christ. Paul is saying, listen all these things that I had in life, all of these stuff that I built up, I counted his loss, look at verses 8 and 9. He says, "More than that I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered, the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. And maybe found in Him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. Here's the thing. Paul understands the things that we gain in this world or nothing compared to Christ. The things that we gain in this world or nothing compared to Christ. The reality is Paul says, "I count all things lost. All those things. I count all things lost. All those things. I count all things lost. Nothing but rubbish. All this stuff that I have in this life, it's just nothing. It's going away. It's never going to follow me. It's not going to get me into heaven. It's not going to be something that makes me the person that I need to be. I have suffered the loss of all things. I'm letting all of that go because I want to follow Christ. I want to be with Him. I want to see what He sees. I want to serve Him the way that He needs to be served. I want to do all of those things. I want to do every single He says, "He's the most important thing. He's the most important thing. He's God the most important thing in your life. Think about this. He says, "I want to be found in Him. I want to be found in Him. I want to be found in Him not having my own righteousness, but that three faith. I want to be found in Him, I want to be with Him. I don't want to be on my own. I want to be in Jesus. I don't want to be in myself. I don't want to be found doing the things of my own. I want to be found doing the things for Him. The world says it's all about you. It's all about pleasing yourself, whatever you do, do it and make yourself happy. You only have a little bit of time on this world, so be happy while you're here. Enjoy life, do all the things you want to do. Oh, don't worry about, you know, those things that the Bible says are wrong or bad for you. Don't worry about those. Just go enjoy it. Whatever you like. Just go and do that. Because you only have a little bit of time here. We're the kind to write. You only have a little bit of time here. That's as far right as they go. You only have a little bit of time here. So while you're here, serve God. Serve Him. Do everything that you can for Him. Follow Him. Not what you want. Not for your own game, but for His. Why? Because it was only a short period of time and we're going to step into Heaven with Him and He's going to ask us what have we done for Him? He wants to see what have we done for Him. I gave you this life. I put you here and I gave you a mission, have you done it? This righteousness, we don't have our own righteousness. We don't have any righteousness of our own. The righteousness that we have is only through the faith in Christ. We don't have any of this own righteousness. Paul understands this. At the greatest things we gain in this world are nothing compared to Christ. Nothing compared to Christ. Every day people are faced with the same decision the wrench on your ruler faced. Well what are you talking about? You remember the wrench on ruler? You know he came to Jesus and he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do? And Jesus said it's simple. Go sell everything you've got and come back and follow me. Just go do that, come back and follow me and he was sad because he could not give up those earthly things and he went away sad. Some people have said, "Why did Jesus tell him back. Why don't he say, "Sell everything you got and come back." Why didn't he say, "Call me Lord, confess me as the one," because Jesus already knew that he could not let go of those things. So the first thing he was telling him is he was letting him see in his own mind how important it really was to him. How important is it? Go sell everything you got, come back and follow me. He couldn't do it. If he couldn't do that, he most definitely cannot confess Jesus as Lord. He couldn't confess him. If he couldn't do that he most definitely cannot confess Jesus as Lord. He couldn't confess him as Lord because he was still a slave to his money. The reality is that every day people are faced with that same question, what do I want to do in order to attain that eternal life? What am I willing to do? There are certain things that are non-negotiable. I must be able to do this, I must be able to do that. Those things are the things you're holding onto above and beyond what God is calling you. He's calling you to confess Him as Lord, confess Him as Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead. And if you would do that and make Him Lord, then all of those things don't retain their importance. They're not supposed to, but believers are still holding on to a lot of things. They're still holding on to a lot of things that they elevate to that point. I know I should be doing whatever for God, but you know there's a football game on that I really want to say. I can go do that later. The problem is you still don't go do that later. There's a beautiful day I want to go out fishing. And so I'll do that later. But you don't do that later. We go and do these things. We put all these things up ahead of us. And we're faced with this question of who will you serve? Who will you serve? You're going to serve God or you're going to serve yourself? Which one are you going to serve? You have to make that choice. Only you can make that choice. Not a single person can make that choice for you. Only you can make that choice. And when we look at that and we start to think about it, we have to understand that we make the choices. God gave us free will. He gave us free will, but when He gave us the free will, He said, "I want you to serve me." Confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord. You can replace that with master. Make Jesus your master. Confess with your mouth Jesus as master the one who you serve, not yourself, but Him. Make Him Lord. Make Him master. Believe that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Make him master of your life. Who will you serve? Well, I come to church every Sunday. I even come on Wednesday night. I read my Bible sometimes. Most of the time it's in the Sunday school room and I'm following the teacher. I don't really read it on my own that much, but sometimes I do. I mean I do all those things. What do you mean? Who will I serve? What about all the time in between that? What about all the time in between that? Somebody said one time, if you really want to know who somebody serves, look at their check book. I know we don't use those much anymore. Look at their bank account. Where's all the money go? Where's all the money go? Well, we found out, you know, I say we being nation, found out when they did some studies like that. You know where most all the money goes? Walmart. Most all the money goes to Walmart and not necessarily own required things like food, but own things that you buy because it was an impulse. You understand why Walmart put groceries and all those other things in the same building? Because you got to go in for the food, but while you're there, ooh, that's shiny. Let me look at that. Ooh, that looks nice. Let me grab that. All of a sudden you're buying all these other things because that's how the world does. We have a obligation if we know Jesus as Lord and Savior to serve Him. Are we serving Him? Are we simply giving Him lip service? Are we serving Him? Are we doing things for Him? Just showing up on a Sunday morning, a Wednesday night, maybe a special Bible study. That's not all there is. That's just a small part of what we do. We don't have our own righteousness. The police says not having a righteousness of my own. We don't have a righteousness. We weren't born righteous. We were born sinners. We don't have a righteousness of our own, the only way that we ever receive righteousness is from God through faith in Him. That's the only way we ever receive any righteousness. So when we begin to look at our own walk and look at things that we do, don't count yourself as righteous unless you're walking in faith, serving God. And that's the primary focus in your life. That's the primary focus in your life. Believers oftentimes consider themselves righteous even if they're not walking in Christ as they should be and they look at someone who doesn't know Christ and they puff up their chest and I'm better than them. No you're not walking in Christ as they should be. And they look at someone who doesn't know Christ and they puff up their chest and I'm better than them. No, you're not better than them, you're just saved. You used to be right there. You don't have any righteousness. It's not because of you. It's because of God. God did that. Not you. God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross that you might have salvation, that you would be made righteous through His blood, not through Your own. You don't have it through anything but Him. Are you serving Him? Are you striving to do that? Don't you look with me to verses 10 and 11? Verses 10 and 11. This says this, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed in His death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." Paul isn't saying he has to work for his salvation but that he works because of it. I want you to think about this. He says that I may know him. He doesn't mean that I may know of him. Right? It doesn't mean that I may know of him. There are plenty people, even in this congregation, I know of you, but I don't really know you that well. I don't know you in the greatest parts of your life. I don't know the inner workings of your mind. I don't know you in that way. Paul says, I want to know him. In other words, I want to be one with him. I want to be of like mine. That's what that word no means. But I want to be of like mine with Christ. When I think I want to think like Christ, I want to know him. I want to be of like mine, that's what that word no means, that I want to be of like mine with Christ. When I think, I want to think like Christ, I want to know Him, I want to have all of that in my head, and in my mind, I want to know Him so intently that everything I do, I do for Him. I want to know Him, not know about Him, but I want to know Him personally on a very deep level, I want to have that in my life. Then when I think, I'm thinking like Christ, I want to know Him. I want to have that in my mind. I don't want to do it on my own. Not only did He say, "I want to know Him," but look, then He says, "and the power of His resurrection." I want to know the power of His resurrection. Not just the power that one day you're going to die and God's going to raise you from the dead and you're going to spend an eternity with Him. As a believer, someone who's given their life to Christ, we know that. That power is real. We saw that happen. We know that Jesus was resurrected from the dead and He promised that we too would be resurrected because He overcame the grave. But the resurrection power is not just that, the resurrection power is to be dead to self and be resurrected in a new life. We just saw baptism last week. He was buried in death with Christ and raised to walk in a new life. That's the resurrection he's told me out. That's the power of the resurrection. He said, "The old me is gone. I want the power of that resurrection in my new life." I don't want to go back to those old ways. I don't want to do things for me. I want to do them for God. I want to do things in a way that's pleasing