"Philippians-A Manna Study" Week 4

This week, Pastor Jake walked us through Paul’s powerful reminder that Jesus must come before every asset we value—our family, our wealth, and our reputation. Paul isn’t dismissing these gifts; he’s showing us that when Christ is placed above them, they become healthier, more meaningful, and more aligned with God’s will. True joy is found when Jesus is our highest priority.

Our mission is to glorify God by equipping His people to change their world and by planting churches with the same world-changing vision.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Manna Church Stafford Podcast, where we're all about equipping God's people to change their world. We're thankful you're here, and we're praying that this message encourages you to love God, love others, and love the world more fervently than before. Now, let's get to it.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Well, just like they said, I want to also say happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Can we give it up for them one more time? Well, if you're uh if you're a mom with us, I hope you guys were able to get a drink out there. And if not, they'll be here for a while after service. So make sure you get in line and get yourself a mama latte out there. Um and I want to take a second because I actually have a mother as well. I know that's shocking. Uh, but uh I have a mom, she's in Kansas watching online. So, mom, I just want to look into the camera and tell you thank you so much for being so great, for raising me and uh serving sacrificially and uh teach me all the things that I needed to know, and and just just working so hard as a mom. So you did you did a great job. And I also just want to tell you, um, you're welcome. I turned out pretty great. Uh feel like you know, I've given you a lot to be proud of. Uh, you know, beautiful wife, six kids. Um, you know, I didn't go to jail yet. But uh, yeah, you've just got a lot of things to be proud of, mom. So congratulations. Uh but seriously though, moms, you guys know this, moms, you are proud of your kids, right? Yes, moms, can you give it up for your kids? Yes. It doesn't matter how big of an achievement, doesn't matter how small of an achievement, moms, you are always looking for reasons to celebrate your babies, aren't you? Whether they're they're hoisting up the state championship trophy for this massive achievement, or they just completed a fun run and they got a participation medal, moms are like, you did so good, so proud. Just looking for reasons to do that. And that's actually a really, really good thing because what it does is it helps children develop a sense of value. And they see the things that they're celebrated for, and then it helps them start to kind of prioritize their life and say, what are the things that that make mom proud? What are the things that make dad proud? And those are the things that I should really pursue. And I know that there are some of you that probably had parents that didn't really celebrate you, and I'm sorry, they should have celebrated you. It's funny, is the older that we get in life too, the things that we celebrate, they start to shift. We start to look at success differently, depending on which decade of life that we're in. And so today, what I really want to do as we as we get into Philippians, we're gonna continue in this series. We're gonna talk a little bit about moms, but but we're really gonna stay in the text today. And uh, God's been downloading something to me this whole week, and I'm really excited to unpack it for you. And I think that there's a revelation in the text that we're gonna be covering today that if you get it, it will reframe how you look at yourselves, how you look at others, how you look at the entire world around you. And so I'm gonna give you three revision statements during this message from the text, and I hope what it's gonna do is it's gonna be a perspective. You might not get at first glance, but if you just stick with me to the end, it's gonna be really transformative. All right? You good? Yes? Okay, cool. Well, we're gonna start with something that you got when you came in. You all can you all hold up your cards you got when you came in? Great. So everybody's got one. If you need one, you can go to the back and grab one. Maybe we've got some ushers that can help out back there. But uh, I'm gonna explain it to you. Some of you are super familiar with it. It's a really simple accounting tool. And and businesses use it, people use it, they they use it to determine the value of either an organization or a person, financially speaking. And so the way that you determine the value of something, like a house or a car, is you take the value of the asset, you list it as an asset, and then you take any debt associated with it or the liability associated with