The goal is the prize. The prize is the goal. So Paul says, look, the goal of my life is to be like Christ, and that's also the reward of my race.

You say, you're going to reach that goal in this life? No, but it's still the goal. But someday I will be like Christ. That's the prize that God gives to the one who runs the race.

Welcome to Grace to you, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

If you ask the average person about his goals in life,

you'd probably get responses like earn a promotion,

exercise more, finally clean out that messy garage. And those answers make sense. Money, health,

comfort, things that the world seems to care about the most. But if you're a Christian, you have

higher priorities to keep in mind. What are those

priorities? How should you spend your time? What should you focus on and why? John MacArthur

answers those questions today as he looks at the ultimate goal of the Christian life. It's part of

his current study called Reaching for the Prize.

And now with the lesson, here's John.

Philippians chapter 3, verses 12 through 16, I am sure in many ways the most familiar portion in this whole epistle.

In this passage, we have six principles for pursuing the prize, and I want to share them with you.

Six necessary elements if we are to effectively pursue the prize.

Number one, an awareness of the need to pursue a better condition. You start out of blessed

discontent, blessed dissatisfaction, a recognition you're not what you ought to be. Number two,

principle. If you are going to pursue the prize effectively, you must give maximum effort to

pursue that better condition.

First, to know you need it, secondly, to pursue it.

There must be maximum effort to pursue that better condition.

Third principle.

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