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For our first Sunday of 2026, we're launching an exciting new series, Superficial to Spiritual, a Spiritual Formation series. Together, we'll journey beyond surface level faith into deep Christ-centered living. Join me, Pastor Richard, for our first message of the series entitled The Upward Call.

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Good morning, church. Today's scripture reading is taken from Philippines to Philippinas 3 verse 7 to 12. But whatever gain I had I counted as loss for the sake of Christ in neither I count everything as loss because I of the surpassing revolve of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which come through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God and depends on faith that I may know him and the power of resurrection and might share his suffering, becoming like him in his death that by any means possible I may attend the resurrection from the dead. This is the word of the Lord.

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This Sunday marks the beginning of a 12 sermon series on spiritual formation. And this is going to take place on our first Sundays of the month. And it ties in really well. If you were here for our covenant service, New Year's Eve, when we cross into the New Year, and so many of you were, uh this ties in really well with a prayer of personal consecration that we prayed at that time. Committing our lives to the Lord. Almost it made me think of wedding vows. Really, it's for better or for worse. No matter what the situation is, Lord, I'm in it for you. And that is really what spiritual formation is all about as well. And so the purpose of the series is to guide us along our journey of growing to become more like Christ. Throughout 2026, we're going to move from a superficial mindset that focuses on appearances and move towards spiritual maturity that begins within the heart and then radiates outward, transforming our lives. And it's a journey that we'll be taking together as a church. And so today we're going to begin that journey by hearing and listening to the upward call of God that draws us onward. Church, should we just uh begin with a brief prayer? Precious Lord God, would you right now open our ears to all you want us to hear? Soften our hearts to be changed as you wish, and ready our hands to act on all that you direct us to do. We pray and ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, the context for today uh the book of Philippians, it was written about 30 years after Paul's salvation, after he turned to Christ. Uh and it was written while he was in prison. But you see, Paul had grown a lot during 30 years. A lot had changed with him. He had grown in faith, all sorts of things had been done. But despite all this, he himself readily admitted he had still not attained any form of perfection. He couldn't say, I've arrived. God has perfected me. There's no more. No, no, he didn't say anything like that. He had not yet attained any form of perfection. There was still a race to run. And it's good for us to take note, even as we're sitting here, whether you've just become a believer in Jesus and the last week or month, or you've been a believer for decades, whatever the case may be, even if you've you've gone on, you you've done your theological studies, even for us here today as pastors, you know what? There needs to be a sober awareness, just as in Paul's case, that we have not attained perfection. We still have a ways to go. We can call ourselves Christian, and that's right as we follow Christ, but we still have a way to go. Our race is not completed yet. And so this morning I want to propose to you one important truth as we begin this series. Spiritual formation, it's a chosen path or a chosen journey. It is not a passive outcome. It isn't something that just happens by chance. It is something intentional, our growing to become more Christ-like. Now, at the beginning of our passage today, Paul reflects on the dramatic difference between what was valuable to him before encountering Christ and what was valuable to him after encountering Christ. Before what was valuable to him? His human achievements, his religious credentials, his personal righteousness. As many of you will know, before he encountered the Lord, Paul was called Saul. That was his first name. And Saul, well, he had a top-notch education from the premier teacher of his time, the rabbi Gamaliel. Gamaleo was a prominent Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin. It was the governing body that oversaw both religious and civil affairs for Israel. Paul was his star pupil. And so Paul, he also wasn't just a foreigner. He wasn't a permanent resident. He was a true blue Jew and a full Roman citizen with all the privileges and prestige that that implied. Being a Roman citizen, it carried a lot of weight in that time. You had privileges that no one else did. And Paul had those. He was from the right lineage, he had the right teacher, he had the right credentials, he was an up and rising star. And people were taking note of him. In fact, they expected him to even surpass his mentor, Rabbi Gamileel. And Paul was a master orator. He really knew public speech. He was very skilled in that. And so his full list of credentials and accomplishments, they would have been a long list to his contemporaries. This guy was really something. And all this accounted for great value before he encountered Christ. But that list of what was valuable to Paul, it changed a lot after his encounter with Christ. In fact, the list after encountering Christ, it just seems to contain two things, two things only. What was valuable to him? Knowing Christ and becoming like him. End of story. Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, verses 78, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. All that stuff before encountering Christ. Paul's saying, what wasted years those were. What a waste. Premier education. What a waste it was. All these things compared to knowing Christ, without knowing Christ, what a waste it was. He says they filled my life with worthless things. I count those years, those accomplishments, those credentials, that prestige. I count it as rubbish, and I'm tossing it out to make room for Christ.

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Wow.

