Pursuit: Trivial to Intentional - Pursuit Requires Perspective 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.

Well, I want to welcome you in.

If you're new with us, my name's Clayton.

I'm the lead pastor here at MetaCurch.

So glad that you guys have joined us for week two of our series Pursuit from Trivial to Intentional.

If you are new with us and you want to get caught up with our beginning of the series last week, you can go to youtube.com slash metachurch.

All of our past sermons are on there.

We are in this series learning how to really live the life that God created us to live.

And in the creative process for this, we were reminded of the game Trivial Pursuit.

I know a lot of us grew up with that game.

Kind of the way I always thought about it was the most frustrating board game.

And the reason it was so frustrating is because the questions were like impossible to answer.

And the reason the questions were so hard is right there in the name.

They were trivial.

Now, if you don't know, trivial means of little importance or value.

In other words, the questions were just random.

They had no real value.

There wasn't any reason to know them.

They came way out of left field, which means typically you wouldn't get them right, and you would roll and try to get it and try to get it until you finally flip the board game over and just call it quits, you know?

Trivial pursuit has been around for decades, and I guess it makes for a good board game, but it does not make for a good way to live your life.

And far too many people are spending massive amounts of energy and effort, resource, and investment into things that are trivial with their lives.

Things that have little importance and almost no value.

And you guys know this, we see this, we live in a digital world, and the majority of our digital pursuits are trivial.

They're not building anything successful in this life.

They're certainly not amounting to anything in the life that is to come.

We see this often in our relationships.

We live in a culture that doesn't date for long-term success.

It's not about building something with your life.

We live in hookup culture where things are easy and frivolous and pointless and without real meaning.

Often we see this in even our careers, where we set out to do something great, but eventually we just settle into the mundane.

There's all these areas of life, and if you're honest with yourself, then there are percentages of your time that are spent pursuing things that don't have any actual value.

They don't have meaning, they're not impacting your life or the lives of others.

They are trivial.

In this series, we are gonna go through the book of Philippians in the New Testament.

This is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a church that he had started.

We're going through the entire book in seven weeks, and every week we will get another key to how to pursue the life God created us to live.

And look, Metachurch is a place for all people, all different parts of their faith journey.

It's a place where you can belong here and be loved here, even if you don't believe.

But there is something inside of all of us that burns at like the deepest level to do something significant with our life.

We all believe that we were meant to do something great, to live a life of purpose and power and impact.

And there's a chance that the world has kicked you around enough that you've given up on that and you've settled into the status quo.

But that doesn't change the fact that at some point you had a burning desire to do something great.

And I think that if you stick around and you continue seeking God, that you're gonna find that it was God Himself who placed that inside of you.

You guys know this.

We start with the belief at MetaCurch that God created every one of you on purpose and with purpose.

And in this series, we're gonna find seven keys to living that kind of life.

In week one, we learned that pursuit requires partnership.

The Philippians were not just another church plant.

They weren't just learning from Paul, they had partnered with him.

They were with him every step of the way.

They supported him, they prayed with him, they traveled with him, they even gave insanely generously, financially to his mission to spread the gospel and to spread the movement of Jesus.

This week, we are going to get to the key verse in the entire letter that he wrote and get to the core of his message for our lives.

Would you pray with me?

Jesus, we love you, and we thank you for loving us.

Holy Spirit, we believe that you're here, that you're seeking us, that you want to speak to us.

And so I just pray that we would have open minds and open hearts.

We would allow you to do a great work here today.

We love you, we pray all these things in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Let me remind you a little bit of the context that we learned last week.

Paul had gone on one of his missionary journeys, he had stopped in this region of Macedonia, he had met the Philippians and started a church there.

On another journey, he stopped in and encouraged them, and now he is writing to them because he can no longer visit because he is in prison in Rome.

Now, if you don't know much about Paul, that might sound crazy.

Like this guy's just out there trying to live for Jesus and all of a sudden he's put in prison.

How unfair is that?

If you know anything about Paul, this kind of sounds like just another Thursday, right?

Like Paul is always finding himself in trouble.

