Engaging the Joy of a Spiritual Mindset

Paul is encouraging Christians to strive for spiritual growth and not be content with their current state of Christianity. He compares the Christian life to an athlete continuously striving for improvement. Paul emphasizes the importance of self-examination and knowing where one is on their spiritual journey. He also highlights the joy and excitement that comes from serving Jesus Christ. Overall, he encourages Christians to have a spiritual mindset and continually strive to know and experience more of Jesus Christ. And today we're going to be looking at engaging in that joy of a spiritual mindset. Now, I want to ask a couple of questions before we get started this morning. How many of you have ever failed at the Christian life before? Anybody failed? We all have, haven't we? If you've tried the Christian life, there's been times of failure. But how many of you are dissatisfied right now with your current state of Christianity? You know, how many of us could go a little bit more and be a little bit more closer to Christ and more active for Christ? And whether you know it or not, if we get to a place where you think that you have arrived spiritually and you get to that point in your life, you will cease to grow in the Lord. And our purpose and our desire is, and God's desire is, is that we continue to grow. And we should do that until the moment of death. You ought to be closer to Jesus Christ today than what you was yesterday. You ought to know more about Jesus Christ today than you knew yesterday. Remember, we talked about last week, that was Paul's goal and that was his drive that he may know Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection and intimate knowledge and intimate love. And in these verses that we're covering this morning, we're going to notice that the Apostle Paul lets us in on a very simple secret that even he, the great Apostle, had areas in his life that needed work. If you think that you are the perfect and most accurate and wonderful Christian, then you're probably deceiving yourself. And John said that makes us a liar and a sinner. There can be no obtaining of a prize unless we make an effort toward the prize. This year is the year of the Olympics. And I love the Olympics. I love hearing the stories more about the Olympics than actually the competition of the Olympics. And you hear about these athletes that have come from broken backgrounds and broken lives and that didn't have anything, but yet they had a goal and they had a dream. And these families that worked together and sold stuff and sacrificed in order for them to accomplish their dream. I watched a deal. I didn't even know this even existed. I watched a movie last night about the Homeless Soccer League. Has anybody heard about the Homeless Soccer League? There's a movie that's portraying it. And they gather up homeless people and they take them to other places around the world. And there's like 39 countries that compete in this. And these people that are homeless that have absolutely nothing, it's not about winning the gold cup at the end. It's about them being able to see and realize things that they could never have experienced or known before. It's to give them hope and encouragement in their life. And you know, it's kind of the way we are in Christianity today. Sometimes we're spiritually bankrupt. We're really kind of homeless. The Bible even tells us that we're pilgrims passing through this land. Jesus Christ said, I have nowhere to even lay my head. He said, the birds have nests and the foxes have holes. But He said, I have nowhere to lay my head. And He said, if you follow Me, guess what? This is not our home. Our home is in eternity. And so when you think about that, where is the joy? Where is the excitement in that? And so Paul writes to us in Philippians 12, and he makes a wonderful statement here because when you think about the Apostle Paul, in my opinion, other than Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul is probably the closest thing to Jesus Christ that we have in the New Testament. Out of even the Old Testament saints, I don't believe anybody that I would put up there as much as I put the Apostle Paul up. When you look at him and what he did and what he suffered and how he stuck with Jesus Christ, I don't think there's anyone that can hardly compare to the life of Paul. But yet, Paul says, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after. If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul, if you read his writings, Paul is a very illustrative writer. We talked even in Sunday school this morning about how Jesus Christ was a very illustrative speaker. And he would take the things in his surrounding and the things that was going on, and he would use that to share a message to the hearts of the people. And Paul did that. And Paul is using an illustration here of an athlete. And undoubtedly, it had to do with the Roman games that our Olympics today have come out of. And he's looking at this athlete and he's saying there's always more to achieve. There's always further that we can go. Winning the gold medal is not the end of their life and their dream. No, what do they do? They try to come back in four years and win another one. Or they try to win multiple ones. And so, it's not the end result. It is just the beginning and the continuation of the drive. And Christianity should be exciting. Right? It should be exciting. Dr. Vance Havener, I read this this