Telling the Truth

Guest (Female): Today, we'll hear a powerful message from Stuart Briscoe titled "Press On," in which he encourages you to keep on keeping on, no matter what challenge life throws your way. But first...

Guest (Male): In their two-message series *Worry Less*, Stuart and Jill Briscoe help you break free from worry and experience the joy and peace God wants for you. We'll send you a copy of this resource, plus Jill's booklet *Me Worry?* as thanks for your gift today to help others experience life in Christ. But the offer ends this week. So call today to request your copy of *Worry Less* and *Me Worry?* 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Let's listen now to Stuart's message, "Press On."

Stuart Briscoe: We're going to turn our attention now to God's word, and in particular, the third chapter of Paul's letter to the Philippians. We are working through a rather brief series of messages based on Philippians 1:27, which says, "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." We've picked up on that little expression, "Whatever happens." All kinds of stuff happens in this world in which we live. We don't need reminding of that; we're all well aware of it. Many of us are going through all kinds of happenings at this present time.

The key, of course, is how we react to whatever happens. And of course, more often than not, the things that happen to us do not send us a little postcard in advance: on such and such a time, this is what will happen to you. The things that happen to us happen without warning, and our responses very often are instinctive and intuitive. What, therefore, we have built in is going to, to a very large extent, determine what comes out. And that is the kind of thing that we've been looking at in Philippians.

Whatever happens. In this particular passage, we will note that the Apostle Paul puts great emphasis on the fact that he presses on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called him heavenward in Christ Jesus. And so the theme today is: whatever happens, press on. Whatever happens, keep on keeping on.

Let me read to you from Philippians chapter 3. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard to you. He is making no apology to the fact that he's telling them what he's already told them. And that is that they need to go on rejoicing in the Lord. No apologies. This needs to be constantly reiterated because it is a safeguard to them.

Having said that, he then makes a dramatic change. He is concerned about the people who are coming into this new Christian community and insisting that the new believers must adhere to all the minute tenets of Judaism if they are to be genuine believers. Among other things, they must go through the rite of circumcision. And Paul has some very harsh words to say to those people. Verse 2: watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision.

Circumcision, of course, was the sign and the seal given to the Jewish people that they were the covenant people of God. Paul now broadens out that idea of the special covenant people and says it is not reserved for the Jewish people; it is for all those who have come to know God in Christ Jesus. It is we who are the circumcision.

Then he gives three characteristics of those who are genuinely in a covenant relationship with God. Number one: we worship by the spirit of God. Number two: we glory in Christ Jesus. Number three: we put no confidence in the flesh. Then he begins to pick up on that third one. When he says we have no confidence in the flesh, what he is saying is we have come to the conclusion that it is not through self-effort, it is not through what we can achieve that righteousness is given to us as something we have earned.

We fully recognize, says the Apostle Paul, those of us who are truly the covenant people of God, that we worship God by the spirit, we glory in Christ Jesus, and we do not believe that we earn our own salvation. Then he adds, if anybody has reason for confidence in their own achievement, it is I. Then he goes into details. The second part of verse 4: If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more.

Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit, I have considered loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I continue to consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Now, this is a very rich passage of scripture. It contains many, many things that we could quite profitably spend at least three hours looking into, but I promise you we won't. So fasten your seatbelts, and I will take a deep breath.

I want you to notice what the Apostle Paul is insisting on here. He is insisting that it is imperative that those who've embarked on the spiritual journey press on to completion. Many years ago, when Judy, our daughter, was in college, she was an inveterate runner. And in those days, I was running a lot, too, although I would never regard myself as being an inveterate runner.

She asked me one day, would you run a 10,000-meter race with me? And so I said sure. And so we went down to the lakefront at the appointed time, and we discovered that 24,000 other people were going to run this 10,000-meter race. At the front of the 24,000 people who were all lined up were some professional runners. They had been paid an appearance fee so that they would run and so the rest of us lesser mortals could say, well, I once ran with Frank Shorter or whatever, something like that.

Behind them were a lot of very, very good amateur runners. There were some Olympians there and some very impressive college runners. And behind them were some very serious recreational runners, and then behind them some serious joggers, then not very serious joggers, and then some people who could hardly by the stretch of the imagination be called joggers. And then behind there was a group of people, the Lord only knows why they were there.

And then behind them was a most interesting group of people. They were there just for kicks. It was very obvious. There was one group of five; they had a bed on wheels, and one was going to push it at each corner and one was going to lie on the bed and then they were going to rotate when they were tired. And there was a group there, they were emulating the popular advertisement at the time for Fruit of the Loom.

You remember they had that silly thing where some little men were dressed up as plums and bunches of grapes and bananas and things like that. These clowns were dressed up like that to run 6.2 miles. And then there was a guy on stilts, there was a group that were going to run backwards, and because it was Milwaukee, there was a guy there dressed up as a beer bottle. Well, the gun sounded, and off we went. It took some of us quite a long time to even get to the starting line.

And then you could hear behind us all the laughing and the shouting and the exhilaration and the fun that was going on with these people at the back. And for the first mile, you could hear all kinds of stuff going on. For the second mile, things quieted down a bit, and you could hear the runners talking quietly to each other. And for the third mile, the talking quieted down a bit and you could hear the flap-flap-flap of feet.

