JoyFULL // Joy is found in living the Christian Life // Philippians 3:11-21 // Pastor Josh Evans

We don't always mention things like this.

This is a side note before we jump in. We don't always mention this, but I think it's good to celebrate stuff like this. We have one of our very own from our church, Kaitlyn Rackerd, who's actually playing in the Division 2 Softball World Series. And so they have their game this afternoon. So I encourage if you go home this afternoon, want to tune on some baseball, look for Lenore Ryan and support her and what she's doing. That's happening this afternoon here today.

And so I know she has a lot of family down in Orlando, I believe, watching them. And so definitely tune in this afternoon if you get a chance to watch that. Philippians chapter number three, we're continuing our series called Joyful. Joyful. And this is week number six of the series as we've been slowly kind of working our way through the book of Philippians. This is Paul's letter to a church.

And so he's writing this. And the theme of the entire book is the joy of the Lord. It is the joy of the Lord.

In fact, that is the overwhelming theme that you see mentioned throughout the book. And let me remind you that Paul is writing and pinning this letter to the church while he's in prison, shackled right there next to a guard. He is writing this from prison to a bunch of free Christians who are out there trying to live their life for Jesus. And he's writing to them that joy is only found in a relationship with Jesus. By the way, if you've slipped in here today and you're wanting to know how to be the most joyful person in the whole world, here's where it's found.

A relationship with Jesus Christ. What he's been saying is that circumstances, promotions, money, family, all these different things that we look to so that we can find the joy of the Lord, that fullness, that eternal joy that stays consistent and constant no matter what's happening around us, that can only be found in a relationship with Jesus. That's why in chapter number one Paul said this, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

You see that's where the joy is found. And as we come to chapter three, he's going to really talk about this idea that joy is found in living out the Christian life. Is living out the Christian life or really trying to live the Christian experience. Stephen Lawson recounts a survey that went out to the alumni from a popular seminary. And he was asking, the questionnaire or the survey was asking this basic question to a bunch of seminary alumni students. And the question was this, what is one thing that you wish you had have received better instruction on while you were in seminary? Now the seminary professors expected to hear things like, man, if we kind of learned a little bit more doctrine or learned a little bit more of worldviews and things like that, maybe that's what what we could do better as teaching. And the overwhelming response from a bunch of alumni from a seminary was this.

The most popular response was, how do I consistently live the Christian life? Let me say this, that it doesn't matter if you are a seminary student or a brand new convert, living the Christian life is a challenge. Living the Christian life is a challenge. It's a battle. You know, the scripture talks about how living the Christian life can be a war.

It can be a war that we go through. In fact, even the Apostle Paul that many would say he's like the greatest Christian ever, even the Apostle Paul struggled in his Christian experience, did he not? He struggled so much to the point that he would say things like this, the things that I hate, I find myself doing.

And the things that I love, the things that I'm pressing for, the things that I want to live for, I find myself not doing. You see, the Christian life, the Christian experience, it can be difficult. Every person in here has experienced the highs of the Christian life, and also the lows of the Christian experience. And what the Apostle Paul is going to say in chapter three of his letter to the church, verses 11 through 21, he's going to give us this idea that joy can be found in living out that Christian life. And he said, here's why it can be joyful.

Remember, it's all about Christ. That's where the joy is found. Joy is found in a relationship with Him. So what you're going to see in these verses is this, is that the reason why living the Christian experience can be joyful for you is because the Christian life is walking with Jesus, walking for Jesus, and it's walking to Jesus. He says this is why it can be joyful in your life is because here's where the joy is. You say, man, the Christian life, joyful?

I don't feel, it's a battle. How can the war be joyful? It's because when you make your Christian experience, when you make the battlefield, when you make the Christian life about walking with Jesus, walking for Jesus, not for yourself, and walking towards Jesus, you're going to find that that life is where the joy is found. That's where joy is found.

