Philippians 3

He is able to accomplish what concerns me today He is able, more able, to handle anything that comes my way He is able, more able, me to be He is able, bullish what concerns me today He is able, more able, me to be Bibles and turn with me to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. If you don't have a Bible with you, hopefully there's one in your row you can grab onto. If you see someone in your pew that doesn't have one and is looking for one, just hand them one if you've got one.

We'll look at this section together. Our overall study in Philippians, just to remind you again, is learning to rejoice in the Lord, and I pray that you are. I pray that you are seeing the circumstances that are happening in your life as directed by God in His control, in His hand, that they are opportunities for you to serve Christ, that He wants you to have the mind of Christ, learning to have that mind of Christ that we saw in chapter 2. And it is a very difficult thing to learn.

It's so easy to get into the slump. It's so easy to just allow. It's so easy to allow despair to overwhelm us. And we go into that rut so often that to learn how to rejoice, to learn how to see this time of seeming ill circumstances an opportunity to serve Him, and to just let Him have us. Whatever's necessary, Lord, in order to serve you, it's difficult to learn.

But I pray you're learning, and I pray you're allowing the Spirit of God to bring these things to your continued attention. And as we come into chapter 3, we're seeing how tied in with learning to see. And to rejoice in the opportunities to serve Christ, and learning to have the mind of Christ, to rejoice in that, that we are in chapter 3 now learning to rejoice in the calling of Christ, that the opportunities that you have to serve Christ are part of His calling for you, as He is making you into the image of His Son, as God is molding your life into the image of Christ. Ephesians tells us that He prepared a path for you to walk, and we'll talk about that some today in chapter 2 of Ephesians.

Romans tells us that those that He called... He called, He justified, and those whom He justified, He glorified, and He predestined those that He called to be conformed into the image of His Son. And so if you can rejoice in the calling of God in your life, to know that when you said yes, you were responding to His calling, and that He had a path prepared for you to walk, that will end up with your being conformed into the image of His Son, into the image of Christ. Now, we would like that transformation to be instantaneous, and it is in your spirit.

Your spirit was regenerated the moment you accepted Christ, but it's the flesh that wasn't. It's the flesh that still contains the seed of sin. It's the flesh that still wars with your spirit, that wants its own way. And yet God's not just waiting until you die or waiting until the rapture of the church to transform that. He has given us the power to submit our members, to submit our flesh unto the control.

His spirit, and thereby learn to walk in the spirit while we're here, before we die, before we're caught up at the rapture of the church. That's what we're learning. It's a process. Listen, as Christians, it's a process and a power that's available to you, but God just isn't going to automatically do it in your life. You have to respond. You and I have to respond, and respond and begin to walk, and submit our members unto

Him, and trust Him. He calls us. He calls us to do that. Now, He's going to do the work, yes. And what happens if we fail to respond? What happens if we just give in to our flesh? What happens if we know we should be doing this, but we're not going to do it? Well, Hebrews tells us that He'll chasten you, that He'll discipline us, like a father spanks his child.

Well, what happens if I still don't respond? Well, 1 John tells us that He'll kill you. He'll take you out. And I believe that with my whole heart. I believe that God will not be mocked. And I believe that as a loving Father, He has prepared a path for us to walk in, and He wants us to respond. That I love to Him. Now, if we don't, out of selfishness, and just continue to want to walk in the flesh,

He will discipline us. He will chasten us with severity, with differing degrees of severity, according to His Word. That's what He did to the children of Israel. And if we still don't respond, He'll take us out, just like He took Israel and He took them out of the land. He moved them out of the land, carried them off into captivity, was a symbol of what I believe is called the sin unto death.

He'll take us out. So we do well to heed His Word, because He loves us, number one, and we've got to remember that, number one. But it's the fear of the Lord that's the beginning. It's the beginning of wisdom. And He will not be mocked. And so as Christians, there's a balance there, a balance of understanding His love and His authority and His power. So let's look at Philippians chapter 3, and let's kind of take it in context here.

So let's begin with verse 1. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those evil dogs, for those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision. We who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence

in the flesh. Though I myself have reasons for such confidence, for if anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. In regard to the law, a Pharisee. As for zeal, persecuting the church. As for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. And what is more, I consider everything a loss. Compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through

faith in Christ. A righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings. Becoming like Him in His death. And so somehow to attain to the resurrection. The resurrection from the dead. Now in chapter 3, we're going to look at the calling of Christ, and rejoicing in that calling

in three segments. We already looked at the first part the last time we were in Philippians 3. We need to learn how to deal with our past. That was in verses 1 through 7. As we do that, then we need to learn how to live in the present. Too often we live in the past. Too often we let the things of the past dictate how we live in the present. And it's a hindering factor.

