Sermon - Press Toward the Prize: "Citizens of Heaven" Series

Spiritual endurance doesn't mean that you won't fail.

I want you to hear that.

Rather, spiritual endurance means that you keep on keeping on.

Even when all things walk.

Even after you fail, right?

Welcome to the Church of the Lakes weekly sermon podcast.

We're so glad that you've joined us, and we're honored to be part of your spiritual journey.

Today, Pastor Robbie Strike is going in for Pastor Jared and is continuing our sermon series Systems of Heaven using the book of Philippians, written by the Apostle Paul.

Today's message is titled Pressing Towards the Pride.

In this powerful message, Pastor Robbie Strike challenges 21st to remain focused on Christ through every trial, distraction, and hardship.

The sermon emphasizes that followers of Jesus are citizens of heaven, called to press forward toward the eternal prize rather than living for temporary earthly things.

And now, here's Pastor Robbie.

Be blessed.

Hey, good morning, church.

I was so excited when Jared told me that this was the sermon text that I would get to preach on today, because Philippians 3.20 is a huge highlight verse for us as a congregation this year.

Okay.

We're, and it goes like this.

Here's the scripture, spoiler alert.

It goes, but our citizenship is in heaven.

And it is from there that we are expecting a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And because here in 2026, here at Church of Lakes, our focus is on the kingdom of God, it would make sense that this would be a core verse for us, right?

So we're going to walk through it together this morning.

But before we do so, I think it's appropriate just to kind of review what we've gone over so far in the first three chapters of Philippians in our series.

Number one, please remember the book of Philippians is one of Paul's prison epistles or letters.

Okay.

Number two, what makes it so interesting is that although Paul is in the midst of being incarcerated, this letter absolutely exudes joy.

All right.

For instance, so far, we've covered like three and a half chapters, or depending on your translation, it's around 700 words.

And in these 700 words, Paul has used the word joy or rejoice nine separate times.

All right.

That's a lot.

That's a lot for a short passage, right?

Maybe Paul's trying to tell us something.

I don't know.

What do you think?

But that brings us to number three.

You know, Paul's letter mentions joy so much because he's trying to get us to understand that our joy isn't based on our circumstances or our situation.

Right?

Rather, our joy, as Brian and Jared have said each week in this series, our joy is always going to rise and fall with whatever kingdom you're choosing to live for.

If your life is rooted in the things of this world, things like success or comfort or reputation, then your joy is always going to be fragile.

Because those things are always fragile, right?

However, if we can fixate our eyes, which we're going to talk about today, on keeping on and pressing on towards a faith in Jesus Christ, then our joy will be stable as the solid rock of God.

All right, so let's uncover this pinnacle scripture of Philippians, as we're going to be starting from uh Philippians 3, starting in verse 12, going all the way to the beginning of chapter 4.

It's a little bit of a long stretch, but I want you to crack open your Bibles if you got them, or pull up your Bible app, because anywhere you see on the screen read this morning, I want you to highlight, underline, right in the columns of your Bible.

But first, let's just let the words of God wash over us through the Apostle Paul.

Will you follow along?

Philippians 3 12, that's where I'm starting.

Paul writes, Not that I have already obtained this, or have you already reached the goal, but I press on to make it my own.

Because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Beloved, I do not consider that I've made it my own, but this one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Let those of us, then, who are mature, be of the same mind.

And if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you.

Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.

Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.

For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

I have often told you of them, and now I tell you, even with tears, their end is destruction, their God is the belly, and their glory is in the shame, their minds are set on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory by the power that enables him to make all things subject to himself.

Therefore, one of the many therefore of Paul the Apostle, therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

Friends, this is the word of God for the people of God.

Praise be to God.

Can we join in prayer this morning together?

May they be found holy and acceptable in your sight, for you are our rock and our redeemer.

Amen.

No, I have a confession to make.

But you know, just as emotionally, more seriously wrenching for me, is watching our military personnel return home from an overseas deployment.

How many of you seen videos like this?

For example, I want you to imagine with me as we watch some videos up there.

