Philippians chapter 3.
We will read from verse 8 through verse
16.
Philippians chapter 3 verse 8.
But surely I count also all things to
be lost, on account of the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on
account of whom I have suffered the loss
of all, and count them to be few,
that I may gain Christ, and that I
may be found in him, not having my
righteousness, which would be on the principle of
law, but that which is by faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God, through
faith, to know him, and the power of
his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being conformed to his death.
If anyway I arrive at the out resurrection
from among the dead, not that I have
already obtained a prize, or am already perfected,
but I pursue, if also I may get
possession of it, seeing that also I have
been taken possession of by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I do not count to have got
possession myself, but one thing, for getting the
things behind, and stretching out to the things
before, I pursue, looking towards the goal, for
the prize of the calling on high of
God, in Christ Jesus.
As many therefore as are perfect, let us
be thus minded, and if you are any
otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to
you.
But whereto we have attained, let us walk
in the same steps.
May we have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we want to thank thee, because
thou love us, and love us to the
uttermost, love us to the end.
Thou has proven to us, again and again,
that I love towards us, as fresh, as
living, as it was when thou died on
the cross.
We do praise and thank thee, that it
is by thy blood, that we have the
boldness to enter into the holiest place, and
to behold the beauty of the Lord, in
the face of Jesus Christ.
We do thank thee for gathering us together
here this morning.
Dear Lord, we pray that thou will once
again, reveal thyself by thy Spirit, in our
innermost being, that we may be so drawn,
attracted by thee, that we too may pursue,
and run after thee.
How we praise and thank thee, knowing that
the end is before us.
Lord, enable us to run to the very
end, and to seize the prize.
We ask in thy precious name.
Amen.
The Lord put in my heart one thought,
and I want to share with you brothers
and sisters, and that thought is, looking after
the goal, or pursuing after the goal.
Now we know brothers and sisters, even in
this world, if you want to be successful,
you have to have a definite goal for
your life, because a life without a goal
has no meaning, no purpose, no incentive to
press on.
A life without a goal, you just drift
along, meaningless, hopeless.
Even in this world, if you want to
succeed, you have to have set a goal
before you.
Now whether your goal is that you may
be rich, or you may be famous, or
you may attain to high position, or you
may succeed in certain sphere.
Now if you set that goal, that will
give you that drive towards it.
Now whether you're able to attain to your
goal or not, that is another question.
But even if you have attained, what do
you find?
You find just like King Solomon says in
Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities.
All is vanity.
It is like pursuing after wings, it ends
in nothing.
Because the things of this world are transient,
they are passing.
Now we who believe in the Lord Jesus,
we find in the Word of God that
we should have a goal for our Christian
life.
If we want to succeed, as it were,
in our Christian life, we need to have
a clear goal before us.
And that goal is different from the goal
of this world.
Because the goal of this world is on
earthly, material things.
And it is for ourselves.
To put it in a very simple way,
whatever your goal may be, actually your goal
is yourself.
You want yourself to be rich, abundant, famous,
with power.
It is self that motivates all these earthly
goals.
But thank God, he has saved us.
And after we are saved, brothers and sisters,
have you ever set a goal for your
Christian life after you are saved?
Or you have never even thought of it?
In other words, even after you are saved,
your goal is still that former goal.
Now, if this is the case, you will
find your Christian life is drifting.
Because there is no incentive for you to
press on towards something that is much worthwhile,
everlasting, than any earthly goal.
So this morning I would like to encourage
you, especially young people, you who are redeemed
by the Lord, you need to definitely set
a goal for your life after you are
redeemed.
Otherwise, your Christian life will be a failure.
Now, what is the goal that all Christians
should set before him or before her?
You know, our goal is to be decided
on God's calling.
Because we who are saved, actually we have
been called by God.
You know, the Bible tells us even before
the foundation of the world, God has called
us in Christ Jesus.
You remember your Romans chapter 8?
It tells us that whom God has foreknown,
he has foreordained us.
And whom he has foreordained, he has called.
And whom he has called, he justifies.
And whom he has justified, he glorifies.
So even before the foundation of the world,
even before you and I exist on this
earth, in God's mind, he already has us
there.
He has foreordained us, and he has called
us.
Now, if you read the Word of God,
you will find his calling is a holy
calling.
In 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 9, it
tells us that he has saved us and
called us with a holy calling.
