Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Hard After Thee Pt.2

Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah! Let's turn to the book of Ecclesiastes, and we'll pick up where we left off this morning talking about the real need to hunger and thirst after righteousness. The pursuit of God is a progressive task. There's effort involved. It's not that God is running from us; it's that we're running toward God hungering and thirsting after righteousness. The promise of the Scripture is this, however: if you draw neigh unto God, what does He promise? He'll draw nigh unto us. It talks about the pursuit, then, being a heart's desire or a determination within us to move toward God. Don't ever think of pursuing God in time and space. God is not somewhere that we have to accommodate and to go to God. He is ever-present, amen? He is omnipresent. There isn't any place that God is not. Think about that--you're never alone; you never have to wait for Him to show up. There are no appointments that have to be made. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. He's with us always to the ends of the earth.

What does this pursuit mean? So many times we think about God being in the heavens, and God seems so far away. All of that's just perspective that we that are limited in time and space can somehow communicate to others what we're sensing or feeling. In reality God is never far from us, He's always present. He's always one decision away to obey. We determine whether we're aware of the presence of God, whether we're activating the abilities of God, whether we're acquiring the promises of God by our decision to believe Him or not; just to trust in His promise that He is ever-present, that He is watching over His Word to perform it, that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. When you do draw nigh, when you purpose to pursue Him, He's ever-present and will manifest Himself presently to bring glory to Himself. What great promises we have, and the love of God for us, and His desire to make Himself known. He is present. We just need to know that. The patriarch of old, Jacob, said, "God was here and I didn't know it." Tragically, that's the condition that so many of us find ourselves in. God is here; we just don't know it. We haven't made the decision to trust Him. We haven't divested ourselves of everything in the natural so that He could visibly express Himself, and His glory, and His majesty.

We continue to hold Him back in the shadows through our unbelief, through our trusting in our own strength. Francis Shaffer's book title is so true: He Is There and He Is Not Silent. God is dealing in men's lives that will trust Him, as we learn to rely upon Him in the decisions that we make every moment of our lives. Life is just a continuous expression and consequence of daily decision. That's what life is. It's not fate. Fate is not governing you, your decisions are governing you. Every decision you make becomes a building block of what your life will become. When you look back, it's not fate; it's obedience if we're going to bring glory to God. Thank God that He supernaturally orders our steps and will chasten us, and will put, somehow, obstacles before us to keep us on course. There is a sovereign plan that God has for our life, and that sovereignty is that we'd be conformed into His image. But there is no sovereign plan or predestined state of our lives to where everything that happens God has ordained. But everything that does happen in our life He can work all things to His good to those that love Him, and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). You may have made some bonehead decisions but God can work them for good, amen? That's the decision we can make tonight to let God work our bonehead decisions for His good to His glory. But there's a time when we can't make any more decisions when life's up, when it's time to be accounted how faithful we were with all of the talents that were put into our hands. Ecclesiastes says it this way, chapter nine, verse ten, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might..." We quote that Scripture a lot and we try to encourage one another toward diligence in the kingdom of God, and we'll quote that passage, "whatever you do, do it with all of your heart." We're trying to build character in individuals. The saying that many of us heard from our parents, "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right." We hear those adages that came to us. Our parents would say, "If it's worth doing just do it right. If you're going to do it, do it right, do it with all your might." We've used it to accomplish temporal, secular type things, but listen to what the Scripture says. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." What it's saying is, here is an opportunity, don't let it go by. You may not have this opportunity again in this life to make this decision for the glory of God; a decision that can strengthen you; a decision that if you do it with all of your might, the benefits of it can be eternal, lives can be touched, and treasure can be stored up in heaven.

