The Right Focus Pt 2: On the Goal

open up in your Bibles to the book of Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians chapter 3.

Last week, as we started into chapter 3, remember each chapter in the book of Philippians tells us a little bit about joy, a different subject on joy. And as we came to chapter 3, we said that joy comes from having the right focus. And the first aspect that we looked at in chapter 3 in those first 11 verses is that we need to have a focus on knowing Christ. Paul had said, uh, I count, all things as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, for the far-surpassing greatness of that experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And so now as we come to verse 12 of chapter 3, we come to the second part of the right focus, and it's having the right focus on the goal. Having the right focus on the goal. A.W. Tozer, in his book, Pursuit of God, says this. He says, I found God and still to pursue him is the soul's paradox of love. And that's sort of what Paul gets into when he talks about,

or with what he talks about in this next section. Even though he has found Christ, he is still pursuing him. Even though he has come to the excellency, the far-surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ, there is a deeper knowledge still that he is pursuing. And so as we look at this goal that we are to be focused on, there's three things that we'll talk about, or three things that he's going, to tell us, he's going to tell us to press on, to follow his example, and that our citizenship is in heaven.

And so we pick up in verse 12 of chapter 3, and this is what it says. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on, so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Jesus Christ. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude, and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you.

However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. Now, Paul tells us here to press on, and there's a handful of things he says. He starts off in verse 12 by saying, not that I have already obtained. Now, we should ask ourselves, what does he mean, not that I have already obtained it? Well, the word obtained means to make acquisition,

but what is it that he is saying that he has not quite obtained yet? Well, it reaches all the way back to verse 10. So look up at verse 10 really quickly, just above there. It says this, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

So what is he talking about obtaining? He is talking about obtaining a Christ-likeness, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, even being conformed to his death. Paul says, not that I have already obtained it. Not only that, but he says, not that I am already perfected. That word perfected is kind of an interesting word. It literally means,

it doesn't mean, it doesn't mean the idea of sinless perfection. This is what it means. Perfection means a place of spiritual maturity beyond which there is no progress. Let me put it to you like this. Paul knew he had not arrived. Paul said, when it comes to me knowing Christ, I have not arrived. I've not arrived to the place of perfect spiritual maturity.

I've not arrived to the place where I know everything that there is to know about Jesus. I've not arrived to the point where I will be as good as I'm ever, going to be. I have not arrived. And I think that that's a really good thing for us to look at, especially when we consider where Paul was in his life at this point in time. At this point in time, Paul in his life had, first of all,

spent an incredible number of years knowing Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He had served God to a level that oftentimes we can't really fathom. He had suffered for Christ at a level to which we can't really fathom. He had, by this point in time, written multiple epistles that have been canonized. In the scripture, he has stood before kings and before magistrates

to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ, one of which declared, Paul, you would almost convince me to become a Christian. And yet, as he sits here in a Roman prison writing about joy, because even though he's in a prison, he still has joy in the Lord. He says, I have not arrived. I'm not there yet. I am still not where I need to be. And I think that that's a really good word

for us as believers in Jesus Christ. Because in the Western culture church, we tend to think we have arrived because we have a deeper knowledge than everybody else because all of the resources that we have, we know a little bit more than they used to back then, those antiquated writers of the Bible. And sometimes we think we've arrived. And sometimes as individuals, we can think, you know, I'm doing pretty good.

I've come to a place where I'm pretty good in my life now. I've actually heard some people say that you actually, as a believer, can reach a place of sinless perfection. And I'm like, that's the saddest thing I've ever heard. Can you imagine the difficulty of that? Can you imagine the defeat you must constantly live in or the pride that makes it unbearable to be around you?

Not that I have already attained, not that I am already perfected. I've told this story lots of times, but it's one of the greatest stories I've ever heard. One of the greatest moments I've ever had in my life of just really being aware of my consistent need for Christ and it's the story about Truman Page, my really good friend that worked at, or that lived at Lakeview Village, the wrinkle ranch that I always affectionately refer to it as. And he was a man who taught Old Testament history.

He had more knowledge of the word than a lot of people I'd ever been around. And I will never forget visiting him in the care center just a few days before he died and him looking at me as he sat there in that bed. He said, Ryan, I am more aware now of my need for the grace of God than I ever have been in my entire life. And I thought, wow, 50 years of walking with Jesus, more knowledge of the word than I could ever imagine.

