Valuing Christ Most Highly (pt-1) - [Philippians]

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Don't know if you think about The gospel being very Jewish are being very
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Gentile or you never consider that Psalm 117 says praise the Lord all nations
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Laud him all peoples for his loving -kindness is great towards us and the truth of the
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Lord is everlasting Praise the Lord and the psalmist desire was that not just the Jewish people
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But the Gentiles every living being would worship Jesus Christ There's only one way they can and that is by God's plan to send out men and women to preach the gospel to all nations
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And so that's why I love Jeremy Smith and his wife and the kids because they not only have good theology
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They not only want to teach men how to preach the Bible expositionally in a local church setting
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But they have a heart for Indian people 1 billion Indian people to worship the
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Lamb of God and the only way they can know it is if there's a teacher or a preacher who sent and so Jeremy Smith, would you please come we've been supporting
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Jeremy now for Several months as we met in India and met in Bombay and in Los Angeles and Jeremy loves the word
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He loves the Lord and he loves dying people enough to go there and live for 10 years to preach the gospel
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And I appreciate that in him. Welcome Good morning
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It is really a pleasure. I honestly mean that to be with you this weekend and this morning
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And just to enjoy fellowship with all of you folks, it's been a blessing even this morning to Worship Jesus Christ to glorify him
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You know, that's what fellowship is all about fellowship is sharing enjoying appreciating the things we have in common in Christ, isn't it?
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And and that's what's happened this morning. I really have enjoyed it and appreciated that this morning you know it says in in Philippians chapter 1
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I Thank my God in verse 3. I thank my God and all my remembrance of you
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Always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all why was was Paul rejoicing and praising
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God and thanking him? In verse 5 we see it in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now that word participation means fellowship
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So Paul was thanking God for the fellowship which he experienced In the gospel and the work of the gospel and ministering and that brought him great joy.
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And you know, I I feel the same way I'm no Apostle Paul, and I know you're not the Philippian Church, but you know, we have fellowship in the gospel, don't we?
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Together we are serving you are serving the Lord here. People are growing and getting saved
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We are serving in India and people are growing and getting saved and that's all glory to God and you are participating with us in your love and your generosity and supporting us and I I just hope that this morning as and in these days as we're together that you also enjoy that fellowship
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You know, I I know some of you I've never met Some of you I've met one time a few of you
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I'm getting to know a little bit better, but you know over the years as we work together and minister together
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I pray that fellowship will grow sweeter and deeper and all praise will go to the Lord for that So I just want to say as we begin
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Thank you, and I thank Lord also for you and for your ministry and supporting us as missionaries
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It's just a pleasure to be with you today and be able to build that relationship And enjoy that fellowship a little bit more
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You know, it's been neat this morning as we were worshiping. We've looked at Jesus Christ a lot
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In the song and the special music in the worship We have looked at who he is and what he means to us and that has been precious
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He is our Lord he is our Savior he has done it all so that we might be saved and this morning the sermon we're going to look at is
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Valuing Christ above all we're gonna look at Philippians chapter 3 valuing Christ more than any other thing
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That we have or that we experience or that we value in life.
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You know, we value a lot of things in Fact I would go so far to say is that we worship
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Many things we'll talk about that in a minute But we're gonna see in this passage in Philippians chapter 3
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Paul's testimony Paul's attitude his heart about what he valued in life his value judgment about everything in this world and His knowledge and his understanding and his value of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and I hope that'll be a challenge for us Before I get into the text and we start looking at it deeply.
