PHILIPPIANS 3:1-112006 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Philippians 3:1-11

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2006. Philippians chapter 3 this morning, and if I may just take a moment to remind you of some of the things that we looked at. In chapter 1, we saw that Paul was dealing largely with

The relationship that he had with Christ. And it's there that we found the famous verse to live is Christ and to die is gain. And the priority that Jesus played in Paul's life. And even as he's mentioned by Paul over and over and over again throughout the first chapter, we we learned that Jesus Christ was the priority and passion of Paul's life.

Then in chapter two, as we've been studying for the past few weeks, Paul went on then not to talk just about Jesus Christ, but the importance of others and esteeming others is better than ourselves and serving others and the unity that is involved in that. He gave us some examples, the example of Jesus Christ, who didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself of those things and came to serve you and I to die on the cross forever.

He also gave us the example of himself and Timothy and Epaphroditus, which we looked at last week, which were great examples for us of being able to put others first in our lives above ourselves and not being consumed with ourselves as we usually are.

And so in chapter one and two, we've been seeing the theme of the book, which over and over again, Paul has been talking about, and that is joy. Throughout the book, he's been telling the Philippians to rejoice, rejoice with me. You should rejoice as well. And chapter four, he'll go on to say, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I will say rejoice. And so it's a great thing.

impression upon Paul's heart. It's something he wants to convey to the Philippians that we must have joy. There's a command, even as we look this morning in verse one, to rejoice in the Lord. And so verse one says, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord for me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. And

He starts out saying, finally, my brethren, not necessarily meaning a conclusion at this point, but an emphasis on the fact that this is the point that that is the culmination of all that he's been saying. This is what he's been getting at through chapter one, through chapter two. Here's the main point, the main thing, and that is rejoice now.

in the Lord. It's the theme of the book. It's all throughout. Paul has been telling us to rejoice in the Lord.

You know, it brings up the question, what do I rejoice in? As he commands us to rejoice in the Lord, what other options are there? What brings joy to your life and what brings joy to my life? And I'm sure there's many things that we can think about in our lives that bring us joy. Perhaps you have children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren and that brings you such joy. Or maybe a spouse or someone else important in your life that brings you such wonderful joy.

Perhaps it's your job. You really enjoy your job. It's great and it's fulfilling and it brings you great joy. For many others, it's the opposite effect. But for you, it's great joy. Maybe it's a good round of golf that brings you great joy or a good meal. Maybe it's the house you've always wanted, the dreams that you've been looking for. What brings you joy?

And all of those things that I mentioned are very good. And God does intend for us to have joy and pleasure in this life and in the things that he provides us here. But the question that we need to ask ourselves is on my list of things that bring me joy, where does God rank?

Is he close to the top, close to the bottom, at the very top where he should be? We need to think about and consider, is God the primary joy of my life? He can be, he should be, he needs to be, is what Paul is telling us this morning in Philippians chapter 3. He commands us to rejoice in the Lord, saying that God should be the primary joy of my life.

Now, this phrase, to rejoice in the Lord, it's not a suggestion or, you know, if you feel like it, if it's comfortable for you. It's really a command. It's in the imperative tense, which means we must do it. As believers, in obedience to the Lord, we must rejoice in the Lord. And that's important because it tells us that rejoicing in the Lord is not a feeling. It's not based on what we happen to be going through or experiencing today.

But it's based then on obedience to the command that we've been given. It's not a feeling, but it's an obedience to what God has said. A command for us to obey regardless of what we are going through or how we feel about it. We can rejoice in the Lord.

Now, throughout this morning, this whole time in this passage, Paul is essentially dealing with our relationship with God and the place that we give him in our lives. And he will be challenging us to keep Jesus first, to make him our joy, our passion, our obsession, that he would be first and foremost, that we would rejoice in him. Do you remember what joy stands for? We've been bringing it up throughout their times together the past few weeks.

If you want to have joy, and Paul is modeling this for us, you follow the acronym J-O-Y. J stands for? O stands for? And Y stands for? G, G, J stands for Jesus, which tells us if we want to have joy, Jesus must be first and foremost in our lives.

But the next part of obtaining joy is putting others second and ourselves last. And as we have those priorities, that order in our life, we will have joy. We find joy not in fulfilling ourselves and chasing our dreams as we think and as we naturally act.

But we have joy in putting Jesus first. We have joy and find joy in serving others and ministering to their needs. We need to put Jesus first, others second, and yourself last. And I've been repeating that each week as we go through this book. And I echo the words of the Apostle Paul, for me to write these things to you is not tedious, but for you, it is safe. Amen.

He's emphasizing rejoice and rejoice in the Lord and I'm rejoicing and you need to rejoice and I've been emphasizing joy. Put Jesus first and others second and yourself last because it's not tedious.