A man who is a man of great character and looked to me and said, I've not arrived. Brothers and sisters, Paul says this and we should take it to heart because we should make sure that we have this same kind of knowledge. We should have this same kind of mind in us. Paul says, not that I have already obtained, not that I am already perfected, but notice what he says, but I press on.

That word press on is used in the idea of a Greek runner who was running in a race, who was striving for the goal, who was striving for the finish line, who would not let anything hold him back in his race. He was constantly pressing on. The word means this. It means to pursue, to chase it down and make it one's own. Paul says, I press on to have found God and still be pursuing him

is the soul's paradox of love. Paul says, I continue to pursue and what am I pressing on? That I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Jesus Christ. I love that the way that the English standard version translated this, to make it my own because Christ has made me his own. What does Paul want to make it his own? What does he want to press on towards?

Well, the thing that he has not yet obtained, Christ's likeness. He wants to obtain a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ and he wants to become more like Jesus Christ. Now, I always like to make sure people understand this because there is a difference between positional sanctification and practical sanctification, okay? I couldn't believe it. I actually had a talk with a minister one time

and I was really young in the ministry and I was talking about positional sanctification and this guy was much older than me and had been teaching the word much longer than me and he goes, what's that? And that really made me sad because whether you know it or not, the day that you put your faith in Jesus Christ, positionally, you are not only justified, put in the place of being righteous in God's eyes, but you are sanctified. You are completely set apart unto God and you are as justified and as sanctified as you will ever be, positionally speaking, the day that you put your faith in Jesus Christ. Practically speaking, every day, you are being sanctified because you are being made more like Christ.

You are living out that which is already true on the inside of you. You are becoming on the outside what is already true on the inside. You are as sanctified as you will ever be, but now you're learning to live like you truly are, to live your reality, the reality of who you are, in Christ. And so when Paul says, not that I have already obtained it, not that I am already where I'm supposed to be, but I press on, that I can lay hold, that I can grab hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me to make it my own, the knowledge of Christ and Christ's likeness, because Christ has made me his own.

Isn't that great? I love the way, the English Standard Version translated that because it reminds us that there is a purpose for what we're doing and a response to what's already been done. Christ has already made me his own, and now I want to make everything of his my own. Paul says, not that I have already obtained, but I press on. But notice what he continues on in verse 13 to say, brethren, I do not count myself

as having laid hold of it yet. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Paul says, I press on to lay hold of it. But notice what he says next, brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. I press on to lay hold of it,

even though I haven't done it yet. Paul says, I do not count myself as having laid hold of it. I love the way that Kenneth Weiss translates this. He says, as I look back on my life, I calmly draw a conclusion that I have not laid hold of it yet. In other words, I sit back and look at me. I take an honest evaluation of who I am, and I say, I may be seeking to lay hold of Christ's

likeness and the knowledge of him, but I'm not. I'm not there yet. I'm still in the process. Paul said, I do not count myself as having laid hold of it, but one thing I do. I want you to take note of the fact that in the middle of verse 13, in the New American Standard, it says, but one thing I do. And I think in the New King James and King James, it says, but this one thing I do. You may notice that all the other words are in

italics except the phrase, one thing. The I do was added by the translators to add clarity. So if you read it originally in the Greek, what it would say is, but one thing. In other words, there's just this one thing that guides every aspect of his life. There's this one thing. We kind of talked about it a little bit last week, that knowledge of Christ, but it goes a little bit deeper this week, right? That one thing

continues to guide every aspect of his life. And that one thing takes on two forms. This one thing I do. Forgetting. Forgetting what's behind. Forgetting what's behind. And I love this. I did a word study on this aspect of forgetting what's behind. And according to what I read, the idea that's given to us in this word, in its original usage, is that of a Greek runner who is forgetting about

the others running behind him as he is in the lead. I watch a lot of track meets right now because my youngest daughter's in track. And it's always fascinating. I watch a lot of track meets and it's always fascinating to watch young kids in track because when they really break out into a big lead, they sometimes get distracted. Do you know what they get distracted by? Is anyone right behind

me? And this is what will happen to them. They're running really fast and they'll turn around to see if anybody's behind them. And perhaps someone is behind them. But that quick glance behind them slowed their progress and it kept them from winning the race because the person behind them just caught up because they took enough time to look behind them because maybe they heard the footstep.