It's a hindering factor. Positive and negative. Both past failures and past accomplishments. And then thirdly, we need to learn how to live with a perspective, or with a look towards the future. We are alive in the present. Our past is gone. Our future has not yet come. So we need to learn how to deal with the past, how to live in the present, and how to look

towards the future. That's the study in Philippians chapter 3. We began last time with the first seven verses, and how to deal with our past. And I mentioned in verse 1 that Paul is not yet ready. Paul is not forgetting that he's ready to close and then writing some more. Paul is summarizing what we've learned already in rejoicing in the Lord. Verse one, finally, brothers, rejoice

in the Lord. And he says, it's no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. And we saw last time that that is something that we need to constantly be refreshing ourselves with. Rejoice in the Lord. I need to rejoice in the Lord. Again, just this past week, there were some circumstances that immediately when they happened, I was disgusted.

And I mean, something as insignificant as we have an ice maker in our refrigerator. And it's one of those things that, you know, you've never had until later in life. And you finally get one and it's neat, but it's also a pain. I'm more and more convinced that all the neat things that we strive to obtain in this life, nothing but a waste of time. But I put the whole thing in the glass

under the deal and waited for the ice cubes to come out and they didn't come out. And it was going. I opened the freezer and it went all over the floor. And initially I was, I don't have time for this Lord. This is a day that I don't have time for this. I've got other things to do. And I just had to stop and realize, why don't I rejoice in you? You have a reason for this. You want to slow

me down right now. I'm in too much of a hurry. I'll be dangerous to somebody, you know, as much of a hurry as I'm in. So just taking time to learn how to do that. It's hard. It's so hard. So he says, it's no, it's no trouble for me to say this again to you because it's a safeguard to us. It's something that we need to continue to hear, to rejoice in the Lord. Then in verse two, Paul

begins a warning to us to watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, the mutilators of the flesh, the Judaizers who were coming in behind Paul to the churches that he had established. And they were saying, your faith in Jesus is not enough. You must do this. You have to jump through this hoop. You have to be baptized in a certain way. You have to, their specific thing

was you have to be saved. You have to be saved. You have to be saved. You have to be saved. You have to be circumcised. If you're not circumcised, you're not really saved. And so we've seen how Satan has used different hoops, different things that, that he tells us we have to do in order to really be saved and to be loved by Christ, because look at how crummy you really were in the past.

And Satan uses your past against you. And so he wants us to jump through these hoops. Maybe if you're baptized this certain way, and if you're not, now you're not saved. And that means your past is not really dealt with, or you need to take communion. In a certain way, it's got to be real wine, and it has to be real bread. You know, that's a certain bread, a certain wafer. It's got to be matzah, or it's really not the Lord's Supper. Or, you know,

when you pray to receive Jesus, it has to be a certain, certain prayer, or you're not really prayed the sinner's prayer. Or you have to walk an aisle. You have to walk down an aisle, and you have to kneel at an altar, or you're not really saved. You know, that's not in here. I didn't say that. But we will try and make people jump through hoops a certain way. We will

try to add to what God has done by grace and through Jesus Christ, because that's what Satan wants us to do. Satan wants us to try and he'll give us a lot of useless garbage, knowing our desire to want to deal with the past, to want to have that taken care of, to want to be forgiven by God, because we want to walk in Him. We want to know Him. We want to have the blessing of His righteousness. And so Satan can really try and trip us up. And that's a Judaizer effect. It was

effective in Paul's day, and it's effective today, unless we're armed and aware and ready and know what he's trying to do with us. And that's part of learning to rejoice in our calling, is learning to deal with our past. Paul is saying, if there's anything that could be done, literally, if there's anything that could be done that could be done the right way, if there's an absolute right way to do something, to be saved, to receive God's approval, I'm the one that's done it. And that's what he listed, as we saw last time, down through verse 6. All of his accomplishments. He's not boasting.

He's laying them out there for us to look at and go, wow, you know, there wasn't anybody that was as good as Paul in his life, in his living. If anybody should be accepted unto God because of the righteousness of his life, it should be Paul. And Paul's saying, I lay that out to you to show you that whatever was to my prophet, verse 7, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. Whatever was to my, whatever I could have done to appease God, to make Him like me, to be received into His presence, I consider loss. And he's going to go on today to show us that it was not only considered

loss, but how worthless all of that effort was. So in learning how to deal with your past, the first thing we have to do is consider it loss. And that word was to forfeit it. You have to let it go. You have to let it go. I don't care how bad of a past you think you had. I don't care how abused you were. I don't care how much you abused the things of this world. If you abused alcohol and drugs

and sex or whatever, I don't care how bad you think it was, you've got to forfeit it. You've got to let it go. It does not belong to you anymore. Jesus dealt with that on the cross. He took it away. He cleansed it. He purged it. God no longer sees you that way anymore. God no longer looks at you and goes, pretty good, Mark, considering how bad you used to be. He doesn't say that. He doesn't see that anymore. He chooses to forget that.