Although it might seem that way, but to mention the same thing and to teach the same thing and to share the same thing and encourage you in the same direction, it's not tedious, but for you it's safe. It's necessary for us to have the truths of God's Word imprinted upon our hearts through repetition. Through over and over again reminding us, recentering us, keeping us right where God wants us to be. And there's that need for things and truths to be repeated repeatedly.

To our hearts that we might grasp hold of them and believe them. Joy is the result of putting Jesus first to rejoice in. The Lord deals with where we stand with God.

When we give him the proper place in our lives, we find that we have great joy. And we automatically, as a result of that, rejoice in the Lord. But when we do not give him the proper place in our life, we begin to lose that joy. And it becomes much more difficult to rejoice in the Lord. This morning, as you are here, do you have joy in the Lord?

Do you have great, abundant, overflowing joy in Jesus Christ? If you do not, it's an indicator. If I do not, should throw warning signs and beeps in my head, something's out of place. Something's wrong. I need to get back right with God, putting Jesus first in my life.

Paul wants us to draw close to Jesus, not to be content with our current relationship with God, but to constantly seek to be closer to him as we'll even discover in greater depth next week. As Paul continues to reach and to grasp hold of that for which Christ has grasped hold of him.

And we need to continue to push forward, not being satisfied with where I am right now in the Lord, but wanting tomorrow to be closer, to know Him more intimately, to be reaching for a deeper, intimate relationship with God continually. And in that, we will find and discover great joy.

This morning I want to encourage you as we spend time together in this portion to make Jesus your joy, your passion, and put him first in your life. Rejoice in the Lord. Now as we go on in the following verses, Paul gives us really two keys to helping us rejoice in the Lord. We say rejoice in the Lord and you say, well how do I do that? How do I make that happen in my life? It's a command. I know it's not based on feelings, but what must I do?

And he gives us two things that he talks about that are important to be able to rejoice in the Lord. The first thing he will tell us is to have no confidence in the flesh. If you want to rejoice in the Lord, if you want to have great, abundant, overflowing joy in the Lord, the first thing you must do is have no confidence in the flesh. And Paul will talk about that. The

The second thing he talks about there in the latter portions, verses 7 through 11, is that if we want to have joy, we must then count all things lost for the knowledge of Jesus. We need to count all things lost. That's the second thing that we must do in order to rejoice in the Lord. These two things are essential. If you have never had joy in Jesus...

These two things will help you experience that joy that can be found in relationship with him. But if you have had joy in Jesus and have lost it, it will help you restore your joy in your relationship with him. Or if you have joy now, but you want to maintain that. These two things are essential, important for us to maintain.

Work out in our lives to apply and practice in our hearts that we might continue to have abundant joy in Jesus Christ. So let's look at the first one in verses two and three. We start off. Paul says, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. For we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

So again, we see to have joy in the Lord, the first thing you must do is have no confidence in the flesh. The number one killer of joy is legalism. That's a statistic I made up, but it's true.

confidence in the flesh is legalism and Paul will deal with that very clearly as we'll go on but it's works-based relationship with God based on what I do how I perform where I've come from it's all about me and it relies upon me and that will destroy your joy in the Lord very quickly and

Paul says, if you want to have joy in the Lord, don't put confidence in the flesh. Stay away from legalism. Now, it was a big problem at that time, and it still is today. We dealt with it in great detail in the book of Galatians. I would encourage you, if that's a struggle for you, to spend time in the book of Galatians.

And study what Paul had to say there, dealing with legalism and all the things that we can so easily get caught up in. But what was happening at that time, there was a group of people called the Judaizers. And they would come in after the Apostle Paul would go and minister somewhere and he would move on to another place. They would come in behind him and they would insist that Christians keep the law.

They would come in after Paul and say, you know, Paul is a good teacher and he had most of the things pretty accurate. But, you know, in addition to believing in Jesus Christ, there's more that you have to do. And that is that you have to keep the law specifically, firstly, by being circumcised if you are a guy. And then you have to keep the Sabbath and keep the dietary regulations and all of the other things that we find throughout the Old Testament in the book of Genesis through Deuteronomy.

And so these Judaizers would come in and now begin to place burdens upon people of all these rules and regulations and laws that they would have to fulfill, they would say. Paul, in referring to them, calls them dogs, evil workers and the mutilation. He says, beware of these guys.

These guys are teaching you that you must be circumcised and add these things on in order to be saved. And we need to beware. There will always be those types of people who add on to the gospel message. Believe in Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Jesus said, I came and died that whoever believes on me should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3.16, for God so loved the world, he sent his only begotten son.

That whoever should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now, anybody who adds on to that, well, yes, you must believe, but also you must, and then you also must, well, we already know that's contradictory to what the Bible teaches. We must believe. And it's our faith in Jesus Christ that saves us.