And they quit running as fast as they could because they couldn't forget what was behind them. And the idea behind what Paul says is here is you completely forget what's behind you. You don't worry about how close the next runner is. You don't worry about who else is behind you. You're only focused on what's ahead, forgetting what's behind. Well, what does that mean for us? We don't

actually have runners behind us. I run slow enough that they're all in front of me. We don't actually have runners behind us. We don't actually have runners behind us. We don't actually have runners behind us, right? So what's behind us that we need to forget? Well, I've written down three things that I think that if we are to do this one thing, we have to forget about these three things. Number

one, you have to quit thinking about the hurts of the past. Do you know why some people cannot move on in their walk with Jesus Christ? It's because somebody one time hurt them and they can't let go of it. And you cannot move forward in your walk with Jesus Christ because you cannot forget about what's behind. So many people say, I will never come back to church because somebody hurt me.

And it's, and all I can think is that is so sad. Maybe you can't go back to that same church, but you should go to a church because Jesus isn't the one that hurt you. A person hurt you. And now you cannot move forward in your walk with Jesus Christ because somebody hurt you in the past. Some people darken the door of a church every single Sunday, but they hold so much bitterness in

their heart against either somebody that sits in the church or somebody that no longer goes to the church. And they can't move forward in their walk with Jesus Christ because bitterness is holding them back. Anger and unforgiveness is holding them back and they cannot move forward because if you're always looking back, there's no forward motion. And so number one, we need to forget about the hurts of the past. And listen, I don't want to paint some rosy picture of, oh, if you'll just

decide to forget about it, you just won't think about it anymore. No, you have to give them to Jesus. You have to keep giving those things to Jesus because if you don't give them to Jesus, you'll continue to hold on to them. You have to carry all of those things and say, Lord, this is the burden I'm carrying and I need you to take it. Forget the hurts of the past.

Number two, you need to forget about the sins of the past. You need to forget about the sins of the past. Again, some people have a really hard time moving forward in their walk with Jesus Christ because they cannot let go of the sin that they committed in the past. You can't let go of the guilt of it. You can't let go of the shame of it. You just keep thinking

about it over and over and over again. And I'm here to tell you right now, whatever happened yesterday is yesterday. You cannot go back and change what's already happened. You cannot go back and change those things. And so many people live in the anxiety of the things that they have done because all they can think about is the guilt and that guilt is wearing them down and it's

leading them into depression and it's giving them a lot of pain. And so many people live in the anxiety because they're so scared of the potential consequences of what they've done. And they just live in this place where they can't let it go. And in Christ, you can learn to let those things go. Again, I don't want to paint some simple picture where just stop thinking about it.

No, you have to give it to Jesus. You have to take it and say, Lord, this is the sins that I've committed. I can't do anything about those now. Will you please forgive me? Will you please take that off of me? I went through a time in my life and I've shared about it before where I relived all of the sins that I had, that I had committed. And I lived in all of this guilt. And it was, it was right after

Bible college, right before I got married. And I lived with all of this guilt and anxiety, and I was absolutely just riddled by it. And, and I had a hard time moving forward because of it. And this is one of the greatest lessons I've learned is to leave the past in the past. But, but it took me a while to, to, to get past it. And I really was delivered from anxiety. And I really was delivered from anxiety. And I

was delivered from anxiety. And I really was delivered from anxiety. And I really was delivered from anxiety. And I maybe about a year or so before I married Aaron. We're coming up on an anniversary. May the 1st actually be 20 years for us. So pretty, pretty exciting stuff. It's a pretty good time of year. Once you get past tax day, it's a great time of year for us. And, and, and the day after we got

married, we'd stayed in downtown Kansas city. And we decided we were just going to go walk around on the plaza, drink some coffee, enjoy being together. Right? And so we're walking around on the plaza and I've got some coffee and, and, and I, you all know the problem. I make eye contact with people. It's just, it's what I do. And it gets me into a lot of conversations. Some of them I want to be in. Some of them I don't want to be in. Sometimes people

try to sell me herbal substances because I make eye contact with them. Right? And, and sometimes people ask me for my money because I make eye contact with them. Well, this one particular time there was a guy and I've shared this story before. There was a guy that had this machine set up and everything in me was like, don't make eye contact. Don't make eye contact. Don't make eye