it. And you take all of your liabilities, all of your debts, your mortgage, your loans, your credit card debt, anything else, your tax debt, if you got any of that, any of those things, you put them all in the liabilities column, and then you take all your assets, the things that have value, and you put them all in the assets column. You add all those up, you add all those up, you take the difference, and that's what you're actually worth. That's what your business is actually worth. And so everything that's in the asset column takes your value up. Everything that's in the liabilities column takes your value down. So businesses use it for a monetary valuation, but we can actually do the same for a more general valuation of our lives. And some of you guys might, as I say this, you might be starting to worry because you're thinking about the liabilities column. Like, oh my goodness, I've got so many things in the liability column when it comes to my life. We're not really gonna focus on that very much today. All right? We're gonna spend our time in the assets column. All right. So, so what what I would love for you to do today as we start, I'd love for you to start to think about your life just generally. What are some things that you would consider assets? Like personal assets, if we were just valuing your life, what are things? Excuse me, got a little cold. What are some things that you would put in that column? In fact, think about it this way: what are some things your mom would say, this makes my child a person of value? And go ahead and take your take your page out, start start to do it now. I'm gonna give you some examples. Um, and again, this is not just your financial portfolio. If your life were a balance sheet, if your life were a statement, what would it look like? Maybe you start off with something like this. Maybe family is at the top of your list. Excuse me. That's gonna be at the top of my list. It's a big deal. Maybe you put your career on there, right? You there is value in your life because of the job that you have. You may have a really important job. That's great. And that and that that is something that's that's good to be proud of. Um, your education. What are your credentials? Where did you go to school? Did you go to school? Maybe you you've you've you've taken lots. Oh, thank you, son. Look at that. Appreciate that, buddy. Maybe you've taken lots of courses. You went to Harvard or Yale or somewhere really important, you got a good degree. That's great. Put that on there. What about your service? We got a lot of military members here. Some of you serve our government, some of you serve our community. That's something that makes you a person of value. It's something to add to your assets list. Skills or talents you've got. Maybe you can hold your breath for three minutes. Praise the Lord. You're amazing. Maybe you can uh stand on your head, maybe you can you can run really fast. Maybe you can jump really high. Maybe you can play an instrument really well. Maybe you are just fantastic at something that I can't even think of. What talent do you have? Those things are things that make you more valuable. They're assets. Uh your reputation, that's a big one. What other people think of you. In fact, the word says that a good name is better chosen than precious jewels. It's one of the most precious things that you can have is your name, your reputation. Uh your physical health and appearance. Again, I said the older you get in life, your priorities start to change. Some of y'all that are in your 60s, 70s, 80s, you're you're valuing like, man, I'm so glad I'm healthy right now. Again, don't worry about the liabilities. Think about the assets. Like, I'm just glad that I'm healthy. Material wealth is also another great thing. That's a good thing. You you got a big 401k. Maybe you just have money in your checking account. Maybe you got lots of really cool possessions. Awesome. You got a boat. That's great. I would love to be friends with you if you have a boat, especially with the summer coming up. Um, habits and lifestyle, those are other things that can also be great assets for you to have. And so, so it if this was my my asset sheet, I would I would put things in every single one of those categories. I would think of something to put there. All right? So, so now that you've got that, we're gonna put it aside as we get into the text. We're gonna come back to it because it's gonna be really, really important as we talk about Paul's letter to the church in Philippi, and we get into this third chapter because it's pretty interesting. Paul actually has his own asset list that he covers. So don't get ahead of me. So we're gonna start in chapter three, verse one. Here we go. He says, Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. We're gonna talk about that more next week. Paul mentions this statement like four times in this letter. Verse 2, he says, Look out for the dogs. And these aren't the D-A-W-G-S, alright? These are dogs. This is a pejorative statement. Look out for evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. You gotta be careful around dogs. Some of you are scared of dogs. I'm not scared of dogs. It depends on what kind of dog it is. If I'm scared of it, it's a little bit of chihuahua, I'm not really scared of it. If it's a big old, you know, uh pit bull, I might be a little bit scared of it. But but we're told here to beware of dogs. In fact, Jesus even talks about dogs in a very negative way. In their culture, when they wrote this, dogs weren't friendly household pets. They were mongrels. They were like scavengers that were kind of running around town. Jesus says this, Matthew 7 6 in his Sermon on the Mount, he says, Don't give dogs what's holy, and don't throw your pearls before pigs lest they trample them underfoot and turn and attack you. So Paul is saying, there are people you need to watch out for. He uses three different ways to describe them: dogs, evildoers, mutilators of the flesh. And this is to help them categorize who he's talking about. So just to give you a little bit of background here, there were people who were coming into the church and they're saying, Oh, it's great, you accepted Jesus, but you need to do something else in addition to that. You also need to have this special marking that we have as Hebrews. They would get circumcised. That was a sign of them being a part of the family. He was saying, you also need to do that. And unless you do that, you really aren't good enough. You really aren't a part of the family, you really haven't made the full connection and the full step toward being a believer. And so it's actually a really dangerous and destructive theology that started to creep into the church because they believed that you had to have this special attribute that was only in accordance with the Hebrew tradition. And see, when you get stuck in this kind of legalistic mindset, what you're saying is Jesus is good, but he's just not enough. And the Hebrews they had it completely backwards. They said, Look, do you follow all the laws, all the feasts and the festivals? Do you eat the right kinds of food? Is all the food you eat kosher? If you do that, then you can also be a part. But unless you do that, you're out. And so these dogs, they were trying to erode the early church's confidence in their faith. They were trying to tell them, like, you can't be that confident in what you've got unless you do these other things. But then Paul goes on, verse 3, and he flips it on its head. He tells them, For we are the circumcision. He uses that as a way to describe them as a church. He's like, this thing that they say you've got to do, no, that's actually who we are. It's not what we've done to ourselves, it's who we are. We are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. We have confidence, but it's not in that. It's in the right thing. And context is king, again, these this was a European church, so it wasn't heavily influenced by Jewish people. So they just kind of got this thing added on when Jews, when evildoers, mutilators of the flesh would come in, excuse me, they would come in and tell them that they needed to do this, they didn't really comprehend what was going on. And so Paul's trying to guard against that. He goes on though, because where you put your confidence is super critical. There are things that um that make you feel good about yourself, isn't there? I mean, you put them, some of them you put on your on your balance sheet. They're not bad things. They give you pride in the testament of your life, and that's extremely important what you put on that list. And Paul found himself living in a time where the value of a person were in these outward representations of religious or social conformity. And so, not all outward representations of that are bad necessarily. They can actually be really good. In fact, if you look at your list, I bet there's nothing on your list. If you just go back and look at it, nothing on the list that I put up that is in and of itself a bad thing, is it? Nothing. They're all really good things. Paul had a list too. And he goes over his list, starting in verse 4. He says, Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. He's saying, look, I'm a Hebrew too. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. He's saying, if you think your bow your balance sheet, if you think your asset list is a good asset list, mine is better than yours. That's a little bit cocky, isn't it? It's a little bit arrogant. It would be like me standing up here and being like, hey, mom, you have a lot of reasons to be proud of me. In fact, you should be more proud of me than all of our siblings. My sister, I only have one, so that's you should be more proud of me than anybody else in this room. Paul's writing this letter to a church, and he's saying, if anybody thinks they have reason to be confident, I have more. I'm kind of a big deal, y'all. That's what he's saying. He goes on. He says, I have more, circumcised on the eighth day than the people of Israel. Of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of Hebrews. Man, I am, I am like top notch as to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to righteousness under the law, blameless. You want to talk about who's a big deal in this room? It's me, Paul. I've got it all figured out. I have a lot of reasons to be proud of myself. If you think about your list, this is Paul's list. So maybe you put on your list, you're an American. That's a huge blessing. It's an asset in the world. It's a pretty big asset to be an American. Maybe you love being a Virginian. A lot of history here. It's a cool place to be from. I love Virginia. What about your family? Paul talked about his family a little bit. He said, I'm from the tribe of Benjamin. It was the smallest tribe. It was a tribe that actually the first king of Israel came from. It was Paul's namesake. Paul used to be Saul. Saul, the first king of Israel, King Saul. Paul's like, that's my tribe. Those are my people. I'm from Benjamin, y'all. When it comes to his education, where he got his degree. He said, I am a Pharisee. Concerning the law, concerning education, I actually made it to the upper crust of society. I graduated from Harvard. Magna cum lauda. I'm a big deal, y'all. That's what he's saying here. He moves on. You know, like success at work. What do you what do you think? Are you successful in your job? Paul's writing about that. He's saying, are you a hard worker? Do you take some pride in the fact that you do a good job at work? I'm not lazy. Man, I grind when I get into work. He's like, concerning zeal? You want to talk about passion for my education, for the things that I know, for the things I love? I'm an activist. I worked hard. I am more passionate than anybody. In fact, concerning zeal, I'm a persecutor of the church. The tense he says it in is actually pretty important. He says, righteousness? My reputation is better than all of yours. I am blameless. How many of us could say that? I'm blameless. Concerning all the things that are in the law, all the feasts and festivals, all the rules, the regulations, I got them all right. Again, these are all good things. Except the church persecution. These are all good things. They're things that he would be, he would be encouraged in as someone in the society. They would look at him and say, like, way to go, Paul. I want to be friends with that guy. And maybe that's you. Like, maybe you're proud of your education, your career, moms, maybe you're proud of your kids. You should be proud of your kids. You should be. What about service to the church? Are you a passionate worshiper? Are you zealous for the things of the Lord? Do you serve well? Do you love well? Do you lead well? So I want to put the list back up for me. Can you do that? So if you look at this list, and I want you to look at your own list, I just want to ask you a couple questions. First off, what on your list gives you the most confidence? When you look at your list, what is the thing that when you meet with someone and you feel maybe insecure in a room, you're like, well, you know, but I am a fill in the blank. Like I do work at the most prestigious whatever. You know, I did accomplish this thing. I did go to school here. I am a person that has this kind of care. What is it? What is it on your list that gives you the most confidence? What do you secretly point to on your list and you say, I'm good because of this? Every single one of us have it. If you don't think you have it, you're being dishonest with yourself. We all have those things that we think like, this makes me good. This adds value to me. Again, these aren't bad things. Let me ask you this question though. Which one, if it disappeared today, right now, if it was gone off the list, which one would shake you the most? If your health went away, what would that do to you? Because I'm not healthy anymore. Where's my value? If there's some talent that you had that became obsolete, or you're you're a really great athlete and you you break yourself somehow? If your family is on there and your family falls apart, which one of the things on the list would actually shake you the most? I want you to hold that thought, and we're gonna go into this next verse, okay? So interesting. Verse 70 says, Whatever gain I had, whatever's on that list, whatever gain I had, I counted. This is an accounting term, this is a this is a financial term, I counted as loss or liability. I put it in the other column.

unknown 20:00

What?

SPEAKER_01 20:01

For the sake of Christ. Whatever was gained to me, all these things that are good, they're gained, they're beneficial, profitable things. Whatever is on the list, I move it to the liabilities column that I might gain Christ. I don't understand this, I don't know why. Indeed, I count everything as loss. Like my house is a great thing. I'm not just gonna automatically put it in my liabilities column. That doesn't make sense. But he's saying this: I count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things. I count them as rubbish, as garbage, as trash, in order, again, think about that word trash, and look at everything on your list. Everything on your list. Could you say that? I count it as trash in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. What does it mean to count something as a loss? This is more than just considering it of no value, okay? When something moves from an asset to a liability, it's not just worth less, it's actually a debt to you. It's actually taking value away from you. Remember, assets column moves your value up, liability column moves your value down. He's saying, I count it as a loss. Everything is a liability. Everything is a liability that I that I gave Christ. Our first revision we need to do here is we need to reevaluate what we value. That's what Paul's trying to do. Reevaluate church. Church of Philippi, and I would say, manna church, reevaluate the things that we value. Again, the Things aren't bad on the list. And the things on our list, they're not bad. He's helping us see that when we put value in these things, we put value in the things on that list. It's not good. You can be the most talented person in every single room you walk into. And if you find yourself prideful about that, man, I'm gonna tell you that's a loss. It's a huge loss. If that gives you more value than the kind of character that Christ develops in a person, it's a loss. And here's a test for you to let you know if you you you do that. Do you put more effort into developing your talents at work than you do into developing your character that Christ has called you to have? Your financial financial that's an easy one, right? It's such an easy one. Do you do you put more time and deliberate thought and passion and just like, what are we gonna do with our money into how you spend your dollars and cents and where you save it than you do, okay, God, it's yours. How much of it do you want me to give back to you? No strings attached, just give it, versus how much you're like, I'm gonna build my own portfolio. If you do that, he's saying your entire account is a loss. All the stuff you've accumulated, it's a loss. That's a hard one. Great promotions at the office, people around you love you. You work hard to make a name for yourself there, you serve well there. What do you do for Jesus and for his people, for his kingdom, for his purposes? It's a loss. Matthew 13, Jesus talked about this. He says, The kingdom of heaven, this is what it's like. It's like treasure hidden in a field. It's not just there, it's it's hidden, it's buried. Which a man found and he covered it up, then in his joy, he goes and he sells all he has and he goes and he buys the field. Like everything else I had is worthless compared to this. I'll take a loss on it even. I don't care. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all he had and bought it. And you might say, like, yeah, Jake, but surely family isn't something that you'd put on the list. Paul didn't even list family, right? Paul didn't even put family on there. Well, first off, he did. He talked about his tribe. Second off, Paul wasn't married and he didn't have kids. If he did, he would have put them on the list. And you might say, What a heck of a thing to say on Mother's Day, Jake. Look, y'all, I didn't plan this for Mother's Day. It just so happened this is where we are in the text. You know who said something worse than what Paul said? Jesus. Matthew 16, you can go look it up. Jesus says, Let me tell you this. It's this weird moment where he's trying to be sensational and a little bit like elicit a reaction. He says, Let me tell you something. Unless you hate your mother, your father, your children, your brothers, and your sister, even your own life, you can't have any part of me. What? He's saying, unless you consider them as loss compared to me, you can't have any part of me. That is a heck of a thing to say on Mama Day. And I'm sorry. Let me tell you, parents, if I give you one piece of advice, moms, when you're helping your kids rack and stack their priority list, the best thing, the best thing you can do for your kids when it comes to priorities is let them know they are so secure in the third spot. Like there's nothing that's gonna move them from number three. They're always gonna get the bronze medal every time. You're so proud of them, always gonna get the bronze. You know why? Jesus is number one. Unequivocally, he is number one. He's the top of the list every time, all day, every day. And if you're married, again, I know there's some people with different circumstances in here, but the number two spot is reserved for your spouse. This works husbands to wives too. You are one flesh with your spouse, not one flesh with your children. Your children come from your flesh, but they will eventually be one flesh with somebody else. Let them know they're number three. When you put them as number one, when you put them above your husband, guess here's what's gonna happen: it's gonna wreck your marriage. It's why so many families, when kids leave the nest, they're like, Who are you? Oh, we've been living together in co-parenting for the past 18 years. That's why that happens. It's why when your kids get out into the world, you're like, Oh, I think I should start going back to church and plugging in now. Because you've been investing so much into your children, you haven't invested in the kingdom. And inadvertently, what you're doing is you're teaching your children, I value you more than I value Jesus. That's a scary proposition. Let them know, like, guys, I love you. I'm so encouraged by what you're doing and what you're involved in and what you care about. Love you so much. You're not gonna take away from my prayer time. My kids know they have when dad's fingers are on his computer because he's working on a sermon, you don't bother me. They know that when I'm when I'm by myself, when I'm in prayer, you don't bother me. That's my time with my Lord. They know that this time of worship, it's sacred. It's sacred, it's a priority. All right, I'm gonna have to blow through the next couple points because I spent too much time there. You know why Paul is so aggressive in this? Why he's so passionate about this, where he makes the list like this. He goes on, verse 10. He said, It's because that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. I counted all loss that I might know him and his resurrection power, and I might share in his sufferings, I may become like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. Whatever it takes, whatever it takes, I just want to get to the end. I want to get to this eternity that I've been promised with Jesus by any means possible. I don't care what I have to give up. There's a desperation that you read here. I would ask us, church, are we this committed to anything in our lives? Is there anything in your life that you would say by any means possible? By any means possible. Most of us would say that, but it would be something on our list. That's not Jesus. I just want to get that. I just want to get that grade. I just want to get that bag, I just need that money, I just need this job, I just need this house, I just need this relationship. Any means possible. Are you zealous for the wrong things? And Paul, man, he's not coasting because he's saved. Paul, Paul, his his grace that he receives from God doesn't make him passive, it just makes him relentless. He is really, really focused on this. If anybody got it right at this point, if anybody had a reason to be like, I figured it out, I'm kind of coasting now, it would be Paul, right? The dude's been in prison, he's been beaten, he he's he's currently in jail writing this letter, he's planted tons of churches, salvations, he's healed people, raised people from the dead. The dude, the dude figured it out. He got the cheat code for the Christian faith, wrote most of the New Testament. It's not how he looks at it. He says, verse 12, not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect. I didn't, I haven't made it yet. But I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus made me his own. Jesus suffered and died for me, so man, I'm gonna keep pursuing this, keep pressing on. Brothers, I don't consider that I've made it my own. When I'm doing my accounting, I don't I don't see that I have a a net a net positive yet. That's not where I'm at right now. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That's so good. He's laser focused on a goal. Second thing Paul's trying to get us to do here is reorient our lives around a lasting goal. There are some goals that are gonna go away. Listen, we gotta we gotta forget about past achievements. We've got to forget about some of the good choices we've made in life that put us in a really comfortable position. Did great at school, you got saved at camp once upon a time, you you served or led at some point. Forget about that stuff. Forget about the past achievements. What are you doing today? Every single one of us, as we live this life, the world that we live in, there is a constant current. And it's not pushing you towards Jesus, it's doing the opposite. If you've ever been in a river with a strong current, it's and you're trying to go the other way, you have to fight doubly hard. And that's kind of the way that Paul's looking at this. He's like, look, I I don't think that I already made it. The current's pulling me, and I'm constantly pressing against it. I'm never gonna stop. Not gonna coast because of past achievements. And some of you, I know, you you're you're thinking, well, you know what, Pastor Jake? I don't actually have a lot of past achievements that I'm super proud of. I got a heck of a lot of failures, though. That's what's holding me back, is because I just honestly, I'm not proud of my balance sheet. There's nothing I'm gonna write down there that makes me feel like a person of value. I could put a lot of mistakes in the liabilities column. Can I just encourage you? Move on. Move on. When he says, I'm forgetting what's past, he's not just talking about all his successes, he's talking about his failures too. Paul lists this really, really positive bougie balance sheet. You know what else Paul said? Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners. And I don't think he was saying it because he was just trying to do like a humble brag and be like false humility. Oh, I'm I'm I'm just terrible. I think he believed it. In fact, if you look at the tense he uses, I said that's important when he talks about persecuting the church. He didn't say persecuted the church. He recognizes like there's still this thing that was in me. It's a part of me that I made some mistakes. I am a sinner, I'm the chief of sinners. Now, his place in Christ, his identity in Christ is a saint. It's firmly there. But Paul is moving beyond his past successes and his past failures. And some of you, that's the word that you need today. You're like, man, I just need to press on. Don't be focused on the rearview mirror. Be looking out the windshield, where God's head where God's sending you. And Paul, he assumes that this isn't easy. He knows that this is not simple. And so the way that he closes this part of the letter, verse 15, he says, let those of us who are mature think this way. Again, the older you get, your priorities start to shift a little. When you're young, you're not thinking about eternity. You're thinking about high school. And then you're thinking about college. And then you're thinking about if you're gonna get married, who you're gonna marry, how many kids you're gonna have, what job you're gonna have, where you're gonna live. You're not thinking about eternity. The older you get, though, the more you start to think about that. What kind of legacy have I left? Where am I gonna spend my eternity? He said, let those of us who are mature, mature, think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we've attained. Let's hold fast to what we understand right now, but follow mature people. Third thing, third revisioning. We need to reposition ourselves among godly examples. Some of you, the reason you're chasing all these things is because the people in your orbit, that's all they know how to do. That's what they're chasing. And so you're becoming more and more like them because their priorities become your priorities. And you're positioned in the wrong spot. It's not that you don't love Jesus, it's not that you you don't you don't care about the things of the kingdom. It's just that the current that you place yourself in is so strong, and the way you link arms with other people is they're paddling in a different direction than you are. And you need to reposition yourself among godly examples. Verse 17 says, Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I've often told you and now tell you, even with tears, they walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. They're in his destruction, their God is their belly. The things that they're concerned about are all their own desires. What's going to satisfy this appetite I have? I have an appetite for wealth. I have an appetite for personal fame. I have an appetite for comfort. Come on, that's one in our society. I just want to be comfortable. I have an appetite for delicious food. You guys heard me preach last week. I love me some food. All of these things, their God is their belly. That's the top thing on their on their asset list, their priority list. Their glory is in their shame, with their minds set on earthly things, things that are going to pass away. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him, even to subject all things to himself. Paul's goal is an eternal one. It's a forever goal that nobody can ever take from him. And he gives us two models of people to imitate. One are those who press towards Christ, two are those whose minds are set on earthly things. So what we need to do is follow the one and avoid the other. Amen? That's it. It's just really, really simple. And listen, there's no shortage of examples of people for you to follow in this life. You follow them online, you read their books, you apply their financial principles, you do their workout regimen, you you just want to be more like them. There's a filter that you need to apply though when you're when you're trying to pick people to follow. What does their spiritual life look like? Is there lasting fruit? Y'all, they may be a bajillionaire. Is their marriage a wreck? Their third or fourth or fifth marriage? More than I mean, what about their kids? Something I'm I'm not trying to boast, actually. I'm trying to encourage you when I say this. And I want to honor my wife. She has sacrificed so much for our kids. My kids, my parents instilled this in me, and I've tried to instill it in my kids. You are my resume. I've tried to let them know that. You are my resume. There are doors, my kids don't understand this. There are doors my kids open that I can't open. When people see that my kids love Jesus and they're following him, they're like, I think I could maybe listen to you. I think I could maybe follow what you're saying. Because your kids, it looks like they might be turning out alright. And I regularly let my kids know that. I tell them, thank you when doors open. And when they start to get off the path, I'm like, hey, remember, there's more at stake than just your own life. If you make a train wreck out of this, it's gonna limit my ability to bless people and serve the kingdom. It's a big responsibility for a kid to have. But your kids are your resume. Paul talks about the church, we're not gonna talk about it today, but when Paul talks about the church in chapter 4, verse 1, he says, You are my joy and my crown. He's saying, as a church, you are my resume. Moms, dads, teach your kids to have a healthy, rightly ordered priority list. It's it's such a such a good thing. If everything on your list disappeared tomorrow, would you be okay before God? Would you be good? And this should be, I hope, I hope, this can be a liberating teaching for you, not one that's burdensome. Because there's a way to look at this. It's like, oh my gosh, my life is a wreck, I've messed everything up. This is I I gotta reorder everything. This should be liberating because you don't have to chase the wrong things anymore. You can just chase Jesus and everything's gonna be okay. I'll tell you a quick, quick story here. I've talked about it before. Um, there was a time in my life where I was dangerously close to idolizing money, to idolizing financial success and financial um prosperity. Daniel and I, I I had a I had a list of goals that I wanted to accomplish. One of them was a dollar amount I wanted to have in my bank account. Again, that's not a bad thing. But I remember she and I talking about how, man, like this is so good. Like this is our stability. This is this is what makes us stable and secure. And then I've again I've talked about it before, I lost my job. It's still fresh, so it's it's relevant for me. It was back in 2020. I lost my job, and I remember walking on the beach talking with God and being like, Man, Lord, I that was supposed to be my stability. That was supposed to be what what provided value to our family. It's supposed to be what took care of us. And the Holy Spirit, man, he just convicted me. And he said, Is money your stability or am I? And it cut me to the bone. And then he said this next thing to my soul I haven't changed. See my balance sheet, I had all these assets listed, and one of them was material wealth, and that can fluctuate. Y'all, man, your your bank account, the stock market could crash tomorrow. Your family, frankly, you're not like I'm not in charge of the choices that my kids make. They make their own choices, and they sometimes can make really bad ones. You you could have a spouse that decides they're gonna step out on you. Is that where your value lies? AI could take over your job tomorrow. Right? Like there's so many things that could go wrong, but Jesus never changes. He never changes, he's enduring. Listen, the problem isn't that we have confidence, the problem is that we put our confidence in the wrong thing. Put your confidence in Jesus, put it there because it will never, never find sinking sand. You will always place it on a sure foundation. Amen. Again, three things, three things, three points to take away. Reevaluate what you value, reorient your life around a lasting goal, and reposition yourself among godly examples. Can we do that today, church? Yes? And let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, I thank you for every single person here in the sound of my voice, God. I thank you for blessing us with time together, Lord. I thank you for the mothers in this room who have blessed their families with service and love and sacrifice, God. Lord, I pray you would help us reorder the things that we value in life to put you at the tip top of the list, God. You're the only thing, Lord, the only thing that we want to chase. Everything else comes after that, God. You're number one. Lord, may we find confidence in that too, Lord. Whether we have failures in life, that that we've we've stumbled in the past, we made mistakes, may we recognize that that doesn't define us. You define who we are. If we have successes, may we not find false confidence in our successes, but may we recognize that our confidence is found in you and who you are, Jesus. If that's you today, with your heads bowed for just a moment here, if you have, if you have placed your confidence in the wrong thing, and you say, today, Pastor Jake, today I I think I want to place my confidence in Jesus. I think I want to reorder my life. I want to reorder my priority list. I'm gonna lead you in a moment of repentance. The Bible says we need to do that. We need to turn from one way of thinking and turn to another way, a righteous way. If that's you today, I I want to pray for you. But I'd love to know who I'm praying for. So could you do me a favor? Could you just slip your hand up? If you say, yeah, Jake, I need to re reorder my life today. That's you. Yeah, I know. There are people out here. Yes, yes, several hands. Anybody else? Yes? Anybody else? One more moment here. All right, man of church. We're gonna pray this together. Yep, I see you. We're gonna pray this together. Everybody say this loud. Say, Jesus, I need you. I repent of my failures and flaws. And I surrender to you now. I know you lived, you died, and you rose again. All with us in mind. With me in mind.

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Thank you for listening to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast. If you would like to connect with us, you can find us on the web at manastafford.church or download the Mana Church app to listen to our new episodes as they become available. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast. We would also love to meet you in person. If you are local, our services take place each Sunday at 10 a.m. We pray you have an amazing week and we'll see you next time.