Got a green light here, so all right. Got thumbs up back there. That's good. Okay, well, it is great to be here. It's been a long day for my wife and I. We got up at 3 o'clock, God's time. And man, here we are. But we are glad to be here. That was 3 a.m. And so, are glad to be here. My wife Donna is sitting there with Leah and we are thankful. We love, of course, the Vons. And God led our paths across years ago and made a great connection. It has certainly been a blessing for Donna and I. He didn't tell this, but actually he and Leah met at our conference and struck up a courtship. And as they say the rest is history. And so, we love them. Her dad is a pastor back in Mississippi. And of course Brother Brandon has a tremendous story. I don't know if you've got any of your books left available. You ought to get one of his books about some of his history. And so, anyway, we're glad to be here. Thank you for the invite. And it's just a joy to be serving the Lord, is it not? And I appreciate you all being kind and courteous to us, those southern boys. And I really felt at home there not getting that fried chicken. I mean that was just that was wonderful, ladies, and all the goodies that went with it. And so, we are blessed and we do have a good church. I bring you greetings from our church. I'm excited about getting to preach missions conference this week. I've told our people that years ago. Now, we've supported missions the first 20 years, but then we started having a missions conference, and Brother Stonehouse, it just took us to another level, really, you know. And so, we believe in missions. I say don't, missions is not what we do, missions is what we are. And you can change what you do pretty easy, but it's hard to change what you are. And so, we've settled into that, and our people have caught that vision, and our conference is coming up just a couple of weeks, and we didn't get to have ours last year either. And so, I'm excited and just itching to get back into ours. So, we're just thankful. I don't have all the answers to anything unless your question is, and then my answer is Jesus. And that's, you know, that's my answer. And it is all about Him, is it not? I want to talk about that tonight. If you go ahead and turn to Philippians chapter 1, And I certainly don't come out here even with 43 years at that church. And then I pastored four years at a church previous to that. And I know when I tell that people say, wait a minute that's 47, 48 years. And they think, Brother Runny you don't look old enough to a pastor that long. So, it's true. I started when I was four years old, and got married when I was nine years old. And so, we are really not that old. But Anyhow, but we love mission, so I'm excited about that tomorrow night, Thursday night, and Friday night. And a dear friend of mine is coming in tomorrow night to be with us, one of the missionaries, Brother Bobby Stewart, and he's from Tennessee. And here we are out here at the same time. It's just incredible what God can do. He can hook things up, put things together, and So, I love this part of the world. The geography out here is just, you know, we don't have any mountains in Mississippi. In fact, we have very few hills. Right, Brother Kent? I've known Brother Kent for a lot of years, too. And so, he kind of slipped out of sight, but I'm glad I found him, caught up with him out here. God bless you, Brother. Good to see you again. So good. But we have some rolling hills, but you might not even call them hills, you know, with what you all have around here. But we are awed and inspired by this beautiful scenery, and these mountains, and all that. So, I'm glad to be here. I'm assuming just by looking around we've got a few young preachers in the building, and me say something that might help you young preachers. I heard about the young preacher, he just got so nervous every time he'd get up to preach, he'd just lose it, and it just tore him up so bad. He went to a service somewhere one night, maybe something like this, and he was sitting there and the visiting evangelist, when they introduced him, got up there and started talking, and then he told a joke. And it seemed like everybody laughed, and all the tension went away. You know that young preacher and everything, that's what I'm going to do. Next time I preach I'm going to tell a joke, and I think that will get everybody. Now some people say, well Brother Ronnie I wouldn't do that. I know, and I tell people I know you wouldn't. That's the reason I have to do it. I know you don't think, but that's what I'm thinking. Anyway, so I had the same preacher years ago told me that I ought not be humorous in the pulpit. And then that same preacher told me later, he said, you ought to be yourself. And I've always been. I don't even have to do anything to be humorous. People look at me and they see everybody from Jerry Cloward to Hoss Cartwright. So, anyway, so yeah, so he said, I think I'll do that. That ought to, yeah. So, sure enough a couple of weeks later he got an opportunity to preach somewhere. So, he got up there and he was nervous just like always. And then all of a sudden he remembers, oh yeah, I'm going to tell a joke. And the only joke he could think of to tell was the one that that preacher, and that preacher told this joke. That preacher, that old preacher that night got up and he said, well folks while you're finding your place let me just say something. This