Untitled Sermon

Introduction

· Hello everyone, I hope we’re all well in the Lord! I’m excited to be preaching the word of God before you and the Lord today.

· Do you have what some call that “core memory” in your head of something your dad or parents said or did growing up? For me, that was Freshman year of high school.

· I was trying out for the varsity baseball team, my hopes set as high as they could be. This was my one-way ticket to the big leagues. If I made the team, it would propel me to the rest of my life. Then, tragedy struck. I got the dreaded text that I hadn’t made the team. I was absolutely devasted.

· In the midst of my sadness and heartbreak, that’s when my dad provided me with some of the most memorable advice, I’d ever received from him: “son, you have got to learn to expect the worse and be surprised by a positive outcome”.

· I know, I know. That might sound like some serious melancholy talk. But it came from a place of humility from my dad’s heart and taught me such humility. My dad said such a thing out of trying to be genuinely encouraging.

· This is not how the apostle Paul would’ve encouraged me. As a devout Pharisee, nothing of the sort would have come out of his mouth.

· We’ll see just how prideful and full of himself Paul was as a Jew in Philippians 3:1-11. It’s important we recognize such a fact of Paul’s character, for it highlights what an awesome work the Lord Jesus Christ did on his heart, as seen in verses 7 through 11 in our text today.

· By God’s grace we will see our prideful, self-absorbed selves right next to Paul and then watch our old selves melt under the glory and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ!

· PRAY

Body

· Some context would do us well before diving right in. Paul is writing to his fellow believers in Philippi. Immediately before our text he references Epaphroditus, a fellow ministry worker that he wishes to send to the church at Philippi to encourage them in the faith.

· He then proceeds into a warning/encouragement for the church, partially at his own expense. He first spurs the church on to rejoice in the Lord. I’ll be honest here; this is something I tend to struggle with. The weight of the cares of this world often blind me from remembering one of the most crucial points in this Christian walk.

· You must rejoice in the Lord always. Paul repeats this not a chapter later in Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Rejoice is there twice in chapter 4, making this word one of the most commonly used throughout the whole epistle.

· We must take this to heart. Rejoicing in the Lord is an active, daily duty of the Christian. Remind yourself, through the word and prayer to rejoice in Him. If the Gospel is true, that Christ saved us from our sins through His death, burial, and resurrection, there is always reason to rejoice!

· Paul also provides for the church a warning. He says there are dogs that mutilate the flesh. He is referring to Judaizers that forced circumcision on the Gentile believers.

· This was of course an issue because it added something the Gospel. The Gospel is never to be added to. We are saved by grace alone in Christ alone. Anyone that adds to this glorious Good News is incredibly mistaken.

· Paul’s warning provides the bases for his argument in the rest of the text. Instead of forcing the practice of circumcision on believers, Paul teaches that believers arethe circumcision.

· Therefore, we are to put zero confidence in the flesh. Though, Paul has every excuse to. You see, he was a Hebrew of Hebrews as he describes. Incredibly zealous and on fire for what he believed to be the only truth.

· I almost see this comparable to the current trend and fad diets of our day. I once endeavored on the carnivore, meat only diet for about three weeks. And let me tell ya, I was on fire for this diet for that three weeks. I was losing weight like crazy, I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was remarkable. But then, once I stopped, Chic-fil-a tasted surprisingly much better than I remembered and I ended up falling off the wagon pretty hard.

· You see, I was convinced in my experience that the carnivore diet was the most effective, only way to lose some weight. I of course was sorely mistaken, for there are a plethora of diets and lifestyles that will yield similar results.

· In the same way, Paul was on fire for the Pharisee way of life for just about all his life, utterly convinced what he was doing was the only way. And to top all that off, he was the best at what he was practicing. Then, the Lord Jesus Christ changed his heart and illuminated Paul to the truth. Everything changed for Paul and flipped his life upside down!

· Playing off the Judaizers work from verse 2, Paul goes in on just how amazing of a Jew he was. And he was good. He followed everything to a T and was incredibly passionate for his lifestyle and religion.

· Then verse 7 comes. Every gain Paul acquired was trash, garbage, dung! There is such a dynamic change from the beginning of the text to the ending here. Paul was not bragging, but he certainly was at one point very aware of just how much better he was than anyone else.

· Are you aware of such a reality today? Do you walk around thinking how much better you are than others? Humble yourself under the surpassing worth of knowing Christ today!