Well, good morning. I’ll see if my voice can hold out this morning. I’ve already warned Fontaine that he might have to turn the mic up a bit, and if you would put up with the aggravation, we’ll just trust the Lord may have something for us.
If you turn to Philippians 3, we will look at verses 1 through 15. We’ll read those for context, and then we’ll focus mainly on verses 12 through 15.
Philippians 3, beginning in verse 1:
For the rest, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things to you, to me is not irksome, and for you safe.
See to dogs, see to evil workmen, see to concision;
for we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in the flesh.
Though I have my trust even in the flesh. If any other thinks to trust in the flesh, I rather:
as to circumcision, I received it the eighth day; of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
as to zeal, persecuting the assembly; as to righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Verse 7:
But what things were gain to me, those I counted, on account of Christ, loss.
But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ,
and that I may be found in Him, not having my righteousness, which would be on the principle of law, but that which is by faith of Christ—the righteousness which is of God through faith.
Verse 10:
To know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
if any way I may arrive at the resurrection—or, as 1901 puts it, the out-resurrection—from among the dead.
Verse 12:
Not that I have already obtained the prize, or am already perfected; but I pursue, if also I may get possession of it, seeing that also I have been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I do not count to have got possession myself; but one thing: forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue,
looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
As many, therefore, as are perfect, let us be thus minded; and if ye are any otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we come to You again as we have read Your Word, and we once again tell You how dependent we are on You, and how much our longing is for You to speak to us this morning. Without Your words, we cannot live.
And we tell You once again that same thing that day when You spoke to Peter, and his response was, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Speak, Lord. We wait in Your presence. We love Your voice, and we seek Your face. We ask You to speak to us what is in these verses, that we may run after You. For we ask this in Jesus’ precious and worthy name. Amen.
I think this is probably a familiar section of Scripture to most of you. It’s been on my heart for quite some time, actually. I don’t know; some of you may even remember last year at the close of the family conference how I concluded with some thoughts from these verses. Since that time, I could not get away from these verses, particularly verses 12 through 15, and have been considering them over and over again.
Recently, our brother Stephen shared a word that was so powerful about, “The zeal of thine house hath consumed me.” Actually, I was supposed to be his backup, so this is the message that I would have shared. Now I’m wondering today who is my backup. But nevertheless, by the grace of God, I’ll try to share with you what the Lord, I believe, has put in my heart.
Recently, when we were meditating and praying and thinking about the family conference for 2008, these verses came to the fore again. It was confirmed by several brothers and sisters who had this same burden that this would be the appropriate theme for the 2008 family conference.
What came out as a title was Toward the Mark, from these verses in Philippians 3. I remember one young sister who was at that planning session said, “Brother, I’ve been praying about what the theme should be. I didn’t know what it should be. All I could come to—it kept coming again and again to me—was Philippians 3:10: ‘That I might know Him.’”
I believe this is in the Lord’s heart for us this year as we prepare for the conference. I reluctantly share on it today, but the brothers thought I should go ahead, so I will.
Philippians, I think, occupies a prominent place in the epistles of Paul. I think all of you know there are thirteen epistles of Paul—at least most of you probably know that. It is the tenth in order.
The prominent place that it occupies—and I think this is significant, so if you will bear with me on a little background work, I think it will set the tone—is that it was the last letter to a church. Now, some of you might be argumentative and say, “Brother, there were other letters.” But if you think of 1 Timothy that followed, and Titus and 2 Timothy, these were letters to individuals. In fact, they concern the church, but this letter to the Philippians was specifically to the church at Philippi.
In that way, I think the last letter to the church has some real significance. When you read this letter, you begin to pick up on the tone of the letter. One brother said, “This is a love letter.” Above everything else, this is a love letter.
The church at Philippi—I think some of you know something from the Book of Acts about how it began. You know the story of the Philippian jailer. You know the story of when Paul was seeking the Lord, and the Holy Spirit prevented him from going where he would go. That Macedonian man appeared to him and said, “Come over here. Come over here.” That was the beginning of the church in Philippi.