And then the fourth mile, you could hear heavy breathing. And then the fifth mile, there wasn't much going on so you could actually hear the birds singing. And then the sixth mile, you could hear people praying quietly, "Lord, get me through this and I promise I'll never, ever do it again." And then you had about 0.2 of a mile after that, and you passed the finishing line, and they gave you a drink of water and a t-shirt that was too small and a printout of where everybody finished.

Well, the first thing you did was look to see where you finished, what your time was, and then as a matter of interest, I looked to see where these other people were. There was no mention of the people on the bed. The beer bottle was last seen leaning over a picket fence. The reason there was no mention of the guys on the bed: a wheel had come off the bed and they quit.

The guys dressed up as the Fruit of the Loom, the guy with the plum outfit on, it had split and he didn't want to run like that anymore, and his friends came out in sympathy. The guy on his stilts fell off his stilts, and the people running backwards kept tripping over their own feet, and they weren't mentioned. It was very interesting that at the beginning of the race, they got all the attention. At the end of the race, they weren't mentioned.

The moral of the story is this: you can goof off as much as you like at the beginning of the race. Doesn't count. What counts is you keep pressing on and finish the race. Do you get my drift?

Guest (Male): We'll get back to Stuart's teaching in a moment. But before we do, anxiety, fear, and worry can keep you in a painful state of uneasiness and limit you from truly experiencing the incredible joy and peace God wants you to have. We want to help you break free from worry and embrace God's abiding peace with Stuart and Jill Briscoe's encouraging two-message series *Worry Less*.

This powerful series, available through this week only, shines a critical light on a root cause of worry and gives you practical guidance on how to rule your anxieties instead of having them rule you. It's fresh encouragement straight from God's word to help you overcome the stresses of life, whatever they may be, so you can start living with more joy.

We'll send you the *Worry Less* series as well as Jill's booklet *Me Worry?* as our thanks for your gift today to help you share the healing truth of God's love with people around the world through the resources and teaching of Telling the Truth. Again, the offer ends Friday, so call today to request your copy of these resources when you give. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Guest (Female): Use your phone to make a spiritual connection with the free Telling the Truth mobile app. Listen to daily programs, read and comment on devotions and relevant study plans, and share your thoughts and prayers on the community wall. Get the Telling the Truth app through your app store today. And remember, you can give to support Telling the Truth right on our mobile app. All right, now let's get back to Stuart with his message, "Press On."

Stuart Briscoe: Now, this is the thrust of what Paul is saying. Now, he is absolutely adamant that in the Christian community, it is imperative that whatever the issues might be, whatever the obstacles that get in the way, he is looking for people who, whatever happens, will press on. It all started with the Apostle Paul when he had a defining moment in his life.

Up until that time, he was known as Saul of Tarsus, and he had had a very, very honorable and remarkable career. We don't have time to go into the details, but then he had run across a movement in Judaism that troubled him deeply. There were stories circulating that a certain carpenter of Nazareth was claiming to be Messiah. This Messiah had been crucified.

But his followers insisted on still believing that he was Messiah because they said that this carpenter who had been crucified had risen again from the dead, and in the very fact that he had been raised from the dead, there was evidence—clear, unmistakable evidence—that he was proved by the resurrection to be who he claimed to be: Messiah, the son of God. Saul of Tarsus could not tolerate this teaching at all.

Now, he didn't just stand by; he decided something had to be done about it, and so he started a crusade to go after the followers of Christ. He attacked them in every conceivable way that he could. He finished up with blood on his hands. He was implicated in the murder of some of these people. People being torn away from their families, people being thrown into jail. He was absolutely, adamantly, totally opposed to the whole idea of Jesus being Messiah and his followers.

He was convinced that this pernicious, cancerous growth in Judaism had to be excised, and he was committed to doing it. Then one day on his way to Damascus, he had a defining moment. He was confronted with what to him was incontrovertible evidence that Jesus of Nazareth had risen from the dead. When he saw that information, he came to the conclusion that, therefore, if Jesus was risen from the dead, that was evidence that he was who he claimed to be: the son of God incarnate, the Messiah.

He then had to explore, if Jesus was the incarnate son of God, the Messiah, who had risen from the dead, how could he explain the death of this Messiah? Immediately his understanding of the Old Testament, with which he was thoroughly committed and thoroughly understood, blossomed into new life, and he recognized that all the great tradition of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament had been pointing to that ultimate sacrifice when Jesus would die on the cross to take away the sins of the whole world.

He had died on the cross, as the Apostle Paul eventually put it—that was the former Saul of Tarsus—"He loved me and gave himself for me." He came to understand that Jesus was savior and Lord, and he fell hurriedly off his horse, he knelt in the dust of the Damascus road, and he asked the great question: "Lord, Lord, what will have me to do?"

The defining moment where he comes to a discovery that the Christ whom he had rejected was actually the savior and Lord. And he yielded his life to him, and as a result, he now insists to the Philippians: you must go on rejoicing in the Lord. Now, notice what has happened. He starts out by rejecting Jesus, then he recognizes the Christ, and now he spends his life rejoicing in the Lord. A defining moment.