And so do you and I. If we're going to deal with the past, that has to go. And your accomplishments. Your accomplishments. So many of us live in our accomplishments of the past. How well I did in school. How much I was such a good officer in the military. How good of a mother I think I was. Or how great of a teacher I was in school. You've got to let that go. That has to be

forfeited as well because you're not living in the past. You're living now. And God wants to use you now. I don't care what your experiences with God were like in camp 20 years ago or how great it was at Calvary Chapel when it first began. That is gone. And you're living in the present. And that has to be forfeited. Or with even the positive things will end up like they did at the time of Zerubbabel when he was

to rebuild the second temple. And all the people that remembered how good it was in the past went, oh, how bad this temple is. You should have seen Solomon's temple. It was so good. It was so nice. And this is nothing. And it hindered the progress of God's working at that time because they were living in past accomplishments. That has to be forfeited. We have to forfeit that.

We have to consider that. We have to consider that loss to be able to rejoice in the calling of Christ, what He's doing in my life today and what He's about to do, what He's going to accomplish as we look forward into the future. So how do you deal with your past? You count a loss. You consider a loss. You forfeit it. God's already dealt with it. Now, how do we live in the present? Well, that's in verses 8 through 11. And really,

verse 7 ties into this, too. So let's start with verse 7. Paul says, But whatever was to my profit I now consider a loss for the sake of Christ. Verse 8. What is more, I consider everything a loss. Compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ. Okay. How do I live in the present? How do I live in the present? The very first way

I live in the present according to this. I have already forfeited my past. How do I live in the present? First thing, I must continue to forfeit my past. First step in living in the present is continuing to keep the past in check because Satan knows your buttons. Remember, we talked about that in Ephesians chapter 6. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities, against spiritual wickedness in high places,

against the evil schemes of Satan, the schemata, because Satan was with God in the Garden of Eden and he knows your design. He knows your schematic. He knows what buttons to push and the one button he pushes all the time is the past, the past, the past, the past, the past. Remember the past. Remember the past. Oh, you did this before. Oh, this is something you've done before. The minute you fall, the minute you stumble, like with the ice cubes.

Oh, the past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The

past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. The past. first step in living in the present is continuing to keep the past in check. How many thought that

dealing with the past is a one-step project? You just forfeit the past, and it's done, and it's over. Now, the only thing that's a one-time thing is your salvation. You only need to ask Jesus into your heart once to be saved, and everything else is part of a process, part of the calling of Christ. So Paul says, verse 8, what is more? I consider everything a loss. Now, he just said in verse 7,

I count it loss. I consider it loss. I forfeit it. Well, the word consider here in verse 8 means the same thing that it did in verse 7. It means to forfeit it, to make a mental decision. Literally, it can mean to lead the way in forfeiting the past. Leading the way in Paul's thinking is knowing Christ. That's the one thing he wants to do, is to know Christ. And that's why, and I

emphasized it last night, and I've emphasized it before when we first started this study in Philippians. If you are a Christian, then you must see yourself as a Christian first, and whatever else you're doing in life as second. For me, to live is Christ, Paul said. John the Baptist said, knowingly, I must become less and less, and Jesus, he must become more and more. That's a process in your growth as a Christian. And as a

Christian, he must be first, and everything else must be second, must be less than, or you will devote attention to everything else before you'll devote your attention to him. And the example, the illustration of that is, look at your everyday life. If you want to spend time with the Lord, everything else in life will battle for that time. It will battle for that time, because it wants to be first. If P is your flesh, it wants to be first.

And so, the Christian walk is continuing to consider everything a loss. Leading the way is my desire to know Christ. I need to continue to consider everything a loss. That word consider is in the present tense in the Greek, indicating that it is a continuous action, a continuing process that I go through with everything in my life. And so, if you want to spend time with the

Lord, you have to do it in the present tense. And so, if you want to spend time with the Lord, you need to consider everything a loss. That word consider is in the present tense in the Greek, indicating that it is a continuous action, a continuing process that I go through with everything in my life. Every day, because every day, something in my life is going to battle for first place over my knowing Christ. And unless I make a conscious effort not to do that, it will win. And Jesus gets seconds.