He went and found Lydia and those ladies who were praying so earnestly, seeking the Lord. You remember how they were gathering, how they were saved, and how the Lord began a great work among them. Then there was the Philippian jailer, when he saw the miracle of God’s deliverance with Paul and Silas from that jail in Acts 16.
The Philippians stayed true to Paul to the very end. They loved Paul. They supported Paul. When you read in Timothy, “All Asia has left me,” think of that. How heartbreaking that must have been to Paul.
Yet in Philippi, the church stayed true and even supported him. They sent help right through to the end. So, in this last of his letters to the church, he opened his heart. He shared this love letter, and I think, in fact, he shared his secret and his passion. I believe that is the heart of Philippians 3.
Professor Finley—long ago I read this, and it really spoke to me—said, “This is an epistle of the heart.” Don’t think of it just as teaching. This is an epistle of the heart, a true love letter full of friendship, gratitude, and confidence.
When Graham Scroggie wrote of this third chapter of Philippians, he said it is a diversion. Well, I think it is a diversion, possibly. It is a diversion between him sharing his love, joy, and remembrances with the church at Philippi, and the call to unity.
I think all of you know how he said, “Think the same thing.” He spoke of those two sisters, that they should have the same mind. It may be a diversion, but I think it is a divine diversion. I believe in that diversion we see the Lord’s heart.
There are a couple of other things. Look at the tone. Turn with me to Philippians 4:1. This is the tone that goes throughout this letter:
So that, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, thus stand fast in the Lord, beloved.
I hope from that you get the sense of the letter, the sense of the love letter. “My brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown.” That was the tone of this letter.
Another thing about this letter stands out: this letter was written in extraordinary circumstances of suffering. There are very few circumstances that men have had to endure that the apostle Paul had to endure when he wrote this letter. He was in a Roman prison.
Many of us remember the conclusion of the Book of Acts, in Acts 28:30-31, in that first imprisonment. We see how he had a hired house, and he was able to receive all who would come and share with them about the kingdom of God freely and unhinderedly. It was not so in this imprisonment in Rome.
There are those who tell us, and tradition says, that Paul was chained to a Roman guard twenty-four hours a day. Extraordinary suffering. Extraordinary suffering.
His circumstances do not belie the tone of the letter, for when you read the letter, the keyword that comes out again and again is joy and rejoice. Now, brothers and sisters, I think that is a message to us.
So often, our circumstances dictate our joy. I think that is true for most of us. What happens to us causes us happiness. That is the way I look at it. If things go well, we are happy. If things do not go well, we are not happy. If things are right, we are joyful. If things are dark, no joy.
But this man—this letter—is different. It struck me: these were deep and dark experiences, yet out of those deep and dark experiences, an aroma of Christ flowed, and a fragrance of the Lord Jesus went out to those he loved. It must have touched them deeply. They knew what he went through, and yet out of that great suffering came great joy.
I think there is a lesson to learn. We who believe joy depends on circumstances do not know the Lord’s joy. May the Lord help us to see things like the apostle did.
Well, that is the circumstance. Then, when we come to chapter 3—this holy diversion, I think it is—we begin to see something that I think is Paul’s very passion. We see the thing that moved him. We see the thing that motivated him. In fact, we see the thing that made the apostle the man of God that he was.
Brothers and sisters, I think for us there is something we need to know about this passion. Passion, to most of us, has become a negative word. I do not know if you realize this, but many words that were harmless and actually beautiful in the old use have become words with a dirty meaning, an illicit meaning.
When we think of passion today, sometimes our thoughts go where they should not go. You do not have to hold up your hand to testify to this. But do you know the highest definition of passion in the early dictionaries? I have this great big dictionary—it is about this big. In the early dictionaries, I do not know about the recent ones, but the highest definition of passion is the sufferings of the Lord Jesus.
Passion—and how it is represented in the Gospels.
