I think the reason Fontaine moved my microphone is that now we have a new video camera. Stephen, you may not know that we are always video recording; that little green light says so. The microphone last time was going up at some funny angle, and it looked like I had one big antler through the whole thing.
Now, some of you may believe I have horns. But that day I had one big antler, so I think that is the reason they dropped it. We are thinking about maybe what we can do back here; we do not know.
The important thing is for the Lord to speak. Show us Christ.
Turn to Acts 7, again, verse 58. This is speaking of Stephen’s martyrdom:
And they cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
And in Acts 8:1-3:
And Saul was consenting unto his death. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
And devout men buried Stephen, and made great lamentation over him.
But Saul laid waste the church, entering into every house, and dragging men and women committed them to prison.
Now, I would like to read a longer portion, and bear with me—it is important. Acts 9 records the Apostle Paul and the Damascus road. I suspect you are all quite familiar with it, but listen. It takes up at the same place we just read.
But Saul, yet breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
and asked of him letters to Damascus unto the synagogues, that if he found any that were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
And as he journeyed, it came to pass that he drew nigh unto Damascus: and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven:
and he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?
And he said, Who art Thou, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest:
but rise, and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
And the men that journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but beholding no man.
And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing; and they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
And he was three days without sight, and did neither eat nor drink.
Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and the Lord said unto him in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus: for behold, he prayeth;
and he hath seen a man named Ananias coming in, and laying his hands on him, that he might receive his sight.
But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many of this man, how much evil he did to Thy saints at Jerusalem:
and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call upon Thy name.
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel:
for I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.
And Ananias departed, and entered into the house; and laying his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, Who appeared unto thee in the way which thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And straightway there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight; and he arose and was baptized;
and he took food and was strengthened.
And he was certain days with the disciples that were at Damascus.
And straightway in the synagogues he proclaimed Jesus, that He is the Son of God.
And all that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he that in Jerusalem made havoc of them that called on this name? and he had come hither for this intent, that he might bring them bound before the chief priests.
I just want to read a few more verses. I think they are important. If you can understand anything about the Apostle Paul, you need to know these verses.
Philippians 3. It was not so long ago that we had a conference concerning these verses. Beginning in Philippians 3:10:
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death;
if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you.
And finally, one more verse—Acts 26:19. Paul is speaking to King Agrippa:
Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.
Lord, we just want to commit Your Word back to You and utter the prayer that was in that song: show us Christ. Unless we see You, there is nothing of worth in our time. Unless we hear You, there is nothing of worth in our time.
So we say to You again: You alone have the words of eternal life. Speak, Lord. We want to hear You. Your words are spirit and life. To whom shall we go?
We commit this day, this sharing, our response to it, and our hearing, that You would give us a hearing ear as we wait upon You, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, I think all of you know something of the burden that has been on my heart for these four times: the man God chooses and uses for His purpose.
Now, I do not want to do a lot of review, but I do want us to think about a few things. God is a God of purpose. Keep that in mind. He does everything according to that undeviating purpose.
Another thing: God’s purpose is concerning His Son. You may think that is just a technical way of putting it, but with God, that is the whole sum of it. His purpose is concerning His Son.
I like the way T. Austin-Sparks puts it. He is speaking of a circle, and he says that Christ is the center and He is the circumference. For all of you who are math-challenged, like Jim, the circumference is that outline which circumscribes the circle.
Now, our problem is that we are usually off-center. God’s center is His Son, or we are out of the circle on some tangent. You can have a tangent to the circle—but you are not in the circle.
God’s whole focus is concerning His Son. I think of Colossians 1:18:
That in all things He might have the preeminence.
We believe that is vital. If we want anything—if we want you to remember anything when you come to meet with us—it is the centrality and the supremacy of God’s Son. That is the reason we framed that verse years ago.
He is the essence of God’s purpose. Yet, at the same time, this is the second point: His purpose includes man. Is that not glorious? It did not have to. Genesis never had to be.
