SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot have a focused life unless you're dissatisfied with your current life.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot be transformed.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot change.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot be a better athlete.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot be a better businessman.
SPEAKER_01: You can't be a better businesswoman.
SPEAKER_01: You can't be a better Christian.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot walk in Christ unless there's a holy dissatisfaction with where you currently are.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to be dissatisfied before God can give you a determination to move on.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to look at your life and go, man, I can do so much better here.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to quickly look at 1 Corinthians 9.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be off of the book of Revelation this week.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be off of the book of Revelation today.
SPEAKER_01: I want to challenge us for the coming week.
SPEAKER_01: Make Jesus great.
SPEAKER_01: Encourage you to come.
SPEAKER_01: And we are going to start promptly at 6:30, and we're going to end promptly at 8 for you that have kids, especially.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to come in, we're going to have the teaching.
SPEAKER_01: We're also going to have worship and prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be a time for you to also set goals.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my journal.
SPEAKER_01: This is a journal that I use.
SPEAKER_01: And I've written down, I've got 22 goals right now for the coming year that I've written down.
SPEAKER_01: And they're not all big.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of them, I have a big family, so a lot of them are related to each one of my children.
SPEAKER_01: But if you have a journal, I would say bring your journal this week and take notes on the messages this week.
SPEAKER_01: And then let God speak to you.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe that by this time, Sunday of next week, you're going to have some things that God has said to you and spoken to you that are going to be life-changing.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to look at a passage and I'm going to read actually from the New Living Translation.
SPEAKER_01: I know most of you have the New King James Version, which is what we normally use.
SPEAKER_01: I'll read from that first, but then I want to look at the New Living Translation also.
SPEAKER_01: This is verse 24 and 25.
SPEAKER_01: I'm calling this today contending for the focused life.
SPEAKER_01: Contending for the focused life.
SPEAKER_01: Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one, only one, receives the prize.
SPEAKER_01: Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
SPEAKER_01: All athletes are disciplined in their training.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's what the New Living Translation says for the first part of this verse.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize, and this is the part I like, so run to win.
SPEAKER_01: Run to win.
SPEAKER_01: No person outside of Jesus Christ made more of an impact in the civilized world 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it could be argued even historically in the last 2,000 years than the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_01: He had no Facebook.
SPEAKER_01: He had no cell phone.
SPEAKER_01: He had no internet.
SPEAKER_01: He had no personal computer.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't even have a laptop.
SPEAKER_01: And yet God mightily used him.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why God used him.
SPEAKER_01: He had a mindset.
SPEAKER_01: We talk about mindset as one word, but why don't we put a hyphen in it?
SPEAKER_01: It's a set of the mind.
SPEAKER_01: It's a mindset that transformed the civilized world at that time in such a powerful way that that's why you're here right now.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we're here right now, was because of the work, not only the writings, but also the missionary, pastoral, leadership work of the apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_01: And he arguably spent a quarter to a third of his adult life in prison.
SPEAKER_01: In prison.
SPEAKER_01: And yet God powerfully used him.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what we're going to do today, this morning, really quick.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to make a little journey into Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: So now turn to the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Philippians is about a mindset, and we're not going to go through the whole book of Philippians this morning.
SPEAKER_01: So don't start leaving.
SPEAKER_01: But what we are going to do is we're going to look at chapter three.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to look at chapter three, because chapter three, I believe, is one of those seminal passages in all of the New Testament that gives us an idea of how Paul thought, how he set his mind, how he disciplined his mind toward a vision and toward a goal.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to talk about vision tomorrow night.
SPEAKER_01: So Monday night, I'm going to talk about how you get a vision from the Lord and why getting a vision is important.
SPEAKER_01: For anything.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, for some of you this year, God's calling you to write a book.
SPEAKER_01: For some of you this year, God's calling you to start a company.
SPEAKER_01: For some of you this year, God's put before you a task that you're supposed to do in your work that's going to make Jesus great through God's power flowing through you in a supernatural, powerful way.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how do you know that?
SPEAKER_01: How do you get that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's what we're going to talk about tomorrow night, more than that.
SPEAKER_01: But right now I want to talk about a mindset, the mindset of Paul.
SPEAKER_01: And if I could give a theme over the book of Philippians, it would be the mindset, a mindset set on Jesus that produces joy.
SPEAKER_01: A mindset set on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Over 40 times Christ Jesus and God is mentioned.