I think what we need today is something of the passion of Paul. I think we need something of this to grip us and lay hold of us. I think if we have this passion, it will make all the difference. What seems to me to be lacking so often is this very thing.
You know, we can be passionate about everything else, and it seems to be okay. Some of you know I am a Redskins fan. Some of you do not like that, I know. That makes me a miserable creature, usually.
Recently, when I went to a game, there were these fans, and they were passionate. This was near-freezing weather, and they had no shirts on. They painted their bodies like a jersey, and they were passionate. Nobody said, “Who?” They were fans.
There was a group—I have not seen this group recently—they walked around the stadium in disciples’ robes, in gold and maroon: disciples of the Redskins. Passionate. Passionate about the wrong thing.
I am on the eighth row behind the team—very good seats, by the way, for those of you who have been with me—and I sit behind men dressed in women’s dresses, with hog noses and beards, and they are passionate. Everybody wants to get their picture with these guys. They are called the Hogettes.
Now, bear with me in my folly. You can be passionate about many things, and nobody thinks anything of it. But here is the difference: the apostle Paul shared his one and only passion, and it was for Christ.
You remember in 1 Corinthians 4:10, he said, “We are fools for Christ.” Now, I guarantee you, if I had stood up in my seat and began to preach from John 3:16 at that stadium, they would have thought I was crazy. They would have said, “You fool, sit down.” They could be passionate.
Now, all I want to do is share with you this need. This should be what marks believers. This should be what makes believers. This should be what motivates Christians. This should be the distinguishing character of those who know the Lord: that they have, in fact, a singular passion for the Lord Jesus Himself.
That was what seemed to me to mark the apostle Paul.
Now, we will share on a few things today. I will use Darby’s alliteration. For those of you that do not know what that means, that means words starting with the same letter. We will share just three things.
First, the prize. It is absolutely vital that we know what the prize is.
Secondly, the pursuit. It is absolutely vital, if you are going to have this singular passion for Christ, that you are pursuing Him. Absolutely vital.
Finally, the third thing we want to touch upon is the possession. It is absolutely vital, in the end, that we go on to possess who Christ is. That is the end. That is the prize. That is the sum of it all.
That is what Paul shared when he shared in this love letter his heart, what that possession was to be.
Let us begin with the first: the prize. Turn to Philippians 3:12.
Not that I have already obtained the prize, or am already perfected; but I pursue.
Verse 13, beginning in the middle:
But one thing: forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue,
looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
As many, therefore, as are perfect, let us be thus minded.
Twice he shares about the prize. Now, there are actually two words when you read this short section from verses 12 through 15. They may sound similar. You may think they are the same, and in some ways they are the same, but in another way they are different. Those words in verse 14 are the goal and the prize.
In what makes them similar, they both have to do with vision. They both have to do with what we see. That is the most important thing when he comes to this passion: we must have seen something. That something we have seen must have made an impact on us, laid hold of us, and changed our whole focus and direction.
Both the goal and the prize have to do with what we see. Put another way, they both have to do with this matter of vision.
Recently, I have told you this story, or part of it. I will tell you a different part of it today. I recently received a traffic violation, a ticket for running a red light. I honestly did not see the red light, but it seemed to the policeman that made no difference.
He said, “Do you know what you did?” I said, “No, sir, I do not know what I did.” He said, “Did you see the red light?” I said, “No, sir, I did not see the red light.”
I said, “Where is the red light?” He said, “It was at College and Broad.” I said, “Where is College and Broad?” I figured they were all the wrong answers. He said, “Wait a minute, I’ll be back.”
When I went to traffic court, the judge had mercy on me. He said, “I’ll let you go to driving school, and this ticket will go off your record forever.” I thought it was a great deal.
So I went to driving school. One of the things the instructors do at driving schools—everybody has to pass the test or the violation stays on your record—is they have what they call teachable moments. They emphasize these teachable moments, and they prompt you for the teachable moments.
It is a good thing, because the young fellow next to me slept through half the class. It was my job, my one job, to elbow him and keep him awake. She promised if he would stay awake, we could go home early. He never stayed awake.