Let's look at it here today. The first thing I want you to see that Paul reminds us of is in verses 11 through 14. And it's this idea, the Christian life is a journey. The Christian life is a journey. I want you to remind, and by the way, this is probably one of those practical passages of scripture for us today.

And so I encourage you just lean in a little bit. There's going to be some practical truth and nuggets that I think every single one of you could use in your relationship with Christ that this has helped me. But the first thing he reminds us of is this, the Christian life is a journey.

If you look at verses 11 through 14, it says this. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, the word attain literally can be translated arrive at. What he's saying is that if by any means I might arrive unto the resurrection of the dead, that's the end. He's reminding himself, hey, listen, I have not arrived.

I'm still striving. Remember, this is coming on the tail end of what we looked at last week in verse number 10, where he said the desire of his heart, the purpose of his Christian experience is this, that I may know him, that I may know him. And then he's transitioning in verse number 11, saying that I have not arrived at the point where I know him as good as I want to know him.

Verse number 12 says this, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after or I press forward, if that I may apprehend, that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now, when he says the Christian life is a journey, we know this, that the apostle Paul and all of his writings, he likens the Christian experience, the Christian life, he likens it to a race, does he not? Like a race that you are running. It's this race that we are running toward Christ. And here's what he's trying to say, and this is super important for you.

So he says this, that the path that you choose or the direction that you choose is going to determine the destination that you end up in. Think about it this way, how many of you are bad with directions? Raise your hand, okay? How many of you are bad with directions? Abby, is your hand raised?

Okay, just a second. And so, all right, so like many of us can be bad with directions, right? And I'll be honest with you, I'm fairly good with directions, but I've kind of just gotten in my life, you know, where I just rely on a GPS to get me wherever. You know, sometimes when I'm leaving church, I'm like, hey, put it in the GPS where I live and I'll just see if I can get there on time.

And so it's a joke. But a lot of times I just follow the GPS and that kind of thing. But here's what I'll tell you, is that if you were to say, I'm going to go to the mountains, right?

And I'm going to go to the mountains and I want to go to the Great Smoky Mountains and that's where I'm headed. And you get out here and you just take every sign that's going, you know, east, right? You're not going to end up where you're trying to go, right?

Because the direction that you are going is not going to lead you to the destination that you want to be a part of, that you want to end up at. What Paul is saying is this, is he has the destination. That's that moment that he gets to see Christ.

That moment where everything he's stressed or pressing forward to and that life that he's been living for, he's looking towards Jesus. He says, that's the destination that I want to end up in. And his point is this, is that there's joy in going towards the direction that he wants to go.

Towards the destination, right? We've all met somebody that maybe their life has been messed up or there's been bumps in the road and maybe they've made some poor choices that led to the experience that they've been in, right? You all know somebody like that.

Maybe it was a child, maybe it was a spouse, maybe it was a friend. And they've ended up with a destination that they don't like and they don't like where they are. And they're frustrated about the decisions that they've made and the destination that it ended up in. And here's the thing, you can probably, the destination that we are at today is probably a direct result of the decisions that we have made leading up to the destination.

And so Paul is saying this. He's saying this, that the destination that he wants to be at is when he sees Jesus. That's the destination. And so his point is this, until I'm there, I'm going to be pressing in that direction. I'm going to be going this way. I'm not going to be going that way.

I'm not going to be looking to the right or the left. I'm looking in one direction, heading in the direction of the destination that I want to be at. You see, it's about a journey.

And by the way, this is hard. This is hard because here's what I want you to know. Every single person in here, and this is okay, you're on a different part of your journey than the person next to you. Church people are sometimes the worst at expecting everybody to be the same place that they are on their journey, right? We have a hard time accepting that there's people on different stages of their journey on getting towards the destination, right? We struggle with that sometimes at church because we expect everybody, you know, to at least be as far along as we are. But for church people, when we realize that there's people that are on, you know, earlier stages of their journey, we think that's hard.

We start to judge, we start to criticize and things like that. And what I want you to understand tonight, or this morning, every single one of us, we're on different stages of their journey. In fact, that's a beautiful thing about our church.