week, and he made this statement. He said there's something wrong with a Christian who will go to a football game and yell like a Comanche Indian and then come to church and sit like a wooden Indian. There's something wrong. There's something wrong. You know, I put a report and all of my preacher brethren and a lot of Christians it pretty much was dead silent, but I flipped on the TV the other night to the Republican National Convention for just a few minutes. And man, those people were excited. They were pumped up. They were clapping. They were shouting. They were repeating comments. They were excited to be there. And it was all about a man. When have we got that excited about Jesus Christ? When have we got that excited about Him? The Christian life is exciting. The Christian life is thrilling. Every single day when I get up serving Christ, I don't know what God's going to do that day. I don't know what to expect. Everything is new and everything is different. There is no set time for Jesus Christ. You don't punch a clock when it comes to serving Jesus Christ. It's amazing that in the moments that I expect the least for Jesus Christ to do something, that's when He wants to do something. When I'm expecting it, nothing happens, right? But then when I'm just going about my day, all of a sudden He puts somebody in my life, somebody that I can speak to or do, and Paul is looking at his life. And he's comparing it to a Christian athlete. He's looking at his service to Jesus Christ. And even though he was on the track, and even though he is running his race, we have to understand that any athlete and any Christian that is being faithful to their calling must first of all, make a proper examination of their self. They have to look at their self. And that's what the Apostle Paul did in v. 12. Notice, what was the goal last week? The goal last week was what? Paul said, I want to know Him. I want to be intimate with Jesus Christ. I want to experience His power. And not just any power, but power of His resurrection. In other words, Paul said, I want to be dead to self and alive to Christ. And be happy and excited that I'm alive. Be happy and excited for this life that God has given me. That was the goal. He said, and not only that, but the fellowship of His sufferings. Being made conformable unto His death. And here was the reason why. If by any means, I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, you have to see where you are before you can see where you need to go. You have to see where you are before you know where you go. How many of you now, we use Google nowadays, right? Google Maps or Apple Maps or whatever. But I'm old enough to remember that we had paper maps, right? And we'd get that paper map out and we would map a trip or whatever. And it was good up to a point. And then all of a sudden, we would stop at a rest area, right? How many of you used to use rest areas? And when you go into that rest area, they would have a huge map of whatever state you're in. And you would look at that map and as a kid growing up and stuff, I'm like, I knew where we were going. I knew when we left. And I've probably already asked mom and dad like a thousand times, how much longer until we get there? And so while I'm burning off energy, dad would always say, go look at the map and figure out how far we have to go. And that map was great if you knew where you were at. Right? Where you at? And some of them maps at the rest areas would actually have a sticker that pointed to your destination and said, you are here. And them maps was wonderful. Because I knew if it was pointing to where I'm at, then I knew how far I came and where I need to go. And that's what Paul is talking about here. A map is absolutely no good if you don't know where you're at. You can have a stack of maps, and they don't mean absolutely nothing if you don't know where you are at. You've got to determine where you're at. And that's what Paul is doing. And so many Christians, we don't experience the life of joy because honestly, we just don't know where we're at. We don't know what's going on in our life and what's happening. So notice what Paul says. Paul says the first thing I need to do is I need to get my bearings. If I want to have joy and I want to have a spiritual mindset and I want to think like Christ and act like Christ, the first thing I have to do is get my bearings. I have to know where I'm at on the map. And so Paul makes a statement. He says, "...not as though I had already obtained, either are already perfect, but I follow after." Why did Paul want to know Christ, the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings? He said in the second verse that he may what? That he may obtain the second coming. Life after this life. And Paul is looking at that, and guess what? Where is Paul when he's writing the book of Philippians? He's in prison, right? He's locked up in a cove dungeon. And we've already talked about all of that, but he looks at his life and he says, guess what? I am neither really serving God very effectively. God called me to be a missionary, right? And to go into all the world. How is Paul going into all the world when he's caged in a cell in prison? It seems like he's just kind of spinning his wheels, isn't he? And he hasn't seen Jesus Christ personally, so he hasn't died and been resurrected. And so Paul is saying, not as though I had already obtained, either were already perfect. He knows even with all the great things that he has accomplished, there were times in his life that he totally missed the intimacy of Jesus Christ. There were times when he experienced the power of God. There were also times in his life when he took the easy way out. There were times in his life that he suffered for Jesus Christ. And I'm sure there were times in his life that he went around suffering and tried to find a different plan. But Paul was not dissatisfied with his salvation. We need to understand that. Paul over and over talks about his salvation. And he knew he was saved. He knew he was a child of God. He never was dissatisfied with his Savior, Jesus Christ. What we always find Paul to be dissatisfied with is himself. Himself. See, salvation is good and salvation is sufficient. Jesus Christ as our Savior is good and it's sufficient, right? The problem is, is us. Us. Jesus says I came to give you life and life more abundantly. If we're not living life more abundantly, the problem is not with Jesus, because Jesus cannot lie. So the problem has to be with us. And so Paul, as great and wonderful as he was, the first thing he had to do was he had to get his bearings. He had to find out where he was on the map. He knew Jesus Christ. He knew he was saved. He knew his purpose in life, what God wanted him to do. But yet, when it came to Jesus Christ, Paul knew, guess what? There is a whole lot more that I can learn and experience about Jesus Christ. A question that automatically should come to our mind is do you know Jesus Christ? Do you know Jesus Christ well? Are you intimate with Jesus Christ? Is there more you could know about Jesus Christ? See, we need to have a proper examination of ourself. We need to get our bearings. If we are going to have joy in this life, then we have to get our bearings. We have to get a proper examination of ourself. We need to know where are we at the race? Some of us are still wondering if we've even started the race or not, right? We doubt our salvation. We doubt our commitment to Christ. We doubt all of these things. And some of us are in the middle of the race, but right now we're facing a fork in the road, right? Daniel and Mandy went hiking this last week. They were supposed to take like a four mile hike, and all of a sudden they're still hiking. Mandy asked Daniel, are you sure we're on the right trail? And he looked at his map. He said, yes, we are. And so they keep on going. Mandy asked again, we've been going a lot longer than what we should have. Are you sure? Yeah. And all of a sudden the trail ends at the side of a big old cliff. And he said, you know what? Way back under there was a fork, and I guess we took the wrong fork. You ever been there in life? You know, sometimes right now, you know, there's things that are going on in our life and we're questioning whether or not should I take the left side or should I take the right side? Well, it makes it a whole lot easier when you know where you're at and where you want to go and where you came from. And so Paul wants this proper examination of himself. And here's the thing, not only do you know where you are in the race, but don't let your failures cause you to drop out of the race. Paul, with his failures and admitting that he wasn't where he wanted to be, it didn't make Paul drop out of the race. It didn't make him stop running. In other words, when Paul would be a failure, when Paul would mess up, he would dust himself off. He would confess his sins to a Christ that was faithful and just to forgive him of sins and for cleanse him of all unrighteousness. And he would get back up and he would start running. He would start running the race that was laid upon him. Have you maybe in your Christian life or your Christian walk, have you become lost or disoriented? You confused? I don't know where I am. You know, it's a scary thing to be lost. It's a scary thing to not know where you're at and where you need to be, right? I've been there. I've been in cities. I've been in the woods. I've been in places that I have gotten lost. And it's not a fun thing. But you know what's really not fun? Is being lost when it comes to the Christian life. To being confused and disoriented. And so here's what I say to you this morning. If you're confused and you're disoriented, here's what you need to do today. You just need to stop. You know, my wife will tell me when we go on a trip, I know the directions. I know north, south, east, and west, right? I'm going in the right... And eventually, she will say, stop and ask someone for directions. This was before Google Maps and stuff, right? You're looking at this map and you're trying to figure it out. And I'm going 60 miles per hour down the road and she's trying to say, oh, that was your turn back there and everything else. And so finally, what does she do? She says, stop. Stop. Let's take a breath. Let's get our bearings. Let's find out where we're at. And then let's get directions. And some of you are sitting here this morning. That's all you need to do this morning. You just need to stop, take a deep breath, and look at your life and say, where are you this morning? Are you going where you want to be? Have you come from where you should come from? Where are you at this morning? Hebrews 12 and verse 1 is the chapter right after the chapter of the hall of faith that we call, where he mentions all of these people that were faithful to God. In Hebrews 12 and verse 1, he says, Wherefore, based on the result of their faith, he says, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassionate about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside what? Every weight. Every weight. And what? The sin. The sin. Which so easily besets us, and let us do what? Run with patience the race that is set before us. What is he talking about? Every weight? And these sin? The context of it as follows the chapter after faith. All the things in our life become weights that keep us from trusting in Jesus Christ. From trusting in what Christ wants to do in our life. And so Paul is saying, man, we just need to stop. Get our bearings. And when I look at myself, I look at myself and guess what? I know where I want to go. I want to go to the second coming of Jesus Christ. I want to spend eternity with Him. But let me let you understand something this morning. I have not obtained that. I am not where I want to be. When it comes to knowing Jesus Christ, there is so much more that I'm able to learn. There's so much more about Jesus Christ that I still don't know. And so Paul says, I know where I want to go. I know the destination. But when I look at myself and get my bearings, I'm not there yet. And so what does he do next? He engages in prayerful exertion. Prayerful exertion. Look at what it says there in verse 12. Not as though I had already attained. Either were already perfect. But, that's a contrast. I'm not where I want to be. But is a contrast. The opposite is happening. I'm not where I want to be, but what? I follow after. I know where I want to go. I know where I need to be. And so I haven't got there yet. And so I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Jesus Christ. That follow literally means to run swiftly in order to catch a person or a thing. In other words, if you've ever been lost and you finally figure out where you need to go, don't you try to get there fast. You don't linger around, right? When you finally figure out, I know where I need to be. Man, we take off and we get there, right? When I'm lost in the woods and I finally figure out where I'm at, I want to get to the truck. I want to get to where I know there's safety and there's security. That's this word follow. And so Paul says he's not following like I'm just walking meandering, going around or whatever. No, he says when I find it, I run swiftly to that goal. I am going in order to catch somebody. It has reference to a hunter pursuing his prey. Another old show. I'll blow you young people's mind. Every Saturday morning I'd get up and watch Mutual of Omaha. Any of you watch Mutual of Omaha? Every Saturday morning. And man, they would show these lions and tigers catching gazelles. And man, it would be amazing at how they would stalk them and they would stalk them. But once they got their eye and they picked out the one that they wanted, they could care less about the rest of the herd. They zeroed in on that one and it was like a laser focus as they go to chase until finally they run that animal and their prey down. That's this word follow. A man who is running a race has no side issues. You don't have to worry about what's going on at the side. When you're running a race, when you watch these guys, you can't stop all of a sudden and say, ok, I'm just going to sit down and watch this race happening for a few minutes. Or, I'm going to go over here with the cheerleaders and I'm going to cheer for a little bit. Or, I'm going to go to church on Sunday morning and I'm going to cheer some people on. No, when you're running a race, what are you doing? You have one thing in mind and that is the goal. That is the finish line. And so Paul says, I am following after. And then in the next verse, he says this one thing I do. He doesn't put up a chair and rest. He doesn't say, man, I'm in prison now. I can kind of relax and rest just a little bit. Let my body heal. Whatever the goal, the picture is of pursuit. And Paul's pursuit was apprehending something. Apprehending something. He's trying to catch something. He's trying to lay his hands on something. What is he so intently running after that he wants to lay his hands on as an animal does his prey? Well, look at what it says. "...that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus." What Paul's saying in just basic Arkansas language this morning, he says I am pursuing a goal. And that goal is Jesus Christ. And I am running after Jesus Christ in such a way that I want to lay hands on Jesus Christ and hold Him when I get Him. He's not going to slip out of my fingers. You remember Jacob who wrestled all night with Jesus? And what did he do? When he found out that he wasn't going to win, he finally said, now I'm not going to let you go until you bless me, right? And this is this idea of apprehending. Chasing after Jesus Christ. You know, one of our problems that we don't have joy during the week is because we're not chasing Jesus Christ. We think that we can come to church on Sunday morning and sit in a pew and Jesus will catch us, right? He's going to come up. But Jesus, if you're saved, Jesus should have already apprehended you. He caught you. Matter of fact, when you're saved, He says what? You are placed. Jesus grabs you. He says I put you in the Father's hand where no man can pluck you out and I seal you with the Holy Spirit. That's what Jesus has done for you. He has apprehended you. But the problem is, is a lot of us have been apprehended, but we're not apprehending Jesus Christ. We're not running after Him. We're not chasing after Him. We come to church. We occasionally read our