Running Towards the Goal

I have fought the good fight.

It's an expression of somebody who has been faithful and is satisfied. So he says,

I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.

And so this morning, this is where I want us to draw our encouragement, realizing that we are on the race. And so again, in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1, He says,

since we are surrounded by so great a crowd of witness, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the rest that is set before us.

There is a race that is set before every believer, before every Christian, as we grow in our Christianity. So as we are running towards the goal, there will be distractions definitely coming on the way. And so we are encouraged to continue running. And in our text this morning, The apostle Paul, actually, is using this analogy of the race, and he's doing this to describe his own spiritual experience. And I pray that we learn from this, because in doing this, he gives us some spiritual principles for Christian growth. You know, a race, Christian race, or Christian living, can be compared to a long, long distance race, which they call a marathon. It requires you to be very disciplined. It requires us to remain focused and persevere for you to be able to reach the end. And here Paul is using this same idea to encourage the church to be spiritually prepared to compete, and not just to compete, but to win in the race set before all of us, all Christians. The goal of the Christian life is to know Jesus Christ and to be like him. This is what, if we back up a bit in verse 10 and verse 11, he says

that I may know him and the power in his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death if by any means I may attend to the resurrection of the dead.

And so then verse 12 to verse 16, he shows us how to reach this goal of being, the goal which he has set in verse 10, to know Christ and his power and fellowship of his suffering. So in verse 12 to 16, He now shows us how to reach that goal through the process of continuous striving and dedication and focus on the path. Like in verse 12 he says, the apostle Paul says, I press on. And if you jump to verse 14 also he says,

I press towards the goal for the price of the upward goal of God in Christ Jesus.

And this is the picture of a runner, running swiftly to reach the goal. That's what Paul is giving us here. You see, Christian life is like being in a race and competing for the prize. We should never forget that. We should never forget that. Like we said in the marathon, it demands discipline and constant practice. Hard work to win the medal. And do not misunderstand me here when I talk about struggling. I'm not saying that becoming a Christian, you have to work hard. That's not what it is. The Bible is very clear, for instance, in the book of Ephesians chapter two, verse eight and nine. It says,

for by grace we have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Because salvation is a gift that is given, totally given to us. Christ finished it all. He did it on the cross. And everything that follows is based on the completed work of Christ. So we do not do anything, we can't earn our salvation. Christ has done it on the cross. has done it on the cross. But, or nevertheless, however, when it comes to Christian living, when it comes to Christian living, we must make or must put some effort for us to be able to succeed. So this morning, my task, two things. Number one, to the unconverted, those who are still seeking or the seekers. is to invite you to come and join in the race. And secondly, to those who are already Christians, those who are in the race as believers, but maybe you are discouraged or you've gotten distracted on the way, on this track as you have been running, I want to urge you to renew your focus and put more effort to continue on this race. So let's look at point number one here in verse 12. And I invite you to let Christ, to those who are still seeking, I invite you to let Jesus Christ take hold of your life. Let him take hold of your life. Make a start. Join the race. Join the race. Open your heart. Surrender to him. Or should I say, be born again. Remember what Christ said to Nicodemus,

unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

And so here in verse 12, as our sister Rachel read,

not that I have already attained or I am already perfected, but I press on.

This is the apostle speaking,

but I press on that I may lay hold of that which Christ Jesus has also read of me.

You see, there are too many people today who want to run in a race, but they have not like officially joined. Maybe they are trying to live a good life and doing what Christians are supposed to be doing. they have not truly become Christians themselves. And in fact, this is the experience that the apostle Paul also was going through or had gone through before God got hold of him on the road to Damascus. He was really trying to be good. And so we see this in chapter three, verse four to verse six. In chapter four, in chapter, sorry, chapter three, verse four to verse six, he says,

though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more also.