might surprise some of you. But I want to say that probably the best year, some of the best years of my life were spent in the arms of another man's wife. And everybody stopped and just looked. And he had everybody's attention and he said, of course that was my dad's wife, my mother. So, everybody's laughing, you know. So, the young preacher, the only joke the young preacher could think of. So, he gets up there and he said, I'll tell you all, oh yeah, some of the best years of my life, well he wasn't but 19 or 20 years old. Some of the best years of my life was spent in the arms of another man's wife. And everybody looked at him and he said, and right now I can't remember who it was, but I know it was. So, don't If you're going to do that now, remember the punchline. You've got to get that in or it's over. It's over. So it may be over anyway. Some people can't handle it, but I just, you know, I'm like Brother Brandon said, man, hey, this thing's too short for us to be fussing and fighting. And, you know, we all have our little likes and dislikes, but I'll tell you if a man believes the Bible and loves God and some of the things He said tonight, why you know we need to encourage one another as much as we can. This is a great way to do this tonight. Thank you Brother Brandon. I'm sure these men and ladies appreciate it. And we thank you for these preacher's wives also that came along. help kind of watch their men, and all of that. Okay, do you find your place? Philippians 3, that's not a hard place to find obviously. And I've found it so many times. That's what's happened. I'm going to have to do something. I don't know if glue will fix that or what. And this Bible's done been rebound one time. So, Anyway, I want to talk to you tonight, Philippians 3, and let's look at verse 14, then we'll back up and look at some Scripture. I'm not preaching a mission message per se tonight, though missionaries will be able to get that, or get this. But I want to preach on something that is for all of us here tonight, not just preachers, not just pastors, not just missionaries, or as we would say men that have a calling to want to talk about the fact that all of us have a calling. And I believe that is what he is saying here in verse 14, in chapter 3 verse 14 when the Apostle Paul says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So, I want to talk about that tonight, and just simply talk about the calling. And And I want us to see tonight that it's not just us preachers that have a call. And I do believe, I do believe preachers have a call. I believe there is a definite call. I know I got called to preach. I got saved in August of 72, and then I surrendered to preach in August of 73. As a result of a call, God would not leave me alone. God would not negotiate with me. I was in Sunday school worship, Sunday night services. I was going to church three times a week, and then some, and all of that, and teaching Sunday school class, and all that kind of stuff at 18 years of age. And then the Lord just wouldn't leave me alone. I was a cotton farmer in northeast Mississippi, a cotton farmer, and I was plowing my cotton. And God's calling me to preach, and I said, Lord, I got cotton to plow. And I can't, I'm going to church. I'm going to church, Lord, and all of this. And the Lord just, you know, the Lord just, have you noticed, He won't negotiate. You know, He won't debate. He just, He puts it on you, and this is the way it is. And so finally, you know, I said, well yes, yes, I surrendered. I surrendered. Now some people I know, 21st century Christianity and stuff don't like that word, but they should have told me that 40 something years ago, because that's what I did, I surrendered. said, yes Lord. And so I surrendered to the call to preach. The Apostle Paul believed in a call. He said, I was appointed a preacher. And there are other scriptures that refer to the fact of a divine call. My call to preach, and I'm sure with you preachers as well, is as real to me as my salvation is. It's that real to me. I don't doubt that. I don't question that. Now, a lot of people, a lot of other people have doubted it enough for me. I don't have to doubt it. I've had plenty of other people that have doubted, you know, and even said so. I mean, one guy said, if that guy's called to preach, then I'm not going to tell you what else he said. But anyway, so, So I do believe in a call to preach, and there can be calls to service in different ways where we, where missionaries, and you missionaries know this well, and maybe it's in a missions conference, or whatever, and God spoke to your heart, and you knew God was calling you. And then maybe in that meeting, or somewhere along the way, God put a geographical place. You already knew in your heart you got this call. You got to surrender. You surrender the mission field. You surrender the will of God. You surrender to preach. And then maybe immediately, maybe sooner or later the Lord then puts some geography in it and all of that. And so I do believe in a real definite call. I know that's laughed at, and that's mocked at, and that's scoffed by a lot of people. But I think that it's a real genuine article. And so I'm thankful for a call to preach. But that's not what we're talking about here tonight. This calling is the calling, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And this is a calling, at least this is the way I'm going to try to express it and explain it. you disagree then you know, hey that's fine, that's fine. But I want to get everybody in on this, and I think all of us believers need to recognize that we have a calling, and it gives us a distinction from this world. it puts us, it puts in us a heartache for another world, and it changes our lives completely. It changes our lives completely. That's what I want to talk about tonight. And he deals with a lot of that in Philippians chapter 3, but we'll just go back to verse number 10, and I'll say it as quickly as I can. And we'll let you go tonight. As I said, there may be more coffee, cake, whatever, and I'd hate to rob any of you of another meal. Most of you, like me, you don't need another one. You may want another one. A lot of difference between want and need, isn't it? So, the calling. I want to say this is a calling that is a hymn calling. Not a H-Y-M-N. I was just thinking about some of these hymns we just sang and how those H-Y-M-N-S were about H-I-M. That's the way it ought to be. I like the old hymns, don't you? What a beautiful song we started out with tonight by Wesley. What a beautiful song. Man, that guy could write some songs. And so, that was so beautiful. But this is Him. Look what He said in verse number 10. Paul begins by saying, or at least in our message and in this section, that I may know Him, that I may know Him. So, I want to talk about this calling that is about Him. Notice He goes on in verse number 10, that I may know Him and what? The power of His resurrection. and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death. Not that I may know Him and the power of my resurrection, or of my sufferings, or of my death. No, no, no. Paul is all about Jesus, and we ought to be all about Jesus. Now, I'll say it probably in the mission conference, but it's wonderful to know that for us, it's to be all about Him, and then He's all about us. I mean really, you think about it, you ever read John 3.16? I think he had his eye on us a long, long time ago. Somewhere back there in eternity past, he had his eye on us. The Bible tells us clearly concerning the Lamb being slain before the foundation of the world. So, but for us it's all about Him, and that's what the Apostle Paul is trying to say here. It's a Him calling. It's for everybody, not just preachers, and pastors, and missionaries tonight, but all you young people here, you ladies here tonight, all of us, and we'll try to tie all this together. Him, His, His, His. So it's all about Christ. His person, that's what he's saying in verse 10, that I may know Him. I want to know more about him, Paul is saying, the person of Christ. Can you ever get to know him too well? Oh, no. I've been studying about him almost 50 years now, really longer than that, because I grew up in church. I wasn't saved until I was 18, but I grew up. And by the time I was a young person in Sunday school, man, I knew all the Bible stories. And I thought I knew a lot about him. But when I got saved and I really got to know Him, and then I have discovered that it is like the songwriter said, it gets sweeter with Him every day. And there's so many inexhaustible, I'll tell you, eternity. It'll take all eternity. Him to reveal the riches and glory in Christ Jesus. And that may be some supernatural things on some supernatural planets, and I don't know. He may have a planet out there for us that love to deer hunt, and we can just go deer hunting when we want to. Or there may be a planet, a golf planet where you can just go play golf. I don't know what all God's got for you. You say, that's ridiculous. Well, okay, I'm sorry. I apologize. But anyway, I'm just saying there's a lot of, there's a lot of things for us to learn and to know about the Lord Jesus. And that's what Paul is saying. And this intimacy that he has with Christ, and he just can't get enough of Jesus. He just cannot get enough of Jesus and knowing Him. And so about his person, that's where it all begins. I mean we want to love him just because of who he is. It's not just about what He's done for us, but it's about who He is, and we ought to worship Him because of who He is, and so His power, His person and His power. He said, I want to know, I want to know the power of His resurrection. And we just celebrated Resurrection Sunday, Resurrection Day, Easter Sunday. And we preached on the resurrection. And what a glorious subject that is. What a wonderful truth that is. And it is the foundation of the Christian faith. Everything that we believe goes into that great truth of the resurrection. And Paul said so in 1 Corinthians 15, because he said, if Christ did not rise from the dead, everything else is vain. nothing to it, all is vain." He said, we're most miserable, we're to be pitied. He said, we are preaching is vain. He said, those that have died before us, there's nothing to all of that. He said, if Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, and so that's the hinge upon which the door of Christianity swings, the doctrine of the resurrection. What a great, what a great truth. His person, His power. He says, I want to know something about His pains. He talked about the sufferings. He said, I want to know something about the fellowship of his sufferings. Wow. The idea of the word fellowship there means a partner or a participation, a participation. Really, Paul? Really? You want to be a partner? You want to be a participant? his sufferings. We