Time to Grow Up: Maturing in Christ

you have your Bibles on this balmy July 4th weekend. Hope you guys lived it up yesterday. Let me put an exclamation point on what our campus pastors already said by saying happy birthday America. You do not look a day over 200. I hope you showed up this morning just still full from burgers and dogs and chicken wings and all the things. Let me tell you, I played some pool basketball with some high school boys and I feel like I was in a UFC fight yesterday. Okay, that's what I woke up feeling like. Your boy ain't as young and spry as he used to be. And so I do love this country. And so here's what I want us to do. Can we stand for the National Anthem? I'm totally kidding. Can we stand? Hey, can we stand for the reading of God's Word? Could y'all imagine Twitter if we did that? You think Pastor JD has it hard? Philippians chapter 3. We're going to begin in verse 12. Paul says, 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. 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, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. But those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Verse 17. Brothers, join in imitating me. Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction.

Their God is their belly and they glory in their shame with mine set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. And then chapter 4 verse 1. Therefore, my brothers whom I love and long for, my joy and crown stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. Summit family, this is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Y'all can have a seat. I don't know about you guys. Our family is just in full summer swing. We took our annual family beach trip a couple weeks ago. And because as I've told you before, we have four kids 12 and under. I use the word trip very intentionally because it ain't a vacation when you got four kids 12 and under. But they are, man, they're just at these awesome ages. They're at kind of these golden years where at least at the beach, like they're at the point where we can just hand them a boogie board and they are content for like six straight hours. It's awesome. My six-year-old, he's my only son. He's just at this wonderful age where he is boasting in all the confidence in the world that a kid has. And so we go to the beach, right? And like he rides away from like here to here and he's like, Dad, I rode that thing a mile. And you're like, yeah, you did, buddy. That was awesome. Or he sees like somebody jogging down the beach and he's like, I could run faster than that guy. I'm like, could you? And he's like, I'm faster than Sonic. I'm like, I bet you are. Or like he thinks he's trying to chase the birds. He's like, I can jump higher than that bird or I could fly higher than that wind. So I'm like, I bet you

can, buddy. And man, I just love it. Like he is completely detached from reality, but I think it's pretty awesome. So I'm going to cheer him on. And see when he's six-year-old, that kind of confidence is really cute, isn't it? But if he was 26 years old, still making some of those claims, it's no longer cute. Starts to be a little concerning, right? That's because at some point, we've all got to grow up. See when you're a new follower of Jesus, there's a phrase we tend to use. is to describe you and it's in no way a derogatory phrase, but if you're a new follower of Jesus, we tend to call you a baby Christian. Again, that's not derogatory at all, it's just recognizing that you are brand new to this whole Christian life thing. And with that newness, understandably, when you're a baby Christian, man, there's some struggles and there's some blind spots and there's some insecurities and ignorances that honestly makes sense for somebody that has just entered into this new life with Jesus. And if that's you, then man, I just wanna tell you that's okay. Babies are supposed to act like babies. But at some point, babies are also supposed to grow up. And see, just like physical maturity has signs of growing up, you walk, you talk, you think differently, spiritual maturity has signs too. So that's what Paul is concerned about

with the back half of chapter three. He wants to know if your life is showing signs, if it's showing marks of someone who is growing up in Christ. And the way that Paul frames spiritual maturity is not mainly about how much Bible knowledge you have accumulated, it's not about how long you've been in church, it's not about how polished you look on the outside. No, for the apostle Paul, maturity shows up in a life that is being shaped to look more and more like Jesus Christ. Last weekend, Pastor J.D. opened up the first 11 verses of chapter three where Paul kind of puts forth his religious resume. And I don't know about you, but as we've been going through the book of Philippians and anything else we've read by Paul, it's real easy to start looking at Paul like he's some type of super Christian. Like honestly, Paul just kind of sounds like the Michael Jordan of Christianity. Again, his resume, which we saw last week, man, it's just unbelievable. Like he counts everything as loss, he treasures Christ above all, he's willing to suffer for Jesus, he continues on mission, like he's just the whole package. And just when I'm ready to like retire his jersey