As a matter of fact, in a letter that he wrote to another church, a church in Corinth, he kind of distilled all of the trials and tribulations that he had gone through.

Here's a sample in 2 Corinthians 11.

Paul says, Five times I received the 40 lashes minus one from the Jews.

Three times I was beaten with rods, once I received a stoning.

Three times I was shipwrecked.

Three times he was shipwrecked.

Can I tell you, if I'm shipwrecked one time, I'm never getting on a ship again, right?

You're not gonna catch me multiple shipwrecks in.

Three times I was shipwrecked.

I spent a night and a day in the open sea.

On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, from robbers, from my own people, from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers, toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, without clothing, not to mention other things, and daily pressure on me by concern for all of the churches.

So we very carefully define what church is here at Meta Church to remind ourselves constantly that this is not a service you go to to check another religious box for the week so that you've done your duty.

The church is the gathering of God's people who come together to change.

Meta means change, meta church, and part of how you change is you get brutally honest.

We come here to get brutally honest with ourselves.

And so let's let's get honest.

When we look at this list of all the things that Paul went through and continued his pursuit of the spread of the gospel, how deep into that list would you and I get before we were like, you know what?

I love Jesus, but I don't have to tell everybody about it, right?

Like I've got a personal relationship with God, so maybe we'll just keep it between him and I.

Like, how many of these types of suffering would we have to go through before we began questioning whether or not we would continue trying to spread the gospel like Paul was?

My guess is in our Western, very coddled Christianity, we would get one beating into the 39, and the Holy Spirit would get whipped right out of us.

Like, we don't have a stomach for suffering for the gospel in today's Christianity.

And this is a real problem for us.

Because when you follow Jesus, you will suffer.

How many trials do you have to go through before you begin to lose hope?

How much suffering has to come your way before you give up trying to really be vocal about your faith?

How much pain do you have to endure before the pursuit is no longer worth it?

This is true in following Jesus.

It's also true in any meaningful pursuit in your life.

So many people have it in their mind that they fell in love and they're gonna get married and they are gonna go on the pursuit of a marriage that matters, one that is powerful and filled with love and that makes a difference in the world, and both of you get closer to God and to who He created you to be, and then you actually get married.

And you take all of your worst ways and habits, and all of their worst ways and habits, and you chain yourselves together under one roof, and you're just a bad habits, worst way tornado all of the time.

And you have all of your ideas about money, and all of their ideas about money, and all of your ideas about discipline, and all of their ideas about discipline, and you have all the things you learned from your parents, and all the things she learned from her parents, and pretty soon it is so heavy navigating marriage that instead of pursuing this incredible thing that you imagined for your relationship, you just settle in and hope that you can avoid someday getting divorced.

We see this in careers, where you jump in and you're like, I'm gonna make a difference, I'm gonna make a difference in the world, I'm gonna make a difference in this company, I'm gonna climb the ladder, I'm gonna lead, I'm gonna do this.

And then it's like the more leadership you get, the more pain it causes you.

And so pretty soon you do.

There's a new term a few years ago, they call it quiet quitting, where basically you do just enough work to where HR can't fire you, you don't care about anything, you just kind of punch the clock, you get in and out.

We do this with our habits, with our addictions.

See, what's true, the painful reality is that pain often destroys pursuit.

Pain often destroys the pursuit.

You want to like find a meaningful relationship, but a meaningful relationship requires conflict, compromise, change.

The pain comes and so you stop the pursuit.

And more than that, when the pain comes, you tap out of the pursuit and you tap into the trivial.

The trivial never costs you upfront.

It will cost you in the long run, it will cost you greatly in the long run, but it doesn't cost you upfront.

In fact, the trivial options that the world offers you are meant to pacify you.

It doesn't cost you anything, it doesn't create any pain to scroll TikTok endlessly for hours.

It's not meant to create pain for you to just consistently stay high or stay inebriated or stay at the bar all day and all night.

It's meant to pacify pain so you can tap out of the painful pursuit and tap into what is trivial.

Hookup culture specifically exists so you don't have to carry the heavy weight and suffering of building a great relationship.

It is meant to be easy, quick, painless.

