Study the Word

Pastor Thom Keller: What is it that makes you cry? What is it that when you hear about that relates to ministry, that makes you cry? Is it people overseas that go without Christ? Is it when you see people that you have compassionate need and you want to help them? What is it that makes you cry?

Guest (Male): What are Christians known for? What are they to be known for? You can tell a lot about a person or a church by what they love. What makes them laugh? And what makes them cry? What they're looking forward to. What does the Bible say on these things?

We're about to find out on today's Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller. We begin with what we're to be looking forward to from Philippians chapter 3. Here's Pastor Thom.

Pastor Thom Keller: But I focus on this one thing: forgetting the past, neglecting all my past achievements. Instead, I look forward to what lies ahead. He neglected his past accomplishments and looks forward to the future. So here's a question for you: Can you say, "I look forward to the future"?

You know your answer should be an emphatic yes. Why? Because you know who holds your future, right? It's not up to the will of man. God holds your future. Your unbridled enthusiasm and confidence in the plan that God has for you speaks volumes to the unsaved people around you who fear the future and face the future with fear and dread.

James 1, verse 2 says this: "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials." Do you count it all joy as we fall into these various trials? And then verse 14 adds to this anticipation for what lies ahead. 3:14 says, "I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God through Christ Jesus is calling us." Here Paul distinguishes between the goal and the prize.

Picture a soccer player taking the prize-winning penalty shot. He aims at the goal, but it's for the sake of winning the prize, the trophy. The first is the object of the player's effort, the shot, but the second is the reward for the player's successful effort. It's the prize, the trophy.

And here Paul lets us in on the secret of his own life, of what made him into the sort of Christian that he was. We discover that the pathway to a life like Paul's is not complicated. He says, "Study the word daily to show yourself approved." It's not complicated. Wake up, study the word, go to work. Wake up, study the word, go to work. Wake up, study the word, go to work. Can you remember that?

It's a little harder doing it than remembering it. Wake up, study the word, go to work. I've said this many times: this is the key to the victorious Christian life. Wake up, do the right thing, go to bed. Wake up, do the right thing, go to bed. Wake up, do the right thing, go to bed. Link ten of those together, then a hundred of those, then a thousand of those, and your life will be in a whole different place than it was when you started.

Wake up, do the right thing, go to bed. Wake up, read the Bible, go to work. Wake up, read the Bible, go to work. It's not complicated. McLaren says this: "These are the things that contribute to success in any field of life. Christianity is simply the perfection of common sense. Men become mature Christians by no other means than those by which they become good artisans or ripe scholars or the like.

But the misery is that though people know well enough that they cannot be good carpenters or doctors or fiddlers without certain habits and practices, they seem to fancy that they can be good Christians without them." Calvin Coolidge said this, the president: "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.

Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." Not that those other things are bad, but in the end, it is persistence and determination that rules the day.

And once these habits and practices are in place, these necessary disciplines, we are able then and only then to run the race with persistence, winning the prize in heaven so as to hear those long-for words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord." How well are you running the race?

Let me ask a more foundational question: In what race are you running? As you're considering how to answer that question, consider this: Paul makes determining your race a two-step process. In the beginning of verse 14, it says this: "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

What is the prize? What is this upward call? It's our reward in heaven. Many people and most businesses will set goals. Sometimes they're weekly, monthly, or yearly, but how many of those goals have as their objective rewards in heaven? Not many.

Barnes, a commentator, said this: God has called us to great and noble efforts, to a life of true honor and glory, to the obtainment of a bright and imperishable crown. It is called that which is high or upward, and in the Greek, it means that which is in the skies. The calling of the Christian is from heaven and to heaven, and each of us have been summoned by God to secure that crown.

It is placed before us and above us in heaven, and it may be yours if you will not faint or tire or look backwards. And although it demands our highest effort, it is worth all the exertions which a mortal can make, even the longest of lives. Paul says, God says, set your goals with a narrow focus of only one prize in mind: the prize, the reward you will receive in heaven for achieving those goals.

Before establishing any goals, we must first agree on the prize that we're seeking. Blaise Pascal, who some claim to be the most brilliant man who ever lived short of Christ, said this: "Define life backward and live it forward." Consider what happens at the point of death, at death, then live your life accordingly.

Define life backward and live it forward. Doesn't that just make sense? All journeys are planned with a destination in mind. How are you going to get to your destination if you're taking a vacation if you don't have a destination in mind? All journeys are planned with a destination in mind.

This changes the focus from our goals having earthly prizes to establish goals that have heavenly prizes. And for me, that was a critical life change in my life. One of the verses that God used to just nail me when I gave my life to Christ, when I surrendered my life to Christ in 30, was Mark 8:36 and 37: "For what will it profit a man—profit was big in my world—for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

What are you willing to give in exchange for your soul? How will a man profit if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what trade-off are you willing to make for your soul? Where's that line? Where's that dollar amount? What will you do? How far will you go to forfeit your soul to get what you want outside of God?

