Pursuit: Trivial to Intentional - Pursuit Requires Focus with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

I want to welcome you in if you're new with us.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the lead pastor here at MetaCurch, and we are in week five of our pursuit series.

If you've missed any of the previous weeks, you can get caught up at metachurch.tv or by going to youtube.com slash metachurch.

We have been talking about what we are pursuing with our lives, and everyone is pursuing something.

The truth is, in our day and age, where we have a lot of convenience and a lot of affluence, especially compared to the rest of history, many people are spending enormous amounts of time, energy, and effort pursuing things that are trivial.

Now, trivial just means that they are of little importance or value.

In other words, these are worthless pursuits.

They're not building any success in your life today.

And if you're a believer in Jesus, then you actually believe that your realist life comes after this life, what scripture calls eternal life.

And trivial pursuits don't build success today.

They certainly don't build anything of significance in the life that is to come.

And so to help us start to pursue the life that God created us to live, a life that we quantify here at MetaCurch as a life lived on purpose and with purpose, meaning that it's by no accident we're here and we wake up every day like we actually believe that, and a life lived with purpose, which means we wake up every day like God has something for us to do here on earth.

Amen?

Amen.

To get there, we're looking in the book of Philippians and we're doing a book study, which means over seven weeks we're going through every verse of this letter that we have in the Christian scriptures.

We've looked at a lot of context.

This was written by the Apostle Paul when he was in prison in Rome, back to a church that he had started in Philippi, which was in the province of Macedonia, and Philippi was a very unique, very special church.

As a matter of fact, when I started studying the book of Philippi, it reminded me so much of Metachurch.

Paul had a lot of churches that he had started, and some of them were kind of slow on the uptake, and some of them had a lot of problem and a lot of controversy and a lot of distractions.

The Philippians had their problems as well, and we always have room to grow, but they were unique.

They jumped in with both feet.

When they were called to action, they responded.

They were not content just to have another religious practice in their life.

They wanted to see their life being used for something incredible during their time on earth.

The church in Philippi reminds me of our church here at MetaCurch.

It reminds me of you because you are this church.

Over these seven weeks, we're learning seven keys to proper pursuit.

So far in the series, we've seen that pursuit requires partnership.

It requires perspective.

Pursuit requires humility.

And last week we saw that it requires role models.

Now, this week we are entering Philippians chapter three, and we are getting to the part of Philippians that actually inspired this entire series.

I can't wait for you to see what Paul has to share with us today.

Before that, let's pray together.

Jesus, we love you, and I thank you for your great love for us.

I thank you for MetaCurch, this movement of ordinary, jacked-up people.

We do not have all the answers, we do not have it all figured out, but our faith is in you, and we believe you want to use us as individuals and as a movement to do something dynamic and significant and to impact the world around us.

Holy Spirit, we come in today with all of our pain, with everything that we've been through, trusting that you can redeem it and use it for something great.

And so give us open minds and open hearts and pray that we would humble ourselves under your word today.

We love you.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

And everyone who's ready to go say amen.

Amen.

If you've been attending service at Meta for any length of time, then you are well aware that our main push is for people to meet Jesus and then pursue the incredible purpose that He has placed on their life.

We make no secret that you were made for something great, and you find out what that is by opening yourself up to what God can do through your life.

However, this might be hard for many of you to accept.

I know at one point in my life it was very hard for me to accept.

There are a lot of people who sit under messages like this, like what you hear every week at Metachurch, and they think things like, I'm sure that's true for a lot of people, but just not for me.

Or I'd love to think that my life could really count for something, but the people who are sitting right next to me don't actually know just how screwed up I actually am.

And so it's a good message and it's a nice thought, but you begin to exempt yourself from the high dynamic calls of Scripture to live a life that matters to the world around you and impacts the people around you.

So why are we so quick to doubt ourselves, to count ourselves out, to deny the very destiny that God may be calling us to in our future?

I don't know every reason, but I do know one dominant reason that we exempt ourselves from this and figure that it's not for us and settle into the status quo.

It's because we all have a past.

And all of our past is filled with pain.