This is the pattern.

A life spent pursuing what is trivial is seeking the next high, the next dopamine hit, the next instant gratification, and in contrast, a life following an intentional pursuit, pursuing the life that God created you to live will necessarily involve suffering.

Anything meaningful you build in your life will require suffering.

So, how do we keep the pain in our life that will come from destroying our pursuits?

Paul is one of the ultimate examples of this.

You beat him almost to death, he just kind of dusts himself off.

You put him in prison, he worships until the doors pop open, you shipwreck him, he lands on an island and spreads the gospel to all the native people.

And as he's writing to the Philippians, he's in prison.

He's in chains, literally in chains, dictating these words, and look at his attitude.

Philippians 1 12, he says, Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually advanced the gospel.

In the midst of his suffering, his only concern is advancing the gospel and spreading the movement of Jesus.

Now the Philippians sent someone to Paul.

They heard he was in prison.

They sent a man named Epaphroditus.

We're gonna learn about him in a few weeks.

And they sent him in part because they're worried to death.

Their leader, the guy who started their church, he's in prison in Rome.

They send Epaphroditus, he sends a letter back.

This is verse 12 of chapter one.

It's one of Paul's very first thoughts.

He's like, I know you're concerned, but me being in chains is actually kind of working out.

Imagine having that level of resilience.

Imagine having that kind of clarity on the pursuit that God has given you for your life.

Paul sees two very distinct ways that his pain has caused the movement to prosper.

Number one, in verse 13, he says, it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is because I am in Christ.

Paul is imprisoned in Rome, but what has happened to him is advancing the gospel because now the entire imperial guard, the entire praetorium, which, if you're wondering, that's 9,000 soldiers.

This is Paul's perspective.

He's like, you idiots, put me in prison because I was starting churches, and now in prison, I have the biggest congregation I've ever had.

9,000 people now are hearing the gospel, and more than hearing it, they are seeing it.

They are seeing the gospel, they are watching someone suffer differently.

And that is what happens when we pursue God through our suffering.

We have to be aware that as Christians, we are preaching a gospel that explicitly claims that redemption comes through suffering.

Our story is that the salvation of the world came via the cross and execution of Jesus Christ.

Which means if we preach a gospel of redemption through suffering, but then when suffering comes to our life, we tap out of our pursuit and into what is trivial, then we are preaching a different gospel than we are modeling with our lives.

We're talking it, but we're not walking it out.

And you better believe people will take note.

You see, that is the pattern that the rest of the world exists in.

It's actually expected.

In our culture, when things get hard, go do something trivial.

Blow off some steam.

This is how we treat things.

Things get too heavy, oh man, go do something trivial.

Things get too intense, oh man, go waste your time a little bit.

How honest can I preach this morning?

Because I need your permission, because if not, I'm gonna get some emails.

So can I preach as honest as I want to preach?

How do we talk about this in culture, right?

When you and your special someone are in a fight, what do we tell you?

Oh girl, you need a drink, right?

Sounds painful, go to the trivial.

Numb that pain.

You're too anxious, what do you say?

Say, man, you you are bugging right now, hit this blunt.

You're too intense, too overwhelmed, too wound, too tight, what do we say?

I don't want any emails because you gave me permission.

We say, you need to get laid.

You need a meaningless, trivial, godless, sexual encounter.

That is the culture's prescription.

Gets too painful, tap out.

Go to what's trivial.

You want your life to be reflective of the gospel.

You want your life to become like a magnet pulling people into the hope that is inside of you.

Then when suffering comes, stay in your pursuit.

When suffering comes, stay in the arena, stay in the fight, and people won't even know what it is.

She's different.

She is different.

How is she dealing with all of this?

They won't know until they know.

Someday they'll see it's the gospel that's in you.

The first way that the gospel is spreading is the entire praetorium guard, 9,000 soldiers, are hearing about and seeing the gospel proclaimed in the life of Paul.

But there's another way that the gospel is spreading.

It says in 14, most of the brothers have gained confidence in the Lord from my imprisonment and dare even more to speak the word fearlessly.

Now, the brothers are other Christians, preachers, missionaries.