and assume Paul is just in a different category than the rest of us, look what he says in verse 12. He says, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect. Now, when Paul says obtain this, he's talking about knowing and becoming fully like Jesus Christ. And I just need you to wrap your mind around this because this is the apostle Paul saying, hey, lest you think too highly of me, what you need to know is that I'm still a work in progress. I mean, I've still got a way to go. I have not arrived. I do not look like Jesus just yet. And that's the apostle Paul saying this. That's church planner Paul, missionary Paul, wrote half, two thirds of the New Testament, Paul. This is shipwrecked, beaten, imprisoned, but kept going anyways, Paul. And he says, man, I ain't arrived. And y'all, I absolutely love this because listen, for 21 years, even though I was in the same seat you were sitting in for 21 years, even though I called myself a Christian, I was not a Christian. And for 21 years, I sat there every Sunday morning and whenever the pastor would preach and open up the words of Jesus or the words of Paul or the words of the Bible, all I remember sitting there thinking is,

pastor, thank you for this cute little message, but you have no idea what my life is like. Pastor, Paul, Jesus, y'all's life is perfect. Your family's probably perfect. Your kids are probably perfect. Your finances are probably perfect. You've got life figured out. That's what I remember sitting in your seat thinking. And see, I love that Paul says this because Paul in his wisdom anticipates that. And he's like, nah, bro, if you only knew, if you only knew the things I still struggle with, if you only knew that I still do things I don't wanna do and I don't do things that I do wanna do. He says, I'm not perfect, man. I've not obtained this. I haven't arrived yet. And what he's trying to show us is that Paul and you and me are way more similar than we are different. He's saying this to try to be encouraging to us. His point is, hey, nobody's perfect yet. And even though we haven't arrived, what we've gotta do is keep putting one spiritual foot in front of the other. And so to get that idea across, Paul actually uses the same Greek word, three different times in verse 12. It's hard to see in our English translations, but look at it and I'll point it out to you.

In verse 12, he says, not that I have already, here's the first use, obtained this, or I'm already perfect, but I press on to, here's the second use, make it my own because Christ Jesus has, here's the third time, made me his own. In Greek, all three of those words come from the same root word, meaning obtain, to lay hold of, to seize. It's a hunting word. It's like when you catch something. What Paul is saying, he says, not that I've already obtained perfect maturity, but I press on to. obtain it because Christ Jesus has obtained me." Now notice what Paul doesn't say. He doesn't say, I press on so Christ will make me his own. He says, I press on because Christ Jesus has made me his own. He's just chasing after the God who has already found him. He's trying to obtain that which has already obtained him. Now you gotta realize our entire lives are just a response to Jesus's love toward us. You strip away all the rules and all the regulations and all the religiosity of this whole thing and what it means to be a Christian at the end of the day is to be taken hold of and obtained by Christ in a way that permeates every single little area of our lives. If you're a follower of Jesus,

it is because Christ first and foremost made you his own. And that's good news. But while salvation is finished, yes, our spiritual growth is not. Therefore, Paul says in verse 12, he says, we press on. When he uses that phrase, press on, when the Philippians would have read this letter from Paul, that phrase press on would have made them immediately think of what they called the Isthmian games. It was basically their version of the Olympics. It would have conjured up an image of an athlete straining to the finish line with vigorous and determined effort. And what Paul's telling us and telling them is that the Christian life is like that. That yes, Christ has made you his own. And so now your job is to press on to become fully what he's already declared you to be. That's the Christian life. The Christian life is a journey of becoming what Christ has already made us. And so that's why Paul says, look at verse 13, the end of it. He says, but one thing I do as I press on, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Verse 14, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Again, just kind of pinging off the Olympic runner illustration.

