Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Good morning, church. Happy Sunday.
[00:00:05] It is good to see you today.
[00:00:08] I hope that you had a great week. I want to thank everybody that came out for team night this week.
[00:00:14] That was really fun.
[00:00:17] And if you are a guest with us today and we haven't had the chance to meet, my name is Chet, and I'd love to shake your hand and meet you. And we've been in this series on the book of Philippians.
[00:00:30] I think I'm a little loud, bud. And we've been talking. I don't wanna blast anyone outta here, you know?
[00:00:37] And we've been talking about a faith that is growing and a faith that is joyful and how we can grow in both of those things at the same time. We're gonna continue that today, but let's pray and ask God's help.
[00:00:53] Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for your kindness and your goodness and your love to us.
[00:01:00] Father, we pray that you would help us to have a faith that is moving forward and that is passionate. Lord, help us to not just become apathetic or to feel like we've arrived or to let our foot off the gas, but help us to learn from the Apostle Paul, to just keep striving to know you and to live our lives with you and connected to you. Give us that passion, Lord, in our hearts today.
[00:01:34] We restoke the flames.
[00:01:36] Fan the flames of our heart for you. We ask this in the great name of Jesus.
[00:01:42] Amen.
[00:01:45] Well, Church, I've told you, my son Teddy, he's 2 years old, and he is obsessed with Spider Man.
[00:01:54] Just obsessed. Which is kind of weird, because as a kid, I loved Spider man too, as well. And it's just kind of weird. I don't know if that's a genetic thing or what, but I'm like, I just find that curious.
[00:02:07] And, you know, nowadays, there are amazing Spider man cartoons.
[00:02:13] Like, they're awesome, and there's a bunch of them, and he likes all of them.
[00:02:19] This kid is. He's as obsessed with Spider man as you can imagine. He's got socks, Spider man socks, several different pairs. Wants to wear them every day. He's got jackets, he's got Spider man shoes, no joke. When he gets mad at you, he webs you. He said, you, you're webbed.
[00:02:39] And the kid's just obsessed with Spider Man. And whenever we'll be talking about anything like, hey, I want a cheeseburger, he'll always interject, I want a Spidey. Cheeseburger.
[00:02:54] We want this. I want a Spidey. This. Everything is preceded By a spidey. This. He wants Spider man to be every part of his life. And it's pretty funny and pretty cute, but, you know, his passion is obvious.
[00:03:13] And today we're gonna see that the Apostle Paul has a very obvious passion as well.
[00:03:21] And he has a passion to know Christ and to grow in him. And this passion is defining for his life. And what I want us to see today is that this passion that we're gonna see Paul talk about in his life, it's not like the exception of the Christian life that, like, oh, there's some people that are really passionate, and then everybody else is just kind of like, normal. But what Paul is gonna show us is that this is actually the normal way to live the Christian life.
[00:03:57] That our desire for God is meant to be a growing reality in our souls.
[00:04:04] Our passion for God is meant to be a driving reality. And Paul's gonna say, that's the normal Christian life is to be fueled by this drive to know and experience God. And I'm gonna show this to you in Philippians, chapter three. So we've been going through Philippians.
[00:04:23] I said I was gonna take it really slow, but I've taken it too slow, and now I gotta speed it up.
[00:04:29] And so we're gonna pick up at Easter's right around the corner here. You know, we're gonna pick it up at Philippians chapter 3:12. And here's what the Apostle Paul writes. He says this. Not that I have already obtained this or already perfect, but I press on to make it my own.
[00:04:56] Because Christ Jesus has made me his own brothers. I do not consider that I have 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 of the prize, of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
[00:05:19] Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
[00:05:29] Now, do you hear the sort of passion in these verses? Paul says, I'm pressing on. I'm pressing on to know Christ. I'm pressing on to become who he's calling me to be, to live the life that he has for me. I'm moving towards that. I'm not slowing down. I haven't got there. I'm still pressing forward.
[00:05:52] And the first thing that I just want us to see today is that, you know, Paul is writing this and he's at the tail end of his life.
[00:06:02] It's probably not much longer than that. Paul is gonna end up being killed by the Romans and executed as this wide scale Christian persecution ramps up around this time. And Paul is, he's done a lot. He's served Christ, he's sacrificed, he's preached, he's started churches, he's done amazing things. He's experienced the power of God in firsthand, unbelievable ways. And but I love how he begins these verses and he says, I haven't arrived yet, I'm still not, I'm still growing.
