Deep Joy: The Message of Philippians #8: "The Joy of Pursuing Spiritual Excellence (Phil 3:12-16)

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Philippians chapter 3, we're continuing the series that we've been in that we've called Deep Joy. Deep Joy, the message of Philippians.
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And like I said, Philippians chapter 3, verses 12 to 16 will be our text.
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If you have one of those red hardbacks that we give away, page 1041. Page 1041,
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Philippians chapter 3. And we're only gonna read a few verses. Philippians chapter 3, beginning in verse 12 and reading through to verse 16.
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So Philippians 3, 12 to 16. And if you're able to do so, can
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I invite you to stand with me out of reverence for God's Word as we come to this message.
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Philippians chapter 3, reading from verse 12 through to verse 16. Paul says, not that I have already reached the goal or I'm already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
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Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead,
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I pursue as my prize, as my goal, excuse me, the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
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Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything,
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God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.
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The gospel is the flower fades, but the Word of our God will abide forever. Join with me as I pray, ask for the
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Lord's help, and we come to this passage. Well, Heavenly Father, we ask as we open up your
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Word even now to a passage that is challenging and convicting and one that causes us to reflect on our walk with you.
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I ask, Father, that you would grant me the grace to speak this Word well, and I pray that you would grant your people the ability to hear.
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May your Spirit be at work opening our eyes, softening our hearts, preparing us to receive all that you have for us from this passage of your
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Word. Father, it's our custom to pray for other area churches, and this afternoon we take a moment to pray for our friends at Creekside Bible Church up in Rogue River, thankful for their pastors and elders and the warm relationship we have in the gospel.
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Pray especially for the camp that they have this week with Child Evangelism Fellowship for the children of their church.
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Father, what a joy it is to proclaim the gospel even to the littlest of souls, and so we ask that as these workers come and invest their time and their energy in seeing the gospel go to these young children,
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Father, would you plant seeds of truth in the hearts of those children? Father, we would be so bold even to pray that if any of them don't know you, that they would come to know you through this effort.
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Father, we thank you that your Word always bears fruit, and we can pray that for our friends at Creekside, and we can pray that for ourselves even now as we open up the scriptures.
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We ask all these things in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. Please be seated.
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This afternoon I want to speak to you from the subject of the joy of pursuing spiritual excellence.
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The joy of pursuing spiritual excellence.
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As some of you know, I'm a little fond every now and again of issuing what
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I call sermonic health warnings. Just every now and again I recognize that some things
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I say and preach about will not make you comfortable, and I don't do that lightly.
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I am NOT a masochist. I don't find pleasure in people being hurt, but this one might sting.
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And if it does, then I would venture to say that it's doing what I believe this text is designed to do.
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And when I say sting, I don't mean hurt because I say, I pray that this doesn't happen. That I say something that is mean -hearted or mean -spirited.
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That's not what I mean when I say that. What I mean is that if we understand this text, and we understand what this text is calling us to, it's going to call us to,
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I believe it's Alcoholics Anonymous. I can never say that word. I believe it's
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Alcoholics Anonymous. It's gonna be a long sermon, I can tell. I believe it's in their, is it the big blue book that they call it?
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One of the things they call you to do is a searching moral inventory. Well, consider this not a searching moral inventory.
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Consider this a searching spiritual inventory. Because some of the things that Paul is going to say here, and the implications more so of what he says here, if you understand them rightly, it should cause you to go back and say, hmm, where am
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I in relation to this? And so, usually
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I have an introduction and I have it all planned out and all the rest of it. If you'll forgive me, I want to jump just straight into our text because there's a lot
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I want to say, and there's some things I will say at the end by way of application, but if I may jump straight into our message for this afternoon, here's my big idea.
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If there's nothing else you remember from this sermon, here's what I want you to remember. That the
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Christian pursues joy by pursuing Christ -centered excellence in their walk with the
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Lord. The Christian pursues joy by pursuing
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Christ -centered excellence in their walk with the
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Lord. Before we go on, we need to define this term excellence because this can throw people off and it can lead to all kinds of misunderstandings.
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So allow me just a couple of minutes to define what I mean by excellence. Probably the best way to do this is for me to define it by what excellence is not.
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When we talk about excellence, we are not talking about perfection. You understand the distinction between those two?
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Perfection is nothing ever goes wrong and there's never anything missing or broken. If you are a human being here today, including the one standing in front of you, human beings are not capable of perfection.
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I recognize that every day of my life. You recognize that every day of your life. There are moments where it becomes very apparent, oh
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I am not perfect. And we all know the frustration of dealing with people who act like they're perfect.
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And part of the frustration we feel when it comes to people who act like they're perfect is the reality that we know they're not because we know we aren't.
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Now I start with that because when you start to talk about excellence, people think you mean perfection and that's not the same thing.
