SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's really hard sometimes to throw things away.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever thought about that?
SPEAKER_01: I still have a key to my first car.
SPEAKER_01: It was old when I drove it, and it's probably scrapped out somewhere now, but I still have the key.
SPEAKER_01: That sort of sentimentality is one reason.
SPEAKER_01: Probably of many that it's hard to throw things away sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: But how often do we keep things around just because they might still be useful to us someday?
SPEAKER_01: That one really obscure bolt.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: Or because we hate the thought of the landfills filling up with junk, or maybe it's just the cost of the thing.
SPEAKER_01: We know that somebody we love, or we love ourselves, right?
SPEAKER_01: Or somebody spent good money on one thing or another thing, and throwing away an old pair of boots hurts because there's there's still a little bit of value in them.
SPEAKER_01: There's still it's like throwing money away, right?
SPEAKER_01: Recently I watched an old piece of equipment finally go the way of all the earth after 30 plus years of service.
SPEAKER_01: The thing was a dinosaur, probably two or three times the size of its replacement, horribly inefficient at its task, and it was beginning to fail significantly and repeatedly.
SPEAKER_01: And when the technicians hauled that old furnace out, they said, Well, I think they got their money's worth out of that thing.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And all the old men in the room said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: There they are.
SPEAKER_01: I think, though, we all acknowledge that sometimes moving on is the right thing to do.
SPEAKER_01: Is the wise or correct or even righteous thing to do.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe, just maybe, that old furnace is costing you more than not replacing it is saving you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that old pickup is becoming a safety risk now that the power steering is finally gone and traffic goes about 30 miles an hour faster than it used to, right?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe, maybe there's just something better.
SPEAKER_01: It's worth the cost of letting it go.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: 300 years before Jim Elliott walked into an Ecuadorian jungle and gave his life for Christ, Matthew Henry records something his father used to say all the time.
SPEAKER_01: His dad was a pastor, and he used to always say, He is no fool who parts with that which he cannot keep, when he is sure to gain what he cannot lose.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever heard that before?
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul models for us in Philippians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot more we can learn if we look a little closer.
SPEAKER_01: So if you haven't already turned there with me, turn to Philippians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll be in verse 8 this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Last week, Pastor Jason covered for us verses 1 to 8.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be picking up this morning about halfway through verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: We'll go all the way through verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: But we'll handle the text this morning in three questions.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my outline.
SPEAKER_01: I think.
SPEAKER_01: Woo.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
SPEAKER_01: There's my outline.
SPEAKER_01: What does Paul do?
SPEAKER_01: Why does Paul do that?
SPEAKER_01: And how does Paul live that way?
SPEAKER_01: So look at verse 8 with me.
SPEAKER_01: There's a break about halfway through verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Last week, Pastor Jason talked about how Paul counted his gains as lost for the sake of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, everything is lost because the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And today we'll pick up right at that period where it says, For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
SPEAKER_01: Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God.
SPEAKER_01: Last week Paul threw it all away.
SPEAKER_01: He threw away all the gain he had from being a good Jew, a hero, Hebrew of Hebrews.
SPEAKER_01: He takes his confidence in the flesh and he tosses it in the bin to take up Christ.
SPEAKER_01: One commentator writes that when his first son discovered the bicycle, all the toy trucks in the sandbox were history.
SPEAKER_01: That's the picture, right?
SPEAKER_01: The surpassing worth of Christ makes all of Paul's claims to confidence in the flesh history.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul goes even further when he says, Indeed, I count everything as lost.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just his Jewish boasting, but everything.
SPEAKER_01: And we see that because when Paul wrote this letter, he's sitting in prison.
SPEAKER_01: He's let it all go.
SPEAKER_01: He's obviously lost all of his civil freedoms, but somehow the apostle, bound in chains and shackles in a Roman prison, still rejoices, and we pick up with for his sake.
SPEAKER_01: As Paul gives us just a few more details of what it looks like to count all things lost, he says, for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.
SPEAKER_01: And so Paul is saying that because of what Christ has done and in response to who Jesus is, he not only considers everything as loss, but he's actually done it.
SPEAKER_01: He's actually suffered the loss of all things.
SPEAKER_01: Let that sink in for a second.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but I was right there with Pastor Jason last week.
SPEAKER_01: We were all ready to nod along that a Christian doesn't have to be a Hebrew of Hebrews to have confidence before God and to let it all go.
SPEAKER_01: And as Paul said he counted whatever gain he had as loss, counting it's one thing, right?
SPEAKER_01: Losing it's another.
SPEAKER_01: Hardly a breath later, he goes from just counting, considering, reckoning at loss, to actually suffering the loss.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a lot harder.
SPEAKER_01: It's a lot harder.
SPEAKER_01: We're often like Peter, who swore he would die with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Though everybody falls away, I won't, Peter says.
SPEAKER_01: But then when push comes to shove and a servant girl says, Hey, aren't you from Galilee?
SPEAKER_01: Peter loses it and runs away.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We're often like that.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we say we're ready and that our and then our confidence is worthless.
SPEAKER_01: All the things we have are worthless compared to Christ until somebody or something or the Lord asks us to hand it over.
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Paul, though, here in this text, puts himself forward for us.
SPEAKER_01: As an example, we're supposed to imitate.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just for Paul, it's for you too.
SPEAKER_01: Look down at verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers join in imitating me.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He actually suffers the loss of all things.
SPEAKER_01: He calls us to do the same.
SPEAKER_01: So look back on your life.
SPEAKER_01: Just for a second.
SPEAKER_01: Think about all the good things you've done.
SPEAKER_01: Think about the time you shared the gospel with a neighbor, all those Sundays playing on the worship team, all those Wednesdays serving kids.
SPEAKER_01: All of it.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul tells us to put the boasting away.
SPEAKER_01: To let it go.
SPEAKER_01: Drop the toy trucks, right?
SPEAKER_01: And pick up Christ's death and resurrection instead.
SPEAKER_01: He's not just talking a big game about reckoning everything lost.
SPEAKER_01: He's actually, he actually loses things.
SPEAKER_01: He's sitting in jail right now when he writes this.
SPEAKER_01: He actually does it.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first thing he does.
SPEAKER_01: Think about it for a second.
SPEAKER_01: Paul used to have a respectable job and a respectable future, and now he sits in prison.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, the Philippians were proud to be part of a Roman colony.
SPEAKER_01: They were proud Romans.
SPEAKER_01: So how embarrassing must it be for the Philippians to see their apostle, their leader, their pastor, their founder at the rock bottom of Roman society.
SPEAKER_01: Let that sink in.
SPEAKER_01: He's sitting there in chains.
SPEAKER_01: He's actually lost it all according to a Philippian value system.
SPEAKER_01: And the quiet question in the text for the Philippians and for you and me today is are you ready?
SPEAKER_01: Are you ready to lose it all for Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Two.
SPEAKER_01: That's hard.
SPEAKER_01: But how much value does your reputation still have left in it?
SPEAKER_01: And I think to a certain point, you need to.
SPEAKER_01: You need to be able to see such loss in your own story of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're if you're a believer, I'm convinced it's there.
SPEAKER_01: You probably just don't recognize it because it seems small to you.
SPEAKER_01: Think back.
SPEAKER_01: Your losses may not be as dramatic as Paul's.
SPEAKER_01: And in comparison, you might think poorly of your own story, but remember, guys, this is what it means to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Recall the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This should be in Luke 9.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: A cross is a death.
SPEAKER_01: It's the loss of all things.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Martin Luther, famous Martin Luther, the great reformer who, like Paul, forsook all the religious gain he had as a Catholic monk and scholar.
SPEAKER_01: He counted it all lost, and he taught us to sing, let goods and kindred go.
SPEAKER_01: This mortal life also, let it go.
SPEAKER_01: Look back through your life.
SPEAKER_01: Have you made decisions because you're a Christian that were costly?
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you have.
SPEAKER_01: And if you can't remember any, you'll get a chance this week.
SPEAKER_01: I promise.
SPEAKER_01: Little things.
SPEAKER_01: Look for the little things.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first thing I wanted to show you that Paul does.
SPEAKER_01: He suffers the loss of all things.
SPEAKER_01: Really, in this passage, probably the third thing.
SPEAKER_01: You see those two from last week there in a lighter font.
SPEAKER_01: And you already see then the next thing.
SPEAKER_01: The next thing Paul does is he takes all those things that he's counted as lost and then suffered the loss of, and then he counts them as rubbish.
SPEAKER_01: Counts all things as rubbish.
SPEAKER_01: And in this way, Paul is totally inside the teaching of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: A little bit later in Luke's gospel, Jesus says, if anyone comes to me and does not hate, oh, that word makes me uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01: How about you?
SPEAKER_01: If anybody comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
SPEAKER_01: So therefore, any of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
SPEAKER_01: Let that sink in.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus calls us to renounce it, to hate it.
SPEAKER_01: Or in Paul's language, to count it as rubbish, street garbage.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same idea.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's just following Jesus here.
SPEAKER_01: J up Acker, though, he calls Paul's use of Greek here coarse, ugly, and violent.
SPEAKER_01: The word for rubbish is a sharp word.
SPEAKER_01: There's a time for everything, and for everything there is a season.
SPEAKER_01: This is the only time in the New Testament this word gets used in all the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Rubbish.
SPEAKER_01: Compared to Christ, everything else is just trash.
SPEAKER_01: We have a hard time letting go, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: Throwing things away we think might still have some value or some use.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul is telling us that any claims to a righteousness of our own or any attachment to the things of earth, it's not just a rusted-out pickup truck we still love.
SPEAKER_01: It's trash.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you look at Jesus, when you think on Christ, when you sing these songs on Sunday mornings, can you say that in comparison to Jesus, everything, your best friend is like the contents of a used Pampers cruiser?
SPEAKER_01: I know it's gross, but that's the language Paul's using, though, guys.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says that those who have left family and lands for the kingdom of God will receive a hundredfold for their losses in the age to come.
SPEAKER_01: So, do you have a precious piece of furniture that was handed down to you from your great-grandmother?
SPEAKER_01: That's the idea.
SPEAKER_01: I know some of you will know what I mean when I talk about the house you were raised in or that that little patch of dirt where the barn used to be.
SPEAKER_01: Grandpa used to milk cows.
SPEAKER_01: Does it stick in your throat to call it sewage?
SPEAKER_01: Dumpster drippings.
SPEAKER_01: All things are rubbish when compared to knowing Christ.
SPEAKER_01: They're just passing shadows, worthless, empty street garbage to be forgotten and trod underfoot.
SPEAKER_01: You can't take any of it with you when you go.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So like Lydia's Philippian purple cloth and all of her wealth, those worthless purple rags, though, they can be used.
SPEAKER_01: They can be used for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You can't take it with you when you go.
SPEAKER_01: But all of this stuff, you can use it while you're here.
SPEAKER_01: Spend it for the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Spend all that you have and even let yourself be spent.
SPEAKER_01: Spend your very life for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's the call in the text.
SPEAKER_01: Let this earthly life go.
SPEAKER_01: And spend it all to look ahead.
SPEAKER_01: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Another famous missionary once said this only one life will soon be passed.
SPEAKER_01: Only what's done for Christ will last.
SPEAKER_01: Have you heard that one before?
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul does.
SPEAKER_01: And what Paul does so well, and that's what he calls us to.
SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't just tell us what he does, he tells us more because he tells us why he does it all.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you do all of this?
SPEAKER_01: Look at the rest of verse 8 with me.
SPEAKER_01: Paul does all that he does, he says, in order that, in order that he may gain Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul keeps this accounting metaphor of gains and losses going.
SPEAKER_01: He had such and such gains from the law and being a good Jew, and he traded them all and he cashed them and he counted them as loss in order to gain Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Why did he do it?
SPEAKER_01: Why does he do it?
SPEAKER_01: This is crazy.
SPEAKER_01: I must hate my own life?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Why though?
SPEAKER_01: In order to gain Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see that in order to gain Christ, in order to receive Christ, you must renounce everything.
SPEAKER_01: You must renounce everything.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, belief in Christ, genuine belief in Christ, entails, it includes certain other beliefs about everything else.
SPEAKER_01: If you claim, if you claim to really believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He's the only way to the Father, if you believe that death, at His death and His death alone, is the sole sacrifice for the atonement and forgiveness of sins, and that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all to the glory of God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: If you really believe that, then by necessity, you also are saying that nothing else in all of creation is worth comparing to the surpassing value of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: They go together just like that.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see it?
SPEAKER_01: The apostle John said it so bluntly, he said, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
SPEAKER_01: So, in a way, gaining Christ is losing everything.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, You cannot be his own disciple without hating your own life.
SPEAKER_01: Late in his ministry, speaking of his own life and death, Jesus gives us an eternal truth to remember and an example to follow.
SPEAKER_01: There it is.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered them and said, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
SPEAKER_01: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone.
SPEAKER_01: But if it dies, he bears much fruit.
SPEAKER_01: He's speaking of himself there, right?
SPEAKER_01: But now he gives us this eternal truth.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever loses his life, whoever loves his life, loses it, excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: That's true of Jesus' life and death.
SPEAKER_01: But he's calling us to do the same, right?
SPEAKER_01: See how he continues.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone serves me, he must follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And where I am, there will my servant be also.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
SPEAKER_01: You have to follow him through a death like his.
SPEAKER_01: And so the kernel, the seed of genuine saving faith commits us to this reality.
SPEAKER_01: When we say we believe in Christ, we're saying that's true, and we spend the rest of our lives striving after Christ's example, renouncing everything with our hearts set on the kingdom to come.
SPEAKER_01: That's the picture.
SPEAKER_01: And for Paul, in many ways, it seems like all of his rubbish counting and taking out the trash of his life was all over and done with.
SPEAKER_01: Seems like he's got it figured out, right?
SPEAKER_01: We'll see in a little bit that that appearance isn't reality.
SPEAKER_01: It's not really what happens.
SPEAKER_01: But for now, just feel that tension with me, please.
SPEAKER_01: Just feel that tension with me.
SPEAKER_01: In order to gain Christ, we must lose it all.
SPEAKER_01: We must hate life in this world in one sense.
SPEAKER_01: In order to keep our lives for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: It's the way it works.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but I can hear myself already asking, how does that, what does that look like?
SPEAKER_01: What how does that, how do I make sure I don't mess that up?
SPEAKER_01: That sounds important.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul already told us, right, in verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: He says you count your gains as loss, and then you count everything as lost, and then you suffer the loss, and then you count it as rubbish.
SPEAKER_01: He's already given us this example of what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Right now he's still just telling us why.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the first reason Paul suffers the loss of all things.
SPEAKER_01: He does it in order to gain Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He suffers the loss of all things and calls them trash in order to gain Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And the second reason is in order to be found in him.
SPEAKER_01: Second reason tells us more about what gaining Christ means.
SPEAKER_01: These two things are parallel.
SPEAKER_01: Becoming a Christian, gaining Christ, receiving Christ means to be found in him.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean to be found in?
SPEAKER_01: Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I think the best illustration for this is something like a court decision, right?
SPEAKER_01: Being found guilty or being found innocent.
SPEAKER_01: But in our text, Paul doesn't want to be found righteous on his own.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't want to be found as a Pharisee.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: We know, don't we, that such a judgment would result in everlasting torment for our sins.
SPEAKER_01: Being an almost good enough anything, an almost good enough son of Abraham, an almost good enough Christian, an almost good enough pastor, almost good enough whatever, does not guarantee a passing grade at heaven's gate.
SPEAKER_01: It's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: No, Paul says he wants to be found in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In Christ.
SPEAKER_01: When the judgment comes, when the end of all things is here and God sorts everything out, and every one of us has to stand before the judge of all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Paul wants the verdict he hears coming back from God's bench to be in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Found in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Let's keep going.
SPEAKER_01: If you look down at Philippians chapter 3, Paul tells us what in Christ means better than I can.
SPEAKER_01: We're in verse 8 still.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, in order that I may gain Christ, verse 9, and be found in him.
SPEAKER_01: Which means not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The righteousness from God upon faith.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read that again.
SPEAKER_01: Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The righteousness from God upon faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means to be found in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And this, guys, this is the great and everlasting doctrine of the imputed or gift righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the promise that for those who believe in Christ, for those who have faith in Christ, they receive a righteousness that isn't theirs.
SPEAKER_01: It's not their own.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 11, Paul rejects his own righteousness from the law.
SPEAKER_01: That's trash.
SPEAKER_01: Not having righteousness of my own, he says.
SPEAKER_01: And he clings instead to that righteousness that comes from God through faith.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, for Paul and for Christians, righteousness is a gift, not an achievement.
SPEAKER_01: It's not an achievement.
SPEAKER_01: And that, brothers and sisters, that is how salvation works.
SPEAKER_01: Salvation is a gift.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a second chance to do better this time.
SPEAKER_01: It's more than that.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't just save us by standing us up and brushing us off and patting us on the back and saying, go get them, tiger.
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: The whole thing, the whole thing comes from God as a gift and a righteousness you don't deserve because of your sins.
SPEAKER_01: It's a gift.
SPEAKER_01: It's a donation free of charge.
SPEAKER_01: It's not yours.
SPEAKER_01: Right standing before God doesn't cost you anything.
SPEAKER_01: So what could you pay?
SPEAKER_01: What could you give to earn that?
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Your life is trash, right?
SPEAKER_01: Why would God give you righteousness in exchange?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's a gift he gives out of the fullness and freeness of his heart and the love that he had.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't need anything from you.
SPEAKER_01: He's just that good.
SPEAKER_01: And he gives righteousness to those who believe in him.
SPEAKER_01: And when you see that right standing before God doesn't cost you anything, when you see that, when you finally grasp the surpassing value of Christ's death in your place, though it costs you nothing, the more you know Christ, the more you let everything else go.
SPEAKER_01: The more you let everything else go.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine a little kid playing with a toy he loves.
SPEAKER_01: And dad comes home with a bigger, brighter, newer, better one.
SPEAKER_01: And then that old thing just falls from his hands.
SPEAKER_01: Just drops it, reaches out for a new one.
SPEAKER_01: That's the picture.
SPEAKER_01: It's a gift.
SPEAKER_01: And when you see how good it is, you let everything else go.
SPEAKER_01: Except an earthly dad.
SPEAKER_01: He might say something like, I got you this because you did so well at school this year, or happy birthday.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: But that's not how it works with salvation.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_01: Let that sink in.
SPEAKER_01: That'd be like dad coming home and saying, Because you broke mom's favorite lamp, I got you a present.
SPEAKER_01: It's insanity.
SPEAKER_01: It seems foolish, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: But that, guys, that's just how amazing and how free and how large God's heart and God's love toward us in Christ Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: But it's even more than that.
SPEAKER_01: It's even more than that.
SPEAKER_01: As our Heavenly Father hands us the gift of righteousness over the shattered lamp of our sinful lives, he stoops and he gathers up the shards of glass himself.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus' hands were pierced with your sins, far sharper than any nail or broken glass.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, I'll take care of it.
SPEAKER_01: And I forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: And after I'm done cleaning this up, in three days, when I rise, let's go play together with that new life of yours.
SPEAKER_01: I'll teach you.
SPEAKER_01: I'll teach you how to live this way.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's the good news.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the promise.
SPEAKER_01: The promise in Christ's atoning, death, the Father's gift of righteousness, and the Spirit's coming to dwell with us is that promise that one day we won't just be clumsy toddlers with our righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: No, we'll be like we'll be like Jesus was with his.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: It's a gift.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't belong to you, but you get to keep it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because, and because of that, because our right standing before God is a gift.
SPEAKER_01: There's no room for boasting anymore, guys.
SPEAKER_01: There's no room for boasting.
SPEAKER_01: Whenever we start to think that our righteousness is a little bit shinier than the righteousness that God gave to our brothers and sisters, whenever we start to think that way every time, we'll start to bicker, we'll start to fight, we'll start to quarrel.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you when I was a kid, nothing upset my dad more than when my little sister and I fought.
SPEAKER_01: He used to threaten us all the time.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Dad, you didn't threaten us all the time.
SPEAKER_01: One time, one time dad threatened us.
SPEAKER_01: And he said that if he had to be our common enemy to make us friends, he would do it.
SPEAKER_01: And then he sent us outside with putty knives to scrape paint off the foundation of the house.
SPEAKER_01: Only one time, only one time.
SPEAKER_01: But I remember it every time I go home and see the foundation.
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you the rest of the story another time.
SPEAKER_01: I think, though, I think that sometimes God sends heavenly father discipline like that to entire churches to make them get along.
SPEAKER_01: To make them get along with each other.
SPEAKER_01: Even if the discipline is just the Apostle Paul writing a letter to the Philippians, they have to read in front of everybody.
SPEAKER_01: So that's the second reason, though, that Paul counts all things as rubbish to gain Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He does it in order to be found in him, to be declared in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And to have Christ's righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, is that not enough of a reason to let those things go you just can't throw away?
SPEAKER_01: You know we're talking about spiritual things, right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not that concerned about the China Hutch.
SPEAKER_01: Unless I need to be, right?
SPEAKER_01: What about those extra finances that come from lying on your taxes?
SPEAKER_01: Let them go.
SPEAKER_01: What about the way the way we we tend to bristle if we think somebody's being condescending to us?
SPEAKER_01: Let it go.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never believed in Christ before, if you've never done this, if you've never let things go in order to receive Christ, hear me.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to get it all the first time.
SPEAKER_01: You won't.
SPEAKER_01: But I bet there's something.
SPEAKER_01: I bet there's something even now that you're aware of that you should let go.
SPEAKER_01: Something to count loss.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's partying or maybe it's an unhealthy relationship.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: There's all kinds of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It's a habit of lying.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus died to save you from stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: Just let it go.
SPEAKER_01: Let it go and cling to him instead.
SPEAKER_01: He's worth it.
SPEAKER_01: Because he loves you that much.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've been crucifying the world to yourself and yourself to the world for 40 years, in other words, if you've been a Christian for a long time, I trust you know.
SPEAKER_01: You already know there's still some junk in your life you can throw away.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what it means.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means in verse 10 to know Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's the third reason Paul does what he does.
SPEAKER_01: We throw all things all these things away to gain Christ, to be found in him, and in order to know Christ.
SPEAKER_01: All three of these things parallel each other and explain what each other mean.
SPEAKER_01: And in a way, I think they build on each other too.
SPEAKER_01: They get better and better each time.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says that I may know Christ and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Paul wants to be just like Jesus was.
SPEAKER_01: That's the idea.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to know the power of Jesus' resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to know the fellowship of Christ's sufferings.
SPEAKER_01: That's the word there.
SPEAKER_01: The fellowship of his sufferings.
SPEAKER_01: If you're reading the ESP, I think it misses the parallel of the three things Paul wants to know.
SPEAKER_01: Other translations say it that way: to know the fellowship of Christ's suffering.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to know the power and know the suffering so that he can imitate it.
SPEAKER_01: So that he can imitate it.
SPEAKER_01: So that he can be conformed to Christ in his death.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: To be conformed to Christ, to be like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: What could be better?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, really, if you've ever heard anything about Jesus, what could be better than to be like him?
SPEAKER_01: If you really believe that he was the greatest and wisest and humblest man who ever lived, if you really believe that he lived a perfect life, a perfect life, then why?
SPEAKER_01: Why do you and I, why do we shrink back so much from living like him?
SPEAKER_01: If we really say we confess that was the perfect life, we should imitate it, right?
SPEAKER_01: Why do we shrink back from living like he does, from speaking like he does, from suffering like he does?
SPEAKER_01: We're so weak, aren't we?
SPEAKER_01: But I hope even as conviction may set in like it's doing to me right now, even as convictions set in, we can see Paul's argument develop.
SPEAKER_01: He's suffering the loss of all things because that's what Jesus did for him.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants to be like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's just that simple, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so we can see that if you've been with us through our study in Philippians, Philippians chapter 3 is Paul's application of Philippians chapter 2 to his own life.
SPEAKER_01: He's demonstrating for them that he also strives to have the same mindset that Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: Just like he told the Philippians to.
SPEAKER_01: Paul sits, therefore, he sits in a Roman prison because he considered the gospel needs of others more significant than himself.
SPEAKER_01: Just like Jesus considered your need for righteousness and the Father's desire to forgive you, he considered both those things, you and the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: He considered both those things as more significant than himself.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus took on the form of a slave and humbled himself.
SPEAKER_01: Reckoning his own life as lost, Jesus Christ became obedient to the point of death on a cross.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says we should try to be like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's just that simple, right?
SPEAKER_01: To know the power of his resurrection, to know the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to the image, we might add, being conformed to the image of his death, dying a death like his, so that we might attain a resurrection like his.
SPEAKER_01: That's the call.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel call.
SPEAKER_01: One time Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, that is, take up your own death and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: For whoever will save his life would lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
SPEAKER_01: One way or another.
SPEAKER_01: We're all dying.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: One way or another, we're all dying, friends.
SPEAKER_01: So the question is, are you dying like Christ for Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you dying like trash for trash?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it again, even though it hurts me.
SPEAKER_01: We're all dying.
SPEAKER_01: So are you dying like Christ for Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Or are we dying like trash for trash?
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't you rather have Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: But even after, guys, even after we've died with Christ, even after we've died with Christ, clutter creeps in, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Clutter creeps in and we we find more and more things in those crawl spaces of our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And throwing things away is still hard, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: That's why we need verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Look at it with me.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
SPEAKER_01: One question.
SPEAKER_01: One question to bring to bring peace to our hearts as we sit with the weight of all that trips us up.
SPEAKER_01: What is the this that Paul hasn't attained?
SPEAKER_01: What is the it that he presses on to make his own?
SPEAKER_01: What is that?
SPEAKER_01: It could be the resurrection from the dead at the end of the previous paragraph.
SPEAKER_01: It could be the full scope of knowing Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I think the best interpretation I found was that it's the prize of verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: The prize of verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: And that prize, though, that includes everything else.
SPEAKER_01: That includes the full scope of knowing Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That includes the resurrection life.
SPEAKER_01: That includes all of it.
SPEAKER_01: What hasn't Paul attained then?
SPEAKER_01: Is everything he's been calling us to.
SPEAKER_01: He's sitting in prison for the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: He suffered more loss for Christ than any of us can probably reasonably hope to.
SPEAKER_01: And he says there's still more.
SPEAKER_01: There's still more in there to let go.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, the Apostle Paul says in verse 12 that there's still some junk in his heart, too.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Charles Spurgeon says of this text, Paul had not yet reached his own ideal of what a Christian might be.
SPEAKER_01: Paul had not yet reached his own ideal of what a Christian might be.
SPEAKER_01: So take heart, little ones.
SPEAKER_01: Take heart.
SPEAKER_01: God is with us.
SPEAKER_01: And he'll teach us to be like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So now then we've seen what Paul does and why he does it.
SPEAKER_01: And from here, let's look to see the how.
SPEAKER_01: How does Paul do all of that?
SPEAKER_01: Let me read it for us.
SPEAKER_01: In verse, starting in verse 12, Paul says, Not that I have already obtained this or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers, I do not consider that I've made it my own.
SPEAKER_01: But one thing I do.
SPEAKER_01: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let those of us who are mature think in this way.
SPEAKER_01: And if in anything else you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
SPEAKER_01: Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
SPEAKER_01: That word mindset is huge in the book of Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: It's a massive, super important word in Philippians.
SPEAKER_01: Paul uses it three times, just in chapter two.
SPEAKER_01: We're on the third point.
SPEAKER_01: Just in chapter two, Paul uses this word three times.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete mind joy by being of the same mind, having the same mindset, that is, having the same love, being in full accord, and of one mindset.
SPEAKER_01: Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, literally humble mindset, and humble mindset, count others more significant than yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others.
SPEAKER_01: Have this mindset among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul's method, then, is how.
SPEAKER_01: Mindsets are that sweet combination of truths you believe and patterns you think in.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just what you believe, but it's it's how you believe it too.
SPEAKER_01: There's lots of things that go into Paul's mindset.
SPEAKER_01: First, you have to believe, like Paul did, that you haven't already made it.
SPEAKER_01: You're not already there.
SPEAKER_01: We saw that in verse 12, but he repeats himself in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Paul knows he hasn't arrived yet.
SPEAKER_01: That's the mindset.
SPEAKER_01: It's part of it.
SPEAKER_01: We have to constantly remember that.
SPEAKER_01: And second, this mindset, it just keeps going.
SPEAKER_01: It presses on.
SPEAKER_01: Remember how Jesus set his face like flint towards Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_01: It presses on.
SPEAKER_01: I love how Paul says just one thing in verse 13, and then he proceeds to list three things.
SPEAKER_01: Just one thing.
SPEAKER_01: He forgets what lies behind.
SPEAKER_01: For Paul, that's Judaism and his murderous persecution of the church.
SPEAKER_01: And two, he strains forward for what lies ahead, pressing on toward the goal.
SPEAKER_01: He does three things.
SPEAKER_01: It's a sanctified forgetfulness, a sanctified anticipation, and a sanctified motivation.
SPEAKER_01: It's all in there.
SPEAKER_01: But why in verse 12, if you look at your Bibles, why in verse 12 does Paul press on like that?
SPEAKER_01: It's not because he wants to be his best self now.
SPEAKER_01: No, this isn't self-improvement.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't climbing the corporate ladder of spirituality, so to speak.
SPEAKER_01: That's not it.
SPEAKER_01: No, what Paul has, he's been there, he's done that, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's counting loss.
SPEAKER_01: Paul presses on to make perfection his own because Christ has already made Paul his own.
SPEAKER_01: Notice how he wanted to gain Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But now he says, Christ got me.
SPEAKER_01: Huh?
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that if you're in Christ, you're not your own.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not in Christ, you're not your own.
SPEAKER_01: For you were bought with a price.
SPEAKER_01: It took the blood of Jesus to buy you.
SPEAKER_01: So glorify him with your body and your whole life.
SPEAKER_01: That's the mindset.
SPEAKER_01: And third, you have to believe that for the Christian, the future is always better.
SPEAKER_01: The future is always better.
SPEAKER_01: That's the promise of everlasting life in its entirety, right?
SPEAKER_01: The glory of heaven is that it is always better up ahead.
SPEAKER_01: We get stuck sometimes, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: We long for a heaven of our own making.
SPEAKER_01: We cling to a past when our trash heaps were organized just the way we like them.
SPEAKER_01: But if you can make a habit in your mindset of looking further up the road, of looking further ahead, if we can set our eyes on Christ and believe that He is worth suffering the loss of all these things, if we remember that heaven is real, then why cling to earthly stuff?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's all part of the mindset.
SPEAKER_01: You have to believe that the future is better.
SPEAKER_01: Fourth, you have to want it.
SPEAKER_01: You have to want it and you have to work for it, pressing on and straining forward.
SPEAKER_01: These are hard-working verbs.
SPEAKER_01: It's serious stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard driving.
SPEAKER_01: Pressing on, really, is the word Paul uses several times to describe his persecution of the churches.
SPEAKER_01: Pressing on is persecute.
SPEAKER_01: Same words.
SPEAKER_01: So you get this picture, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's to chase down and lay hold of, to catch.
SPEAKER_01: And so Paul tells you that just like Saul the persecutor used to chase down Christians and throw them in jail, now he chases down Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That he might gain him and know him and be found in him.
SPEAKER_01: That's the picture.
SPEAKER_01: And in that way, Paul gives us this beautiful, beautiful little parallel to consider.
SPEAKER_01: Think on this.
SPEAKER_01: Think on your besetting sins.
SPEAKER_01: Remember your characterizing vices.
SPEAKER_01: Remember your old way of life, even.
SPEAKER_01: Before you knew the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: What did you spend your life chasing?
SPEAKER_01: Was it success?
SPEAKER_01: Was it popularity?
SPEAKER_01: Was it money?
SPEAKER_01: Some sort of pleasure?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe for you it was the avoidance of something negative.
SPEAKER_01: Did you flee from loneliness or failure into the arms of social media or an attractive spouse?
SPEAKER_01: What was it?
SPEAKER_01: There was a drive to those things, wasn't there?
SPEAKER_01: At least for me there was.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul is saying, take that same zeal that you used to chase those things with.
SPEAKER_01: And apply that to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Apply the same zeal you used to spend chasing the garbage of the sin-cursed world and chase down Christ that hard.
SPEAKER_01: That's the picture.
SPEAKER_01: And in that way, you'll never be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: You'll never think you've made it.
SPEAKER_01: You'll never think you're already perfect, because you'll never get all of it.
SPEAKER_01: There's so much in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: When we chase earthly stuff, the fix wears out, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Not so.
SPEAKER_01: Not so when you chase after Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That leads me to a fifth thing.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's word for maturity in verse 15 is actually a slightly different form of the word for perfect back in verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at your Bibles, you can see it there.
SPEAKER_01: Not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect, he says.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul says, I'm not perfect.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 15, he says, let those of us who are perfect think this way.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_01: And I honestly am not entirely sure what Paul is doing with that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't completely know what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: He's telling people that he's not perfect on the one hand, implying, don't think you're perfect.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, but let the perfect ones among us think like I do.
SPEAKER_01: It could be irony, it could be sarcasm.
SPEAKER_01: Some people think he's arguing against perfectionistic people.
SPEAKER_01: If you think you're perfect, think this way.
SPEAKER_01: It could be something else.
SPEAKER_01: But no matter what's going on behind the scenes there in the Greek, Paul's wordplay does make one thing crystal clear.
SPEAKER_01: That a truly perfect mindset, a truly mature mindset, what he's calling us for, includes acknowledging that we're not that mature after all.
SPEAKER_01: They go together.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, Paul could be saying, let those of us who are perfect recognize that they're not perfect.
SPEAKER_01: That's the idea.
SPEAKER_01: You won't get any closer.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: That makes sense because you won't get any closer to laying hold of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You won't make any progress in the faith.
SPEAKER_01: You won't move.
SPEAKER_01: You won't press on.
SPEAKER_01: You won't look.
SPEAKER_01: You won't strain if you think you're already there.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: If you tell yourself you've already made it, you won't get there.
SPEAKER_01: So you have to be honest with yourself.
SPEAKER_01: We have to be honest with ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: If we're really going to suffer the loss of all things and gain Christ and be found in Him, we have to just ask those honest questions about our lives and about ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: If you tell yourself you've already made it, you're not going to go.
SPEAKER_01: So think about that bottle of Worcester sauce in the fridge of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Been there for a long time, right?
SPEAKER_01: You all use a teaspoon of that stuff at a time.
SPEAKER_01: Expiration date's probably 2016 on your selfish pride.
SPEAKER_01: Let it go.
SPEAKER_01: Is your self-esteem really worth holding on to anymore?
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't you rather have Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't Christ's love for you better than all the world?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16 ends the passage.
SPEAKER_01: There we are.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16 ends the passage and we'll conclude where Paul does.
SPEAKER_01: He says, only let us hold true to what we have attained.
SPEAKER_01: Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
SPEAKER_01: You know how phone calls, I think this is funny.
SPEAKER_01: You know how phone calls have this like little dance of signal phrases at the end?
SPEAKER_01: They tell us it's time to hang up the phone, right?
SPEAKER_01: Yep, thanks.
SPEAKER_01: Bye.
SPEAKER_01: Click, love you.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul's only is doing.
SPEAKER_01: Reminds me of that.
SPEAKER_01: He's signaling the end of his argument.
SPEAKER_01: One grammar book I read said that Paul uses it at the end of an argument to single out the main point.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll do it again in Philippians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: It's like saying, well, anyways, the bottom line is this, or maybe even all of that to say.
SPEAKER_01: He's wrapping up.
SPEAKER_01: And here Paul gives us not so much the main point of the whole passage, but it's really more like the simplest thing to leave us with.
SPEAKER_01: Remember this, he says.
SPEAKER_01: Remember this.
SPEAKER_01: Because Paul knows we're we're prone to taking things too far.
SPEAKER_01: We're good at making excuses for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul saw that coming.
SPEAKER_01: This verse tells me he saw that coming.
SPEAKER_01: He knew back at verse 12 that we needed to be reminded that our justification, our right standing before God doesn't mean we're already perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Give us that break, right?
SPEAKER_01: That little bit of grace in verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: And then he knew that we would be tempted to take advantage of that grace and give ourselves too much of a break.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Paul's not perfect, so I don't have to be.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And so he gives us verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: He gives us this really steadying and establishing final phrase.
SPEAKER_01: He says, only let us hold fast to what we have attained.
SPEAKER_01: The idea is set your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Set your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Dig in.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go backwards.
SPEAKER_01: It's a call to stand strong.
SPEAKER_01: The city of Philippi was full of veterans, and this is almost a military command.
SPEAKER_01: It's a military word sometimes to stay in formation.
SPEAKER_01: Or hold the line is the idea.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul is saying.
SPEAKER_01: He says, keep pressing on.
SPEAKER_01: We're not perfect yet, but once you gain ground, don't give it up.
SPEAKER_01: Get back up quickly if you fall.
SPEAKER_01: Don't slide downhill.
SPEAKER_01: It fits nicely with that verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: One thing I do, I keep pressing on, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward for what lies ahead.
SPEAKER_01: Eyes on the prize, in other words.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 16 says, no turning back.
SPEAKER_01: No turning back.
SPEAKER_01: So the command of the passage, when it's all said and done, here's your last thing, is twofold.
SPEAKER_01: Paul strives to have that humble, mature mindset that keeps going after Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And he holds and he calls us to hold whatever ground we gain as we keep pressing on, chasing down the upward call of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Because no matter how hard, guys, no matter how hard it can be to pry our fingers away from this world and throw away those things that still seem to have some value, all the vain things that charm us most are hard to let go of sometimes, but they're not worth holding on to.
SPEAKER_01: They're not worth holding on to if they fill up space in your life or room in your heart that could be filled with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because knowing Christ is a rich treasure we possess, far surpassing anything that this world can offer.
SPEAKER_01: So lay it all down.
SPEAKER_01: Let it all go.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't he?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name on all the earth.
SPEAKER_01: You have called us to something glorious.
SPEAKER_01: That we should follow after you.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Father, we tremble to follow after great men we know in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Lest everybody see we're nothing like them.
SPEAKER_01: And you've called us to follow after not a great speaker or a great performer, but to follow after Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: To follow after the one who lived a perfect life.
SPEAKER_01: To walk in his footsteps, to count this life as loss for the sake of the coming kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: To die like he did.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Father, it's hard.
SPEAKER_01: We want both.
SPEAKER_01: So often our hearts are divided in that way.
SPEAKER_01: But you tell us that they ought not be.
SPEAKER_01: That we cannot love the things of this world and your son too.
SPEAKER_01: We have to let go.
SPEAKER_01: So help us, please.
SPEAKER_01: If we've never let go of this life to cling to Christ, may we do it right now.
SPEAKER_01: For eternity is at stake.
SPEAKER_01: And it's worth it.
SPEAKER_01: Oh and Father, for those of us who have been letting go of this life a little bit at a time for years, maybe just months.
SPEAKER_01: Today has enough trouble of its own, but as we look ahead, we can see a glorious struggle.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that you'll be with us.
SPEAKER_01: You promised you'd be with us.
SPEAKER_01: So please guide us and guard us.
SPEAKER_01: For now, Lord, we would be yours alone.
SPEAKER_01: Yours only.
SPEAKER_01: Because you are all we have.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, may that be our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Mold us and shape us, we pray, even as we sing and have fellowship with one another this after the rest of this morning, that we would be more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And we'd spur one another on to cling to Christ, no matter what.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to sing that way we pray.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.