Pressing Towards the Goal

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The message that I've chosen to minister to you for this upcoming new year of 2024 is found in the epistle of Philippians, and I believe it's very fitting as we've looked at chapter 2 for several
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Lord's days, on the incarnation, the kenosis, as our
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Lord Jesus humbled himself and we talked about humility, what real humility looks like, and Jesus is no doubt the incarnation of true humility.
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So we pick up on chapter 3. So as we have been looking and gleaning from Philippians 2 for the past several weeks during the
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Christmas season, now once again we turn to Philippians chapter 3. So please turn with me to Philippians chapter 3.
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And we're going to carry on and I'm going to finish pretty much what I did not finish on sanctification.
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Now, sanctification has been on my heart quite often. We need to look at this and look and glean at the goal.
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We need to set before us for the upcoming new year, and let me not only say this for not only the new year, but as God wills, as Brother Keith so wonderfully put, and I think that's so appropriate because we don't know where we're going to be in this coming year.
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God knows, and that's why we say God wills. This needs to be our goal.
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There are so many goal settings for people when the new year comes. Lose weight.
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Am I going to get better paychecks? So many people have got the finances in mind, the physical in mind.
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But we as Christians have the spiritual in mind, the eternal things. We're to set our mind on things above, not on earth.
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And I say this goal that I like to set before you is not just for every year, but it's for every year, every day, every hour, every minute, every second as we live and move and have our being in God.
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Let me ask you a few questions at the onset here. So what is this great goal?
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What goal are you setting in your life? Or should
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I ask, who is this great goal? Who? What is the mark?
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What is the prize? What is the high calling? Well, Philippians 3, verse 12 to verse 16 answers those questions and clearly tells us that great goal.
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And the apostle Paul, one of the greatest men who ever lived, that served the
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Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He even fell short many times as well. But because he was a mere man, the
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Lord Jesus Christ, no. He was the perfect man. Now think about what the apostle
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Paul says. But he was so close to the Lord at the same time. He says, you follow Christ, you follow me as I follow
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Christ. Can you say that? Can I say that? That is being very close to the
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Lord to say, you imitate me as I imitate Christ. So that, you know the apostle
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Paul as well as I do. That man suffered for the Lord and he was truly, after his conversion, incredible usefulness to the
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Lord. And has given us most of the New Testament through the
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Holy Spirit as God used him. The apostle Paul, no doubt by the grace of God, gives to us this great goal under the inspiration of the
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Holy Spirit. So beginning at verse 12, hear the word of the living God, Philippians chapter 3, verse 12.
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He says this, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on,
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I press on that I may lay hold of that for which
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Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing
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I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.
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I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
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Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind, and if anything you think otherwise,
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God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
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May God bless the reading of His word from our ears to our hearts this Lord's Day morning.
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Please bow with me in prayer. Our Father and our God, our
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Lord, the King of glory, Lord, we humbly now come before you now acknowledging your greatness, your glory, your honor, and Lord, we acknowledge at the same time our weakness and our frailty.
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Lord, without you, may we always remember this, we can do nothing.
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Nothing. Absolutely nothing. May we never ever forget this great truth.
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So Father, we acknowledge that in Christ at the same time, in Christ alone by your grace, we can do all things through Jesus Christ, and that means to live out a sanctified walk after the
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Spirit. Lord, I pray that within this hour you will help us and show us through your word, sanctify us in the truth, cleanse us, wash us with the washing of regeneration of thy word.
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For the purpose of being more and more like your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So Lord, once again, in your grace and mercy, would you be pleased to come and meet with us and lay hold of us, change us,
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Lord, from glory to glory. And Lord, I pray give us fresh eyes to see, give us ears to hear, unstop our deaf ears.
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And Lord, may we learn as a disciple and a student at your feet as we open your word and glean from your word.
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And Lord, may all the honor and glory be to you. We ask this in the glorious name of Jesus for his sake.
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Amen. It was in the year of 1902, he was born on the mission field of Scottish missionaries, working in northeastern
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China at the time of his birth. For 12 years, he attended
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Eltham College, a Christian boarding school. Then he studied at Edinburgh University where he excelled in athletics, particularly short distance running was his strength, rugby and cricket.
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In 1922 and 1923, he played for Scotland Rugby Union in the
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Five Nations. But it was his running, his running that distinguished him as an athlete.
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And after setting a British record for the 100 yard sprint in 1923, hopes were very high for him to show strong in the 1924
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Olympic Games. He was most widely known for his refusal to run on Sunday.
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That was not a painstaking thing for him, by the way. It was as a Christian and a born again Christian, he gave honor to the
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Lord. That was not a hard thing for him as Chariot of Fire so wonderfully portrays this godly man.
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So in 1924, the Olympic Games in Paris, France came. He was, as I said, a very committed born again
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Christian. He withdrew from the strongest events, think of this, the 100 meters.
