September 29, 2025 • 30 mins
What's worth more than your most impressive accomplishments, your proudest moments, your deepest knowledge? According to the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3, absolutely nothing compares to knowing Jesus Christ.
Paul's credentials were impeccable: properly circumcised, pure Israelite lineage, from the prestigious tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew-speaking, Pharisaically trained, zealously religious, and legally blameless. By all cultural standards, he had every reason to boast. Yet he declares all these achievements as worthless—literally "dung" or "rubbish"—compared to knowing Christ.
The episode traces Paul's spiritual journey from intellectual knowledge of Christ to intimate relationship with Christ to fully experiencing Christ through resurrection power, suffering, obedience unto death, and ultimate resurrection hope. This progression challenges us to examine our own spiritual development: are we still clinging to religious accomplishments, family heritage, theological knowledge, or even past sins as sources of identity?
Most powerfully, we confront the question: what are you boasting in? Whatever credentials or achievements you value most, Paul invites you to count them as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord. Only when we release our grip on everything else can we truly gain Christ and be found in him.
My hope is that this podcast helps grow your faith and equips you to accomplish your dreams and goals!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Welcome to another part of my Philippian study that
I have been doing with our staffat Staff Chapel.
If you haven't listened to theother parts, you might want to
go back deeper into my podcast,check out those episodes, and
catch yourself up to join wherewe're at today.
(00:33):
We've been doing a study throughthe book of Philippians.
It's been a verse-by-verse kindof study.
And today, um, hopefully youhave your paper Bible.
And so if you do, turn it toPhilippians uh chapter three.
We're gonna be in Philippianschapter three.
We've been in this, or this 11thpart, and we've only made it to
(00:55):
Philippians three um verse.
I think today we're picking up,we're gonna go through.
I'm gonna try to make it throughverse 11.
I feel like that's prettyambitious, but we'll see.
Um, we did the first threeverses last time, so we'll see
how we go.
Okay, um, so all of the Biblecan be summed up like this.
Um, we have God's law, which isthe first five books of the
(01:18):
Bible, and then after we comeout of God's law, you move into
God's people.
And so it's all a story aboutGod's people and what he's doing
in them.
Reminder that everything thatGod was is doing from Genesis to
Revelation is to get a peoplethat's set apart for himself.
And so, do you guys need helpfinding Philippians?
It's in the New Testament,Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts,
(01:42):
Romans, and then Galatians,Ephesians, Philippians.
So it'll be on my Bible.
It's page 1395.
So, did you find it?
Okay, good, good.
If somebody's still lookingaround you, can you help them
help a brother or sister out?
Let them know where it's at.
You getting it?
(02:03):
I know it takes a second.
So the first part of the Bibleis God's law.
So that's the first five booksof the Bible, then God's people.
And so that's gonna be Joshuaall the way through.
Um, some say Job, and some it'sdisputed.
But then next is God's wisdom.
And so this is gonna be theprophetic books or the poetry
books rather in the Bible.
(02:24):
So it's gonna be Psalms,Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of
Songs.
Then we move into God'sprophets, and these this is God
calling back his people.
And so it would it would beeasiest if it was like all in
chronological order, but itisn't.
Actually, the oldest book in theBible is the book of Job.
And so, plot twists, and so itwas written before Genesis was
(02:45):
written.
And so, but the prophets, someof them uh will mirror into the
stories of God's people, and soyou'll see overlap of some of
those stories.
And then we go into the NewTestament, and the first four
Gospels are God's son.
So, Matthew, Mark, Luke, andJohn give us the story of Jesus.
So, when we're looking for thelife miracles of Jesus, um, we
go to one of the four gospels,and so that's God's son.
(03:06):
The next is God's church, andthat's gonna tell us the story
of God's church all the way fromActs through the book of Jude.
And so we hear about God'schurch, and then finally, the
book of Revelation is God'scoming back, and so, which is
that's good news, amen.
And so that's like a quickoverview of the Bible, but it
we're gonna be in Philippians uhchapter three, and it says this
(03:28):
uh verse one, it says, Finally,my brethren, rejoice in the
Lord.
For me to write the same thingsto you is not tedious, but for
you, it is safe.
And so we talked about last weekabout how uh repetition brings
safety.
And so sometimes we want to hearlike a new message from God or
like God do something new.
And actually, the new thing isthe old thing.
(03:50):
And it's like you never graduatefrom the basics.
And so we talked about last weekin our study about how it's just
revisiting those foundationalthings in our faith, those
foundational things of who weare as a church.
And sometimes I think we youstart to get into weird
doctrines when you're lookingfor something new and strange.
And so I'm always leery ofpeople when they stand up and
(04:10):
their message starts out with,I've never heard somebody preach
this before.
In 2,000 years of Christianitysince the resurrection, if
you're if you've got a neworiginal unicorn version of the
Bible, that's dangerous.
That's we call that a cult.
So now you're into strangedoctrines.
Um, we want to align ourselveswith what tradition has said um
(04:32):
historically in the church.
How has things been interpreted?
So he says, These things to berepeated, it's not tedious.
It's for you, it's safe.
He says, beware of the dogs,beware of evil workers, beware
of um mutilation, for we are thecircumcision who worship God in
spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus,and have no confidence in the
(04:54):
flesh.
And verse four, though I alsohave uh confidence in the flesh,
if anyone else thinks he mayhave confidence in the flesh, I
more so.
So Paul's like, hey, if youthink you have reasons to be
confident in your flesh byyourself, let me just tell you,
I have more reasons than all ofyou.
And verse four is where we'rebeginning today from last week.
(05:15):
And he says, circumcised theeighth day of the stock of
Israel of the tribe of Benjamin,a Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning
the law, a Pharisee, concerningzeal, persecuting the church,
concerning righteousness, whichis the law, blameless.
I'm gonna go ahead and keepreading.
It says, But what things weregained to me?
These I have counted lost forChrist.
(05:36):
Yet indeed I also count allthings, somebody say, All, all
things lost for the excellenceof the knowledge of Christ
Jesus, my Lord, for whom I havesuffered the loss of all things,
and count them as rubbish, thatI may gain Christ and be found
in him, not having my ownrighteousness, which is from the
law, but that which is throughfaith in Christ, the
(05:59):
righteousness which is from Godby faith, that I may know him
and the power of hisresurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings, beingconformed to his death, if by
any means I may attain to theresurrection from the dead.
Um, and that is where we'regonna stop.
Okay, so here's here's somethings we hear in this text that
(06:20):
we just talked about.
There's a lot of talk aboutcircumcision, and circumcision
was actually like one of thegreatest things talked about um
in the New Testament was thisbig dispute.
And basically, circumcision, uh,the people coming into the
faith, the Gentile peoplegetting saved and coming into
the faith, one of the thingsthey were doing to them is
getting them circumcisedimmediately because that was
(06:42):
Jewish tradition.
So today, uh, this would looklike at our church when Pastor
Brian got done preaching and hegave a salvation response.
Hey, for every person that justuh gave their life to Jesus,
Pastor Jimmy and Pastor Denverare over here on the side with a
knife.
If you're men, you go over thereand you're gonna get sh and
(07:02):
girls, you're gonna come overhere.
And if you're married, yourhead's gonna be covered and
they're never gonna see yourhair ever again.
