Let's bow our heads together for a word of prayer, asking the Spirit to help us. Lord, Lord God, we in each week pray for you to bless us through your Word. And God, we want to absolutely acknowledge that we have not made it. Lord, there is various aspects of us that are so deeply stained with sin.

Lord God, each one of us has felt the frustration of not seeing growth, not seeing certain sins be completely removed. But Father God, I pray, Lord, that that would not hinder us from learning all the more. And especially tonight, again, as we look at your Word, would you help us to be washed?

Would you help us to be inspired and strengthened with your truth? Knowing full well, Father God, that apart from your truth, apart from your Spirit, our flesh is so weak. Our hearts are weak. Our minds are weak. And so God, we request and pray that your Spirit would help us in the reading and in the study of your Word.

This we pray in Christ's name, amen. Okay. Let's take a look at this passage together. And before I read the passage, I want to go through a quick review and kind of introductory remarks. And I want to recall with you guys that, remember, Apostle Paul has been actually giving various commands in previous sections.

And if you remember, Apostle Paul, from the beginning of the letter, has been trying to give his perspective. He's been giving his observation and interpretation about all that's happening in his life, which makes sense of the suffering, the persecution, his current imprisonment. And remember, he asked, you know, he challenged the church to make his joy complete by being of the same mind, meaning having that same perspective, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, and tend on one purpose, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves.

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus. Okay? So recall that already there was a previous command for us to have a certain attitude. And then later on, he said, "Join me in this great joy." What he said was, "Even if I'm being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.

You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me." And if you recall, I said, when he says this, he is talking about his entire worldview, which says, "My joy is to have Christ exalted. Whether in life or by death, if Christ is proclaimed, I'm happy." Right?

That was his interpretation and judgment of everything. And so, in the very last passage that we studied the previous week, he continued to expound upon his goal, that what he wants is to know the power of his resurrection, Jesus' resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, becoming like him the whole way through death, only so that he may obtain the power of the resurrection of Christ.

And if you recall, the way I summarized it was, all the way Jesus, right? He wants to know every part of Christ. Now, I do this review with you guys because the section that we're at now is an exhortational section that summarizes a lot. Yes? When he says, you know, "Press on.

I haven't obtained it yet," and all this kind of stuff, he's actually summarizing a lot. And so, therefore, we had to do a little bit of a review, thinking through all the various perspectives and worldview that Apostle Paul has. Now, I would like to make a quick comment about Bible study, that sometimes when you come across an exhortational passage like this, you can still do very close observations.

So you're asking the questions about, "What does he mean by obtain? Why does he say obtain when this is stuff that we are given as a gift? You know, what is it? Why does… We should do that." However, the exhortation was pretty clear. It's repetitive. It's really repetitive, right?

And so, these are moments when you should be thinking, "Hmm, this is highly applicational. Do I conceptually understand what he wants me to apply? And when he uses these words, do I understand what they mean, right? Am I thinking like Apostle Paul in this?" And so, you should be thinking like, "Have I already seen this applied in a certain way in my own life?

Do I… Do we as a community understand… I'm sorry. Do we as a community understand how this should be applied?" So, the thought should really meditate upon application and to understand, "Do I know even what and how I'm supposed to apply this?" Now, in thinking about that, okay, in thinking about that, I want us to now read the passage.

So, let's turn to our little packet of hand out there, and I'll read that for us. It says, "Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude.

And if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. However, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained." Okay? Now, I'm going to ask this question, "What is the summary, main exhortation of this passage?" I just finished saying this is a very exhortational thing and it's very repetitive.

In first sight, we may think that the challenge is persevere, press on. You're not there yet. Go, right? But actually, I think it's more so at the bottom where it says, "Have this attitude." Okay? It says, "Let us keep living." Right? Yes, he does repeat the words, "Press on, press on." But the way I'd like to summarize this for you is, there is this outline I want to give to you, is that Apostle Paul in verse 12 through 14 is showing you a self-example again of his mentality.

It started in chapter 3, verse 1, where he talked about... Oh, it's flickering, huh? I'm going to do an old school trick. Okay. Let's see if that works. You guys know what I'm talking about? Okay. Let's see if that works. Please. It also could be... Did it go? Not quite, huh?

Yay. Nope, that's not what I wanted. Okay. We're here. Okay. I'm not going to touch it. Okay. So, Apostle Paul is showing us his mentality, which started in chapter 3, verse 1 through 11. And he's actually saying in verse 15, the exhortation comes strong, not just this expectation like you better go, you better not quit, but he's actually saying, no, I want you to have this whole perspective, understanding that you're not there yet, this humility that you're not perfect, but pressing on towards the goal that God has given you and has called you to.