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When I was 16, I had the privilege of going to Barcelona, Spain for the first time.
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Actually the only time. Went with my school and a bunch of 40 boys. I don't know what they were thinking sending a bunch of roughneck boys from Hackney to Barcelona, Spain, but they did.
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And actually I had a really great time. I'm not a big vacation person by nature, but that was one of my favorite trips anywhere.
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One of the things that struck me about the visit to Barcelona, I still have a picture of this in my office, was visiting what's known as the
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La Sagrada Familia Cathedral. If you know anything about Barcelona, the city, it sits not quite in the center but close enough.
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This Catholic Church, not a place I go to worship personally, but architectural -wise it blew me away.
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I'm not a big architecture person. This building designed by Antonio Gaudi was designed to be basically the smaller cathedral in the city of Barcelona.
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Gaudi's plans for the building were a little advanced for his day. So much so that they kind of said it would take about 40 years to build.
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And that was with the techniques that they had that day, in that day. Well, he starts to build and Gaudi dies in 1926, before the building can be even remotely completed.
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And so one of his disciples, Dominic, I'm sure I'll get the name right here because I'm terrible with names, his name was
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Dominic Sugranić. He was an apprentice of Gaudi's, who later came to view
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Gaudi as his master, essentially. His apprentice took over the work and as he took over the work,
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Gaudi was something of a genius, quite frankly, in terms of design and architecture.
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And so he had produced plans and left pretty much a blueprint for how this should go.
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Well, Gaudi was dead at this point and so the story goes that the committee who were in charge of building this thing were like, well, we can cut some corners here and there.
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I mean, Master Gaudi's not here. Kind of guess how that went over.
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And so the story goes that his disciple, Dominic, was just sitting there, didn't say a word.
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And so finally they asked him, they said, Senor Sugranić, what is your thinking on this?
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And it is rumoured, again, no one can actually verify if he said this or not, but this is the rumour. It's rumoured that he responded to this claim of, let's cut some corners, let's get rid of some of the design, more intricate design, because he's not here to tell us how he wants it and we need to get this thing built.
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His disciple, Mr. Sugranić said, quote, Master Gaudi believed in classic excellence, not modern mediocrity.
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For the mediocre, no work is required. For the excellent, no rest is acceptable.
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And with that, they said, okay, I guess we're not going to cut corners here. Oh, by the way, did
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I tell you that building's still not finished? Because, well, there was a little thing called the
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Spanish Civil War that kind of interrupted things. Apparently, COVID interrupted. It was supposed to open this year.
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It's now going to open in 2026, Lord willing. They asked the most recent architects, how do they feel about this project?
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And I love what they said. We've been at this for decades.
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Why would we cut corners now? That's an understanding of excellence.
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They can't get it perfect. No, they can't. And in fact, they've acknowledged that, look, we've been building this so long. I saw this when
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I went in 2007. Parts of the building as they've been adding to it, some of it has gotten so old, the rock is weathered, but they're adding new bits next to the old bits.
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It looks weird. It's like a patchwork almost. And I know they have plans to kind of clean it all up when it's ready to launch.
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But again, a testimony to a commitment to excellence, that they've been building this thing for almost a hundred years and it's not done.
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That's excellence. And I fear that we live in a day where excellence as a concept is just lost on people.
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I fear it's a term that's forgotten in the present day. And if I can be honest, I think even in the church at times, the concept of excellence is somewhat lost.
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I say somewhat because I think if we're honest, we readily acknowledge that there are places where we want excellence and places where we're willing to settle.
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No offense to anybody who works at Walmart. I don't really expect excellence when I go to Walmart. I kind of expect them,
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I expect it to be functional. Actually, I expect that from any grocery store I go to. I don't expect perfection. I'm willing to live with stuff being missing or stuff not being available.
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That's fine. I expect excellence from a pilot when I get on the plane, though. That's the one time
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I really need you to not cut corners. I need you to follow everything to the letter well.
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I'm not afraid of flying. I've been flying since I was really young. But I still want to know, I still listen to the safety announcements every single time.
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Why? Because I want to make sure that they're doing their job well. And to be honest, if you were getting on a plane going somewhere, you really want to make sure that the person knows what they're doing.
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We are willing to accept excellence in some places and settle in others. My question is, which of those two?
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Excellence or settling apply, or let me use the correct terms, excellence or mediocrity apply to the
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Christian life? I think Paul's gonna answer that question for us.
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And like I said, this is a passage that as I sat with this passage this week, and I read it, and I thought over it, and I prayed over it, it hit me.
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Kofi, you need to do a searching spiritual inventory. And so for the rest of our time,
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I want to consider three joyful attitudes in Paul's life that we learned from this passage.
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Three joyful attitudes that you should seek to imitate if you want to live an excellent
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Christian life. See, I'm convinced that it's not God's will for us to kind of just coast through our
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Christian life, kind of float to heaven on beds of ease. No, I think God wants us to live Christian lives that are excellent.
