One Thing Changes Everything

0:07How much time do you have? That's the question I want to ask you, because the answer actually might be different than what you know. In fact, according to a Huffington Post article, your time is quite limited. If you live to the average age of the average person, you're going to live about 79-plus or so years. But of course, as you can see in this quick infographic, the number of years that you have is already accounted for by a number of things.

0:33That is to say, if you live to the average age of 79 years and change, you have a lot of things that are already biting out of your time. For instance, you look at their graph here, you have a lot of your time divided by activities that you rarely think twice about. In fact, let's talk about your sleep time. One-third of your life is going to be spent in bed. 7 years of that 1/3 is you trying to sleep.

0:56That's kind of a bummer. Feels like a waste. But this is what you're going to spend in, in your bed, and this is by God's design. God put you to sleep for a reason. You're supposed to sleep.

1:06It's not a good thing to skip sleep. It's a, it's a God-given thing. So at least a third of your life, some of us longer, some of us less, it's gonna be spent in bed. Something you'll do after this meeting, I'm sure, is spend some time eating around the dinner table, maybe you'll drive over to Hutchins, and you'll spend approximately 4 years and 6 months of your life simply chewing and eating food. Not a bad thing.

1:29Again, God has given us the gift of food. He's given us the gift of communion and hanging out with brothers and sisters and family members, etc. This is a good thing, but notice it's a big bite of your life. Pun intended. Yes, thank you, thank you.

1:42I heard a couple groans. Thank you for hearing that. 4 years and 6 months. A couple other odds and ends: you'll probably spend about 235 days in line, queuing the way that they use it here, 115 days just laughing. That number actually kind of hurt my feelings there.

2:00115 days laughing. I'd hope to have more days. I want to laugh more. Brings up something I'm— this is a side note, this is not part of my notes, but I'm gonna say it anyway. I listen to a lot of John MacArthur.

2:11Years ago, I remember listening to one of his interviews, and one of the guys on stage— I'm not sure who it was— they said, Dr. MacArthur, you used to be really funny in the pulpit. You're not funny anymore. What happened? And I thought, you know what? He was funny when he was younger.

2:24Because if you listen to his earlier sermons, he's a really kind of a— like, he just tells a lot of jokes. A really humorous kind of guy. He's funnier than you realize if you hear him only today. And so MacArthur says one thing, and I've never forgotten it. He says, I don't laugh as much.

2:41I don't tell as many jokes because life's not as funny anymore. Whew, sent a chill down my spine. As a pastor, you're going to see a lot of things. As a Christian, you're going to see a lot of things that cause you to sober up. Things aren't as funny as they used to be.

2:53115 days you'll spend laughing if you're the average person. Getting ready for the morning. How long does a woman spend getting ready for the morning? How long does a man spend getting ready for the morning? If you're anticipating it correctly, you're probably right on track.

3:08But just in your mind, think of a number. Uh, I'll give you a hint, it's not years. It's not years. So how many days does the average woman spend getting ready? How many days does the average man spend getting ready?

3:20Got a number? All right, here it goes.

3:24136 days to a man's 46 days. Now of course there's exceptions to the rule. There's always going to be exceptions. I'm sure that there's a guy or two out there that take longer to get ready than their wives, but by and large, on average, women, the fairer sex, the gentler sex, they just like spending time getting beautiful. Hey, more power to you.

3:44But there you go. That's about how much time you're spending your average life doing those things, which is a lot of time. It's a lot of time. Uh, what's left? Now, I didn't include everything that you could think about in terms of what takes up your time.

3:54You could think of a million other things, small things, large things that take up your time. Commuting, cleaning, Um, what's left with your life to do the rest of the things? This will surprise you, I think. You have, if they're right, 8 years and 2 months to do the rest of you— to do everything else in your life. 8 years and 2 months.

4:16It got me to thinking, man, if that's what we have to work with, if I knew that all I had in my life was 8 years and 2 months to work with, that would really change the way that I look at my average day. I go to church, and when I go to, uh, you know, I go to work, I'm driving on the highway, I would think about those things realizing, man, I've only got a few short years to do the things that God has called me to do. You and I are in the same ship. We don't know if God's going to give us 80 years. We hope and pray for that, and sometimes we have people that live far longer than that, but we also know people live far less than that.

4:47Our job is to say, okay, Lord, with the few short years you've given me, whether there's 80 or 8, How do I live faithfully? How do I make my days matter? How do I make my days count? What do I do with the days that God has given? Uh, poet Mary Oliver said this, and I love the way she phrases it.

5:04I just thought I'd give it to you here. Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? And that surely comes into focus when we think about the fact that the wild and precious life that God has given us is only really 8 years of free time to do what we want, to make the impact that we're hoping to make, to raise the kids that we're hoping to raise, to influence the next generation, to do something valuable with the few short breaths that God has given us. It's a good thing for us to do in the beginning of a year. It's 2025, and if the Lord tarries— he's done so far— we'll have another year ahead of us.