Some still preach that we must follow the law. There's those who would still insist upon that. Others come and have a different way now. They substitute instead of circumcision. Now you must be baptized. You have to believe and be baptized. But if you're not baptized, you can't be saved. And that is not the truth. That is not what the Bible teaches.

Others will even take it to a further extent. Not only do you have to be baptized, but you have to be baptized in a certain way by a certain person with certain words being used. Otherwise, it's not valid and you're not actually saved.

And the list goes on and on of all the things that we can tack on to try to add on to the gospel message. But Paul is telling us, watch out, beware of such men. Beware of those who teach such things because it's legalism. It's binding. He goes on to say, we are the circumcision church.

He calls them the mutilation. But the reality is, Paul says, we are the circumcision. We're right where God wants us in believing in Jesus. We don't have to add on all of these rules and regulations and laws in order to be saved. The legalistic group called themselves the circumcision. But Paul says, no, that's not true. We are the circumcision. He's taught that many times throughout his epistles, that circumcision is not of the flesh, but

but it's of the heart. In Romans chapter 8, I'm sorry, Romans chapter 2, verses 28 and 29, Paul says this, "...he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh."

but he is a Jew who is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God. Paul says very clearly there in Romans chapter 2, it's not of the outward, it's not of appearance, it's not of the physical, but it's of the heart. That's the real Jew, that's the real person who is circumcised, the one who is circumcised in the heart. But it's not just Paul's idea, the

The Lord Himself spoke of this in Deuteronomy 30:6. It says, "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, that you may live." God promises the outward covenant of circumcision that He had with the Jewish people. It was valid. It was part of the law. It still is valid. But it's not a requirement for salvation.

It was a symbol, a picture of what God wanted to do in the heart. And in the New Testament, Paul is teaching us it's about your heart and having the right heart before God, not having the physical requirements met. It's about relationship with the Lord.

Deuteronomy said God's going to circumcise your heart that you might love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul. The intent is to circumcise, to cut away the things in our lives that keep us from loving God, walking with God, that intimate relationship with God. Paul here in Philippians chapter 3 says that we are the circumcision. And here's the aspects of the elements of the true circumcision. Number one, those who worship God in spirit.

Jesus talked about this in John chapter 4 as well. You can check that out on your own time. He also said that the true circumcision are those who rejoice in Christ Jesus. This word rejoice literally means to glory. Those who, again, don't glory in themselves, but glory in the Lord and what he has done. And thirdly, have no confidence in the flesh. And each one of these is important, but Paul is focusing on the last one here as we continue through verses 4 through 6. But he says...

Have no confidence in the flesh. Again, what does it mean to have no confidence in the flesh? He'll explain to us here in verses four through six says, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so.

Paul says, here's what I'm talking about when I talk about confidence in the flesh. I'm the most qualified, Paul says, to have confidence in the flesh.

The best of the best. He had everything going for him. He breaks it down in four areas for us. Four ways that he did and could have confidence in the flesh. First of all, his nationality. He says, I'm a Hebrew. I was circumcised the eighth day. The proper day, the day that God commanded, even from the beginning,

I had right relationship with God as my parents were obedient to the Lord. But not only that, I was of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin specifically. Now, Benjamin, if you remember the history of Israel, there was the nation of Israel that was split. It was divided into

And the northern kingdom split from the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom consisted of ten tribes, but the southern kingdom consisted of the tribe of Judah, which that's where Jerusalem was, but also the tribe of Benjamin and Paul.

Paul is saying, look, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. We were loyal to the things of God. We stayed with God. We were taken into captivity, but we were brought back into the land. Benjamin also, remember, was the tribe of Saul, the first king. So Paul says, look, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was circumcised the right day. I was born. I'm of pure descent. I'm not mixed cultures or anything like that. I have a great heritage in the Lord.

And so he could have had confidence in his heritage. The second thing that we see that he could have had confidence in and did have confidence in was in his religion. He says concerning the law, I was a Pharisee there in verse five. Now, Pharisees, if you're not familiar with them, Paul says,

them in Acts chapter 26 as he was on trial for his faith and describing there on the trial what he used to be like and what he used to be involved in. He describes the Pharisees as the strictest sect of

of Judaism. They were the ones who kept every detail, every minute speculation or thing in the law. They would keep it. They wanted, and that was their endeavor, to keep every aspect of it, every detail, every minor thing within the law. If you remember Jesus in rebuking the Pharisees, he was dealing with them and some of their issues of mercy and honoring the Lord. But he told them,

You know, you take great detail and great care, even great pride in tithing from your herb garden. The little, you know, the herbs that you grow just on the side and you go through and you make sure you tithe the right portion, but you're missing all these other areas. And the point of Jesus was you're doing the good thing and you're paying all this attention, but you're missing these other things. But it's an example for us of tithing.

The detail and the consistency and how they followed the law and how closely they kept the things. Paul was very religious, he's saying. He kept every detail of the religion, knew it through and through.

