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All right, we are here in Philippians Chapter three, if you want to take your Bibles and join me in Philippians Chapter three, we're continuing in our study through the book of Philippians in a series titled Reasons to Rejoice. There are more than a dozen times that Paul uses the word joy or rejoice in this little book of four chapters. That is more references to joy or rejoicing, proportionally speaking, than any other book of the Bible. And so far we have seen six reasons to to rejoice from the first couple of chapters. Number one, that God will finish what he started concerning us. Number two, that God will use our chains for his divine purposes. Number three. To live is Christ, to die is gain. It's always so much better in heaven. Number four. Unity comes through humility. Humility comes from following the example of Jesus. That'll bring us joy. Our witness impacts our world. That should bring us joy. Nothing in life, Number six compares to knowing Christ and receiving his righteousness by faith. That was last week. Today we're going to be looking here at chapter 3, verses 12 to 16. If you would follow along, we'll see a seventh reason to rejoice from this section, Philippians 3. Starting in verse 12, Paul writes, Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. I like that. That's kind of a backdoor way of Paul saying, if you're really mature, you're going to agree with me. If you're not, God will help you. All right, because he says what I'm telling you, I'm laying down truth. And then verse 16, he says, nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule by let us be of the same mind. So number seven today is run the race and finish well. That's going to bring us great joy when we run the race and when we finish well, when we stand before the Lord, what a glorious day that will be. Let's pause and pray. Let's remember as we pray, our troops serving in the Middle East. I continue to hear just amazing things about the Iranian people that there, among the 90 million Iranians, there are a million Christians who have left Islam and they have because of the Islamic regime that took over in 1979. How oppressive it has been. That actually has moved a lot of Iranians to seek Jesus and to become Christians. I also heard a number of 50,000 house churches in Iran. So God is on the move. And I pray that through all this the Iranian people will be liberated, but more than just liberated from an Islamic regime. They will be liberated and Christ's name will be known throughout that country. And let's just continue to pray for that. Amen. Lord, we just pause to pray to that end. We pray for a great sweeping move of your spirit in Iran. We thank you for those believers who have come to faith in Jesus over the years and we pray to the end of an Islamic rule. And we pray God for your name to be exalted. Thank you, Lord, for the countless tens of thousands of Iranians both here living in the US and there just dancing on the streets with joy. We just pray, Lord, that their joy would come to fruition and that their country would really be reestablished with a democratic and a peaceful and a godly country. Lord, with. With Christ on the rise and with Christianity becoming more prevalent there. We pray for our troops. We pray for all the men and women in uniform serving over there right now, Lord. We think of the six families that are suffering the loss of their loved ones. And we ask, Father, for you to bring the rest of our troops home safely. We pray for a speedy, decisive and quick end to this. There will not be a long, protracted war and that you would move in amazing ways through the Middle east as a result of this, Lord. And we just cling to you because we know, Lord, how the book ends. We know how the Bible ends. We understand, Lord, there will still be more wars and rumors of wars, but that you will come again as the Prince of Peace. You will settle all conflicts. You will rule and reign from Jerusalem. That's our ultimate hope, Lord. And we look forward to that day. In the meantime, would you please protect our troops, bring them home safely. Help the grieving families who have lost their loved ones in this war. We lift them up to you today. Thank you for our peace. Thank you, Lord, for our freedoms that we enjoy, that we can even assemble here freely today. Be with us now as we study this passage together. It's in Jesus name we pray. And everyone said Amen. Well, I think it's pretty clear when you read your Bible that Paul loved athletics, particularly track and field, because. Because here in Philippians chapter three, he is using language that compares living out the Christian life to running a race. This is not the only time he uses this language. That's why I say he's obviously somebody who loved sports. Because five other times in the New Testament, Paul makes this comparison, this analogy between living out the Christian life and running a race. In Acts 20:24, he is quoted as saying, Run with joy. In 1 Corinthians 9:24, he says, Run to win. In 1 Corinthians 9:26, he says, Run with purpose. In Galatians 5. 