Pressing On | Unshakeable Joy - Philippians 3:12-21 | Tony Walliser (3/15/2026)

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Silverdale's Lead Pastor is Tony Walliser.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Well, good morning. It's so good to see all of you here worshiping with us today. I'd like to welcome all of you here at this campus, but also want to welcome all of you to all of our campuses, all of our venues, and those of you that are worshiping with us online. If I haven't had a chance to meet you personally, I'm Tony Walliser, one of the pastors here at Silverdale, and I have the privilege today to share with you God's word. So this one to encourage you to do. Go and take your Bibles, open up in the New Testament to the book of Philippians, Philippians chapter 3. You can turn to Philippians chapter 3 and also do this. Take out these Bible study outlines that we provide for you. So you can follow along and take notes as we study God's Word together. You can also follow along. We have a Silverdale app, we um, you know, a smartphone, you got, you know, other Bible apps. We encourage you to follow along as we study God's Word together. As most of you know, we are working our way as a church from January till now through the book of Philippians. And the book of Philippians is an amazing book. It's written by the Apostle Paul in jail, and we've entitled the series Unshakable Joy. Because Paul is writing to us that despite the circumstances in our life, we can still press into the Lord and experience his joy despite the ups and downs and difficult circumstances of our life. And what Paul's gonna do in today's passage is he's going to encourage us to press on. That we are to finish the race. In fact, he's gonna give that analogy that the Christian life is a lot like running a race. And in that show, basically what you have, it's one of these reality shows, it's won several Emmys, but but you have these 11 teams made up of two, and they travel around the world and you know, engaging these different exercises and games, and then every you know time there's a checkpoint, and the last team that crosses the checkpoint is then eliminated. So there's not a lot of amazing grace and amazing race, all right? Um, but if there is a passage in the Bible that we could call the amazing race, it would be Philippians chapter 3. The apostle Paul must be a sports fan because he uses sports analogies quite often. He uses a boxing analogy, he uses a wrestling analogy, but one analogy that he uses more than any other is the racing analogy. Now, in the show, The Amazing Race, the winning team, they will get a check for a million dollars. Okay? But the Apostle Paul is gonna teach us in our passage today that you and I, if we will compete and finish this race, we're gonna get a reward that is a lot more than a million dollars. It is forever in heaven with him in a new glorified body. Okay? That's worth running after. And so today, as we study this passage, imagine that the apostle Paul is sort of like your run coach. And maybe right here, this service is an aid station. Maybe you've gotten off track, maybe you've been injured, maybe you know got sidelined. And so use the Apostle Paul's words to get you back on track and pursuing after Jesus Christ. And so what Paul does is the first part of this um passage, he basically says, this is why you need to be in the race. And then he's gonna tell us how to stay in the race, okay? So jot this on your outline. First of all, first principle is if you're alive, you haven't arrived. If you're still alive, then you haven't arrived yet at your Christian maturity, right? I mean, the fact is that we got no dead people here, right? Everybody's breathing. Okay, awesome. That means you haven't arrived yet. Notice how the apostle Paul says this in verse 12. Not that I have already reached the goal or I'm already perfect. And so here's the Apostle Paul. He's probably been following Jesus for over 30 years, and he's making this confession. He's saying, you know what? I haven't arrived yet. I am not at the level of Christian maturity that I would want. I mean, Paul's an amazing man, probably one of the greatest people in human history. Incredible theologian, right? Brilliant thinker. He is also the greatest missionary and church planner that's ever been experienced. He wrote a large portion of the New Testament, so he is under the inspiration and revelation of the Lord himself. Also, God used him to work miracles. Check it out. Look at how it's written in the book of Acts. Acts 19, it says this God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul's hands. And so here's Paul, who is one of the most remarkable people we've ever known or known about in human history, and yet he's saying, I'm not there yet. I've got a long ways to go. I haven't arrived. Which means what? That means if the apostle Paul at the end of his life hadn't arrived, neither have you. Right? Do this. Turn to the person next to you and say, You haven't arrived yet, okay? You haven't arrived yet. You haven't arrived yet. Because you know, there are some people that give this air about themselves, I'm here, I have arrived, right? I'm more superior than you are. No, you're not. Now, why is it so important that we know we haven't arrived yet? Because if you think you're fine just the way you are, you'll stop pursuing Christ. In fact, here's a principle. I've put it on the screen. Self-satisfaction is the death of progress. Self-satisfaction, if you're satisfied with wherever you are, you're not going to progress and move forward. It's sort of like the story you've all heard before: the race between the tortoise and the hare, right? And what do you have? You have the rabbit that's so much faster, thinking it's superior, and go, oh yeah, I can beat this, you know, turtle, obviously. And so what does he do? He becomes lazy and laxadaisical, and the turtle ends up winning. Be like the tortoise, plod along, right? If you're alive, you haven't arrived. Get back in the race. Second principle is this. Drop this down. You must quit living in the past. You've got to quit living the past. The only way you're gonna move forward in your life is if you leave the past in the past. There's no runner that will win a race looking backward the whole time. Right? Notice how Paul puts this in the next verse, verse 13. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind. Now, this is great advice from the Apostle Paul. Because, yes, Paul had a lot of great um, you know, victories in his life. Paul says, you know what? I'm not focusing on that. Paul also had a lot of great failures in his life, right? He was a persecutor of the church, right? He was a hater of Jesus. He had Christians arrested, a lot of regrets in his life. Well, it's the very same thing for you and I. You and I, we've got to learn to put the past in the past. Like what? You've got to put your past failures in the past, right? Every one of us have these things in our life where we're like, I wish I would have done that, but I didn't. Or I wish I hadn't done that, but I did. Can I just be honest? As a pastor, there's things in my life and my ministry that I'm like, golly, I regret doing that. Right? Or I can I look back and go, man, I made some mistakes as a dad, father. I made mistakes as a husband. I wish you could change those things. You go, what do you do with your mistakes? Well, you confess them, you repent of them, you try to make amends if you can. You um say you're sorry, but then at some point you got to go, it's in the past. I'm not living there anymore. And so what do we got to do? We got to get past our past failures, but we also have to get past our past successes. Because listen, yesterday's victory doesn't guarantee victory today. You remember in the Old Testament where you had the um, you know, the children of Israel, they're in the wilderness, and God would provide daily manna. And guess what? Yesterday's manna doesn't feed you today. You have to depend on the Lord every day. Yesterday's victories don't help you in today's game. Case in point, most of you know, I grew up in Florida, so I'm a Florida Gator fan. All right? Our basketball, men's basketball team, is ranked number four in the country, folks. And Vanderbilt beat us yesterday. All right? So victory doesn't guarantee victory, does it? That's not just true in basketball, that's true in the Christian life. Okay? One of the saddest words I hear Christians say are these. I used to. I used to be active in church. I used to attend worship regularly. I used to be involved in a small group. I used to serve, I used to go on mission trips, I used to share my faith. What happened? Somewhere along the way, we got satisfied with the past. Oh, I've done enough. I've done my time, right? Look how Pastor Warren Warsby puts it. He says, the past is a rudder to guide you, not an anchor to drag you. We must learn from the past, but not live in the past. God's designed you to move forward in your life, not live in the past. Right? I mean, think about your anatomy. Your eyes are in the front of your head looking forward. Your arms, they could reach back, but guess what? They work best when they move forward. Look down at your feet. What direction are they facing? Forward. God wants you moving forward. Listen, God's got a plan for your life. Quit living the secondhand, you know, plan of the world. Move forward. That means you got to get past your past. Then there's a third principle Paul gives us, and it's this you got to keep your focus on the prize. You have to keep your focus on the prize. Paul was an extraordinary leader, and part of the reason why he was is because he could learn to discern between the good and the best. That you are the same way. To go from ordinary to extraordinary is learning to discern what is the main thing that I need to be focusing on. Notice how Paul says this in verse 13. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind, reaching forward to what's ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Paul says, one thing I do. I've got this purpose in my life, I've got this laser focus. One thing. That's the key. Learning to focus on the main thing. You know, Jesus used that phrase a lot. You remember whenever you had the richer and ruler come to him and he says, Lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life? I've kept the commandment since I was a young child. And Jesus says, There is still one thing you lack, right? Remember Mary and Martha? Jesus is in their home. Martha's in the kitchen, she's busy fixing lunch, right? And then you have Mary, you know, sitting at Jesus' feet, and Martha's getting hot in the kitchen, and she comes out and she's mad and she says, she rebukes the Lord. Lord, tell Mary to help me out in the kitchen. And what did Jesus say to Martha? He goes, Oh, Martha, Martha, you are worried about so many things, but there's only one thing that is really necessary. All right? Finding that one thing. What is that one thing? It's Jesus Christ and his plan for you, his calling on your life. I mean, think about athletes. I mean, professional athletes are amazing. They have skill sets that we can't even imagine. But typically, most great athletes are only good at one sport. I mean, I think of Charles Barclay. He's a you know Hall of Fame basketball great, and he's great at basketball, but is he great at everything? No. All you gotta do is Google Charles Barclay golf swing. And you'll go, okay, he's not good at everything, right? He's not. None of us are, right? You gotta focus on the one thing. I listen to leadership podcasts all the time, and one leadership guru puts it like this: He says, Your capacity to say no will determine your capacity to say yes to greater things. And I've learned over time that the word no is a holy word. Because people will come to me, Pastor Tony, can you do this? No. What? I can't, because if I say yes to that, I will have to say no to what God has really called me to, right? And so that's the thing, is learning what that thing is. And it's gotta be what is God's calling on your life? I remember when I was real young, very first time I went to the circus, and in at the circus there was a lion tamer. And he had a chair and he had a whip, right? And so I've later thought about why in the world, I mean, think about it, why in the world does a lion tamer carry a stool or a chair into the cage with him? You know why? You see, the stool here has four legs, and he puts it in the lion's face, and the lion is distracted by those four different, doesn't know where to focus, four different legs, and he literally gets paralyzed. Can I tell you that's the same way? The world is throwing so much information, opportunities, things at you all the time, and you get so distracted by so much stuff, what happens? You get paralyzed and you stop following Jesus. You've heard me say this before. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. That's the main thing. You're okay, awesome. What's the main thing? Notice how Paul puts it in verse 14. I pursue as my goal the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Here's Paul in jail. He's saying, I'm still pursuing Jesus no matter what, no matter how dark tomorrow may be, no matter how dire my circumstances, I'm not gonna be distracted, I'm not gonna be discouraged. I'm gonna keep my eye on the prize, I'm gonna keep running after Jesus Christ, even if I die, I'm pursuing Jesus. Now, can I just say I know a lot of Christians who were running passionately after Jesus, and something got them distracted. Right? And typically, it's good things, right? Let's just say that God blesses you with a child. Listen, the Bible says children are a gift from the Lord. It's true, right? But suddenly a good thing becomes a God thing, that suddenly your whole world becomes your child, and your child becomes your God. And that's out of balance, folks. Or worse yet, your kids' sporting events becomes your God, right? Or you know what? God blesses you with a home. Hallelujah. And then suddenly the blessing that God's given you that takes all your time and attention and money, that becomes your God. Or I see people that are blessed and God blesses them, they're able to retire. And what happens? Suddenly, you don't see them anymore. What? I mean, that's a blessing. You now have time to really press in and serve the Lord. Now you're just gonna serve yourself. Something's wrong with that. Listen, as long as you're alive, you still need to be running the race for Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible's saying here, okay? And the fact is that we've got to keep our eye on the prize. You may have heard the story of Beth Ann DeSantis back in 1992. She was wanting to qualify for the Olympics and as the women's marathon runner. Now, um, she had you know run marathons. If you're familiar with marathons, they're over 26 miles. And so she was doing her qualifying race, and what she had to do, she had to run, she had to complete the marathon in two hours and 45 minutes. So she starts off her race, she's doing great, she's got a good pace going on. And then about the 23rd mile, she starts feeling sick. Okay? Now I laugh at that because I'm gonna go, it wouldn't be the 23rd mile for me. It would have probably been the third mile, I would have just gotten sick. But she just kept pressing on, and then she kept pressing on until she got to literally 200 yards away from the finish line. She's in her final stretch and she collapses. I mean, she just falls on the ground. She's on the ground for about 20 seconds. There was only two minutes left for her to qualify. So she's on the ground, she gets up, and she just trods the best that she can forward to the finish line. Five yards before she gets to finish line, she collapses again. She's literally on her hands and knees crawling across the finish line. She crosses the finish line in two hours, 44 minutes and 57 seconds. She did it with three seconds left. Hallelujah, right? How did she make it there? She kept her eyes on the finish line. You and I, we got to keep our eyes on the prize. You got to keep your focus on what God's calling you to do. Listen, God does have a great plan and purpose for your life. It is not the run the rat race of this world, it's to run the real race with Jesus Christ. And we are not living for the applause of man. We are living for the applause of the nail-scarred hands of Jesus Christ. That's got to be our goal. So Paul says, Christian, get in the race. You keep sidelining yourself. Get in the race. But now what the apostle Paul does, he then says, okay, how do you keep your focus on Christ? I mean, how do you stay in the race, right? And so what Paul's gonna do is he's gonna give us some really amazing principles to stay focused on Jesus Christ and stay in this race. And I want you to jot them down. Number one is this. First one is this don't run the Christian life alone. You can't run the Christian life alone. All right, there's no longer in your Christians here. We talk about this all the time. The Christian life is done best. How? In community. That's why we say get in a small group. So what Paul does is he moves from talking about individuals. Now he's talking about a group of people. Check it out. Look at verse 15. Therefore, let all of us, see plural there, who are mature think this way. Paul moves from individuals to actually a group of people. Now, runners will tell you this: you can run farther when you're running with other people, right? Why? Because you have people that are beside you. They're encouraging you, they're setting a pace for you, right? They're holding you accountable. And the fact is, is that so many Christians they quit running and following after Jesus. Why? Because they thought they could run the Christian life alone. You can't. You need other people in your life. Paul said again, let all of us who are mature think this way. If you want to grow, you want to mature, you need other people in your life. I mean, the fact is, is that you show me the people you hang out with, I'll show you what you're going to look like in five years. I've put this on your outlines. Show me your friends, I'll show you your future. Show me your friends, I'll show you your future. We need some Christians, godly people in our life that's gonna run this race with us. We need each other. I mean, I think about, you know, my Christian life. Um, I've been following Jesus over 40 years. Much of that time I've been a pastor, and yet I'm still in a small group. Do you know why? Because I need those relationships. I have an accountability partner. Why? Because I need accountability. I mean, my wife and I, we'll do a soap Bible study together almost every morning for breakfast. Why do we do it together? Because I'm more consistent when I have somebody doing it with me. The truth is we are going to run farther when we run together. You need people with you running this race. Which leads to the second thing, and it's this, John, listen. Find a godly example to follow. Find a godly example to follow. Yeah, we're running with other Christians, but you know what? There are some Christians that are out there that are setting the pace. Oh, that's what it looks like a Christian marriage. Oh, that's what it looks like parenting. That's what it looks like finances. Oh, that's what a Christian looks like, right? We need that. Look what Paul says, verse 17. Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters. Pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. We go, well, I'm following Jesus. Awesome. But you know what you need? You need other Christians that are walking with you that you can go, oh, okay, that's what the Christian life looks like, lived out. I mean, you think of 12-step programs, right? People that have overcome addictions of alcohol or some other addiction. You know what they'll often say the success of those programs are? The sponsor, right? Who's the sponsor? The sponsor that is the person that comes alongside you, the person that holds you accountable, that encourages you, that says, This is how I overcame that addiction. This is how you can overcome that addiction as well. We all need people in our lives that were like, okay, that's how I do this. That's how I follow Christ in this setting. If we're gonna mature, we need I mean, I think about myself. I'm not where I am today because of myself. It's the examples around me. I mean, I had a godly dad who modeled reading the word and studying the Bible every day. Man, I'm blessed by that. I mean, the very first pastor that I was saved under, he modeled a heart for the lost. My very first professor in Bible college was a brilliant man, Dr. David Dockery. And he was just so brilliant as a scholar, and yet he was incredibly humble. And I realized, ah, that's how I should be. The way that I teach the Bible, I didn't just come up with this. I look at other great Bible teachers and like Chuck Swindall that I've modeled myself after. You have, you know, the pastor that I followed here at Silverdale, Bobby Atkins, was an incredible man of vision and leadership. And I learned so much of, oh, that's what a visionary leader looks like. Listen, I'm where I am because there were other people that I could follow their example. I recently read an article about a herd of elephants that are in Africa. And this herd was getting too large for the region. And so what they decided to do is just sort of cull it out a little bit. They would take several female elephants and young female elephants and a couple of young bull elephants and they move them to another region. And everything's great, but they noticed right away that these young bull male elephants, they started being too rough with each other. And they were not only rough with each other, there was also this group of white rhinos in those regions, and um, and which are very rare, and they start attacking the rhinos and actually kill one. They're like, oh my goodness, what are we gonna do? And so they then take one of these more older elephants, male elephants, and put it with this new group. And almost immediately the young bull elephants got in line because they didn't know how they're supposed to, you know, act. But suddenly the big bull elephant puts them in line, right? Let me just tell you something. If elephants need an example to follow, so do we, right? We desperately need people to model this. So find people, yeah. Run as a group, absolutely. Find a few people that you can follow their example. Third is this shout this down. Avoid the distraction of the world. Avoid the distraction of the world. Now, why is this important? Because listen, if you don't find some godly examples to follow after, the world's gonna give you plenty of ungodly examples to follow after, right? Notice how Paul says this in verse 18. He says, I've often told you, and now say it again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Now, when we read that verse, I mean it surprises me because I'm like, wait a minute, this is a book of joy, and yet Paul is saying that when he's writing these verses, he's crying, he's weeping. Paul, why are you weeping? He says, because there's a problem. Out in the world, there's enemies of the cross. And now what's happening is that worldliness is starting to make its way into the church. And so now, people, they're following after the culture rather than following after Christ. That they are they're giving into their comfort rather than, you know what, picking up their cross and following Jesus. And when the world makes its way into the church, that's something to cry about, right? You know, what does that look like? Paul tells us in the next verse, verse 19. Verse 19 is one of these verses that I memorized a long time ago that the Lord has used to keep me in check. Look at verse 19. Their end is destruction, their God is their stomach, their glory is in their shame, and they are focused on earthly things. Let me break that verse down from the last phrase to the first. If you are focused on earthly things, you're gonna glory in the wrong things. You're going to give in to the appetites of your flesh, that's what he means by stomach. You're gonna give in to your fleshly lust, whether it's sex or food or alcohol or some other substance, and that becomes your God that you're living for. And if that's the case, your end is destruction. Can I just tell you, if verse 19 describes you, when you die, you're not going to heaven. You may think you are, but you're not. That is a description of a lost person. And what happens is that makes its way into the church. Church, this is not your home. Heaven is your home. And so quit running after the things of this world when you should be running after Jesus Christ. Several months back, I came across a video of this school, and they were doing some a relay race in one of the fields in the playground. And you know, there everybody's running the relay race, and everything's going great, and the yellow team is winning, and it's gonna be the last handoff. But I want you to notice what happens when the last handoff takes place. Check out this video. So, yellow team is winning, he's running the correct direction. He's coming to the very final handoff, and what does he do? He starts going the wrong way. The guy's like, I gotta tackle him, right? That's us. Right? We start running the wrong directions. No, no, no. We're in a race, keeping our eyes on Jesus. We're not gonna run the wrong direction and follow the world. So, how do we keep our focus on Jesus? Look at this final point. Jot this down. Focus on your future with Jesus. You need to focus not on the temporary trial you've got, but your eternal time with Jesus. Look at what it says, verse 20. Our citizenship is not, I mean, our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly wait for a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. So what does that mean? Christian, your citizenship is not this world. Your citizenship is another world. It is in heaven. Now you go, well, how do you become a citizen of heaven? Well, think about it like this, okay? I'm a citizen of the United States of America. How? Because I was born here, right? I became a citizen of heaven by being born again by the Spirit of God. Okay? And so I have a passport that, you know, declares that I'm a citizen of the United States, but you know what? I now have the passport of the Holy Spirit that now tells me I'm a citizen of heaven as well. Okay? Now, it's amazing, you know, sometimes whenever I will um travel out of the states, maybe for a mission trip or some other trip, and I'll go overseas. And you know what? I love those trips. But somewhere around, you know, 10 days, suddenly I start missing home. I start dreaming of hamburgers. I start longing to sleep in my own bed and be with my wife and hang out with my family, right? You know, right? Because it's just like Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, there is no place like home. There's no place like home, right? That's the way we are. Well, guess what? If you're a child of God, this world's not gonna satisfy you. You're gonna have a longing for another world. There's an old gospel song that starts like this I'm kind of homesick for a country where I've never ever been before. You know where that is? That's heaven, folks. If you're a child of God and you know this is not your home, that one day you're gonna die, you're gonna be in the presence of the Lord, and you're gonna get to see Jesus Christ face to face. I'm looking forward to that. Can I just tell you something? This lowly citizen will get to see King Jesus face to face. And in that moment, a transformation is going to take place. Like what? Well, check it out. Look what Paul says is gonna happen. Verse 21. He, Christ, will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself. Do you know what that means? That means when you get to heaven, you get an upgrade. Get an upgrade, right? I mean, people will ask me, oh, Pastor, what and what am I gonna look like whenever I'm in heaven? Well, that's an easy answer. Ready? Better. You're gonna look much better, better. You're gonna have a body that you've always dreamed of. You're gonna trade in this lowly, broken down, humble body for a resurrected, glorified body like the one Jesus has, right? I mean, do you remember in the Gospels after Jesus' resurrection, his resurrected body, what was that like? Well, it was physical and yet it was supernatural. He could walk through walls, he could appear and disappear, right? He could eat, but he didn't have to eat. I'm looking forward to that kind of body, right? The fact is, is that think about it. One day you're gonna have a body that will never wear out. One day you're gonna have a body that never gets tired, never gets exhausted. One day you're gonna have a body that will not be susceptible to disease, handicapped, atrophy, aches, and pains. You're gonna have a body that never gains weight, never loses hair, never gets on any wrinkles, doesn't slump, doesn't sag. Hallelujah! I'm looking forward to that body. Amen. We're all gonna get that body. It's one of the perks of being in heaven. If that is our goal, folks, then finish the race. Don't get distracted. Run hard after Jesus. And when you breathe your last breath, you'll start breathing the breath of heaven, and you're gonna run from this life into the arms of our Lord Jesus Himself. And if you finish your race, you're gonna hear words like this. Well done, good and faithful servant. You fought the good fight. You finished your race. Come enter into the joy of the Lord. Welcome home, child. You ran well. Keep running for Jesus, eh? It's all gonna be worth it then. Let's pray together. Father, thank you so much for the promise that we have. That you alone are worth chasing after. That you alone give us life. Lord, please forgive us, forgive us for chasing after and running after all the counterfeits this world gives us to distract us off of Jesus. God, help us to stay in the race. God, I pray that even in this moment right now, we will return to following and running after you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.