5:39But one thing I'm terrified about is that we go through another year on autopilot, that we're just doing the next thing because that's what we've always done. I always go to church on Sundays. I always do this thing on Monday. I always do this thing on Thursday. And certainly there's something to be said for discipline, but autopilot's different.

5:55It's us just kind of working through a malaise, a fog, and just going through the motions, living life or letting life be lived through us, but not really living the way that we wish we would have if we knew our time was short. So this morning I want you to think about the fact that your time is short. Either your time is short in that you only have 8 years approximately to do what you need to do, or the fact that your timer is going to run up sooner than that. You may not have a full 80 years. God may give you far less than that.

6:24God's not obligated to give us a full 80. What are you going to do with the time God's given you? How much time do you have? What are you going to do with it? In 2025, what I want to encourage you as a church to do, as a Christian, as a church, family in Christ, I want you to make your life matter for the right things.

6:41I want you to think clearly and carefully, am I doing good? Am I living life in such a way where if God would take my life today, I could stand before Him and say, Lord, I did the best I could?

6:54A lot of us probably couldn't say that, and I don't say that to your shame. I say that with the awareness that there's so many things that I still want to grow up and do better. I want to grow in Christ. I don't want to be static. I don't want to be complacent.

7:05I want to grow. I want to level up in Christ. This is not about vain conceit. This is not about you saying, wow, what a great guy he is. This is not about us saying we want to praise ourselves and pat ourselves on the back really hard.

7:15No, this is about something bigger and better than that. Let me show it to you. Philippians chapter 3, verses 12 through 16. It's only a few short verses, but I want you to see something critical. Paul's going to show us what life's about, and he's going to show us a life that matters, a life that's valuable to the Lord and valuable to everyone else around you.

7:33In other words, you put this sermon into practice, this is going to change a lot of things in your life.

7:37Last week Pastor PJ encouraged us to get in the Bible. Huge, critical. But this actually might stand before that. This might be the mindset behind the Bible reading. Because it is possible to read your Bible and to walk away unchanged, or changed in a negative way.

7:53Just think of the Pharisees, masters of the Bible, and yet Jesus lambasted them, called them out, and said, you guys are whitewashed tombs. You strain a gnat, but you swallow a camel. You don't want that for us. Philippians 3:12-16, we're going to look at just these few verses. I have a lot to say in a short amount of time.

8:15Buckle up. Okay, 3:12, Paul says this: Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect. Now it sounds like he's picking up from something he's already started, and you would be right. In fact, let's back up just a few verses here. And look at— starting at verse 9.

8:32I read to you all of chapter 3, and that was on purpose. I was hoping to give you the flavor of the chapter that we're looking at here. Paul says in verse 9, I want to be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. Verse 10, that I may know him. That's what we're talking about today.

8:57That I may know Him, and I may know the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings. I don't know many Christians that are saying that, but that's what Paul's praying. I want to share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. That's what Paul has in mind when he says, not that I have already obtained this. The this is the resurrection.

9:21The glory of Christ, the full knowledge of Christ, coming to the awareness of all that Christ is for all that I am in Him. Paul is saying, that's what I want, but I'm not there yet. He's concerned that maybe the Philippians might think, oh, Paul, you've arrived, you've made it. You're Pastor Paul, you're the Apostle Paul, you're of the tribe of Benjamin, you're a Hebrew of Hebrews, you're a— you know, you've got zeal and righteousness. Paul says, hold up, I'm not there yet.

9:47And I know that. Paul wants them to be clear, I'm not perfect. Paul's aware of something that you and I need to be aware of, that we're never really there, are we? In this life, we're never finally arrived. In fact, for many of you guys, there's a lot of you guys that I was thinking about when I wrote this sermon, thinking they're mature in the faith, they're already making progress, they read the Bible every day, they pray pretty regularly as far as I know, they're doing it right.

10:11What could this sermon possibly have to say to them? And the answer is, you're not there yet. And all of us know that intuitively, but the next phase of our development, our growth in Christ, means that we have to know where we are in Christ. And Paul knows that where he is is not there. It's not at maturity, and not at full maturity.

10:29Christian growth starts with that awareness. I preached a sermon to the men— men, you'll have to just kind of recall on this— talking about the need for us to be self-aware, to know where we are in order to make progress to where we want to go. It's like a map saying, here's where I am on these cross streets, and I want to go here, I need to know where I am to get there. Paul is saying, where I am, I'm not there yet. I have so much more to go, so much more runway to make my way down.

10:52Which is— man, just real quick here— it's so good for you to hear that from the Apostle Paul, because I want you to have that same mentality. Holy discontentment. I'm not there yet. And one of the responses that you can have is like, oh, I'm not there yet, man, woe is me, this stinks. I want to get better.

11:06I try every year. I'm always I'm always trying, but I never quite make it. Man, there's a mindset that is discouragement, but there's also a mindset of, man, I want to make it my own. Lord, help me. Self-examination should lead to holy discontentment, not discouragement.