7, he says to the church of Galatia, run well. And in his closing letter in 2 Timothy 4, 7, he says, run to finish the race. Now, notice Paul doesn't compare the Christian life to a game of golf. That's because in the first century, there was no golf. And thankfully, because Christianity is not supposed to be slow and boring, ladies and gentlemen, he's not comparing living the Christian life to wandering over 150 acres chasing a little white ball while you try not to cuss. All right, now look, don't be offended. Anybody who would be offended is out golfing right now. They're not even here. But he compares living the Christian life to running a race. Now, keep in mind, Paul's writing, in the first century A.D. these were the days of the Isthmian Games that were held in Corinth, Greece. And on opposite years, it was also the time of the Olympic Games held in Olympia, Greece. And so running a race was the perfect analogy to compare that sport to, to living the Christian life. Because, listen, there is a starting line, there is a finish line, and there is a prize at the end of this race. The starting line is when you trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. That's when the race begins. Okay? All of us are given bios, we're given biological life. But you don't really have life until you start living for Jesus. And that's when the race begins. That's the starting line. The finish line is when you breathe your last and you cross from this life into the next. And the prize that awaits us who have trusted Christ is, of course, heaven. And everything between the starting line and the finish line is the life we're living right now. So this is important to understand. This is not a race of speed. This is not a race of agility. This is a race of endurance. This is not a competitive race where you are elbowing everyone along the way, trying to finish first. The Greatest contender in this race is yourself, and the goal is to finish well. The greatest obstacle in my life is me. The greatest obstacle in your life is you. I know there's a lot that the enemy does, no doubt. He's constantly harassing us, attacking us. I feel it every day. But I know that greater is he, the Lord in me, than he that is in the world. So really, the one I'm contending with the most as much as Satan does attack is myself. I want to finish well. Now, I've heard over the years from people who talk about the race and acknowledge this Christian life as a race, but would say to me that they got a slow start, they got a slow start. Those are people who they didn't get out of the blocks very quickly. And so it took them a long time before they really got serious with the Lord. They got a slow start. Others have said to me over the years, they got a late start. They didn't come to know Christ until late in life. And as a result, they have done a lot of regrettable, sinful things that they wish had they known Christ earlier in life, they could have avoided. And so some people get a late start and some people get a slow start. And all of us have stumbled in the race along the way at some point. I mean, James even tells us in James 3. Two, we all stumble in many ways. He just lays it out. There's nobody perfect. And there are times along this race that we. We will stumble, we will fail, we will sin, we will disappoint God. But the good news is that no matter if you got a late start or a slow start, or even if you stumbled along the way, what matters most is that you get up and finish well. That's what matters. And everyone who finishes this race who follows Christ across that finish line will receive a crown. The Bible says when, when Paul wrote his last letter before he was beheaded for his faith, 2nd Corinthians 4:7. One of the last things that he says to young Timothy, he says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. There is therefore now in store for me the crown of righteousness which the righteous judge will award me on that day, and not to me only, but to all who long for his appearing. Do you long for his appearing? Do you want to finish well? There's a crown in store for you. Paul says, not for me alone, but for all who long for his appearing. Finish well, Church. This is why Paul uses this language here in this passage of Philippians. Chapter 3. And he's going to tell us between verses 12, 13, and 14, three things that are important about how to run this race. If you're taking notes, here's the first thing he says. I want you to run with humility. I want you to run with humility. Look at verse 12. Again, Paul says about himself, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. I love his transparency here. You know, he is the Apostle Paul, but he doesn't wear that like a badge. He doesn't. He doesn't go around saying, well, I'm the Apostle Paul. I never have a bad day. No. In fact, he's being very vulnerable here, where he says, I have to be honest with you, I haven't attained what I want. I have not been yet perfected. He realizes about himself that he is still a man in process. We all are. He's not arrived. And so he says that. He says, I've not been made perfect yet. He's basically saying, I'm not satisfied with where I am spiritually because there's always room to grow. Do you see that about yourself? There's always room to grow. Like, I've been a Christian now myself for 47 years, and I can honestly tell you that I am still growing. I am still learning every day. Every day God teaches me something new out of His Word about Himself or he reveals something about me that I need to deal with. We are constantly growing and learning and being challenged and changed. We are not yet perfected. Sanctification, the Bible talks about. But when the Bible talks about sanctification, it doesn't talk about it as a state of perfection. It talks about it