Are You Dissatisfied?

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This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Date the word ministries. And today on Truth Talk Live, we want to talk about today's verse. It's March the 13th.

And March the 13th has some great Bible verses. And one of them gives us a tremendous question. And I want you to listen to the question carefully now. I asked that to a pastor a little while ago. I said, are you dissatisfied with your walk and your work for the Lord?

And he thought for a moment, and he finally, he said, you know, I have to be honest. Yeah, there are times I am dissatisfied. It's not that I'm not content with the Lord. It's not that I'm not satisfied with the Lord. But as I look at where I am, and my walk with the Lord, who I'm becoming like the Lord, the work that I'm doing for the Lord, I find myself, yeah, I'm just satisfied.

And so then I said, hey, that is great, because that just put you in the same category as a guy with a name of Paul, the Apostle Paul, because Paul writes to the Philippians. And he says in Philippians chapter three, verse 12, not that I've already obtained or have already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold for me. In other words, Paul says, I'm going after what Jesus has for me. I want to be what Jesus wants me to be. I want to do what Jesus wants me to do. I want to accomplish. I want to achieve the things that he has for me to achieve and accomplish. But then he says this, verse 13, today, March 13, 3.13, here's one of our 3.13 verses. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.

There it is, folks. The Apostle Paul defined reality, and in defining reality of where he was in his walk and his work for the Lord, he says, I have not apprehended. I have not achieved. I've not become what God wants me to be. I've not done all that I can do for the Lord. And I have not.

I have not. He is dissatisfied. I haven't accomplished what I should. And I would hope today that there is within you a dissatisfaction.

And that's my question. I want to know, how does dissatisfaction help you become a better, more productive servant of the Lord Jesus Christ? The Apostle Paul was dissatisfied. I don't know where I heard this quote, don't remember when I received it, but I wrote it down that great leaders are never satisfied with current levels of success. I wrote that down, and there's some that may be listening right now that you've worked with me, and you would say, well, that's Duane Carson.

He is never satisfied. I had a secretary one time after we finished a banquet that was just a beautiful banquet. Everything was just done perfect.

Everything. I was so pleased. But at the same time, she knew that as soon as I got in the car to leave the location, I was going to start evaluating. And she said, Duane, don't. Don't do it tonight.

We worked hard. Go home. Celebrate. Enjoy. Tomorrow we can evaluate.

Tomorrow we can go to work on next year's banquet and see how we can make it even better. But I know what you're doing right now. You're getting ready because you're just never satisfied. Tonight was a good night. Well, I'm not satisfied because of that quote.

I want things to be better. Well, as I read early on Philippians chapter three, Philippians is one of my favorite books of the Bible. I've memorized the entire book years and years ago. Philippians three just grabbed my heart. Here's the apostle Paul. He's not satisfied. And I just want to challenge you today about not being satisfied with current levels of your walk with the Lord, your work with the Lord. But now I need your thoughts on this because it's a little bit of a tug of war because there's a component where I should be satisfied with the Lord.

I should be content. But at the same time, there seems to be with the apostle Paul here that he was not satisfied. He wanted to be more. He wanted to do more. And I would just love to hear your thoughts on this.

1-866-348-7884. Give us a call here and let's talk about being dissatisfied and how that dissatisfaction. How do we even get to the place where we realize that we're not where we should be? That we do see ourselves as not at the level we should be?

And then what are we going to do about it? Because I love here in verse 13, Paul doesn't just say, Hey guys, I just want to let you know I'm not what I should be. He didn't just stay there. He didn't just say I'm not apprehended. He now gives action. Things that he decides.

Listen, I've got to focus. And when we come back from the break, again, I'd love to hear your thoughts here. Philippians 3 verse 13, March the 13th. Are you dissatisfied with your walk and work for the Lord? And how can that be a benefit to us becoming more for the Lord?

Well, we welcome you back to Truth Talk Live. It's March the 13th and with Date the Word, we're with Philippians chapter 3 verse 13. And today we're looking at how the apostle Paul said, I have not apprehended. I have not achieved the things that God wants from me.

He says, Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things that are ahead. What a great verse. And by the way, if you want more information on Date the Word, DateTheWord.com is our website. You can go to Date the Word on your app store and download the app every day. There's a daily devotion.

You could subscribe for that and it can be in your inbox every morning at 515. So when you wake up, there's this daily devotion with today's verse for the date. And then a short devotion just to get you going as you go into the day. We want you to date the word. We want you to get to know the word.

