Joe Mueller: Let’s take our Bibles and go to Philippians 3, Philippians chapter 3 today. Thankful for the opportunity to look at the Word of God here together. I trust you’ve been listening already as God has been speaking this morning.

And really what we’re going to look at here this afternoon in so many ways, as I was listening to Brother Bosler’s message this morning, and then to Brother Ryan’s message, realizing that what we’re going to look at here this afternoon, we are really building upon that foundation of what was laid through those two messages. And I believe the Lord wants to help us understand an important truth, get an important perspective here this afternoon.

Philippians chapter 3, and I’d like to begin reading in verse number 12, if we could. Verse number 12. It says, Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. This afternoon I’d like to look simply at a passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ.

I don’t think I have to tell you this afternoon that our world is full of crazy people, right? Crazy people who do crazy things. And when I say that, we probably all have things that come into our mind.

okay, crazy things that people do. And there’s some crazy things that people do that certainly have a negative connotation in our mind, that we think that these people are off their rocker, that they would think this or they would do this, or we think there is something wrong with their mind for them to go this direction, do that. And certainly there’s some of those things.

And why would somebody do those crazy things?

Again, there’s reasons we could look at ideologies, mental issues, whatever, fill in the blank, lots of things. But there’s other people that are crazy. They do crazy things that we don’t necessarily think of as negative.

That’s why things like Dude Perfect are really popular. Because people are just doing crazy things. They’re just off the wall.

And boy, all over YouTube you see those things. And why do those crazy people do those things? What is it that’s behind them?

And I think that we could sum up for these things that maybe we think, oh, these people are just so crazy about what they’re doing. They go to these extreme measures. Why do they do that?

I think it all comes down to one word, passion. Passion. You know, why do some people spend thousands of hours practicing an instrument?

I mean, literally thousands of hours. Some people, I’ve heard one musician say 10 hours a day practicing his instrument. Whoa!

Why? Passion. Passion.

Why is it that some people put their body through intense physical pain just so they can build up muscle, right, and get strong? Why? Passion.

Passion. It’s because of passion that some people, but maybe even some of you in this room, get up at unreasonably early hours of the morning and go sit out in cold weather just so you can hopefully have a chance to see a deer and shoot it.

That doesn’t make any sense to me. Now, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy shooting things, but I don’t enjoy getting up early in the morning, sitting out in the cold, hoping I’ll see something to shoot at.

But you love it. Why? Passion.

That’s why you’ll do those crazy things. That’s why some people put themselves through an incredibly strict diet and this intense schedule, right, so they can excel at a sport or compete for some sort of medal, right? They’re passionate about something.

That’s why some people will literally risk their life scaling these rock walls or climbing these mountains, right, or doing these free falls or whatever it is, just so they can say they did it. Passion.

In any area of life, passion makes an incredible difference. And all of us here today have something that we’re passionate about. I don’t know what it is that you’re passionate about, but we all have something.

We all have something that makes us tick, something that gets us excited. I’m generally a pretty quiet person in my personality, but there are some things you get on that topic, I get excited because it’s something I’m passionate about. Well, today I’d like to challenge each one of us with this simple truth, that no matter who you are here today, you are called to a passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ.

Doesn’t matter who you are. Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been saved.

You are called to a passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ. Paul here is describing his own life in Philippians chapter 3. and I realize we picked up kind of in the middle of his description and we’re going to look at some of the earlier things in a few moments.

But we see here Paul describing his life and really we see an intense passion, a pursuit after Jesus Christ. And if you and I are going to respond to that call to pursue after Jesus Christ with all of our heart, there’s five key action steps I see in this text that we need to embrace. if we want to respond to that call.

And I want to look at those five steps here this afternoon. I want you to notice, first of all, verse number 12. He says, not as though I had already attained or already reached some goal.

Either were already perfect. He says, I haven’t come to this place in maturity yet. But I follow after, and notice this, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

you say brother Mueller that is some awkward wording what is he really saying well i see here the first action step we have to come to and that’s this that you need to realize your purpose realize your purpose friend we’ve got to start off by realizing you have not arrived in your christian walk no matter who you are no matter where you’re at how whether you feel like i’m a spiritually mature person or i’m really spiritually immature maybe i just got saved recently we say i’ve

been safe since I was five years old. I could quote to you a big part of it.