could have understood it if he had said that about the resurrection. Yeah, but no, no, no. And you see how he's going back, it's like he's looking at him. I want to know him right there as he is where he is with the Father. And then he steps back and says, oh, about his resurrection. Then he steps back another two or three days and he talks about the sufferings, the cross. And so, he's going from there, back, back, and he says, I want to know something about the fellowship of his sufferings. And that's maybe one of the reasons Paul was so great. Maybe that's one of the reasons that Paul was on a level that some of us just stand and look at in awe. Because here's a man who genuinely, willingly wanted to be a partner, a participator And the fellowship of his sufferings what what most of us shy away from I? Mean most of us can't even take a little criticism much less some of the things the Apostle Paul went through. And so the fellowship of his sufferings, and all of that then he says, causes me to be made conformable unto his death. And so Paul is not talking about raising himself up, he's talking about humbling him, bringing himself low and entering into this being conformable. So, there's the results. His person, his power, his pains. What are the results? Made conformable. Made conformable. This is the idea of an inward transforming taking place in his life. And that's the way the Lord always works in me. He always starts on the inside. Religion in this world works on the outside. It always comes at us on the exterior, tells us to turn over a new leaf, tells us to change our ways, tells us to do this, that, or the other, and that's religion. That's religion. And so religion is content with that. But Christianity starts to work from the inside. It changes the inside. It changes what we are in here. And then eventually what we have been changed into in here is going to manifest itself on the outside. Surely it will. some faster than others, some more than others. If you've ever pastored and if you've pastored a very much length of time you'll discover that some people grow a lot faster than others. Some people it takes them forever to get started. I was reading about a bamboo, a certain type of a bamboo, Japanese, Chinese, certain type of a bamboo tree. And I had to read it two or three times, I couldn't hardly believe it. But this particular tree, it starts from a germ, from a seed, and you put it down in the ground, and you cover it, and you fertilize it, and you do that every day for five years. Every day for five years. And you'll see very little, if any, anything. Every day for five years. I know some of you, so I can't believe that. I know it, I didn't believe it either. I read it, I read it three times, but now Google wouldn't lie. Come on now. Google wouldn't lie. And then after five years it comes through and may grow 80 or 90 feet in a matter of a few months. So you can almost watch it grow. Isn't that amazing? I've met some Christians like that. It took them forever to get started it seemed like. And people give up on them. And then one day, one day it began to take. One day it really began to change them. One day they really realized what they've got, and who they've got, and it began to change them. So, fellas, don't give up so quick. Don't throw them to the side. They're never going to get it. you've pastored somewhere 43 years and I'm not an expert, I didn't write any books. I didn't come here to hand any books out and say, here's how to do it. I don't, when you do that, then boy you're, anyway I haven't written any books. thank God for the ones that have been written, and I've got a library full of them. But I'm saying that I have seen some things, and I've seen some people that you just kind of wanted to give up, but oh you just keep, and after a while the results. He said, here it is, here it is, that I can be made conformable to His death. It's an inward transforming. The reasons, look at this verse 11, it's interesting, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. And that's a different word even though in the English it's still translated resurrection, that's fine. I'm a King James guy, and I don't correct the King James, the King James corrects me. And so, when you get big enough you can correct it, then it can't correct you. But we just need to quit trying to correct it. Let it correct us. And it will correct us. That's why a lot of people don't like it. It will correct you. says, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. And the idea of that phrase is to come out from other corpses, to come out from other corpses. And different conservative scholars have differing views, and most do not equate it with the same resurrection he's talking about there in verse 10, but a resurrection that can take place in your life now. can take place in your life now, in that you realize who you are, what you are, and you come out from among the corpses. You come out from among. You know I think Lazarus did something like that, didn't he? Lazarus kind of came out. I'm not sure how he came out. I know there was a call. Duh. It was a very personal call. Obviously a very powerful call. In some way he wiggled, or wobbled, or floated out of there, but he got out of there. And then Jesus told him, said, get them grave clothes off of him. Why? Because he's come out from among the dead. Now he had to die again. He had to die again, didn't