So I encourage you, download the app. There's a verse for every date and there's a tile there. Say you want a birthday verse. Someone's got a birthday and you want to be able to give them a Bible verse, you just go to whatever month their birthday is, then go to the day. And like today, when it comes to March the 13th, there are several really good verses.

I had to make some tough decisions today as I was giving out birthday verses. Proverbs chapter 3 verse 13, Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. James 3 13, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 2 Thessalonians 3 13, But as for you brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. Hebrews 3 13, But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. These different verses just remind us of how we are to be living out a Christian life. And when we think again of here's the Apostle Paul. He seems to be one who has it all together.

Yet there is within his walk with the Lord, a component that we would call dissatisfaction. He never felt like he was at a level of perfection. I don't need to get any better. I've heard this in athletics.

Coach one time looked at a player and said, You got a problem. You seem to be satisfied with where you are right now. You know, you can be a lot better than you are. How do we get better? How does an athlete get better?

How does an employee get better? If I'm an entrepreneur and I'm going after a dream, how do I get better? Well, first off, one of the things you're going to have to do is just define reality. That's the first law of leadership. There has to be this drive in us to say, Let's be honest with where we are.

Define reality. The scriptures talk about examining yourself, taking a good hard look, but then having someone else. That's why it's good to have an accountability partner, to have a coach in your life, that coach who can see those things that can be improved that you're not seeing.

They can point out the weaknesses and say, OK, if you would do this differently. I had a baseball player that I was coaching one time and he just wasn't hitting the ball hard. And I said, would you do me a favor? Just take your left foot and stretch it out just a little bit more.

I want your stance to be wider, just about about an inch, inch and a half. And he did so. And the next swing, the ball launched out into the between left and center field.

And he was shocked at how hard he had hit it. Just a little adjustment. Just a little adjustment. So so here you have someone who helps you with those adjustments. The apostle Paul says, I'm looking at myself, I'm examining myself and I am going to do one thing. This one thing I do. Now, listen, as I'm talking about this, we love to have your calls.

One eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four. I love to teach, but I want to hear your thoughts on this dissatisfaction. How does it help us become more for Jesus? How how necessary is it for us to be genuine and dissatisfied with the current levels of our walk with the Lord, our work for the Lord, our witness for the Lord?

I want to hear your thoughts on this. How how do you feel about what I'm saying right now? Because I want to say cultivate into your life dissatisfaction. Don't ever be satisfied with current levels. Now, how do we move forward as we are dissatisfied? Look at what Paul said.

He said, I am going to do one thing. There's this component of being focused. We've got to eliminate the distractions.

Some of us. It's not that we're dissatisfied with our walk with the Lord. We found ourselves to be distracted from our walk with the Lord. There are the things of the world that has pulled us away. We're more interested in the pleasures of this life, the riches of this life. Maybe it's just the concerns of this life. I'm speaking now of Luke eight, 14.

Why doesn't the sea bring forth fruit? Well, weeds are growing up and all of a sudden you're distracted from what God wants you to do. Well, Paul says this one thing I do. Listen, I want to know the will of God.

And then I want to accomplish the will of God. Bill Crawford, my disciple, said to me, your job now as a Christian is to determine what the will of God is and then do it. He didn't have to say a whole lot.

He said, though, a whole lot when he said that. And that's what the apostle Paul is saying here in Philippians. He goes, I know I have not done all that God wants me to do. He knows what the will of God is.

He knows he's to be doing the will of God. But he wants to be doing it better. He wants to accomplish more. And he says, so what I'm going to do is become even more focused. This one thing I'm going to do. And then he says, I'm going to forget the things that are behind.

You know, sometimes success can become a tremendous enemy to us really achieving what God wants us to do, because we begin to become satisfied with yesterday's achievement. When we come back and for some, we won't be coming back, you'll need to listen to on the podcast. But for many of you, we're coming back after this break and we're going to talk about how we now start going forward. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com.

Hey, I'm Duane Carson. This is Truth Talk Live. And today, Date the Word is kind of guiding the discussion because it's March the 13th and we got some March madness starting to happen, but we want to have March gladness. And part of that March gladness is that we would find ourselves striving, listen to my word now, striving to become all we can be for Jesus, to become all we can be like Jesus, but also to be able to do as much as we can. Philippians chapter three, verse 13, Paul says, I want you to know, brethren, I count my I do not count myself to have apprehended. He's dissatisfied. He's he's not comfortable with the state in which he has gotten to. He wants to be more.

I have not achieved. But then he says, but this one thing I do, this one thing I do, I don't know what you mark in your Bible, but one of my earliest Bibles and many times I'll go back and look at my earliest Bibles. This was one of those verses I underlined, I circled, I highlighted this one thing I do. What is that one thing?

And then he says, I forget those things which are behind and I reach forward to those things which are ahead. And we think about sports. It's the March Madness is happening. We've got a lot of basketball tournaments taking place right now. We're headed into the NCAA, a big dance and men, women. Congratulations, by the way, to High Point University.

Both their men and women are headed to the big dance. Listen, if you're going to be successful in sports, you can celebrate for a little bit after the win. But then you've got to get focused for the next game. And you know what? With the Christian life, you've got to do the same thing.

There's got to be this. All right. Hey, I won over that temptation. I was able to resist. I was able to run from. I was able to get away from. I made a wise decision. I didn't do the thing that I usually have done and I didn't lose my temper.

I was able to win. Okay, celebrate, but get ready. Satan's coming right back. He's going to hit you again. You've got to stay in the game. Stay focused and ready one more time to do battle with this arch enemy who wants to defeat you, wants to devour you, wants to destroy you. So now what am I going to do?

All right. I'm going to. Learn from my past, but I'm not going to live in my past.

Did you get that? I'm I'm going to learn from my past, but I'm not going to live in my past. That past success isn't going to do me any good other than, OK, what worked? Do it again. But I'm not going to just, well, I don't have to worry about it anymore.

Yes, you do. Now, listen, now that I'm I'm moving forward, I'm reaching forward. I've got to be more disciplined.

The teams that are going to be winning are the teams that become more disciplined at doing the right things. Now we have a caller. Let me bring on our caller.

We've got Dan Davis. Good afternoon, Dan Davis. Hey, good afternoon. How are you?

Good. Tell me where you're calling from. I am currently in Lynchburg, Virginia. I know a little bit about Lynchburg, Virginia. That's where I grew up. I bet you've got some good fishing spots up there. There are a few around, but I would I certainly wouldn't mind finding out about a few more.

Yes, but I also think you are very secretive on where they're at when I want to go fishing with you because you catch the big ones. Dan, what do you have for us today? We're talking about being dissatisfied in our walk with the Lord so that we can become more for the Lord. What's your thoughts on that?

Yeah, I think that's a great subject, a great thought. And, you know, I think when we think of the word dissatisfied, that sometimes the first thing we might think of is something negative or we have a negative association with that word. But I think when we understand it in that in the context of our walk with the Lord, it's not that we're not satisfied with Christ, but that we are we recognize that we still have so much room to grow.

And I know we all get frustrated at times at our own lack of progress in our Christian walk. And I think it's healthy to have a level of dissatisfaction that that pushes us to grow. It's healthy to have a level of dissatisfaction.

Wow. It's healthy because, yeah, there is the tug of war that goes on. I'm supposed to be content with the Lord. I'm supposed to be satisfied with the Lord.

But there's just something about having that component, though. Lord, point out to me how I can be better for you. You're involved with athletes quite a bit. I believe. Don't you work with FCA? Yes, I work with FCA, high school football team, a lot of coach like football team. So I work with a lot of students and athletes. You got children?

Yes, I do. I have a 15 year old and a 13 year old. They're involved in sports.

They are at my son. My 13 year old just finished up his youth basketball league, unfortunately, with an overtime loss in the playoffs. But those things do happen sometimes. Well, maybe if he's dissatisfied with that loss, saying, you know what, I want to next year. There's something about next year. What will he have to do to win next year?

What do you think? What are those kind of things that you would say and then we tie that into the Christian walk? Yeah, well, I think with him, it's continuing to work on the fundamentals. It's continuing to get better at the little things and the details of his game. And I think it's the same way in our Christian walk.

It goes back to those fundamentals. It goes back to spending time in God's word, spending time in prayer, being around other believers. I know that's a big thing for me, making sure that I'm spending time with other believers that also want to walk close to Christ.

And so I think there are a lot of connections and parallels with sports. And one of the things that I loved with his basketball season was that even the games that they won, there was oftentimes that he was dissatisfied with some things that he did that he wanted to go work on and get better at. And I think that's kind of important for us, too, in our Christian walk is recognizing that we don't have to earn God's love. We don't have to earn his approval.

We're not trying to perform for him. But at the same time, knowing that we are called to grow and keep improving. And that's part of that challenge of, listen, God loves me just the way I am.