But God, in His great mercy—and be very careful, because you can make a mistake here—do not ever think God acted out of lack, because there was no lack. But God, in His great purpose, in His great mercy, and in His love, determined to have fellowship: to bring others, to bring man, into the fellowship of God’s Son.
Is that not incredible? It would be enough if He shared salvation with us. It would be enough if He gave us blessings. It would be enough if He gave us gifts, healing, or something else. But He gives us the best.
According to 1 Corinthians 1:9, He brings us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. That is infinitely incredible. Sorry, Jim, I will get off this math way. But it is infinitely incredible that He would bring us into the fellowship of His Son.
So, His purpose includes man. I think the Bible is all about that purpose and all to do with that purpose. It is a progressive unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ, from Genesis—when He made man in His own image and after His likeness—to the end, when we have the book of the Revelation.
This is a little pet peeve of mine. You might discover I have many, and you might not care, but a lot of people call the last book of the Bible Revelation. Please do not do that.
It is the Revelation, with a definite article, because it is the summing up, the closing up, the heading up of everything in the Lord Jesus: the Revelation. If you read the opening line of John the Apostle, he made no mistake about it:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
That is what the Bible is about: progressive revelation.
There is a verse that has always stuck out to me. It is when Pilate brought the Lord Jesus out—scourged, wearing a crown of thorns. You remember that scene? Nothing like it has ever occurred in history before or since, and nothing ever will be.
At that moment Pilate made one statement:
Behold, the Man!
That has always stuck out to me. That was God’s idea. Here He found the perfect Man, the Man of His choosing, like we read in Luther’s hymn—the Man of His using, the Lord Jesus.
Behold, the Man. There was more in that statement than that corrupt Roman ruler ever knew. It is of infinite worth: singular, the Man. Yet God’s purpose is not singular. He wants to include man—everyone who will respond to Him, everyone who will call on Him, everyone whom He will call.
They are the ones He chooses and uses for His purpose. So that is the burden.
We have looked at three men so far. They were all Old Testament men, by the way. We looked at Abraham, the man of faith; Moses, the man of God; and last week we looked at David, the man after God’s own heart.
David has a special place in my heart. We saw just a few things about David. We saw that he had a passion for the Lord Himself. That was his secret.
We need a passion for the Lord Himself—not the things of God, not the things of Christianity, not what He gives us, not what He bestows on us. We need a passion for God Himself, and that is what David had.
In Psalm 27:4, David said:
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 in His temple.
And in Psalm 142:5:
Thou art my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.
David had a special heart-passion for God Himself. He also had a passion for God’s house. In Psalm 84 he said:
How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.
And Psalm 84:10 says:
For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand.
I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God,
Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
What a passion. He concluded that landmark psalm—Psalm 23. You talk about a piece of literature that will abide forever throughout eternity. More than any other great writing you can imagine, Psalm 23 has been the favorite of the simple and the favorite of the profound. It remains the favorite.
When he concluded that psalm, he said in Psalm 23:6:
Surely goodness and lovingkindness shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
What a passion. We need that passion if we are going to be those God chooses and uses.
Finally, we talked about David’s passion for God’s purpose. Acts 13:36, in the New American Standard Version, says:
For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay.
This was David. What he did with that brief life—and what we are supposed to do with this brief life we are given—is to serve the purpose of God in our generation. Every day is a gift.
Now, that does not exclude families, careers, lives, and all the other things we go through. But it is supposed to be our determined emphasis. Like David, we are to serve God’s purpose in our generation.
I have said it before. You may tire of me saying it, but I will say it again: if that can be said of you, if that can be your eulogy, if someone would utter those words about you, that is a life well lived.
That is my hope.
Today, we are going to look at the Apostle Paul. Paul, first of all, was a man of vision. That is the thing that stands out when you look at the Apostle Paul. From beginning to end, he was a man of vision.
I could not think of a more unlikely candidate for God to choose and use than the Apostle Paul. You may say, “Dear brother, what on earth are you talking about?”
Well, he was the avowed enemy of Christianity. Look at those strong words we read in Acts 7, Acts 8, and Acts 9. He ravaged the church. Out of his zeal for God, he requested letters from the high priest to go even to Damascus, find those men and women, and bring them back to prison.
