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Living for the Ultimate 0:03 Welcome to the men's global livestream. If you're joining us and have a Bible, I want you to hold 2 spots. Alright? I want you to hold 1 spot in Philippians chapter 3 and the other in Romans chapter 5. We're in part 3 of0:15 a series called The Ultimate and here's the big idea. You and I have limited time. You and I have 1 life and both of us wanna live that life to the fullest. In other0:27 words, you and I want to live out as men the best imaginable or ultimate life. But here's the question, what does that look like? Does it mean0:39 if it feels good, if it sounds good, if it looks good, do that or live for the immediate, live for our impulses, live for our appetite? Or on the other hand, does0:51 it mean as God's men that we follow Christ, that we live for eternity, that we follow God's plan, we do things that glorify him and that please him.1:03 That, the Bible says, is living for the ultimate. So that's why this series is called the ultimate. And this session, we're gonna talk about another game changing1:15 factor that helps God's man who wants to live for Christ and who wants to live for eternity win the battle between living for the immediate and living1:27 for the ultimate. And just to kinda get us thinking in this direction, I think we can all agree that when you have a strong hope, that hope1:38 fuels, that hope drives, that hope increases motivation and it drives actions, right? Another way of saying it, might be1:50 that hope provides power. Let me give you an example. Right? You hope to have a relationship with the girl of your dreams. So you risk asking her out. Where2:02 did the power come from to take that risk? A relational hope. Or let's just go to the workplace. You hope to get a bonus check this month. So you call on a customer that could potentially2:15 buy and use a lot of what you have to sell. So you smile and dial, you make the call. Why did you do that? You had a financial hope. Alright? Let's use 1 more example.2:27 Just to say, you wanna drop some weight, you wanna get heart healthy. Right? Because you wanna live a long time. So you buy a gym membership, you start training, you show up, you stop filling your face with fries, you2:38 start eating the right things, drinking more water. Why did you do that? Why did you change your lifestyle? Because you have a physical hope. So those are just some everyday examples2:49 of how we will risk in the direction of our hope, whether it's a relational hope, a financial hope, or a physical hope for health. You see, here's the3:01 principle. When you have a hope filled expectation of a result, you adjust your behavior. Right? You take risks. Why?3:13 To reach an ultimate goal. Alright? Now, how does that relate to this series, this session? Well, the Bible reveals that God's man lives for the ultimate and the eternal3:24 when, listen, he possesses a hope that is stronger than the immediate and the temporal. Alright? And what's the result? When you3:36 possess a hope that's stronger and ultimate and it defeats the immediate and the temporal. Alright? You move and take risks in the3:48 direction of that strong hope. So let me tell you where we're headed in today's study. Like parts 1 and 2, we're gonna get God's mind from God's word on living the ultimate life.3:59 And then we're gonna look at some common denominators. Alright? The common denominator of all ultimate men, and then we're gonna talk about, real simple, how to win the battle. So if you have the4:11 downloaded notes, I want you to take those out. We're gonna get God's mind on living the ultimate life and we're gonna go to that passage in Philippians chapter 3. If you're in your Bible, it's verses4:23 7 through 14 where God's man is talking about a transition of how he used to live for the old the immediate and how he now lives for4:35 the ultimate. And I want you to just put on, some ears here and see if you can pick up kinda some elements of that transition. Starting in verse 7 of Philippians chapter 3, it says this,4:47 but whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ4:59 Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that5:11 comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ. Yes. To know the5:23 power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings. Becoming like him in his death. And so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not5:34 that I've already obtained all that or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.5:46 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but 1 thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.5:58 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Wow. What a powerful passage of6:10 scripture. And let me just encourage you beyond this session and study to really dive in to Philippians chapter 3 verses 7 through 14. This is 1 of the first passages of6:22 scripture that I committed to memory. Why? Because it trained me to think about the immediate and what I was chasing before I knew Christ6:34 to the ultimate and how God has called me heavenward. So let's unpack a little bit what the ultimate life for God involves. Number 1, the ultimate life for God involves6:46 a new math of significance. Did you know that every 1 of us is in this search for significance? And when you listen to Paul's language, he puts it in6:58 terms of losing and gaining significance. Losing immediate or cultural significance and gaining ultimate and eternal significance. He has7:09 this accounting language of loss and gain. Alright? He's lost living for the immediate and now he's living and gaining, the ultimate. And the way you7:21 you process that as a man of God, the way Paul processed it here in this passage is, am I doing things to get the attention drawn to myself or am I doing things, listen, for7:33 the sake of Christ? I'm gonna say that 1 more time. Am I doing things to draw attention to myself? That's living for the immediate. Or am I doing things for the sake and for the attention of Christ?7:45 That's living for the ultimate. So that's the first thing in this transition of immediate to ultimate. That's what it involves. When you come to know Christ, alright, you stop doing things that draw7:57 attention to you and you start doing things for the sake of and for the attention of and to point people to Christ. Secondly, the ultimate life for God involves a new priority8:09 of relationship. 4 times in this short passage, Paul puts at the center his relationship with Christ. Right? He wants to know Christ. He says that 28:21 times. He wants to gain Christ. He wants to be found in Christ. And then at the end, he talks about being called heavenward in Christ. In this short passage, you can see that 1 relationship8:33 has taken over the center of a man's life and that's what the ultimate life involved. A new priority of relationship where Christ is8:45 the number 1 consider consideration relationally. It's the first person that you think of. Alright? Number 3, the ultimate life for God involves a new process8:57 of transforming. You see that Paul talks about him wanting to know Christ and to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his9:08 sufferings, listen, becoming like him in his death and so somehow attaining to the resurrection of the dead. And so what's the process now for him transforming as a man? What's9:20 the process of personal change? Well, the process of transformation and the process of personal change involves fully identifying with Christ's person and work.9:32 Right? Jesus dies for sin. What's my process now? I die to sin. Jesus resurrects and becomes physically alive. Right?9:44 I become alive to God's purposes. Now, he dies for sin, I die to sin. He comes alive, I come alive to God's9:56 purposes. Now, I resurrect. And that's why when you read in the Bible, I've been crucified with Christ. What does that mean? Just means that he dies to sin, he dies for sin, I die to sin. Then it10:08 says in the bible where we have been resurrected with Christ. There's this full identification with him. We identify with his crucifixion. We identify with his resurrection. What What does that mean? Well, when I die too10:18 soon, I come alive to God's purposes. Right? We switch from the immediate to the ultimate. Right? Fourth, the ultimate life for God10:30 involves a new perspective on my journey. What I love about the Apostle Paul and, what he says here is that he says, I haven't arrived. Right? Good news. Right? For every10:42 guy watching this, this this video podcast. Right? I haven't arrived. You haven't arrived. But what he says is, I may not be perfect. I might10:54 not have a rut, but I'm pressing in. I'm pressing on toward the upward call or the call heavenward in Christ Jesus. Okay? So11:07 very cool passage that illustrates the transition of a man who was living for the immediate titles, position,11:18 status, socially, culturally. Then he transitions and he comes to know Christ. Then it just goes, whoop. Now he's not living11:30 for the immediate. Right? He's not living for status on earth. He's living for reward in heaven. And it's rooted in this relationship with Christ,11:42 this transforming identification of fully identifying with his life and his death and his resurrection as a process of transformation. And now he's got a perspective11:54 on his journey while he's on earth. Right? Not perfect, never gonna be, but he is going to press on to win the prize, the ultimate life for which God has12:06 called him heavenward, the ultimate place in Christ Jesus. Now, what do what what do we do with that type of thinking? Look at what Paul says in Philippians 3 15. He says, all12:18 of us then, look at look at the classification, who are mature should take such a view of things. So the Bible, God's word, here in Philippians chapter12:30 3 says that immediate thinking and immediate living, living for my impulses, living for my appetites. Right? If it feels good, do it. Sounds good, I'm gonna do it. Looks good, I'm gonna do12:42 it. Living for the immediate is synonymous with immaturity. And can I just say something? Culturally, that's what people label as toxic12:54 masculinity. Men who have man sized bodies, men who have man sized responsibilities, men who have man sized influence, right, but they have the character of13:06 a boy. And inevitably, when you put those 2 together, influence, power, wealth, significance, and boy size, maturity on the inside, inevitably the people around those men will be13:18 abused and they will suffer because those men don't know how to use their influence and their significance for good in the people and the lives of others. Right? Now, on the opposite side, the13:30 Apostle Paul is saying all of us then who are mature should take such a view of these things. We should have a new math of significance. We should have a new priority of relationship. Alright? With Christ at the center,13:39 we should have a new process of transforming. We need to fully identify with the person and work of Christ. His life, his death, his resurrection. He dies for sin, I die too sin. He he he he lives and resurrects.13:52 I live and resurrect to God's purposes. I'm alive now fully living for the ultimate, living for God's purposes and I realize that this is the journey. Right? Living for the ultimate, Paul14:03 says, is synonymous with maturity. Right? Because that's the truest thing about this life. The truest thing about this life is what God says is true.14:15 And so there's just God's mind from God's word and I just have to kind of wrap this first section up of getting God's mind on the immediate versus14:27 the ultimate. If you want no regrets in the end, you gotta start living for the ultimate in the now. That's Paul's sort of meta point hereThe Power of Ultimate Hope 14:39 in this passage in Philippians chapter 3 verses 7 through 14. Alright. So now, let's look at our next game changing factor if you're God's man and14:51 if you want to live the ultimate life. And it's right there on your downloaded note. It says this, the common denominator for all ultimate men is an ultimate hope.15:03 And now we circle back kind of to our introductory sort of theme, which is how hope provides power. Hope fuels motivation. We take risks15:15 in the direction of our hope. And our passage, to kind of look at this common denominator for ultimate men, how they have an ultimate hope, is Romans chapter 5 verses 1 through 4. Says this,15:27 therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith15:39 into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our15:50 sufferings. Because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character. And character, hope. And hope does16:02 not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And so now what we wanna do is we16:14 wanna see the power of ultimate hope and what it does inside the life of God's men. And the first thing, ultimate hope, gives God's man is new16:26 peace. Write that down. That's the first sentence in this passage in verse 1. Paul writes to men of16:38 faith, to people of faith, therefore, since we, people of faith, have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.16:52 Wow. Ultimate hope. Hope in Christ. Hope in eternity. You know what that should give you? Peace. Peace about death. Peace about the future.17:05 Peace about your sin being forgiven, peace about your ultimate home whether you make it home from the drive home from work or whether you live a long life17:17 and your heart stops. You have your purpose, that's peace. You have forgiveness, that's peace. You know who you are,17:29 that's peace. You know what to do, that's peace. Live for the ultimate. You know where you're going, That's peace. You know, there are a lot of us right now in today's society that we're living17:41 so anxiously. Wanna know why? Because we're putting our hope in the wrong things. There's a direct connection between whatever your strongest hope is and your level of17:52 anxiety. And if your hope is not ultimate, if your hope is not in the person of Christ and his work for you and what that means for you, for your18:04 future, You're gonna live anxiously. If you don't know how your ultimate hope infuses you with worth, you're gonna live anxiously and chase worth. You're just not gonna know.18:17 But if you have a relationship with God and you're justified through faith in him, the Bible says that you have peace with God. Question, do you have peace with18:29 God? Or maybe you've lost it. It's escaped you because you're trying to get peace through a better rearrangement of your circumstances, better rearrangement of your bank18:41 account, better rearrangement of your family situation, Better location. Gotta move to a new place to get more peace. Guess what? Everywhere you go, there you are.18:53 A better rearrangement of your circumstances doesn't solve anxiety inside. The things outside of us men cannot solve the dilemmas within us. But if you have ultimate hope,19:05 that goes a long way to delivering peace into your heart. Secondly, as we read in Romans 5, ultimate hope gives us a new place. So we have a new peace,19:18 and now we have a new place. We're just following the passage along. Says we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 2, through whom we have gained access by faith19:30 into this grace in which we now stand. Wow. That's so cool. That place of grace is amazing.19:42 We should write a song about that. Amazing grace. Right? That's why that song is played in so many contexts because that's19:54 what we need before God. You have a person who is dead in their transgressions and sins and they're powerless to help themselves and then in comes20:06 God's grace and it just flips where you stand now with God. You go from being separated with God, right, and separated from him for20:18 eternity to grace enters the picture. Right? His favor comes on you through the person and work of Christ. That flips and now you stand at peace with20:30 God and in the grace of God. That's what hope gives us. Ultimate hope in Christ gives you a new peace and a new place. Number 3, ultimate hope20:42 gives us a new future. So it it says, we've been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And then20:53 verse 2 goes on and says, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. That's your future. We boast in the hope,21:06 right? That's a future thing, of the glory of God. Hey, I have peace with God. I have standing with God. I'm in the place of grace. Now I21:17 boast in the hope of the glory of God. That's my future. Right? That's your future. If you know Christ, right, your hope is the glory of God.21:29 Jesus appears, you appear. Jesus lives forever, you live forever. That's your future. And it's just this domino of blessing, that ultimate21:41 hope, living for God, knowing Christ gives us new peace. Say it with me, new peace, new place, new future. Alright? What's the next thing21:53 ultimate hope gives us? Ultimate hope gives us next, new knowledge. I love how the passage goes on. I'll just reflect on verse 2 and I'll lead us in. And we boast in the hope of22:05 the glory of God. Right? Verse 3. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings because we know, circle that, suffering produces22:18 perseverance. Right? Now we're we're getting into how ultimate hope really works for us on earth. Right? The Apostle Paul says, hey, I have22:30 new peace. I have a new place. I'm in grace. I have a new future. But listen to this, not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings. Because we know, suffering produces perseverance.22:42 Suffering actually has a purpose. And the Bible talks about that a lot in Romans chapter 8. And we know, right, there's that new22:53 knowledge. We believers, now we know, right, that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his23:05 purpose. Right? So now, even in the brokenness and loss and traumas and injustices of earth,23:16 because of the brokenness, loss and injustice Jesus suffered and how God transformed that from being an immediate loss into23:28 our ultimate gain. Right? Looked like a loss. Right? Guy dies. But God takes that loss and trauma and injustice and turns it into23:40 a gain. We place our faith in Him and now we're fully identified with God taking our losses, our trauma, the pain,23:52 the injustices of earth, and turning that around too. And in this context, because we know suffering, God's using suffering24:05 to produce perseverance. Alright? So new peace, new place, new future, new knowledge. That's what ultimate hope gives. Let's look at the next thing. Ultimate hope also gives24:17 new character. And it it goes along those lines where God has purpose in our suffering. So I'm gonna start with verse 3 and then move to 4 and 5. Not only so, but we24:29 also glory in our sufferings because we know suffering produces perseverance. Alright. Here we go. Here comes the character. Perseverance, character, and character what? Hope. And hope does not24:41 put us to shame. Can I just explain to you guys how awesome God's purpose of using ultimate hope24:53 to enter into experiences that don't go our way, difficulties, delays, trials and tribulation? When our hope in God comes into25:04 that situation and we have that new knowledge so we go, okay, doesn't feel good, confusing, maybe disillusioning, but we know that God is25:16 using that difficulty, that delay, that tribulation, that trial. He's using it to do something in me, right? Ultimately, that if I wasn't going25:28 through it, wouldn't occur. He's shaping my character. I mean, you guys, I think, can all agree, problems never leave us the way they find us. But usually that cuts 225:40 ways. Your problems can leave you bitter or your problems can make you better. Right? You can learn from them. You can persevere in them and come out of them with the diamond. Come out of it with the pearl25:52 of growth that had you not been through that, you wouldn't have come out of it with that pearl, that diamond, that new part of you that now has changed26:04 because of because of the process. You see guys, there's power. There's power in the process. And power as a man, can I just tell you, is when you get new26:16 character? When you get new character, that stuff inside of you that allows you under pressure to say no to yourself and say yes to God26:28 and other people. And you know that kind of character, that kind of growth, never anything to be ashamed about there. But you know what is a shame? What is a shame is when you don't have ultimate hope26:41 and you have a trial, which God says is gonna enter your life. At some point, life is gonna bowling ball you. Things aren't gonna work out the way you expected. Somebody is26:52 gonna hurt you. There's gonna be some injustice that doesn't make sense. It's confusing and disillusioning. And then you take that and instead of remembering your ultimate hope in Christ27:04 and that God can use this even though he may not have desired it or caused it, he wants to use it to bring you to a new place of character so that27:16 your new character can now meet a new demand of reality. You know why guys tap out and get divorces? Do you know why guys just give up on27:28 their marriage and intimacy there and and run to porn? They do it because their character is not able to meet the demands of their reality. The27:40 changes that need to be made in a marriage to make 1 work. The actions that need to be taken out of a good character and a changed character to bring real intimacy. And so what do we do? We we27:52 tap out. We say, I can't do that. That's too hard. And then we go to false hope. Right? False porn. Right? Another false relationship that's outside of the will of28:03 God. Men, I know I'm talking to hundreds of guys out there. Stop it. Don't. Don't tap out. God's got meaning and purpose and if you're in the middle of the pressure,28:15 alright, pressure produces results. That pressure is gonna go somewhere. It's gonna go to into you and an ultimate purpose changing, transforming you28:27 or it's going to push you in a direction of those false fountains, in the direction of the immediate. Don't listen to the immediate voice right now, guys. Under pressure. Listen to28:39 the ultimate voice. God's like, I love you. I know this sucks. I have a purpose. If I can take that crucifixion and turn it into a resurrection, I can take this adversity28:51 that you're in and I'm present in it and I can bring an ultimate result, but you gotta have ultimate hope in me. Let's look at the last thing ultimate hope gives. Ultimate29:02 hope gives a new foundation. Alright? So kinda transitioning from from verse 4 into verse 5. Perseverance brings character and character hope and hope does not put us to shame.29:14 Here we go. Because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been giving given to us. So we see29:26 that the foundation of all ultimate hope, alright, is God's love. How do we know God's love and how do we know that he loves us? Through the person and work of29:38 Christ. God giving his only son, the person of his son, the work of his son on our behalf to give us hope, sins forgiven, purpose for living, home in heaven. It's a lot of29:49 ultimate hope. Right? And when we receive that for ourselves, this foundation gets poured into us and that foundation of30:01 ultimate hope and life is called God's love. God's love. I'm fully accepted. I'm fully loved by the ultimate30:13 person ever. God himself, my creator, my maker. My maker loves me. God's love has been poured into my heart and it moves from my head down into my heart, now I have30:25 this inner security. I have this foundation. The Bible says in Proverbs 4 23, watch over your heart with all diligence for from it flow the springs of life. Do you see how30:37 your insides create your outsides? How you think about yourself, what your self perception is, what your perception of your purpose is, what your perception of the plan is in relationship30:49 with other people. And man, guys, you don't want anything else driving, right, the springs of your heart because out of the springs of your heart flow life other than God's31:01 love. Or you can look at it if you're a construction dude in terms of being building the foundation. If you're gonna build a house, k, the Bible says a house is a metaphor for your life. If you're gonna build a house,31:11 you gotta have a strong foundation. And what I love about this, this passage is my ultimate hope in God is that through that ultimate hope, I get a new foundation. What's the new foundation? It's31:23 God's love. Pouring, just get that picture, you know, back up the the con the concrete truck, you know, that's mixing the concrete and has that little that little slide that that it that that goes in31:35 and it's pouring the foundation. But just imagine this spiritual engine, right, of God himself and God has this supply, this infinite supply of31:46 love and he's just pouring that right in there. And my heart now is at peace.31:58 I know for a fact that I am fully loved. I know for a fact I'm fully accepted so I can stop chasing acceptance. I can stop chasing love from false sources. Stop32:10 getting ripped off by false intimacy. I have the foundation of God's love. Wow. So, guys, you know, we look at ultimate32:22 hope and how how it gives us new peace, it gives us a new place, it gives us a new future, ultimate hope, gives us new knowledge, new character, a new foundation in God's love. So here32:34 we are. Now we have the battle lines are drawn. Okay? We can know this truth, but information from God without application,Show more In this video 0:03 Living for the Ultimate14:34 The Power of Ultimate Hope32:37 The Battle for Hope and Holiness
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