A Winning Life
Summary
Transcript
· And some of you, you are paralyzed by yesterday's failures. Shame is keeping you stuck. Guilt has you in a headlock.
· And every time you try to move forward, there's this little voice in the back of your head. It says, "You, I know what you've done. I know the mistakes you've made. I know the things you've done that you wish nobody knew about. You think you're good enough to go to church. You think you're good enough to be forgiven by God. You think you're good enough to move forward." And Paul says, "Hey, I am forgetting what is behind."
· Today is a great day. It is Easter and we are celebrating today. Guys, give our God a hand just for all that he's already done in this service.
· And man, today is a good day for so many reasons. One reason it's a good day is because I'm going to go home after services today. I'm going to watch the Diamondbacks. I'm going to watch the Suns. I'm going to probably watch them lose, but I still get to watch my teams.
· Last night, I came home from our Easter Saturday service and I saw the score in UFA got dominated. And as an ASU fan, that warmed my heart to the core.
· But it's a good day more than that. It's a good day because you are here. And you might be here for a number of reasons.
· Maybe you got drugged here. And I'm happy for the dragger and the drug today.
· Maybe you came cuz you got a you saw a social media invite. Maybe you saw a lie that was me in Dodgers gear. That was not me. That was 100% AI. I just want to put that out there, right? Some of you guys believed it. It would have burned my skin.
· Maybe you're here cuz you got a tiny little plastic trophy and an invite for someone from our church. But for whatever reason you are here, I want to say that I'm glad you're here. And I believe that you are here for a reason.
· If we have not had the chance to meet, my name is Andrew. I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Surprise. And man, we're excited about what God has been doing in our church, what God is doing today and what God will continue to do after this.
· And this today, this morning, we are going to dive into the word of God. So, if you have a Bible, go ahead and grab that right now. And you can flip to Philippians chapter 3. If you don't have a Bible, you can grab the one in the chair in front of you. You don't have a Bible at home, you can take that Bible with you. But in Philippians chapter 3, we're going to be looking at verse 12.
· You can Google Philippians 3:12 and it'll take you to that same place, but we're going to be reading from the CSB, the Christian Standard Bible. And here's what's awesome is we have already had the opportunity to pray through this text to start to get our hearts ready for what God is going to do inside this word. And here's why it is so important that we read and we pray and we praise and we preach through the word of God.
· Because the word of God is unlike any other word our world has ever seen. You see this Bible is a collection of books and is a collection of books that are eyewitness accounts of how God has interacted with mankind.
· This book has been written by over 40 different authors inspired by the Holy Spirit written over the course of 1500 years. But it contains one message of hope. And today we're going to look at that message and we're going to see the hope that God has for us and the direction he has for our lives and what he calls us to do. And as we dive into this text, here's this question that I think is just going to be layered on top of it. This question that is just going to grip us. This question you have probably asked yourself at some point.
· And this question we regularly need to ask ourselves as we go through this journey we call life is what does winning at life actually look like.
· Think about it. When you wake up you want to win. I hope you don't wake up and say, "Man, I hope today I have some losses. I hope today that I'm just a total loser and do nothing." LIKE, I HOPE YOU DON'T SAY THAT. If you do, we'll have some talks. I'll be your motivational coach. I'll get there at 4:00 a.m. and like snooze your alarm clock. Be like, "It's time to go."
· Right? Um, it it's like you wake up and you want to win. You want to win at your workplace. You want to win in your family. You want to win in your relationships. You want your kids to win. Currently, right now, we are in the spring season and the weather is nice when it's not 100°. It cooled down a little bit recently, right? And part of spring means sport season is here. I got four kids ranging from 2 to 9. And currently three of my four kids are playing soccer. Yeah. That means my Saturdays spent three or four hours in the sun trying to get under shade watching them. But as I've watched my kids play soccer, it's it's fun to watch how their skills progress. My youngest son, Arlo, the first year he started playing at 3 years old, uh for the whole season, all the games combined, he had about 30 seconds of time on the field.
· They blow the whistle, be like, "Start," and he'd run off screaming to mom and dad. I'm like, "All right, second season, we're making progress. He's out there the entire time, but he's picking flowers, hugging his friends, and accidentally tripping the coaches.
· Progress. All right. But there was this one moment where all a sudden like the ball like hit him and he's like, "What's going on?" And then he kicked the ball and then it kept going. Then he kicked it again and he's dribbling the ball.
· I'm like, "Oh, God's moving." And then he's like going down. He's going down.
· And he and he shoots the ball and he and he just barely misses the net and he's so excited. He's like, "Man, I did a thing." and he looks back over the sideline at all his family and we're like the goal is that way.
· Sometimes I think we go through this thing called life and culture and uh and the world tells us that these are the goals we should follow. But is it aiming at the right goal to truly win at life?
· We hustle. We strive. We try to accumulate. We try to follow the path the world has for us. And maybe it leads to some things. Maybe you finally get that job. You get that house. You get that family. You get that body. I'm still working on that one. You get that bank account. I think I'm even further away from that than the body. AND YOU GET IT.
· But it still feels like something is missing. And today, as we dive into the words of Philippians chapter 3, written by a man who had such an impressive resume in the ancient Roman world, he's going to show us that winning isn't how the world defines us, but how God defines it and how he defines a path for us that is greater than it all. And today, as we dive into this, we're going to see four things that winning requires us to be. If we're going to win, we have truly win in life and how God defines it. And it starts here in Philippians chapter 3, starting in verse three. He calls us to be honest about your reality. You must be honest about your reality. He starts in verse 12. He says, "Not that I've already reached the goal or I'm already perfect." Stop right there. Paul is already starting this.
· This guy who is so impressive, he's saying, "I have not reached everything I want to do. I am not perfect yet. And then in verse 13, he gets in the same thing. He says, "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it." Twice in the beginning of this passage, Paul says it twice. The guy who had climbed the corporate ladder of Jewish religion, the guy who was a Pharisee of Pharisee, who was trained under the very best teachers, who had kept the Old Testament law flawlessly by human standards. He looks at his former life and he says I have not achieved it.
· But then you go to his current life as your Jesus has changed him. After Jesus has changed him, Paul becomes one of the greatest leaders in history. I can make you can make an argument and this is where I stand that Paul is the second greatest leader in history next to Jesus himself.