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As an alternative, he registered to run in the 400 meters on another day.
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And just moments before that particular race, an American handed him a little piece of paper on which was written the passage from the
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Bible from 1 Samuel 2, verse 30. It said this, those who honor me,
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I will honor. He went on and ran and ran well. And with the verse in his hand, he claimed the
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Olympic gold, a new world record with a time of 47 .6
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seconds. When he described his race plan, he simply said this, quote, this is his words exactly as he said, the secret of my success over the 400 meters is that I run the first 200 meters as fast as I can.
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Then for the second 200 meters, with God's help, I run even faster, end quote.
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Of course, the Christian athlete that I'm speaking of, and I'm sure you know it in your mind's eye, is none other than Eric Little.
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Eric Little is one of my heroes of the faith, is a man used of God.
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Eric Little ran his race for the glory of God. He dashed to the finish line of his life and ran for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, his
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Lord and Savior. All the way to the end of his life, he ran hard, folks.
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I got more to say about Eric Little at the end of this message, and I'm going to make that a bookend, because his life does not end there.
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It gets even better. Let me say this, the Apostle Paul must very much like athletes.
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If you read the epistles, many times, often, he uses athletes as analogies, athletic metaphors to illustrate a spiritual truth to us.
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So we get it. So we need to get the message. And one of his well -known athletic analogies is that of a runner running a race.
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The race of faith. The race of faith. And that's the race we're in. We're all in this race, if you're born again.
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The runner, to Paul, is the picture of the believer. The believer in Christ and the race of faith, the
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Christian life. And frequently in his writings, he alludes to this running metaphor, this maximum effort in sanctification.
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We should be concerned about our sanctification every day we live as Christians. And as the
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Christian moves towards the goal, the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, that high calling of God in Christ Jesus, to finish the course well, to finish the cross line,
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I'd like to say that's the dash. From the moment that we're born, and whatever year and whatever day you were born, and month, there's a dash.
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There's a dash. This dash is what I'd like to focus on this morning.
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That dash is, as a born -again Christian, is your sanctification, my sanctification.
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I need sanctification. I need to be sanctified every day of my life.
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And Philippians chapter 3 tells us much about what this sanctification looks like.
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Now, it's obvious that the heart of this passage is the very familiar verse that I've read to you in verse 14, and I think it's the one that we should all highlight and look at.
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I press. Paul says, I press. I press. Many times, Paul mentions,
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I fight, I press, I go forward. I run.
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I run, I press, I fight. He never gives up. I press toward the goal of the mark for the prize.
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There's a prize of the upward call. It's not downward, it's upward. It's the call of God.
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That's the effectual call in Christ Jesus. Now, that's the heart of the passage. So the theme here is the pursuit of the prize.
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The pursuit of it. The pursuit of God. The pursuing the prize to win
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Christ. That is the prize. Jesus is that prize. It makes me think of what
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Abraham says about God. And God told him, I am your exceeding great reward.
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God himself is that reward. Christ is that reward. From verses 1 to 6, or the
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Apostle Paul's background is Saul of Tarsus when he was a very religious Pharisee in the
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Jewish religion. You see this, that whole section.
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And I love the way he speaks about it in verse 3. For we are the circumcision who worship
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God in the Spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus, he says. This is a book of rejoicing.
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It's a book of joy. Have no confidence in the flesh. We need to underscore that.
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No confidence whatsoever in the flesh. The arm of flesh will always let us down. That's our biggest problem, isn't it?
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Our flesh. And then he says this. Though I also might have confidence in the flesh.
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And now he's kind of using sarcasm here. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh,
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I more say, and notice what he says in verse 5. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, the
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Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal persecuting the church, concerning righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
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It's incredible he goes through all that. And then verse 7, you see conversion.
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Verse 7 is the great conversion that takes place.
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But, there it is, there's the door hinge. It opens up. But what things were gained to me that I have counted lost for Christ.
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Paul came to realize by the grace of God that all his good works were nothing but dung, manure, rubbish, garbage, would you please, before God.
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And they could not save him. And then he says, Indeed, I also count all these things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my
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Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as dung, manure, stinks before God.
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It makes me think of stench before God. All that religion, all that religion was stinking before God.
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Now, I'd also like to give attention to a verse
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I wrote down right here. Ephesians 1, 4 to 6. And the reason I wrote this down is this.
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God has even not only ordained our salvation, God has also ordained our sanctification.
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Listen to this. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
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Does it stop there? He chose us before the foundation of the world to be saved, to be
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His own. Then He says this, He says that we should be, what? Holy.
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And without blame. Before Him. Before God. In love.
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Having predestined. That means marked out. Selected. He's chosen us to the adoption as sons by Christ Jesus to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which
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He made us accepted in the Beloved. Isn't that wonderful? So He's ordained us in salvation, but He's ordained our sanctification as well.