I mean, that's really what itlooked like for male and female.
So people say it's really hardto text decided.
I'd say, I'd take textingdecided over that.
And Paul was actually a bigadvocate of not putting um these
Jewish traditions onto theGentile people.
(07:24):
He's like, guys, don't make thembe circumcised.
But however, he did make uhTimothy, which is his son of the
faith, get circumcised.
And so I thought this was prettyfunny.
Um, this is Timothy when Paulshows up and says, You're gonna
be circumcised.
He's like, Hold up, Paul, likeyou just wrote all these letters
to everybody else, and nowyou're telling me I have to be
(07:44):
circumcised.
So, why circumcision?
Well, every time that God made acovenant, um, there was always a
sign.
Every covenant that God made,there was a sign.
And so when God shows up uh toNoah, he gives Noah a sign, and
the sign was a rainbow, andthat's so exciting.
Like I love a rainbow sign.
And you think, what did what didGod's covenant with Noah?
(08:07):
What does the rainbow represent?
Promise of what?
Never flooding the earth.
And so where are rainbows?
After the rain, and where arethey?
In the sky, right?
And so a sign is always gonna bea part of what that covenant
promise is.
So the rainbow, every time welook up, we're reminded that
(08:28):
he's not gonna flood the earth,and so it's it's gonna be
connected to the covenant that'sbeing made.
So the sign and the covenanthave parts of it.
So knowing this, that Abrahamknew that Noah got a rainbow.
And so when God shows up toAbraham, he says, I'm gonna make
covenant with you.
And Abraham's excited, and untilGod goes, actually, I'm gonna
(08:53):
I'm gonna circumcise you.
So this is God telling, this isGod telling Abraham about the
covenant.
This is Abraham going, wait,we're gonna do what?
I want a rainbow.
And sometimes you get a rainbow,sometimes you get circumcised.
You know, sometimes it'spainful, sometimes it's
beautiful.
And if you walked with God forany amount of time, you know
(09:13):
that sometimes when God asks youto do something, it's a rainbow.
And then other times it'scircumcision.
So um, so you're gonna see thistalked about a lot.
But Abraham, what remember thesign is always tied to the
covenant being made.
And the circumcision wasrepresenting God's bringing
forth a family, like he'sbringing forth a people.
And so it was on the part of themale for a reason because it's
(09:37):
saying, we're a new family.
We're a new people.
Like I'm consecrating you, I'msetting you apart from myself.
So fast forward, now we seeJesus come on scene.
And Paul lets us know that it'sno longer a circumcision of the
flesh, but it's a circumcisionof the heart.
And so now God doesn't want itto be an outward thing that's
being done, but it's gonna be aninward thing.
(09:59):
Because again, the sign isalways representative of the
covenant being made.
And God came to transformhearts.
Like all the covenants leadingup to the new covenant were
things on our outward world thatwere changing, promises that
were gonna change what weoutwardly saw.
But now God's coming in toreside within us.
And so this is the beauty ofwhat he's uh the circumcision
(10:21):
talks.
So when you see that, I don'twant you to think about flesh
circumcision, but I want you tothink about heart circumcision.
And Paul's Paul's letting themknow here, hey guys, like you
guys are like so hung up onthis, but really it's something
deeper that I want to talkabout.
So he gives seven reasons toboast here.
Uh, seven reasons.
He's like, if anybody's gonnaboast, I have seven reasons.
(10:44):
And so Paul goes through hisseven reasons to boast.
Uh, the first one is that he washe received circumcision
according to the law.
So he's saying, on the eighthday, I received circumcision.
So ironically, the Judaizers umwho were persecuting the New
Testament church, the Jewishpeople that were persecuting uh
(11:04):
the church, that a lot of themweren't even circumcised on the
eight days.
Some of them were new to thefaith, some of them their
families weren't obeying thelaw.
And so what Paul is saying hereis I've been obeying the law
before I could even make thechoice to obey the law, I was
already in obedience to the lawbecause I came from a family
that was adhering to every partof it.
So even before I had the freewill myself, I was already in
(11:29):
perfect promise.
I was in perfect obedience towhat God's law required.
So he's like, if you want totalk about reasons to boast,
here's my first reason to boast.
I I've never known a day awayfrom God's presence.
I'm like, that's a pretty bigflex that you can say I've been
obedient literally since birth.
Um but he says, number two, Ibelong to the nation of Israel.
He's like, all you guys, you'vebeen grafted in, some of you are
(11:51):
from other places, but he says,Hey, I've got a people that I
actually belong to, which isIsrael.
And so if anybody could say thatI'm an insider, I'm an insider.
So Paul is ethnically Jewish, uhphysical descent of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob.
So he can link himself all theway back.
So he's like, if anybody has areason to boast, I do.
(12:12):
Like you guys, you started in,some of you weren't even born
into this, but I was born intoit.
I'm from the nation of Israel.
And so why it matters is he'snot a Gentile convert or a
Samaritan, but a true Israeliteby blood.
To the Philippians, Paul issaying, I'm not just religiously
committed, I'm from the chosennation itself.
So he's like, this isn't like achurch attendance thing for me.
(12:35):
Like I was born into this.
Uh the next, he says, I'm fromthe tribe of Benjamin.
Now, the tribe of Benjamin isthe tribe that from Israel's
first king, um, we know theperson Saul.
In fact, his name, Saul, wasafter the first king of Israel.
So he's like, I'm from the tribeof Benjamin.
The tribe of Benjamin um wasreally highly esteemed because
they were a tribe of people thatdidn't bow to pagan gods.
(12:57):
And so he's saying, okay, notonly do I belong, do you see how
he's like zooming out like thenation of Israel, but now I'm
zooming in right now.
I belong to the tribe ofBenjamin.
But then he goes on to say, I'ma Hebrew of Hebrews.
Like you're not gonna findanybody more Hebrew than me.
Meaning to say that he was aHebrew of Hebrews means that he
didn't just speak Hebrew, but healso spoke Aramaic.
(13:18):
And we see, are y'all learningsomething?
In Acts 22, um, Paul getsarrested and basically he speaks
to them in his Hebrew tongue,and all of a sudden they realize
who they just uh captured.
And it actually gave him favorin that moment.
And so we see that this part ofwho he is, he's like, guys, not
(13:39):
only am I from the rightcountry, not only am I from the
right tribe, not only in frontof the right people, but this
culture is something I embodiedmy entire life.
Like I know the languageforwards, backwards.
You want to ask me about theculture?
I know the whole culture.
And then he goes on to say, asto the law, I'm a Pharisee.
So a Pharisee was somebody whothey would have to memorize the
(13:59):
first five books of the Bible.
Then you would be selected outas a young boy by a rabbi to
come and learn from him.
And then at a certain point, andyou're following the rabbi, you
would be released now to goteach other people the law.
And so he's saying, guys, I knowall of this.
Like this law that you're tryingto bring against these people, I
know it forward, I know itbackward, and I probably am one
(14:21):
of the ones that taught you.
Um, Gamalael was his teacher,and he's brought up in one part
of the gospel because people aredisputing about the Christians.
And Gamala says, Hey, listen, ifthis is a fake religion, it'll
it'll just die off.
But if it's from God, nobody canstop it.
And we see that here we are2,000 years later, and it's
still spreading across theearth.
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It can't be stopped.