Imagine a soldier who is deployed overseas for a long assignment.

They work, struggle, sacrifice, and persevere in difficult conditions.

And when they return home, you know, for me, emotions just jump off the screen.

How about for you?

But let me ask you a telling question.

What sustains someone throughout a deployment away from home?

Huh?

What would sustain someone through a deployment away from home?

You know, I would venture to guess that knowing where their true home is is a vital part of sustaining them through their deployment, right?

When someone is stationed in another country, they may live there temporarily, but guess what?

Their identity, their loyalty, and future are tarried back to their home, are they not?

Now hear me, as the video finishes up here in a second.

As believers in the one true God, what do you think it is that sustains us to persevere through hard moments?

I think what is key to understand, especially when we look at Paul's letter, is we have to understand where our true home is and who is coming to bring us there.

Paul says, because of the power of Christ, we have the supernatural endurance to persevere.

Because of the grace of Christ, we have a heavenly home.

Because of the promise that Christ gives us, we expectantly wait for him to bring us there.

Does that make sense?

In other words, I want us to think today, we the church, the universal church here, are currently serving on a tour of duty.

We're deployed to the kingdom of earth, knowing, though, that our citizenship resides elsewhere.

And we just got to keep pressing on towards we get till we get back home.

Paul writes it this way.

I'm going to be starting in verse 13 as we go through the scriptures this morning.

Paul writes, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on.

I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

What Paul is emphasizing here is really crucial, friends, all right?

Christ is number one, above all.

Number two, Christ is for all.

All right.

And it is our purpose, our goal to maintain fixated on Christ.

That is, fixated on him above all obstacles and every obstacle that we may come across in this life.

And the good news is that, of course, as we've heard so far in Philippians, that through in Christ, that we can withstand any obstacle and every obstacle, even the ugliest parts of life.

We can withstand all the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual attacks that come our way.

Why?

Because of Christ and in Christ alone.

And we can withstand all these things, and it kind of blows me away because Paul is writing all this from where?

From a prison cell, right?

He has endured the hardships in a million different ways, right?

And while the amid the dangers of prison, he still writes that he's maintaining his fixation on Christ above anything.

He isn't deterred at all.

And that's Paul's encouragement to the church in Philippi.

He yearns them forward to keep fixated on Christ because once again, in Christ, we can do and withstand anything.

We really dove into that early in the series.

So I don't want to really hammer the point home again, but I want to re-emphasize it just a little bit because Paul spends time on it right here in Philippians 3.12, does he not?

Paul isn't deterred with the burdens of these hardships.

He presses onward towards the eternal glory that is found in his Savior, Jesus Christ.

But don't misunderstand.

It's not like Paul has the blinders on for life, right?

He's not oblivious to the trials that are going on.

He is painfully aware of his present circumstances.

And yet, Paul isn't deterred, is he?

He isn't downtrodden.

He instead vigorously pursues Christ.

You know, in 1914, Thomas Edison was 67 years old.

And at this point in his life, he'd already invented the phonograph, the light bulb, and the motion picture camera, amongst a whole bunch of other creations, certainly, that I don't have time to go through.

But in that year, 1914, a sweeping fire went through his industrial complex that housed his laboratory and all but burned up all of his life's work.

He didn't have it backed up on the cloud, at least yet, not in 1914.

You know, when his son found him watching the fire outside the lab, Edison reportedly said, Hey, go grab your mother and her friends.

Nothing's going to look like this ever again.

After reviewing the wreckage the next day, though, instead of quitting in despair, kind of what probably Pastor Robbie would do, after seeing a lifetime of work go up in flames, you know what he did?

He rebuilt his lab and began inventing all over again.

Why?

He was quoted in the local paper saying this You know, there is great value in disaster.

All of our mistakes are burned up.

Thank God that I can start anew.

Now, I don't know about you, but that as I resonate on that quote, it certainly makes me think of Paul.

You know, the Apostle Paul wasn't some eagle scout that often we would bring up here on stage to celebrate on a Sunday morning.

