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

Philippians 3:12-13 and the Call to Pursue Christ

Philippians chapter three, we're continuing the series that we've been in that we've called Deep Joy. Deep Joy, the message of Philippians. And like I said, Philippians chapter three, verses 12 to 16 will be our text.

If you have one of those red hardbacks that we give away, page 1041, page 1041, Philippians chapter three. And we're only gonna read a few verses. Philippians chapter three, beginning in verse 12 and reading through to verse 16.

So Philippians three, 12 to 16. And if you're able to do so, can I invite you to stand with me out of reverence for God's word as we come to this message.

Philippians chapter three,.

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.

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, I pursue as my prize, as my goal, excuse me, the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.

The gospel is the flower fades, but the word of our God will abide forever. Join with me as I pray, ask for the Lord's help. And we come to this passage. Well, Heavenly Father, we ask as we open up your word even now to a passage that is challenging and convicting and one that causes us to reflect on our walk with you.

I ask Father that you would grant me the grace to speak this word well. And I pray that you'd grant your people the ability to hear. 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 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.

Pray especially for the camp that they have this week with Child Evangelism Fellowship for the children of their church. Oh, 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, 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. 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.

We ask all these things in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.

Please be seated.

Defining Spiritual Excellence as More Than Perfection

This afternoon, I wanna speak to you from the subject of the joy of pursuing spiritual excellence, the joy of pursuing spiritual excellence. As some of you know, I'm a little fond every now and again of issuing what I call sermonic health warnings.

Just every now and again, I recognize that some things I say and preach about will not make you comfortable. And I don't do that lightly. I am not a masochist. I don't find pleasure in people being hurt.

But this one might sting. And if it does, then I would venture to say that it's doing what I believe this text is designed to do. 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.

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, I believe it's Alcoholics Anonymous, Anonymous, I can never say that word.

I believe it's 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? One of the things they call you to do is a searching moral inventory.

Well, consider this not a searching moral inventory. 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 I in relation to this?

And so, usually I have an introduction, and I have it all planned out, and all the rest of it. If you'll forgive me, I wanna jump just straight into our text, because there's a lot 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. If there's nothing else you remember from this sermon, here's what I want you to remember. That the Christian pursues joy by pursuing Christ-centered excellence in their walk with the Lord.

The Christian pursues joy by pursuing Christ-centered excellence in their walk with the 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.

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. When we talk about excellence, we are not talking about perfection.

You understand the distinction between those two? 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.

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, I am not perfect. And we all know the frustration of dealing with people who act like they're perfect.

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. 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.

When I was, let me make sure I get this right, 16, 16. When I was 16, I had the privilege of going to Barcelona, Spain for the first time. 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.

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. 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 La Sagrada Familia Cathedral.

If you know anything about Barcelona, the city, it sits not quite in the center, but close enough. This Catholic church, not a place I go to worship personally, but architectural-wise, it blew me away.

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. 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. 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.

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 Dominic Sogranets. He was an apprentice of Gaudi's, who later came to view Gaudi as his master, essentially.

His apprentice took over the work, and as he took over the work, Gaudi was something of a genius, quite frankly, in terms of design and architecture. And so he had produced plans and left pretty much a blueprint for how this should go.

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. I mean, Master Gaudi's not here.

You can kind of guess how that went over. And so the story goes that his disciple, Dominic, was just sitting there, didn't say a word. And so finally, they asked him, they said, Senor Sogranets, what is your thinking on this?

And it is rumored, again, no one can actually verify if he said this or not, but this is the rumor. It's rumors that he responded to this claim of, let's cut some corners, let's get rid of some of the more intricate design, because he's not here to tell us how he wants it, and we need to get this thing built.

His disciple, Mr. Sogranets said, quote, Master Gaudi believed in classic excellence, not modern mediocrity. For the mediocre, no work is required. For the excellent, no rest is acceptable. And with that, they said, okay, I guess we're not going to cut corners here.

Oh, by the way, did I tell you that building's still not finished? Because, well, there was a little thing called the Spanish Civil War and all that kind of interrupted things. Apparently COVID interrupted, it was supposed to open this year.

It's now going to open in 2026, Lord willing. They asked the most recent architects, how do they feel about this project? And I love what they said. We've been at this for decades. Why would we cut corners now?

That's an understanding of excellence. 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, you can, in fact, I saw this when 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. 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. But again, a testimony to a commitment to excellence that they've been building this thing for almost 100 years, and it's not done.

That's excellence.

And I fear that we live in a day where excellence as a concept is just lost on people. I fear it's a term that's forgotten in the present day. And I, if I can be honest, I think even in the church at times, the concept of excellence is somewhat lost.

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. No offense to anybody who works at Walmart.

I don't really expect excellence when I go to Walmart. I kind of expect them, 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.

