Sermon Transcript Tone Analysis

Would you please pray with me?

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, oh Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.

Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

It's good to be with you, very good to be with you all.

And thank you all for being here today.

And for those of you who are watching from home, God's blessings to you as well.

For those of you who do not yet know me - you've - obviously you saw my name up there.

I'm Pastor Tim Ritter.

I am the son of Pastor Dan Ritter.

I was baptized in a Lutheran church as an infant, just a month old.

I grew up in a Christian household.

We went to church every single Sunday and, of course, then I attended Sunday school as a child, and then, as a high school student, I was in the youth ministry.

At home, we read our Bible.

We prayed together as a family.

We prayed before every meal: before the meal and then after the meal.

And we were in family devotions together.

As an adult, I helped lead youth ministry, and even lead two groups to the National Youth Gathering.

One in New Orleans, one in San Antonio.

I attended those youth groups as a youth group member as a high school student.

I - when I began my college career, I went to Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska.

Anybody heard of that place?

Of course.

Yeah, a great school.

Best Concordia, hands down.

I know that may be contested, but it it really isn't.

It really isn't.

Just ask Lois or Ted, they'll tell you it's the best.

It's the best.

But it was there that I met a woman who is strong, strong in her Christian faith.

I married that woman.

We've been married almost 17 years.

I attended and graduated from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis with a greater than 3.5 GPA, and I have now been an ordained LCMS pastor for going on 11 years.

Impressive?

No.

Not at all.

It's rubbish, it's garbage.

Compared to knowing Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior.

It's not at all about me, or what I have accomplished, or what I have done, or what I am doing presently.

It's all about what Jesus has done for me and what He can accomplish through me.

And the same is true for all of you.

And it's a good thing.

It's a very good thing.

That's the point that Paul - in his letter to the Philippians - is trying to convey.

At least part of the message that he's trying to convey to us.

And I know we just heard this, but I want to go through it again, so it's fresh in our minds.

So, we're just going to read through this, again.

I'll read it: "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 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.

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.

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, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

So as you heard, Paul begins in a very similar fashion as I just did moments ago, pointing to his accomplishments.

If there was anybody who could boast about his accomplishments in the flesh, it was him, and he's making that point clear.

As far as anyone can do, as humanly possible, he was obedient to God's law.

And everybody knew that.

And he knew that.

But then, his second point there that he goes on to, is it's not about what he has done, compared to knowing Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

All that he has done, sure, it makes him righteous before other men.

But not before God.

The only thing that makes him righteous in the sight of God is his faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

The message that he is conveying to all of us is not about what is behind, what we have done.

It's about what lies ahead.

He's not going to boast about his accomplishments.

Instead, he's going to boast about his weakness.

He's going to boast about how he needs Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

And he's going to boast about what he is becoming.

Because daily, we are being perfected by God.

Daily, God is making us into who we will one day be.

We're not there yet.

But He who began this good work in us, will see it to completion in the day of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

So we forget what lives behind, and we strain forward to what is ahead.

And we can do that by the grace of God.

One of the themes, the overarching themes of Paul's letters and runs throughout all of his letters is that we are saved by grace through faith.

Oh, I forgot this point.

What does he say?

He says of all of his accomplishments, you heard what he said?

Rubbish.

Garbage.

You know, often times, we hear about things in society.

We like to point out all of everybody's accomplishments.

And someone comes up and says, "oh they did this, they did that," and they get all puffed up about it.

Paul begins, kind of, that way, but then what does he call it?

He calls it garbage.

Rubbish.

It's rubbish compared to the surpassing value or worth of knowing Jesus Christ.

What is much more important to him is the grace that has been bestowed to him, given to him freely on account of Jesus Christ.

Because he recognizes that he is a sinner.

He recognizes that none of what he has done earns him merrits, gets him into heaven.

It's all by grace.

For by grace, we have been saved through faith.

Ad this is not our own doing.

It's a gift of God, so that no one may boast.

It's what Paul wants you to know.

It's what I want you to know as well: that God loves you dearly.

Nothing you can do can earn your way into heaven.

But also, nothing you can do could ever separate you from the love that God has for you in Christ Jesus.