11:21Verse 12, Paul says, I'm not there yet, but I press on to make it my own. We're going to cover that in verse 13, so just keep a pin in that for now. I want you to notice the last part of verse 12. This is critical. This is the foundation of the sermon.

11:32Notice what Paul says. I press on to make it my own because— that because is a weighty because. This is huge. This ought to be your because too. Here's what he says, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.

11:46I do all that I do because I belong to Christ. I love my wife because I belong to Christ. I serve my kids because I belong to Christ. I go to work and I slave heartily because I belong to Christ. I do what I do.

11:59Because He has made me His own, which means now I'm owned. I belong to Christ. My life belongs to Christ. Everything about what I endeavor to do, the dreams that I have, the goals that I aspire to, the people I have in my life, it's because of Christ. His influence on my life means that I now align everything under His leadership.

12:19Because He has made me His own. Because He has made me His own. I don't want you to not hear anything besides that right now. Because He has made me His own. If you're going to make progress in the Christian faith, you need to have a because Christ has made me his own leading the charge for you.

12:33I put it like this, point number 1, you should fuel your focus, fuel your progress, fuel your future with love for Christ. It's got to be the thing inside of you that motivates you to get up in the morning. It's got to be the thing inside of you that gets you going, because otherwise, what are you operating from? It's not going to be love, it's going to be something else, and it'll be something inferior. And it will wear thin.

12:54It won't last. A long time ago, when I was a boy, I was at my Tía Chata's house. Tía means aunt. Chata is a nickname. I don't know her real name, but that's her name.

13:05Tía Chata. I was at my Tía Chata's house, and I was playing with one of her dogs. I don't remember what kind, but I was straddling the dog like this. I had the dog underneath me, and I don't know how old I am, but I'm single digits for sure. This dog turns around and growls at me and says basically, get off my back.

13:20I didn't get that message. There was no Cesar Millan at this point, so I was just looking at the dog saying, what's your problem? This is fun! And I started trying to lean on him. He turns around, bites me in the face.

13:29Bit my lip. Started bleeding all over the dog. I'm shocked. Run inside. Ahhh!

13:35You know, my face is on fire, it's bloody. Um, they ended up shooting the dog. And the dog had it coming. He shouldn't have bit me. But ever since then, ever since then, I've really— I've had this nervousness around dogs for obvious reasons, right?

13:57You kind of— that scars you a little bit. You kind of get nervous around dogs. And so I've had this apprehensiveness, let's call it that, around big dogs, because each— they can hurt you. Cesar Millan taught me I have to be calm assertive, and so I try really hard though.

14:14That was tested a few years ago, and by a few I mean about 15 years ago. And it was tested in a surprising way. My wife and I and our newborn son were leaving our apartment complex, and as we walked toward our car, here lie 2 massive— I think they were German Shepherds. German Shepherds. And if I remember right, they were full-grown.

14:35I don't know how big they were. They were probably each like 300 pounds at least. Each of them sitting there looking at us menacingly. I saw the hair stand up on the back of their neck. They stand at attention.

14:46They bow up to me, and they start barking and growling at us. And here I am with my family walking to our car, and I'm pretty sure Kristen was to the right of me and the dogs were to the right of her. So if you can imagine that in your head, the dogs are now standing at attention. They're, they're on some stairs perched, ready to pounce. I had a decision to make.

15:04I've got these threatening dogs, I've got my family right here. So I turn around and I ran. Just kidding, I didn't do that. What really happened, they're barking, they're coming at us, and in my mind I'm calculating what has to happen right now. What do I do?

15:20And so in my mind I determined I'm going to have to kill these dogs. That's where my mind went, serious. I'm thinking, how's that going to happen? They're going to come at us, I'm going to pin them on the ground, I'm going to choke them to death. That's what has to happen, they have to die.

15:34What ended up happening, what really happened, something in me took over. I jumped in front of them, between them and the dogs, and I yelled at the dogs with the manliest voice I could muster, down! No! You know, doing this thing, making myself big. And to my surprise, they stopped.

15:54They were still barking at us, but then they backed up like, this dude is crazy, better not mess with him. We get into the car safely. Jacob's in the car, Kristen's in the car. I'm shaking a bit because I'm still running on adrenaline just trying to figure out what happened. Who was that out there?

16:11How did I do that? And I came to this conclusion: I am naturally apprehensive about dogs, but in that moment my love for my family kicked in where I was willing to lose life and limb to care for them. One of the motivations for the Christian life is fear. Get your act together! Do it better!

16:34Why can't you be more like your sister? You know, why can't you be more like your brother? Why can't you do it better? Why aren't you a better Christian by this point? There is a real fear and a guilt that can drive your progress.

16:45But let me encourage you, that's the kind of progress that won't last. That fuel runs out really quickly. It's powerful, but it won't last. The kind of fuel that does last is the fuel of because he has made me his own. Love for Christ will persevere when fear long fades away.

