The Amazing Race

Good Morning welcome to our online Service.... I trust that you all doing well.. I have had a number of you asking me about when we are opening up for in person services…

First of all, I want to thank you all for showing up and supporting our Online services over this time… We are so grateful…for each of you and we are looking forward to our in person services…

Our greatest concern is keeping our Church healthy and making sure that we are doing our part in keeping everyone safe.. We have a demographic in our church that is more susceptible to Covid 19 and we want to do our part in providing the safest possible environment..

WE had Overseers meeting this past week to discuss when and how we will be opening up for Services. So, we have set a target date for June 21st that is Father’s day… This will give us enough time to get the church ready and prepared for practicing Social distancing. We will also be live streaming Services for those who may not be quite ready to meet...

You will be receiving a letter from us with more information and on how this is going to look…

We

We are excited about starting up services again…

We are in our ReFrame series in the book of Philippines…

This morning message entitled the Amazing Race..

.. Some of you may have followed the reality TV series the Amazing Race?

It is now in its 32 Season and still going… The Amazing Race is a reality game show in which

teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams.

Contestants strive to arrive first at the end of each leg of the race to win prizes and to avoid coming in last, which carries the possibility of elimination or a significant disadvantage in the following leg.

Contestants travel to and within multiple countries in a variety of transportation modes, including planes, taxis, rental cars, trains, buses, boats, and by foot.

There are clues in each leg which point the teams to the next destination or direct them to perform a task.

Teams are progressively eliminated until 3 are left;

at that point, the team that arrives first in the final leg is awarded a grand prize of $1 million.

The goal is to stay in the Race until the End…

T/S In our text Paul is writing from Prison and he is encouraging the Christians at Philippi to keep in the Race through persevering in their Faith…

Paul uses the familiar Metaphor of a runner the taken from the Greek games to illustrate our Spiritual life…

Paul tells us that he is in this is in this marathon of becoming like Christ…

… there is this tension of between actually Arriving (which he calls perfection) and Not Yet arriving (at perfection..)…

Even though in Christ we have been made righteous… but we haven’t arrived at the final destination… what Paul calls perfection…

Me

When I was 21 years old fresh out of Bible College.. started pastoring first church in Africa… I was pumped up I was excited about ministry…I was going to change the world.. I believed that I was called and anointed and all I had to do is preach the Word, lead well and people would get saved… God has done amazing things during our ministry…

If I could go back in time and tell my younger self something? Spend less time worrying about outcomes and just Focus on your Race…of perusing Christ..

The Wonderful thing about God is that He is full of Grace and compassionate .... God will uses us in-spite of ourselves.. in-spite of our failures and imperfections.. God uses everything in our lives ---No experience is wasted… good or bad…

You

What about your journey? How about your race? If you could go back and tell your younger self something what advise would you give?… What priorities would you change?

What thing would situation would you say… “Don’t sweet it.”

The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us.... to run with endurance the race set before us…

Each of us has our own race...

In this Race there are going to be challenges… there are going to be victories and defeats.. there are going to be both sorrow and joy… But ultimately, Paul tells us that there is a reward.. Paul doesn’t want us to cross the finish line.. Paul wants us to run this life in order to Win the Race...

T/S what strategy should you use to win the race?

1. Take Ownership.

The first thing we ought to do is acknowledge that we have been registered in the Race… I think sometimes we forget what we signed up for when became a Christian .. it wasn’t just about getting into heaven…

Every believer that has come to saving knowledge of Jesus has been Registered into the Amazing Race..

In the Greek games, the athlete had to be a citizen… Paul tells us that when we are in Christ we have heavenly citizenship — and part of the responsibility of being a citizen of Heaven is that you run the race… to fulfill the calling that God has set for us.. Every believe is called...

If we reach the goal the way God has planned, then we receive a reward. If we fail, we lose the reward, but we do not lose our citizenship.

The second thing is that we are not competing with others.... Sometimes we do this we measure up to others…If we comparing our race with others… we will either feel inferior or superior to them.. Can you imagine if the apostle

Paul had compared himself with others, he would have been tempted to be proud and look down on others… We need to stop comparing ourselves with others… and compare ourselves with Christ..

Rather Paul tells us that..

Each believer is on the track; each has has been designated their own lane in which to run; and each has a goal to achieve…

Paul is telling us… Stick to your lane… keep in your lane… Keep on track…

God has a race set before me… Each of us has a race to run… Paul tells us that he has not arrived..

Philippians 3:12 ESV

12 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.

Paul addresses two groups of people, the first group are those who think that the Spiritual life can never be attained… In other words they might have tried the spiritual life and found it difficult…

Paul says to this group of Christians don’t give up too soon…on your spiritual life.. keep in the race.

The second group that he is addressing are those who think that they have arrived… There were some in the church who regarded their baptism and initiation into the church as a state of perfection and nothing else was to be added.

Paul describes the Spiritual life as the Amazing Race… No matter where you are in your spiritual life.. One thing should continues and that is this intense desire to grow... Paul had this intense desire to know Christ.. Paul has Passion..