But the teachable moment—the first one—she said, “Listen to me. Everybody listen to me. You need to know this if you are going to drive and you are going to drive safely: driving is eighty-five percent vision.”
We are putting sixteen-year-olds in these guided missiles, giving them a little square with their picture on it, and they are looking everywhere—including some of us, me particularly that day. But driving is eighty-five percent vision.
Immediately, my mind left driving school. I thought, “Lord, what do I see of You?”
If this important thing called driving is eighty-five percent vision, how much more the passion for Christ? May the Lord show us the goal. May the Lord reveal to us the prize, that we can run after Him.
Now, this section starts—and let me digress for a moment, because I think some people read this and automatically get hung up. Paul begins by saying, “Not that I have already obtained the prize, or am already perfected.” Then he concludes this section by saying, “As many, therefore, as are perfect, let us be thus minded.”
I think some of us say, “Oh, this is not for me. This thing of perfection—I am not perfect. So maybe this passion is good for Paul, but this passion could not apply to me because I am not perfect.”
Well, number one, it ought to encourage you that Paul says, “Not that I am already perfected.” Even the great apostle was not perfect. I think sometimes we get hung up because we have this idea of sinless perfection.
There is no one but one man, the Lord Jesus, who is sinlessly perfect. We need to get it out of our heads. If you turn to 1 John 1:8-9, it says:
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
But the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
It is not sinless perfection. This passion is not just for the apostle Paul. It is not just for the perfect; it is for you and for me.
I think the word that helped me was this: I did a little search on this word, and the word perfect here actually means complete or full-grown. It does not mean sinlessly perfect.
It actually means what Paul stated in Ephesians 4:13: how we grow into that full-grown man. It talks about the unity of the faith and how we grow up into Him. “Full-grown man” is the word Darby uses. The word used in the Authorized Version, the King James Version, is “perfect man.” It is the same word.
So this matter of passion, this matter of prize, this matter of pursuing, and this matter of possessing does not have to do with sinless perfection. It has to do with the heart. It has to do with maturity. It has to do with growing up. It actually means to be complete.
Our completion is when we come into the fullness of all that the Lord Jesus is. That is what it means.
I think of another definition in the Scriptures about perfect. You may know it is in the Old Testament. I think of David, with all of his faults—and he had many. It says he had a perfect heart towards God.
Now, this being a heart letter, I think maybe that is some of the meaning of perfection. It is pressing on in Christ to lay hold of all that He is and growing up into Christ in maturity. But I believe it is also that perfection of heart where, like David, even with all of our flaws, we have a perfect heart towards God.
I think many of you know this was the measure of kings in the Old Testament. I will just give you a few examples. Speaking of Solomon in 1 Kings 11:4, it says of Solomon:
And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father.
It says of Jeroboam in 1 Kings 15:3:
And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father.
Oh, I think that is what God is after: something of a perfect heart.
You remember when David spoke about his affection for the house of God in 1 Chronicles 29? He spoke of his affection for the house of God and how he had prepared from his own substance. He encouraged the people to give of themselves willingly.
It says this in 1 Chronicles 29:9:
And the people rejoiced because they offered willingly; for with a perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord.
And David the king also rejoiced with great joy.
Brothers and sisters, that is what God is after. You are not perfect. You never will be perfect. Some of us get so hung up because we are not perfect. God is after a perfect heart. That is passion. That is passion.
May the Lord give us that perfect heart.
This matter of the goal and this matter of the prize: the goal speaks of now. It is something we see now. It is a goal. If you do not have a goal, you are wandering aimlessly. Many believers do not have a real goal.
For that matter, many people in this world are without a goal. I will say this as a businessman: if you do not have a goal, you are not going to go very far in life. You must have a goal. Absolutely essential.
But more importantly, if you do not have the right goal as a Christian, you will never go very far in the Lord Jesus. That is absolutely essential.
The prize, the way it is different, speaks of the future. He was pursuing that one day he might possess the prize. That is the thought.