Jesus gets scraps. And that's reflected in your giving. Did you know that? If you can't give to the Lord first fruits, if you're giving to the Lord seconds and scraps, it's just a reflection of your life. That's what you give him in your daily life. I consider everything loss. It's a continual consideration of everything in life lost he says compared to the surpassing greatness

compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing christ jesus my lord that word surpassing is an interesting word in the greek it means to hold over you remember remember the game shows that first came out on tv and they had the contestants that tried out and singing or whatever and then they would walk over and the guy would hold his hand over the head and they'd have the little applause meter and it would you know come over here and down and then you come over the next person come a little further he was holding his hand over to determine which one was the greatest that's the idea that this word surpassing has here it means to hold over literally it means to

hold over in my mind and heart that privilege of knowing christ i'm holding it over everything else as more important knowing christ is right here and i'm holding and that's the most of the meters off the scale because that's the most important thing in my life it will cause me to count all things loss and that's what paul is saying why is spending time with the lord so hard why is it the direct attack that happens every day by the enemy because he knows your schematic he knows what's necessary he knows you're wanting to put on the armor of god he don't want you to he wants to foul up your day he's got ice cubes for you waiting to drop on the floor and all throughout the day and he knows without the armor on you're mush and when you're going

to be in that particular sequence of you're going to be in that particular sequence of you're going to your pattern of life today and somebody's going to be brought across your path he doesn't want them to see jesus and so he's going to foul you up as best he can so that they won't see jesus in you but they'll see somebody just like them somebody who is stuck with the flesh and enmeshed in self just as disgruntled as they are so we have to hold over in our own minds the fact that knowing christ is the greatest thing i can do today it is it is the first thing i need to do because it's the best thing i need to do today and i need to consider everything else lost for the day compared

to that let me ask you a question what do you hold over in your mind as being the greatest thing in your mind and if you say knowing jesus well then what's your day spent doing and how much of that day are you acknowledging him and how much of the things in your life are you yielding to him you see the time you spend doing whatever you're doing dictates whatever you're holding up as the greatest in your own heart in your own mind you paul says i consider everything else lost compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing christ jesus my lord literally in the greek that is christ jesus the lord of me paul is is emphasizing and yet reminding himself by writing this i believe the absolute submission of his life

to christ to do whatever it takes to know him jesus christ the lord of me i want to get to know him when you want to get to know him you want to get to know him you want to get to know him you get to know somebody you will take the time to do it those things that you did when you were dating those things that you will do now in order to obtain something you want how many people got to the game the other night two hours early just to get a good seat two hours game didn't start till seven you were there at five o'clock taping your blanket to the bleacher because you wanted a good seat you see that was in your mind right then the surpassing greatness of knowing christ jesus

greatness of everything of the day of everything at that particular time because you were taking the time making the effort oh you're gonna have to sit in the sun for a couple hours that's no problem i'll get to see the game see how much time did you spend with jesus that day how much time did you get up even 15 minutes early just to sit down and read a song what in your own heart do you hold over as surpassing greatness see all of us as christians battle us i'm not up here telling you i got it made it's a struggle it's a fight i'm trying to get up early every morning and a lot more mornings lately i'm doing it but it's a fight it's a struggle because i'm wrestling

against powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places that wants to keep me from that because it wants to foul me up during the day and it knows it can if i'm not with the lord if i'm not making that an effort and it's a struggle and i'm not going to tell you any different it is a struggle but don't just pass it off and excuse it and say someday i'll do it you're gonna you're gonna end up set aside if you do that as a witness for the lord you'll end up shelved and paul's paul understood that and in one of his epistles he talked about i i don't fight as somebody's shadow boxing i'm fighting with every effort and i beat my body to keep it under submission lest i

end up a castaway something shelves something set aside it was a struggle if it's a struggle for paul my god it's going to be a struggle for us i'm not going to tell you any different it's not easy anticipate the struggle anticipate the battle but hold if jesus is as paul said the thing lost to the surpassing greatness of knowing christ jesus my lord he says again for whose sake i have lost all things for whose sake i have lost all things if you're reading king james this morning it says i have suffered the loss of all things now for us to consider things lost in losing all things with paul's life there were definitely things profitable to paul's flesh that he gave up his position he gave up his position in the in the hierarchy of

of the the judaism he gave up his stature he gave up his authority he gave up his prestige but paul not only mentally forfeited those things there was an emotional and a physical loss that paul suffered in considering knowing christ as superior to everything else in his life there was there was he lost most commentators believe that paul lost his wife and family he could have had children to be a member of the sanhedrin the reigning council of the judaic church the jews a man had to be married because if again he couldn't lead his wife and family what good was he and that theme is carried over that same attitude and ideas carried over into leadership in the church you go to first timothy chapter three but paul's wife is never mentioned and it's

it's an idea and he even says in first corinthians 7 that to be single as i am and his wife could have died but she could have left when he became a christian when he became this fanatic in the church well if that's not enough he'd been beaten several times he'd been beaten with rods he'd been whipped he'd been stoned and left for dead he'd been shipwrecked and you can go down through second corinthians chapter 11 and see all of the things that he had suffered in first in colossians chapter one he says those things are part of my building up the measure of suffering in christ for you so there's suffering that's involved in our counting things lost for the superior the surpassing greatness of knowing christ you will suffer it will