Not according to our works, but according to
his purpose and grace, which is shown to
us in Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, we have been called by
God with a holy calling.
Now recently I read a book, and there
is a message given by a very famous
American Christian.
His name is Wilbur Smith.
He is one of those who have read
so widely.
He was so familiar with the Scripture and
about the Scripture.
He was well known.
And in his message, he said, holy, or
holiness, is only found in God and nowhere
else.
It is a character of God that he
does not share with any being in the
universe.
In other words, it is uniquely his.
Why?
Because the meaning of holy is to be
separated from anything that is common, being so
special that it is one of its kind,
and you cannot find it anywhere else.
Now that is what our God is.
We are common, but God is alone.
Uncommon, that's holy.
Totally separated, altogether different, one of its kind.
Nowhere else you can find it.
And that is God.
So our God is a holy God.
In other words, he is altogether different from
anybody else, uniquely all by himself.
That is a very special character of God.
Now in the world you may find love.
God is love, and in the world you
find love.
Even though the nature is different, but there
is something called love.
But holy, no.
Because the very definition of holiness excludes everything
that is common, and yet he wants to
share that with his redeemed people.
God is holy, and we must be holy.
Without holiness, no one can see God.
Without holiness, no one can please God.
Without holiness, no one can fellowship with God.
And this is one thing, precious thing, of
God's own nature, that he is willing to
share only with his redeemed ones.
Now think of that.
And we are called with a holy call.
In other words, we are called to be
different.
You know, today Christians are no different from
the people of the world, but we are
called to be different, uncommon, extraordinary.
That's what we are called.
So do we not sit back and say,
well, I want to be like the people
of this world.
Now that you fail, you're called.
Because God has called you to be different.
To be so different that he makes all
the difference in you.
Now that is a holy calling.
So holy is in contrast to anything that
is common.
So our goal must be very different from
all the goals that people in this world
may set before them.
It's a holy calling.
Not only that, the Bible tells us that
we are called with a heavenly calling.
In Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1.
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider the apostle and high priest of our
confession.
So we are called with a heavenly calling.
Now heavenly is in contrast with earthly.
So all the goals that we set actually
are earthly.
But now, as believers, we are called to
a heavenly.
Our calling is on high.
It's in heaven.
Something that relates to heaven.
Why?
Because God is the God of heaven.
Therefore, we are called into that heavenly call.
Not earthly.
So our goal has to be something heavenly.
Not earthly.
And then you'll find in Philippians chapter 3
verse 14.
It is an on high calling.
Calling on high.
God is on high.
Not down below.
And he calls us with an on high
calling.
It is something that is high.
Not something that is cheap.
That is small.
That is down below.
No.
It is something very high.
Glorious.
Sublime.
Now think of that.
What a calling we who are redeemed are
called.
Now have you ever considered that?
Do you want to be just common?
Like the people of this world?
Do you like to be just live earthly?
Like the people of the earth?
Do you like to be down below?
Like the people of this world?
No.
Brothers and sisters, we are called so differently.
We are called with a holy calling.
Heavenly calling.
On high calling.
And our goal is set according to our
calling.
So in other words, all who are the
Lord, we need to share one one calling.
One goal.
We need to have a goal before us.
And that goal is holy, heavenly, and on
high.
Now that's the goal we have to set
before us.
Without that goal, your Christian life will be
meaningless.
Your daily life will not have that incentive,
that pressure within you to press on.
Because you need a goal to press on
to.
And I'm afraid this is what God's people
lack today.
We may be, we may never have thought
of it.
We never really, after we are saved, that
we sit down and really set a goal
for our Christian life.
How are we going to live afterwards?
What are we going to live for?
What am I aiming at?
What way will make my Christian life meaningful?
Fulfilling the purpose of God.
Brothers and sisters, we need to do that.
You need the, you know the Apostle Paul.
He wrote a number of letters that are
in the Word of God.
The letter to the Philippians is very special.
Because Paul wrote this letter when he was
in prison in Rome for the testimony of
Jesus.
And he wrote to the church in Philippi.
That is a church that has such love
relationship with Apostle Paul.
There was such a, an understanding between the
Apostle and the believers in Philippi.
There was an intimacy there.
And because of that intimate relationship, Paul was
able to open up his heart to them.
