SPEAKER_00: Philippians 3 verses 12 through 15, Paul says, not that I've already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers, I don't consider that I've made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let those of us who are mature think this way.
SPEAKER_00: And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that to you also.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of God, and I pray that He would seal it on our hearts and minds this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a question for you.
SPEAKER_00: Is it possible to play a perfect game in sports?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it possible to have a perfect gymnastics routine?
SPEAKER_00: Is there any athletic activity that you can do perfectly?
SPEAKER_00: It's an appropriate question.
SPEAKER_00: I think of Nadia Nadia Comenci.
SPEAKER_00: She uh had a gymnastics routine in the Montreal Olympics.
SPEAKER_00: It was the most amazing routine that had ever before been performed.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the crowd was left speechless when it was done until the judge's score came up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: It was scored as 1.0.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd began booing, and the chief judge took the intercom to explain.
SPEAKER_00: No, it was actually a 10.0, the first perfect score ever in gymnastics.
SPEAKER_00: But because people had never before achieved a perfect score and it was assumed it wasn't possible, the scoreboards were not made with the capacity to show a 10.0.
SPEAKER_00: So she achieved a perfect 1.0.
SPEAKER_00: Since then gymnastics has redesigned their scoreboards and their scoring.
SPEAKER_00: Now there is a difficulty component that is factored into the score, and since there's infinite difficulty, there is a potentially infinite high score, meaning there is no such thing anymore as the perfect gymnastics routine.
SPEAKER_00: That's true in every sport.
SPEAKER_00: Baseball even has the category of a perfect game.
SPEAKER_00: But a pitcher can pitch a perfect game, yet when he walks off the field, certainly there was one thing he could have done differently.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly he had one pitch that got away from him, or he had to be bailed out by an outfielder, at the very least, he threw a ball somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: In every sport, there's always room for improvement.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody can do any athletic activity perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: Soccer is what I'm more familiar with.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what you win the game by, even if you think you dominated the other team, you always walk out the field going, ah, there's that one pass, I should have gotten it off my foot quicker, I should have held on to it longer, or I took an unnecessary risk going forward, or I should have been more adventurous.
SPEAKER_00: You can always be introspective about how you played the game.
SPEAKER_00: This is why in Philippians 3, Paul is using the metaphor of athletics for the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that you cannot play a perfect game, you cannot run the perfect race, you cannot do the perfect gymnastics routine, is kind of the base knowledge here that Paul holds on to to compare the Christian life to athletics.
SPEAKER_00: All of verses 12 through verse 16 really is using athletic metaphors, athletic imagery.
SPEAKER_00: These verses are filled with vocabulary that are drawn from the athletic world.
SPEAKER_00: Even in the Roman Empire, with the prevalence of the Isthmus games and the Olympic Games, they're very familiar with the athletic contests and the awards that went with them.
SPEAKER_00: There was so much vocabulary that was built up around those activities that everybody associates with them, and that's what the language that Paul uses here in Philippians 3 to describe the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: And he's staking the whole thing on the fact that you cannot lead the perfect Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: He says, in fact, at the beginning of verse 12, not that I've already obtained this, or I'm already perfect, that this here is perfection.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I haven't become the perfect Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't arrived at the spiritual plateau.
SPEAKER_00: There's always things, Paul is saying, that he can do differently in his Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Now we understand this.
SPEAKER_00: There's, no matter how godly you are, think of the godliest saint you can imagine, there's always mixed motives in his or her heart.
SPEAKER_00: There's always uh varying competing affections going on in their minds, even in the most uh righteous actions possible: the the giving to the poor, the praying, the helping the old lady cross the street from giant there at Braddock and Backlick, even in those kind of activities, there's always a mixture of motives.
SPEAKER_00: So you can never say in this life, oh, I've arrived.
SPEAKER_00: I've arrived.
SPEAKER_00: Are you perfect?
SPEAKER_00: Of course not.
SPEAKER_00: Of course you're not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: You know, imagine an athlete who says, you know what, there's no more skills that I need to learn in this sport.
SPEAKER_00: I I can't learn anything else.
SPEAKER_00: I have played this sport perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot improve in any other way.
SPEAKER_00: We have a word for that kind of athlete.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that word is?
SPEAKER_00: Retired.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, I haven't achieved it yet.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't arrived, but I'm pressing forward.
SPEAKER_00: He's pressing for perfection.
SPEAKER_00: The word that's translated perfect in verse uh 12, and you're gonna see it a few more times in this text here, is the Greek word teleos.
SPEAKER_00: Teleos is a very fascinating Greek word.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of my favorite Greek words.
SPEAKER_00: In English, it comes into English in two different ways: mature or perfect.
SPEAKER_00: And the idea is that somebody who is full grown to the height of their capacity, they're teleos.
SPEAKER_00: And so you could see why that word would come across as mature, when you've when you've grown up, when you've become what you're going to be, that we use in English that word mature.
SPEAKER_00: But in Greek it has even a more specific meaning, this idea of perfection according to the pattern.
SPEAKER_00: So you think of making cookies.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you have the cookie cutter and you're you're cutting out the dough, the the cookie batter or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And can you make the perfect cookie?
SPEAKER_00: You know, probably not.
SPEAKER_00: You know, every time you use the cookie cutter, there's gonna be part of it that is frayed or crumbly or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But so those are all the cookies always have room for improvement, except for the one exception is the the mold itself.
SPEAKER_00: That mold that is teleos.
SPEAKER_00: That mold is the perfect shape.
SPEAKER_00: Everything else is measured according to the mold.
SPEAKER_00: That's the language and the concepts Paul is using here.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, in athletics it makes perfect sense.
SPEAKER_00: You can never play the perfect game.
SPEAKER_00: You're always trying to get better.
SPEAKER_00: But when you apply that to the Christian life, what is the mold?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the mold of the Christian life is perfection.
SPEAKER_00: The mold of the Christian life is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He was the perfect Christian, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: He led the perfect, sinless life.
SPEAKER_00: So everything we do is measured to him.
SPEAKER_00: We strive forward, we press forward to be made more like Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be in the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to arrive in this life.
SPEAKER_00: We will never do things perfectly in this life any more than you can play the perfect game.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, we always strive for it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Paul is saying.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't obtained it yet.
SPEAKER_00: Now he has obtained Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's been converted.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He was regenerated on the road to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: The scales fell off of his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: The old became new.
SPEAKER_00: The new creation has come.
SPEAKER_00: He is now in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's a new man.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he recognizes that throughout his Christian life, there's temptations, there's struggles, there's mixed motives.
SPEAKER_00: He falls into sin.
SPEAKER_00: He capitulates, he recapitulates, he's always fighting the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote Romans 7.
SPEAKER_00: The things he hates to do is the very things that he finds himself doing.
SPEAKER_00: He is in the fight here.
SPEAKER_00: And he's pressing forward.
SPEAKER_00: He has received Christ, but he hasn't attained Christ in this metaphor here.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why does he use that athletic metaphor for this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he uses the athletic metaphor to grab that concept.
SPEAKER_00: And Americans tend to have mixed responses to athletics.
SPEAKER_00: There are those that, you know, take athletics too seriously, of course.
SPEAKER_00: They're probably not a church on a Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: And there are those that feel like comparing the Christian life to athletics trivializes the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: It's just sports.
SPEAKER_00: Why would Paul compare it?
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life is serious and it's a matter of your eternal destiny.
SPEAKER_00: Why would you compare that to sports?
SPEAKER_00: But Paul does compare it to sports, and he does so to make this point.
SPEAKER_00: A championship athlete is always trying to get better.
SPEAKER_00: He's always pressing forward.
SPEAKER_00: That word press forward, it's this idea that he's taking every fiber of his muscles, every ounce of adrenaline, every every and you know, every part of his energy is pressing forward towards the goal.
SPEAKER_00: He's reaching, straining forward.
SPEAKER_00: All the way down to his tiptoes.
SPEAKER_00: I saw a swim event yesterday where in the backstroke this person flipped over too early on the turn in the backstroke and missed the wall, and it was like slow motion.
SPEAKER_00: You could see him stretch out.
SPEAKER_00: You could see him trying to will his toenails to grow just a little bit longer to touch the wall.
SPEAKER_00: Paul would have sympathy for that image right here.
SPEAKER_00: He would have sympathy for that.