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Makes me think of also Romans 8, 28, verse 30.
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A lot of people stop at verse 28, but verse 29 really tells us what God's purpose is.
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It says this, And we know, don't we know? Yes, we know that all things, not some things, all things work together for good to those who love
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God. It's not to everyone, it's to those who love God. Right? That is to the believer. To those who are called according to His purpose.
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That called, again, is the effectual calling of God that brings us to salvation.
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And then it says according to His purpose. Does it stop there? Verse 29 tells us what
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His purpose is. What is God's purpose for you and me? Listen. Verse 29 tells us.
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Tells us God's purpose for us who are born again children of God. For whom He foreknew.
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He foreknew before. It just doesn't mean ahead of time that you're going to come to Christ. He knew this before the foundation of the world.
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He also predestined. There's that word again. Marked out. He selected us. He chose us to be conformed to the image of His Son.
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That He might be the first fruit among many brethren. And that's what He's done. See, listen to this.
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He's conformed us to be in the image of His Son. To be like Christ. That is
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God's goal for us. Verse 30. Moreover, whom He predestined, these also
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He called. Whom He called, He also justified. Whom He justified, those
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He glorified. This, beloved, is the golden chain of redemption.
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Now, what I'd like to do today is focus on progressive sanctification. Honorable sanctification.
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It is honorable. And that means to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And set this before you and myself as I minister this to you as well.
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Because I need it as well. Because the basic principles from the Word of God for our spiritual growth is to use this wonderful athletic analogy.
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And how we can get in shape, not physically, but spiritually.
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How we're going to be concerned for our souls. We need to be concerned for our spiritual well -being.
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Even more so than our physical. And you see today, you look around, people take care of their physical beings quite well, don't they?
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They take care of their body. They feed their body. We feed our bodies. We take care of it. We pamper it.
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But, you know, we need to exercise ourselves to godliness. We need to exercise. That's why it says bodily exercise profits little.
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But what about godliness? Exercising our soul, our spiritual man.
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That's what we need to get strong and get muscled up. That we can run to win the race of faith that is before us.
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Because I'm telling you, there's obstacles after obstacles. We have the world, the flesh, and the devil to contend with.
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But we have also the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to give us the power to get through. Because we sure can't do it ourselves, can we?
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But there is a part that we do play in sanctification. As Brother Lawson was talking about earlier in the
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Sunday School, there's monergistic, which is in salvation. But synergistic is in sanctification.
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There is a cooperating with the means which God provides for us in our walk with the
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Lord. Even though the Lord sanctifies us wholly through and through. And it is God that is work within us.
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But it is we must participate with God in our sanctification.
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We're going to look more about that later. Now, sanctification is picked up.
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Let me read a few verses here and look at it. Verse 10, notice what
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Paul says. Let me back up a little bit. Verse 7, as we looked at, is the hinge, is the conversion.
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But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Indeed, I also count, those are accounting words, all things were lost for the excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus my
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Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. I count, notice it constantly, he says, count them as rubbish that I may gain
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Christ. That I may win Christ. Be and be found in Him. Don't you want to be found in Him?
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I do. Not having my own righteousness, because it's not our righteousness that gets us into heaven, right?
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It's what? He says, my own righteousness is from the law. From the law.
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But that's not going to do it. But that which is through faith in Christ.
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The righteousness which is from God. By faith.
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And then the goal is here. That I may know Him. And the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death.
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Do you desire to be conformed to His death? If by any means
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I attain to the resurrection from the dead. Now, then he picks up on the text of pressing toward the goal of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
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As the goal of the Christian is found in verse 10 and 11 of chapter 3.
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Which is to know Him. To know Jesus Christ and to be like Christ in all things. And that right there is a lifetime of progress by the grace of God.
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A continued ongoing progression in grace. Philippians chapter 3 verse 12 to 16 tells us.
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But the apostle shows us how we can reach that goal through the ongoing progress of the Christian growth.
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And that would be, and here's my outline. Number one is to grow as a
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Christian, a believer. You've got to be in the race. First of all, you've got to be in the race. That's regeneration.
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Number two, to grow as a Christian. You've got to have the proper attitude in the race of faith.
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You notice the first is the divine side. The second is the human side.
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Third, to grow as a Christian, you've got to also give God your life, your soul, your body, your all.
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It's proper maximum effort. That's sanctification. That's the human side.
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So let's look at this. And I like to, like I said, we're going to look at what
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Paul is meaning in verse 15. Let me see here.
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Verse 13, verse 13 from chapter 2.
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For it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. So keep that in mind as well.
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In salvation, God does it all. It makes me think that it took
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God one day to get Israel out of Egypt. That's salvation. But in sanctification, it's different.
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In sanctification, it took God 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel. That's sanctification.
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And that is something that is about a child of God we will work on by the grace of God until the day we go home to be with the
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Lord. Sanctification is a life -long progression in growing in the grace and knowledge of God.