[00:06:44] God still has, has more that that he wants to do in me and more that that he wants to do through me. And I think it's a good reminder because sometimes we can get to the place if you're a follower of Jesus today, we can get to a place in our relationship with God where we just kinda start to go on autopilot.
[00:07:07] We're like, you know, I've served God, I've done some things, I've learned some things, I've had some experiences, I've loved people. And we can sort of begin to just kind of think like, you know what, I'm kind of turning the page on my life with God. And if we're not careful, it can kind of put us into this place where we start to coast a little bit.
[00:07:38] And Paul's saying, look, I'm not coasting, I'm still striving, I'm still pressing forward. There's this word that gets translated, press forward here twice in these verses that I read to you. And it's a cool word because it's used in very different ways in the New Testament. And one of the ways it's used is to persecute.
[00:08:04] And so Paul uses this word when he talks about his former life before Jesus and he says that I persecuted God's church.
[00:08:13] But the origin of this word is actually like when an animal, like a wolf or something, is hunting down its prey.
[00:08:24] So kind of chasing after. And so this press on is Paul saying, I'm chasing after, I'm hunting after the call that God has on my life. It's kind of an intense picture in your mind, isn't it? And Paul says, that's how I think about my life.
[00:08:43] I was talking to a family member that I've not seen in decades.
[00:08:48] Recently, I don't even know the last time. It's been a really, really long time.
[00:08:52] And we were talking and he said, he said, oh, you know, I hear that like you're a pastor. And he kind of made a weird face. And as soon as that comes up, I never know where the conversation's gonna go. You know, like, it can get. It can be good, it could be really bad. It could be really awkward. It's just one of those things. But I'm kind of used to it, so I'm like, all right, let's see what happens here.
[00:09:14] And he goes. He's like, you know, I heard you're a pastor. And he's like, sorry, I just don't want to say anything wrong.
[00:09:23] I was like, listen, dude, I don't have, like, lightning bolts to zap you or anything.
[00:09:27] If I did, I would already used them.
[00:09:32] Don't glow in the darkness. Normal person like you, you know, he got all goofy, but he said. But then he's like. He's like, you know, it's cool that you're doing that, because I remember last time I saw you, like, you desired that.
[00:09:49] That was sort of in your heart.
[00:09:52] You had a passion for that, and it's cool that you still do.
[00:09:57] And I was like, man, I actually really appreciate that. And I kind of just stepped back from that moment, and I just felt, like a deep gratitude to God. I'm like, lord, thank you for keeping that passion for you alive in my heart. Not that it's always been where it needs to be. Not that there hasn't been a million failures and stumbles and all those kinds of things, but I felt this sense of, lord, thank you for keeping me on this journey and thank you for sustaining me. And this is what Paul's saying. He's saying, look, God's got me on this journey, but I'm not done. And. And my heart and desire for God is continuing to grow and church. I think it's a dangerous thing in our lives if you're a follower of Jesus today, when that passion for God begins to dry out in our hearts.
[00:10:52] In fact, I'm reminded of this scene in the book of revelation, Revelation chapter 3, where Jesus addresses a church of the ancient world, the church of Laodicea.
[00:11:05] And he says, listen, I wish you were either hot or cold, but because you're lukewarm, I spit you out of my mouth.
[00:11:18] And what Jesus was saying to the church, he's like, I like cold brew coffee, and I like hot coffee, but this lukewarm stuff is disgusting.
[00:11:28] And I actually totally agree with that. Amen.
[00:11:31] But what he was saying was a stark warning to us.
[00:11:36] He's saying, listen, when you find your soul and your passion, get to that lukewarm spot.
[00:11:44] That's a dangerous place to be.
[00:11:47] And Christ says, that's nauseating to me.
[00:11:51] That's a very Humbling warning, isn't it, Church? Because I think if we're honest, we've all been there.
[00:11:57] And so this whole idea that Paul is teaching us, I think is really important to consider.
[00:12:06] Where is the passion level of our faith today?
[00:12:10] Do we have a sense, like the Apostle Paul, where Paul's like, man, I want to keep driving forward. I want to press on. I want to keep growing.
[00:12:21] It burns in me. Or has everything cooled down in our souls?
[00:12:28] And if it has, and we need God's help to reignite that work and to call us to something more. You with me on this? And Paul shows us, I think, a little bit about where this all comes from. And I want to just read to you some verses from before. Verse 12. I want to read to you verse 7.