They are becoming more confident in their faith.

They are proclaiming the gospel even more vigorously.

And this is part of what happens naturally when we see someone endure through suffering.

When someone is in pursuit of something great and does not allow pain to destroy that pursuit.

Think about the rare instances where there's a championship game on the line and you see a star player go down with an injury, and all of a sudden they walk back out of the tunnel and they make the coach put them in the game and they give their all.

It inspires something deep inside of us because they're not allowing the pain to destroy their pursuit.

And we want that for our life, but when we experience pain in our world, there is a buffet of trivial options for us to ignore the pain, suppress the pain, self-medicate the pain, deny the pain.

It's so easy to tap out.

What Paul had done in part was remove the excuses of the other brothers and sisters in Christ.

It's like, did you hear about Paul?

He's in prison, and he just keeps preaching anyway.

What excuse do we have on the outside?

He is inspiring them.

This is part of why the church matters, and the church is not this service right now, this is a service.

You are the church, it's the people of God.

It's why it matters, like we said last week, that you actually get partnered up, that you get on a team with other people who are trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus, because you begin to inspire each other as you stay in the fight and encourage one another along the way.

Paul is winning.

They've done everything they can to stop him, and he just keeps winning.

Paul's got problems.

Paul's in prison.

And interestingly, he has even more problems.

We'll learn about in verse 15.

He says, To be sure.

Which is basically like saying, look, guys, I'm not unaware of this.

To be sure, some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.

So there's this large group, the brothers and sisters who are preaching the word even more fearlessly.

Within the large group, there's two categories.

Some who preach the gospel out of the right motive, and some who preach it out of the wrong motive.

Paul explains, these preach out of love, knowing that I'm appointed for the defense of the gospel, and the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking that they will cause me trouble in my imprisonment.

What's happening?

Paul's the big dog.

He's planted more churches than everyone else, he has more influence than everyone else.

He has written letters that are being circulated more than anyone else.

And there are people, now that he's in prison, who are preaching even more vigorously the gospel of Christ.

But their motive is to actually bring harm to Paul and make him jealous.

Churches in rivalry with one another?

Impossible.

Church leaders who have selfish motives and really just care about their numbers and are always comparing themselves to the church across the street.

I've never heard of such a thing.

We think of that as kind of a modern problem.

This was written almost 2,000 years ago.

Paul is in prison, which means there is market share to be taken up.

We think about that in like the marketplace.

I'm from a small town.

We had two car dealerships.

When a third car dealership moved in, it's like everyone's mad because they're taken up, you know, some of the customers.

People are thinking about this with church.

So let's recap.

Paul has been beaten, he's been flogged, he has been almost stoned to death, he's been in prison multiple times.

Right now he's in prison and he continues to preach his heart out, and he's inspiring others, but even with all that going on, there is this subset of Christians and even church leaders who are proclaiming the gospel with the motive to try and bring distress to Paul.

How objectively unfair.

Now, if you've read any of Paul's other letters, you know that if Paul has a critique to bring, he will bring it and he will not pull any punches.

And so what's gonna happen?

Is Paul gonna take these guys down?

Is he gonna call them out by name?

Is he gonna call them to the carpet?

Is he gonna destroy them?

The next verse starts what does it matter?

If we're being honest today, and you're in prison, putting your neck on the line for Christ, beaten to death a bunch of times, and somebody is out there throwing shade at you, it might feel like it matters a little bit, right?

Like you have some room to be offended, not Paul.

What does it matter?

Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed.

And in this I rejoice, and I will continue to rejoice.

Can I give you the filter to determine whether your pursuits are trivial or intentional?

It's four words.

What does it matter?

Trivial things have no value and no importance.

If you were to ask that question about all of the things where you are spending your time, energy, effort, investment, what does it matter?

And answer it honestly.

And if you want to go to the highest degree, the biblical degree, then it's not just what does it matter today in this life, it's what does it matter in the next life.

You see, it doesn't matter to Paul why they are preaching so fearlessly.

It just matters that they are preaching.

And you know why?

Because Paul is not pursuing the very trivial admiration of other humans.