17:04Love is powerful. Love will make you do things that you might not want to do. Love is what's going to cause you to say, Jesus, you're worth it. You've loved me, and therefore I can love you back. Because Christ Jesus had made me his own.

17:17What I guess what I'm trying to get here, what I'm trying to help you understand, is that for the Christian we never grow up from the gospel. We have to remember who we are and whose we are if we're going to make 2025 and 2026, '27, and on and on and on count and matter. Where we can look back and say, I don't have regret for 2025. I wish I would have done things, some things differently, yes, but on the whole I lived for Christ, and that's what matters. I want you to fuel your focus with love for Christ.

17:47Romans 8:32, Paul says it like this. He's giving us encouragement to know that God is for you and God wants you to make progress. He says this in Romans 8:32, He who did not spare His own Son— if the Father who didn't hold back His Son for you but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? In other words, you can stay in the race because God is for you. He loves you.

18:14If you can settle that right now, this year could be such a good thing for you. The progress, the growth that you'll make will be so good if you can settle this. For some of you, I know, and I was just thinking about the sermon, thinking about you guys, and thinking, okay, people in the crowd, there are some that really struggle with this. Does He love me? How do I know He loves me?

18:30How do I know I'm in Him? How do I know that He's for me? And the shortest answer I can give to you is that you have to know because of what the Gospel says. You have to trust that. You have to believe that.

18:39If you don't, you're never going to get to this place. You're never going to want to do this because you're always going to be operating from fear. Let love drive, fuel your focus for Christ.

18:51When this happens, something clicks in place, and I want to show it to you. Take a look at verses 13 through 15 with me. In fact, let's back up to verse 12 just to get the context again.

19:03Here's what's going to happen, take a look. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, family of God, he's saying, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do— and I think Paul means this, pay attention now— one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, which is one way for Paul to say, look. I'm straining toward hitting the target.

19:53I'm straining— he's using the language of a racer, a sprinter. I'm sprinting hard. I'm running as fast as I can toward the goal of knowing Christ. And the prize is knowing Jesus. The prize is loving Jesus.

20:04The prize is becoming more acquainted with who he is and what he's done for me and how to live in light of that truth. He's saying, I'm running toward that, and I'm giving it all I've got. I am pressing on as hard as I can. And then verse 15, he says this, let those of us who are mature think this way. I love this.

20:22Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. I love this because it's a way for Paul to say, look, you might disagree with what I'm saying. You might think, well, the Christian life, that sounds too militaristic. That sounds like you're putting a lot of works into the run of the Christian life. Pastor Rod, isn't it more like you let go and let God?

20:42And Paul's saying, hold on a second, if you don't agree with me and you disagree with what I'm talking about here, God's going to show you. I trust that. This is not Paul speaking, this is not Paul just making up his best ideas about God. He's saying, look, I am giving you apostolic truth that is from the Lord about how to live the Christian life. And he says, if you don't agree, I trust you will.

21:02You'll get it. If you're in Christ, you will get it. I love this. It's not smugness, it's Paul's confidence. Evidence that the Spirit is at work in the life of the Philippians, and he's trusting that in the work of the Spirit they're going to come to the awareness that Christianity is not automatic growth.

21:19You must intend to grow.

21:22I love the idea that Paul offers here. One thing, one thing, one thing. I couldn't get that out of my head. This idea that there has to be a way of looking at the Christian life such that you don't see it as a panoply of things to do, but a singular focus and drive toward the one thing that really matters. And what that one thing practically looks like then is saying all of my life must be subsumed under Christ's leadership.

21:46One thing must dominate everything. And what that's going to look like then is here's the one thing that drives my life. My marriage comes underneath that. My parenting comes underneath that. My career comes underneath that.

21:58Everything about who I am has to be subsumed under that one all-encompassing goal. That's the one thing. Paul says, that's what my life's about. And what that requires then is me to forget what lies behind. It means I have to let go of the things that are behind me that are going to slow down my race, which for some of us might mean failure.

22:18In the past I ran, I didn't do so well, I did this and that, I lost this particular situation, I'm disappointed by this, I'm ashamed of this or that. Paul says you have to be willing to let those things go in order to make progress forward. Forgetting the past, not only failures but also your achievements. Some of us have been faithful in the Bible, faithful in our Bible reading, faithful in our church attendance, and it might be easy to rest on our laurels and say, man, I've done it. I've made it.

22:43I'm doing it. I think Paul would say don't let that slow you down. Don't let that slow you down. Keep making forward progress.

22:52The word priority, I read recently, came into the English language in the 1400s, and it was singular, and it always has been up until the 1900s. In the 1900s, the word priority became plural, and we started to use the term to talk about priorities. This author writes, illogically, we reasoned that by changing the word, we could bend reality somehow. We would now be able to have multiple first things. You probably feel some sense of like, oh yeah, I get that.

23:25We talk about priorities. But realistically, we can only have one thing that drives us, and that one thing must be— for the Christian, it must be Christ, his glory, his honor, knowing him, loving him, serving him. He deserves our first. He deserves our best. That one thing must drive your life, and for you to do that, you have to focus.

23:44Point number 2, I would love for you to focus your first and your best efforts toward your pursuit of Christ. Your first and your best efforts toward your pursuit of Christ. Focus. One of my favorite athletes is Dean Karnazes. Shake your head if you know who he is.

24:03Okay, I'm glad to introduce you to him. He's an ultra-marathon runner, has a couple books out. For what that's worth. But he runs marathons longer than 26.2 miles. I have run zero marathons.

24:16I never intend to. But I do like being inspired by people who do it. And so this guy, Dean Karnazes, has just a few things on his resume. He's ran 350 miles in 80 hours and 44 minutes without sleep. He's run a marathon in each of the 50 states in 50 consecutive days.

24:33He's the winner of what is called the Badwater Ultramarathon. It's a 135-mile marathon in Death Valley in the dead of summer. Super hard. He's won that. Uh, he's ran 253 miles in Greece, uh, on only figs and water.

24:49Uh, that's just kind of his thing. He does daring things like that. And so of course, one of the things I'm always interested in is in what, what, what drives people to do that? Why do people hurt themselves in this way? Why would people strive in this way?

25:01So here's what Dean says, how he does this thing. He doesn't tell us the why, but he tells us the what. It gets to the point, he says, where in your head you're somewhere else. You're so focused on the task at hand, and it sounds bizarre to think that for 30+ hours, but you really are thinking about one single thing, and that is accomplishing your goal. It is that intense.

25:23Man, Dean is so good at focusing on the one goal, and I just thought, man, this has got to be the way the Christian looks at the at the life that we have. One goal: honor Christ, glorify Christ, run after him. Dean is exactly the guy that Paul has in mind in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 24 through 27. You might remember it. Paul says, look, I don't box as one beating the air.

25:43I know I discipline my body, I keep it under control, so after preaching to others, I myself should not be disqualified. He says this: I discipline my body, I keep it under control. I— every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath. Dean, for all the accolades, has only ever won medals that will eventually perish and fade.

26:04You, on the other hand, are running for something that will never fade: the knowledge of Christ, the love of Christ, the glory of Christ. We need to focus our first and our best with Him. In fact, the terminology focused, your first and your best— I think I prayed this— first and your best comes in my mind from the Old Testament, tithing. You gave God your first and your best. You didn't give him the janky lamb.

26:24You took the janky lamb. You gave him the first and your best. For the Christian, you and I are not commanded to give a tithe. It's no longer a thing. What we are commanded to give, however, according to Romans 12, is our lives.

26:39And this is your reasonable worship, Paul says. Romans 12:1-2, knowing the mercies of God. Paul says, look, I want you to give yourself as an act of worship, to give your whole self as an act of worship, which is your reasonable service to God. Christians, your reasonable service to God is you. Not just 10% of your bank account, 100% of all of you.

27:03Everything, your whole life. This is the Christian faith. All of you belongs to Him. That is the Christian faith in a nutshell. You are grafted into Christ.

27:11He is yours, you are His. He is, and therefore all that your life is is now subsumed under His lordship, His leadership. He's, He's the thing you're all about. Practically speaking then, what would that look like? All I'm going to do is go through the text with you here, so buckle up again.

27:30We have a few things I want you to see. Notice first and foremost that Paul says, brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. He says this twice, so we ought to acknowledge that we're not there yet. Know that you're not there yet. Know where you are in Christ this year.

27:42Take stock of where you've come and say, I'm not there yet. As good as your race might be right now, you know there's room. And so I want you just to say to yourself, self, know that you're not there yet. And then once you acknowledge that, like Paul, I want you to cultivate a holy dissatisfaction. I want you to say, this, this good thing that I've gotten to so far, while it's good, I don't want to stop there.

28:04I don't want to get complacent, I don't want to be self-contented, I want to move and make progress forward. Which is what Paul says in the second half of verse 13. He says, one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on like a sprinter toward the goal, toward the mark, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I want you this year to get serious about making Jesus your singular priority. I want you to think about what that would look like, what would that change about your life if you said, My whole life is rallied around Jesus.

28:34If he is the sun and my universe orbits around him, what would that change about my life? For some of you, that might not mean a lot. You've already got the things in place. For some of you, it's going to be a rapid, uh, a huge renovation, massive renovation of your life. Your priority being Jesus is going to have an effect on you.

28:52To give Christ your first and your best is going to look like disappointing not only yourself but a lot of other people. How much time do we have? We have plenty of time. Turn to Mark chapter 3 real quick. Keep your Bible— keep your finger in your Bible, Philippians chapter 3.

29:05Turn to Mark chapter 3. I want to show you something. Actually, Mark chapter 1, I take that back. Mark chapter 1. Early in the life of Jesus, I want you to see something about how he relates to the people around him, and I'm going to make a huge assertion for you.