[00:12:48] See, when he gets into this section that I read to you, he was talking about his former life. And he says this. Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
[00:13:04] Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Now, these verses are sort of a turning point in Paul's autobiography that he's sharing with this church. Paul's saying, look, I lived a different way before.
[00:13:53] And when I look back on that way of life, I realized it was the wrong direction and it was the wrong approach.
[00:14:01] And he said, in my passion for Christ came from the realization that I was going the wrong way. And now my whole life's purpose and goal has been reoriented.
[00:14:20] And I thought that was a really, really helpful thing. And it reminded me, I think sometime this year I read this book called the Power of Regret by Daniel Pink.
[00:14:31] And it's a book all about dealing with regret in life. Now, I know most of us, you don't have any regrets. You're like, nope, I got it right the first time every time. But if there is any soul in this room like me that has regrets and are haunted by them, it's actually a really helpful read. And in the book, he talks about that, really all human beings, we have, like, four primary regrets that really get us.
[00:15:03] And he puts them in a category, and the first one he calls foundation regrets. And these are regrets where you look at different things in your life and you're like, man, I wish I would have saved more money when I was younger. That's a foundation regret. Or, I wish I would have worked harder in school. That's a foundation regret. Or, I wish I wouldn't have, you know, been so lazy here or there. It's kind of. It's some lapse of general discipline or structure in your life that now you look back and you're like, you know what? If I did that differently, it would have taken me and my life to a place, you know, I more wanted to be. That's a foundation regret. The second one is a boldness regret.
[00:15:47] And these are the regrets where you're like, ah, I wish I would have had the courage to apply for that job.
[00:15:56] Or, I wish I would have went and traveled like I thought when I had this opportunity.
[00:16:03] It's those moments that kind of required some sort of courage or stepping out, and you feel like you didn't do it and you missed it, and now you feel the pain of it. The third one is moral regrets. That's when we just make big mistakes. We make mistakes that hurt ourselves or hurt others. And we look at that and we're like, man, I wish I could take that one back. And the last one are connection regrets. And those are regrets where we wish we would have kept up with someone or we wish we would have made more time for a relationship.
[00:16:38] And I don't know about you, but I'm like, well, good news is I can fill all four of those categories. Anyone else?
[00:16:44] Yeah, I got plenty of those. And I've always wrestled with, like, what do you do with that? You know, it's always kind of been a frustrating experience for me. And one thing I really appreciate about this book is it says when you look at the regrets in your life, he said, think about them as a negative.
[00:17:05] Like, when you take a picture.
[00:17:08] Remember back in the day when, like, you had physical pictures? Remember that?
[00:17:13] You remember what a negative is. It's like the inverse of it. Some of you are like, I have no idea what you're talking about. There was a thing.
[00:17:20] Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
[00:17:23] I think T. Rex invented these.
[00:17:27] But a negative, it's the inverse of the picture.
[00:17:32] And what he says is, regret is like the negative of our lives.
[00:17:38] So what regret does is it actually clarifies what you really value because you see those things as misses or failures. Or pain points, but then if you inverse them, it shows you a picture of a life that's actually meaningful to you. Does that make sense? And so it actually can be clarifying and motivating and directional.
[00:18:08] And the reason I'm telling you this is because this is what Paul is saying. He's saying, now when I look at my life, all the things I was after, I count as loss.
[00:18:22] All the things that I thought really mattered don't really matter.
[00:18:29] And all my way of going about it, where I was trying to climb this religious ladder and work my way to God, I realize is the exact wrong approach. And it says, so now I have clarity of what matters to me most. And it's simply this.
[00:18:50] It's knowing Jesus Christ.
[00:18:54] Paul says, that is the overriding goal of my life.
[00:18:58] That's what I've learned when I look back at the direction and trajectory of my life. And the approach is that what really ultimately matters to me is knowing Jesus Christ. And he talks about it in such a beautiful way that I want to be found in him. See, there's a difference between being religious and knowing Christ.
[00:19:24] They're not the same thing. You with me on this. Paul's former life, he was very religious and he did all these things. But he said, but now I count all of that as garbage, as rubbish in comparison to knowing Christ.
[00:19:41] And that now is the drive of my life. And I want to say church to us, that that drive should be ours too.
[00:19:52] That that is the thing that matters most in this life, is you and I knowing Christ in a very personal, in a very real way. And that that is actually worth everything.
[00:20:08] And here's what's cool about this. Paul says, and you know what I found is that I can experience Christ by faith in the highs and. And good things in life, but I can also experience a deeper knowledge of Christ when I share in his sufferings.