The authenticity of faith in Christ cannot be measured only by the intensity of one’s initial decision to receive Christ. Receiving Christ is a lifetime adventure.

For Paul it is an Amazing race because it ongoing.. it persevering — this wonderful mystery of of Salvation where… Where we are in this covenant partnership---while we are working out salvation… what Christ has already worked into our lives through His Holy Spirit.

N.T Wright tells us that...

God is into the business of making us into full human beings - having us know what it means to think like Messiah… Learning to live in the time in between… begining and ending of God’s purpose..

Paul is using the analogy of the greek Games… something that people would be familiar with.. Where athletes were daily preparing themselves to compete… and it requires training..

a. Know that you need training.

None of us would think about running a marathon or ever a 5k without some training… You are not going to get off your sofa one day and go to the starting line of a marathon… It takes months and months of training — It might start our small — but over time as you continue to train you build up endurance…

Don’t Start with the Race —Start without training.. What Paul is describing is his daily discipline… becoming Christlike..

Paul says not that he has obtained or already been made perfect..

There were those in the Church that consider Paul a super-apostle with the picture perfect relationship with Christ. Paul shatters any of those notions by saying He hasn’t arrived

Paul acknowledges his own need for personal growth.. His Need for training…

The problem with thinking that we have arrived is that we don’t give ourselves room for growth… Paul says —

b. Make it your own Race?

In Ancient Philosophy the key to happiness and contentment was to build virtues into your life.. For Aristotle - You keep on adding and practicing Character strengths… so that you can be the best person you could be… It was daily habits and disciplines..

Paul’s view is not about becoming a better human being… The goal is having the same attitude that is in Christ… Pauls vision is more that living virtues and become better people… or perfect in the eyes of others.. —For the apostle Paul it is about .. it taking ahold of Christ who has already laid hold of us.. It is about

c. Knowing to whom you belong.

Paul tells us to lay hold of the fulness of what Christ has given to us… Lay hold of something means to make something your possession.. because Christ has you as his possession.

T/S what strategy should you use to win the race?

1. Take Ownership of your race

2. Develop the Discipline of Focus.

Paul tells us that Focus is secret to the Spiritual life… When we Focus… we harness our energy and have better performance…

If a river is allowed to overflow its banks, the area around it becomes a swamp. But if that river is dammed and controlled, it becomes a source of power. It is wholly a matter of values and priorities, living for that which matters most

Philippians 3:13–14 ESV

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul tells us

If you are going to win the race you need to be focused… Every athlete has a strategy for getting focused before they compete… For Paul He focuses on one thing..

The world

“Monomania” has been defined as “madness to one subject.” One subject is about enough for any one man who wishes to fathom and master it. Paul was a monomaniac when he said,

“This one thing I do

Paul paints his pursuit of Christ as one thing … but then gives two instructions… One thing can b e considered One movement… It is directional…

One thing Paul does is..

a. Practices forgetfulness

Paul says - I do this one thing… I forget what is behind me. Just like a runner who knows that a backward glance at ground already covered....... will only slow his progress toward the finish...

Paul says that he forgets what is behind your and stretch toward what is ahead, so that he might complete the race and win the prize.

for at least twenty years, he has known Christ and served him. He could easily point back to a long list of achievements in his ministry as an apostle, to special revelations given to him by the Lord, and to major theological arguments developed in his messages and in his letters. He has already accomplished so much, taught so much, and walked in the Spirit so faithfully that he of all people could say that he had reached the goal, arrived at the apex, and fully apprehended all that he was called to attain. But instead, Paul forgets what he has achieved so far.

Our past can become a huge obstacle to our present and future is our Past… This could be both our past successes as well as past failures.. .

“To forget” in the Bible means “no longer to be influenced by or affected by.” When God promises, “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 10:17), He is not suggesting that He will conveniently have a bad memory!

This is impossible with God. What God is saying is, “I will no longer hold their sins against them. Their sins can no longer affect their standing with Me or influence My attitude toward them.”

“We don’t ignore the past but we don’t empower the past in the present.”

If we are always living in the past it will rob us of freedom in the present , making us heavy-hearted, preventing us from being able to use all our spiritual energy and gifts for coping with the new and moving with joy into the future.

Paul’s practice of forgetting the past gave him the freedom for straining toward the future

The one thing Paul does.. the one movement.

b. Practices Reaching forward.

Paul says he stretches forward to the things that are ahead. In letting go of the things behind him Paul strains forward to the things ahead of us.

This term press on means “to move rapidly and decisively toward an objective.”

In the original Greek, there is this sense of violence: “but I pursue [it] if indeed I may seize [it], because indeed I have been seized by Christ Jesus.”

Paul used the same word to prove that he was zealous to the point of persecuting the church (3:6).

In Acts 9 we are told that Paul who was then known as Saul was on his way to persecute the church… Saul was a zealous Pharasee.. we are told that

Saul was breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Saul was dedicated to eradicating the disciples of Jesus… and he was willing to seize - or persecute…do what ever.... which is the same word to take a hold of… in our Text… And in another Reversal in Philippines… instead of Saul taking a hold of the disciples --- the risen, and exalted Christ seized Saul…

Jesus reached down, seized him by the scruff of his robe, and set him on the path to Ananias’s house and then to Arabia and then to the Gentile world as its great apostle.

