Turn in your bibles to philippians chapter 3 verses 12 to 14. The title of the message today is one thing i do last week. Paul talked about his. He dropped his resume on these judaizers heads that were trying to say they were more qualified to speak about god and speak about a right relationship with god and he spoke about how he was from the tribe of israel how he was from the tribe of benjamin how he was a hebrew and a jew on his father's and mother's side and all his accolades that he had achieved in his religious training but he said that was all garbage garbage next to knowing christ and knowing the power of his resurrection and then it would sound as though maybe he seems as though he's arrived at that but he makes it clear he hasn't with these next few verses 12 13 and 14. Not that i have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal but i press on to take hold of that for which christ jesus took hold of me brothers and sisters i do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it but one thing i do forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for what god had called me heavenward in christ jesus. This word goal is used only once in the bible in this location. It's the greek word scopus which is where we get the english word scope that's used for the scope of a rifle where you set your eye and are able to view the target or the mark that you would set after or my daughter cassio would say i use it in archery as an archer they have a scope which if it's reliable and it's faithful will direct you and your projectile whether it be a bullet or an arrow to the mark it literally meant a marking stone. That was the end of a race. Of course the greeks had the olympics by this point in time and so they ran and there was no finish line with the string but a simple end marker that might have been a piece of granite or some other thing and as the runner is running they would run for that end mark for that spot that they would be looking at focusing their eye on that and unless we're as fast as hussein bolt who can turn his head in the middle of a sprint with the fastest men and still win the race we need to run straight and have our eyes set on that but he describes this thing before he gets into running the race and setting this goal of being apprehended of being laid.

Hold of by christ and the word in the greek of this is a word that has the idea of being seized being grabbed almost with force almost like a policeman taking down a criminal. It's this idea of a rough handling a strong grasp. I've told this story before but most of you are new. Here acacia wasn't yet four years old. I was visiting her in maine and i was walking across the street or soon to walk us across the street with her and her father her father was lagging behind and holding a guitar and i noticed that a car was speeding excessively fast over 40 50 miles an hour on this slow road and acacia very young obliviously was running out into the street and i chased her and grabbed her feet before she was run over by the car and and and it was an abrupt stop and she cried and she was scared and went to her father and paul's describing that type of experience and he's hearkening back to his conversion when he was saul of tarsus and he was breathing out murderous threats against christians and he had this zeal that was insane and misguided and to be sure though he had a sudden conversion i was thinking about this. I don't doubt that before that for some time since the martyrdom of stephen which he oversaw there was this growing uneasiness this growing terrible sinking feeling that he was completely wrong that was growing inside of his heart for some time that he was not just misguided but wrong completely wrong and then there it was miraculously. Christ appears and christ says why are you persecuting me. And he's literally blinded by the light and he says who are you i am jesus whom you're persecuting.

This word of straining and racing towards the goal is the same word that jesus used for for saul persecuting christ it can be used in a positive or negative way. It's like wicked wicked good wicked bad for those of us from boston. So this is what was happening here is that he was now straining towards christ where before he was persecuting him and whether we've had miraculous experiences of visions of christ or not every time one of us is converted and believes in christ. There's something dramatic and drastic that can happen and should happen and the first thing is is that christ lays hold on us he grasps us like with acacia i saved her from potentially death certainly being maimed and when christ saved us he forgave our sins. He saved us from death. He saved us from an empty way of life handed down for our forefathers this guilt what do we do with this guilt. We have dirty hands we have dirty feet we have dirty bodies dirty clothes. How can we clean ourselves. He gave us a new gown and so he grasped us to save us but we must begin there but woe to us. If we just stop there last week we talked about that. It's not just that we would be saved but that we would know him. He wants us to know christ. He wants us to know him. He's explaining that that that's what he wanted as an experience that he would know god. I was a new christian. I was 17 years old i read my first christian book. Pilgrim's progress a classic by john bunyan. I still would recommend it today when i read the book. I was 10 pages into the book when christian the main character loses his burden at the cross and his sins are forgiven and i thought that was the end of the book. How come there's all these other chapters. What else is there. I did not imagine there was more to it than that. I thought the discovery and the book would be over. Boy were we in for a surprise. Aren't we when we start to know him. Look that knowledge that you have of christ when you first meet him. There's so much more of him to know.

That's what paul's saying i'm still running. I'm still striving i'm still growing. It's not a one and done. It's not a one-hit wonder so he lays hold on us to save us but ultimately that we would know him it goes beyond just this being saved but it's also expected that we hold on to him that just as his hand holds on to us our hand must hold on to him now surely his hand is stronger if you have children and you ask them to hold your hand for safety to go across the street is it their hand holding you that protects them or your hand holding them. It's clearly your hand holding them. That's the stronger hand but we still must reach out our hand and hold him however weak our grasp in asia. What do they do when they want to grow rice. They flood the fields with water and then they plant the seeds we need to flood our lives with christ and then plant the seeds and watch him grow. What does this literally mean. It means that we need to meditate on him. We need to talk to him. We need to pray. Have you prayed this week. Have you just sat down and prayed and talked to jesus. You can't expect to know him if you don't talk to him. One of my nieces was talking about how she went to school far away from her parents and how she talks to her mother you know once every week or two and some of the kids talk to their mother every day a couple times a day and she says imagine that the fact is is again. It's a good analogy of a father holding a young child's hands versus the young child holding the father's hands. We don't have the strength that he has our grasp is so incomplete. This is what paul has as a meaning here is a flavor is what he's saying is though i'm seeking christ i i don't have it i. I'm just not there yet. I'm not you know he doesn't think so much of himself or that he's arrived. Now i've met people and you've met people who think they've arrived with god so apparently there's only two choices if they think they've arrived with god they're either much further in their walk than the apostle paul was or they're deceived.