I love that. I'm grateful that we don't have just a whole church of everybody in the same spot on their journey, right? Because if we did, that means we're not accomplishing the mission that God's called us to. You see, our mission is to reach as many people as possible and to disciple them into becoming devoted followers of Jesus. And one of the ways that we can tell that that is happening is when we look on the journey, we can see different people that are just starting their journey. We can see different steps that they're taking.

Some people that are way back here, some people that are way down there. And that's the beauty of the local church. It's all about this Christian experience. And he says, I'm striving for it. I'm heading in that direction. And he mentions a couple of things about the journey that I think will help us.

This is very practical. The first thing he says in verses 12 and 13 is he says, don't become satisfied with where you are on the journey. Don't become content and satisfied with where you are on the journey. Here's what Paul's saying in verses 12.

Look at it again real quick. He says, not as though I had already attained. I've not already arrived.

Either were already perfect. In other words, what he's saying is I haven't got to that point yet. I haven't reached that point. And so until, then he transitions, until I get there, until you're with God and glory and you're with Jesus forever, he says until then, I follow after. The phrase follow after could literally mean this, press on. Until I'm there, what I'm going to do here, I'm pressing on if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended for Christ Jesus.

Now, let me say this. The apostle Paul, remember in context, he's writing this from prison. He's writing this whole letter from prison and he's talking about the joy of the Lord.

Shackled there in the middle of a prison cell, a chain next to a guard. And as he's there, he's talking about the joy of the Lord. You can feel it throughout the whole passage of scripture. Here's the thing. What's amazing to me about this is that the apostle Paul, you know what?

He still had room to grow in his life. Listen, let me tell you this, Christian, I don't care how long you've been saved. I don't care how long you've been a member of this church.

You still have not arrived. There's still areas of your Christian life. There's still areas of the journey that God wants to perfect in your life.

That's why we call it this. There's this progressive, the doctrinal term would be progressive sanctification. You say, what is sanctification? It's how God is using and molding and conforming you to be more like Christ.

And until we see Christ, his point is this. There's still areas of my life that I can improve on. I'm a little bit critical over here, a little bit judgmental over here. I'm a little bit prideful over here. I lose my temper over here.

We have all these different things. And what he's saying is this. Don't get content with where you are on this Christian life's journey. Don't get content and say, wow, I've arrived.

I'm there because you haven't, none of you. Every single one of us in this room, we have areas of our life that God wants to perfect, that God wants to grow. And so don't become content and satisfied with where you are.

Stay forward, heading towards the destination. Continue to press on and learn and grow in your relationship with Christ. Don't become satisfied with where you are on the journey. That's what he says the first thought is, is that's how we keep the joy is because there's still room to grow in front of us. There's still room to grow. Listen, if you've been saved for a long time, that's awesome.

Hey, how can you continue to grow? How can you continue to be more like Christ? You say, pastor, I'm 70 years old. Yeah, you can still look more like Christ than you do today. Wait, pastor, I'm 17 years old.

Yeah. There's things in your life that God wants to do to conform you to be more like him. And for now, until you reach that day, follow after him. Don't become satisfied with where you are on the journey. The second practical thing that he gives us about the journey is this. Stop allowing the past to control you.

Stop allowing the past to control you. Look at verse 13. He says this, brethren Christian, I count not myself to have apprehended. Okay, I'm not there yet. So until I get there, here's what I do. This one thing I do.

I forget those things which are behind. You know who had a past? The apostle Paul. By the way, this just is worth saying.

I don't know if the apostle Paul would be welcomed in a lot of Baptist churches that I've been in. You see, the point is, he's saying this, he's saying, look, I got a past. There's things in my life that I'm not proud of. I mean, he was a murderer, right? He hated Christians. He was responsible for the death of Stephen and for all of these terrible things. If anybody had a past, you come to me today and you say, pastor Josh, you don't know what I've done.