SPEAKER_01: Joy is mentioned over 15 times, and mind is mentioned over 10 times in the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: So chapter one, just a real quick summation.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter one is being single-minded.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter one is about being single-minded to live as Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter two is about being submitted in mind.
SPEAKER_01: So chapter one is single-mindedness to live as Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter two is a submitted mind to have the mind of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And then chapter three, which is where we're going to settle for just a few verses, is the selfless mind.
SPEAKER_01: So a single mind, submitted mind.
SPEAKER_01: Now chapter three, a selfless mind.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to quickly go through the first part of chapter three, and then we're going to look at five ways that Paul gave us to have a focused life.
SPEAKER_01: A focused life.
SPEAKER_01: So let's start at verse one.
SPEAKER_01: Finally says, My brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's just start with it.
SPEAKER_01: He's in prison.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: So here's the deal, folks.
SPEAKER_01: He is rejoicing in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He's not rejoicing in his circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times that's misunderstood.
SPEAKER_01: When we teach about how do we handle adverse circumstances, you're not supposed to rejoice in your circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: You're called by God to rejoice in the Lord, in your circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: He's in prison and he's rejoicing in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And some of us here, you've got some pretty horrible circumstances to start the year.
SPEAKER_01: You may be struggling with bankruptcy.
SPEAKER_01: You may be struggling with a marriage that's not all that it should be.
SPEAKER_01: You may be struggling with some new knowledge about some stuff that's happening in your kids' life.
SPEAKER_01: It could be that you've been single and you really want to be married and you just had to break off that relationship and it's a struggle for you, and you're battling.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are battling with pornography.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have an addiction.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I want to start off with saying right here the mindset of Paul, it's not even one of my points, this is just a lead up, but it's rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: When you come on Sunday morning, rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We decided to shake things up a little because nobody's here for announcements usually.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to start with worship.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I want to encourage you to do: go in there, get your coffee, get your donut, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: You know, for you that are more healthy, get an apple, a banana, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Do that.
SPEAKER_01: But at 8.55, be in here this year.
SPEAKER_01: And when that first song starts, raise your hands, raise your hearts, and rejoice in the Lord, no matter how lousy your circumstances are, because they could be getting lousier this year.
SPEAKER_01: What are you gonna do in your heart?
SPEAKER_01: It's a choice that we make.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, beware of dogs.
SPEAKER_01: I love my dog.
SPEAKER_01: He's not talking about dogs.
SPEAKER_01: Beware of evil workers and beware of the mutilation.
SPEAKER_01: He was talking about the Judaizers at that time that basically were going around Asia Minor teaching that you had to become a Jew before you had to become a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: So that it wasn't for by grace alone through faith, it was through works that you came to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And grace was the opportunity you had to put your faith in Christ, but the real proof was the works of the Ten Commandments in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And so he said, beware of people like that.
SPEAKER_01: And they were even talking that you had to be physically circumcised.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: For we are the circumcision.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about the circumcision of the heart, who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, have no confidence in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: I ought to underline that.
SPEAKER_01: No confidence in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And now he tells us why he should have confidence in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: He says, though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more than them.
SPEAKER_01: Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's a guy that as much as he could as a Pharisee, as a man of the word of God, a man of the law of God, blameless.
SPEAKER_01: He will say in Romans that what he struggled with was coveting.
SPEAKER_01: But he was blameless in his outward behavior.
SPEAKER_01: He went to church every Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: He was involved in the church.
SPEAKER_01: Every time the door was opened, he was there.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he did it all and he said, look, I'm not going to put any of my confidence, even in my education, or even in my past experience.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he studied under Gamala, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: This was the Harvard professor of the Middle East.
SPEAKER_01: Even in secular writings, Gamalael is considered one of the greatest teachers of the law of all time.
SPEAKER_01: He was an up and coming star in Judaism, and he gave all that up to follow Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: But what things were gained to me, these I've counted loss for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So he put it all on the line.
SPEAKER_01: He gave up everything, and he he didn't say that he just counted everything as lost.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So he not only counted suffering, he actually did suffer.
SPEAKER_01: 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 in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul, that's an introduction now to his focused life.
SPEAKER_01: Paul had a focused life, that of knowing Christ, of loving Christ with all of his fiber.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that he had, heart, soul, mind, and strength.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna talk about this this week.
SPEAKER_01: As we move into the week, we're gonna know how do you love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna show you a diagram that I've put together of how we can begin to focus our life on loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: That affects our job.