Let me explain it, because some people may get confused about these words. The goal has to do with the scope. That is the Greek word: the scope.
I do not know if many of you know scope, but I deal with scope every day. In the building industry, everything I do has to do with scope. If it is in the scope, I will do it. If it is outside the scope, we will not do it. It has to be in the defined scope, and that is the whole sphere of what we do on a project.
We have something we call in our industry—and it kills our businesses—and it is called scope creep. Now, if you have ever heard of that, I am not calling you a creep. Do not even get offended. Scope creep.
What it means is somehow we embrace everything. Somehow we include everything. Somehow we are open to everything. Whatever the client says, we say, “Oh, yeah, we’ll do that. I would like you to add this.” “Oh, sure, we’ll do that.”
It does not seem like much at first. You can say, “Oh, sure, we’ll add that. That is just a little thing. That does not mean much. We will include that in our services.” Before you know it, it happens again and again. By the time we get to the end of a project, scope creep has made our costs go up double on that project.
Now, Paul knew the scope. He said, “That I may gain Christ.” He said, “That I might know Him in the power of His resurrection, in the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; that I might attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.”
He knew the scope. The scope, the goal, was Christ and Christ alone. I think for many of us believers, this is precisely what the problem is. Anything that has the label of Christian on it, we embrace it.
You say, “I’m the Lord’s.” Well, you are mine. If you are the Lord’s, and you say that is okay, then that is okay. That is scope creep. That is divine scope creep. Don’t do it.
Paul, in sharing his passion, showed that that whole scope was defined by knowing the Lord Jesus. He said, “Everything I have gained, I count for loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, for whom I have lost all things.”
He went on to say—he used a word that most of you good Christians would not dare to use—he said, “It’s dung.” Can I stop there without explaining that further? It is dung for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
This was his scope, and his prize likewise was the Lord Jesus: to know Him in all of His fullness. It is an odd thing, but Paul saw more than any of us will probably ever see, and he never saw enough.
He came to this end. He said, “Not that I am already perfected, not that I have already attained, not that I have already arrived.” But that is the prize. That is what I am after. That is the reward. That is the end.
That singular passion was the guiding goal and the pursuing prize that he went after. So I hope this helps. I think we wander at times.
Dana shared in our planning session about a burden for the young people that really bore witness to the saints who were gathered there. He said, “You know what they need?” He was talking about our young people.
I mean, I could point fingers to our young people. I could point fingers to me and to these adults in this room. But he said, “You know what they need? They need that first look.”
They have grown up hearing these things. They have grown up hearing these words. But that look that arrests them, that look that captures them, that look that changes the whole direction of their life, is somehow absent.
Pray for that first look. I think some of us who are older wander away, and we need a fresh look. I know I need a fresh look.
This will be my prayer: “Lord, give me that fresh look of You.”
Well, that hymn—I did not want to sing it then—but as I was preparing these words, I was thinking of Robert Robinson’s hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” I cannot sing the third verse of that hymn without tears. I think it speaks of so many of us. Listen to this:
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
I do not know if you know anything about Robert Robinson. Most of us do not. He was born in 1735 in England. He had some tough circumstances. His father died when he was eight. His mother sent him away to be a barber’s apprentice, and somehow he became a preacher, somewhat renowned.
When he was a preacher, this was one of his famous verses that we still sing, and we still have life coming out of that verse. It really marked his life. It really was what he was like because, in the end, he wandered into Unitarianism.
There is a story about him that I think is so precious. One day he was on a stagecoach in England, and there was this dear old lady who had a hymnbook and was going through it. She was humming this familiar hymn.
She turned to Mr. Robinson and said, “What do you think of that hymn?” It must have really hit him at that moment. He said, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man that wrote that hymn many, many years ago.”
“I would give a thousand worlds if I had them to enjoy the feelings I had then.”
Prone to wander. Lord, I feel it.
Do you need a fresh look? Do you need a fresh look? Do you need a first look? May God be merciful to us and give us that.