he? Because Jesus was the first fruit for the resurrection. But Lazarus had a pretty good experience, you know. I'd love to sit down and talk to him about it sometime. know, you know, how far did you go in that other world? Did you actually get to see, and then was you, was you, and then they called you back? Did that make you mad? I mean can you imagine? You know what I know there is disagreement. Some say, well you know he's in the center of the earth and all that. Let's just say, let's just say he was talking to the Father, and he was seeing angels, and he's enjoying all that like about our loved ones now absent from the body, present with the Lord and all of that. And you know after three days of being in there and then somehow we come on back. I know some unhappy people. You call me back to a COVID cursed world, do you have any idea what I was in up there? No, but we need to come out from among the corpses as believers. Our God is the God of the living. God of the dead, the God of the living. And so it's a hymn calling. Now let's move on. I want to say it's a humble calling. It's a humble calling. Look in verse 12 and 13. Verse 12, Paul said, not as though I had already attained. Uh-oh. What? You mean Paul after at this point 30, maybe 30 plus years of ministry and you still have not attained? Kind of slow wasn't he? humble here. He's being real, but he's being humble. He said, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth on those things which are before, I'm pressing toward the mark. I'm pressing toward the mark. I love Paul's humility. I love his willingness to acknowledge to the people who many of them would have put him on a pedestal, almost up equal with Christ. And they look to him as the man. He says to them, no, no, no, I have not arrived, I have not attained, I have not apprehended, I have not reached what my ultimate goal is. And he said, brethren, not in a condescending way, not in a condescending way in verse 13, brethren, but in a humble way. In other words, I join with you my brothers and sisters. I'm not super saint. I'm not super Christian. But he does tell them what he is going to do. Very humble. The word attain, when he says in verse 12, not as though I had already attained. The idea of the word attain means take hold of. And then he said apprehend, he uses the word apprehended. In verse 12 and verse 13, the idea of apprehend has the idea of not only to take hold of, but to possess it, to own it. This is mine. And so this calling, this calling that he refers to as the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. But it takes a humble man to appreciate it, to experience it, to know it to its fullest. I've been privileged to meet some great men, some great preachers in my day. And I'll say this about them, every one of them have a special humility about them. The great ones, the great ones. The ones whose books, I have a library full of Dr. John Phillips books, exploring. exploring series. And what a great man he was. We had him in our church several times. I remember when I first got saved, one of the first books I bought was exploring Revelation. John Phillips. Anybody know who I'm talking about here? Anybody know? Okay, thank God. So, he's one of the greatest alliterators, expositor. He gives you, he'll give you the meat on the verse of Scripture. He will give you illustrations. I mean his books are just complete, they are complete, total, great. I bought that book, and I remember looking at the back flap and seeing his picture, and at that time he was with Moody Bible Institute, and he preached on their radio programs and taught. And I can remember as a young preacher thinking, man, I'd love to meet him one day. And lo and behold, I got to go a few years ago, Brother Stonehouse had met him, and I had the audacity to ask him would he come to my church and preach for me. Phillips was a King James guy. I mean he was a, wow, but a scholar, so brilliant. And I asked him, and he said, and it almost shocked me as much as when I asked her to marry me. She said, yes. And I asked John Phillips, would you come and, not marry me, but come and preach in my church, or the church I pastor. And he said, yes. I thought I was getting married again. Oh, it was awesome. And so, really, you know, and I'm just a cotton farmer. In fact, the church I pastor is about an hour from where I was raised, and right in the middle of a cotton patch. You're talking about God with a sense of humor. Brother Ken's been there. You're talking about a sense of humor. God called me off of my John Deere tractor from planting and plowing cotton. put me to pastoring a church in the middle of a cotton patch. You say, how do you like it? I like it. Forty-three years I like it. He was a very humble man, a very humble man. I just, and some others, and we've all met some men we consider great in whatever reason, but they're humble. Paul had a humbleness about him. And you never go wrong. If there's one virtue, and there may be others, I'm sure there are, but this one comes to my mind and I'm forced to talk about it for a moment. If there's one virtue that just seems like in the Word of God that God has honored and promised to bless, it's humility, a humbleness. James said, look, if you will humble yourself, then God will raise you up in due time. And so humility, not enough can be said about humility. He's a very humble man. He says, I've not attained, I've not apprehended. But