And so he's saying, as to thelaw, I'm a Pharisee.
So if you're looking for mycredentials about the law, I was
a Pharisee of Pharisees.
I knew it all forward andbackward.
And then he goes into the nextthing.
He says, as to zeal, apersecutor of the church.
Like, and so zeal was a bigtheme when we look in the book
of uh Jeremiah, and then alsoit's mentioned in the book of
(15:04):
Ezekiel, and this zeal for God'shouse, for God's people, um, was
a big deal.
In fact, Jesus, it says that hewas identified for the zeal for
the house.
And he says, My zeal to be areligious person is that I
persecuted the church.
Like my boasting point was Iused to be just like you.
Like my boasting point is I usedto be against these same people
(15:25):
that you're so frustrated with.
I used to be on your side.
I was the one persecuting themtoo.
So he's like, guys, on everylevel, I've got you.
And he says, as to righteousnessunder the law, blameless.
So he says, when I look at theentire law, I was keeping all of
it perfectly.
Now I will just say that's apretty major flex.
I can't, I mean, I might really,Paul, were you really perfect in
(15:48):
the whole law?
But you know, it's kind of likethe rich young ruler that came
to Jesus and he said, I've keptthe law perfectly since my
youth.
I'm like, you're a liar.
You're a liar, but I'm fine.
I mean, it's Paul.
He can say whatever he wants.
He calls himself blameless.
The Lord let him record it inscripture.
Amen.
So he's saying, even if someonecould boast in their
performance, um, he's saying, Ican and I don't.
(16:09):
And he's he's looking at all ofthis, and he says, why?
He says, What am I gonna trust?
Like I can trust in any of thesethings.
So just saying, let me break itdown this way for us.
Some of you, your boasting pointis your family line.
Some of you, your boasting pointis the neighborhood you live in.
Some of you, your boasting pointis that you know so much
(16:29):
scripture and you love to flexon people.
Some of you, your boasting pointis that you do everything that
God asks you to do and you havethis religious piety that you're
above everybody else.
Some of you, your boastingpoint, I'll just be honest, is
the sin that you used to livein.
Like you brag about it.
And and he's saying, hey guys,like I could boast in any of
these things, and I don't.
(16:51):
I don't.
He says, quite literally, hesays, I count them all as loss.
And he's like, none of them meananything to me.
And so this passage makes clearthat theology and life, they go
together.
And and Paul, what he does sobeautifully throughout his
letters, he's gonna always lay atheological groundwork, and then
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he's gonna talk about our ethicsor how do we live this out.
And so we see this um throughoutscripture.
In fact, even whenever um youyou know the scripture where it
talks about husbands, um, honoryour wives, or wives, honor your
husbands, husbands love yourwives as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for her.
Um, that is preceding a longtheological statement that
(17:32):
Paul's saying.
So he's saying all the thingsthat we're learning, they're not
just for us to be puffed up andno more, but it's actually for
our ethic or how we live tobegin to be transformed.
So, in other words, I don't careabout how much you know, I care
about how much you live.
And so Paul goes into, I've gotall these things that I know,
(17:53):
I've got all these things thatI've lived, I've got all these
things that I've been through,but all of those, it means
absolutely nothing because henow transitioned into ethics.
And so he's saying, How do Ilive this out?
And so he begins to go through,he says that all of this is lost
for Christ.
And then he goes, Lost forChrist, all is lost for Christ,
and everything is rubbish, dungoutside of Christ.
(18:16):
So there's this progression thathe's taking us through.
He first says that it's a lossfor Christ.
He's like, when I think aboutall these things, I gave it up
for Jesus.
Like I gave it up for Jesus, butthen he goes even further.
He's like, Not only did I justgive it up for Jesus, I actually
look at everything in my lifeand I say that all of it is
nothing compared to Christ.
(18:37):
Like I give up everything.
I give up every reason I canboast, I give up every reason
for my pride to get in the way,I give it up all.
And then he goes to a layerdeeper in this text because he's
like taking you deeper into histhought process.
And he says, actually,everything is rubbish, dung.
The actual word there would be acurse word.
It'd be like shut up, but with adifferent than the you like
(19:00):
actually that's how passionatehe is.
That's that's actually.
I mean, if you want the realword, he cursed right there.
He's like, I count it all asblank outside of Christ.
So when I look at everything,like all the things, so when you
see people that start to getpuffed up, because the Bible
says that God resists the proud,but he's near the humble.
(19:22):
And when you come to God andyou're the person that's like, I
did this for him, I served thismany times, I gave this much, I
did this, I know the whole law.
I get I sacrificed my summer tobe in lead, and I, I, I, hey,
all of that, it's lost forChrist.
And like when you really get toa place, you look at your best
things that you could ever uhdo, your resume of
(19:45):
qualifications, and you're like,actually, it's rubbish.
Like compared to Christ, it'srubbish.
Me on my absolute most perfectday, perfect behavior, all the
lineage, I haven't I have notkept the law since I was born,
it's still rubbish compared toChrist.
So he's taking you deeper intothis thought.
And so he's saying, when Iencountered Jesus on the road to
(20:05):
Damascus, I gained a new way ofliving.
My old life wasn't evenappealing anymore.
All I wanted was Christ.
And I'll say, when you have areal transformation moment, and
I think he does it little bylittle, because I think when you
first get saved, there's stillthings that like lure you back.
But I'll say the further you goin God, the more it just goes
(20:27):
from loss for Christ, all islost for Christ.
And then actually you look ateverything you used to be and
you're like, it's rubbish.
Like it's nothing.
I don't even want that anymore.
I don't even know who thatperson is anymore.
Like if she walked into theroom, I'd have to walk up and
introduce myself because I'm sofar disconnected.
And that's what he's saying.
He's like, the further we followChrist, the more deeply in love
(20:49):
we fall with him, the moredistant we are from those things
that we used to receive all ofour identity from.
Is this good?
Okay.
So then he does the same thingbecause I love how he like
parallels these ideas.
He does the same thing inknowledge of Christ.
He says, first he has theknowledge of Christ in the
scripture.
It says that he just wants toknow Christ, like just satisfied
(21:10):
knowing Christ.
But then he goes to the personof Christ, and then he goes into
experiencing Christ.
I love how he even says he wantsto know him, but then he goes
deeper.
He says that I might be found inhim.
Now, I don't know about y'all,but like I've never gotten to a
point of being like so in lovewith Brian, knowing him, that
I'm like, I actually want tocrawl inside of you.
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Like, you know what I mean?
But Paul's like, it's such adeep, intimate knowing that it's
like, I don't know where you endand I begin.
It's like I'm so I'm foundinside of Christ.
And so it's the person ofChrist, and that it overflows
into an experience with Christ.
And so I will just encourage youas you go into this journey,
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maybe you're like, man, thisChristian life is really hard.
Maybe you're just like, I'mcounting it as loss for Christ.
But if I'm just being honest, Iwant to go back to it.
It's probably just becauseyou're on building block number
one.
You're just getting to knowChrist.
But man, when there gets to apoint when you're in love with
the person of Christ, you startto count all as loss.
Like it gets easier to givethings up, it gets easier to let
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things go.
It gets easier to not walk inwith your pride or your
credentials or yourpuffed-upness.
Y'all know what I'm talkingabout.