[00:20:25] And so here's what Paul is showing. He's saying, look, all of life can accommodate this goal that I'm after. And I think that's a really, really cool thing, that even in pain and loss, it still invites me into a deeper knowledge and experience of Christ.
[00:20:46] And so Paul says, I'm open to it all. And if it's helping me know Christ, then it's valuable and worthwhile. If it's moving me away from him, it's garbage and it's loss. And Paul says, it's given me a clear direction in my life.
[00:21:06] And then he says these verses that I read to you first. He says, I Haven't already obtained it, but I press on the to make it my own, because Jesus Christ has made me his own.
[00:21:20] Where does our passion for Christ begin?
[00:21:25] It begins with recognizing he made us his own first.
[00:21:31] Paul says, christ first grabbed hold of me, and everything starts there. It reminds me, I read the story of a lady named Sophia Polger, and she is like one of the great women chess players of recent times.
[00:21:51] And her dad was kind of a nut, and he had three daughters, and he raised them all and made chess like a huge deal in their household.
[00:22:01] And as he kind of pushed chess on them, they leaned into it and loved it and have become some of the greatest female chess players in all of history.
[00:22:11] And there's one story where Sophia was a younger kid and they played chess all the time. And it was the middle of the night, and she was downstairs, and she should have been sleeping, and she was playing chess by herself and making some noise. And her dad heard her, and he came downstairs and he said, sophia, it's the middle of the night. You gotta go to sleep. Put the chessboard away. Leave the pieces alone. Go up to your bed and. And go to sleep.
[00:22:41] And she said, but, Daddy, the pieces won't leave me alone.
[00:22:48] And it was just kind of this cool example of really the passion overtook her.
[00:22:58] And this is what Paul is saying that, look, Christ has made me his own.
[00:23:06] His love and his goodness have overtaken me.
[00:23:11] And Paul knew this in such a visceral way.
[00:23:15] We learn in Paul's story that at one point he was going north to Damascus from Jerusalem, and he was going to persecute Christian churches. At this point in his life, he was as hostile to Christianity as you could be.
[00:23:34] He wanted to destroy it. He wanted to destroy people who were part of it. And he was heading up to do that. And as he was on the road, Jesus literally appeared to him.
[00:23:47] And Jesus said, paul, why are you persecuting me?
[00:23:54] And it was one of those moments where Paul would forever know for the rest of his life that he didn't seek Jesus out. Jesus sought him out.
[00:24:06] It just was absolutely clear he was seeking to destroy the cause of Christ. And Christ showed up to him. And Paul understood that. And Paul understood that when Christ showed up to him, he also showed up with absolute forgiveness.
[00:24:26] And Paul would later go on to say. He would say, essentially, look, there is hope for everyone because I am the chief of all sinners.
[00:24:36] And Christ came for me, and if he can come for me, and if he can forgive a person like me, he can forgive anyone.
[00:24:45] And he is willing to. Paul understood just the radical forgiveness that Christ freely offered to him. And Paul understood that not only did Christ come to him, not only did Christ forgive him, but Christ also gave his life a new direction and a new purpose.
[00:25:04] Said Paul, you're not going this direction anymore. You are going to be used by me.
[00:25:11] He knew Christ took hold of him first.
[00:25:15] And Church, I want you to know, in your life and our life in my life, it may not be as dramatic as that, but that same story is true for all of us.
[00:25:27] If today you are someone that knows and love Jesus Christ, the credit goes to Christ, not you. Sorry.
[00:25:37] The credit goes to him being the good shepherd and seeking us out and forgiving us and calling us and. And giving us a purpose. And we can't ever forget that. Church.
[00:25:49] Paul says, look, I know where this all came from, and I am grateful for it.
[00:25:55] You took hold of me first, and now I'm trying to respond to that by living a life that honors you. You with me on this. And so Paul says, and so now I forget what lies behind, and I strain toward what lies ahead.
[00:26:15] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
[00:26:23] See, as we go on this journey, we gotta leave some things behind.
[00:26:27] My daughters, they love purses, they love bags. They love anything that they can, like, zip or open and put a million random things in it.
[00:26:39] And, like, the more pockets, the more places, the more they love it. And then sometimes they even love to put, like, bags within bags, you know, and you're like, where does this madness end? And it doesn't.
[00:26:52] They love it. And so many times, whenever we're trying to go somewhere, it's always a battle, it's always a negotiation. All right, you can take one thing, and that does not mean one thing. Filled with 30 things that means literally.