And some of that pain we didn't ask for and it wasn't our fault.

And tragically, some of the pain that wasn't our fault, we have come to believe was.

So let me just say when you were seven and your parents divorced, as much as you know logically that that was not your fault, in your heart you still wonder maybe it was me, maybe I was too much, maybe that was not your fault, and the devil will convince you it is because the devil has a vested interest in keeping you from actually living out the life that God has created you to live.

Here's some things I know.

We've all made mistakes in our past.

Maybe a series of really small mistakes.

Maybe you've always kind of flown under the radar.

Your mistakes haven't had massive detrimental effects, but you have seen the effects they've had nonetheless.

Maybe you have made massive mistakes.

You have hurt people in ways that are irreparable.

You've caused damage that now can't be undone.

We've all made mistakes.

Here's some things that I know about our past.

The mistakes that we make and the pain that we come under create insecurity.

And we all have insecurities.

And so we live our life trying to patch these holes in our confidence, in our self-worth, and how we value ourselves and whatever strengths we have, we try to use those strengths in order to make ourselves feel a little more whole and a little more put together, a little more secure.

Here's what I know your mistakes and your insecurities create false narratives.

And these false narratives drive your life and they derail your life.

And for some of you, maybe they destroy your life.

And they convince you that you're not good enough, or you're not smart enough, or you're not educated enough, or you're not connected enough, or you're not from the right family, or you've made too many mistakes, or whatever your brand of false narrative is on a day-to-day basis.

And I know this because I am this.

And I have my own skeletons in my own closets, and I live with my own insecurities, and I have my own false narratives that when I allow them to drive, derail my life in significant ways.

We all have a past, and yet we come here week after week claiming the truth that God has something significant for us in our future.

For most people, it is the events of our past that keep us from pursuing greatness in our future.

All these factors convince us to turn to the trivial and often even to the sinful.

And so we end up pursuing things that have no value and no importance because if we screw those things up, what does it really matter?

That's the very thing that could have happened to Paul.

Remember, in week one, I told you, this is my opinion, but I think that Paul is the most significant single human in history other than Jesus himself.

That's how highly I think of Paul.

I think he actually changed the world in immeasurable ways.

Which makes him the perfect case study for not allowing who you were to hold you back from who God created you to be.

In other words, we have to answer the question: how did Paul keep his past from sabotaging the incredible significant life that God had called him to?

We're gonna be in chapter three of Philippians today.

Paul starts chapter three off with a stern warning for the Philippians to watch out for false teachers coming into the church.

And this is gonna feel like a little bit of a detour, but part of what the false teachers were trying to bring in is an old idea, an idea from the past before Christ changed the world, and an idea that inherently creates insecurity.

Here's how Paul says it He says, In addition, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.

To write you again about this is no trouble for me and is a safeguard for you.

What is he trying to safeguard against?

He says, Watch out for the dogs, watch out for the evil workers, watch out for those who mutilate the flesh.

Paul is writing to the Philippians, and he is trying to keep them from getting sidetracked.

Paul was going around the world and he was starting these churches, these local movements of people who had put their faith in Jesus, and then slowly false teachers were coming in behind Paul and were trying to corrupt the message of the gospel.

Paul is referencing specifically false teachers called Judaizers.

They were of Jewish descent, they would travel to Christian churches and they would try and convince non-Jewish believers that they had to follow the Old Testament Jewish law in order to really be children of God.

In other words, it's like if you put your faith in Jesus here and you came and got baptized, which we hope to baptize a bunch of you again in October, and you got baptized, you go through the waters, and it's like, then we tell you, by the way, there's 613 laws you're gonna have to follow from here on out.

Bacon, get rid of it.

Mixed fabrics, get rid of it.

You know, long hair, cut it, right?

And by the way, if you're not circumcised, I realize you're 32 years old, but it's time, right?

So this is a tough message.

And the non-Jewish believers who have just put their faith in Jesus are are getting cross signals.

And if you wonder how seriously Paul takes the purity of the gospel, which is the message that God loved you so much that he came down to you, didn't stay distant and demand that you climb your way to him.