When an Olympic runner is straining for the finish line and they're not looking side to side, are they? They're not seeing what everybody else is doing. They're not checking their Instagram to see where the other races are. Every muscle is aimed in one direction. And what Paul's saying is he's saying that's the picture of Christian maturity. It is a determined, holy focus to reach the goal of becoming what Christ has made us. He says, that's our finish line. And so he says, look at verse 15, let those of us who are mature think this way. I think it's funny. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal it to you also. It's kind of his polite way of saying, hey, this is what grown up Christians think like, okay? Like I love it. As for us, Paul says, verse 16, only let us hold true to what we have attained. So brothers join in imitating me. Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the examples you have in us. Now, when Paul says, hey, join in imitating me, that's not Paul being arrogant here. He's not saying I'm the standard. Only Jesus is the standard. He's not saying I'm the standard. What he's saying is you and I need examples

that we need more than sermons. We need more than books. We need more than podcasts. We need living examples of people that are up close, that you are sitting across the table from, that you can point to and say, man, I want a kind of faith like that. I want a marriage like that. I want transparency and generosity and humility and courage. I want the joy that that person has. What Paul's doing is he's emphasizing the importance of choosing what examples we follow. Because see, whether you realize it or not, you and I are always being discipled by somebody. And so he says, you got to choose good examples, which is why he says in verse 18, he kind of gives us the flip of that. He says, for many of whom I've often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. See, Paul says this with tears because these are not just bad influences. These are people who are actually fooling themselves and in doing so are confusing others. These are people who are close enough to Christianity to sound convincing, but their lives are actually moving in the opposite direction of the cross. They're enemies of the cross of Christ.

And Paul says, man, you got to learn to spot these people. Don't be fooled by them. Learn to recognize actually not just what they're doing, but recognize where their life is headed. And so he tells us in verse 19, look, he says where their life is headed first and foremost, their end is destruction. When their lives might look freeing and fun right now, but the end of a life rejecting Jesus and rejecting the cross is not freedom. It is eternal and irreversible separation from God in a lake of fire that will lead to pure and full destruction. And not just that, but he says their God here and now. is their belly. What he's saying is these are people who are ruled by their appetites and their desires. Whether that is food or sex or comfort or attention or laziness or control, he's saying those desires are in charge. Whatever their flesh wants, they just give into it. And not only do they give into it, but he says they glory in their shame. Basically, these are people who have lost the ability to blush. Instead of repenting of sin, they're busy defending and applauding the sins that they're part of. And they do this, he says, because their minds are set on earthly things. Again, he's talking about people close to the church.

And so they might believe in eternity on paper, but their decisions are driven by whatever is gonna make this life easier and this life richer and this life safer and this life more impressive. They live as if this world is all there is. And so success and things and pleasure always end up carrying more weight than eternity does. See, these are folks. You gotta learn to recognize these. You gotta see if you are one. You gotta know. These are folks who know the church language. They know the church songs. They know the verses. They have the Christian vocabulary, the Christian veneer. But when you actually look at the direction of their lives, they are not being satisfied in Christ. They are busy gratifying the flesh. They might say that Jesus is Lord, but their browser history actually says lust is Lord. Their spending says status is Lord. Their anger says control is Lord. And even though their mouths might say, I belong to Jesus, their lifestyle says, I belong to this earth. And so this is what Paul is warning us about. Not just people outside the church who reject the cross openly, but people who are around the church who use Christian language

while simultaneously living cross-resistant lives. Then he says in verse 20, but by contrast, our citizenship is in heaven, not earth. And from it, we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. See, Philippi, who he's writing this to, had become a Roman colony. And the citizens of Philippi were really proud of that. I mean, Rome's the great superpower of the day. And so all the Roman things start making their way into Philippi. Romans up shaping their laws and their values and their lifestyles and ultimately their identity. And so when Paul writes to the church at Philippi and tells them our citizenship is in heaven, he's actually making a really bold statement to the believers there. What he's saying, hey, believers at Philippi, he's saying heaven is now where your deepest identity comes from. It's not Rome, it's not your resume, it's not your appetites, it's not this world, it's heaven. And as heavenly citizens, we await a savior, verse 21, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him, even to subject all things to himself. And then we're gonna go into chapter four, verse one. He says, therefore, my brothers, that therefore pulls this whole thing together, whom I love and long for my joy and crown,

stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. Again, that therefore pulls this whole thing together. Because what he's saying is, hey, church, because your citizenship is in heaven, because your Jesus is coming back, because this world you live in is temporary, and because there are real dangers trying to pull your heart toward earthly things, what you gotta do is you gotta grow up, you gotta mature in Christ, and you gotta stand firm in the Lord. And so to help us mature, what Paul does is he gives us four ways that we've gotta grow up spiritually. Four ways we grow up, that's what we're gonna spend the rest of our time looking at. And the first way he tells us to grow up is that we gotta tell the truth about where we are. First way we grow up is you gotta learn to tell the truth about where you are. Essentially what Paul's saying is that the first sign of spiritual maturity is actually admitting that you are not as mature as you think you are. Again, Paul, verse 12, not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect. If anybody could say that they are mature in Christ, it feels like it would be the apostle Paul.

But what he wants us to understand is that maturity doesn't begin by finally getting all our entire life together. No, maturity begins when you stop lying about the fact that you don't have it all together. Like listen, some of y'all are stuck in your spiritual growth, and it's not because Jesus doesn't wanna help you grow, it's because you won't be honest about the very places you need to grow. And so what happens is you keep excusing your own immaturity by calling it your personality. You keep excusing your lust problem by just calling it a struggle. You keep excusing your own selfishness in the name of setting up personal boundaries. Man, you're blaming your anger on your stress or your schedule or your kids, basically anybody and anything except for your own heart. Like whatever diagnostic tool helps you sound self-aware without actually having to change yourself, that's what you run to first. I mean, these are cop-outs and you and I know it. You gotta start by being honest. One of the clearest signs of spiritual immaturity is not that you still struggle. Hear me clearly. It's that you've made peace with the struggle and you've actually become fine with it. And so let me ask you this question.

Where have you stopped praying and saying, Lord, would you change me? And started just saying, well, that's just me. What have you learned to explain or excuse or rename or hide in your life? What sin have you gotten comfortable just managing instead of confessing and killing it? Because here's the reality. You and I, we will never mature beyond the truth you refuse to face or the secret you refuse to confess. Maturity begins when you tell the truth about where you are and stop defending the very sins that Jesus died to deliver you from. And so very practically, here's what I want you to do this week. I want you to find somebody close to you, somebody that you trust. I just want you to ask them the question. I just want you to ask them, hey, where do you see immaturity in me? Where do I need to grow up spiritually? Like you can ask them, if I were to look more like Jesus a year from now than I do today, what's one area of my life that I need to look at? And listen, here's the key. When they answer that, don't get mad, don't defend, don't justify, don't accept, like none of that.

Just receive it, submit it to the Holy Spirit, and say, God, what do you want me to do with this, okay? Growing up starts when you stop pretending you've arrived and start being honest. But then after that, what we gotta do is we gotta focus, okay? The second way we gotta grow up is we gotta set our eyes on where we are going. You gotta set your eyes on where you're going. Well, Paul says, Paul's not, he says, man, I'm not pretending I'm already mature. If I'm being honest about where I am, verse 13, he says, brothers, I don't consider that I've made it my own, but then here's the key phrase. But one thing I do. See, Paul doesn't just say I'm not where I should be. No, because Paul understands that maturity doesn't simply stop at confession. Maturity actually moves in a particular direction. And here's why this is important. Listen to this. Because honesty without direction just becomes self-awareness without actual growth. It becomes another form of navel gazing. And man, is this absolutely rampant today? Like y'all, we know our issues, right? We can name all of our dysfunctions and then some. And I'm grateful for the conversation around all this stuff, but we've got language for trauma and triggers