And then finally it gets to apoint where it's like, all I
want to experience is him.
And like if he's not in it, Idon't want it.
And it and you start to havethese things where y'all know
what I'm talking about.
Like your experience of lifebegins to be different, your
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perspective begins to bedifferent, everything begins to
shift.
Why?
Because I've moved from aknowledge of him to a person,
I'm doing life with him, to allof a sudden now all I'm wanting
to experience is the God things.
I don't even want the thingsthat I could have.
And so he's letting them knowhere that he's Paul longs for um
not just for forgiveness, butintimacy.
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He desires that the people aregonna know him in these four uh
four areas.
Number one, the resurrectionpower, the victory.
He begins to line out exactlywhat he wants them to know.
He says, I want you to know thepower of his resurrection, the
victory.
The power of his resurrectionthat he's alluding there to is
the Holy Ghost.
Like he's like, guys, we'recalled to live a Holy Ghost kind
(23:19):
of life.
Like you have the same powerthat raised Jesus from the dead
dwelling in your mortal body.
He's like, I want you toexperience this kind of powerful
victory.
And he's talking to a churchthat's persecuted, he's talking
to a church that's going througha lot of need, a lot of want.
And he's saying, even in themidst of your darkest season,
you can experience resurrectionpower.
(23:39):
Even in the midst of things thatyou don't understand, you can
experience resurrection power.
You can walk in victory eventhough your life looks like
loss.
And there's these two thingsgoing hand in hand because he's
going, I count everything elseas lost, which seems foolish,
right?
It doesn't seem like victorywould come on the tails of that.
But he's like, in Christ, whenI'm living my life in Christ, I
(24:00):
look at loss as victory.
My perspective begins to shift.
Everybody else looks at it asyou used to have a lot of
friends, now you have nofriends, but you just see
victory.
You look at it as I had allthese things planned out for my
life, I had all these things,these uh things that I thought
God was gonna do, but God askedme to lay them on the altar, and
people see it as loss, but yousee it as victory.
(24:21):
And so he's saying, guys, I wantyou to experience this
resurrection power, this victorywe have available.
Next is suffering, which isfellowship.
And um, I heard uh my professorthe other day, uh Dr.
Green, he says there's threeways of knowing God.
There's the salvic, the salvicexpression, which is when we get
saved.
Um, number two, it's uh roomswhere we experience the presence
(24:44):
of God and corporate uh measuresof worship where you feel God's
tangible presence.
But he said, number three is weexperience them in our
suffering.
And he said, number three isactually the deepest because
it's a personal knowing, nomatter the cost.
And he said, number one is likea moment, right?
Salvation, it feels so good.
Like I'm I'm saved and that'sgood.
(25:06):
Number two is a moment where theSpirit of God is moving and
corporate uh measures ofworship, and those moments are
so great.
Like I love moments we have attogether at camp, different
things like that.
It's awesome.
When you're reading the Word ofGod and the Word just comes
alive to you, that's amazing.
But there's a knowing Him andthe suffering that God uh that
Paul's letting us know here.
(25:26):
So part of the gospel know itmessage is knowing uh we will
endure times and seasons ofsuffering on this journey.
Like it's not if you will, it'swhen you will.
And it's it's he's saying it'seven then, it's knowing him.
Like that's that's being foundin him and going into a deeper
place with him.
So number three is death, whichjust means obedience.
(25:51):
Death, which means obedience,means I'm not doing this for a
season.
Like it's literally unto death.
And for the early church, itliterally to be a Christian
means that you might die, quiteliterally.
Like you might be martyred.
None of us are afraid of walkingout of here today and being
(26:11):
martyred for the gospel's sake,but they were.
That was a very present reality.
And he's saying, guys, thisisn't just something you're
trying out in your high schoolyears.
This isn't just something thatyou're doing for a season.
This is an until death.
Like to my very last breath, Iwant to be found being faithful
to God.
The story of God, and uh peopletalk about the book of
Revelation a lot.
(26:32):
I'll give you a cheat code tounderstand the book of
Revelation is faithful witnesseswho God's looking for.
That's the whole point.
Is when you go through hardtimes, when you go through
difficult seasons, are you gonnabe a faithful witness or are you
gonna bow?
And it's unto death obedience.
And a lot of us have an unto heasked me to do something that
(26:55):
opposes my logic.
Um, I have an obedience until itmakes me uncomfortable.
I have an obedience if it'sconvenient, I have an obedience
if my schedule works out.
I have y'all know what I'mtalking about.
I have an obedience if everybodyagrees with it, I have an
obedience if my parents like it.
I have an obedience if myfriends think it's okay, I have
an obedience as long as I'mstill at the cool table at
(27:16):
lunch, I have an obedience untiland he says, No, it's an
obedience unto death.
Like it doesn't matter, God, I'mdoing exactly what you asked me
to do in every season.
And finally, the resurrection,which is hope.
And so our hope is not thateverything turns out perfectly.
In fact, Paul never tells them,like, if you follow Jesus, all
your wildest dreams will cometrue.
(27:38):
It's actually not true.
Actually, and if you notice,Paul was imprisoned and beaten
and all the things, and he neverone time asked for God to rescue
him out of the hard time.
The hope he had was in the lifeafter this.
It's eternity.
And that's where his hope was isthat at the end of it, that we
all hear the words, good, welldone, good and faithful servant.
(28:01):
That's our hope.
My hope isn't, it doesn't matterwhat happens in the world, it
doesn't matter what happens inmy family.
All those things are just bonus.
But the goal is at the finalresurrection, that's my hope is
that I'm gonna be reunitedtogether with him.
And so this kind of ends that.
I did it, I went all the waythrough verse 11.
Um, and so that ends that kindof statement.
(28:23):
Um, but just for us to considerlike what are the things that we
boast in?
You know, what are what are thethings that you personally boast
in?
Do you boast in the fact thatyou've been a person who's
always followed God and you'venever missed up a single day of
your life?
That's great, and I love that.
That's an awesome testimony, butit's not a reason to boast.
(28:44):
And actually, it's more aboutGod's grace that preserved you
and kept you than it is aboutyou living perfectly.
Do you boast that you're theperson like the man that's
beating his chest and he said, Ialways pay my tithes and I
always go to prayer?
Is it you fulfilling religiousobligations?
Or is it in God, thank you, thatyou made my heart like yours
(29:05):
that I want to give, that I wantto pray.
Do you see how it's it'sexcitement that I'm doing the
right thing, but the the end ofthe story isn't me.
The end of the story is God.
And so, what is your reason forboasting?
And whatever it is, may we notbe found on the side of the
Pharisees, but may we be foundon the side of Paul, and that we
count it all as loss.
So all the things that we coulddo well, all the things we could
(29:27):
do good, it pales in comparisonwith the beauty of Christ.
Amen.
Uh Father, we just thank you somuch for who you are.
Oh, Lord, we thank you that youare speaking to us.
And Lord, we do, we count it allas loss.
Lord, the things that we couldhave done with our life, the
things these lead students couldbe doing right now instead of
being here, we count that asloss.
(29:48):
Lord, it pales in comparison andknowing you.
That Jesus, we want you morethan anything else, that we
might know you, but ultimatelythat we might experience you.
Lord, we want your life to beour life.
Lord, that we're so encompassedand so enveloped in you that we
don't know where you end and webegin.