No matter where you are, can I tell you, there is more God wants you to experience of the Christian life than you’ve experienced so far. There is more of Jesus for you to experience than you have to this point. Like Paul, you can say, I haven’t already attained.

I’m not already, I’m not where God wants me to be. There is more God has in store for us. But I want you to realize here this afternoon that you were created for a purpose.

There is not one person here in this room who was an accident. Doesn’t matter what your background is, you weren’t an accident.

God made you on purpose, and he has a specific plan, and I don’t know all the details of that plan, but I know one detail of that plan, and that’s what he gives us here in this text. You see, Jesus, you didn’t just make you for a purpose. He died to save you for a purpose.

Jesus drew you to himself for a purpose. God got hold of your life. It says here you were apprehended.

He got hold of your life for a reason. But here’s the question. Are you grabbing hold of the reason that God grabbed hold of you?

Are you saying, listen, I’m going to grab hold of the reason why I was apprehended of Jesus Christ?

Why Jesus, the whole purpose for why he came and died to save me, why he rescued me from my sin, I’m going to grab hold of that. Is that how you are today? You know, when a sports team, when they draft a particular player or they trade for a particular player or they sign some massive contract with a free agent, right?

And they go through and they say, we’re going to pay you all this money and all this. Then they get this player and they get them on their team. Why do they do that?

What’s the reason they do that?

It’s because that team, whether they’re a football team and they’re getting a quarterback or a pitcher for the baseball team or whatever it is, why are they doing it? Because they want to win a championship. And the management of that team says, this player is going to help us win that championship.

And they say, so we’re going to get that. we’re going to acquire that person for our team because we want them. We want them to help lead us to that victory.

But really, it comes down to, at that point, okay, the player’s on the team, but now the player has a choice. Are they going to grab hold of the reason that they were acquired?

What would you think if that quarterback decided he wanted to spend his time and energy working on his golf swing instead of showing up to practice and working on the plays for the next game? What if that pitcher decided he was going to just spend all day relaxing on his boat or sitting on the couch, and he didn’t even touch a baseball except for when he got there to play the game? How long would that last with that management?

They wouldn’t be very happy, right? Because, wait, wait, that athlete was gotten for a reason, And he can’t be effective in fulfilling that reason that he was contracted if he isn’t even interested in it.

If he’s not personally committed to that purpose. And that team went through great expense to acquire that player because they wanted to win that championship. They wanted to have what that player could bring to the table.

How could he just abandon that whole purpose of why he was on the team in the first place? Can I tell you, young people, the same thing’s true for you? The father went through incredible expense to lay hold on your life.

His very own son was sent, and he died, and he paid the eternal penalty that you and I deserve to pay. Great expense to lay hold on your life.

Are you going to lay hold on the reason that he laid hold on you? Say, okay, well, what is that reason, Brother Mueller? What is that reason?

What is it that Paul’s going after? And I think if we look here in the text, we see one passion, one reason comes screaming out. Look back at verse number 8.

Paul says, yea, doubtless. And I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Notice that, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but done, that I may win Christ.

Look at verse number 10. We know this verse. Oh, it’s familiar.

That I may know him. I believe this is the reason. This is the purpose that God got hold of you so that you could know him.

one commentator says here that to know christ meant much more than knowing about him in his mind and that’s what we often think of oh i know jesus really we know a lot about him but do you know him knowledge is a relationship term of intimacy notice this paul wanted the closest possible personal relationship with jesus christ could that be said of you Do you want the closest possible personal relationship you can have with Jesus? Are you satisfied with the fact that you’re saved?

This was Paul’s passion.

He says, I’ve got to know him. I’ve got to know my Jesus. That’s the reason.

A relationship with Jesus Christ. Now understand, the relationship with Jesus begins with salvation, right? That moment when we stop depending on ourselves to save ourselves from sin and hell, and we put all of our trust in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins and eternal life, and we receive his righteousness, and we’re made right in the eyes of God, and now we have eternal life, the relationship with God, that’s the birth.

We’re born into God’s family. That’s where it begins. Can I ask you, I don’t know everyone here today.

Have you received Jesus Christ? Has that relationship begun because you’ve been saved?

Or is there someone here today who say, I don’t know for sure my sins are forgiven. I don’t know that I have that relationship. I’ve never been born into God’s family.