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Not perfect, because perfection is not possible. And in fact, that's a burden you should not put on any human being.
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No, God is not desiring for perfection from us, but I do believe based on this text that he does want excellence from us.
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And so three attitudes, I'm gonna do my best to move through this quickly. If you're going to live with spiritual vigor, if you're going to live with zeal, with excellence, the first attitude you need to adopt is what
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I call dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction says,
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I have not arrived. I have not arrived.
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So our text begins, look at verse 12. Not that I have already reached the goal, or am already perfect.
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Now the question is, what is the goal he's talking about? Now the CSB does a little bit of cleaning up here. The original language just says, not that I have already reached it.
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It's actually left a little bit open. Well the question is, what is the it? Well the
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CSB, which I think makes a lot of sense, essentially says that the it ties back to verse 10.
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So look up chapter 3 verse 10. What does he say there? My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
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That was Paul's goal. He told us that in our last message. But when he comes to verse 12, he says, that's my goal, but I have not reached it.
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I haven't achieved it yet. Paul recognizes that the goal he set in verse 10 is a lofty one.
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And since it's such a lofty one, it's what makes his comments here in verses 12 and 13 so striking. Again, let me read them in full.
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Not that I have already reached the goal, or I'm already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I have also been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
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Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it.
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Paul knows what the goal is. The goal is a deepening and widening knowledge of Christ.
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And yet he says, I'm not there yet. Is this false humility on Paul's part?
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I mean, think about this. Paul met the resurrected Christ. This is the man who planted church after church after church after church.
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Most of the churches in the New Testament that we read letters to, Paul started them, or he at least had a hand in starting them.
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I mean, think about it. This man wrote almost a clean half of your New Testament.
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Surely if anyone could lay claim to knowing Christ and knowing him as fully as possible, it has to be this.
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I mean, it's a logical inference. It should be him. So maybe it's not false humility on Paul's part.
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Maybe this is Paul's way of downplaying the task. Maybe this is like what some friends of mine did when
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I was younger. We went on a, it had to have been what, 13 maybe? We went on some sort of week -long excursion off on the
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Isle of Wight. It's a little island off of the south coast of England. And one of the things we had to do was ziplining.
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Those of you who know me well, you're probably thinking, Kofi did not do that. And you are right.
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He did not do that. I ain't stupid. But it was interesting.
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Like, for whatever reason, they kept putting us in line alphabetically.
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My surname is Edouard, which means I'm always at the front of lines if you do that. So here
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I am in front of the line. And my friends are kind of goading me on, it's not that bad. It's not that bad.
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Is that what Paul's doing here? Guys, you know, I'm just downplaying the seriousness of this thing.
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The zipline actually snapped with someone on it. Thankfully, they were all corded up and stuff, so no one was hurt. But I was like, mm -hmm,
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I told you, I'm not stupid. But is that what they're doing here, downplaying? This isn't that bad.
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Is that what Paul's doing here? No, I don't think he's doing that.
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Paul's an honest man, so he wouldn't resort to cheap tricks to make his point. So which means, he must mean it when he says.
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Verse 12, not that I've already reached a goal, I'm already perfect. Verse 13, that I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it.
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Paul was a man who had a holy dissatisfaction. Now I've got, let me pause, let me pause, let me be clear.
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Dissatisfaction here is not talking about dissatisfaction with Jesus. Think back to what we read in chapter 3, verses 9 through 11.
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Paul was very satisfied with the righteousness to be found only in Jesus. So whatever he's saying is not a dissatisfaction with Jesus, with his salvation, with what
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God had done in Christ. And by the way, pause, Christian, never get dissatisfied with the gospel, never get bored with the gospel, that's a very dangerous place to be.
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No, Paul was not saying, uh, been there, done that with this gospel thing, I'm kind of bored. That's not what he's saying here.
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No, no, no, I'll put it to you that Paul's dissatisfaction was not dissatisfaction with Jesus, it was dissatisfaction with where he was in relationship to knowing
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Jesus. Paul recognized that, yes,
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I've made some progress, but I've still got a ways to go. Dissatisfaction.
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Isn't it easy for us to think that we're doing okay when we start comparing ourselves with other people, or worse, comparing ourselves with ourselves?
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Isn't it all too easy to think that we are doing better than we are, to think that we have arrived further than we actually have?
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Kind of reminds me of what Jesus says a couple of times in the Revelation, right at the end of the Bible. Remember chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation?
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He writes to these seven churches. The Lord of the church basically gives his progress report on what
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I think are seven very real but representative churches. A couple of times, it struck me this week, that there are a couple of times where Jesus talks about the assessment that these churches had for themselves, and then gave his own assessment.
