Crystal Sparks' Podcast

193. [Philippians Study] Free Throws of Faith

• Crystal Sparks

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The study of Philippians 3 offers a refreshing counterpoint to our culture's constant pursuit of novelty. When Paul writes, "For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe," he strikes at the heart of effective spiritual leadership.

Drawing from basketball analogies, this episode explores how the greatest NBA players—Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan—never outgrew practicing free throws. Similarly, spiritual maturity isn't about discovering exotic new truths but mastering foundational ones. Just as championship games often come down to free throws, our spiritual effectiveness depends on consistently returning to basic gospel truths.

The Apostles' Creed serves as a powerful example. These twelve simple statements weren't elementary teachings to eventually outgrow—they were core truths Christians would "repeat until the day we go to glory." From God as Creator to the resurrection of the body, these fundamentals provide spiritual protection in a world constantly pulling us away from truth.

Paul's stern warnings against "dogs," "evil workers," and "the mutilation" reveal his concern about legalism creeping into the church. Those imposing religious requirements missed the essence of true faith. Paul counters with a beautiful definition of genuine believers as those who "worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

This tension between legalism and grace remains relevant today. As leaders, we must guard against both legalistic tendencies and the temptation to seek novelty over substance. Our cultural drift away from foundational truths makes Paul's message more urgent than ever—repeating core values isn't tedious; it creates safety for those we lead.

What free throws of faith do you need to keep practicing? Which foundational truths need renewed emphasis in your leadership? This episode challenges us to embrace the power of spiritual repetition in an age obsessed with the new and novel.

My hope is that this podcast helps grow your faith and equips you to accomplish your dreams and goals!

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to another part of my Philippian study that I have been doing with our staff at Staff Chapel. If you haven't listened to the other parts, you might want to go back deeper into my podcast, check out those episodes and catch yourself up to join where we're at today. Okay, jumping into the study, we're going to be in Philippians 3. Philippians, chapter 3. If you want to turn in your Bibles, you can go there. Just a reminder of the overall flow of the Bible, because we don't learn truth, we remember truth and it's the truth that we remember that sets us free. And so we've got the beginning of the Bible is God's law, and then it's canonized into God's people. Then we have God's wisdom, then we have God's prophets, which is God calling back his people, then we have God's son, then we have God's church and then, ultimately, in revelation, we are told that God is coming back. So Philippians, chapter three, verse one, told that God is coming back. So Philippians, chapter three, verse one, he says, finally, my brethren. So this he's like transitioning thought. That finally should make us think. He's like hey, in closing, I'm about to wrap this thing up, finally, but we all know there's two more chapters, so this is like the closing accident. This is like a typical Christian. You know how you say bye, like many times, like you say bye in the lobby and then you walk outside the lobby doors and then you say bye again, and then you walk out to your car and you say bye again, only to just like talk at your car and say bye again, and then you go meet each other at the restaurant Like it's all. Just to get to that point. That's basically what he's doing here and so it's uh. So he begins with the transitional phrase of finally but actually jumps into a long discussion that isn't actually his closing remarks. In fact it's believed that he's put so much praise on them, so much exhortation to actually transition into like the meat of what he's wanting to say. And so he says finally, my brethren rejoice, so we've got joy again, which my joy counts at 10. It may be off, because there's so many times he says rejoice and so rejoice, so we've got joy, count number 10, rejoice in the Lord. And so he comes back to God being in central view, contrasting this to verse 18 in chapter two. He says the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me. And so before he's he's talked about joy and all these different places, but now he's got God back in central focus. We're going to rejoice in the Lord. And he says uh, in the Lord, for me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe, and so write the same things.

Speaker 1:

It's questioned if there's another letter that has been sent that we actually didn't have and if Philippians just is actually a part of a grouping of letters that had been sent. And so, basically, paul's saying, like this meme right here. He's like hey, it's me, I'm just checking, did you get my email? Like legit. He's like do you ever feel like that with your team? Sometimes you're like, hey, it's me saying the same thing again, like sending the same email again. And then people come up to you and they ask you questions. You're like did you read your email? And they're like no, but what is it? And you're like check your email, I already told you all this in an email. Like, let me help you go into your inbox, you can do it. But if you feel that way just know Paul felt that way too Because he's like hey, I'm sending you the same thing again.

Speaker 1:

And sometimes, as leaders, can we just be honest for a second. Sometimes we're doing the same message again. We're saying the same culture values again. We're pointing them back to the same thing again. We're saying, hey, we don't do that. Here again we're saying the same culture values again. We're pointing them back to the same thing again. We're saying, hey, we don't do that. Here again we're saying, hey, get in a group. Again we're saying join Growth Track, come on, go through Growth Track, get on the dream team. Again. And I love that he says here. He says it's not tedious, like it's not tedious, like sometimes I think we get off in our view of like oh, I get so sick of saying the same thing over and over again and it becomes tedious. And Paul's perspective is it's not tedious, but for you it's safe, for you it's safe. Like I would just say that we can't grow tired of saying the same things over and over again, because it actually is bringing safety to our people, like reminding them that Jesus is our message. It's not tedious, it's actually safe. Like every election season, somebody wants us to get on the stage and endorse the candidate. We're not going to do it. We're going to remind them Jesus is our message. And you know what? Doing that isn't tedious, it's safe, it's keeping the main thing, the main thing. We're keeping the focus, and so for us there's going to be basics that we're going to have to continuously cover.

Speaker 1:

Braylee and I, when we went to the Mavericks game, we were sitting there watching them do free throws. And she's like mom, isn't it funny? Because how many times have we watched Lily and Sophie do the same thing? Like, how many times have we seen them shoot free throws right? Like, how many times how many games have we watched Bear get to the free throw line and shoot a free throw? How many games at HCA have been predicated upon whether or not they make a free throw? And isn't it interesting that, right when you join basketball, the very first thing they have you do is free throws. And in fact, kobe Bryant talks about how many free throws he would shoot every single morning. And here he is an NBA player like the top of the game. Michael Jordan was the same way. So let me just say that Sophie Sy and Lily Sy's training schedule is all based on the basics, and Kobe Bryant is still doing the basics. And what's wild is we go to the game and you've got people like Luca shooting a free throw and they still miss sometimes and it's basic and she goes.

Speaker 1:

Mom, isn't it interesting that the whole game can come down to something that's the same thing as what's coming down to at a little league game, as basic as a free throw. And a lot of times, can I just talk to us? Can we just be honest for a second? We're looking to mature into something bigger and God's like, just keep shooting free throws, like with our teams, like we're not looking for this deeper, big revelation of Christ that nobody's ever preached before. It's actually the basics and the foundations of our faith that we continuously rehearse and those are the things that we keep coming back to. Those are the things that we have to continually point towards. Because here's the thing is that whatever we don't continuously monitor and give value behind, it's going to drift. Culture is going to pull us away from Jesus. Is our message? Culture is going to pull us away from excellence. Is our spirit? Culture is going to pull us away.

Speaker 1:

And the reason why the early church came up with the Apostles' Creed was because they were like we need to have 12 things, these 12 lines of the Apostles' Creed was because they were like we need to have 12 things. These 12 lines of the Apostles' Creed are finalizing, inside of people, the main things that we're going to continuously come back to, and we're going to repeat these until the day we go to glory. And so those things, just to remind us of the 12 things, or not the 12 things, but reminders of the main emphasis of the Apostles' Creed is number one is God the Father? But we believe in one, god the Father, almighty maker of heaven and earth. And that sounds silly, but our messages should have these things from the Apostles' Creed. It should be woven within them. The way we pray, the way we point to people is no, we serve one Lord and he is the creator of everything. Number two Jesus Christ. The affirmation of the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ, the son of God. So we're never going to grow tired of preaching about the resurrection. We're never going to grow tired of preaching about the ascension of Christ. We're never going to grow tired talking about he's the son of God. That was given for us. Like these things. If we're looking for something deeper, we're going to get weird. Come on, these are our free throws as as team.

Speaker 1:

The next, as it goes on, is the Holy spirit, belief in the Holy spirit, the giver of the spiritual life and power in our lives. So, come on, we're weaving this into what we're talking about. You've got the Holy ghost on your life. I'm back there with kids team on on Wednesday and I'm reminding them hey, you're not just kids team, you're full of the Holy Spirit and God's anointed you for this. Like you're not just checking kids in at the door. Like every interaction, you're imparting value, you're imparting purpose, like God's gifted you for this. Nobody can vacuum these floors like you. Nobody can do this dry erase board like you. Carolina Teal, nobody can teach the lesson like you. We're reminding them of the gift of the Holy Spirit on their lives.

Speaker 1:

The church, affirmation of the church, the community of believers, and so this is what it comes down to. Like we, we love the local church. Is it flawed? Yes, do we? Do? People inside the church make mistakes? A hundred percent? Am I? Is your pastor going to fall short? Short, 100%? I promise you I'll fall short every day. But we still believe in the ecclesia, the body of Christ, the family of God, and so we affirm these things of forgiveness of sins, that we believe in the forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ, and so it's not by my works, it's not by what I do, but we believe in forgiveness. So we're reminding people that you're not saved by works, you're saved by faith. And that sounds like a basic and you're like man.

Speaker 1:

I want to get a deeper revelation from God. If you start getting into trying to be deep, you start getting weird. You're not shooting free throws anymore and we're losing the game. I need you at the free throw line. I need you reminding people hey, you're not more loved by God because you showed up and served on Dream Team today. You're not more loved by God because you got to lead the song today. You're not more loved by God because you got to do camera one today. No, you're loved by God because his grace, he chose you, he picked you out since the foundations of the earth. You're loved by God just as you are. You're a son, you're a daughter of God. Do y'all see what I'm saying? It's not tedious to me.

Speaker 1:

The next is resurrection of the body. The belief of the resurrection of the body at the end of time. So we believe that there's this life. When my heart stops beating here it starts beating again. In eternity. We believe in the resurrection of the body, we believe that Christ is going to come back again, that we're going to be the dead and Christ will rise first, that there's more to this life than this earthly life, that there's a life we're pre-gaming right now, literally Like your dream team. You let them know like we're going to be serving at the marriage supper of the lamb for all of time. So we're just pre-gaming right now. We're just learning how to serve on this side. We're getting ready for the next side, because our purpose doesn't stop here. We're gonna have purpose for all eternity, and so that resurrection by that eternal mindset. It shifts things.

Speaker 1:

In fact, the early church, the reason what, one of the reasons why christianity spread so much, even with how many people were being killed for their faith, was the way they died. Literally, people were moved to come to faith watching the way they died, because they died singing hymns and praise to God while being burned alive, while being crucified, while watching their children be murdered. I don't understand that, I don't know that level, and so I'll say we need to make sure that we have an eternity mindset that this isn't all there is, like where you're at right now. This isn't all there is. God's got more on the other side. The next thing is eternal life, a belief in eternal life with God after death. And so these are some of the basics that we have core foundationally as faith.

Speaker 1:

But for us as team, as part of the church, it's the values. It's always coming back to those values and we lead with those. And he says it's not tedious for me, it's not tedious for me, it's safety for you. And so where have we drifted? Like, make sure that you're not drifting. You keep getting on that free throw line, keep shooting those shots. Oh man, I'm getting so sick of saying this. Say it again. I feel like I've told them this before. Say it again. I feel like I've already sent an email about this. Talk to them about it and huddle. I feel like I've already told them three times like, hey, you need to get in marriage counseling. Say it again, like does this make sense? Like we're just gonna keep shooting those free throws because that's what wins the games in the end. So everything we do as a church to point back to these things, like to the basics, it's the basics of who we are. So he says they're not tedious for me but for you is safe.

Speaker 1:

Verse two he goes savage. He goes beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. And so the threefold repetition here of the Greek word is for beware, and so he's repeating this three times. He's actually doing like an alliteration moment here that we miss in the English translation, and I just think it's cool whenever you see it, because whenever you see like Pastor Brian, like doing a sermon series and or if you see me doing it, and it's like got all Ks in the beginning or all whatever, paul was the OG at this, and so he's like I feel like you're going to correct me, and so what he's saying is beware, like watch out. And he's saying it in three different ways, but all in a catchy way for them to be able to remember, and so he's naming off these different groups of people, warning them about what they're going to do. So the first one is I'm sorry, the first one is watch out for those dogs.

Speaker 1:

So the metaphor is full of bite, since dogs were zoological low life scavengers that were generally designed by the Greco-Roman society and considered unclean by Jews. So him calling them dogs was actually like the biggest slap in the face, because Jews were, like we're clean, we're not dogs, like actually, we look down on unclean. They would call Gentiles dogs. But he's flipping the script and he's saying that they're full of bite. They're, these unclean animals, and so he's calling them this because they're Judaizers, and so they're trying to put all these like religious rules on them. They're trying to encumber them with all these rules and restrictions. Like you're going to come to faith? Well, you've got to do all these things. Be careful that we're not that way. Amen.

Speaker 1:

And so a dog should be someone who doesn't understand Christianity. So this is a person that just doesn't get it. This is a. A dog would be any person that just doesn't get it. Like and they're they're trying to either bind people with rules or they're so checked out during a holy moment.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, have y'all ever been frustrated? Like the spirit of God is like moving and somebody's over there playing words with friends on their phone. You're just like Jesus, right, and all it is is they're just spiritually, they're like a dog. They're just unclean. They don't understand the holiness of the moment they're in and that's what he's saying is like they don't get what God is doing. And I will say like have compassion on them, meet them where they're at right, just extend grace. But it's not that the problem isn't. I can take away their phone and they can still be checked out mentally. The phone isn't the problem, your heart is the problem. And if you start realizing what the spirit of God is doing, in that moment you'll lean in, like if you can watch 116 people get baptized and your heart isn't moved. The problem isn't how you're checking out or numbing. In that moment the problem is your heart.

Speaker 1:

Posture Like you've forgotten the basics. Somebody needs to take you back to the free throw line and remind you what it's all about. Is this good, okay? The second is he calls them evil doers. The clue to this usage is in a position between dogs and mutilation, since both are terms expressed of reversals, and so it's arguable that this one does as well. And so the irony derives from the designation of the wicked as those who work iniquity, trying to make the Gentiles submit to the Torah observance.

Speaker 1:

Judaizers and their contemporary counterparts, the legalists, do the work of righteousness, do not do the work of righteousness at all, but they're doing evil, just as those that would come and they would reject God and the Pharisees that pushed away God. It's the same thing. They're just evildoers. They're just evildoers, just let them be who they are. He's like saying beware. He's not saying to state your case to them. He's not saying, he's just saying their heart posture, they think they're doing something good, and a lot of times I found those people that are super vocal, that are trying to bind people up into all this legalism. They are cloaking it in righteousness, but actually what they're doing is evil. And that's what Paul's saying here. It's like they may make it look like so good on the outside, but they're evildoers.

Speaker 1:

The third, and changing from masculine pearl to a prerogative description of the Judaizers activity, paul warns beware of the mutilation, an ironic reference to Gentile circumcision. And so what he's saying is the word for circumcision is different than mutilation, and literally what he's doing is it's like this is where it's kind of fun in the Greek, because this word that he's using is actually pointing back to Leviticus, and in Leviticus, any priests that would mutilate themselves were not able to do the work of a priest inside the tabernacle. It actually disqualified you. Now, to be circumcised wasn't to be mutilated, but if you were to cut yourself or do some kind of mutilation to yourself. You are now unfit to do the work of a priest. So what he's saying is you are now the priests, you as the believers, you're now the priests.

Speaker 1:

If you start doing these things that they're trying to put on you to be deemed clean and worthy to do the work of Christ, you're actually disqualifying yourself. You're mutilating yourself. And so this in their mindset whenever they would have heard this word being spoken, they're realizing what Paul's doing. He's pointing them back. They're pointing you to Levitical law to try to justify what they're doing, but let me tell you that at that time, you were required to be circumcised. Now, if you do this, what you're doing is mutilating yourself. And so I'll just say this is what happens when we begin to put Old Testament law on ourselves as believers and we start saying, okay, well, this is what is said in the Old Testament, so I'm'm gonna start doing that. You see, a lot of this blending that tries to happen.

Speaker 1:

I think there's a beauty and appreciation for Jewish customs and tradition, but when that starts becoming our law, what we're doing is we're mutilating ourselves, and in mutilating ourselves, we're not able to do the work of the priest that we're actually called by God to do. And so Paul says here, beware, beware of them, for we are the circumcision. For we are the circumcision. So this should make us question like what is the word the circumcision? And so he's going to explain this. Are we okay? If I go like three minutes over? I'm going to try to get through verse three, is that okay? Okay, so if you have to walk out at 930, that's fine, it won't hurt my feelings.

Speaker 1:

So, for we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. So we have joy. Count number 11 right here we have joy again. And what's beautiful is he's going to explain the circumcision and he says here, number one is those who worship slash, serve in the spirit. This, this word, I think it would have been better transliterated as serve in the spirit. But you can have worship in the spirit. But it stands as an ironic contrast to Philippians.

Speaker 1:

Three. Two the people, the mutilated priests, could not serve or worship in the temple. So he's saying hey, guys, like they're saying that they're able to do it, but they're mutilated, they're not able to serve and worship in the temple, but because you have the circumcision of the spirit, you're able to serve and worship in the temple of God. And so, as the rest of the sentence makes clear that Paul hasn't viewed neither congregational worship nor internal spiritual service, personal piety over against external right, but two ways of existing in the flesh, meaning life centered in the creature, as over against God, and by the spirit, as people of the future, of whom all life, the present, is now service and devotion to God. Number two we rejoice in Christ. He's like guys, we're, we're able to. The circumcision of God looks like we're able to serve, like we're our. Our circumcision, our spiritual circumcision, is for service. It's for worship unto God. But we get to rejoice in Christ, meaning my.

Speaker 1:

My joy doesn't come in my situation. My joy doesn't come in my circumstance. My joy doesn't come on the economy. My joy doesn't happen with Trump and Elon Musk. My joy doesn't happen. But although the memes right now are just absolutely gold, I'm here for every single one. Can't get enough. It makes me laugh so hard. It's great. I'm like I can't wait for the next thing, because they just keep giving out more content. It's fantastic, it makes me laugh really hard. But each one of these, my joy is in Christ, right.

Speaker 1:

So keep in mind, one of the first names for Christians was believers. They were called believers, and this stood in opposition of everyone in Rome. In fact, in Rome during this time, they said that there was more gods, more statues like to gods, than there were people. And what stood out about Christians is they didn't have a statue to the God that they served, and it looked so different to everybody. So that's why they started calling them believers, because they didn't have a God that they could see, and so even their rejoicing was in a circumstances that could not be seen. We rejoice in Christ, we find joy in him. So he's pointing back to this and he says we have no confidence in the flesh, so my righteous deeds are not what gets the favor or forgiveness from God, so I have no confidence in the flesh, and all of these things he's literally line for line, he is correcting. With each one of these he's standing in opposition. Oh hi, that was great, thank you, that was great. He's going in opposition of the Judaizers previously, and so each thing that he's talking about them being evildoers, them being dogs, them being the ones that are mutilating he's coming up against that and he's saying hey guys, this is who you are and so our circumcision.

Speaker 1:

What does that mean? When we say that we're circumcised by the spirit, it means that because of our circumcision, it looks like service to God, it looks like worship beyond what I see in the natural and it looks like me being able to not have confidence in the flesh. So my confidence doesn't come in my righteous deeds, my righteous acts, how I feel Cause come on somebody. Sometimes you feel like serving, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you feel like preaching, sometimes you don't. Brian and I always laugh. People go are you ready to preach the gospels of Jesus Christ? I'm like I don't know. I'm getting up there in three minutes. I better be ready. Like I don't know. But it doesn't matter what I feel. Does that make sense? Like it doesn't, I don't put any confidence in the flesh. So what does the circumcision of the spirit look like? Well, paul kind of plays it out for us. Those are a few things of what it looks like.

Speaker 1:

Next time we'll pick it up on verse four and talk about Paul. He just pops off really hard about if anybody could be confident. He should be confident and he isn't. He doesn't use those things in the natural to give him confidence, but his confidence is in Christ. So let's pray real quick and we'll finish up.

Speaker 1:

Jesus, we just thank you for who you are, lord, we just step up to the free throw line again. Lord, I thank you that we're carrying a message that's been entrusted for over 2000 years. Lord, give us new ways to explain the gospel, lord, new ways to keep shooting that free throw of God, the Father, of Jesus, your Son, the Holy Spirit being given. Lord, I thank you that, as we are talking to team, as we're doing things that God, I thank you that we're pointing them back to the basics of faith, that we're pointing them back to the values of our house. Lord, I thank you that people in this house, lord, they know that they can grow safely because of those basics, lord, that those basics actually produce safety inside our flock. And so, lord, we just thank you for those.

Speaker 1:

Lord, we thank you for all that you're going to do this week, lord, on Sunday, lord, we give you thanks in advance, lord, for every salvation, for every life change that Lord you know in advance. Lord, for every salvation, for every life change. That Lord, you know every name, you know every story. And so, lord, we just thank you that you're a speaking God and one church is full of listening people in Jesus name, and somebody who believed it said Amen. I love you guys. Have a great week. Thanks so much for hanging out here on my podcast. Do me a favor and hit the subscribe button if you haven't done so already, so you never miss out on anything here on my podcast. Also, one of the best ways for us to begin to reach other people is by you sharing. So if you do me a favor and share this podcast with a friend, family member or maybe on your social media, help us get the word out so we can help others.