But friends, many of us, probably the majority of us here in this room, you have made that decision. You say, I know I am saved. And I have that relationship with Jesus Christ.

And I tell you, getting saved opens the door to the relationship. But there is so much more that God wants you to experience. There is so much more to that relationship that goes far beyond just salvation.

And God’s plan, his very purpose, the reason he saved you is not so that now I get to go to heaven instead of going to hell. That’s a wonderful blessing, but that’s not the point. The point is that you could know him.

You could have that fellowship, that relationship with him. That’s been his plan for you from the beginning. That’s what’s beating in his heart.

He says, I want you to know me. I want you to experience who I am. Young people, I’m telling you, a relationship with Jesus, fellowship with Jesus, getting to know Jesus more intimately is not just a nice idea today.

It’s not just a good thing, a good idea or a good thing to do.

It’s not something you should just, you should do someday. Yeah, I should develop my relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m here to tell you that it is the very reason for your existence.

It is the very reason that Jesus went to the cross. It is the very reason that you’re saved and sitting here today, reconciled to God, made right with him. So that you could know him.

You say, well, I thought that the reason for our existence was so that we could tell other people about Jesus Christ. And can I tell you, that’s on the heart of God. But you will not help others to know Jesus if you do not know him personally.

It’s when we get to know Jesus intimately that then we can share him passionately with others. So this is your purpose. This is the very reason for your existence so that you get to know God.

Think about it. Isn’t that amazing? The God who created the millions of stars strung throughout light years of outer space.

The God who created the mysterious massive creatures in the depths of the ocean. That God cares about tiny little you and me. He wants to have a relationship with tiny little you and me.

The God who literally lives in every moment of eternity at the same time cares about knowing you in this moment. That it should blow our mind.

What an awesome privilege we have from God to know Jesus. To actually develop a relationship with the God of heaven. And that God, he’s focused on you today.

He’s pursuing you. He’s drawing you to himself because he wants you to know him. Well, friend, no matter where you are in your Christian walk, no matter how spiritually mature or immature you feel, You are called to a passionate pursuit of this Jesus, to know him intimately.

Have you realized that that’s why you’re here? I’m afraid very often we don’t passionately pursue Jesus with all of our heart because we don’t even realize that’s the point. But that is the point, friend.

You need to realize your purpose.

Now, I want you to look down at verse number 13. It says, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. There we see again, he says, listen, I haven’t arrived.

I haven’t gotten to where I want to be yet. But notice the next phrase. He says, but this one thing I do.

If I can give you the sense, it’s as if Paul is saying something I haven’t apprehended, but one thing, that’s literally the sense of what’s being said here. There’s one thing, just let me get one thing. that that’s one thing on my mind, one thing that I care about, one thing that I’m passionate about.

You see, we need to realize our purpose, but secondly, you need to reject distractions. Reject distractions. One thing.

One thing, a single focus. Oh, young people, there are all sorts of things that are clamoring for your attention today, aren’t there? Distractions that are calling you away from a passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ.

And the devil is a master. He’s a master at drawing you away from seeking after Jesus. And he doesn’t care what it takes.

As long as he can use it to deaden you, to mask your thirst, to give you substitutes for hungering after God, he’ll use it no matter what it is. He distracts you with the sinful pleasures of pornography.

He binds you with the deceptive chains of bitterness. He consumes you with the pointless pursuit of money. He arrests you with the elusive power of popularity.

Perhaps for you it’s not sinful things that have distracted you, but an obsession with things that are good in their place, but are deadly when made a greater priority than knowing Jesus. Listen, friends, I’m becoming more and more convinced that these things that we want to call distractions, whatever they may be in our life, things that we place ahead of our pursuit of Jesus, things that we place ahead of our devotion to Him, they’re not just distractions, or at least they don’t stay distractions for long.

They quickly become our idols.

You know, we look at the Old Testament accounts of Israel and how they turn from God to idols again and again and again and again and again. And we think, how could they be so dumb? I mean, how could they do this?

Don’t they realize these gods can’t do anything for them? This is worthless. How stupid can it get?

And we look at them and say, what is wrong with them? But we do it all the time. All the time.

Oh, our idols are different. They’re different than their idols were, absolutely. But we’re just as much idolaters in our hearts.

What is an idol? One author has said, an idol is anything more important to you than God.

Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. And anything that you seek to give you what only God can give.

what is it young person in your life what are your idols if you had to distill your life down to one thing that consumes you most what would it be if you had to say that there was one thing that you were most passionate about today what would it be what people think about you music sinful pleasures relationships academic achievements perhaps sports whether it be following them or playing them yourself video games money recreation hobbies your appearance entertainment social media the list could go on and

on friends there’s all sorts of things that can easily become our idols that consume our attention that we get passionate about friends you can only have you only have so much energy so many hours in a day so much focus that you can give what are you giving that to?

where do you get your joy? what are the things that are always on your mind? Listen, some of those things I mentioned, they have a place in your life.

Perhaps they’re a part of your development. It’s not that they’re wrong, but where is your passion? What is it that’s burning in your heart that just absolutely consumes you?

If it’s not knowing Jesus, you become distracted at best, and perhaps even an idolater. When I was in high school, for a period of time, I became very consumed with the game of foosball. To the point, I had my own foosball table at home in our garage.

My siblings got tired of playing me because I started to beat them all the time.

So I would play myself, both sides of the sticks, for hours. And it got to where I was a pretty decent player. Came to college, and they had a foosball table here at the college back then.

And guess what I did a lot? I played foosball. And I felt good about myself.

I could beat pretty much all the guys on campus. It was great. It felt good.

Then we had a preacher who came in. He was speaking in chapel, I think. and he was staying in a room that was right connected to the area where the foosball table was.

He saw me playing foosball with someone else. He said, oh, hey, I’ll play with you, whatever.

I started to play him and I realized this guy’s pretty good. I started talking and realized that this preacher, when he was younger, had played foosball in leagues and these type of things. He was a good player.

But as we’re talking, it was just normal conversation, but I think he knew what he was doing.

but he just began to say you know there came a point in my life where i had to i had to decide god god called me to preach and i realized i couldn’t be good at foosball and good at serving the lord as a preacher i had to choose one or the other and i walked away from that conversation and i’m not saying i’ve never played foosball again i have But can I tell you, God used that simple statement to reveal an idol of my heart.

Something that was consuming my passion and drawing my heart away from seeking after Jesus Christ. Nothing wrong with a game of foosball. But it was drawing me away from pursuing after Jesus.

And foosball became a very, very minimal part of my life after that. And in fact, I was playing foosball with some of my nieces and nephews and kids a week or two ago, and I realized, you know what? Boy, my shot’s not very good anymore.

My geometry’s not quite what it used to be. My reflexes aren’t quite as fast. And you know what?

That’s okay. Because there’s something way better. Knowing Jesus.

knowing Jesus. Friend, I’m just asking you, what is the idol of your heart? What is it that consumes your passion that’s drawing you away?

If you’re going to lay hold on the very reason for your existence, then you have to reject the distractions that are calling you away from a focused pursuit of him. You’ve got to deal with the idols of your heart that are numbing you to your need for the reality of the living God in your life. Think of the words of the songwriter who said, the dearest idol I have known.

Whatever that idol be, help me to tear it from thy throne and worship only thee. For some of you today, dealing with those distractions, the idols of your heart needs to start with dealing with your sin. Getting honest about the things that you’re doing in secret.

Getting honest about the filth that fills your mind from the things that you watch or the things that you listen to. Getting honest about the anger, the rage, the hatred that you have inside towards someone else. Getting honest about the stuff you’ve stolen, the times that you’ve cheated, the lies that you’ve told to cover your tracks.

Do you realize some of these sinful things that we hide become idols in our hearts, things that we choose instead of Jesus. Friends, we’ve got to get honest.

You know what it is in your heart, and you know you’re never going to be able to passionately pursue Jesus like you should with all of your heart until you deal with that sin, until you stop hiding it. So that’s where you got to start. Reject distractions, deal with the idols.

Number three, we need to remove hindrances. In verse number 13 again, he says, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. Forgetting those things which are behind.

Now, I know at first when I said we just said reject distractions, now remove hindrances, isn’t that kind of the same thing? But when we understand the context of what Paul is saying here, it’s actually quite different.

You see, Paul in this chapter has just laid out in his life the things that were behind for him, the things that were formerly a part of his life, and he’s clearly stating, I have had to reject those things. Can I just say for you today, perhaps the greatest hindrance to passionately pursuing Jesus is not the distractions. It’s not the devil.

It’s not the world. It’s not other people around you, friends. It’s you.

You are the primary obstacle that will stand between you and pursuing Jesus. You say, what do you mean? What does that look like?

And what is it that Paul had to turn his back on here?

That he had to say, I’ve got to remove my focus on these things of who I thought I was. He had to remove the hindrance of self-confidence or self-sufficiency. Look at verse number 4.

He says, Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. And then he begins to describe. He says, If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, Concerning zeal, persecuting the church.

Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Paul says, listen, this is my pedigree. This is what I have.

Listen, I had all of these things, my training, my background, my lineage, everything. Look, I have all of this I could look to. But notice verse number seven.

But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. He says, listen, I could look at all of those things and say, hey, I’ve got everything I need. I’ve got it all together.

Listen, I am like the perfect person to be a follower of Jesus. He says, I’ve got to say no. None of that is worth anything.

I don’t have anything to bring to the table. I can’t have any confidence in myself and who I am and what I can do.

You know, young people, it’s really easy for us to get the mentality, listen, I can do this on my own. I know what we’re saying about you. and you can come to Jesus, and you’ve got to ask him, you know, we need that 0-100, and depending on, I know.

But listen, I got this. I’ve been in church a long time. I can handle this.

I’ve got this Christian walk thing figured out. Look, I have these talents, these abilities. Yeah, I could serve God.

I’ve got this, I come from this family line, or I’ve got this background, or I’ve had this training poured into me. Yeah, all these things, man, I can get.

And Paul’s saying, listen, you’ve got to get to a place where you say, I can’t trust myself at all. My abilities, I can’t trust it at all. I can’t have confidence in me in any way.

I’ve got to count all those things, say, listen, all those things, wow, that’s nice you have all that. It’s not worth anything. When it comes to knowing Jesus, it doesn’t make me any more able to know Jesus than the person next to me.

It doesn’t make me any more able to accomplish the will of God than the person next to me.

See, we’ll never passionately pursue Jesus until we get rid of this hindrance of self-sufficiency and get to the place where we realize, I cannot live this Christian life in my own strength. I need Jesus. Self-sufficiency.

But Paul doesn’t stop there. he points out another area, another hindrance that he had to turn his back on. Verse number nine says that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

You see, he had to turn his back not just on his self-sufficiency, but also on his self-righteousness.

Self-righteousness, thinking, listen, I’m accepted by God because of what I do, because of my performance. Listen, do you realize how much of the Bible I know? Do you realize how much of the Bible I have memorized?

Do you realize how many times I have heard this Bible passage before, Brother Mueller? Do you realize the standards that I have and hold? Do you realize all of this that I do?

I’m way more spiritual than anyone around me, than anyone else in my youth group. You’ve got to understand that, Brother Mueller. That must be worth something.

Paul says, no. No, those things don’t earn you any merit with God.

If you think that life is about what you have to offer God, then you won’t pursue after Jesus because you don’t think you need to. You’ll never passionately pursue Jesus Christ until you get rid of this hindrance of self-righteousness and realize that nothing that you can do would ever earn you acceptance or favor with God. Can I say this?

Your value to God has nothing to do with what you can do for Jesus. It has everything to do with who you are in Jesus. And we’ve got to come to grips with that reality.

Because, boy, our human brain, our human way of thinking just naturally goes, if I do these things, that’s going to make me more acceptable.

He says, you’ve got to realize, no. You’ve got to say, it’s not about my righteousness, not about what I can do. It’s all about Jesus.

That’s why I need to pursue him, to know him. But there’s one other hindrance I think we have to recognize here in this text, that we have to remove, that we have to turn our back on. We’ve seen self-sufficiency, self-righteousness, and now self-protection.

Notice in verse number eight, he says, For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung. Does that sound nice? Sounds enjoyable, right?

Verse number 10, That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. You see, we all have inside ourselves this idea of I need to watch out for myself. I don’t want to do anything that could jeopardize my current comfort, my current situation.

I’ve got plans. Listen, you’ve got to understand I’ve got plans. I’ve got a life to live.

And so I’ve got to make sure nothing happens to me that would interrupt that plan from being able to happen. and we try to protect ourselves, but we try to insulate ourselves. Because you’re not going to passionately pursue after Jesus if you’re worried about protecting yourself.

You’ve got to get to a place where you say, you know what, I don’t need to protect myself. It doesn’t matter what it costs me, knowing Jesus is worth the price. Whatever it is.

And can I just tell you, young people, just be honest with you, straightforward. If you follow after Jesus Christ, if you live this life of total surrender to the will of God, like Brother Bosler was talking about this morning, and total dependence on him, you live a life of total devotion, the pathway will include suffering. And we don’t like to talk about it, but it is a reality.

Is knowing Jesus worth that to you? It’s worth it.

You’ll experience it’s worth it, but you’ve got to decide, I’m not going to try to protect myself anymore. We’ve got to turn our back on that hindrance to pursuing Jesus. It really comes down to this.

If you’re going to get on a passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ, you’ve got to decide that you no longer want a life that is wrapped up in you. You want a life that is wrapped up in him. Which is exactly what Brother Bosler was preaching about this morning.

Number four. We need to move quickly. Reserve nothing.

Reserve nothing. I’d like to point out several words here that are used throughout this text.

If you’ve noticed, I’ve been using this word passionate all throughout the message, and I’ve been doing that on purpose because I believe it captures the intensity of what Paul is communicating in these verses. Notice the energy that’s pent up in some of these words. He says, not as though I had already attained.

The idea that word is to grab hold of and pull down by force. He says here, but I follow after. The same word is translated a little bit later in verse number 14.

I press toward. Same word. That’s an idea that means to chase after, to pursue with haste.

It’s a hunting word. It’s the idea of a foot racer, a strong, active, and earnest endeavor.

We see here in verse number 13, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. They do have straining your muscles to attain. That’s the picture that’s given here.

The picture, one commentator says, of a runner who strains every effort to press forward in the race. To do this, he must run without swerving and with the utmost effort. This Saturday, October 14th, marks the 59th anniversary of the unbelievable final lap of Billy Mills.

a runner competing in the 10,000-meter race in 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. A Native American who was serving in the Marines, 26-year-old Billy, struggled with low blood sugar and was considered to be an underdog in the race.

No one, not even Billy himself, considered that he would be any sort of major competitor. In fact, as Billy began the race, his only goal was to finish. He had no thought of winning.

Well, as the race began to unfold lap after lap, Australia’s world record holder, Ron Clark, was solidly contending for first place just as everyone expected. Neck and neck with him was Tunisia’s Mohamed Gamoudi. And not far behind, to everyone’s surprise, was Billy Mills.

At one point, Mills even surged ahead of the front runners for a moment, leading the pack for a lap before falling back once again.

Well, as the front runners reached their final lap, dodging the slower runners that now they were lapping on the track, Clark and Mills were running side by side when Gamuti suddenly reached out his hands and pushed them apart, running between them and taking the lead. Well, it didn’t take long for Clark to quickly close up that gap. It was clear they were entering the final straightway.

Clark was going to take the gold. And then Mills saw an embroidered eagle on the back of another runner’s jersey, and words that his father had spoken to him as a child flashed through his mind. He said, son, do these things, and someday you’ll have the wings of an eagle.

Mills thought, I may never be this close again. He told himself, I’ve got to do it now, wings of an eagle. And with that thought, he lunged forward in a breathtaking sprint, his legs pounding the track, as he gave every ounce of energy he had to press ahead.

He broke past Gamuti. The thousands watching stood stunned as Mill thundered past Clark and broke through the finish line, winning the gold medal and setting a new Olympic record. To this day, Billy Mills, the unexpected champion, still stands as the only U.S.

athlete to win that race. And his legendary final lap is known as one of the most watched videos of a foot race ever.

that all out no reserves give it everything you’ve got kind of passion and energy is the picture paul is trying to give us here in this text as one commentator said every fiber of his being was set on the goal and purpose of his christian life now understand the strain and energy of these verses it’s not saying we need to earn some sort of thing by having that. No, it’s just denoting intensity of purpose.

We don’t earn something by our fervency, but we often miss the goal without it. Young people, I don’t see any room in the Word of God for a casual approach to the Christian life.

Everything that Jesus laid out of what it means to follow Him is a call to radical abandonment. As we read the writings of the Apostle Paul and the other New Testament writers, what we find can only be described as a passionate pursuit of Jesus, a life of total devotion to Christ. And if you’re going to respond to that call to a passionate pursuit of Jesus, you’ve got to decide that you are going to reserve nothing, to hold nothing back.