SPEAKER_00: He's using everything down to his toenails to stretch forward to the goal.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he wants.
SPEAKER_00: He's not perfect yet, but he's pressing on to make it his own.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this word pressing on, pressing on is this, uh it's a word that's used elsewhere in Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: It's translated persecution elsewhere.
SPEAKER_00: It's often used as persecution in the book of Acts, for example.
SPEAKER_00: And you think, how would pressing forward, which is an athletic term, by the way, how would that also be described as persecution?
SPEAKER_00: But you get the image, like maybe with an offensive-defensive line, they're pressing against each other in football.
SPEAKER_00: They're just hitting each other as hard as they can, trying to get movement.
SPEAKER_00: When that kind of energy is used against the church, it's persecution.
SPEAKER_00: It's being pressed in against the church.
SPEAKER_00: Paul uses it in Philippians 1 to talk about two choices that are pressing in on him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm hard pressed between the two to live and and uh and help the church or to die and be with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I don't know which I can choose.
SPEAKER_00: He's in prison.
SPEAKER_00: The guard is gonna call down his name.
SPEAKER_00: He might go free, or he might go to his martyrdom.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I don't know which one I want.
SPEAKER_00: When I hear my name, I don't know if I hope it's for freedom or for death.
SPEAKER_00: I want to help the church, but I also want to die and be with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'm hard pressed between the two.
SPEAKER_00: Well, here he uses that word again, only here it is active.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one pressing on.
SPEAKER_00: Earlier he was pressed on by this choice.
SPEAKER_00: Now in verse 12, he's pressing on.
SPEAKER_00: And what is he pressing on towards?
SPEAKER_00: Towards perfection.
SPEAKER_00: Towards perfection, towards being like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to be like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This word teleos is the same word from 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul says, now in this life we see dimly.
SPEAKER_00: We see so dimly in this life.
SPEAKER_00: We look at the Bible and we strain our eyes, and the Bible is clear, but we're not clear, and it's just everything as foggy is the analogy in 1 Corinthians 13.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we have spiritual gifts to help us grow like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But then Paul says, listen, the time is going to come when the veil will be lifted, the mirror will be unfogged.
SPEAKER_00: When you die, you're going to open your eyes and you're going to lay hold of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The perfect, the teleos, the mature, the perfect Jesus Christ will appear.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, you will be made like him perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: Not until then.
SPEAKER_00: Until then, you're constantly trying to defog the mirror.
SPEAKER_00: But when you die and you open your eyes to behold Jesus Christ, at that moment you will be like him.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: I am just pressing on for that day.
SPEAKER_00: I'm straining for the finish line.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know where the finish line is, though.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the finish line is his death, obviously.
SPEAKER_00: He writes in Philippians 1 that he's preparing for martyrdom.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't know when it's going to come.
SPEAKER_00: In this sense, he's like the marathon athlete.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in the Olympics today, anyway, the marathon usually ends inside the stadium.
SPEAKER_00: But some of these courses wind so far away from the stadium along the river and through the city streets that the runner can't see the stadium.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know where the finish line is.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard stories of marathon runners getting so confused at the end of the marathon, they come into the stadium and they hit the track and they don't know which way to go.
SPEAKER_00: They've gone the same way in the track every marathon their whole life, but they get to that point in the Olympics and they're they blank on it.
SPEAKER_00: They often have people there to point them where to run.
SPEAKER_00: They can't see the finish line, they just don't know where it is.
SPEAKER_00: You know roughly where it is, just like in this life, you know roughly when you're gonna die, give or take a century or so.
SPEAKER_00: In the scope of eternity, that's pretty pretty punctual.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the strength of a man is 90 years, barely, with luck and a tailwind.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know for sure.
SPEAKER_00: That's Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, he wants to finish the line.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to see Christ so badly.
SPEAKER_00: He's reaching forward, pressing forward, straining forward.
SPEAKER_00: But he hasn't received perfection yet.
SPEAKER_00: He's straining forward to make Christ Jesus his own.
SPEAKER_00: This says, on account of which Christ Jesus has made me his own.
SPEAKER_00: A very unusual expression in the Greek, the on the account of which it's rendered in the ESV.
SPEAKER_00: Because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the word for because, though, it's a different expression.
SPEAKER_00: An analogy I think will help.