That whole entire mentality I want you to have. That's the exhortation. Okay? All right. So, then let's jump in and break that down. Part one. The first part of that is his mentality is not yet. Okay? Not yet. And what we have here, I highlighted it for you, it says, not that I've already obtained it or I've already become perfect.

That's what he says in verse 12. And then he repeats the idea in verse 13, brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. And therefore, we see this reiterated concept like I'm not there yet. Right? Like I haven't fully made it. We get that.

Now, the important question is, what is it? And I ask you this question. For the sake of time, I'm going to run through, perhaps in our table we discussed a couple of things. It could be like, since he just finished saying that I want to fully understand Christ's experience, maybe he's talking about really understanding it all.

Right? Could it be a full knowledge of Jesus? Could it be simply the resurrection, which was his last thought in verse 11? Could it be perfection? Because in the immediate context, he actually parallels those two thoughts, right? When he says, I have not obtained it or have already become perfect.

Or is it later in verse 14 when he talks about this upward call? There's not going to be a way to say, no, this is it, right? Emphatically. However, you do typically operate off of what is the immediate context that you see it in. What's more, you think about the idea of his use of the term perfection.

So in verse 12 when he says that I have not already obtained it or already have become perfect, that's the best indicator for you in the immediate context about what he could mean. So let's think about that a little bit. The apostle Paul says, I haven't become perfect yet.

And I want to show you this dictionary entry that the term really generally refers to a completeness, right? To make perfect by reaching its intended goal, right? So is it wrong for someone to say what he's talking about is not so much that he hasn't reached glorification, but that he's still in the process?

He hasn't reached the end goal yet. That's permissible. Is he talking about the fact that he is not 100% in the maturity of Christ, meaning he's not in perfect conformity to the character of Jesus? That also could be it, right? Now in thinking about this though, I think what's important for us is remember thinking and reflecting how does this apply in the way that I'm thinking?

Because I can't remember ever a time when I showed up and I was like, dang, look at you, like looking in the mirror and thinking you're perfect, right? How many of you guys ever done that? I'm guessing nobody, right? Or if you have, we need to talk. We probably haven't.

So how do we do this? Like in what way? You should ask this question. How does this apply? In what way have we in contrary fashion thought that we've already made it? What I'm going to say is type A. There is a type A where pride settles in. You might not think that you're perfect.

You might not think that you're Jesus. You might not think like you're Apostle Paul, right? But sometimes we think we're better than at least our community. We've made it enough sometimes we think. Like I've done enough. I've done plenty, right? Sometimes we think, oh no. For the viewers at home, I want to make sure this thing works, but I'm not sure what's going on.

You know, I've got another trick up my sleeve. I'm going to jam my pencil in there and see if it holds it up. Did it work? Oh, it is kind of working. Yes, thank you. So there is that kind of mentality that can catch up with you where you've been living your Christian life for a certain time and it's like sometimes there's this even subtle thought I don't need to read because I already know.

It's right here, man. That's pretty arrogant if you think that way, okay? Sometimes I've caught myself where it's not so much that I think that I've already made it, but if someone is trying to teach me, it feels like, you know, there's just this weird resistance to someone pushing you more, right?

And you know what's really interesting about this is when we started the study of Philippians, there was a passage I want to go to which was Philippians chapter 1, 6. Please turn your Bibles over there really fast, okay? Philippians 1, 6. And remember we started with this whole idea.

Apostle Paul's prayer for you was not, "I hope you have enough. I hope that you do enough. I hope that you serve enough. I hope that you evangelize enough." No, that's not what he said. He actually kept praying and he wanted to admonish them to do all the more.

So what does he say? Verse 6, he says this, "I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." What's more, later on, he talks about, oh goodness, oh, later on in verse 10, "So that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the spirit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God." Right?

Apostle Paul wants individuals to be filled and blameless before Jesus. That is an incredible standard far above what we think is, "I think I did enough." Okay? And what's more, for the sake of time, we're not going to turn there, but 2 Peter 1, 3-9, that is a passage that says, you know what?

If you think you have knowledge, you should add to that knowledge understanding. If you think you have an understanding, then you should add to that diligence. And if you have diligence, it just keeps going on and on and on about how we should be ever growing. What am I talking about?

If ever you've been tempted to think, "I'm at least ahead of the pack," God did not call you to that. Right? Every single Christian should have this ever-growing hunger, "I want more of Christ in my life. I want more of teaching because there's so much I don't know. I know nothing yet." Every individual who's serving should be thinking, not to the hurtful way, but in a genuine desire, "I want to serve the Lord.