be painful to consider knowing christ the surpassing greatness of your life the lead thing in your life you will have struggles you will suffer it's promised here i have suffered the loss of all things so anticipated but he says even after that even after saying for whose sake i have suffered the loss of all things he says i consider them rubbish if you're reading king james ian it says i consider them dumb i mean he's very specific i suffer this loss it's painful to suffer loss the loss of those things and yet he looks at that that he suffered the loss of and he goes yet i consider him done now believe me this is not a trite question what is done but think about think

about done for a minute we want to think about done we're in the land here where there's lots of it in the fields and all what is dung dung is the end result right of stuff that has been processed through the system and it has served every possible useful purpose in the system and it is now no longer necessary for the system and you don't want to carry it around anymore so it's eliminated right from the system that's what paul says about everything else in his life other than knowing christ one of the problems we have with our flesh is wanting to hold on to everything here and that's reflected here right one of the problems with my flesh is i want see if i if i have a banana hot fudge sundae from brahms and i haven't had one for a while

i mean in my own mind this is the last one i'm ever going to eat in life right so you know after eating that one my goodness and i have the opportunity to eat another one i'm going to take it right because that could be the last one that i could ever have in life and see we do that with everything in life with family with our stuff this might be the last time i ever get to walk past this garage that's full of my stuff we hang on to everything we try to hold on to everything in life when it has literally been used to fulfill its purpose in our system as god is making us into the image of his son and we need to hold it with a light hand as you would i would hope dung

i don't walk around with dung going got it oh i love this you know no i want to set it apart and go on to what's more important and it's it's an expressive illustration that paul uses to help us realize how drastically we have to continue dealing with the past and how drastically we have to see in our own lives the surpassing greatness of knowing christ over everything else because everything else is done everything else is really inconsequential for eternity now i'm not saying you don't love your family or you don't love the things you know that you don't gracious graciously grateful for the stuff that god's given you none of us have a problem with that we have a problem with excess holding on too tight and

paul says i consider it dung for the surpassing greatness of knowing christ i consider them rubbish okay so first thing we have to do in living in the present is continually be keeping the past in check second thing we have to do we got to move along quickly here second thing we have to do is to make christ the focus of our lives now that sounds simple i mean it sounds no wait a minute that's i'm doing that i'm a christian well let's look at this make christ the focus of our lives second last half i consider them to be rubbish to be dung that i may gain christ verse nine and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which is through faith in

christ hyphen long hyphen the righteousness that comes from god and is by faith second thing you have to do in order to really learn to live in the present is to make christ the focus of our lives in the present is to focus your life on christ paul's life is focused on christ look at this from verses 7 through 10 he mentions christ five times and any times there's repetition in the word of god it's something to be noted and considered five times verse 7 he mentions christ verse 8 twice he mentions for the sake of knowing christ verse 9 for the sake of christ verse 10 again that comes through faith in christ five times it's an emphasis in paul's life it's an emphasis of his life and he said he counted all things rubbish that i might gain christ here

and be found in him that he might gain christ that he might as paul lost his salvation or as paul lost the assurance of his salvation he wants to gain christ no he hasn't this implies something that you have that you want more of that i might gain christ that's why when he tells us in ephesians that you might come to begin to understand the height and the depth and the breath and the length of the earth and the length of the earth and the length of the earth and the of the love of God. It's unfathomable. You will never understand the fullness of the love of God ever, ever. Eternity, eternity, and eternity, and eternity. Eons from now, you will never have plumbed

the depths fully of the love of God. But that doesn't mean you go, oh, well, I can't know it. Why try? No. Dive in. Drink up. Continue to seek to know. Paul says that I might gain Christ, that I might continually move towards that time of transformation when I'll be like him. He's moving continually towards that. That's his focus. More of Jesus, less of me. More of Jesus, less of

me. For me to live as Christ, I am crucified with Christ. You think those were one-time things that Paul said, and he was done with it, it was fine, and he just frolicked through the rest of his Christian life? No. A little bit later on here, he's going to say, I haven't attained it yet. I'm still striving towards the mark. But it's not just an idol. I'm just idle here, and it's just going to happen.

It's a concerted, concentrated effort. I focus my life on Christ. You see, focusing on Jesus gives me a proper perspective of me. Look at this. He says, verse 9, not having a righteousness of my own. Not having a righteousness of my own. What's righteousness? Righteousness, simply defined, is right-ness before God. I am right before God. Righteousness, there's nothing wrong.

