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Now, how many of you guys are excited that the Olympics are coming this summer? Anybody? I mean, we haven't really heard that much about it. I don't know if it's because of all the bad publicity they've gotten with the pollution and all the issues that they're having. But I'm I always get excited when the Olympics come. It's gonna cost me some sleep. Uh I already know that, and so this is part of the deal. But I love uh watching the Olympics, these these professional athletes, these finely tuned human bodies that have done all this incredible work and training to be prepared for this. My parents live, I said while I go in Colorado, near them in Colorado Springs, there's actually an Olympic training center, and so a lot of the American athletes will go there to train. Even some athletes from around the world will train in the higher elevation altitude, less oxygen, so they push their bodies to the extremes, right? And then they come back to where there's more oxygen, hopefully they perform better. Uh I mean, these guys they do phenomenal, disciplined acts in order to be ready to go for the gold, right? And so that's part of the Olympics that that we love. I can't imagine some doing some of the things that they do dietary restrictions, uh, some of the getting up at like 4 30 in the morning to run, you know, 18 miles or whatever, and it's crazy, and to get themselves ready to perform so they can get the gold medal, or at least attempt to get the gold medal. And I had a friend in Houston, uh, he's still there, he was a decathlete. Those guys are ridiculous, like just studs of all studs. I mean, they have to do all these, they have to do 10 different events, and uh and he was phenomenal, and he always would would struggle with staying healthy because they were pushing their body so hard in order to be ready. But I remember like even he would tell stories where um he would have to eat certain things and not eat certain things, and I was like, bro, man, I'm just not disciplined like that. I'm like, if I see a steak, I'm gonna eat it, right? You know, if I see Doritos, come on, they're going in my belly. That's just kind of how I am. But this guy was like so disciplined, has great self-control, and he was just the, you know, you look at him, he's just a physical specimen, you're like, wow, like wow. But he got there because of all the effort that he had to put into it. Now I'm saying that because this morning we're gonna look at a passage of scripture in Philippians chapter 3, where Paul is talking about this like crazy effort that is required if we want to experience all that God has for us and to actually live out this beautiful gospel we've been talking about, this message that Christ has saved us, but we now are living a changed life, a transformed life, an increasingly transformed life because of what Christ has done for us. And so it made me think a lot about these Olympic athletes because Paul uh is a great teacher and he uses physical analogies and he uses even in this message today to the Philippians in his letter to speak to this idea that it takes physical exertion to actually become the Christ follower that God intends for us to be. Okay? So if you guys have your Bible, let's read along here, and then we're gonna unpack this together. Here we go. Verse 12. Actually, we're gonna back up to verse 10 because it fits in to where we're headed beginning in verse 12. So let's start with verse 10. This is Paul again writing to the people of Philippi, encouraging them, challenging them to grow. My goal is to know him, that would be Jesus, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. Not that I have already reached the goal, am already mature, fully mature, but I will make every effort to take hold of it because I have also been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead. I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, all who are mature should think this way, and if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. Join in imitating me, brothers, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For I have often told you, and now again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their stomach, their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself. So once again, uh we have a passage that is packed full of great truths. And so we're not going to be able to cover every angle of all the scriptures that are here and all the truth that is packed into this, these twelve verses or so here. But I do want to say this Paul has been reminding us throughout the book of Philippians to cling to the gospel message, not to stray away from it. And so just a quick summary of even where he was in the first half of chapter three, where he said you need to watch out because there's these dogs, these evil workers, uh, these Judaizers, they're gonna try to get you to add things to the gospel, i.e. circumcision. They're gonna try to get you to build up your religious resume and that to make you think that somehow if you do the right things, then God will approve of you. And the problem is that that's not what the gospel teaches us. It's not about what we do to attain the gospel, to attain the salvation that we've received. We receive by faith in Christ, right? Our salvation, through his perfection, through his works. And so, just as a review there, we must guard against putting our trust in our ability to save ourselves. We are saved through faith in Jesus' work on our behalf. Now, I know that for some of you, like, yes, I get this. We say this all the time. Yes, but I'm telling you subtly, these things creep in. Uh, this week in our life group, I love how in a life group context in our home when we talk about the Bible, we we really get to unpack what the scripture says and sometimes in more detail, and even asking the