SPEAKER_01: That affects how we handle money.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you've never learned how to handle money.
SPEAKER_01: You're constantly living with a spirit of poverty.
SPEAKER_01: I know because I came out of that kind of a background.
SPEAKER_01: You know, save, save, save.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe in saving, of course.
SPEAKER_01: But the generosity factor was just thrown out the window because all we cared about was security.
SPEAKER_01: That's a poverty mentality.
SPEAKER_01: I love what John Wesley said.
SPEAKER_01: He said, make all you can, give all you can, and save all you can.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that awesome?
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
SPEAKER_01: And we've tried, as the whole, to live that our whole life.
SPEAKER_01: Save all we can, give all we can, and make all we can.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how do you do that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's part of being in a focused understanding of knowing and loving Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So here's five steps.
SPEAKER_01: I see five steps here toward a focused life.
SPEAKER_01: So jot these down.
SPEAKER_01: Starting in verse 12, Paul gives us an insight into his thinking.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe this is the insight at the road that we want to have in the new year.
SPEAKER_01: Not, I love the way he starts, not that I have already attained it or am already perfected, but I press on.
SPEAKER_01: I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
SPEAKER_01: So number one, first thing, dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot have a focused life unless you're dissatisfied with your current life.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot be transformed, you cannot change, you cannot be a better athlete, you cannot be a better businessman, you can't be a better businesswoman, you can't be a better Christian.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot walk in Christ unless there's a holy dissatisfaction with where you currently are.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to be dissatisfied before God can give you a determination to move on.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to look at your life and go, man, I can do so much better here.
SPEAKER_01: I am not accessing the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in this area of my life.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, some of you have a drinking problem.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're drinking too much alcohol.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not against drinking alcohol.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about excess and drinking alcohol, and you are, you're borderline getting yourself in trouble right now because you're starting to just, you know, you're starting to crave that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are smoking pot.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us here are embezzling money.
SPEAKER_01: And when you heard the stuff about taxes, you're going, I'm not gonna pay any taxes.
SPEAKER_01: I said no problem for me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need Ryan's email.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to be dissatisfied with where you're at if you want more of God's blessings.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely true.
SPEAKER_01: Paul.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Paul has experienced visions and dreams.
SPEAKER_01: He's been in the third heaven, whatever that is.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But he was lifted up into heaven, he saw things in heaven he speaks of that he says, I can't even write about them because they're indescribable.
SPEAKER_01: And he's not satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: He was speaking, and if any of you have ever fallen asleep on one of my sermons, grace upon you, because it happened to Paul.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in good standing with men of God who've put people to sleep.
SPEAKER_01: I am a sometimes a spiritual anesthesiologist, but I don't get paid as well.
SPEAKER_01: But but Paul one time was preaching, and a guy, it says that sleep came upon him, and he fell out a third-story window.
SPEAKER_01: He was taken up dead, and Paul wrapped his arms around him and brought life back into his body.
SPEAKER_01: He raised people from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: He was so anointed of the Lord that they that the that the sweat headband that he wore was taken off and he was and it was laid on people and they got healed in one instance.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, I'm not satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if anybody should retiring and writing just books and hanging out and fly fishing, it's Paul.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm not satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, are you satisfied?
SPEAKER_01: If you're satisfied, then I guarantee you you won't be here this week.
SPEAKER_01: Because you don't have anything that you need.
SPEAKER_01: And so just keep coming and maybe someday you'll get it.
SPEAKER_01: But ask God, Lord, is are there things in my life that they're not what they should be?
SPEAKER_01: Have I grown satisfied?
SPEAKER_01: I like what Jay Vernon McGee one time said.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: I saw heard this one time.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: Today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: Because what happens is you're either going to be focused or you're going to be worried.
SPEAKER_01: And I know because I am the Emmy award-winning worrier in this room.
SPEAKER_01: Just ask my wife.
SPEAKER_01: I worry about trivial things more than anybody, and that is where I am going.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, that's where I'm going in 2017.
SPEAKER_01: I want to break off this trivial pursuit in my life.
SPEAKER_01: The game is great.
SPEAKER_01: I just don't like living it in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Trivial pursuit.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are so trivialized, and you're worried about so many trivial things.
SPEAKER_01: And until you start to take something greater than your trivialities of your own life, you will continue to be worried about trivial things.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm saying, be dissatisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God to make you dissatisfied, holy dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Not that I've already attained or am already perfected, but I press on.