So he had his heritage, which he had confidence in before Christ. He had his religion, which he had confidence in before Christ. He also had his zeal. In verse 6, he says, We read about that in Acts chapter 8 and 9, how Paul went to great lengths.

To persecute the church, to put them in prison, to get them to denounce the name of Christ, because what the Christians were saying was that Judaism was not complete, that the Messiah was there and that was the fulfillment and that now all Jews should follow that. And Paul, in his zeal, was completely against that. And so he was zealous. He was bold. He could have had great confidence in that. Finally,

In his righteousness. At the end of verse 6 he says, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless. He was blameless. Now, Paul's not saying that he never sinned. But what he is saying is that when he did sin, he fulfilled the required sacrifices. He kept the law.

And so he stayed away from all the things he wasn't supposed to stay of. And every time, every once in a while, when he would stumble or whatever, he would fulfill the requirements and make the sacrifices and make it right before the Lord. And so Saul's explaining to us, I had everything going for me. My heritage, my religion, my zeal, my own righteousness. It was impeccable. There was nothing that you could charge me with. There was nothing that you could bring against me.

And it's important for us to notice because it's so easy for us to look around and to see others or perhaps to see ourselves and determine, hey, a person's religious, they're zealous, they're blameless. Maybe perhaps you just consider they're sincere. That's enough. Their salvation is secure. Paul says those are confidences in the flesh. Those are not things that we can base our salvation upon.

Those are not things that we should have confidence in because those are things that will perish. Our confidence cannot be in any of those areas. And it's so easy for us. You know, our heritage. There are those who would say, of course I'm saved. I'm an American. It's my heritage. Or, of course I'm saved. You know, I was born a Christian. My parents are both Christian. It just, you know, passes down like any other gene.

No, unfortunately, the heritage doesn't help you in relationship with God. But he's saying, well, maybe I'm religious. I go to church every Sunday. Maybe you say, well, I don't go necessarily that month. But I go at least once a month. Or I go a couple times a year. I'm religious. I pay my tithes. I pray and I read my Bible. But that's a confidence in the flesh. And our confidence for salvation cannot be upon our religious activities.

Maybe you say, I'm zealous. I have great zeal like the Apostle Paul, man. I tell people about Jesus and I share with them and every time I get the chance, I tell them they need to repent or turn or I honk at the cars that have the Darwin fish on there. I'm zealous. I'm sure I'm saved. I mean, I've got this great zeal. And Paul says, that's a confidence in the flesh. It's a work that you're doing, you're producing, you're relying upon. That's not good.

Maybe you say, well, you don't understand. I'm blameless. I mean, as far as righteousness is concerned, I got it. You need to understand. I don't go to movies. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't use bad language. We have a long list of things that we don't do. I'm blameless. But again, it's a confidence in the flesh. It's confidence in ourselves. And it doesn't work. It's not reliable. We will fail because all things.

Have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, the scriptures tell us. See, the problem with all of these things that we've been looking at is they all begin with the word I. I do this. I do that. I don't do this. I don't do that. I have this. I have that. Or so on and so forth. It's all about me and what I can produce and what I've done.

And Paul says, put no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in what you're able to produce. Anytime we look to ourselves for our hope of salvation, we are in trouble. I can guarantee you, if it's up to me, I'm in big trouble because I sin and I fall short of the glory of God. And so if you want to have no joy in a relationship with God,

Fill yourself up with legalism and keeping these things and burdened down by these things because it will steal your joy and rob your joy very quick. But if you want to have joy, if you want to be able to rejoice in the Lord, have no confidence in the flesh. Salvation is not based upon us fulfilling something.

We don't want confidence that comes from the flesh. We want confidence that comes from abiding in Jesus. 1 John 2, verse 28, John tells us, Little children, abide in him, that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. We want the confidence not that comes from, well, I did these things or I didn't do these things, but we want the confidence that comes from just abiding in him.

I'm dwelling with him and in him and he's all part of my life. I have relationship with him, intimacy with him. There's only one thing I must do to be saved and that is believe. Anyone who says differently is contradicting the Bible and Paul says, beware of such men.

Beware of such men. There are many who teach that. There's many who would have you believe that. There's many who have confidence in the flesh, believing that good works will save them, believing that they must be saved because they read the Bible or go to church or tell people about Jesus.

Many have their confidence in their heritage. Many have their confidence in their religion. Many have their confidence in their zeal. Many have confidence in their own righteousness. And Jesus says in Matthew 7, 22 and 23, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

The issue is not what you do, but who you know. Jesus says, you did all these things. You had your confidence in the flesh, but I never knew you. There's many, he says, who will say, Lord, Lord. Many who will say, but I did this. I was like this. I didn't do that.