question, how are we applying this? And it was just a very candid, honest, open conversation in community. And you could see how each one of us have ways that we try to attach things to Jesus in order for our salvation, to gain our salvation. So we attach good works, we attach performance, we attach different things like we talked about last week to build our religious resume, to be righteous. And so be very careful not to put your confidence in your own ability to save you because you can't save yourself. It's impossible to live up to the perfection standard that is required to be with God. But thankfully, in Christ we have received righteousness. It's been imputed to us, it's been given to us. Okay. Also, one thing is that when we read a passage like this, I don't know about you guys, but I can instantly feel like some shame, some guilt, um, maybe even feel a little bit overwhelmed and discouraged because I'm listening to this apostle Paul write, and man, he is passionate about Jesus. Have you ever been around somebody who really is in love with Jesus? And you're like, that's all well and good, but just, man, like you're making me feel bad. Like, quit talking about him so much. Quit acting like quit getting so excited. I've been around people like that sometimes where it's like, I'm so glad you're excited, but you're making me feel really bad right now. Because I'm just not that excited, I'm not that pumped up, I'm not that hungry, I'm not this. Like I can feel that sometimes. And I want you to know this morning that even as we read this passage, which is kind of an explosion of passion from Paul, I mean, he's just like just kind of going for it now. He's letting it all hang out. He's just saying, here's what we're running for, here's where we're headed, press on, let's do this. And sometimes, even for me on Sunday mornings, I watch your faces, and I know that I've been reading through a passage all week long, and I've been thinking about it to the point that I'm literally like ready to explode with what God has shown me, the beauty of who Christ is. And you're just like, hey, just hold down a little bit, just kind of tame it down, Nick. Don't get too excited up there, you know. We're just kind of going along this thing, don't get too over, you know, hyped up and stuff. Listen, I think probably when we read passages like this, we can feel some of that. And I want to just reiterate that when we teach the Bible, the goal is not condemnation, but conviction. The goal is not to condemn us, but to convict us. And specifically, not my job, my job is not to convict you. We're gonna talk about that more in a minute, but my job is to display the truth and let the Holy Spirit convict. Because God is stirring us. He does love us enough to convict us. He does love us enough to show us that there's areas in our life that we've got to grow. We need to grow up. We need to make steps in progress in our faith, in our belief, in our practice, in our values. All those things are continually changing as a Christ follower. That's normative. In fact, Paul Tripp says it this way: I think this is really a helpful thought. He says, God never reveals our hearts to discourage us. Convicting us of sin is one of the most profound ways he demonstrates his love for us. He is committed to completing his work in us. He will not allow us to live with hearts that are enslaved. He works in every situation so that we would know the freedom his death purchased for us. The conviction of our hearts is a sign that we are his dearly loved children. If you're not convicted, that's a problem. His dearly loved children who have not only been forgiven of our sins, but are in the process of being delivered from them. That's good, isn't it? You see, God loves us enough to not leave us alone. Yeah, he loves us in our mess. Yes, he doesn't ask us to clean ourselves up and then come to him. That's not what he says. But he does love us enough to say, if you're walking in disobedience, I can't like ignore that. Because you're not only offending me, because our sin is offensive to God, by the way, but you're also hurting yourself and you're hurting others because sin is deadly, it's dangerous, it's destructive. And we see this in our lives time and time again. So he can't let us walk in open materialism and think that somehow that stuff's gonna satisfy us and we're gonna be all happy because he knows that that's not true. That's not what he saved this for, is to just go continue to walk in sin, to walk in idolatry. He wants to set us free. He purchased our freedom, guys. So why would he let us just walk in slavery? And you're like, well, I'm not enslaved. So he can leave that alone. And the truth is, is when you ask the question, well, stop doing it. Well, I can't. Then you're enslaved, okay? That's that's where you are. That's how the the flesh works. And so we need to understand that God is convicting us to grow us. But know this at the same time, Romans 8:1, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, right? If we're in Christ, we're not condemned. We're not cut out of the God of God's family, we're not kicked out of heaven, we're not, we don't lose our forgiveness, we don't lose our redemption because we perform poorly, because we don't have everything figured out yet. All right? So Paul's gonna now take us through this process of explaining what a mature believer looks like. And I would actually make this clarification. I think that what he's really saying is what every believer should look like. A maturing is maybe a better way to say this. A maturing believer, someone who's in process. And if you're a Christ follower, you're in process. But notice the first thing that Paul says here in his letter. I think this is this is really huge. He says, not that I have already obtained, this is verse 12, not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature. And then verse 13, he says it a little bit differently, but says the same basic thing. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. Now there is a lie that permeates the leadership culture in our our country, the United States, and in many other cultures too, but particularly in the United States, I'd say this is true, where we think that if you're the leader, you cannot show weakness. Right? Like if you're the leader, if you're in the charge, you're the head, then you better make sure you got all your T's crossed, your I's dotted. You've got to make sure you present a real pretty picture. Because if not, admitting weakness undermines your authority. And I actually think that scripture shows us we are set free to admit that we have issues. We are admit, we admit that we have needs, admit that we haven't, like Paul did here, haven't arrived. This is the Apostle Paul. I mean, Paul has got this incredible resume. He's already expressed it before. I mean, this guy has suffered. He's been walking with Jesus for 30 years. He has done incredible things in terms of planting churches and helping people know Jesus, building the kingdom. This guy is full on for Jesus. And yes, yet, what does he say? I have not arrived. That's encouraging, right? I haven't obtained it yet. I haven't fully gotten there. What is he talking about? I don't fully know Jesus. He's not saying he doesn't know Jesus as a savior. He's saying, but I haven't fully continued to realize in every single area of my life that Jesus is my savior, he's my king, he's my Lord. There's still things that God's working out in me. There's things that God's doing in me. I had the privilege of having lunch with a man that goes to church here this week. And over hamburgers, as an 88-year-old man who has been walking with Jesus a long time, he expressed that he is still growing in his walk with Jesus. You know how encouraging that is to me? And discouraging, but encouraging? No, it's really encouraging because I know like I'm gonna continue to have to work out this thing. This is gonna continue to grow over time. There's there's gonna be areas God's gonna continue to put his finger on in my life because again, he loves me. There's still temptations that we're gonna fight in our daily lives, no matter how old we get. Because in this side of heaven, we are human flesh. And there's still this war in us going on. Yes, we're children of God if we've put our trust in Christ, if we've received salvation. But we still have to battle our flesh every day, right? There's still moments I wake up in the morning, I pray, and I seek God, and then one of my kids ticks me off. I mean, they come in, they say something, they do something, and in that moment, I just let my flesh come out, right? And I'm like, God, why did I do that? Because I'm in a battle, right? And I'm still being perfected. I'm still increasingly. I'm not, I don't, I don't act like Jesus in that moment. I act like the anti-Jesus, right, in that moment. Because I'm in a process. And as leaders, Paul is modeling for us that we should be willing to admit we haven't arrived. In fact, I would say mature believers admit they still need to grow. That's what mature leaders do, because the closer you get to Jesus, the more you see your issues. The more you walk with Jesus, the more you see your struggles. The more you realize, man, I thought I was doing pretty good, but the closer I get to Jesus, I realize this is my heart is really jacked up. Like I've got some motives over here that are really not good. I thought I was doing it for the right reason, but really it was all about me. I wanted people to like me. I wanted people to accept me. I wanted people to think I'm a good person. That's not glorifying to Jesus. This isn't about Jesus. I'm just talking about my own heart here, okay? This is the things that I see, and I think that if we are honest, we do see in our lives. So Paul expresses this. JC Ryle says, the best of men are men at best. The truth of the matter is that we are all just human people, but thankfully we have a God who has set up residence inside our hearts, and he is changing us. He is transforming us, he's changing the way we think, he's changing the things that we are doing with our lives and our daily tasks. He's changing our motivations, he's changing those things in us. But it is a process that we have not yet arrived. You know, Paul wanted to make sure that they knew he hadn't gotten there. He wanted to model for them humility in that. He also wanted to make sure that they knew that this is not about external performance and perfection to get the gospel, right? He's been saying that already, but he's reiterating the same point. The second thing that Paul shows us here is not only that he's willing to admit his faults, but he says, you know what? I haven't arrived, but I press on. But I'm gonna I'm gonna keep growing. I'm not gonna just settle. And sometimes I've been in uh maybe you guys have ever have you've ever been in accountability groups or uh a group of other people where you're trying to talk about your struggles. And sometimes what can happen in those environments is you can actually get together and say, I struggle, you struggle, we all struggle. Yay, okay, let's go on. Well, that's not what the Christian life looks like. We don't just admit that we struggle and then leave it alone. No, the goal is to continue to press on to growth, to change, to transform, because we are not who we were before we put Christ, we before we put our trust in Christ, right? We're growing. And so that being said, notice what Paul shows. He says, I aggressively am pursuing the prize of knowing Jesus. I make every effort. The word there literally means an active commitment. I'm actively committed to the call of Christ. I'm actively committed to growing. I'm actively