30th July 2025

30th July 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Philippians 3:12-16 focus v14)


Message (Alan Burke)


As a dad there are things that I didn’t quite appreciate when I was a wain. One of those things is the school sports day. You know the one with the three legged race, the sack race, egg and spoon race although the last sports day I was at it was a potato and spoon race. There are always the wains that are miles out in front of the others and there are those who seem to be miles behind. What though is great is that most of the parents there are cheering the wains on, wanting them just to do their best, if they come first, great, if they come last well as long as they made and effort. I heard no one at the school sports day booing, shouting ‘you suck’ or anything of the type, instead people clapping and cheering even for the wains that were miles behind. In the life of the believer we are to strain on towards the goal to whin the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus, but it’s not like a race where there is 1st, 2nd and third place and the rest do not count, no we receive the prise, eternal life with Christ Jesus. 


Think of an athlete, there are may be a few reading this that could describe as athletic, but for most of us we’d have some work to do if we wanted that title. For an athlete in everything they are doing they have an undivided goal, a goal that is ever before them, they eat, sleep, train, all with the prize that is set before them as their goal, to run the race, to cross the line before them. That is what they are zealously pursuing, earnestly striving towards, pursuing with their being, they eat, sleep, train, everything they do is with that goal, the prize set before them, they want it, they desire it. Brothers and sisters for us, for those of us who are in Christ, our entire being, our life and everything in it, should be lived zealously pursuing, earnestly striving towards, pursuing with our being, the goal, the prize, the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ. 


Do we get this? How we are to press on to the prize in Christ? How we are to stop looking back to what came before, stop looking back to the failures on the way. You know something else we’re not striving to get ahead of those around us, or our pursuing with our whole being is so that we are able to get to the finish line and take pride that we finished first, rather it’s more like the schools sports day, when even those who are last are cheered, those who fall along the way are picked up and helped. We as brothers and sisters in the Lord have a duty to encourage one another, to build one another up along the way (1 Thes 5:11), yes we are to run the race but we have many who are running with us, cheering us on, supporting us along the way. 


Paul here wanted the church in Philippi to strive zealously pursuing, earnestly striving towards, pursuing with their being Christ. Not getting distracted, not being filled with past guilt and shame, he wanted them to go forward and not stop along the way. And for us, let us leave the past in the past, keep our eyes fixed upon the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2), let us run the race before us, with Christ before us. Yes we know that He who has began a good work in us will bring it to completion as Paul had already told the Church in Philippi (1:6), but the ultimate victory still lay in the future.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q34 What is adoption?
A. Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges, of the sons of God.
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