And all of a sudden, I'm not striving to be better. And that's why I like this verse in Philippians 3, because Paul says, I don't count myself to have apprehended. But this one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, I reach forward to what he's called me to do. So it's not that I'm trying to perform for his love, but I'm performing.

I'm going to do my best for him because of what he's done for me. How do we get to heaven and hear the words, Well done, my good and faithful servant, if we're just doing mediocre work? You know, that word means average. To do mediocre work is to do average work, is really to be halfway up a hilly hill. You're just going halfway.

You're not giving your very best. In Colossians chapter 3, we're supposed to do our work as if unto the Lord. It ought to be done filled with enthusiasm, with excitement, with passion. Because we're serving the King of Kings who gave his life for us. And now he's called us not just to go through the motions with him and our walk with him, but to truly live out, become like him. We're supposed to be being transformed and then we're supposed to be making him known. I heard one time a person asked Dr. Falwell the question, what gets you up in the morning?

What causes you to do the things that you do? And he says, I only have one life. It soon will pass. Only what's done for Christ will last. And then he said, I believe I'm here to make the biggest mark I can make for the Lord Jesus Christ. And that man was focused. He was focused, how can I make the biggest mark for the Lord Jesus Christ in this life?

And it's soon going to be passed. It's not going to be here. We're not going to be here forever to do what we can do for the Lord.

Dan, I don't know if you can stay on, but we're going to need to take a break. We're talking today about being dissatisfied that pushes us to want to do more for the Lord, to be better for the Lord, to make a bigger difference for the Lord. Philippians 3, 13 is our verse, and I hope you'll come back and give us a call with your thoughts.

Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. I'm Duane Carson. We've got a ministry called Date the Word, and you can get more information on Date the Word by going to your app store, downloading the Date the Word app. We have a verse for every date. We have a devotional.

We have guides for how you can pray for your family, pray for your pastor. We have a verse for every athletic jersey number, either into sports. You want to give a Bible verse to your children or to a football player, basketball player, baseball player, soccer. There's a verse for every number, 0 up to 99, and we also have a Date the Word website, datetheword.com.

One of the things we're focusing on right now, and I just want to hit this real quickly, is that with Date the Word, we've got a huge date coming up this Sunday, March the 16th, 3-16. And when you hear 3-16, I hope you're thinking, John 3-16, I can still remember my father teaching me, I don't know, maybe three, four years of age. I want you to learn John 3-16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

That's the first verse I ever memorized. And this Sunday, hopefully your pastor is a part of this, we've challenged pastors all over the world to preach their best John 3-16 message on 3-16. Just give them the idea, it's Sunday 3-16, preach John 3-16, let's see what happens. I've been getting text messages all week, Dan, where pastors are telling me what they're doing, and how they're having Friend Day, and how they're having one church in Memphis. I got a text message today, they have challenged their church to have 16 first-time visitors. That's what they're after, to see what will happen with 16 first-time visitors being able to hear God's greatest message to mankind. Dan, you guys are involved with John 3-16, what's the excitement level with your church? Well, I mean, we've encouraged everyone to invite someone to pray for them, and I had an opportunity to invite someone, one of the parents from my son's basketball team, played a little pickup game with him and his son while the team was practicing, and then afterwards had a chance to have a conversation with him and invited him to church this Sunday. We're excited about that, we're going to be looking at John 3-16, and what we're going to do is take a little bit of time to look at Nicodemus, but also the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4, and sort of briefly look at them and really contrast the vast difference in a man who was Jewish, who was a Pharisee, who was a teacher, a leader in Israel, and a Samaritan woman, an outsider, and yet both of them had the same need of the gospel, and the gospel was available to both of them.

Oh, that's so good. So really, my heart is just that there wouldn't be anyone there that would think that I am good enough that I don't need God's grace and His forgiveness and salvation, there's no one there that thinks that I'm too bad or I don't deserve it, right? Of course, we don't deserve it, but that it's not available despite who I am because of what Jesus did, so yeah, I'm excited about it. I think I'm going to add that to my sermon, Dan.

That's a good point. You may think you are already good enough. Well, Jesus points out, unless you've been born again, you're not good enough. You've got to be born again, but then you may think, do you know what kind of sins I've committed? Do you know how filthy I am, how dirty I am, how far I am away from God? I mean, I've even shaken my fist at God. I've told Him I hated Him. Well, His love goes to the deepest of hell.

