PHILIPPIANS 3 HAVE A MATURE CHRISTIAN MIND2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Philippians 3 Have A Mature Christian Mind

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 2017.

Well, here we are this morning in Philippians chapter 3, continuing to work our way through the Bible in three years, and watching the example of the Apostle Paul as he goes through these letters and shares about ministry and character and the doctrine of Jesus. And there's incredible truths that we've been discovering. The book of Colossians is where we are currently in the reading in the past few days, and just some incredible truths that

Paul lays out there in the book of Colossians about who Jesus is and his place and the place that he deserves in our lives. And he models that for us back here in Philippians chapter 3. And today as we look at chapter 3, there's a lot of details that we're going to like just kind of be jumping over as we get an overview of this chapter. But we're talking about essentially the idea of maturity as believers in Jesus.

And this morning, I want to encourage you and call you to have a mature Christian mind, to have the mindset, the mentality, the heart, and the attitude of a mature Christian. That is what Paul will be calling us to and demonstrating for us here in Philippians chapter 3.

It really comes from what we find in verse 15, which says, "'Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.'"

And so here in chapter 3, as Paul is giving himself as an example, but also calling the Philippians to follow his example and expressing some instruction in a variety of different areas, he kind of summarizes it all by saying, we need to have this kind of mentality. This is the mind of a mature believer. And so he calls us to have this mind.

Now this instruction, this command to have this mind is important to consider because the very fact that it's a command indicates to us that it's a choice. That we need to understand maturity as believers in Jesus Christ is not always, well, it's not going to happen automatically. That just because you've been around the things of God for a long time doesn't mean

give you a mature mind in Christ. Just because you've been in church, or you've been saved for a long time, or you've been plugged in or served in various capacities, that these things are not automatic, but that these are choices that we have to make and instructions that we have to follow. Perhaps it's a little bit similar to a parent who looks at the kid and says, act your age.

Now, just because you have so many years doesn't mean that you are behaving appropriately for someone who has that many years of experience in life. And in a similar way, as believers in Jesus, Paul this morning is going to be calling us to act our age. You've been around the things of God for a while. You've been walking with God for some time, and there's a place for immaturity. There's a place for newness as new believers in Jesus. And you're going to be calling us to act our age.

But then there's also that place where you've been walking with God, you've known the things of God, you've heard the teachings of God. And so it's time to put on this mind, to have the mind of a mature Christian, to act your age and to show the maturity that should be there in your life. Now, I also like though here in verse 15, how he says, if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.

And so in these exhortations that we'll see throughout Philippians chapter 3, Paul says, if you feel differently about these things, well, maybe you're not as mature as you think you are, and that's okay. God's going to reveal this to you. And we have the potential, the opportunity then, that even in those areas where we are lacking, where we should be mature but we're not mature, where we should understand but we don't understand, where we should know how to live and we don't know how to live, Paul says, we can call out to God.

We can ask God and seek him for guidance for navigating those areas that we're unsure of. And so this morning, as I exhort you and encourage you to have a Christian, a mature Christian mind,

it's two things. Number one, it's make the choice where you know better, where God has shown you and taught you how to walk with him. Then put on that mind and make those choices to be mature as a believer in Jesus. But also where you recognize that you're not quite there yet and you don't understand and know how to put into practice these things.

then I would be encouraging you to call out to God and ask him to reveal to you the way forward that he wants you to go. And so have a Christian mind is the title of the message this morning. There's four points that we'll work through as we go through Philippians chapter three. And so we're gonna start back in verses one through six. And here's point number one. Mind your confidence in the flesh. To have a mature Christian mind means

the first thing that we need to do is to mind our confidence in the flesh. Now, this time I'm using the word mind as in mind your manners, right? It's pay attention to and be aware of your confidence in the flesh. Let's look at verses one through three. It says this, 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.

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.

Here in Philippians chapter 3, Paul begins this chapter saying, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. And the book of Philippians is filled with these kinds of exhortations from the Apostle Paul, calling the Christians to have joy, to take joy, to rejoice. He'll say again in chapter 4, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. And it's always noteworthy to consider that the Apostle Paul, as he gives this exhortation,

is writing this letter from prison in Rome. And so here he is bound, confined, chained, but exhorting others to rejoice in the Lord. And you could step back and think, well, it should be the Philippians writing to Paul, you know, hey, rejoice and take heart, you know, God's with you and encouraging him. But here we see, again, a great example in the Apostle Paul in that joy does not come from your circumstances, but he says, rejoice in the Lord.

That no matter what the circumstances are, there is still joy that we can have and joy that we're commanded to take hold of in the Lord. And so he calls us to rejoice in the Lord. But then he goes on to say, for me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you, it is safe. And so the things that Paul's about to share with us are things that he has shared with the Philippians previously.

