Sermon Tone Analysis

Treasuring Christ Together Because He Is More Valuable Than All Else

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By John Piper October 28, 2007

 

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*Philippians 3:1-16*

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord.

To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. 2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 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— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

/Treasuring Christ Together /(TCT) is the name we have given the overarching strategy at Bethlehem to fulfill our mission of /spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ/.

Lest it go unnoticed, “Spreading a passion for God’s supremacy through Christ” means pursuing people’s conversion, not just the awakening of Christians to God’s supremacy.

So, if you like cosmic flow charts, here's the order:

1.     God, our Creator.

2.     The Bible as his infallible revelation of himself and his purposes in history.

3.     Bethlehem’s Mission Statement, which is our effort to put into a sentence our understanding from the Bible of why we exist as a church.

4.     Treasuring Christ Together as the practical strategy for fulfilling that mission.

Treasuring Christ Together

Treasuring Christ Together is a commitment to multiplying campuses, planting new churches, and showing care for the poorest of the poor—all based on one doctrinal foundation expressed in the Elder Affirmation of Faith.

So TCT has three parts.

1.     Multiple campuses making up one church.

2.     New independent churches being planted through this one church.

3.     A sustained expression of compassion for the poorest of the poor through what we call the Global Diaconate.

What that means financially is that from every dollar given to TCT, $.80 goes to purchase campus buildings and fit them out for ministry; $.10 goes to fund the new church plants; and $.10 goes to put feet to our compassion for the poor.

The church voted four years ago to embrace these percentages, and they have unleashed hundreds of thousands of dollars for church planting and the poor.

And we expect that in the coming years they will release millions more.

My aim in the next three weeks is to make the TCT strategy clear, to inspire your joy in being part of it, and motivate you to give radically to a 14-month financial thrust forward.

Before I turn to our text in Philippians 3 let me say a brief word about each of the three parts of Treasuring Christ together.

1) One Church, Multiple Campuses

First, one church on multiple campuses—three now; more as God leads us.

The downtown campus was purchased for $13,500 in May of 1885, after the first campus burned down three blocks away.

There were additions in 1914, 1955, 1991, and 2003.

And now the church owns all the property on 7th Street from 13th Avenue to the Masterworks building.

There is no debt on those buildings.

After worshiping for two years in the Northwestern College Auditorium, the North Campus folks moved into the new North Campus building in Mounds View in June, 2005.

The building cost $9.5 million to purchase and build out.

And significant build out remains to be done.

$7.6 million remains in the mortgage, plus $.5 million that we have borrowed from ourselves.

The South Site was launched in September last year.

It’s just over a year old.

We are praying and looking for God’s location for the permanent South Campus.

So that expense remains in the future.

What unites this one church on three campuses is an eight-fold unity:

1.

A single mission statement and overarching philosophy of ministry for children and adults;

2.     A single affirmation of faith for all leaders and teachers, the Elder Affirmation of Faith;

3.     A single constitution (including a broad member affirmation of faith);

4.     A single council of elders and all-church pastors;

5.     A single proclamation of God’s word in corporate worship on the weekend;

6.

A single band of missionaries to support;

7.     A single budget;

8.     A single Treasuring Christ Together strategy and income flow to pay for the campuses.

So the first part of our strategy in Treasuring Christ Together is one church on multiple campuses.

2) Planting New Churches

Second is our commitment to church planting—the planting of churches whose elders embrace the Bethlehem Elder Affirmation of Faith.

Since the beginning of TCT in the fall of 2003, TCT has funded six church plants from BBC: Berean Missional Church in St. Paul; All Nations Christian Fellowship in Brooklyn Center; Treasuring Christ Together Church in Raleigh, NC; Desiring God Church, Charlotte, NC; Grace Community Church in Memphis, TN; Celebration Church in Orlando, FL; and Glory of Christ Baptist Church in Rogers, MN.

Ten percent of all the TCT funds you have given go to launch these churches and get them established (over $300,000 given so far).

These are not campuses of Bethlehem.

They are independent churches, but Kenny Stokes oversees an increasingly significant network of relationships that we love to maintain.

3) Remembering the Poorest of the Poor

The third aspect of Treasuring Christ Together is our commitment to show compassion to the poorest of the poor through what we call the Global Diaconate.

This ministry is overseen by a committee of concerned and knowledgeable people headed by Scott Purser.

You have given $340,000 to the Global Diaconate, and about $240,000 has been given away to bless and strengthen the poor in the name of Christ.

The Global Diaconate is one way—not the only way—of keeping the poor on our heart as we try to be a faithful church in the Twin Cities.

Every mortgage payment on a campus is stamped with the withdrawal for the Global Diaconate.

That is a disciplined and constant reminder that we are blessed financially beyond all our need, while millions of people in the world are not.

I pray that in the next three weeks the Lord will awaken in you and me an increasing sense of amazement that our little lives are tied in to something bigger and can have significant Christ-exalting effect as God enables us to link arms in the strategy of Treasuring Christ Together.

The Surpassing Value of Knowing Jesus

Now to see the heart of the strategy, please turn with me to Philippians 3:1-16.

This is the most important thing about Treasuring Christ Together.

What Paul does in these verses is show how valuable Christ is to him and to us.

He models for us, in his own heart, how we should relate to Christ today.

He shows us how central Christ is—how central the /value/ of Christ is—to our lives and the life of this church.

He speaks of rejoicing in Christ, and glorying in Christ, and knowing Christ, and gaining Christ, and being found in Christ, and making Christ his own, and finally obtaining the prizing of Christ in the last day.

I want us to see these ways of relating to Christ close up.

And as you see them, ask the Lord to give you this relationship to Christ.

Ask him to make Christ this real and this valuable to you.

And this central and precious in our church.

That’s what it will mean to Treasure Christ Together.

In Prison and Poverty, Rejoicing in Jesus Together

The passage begins (Philippians 3:1), “Finally, my brothers, /rejoice/ in the Lord.”

Paul is writing from prison.

And we know from 2 Corinthians 8 that the Philippian church is not wealthy and that there has been affliction.

So we know this joy is not based on good circumstances.

It is, as Paul says, “in the Lord.”

In Jesus Christ, the Lord.

In other words, he is telling us: Consider Christ so precious, so valuable, such a great treasure, that whether in prison or in affliction or in poverty, knowing him and belonging to him and being with him forever gives you joy.

This is what we mean by treasuring Christ.

And in the church we do it together.

We help each other do it.

Beware the Dogs, Boasting in Jesus Together

Then in verse 2, he warns them about those who make circumcision the basis of their acceptance with God.

“Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and /glory in Christ Jesus/ and put no confidence in the flesh.”

So this time Paul says we are to /glory/ in Christ Jesus.