Now, this leads to a decisive action on his part. The decisive action that requires a total, radical reevaluation of everything that he has stood for up until that time. And you remember in the reading that we had a few moments ago that basically this reevaluation was as follows: that he now counted everything that previously he'd regarded as profit now as loss. And everything that previously he'd regarded as a loss, he now calculates as profit.

Now, those of you who are into bookkeeping, those of you who are into investments, you recognize that this is a radical reevaluation. He adds up everything that he regarded as to his profit and he writes it off as loss. And in the same breath, he takes everything that he's regarded as a loss and he regards it as a profit. This man has a renewed mind.

He sees God entirely differently. He sees himself with new eyes. He looks at the world from an entirely different perspective. Life takes on an entirely different meaning. This man has been thoroughly converted. Now he's saying what has happened to me is just the beginning, and what is important is that I press on to take to its logical conclusion this radical reevaluation that has taken place in my life.

Guest (Male): This is Telling the Truth, bringing you a powerful message from Stuart Briscoe. We'll continue with his teaching in a moment. But before we do, life is full of stressful situations. So it's no surprise that so many of us these days struggle with things like anxiety, fear, and worry. That's why Stuart and Jill Briscoe created their two-message series *Worry Less* to help you take hold of the peace and joy God intends for your life.

It's our thanks for your gift of support today. These encouraging messages uncover the root cause of worry and give you practical guidance straight from God's word on how to overcome worry so that it doesn't overwhelm you. Plus, when you give today, we'll also include Jill's booklet *Me Worry?* as an extra thank you.

Generous friends like you keep broadcasts like this one going, reaching others with God's healing love so they can experience God's peace and the joy of life in Christ. So if you haven't given before, consider a gift today to help keep God's word going out around the world to you and many others. And remember, this is the last week for you to request your copy of *Worry Less* and *Me Worry?* when you call and give. Just call 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org.

Stuart Briscoe: Now, this whole idea of him taking the things that he regarded as profit and regarding them now as loss. He doesn't mean that the previous things of his life are all worthless. On the contrary, there are many things in his previous life that are profoundly significant. For instance, he says that he was circumcised on the eighth day.

What that meant was that his believing Jewish parents took him on the eighth day and introduced him as a child of the covenant. He says that he was proud to be a member of the race of Israel. There was a great nationalistic pride there, which is most appropriate. He had taken trouble to sort out his heritage, and he was member of the tribe of Benjamin.

In addition to that, he had decided that if he was going to be a Jew, he was going to be a real one. And so having explored the different tenets of the Jewish faith, he had opted for the most strict, the most devout, the most serious sect of Judaism, and he had become a Pharisee. He wasn't just a theoretical Pharisee.

On the contrary, he had decided that if he was going to be somebody who took the law seriously, he was going to dot every "i" and he was going to cross every "t," and as far as legalistic righteousness was concerned, he would be on the top of the heap. And because he saw this pernicious thing called Christianity coming to bear, he devoted his considerable intellect and energy to the extermination of it. And all these things, he said, had merit in them.

Now he says: I am not simply writing those things off. What I'm saying is this: the new discovery that I made did not make these things worthless. It's just compared to the new discovery that I made that I counted them as loss. Is that complicated? Let me give you an example. Many years ago, Jill and I traveled to South Africa.

Well now, on this particular occasion, a little lady met us. She was rather agitated and excited, and she burbled on at great length. And among other things, she said that we were staying in her home, and we thanked her very much for that. And she said then: would you like to see the hole? H-O-L-E. Would you like to see the hole?

I'd no idea what she was talking about, so being terribly British, I said, "We would love to. Thank you so much." And we started chugging along the road there, and she went on at great length about the hole. It was one mile in circumference at the top, it was hundreds of feet deep, you couldn't see the bottom of it because it had filled up with water.

It was dug by hundreds and thousands of men who came from all over the world to dig it. They went through terrible privation; there was famine, there was disease, there was epidemics, but they kept digging. I said, "Why in the world would anybody come from somewhere else in the world to dig a hill and make it into the biggest hole in the world?"

And she said, "Oh, one day some little boys were playing on the hill and they were throwing pebbles to each other and catching the pebbles and throwing them back to each other. And a gentleman walking past just happened to notice the boys doing this, and he noticed that the boys were throwing the pebbles because as they went through the air, the sun glinted on the pebbles. So he caught one of the pebbles, and it was a diamond." And word got out that this hill was full of diamonds. And so people arrived from all over the world, and the Kimberley Diamond Mine was born. We saw it.

Guest (Female): Powerful words from Stuart Briscoe. Before we go, just a reminder that through the end of this week, when you give to support Telling the Truth broadcasts like this one, we'll send you the Briscoes' two-message series *Worry Less* and Jill's booklet *Me Worry?*

These encouraging resources will help you start to worry less and live with more joy. The offer ends Friday, so request your resources when you call 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for tuning in today. Come back next time for more biblical wisdom to help you experience life, right here on Telling the Truth.