Last Sunday, I was asked to share the message at our local church, here in Homosassa. I thought I'd make an audio file of that sermon available to you. I'll also attach the sermon notes below.
“The Prize: God as the Supreme Good in Life”
Who is God to you? What does it mean to serve Him, to follow Christ, to be a Christian? Many people seem to see God as an angry Judge, a harsh taskmaster, a very demanding dictator. They see Christianity as a duty or a fire escape, where we come to God so we won’t go to Hell. They see Christianity is a list of dos and don’t, where we should do this, we shouldn’t do that, etc. It’s kind of like a diet, or quitting smoking or something else we like to do. We should quit smoking. We should lose weight. But we don’t really want to go through all the self-denial it takes to get there! I really don’t think this view of God is right, and I know it’s not helpful. Today I’d like us to consider a different approach. I want to use chapter 3 of Philippians as a sort of outline or launching pad.
I want to give you a brief overview of what the chapter was originally about, then go to the main points I believe God wants me to draw out of it for us today. This chapter was written to teach the Philippians to steer clear of false legalistic teaching that was telling them they needed to basically become Jews, the so-called circumcision, to be saved. Paul said that wasn’t true. We are the true circumcision. We worship God in a new way, in the Spirit. Paul was a really zealous Jew, but he found out he was trusting in himself, not God, and left all that confidence in religion behind to follow Jesus. He wanted everybody to know this new way. That’s what the chapter was originally about. But I want to draw out a few select words, and use the chapter to point us in a little different direction. The words are: rejoice (1), glory (3), surpassing greatness (8), and prize (14).
Paul said to rejoice in the Lord and glory in Christ. That doesn’t sound like dieting or quitting smoking to me! In Neh. 8:10, we’re told the joy of the Lord is our strength! Do we realize how many scriptures speak of the joy of relationship with God? David said God had shown him the path of life, in his presence there was fullness of joy and at His right hand, there were everlasting pleasures! (Ps. 16:11) He danced with joy before God and said that everything that had breath should praise Him. In times of great trial, he learned to find strengthen in God. (1 Sam. 23:16, 17; 1 Sam. 30:6)
God is the most wonderful Person in the universe! That’s why Paul wrote for us to rejoice and glory in Him, and wrote about the surpassing greatness of knowing Him. “The chief aim of man is to know God and to enjoy Him forever.” (Westminster Shorter Catechism) God Himself is “the prize” Paul wrote about. To know Him is “surpassingly great.” Think about who He is. The Trinity is an eternal relationship of love. The triune God invites us to join His family of love. Think of the beauty of God’s character, His very being! St. Bernard of Clairvaux said, “Nothing is more reasonable; nothing is more rewarding” (than loving God).
Think also of the beauty of God’s works! God is the Creator of all the beauty we see in the universe. He is perfect in all His ways. He created us to enjoy Him forever. He put us originally in a perfect Garden paradise, and someday, God is going to recreate new heavens and a new earth, even more fantastic and beautiful that what we see around us now! Think of the perfection and nobility of Jesus’ character, that He would even die on a cross to save people like us! God is the most beautiful Person in the universe! St. Bernard of Clairvaux said, “Nothing is more reasonable; nothing is more rewarding” (than loving God).
Salvation is not a diet, a duty, or something painful. It is an invitation to know and live with God and join His life and adventure! It is the greatest calling and privilege possible. When we accept Christ, God begins to work inside us to make us more like Him. We are being healed, our minds are being renewed, we have a new spirit, new direction, new purpose, a new family, a new destiny. We are destined to be conformed to the image of Christ. (Ro. 8:29) Our fullest potential as human beings can only be realized as God lives in and through us. We were made to become the dwelling place of God. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we are the New Jerusalem. We are the Bride of Christ. That is a picture of a wonderful love relationship, purpose, and future beyond anything we’ve ever imagined. 1 Cor. 2:9-10, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"— 10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. NIV
We need to understand our destiny! We need to see the big picture. If we focus on our sinfulness and failures, we actually fail more! If we focus on the glory to be revealed, joy will begin to spring up in our hearts. We need to see the surpassing greatness of knowing God. We need to keep our eyes on the prize. Adam and Eve didn’t understand that, and they got distracted by a false hope, a false promise, and lost their inheritance.
Israel did the same thing. They were destined to be the people of God. He worked mighty miracles to deliver them from slavery in Egypt, and brought them to Sinai. Moses went up onto the mountain to receive the things that would make possible their new relationship with the Lord, so that, in a sense, they could be “married” to Him as His bride. But while Moses was up there, the people were like a bride who commits adultery on her very wedding night! They didn’t understand the delay or see the big picture. They didn’t understand their destiny, the glory to which they were called, the surpassing greatness of knowing God. They didn’t keep their eyes on the prize. Because of this, they kept going astray. They worshipped a stupid golden calf in Ex. 32. Later, (Nu. 21:4-8) they again got impatient and lost sight of their destiny, and they grumbled and complained so much that God sent fiery serpents among them, thousands died, and they lost their inheritance.
Delays, hardships of this life, or just the mundane, day-to-day existence we experience often causes us to think this is all there is, and get distracted or bored, forget and lose sight of the prize. We need to remember the goal, the destiny, the promises, the glory, the prize. For the joy set before Him, Jesus went to the cross, despised the shame, and was able to persevere. (Heb. 12:1, 2) We must likewise see the prize! We mustn’t forget it or let anything keep us from it. We must lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us. The greatest problem is the delay, the hardship and the mundaneness. Don’t let these things get your eyes off the prize. Paul prayed that the Ephesians would have their eyes opened to understand the hope of their calling. (Eph. 1:18) He was praying for them to see the surpassing greatness of knowing God. He was praying they’d see the prize.
