Where Are You, Pt. 2

“Where Are You?”, Pt. 2

Philippians 3:1–11 ESV

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. 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— 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: 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; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 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 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— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

QUAD-1 – Introduce & Challenge

Last week, we heard God asking Adam and Eve the question: “Where are you?” We pointed out that the question was not asked because GOD didn’t know where they were, but rather so that Adam and Eve would take note of where they were.

And we also learned that God was not interested in where they were locationally, but rather where they were relationally. The question affirmed the sad reality that they weren’t with Him.

As we considered Adam and Eve’s situation, we were challenged with the reality that there are many times when we, the born-again, baptized, Spirit-indwelt believers are in the same boat that Adam and Eve were in, allowing our sin in various avenues to drive us further and further from our God when we should be drawing nearer and nearer.

The question, “Where are you?” is a question that The Lord will always ask us when we are allowing ourselves to accept our distance from Him as the norm, but that question is also one that we need to constantly ask ourselves!

At any given time, in any given circumstance, I believe asking ourselves “Where am I” is a pretty good practice to embrace in our daily walk with Christ Jesus, because we need to assess and address the distance between us and our Lord and Savior constantly.

We were also reminded last time that our God pursues a love relationship with each one His children that is real and personal. And we looked at 3 “I’s” that were required to get the full benefits of that relationship. They were intimacy, intentionality, and interdependence.

And as you may have already guessed, we’ll be using today’s text to focus on that first “I”, intimacy.

And if some of you are connecting the dots, you understand why the song was so important for us to proclaim.

QUAD-2 - Teach, Reprove, Rebuke, Exhort, Admonish

As some of you know, the book of Philippians has a special place in my heart. It’s the one book that I almost memorized completely, and I’m pretty sure that if Barbara Graves had stuck around a little longer, I probably would have made it. But by this time, I probably would have forgotten much of it 😊

The book was one of the letters Paul wrote will he was in a Roman jail. And that fact makes this book a little strange because one of the major themes of this book is JOY. It is an amazing thing to have a man locked up in prison, not knowing what his fate will be, writing a letter encouraging the saints to embrace the joy of The Lord. I’m certain that if Richard Smallwood had been around during those days, Paul would have been singing, “Jesus, You’re the center of my joy…” on a regular basis.

Our text begins with the word, ‘finally’. Paul is wrapping up his message to the Philippian saints and in doing so, he’s presenting a most important reality of what life in Christ Jesus is all about, namely, intimacy.

In our text, Paul is giving us a bird’s eye view of where he was B.C. (Before Christ), and where he is now.

Last week when I met with some of the members who I’ve begun calling “The 10”, one of them shared that some things she used to do, not only is she not doing them, but she doesn’t even have a desire to do them. Talk about an awesome testimony! Oh I’ve heard many saints say those words many times, but this time we heard more than just words, we heard a heart and that’s what we’re hearing from Paul in our text.

In vs. 1 of our text, Paul encourages the saints to rejoice. Why? Because in vs. 2, he warns them to look out for some so-called teachers of Scripture known as the Judaizers who would try to steal their joy by requiring the Gentile Christians who were uncircumcised to get circumcised. Paull also warned the saints in Galatia about the same thing. In Galatians 5:6, he said…

Christianity is not earned by any external act or expression. It’s not by works of righteousness that we have done… Christianity is a matter of the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of man. And while it’s true that the reality of our relationship with Jesus Christ is validated externally, the message Paul shares in vs. 3 is that true salvation changes us from the inside out, taking away any reason to boast because of what you’ve accomplished as a child of The King. That’s the truth of Ephesians 2:8-9.

In vs. 4-6, we see that if there’s anyone who can identify with Christians who consider their accomplishments something to stick their chests out about, it’s Paul. In vs. 5-6, we get a glimpse of Paul B.C. If you take a quick look at Paul’s conversion story in Acts 9, you’ll hear Paul’s “Where are you?” question in vs. 4, when The Lord Jesus asked, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"

Verses 5-6 of our text give us Paul’s very impressive credentials. We don’t have time to elaborate, but those two verses describe a person that was considered great among the Jewish population. He was considered the purest of the pure in how he lived out His Judaism and he had risen to the upper echelon of the Jewish hierarchy. He was so highly esteemed that he was given the responsibility to shut down the Jesus Christ foolishness almost single-handedly! So ultimately, there were very few men who were as highly regarded as Paul. In today’s world, he would be regarded as a very famous, popular and influential public figure.