SPEAKER_01: Underline that.
SPEAKER_01: Highlight that.
SPEAKER_01: Circle that.
SPEAKER_01: I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me.
SPEAKER_01: Number two.
SPEAKER_01: First, dissatisfaction, but dissatisfaction leads to number two, which is determination.
SPEAKER_01: Determination.
SPEAKER_01: Pressing in to know Jesus, to love Jesus, to follow Jesus, to be a wholehearted disciple of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It is a pressing, those are his words.
SPEAKER_01: It is the same idea of running a race.
SPEAKER_01: He's using the words of a runner pressing his chest toward the tape to be the first one to break the tape.
SPEAKER_01: And you may remember that Paul spent the majority of his time, one of the only times where he spent a lengthy time was at Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: He was in Ephesus for three years.
SPEAKER_01: And Ephesus had one of the largest arenas.
SPEAKER_01: I've had different commentaries say different things, but somewhere between 50 and 70,000 spectators could be in this arena.
SPEAKER_01: And it is believed that at least some of the Olympic Games were held in the first century in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_01: So it could be that Paul had seen those games.
SPEAKER_01: He had seen the Olympic Games.
SPEAKER_01: He had seen those runners, and that picture was lodged in his heart, was lodged in his mind, and that's why he uses metaphors like farmer, athlete, runner, and wrestler in his descriptions, in his epistles of what it's like to live the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian life is a pressing.
SPEAKER_01: It is a listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: It is a vibrant pursuit of the heart.
SPEAKER_01: For many of us, Christianity is just one of the boxes of our religious world that we live in.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I went to church.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, due church.
SPEAKER_01: Paul saw it continually and competitively different.
SPEAKER_01: He saw it as a vibrant pursuit of the heart where he wanted to be a winner in his understanding of the love of God and his grasp of knowing Christ in his life.
SPEAKER_01: And so we know what being a winning athlete is like.
SPEAKER_01: To me, looking at Paul in Philippians 3 is not unlike being in a room with someone like a John Wooden, you know, who took UCLA to 10 out of 12 years to national championships in basketball at UCLA, or a Coach K at Duke, or a George Mueller, or Jay Hudson Taylor.
SPEAKER_01: You know, having that opportunity to spend an hour or two with them and say, well, how do you, I mean, how do you think, man?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you you're just crazy.
SPEAKER_01: The things you've done.
SPEAKER_01: Your accomplishments are amazing.
SPEAKER_01: They're basically supernatural.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's showing us how he saw that.
SPEAKER_01: That pursuit, that determination.
SPEAKER_01: It's so many, I I mean, I can't divulge confidentiality, but many of you this year have come to me, or you've come to Ryan, or you've come to George, or you've come to Paul, or some of our shepherds and stewards saying, you know, my marriage is in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: I've got this issue in my life.
SPEAKER_01: I want that to change.
SPEAKER_01: I am not satisfied with where I'm at.
SPEAKER_01: And then you've done it.
SPEAKER_01: You've done it.
SPEAKER_01: You're doing
unknown: It.
SPEAKER_01: You're in a D group.
SPEAKER_01: You're in a C group.
SPEAKER_01: You're getting the counseling that you need.
SPEAKER_01: You're going out.
SPEAKER_01: That's determination.
SPEAKER_01: Courageous integrity.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a quote.
SPEAKER_01: Integrity is choosing courage over comfort.
SPEAKER_01: Choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy.
SPEAKER_01: Choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I call courageous integrity.
SPEAKER_01: For many of us, it's more now in your life than just following Christ, it's wanting to be a whole-hearted disciple of Christ, to experience more of Jesus in your life and heart.
SPEAKER_01: To not, listen, to not just have Christ living within us, but then Christ living through us.
SPEAKER_01: You see, see, Christ living within us happens at salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Christ living through us is what we call sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: So there is a within us part which you gotta have first, and that's called salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul was never satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing that's amazing about Paul.
SPEAKER_01: He never got over the joy of his salvation, but he was never satisfied with the joy of his salvation.
SPEAKER_01: He wanted more.
SPEAKER_01: Not just Christ within us, but Christ living through us.
SPEAKER_01: So how does Christ in his resurrection power live through your business, through your nursing, through your accounting, through your coaching, through your teaching, through being a housewife and a mother?
SPEAKER_01: How does the power of Christ and the love of Christ flow through your singleness?