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Let's look at it. Number one, to grow in the grace and the knowledge of God, you've got to be in the race. You've got to be in the race.
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It's important to be a runner and to be an athlete in the race because Paul says this in verse 12, not that I've already obtained or attained or I'm already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that which
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Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. Now this sounds very, very obvious and very familiar, and in reality, there are a lot of people trying to run in a race they've never entered.
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What do I mean? What do I mean? There are people, sad to say, trying to grow as a believer or a
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Christian by living a good moral life or turning over a new leaf, by being good, by thinking and saying and doing the right things, what the
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Christians would do, I suppose they mean well, but by just mere performance or external things outward.
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It's kind of like what Jesus said to the Pharisees. On the outward, you look like a white sepulcher.
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You're clean on the outside, you look perfect on the outside, but on the inside, you're full of rottenness and dead men's bones.
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You stink. On the inside, your heart motives are not right.
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Jesus even told them this. He said, you honor God with your lips, but your heart's far from Him.
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That's playing religion. So what needs to happen is a heart transformation. We need to be in the race of faith and the race to get to the goal.
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You must be born again. You must have a new heart. Jesus said this to Nicodemus.
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You must be born again. You must have a new birth. You must change from the inside out, not the other way around.
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Many people pretend to be Christians nowadays. They're playing church. They're even zealous for God.
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They can even go to church. They pray, they tithe, and they do all these things. By the way, those things are in Scriptures.
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We are to pray, right? We are to give to the Lord. We are to come to church, and I always tell people, going to church don't make you a
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Christian, but when you are a Christian, you want to go to church. You see? But what
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I'm talking about is people who are playing church. And you have a lot in our day.
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They're reformed but not regenerated. On the outside, they may look good.
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They sing the hymns. They go through the motions, but their heart's far from God. Sometimes, even
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I said, they pray and they read the Bible. They talk the talk, but as the old saying goes, they don't walk the walk.
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So many, many, many people like this. They know the language of Christianity. And by the way, I've seen many people like this as a pastor down through the years.
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I've heard people even pray like a prophet and live like the devils of hell.
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They know the language, but they need to be born again. This is the criticalness of being born again of the
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Spirit of God. And that is a work the Spirit does. And then when that happens, there's conversion.
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There's true repentance. There's godly sorrow toward God because you see your sin as the way you should before God.
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And the law shows you that. The holiness of God shows you that. And for the purpose, then it leads you to the cross of Jesus Christ to be cleansed by the blood of Christ.
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That is the purpose. Well, Paul the apostle, again, this is exactly what he was referring to from verse 4 all the way to verse 6.
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He was a very religious man. But in verse 7, there's the great renunciation. He counted all things.
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He said this, but what things, what things, all those things in verse 3 to 6 were gain to me at that time.
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They were great to me. They were something to me. But now, there's a change.
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He was changed. And these I've counted loss for Christ. All that is loss. Again, the
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Greek word for gain is an accounting word. It means profit. The Greek word for loss is also an accounting word that describes business loss.
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So Paul used the language of business to describe the spiritual transaction that took place and occurred when
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Jesus Christ redeemed him. Isn't that glorious? Look at the change. This man was changed so much they didn't even trust him when he first became a convert of Christ.
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Because he was killing Christians. He was a terrorist. That would be like today, one of the main terrorists in the
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Middle East being completely radically changed by the power of God. And then he comes to Christianity and he comes within the church and they're thinking, hold on, hold on.
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This man may blow us up. He may kill us. But no, Paul the apostle was transformed incredibly.
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I love his conversion. You can read it in Acts chapter 9. He wasn't looking for God. God was looking for him.
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God came after him. God changed him. And then we come to this wonderful verse.
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It's the profit and loss statement. He makes a great renunciation. On one side he lists the above mentioned things which
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I mentioned also that was gained to him. And on the other side he writes the single word Christ.
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You know, it's as if there's a scale here. All those things that were done religiously that meant something to him is put on the scale.
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And then you put Christ on the scale and it goes like this. Outweighs of all.
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They all amount to nothing when compared to the pearl of great price, Jesus Christ, which is found in Christ and Christ alone and who he is and his great person.
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He counted them lost for Christ. Why? Because he got and caught a glimpse of the glory of Christ.
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And it changed him forever. As long as Paul trusted in all that religion and all those things, he could never be saved.
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But once he was saved by the grace of God and Christ came to him and changed him. And he says, and be found in him not having my own righteousness.
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He says in verse 9, but this is which is from the law. But that which is through faith in Christ.
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The righteousness is for God by faith. It's incredible. Compared next to Christ.
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It's dung. It stinks. It's rubbish. Because Paul caught the glimpse of Christ on the road to Damascus and he seen the
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Lord of glory and it blinded him. And he fell down as a dead man and then he rose up and said,
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Lord, what do you want me to do? He wanted to serve. All of the glory seemed like nothing in comparison to Jesus Christ.
