Transcript

I hope you all had a merry Christmas. We did. We're right here in between Christmas and New Year's, and I hope you all are excited for the new year. There's a lot coming up here this year here at Eastgate, so hopefully you are fired up. Notice we got all the kids in here.

Welcome to all the children. Hello. You know, this is. We're giving our kids workers a spell. Of course, the nursery workers are still in there.

We're giving them a spell. And I just want to publicly thank all of y'all who work in the children's ministry. You do an indispensable service to our ch. And so we're gonna preach to the kids as well. This is not a kid's sermon, though.

This is, you know, I'm not, I'm not sitting up here like Pastor Gary handing out candy canes. That's not kind of my shtick, you know that. So we're introducing a new sermon series this week, though, called let's Go. It's a two week series and Pastor Gary is out this week and next because he's on his study break. He's getting all ready for the next year, working on the sermon calendar and other things, the strategic initiatives that we've got for Eastgate Church to go forward in 2025.

So we've got him doing some important work. So I'm here this week and Adam Purvis will be here next week to preach the second part of this let's Go message. And this let's Go is where we're going to explore the idea, as you saw in the sermon intro, that, you know, the Israelites, when they left Egypt, came up to the Red Sea. And there was a point there where the Red Sea is in front of them and Pharaoh and, and all his army and chariots were behind them. And there's an idea there where sometimes we're called to wait on the Lord, but other times we tend to wait even though God's already said go.

All right, so sometimes we need to wait. But there's times where God really says, no, no, it's time for you to go. So that's what we're exploring. Let's go. And so there's that question, should we stay or should we go?

You know, so Pharaoh's army and his chariots had caught up with God's people. And, you know, they're now the Hebrews are facing destruction, right? So you got all these, these, these soldiers, they're ready to mow down the Hebrews. And then the Hebrews are looking at the Red Sea, saying, what do you want me to do? Drown in the Red Sea?

You know, so what's. What's. What's going on here? Moses knew, though he faithfully believed in God, he knew that God had already said, let's go, and that God has was going to fight for them. So that's kind of what Mose thinking.

But even Moses was a little shocked when God said what he said next. And this is our series theme text here. And it's in Exodus 14, Exodus 14, 15, 16. Reads, the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry out to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.

Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. Moses was shocked at that. What? Wait, Go forward. There's the Red Sea.

Okay, I'll do what you said, God. That's what. So you ever feel like it's hard to know when it is to wait and when to go? Kind of reminds me of that silly song that came out when I was in high school by the Clash. Should I stay or should I go?

A lot of y'all probably were thinking of that earlier, right? Yeah, it's still popular today. Okay, so I'm not that old. I mean, I'm old, but I'm not that old. Okay, but I still hear that song.

You know, I hated that song when it first came out. I really was not into the punk scene, but I really like it now. I don't know what that says about me, See? But it can be uniquely challenging for Christians to know what to do, because much of our Christian life and faith is based upon trust and dependent upon God, and we need to be dependent upon God. But there is a distinct line that happens that is between rightly trusting in God's will and his power and his provision for our life, rightly trusting in all that, and then moving on and going forward and figuring out what it is.

See, you can either the line there is, I can rightly trust, or I can be spiritually passive or lazy. We're not called to be passive and lazy. We're called to go. So where is that line? What does that look like?

See, maybe today you're at a decision point. Many of us could be, you might be in a decision point for a career. Should I pursue this new job, or should I go to this particular school or that school? Should I pursue this relationship or that who should I marry? Right?

These are all important jobs. These are all Important questions and ideas that we need to wrestle with. And many of us struggle with the idea of what is God's will for all of these things. You know, so carefully praying and trusting in God is the right thing to do. Starting off with prayer is the right thing, but it doesn't stop there.

See, the next thing you need to do is pursue to go to pursue what God has already put before you. So always pray first, but then pursue. See, a lot of you will. I don't know what God is saying to me. I don't know what he's got for me.