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I want to tell you a story About an interesting experience that we experienced. Oh about a year ago in India We went to a nursery a plant nursery where you go to get plants for our home
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Decorating we just moved into our apartment We wanted to get a few plants thought that'd be nice And so we go there and they have all kinds of plants and in one area of the nursery
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They had the bonsai trees, you know what bonsai are those miniature trees and I that's kind of one of my hobbies
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And so I enjoyed going over and looking at that Well Andrea and the two kids my wife and two kids were with us
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And so we go over to the bonsai section and all these different kinds of interesting miniature trees and my son
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Jeremy He's almost six junior He went over to one of the bonsai trees and you know He has a sharp eye like all six -year -olds do and he's looking at this one tree and he says daddy
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Come over and look at this. He says this must be a mango tree. I Said why do you think this is a miniature bonsai mango tree and I look over there and sure enough
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There is a mango sitting right at the base of the tree and I thought wow Well, maybe so I don't you know
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What kind of tree this is then one of the ladies who worked in the nursery came over and heard us talking about this
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And she comes over and says no. No. No, this isn't a mango tree This is a banyan tree and the banyan tree is a beautiful tree
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I don't know Maybe you've seen pictures of it But they're they're large trees and then they have the the roots that come down from the branches that go down into the ground
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There are everywhere in India And she said and she continued and explained, you know This is a banyan tree and the reason there's a mango
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Sitting at the base of the banyan tree is because my mother came this morning To the nursery and she worshipped the tree and She off she gave an offering and that she left her offering there and there was a mango and a few flowers and so on And you can imagine what's going on in my mind, you know as my as the nursery worker is telling my son that Oh, yes, we in India here.
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We worship the tree the banyan tree, especially So I didn't say anything, you know at the time and Jeremy's just kind of oh, you know, that's interesting
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And So you can imagine on the way home We went, you know got our plants got in the car and you can imagine the conversation that I struck up with my six -year -old son about this banyan tree and I we had a great talk about Romans chapter 1 and What the sinful heart will do to worship and the sinful heart worships the creation
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Rather than the Creator that's exactly what the sinful heart does they see beauty in what
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God has created You know, we even sang a song in the worship time about all of creation worshiping the
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Lord it does it's wonderful It's a wonderful expression of God's glory and his greatness. But what does sinful man do?
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He sees that beauty. He sees that wonder and He worships that Instead of worshiping the one who created that and that's just the natural tendency of all men everywhere in the world
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Man is at heart a worshiper He worships he seeks naturally that which
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Is wonderful that which is valuable that which is greatest To worship and you know, we see that in India Everywhere India of all the countries in the world
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I've heard it said is the most religious and I believe it having lived there for two and a half years
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They are an extremely religious people. I would say they are an extremely worshipful People they worship all the time they have religious festivals
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Constantly where they're celebrating in the bands and the music and the firecrackers and the rejoicing and the feasting and they're worshiping
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These gods when someone has a birthday party in the Hindu homes, they will have a puja
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Which is a worship. It's a small worship service if you will and they give an offering or they break a coconut and Give reverence and honor to a
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God when you build a building The Hindus will at the foundation. They'll have a worship service in that Building before they construct the building, but they are an extremely worshipful
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People so, you know over the last two years as I've been there You know, I've done a lot of thinking about worship, you know in the midst of these huge religious festivals that are going on I'm thinking, you know, these people are really worshiping.
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They're celebrating. They're rejoicing. They're having a good time What is worship?
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What is worship? What is the nature of it what does it consist of and I believe a good
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Answer to that question is this listen worship is Recognizing Appreciating and expressing the ultimate value of something or someone
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Listen to that again. What is worship? It is recognizing Appreciating and expressing the ultimate value of Something or someone and so you see people in this world worship
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What they find to be ultimately valuable worship consists of celebration of Exaltation of singing the praises of Someone or something of appreciating it of trusting in it of Valuing it above everything else of devoting your life
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To it. That's what worship is, isn't it? You know, we have a tendency to compartmentalize worship.
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Don't we to kind of tame it? I've heard some people say well, I prefer to go to you know,
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XYZ Church because I like the what? The worship right and what do they mean?
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Well, I like the music that's my style of music, right? I prefer that I prefer that worship
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So worship we have tamed to limit it put it in a box And so this is worship, but that biblically isn't what worship is
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Worship is what you find most valuable and it's appreciating it. It's valuing it.
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It's devoting yourself to it. It's being faithful to it That is worship. It has everything to do with value and our value judgment about things
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So in India, we see Indians worshiping every every part of creation. They say there are 33 million
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Hindu gods that are recorded and they're being added to every day. They see value in Something in a person in a plant in an animal they see it as valuable.
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Therefore they give it honor and worship and devotion What about us here in America? What do we worship?
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Do we see things as valuable? course We're human beings. We have the the innate desire to find that which is most valuable and to honor it
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What are some of the things you can think of in your mind that we might worship here in America? I Could suggest a few what about financial gain and financial security
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That's something that we value in American culture and life. I think so how about health
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Having a healthy life surviving having a good quality of life. That's something we count as valuable and some people worship
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That what about beauty aesthetics, you know looking good
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Appearances that's valuable in our culture And so many many people count these things as the most valuable thing and they devote themselves to it.
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That is worship So one of the most fundamental questions for us to ask as Believers and I want us to ask this question to ourselves this morning is what do we consider the most valuable thing?
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Worship is important what you value is important what your value judgments are in life is important it's a matter of Worship and I just pray that this morning as we look at this text and see the
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Apostle Paul and his value system That we would be challenged To have the same value system to value
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Christ above all Turn to wrote to Philippians chapter 3 in verse 8.
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We're gonna look at verse 8 primarily but we're going to look at the context as well, but let's just read
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Philippians chapter 3 in verse 8 and Notice what Paul valued in life the scripture says this he says more than that I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing
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Value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and Count them, but rubbish so that I may gain
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Christ You know, it's a short verse can I read that again follow along Scripture says more than that.
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I count all things to be lost in In view of the surpassing value of knowing
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Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things And count them, but rubbish
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So that I may gain Christ we're gonna see two things in this passage
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Two points really first of all, we're gonna see Paul's assessment of everything in life Paul's value judgment if you will on Everything in life and then secondly he explains that he gives the explanation for that value judgment so first of all in the first half of the verse
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Paul's value judgment and Then secondly his explanation. Why would he make such a value judgment?
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And I hope that as we we look at this we will be challenged the Lord will open our eyes as we saying that we can
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See Christ and all his glory and all of his value Now before we look at verse 8 in depth,
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I want us just to look at the context Paul, of course was a very Logical thinker right very logical writer.
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So to understand and completely in verse 8 We need to understand what he's writing in in verse 1 now when he comes to verse 1 chapter 3
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He's he's starting a whole new section and you can see that as you look at the verse look at it in your Bibles Paul says finally brethren rejoice in the
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Lord to write the same things again is no trouble for me and it's a safeguard to you So he's starting a whole new topic here whole new topic
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Hang on I'm falling apart here and what is the nature of this topic that he's starting he's giving them a warning look at verse 2
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He says beware of the dogs beware of the evil workers beware of the false circumcision.
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It's a warning in verse 1 He said I don't mind saying the same thing again to you Because it will keep you safe Paul was concerned about the spiritual safety of the
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Philippian Church Paul saying there's a danger to be aware of there's a problem.
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There's something there's that you need to be aware of there's a trap that you may fall into and This wasn't just for the
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Philippians the same trap the same danger is is with us today And we have to be careful of it. So we need to heed the warning that Paul is giving to the church here
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He says beware of the dogs beware of the evil workers beware of the false circumcision Who are these people he's using pretty harsh words.
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These were people who were Tempting who are trying tempting the Philippians trying to draw them away to put their confidence in something besides Jesus Christ There are
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Judaizers. There are those who would say yeah, Jesus did it all for you But it still required that you obey the law that you place your confidence for spirituality for acceptability before God in Certain things so that was the danger.
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He was warning them against Paul says, you know, what don't fall into that trap Don't fall into putting value in something that isn't valuable
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And then the next few verses verses 3 to 6 we see Paul Saying you know what
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I've been there. I've done that. I used to have that kind of value system I used to worship something that didn't deserve being worshipped.
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I used to put value in things that were trash So so don't be a fool like me
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Paul saying here says don't spend your life on something that is
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Just gone like that. It doesn't matter a wit to God and You're gonna waste your life.
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So don't do that and we see that in verses 3 to 6 Paul telling them You know what? I've been there. I've done that don't follow me
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I'll just read them and you see what Paul put his value in what he found is most valuable verse 3 for we are the true circumcision who worship in the
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Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh
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Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh
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I far more So we're saying if anyone thinks that they should put confidence in in doing things
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I've got him beat I was there I did it I went down that road and Then he gives the list in verse 5
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I was circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law
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Pharisee as to zeal a persecutor of the church as to the righteousness, which is in the law found blameless
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This is resume right? I was impressing God. I would have the right rituals I had the right genealogy.