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Isn't that what happens when conversion takes place? You see everything that so glitters to people in this world and it's all going to fade and it's all going to perish.
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But I'd rather have Jesus than silver and gold. Nothing compared to the greatness of the glory of God because all here will perish and all that's going to really matter is reaching that goal and to see
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Christ in His face. To see Him face to face. And bow before Him.
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Oh, what a day that would be when Jesus I shall see. I will look upon His face, the one that saved me by His grace.
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You see, Paul's no longer religious now. He's redeemed. He's no longer religious.
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He's regenerated. He's changed. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
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So basically what Paul is saying in verse 12 now, all His sanctification, what
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His efforts, what He's going to be doing in Christ now, His good works, is for Christ.
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It's in Christ, through Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory. He's clarifying the progress of the
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Christian Christ likeness, His works in Jesus Christ now because He's not talking about the works that's going to get
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Him to heaven now because all that was done, right? Now He's talking about the works He's going to do, running the race, the sanctified life is for Christ.
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And even God produces that within us, but there's a part that we play. Remember what it says in verse 13 of chapter 2, for it is
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God who works in you, underscore this, both, that's a key word, both to will and to do.
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For what? His good pleasure. Don't you love that? It's for God's good pleasure.
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It's for the pleasure of God. It isn't about our pleasure. It's about God's good pleasure.
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It's about His smile upon you, upon me. And that's why it's possible that you and I can work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
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Your own salvation. This means that God has put within your heart a new heart, a flesh. He's taken out the stony heart.
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He's put in a heart of flesh. He's written His laws upon your heart. That means you have a desire now for the heavenly things.
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You're born again of the kingdom of God. It's the kingdom of God that is focused. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
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Don't worry about all these other things Jesus said to be added to you. That's why it's possible that we can work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
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Now, he goes on to sanctification. Pressing on. And then he says that I may lay hold of that which
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Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. It makes me think about the story in Genesis chapter 32.
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You're well familiar of the story. The story is Jacob wrestling with God all night.
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Listen to what verse 24 says in that chapter 32 of Genesis.
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Then Jacob was left alone. I think it's good to be alone. At times to wrestle out with God.
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He was left alone and a man, and by the way, if you look at the translation there, there's a capital M. This is just not an angelic being.
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Again, this is Christ showing up. A theophany.
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He wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. Now when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched or struck, one of the translations, as he struck the socket of his hip, and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him.
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Think of that. He was injured as he was continuing to wrestle with God. God wounded him to defeat him, to humble him, to bring him down, but yet he did not let go.
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Isn't that the way you want to be? You could be wounded for God, but you don't let go of God.
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He did not let go because he wanted the blessing. What was the blessing? We'll find out.
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Listen to verse 26. And he said, this is what God said, Let me go for the day breaks.
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Let me go for the day breaks. But he said, this is what Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me.
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That blessing meant everything to him. God was the blessing. He said that to Jacob.
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Okay, then verse 27, Then he said to him, God asked him a question. While he was wrestling with him, exhausted, hurt, wounded.
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What is your name? What is your name? He said, Jacob. Verse 28,
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He said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. For you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.
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You see that? You've prevailed. Verse 29,
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I love this. And I got to really meditating on this, but listen to this wonderful verse. Then Jacob asked,
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He asked, tell me your name, I pray. Who's the one being defeated here?
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Who's the one that's being in subjection? Who's the one that's surrendering? It's Jacob, not
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God. Notice what God said. And he said, Why is it that you ask about my name?
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That's a sealer. And then the scripture just says,
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And he blessed him there. You notice God didn't tell him his name? Because the change needed to be in Jacob, not
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God. God wasn't doing the surrender. Jacob was being surrendered.
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God didn't need to be defeated, because he's the victor. That's why he didn't tell him his name, but it just says,
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And he blessed him there. Beloved Jacob's personal name was changed from meaning deceiver or heel catcher to one meaning prince with God.
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And there's another translation, God's fighter. Are you God's fighter? That's conversion.
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He struggles with God. He struggled with God all night. And beloved, sometimes alone, we need to struggle with God for our sanctification.
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We need to be defeated to win the victory. In other words, as we looked in Philippians chapter 2, to be brought up, to be exalted, you must be abased.
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You must be brought low. That's the way it works. Emerging, victorious, because he was defeated,
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God wounded Jacob. Jacob was changed. That's conversion. That's conversion.
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That's exactly what must take place for us to enter into the kingdom of God. We must be broken.
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Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So Paul, he was once Saul, now he's a new person in Christ.
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Christ has laid hold of him. Notice that. The reason why he's laying hold of Christ is because Christ first laid hold of him.
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Not the other way around. It's Christ that laid hold of him. I love that.
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Lay hold is an intensified word that literally means to apprehend. It means that God seized him.
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Something that he took a hold of him. Paul is saying the reason he runs the race is the reason even in the race that he's in the race at all because Jesus has chased him down and has seized him.
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Christ apprehended him. Are you apprehended by God this morning? Are you seized by God to run in the race?
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So, in order to be in the race of faith, you must first have been laid hold of.
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You must be regenerated. Number two. Let's go to number two. To grow as a
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Christian in the grace and the knowledge of God, you must have the right proper attitude. This is important. You must have the proper attitude.
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Verse 13 and 14. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended or obtained, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to the things which are ahead,
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I press toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let me say this.
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Any athlete that is serious about winning will tell you straight up that your attitude is often the difference between victory and defeat.
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An example of this is a team that lacks in raw talent can sometimes defeat a team with much more ability than because they have the right attitude going into the game.
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You see that? And attitude is critical in the spiritual life as well. Our attitude, your attitude, my attitude as we come to Jesus Christ and go after Christ is everything.
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You look at the verse there in verse 15. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind.
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You know what another translation of mind is? Attitude. That's right. It's better translated attitude.
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Attitude, it's everything. Attitude, it's everything. The word used 10 times in the book of Philippians. And by the way, 26 times in the
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New Testament. And since the theme of Philippians is joy, there's a definite correlation.
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Joy. Remember Hebrews 10, I'm sorry, Hebrews 12, 1 and 2.
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Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, every weight, and the sin which, what?
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So easily ensnares us. So easily trips us up.
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And let us run with patience. That means endurance. We are to run with endurance the race that is set before us.
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And listen to this. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for what? The joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Beloved, Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. That means He's the originator.
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He's the perfecter. He begins us out on the race of faith. He started us off on the race of faith.
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And by the way, He will help us to the very end. Until we cross that finish line.
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No matter how hard it may be. He comes alongside us. He doesn't leave us as orphans.
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He's given us His Holy Spirit to empower us. He loves us with an everlasting love. And He even said this,
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I'll be with you to the end of the age. The Lord is my helper. I shall not forsake you nor leave you.
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That's a promise. That's a promise from God. We're not left to ourselves in sanctification.
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He comes to help us. He comes to give us the power to pursue Him. And by the way, it's a marathon, isn't it?
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It's to the very end. Well, first,
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He views the Christian growth as a long life pursuit, an ongoing process. So He has a long haul attitude in mind.
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One of endurance to press on. To press in. Even among many sufferings and tribulations that will come, we press in.
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And by the way, the early Christians had it much more difficult than us, beloved. They were being burned to the stake.
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They were being put to death. It cost them something to be a Christian. And yet, the exhortation comes.
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Yet, we press on. Second, He views the Christian growth as the kind of thing that we are to never say,
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I've arrived. That's pride. Pride will bring us down.
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We know we haven't arrived. So, we keep learning. We're disciples. We keep growing.
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We keep going. We never give up. We never give in. We keep pressing forward. Amen? I press on.
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Paul says, I press on. That means by extension. To exert with all the strength, with all you have by the power and the grace of God.
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Like a runner in a race, he continues to pursue the prize. And Paul pursued sanctification.
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That means Christ -likeness with every straining fiber by the grace of God.
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Every spiritual muscle that he may win the prize. Isn't that your goal today? Go with me to 1
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Corinthians chapter 9. I'd like you to see something here. I believe it's 1
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Corinthians 9. Yes, 1
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Corinthians 9. Look at verse 24 through 27. He says this.
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He starts with a question here. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?
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Listen to what Paul says. Run in such a way that you may obtain or win it.
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And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate. That means self -controlled.
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He's self -controlled in what? Some things? All things.
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That's convicting, isn't it? We need to be self -controlled in all things. That means from the way we dine.
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By the way, he goes on to say it in just a few minutes. He buffets his body. He doesn't buffet his body.
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You see, he's controlled in all things. And then he says this.
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Now they do it to obtain or win a perishable crown. But we, an imperishable crown. Therefore, I run thus.
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Paul says, I run. Not with uncertainty. We have a certainty.
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And they said, thus I fight. I fight. Not as one who beats the air.
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But I discipline my body. Does it mean? Does the body mean something? Oh, absolutely.
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Because your body does not belong to yourself. This is the house of the Lord. You are the temple of the
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Holy Spirit. We do not belong to our own. Why? You've been bought with a price.
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What's the cost? The precious blood of Jesus Christ. Nothing more valuable. Nothing more costly.
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The blood of Jesus has purchased you. That means you don't do what you want to do with your body.
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The body means something. A lot of people say, oh, my spirit being is to God. But I can do whatever
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I want to with my body. It doesn't work that way. If your soul belongs to the
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Lord, your body belongs to the Lord. So, what does he say? Thus I fight.
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Not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body. And bring it into subjection.
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Lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should not become, what?
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Disqualified. The old King James says, a castaway. That's happened to many a preacher's folks.
