to turn with me. I apologize, but don't apologize. Our reading in Daniel was rather long. We will reference it during the sermon at some point, but I won't read it again. So please turn to Daniel 3 and we'll read it together and just be reminded of God's faithfulness as we read this together. Daniel 3, I'll begin with verse 8. Therefore at that time certain caldians came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever, you, O King, have made a decree, and every man who hears the sound of the horn fight, lyre, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. Whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And there are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the providence of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo. These men, O King, pay no attention to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo be brought. So they brought these men before the King, and Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, is it true O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made well and good, but if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fire furnace, and who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo answered and said to the King, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fire furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O King, but if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated, and he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo and to cast them into the burning firey furnace. Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and other garments, and they were thrown into the burning firey furnace. Because the King's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo fell bound into the burning firey furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They answered and said to the King, true, O King. The answered and said, but I see four men, unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they're not hurt. And the appearance of a force is like the sun of the gods. And Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning firey furnace. He declared, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo, servants of the most high god come out and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo came out from the fire and the say traps and the perfects and the governors and the King's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not any power over the bodies of those men. And the hair of their heads was not singed. Their cloaks were not harmed and no smell of fire had come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, blessed be the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo, who had sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him and set aside the King's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own god. Therefore, I make a decree, any people, nation, or language that speaks against the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo shall be torn limb from limb in their houses laid in ruins, where there is no other god who was able to rescue in this way. Then the King promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo in the province of Babylon. If you'll now turn with me to Paul's letter to the Philippians, it's a shorter reading, Philippians chapter 3, verse 8. Indeed, I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For this sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that depends on faith, that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may obtain the resurrection from the dead, not that I've already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus had made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do for getting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God and Christ Jesus, let those who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that you also to you only let us hold true to what we have obtained. Let's pray together, Father God, we ask that you would not only bless the reading, the preaching, and the hearing of your word, but that you would, in a way, only your spirit can bless our living out of the scriptures afterwards. We love you and we praise you. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. It's funny even this morning, someone mentioned to me, well now you get to really let us know what you're thinking. Now you could really let us have it. I'm not going to do that this morning. I pray that the scriptures will encourage you this morning. My confession this morning is that I have really struggled this week with joy. Matter of fact, I've been struggling with joy a lot lately. This has been a very emotional time for my family, yet I know God is molding and shaping us and you guys for his purpose. I picked this passage and then as I began to put it in context, I read verse 1. Listen to what verse 1 says. Finally, my brothers rejoice in the Lord. Remember Paul is in prison when he's writing this. Paul is in prison and he has no idea how much longer he has to live. He is awaiting his sentence to see if he is going to be killed or not and he's writing, saying stay focused, brothers, sisters, stay focused. No matter what circumstances are, stay focused because our cause for rejoicing is not in circumstances. It's in Christ, in Christ alone. One of my favorites, Martin Lloyd Jones and one of the most influential pastors and preachers I know said this. It was a few weeks before he died and someone asked him how he was