But Jesus says it's about knowing me and abiding in me. Have no confidence in the flesh. The whole point is relationship with God. If you want real joy, have confidence in abiding in him and have no confidence in the flesh. Have complete confidence in God, the finished work on the cross, his grace and his mercy. Let God be your confidence as you abide in him.

To rejoice in the Lord, first of all, Paul says, have no confidence in the flesh. But now as we move on in verses 7 through 11, he tells us, now if you want to rejoice in the Lord, you want to have great joy, then here's the next thing. Count all things loss. Verse 7, read along with me. It says, but what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. To count all things loss.

I want to take just a moment and talk about this phrase, count all things lost, because I think it's important for us to understand. First of all, the word count. It means to consider, to deem, to account, or to think. Essentially, Paul is teaching us to ascribe value to something. In this case, we're ascribing the value of zero. It's a loss. This word loss, it means damage or loss. And we might...

We might have trouble understanding this word a little bit because it might not come naturally to us. We are a little bit spoiled in our mentality and habits in this society. For example, something is damaged, something is broken.

We just take it back, right? First of all, you make sure you buy it from a store that takes back anything or has a warranty and it's covered, right? And so if anything, hey, if I lose it, if it gets broken, it gets stolen, whatever, something happens, I just go get it replaced. I go get it taken care of. You're in a car accident, that's what insurance is for. To cover that loss, to cover that damage, to take care of it. So we might not be very familiar or understand this word loss, but a loss, as Paul is dealing with it here, is...

Ascribing to it the value of something that is gone with no possible recovery or that it's not even worth the effort of trying to recover it. Paul used this word to describe what would happen in a shipwreck as he was being taken to Rome to be in prison where he would write this letter. But on the way, there was a shipwreck that took place. But Paul warned them about it. He says, look, guys, if we leave this, everything on this ship is going to be lost.

And there, as they were on the sea and the storm came, he says, you guys should have listened. I told you this is what the Lord was saying. But, you know, God's going to save us. The lives will be saved, but everything else will be lost. Again, lost at sea. It's going to be at the bottom of the ocean, unrecoverable, not worthy of trying to get. And so to count it all loss means to ascribe it all.

I describe to it the value of something at the bottom of the ocean. Give it that same value as something on the bottom of the ocean. When I was a young kid, I was in the garage and I built this car out of wood. We had a bunch of dowel rods and some little, you know, two by fours. And I put it all together, had wheels rolled. It was perfect. It was brilliant, actually. It was probably the best car that has ever been built. And...

My parents, along with another couple of families, we all went down to the beach. And for some reason, I have no idea what was going on in my head, but I thought it'd be really cool if I could bury my car. I don't know why, but I did. So I dig it up, I put it in there, cover it up, and it had a little dowel rod that came up with a little flag so I knew where it was and I would not lose it. But it was buried in the sand. Well, throughout the course of the day, the tide came in and I was

Pretty soon I began to lose all of the landmarks that I knew. Like, okay, it was by that bump over there and over by the Coke bottle over here. And that's where my car was buried in. And as the tide came in, it was all washed away. And very quickly I could not find the car that I had made that was so valuable and so precious to me. That was ingenious.

And I began to search frantically and I'm a kid and so, you know, it's important to me and beginning to get upset and I'm looking and digging and trying to find and others are helping me and ended up just giving up. I had to ascribe to it the value of something that's lost at sea, something that's at the bottom of the ocean.

Because I couldn't dig up the entire beach and I couldn't search until my hands, all the skin was off from digging too much in the sand or anything. I had to stop. I had to finally say, it's a loss. Even as a kid, that was a difficult thing. But it's a good picture of

What Paul is talking about here, it's lost. Just consider it completely gone. There was another time at the beach. This one's just more for the humor and not the value of the story. But we took a guy. It was back in the days. Pastor Tom would take us every Monday down to the beach.

We would go down to this beach in Laguna that was really good for snorkeling, but not really good for much else because the waves, you're standing on dry sand and they would just crash right on top of you. It was really great beach breakers. And, you know, it's fun to watch people be knocked around and stuff. And there's this one guy, he's out in the water and the waves are crashing and we see him walk in. He has a shirt on and he's pulling his shirt down, like all the way down to his knees. And he's walking in kind of funny from the from the ocean. And we're going, what's wrong? What happened? What are you doing?

And he's all, well, the wave crashed and it ripped my shorts off. And they're out there somewhere. I don't know. And so he just had his shirt to cover himself. And we felt bad for him. So we grabbed our snorkel gear. We're all out there looking and trying to find them. And we couldn't find the shorts. And again, we had to count it as loss. After a while, I was like, forget it. It's not even worth it. You know, if it were our shorts, we probably would have looked a little bit longer. But for him, it was like, it's not worth it. Just use a towel and you should be good to go. Yeah.