and generational diagnoses and personality types. We've got Enneagram numbers and love languages and Myers-Briggs and Hogwarts houses. We are not short on self-awareness, but self-awareness by itself does not make you mature. At some point, you gotta take that self-awareness and aim it somewhere. You gotta stop using self-awareness as just an insight, as a hiding place, and you gotta start using that self-awareness as a doorway to spiritual growth and maturity in Christ. And Paul tells us how to do it. Look at the end of verse 13. He says, but one thing I do, this is how you do it. You gotta forget what lies behind, strain forward to what lies ahead. And then verse 14, in doing so, I press on toward the goal for the prize. Here it is, of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Direction and focus means I leave what is behind, I lean forward to what is ahead, and ultimately I live for what is eternal. And so let's kind of take those piece by piece. Number one, man, you gotta focus by leaving what is behind. It's where you gotta set your eyes. Now, forgetting what is behind is not about erasing your past. It's not about pretending bad things never happened. We're not people with spiritual amnesia. Nobody heals by just acting like nothing ever happened

and lying to ourselves. No, forgetting what lies behind means refusing to let your past control the only thing that Jesus gets to have, which is authority over your identity. For Paul, for Paul himself, he had to forget all of his successes. That's what we looked at last week. All his resume, all his religious achievements, all his accomplishments. But on the flip side, you gotta realize what he was leaving behind. He also needed to leave behind and forget all of his failures. Man, before he was Paul, he was Saul. He was a persecutor of the church. And Paul had to leave behind all those shames, regret all those sins that could have kept him stuck and not growing in Christ. Because what Paul knows is that you and I can never move forward if we're busy staring backwards. Y'all, there's a reason that your car's windshield is way bigger than your rear view mirror. Like, don't get me wrong. You need the rear view mirror. You need to learn from your past. You need to remember God's faithfulness in the past. You need to see where you've been so you can know where you're going. But while your past may help explain you, hear me,

your past does not get to define you. Some of you are so busy trying to follow Jesus with your eyes fixed on the rear view mirror. You're so busy replaying old shames and old failures and old wounds and old relationships and old what ifs. But the good news of the gospel, listen, is that if you are in Christ, y'all, your sin ain't just behind you. Your sin is beneath the blood of Jesus. Your past is not sitting in heaven on a shelf waiting to be used against you when you arrive there one day. No, Colossians chapter two, verse 14 says, the record of debt that stood against you was canceled when it was nailed to the cross. And so if Jesus buried that thing, you gotta quit resurrecting it. You can't sing Jesus paid it all, but then keep punishing yourself for the very sin that you say he cleared. Y'all, your shame is not your name anymore. You gotta leave it behind. Your failures are not your future anymore. So you gotta leave those things behind. Your worst day or your worst decision does not get to define you anymore because what my Bible says is whom the son sets free, he or she is free indeed. And if Jesus says you are free, then by the grace of God, you need to walk forward and live like you are free. Which is why Paul says we strain forward to what lies ahead.

So that's the second thing we do. We don't just focus by leaving what's behind. We focus by leaning forward to what is ahead. And y'all, what's ahead for the Christian? It's not just a slightly better, slightly upgraded version of this life with like, you know, a little less stress and a little more emotional balance and health. It's not just streets of gold and fluffy clouds and angels playing harps and unlimited free Chick-fil-A. That'd be awesome. And like, hopefully it's not less than that, but it's so much more. No, what lies ahead for the believer is that we get to see Jesus face to face. It's the day our faith becomes sight. The day when that sin that you hate is finally gone. When that disease that holds sway over your body is no more. When that anxiety is no longer crippling. No more lust twisting your desires. No more bitterness replaying old wounds. No more fractured relationship. No more divided heart that wants Jesus, but also desperately wants the things of this world. What's ahead for us is that we get to see Christ and we get to become like him. That our lowly bodies, our sin infected bodies from the inside out will be transformed to be like his glorious body. Y'all, that's what's ahead for us.