Paul is not pursuing having the most popular ministry.

Paul is not pursuing having the largest congregation in town.

Paul is pursuing one thing and one thing only, the spread of the gospel and the movement of Jesus.

Period, point blank, and he will put his life on it and do whatever it takes to see it through.

If they've got to be jealous to preach harder, let them be jealous.

If more people hear about Christ, then we win.

Figuring out how to suffer and stay in your pursuit, it makes you impenetrable, bulletproof, unstoppable, more powerful than powerful.

Nothing they can do can stop you or slow you down.

And the more that they try to kill your pursuit, the more it will prosper.

And most people don't get to figure that out because the pain comes and they tap out.

And they turn to the trivial.

Paul says in verse 19, because I know this will lead to my salvation through your prayers and help from the Spirit of Jesus Christ, I'll continue to rejoice because I know this will lead to my salvation.

Now, I remind you this a lot because here in Sunday service, we're learning theology together.

For Christians, a lot of times, when we see the word save or salvation, we automatically think heaven or hell.

In reality, the majority of uses in the New Testament are not talking about eternal life.

Paul is specifically talking about being saved from a trivial life.

Being saved from the power of sin to turn us away from the purpose that God has placed inside of us.

Everything Paul's been through, everything he's going through in this moment, and he is still so focused on his pursuit.

How does he do it?

He's gonna give us a huge clue in verse 20.

He says, My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

I will not be ashamed.

When I read that initially, I think, what does Paul have to be ashamed about?

This guy is doing it.

His pursuit is immaculate.

But in context, you realize Paul isn't talking about being ashamed in front of other humans.

Paul is talking about being ashamed in front of Jesus in his life to come.

And it's this little indication that Paul is always focused on eternity.

As a matter of fact, the next thing he says is for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

When you get your pursuit right, when you stop listening to the voices in the culture trying to convince you that your life is only worth giving in and pursuing the trivial things around you, that you were created by the all-powerful God of the universe to do something significant with your life.

When you get focused on that and stay in the fight, even in the midst of suffering, nothing can stop you.

If I keep living, it's Christ.

It's Christ all day, every day.

That's my pursuit.

And if I die, even that is gain.

In other words, I can't lose.

He explains this thought in a little bit more detail.

He says, now, if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me, and I don't know which one I should choose.

I am torn between the two.

I long to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

Since I'm persuaded of this, I know I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress enjoying the faith, so that because of my coming to you again, your boasting in Jesus may abound.

Spoiler alert, you'll hear a lot in Philippians where he's like, I look forward to coming back to visit you.

I can't wait to see you again.

Paul never made it back.

Paul never made it out of prison.

But don't feel bad for Paul.

He said, for him to die is gay.

He's actually torn between the two.

He's an older man.

He's been walking with Jesus for a very long time.

You know, I remember my maternal grandmother.

When she got into her late 70s, early 80s, she would say things like this all the time, you know, I just cannot wait to go home and be with Jesus.

And it would confuse me because she loved life.

You know, we would show up to Granny Scott's house, there would be a Texas chocolate sheet cake waiting for us, there were no rules, you know.

I knew she loved us, she taught Sunday school, everyone loved her.

I'd think, man, that's so weird.

Because then every once in a while, several times a day, she, you know, I just can't wait to see Jesus.

I can't wait.

And if I'm honest, when I was little, sometimes it would hurt my feelings.

Because I was like, right, but I'm here.

You know, if you go to heaven, I'm not there yet.

I'm not planning on being there for a minute, so my granny also suffered for the Lord throughout her life immensely.

And I hear so frequently Christians who don't feel like they have an intimate relationship with Jesus.

And at the same time, we live in a bubble of Western Christianity that has sold us a bill of goods that following Jesus will be all up and to the right.

As soon as you get baptized, man, you go through those waters, you're gonna get all the things you want.

Your life will be easy now, you'll be too blessed to be stressed, your relationships will work out magically.

All of that's a lie.

You will suffer to follow Jesus.

And I think what we have lost is that the most intimate relationship with Jesus is waiting for you in the suffering.

We serve a Savior who knows how to suffer.