It’s time to be done with this half-hearted, check off the box, just tell me what’s expected of me and I’ll do it, kind of Christian living.

You can do that if you want to, young person, but don’t expect to meet Jesus there. Expect to find Jesus when you sell out completely to him, when you hold nothing back, when you deal with the sin that’s hindering in your life, when you seek after him with all of your heart, when you get on your face before him, perhaps in even fast and pray, seeking after him in desperation to know him and see him move in your day.

You can expect to find Jesus when you cry out to him and ask him to show you where he’s moving and how you can join him in his work, no matter what the cost.

When you open his word, not because you have to do it or because you’re supposed to do it, but because you want to do it. And you begin to feast on those words and explore your God and embrace his message to you because you long to know him. That’s where you’ll find Jesus.

That’s when real living happens. Young people, if we could take your life and if we could somehow capture the passion and energy that you give to different facets of your life and put them each in a bottle by category.

The passion in the bottle of your hobbies and the passion in the bottle of your academics and of sports and of your instrument and of your sleep and of your food and of all those other things. And we get to, oh, here’s the passion of pursuing Jesus. I’m afraid we’d be shocked.

Shocked how little passion. we truly give to pursuing after the lover of our souls. We’d be stunned to realize how little energy, how much we really don’t care about Jesus.

How we hold back passion to give to other things instead of knowing Jesus. Can I tell you, young people, we are fools.

Fools to give so much of the sweat of our brow, so much of the heat of our energy, so much of the intensity of our passion to things that will not matter in eternity. Oh, we’d be so much wiser to follow the advice of Jim Elliott as he said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Reserve nothing.

Hold nothing back. Finally, quickly, number five, remember the goal. Verse 14, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

As you go through the journey of life, don’t forget the prize.

The runner in that Olympic race is not just running because he wants to just break the tape at the end of the course. you know that’s a fun thing to do let’s just break it no there he’s running for something beyond the tape for the gold medal the prize paul says listen there’s a prize that i am pressing toward that i’m giving that passion the high calling of god in christ jesus this this term here is literally the idea of a call heavenward.

A call leading to God himself. Not just the call to, well, one day we’re going to reach heaven, so yeah, keep pursuing, because we’re going to get there to heaven someday.

Yeah, that’s true, we will, but it’s more than just that. It’s about the person that heaven is all about. It’s to know him.

Can I tell you this? knowing Jesus, that is the prize. He is the prize that we are pursuing.

Sometimes we think, well, why is all this passion, this focus, we need all that to find God, to get to know God. Why is God so hard to find? Why does he demand so much passage, such single focus?

Friends, I’m telling you, it’s not that God’s hard to discover. It’s not that he’s running from you that he doesn’t want to be found. Nothing could be further from the truth.

He wants you to know him.

He wants to be found of you. He wants to reveal himself to you. The reason that we need to pursue him passionately is because he is an infinite, eternal God who is perfect and beyond our full comprehension in every facet of his being.

And you and I could spend every moment of all eternity experiencing new realities of who God is and still not plumb the depths of our God.

that’s why we need to pursue him because there is always more to know of who our God is and that’s why we’re here oh friends there’s nothing better than knowing Jesus knowing him is the life more abundantly that John 10 talks about knowing him is experiencing eternal life right now because he is eternal life listen if you want to know what life is all about young person get to know Jesus get to know Jesus don’t fall into this trap of somehow seeing Jesus as a means

to get something that you want or a means to make your life feel better or to not feel guilty he is what you want he is the prize and yes you’ll know Jesus in his fullness one day when you get to heaven but you don’t have to wait until then to taste the prize you can know him today if you will get on a passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ.

Realize your purpose. It’s why you’re here. Reject distractions.

Remove hindrances. Reserve nothing. Remember the goal.

Can I ask you, are you grabbing hold of the reason that God grabbed hold of your life? To know Him. Or could you care less today about knowing Him?

have you grown distracted has an idol consumed your passion I could ask you today is there sin that you need to deal with today so you can get on this passionate pursuit of Jesus I don’t know where you’re at today friend but I know this you’re called to a passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ and there is nothing better. So let’s seek him with all of our hearts.