There does not seem to me to be a more unlikely candidate for God’s choosing and using. His introduction is harsh, bold, and brutal.
Think of the way he is introduced in Scripture. It does not begin, “There was this man living in Tarsus, growing up, seated at the feet of Gamaliel, growing up to be a Pharisee of Pharisees.” It does not start that way.
It starts with dear Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity. Stephen is stoned to death, and they are laying their clothing at the feet of Saul. That is Paul’s introduction. Can you think of a more unlikely candidate?
Believe me, God does not look to me for advice. Thank God. But I would advise that there might be a better candidate. Here is Your avowed enemy. Here is the man who wants to crush Christianity from the face of the earth.
To Saul, Christianity was a corrupt way, a perversion of Judaism. It was not what God intended. In his mistaken zeal for God, he set out to destroy it. Read those words: ravaged is not a simple, unemotional word. He ravaged the assembly.
That was our introduction. He does not seem like a very good candidate.
Well, this should encourage us. Sometimes I do not think we are very good candidates either. Sorry if that steps on your toes. But I believe most of us are not the best candidate.
Somehow, God in His mercy chooses and uses us for His purpose. This is the glory. This is the encouragement of it.
But Paul was a notch above. In his own testimony, he said in Acts 22:4, “I persecuted this Way unto the death.” That is serious business.
But listen to me very carefully: this greatest persecutor became the greatest proponent.
This avowed enemy became the chief ambassador, an emissary of God. The one who would conquer Christianity became the chosen vessel of Christ.
Now, that is love. That is amazing love. He became an elect vessel.
We have spoken of the significance of each of these four characters. I have been determined to give one message per character because we only want a brief sketch, not a full rendering. We want to see some things that were true in these ones whom God chose and used.
If we look at them in that way, rather than merely from a historical perspective, we can begin to understand the man of God’s choosing and the man of God’s using.
Think of the significance of the Apostle Paul. Almost half of the New Testament books are because of the Apostle Paul. There are twenty-seven books in the New Testament, and the Apostle Paul wrote thirteen.
What a significance. Because of the Apostle Paul, we have a full understanding of what the Christian life is. Without the Apostle Paul, we would not have a full understanding of salvation and the Christian life. Think of Romans and Galatians.
We would not have such an understanding of church life. No one in the Scriptures has spelled out church life to us like the Apostle Paul. He made the body of Christ and the house of God his mission. Because of his contribution, we understand what those are.
We would not have an understanding of what it means to be the body of Christ without the Apostle Paul. Think of 1 Corinthians 12—how extraordinary that chapter is—or chapter 14, where we get into those lovely details of how to function together in the house of God.
We would not have any great understanding of church order if it were not for 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. We would not have an understanding of the centrality and supremacy of God’s Son if it were not for Colossians.
We would not understand this phrase we use so often around here, the eternal purpose of God, if it were not for that high letter, Ephesians. That is the contribution of this man. That is the significance of this man. I do not think you can ignore it.
By way of introduction, I think we need to consider the prominent feature of the Apostle Paul. It has to be vision. You cannot say anything else. His life begins and ends with vision. He was the man of vision.
When he referred to himself in 2 Corinthians 12—what has been called his autobiography—he said:
I must needs glory, though it is not expedient; but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
That was how he described himself. Then he speaks of a person:
I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I know not; or whether out of the body, I know not; God knoweth), such a one caught up even to the third heaven.
And I know such a man (whether in the body, or apart from the body, I know not; God knoweth),
how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
He is speaking of himself in the third person. He is speaking of this man of vision. Of such a one he would boast, but of himself he would not boast except in his weaknesses.
Then he says that, because of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, there was given to him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan. This man of vision saw so much, and from that day he boasted in his weakness.
The prominent feature of the Apostle Paul is what he saw. Because he saw so clearly, he was used so greatly. That is the key when it comes to the Apostle Paul.
Proverbs 29:18 says:
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
How important vision is—essential vision.