SPEAKER_00: You go to the grocery store because you're hungry.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that?
SPEAKER_00: Your tummy grumbles, you go to the grocery store because you're hungry, or you go to the grocery store to get something else, like, you know, I don't know, a card or something, and you walk in and you smell the rotisserie chicken.
SPEAKER_00: You go to the grocery store on the account of which you are now hungry.
SPEAKER_00: That's this expression here, that second one.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is reaching forward, straining forward for Christ Jesus, on account of which Christ Jesus will make him his own.
SPEAKER_00: This is very teleos, it's very forward-looking, looking towards the finish line, looking towards the maturity in Christ, looking forward to perfection.
SPEAKER_00: So he's running the race, he's straining forward for the finish line with all of his exertion.
SPEAKER_00: Now he knows ultimately when he hits the finish line, when he hits death, it's going to be Jesus that carries him across.
SPEAKER_00: He knows that.
SPEAKER_00: It's even passive in the Greek here.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't come across in English, but it's passive.
SPEAKER_00: He will obtain this.
SPEAKER_00: It will be Christ Jesus who makes him perfect.
SPEAKER_00: He's running the race with all of his effort, all of his energy, straining for the finish line, and it will be Jesus that grabs him and pulls him across.
SPEAKER_00: But he still works for it.
SPEAKER_00: He still labors for it.
SPEAKER_00: This kind of metaphor is not unique to here.
SPEAKER_00: You see it in Hebrews 12, verse 1 run with perseverance, the race marked out before you.
SPEAKER_00: Another place where the Christian life is compared to a marathon, you're running the race that the Lord marked for you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus ran the race before you.
SPEAKER_00: He ran the course first.
SPEAKER_00: You think of the cross-country races with the flags where you're supposed to turn?
SPEAKER_00: And you haven't run, often in cross-country, you haven't run the course before.
SPEAKER_00: Is the first time you're seeing it is when you run it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: You're running the race that's marked out for you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know where to turn left or right, but Jesus ran it before you, and he has left the markings of it.
SPEAKER_00: It's marked out by suffering in Hebrews 12, 2 Timothy 2, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone competes as an athlete, he's not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
SPEAKER_00: Another place Paul compares the Christian life to athletics.
SPEAKER_00: There, there's rules to the game.
SPEAKER_00: Abide by them.
SPEAKER_00: If you cheat, you'll be disqualified.
SPEAKER_00: But here, he uses this analogy to speak of the discipline, the effort, and the intensity that's required to lead the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: He knows he can't do it perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 13, I don't consider I've made it my own.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's not boasting here.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying I'm the perfect Christian.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I don't consider that I've made it my own.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't won yet.
SPEAKER_00: And this is confusing to people.
SPEAKER_00: Paul tells you to reach forward, to aim for perfection, to try to be perfect.
SPEAKER_00: But you know you can't be perfect.
SPEAKER_00: This is the, in a sense, the law.
SPEAKER_00: Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: And you think, yeah, but I can't be perfect.
SPEAKER_00: And this is confusing to some people.
SPEAKER_00: And people will say, why does the Bible tell you to aim for perfection if you can't ever achieve it in this life?
SPEAKER_00: And a person that asks that question probably has not played sports.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul's analogy.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you've played sports, you've had a coach yell at you, perfect practice equals perfect results.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect effort equals perfect results.
SPEAKER_00: You get that, you know, drilled into your head.
SPEAKER_00: As a freshman in high school, you get it drilled into your head.
SPEAKER_00: You put in perfect effort, you'll have perfect results.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it would be so foolish to say, yeah, but coach, I can't do anything perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: Of course you can't, but you aim for it.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard the expression, you want to you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.
SPEAKER_00: But if you want to beat the best, you have to train better than the best.
SPEAKER_00: You want to train better than the best, you have to have an effort and an intensity and devotion and a work ethic better than the best.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever the best team is, you have to train harder than them to put you can't just roll up to the field and put your uniform on and say, I think I'm gonna beat the best team out there if you haven't been training harder than they have.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the analogy for the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't obtained perfection, Paul says, but I'm gonna run like I'm gonna train for it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna buffet my body, he says to the Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna beat myself into submission so that I can press forward.
SPEAKER_00: One thing I do, he says in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: One thing I do, he's channeling every muscle, every movement, every last drop of adrenaline towards the finish line.
SPEAKER_00: He says, one thing I do, I forget what lies behind, and I strain forward to what lies ahead.
SPEAKER_00: You have to love it when Paul says there's one thing, and then gives you two things.
SPEAKER_00: There's one thing you need to do to run the Christian race like an athlete.
SPEAKER_00: First, forget what's behind you.
SPEAKER_00: Second, look at what's in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm keeping score at home, and I counted two.
SPEAKER_00: There are two sides of the same coin, of course, and you understand this as an athlete.
SPEAKER_00: As an athlete, you can you know, basic principle of sports psychology here is you can only be responsible for what you're responsible for.
SPEAKER_00: You are not responsible for the referee's calls, you're not responsible for the weather, you're not responsible for your teammate who drops the perfect pass.
SPEAKER_00: If you're the pitcher and you're throwing a great game and you throw a decent pitch that gets hit to what should be an easy catch in the outfield, and the outfielder drops it, you can see how that would mess with you psychologically.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't let it.
SPEAKER_00: You're not responsible for that out how the outfielder catches the ball.
SPEAKER_00: You're not responsible for your teammates, you're not responsible for your opponents, you're not responsible for the official, you are only responsible for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You're not responsible, in a sense, for what happened yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: That's yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: You forget about that last play, you forget about that last pass, you forget about the last game, you forget what is behind you.
SPEAKER_00: So that you channel all of your effort into what is in front of you to see what the outcome will be.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he's saying in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: I am forgetting everything.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the forgetting everything has both negative and positive connotations to it.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he's forgetting all the negative things in his life, the sin that used to define him.
SPEAKER_00: He's not dwelling on his former depravity here.
SPEAKER_00: He's not dwelling on how he used to uh, you know, be a persecutor of the church.
SPEAKER_00: When he says, by the way, that he's forgetting it, he doesn't mean amnesia, that he literally doesn't remember it.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in chapter 3, verses what, 1 through 11 or so, he lists all the ways he used to persecute the church.
SPEAKER_00: He lists his previous life.
SPEAKER_00: He gives you his bio.
SPEAKER_00: So when he says, I'm forgetting about it, he means I'm not paying any attention to that.
SPEAKER_00: He he enumerated it a few verses ago, just so that you're familiar with who he is, but he's not defined by those things.
SPEAKER_00: He's not defined by what happened yesterday in the negative sense.
SPEAKER_00: He's not letting yesterday's sin define him today.
SPEAKER_00: He's shaking it off.
SPEAKER_00: And also in a positive sense, he's not resting on yesterday's laurels.
SPEAKER_00: He's not the athlete that's run a good race and is now kind of towards the final lap, so he's just gonna jog the final lap.
SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna jog and rest on the churches he planted yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna say, Oh, Philippians, you know, I'm done, brothers.
SPEAKER_00: It's been a fun ride.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in prison, I'm enjoying the food here.
SPEAKER_00: Good luck out there.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's not gonna jog the last lap.
SPEAKER_00: He's not trusting himself for the churches he planted and the baptisms he did yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: That's all yesterday's news.
SPEAKER_00: He's also not defined negatively by all the sins of yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: That's yesterday's news.
SPEAKER_00: Another very helpful athletic analogy is Paul's making from this.
SPEAKER_00: Good athletes don't think about the game yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: The championship team, the team that wins the World Series, they can celebrate for a day or two or four or whatever, but come next week, they have to begin training for next season.
SPEAKER_00: You can't rest on last season's victories.
SPEAKER_00: You begin preparing for the next season.
SPEAKER_00: And when the next season comes around, nobody cares if you won the championship last year.
SPEAKER_00: You take the field next season, there's a close call, and the ref makes the call against you.
SPEAKER_00: You can't say, Oh, ref, come on, we won the championship last year.
SPEAKER_00: Give us the call.
SPEAKER_00: You forget about last year, the opponents forgot about last year.
SPEAKER_00: They don't play you differently because you won.
SPEAKER_00: They're focused on what's in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: That's the analogy Paul gives to the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: That's how runners run.
SPEAKER_00: Runners don't think about the lap, the last lap.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever seen a sprinter checking out the people on his left and the right?
SPEAKER_00: Of course not.
SPEAKER_00: You see a swimmer in a contest going down, except for backstroke, all the other strokes going down to the end line, they can't check out where the other swimmers are.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine somebody swimming.
SPEAKER_00: You can't run like that.
SPEAKER_00: You can't compete like that.
SPEAKER_00: You can only focus in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: You can only strain forward.
SPEAKER_00: That's Paul's analogy here.
SPEAKER_00: He's straining forward.
SPEAKER_00: Again, more athletic terminology.
SPEAKER_00: Straining forward.
SPEAKER_00: Some translations use the word reach.
SPEAKER_00: I think the NS is reaching there.
SPEAKER_00: Reaching, okay, reaching is like reaching for the top shelf.
SPEAKER_00: Straining here is every fiber in your body channeled towards one end.
SPEAKER_00: And here the end is what's in front of them, Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: It's the goal.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, I'm pressing on.
SPEAKER_00: There's that word again, pressing forward for the goal of the prize, another athletic word.
SPEAKER_00: That word prize, it's only used in athletics.
SPEAKER_00: It's another athletic metaphor here.
SPEAKER_00: The prize here is what the athlete is competing for.
SPEAKER_00: They're not competing for the finish line, they're competing for the prize behind the finish line.
SPEAKER_00: And so it is true with Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He's pressing forward for the goal.
SPEAKER_00: It's not death, it's the prize that comes after death.
SPEAKER_00: The prize is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The prize is Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The purpose of his life in chapter one is to be like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And now in chapter three, the purpose is the prize.
SPEAKER_00: He is devoting every fiber of his Christian life to being like Jesus Christ because Jesus is the prize of life.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he gets when he dies.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he gets when he finishes his race, if he competes according to the rules.
SPEAKER_00: He gets to be made like Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that won't happen if he's focused on the heartbreaks of yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: That won't happen if he focuses on the successes of yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: It only happens if he channels his energy forward to the goal.
SPEAKER_00: There's a mentality that comes with championship teams.
SPEAKER_00: They have the attitude, like, listen, one team is going to win the championship this year.
SPEAKER_00: Only one.
SPEAKER_00: Athletes aren't delusional.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they play in a league with 32 other teams.
SPEAKER_00: They're not confused.
SPEAKER_00: They know only one of those 32 will win.
SPEAKER_00: And yet a championship team has the mentality if there's only one person that's going to win, I want to train like I'm that one person.
SPEAKER_00: I want to practice like I'm on the team that's going to win the championship.
SPEAKER_00: I want to play like it's me that's going to win, and then we'll see what happens.
SPEAKER_00: If I don't train like that and I don't think like that and I don't play like that, it won't happen.
SPEAKER_00: It's not saying that if you train and think and play and practice like a champion, you will be one, of course not.
SPEAKER_00: But you won't be one without that thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Paul says about the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan Edwards writes it this way: resolved.
SPEAKER_00: Supposing that there is only one true Christian who has ever lived.
SPEAKER_00: Resolved that I will live as if I were that Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And there are those that read that and think, oh, how arrogant is Jonathan Edwards.
SPEAKER_00: Again, that's not how an athlete reads that.
SPEAKER_00: How arrogant to say there's only one true Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I want it to be me.
SPEAKER_00: What about humility, Edwards?
SPEAKER_00: This is what a coach tells his team.
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be one championship team this year.
SPEAKER_00: You better train and think and practice and play like it's you.
SPEAKER_00: And then see what happens.
SPEAKER_00: That's Paul's purpose.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't pay attention to yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: He's only focused on what's in front of him.
SPEAKER_00: He says it very clearly, by the way, in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: Same kind of metaphor.
SPEAKER_00: Do you not know that those who run in a race all run?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no kidding, they're running in a race.
SPEAKER_00: But only one receives the prize.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, everybody running, of course, everybody who starts the marathon is all going to run the marathon, but there will only be one champion.
SPEAKER_00: So run in such a way that you will win.
SPEAKER_00: In the positive sense, the championship athlete, his diet, his exercise, his sleep is all funneled towards that goal.
SPEAKER_00: For the Christian, all of your thoughts, your affections, your money, your attitudes, it's all channeled towards that goal.