to him. I want to walk in a new life. Not what the old George was doing, but what the brand new one who's given their life to Christ. That's the one. I want that power, that resurrection power in this life that I don't worry about what other people will think. That I don't care what it looks like to other people. I don't care if somebody doesn't like that I'm telling about Jesus Christ, I have the power of that resurrection I'm going to do just that. Because if they come along and decide that they don't like that and they want to harm me in some way, they can't take away my soul. They can't take away my soul. They can't take away my attorney. They can't take away my eternal life. No fear of the one who can take away your mortal life. A fear of the one who keeps you from eternal life. We don't need to fear. We need to have that power of the resurrection. the power not only in the end, but the power now. Here's one that people don't like to hear. I want to follow Him in His sufferings. Okay, hold up just a minute. Time out. Yeah, I want to follow Jesus. I want to do all those things, but I don't like to suffer. I don't really want to follow Him in His sufferings because you know that. I don't like that. I don't want to do that. Paul is saying look, Jesus walked on this earth. Jesus suffered as a person bringing the gospel. He suffered and because he suffered, we now have salvation. He said, "I want to follow him in that, not, I'm not asking that I go through suffering what I'm saying is that I want to have that same closeness with God as he suffered, then I want to know that same thing. I want to make sure that I'm walking in life that no matter what happens, I'm joining together in Him as an air, even in the suffering that I'm an air in Christ and that I'm going to follow all of that. I'm not going to shy away from that. I want to be conformed in His death just like we talked about, raised up, walking in a new way. He says that I may attain that I may attain that resurrection power. But I may attain it. And I may attain it. He wants to have that same power. And by following God and doing exactly what He's telling us to do, we can attain that. It can be done. Paul gave his life continually serving God, even though it caused him his freedom. It caused him a lot of his ailments. He was beaten, he was put in prison, all the things that happened. He did that and he still walked for Christ. He still continued to serve Him in every way. Are we willing to do that? Are we willing to do that? 12 through 14 says, "Now that I have already obtained, not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but that I may press on so that I may lay the hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do for getting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Here's the thing. He says, "Not that I have already attained it." In other words, what Paul understood is, I'm not perfect. I'm not perfect. I have not yet attained that. That perfection of Christ, I haven't gotten there yet. I make mistakes, but I haven't gotten there yet. I make mistakes, but I'm going to keep striving. I haven't reached it yet. You know there are sometimes I think believers think that we get to a place where we have given our life and we follow Christ for so long that eventually we're there. We won't have to worry about anymore. We've made it. Now we can sit down and watch everybody else do their thing because we finally made it. Well here's a news slash for you. Know you haven't. We have never made it to perfection nor will we ever on this side of heaven. Paul says, "I haven't yet attained it but I strive to attain it. I want to continue working towards it. I want to continue to be perfected. We're told that we have justification. That we have sanctification, we have glorification. If you know Jesus, he justified you. And then he sanctifies you throughout all your life. And the only time you attain perfection is when he glorifies you, when you step into heaven with Him. So we have not attained it, we will never attain it but the goal is still too strive to attain it. That's still the goal. Even though you know you will never reach perfection, God says we're to continue to strive for it. Continue to reach for it even though we haven't attained it. We have not yet attained it, but He says I press on. I haven't attained it, but I press on. I'm continuing to work. I know that I haven't reached it yet. All these things I've been through, but I still haven't gotten there. Listen, we can look back at our lives and most of the people in this room have been a believer way longer than they were not. Most of the people in this room have called Jesus Lord and Savior for way long longer than they did it. Yet we have not yet reached the perfection. We need to press on. But you know preacher, I'm kind of tired. You know I'm kind of tired. I've stride for a long time. My body is not what it used to be. I can't go out and knock on those doors like y'all did yesterday. I just can't walk that far. I can't go out and knock on those doors and try to talk to people about Jesus. I'm doing good to get up in the morning and get my clothes on and make it to church and sun this school on time. I'm tired that whole pressing on thing. I don't have a lot left to give. Don't you? My question is always this, are you still here? If you're still here, then God's not done with you yet. If you're still here, God's got something for you. It may be it's phone calls. You know one thing I learned is most of the folks I learned, all the things that I learned, all the things that I learned, all the things that I learned, all the things that I learned, all the things that I learned, all the things that I learned, all the things that I learned, all the things that I learned, all