We are going to look at three things, just three things. First of all, Paul had a guiding vision. I believe, brothers and sisters, that what we need, and what we often lack in our Christian life, is a guiding vision.
Without it, we have no focus individually in the Lord, and we have no focus corporately in the Lord. So first of all: Paul’s guiding vision.
Paul’s life, when he was chosen by God on that Damascus road, began when he received an unveiling that became his guiding vision and led him all his life.
William M. Ramsay, in St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, said this vision was a blinding vision of the risen Christ. That was Paul’s guiding vision. That was it.
That is what we need. In one sense, it is not that complicated. We need the Lord to open our eyes, and, just like the Apostle Paul, for the light of the noonday sun to come upon us and give us a guiding vision of the Lord Jesus.
That was his key. Saul could never doubt that vision. It was the most real event in his life. It changed his whole career.
Brothers and sisters, what we need is something that gets hold of us. Paul said, “Christ Jesus has laid hold on me.” It changes your whole career.
Now, that does not mean you will not be a housewife anymore, or a carpenter anymore, or an engineer anymore, or a doctor anymore. But you have a new focus. All of that becomes your avocation, and you have a new career: to serve the purpose of God in your generation.
Paul’s vision altered the course of history and affected the entire world. That is well said. That is the impact one single man had. Brothers and sisters, that is the impact you can have. That is the encouragement in the Word of God.
God interrupted Paul’s determined life and course. He said:
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?
And Saul said, “Who art Thou, Lord?” The Lord simply said:
I am Jesus.
That was the guiding vision. From that day on, Paul’s vision was filled with none other than the person of the Lord Jesus. That is the vision we need.
When you look at his first message following Luke’s record in Acts 9, you might think Paul’s first sermon would have been about the experience—the brightness, the light, and the voice. But Scripture says that he preached Jesus as the Son of God.
That is his guiding vision. Christ is the center and the focus. I believe that is where so many of us lose focus. We make Christian things first and foremost.
Now, we need Christian things. Do not get me wrong. I am not against Christian things. Thank God He has been made unto us righteousness, wisdom, and sanctification. But remember, the emphasis is always—and the guiding vision will always be—the Lord Jesus Himself.
When I started my career, I started as a hand draftsman. These fellows are real dinosaurs now, I want you to know. Often, I am referred to as a dinosaur at the office. My younger partner said, “Kenny, you are getting so old, we are tearing your buildings down.” What a compliment.
But I was one of these hand draftsmen. I drew with pencil and lead and all that kind of stuff. We used to draw buildings in what were called architectural perspectives.
An architectural perspective is the best you can do with flat paper and a pencil to put something in a three-dimensional kind of setting. Otherwise, it is just two-dimensional. You do not need to put on those funky little glasses and sit in front of it to get the three-dimensional effect.
It was very simple. You would have a single reference point. Radiating from that single reference point, all the lines would be projected to bring that building into perspective.
You could have a bird’s-eye view, a ground-level view, or a mid-level view. But the amazing point—the single point—is that you had a single point of reference.
That is the guiding vision. That single point of reference is Christ Jesus. Those lines that radiate and put everything in perspective are from Christ Jesus. If you begin to understand it with any other focus, you will not get it right. You will be off-center or out of the circle.
That was Paul’s guiding vision.
Paul’s guiding vision began to shape his understanding. In Philippians 1:21, he said:
For to me to live is Christ.
I think that is a phenomenal verse. We have that verse framed in our foyer at home, thanks to Jonathan. For me to live—that single point of focus.
Paul no longer understood Christianity as Paul living for God. He no longer understood Christianity as trying to live. He understood it as Christ living. Do you get the difference? That is very important.
His guiding vision shaped his whole focus. In Galatians 2:20, he said:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.
That is the secret of Christianity. I will never forget the first time I began to see that. It was liberating theology. They talk about liberation theology—I will not go there—but this is liberation theology.
You do not have to live. First of all, when you come to Christ, you do not have to die. He died for you. But that guiding vision means that you do not have to live. He lives in you. Is that not grand?