contact. And what did I do? I made eye contact. I think Aaron was even saying, hey, don't look at him. And I looked at him and he said, hi. And I was like, hi, I'm like drawn in and I just can't not talk. Right? And he's, he's like, hey, I'd like to talk. Would you like to take a stress test today? And I was like, yes. So he, so he hooked me up to this, to this thing,

this stress test thing. And he goes, no, I want you to think about something that has caused you a great deal of anxiety. Well, I'm within a year of being delivered from just massive anxiety, right? Because of sins in the past. And I was like, well, that's not hard to do. So I thought of it and I just sent the little needle, like nearly off of the chart. He goes, oh my, that's

a lot of anxiety. Okay. Do it, do it for me one more time. So I thought of something else, just sent the needle off the chart. Oh gosh, you deal with a lot of anxiety, don't you? I said, well, I used to, God's really delivered me from all of it. And he said, well, I would like to tell you about L. Ron Hubbard and his book on Dianetics. And I was like, oh, I know who,

you are now, you're crazy. And I said, no, no, I don't need all of that because Jesus has delivered me. What, what happened here? And I don't usually get this bold in these situations. I said, what you just saw is me remembering sins from the past that God has delivered me from. And yet they're still right there. So I still think about them, but God has delivered me from

these sins. And so I don't need anything else to do that for me because Jesus has already taken care of it. These are all under the blood. I just can't think about them all the time because if I do, it'll cause me anxiety. And he said, you know, sometimes you need something besides the Bible. And I said, not in this case, I don't, you need the Bible. And I took the little things off and we left,

but many people are just like that. If you got hooked up to something and you thought about a sin, you'd send it off the chart because you need to give that to Jesus and let him deliver you from the sins of the past. But you know, there's a third thing that we cannot live in that we have to forget. We have to forget. About the victories of the past. Now understand where I'm, what I'm saying here. Okay. The Bible

talks about Ebenezer stones and you should have places. You should have memories of God was faithful. Then I believe that he'll be faithful. Now. That's not what I'm saying. You should forget what I'm saying. You should forget is remember that one time I did that one really good thing for God. And you live off of that one experience your entire life. And you never do anything else

for God. You never grow in your walk. You never have anything else happen. And sometimes you want to be like, that's great that that happened in 1978. But what about today? What's, what's God done today? Like what's he doing in your, in your relationship with Jesus Christ today? I think that's always been one of the Achilles heels of the Calvary movement. Right. And I love it. I am, I am dyed in the wool. I don't

have a dove tattoo, but I may as well. Right. Like I am, I am Calvary chapel through and through. But one of the issues that sometimes Calvary chapels can have is that we want to live in what God did in the seventies and the sixties and the seventies. And it's like, no, that's wonderful that God did that. But sometimes we have to forget about what's behind and what's God want to do

today. What's God want to do in the church today? Because we don't have a bunch of peace and love hippies that need to find Jesus today. We have a bunch of transgender kids that need to find Jesus today. And so it's wonderful about what God did back then, but the counterculture looks different now and we need to minister to them. And sometimes we can live on the experiences of what God did

before, but we need fresh manhood. Today. And so sometimes we have to forget about those past victories and say, Lord, what do you want to do today? And so he says, this one thing I do forgetting what's behind forgetting about all of the past hurts, forgetting about all of the past sins and not living on all of the past victories. This one thing I do forgetting what's behind and I, uh, reach

forward to what lies ahead, reaching forward to what lies ahead. Again, the idea of a Greek runner is expressed here. I learned something last year when I helped coach track at Ark city Christian Academy. And that's that there's when you are sprinting, there's no part of your body. You don't want moving forward. You want everything going in forward motion because you are always supposed to be reaching forward to what's ahead, which is why

you can't look back because any part of you that's moving back will prevent you from moving forward. And as believers in Jesus Christ, we are to constantly be reaching forward to what is ahead and what's ahead for us seeing Jesus. And we're constantly reaching for matter of fact, there's a couple of places I want you to go in scripture. I had him put it up here on the go with me back to hold your finger here and go to Psalm 17. And I want you to

look at verse 15. This is the psalmist David and in Psalm 17 verse 15, it says this as for me, I hear pages turning. So I'll give you a second. Verse 15 of Psalm 17 says this as for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. I love this part. I will be satisfied with your likeness when I awake. Isn't that great? He said, I will behold your face in righteousness and I will be

satisfied when I awake in your likeness. What are we reaching forward to the goal that lies ahead? What's the goal? That lies ahead, seeing Jesus and our entire life needs to be focused on the fact that one day we're going to see him. And that takes me to the next part. Go to first John chapter three, all the way at the other end of the Bible. If you hit revelation, like I just did, you went too far.