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So to the church of Sardis in chapter 3, verse 1, he says, I know your works, Revelation 3, 1.
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You have a reputation for being alive. That was their assessment, and the assessment of other people, but you are dead.
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Or the church in Laodicea, the really, really bad one. The church that said, Revelation 3, 17,
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I'm rich, and I've become wealthy, and I don't need anything. And Jesus says, you don't realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
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Kofi, where are you going with this? Here's where I'm going with this. If we're going to pursue lives of spiritual excellence, we cannot fall prone to the wrong self -diagnosis.
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We cannot fall prone to the wrong self -diagnosis. Those of you who know my wife know she's a nurse.
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One of the things that she told me to do very early on in our marriage was, don't look online when you don't feel well.
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I mean, we've all done it at some point, don't tell lies. You know, you feel a mixture of weird symptoms, so what do you do?
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Jump on Dr. Google, even though you have no medical degree? And then Google gives you, like, worst -case scenario, like, oh snap, is that what this is?
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Like, self -diagnosing is usually not a good thing. Leave that to the professionals. Well, in the spiritual life, while there are no professionals, the reality is, still don't self -diagnose.
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The reality is, it's only when we compare ourselves to the unflinching standards of God's Word, that's the only time when we realize, or we should realize, that we have a long way to go.
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And so Paul says that, I have not arrived. And it's interesting that, because Paul recognized he hadn't arrived,
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Paul could have two responses, one towards other people and one towards himself. Paul hadn't arrived, and since he hadn't arrived,
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Paul could be understanding with others. Paul could be understanding with others.
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Remember, think about this, in the passage we looked at last week, remember Paul said that he used to think of himself in relation to the law as blameless?
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But now he says, I'm not blameless, I haven't arrived. Far from it. And I think that informs the way in which he speaks to the
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Philippians. So he's understanding with others, but not only is he understanding with others, he is focused when it comes to his own walk.
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Paul doesn't do the thing that is so common in our culture. I'm not perfect, but who is?
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It's no big deal. You'll know how much I hate that phrase, no big deal. I'm trying, you don't understand.
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No, Paul acknowledges he hasn't arrived, but he doesn't just sit there, throw his hands up and say, case or arse or whatever will be will be, the future's not mine to see, and all of that.
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We'll get to his response in just a moment actually, but for a moment, can I pause and get specific with this for a moment?
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And I'm going to ask a question. How honest are you, let me speak specifically now, how honest are you about where you are spiritually?
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Now, let me be careful, there are some dangers to asking a question like that, three of them in particular. Number one, if I ask a question like that, the answer can lead to perfectionism, perfectionism.
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Again, we talked about this, you know, someone who's always striving to be perfect, you know, essentially it's the mindset,
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I say this phrase all the time, try harder and do better. That's a, I'm gonna put, put it to you that that's a wrong response.
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Maybe perfectionism is not the danger that comes with a question like that, maybe the danger is a sense of false contentment, number two, false contentment.
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I'm fine, yeah, I struggle in this area, but I'm fine,
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I'm not doing that badly. I call it false contentment because there is a contentment that the
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Christian has. The Christian is not striving to be saved or striving to earn favor with God, no, the
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Christian has favor with God because of Jesus. In that sense, we are a hundred and ten percent content, or at least we should be, but when
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I say false contentment, I mean a contentment about the knowledge of Christ, our service to Christ, our ongoing love for him, is, have
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I grown in that? Have I matured in that? And false contentment says, yeah,
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I've kind of hit my peak. Maybe the problem isn't perfectionism, maybe it's not false contentment, maybe the problem for some is just plain apathy.
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I always define apathy as the attitude that says, I'm not trying to do all that, I'm not trying to do all that.
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So as you ask the question, how honest am I about where I am spiritually, be cognizant of the fact that that's a very dangerous question to answer if you don't ask it the right way.
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But beloved, we have to ask the question because if we're going to cross the plane, as it were, from mediocrity to excellence, from just doing the minimum to doing, in the best possible sense of the term, doing the most, there has to be some honesty about where you are right now.
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And once you know where you are, a recognition that you have not arrived. The reality is, no matter how long you've been walking with Jesus, there's this twin reality we live with in the
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Christian life. This reality of eternal and untouchable and, what some of the old folks used to say, unassailable rest.
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And at the same time, on the other hand, a restless pursuit of knowing
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Christ more. And if I can be so bold just to say this, if we've got uncomfortable in the rest that Christ offers without the continued pursuit of Christ that should flow from that rest, maybe we need to ask ourselves why.
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Maybe we need to ask ourselves why. Excellent Christian life.
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A Christian life that says, I am doing everything that I can within reason and empowered solely by the grace of God to know
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Christ more. That kind of life begins with a sanctified and a realistic dissatisfaction with where we are.
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Again, you've got to be careful because dissatisfaction without the right response will either lead to one of two things. I say it all the time.