This was what shaped the Apostle Paul. When Philippians 1:21 and Galatians 2:20 began to be made real to me, it was so real I cannot describe it.
I remember when Brother Jerry and I met, and we began to read Watchman Nee’s book, The Normal Christian Life. I opened the first page, and inside the cover it simply said:
I no longer live. Christ lives in me.
That was from Galatians 2:20. This was his guiding vision.
I remember another story. When I was young, I had Good News for Modern Man. That was my Bible—a little rainbow thing about this big. That was when I had good eyes.
I remember reading it over and over, and I stumbled upon the words of John the Apostle, when he was talking about Christ the Bridegroom. In John 3:30, he said:
He must increase, but I must decrease.
To me, that is the guiding vision. That explains it all.
The second thing about this guiding vision is that it includes the body of Christ. It is not just the Lord Jesus. You may think that is a contradiction from all you have heard me say, but it includes the body of Christ.
That day, the Apostle Paul saw something about the body of Christ that changed his understanding. The Lord said to him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?”
You would think Paul would have said, “Lord, I am not persecuting You. I am persecuting Your followers. There is a difference, Lord. I beg Your pardon.”
But here is the truth: the Head of the church and the church, the body of Christ, are inseparably linked. When you touch the church, His body—whether in Damascus, Jerusalem, Antioch in Pisidia, Richmond, or California—you touch the living Christ.
Is that not tremendous? What encouragement. We are inseparably linked.
When you begin to read 1 Corinthians 12, you begin to understand what was opened up in this guiding vision to the Apostle Paul: there is one body, but many members. The members are many, but there is one body. He saw that. That became his guiding vision.
Some people say, “Why did Paul make so much of the church in his letters?” It is because he was given this mandate and mission, as a wise architect, to build the house of God. From that day, he set out to do it.
This was Paul’s guiding vision: when you touch the body, you touch the Head.
I believe this is a vision we need. Some people say, “It is just me and the Lord.” I do not think you can read the Apostle Paul’s writings without understanding his emphasis on the body of Christ and his emphasis on the house of God.
If our understanding is only us and the Lord, we have a shallow understanding of what the Christian life is. The Christian life includes the Head, Who is above, and His body, which is on the earth.
That body on the earth is now the man He chooses and uses to accomplish His purpose, speaking corporately. This is Paul’s guiding vision.
The third thing Paul saw in this guiding vision was the importance of every member. There was this little man, Ananias. Ananias does not get a whole lot of press in the Bible, by the way.
Ananias is only mentioned in Acts 9, in Luke’s explanation of Paul’s conversion, and then by Paul himself, I think in Acts 22, when he gives one of his defenses. There is just one little mention of Ananias.
But, brothers and sisters, what Paul began to see in that guiding vision is that every member of the body of Christ is vital.
Can you imagine if there were no Ananias? There would be no Paul. You might say, “God would have gotten somebody else.” But I do not think so. This is precisely the point: you, as a member of the body of Christ, may think you are of no worth.
But this little man, this unknown man, this little disciple hidden away in Damascus, probably would have been happy to stay that way. Yet one day he received the call to go to the street called Straight, find Saul, and lay hands on him that he might receive his sight.
Can you imagine? I would have done the same thing as dear old Ananias. He said, “Lord, I have heard how much evil this man does.” I would have said even stronger words: “Lord, do not send me. Send anybody but me.”
But he saw something: every member was vital. When Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 12, the grand thing he saw about the body of Christ was that even the members which have less honor are more honorable, and the weakest members are just as vital.
You may not even consider me an Ananias. But I think, in one sense, most of us are Ananias. Every one of us, like Ananias, is vital. That is important.
This was his guiding vision. This was what he saw.
I believe the reason we often fall away is because we have no guiding vision. Have you seen the Lord Jesus? Have you seen Him as the center and the circumference?
Have you seen how much the Lord loves His church, and that He has chosen His body to be the expression of His purpose? Have you seen it? Have you seen that you are just as important as any other member in the body of Christ?
