Live in pursuit of Jesus.

That is what Paul tell’s us men. Press on in our knowledge and love for Jesus. Press on to walk with Him through our day and through our weaknesses. Press on to read about Him. Press on to make Him Lord and King and Master. Press on to understand Him. Press on to know him better today than we did yeserday.

Press on. Push forward. Lean into it. Focus! Focus! Focus! Dig down and be determined.

These things change a man. These are changes every man needs.

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14

Philippians 3 is the pinnacle of the book of Philippians. But it is easy read right past the two sentences that are the books most important.

I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.

The loss specifically was his Jewish credentials. Generally though, it was everything and anything in life. For Paul, only Jesus matters. Jesus is the the greatest height, the greatest depth, the greatest joy, the greatest truth, and the greatest grace. Notice the two words, surpassing worth.

But it wasn’t easy. Notice the word suffered. Christianity is the religion of the weak and needy. And when someone becomes a Christian the reality of suffering does not diminish. Paul is addressing not just what he gladly tossed aside in his Jewish heritage and credentials, but also all the persecution and deprivations.

Notice he suffered for Jesus’s sake. And he suffered to gain Christ and be found in Him. It was all worth it.

These two sentences teach the heights of knowing Christ and pain of knowing Him. And the way Paul says it he makes it look as it ought to look. To know Christ, to gain Christ, to be found in him is the greatest treasure and pleasure mankind can know.

I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

This is one the BEST promises in Scripture.

Let it sink in.

God is at work in us. We may not feel it. We may not see it.

And at times we might flat out disbelieve it. We may say to ourselves, “If God is at work in me, then why do I sometimes make such bad decisions? Why doesn’t he stop me!?! Why doesn’t he send of little alarms in my head to protect me!?!”

I know THAT feeling. I have asked THOSE questions.

The promise stands. Regardless of what we feel or believe. Fight against your gut in believing the promise is not true. Resist that thought.

It is true. God is at work in all of us. Every single day he is at work. Yes, we foolishly and sinfully rebel. Yet God is still at work in the midst of that. Yes, we may not see it or feel it, but trust that God is good and proactive and intentional and wise. Believe the promise. Thank God for the promise.

If you want to accelerate the promise dig deep and dig often into Scripture. God speaks to us supernaturally through the Bible. Read all of Philippians. Read it a couple of times a day. Read also Colossians, the book right after Philippians. Read also Ephesians, the book right before Philippians. And, of course, read Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Reading Scripture is the best way to be a better, deeper, more holy man.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7:13-14

Matthew 7:13-14 are generally familiar verses. And there’s enough words to it to make it both clear and complicated.

Don’t make it complicated. If we take to heart the first five words, really take to heart, then the rest of it falls into place.

Christianity is hard. It’s uphill most of the way. The way to heaven is always up.

Christianity is hard because of sin. That’s six words.

Either in five words or six, we get the picture.

In ways, Christianity is a masculine religion. Men do hard things. We are made to do hard things. Men rise up. Men carry burdens. Men storm castles and rescue fair maidens. Men storm the beaches of Normandy. Men go to the moon. Men rush into burning buildings. Good men, let’s take Matthew 7:13-14 to heart.

Matthew 7, like Matthew 5 and 6, have some difficult verses. Here is one of them…

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

And then, to make it even more difficult, it is followed up with…

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

These two verses have been a stumbling block for many. On our bad days they seem like a lie. On our good days we kind of throw up our arms and move on.

The problem is when we read it and we think (hope!) that it is kind of like a vending machine. If we put in our money and push the button then a snack drops to the bottom and it is ours. The mistake is thinking that every prayer will be answered simply because we prayed.

The two verses are a promise that God does answer prayer. If we only pray on occasion, namely when there is a crisis, then these two verses will feel like a stumbling block. But if we pray often, as a way of life, as way of dealing with stress and worry, as a way of parenting, and as way of being married, and as way of holding down a job, then we will often see prayers, big and small, answered.

That’s the point of the two verses. Not praying seldomly, but praying often. Ask. Seek. Knock. And do it through your day.

Trust God in prayer. Trust his answers and non-answers. Trust his timing and his wisdom. Trust that he is at work in us, shaping us, molding us, maturing us.

In the middle of Jesus’ three examples of foolishly doing things to be seen or heard, the Lord’s Prayer appears.

That is not random.

The prayer the antidote to the human weakness to seek attention and importance.

Verse nine is the most important verse of the prayer. How we view God shapes how we see everything.

