Imagine you are on the deck of a ship in the North Atlantic. The sky is a bruised, angry gray. The wind whips across your face, stinging your skin with salt and ice. The sea is a churning chaos of massive, rolling waves, and you are holding on just to stay upright.

And then you see it. A flash of color in the churning gray below. A head bobbing in the water. A person, fighting for their life, about to be swallowed by the storm.

Every rational thought in your head sounds the alarm: 'Don't do it. It's a death sentence.' Voices from your past shout their warnings. A lifetime of experience tells you it's too dangerous. The water is freezing. The waves are relentless.

But there's another voice inside you. A gut-level call you can't ignore. This person needs rescue. No one else can do it. Only you.

So you jump.

The shock takes your breath away. The frigid water hammers your chest. Your head goes numb. You fight to stay afloat. Every muscle strains as you battle your way toward your target.

Your limbs grow heavy. Your lungs burn. Your only focus is that desperate figure ahead, sinking and rising, sinking and rising. No one else can do it. Only you.

After an eternity, you're there. You grab a collar, anything. You pull their head above the crushing waves. The person is gasping, sputtering, unable to speak. Weak, yes, but alive ONLY because you refused to stay safe.

And in that moment, you see a face. And another level of shock takes hold.

Because you know that face. It's older than you remember, etched with the lines of struggle you haven't seen, but it is unmistakable. Swallowed by howling winds and raging seas, you know.

That tragic soul is you.

That eternal soul trapped in a situation it did not want is you. But it's an older you. It's future you. That person in the icy waters is your Future Self. It is the person God calls you to be... it is the collection of your potentials, your possibilities, your gigantic destiny just waiting to be actualized... your Future Self is out there, right now, drowning in the raging seas of unexplored potential and unopened blessings from God and the unresisted pull of your risk-averse past self.

A voice inside you accuses: you put them here. But a greater voice rises above... and you can take them out of here. Because the only person who can rescue you tomorrow is you today.

My talk today is part of a series.

The series is called: Quit Telling Yourself I Can't.

What we're doing is taking one of the sections of the Bible, a little book called Philippians, and going through it one section at a time. Because this is how God talks to us today.

"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. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do [Present Self], forgetting those things which are behind [Past Self] and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus [Future Self]." (Philippians 3:12-14)

Inside of you, right now, there are three different versions of you living at the same time.

There is your Present Self—that's you, in this moment, listening, thinking, feeling.

There is your Past Self—the person you used to be, a person made of memories, experiences, and a specific story about your life. Your Past Self is your main bodyguard. It craves predictability. It guards your comfort zone. More than anything else, your past self wats a safe, familiar, comfortable way of life.

Which is awesome when you are in danger and fighting to survive.

But when you are an adult, your past self becomes the Nanny from hell who never lets you go.

And then, there is your Future Self. That is the person God is calling you to become. This is the you with your full potential unlocked. This is your truest, deepest identity unleashed, realized, actualized.

My talk today is part 14 in the series, and my talk today is called:
Quit Being Okay with Your Mediocre, Spiritually Average Present Tense Self

Because your Future Self is drowning and is waiting for you to jump.

So how do you rescue Future You? You don't do it by accident. You do it by living by a code.

Today, Paul is showing us The Champion's Code. It's a set of non-negotiable realities for your Present Self, and it's built on Three Pillars.

If you're in a race, you have to know where the finish line is. You have to know where you're going.

The Apostle Paul understood this. He wasn't just running aimlessly. He says in verse 14, "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God."

He had his eyes locked on a goal, and the goal was a prize. And the prize was the upward call of God.

What does that mean?

It means the powers of your future self in heaven brought down to earth into your present self today.

Actually, it means more than that.

It means you are a transcendent being, more than flesh and blood and bones. More than matter and energy. You have a supernatural core. God implanted eternity in your heart. You're not made just for earth, but for heaven.

Your calling is upward. It is above and beyond. It is eternal. It is vast. It is beautiful, powerful, radiant, glorious, beyond comprehension, dazzling even to angels.

"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." (Philippians 3:12)

Let's break this down. He wants to lay hold of something. He wants a present possession of something. What is that something?

He says it is "that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me."
Translation: go out and lay hold of everything Jesus had in mind for your life on the day that he saved you.

What are those things?

IDENTITY: everything the Bible says that describes who you are.
RICHES: all the blessings and provision God has promised to give you because you are his child.
PRIVILEGES: the rights and honors that you possess as a citizen of heaven and royal child of God.
POWERS: supernatural abilities and powers you never had before you were saved... prayer, access to God, blessing, etc.
STATUS: your exalted rank in the pecking order of heaven, something that will enthrone you forever and ever.
PROMISES: a Venmo account with everything you need for every circumstance of life, pre-deposited and waiting for you to turn to God and spend it.

"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19)

There is a word in the Bible for the sum of all these riches in Christ. I'll come back to this at the end.

And I am telling you that is the person Jesus had in mind for you on the day that you got saved.

And I am also telling you that THIS is your high calling of God on your life. This is what Paul is pursuing. This is what he's going after.

This defines him... no matter what anybody says.
This guides him... no matter who tries to push him off course.
This exalts him... there is no view of self-actualization, no view of psychological health, no teaching or philosophy of humanism or human flourishing that begins to come close to the exalted status of a Christian pursuing a FUTURE SELF as profiled in the written Word of God and integrated into your soul by the Holy Spirit.

Which person is your present self facing, your PAST SELF... or THIS FUTURE SELF?

 

Who's calling the shots?

Who's running your life?

Who's setting your goals?

When you reach for the stars, God has ordained that the stars reach down to you. That's what I'm saying.

In your mind, your God is too small, your salvation is too boring, your dreams are too wimpy, your goals are timid, and your prayers are too average... because your past self has you on a leash.

How about today is the day you get set free?