Paul knew what the goal was, and Paul knew what the prize was. He simply said in Philippians 3:10, when he shared the secret passion of his heart, “That I may know Him.” That was the scope, and that was the total.
May the Lord really do that in us. The second word I would like us to think about this morning is this little word: pursuit. It is the second essential word that Paul shares in his passion.
You will notice these words are twice repeated. He shares them in the beginning, and then he seems to share them again in somewhat reverse order. But I believe there is a message in that simple thing, and that is that this thing was so important, so on the heart of the apostle, that he could not bear without repeating it, so that they might get it once and for all.
It is the word pursuit in verse 12:
Not that I have already obtained the prize, or am already perfected; but I pursue.
That was what his testimony was: not that I have already gained the prize or obtained the prize, or am already perfected, but I pursue. That was his testimony.
Then in verse 13, it says:
But one thing: forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue.
So I think we can say Paul’s testimony was in these two little words: I pursue.
You know, I wonder. As I prayed about this, meditated on this, and considered this, I wondered. I said, “Lord, I have seen something of You. It changed my life. It may be little in comparison to what You have seen, but it is real.”
But I had to say, “Lord, am I pursuing You with all of my heart?” That was Paul’s testimony.
Now, I do not mean by that you become a hermit. I do not mean by that you quit your job. I am not going to quit my job tomorrow—unless the Lord says, “Quit your job tomorrow.”
I do not think it means you give up on your family and all you do. But I think this one thing is certain: this is what is lacking in the people of God today. It is this singular pursuit for the Lord Jesus.
May the Lord give us that heart that the apostle Paul had. Brothers and sisters, I will put it this way: seeing is not enough. There are those who can sit around and wax eloquently and talk about what they have seen, but when you look at their life, you do not see this pursuit.
You actually see a pursuit of many other things, but you do not see this singular devotion and this singular pursuit. Now, I believe in all the other things we do, this can be our singular pursuit. I believe it. Call me a fool; I believe it.
In this busy world, I think this can be possible. But it is a heart matter. May the Lord help us.
Seeing is not enough. I will read you Hebrews 12:1-2. I believe this is essentially what is said in Hebrews 12:
Let us also therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us,
looking steadfastly on Jesus, the leader and completer of our faith, who, in view of the joy lying before Him, endured the cross, having despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Even the Lord Jesus had the prize in view. Even the Lord Jesus saw the goal. Even in His greatest agony, He saw the goal, and that was once again to be beside the Father, at His right hand, in His presence: unlimited communion, unbroken fellowship.
Because of that prize and because of that goal, He pursued with all of His vigor. That was the Lord Jesus, and that is the encouragement the writer of Hebrews gives us. We are to be unentangled in this world.
Somehow this world has a way of entangling us. Listen, I am sympathetic to everybody in this room. I know about schedules. I know about commitments. I know about demands. But let me say this: for the believer, this is the essential thing.
May the Lord, above everything else, give us this singular pursuit.
In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Paul says:
Know ye not that they who run in the race course run all, but one receives the prize? Thus run in order that ye may obtain.
But every one that contends for a prize is temperate in all things. They indeed, that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we, an incorruptible.
I therefore run as not uncertainly; so I combat as not beating the air.
But I buffet my body and lead it captive, lest after having preached to others I myself should be rejected.
Last week, our brother Sonny talked about those still, small voices, those whisperings of God. I cannot tell you how many times the concluding part of this verse has whispered to me: “Lest after having preached to others, I myself should be rejected.”
Oh, that we would have a pursuing spirit. Brothers and sisters, may the Lord give us that.
There are a couple of things that we need to know. Many of us have goals. Many of us may even see something of the prize, but many of us are not pursuing.
We are about ready to come to the first of the year, and I guarantee you many people in this room will make a New Year’s resolution. You will have a goal. But if you are like me, you will not carry it through, and you will not pursue.
The other day I was at ACAC. Some of you know that is the exercise club near me. I am a member. I have paid for years and hardly have ever been there. I should get a tax deduction. It is surely a gift.
