Priorities

Intro

I have never been much of a runner. In fact, I hate to run. There are people that I hear say how therapeutic or relaxing it is and honestly when I hear someone say that, I immediately don’t trust them.

Because they are clearly lying. There is nothing relaxing about running. It makes your legs burn, and it makes your lungs burn. It causes you to cramp up and sweat ridiculous amounts of fluids from your body.

It is hard on the joints and if I am being honest, stupid. Unless I am being chased by a bear, why would I run for fun?

If I want to relax, running is the furthest thing from my mind. And anyone who says it is relaxing is either lying to you, or crazy.

Now with that said, there was at a time in my life where I would run, not because I wanted to, but because I had to. This was when I was in the military.

I can remember when I first got to Basic Training I was not in terrible shape, but that first 2 mile run we did I was terrible. I think I threw up twice.

As much as I hated it and as bad as I was at it, I knew that I had about 3 months to get good at it in order to pass my physical fitness exam.

And so we would run every other day. On the off days we would do strength training. On our running days we would go to this track to run, but it wasn’t like a normal paved surface. This track was really small limestone about 1”-2” thick so it would give a lot when you stepped on it.

This is what we ran on, and it wasn’t flat, it had inclines and declines in it. I think 6 laps was 2 miles and we would run this all the time. Sometimes for 5-7 miles.

And I can remember how hard it was to run on, each step felt like you were sinking in to sand and it took more energy and strength to run fast.

And as we were getting close to the end of basic training and my final physical fitness test I was barely passing my two mile run and was really concerned. If I was 10 seconds off I would fail and not graduate.

So finally the time for our final test had come and we finished our push up and sit up portion of the test and I passed both of those but I was really nervous about the run and as we were getting ready to head over to the track our Drill Sgt’s took us to the roads and told us to line up.

We were all confused, and then we were told that today we were taking our test on the road and that we would be running around our Brigade area. 3 laps would be two miles.

I hadn’t run this before and didn’t know what to expect, but the whistle blew and off I went. And I ran and I could feel myself running faster than normal. And my legs and lungs weren’t wearing out as fast.

Before I knew it I was coming up on the end of my 3rd lap and I crossed the line and they yelled out my time and not only did I pass, I shaved over 2 and half minutes off my time and got a really good score.

But it wasn’t just me, all of us ran significantly faster than normal.

As it turns out, all this time we had been training on a resistance track. It was designed to slow us down and make it hard for us to run. It was designed to make us fail. That way the more we trained on that track, when it was time to get rid of the resistance and run without being weighed down we would be able to do it.

And that is exactly what happened.

Last week I started a short two part series called Back at It. And last week we talked about how easy it is to get distracted and easy it is to forget the value in serving Jesus and His Church.

That it isn’t something we intend to do, but it happens never the less and so there are times when we need to be reminded to get back at it.

To get serious about our faith again. To get serious about sin again. To get serious about Church again. And that is all well and good. And it sounds motivating. but the problem we often face when it comes to getting back at it is that there are too many things in our lives weighing us down, preventing us to getting back to what we know we ought to do.

Power in the Text

Paul talks about this in his letter to the Philippians.

Philippians 3:12-16 NLT 12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

15 Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. 16 But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.

In Philippians 3, Paul speaks at length about his confidence when it comes to his faith. Paul writes in verse 13, “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead…”.

The “what lies behind” is what Paul lays out in the first eleven verses of this chapter. He talks about all of his accomplishments, his pedigree, his standing among his peers, and he realizes that in light of Jesus, none of that matters.

When we get back at it, it’s important to remember that all these accolades the world values don’t matter nearly as much as we think they do. All that matters is Jesus.

Not only does Paul show us his confidence in Christ alone, but he also demonstrates great humility. Paul doesn’t claim to have it all figured out (vv. 12– 13).

But his recognition that he hasn’t figured it all out and is still pursuing the goal of knowing God in Christ (v. 14) spurs him on. Instead of falling back into who he was before Jesus, he sets that life aside and pursues Jesus. What about you?

Big Idea/Why it Matters

By the standards of his world, Paul had it made. He was successful, his family were Roman citizens, he was “a Hebrew of Hebrews” (v. 5).

Today maybe Paul would be a somebody from a prominent family with a distinguished pedigree.

He may have gone to an Ivy League, graduated summa cum laude, and now finds himself a successful CEO, living the dream.

But after meeting Jesus, Paul realized what truly matters in this life and that all of that stuff was rubbish compared to the greatness of knowing Jesus (v. 8).

Paul understood what so many people do not and it is that knowing Jesus helps us understand everything else in our life.

Paul had it all. And he thought he knew it all. But you know sometimes we don’t know what we are looking at.

When you look at a map, one of the most important features is the map key. The key shows you what different symbols represent. It also shows you important things like scale so you can judge how far away something is based on its distance on the map.

Without the key, we may think we can read the map, but chances are high that we are going to end up lost.

This is life. As humans who‘s sin has cut us off from God, we are prone to wander through life trying to make sense of it.

But without Jesus, it will never make sense. He is the key. And sure there are many who claim to find it without Jesus, but in the end they are fooling themselves.

This is why it is so important that as believers we get back at it if we recognize that we too have wandered. If we has left following Jesus to follow something else we thought was more important.

Listen, it’s easy to drift in the faith because of the allure of the world. Like that resistance track it will weigh you down and stop you from running the race God has marked out for you.

Philippians 12:13b-14 NLT ...but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Application/Closing

Who wants to run a race on a track that is designed to slow you down? That is what the world is. And ultimately, I believe the biggest weight that slows us down from getting back at it is our priorities.

Seriously. Think about your life and the areas of your life that you know are weighing you down, now think about the value they hold in your heart and the priority you give them. It is probably pretty high isn’t it?

Why? Why are those things such a priority? Why are those relationships such a priority? Why is that money, material things, or pleasure such a priority? Why do so many other things take precedent over Church, over devotions, over repentance?

It is because we have failed to do as Paul says and forget the past. To lay down the life we knew before Christ. To set aside the things that if we are honest, mean more to us than our relationship with Jesus.

We must lay our lives down and forget every priority that steals our attention from Jesus, but that isn’t enough. He says to look to what lies ahead. To see that there is a life that is so much richer and blessed and valuable than anything we could experience with the old way of life.

Jesus doesn’t call us to a movement or an experience. Jesus calls us to an entirely new life that extends beyond this one into eternity.

He calls us follow in his steps and die to self. To bury our passions, pursuits, and priorities, and to be raised up to new life. One that is spirit-filled and spirit-led. But that can happen unless you get back at it.