SPEAKER_01: As a student, as one who maybe has recently gone through a miserable divorce.
SPEAKER_01: How do we go from just God living within us to living through us?
SPEAKER_01: That's determination.
SPEAKER_01: That determination for more of God's power flowing through us.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended.
SPEAKER_01: So there's that dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: But one thing I do.
SPEAKER_01: One thing I do.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, direction.
SPEAKER_01: Dissatisfaction, determination, and now direction.
SPEAKER_01: One thing I do, not a hundred things I dabble in.
SPEAKER_01: Paul had a direction for his life.
SPEAKER_01: He had a vision for his life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to talk about that tomorrow night.
SPEAKER_01: This vision, how do we get a vision?
SPEAKER_01: Why does it say without a vision the people perish?
SPEAKER_01: Why does it say without revelation the people are unconstrained?
SPEAKER_01: Well, there's a reason for that.
SPEAKER_01: So he's saying there's a vision for you.
SPEAKER_01: There's a goal.
SPEAKER_01: If your vision in life is to be happy, you're going to be miserable.
SPEAKER_01: If your vision in life is to be happy, you're going to be miserable because it's not a goal.
SPEAKER_01: It's the result.
SPEAKER_01: And there's nobody I know, take it from me after all these years, there's nobody I know who knows more about happiness than Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There's nobody in all of eternity, in all of the realm of the spirit and the physical, in the three-dimensional world, and the fourth-dimensional world that knows more about joy than Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus Christ, when he becomes our goal, we get happiness.
SPEAKER_01: We get joy.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus must be our goal.
SPEAKER_01: It's about direction.
SPEAKER_01: What's the direction?
SPEAKER_01: Get rich.
SPEAKER_01: What's the direction?
SPEAKER_01: Make as much money as you can.
SPEAKER_01: That's fine.
SPEAKER_01: As long as you're going to give it up give it to the Lord and bring glory to him through it.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's rejoicing in the Lord, and he's in prison.
SPEAKER_01: He's in prison right now and he's got joy because he's got direction and he's got vision for his life.
SPEAKER_01: So direction.
SPEAKER_01: Forgetting those things which are behind.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's the part that's really, really hard.
SPEAKER_01: Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to give you a new word.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't even know it was a word, but it had to start with a D.
SPEAKER_01: So we were sitting out by the fire, Isaac, I think it was Isaac, me, I think my son Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: We were sitting around the fire and I said, How do I say like forgetting the past and it starts with a D?
SPEAKER_01: And then I think Isaac said, disremember.
SPEAKER_01: And I went, Yeah, that's a good word.
SPEAKER_01: Is it real?
SPEAKER_01: It is.
SPEAKER_01: It's a real word.
SPEAKER_01: Disremember.
SPEAKER_01: So there's your fourth point.
SPEAKER_01: Disremember.
SPEAKER_01: It's a real word.
SPEAKER_01: Forgetting the past.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if anybody had so much to be proud of, it was Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Paul had planted numerous churches.
SPEAKER_01: Paul had a PhD for his generation.
SPEAKER_01: He had raised up disciples all over the uh all over Asia Minor.
SPEAKER_01: He had suffered for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He had so much he could be proud of, so much he could brag about.
SPEAKER_01: And he's forgetting about the past.
SPEAKER_01: He's disremembering the past.
SPEAKER_01: And I think the reason is because the past, especially a positive past and a good past, often does the opposite of what we think it's going to do.
SPEAKER_01: It actually sometimes doesn't create confidence.
SPEAKER_01: It actually creates a mild form of satisfaction that actually inhibits us from going for more.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul saw it as a forgetting of the past.
SPEAKER_01: And also remember about Paul, Paul had persecuted the church.
SPEAKER_01: So I believe we don't have exactly the words in the New Testament to verify this, but it would appear that Paul actually was a part of the killing of many believers.
SPEAKER_01: So murder was in his background, at least in a secondary form, because he was capturing the Christians and taking them to prison, and many of them possibly were executed.
SPEAKER_01: And so he had that.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you have stuff you're ashamed of in your past.
SPEAKER_01: And that shame, you've never faced that shame.
SPEAKER_01: I want to encourage you to face that shame.
SPEAKER_01: But then we've got to begin to renew our minds to allow the blood of Christ to forgive us, and we've got to disremember.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to move on with a new vision and a new direction and a new determination based in a dissatisfaction with where we currently are and move on to greatness to make Jesus great in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So we look at our lives and we say, those kind of people.