Today's the day of your salvation. Tomorrow is the grave and there is no wisdom in the grave. There is no worship in the grave. Those who have chosen to do things in their own strength and in their own ways, but only weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, only darkness if the wrong decisions are made. To those of us that make the right decisions, the Scripture says, to die is gain (Philippians 1:2). To die, to be absent from the body, is to be what? Present with the Lord, praise God. And so shall we ever be with the Lord, the Scripture says; as we're called up and we become those who involve ourselves in eternal worship, and praise, and service to the kingdom of God, but all of that depends on the decision you make tonight. There is no worship, there is no wisdom, there is no knowledge or device in the grave. The grave being that portion of unregenerate man, the consequence of self-effort, and self-indulgence, all of the things that the self-life demands in every one of us, every thing that every person in here has to choose against on a daily basis. You see, the flesh is the appetite of the grave, that spirit of death, that separation of Adam and Eve. For the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. (Genesis 2:17) Disobedience is what the grave is all about. The consequences of it, the separation from God, the lack of peace, all of these different things are consequences of that self-life. God's calling us back into a life of obedience. He's calling us into a diligent pursuit of His righteousness and His holiness, and it doesn't come easy. We saw this morning that to acquire this is something that causes us to daily seek the crucifixion of our will, and the crucifixion of our own temporal desires and our appetites.

As Paul said, "I put my body under on a daily basis." Paul knew what it was to war with the sin that was in his members. He knew the conflict on a daily basis, but he knew the rewards and he counted everything else loss that he might acquire the excellence of the knowledge of God.

You see, we just have one of two courses to choose from this evening, one which will end up in decay and destruction and the eternal separation. The Scripture says that you retain it to your own loss or you scatter to increase. This kingdom of light is totally opposite of everything that comes natural to your flesh. We try not to make this a real barometer for people, but at the same time we've shared with people that struggle, many times, walking in the Spirit; they're not able to understand. "I'm not sure that I'm hearing the voice of God." If you're not sure you're hearing the voice of God, the one thing that we are sure of is this, you hear the voice of your flesh. So whatever you feel like doing, don't do it, do the opposite. Whatever you really want to do is probably wrong. Now, don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying if you're walking in the Spirit. I'm talking about the fact that you know that you're not hearing from God clearly. You know that you have a tendency to be in the flesh a whole lot more than you do in the Spirit. Then all the decisions you're making are wrong. One way to start getting on course is sit down, draw on all of your natural resources, bring up all of your gray matter, pat yourself on the back for how smart you are, figure out the best plan that can be made, and do the opposite and you'll be a lot safer than you've been in your walk. That's how distinct, that's how separate these two kingdoms are. They are foolishness to one another. They will not acknowledge the wisdom of one another.

The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. These two are contrary so that you cannot do whatever you would and enter the other kingdom. If you're a spiritual man and you're doing what you want, their earthly kingdom won't have anything to do with you. If you're moving in earthly wisdom it won't affect any positive effects in the eternal kingdom. There is no fellowship between light and darkness. You can't draw from a well salt water and fresh water. Where are we in our pursuit, in our striving in perfection for the full knowledge of God? How hungry are you tonight for the fellowship with the holy God that we sang about tonight? We sing those songs, we get all emotionally touched about the holiness of God, and we're standing on holy ground, and tears will come to our eyes, but do you know what holiness is? Holiness is not the best of the temporal. The holy ground is not on this planet and it's not in this life, and it has no fellowship with anything temporal. Holiness is a complete divesting of ourselves from the natural into the spiritual, eternal realm. There is nothing natural that is holy in the purest sense. It can be sanctified and set apart and used for the glory of God, but it's all going to be consumed in the majesty of His holiness. When we talk about the holy God, remember what we're talking about. We're talking about a being Who is absolutely distinct, there's no other like Him. He is not the greatest of contemporaries. When we talk about the omnipotence of God, the majesty of God, the sanctification aspect of this holy God who is separate, He is absolutely distinct, and everything else is a by-product of His will, of His stated purpose, His creative abilities. That's why, beloved, when we talk about Satan and the misnomer of that great wrestling match between God, and the devil, and how they're fighting for our soul--the Copeland rendition of the devil holding Jesus down in Hell, and it's a tag team match, and the Father reaches through the ropes, and this scenario goes on, and on. See sin and see Satan for what they are: forces so powerful that we have no hope in defeating them, but so inferior to the power of God and the blood of Jesus Christ that they can't even be compared because of the uniqueness of the realm of the holiness, the majesty, the sovereign power of God.

