What Are You Boasting About?

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan. If you'd like more information on Recast Church, please visit us on the web at www .recastchurch

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.com. So I wanted to start off with a question this morning.

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What are you proud of in life? What are you proud of? Maybe some accomplishments, maybe something you've done.

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What gives you just an incredible sense of satisfaction, just this great feeling?

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Maybe it's a project that you've done. We've had some home remodeling recently in our house, and first of all it's a little stressful, everything's torn up, but someone else is doing most of the work, which

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I'm very grateful for by the way, and it's fantastic work. If I had done all that work, I think I would feel a great deal of satisfaction and perhaps pride in the craftsmanship and the work.

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So that's a great thing, but maybe something else that you're proud of. Maybe it's a personal goal. I'm going to run a marathon, and I'm going to train for it and prepare for it and accomplish that goal.

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That would be something, right? A big accomplishment. My wife just ran a half marathon. Way to go, honey. Maybe there's something else that you're proud of.

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Maybe like me, you just like to win at everything. I don't know why this is, but every time

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I play a game, it could be cards, it could be a board game with my kids. I'm embarrassed to say

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I try to beat them every time. I don't know what's wrong with me, and when

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I lose, I just get discouraged. I don't know why that is, but I do. I like to win. Maybe that's something you take pride in too, and when you have an accomplishment, you win a big championship, you win at something.

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Maybe it's work for you. You're investing a lot of hard effort there, and maybe you get a promotion.

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Maybe you get to a certain level in your company, and you feel that that's significant. Wow, I've accomplished something.

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Maybe it's a hobby or a sports team. We all take pride in different things. I wanted to ask it a different way.

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What do you like to post about? In this day and age, I think you can learn a lot about a person online, can't you?

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And Facebook reveals quite a bit. Have you ever gone back and looked at your history of what you've posted?

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It might be an interesting exercise. What really matters to you? What's important to you? What do you take pride in?

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What do you post about online? I think it'd be interesting to do. I did that recently, and you might learn something new about yourself.

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You might. At least that's what you're projecting outward that's important to you.

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So here's the honest truth about me. I'm going to get a little bit personal and reveal a little bit.

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I care a lot about what people think about me, if I'm honest. I am a people pleaser.

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I struggle with really wanting to look good in other people's eyes. I want to be successful.

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I want to appear successful to other people, if I'm honest. Maybe there's a few others who struggle with that in a similar way.

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Maybe we all struggle to a certain degree, to varying degrees. I may not boast a lot in my accomplishments, but it's in here that I'm talking about.

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I examine my own heart, and I look inside, and I have to admit, I want people to notice what

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I've done. I want them to see and approve what I've done.

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Sometimes an event in your life can really help bring clarity to this, or help you see yourself. Have you ever noticed that?

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So for me, this past week, I'm preparing a sermon, and I have a 20th college reunion coming up next weekend.

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20th college reunion, and I'm kind of looking forward to going to that. Actually, I'm excited to see some old friends, classmates

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I haven't seen in 20 years, some of them. And you know, some of them I see on Facebook, but many of them

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I don't, and so I'm really looking forward to that. But it got me to thinking, what are they going to think about me?

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You know, how are they going to view me? What have I done with my life? What have I really accomplished? What does it amount to?

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And I started wondering about that. Honestly, I do care about that. I care about it more than I want to admit normally.

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So that's just a quick glimpse into my inner self, the struggles that I have in the area of pride. Maybe you're like that, maybe you're not.

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But Paul talks a little bit about, well let's just be honest, he brags a little bit in this passage today.

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He's gonna boast, okay, a little bit. I think you're gonna notice that. But there's a point to it, and it's the conclusion that Paul comes to that's so interesting today.

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So I really want to encourage us to dig into God's Word today. We're gonna read in Philippians chapter 3. This is verses 1 to 11.

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Philippians chapter 3, verses 1 to 11. By the way, if you need a copy of God's Word, we have

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ESV Bibles. If someone would be willing to grab a few, we got them in the back here. Just raise a hand, and we'll put

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God's Word in your hand. And this is, in the ESV Bible, it's page 841. So we're gonna read Philippians chapter 3, verses 1 to 11.

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That's page 841 in those ESV Bibles that we hand out. You're welcome to keep that, by the way.

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We'd love to have you own God's Word. Here we go. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the

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Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me, and it's safe for you.

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Look out for those dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

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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.

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If anyone else thinks he has reasons for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel and of the tribe of Benjamin, a

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Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, and as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

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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

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Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them rubbish, in order that I may gain

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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

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Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible

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I may attain the resurrection from the dead." Let's pray as the band comes.

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Heavenly Father, I just want to thank You right now for allowing us to just freely gather to worship

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You this morning. I thank You for Your Word, the Bible. Lord, it's truth.

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It's Your truth to us today, and I thank You for it. I thank You for preserving these words from the

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Apostle Paul written to this church. Lord, and I pray that Your Word this morning would not return void.

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Lord, I ask that You would accomplish in us whatever You desire, and I pray You would work through the power of Your Spirit to accomplish that.

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Lord, and I desire that You would make us more like Yourself, more like Your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, and the goal here is to give

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You the glory and give You the honor and the praise. So Lord, as we come to You in worship right now,

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I just pray that we would be able to turn our attention and our focus on You, God, and we need Your help just to do that.

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Lord, I ask that Your Spirit would help us worship You and open our eyes today. Help us see how amazing

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You are, God. You're powerful. You're holy. You're just. You're perfect in Your righteousness.

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You're compassionate to the hurting. Lord, You abound in love. You're full of grace.

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Lord, You have mercy towards sinners like us. Lord, You're forever faithful and true, and You're eternal.

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Lord, You are amazing. You are the only thing worthy of our worship. So Father, I pray that You would be just lifted up as we sing praises to You and exalt

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Your name this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, the last time

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I preached, it was about a year ago, and so even though I'm in Philippians chapter 3,

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I recognize I can't just sort of pick up and fly forward here. I'd like to do a little bit of review and a little context for you this morning.

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So I'm gonna start off with that. This letter of Philippians was written by the

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Apostle Paul, and he was writing to the Philippian church about 10 years after the church was started.

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Now the Philippian church was started, and I want to just give a little context on the city itself of Philippi.

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If you can show that first map, the city of Philippi is really located on the

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Via Ignatia, which is the Ignatian Way. It's a Roman road running east -west, and you can see how it covers, you know, crosses all of that territory there, including

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Greece and Italy. And so the Philippi, the city of Philippi is located there. Can you see it? A little hard to see.

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It's about right in the center of the graphic. And this is actually the entrance point of the gospel into Europe for Paul.

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So Paul and his companions were traveling on their second missionary journey, and I'd like to go to the next map right now and just show this map.

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So same map, a little less color, but you can see Paul's journey was going along and following the arrows to Troas, and then he received a call from the

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Macedonian man. You may remember in the book of Acts, Acts 15, the Macedonian man says, come to us, help us, we need your help, and Paul responded.

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So Paul and his traveling companions, he was going on this missionary journey with Silas, headed toward that direction, toward Macedonia.

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That's where Philippi is located. And so Philippi was the first place that they actually shared the gospel and preached the gospel.

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And the story in the book of Acts around the founding of the Philippian church is actually a really interesting story.

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You may recall this as well. This is found, I believe, in Acts 16. Paul, actually there's no synagogue.

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His normal practice was to go to the synagogue and preach the gospel first, and then share with the

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Gentiles also. But in this case, he went outside the city and found a group of worshipers of Yahweh, and including

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Lydia, the woman Lydia. And she became the first convert. She responded to the gospel. She heard the message and accepted

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Christ. She and her whole family. And then Paul subsequently was arrested because he had freed a demon from a slave girl who was telling fortunes.

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And the next thing you know, he's in jail, he's imprisoned in Philippi, and he's being beaten. And he's basically in stocks in the middle of the night.

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And you may remember the story. He and Silas actually are praising God. They're worshipping

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God in the middle of the night, having been beaten. It's kind of an amazing story. Why would they worship and rejoice in the middle of that?

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That's just amazing to me. But they did. And the next thing, an earthquake happens. They're freed from their bonds, and the jailer is about to kill himself because he knows his life is forfeit if his prisoners escape.

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The next thing Paul does is say, don't kill yourself. We're here. And through that turn of events, the jailer and his whole family are saved.

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And that's really the beginning of the Philippian church. And so we have the church that Philippi founded. Paul potentially leaves a couple of his team there to help the church along.

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It's not stated clearly, but it possibly, even Timothy was left there. He then moves on to further the work of the kingdom on a second missionary journey, third missionary journey.

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And then he gets imprisoned in Jerusalem, and then eventually is shipped to Rome for trial before Caesar.

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He appeals to Caesar, as you know. And so now he's imprisoned in Rome. It's ten years later after all these missionary journeys, and Paul's writing back to encourage the

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Philippian church. And I think what's amazing to me is Paul is the one in prison. He's gone through all this hardship, and yet he's the one providing the encouragement.

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And he's telling the Philippians in this letter to the Philippians, be encouraged. And so I just want to review briefly now the chapters 1 and 2 that we've already covered and in previous sermons that I've covered.

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So as we move forward here, verses 7 and 8 of chapter 1 really capture

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Paul's heart. You got to understand in context of this book is love.

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It's affection. Paul cares about these people deeply. And if you read verse chapter 1 verses 7 and 8,

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I'm not going to take the time to read them now, but Paul has a strong affection. He actually explodes into a prayer.

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Verses 9 through 11, Paul just prays this beautiful prayer for the Philippian people.

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You know, he wants them to grow in knowledge so that they can grow in love and so that they can be wise and make wise choices and live for God and glorify

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God in their living. It's a beautiful prayer. By the way, if you maybe are wondering, how do I pray? I feel like my prayer life needs help.

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Check out Scripture. You know, there's prayers in there. This is just one example. You can you can steal that.

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Okay, it's okay. It's allowed. It's not plagiarism. You can repeat those words to God and you could pray that for your family, for your small group, for your friends.

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But there's some beautiful prayers in Scripture I'd encourage you to check out. So Paul goes on to talk about his circumstances in chapter 1 briefly and in chapter 1 he says, you know what?

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I'm in prison. That's the circumstance I'm in right now. But the gospel is not in prison.

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It continues to spread. In fact, the fact that I'm chained up in a cell, I can still have visitors and when

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I talk to them, the guards have to hear it. So you know what? The word's spreading through the guards that I'm in prison for Christ.