Funny thing is, we did find them later when we weren't looking for them. We were out there snorkeling and they were at the bottom of 20 feet of water. But ascribe it as a loss, Paul says. Count it as not worthy of trying to be recovered. Just write it off. It's no longer valuable. Paul says, what things were gained to me, I count it as loss.

Now, the things that were gained to me in the context, we understand he's probably talking about the things he mentioned in verses four through six, his heritage and his religion and all those things. Oh, they had great benefits for them. The zeal and the righteousness that he had, man, it was great gain for Paul. He had notoriety and popularity and prestige and money and status. And he was well on his way to reaching his goals and his dreams.

But not just those things. Paul says, whatever was gained to me, that I counted as loss. What was gained to you before Christ? What were the things that you desired or the things that got you what you desired? What were your pursuits and your dreams? Paul says, those are the things that I counted as loss that I may gain Christ. What was gain? Maybe what is gain or what is valuable to you?

Now, Paul said, whatever it is, whatever it was, whatever I considered valuable before Christ, I counted it as loss. I gave it the value of something that's at the bottom of the ocean, not worthy of trying to recover, just wrote it off, just it's done, worthless to me. And it's not just something worth to do in the past.

But Paul goes on in verse 8. It's something we're going to keep on doing. Verse 8 says, Yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ.

Not only, verse 7, did he count or he counted all things lost, past tense, but in verse 8 he says, yet I also count all things lost, present tense. It's something he keeps on doing. It's something that he keeps on having to evaluate in his life. Something he continually has to look at. That I count it as loss. And I don't hold on to it. That I don't value the things that are of this life and temporary. Sometimes,

The old things that we used to value and love so much come back up and the fire for them, the passion for them, the desire for them gets stirred up within us again. So there's a need to count it loss once again. And sometimes it's other things, new things that come in and begin to steal away our passion and our devotion to the Lord. And we need to, again, present tense, count it as loss again.

We count all things lost, Paul says. We ascribe to everything the value of something at the bottom of the ocean. Now, just in case the value of something at the bottom of the ocean isn't clear to you, doesn't really help you understand what Paul is saying, he, at the end of this verse, makes it a little bit more clear. He says, count them as rubbish. Now, what is rubbish? This word rubbish, literally, is the word dung. How valuable is dung?

It's poop. How valuable is that? Now, some of it is valuable, I imagine. You've got cow dung and horse dung, and they bag it up and they sell it. Even I was looking at the manure guide online, and you can check that out if you'd like. But chicken manure apparently is very good for growing vegetables. And so there's some value to that. But apparently for human dung, it's just worthless. I mean, we just throw it away constantly, right? We've got tons of it, but we just keep throwing it away.

You get the point. Dung. How valuable is that to you? If you want to have real joy, count the things that were gained to you as dung. Now, just a word to the guys real quick. There's appropriate times to bring this up and there's appropriate times not to bring this up. Okay, guys. When your wife loses her wedding ring, it's not the time to say, well, just count it as dung anyway. It's no big deal. Didn't you listen to Jerry? Come on. That's not the time to bring that up.

We need to understand and dwell with our wives with understanding. OK, so don't be mean guys. But realistically, in our lives, this is to be the attitude. This is to be our heart that we count all things as done to gain Christ. That's the value that we ascribe to it. Paul had this mentality. Whatever is seen, he tells us in Second Corinthians four is temporary. It's not going to last forever.

The material things of this world and the things that are just for this life, they're temporary. They do not last. They're not valuable for eternity. But the things that are unseen, those are the things that are eternal. And so Paul, in looking at the things of this life and realizing they have no eternal impact...

He says, I ascribe to them a worthless value. Something I won't hold on to because I want to hold on to that which will last for eternity. That is really what is valuable. The things of God. You know what's really valuable to God? The people that he's placed in your life. They're valuable to him. Their eternal state is a great concern for the Lord. And so Paul says,

Understanding this, he says, look, my main desire is to know God. I count everything lost so that I can know him and walk with him and have relationship with him. But also the people around me. Not the things of this life, but for their sake. To minister with them, to reach them, to share with them the gospel message. If you want real joy, you need to count all things lost so that you can put Jesus first and others second.

Notice why Paul says he counts all things last. He says there in verse 8, Paul is teaching us the proper mentality, the proper heart for us. Not to latch on to the things of this life, but to let go of as much as you can so that you can grasp the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus. Paul is teaching us you can't hold on to both and try to live in this world and the next.

But he says you have to let go of one and grab hold of the other. Just as Jesus said, you can't serve two masters.

You need to let go of one and grab hold of the other. And so Paul says, I count it as done. I'm letting go so that I can experience. I can know the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. The knowledge of Jesus Christ is the best thing that we can obtain. It's the best thing for us. It's what gives us real joy.

And if you talk about the excellence of the knowledge of Christ, and you might say, well, what excellence is there in the knowledge of Christ? And I would challenge you, if you do not know the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, you do not know Christ Jesus. Because to know Christ Jesus is to know the excellence of knowing him, of knowing that he sets you free.

From the bondage to sin and death. Knowing the redemption that he provides and the grace and the mercy that he pours out and how much he loves you and the eternal life that he has planned for you. Man, to know Jesus is to know that knowing him is excellent. There's excellence in knowing Jesus.

Far greater than anything in this life. We're not talking about a religious system, good works and requirements, but an intimate knowledge of Jesus that comes from relationship with him. There is nothing greater than relationship with God. It's what will fulfill us. It's what we're really looking for. It's what will give us joy and meet all of our needs.

Peter echoed this thought in 2 Peter 1, verse 3, where he says that his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue. Everything that we need is given to us by the knowledge of him. He provides, he meets, he satisfies through the knowledge of him.

And so Paul says, whatever is in your life that hinders your relationship with God, count it as dung and let it go. Don't hold on to that. Whatever is in your life that you can get rid of in order to get more of God...

Count it as done. Get rid of it that you may grasp hold of Jesus Christ. In other words, make your relationship with God the most important thing in your life. Let everything else in your life revolve around your relationship with God. If I have the attitude, I'll read my Bible, you know, when I have time. I'll spend time with God if I can get around to it or if I can squeeze some time in throughout the day or whatever.

You know, I'm going to go to church, but, you know, it's just, it's my day to, you know, get rid of, do the chores and sleep in or take care of these other things. It's just my one day. And so, you know, if that's my attitude regarding the things of the Lord, there's a problem. There's a big problem. Christ is not first. My life does not revolve around him. I'm not living to please him, to know him and experience relationship with him. Don't expect to have joy if that is your heart towards the things of God.

Don't expect to be obedient and rejoice in the Lord if he's somewhere down the list of priorities and passions, concerns. The place for Jesus in our lives is first, foremost. Our job, our relationships, everything else in this life, our possessions, our occupations, they all need to be centered around Jesus Christ, subject to Jesus Christ. He must be first. He must be the priority.

Now, of course, you can do all of the things that I mentioned legalistically, but that's not the point. That will not bring you joy. You can read your Bible every day and you can pray and you can be a church, but don't have confidence in the flesh. Don't do it to fulfill some requirement or to feel like, well, that's what God said I was supposed to do, so that's what I'm going to do. But again, the point is the intimacy with the Lord.

I'm here. I'm doing this because God is first. I want to know him. I'm striving to know him. I'm longing to grow deeper in my relationship with him. The purpose must be the relationship that we desire with God. That's why Paul says at the end of verse 8,

The whole point of all this, I count it all as dung that I may gain Christ. In verse 9, And be found in him not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Now, in these last few verses, Paul shares with us, he counts all things as dung for two reasons. First of all, that I may gain Christ, Paul says.

That I may gain Christ. His goal is not religion or religious activity, but the person, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the object of his obsession. It's what he counts everything else lost for, that he may gain Jesus Christ. The person, who he is, what he's done, his daily involvement, his personal leading and guiding.

And on and on we could go. He just wants more of Jesus in his life. He's not trying to be righteous on his own anymore. He says, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, trying to keep these religious things and having confidence in the flesh, but the righteousness that comes through faith. Believe in Jesus Christ, the work that he did, and his righteousness is imputed. It's added to your account.

And Paul says, that's what I'm striving for. That's what I'm looking for. Relationship with God, not trying to do righteousness on my own, but just believing God what he said, that he's going to give me his righteousness as a covering. And that by believing in Jesus, I stand before God just as if I had never sinned ever. It's the righteousness of God which comes by faith. But Paul's goal is not the righteousness of the law.

but to abide in Christ at all costs. Nothing else compares to abiding in Jesus Christ. The first reason, Paul says, I want to count all these things as done is that I may gain Christ. But the second reason we find in verses 10 and 11, he says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Paul says the second thing,

The reason why I count all things as done, why I don't hold on to the temporary things of this life, why I give them the value of something at the bottom of the ocean, not worthy of recovery, is that I may know Him. Not only do I want to gain Christ, but I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and being conformed to His death.

This word know, when he says I want to know him, it's the word which means to know by experience. Not to know because you told me about it or because I read about it or I looked it up or I studied it or I have a general understanding. But to know by experiencing firsthand, Paul says I want to experience him.

and the power of his resurrection. I want to experience him in the fellowship of his sufferings and experience him being conformed to his death. Paul says, I count it all loss because I want to experience Jesus Christ in my life. I want to experience the power of his resurrection. Have you experienced the resurrecting power of God in your life? Have you seen God work in that way? Powerfully, dramatically? Have you seen God work?

Now, obviously, when we are born again, there's a resurrecting work. It's the power of God that revives us and gives us new spiritual life. But even beyond that, God wants to work powerfully in you and through you. But we need to let the things of this life go. We need to count it all loss and grasp hold of him and put him first in our life. And we'll discover his power at work in us and through us.

Paul says, I want to experience the fellowship of his sufferings. And you need to know, Paul told Timothy, everyone who desires to live godly will suffer persecution. Just like Jesus underwent persecution, and Paul did, and all the rest of the apostles, you and I will as well. If we are going to count it all as dung and grass pulled of Jesus Christ,

that we may experience him. We're going to experience his sufferings, the things that he went through, the rejection of this world. We will experience suffering as a result of our pursuit of God, but it will be worth it. It will be worth it. Look at Paul's goal, that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Paul is living for the next life, not this life.

Yes, there will be suffering. Yes, I'm being conformed to his death. I'm going to be dying to myself just like he did. And that might mean a literal dying or it might just mean the worst part, you know, dying to our own selfish desires and selfish nature. But I'm letting all that go and I'm striving forward to gain Christ for the next life because eternity is what matters. Eternity is what counts. I'm going to live forever

And I want it to be in heaven. I'm going to live forever and I want to store up, just like Jesus said, I want to store up treasures for myself up there. Where moth does not destroy, rust does not corrupt. Not down here, grasping hold of these things, but grasping hold of Jesus Christ. Intimacy, personal relationship with him. Paul began by telling us, rejoice in the Lord.

Rejoice in the Lord. It's a command for every one of us. But in order for us to obey that command, we need to, number one, have no confidence in the flesh. We need to escape from legalism, turn from those things and relying upon those things and being so proud of how religious we are. And we need to put our confidence in Jesus Christ and our confidence in abiding in Him. And the second thing we must do is count all things lost, be it material goods, relationships,

Even goals and dreams that we may have. Count it all loss and grasp hold of Jesus Christ and watch him do an amazing work. You will have joy like you cannot believe. You'll be able to easily be obedient to the command to rejoice in the Lord. Not because you feel like it, but because he's worthy and he's awesome and he's wonderful and he's powerful and he loves you. There's nothing greater than relationship with God. So let go of everything.

Like the author of Hebrews says, let us lay aside every sin. We need to count sin as dung, as loss, not worthy of chasing after, not worthy of fulfilling. But also, Hebrews says, every weight, anything that slows us down, anything that keeps us from grasping hold of God, we need to let it go. We need to lay it aside and run the race with endurance.

Run the race of walking with God, intimacy with Jesus, that we may gain him, that we may experience him and his power and his work in our life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray for our hearts here this morning. God, that as Paul has given us this command to rejoice in the Lord, we ask Jesus that you would help us to be obedient to it. God, knowing that we must, in obedience to that,

have no confidence in our flesh. And so God, if there's areas in our lives where we are relying upon our flesh, our keeping of the law or our own laws and regulations in order to please You,

God, we ask that you would help us to recognize that, that we would not have confidence in ourselves and be looking to ourselves and our fulfillment of those things, but Lord, that we would be looking to you and abiding in you and that you would be our confidence in your finished work. Jesus, may we have such a deep understanding of what that means to look to you and rely upon you, to love you and to worship you. Lord, to abide in you continually.

God, I pray also that you would help us to loosen our grasp on the things of this life. Lord, that you would help us to let go and to count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of you. God, may we experience you in our hearts and our lives. Your presence, your touch, your guidance, your power. Lord, we need you.

Forgive us, Lord, for looking to other things to satisfy that need. Forgive us, God, for searching after and chasing after the things of this life that don't last. Help us, Lord, to be consumed with you. Lord, as we've learned the principle of joy, may we put you first in our lives and order everything about our lives around you. Lord, our relationship with you must come first, so help us to put it there. But Lord, also you've called us not just to put you first, but to put others second.

And so we ask, God, that you would help us to have that priority, that we would live not for this life and for this moment, for what we desire, but that we would live for others, God. That we would minister to them and share with them and give ourselves and sacrifice ourselves for them, Lord, because they're so important and valuable to you. And you desire them to spend eternity with you. You desire them to be rooted and grounded in you. You desire them to be built up by us, Lord.

So, Lord, may we serve one another and those that you've placed in our lives. God, we ask that you would help us to make you our passion, that we might rejoice in you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. The worship team is going to come up and close us in one last song. Would you please stand with us as we close in this last song? A couple of final words. If you need prayer, there's going to be people up here who would...

Love to pray for you on my right and my left. And after the song, you're welcome to come up. If you need to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord and experience the resurrecting power of what he wants to do in making you born again and giving you joy, come forward. Find out what it means to be a Christian and to walk with the Lord. Maybe you need to be renewed or perhaps God has been speaking something to your heart during our time together.

They would love to pray with you and share with you along the same things that God has been speaking to your heart. Also, if you need prayer for healing or for anything else, we're available. Well, let's worship the Lord together, and then you're dismissed. God bless you. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.