Shelley in one of his poems speaks about this idea of a love of something that's greater and afar. He was speaking of human love. But it fits here. He calls it the desire of a moth for the star of the night for the morrow it's this idea of that god is so much greater it's not really like a rifle and a telescope and a and a scope to see something a hundred feet away. It's more like a telescope that you're seeing he's so great there's so much more to know there's so much more to the journey that this is we'll talk about it. This is what was buoyantly affecting paul and giving him though he was old a youthful energy. Now i was half a lifetime ago. I was a young man and i was. It's true and i was soon to be a doctor. I think i was 24 years old and i was driving to steve solomini's house in one of my ford pinto beat up cars and i was speaking to jesus and talking to god and i heard the first time a near audible call of god in my life and i only have two of them one was go to lowell and this one which was very personal and this personal thing was. I don't want you to be just a doctor and i of course i was like god. What do you mean and what are you trying to say. And what do you do that. And you know if you know god at all he might tell you to go somewhere but he doesn't tell you to pack your bags to leave at this time in this place and meet this person and do all that he tells you just to go and so it's been. I've been a doctor more than i wasn't a doctor. It's been more than half my life that i'm still learning what that means. I don't want you to be just a doctor and being up here maybe some of it but this is something that has dogged me and and and affected me and i've reflected on it that don't settle for some sort of instant cred or just throwing around some title or some name but that is not what i have for you. All these occupations are all these things that you can do and be in life can be great chances to know god everything that you can do.

Short of sin what is sin one of the definitions of sin is missing the mark right so it fits perfectly with this anything you're aiming for and the field you're in can be an opportunity to know christ. More short of sin sin by its very definition. Isn't that so even though paul was old and even though he was in prison and even though these people were trying to affect and harm his young converts he had this buoyancy. This joy this exuberance in this letter. That's there and that's what happens when you have an aim when you have a goal when you have single purpose when you have a plan when you have something you want to do or something you want to accomplish it. Mystifies me that anyone would think that being a christian wouldn't take your best effort wouldn't take any people know that to be a good carpenter a good musician. A good anything takes time effort practice commitment it is no different with knowing christ with following him. Just it is true of any good relationship that you would have with another person. Oh we have a great relationship. We never see each other now here. I want you to say we've been talking about the mark versus the prize. They're two separate things but it doesn't say explicitly directly. What is he aiming for. It doesn't say he says he's aiming he's using a metaphor but what is the aim. What is paul aiming for. This is something i struggled with with acacia. We have a meeting and i was praying and it's simple though he's aiming for christ like character in his life he's aiming for this. He's striving for that. I haven't arrived yet we've been talking for about a month about this word. Transcendence transcendence is. There's a physical realm that we live in which is our day-to-day routine our flesh. Our blood what we see with our senses where uh evic you know. We're slaves to time to our aches and pains to whatever that's a physical realm but then there's this spiritual realm in which he lives and moves and has his being and there's this barrier between them and when we penetrate we'll talk more about it we transcend we go from the physical to the spiritual and we see who god is.

That's transcendence now i i i have a i wear a few hats and one of the things that i have. Some experience in is construction and three years ago. Steve prue was on vacation. Uh but he works with me as a mason. We bought a building downtown in lowell that was a completely dilapidated building and we set up scaffolding completely around the building for two years and scaffolding is staging with frames and planks and beams and ladders and tools and men and dust and noise and then it would be you'd have to contain the dust with all sorts of screens and nets and safety harnesses and there was all this activity that went on for two years and the thing about this scaffolding is that it completely surrounds. It starts at the bottom of the building it goes above the top of the building. It completely does it to the point that you might not even know that there's a building behind that now stay with me. This is because this is really the key thing of today but there's a day when that building is done and that scaffolding all comes down and you see the building a building which was condemned like us a building which was decrepit and of no worldly purpose fit for destruction like us and it was renewed it was restored it was put to meaningful and gainful use again like us. And that's what i'm saying is all this stuff in life all these new just nuances and and and nuisances and aggravations and stuff and traffic and delays all. This is scaffolding. This is what god's using to build us to make us like christ. This is what's behind the scaffolding is to be like christ. The scaffolding itself is the stuff that we go through day to day. It's why we have blessings and sorrows in our life it's why the sun gets up it's why the sun goes down it's why we have jobs it's why we have occupations it's why christ came to this world and was born.

It's why christ died. It's why he rose again. It's why you were created. We talked about a few weeks ago you were created again with no consent involved but if you want to be transformed you have to give informed consent. It's a little paper you sign when you want surgery when you want medical treatment and you have to give your informed consent to jesus to say set up the scaffolding and really do a transformative work in my life amen. There would be fewer mysteries in your life if you saw things from that. You're looking at the scaffolding not the building behind not what he's doing not what he's trying to do which is change your life and be like christ. This is what he did. This is what he was focused on. It was his one aim. It wasn't even his one aim to reach the lost or to convert the jews or or save the this or that or it wasn't his wanting. This was his first and foremost aim to be like christ to know him and to be known by him to opera and be apprehended. Okay so we talked about this physical world and we have this spiritual world and it's like there's this this metal barrier between the two and you want to get from one to the other this is the place of darkness where the prince of this darkness reigns. And then there's this kingdom of heaven spiritual dimension and you want to go from one to the other and you transcend and but there's this big thick metal copper or iron wall between you and you turn around and there are two tools that have been left to you by the lord or by someone and one of them is a pillow with memory foam and the other is a drill with a diamond tipped attachment. So i'm a big fan of pillows like the next person but if you take that pillow and you slap at that metal wall you can just all day and all night till the cows come home hit that thing with that pillow and you can hit it with as much force as you want. The problem is that force is dispersed over a large distance.

And there's no impact so this is what paul is saying the conquering phrase. That's why it's the title of this message. This one thing i do this one thing i do. I'm super focused on this focused. Think the drill all the same amount of energy goes to one small spot. Okay if you go in under the water and this thing's filled with water 22 feet if you've calculated how much weight is on you. It's like two tons and you can swim around down here and everything if you just make a column of water that goes all the way up your back to the top here you would be crushed over okay. There's something about a singular focus of a weight that is more capable of penetrating and this is what transcendence is. This is back to this analogy. You drill you bore through that hole so that you then experience the spiritual dimension you experience who god is and what god has for your life you become focused on one thing. I'm a specialist i'm a vascular surgeon which means i know a real lot about a real little so if you ask me about your thing with your shoulder i don't know but this one thing i know asked me about veins. This is what paul is saying. I am focused on being like christ knowing him. That is my singular focus. That is what i'm about this one thing i do now. I know what you're saying you're saying people are going to say i am a fanatic. Yes they will they absolutely will they will mock you you depend on god you need a crutch but when they ask you what is it like to serve god hahaha you can always say what's it like to play god. There's only two things you can do in life. You're either serving god or think you are god. What else is there. Come on now amen. This is not a hobby. This is not something that you do in your free time when you have nothing else to do and netflix. New series. Hasn't come out yet. This is going after god and after god's own heart with the most important with the very best that you have and what does paul say here. He says that he forgets what is behind and goes forward to what's ahead when he runs the race.

Now we can certainly make the point that it's not just about forgetting there's things we need to remember. We need to remember the lord's mercies which are new every day. We need to remember that he saved us. We need to remember what he's done and how he's delivered us but we need to forget those things which haunt us and paralyze our hope. We need to forget those times in our life when we felt he wasn't there at the time but now we know there's a transcendent moment of us needing to just go deeper with him. There is no place in your life where he has been vic where the enemy has been victorious. That christ cannot be victorious in the future. That's what we have to understand people when they forget what's behind when they're running. What are they really saying. They're running a long race. They can't say oh in mile one. I should have done this. They can't be concerned with anything behind them or they won't complete their race. Paul had this buoyant energy because he had ever increasing hope he was becoming more and more like christ and he was headed closer and closer to heaven. Remember for me to live is christ and to die is gain. This is what paul looked like he was straining he was running towards being like christ and towards ultimately heaven and his goal. Now i'm a big fan of football and there's a difference between the mark and the prize so there's a difference between the goal line or the end zone and the prize. Sorry you non-patriots fans but when james white won the scored a touchdown in overtime in the last super bowl for the patriots. The mark was the pylon the end zone but the prize was the super bowl and paul is not saying that the prize is the mark. The mark is what he's running for that is not the prize though. The prize is christ amen that we ultimately see him. What does the world have to look forward to a black wall a black wall. There's nothing there's no hope without christ what are they.

They've got this wind tunnel on their backs and they're trying to michael jackson moonwalk away from where they're inevitably still moving forward. They're doing all these things anti-aging it's an endless thing. Skin treatments food modifications every day still getting one day older every day having to be in greater and greater denial that they will face death that they will meet their maker that they have no place for hope when they put their hope in themselves. That it's an empty thing. Remember serve god or be god what did what did satan say. When he hit the ground in in paradise lost. Well i'd rather be a king in hell than serve in heaven. That's every person's thing but for those of us who do want to serve who do want to be like christ who do want to know him. We run towards that goal. We run towards that mark and just as we stretch out and just as we reach out to touch it. The crown of life comes on our head the prize that we finish well done good and faithful servant the the the acceptance of knowing him of loving him of being known by him you.