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Pride on one hand or despair on the other. And that's why you need not only dissatisfaction in the pursuits of Christ, but secondly, dedication.
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Dedication. Essentially, you need to tell yourself, I keep on pursuing Christ. I might add a word in there.
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I will keep on pursuing Christ. Come back to our text, in the light of the fact that he hadn't arrived,
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Paul doesn't throw his hands up in the air and say, I tried. Look at verse 13.
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It says, Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead,
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I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
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Paul, recognizing that I still have a ways to go, Paul dedicated himself to the mission of knowing
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Christ. I can put it to you that the man that we meet in this book is a man of singular vision, is also a man of sustained vision.
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The man of singular vision was also a man of sustained vision. Our English translation adds a couple of words here.
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It says, but one thing I do, and it makes sense to add those words.
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It's supplied by the context. But Paul doesn't say one thing I do.
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No, Paul originally says literally just, but one thing. But one thing.
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I like how Spurgeon preaches this. I actually put it on a slide so you can read it with me. Spurgeon says, he says, speaking of Paul, this one thing
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I do, as if he had given up all else and addicted himself to one sole object, to aim to be like Jesus Christ.
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There were many other things Paul might have attempted, but he says this one thing I do.
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Before I go on, one question. I didn't put this in the study, but I leave you to think about this.
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Add it to the questions. If you were Paul, what would your one thing be? If you were
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Paul and someone asked you to finish this sentence, but one thing I do, could you say the same thing as Paul?
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How would you end that sentence? I leave that question to your meditation and move on. Paul starts his answer, as he talks about dedication,
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Paul starts his answer by explaining the how before he gets to the what.
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He kind of tells us how he does this and then tells us what he does. So again, look at the text with me.
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Verse 13. He says, brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing
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I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead.
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Let's pause there for a moment. Two things. Paul says I, and they're both participles, so he's explaining how he does this.
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He says, I forget what is behind. Active, I'm forgetting what happened before.
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All of the past growth, all of the past victories, all of the past failures, all that he had learned, whether by experience or by the ministry of the
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Holy Spirit. He says, I forget those things that were behind. He doesn't say, oh, you know, way back when
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I learned this and I'm good because I learned this way back when. It's not as though Paul says, hey, you know, back in 45
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AD, I heard this for the first time, and you know what? I've not gone back and thought about that ever again.
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No, what he simply means is everything that's happened, that happened, but I can't rest on what happened in the past.
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I didn't go to school here, obviously, so I don't know how that works over here, but I know in the UK, I had friends who were really good athletes.
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I played rugby for a number of years till I was injured. Some of my friends went on to play semi -professionally, one or two professionally, but there was always, as we all know, the numbers that go pro are very slim compared to numbers that don't, and there were always those folks who could tell you, hey, remember when we were back at school and I did like 20 tackles in a game?
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Always telling you what they did way back when, but could you do that today?
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No, but remember way back when when I did that. Paul doesn't do that. He says, forgetting what is behind, he says, and reaching forward to what is ahead.
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Paul recognized that there was still more knowledge of Christ to be gained. There was still more growth in godliness to be achieved.
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There were still more realms of service for him to pursue, even when he's in prison and not quite sure if he may or may not get out.
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There was still more to appreciate about Christ and his love and his grace and his mercy.
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Paul doesn't say, okay, given what I did in the past, I'm in a good position now. He says, no, I'm reaching forward.
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The term literally means I'm stretching, I'm straining forward. How many
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Christians, I don't know, maybe you've encountered this, I know I have. How many
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Christians live as though they already knew everything that they needed to know? How many
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Christians live as though, well, I've been a Christian long enough, I've arrived, there's nothing more for me to learn, nothing more for me to reach for.
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How many Christians live as though there was nothing left to be done for Jesus, because I did that all way back when. Now I'm enjoying the benefits of that.
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Can I put it to you that that is not Paul's mindset in this passage. Paul says, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead.
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Verse 14, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly calling,
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Christ Jesus. Now, I have to get technical for just a moment, so bear with me. My beloved
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CSB, which is where I preach from, I don't think they did a good job with verse 14. I have to give it to the
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New American Standard and the Legacy Standard Bibles, both of them get this right? Someone said, mm -hmm.
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So, verse 14 in the Legacy Standard Bible says, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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I mean, Kofi, that doesn't seem that much of a distinction. Actually, it's a big one. See, the way the CSB has it, the goal equals the prize.
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So, I pursue as my goal the prize promised, but that's not what Paul says. Paul says,
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I press on towards the goal for the prize. That's literally how it reads in the Greek. I press on toward the goal for the purpose of winning the prize.