· Without Paul, we probably wouldn't have this whole church movement of logistically how he did it. But despite all the success, he says, "I am not perfect. I haven't reached the goal that is beyond me." And here's what Paul is saying is he's being honest. He's not being weak. And this is the starting line to winning. You see, I think this is so counter from our culture cuz our culture tells us to fake it till we make it. It tells us to never let people see us sweat. To put on a strong front, to make it look like everything is good when on the inside there's a mess that we're just hiding. I've been pastoring for a decade and the number one thing I think that holds people back is we put on a face like everything is okay on the outside while on the inside we don't let people in to see the anxiousness, the stress, the sin that is deep inside our lives. And we pretend by by editing our pictures on Instagram and making everything look great on the outside that we're okay.
· But something beneath the surface is hurting.
· And Paul here, as he is honest, what he is showing us is that we cannot experience a victory that we don't think we need. If we already think we've arrived, we'll never reach for something greater. Some of you walked in here today and everything may look good on the outside. You got nice clothes. You guys really dressed up for Easter. Like some of you guys barely like get out of bed on a Sunday morning, but Easter, you guys look fantastic. All right.
· And you got the nice clothes. You're going to go take a nice picture out in front of the photo booth. And you're going to make sure you save the picture of your kids smiling and looking at the camera and not the one of you screaming and threatening your kid right before that. I speak from personal experience.
· All right. You're like squeezing them like I'm going to get you, right? And and everything on the outside looks great.
· But maybe on the inside, you're exhausted.
· You're running a race that you didn't sign up for and you're losing it and you know it. You just don't know how long you can sustain it. And honestly, if you're sitting here today and maybe your experience with church people, you're like, "There's a reason I haven't come back to church cuz they're fake." Well, they've been fake for over 2,000 years, which is why Paul's addressing it here, cuz the church is full of people and people are broken.
· But the answer isn't to walk away from that brokenness. It's to embrace that brokenness inside a community. And Paul is saying if you want to win, it starts with being honest to say I don't have it all together. It starts with being honest that says I am a sinner.
· But he continues on. We are not perfect.
· We have sin and stress in our lives. But it continues. The next step to be winning is you must be motivated by your past. Now watch what Paul says next in the second half of verse 12. After he says he's not perfect, he says, "But I make every effort to take hold of it because I have also been taken hold of by Christ Jesus." That is important. He He's like, "I still strive, but I strive because Christ has grabbed me." Look at the second half of verse 14. What does it mean to be taken hold of by Christ Jesus? Is that all of a sudden, he experiences the prize that is promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
· You see Paul as he continues and he is honest about this. He then shows that he is then we need to be motivated by your past and this is the heart of it. This is the heart of Easter is Paul does not run to earn a victory. He runs because a victory has already been won on his behalf.
· Christ took hold of Paul before Paul ever reached for Jesus Christ. And this is exactly what we celebrate today. You think about this on a Friday 2,000 years ago. what we call Good Friday. As the people looked on, as Jesus was nailed to a cross and as he's nailed to a cross, he hangs on that cross until he suffocates and dies. And they take him down off that cross. They wrap him in cloth. They seal him. They put him in a tomb and they seal that tomb. And the followers of Christianity at that time were like, "Well, I guess we got to find something else to follow." They thought it was done. They thought it was over.
· It was hopeless.
· But we call Good Friday good because Sunday happened. And when Sunday happened, that tomb that was sealed and this changes everything. All of a sudden, it was empty. And it was empty because Jesus walked out of it. He defeated sin. He defeated death. He won.
· Now, let me address some people in the room today and maybe who are watching online. Maybe you are the skeptic and you hear that and be like, "That's great. That's a really cool religious fairy tale." But let me tell you something. When Jesus raised from the dead, there are hundreds of eyewitnesses who saw him alive. And they wrote about it in this book that we have today. They passed it down from generation to generation. They told Jesus's own brother, James, who during Jesus's life and ministry rejected him and didn't follow him. He became one of the early church leaders because he saw his brother alive and saw that he indeed was God. And here's the thing is there is evidence that points to this either being the greatest hoax or the greatest miracle in history. And the evidence points to it's the greatest miracle. And and I want to encourage you if you are skeptical. If you are exploring this, man, go do the research. Go look at guys like Wes Huff and Steve Meyer and Jeremiah Johnson that shown the evidence of how this is real. Because here's the deal. This victory that Jesus had, it's not just something we admire from 2,000 years away. It's something that he invites us to be a part of. And when Paul talks about it, he says, "This is what motivates me. This is what fuels me." You think of athletes and athletes have lockers and things where they display what motivates them. They do interviews and they talk about their family and the quotes and the leaders that have inspired them. And Paul is saying, you know what motivates me? What motivates me is a picture of a cross and an empty tomb. That the fact that Jesus died on a cross and rose again is all the motivation he needs to keep going and keep pursuing this life in winning.
· You see, the way we win is not by trying harder. It's by looking back to the cross. And if you've never trusted Jesus, this is the thing you need to hear today. that Easter isn't about bunnies and brunch. It's about a God who loved you so much to come down for you, but was also powerful enough to raise from the dead and defeat death so that your sin doesn't have to count against you anymore.
· We are motivated by the past that Jesus has rewrote. But here's the deal. Paul also gives a warning in the middle of this. He says, "Don't be motivated by the wrong parts of your path." Check out verse 18. He says,"For I've often told you and now say again with tears that many live as enemies of the Christ." I love just the emotion behind Paul. He says he's crying as he's writing this that there are those people who have rejected God, who are far from God and they're just drifting further and further when he describes why are they getting further. Verse 19, this is their motivation. Their end is destruction.
· Their God is their stomach. Their glory is in their shame. and they and they're are focused on earthly things. Here's the thing is we live in a culture that gets motivated by the wrong things that that takes pride in shameful things that that props up and lifts living sinful lives. And we fall into that same boat when we are motivated by our flesh and by our natural desires rather than being transformed by Christ. And he says here's this warning is don't be motivated by things that build your life here but that one day will pass away.
· You can have you can stack relationships. You can stack money. You can stack possessions. You can accumulate stuff. But you know what the depressing thing about all those things are? Is one day at your funeral they are all gone.
· And sometimes people accumulate the stuff that our world says is so valuable, but it's all gone the day we die. And here's the problem with that is we can get more and more and more, but that is not winning at life. That is just staying busy until the day we die. But Paul offers us a different solution.