committed to stepping up. Again, not arrived, but growing. I'm a work in progress. That's where Paul says, but I'm gonna press on, I'm gonna give effort, I'm gonna give energy, I'm gonna give focus and attention to this. He has it, but he hasn't got it. He wants more. Paul is dissatisfied with the status quo. He's not happy to be content and complacent in a sense of with his spiritual growth. And I would even say to you guys this morning, if you have no desire to know Jesus, which I'm assuming being here is an indicator that you are, unless somebody just kind of drug you through the door. But if you have no desire at all to know Jesus, if you have no desire to grow, to be like Jesus, you're not a Christ follower. That's that's that's all that there is to it. Because in you, if you are a Christ follower, if you have put your trust in Jesus for salvation, guess what? The Holy Spirit lives inside of you, and he is constantly saying, This isn't right. Now you may have blocked it out, you may have become deaf to it, you might have kind of like kind of, I don't want to hear that anymore, kind of shoved it over the corner, but it's there. And when you get quiet, when you get still, you know in your heart of hearts that God has called you to something more. I know it in my heart that God has called me to growth. And so I'm thankful for that because when I hear that voice of this isn't good, this needs to grow, this needs to change, I'm reminded I'm God's child. And he loves me enough again to continue to pursue me and to pull me towards him. But if we don't have any desire or any hunger at all, there's a problem. You know, throughout the Bible, we find passages of scripture where men of God are just so consumed with him. I mean, we some of you guys have been reading through uh the worship guide we give you, we give you a reading guide every week. A couple of the passages we read a couple uh uh maybe just a couple weeks ago were Psalm 42, Psalm 63. Both passages where the writers just say, literally, in a in a desert, my soul longs for you. Uh David, he writes a psalm and he says, Uh, as the deer pants for water, so my soul longs for you. I don't always feel that way. But that's the way I want to feel. I want to have this insatiable, unquenchable hunger and thirst for God. And here's what I've learned is that the more I get of God, the more I want of God. The more I get near to God, the more I want and long for God. And so if you want to know why your hunger level is low, stop and think about this. How much have you actually tried to pursue God? How much have you actually tried to get near to God? How much have you actually sat still and actually listened to God? Maybe your hunger's not there because you haven't fed into that appetite. Maybe you haven't spent time daily with him, saying, God, help me. Help me to want you, help me to desire you. Because your salvation has been sealed if you're a Christ follower, but are you walking in the fullness of who he is? And are you experiencing a daily hunger and appetite for Jesus? You know, complacency in our Christian life, it is deadly. It is really, really deadly for us. Because it not only messes with us, it messes with people who outside of the Christian church are like, wait, those Christians, they do the church thing, but other than that, they really seem just like me. They didn't really seem very hype, uh excited or uh even really interested in God outside of the church Sunday morning thing. No wonder like some people think Christianity is boring, right? Because when they come in, they see a group of people sometimes, and I praise God that this is not what I see here in this room a lot. I know a lot of your lives outside of Sundays, and I get to see your hunger, and I get to see you passionately pursuing Jesus. But for many people, and even many churches I've been in, there have been times I'm like, I don't think these people really want to be here. I'm not even real sure they really care about any of this stuff. It's like they're here to do the religious duty, check the box, and then move on. You see, the call is one of actively pursuing Christ. Many people are bored with Christianity, and I get that. Nothing's more frustrating to me than dead Christianity. Than dead churches, dead Christians saying we believe in Jesus, that he saves us, that he's awesome, but like flat, completely disinterested, really. So Paul says, I press on. There's two ways that we do this. What's funny is that he says, uh, one thing I do, and then he gives us two. Right? He says, one thing I do, but he gives us two. But it's because really these two things comprise the one thing. Notice what he says in the passage when he gets to the point of verse 13. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind, and reaching forward to what is ahead. So he says there's two parts to that. Forgetting what is behind, reaching towards what is ahead. Now, anybody who's ever run in a race knows that the one of the cardinal rules is you don't look back. All right? Now, I I watch like my little kids, part of the reason why little kids shouldn't look back is because they run into stuff. I've seen that happen far too many times, right? My little kids will take off running, whack, you know, boom, hit the wall. But in a race, if you've ever watched these guys uh on TV, maybe even like at the field date, the school your kids go to, uh, you look back and what happens? Competition passes you. Because you can't run as fast as you're supposed to be running when you're looking this way. I learned that lesson the hard way as a nine year old. I cried my eyes out. I had the race one, and I turned around like this, and the guy passed me. Not good. Alright? When's the last time I lost? But that happened, and I remember that, but I think about how that in this passage Paul is saying we. Forget the things in the