"I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind." (Philippians 3:14-16)

Right now, you are on a planet hurtling through the blackness of space at 67,000 miles per hour. Ninety-three million miles away, across a vacuum of almost perfect emptiness, is the sun.

What keeps our planet from flying off in a straight line into the frozen darkness of the void?

An invisible tether. A constant, relentless, gravitational pull.

Scientists have calculated the strength of this force. It is a number so large it's almost meaningless—around 35 sextillion Newtons. So let's put it another way. To physically replicate the sun's gravitational pull on the Earth, you would need a solid steel cable connecting the two that was nearly one thousand miles thick.

Imagine that. A solid cable of steel a thousand miles in diameter is what it would take to hold our planet in place.

But here is the beautiful, mind-bending reality. You are not just being held. You are in a constant state of racing away. Our planet is perpetually falling toward the sun, pulled by that immense force. The only reason you don't crash is because you are also moving sideways at the exact speed required to hold us in an elliptical orbit.

Somehow, earth seems to be fine-tuned for human life.

This perfect balance between our forward momentum and the sun's gravitational pull is what creates our orbit. It creates our path. It creates the stability in your seasons and your life.

If that gravitational pull were to vanish for even a second, our world would immediately careen off into the the darkness, becoming a cold, dead rock, drifting aimlessly forever.

An invisible, massive, central force... creating a stable orbit... and preventing a cold, aimless drift.

Hold onto that thought.

We've been studying a book in the Bible called Philippians. We've been going verse by verse.

 

The name of this series is: Quit Telling Yourself I Can't

 

My talk today is number 17 in the series. We're here in Philippians 3:14-16. And my talk today is called...

Today, I want to pull together a lot of the threads I've been teaching throughout this series. We've covered a lot of ground, and to pull together a lot of the themes, I want to talk about High Expectation Goals.

So, let's get going...

On the day Jesus saved you, He didn't just see a sinner who needed forgiveness. He saw a warrior who needed to be armed. He saw a masterpiece covered in mud. He saw your Future Self—a you that is courageous, vibrant, generous, and full of unshakeable peace. He saw your maximum potential, a person so full of His light that you could change the world around you.

THAT is the prize.

I'm talking about a goal so big, so audacious, that it feels impossible. A goal that, if you were to say it out loud, would make the "realistic" people in your life nervous.

This is me inviting you to be unreasonable, to be ridiculous, to be irrational, and to be wild for the sake of Christ and the gospel.

And the reason I can say that is because of the third truth about bold goals with God.

At the moment of your salvation, God didn't just give you a pardon; He held a coronation. So Scripture says you reign in life. You reign.

So, pick up the scepter Christ handed you and start making some royal decrees over your life.

The first part of Christian living has to be emotional healing from the traumas, abuses, and losses of your past.

God is making your heart a safe place again, a place where the desires and beautiful dreams growing in you can finally break through the soil, fully and freely alive.

You should spend more time looking at how far you've come, and being grateful (progress orientation), than looking at how far you have to go, and being demoralized (perfection orientation).

That is how you fuel your future.

Your big, audacious, God-sized dream is actually easier to build than your small, safe, manageable plan.

Because a God-sized dream forces you onto a new pathway of POWER, onto a new pathway of STRATEGY, and onto a new pathway of IDENTITY.

That's as far as we got last time...

Many people play it safe because they're afraid of failure. What if I fail? What if I fall short? What if I lose?

What if I set this big, audacious, God-sized goal... and I don't hit the target? What if I give my all, I burn the ships, I step out in faith... and I fall flat on my face?

To the world, you're a failure.
To your past self, you're a failure.

To your parents, teachers, and all the rest who told you you would never make it, you've just given them more proof, more ammo, that they were right all along.

But when you dream bigger and miss the goal, God has a different answer. Understanding His answer is the very definition of spiritual maturity. This is the mindset Paul is talking about in verse 15 when he says, "Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind..." What is this mind?

It's a mind that says, "I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me."

"For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith." (1 John 5:4)

The mature mind is a mind that has been so healed—and I mean mental health, emotional health, psychological health—so healed by grace that you redefine success.

In the spiritual realm, victory isn't the victory.
In the spiritual realm, success isn't the victory.
In the spiritual realm, faith is the victory.

Think about Paul.

Here he is chained to a Roman guard, a prisoner of Rome, soon to be executed by Caesar for his faith.

He writes a letter to a church in a city called Corinth, and he says, "I want to visit you with the Gospel, and I want to visit the regions beyond."

On a map, the regions beyond meant Spain. He is in Rome. His is in chains. His goal is to bring the message of salvation to Spain.

And he says so.

Do you know what that is?
Maturity of faith and toughness of heart.

Do you know what else that is?
Victory.

As far as we know, he never got there. His audacious dream was cut short by a Roman executioner's sword.

So, I ask you: According to the world's scoreboard, was he a failure? Yes. Yes he was.

According to God? The Gospel thunders, "ABSOLUTELY NOT."

Did he accomplish his goal? Well, if his goal was Spain, no, not that one.

But if his goal was to change the world, I'd say so. Next to Jesus Christ, there is no single person whose life and writings have more transformed the world than this one man, the Apostle Paul.

Paul said, "I press toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." The mature mind understands that the earthly goal is not the ultimate prize.

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ," (Philippians 3:20)