And that suffering, that pain that you keep tapping out of, turning to the trivial, if you would just trust God and keep going.

See, Paul kept at his pursuit, and he went into the depths of suffering, and so he knew Jesus on a level where he couldn't wait to go home to him.

And yet, his pursuit was the spread of the gospel and the movement of Jesus.

He said, Going home, that would be better, but I'm gonna stay for as long as God has me stay, for your sake and for the sake of the gospel.

How do we get to this kind of life?

How do we get to this level of focus?

How do we steal ourselves against the pain and suffering and disappointment that will come your way as you are pursuing a life on purpose and with purpose?

We finally get to verse 27.

This will reveal our key for what pursuit requires of us.

And it starts like this just one thing.

This is the only command in the book of Philippians, the only command in Paul's letter.

And in the Greek that he wrote this letter in, these three words mean something like this.

If you miss everything else, do not miss this one point.

If you forget everything else I have ever written, please understand this one thing.

I am begging you, you have to get this just one thing.

As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Live your life worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well, to know how to do that, you have to know what the gospel is.

Gospel means good news.

The gospel of Jesus is the greatest news.

To understand the best news, you have to have the counterpoint of the worst news.

The worst news you know, but you kind of live your life in some kind of tacit denial of it.

The worst news, the real problem for us as humans, is that everyone dies.

You don't know when and you don't know how, but you know it's coming.

And most people don't have an answer for what next.

Scripture reveals that death exists because of sin, and the wages of our sin is death.

That means what we've earned from all the ways that we missed the mark on God's desire and design for our lives.

And yet, God is love, and he loves you more than you could possibly comprehend.

In fact, scripture says that God loved you so much that he sent Jesus so that everyone who simply puts their faith in him will never die and will be given eternal life with God.

See, the gospel is that God loved you enough to step out of perfection and down into the midst of our pain and brokenness.

He lived the perfect life that we're incapable of living, and then, even though he was innocent, he died the death that me and you deserved for all of our sin.

He rose again, defeating death, ensuring a promise that he could also give you life after death.

And all he asks for you to receive that eternal life is your faith.

That you believe he is who he says he is and he has done what he says that he's done.

That's it.

It's not religion, there's no boxes to check, there's no hoops to jump through, there's not a class you have to attend, you don't have to clean your life up, you don't have to get it all right, you don't have to mend your fences, you just have to believe it's the call of the gospel.

So, what does it mean to live a life worthy of that?

Well, to understand that, that's the command.

First, Paul gives us the key.

You want to pursue the gospel no matter what?

You start as citizens of heaven.

As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's the command.

What does that mean?

Well, scripture says that the moment we put our faith in Jesus, that the old passes away, that we are born as a new creation, and we are ambassadors of God and citizens of heaven.

What does it mean to live your life worthy as a citizen?

It's very interesting.

When you look at the Greek that Paul wrote in, this is a really interesting couple of words.

They're like multi-compound words that are somewhat unprecedented in the ancient world.

Paul is like really trying to get his point across.

It means live your life as one would expect you to based on where your citizenship resides.

You know how we do that?

We have some expectations based on where you're from.

For our 10th anniversary, Katie and I went to Ireland.

I'm telling you, every Irish person that found out we were from Texas expected us to literally ride horses to work every day, right?

You're from Texas?

You ride horses?

We're like, I hate to disappoint you, you know.

That's what they expect.

Have you ever seen a Canadian handle of San Antonio winter?

It's shorts and chunklas the whole winter.

We have seven layers on.

As soon as you know they're from Canada, you're like, yeah, that checks out, you know?

I would expect that, because they live up in the north.

What does it mean to live your life as if you are truly a citizen of heaven?

I think for most Christians, we see ourselves as citizens of the earth, more specifically, citizens of the United States.

That carries with it expectations, the American dream.

Life, liberty, pursuing happiness.

Pain gets in the way of our happiness.

So we go to what is trivial.

When you begin to handle suffering as a citizen of heaven, you lift your eyes off of the here and now, and you get the broadest perspective.

The things that feel so heavy and so painful and so defeating in light of eternity begin to diminish.

