The Prize

Introduction

We have sung together some wonderful songs of praise. If we are indeed God’s people, we have come into the presence of a great God together today. And as we’ve engaged in this wonderful seeing and worship to this point, as we have partaken of the awesome supper of our Lord. It is a great privilege for me to be able to, for a short time, preach God’s message to you, and particularly this message. I want to begin this morning by talking about a word that is generally held in high regard by everybody. That word is the word prize. People like prizes. We even like grand prizes even more. And I remember, yes, when I was a little boy, we did have cracker jacks. They’re not as popular today.

If they put more nuts in them, I think they’d sell more. But cracker jacks. What was that all about? You open the box. I love the box. You open the box, and I didn’t even wait to get to the bottom of the box. I’m digging through all of that popcorn caramel stuff to get to that little bitty worthless thing. The prize. There was a prize inside the box. Cereal caught on. I don’t know if Cracker Jack did it first, but cereal caught on pretty quick as well. The need to put a prize in the box. And then, of course, McDonald’s has made trillions of dollars with their happy meal. Yes, kids like hamburgers, cheeseburgers, French fries, and their little drink of soda, but they’re interested foremost in the prize.

And I’ll tell you game shows. They’re all based on this premise, aren’t they? And if I can do a throwback here on that, one I liked as a kid was the new treasure hunt. 30 boxes wrapped as Christmas presents, but large boxes. Even the small boxes were big. And inside one of those boxes, the $25,000, and that was a lot of money for the time. $25,000 certified check. Well, what are the odds of picking the one box out of 30 that had the certified check? But I combed the archives and found the picture, the perfect picture for this sermon of the winner. For $8,000, that can hardly buy used car today. But $8,000, this lady is excited. She has won the prize.

1. Running for the Prize

Running for the prize. In 1 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul speaks to this end and uses this word that everybody likes. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run? But only one receives the prize. Run in such a way that you might win. And I just think it’s interesting that needs to be pointed out here that you can’t just run any way you like. You can’t make up your own rules. Paul talks about that in 2 Timothy chapter 2, competing according to the rules. And you can’t just run this race in a very nonchalant, non-caring, investing, very little sort of way, sort of tiptoe down the racetrack and win the prize. You have to exercise self-control, he will go on to say.

Now they do it to receive an imperishable wreath, but we an imperishable. And Paul says, I buffet my body and make it my slave, so that I’m not disqualified, that I might gain the prize. And the great thing about running in this race and receiving God’s prize is that it’s not reserved for a single runner. There’s a possibility that every one of us in this audience today could receive this prize. Paul fully expected to receive it. Even before his death, he says in 2 Timothy chapter 4, I am ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith, and henceforth there is laid up for me a crown.

A crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but all those who love his appearing. And then there’s this in Philippians chapter 3, where Paul in a little bit different vein says in that famous verse 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I think that’s an interesting expression the way the New American Standard has rendered that for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That has to do not only with the ultimate reward that God has for us, but the very pursuit of the reward. And so the journey itself is designed by God to be rewarding to us, and as I’ve said many times, enhancing of our lives here.

2. Paradise and Reward

It’s the goal of the prize, for the prize of the upward call of God. The people of God pursue, as we sing, higher ground. It’s an upward call. And even the pursuit of that is a part of the prize. And of course, there is an ultimate prize that awaits us that is anticipated by Philippians 3 and verse 14. And so that’s the introduction. Our understanding of the prize is important. Our appreciation of the prize is essential to a right response to God and a successful journey that we might of a number of synonyms that the scriptures use to describe the prize for us. And I thought about such words as paradise, reward, home, and rest.

Man, what’s not to like about all of those? Appealing, desirable terms. All paradise. Do you think of Jesus’ statement on the cross to the thief? When he said, Remember me when you come into your kingdom, and then he responds to him remarkably, incredibly. Today, you shall be with me in paradise. Revelation chapter 2 and verse 7, as he concludes the letter to the church at Ephesus. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. This term that is used in both of these texts is supposedly an Oriental word, first used by a fellow named Xenophon, denoting the parks of Persian kings and nobles.

And it identified the sum total of blessedness. Well, that may be the origin of its word, but I think we get the concept of paradise. Let your mind run wild in terms of that term. The sum total of blessedness, the paradise of God. We will eat of the tree of life, no less. In the paradise of God, if we overcome. Then there’s the word reward, which the Bible speaks up in Matthew chapter 5, in Matthew chapter 5, and the Beatitudes, when it speaks of blessedness, incidentally, over and over again. The blessed one is the one who is poor in spirit, and all of the things that flow from that in Matthew 5 and verse 3. And then he even talks about such things as blessed are you when men cast insults at you.