And so what Paul says is he says, I'm leaning toward that day. I'm straining toward that future. And I'm not there yet, he says, but I can see the finish line. And so verse 14, he says, so I press on toward the goal for the prize, here it is, of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Y'all, we don't just leave what's behind. We don't just lean toward what's ahead. No, we focus by living for what is eternal. The goal for the prize. Again, when Paul uses that phrase, the church at Philippi would have conjured up again, the Olympic games back to their mind. And in the games, whoever won would kind of ascend the steps, they'd stand before the judge and the judge would pronounce that person's name, their father's name, their country, and then they would place a wreath on their head. And Paul says, man, that's how I wanna live. I wanna run toward the day and I wanna run in a way that the day I stand before the true judge, when I stand before the eternal King, I wanna receive the prize. And the prize is not just heaven. Again, the prize is Christ. It's seeing him and knowing him and becoming like him, everything we just talked about. And that's where Paul is headed.

That's his finish line. And what he's telling us is that kind of future should give us focus and direction for how we participate today. And so Ken, really practically, tomorrow morning, here's what I want you to do. I want you to ask yourself three questions. Question number one, what do I need to leave behind that Jesus has already buried? And maybe for you, it's some failure or a shame or a regret or resentment or an old identity. Or maybe for you, it's like the apostle Paul. or maybe it's some sense of achievement or success. I mean, what do you need to leave behind? And then question number two, what do I need to lean toward that Jesus is calling me into? Is there something you need to confess or is there an area of obedience or forgiveness or reconciliation or repentance? And then question number three, what's one thing I can do today that will still matter in eternity? One thing, not 12 things. Paul says, but one thing. Maybe it's just you spend time praying. Maybe it's open your Bible. Maybe it's you're choosing sexual purity for the next 24 hours. Maybe it's generosity. Maybe it's evangelism.

You need to finally go share Jesus with that person that he's put on your heart. What's one thing you can do today that will still matter in eternity? That's the second way we grow up. Here's the third way we grow up. I mean, we gotta choose carefully who we follow. You wanna grow up, you wanna mature in Christ, you gotta choose carefully who you follow. Verses 15 and 16, Paul says, let those of us who are mature think this way. Verse 16, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. Here's why he says this. And the Bible's timeless. He says this because one of the biggest lies of his age and of our age is that you and I can observe things without actually being affected by them. A few years ago, I read this article. It was right out of COVID. So this article is in 2021. And it was fascinating because what was happening is a whole bunch of American parents started realizing that their kids were starting to speak with like English accents, like British accents. And so like, they'd stop to get gas

and their kids would be like, mommy, why are we getting petrol? And they're like, I don't, like, instead of tomato, they're like, mommy, let's give it a go. And like, it was so weird. And these parents were just baffled. They had no idea why this was happening. Well, what they realized out of COVID, right? So the TV became a lot of our babysitters. What they realized is that their kids had been watching too much Peppa the Pig. So these kids started talking like Peppa. You see, they were just exposed to it over and over until it actually began shaping how they talked to the point that they started calling it the Peppa effect. See, what Paul is showing us is that you and I don't have to choose something consciously to shape us deeply. We say this all the time. What you behold, you eventually become. What you watch and who you follow and what you listen to, those things are not neutral. Those are all things that are windows into the type of person you are becoming. And so what we try to do, we try to fool ourselves by saying things like, well, no, no, no, I'm not becoming, I don't actually do that. Like I'm just listening or I'm just watching or I'm just hanging out, I'm just scrolling.

