A Godward Orientation

Good morning.

Our scripture reading this morning is Philippians chapter three, verses one through sixteen.

My name is Kelsey Meyer, and I serve in Harbor Kids, and it is my joy and privilege to read this morning's word with you.

Again, the scripture is Philippians chapter three, verses one through sixteen.

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord.

To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.

Look out for the dogs.

Look out for the evil doers.

Look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.

As to the law, a Pharisee.

As to zeal, a persecutor of the church.

As to righteousness under the law, blameless.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his 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 the faith in Christ.

The righteousness of God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already attained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

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, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Let those who are mature think this way.

And if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

This is the word of the Lord.

Amen.

Good morning, church family.

Welcome.

Always good to gather with you and excited for our time together in God's Word.

It's August, summer is over, and school is almost here.

And I hope you guys enjoyed the opportunity to hear from other voices around the City Light family, that it was a reminder to you that the kingdom of God is so much bigger than what's happening here at Harbor.

And I hope this morning that the good news that we get to stay at Liberty Middle School is also a reminder that this church is not about us.

Jesus is building his church, and we get the privilege of participating in what he's doing in Sarpee County.

And if you're new, welcome.

My name is Trevor.

I'm one of the pastors here, and so glad that you've chosen to join us for worship this morning.

We are a church that wants to help people who are spiritually distant come to know and follow Jesus with the whole heart.

So whether you're exploring Christianity, looking for a new church, or just checking out Harbor, uh, because you're in town visiting a friend, we're so glad you're here, and we hope that you will join us in that mission.

Um throughout church history, the church has always has to face existential threats from both the outside and from the inside.

In the early church, the church had to face persecution from the outside and heresy or false teaching from the inside.

In the medieval church, the church, the threats were disease from the outside and corruption from the inside.

And in the modern church, the threats that we face are what we might call secularism on the outside and nominalism on the inside.

Secularism is simply a godless way of life that is either indifferent towards Christianity in the church or hostile towards Christianity on the church.

Nominalism, on the other hand, is a half-hearted commitment to Jesus and the church.

It's people who would call themselves Christians, but who don't actually follow Christ.

And between the two, which do you think is a bigger threat to Christianity?

It's nominalism, right?

Nominalism, when it comes down to it, is a much bigger threat to Christianity than secularism is.

Why is that?

Because secularism only puts pressure on the church from the outside, whereas nominalism corrodes the church from the inside.

Like a strong wind or a heavy rain, secularism kind of presses against what God is doing from the outside of the local church.

But like rot, nominalism begins to kind of erode everything from within.

But we can't be self-righteous or judgmental about uh nominalism because if we're honest with ourselves, nominalism can creep into our own lives and our own church community just as easily as it can to any other Christian or any other church community as well.

I don't want you to hear me wrong in that this morning.

You guys are awesome.

You're caring for one another, you're discipling one another, you're giving to the mission.

You guys are owning your commitment to follow Jesus and to make him known in Sarpee County.

And from what I can tell, Harbor is not content to be a nominal church.

You guys are devoted to Jesus and the kingdom.

But even for those whose deepest commitment is to Jesus Christ, there's always a subtlesome temptation to settle for nominalism.

It creeps in when we compromise our witness by trying too hard to fit in at work.

It creeps in when we get lazy or half-hearted in our member commitments.

And it creeps in when we let self-interest and greed keep us from giving ourselves fully to one another in our church community.

And honestly, that's even true for me.

I can't tell you the number of times that I wake up, even on a Sunday morning, and I think to myself, man, my life would be so much easier if I weren't a Christian.

I'd have fewer commitments, I've had less relational complexity, my neighbors and my family members would look at me with less suspicion.

And I could just kind of skate through life a lot easier than I am trying to follow Jesus.

Because it's easy to profess faith, it's a lot harder to actually practice it.

And that's why nominalism is one of the biggest threats to Christianity in our world today.

And if we want to be committed to our God-given mission, we have to be a church that is working hard to fight against nominalism and instead commits ourselves to what we might call authentic Christianity.