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He makes a distinction between the two. Why? Because the goal hasn't changed from verse 10. The goal is still knowing
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Christ. See, this wasn't about Paul's self -glory or self -exaltation. Ultimately, the pursuit of excellence in the
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Christian life was about the pursuit of Jesus. It wasn't Paul trying to say, I've arrived,
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I've made it. That's not why Paul was straining as much as he was. No, no, no, no, no. He was doing this because he desired to know
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Christ more. The reason for him pressing on, literally, the term can be translated, beating down on this goal, was that there was a prize on the other end.
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And notice he says that this is the prize that belongs to the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Lots of debate what that means.
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I personally take the view that he's talking about the fact that I want to achieve the goal of knowing
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Christ, and on the other side, I will get to know Christ as fully as I will ever get to know him.
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Think about that. That when we get to glory, we won't need a Bible study in heaven. You ever thought about that? You won't need a
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Bible study in heaven. You won't need to gather for worship services. You don't need small groups.
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I love reading. I do think there'll be books in new heaven and new earth, but I won't have to read to try and know God better.
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Why? Because I will have all of eternity to get to do that. The prize that I would argue
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Paul is talking about here is being in the presence of God for all eternity, knowing him in the fullest way possible.
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And since that was the goal, Paul ran with dedication because the prize on the other end was worth it.
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And so I have to ask, do we pursue knowing Christ with this kind of dedication?
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Do we pursue Christ with this kind of dedication, knowing that on the other side is unbridled, unfiltered, and unassailable joy?
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Do we pursue this the way that Christ pursued us? You don't need to turn that.
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I'll read it to you though. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. In fact, let me just read verse 2 because of time. Text says that Jesus, for the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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There was a joy that was ahead of Jesus, that on the other side, he would see all those that the father gave him in eternity past come to know him.
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He said, that reality is on the other side. And since it was on the other side, he was willing to go through everything he went through to dedicate himself to the pursuit of the father's will, all the way to the cross.
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Beloved, dedication isn't easy. It's not always pleasant.
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Some of you may not know this. One of my favorite sports is indoor cycling. Yeah, indoor cycling.
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Arguably, my opinion, the greatest indoor cyclist of all time was a Scotsman called
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Sir Chris Hoy. Got to watch him win his final gold medal in London in 2012.
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One day, they showed a video before what was going to be his last race, which he won. And they showed his training regime, spending four, five, six hours at a go on a bike.
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He would throw up while cycling. By the time that he was done, he couldn't stand.
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So they literally had a gym mat right next to the bike so he could just fall on the gym mat because his legs just gave out afterwards.
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It wasn't pleasant. I remember when he won his gold and the BBC, who were covering the coverage, because obviously he was in London, the interviewer asked him, how does it feel?
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And he said it hurt, but it was worth it. The reality is dedication isn't easy.
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It's not always pleasant. It costs. It takes up time, talent, treasure, opportunities. It means giving up on legitimate and good things at times for the best thing.
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And as for convenience, well, please forget about it. It just doesn't happen. But can
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I put it to you that in light of who Jesus is, in light of all that he's done for us, isn't he just even a little bit worth it?
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If we're going to pursue excellence in our spiritual lives, it begins with dissatisfaction. It calls for dedication.
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And thirdly, it requires discipline. It requires discipline.
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Discipline, essentially, I keep my thinking regulated. I keep my thinking regulated.
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So verse 15, therefore, in light of the fact that I pursue the prize,
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I pursue the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, because of that, therefore, verse 15, let all of us who are mature think this way.
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As the saying goes, you are what you think.
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And so Paul calls the Philippians to the right kind of thinking pattern. Now, it's worth noting that Paul says in verse 15, let all of us who are mature.
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Okay, no big deal. Kind of a big deal, though, because the word for mature here is the same word for perfect in verse 12, which then opens up a problem, doesn't it?
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Because Paul says, I'm not already perfect. And the implication is neither are you. But he uses exactly the same word here in verse 15.
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Didn't Paul say he wasn't perfect? Is this a contradiction? Well, not quite.
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Actually, in fact, it's not a contradiction at all. This is a little more technical.
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So do your best to try and follow me here. So think back to last week. We're in Philippians 3, 1 through 11.
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Remember Paul's warning in chapter 3, verse 2? In fact, this should be just over the page. Philippians 3, 2.
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Remember what his little warning was in verse 2? Watch out for the dogs. Watch out for the evil workers.
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Watch out for those who mutilate the flesh. And we kind of worked out that he's talking about the
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Judaizers, these people who claim that in addition to faith in Jesus, you need to keep the law of Moses.
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The Judaizers were the type who taught a kind of perfectionism. Remember that thing we talked about just a few minutes ago? We keep the law.
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And since we keep the law, the law makes us perfect. I think what Paul is doing here is he's taking their language, the people who describe themselves as being perfect, and he's essentially saying, listen, those who are spiritually mature are truly perfect.
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Not the way that the Judaizers say they are, where we never get it because we keep the law.