Now, we don't have a record of that. We don't have previous letters to the Philippians that Paul wrote, but perhaps he did. We know he ministered in the area of Philippi in Acts chapter 16. We see some of that, but we don't have much record of what he taught. But apparently, he taught some of these things to them, either in person or by letter previously, and now he's going to remind them. It's new to us because we don't have the records, but

But he says it's important, even though you've known these things, even though I've taught you these things before, it's important for me to repeat these things for you.

And it's not tedious. It's not, you know, it's worthwhile. In other words, Paul says, for me to repeat myself and share something you already know, it's still worth it. It's worth it for me to share it and it's worth it for you to receive it. And this is a really important point as we get started this morning, that as we work through Philippians chapter three,

For the most part, I would suggest that these are not, you know, things that you've never heard before, never been taught before, never read before, never studied yourself before. But at the same time, it's still worth teaching and it's still worth receiving these truths. Repetition is valuable and necessary for us as believers. He says, for you, it is safe. Peter said something very similar in one of his letters in 2 Peter 1.

He says, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Peter says, I know you know the truth. Not only do you know the truth, but you're established in the truth. And yet at the same time, it would be negligence on my part if I didn't remind you of these same truths. For you and I as believers, we need to be reminded of

And the things that we have learned and known, they need to be reinforced. As we talked about the spiritual battles that we faced last week, you need to know that the enemy is seeking to undermine and to erode away those pillars of truth that have been established in your life. And so Paul and Peter and the word of God is there to reinforce those pillars of truth, those things that we've known and been established in.

And so I want to encourage you to be engaged when the word of God is being shared, even if it's things that you've heard or learned or taught. And all of that really, I see it as tying into the point this morning. Again, point number one is mind your confidence in the flesh, because I would suggest that we often will tune out

When it's something we've heard, when it's something we're familiar with, and we kind of like, okay, I don't have to pay that close of attention. I don't have to be that aggressive at receiving this. I can think about my lunch plans or, you know, how I'm going to do this or what the rest of the day is going to be like. We can have that kind of mentality because we have confidence in the flesh. Because we're pretty comfortable with where we're at. We're pretty comfortable with our condition. We think we're pretty good. And so I don't have to engage so much with these things that I've learned and known and taught and been taught.

It's kind of like, I don't know how much you fly, but I've flown a lot, and so much so that now when there is the pre-flight emergency information and demonstration, and they're showing you how to put on the flotation device and, you know, all of that, I don't pay attention to that at all. They tell you to, and they call you to, and...

I've done it enough to know there's a flotation device somewhere. It's either under my seat or it is my seat cushion. It's somewhere. I know that. So I got that. I know how the things come down. I know how you put on. I know you pull the straps. I'm not engaged. But if I go on a flight with Pastor Cisco, he's like...

Maybe there was a change since last time. Maybe you find it somewhere else, or maybe it's different, and quite possibly we're going to have to use it, right, Pastor Cisco? Because there's always going to be an emergency whenever you fly, and so he pays more attention than I do. But when it comes to the things of the Lord, I just want to encourage you, don't tune out. Yeah, you've been through it a lot.

But that's by design. We need the repetition and we need to be tuned in to what the Lord wants to speak to us this morning. So moving on to verse two, Paul says, "'Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, "'and beware of the mutilation.'"

Now, through this, Paul is referring to false teachers that were prevalent there in their area and at that time. And there were false teachers that were prevalent, just as there are false teachers all over today. And some of the similar doctrines are being taught, some other

Other doctrines are being taught as well. But as Paul is addressing them, the particular type of false teaching that they were experiencing was done by what's referred to as the Judaizers. And the Judaizers were those who believed and declared and taught that you had to become a Jew in order to be saved. That you had to believe in Jesus, but you also had to go back to the law of Moses and

and practice the law, and walk in the law. That began for guys with circumcision. And so you would have to be circumcised, follow the law, and believe in Jesus, and then you could be saved. And that was a requirement for salvation as far as they were concerned. And so...

Without getting into too much of the details, Paul just refers to this group as dogs, evil workers, and the mutilation. That is, they are teaching false doctrine. They're leading people astray, and they're keeping people from what God has for them. He elaborates on that a little bit more in verse 3. He says, Now this term, the circumcision,

refers to, of course, that first rite. As you would convert to Judaism, then there would be the circumcision. And so there was that actual act and thing that was done. But the circumcision became this title, became this phrase that was used to refer to the Jewish people, the Jews, the Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham. And it was a term that indicated circumcision.

special privileged access to God because they were God's chosen people. They were circumcised according to the covenant given to Abraham. And so there was this special access, special privilege in accessing God and knowing God and talking to God and walking with God. And so the circumcision was used as a title of like this, like higher class of access to God.

