Session #4

 

I’m a school teacher.  Every year I begin by informing students that a goal of our classroom will be to help them prepare to one day answer the question, “Why should I choose you”.  I tell them that they are all sitting in class right now, and so are thousands of other students, and those are the people who they will grow up to compete with - to be picked for jobs, universities, teams, scholarships and a variety of other scenarios.  I let them know that we live in a competitive world.  Whether you like it or not, you will have to compete, and so in order to have a competitive advantage it is important to prepare yourself to answer the question of why somebody should choose you.

As the year goes on, I try on a daily basis to provide them with opportunities in the classroom to practice developing habits, skills and overall character that they will be able to one day point to when it comes time to answer that big question.  When they go for a job interview, or try out for a team, or seek entrance into a university program, my goal as their teacher is to have provided them with opportunities to develop habits, skills and character that they can point to to say, “The reason why you should choose me is because I know how to…” and they fill in the blank.

Now these qualities I try to instill in my students are habits and skills such as hard work, perseverance, determination, focus, self-control, time management, ability to work with others and the courage to make mistakes and reflect on those errors in order to learn deeply.  If my students can make these qualities habits in their lives, then it will help develop skill and character in their lives that will give them a competitive advantage over those who don’t possess these same qualities.

But this is just one piece of what it means to be a competitor.  I also strive to teach them how to deal with any result that comes through any competitive battle they find themselves in.  I try to teach them that the key to being a great competitor is to never find your identity in results.  Being a healthy competitor is being able to engage in the fight of competition, while never allowing an ultimate desire for a certain result to hold you hostage.  To be a great competitor, you must understand how to find victory even in defeat.  For if you can do that, then you as a competitor can never lose.

This is what it takes to be the ultimate competitor - never lose.  But being the ultimate competitor is impossible if your definition of success is in final results.  Everyone loses sometimes.  But if you can find success in any result, then you never need fear failure, for you understand the opportunity that it provides, and the positives found in that circumstance.  So being the ultimate competitor means being able to separate yourself from intended results, so that you can see the beauty and opportunity provided in any result that presents itself.

And this brings us to the story of the Apostle Paul.  If you know much about the Bible, you would likely have heard his name a lot.  He wrote many books in the new testament, and was a popular figure in the early church.  What we sometimes don’t realize however, was how he got his start.  Before Paul was known for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, he was known for maliciously killing anyone who believed it.  Paul was an enemy of the early church, until one day he was met by Jesus on the road to Damascus and Jesus provided Paul with an experience so great that Paul desired to leave his murderous ways, and instead follow the One whom he once despised.  (For the full story, see Acts 9).  In other words, Paul came to understand that what he had been investing his life in was foolishness compared to the eternal investment that was available to him through Jesus.

It was through this experience which led Paul to become the ultimate competitor, and set a model we can follow for how to compete in this world in the way that Christ calls us to.  

I recognize that this may seem strange to say that Paul had a conversion experience where he decided to stop killing Christians, instead follow Christ, and this led to him becoming an amazing competitor.  You’re correct, this conclusion is not an obvious one, so let’s examine it together.

Once Paul had his conversion experience, he was transformed from being someone who hated Jesus, to someone who passionately loved Him and fully surrendered to Him.  He became a man who had maliciously hated Christians, to someone who found great joy in serving them.  Paul came to understand what was available to him through Jesus.  He went from having no hope in life, to having eternal hope in Christ.  

Whenever we understand the beauty of Christ and what we have in Him, it leads us to joyfully surrender, and joyful surrender to Christ will always involve serving others.  Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40 that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.  And He said that the second is like it - to love your neighbour as you love yourself.  Jesus said that all of His commandments, which are for our ultimate good, are woven into the commands to love God and love others.  So when Paul started loving Jesus, the evidence that his conversion was real was that he was all in on loving and serving God’s people.

And serve Paul did.  He spent the rest of his life traveling far and wide serving the church, teaching God’s truth, and seeking to proclaim the name of Jesus for any and all who would hear.  He did it boldly, courageously and unapologetically.  He had no fear because he was driven by love, and “perfect love drives out fear”. (1 John 4:18)  It was Paul who spoke these words….

“…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13)

Paul certainly knew what it was like to be in need.  He had spent time being physically beaten and thrown in jail.  He had been shipwrecked, bitten by snakes, and hated by many for the message of Christ that he was preaching.  And yet, he still spoke these words….

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!  I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;  but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.  Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.” (Philippians 1:21-26)

This is what made Paul the ultimate competitor.  No matter his circumstances, you could not beat him.  Even death he saw as gain!  I cannot articulate these facts as well as Matt Chandler does…

When Paul says, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain,” he means it.  If you want to kill me, I will be more than fine:  I will get to be with Jesus.  My death will be filled with Christ.  And if you want to let me live, I will press on in mission.  My life will be filled with Christ.  If you want to torture me or imprison me or mock me, I will trust in God. My suffering will make me like Christ.  I will see it as a sharing of His own suffering.”

― Matt Chandler, To Live Is Christ to Die Is Gain

In other words, Paul reveals to us that when you understand what you have in Jesus, this world can’t hurt you.  Because He understood what Jesus had done for him on the cross, and what this meant for him personally, there was nothing to fear - not even death.  And this tremendous security is available for us too.  Because death can’t defeat us, nothing can!  Losing championships, break ups with boyfriends or girlfriends, bad marks on tests, failure to make teams, friends abandoning you - there is never anything to fear in any of these circumstances.  When you really, REALLY understand what you have in Jesus, not only does “death lose its sting”, but so does everything else.

It’s true, you could not beat Paul.  And it was for that reason that he was the ultimate competitor.  He could never be a prisoner to his current circumstances because he understood the ultimate security that he had in Christ.  Because Paul deeply understood what Christ had done for him on the cross, it led him to a life of service and love - to God and to others.  And this is what Christ calls us to as well.

We have spent these last sessions examining what it means to know God and surrender to Him.  Paul gives us a beautiful picture of what surrender looks like.  It looks like victory.  Once we truly  understand what is available to us in Christ, it will be our joy to love and serve Him and others.  If it is not our joy, then we have not yet fully grasped that which is available to us in Jesus.

Some of you might be thinking something along the lines of, “Okay, but Paul had a very significant experience on that road to Damascus.  I’d be willing to believe and surrender too if I had an event like that happen to me.  Why does Jesus hide himself?  Why doesn’t He come down and reveal Himself to us like He did Paul?”  

This is a very fair, and understandable question.  And there is a very hope-filled answer, which is that Jesus has revealed Himself to us.  We have everything that we need to begin experiencing Christ and having personal revelations which will bring us closer to Him.  We may not in our lifetime have an experience like Paul’s on the road to Damascus, but the truth is that we don’t need such an experience to obtain the same benefit. 

We have the Bible, which is backed by history and science.  We call this corroborated evidence - evidence which is backed by multiple sources to prove that something is true.  The Bible is one of the most historically accurate books, and while we don’t need to realize this in order to know Jesus deeply, it does provide a route to Jesus for some who may have doubts.

You see, I recognize that over these last sessions I have been speaking to you of the evidence of Christ, and the joy there is in knowing Him.  But I also recognize that some of you may be thinking, “Ya, but where’s the proof?”  Maybe you feel like you’re similar to Paul, you need to be smacked across the face with evidence in order to buy into the eternal investment presented before you.  Well the good news is there is plenty of this evidence.  And because of it, we can never say that Jesus hasn’t revealed Himself to us.  The evidence will overwhelm us, if we invest the time to examine it.

History reveals God’s truth

Over 312 prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus

Prophecies were given thousands of years prior to His birth

There are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled.

Mathematical chances of one person fulfilling just 48 of those prophecies being fulfilled is 1 in 10157. (1 and 156 zeros)

It is mathematically impossible - Jesus had to be the Son of God

History reveals God’s truth

Over 500 people saw Jesus die, and then alive again.

The disciples went into hiding after His death, then came out of hiding - and almost all of them died brutal deaths because they were preaching the Gospel.

Why would they hide out of fear of being killed, then willingly be killed?  BECAUSE THEY SAW THE RISEN JESUS!!

History reveals God’s truth

Some people will say that you can’t trust the Bible because it was written a long time after Jesus lived.  NOT TRUE!

Scholars have studied the texts and found that they were written around 30-40 years after the death of Jesus.

This means that there were people reading the texts who were alive at the time of Jesus.  They would have said if it wasn’t true.

Science reveals God’s truth

Our universe is incredibly fine-tuned.  Take gravity for example.  If earth’s gravitational force was altered by 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000001 (37 zeros) percent, it would make it impossible for humans to survive on earth.  Our sun would not exist, and therefore, neither would we.  (Geisler & Turek- I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist - p. 102)

Science reveals God’s truth

“DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.” - Bill Gates, The Road Ahead

DNA is found in the cell nucleus.

If the smallest part that makes up living things is this complex, how could we ever believe that God did not create the universe?  If the most complex computers had to be designed by an intelligent being, then how could we ever believe that the universe which is INCREDIBLY more complex could simply evolve on its own?  To believe this would be even more foolish than believing that because you saw Alphabet pasta spelled the word “Hi”, that if you keep eating that pasta every day, it will teach you how to read.  No, you need an intelligent being to put letters together to communicate a message.  There is no way that our complex universe could have happened without God using His power & intelligence to design it.

Now this is just a tiny bit of evidence, but when we look at just this tiny bit, it is more than enough to realize that Jesus was who He said He was.  The fact is that the more you study science and history, you come to realize that the evidence for Christ is absolutely overwhelming.  Once we realize this, we can no longer say that God has not revealed Himself to us.  We can’t say that we haven’t had an experience like Paul’s.  In fact, when you examine the evidence, Paul’s experience becomes our own.  When Paul was preaching and writing the letters that became books in the Bible, it would have been very public knowledge that this was the man who had been known for killing Christians.  And the experience that he wrote about, people would have been around to have testified to it, and if it wasn’t true, they would have called him on it and nobody would have listened to his messages.  But the reality is that it is historically documented that Paul was a man who killed Christians, and then ended up boldly devoting his life to spreading the good news of Jesus.  When we realize that Paul’s story is historically accurate, we can’t walk away from that and say, “Ya, but Jesus hasn’t revealed Himself to me”.  Yes He has!  Very clearly through all the evidence available.

And bring it back to competitive advantage…we can’t lose when we know what we have in Christ.  And when we understand that, we will want to serve others, for that is what Christ tells us will bring about the most joy.  And at the same time, being free in Christ means knowing we are free from having to live by the standards of this world.  We don’t need to get into a certain school, or make a certain amount of money, or make the team…we are free to strive to do those things in excellent ways that honour Christ, but in the end there is not a specific result that we have to have - and it’s because Christ has accomplished the ultimate result for us - our security through His death on the cross.  When we accept Christ as Savior and Lord of our life, we get the freedom that comes from knowing that no matter what happens here on earth, He is with us, will care for us, will guide us and will work all things together for our good.  And then, when we leave this earth, there is an eternal one where we get to experience perfect relationship with Him forever.  This is the eternal investment we are talking about.  And this is why as Christians we have the ultimate competitive advantage, because no matter what happens we win - both here on earth, and in eternity.  

Paul spent his life serving because He understood the joy of doing so.  He understood what Christ had done for Him, and the joy of that realization drove Him to serve His Savior and Lord by loving and serving those around Him, so that they too could know the joy He had found in Jesus.  And in doing so, He proved himself the ultimate competitor - not by anything he had done or accomplished, but by what Christ had accomplished on His behalf.  No matter what came against Paul, no matter what his enemies tried to do to him, they couldn’t beat him because he was completely secure in Christ as he spent his life serving the Lord and serving others.

Now, as we conclude our weekend, I’d love to provide you an opportunity to search your own hearts.  I’d love to provide you an opportunity to quiet yourself before God and allow Him to speak to you on a personal level.  We have gone over a lot of truth, but truth becomes most real to us once it becomes personal.  So I’d like to ask you a few personal questions for you to reflect upon…..

What are you living for, really?  What really excites you, motivates you, drives you?  

What do you most hope for?  If you could accomplish anything, what would it be?

Are you willing to give up all of those things for Christ?

If in that last question, you felt discomfort, please don’t worry.  That’s normal.  It’s actually a good thing because it might mean that the Lord is affording you the opportunity to realize that there is something tugging on your heart and keeping it from being totally surrendered to Him.  Anytime the Lord speaks to us, it is really good news.  It means we are primed to receive something incredibly valuable.

What I hope you’ve come to realize through these sessions is Christ does not call us to a moment of perfect surrender.  We are flawed human beings, and that is why we are in need of a Savior.  Surrender is an ongoing process that lasts a lifetime.  Christ offers Himself to us to guide us through the process of surrender so that daily we can grow in the joy that comes from knowing Him, growing closer to Him and becoming more like Him.  We will make many mistakes along the way.  There will be many times where we need to realize our need to re-surrender areas of our lives that are holding us back from the deep joy available in Jesus.  So these sessions have not been about coming to a moment of perfect surrender - they have been about developing excitement to enter into the lifelong process of surrender. 

Maybe you’ve already surrendered your life to Christ.  What are areas of surrender holding you back from a deeper relationship with Him?

Maybe you’ve never surrendered your life to Christ.  Are you ready to do that now?  Have you begun to realize the joy available to you in making this lifelong investment?  My hope is that you won’t leave here like the rich, young ruler - sad.  My hope is that you understand deeply what he didn’t - that surrender is not about experiencing pain in what you are giving up, but rather extreme joy for all that you now have to gain.