Bible. We may even pray and say, OK, God, I'm here. Come and get me. Guess what? That ain't going to happen. There has to be an effort. There has to be an exertion on your part. What did He tell the rich young ruler that said, Jesus, I want to follow You? What did He tell him? He said go and sell everything that you've got, give it to the poor, and then come and pursue Me. Follow Me. Try to keep up. And the young ruler said what? He walked away sorrowful because he had a lot of possessions. He said, man, I don't have to run after You. I've got everything that I need right here. See, when you don't have nothing and you came from nothing, then all I've got is Jesus Christ and I'm going to make sure I catch Him. I'm going to make sure I keep up with Him. Many of us as Christians today, and when we see it not only in our church, but we see it in churches all around the world, that we are stuck on salvation. We think all of a sudden that that is it. I have got saved. I may have even been baptized, but that is as far as we have gone with the Lord. We're at a standstill. Listen very carefully this morning. If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times. God saved you for a purpose. You're not saved just to... Somebody wrote on one time that you're not saved to sit, soak and sour on a pew. You're saved for a purpose. There's a goal. There's a reason. If we are just saved to go to heaven and be with Jesus, then what's going to happen? When I'm saved, Jesus will take me to be with Him, but He didn't do that. When I was saved at nine years old, I have spent the last 40 years wishing that I was in heaven, but guess what? Jesus said that day is coming, but He says right now, you've got to get a hold of Me. I've got a purpose for you. I've got a job for you to do. I've got something in this world that needs to happen. And the sad thing is, is we may think that it's impossible or even unreasonable. Let me give you a Scripture right quick to encourage you this morning. Paul said in the next verse, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things that are before. Have you brought all of your desires into this burning focus of Jesus Christ? See, we get too tangled up with the things of this world. You remember, I just preached down in Mexico and man, I learned so much preaching this passage of Scripture. Probably more than I've ever learned studying. It was just like the Holy Spirit just kept giving me stuff down in Mexico. But you remember Peter made that great statement of faith when Jesus asked, Who do men say that I am? Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And man, Jesus says, Finally! Finally! Somebody gets it! Peter, you didn't come up with this on your own. My father had to have revealed this to you, and I'm just shortening and paraphrasing it. But Jesus made this statement. He said, Peter, up on this rock, I will build My church. He wasn't talking about building His church on Peter. He was talking about building His church on that faith and that foundation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. If we believe that Jesus is Christ and that He is the Son of the living God and He is our Lord and we are following Him and we are pursuing Him, then guess what? Nothing will be able to stop His church. And that's what he's telling Peter. And the very next thing that Peter does, Jesus says, Now that we've got this, now I know, because of this statement of faith, that I am the Christ, the Son of the living God, because now that I know that the church is going to do ok, I must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and die. And you know what Peter said? Not so, Lord. It ain't happening. What? What? One minute you're confessing that He is Lord, the Son of the living God, the God that created everything, the God that commanded everything to put in its orientation and its role and its purpose, and you are telling the Son of that God that He can't do what was planned before the foundation of the world. And Jesus looked at Peter and said, Get thee behind Me, Satan. Get thee behind Me, Satan. And he said, Guys, here, I thought y'all had it. And then he makes the statement, he says, Guys, if you really want to be my disciple, you've got to deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow Me. That's the goal. That's the purpose. See, it starts with denial of ourselves. And that's what Paul is talking about here. He said, This one thing I do, I forget about those things which are behind, and I reach for those things that are before. We need to get at the feet of Jesus Christ and find out why He laid hold of us. Why did God want to save me while I was a sinner? While I hated God, despised God, only worried and cared about myself, why did He love me enough to die for me? And when I was nine years old and I called upon Him and asked Him to save me, why in the world did He do it? I'm nobody. I'm nothing spectacular. Why did He do it? And so you may think it's impossible or even unreasonable, but notice what Matthew 6.24 said. Jesus in that Sermon of the Mount, He said, No man can serve two masters. You can't do it, for either you will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God in money, is the example there, but you can't serve God in anything else. You can put whatever you want in there. You can put your heart and soul into it. Your hobby. You can put your favorite television show. You can put your job there. You cannot serve God in both. Or you're going to be confused. You're