Philippians 3

Intro

For those of you that don’t know we are on sermon series right now

titled Philippians

Because we are going through Philippians

Each week we have been going through a chapter

And this week we are on chapter 3

I am going to test you again as I have each week

We have been using a technique to go through our sermon series who remembers that word? CANDY Exegesis

Does anyone remember the definition? CANDY A scholarly practice of interpreting and explaining biblical texts.

Paul is writing a letter to the church of Philippi

Philippi is under the control of the Roman empire

Roman empire had 2 rules

Something was happening to Paul as he was writing his letter

Does anyone remember what was happening to him? CANDY

Yes he was imprisioned and he was writing his letter as in encouragement to the Philippians

There is one overarching theme to the book of Philippians that we have talked about each week does anyone remember what it is?

JOY Candy

“The book is sometimes called the letters of Joy”

And so today we are going to continue our dive into this book

Today our main theme that we are going to be seeing are “things that Last”

When you think about something that lasts what do you think about?

we have all sorts of things in our marketing.

The newest iPhone battery

newer cars are supposed to run longer

Light bulbs

right we have all sorts of things that our world says will last forever

However Paul is going to unpack things that we can have that will literally last forever and things that don’t last

So lets dive right in:

1. Your accomplishments DON’T LAST

Philippians 3:5–6 “I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.”

Do you guys know anyone who is in like your mind the perfect kid at school?

DON’T TELL ME NAMES

But when you think about this person. They like do it all

Gets straight A’s

Is good at all the sports

Is liked by everyone at school

Teachers like this person

This kid volunteers at for an animal shelter

Here’s the thing

He goes on this super long list of all of these accomplishments, and great things

And he is talking all about HIMSELF

“I did this” “I did that”

But he doesn’t leave it at that. Look at what he does next

Philippians 3:7–8 “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ”

“I have discarded everything else, counting it as garbage”

Other translations say “Rubbish” or other translations even use the word “Dung”

And so Paul is telling us

All this stuff that I have accomplished, all this stuff that I have done

it is literally worthless to me now

Christ has changed my perspective

all the things that were once important to me aren’t anymore

So here is what I want you to hear

Accomplishments aren’t a bad thing, but we can’t put our hope in them

Its not a bad thing to get good grades

It’s not literal garbage if we win a championship in a sports

it’s not even necessarily bad to want to be liked by people

But Paul wants us to understand that OUR HOPE IS ULTIMATLEY IN JESUS

2. Knowing God Lasts

Philippians 3:9–11 become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”

I shared this with my 6th grade guys on Wednesday and I think I may have shared this with the 7th grade guys as well

a fews years back my mom went through a battle of breast cancer

And I remember there were these moments when I COULDN’T DO ANYTHING

And I realized that with of the procedures and surgeries that she was going through nothing along the way was guaranteed

And truthfully the only thing that I had to give in those times was faith

Paul is telling us that when it comes to be righteous with God it is soely dependent upon our faith in him

There is nothing that we can do

there is no strength that we can muster up to be good enough it comes down to our faith

And I bring that up with hope that there is 1 of you in here today that needs to hear that

Maybe you have been desiring to follow God and you are constantly get beat up with:

I am still not good enough

I keep failing God

God you have to be getting tired of me by now

If you hear nothing else today I hope that you at least hear thing

When we put our faith in God. Knowing him lasts forever

Don’t allow the enemy to try and use those thoughts against you

Knowing that we can’t do it on our own is not something to feel bad about

But it is freeing

The pressure isn’t on you

It was on Jesus, and he has already taken care of it for us

3. Clarity From God lasts

Philippians 3:15–16 “Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.”

There was one time that I went to Hocking Hills with some friends

And we started going down one of the trails, and I had been there before but I usually always went with a someone who knew the area better than me

Moral of the story the trail that we walked on was not the one that we thought it was

There were multiple different way you could take to get there and we didn’t take the one I thought we did

Now here is the thing

the trail that were on was only a straight shot

And so we knew that even though we didn’t go the way that we inteded we knew we wouldn't get lost

Because we could either go one way down the trail further into the woods

Or we could just go straight back towards the car

I share that story because even though we kinda didn’t know what we were doing

I knew that we would figure it out eventually

Sooner or later we would figure things out, and be able to make it out just fine

Now if you guys remember last week I talked about being agreement

And how we are called to be in agreement with one another

This week Paul talks more about agreement but he says something interesting

He says “ If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you.”

And I believe what he is saying 2 things

1. you may not get this whole God thing right now

2. As we keep following God he begins to bring more clarity

There are things about God’s character or even things that he has done that don’t make sense

But years later I see that they do

So all of that being said here is what I want you to understand

Gods clarity doesn’t always come when or how you want it, but it can be trusted

One of the biggest truths about God that we often misunderstand is that when we follow him everything becomes clear as day

unfortunately thats just not how it works

But here is the thing. His timing is perfect

And our God does lie or make mistakes

So when he gives us clarity we can trust him

Here is the greatest thing

If we still are not sure. We can go back to his word.

God can not contradict his own word.

Clarity that comes from God can be trusted

4. Your Testimony Lasts

Philippians 3:17–18 “Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ.”

I remember about 4ish years ago I volunteered at a youth camp

And I had begun to feel this stirring to want to go into ministry

But I just didn’t know what yet

I go to this camp and me and one of the other volunteer leaders we just talking

And he shared his testimony with me

He had a crazy story

And then he asked me “How did you come to meet Jesus”

When I was done I said I always feel like my testimony is kinda boring

He said “Dude, Jesus changed your life. thats not boring”

PAUSE

Why do I tell that story. what does Paul say?

“and learn from those who follow our example.”

Your story of however you have encountered Jesus is an example that can guide those around us.

Here is what I really want you to hear

Your Testimony will last. as long as you remember its value

Do not discount what God has done in your life

And don’t discount the impact that it can have because of your story

If Jesus has changed your life that has power.

In fact there have been many times when I have had conversations with people

The conversation starts going towards Jesus

And I will think my testimony won’t make a difference

And then they say something like. Oh I actually grew up in the church

Oh I actually went to Christian school growing up

And so in those moments I am thinking they won’t care

But then God shocks me

He punches me in the face

YOU NEED TO REMEMBER YOUR TESTIMONY

We need to remember it

Don’t forget, don’t discount it

Let me share one more scripture with you guys

Revelation 12:11 “And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.”

THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB AND WHAT???????????

Our Testimony is what gets us through

Jesus sacrifice on the cross, and encounter story with him

If that is the case it definitely has power

And we definitely need to be remembering it

Today we are going to end with something we have never done before

We talked about things that last today

2 different color sticky notes

First one: What am I choosing that Won’t last?

Second one: What can I choose instead that will last?