First John chapter three. I want you to look at verses two and three. First John three verses two and three says this beloved. Now we are the children of God. It has not yet appeared what we shall be, but we know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. And listen, everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. Paul in Philippians three says, I do not regard myself

as having laid hold of it. But one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. What is the goal? The goal is going home to see Jesus someday. And in the meantime, becoming as much like him as we can, because he who has this hope in him, this hope of the goal, this hope of the

prize in him purifies himself. He purifies himself. We continue to live a life of pursuing Jesus, Christ. We continue to live a life of pursuing who God wants us to be by leaving the past behind and pressing on towards what's ahead. Again, I would quote to you, A.W. Tozer to have found God and still to pursue him is the soul's paradox of love. I found him, but I'm still seeking him.

I found him, but I'm still pursuing him. I know him, but I'm not satisfied with my knowledge of him. And so I want to know him. I want to know him. I want to know him. I want to know him. I want to know more. I want to go deeper. I want to go further. I want to push on because I have a goal that I'm reaching. And the goal that I'm reaching is to become as much like Jesus as I

possibly can until the day that I get to see him face to face when I ultimately am just like him, because I will see him as he is. Until then, I have a goal. I have a focus. I have a place that I am looking to. And to do that, I press on. I pursue it to chase it down, and to make it my own. And so I have a question for you. What are you pursuing in your life right

now? What are you pressing on towards in your life right now? I'm not saying that the worldly things aren't important. Sometimes there's things you have to do. You have to have a job. You have to pay the bills. Listen, you have to pay the bills. You have to do all of those things, right? There's nothing wrong with entertainment. There's nothing wrong with vacations.

But in all of these things, there should be a singular focus. And that is the goal. And if it doesn't point you to the goal or assist you in reaching the goal, then listen, it should probably go. It should probably be something that you forget, that you leave behind. Forgetting what lies behind, I press on. He goes on in verse 15 to say, let us therefore, as many as are perfect,

have this attitude. And if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. Wait, Paul just said he wasn't perfect. He had not been perfected. So what does he mean there? Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude. Well, I actually feel like the word perfect, there's a poor translation. I actually feel like the better translation of

that word would be mature. Those of us who are mature, not mature to the point where, you don't have to continue to grow, but let those of us with a mature mindset live with this kind of mindset. Let those of us who are mature have this attitude. What attitude? The attitude of leaving behind the past and pressing towards Christ. The attitude of knowing that I have not attained, but I am pressing on towards the goal. Do you know what I find to be

one of the most immature attitudes ever is when somebody thinks that they've got it all figured out. And I think that's a very important thing. I think that's a very important thing. I think that's a very important thing. I think that's a very important thing. When somebody goes, you know, let me tell you the right way to do it. That's when you go, okay, so you're still

kind of immature. And I usually like to hear people like that out and kind of hear what they have to say. But it's always a sign of immaturity. When someone says, this is the only way that you can do it. And this is, I have found the way. You're like, okay, share with me, won't you? Share your, bless me with your wisdom. And in the back of your mind, you're thinking,

someday they'll get it. I love talking to mature believers because they'll tell you, I don't know if I'm doing it right, but I'm sure pursuing Jesus the best I can. That's a really good way for us to be. It's understanding we're not there yet, but we're going to keep seeking the Jesus who is. He says, have this same attitude in you. And if you don't, then God will reveal that to you because God's really good like that.

It goes on in verse 16 to say, however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. Let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. I struggled with this verse and struggled to understand what it meant until I did a little bit more studying. And somebody put it in a really simple statement. It said, stay on the same path.