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And so the gospel message can't be contained. And that's exciting thing. Paul goes on to talk about his own circumstances in the chapter 1 and he says, you know,

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I'm gonna face a trial and even if I die, he says, you know what? I'd rather die and go be with Christ.

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But I think it's more necessary that I stay here on this earth and keep ministering to you and to others. So I mean that is

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Paul's attitude which is pretty pretty amazing in chapter 1. He moves on to, in verse 27, talk about the

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Philippians situation. And I love the shift in focus in verse 27 of chapter 1. He says, now you,

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Philippians, stand together in unity. Be strong. And this is powered and empowered by the

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Holy Spirit. He then talks about how the church can stand unified. And I think this is a very important message for all churches.

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How do you maintain unity? He talks about that in verses 3 through 11 and it's through humility.

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He talks, he says, basically be selfless, be humble. And then he uses Christ as a primary example.

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Verses 6 through 11 of chapter 2 are a beautiful picture of God himself becoming a man, humbling himself in the form of a man.

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And then as a man, humbling himself further into death, death on a cross, so that we ultimately can be reunited with God.

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You know, and through all of that, God lifts Jesus up and Jesus is now exalted. So that's the beautiful picture in the beginning of chapter 2.

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Paul then goes on in verses 12 and following, again to exhort the Philippians to, he says specifically, stop all of your grumbling and complaining.

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I'm sure nobody's ever said that to their kids before. I don't know. But he basically says, shine like stars in the universe.

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And he wants them to hold out the word of life. And that's all in chapter 2. Paul concludes the chapter by highlighting two individuals.

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And the two individuals are Timothy and Epaphroditus. And he's sending these two guys back to the

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Philippians with the letter. Most likely they're the messengers carrying the actual hardcopy letter.

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And so Paul is basically esteeming them. He's building them up to the Philippians and commending them and saying, these are godly men who are doing the work of God.

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And he's commending them as they come. So that brings us to chapter 3.

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And as we start in chapter 3, I'd like to encourage you to keep your

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Bible open. I'd love for you to just read along as I preach. Certainly verify what

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I'm saying is correct. And so starting off with verse 1 in chapter 3, Paul says, finally.

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He uses this transition word, finally. And it kind of, in the Greek, it's loipon. And the word basically means for what remains to be said.

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So Paul is basically saying, here we go. Transitioning on to the last things I want to say. And of course he's going to say two more chapters worth of stuff.

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So there's quite a bit of content left in the book of Philippians. But he's saying, transitioning now, what remains to be said.

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And then he uses the personal greeting, brothers. And this is a personal and endearing term.

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It happens three more times in the next two chapters. So Paul just repeatedly is just using this personal appeal.

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I love you guys. And I appeal to you on this personal way.

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And he then goes on to say the words, rejoice in the

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Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. And this is a very common theme in the book of Philippians. In fact,

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I counted it up. I think this is the fifth time that Paul said the word rejoice just in this letter so far.

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And he goes on to say it more. In chapter 4, verse 4, he says, rejoice in the Lord. I will say it again. Rejoice. Over and over and over.

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This is a huge theme Paul is saying. Now I want to just dwell on the difference between rejoice and the word joy.

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What's the difference there? Rejoice is a verb. It's a command, actually.

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It's an action. Paul is saying, do this. Whereas joy, on the other hand, is an emotion.

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It's something, it's a deep -seated sense of happiness that's lasting, right?

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This is the joy of the Lord. So emotion of joy is one thing, but rejoice is a verb.

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It's an action. Go do it. Paul is saying he's commanding them to rejoice.

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And that doesn't really depend on circumstances. He's telling them just to do it. Paul goes on to say, so by the way, that's where rejoice is going to come up later in the message.

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And this, again, this is a very important theme. It kind of sets the context for everything he's going to share with them in these next few verses.

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Verse 1 goes on to say, I'm reminding you Philippians of the same things.

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He's covering the same ground he's covered before. So whatever he's going to tell them, apparently this isn't new. This is stuff he's talked about in the past.

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So let's get right into it. Verse 2. Paul starts off with some kind of strong language, kind of bold, powerful words there.

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Check out what verse 2 says. It's interesting the words he uses. Look out for those dogs.

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Look out for those evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. What in the world is

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Paul talking about here? He is not happy, apparently. He's calling people dogs. So is it a good thing to call someone a dog?

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Is that generally well -received? You call your spouse? No, don't do it. I wouldn't encourage that. But today dogs are actually kind of animals we love, right, in general.

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Like we have pets, we have a pet dog, and animals, you know, a dog is man's best friend.

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They even have that saying. So today maybe dogs are better viewed.

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Back then dogs were not viewed well. They were basically the outcasts.

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They were like scavengers, and people were not happy about dogs. So to call someone a dog was like the biggest slur you could say to someone.

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In fact, the Jews would sometimes refer to Gentiles with that term. And so this is the term

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Paul is choosing to use for whoever these people are, and we're going to find out more about that. He says look out for those dogs, those evildoers, those who mutilate the flesh.

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What in the world? Mutilate the flesh. So this word mutilate is the word for cut. It's actually kind of a crude term for cut.

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It's not the normal term used for circumcision, which is what this is referring to, as we know from the context.

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So why is he using this term? He's basically just saying, using very crude terms to just emphasize his point that these people are just cutting flesh, and he's not happy about it.

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So what is this all about? We need to get into the history behind the circumstances here to better understand this.

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First of all, circumcision was a requirement of the Jewish law, and as we know,

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I think everyone's familiar with this, it was a practice in that day that it was given to Abraham first and was passed down.

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And the Jews, circumcision was a very important sign of the covenant. It was an identifier of being a part of God's people.

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But why is Paul so upset about this, these people who are talking about this? Well the background here is the

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Jews, some Jews with Pharisee background had become believers in Christ.

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And you might think, well that's that's a good thing, right? People became Christians. We should be happy about that.

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In fact, Paul was a Pharisee, right? And he became a Christian. So this is good. But the problem is that some of these other

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Pharisees who became Christians brought the law along with them.

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So the Pharisees were the most strict sect, religious sect within the

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Jewish community, and they believed in a very strict adherence to the law. They studied the law, they actually had created over time many additional laws, and they required not only themselves to follow every single one of these rules, but everyone else.

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And they were just strict adherers to these laws. And the problem is that they, when they came to believe in Christ, they carried all those laws with them.

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And then when Gentile believers started to come to Christ, they went and talked to those Gentile believers and they said, you know,

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Christ, all right, good thing. But guess what? You got to do all of these Jewish laws. You got to get circumcised, and you got to do all of these rules if you want to be in good.

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And so Paul called these people the Judaizers, and he was not at all happy with them.

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In fact, there's several scriptural references that talk about this. Acts chapter 15, in verse 1,

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Paul actually travels to Jerusalem specifically to have a council with all of the elders, the apostles were still there,

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Peter, James, and others. And they're having this big showdown in Jerusalem over this issue.

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And this is a big deal. And basically, verse 1 of chapter 15 says very clearly, it refers to the

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Judaizers, and it says, they are the people who say, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

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Verse 5 goes on further to say, not only that you have to be circumcised, but you have to follow the law of Moses. So these people were preaching and teaching that they had, the

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Gentile converts had to do all the law of Moses. So it's an interesting outcome. I'm not going to take the time to read that whole passage this morning, but it's a very interesting interaction.

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Peter talks, then James talks, he quotes some Old Testament stuff. And basically, they all, the apostles conclude, the leaders of this church, early church, conclude the gospel is the gospel,

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Jesus Christ. And it doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile. And they say, no, you don't have to follow all these laws.

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They do mention a few things that they think are good to do, and they advertise those. But they say, basically, you don't have to follow the law.

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You don't have to be circumcised. So that was the conclusion that the council came to. But apparently, this is an ongoing battle, an ongoing problem.

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Galatians, the book of Galatians, there's another scriptural reference for this topic. And the entire book is almost all focused on Paul confronting the

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Judaizers and just shooting them down. And apparently, the church in Galatia had a major problem with this.

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So apparently, the Philippians also needed instruction on this point. And so Paul is clarifying that you don't have to be circumcised to receive

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Christ. I lost myself in my notes. So Paul is extremely upset about this.

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And he calls these people dogs. And it seems like really strong language. Why is he so upset? Is it right for Paul to be so upset about these

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Judaizers? Well, I think the answer is yes. And that's because the gospel message itself is at stake.

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That is why Paul is getting so worked up. It's the gospel itself. You can't add to what

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Christ has done. You can't undermine the message of Christ. You can't contradict it.

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Or you lose the whole gospel message. The gospel message is critical. And I want to just dwell on what that gospel message is this morning for just a little bit.

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If the gospel message is so important to Paul, I think we should also take a heed and consider the importance of the message.

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And how can we know if someone's adding to the gospel unless we know what the gospel is? And how can we know if someone is twisting it or subverting it unless we have a solid grasp on the gospel?

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So what is the gospel? First of all, it comes from God's Word. And we know the gospel message because of what the

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Bible says. And I just want to take a moment to just emphasize, if you don't know God's Word, if you don't read

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God's Word, study it, and commit yourself to it, you're going to be running the risk of getting confused, deceived.

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It is critical that we study God's Word. And now let me just summarize the gospel message for us briefly this morning.

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Who here has heard of the four spiritual laws? Four spiritual laws? Anybody? So I used to use this years ago in sharing the gospel.

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And I think it's a very simple summary of the gospel message. It's very coherent. It makes good logical sense to my mind.

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Maybe it's kind of a Western mind kind of version of summarizing the gospel message. But it's based on scripture.

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I consider this to be all very accurate. And I'm just going to give you that brief summary that I have from the four spiritual laws.

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So first of all, the first spiritual law. All have sinned, every one of us.

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Everybody has done something wrong. And there's a scriptural reference for that, Romans 323, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

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And there's many other scriptures like it that say that same message. You know, I think everyone knows this inherently.

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I really think that that's true. Have you ever heard of the cultural like phrases like, you know, to err is human.

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You know, nobody's perfect. You know, you've heard all those kind of things, right? I mean, people know this. We know we make mistakes.

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We do wrong. So that's the first law. All have sinned and violated

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God's perfect and holy standard. Law number two, the wages of sin is death.

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The result of that sin is the punishment and the penalty of death. And that death is an eternal separation from God in hell.

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This is not something that we like to talk about. It's not a pleasant thought, but hell is a reality.

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It's the destination for those who do not know Christ. It's where we go with, because of the sin we've committed.

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Some people think, well, I haven't done anything that heinous. You know, I don't, it's not like I go around killing people or whatever.

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But you've got to understand that the law that God has put down, if you violate one command, it's like breaking all of those commands.

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And to have one sin still makes you guilty. So when you have the standard of a holy, perfectly holy

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God, none of us meet that standard. And we're all deserving of death. So first two points here, first two laws, it's kind of depressing.

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Anybody depressed? It's kind of discouraging. Why do I have to bring this up? Like, there's no good news yet. I thought the gospel was the good news.

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Where's the good news? The first two really are just context. They're just telling us this is where we stand.

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This is where we are. And I think it's actually important that we recognize where we stand in today's day and age especially, because I think this, a lot of people walk around thinking, maybe

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I'm good enough. Maybe I'm okay on my own. And I think if you don't clearly explain where we stand as humans apart from God, then the gospel message, the last two spiritual laws, just don't make any sense.

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Why do I even need Christ? So understanding the context, we now move into the third spiritual law.

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And the third spiritual law simply is that Christ died for our sins.

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Christ died for sinners. There's a lot of scriptural references we could pull. John 3 .16 is so familiar to many of us, so I'll just use that one.

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For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

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It's interesting to think about the context of that verse. That's Jesus Himself talking to a

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Pharisee, Nicodemus. Remember in John chapter 3, in the middle of the night, the Pharisee came to Jesus to try to figure things out.

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And so Jesus says, God, the same God that you believe in,

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Nicodemus, the Yahweh God of the Old Testament, loved the world so much that He sent

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His only Son. And of course Jesus was that very Son that was sent to save the world.

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So this is the beautiful good news, the gospel. And John 3 .16 is a beautiful illustration of that point.

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1 Peter 3 .18, I think, is another great verse. 1 Peter 3 .18 says, For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

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He was put to death in the body and made alive by the Spirit. And it's very clear the righteous have to die for the unrighteous, and that's why

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Christ came. So that's three spiritual laws. I got one more to go. And the last one is simply our response.

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It's our response. And I just want to use one verse here to illustrate this.

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It's Romans 10, 9, and 10. Romans 10, 9, and 10. And it's a simple verse.

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It just says, If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart,

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God raised Him from the dead, that you will be saved. And it's such a simple message.

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Salvation is so simple, right? This gospel message that we have is Christ died for us.

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We can do nothing else but believe in Him, put our faith and trust in Him, accept Him, and we have eternal life.

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That is the gospel message. But I think the other interesting thing about this gospel message we just looked at is it's kind of like a jewel that has all these different facets.

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So you can look at the jewel from a distance and you can say, yep, there's a jewel. I see exactly what it is. But if you hold it up and you put it under lights and everything and you turn it around, the more you study it, the more you see.

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The more the light catches it different ways, you see all these different facets and the way it was cut, and it's just amazing beauty and all that.

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And so in the same way the gospel, as we study it, as we dig into God's Word and read and learn about what

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Christ did for us, there are so many facets to it. I mean you can't stop just being amazed by it.

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And I would just encourage you to certainly understand and comprehend the gospel, the simplicity of that initial message, but also realize that there's so much depth to it.

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Just keep studying God's Word and digging in deeper on the gospel. So that's it.

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That's the gospel message. Belief in Jesus Christ, true faith in Christ.

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So I want to know how do we struggle with the gospel today?

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You know, how is the gospel message twisted today? How is it undermined?

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There's a lot of false religions and cults out there, and I'm sure many of you are aware of this and know some of those messages.

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But just to summarize false religions and cults, basically that's anyone who says, maybe they say a lot of good things, a lot of moralistic things, maybe they even say some true things about God and about Jesus Christ, but they also insert some lies.

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They'll insert some false statements, some things that are not true, that contradict the truth. That's the definition of a cult or a false religion, and undermining the gospel in that way is very dangerous because it can deceive people.

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So we need to keep our eyes open to the gospel and making sure that we're not starting to trust and believe in a different gospel.

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Another way is some people, and this is I think more common with people who don't go to church and maybe don't subscribe to a particular religion, whether that's a cult or a false religion or the true religion, but what they do is they basically think, if I'm good, if I do enough good things,

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I think it's gonna work out. I think I'll be alright. I'm a good person. I don't think I'm as bad as that guy over there.

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I'll roll the dice. I think when I get to heaven, God will understand. That is just really putting your faith and trust in your own good works.

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It's thinking that what you're doing is good enough on your own, and the gospel is very clear. It says that we're not good enough on our own, and only

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Jesus Christ can save us. I want to mention one other false twist to the gospel, and this is actually in Christian circles.

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There are a lot of mainstream, mainline denominations in the United States and elsewhere that do this final one here, and this is a very interesting twist to the gospel and very deceptive.

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They'll read the same Bible. They'll talk about Jesus. Everything sounds good, but what they'll do is they'll deny certain critical aspects of the gospel, such as the

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Incarnation, Jesus. Jesus wasn't really God. I think it just refers to Him that way.

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Maybe for some reason, they'll explain or talk the way around it. Or for the resurrection from the dead, they'll deny the resurrection, and they'll say, you know,

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Jesus didn't really raise from the dead. But it's a nice analogy for good feelings, and maybe this is the way we should think, and it's a good story, but it's not really true, and Jesus didn't really pay for our sins that way.

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We just need to use Him as a good model. So a lot of times, the gospel can be twisted in subtle ways, and I want to just encourage you guys to think clearly about the gospel.

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And alarms should go off in your head when you hear someone talking about the gospel, but twisting it a little bit.

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I trust that alarms would go off in your head, and that you would come back to Scripture and examine it, and make sure that you're not being confused by wrong teaching.

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So I want to move on now to this topic of circumcision. Aren't we excited to talk about this today?

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Verse 3 says, Paul says, we are the circumcision. He's talking to the

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Philippian church. He, being a former Pharisee himself, a Jew by birth, he's saying, we are the circumcision.

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What does he mean, we? I believe what he's saying here is actually a huge statement, and it's full of significance and importance.

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First of all, circumcision was God's promise to the Israelite nation, a covenant was made,

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God and Abraham, right? And God said, this circumcision is a sign of the covenant. And this was passed down through the generations,

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Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, then the whole time in Egypt. The Israelite nation, if you think about it, by the time

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Moses came along, and the Exodus from Egypt, they didn't have any law.

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All they had was this covenant promise, this covenant promise, and this sign of circumcision that signified that covenant.

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And yet God kept his promise, and through Moses and Joshua, the

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Israelites moved into the promised land. The amazing thing about it is, later on in Israelite's history, there were prophets, one after the other, who came up, and they kept building on this theme.

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Isaiah, I think we all know the prophet Isaiah and some of his promises, but he foretold the covenant of peace.

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This is Isaiah 54 .10. Jeremiah, another prophet, said,

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I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. That's Jeremiah 31, verses 31 to 34.

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Ezekiel later said, a covenant of peace, everlasting covenant, he said, of which

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God will dwell in their midst. These are all prophets talking about this promise of God to the nation

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Israel that was yet to be fulfilled in some new way. The most amazing part was, really, it was just in the upper room, when

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Jesus was sitting with his disciples at the Last Supper. You may remember the words Jesus used.

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He said, this is my body, which is for you. And then he took the cup, and he said, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.

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The new covenant in my blood. Do you get that? He was fulfilling these promises of God in their midst, and of a new covenant of peace ushered in through the blood of Christ.

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It's just, it's amazing. This is really the, really the tying together of all

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Old Testament and New Testament, and the amazing truth that Paul is sharing with the Philippians, is he's saying, we are the circumcision.

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We now are these new chosen people of God. Jews like me, Paul, and Gentiles like you,

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Philippians. And you know what? That applies to all believers today. It is true for all of us, that we are now the circumcision of God, the chosen people of God.

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Verse 3 goes on to talk about three ways that the chosen people of God should act.

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Three ways that they should walk with Christ. And I want to just dwell on these three things very briefly.

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Number one, it's worship by the Spirit of God. That's sort of an upward focus. Second, glory in Christ Jesus.

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That's an outward focus. And third, put no confidence in the flesh. And that's really more of an inward focus.

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So I'm just going to talk about each of those real briefly. First, upward focus. You know, we were just doing this.

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This is the worship, right? That we come together and we sing phrases and songs. And we certainly should have our focus on God during that time,

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I trust. And we can encourage each other in the worship. That's why we do it together. But worship of God doesn't have to happen just here.

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I hope that you in your car or driving along, just singing at the top of your voice, you know, to God.

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Or hopefully no one else is in the car. No, maybe that's okay. Or maybe just laying in your bed at night as you pray.

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You know, you're talking to God. Whatever your quiet time is, you're worshiping God. That's so critical.

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Worshiping God is an important aspect of our relationship with God. Then there's the outward aspect. And this is our attitude toward Christ.

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Should be to lift Him up. So number two was glory in Christ Jesus.

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What does that mean? I think it means literally to boast about Christ Jesus. To lift

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Him up. To give Him the credit and not to get the credit for ourselves. Paul in the book of Galatians later says,

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May I never boast except in the cross of Christ. May I never boast except in the cross of Christ.

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You know, we're going to see Paul boasting here in just a minute. And I think that's interesting to consider.

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How can we reconcile this? So I think the truth is, Paul is going to boast here in a minute, but there's a reason for it.

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And so we'll walk through that right now. But first, the third point is inward focus.

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We realize that in our flesh, apart from God's redeeming work of salvation, in our flesh we cannot do it.

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We're unworthy. This is really the first two points of the spiritual law, right? It's the inward focus. We realize that in our flesh, apart from God's redeeming work of salvation, we're helpless and we're dead in our sins.

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So all of a sudden, Paul gets into the verses 4 to 6, and he talks about the reasons that he has confidence in the flesh.

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Why is Paul now talking about why he's confident in the flesh? This seems kind of backwards and upside down.

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He just says, we don't put our confidence in the flesh. Now he says, here's my reasons for having confidence in the flesh. Well, I think the reason

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Paul now does this is he essentially is going to diffuse the arguments of the Judaizers.

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He's going to undermine them, just cut them right off, by basically giving his personal testimony. And he's going to say, I was a

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Pharisee. I did all that stuff. In fact, I did it better than all of them. I was the ultimate

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Pharisee. And then he compares it to knowing Christ, as you know in the passage.

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So let's just go through this really quick. Paul says, circumcise on the eighth day. This was the sign of God.