I'm not actually participating in that. But the reality is as you are doing that, you are being formed. You don't have to call someone or something, your mentor in order for them to form you. You gotta know, your algorithm is forming you. The friends you choose are forming you. Your favorite podcast is forming you. Your appetites are forming you. The things you spend money on are forming you. The question is not, am I being formed? The question is who and what is forming me? Because formation is happening all the time. So the question you should be asking yourself is who am I becoming without even realizing it? That's why Paul says that we gotta choose our examples carefully. Again, you gotta realize that nobody you follow is neutral. Man, every single person you follow is preaching a version of what to love and what to chase and what your heart should desire and what you should envy and what should be normal in your life. Every single person you follow is teaching you a version of what they consider to be the good life. And they're trying to say, the good life can be found right here in this world. So these are the things you need to participate in and these are the things you need to accumulate. I mean, this is fascinating. I listened to this interview recently.

I become like obsessed with all things by Arthur Brooks, the sociologist, just think he's brilliant. And it was fascinating because Arthur Brooks was essentially talking about why happiness levels in the United States have continued to just decrease year over year, decrease, decrease, decrease, even though comfort and options and accessibility and entertainment continues to increase. So the things that this world would say, get these things and they'll provide you happiness. He says, the more we have of those available to us, actually what the data shows is that happiness levels have decreased. And he summarized his findings by saying that the reason he thinks people are not happy is because they are living according to, these are his words, a dark and worldly formula. He calls it the dark triad. He said, in the dark worldly. formula, what we're told to do is to love things, use people, and worship ourselves. Y'all tell me that's not Philippians 3.19. God is their belly, glory is their shame, mindset on earthly things. The dark triad is, man, you wanna be happy? Accumulate as many things as you can. Man, just love things. Use people so they can, you know, you can get as far along in life as you can,

just use people, and then you just gotta worship yourself. Be the true you, like it's all about you. But man, it's not working. And so Brooks goes on to explain that he says we will only find joy, actually, when we reverse that formula into what he calls the light formula. And in the light formula, he said we are to use things, love people, and worship, his words, the divine. Like, man, we're to use things, like enjoy things. God is the giver of all good gifts. Yesterday, I hope you enjoyed a fat steak. I hope you enjoyed the pool. I hope you enjoyed your boat, like whatever, like use things, things are awesome. As long as they don't use us, but we use things. We love people, love one another, love one another, love one another, and then we worship God. Y'all tell me that is not the way of Christ. Use things, love people, worship God. But the problem is that way of life is not natural to us. And that's definitely the formula, not the formula that the world tries to tell us is gonna bring us joy. No, so what Paul is saying is, hey, this Christ-like model has to actually be modeled. You gotta see somebody that's living it out. It has to be learned. And so he says, you gotta keep your eyes

on those who walk according to the example you have in us. In other words, the question you should be asking is not simply do I like this person, but do I want to become like this person? What am I intaking and what is it forming me into? And so again, this week, I want you to audit three things, okay? Number one, I want you to audit who has my ear. Like who am I listening to that's influencing my thinking, my mind? Number two, who has my eyes? Who am I watching and admiring that is actually influencing my desires? Who am I looking at on Instagram and I'm saying, man, I want that life, and then you're trying to attain it. And then lastly, who has my calendar? Am I prioritizing godly examples or am I prioritizing worldly ones? See, whoever has your ear, whoever has your eyes, and whoever has your calendar probably has the future version of you. Growing up, maturing in Christ means choosing examples of things and people that are forming you into the type of person that you want to become in Christ. So that's the third thing. And then here's our last way we grow up. Number four is you and I gotta learn to wait for the right savior. And Paul ends this, I love it,

because he says, you want to grow up, there's actually nothing you need to do except for wait for the right savior. And man, I love that he ends this because, man, this weekend, our country celebrated its 250th birthday. And listen, I hope you went all out, y'all. Like I got the bald eagle hat, I got the America shirt, I got these cutoff jean shorts that my wife simultaneously hates and loves. And man, I go after those things and I'm pumping the music, like, God bless you. So like, we are going crazy for this because, man, there are a lot of things you and I have to be grateful for. We have freedoms and opportunities and protections and blessings that much of the modern world has never known. And we should be beyond thankful for that and we should celebrate it. Like we can build businesses and raise our kids and speak freely and vote according to our conscience. We can gather, I mean, this morning, like we can gather together. I can open this book. I can stand on top of this building and shout the name of Jesus without fear. And I hope you realize that those freedoms are rare and those freedoms have been purchased at a tremendous price.