I don't know what his will is for me and for my life. I don't know what he desires of me. So I pray today. Today's the day that you will hear plainly that what he desires for you is to pursue Him. Is to pursue him with all your being.

See, the wait is over. That's where we get our title for today. The wait is over. It's time to pursue Christ with all your heart. Today we'll see how the Apostle Paul endeavored to to pursue Christ in Philippians 3.

The apostle Paul instructed the church in Philippi that the one thing he did was press on toward the goal that God had called him towards. See, we can do the same thing. We can do this one thing, and we can pursue God's goal for us. How do we do that? How do we pursue that goal?

Well, the text is gonna give us two ways that we pursue the goal for our life. And we're in a short part of scripture today. We're in Philippians chapter 3, starting midway through verse 13 and 14. Philippians chapter 3 reads, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And may God bless the reading of His Word.

Amen. So we're looking for two ways that we can pursue God's goal for our life. Here's the first way. Forget what lies behind. Forget what lies behind.

So Paul's talking about this goal thing, and for us to know what that is, we kind of need to define what the goal is that he's talking about. Let's ask that question. What is this goal? So Paul says in verse 14 that he presses on. He presses on.

That word in the Greek kind of makes this idea of running, or could be fleeing from something to put to flight. In other words, to chase something away, to drive away. It also has this idea of running the race. Running the race. Pressing on towards the goal.

But when I hear the word press, okay, So I start thinking back to my past. And many of you know, back about 50 pounds ago, when I was cool, I used to fly fighter jets for a living in the Air Force. You know, we used to. A lot of times what would happen, we fly in a formed two ship, right? And number two's job is to clear the 6 o'clock of the lead.

And the lead's out there looking for bad guys. Well, sometimes number two would see a bad guy, right? And number one didn't see it. So number two would sometimes say, two's engaged on my nose, three miles. And number one would say, two, press, press.

And that was, go pursue that adversary. Go pursue him. And I'm gonna follow you and clear your six, okay? So there's that idea of pursuit in the press. Idea.

I press on, I pursue. Toward what? Toward the goal. Toward the goal. This word is interesting in the Greek.

This is one Greek word I'm going to throw out there for my brother James here. Skopos. This word only occurs here once in the whole New Testament. This word skopos, for toward the goal. This has the idea of being an observer or a watchman, okay?

And you're thinking, well, that sounds kind of weird. Why would you say that? But what it is, is he's looking towards a distant mark. He can see something. He can see something in the distance.

The goal, therefore, is something that you have in view. You can actually see the goal. This is not something blind or something that's just in our mind. The goal that we are pursuing, that we are pressing on towards, is something that you can see. Now, it may be distant, it may be way off on the horizon, but you can see it.

We're not running blind toward the goal. See, Paul already told us what his goal was earlier in this chapter. I didn't read this part, but Philippians 3:10 says this. He says, the goal is that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. So that's Paul's goal, is to become like Jesus, to know the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings.

And don't misunderstand that. That doesn't mean we are looking to suffer, but when we do suffer, we realize that we are identifying with Christ. Okay, we're just like Christ in that case, and we're becoming like him. Christ. Likeness, then, is the goal.

Even Jesus says this. In Matthew 10, 24, 25, Jesus says, a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. So Jesus said to his disciples, your goal is to be like me. Not me, but Jesus.

Right? Your goal is to be just like Jesus. Remember that. You know, Christians were first called Christians, like Christian was little Christ. It was meant to be pejorative.

It was meant to be a. But we wear that as a badge of honor, right? We are Christians. That means we are trying to be like Christ. That's our goal.

The Benson commentary says it this way. The Christ likeness then is a full conformity to the image of his Son in my heart and in my life. A full conformity. In other words, in my life, when I walk, when I live through whatever I'm doing, people look at me and they see Jesus. They see Christ.

That's what I'm trying to do and in my heart as well. That means even in that deep, dark parts that you don't let any other people into, the where you're thinking and the thoughts and plans and all those kind of things, even that is becoming like Christ. So that's our goal. We're probably not going to get all the way there, right? None of us are going to become Jesus before the sight of eternity.

But that is the progression. That's what we are trying to do. And Paul says there in verse 13, this one thing I do, this one thing I do. This is numero uno. This is my primary objective.

This is the priority for my life. So he says that he hasn't really obtained all these things yet, but that's the one thing that he does, is to seek that. And then in verse 13, he says, forgetting. What lies behind forgetting? Now, you know, we aren't computers.

We can't wipe our hard drive. It's very hard for us to forget things, things that happened in the past. Now we are forgetful sometimes. There's things that we probably should remember that we forget. But it's very hard to remember some of the things that are in the past.

But what does this word mean, to forget? It means to neglect, to no longer care about. Right. To give it over to oblivion. Right.

Just don't interact with it anymore. Just disregard it. Forget it. Okay? Yeah, it might still be in your mind, but you're not going to continue to dwell on it.

That's what Paul is getting at. And when he says forgetting, it's a participle. It means forget and continue to forget. Every morning, get up and forget about what lies in the past. Don't keep dwelling on it, because in verse 13 says, what lies behind?

What's behind you? Okay, this is. Notice Paul doesn't just talk about bad things. This is good things, too. What lies behind you?

What are we leaving behind? Well, the first thing, that which encumbers us, okay? Sin, folly, dumb decisions, dumb things that we've done in the past, forget it. God has already forgotten it. If you are a Christian in this room, you are already forgiven.

Many of you may look and say, but you don't know what I did. God does. And he still wants you to be part of his plan. So he knows what you've done, and he's already removed it as far as the east is from the West. God cannot physically forget, but he is choosing to forget what you have done.

He wants you to be busy about his business. He wants you to become more like Christ. So certainly we want to leave the bad stuff behind, but how about the good stuff? You know, you might say, okay, well, you know, I went on this mission trip and look at, you know, all the service stuff that I'm doing for you, and that's great. Okay, thank you for that.

Okay? But you need to leave that in the past too, because God's got more stuff for you. God's got more stuff for you to do. You need to leave that behind. A great commentator named Ellicott used to say, I'm going to paraphrase it, because he's writing in 17th century English, but he's basically saying, past blessings, those things that you have done for God, they're just a down payment for the future.

Okay, so they're a down. So all those good things that you've done, that's great. But you've got stuff to do in front of you, okay? And you've learned from that. But keep moving.

Don't. Don't focus on what's going on in the background. Those past sins, those past sins that you have truly repented of, that you have turned away from, that you've asked forgiveness for that too. That's different from just being sorry for it. That too is in the past.

That's what Elicost says. Just leave it. The JFB commentary says this. Looking back is sure to end in going back. Looking back is sure to end in going back.

Now think about this. Now, how many of y'all have taught teenagers how to drive? Okay? Kind of hazardous, right? I remember teaching my daughter how to drive.

And my daughter had this awful habit. She still has it to this day. When she drives, by the way. She's 32, and if she knew that I was sharing this, she'd be mortified. Okay.

But when she would talk to you, talk to me, you know, I'm up in the front. She would turn and look at me. Well, where does the steering wheel go when you turn in the same direction? Right. So.

And you can attest to this right now. You drive down the road, and if you're looking at something on the side of the road, chances are you're probably drifting that direction, probably most of the time, or you're not. Definitely not paying attention to where you're going. But looking back is sure to end in going back. So if you dwell on those past sins, you dwell on those past accomplishments, you're just going to be living in the past.

Don't do that. That's what Paul's asking us to do. Forget what lies behind. See, Paul goes even further earlier on in Philippians 3. He says this in Philippians 3:8, he says, indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of.

Of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. See, he views it as rubbish. Now, again, my daughter lives in England, so I can pick on her a little bit even though she's 3,000 miles away. You know, they don't toss things in the trash can.