And what Paul is explaining here is these guys are trying to tell you that if you become part of the circumcision, then you can have better access to God. But what I'm telling you, Paul says, we are the circumcision. We already have this privileged access to God. Do you want to know how to have the best access to God that is humanly possible on this side of eternity?

He lays it out for us here in verse 3. He says, look, we are the circumcision who, number one, worship God in the Spirit. Number two, rejoice in Christ Jesus. And number three, have no confidence in the flesh. These are the three things required to have access to God. Special, privileged, full VIP access to God is obtained through worshiping God in the Spirit, through rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and

and through having no confidence in the flesh. Now it's that last one that Paul will expound upon, and so that's the one that we're focusing on this morning here in this point. In verse 4, he goes on to say, though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so.

Verse 5, Here in these verses, Paul essentially says this, if there was ever anybody who would have special access to God by their own efforts, Paul says, I would be that guy.

It's kind of a bold statement, right? Kind of a maybe arrogant statement we might consider. But as you look at the things that Paul lays out, you can see that, well, it's true. He was, well, he says, circumcised the eighth day. Now that goes back to the covenant that God gave to Abraham, the instruction, the requirement on the eighth day, the males should be circumcised. And so Paul is saying from the very beginning,

I entered in. On my eighth day of life, I entered in to be part of this covenant that God had given to Abraham. But it wasn't by his own doing. That was, of course, his parents who did that because he was of the tribe of Benjamin. And so he is a direct descendant of Abraham through the line of Benjamin, through the tribe of Benjamin. And so he refers to himself as a Hebrew of the Hebrews.

By that, he's saying, I'm not just a cultural Hebrew. You know, I just, I was raised in the area of Israel, you know, so I'm kind of Hebrew-ish. I have that heritage. That's my bloodline, but I don't really practice those things. I don't really, you know, I'm not really engaged in Judaism or the law or, you know, the things. I'm just kind of, that's my family and that's where I came from. No, he's saying, I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. That I came from that heritage. I have that lineage, but also,

I'm engaged in the practices of the Hebrews, the practices of the Jewish people. And so he says, concerning the law, I was a Pharisee. Now for the Jewish people, the Pharisee, that was the strictest sect, the strictest group of people as far as keeping the law. Now they had their own twisted interpretations and things that they added onto it. And we've talked a lot about that as Jesus dealt with the Pharisees. But as far as the Hebrews are concerned,

The Pharisees followed the scriptures to great detail. They were strictly keeping to the things that they believed the Bible taught. And so if you could have special access to God by, well, being part of the covenant from the eighth day on, Paul had that. If you had special access to God by being a descendant of Abraham, Paul had that. If you had special access to God by keeping the law, well,

Paul had that. He says in verse 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Paul says, look, I was so passionate about these things. When I thought there was a threat against Judaism, the church, I persecuted the church. I was very passionate. I fought for God, according to my understanding, you know, but he was fighting for God, he thought, in persecuting the church because he was so zealous in

for his Hebrew culture, his Hebrew heritage, the Old Testament scriptures, and the things that he thought were true. And concerning the righteousness which is in the law, he says, I was blameless. Now, Paul's not saying I was perfect. He's saying, whenever I broke the law, I kept the law and provided the sacrifice and did what was required in the law to make things right and get right with God. So Paul outlines it very clearly for us. If there was anyone who

who would ever have special access to God by their own efforts? Paul says, it would have been me. But it wasn't Paul, because that is not the way that you get access to God. In Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector who go to the temple to pray.

And in this parable, Jesus describes the Pharisee who is there praying and the Pharisee prays, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. The Pharisee goes on to pray and say, I fast twice a week and I give tithes of all that I possess. Essentially, the Pharisee says, I thank you, God, that I am such a wonderful man.

And then the tax collector, on the other hand, he prays. But he prays standing afar off, Jesus says. And he wouldn't even raise his eyes to heaven because he was so ashamed. And he beat his breath saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And in telling that parable, Jesus said, this man, the tax collector, went home justified rather than the Pharisee.

The one who admitted and confessed his weakness and lack, and even though he was far off, and even though he fell short and messed up, and in their understanding, the tax collector was the worst sinner of all. And so Jesus here is saying, the one who keeps the law the best doesn't have special access to God. But you know who does? Even the worst of the worst who confesses their sin to God.

goes home with right access to God when they call out to him. Now, right before this parable in Luke chapter 18 verse 9, Luke gives us some insight into why Jesus told this parable. Luke chapter 18 verse 9 says, You see, Jesus wants you to know, and Paul wants us to be reminded this morning,

There is a tendency, there is a danger of trusting in yourself. Confidence in your flesh. Confidence in your performance. And Paul is saying there is no special access to God that's granted by your performance. Access to God is granted, well, it's by grace, through faith. And that not of your works. It's a gift of God. Not of works lest anyone should boast.