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And that word rubbish, uh, the translators who translate it into English for us, they use that word rubbish so as not to offend us. Because in Greek that word, uh it can be translated rubbish, but it's a bit stronger than that. It's a bit closer to filth, to dung. All right. All that was before compared to knowing Christ, he counted it as rubbish. That's what encountering Christ was to him. It was something powerful, it was something life-changing. In church, I can't help but wonder about us. Do we so strongly discredit our life before encountering Christ compared to what it's like to know him? Don't misunderstand me. Uh education and things that we have learned, they're not bad things. Of course, they're not bad, but it needs to be in the context of serving Christ, and anything that is outside that context of serving Christ is rubbish. And so perhaps for some of you here, uh you're not even sure if there was a before encountering Christ and an after encountering Christ. Perhaps you you grew up in a Christian family all along. And if that's you, in your case, the question is a different one, really. It's a more basic one. If that's you, the question is have I encountered Christ for myself yet? Or are you here because of your parents or your grandparents? Well, we want to settle this by the end of this morning. If you haven't encountered him yet, you need to know that he is ready and he is waiting, even today, to start that new chapter in your life. And I believe that when we encounter Christ, just like Paul, something dramatic will take place inside of our lives, internally, where we say everything before I encountered him is rubbish. But now what I value most is knowing Christ and becoming more like him. For all of us, this is the beginning of our journey from superficial to spiritual. It begins with an encounter of Christ. Paul goes on to say this, and I'm gonna read from verses 12 to 14. He says, Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I've made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Paul is using foot race language here. He's pressing on, he's straining forward toward the goal for the prize. And Philippi, where this letter was sent to, would have been very familiar with the Olympic Games, including the foot race events within those games. And so they would have had this event in mind as they they heard this letter being read from Paul. But while Paul was using this familiar language of foot racing, he, of course, he wasn't talking about an actual foot race. What was it that he was talking about when he spoke of a goal? What exactly is the goal? What is the prize? What is the upward call? What was Paul talking about? This all has to do with our journey from being superficial, focused on outward, to being spiritual, which begins on the inside. The goal. He says, I press on towards the goal. And this word goal, it has the meaning of fixing your eyes on a mark. And so just as a runner, uh, you would fix your eyes on the finish line, right? You'd fix your eyes on where you need to go. I wasn't a runner myself, and I'm certainly not going to become one anytime soon. But some of you perhaps are. And you'll know if you are in a contest and you are running, what is the one thing you're never going to do? You're not going to start looking to the side or trying to look behind to see where everyone else is. You try to do that, you're finished. It's not going to happen. Well, Paul says, I press on towards the goal. I press on fixing my eyes on the mark. Paul was writing to the Philippians, and God is speaking to us today that we must fix our eyes on the mark. It's easy to become distracted. Life is more complicated than ever. We make so many decisions in every single day now, but we must keep our eyes fixed on the mark. If you want to make it to the finish line, you have to have your eyes fixed on that finish line, or you're not going to get there. So, what is that goal? What is that thing we're fixing our eyes on? The goal is to become increasingly like Christ in holiness and maturity. Just like training for an intensive sport, if we want to achieve that goal, we've got to train ourselves every day. Fixing our eyes on Christlieness in holiness and maturity. Fixing our eyes in becoming blameless in our thought life and in our deeds. The first step in our journey from superficial to spiritual is to know what the goal is. And the goal is Christlieness in holiness and maturity. Next, Paul tells us why is he fixing his eyes on this? Why it's a lot of work, it's a lot of training. Why fix his eyes on that? Well, it's for the prize, the prize of resurrection, life, and eternal glory. In the ancient Greek Olympic Games, the winner of the race would receive a crown of olive leaves woven together. And so this prize would only last a short time before perishing, before the leaves wilted. It was a very temporary thing. But Paul was competing for a crown that would never perish. He was competing for a prize that would last forever. He was competing for the prize of the resurrection, that one day his body would be transformed and perfected, and it would be made better. It would be changed by the everlasting glory of the Lord. And as we journey from superficial to spiritual, this is the prize that we are striving for. Because I want to tell you the promise is that everyone who is in Christ, one day, though the body may die, we will be raised to life again. We will be perfected inside and out. His work in us will be completed, and we will dwell with the Lord forever. It's going to be a future with no more problems. I don't know if you can imagine that. I have trouble imagining it, but it's going to be an amazing, wonderful time. This is the future. This is the prize that we are competing for. That's the good news. There is bad news. I cannot neglect the bad news. The bad news is for all who reject Christ, they will be separated from God forever. It's a very sobering thought. And so, brothers and sisters, as we have chosen to place our faith in Jesus, let's keep our eyes fixed on the goal. Let's strain for it. Let's train for it. Let's remind each other. Because the prize is worth it. Finally, Paul speaks of the upward call of God. That is the call of God calling us to Himself, calling us heavenward. And that's the call that we're responding to as we're taking this journey, even in this year 2026, of going from superficial, focused on outward things, and instead journeying towards something spiritual. It's a transformation that's going to take place in our lives. Superficial says, I wake up every Sunday early enough to come to church. I dress nicely, I pay my tithe, I do my Christian duty. Well, these are good things, and this is obedience to God. But if that's all it is, that's superficial. Spiritual says, Lord, I'm coming today, this morning, because I know I owe everything to you. Everything before you rubbish. I know that I need to worship you for who you are. And I know that as I worship you, you're going to do your work in me. Lord, I need to be strengthened again. It's been a rough week. I need you. So this is the journey we're taking, superficial to spiritual. This is the work of God. It begins with Him, not with us, because we can't just tough it out. We can't willpower to change ourselves. But instead, we come again and again and we listen to that upward call. God calling us heavenward. God telling us this is not all there is. There is a future, an eternity ahead of you. I'm calling you to myself. That's what we're reading here. God is calling us to Himself. And it's actually the third of three calls that we can find in Scripture. The first call is the call to salvation. This extends to all of mankind. Whether you're born rich or poor, whether you're affluent or isolated, you're heavy. Healthy, you're sick, you're black, you're white, you're yellow, you're red, whether you're good natured or you have a short fuse, whether you're fearful or depressed, whether you're male or female, this first call of God is to all of us. The call of salvation, the call to confess our sins and to receive God's forgiveness and to allow Christ to come into our lives, to cleanse us and to take over the driver's seat of our life. This takes several forms in the New Testament, doesn't it? Repent and be saved. Come follow me, be born again, believe in Jesus, call on the name of the Lord. This call, this first call, the call of salvation, is for every single one of us. The second call is the call to discipleship. The second call is only for us who are already believers and followers of Jesus. And it's this call that Jesus Himself made to his disciples when he said, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. This is the call of discipleship, the call of surrender to Christ in all areas of our life. Our finances, our fancies, our future. And the third call, the one we're hearing through Paul today, is the upward call. God calling us upward, heavenward. Responding to this call means we're going to commit to keeping our eyes on the future. We're going to have to remind ourselves many times that there is something more beyond this life we're living. Something more beyond going to the office five or six days a week. Something more than doing house chores. Something more than all that we're experiencing in this life. There is something more. It is in the future. And this upward call is something we need to respond to by keeping our ears attentive to God. Responding to this call, it means we're letting our lives be guided by an unseen hand to an unseen destination. I don't know if you ever struggle with this. I do. It's hard to try and point my whole life and everything I do for something that I can't see yet. Something that is shown as wonderful in Scripture, but honestly, it's not fully defined. What is it going to be like spending eternity with the Lord? I don't really know. Is it going to be wonderful? Yes. Yes, it is. It's going to be worth it. It's going to be worth everything. But I don't exactly see what it is yet. That is the upward call that we need to respond to. If I'm going to summarize for us, uh Paul here, he's using foot race as a metaphor for living as a follower of Jesus. It's a metaphor that was well understood by his audience, and we can understand it quite easily today. Paul says that we fix our eyes on the goal. What is that goal? Becoming more like Christ, right? That is the goal. It's for the purpose of winning the prize. What is the prize? The prize is resurrection life. And we're responding to the upward call of God. That call that draws our hearts and minds heavenward. In this race, and this is good news to me, in this race, you don't have to finish first. In this race, you don't have to be the fastest. In this race, you just have to finish the race. So all this, it helps us understand what spiritual formation is and the journey that we're taking together as a church. Spiritual formation is becoming more like Christ. Eric Liddell, for those of you who are familiar with the story, Eric Liddell said this. I believe God made me for a purpose. But God also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure. He was a sprinter. He was someone who did so well in his time, but he set apart Sundays as Sabbath. He refused to compete on Sundays. And so he lost his chance at being the top of the top in sprinting. But we can see why. I believe God made me for a purpose. But he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure. He loved to run. He knew that when he was running, he was worshiping God. And he discovered that running was a form of worship. And so Paul is also using a running metaphor. We must know why we're running. We must know our purpose. We must know what the goal is. We must know what the prize is. And church, we must continue to grow from superficial to spiritual. It's not a passive outcome. It doesn't happen on its own. It's intentional. Day by day, day by day, we discipline ourselves to set aside that which is displeasing to Jesus and to become more Christ-like doing what pleases him. And we do it with prayer again and again because we can't make it on our own. We're going to have an opportunity to respond in a moment, and I'll invite the worship team maybe to take their places here. They're going to help me out in a moment. But church, I just want to tell you from scripture and from experience. As we look to God, just like in the image of the prodigal son, he doesn't stand there sternly waiting for us. As we move towards him, he moves towards us. And as we believe in Jesus, I just want to remind you, God is for you and not against you. That he is the one who sets people free from all sorts of bondages of sin and addiction. That he is the one who hears our prayers, that when we pray, he hears. What a wonderful thing. That we can enter into his presence. There's no longer this complicated system. We just come before him and we can enter his presence. And that God loves you. When you encounter trouble, if you will call out to him, he will answer. You know what? If you have family members who don't believe in Jesus, who maybe are even in a very difficult spot right now, you can pray to the Lord and believe that he will respond to that prayer. If there are health concerns, God is the one who can bring life and health again. He has healing power. And as we continue to commit ourselves to spiritual formation, to being changed, wow, God is going to do a work in us. And I believe that we commit ourselves to this together as a church, this journey at the end of this year of 2026, we're not going to be the same. We pray that you've been ministered to by the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about Ashan Christian Church, please visit our website at ycanglican.com. Have a blessed day.