SPEAKER_01: I just, I just can't stand those kind of people.
SPEAKER_01: What if this year God's saying, I'm going to cause you by the power of my spirit to start loving in a new way, those kind of people?
SPEAKER_01: And you say, Well, I know I hear Steve, I've heard others talk about tithing, about giving 10% to the Lord financially.
SPEAKER_01: There is no way.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so in debt, it's unbelievable.
SPEAKER_01: What if the Lord's saying this year, you're going to start to test me, Malachi 3, you're going to start to test God with your finances.
SPEAKER_01: It's the only place and it's the only thing in all of the Bible that we're told that we can test God is with our finances, and you watch what God will do.
SPEAKER_01: He promises He'll open the windows of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Well, no, you can't.
SPEAKER_01: Not in your own power, and that's the point, right?
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: I can say hello, can you smell the coffee?
SPEAKER_01: Because you can.
SPEAKER_01: Hello, smell the coffee?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the reality is that the reason we don't get on to maturity in Christ with a new mindset is because we've never disciplined our life to face the reality that we actually have so much more of God's love and power we could experience.
SPEAKER_01: But you got to decide.
SPEAKER_01: God's given us this mindset.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember in my early days in high school, it was so crucial in my life, my junior year, that it actually dawned on me, you know, I think I can be a state champion gymnast in the state of Georgia.
SPEAKER_01: I'd seen enough of the other guys, I'd competed enough over those three years, I really thought I could do it.
SPEAKER_01: And so I set my mind, and that's what the next part is.
SPEAKER_01: This is my fifth point.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: I pressed toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And this is really where the rubber meets the road, gang.
SPEAKER_01: Number five, discipline.
SPEAKER_01: Discipline.
SPEAKER_01: Someone has said discipline is the bridge between a goal and an accomplishment.
SPEAKER_01: Discipline is the key.
SPEAKER_01: Discipline is the bridge between a goal and an accomplishment.
SPEAKER_01: You can't wish things into existence.
SPEAKER_01: You can't even just pray things into existence.
SPEAKER_01: The faith that comes, that changes the fourth dimension, and then the three-dimensional world is a disciplined life.
SPEAKER_01: It is saying this year, I'm going to start with that thing they call PBJ, that jelly sandwich thing, that PBJ thing.
SPEAKER_01: I am going to start to set aside time each morning to open God's word and take my journal and start spending time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, if you've never done that, just do it for five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: I promise you.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I told Cher.
SPEAKER_01: She reminds me all the time.
SPEAKER_01: In 1990, I said, Cher, just spend five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Just read one chapter of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Take you five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: And if you get anything from the Lord, write it on a card or get a journal or get a spiral notebook, whatever, and God's going to hook you.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to get hooked.
SPEAKER_01: And five's going to become ten, and ten's going to become twelve, and twelve is going to become fifteen.
SPEAKER_01: Discipline life.
SPEAKER_01: Desire, determination, discipline, delight.
SPEAKER_01: Write that down.
SPEAKER_01: Four thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: They all feed off each other.
SPEAKER_01: Starts with desire.
SPEAKER_01: That's a vision.
SPEAKER_01: That's direction.
SPEAKER_01: Desire leads to determination, leads to discipline, and then you get the delight.
SPEAKER_01: So many of us have never experienced the delight and joy of the Christian life because one of the D's is missing.
SPEAKER_01: I feel like my responsibility as a pastor is to give you, to provide you an atmosphere of desire, but you have to have the determination, and then you have to have the discipline to get to the delight.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you, like me, are going to fast and pray this week.
SPEAKER_01: I'm fasting all five days.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's enough things right now on my list that I believe God wants to do that I'm not going to break through unless I spend the next week in fasting and prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's something supernatural about fasting and prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not that you get stuff from God.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I believe it is.
SPEAKER_01: I believe fasting and prayer is putting yourself under the favor of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's putting yourself under the favor of God.
SPEAKER_01: And when you put yourself under the favor of God, you hear better, you listen better, you get words better, and God speaks to us in a mighty way better.
SPEAKER_01: So let me read to you again, 1 Corinthians 9 24.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read it again.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you realize that in a race everyone runs?
SPEAKER_01: But only one person gets the prize.
SPEAKER_01: So run to win.
SPEAKER_01: There's verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: All athletes are disciplined in their training.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul's saying, you can't run to win if you're not disciplined in your training.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we get the word disciple.