Salvation is by God's grace. And that's what gives you full access to God. VIP, front row, you have just as equal access to God as anybody else who has ever existed. You can enter into the presence of God, have his full attention, spend time with him, hear from him, talk to him. You have access to God by faith in Jesus Christ. And as it began that way, salvation began that way, by grace, through faith, not of yourselves.

Everything that follows in the Christian life follows that same pattern. That's not just, okay, you begin there, but now to continue to have access to God, what you have to do is be circumcised and work really hard and do all these things and go to church three times a week and read the Bible in three years. And you know, then you can have full access to God. No, no, that's not how it works. It is always and will always be, you receive what God has for you by his grace, through faith.

It's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. It is so easy for us to slip into a confidence in the flesh, some type of legalism. Now, perhaps you don't struggle with legalism in the sense of the Old Testament. There are some who do. And well, look at what Leviticus says. Okay, and so we got to keep these diets. If we want to have special access to God, we got to keep these things and follow these details. And Leviticus,

There are some who fall into that, but perhaps that's not exactly where you're at. It doesn't have to be the Old Testament to be legalism. We also develop our own systems and rules and rituals and regulations, and we begin to relate to God based on our performance of whatever system we have created for ourselves. But it's not about our performance. You see, the mature Christian mind recognizes, I can't have any confidence in my flesh, in my performance.

I need to come to God with full confidence in him and what he's done for us. And as we've been reading in the book of Colossians now, going through the Bible in three years, Paul has been saying that. He's been declaring we're complete in Jesus Christ. We have everything that we need in Jesus Christ. So we don't achieve better access to God by our performance. That's granted to us. It's a gift that God gives us by faith in Jesus Christ. And so if you want the best possible access to God,

Again, Paul says, worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. So make that choice. It is a choice that needs to be made. Again, we slip into that pretty easily where we begin to rely upon our performance, but make the choice. Be mature and recognize, I can't trust in my flesh. That doesn't give me special privilege with God. That's granted by faith in Jesus Christ.

Moving on now to verses 7 through 11, we have point number two, and that is, mind the value you place on knowing Jesus. So the first thing we mind is our confidence in the flesh. Start catching and be aware of how much you're trusting in your performance, your confidence in the flesh. But also we need to value, we need to consider, how much do I value the knowledge of Jesus? Let's read verses 7 through 11. Here's what it says.

But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 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 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."

Here, Paul continues now to talk about those things that he had achieved and those things that he had done and the place that he came from. And it was a noteworthy place.

But he tells us in verse 7, all of these things that were gained to me, I counted them as loss.

All the gains that I had, all the benefits that I had from coming from this heritage, from being of the tribe of Benjamin, from being a Hebrew of Hebrews and pursuing the law to this degree and being zealous in this way. He says, all of those things that were gained to me, I was proud of who I was. I was proud of where I came from. I was proud of what I had achieved. All the things I had confidence in before, he says, I have counted them loss. Loss.

And this is exactly the opposite of confidence in the flesh. Instead of counting them as a gain and saying, look at what I've accomplished and look at what I've achieved, that's confidence in the flesh. He says, I've counted them as loss. I've counted them as, if you're doing accounting, right? You're writing off. It's a debt that has to be written off. Not that any of those things that he mentioned were negative in the sense of, you know, being Jewish is not a negative thing.

But it is a negative in the sense that it held him back from right relationship with God because he was trying to approach God on the basis of those things and he didn't have right relationship with God until he counted those as loss and laid those things aside and received right relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ. And so there had to be this transaction that took place. He uses the word count here.

Again, it's kind of pictured towards that idea of accounting. He's doing some math. He's doing some accounting and he's saying, all of these things that I thought were profits to me, I thought these were beneficial to me. I thought these helped me have better access to God. He said, it wasn't until I realized those are all things that are holding me back. Those are debts. I need to let those things go in order to grasp hold of what Christ has done for me.

And so he's describing this deliberate choice, this intentional transaction. And notice that it's not just counting the past or the flesh loss, but it's loss for Christ. He's talking about an exchange, a trade that is taking place. He's trading in all of his confidence in these things and putting all of his confidence in Christ instead.

He's removing his confidence from all these things, counting that as a loss, but then he's giving confidence to and placing his confidence in Jesus Christ. He goes on in verse eight to say, yet indeed, I also count all things loss and then notice for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ. Look at how much Paul values knowing Jesus. He says, I count all things loss. The things that I was proud of,

The heritage that I had, the things I had accomplished, who I was, and I was so proud of that, but I count it as loss. In fact, I count everything as loss. Anything that would hold me back, he says, from the knowledge of Jesus, the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus. He goes on here in verse eight to say, I count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. Everything else pales in value compared to knowing Jesus.