He came down to you.

He lived in the midst of our pain and brokenness.

He did all of the work, he died on the cross, taking your punishment upon himself.

He defeated death, proving that he can give you eternal life, and all he asked is for your faith.

You cannot work your way into a relationship with God.

Say amen if you believe that.

This is how much Paul cares about this.

He says these false teachers are evil working dogs.

We think of dogs as like your dog that you spend about$6,000 a year on and you put them in shirts, you know?

So it doesn't hit with the same effect because you're like, oh, sparky, you know, like I love my dog, you know.

People didn't look at dogs like that in Paul's day.

It's not quite the diss that it was back then.

Evil working dogs.

So let me tell you what he said to the Galatians, another church that he had started in that and near that same province.

To the Galatians, this is what he said.

He said, if anyone preaches a different gospel, if anyone tries to add to the gospel to convince you you've got to work your way into relationship with God, let them be accursed.

He went on because one of the things they were trying to get is for the Gentile men to get circumcised in a world where there was no anesthesia, okay?

And Paul said, if they care so much about making cuts, then tell them Paul said they can cut theirs all the way off.

That's how Paul felt about it.

Don't email me, that's in the Bible.

Why does this matter so much?

It's because our life before Christ is clouded with insecurity.

And Paul knows because he's experienced it, the only thing that can bring true security is a relationship with Jesus.

And then he's got guys coming in behind him while he's sitting in prison trying to convince them they've got to add to the gospel.

Well, if you have to add to the gospel, and if you have to work your way to heaven, you're insecure.

It matters to Paul.

It matters that they don't go back to their past before Christ, and that they work out how to live in the security of following Christ.

Your past can be a springboard propelling you forward, or your past can be an anchor holding you back.

Paul knows that what you believe affects how you behave.

Your view of God is going to determine whether or not your past pushes you forward or holds you back.

Your view of God is going to determine whether or not you trust God enough to go back into your past and bring all of your pain into the light of God where He can begin to heal it and use it in your life and for your future.

This really mattered to Paul, and he needed them to get it right.

If you're gonna replace these false narratives that you're not enough, that you gotta do the work, that God doesn't really love you, that you're a failure, that you're always behind, you have to replace them with truth, not false teaching.

So Paul speaks truth in the next verse.

He says, For we are the circumcision.

See, Paul would use this metaphor about how God isn't concerned about physical circumcision, he's looking for circumcision of the heart.

It's about what you believe, it's about your faith and your relationship with Jesus.

We are the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, who boast only in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh.

Paul's about to do something here.

You might not think it's funny.

I think it's absolutely hilarious.

Because he's saying you have got to quit putting your confidence in your past.

You have got to quit putting your confidence in your accomplishments, you've got to quit boasting and bragging and being arrogant about your own strengths.

And then he says this.

Although I have some reasons for confidence in the flesh.

Paul's like, whatever you do, you shouldn't just be bragging about your own strengths.

But if we were gonna brag, let me tell you something.

If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I've got more.

Paul's like, you think you've done more than me?

Bring receipts.

See, Paul was a spectacular human being.

Before he was Paul, he was Saul.

Before he was an apostle, he was a Pharisee.

He was focused, determined, ambitious.

Within the Jewish, religious, and political system, Paul had climbed the ladder of success faster than maybe anybody in Israel's history.

He was the up-and-comer.

He wa he was he was their wimby.

You know, it's like he's only how old?

And he's already a Pharisee?

He's already averaging 30 a game.

This this saw guy is incredible.

He's like, if we're gonna, I mean, if we're gonna brag about it, let me hit you with some highlights.

Verse 5 circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of all Hebrews, regarding the law, a Pharisee, as high as you can get.

Regarding zeal, you wanna know how passionate and focused I was?

I was persecuting the church.

Regarding the righteousness in the law, blameless.

Paul's like 613 laws, I batted a thousand.

I never missed.

He was the Pharisee of Pharisees, the Hebrew of Hebrews.

He had all of it, and everybody knew it.