he said, that's what I'm going for. And he uses the word follow. Look in verse 12. He said, but I follow after. I follow after. And that word follow means to pursue. It means to pursue something. Everybody's following something. I don't care if you're leading. You may be leading, but you're following. Everybody's following something or somebody. What are you following? Who are you following? says, I follow after that I may apprehend, to pursue. And then the word forget, look in verse 13. He says, brethren I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. Forgetting. Paul had learned the secret of how to take things in his past and leave them there. there to the degree that they no longer influenced or controlled his life. Now somebody says, forget. Somebody says, well I'll forgive, but I won't forget. And there's a lot of truth in that, a lot of truth. Now they may mean it sarcastically, they may mean it in a wrong and worldly way, but if you think about it, We have a hard time sometimes forgetting, at least removing from our memory, things that may have happened. Brother Brandon, years ago, you know, situations we were in where we got hurt, maybe as preachers, as a pastor's family, or it could be a thousand different things. And we may have forgiven. But we have a hard time really forgetting, really. I'm just talking about from the memory, from the physical aspect of forgetting. But Paul said forgetting. So what does forgetting really mean? Does it mean that you put it out of your mind forever, you never think of it again? Well what happens if one day then you say, you've been bragging to everybody, oh I forgot that, I forgot that. But apparently you haven't. But you can forget it in such a way that it no longer influences or controls you. Somebody hurt you years ago. And for a while, you may have said, one day. You know, payday is rough. One day I'll get my chance. One day I'll get my chance. it? Is that the Christian attitude? Absolutely not. What we have to do, I told somebody the other day, I was preaching somewhere and I said, you know after 40 years Don and I built us a home. We lived in a parsonage for 40 years. And so we decided we might as well build us a home. So we did. And so we moved one mile down the road and built a house. So we told the church we were moving but we ain't going nowhere. So, there we are. I moved right across the road, built a house right across the road from the deacon who did more 30 something years ago to try to destroy my life, my ministry, and my family than any one human being whom I've ever come across on this whole planet. And I built a house right across the road from him. It's amazing what time will do. It's amazing what a little grace can do. And have I forgot what He did? Obviously not. But have I forgot it? Yes. No, no, no, I didn't forget it. But yes, I forgot it. You say, brother, that's crazy. I know it. I'm from Mississippi. I can't help it. I can't help it. It's what we do. So we see each other, cross the road, mowing yard, we wave at each other. We built that new house. His wife and daughter-in-law came over bearing gifts. It'd be hard for me to help him tonight, but if when I get back home, if he calls me in the middle of the night, says, Brother Ronnie, I've got some problems over here, would you come help me? I'll get up right then and go over and help him. And I'm telling you, I was living in a parsonage with my wife, my 11-year-old son. four-year-old daughter, and it was going to get us run off. He was going to run us off. And fortunately I had some people, brother Kent said, no you're not. I said, no you're not. But sometimes a preacher can say, no you're not, and they still do it anyway. One guy said, you throw your shirt in the Chevy and shag it. I heard that from a guy in Kentucky. So, wow. I'm glad I got over that. I mean, really. You say, well, you're talking about it. Yeah, but I'm over it. I really am. His son lives right next to him, right across the road from me. His grown son, 40-something, 50-year-old, dresses my deer for me. He doesn't have to work too hard, too much, but when I do kill one, dresses my deer and processes it for me." Isn't that amazing? Now what I'm trying to say is Paul said, here look, he said, I've had to forget something. Now I won't go in detail about it, but in chapter 3 you know what he calls it? All this stuff he forgot, you know what he calls it? Dung. Did somebody say, explain that? Well, duh. I did a Greek word study on that word. You don't want to know. You don't want to know. It's what you think it is. It's what you think it is. And yep, it stinks. It does. It stinks. It's the kind of stuff you want to forget it. But the thing about it was, it was the best that Paul had to offer. wasn't about him bar hopping, or running around doing crazy, wild stuff, and living a wicked life. No, he's talking about being a Hebrew of Hebrews, Pharisee of Pharisees, righteous man. I was, he said. Then I met Christ. Whoo, all of that just whoosh. Maybe another analogy would be He just flushed it. You know what it is? You know what it reminds me of, Isaiah? Where Isaiah said, our righteousness is as filthy rags. Not our unrighteousness, but the best we have to offer. It's like leprous rags. Those leprous, wipe that old puss off their bodies. That's our best. And Paul said, my best was nothing but dung. And he said, forget that. Forget that. Somebody says, Paul, before you come