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Thinking that they were good. I don't care how knowledgeable they were to the scriptures. They did not buffet their body.
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They did not put it under subjection. They did not crucify or mortify it.
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Because the devil, and J .C. Rowell says, all it takes is just a little. And a little here.
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And a little there. A little water to sink a whole ship. The small foxes that spoil a whole vine, a whole vineyard.
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You see that? Satan will come in such a tricky cunning way.
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And a little here and a little there. Folks, every day of our life, we must set Jesus before us.
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And mortify our bodies. Self -denial and self -control. Even the
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Apostle Paul says, I discipline my body. Let's look at this.
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Paul's whole entire center in living out the gospel of Jesus Christ, in preaching and teaching and praying for others, was nothing else than any concern to him.
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Listen. Verse 23, I do all things for the sake of the gospel, he said. And here in this context, you know what
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Paul's talking about? He's speaking actually about the Christian liberties. Then he speaks about self -control.
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Romans 14 goes into detail on this. But we need to remember that there is always a balance.
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John MacArthur said this, Our sinfulness resents and resists restriction, sometimes even in the name of spiritual freedom.
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It is one thing to acknowledge the principle of living by love. It's another to follow it.
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Paul followed it because he wanted to be a winner, end quote. And we must follow it to be a winner as well.
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So the Apostle Paul speaks basically not letting anything to hinder reception of the gospel. Even holding to the liberties and the rights is a sure way to lose the race of soul winning.
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So many of the Corinthian Christians here seriously limited their testimony of the Lord because they would not limit their liberty.
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They refused to give up their rights and so doing, they won a few and ended up offending many.
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Run in such a way that you will win, Paul says. How do you do that? By setting aside anything, anything that might hinder the reception of the gospel, anything that will hinder you to Christ's likeness.
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We need to be serious about it. Paul had a purpose in running and we should have a purpose too.
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He was not without aim, he always had an aim. He had Christ before him, he set Christ before him.
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And that's what we need to do beloved, is set Christ before us. The word discipline is an important word.
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It literally means to hit under the eye. In other words, to give my body a black eye. To discipline it, to put it under subjection.
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To knock it out, so to speak. To give it a bloody eye. To knock the bodily impulses to prevent himself from disqualifying himself.
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And we better be careful, we can disqualify ourselves too. From the mission of winning souls to Christ.
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Well, 1 Timothy 4, 7, But reject profane and old wives' fables,
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And exercise yourself, to what? Toward godliness.
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Toward godliness. Godliness is the proper attitude folks, from which all effective ministry flows.
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Godliness. It is the key word. Meaning one must as an athlete be rigorous self -sacrificing,
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And training spiritual self -discipline. It's the path to godly living folks.
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I'm telling you, read the Psalms. Read Psalm 1. It sets the whole pace for the all and entire
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Psalms of being godly. God has the godly for himself.
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And if you're in Christ Jesus, you do not belong to yourself. You belong to Him. Romans 8, 12, 13, good verse.
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Therefore Paul says, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh.
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To live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
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That's strong language. If we live according to the flesh, we're going to die.
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But, there's that door hinge. If there's a warning, Paul also has a promise.
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But, listen very carefully folks. You can't sanctify yourself unless you have the power of the
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Spirit. But if by the Spirit, by the
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Spirit, I'm going to say it again. By the Spirit, you put to death.
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That means to mortify. The deeds of the body, you will live.
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That's the word of God. That's strong language, but I don't know about you. I need that kind of medicine.
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I need that kind of medicine. You see, from this text, the Holy Spirit provides us the energy, the power, to continually, gradually be killing sin.
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Or if sin would be killing you, but God provides us the power to kill that sin, to put it to death, that we may live and walk after the
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Spirit. The means of the Holy Spirit to accomplish this continual process. Third, to grow in the grace and the knowledge of God, you've got to give up and give to God in submission to His Lordship, your life, your soul, your all, in proper maximum effort to win the race of faith.
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Folks, I'm telling you, this is critical. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this attitude, and if anything you think otherwise,
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God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule.
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Let us be of the same mind. It's so important. So, so important.
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Now, let me finish this message, this story about Eric Little, about that dash to the finish line, running for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
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Eric Little, after bringing Olympic glory to Scotland, however, Eric Little, and I use him as an example here, left and forsook all his success as a great runner, only for the
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Olympic gold, he caught a glimpse of someone who was greater than all the gold in the world. And he was faithful to the call.
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He returned to China. Listen to this. He returned to China where he taught chemistry and organized sports as an all -boys school.
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He married in 1934, later began working as a village evangelist, traveling the countryside in Sao Chang, a very dangerous region not suitable for his wife and now two daughters who remained behind.
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And Eric was frequently at risk from both hostile communists and Chinese nationalists who regularly destroyed villages.