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I was in the right family. I was zealous. I was religious and He said
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I thought that was valuable Paul was doing the religious road the intellectual religious path.
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That was his value system and then we come to verse 7 big contrast, but Whatever things were gained to me those things.
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I have counted as what as Loss for the sake of Christ in verse 7
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Paul is giving his personal testimony of his conversion He said when I came to know Jesus Christ My entire value system was turned on its head.
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It was reversed It was changed massive change in my life the things we once thought were valuable
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Or now trashed the things I thought were hateful and to be despised Suddenly are the treasure of My life and Paul is saying you know what
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I had a massive change in my assessment of What is ultimately valuable in life?
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Just notice even in verse 7 the value terms that are there. Do you see them? Whatever things were gained that's profit
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To me these are financial terms actually that Paul is using those things I have counted as Loss another value term another financial value term
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So he's talking about value. He's talking about what he considered most valuable at the time of his conversion
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He had a massive switch in his his understanding of what really mattered in life
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But then we come to verse 8 and he shifts gears and just notice verse 8 we'll just read the first part
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He says more than that. I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing
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Christ Jesus my lord There's a very significant contrast in This first in these first few words of the verse contrast from verse 7 to verse 8.
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Can you see what it is? There's one word that slightly changes and it's significant for us to understand where Paul's going with this and his thought and his understanding here and his argument
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Read it again, but whatever things were gained to me those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ More than that.
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I count all things to be lost in View of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus Christ.
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Did you see the change? Did you see the contrast verse 7? he's saying I Counted I have counted all things lost.
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He's talking about his salvation right at the moment. I met Christ Everything changed my value system most of all but what happens in verse 8
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I Count Now present tense. I counted verse 7
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I count Verse 8 Paul is changing gears. He's switching. He's saying, you know what
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I was saved Massive change but that it doesn't stop there. That's what Paul's trying to say in this verse
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Says it didn't stop there when I came to know Jesus Christ. I gave up everything. Everything was trash
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But that didn't stop more than that even now in my present life as a believer as a
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Christian as a mature Christian I Count everything is lost that judgment about values that judgment about what is really important in life continued on in Paul's life and That is is the proper value system even for a believer now
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That everything is considered as Loss everything is to be considered as nothing
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So let's look at this verse in detail first point as I said before Let's look at Paul's judgment his value judgment his value assessment about everything in his life
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And I want to point out to you first that word I count you see it's used two times in verse 8 one time in verse 7
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He says whatever things were gained to me verse 7 those things I have counted as lost now This word has nothing to do with numbers
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Okay, I hope you know that maybe another version would translate it differently nothing to do with numbers
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Okay has everything to do with the mind Everything to do with the heart the judgment the individual judgment of a person.
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It's a thinking word In fact, this word is used elsewhere in the book of Philippians three other times if you look in chapter 2 verse 25
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The same word is there he says, but I thought it necessary there it is. I thought it necessary I counted it necessary same exact word.
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Don't ask me why the translators translated differently. I don't know Chapter 2 verse 6 the same word is used again.
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See it there Philippians 2 6 who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped
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This is talking about Jesus Christ and the word there is translated. I regard Jesus Christ did not regard
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Equality with God something to be held on to it's talking about his attitude his heart the thing he considered That's a good word to translate it.
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I considered something chapter 2 verse 3 Says the same uses the same word
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Paul says make my joy complete by being of the same mind maintaining the same love United in spirit intent on One purpose sorry, that's verse 2 verse 3 do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit
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Humility of mind what? Regard one another as more important than yourself again.
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So Paul is talking here about the heart. It's something you think in your mind And I think it's important to note here that It's not so important.
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God isn't so concerned what you have how much you have Some people have a lot some people have a little that's not what
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God is concerned about God is concerned about what is your value judgment about those things about the things in your life
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Everyone's different everyone has different things they value different things But what is the relative?
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What is your relative value on those things? That's what's really important to the Lord and that's what this passage is talking about Paul's value judgment
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About everything in life. I want you to notice first of all something about his value judgment. He was passionate about it
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He was passionate about his value judgment See there back in chapter 3 verse 8
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He says more than that that doesn't cut it that doesn't really do justice to to the words in the original language
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Paul here's is Piling up words literally if you just translated those words out it would be something like this
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He says but on the one hand therefore indeed also He's just piling these conjunctions one on top of the other and it's an expression of his zeal
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He's Paul's just exploding here He's he just remembered everything that had happened in his life in his conversion
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Before he knew Christ when he came to know Christ. He says you know what I gave it all up I just trashed it all just For the sake of Christ and then he explodes as he gives his example to this church that he loves
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He just explodes. He says you know what but it doesn't stop there You think that's great It's even greater than that and let me just tell you
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What my life and my testimony is like now and so he's just he's just exploding
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He's passionate about it. Paul was just a passionate guy. He didn't do things halfway
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And especially he didn't do important things halfway. He was radical some people would call him crazy
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You know just listen to some of the crazy things Paul said in Philippians chapter 121 for me to live is
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Christ and to die is gain That die is gain What was
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Paul suicidal? No, he really thought it we better to die that's what he's saying there that's that's weird, you know
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Or how about chapter 1 verse 29, you know, the Philippians might have said yeah great Paul. I'm happy for you
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I'm glad you're so radical, you know, boy. I really love that about you But look at verse 29 of the same chapter.
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He says for to you Church it has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in him, but what to suffer
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For his sake Whoa, wait a minute. You're stepping on toes now Paul, right?
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I'm happy if you're willing to sacrifice your life, but you know, I have a life of my own I'm happy about you know, believing in Christ Paul says to you has been granted to believe in Jesus Christ wonderful Praise the
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Lord and to suffer for his sake. What a blessing. What a joy. What a gift to suffer for Christ Little crazy.
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Some people will say he's passionate. He's radical and it just goes on and on Chapter 2 verse 17, but even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith
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I rejoice and share my joy with you all Paul saying even if I'm poured out even if my life is spilt
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Because of service to you man, that's the best thing that could happen to me I rejoice Paul was a radical guy when he says
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I count all things as loss. He wasn't exaggerating He was radical.
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He went all the way that was his Judgment that was his value judgment
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Let's look at another aspect though of this value judgment secondly the extent of his value judgment Look at the verse more than that.
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I count all things To be lost how many things all things
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I know a lot of you know Greek You know what that word means in the Greek in the original language It means all things
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You don't have to be an expert to know that it's just everything I mean the extent of his his judgment was everything he was including everything
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He was wrapping his arms around every single thing in his life He personally externally his job his ministry his family his his
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Everything was part of this judgment of this consideration. I consider all things
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To be lost You know, I think this is significant. Also remember what happened in verse 8.
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He's talking about his present Christian life You know, oftentimes we look at young believers, you know, oh, isn't it wonderful?
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They just get saved and they they give up everything Maybe they give up their job and they give up, you know, the the pleasures that they were going after man
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They sacrifice so much. They just want fire for the Lord But you know, they'll get older, right?
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They'll mature, you know, they'll become a Little more even keel. You don't want to be so radical, right?
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They'll they'll mature And that's sad. That's sad because in the scripture is saying here
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Paul is saying of his own testimony I gave up everything when I became a believer But more than that Let me tell you even now my constant life ongoing right now is a life of considering everything to be lost and in Paul's mind in this though the
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Word of God is telling us here that the the true pattern of a believer is Not a lesser degree of sacrifice the older you get in Christ Through Paul's testimony we see that if someone knows
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Christ longer as he becomes more devoted to him more in love with him There's just more things to consider loss
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You know the more you gain the more you accomplish the more you You know
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Advance in life generally, you're just adding things to consider as trash
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To know just compared to knowing Jesus Christ my
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Lord and And that's we see that the extent of Paul's judgment as a believer right now
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Was everything? Just a third thing I want to know us to notice about the the value judgment is the actual statement of it
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Look at the next phrase more than that account all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing
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Christ Jesus My Lord here we see really the reason why
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Paul seek had made such a radical decision such a radical decision about value in life
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This word he says why why did I make this consideration? Why do I continue to have this value system in life?