past, we lean forward and we strain towards the things that are ahead. Now, forgetting what is in the past. Two parts to this. Number one, we need to forget our past failures. We need to forget our past failures. Did you know God is bigger than your past failures, your past mistakes, your past screw-ups? God is bigger than those things. And he forgives us. In fact, Psalm 103 is one of my favorite Psalms where he says, as far as the East is from the West, God has removed our sin from us. God forgives our sin and he cleanses us from that. And he removes it. I know that some of you in this room, you are paralyzed by your past mistakes. You think back and like you want to follow God, you want to do things for God, you want to pursue God, but you're thinking, man, I if God knows what I've done in the past, and He does, man, He doesn't like me, He doesn't accept me. I can't be used by Him. And so when you have to forget what is in the past, those past failures, those past mistakes, those past struggles. I remember talking to a girl one time who, before she had come to Christ, and I have conversations with people a lot, but they come to Christ and they've done all these things in their past, and they feel like, oh, I've got to make up for it. I've got to fix that. I've got to go back and make that right. One girl in particular, she'd had an abortion and she was struggling, beating herself up over this abortion that she'd had. She said, I know that God doesn't want people to do that, and I did it, and now what do I do with this? And she was paralyzed by her past and I said, Look, God forgives. He heals. Isn't that good? God forgives and he helps us move past our past. But also, not only does he help us move past mistakes, he also moves us past our successes. I talked to some Christians at times and they're like, oh, the good old days. Back when Christianity was really good. Back when people really loved Jesus. But back when people were, back when young people were still respectful and churches were full of people who really loved Jesus, they say things like that. Guess, listen, sin was just as present then as it is now. Okay, we can get nostalgic about things. We forget. Sin is a part of the human condition. And it was going on then. And also, when I hear Christians, and myself, listen, I've had this happen in my own life. Um, where we're always talking about 10 years ago. Yeah, God did this 10 years ago. I want you to know God wants to do something today. God has things for you in your future, not just in your past. If all the stories you ever tell in your own testimony is always about 10 years ago, five years ago, three years ago, listen, you're missing. God has something now. God has something for your present and your future. And so we look forward and we see what God is doing. A leadership principle I was always told is that good leaders don't talk about and just dwell on the past all the time, always celebrating that. They think about where we're headed, where we're going, what we're doing. As a Christ follower, we think about where we are striving to become more like Christ, to know Him, to be one with Him, to see the finish line ahead of us. Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, maybe it's a verse you guys know. Paul says we strain toward this thing, this what is ahead. What is ahead? He says, Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares. So we throw off the things that ensnare us, we throw off the temptations, we throw off the struggles, we throw off our past failures that have burdened us. And we what? We run the race with perseverance that lies before us. We run with endurance the race that lies before us. We keep our eyes on Jesus, the source and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before him endured a cross, despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God's throne. Where are our eyes to be fixed, according to this passage? On Jesus. He showed us what it looks like to run the race. He showed us what it looks like to mark, to run the course, even in the hardships, right? He shows us what it looks like. So Paul has now told us that we have got to admit that we've not arrived, aggressively pursue the prize of knowing Jesus by forgetting what is past, but also striving towards what is ahead. And that is, again, the person and work of Jesus and the call that he's given us to increasingly become more and more and more and more like him over the course of our life, to mature, to grow up, to develop. And what does this, again, practically mean for us? Well, practically, I'd just say this. Maybe in your notes there, you write this. What is one thing that I need to let go of in order to move forward in my walk with Jesus? What is one thing I need to throw aside? What's one thing I need to forget? Maybe it is a past mistake that you're holding on to. Saying, God can forgive everything, but he can't forgive that. Maybe that's where you are. I don't know. What's one thing you need to let go of? And then what's one thing that you need to do to strain, to strive towards Christ-likeness? Now, thankfully, God provides the power and the ability to actually chase after him, to follow him, to pursue him, to know him. He provides that. But we have got to do some things to stir in us. Like maybe a practical note for you is you set your alarm in the morning, and when you wake up, first thing, you start your day by saying, God, I'm here. It's your day, I want to follow you today. Help me. That's simple. Maybe that's a place for some of you, a baby step, to say, I want to move towards Christ. It doesn't always have to be these big massive things like, God, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna sell all my stuff, I'm gonna move to the other side of the world. Maybe God is calling you to do that. But for some of us, maybe we just need to start by saying, God, this day is yours, it's not mine. How can you lead me today? I'm available. Simple things to move towards Him. So straining towards what is ahead. Some of you need much more difficult challenges than that. But for some of you, that's a great step. And that's okay. It's a good step. Notice the next thing. I'm gonna go through these next two quickly, but verse 15 and 16. Watch what Paul does here. He's mature, right? But he says he hasn't arrived. And then he says, therefore, all who are mature should think about this way. Is Paul saying something different? No, he's just saying again, that if you're mature, you acknowledge that you haven't arrived, but you are maturing, you are growing. And he says, if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. Now, sometimes when we're mature believers, we think that we become the moral police. It's my job to impose my convictions on everybody else, right? Make sure that they are becoming holy like me. Nobody's ever done that, right? Now here's the thing. What I love about Paul is he doesn't try to become the third member of the Trinity. He doesn't try to become the Holy Spirit. I know some of you women who are married, you try to become your husband's Holy Spirit, right? Some of you men try to do the same thing. Listen, there's there's it's a Godhead of three, none of our names are one of them, right? So God is in charge of changing people. God is also in charge of helping people grow to love him. So I say that to us because as you mature, there will be a temptation sometimes to say, now I gotta go and be everybody's mobile police and figure everybody else's issues out and point them to the truth. Now listen, nothing wrong with helping people grow. Nothing wrong with presenting truth. Just know that our job is not to control other people. I love what Paul says here. He says, look, God will reveal it to you. And that's I love that attitude, and I pray for that attitude in my own heart as I battle sometimes wanting to control my kids' behaviors, control people around me, and say, grow up, come on. But I have to put my hope in God. We we pray, we present truth, and then we pray and we rest in God's Spirit. So we avoid taking the role of the Holy Spirit. I can present the message of God. You guys know you can't make someone love something or someone else, right? Have you figured that out? You can't make somebody love, I can't make myself love things. I can put some stuff in front of me, I can feed my love. If like if there's things that I spend my time and energy doing that will feed a love. But here's what I've also learned is that once you love something, man, the motivation of that will push you towards doing all kinds of things to accomplish it. So I watch these young guys fall in love with a girl. And when they're in love, man, they will do all kinds of crazy stuff to get that girl to notice them, to like them back until the girl actually likes them back, and then they're like, okay, move on. Right? Some of you are like, yes. But here's the thing: when you love something, it will control you. It will control your thoughts, it will control what you do with your time and your money, your energy. That's the way that love works. I can't make people do that, but the Holy Spirit can do that in our hearts. He can He can help us love and grow in our love for God. That's what His job is, is to remind us of who Christ is, the beauty of Christ. Not only that, but Paul says you can know that the Holy Spirit will, God will reveal this to you. And then verse 17, he says something that's really powerful. He says, Join in imitating me, brothers, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. So here's Paul who's humbly admitted that he hasn't arrived, and at the same time he's saying, What? You can follow me. You can imitate me. And if you follow me, if you imitate me, you're gonna get closer to Jesus. Now I was asking myself that question this week. If people followed me and imitated me, would they get closer to Jesus? Would they actually grow in their love for God and in the work that God has for them, the calling God has for them? Would they grow in that or would they regress? Or would they get farther away? But Paul says, imitate me. And he also says, My brothers, he's talking about Epaphroditus, Timothy, the others he's already mentioned to them. And observe those living according to the example you have in us. So Paul is saying you can follow me. Is Paul prideful? No, he's humble and he's very self-aware, but he's very confident that if you follow him, you're gonna get closer to Jesus. Who are you imitating in your life? Who are you following? Who are you modeling your life after? Drake? Maybe? I don't know. LeBron James? Who in your life are you modeling your life after? We look at people, we elevate them, we say, if I could only have their life, I could, you know, like be like them. I I don't know in your life. But who are we imitating? Find somebody who's worth imitating. Find somebody who is mature who says they are walking with Jesus and you can say, I want to be like them. We need physical representations of that in our life today. The final uh couple things more. One is um the person who is a maturing believer recognizes that there are enemies, real enemies. They recognize that there's real enemies to this. The reason why this isn't easy, the reason why it requires effort is because you've got enemies. You've got barriers, you've got struggles that are going to try to combat against your love for God, against your pursuit of God. There are enemies of the type of passionate pursuit that Paul's describing here. And I want you to notice something in the text that was brought up by one of our elders this week. He says, this, for I've often told you, verse 18, I've often told you, and now say again, with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. What