That's fine. I expect excellence from a pilot when I get on the plane, though. That's the one time I really need you to not cut corners. I need you to follow everything to the letter well. 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.

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. We are willing to accept excellence in some places and settle in others.

My question is, which of those two, excellence or settling apply, or let me use the correct terms, excellence or mediocrity apply to the Christian life? I think Paul's going to answer that question for us.

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.

Kofi, you need to do a searching spiritual inventory. And so for the rest of our time, I want to consider three joyful attitudes in Paul's life that we learned from this passage, three joyful attitudes that you should seek to imitate if you want to live an excellent Christian life.

See, I'm convinced that it's not God's will for us to kind of just coast through our Christian life, kind of float to heaven on beds of these. No, I think God wants us to live Christian lives that are excellent, not perfect because perfection is not possible.

And in fact, that's a burden you should not put on any human being. No, God is not desiring for perfection from us, but I do believe based on this text that he does want excellence from us. And so three attitudes, I'm going to do my best to move through this quickly.

Holy Dissatisfaction and the Refusal to Settle

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 I call dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction says, I have not arrived.

I have not arrived. So our text begins, look at verse 12. Not that I have already reached the goal or I'm already perfect. 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. It's actually left a little bit open. Well, the question is, what is the it? Well, the CSB, which I think makes a lot of sense, essentially says that the it ties back to verse 10.

So look up chapter three, 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.

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've not reached it. I haven't achieved it yet. Paul recognizes that the goal he set in verse 10 is a lofty one.

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. 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.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it.

Paul knows what the goal is.

The goal is a deepening and widening knowledge of Christ. And yet he says, I'm not there yet. Is this false humility on Paul's part? I mean, think about this. Paul met the resurrected Christ. This is the man who planted church after church after church after church.

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. I mean, think about it. This man wrote almost a clean half of your New Testament.

Surely if anyone could lay claim to knowing Christ and knowing him as fully as possible, it has to be this. I mean, it's a logical inference. It should be him. So maybe it's not false humility on Paul's part.

Maybe this is Paul's way of downplaying the task. Maybe this is like what some friends of mine did when 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 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. Those of you who know me well, you're probably thinking, Kofi did not do that. And you are right.

He did not do that.

I ain't stupid.

But it was interesting. Like for whatever reason, they kept putting us in line alphabetically. My surname is Edwin, A-D-U, which means I'm always at the front of lines if you do that. So here I am in front of the line and my friends are kind of goading me.

It's not that bad. It's not that bad. Is that what Paul's doing here? Guys, you know, I'm just downplaying the seriousness of this thing. 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, I told you, I'm not stupid. But is that what they're doing here, downplaying?

This isn't that bad.

Is that what Paul's doing here? No, I don't think he's doing that. 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. 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. Paul was a man who had a holy dissatisfaction. Now I've got, let me pause, let me pause, let me be clear. Dissatisfaction here is not talking about dissatisfaction with Jesus.

Think back to what we read in chapter three verses nine through 11. 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 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. No, Paul was not saying, been there, done that with this gospel thing.

I'm kind of bored.

And that's not what he's saying here. 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 Jesus.

Paul recognized that, yes, I've made some progress,.

But I've still got a ways to go. Dissatisfaction.

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? 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?

Kind of reminds me of what Jesus says a couple of times in the Revelation, right at the end of the Bible. Remember chapters two and three of Revelation? He writes to these seven churches. The Lord of the church basically gives his progress report on what 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. So to the church of Sardis in chapter three, verse one, he says, I know your works, Revelation three, one.

You have a reputation for being alive. That was their assessment and the assessment of other people, but you are dead. Or the church in Laodicea, the really, really bad one. The church that said, Revelation three, 17, 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. 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.

We cannot fall prone to the wrong self-diagnosis. Those of you who know my wife, know she's a nurse. 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.

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?

Jump on Dr. Google, you know you have no medical degree. And then Google gives you like worst case scenario, like, oh, snap, is that what this is? 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. 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.

And so Paul says that I have not arrived. And it's interesting that, because Paul recognized he hadn't arrived, Paul could have two responses, one towards other people and one towards himself. Paul hadn't arrived, and since he hadn't arrived, Paul could be understanding with others.

Paul could be understanding with others. 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? 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 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.

Paul doesn't do the thing that is so common in our culture. Eh, I'm not perfect, but who is? It's no big deal. You'll know how much I hate that phrase, no big deal. I'm trying, you don't understand. 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.

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? Allow me to ask a question. How honest are you, let me speak specifically now, how honest are you about where you are spiritually?

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.

Again, we talked about this, someone who's always striving to be perfect. Essentially, it's the mindset, I say this phrase all the time, try harder and do better. That's a, I'm gonna put it to you that that's a wrong response.

Maybe perfectionism's not the danger that comes with a question like that. Maybe the danger is a sense of false contentment, number two. A false contentment, false contentment, I'm fine. Yeah, I struggle in this area, but I'm fine, I'm not doing that badly.