And so, Father, we just thankyou for a summer of growth,
(30:10):
Lord, a summer of going deeper,a summer of discovering you, not
just um, not just in the thingsthat we want to do, but Lord,
whatever you ask.
There's no distance too far,there's no sacrifice too great.
We give you our yes in Jesus'name.
Somebody who believed it said,Amen.
I love you guys.
Have a great day.
Thanks so much for hanging outhere on my podcast.
(30:31):
Do me a favor and hit thesubscribe button if you haven't
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get the word out so we can helpothers.
Welcome to another part of my Philippian study that
I have been doing with our staffat Staff Chapel.
If you haven't listened to theother parts, you might want to
go back deeper into my podcast,check out those episodes, and
catch yourself up to join wherewe're at today.
(00:33):
We've been doing a study throughthe book of Philippians.
It's been a verse-by-verse kindof study.
And today, um, hopefully youhave your paper Bible.
And so if you do, turn it toPhilippians uh chapter three.
We're gonna be in Philippianschapter three.
We've been in this, or this 11thpart, and we've only made it to
(00:55):
Philippians three um verse.
I think today we're picking up,we're gonna go through.
I'm gonna try to make it throughverse 11.
I feel like that's prettyambitious, but we'll see.
Um, we did the first threeverses last time, so we'll see
how we go.
Okay, um, so all of the Biblecan be summed up like this.
Um, we have God's law, which isthe first five books of the
(01:18):
Bible, and then after we comeout of God's law, you move into
God's people.
And so it's all a story aboutGod's people and what he's doing
in them.
Reminder that everything thatGod was is doing from Genesis to
Revelation is to get a peoplethat's set apart for himself.
And so, do you guys need helpfinding Philippians?
It's in the New Testament,Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts,
(01:42):
Romans, and then Galatians,Ephesians, Philippians.
So it'll be on my Bible.
It's page 1395.
So, did you find it?
Okay, good, good.
If somebody's still lookingaround you, can you help them
help a brother or sister out?
Let them know where it's at.
You getting it?
(02:03):
I know it takes a second.
So the first part of the Bibleis God's law.
So that's the first five booksof the Bible, then God's people.
And so that's gonna be Joshuaall the way through.
Um, some say Job, and some it'sdisputed.
But then next is God's wisdom.
And so this is gonna be theprophetic books or the poetry
books rather in the Bible.
(02:24):
So it's gonna be Psalms,Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of
Songs.
Then we move into God'sprophets, and these this is God
calling back his people.
And so it would it would beeasiest if it was like all in
chronological order, but itisn't.
Actually, the oldest book in theBible is the book of Job.
And so, plot twists, and so itwas written before Genesis was
(02:45):
written.
And so, but the prophets, someof them uh will mirror into the
stories of God's people, and soyou'll see overlap of some of
those stories.
And then we go into the NewTestament, and the first four
Gospels are God's son.
So, Matthew, Mark, Luke, andJohn give us the story of Jesus.
So, when we're looking for thelife miracles of Jesus, um, we
go to one of the four gospels,and so that's God's son.
(03:06):
The next is God's church, andthat's gonna tell us the story
of God's church all the way fromActs through the book of Jude.
And so we hear about God'schurch, and then finally, the
book of Revelation is God'scoming back, and so, which is
that's good news, amen.
And so that's like a quickoverview of the Bible, but it
we're gonna be in Philippians uhchapter three, and it says this
(03:28):
uh verse one, it says, Finally,my brethren, rejoice in the
Lord.
For me to write the same thingsto you is not tedious, but for
you, it is safe.
And so we talked about last weekabout how uh repetition brings
safety.
And so sometimes we want to hearlike a new message from God or
like God do something new.
And actually, the new thing isthe old thing.
(03:50):
And it's like you never graduatefrom the basics.
And so we talked about last weekin our study about how it's just
revisiting those foundationalthings in our faith, those
foundational things of who weare as a church.
And sometimes I think we youstart to get into weird
doctrines when you're lookingfor something new and strange.
And so I'm always leery ofpeople when they stand up and
(04:10):
their message starts out with,I've never heard somebody preach
this before.
In 2,000 years of Christianitysince the resurrection, if
you're if you've got a neworiginal unicorn version of the
Bible, that's dangerous.
That's we call that a cult.
So now you're into strangedoctrines.
Um, we want to align ourselveswith what tradition has said um
(04:32):
historically in the church.
How has things been interpreted?
So he says, These things to berepeated, it's not tedious.
It's for you, it's safe.
He says, beware of the dogs,beware of evil workers, beware
of um mutilation, for we are thecircumcision who worship God in
spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus,and have no confidence in the
(04:54):
flesh.
And verse four, though I alsohave uh confidence in the flesh,
if anyone else thinks he mayhave confidence in the flesh, I
more so.
So Paul's like, hey, if youthink you have reasons to be
confident in your flesh byyourself, let me just tell you,
I have more reasons than all ofyou.
And verse four is where we'rebeginning today from last week.
(05:15):
And he says, circumcised theeighth day of the stock of
Israel of the tribe of Benjamin,a Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning
the law, a Pharisee, concerningzeal, persecuting the church,
concerning righteousness, whichis the law, blameless.
I'm gonna go ahead and keepreading.
It says, But what things weregained to me?
These I have counted lost forChrist.
(05:36):
Yet indeed I also count allthings, somebody say, All, all
things lost for the excellenceof the knowledge of Christ
Jesus, my Lord, for whom I havesuffered the loss of all things,
and count them as rubbish, thatI may gain Christ and be found
in him, not having my ownrighteousness, which is from the
law, but that which is throughfaith in Christ, the
(05:59):
righteousness which is from Godby faith, that I may know him
and the power of hisresurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings, beingconformed to his death, if by
any means I may attain to theresurrection from the dead.
Um, and that is where we'regonna stop.
Okay, so here's here's somethings we hear in this text that
(06:20):
we just talked about.
There's a lot of talk aboutcircumcision, and circumcision
was actually like one of thegreatest things talked about um
in the New Testament was thisbig dispute.
And basically, circumcision, uh,the people coming into the
faith, the Gentile peoplegetting saved and coming into
the faith, one of the thingsthey were doing to them is
getting them circumcisedimmediately because that was
(06:42):
Jewish tradition.
So today, uh, this would looklike at our church when Pastor
Brian got done preaching and hegave a salvation response.
Hey, for every person that justuh gave their life to Jesus,
Pastor Jimmy and Pastor Denverare over here on the side with a
knife.
If you're men, you go over thereand you're gonna get sh and
(07:02):
girls, you're gonna come overhere.
And if you're married, yourhead's gonna be covered and
they're never gonna see yourhair ever again.
I mean, that's really what itlooked like for male and female.
So people say it's really hardto text decided.
I'd say, I'd take textingdecided over that.
And Paul was actually a bigadvocate of not putting um these
Jewish traditions onto theGentile people.
(07:24):
He's like, guys, don't make thembe circumcised.
But however, he did make uhTimothy, which is his son of the
faith, get circumcised.
And so I thought this was prettyfunny.
Um, this is Timothy when Paulshows up and says, You're gonna
be circumcised.
He's like, Hold up, Paul, likeyou just wrote all these letters
to everybody else, and nowyou're telling me I have to be
(07:44):
circumcised.