Yet, even with all that we have to be grateful for in this amazing country, and you should be grateful, Philippians chapter three reminds us that America is not our ultimate home. Our citizenship is in heaven. The Bible does not end with stars and stripes. It ends with every tribe and tongue and nation gathered around the throne of the lamb. And so Paul says in verse 20, man, our citizenship is in heaven and from it, we await our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you gotta understand the context here because in Rome, again, who Philippi belonged to, Caesar was the one who everybody called savior. Caesar was the one who everybody called Lord. Caesar was the one who they thought was gonna bring them peace and protection and joy and identity and security. And what Paul is saying is no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Your savior is not Rome. Your savior is not Caesar. Your savior does not come from any earthly empire or earthly thing because this world. world can only offer up saviors who in the end are gonna end up needing saving. At best, this world cannot offer you any political savior or any career savior or any earthly relationship savior or any body image savior or any comfort savior, but every earthly savior eventually collapses under the weight of what only Jesus can carry.

And so if your hope rises or falls with elections or markets or a scale or your kid's success or your reputation, then what Paul is saying is that functionally you are waiting on and worshiping the wrong savior and one day that savior will crumble. No, as Christians, he says, as those who are heavenly citizens, he says we await a savior and then he names him, I love it, the Lord Jesus Christ. And y'all, the Lord Jesus Christ is not fragile, he is not temporary, he is not corruptible, he is not limited and y'all, he ain't up for reelection. No army can come against him, no election can dethrone him, no government can overrule him, no market can bankrupt him, no disease can outlast him, no demon can overpower him and it just keeps getting better, no weakness can exhaust him, no sin can surprise him, no sorrow can intimidate him and ain't no enemy can stop him, not even death. He is not pacing heaven, worried about the future or his approval ratings or how the vote is gonna turn out, no, right now, he is the risen, reigning, ruling and one day to be returning king and that is the king we wait on. Hallelujah. See, Paul says this heavenly savior is coming and when he does verse 21, he's gonna transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body

and he's gonna do it by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. See what he's saying, he's saying the same power that brings end for every enemy under the feet of Jesus is the same power that he's gonna use to one day make you whole. That means you and I, as he writes, we can stand firm now knowing that no earthly weakness gets the final word in our lives. Your aging body does not get the final word. Your cancer does not get the final word. Your grief does not get the final word. Your body's not always gonna be this weak. Your temptations are not always gonna be this strong. Your anxiety is not always gonna be this visceral. That heartbreak will not last forever because your savior is coming and he's not just coming to kind of manage the decay of what is and smack some paint on the walls and make it look better. No, he's coming to transform it all and to make all things new and the point Paul is making is that if he can hold the entire universe together, then surely he can hold you together until the day that he comes. Summit family, that's the good life. The good life is not pretending you're perfect. I mean, it's not feeding the flesh,

calling it some type of freedom. It's not staring in the rear view mirror, just ruminating on all of the things that have happened in your life. It's not being formed by in all the ways that the world tells you to find joy and peace. It's not waiting for some earthly savior that's gonna come make your life whole. It's living now like heaven is your home. Not earth, not even America. No, the good life is pursuing Jesus here until we get to see him and become like him there. For now, we gotta start growing up. That happens as we tell the truth about where we are, as we set our eyes on where we're going, as we choose carefully who we follow and as we stand firm, as we await on our savior. And until that day, church, by grace, we press on. And so Father God, I thank you for the blood of Jesus. I thank you that because of it, we are no longer strangers of God, but we are citizens of heaven. Father, I pray that you would remind all of us that this world is not our permanent home. Would you give us the faith to look forward to our heavenly home that is to come and live according to those values. But for now, we press on. We await our savior. And it's in his precious and holy name we pray.

Amen and amen.