Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler, and I’m speaking to you today from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, where it is our privilege to have with us on the podcast once again Caleb Reed, a student here at Baptist Theological Seminary, a former team member of mine, and a good friend. Caleb has just gotten back from Christmas break, and I’m sure what he’s got in his heart will be a blessing to you all.
Caleb Reed: Well, like many of you, I had an opportunity to take a break during the Christmas time and New Year’s Eve.
My pastor was preparing a message to give to our church, and he preached out of Philippians chapter 3 and a couple of passages and phrases we know very well: verse 8, “that I may win Christ,” and verse 10, “that I may know him.” He was really giving our church a challenge for this new year—not to make New Year’s resolutions, but that our one resolution would be, “that I may know him.”
As my pastor was reading through these verses, he touched on verse 14, and the Holy Spirit just struck me personally with this thought. I want to share that with you. Philippians chapter 3, verse 14 says this: as Paul is writing, he urges, he says, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
As I was thinking about that verse, thinking about exercise and running a race—and I’m not, I wouldn’t consider myself a long-endurance runner, although I do enjoy running—I was thinking about a long race, such as the idea of a marathon. The idea here is that you have the end goal in mind, and you are just pressing and following hard. Everything in you is trying to reach for that finish line.
That’s an illustration we know quite well. But as I was thinking about this and the Holy Spirit was applying it to me, I want to also turn this over to you and ask you to consider: what does it mean to press toward the mark?
You notice the article there: the mark, also the prize of the high calling. There is only one mark. There’s only one prize of the high calling.
Now, for me, I’m a preacher. I’m training for the full-time ministry, with the idea of pursuing evangelism. That’s what I’m spending my summers doing.
It’s what I’m in school to do. It’s what my whole desire is. It’s what my life is focused around.
And so, in a very real sense, I have a mark I am pressing toward.
But what about you? You may not believe that the Lord has called you to preach, and that’s fine. But you know, you have a mark.
You have a high calling. The mark, the high calling, is the same as mine. I’m a preacher.
Maybe you’re being called to something else, and that’s fine. But you know, the mark is the same. The high calling is the same.
If I can put it this way, runners are racing for the same finish line, though they are in different running gear. We are all needing—we must all be pursuing—the same prize, the same high calling. And that is, “that I may win Christ,” “that I may know him.”
So can I ask you, friend: are you pressing toward the mark? You may have a secular job. You may be in high school.
You may be in college pursuing a secular career, and that’s fine. But even you, just like me, have the same end goal in mind. We must both be pursuing, pressing toward the same exact mark.
It is not different.
The prize and the high calling are not different because of your vocation. It’s the same: “that I may win Christ,” “that I may know him,” “that I may lift him up,” that the world would know that there is a Savior.
Are you pursuing the one mark? Are you pursuing the one high calling?
As you’ve entered the new year, thinking of New Year’s resolutions, have you considered the mark, the high calling that God has for you—that you would win Christ, that you would know him, that you would show forth to the world his everlasting forgiveness, his love, and his grace? The prize, the high calling. Amen.
Bobby Bosler: Caleb, thank you for that. You know what, young people? I trust every one of you here in this new year are pursuing the universal mark of knowing Jesus.
And furthermore, I trust that each of you will not only pursue the mark that is common to all of us, but that you will also pursue the customized life purpose—the mark that is unique for every single one of us individually.