In verse 11, and persecute you falsely on account of me. He says in verse 12, rejoice and be glad. For your reward in heaven is great. We talked last Sunday night about joy as a part of us being God’s light to the world. We need to be a people of joy and rejoicing. How do we rejoice? How do we be glad? We have to understand. This is an essential part of this. You have to understand that our reward in heaven is great. And again, what a wonderful concept. Reward.

Is momentary light, even though it seems really heavy at times, momentary light affliction. Paul was talking to any believer who’s going through any difficult thing, and he says, momentary light affliction is not to be compared to what? The eternal weight of glory. And what would you compare that to? The eternal weight of glory. There’s nothing you can compare it to. Which is beyond all comparison. He says in that place. You have need of endurance so that you may receive what is promised. The Hebrew writer says to his audience in Hebrews 10 and verse 36. The next chapter. Moses. Interesting because Moses never met Christ. But he understood a lot about what it meant to serve Christ in his circumstances. He considered the reproach of Christ, interestingly enough.

He considered the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than all the riches in Egypt. And that’s a lot. What is the next phrase? For he looked to the reward. Whatever God bestows on us, it will be grand. It will be wonderful because he is wonderful. And the ultimate.

3. Home and Rest

Nothing feels quite like home, does it? We get excited on our trips and we go here and there, but if you’re like most of us, you’re always glad to see home. Home is a place of stability and security and comfort. And that image is conveyed to us in terms of the prize. Paul said to be absent from the body is what? To be at home with the Lord. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 8 and 9, and we sing a song, home of the soul. And then there’s this word rest. Most of us have known the joy of rest for the weary. There’s nothing like when you’re dead dog tired, finally getting to crawl into bed. That feeling is nice, isn’t it? Rest. Rest for the weary.

Blessed are those who die in the Lord. They shall have rest from all their labors, and their works do follow them. Let us not fall short of God’s rest. Hebrews chapter 4, let us fear lest while a promise remains of entering his rest that any of you should seem to come short of it. Verse 1. And this context flows all the way down to verse 11, and we’ll be looking at verse 12 tonight. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience. What else could God say?

Short of taking us there to actually see it. And experiencing it momentarily for ourselves to motivate us to prepare for the prize. Jesus said in that prayer in John 17 that we’ve studied very recently. He longed again to have the glory that he had with the Father before the world was. That he had left to come to earth. He anticipated that glory. Here is one who lived on the earth as a man for over 30 years, and he anticipated the glory that he knew was awaiting him. Hebrews 12, that is why we’re to lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us and run with endurance, the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

4. Properly Estimate the Value of the Prize

Okay, that’s just a brief description of the prize. But I want to tell you this. You’re not going to respond appropriately to God’s instruction and this hope unless you properly estimate the value of the prize.

The following words most accurately describe eternity with God. I searched my thesaurus to come up with all of these words elation, exaltation, jubilation, thrill, excitement, bliss, triumph. These are words that are associated with being in God’s presence forever. Did you see the slide about pressing toward the mark and the guys? Why do people do this? Victory. I won. There’s a lot of people involved in this Iron Man thing. I saw somebody post on one of my friends posted on Facebook. The member at Southside, he just completed the Iron Man thing, and this attracting to people. You know when you work for something, I don’t know why people do this. It’s crazy. But they work for this, they want to a concert, run a marathon, whatever it is they want to do some crazy outlandish thing like that.

And they’ll do all this training and work.

You’ll be dead before you reach the finish line. You will not make it. So you do all this training and all this preparation, months and months and months, and you finally get to the event and you do it, and when you finally finish, the sense of thrill. And so often in victory, what do people do? They raise their hands in triumph. Whatever that feeling is that I won’t know.

Whatever that is nothing compared to receiving this.

One glimpse of glory, one moment in his presence. One moment will exceed all of everything that we have had here. What happens is we lose sight of the value of the prize. And we start thinking about inferior trinkets. Boy, life would be better if that car showed up in my driveway today. Oh, that’d be good. We’d be so excited. There’d be some elation with that, wouldn’t it? And the picture of people grabbing for money. I mean, that’s that’s what motivates and fuels most people in our world. Things like this and all of that is so temporary. It is so inferior. And yet those are the kinds of things that people live their lives for. Some attain it, some don’t. But the prize that I’m talking about, everybody can attain, and it so far exceeds that.