I want to take a moment to try to stir our hearts in that way to see that we're not looking for a visitation of God that will barely cause us to get by. When God is reigning in our lives sin no longer has power over us, amen? When we're in hot pursuit of the glory of God and our hearts are consumed with worship, and praise, and we're walking in the Spirit in the realm of obedience the things that so often we've struggled with have no power over us. You say if only I could live that way every day. Why don't we? Where do we see a limitation put on our walk in the Spirit? It's not in the Scriptures. Paul said I die. It's just a daily decision. Think about the most victorious moments you've ever had in the Spirit. I'm not talking about the time that you cast out a devil or prayed for the sick and watched them recover. Those are exciting things. As I was sharing, we were just back in California and some of the things that we experienced there. Some of the great things we've seen here in the miracle rallies. Things we've seen in this very room that people would long to see in their lives. We're not talking about that. We're not talking about the goose bumps. We're not talking about that time that you were able to push yourself away from the table, and forgo that second half gallon of ice cream and you rejoiced in the great victory that had been won in your abstinence and in your sobriety. That moment that you were in absolute peace and rest that, "You know what? I don't have to work this; I'm not trying. I'm just absolutely resting in the presence of God, aware of His love for me and His working His will to His good pleasure in my life. I am absolutely free from works, resting in the accomplishment of the blood of Jesus Christ, and experiencing the fruit of His presence." Asleep in the back of the boat with Jesus, having fluffed up one of the lions for a pillow with Daniel for a good night's sleep when everybody else is wringing their hands. You can have that every day, if we would walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh, if we would make momentary decisions that are the fruit of a once-for-all decision to let Jesus be Lord. Momentary decisions that are the fruit of a once-for-all decision to let Jesus be the Lord of our lives.

Now, how does this thing work? We talked about it this morning. Turn with me, if you would, to first Corinthians, chapter nine, and let's talk about this pursuit of God, this panting after God as the hart does the brook. We talked this morning out of the 63rd Psalm, as the psalmist was pouring out his heart. The question that has to be asked this evening is this: How hard are you following after God? My heart, my soul, follows hard after thee. Now see, we can all identify with that following hard after something when we look at some of our earthly ambitions. How hard are you following after that new position at work? How hard are you following after the finishing of this project or this vision that's the expression of your natural abilities? Giving birth to the ideas that formulated in your mind. How hard are you following after the wallpaper being finished at home, the remodeling? How hard are you following after the planning of that vacation, that once in a lifetime vacation? How hard are you following after that goal to retire by thirty? It's amazing how many young people destroy their lives by setting a goal of, "By this time in my life I will have acquired or accumulated thus and so," instead of, "If the Lord wills I will do thus and so."

Are you putting in the same energy, is there the same intensity, is there the same appetite to fulfill the will of God, the purposes of God that there is for fulfilling the appetites of your flesh? To be recognized in the heavenlies, to have your name written in heaven, as opposed to having your name written up in the periodical at work or in the local paper or the national paper or the world-wide recognition, the fame the fortune. What's driving you? How limited are we in our vision?

I remember--it's interesting, as I drove by and saw the first home that we had ever purchased there in California, and we drove by and looked at that little place. Nice little three bedroom home, it was small but nice little three bedroom home that we bought for eleven thousand dollars. I'm not that old, it's just that it's a poor part of town. Well actually, it's a little bit of both. I can remember one day in all of my wisdom, and in all of my understanding, in the perception of the brilliance of a 24-year-old, figured it out. Man, if I could ever make a thousand dollars a month I'd be set for life. I'd never have to work again. After about ten years I could retire and be set for life." I missed it. We don't know what tomorrow holds. You know, all that we have squirreled away, the psalmist said as he wrote the song that so many of us are aware of I Wish We'd All Been Ready (Larry Norman, 1969). Do you all remember that song? "Life was filled with guns and war,.[This is back in the Jesus movement when a lot of the folk singers were around,] everyone got trampled on the floor." It's when we thought we were going to be destroyed by Russia. "I wish we'd all been ready." There's one phrase in there that's very interesting, where he goes on to talk about the end times, and the phrase says, "...a piece of bread could buy a bag of gold. I wish we'd all been ready." We save up and we think we have things secure, and you know that every dime you have, a time is coming when it won't be sufficient to buy a loaf of bread, man. What are you trusting in tonight? Where are our treasures and where is our hope?