going to be thrown out of whack. You're going to be divided. James, matter of fact, said a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. And that's why we see Christianity today doing this number. Right? When something happens in our life, then all of a sudden we get focused and we realize it's out of my control. Right? The church should be packed this morning. If you've heard what happened just two days ago, I didn't know about it until late that night. But all the hospitals, everything broke down during surgery, all the computers shut down, and everything else, people on the operating table. And all of a sudden, they can't monitor their pulse. They can't monitor their heart. They can't monitor their anesthesia. Life is so short. And guys, it just showed us that guess what? We think we're smart. We think with all of this technology, we can do anything. We can send... You know, we've got regular people that are building crafts to take people to the moon and back. I think for a couple of million dollars, you can schedule a flight with them. We think we are so smart. And in the matter of just that quick, one patch shut down and messed up everything. They're still trying to get everything. Late yesterday afternoon, they still hadn't got all the flights back on track. See, we think this world is great and this world is going to protect us and this world is going to provide for us. But guess what? This world is coming to an end. We've been studying on Wednesday night. This world is going to be over with. But guess what's going to be after this world? Jesus Christ. And so Paul said, man, I am following after Christ. I want Christ. He in fact makes this statement to the church at Corinth. He says all things are lawful unto me. Paul says I can do anything I want to do because I'm saved. I can do whatever I want to do. That's what we want to hear, right? That's what we want. Man, we come to church so the preacher will tell me I can do whatever I want to do this week. I am saved. I'm going to be saved forever. Nothing can separate me from the love of God. But then notice that three-letter word there, but Paul says I can do whatever I want, but all things are not expedient. The Olympians that are getting ready to go over to Paris right now to compete in the Olympics, they can do whatever they want. Nobody is forcing them to go to the games or whatever. Are they? No, they've made this goal. They made this drive. They can go and spend all night eating ice cream and pizza if they want to, right? But do you think it's a real good idea to spend the next two weeks eating pizza and ice cream if you're fixing to compete on one of the greatest athletic stages of your life? They can do it, but it's not going to be very profitable. And that's what he's saying to me. He says, Paul says, I can do anything in life that I want to, but all things are not expedient. He says all things are lawful for me. I can do whatever and I'm not going to break the law. I'm not going to mess things up, but I will not be brought under the power of anything. You're not going to distract them Olympians right now with their minds on a goal. We as Christians ought to be focused on Jesus Christ. Matter of fact, Jesus Christ said the man that sets his hands on the plow and starts working toward Jesus Christ and looks back, just stops for a second to see where they came from. He said they're not fit for the kingdom of God. And so look at what Paul did. He gets this focus. The smaller the circumference of my thinking, the shorter the diameter of my mistakes. In archery, what do we teach? I help coach muzzleloading. And what do I do? I don't go out there and put great big targets. Ask Brianna. I don't put so everybody comes up there that night and says, man, I hit the target. That's great. You know what I'm doing? I'm setting three and four inch targets out there at 75 yards. I want them to hit that. Because why? If they are focused that small at 75 yards and they can hit that, then no matter what size the target is, guess what? They're not going to be able to miss. And so that's what Paul does. He says, remember, this joy that we have comes from where? The spiritual mindset. And so what we have to do is get this circumference of our thinking shrunk down to where when we miss, we don't miss by much. We don't make that big of a mistake. We don't get completely off course and have to backtrack ten miles. So look at what he does. He talks about a positive eyesight. I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That press is the same word as follow that we just looked at a while ago. Of what? Somebody running after something to apprehend it. An animal going after their prey. Paul says, I pursue, I press. Toward what? The only thing Paul is thinking about, and go back up because this is the context. He said in verse 11, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. When Jesus Christ says, Paul, come forth. Paul wants to be there. And he says, so I am running. I am pursuing. I press toward that goal, but I have a bigger goal even in mind. Not only do I want to be resurrected at the dead, but I want Jesus Christ to be happy with the life that I lived. See, I want to do it in an honorable way. I want to do it in a pleasing way. Now remember, this idea is this strong, positive determination. The true athlete gets his eye on the goal. Nothing else matters. Nothing else comes in. Where's Paul? He's in prison. But what's he doing? He's still running. He's writing letters