Paul greatly values his opportunity to know Jesus, to know God, to have access to God by faith in Jesus. He values that above everything else. And everything else in comparison to the knowledge of Jesus is counted as rubbish, trash. I would just ask you to consider, do you have that kind of value on knowing Jesus? That everything else above

in life and everything else about who you are and what you're proud of and the heritage that you have and your favorite team that you support and all of that. I count all of that as loss. That's all rubbish compared to how important it is and how valuable it is to know Jesus. What do you get when you gain Christ in this way, when you place this kind of value in knowing Jesus? Paul says you get righteousness,

and you get resurrection. In verse 9, he says, What I receive when I value Jesus in this way is I receive the righteousness which is from God, not the righteousness which is from the law. That's what Paul used to have.

And Paul worked really hard to do the best he could to be righteous before God according to his best efforts and the instruction that God had in the Old Testament. But that's not good enough. That's not real righteousness. The prophet Isaiah tells us that our righteousness is like filthy rags. And so the best that Paul could do, all that pedigree that he had, the heritage that he had, all the passion that he had, everything that he had going for him, all that gain was like a pile of filthy rags.

That's all that he, you know, would have as a result of all of his efforts before Christ. But valuing Jesus, receiving Jesus, gives him then the righteousness which is from God by faith. And that is a complete and perfect righteousness. In fact, it's the righteousness of Jesus Christ applied to you because you've believed in Jesus Christ.

That's what you gain when you value Jesus and knowing him. Not only that, but he goes on to say in verse 10, Paul says, you also receive not just this righteousness from God, but this promise of resurrection.

The resurrection from the dead, life everlasting, eternity with the Father. And so Paul says, I'm counting everything else as loss and I'm valuing the knowledge of Jesus so that I can grasp hold of, that I can receive this promise of resurrection. And so you can see that Paul is saying, knowing Jesus is more valuable than anything else in this life.

It's not always easy. Notice in verse 10, he says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. And we say, yeah, that's great. And the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. And we're not so excited about that part. It's difficult in this life to value knowing Jesus and to let that be lived out in your life. It's difficult. And there's going to be costs. There will be suffering and the crucifixion of the flesh.

We will be conformed to his death and God's going to be working in our lives and dealing with sin issues and dealing with our flesh. And there's going to be resistance from the world and resistance from the enemy, as we talked about last week. And so it's not that when you do this, then life is just, you know, always glorious and always beautiful and always easy and amazing. No, there's going to be great challenges, but it's worth it because you have the righteousness of Christ.

and the promise of everlasting life. Here's the mind of a mature Christian. You mind the value that you place on knowing Jesus. You keep this in your mind. It's a conscious, deliberate choice. As things begin to compete in your mind and heart with priority and passion for the Lord, you make the deliberate choice to keep the Lord first and to keep yourself on a path of

of knowing Jesus and growing in your knowledge of him. Now, I think if I would ask, I think probably everybody would agree. If I said, knowing Jesus is more valuable than anything else in this life, and I said, don't you agree? I think everybody would probably agree. But I would ask you to take it a step farther than in your mind and consider your life. And I would ask you to consider, does your life reflect

that knowing Jesus is more valuable than anything else? Is that demonstrated by the way that you live? Is that demonstrated by this past week for you? Or yesterday? What was happening yesterday for you? Does it demonstrate that knowing Jesus is more valuable than anything else? I mean, think about it this way. I know that exercise is good for me. That doesn't mean that I exercise. I know that.

That knowing Jesus is more valuable than anything else. But that doesn't mean that I automatically do it. That doesn't mean that I automatically value that and live that out.

Now, I want to be careful here, and sometimes we kind of get the impression that, you know, it always means more time. So we always kind of condemn ourselves. I should pray more. I should read the Bible more. I should, you know, do this more, and it's always more time, more time, more time. And hey, we only have a certain amount of time. This isn't necessarily, it might be for you, you can seek the Lord on it, but it's not necessarily about more time, but it's about the quality of the time that you spend with God.