So, why circumcision?
Well, every time that God made acovenant, um, there was always a
sign.
Every covenant that God made,there was a sign.
And so when God shows up uh toNoah, he gives Noah a sign, and
the sign was a rainbow, andthat's so exciting.
Like I love a rainbow sign.
And you think, what did what didGod's covenant with Noah?
(08:07):
What does the rainbow represent?
Promise of what?
Never flooding the earth.
And so where are rainbows?
After the rain, and where arethey?
In the sky, right?
And so a sign is always gonna bea part of what that covenant
promise is.
So the rainbow, every time welook up, we're reminded that
(08:28):
he's not gonna flood the earth,and so it's it's gonna be
connected to the covenant that'sbeing made.
So the sign and the covenanthave parts of it.
So knowing this, that Abrahamknew that Noah got a rainbow.
And so when God shows up toAbraham, he says, I'm gonna make
covenant with you.
And Abraham's excited, and untilGod goes, actually, I'm gonna
(08:53):
I'm gonna circumcise you.
So this is God telling, this isGod telling Abraham about the
covenant.
This is Abraham going, wait,we're gonna do what?
I want a rainbow.
And sometimes you get a rainbow,sometimes you get circumcised.
You know, sometimes it'spainful, sometimes it's
beautiful.
And if you walked with God forany amount of time, you know
(09:13):
that sometimes when God asks youto do something, it's a rainbow.
And then other times it'scircumcision.
So um, so you're gonna see thistalked about a lot.
But Abraham, what remember thesign is always tied to the
covenant being made.
And the circumcision wasrepresenting God's bringing
forth a family, like he'sbringing forth a people.
And so it was on the part of themale for a reason because it's
(09:37):
saying, we're a new family.
We're a new people.
Like I'm consecrating you, I'msetting you apart from myself.
So fast forward, now we seeJesus come on scene.
And Paul lets us know that it'sno longer a circumcision of the
flesh, but it's a circumcisionof the heart.
And so now God doesn't want itto be an outward thing that's
being done, but it's gonna be aninward thing.
(09:59):
Because again, the sign isalways representative of the
covenant being made.
And God came to transformhearts.
Like all the covenants leadingup to the new covenant were
things on our outward world thatwere changing, promises that
were gonna change what weoutwardly saw.
But now God's coming in toreside within us.
And so this is the beauty ofwhat he's uh the circumcision
(10:21):
talks.
So when you see that, I don'twant you to think about flesh
circumcision, but I want you tothink about heart circumcision.
And Paul's Paul's letting themknow here, hey guys, like you
guys are like so hung up onthis, but really it's something
deeper that I want to talkabout.
So he gives seven reasons toboast here.
Uh, seven reasons.
He's like, if anybody's gonnaboast, I have seven reasons.
(10:44):
And so Paul goes through hisseven reasons to boast.
Uh, the first one is that he washe received circumcision
according to the law.
So he's saying, on the eighthday, I received circumcision.
So ironically, the Judaizers umwho were persecuting the New
Testament church, the Jewishpeople that were persecuting uh
(11:04):
the church, that a lot of themweren't even circumcised on the
eight days.
Some of them were new to thefaith, some of them their
families weren't obeying thelaw.
And so what Paul is saying hereis I've been obeying the law
before I could even make thechoice to obey the law, I was
already in obedience to the lawbecause I came from a family
that was adhering to every partof it.
So even before I had the freewill myself, I was already in
(11:29):
perfect promise.
I was in perfect obedience towhat God's law required.
So he's like, if you want totalk about reasons to boast,
here's my first reason to boast.
I I've never known a day awayfrom God's presence.
I'm like, that's a pretty bigflex that you can say I've been
obedient literally since birth.
Um but he says, number two, Ibelong to the nation of Israel.
He's like, all you guys, you'vebeen grafted in, some of you are
(11:51):
from other places, but he says,Hey, I've got a people that I
actually belong to, which isIsrael.
And so if anybody could say thatI'm an insider, I'm an insider.
So Paul is ethnically Jewish, uhphysical descent of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob.
So he can link himself all theway back.
So he's like, if anybody has areason to boast, I do.
(12:12):
Like you guys, you started in,some of you weren't even born
into this, but I was born intoit.
I'm from the nation of Israel.
And so why it matters is he'snot a Gentile convert or a
Samaritan, but a true Israeliteby blood.
To the Philippians, Paul issaying, I'm not just religiously
committed, I'm from the chosennation itself.
So he's like, this isn't like achurch attendance thing for me.
(12:35):
Like I was born into this.
Uh the next, he says, I'm fromthe tribe of Benjamin.
Now, the tribe of Benjamin isthe tribe that from Israel's
first king, um, we know theperson Saul.
In fact, his name, Saul, wasafter the first king of Israel.
So he's like, I'm from the tribeof Benjamin.
The tribe of Benjamin um wasreally highly esteemed because
they were a tribe of people thatdidn't bow to pagan gods.
(12:57):
And so he's saying, okay, notonly do I belong, do you see how
he's like zooming out like thenation of Israel, but now I'm
zooming in right now.
I belong to the tribe ofBenjamin.
But then he goes on to say, I'ma Hebrew of Hebrews.
Like you're not gonna findanybody more Hebrew than me.
Meaning to say that he was aHebrew of Hebrews means that he
didn't just speak Hebrew, but healso spoke Aramaic.
(13:18):
And we see, are y'all learningsomething?
In Acts 22, um, Paul getsarrested and basically he speaks
to them in his Hebrew tongue,and all of a sudden they realize
who they just uh captured.
And it actually gave him favorin that moment.
And so we see that this part ofwho he is, he's like, guys, not
(13:39):
only am I from the rightcountry, not only am I from the
right tribe, not only in frontof the right people, but this
culture is something I embodiedmy entire life.
Like I know the languageforwards, backwards.
You want to ask me about theculture?
I know the whole culture.
And then he goes on to say, asto the law, I'm a Pharisee.
So a Pharisee was somebody whothey would have to memorize the
(13:59):
first five books of the Bible.
Then you would be selected outas a young boy by a rabbi to
come and learn from him.
And then at a certain point, andyou're following the rabbi, you
would be released now to goteach other people the law.
And so he's saying, guys, I knowall of this.
Like this law that you're tryingto bring against these people, I
know it forward, I know itbackward, and I probably am one
(14:21):
of the ones that taught you.
Um, Gamalael was his teacher,and he's brought up in one part
of the gospel because people aredisputing about the Christians.
And Gamala says, Hey, listen, ifthis is a fake religion, it'll
it'll just die off.
But if it's from God, nobody canstop it.
And we see that here we are2,000 years later, and it's
still spreading across theearth.
(14:42):
It can't be stopped.
And so he's saying, as to thelaw, I'm a Pharisee.
So if you're looking for mycredentials about the law, I was
a Pharisee of Pharisees.
I knew it all forward andbackward.
And then he goes into the nextthing.
He says, as to zeal, apersecutor of the church.
Like, and so zeal was a bigtheme when we look in the book
of uh Jeremiah, and then alsoit's mentioned in the book of
(15:04):
Ezekiel, and this zeal for God'shouse, for God's people, um, was
a big deal.
In fact, Jesus, it says that hewas identified for the zeal for
the house.