as a. As a progress of running the race. We are sanctified, that is set apart, made holy the moment we get saved. But then the Bible, the sanctification process is an ongoing, continual thing. Listen to what Hebrews 10:14 says, for by one offering, meaning the sacrifice of Jesus, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Listen to the tense who are being sanctified. Christ dies for us, redeems us, changes our lives from the inside. And then that sanctification process, in fact, when it says there in Hebrews 10:14 that he perfects forever those who are being sanctified, the verb there, the Greek verb are being sanctified is in the present passive tense, meaning it is ongoing. It is continual action. The sanctifying work of God is Not one and done. It is an ongoing dying to self, submitting every day to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Learning, growing, surrendering. Surrender is an everyday thing. It's not just, well, I prayed a prayer once and I surrendered my heart to Jesus. Great. That's the beginning of the race. But the journey of running with Christ is an ongoing surrender and submission to his lordship. There is no room for pride in the Christian life. You have not arrived. If you think of yourself that way, if you think you are more spiritual than someone else, think again. You have issues too. Like the next person. We are all people in process. John Calvin once said that pride is the pregnant mother of all sins. There is no room for pride in the Christian heart where he exposes it, get rid of it, confess it. Because every sin really is rooted in the sin of pride. It was the original sin even before the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, that was the sin of disobedience. What preceded their sin in the garden was the sin in heaven when Satan rebelled against God and pride filled his heart because he believed he was as good as God and he wanted to sit enthroned with God and he thought he was equal with God and pride filled his heart. And for that he was expelled from heaven and he was flung to earth where then he took out his vengeance upon the jewel of God's creation. He went right after humanity and deceived them into believing that God is not good. And thus he continues to speak lies to convince us of things that aren't true. Satan is the master of lies. He is the father of deception. He is the one who originally sinned with pride. And, and thus there's no room for pride in our hearts. We have to be humble about this. We have to realize we're all on a journey. We're all on a journey together. Don't look down your nose at someone else and think that you're better than they or more spiritual than they. Don't point a condemning finger and think, well, I would never do what you did. That's exactly what the enemy wants you to think and say. Because then you will be prey to his wiles. When you think, I would never do what that person did, you need to pray for that person. You need to say, there but by the grace of God go I. You need to ask for God to help you along the way. Because all of us have issues. All of us are in process. All of us are running this race. That's why Paul says here, I have not yet Attained it. I've not been made perfect. One day we will. When we stand before the Lord, we will be perfected, body, soul, mind and spirit. But until that day, we're running a race of imperfection and we are humbling ourselves. And we are asking the Lord, Lord, teach me, grow me, change me, make me more like you. James 4. 6 says, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. John Newton is famously known for writing probably the most famous hymn of our faith, Amazing Grace. He wrote it in 1772, and John Newton had a radical conversion experience when he came into relationship with Jesus Christ. He had been making a livelihood out of slavery. He was the captain of a slave trading ship. Then God got a hold of it to heart, and soon thereafter he would write Amazing Grace to describe himself. What a wretch I am. God's amazing grace has saved me. But he knew what a wretch that he was. That's why he wrote that song. He was thankful for God's grace because he saw the condition of his own heart. One of the things that he wrote near the end of his life, just before he died. I'll read to you this small quote. This is not part of Amazing Grace. This is in his own journal. He said, quote, I am not what I ought to be. Ah, how imperfect and deficient. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. But yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can still truly say, I am not what I once was. And I can heartily join with the apostle and acknowledge, by the grace of God, I am what I am. End quote. Hopefully all of us can say that kind of a thing. Hopefully all of us can say, I'm not what I want to be, but thank God I'm not what I used to be. Hopefully you can gauge your life at least in chunks. Maybe you can't think of any improvement in your life over yesterday or last week, but ask yourself, am I better in the Lord today than I was a year ago, this same time? And if you can look at your life and say, yeah, in the Lord, I know I'm better than I was a year ago. And hopefully you can say in last year I was better than the year before and that you can at least see that you're making progress and pressing on, hopefully you can answer yes to that. I'm not what I want to be, but thank God I'm not what I used to be. And continue to run that race