And do you have a real and meaningful pursuit of knowing Jesus? Do you have that value that knowing him is more important than everything else and more valuable than anything else? So if you have an opportunity, the Lord set before you something and he says, I really want to

reveal myself to you in a special way. Here's an opportunity. It's going to cost you $50, but for $75, you can go to that football game. $50 for that? I don't know. How do you value your relationship with God? Now, this isn't, I'm not asking for money, okay? This is, I'm just using that as an example that, again, we would all say valuing Jesus, oh yes, I know that's the most important. I know he's more valuable than anything else, but then

When the Lord calls us to act on that, we're like, ooh, that's costly. I don't have time for that. Time is money. And we put time towards other things that are less valuable, but not towards knowing Jesus. How are you investing in this valuable thing that God has given to us in the knowledge of Jesus, in the excellence of knowing him? Is there anything in your life that competes

with the priority that knowing Jesus should have. And here's what Paul's saying. Have a mature Christian mind. You're gonna have to make a choice. Well, the reality is you're gonna have to make a thousand choices to choose to value Christ first, to value knowing him and value your relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ above everything else. All day, every day, you're gonna have to make those choices.

And if you're lacking, again, in verse 15, Paul says, if in anything you think otherwise, or you're not quite there, you don't know how to, how do I value this relationship and knowing Jesus? How do I value that? What does that mean for me? The great news is that God wants to show you. He wants to reveal to you. He will reveal to you what that means for you and how that looks in your life if you call out to him. And as you call out to him, as you begin to give him priority, he will lead you.

and how he wants you to continue in that. Well, now we head into verses 12 through 15, the verses we read earlier, and that gives us point number three, and that is, mind your desire to grow in Jesus. Verse 12 again says, not that I have already attained or I'm already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Notice what Paul says here, not that I've already attained.

He's talking about the value, the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus that he might attain to the resurrection of the dead. And he says, I want you guys to know, I don't count myself as if I've already attained. I've already been perfected. I don't count myself to be complete. Paul says, I'm recognizing there's still a lot that God wants to do in me. There's still a lot that God wants to do through me. There's still some work to do.

There's still some growth that needs to take place. And it's kind of interesting, isn't it? That one moment we can be tempted to have confidence in our flesh, in our performance, and the next moment we can be tempted to have confidence in our spiritual experience. We can have confidence in the things that God has done in our lives in the past. And we can take that to be an excuse to coast. God has worked miraculously in your life. I'm sure that he has.

But that's not a reason for you to think, all right, so me or God are cool because look at this miracle that he's done. And so I can just cruise. I can just chill. I just, you know, kind of coast along, do whatever I want to do, live however I want to live, make whatever choices I want to make. I'm good because look at that past thing that God has done. And both are an issue. If we have confidence in our flesh, our performance, and what we've done, there's an issue. And if we have confidence in

And what God has done in the past, and that keeps us in a place of not going forward in our relationship with God. They're both an issue. Either one's an issue. It's a need that we have to go forward. We've been talking about this over, I would say, the past couple months, going back to 1 Corinthians, about running the race to win the prize, to obtain the prize that we need to be pushing forward to develop in our relationship with God.

And a mature Christian will mind their desire to grow in Jesus. You need to keep a watchful eye on your heart. Where are you at in your desire to grow? Where are you at in your desire to know the Lord, to honor the Lord, and to develop in your relationship with God? How much do you want to grow in Jesus?

And again, I would suggest as I did before, I think we all would say it's important to know Jesus and to grow and we all need that. But again, how is that reflected in your life? Paul says in verse 12, not that I've already attained or I'm already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. I'm not perfected.

If I thought I was perfected, then I would just coast. I would just cruise. I would not take, you know, developing my relationship with God very seriously. But Paul says, I don't count myself to have attained. I'm not there yet. I'm better than I was, but I'm not where I need to be. The Lord has so much more that he wants to do. And again, none of us would declare that we've been, that we have attained or been perfected. At least I don't think we would declare that, right? But the real test is

of that is not whether or not we would declare that, but how we are actually pressing on in our lives. That word press on, it means to run after something in order to catch it. To run after something in order to catch it. Now again, there's different kinds of running, right? If you are running a race and

And you're almost to the end of the race and you're cruising along and you're thinking, wow, look at the time, you know, I'm doing pretty good. It's like, wow, it's a 10 minute mile. Okay, great. You know, I'm pretty happy with that. And so then you just kind of cruise through the rest of the race. You're still running, but you're like, I'm content with this time. I don't have to be first. I don't have to win the race. I don't have to, you know, give it my best. I'm comfortable with this level of achievement in my race, right?

That's a different kind of run than running to win the prize, running to catch the thing that's ahead. And Paul is saying, I don't count myself to have attained. I don't count myself to have arrived. I'm not perfected. What I'm doing is I'm pressing on.

And it is easy for us as believers in Jesus to get to a place where we get pretty content with, wow, I mean, God's delivered me from all these things and set me free from those things. And I've learned so much about God and I've served God in these ways and been on these mission trips and worked in these capacities. And I'm good with this pace. You know, I'll just keep going, you know, just kind of cruise now. I don't have to keep pushing so hard. I don't have to keep running so hard, keep growing so much. And,

And it is easy for us to slip into that mentality, but that's not the mind of the mature Christian. The mind of the mature Christian is, I need to grow. I need to continue to press forward. I need to continue to know Jesus better. I need to continue to learn to love him more, to honor him more, to be pleasing to him by the way that I live. And if you're gonna desire to grow in Jesus, you need to understand there's gonna be things that you need to let go of.

In verse 13, he says, one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, forgetting those old things, forgetting those past victories, forgetting those past miracles, not in a sense of disregard for what God has done, but I'm not counting on those things. I'm not resting on those things. I'm not satisfied with those things. God has more in store for me.

So there's going to be things that you need to leave behind, to let go, but then there's also things that you need to reach for. He says, reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the upward, or the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. It is so easy for us to slip into lukewarm complacency. We can become pretty content and happy with how much we've grown.

with how much we know and where we're at. And truly it is a big difference probably from where you were before Christ. But that's not a reason for you to then lean back and run a different kind of race where you're just maintaining, where you're just holding what has been accomplished. You're holding on to the things of the past. And I would suggest to you, the longer that you walk with Jesus, the more you're,

We have to mind our desire to grow in Jesus. The more we have to pay attention to this, because the longer we walk with Jesus, the more and more tempting it is to just cruise based on what God has done in the past. Now, the mature Christian pays attention. You need to have a real desire to grow, and you need to be pushing to grow. You need to be thirsting to grow and going forward in what God has called you to do.

Again, if I ask you if you want to grow, you'll say yes. But evaluate your life. How is that desire demonstrated? And I would exhort you this morning to have a Christian mind. It's a choice that you need to make, to choose, to make that a priority, to make that an important part of your day that you are going to know him and live for him. And if you don't know how to do that, again, Paul says, if anything else,

you think otherwise god will reveal this to you and so you have the opportunity to call out to him well finishing it up in verses 16 through 21 we have point number four and that is mind your pattern of life so not only do you mind your confidence in the flesh and and learn to recognize and catch when you are holding on to your performance

But we also need to mind the value that we place on knowing Jesus. And am I keeping that at the right place, the right value in my life, that everything else pales in comparison to the value of what Jesus has to offer? And minding my desire to grow in Jesus and paying attention to how thirsty am I for more of the Lord? How thirsty am I for more of him in my life and knowing him and experiencing his love and walking with him

What's my desire level like? Am I running to catch up and to lay hold of that for which he has laid hold of me? But then finally, we need to mind our pattern of life. Verse 16 says, "'Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, "'let us walk by the same rule. "'Let us be of the same mind. "'Brethren, join in following my example "'and note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern.'"

Paul says, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. So he's calling us to push forward, to run forward. And he says, whatever you do, don't go backwards. At the very least, continue on at the level that you have attained. Let's walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind. Now, he's going to use the word walk a few times in these closing verses.

And in using this word walk, he's describing our lifestyle, the actions that fill our lives, the actions that really characterize our lives and how we put into practice these things. Again, I know that exercise is good for me, but that doesn't mean that I walk in that, right? It doesn't mean that I am living a lifestyle that portrays that and puts that into practice, right?

And for you and I as believers, we can find ourselves caught up sometimes in sinful patterns. We can find ourselves caught up in patterns of sin. And it's not because we don't know better. Perhaps sometimes it is. There are those occasions. But many times, issues of sin in our lives, we've just not been paying attention. We haven't been watching our lives carefully. Watching our attitude and considering, hey, is this right?

The way the Lord would have me to respond to this. We haven't been considering our actions or thoughts or activities against the word of God. We just haven't been paying attention. Now, there are times too where we make deliberate choices and we jump into a lifestyle and a pattern of sin. But, well, there's opportunity for repentance from that. But here Paul's addressing this issue of think about your pattern of life, the lifestyle that you live, the way that you walk. And you need to pay attention to it because sometimes sin,

You've just been coasting along. You've been doing your thing. You've been caught up and maybe distracted by other things. And you haven't been really considering whether or not the way that you are living is according to what God has for you. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, verse 16, take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. He told Timothy, you need to take heed to yourself. That's watch yourself.

carefully. And the doctrine. It's not just the doctrine that's important. Again, there's all the things that we know. But then how does that play out in your life? And so he tells Timothy, watch your life carefully. He calls us this morning, watch your life carefully. Evaluate your life. Mind the pattern of your life. What is your lifestyle pattern?

demonstrate to others around you. In verse 17, he says, brethren, join in following my example and note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern. So Paul says, I've walked as an example for you. Now join with me, follow my example. And there's others who are walking well as also, and so you can follow their example and you have us for a pattern. We have good examples of

what it's like to live a godly life. Of course, we have Jesus first and foremost. We have the apostle Paul. We have other men and women from the Bible. We have godly men and women all around us that we can consider and use as examples and patterns for our life to help us understand what it looks like to live the way that God has called us to live. But at the same time, he is

Saying now, as you join in following my example, you be an example and you be a pattern for others to follow. And not everybody is a good example. In verse 18, he says, And notice,

Paul says that there are many who walk. Their lifestyle reflects that their mind is set on this earth. Their mind is set on earthly things. And so they are enemies of the cross of Christ because their mind is set on earthly things. Now, as Paul talks about these enemies, here's what you need to understand. He's not talking about people persecuting the church.

