Hi, I'm Ryan. Welcome to Bible at the Beach. Today we're going to be in Philippians chapter
three, verses nine through 16. Glad you could be with us today. Paul writes,
My passion is to be consumed with Him and not cling to my own righteousness. Based in
keeping the written law, my only righteousness will be this. Based on the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ, the very righteousness that comes from God. Boy, we sure have our own form of righteousness,
don't we? Usually comes up in our beliefs, our attitudes, and our norms. Our culture. Every
culture tends to think that their culture is better than someone else's culture. That's our
form of self-righteousness. And Paul says, and we know this because prior to this passage,
Paul is dissecting his own elitism that he referenced in his own culture. He says,
I'm a Pharisee of Pharisee, a Hebrew of Hebrews. He was talking about his racial elitism. He was
talking about his educational elitism. He was talking about his wealth elitism. And Paul makes
the argument, this is all garbage. Let's all just get to know Jesus. And then he follows it up again
here. And he reminds us that we all have our form of righteousness. You know, it's a powerful thing
to just even admit that you have your own righteousness. We tend to be able to see the
self-righteousness of others. Let me ask you a question. Can you see your own self-righteousness?
The things that you value that you think are better than other people? Those are the things
that God wants to bring low so that Jesus can be brought high in your life. He says in verse 10,
and I continually long to know the wonders of Jesus and to experience the overflowing power of
His resurrection working in me. I will be one with Him and His suffering and become like Him in His
death. So the joy in life is found in the suffering, in the identification of the relationship that we
have with Jesus in the valleys, in the valleys and in the peaks, in the mountaintops, and at the
seashore through every age and through every stage. That is how we get to know Jesus through the ups
and the downs, through the successes, through the sufferings, through all the chapters of our life.
We have one goal and it's to experience Jesus in all of His fullness through all of the emotions
that we have in this life. That is how we become mature and deep in our character as human beings.
He says only then will I be able to experience complete oneness with Him in His resurrection
from the realm of death. So we identify closer with the person of Jesus through suffering. We
identify deeper in our character through hardship and suffering and hardship have almost always been
the tools that God has used in order for our character to be formed, the character of Jesus
Christ. He says in verse 12, I admit I haven't yet acquired the absolute fullness of what I'm
pursuing. So Paul has an identity issue here. He says, I'm glad for the direction that I'm headed,
but I have not yet attained it. Humility. Passion, I like where I'm headed. Humility, I'm not there
yet. And we need both in our life. We need passion. We like where we're headed. We need humility. I'm
not there yet. I need others. I need God. I need people. I'm not there yet. I'm still striving.
And so he says, but I run with passion into His abundance so that I may reach the purpose for which
Christ Jesus has laid hold of me to make me His own. Now listen, God has a specific race for your
life. And it's our job as followers of Jesus to find out the job that God has for us. How do you
find it out? Well, you pray a lot. You ask a lot of questions to yourself and to others, and you
find out the best way that you can serve God by serving people. I've said many times, I'm called
to pastor people, to preach and teach the Bible, to plant churches, and to provide water in my life
for as many people as possible. So that's what I focus on. And I pray every day, now God help me
to do what you've asked me to do the best that I can. Ignore all the noise. Go after you with all
of my heart. That's what gets me up every single day. Paul says, I don't depend on my own strength
to accomplish this. However, I do have one compelling focus. I forget all of the past,
and I fasten my heart to the future. Well, I don't know about you, but I sure have things in my life
that I would just as soon forget. There is much of my life that I wish I could get back, time wasted.
Well, it's all in the rear view now. And the only vision that I have in my life is the vision to
move forward and to do the best that I can for Jesus with the time that I have left, all of my
influence, all of my effort, and all of my energy. And so that's my heart. I hope your heart is to
maximize your life for Jesus Christ, for the greatest impact, regardless of whatever Jesus
has asked you to do. There are no great assignments in the kingdom of God. That's a lie. The word
legacy, that's a lie. That's a lie. All assignments from Jesus are of equal value, regardless of our
perception of them. There are no super assignments. There are no super saints, and there are no super
believers. There are no super churches. There are just assignments. God gives out to people. He asks
us to do the best job that we can with what he's asked us to do. May we all be faithful and passionate
and endure and fruitful to what God has asked us to do in our life. Paul says, I run straight
for the divine invitation of reaching the heavenly goal and gaining the victory prize through the
anointing of Jesus. So we have a race and we're supposed to run it with God's grace and at the
pace that we feel like we can run at in our life. Now we all have a specific race. God gives you a
specific grace, and then you have to find the right pace because there are some people that can run
a four-minute mile. Other people run a six-minute mile. Other people run a 15-minute mile. You have
to find the pace that you're supposed to run your life at. No one can tell you. You have to figure
that out through trial and error, and then God will finally say to you, look, you're a seven-minute
a mile runner. This is where you crush it. Go do that, and then you settle in and life gets really
fun after you get comfortable with who you are. So I encourage you, say, God, how did you make me?
What pace am I supposed to run this race at? And then life will get funner and things will start
to open up for you and opportunities start to come your way. You got to find your race. You got to
find your pace, and then it gets fun. He says, verse 15, so let all who are fully mature have the
same passion, and if anyone is not yet gripped by these desires, God will reveal it to them.
Look at the last verse, verse 16, and let us all advance together to reach the victory prize
following one path with one passion. The vision of every believer is Jesus. The vision of every
church is Jesus. The vision of every ministry is Jesus. May we have him as our vision, and may we
serve him well, and may we serve him faithfully. Now, in all things, I always pray, God, thank you
for your word today. Give me the eyes to see today. Give me the ears to hear. Give me the heart to
feel. Until next time, thanks for joining me at Bible on the Beach. See you next time.
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