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The law makes us perfect. No, no, no, no, no. The Christian is the truly perfect person.
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Why? Because he is being made mature. Yes, the mature Christian is imperfect in the ultimate sense, but he's still way better off than the
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Judaizer who's trying to seek a righteousness of their own making. Do you follow me where I'm going with that?
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The truly perfect Christian, this is a funny statement when you think about it. The truly perfect Christian is the
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Christian who views their Christian life as a lifelong work in progress. That's the mark of true spiritual maturity.
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True spiritual maturity is not acting like you've arrived. It's recognizing you haven't arrived, but pursuing the goal with everything you have.
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And so Paul says that all of us who are mature think this way. This is how mature and maturing
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Christians think. But Paul knows the reality. He knows the reality that all faithful shepherds learn over time.
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And no doubt Paul has been faithfully serving Christ for quite some time at this point. He recognizes the reality that though you can call people to this way of thinking, though you can call people to pursue excellence, you can call, not everyone will respond.
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So note what he says in verse 15. And if you think differently about anything, that term if there carries the idea of if, and there are some who will.
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Paul recognizes there are some people who will hear this and say, oh, give me a break. A character from a
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TV show back in the UK would say, do me a favor. But notice what
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Paul does in response to that. Paul doesn't do what some preachers, even preachers in our circles, our theological camp do.
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Paul doesn't say, if you don't think like this, you must not be a Christian. If I really wanted to be controversial,
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I'd mention some names, but I'm not trying to be controversial, so I'm not. But there are certain preachers in our circles I don't listen to anymore for the simple fact that it seems like they have made their entire mission, what one of my favorite preachers,
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John MacArthur, calls the ministry of eternal insecurity. All they want is for you to constantly question, are you really a
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Christian? Paul doesn't do that here. Paul doesn't make them second guess if they truly knew
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Jesus. He had no reason to doubt that. In fact, he told us back in chapter one that he was very confident that they knew the
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Lord Jesus. And by the way, that's not really the job of the preacher anyway, because the Bible says,
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Paul says it elsewhere, the Lord knows those who are his. It's not my job to figure out who is and who isn't.
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Those calls aren't man's call to make unless we are given a really good reason to. No, Paul doesn't do any of that.
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He doesn't make them question whether they're Christians. He doesn't kind of go on a fruit inspection, friary as it were.
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No, Paul doesn't do any of that. He doesn't have to. Why doesn't he have to? Because Paul recognizes that,
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I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again. Do you know that God wants you to grow more than you want to grow? You ever thought about that reality?
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That God is more invested in your spiritual growth than even you are. And by the way, that should give you the most comfort in the world.
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Because I happen to think, I mean, I'm not an intelligent man, but I happen to think that if God is invested in something,
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I might be invested in something and not really care about it. But if God is invested in something, do you think that God is invested in your growth and will not do everything he can to help you to grow?
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So actually that should be comforting to you. Paul recognizes that. So he says, if you think differently about anything,
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God will reveal this also to you. It's interesting he uses the language of revelation, making known something that wasn't previously known.
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He says, if you're of a mindset that what I'm saying isn't the truth, he says, don't worry about it. God will make it plain to you.
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Whether through his word, whether through the conviction of his spirit, whether through direct discipline in the
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Christian life. Oh man, I wish I had time to preach on that. Hebrews 12, three through 11, if you're taking notes, read that in your own time.
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God disciplines Christians, not in a punishment sense, but in a pruning and growing sense. Whether it's through his word, his spirit, or through direct discipline in the
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Christian's life, God will make it clear to the Christian that his goal for them is for them to grow and to mature in the knowledge of Christ.
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And yet, Paul ends this. Paul ends this with a note of personal responsibility.
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You catch it in verse 16? He says, in any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.
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Can I share with you, I'm gonna be vulnerable with you for a moment. Sometimes this thing that I do of opening up God's word and teaching it week in and week out, it's the scariest thing
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I do. I love teaching the Bible. I love shepherding God's people through prayer and the ministry of the word.
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But I'll be honest, there are times when doing this wakes me in the middle of the night in a cold sweat.
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Sometimes that's because James 3 .1, which my pastor back in London used to drill into us as young men who were thinking about ministry, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because we will incur a stricter judgment.
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That part keeps me up quite a lot. That's why I work as hard as I do to hopefully understand the text of scripture and get it right.
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I hope I get it right, because I really on that day do not want to stand in front of Jesus and say, I'm sorry,
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I got it wrong. And sometimes it's not that.
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Sometimes it's what this verse describes in verse 16. I get woken up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, because I know that if I've understood this text right, first and foremost, responsibility is laid on me to live in light of what
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I see. But then if I stand up here and I tell everyone, now everyone's accountable because they all heard it too.