As a matter of fact, after Jesus left earth and the church started, Paul's zealousness, his passion, and focus was so significant, he was traveling the known world, tracking down the Christians.

He hated Jesus, and he hated the followers of Jesus.

And he took it as his own personal mission to stamp it out of existence.

Have you ever heard, you know, two guys like maybe 30s, 40s, and they're kind of reliving their high school glory days.

We do that, you know.

We sit around the barbecue, and then every year we we averaged a few more points per game, you know.

Our memories get a little more exaggerated, you know.

We could like, we could 360 dunk, but really the video would show we could do layups kind of, you know.

Like it's a little more trying to compare your own like religious expertise, your own super spirituality to Paul would be like you, average high school player, trying to compare stats with LeBron, you know, just trying to go back and Paul's like, I mean, if we're gonna brag, I'm kind of the goat, you know?

Like, I I did it for real.

He's got a resume.

Paul was a high achiever.

And then he met Jesus.

And now here's his view on it.

But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered a loss because of Christ.

More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Because of him, I have suffered the loss of all things, and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him.

Not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

Paul spent about 30 years of his life focused solely and completely on climbing the religious ladder through a rigid, dogmatic following of the Hebrew law and jockeying for position among the Pharisees and the elites.

He was remarkably successful in this regard.

And then he met Jesus.

And this guy who had in his past the ultimate earthly pursuit now sees all of it as trivial.

Of no importance, of no value.

Everyone in Israel, the whole nation, all twelve tribes, anyone would switch lives with Paul.

Ultimate success! But in light of now knowing Christ Jesus, it's nothing.

He says it's waste.

He calls it dung.

That's the Greek word, scubula.

It's a fun word.

Scubula, right?

If he wrote this in 2024, at minimum he would have said all this time, all this energy, all that effort, it was all crap.

Many scholars think scubula is a much harsher four-letter word.

It's waste.

It's nothing.

Have you ever had a really dynamic perspective shift like that?

We've all had that.

Maybe you don't realize it.

But at one point you were like two years old, and the only thing that mattered to you in the whole world was like your blanket or your stuffed animal is the most important person.

You cared more about it than you cared about your mom who was feeding you every day.

Like you loved that thing, and if you lost it, it was the end of the world, you know?

And then you became like seven and were like, oh yeah, that's a blanket, you know?

I got bigger things to do here now.

I got a tricycle, right?

Like I got I got a new priority.

This happens again and again throughout our lives.

When I was 20 years old, I was very, very focused on music.

I was a musician, we were starting to travel.

I was on my grind, that was my pursuit.

I would dream big dreams, getting signed, traveling the world.

I booked as much as I could.

I was out there playing.

I mean, like over a hundred nights a week, I was playing music.

And then I met Katie and the boys.

And I looked at my calendar and I was booked out for months.

And isn't it interesting that before Katie, right?

You got B C, I also have got BK, you know?

Like before.

Poor Katie.

I looked at that calendar and was like, we're doing it.

I can't wait.

We're going where?

We're getting out of state.

We're doing it.

We're on our way.

Nothing was more exciting.

And then I met Katie and the boys, and I fell in love, and I looked at the same calendar that was, in my mind, the ultimate pursuit.

And I was like, oh, I gotta do all this crap.

How do I get out of this?

You know?

Can I find someone else named Clayton Tyner who can sing?

I'll just send them, you know?

Everything changes.

And that's what happens when you meet Jesus and you get a proper perspective on your life.

Paul had been on his grind for 30 years, and now he has a completely new pursuit.

Here's what his goal is now.

My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

He was climbing the ladder to have prestige and success.

That's all nothing to him now.

It's all trivial.

His new pursuit is finding out how much he can suffer with Christ.

How much impact can I make, whatever it costs me?

This is a massive swing from his past to his destiny.

And Paul is about to give us the key to breaking free from our past and moving ahead to the powerful future that God has in store for us.

These are the verses that inspired the entire series.

We're gonna go through them in a few different ways.

The beginning of verse 12 says, Not that I've already reached the goal or am already perfect.

And I love that.

Because he's about to give us some incredible advice, but before the advice, he gives us a qualifier, which is like, I'm not there yet.

I'm in pursuit, but I haven't made it.

And Paul's like, y'all already know I am not perfect.

I just I just said the word crap six sentences ago.

Y'all already know I'm still working on some stuff.

So Paul starts off with letting you know you can do this.

I don't know every single person who comes to Medichurch at this point, but I can tell you, if you're perfect, you gotta find a new church, all right?

You don't belong here if you're perfect.

If you've already made it, you are spiritually complete, you are already as good as you're going to get, you there's probably a church for you.

It's just not this church.

I don't know how much God can do with a perfect person.

Paul said to the Romans, I've got a lot I could brag about, but I'm going to brag about my weaknesses because the world isn't very impressed by your spiritual strengths.

The world is impressed when they see your areas of fault, when they see the things that you have shortcomings in, when they see all of your weaknesses and how God works through them anyway.

I haven't already made it.

I'm not already already perfect, but I make every effort.

He says, I haven't made it, he goes on.

I make every effort to take hold of it because I've also been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

I haven't reached the goal.

What does Paul want to do?

He wants to spread the gospel and the movement of Jesus to the entire world.

He's like, I haven't gotten there.

As a matter of fact, right now he's sitting in prison for his efforts, but I make every effort.

I love what he says next.

Because we hear effort and we think, all right, I gotta work.

But he wants to make sure your work is focused correctly.

He says, I want to take hold of it because Christ has taken hold of me.

You see, the false teachers were saying, you have to work to get into relationship with God.

You have to work to receive your eternal life.

That's insecurity.

Paul's saying, I'm not making every effort out of insecurity.

I'm making every effort because I am secure.

I'm not trying to patch up the holes in my confidence with my effort.

I am confident, not in me, but because I am in Christ.

I'm trying to take hold of it because Christ is so beautiful.

Christ has taken hold of me.

What did Jesus say in John's Gospel?

He said, Everyone who is mine is in the Father's hand, and nobody and nothing can take them out of the Father's hand.

You are secure in Christ.

You don't have to try and prove anything in Christ.

You don't have to impress your neighbors in Christ.

You don't have to try to earn it in Christ.

Paul says, I get to walk it out in my freedom that Jesus has given me, and because I know who I am.

Now I am pursuing it.

We don't come to Sunday service to try and earn our relationship with God.

We come to Sunday service because we're already God's children and we are called to come together and strengthen one another.

You don't read your Bible to try and get some new mystical spiritual gifting.

You read the Bible because God's already placed gifts inside of you and it's the instructions to unlock them.

You don't give generously to the movement of Jesus to try and earn favor with heaven.

You give to the movement of Jesus because this is God's favored movement that if we invest in will change the world around us.

We're not operating out of insecurity.

We are walking in the security that comes in Christ.

We take hold of it because he has taken hold of us.

But we've got tough past.

And they're always there in the background and they're always reminding us, and we have these little false narratives that are always dictating our decisions and crippling our confidence.

So how do we get rid of that?

Paul says in 13, brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it.

But one thing I do, this one thing to redeem all the trivial nonsense that I wasted my time pursuing.

The one thing I do to focus my life on something that matters, the one thing I do, forgetting what is behind, and reaching forward to what is ahead.

I say it with me, this one word, pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Forgetting what is behind, reaching forward to what is ahead.

What does that mean?

Forgetting what is behind.

I won't have to think about it anymore, it won't weigh on my conscience anymore.

Forgetting can mean that, you know?

Like as I'm walking out the door yesterday and Katie asks me to pull the trash cans up and I just get in the car and drive, and somehow in six seconds I forgot, you know?

It can mean that.

But it can also mean something a little bit different.

Like when you're dating and someone does you kind of dirty, and and your homeboy says, dude, forget about her.

Are they saying, like, get a lobotomy, just pull that part of your brain out?

No, they're saying quit giving so much weight to her.

Quit allowing her to determine your emotional state.

Quit investing in an event that is now in your past.

Forgetting what is behind.