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We've already talked about God's chosen people. He says, I was of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin. He's like,

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I wasn't just an Israelite, I was a Benjamite, one of the two tribes that stuck together with the tribe of Judah to worship

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God in Jerusalem. He says, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I didn't just become a Jew, I was born a

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Jew. And then, and that's kind of everything he inherited, right? He didn't earn it, he didn't do any of that.

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He was just born into that. But now he talks about his work. He says, I joined the most religious sect.

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I was a Pharisee. I followed all the rules. I did all the things. He said, I was so zealous that I even persecuted the

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Christians. And he says, I was blameless in my following of the law.

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He apparently followed rules to the teeth. And that describes everything

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Paul had accomplished in the flesh. And you might think that flesh is this term that talks about the base nature, right?

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The things, the terrible wicked people acting in the flesh. And I generally grew up in the church and thought the flesh

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I associated with sin and wrong things that were done. And that is all true. But Paul here is saying everything

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I did, that was in the flesh. So I want you to realize Paul was a moral man, upstanding citizen.

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He was as righteous as you can get in man's eyes apart from Christ. And yet he's saying that that was just the flesh.

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And ultimately we see Paul go on to say that it was worth nothing.

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Let's move on to verse 7. Paul adds up all of his good works. He says, you know, everything I've accomplished, like an accountant, he tallies them up and he gets to the bottom line and he says, big fat zero.

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Actually, it's worse than that. He says, a loss. I'm in the red. Negative numbers down there.

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Whoa, that's not good. Everything I've done, it all adds up to negative numbers. This is not a good situation.

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So Paul counted up all his works and says it's worthless. Paul though goes on to say, verse 8,

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Paul says, not only did I counted my works past tense in verse 7, but in verse 8 he says, present tense,

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I count up all and add up all the things and I continue to see that they're worthless compared to knowing

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Christ. So Paul talks about this surpassing greatness of knowing Christ in verse 8. He also mentions it in verse 10.

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And I just, this is, this theme, this idea of knowing Christ, I think is very important. What is Paul talking about?

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What does it mean to know Christ? Apparently it's the most valuable thing, right? First of all, factual knowledge.

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So you can read the Bible, you can read scripture, you can gain insight into who

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Christ is and what he's done. And I would encourage you to do that. The Bible is a wealth of knowledge and we need that information.

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We need to know all about Christ. But secondly, there's another aspect of knowledge and that's more of a personal or relational aspect to knowledge.

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And I think we all know this intuitively, like we all have relationships, right? A relationship with our spouse, with our kids, with our friends, and we have an experience with them.

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We know them personally. And that's also part of this knowledge of Christ. I think the second aspect of knowing

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Christ is more of the aspect of faith -based knowledge. So as we know

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Christ intellectually, we then live it out relationally through faith. We trust in God and we follow

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God's commands in life. And that's, I think, very critical to understand. The knowledge part of knowing

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Christ plays out into the relational part of knowing Christ as we obey

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God and live our life in a pleasing way with him. So there's an interesting mix of the word knowing and suffering.

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And I want to just get into this quickly before we wrap up. Knowing Christ and suffering. Look at verse 8.

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Surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. And then in verse 10, that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, and share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

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Both times the knowledge of Christ ties directly into the suffering. What is going on here? Well Paul certainly knew hardship.

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You can't you can't deny that. He got beaten and flogged and stoned and shipwrecked and I mean the guy was imprisoned.

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He went through all of it. And I think suffering for Christ is a part of the

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Christian life. But there's a difference. Suffering for Christ means suffering with a purpose. And I think this is really critical that we grasp a hold of this.

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Whether the pain that you're experiencing is brought on by circumstances out of your control, whether it's circumstances maybe brought about by some other person, whatever the case, you can choose to suffer for Christ.

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That's a choice that you can make. It's an attitude in your heart. Secondly, I want to point out that through suffering we can actually grow closer to Christ and we can actually enjoy him more.

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Remember the word rejoice? Paul started this whole thing out with this whole theme of rejoicing the Lord, right? The command. Well you can actually rejoice in suffering.

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And I would I would submit to you that suffering has a way of just kind of stripping away all the stuff that we worry about, that we think about, that we think matters in life.

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And we suddenly have this crystal -clear perspective on Christ and on who he is and what he means to us.

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And I just submit to you that suffering can be a beautiful thing no matter how hard it is.

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And I just want to encourage you as you're going through tough things in life, grow closer to Christ.

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Lean on him. Lean on him and just and find joy in Christ.

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You know Paul doesn't just say that he suffered loss of everything. He says, actually he says all of his accomplishments, you know, the things that he tallied up that added up to a loss, he says actually that stuff is stinky garbage.

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Stinky garbage. I mean we can get into the Greek words and all that but it's basically stinky garbage. Refuse. Trash.

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That's what all of our righteous accomplishments add up to compared to knowing Christ.

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I just want to emphasize this point. We cannot make ourselves right with God. Anything we do to try to make ourselves right with God apart from Christ is garbage.

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Paul's words. Verse 9 and I need to wrap this up quickly here. To be found in him.

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Verse 9. Basically this is a beautiful phrase that illustrates that we have a residence in Christ.

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You know you might be a resident of Matawan or Portage or Pawpaw or you might move to Florida and try to escape the cold and be a resident of Florida or these people here were ancient residents in in Philippi but wherever you live your true residence is in Christ.