This was before he became a Christian, but he had that confidence that was out of place. and he thought he was doing good, he says,

circumcised the 80th day,

you know he was a Jew,

of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

You can see how dedicated and passionate, serious he was in trying to attain that righteousness in the flesh, but that was mispressed. That is not the righteousness that God really requires of us. For you to really be accepted by God, first of all, you ought to be in Christ. You ought to be in Christ. You come just as you are. You surrender to him. And so you can make many strivings, you can go to church, you can be a good person, but if you have never received him as your savior, you have never given up your old lifestyle, you confess your sins and you make a commitment, a life commitment to continue following Christ, sorry to say that you are still in your sins. And so here, Paul did everything in this passage that we have read. He did everything that he needed to do in order to be pleasing to God. He was sincere, because that sincerity doesn't count as long as you are not in Christ. He was dedicated and very serious. But the only problem he had is that he wasn't a Christian, he was trying all these things in the flesh. He was not born again. So in verse 12, Paul makes it very clear now. that his effort in Christian life actually hinged on the fact that God has gotten hold of him through Christ. If you look at the last word, he says that,

I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

" And the word laid hold, in some Bibles it would, it refers to, you see it says apprehend. It refers to being seized or grasped, to be held tightly. You see, so, and this picture is of somebody who is being chased like the police, you know, chasing a criminal, for instance. And then they catch up with him, and then they like hold him tightly in their grip, and he can't escape. So this is what Poe is saying, that he was like running away from God. He was fleeing from God. And so God came after him, and he gripped him. And now he's been placed on this race. Paul is saying that the reason he was running in this race was because God had come after him. You see, salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. It's God who seeks us. And in many cases, because of our nature, we run away from him. And so the Apostle Paul, it was, In Acts chapter 9, verse 1 to 19, if you go there on the road to Damascus, where he actually came, he was converted. And let me ask you a question also. Are you in the race? Have you joined the race? How did you join the race? How did you join in the race? Can you look back and see a time when you like felt convicted and you surrendered your life to Christ? You repented of your sins and you made the commitment to start afresh. Is there any time in your life when you just give your life to Christ? That's my question. And here we see that Christian life begins with God's powerful effect calling on you. He will follow you. He will pursue you. It doesn't matter where you are running or want to hide. He will find you. And when things are becoming hard or difficult in your life, probably you need to be asking questions. Maybe God is after you. Don't fight against him. That's what Paul was doing. And Christ asked him,

why are you fighting? Why are you fighting? Why are you kicking against the cliques?

You know what Paul says in chapter nine, verse six, in the book of Acts, he answered,

What do you want me to do, Lord? What do you want me to do?

Probably that's the question you should be asking yourself. Maybe you've been trying to search for answers in all directions. Maybe you should be asking, what do you want me to do, oh Lord? You've tried this, it's not working. or you have been trying to be involved in all kinds of things, but maybe you need to humble yourself and ask, what do you want me to do, Lord? You know what God said to the apostle Paul?

Arise and go into the city and you will be told what to do.

There are many people who are ready here to explain the gospel, to give you good counsel for you to come to the right truth or to the right path or to change your life. There are a lot of people. All you need to do is to question yourself. Because God has really, it's not somebody coming and then trying to pin you down, but it is something that you yourself have discovered just doesn't work. What is wrong with me? What do you want me to do, Lord? And he says, arise, arise. There are people he has prepared, even in this church. Christian growth can only begin to happen in somebody who is in Christ. When you do that, you will come into the race. Christ will adopt you into his family, of the family of God, and you will start this race. In verse 13 and 14, Paul says,

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.

Verse 14,

I press toward the goal for the price of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

And here, I think the apostle is encouraging us to press on towards the goal. It's those people who have entered the race now who can be encouraged to continue to press on. And there are many of us here who have joined this race and some of you probably 40 years ago or maybe 30 years ago, 20 years ago. And there are some of us who have just joined recently. You are on the race. You are in the race. So Paul's attitude in the race of the Christian growth is that you keep moving. That's what he's saying. You keep moving. Never to think that you have arrived there. That should be your attitude. He is actually speaking to us to cultivate a proper attitude, a good attitude. Many Christians fall by the wayside because they take Christianity for granted. Or they think they have already arrived. Or they know it all. And then you stumble. But Paul is saying, don't give up. As long as you are still alive on this earth, keep moving. Keep moving. You should be racing towards the goal. And so Christian life is a long journey, we should be aware. It's something that should be in our plan, to know that it's a long, long journey. And at the time that Paul was writing the book of Philippians, he was probably more than 24, 25 years old as a Christian. He had been saving God for a long time, and yet he did not regard himself of having achieved it. You see, spiritual life here on this earth, we should know that it's that of continuous battle against the world, continuous battle against the flesh, against the devil. And Paul's mindset in verse 12 here is to really be aware of his inadequacy, to really be aware of all these things that might trip him. And he says, I have not arrived. I have not arrived. He had that burning anger, so not anger, hunger. It's like you go to, I'm sure if you go into Pastor Keith's study office, you find a lot of books. And yet probably you have read hundreds of them when there are thousands in there. I've not been there. I'm sure it's got a lot. So you can't just say, I've read this book, so you stop. There is that desire always to conquer all those books that are on the shelves. And that is like the situation in our Christian work as well. Just because we have made these successes, It should not cause us to relax in any way, but rather there is more to conquer, to continue. There is more work for us to do in the church. There is more work to do. for the Lord. And so Paul says, I have not yet come to know Christ. I have not yet come to know the power of his resurrection. I have not yet come to know fully the fellowship of his suffering and conformity to his death. Haven't, I haven't. 25 years saving the Lord. God using him mightily. And look at the attitude that he had. Press on, verse 12 says, press on. Verse 14 also, press on towards the plies or towards the mark. It is very clear that Paul's focus in life as a Christian was on one thing, that's what he tells us, on one thing here. He says, and that one thing is to pursue Christlikeness. leaving behind all past achievements that he had made or even negative experiences, leaving these behind. Granted, Paul is not saying that he didn't remember the past. He knew the kind of man he used to be. That's why he reminded us. He knew the kind of man he used to be. But he did not let that past, those experiences, You know, Paul is the one who was there when they were, he was encouraging young men to stone against Stephen, a man full of the spirit of God. He was there urging them to continue to throw one stone and another until Stephen was killed, was murdered in Acts chapter 7. He was there and he was convinced of what he was doing. He knew his past. He didn't let the guilt from the past or how God used him to have these visions and healings that he had performed. He didn't let these successes in his Christian life to discourage him or to defeat him. Like a runner who was focused on the finishing line and he was determined to press on to keep running the race. And for us as Christians, keeping running the race entails that we are dedicated to study God's word. That we do not just depend on how much we learned in the past or how much we knew, but that we continue studying God's word, continue being devoted in prayer. It doesn't matter how Powerful. You used to pray in the past. We should continue. It should be our habit on this journey as we continue moving on. Commitment to Christ. Sorry, to the church. We need to continue daily, week after week. We continue making ourselves available at the church, at its disposal for various needs, because we are the hands and legs of the church. We need to be there. We need to be there. The church will be on the move if we members make ourselves available in fellowship. The church will be even more successful, will be more successful in its programming if we are always making ourselves available, continuing to press on. Pressing on. Pressing on in the work of evangelism. We need to be like Paul when it comes to the past, brethren. Forget about the past. There are too many things that we can think about the past and these will not help us. Forget about the past. Forget about the past. We should not allow our past failures hinder us. Or hinder us from doing what is right today. Or allow our past successes to cause us to be compressant. We must be pressing on. Let us embrace God's purpose and calling in Christ that is pressed upon each one of us in our lives. We can do that by keeping on moving forward, pressing on and seeking greater intimacy with God and striving to fulfill his divine assignment. But in verse 14, I have one thing that Paul is saying I want to ask here. It's the question, where is Paul straining to reach forward in verse 14? He says,

I press forward the goal, towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ.

Paul was focused on the goal. He was focused on that prize. That is what the runner should do. should be focused to the finishing line, we need to maintain our focus on the goal, which is the plies of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. We need to continue that God, one day when we shall be with him, the upward goal of God is God's call to salvation, which will only end when we stand before God. to give account, when God shall say well and good faithful servant, when he shall receive us in glory. That is the goal, the upward goal. He shall give us the rewards. We must never forget that we are in the race. God has called us in Christ to be with him one day, Only let us look forward to that great day when life on Earth shall be over and now we will be in the eternal presence of the Almighty God. That will happen. Each one of us, we will leave this Earth. We must be preparing ourselves, so let us keep our eyes focused on that goal. Pressing on. You keep pressing on. And finally, in verse 15 to 16, let us hold on to our convictions. That's what Paul, I see saying here, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the, oh, sorry, sorry, I'm reading verse 10. Verse 16,

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. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.

And here in this section, Paul is exhorting those who were spiritually mature. The same word that is used as perfect is in reference to maturity, growth in Christianity. And he's saying to hold on to the same convictions, he's urging them to hold on. to these convictions as he did, the convictions that enabled him to continue persevering and moving and also giving him hope of the future. He says, continue. The convictions were about the need to keep pressing on towards the goal of Christlikeness. We need to hold on to the convictions in our church, the body of beliefs. We need to hold on to them as we move on this journey. We need to hold on to that hope of eternal life we have in Christ Jesus. Now, it seems as if, or as though, there were some people at Philippi who were disagreeing with the Apostle Paul. And if you look at the attitude that Paul had, it's not to fight them. It's not to fight them. Maybe these people were immature. They had not yet come to that full, proper understanding of the Christian life. And what is Paul's attitude here? is that God alone will convince them about the truth. In time, they will come around as God also shows them. All Paul wanted others to do was to be involved in running the race, to continue going forward. Unfortunately, brethren, there will always be fellow Christians who will never really see things in the same way that we do. Instead of fighting them, we need to trust God. Instead of opposing them, we need to trust God to help them to mature in their walk with God. So as we walk together in this long journey of saving the Lord, we must value and cherish that unity and Christ and like-mindedness among ourselves. Very important to keep us together. He is calling us, that's the Apostle Paul, he is calling us, all of us who are mature, to adopt the similar view he had, the same attitude he has. And his desire was to live in harmony, to be united in our pursuit of Christ and to support one another on this long spiritual journey. That's what he's saying in verse 15 and 16.

Let us, as many as are mature, have this mind, and if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind.

He's encouraging us to walk by the same rule. to be of the same mind, holding on to the progress we have already attained, to keep on straining forward, giving maximum effort on each one of us, having a focused mind and determined to reach forward for the price of the upward goal of God. Will you do that in your walk with God? Would you do that? Let me conclude with these few words. The Christian life is a race, just to remind you of what we talked about. Christian life is a race where we are called upon to let Jesus lay hold of our lives. You can't save God in the flesh, come to Christ. Keep pressing on towards Christlikeness. Hold on to your convictions. So if you have never started, if you have never joined this race, I'm calling upon you, and I invite you to begin in this race, to join this race. Come and join the race. through salvation in Christ. It is a free gift. Trust Jesus Christ as your savior, and today you will be in the race. How about you who is already a Christian? Maybe you started your race a long time ago, but somewhere along the way you stopped running. Maybe you stumbled and fell, maybe. Maybe you got tired or got discouraged by something or decided to even take a break as some would think. Your savior wants you to serve him. He's urging you to stand up, to arise. There is a price to be won. So I encourage you to run to the finish line and win the prize in Christ Jesus, amen. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you, oh God, for your love and care, for your grace upon us. Oh Lord, we pray that this race sometimes is too hard for us. And so we open our hearts, oh Lord, that you encourage us, that you lead us by your Holy Spirit. And maybe there are some among us who are not Christians who are asking, what shall I do, oh Lord? Oh God, impress on their hearts and their minds that they may be able to open up. that they may hear from mature men and women whom you have revealed your word to so that they may be able to help others. But God also those who have the understanding that they may surrender themselves and they may come by faith in Christ Jesus. Oh God, be with us. We thank you for this day. In Jesus' name, amen.