So, believe it or not, I ran a 5K once. It was the Peach Festival 5K in Fort Valley, Georgia, and it was just five years ago, 2010. There were people there that witnessed it, and it really did happen. But when I showed up, the course was laid out before me. I was at the starting line and the finishing line was a meager 3.1 miles ahead and a brand new t-shirt waited for me at the end. All I had to do was keep moving forward and not look back. If you go to the Middle East and search the ruins, you can find remnants of many of the great ancient stadiums. In some places, you can even see a row of stone blocks at one end of the stadium. This is where the runners would line up. They'd get a firm footing for starting the races. And these races were often dashes from one end of the stadium down to the other end. The finish line was straight ahead. In the Christian life, we're all runners. God has put us in the race. We're at the starting blocks, the finish line is in the distance. We each have a path laid out before us. But as I found out five years ago, running is not easy. You get hot. Sometimes you want to slow down, sometimes you just want to stop. Sometimes you want to look back and say, I've done enough. Sometimes you look back and say, what's the use? But nobody ever said the journey of joy was supposed to be easy. In today's passage, Paul takes this analogy of a race and he uses it to encourage the Christians in Philippi. And hopefully, we'll be encouraged just the same in our journeys as we unpack what he has to say. We're gonna look at these three ideas. God's grace in the race, forgetting the past, and pressing on towards the prize. So let's dig in. God's grace in the race. In any race, the starting line and the finish line are set, right? And the path is usually set as well. The same thing is true in the Christian life. I want you to think about it. The only reason we find ourselves at the starting blocks is because God has put us there. Paul puts it this way in verse 12, Christ Jesus has made me his own. In other words, we love him because he what? He first loved us. This is God's grace in the race. It's God's grace that makes our souls fit to run in the first place. In ancient Greece, the runners were stripped naked just before the race. Kind of crazy, I know. But I think this is a great picture of the fact that we don't bring anything to the table when it comes to our salvation. Or anything good, at least. Outside of Christ, all of our righteousness, or goodness, is like filthy rags. Useless. All we bring to the table is our sinfulness and neediness. God takes us, He clothes us in the righteousness of Christ, and He places us at the starting line. Christ Jesus has made me his own. We are his, and he's marked us. He's secured us for heaven. Jesus has set the finish line as well. We can go so far as to say that when he placed us on the starting line, he also guaranteed that we would cross the finish line. He's the author and the finisher of our faith. God's work of salvation and grace includes the beginning, the end, and everything in between. This is God's grace in the race. In verse 12, Paul also talks about not having attained this. or pressing on to make it my own. So what is this and what is it that he's referring to? If you look back at verse 11, he talks about attaining the resurrection from the dead. That's our finish line. The new heavens and the new earth. In verse 14, he says, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus. The upward call of God begins with our salvation and has our heavenly destination in mind. Again, in ancient Greece, the winner of the race was given a prize. It was usually a crown made of leaves. Doesn't sound like much of a prize, but it was equivalent to the gold medal placed on the neck of an Olympic athlete. The award ceremony typically took place up in the stands, took place in the box seats. That's where the award giver sat. All right? The winner of the race, after the race, would go up the stands to the box seats to receive the prize. And this is what Paul is getting at here when he talks about the prize of the upward call. When God calls us or saves us, he beckons us upward towards the prize of heaven. Now in the Christian life, there isn't just one winner, because those whom he predestined, he called. Those whom he called, he justified. Those whom he justified, he glorified. God's grace in the race ensures our salvation from start to finish. All who have trusted in the work of the cross are destined for the prize. Now I want you to notice Paul's view of the Christian life here. He knows that the Christian life is a race. It's a race from start to finish. We will never attain perfection in this life. We will struggle with sin and hardships until God takes us home. In verse 13, Paul acknowledges, brothers, I do not consider that I've made it my own. I have not reached perfection. I have not reached a state of sinlessness. That only comes after I cross the finish line. That only comes when the world has passed and I have been glorified. That only comes when my current condition of being a child of God and still struggles with sin catches up with the present state of my soul, which is cleansed and justified before God. Paul has already established the fact that the only reason he is even able to press on and make the prizes on or make it to the resurrection is because Jesus has made him his own. So I don't want anyone to get the idea that Paul thinks the Christian life is a race to become accepted by God. We don't get to the starting blocks, but by God's grace. We don't run the race, but by God's grace. And we don't cross the finish line, but by God's grace. And we don't receive the prize, but by God's grace. We're already accepted and loved by God because of the saving work of Christ. And look, we also need to realize this. We also need to realize that sinlessness in this life just isn't possible. We're always growing in our understanding of the depths of our sin and the even deeper depths and riches of His grace. That's why Paul says in verse 15, let those of us who are mature think this way. In other words, if you are mature in the faith, you will realize that you are not yet perfect. And that's true at any point in the race, at any point along this path. John Calvin calls this idea of attaining salvation by our own works or reaching perfection in this life, he refers to it as nauseous dung. Kind of a nice thought with the Sunday dinner coming up shortly. But that's how works-based righteousness compares to the sweet aroma of the gospel. So Christian, remember how you got here. Remember the grace that put you on the starting blocks. And take heart in the promise that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. God's grace will take you from the start to the finish. Even if you trip and fall, you cannot be disqualified. You are his child, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And nothing can change that. God is not going to kick you off his team. He's not gonna disown you. Because when he sees you, he sees Jesus and his heart swells with love, compassion, and acceptance. That's God's grace in the race. And if you have not placed your trust in Christ, I want to encourage you to find your place at the starting blocks. Take an honest look at your heart, see your sin, and place it at His feet. Take Christ, be forgiven, and run the race with us. Forgetting the past. Paul says this, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. This phrase, one thing I do, it carries the idea of ceaseless concentration, intentionality, living life on purpose. The Christian life is not a walk in the park or a Sunday drive. It's a race. It's foot to the pavement. running forward. It's about not looking back. It's about straining towards the finish line. We have to forget the past and press on towards the prize. My little brother, who is five years older than me, Some of you might get that a little later. My little brother, who was five years older than me and I, used to play football in the front yard. And I hated it. No matter how hard I tried, or how much I wanted to, I could not catch him. He was skinny, athletic, and five years my senior, I was round and slow. The only thing I hated worse than trying to catch him was when the tables were turned. He was the hunter, and I was the prey. It's my turn to run the ball, right? He was gracious enough to give me a head start, but he was never gracious enough to let me get a touchdown. So, I would take off, and I'd start to get that tingly feeling in my neck, right? That feeling that says, you're dead, you're toast, you're about to get caught, you're about to get got. I imagine it's a lot like how a wildebeest feels when it's being chased by a cheetah. I was slow enough as it was, but you know what made me even slower? I could not resist the urge to look back. If I was going to be eaten alive, I at least wanted to know when the moment of impact was to take place. This usually resulted in me getting turned around and facing my brother when I'm supposed to be facing the end zone. And we would end up kind of tussling it out in the middle of the field. I could have gotten a little further at least, a little closer to the goal line if I had not looked back. Looking back slows you down. Looking back gets your mind off of the goal, off of the prize. Now there is a sense where it's helpful to look back, remembering our baptism, tracing God's faithfulness and blessings in your life, and learning from mistakes, but Paul tells us that he forgets what lies behind. In the Christian life, there are at least two ways, two particular ways that looking back slows us down. Here's the first one, dwelling on our past failures can steal our joy and slow us down. Dwelling on our past failures can steal our joy and slow us down. I don't know how to state this any clearer. And I know it's easier to hear this than it is to believe this. But if you are a child of God through the blood of Christ, there is absolutely nothing Nothing that you have thought, nothing that you have said, nothing that you have done that wasn't nailed to the cross with Jesus. We can even go a step further and say that there's nothing that you will ever think, nothing that you will ever say, nothing that you will ever do that can separate you from the love of God that hasn't already been covered by the blood of Christ. Don't look back. Forget the past. There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Don't let the past rob you of your freedom. Run with abandon in God's grace. Run the path marked out before you as a free and forgiven soul. You are not defined by your sin struggles. You are not defined by your past failures. You are a forgiven child of God, loved by the Father and forever in His grip. Forget the past. Another way that looking back can slow us down is by being content with how far we've come in the Christian life. being content with how far we've come in the Christian life. So, on the one hand, we have a debilitating obsession with past failures, and on the other hand, we have a numbing reliance on past grace. There should be a divine discontentment in the Christian life. That's why Paul calls it a race. No one stands still in a race. We're always moving, maturing in the faith. And since perfection is not attainable in this life, there's always room for growth and progress. Not only that, but every day is ripe with opportunities to live out our faith, to apply the gospel to every area of our lives. I can't look back at my wedding ceremony and tell Leanne, hey, I said I love you on November 11th, 2000, in front of a bunch of people at that. Nothing's changed, baby. No, I'm supposed to live out that love and apply it daily. And by the way, I've done it twice. Group of people, Leanne, I love you. Alright, good. So that'll set me off for another 15 years, right? The Christian life is not a checked box. It's a life in motion, a series of peaks and valleys, two steps forward, one step back. What do we pray for in the Lord's Supper? We pray for daily bread. We pray for grace for today. We don't simply thank God for last week's bread and leave it at that. As long as there is more life to live, there is need for the grace to live it. If we are not progressing in the Christian life, then we're going backwards. So, we have to guard against self-satisfaction. Forget the past. Thank God for his past grace, but don't rely on your past grace to get you through today. Cultivate that divine discontentment that longs to run the race and move forward in the Christian life. We would do well to ask God to show us where we've become complacent. Asking for a grace that stirs the soul, that fans the embers, and impassions us to run the race. Don't look back. pressing on towards the prize. In this passage, Paul says he is straining forward. He presses on, and he talks about holding true. One commentator calls this an unwavering progression. Matthew Henry says that Paul's trying to communicate the idea of pursuing with vigor as if chasing game, kind of like that cheetah chasing down the wildebeest. Think of the sprint runner, right? You've seen the slow motion shots. Sometimes you can see even the different parts of one muscle as they strain forward with every fiber of their being, every muscle engaged. That's what Paul is getting at in this passage. So we've already talked about how the starting line and the finish line have their origins in the work of Christ. They have their foundation and root in the work of Christ. Well, so does the path. In other words, Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. The grace of the gospel initiates and makes us runners in the race. The grace of the gospel ensures that we will cross the finish line. And the grace of the gospel is our path from start to finish. As Christians, we have to be intentional about keeping the gospel at the forefront of all we do. How does the truth that we were dead in our sins and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, how does that truth impact our day-to-day lives? How does the truth that God saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, how does that truth affect how we interact with our spouses, our brothers, our sisters, our friends, co-workers, neighbors, our enemies? I want you to listen closely. The gospel is relevant to every area of your life. Now, you may doubt that, or you may say, I don't see that playing out in my day-to-day life, and I would say, get your mind in the race. Get your head in the game. We've become complacent and lazy in this thing called the Christian life. We're either looking back at past graces or failures, Or we're looking around at all the things of this world that distract us from what's eternal and most important. Christian, I want you to know that there's more for you. There's more for you. This upward call on your life, it started at conversion. It continues in this life. And it culminates in glory. In The Last Battle, which is one of the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, Jewel the Unicorn, she finds herself in the new Narnia, which is a picture of the new heavens and the new earth. I want you to listen to what Jewel the Unicorn says. I have come home at last. This is my real country. I belong here. This is the land I've been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. And then she turns to Bree, the horse. She turns to Bree and says, come further up, come further in. Come further up, come further in. Don't wait till heaven to live the heavenward life. Don't wait till heaven to live the heavenward life. The heavenly life begins at conversion, and it's an upward call. Strain forward. Hold true. Press on towards the prize. Come further up. Come further in. The riches of His grace are waiting for you to partake. But how many of us really feel like Olympic athletes in this spiritual race? How many of us can honestly say that we are straining forward in the Christian life with every fiber of our being? How many of us can say we feel the thrill that Jewel the unicorn feels when she says, come further up, come further in? How many of us can say we really feel like we're traveling heavenward, being called upward? The truth is, probably not many of us, but remember, forget what lies behind. Forget about the past. I wanna give you three quick points of application when it comes to pressing on towards the prize, all right? The first one is this, preach the gospel to yourself. Preach the gospel to yourself. That's the only way that you can get over those past failures, whether they were 30 years ago or 30 minutes ago. Yes, you're a sinner, but praise the Lord, your sins are forgiven by the blood of Christ. Go and sin no more. Press on. And when you send some more, preach the gospel to yourself again. Secondly, strengthen your spiritual body. God has given his church ways to stay strong. We call them his means of grace, the ways he nourishes his people. We have his word, the Bible. Read it. Sit under the preaching of it. Consult it. Structure your life around it. Then we have prayer. Pray. Pour out your heart to God. Ask him for his grace and presence to comfort and strengthen you. And then fellowship. Surround yourself with other believers. Take full advantage of this fellowship that we call Houston Lake Presbyterian Church. and then the sacraments. Remember your baptism and God's promises to you in Christ Jesus. Be an active partaker of the Lord's Supper. Use it as a time of reflection, repentance, and commitment. And finally, believe it or not, service. Giving of yourself is a way to strengthen yourself. Find a place to be a minister of God's grace. And by the way, we have plenty of opportunities for our Wednesday night children's program for you to be a minister of God's grace. And seriously, if you are minimally involved in the life of this church, I want to encourage you to talk to me or talk to Pastor Paul about how you can get plugged in and engaged in ministry. All right, so preach the gospel to yourself, strengthen your spiritual body through God's means of grace, and three, use the muscles you have. In other words, you don't have to have everything figured out to move forward. Verse 16 says, let us hold true to what we have attained. Take the truths you understand and act on them. Stick to the path that has brought you to this point in your Christian life. And you know what? We all know the basics. We're not perfect, God is, and we need Jesus. Admit it and walk in grace. As simple as it is, that's the gospel. And the gospel is the DNA of the Christian life, the basic building blocks of Christian maturity. We never mature past the gospel. We only mature by never getting away from the gospel. In muscle development, you never get beyond amino acids. You only get stronger because you keep amino acids in the mix, right? Press on towards the prize. In ancient Greece, the winner of the race got more than a crown made out of leaves. I know you were worried about that guy earlier when I said all he got was a crown of leaves. But he would enjoy other rewards as well. He would get a seat in the box seats at sporting events. He was given front row seats at the theater. He was given free meals at the best restaurants. And he's given other privileges like that, which is not unlike famous athletes today, right? And then, of course, there's me. When I finished my 5K, all I got was a t-shirt. Our prize awaits in the journey of joy. All the rewards of the new heavens and the new earth are just across the finish line. Life eternal. No sin, not even the ability to sin. Perfect fellowship with God and man. No pain, no suffering, no crying, no dying. Joy unimaginable. Joy inexpressible. Joy eternal. Whether you are at the starting blocks, whether you're running mid-stride, or whether you're about to cross the finish line, know that the prize awaits, and it will be worth it. So remember God's grace in the race. Forget the past, and press on towards the prize. There is much more than a t-shirt at the end of this puppy. Let's pray.