The path that you started in following Jesus, stay on the same path. And I love that because if we're to continue to grow, if we're to continue to press towards the goal, stay on the path. And if you're on the path of following him, don't get off. Don't get distracted. Don't take any exits. Just stay on the path. And so number one, he tells us, press on. Number two, he says, follow my example. Notice what it says in verse 17. Brethren, join in

following my example and observe the way I am. And if you're on the same path, then follow my example. Those who walk according to the pattern that you have in us. For many walk of whom I often told you and now tell you, even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross. Whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly

things. Paul says, brethren, join in following me. And if you're on the same path, then follow my example. Now, one could think that that sounds pretty arrogant if we didn't take it in its fullest context. Because what did Paul tell us? I've not already attained. I'm not perfect. But this one thing I do, one thing is I leave behind the past and I press on towards knowing Christ. So you

follow my example. My example of knowing that I'm not perfect, of knowing that I've got to let go of what's in the past, and pressing on. And if you're on the same path, then follow my example. As a matter of fact, don't just follow my example. Take note of those who walk according to the pattern that you have in us. In other words, follow the same pattern that I am and take note of

anybody else that's doing the same thing. And can I tell you, that's a really important thing for us to do. We should follow godly examples and surround ourselves with those who are living exactly as Paul said. Listen, that's one of the reasons we gather as the body of Christ. So that we can take note of the example of the people around us and mutually encourage each other. That's why you need to be

involved in a small group so that you can mutually be encouraged by the people around you to pursue God together. That's why you need to come to things like men's breakfast, where you can gather with other believers, gather with other men and see their example and follow it. That's why you need to be surrounded by people that are doing that. That's why young men sitting in here today, you need to find older men who are following this pattern and take note of it and ask them how you can follow the same pattern. That's why older men, you need to find some younger men and say,

follow my example. You say, I'm not good enough for that. Then get good enough for that. Then get to a place, have the mindset, have the attitude that you're leaving the past behind. You're not pursuing the things of God and gather some young men around you and say, why don't you go with me? Why don't you join me? Because as I've told you lots of times, there's a shortage of men in our

culture. There's not a shortage of males, although maybe we're starting to have one. There's not a shortage of males in our culture. There's a shortage of men in our culture. And we can blame everything else around us that we want to. But until I start looking at myself and saying, partly to blame for this, because I'm not discipling men the way that I should,

then there will never be an answer for it. Ladies, young ladies, you need to find older ladies that are walking with Jesus, that are following this example and saying, teach me, show me what it looks like to be a woman of God. Because again, that's something missing in our culture today. Women of God are a beautiful thing, but everything that's taken place in our culture has absolutely stripped them of the right to be a woman of God. So if you're a woman of God,

biblical womanhood away and told you that you need to look more like a man, older ladies, you need to find some younger women and encourage them and pour into them and teach them what it looks like to be women of God. Paul says, follow my example and take note of all of those who are walking according to the pattern that you have in us. Follow good examples. Why? Because in verse 18,

it says, for many walk. Of whom I often told you, and even now tell you, weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Why do you need to find really good examples? Because there are many. And Paul said, I've written to you about this many times. There are many. I tell you this weeping who are enemies of the cross of Christ. Biblically, I can't prove this, but I would wonder if there were some tear

stains on the letter that they received from him. But there was a couple of ink blots that were a little bit smeared because of the tears of Paul. Because I think when he said, I even now tell you weeping, I don't think he was using hyperbole. I think it really caused him to weep. Interestingly enough, because this is the epistle of joy and what caused him to weep. It wasn't the fact that

he had been arrested. It wasn't the fact that he was falsely imprisoned. It wasn't the fact that he had to go stay in trial before Caesar. It wasn't the fact that he may potentially lose his life. It wasn't the fact that he'd already lost his freedom. What caused him to weep? That there were many who walked as enemies of the cross of Christ. You see, too many of us weep for the wrong reasons. Too

many of us sorrow for the wrong reasons. We sorrow because something bad happened to me. And what we should be sorrowing about is that other people are on their way to help. He says, I tell you this, even now weeping that there are many who walk as an enemy of the cross. And he describes them in verse number one, whose end is destruction. Whose end is destruction. Can we just go and just look

at that word destruction for just a minute? It means complete destruction. And of course, we know that that complete destruction lands itself in eternal separation from God. It's not only destruction on this side of eternity, but it's ultimate destruction on the other side of eternity. He goes on to describe them a second way. He says, first of all, their end is destruction.