And he says, My zeal to be areligious person is that I
persecuted the church.
Like my boasting point was Iused to be just like you.
Like my boasting point is I usedto be against these same people
(15:25):
that you're so frustrated with.
I used to be on your side.
I was the one persecuting themtoo.
So he's like, guys, on everylevel, I've got you.
And he says, as to righteousnessunder the law, blameless.
So he says, when I look at theentire law, I was keeping all of
it perfectly.
Now I will just say that's apretty major flex.
I can't, I mean, I might really,Paul, were you really perfect in
(15:48):
the whole law?
But you know, it's kind of likethe rich young ruler that came
to Jesus and he said, I've keptthe law perfectly since my
youth.
I'm like, you're a liar.
You're a liar, but I'm fine.
I mean, it's Paul.
He can say whatever he wants.
He calls himself blameless.
The Lord let him record it inscripture.
Amen.
So he's saying, even if someonecould boast in their
performance, um, he's saying, Ican and I don't.
(16:09):
And he's he's looking at all ofthis, and he says, why?
He says, What am I gonna trust?
Like I can trust in any of thesethings.
So just saying, let me break itdown this way for us.
Some of you, your boasting pointis your family line.
Some of you, your boasting pointis the neighborhood you live in.
Some of you, your boasting pointis that you know so much
(16:29):
scripture and you love to flexon people.
Some of you, your boasting pointis that you do everything that
God asks you to do and you havethis religious piety that you're
above everybody else.
Some of you, your boastingpoint, I'll just be honest, is
the sin that you used to livein.
Like you brag about it.
And and he's saying, hey guys,like I could boast in any of
these things, and I don't.
(16:51):
I don't.
He says, quite literally, hesays, I count them all as loss.
And he's like, none of them meananything to me.
And so this passage makes clearthat theology and life, they go
together.
And and Paul, what he does sobeautifully throughout his
letters, he's gonna always lay atheological groundwork, and then
(17:11):
he's gonna talk about our ethicsor how do we live this out.
And so we see this um throughoutscripture.
In fact, even whenever um youyou know the scripture where it
talks about husbands, um, honoryour wives, or wives, honor your
husbands, husbands love yourwives as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for her.
Um, that is preceding a longtheological statement that
(17:32):
Paul's saying.
So he's saying all the thingsthat we're learning, they're not
just for us to be puffed up andno more, but it's actually for
our ethic or how we live tobegin to be transformed.
So, in other words, I don't careabout how much you know, I care
about how much you live.
And so Paul goes into, I've gotall these things that I know,
(17:53):
I've got all these things thatI've lived, I've got all these
things that I've been through,but all of those, it means
absolutely nothing because henow transitioned into ethics.
And so he's saying, How do Ilive this out?
And so he begins to go through,he says that all of this is lost
for Christ.
And then he goes, Lost forChrist, all is lost for Christ,
and everything is rubbish, dungoutside of Christ.
(18:16):
So there's this progression thathe's taking us through.
He first says that it's a lossfor Christ.
He's like, when I think aboutall these things, I gave it up
for Jesus.
Like I gave it up for Jesus, butthen he goes even further.
He's like, Not only did I justgive it up for Jesus, I actually
look at everything in my lifeand I say that all of it is
nothing compared to Christ.
(18:37):
Like I give up everything.
I give up every reason I canboast, I give up every reason
for my pride to get in the way,I give it up all.
And then he goes to a layerdeeper in this text because he's
like taking you deeper into histhought process.
And he says, actually,everything is rubbish, dung.
The actual word there would be acurse word.
It'd be like shut up, but with adifferent than the you like
(19:00):
actually that's how passionatehe is.
That's that's actually.
I mean, if you want the realword, he cursed right there.
He's like, I count it all asblank outside of Christ.
So when I look at everything,like all the things, so when you
see people that start to getpuffed up, because the Bible
says that God resists the proud,but he's near the humble.
(19:22):
And when you come to God andyou're the person that's like, I
did this for him, I served thismany times, I gave this much, I
did this, I know the whole law.
I get I sacrificed my summer tobe in lead, and I, I, I, hey,
all of that, it's lost forChrist.
And like when you really get toa place, you look at your best
things that you could ever uhdo, your resume of
(19:45):
qualifications, and you're like,actually, it's rubbish.
Like compared to Christ, it'srubbish.
Me on my absolute most perfectday, perfect behavior, all the
lineage, I haven't I have notkept the law since I was born,
it's still rubbish compared toChrist.
So he's taking you deeper intothis thought.
And so he's saying, when Iencountered Jesus on the road to
(20:05):
Damascus, I gained a new way ofliving.
My old life wasn't evenappealing anymore.
All I wanted was Christ.
And I'll say, when you have areal transformation moment, and
I think he does it little bylittle, because I think when you
first get saved, there's stillthings that like lure you back.
But I'll say the further you goin God, the more it just goes
(20:27):
from loss for Christ, all islost for Christ.
And then actually you look ateverything you used to be and
you're like, it's rubbish.
Like it's nothing.
I don't even want that anymore.
I don't even know who thatperson is anymore.
Like if she walked into theroom, I'd have to walk up and
introduce myself because I'm sofar disconnected.
And that's what he's saying.
He's like, the further we followChrist, the more deeply in love
(20:49):
we fall with him, the moredistant we are from those things
that we used to receive all ofour identity from.
Is this good?
Okay.
So then he does the same thingbecause I love how he like
parallels these ideas.
He does the same thing inknowledge of Christ.
He says, first he has theknowledge of Christ in the
scripture.
It says that he just wants toknow Christ, like just satisfied
(21:10):
knowing Christ.
But then he goes to the personof Christ, and then he goes into
experiencing Christ.
I love how he even says he wantsto know him, but then he goes
deeper.
He says that I might be found inhim.
Now, I don't know about y'all,but like I've never gotten to a
point of being like so in lovewith Brian, knowing him, that
I'm like, I actually want tocrawl inside of you.
(21:31):
Like, you know what I mean?
But Paul's like, it's such adeep, intimate knowing that it's
like, I don't know where you endand I begin.
It's like I'm so I'm foundinside of Christ.
And so it's the person ofChrist, and that it overflows
into an experience with Christ.
And so I will just encourage youas you go into this journey,
(21:52):
maybe you're like, man, thisChristian life is really hard.
Maybe you're just like, I'mcounting it as loss for Christ.
But if I'm just being honest, Iwant to go back to it.
It's probably just becauseyou're on building block number
one.
You're just getting to knowChrist.
But man, when there gets to apoint when you're in love with
the person of Christ, you startto count all as loss.
Like it gets easier to givethings up, it gets easier to let
(22:15):
things go.
It gets easier to not walk inwith your pride or your
credentials or yourpuffed-upness.
Y'all know what I'm talkingabout.
And then finally it gets to apoint where it's like, all I
want to experience is him.
And like if he's not in it, Idon't want it.
And it and you start to havethese things where y'all know
what I'm talking about.
Like your experience of lifebegins to be different, your
(22:35):
perspective begins to bedifferent, everything begins to
shift.
Why?
Because I've moved from aknowledge of him to a person,
I'm doing life with him, to allof a sudden now all I'm wanting
to experience is the God things.
I don't even want the thingsthat I could have.
And so he's letting them knowhere that he's Paul longs for um
not just for forgiveness, butintimacy.