It's the kind of Christianity that refuses to compromise on God's call to for the sake of what's easy or culturally acceptable.

So for the next four weeks, we're gonna do a short mini-series called Authentic Christianity.

And we're gonna look at what we'd consider four marks of authentic Christianity in our day.

There's like a lot more that we could talk about there, but for the sake of our gathering and for the sake of our series this month, we're gonna look at just four.

And those four are gonna be a Godward orientation, a pursuit of holiness, a love for one another, and a burden for the lost.

And today we're gonna start with that first one, a godward orientation.

So let me show you briefly what I mean.

I have in my hand here a compass.

It is a cheap plastic toy, but it still works.

I had originally planned on bringing this really cool compass that I got from my dad after he died.

It's 20 years old, looks awesome, and he used it to like become an Eagle Scout or something like that, but uh I don't know where it is.

It's not lost, I just can't find it.

So I had to settle for this cheap toy that I found in my mom's basement.

But um, it's a compass, and and it doesn't really matter where you hold it, the compass needle always finds north.

I could shake it, you know, I could probably drop it, I could spin it around in circles, and no matter what I do, that compass needle, it's gonna spin for a little while, but eventually it's going to orient itself towards north.

No matter what you do, that compass needle finds its way back towards magnetic north.

Well, in the same way, a Godward orientation is a life where the compass of your life always finds its way back towards God.

In other words, your calendar is directed towards God, your bank account is directed towards God, your marriage, your parenting, your affections, your attention, all of your life is directed towards God.

And when people, when a person has a Godward orientation, their deepest commitment is always and ultimately to Jesus.

The compass of their life might get bumped off track from time to time from a conversation or a circumstance, but in every season, in every circumstance, and in every relationship, the compass needle of their life always finds a way to be directed back towards God.

Now, why does that matter?

Because your life is always trending in the direction of your deepest commitments.

If your deepest commitments are to money, you become a greedy person.

If your deepest commitments are to individualism, you become a lonely person.

If your deepest commitments are to conspiracy theories, you become an interesting person.

Because your life is always trending in the direction of your deepest commitments.

And a life that's deepest commitments are towards anything other than God will ultimately lead to death.

Not just physical death, not necessarily, but more so spiritual death.

A kind of life that is empty and superficial, where you kind of just exist as life happens to you.

A life where you're always gratified but never satisfied, always busy but never at peace, always striving, but never content.

The kind of life that looks really good on the outside, but behind the veneer, behind the kind of superficiality, is really hollow on the inside.

Because true life, the kind that's meaning and satisfying and satisfying, is always found in God.

He's the source, and everything else is just a shadow.

So nominalism is ultimately dangerous because it confuses those two things.

It confuses the substance with the shadow.

It replaces our creator and our God, who is the source of life, with other things that are ultimately cheap counterfeits.

And so our text this morning is Philippians chapter 3, verse 1 through 16.

Philippians 3:1–16

And in this text, Paul is writing to help the Philippian church establish a God word orientation.

He's writing against the counterfeit nominal Christianity of Jewish legalism, and he's trying to help them live a life of authentic Christianity.

And what he ultimately wants the Philippians to see is that every other commitment apart from Christ will eventually leave you bankrupt if you try to build your life upon it.

And so our big idea this morning is that authentic Christianity or authentic Christians cultivate a Godward orientation because true life is found in Him.

And so the text is going to show us three ways that we can do that.

To cultivate a Godward orientation, we must put no confidence in the flesh.

We must prize Christ above all else, and we must press on toward the goal.

Now, my hope this morning, as that you walk out of this place, not only convinced that a Godward life is necessary, but that you desire a Godward life, and you actually see that in Jesus Christ it's attainable.

My hope, my prayer, my longing is that you would see the majesty and the beauty and the glory of Jesus, and that you would want nothing less that's completely commit the entirety of your life to Him.

So we're going to start by saying, uh, we put no confidence in the flesh.

Turn with me to verse two, and we'll begin.

Paul says, Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

So Paul begins his letter, this part of his letter here with a warning against a group of legalistic Christians who are teaching that people needed to be circumcised in order to be saved.

You could call these people Jesus plus people, because ultimately their theology was like Jesus is good, but Jesus plus circumcision is better.

If Jesus makes you a little bit right with God, then Jesus plus circumcision, well, that makes you really right with God.

And uh modern equivalents would be those like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses and any other religion that would teach that you need anything in addition to faith in Jesus Christ in order to make you righteous and acceptable before God.

And to this, Paul says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That is not how it works.

In fact, to make sure that the Philippians don't get it twisted, he makes fun of those people.

He calls them dogs, evildoers, and mutilators of the flesh.

Now, in our day, we like to consider dogs as pets.

I have one and I'm still not entirely sure why, but we do.

But in Paul's day, pets were disease, or dogs in particular, they were scavengers and disease carriers.

They were disgusting.

To be around a dog in Paul's day was to risk potentially getting infected with a life-threatening disease.

And so to call them dogs is to say, like, hey, their teaching, it's filled with the disease.

It's bad for you.

You need to stay away from it.

He also calls them evildoers, declaring that their false teaching, the Jesus plus anything way of living, is not only false, it's evil.

And then he says that they're mutilators of the flesh.

Because circumcision doesn't add righteousness, it only leaves a person scarred.

And so Paul says, no, no, the true circumcision is those who are really right with God and acceptable to him, are not those who have removed skin from the body, it's those who have trusted in Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God.

And then he adds this little phrase.

He says, And put no confidence in the flesh.

So these Jewish heretics, they believe that they were more righteous than the non-Jewish Christians, because they were circumcised and the Gentiles were not.

By contrast, Paul says that a person becomes righteous by putting their confidence in Jesus, not in themselves, not what they do for themselves, and certainly not what they do to themselves.

And then to prove his point, he says this in verse four.

He says, Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks that he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

In other words, Paul is saying, if you think that you can prove your worth by what you do, if you think that you can earn God's acceptance through your works, then think again, because your religious resume is nowhere near as good as Paul's.

Just take a look at what he says next when he refers to his credentials in verse 5.

He says, circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews.

And so Paul, starting with this uh pedigree, begins to demonstrate that he's of pure Jewish blood.

Not only that, he's of royal Jewish blood, because Israel's first king, King Saul, came from the tribe of Benjamin.

And so he's tracing himself all the way back to the tribe that God's first king was chosen from.

And then he grew up in a Jewish home that was not only culturally Hebrew, but that was religiously as Hebrew as well.

So he grew up in a family, in a home that took their faith incredibly seriously.

They practiced it uh diligently, and they perhaps maybe even enrolled him in an elite Jewish school.

So, in Christian terms, this is like saying that Paul was dedicated as a baby, raised in the church, descended from the Pope, and valedictorian of his private Christian school.

And so when it when it comes to being born of the people of God, having Jewish identity and looking back on your family heritage, nobody's gonna do it better than Paul did it.

Nobody had a better religious heritage or upbringing than Paul did.

And then if that's not enough, he moves on from his pedigree to then brag about his performance.

Also to demonstrate that his accomplishments are better than all of his opponents as well.

Picking up in verse 5, he says, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Again, to translate, this is like saying that Paul was a pastor with a doctorate in theology, a political activist with an unrivaled passion for the faith, and a good moral person with exemplary character.

So when it comes to earning God's acceptance or proving his worth, nobody had a better shot than Paul.

Paul was the best of the best of the best of the best.

But he says, authentic Christians don't put their confidence in their pedigree or their performance, the way that he's using the term flesh, they put their confidence in Christ.

Because a person's resume can't make them right with God.

Only Jesus can.

And that matters for at least two reasons.

First, performance is inherently self-concerned.

If you place your identity, your worth, your righteousness squarely on your shoulders, you're going to be giving all of your time and attention to who you become and what you do.

And it's pretty hard to live a Godward life if you're too busy worrying about yourself.

But second, performance is a game that you lose every single time.

On the one hand, you swell with self-righteous pride when you're doing well, but then you shrivel with self-condemning despair when you fail.