· Paul offers us something greater, a different motivation on Easter, one that has already proved it is stronger than death. when he requires you to be honest, to be motivated, but also to be intentional with your present. You see, Paul builds on this. He says, "Okay, we be honest that we don't have it all figured out." We need to be motivated that Jesus died for us and he offers us something different. But how does that how how does that change how we live right now? Well, here's what we see as we talk about being intentional in the present. The first thing Paul tells us is to release yesterday. Check out the second half of verse 13 when he says,"I don't consider myself to have taken hold of it." He said this, "But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and forgetting what is behind." And you're getting the second half of this in just a second, but he says, "All that stuff I've done," he says, "it doesn't define me anymore." Paul doesn't have amnesia. He's not pretending his past and his mistakes and his failures are just gone from his memory. Instead, instead, he's saying they don't define his future anymore.
· And some of you here listening to this, you are paralyzed by yesterday's failures. Shame is keeping you stuck.
· Guilt has you in a headlock. And every time you try to move forward, there's this little voice in the back of your head. And that little voice is usually somehow influenced by the enemy, by Satan himself. And when you try to move forward, he says, "You, I know what you've done. I know the mistakes you've made. I know the things you've done that you wish nobody knew about. You think you're good enough to go to church. You think you're good enough to be forgiven by God. You think you're good enough to move forward." And Paul says, "Hey, I am forgetting what is behind." And listen to who wrote this. Paul. Paul persecuted the early church in his former life.
· Paul is a guy in his former path where the very first Christian martyr, the very first person, Steven, who died for proclaiming their faith, who was stoned to death. As people picked up rocks and chucked them at him until he died and took his last breath, Paul held their coat and approved of it. Paul's former life had blood on his hands. Paul led to the death of people. Paul led to the persecution and the hurt of people. But he's saying what he's saying when he says, "Forgetting what is past." He's telling us today that your past, no matter how dark it is, is not the final word. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is.
· Amen.
· But here's the flip side of that. Some of you need to release yesterday's victories, too. that you're living off of spiritual glory days. Maybe you walked the aisles as a child and gave your life to Christ and celebrated in baptism and you've been going to church ever since. But maybe you've been stuck in neutral and you don't feel like you're moving forward and you're not being dangerous for Jesus anymore because you've just got comfortable.
· Paul says we forget what is behind and we press forward. Which gets into this next section is we need to release yesterday but we need to lean into today. See how he keeps going after we forget what is behind. He's saying reaching forward to what is ahead. And this is what he tells us to. I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
· I love when you get into the language of this verse. The word pursue here in the Greek is the the original language is the word dio. And this means to press forward aggressively. And he actually uses the same word another time. He uses it when he talks about how he used to persecute the church. The same aggression that he used to be an enemy of God. He has now taken all that emotion, all that aggression, all that passion and he has put it towards good use in in de in following Christ, in pursuing Christ, in developing his relationship. Because what Paul is showing us here is the prize isn't a trophy on a shelf. It's knowing Christ more fully and ultimately to be with him forever. The prize is a person. We must release yesterday. We must lean into today. But we also must run with the right people. In verses 15, Paul writes and he says, "Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should let up live up to whatever truth we have attained. In verse 17, so powerful, he says, "Then join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example that you have in us."
· Paul says that the people that we surround ourselves with, the people that we hang out with determine the type of people that we will be. This is a biblical principle that has continued throughout scripture. We're introduced to this in the Old Testament in the wisdom literature in Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 13 says, "Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm." That's a nice way of saying if you hang out with smart people, you'll be smart. You hang out with a bunch of idiots, you're going to become an idiot yourself.
· And who we surround oursself with matters. Paul says, "Find people who are looking back to the cross as their motivation and are striving forward to live a life that pursues and honors him." I think about the people who shape and influence my life. I mentioned I'm an Arizona sports fan and and to a depressing amount and I watch a lot of sports. I I watch Devin Booker all the time. I actually wear exclusively Devin Booker shoes while I preach. I have about uh 12 different colors. I don't know. It's a problem.
· But I love his shoes. I love Deon Booker watching Deon Booker play basketball. But you know what? I don't want to be like Deon Booker. I don't take my cues from him. I hope he's not watching this. Well, we'll have a talk about it later.
· But I don't want to be like an actor I watch in a movie. I don't want to be like a podcaster or the social media influencers. They're not the ones that speak into my life and say, "I want to be like that person. I want to be like Miss Peggy who was in my kids ministry as a child who told me that Jesus loves me even as a child. I want to be like Mr. Weneck who was a teacher in high school that showed me how to live out his faith in a secular environment. I want to be like my dad who shows what it looks like to bring your family to church and to be faithful in that. I want to be like my pastors Monty and Jackie to show how I boldly proclaim the gospel. I want to be like the people who showed me what their faith looks like and how to follow Jesus more fully.
· And Paul shows us here that it's important who we surround ourselves with that if we want to pursue this, if we truly want to win, if we truly want to move in this direction, we need a community of people to be around us. And maybe if you're here for the first time today, maybe you're curious, maybe you're skeptical. And I want you to hear this is the church is not a clubhouse of people that have it all figured out.
· We are a community of messed up people who have been taken hold of Jesus and are running after him the best we can. And Paul is building this case that winning requires us to be honest. It requires us to be motivated. It requires us to be intentional. And lastly, it requires us to be secure in your future. Paul takes us to the finish line here.
· And man, this is where it's going to get really good. I hope your amens and you're clapping already. All right, I'm just going to warn you. All right, for the Bible. All right, but he says this in verse 20. He says, "Our citizenship is in heaven." And we eagerly wait for a savior from there. And he names a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is important. Give you a little bit of context about this. As Paul was talking to the church at Philippi, the Philippian people, they were an outpost of Rome, this little city, and they were proud of the fact that they were Roman citizens. To be a Roman citizens mean you had extra privileges, that you were above other classes of people. So, they were proud of their Roman citizenship.
· And Paul says that, "Hey, hey, that's cute, and I'm glad for that. But you're a citizen of heaven, not of Rome." Now, here's the deal. as I've I've lived in Arizona my whole life. I'm a citizen or resident of Arizona and and I take pride in that cuz it's better than California or Washington or Oregon where most of you came from to come to Arizona. You like that one, don't you? All right.
· Yeah, you came here for a reason. Sunshine all the time. U sometimes too much. But but here's what I love is I' I've lived in in in the West Valley my entire life from Peoria to North Phoenix to Glendale now in Surprise. And one of the thing I love about living and working in Surprise is oftent times when I'm outside I hear the sound of freedom.