Do we value it? Because I tell you, if we did, if we did have the right value placed upon the prize in our minds, we would make better decisions in the midst of temptation. We would derive a whole lot more enjoyment from our worship than many people seem to find. We would even crave fellowship with God and with his people. What’s heaven going to be like? Well, it’s better than, and you can just fill in the blank. You can put anything in there you want. The biggest high, the biggest thrill, the thing that you are most anticipating doing in your life. The plans, the dreams, all that you want to accomplish in your brief sojourn here. You can put anything on that line. You can put it all on that line.

The whole kitten caboodle. That’s my mom would say. Throw anything on that line you want to. God’s prize is better than that. Whatever it is that keeps you from doing right. Put it on that line. The prize is better than that. In fact, the value of all spiritual things really can’t be measured in terms of material things that we hold valuable. Look at Psalm 119. And what really impresses me about this psalm regarding just the word of God is that the whole word of God hasn’t even been completed. The whole mystery has not even yet been revealed. Here we have the entire package in our hands. God’s complete and total revealed mind to us about life and its purpose and why we’re here and why this world is here.

We have the whole thing. The writer of this Psalm has only a portion of it when he says the law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. In verse 127, therefore I love thy commandments above gold. Yes, above fine gold. Thy testimonies are wonderful. You know, you’re almost left without words that are adequate to describe it. Thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore my soul observes them. And then finally in verse 162, I rejoice at thy word as one who finds great spoil. Some of the response is, I read your word as I incur great boredom. That’s not the way the psalmist saw it. You see, it’s a matter of perspective. It’s the matter of the value that you place on things.

In Psalm 19 and verse 10, the word of God, they are more desirable than gold. Yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Everything about God, everything that pertains to Him, all that’s involved in the service of Him is so exceeding in value to everything else. To whom then will you liken God? The question is raised in Isaiah 4. It’s not anything. If we properly value the prize, we would have more submission.

5. Keep the Prize in View

And fewer attempts to look for loopholes in the Word of God. If we truly understood the nature of the prize. And so the purpose of this lesson is to encourage every one of us. We’ve got to keep the prize in view. I was thinking, as I do each week, what am I going to preach this Sunday? Well, I’ve been thinking for the last several weeks that I’ve not said enough lately about heaven. Because folks, the prize is, that’s why we’re here. That’s why we come here. It’s about the prize. It’s why we live. It is why we worship and why we sacrifice. The prize is why a true believer will make every effort to be with God’s people when they assemble to praise. The prize is why we should murmur and grumble less and meditate, work and pray more.

And the prize is why we plead with the lost while there’s time and opportunity. Parents, we need to teach our children. It’s all about the prize. You know, they understand this concept. Here’s a great idea. Go get them a prize. Or the next time you know, anything will do. Go to McDonald’s and say, I want to teach you a lesson today. I’m going to buy you a happy meal. And when you get the prize, and they start going to get all excited, wait till they start opening the prize. They open the prize and then say, God’s prize. It’s so much better than all of that. And you need to live for that. Whatever you do in life, you’ve got to live for that. That’s got to be first.

We need to instill in our kids a proper estimate of the prize.

And instill it within ourselves. We’ll lose sight of this. We’ll go out there. And other things will be on our mind. After all, we’re getting hungry, we’re going to eat lunch soon. The thoughts may not get beyond that. But I want to tell you if we’re going to be successful in life and live lives of faith that please God, we’ve got to keep the prize in view. Has to be done. Look at all those passages. Home with the Lord. Great is your reward in heaven. For the goal of the prize. I mean, these passages are telling us stay focused on the ultimate. And not the inferior. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. That comes at the end of the section about benevolence, interestingly enough, in 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 15.

Conclusion

Just an involvement in an endeavor like taking care of God’s people and contributing money to that cause. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. But it pertains to everything Jesus did in leaving the ivory palaces and coming to earth and bestowing grace and offering salvation and showing us the way to life. And offering us the hope of heaven. Have you embraced the promise of the prize?

Are you saying, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift? The hope of salvation, involvement in his things, which are the ultimate things on this earth. Have you confessed the name of Jesus and submitted to him? Repenting of transgressions that are against his will for us. And have you been baptized in likeness of his death, his burial, and his resurrection, rising to walk in newness of life so that if you were called before the judgment seat of God today, you would be ready to embrace the prize. Oh, there is healing in this wings. As there’s someone in our audience who needs to embrace that healing, let’s stand and sing together.