Recently, I have been doing several projects for them, and I was with the architect of ACAC. I said, “Listen, I want you to know I am a member here, but I never come. This is beautiful, but I never come. I am your best client, because I do not wear your equipment.”
Now, I have goals but never carry them out. He said, “This is the dirty little secret. You are the kind we like.”
Health clubs love the first of the year. If anybody in here is the manager of a health club, I apologize—this disclaimer. They love the first of the year. Everybody ate too much turkey, and everybody signs up. By February, you can find a place on the treadmill. He said, “It is our dirty little secret.”
Do we have the goal? Do we see the prize? Are we pursuing with vigor?
A temperate life, running the race, choosing what is right, setting our priorities. Not everything goes. I love that statement of the apostle when he said, “Everything is lawful, but everything is not expedient.” You cannot do everything.
May the Lord help us.
Another secret he shares is forgetting the things behind. How many of us—the problem is the past? I think that is a lot of us.
But in Paul sharing his secret passion, he said:
This one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth towards the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.
That was what he did. That was one of the secrets he shared: forgetting what lies behind. I think for many of us, we cannot forget the past.
I will tell you, I have struggled with that greatly. Tremendously. I believe the Lord’s word is, “Lay it down.” Forgetting what lies behind.
There are past sins. There are past failures. There are past disappointments. There are past things in our lives that some of us struggle so much with that we cannot seem to let go.
Let it go. That is the secret to pursuing: forgetting what lies behind.
You cannot make everything right. That is the lesson I have learned. You can try with all of your energy to make everything right, but in this age, you cannot make everything right. So the apostle said, “As far as possible, be at peace with all men,” in Romans 12. That is in the context of the body of Christ, the church.
Forgetting what lies behind—this race, this pursuing, this running—is actually an obstacle course. You will find there are many obstacles. As a matter of fact, offenses: the word for offenses is stumbling block in Greek. That is what it means: stumbling block.
Many Christians have stumbled over some offense and are not getting up any longer to run the race. Something holds them back. Sometimes it is a foolish little thing, but we cannot give it up. We cannot lay it down.
Paul said in Colossians—listen to this emphasis; it is not my emphasis, it is the words—“If any have a complaint against any, let him forgive him, as Christ has forgiven you.”
You may have been disappointed. Your ministry may not have flourished the way you thought it would. Your place of recognition may not have been what you thought it was. Someone may have spoken to you in a way you thought they should not have. Believe me, in the church that happens all the time.
But you are told to do one thing: forgetting that which lies behind, and to press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. Oh, I think that is a real secret.
Another thing that I think is so clearly a secret is, he said, “This one thing.” One thing. I think “one thing” is beautiful in the Bible. I would encourage you to study it.
Immediately my heart goes to David in Psalm 27:4. Turn there with me. I think you know it, but you will see it on the board in a moment.
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire of Him in His temple.
One thing.
You remember the story in Luke 10 about Mary and Martha. There are two phrases that tell everything about these two dearly loved sisters—the Lord dearly loved them. One is that Martha is distracted, depending on your version, about many things. Of Mary, it simply says she has chosen the one good thing, which shall not be taken away.
Brothers and sisters, I do not know if it is clear to you, this burden that I have, but may the Lord give us this heart of one thing. I think we Christians are trying too hard to multitask.
You know what I mean. Some of you—Stephen says he is allergic to computers, so he probably does not know what I mean—but multitasking is when you do twenty things at once.
I believe Paul’s secret was that, even in all that he did, it was always one thing.
The final word that I want us to think about for just a few moments is this word: possession. Now, I am not going to talk about demonic possession. I want to talk to you about a different kind of possession.
Philippians 3:12:
But I pursue, if also I may get possession of it, seeing that I also have been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
And in verse 13:
Brethren, I do not count to have got possession.
Have we seen something? Have you had that first look? Have you had that fresh look? Are you pursuing the one thing?
The final vital question is: have we really possessed something of Christ? Are we reaching forward to possess more of Christ? That is the secret. That is the passion.