A man made a decision just this afternoon in some counsel that had been given to them. It just breaks my heart to hear, and you don't know what tomorrow brings. The decision made for the temporal and tomorrow--it can all be taken away. All of that which is so precious taken out in one automobile accident, and now your family's gone, that which you bowed your knee to. God is so merciful. But the question at hand is this: Has the investment been made in the proper kingdom? What have you laid up in store for that which really counts? There is no wisdom or knowledge in the grave. We don't make our decisions for the moment; we make our decisions for eternity. God can turn everything that's momentary for His eternal good if we'll cast the care on Him. In this ninth chapter of Corinthians the apostle likens the course that you and I are on to a race. "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain" (1 Corinthians 9:24). The admonition here is that it's not enough to just be a participant. They give out pins, right, "I participated in..." What? You're getting something for showing up? Somebody handed me something off the Internet. I'm sure you all saw it, but it had to do with comparing days of yore with today, and our politically correct environment. It was actually handed to me by a guy down at the Ferrari dealership. It was interesting, some of the different things that were spoken of in there. He was remembering the days when we actually drank out of hoses instead of bottled water, the day when you could ride a bicycle without a helmet and make that choice yourself without the state telling you.

We were just at Yosemite, and I was telling Greer that I remember a time as a little kid, I remember doing it--how many of you have ever been to Yosemite? Have any of you been up to Glacier Point at the point up near Half Dome, and go up that way? I remember as a kid--not that I'm that old, but I remember, prior to regulation, going up Half Dome out to this one place. They have pictures, actually some old cars, you can get some unique pictures, but I remember going out to a place where there's a rock, and you could go out and you could sit on the edge of that rock and dangle your feet and look down a thousand feet. It's beautiful. I mean it's straight down. Before regulation you could go sit out there if you were dumb enough. And we did. It's before everybody sued for being stupid. I'm stupid so I sue you. A different time. And in that particular time as this thing went along it said, "I remember a time when not everyone made the team." You mean people got cut and were told you're not good enough?. "You're ugly and your mama dresses you funny," and you deal with it. It was a different era that we were growing up in, and today we're living in a society of intellectual socialism, emotional socialism, and they're, of course, going to bring it about through political and economic socialism. We are a socialist nation now; it just hasn't completely expressed itself yet.

I was reading in the paper on vacation, they're looking into the fact that maybe they should rethink some of the Title Nine clause. That's where they take all the money from football and give it to women's lipstick contests so that the women can have equal athletic scholarships to support all of the women's sports. They take the money from the football program. Hey, the football program is paying the dean's salary! But, you see, we all have to have equal opportunity. "There should be as many scholarships for the women as there are for the men.' When people start paying to come and watch speed lipstick, and if there's going to be a speed lipstick contest, then men should be able to enter. We're living in this socialistic, this reverse discrimination, and everybody's excited about Sorenson going to play on the PGA tour, a woman going to play on the PGA tour. I think that's all right if you want to let that happen. If she qualifies, let her play. Why can't the men qualify to play on the LPGA and send all them home? Because the men are going to win about 95 percent of those tournaments. But no, we have to have a woman's LPGA and the men can't play in it, but the women can in this one. We can have a black Miss America but we can't have a white Miss America. What's that all about? I don't think it should only be white and black, I think I ought to be able to go and participate in the black Miss America contest. I'd win that sucker. What's wrong with us? What's happened to us as a people? Don't think for a moment that hasn't affected you in what we're dealing with. The spirit of the age where people don't want to deal with the reality of their condition--that's how we approach sin, and that's how we've approached our flesh. That's why so many of us in this day are still weak, and under the power of this spirit of antichrist that is so obvious when we look at it politically. We sit back and look at all these issues that we spoke of, and I hope you're able to look at them and say, "That's stupid, man." When you've been illuminated and you know what truth is and you know what reality is, you can see the deception that surrounds us. Now, what are you doing to walk free from that? Have you fallen into the same spirit of, "Hey, well, I've professed Jesus, I'm a participant, I participated in Christianity"? You can't just show up, there's a race going on. Prepare to win, amen? It's a race. We're not tiptoeing through the tulips. This isn't something where, "What did you do?" "Well, I entered the race." "What place did you finish?" "I didn't finish, I just entered. We were just kind of jogging and then I saw this sale was going on over here at Wendy's. They had a breakfast going on..." This is a marathon that we're running. "They had a breakfast, so I stopped in for breakfast, and started back on my pursuit. Got down to McDonald's..." You're not going to win this way. "Well I didn't expect to win, I just wanted to participate. I want one of the buttons. I participated in the Boston marathon." "What place did you finish?" "Oh I stopped in at Cheers. I never made it, but people know my name."