· You know what the sound of freedom is?
· F-35s ripping through the sky. All right.
· And we have so many amazing men and women who are at Luke Air Force Base who serve faithfully and are in other military branches around us and from time to time and even in a sensitive season like now of what's happening around the world is those men and women get deployed around the world. And and here's what I love about those men and women is when they faithfully serve in those areas they are doing a good work.
· They are they are giving it their all. They are serving in the way that they are being told to serve, but they know that place is not their home.
· Church, this place, Arizona, surprise, the United States, the whole earth, it is not our home. that God tells us that there is something better coming, that there is a new heaven and a new earth that we will call home, that God is creating for us. This place is good and there is a good work to be done here is we need to make Jesus known. We need to proclaim the gospel. We need to fall in love with Jesus. We need to bring others along to share that truth.
· But we are not going to be here forever.
· One day, this world will end. And in verse 21, Paul is building it. This might be the most powerful verse in the entire passage as he says, "Hey, this place is not your home." He says, "Well, this is what the Lord Jesus Christ, who is a made you a citizen of heaven, this is what he will do to you when you follow him." He says, "He will transform the body of our humble condition." Guys, this body is humble. And my body is probably more humble than your body, and I understand that. But this body is weak. This body will break down no matter how many diet times you hit the gym. One day your body will deteriorate and be nothing. But he is going to transform this humble body into the likeness of his glorious body. The body that raised from the grave. And how will he do this? He will do this by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead on the first Easter morning. This is the same power that is coming for you.
· And here's what's exciting about this church is he's not just going to save your soul. He's going to transform your body. He's going to make all things new.
· Every broken thing, every painful thing, every limitation of this life, he has the power to subject everything to himself. And here's what this means for us today. All right, you ready for this?
· I'm getting you ready. I'm getting louder. Let's go. He says, if the ending is already secured, you are free to run without fear. You don't have to win your own salvation. Some of you are white knuckling your way through life. And it is exhausting. IT IS TIRING. YOU ARE TRYING to earn your own salvation. AND IT WILL NOT WORK. BUT THE GOD who won on Easter Sunday has the power to handle whatever you're carrying right now. NOT YET. NOT YET. NOT YET. NOT YET. LET'S GO. OKAY. Here's where it gets good. IS YOUR FUTURE IS NOT UNCERTAIN. Is your FUTURE IS NOT DEPENDENT ON your performance. Your future IS SECURED BY A RESURRECTED SAVIOR WHO HAS ALREADY DEMONSTRATED THAT NOTHING, NOT EVEN DEATH, CAN STOP HIS PLAN FOR YOU. YOUR FUTURE IS SECURED BY THE RISEN JESUS CHRIST.
· So back to our question that we started today with what is winning at life actually look like? How do we win this whole thing that we call life?
· Here's the deal. Winning is the moment that I can't meet. He already did. He has done it for us 2,000 years ago on Easter. He has won the victory that you no longer have to strive for. And maybe today as you hear this, you're asking, "Well, what does God call me to do next?
· How am I to respond to this?" And maybe you're here today and you've never said yes to following this Jesus before. And maybe as you hear that and this crazy guy on stage wearing great shoes is yelling at you, you're not feeling the emotional moment of it. And I want to say that's okay.
· Because the Bible is not just about an emotional high that we get swept into and then we run away from. The Bible and following Jesus and being a Christian is about being welcomed into a community with our minds, with our bodies, with our souls, and with our heart, and saying, "I'm going to follow this God man who changes everything."
· And today we're going to get into just a second a challenge I have for you. Whether you've been a Christian for 20, 30, 40 years or you're ready to be a Christian today. But you see, all this happens as God grips us as he takes hold of us and he calls us to something else.
· I want to do a little check-in on my story with Arlo because after he shot at the wrong goal and we eventually corrected him this season. We reopened and it was a whole new season and he's a whole year older and we're like this is going to be it. And week one opened up and I don't coach a team because I like to be the dad yelling at the rest and criticizing instead from the sideline.
· But Pastor Josh, our worship leader, was coaching a team, not the one my kid was on, but we matched up in week one. And I'm like, you're going down. And we crushed his team 50. All right.
· Yeah.
· But as we crushed his team 5-0, little Arlo, who was picking flowers, hugging friends, tripping coaches, kicking out the wrong goal, he scored three goals in the right net.
· And as I was thinking, I'm like, well, it's just because he has awesome jeans that he got from his mother. He just got older. He got more mature. He got smarter. And maybe there's some of that. But here's what I think really led to his success.
· The coaches who kept pointing to where the right goal was, who kept working with him in practice on how to dribble and how to shoot. His teammates who he got to scrimmage with and have fun with and who bring a joy to playing the sport. his parents who loved him and cheered him on. The family members who came and gave him that affirmation, the community that was around Arlo is what led to his success on the fields.
· And when we talk about what it looks like to win at life, you can't do it apart from the community that comes around you that points you to the ultimate victory in Jesus Christ. He has won the battle. He has won the war. The victory is secured. Imagine if I could watch a sun season knowing we win the championship at the end. Every game would be a joy. But that's what life is actually like with Christ.
· That eternity is one forever is secure. And as a team of coaches and teammates and family members in this messy thing we call church, we get to lock arms and we get to pursue Christ with one another. If you're a believer in the room, my challenge for you is that you take your next win today. And I think your next win looks like coming back.
· And coming back next week as we dive into the miracles of Jesus and we talk about this man, why he is God, why he has authority, and how he changed everything. And we fall deeper in love with him. We fall deeper in love with his bride, the church, and we see how he changes our lives, not just in one moment, but day by day until he restores everything.
· But for the non-believer in the room, my challenge for you as we're going to pray in just a little bit is that you don't be you don't push off the questions that are coming into your mind. you don't push off the feelings that are fluttering in your heart. Maybe you've tried to do this whole life thing and you've seen how it is failing over and over again. You've tried to pursue the things that our world lifts up and you're not getting the satisfaction from it. Jesus has something more for you.
· And I want to give you an opportunity to say yes to it. Just as we are going to witness people who have said yes and are going to proclaim that in baptism. We're going to have 19 baptisms this weekend of people have been captivated by Christ. My prayer is that we just not walk out these doors and go right back into the swing of life, but that we pursue our next win.
· The only win that matters. How we truly win at life that is grounded in the cross and the empty tomb.
