Striving For the Prize - Philippians 3

1. Philippians 3:10-14
STRIVING for the PRIZE

2. I want to know Christ-yes, to know
the 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. Not that I
have already obtained all this, or have
already arrived at my goal,
but I press on to take hold of that for
which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
PHILIPPIANS 3:10-12

3. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself
yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I
do: Forgetting what is behind and straining
toward what is ahead, I press on toward the
goal
to win the prize for which God has
called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
PHILIPPIANS 3:13-14

4. JOIN: How can I be a part of striving
towards this goal?
PRAY: How can I grow in my own journey?
INVITE: How can I share with others?
JOIN, PRAY, INVITE

5. JOIN: How can I be a part of striving
towards this goal?
PRAY: How can I grow in my own journey?
INVITE: How can I share with others?
JOIN, PRAY, INVITE

6. Living in Heaven isn't the goal
we are aiming at: rather, its living
in Gods new world with our new bodies.The
upward call seems to be
the resurrection life itself.
Striving-like an athlete,
straining towards the finish line
means living in the present
in light of that future.
N.T. WRIGHT

7. What you do in the Lord is not in vain.
You are not oiling the wheels of a machine
that’s about to roll over a cliff.You are not
restoring a great painting that’s shortly going
to be thrown on the fire.You are not planting
roses in a garden that’s about to be dug up for
a building site. You are—strange though it
may seem, almost as hard to believe as the
resurrection itself—accomplishing
that will become in due course part of God’s
new world.

8. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness,
every work of art or music inspired by the love
of God and delight in the beauty of his
creation; every minute spent teaching a
severely handicapped child to read or to walk;
every act of care and nurture, of comfort and
support, for one’s fellow human beings and for
that matter one’s fellow nonhuman creatures;
and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led
teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel…

9. …builds up the church, embraces and
embodies holiness rather than corruption, and
makes the name of Jesus honored in
the world—all of this will find its way, through
the resurrecting power of God,
into the new creation that God will
one day make.

10. Now is no time to think
of what you do not have.
Think of what you can do
with that there is.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY

11. welcome to
where ALL are welcome

12. Benediction
We bless you, Abba, Father,
for you have visited your people
in one like us in all things but sin,
and in human fragility you have revealed
the face of divinity. Gather into your arms
all the peoples of the world, so that in
your embrace we may find blessing, peace,
and the fullness of our inheritance
as your children.
Amen.