SPEAKER_00: Well, look together today in the book of Philippians, chapter three.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians three, and look at a thought.
SPEAKER_00: What are you living for?
SPEAKER_00: Philippians three, Paul kind of shows you and I some truth here, makes our mind begin to think, and for you and I to get a hold of this and grasp this, I started thinking about this thought.
SPEAKER_00: A meaningful life is not found in what you gained for yourself, but in pursuing what matters eternally.
SPEAKER_00: And as I begin to think on that thought, I begin to think about what am I gaining for myself and what am I gaining for the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: In Philippians 3, Paul gives us some truth, starting in verse number 7 through verse number 14, and I'll read those verses for you in a moment, but I begin to think, and you may resonate with what I'm about to ask or say here, but have you ever noticed how much stuff people actually accumulate in their life?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, we have some here.
SPEAKER_00: People accumulate a lot of things.
SPEAKER_00: I realize that because everywhere I seem to turn, there's a new storage facility opening up.
SPEAKER_00: They build those.
SPEAKER_00: I should have gone in the storage facility business.
SPEAKER_00: Because people's garages can't hold their items any longer.
SPEAKER_00: They have to put them there.
SPEAKER_00: Who can park in their garage?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I know you don't want to admit it.
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
SPEAKER_00: It's a few of you.
SPEAKER_00: Who can't?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, no hands.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yes, a few.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we have so many things.
SPEAKER_00: We accumulate stuff, and therefore it fills up our garage, our closet, or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And I began to think people spend years buying stuff, um, organizing things, upgrading, protecting their things.
SPEAKER_00: They just can't seem to get rid of it.
SPEAKER_00: I started thinking, in 20 years, those little items, what do they matter?
SPEAKER_00: What will matter with those items?
SPEAKER_00: One day I had saw a sign that said estate sell ahead.
SPEAKER_00: And I was a little intrigued by it, and I wanted to see what they had.
SPEAKER_00: It's a nice part of town, nice house.
SPEAKER_00: They might have some nice stuff that I can bring and put in my garage.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But you get there, and people are walking through the home of somebody that had passed away buying up somebody else's stuff that they spent a lifetime accumulating.
SPEAKER_00: And it hit me in that moment realizing that somebody spent their entire life accumulating this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: They worked for it, they protected it, they even valued it.
SPEAKER_00: And now they have strangers walking through their house trying to decide if this is worth five or ten bucks and how to best offer or you know, a bargain here, buy one, get one free.
SPEAKER_00: And it made me think, what am I living for?
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what Paul is talking about in our text.
SPEAKER_00: And it forces me to ask you this question: what are you living for?
SPEAKER_00: What are you living for?
SPEAKER_00: Because one day everything, essentially, that's temporary, is going to be left behind.
SPEAKER_00: And it will not matter any longer.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be in the presence of Jesus, and all the things that I wanted to stock up won't matter.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly, I think, what Paul's speaking about in Philippians chapter number three.
SPEAKER_00: Paul looks back at everything that he wants valued, and he's basically saying this compared to Christ, nothing is valuable compared to him.
SPEAKER_00: What are you living for?
SPEAKER_00: Let's read together in Philippians three, and we'll start in verse seven.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this But what things were gained to me, these I have counted lost for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and counted them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay a hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid a hold of me.
SPEAKER_00: Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.
SPEAKER_00: I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What are you living for?
SPEAKER_00: Paul begins this, this thought, this subject here, what are you living for?
SPEAKER_00: I think before we dig into the meaning behind these verses, we need to understand what was going on that caused Paul to pick a pen up and write.
SPEAKER_00: All scripture is given by inspiration.
SPEAKER_00: We know that God breathed it all into an existence.
SPEAKER_00: But in the moment that Paul is writing this text that you and I are now reading, Paul was in prison.
SPEAKER_00: He was in prison, not because he sort of broke a law or did something bad in our eyes, but he was preaching the gospel of Jesus and standing for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And because of his stance for Jesus and what God meant and what Jesus stood for, he was being persecuted for his faith.
SPEAKER_00: And he was thrown into prison, into a cell where he had to sort of sit there and think about and realize and sort of meditate on all that was going on around him.
SPEAKER_00: And I know in his moment he had to have reflected on his past, thinking about everything that he had ever been through, and the fact that we know because of historical truth and facts in the Bible, that Paul was raised by his name was Saul before he got saved, and he was schooled in all things Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: He came from the right tribe, he was schooled in the right schools, he knew the lingo, he knew the law, he followed it to a T.
SPEAKER_00: And essentially, he is telling you and I, sitting in a prison cell, writing this letter, that all the things that he personally accumulated throughout his life, whether it was success or knowledge or uh or sort of stout status in society, he is saying all that is worthless.
SPEAKER_00: How could he write that?
SPEAKER_00: Things that he worked for and things that he attained.
SPEAKER_00: He's sitting there saying that when I met Jesus, all that doesn't matter any longer.
SPEAKER_00: He's sitting in a prison cell and he's sitting there telling you and I status doesn't matter when you compare it to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling you and I religion does not matter when you compare it to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Accomplishments do not matter when you compare them to Jesus Christ's reputation doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's telling us.
SPEAKER_00: By world standards, Paul was very successful.
SPEAKER_00: And he's essentially saying essentially, yeah, the world may view me as very successful because of the things that I acquire, but compared to Christ, he uses the term rubbish trash.
SPEAKER_00: They're garbage.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you and I live in a world in a culture where we get per all the time we see what the world values, and we have to reprogram our minds as followers of Christ to realize that I've got to have a value system based upon what Christ says.
SPEAKER_00: The world says, acquire more.
SPEAKER_00: The world says, accumulate more.
SPEAKER_00: The world says make more money.
SPEAKER_00: The world says, what?
SPEAKER_00: Accomplish more things.
SPEAKER_00: The world says, be more successful, the world says all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul, who was super successful at all the things, essentially is writing to you and I that everything compared to Christ is trash, is rubbish.
SPEAKER_00: It means nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And everything changed when Paul met Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And everything he once chased after now has no value.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you a couple things this morning to prove my point, to prove what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: But just remember, he's writing it from the perspective after a lifetime in prison, he's writing under the inspiration of the Lord these thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the first thing I want to give you.
SPEAKER_00: We'll find it right here in the very first verse, verse number seven.
SPEAKER_00: Some things look valuable until you compare them to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Some things look valuable until you meet Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look together in verse number seven as we take this apart.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse number seven of our text, he says, But what things are gained to me, these things I counted as a loss for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But what things were gained to me?
SPEAKER_00: Paul is essentially telling you and I in this moment, I used to think certain things mattered.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling you and I in that in that little sentence that he said, But what things were gained to me, things that I had gained in, he's saying that once to find me, positions in life once to find me, and I aspired to have them.
SPEAKER_00: And he's telling you and I in the text, it doesn't matter any longer, recognition.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was the guy that would be recognized before he got saved for all the things that he stood for in the tribe that he came from.
SPEAKER_00: And he was a Hebrew of Hebrews according to him.
SPEAKER_00: He would be recognized, and they looked up to him, and he is saying, all that is irrelevant when I compare myself to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: When I met Jesus, all that went out the window.
SPEAKER_00: The achievements that he achieved no longer matter anymore.
SPEAKER_00: What does the world teach us?
SPEAKER_00: The world teaches you and I to chase things of temporary nature.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know if it's always been like that, but in my generation it seems to be worse because of social media we see a lot.
SPEAKER_00: But the truth of the matter is, is the world, the Bible says there's nothing newer to the sun, so it's always been that way.
SPEAKER_00: It may have been in a different context, but nonetheless, everything the world teaches you and I always teaches you and I to go after things of success, go after approval of people and status and money and so forth and so on.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the world teaches us.
SPEAKER_00: But those moments are temporary.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul recognizes that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why Paul is saying, man, when you meet Jesus, your value system changes.
SPEAKER_00: Because it all goes away once you get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: What you devalue, this is true now, what you value determines how you live.
SPEAKER_00: So if I don't let the word of God reprogram me and the world tells me what value is, then that's what I'm gonna aspire to be and have naturally.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I have to renew myself in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's when I have to constantly get into the Word of the Lord, because that's what changes everything about me.
SPEAKER_00: See, see, what I realize is that people spend their entire life chasing careers, chasing popularity, chasing possessions, but none of it satisfies us.
SPEAKER_00: Why is it?
SPEAKER_00: We're never content.
SPEAKER_00: I can aspire to have this job, and I get it, I'm not happy.
SPEAKER_00: I can aspire to have this possession, but when I get it, I still want more.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: I want to be satisfied with my relationship with Him.
SPEAKER_00: Why does that happen?
SPEAKER_00: Because we always feel empty.
SPEAKER_00: I let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I was reading in the text in the Bible, and I got over to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to read these verses as you study the Word of God, but you get to the parable of the rich young ruler.
SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting to me about the rich young ruler is that him and Jesus have a conversation.
SPEAKER_00: You can read it for yourself as time allows later on.
SPEAKER_00: But him and Jesus have a conversation.
SPEAKER_00: And the young, rich young ruler approaches Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And if you will remember, he says, Jesus, what do I need to do to inherit the kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: What do I need to do to go to heaven?
SPEAKER_00: I need eternal security.
SPEAKER_00: What do I need to do?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus has a conversation back with this rich young ruler.
SPEAKER_00: And the verse says very simply to him, the rich young ruler, he says, Go sell what you have, pick up your cross, and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about it for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: In that, there's about several verses there, and I don't want to miss anything.
SPEAKER_00: But in their conversation, the rich young ruler alludes to Jesus that he's followed all the commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember when this conversation was taking place, the New Testament wasn't written yet.
SPEAKER_00: So you and I can look at the entire canon of Scripture, Old and New Testament, but when the rich young ruler and Jesus were talking, the only Bible that there was was what we would know as the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And so the rich young ruler is telling Jesus, man, I have uh not murdered, I've not done this, I've not done this.
SPEAKER_00: So a few things that you and I can notice right off the bat with the rich young ruler is that, for one, the rich young ruler was obviously wealthy, that's why he was called the rich young ruler.
SPEAKER_00: We can also can know that he had some level of morality because we know that he said out loud, I have followed all the commandments.
SPEAKER_00: He was a moral person who tried to live up and do right.
SPEAKER_00: So he had money, he had he had uh morality, and he had a position of somewhat of power.
SPEAKER_00: So he has all of these things and he tells that to Jesus, and then he says, What must I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: Now Jesus says simply, go sell your stuff, bro.
SPEAKER_00: Pick up the cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: So before we get out of context of what Jesus is saying, let me just kind of show you where he's at.
SPEAKER_00: Do what does Jesus want you and I to sell everything we've got?
SPEAKER_00: Only if you value that more than you value Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: See, so the moral of the story is that Jesus was trying to convince this rich young ruler that you can never place a higher value on me than on anything else.
SPEAKER_00: And the rich young ruler had so much um, so much uh high thought towards his possessions and his stuff that he valued them more than he valued Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus said, Sell it all, pick up the cross, and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the last verse of that parable, you and you can read it, and the rich young ruler did not sell his things.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that he walked off sad.
SPEAKER_00: He was saddened because he thought to himself, I've got a choice to make.
SPEAKER_00: I can sell everything or I can follow Christ, and he valued his possessions more so than he valued Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So he walked away sad.
SPEAKER_00: What why did he walk away sad?
SPEAKER_00: Now on the outside, everything that he had was made him look successful on the outwardly.
SPEAKER_00: On outwardly, he looked successful.
SPEAKER_00: But something else owned his heart, which was his stuff, his possessions.
SPEAKER_00: He had everything the world said mattered, but he walked away from Jesus empty.
SPEAKER_00: What a shame.
SPEAKER_00: Everything the world said he had, except Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So he walked away from Jesus sad.
SPEAKER_00: He walked away empty.
SPEAKER_00: He walked away not having the full, full relationship that he could have had.
SPEAKER_00: Some things look valuable until you meet Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And you and I can never have anything that we love more than Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It will not work.
SPEAKER_00: We'll live a life of emptiness and always aspiring for something, and all we have to do is get Christ and let him be the sufficient of all that we want, and everything changes.
SPEAKER_00: I think some people spend their entire life climbing ladders.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Who's scared of heights?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: Couple of us.
SPEAKER_00: You're thinking about a ladder, you're getting nervous.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't mind heights.
SPEAKER_00: I just do not like taking the last step from the ladder to the roof.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's where I get a little bit nervous.
SPEAKER_00: But some people spend their entire life climbing ladders.
SPEAKER_00: And then they realize that they had their ladder against the wrong wall.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the problem with society.
SPEAKER_00: They cry, they climb the ladder that's leaning on the wrong wall, on the wrong wall.
SPEAKER_00: And if I just lean my ladder upon the wall of Christ and climb him and try to aspire and pursue after him, things change perspective super quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Let me leave you with this and then we'll move to verse eight.
SPEAKER_00: Don't spend your life chasing things that won't last.
SPEAKER_00: Because everything we have is just temporary.
SPEAKER_00: Don't spend our life chasing things that will not last.
SPEAKER_00: Let's dig into verse number eight for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: As we continue on this thought, what are you living for?
SPEAKER_00: Verse eight shows you and I, knowing Jesus, changes your priorities.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse eight in the text.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Yet indeed I also count all things loss, for the excellence of knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying that he has lost everything, and he doesn't even care about it.
SPEAKER_00: He's happy that he did, because he gained Christ in the return.
SPEAKER_00: In verse number nine, he says, And to be found in him, not having my own righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's saying, There's nothing righteous about me.
SPEAKER_00: I can't do it on my righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: No, we know that according to the scripture that we are declared righteous once we get saved.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Not by my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, being conformed to his death, even by any means, I may attend, means to arrive at, or excuse me, attain, means to arrive at, that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: What's Paul talking about in these verses?
SPEAKER_00: I think Paul's saying that when he was living under the law, all Paul had was a set of rules to go by.
SPEAKER_00: But the second I got saved and I got the freedom from Christ, everything changed because I went from only having a set of rules to follow to now having a friend, to now having a master, to now having a companion that I can have a conversation and a relationship, a living, breathing relationship with.
SPEAKER_00: Everything changed from a set of rules to now having a companion that I can conversate with and to follow.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing Jesus should change our priorities.
SPEAKER_00: Look what he says here.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in verse number eight, that I may gain Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That I may gain Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul's saying everything changed when I met Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: See, see, notice this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not an addition to your life.
SPEAKER_00: He becomes your life.
SPEAKER_00: Now when I got saved at eight years old, I didn't fully get it.
SPEAKER_00: I under obviously I fell under some level of conviction for therefore for me to go forth and to seek the Lord and to ask him to save me and to live in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, I probably thought that Jesus was an addition to my life.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning I have my life plus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I can go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: But as I grew in Christ and I began to understand the complexity of Jesus and the relationship that I actually have and the benefit from it, I realize that it's not an addition.
SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't add Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He became my life.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Paul's saying here.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying I didn't just add him.
SPEAKER_00: No, he became my life.
SPEAKER_00: Priorities changed when that happens.
SPEAKER_00: What mattered before doesn't seem to matter much anymore.
SPEAKER_00: That's how he can say everything is just trash.
SPEAKER_00: Everything was just rubbish.
SPEAKER_00: And as I read that and think about it, a transformed heart always produces a transform of desire.
SPEAKER_00: If my heart transforms, the desires of my heart will ultimately transform as well.
SPEAKER_00: What I did want, maybe I don't want no more.
SPEAKER_00: What I once liked, maybe I don't like anymore.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we can change when we meet Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus changes you, you know what changes?
SPEAKER_00: Your focus, your want, and your desires.
SPEAKER_00: Let me use an illustration to sort of convince you.
SPEAKER_00: I was looking through the scriptures for a great illustration to convince you of this.
SPEAKER_00: And I got to Zacchaeus and I didn't want to use him because I'd used him a couple weeks or months ago, but I want to it fit.
SPEAKER_00: I got to use him.
SPEAKER_00: Think about Zacchaeus for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Zacchaeus was a tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: Who likes tax collectors?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, no, we don't like tax collectors.
SPEAKER_00: I don't like them on April the 15th, and I don't like them in November for the property taxes.
SPEAKER_00: We don't really like paying our, you know, we don't really appreciate it, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So they don't have the great reputation.
SPEAKER_00: So in the Bible days, the tax collectors oftentimes were crooks because they would receive more than was required and keep the difference and pay Caesar his due and he'd keep the difference.
SPEAKER_00: So they didn't have the greatest reputation, at least in our days.
SPEAKER_00: I know that whatever I pay for property taxes is going to the county.
SPEAKER_00: They're not crooks like they once were.
SPEAKER_00: I may not be thrilled with them, but they're not like they were in Zacchaeus' days.
SPEAKER_00: So Zacchaeus had the had the title as a chief tax collector, and his reputation was that he was.
SPEAKER_00: A crook and that he wasn't liked.
SPEAKER_00: But yet Jesus was coming to town.
SPEAKER_00: And as Jesus was coming to town, there was excitement in the air, and people were conversating and talking about Jesus is coming to town.
SPEAKER_00: And so Zacchaeus knew that he had to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so Zacchaeus stopped what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: He ran to town and got to where he could actually see Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that Zacchaeus was a small man, a small statue, and he had to climb the sycamore tree to be able to get a view of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why would that even be included in the text?
SPEAKER_00: Why would they include that?
SPEAKER_00: My thought process behind it is because he wasn't going to let anything prevent him from getting to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore, you and I shouldn't either, right?
SPEAKER_00: So just because he was small and couldn't see him didn't mean that he wasn't going to see him.
SPEAKER_00: So he climbed a tree to be able to have an eye on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And you and I may have an excuse all the time of, well, we can't see Christ, but listen to me, we should not have an excuse because even Zacchaeus did all he could to see Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about what took place as Zacchaeus is hanging in the sycamore tree and Jesus walks by.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is walking by and points up and says, Zacchaeus, I'm coming over for dinner.
SPEAKER_00: Now imagine the morale of the moment.
SPEAKER_00: The people around probably thought, man, what?
SPEAKER_00: They were jealous that Jesus wasn't coming to their house, so therefore they got mad.
SPEAKER_00: Why would Jesus go to the sinner's house?
SPEAKER_00: This tax collector that had taken advantage of people, why would he go to his house and not my house?
SPEAKER_00: But nonetheless, Jesus looked at him and saw him and made eye contact with him and said, Hey, I'll be at your house for dinner.
SPEAKER_00: You better have me a fillet mignon cooked up and ready, right?
SPEAKER_00: No, that's what I would have said, but, or maybe a ribeye, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said, I'll be over for dinner.
SPEAKER_00: That eye contact did something in his eye in his moment.
SPEAKER_00: Something happened in Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, did I read the sinner's prayer that he quoted, but something changed in Zacchaeus's heart.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that, because if you read Luke 19 and you get to verse number eight, that's when Jesus said, I will be there in a moment to eat.
SPEAKER_00: In verse number nine, he, as soon as Christ gets there, Zacchaeus says, Hey man, I am going to give half of my possessions to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: And if I've done anything wrong and betrayed anybody, I'll repay it fourfold.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew in that dear moment that there was an internal change inside Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know on the rich young ruler, on the outside, he had it all, but the inside he was empty on Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: His inside was full, but on the outside, he still looked as if he was a crooked tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus can see the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus saw something in him, and there wasn't a force change.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't come in and say you got to do this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_00: No, it was an internal change that only took place the moment that he made eye contact with Jesus Christ, everything changed.
SPEAKER_00: He knew where he had wronged and said, I'm going to give half of what I've got.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that important?
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean you've got to give half?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: It is, he is showing Christ internally, something changed.
SPEAKER_00: You know how much I value things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving half of it away.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the rich younger ruler?
SPEAKER_00: He ain't giving nothing away.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not selling nothing.
SPEAKER_00: He left sad and empty.
SPEAKER_00: This Zacchaeus said, I'll give half of it.
SPEAKER_00: He's letting Christ know that his heart is changed and he values Jesus more than he values his stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And he even said and took it a step further: if I've wronged anybody, I will restore it fourfold.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus heard that and knew, man, there was an internal change that had taken place.
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus is a different man.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, when Christ becomes the center of your life, when he does, priorities shift.
SPEAKER_00: What else changes?
SPEAKER_00: Desires.
SPEAKER_00: Perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Now I got saved at eight years old.
SPEAKER_00: Did my priorities change immediately?
SPEAKER_00: Not really.
SPEAKER_00: I knew I was saved.
SPEAKER_00: I believed that Jesus died on the cross for my sins.
SPEAKER_00: I knew that if he were to return, I would go with him.
SPEAKER_00: I knew if I were to die, I'd be in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But my relationship with him progressed over the years of me pursuing him.
SPEAKER_00: As I pursued him, I realized that my priorities got to change.
SPEAKER_00: My desires must change.
SPEAKER_00: The perspective on life has to change.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus becomes your greatest pursuit, lesser things lose their grip on you.
SPEAKER_00: When he's your great pursuer, if you're after him, the other things don't seem to matter any longer.
SPEAKER_00: Let me leave you with this and we'll continue on into the next verses.
SPEAKER_00: A life centered on Jesus sees everything differently.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go in a little bit further.
SPEAKER_00: Go over to verse 13 if your Bible's open.
SPEAKER_00: Look what the scriptures tell us.
SPEAKER_00: This is showing you and I that you can cannot move forward while living in the past.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: He says, brethren, he says, beloved, brother and sister in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to help you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Paul's saying.
SPEAKER_00: I do not count myself to have apprehended, meaning I haven't received, I hadn't laid a hold of something yet.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still trying to get it.
SPEAKER_00: But one thing I do, Paul says, forgetting the things which are behind, and I'm reaching forward.
SPEAKER_00: It's a verb, it's stretching with all that I've got.
SPEAKER_00: I'm grabbing something that's ahead of me to those things which are.
SPEAKER_00: I'm stretching with all that I've got to get whatever's out in front of me.
SPEAKER_00: I ain't looking back no more.
SPEAKER_00: Think about what this verse means.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot move forward while looking in the past.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta forget what's behind you.
SPEAKER_00: Paul understood something.
SPEAKER_00: You know what he understood?
SPEAKER_00: You can't keep staring backwards and move forward spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: We try it.
SPEAKER_00: I look behind me and look ahead of me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at what this was and that was.
SPEAKER_00: There's two traps sometimes we'll fall into.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't like getting in a trap.
SPEAKER_00: I like to set traps.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Catch me a good armadilla periodically, yes.
SPEAKER_00: I've been needing to catch me one lately.
SPEAKER_00: I need to get a little incurmoor.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna set me a trap later, I think.
SPEAKER_00: Catch me an armadilla.
SPEAKER_00: And then I can get him stuffed, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You never know.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, let me tell you about two traps that happen.
SPEAKER_00: Some people get in this trap, they'll get in the trap of their past.
SPEAKER_00: And they're trapped from the past failures they've had.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that they can't seem to look forward like the scripture tells us and stretch forward because their past regrets have got them.
SPEAKER_00: Their past failures have got them.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody likes to think about that.
SPEAKER_00: That the past shame from all the things that they shoulda, woulda, coulda.
SPEAKER_00: Get with them.
SPEAKER_00: And they get in this little trap set, and they stuck.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of stretching forth and grabbing what's ahead, they're now looking backwards about all the things they wish they would have done, the mistakes they made, the shame that they caused, and the regret that they lived through.
SPEAKER_00: There's another trap sometimes we'll get caught in.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that ain't your trap.
SPEAKER_00: But here maybe this trap.
SPEAKER_00: What about the other trap of past success?
SPEAKER_00: I'll fall on this trap where I get hung up, where I start living off my old victories.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll look backwards and think, man, remember when I did this for the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: And forget that he says, look forward, stretch forward.
SPEAKER_00: I can win all my wins from the past, the seasons that were successful in my mind for the Lord, and the experiences that I had with the Lord, even personally, maybe something that only I and the Lord know about through my private time with God.
SPEAKER_00: I can focus in on those years ago wins and stop looking forward to have new ones.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm so looking back.
SPEAKER_00: What did he say?
SPEAKER_00: Look forward, stretch forward.
SPEAKER_00: Don't look back.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you an example to help you understand this.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 19.
SPEAKER_00: You can read about Sodom and Gomorrah.
SPEAKER_00: You can read about the destruction thereof because of the wickedness and the struggle that that uh environment, that mo that land, that area had.
SPEAKER_00: They were wicked people.
SPEAKER_00: And if you read Genesis 19, an angel of the Lord came unto Lot and his family and said, Get out.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about you, I might be a little nervous.
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord said, Get out.
SPEAKER_00: It's time to go.
SPEAKER_00: God's about to destroy this place.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what the angel of the Lord said after he said, Get out.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't look back.
SPEAKER_00: And as they began to exit and get out of Dodge, they're trying to roll out of there before the Lord destroys the place.
SPEAKER_00: Lot's wife began to look backwards.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll wonder why would she look back?
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you what I think.
SPEAKER_00: But as she looked back, after she was told by the angel of the Lord not to, what did the Bible say happened to her?
SPEAKER_00: She turned into a pillar of salt.
SPEAKER_00: She lost her life.
SPEAKER_00: And why'd she turn into salt?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But she did.
SPEAKER_00: I believe it.
SPEAKER_00: She turned into a pillar of salt.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why did she look back?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what I've come up with is her heart was still tied to what God was trying to pull her away from.
SPEAKER_00: She was looking back at Sodom, and God was trying to get her away from that.
SPEAKER_00: And so physically, listen to me, she was leaving, but emotionally she was still there.
SPEAKER_00: Physically, she was running and leaving Sodom, but her heart was still tied to it.