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In a very real sense, no one can plead ignorance once the truth comes to them. That's why
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Paul can say, I believe it's 2 Corinthians chapter two, that his preaching was the savor, it was the fragrance of life to life for some and the fragrance of death to death for others.
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Why? Because they heard the message for those who choose not to repent, for those who persist in their sin, that's gonna lead to their ultimate spiritual death.
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For those who hear it and believe it leads to their eternal life. And so Paul says, since you know the truth, how do they know?
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He's just told them. And no doubt they had had Paul with them and so Paul had taught them a great deal already.
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He says, you are accountable to live up to, to discipline yourself in light of the truth that you have heard.
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That's why, by the way, in the words of my friend, Owen Strand, life is too short to be in a bad church. Life is too short to sit in a church where you're not hearing the word of God because the reality is you can't live up to what you don't know.
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I said that this message might sting a little. If my wife were here, she'll tell you.
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I very rarely tell Laura what I'm going to preach before I preach it. But this week when
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I was writing this, at one point I stopped, I came out of my office and I was, Laura, I'm gonna send you a part of my sermon.
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Read this and tell me if you think I got it right. And you'll know my wife, if I didn't, she will tell me.
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I said, no, I think you got it. This text scared me this week because please hear me,
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I say this with all the love in my heart because I love this valley. This text scared me this week because it hit me that we live in a valley with a spiritual culture.
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Please know me. Please know what I said. The spiritual culture. I'm not talking about the people. People here are wonderful. I'm not talking about the environment.
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The environment's great. I hate the summers, but I'm from London. I'm used to cold and gray all the time.
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So, but this is not just me. I've spoken to multiple people and they've all said the same thing.
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The spiritual culture in this valley. I've been here six years. I think that's plenty of time to get a sense and a pulse on what goes on.
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The spiritual culture in this valley, if you're not careful, will suck you into mediocrity. And so a text like this scares me, beloved.
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It scares me because I think there are lots of people who have been in churches for lots of years and the needle hasn't shifted one inch in terms of growth and progress.
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Why? Because they've been in churches that basically just gives them a steady diet of Jesus loves you, has a wonderful plan for your life.
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And yeah, you know what? You fail, I fail, we all fail. It's no big deal. Our church is really young.
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We're still setting a culture as a body. And this passage scared me because it made me realize that if we don't set the right kind of culture, what will end up happening is we'll just slowly kind of very imperceptibly, very slowly.
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But over the course of years, you just start to kind of drift a little bit. Hebrew chapter two. I don't want that for this body.
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I love this body way too much to watch that happen. I don't want to see that happen for my own self.
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But can I leave you? I don't want to leave you on a negative note though. You may think, Kofi, you skipped a section.
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Kofi, you skipped a section. You skipped a part of a verse. And I did. Can I draw your attention back to verse 12?
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Why should we bother to do any of this? Verse 12.
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Not that I have already reached the goal or I'm already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it.
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Why? Because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
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If you don't remember anything else, I have to say, why should you want to pursue spiritual excellence and put aside spiritual mediocrity?
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Why should you? Why should I? Why should anybody even care? If for no other reason, if there's no other reason, it's because Jesus has made us his own.
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I put it to you, the ultimate reason why we should care about living excellent spiritual lives is not to impress people, not to get your pastor off your back or to keep certain people from constantly asking.
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No, the ultimate reason we do this is because as Paul puts it, we have been made
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Christ's own. In the words of Titus 2 14, Jesus died to make us a people who are zealous for good works.
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In the end, we don't pursue spiritual excellence because we're trying to be something or hit some eternally moving target.
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God is not the guy with the donkey with the carrot and the stick, constantly calling us to something.
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Meanwhile, we're never going to get, that's not the point. Can I put it to you? And I end with this.
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We pursue excellent Christian lives because this is the only reasonable response to being made
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Christ's own. And Father, I ask,
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Father, I ask that in a culture where, in a culture where if we're not careful, we can be sucked into just doing the bare minimum.
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I ask that your spirit would revive, would challenge, would encourage and would equip us to pursue the kind of excellence, the kind of all out pursuit of Jesus that is befitting of people who have been made
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Christ's own. It's fitting for people for whom Jesus gave everything, including his own life's blood.
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Father, my aim in this message is not to beat people over the head, try harder and do better because none of us can try harder and do better than ourselves.
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Would your spirit not work through your word to cause us to search ourselves and to ask, have
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I plateaued? Have I grown cold in some area? You for the grace that we know you will so graciously give.
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To put one spiritual foot in front of the other every day in the knowledge of you. Father, I pray for anybody who maybe doesn't know you.
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Father, none of this applies to them in the ultimate sense because they don't know you. The biggest need that they have is to come to the cross, to repent of their own attempts at building a righteousness for themselves and to receive the righteousness that only you can give.
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Father, help us that we would be a people who pursue spiritual excellence and that we would help one another in that pursuit.