Philippians 3:1-11

I invite you to turn to our focal text for today Philippians 3:8

-Have you ever made a sacrifice for something?

Karis, Very outgoing, loves people, lots of friends, and is an easy person to get to know. She is finishing nursing school, very intense … I was asking her about dating and a boyfriend. She said, Dad I have so much school work I don’t have time for a really serious relationship and boyfriend.

-Not having a steady boyfriend for 2 years is a sacrifice.

-If she wants to get married, that pushes that back 2 more years.

-Unless you are like Tom and Nancy Austin and only date 3 weeks. Pause

-A necessary sacrifice to reach the goal of becoming a nurse.

Transition -The point is this, When you find something of worth, it is worth sacrificing for.

Big Idea - Knowing Jesus is of such magnificent worth, everything in life is worth sacrificing for Him.

Paul says this is Philippians 3:8,

Philippians 3:8 ESV

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

Pray

What does it mean to gain Christ? KJV says to “win Christ”.

the last phrase of our text says, "…I count everything as rubbish, in order to gain Christ.”

So, what does it mean to gain Christ?

When you gain Christ you take in as much of His beauty as you can.

-Believe in the work of Christ who has forgiven you of yesterday’s sins, and today’s sins as well.

-Take joy in a Father who has loved and will for eternity...

-Have a changed mind, that Christ is not just part of your life, but He is the center of your life.

-To be overwhelmed by the forgivenness of Christ.

-To be lost and mesmerized that Christ’s work on the Cross has secured you to be a child of God, not only today, but throughout your entire life.

-Is for your soul to be impregnated by His Spirit (the Spirit of God) and to be empowered by Him.

-To grow deep roots in the fact that your eternity is secure in Him. That one day you will be in heaven with Him forever.

-And so much more.

-For the Christ Follow Gaining Christ is a gift that keeps giving the more we know Christ and about Christ, the more we see how much we have gained.

Illustration-

To be healthy I am trying to drink 64oz of water a day, plus what I drink at meal time. I’m just starting to get use to drinking that much. It seems like a lot. I’ve know guys who are really big into fitness that carry around a cleaned out milk jug, filled with water and they try and drink 1 gallon a day. I would feel like I was drowning.

To know Christ and to understand how He gives and gives of himself to us … is like standing at the bottom of Niagara Falls with your mouth open. There is so much to take in it’s crushing - it takes a lifetime and into eternity to take it in.

Jesus is so magnifiscient that you can learn all you can about Him in a life time and still not know everything.

Part of gaining Christ is taking in all you can of his beauty.

Transition - Gaining Christ begins when you get saved.

If you are an unbeliever this is the Christ that you are being offered right now.

Unbeliever, You gain Christ when you ...

-Believing in the work that Christ has done on the Cross and surrendering his life to Christ as Lord and Master.

-This great Christ, is The Savior. He became the savior by dying on the cross. By making a payment for your sins by His blood and being raised to life the 3rd day.

There is someone listening today who knows they need to say “Yes” to Christ.

-If you were to die today from this Corona virus and you are not sure of what would happen after you die.

-If you do not know what your eternity will look like after you pass away...

-You need to make a decision right now to believe in and follow Jesus.

Make the decision to - To trust that He paid for your sins & to give your life to God to follow Him as your master.

-Will you do that right now? Do not let your fear hold you back.

-Will you right now say to God, “Yes, I believe you paid for my sins on the cross? Yes, I choose to follow you right now?”

If you have said yes to Jesus, you have gained Christ.

Transition - To those of you who are already believers...

To gain Christ the unbeliever must trust Jesus and make Him Lord.

To gain Christ the believer must keep taking in the beauty of Christ.

How does the believer keep gaining Christ? (x2)

-What do you mean? The Believer has already gained Him.

-You gain Christ at salvation and you continue to gain a closer relationship with Him.

Illustration - When Susan and I made a commitment to date each other exclusively, I gained her in a relationship.

After I had dated her for 3 months and spent 180 hours of time alone in conversation with her - I had gained her at a deeper level. When we got engaged, a deeper gaining. At marriage and on our wedding night - a further more intimate gaining of knowing each other. After 26 years of marriage, more gaining of knowing her.

When you become a Christian, You gain Christ, but you keep peeling back the onion.

How do you peel back this onion of Jesus and discover more and more of Him?

Paul gives us 3 specific ways to keep gaining Christ and really come to intimately know Him.

We gain Christ by 1st -

vs. 2, Watch out for false teachers

Philippians 3:2 ESV

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

-In the early church false teachers were teaching that Jesus was not enough for your salvation. You had to have Jesus plus.

Jesus plus following the Old Testament to earn your salvation.

These false teachers did not trust that Jesus alone was enough for salvation.

Paul says, If you are going to really know who God is. Don’t let false teachers lead you astray.

Today we have false teachers - A very common false teaching is the Prosperity Gospel that says it is God’s will for all Christians to be rich and for all Christians to be healed and not be sick.

Popular names like Joel Osteen and the church that Bethel worship music comes out of both of these churches have false teachers and teach a Prosperity Gospel.

Jesus isn’t enough to be satisfied with. For this false teaching, it is Jesus plus health and wealth.

How do I follow and gain more of Christ?

-I watch out for false teachers.

Transition - Paul tells us a 2nd way to keep gaining Christ in verse 3.

2. “Put to confidence in the flesh.” Phil 3:3

-This means, don’t trust your works to save you

Philippians 3:3 ESV

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—

False Teachers in Pauls day - said you had to be circumcised and follow the rules of the Old Testament to be saved.

You had to believe in Jesus and earn your salvation by obedience to the Old Testament.

Paul in verses 4-6 gives a long list of all the things He did perfectly before he was saved thinking he was earning His salvation. He gave His life to do the works of the Old Testament. Earn His salvation.

Look what Paul gave up:

vs. 5, His identity as a rising rock star as Old Testament following Jewish Pharisee. Paul was positioned to become one of the greats. He left it.

Circumcision, Tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews

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vs. 6, His Passion & Purpose, What he was meant to be in life, one who protected the purity of the O.T. by stopping out any Jewish impurity like Jesus or His followers.

Verse 7, I gave up my Identity, my passion and purpose for the sake of Christ.

Philippians 3:7 ESV

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

Paul would say this … Knowing Jesus is so important, everything else looks like manure.

He says this in verse 8 - our focal passage

Philippians 3:8 ESV

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

Knowing Jesus is of such magnificent worth, everything in life is worth sacrificing for Him.

Application -

Question is this - Is Jesus so great, so magnificent, so beautiful that you would give up everything to follow Him?

Illustration - I have a friend who lives in the Augusta area who is very wealthy. He’s in his 30’s and worth several million dollars and it’s quickly growing.

He loves Jesus more than his advanced degrees from UGA. He loves Jesus more than his money. He said, if God called me to give away everything, leave the U.S. and to share Christ in a difficult situation, I would.

There are some listening who God is calling you to love Him so much, that the material things, relationships that you value so much should look worthless compared to Jesus greatness.

So this is a call on our heart.

-God may be calling you to surrender - give up something to Him that is getting in the way of your affection for Him.

-He is also calling all of us to look at the intensity and focus of our love for Him.

-Jesus gave His life for you? Will you give your life for Him?

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