SPEAKER_00: Something in her still longed for what God was trying to rescue her from.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, God may be trying to rescue you from some area in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, you may be physically running away from it, but if you're spiritually or even emotionally still tied to it, you may be doing yourself a little bit of destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, most people can say, I can read in the text, I'm looking forward, preacher.
SPEAKER_00: I'm heading in the right direction, but you may be physically on the outside heading in the right direction.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're spiritually back where you shouldn't be, what's the difference between what happened with Lot's wife in your life?
SPEAKER_00: That's something that only you can answer.
SPEAKER_00: You may be physically leaving someplace while you're still there emotionally or even spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: You can't move forward while constantly looking backwards.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot move forward while constantly looking backwards.
SPEAKER_00: Here's some application I'll give you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us in the house today, we we love the Lord and we want to grow more in his grace and his knowledge, but we keep looking backwards and we keep living in regret, we keep replaying old failures in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me and hear my words.
SPEAKER_00: You can't move forward towards what God has ahead while still holding on to what God's called you out of.
SPEAKER_00: It won't work.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Let me leave you with this, and I'll go to my fourth and final thought.
SPEAKER_00: You move forward spiritually when you stop living in the past.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the first fourth and final thought.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14 lets you and I know that a meaningful life pursues an eternal gold.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: I, Paul says, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: A meaningful life pursues an eternal goal.
SPEAKER_00: What I love about this text is that you read right off the bat in verse number 14, I press towards.
SPEAKER_00: That word that you see right there, I press towards.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is letting you and I know that he's not drifting through life.
SPEAKER_00: He's pursuing something.
SPEAKER_00: He's going after something.
SPEAKER_00: I think about like how many believers in this world that we live in are drifting around thinking that they're just going to find where they're supposed to be?
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder how many times we feel so inadequate and so incomplete because I am just drifting through life like one bounce here, and I'm doing this, and oh, nothing is meaningful, it's just whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I'll figure it all out.
SPEAKER_00: And man, life is short.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want it to get away from us.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: How many times are we just drifting?
SPEAKER_00: What I learned from the live reading the life of Paul, there was no drift in Paul.
SPEAKER_00: There was pursuit.
SPEAKER_00: Pursuit is a verb, pursuit is action.
SPEAKER_00: Pursuit is nothing around you distracts you.
SPEAKER_00: It is going after whatever's in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: I love uh one of my one of my favorite movies is Dawn in 60 Seconds.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a good movie, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: A few cuss words, so overlook those, but it's a good movie.
SPEAKER_00: And I love the car chase at the end.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's got a 67 Shelby Mustang that is running from the police and he got away.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so it was a good movie.
SPEAKER_00: But what I remember as the undercover cops in a BMW were chasing after the Nicholas Cage is the actor, is driving that car.
SPEAKER_00: He continues to conversate on the radio.
SPEAKER_00: We are in pursuit of a silver 67 Mustang fastback, Shelby.
SPEAKER_00: Constantly, he is pursuing it, pursuing it.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to the other officers and the ones in the helicopters, and they're doing everything in their can.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing else around them matters.
SPEAKER_00: They are overlooking every other situation because they're in pursuit of this particular car because he has stolen so many cars.
SPEAKER_00: They want to get him.
SPEAKER_00: He's not letting anything around him distract him because they're trying to get to that car.
SPEAKER_00: How many times in life do we drift and not pursue?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about pursue with focus, pursue with energy, pursue with, man, nothing is going to stop me or prevent me.
SPEAKER_00: I am getting after whatever is in front.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going towards something.
SPEAKER_00: I'm pursuing the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: A meaningful life, a meaningful life lives with purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And I, as a believer, have a meaningful life.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this word in verse number 14, I press.
SPEAKER_00: The importance of that word, I press, those two words, means that Paul is saying, I'm not drifting, I am living with some level of an intentionality.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, I press with purpose.
SPEAKER_00: I am focused.
SPEAKER_00: I am committed.
SPEAKER_00: I am intentional about going after the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I press.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us need to stop drifting and start pressing, start with intention, start with focus, start with commitment.
SPEAKER_00: See, eternity changes what matters.
SPEAKER_00: See, when you realize life is short and eternity is real, we stop wasting our life on meaningless things and start getting after it.
SPEAKER_00: I was reading about Moses last week, and I didn't use this last week, but I want to give it to you today.