the things that I learned, all the things that I learned, all the things that I learned, all these things. What if we spend that time calling the people that aren't making it to church? Inviting people, find out what's going on. How can I pray for you? What's going on in your life? Can I pray for you? I can't get out there and help you shovel in the backyard, but I can pray for you. You know what I can send encouraging cards. As a few of you in the church, they send cards to me. And I can't tell you how many times that I've gone to the mailbox and pulled out the mail and there'll be a card. And it was just what I needed to hear at the moment that I needed to hear it. And they didn't know that, they just felt like they need to send me a card. You can still do that. Press on. Don't give up. Too many believers have got their eyes focused on the eastern sky. Waiting. I'm gonna see any day, I'm gonna see Jesus in that eastern sky and you might. But if you remember the word says as a Cypher stood looking up into heaven I ain't gonna say what are you doing? Why are you standing there looking up in the sky that Jesus that you saw go up will come back in the same way but until the end go and tell. Get out and work. Paul said I haven't yet reached it, but I press on. Why do I press on? I press on towards the prize. I press on towards the prize. The prize of that upward call of God, that's what I press on to. I press on to the prize. What is the prize? What is the prize? The prize is to be like Christ. The prize is to continue to walk in a way that's pleasing to him. That's the prize. That's the goal. The goal for us today is to attain to that, to strive to reach the perfection that God wants us to reach until we step into glory. until we step into glory. I was talking to someone in recent weeks. And I know none of you have ever had this conversation. But as I was talking to them, I said, "You know, man, my feet hurt me all the time." They said, "Man, I know what you mean. My back hurts. Somebody else said, "Man, I know what you mean. My back hurts. Somebody else said, "My knees hurt and, you know, everything's bothering me. All these things are going, it's like a competition who had the most aches and pains." And in that conversation, somebody said, "Nobody told me getting older was going to be like this. And I have all these things that hurt all these reasons why I don't want to get up out of the bed or go to work or all these things that you know just are on me. But most of those same people when you said I know, I understand it, man it's rough. How you want to go out and go and crown and have toyeah, I'm on the way, let's go. They're going to jump in the car and go on. You give them something they would like to go do. Suddenly nothing hurts anymore. It doesn't bother them as much as it did before. They don't have any of the eggs and pains that they were talking about because oh it was something they like to do. So I can forget about all of that stuff. For now, and I can go and do that. Well the goal is to continue to be like Christ, to strive to be like Christ, to serve Him on a daily basis, even when you got aches and pains, even when you're tired. even when there's other things in your life that are trying to pull you in every different direction, even when the devil is trying to beat you up with things happening in your life. The goal is to strive for that perfection in Christ Jesus. And by doing that, we reach others. If you know Jesus today, then you need to press on towards that upward call, towards that prize, towards that goal. You need to continue to do that. Maybe you haven't been doing that in a while. Maybe you've looked at that and you've tried, you thought, but you hadn't really tried. Exam in your life. Exam in your life. Examine your life. You know doctors tell you all the time, do self-examination. Do self-examination because the early detection is needed for things like cancer, heart disease, all of these different things. Early detection makes a big difference. So you need to do these self-examinations and make sure that everything's okay or that you need to go see a doctor, you need to get something done. I'm telling you do self-examinations of your heart, of your walk. Are you following Jesus as best that you can? Are you serving Him to the best of your ability? Are you striving for that perfection? Or are we just kind of on cruise control? Looking at the Eastern sky. Waiting for Jesus to return. Here's the problem. If we're sitting on cruise control watching the eastern sky, how many people in our circle of influence are dying going to hell on a daily basis because we didn't take the time to look around. We didn't take the time to serve him in a way that we should. We didn't strive for protection. We just quit. We weren't perfect. We weren't striving to be perfect. We just cruised. I'm glad that somebody didn't cruise right past me and somebody told me about Jesus that I came to know him as my Lord and Savior. Maybe there's someone in your life that needs to know. If you know Jesus today, if you know him, you've given your life to him, you call him Lord, you call him Savior. He's the one that you hold on to. He's the one that you call upon in the hardest times of your life. He's the one that you know you trust, you trust him completely and you give your life to him or you're serving him completely. Are you serving him completely? Are you giving him everything that you've got? Are you doing that? If you know Jesus today, press on towards that prize. Press on towards that goal. Press on with everything that you have. Preacher, I just don't know what I got left. Well, I don't know either, but do a self-examination and see what you can do. See what you can do. Transcribed by https://soundwise.ai