All journeys are planned with a destination in mind. So define life backward and live it forward. And once you determine that the prize you seek is in heaven and God's approval versus man's approval, and you decide that the reward in heaven is what you want versus the reward on earth, then the next question to be answered is this: What is God's calling on my life?

God, what would you have me do to attain this prize, this upward call of God? How do I discover and live out God's call in my life? Sue and I taught fifth and sixth grade Sunday school class from the time we were married until we were in our early 30s. And that was when I went through a crisis in my life. I surrendered my life to Christ. I was all in, fully surrendered, and a whole new life began.

The Bible came alive to me. I just could not get enough: new insights, new truths. There were these supernovas of understanding bursting in my brain all the time. I'd pick up my Bible and was like, "Wow." This is so contrary to what the world has told me. It was such an exciting time. And as a result of that, over a year or so, I felt a strong leading to start teaching older youth.

We were teaching fifth and sixth grade, but I wanted to teach an older group. But I didn't want to push myself forward or presume that I was qualified or called by God to teach that age group, and yet I felt a strong call. But year after year when Sunday school teachers were announced, Sue and I were re-chosen to teach fifth and sixth grade again.

We enjoyed that class, but I just wanted to go deeper with some of the things God was showing me. And then one year, I was elected to the nominating committee at the church, which was a committee that was responsible to choose the names of the people who would be asked to serve as teachers of all the different Sunday school classes, kindergarten through adult.

At Midway, my home church, only the senior high youth group was allowed to give input into the nominating committee as to who they might want to have added to the nominations. And at my first nominating committee meeting, the chairman read the names that the youth had requested as possible teachers of their class, and Sue and I were on that list. I was thrilled.

Later that evening when it came time to discuss the senior high youth, I told the committee that I had been praying for some time for the opportunity to teach a senior high class, so I would be thrilled to have my name put on the ballot as a possible teacher. Thom, your name has been submitted by the youth every year for the last several years. We just thought you wanted to keep teaching fifth and sixth grade.

As I've had years to think about that, decades really to reflect over that event, it leads me to two possible conclusions. Was it that God wanted me to wait until he called me into that senior high class teaching position without me stepping forward on my own, or should I have raised my hand years earlier and told someone in church leadership that I sensed a call to teach the older youth?

Should I have let someone know, or should I have waited to be called? Which is it? You'll just have to come back next week. Next week we're going to talk about how can you know what God's call is on your life, that upward call that seeks the heavenly prize that Paul says we are to seek. You don't want to miss next week.

How does today's lesson apply to me? We are establishing as a church what we're going to call School of Ministry. This is a one-year ministry program. It's a residential program for people who want to go deeper to explore a call of ministry on your life.

There will be training components, service opportunities. It'll be done here in the church. The women will live in the shelter, the men will have a house for the men to live in residency. There's also going to be a component of this for those that have full-time jobs, that you can make some of the classes in your off hours from work.

But the idea is to prepare you, to train you for the ministry that God might be calling you to. And through that discovery process, just to see how you're wired. As the training takes place, I think God will bring a clear understanding of how he has wired you, built your DNA. I read a book on vision one time and it said there are two things that help guide you, give some ideas as to maybe how God has wired you.

They said the first thing is: what makes you cry? What is it that makes you cry? What is it that when you hear about that relates to ministry that makes you cry? Is it people overseas that go without Christ? Is it when you see people that you have compassionate need and you want to help them? What is it that makes you cry?

The second thing is—you have a week to think about this—is what are some of the earliest memories that you have that touched your heart as a child? What are some of the earliest memories you have? You'll hear people say, "When I was a little child, I saw a doctor help someone, my grandma, and brought her back to life, and from ever since then I wanted to be a doctor."

People will say, well, that memory shaped that person. No, that's not really the whole story. The whole story is that God wired you that way and when you saw that, it ignited something inside of you that God placed inside of you. And that's why some of those early memories that touched your compassion, your heart, that stick with you are a sign, an indicator of how God has wired you.

I've shared this story before. Before I was ever called to the pastorate, I was asked to speak in a church one Sunday morning. An event that happened in my life when I was very little was I found a dead hummingbird. It was laying in the ground and it didn't move. I scooping it up in my hands, I took it to my mom and I said, "Mom, this bird is dead. It doesn't move. What's wrong?"

She said, "It's dead." I said, "What's that mean?" She said, "Well, it's never going to live again. It's never going to move again." "What do you do with this?" She said, "Well, when things die, you put them in the ground." I said, "Well, what will happen?" And she said, "Well, it'll just go away. But with people, they go to heaven, but with birds they just go away."