And see, for a lot of us, we do the opposite.

We give undue weight to what was.

It becomes an anchor, holding us back, trying to get to our future, but sabotaged by the pain in our past, forgetting what is behind.

This is about what you value, it's about where your focus is, what carries the weight in your decisions.

And until you do that part, in other words, until you deal with your past, you are going to struggle to reach forward to what is ahead.

A life lived on purpose and with purpose.

A life of fulfillment, an unimaginable impact.

The life that God has called you to live.

Paul had a significant and weighty past.

He had a lot of accomplishments.

No one can compare resumes with Paul.

It's all trivial.

It's all a waste.

I have a new pursuit.

Paul says, here's what I do.

Forgetting what is behind.

Reaching forward to what is ahead.

The simple line from Paul is so instructive.

And it shows us why we so often get stuck and stay stuck.

We want to reach forward to what is ahead, but we've not done the work to let go of what is behind.

And so we keep talking about it.

I'm gonna talk about it five more times before you get out of these seats.

This is what we help you do in the academy.

At MetaCurch, um, part of my leadership is we we don't care, I don't care about numbers for numbers' sake.

I I don't need a number of people in the academy each semester.

I don't care.

I want everyone at some point to go through it.

Because I know what it did for my life, and because even if you don't believe it yet, I believe for you that God has something incredible in your future.

I know because of what God reveals in his word, that there is purpose that is locked inside of you, that you need it to realize the most significant form of life you could live, and the world around you needs it.

That we are the church.

And Jesus set us up as his ambassadors.

He put the movement in our hands, which means he needs you to move.

And part of reaching forward and moving ahead is dealing with what is behind.

And the truth is, wounds from childhood still keep us from valuing ourselves properly.

The chaos of your home that you grew up in keeps you from managing relationships even now.

Disappointments in school drive toxic habits still today in our career.

We're trying to reach forward, but we have not yet dealt with what is behind.

My mentor, John Whitty, he showed me something in these passages that blew my mind that this is this is where the pursuit series started.

I want to show you three verses, and these three verses, one of them is Paul before Christ, and two of them are Paul after Christ.

The first is verse six.

We read these today.

He said, regarding zeal, it's how passionate he was.

I was persecuting the church.

Then he says, in 12, after Christ, I make every effort to take hold of that life that God had called him to live.

And two verses later, he says, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Before Jesus, Paul was zealous in his persecution of the church.

He hated Jesus and hated the followers of Jesus.

He was like a horse with blinders on.

There was no distractions, no deterrence, no resting.

Paul would have given his life in service of eradicating the movement of Jesus.

Paul after Christ was zealous in his pursuit of Jesus.

Paul loved Jesus and therefore he loved the followers of Jesus.

He was like a horse with blinders on, no distractions, no deterrence, and no resting, and Paul would in fact give his life for the spreading of the gospel and the movement of Jesus.

Here's what's so interesting.

If we take these verses and we take our highlighted keywords and we put them in Greek, it looks like this.

The verb persecuting and make every effort and pursue are all the same Greek word.

The action that animated Paul's life before Christ is the same action, the same verb that animated his life after Christ.

It's the Greek word dioko.

It's actually a hunting term.

Now, I moved to Texas in ninth grade.

I lived in a small country town, so it wasn't long before they wanted to take the kid from the East Coast.

I just spent my last three years outside in Washington, DC.

It was like, let's take that guy hunting, you know, like this is gonna be hilarious, right?

Now I didn't know hunting, and so in my mind, hunting was where you hunt something, right?

Like you pursue it and it's difficult, and you wait in ambush, you know, and then you jump up and string.

I didn't know, like I really didn't know what hunting was.

And instead, we put on like$300 worth of camo, and then we sat in a$700 blind, and then a$200 deer feeder, which sounds really nice, like we're gonna feed the deer, but it has very nefarious purposes.

The deer feeder just sprinkled out some bait, you know?

And then we just kind of scope.

It's like the easiest thing in the world, right?

I'm like, no shade.

I know we're like a hunting culture or whatever, but this is like shooting fish in a barrel, okay?

This isn't really hunting.

This is like sitting and shooting after drinking something, right?

Like, it just kind of blew my mind, right?

It's a lot of fun and I enjoy eating venison, so I'm not gonna complain very much.

But this word dioko, there were no red dot scopes, okay?

There's no deer feeders.

You had to hunt something.

Like, this is a hunting term where, like, if you get distracted, it could take you several more days to make your kill.

And if it takes you several more days in the ancient world to make your kill, your child might starve to death.

That's what this word means.

That's the kind of pursuit it entails.

And that's the word that describes Paul.

No one was more focused, no one was more ambitious, no one was able to block out the distractions, no one had the motor that he had to just keep going and going and going and going.

I think for a lot of us, we have this idea, some of our religious baggage that we carry, that whoever I was in my past, for me to really follow Jesus, man, I have got to be a completely different person.

But look at what Jesus did with Paul.

He didn't say, Paul, you are a hunter, you are focused, you are a pursuer, man, you are intense.

Now that you know me, you're gonna be feeble, soft-mannered, you're gonna stay put.

He said, I'm gonna take those same skills, those same strengths from those same experiences, but I'm gonna use them to build my kingdom.

See, God did not erase Paul's past.

No, it's better.

He redeemed it.

And that is what God offers each and every one of us is to take all the pain and all the hurt from the worst moments of your life, and all the things that they did to you, and the pain they caused, and the false narratives that they stirred, to put them in Christ's hands.

And what you'll learn if you're willing to go through a process and start to realize how God can redeem your past is that in God's hands, all of the things you've been using to try and avoid pain are some of the very same strengths that He wants to unleash for you to pursue your purpose.

In other words, your purpose that you're so desperate to live out is hidden in the pain of your past.

And the question is whether you will be willing to expose the pain of your past to the light of God's word.

We have a great example of someone who did that and the massive difference that it made, but I want you to check out this story.

I just liked chemicals from the beginning.

You know, and that that was a long hard road because I didn't stop.

Once I started, I didn't stop.

So I think at about 12 years old, I started drinking and doing drugs.

And I did go to multiple treatment centers.

I was convicted felon at 17 years old.

In and out of jail, in and out of rehab, state hospital.

Destroyed took something out of it.

And I went on a rampage for five years.

I always had reservations that if I ever had enough money and enough drugs and enough people around me, I would be happy.

And on that last run, God allowed me to have all of those things.

And I was more miserable than I'd ever been in my life.

I was more lonely and more longing for something.

So that was rock bottom.

I think that's where God needed me to be to start listening.

At 37 years old, once I had lost everything, I was ready to surrender my life.

I wanted to just overdose.

I wanted to do something, I just wanted to die.

The last night before I went to rehab, there was a peace.

I was just like, this is it.

The battle's over.

The fight is over.

You know, come home.

So I I hit treatment and I just started in a recovery program and haven't slowed down since.

Started to attend church and starting to get out in the community.

I started feeling welcome in church, and I started feeling a community of what I thought church should be.

You can belong before you believe.

You can fit in, you are welcome here.

That changed my whole perspective of church.

Here at Meadow, we're on the life team, and we like to get together.

We like to go to the Haven for Hope.

Uh, we've gone to the food bank.

Also, we like we like to serve it, take it into the streets, serve it a meal, but our real home is Haven for Hope.

You know, we go serve breakfast there, try to get out into the community and talk to people.

I'm really involved in a lot of the homeless community because that's where I was.

I think it's amazing how God is using all of the experiences that I went through to be a part of actual community now.

That's the most rewarding thing in my life.

Medica opened the door for that.

Coming to church and saying, get out in the world, has opened up all of those avenues to, you know, a preach at communities under the bridge.

And being a part of these things that God has blessed me to be able to do.

And God has blessed me with personal relationships with all my children once again.

All those relationships have been kindled and put back together.

So that's a blessing.

Dealing with what is behind so you can reach forward for what God has ahead of you.

Jeff did that.

Jeff walked back into the pain of his past and allowed God to bring redemption.

For some of you, that is the primary thing holding you back.