No, I don't. But let me take you to the apostle Paul and see what he had done, right? In a lot of ways, it's going to pale in comparison to probably what you and I have done. So what he said is this, is he says, until I reach the destination where I get to see my Jesus face to face, he says, I'm going to forget the things that are behind me. Listen, living in the past will affect the direction you are going every single time. Your failures and bad decisions, your mistakes, your flaws, if you live in that and you dwell in that, let me tell you this, it's going to affect the direction that you're going because you can't go that way when you're looking this way.

You can't go in the direction that you're trying to go when you're constantly looking and living in the things that you have done. Think about it this way. I remember in the 10th grade, I was playing basketball and I remember there was this team that we were playing out of Sanford and we were playing this team out of Sanford and they always had this really tall kid that was just taller than anybody on our team by a good bit. So he's like six foot eight. He went on to play college basketball at Liberty University and this kid was so good at this school and he was just tall.

So here I am, I'm like five foot eight at the time and so he just was ridiculously tall. And I remember one time I got this breakaway on the basketball court and for me, a breakaway layup was kind of an easy score. Nobody's around me and so I remember, I was like, man, this is simple and against any other team, this was a simple layup, routine, you practice this, it's easy and that kind of thing.

So I get this breakaway and I remember vividly, 10th grade, one of the most embarrassing moments of my life and so I get this ball and I'm going and I'm flying and here's what I did. I looked behind me because I knew this kid's six foot eight and there's a good chance he could block anything that I'm going to throw up. And so what I did right before I picked up the ball and I started to lay it in, I glanced behind me and he was right there and you know what I did? I missed the layup. Did he block it?

No. You want to know why I missed the layup? It's because I was too busy looking behind me that I could not see what was in front of me. You see, for some of us in our Christian life, and I want to tell you, if you've screwed up your life, you're never going to move forward in the relationship with Christ and you're never going to head to the destination that he wants you to go if you're constantly looking back at the things that you have done. That's what the Apostle Paul's saying. He's saying, listen, I'm forgetting everything I've done back here and I am now pressing toward the mark. I'm pressing toward the prize.

I'm pressing towards the direction that I'm going. Listen, don't live in the past. Don't allow your mistakes and your flaws and failures. And by the way, some of you have done some of those things that nobody else in this room knows about. And you're allowing the enemy to defeat you because you won't allow God to break you free of that because that's what our Savior wants to do. He wants to break you free of everything that you have ever done. And he wants to break you free and send you on the direction that he wants you to go toward the destination that he has for you.

Why allow the enemy to allow you to be captivated and chained to the mistakes that you've made in your life? That's what Paul's saying. Listen, as I pursue Christ, I'm going to forget those things which are behind. The next thing he says about the Christian life is this. I'm going to pursue the mission that God has called me to.

Look at what he says here, verse number 13. Forgetting those things which are behind and now as I forget those things, I lay them aside. I don't allow myself to be chained to those things.

I don't allow religious people to let me live there. No, I'm going to put all that aside and here's what I'm going to do. I am going to press on reaching forth unto the things which are before. In other words, this phrase reaching, it literally means to press.

It's this idea that you're reaching out toward something. And by the way, what Paul's saying is as I'm reaching toward the destination, that's when I see Jesus, you can't do that while you're still holding on to the past. So he says, I'm forgetting that and in the same moment, I'm reaching towards a destination that God has in front of me. Verse number 14, he says this, we got to strive until the end.

That's that phrase press, press toward. He says, until I see my savior face to face, the direction that I'm going to go is I'm going to be pressing toward the mark. The prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Listen, Paul understood that the prize of the Christian life, and this is what you need to understand, the prize is at the end when you see him. He's the treasure.

He is the prize that we get to see him. But until then, let me tell you this, the prize is not during the Christian life. It's just like a race. They don't stop you in the middle of the race and say, here's your prize. No, you got to finish the race. You got to finish the race.

And what he's saying is this, the prize is at the end of the race. So finish, strive, get there until I cross over in glory, I will press on until the very end. In other words, there's more to learn. There's more ways to grow. There's more people to reach.

There's more areas of my life that I need to look like Christ in. But I can't do that when I'm looking behind. I can't do that when I'm being passive and not reaching towards the destination that he's called me to.

No. Listen, the greatest threat of the enemy toward you and me is this, it's apathy. It's just thinking, hey, I'm not going to do anything. That's what the enemy wants you to do on the Christian life. He wants you to just sit on the sideline and not do a thing about your life, not change anything, not head in that direction, not serve, not do anything. What he wants you to do is he wants you to just sit passively by because that way you're not going to be heading towards the thing. See, the enemy, he wants you to be passive.

He wants you to be apathetic. And what Paul's saying is, nuh-uh, the enemy's not going to control me. He's not going to allow me to be chained to the bad things that I've done. And he's definitely not going to allow me to sit on the sideline of this life that God has called me to. I will press on until I reach my eternal destination.

The second thing that we see here is not, it's just the second thing is this, the Christian life should be lived from a heavenly perspective. Listen, he says that the Christian life is a journey. And wherever you're at on the journey, listen, the key is that you're moving forward on the journey.

Like I love to celebrate that. I love to see people who are at different stages on their journey. I love to just see steps being taken towards the destination. And sometimes we as church people, we think they've got to be gigantic leaps. And a lot of times for people that are new to their faith, they're just baby steps in that direction. Here's what I care about as a pastor, is I care about that we're heading there. Not that you're all the way at the end.

No. I care about the direction that you're going. And listen, that's what all of us should care about. And you should be helping those that are behind you. And you should be leading them in the right direction.

That's what he says here. He says the second thing that he wants this church to know is this, is that here's where joy can be found. It's by living your life from a heavenly perspective. Look at what he says in verse number 15. Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded. And if anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, where into we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule.

Let us mind the same thing. Brethren, verse number 17, brethren be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven. For whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself. Here's what he says very quickly. When he says that the Christian life is a journey, and he said there can be joy found in the journey, but now he says there's also joy in living this Christian life from a heavenly perspective. You say how do we do that?

He gives you a great outline. Verse number 16, here's the first thing. How do you live with a heavenly perspective?

The first thing you must do is this. We must walk in line with the word of God. As you are walking, as you are on that journey, as you are living out the Christian life, here's what he said, you have to live based off of the same rule.

Verse number 16. He says let us walk by the same rule. You say what is that standard? What is that rule? Like what does that even mean?

It's referring to the word. You see the word of God is the standard for how we are to live. The word of God is the playbook by how you should live. Listen, we can't justify our behaviors.

No, the only way you justify it is you line up with what God says in his word about your behaviors, about your attitudes, about the way you treat people, all those kind of things. You got to go to the book and when you find that, that is how we are to implement and live our life based off of it. We got to live according to the word.

It should govern us. The second thing, verse number 17, we must all be discipled. So the first thing we got to let us walk by the same rule. That's live your life based on the word.

The word should govern how you live. But now he says this in verse number 17, Paul, and this is amazing to me, this is one of the most boldest statements that I've ever seen a Christian make. He says, Christian, be followers of me. Wait, are we supposed to, what is that?

Like what? No, we're supposed to follow Christ. How could the apostle Paul ever say follow me? You see, what he's saying here is we have to have brothers and sisters in our life that are worthy of emulation. There has to be people in your life that are worthy to follow.

That's what he's saying. Paul was so confident to the church. He was so confident to them that he said this, like, hey, if you follow me, if you follow me, hey, listen, it's okay. Follow me because if you do, I know what destination I'm heading towards. I know the direction that I'm going.

And so he was so confident that if they followed him, they're going to be in path and in line with the direction that they want to go. I ask you this, like, when we think about discipleship, we think about people helping us and things like that. Who is it in your life that you're emulating? Who is it in the spiritual world, in the local church that you're looking to, that you're following, knowing that as you follow them, you're going to be in step and in line with the direction that you want to go to get to the destination that we're going to.

The apostle Paul saying, hey, follow me. I remember when I was in fifth grade at the school that I went to. We play this school, so I don't ever mention the name a whole lot just because they're our enemies now. And so the school that I graduated from. And so but the school that I went to fifth grade, my fifth grade teacher actually is the administrator of the school now. And I remember vividly, he sent me and I got in trouble. And by the way, when I was a kid, real little, I was like, I mean, just a great kid, right? I never got in trouble and things like that. Everything changed around the fifth or sixth grade and then it was just all downhill from there.

Okay. And so but in the fifth grade, I remember he brought me in and he brought me into his office and I had just gotten in trouble and they were calling my parents. It was the first time that my parents had ever been called to the school. I wish I could tell you that it was my last time.

It was not. And so my parents show up and everything and he sent me in his office as my parents left. And here's what he told me. He said, Josh, you know something? You're in the fifth grade. And he said, I said, duh. And so and so he told me this, he said, he said, here's what you need to do. And this will probably really affect when you get into middle school and you get into high school. He said, you need to find some kids in that upperclassmen 10th, 11th, 12th grader.

You need to find a few of them that are godly and have high character. And he said, and you need to look at them and you need to head their direction, not in the direction of these over here. And I mean, this fifth grade, I'm 39 years old. I still remember that conversation like it was yesterday. And here's what I'm telling you. Now I'm realizing, man, that's so true. Like, like, as Paul saying, follow me, hey, he's telling all these people that are at different stages of their journey, hey, guys, follow me, get in step, because as you follow me, you're going to be heading in the direction to the destination that you want to go. By the way, listen, who is in front of you pulling you along? I don't care how long you've been saved, all of us need people that are pulling us along.

I'm a pastor, and I have people that pull me along, that are leading me that I'm following that that I'm trying to go in step with young person, who are you looking towards? Because a lot of times the reason you're going to end up at a destination that you don't want to be at, is because you've been following the wrong people. And he goes on, that's the next point. He says verses 18 and 19, he says specifically, look at verse 18, he says, for many walk, of whom I've told you often, and now I tell you weeping, he's crying as he's saying this, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. You know what he says? Is he says, listen, there's many of you that I have warned you about following certain people, and you decided I'm going to follow them, and here's what's happened, you're getting off course, because you're following the wrong person. And he's saying, listen, you need some people that you can emulate. In this case, what he was talking about specifically was Judaizers, the legalistic crowd. He's saying, listen, church, he says, there's a lot of people that they're adding things to the faith, they're adding rules to the faith, they have tons of rules and things like that. And he's saying many of you, as you're getting persecuted for your faith, you're immediately starting to look to Judaism, and you're looking to these other leaders, and what's happening is you were once on this direction, and on your journey of the Christian life, and now you've found yourself going in a different direction, and the reason is, is because you decided to follow somebody else. You see, we're all following someone, and what Paul's saying is this, I am walking so closely to Christ that I can trust, you can trust me, that be a follower of me, because I am following Jesus. I'm thankful that we have people in our church like that.

We have people in our church that I can trust, that if I'm going after, and I'm learning from, that they're leading me in the right direction. Then he says, finally, about living with this heavenly perspective, he says, verse 20 and 21, for our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working, whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself. Here's the last thing, is this, as you're living your Christian life, you gotta keep your eyes on Jesus. You gotta keep your eyes on Jesus. You see, Paul is reminding the church, he's saying this, that even though you live in Rome, even though you're there, and you're trying to live for Jesus, and it's not the popular thing to do, it's not the cultural norm, and there's a lot of people that don't like how narrow that road is, and he's saying, listen, even though, he's like, while you're there, live as though you're a citizen of heaven.

This is not your home. So he's telling them, for our conversation, verse number 20, our conversation, you could say this, our citizenship is in heaven. That's where we belong.

We're just passing through. We're just sojourners. Our conversation is in heaven, from whence, also, we look for the savior, in other words, we're looking for his return. And so he's saying, strive and look to him.

Look to him. I wonder how many of you have thought about the destination today. I wonder how many of you woke up with your eyes in that direction.

I wonder how many of you, you know, woke up with your mind thinking about the direction and the destination that you're trying to go. What Paul's saying is this, is that while I'm on this journey, whether I'm here, here, here, it doesn't matter where you're at on the journey, don't get so caught up in that. Here's what I'm saying, is wherever you're at on the journey today, your eyes need to be in one direction. Your eyes need to be fixed on him.

Your eyes need to be fixed in the direction of him. And you say, why do you think the apostle Paul says that? Like why would he tell us to keep our eyes on him? It's found in verse number 21. It's because when that destination comes, when Christ comes back, our bodies are going to be changed. We're going to be changed from this vile, broken, frail, sinful body. You know that body that's so attracted to sin, that body that is so attracted to legalism, that body that is so attracted to being judgmental, that body that is so attracted to the brokenness of this world and the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, all of us struggle with this. Listen, if you talk to somebody in this church that says, I don't struggle with sin, whatever, find somebody else because you're just dealing with a liar at that point. Every single one of us struggle with sin.

There ain't a person in this room that doesn't. Listen, here's the point of why our eyes need to be fixed on him is because here's what you have to look forward to. And if you're looking for some good news, tune in for just a moment, we're done.

This is it. The good news of why we need our eyes fixed on him is because when he returns for us, here's the good news, our broken, frail, sinful bodies that all of us deal with, that we struggle with, the ones that we're like, man, why do I keep doing that? Why do I keep falling into that? Why do I keep looking back? Why do I keep going back to the same sin that God has freed me of?

He says those bodies, he said, here's the good news. Keep looking forward because when you get to the destination and he comes back, our broken, sinful, frail, vile bodies will be changed to a glorious body to where now, when you get to him, when you get to your destination, here's what we get to look forward to. You don't deal with the sin that you used to deal with. You don't deal with the past that you used to deal with. You don't deal with the mistakes that you've made in your life. You don't deal with the religious crowd anymore.

You don't deal with all those problems. No, your body will be made glorified forever like Jesus forever. How many of you are ready for that? Listen, I'm there. I'm ready.

I'm ready. He says that's the good news of the destination that we're going to. Our broken bodies will one day be glorified.

They'll be one day glorified. Listen, as we kind of wrap this up, I want you to think about your life, where you're at on the journey. Where are you at? Is your part of the journey you're still kind of looking back? Maybe God saved you from some things, or maybe you've made some mistakes that have just messed up your life.

What the devil wants, what the enemy wants, he wants your eyes to get off of Jesus and onto everything you've done. Where are you at on the journey? I don't care where you're at on the journey. All I care about is that you're heading in the right direction because the Apostle Paul says that joy can be found in the Christian life. That true, eternal fullness of joy, it can be found in the Christian life. When your Christian life is made up of walking with Jesus, to know Him.

That's the passion of your heart. I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings. That's walking with Jesus. Walking for Jesus, for to me to live is Christ. What I'm doing here on this earth is to live for Him in everything that I do. I'm going to give every waking moment to Him. And then he says joy is found in walking with Him, walking for Him, and walking to Him.

Where are your eyes today? Are your eyes looking back, are they heading in a different direction, or do you have your eyes fixed upon Him because the destination is going to be glorious, and you're going to be eternally free from all the brokenness that your life has caused. I don't know about you, but I look forward to that day. What a day that will be when my Jesus, I shall see. When I look upon His face, the one who saved me by His grace, listen, that's what I get to look forward to. And as one day when we get to see Him and forever be with Him in the air, it's going to be so good.

You want to know why? Because your body, all that sin, right, all that's going to be gone away, you're going to be in your glorified body forever surrounding and singing the praises of Him forever. That's what we have to look forward to. That's the destination. The question is, where are you at on the journey and where are your eyes at today? Would you bow your heads with me? Nobody's looking around, our instruments are going to play. I just want you to stand, heads bowed, hearts lifted in prayer, everybody's standing.