SPEAKER_00: I think it fits so perfect in this thought.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews chapter 11, in verse 24 through 26, in Hebrews, that's the hall of faith where they praise the Lord and highlight all the faith that different people have lived and accomplish this, they've achieved.
SPEAKER_00: And it talks about Moses' life in verse number uh chapter number 11, verse number 24, I believe, and 25.
SPEAKER_00: And what pops out to me is that Moses was raised in Pharaoh's house.
SPEAKER_00: And why is that important?
SPEAKER_00: Because in Pharaoh's house there was comfort.
SPEAKER_00: In Pharaoh's house there was power.
SPEAKER_00: In Pharaoh's house, there was wealth.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses could have easily lived out his life in Egypt without any worry or stress.
SPEAKER_00: He would have had power, he'd have had comfort, he'd have had wealth, he'd have had whatever he wanted, but he realized that those were just temporary pleasures because God had called him to something bigger.
SPEAKER_00: So Moses had a choice to make.
SPEAKER_00: He could choose God's purpose, or he could choose temporary pleasures, and we know according to Scripture that he chose God's purpose.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews chapter 11, the Bible says that he, talking about Moses, chose to suffer with the afflictions, suffer afflictions with the people of God rather than enjoying the passing pleasures of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Moses had a choice to make.
SPEAKER_00: He could have stayed where he was and enjoyed life, or he could have pursued what God had for him.
SPEAKER_00: And he knew that by pursuing what God had for him, he would have to suffer some level of afflictions, and he did not mind doing that.
SPEAKER_00: You might say, why?
SPEAKER_00: Why would you do that?
SPEAKER_00: Because Moses saw something greater.
SPEAKER_00: He understood that God's purpose mattered more than any sort of temporary pleasure ever had to offer.
SPEAKER_00: I wish some of us could get a hold of that.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we seek temporary pleasures when we should be seeking what God's purpose is for us.
SPEAKER_00: Moses understood.
SPEAKER_00: Some things may feel valuable now, but in the end they won't matter.
SPEAKER_00: And what makes that very powerful to me is that Moses gave up what looked valuable now for what would matter forever.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, you and I can read about his life, and he did so much for the Lord and even made his way into Hebrews chapter number 11.
SPEAKER_00: Some things feel valuable in the moment, but won't matter in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: A meaningful life pursues an eternal goal.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself this: what are you pursuing?
SPEAKER_00: What are you pursuing?
SPEAKER_00: What is consuming your time?
SPEAKER_00: What is shaping your life?
SPEAKER_00: See, a life without eternal purpose will always feel empty eventually.
SPEAKER_00: I don't like that, but it's true.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you with this before I go and close.
SPEAKER_00: Live for what will matter long after you leave this world.
SPEAKER_00: Live for what will matter long after this life is over.
SPEAKER_00: As we close, I think about this.
SPEAKER_00: The end of life, I've sat next to bedside tables many times as people were approaching death.
SPEAKER_00: And no nowhere in there is anybody ever wished that they would have worked a little bit harder.
SPEAKER_00: And I've never had somebody say, Man, I wish that I would have worried a little bit more, preacher.
SPEAKER_00: I've never had anybody say that I wish that they would have accumulated more stuff.
SPEAKER_00: But typically their conversations are about faith, about their family, about purpose, and about eternity.
SPEAKER_00: See, Paul looked at everything the world values and said, none of it compares to knowing Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now, right now, I know that there's some of us in the house today that are exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: Our life is busy.
SPEAKER_00: We run from one place to another chasing things.
SPEAKER_00: And deep down, you know maybe something is missing.
SPEAKER_00: Because success without purpose still leaves emptiness.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want that to be the case for you.
SPEAKER_00: One day the job title is not going to matter.
SPEAKER_00: One day what you possess won't matter.
SPEAKER_00: One day, status will not matter.
SPEAKER_00: But what you did for Jesus Christ will last forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Don't waste your life chasing things you can't keep instead of living for what lasts forever.
SPEAKER_00: This week, I want to challenge you.
SPEAKER_00: What are you truly living for?
SPEAKER_00: This week, ask yourself, what am I truly living for?
SPEAKER_00: Is my life pointing towards things that matter eternally or not?
SPEAKER_00: Those are questions that only you can answer.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray as I do?
SPEAKER_00: God, I come to you this morning praising you for what you've done, praise you for the word that's been proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: I praise you for the word that's gone into hearts, God, as it causes our minds to think.