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Neither group were sympathetic to the work of the Christian missionary because they hated Christians. In 1940, the
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Japanese invaded China and Eric's family joined his wife's parents in Canada. And subsequently, the situation in China deteriorated and Eric Little was sent by the
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Japanese to an internment camp in Wensin in the province of Shantung, North China.
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Eric and 1 ,800 others, including many children, were crammed into a detainee camp measuring only 150 to 200 yards, packed in like sardines.
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Inside, Little organized sporting events, taught children the scriptures, the studies, and continued his evangelistic work teaching
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Christianity and Bible study to a small group of young men. He was in this internment camp where it was documented his calling to obedience.
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This was written by him. I've never read it, but I bet it's good. Later on, there was notes from these writings where he obtained from his widow,
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Florence Little Hall, compiled the book called The Disciplines of the
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Christian Life. Just months before liberation, Eric Little died at the age of 43, folks.
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He went home to be with the Lord. He died on February 21, 1945, from a large tumor in his left side of his brain, a condition he did not know he had.
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Does the story end bad? No, it ends well. Because Eric Little finished the race and ran well.
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He dedicated his entire life to obedience to the will of God and teaching others in accordance to the scriptures and set
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Jesus before them. Eric Little died serving the Lord.
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He ran well. Can this be said of you and me? He ran well. Like the Apostle Paul in 2
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Timothy 4 -7, his last will and testament, Paul says this, I have fought the fight, I have finished the race.
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I have kept the faith. In verse 8, finally it is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the
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Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day. And not only to me only, but also to all those who love his appearing.
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Do we love the Lord? Our lives will show it. Before Eric went home to be with his
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Lord, he lies sick in a state of dying with the tumor. His soul was encouraged and a little band of the
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Salvation Army outside of his window played this wonderful hymn and it's one of my favorites.
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Excuse me for my emotionalism because this means something to me. And God's always reminded me in the hardest times of my life, be still my soul.
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The Lord is on thy side. You bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
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Leave to thy God to order and provide. In every change he faithful will remain.
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Be still my soul, thy best, thy heavenly friend. Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
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He heard that before he went home to be with God. What's going to be your dash, beloved?
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How about you? Are you willing to give up all to follow the great prize?
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Are you willing to count the cost? And it will cost you everything. But can
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I tell you this, on the other side, Jesus is far more valuable than all of it. Beloved, this life is fleeting.
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And I'm telling you, even if you have 120 years, it's nothing before God in eternity.
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Only one life can soon be passed, as C .T. Studd said. Only what's done for Christ will last.
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Beloved, let's set Jesus before us this year. And every day, and every moment, and count the cost and say he's worth it.
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Are you willing to pursue God as the deer pants for the water brooks? Do you have that kind of thirst for God that cries out like David and says, and why he wrote this in Judah, in the wilderness, and he calls them to say,
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Oh God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. That means in your life, not just in the morning, but early in my life
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I will seek you. My soul thirsts for you. Is your soul thirsty for God?
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Jesus only satisfies. And I'm telling you, anything in this world will not satisfy only
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Christ. Because he's the great pearl of great price.
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My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. Jesus will flood your soul with joy and rivers of living water, beloved.
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So I've looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and to see your glory.
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Do you have that kind of longing? How about your personal holiness?
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What about your holiness before God? What about your personal holiness? Let me close with this.
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There's one more poem. I've got a lot of stanzas, but my time is out, and I'm going to just read you the first stanza.
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Is your goal Jesus Christ? Is your goal God himself? And the poem says this,
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My goal is God himself, not joy nor peace, not even blessing, but himself, my
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God. Tis his to leave me there, not mine, but his, at any cost, dear
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Lord, by any road. May God grant this to our hearts this morning, that he himself will be our exceedingly great reward.
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Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father and our
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God, high and holy, yet meek and lowly, thank you,
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Father, for your word. And only your word satisfies. Only you can satisfy.
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Only your word sanctifies. Thoroughly, through and through.
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And as the Puritan prayed from the Valley of Vision, Thou hast brought me to the
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Valley of Vision, O God. Thou hast brought me to the Valley of Vision, where I live in the depths, but yet I see thee in the heights.
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Hemmed in by mountains of sin, I behold your glory. Let me find thy light in my darkness, thy life in my death, thy joy in my sorrow, thy grace in my sin, thy riches in my poverty, and thy glory in my valley.
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Lord, enlarge our hearts by thy Spirit, that we may know
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Jesus Christ and to know him. And not only on our side to know him, but Lord, may we know that he knows us.
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Father, that's all that's going to matter. This is eternal life. This is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true
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God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. And Lord, how we long to know Jesus. Give us a greater heart's desire.
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Enlarge our hearts, O God. Nothing else in this life matters but to know him and his loveliness.
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Lord, bless our time together as we remember his sufferings during the communion and behold the
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Lamb of God who was lifted up on the cross. Father, we ask this in Jesus' name.