I call it false contentment because there is a contentment that the Christian has. The Christian is not striving to be saved or striving to earn favor with God, no, the Christian has favor with God because of Jesus.

In that sense, we are 110 content, or at least we should be. But when I say false contentment, I mean a contentment about the knowledge of Christ, our service to Christ, our ongoing love for Him. Have I grown in that?

Have I matured in that? And false contentment says, yeah, 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.

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. And 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.

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.

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 Christian life.

This reality of eternal and untouchable and what some of the old folks used to say,.

Unassailable rest.

And at the same time, on the other hand, a restless pursuit of knowing Christ more. And if I can be so bold just to say this, if we've gotten comfortable 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.

Maybe we need to ask ourselves why. Excellent Christian life. A Christian life that says, I am doing everything that I can within reason and empowered solely by the grace of God to know Christ more. That kind of life begins with a sanctified and a realistic dissatisfaction with where we are.

But 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, pride on one hand or despair on the other. And that's why you need not only dissatisfaction in the pursuits of Christ,.

Dedication to Knowing Christ More

But secondly, dedication. Dedication.

Essentially you need to tell yourself, I keep on pursuing Christ. I might add a word in there. I will keep on pursuing Christ. Come back to our text. In the light of the fact that he hadn't arrived, Paul doesn't throw his hands up in the air and say,.

Well, I tried.

Look at verse 13.

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, I pursue as my goal, the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Paul, recognizing that I still have a ways to go, Paul dedicated himself to the mission of knowing 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.

The man of singular vision was also a man of sustained vision. Our English translation adds a couple of words here. It says, but one thing I do. And it makes sense to add those words. It's supplied by the context.

But Paul doesn't say one thing I do. No, Paul originally says literally just, but one thing. But one thing. 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 I do, as if he had given up all else and addicted himself to one sole object, to aim to be like Jesus Christ.

There were many other things Paul might've attempted, but he says, this one thing I do. Before I go on, one question. I didn't put this in the study, but I leave you to think about this. Add it to the questions.

If you were Paul, what would your one thing be? If you were Paul and someone asked you to finish this sentence, but one thing I do, could you say the same thing as Paul? 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. Paul starts his answer by explaining the how before he gets to the what. He kind of tells us how he does this and then tells us what he does.

So again, look at the text with me. Verse 13, he 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.

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. He says, I forget what is behind. Active, I'm forgetting what happened before.

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 Holy Spirit, he says, I forget those things that were behind.

He doesn't say, oh, you know, way back when 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 AD, I heard this for the first time and you know what, I've not gone back and thought about that ever again.

No, what he simply means is everything that's happened, that happened, but I can't rest on what happened in the past. 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.

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?

Always telling you what they did way back when,.

But could you do that today?

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. Paul recognized that there was still more knowledge of Christ to be gained. There was still more growth in godliness to be achieved.

There was 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. There was still more to appreciate about Christ and his love and his grace and his mercy.

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. The term literally means I'm stretching. I'm straining forward. How many Christians, I don't know, maybe you've encountered this.

I know I have. How many Christians live as though they already knew everything that they needed to know? How many 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.

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. 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. Verse 14, I pursue as my goal, the prize promised by God's heavenly calling, Christ Jesus. Now I have to get technical for just a moment.

So bear with me. My beloved 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 New American Standard and the Legacy Standard Bibles. Both of them get this right.

Someone said, woo-hoo.

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. Maybe you think, 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. So I pursue as my goal, the prize promised, but that's not what Paul says. Paul says, 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. He makes a distinction between the two.

Why?

Because the goal hasn't changed from verse 10. The goal is still knowing Christ. See, this wasn't about Paul's self-glory or self-exaltation. Ultimately, the pursuit of excellence in the Christian life was about the pursuit of Jesus.

It wasn't Paul trying to say, I've arrived, 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 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.

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. I personally take the view that he's talking about the fact that I want to achieve the goal of knowing Christ, and on the other side, I will get to know Christ as fully as I will ever get to know him.

Think about that, that when we get to glory, we won't need a Bible study in heaven. You ever thought about that? You don't need a Bible study in heaven. You won't need to gather for worship services. You don't need small groups.

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.

Why?

Because I will have all of eternity to get to do that. The prize that I would argue Paul is talking about here is being in the presence of God for all eternity, knowing him in the fullest way possible.

And since that was the goal, Paul ran with dedication because the prize on the other end was worth it. And so I have to ask, do we pursue knowing Christ with this kind of dedication? Do we pursue Christ with this kind of dedication, knowing that on the other side is unbridled, unfiltered, and unassailable joy?

Do we pursue this the way that Christ pursued us? You don't need to turn that, I'll read it to you though. Hebrews chapter 12, verses one and two. In fact, let me just read verse two 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.

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. 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,.