He's not talking about people who are like him, you know, coming against the church. He's not talking about unbelievers on the outside. He's talking about people who name the name of Christ, but do not live the life of Christ. People who name the name of Christ, but do not live the life of Christ are enemies of the cross of Christ. And Paul says, I tell you this weeping. It's tragic that there are many who name the name of Christ, but their mind is on earthly things.

They don't have the mature Christian mind. And the pattern of their life demonstrates that. When your mind is set on earthly things, you will live an earthly life. But the opposite is also true. When your mind is set on heavenly things, you will live a heavenly life. Verse 20 says,

He says, you're not citizens of this earth. So that's not where your mind should be fixed. We're citizens of heaven.

We have a glorious future in store. That's where our mind needs to be fixed. And when our mind is fixed there, the pattern of our life, the decisions that we make, the actions that we take will reflect where our mind is set, how much we value the things of God. And so I would ask you to consider this morning, should other people use you as a pattern for how they should live? Just let that sink in a little bit. Think about that. Should other people use you

as a pattern for how they should live. There's a lot of people who've been going to church for years who are living the same old life as they did before. That's not the pattern for others to follow. Is your life a pattern? Are you a good example of your, well, these elements of maturity? Your confidence in the flesh? Should other people follow your example of your confidence in the flesh? Should other people follow your example of the value that you place on knowing Jesus?

Should others follow the example that you set in your desire to grow in Jesus? Should others follow your example in the lifestyle that you live and the choices that you make and the things that you do? The mind of a mature Christian, Paul says, it's choice. We have to make a deliberate conscious choice and there's going to be areas of lack and there we can call out to God and he will reveal to us. But Lord, help us.

to pay attention to our confidence in the flesh and our value of our performance before God and relying upon that to approach God. Lord, help us to pay attention to the value that we place on knowing Jesus, that that would be as it truly is, more valuable than anything else, but may that be reflected in our lives and lived out and demonstrated. Lord, help us to pay attention to our desire to grow in Jesus.

And Lord, show us if we're complacent, if we're just, you know, kind of coasting because of what has been happening in the past and what God has done in the past and the miracles and the works that have accomplished before. And Lord, help us to pay attention to the pattern of life. It is easy for us to kind of excuse ourselves, you know, that was like a one-time thing. But if you'll stop and reflect, maybe it's not a one-time thing. Maybe it's more of a daily or weekly issue that

that you have a pattern of life that is not good, that's not appropriate for a believer in Jesus Christ. Pay attention to how you live your life because God calls you to live your life as an example for others to follow. Here's what it looks like to believe in Jesus, to love Jesus, to walk with Jesus. And so Paul calls us to maturity. It's a mind that you put on, put on the mind of Christ, Paul says in Philippians chapter two. And I pray that we would do that. Let's pray.

Lord, as we come before you today and consider these things, it is a challenging call, Lord, and all of us have room to grow. If the Apostle Paul could say that he had room to grow and needed to grow and needed to press forward and to lay hold of that growth that you had in store for him, God, I pray that you would stir up within us that same kind of fervency and desire that we would recognize, Lord, that we cannot trust in our performance, but we can trust in your grace and your grace.

We can trust in your mercy. And so we can come to you even with our greatest failures and we can receive the benefits and the blessings that you have in store for us. Help us, Lord, to be mature, to receive from you what you have for us by faith in Jesus Christ. I pray that you would help us to value knowing you. Teach us, Lord, to recognize the value that you provide in that. And it is

of far more value than anything else that we can invest ourselves in. So Lord, help us to do that. Help us to push forward, to stir up within us, Lord, that we would desire you, that we would thirst to grow and experience more of who you are and your love for us and what you want to do in us and through us. Lord, help us not to be satisfied with where we are with you, but to dig deeper, to draw nearer, to love you more. And God, I pray.

that all of these things would be demonstrated by the life that we live. Help us to make good choices, wise actions, to be a good pattern and example for others to follow, to say this is how a godly man or woman lives. Help us, Lord, to put on this mature mind in you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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.