They throw things in the rubbish bin. Okay? Rubbish is trash. Rubbish is garbage. Okay?

So Paul considers his trash as rubbish. Now think about Paul for a second. What do we know about Paul? Paul killed Christians, right? Paul persecuted the church.

He murdered Christians. But he considers that as in the past that's behind him. But at the same token, Paul was highly educated, right? He was a Pharisee. He was of the highest class of the Jewish people.

He was educated under the feet of Gamaliel, basically Hebrew, Harvard. Right? He had all the pedigrees. He was the man. But he considers that as rubbish as compared to becoming like Christ.

See, sometimes the past, good or bad, that can be a weight that limits your progress. Don't let it do that. Lay it aside. Hebrews 12 says this. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Any of you ever done a ruck march? I know there's a couple of y'all do that. You know, you. You put on this heavy weight and you go out and you do your thing.

Why do you do that? To build endurance, to be able to run when you're unencumbered. Right. Nobody runs a marathon with a pack on, okay? When you run a marathon, those guys are wearing about as little clothing as they can get away with, right?

Because they don't want any weight. They want their shoes to be as light as they can run the race unencumbered. Even Jesus uses this illustration when he talks about looking ahead and not looking back in Luke chapter nine. Remember, there were a lot of people that were coming to him and say, hey, Jesus, I'll follow you, but let me bury my dad first. Or, I just took a wife, or I've got this property that I need to deal with.

And what does Jesus say in response to these people? He says, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Jesus is saying, don't be double minded. Be pursuing me with one focus. This one thing I do.

This might also be why the Israelites couldn't leave Egypt behind. Remember, at this point, we're talking about, you know, they're about to cross the Red Sea. And later on, when they do cross the Red Sea and they're wandering around in the desert, you know, there's one point where they're hungry and they start wailing to Moses and they say, wouldn't you just let us die in Egypt? In Egypt, we had meat pots and we had bread and you brought us out here in the wilderness to die. How shortsighted were they really?

Looking back on what really happened? They were slaves in Egypt. They were being beaten and oppressed. They were made to make bricks with no straw. How could you look back with longing on something like that just because you were now free?

If you are looking behind, you're not going where God is calling you to God. Do you struggle with what lies behind? Maybe you're burdened with some past sinful activity or some habit pattern that God has already forgiven. Are you still dwelling on it? Let it go.

Leave it in the past. God can use you if you no longer dwell on those things. Maybe. Maybe you're one of the senior saints in here and you feel like, I've been here, I've done it, you know, I. I've changed my share of diapers and I've done all the different things that I could do.

Well, don't rest on your laurels either, okay? If you're still alive, you're still running. Run the race, keep going. Find something that you can do that you can continue to grow like Christ. None of us has gotten there all the way.

None of us here is walking around in robes and nail scarred hands. None of us are all the way there. But we can still make progress. If you're still breathing, you can still run the race. Don't stop running.

That's the first thing. Forget what's behind. Here's the second one. Stretch out towards what's ahead. Stretch out.

So Paul, stretch towards what's ahead. Paul then logically moves from. Okay, you're not looking behind you. Let's look towards the, to the front, toward the goal that we kind of talked about. This idea of straining forward, the stretching out towards.

This also only occurs here in the New Testament. This idea, and this is also a participle meaning you do it and you continue to do it. So every morning you forget what lies behind. And every morning you stretch out towards what God has got for you every morning. And what lies ahead.

Remember, that's what's inside of. Right. It may be far away, but you can see this is not some ethereal thing. A.W. tozer, the great theologian, said, it was not enough that I found God.

I must keep finding him. It's not enough that I found him. So just because you made a profession of faith and you came down front and you got baptized, you have not crossed the finish line. You're not done. Thank you for joining the family of God.

We're happy you're here, but there's so much more to do. Becoming like Christ is a process that is lifelong. And what does Paul say about it? He says it's the upward call of God that we are called to do. That is the prize.

Remember, the prize is that laurel wreath, that crown, okay? Today in the Olympics, it would be that gold medal. That's the prize that we're running for. Interestingly, John Calvin, and I'm going to translate this into Mike Laramie speak because John Calvin also wrote a long time ago, he basically said it's not enough for us to be in the body and just be blocks of wood, right? In other words, sitting there with our arms folded.

Okay, God, I'm waiting for you to do something with me. Okay? God says, no, no, no, no. I've given you talents and abilities and opportunities. Use them.

Go forward. It's time to Pursue Christ likeness. Move forward, stretch yourself forward into Christ Jesus. This vision is very specific. And every one of us inside this room, within the call of my voice, you have a calling on your life.

And the general calling is towards Christlikeness. If you struggle with the idea of what is it that I'm called to do, that's the first thing. That's the first thing. You are called to be like Christ. And all those other questions, what school should I go to?

Who should I marry? What job should I get? All those other things, they'll get answered in time. They will get answered in time. And we do answer this question from time to time.

How do I know what the calling is on my life? That's a difficult thing sometimes for people to sort out. I've already given you what your calling is right now. This is your overall calling, is Christlikeness. But if you want to know more about your specific calling, if you want to know more about those smaller answers of smaller questions that I talked about, well, the first thing, and I hate to sound like a Sunday school answer, but like I said earlier, the first thing you need to do is pray.

You need to pray for that. God does and sometimes will answer you audibly. I know people that have heard it. Okay, I have not heard it myself, but I know people who have heard it. God still does answer prayer.

And most of the time, God answers prayer right here. Read, pray. Maybe the answer is there for you there. But you know what? We live in community.

One of the most common ways people get answers to this question is from other people. Many times in my Christian walk, I've had people come to me and say, I think you would be good at this, or maybe you should try that. And that's where I found some of the calling on my life that could happen for you, too. We live in community. Listen and obey.

Listen for the word of God. Listen to it from Scripture and from other people, other saints. What ministry should I pursue? Try one, try one. You'll figure out what your calling is.

So Jesus is our pacesetter. He's our forerunner. He's our goal. Hebrews 6:20. We preached through this several weeks ago.

Hebrews 6:20 says, Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He is our forerunner. He's who we are aiming towards now. Paul says to the Corinthians that we are to live our life in a way that we can actually obtain that prize first. Corinthians 9 says, do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize.

So run that you can obtain it. Every athlete exercises self control in all things. They do it to receive. Receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Run the race like you're actually running.

Don't give up yet. He also says in his second letter to the Corinthians to urge them to pursue eternal rather than temporal things. Second Corinthians 4 says, for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Pursue the eternal.

And many times we need somebody to help us stretch out towards that goal. We might need other people, family, friends, other believers. And let me tell you a story about when I was growing up. Many of you, some of you know that, much like Pastor Gary, I lost my dad when I was 14 to colon cancer. So very tough to lose my dad, especially at an early age when I really needed him.

As a teenager, when he was medically retired from the Air Force, I was about 12, 1979, we started driving from Northern California across the country towards Rhode Island. Both my parents were born and raised in Rhode Island. I had never lived there up to that point. I didn't know anything about it. But we were driving there and we're taking our time to cross the country, visiting family and friends that my parents had met through 22 years of military service, people all over the country.

And we stopped in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and as we stopped there, my dad pulled me aside and we went to the United States Air Force Academy. And I looked at that place and dad pulled me and said, you know, I think you would do well there. I think this is a place that you should probably consider going to school. That was between my seventh and eighth grade year. You know, how old are you?

What, 12? You know, what do I know about my future at that point? But at that point I decided, you know what, Dad, I think you're right. I think that's what I want to do. Because I'd always loved airplanes, I'd always loved the military.

I looked up to my dad. You know, I really wanted to follow in his footsteps. And so I started organizing my life to pursue that goal. So I changed. You know, I went to the same school that my dad went to as a Catholic college prep high school up in Rhode island.

And Started gearing my whole academic plan. Started playing sports, started doing all this extracurricular stuff to make my resume good enough to get to the Air Force Academy. About a year later, dad was sick. He was still around with us. He was still with us.

There was an assignment. I can't remember what, what course I was doing. But school came pretty easy to me. I didn't really have to do much effort, you know, I really didn't. And I don't say that to pat myself on the back.

It's just reality. I just. I didn't pay a lot of attention in high school because that grades were easy. And there was an assignment that I really didn't care much for and I didn't do a particularly good job on it. And I brought home a not great grad, not great grade.

I can't remember what it was, but I remember my dad looking at that and said, so are you happy with that? Well, 13 years old. How do you answer that question? I can't say yes. Can't really say no.

Because then I'm wrong. No, not really. Okay. He said, why would you settle for less than the best that you can do? Never do less than the best that you can do.

And that kind of. I kind of internalize that later on, later that year, he passed away. And I put a 5 by 8 card that said, never settle for less than the best that you can do. You know, And I put his name on it and I put it up in my closet in my bedroom. So every morning when I would go out running because I was working out like a madman to get into the Air Force Academy.

And every morning preparing for school, I would see never settle for less than the best that you can do. Every evening before I went to bed, I saw the same thing. Eventually I did get into the Air Force Academy and I got commissioned. I met my lovely wife. We had kids.

Several years later, we were visiting back to my mom's house, same house, we were staying downstairs. Our family of four, my kids were in elementary school at the time. And my high school bedroom was still the same, hadn't changed, nobody had moved in it. My brother still lived upstairs and my high school closet was still there. And still on the wall was a five by eight card, said, never settle for less than the best that you can do.

I thought about it. I said, well, Dad, I think I'm living to that. I think I'm living up to that. I'm trying. Every one of us needs somebody to speak into our life, to be able to Steer us in those directions, to stretch us.

To stretch us out and to encourage us. Are you one of those that are doing the bare minimum in your Christian walk? Are you just kind of going through the motions? Are you ready to stretch towards the calling that God has on your life? Do you want to know the calling that he has given you?

See, for most of us, just the simple act of being aware that the Holy Spirit has put you in a situation is enough. If you're just aware of that because God has uniquely prepared you, he's stretching you. It might be a kind word to someone. You might be speaking the truth to a relative. It might be an action.

It might be something like that, that God is calling you in that situation to stretch out and trust him and to grow more like Christ.

Speak truth and love in those situations. He set before you see church. The wait's over. The wait is over. Christ calls you into a life of pursuing him.

And there is no greater pursuit on this earth. The apostle Paul plainly says this, that his whole life is focused on that one goal. This one thing I do is to be like the Savior, Jesus. Will you make that your life's goal? Will you pursue Jesus by forgetting what's behind and stretching out towards what's ahead?

Let's pray, Father. I pray for all of these, my friends, these people that are within the sound of my voice, and I lift them up to you. And perhaps there may be someone in here that has not accepted that call of Christ, that call of Christ in his life. And if you're one of those people that is not yet serving the Lord, let me pray for you. And you can pray along with me.

And it's something just as simple as this. And that is Jesus. Forgive me. Forgive me for my past, for my sin, for my folly, for my wrongdoing. I want you to be the Lord of my life.

I want to become more like you. I want to become more like Jesus. And there's nothing magic about those words. But if you've prayed that prayer, believing in him, then he will save you. Perhaps you are also one of those people in this room that maybe you are resting on your laurels.

Maybe you've been there, done that, you've done all the work, or maybe you just haven't tried yet. Let me pray for you too, Spirit. I pray for those people in this room who need to stretch out, who need to forget what lies behind and stretch out toward the goal of Christ likeness. And that may be in trying a new ministry or maybe speaking to a loved one. Give them the strength and the power that is required to do that.

Father, we love you and we trust you for this. In Jesus name, amen.