You may not be Stephen. You never will be. But you can be Ananias—greatly used and chosen by God.
This is the guiding vision. I think we need it. I think we lack it. I think we need to pray for it. I think we need to ask the Lord to give us a guiding vision that can take us to the end.
The second vision that stands out to me is Paul’s pursuing vision.
When you read the book of Philippians, it does not take long to discover that it is a special letter. It is Paul’s tenth letter out of thirteen. It is the last letter to a church; the last three letters are to individuals—1 Timothy, Titus, and 2 Timothy.
But in this last letter to a church, the Philippians, with whom he had a special relationship, Paul shared his secret vision: a pursuing vision that never gives up.
That does not sound too profound, does it? But to that church he so loved, and to that church in Macedonia that so loved him, this was the secret: the pursuing vision.
There was a special relationship between the church in Philippi and the Apostle Paul. It began with vision. In Acts 16, Paul wanted to go to Asia, but the Holy Spirit stopped him. Then he wanted to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus stopped him.
Then there was a vision of a Macedonian man who said:
Come over into Macedonia, and help us.
Paul and Luke took that vision to be from God. Based upon that vision, they went to Macedonia. The first place they went was Philippi, the Roman colony.
From that day on, Paul had a special relationship with Philippi. In Philippians 4:1, he said:
Wherefore, my brethren beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my beloved.
These were the ones who cared for him and met his needs personally. He loved them, and the bond of fellowship remained unbroken. That is not a small thing.
Remember the Apostle’s own heartbreaking words: “All that are in Asia turned away from me.” But here, this bond was strong to the end.
Because that bond was so strong, he could share with them his pursuing vision. Turn to Philippians 3 again. I know we have read it, but turn back.
Philippians 3 may be one of the most profound dissertations of the Apostle Paul. In Philippians 3:12, he says:
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on.
He never gave up.
He goes on to say:
If so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on.
This was his vision. This was the secret he wanted to leave with those he loved so much—his beloved, his joy, his crown.
This is the secret for us in our hour: never give up. Do not stop pursuing.
Paul even gives a new definition of perfection. He says, “I am not perfect, but I pursue.” Then later he says, “If any of you are perfect, be thus minded.”
Perfection is not what you think it is. You think perfection means being perfect. That makes sense, even to me, as dull as I can be. But godly and divine perfection does not mean being perfect. It means pursuing—never giving up.
You are going to make mistakes along the way. I will never forget one writer, when I was preparing for these messages some months ago, saying that there was not a perfectly obedient son in all of Israel.
Do not look for perfection like that. But do this one thing. Paul said, “This one thing I do: I pursue.” Do not give up. That was his secret, and that needs to be our secret: pursuing vision.
Paul never stopped. If anybody had the right to give up and quit, it would have been the Apostle Paul.
Read 2 Corinthians 11:22-30. We do not have time to read it all, but there is a list of things he went through: trials, difficulties, scourgings, shipwrecks, and fastings often.
Think of it—all those things he went through. Surely, he had a “give up” card.
But here is the encouragement: this one who had everything against him, even a thorn in the flesh, even a messenger of Satan, could no longer depend on his own strength. Yet in weakness, he found the Lord utterly sufficient for every circumstance.
This one never stopped pursuing.
The encouragement to you and to me is not that you are going to go through the sufferings of the Apostle Paul. You remember Acts 9: the Lord told Ananias, “He is an elect vessel,” a chosen vessel, to stand before kings, nations, and the sons of Israel. Surely he did.
Then the Lord said:
I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.
Brothers and sisters, if the Lord had told me that on February 4, 1974, when I was saved—“I will show you what things you must suffer for My name’s sake”—I think I would have stopped pursuing.
But here is the encouragement: this worst-case scenario, this man who had every right, every reason, and every circumstance against him, never stopped pursuing.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, there is grace for you and for me, regardless of your circumstances—however deep, however dire, or however small—to pursue right through. To me, that is pursuing vision.
Finally, we come to Paul’s finishing vision. Look at 2 Timothy 4:7-8.