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Winning
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· And some of you, you are paralyzed by yesterday's failures. Shame is keeping you stuck. Guilt has you in a headlock.
· And every time you try to move forward, there's this little voice in the back of your head. It says, "You, I know what you've done. I know the mistakes you've made. I know the things you've done that you wish nobody knew about. You think you're good enough to go to church. You think you're good enough to be forgiven by God. You think you're good enough to move forward." And Paul says, "Hey, I am forgetting what is behind."
· Today is a great day. It is Easter and we are celebrating today. Guys, give our God a hand just for all that he's already done in this service.
· And man, today is a good day for so many reasons. One reason it's a good day is because I'm going to go home after services today. I'm going to watch the Diamondbacks. I'm going to watch the Suns. I'm going to probably watch them lose, but I still get to watch my teams.
· Last night, I came home from our Easter Saturday service and I saw the score in UFA got dominated. And as an ASU fan, that warmed my heart to the core.
· But it's a good day more than that. It's a good day because you are here. And you might be here for a number of reasons.
· Maybe you got drugged here. And I'm happy for the dragger and the drug today.
· Maybe you came cuz you got a you saw a social media invite. Maybe you saw a lie that was me in Dodgers gear. That was not me. That was 100% AI. I just want to put that out there, right? Some of you guys believed it. It would have burned my skin.
· Maybe you're here cuz you got a tiny little plastic trophy and an invite for someone from our church. But for whatever reason you are here, I want to say that I'm glad you're here. And I believe that you are here for a reason.
· If we have not had the chance to meet, my name is Andrew. I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Surprise. And man, we're excited about what God has been doing in our church, what God is doing today and what God will continue to do after this.
· And this today, this morning, we are going to dive into the word of God. So, if you have a Bible, go ahead and grab that right now. And you can flip to Philippians chapter 3. If you don't have a Bible, you can grab the one in the chair in front of you. You don't have a Bible at home, you can take that Bible with you. But in Philippians chapter 3, we're going to be looking at verse 12.
· You can Google Philippians 3:12 and it'll take you to that same place, but we're going to be reading from the CSB, the Christian Standard Bible. And here's what's awesome is we have already had the opportunity to pray through this text to start to get our hearts ready for what God is going to do inside this word. And here's why it is so important that we read and we pray and we praise and we preach through the word of God.
· Because the word of God is unlike any other word our world has ever seen. You see this Bible is a collection of books and is a collection of books that are eyewitness accounts of how God has interacted with mankind.
· This book has been written by over 40 different authors inspired by the Holy Spirit written over the course of 1500 years. But it contains one message of hope. And today we're going to look at that message and we're going to see the hope that God has for us and the direction he has for our lives and what he calls us to do. And as we dive into this text, here's this question that I think is just going to be layered on top of it. This question that is just going to grip us. This question you have probably asked yourself at some point.
· And this question we regularly need to ask ourselves as we go through this journey we call life is what does winning at life actually look like.
· Think about it. When you wake up you want to win. I hope you don't wake up and say, "Man, I hope today I have some losses. I hope today that I'm just a total loser and do nothing." LIKE, I HOPE YOU DON'T SAY THAT. If you do, we'll have some talks. I'll be your motivational coach. I'll get there at 4:00 a.m. and like snooze your alarm clock. Be like, "It's time to go."
· Right? Um, it it's like you wake up and you want to win. You want to win at your workplace. You want to win in your family. You want to win in your relationships. You want your kids to win. Currently, right now, we are in the spring season and the weather is nice when it's not 100°. It cooled down a little bit recently, right? And part of spring means sport season is here. I got four kids ranging from 2 to 9. And currently three of my four kids are playing soccer. Yeah. That means my Saturdays spent three or four hours in the sun trying to get under shade watching them. But as I've watched my kids play soccer, it's it's fun to watch how their skills progress. My youngest son, Arlo, the first year he started playing at 3 years old, uh for the whole season, all the games combined, he had about 30 seconds of time on the field.
· They blow the whistle, be like, "Start," and he'd run off screaming to mom and dad. I'm like, "All right, second season, we're making progress. He's out there the entire time, but he's picking flowers, hugging his friends, and accidentally tripping the coaches.
· Progress. All right. But there was this one moment where all a sudden like the ball like hit him and he's like, "What's going on?" And then he kicked the ball and then it kept going. Then he kicked it again and he's dribbling the ball.
· I'm like, "Oh, God's moving." And then he's like going down. He's going down.
· And he and he shoots the ball and he and he just barely misses the net and he's so excited. He's like, "Man, I did a thing." and he looks back over the sideline at all his family and we're like the goal is that way.
· Sometimes I think we go through this thing called life and culture and uh and the world tells us that these are the goals we should follow. But is it aiming at the right goal to truly win at life?
· We hustle. We strive. We try to accumulate. We try to follow the path the world has for us. And maybe it leads to some things. Maybe you finally get that job. You get that house. You get that family. You get that body. I'm still working on that one. You get that bank account. I think I'm even further away from that than the body. AND YOU GET IT.
· But it still feels like something is missing. And today, as we dive into the words of Philippians chapter 3, written by a man who had such an impressive resume in the ancient Roman world, he's going to show us that winning isn't how the world defines us, but how God defines it and how he defines a path for us that is greater than it all. And today, as we dive into this, we're going to see four things that winning requires us to be. If we're going to win, we have truly win in life and how God defines it. And it starts here in Philippians chapter 3, starting in verse three. He calls us to be honest about your reality. You must be honest about your reality. He starts in verse 12. He says, "Not that I've already reached the goal or I'm already perfect." Stop right there. Paul is already starting this.
· This guy who is so impressive, he's saying, "I have not reached everything I want to do. I am not perfect yet. And then in verse 13, he gets in the same thing. He says, "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it." Twice in the beginning of this passage, Paul says it twice. The guy who had climbed the corporate ladder of Jewish religion, the guy who was a Pharisee of Pharisee, who was trained under the very best teachers, who had kept the Old Testament law flawlessly by human standards. He looks at his former life and he says I have not achieved it.
· But then you go to his current life as your Jesus has changed him. After Jesus has changed him, Paul becomes one of the greatest leaders in history. I can make you can make an argument and this is where I stand that Paul is the second greatest leader in history next to Jesus himself.
· Without Paul, we probably wouldn't have this whole church movement of logistically how he did it. But despite all the success, he says, "I am not perfect. I haven't reached the goal that is beyond me." And here's what Paul is saying is he's being honest. He's not being weak. And this is the starting line to winning. You see, I think this is so counter from our culture cuz our culture tells us to fake it till we make it. It tells us to never let people see us sweat. To put on a strong front, to make it look like everything is good when on the inside there's a mess that we're just hiding. I've been pastoring for a decade and the number one thing I think that holds people back is we put on a face like everything is okay on the outside while on the inside we don't let people in to see the anxiousness, the stress, the sin that is deep inside our lives. And we pretend by by editing our pictures on Instagram and making everything look great on the outside that we're okay.
· But something beneath the surface is hurting.
· And Paul here, as he is honest, what he is showing us is that we cannot experience a victory that we don't think we need. If we already think we've arrived, we'll never reach for something greater. Some of you walked in here today and everything may look good on the outside. You got nice clothes. You guys really dressed up for Easter. Like some of you guys barely like get out of bed on a Sunday morning, but Easter, you guys look fantastic. All right.
· And you got the nice clothes. You're going to go take a nice picture out in front of the photo booth. And you're going to make sure you save the picture of your kids smiling and looking at the camera and not the one of you screaming and threatening your kid right before that. I speak from personal experience.
· All right. You're like squeezing them like I'm going to get you, right? And and everything on the outside looks great.
· But maybe on the inside, you're exhausted.
· You're running a race that you didn't sign up for and you're losing it and you know it. You just don't know how long you can sustain it. And honestly, if you're sitting here today and maybe your experience with church people, you're like, "There's a reason I haven't come back to church cuz they're fake." Well, they've been fake for over 2,000 years, which is why Paul's addressing it here, cuz the church is full of people and people are broken.
· But the answer isn't to walk away from that brokenness. It's to embrace that brokenness inside a community. And Paul is saying if you want to win, it starts with being honest to say I don't have it all together. It starts with being honest that says I am a sinner.
· But he continues on. We are not perfect.
· We have sin and stress in our lives. But it continues. The next step to be winning is you must be motivated by your past. Now watch what Paul says next in the second half of verse 12. After he says he's not perfect, he says, "But I make every effort to take hold of it because I have also been taken hold of by Christ Jesus." That is important. He He's like, "I still strive, but I strive because Christ has grabbed me." Look at the second half of verse 14. What does it mean to be taken hold of by Christ Jesus? Is that all of a sudden, he experiences the prize that is promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
· You see Paul as he continues and he is honest about this. He then shows that he is then we need to be motivated by your past and this is the heart of it. This is the heart of Easter is Paul does not run to earn a victory. He runs because a victory has already been won on his behalf.
· Christ took hold of Paul before Paul ever reached for Jesus Christ. And this is exactly what we celebrate today. You think about this on a Friday 2,000 years ago. what we call Good Friday. As the people looked on, as Jesus was nailed to a cross and as he's nailed to a cross, he hangs on that cross until he suffocates and dies. And they take him down off that cross. They wrap him in cloth. They seal him. They put him in a tomb and they seal that tomb. And the followers of Christianity at that time were like, "Well, I guess we got to find something else to follow." They thought it was done. They thought it was over.
· It was hopeless.
· But we call Good Friday good because Sunday happened. And when Sunday happened, that tomb that was sealed and this changes everything. All of a sudden, it was empty. And it was empty because Jesus walked out of it. He defeated sin. He defeated death. He won.
· Now, let me address some people in the room today and maybe who are watching online. Maybe you are the skeptic and you hear that and be like, "That's great. That's a really cool religious fairy tale." But let me tell you something. When Jesus raised from the dead, there are hundreds of eyewitnesses who saw him alive. And they wrote about it in this book that we have today. They passed it down from generation to generation. They told Jesus's own brother, James, who during Jesus's life and ministry rejected him and didn't follow him. He became one of the early church leaders because he saw his brother alive and saw that he indeed was God. And here's the thing is there is evidence that points to this either being the greatest hoax or the greatest miracle in history. And the evidence points to it's the greatest miracle. And and I want to encourage you if you are skeptical. If you are exploring this, man, go do the research. Go look at guys like Wes Huff and Steve Meyer and Jeremiah Johnson that shown the evidence of how this is real. Because here's the deal. This victory that Jesus had, it's not just something we admire from 2,000 years away. It's something that he invites us to be a part of. And when Paul talks about it, he says, "This is what motivates me. This is what fuels me." You think of athletes and athletes have lockers and things where they display what motivates them. They do interviews and they talk about their family and the quotes and the leaders that have inspired them. And Paul is saying, you know what motivates me? What motivates me is a picture of a cross and an empty tomb. That the fact that Jesus died on a cross and rose again is all the motivation he needs to keep going and keep pursuing this life in winning.
· You see, the way we win is not by trying harder. It's by looking back to the cross. And if you've never trusted Jesus, this is the thing you need to hear today. that Easter isn't about bunnies and brunch. It's about a God who loved you so much to come down for you, but was also powerful enough to raise from the dead and defeat death so that your sin doesn't have to count against you anymore.
· We are motivated by the past that Jesus has rewrote. But here's the deal. Paul also gives a warning in the middle of this. He says, "Don't be motivated by the wrong parts of your path." Check out verse 18. He says,"For I've often told you and now say again with tears that many live as enemies of the Christ." I love just the emotion behind Paul. He says he's crying as he's writing this that there are those people who have rejected God, who are far from God and they're just drifting further and further when he describes why are they getting further. Verse 19, this is their motivation. Their end is destruction.
· Their God is their stomach. Their glory is in their shame. and they and they're are focused on earthly things. Here's the thing is we live in a culture that gets motivated by the wrong things that that takes pride in shameful things that that props up and lifts living sinful lives. And we fall into that same boat when we are motivated by our flesh and by our natural desires rather than being transformed by Christ. And he says here's this warning is don't be motivated by things that build your life here but that one day will pass away.
· You can have you can stack relationships. You can stack money. You can stack possessions. You can accumulate stuff. But you know what the depressing thing about all those things are? Is one day at your funeral they are all gone.
· And sometimes people accumulate the stuff that our world says is so valuable, but it's all gone the day we die. And here's the problem with that is we can get more and more and more, but that is not winning at life. That is just staying busy until the day we die. But Paul offers us a different solution.