Here’s a definitions of hallowing God’s name. Treating God as holy, rightly fearing him, highly respecting him, humbly seeing him as truly God, and humbly seeing the terribleness of our big and small sins.

If our view of God is passive, or laden with earthly problems, or distracted by ongoing sin, or minimized by self-importance or self-pity, then we will not see God as hallowed and it will not shape us or change us or mature us.

In other words, if God is small in our thoughts and desires and priorities, then our view of everything is less mature than it should be. Can you see the risk and danger in that?

If this convicts you, and if you want to get things right and hallow God name, start with being painfully honest about your sin, then move on to being fierce and consistent with obeying God. Leave not a single area of life off the obedience list, including how you drive, what you see on your phone or your computer, and how you treat people who annoy you.

A hollowed view of God is fed by reading, thinking about, and memorizing Scripture. If Scripture is small in you life, then God is also small in your life. In other words, big Scripture = big God.

Where to begin? Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. What else? Proverbs, Philippians, or Colossians. What else? James, 1 Peter, or 2 Peter. Let Scripture run deep at all times, and in all areas of our life.

Matthew six begins with three examples of doing something to be seen or heard.

It is a rare soul who does things without any motives to be seen, heard, or esteemed.

So, Jesus hits the nail on the head. Feeling important, looking important, sounding important really matters to us, but spiritually it is not good.

God does not reward it because we are not looking to God at the moment, but at other people and our own ego.

This is hard stuff. A mark of spiritual (or masculine) maturity is not to draw attention to ourselves with the motive of self-importance.

The second time Jesus crosses the line and mentions male sexuality is in Matthew 5:31-32.

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

In Matthew 19:3-9, Jesus addresses the same issue, and with more details.

Men are prone to desire a wife that will satisfy him sexually.

Thus Jesus is saying a husband cannot divorce his wife unless she has been sexually immoral. Why does Jesus say this? Very, very few women are seeking a divorce on the grounds that her husband does not satisfy her sexually. Married women may not be sexually content, but very, very few of them are looking for plan B on the basis of her sex life.

This is a male issue, not a female issue. The sexes are different in this way. Thus Jesus reigns us men in, and says, “Stay married. If your wife crosses the sexual immorality line your first response to to forgive her and work to repair your marriage. If she refuses, and continues to refuse to work on her marriage, then a husband may divorce his wife.

There is no command for a man to divorce his wife.

There is only a command that a divorce can happen, if it absolutely must be because of sexual immorality.

Needed Endnote: There are other valid reasons for a husband and wife to separate.

Jesus crosses the line twice and mentions male sexuality in Matthew 5.

The first one makes sense, though it is difficult. The second only makes sense in a seemingly small way of seeing men and women and marriage. See Matthew 5:27-30 and Matthew 5:31-32.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Men’s Fellowship is this coming Monday evening. 6:30pm in the Coffeehouse. It’d be GREAT to have you with us!

MATTHEW FIVE: The bulk of Matthew 5 are the six “You have heard that it was said” paragraphs.

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ Verse 21

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ Verse 27

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ Verse 31

 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ Verse 33

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ Verse 38

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ Verse 43

As you have noticed these are all bold, strong paragraphs.  They are all nearly over-the-top, nearly impossible statements. The whole chapter, with only a couple of exceptions, is this strong.

Why is Jesus so strong? The short answer is that Jesus is teaching what God expects of us.

Why does God expect so much of us? God is holy and he expects us to be holy. A holy life is a wise, safe, humble, mature life.

Isn’t a holy life impossible? Yes.

Why does God expect what is impossible? All of humanity will either pursue God or things not of God. The pursuit of God puts us in our place, that God is creator and we are the creation, it shows that we are seeking to be humble by making God’s ways more important than our ways, and it shows we want to be mature and do the right thing. It’s not about perfection, it’s about what we pursue in life.

A Simple Argument for Holiness.

A Truth. We don’t want or like God or anyone telling us what to do, how to live, how to act, and how to go about living life.

A Second Truth. We sometimes acts like kids before God. Kid’s naturally rebel and want independence and want to do their own thing their own way.

A Third Truth. When we see kids being foolish, selfish, and disobedient we know they are shaming and embarrassing themselves, they are disappointing those who love them, and they will suffer consequences.

The Truth of Holiness. Again, the pursuit of God puts us in our place, that God is creator and we are the creation, it shows that we are seeking to be humble by making God’s ways more important than our ways, and it shows we want to be mature and do the right thing.