I love about Paul here is that he's saying, listen, there are some people who don't get the gospel. And in fact, they're enemies of the cross of Christ. And he says it through tears. We should never be happy that people who don't know Jesus are gonna get what's coming to them. Right? We should never be happy about that. Paul, even though he's mature, he has a tender heart towards those who don't know the truth. And I believe that we as Christians, as Christ followers, ought to have a tenderness towards those who don't know Christ. We should not have a harsh, moralistic, hey, we're gonna, you know, get out of here. I mean, when people get on Facebook and do the keyboard rant, like that's stupidity. Stop. Like you're not helping anyone. Have compassion, people, like have a conversation. It's easy to say stuff and just throw it out there. Like we should love the people who don't know Christ and we should invite them to know Christ. Not just sling slurs and angry statements of hate towards people. That's not Christ like. I love Paul's tears here, compassion towards them. I think he also has tears because he knows how people are being led astray. They're missing the gospel. They're not getting the true story, they're not getting the true accurate picture of what Jesus has done for them, so they're trying to earn their way. And he's tearful about that. He's emotional about that. He's a manly dude, but he is emotional. He is torn up about this. So we we see Paul's example again. That even that isn't worth imitating. But notice what he goes on to say. He says, this is about them. Their end is destruction, their God is their stomach, their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things. Four things he notes about these enemies. Four enemies that I think we still face today. Number one, he says their end is their destruction. The Bible paints a picture that there's really only two paths you're on. One path to destruction, one path to life. That's it. Simplifies life, doesn't it? Only two paths: one to life, one to death, in destruction. The Proverbs would say that the path to foolishness is destruction. The Proverbs would also say the path of wisdom would lead to life. These guys were on a path to destruction because they were choosing to follow their own thinking, their own way of salvation, and not the way that the gospel conveys it. And so in our lives, if we're on a path to self-salvation, we're on a path to destruction. We're on a path to eternal separation from God. I love how God makes things simple in that way, and yet the sad reality is that we so easily get confused. And we think there's many paths to God. There's many ways. But the scripture would say to us that in a man's heart, right, he believes he's right, he's got this thing figured out, but we know it leads to destruction. We've got to be very careful. And so I say that those foolish thoughts, these fake gospels, these non-gospels will come in. Not only that, but he said he goes on to say worldly cravings. He says their God is their stomach. What he's saying, just the flesh, the desires of the flesh, those things war against the passion for Jesus. When you have the desire for the things of this world, um, I know you guys probably, again, uh, hear this. Remember what I said on the front of you? This isn't about condemnation, this is about conviction, right? When I read this, I'm reminded that there are things in this world that when I'm attached to them, it is in opposition to a love for God. So the Bible clearly says you can't serve both God and money. We live in one of a hyper-materialistic culture. One of the things that will squelch your passion for Jesus is a desire for stuff. The love of money. The love of stuff. The pursuit of things. Those things will squelch your passion for Jesus. Can you have stuff and still love Jesus? Absolutely. Absolutely you can. You can be really wealthy and still love Jesus and be passionate for him. But I will tell you right now, it is very hard to discern sometimes which you're worshiping, Jesus or your stuff. The gospel doesn't say follow, you know, put your trust in Jesus for salvation and then sell your stuff, then you can get it to the heaven, the kingdom of heaven. It doesn't say that. This is not a gospel about poverty. But it does say that you have to be on guard because the greatest enemy to our love for Jesus is the love of money, love of stuff. And this is America for crying out loud, right? So we know this is a struggle for us. But also, verse John 2 says it this way For everything that belongs to the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, or the pride of in one's lifestyle, is not from the Father. It is from the world, and the world with its lust is passing away. But the one who does God's will remains forever. What am I trying to say? There's things that will trap us, they will pull us in, and they will not only satisfy in the here and now, but they will lead us to a path to destruction. Paul goes on to say, self-glory is a problem. When we make it all about us, we make it about how we appear, that's a trap. Something that will pull us away from a passionate pursuit of Jesus, making it about our own how we appear to people, our own reputation, whatever it might be. We don't want people to see us as fanatics. We want people to see us, think us that we're we're too crazy into Jesus. And so we we guard ourselves against that. We're more about our own glory and about our own fame. And then he goes on to say they are focused on earthly things, a short-sightedness, a temporary focus. Again, this would be on multiple levels, but thinking only about the here and now. You guys know that Muhammad Ali passed away, right? I mean, it's been all over the news, it's been everywhere. I read this story about Muhammad Ali, and I was just curious. Like, where was