It reaches to the person that's so far away, but they can't get so far away from His love that they can't be saved. That woman, what a great contrast, Dan. That's going to be awesome. Yeah, I'm excited about it. We're praying that this will become an international day of evangelism, so as soon as we finish this Sunday with 3-16, we want to start looking at next year, and we'll give the teaser now. We're already challenging people to start thinking about Monday, March the 16th. Let it be a day where we witness while working. W-W-W, witness while working, and Dan, your sermon for 3-15 will be 1 Peter 3-15.

Give a reason for your hope. Let people know that there is a reason you show up at wherever you're at, whatever you're doing, that something's different about you. They ought to know your hope that you have. So anyway, that's jumping ahead, but we are really looking forward to this Sunday. As we're looking at right now, wrapping up this show, talking about the importance of being dissatisfied, there comes a point then there needs to be, here's my word, determination.

A new determination based on dissatisfaction. Paul says, reaching, reaching for those things which are ahead. And sports world, we're headed into the track season, Dan. How do you cross the finish line? You lean forward with everything that you have. You lean forward with everything that you have, and sometimes you can win by a split second.

A photo finish! We see it so many times in horse racing, we see it in car racing. That last bit of energy, a photo finish, the runner is taught as you get to that finish line, stretch. Everything's involved. There's a determination. I am all in giving my all. All in giving my all.

That's what Paul says here with Philippians 3.13. I'm reaching. What does Christ want me to do? He wants me to become like Him. What am I doing to become like Him? He has a work for us. What kind of work am I doing for Him?

Am I doing an excellent work? Am I witnessing for Him? I cannot allow fear to keep me from sharing the greatest message. So often there's that thought of what will happen to me if I share Christ with this person. What's the worst thing that could ever happen to you?

They could kill you. Well, that's a good thing if that happens because for you, that means you get a martyr's crown. One of my friends preached a sermon, Dan, that said only good things come to those who witness. A person will get saved, a person will hear the gospel. They may not get saved that moment, but they've got the gospel. The seed's been sown. You've been found faithful. But they also, they could persecute you.

Well, guess what? Jesus says blessed is the person who is persecuted for my namesake. You can't lose when you witness. And so we've got to have that mindset of I'm going to, that's what He wants me to do. He wants me to be making disciples. He wants me to be evangelizing. He wants me to be witnessing. So I'm going to be reaching forth like I am a sprinter crossing the finish line.

I want to be able to go all out for Him. Give me some other thoughts you have, Dan, on Philippians 3.13. Yeah, I appreciate what you just shared. And I think it's, you know, it's that never, you know, never getting that place where you think now I've arrived. You know, I think it's easy sometimes for us to think that we've arrived at a level. You know, maybe we've grown some in our walk with Christ and maybe we have shared our faith and we're serving God and that's great.

But, you know, and Paul was doing, I mean, Paul's in prison when he's writing this. Like he has already served God faithfully. And for him to say, you know, I haven't arrived yet, I'm not all there. And I want to go further and I want to do more for Christ. I think just that passion and pushing back against that complacency that it's easy for all of us to slip into. And just that single mindedness that he had of saying let go of the past and that past might be success. That might be some things that you did well serving God or it might be failure.

It might be that you really blew it. And all of us can think about times that we've done that. And instead of getting stuck on that, you know, Paul says get up and go forward and reach for what God has for you.

Whether it's in success or failure, don't live in the past. Well, Dan, we appreciate your call today. Hey, tell us where you pastor and where they can come and hear John 3.16 on Sunday.

Sure. I'm pastor at Reedy Spring Baptist Church in Spout Spring. You can find us at 1315 Reedy Spring Road in Spout Spring.

Love to have you on Sunday morning at 11 o'clock. Now that's out in, that's east of Lynchburg, west of Appomattox off of 460. I know the area.

That's correct. And they can go to a website. Yes, ReedySpring.com. R-E-E-D-Y. Springs. Springs. .com.

.com. Just spring. No S on the spring, just one spring. No S. Reedy Spring.

Yes. Hey, if you're in the Lynchburg area, you go hear Dan on Sunday morning, March the 16th. Dan, thanks for your call. Hey, thanks for having me, man.

I enjoyed it. Yes, sir. Today, March the 13th, we're going to be dissatisfied with our walk with the Lord because we want to be closer to him. We want to draw near to him. We want to be more dedicated to our work for him. We want to be more determined to witness for him. It's Philippians 3, 13 today.

I'm dissatisfied that causes me to become determined to be all I can be for Jesus Christ. This is Truth Talk Live. Thank you for listening today. Have a wonderful evening.