We want you to experience the kind of freedom like Jeff has experienced, like so many people have experienced, where you can say, like scripture says, that God works all things for good for those who love him and who are called according to his purpose, pursuing the life that he has for you.

One of the ways that we do that, the primary way, is through the Meta Movement Academy.

If this is If you're stuck in the pain of your past, I want to just implore you to come out on Tuesday night at 7 o'clock.

You don't commit to anything just by showing up.

You don't have to sign up.

Just show up at 7 o'clock and find out what the Academy is and what it can offer to your life.

Your life matters too much to stay stuck.

And listen, that past that has been an anchor holding you back, God desires for it to become a springboard propelling you forward.

And maybe your purpose is hidden in your past.

Let's close out chapter three.

Here's what Paul says.

Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way.

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

In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.

Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us.

For I've often told you, here's trivial pursuits, and now say again with tears, many lives are lived as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction, trivial.

Their God is their stomach, trivial, their glory is in their shame, trivial, and they are focused only on earthly things.

Verse 20, our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

So then, he says, My dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters, my joy in my crown, in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.

It took until chapter three of this letter for Paul to clearly outline his own pursuit.

However, he first had to show us a proper understanding of our past and that it is what allows us to truly pursue what God has for us in the future.

If you need help with that, then uh we have the Academy Info Session two days from now, 7 p.m.

We also, for this series, we put together what we call the quick start guide.

Uh, if you didn't get this throughout the series, uh, right when we end, we're gonna put some up here on the stage.

You can come grab one of these.

This is what we believe you need, the three simple things to begin really pursuing the life that God has for you.

And the first thing you need is you need a relationship with Jesus.

Paul's life did not really begin until he met the Lord.

And all of that trivial nonsense, the waste that he had been pursuing, it did not get redeemed until he met Jesus.

The starting place for pursuing the life that God has for you is a relationship with God.

And that relationship comes through simply putting your faith in Jesus.

As we close, give you a time for reflection.

Would you pray with me?

Right where you're at, you can bow your head and close your eyes.

There's nothing magic about that, just create some space for reflection.

I wonder if you could get really honest with yourself in this moment.

What are the areas of insecurity that you're constantly trying to find ways to patch up in your life?

The insecurities that make you act in ways that aren't your true character, that hold you back from being audacious in your pursuit of the life God's given you.

I wonder what pain from your past is calling the shots and how it might be holding you back.

And if you're ready to invest some time and to do something about it.

As always, I wonder if there are those here today or watching with us online who have never had a moment in time where they've put their faith in Jesus.

Our sin separates us from God, but God loves us so much that while we were still sinners, Christ came and he died for us.

And all he asks is for our faith.

Everyone who simply believes in Jesus will never die, but will be given eternal life, life after this life here on earth.

It's your first step to proper pursuit a relationship with Jesus.

So if you're here and there's never been a point in time where you have made the decision to believe that Jesus is who he says he is and he's done what he says that he's done, I want to ask you, with everyone's eyes closed, in this moment of courage, to just lift your hand where I can see it.

By lifting your hand, you're saying, today I choose to put my faith in Jesus.

I believe that he is God.

Amen.

Amen.

For those who raised a hand, I want you to know that Jesus sees your faith and accepts it in this moment.

That your sins have been forgiven, you've been given eternal life, and that is a gift that no one and nothing can ever take away from you.

All I want to do is simply help you acknowledge this decision.

And so for those who raised a hand, I want to ask you to pray this out loud with me.

And so you don't feel singled out, I'm gonna ask all the believers in the room to pray as well.

Let's pray this.

Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you are God, that you died for my sins, and that you rose from the grave.

I thank you for loving me.

Forgiving my sins.

Now let me pray over you.

Jesus, I thank you for the work you continue to do.

Every week you just blow us away.

I thank you for those who came home today, put their faith in you, for the gift you've given them.

That today would be day one of walking out that faith and pursuing you.

We love you and we thank you for this time, and we pray it all in Jesus' name, and everyone said.

Amen.

Amen.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

You can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

Man, I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.