· Paul offers us something greater, a different motivation on Easter, one that has already proved it is stronger than death. when he requires you to be honest, to be motivated, but also to be intentional with your present. You see, Paul builds on this. He says, "Okay, we be honest that we don't have it all figured out." We need to be motivated that Jesus died for us and he offers us something different. But how does that how how does that change how we live right now? Well, here's what we see as we talk about being intentional in the present. The first thing Paul tells us is to release yesterday. Check out the second half of verse 13 when he says,"I don't consider myself to have taken hold of it." He said this, "But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and forgetting what is behind." And you're getting the second half of this in just a second, but he says, "All that stuff I've done," he says, "it doesn't define me anymore." Paul doesn't have amnesia. He's not pretending his past and his mistakes and his failures are just gone from his memory. Instead, instead, he's saying they don't define his future anymore.
· And some of you here listening to this, you are paralyzed by yesterday's failures. Shame is keeping you stuck.
· Guilt has you in a headlock. And every time you try to move forward, there's this little voice in the back of your head. And that little voice is usually somehow influenced by the enemy, by Satan himself. And when you try to move forward, he says, "You, I know what you've done. I know the mistakes you've made. I know the things you've done that you wish nobody knew about. You think you're good enough to go to church. You think you're good enough to be forgiven by God. You think you're good enough to move forward." And Paul says, "Hey, I am forgetting what is behind." And listen to who wrote this. Paul. Paul persecuted the early church in his former life.
· Paul is a guy in his former path where the very first Christian martyr, the very first person, Steven, who died for proclaiming their faith, who was stoned to death. As people picked up rocks and chucked them at him until he died and took his last breath, Paul held their coat and approved of it. Paul's former life had blood on his hands. Paul led to the death of people. Paul led to the persecution and the hurt of people. But he's saying what he's saying when he says, "Forgetting what is past." He's telling us today that your past, no matter how dark it is, is not the final word. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is.
· Amen.
· But here's the flip side of that. Some of you need to release yesterday's victories, too. that you're living off of spiritual glory days. Maybe you walked the aisles as a child and gave your life to Christ and celebrated in baptism and you've been going to church ever since. But maybe you've been stuck in neutral and you don't feel like you're moving forward and you're not being dangerous for Jesus anymore because you've just got comfortable.
· Paul says we forget what is behind and we press forward. Which gets into this next section is we need to release yesterday but we need to lean into today. See how he keeps going after we forget what is behind. He's saying reaching forward to what is ahead. And this is what he tells us to. I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
· I love when you get into the language of this verse. The word pursue here in the Greek is the the original language is the word dio. And this means to press forward aggressively. And he actually uses the same word another time. He uses it when he talks about how he used to persecute the church. The same aggression that he used to be an enemy of God. He has now taken all that emotion, all that aggression, all that passion and he has put it towards good use in in de in following Christ, in pursuing Christ, in developing his relationship. Because what Paul is showing us here is the prize isn't a trophy on a shelf. It's knowing Christ more fully and ultimately to be with him forever. The prize is a person. We must release yesterday. We must lean into today. But we also must run with the right people. In verses 15, Paul writes and he says, "Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. In any case, we should let up live up to whatever truth we have attained. In verse 17, so powerful, he says, "Then join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example that you have in us."
· Paul says that the people that we surround ourselves with, the people that we hang out with determine the type of people that we will be. This is a biblical principle that has continued throughout scripture. We're introduced to this in the Old Testament in the wisdom literature in Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 13 says, "Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm." That's a nice way of saying if you hang out with smart people, you'll be smart. You hang out with a bunch of idiots, you're going to become an idiot yourself.
· And who we surround oursself with matters. Paul says, "Find people who are looking back to the cross as their motivation and are striving forward to live a life that pursues and honors him." I think about the people who shape and influence my life. I mentioned I'm an Arizona sports fan and and to a depressing amount and I watch a lot of sports. I I watch Devin Booker all the time. I actually wear exclusively Devin Booker shoes while I preach. I have about uh 12 different colors. I don't know. It's a problem.
· But I love his shoes. I love Deon Booker watching Deon Booker play basketball. But you know what? I don't want to be like Deon Booker. I don't take my cues from him. I hope he's not watching this. Well, we'll have a talk about it later.
· But I don't want to be like an actor I watch in a movie. I don't want to be like a podcaster or the social media influencers. They're not the ones that speak into my life and say, "I want to be like that person. I want to be like Miss Peggy who was in my kids ministry as a child who told me that Jesus loves me even as a child. I want to be like Mr. Weneck who was a teacher in high school that showed me how to live out his faith in a secular environment. I want to be like my dad who shows what it looks like to bring your family to church and to be faithful in that. I want to be like my pastors Monty and Jackie to show how I boldly proclaim the gospel. I want to be like the people who showed me what their faith looks like and how to follow Jesus more fully.
· And Paul shows us here that it's important who we surround ourselves with that if we want to pursue this, if we truly want to win, if we truly want to move in this direction, we need a community of people to be around us. And maybe if you're here for the first time today, maybe you're curious, maybe you're skeptical. And I want you to hear this is the church is not a clubhouse of people that have it all figured out.
· We are a community of messed up people who have been taken hold of Jesus and are running after him the best we can. And Paul is building this case that winning requires us to be honest. It requires us to be motivated. It requires us to be intentional. And lastly, it requires us to be secure in your future. Paul takes us to the finish line here.
· And man, this is where it's going to get really good. I hope your amens and you're clapping already. All right, I'm just going to warn you. All right, for the Bible. All right, but he says this in verse 20. He says, "Our citizenship is in heaven." And we eagerly wait for a savior from there. And he names a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is important. Give you a little bit of context about this. As Paul was talking to the church at Philippi, the Philippian people, they were an outpost of Rome, this little city, and they were proud of the fact that they were Roman citizens. To be a Roman citizens mean you had extra privileges, that you were above other classes of people. So, they were proud of their Roman citizenship.
· And Paul says that, "Hey, hey, that's cute, and I'm glad for that. But you're a citizen of heaven, not of Rome." Now, here's the deal. as I've I've lived in Arizona my whole life. I'm a citizen or resident of Arizona and and I take pride in that cuz it's better than California or Washington or Oregon where most of you came from to come to Arizona. You like that one, don't you? All right.
· Yeah, you came here for a reason. Sunshine all the time. U sometimes too much. But but here's what I love is I' I've lived in in in the West Valley my entire life from Peoria to North Phoenix to Glendale now in Surprise. And one of the thing I love about living and working in Surprise is oftent times when I'm outside I hear the sound of freedom.