with humility. Number two, from verse 13, Paul instructs us here, run facing forward, not looking behind. This is a big one, everybody. This is verse 13, where he says, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward. Some of your Bible translations say, straining forward to those things which are ahead. It's beautiful imagery there about straining forward. You know, picture these runners, and at the last minute, they're just, you know, they've got their body stretched forward, crossing that finish line, breaking the tape or crossing that line. And he says that that's the way I want to run. He says, I want to run facing forward, not looking behind. Not looking behind. All of us have a past. Everybody. All of us have a past. Depending on how old you are, you might have a long past, or you might have a relatively short one. And depending on when you came to know Christ along the way, you may have a colorful past, shall we say. Or you might have a relatively uneventful past. If you've lived a long time, if you came to know Christ after living a worldly life for a long time, there might be a lot of sinful, regrettable things in your past that still torment you. If you came to know Christ early in your life, you don't necessarily have a super amazing testimony of all the things that God has delivered you from. But also at the same time, you don't have a lot of shame from a lot of regrettable things because you came to know him early. But we all have a past. Part of our past is our childhood, our upbringing. Some would say they've had a relatively good childhood. Things were relatively happy and pleasant with little drama. You felt loved and cared for. Others, on the other hand, might say that they had a rough childhood. Maybe there was abuse growing up or alcoholism in the family. Maybe there was a lot of shouting and arguing. Maybe there was divorce or illnesses. Maybe you were in and out of foster care. Maybe there was a death of. Of a mom or a dad or a sibling when you were young. We all have a past. We all have history. Whether it might be our childhood or our own sinful behavior as we were growing up into adulthood where we made some regrettable decisions. It might be the pain of the past. It might be the sorrow of the past. It might be the sin of the past. We all have a past. When Paul says here, forgetting the past and straining forward, looking ahead, he's not being dismissive of our past. He's not being dismissive of it, as if to suggest that what we've Done or what we've been through has little to no impact. So just forget it. That's not what he means. Those things did impact us one way or another. Those things do shape us one way or another. The good of it as well as the bad of it. What he is saying to us, though, is don't get stuck there. He's saying, don't live in the past. Don't let the past restrict you. It's a new day with Christ, he says. That's why he wants us to look forward, look ahead, not to deny the past. We need to deal with the past. There are times we need healing from the past. There are times that we need forgiveness about the past. There are times in our lives that we have to deal with things of the past. But don't get stuck there. Listen, if you're taking notes, I think this is an important phrase for all of us to understand about the past. Are you ready? Let the past refine you, but do not let the past define you. Does everybody understand the difference? Let the past refine you. Let it be a learning experience, the good of it and the bad of it. Let God use it to refine our hearts. You know when that refining process of precious metals, they heat gold, they heat silver up to incredible temperatures. And then what happens? The impurities rise to the surface. It's the dross, and then it gets skimmed off. And then the process begins all over again. And then more impurities come to the top and then it gets skimmed off. That's how you get 14 karat gold, 18 karat gold, 24 karat gold. It's the carrots increase because the impurities are being removed. And God has a wonderful way. It's discomforting at times, but God has a wonderful way of purifying refining us. There are things in our lives that happen that God will use to refine us. Now, most of us would not wish a repeat of some of those painful things that God has used to refine us. But many of us can testify that in the process of God's refining work, we have come to walk with him in a more intimate way than we otherwise may never have known Him. It's that refining work, and oftentimes the things of the past is what he will use. Isaiah 48, 10. Isaiah says, Behold, I have refined you, says the Lord, but not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. Some of you have been through the furnace of affliction. And so learn from it. Learn from your past. Let your past make you Stronger. Let it mature you. Let it draw you closer to Christ. Take the lessons learned and grow from it. That's letting your past refine you. Just don't let it define you. Don't let it define you. Too many people walk around even after they've trusted Christ and they identify themselves as well. I'm the son of the alcoholic or I'm the daughter of abuse. No, you were the child of the king. You were the son and daughter of the Most High. And that is your new identity in him. Let the past define you. Well, I'm an ex con or I'm an adulterer. No, in Christ you are the redeemed. You are the redeemed. Psalm 107:1 2 David