Run that you may obtain. Now, we've be told in our day that it's not whether you win or lose its how you play the game. No, it's whether you win or lose. I hate losing. Greer whipped my tail in that little arcade basketball thing. She set a new record on that little machine down there. I hate losing. I made her walk home. (Congregation laughing) Can you handle losing? I hate losing. I thought it was interesting as I was reading an article about that Sorenson woman who's going to play on the PGA tour. I like her approach to things. She talked about how when she was a newlywed, she had just gotten married and she was playing chess with her husband and he beat her, and she got mad and threw the chess board over, and wouldn't play for two years. That's my kind of person. You know what? I bet she didn't go sulk. I bet she was playing on the computer. She was hiding in the computer. I don't know this for a fact, but I know she was in her bedroom and she was playing computer chess so she could go out there and whip him. She'll show up and say, "Okay let's play again." She had been playing Russians and all these people on the computer. Press on toward the mark, the prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). As the hart panteth for the water so my soul longeth after thee (Psalm 42:1). What are we doing to obtain the glory of God in our lives? As you read on in this particular passage, verse 25 says, "And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible."

We're getting ready to go down here, some of the kids, to play in Tennessee. They've worked hard. Some of you men have given your time to play and to work with them. A lot of effort has been put in. We have two goals as we're going there. We're going down there to win, but more importantly we're going down there to win for the kingdom. We're going down there to show godly character. We're going down there to be a people that are seeking first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness. We're going down there to share Jesus with a bunch of people (that go to Christian schools) that aren't saved. The majority of the kids you're going to be playing on the court, they're not born again. Our goal is more eternal than it is temporal. But there's something within us that if Jesus is Lord, and if there's been a transformation of our hearts into how we're to live for God, and to realize that there is no glory, there is no wisdom, there is no knowledge in the grave, that what we're doing we're doing with all of our might so that we could sow into the eternal realm, then I want to encourage you young people to prepare yourself for that which is the most important and that's soul winning, that's living a godly example. Then you go out on the court and you play 100 percent and you try to whip these people at the game. Then when the game is all over if you got beat you hate it, but you realize there's a higher purpose. You're able, then, to use this as an opportunity to show, "I don't like losing but this isn't where my treasure is, this isn't where my heart is." The Scripture says that those of us that are striving for the mastery become temperate in all of the other things. We have to choose. There's not enough time to be the best in the world and the best in the kingdom. To achieve the mastery there has to be sacrifice.

Again, not wanting to belabor the point, but having read this article--the reason I was reading so much about this is this woman lives in Incline Village there in Lake Tahoe, so there were quite a few articles that were coming out in the local papers out there that may not have been national in reading about this woman's life. I thought it was interesting that she's aware of this--her comments were that whatever I do I want to do it the best of my ability. She said, "When we decide to have children I'm going to try to be the best mom there's ever been, which will make me no longer the best golfer." See, she's smart enough to know you can't be the best golfer and the best mom. Where's your treasure? I'm sure she's going to go to PTA and punch out other moms down there. But she's aware that if you're going to achieve mastery, if you're going to be the best at something, then you have to become temperate in the other things. Many of us here are not aware of that and that's why we experience mediocrity in everything, if that. It's going to cost you to be like Jesus. You know what? We may never achieve the status of an apostle Paul, we may never know the visitation of the prophet Elijah, it may never be stated about us what was stated about John the Baptist--the greatest human being born of a woman. We're not talking about the achieving of that status alone. It's going to cost you to be better than you are today. It's not just going to come. For you to improve yourself you're going to have to approach this thing from the perspective that I'm going to be the next apostle Paul. I'm going to be the next Elijah. I'm going to be the Jeremiah of my generation. I'm the man that God is looking for. His eyes, as they've searched the earth to and fro, can stop right here, praise God. Here am I, Lord; send me. Then let God determine where it ends. That has to be the attitude of our receptivity of the call of God on our lives, of our desire to be more than we are. Don't set the standard of what you're going to become. God has already set it, its perfection. Don't limit what God is wanting to do. Make yourself totally accessible so that God can make us into what He wants us to be. You know what it's going to take? It's going to cost you everything. It's going to cost a discipline of getting up and preparing yourself. You're going to have to eat properly.

Some of you are more worried about your physical bodies and what you eat, and the new fad diets, and how you do this, and how you do that, and whether you're going to work out or not work out, and all of these different things. What are you eating spiritually? What are you feasting on in the Spirit man? Are you reading the Word of God? Are you reading the men of God whether it's E. M. Bounds or the Tozer books that are being made available to you back here, Jerry Bridges, some of these? The prolific writings that are available to us of--it will come to me, his name just went out of my mind. Who's the guy that has so many books back there? What is it? Andrew Murray. Dear Lord the guy wrote more books than Carter has liver pills. What are you feeding yourself on?

I don't how I remembered that one phrase about everybody knowing your name. I think I saw that program like maybe four times. I saw too many familiar people on there. That mailman dude that knew everything. The guy knew everything about everything. I run into those people all the time, I don't want to go see him down there. How about the fat guy that doesn't work? What are we doing? What are we feeding ourselves on? I therefore run, verse 26, not as uncertainly. Do you have a plan? Are you just hoping that somehow God will show up and you'll become spiritual? I have a plan, there's something that I'm after. Don't you make plans in the natural? You make plans for your investment. You make plans in your education. You make plans as to whatever it's going to deal with the physical aspect in our lives. If you're trying to get back in shape you don't lie in the bed and wait for inspiration. "I wonder what I need to do, Lord, speak." "Nothing? Okay." You have to have a plan. "I'm getting up, I'm going to go do this, I'm going to run, I'm going to affect this type of activity in my life so that I can accomplish this end." I'm going to go down and eat Subway food so I can look like Herbert or whatever his name is. I don't want to look like him. He doesn't look good looking good. They need to come up with another menu down there; this boy needs help. Somebody needs to introduce him to gold.

What's the goal? What is it that you're trying to obtain spiritually? Do you have a goal or are you just kind of stumbling through your spiritual life? You have plans for everything in the temporal, in the secular. What's your goal spiritually? Who do you want to become? Be imitators of me, the apostle said, as I imitate Christ. We're to be conformed into the image of Jesus there is no other goal. What are you doing to become more like Jesus? You're going to have to affect it the same way He did. You're going to have to eat meat that nobody else knows anything of: to do the will of your Father. You're going to have to dive in. You're going to have to go willfully into your Gethsemanes. You're going to have to speak His words not your own. You're going to have to leave father and mother, houses and lands. You're going to have to say, "Who is my mother, my brothers, but these that do the will of God?" Do you have a plan? I want to tell you something. Next month at this time I'm going to know God better than I know Him today. I'm going to have memorized this number of Scriptures. I will have read this book. I will know who Obadiah is. Some of us know who Herb is from the sitcoms. I was trying to think of one today, but I don't know of any of the sitcoms. I'm just stuck back in the seventies. We have children that can quote the names of the seven elves or dwarfs, Snow White's seven dwarfs, and they don't know the twelve apostles. What are your goals? If we're striving for mastery I don't run as uncertainly. I don't fight as one that beateth the air. There's a target. I'm not just shadow boxing, there's an opponent here who's trying to destroy me. I have a plan as to how I'm going to dismantle my opponent. You don't have to play fair say, "hey look," when he looks up hit him, man. Whatever it takes to destroy the power of sin in your life to unseat Satan from our household. "I strive for the mastery." "I strive for mediocrity." That's not what the Scripture teaches.

At home I have a whole drawer full of participant plaques. I've been to a lot of, for instance, in the car shows--I've been to a lot of the car shows, and I've seen people, and they have these plaques, and they have them on boards, and they're so proud. They have them stuck on the boards and they've participated in x number of shows. I have all those participant plaques of everything that I went to. The difference is I have a first place trophy for every participant plaque because I went to win. How do you approach things? Well, you know, Pastor, you're a type A personality and that's the difference. I don't know whether I'm type A or type Z; it doesn't make any difference. I don't know who made up those types anyway, probably some guy that was making an excuse for himself. Wrote a book and everybody bought into it. There's only one type. You want to know what it is? Sinner, depraved, God hater, and then you get saved. The Scripture doesn't say, "and to every type A personality is given a greater measure of zeal, and pursuit, and diligence, an affinity for spiritual things." To every man is given the measure of faith (Romans 12:3). God is no respecter of persons. To him that draws neigh unto God, God will draw neigh unto him. It's time that we stop letting mom and psychologists and sociologists make excuses for us, and open the Bible and see that we're all called to the mastery of the image of Jesus Christ, amen? There are no excuses for anybody else. You're in a race and he says you can't settle for anything else but victory, and so therefore we keep our body under verse 27 says, "...and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." Rejected, or having failed the test is what that word in the Greek means. Castaway. Every man that striveth for the mastery. That word strive means to agonize. There's pain involved in this death to self. Are you willing to pay that price? There are times when it's harder than other times. You know if you have a workout regiment, for instance, that you're doing here, and then you go to Lake Tahoe it's harder. You jump on your StairMaster here, and you're cranking on that baby, and you're running whatever the time is you're doing that thing. You're running for thirty minutes at a certain level and you're just cranking along, and you're so proud of your thirty minutes, and you're on level ten, and then you go to 8,000 feet--that's another world up there. There's a lot of oxygen missing at 8,000 feet and you're not the man you thought you were as the trial of 8,000 feet becomes a reality. We're running along down here at sea level. What are you going to do when the trial of 8,000 feet comes? Now it's just part of your routine? You're just going through it, you work up a good sweat, burn a few calories, whatever it is, but now it hurts again. "Well I know what I'll do. I'll wait till I go back to sea level." Or do you strive, do you agonize for the mastery? Do you deal with where you are in the trials, the opposition to your flesh to where you're now agonizing to know Him more? You're realizing that these circumstances of life are not by chance, that God has put you in this place, this crucible, to make you more like Him. Are you willing to agonize again for the mastery? Striving, laboring fervently, the full extension, Philippians says, of ourselves and of our ability.

I fully extended myself on a number of occasions working out. One of the times I fully extended myself--I mean I can remember having to mentally tell myself, "Pick your foot up and put it in front of you." You remember that day, Jay, when we were up on the glacier? I didn't know if we were going to get back. Jay and I, we didn't know any better. We were in Alaska and we decided to go for a walk on a glacier. Being the type people that we are, we wanted to see some stuff and so we really went for a hike. The poor guy that took us up there, I thought we were going to have to carry him. He was dying. I know how tired I was. This guy just flopped over in the snow and said, "Just leave me here." It was one of those kinds of snows where it wasn't every step but you'd take a step, and maybe every other step when you didn't expect it you just went down into snow to mid-thigh. You'd pull that out and you'd get back up walk a few steps and you'd fall back through. Nobody told us they were like thousand-foot holes in these things that were covered by snow. We were just out there walking around having a great time. But it was hard work getting back. In football there are different times--some of the workouts and it's just so unnatural to put yourself through that, nobody likes it. What are you going to do to strive for the mastery to become the best?

I saw one of the old World's Strongest Man contests when we were on vacation--a guy who I always kind of liked, a guy named Bill Kazmaier. He was an interesting old boy. This guy was an animal. He made the comment on the show--very, very quiet in his personality, but a pretty intense individual, and he said, "I am the strongest man that ever lived. I'm very comfortable making that statement." He had worked for it. He had come to the place where he paid the price and he went through the pain. He ripped a bicep in this one competition and went on to two more events and won the thing. They were interviewing him afterwards, and already you could completely see all of the blood through his arm, and chest, and everything. It was just solid blue. The blood was flowing through there where he had ripped a bicep and he came back the next year to set some records. Interesting guy. I wonder if he's striving for the mastery. They were complaining in the dead lift that he wasn't locking out and so everybody went out. This guy could be one of the strongest men that ever lived. They were complaining about him not finishing the lift, so he asked for more weight, he asked for world record weight. I think they put a thousand ten pounds at that time on the dead-lift, and everybody else, of course, had gone out at a lower weight. They were down there in the 890, low 900 range. He puts over a thousand pounds on the dead-lift bar and they were saying he wasn't doing the lift properly, he wasn't locking out. I still remember this. I saw it just the other day and as he pulls that bar up on the dead lift, and he comes up all the way, and gives it this little [Pastor demonstrates], which is the indication that you're fully out. He looks at the guys that were complaining to him, and instead of dropping the bar he sets it back down, and does one more rep. I love that. In your face. Are we leaving any question in the world as to who we are in the kingdom, that we are not part of them, we're a people separate, a holy nation, a royal priesthood? We are a distinct people that have been separated by God to the mastery of His righteousness. We are not one of them. We are the children of God, heirs, and joint heirs with Christ Jesus. Are we going to be content just to be seen as someone who's a little more moral than they are? Someone who's maybe a little more reliable on the job, or are they going to see us as someone who serves a distinct Master from the one that they are serving? That they know that we're not laboring for this kingdom, for this world, that all of our efforts are not for the grave but for the day that we're all going to stand and give an account for every idle word, for every deed.

Father, make it reality to us, we ask in Jesus' name. A people that are striving for the mastery. Lord, a people that are distinct, unique; a people that are running for a prize not as a participant; a people following hard after You. Following hard after You, striving, agonizing to become like You, Jesus. We're impressed with the love of the elderly John, the apostle. We're motivated by the zeal of a Peter. We're awed by the commitment of a Paul. But we're not seeking that as the mark. They're a cloud of witnesses, we can obtain what they've obtained. We can surpass it if we would but pursue to be like You, Jesus. How? By putting the body under. How? By striving for mastery through temperance in everything that is secular. Through living in the eternal and not dominated by time and space, by the illumination of the wisdom of Your Word and not the wisdom of men, by seeking not the praises of men but the one phrase for which we live our lives, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." The acknowledgement of our God in the effort that we made. "You did a good job, you finished the course, you took everything that I provided for you and you used it for my glory to the best of your ability." "But Lord, I didn't obtain the stature of a Paul." "I didn't call you to be Paul, I called you to be the best you that you could be and you did a good job; enter in." What have you done with what God has given you today? Are you doing it with all of your might, because the hour of the grave is at hand where no more can be done, the accounting will be made. Enter into your rest or depart from me I never knew you. There's only going to be one of two declarations. Prepare our hearts to pursue. Give us wisdom to choose from the eternal perspective. Show us the fallacy. Show us that all that this world perpetrates is a lie, a hoax; it's vanity, it's vexation. Give us wisdom to choose against the observable to trust in the invisible. Let us forgo the delicacies of the natural palate to taste the goodness of God. Help us to see that the real war that must be waged is the war against our own will. A once-for-all decision that provides grace to make momentary choices for righteousness. Without the once-for-all there is no momentary decision for wisdom. You must die to obtain the sobriety and the wisdom of His grace. Make it real we ask, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord. As Gary plays for us and we survey our own lives, have we been vexed by the sociologists of our day, the psychologists of our day, the politicians of our day, the spirit of the age, the spirit of antichrist? Have we been told and believe that showing up is sufficient? Have we lost sight of the biblical standards of mastery? I'm okay you're okay. No, you're not. If you're not striving for mastery you're not okay. If you're not temperate in all of the things that are secular you are not okay. "I go to church, I believe in Jesus." You're not okay. That's not the standard. It's keeping His commandments. They compare themselves by themselves. In the last days He'll say, "Depart from me, I never knew you." "But Lord, we went to church." "I never knew you." "But we handed out tracts and we went out witnessing." "Yeah, and some of those people have entered in, but I never knew you." Paul said, "I put my body under so that I would not be cast away." I would say if he was concerned about it maybe you ought to perk your ears up. As we sing this together let's give him our heart, our lives, and let Him do the work in us for His glory. Yes, Lord. Hallelujah! There's a course that's set out here before us. Everything that pertains to life and godliness, everything that it takes to finish this race, to obtain the crown, has been given to us, it's been provided. Not to a select few, but to whosoever will. How hard are you willing to follow after God? How much effort will you put in to be conformed to His image? It's for His glory not yours. That's why it gets put on the back burner so many times. For me to live is Christ, and when I leave this realm it will be gain. Make that our treasure we ask, Father, in Jesus' name, amen.

Before you go turn to somebody next to you say, "Follow hard after God." Amen. Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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