I remember years ago, when we were first assembling, and the Lord, I believe—and everyone who was here believes—was speaking to us a word that was prophetic. We were hearing words on Joshua from our brother Stephen.
The phrase that I cannot get away from, and I have never forgotten—although I may have forgotten most of what our brother said—was this phrase: possessing our possession.
Now, if you do not understand that phrase, you do not understand the Book of Joshua. If you do not understand that phrase, then you do not understand Paul’s passion. Because in that one phrase is what we are to be doing. That is our end.
I remember how that word changed us here. I remember reading just recently in Deuteronomy 8, when it describes that land of fullness. I would encourage you—we do not have time to read it today—but read Deuteronomy 8:7-10.
There is this land of abundance. There is this land of fullness. There is this land of completeness that we are called to possess. This land is none other than Christ Himself.
All of these illustrations in the Old Testament are just that: illustrations of the greater thing. When we see that abundance, when God somehow opens our eyes to who Christ is in that abundance, there is that singular desire to possess more of Him.
That is essentially what this thought, “possessing our possessions,” is about.
In Joshua 1:10-11, he said that you may enter in to take possession of the land which I give you to possess it. “Be strong and of good courage,” he says in verse 18. “Be strong and courageous,” for this was the calling of the children of Israel.
The last thing in this matter of possessing that I take as such a word of encouragement is this: God provides every grace that we may possess Him fully.
You will not be able to stand before the Lord of glory and say, “Lord, there was not enough grace for me.” You remember, for Paul’s thorn in the flesh, the one word that came to him was, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
Absolutely all the grace that we need to run this race, to see this goal, to know this prize, to pursue with singleness, and to possess in fullness—all of the grace has been made available to us.
You know, it is not, in one sense, that we possess anything at first. I love Paul’s testimony. He said that he wanted to possess because he had been taken possession of by Christ Jesus. Now, that is grace.
Here was the man who was surely the hope of Israel, this student of Gamaliel. He must have been the hope. Listen to his pedigree in Philippians 3. Yet God, one day on the Damascus road, appeared to him and changed his world.
When that light as of the noonday sun shone, it changed his world. He was taken possession of.
This is the secret: Paul not only was taken possession of, but those who have seen the Lord—something happened, and you were taken possession of. It changed your whole life. It changed your whole focus.
You can see that absence in people when you fellowship with them, people who do not know that.
But I pursue, if also I may get possession of it, seeing that I also have been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
Then he ends with Philippians 3:15. This encouraged me. What grace:
As many, therefore, as are perfect, let us be thus minded; and if ye be any otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you.
Isn’t that grace? That is grace. Some people may think this is hard, but in the end he says, “If you are any otherwise minded, God will even reveal this to you.”
That is grace. In the end, it will be all of grace. But in the race, it is all about the response.
May the Lord help us. Well, this is the burden that has been on my heart for a while. I was recently reading again a book that changed my life in my early years, A. W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God. I do not hear anybody talking about that book anymore.
But the theme verse is Psalm 42:1:
As the deer panteth after the water brooks,
so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
I believe that is Philippians 3.
He said this, and I have written it down, and I have underlined it. It is my prayer, and it is my conclusion. He said:
Others before me have gone much farther into these holy mysteries than I have,
but if my fire is not large, it is yet real.
And there may be those who can light their candle.
Lord, we come to You. We want to be those, like Paul, that You can share Your secrets with.
We thank You for the way You love us. You love Your church. You gave Yourself for her.
Now, Lord, I just pray in the name of Jesus that somehow these things, which may sound so mysterious and so vague and so high, may be made practical in our lives and simple.
Whether we are a young believer who has just come to You, or whether we are one who has walked many years with You, would You grant us again that fresh look, that first look.
Then we too would be marked by the singular passion of the apostle Paul. It would not be a story we read in our Bible studies, but it would be a current life lived.
Oh God, light our candle. Send forth Your fire, and once again give us this one thing. For we ask it in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.