writes, oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Verse 2 Look, no one can drive a car looking in the rearview mirror. And you cannot run a race looking behind. And in the same way, you cannot live your life looking in the past. People who spend too much time living in the past are depressed. And people who spend too much time worrying about the future are anxious. We have to learn to live in the moment and understand who we are in Christ. Now be present. The Lord will help you. I remember reading this wonderful quote Once by Corrie10 Boom. I quote her often because what a saint of God. She went on to be with the Lord decades ago, but she survived Nazi concentration camp. The rest of her family died in Nazi concentration camps, but she managed to survive. When Corrie 10 Boom came out and she was a believer, she traveled the country, really the world, just giving her testimony, talking about how Christ helped her and healed her and broke her and refined her. And one of the things that Corrie Ten Boom said was look within, be depressed, look without, be distressed, look at Jesus, be at rest. Don't spend too much time digging up the past, living in the past. And don't spend too much time worrying about the future. God's going to take care of everything. Look at Jesus and be at rest. So Paul says, I want you to run with humility. We're not perfected yet, we've not yet attained. He says, I want you to run looking ahead, forward facing, not looking behind. Lastly, number three, he says, I want you to run with your eyes on the prize. He talks about the prize in verse 14 where he says, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The NIV says it this I press on toward the goal? To win the prize for which God has called me heavenward. In Christ Jesus, there's the word, that is the upward call. It's heaven. And there is a prize at the end of this race. There is a reward for all who finish. And it's heaven. It's heaven. If you're still there in your Bibles in Philippians 3, would you go toward the end of the chapter, look at verse 20 and 21. I just want to read two more verses where he talks about this a little bit more. Philippians 3:20. He reminds us, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to Himself. Notice that there in verse 20, he says, our citizenship is in heaven. Look, everybody, look. We have to live still here on Earth. We have to occupy till Jesus comes. We have dual citizenship. We understand this right. We. We live here. We have citizenship here. But we are not to live, for here. We are to be faithful here. We are to want to take as many people to heaven with us while we are here. We are to honor the Lord and run the race with endurance. But our ultimate prize is not here. For Christians, this is as bad as it gets. For people who don't know Christ, this world is as good as it gets. But for us who know Jesus, heaven is our ultimate reward. That's the prize. That's why he says, keep. I'm paraphrasing. Keep your eyes on the prize. He talks about the prize because he says, this is what the Lord has in store for us. Jesus Christ did not suffer and die and rise again to just simply make this life a little easier. What he did was he suffered and died and rose again to prepare a way for us to have the ultimate reward. He suffered and died and rose again and ascended back into heaven because he's gone to prepare a place for us. He says this to us. He says, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That where I am, there you might be also. Heaven is our ultimate prize. So run with endurance and don't give up, because we cross that finish line and we are awarded the prize of heaven itself. This life is short compared to eternity. But this life has everything to do with where and how you will spend eternity. So run this race with perseverance. I Close by quoting Hebrews 12, 1, 2, 3. Listen to what it says. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, and the writer of Hebrews talking about the previous chapter, Hebrews 11, which talks about all these magnificent men and women who ran the race finished well are in heaven. And the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 12, all right, now, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, these great examples have gone before us. Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men. So that you will not grow weary and lose heart, keep your eyes on the prize and run with endurance, everybody. Amen. Father God, we thank youk for your word today. Thank youk for Paul's example. Thank youk for his reminder to us that we have not yet been perfected. May we run this race with humility. May we not keep looking to the past. May we run facing forward, letting the past refine us, but not define us. And may we keep our eyes on the prize, knowing, Lord, that our ultimate reward, our glorious, eternal reward, is to spend eternity with you in heaven. So may we finish well. Doesn't matter if we got a late start, a slow start, or we have stumbled along the way. May we get up, face forward, keep our eyes in the prize and trust you to the very end so that one day we can stand before you and hear. Well done, good and faithful servant. That's our prayer. Lord, help us. Thank you that your word reminds us you will help us to finish well. He who began a good work will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Thank you Lord. We love you and we praise you together in Jesus name. All God's people said Amen and Amen. God bless everybody.