· You know what the sound of freedom is?
· F-35s ripping through the sky. All right.
· And we have so many amazing men and women who are at Luke Air Force Base who serve faithfully and are in other military branches around us and from time to time and even in a sensitive season like now of what's happening around the world is those men and women get deployed around the world. And and here's what I love about those men and women is when they faithfully serve in those areas they are doing a good work.
· They are they are giving it their all. They are serving in the way that they are being told to serve, but they know that place is not their home.
· Church, this place, Arizona, surprise, the United States, the whole earth, it is not our home. that God tells us that there is something better coming, that there is a new heaven and a new earth that we will call home, that God is creating for us. This place is good and there is a good work to be done here is we need to make Jesus known. We need to proclaim the gospel. We need to fall in love with Jesus. We need to bring others along to share that truth.
· But we are not going to be here forever.
· One day, this world will end. And in verse 21, Paul is building it. This might be the most powerful verse in the entire passage as he says, "Hey, this place is not your home." He says, "Well, this is what the Lord Jesus Christ, who is a made you a citizen of heaven, this is what he will do to you when you follow him." He says, "He will transform the body of our humble condition." Guys, this body is humble. And my body is probably more humble than your body, and I understand that. But this body is weak. This body will break down no matter how many diet times you hit the gym. One day your body will deteriorate and be nothing. But he is going to transform this humble body into the likeness of his glorious body. The body that raised from the grave. And how will he do this? He will do this by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead on the first Easter morning. This is the same power that is coming for you.
· And here's what's exciting about this church is he's not just going to save your soul. He's going to transform your body. He's going to make all things new.
· Every broken thing, every painful thing, every limitation of this life, he has the power to subject everything to himself. And here's what this means for us today. All right, you ready for this?
· I'm getting you ready. I'm getting louder. Let's go. He says, if the ending is already secured, you are free to run without fear. You don't have to win your own salvation. Some of you are white knuckling your way through life. And it is exhausting. IT IS TIRING. YOU ARE TRYING to earn your own salvation. AND IT WILL NOT WORK. BUT THE GOD who won on Easter Sunday has the power to handle whatever you're carrying right now. NOT YET. NOT YET. NOT YET. NOT YET. LET'S GO. OKAY. Here's where it gets good. IS YOUR FUTURE IS NOT UNCERTAIN. Is your FUTURE IS NOT DEPENDENT ON your performance. Your future IS SECURED BY A RESURRECTED SAVIOR WHO HAS ALREADY DEMONSTRATED THAT NOTHING, NOT EVEN DEATH, CAN STOP HIS PLAN FOR YOU. YOUR FUTURE IS SECURED BY THE RISEN JESUS CHRIST.
· So back to our question that we started today with what is winning at life actually look like? How do we win this whole thing that we call life?
· Here's the deal. Winning is the moment that I can't meet. He already did. He has done it for us 2,000 years ago on Easter. He has won the victory that you no longer have to strive for. And maybe today as you hear this, you're asking, "Well, what does God call me to do next?
· How am I to respond to this?" And maybe you're here today and you've never said yes to following this Jesus before. And maybe as you hear that and this crazy guy on stage wearing great shoes is yelling at you, you're not feeling the emotional moment of it. And I want to say that's okay.
· Because the Bible is not just about an emotional high that we get swept into and then we run away from. The Bible and following Jesus and being a Christian is about being welcomed into a community with our minds, with our bodies, with our souls, and with our heart, and saying, "I'm going to follow this God man who changes everything."
· And today we're going to get into just a second a challenge I have for you. Whether you've been a Christian for 20, 30, 40 years or you're ready to be a Christian today. But you see, all this happens as God grips us as he takes hold of us and he calls us to something else.
· I want to do a little check-in on my story with Arlo because after he shot at the wrong goal and we eventually corrected him this season. We reopened and it was a whole new season and he's a whole year older and we're like this is going to be it. And week one opened up and I don't coach a team because I like to be the dad yelling at the rest and criticizing instead from the sideline.
· But Pastor Josh, our worship leader, was coaching a team, not the one my kid was on, but we matched up in week one. And I'm like, you're going down. And we crushed his team 50. All right.
· Yeah.
· But as we crushed his team 5-0, little Arlo, who was picking flowers, hugging friends, tripping coaches, kicking out the wrong goal, he scored three goals in the right net.
· And as I was thinking, I'm like, well, it's just because he has awesome jeans that he got from his mother. He just got older. He got more mature. He got smarter. And maybe there's some of that. But here's what I think really led to his success.
· The coaches who kept pointing to where the right goal was, who kept working with him in practice on how to dribble and how to shoot. His teammates who he got to scrimmage with and have fun with and who bring a joy to playing the sport. his parents who loved him and cheered him on. The family members who came and gave him that affirmation, the community that was around Arlo is what led to his success on the fields.
· And when we talk about what it looks like to win at life, you can't do it apart from the community that comes around you that points you to the ultimate victory in Jesus Christ. He has won the battle. He has won the war. The victory is secured. Imagine if I could watch a sun season knowing we win the championship at the end. Every game would be a joy. But that's what life is actually like with Christ.
· That eternity is one forever is secure. And as a team of coaches and teammates and family members in this messy thing we call church, we get to lock arms and we get to pursue Christ with one another. If you're a believer in the room, my challenge for you is that you take your next win today. And I think your next win looks like coming back.
· And coming back next week as we dive into the miracles of Jesus and we talk about this man, why he is God, why he has authority, and how he changed everything. And we fall deeper in love with him. We fall deeper in love with his bride, the church, and we see how he changes our lives, not just in one moment, but day by day until he restores everything.
· But for the non-believer in the room, my challenge for you as we're going to pray in just a little bit is that you don't be you don't push off the questions that are coming into your mind. you don't push off the feelings that are fluttering in your heart. Maybe you've tried to do this whole life thing and you've seen how it is failing over and over again. You've tried to pursue the things that our world lifts up and you're not getting the satisfaction from it. Jesus has something more for you.
· And I want to give you an opportunity to say yes to it. Just as we are going to witness people who have said yes and are going to proclaim that in baptism. We're going to have 19 baptisms this weekend of people have been captivated by Christ. My prayer is that we just not walk out these doors and go right back into the swing of life, but that we pursue our next win.
· The only win that matters. How we truly win at life that is grounded in the cross and the empty tomb.
Winning