When you keep your eyes on eternity, you realize that you have your heavenly father who spoke this world into creation waiting for you, equipping you, who has promised that all things he will work out for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose, who are on his pursuit.

They can beat you and shipwreck you and put you in prison, and you'll just keep winning.

That at the deepest part of your suffering, you will get to know your savior in ways that you cannot even imagine.

And people will say, She's different.

I don't know what it is, but everything's going to hell right now, and she seems okay.

I don't know what it is.

Everyone treats her like trash, and she just keeps smiling.

What's wrong with her?

I don't get it.

And they won't get it until they do.

And they'll learn you're a citizen of heaven.

And when they learn you're a citizen of heaven, they'll become curious how the church grows and expands.

Someday you'll get to introduce them to your king.

That's how revival starts.

Not just through proclaiming a word, but living a life worthy of the gospel.

And to live a life worthy of the gospel, you have to know where your home is.

See, pursuit requires perspective.

Pursuit requires.

How'd Paul do it?

He had the right perspective.

Specifically, what we call at MetaCurch, it's one of our values, a pilgrim's perspective.

The realization this world is not your home.

You are a pilgrim passing through, keeping your eyes on your ultimate destination.

If you've been at MetaCurch for a while, you're like, I feel like this guy preaches on pilgrim's perspective a lot.

And you're right.

I sure do.

You know why?

Because your life actually matters.

There is something God's given you to pursue, and living daily with a pilgrim's perspective is one of the hardest habits to start.

We are consumed with the here and now.

We are consumed with the world that's right in front of us, and you have to fight to keep your eyes on eternity.

And if you will stay in the fight, then suffering can come and pain can come and disappointment can come and you will not give up.

Just one thing, Paul says.

Then, whether I come and see you or if I'm absent, I will hear about you, that you're standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel, not being frightened by your opponents.

This is a sign of destruction for them, but of your salvation, and this is from God.

Now, how Paul ends what we call chapter one should be heartening and it should be taken very seriously.

He says, For it has been granted to you on Christ's behalf, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him.

Are you a believer in Jesus?

Are you trying to pursue the gospel?

It has been granted to you by Christ for you to suffer.

Paul doesn't say this like apocalyptic end of the world.

I'm so sorry.

There's no apology in here.

Guys, I'm so sorry, but you're gonna have to suffer.

Paul's been suffering for years.

He knows that's where you meet Jesus at the deepest level.

He knows that's how the movement actually moves.

Last verse, he says, since you're going to suffer since you are engaged in the same struggle that you saw I had, and now hear that I have.

Remember, in week one, we saw the Philippians are.

Partners with Paul.

They are partners in his ministry, partners in the spread of the gospel.

He's saying, I know you will suffer because you're pursuing the same thing I am.

And the world has changed.

Odds are, if you really begin pursuing following Jesus, spreading the gospel and the movement, you're not going to be put in jail, you're not going to be beaten, you're not going to be persecuted.

But in some ways, it is the less obvious forms of trouble, suffering that are the most insidious.

And we live with so much convenience and so much affluence.

And we don't want to give that up.

We feel like we have so much to lose with our status, our little faux celebrity in our social media lives, so much to lose with our wealth and material possessions.

That when pain comes, we hold on tight.

We tap out and we tap in to what is trivial.

You don't get to choose whether or not you're going to experience pain.

And you can go to what is trivial, and it might work for a while.

Drugs may alleviate your pain temporarily, but they will build up a debt that when it comes due might just destroy your life.

Sexual promiscuity may feel good in the moment, but it wreaks havoc long term.

Living for wealth and material gains, it may get you status right now, but it will make you slave to your possessions later.

We don't get to choose whether or not pain will come.

We just get to choose whether or not we will pursue something where the pain will be more than worth it.

Partnering with Jesus and his church, forsaking the trivial parts of the culture, and intentionally pursuing the life of purpose and power that we were created to live.

Now, how do we get out of trivial pursuits?

We get out of it by doing something intentional.

When we started MetaCurch, we wanted to have a simple ministry strategy.

And so we really think that for you to begin pursuing the life God created you to live, you need to do three things.