29:20Follow along. Mark chapter 1, verses 34 through 38. 35 through 39. Mark chapter 1, 35 through 39.

29:29Paul is saying to us we need to make sure that Jesus is our priority. Jesus demonstrated and illustrated for us what this looks like. Take a look. This is the beginning of Jesus' ministry career. Verse 35, Mark chapter 1: Rising very early in the morning— I could stop right there.

29:46That alone will preach, won't it? Very early in the morning. While it was still dark, in case you weren't clear about how early it was, Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. Took time away. Verse 36, Simon Peter and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him, and they said to him, uh, Jesus, everyone is looking for you.

30:08You've got a large fan base here. People are lining up to talk to you to see what you're up to. Verse 38, and he said to them, Hey, let's leave. Let's go to— let's go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out. And he went throughout all Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

30:26A couple thoughts here. Number one, Jesus is prioritizing his relationship with his Father. He takes away valuable time from healing people, preaching to people. He takes away that time to spend time with God the Father. Now if Jesus, our earthly— the King of our life on earth in his ministry was able to do that, he's setting a precedent for us to say, oh, that's really interesting.

30:48That means there's a lot of important things in our life that we're going to say, that's got to wait because I need to spend time with Jesus. I need to give my first and my best to Jesus in the secret place. My Bible time, my prayer time, whatever else is part of your devotions has got to be first place. So I've got to do this. Verses 36 and 37, people are looking for him.

31:09Mama, I know what you're up to. Got people knocking on the door. Mom, mom, so-and-so kicked me. Mom, I'm hungry. Mom, will you help me?

31:19Mom— I get this. We hear it in our house all the time. We got 5 kids. I get it, I get it. There's always going to be people knocking at your door, clamoring for your attention.

31:28There's always going to be a text message waiting for you to respond. There's always going to be a phone call waiting for you to return it. And all I'm saying is that, like Jesus, we need to be able to say, I'm not going to let that stuff distract me. I'm giving my first and my best to Jesus no matter what. If I can call it this, it's a godly form of selfishness.

31:46I don't think I'm giving you permission as much as I'm observing in the text there is a right place to say, everyone else second. No one else bother me. Susanna Wesley. Um, had 10 kids— 19 kids, only 10 survived. When she needed to pray, she had no place in the house to go because she had 10 kids.

32:05And so what she would do is she'd take her apron, put it over her head, and just told the kids, when that's happening, don't talk to me. Mommy's in prayer. Word has it, and I don't know if this is true, I haven't verified this particular part of it, but that she would spend upwards of 2 hours a day in prayer. Now I'm not putting that on you. I'm not telling you that you all need to have a 2-hour-a-day prayer life, but I am saying you need to prioritize it.

32:27It needs to be your first and your best. Other things will suffer. Jesus makes that clear. Other people are going to say, but I need you, Jesus. I needed you to heal me, Jesus.

32:36And Jesus leaves. He leaves. That's an important point. He leaves in order to spend time with his Father. Notice the clarity that Jesus has after he's done praying.

32:48He says, let us go to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that's why I came out. Jesus gets clear because he spends time in prayer, spends time with the Lord. He gets clarity, he gets conviction, he moves, even if that temporarily hurts people's feelings. Okay, back to Philippians chapter 3.

33:06Number 3, I want you to also not get distracted, and that can happen if you're looking at what lies behind. If you're looking at what lies behind, you're going to get distracted with the past, which is another thing you need to not do. Don't let the past change or challenge you in a way that's inappropriate. Here's what I mean by that. The past, your failures and your achievements, can be something of a burden to you as you make your way into the new year and say, how can I make progress for Christ?

33:31Neither one of those are helpful. Hebrews 12:1-2, you can write this down, but let me just quote it for you. The author of Hebrews says, look, we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. So let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, that is the good things and the bad things. If there's anything from the past that slows down your race, you need to be able to say, I've got to get it behind me.

33:54I've got to get it behind me.

33:58It's hard to drive only looking through the rearview mirror. You need the rearview mirror, you should glance at it, take a look at that. But don't stare at that. Don't drive looking through the rearview mirror. Drive looking through the windshield.

34:12Otherwise, you'll get stuck in Uncle Rico syndrome. If coach would have put me in in the 4th quarter, we would have been state champions. Anybody know that movie? It's lowbrow comedy. I don't recommend it.

34:24I liked it. I liked it. Forgetting what lies behind. Second part of verse 13. He says, straining forward to what lies ahead.

34:34Think about the word straining for a second. What does the word straining conjure up in your mind? For me, I think of someone who's really pushing. They're sweating, they're, you know, you got veins popping out of their head, they're just— I think that's what Paul has in mind for us. I think that's the idea.

34:51Paul's saying, look, strain in your relationship with Christ. I want you, number— letter D, aiming at the ultimate prize of knowing Christ. That's how you focus your first and best efforts, aiming at the ultimate prize of knowing him. Now, if driving looking only in the rearview mirror has its hazards, so does looking forward, right? One of the things I hate about 2025 is that everybody and their mom drives with these really bright LED headlights.