No, Paul has a couple of blemishes on his record if you know the story of Paul.

He was a staunch persecutor of the church before his conversion from Saul to Paul, right?

Even after he became an apostle of Christ, he still had disagreements with the other disciples and apostles.

He was subjected constant to constant anxiety and depression.

We read about that in the scriptures after he takes on the burden of starting all these small churches across the Asian mind.

But what people I think fail to realize in the story of Paul is that his spiritual endurance, you know the spiritual endurance that he talks about in Philippians 3?

Spiritual endurance doesn't mean that you won't fail.

I want you to hear that.

Rather, spiritual endurance means that you keep on keeping on even when all seems lost, even after you fail, right?

Because of Christ, friends, hear me.

We can withstand our own failures and actually watch them go up in smoke because of our Savior.

That is, that is, that is.

If we can metaphorically remain fixated on our Lord in each and every way, but I don't know about you, I get so easily distracted.

I certainly know that it's hard, it's easy to get distracted in this life, but Paul says these hard words.

He says, I press on.

Stay the course, stay fixated on Christ.

And when we endure through the hardships and do so, guess what?

We hit our scripture verse for all of Philippians, and one of the core verses for this year, Paul says, when we stay fixated and press on, that our citizenship is where?

It's in heaven.

Jesus offers all of us, each of us, the opportunity to change our passport, to change our IDs, to change our birth certificates.

Because when we get adopted into the family of God and fixate on him and only him above all other things, we have a heavenly address rather than one that is tied to a country or a club, a political party, or a sports team.

And to hammer home this point, Paul gets really bombastic and graphic.

He continues on.

Paul says, For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

He writes to the church and says, I've often told you of them.

And now I tell you, even in tears, their end is destruction.

Their God is the belly.

That's lowercase g there.

And their glory is in the shame.

Their minds are set on earthly things.

Now, I don't know about you, but Robbie, the one who cries at videos before he goes to bed, this is this is a tough two sentences for me to stomach.

Paul doesn't find joy in telling us this, does he?

He's in tears.

He's wrenched emotionally in his heart and his gut and his soul, but Paul clearly lays it out, friends.

He says it plainly.

He says there are two paths.

Two.

Two paths.

Path one is wide, and it leads to destruction.

It's the path of self.

It's the path of self-righteousness.

It's the path of self-indulgence.

It's the path of self-serving, narcissistic, belly button-gazing behavior.

But then there's a narrow path, and it's full of great news.

Paul declares it here once again.

Paul writes and says, he says, this narrow path will transform us.

Transformation of our bodies so that we may be grafted in to the family of Christ.

You know, the pathway of Christ, thanks to his grace, thanks to his death, thanks to his resurrection, it transforms everything about us.

It washes us clean.

It washes clean our humiliation, our sins, and it takes us from eternally condemned to an address that can never decay and never ever wash away.

But we've got to press on, friends.

This is the big thing for today.

We got to keep on, keeping on, even through the failures of life, even through the circumstances may not be great, no matter the trial, no matter the pains.

So the question is, is how do we actually do it?

How do we actually fixate on Christ above all and through all?

Well, I think it's important to point out that we have these practices as Christians that can help us stay disciplined in how we relate to our Lord.

They're spiritual disciplines, okay?

Number one, we got to be willing to get in the good news of God every day.

That is the scriptures, right?

Then we got to be in conversation with our Lord every day.

Guess what?

That's prayer.

Then we got to be in praise of our Lord, that is worship.

And then we got to be willing to reach down and help the least and the last and the lost.

That's service.

And then it's not just good enough to fixate on Christ with our mind alone.

We got to be willing to do it with our hands and our body too.

Guess what?

That is fasting, right?

When we practice spiritual disciplines and work out, as Paul said in the earlier scriptures of Philippians, we are disciplining ourselves, our mind, our body to fixate on Christ metaphorically, right?

We get to fixate on Christ and Christ alone.

And while maintaining these disciplines, we got to remind ourselves that number two, we got to resist, especially as people who live in suburbia, we got to resist self-reliance.