he spiritually? I'd heard different things. Obviously, his name is Muhammad Ali, so you you kind of get that party with Cassius Clay, changed it over when he became a Muslim. He became a Muslim because he hated segregation in the church, and then he actually became more of a racist himself, and then he kind of came back around towards the end, but he he basically became a Muslim. Now, this might be uh a news flash for some, and I don't mean this in any trite way, but from everything we know, Cassius Clay, who became Muhammad Ali, his dad took him to Billy Graham and he said, Would you talk to my son? Would you share with him the gospel? Would you help him? Because he had been raised in a Baptist church. And Billy Graham shared the gospel with him, shared the message of Christ, and Muhammad Ali said, There is no way I'm gonna ever receive that. I'm gonna do my thing, I'm gonna follow Islam. Now, I can tell you this, that according to the scriptures that I read, Muhammad Ali is not with Jesus right now. He lived a life as a famous person. Many people celebrated him, cheered him, he made many awards, got much fame in this life. But you know what? Right now, if if unless something changed that we don't know about, he is separated from God for eternity. Like, let that settle in. Because we take these people and we elevate them, we say, well, just because you're famous in here and now, like, that's gonna that's gonna get you somewhere in heaven. Listen, it's not. Muhammad Ali is an amazing, was an amazing man created in the image of God with inherent value. And I I even just felt emotion this week as just a man like that who does all these great things, and yet today, from everything we know, is not with our Savior. Eternally separated from God. I say that because there is a way to give yourself to the things of this life, to give yourself to the temporary things, and miss the eternal. There's a way to be famous and have all that this life can offer you and miss what really matters in the end. To stand before Jesus one day and say, hey, look at all my great stuff I did, all these accomplishments I have. And it's like, but you put your trust in yourself. It's empty. So, what is the way, how do we actually overcome these enemies? These enemies of a passionate pursuit of Jesus. Set your focus on the return of Jesus. Notice what Paul says as we close this out. He says, But our citizenship is in heaven, verse 20, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform our body of humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself. You know why Paul was so fired up? Because he had his eyes fixated on the day that Jesus would return. A couple weeks ago we talked about Jesus' return. When he comes back, he's not gonna come back as a humble baby, as a servant. He's gonna come back what? As a warrior king on a big white horse, right? And he's gonna come back as the righteous judge. And for those who don't know Jesus Christ and are not under his blood, there's gonna be a horrific day. But for those who are Jesus' children, it's gonna be a glorious day because all the things that we've been longing for, desiring to become, on that day will consummate, we will actually become like Christ. And we will reign with him forever. Are you excited about that? I think this world has sucked the life out of his church. We're not even excited about the fact Jesus is gonna come back one day. I think sometimes we completely miss it. We're like, oh yeah, he's coming back. That's great. Jesus is coming back, and he's gonna be with us, and we're gonna celebrate with him, and life is gonna be incredible forever and ever and ever. And all the sin that you and I have been struggling with is gonna be done with. And all the suffering and the pain we've had to deal with is gonna be done with. And that's worth celebrating. It's worth celebrating. Some of us need a fresh view of Jesus. Some of us need a fresh heart. We need to get those calluses, those layers of callus off of our hearts. We need God to open our eyes. We need the Spirit to come in and break through and bring some springs in the desert. Because some of us have lost sight. We don't even care that Jesus is coming back. We just want to survive today. God offers us so much more than we're living for. This whole series is called Live for More. Because I think a bunch of us have decided we're just gonna settle for whatever we can get and just wait our time out until we get to heaven. Which doesn't seem all that great to us. Hey. We need your help because our hearts are so entertained, actually over-entertained and stimulated by a world around us. We're so consumed in some ways by the temporary that we've lost sight of the eternal. We've forgotten that heaven is real and that hell is real. We've forgotten that what we deserve is to be eternally separated from you, but you've rescued us by your grace, by your mercy. That by your goodness we have been set free, we have been forgiven, we have been redeemed. And God, I just pray you would awaken your church, awaken your people, awaken my heart, God. Help me to stop living such a self-centered, self-focused, sleepy Christian life. God, awaken us. Stir us, stir our affections, bring revival to our hearts, to our church, to our nation. God, thank you that that preaching the word is not about a popularity contest, but it's about calling us to truth and let your Holy Spirit convict. God, would you restore in us the joy of our salvation where we've lost it? Would you help us to press on? For the prize that you are, if we've lost sight that you are the prize, God help us today to see you as the prize again. The prize is not a good house, the prize is not good clothes, the prize is not well behaved kids. God, the prize is not all the things that this world can offer. The prize is Jesus. Jesus, you are our prize. Praise in your name.