Second of all, their God is their appetite. Their God is their appetite. Now this tells us that these enemies of the cross are different than the ones that he told us about in the first half of Philippians chapter three. In the first half of Philippians chapter three, he dealt with legalists. Those who would tell you that you need Jesus and a set of works, you name them, a set of works

in order to be who God wants for you to be. This group is the exact opposite. This group is the licentious group. We'll call them progressive Christians. Shall we? Because I think that's what we're describing here. Because their end is destruction. Second of all, their God is their appetite. In other words, the thing that drives them the most is their fleshly appetite. It has nothing to do with the food that they want to eat and has

everything to do with the flesh that they want to indulge. And we can say that progressive Christianity today, it's funny, I was having a conversation with somebody the other day about progressive Christianity. And he said, wait, what do you mean? What's bad about progressive Christianity? And I said, well, what's bad about progressive Christianity is that they have taken all of the

sin out of the Bible and said that those were antiquated things for an antiquated time. And we have a better knowledge now. And God has created a bigger table now. And so we can welcome as much sin as possible. And he goes, wow, when I thought progressive Christian, I thought somebody growing in their faith. I'm like, wouldn't that be great if that's what we were talking about with progressive

Christians? But that's not what we're talking about. Their God is their appetite. Because I will tell you, 99% of the time, I'm going to tell you, 99% of the time, I'm going to tell you, 99% of the time, 97% of the time, when somebody walks away from God into liberal theology, it's because they want to indulge some aspect of their flesh. I was listening to a podcast talking about deconstruction.

If you don't know what deconstruction is, basically, it's the idea of doing away with old ideas of faith and coming up with new ideas of faith. There are some aspects of deconstruction that are okay if you're deconstructing false ideas about what scripture has to say. But the girl that I was listening to on this podcast said, what you feel is wrong. And she said, well, I don't know what you find. 75 to 95% of the time is that when someone deconstructs their faith, it's because of some

form of sexual immorality in their life. And they don't want to do away with it. And so they have adopted a progressive view of Christianity because they don't want to be told no. Because their God is their appetite. Their end is destruction. Their God is their appetite. Listen, whose glory is in their shame. And that's what happens when you live a licentious life. As you begin to live a licentious

life, you begin to glory in your shame. That's exactly what happened to the church in Corinth. They accepted sin. And rather than being ashamed of it, they saw themselves as being really open-minded and tolerant, full of a great deal of grace. Sound familiar? Their glory is in their shame. And then number four, it says they set their mind on earthly things. In other words, the only thing that they

can think about are the things of this earth. Now, before we go cast dispersions on everyone else, we should always ask ourselves, the question, is my appetite my God? Do I glory in my shame? And is my mind set on the things of the earth? Because if that's true, I should be careful. Because the other thing that I didn't include is that that might mean that your end is destruction. That's why you have to forget what's

behind and press on and follow the right examples, right? And then he goes on from there to tell us this third thing. And that is that your citizenship is in heaven. Notice what he says. He says, for our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by the

exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself. He says, for our citizenship is in heaven. And that is that your citizenship is in heaven. Notice what he says. He says, for our citizenship is in heaven. Now, Paul's writing to the church in Philippi and Philippi is a Roman colony. Many in the church in Philippi were Roman citizens, even though they didn't live

anywhere near Rome. They were a colony separated from Rome at a great distance from Rome. And yet their citizenship was in Rome. And so when Paul writes to these Philippian believers who were a Roman colony and who had a Roman citizenship, but had maybe never been to Rome, this would have really clued into their minds because he says, your citizenship is in heaven.

And they would have gone just like my citizenship is in Rome, even though I've never been to Rome. And yet that still is how I'm identified because as believers in Jesus Christ, our citizenship is in heaven, even though we are strangers and aliens living on planet earth, a colony very much separated from heaven. And yet we are always to remember that those who are in heaven, those who are in heaven, those who are in heaven, those who are in heaven, we don't live in heaven right now. That is our citizenship. It's interesting because if you

were reading in the old King James, it would say your conversation is in heaven. Anybody reading the old King James where it says that I love that because, uh, your conversation often has everything to do with your citizenship, right? Because you tend to talk like the area that you're from. One of the fun things about going to another part of the country, especially when I went to Bible college in California is you could start identifying people by the parts, the country that they were from. For instance, I was from Kansas and I had a Kansas accent. I

didn't realize that I had a Kansas accent, but I have a Kansas accent. And they would say, we can tell you're from the Midwest because you have a Midwestern accent. And then you had people that were from like New Jersey. A matter of fact, the people that I've been posting, uh, about the Cisco who, um, who had that, uh, brain aneurysm and, and, uh, has had all those issues. Cisco