On the other hand, even if you win, you lose.

Because a performance-oriented way of living doesn't carry you over the bar, it just raises it.

Every time you meet it, you gotta reach another standard in order to prove your worth or to earn your acceptance or feel good about yourself.

And that's why, even for secular people, victory can feel really defeating and deflating.

For a contemporary example of this, just look no further than Michael Phelps.

Michael Phelps is without question the most decorated Olympian of all time.

And the person in second place doesn't even come close.

He's won more Olympic medals than any other person ever, not just in swimming, but the entire history of the world.

In his career, Michael Phelps has amassed 28 medals.

23 gold, three silver, and two bronze.

To put that into perspective, the person in second place is Soviet gymnast Larissa Latanina, and she has 18 medals.

Nine gold, five silver, and four bronze.

So Michael Phelps has more gold medals than the second place person has total medals.

Combined in the Olympics.

Now, if anybody should feel good about themselves, if anybody should feel fulfilled, accepted, valued, if anyone should feel like their life has meaning, it should be Phelps.

But at the end of his career, after accomplishing every goal that he set out for himself and becoming one of the most accomplished men in human history, all he had to say for himself was this it?

Rather than feeling accepted and fulfilled and valued, he felt disoriented, empty, and completely directionless.

At one point he even said, I didn't even want to be alive.

See, that's what happens when we put all of our confidence in the flesh.

It's gonna fail us every single time.

No matter how much you achieve or accomplish, it's never gonna be enough to give you the value, the acceptance, or the fulfillment that you desire.

Building your identity on performance is like building a house on sand.

It might look good for a little while, but eventually the waves are gonna come, it's gonna wash it away, and it's gonna crumble like a house of cards.

Now, it doesn't help you get closer to God, and it doesn't help you feel more fulfilled and valued in your life either.

Now that's not to say that things like career and family and sports and church or things like success and accomplishments and awards are bad.

It's to say that they're not ultimate.

When they're received as a gift, you can enjoy every single one of those things for what they actually are.

But when you achieve them as an identity, it'll always leave you with self-doubt and emptiness every single time.

Because the flesh is just not a strong enough foundation to build your life on.

And that's why authentic Christians put no confidence in the flesh.

That's the first thing that I want you to see this morning.

Here's the second to cultivate a Godward orientation, we must prize Christ above all else.

Look with me at verse 7.

Paul says, But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as lost compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish.

So Paul, like an accountant, is showing us the ledger of his life.

And he's saying that before he was a Christian, he took everything, his pedigree, his performance, his heritage, his upbringing, his accomplishments, his performance, and he put that into the credit column.

And he says, This is what I gain, this is where my worth is, this is what I put my hope in.

And after he's become a Christian, he takes all of that and he moves it to the debit side of the ledger.

And he says, All of that amounts to nothing.

I've gained nothing.

I might have accomplished some things, I might have a reputation for some things, I might be well liked in the public, but it ultimately amounts to nothing.

His morality as a religious person, his career as a religious teacher, his accomplishments as a religious fanatic, they no longer mean anything to him in terms of his worth and his purpose and his identity.

Because the things that he once treasured, he now considers trash.

Because compared to Jesus Christ, they're as good as garbage.

And he no longer compares about his resume, he no longer compares cares about performance, because he's come to prize Jesus, and that's more than enough for him.

Here he says then in verse 8 and 9, why that's the case for him.

And he says, 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 of God that depends on faith.

So Paul here is describing the difference between what we might call works righteousness and gift righteousness.

From a theological perspective, works righteousness refers to anything that we do to try to achieve righteousness and acceptance before God by what we do.

Gift righteousness, on the other hand, is receiving God's righteousness and acceptance, not by what we do, but by faith in what Jesus has done for us.

In other words, to summarize, you could say that God's acceptance is a gift we receive by faith, not a wage that we earn by performance.

Practically, functionally, in our everyday life, we could say that works righteousness is anything that we look to for acceptance, worth, or fulfillment apart from Christ.

It's the Jesus plus performance way of living our lives.

Gift righteousness, on the other hand, is getting our sense of acceptance, worth, and fulfillment from no one and nothing but Jesus.

It's the Jesus plus nothing way of living your life, of saying that Jesus is everything I need and everything I want, because what I get from Him is so much better than anything that I can get from anyone or anything else.

And this is why so many of us feel the need to be right all of the time, and so many of us live with this exaggerated false sense of guilt and shame.

Because even though in our heads we can say, yes, I'm righteous in Christ, functionally we're living our lives on the basis of works.

We're trying to earn approval and prove our worth by the things that we do, whether it be in our career or in our religion.

And the way to get free is to really live out of the good news of gift righteousness, that we're righteous and acceptable and worthy, not because of what we can do, but because of what Jesus has done for us.

And the reason that Paul prizes Christ so much is because Jesus has set him free from the bondage of works righteousness.

He no longer lives for himself, trying to prove himself to other people, trying to earn acceptance by the things that he can do.

He's received his worth and acceptance from Jesus, and now he's free.

No more guilt, no more shame, no more scorekeeping, no more self-doubt.

He no longer needs his resume because his identity isn't built on his performance.

It's built on Jesus Christ.

Now, when I was in college, our football team, Northwest Missouri State, played Pittsburgh State.

Every year it was called the Arrowhead Classic.

We got to go down once a year and we got to play this team at Arrowhead Stadium.

It was always the biggest game of the year, uh, even in some ways bigger than the national championship, because we got to play in a professional stadium, and it was pretty cool.

When I was on the team, uh, I could get in and off the field pretty easy.

I had pads, I had a jersey, I had a helmet.

It was pretty obvious I belong with the team and I belong on the field.

Uh, but my sophomore year of college, uh, my coach sat me down and graciously said, Hey, look, you're not gonna play here, so you should hang up your pads.

I said, Wow, thanks, coach.

I really appreciate the hopeful opportunity there.

But uh he offered me a better deal.

And he said, Because you're not gonna play here, you actually bring some value to the team spiritually, and I'll keep you on as a chaplain.

I'll let you travel with the team, I'll let you eat with the team, I'll let you locker in the locker room, I'll let you use the football uh weight room.

And uh I thought that's a pretty good deal.

I could work really, really hard to get no playing time and all those same benefits, or I could do nothing, and I could get lots of privileges.

So I took that opportunity, and what that ultimately meant that was that I was traveling with the team to different games to offer sideline support and to do pregame chapel messages for that particular team and uh uh for that particular game.

And and this time things changed.

I no longer had pads and a helmet and a jersey to prove that I belonged on the field.

I needed new credentials.

And so when we got to Arahead Stadium, when I would get off the bus, the first thing that my head coach would do is he would hand me a lanyard with a like laminated plastic card on it that was my sideline pass.

And he would say, This is what gets you in and keeps you in.

Do not lose this.

And so you know what I did?

No, I held on to the thing for dear life.

When we left the locker room, I checked to make sure I had it.

When I got on the sideline, I checked to make sure I had it.

When we went back to the locker room, I checked to make sure that I had it.

Because that pass was my credentials.

That pass is what got me into the game.

That pass is what allowed me to enjoy the game from the sideline, so I didn't have to be removed and watched the game from the stands.

And so, in the same way, Paul is saying that a resume isn't enough.

It wouldn't have mattered that my name was on the roster from the year before, it wouldn't have mattered that the coach could vouch for me, it wouldn't have mattered what I had done previously in my career.

What mattered was that I had credentials.

And for us, Paul is saying the exact same thing.

Our resume doesn't get us in or keep us in because Jesus is our credentials.

It's through Jesus that we're free to know, enjoy, and live for God.

It's through Jesus that we get in and we stay in and we have the freedom that we need to love and live for God.

You see, apart from Christ, it is impossible to live for God because you're too busy anxiously worrying about yourself.

You're too busy keeping score based on how well you're winning at work or succeeding at life to even give time and attention to the Lord.