I want to exemplify Christ. I want Him exalted, proclaimed. I want more and more." And even if you're already loving, Scripture says, "I want you to abound even more in love." Right? You love in a way where nobody has to even teach you, but I want you to even abound more.

Christians, good and godly Christians, should be some of the most spiritually ambitious people around. Does that sound weird to you when I say that, that Christians should be ambitious? Should Christians be in it to win it? And the answer is yes. Remember Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians? Don't fight like you're just there.

Run like you're trying to win. This passage is so exhortational and we need to hear it. What's more, I think there's another way in which we have the wrong mentality and not the "I'm not there yet" mentality, which is the hopelessness mentality. The "I'll never be there. I'm never enough.

Doesn't matter who teaches me. No one can help because I can't learn. I can't even go. I've already tried. Failed too many times." You see, this kind of mentality is so incredibly dangerous because it absolutely diminishes what we're supposed to be thinking about the "not there yet." In reality, Jesus Christ is working in you and through you.

The Holy Spirit is deposited in you and has surrounded you. And should we think that this, this kind of mentality is the sum conclusion of that power working in us, we don't understand the "not yet." I think when Apostle Paul is saying "not yet," he's saying so much more than "Oh, goodness, woe is me." That's not what he's saying, right?

So that's part one. Apostle Paul says, "Not yet." Part two, he says, "I press on." So clearly already you see parallel, right? Verse 12 and then verse 13 and 14, you see a parallel of Apostle Paul reiterating the same concepts in different fashion. Right smack in the middle of his sentences, he says, "I press on so that I may lay hold of that." Verse 13, "Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal." So likewise, we want to do a quick word study and ask him the question, "What does Apostle Paul mean when he says 'press on'?" Okay?

Excuse me. So this term here, when he says "press on," I wanted to highlight it because we should get from his words a visual image. When Apostle Paul uses this, the definition, the most frequent used definition is to move quickly, energetically towards something of an objective. You're literally trying to go and get something, right?

You pressing on isn't just like, "Oh, it's hard, but I'm walking," right? "I'm slowly walking there," right? It's actually, there is an urgency. You're rushing to go grab that objective you have, right? And for those of us who love sports, we get the whole imagery. It's like, man, if the ball's in the air and you're a receiver, go get it.

You don't sit there and wait for it to come to you. Go get it, right? That should be the mentality. So we know that Apostle Paul uses this kind of terminology and has that same concept in other passages as well. 1 Timothy 6, verse 12, "Fight the good fight of faith.

Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." I use this term, and what I want to highlight for you is this term here, "take hold." There's a pen. Okay? "Take hold," okay? Because the press on idea, he's going to repeat in the attain and hold idea, okay?

Do you like my pen skills? All right. The next passage is 1 Timothy 6, "Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that," take a look at this, "they may take hold of that which is life indeed." So when you look at this passage, and it talks about pressing on, so that I may hold, and he uses that again, we realize there is actually an incredible sense of energy and urgency.

He wants you to have this mentality of, "I am literally reaching forward to grab the prize," okay? When I talk about this, you know, there was a part of me that wondered, like, "Man, I honestly, I've never really been a coach. I don't know how to be like, 'Come on, guys, let's do it!'" My temperament is not like that, you know, and it's just going to be awkward.

But part of me, I was thinking, like, "But that's what I should do." Because what Apostle Paul is doing is saying, "Look, look at the mentality that I have. I'm taking initiative. I know I haven't made it yet. I know I'm not perfect, right? I haven't been completed yet." Rather than that being a discourage to me, that is a huge, huge challenge and impetus for me to have this desire to not sit back passively.

And honestly speaking, I think right now, you know, if I want to think about our generation, there is an incredible amount of passivity. We're constantly waiting for somebody else to go and lead the way. We're constantly waiting for somebody else to pave the path. We're constantly waiting, like, "Who's going to take care of this problem?

Who's going to do this issue? Who's going to do that?" And honestly speaking, there should be in us a great, great challenge to what the passage says to both press on and to lay hold. Okay. Now, as I say that, what's very interesting is I believe what Apostle Paul meant for an added impetus, an added encouragement to that sometimes is confusing, which is the whole balance between our work and Christ's work.

So I ask you that question, how does this passage address it? How does this passage speak to that issue a little bit? And you see it right away, right? You see that he says, "I press on so that I may lay hold of that," and then he says, "But Christ already held me," right?

I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus for this. And what's more, I'm, like, pressing forward and I'm reaching ahead, but God already called me to this. Did you guys catch that? And so those two parallel constructions have both elements in there, right? Now, I wanted to give some diagrams because I was like, "Oh, cool.