I dug a hole and I put it in the flower garden and I put a little stone over it. Curiosity, a week or two later I went back and dug it up. I wanted to see what a two-week-old dead hummingbird looked like. There was nothing there. And I said, "Where did this go? What happened to it? Where did it go?"

That impacted me because I think it was God saying, "Thom, there's something you need to be concerned about: what happens after people go, after people leave, after people die." It triggered something inside of me. That's a strong memory in my past. Now again, years ago before I was called to the pastorate, I was asked to speak in a church on a Sunday morning.

I spoke and I have no idea what I spoke about. But what I remember was the next morning, Monday morning, I went to go to work, I went into the garage, I opened my car door, and there in the roof of my car was a dead hummingbird. Just right there, right in front of my eyes. And just like that, I sensed God saying, "Thom, do you still care? Do you still care?"

How has God wired you? What are those kinds of things that you sense God calling you to? One of the responsibilities that Dan and Dwayne and I have as pastors here is that we don't miss sensing the call that God has on your life and helping to call you to that. Does that make sense? Listen, I love you guys. You are a remarkable group of people.

There's nobody that knows all of you as well as Dan and Dwayne and I do, Miles increasingly so. We know a lot of you well. And this is an amazing group of people. I wish you could get to know one another, all of you, get to know everybody because it is an amazing group. But there's so much ministry potential in this place.

It's our responsibility not to miss that call that God has in your life. And that's in part what this class is going to be for: to help uncover that, to discover that, to call that out, to prepare those that God is taking into a deeper level of ministry. May I suggest that you like Paul make it your primary mission in life to run your race so as to receive the prize for which God through Christ Jesus is calling you up to heaven.

Determine to seek the approval of God rather than man, to determine to seek the prizes that come in heaven rather than chasing those that come into earth. An old missionary couple had been working in Africa for years and they were returning to New York City to retire. This is a true story. They had no pension, their health was broken, they were defeated, discouraged, and afraid of this new world.

They discovered that they were booked on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his hunting expeditions. No one paid much attention to them on the ship. They watched the fanfare that accompanied the president's entourage. As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, "Something is wrong. Why should we give our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years, and no one care a thing about us?"

"Yet here comes a man back from a hunting trip and everybody makes a fuss over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us." "Dear, you shouldn't feel that way," his wife said. "I can't help it. It doesn't seem right."

When the ship docked in New York, a band was playing to greet the president. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were full of the president's arrival, but not one single person noticed this missionary couple. They slipped off the ship and found a cheap flat on the East Side, hoping the next day to see what they could do to make a living in the city.

That night, the man's spirit broke. He said to his wife, "I can't take this. God is not treating us fairly." His wife replied wisely, "Why don't you go into the bedroom and talk to the Lord about that?" A short time later he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife said, "Dear, what happened?"

He said, "The Lord settled it with me. I told him how bitter I was that the president should receive this tremendous homecoming when no one met us as we returned home. And when I finished, it seemed as though the Lord put his hand on my shoulder and simply said, 'But you're not home yet.' But you're not home yet."

An important reminder: the Lord's pilgrims are not home yet. Till then, you can trust the Lord will see you through. We're going through Philippians one verse at a time on Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller. You can hear this message again anytime of the day or night online at ccleb.com or subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon.

If you'd rather have a CD copy, call us at 717-273-5633. Have you been helped by the ministry? Let us know that. It would be so encouraging to Pastor Thom and all of us at Study the Word. Give us a call at 717-273-5633 or write to Study the Word, 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046. You can email us through the website as well at ccleb.com.

Study the Word is made possible through the generous support of listeners just like you. And thank you for helping us reach thousands with the love and truth of Jesus Christ. You can give online right now at ccleb.com or call 717-273-5633. We hope you'll visit us sometime here at Calvary Chapel Lebanon.

For our service times and more information, go online to ccleb.com. You can also watch our live stream at ccleb.com or on our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. Now with the concluding prayer, here again is Pastor Thom.

Pastor Thom Keller: Father, we're not home yet. This is not our home. The best is yet to come. This is so far from the best that you have for us. And I pray, Father, you would give us eyes that look off into the eternal, that we would set our goals, we would set the mark, we would set the prize being on the other side to the applause of one, not the applause of man.

That we would work to seek your approval, not the approval of man. That we would seek the prize that you offer us, not the prizes of these little trinkets that the world throws at us. Father, let our priorities would be your priorities so that on that day when we come home, we could hear those words, "Welcome, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord." And this we pray in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said, amen.

Guest (Male): Glad you've joined us. There's much more to come in Philippians, so don't miss a moment of the journey here on Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller.