in hot pursuit of what?

Philippians 3: 7-12
Preached at Ridgecrest Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas
Taken from the Series: ‘Checking Your Value System’
May 21, 2005

For years now we the television viewing public have been shocked, amused and generally entertained by shows like C.O.P.S and Amazing Police Chases. We love to watch the real life theatre of law enforcement officers chasing the bad guys, especially when the hot pursuit includes fast and dangerous car chases. Cops risk their lives and participate in life threatening activities, such as high speed car chases because it’s their job. But more importantly those who vow to uphold the law fundamentally value public safety, the sanctity of life and yes, justice: catching the bad guy. If the truth were told, a few policemen may even admit that they just plain love the opportunity to drive as fast as they can without getting a ticket, but that’s just a supposition on my part. So it is safe to say that most policeman hotly pursuit offenders because they fundamentally value justice. As every day citizens, do we not pursue most passionately what we most highly value? If you asked my ten year old son Max, he might say he hotly pursues whatever the latest Play station 2 games. So I ask myself the same thing: what is it I most value and what is it I most passionately pursuit?

I was baptized as an infant into the Roman Catholic Church, born to a devout Roman Catholic mother and a father who was raised Church of Christ but hadn’t been in a church since the last time my mother shamed him into attending. My earliest memories are of my mother and me attending mass every Sunday. We always attended the ‘Stations of the Cross’ ceremony during the Lenten Season, and often attended the praying of the rosary. I attended Catholic grade school, became an altar boy, received first communion, confirmation, and pretty much knew all of the prayers. I did not know God and of his providential grace. During this time in my life I look back now and realize what I was pursuing. I was not pursuing God out of thankfulness and joy to glorify how great he truly is. I was pursuing the things of God because I wanted to make sure that he didn’t hate me that he wouldn’t dislike me and send me to hell. I pursued God to appease his wrath in hopes that I would do whatever I could to escape his wrath.

One day I was serving as an altar boy during a weekday school wide mass. I was given the task of carrying the wafers (hosts) and the wine, one in each hand. As I stood at the back of the church waiting for my signal to begin solemnly sauntering down the aisle towards the altar, I prayed to God, “Please don’t let me drop this. Please don’t let me drop this.” So as I begin to walk down the aisle with the entire school body looking at me, beads of sweat and all, I dropped everything. So of course the natural wave of panic, embarrassment, shame, et cetera overcame me as the priest rushed towards me to pick everything up. I remember thinking how I had again failed to earn God’s love and affirmation. And I began to hate God. A God who could never truly be pleased, that just when I thought I had acted right, I went and screwed everything up.

From that point on I gave up trying to appease a God who, in my view, could not be satisfied. I ran, fled from Him. I began to look to myself and not to Him. I went as far away from God as I could, in thought, action and speech. So I pursued what I was most passionate about; me. I became self-indulgent, self-motivated, self-obsessed, self, self, and self. My prior track record speaks for itself; I make a terrible God. This is a simple truth learned from the past: I did not passionately pursue God because I did not truly know him. And all the things that I did pursue in an attempt to fill my ‘God hole’, the cars, the money, the drink, the women, the intelligence, the ‘good deeds’, the writing, the crying, the self-enlightenment, all of this was crap. At the time they seemed good and right.

Paul writes in Philippians the 3rd chapter, versus 7 and 8: ‘but what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him.’ Paul states that everything, EVERYTHING, is NOTHING compared to knowing Christ Jesus. In fact the Greek word for rubbish is graphic; it literally means refuse and was once translated as ‘dung’. Paul flings away in disgust whatever interferes with his hot pursuit of ‘the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord’. So as Christians should we not commit to pursuing that which is most precious, most valuable? What we profess to be most passionate about?

In the following few versus Paul gives us at least six reasons why we should pursue Christ above all things. I’ll focus on three.

1. We pursue Christ to Know Him... Verse 10, we pursue Christ to know him that we might gain him through faith. That we might gain His righteousness since we have none of our own. It is through Him that we are justified before God. To know Him and his power through his life, his suffering, his death and to share in his glorious resurrection power. We die with Christ and we gain eternal life through the victory on the cross;

2. We pursue Christ because we are imperfect… read the first part of Verse 12, ‘Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected:’ we are not yet perfected in Christ, but we strive to be. We passionately pursue perfection in Christ; to be more like him. Though we are imperfect scripture tells us that one day we will be perfected in the glorious image of Christ (Romans 8:29);

3. We pursue Christ because he has already pursued us… now the second half of Verse 12, ‘Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected: but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.’ It is because “Christ Jesus has already laid hold of” us that we press toward the goal of life in glory. This is the good news, Christ has already gained us. He ‘gained’ us by dying on the cross and defeating death by rising on the third day. Christ is in us, working in us; compelling us to hotly pursue what only God can accomplish- eternal life.

I ask you, what are you in hot pursuit of today? What is it that you most value? What in your heart do you truly value above all things? If Christ is in you are you dying to yourself… Are you in hot pursuit of Him? He who loved you before you ever loved him?