Everything's right. Everything's been taken care of. There's a rightness before God. I'm all right with myself before my Lord. Not having a righteousness of my own. Not of my own. Not of my own effort. Not of my own trying to be good enough. Not of my own trying to jump through all of these different hoops. I cannot do anything to make myself right. Neither can you. You cannot

make yourself a better mate. You cannot make yourself a better parent. You cannot make yourself a better worker. You cannot make yourself a better child. You cannot make yourself a better Christian. You cannot make yourself a better Christian. You cannot make yourself a better Only God can do that in you. And the struggle is letting him. That's why the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ is so important.

It's only he that will make me what I need to be. It's only he that gives me the righteousness that I need. All of the self-help programs in the world will not work, period. Although, they'll get you by for a while, but they mask the real need. Your real need, the need that you have in all of your life is to be right with God. And you can't do that on your own.

You may stop smoking. You may stop drinking. You may stop carousing. You may physically stop doing those things. But what you need inside is the righteousness of God, is to be made right with God, to be transformed by the renewing that comes through Christ. And he says right there, not having a righteousness of my own, but that righteousness, that righteousness is implied,

that righteousness, which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and by faith. Now, notice there's a big, hyphen there, in NIV at least, but that which is through faith in Christ, hyphen, the righteousness that comes from God and by faith. The only way to receive that kind of righteousness, you can't generate it. You can't do good enough.

You can't be a good enough whatever. The only way to have, to obtain that righteousness is from God by faith. That's why the hyphen is there. The hyphen is like a say law in the Old Testament. It wants you to stop and consider here what's being said. Stop and realize that that righteousness, that we need for our lives is only available from God by faith. The only way to receive that righteousness is from God by faith.

It's receiving God's own righteousness. God literally imparts to you by faith, as you trust him, his nature, his character, the very essence of who he is. He imparts that to you as a believer. You see, that is not just a mental decision. I'm going to turn over a belief and I'm going to do walk right. It's God, I trust you by faith, Lord. I'm going to be obedient.

To you by faith, trusting you by faith. And he imputes to you. He has imputed to you when you said, Lord Jesus, come into my life. He imputed unto you that righteousness. He gave that to you. It does not go away. It's not something that that goes away, but it's something that you want to have take total control. So he says, I'm not having a righteousness of mine.

I want to gain Christ. I want to I want to come into that point of knowing him so much that he just literally fills me that I might then have. I want to have a righteousness that's by faith, not of my own effort, not of generating my own effort, not wearing the right clothes and having the right buzz haircut or, you know, doing communion a certain way or baptism a certain way or circumcision. Just knowing him to the point that he so fills my life that it's his righteousness in me living, just oozing out.

It's like it's oozing out all over. That only comes by God, through Christ, by faith. As we focus on him, as we focus on him, I've got to number one, I've got to keep my past in check. Number two, I've got to focus on him. It's a it's a thing I have to purpose to do, and as I focus on him, as I establish new goals in life, if I'm going to live in the present, I've got to keep the past in check, focus on Christ.

And by focusing on Christ, I establish new goals in life. And Paul gives us five, five new goals, five goals that he has in his life that I believe are just goals that as Christians we should have. Verses 10 and 11 to live in the present. I must establish these goals in my life. Verse 10. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. And the fellow.

Ship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead. Quickly. Goal number one to know Christ. Surprise, surprise, surprise. The goal of my life has to be knowing Christ. Now, again, whatever you are in life, whatever is your job title or function, that's not the goal of your life to be a better whatever you won't be.

You'll only you'll only do this to the capacity of your fleshly abilities. That's it, period. So. You're trying to do better on your own will only get you so far. The goal of your life is to know Christ. That's the goal as a Christian is to know Christ. The the the world is dead to that. And so the first thing they need to do is to come to Christ. And that's what you and I are for, is that they might see him in us as we're seeking to know him, not some spiritual, you know, aristocracy that's just coming out here and like the like the Pharisees or, you know, or tassels and all looking so righteous and all.

No, it's as you and I come. To know him as that's a goal and his righteousness fills us will have the mind of Christ, which is humbling, which is setting everything else apart for the sake of knowing him for the sake of being surrendered to him. And that draws people see that and go, wow, I want that. And you say, it's him. It's not me. It's not here. It's not this place.

It's him. And you point him to Jesus and then you just continue to know him and they follow you and you're imparting to them. You're leading and discipling them and they get to learn how to know him and they get into knowing him and see it progresses that way. That's what discipleship is all about. It's not learning church doctrine and all these different things.

I mean, that part of it, but getting to know him. So that's our, that's our first goal is getting to know Christ. If Jesus is the focus of my life, then I'll be making every effort to come to know him again. This is dealing with relationship, not knowledge. I don't care how many verses, you know, how many of them do you live? How much of a difference does it make in your life?

It's a lifelong task. Paul expresses that desire for himself and he's been an apostle for however long at the time that he writes this. That's the goal of my life is to know Christ. Well, Paul, you're an apostle. I mean, you've been an apostle for decades and he says, my goal is to know Christ. I don't know him yet the way I want to know him. There's more of him and his life and his love and his righteousness and his grace and his mercy and his sustaining power and his resurrection power for me to know.

And I want to know, I can't get enough of him. I can't get enough of him. One of the statements I want is new sitcoms on this year between a guy and a girl. And she said, I just can't seem to get enough of you. Well, wrong focus there, lady. I can't get enough of him. You should never be satisfied with where you are in your walk. You should not be sitting here saying, I've got it together.

I know my purposes. I know my function. I've got it. I've got it together as a wife or a husband or a child. I'm in control. I'm straight. You should never be satisfied with who you are. There's so much more, so much more. Always keep seeking to know him. Always keep moving on. So much more. Goal number two, to know Christ, number one, and then to know is implied in the rest of these because he says and.

I want to know Christ and I want to know the power of his resurrection. That's goal number two. I want to know Christ and in knowing Christ, I will get to know the power of his resurrection. What's the power of his resurrection? Well, you're here in Philippians. Go back to your left. Just a book. You'll be in Ephesians Ephesians chapter one quickly Ephesians chapter one Ephesians chapter one verse 18.

Paul says in chapter one eight verse 18 of Ephesians. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened that you know something that you may know the hope to which he has called you. Well, that's what we're looking at here in Philippians chapter three and in the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. That's in Ephesians chapter one. And his incomparably.

Comparably. Great power for us who believe I really like to know that power. What is that power? It's the power like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places. Heavenly realms far above the rule and authority and power and dominion and every title that can be given not only in the present age, but also in the one to come.

That's the power he wants you to know. Now, what did I just read? I mean, for you to process that takes some looking at what is the resurrection power of God raised him from the dead and set him in heavenly places at the right hand of God. Far above what? Principalities and powers. What do you wrestle against daily? Principalities and powers. What do you have with the resurrection power of Christ?

Power over that power over that in order that I can command them to go sit on a tack. That's what God wants you to do. I don't think that's mainly what God wants you to do with them. Because what are you going to do after you tell them to go sit on a tack? Probably go stuff your face with some Twinkies that you really don't need anymore. That's what you really need the power for.

Not eat them Twinkies. Not say those words to your husband or your wife. Not do that improper thing at work. Do what's really necessary. And righteous that would give a right action and a right description of what Jesus Christ really is. That's what we need the power to do is to be able to live like he wants us to live. He's given it to us. And I want to know that power of his resurrection.

See it's available to us now. He already said in Ephesians he wants us to know that. Paul says here in Philippians it's a goal of his life is to know that. Everything that the resurrection represents the newness of life. Are you walking in the newness of life that God gives you in Jesus Christ? Are you walking in the past? Are you walking in the newness of life?

Are you letting the things of this life control you? Are you experiencing power over sin and temptation? Are you experiencing the anticipation of our coming transformation as God catches us out of here? That's the power of the resurrection. And you and I can know that every second of every day. Now I don't. I don't. It's like the ice cubes on the floor. I missed that one at first.

And then I was able to stop. Get the mind focused. Set those things aside. Rejoice in the Lord. You have a purpose. And I experienced at that point the power of the resurrection. Because I did not respond from that point on in my flesh. And that's what's available to you and I. Thirdly he says a goal that he has is first of all knowing Christ. Knowing the power of the resurrection.

And three to know the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. Whoa wait a minute. He already said he suffered loss. He suffered loss of all things. Well now he wants to know the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. The word fellowship there is a word coined in the end. Which is from koinonia. Which means to share in common. To have all things common. And the word sufferings is the same word that's used for the sufferings that Christ suffered

and endured during his trial and his crucifixion. Well what were those? Well remember the trial. Mocked. Spit upon. Hit. Beard pulled. Crown of thorns. Whipped. And the crucifixion then on top of that. Paul says I want to know that. I want to know. I want to share with him in those sufferings. Doesn't fit the theology today by golly. I don't. You know. Theology of the day is I'm supposed to escape all that stuff.

I'm supposed to have power and authority over all that stuff. So I don't have to suffer. No that's not what it says. I have the power of the resurrection in order to submit myself to him. And to walk in his ways and not give in to this lust and desire of the flesh. I have the power to do that. So that I may then know the fellowship of his sufferings. F.B. Meyer.

Commentator writes quote. Every step further into the risen life will involve some deeper and more poignant. Pang of pain. Men will misunderstand us. As they misunderstood him. Men will drop away from us and leave us alone. As they left him. We shall be compelled to stand in the pillory of hatred and rejection. As he was hung up for everyone to see and to score.

See somehow in our relationship with Christ. Somehow in our walk with Christ. We share in his sufferings. I don't know how all of that's going to happen. But as I learn to rejoice in. His calling for my life. And live in the present. I can know that if I go through some junk here. Then in a way he's using that in my life. To experience the fellowship of his suffering.

