“This One Thing I Do…”: A Word to Young Men

“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.” (Philippians 3:13–14 ESV)

Athletes set goals for years of training, knowing their progress will be gradual but steady. Similarly, a Christian’s goal of becoming like Christ will be incremental and challenging, requiring years of obedience to His calling. Teaching from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Alistair Begg exhorts all of us—and challenges young men in particular—to live with a determined, singular pursuit of Christlikeness, encouraging believers to passionately and actively seek Jesus in all we do.

Do you have a plan? And do you have a passion about your plan? Is there anything about your life that is marked by an all-consuming passion? “I’d die if I couldn’t do this! You may as well put me in a home if I can’t do this! I must do this!” See, that was Paul: “One thing I do…” If you spend any time at all with Paul, you know what that one thing was. Doesn’t matter whether he’s in Athens, Ephesus, Colossae, anywhere, anytime: “One thing…”

“What are we doing today, Paul?”
“We’re going to do the one thing!”
“And what will we do when we finish that?”
“We’ll do it again! One thing I do…”

Can I speak just for a moment to young men? I’ll never forget the man in the kilt in Scotland. My wife will remember. We were over at the treasurer’s house for lunch. The treasurer had a son who was about fourteen—a kind of kindly, aimless chap. And one of the men who’d been invited to lunch was a huge, big man who wore a kilt and had big, hairy legs sticking out of his socks. And in the course of the lunch—in fact, we were in the garden before lunch—as we sat talking, he turned to this boy, and he said, “So, sonny, what are ye gonnae make o’ yoursel’?” The boy said, you know, “Pardon?” He said, “I said, sonny, what are ye gonnae make o’ yoursel’?”—which, being translated, is “What are you planning on doing with your life, kid?” He didn’t have any answer at all. And I can remember the fellow sort of harumphing in his mustache and saying to himself, “Aye, the kids today, they just don’t know what they’re doing, you know. Aye, aye, aye, aye…” And the boy was gratefully saved by being called from lunch.

And I don’t say that to remind myself of the boy, because plenty of fourteen-year-old boys don’t know they’re doing. But you need to start finding out. And I want to tell you, I want to give you one thing to do with the rest of your life, and it’s right here. You can make a commitment right today, January 5, 1997—you make a commitment to say, “No matter what I do, this one thing I’m going to do. If I’m an athlete, I’m going to do this one thing. If I go into business, I’m going to do this one thing. If I work on a factory floor, I’ll do this one thing. If I live on the East Coast, the West Coast, the North Coast, the South Coast, no matter what I do, I’m going to do this one thing: I am determined, God helping me—I never really thought about it before—but I am going to absolutely commit myself to pursuing, pressing on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

And I want to tell you, young man: If you will give yourself to that all-consuming passion, your life will be revolutionized. And it will always be the point to which you bring yourself back, on a good day, on a bad day, when your career is going well, when you’re in great difficulty, in marriage or in singleness. It won’t matter. You’ll always say, “But there’s this one thing that I do: I am passionately committed to this. I am going to pursue the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. If that means I have to be a minister, I’ll be a minister. If I have to go to Africa, I’ll go to Africa. If it means I’m a bank teller, I’ll be a bank teller. I don’t care what it is, but one thing—I’m going to give myself to this.”

Where are the young men that will stand up and make that commitment? O God, where are they? Where are they? We’re living in a generation of aimless clowns fed by aimless dads and underpinned by praying mothers. Do you have a passion about anything? Would you die for anything? That’s the issue. That’s the issue.

You see, the cornerstone of Christianity is Jesus, knowing Jesus—knowing His mercy, knowing His grace, knowing His power, knowing His peace. “I want to know a good friend,” says somebody. Well then, know Jesus Christ, because He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. “I want to know what it is to be cleansed, because I feel unworthy, and I’ve messed up so badly.” Then come to Jesus Christ, because though your sins be as scarlet, they’ll be as white as snow, and though they be red like crimson, they’ll be as wool. “I don’t know if I’m able to follow Him as I should.” Come to Christ. He will give to you the power of the Spirit to live in your life, to fill you and fuel you and keep you and use you. All the broken cisterns that are out there, all the empty dreams, all the aimless journeys, all the dead-end streets—don’t give your life to that. Don’t sell yourself short on that journey. Get this one thing, and commit to do it.

Stream “This One Thing I Do” by Alistair Begg.