In his book, “Making Sense of God,” pastor Tim Keller writes about two women who are hired to work at the same factory, in the exact same circumstances, doing the same menial job, but one is told she’ll receive $30k at the end of the year, and the other is told she’ll receive $30 million. After two weeks, the first might be complaining, bored, ready to quit. But the second will have a totally different attitude. What would make the difference? The reward they are working for! Do we see that great reward? Or have we lost sight of it?
The prize is something we begin to experience in this life, as we experience new life and purpose in Christ. Our sins are forgiven. We receive a new power to live life in a new way. We have a new family. We are new inside. There is such joy available for us in God, and it starts right here in this fallen world.
But it will become fully manifested in the afterlife, and that’s not something to take lightly. (Phil. 3:20, 21) We don’t really see this as we should. We may think in fuzzy terms of being like angels, sitting on clouds, playing harps, etc. The Bible has a fuller picture, if we’ll look for it. It says there will be new heavens and a new earth. Physical creation will be restored. Resurrection means we’re going to have new and glorious physical bodies; we won’t be ghosts! God’s intention is to recreate everything in a new and perfect state. We won’t have to go through pain or suffering, sickness or death anymore. Relationships will be different. Our capacity to love and be loved will be tremendously expanded. I believe there will be new and exciting work to do. I also believe that things you wished you could’ve done, or done better, or things you died before you could accomplish, all those sorts of things will be something you’ll be able to do in eternity. We don’t have to feel bitter and disappointed about anything we think we’ve missed out on here on earth! We’ll have eternity to experience it in a far more wonderful way than we could ever have imagined! Things that seemed so unfair here, they’ll be made up, balanced out. “You won’t just get your life back, but you will get the life you always longed for but were never able to achieve.” (Tim Keller, pg. 171, 172)
Keller makes the point that Jesus really rose from the dead, in a physical body, and that proves our hope for the future is something real, something concrete. He shares about Howard Thurman, a black scholar who gave a speech at Boston University about “Negro Spirituals,” the songs slaves sang while laboring, and what their “sung faith” did for them. Those people had very hard and miserable lives, but as they sang of heavenly things, it gave them strength and hope to keep going. It wasn’t a fairy-tale. It wasn’t just “the opiate of the masses” that made fools of them, but somehow got them by as they thought of this dream. No, they sang about something concrete, something very real, and that’s why it strengthened them. Modern people think such things are just nice theories. They think our only real hope is that somehow, in this life, we fix things ourselves.
But imagine if someone were to sit the slaves down and say, “There will never be a judgment day in which wrong doing will be put right. There is no future world and life in which your desires will ever be satisfied. This life is all there is. When you die, you simply cease to exist. Our only real hope for a better world lies in improved social policy. Now with these things in mind, go out there, keep your head high, and life a life of courage and love. Don’t give in to despair.” This would never have made a difference! They needed something real to hope in, and so do we! What we as Christians are hoping in is not some theory. It is a reality, based upon the absolute faithfulness of God Almighty! Jesus really rose from the dead, and He promised to come back for us, raise us, and recreate the entire universe! What awaits us is real, and it’s going to be far more wonderful than we’ve ever conceived of! We need to keep our eyes on that prize, the surpassing greatness of God and what He has made us for!
What can help us keep this in mind and walk it out? How do we come to really see what’s there for us in Jesus, the surpassing greatness of knowing Him, the prize that’s out there? How do we keep from losing sight of it so that we always persevere and never go off the path?
It starts by just asking God to open our eyes. In Eph. 1:17-21, we have a prayer written by the apostle Paul that shows us the way. Paul was praying that these people would have their spiritual eyes opened to know the hope of their calling. We need to pray that God would do this for us; open our eyes, help us to see His glory, the wonders of what He has done for us and the destiny to which He calls us.
Then we just need to do what Jesus told us in Jn. 15. He said we needed to abide in Him and let His words abide in us. In other words, we need to be with Him on a daily basis, so we don’t forget Him or get hardened by sin. We need to search for Him in the Bible and in prayer, in fellowship with other Christians and in worship. He promised that if we would seek for Him with all of our hearts, we would find Him. (Jer. 29:13) He promised that if we would ask, we, we’d receive, if we would seek, we would find, and if we would knock on the door of heaven, it would be opened. (Mat. 7:7) If Adam and Eve had kept their minds focused on the glory of God, they wouldn’t have lost their inheritance. If Israel had focused on the glory God had for them, they wouldn’t have gone astray. If we will just have the “willpower” to let God’s power work in our lives, we won’t either!
God wants to bless your life. He is the most wonderful Person in the universe, and He invites you to join His family. The Gospel is good news! God wants to build you up, to give you greater faith, to open your eyes to see what He has for you. Can you believe that? Will you just let Him do that? You know, it’s really a joy to be with Jesus. Rejoice in Him! Glory in Him! Let Him fill you, let His Word fill you, give yourself more fully to the Lord, so that you begin to experience life with Him to a greater extent. You and I need to “position ourselves” so we can receive from Him. That is the secret to successful Christian living.