PowerPoint can show you these cool diagrams," right? For us, I think our problem is that we regularly think in zero-sum game, meaning if I'm doing the holding, then he's not. If he's doing the holding, then I'm not. Who's doing the holding, right? But remember, God does not have to operate on our linear path.

It doesn't have to be a zero-sum game, okay? What's really interesting, though, I thought about this for a little bit, and I started for some reason thinking back to when I was young, when I first became Christian. And what's really interesting is somebody actually explained it to me this way.

What happens is Jesus worked, and he set into motion your work. So that's what it is, is he put you into motion and he released you, and now you must go and fulfill his plan, right? Have you guys ever heard that kind of preaching? That's the way I learned it when I was younger.

When I would sometimes visit other churches or visit other places, they actually had it even the other way. They were like, "You need to work because God helps those who work." Have you guys ever heard that? God helps the people who help themselves. And I was like, "Yeah, that sounds right." And then later I learned the Bible, I was like, "That's pretty off." I don't think that's right.

What the Scripture says is there is this power exerted by God where he has unified you with Christ. You're one, right? That's what the Scripture says. For your later encouragement, read John chapter 17, which is Jesus' high priestly prayer. I love it because what Jesus prays is not, "God, do this so that they are empowered to go reach the ends of the earth." You know what he says?

He says, "God, protect and keep these people in your name. And just like I'm in you, keep them in you. You in me, I in you, they in me, we would be one." You guys remember that? It's amazing. There is this incredible power of God that causes us to be spiritually united with Christ where he says, "It is me working in you and through you." And then the apostle Paul says in Galatians, "It's no longer I who even live.

It's Christ." Where? "In me." So if you notice, I hid this little you in there. That's my diagram for you guys for today. I hope you are encouraged and left uplifted by all that. The reason why this all matters is because for some people, hearing about Christ's sovereignty in his work, because it's all confusing, they're just kind of like, "I don't know what to do with that." And they lose out on this incredible, incredible opportunity, I would say, or foundation is better word, incredible theological truth that's supposed to empower you to press on.

Because you operate by your human eyes and you're not seeing the incredible power that's not just simply around you working your circumstance, it's with you. That's the spiritual truth. Christ is in you and you are in Christ. And so when Apostle Paul is going to then say, "This is how I press on," we should be absolutely uplifted by that.

And so he says, "I press on," and what's really interesting about all this is after that then he... Oh, sorry. After that then he gives this major exhortation in part three. "Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude." And remember, here the exhortation is not simply, "You know what?

You need to go. I know you hit a wall, but just suck it up and do it," right? No, actually there's so much more than the biblical challenge to that, because your exhortation of fighting and working and laboring is never outside of the context of the sovereignty of God.

And the reality is, yes, you're not perfect, but rather than being all discouraged by that, Apostle Paul is saying, "I want you to have this attitude." Now ask this question. Verse 15 through 16 reads really different in the ESV. Does someone have that still? Like someone still using the ESV Bible?

I'm sure a good number of you guys are, right? Can someone read that out loud for us and then kind of highlight what do you think is the key differences there? Brave soul, raise your hand. Thank you, Nathan. You can't point to somebody else. You do it. So passive, right?

Excellent. So you notice there he says, rather than just simply saying, "Hey, have this attitude," he says, "Actually think this way," right? I ask you this interesting question. What is attitude? Is it when you stub your toe in the morning and you're like, "Great, this is going to be a horrible day," and then you get to work and then you're just grumpy?

Is that attitude? Could be, yes. What's really interesting is the word for attitude here, the most common definition is to employ one's faculty for thoughtful planning. Kind of different than maybe what we think of attitude, right? Maybe we think of attitude as just like you're frowning. It's like, "Hey, turn that frown upside down," right?

Your attitude is just typically your feelings, right? Your disposition of how you feel that day. It's just like, "Oh, it's a gloomy day. I'm all gloomy and stuff." But actually the scriptures talk about it as you need to think in this pattern. You need to exercise your God-given ability to think by the truths that God has given you, by what you understand, right?

Please. Okay. Now, this is super important because as you guys know, I regularly kind of talk about arenas where I think it's really helpful to people on a day-to-day basis. Remember how I showed you this? Okay. When I have somebody who says this, I believe they are in a judgment of their lives.

Now, I said that in a very purposeful way. What I mean by is this. These things that people say where I'm already there, I'll never be there, those are conclusive judgments about me. So in my perspective, attitude is a judgment. This is what needs to happen. Apostle Paul, when he has this mindset, a worldview, an attitude, he has a judgment.

And what he said was, "You know what I observe? I observe that I've been saved by the Messiah, the Lord of all. The Son of God has saved me, me, the greatest of all sinners, and he's given me the incredible privilege to proclaim his name, to exalt his glory.

So I'm suffering. I observe that. But I don't interpret this as bad. I conclude this is good. I am where I should be." That's his judgment. We all exercise the faculty, our mental faculty of planning and thinking. And what we do is we observe, we interpret, and then we judge.

Your attitude is your judgment. And what needs to happen is you have to surrender that to God. If you are in here struggling with this downcast attitude, "My life is horrible. I'm never going to get there. I've fallen too many times. I can't learn. I can't move from here.

He's telling me to grow and persevere, and I just can't. I don't have the strength for that." Understand some of that is, yes, you're just discouraged. Some of that you just need some more hope. But some of that is a pattern of you observing some things about yourself, interpreting it according to your own wisdom, and then concluding and judging yourself.

You do not have the authority. You have to surrender that. Let me give you an example. Right? Let's say Elder Joe is right here. I'm sorry. I'm just going to use you as an example because you're right there. And let's say one of his children were just like right here, right in front of me, you know?

And then, you know, they're just like, "Oh, my goodness, so cute. He looks just like you." And you know, his babies, when they were babies, they were like plump, right? It's like, "Oh, my gosh, he's so plump and supple and so cute. I just want to squeeze his cheeks," right?

He would feel honestly like happy, like, "Yeah, that's my son. He looks just like me," you know? But then imagine if, you know, Richard's right there, and I see his kid, and it's like, "Dude, he's like so huge, but in a gross way." And I started making all these weird comments, like, "Why is he like that?

What a strange kid. Who's son is..." You know, like, I started commenting like, "Oh, he's never going to make it. He's going to be a runt. He's going to be a..." Imagine if I said that stuff, how would Richard feel? Right? He'd be pissed. Like, "Who are you, dude?

Learn to control your mouth. You're not allowed to say that stuff about other people's kid," right? Why? Because that's his kid. The only difference is I'm a third party. When you make judgments about yourself, that's you making judgments about someone who's not your own. You're not your own. You've been purchased by the blood of Christ, and God calls you a child.

When you make those comments, think about the feelings of the father. Yes? You don't have the authority to say that kind of stuff. You don't have the authority to make those judgments of, "I will never be there." You don't have that authority. What I found as I counsel people was that sometimes the reason why it's so hard to change attitude is because they have to surrender all of that judgment to God.

Right? You've got to surrender your observation, you've got to surrender your interpretation, and you also have to surrender your conclusion. We have to learn to do this. Why? Because exhortation is not, "Just go. I know you failed. Just get up and go. Press on." That's not the exhortation. The exhortation is have this attitude of humility.

I'm not there yet. I'm a work in progress that God is working on, and He's in me. Have this mentality that you can persevere because God has enabled you, but He has enabled you in a sovereign way where He has already held you, and He has already called you.

Amen? That's the context in which we operate. That's the confidence we have when Scripture tells you, "Press on." And so I want to conclude there that the Scripture says in this incredible fashion at the very end, verse 16, "Let us therefore," right? "Let us therefore keep living by the same." It says standard here, but it's really interesting.

That word is not necessarily in the Greek. That part of it's just in order to make it make sense, they added that. But the idea is, "Let us therefore live by the same standard to which we've attained already." God has held us. God has sovereignly called us, and it is His desire for us to press on with that kind of, you can say, attitude.

Let's just call it simplistically faith. When we're operating by all those truths, when we're operating by all of those convictions, all of those confidences in God, what we're doing is walking by faith. Amen? Let's take a moment to pray. Lord, we want to thank you so much for your grace.

And God, we thank you, Lord, that Christ has prayed for us, that we would be protected and guarded and kept in the name of God, the powerful name of God. And so therefore, with great security, with great assurance, Lord, when you call, then we'll follow. Lord, when you give us this exhortation, we want to obey.

And Lord, I pray for any individual who's discouraged, who is feeling hopeless, would you grant to them the great strength that comes from the power of your word, and what's more, the awareness of your spirit, the powerful spirit that's working in us and through us. And I do pray, Father God, that, yes, we are so susceptible to living by our sight.

And Lord, that's very discouraging, because all we see is deficiency, weakness, and brokenness. But God, we pray that we would walk by faith, looking forward to the great hope we have in Christ, looking forward to the great eternity in heaven, which you have prepared for us. Lord, we thank you and love you.

It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen.