Joy You Can't Lose | Unshakeable Joy - Philippians 3:1-11 | Travis Jones (3/7/2026)

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:25

It's good to see all of you, church, family. One of my um man great joys is you know this interview and I just look at the body of Christ, and um man, it just stirs me. Um I'm glad you're here. If you're joining online or the app, I want to welcome you as well. And everybody at this time, if you can, take out a Bible or a Bible app, you can take your worship guide, and I want you to go to Philippians chapter 3. We're gonna pick up in verse 1. We're continuing in our series entitled Unshakable Joy, and we're just walking through the book of Philippians, Paul's joy letter, and he's writing it from prison, and so we're looking at joy. Um as we come to our passage today, and we're just, like I said, walking through the text, um, there is a tension. There's a tension in our text, text that we're gonna work out, all right? And when it comes to joy, this is really a tension when it comes to joy. Most of us, many of us, think about joy like it's a commodity, right? Um like you have joy or you do not have joy. And most of us have this thinking that um what causes us to lose joy is our problems and our trials. So, for example, um, I could say I was a possessor of joy, then I encountered some problems, I encountered a trial, and then my joy it got lost, man, it disappeared, man. So we live kind of in that, I don't know, that kind of paradigm, right? So it's something like this, all right? If my problems increase, then my joy decreases. If my problems decrease, then my joys increase. And so many of us kind of live with that belief that there's a direct correlation between the amount of problems that I'm having, the amount of joy that I also have. We think there is this correlation between the two. We're going to get to our text today. And the apostle Paul is going to tell us something that's really revolutionary, I believe. He's going to tell us there is no correlation between your joy in the Lord and your trials and your problems. Now, that is something that I don't know. I don't know if many people think about. Paul is going to say that the source of joy loss is not trials and problems. The source of joy loss is you misplace your confidence. In other words, you put your confidence in something other than what it should be. And then when the confidence is placed in that and you lose that, your joy leaves. So it's this misplaced confidence. So you come to Philippians chapter 3, and Paul's going to show us, he's going to tell us and show us that there is a way to have joy that doesn't, I don't know, disappear that you lose, right? When you have a problem or when you have a trial, because it's not connected to your trial. It's not connected to your problem. It's connected on something that's permanent, that's that's that's just as a rock, man. It's Jesus Christ. And what he's going to do, so I walked through this text and I saw this, there's really four kind of steps. They're really progressions. He's going to teach us, he's going to show us that this thing, joy, is something that does not have to be lost. It's only lost if you're placing confidence in something it shouldn't be placed in. So, really, just kind of four steps. I know four sounds kind of easy, but it's some it's some it's some good stuff, man. So let's just walk through it, okay? We'll begin here. The first step. The first step is this rejoice in the Lord. Chapter 3, verse 1. Here's what he says. Finally, my brothers and its sisters, it's the church. Just finally, church, a command, an imperative, rejoice in the Lord. That's the command. And then he says this it's kind of interesting. To write the same thing to you is no trouble to me. And in addition, it's a safeguard for you. All right. So he begins this way, finally. Now that doesn't mean he's about to wrap it up. This is a transition. He's actually just halfway through the letter, so it's kind of a turning point here. Finally, that's the transition. The command, rejoice in the Lord. You are to place your joy in the Lord, right? You're not going to connect it to your circumstances. Don't connect your joy. Don't connect it to your comfort. Connect it to the command is the Lord, right? If you want to know how to find joy, you want to know the address of joy, Christian joy is found in the Lord. That's the location. That's the, that's the that's where it's at, you know, and you know where it's at. You can go get it. It's in the Lord, right? Because if your joy is located, if you place your joy on a circumstance, if you place your joy on anything other than the Lord, it's going to be, I'll know, it's not going to be permanent. It's going to be fragile. It will fail you. If you want joy that you cannot lose, you're going to have to place it on something that cannot be lost, something that's permanent, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Connect your joy to something that's permanent. And what that is, is Jesus Christ. Permanent, unmoving. Connect your joy to that. And then he pauses there and he says, This is interesting, and I think it's important for us. To write to you the same thing is no trouble. I know I don't said this. He says, but it's no trouble for me. No trouble for me to say it again. Why is it no trouble for you to say again? He says, Well, you know what? It's safe for you. So this is kind of like a, I don't know, it's a, it's, it's, it's a guardrail. That's what it is, a guardrail. You know, it's it's you're in danger of losing your joy if you place it in something that's not permanent, that's not secure, that's not the Lord Himself. It's a danger for you. So though he's already said, I want you to do this, it's not a problem for him to say it again. It's a repetition. And I get it, repetition sometimes can be annoying, someone repeating themselves. And it is annoying. It is annoying if it's useless. But if it's important, if it's protective, then please tell me again. You know, like stove's hot, don't touch it. I've been told that my whole life. Thank you for telling me that, because I'm a man prone to touching a hot stove. And he's saying, hey, you're under attack. Church, you are under attack. You're under attack in multiple ways, but you're under attack in such a way that you might place your joy on something that's not stable. And when you go placing your joy on something that's not stable, it is going to ebb, it's going to flow. But if you place your Lord, it's your joy in the Lord, it's permanent. Place your joy there. Alright. That's pretty straightforward. That's really straightforward, right? Place it. This is the first step. If you want a joy, you cannot lose. Rejoice in the Lord. Do not rejoice in your conditions. Alright? If your trials and problems are connected to anything other than the Lord, it's going to be fragile. Alright. He's going to move to a second step. That's a command, church, rejoice in the Lord. This one, I just gonna say, this one, let me just read it. It's reject confidence in flesh. That's easy to say, but let's work it out. Look. Oh man, he says this. It's gonna be hard. It's it's gonna get real here. It's real real here. Look. Look, he's talking to the church. Okay, I'm sorry. Look at look out for the dogs. Whoa, Paul, hold on, boy. Look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. You're like, whoa. That's a harsh verse, right? Then it comes fast. Notice you can if there's repetitions in the Bible, it's always helpful to kind of pay attention. He says, look out three times. Three times, right? Some translations might say beware, right? All three of them are commands. Hey, church, getting our attention. I want you to look out, be aware, be on constant lookout for. What are we to look out for, Mr. Paul? He says, the dogs, the evildoers, the mutilators of the flesh, right? Now here's the deal. He's not talking about three different groups. These are three different adjectives describing the same people. Oh man, that's harsh, man. Okay. Well, um, who might the dogs be? Who the dogs, Paul? Who are the evildoers? Well, broadly, it's a group that we would refer to as false teachers. False teachers. Listen, I ain't say I ain't the ones, I'm just reading the word of God here, dude. I ain't saying it. They're dogs. That's what he says. You gotta watch out for them, right? They're dogs, they're evildoers, right? False teachers, right? False teachers. False teachers is a word we kind of throw around a lot. So my question was this: who exactly might a false teacher be? Well, a false teacher, broadly, is anyone who adds to or takes away from the gospel, right? There are, for example, I thought about a lot of examples, but there are, for example, some who'll say, Yeah, I believe in Jesus, but you gotta add to him. It's like Jesus plus something, you know. So how do you do that, man? You oh, you uh there's it happens so subtly. Um you say, you know, Jesus plus doing something, right? It's that kind of thinking, that teaching, right? Jesus does, this is Jesus, but I'm gonna have to follow some religious ritual, or I'm gonna have to work in some way, or I'm gonna have to do something. I've got to do something in order to add to what Jesus has done. You right? They're adding to Jesus Christ. And you know, somebody adds to Christ. You add to Christ, you don't improve, you don't improve the gospel, you don't improve the gospel. You cannot improve what Christ did on the cross. You don't add to that, man. That was sufficient, that was glorious. That is Christ on the cross. Do you go adding to it? Paul says, Paul says, Paul says, Paul says, Paul says, Paul says they're a dog. That's what Paul says, man. Now, when I was reading that, listen, I know some of you, you're like, hey, I like dogs. Hey, we're not talking about labradoodles here, dude. You know what I'm saying? And it's no kind of doodle. It ain't a doodle. And I don't even know, I don't even know if that's a dog, dude. I don't know. But it's not that, man. Dude, we're talking about, he's talking about, he said, you know what a junkyard dog is? A junkyard dog, man. Vicious, dirty, unclean, scavengers that kill. This is a this is a dog dog, you know. That's what they are, man. He says, look, watch out for them. If they're adding to Christ, they're a dog. Then he says, he adds to it, he goes, they're evildoers, which means they're doing evil. It is evil to add to the gospel. It is evil to add to the works of Jesus Christ, right? It's the apex of pride. I'm gonna add, Jesus wasn't sufficient, so you need to do this, you know. Jesus wasn't sufficient, so I need to work in this manner. Then he says, the mutilators of the flesh. What might that be? Well, specifically, he's talking about circumcision, but we can say broadly, keeping of the law or enforcing the law. You got you got these laws, man, right? You got you gotta these laws, and you gotta do do, and you gotta do this, and if you're not doing this, if you're not keeping these laws, then you're not doing sufficient enough work in order to make you right with God. Point is Christ did it all, man. That doesn't mean we don't do nothing, it just means we don't add to the salvation. It's all Jesus, all right? So we okay, okay, okay. So I read that. Now, okay, that's that's that's hard, dude. I mean, it's hard words, but it's it's it's it's forceful. You know, okay, okay. Now Paul's gonna take that and he's gonna contrast it with the true believer. Look at verse 3. And this is where it gets even more difficult. For we, that's us of this church, as Christians, are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit. That's God, the Spirit of God, and glory in what? Christ Jesus. Now check this out, check this out. And put no confidence in the flesh. That kind of messed with me. Put no confidence in the flesh. You can underline that. Put no none. Don't put confidence in the flesh, right? We don't trust in rituals, we don't trust in performance, we don't trust in religious badges, we don't put confidence in the flesh, our confidence is in Jesus. Now, I I gotta talk about, I want to talk about that. There's no confidence in the flesh. The reason I want to talk about it, maybe it's just personal, I don't know. But putting confidence in the flesh is an easy thing to do. And I want you to know I slip back into it with the greatest of ease. I look back on my Christian walk and I think over and over again I have battled this, slipping back into confidence of the flesh. In fact, right now, I'm slipping in it too right now. I am slipping in it right now because I have this belief in me that if I preach good enough, this message will do what it's supposed to. It'll be sufficient. No, no. The power's in the powers in the text, the power isn't in my ability to articulate it, man. So you get this, you know, I don't know, I slipped back into it, man. And this flesh is powerful. And and I got it, and you got it. It's more powerful than we think it might be, man. We Christians, I've said this before. We've got three great enemies. We got the enemy of the world, we got the enemy of Satan, and we got the enemy of the flesh. And the flesh is this whole system that I want to run independent of God. Don't put confidence in that. Don't put confidence in that, man. And if we were honest, we would all say, I think we love our flesh. The flesh is powerful. I want to put confidence in my flesh, man. My flesh, my flesh can get me applause. My flesh can get me respect. My flesh can get me a reputation. My flesh, look at this, my flesh can look holy while being hollow. The real danger is you can do everything Christian with no dependence on Jesus, you know. I mean, you can volunteer in a church without Jesus. I mean, you can preach a sermon without depending on Jesus. I know that. I know that. You can lead a meeting without depending on Jesus. You can be doing all of these things, but still be running on self. The flesh is deceitful. It lies to you in your own voice. That's the danger, man. The flesh, and that's why you don't put confidence in it, it doesn't show up. The flesh don't show up looking evil. It shows up looking like me, man. And I love I love me some me. I love me some me, man. Man the flesh doesn't, well, my flesh does want me to do bad things, but my flesh would also be very happy if I do good things, but I don't do it in dependence on Jesus. And it's so slippery, man. The flesh is the flesh, the flesh is a con artist. And what does it do? It produces self-righteousness. I said, I don't put no confidence in it. Look what I did. Look how disciplined I am. You know? Then you start, you know what you do? You know, because you've done it, because I do it, you start feeling more holy than someone else. And it it happens so easily. I thought about it, I'm just gonna share a story with you. I want you to understand how e he's saying if you want joy, you can't lose. Don't put joy in your don't put confidence in your flesh. But let me tell you how easy it is to start putting confidence in your flesh. This is a true story, dude. I want you to know this, dude. Um, so the Lord saves me, okay? The Lord saves me. And I haven't been going to church really anytime before that. Lord saves me, and I get into church. And I'm going to church and I'm there. The church is open. I'm there. I'm loving church. Okay, here's what happens. You ready for this? Get ready. I went to church three weeks in a row. Okay? All right. The fourth week I had a buddy who didn't go to church. He slept in. Now remind you, I've done been going to church three weeks. He slept in that fourth week, and immediately I thought, what a bum. And I've never been to church going at all. But you see, I put confidence in my flesh, man, and I became self-righteous. You think self-righteous. It's so easy. Confidence in the flesh always tries you to add me to the gospel. Don't put confidence in that. You're gonna put confidence in that. Your joy will be fleeting. Put confidence in Jesus Christ. Well, because you know what? So it's easy. Jesus plus my consistency, Jesus plus my morality, Jesus plus my track record. Look at me. No, man, look at Jesus. Look to Jesus, look to Jesus. You put confidence in your flesh, it will fail you. It fails you, it fails you, it fails you, it fails you by, you know, you crash and burn, or it fails you because you actually start succeeding, you become proud. Alright. Don't do it. Now I believe at this point Paul understands that there might be someone in the church in the congregation that might have something they want to say. He starts, I think, thinking that maybe some people in the congregation will hear what he just said about not putting confidence in the flesh, and they'll say something like this. They'll say, you know what, Paul, you're only saying that because you got no credentials. If you had credentials, you wouldn't be, you got no Paul, Paul, you got no badges. You're telling me not to trust in my spiritual badges just because you ain't got no spiritual badges. All right, makes sense. So Paul now says, All right, you want to see some credentials? I want to show you my badges. All right, he's gonna go through the trophy case of his own. Look at verses four, five, and six. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. He's saying, I could have confidence in my flesh. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, look at him, look at him. I got more. Look at this. This is a list. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Paul says, All right, you want to have a resume contest? Let me just show you my contest, my my resume, right? Right day, eighth day, right ethnicity, Israel, right tribe, Benjamin, prestige, right cultural identity, Hebrew of Hebrews, right religion, sect, Pharisee, right passion, zeal, right record, blameless under the law. Paul's saying, if putting, Paul was saying, if putting confidence in the flesh was a sport, I'd be an all-star. I'd be, I don't know, medal, gold medal winning, I'd be the goat, greatest of all time. Ain't nobody got a better record than my record, right? But I'm telling you, don't put confidence in that because that's not where joy is found. That is not where God's glory is found, that will wreck you. Do not, do not attach your joy to you. Don't do it, right? Don't do it. And so, I don't know. Some people flex money. I thought about this. Some people flex muscles, some people flex influence. Church people, what do we flex? We flex religion. That's what we do. Flex religion, you know. I've been here longer than you. I know the Bible more than you. I give more than you. That's that's the flesh with church clothes. All right, so man, step two towards having joy you can't lose. Put no confidence in your flesh. Put all your confidence in Jesus Christ. He's gonna keep on moving. Third step. Replace gains with Christ. All right. So he's gonna kind of flip the ledger. Look at this. Seven. But whatever gain I had, that's the works of the flesh, all that, that whole trophy case, I now count as lost. Why? For the sake of Jesus Christ. Everything, everything that he used to put before salvation in the gain column, he says, I now place it in the loss column, right? Why? Because it's useless. It's useless. It's useless for righteousness, it's useless for joy. Verse 8, first part. I ain't a priest on this one. Well, this is the I'm gonna do my best, indeed. I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of no. Christ Jesus my Lord. Alright? He's saying, when I look at my trophy case, when I look at all of the things that I have done and I compare it to the surpassing glory and joy of knowing Jesus Christ, I count it as loss. It's a loss. It is all a loss. But he gets even stronger. Now here is the part that you know I never preached on, and I had to work on this. So he gets strong here, church. You think he called people dogs already. Now he's about to use a word that's never been used in the Bible and never will be used in the Bible again. It's only used one time. So let me read this. For his sake, for the sake of Jesus, I have suffered the loss of all things. That's my whole trophy case. And count them as rubbish. That's the word used one time only in Scripture. Circle it, I'll get back to it, in order that I may gain Christ. All of this word rubbish. All of this was rubbish. My joy's not there. Righteousness is not there. It is all to be found in Jesus Christ. Now let's get back to this word rubbish. I'll know. Maybe some of you I'll know. Some of you might have looked it up before. I'll know. The English translation doesn't sufficiently describe this word. Alright? It's been kind of sanitized. It's not incorrect. It's just not the full depth. So this word rubbish. Man, how do we do this? Um it's the word in Greek scubulon. Alright, you can look it up. It's only used here. But it's used in other ways 2,000 years ago. It was this word was most commonly used in Greek medical text. And I'm just going to tell you what it refers to. Alright? This word was used to refer to fecal matter and excretment. That's what the word is. You can go to the lexicon, and it will tell you this word means excrement of animals, dung. So I mean, rubbish isn't wrong, but it ain't complete. You know, that's a strong word. Scubolon is a precise word. Paul, why are you using this strong word right here? He wants your attention. He wants my attention, right? To make sure we know, you gotta in context, putting confidence in the flesh is scuba on. It's excrement. It's dung. That's a strong word. And I done told you earlier, I always slip back into that, don't I? I want to put