Well there's definitely going to be blessings. And I'm not negating the blessings. And neither is Paul. But he's you see what throws us for a loop as Christians. Is when we experience some of this stuff. When we go God must not love me. God's forsaken me. I've done something wrong. He's just out there somewhere. And we get stifled because of the pressure. And because of the trial.

When he's told us. To expect it. When he's told us what to do in preparation for it. And when he's told us how to count it. As an opportunity to serve him. As an opportunity to experience the fellowship of his sufferings. Paul was suffering for his faith in Christ. For the testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not only to anticipate that as Paul did.

But we are to see it as a goal. It's not a masochistic goal. It's the fact that I know when I'm entering into these sufferings. First thing I do is stop and go. Did I do something stupid? Did I do something foolish Lord? Is this some foolishness on my part? That's not seeking after you? And if he says no. You're doing fine. Then you go great. And I get the blessing of fellowshipping in his sufferings.

Goal number four. I'm hurrying. I really am. Goal number four. To know Christ. To know the power of his resurrection. To know the fellowship of his sufferings. And also becoming like him in his death. Oh I don't like the progression of this. You know sufferings and death here. Keep going down it seems like. Becoming like him in his death. Like him is the word conformed.

And the idea. Here is of an essential change. That happens inward rather than outward. So he doesn't want you to go croak yourself off. So you can be conformed into the image of his death. Has nothing to do with suicide. Has everything to do with the crucifixion of our flesh. With the inner man. I want to become like him in his death. Essentially the same thought as we had in chapter 2 verses 5 through 8.

I want the mind of Christ. That's a goal. And he re-emphasizes it here. And I have the power of the resurrection. To help bring me to that point. That I can say to him whatever's necessary Lord. Whatever's necessary. Do in my life. It's also in the present tense. Becoming like him is in the present tense. That means it's a continuous attitude that I need to have.

Continually counting all this stuff done. Continually wanting to know Christ. Continually saying whatever. Goal number five. He says and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. And so somehow to attain from the resurrection from the dead. And so somehow. Is Paul doubting again? No this is not a matter of doubt. This is not. It's not a matter of Paul doubting the resurrection at all.

It's an emphasis on the fact. And yet in total amazement. Yet in total amazement of what God will accomplish. Do you. Of course we don't realize everything that God is preparing for us. But he wants us to think about it. Satan doesn't. So Satan uses everything in this world to get your mind off of that. But when we have an opportunity like this. Think about it.

Think about the transformation that's happening in your life. And ultimately where that's going to end up. Think about it. That's a goal for Paul. That I might attain to that. I want to. Not that I have to do anything to get there. I just. It's a goal. So when I think this thing in life is so wonderful. And I just want to hang on to it. What's my goal? It's not to hang on to that.

What does that become? Dung. What do I want? I want to attain to the resurrection. I want that time when this flesh is finally going to be put off. And I don't have to deal with these pressures and temptations anymore. The word to attain. So somehow to attain is a word that means. To reach or to arrive at. Finally. To finally get there. It's something that's real.

It's not some hocus pocus fairy tale thing off in the future. That's really never going to happen. It's a reality that you and I are going to realize. The resurrection. Now I want you to look at this. It says and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not the resurrection of the dead. The word from there is out of literally. Listen. Everybody's going to be resurrected.

Whether evil or good. Whether evil or righteous. Whether evil or Christian, everybody's going to be resurrected. But as you look at Scripture, as you look at 1 Thessalonians 4, as you go to Revelation, and you look at the resurrections, there's two different resurrections. Revelation 19 and 20 talk about two separate resurrections. And God's prayer, John's prayer, is that we might attain to the first resurrection,

which is the resurrection of the righteous. Because the second resurrection is the resurrection under the great white throne judgment. And that's of the wicked only. That's of the unrighteous. And what determines unrighteousness? In the Scripture, it's not having the righteousness of God. How do we have the righteousness of God? We just learned it's from God by faith in Christ.

So the unrighteous dead are those who never received Jesus, those who never believed God's promises of redemption through his Messiah. And they will stand before a great white throne, and their ultimate end has already been determined. It's the lake of fire. I mean, it's like a formality. They'll stand before God at the great white throne. He'll read the charges.

He'll look at those charges against him. They'll look, and they'll say there's no name, not in the book of life. Lake of fire, rest of your eternity. Paul wants to be a part of the first resurrection. He already knows that he is, but he says he wants to attain to the resurrection from the dead. That word from literally means out of the resurrection of the dead.

It implies the first resurrection, but specifically it implies the rapture, the catching up, the transformation, the resurrection that happens in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. Paul anticipated it in his lifetime. The resurrection.