coping now that he was suffering with such serious weakness that it took most of his energy to move from his bed to his armchair and back. And he asked, how are you coping with that? This was his reply straight from the Scriptures. Do not rejoice that the Spirit submit to you but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. In other words, what Martin Lloyd Jones was saying is, don't tie your joy to your health. Don't tie your joy to your circumstances. Don't tie your joy to anything that could all be taken from you. Tie your joy to the fact that you are known and loved by God. Tie it to your salvation because that can't be taken from you. Tie it to that beautiful truth that your name is written in heaven. Lloyd Jones added, and I love this. I am perfectly content. Oh, to be perfectly content. So rejoice in the Lord means one thing. We have got to be focused. Our outline this morning is very easy. I know this is kind of scary, especially with school ending and grade reports coming out, but we have three Fs this morning. Focus, forget forward. Easy to remember, but it's going to take us some work to unpack. The one thing, the one thing to know him, to focus on him, to know him, and to be able to do that, we have to forget the past and we have to move forward. First, let's look at focus, and I ask you this question this morning, how would you at this point in your life describe your life? Would you describe your life as a roller coaster? You've had ups and downs that you keep going. The problem with being on a roller coaster is you tend to pay attention to the ups and the downs, and when you get flipped upside down, and that takes all of your focus. Maybe you would answer that your life has been a merry-go-round. You just keep going around in circles, you keep doing the same thing. It's a merry-go-round, but it hasn't been that merry. You're not paying attention to anything in front of you, but you're looking at everything else around you. That's not the way that God wants us to live. In fact, Paul, more than once, describes our life as a race, and he describes it as a race is because we need focused. When we're on a roller coaster, we're not focused. When we're on a merry-go-round, we're not focused, but if we know that we are in a race, we are focused, and we are looking ahead. We know that there's a purpose. We're not just running around in circles chasing after the wind, as Ecclesiastes tells us, no, we're moving in one direction and we're focused. Paul says in verse 13, one thing, he had one purpose, he had one goal. That's where all our focus and attention should be. What was his one thing to know Christ? That's our purpose, to know Christ and to become like him. The question that I want to ask you this morning to think about, are you on that track? Are you involved in what God's plan and purpose is for you? Are you fulfilling right now the purpose that He created you for? Are you growing to know Him and look like Him? Are you using your gifts and your talents and your resources for Him to know Him and to make Him known? Here is the reality. We are all moving in one direction. We are moving in a direction, excuse me, the world is going in one direction. It's like people are on, I couldn't even think of the name of it and my wife wouldn't help me. That thing in the airport where it's just moving and you stand on it, what's that called? People move, okay, so you're on the people move, and you don't even know where you're going, you don't have to do anything, but it's just taking you there. That's what the world is on. In the enemy, the enemy, listen to this, is in charge of the people mover because he's making it move and they're going in the direction that he wants people to go in. And if something doesn't happen, we'll all continue to go on that people mover in a direction that we don't want to go. Something has to happen. God has to grab a hold of us, grab us off of that and face us in a different direction. And that's what Paul is describing here. Verse 12 says, Jesus had made me His own. He made me His own. It's saying He apprehended me. He grabbed me. He seized me. It means that He apprehended or seized something after a pursuit. Do you get that? If you are His, He pursued you. And He grabbed you off of that people mover and put you in a different direction for a purpose. We often use this word to describe what a police officer does. He chases down a criminal and apprehends him. There's a purpose why he does that. There's a purpose why God grabs a hold of us. There's a purpose why He grabs a hold of us and takes us off of that people mover. Paul says the reason that he runs in this race is because Christ chased him, seized him and put him in the race. Remember, He was headed to Damascus persecuting Christians and Jesus seized him and turned him the other way. Why? Why did God grab Paul? Why does God grab us to know Him and to look like Him? The word here that Paul uses for no means to know experimentally. Not just facts about Jesus. Every single one of us can tell us about Jesus and what He did. That's not why God grabbed us. He grabbed us to know Him personally. You see, we understand this when we're looking for a doctor or we want to know by personal experience. We just don't want, oh yeah, I heard about them. They're good. No. We want to know personally, have you experience with this doctor because we want to trust them. We want to take our kids there and we want to trust them. We