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In the person of Christ and and that's forever. There is no end of that. And there is one primary treasure that you get through your your being resident in Christ and that is righteousness.

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And this isn't a righteousness of course based on the to -do efforts the self efforts and the good works we have but it's it's a righteousness from God.

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This is a really key point. You know no matter how hard we try how do we know if what we do would be good enough in God's eyes.

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We're not God. We can't judge that. But what if God says hey

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I'll give you my righteousness. This is my righteousness. I'm gonna give it to you. It's it's gonna satisfy me.

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You can be 100 % sure that the righteousness you have in Christ will satisfy God. Why? Because it came from God.

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It is his righteousness. That's what we have. And the second thing about this righteousness is it's from God but it's also by faith.

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It's not by works. And this faith is not just a random faith that you can walk around and say

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I have strong faith. Faith in what? I don't know. It's a faith in Christ.

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It's in the person of Christ. It's the person in whom you place your faith and trust that matters.

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That's why it works. So we're getting close to the end here.

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This knowing Christ is is a is just a critical thing and it really is a combination of knowledge and sharing and suffering.

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I just want to point out a couple of things as we wrap up. Verse 11 I can draw your attention to that verse and then we'll conclude.

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Somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead. Paul says so somehow to attain the resurrection. Does this imply that Paul is uncertain if he will be resurrected with Christ?

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It might sound that way and I just want to clarify some things really quickly. If Paul didn't know where he was going when he died it would contradict not only

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Paul's statements his his own statements in this letter but many other places in scripture.

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Let me just point out verse 9 that we just looked at this and he said I want to be found in him a righteousness that is from God.

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He knows he has the righteousness from God but if you go back to chapter 1 verse 23 Paul said very clearly

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I desire to depart and be with Christ. He said that so so he knows when he leaves this life when he dies he's gonna be with Christ.

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There's no doubt in his mind. So what exactly is Paul saying in this verse 11 and I believe what he's saying is that he is while he's very confident in his destination he is not as certain in the journey to get there.

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He doesn't know what tomorrow is going to bring. He doesn't know what hardships he's going to endure. He doesn't know the path ahead.

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So basically Paul is here encouraging the Philippians. He's saying move forward along the path of growing in Christlikeness.

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Keep going even though you don't know the exact path. Keep growing in knowledge. Keep going in your personal walk even though you're going through hardship and pain.

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You may not know the exact path but the righteousness of God is there for you. It's covering your sins and it's paying the price and making you right with God.

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Your job is just to stay faithful and keep pursuing God all the way to eternity. So I want to just wrap up now with with a couple of questions.

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What are you boasting about? I asked this at the beginning of the message. What are you boasting about?

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Paul had a lot to brag about. You know he had a lot of achievements right? He had achieved a lot of righteousness by man's standards.

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Moralistic, hard -working person. But nothing he did apart from Christ was worth anything to him.

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In comparison to knowing Christ everything else was garbage. So I just want to ask you what are you proud about?

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What are you really excited about? And have you considered how that compares to Christ?

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I want to ask another similar question. What are you trusting in? What are you putting your faith in? Are you thinking that you can be good enough on your own?

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You can do it your way. You might be saying, thanks I got this.

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I'm good. I try to do the right thing. I try to do what's right. I give to charity.

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Maybe I even go to church. I'm nice to people. I work hard.

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I gotta tell you, Paul's own words, all of that is garbage.

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Okay? It's garbage. There is a way that leads to destruction and the path to that end is wide.

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And there are tons of people on that pathway to destruction. I'm asking you this morning to wake up and open your eyes.

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God has made a way for us. Salvation is here. Christ came. God himself, in human form, humbled himself and paid the ultimate price for us.

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Don't reject God. Don't reject him this morning. Don't turn from him. He loves you and the offer is open.

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Simply put, simply put your faith in the only trustworthy thing, the cross of Christ.

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Admit your sinner and ask for his forgiveness. You know, we're going to take communion now in just a minute as Josh comes to sing and the band.

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And I just want to encourage us, if you're a believer in Christ, whether you're a member or not, doesn't matter. Whether you're a visitor or not, doesn't matter.

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If you're a believer in Christ, you put your faith and trust in him, we want to encourage you to take communion. This is a time to celebrate what

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God has done for us in the person of Jesus Christ. We do this every week as a reminder. We have stations set up in the back and on the sides and you can just form a line and take the elements as the song plays.

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But if you have not put your faith and trust in God, I would just encourage you to think about the things we've talked about.

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And I would love to talk to you afterward. If you have a minute, just stay and ask me some questions. I know Zach would love to talk to you or another believer that you may know.

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Feel free to talk to them as well and get this settled in your relationship with Christ.

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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word.

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Father, I thank you for the gospel, the truth of Scripture that tells us where we stand and it tells us what you've done for us,

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God, through the person of Jesus Christ. I thank you for the truth that we find there and the hope and the joy that we gain through our walk with Christ, Lord, no matter what hardships we're going through.

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Lord, may we just trust in you. Lord, as we take communion today, I just pray we would rejoice.

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I pray that our our faith would be strengthened. And Father, I pray we would just be excited in the person of Christ and the knowledge we have of Christ and who you are and what you've done for us.