So we said of all his epistles, the
letter to the Philippians is the one that
really shows us the inside of the Apostle
Paul.
He opened up himself totally to the Philippian
believers.
He shared what's going on within him with
his beloved brothers and sisters.
So that is the letter to the Philippians.
And in this letter, he shows us what
his goal is.
How does he come to have that goal?
And after he has that goal, how does
he pursue after it?
So I believe that by reading the letter
to the Philippians, it will help us in
this area.
Now you know, before Paul was converted, he
was a Jew.
Now he told us in Philippians chapter 2,
he was a typical Jew.
He was of the tribe of Benjamin, of
the descendant of Israel, of course, of Abraham.
And this young man saw, even before he
knew the Lord, he was a person who
set a goal before him.
And this young man was very different from
the other young man.
The other young man may set that goal
upon something of this earth, rich,
wealth, and all these things.
The world, seeking for the world.
But this young man was different.
Even when he was a young man, he
set a goal for something different from the
other young people.
He wanted to be so religious.
He wanted to be a rabbi, chief rabbi.
So you find that he began to pursue
after that goal.
He studied under the feet of Gamaliel.
Gamaliel at that time was the greatest rabbi
among the Jewish people.
And he studied under him.
He became a Pharisee.
And he said, it's a Pharisee of Pharisees.
Not just a Pharisee.
A real Pharisee.
And he was very successful.
He persecuted the believers of Jesus.
Because according to the Jewish teaching, they considered
Jesus as an imposter of Judaism.
Because Jesus did not meet their aspiration.
They want a Messiah that will come, overturn
the Roman Empire, and make Israel the first
of the nations.
But they found Jesus didn't do that.
He came for the souls of man.
They rejected him.
They considered him as an imposter, a danger
to Judaism.
They got rid of him.
And this young man was so zealous for
Judaism that he became a chief persecutor of
the followers of Jesus.
But unfortunately, he was in darkness.
His whole life was governed by the tradition
of man.
He had no heavenly vision.
But God knew his heart.
He was sincere.
And God looked upon the heart.
So one day while he had the documents
from the high priest going to even foreign
cities to seize those followers of Jesus from
the city guards and bring them to Jerusalem
to sentence them, he was that kind of
person.
So God let him go as far but
not further.
Before he arrived at the city of Damascus,
a great light shining brighter than the noonday
sun shone upon him.
He was smitten by that light.
He fell on the ground.
And he heard a voice.
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
It is hard for you to kiss against
the ghost.
In other words, he heard a voice, not
a voice of condemnation, a voice of tenderness,
of being heard, but a voice that really
considered him instead of consider the one persecuted.
Saul, Saul, why do you do that?
It is hard for you to kick against
the ghost.
Don't you know that everyone that came into
this world comes with the purpose of God
behind him?
God sent people into the world, not without
a purpose.
Why are you born?
It is God who creates you.
It is God who brings you into the
world.
But he has a purpose concerning you.
There is a work he wants you to
do for him.
You are not your own master.
You are like an ox that will draw
the plow to plow for the master, the
farmer.
God has a work to do and he
brings you into the world to do that
work.
But you think that you are your own
master.
So sometimes when the ox thinks that he
is his own master and he wants to
have his own way, then the farmer will
use that that sharp thing to touch his
thigh just to remind him you are not
your master.
You have a master.
But the ox is so stubborn, it kicks
back and it hurts.
And after it has been hurt a few
times, then it begins to be obedient.
And that's what we were.
And God reminds Saul, don't kick again.
You earlier hurt yourself.
How loving is our God.
But Saul didn't know the voice.
He said, Lord, who are you?
I don't know you.
And the voice said, I'm Jesus, whom you
perceive.
That melts the heart of this young man.
He began to see that all his past
was in the wrong direction.
So he surrendered himself.
And he said, Lord, what do you want
me to do?
You are my master.
I'm here not for myself.
I'm here to do your will.
Now, brothers and sisters, that is how this
young man Saul was converted.
And he was transformed into the apostle.
So I think the reason why you find
there was a change in that young man.
A change in the goal.
He had now a heavenly, a holy and
on high goal.
And what changed him?
It is that heavenly vision.
Brothers and sisters, the reason why we do
not have a change in our goal.
Probably even after you're saved, your goal remains
the same.
What you have decided before you were saved,
you were still pursuing after it.
You are still pursuing for yourself.
There is never a change, a transformation coming
into your goal.
Now, it does not mean that after you
believe in the Lord Jesus, what you are
pursuing after on this earth will be
so completely vanished that you become so heavenly
and become earthly.
No good.
It doesn't mean that.
It simply means that you need to have
a all-controlling, holy, heavenly, on high goal.
And within that goal, God may or may
not allow you to continue with the goal
you formerly set.
Or put it in another way.
Whatever goal you set formerly, behind it is
yourself.
Self is your goal.
To advance yourself, to improve yourself, to get
yourself to the front, to satisfy yourself.
It is all self.
But after you believe in the Lord Jesus,
brothers and sisters, you need a higher goal
to deliver you from self.
And your higher goal is God.
God becomes your goal.
Christ becomes your goal.
And because you have him as your goal,
whatever you are pursuing on this earth, you'll
find the character has changed.
It may be the same thing, but the
character has changed.
It is not for yourself.
It is for the Lord.
And if it is Lord's will that you
should be successful in a certain area, you
do it for his glory, not for your
own glory.
That is the difference.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to set
a holy, heavenly, on high goal.
And that you find what Paul has before
us.
He said, I count all things a dross.
What I am pursuing before, they are a
dross, nothing.
Why?
What makes the change?
Because of the excellence of the knowledge of
Jesus Christ.
Now he realized that Jesus Christ is so
excellent, so worthy, so holy, so heavenly, so
on high, so eternal, that he is the
one who is worthy to gain.
So he said, I suffer the loss of
all things that I may gain.
So Christ becomes his goal.
Formerly himself is the goal, but now Christ
is the goal.
He wants to win Christ.
Now, brothers and sisters, do we have this
goal?
In your life, after you are saved, do
you really set Christ as your goal?
You want to gain him.
You want to win him.
You want to know him.
You want to enter into his fullness.
That is what you want.
That becomes your consuming ambition, as it were.
And in order to have that, you need
to have a heavenly vision.
A sight, an inwards sight of Christ, will
make everything on this earth, vanity of vanities.
It becomes so supernaturally natural that you, in
a sense, disdain, despise the things of this
world, knowing that these are vanities, pursuing at
the wing.
And now you have come into that which
is eternal, everlasting, eternal reality.
That's the game for eternity.
Brothers and sisters, we need to have that
sense.
And you see how he pursues after that,
step by step.
So in Philippians chapter three, you really see
how he goes after that goal.
First, he changed his goal out of self
into Christ.
Nothing for himself, everything for Christ.
Then you find the first thing he said,
to know the righteousness, not my own righteousness,
but the righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ.
Now to this young man, this is a
turning point.
Because he was a young man who was
seeking for his own righteousness.
He kept the law.
He wanted to be perfect before God, by
his own effort.
And he tried very hard.
He kept all the letters of the law.
He said so far as the Lord is
concerned, he was blameless.
So far as the letter is concerned, he
was blameless.
But he violated all the spirit of the
law.
He wanted to establish his own righteousness.
He failed.
But now he said, I want to know
not my own righteousness by works, but the
righteousness by faith in Christ Jesus.
And thank God he knew that.
Because Christ, who knows no sin, was made
to sing for us, that we might become
the righteousness of God.
So thank God, this is something that we
all have entered in.
Unless you're still trying to establish your own
righteousness, and remember your own righteousness, or as
filthy rags before God.
You need to know the work of our
Lord Jesus on the cross.
He died for you.
He shed his blood for you, to cleanse
you from all your sins and offenses, and
give you a clear conscience.
That's the only salvation.
But that is the beginning, not the end.
You know, to many Christians, in their pursuing
after salvation, they think this is it.
No, this is the beginning.
Only the beginning.
So you'll find the second step.
He said, after he knows the righteousness by
faith through Jesus Christ, then he said, to
know him.
Not only knowing his work, but to know
his person.
You know, if you only know his work,
you have all the benefit of it.
You know him as your Savior, and by
knowing him as your Savior, who gets the
benefit?
You get the benefit.
You're saved.
But God does not have any benefit, as
it were, from you.
He hasn't got you yet.
So the next step is, you have to
learn to know him.
To know Christ as the person.
Who is he?
He is not only your Savior, he is
the Son of God, the heir of all
things, the Lord of the whole universe, your
Lord, your King, your Sovereign.
In other words, in knowing him, you surrender
your life to him.
You know, many Christians are saved, but they
never surrender their lives to Jesus.
They still live out their own life.
They are still their own master.
Why?
Because they do not know the person of
our Lord Jesus.
If you know who he is, then it's
very natural for you to surrender your life
to him and say, Lord, what do you
want me to do?
You are my master now, to know him.
So we need to pursue to know Jesus.
There is so much in Christ Jesus that
we need to know.
And to know him is to win him.
Then the third step, to know the power
of his resurrection.
You know, our Lord Jesus said, I am
the resurrection and the life.
He died for our sake, but he was
raised from the dead.
He is the resurrection and he lives in
you and in me.
But do we know the power of his
resurrection in our daily life?
After we are saved, we are still on
this earth.
We are changed, but our environment has not
been changed yet.
The world is a still old world, full
of sin, full of rebellion, full of temptations.
And we who live in this world are
faced with all these things day by day.
Now, how are you going to overcome?
You try to overcome by your own struggle.
And you struggle and struggle until you are
tired.
So we find many Christians are worn out
Christians.
So tired.
Tired to be good.
Tired to be good Christians.
Live up to the standard.
You cannot do that.
To live a Christian life, there's only one
person who is able to live.
It is Christ himself.
We cannot live it.
But thank God Christ is in you.
The hope of glory.
Do you know that Christ is in you?
He is your life.
Do you realize that he is your life?
And what is life for?
Life is to live.
So here is, you may call it, a
gospel for believers.
Formerly, before you are saved, there is a
gospel for unbelievers.
And the gospel was, you do not need
to fear death, because Christ has died for
you.
Now that's the gospel for the world.
But there is a gospel for believers.
You do not need to be afraid to
live, for Christ will live for you.
Now you begin to experience the life of
Christ in you as the resurrection power, only
after you have known him as your Lord.
When you surrender yourself to him, then you
begin to realize he is living in you.
The apostle Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ.
No longer live I.
It is Christ who lives in me.
And I now live in the flesh.
I live by faith, not my faith, the
faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me.
So brothers and sisters, do you experience Christ
as your daily life?
Whenever temptation comes, are you still struggling to
meet it?
Or you step aside and say, Lord, you
go ahead and meet the temptation.
That makes the difference.
What you cannot overcome, you overcome.
His resurrection life.
His resurrection life is more powerful than an
atomic bomb.
That is a step further towards the goal.
To know him in your daily life, the
power of his resurrection.
And then another step further, to fellowship with
his sufferings.
Now think of it.
Not only he will live in you, but
he wants you to share with him in
his sufferings.
Now our Lord Jesus' sufferings are of two
kinds.
One kind we call it vicarious or atoning
suffering.
In other words, he suffered on the cross
for our sake.
He bore our sins in his own body.
He took us in himself.
And because of that, he died.
And he died an atoning death.
His death will atone us, will redeem us,
will wash away our sins and redeem us
back to God.
Now that atoning suffering, he suffered alone.
We cannot share with that.
But he calls us to share with his
non-atoning, non-vicarious suffering.
In other words, when our Lord was on
earth, he suffered for righteousness sake.
Because he was righteous, the world is unrighteous.
So he has to suffer with it.
To be misunderstood, to be persecuted, he suffered
for righteousness sake.
He suffered because he's different, because he's heavenly.
So the earth do not understand him and
they persecute him.
They try to get rid of him and
he suffers.
He suffers because of his sympathy with us.
How he sympathizes with us.
You remember Jesus wept.
Why did he weep?
Not for himself.
For the world.
He suffered for sympathy's sake.
He suffered that he may bring us into
one body, the body of Christ, to present
us holy.
So you find that our Lord Jesus, he
suffered a non-atoning, non-vicarious suffering throughout
his whole life.
And this is a call upon us.
He wanted to share with you in that
kind.
Do you ever suffer because of the name
of Christ?
Do you ever suffer because you are a
Christian?
Do you ever suffer because you are righteous?
Do you want to do the right thing?
You will not go along with the world.
Do you suffer because of that?
And if we today suffer with him, we
shall be glorified with him when he is
glorified.
So we are called into the fellowship of
his suffering.
Do not consider suffering as strange.
You find in 1 Peter, he said, do
not consider it as strange.
If you are following the Lord, you will
suffer.
Because you're so different, so extraordinary.
And then conform to his death.
Our Lord's death is like a mold.
And we are poured into that mold.
So we will come out just like him.
Now how can we be like Christ?
The only way to be like Christ is
to pour into his mold of death.
Death to sin.
Death to death.
Death to the world.
Death to self.
Death to the enemy.
Everything that is not of God is in
his death.
He put death to death.
And you are conformed to death.
You are so completely now separated and delivered.
You're so totally of Christ, of God.
And out of that, the Apostle Paul said,
that I may arrive at the out-resurrection
from among the dead.
Now we know that every believer one day
will be resurrected.
This mortal body one day will be changed
into an immortal body.
This physical body will be changed into a
spiritual body like our Lord Jesus in his
resurrection.
All of us will be.
But in the resurrection, even in the resurrection
of the body, there is a difference.
Some who are resurrected are considered as first
resurrection.
Some who are resurrected in the body are
not ranked in that first resurrection.
In other words, the quality is different.
So in the original, the word here is
out-resurrection.
It is resurrection, but out-resurrection of the
first quality.
And those who are resurrected with the first
quality, they shall reign with Christ during the
millennium, a thousand years in his kingdom.
And that is what Paul is aiming at.
So you can see, there's so much before
us.
Brothers and sisters, being a Christian is very
thrilling, exciting.
You know, you may think, well, I'm saved,
that's all.
You know, what else?
So you go after the world.
But brothers and sisters, you find there is
so much there in Christ that he wants
you to share, to have, to possess, to
possess your possession.
This is the inheritance that God has prepared
for you.
And we need to possess all that he
has possessed us of.
So sometimes I think the most ambitious people
in the world are Christians, but our ambition
is on a higher level, on a higher
ground, much, much better.
If you have the whole world and lose
your soul, you pay such a price.
That is nothing.
But if you pursue after Christ as your
goal, you'll find there is reality, eternal reality.
It never passes away.
It is glory, and glory, and more glory.
Worth it.
So dear brothers and sisters, even Paul said,
I do not profess that I have already
arrived.
No, he's still pursuing.
You know, after we believe in the Lord
for 10 years, maybe 20 years, maybe 30
years, maybe 60, 70 years, we
stop pursuing.
But remember, we have arrived here.
You cannot stop.
You have to pursue for getting the things
behind.
Do not look back and say, well, I
have gone a long way.
But that's nothing.
It's the end that is important.
You may cover three quarters of the course,
but there is still one quarter that really
makes the difference.
So it is a warning to me.
Not arrived yet, but arrived.
And the last portion is the most important.
So you have to forget what is behind.
Do not think you have gone a lot.
Forget it.
As if you have never stopped.
And this is today that you begin to
start to run.
Now, you have to have that kind of
attitude.
Christians never go old.
The more you pursue the Lord, the more
you become babyish.
You are a baby.
You graduate from college, and then you go
back to high school, and go back to
primary school, and go back to kindergarten, and
go back to prime kindergarten.
That is the spirit we should have.
Never get old.
Pursue looking after the Lord.
You know, without the goal, you cannot pursue.
No incentive.
But with Christ, the living Christ, the eternal
Christ, the infinite Christ before you, you look
at him.
You do not look at anything else.
You do not look at yourself.
You pursue to win that Christ, the on
high call.
And what is the greatest Christ?
He is the greatest.
All the others are just adding on.
Brothers and sisters, we are almost at the
end of the road.
This is the time, most difficult time.
You know, when you are running, towards the
end is the most difficult.
Your strength has gone out, and you are
tempted to stop.
But this is the time that we should
press on, towards the goal.
This is the mind that we should have.
And this kind of mindset will make us
perfect.
By perfection, it means matured.
Really matured in the Lord.
So brothers and sisters, I say all these
to encourage myself, to warn myself, and I
want to share it with your brothers and
sisters.
I am thinking this should be our best
time in seeking the Lord.
The darkest, the most difficult time is the
best time for us to pursue and to
press on.
May the Lord help us, shall we pray.
Dear Lord, you are beckoning us.
Almost there.
Not quite.
We do praise and thank Thee that You
are warning us, and You are encouraging us.
We pray that we may really be those
who have caught a sight of Thee, and
that consume a whole being for Thyself.
Lord, Thou art the only one who is
worthy.