want firsthand experience. That's what Paul is saying. God grabbed a hold of us so that we would know Him personally. That we have firsthand experience. He wants to have this knowledge of Christ that affects His day to day living. He wants to be so wrapped up in Christ. I love this. That Jesus will mean all the world to Him. It's a desire to know Him intimately. Do you wake up wanting to spend time with God? Do you go to bed and you have to talk to Him because you were just so overwhelmed with your love and your passion for Him. This may be a stretch for some of us more so. Remember that first time you met your spouse and some of you have this to look forward to. Remember that first time you met your spouse? Was that the end of it? You just, hey, nice to meet you and that was it. No, every waking moment you thought about them and you wanted to get to know them. You wanted to know what made them tick. You wanted to know what made them happy and you couldn't spend enough time with them. You would spend up all hours of the night talking with them because you cared because you wanted to know them. Brothers and sisters, this is how it's supposed to be in our relationship with Christ. Just as we want to experience everything with our loved ones, God wants us to experience that with Him. If He's grabbed a hold of you, that's the reason. What we see in our passage here is that our experiences with God will light our passions, will equip us to serve and to love others. He uses those experiences to point us where He wants to use us. There's three specific things that Paul wants us to experience in knowing God. The first thing is the power of the resurrection. Paul knew that power. You see when he got grabbed off of the people mover, he knew the power of the resurrection and you know what? He wanted to experience that every single day. He wanted to live a victorious life. Look at the anger in our lives. How's that going to be changed to love? Look at our insecurities. How will that be turned into confidence? Self-centeredness. How will that be turned into being generous? Bitterness. How will that be turned into forgiveness? Only by the power of the resurrection. Only by crying out for that power in our lives will we have victory over sin in our lives. You see Paul here wasn't interested in maximizing his personal potential. He wanted to maximize Christ's power in his life. He understood the gain Christ was to gain power over sin. There is nothing, and listen to me, right now that you are struggling with. There is no sin, no temptation, that you are struggling with, that the power of the resurrection can't allow you to walk victoriously with. That's what Paul, I want that every day. I don't want to live a defeated life. I don't want to live a depressed life. I want to live in the power of the resurrection. The second thing, the way to know God, says through the fellowship of his sufferings, to share in his sufferings. What Paul is referring to here is trouble that happens to people purely because they are disciples of Christ. Because he's taking a stand for Christ and he wants to react in a way that Christ would. There was no way for me to even come up with a personal example for this. Because the reality is none of us have suffered. I see, I don't know if you've been keeping up with the lady in Sudan, 27-year-old pregnant lady, Maryam Abraham, who was sentenced to death because she refused to recant her Christian faith. This is what she said, I am a Christian and I will remain a Christian. She's experiencing, she is knowing Christ in a way that we don't know because we are here and we can worship and there's nobody threatening our life out there. But this lady is standing for Christ in a suffering for us. And Jesus is saying, that's how you, that's how I want you to know me. That's how I want you to experience me. That's Shadrach, Shadrach and Abennego. I'm not going to go back there, use that in your quiet time, use that in your family time this week. Look at it, it's so beautiful. They go into the fire knowing, look, God can save us, absolutely. But if he doesn't, praise God anyhow. Do you see how we learn to know God in those moments in those crises? When we're forced to say, do we trust him or do we not? Power of the resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, the third thing to know God, become like him in his death. And he goes on to say that by any means possible, I may obtain the resurrection of the dead. Understand clearly, Paul is not speaking here about his doubts of his eternal security. That is not what Paul is talking about. What he is saying, and this is so beautiful, is that he wishes that he desires to live in such a way that people see him as already resurrected, that people see him so full of Christ, so full of the love of God that people take notice. And that is his desire. That is his prayer. The word resurrection here is only used here literally means to stand up. It says out resurrection. That's the way that it's translated. You see in the Greek mind, living people stood up, dead people laid down, okay? What Paul is saying is I want to give the spiritually dead a preview of what a life sold out to Christ looks like. I want to stand up and live in such a way that those people that are stuck on the people mover will take notice. We'll see what is different about that person. And they'll want to know about Christ. What a goal. What a witness to live in such a way. To know Christ so well, to have that fellowship with him. Notice what Paul says. I love his honesty. He's saying I'm not there. I want to be there. They say I'm not perfect. Nor will I ever be on this side of heaven. But he keeps striving. He keeps pushing. He keeps pressing on. Paul had this holy dissatisfaction for where he was. Do you see the reality is we can't stand still in our walk with God. We are either getting moved and pulled by the world in one direction away from God or we are as we will see here in a second chasing after him with everything that we have. You can't just stand still. You're either growing farther away from him. You're growing closer and closer to him. We have to have this focus. We need two things. Forget the past and keep moving for it. The hard part is even though God grabs a hold of it. He knows he seizes us and our feet are pointing in the right direction. We often lose sight of the goal. We often lose sight of our purpose. We often create idols. We often get caught looking back. And Paul says this is the one thing that I do. This is the one thing that we must do. Forget what is behind. What are we to forget? I trust it's our responsibility and I did steal this because I think it helps to forget the good, the bad and the ugly. I think we all know and want to forget the bad. Of course, that's included here. Brothers and sisters, we need to forget our failures. Yes, we learn from the past, but we don't dwell on the past. God doesn't want us consumed by guilt because of the sin you created in the third grade. If you fall down in this race, get the heck back up. Don't stay down. That's the enemy speaking to you. That you're not worth it. That you can't move on. That you blew your witness. And Paul is saying, no, stay focused. If you trip, if you stumble, if you fall, get back up. Stay focused. Keep your eyes on the prize. All is saying here, even to forget the good. I want you to hear this this morning. What happens is if we focus on our past victories, we will get complacent. We will get lazy and we will get content. Yesterday's blessings or experiences won't do for today. We need to be walking daily with the Lord, always wanting more, always desiring and learning and growing, never trying to tread water or just coasting because it doesn't work. If we are to live off past victories, we'll miss the present. We won't receive what he has for us right now. What if I were to ask you this morning, what God has taught you?
Would you say all this one time? Oh, I remember when? I think to see you this morning. What did he teach you yesterday? Do you see what we have to be growing? We have to be seeking. We can't just cling to that one time when we see God's hand move. We can't just cling to that one time that we had victor. What does scripture tell us? Be careful. If you think you're standing firm, be careful. You can get knocked over. You've got to continually be pressing on.
I thought about this especially because I've heard it before numerous times and I do hesitate. So maybe this is kind of part of the let you have it. Carolina, this is what I've heard. Carolina was a huge mission church. Was? We don't have missions. We don't have anything. We miss it. So we got to change that was to is. And that's a plug for faith promise. That's a plug now to be about mission. Watching Tom Sealy's funeral church was built on missions. And we can't just say, yeah, we were. No, we need to be right or we're doing this. We're going the wrong direction. Get back in the right direction. You have to forget the ugly. And you all know what I'm talking about here. You have to understand. Yes, we are all sinners, but so is everyone else. So people are going to do mean things. People are gonna hurt you. Somebody's going to sin against you sometimes deliberately and sometimes not forget it. Forget it. If they do scripture tells us seven times in one day, forget it. Remember, last week don't dwell on that. Don't dwell on that hurt and that pain and that that bitterness because that will take root and that will hurt. Say, forget it. Forgive and move on. This body has been through a lot. I know that people are still holding onto things that have happened. Let it go. If you need to seek out forgiveness from somebody, go seek out and ask for forgiveness or seek them out and say, I'm sorry, whether you know it or not, we're on the same team. There's got to be unity in the body to move forward. Somebody's hurt you. They may not even have a clue. Need to forgive and move on. Why? Because the focus isn't supposed to be on each other. The focus is supposed to be on him. What Paul is highlighting here, I think, is how much discipline it takes to know Christ. You cannot help but think of an Olympian as they train for the Olympics. They have a focus. They have a goal. Everything that they do in their life revolves around making the Olympics. And this is the one question that they ask. With everything, is it going to help me get to that goal or is it going to hinder me to get to that goal? Do you see everything that they do, what they eat, what they drink, how much sleep they are aren't getting? Even the company that they keep, their habits, is this going to hinder me towards getting to that goal or is this going to help me? If it helps, then I've got to do it. If it hurts, if it hinders, then stay away. Do you see how easily that translates into our walk with Christ? And we have to start evaluating. Do these things help or do they hinder me knowing Christ better, me knowing him intimately. This past Wednesday in our prayer study, who is interesting as we looked at it. If prayer is going to be a priority, guess what? There are some things you may need to eliminate. You've got to be purposeful. You've got to be disciplined to make that time with him. And that's what Paul is showing us here. In the context of a race, if we listen to everyone's opinion, we'd never get anywhere, right? If we stopped to shake hands and stop to listen, and somebody's, you're not running the right way. Stay focused. Stay focused to get to know him, to keep your eyes on him. If it hinders our walk and our knowledge of God, we've got to forget it. But if it helps, we need to pursue it. And here's where I love Paul's drive and I love Paul's hunger. He is striving. He is pressing on. He has such a passion that if you know the image here of the runner to get to the finish line, like he's on his tippy, he can't wait. He's used everything that he has to get to the goal. What's the goal to know Christ? If we're not sure what we're pursuing, we'll never get there. You see the goal isn't eternal life. That's not the goal. If he just grabbed you and seized you, then he just, there's eternal life. Enjoy yourself. That is not the goal. The goal is fellowship with Christ. The goal is to know him, to experience him, to look like him. You see as we begin to look like him, people will want to follow in the race.
Understand in the Greek games, only one person wins. That's where this illustration of a race breaks down because all saints will win. There's nothing more beautiful than a funeral of a godly saint. I say beautiful because it truly is a celebration. And as you sit there and you hear about that person's faith, whoever it is that went ahead of us, you're encouraged. You're encouraged in your faith and your strength and you want to run better because you hear how they finished. How will we finish is the question. What are those words that we long to hear when we cross the finish line? I think we all know the first part. Well done, my good and faithful servant, right? What's the rest of it? The rest of it goes like this. Enter into the joy of your master. Well done. Enter in to true lasting joy. Do you see what Paul is telling us here from prison? If your joy depends on circumstances, you'll never fully experience it. If your joy depends on how well you run, you'll never experience it. No, the call is rejoice in the Lord. Our joy on this earth and in heaven depends on our relationship with Christ. Life is going to bring temptations and tests and trials. All of which will either drive us farther away from God and depression and pain and suffering without hope or will cling to him and it will mold us and shape us to look more like Christ. As I finish, I do apologize. I don't know who said this. I pulled it out of something. I wish I knew who said it because it's wonderful. The guy was being interviewed and this is the question, what does Jesus mean to you? And the journalist says, I'll never forget the look on his face. This young bearded man, his eyes filled with tears and he said, Jesus, Jesus, he's my everything. He is my magnificent obsession. Do you see that? That's a goal. That's a focus. Jesus, Jesus, he is my everything. You want to be obsessed about something? Don't be obsessed about what people are saying in the race. Don't be obsessed about how many times you fall in. Don't be obsessed with that. Be obsessed with him and watch as he transforms you to look like him. The most beautiful part here and I said I was done but I don't want to be done. Listen to this. This is outside of our scriptures, verse 17. Brothers, join me in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. Do you see what that's saying? The word here is walk in a row. Do you see what we're supposed to do for each other? Yes, we are racing and we are focused but what happens if one of us falls? Do we just keep running? You know, it says walk in a row, walk together, walk as a body, pick them up if you need to carry them with you until they're able to walk on their own. That's the sweet unity that the body is supposed to have that will only come if he is our magnificent obsessions. That will only come if he is our everything. When we begin to focus on other things, we will fail. Let me pray. Father God, we love you. We desire to make you our everything. We long to make you our everything. We fail. We fail more than we'd like to admit. Thank you for your sweet forgiveness. Thank you that when you look at us, you don't see our sins. You see your son, Jesus Christ who died for us. Father, I pray blessings upon this congregation as they strive to chase after you. Father, may they be obsessed with you. Father, I ask very pointedly if there are any here this morning that don't know you, that don't know you in an intimate way, that don't know you as their Lord and Savior, that you would seize them, that you would grab them, that you would grab a hold of them and give them new hearts, give them eyes to see the beautiful truth of your gospel. And Father, those of us that you have grabbed a hold of may we run the race, may we stay focused, may we keep our eyes on you. Father, whether it needs to be forgiveness, allow that to happen so that we can seek after you with everything that we have. The love you and we praise you. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.