SPEAKER_00: You're always looking for a way to get better.
SPEAKER_00: You want to mature in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You want perfection.
SPEAKER_00: This is talking about godliness.
SPEAKER_00: So you're thinking, oh, well, how do I strain forward towards the prize?
SPEAKER_00: You're introspective.
SPEAKER_00: You look at your motives, you look at your attitudes, you confess sins, you peel away things that are not pleasing to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You're always getting to the heart issue in your life to become more like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: You're straining forward.
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody thinks like that.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15, let those of us who are mature, that's the same word telly us.
SPEAKER_00: So here it's obviously used as mature.
SPEAKER_00: Earlier he says there's no way I'm that, but here he's saying, like some of us are, he doesn't mean perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why it comes across in English as mature.
SPEAKER_00: Let those of us who are mature think this way.
SPEAKER_00: Let those of us who are godly, let those of us who are grown in godliness, who are being sanctified, think like this.
SPEAKER_00: It would be silly for somebody the first time that I've never played baseball before, but to take the baseball field and go, I think I'm going to win a World Series this year.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you're not really on the right team.
SPEAKER_00: Takes a whole life of preparation.
SPEAKER_00: Not every Christian, a Christian who just gets saved, doesn't think like this, of course.
SPEAKER_00: You know, immature Christians can default to binary thinking about sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: Immature Christians default to, is this sin or is it not sin?
SPEAKER_00: That's a very immature way of thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Like a yes, no, sin or not sin.
SPEAKER_00: If you parented teenagers, you've had this encounter, right?
SPEAKER_00: You tell them not to do anything.
SPEAKER_00: Are you saying it's sin if I do it?
SPEAKER_00: Immature thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Mature thinking is to recognize that in every action there is mixed motives.
SPEAKER_00: Even in the best of actions.
SPEAKER_00: And you're going to war against those mixed motives.
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to expose that sin.
SPEAKER_00: And every day, and every day, you had anxieties and worries that were sinful that you should repent of.
SPEAKER_00: You had motives for pride and putting yourself forward that you should repent of.
SPEAKER_00: You had materialism and covetousness that you should repent of.
SPEAKER_00: And every day you have those things.
SPEAKER_00: The immature people don't think like that.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul says, the mature people do.
SPEAKER_00: And here's where it comes to ministry in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, the mature people think like this in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: And if anything you don't think like that, God will reveal it to you.
SPEAKER_00: So if you don't think that way yet, you're still playing little league here.
SPEAKER_00: You don't think about the goal of the Christian life is to be completely like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't think like that, Paul says, the Lord will teach you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a believer, the Lord will teach you that lesson.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how is the Lord going to teach it to you?
SPEAKER_00: He's going to use the church.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to use sermons.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to use fellowship with other people.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to use books that you read.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to use providence.
SPEAKER_00: Just things in this life that will expose your own sin to you.
SPEAKER_00: He has 10,000 means at his disposal to show you ways you're immature.
SPEAKER_00: And the mature person wants those things.
SPEAKER_00: The mature person comes off the field and says, What can I do better, coach?
SPEAKER_00: The mature person says, I want to get more like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And God will use the church to do that in your life.
SPEAKER_00: This is the goal of ministry.
SPEAKER_00: This is the goal of Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: It's on our wall.
SPEAKER_00: It's our purpose statement to make mature followers of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Who seek, serve, and share.
SPEAKER_00: Our goal as a church is to provoke one another towards godliness, to make you mature, to make you the kind of Christian that is striving forward, pushing forward towards the finish line, longing to be made like Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: God, we're grateful for the race you've marked out before us.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful that Jesus ran the race before us, that he, being God, became man, that he being perfect man became sin for us.
SPEAKER_00: That our sin was given to him, he was crucified, buried, and resurrected on the third day, so that we can live.
SPEAKER_00: And not just so that we can live, but so that we can live for him.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for this congregation, Lord, I pray.
SPEAKER_00: For those of us who are mature, I pray that you would help us press forward towards the call.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be more like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For those of us who are immature, I pray that you would convict us of our immaturity.
SPEAKER_00: Give us a desire to put off the elementary principles of this life and put on the true doctrine of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be made in his image.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.