But if there’s anything I want you take away from this message today, the next verses are what I want you to give your attention to. If for whatever reason, you haven’t really been tuned in, I pray that you’ll tune in now.

In vs. 7, Paul tells us that there’s absolutely no value in what he had already accomplish B.C. But in vs. 8-9, he lets us know that even what he’s accomplishing right then, after becoming a child of the King, has no value compared to what he considers to be most valuable of all!

When Paul talks about the value of knowing Christ, the desire to gain Christ, the passion to be found in Christ, he’s telling us something that we all need to know. While it is an awesome thing to serve Christ, when The Lord asks the question, “Where are you?”, that’s not God’s call to ministry FOR Him; it’s a call to intimacy WITH Him!

Just in case we didn’t hear him the first time, Paul reiterates in vs. 10-11, what his life is all about since his encounter with Jesus. Paul is driven by one desire alone – knowing Jesus.

Now I don’t know about you, but based on what I know about Paul, the things he shared in his letters, the things that Dr, Luke tells us and the testimony of some of the other apostles, I’ve concluded that Paul enjoyed an intimacy with Jesus that not many, if any could claim. But when I read what Paul says it takes to have that intimacy with The Lord, I realize that he was in the minority then, and he might very well be in the minority now!

As I try to complete this message, I want you to look at one final point. In vs. 10, Paul tells us that he wants to know two things. He wants to know Jesus and he wants to know His power. It may be evident to some of you, but I want you to understand that these two desires can only come IN THAT ORDER! Paul wants resurrection power, but he knows that to have that power requires the intimacy that comes with the fellowship of His suffering!

Salvation costs you NOTHING because Jesus paid it all. But experiencing God’s resurrection power in your life costs you EVERYTHING!

So I pray that you to leave here with this truth in your heart. The more intimate you are with The Lord, the more empowered we are to do the ministry He’s called us to (Ephesians 2:10).

QUAD-3 – Paint, Guide (give hope)

I don’t know about you, but I must confess that I am guilty of a chronic case of putting the serving God cart before the knowing God horse. For one thing, I feel like I can decide when and where and how and how long I want to serve Him – I rarely consider my service to Him as a 24-hour, 7 day a week, 365 day of the year proposition. After all, I need to have some of that time to do my own thing. I need some ME time!

But being intimate with The Lord takes all of me all the time! How do I know that? Because intimacy with The Lord is simply giving back to Him what He so wonderfully gives to me.

I don’t know if you realize this, but if Jesus gave Himself to us the way we give ourselves to Him, we would be in a whole lot of trouble.

But aren’t you glad that Jesus gives Himself relationally to us

· 24 hours a day, which (if I did the math right) is

· 1,440 minutes a day, which is

· 86,400 seconds a day?

Aren’t you glad that in those 86,400 seconds a day, there’s never a reason to doubt where Jesus is? Aren’t you glad that we don’t have to constantly ask, “Jesus, where are You?”

Oh I know we doask, especially when…but we don’t have to.

· our peace becomes confusion

· our joys become our sorrow

· our ease becomes our difficulties

· our light becomes our darkness

· our comfort becomes our pain

Because in those times when I do feel the need to ask, the problem is never where Jesus is; it’s always where WEare!

QUAD-4 - Summarize, Proclaim (the run)

See Jesus is always there!

When I’m in pain, He’s always there.

· in trouble

· in doubt

· in my sin

· all by myself

· can’t find my way

But how do I know He’s always there? Well it’s because I believe Him when He said through King David, “The Lord is my Shepherd…SURELY GOODNESS AND MERCY SHALL FOLLOW ME…”

How do I know He’s always there? Because I heard the prophet Isaiah say,

…the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name Him Immanuel, which is translated "God is with us."

How do I know He’s aways there? Because 2000 years ago, He came down so that He could walk with me and talk with me and tell me that I was His own. He came down and…