(22:56):
He desires that the people aregonna know him in these four uh
four areas.
Number one, the resurrectionpower, the victory.
He begins to line out exactlywhat he wants them to know.
He says, I want you to know thepower of his resurrection, the
victory.
The power of his resurrectionthat he's alluding there to is
the Holy Ghost.
Like he's like, guys, we'recalled to live a Holy Ghost kind
(23:19):
of life.
Like you have the same powerthat raised Jesus from the dead
dwelling in your mortal body.
He's like, I want you toexperience this kind of powerful
victory.
And he's talking to a churchthat's persecuted, he's talking
to a church that's going througha lot of need, a lot of want.
And he's saying, even in themidst of your darkest season,
you can experience resurrectionpower.
(23:39):
Even in the midst of things thatyou don't understand, you can
experience resurrection power.
You can walk in victory eventhough your life looks like
loss.
And there's these two thingsgoing hand in hand because he's
going, I count everything elseas lost, which seems foolish,
right?
It doesn't seem like victorywould come on the tails of that.
But he's like, in Christ, whenI'm living my life in Christ, I
(24:00):
look at loss as victory.
My perspective begins to shift.
Everybody else looks at it asyou used to have a lot of
friends, now you have nofriends, but you just see
victory.
You look at it as I had allthese things planned out for my
life, I had all these things,these uh things that I thought
God was gonna do, but God askedme to lay them on the altar, and
people see it as loss, but yousee it as victory.
(24:21):
And so he's saying, guys, I wantyou to experience this
resurrection power, this victorywe have available.
Next is suffering, which isfellowship.
And um, I heard uh my professorthe other day, uh Dr.
Green, he says there's threeways of knowing God.
There's the salvic, the salvicexpression, which is when we get
saved.
Um, number two, it's uh roomswhere we experience the presence
(24:44):
of God and corporate uh measuresof worship where you feel God's
tangible presence.
But he said, number three is weexperience them in our
suffering.
And he said, number three isactually the deepest because
it's a personal knowing, nomatter the cost.
And he said, number one is likea moment, right?
Salvation, it feels so good.
Like I'm I'm saved and that'sgood.
(25:06):
Number two is a moment where theSpirit of God is moving and
corporate uh measures ofworship, and those moments are
so great.
Like I love moments we have attogether at camp, different
things like that.
It's awesome.
When you're reading the Word ofGod and the Word just comes
alive to you, that's amazing.
But there's a knowing Him andthe suffering that God uh that
Paul's letting us know here.
(25:26):
So part of the gospel know itmessage is knowing uh we will
endure times and seasons ofsuffering on this journey.
Like it's not if you will, it'swhen you will.
And it's it's he's saying it'seven then, it's knowing him.
Like that's that's being foundin him and going into a deeper
place with him.
So number three is death, whichjust means obedience.
(25:51):
Death, which means obedience,means I'm not doing this for a
season.
Like it's literally unto death.
And for the early church, itliterally to be a Christian
means that you might die, quiteliterally.
Like you might be martyred.
None of us are afraid of walkingout of here today and being
(26:11):
martyred for the gospel's sake,but they were.
That was a very present reality.
And he's saying, guys, thisisn't just something you're
trying out in your high schoolyears.
This isn't just something thatyou're doing for a season.
This is an until death.
Like to my very last breath, Iwant to be found being faithful
to God.
The story of God, and uh peopletalk about the book of
Revelation a lot.
(26:32):
I'll give you a cheat code tounderstand the book of
Revelation is faithful witnesseswho God's looking for.
That's the whole point.
Is when you go through hardtimes, when you go through
difficult seasons, are you gonnabe a faithful witness or are you
gonna bow?
And it's unto death obedience.
And a lot of us have an unto heasked me to do something that
(26:55):
opposes my logic.
Um, I have an obedience until itmakes me uncomfortable.
I have an obedience if it'sconvenient, I have an obedience
if my schedule works out.
I have y'all know what I'mtalking about.
I have an obedience if everybodyagrees with it, I have an
obedience if my parents like it.
I have an obedience if myfriends think it's okay, I have
an obedience as long as I'mstill at the cool table at
(27:16):
lunch, I have an obedience untiland he says, No, it's an
obedience unto death.
Like it doesn't matter, God, I'mdoing exactly what you asked me
to do in every season.
And finally, the resurrection,which is hope.
And so our hope is not thateverything turns out perfectly.
In fact, Paul never tells them,like, if you follow Jesus, all
your wildest dreams will cometrue.
(27:38):
It's actually not true.
Actually, and if you notice,Paul was imprisoned and beaten
and all the things, and he neverone time asked for God to rescue
him out of the hard time.
The hope he had was in the lifeafter this.
It's eternity.
And that's where his hope was isthat at the end of it, that we
all hear the words, good, welldone, good and faithful servant.
(28:01):
That's our hope.
My hope isn't, it doesn't matterwhat happens in the world, it
doesn't matter what happens inmy family.
All those things are just bonus.
But the goal is at the finalresurrection, that's my hope is
that I'm gonna be reunitedtogether with him.
And so this kind of ends that.
I did it, I went all the waythrough verse 11.
Um, and so that ends that kindof statement.
(28:23):
Um, but just for us to considerlike what are the things that we
boast in?
You know, what are what are thethings that you personally boast
in?
Do you boast in the fact thatyou've been a person who's
always followed God and you'venever missed up a single day of
your life?
That's great, and I love that.
That's an awesome testimony, butit's not a reason to boast.
(28:44):
And actually, it's more aboutGod's grace that preserved you
and kept you than it is aboutyou living perfectly.
Do you boast that you're theperson like the man that's
beating his chest and he said, Ialways pay my tithes and I
always go to prayer?
Is it you fulfilling religiousobligations?
Or is it in God, thank you, thatyou made my heart like yours
(29:05):
that I want to give, that I wantto pray.
Do you see how it's it'sexcitement that I'm doing the
right thing, but the the end ofthe story isn't me.
The end of the story is God.
And so, what is your reason forboasting?
And whatever it is, may we notbe found on the side of the
Pharisees, but may we be foundon the side of Paul, and that we
count it all as loss.
So all the things that we coulddo well, all the things we could
(29:27):
do good, it pales in comparisonwith the beauty of Christ.
Amen.
Uh Father, we just thank you somuch for who you are.
Oh, Lord, we thank you that youare speaking to us.
And Lord, we do, we count it allas loss.
Lord, the things that we couldhave done with our life, the
things these lead students couldbe doing right now instead of
being here, we count that asloss.
(29:48):
Lord, it pales in comparison andknowing you.
That Jesus, we want you morethan anything else, that we
might know you, but ultimatelythat we might experience you.
Lord, we want your life to beour life.
Lord, that we're so encompassedand so enveloped in you that we
don't know where you end and webegin.
And so, Father, we just thankyou for a summer of growth,
(30:10):
Lord, a summer of going deeper,a summer of discovering you, not
just um, not just in the thingsthat we want to do, but Lord,
whatever you ask.
There's no distance too far,there's no sacrifice too great.
We give you our yes in Jesus'name.
Somebody who believed it said,Amen.
I love you guys.
Have a great day.
Thanks so much for hanging outhere on my podcast.
(30:31):
Do me a favor and hit thesubscribe button if you haven't
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