So consumed by performance that your identity is wrapped up in other things.

But when you turn to Christ, all of that changes.

You no longer have to build your resume, check the scoreboard, or keep up your appearance.

Your performance is no longer what matters because Jesus is your credentials.

You're free from the burden of works righteousness because Jesus is your righteousness.

He's your acceptance, he's your fulfillment, he's your worth, not your church attendance, not your social status, not your athletic success, not your boss's approval, not your bank account.

Jesus Christ alone.

And now you no longer have to live for acceptance and worth.

You can live from the acceptance and worth that you already have from God through Jesus.

But Jesus doesn't just set you free from performance, He also sets you free to worship.

You see, performance says, if I obey, then I'll be accepted.

The gospel says, because I'm accepted, I will obey.

Performance says, if I succeed, then I will be fulfilled.

The gospel says, because Jesus succeeded on my behalf, I'm already fulfilled.

Performance says, if I achieve, then I'll have worth.

The gospel says I already have worth because Jesus achieved for me through the cross.

Don't you see?

In Christ, you can fully and finally live for God because you no longer need to live for yourself.

You can live for the one who died for you.

That's why Jesus is so valuable.

And that's how prizing Christ sets you free to live a Godward-oriented life.

There's one more thing I want you to see as we wrap up our time together, and that's this.

To cultivate a Godward orientation, we must press on toward the goal.

Look with me at verse 12 here.

Paul says, Not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

In other words, Paul is saying, I'm still a work in progress.

I don't always live out of this gift righteousness thing that I know is so true.

I still have a tendency to fall back into my old ways of works righteousness.

And so I need to continue pressing on, living this new way of life, because I belong to Jesus and He's taken hold of me.

And then he says in verse 13, brothers, I don't consider that I've made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, I press on.

Saying, I'm not there yet, but I'm forgetting that old way of works righteousness that is weighing me down and become a burden through performance, a life that's built on my works and my effort and my performance.

And I'm learning to live a life of gift righteousness, knowing that I'm accepted and loved by God in Christ.

And so Paul says, I'm straining toward the prize of the, or the goal for the prize of the upward call of God.

So what's that mean?

Well, let's break it down real quick.

The goal refers to verse 11, where Paul says this, that he wants to attain the resurrection from the dead.

He's referring to that future in-time reality when Jesus comes back and raises the bodies of believers to live with him forever, a future day of heavenly perfection.

And the prize is that day when we stand in Christ not only righteous, but also perfect.

We no longer have to fight against the temptations or the flesh, or we fall prey again to uh this false works righteousness.

But we're complete, we're whole, we're perfect in Jesus Christ.

And the upward call refers to God waiting for us in heaven, cheering us on, calling us forward, inviting us to himself as he waits for us there at the finish line.

And so Paul says that he's straining towards the goal.

He's like a runner who's giving everything he's got, forgetting the things of this world that he once built his identity on, and setting his heart, his focus, his mind on eternity, on glory, on heaven, the day when he will stand before God, perfectly righteous forever in Jesus Christ.

Because he knows that his hope isn't here on earth, his hope is in heaven with Christ.

Shortly after college, my wife and her friend Megan invited me to participate in a mini triathlon.

The plan was for Megan to do the swimming.

I think it was like a quarter mile swim for me to do a five-mile bike ride and for my wife to do a 5k run.

And uh everything started off so well.

I think we had like a three or four lap lead by the time Megan got out of the pool.

So I hop on my bike feeling really good, you know, clear blue skies, bright shining sun.

I'm like a mile ahead of everybody, and I'm feeling pretty good about where we're at.

I was a college athlete at the time, so I was like, nobody's catching me.

This is great.

And then the worst possible thing happened.

The gears on my bike broke, and my bike got stuck in mid-gear.

Which, if you've ever been a biker, you know, like on flat ground, that's not too bad.

Uh going downhill, ah, you could use some higher gears, and going uphill, it is absolutely miserable.

So, in this five-mile bike ride, I think it held on to the lead to like mile three and a half or four, and then people started catching up to me.

Started getting gas, my legs are burning.

I start looking over my shoulder and I start to realize my lead is gone.

At first, it was like one or two people, and then it was a handful of people, and then they just started passing me in droves.

We're about we get about like 200 yards from the finish line, and there's this old lady who's like probably no joke, like in her 70s.

I mean, like, I was impressed she could even ride a bike, you know, like how are you staying balanced, you know?

And she has the audacity to look at me, a 22-year-old college football player, and say, it's all right, honey, you're doing your best.

And I could you know, I thought about throwing my bike down and sprinting to the finish line.

It's like I can probably beat you on foot before I can beat you on this darn bike.

So, and I th I thought that you're gonna get disqualified, and I thought it might just be worth it just to like make myself feel better about myself.

Um, but I see my wife over there 200 yards away, clapping and shearing, come on, you can do it, you're almost there.

And I thought, I want to try so bad to just outrun this lady, but I don't want to disappoint my wife by disqualifying us for making a bad decision.

So I grind through to the end, I make the handoff or whatever, pick up my bike, carry it to the trash, and move on.

I didn't actually throw it to the trash, but I should have.

I should have.

But the point of the story is that I wanted to give up.

I wanted to go back.

But the thing that ultimately kept me going was seeing my wife there standing at the finish line, calling my name and cheering me on.

What I want you to see this morning is that's what it's like to have a God word orientation.

It means pressing on towards the finish line, straining toward heaven, keeping your heart and mind focused on Jesus, and forgetting all of the other things that you're tempted to build your identity on.

In this life, you're gonna be tempted to find your worth and purpose in the things that you can do.

And it's a chore.

It takes effort to remind yourself that your righteousness is in what Christ has done for you and not in what you can do for yourself.

Time and again, you're gonna be tempted to turn back.

Time and again, you're gonna be tempted to rely on your own efforts and works.

And when you do, you have to remind yourself that your righteousness is in Christ and perfection awaits you on the other side of glory.

God is in heaven cheering you on, calling you to himself, and he's excited for you to reach the finish line.

So don't be preoccupied with what you have or what you can do.

Fix your eyes on that day when you finally cross the finish line and you enter in to heavenly perfection.

Tune your ears to hear the Father calling to you, reminding you to come to himself to find your righteousness and your perfection in Jesus Christ.

And so, as we bring the sermon to a close, here's what I want you to understand that the compass of your life is always pointed towards something.

Always looking to something or someone for your righteousness.

And if the compass of your life is oriented toward anything other than God, it's ultimately gonna be superficial and self-centered, and it's gonna leave you either empty or depressed.

And the key is turning back toward God in Jesus Christ, reminding yourself that you receive your righteousness not from what you do, but from what Christ has done for you.

But the fact of the matter is, the compass of your life is gonna get bumped out of whack this week.

You're gonna have a conversation with somebody, you're gonna get into a conflict with somebody, you're gonna receive hard news about something, you might have a circumstance that blows up and disorients you, and the compass of your life might start spinning, it might get out of whack a little bit.

And what we need to do when that happens is to remind ourselves that our confidence isn't in the flesh.

It's to prize Christ again and the righteousness we have on him and to press on toward the goal of the upward call of the prize that is in Jesus Christ.

So let's be a church that when the compass of our life gets bumped out of whack, we turn back to Jesus and we press on toward what's ahead.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for our time in your word this morning.

How good it is to know that our righteousness is not in the things that we can accomplish or achieve, but that our righteousness is freely received by faith in Jesus Christ.

Lord, we confess that we are so prone to works righteousness.

We're constantly keeping score, we're constantly comparing ourselves, we're constantly competing to be the best and to have the most.

We confess, Father, that that is an exhausting, empty way to live.

We thank you, Lord, that we don't have to live that way any longer.

Because Christ has died, Christ has risen, paid the penalty for our sin, and he's given us his righteousness, and so we're free.

Help us, Lord, to believe that good news that we would quit putting confidence in the flesh, that we would prize Jesus above everything else in life, and that we would learn to press on to the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, in whose name we pray.

Amen.