to churches encouraging them. Hey, I'm locked up, but guess what? The gospel can't be locked up. The gospel's still going out. Man, there's guards that are being saved because I'm here in prison. See, there's those in Caesar's house that are starting to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ. See, Paul, just because he was in prison, hadn't stopped running. You can always tell the size of a Christian about what it takes to stop them. It's not what keeps us going that's the important part. What makes you stop? What stops you? And what scared pastors, what scared some church members when COVID hit, is guess what? You know, all my life I thought, man, they would have to come in with military guns and everything else to keep Christians from coming to church. They would have to lock us up in prison and everything, and then some would turn and flee. But all that had to happen was a little bit of a sickness and the risk of catching it. And what happened? Christianity shut down across America. It's not what keeps us going. It's what makes us stop. If anyone probably deserved to take a break and quit, I think it would be the Apostle Paul. He had been beaten. He had been shipwrecked. He had been locked up. He had been left for dead. I mean, you think about all of the things that Paul had done for Jesus Christ, and I think it would be ok to say, Paul, you have done so much and suffered so much. Why don't you just stop and take a break and just enjoy these last few years of life? Just go ahead. Deny Jesus Christ. Forget this. They'll let you go. And you can just enjoy your life. But Paul said, it's the love of Christ that compels me. He had a goal. He had a purpose. And he kept running. He's still running. And so notice that we come to a pointed end. Look at what he says. He says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. What is he doing? He says, how do I do that? Well, I've got to forget about the past. We have so many Christians that can't get to Jesus Christ because they're worried about their past. 90% of things that we bring up and that we want to pray about and stuff is about our past. Right? We live in the past. We talk about what used to happen, what happened, what was going on. But we can never reach our goal if we keep looking back over our shoulder. And Paul says, I forget those things which are behind. In other words, he's saying I am a pointed man. I have a pointed end. I have a very small circumference of what I want to do in my life. It's not how many churches he could start. That wasn't what his goal was. His goal was focused on the end of his life at Jesus Christ. No wonder Paul was such a great man. He said to Timothy in his last letter that we have recorded from Paul that's in the Scriptures before he was died, Paul said this. I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. I'm fixing to die, but I'm still running. I'm still running. I'm still focused on that prize of the high calling of God. And then notice what happens there. Because I love this. We see this pooled engagement. See, Paul was not an I-man or a me-man. Paul wasn't in it for himself. Paul knew that it took a team. It took a team. And look what he says in v. 15 of our text. Let us therefore... Who's us? Paul's saying me, right? I haven't apprehended what I want to. I haven't reached that goal yet, but I am striving. I am going. I am working as hard as I can. I am pursuing Jesus Christ that I may pounce on Him, catch Him, and hold Him for the same reason that He pursued me. And he looks at the church at Philippi and he says, Let us therefore as many as be perfect... That word perfect is not without sin. We're talking about maturity. We're talking about maturity. See, you cannot be immature and have joy. If you're immature, you're controlled by happiness. And happiness only comes when you get what you want. Joy happens even when you're suffering. That's the difference between happiness and joy. The immature person wants to be happy. And as long as they're happy, everybody around them is happy. But you take an immature person, you take a kid, you take an immature person, and if they're not getting what they want, they're no longer not happy. And guess what? Neither are you. And they're always looking for what? That next thing that's going to bring them happiness. That's why addictions and stuff are so bad. Because we think the next one is going to make me happy. The next trip that I take is going to make me happy. The next fish that I catch is going to make me happy. The next this. And what happens is we get so much looking for that happiness that we forget the experience and the joy of everything that God has done for us and provided. He said, let us therefore as many be mature, be thus minded. And if in anything you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal this unto you. The Holy Spirit should be talking to you right now. Are you happy? Are you joyful? Have you focused in on one thing in life that you want? Everything else, nothing matters except for me catching Jesus Christ. He says, nevertheless, nevertheless, because guess what? Some of you this morning are going to get it. Some of you are going to walk out of here and you're not going to get it. You're not going to care. You're going to go right back to doing what you've got planned and what you want to do. But Paul says, nevertheless, wherever you are at, wherever you're at, right? You may not quite be mature yet. You may still be immature. But wherever you are at this morning, let us all walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing. I'm not asking you to be as mature as me. I'm not asking you this morning to be as mature as Paul. What I am asking you to do is what Paul is asking the church at Philippi to do is wherever you are at, whether you are mature, immature, or even this morning, if you are here and you are lost, you do not know Jesus Christ. You haven't even been born yet to be immature or mature. Guess what? The same mindset is for you that is for me. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior this morning, your mind ought to be on apprehending Jesus Christ. What do I have to do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who died, was buried, and rose again. Call upon His name and thou shalt be saved. That ought to be your focus. That ought to be your goal this morning if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior. If you're immature and you're just trying to be happy, and I'm not happy with this church. I don't like the songs that they sing. I don't like the preacher. I don't like what he says. I don't like this class. I don't like this. If you're immature, then guess what? Your mindset is the same mindset as the mature. Because I want to apprehend Jesus Christ. I want to get to know Jesus Christ better. I want to grow up and try to start maturing. Start seeing and acting like the Christian and the disciple that I'm supposed to be. And you say, well, I'm already mature. Well, guess what? You need to be thinking the same way the lost person does and the immature person. I haven't reached where I want to be. I haven't made it there yet, but guess what? I'm going to keep working. I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep pursuing Christ because He pursued me. Aren't you glad Jesus Christ didn't quit on you? Aren't you glad that right before He got to the cross of Calvary, He didn't say, you know what? I'm not going through with this, but God, I'm going to stand over here and I'm going to applaud. And God, You do Your thing, right? You do Your thing and I'm going to applaud. I'm going to give You all the praise. But no, He didn't do that, did He? No, Philippians 2 said He did what? He knew God's plan was that He had to die. And so He humbled Himself, right? Right? And He became obedient even unto death. Why? For the joy that was set before Him. When He died and cried, It is finished, the Father said, That is My Son in whom I am well pleased. Wow! That is My Son in whom I am well pleased. Do you want to hear that this morning? You know, my dad doesn't tell me I'm doing a good job when I'm being immature. But when I hold the rope and I stay in there and I grow up and I deal with the circumstance and I deal with the situation, and my dad knows not everything went right, but he endured. I love to hear my dad say, Boy, son, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you. You stuck that out. You stuck that out. I know it was hard. I know it was difficult, but you turned the other cheek. You did what you were supposed to. But what greater thing, not my physical father, but to hear my heavenly Father. See, Donnie, you suffered a lot of things. You suffered a lot of immature Christians and a lot of immature situations, but Donnie, you persevered. You trusted Me. You pursued Me your entire life. Well done. Come and enter. See, I'm not going to be rewarded on what I do and don't do. I'm going to be rewarded on whether I was faithful. See, God's going to take care of everything else. My deal is I have to be obedient and be faithful. And as long as I'm faithful, everything else is going to work out. And so as we stand this morning and we get ready to sing this invitation, let me ask you this question here today. Where is your mind right now? Where is your mindset? Where is your focus? And after you answer that, then go and make a true assessment of where you are at right now. Go to the map and locate where you are at. From the time of salvation to Jesus Christ coming back in the clouds of glory with His rewards in His hand, where are you at on that path of getting there? And you say, I'm not on that path. Then John says, confess your sins, and He's faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. In other words, he said when we confess and we admit, you know what, I'm not where I'm supposed to be, we grow up and mature just a little bit more so God can use us just a little bit more. He doesn't want us to be like Paul today. And I think that's what people think. Man, I'm saved now. I'm supposed to be like the Apostle Paul. How am I going to accomplish that? No, He doesn't want you to be the Apostle Paul. He wants you to be where you are at and start pursuing toward that purpose. And that's what we're going to see next week. Paul says, follow me. Follow me because I'm dead set on what I want to do. You know how you make young athletes greater athletes? You get them to follow great athletes. You don't get them to watch the guys that can't play or nothing. No, you watch the greats. You watch the good people. And so Paul says, if you're too immature and you're so far behind on this map that you don't even know how to get to Jesus Christ, Paul says, follow me because I know the direction. I already know where I'm at and I know where I want to be, so follow me. So if you can't read the map and you don't know what you're doing, then follow me because we're going to go where Jesus Christ is at as we sing with Him.