Okay?

You can't follow the spiritual disciplines perfectly if you try and do it by yourself.

You're never supposed to do it by yourself.

That's the great fallacy of religion, is that you can obtain God by chasing after him by yourself.

Christianity says something totally different.

Christianity says you can't do it by yourself.

In fact, you have to tap into the power of our Lord through the Spirit, allow it to flow through you and empower you to do great things.

That's how we stay fixated on Christ.

By connecting to him and allowing him through the act of surrender to change us.

Change us.

You know, I think this is best practically applied to Church Lakes in general by just taking a look and seeing at some of the big swings we've taken as a faith family over the years.

Okay?

To show that we trust and fully surrender and are willing to fail in order to make a difference for Christ.

You know, doing Sinus today was perfect, right?

It's perfect to celebrate a habitat home build because you have to understand building a habitat home is a big swing for a faith family.

It really is.

It's a big swing financially, it's a big swing coordinating volunteers.

My father-in-law can tell you that.

But praise be to God, because by fixating on Christ through him and in him, we can do hard things, right?

How about RFKC?

I think taking 60-some foster cares into the woods without cell phone reception counts as a pretty big swing.

I don't know about you.

It's a big swing financially, it's a big swing coordinating volunteers.

Just talk to Kathy.

But praise be to God because it's not because of our hard work, it's Christ in us that pushes us on and forward by maintaining our eyes on him that we get to, we get to friends, we get to help break cycles of dysfunction.

I love that phrase from Pastor Jared.

Look, I'm not I'm not saying these things this morning to sit up here and pat ourselves on the back.

I'm here to tell you that we've taken missions here at Church or Lakes that have failed, right?

But taking big swings and pressing on is how we show God we are all in.

We're all in.

We're all in, and we're willing to stay fixated on you, Christ, no matter what obstacles may come up.

And you know, I think there's no better way to bring home this illustration by going home with scripture.

I want us to take a look at Acts 6 through 7.

If you're familiar with the book of Acts, you know 6 through 7 takes us to the story of Stephen.

Stephen.

Stephen took a pretty big swing in his faith also, just after Jesus ascended into heaven.

He's described Stephen as a guy who's full of grace and power and did great wonders and signs among the people.

But if you know the story of Stephen, you know Stephen upset the apple cart and was arrested and was persecuted, put on trial, and Stephen, even through all these hardships, maintained his gaze on Christ.

Here's Acts 7, 55 through 58.

Will you read along with me?

But filled with the Holy Spirit, he, Stephen, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

Look, Stephen said, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

But the crowds covered their ears, and with a loud shout, all rushed together against him.

Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.

And the witnesses laid their coat at a feet of a young man named Saul.

Who's Saul again in the scriptures?

I forget.

Stephen.

Friends, did you see the maintaining literally his eyes on Christ at all costs?

Because he knew what?

He knew his home resided elsewhere.

In contrast, the crowds, they covered their ears, they averted their gaze, and under the watchful eye and approval of Saul, they killed Stephen.

Two paths here in this story.

One that leads to a heavenly home, and one that leads to destruction.

But hear this final good news, friends.

If you know the story of Saul, you know it doesn't end here, does it?

It doesn't matter how long you go down the wrong path.

There are unique opportunities with the power of our God to change course, to fixate on him, to change paths.

And here's Paul, who was the Saul, telling us to press on.

And it's now Paul who's permanently fixated on Christ.

That is the good news of our Lord friends.

It is never over until it is over.

So will you join me?

No matter what path you find yourself on today, will you join me in maintaining fixated on Christ and doing great things and taking big swings for our Lord?

Let us pray.

Oh Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for the sacrifice of your Son.

How you extended yourself into this world so that we may have a heavenly home.

But Lord, often we so often forget.

We get busy, we we get distracted.

We fall victim to the things of this world.

But Lord, I call on you now to pour out your power onto this faith family and to your people all over the world to remain fixated on you through the power of your Holy Spirit.

May we follow you to the ends of the earth.

And Lord, we love you.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

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