was from New Jersey and he had a whole crew of people from New Jersey that were with him. And you could always tell who the New Jersey people were because they said things like coffee and orange juice, right? Like they just, they talked differently than us. And then we had some people from Minnesota and you could tell they were from Minnesota because they were from Minnesota, right? And then you can just tell where they were from. And then you had the,

the surfers from California and you knew where they were from, right? Because their conversation gave them away. And that's what it should be with us. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our conversation is in heaven. And remember, remember that he says your citizenship is in heaven from which we eagerly wait for a savior. We eagerly wait for a savior. That phrase eagerly wait means to stretch out the

neck and extend the ear because you're eagerly waiting to hear of the news of the savior coming to town. And we're eagerly waiting for that. Why? Because this place isn't our home. And so we're eagerly waiting for our savior to come and take us home because the second coming of Christ will change everything. We're eagerly waiting for that. And so we're eagerly waiting for the coming of our savior. Why are we eagerly waiting for the coming

of our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ? Because he will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory. The word transform, metamorphosis. See, same word that's given to what happens with a butterfly, right? So you've got this little caterpillar. It looks like this little worm. Everybody knows this, but you got this little worm. And on the outside, the worm looks nothing like a caterpillar or like

a butterfly, right? It's just this little gooey looking thing that is just kind of ugly, right? But on the inside, on the inside, that caterpillar is going, you may not see it now. I'm a butterfly. I'm beautiful, but it's only on the inside right now. I don't look on the outside like I really am. On the inside. So that caterpillar climbs up into a tree and it spins a cocoon for itself. And it

sits in that cocoon until one day the butterfly emerges. And what the caterpillar always knew he was on the inside shows itself on the outside because he has been transformed, metamorphosis. And that's what we're waiting for. On the inside, we know that we are born again believers in Jesus Christ. And it doesn't always look that way. On the outside, right? Who I am on the outside doesn't always reflect what I really feel like I

am on the inside. I know that I've been born again. I know that I've been set free, but I'm still held back by this body of death. I'm still held back by this flesh that I wear every day, but there's going to come a day where I will be transformed because my savior will have done it. And he will transform this lowly body. How did he, how do you say it here? He will transform our

humble estate into community. Conformity with the body of his glory. And one day a beautiful butterfly will emerge and I will be on the outside. What God has already declared. I am right now on the inside. You ever wonder what that body is going to be like? You ever wonder what that's going to look like? It's up to me. I've got a sweet, thick, curly head of hair, right? Or maybe you all are

going to be bald. I mean, have you ever thought about that? I don't know what perfect is going to be. Maybe, maybe I'm closer than I think I am. Maybe I'll be six foot two. Maybe you'll be five foot six. I don't know. I mean, who knows? He will transform, but what will really matter, it won't really matter to us than what we actually look like. What will really matter to us is that we won't be held down by the things that keep us

from knowing Christ. Now, our humble estate will be transformed into a body that matches his glory. How? By the exertion of the power that he is even to subject all things to himself by the greatness of his power. Brothers and sisters, the Lord wants us to live a life of joy. As a matter of fact, he tells us that he has come to give us joy abundantly. And one of the ways that we live

in a place of joy is to have the right focus, to be focused not only on knowing Christ, but to be focused on the goal of becoming like Christ and one day being with Christ, forgetting what's behind. Press on to lay hold of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Amen. Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you and I thank you for who you are.

I thank you for the great love that you have for us. And Lord, I thank you that you will one day transform our bodies. Take away this humble estate, Lord, and give us the glorious bodies that you want us to have. Until then, Lord, may we forget what's behind and press on. Lord, may our lives be focused on knowing you, loving you, and serving you. And may we never be satisfied with the things

of this earth. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.

And I know that I'm done with the surgeon. My soul needs a friend. So I'll run to the Father again and again and again and again. Your son for redemption. Christ for my. I don't have that kind of love. I don't. I'm done with. So I'll run to the Father for your from. Just as I am. You. So I'll run to the Father. I get it. Run to the. I'm done. I'm done to wait. My heart found

a surgeon. So I'll run to the Father again. Well, God, I just thank you for the day. And we just thank you and give you praise for who you are, God. And as we leave here today, I just pray that you would go with us. Your Holy Spirit would go with us. And that we would run to you each and every day for our sustenance, Lord. For you to provide for us, to take care of us, to heal us with whatever the need. I pray that we

would run to you. Father, we love you. We praise you and we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.