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard these verses read:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day.
These are the words of his last letter. “I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.”
And he did not stop there:
And not only to me, but also to all them that have loved His appearing.
Is that not encouraging? Not only to me, but also to all who love His appearing.
I believe the Apostle Paul had grace to begin. He had a guiding vision, and I believe that kept him on course. That is what we need if we are going to be those God chooses and uses.
I think he had grace to continue, and that was his pursuing vision. It keeps us in the race. We never give up.
I may have done a foolish thing about four or five years ago. I am almost sixty-two. I started running again. I ran as a youth. I love the loneliness of running. It is great, if you like to do it—just your thoughts and your meditation when you are out alone.
With me, it is usually in agony. People do not call what I do running. It looks more like glacial movement; it is so slow.
But I began to worry about this a little bit because I was getting older, so I got one of these runners’ bracelets. It is red. You put vital information on it.
So, Jessica, if you get the call, that is where they found me, okay? Your number is there, Linda’s number is there, and they say to put something inspirational on there. It is not that big.
I thought about it, and I simply put the words: “Stay in the race.”
It is not important how fast you are, how gifted you are, or how talented you are. What is important is that you keep pursuing. Stay in the race.
I hope you understand that is a double entendre. You did not know I was French, did you? It has dual meaning.
Paul had a finishing vision. I believe we need a finishing vision—grace to finish.
He was able to say he finished his race.
I do not know if any of you remember 1992. Remember Derek Redmond in the Barcelona Olympics in Spain? I am getting blank stares. Go to YouTube—not now; do not turn on your smartphones. Type in “Derek Redmond Barcelona.” You will get it.
He was in the race of his life. He wanted to win the gold. That was his one thing: to run the race and to win the gold.
As Derek turned, he had a major hamstring pull in his leg, and he fell to the track. The sighs from the audience—the sixty-five thousand—were audible.
He lay on the track on his hands and knees. Soon, security officials came over and tried to lift him up, but he said, “No.” He got up, began to hop, and began to move forward.
It was all pitiful. I know that action on the camera will look pretty bad. But he hopped and he hopped and he hopped on one leg, because he was no longer determined to win the race. He was determined to finish the race.
Then, out of nowhere, this older man—his father—came onto the track, grabbed him under the arm, and lifted him up.
His father carried him to the finish line.
In the final interview, they asked the father, “Why did you do that?”
He said, “We started his racing together. We finished his racing together.”
That reminds me of Hebrews 12:1-2: the Author and Finisher of our faith. We need to run the race with patience.
Not merely to win. The Apostle Paul says to run as though you are going to win. But run to finish. This is the secret.
This was the Apostle Paul’s vision. This was finishing vision.
I am just going to ask these questions again, because I want these three points to be indelibly in your mind.
Do you have that guiding vision? Ask the Lord.
Do you have that pursuing vision that says, “No matter what, by the grace of God, I am not going to give up”? That is what the perfect-minded do. If they are otherwise minded, God will remind them of that.
And do you have finishing vision? Will you be able to say, like the Apostle Paul, “I finished the course”? Or, like Derek Redmond, “I finished the race”?
When Derek finished that race, everybody forgot who the winner was. But sixty-five thousand burst into applause for this one who hopped across the line because his father made it possible.
Do we have finishing vision?
I believe this is the reason God could choose the Apostle Paul, make these things true in him, and use the Apostle Paul in the way He did for His purpose.
Lord, we just commit to You these thoughts, simple as they are.
We want to tell You: give us, dear Lord, that guiding vision. You know us. We go off track so easily. We need it. Please, Lord, give it to us, and we will stay on course, both individually and corporately.
Give us, Lord, pursuing vision, that like the Apostle Paul, who had everything against him, we could say, “I pursue.”
Lord, we pray that You would give us finishing vision. We will finish. We are so grateful that You carry us across the finish line.
We would be lost. You are the Author of our faith. You are the Finisher of our faith. Without You, we cannot make it to the end.
But Lord, we pray in a real way to have finishing vision.
All these things we ask in the precious name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.