SPEAKER_01: And so God has called every one of you in this room to be whole-hearted disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Not half-hearted, not three-quarters hearted, whole-hearted disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Loving him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
SPEAKER_01: So join us this week.
SPEAKER_01: Join us on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
SPEAKER_01: And then I'm going to challenge you to kingdom come.
SPEAKER_01: And then we're going to do, then we're doing a 24-hour war room on Saturday and Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: One hour.
SPEAKER_01: And I say for some of you men, you should sign up for the most ungodly hours possible.
SPEAKER_01: Somewhere between midnight and 5 a.m., come and pray for one hour in our war room.
SPEAKER_01: We'll guide you in the prayer.
SPEAKER_01: There'll be worship there.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be worshiping and praying for one hour.
SPEAKER_01: Watch what God will do.
SPEAKER_01: Set your heart, set your mind, have a mindset of Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's how he concludes it.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, so he's speaking to those who are mature believers, have this mind.
SPEAKER_01: And if in anything you think otherwise, because some of you here right now you're thinking otherwise, you're like, man, he is a nut.
SPEAKER_01: I'm never coming back to this church again.
SPEAKER_01: This is way too much.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to pay for my pew and just sit there and you know put a few, put a few dollars in the little box out there and go home.
SPEAKER_01: Quit bugging me, man.
SPEAKER_01: Sort of a nervous chuckle, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Have this mind.
SPEAKER_01: And if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal this to you.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless.
SPEAKER_01: So he's saying, even if you have this other mind, even if you're not really that committed, you're not that mature, you've been coming to church all your life, but you never have figured all this stuff out.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, you just read the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible is only opened on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: And then you've got all the bulletins.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what's great about the road at this point, at least.
SPEAKER_01: We may we've talked about doing bulletins so many times, but right now we don't have a bulletin.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, some of you are really bummed because your Bible isn't full of road bulletins.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's the only time you open the Bible anyway.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, okay, if that's you, so nevertheless, if that's you, he says this to the degree, verse 16, that we've already attained, let us walk by that same rule, let us now be of that same mind.
SPEAKER_01: So, church.
SPEAKER_01: I believe God wants to bring revival to the churches of Colorado Springs and awakening to the city of Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's 2017, 2018, 2019, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But why not 2017?
SPEAKER_01: Why not?
SPEAKER_01: Why not this year God would do something amazing here at the road that is supernaturally of him, and nobody gets the credit but God.
SPEAKER_01: What if this year God wanted to so change your life that you'd have to come to this time next year and say, I don't know how it happened.
SPEAKER_01: I just set myself to be into the favor of God.
SPEAKER_01: I did what he said, this is the rule book.
SPEAKER_01: I followed the Bible, I started actually living the Bible with my life, and God did these amazing miracles, he gets all the glory.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens is that God becomes great when we position ourselves for us to become weak.
SPEAKER_01: If we will become weak this year, he'll become great.
SPEAKER_01: We have to position ourselves with holy dissatisfaction with the status quo.
SPEAKER_01: I do not want to be a status quo church.
SPEAKER_01: I do not want to be a status quo pastor, I do not want to be a status quo father, I do not want to be a status quo dad, um husband, nor Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritually, listen, don't get this wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritually empowered competitive determination.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritually empowered competitive determination, not for fame, not for glory, that we might win the prize of being all that we can know of Christ in our own personal life.
SPEAKER_01: That's a spiritually competitive heart.
SPEAKER_01: A one thing, a one thing direction, a disremembering of the past mistakes and sins of our life, but moving forward to a disciplined life.
SPEAKER_01: So you may feel like you've got a spiritually torn hamstring as you run the race.
SPEAKER_01: And our Heavenly Father comes and he puts his arm around you and he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: Let's begin that year running the race.
SPEAKER_01: Let's set our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And we all here at the road, we're gonna be applauding you.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be with you.
SPEAKER_01: You will have comrades.
SPEAKER_01: We call them bloodstained allies here.
SPEAKER_01: You need allies.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, you need blood-stained allies.
SPEAKER_01: Others who love you and will stand with you.
SPEAKER_01: God's gonna give you those relationships this year.
SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna begin to break out of that isolation into a new relationship with the Lord together as community.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're gonna do Monday through Friday and then Saturday and Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: It's community coming together to be all that Christ wants us to be.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today.
SPEAKER_00: And be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.