preach down here in our church, let me see your resume. And Paul could put a bunch of good stuff down, and then he takes a big old Sharpie pen and writes over the top of it, dung. You going to call that guy? didn't do that did you? Hey, humble. Follow, forget, but forth. Look at the Word. Look at that Word in verse number 13. We're almost through. He said, count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things and reaching forth unto those things which are before. The idea for it is to stretch out towards, to stretch out towards, like a horse in a Kentucky Derby, and right there on the last few lengths, just before the finish line, and he's stretching, he's giving it everything he's got. Paul kept the finish line in sight all the time. He was running like the finish line was just right up there. there. And He's given it all He's got, all the time. I'd like to talk about that more, but we won't. Let me close. It was a hymn calling. It was a humble calling. But obviously in our text of verse 14 it was a high calling. toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." High, it means it was an upward calling, upward. The idea of that word is inland, inland to the mountains. to the high mountains." In other words, not sea level, not sea level, not Paul, and not us. This is not just for preachers, and pastors, and missionaries, it's for all of us, for our young people. And somewhere down the line we need to teach our young people that, don't we? That to be a Christian is a high calling. It's a high calling. We're not on sea level anymore, but we've moved inland. And all around me is a perfect example of these mountains. Wow. Paul said, I'm headed for the mountains. He said, I don't want to be a sea level Christian. He said, I want to rise. I want to rise. I'm going inland, I'm going onward, and I'm going upward. Brandon went with us to Israel there three or four years ago, and we know that the lowest point on the globe is there around that Dead Sea. And you know it's called the Dead Sea for a reason. It's dead. And everything around it is dead. Now one day it's going to come alive. But right now it's dead all around it. But not here. Paul says, look I'm moving in. I don't want to be below sea level, not sea level. I'm moving in and upward. I'm pressing on the upward way. New heights I'm gaining every day. Amen. A high calling upwards and above. Could I say this to you? And we'll close. Concerning some people I think that got it, that got it. What about Joseph of the Old Testament? I think Joseph discovered that he was to be more than just about a pretty coat. Joseph had a high calling, he was supposed to save the world. And he did. He did. Yep. Wow. About Moses, I think Moses discovered, he had a high calling, that it was more than just being an Egyptian prince. supposed to deliver Israel out of that 400 year bondage, bring them to the Promised Land. What about King David? I think he discovered that he was to be more than just a shepherd boy. And that's all some people see, but God saw a king. God saw a king. What about Ruth of Moabitess? Ruth got it. She found out she was to be more than just a little Moabite girl. But she would get her name in the genealogy. In the genealogy. Read Matthew 1 sometime. Those four or five ladies that are mentioned there. Esther. Esther got it. She needed some encouragement from Mordecai, but she got it. And she found out she was more than a queen. but she would be used of God to deliver Israel. And she'd have to take the attitude, look, if I perish, I perish, but I'm gonna do this. Because Mordecai convinced her that God had raised her up for that moment, for that day. Wow, the pages of God's Word. What about Daniel? For years, Daniel had served different kings. But Daniel learned that he was a miracle and a writer of the book of Daniel. What about those three Hebrew men with him? And those men discovered that it was more than just being politicians or princes, but it was about getting in the fire with Jesus. and people telling about it for decades and centuries afterwards. What about Mary, who discovered she was to be more than just a little maiden there in a village, an obscure village, but she would be the mother. She would be the human vessel through which our Savior would come into this world. Was that a high calling? I think so. Matthew, you're meant to be more than just a tax collector. I need you to write a book and open up the New Testament, Canaan of Scripture, Matthew. Paul, more than a Pharisee, but an apostle and a writer. epistles of the New Testament. Wow. And then we could go back even in Church history and look at others, even in our own American history. And we think of men and women who were brought out of obscurity, whether it was a George Washington or whoever, and used to touch a world for the glory of God. We sell ourselves way too short. I am a country boy. I was a Jerry Clower. I might have even been Marcel, brother. I might have been the Marcel. But I know where I came from. I know where I came from. Don't check me out too close. I still got some mud between my toes. Where I grew up in those cotton fields of North Mississippi. When God called me off that tractor, I never dreamed of this, that he'd put me hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles away from my home on numerous occasions, but on this occasion, calling. What a calling. Could we stand? Brother Brandon, why don't you come?