The world Sieze or take hold of

“language that comes from the war and athletics”

Paul is telling us that if our lives have been seized by Christ and that means that you and I are in the grip of his grace…

Not only do we have a hold of Him but he has a hold of him…The result is this pursuit of an ever deeper knowledge him...

Paul has been captured by Christ, taken hold of by Christ, and Christ will not let go of him. Because he has been apprehended by Christ

Paul says Pursue, Seize… Take of hold of Christ as he has taken hold of you…

We do this by Practicing...

Forgetting - Stretching and then… We

c. Practices Endurance

What Paul is doing is shifting into High gear.. Instead of pressing forward… He now has his sights set on something. Vincent comments that

Paul’s body “is bent forward, his hand is outstretched towards the goal, and his eye is fastened upon it

It is like the long distance runner that paces himself the whole race and then he gets to the final bent… and he pulls out all the stops…

as he gets to the bend- his adrenaline jolts for the final last push…

As he picks up the pace and sprints to the finish.. At this point everything becomes clearer… The athlete knows what he is running for .... the prize is insight… This is what Paul calls the upward call… It goes beyond the finish line to see the reward...

The goal is not merely the finish line… Paul wants us to run with Focus on Prize....and to win the race..

In the greek Games those who won would be summed to to the podium… Set your sights on the grand stand…On the reward of resurrection.. Which Paul call the upward call of God.

We are called to relentlessly press on toward the finish line for the full and complete gaining of Christ, the resurrection, and ultimate perfection.

T/S what strategy should you use to win the race?

1. Take Ownership

2. Focus one thing

3. Keep on Moving..

The Christian life, it has been said, is like riding a bicycle: unless you keep moving, you fall off

Philippians 3:15–16 ESV

15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Running half the race and then sitting on the sidelines to watch others run is not an option.

The reason for running this race of faith in Christ is to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The Bible often warns us against a false estimate of our spiritual condition...

Self-evaluation can be a dangerous thing, because we can err in two directions: (1) making ourselves better than we are, or (2) making ourselves worse than we really are

Paul calls now for conduct consistent with commitment, for a congruence between the level of spirituality we have attained and the practical way we daily live: “To the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.”

b. Don't loose Ground.

No athlete succeeds by doing everything; he succeeds by specializing. There are those few athletes who seem proficient in many sports, but they are the exception.

The winners are those who concentrate, who keep their eyes on the goal and let nothing distract them.

They are devoted entirely to their calling. Like Nehemiah the wall-building governor, they reply to the distracting invitations, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down!” (Neh. 6:3)

The 17 th Century Puritan preacher John Owen… gave this illustration about sailing..(something he did often)

He said if, and when the storm comes up and the wind comes up, you need to get to the wheel and you hold the wheel steady and you hold the rudder steady when the storm is over, you

will have actually gotten to your destination faster.

If, on the other hand, you go beneath deck and just let the wheel go wherever it will, you’ll never get to your destination.

When storms come up, it will either make you far better than you would have been or far worse than you would have been. The key is to hold the rudder.

Paul Says, I hold onto Christ who has taken ahold of me.

You

What does this mean to us? Paul is writing this letter to encourage the Church at Philippi that are living with the tension of uncertain futures.... He encouraging the how to progress in faith....

Each of us is in the Amazing Race… He is reminding us Why we are in the Race… Why we need to keep focused.. Because ultimately his desire is to finish our race with excellence..

In the Greek games, the prize was “an award for exceptional performance.” This image of running to win a prize appears in Paul’s challenge to the Corinthian believers

It is what Paul told the Corrinthinas

Paul says He presses on towards the Goal…

We have all kinds of idioms in English that capture this idea:

• Keep the main thing the main thing.

• Keep your eye on the ball.

• Keep on keeping on.

God had a purpose for Paul, and he declares here that his mission in life is to pursue that purpose no matter what.

Past successes and failures will not stand in the way, nor will present circumstances…

The future goal of winning the prize captured Paul’s complete attention, set him free from the tyranny of the past, and filled his present life with the incentive to press on to take hold of all that Christ had called him to be and do. Forgetting what is behind, Paul is straining toward what is ahead in order to know Christ.

Conclusion:

We

In the 1980 Boston Marathon, the world was stunned by a woman called Rosie Ruize

crossed the finish in Boston in 2 hours, 31 minutes and 56 seconds. It would have been the third-fastest time ever recorded by a woman in a marathon.

But there was immediately suspicions about her victory as none of the Spotters had seen her at any of the check points along the 26-mile course. What they discovered is that Ruize had sneaked into the course about a mile from the finish line. Eight days later she was stripped of her title and disqualified, but never admitted to having cheated… When people say that was a Ruzie they referring to this Rosie Ruize and her cheating to get ahead. They made a movie about this that is called anything to Win..

What we have learned from Paul that there are no short cuts to the Race..

What happen would happen if we at Richvale… Would Prioritize our lives around… the pursuit of Christ..

simplify our goals to one thing