confidence in my flesh. Paul says, no, dude, that's scuba on. You go, you, you sit, you're, Travis, you sit there and you think that your joy is connected to the trials you go through. No, Travis, your problem is you place your confidence in scuba on. That's the problem. That is where you're getting the joy lost. You have set your joy on things that are, well, come on, it's there. Dung. All right. Works of the flesh, scuba on. I got it, dude. I got it, Paul. Thank you. Thank you for clearing that up, you know? Verse 9. And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law. That's works of the flesh. But instead, look at that. But instead. Don't do that. Don't put your confidence, don't put your joy in the works, but instead put my confidence in that which comes through what? Look at that word. Faith in what? Christ. That's it. That's the rock. That's what you want. That's what you're aiming for. The righteousness from God that depends on faith. This is the heart of the gospel right there, man. You want joy that is unshakable? You want joy that doesn't ebb and flow? Put it on the gospel, man. Church, you are not justified by your resume. You're not, man. You're justified by Christ's righteousness credited to you, man. That means my standing with God is not built on what I do. It's built on what Christ has accomplished. Alright. One final step. And by the way, I'm not saying this stuff's easy, dude. But we do hard things, don't we? We do hard things. Pursue Christ above all. Thank you, Jesus. That I may know him. Come on. Come on. Come on. And the power of his resurrection. Yeah. That's what we want right here. And may share his sufferings, becoming like him in death. Yeah, man, that's powerful. Paul says, I want to know him. I want to know Jesus Christ. I don't want to know facts about him. I don't want to know Bible verses about him. I don't want to know, you know, big old theological terms. I mean, I can know those, but what I really want to know is I want to know the man. I want to know Jesus. I want to know Jesus. I want to know Jesus. I want to know Jesus raised from the dead. I want that resurrection power. Do you know this? That resurrection power isn't just for after the grave. That resurrection powers for right now, right? I want that. I want that for you. I want that for us. I want it manifested here at this service, man. I want it. I'm listening if it is for the taking and it is for the given, I want to be known. I want it. I want it. I want to know Jesus. I want my joy to be in Jesus. I know this these works, these scuba on. I don't know. No, dude. Dude, listen. I spent too much of my life placing my confidence in Scuba on. And I'll tell you right now, it got me nowhere. Nowhere. It didn't even get me close to nowhere. It got me nowhere away from nowhere. In nothing. I want Jesus. We want Jesus. I want that resurrection power. I want it here. I want it now. I want to see life transformed. I want to see Christ exalted. Let me tell you this right now. Dude, in eight days. These past eight days, I did two, sir, I did two funerals. What's my takeaway in both those funerals? I'll tell you this right now. This ride ends. It ends, man. And between my point right now and the time he takes me home, I want you to know this. And you too, man. I won't know Jesus. I won't know Jesus. Well, my joy to be there. Verse 11. This is where we end here. We'll pick up. Look, look, look, look, look. I love this. I love it. That by any means possible, I don't care what the means is, any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Man, any means possible. That means I will leverage everything. I will leverage my time, my ability. I'll leverage social media. I'll leverage my car. I'll leverage, I'll know. If I own it, I'm going to leverage it. And we will leverage it for his glory. That is a voice of perseverance. So, fourth step towards having a joy you can't lose. Pursue Christ above all things, right? Thank you, Paul. Thank you. Um, so back to the tension that we started with. We're going around living life like I don't know, joy is a commodity. If I have problems, I get less joy. If I don't have problems, I get more joy. Paul just said, and that is a false paradigm. That's not how it works. That's not how it works. No, joy loss is because I, Travis, place confidence in things that I shouldn't be placing my confidence in. But if I reorient that and I place my confidence in Jesus Christ, you can have that joy that cannot be lost. I'll say this in one sentence. I wrote it down. Your joy stabilizes when your confidence relocates from you to Jesus Christ. Some of us here today may need to be laying down your resume. Some of us may be needing to lay down this whole ideal that you're right with God because of all the I'll know your record. But joy is not found in being impressive. Joy is found in Jesus Christ, and that is what I want, and that is what we want. That is the end goal. Church, I love you. Being a part of this fellowship and this service is meaningful and it's important. Thank you for being here. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for teaching us through the teaching of Paul, through God the Spirit, how we can have joy that is not lost. I pray that we would by any means possible seek to know him more and make him be known. And we ask this in the name of our Savior, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. Amen.