And we've compiled them in this quick start guide.

If you weren't here last week and didn't get one, we have them up here at the stage, we have them out in the lobby.

I want you to grab one of these.

Simply, we think you need to meet Jesus.

To put your faith in him, to let your faith community come around you by getting baptized.

Number two, you need to partner up.

Every time Paul says you in his letters, it's plural.

If Paul were a Texan, he would have said y'all.

It's everyone together.

Everyone needs a team.

Church, quote unquote, is not something you come and do individualistically.

The church is the movement of God's people, moving together.

We have simple ways to get in community here at MetaCurch, and you need that.

It's where the application of God's word actually happens in your life.

And you need to get healthy.

We should all be growing spiritually, emotionally, relationally.

And so we created the Meta Movement Academy.

We host it twice a year.

It's a big commitment.

It's a semester long, and it has the capacity to make a significant difference in your life.

If you lack proper perspective, you need to go through this.

If you are stuck relationally, stuck emotionally, stuck spiritually, you need to come and do the hard work because your life matters that much.

Our next semester starts in September.

We have an info session that you would need to be at on August 13th.

And I hope you will come.

I hope you will do the work.

Learning what your purpose might be and how to live it out.

God created you for something significant, and I think that you know that.

And pain will come and it will derail you and destroy your pursuit.

And so it's time to broaden your perspective and get to living the life that you were created to live.

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.

For those who have already put their faith in Jesus, you know who Jesus is.

He has already given you eternal life, a permanent gift.

I want you to be honest.

What is the pain or suffering that often derails your pursuit of following Jesus?

Is it in your relationships?

Is it in your finances?

Is it at work?

Do you turn to habits or addictions?

What are the trivial things that you're pursuing and what pain is pushing you towards them?

What would it look like for you to stay in the fight?

Continue to pursue God through the midst of your pain and suffering.

Do you believe?

That if you allow the suffering into your life, that Jesus will meet you in it.

Do you believe?

That even in the suffering, God can work things out for your good.

Today, my prayer for you is that you would broaden your perspective.

I mention the old hymn often that says, Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

It implies that your eyes are not on Jesus.

They're probably overwhelmed by the things of this world.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth, the pain, the disappointment, the sadness, the anxiety, the frustration, the suffering, the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and his grace.

Putting your eyes on eternity will put your pain in proper perspective and allow you to trust God through it.

The first step in getting out of a trivial life is a relationship with Jesus.

So, as always, I wonder if there is someone in this room or someone watching online who has never taken that first step.

Where there's never been a moment in time in your life where you have intentionally put your faith in Jesus, acknowledged that He is God, He did come to earth, die, and rise again for you to give you a new life.

So if you're here and you have never made that decision, and you're ready to today, with everyone's eyes closed, I want to ask you in this moment of courage to just lift your hand up in the air where I can see it.

And by lifting your hand, what you're saying is today I choose to put my faith in Jesus.

By raising a hand, you are acknowledging in your heart.

Amen.

Amen.

The decision that you've made.

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

We can know that because of his word, which means your sins have been forgiven.

He knows you, he knows everything you've done, he knows everything you will do, and all of it has been covered by the sacrifice that Jesus made for you.

Scripture says you have become a new creation and adopted into the family of God, that you have been given eternal life, and nothing and no one can ever take that away from you.

Here's what I want to do: I want to very simply help you acknowledge your decision to put your faith in Jesus through a very simple prayer.

And so I'm gonna ask those who raised a hand to pray this with me, and I'm gonna ask all the believers in the room to pray it with us 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 again.

I thank you for loving me and forgiving my sins.

Now let me pray over you.

Jesus, you are so faithful.

You continue and continue and continue to show up.

We celebrate over these lives, made new, brought back into your family, and I pray that today would start their pursuit of following you and finding out all that you have to offer.

God, I pray for all of us, all of us susceptible to allowing pain to take us off course, that we would broaden our perspective, get our eyes on eternity, and live as pilgrims passing through, that as citizens of heaven, we would live a life worthy of your good news, Jesus.

We love you.

We pray these things in your 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.