[00:27:07] Anybody know this problem that I'm talking about today?
[00:27:10] And you're like, because you're gonna go do stuff, and all of this is going to. It's going to get in the way, and you're not actually going to want to carry it with you.
[00:27:22] And as we live the life that God has for us, we've got to learn to leave some things behind, too.
[00:27:29] To forget some things.
[00:27:31] We gotta learn to leave behind the shame of our sins and our failures.
[00:27:38] And trust that when Christ says, you're forgiven in a new creation, he really means it.
[00:27:46] And when he says on the cross, it is finished, that it actually really is finished.
[00:27:50] There are some things in our journey that we don't forget. We don't forget God's mercy. We don't forget God's help. We. We don't forget God's goodness. But there are some things that we do need to leave behind in the journey. And Paul says, look, I'm forgetting what lies behind. I'm gonna leave some stuff behind and I'm going to press on toward what lies ahead because God's not done with my life. God's not finished. And I want to see it through.
[00:28:23] And church. I want that to be the heartbeat of our lives today.
[00:28:30] I wonder today, what do we have to leave behind so we can go forward more wholeheartedly with God?
[00:28:39] And what does it look like in our lives to press in to what he's calling us to do and to be.
[00:28:48] Now, when I was thinking about these verses, I was thinking about how important that passion and that drive is for God. I'm like, man, Paul, I see the importance of it. I see the value of it, and I want that.
[00:29:10] But yet so many times I feel my passion levels just dropping and I feel my drive for God just. Just getting flat.
[00:29:22] Now, maybe I'm a lot more messed up than you. Quite possible, but I'm guessing you see that in your own life too.
[00:29:30] What do we do when we hit those moments and those seasons? We're like, yeah, I want to be like Paul. I want to be pressing on and straining and pursuing what God has me. But man, I. I'm struggling and I'm stumbling my way forward.
[00:29:51] Well, here's what my mind went to.
[00:29:54] I was reminded of this great scene in John John's gospel in chapter 21. And it's this moment after Jesus had died and he had been resurrected.
[00:30:07] And what happened before that was Peter, his follower, had just denied him.
[00:30:15] Peter had this opportunity to, like, stand boldly and courageously with his Lord.
[00:30:22] And he totally failed.
[00:30:25] And he denied Christ. And I'm sure the regret was overwhelming.
[00:30:32] And I'm sure he just was in the lows of lows.
[00:30:38] And John tells us that Jesus said, or Peter said, hey, I'm going fishing. And he went fishing and wasn't catching anything. And then Jesus arrives at the shore and he invites Peter back, and he has a nice fire going and they get some fish and he makes them breakfast.
[00:31:00] And he says, peter, do you love me?
[00:31:04] Peter says, I do. He said, feed my sheep, Peter, do you love me? I do. Feed my lambs, Peter, do you love me? I do. Feed my sheep. And then he says, peter, I still have work and calling for you. And I saw that scene, I thought, you know what? Sometimes when we are at the points where our passion for God is waning, or we're at those points where. Where maybe we just feel like we've just blown it and our walk with God has just kind of taken a really bad turn or gone to a place we never wanted it to be.
[00:31:42] I want you to know Christ is so good. He still seeks us out.
[00:31:48] He still comes to us in those moments like you went to Peter. And he still comes and says, man, I'm willing to. To serve you. And he reaffirms his love, and we can reaffirm our love.
[00:32:03] He says, and I still have work for you to do.
[00:32:07] And today, if we find that man just the passion in our souls for God is not where it needs to be, then let's just invite Christ to minister to us, to fan that flame, to renew us and strengthen us for the work that he has. Let's pray, Father. We do pray, Lord, that you could give us that heart and that spirit that we see in the Apostle Paul, That we could be people, Lord, that press on toward the upward prize of the call in Jesus Christ.
[00:32:57] I pray, Lord, where our passion runs dry, you would renew it, where the flame in our heart for you has maybe gone down, that you could fan it, you could bring fuel to it, and we could have a deeper sense of how valuable you are and what this journey of life is all about.
[00:33:26] And I pray we could press on, I pray, Lord, where maybe we just feel that we failed you, you could restore us like you did Peter, where we've fallen short, Lord, you could gently, graciously, lovingly invite us back in to engage with you and what you have for us.
[00:33:50] We pray as we take the Lord's Supper this morning, that you could just minister to us and we could receive it and be renewed and strengthened.
[00:34:01] And I ask this in Jesus good name, Amen.