35:17At night, I can't see anything. It's coming at me. I'm like, ah, blinded. I feel like it's terrifying. I have a car that sits really low to the ground, so all of you with trucks and SUVs, like anytime you come behind me with your LEDs or you're coming my way from the other side, like I'm scary.

35:33It's a real— as I get older, I'm finding out my eyesight's not as good as it used to be, and LED headlights are my mortal enemy. There are hazards that await you going forward just as much as there are hazards that await you if you're only looking backward, but the destination is worth the effort. Following pursuing, chasing after, straining after Christ is worth the effort. Jot down this verse, Psalm 27:4. Psalm 27:4.

35:58David prays, one thing I have asked of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.

36:17David's singular request is similar to Paul's New Testament request, his New Testament ambition, focusing on Christ. Is it worth it? Is this really worth it? Paul says in verse 15, he knows that it is. Let those of us who are mature think this way.

36:35If anything, you think otherwise, God will reveal that to you. Which tells me that we ought to reject the immaturity of complacency. If we let ourselves coast or get contented or self-satisfied with where we are, we're demonstrating an immaturity that is not fitting for a mature saint. One thing must dominate everything or nothing will change.

37:02I'd love for you to think about ways to give Christ Christ your first and your best this year? How can you arrange your resources, your time, your money, your energy around your singular priority? This is not a one-size-fits-all sermon. It's going to require you to do some work on the second half of this. There's lots of questions on the back of your worksheet that I've written with the intention of helping you think through this.

37:23But even if the questions are amazing— and they're not— it's going to take some work on your part to say, Lord, what do you want me to do? It's going to take you You're saying this to the Lord, Lord, I want what you want for my life. I love you, and I want what you want. What does that look like? And we have a saying, catchphrase if you will, in our church.

37:42When we come to the Lord, we're saying, anything, anytime, anyplace. ADapat. Anything you want, Lord, I want that. And I think if your heart is right with the Lord, we all would say, yes, I want that. But practically speaking, what's that going to look like?

37:59This year the Lord might be challenging you to move to the next phase, whatever that looks like, the next level, whatever that looks like. And I'm challenging you, whether you're new in Christ or whether you're a saint who's been walking for years, you've got more room to run. Don't let complacency get you. Reject that immaturity. It's like, it's like being in senior year, right?

38:16You get senioritis, like, oh, I've made so much progress, I can coast this year. I did it, I did that, and I look back on that and I regret that. Don't get senioritis as a Christian. Don't allow that to happen. Otherwise, you're going to look back and say, Lord, I could have done better.

38:29I should have done more.

38:33Verse 16, Paul urges forward and focused progress, but he does anticipate some resistance, so he offers a concession. He basically says until God grants you the wisdom and the willingness to submit to this mindset, Don't lose ground. Verse 16, he says it like this: Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. In other words, don't lose ground.

39:00Stay focused. What the truth— what truth you do have, act upon that truth, and the Lord will reveal it to you eventually. He'll show you what I've been saying eventually. If you're not there yet, just obey what you know. Don't lose what you've already gained.

39:13In other words, point number 3, resist the temptation to regress. Don't go backward, keep making progress forward. Which means use what you have, make forward progress. Keep taking steps in the right direction, steps of obedience, and God will eventually make clear to you what I'm saying to you. That's kind of the gist of what Paul's getting at.

39:31Don't quit. Don't give up.

39:37Do you know that January 10th, 2010, was the first day of the year that I spent This year has been declared National Quitters Day. National Quitters Day. Strava, which is a— it's a social network for athletes, studied their database and found out that approximately 80% of people who made New Year's resolutions have tapped out by the second week of January. Give up. Make resolutions January 1st, they're all in full strong, but by the second Friday they're done.

40:04So this Friday is National Quitters Day. I don't want you to do that. I don't want you to give up. In fact, another study says 80% of resolutions fail by February. Fail by February.

40:19It's easy to get excited and motivated for 1 or 2 weeks. It's hard to maintain steady, regular progress, and I think verse 16 helps us to focus our efforts to know how to do that? 3 quick things, 3 quick things. First, if we're going to resist the temptation to regress, I want you to notice that what Paul says is, let us hold fast, let us hold true to what we have attained. You notice what I'm highlighting there, right?

40:46Us, we together, all of us. My old pastor said it this way, run with the runners. If you want to stay focused and disciplined, one of the best ways to do that is for you to Lock arms with other Christians who want that and say, I'm coming with you. We're doing this together. In fact, let me, let me give you this stat.

41:02The American Society of Training and Development found out that your chance of keeping your goals, your resolutions, increases by 65% when you have an accountability partner. Isn't that great? 65%! But I'll do you one better. The number jumps to 95% when you have specific accountability appointments.

41:25Wow. You can have a 95% increase in your ability to maintain your consistency, make forward progress, if you do it locked in arms with other Christians regularly on a schedule. What does that sound like? Oh, I know, community groups! Wow, that's exactly what we're talking about, pursuing holiness with others who want holiness.

41:47Do you want to grow in this? Find people who want this and run with them. And don't let those people go. Those are rare people.

41:55Pursue holiness with others.

41:58Run with the runners.

42:01Second, when Paul says, look, let us hold true to what we've attained, that word hold true there stood out to me. What that tells me is consistency. Stay focused. Be consistent with the basics. Hold true.

42:15Don't lose what you've gained. Be consistent with the small things. Aim at a life of consistency, not perfection. No one's going to do that. We're aiming for that, really aiming for perfection in God's eyes.

42:27We know we're not going to reach that, so we're looking for perfection. Studies show that it takes about 66 days to form a habit. I don't think that's true. I think it's probably much longer for it to feel like, okay, this is who I am. It's not just something I do.

42:38This is who I I am. So I want you to say, I need to be consistent. I want to be consistent with the basics, to stay faithful in the little things day by day by day. Third, I want you to ground your work in the gospel, on the gospel. Paul says, don't let us lose what we have attained.

42:56Well, what have we attained? We've attained a right relationship with God through Christ who lived in our place, died the death we deserve, and he has now made a home in us where we can now relate to him. The gospel will always be relevant to those who know Christ. You can never outgrow your need for the gospel, because if you do— if you do forget the gospel, what's going to happen is you're going to be a really great Pharisee. You'll be working in your own strength.

43:20You'll be plowing after the Lord by your own strength and accomplishment. And it looks good. It looks just— it looks pretty similar to the other Christian. I don't want that for you though. Don't grow up from the gospel.

43:31This goes back to verse 12, because Christ Jesus has made me his own, therefore I pursue him. Don't forget the gospel. If you're going to make progress this year, it's got to be grounded on the fact that Jesus lived for you, died for you, rose again for you.

43:50And what gives me great hope and heart here is that when I do that, when I give Christ to my efforts, when I give God my efforts, He's pleased by them, however imperfect.

44:02My kids will often make me cards, construction paper, misspelled words, all sorts of things. When I see that, I don't look at this and say, this is not how a house looks.

44:19What kind of dog is this? It's got 6 legs! Crumple it up, throw it back at him. Fix that!

44:29We wouldn't do that to our kids, and sometimes I think we feel like our Father would do that to us. Oh, my works are never good enough, so when I bring my 6-legged dog in my misshapen house, the Lord's going to look at it and say, get out of here with that. Why aren't you better?

44:47But 1 Peter 2:5 says that we are to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices— get this— acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. The Lord loves our sacrifices. They are acceptable to him because of Christ, which means then, man, I can bring him my best and my worst and let him change me through those things. He'll receive those things. That's what the gospel does for us.

45:17You have a few short years.

45:21Bonnie Ware wrote a small book called The 5 Regrets of the Dying. She's a hospice nurse. So she detailed those 5 things, but I only want to bring one to your attention. She says the most common thing that she heard as she gave compassionate care to her dying patients. Here's what she said they all mostly agreed to: I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

45:53I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. Now there's a way for us to think about this in a worldly sense of saying, oh, I just got to be true to myself and exercise myself and— you know, expose myself, all those things. But I think there's a Christian reading of this. There's a way for us to look at this as a Christian and say, I wish I lived the life that Christ called me to, the life that really matters, and not care if my neighbors think I'm weird or if my coworkers think I'm a Jesus freak or some kind of, you know, nutcase in the ether. I wish I just did what Christ called me to, because that's what matters.

46:24On my dying bed, with my dying breath, I'm not going to hope and wish that I have the respect of my neighbors who don't know that I'm a Christian. I want my neighbors to know. I want my friends and my family to know I love Christ. He's the most important thing to me. And therefore, that's a life that I can say— I can close my eyes and say, I'm ready to come home, Jesus.

46:41I did my thing. I've run the race. I've laid out my life before people to see all that you've done in me. I want to see you now. To say with Paul, to live is Christ, to die is gain.

46:50I don't need to hold on to this world because I can look forward to the next life. I've got a few short years, Christian. Moses says this in Psalm 90:12. He says, teach us to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom. I want you to have a wise heart, because a wise heart will give you a wise mind which says, I'm going to make these 8 years count.

47:12If the Lord gives you 80, I'm going to make those 80 years count. If the Lord gives you less, make those years count, because you don't know when the last moment is. Jesus is coming back, and when He comes back, He's calling His people home. There will be no more time to do what we're doing. This year's an opportunity for you, for you, for us as a church, to make waves for the sake of Christ, to do something important, and to not let other good things, however noble they are, to be a distraction to us, but to subsume everything under the one thing: Jesus.

47:45I want to know Him. I want to love Him. Imagine what that could do for our church. What would that change about us? It's an exciting thought to think about.

47:53Let's pray.