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It's because of the surpassing value that's one word in the original it literally means to exceed to go beyond to go far beyond and Paul's mind there's no comparison
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There's there's the choice was simple No, it wasn't a matter of well, you know, what's more important?
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It's it's a closer race. No Jesus Christ and the value of knowing him is far superior far greater than anything else in his life as A young believer is an old believer
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And again, I just want to point out the same word Paul uses this word the surpassingness
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You could say the emphasis is in that which goes beyond That same word is used in chapter 4 verse 7 the surpassingness
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He says in the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension that which goes far beyond what we can understand
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That's the same word that which goes beyond and in chapter 2 verse 3
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We see the word again do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind regard one another as what?
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more Important than yourselves as others as superseding you going far beyond The value or in the importance of you.
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So that's what Paul's saying here. He's saying knowing Jesus Christ is far far more
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Valuable far more important far more valuable than anything. I have in life. That was Paul's Value judgment and what was it the
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Paul considered valuable? It was knowing Jesus Christ I think it's important to note that Paul didn't say, you know
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What's so valuable in my life is is all the benefits I receive from knowing Jesus Christ The joy the blessing the righteousness the escape from punishment in hell
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That's not what he says that comes a few verses later But that's not what he says right here when he talks about the value judgment
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He says everything is lost in order that I may what know Jesus Christ.
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It's a relationship Is it a mental knowledge? Yes, it is. Is it a Relational knowledge.
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Yes, it's both you can't know someone in a relational way Unless you know them in an intellectual way.
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And so Paul really has in mind both of those things not one without the other
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But both he said just to know him to know who he is to have a relationship
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With Jesus Christ, that's what is valuable That is what I count as the most important thing in life
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I don't know about you, but when I was a young believer, I struggled with this concept of a relationship with Jesus Christ.
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Have you ever Struggled with that? But what does it mean to have a relationship with Jesus Christ? You know as a young man,
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I've never seen Jesus Besides he's a man and you know, how do you have a relationship with a man?
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Right love. I mean, you know But But it has to do with knowing it has to do with appreciating and in Christ And he is the
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Lord. So we love him as our Lord as a king as a master Also as a friend, that's what it means to know
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Jesus Christ. It's a relationship Can you have a relationship with someone you have never physically or personally met
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Yes, how do you do that? Through through communication through correspondence
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And you know, it's really the same way with Jesus Christ when we have a relationship with him. We know about him from the word
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We pray to him and we can grow in that relationship and that's the encouraging thing you know a relationship with Christ the knowledge of Christ is something we can grow in and something we must
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Grow in 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 18 Is a good verse to remember in this regard 2nd
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Peter 3 18 says but grow In the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity
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Amen, we must grow in that relationship. So as a young believer you
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You should have as much of a relationship with Christ as possible But as as maturing believers We should continue in that relationship of love of adoration and of value and worship
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Worship is really the heart of a relationship with Christ. That's what it's all about It's valuing him
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So We see Paul here. He transitions to the second part of the verse He says, you know, the most valuable thing in life is just knowing
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Jesus Christ. It's a relationship with him And that leads us to the second main point is the reason for Paul's judgment
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The reason for his judgment is the person of Christ and I want you just to notice in verse 8 He be he switches focus here and he focuses on the person of Christ For whom
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I have suffered the loss of all things. He's pointing now to the person of Christ here and Really a better way to translate that would probably be because of whom
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Because of who of whom we're on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things
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So I want to just notice two things here About what it means to know
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Jesus Christ, what does it mean to know him? What were the implications of that of the person of Christ that was so valuable to Paul first of all
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Knowing Jesus means that I lose everything you see it there in the text from Paul's mind.
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He says Knowing Christ having a relationship with Jesus Christ means that I lose everything
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For whom or because of whom I have suffered the loss of all things
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Suffer the loss there word literally means to damage but it's in the passive voice which means to be damaged or to be to suffer a
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Damage or a loss Paul says when I came to know Jesus Christ, and even now I took a hit.
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I Lose something I sacrifice something In fact, I don't sacrifice something.
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I sacrifice everything Everything is a loss to me. I Am damaged it's gone
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To me and you know one passage. I just want to point you to in the Gospels really helps us understand
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This is a passage that Jesus taught Jesus taught in these very same words and in fact the same words are used here the word to lose or to suffer loss is
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The exact same word Jesus used in Luke chapter 9 Turn to Luke chapter 9 real quick in verse 25.
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This word is used Jesus is teaching his disciples his followers and he says this for what is a man profited see the value there what does a man profited if he gains the whole world and Loses or forfeits himself there the word is he loses himself
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This this verse bleeds value doesn't it and Jesus is asking his followers
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What does it profit a person if you gain the whole world if you have everything? But you lose your soul.
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What good is that? Jesus is challenging his followers regarding what they considered valuable
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He's saying do you value me? Jesus is saying and if you just look in the context, that's exactly the point back in verse 19 or verse 18
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Jesus says and it happened or the scripture says and it happened while he was praying alone
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The disciples were with him and he questioned them saying who do the people say that I am
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Jesus just finished feeding the 5 ,000 huge multitudes are following Christ. He's alone with his disciples and he says
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Who do people say that I am? you see the important point here, it's
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Who am I who is Jesus? Do you know me? And they give him an answer
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But then in verse 20, he focuses a little more and he says to them, but who do you say?
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That I am Who do you say? That I am did the disciples know who
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Jesus was of course They knew who he was that wasn't the question Jesus was asking he's saying do you know who
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I really am in your value judgment Am I more valuable than anything in this world to you?
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Are you willing to lose it all? For me and because of who I am the point was the person of Jesus Christ their value judgment on Christ and then interestingly in the next verses there in Luke 9 he starts talking about his death
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Right, why did Jesus start talking about his death because they were going to face a decision they were going to be faced with a choice and It was a choice that would be decided based upon their value and their value of the
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Lord Jesus Christ He says I have the Son of Man verse 22 must suffer many things and be
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Rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and raised up on the third day He says are you ready to identify with me?
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Are you ready to be called a Christian? To value me more than anything We have a lot of decisions to make in life and each of those decisions we will make based on our value judgment on our assessment of what really is the most important thing and So back in in Philippians chapter 3
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Paul says knowing Jesus means that I will lose everything That's what Jesus said would happen.
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That's what Paul is saying here happened to him. I Lose everything but then look at the second point
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For whom I have suffered the loss of all things number one and what count them, but rubbish.
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There's our word again. I count Again, Paul brings us back to the main point. It's it's your consideration.
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It's my consideration It's my judgment value of what is valuable, you know, there's no virtue in Losing something for the sake of Christ and regretting it
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There's no value in Suffering the loss of something or all things and you know going
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No, I really missed that I just wish you know, I could have had that a little bit longer
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You know, is that honor Christ? Is that showing Christ is most valuable? No, so Paul is saying here in the second point.
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Not only does knowing Christ mean I lose everything But it means that I don't care
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That I lose everything and that's really the main point. I count I consider all things to be lost.
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It's a heart issue It's a judgment in the mind In the heart and what does he consider it?
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He considers it as Rubbish, this is a dirty word this is a
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Repulsive word that which is trash. There's a refuse the the Garbage dirty things on the street and Paul's being again very dramatic here.
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He says I Compared to knowing Christ the relationship with him everything else is
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Nothing. So Paul said, you know knowing
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Christ is far more valuable far more valuable just to know him Just to love him just to worship him.
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That's what's really important in life You know, this is a personal testimony of Paul, but it's it's true
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It's it's not just a you know, a radical emotional spouting off.
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It's it's the facts of life It's true that Jesus Christ is more valuable He is the only one that is worthy of praise the only one that is worthy of our devotion and our faithfulness and our trust
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You know, sometimes we at the at the end of a challenge like this We might think well, I don't know if I value
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Christ more than anything. Do I I Mean maybe I do maybe I don't yeah, there's things
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I value but I you know, I value Christ Also, I I don't think it's so hard for us to know actually if we if we value
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Jesus Christ above all I really don't think it's difficult. Maybe we just need to ask ourselves a couple questions.
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First of all, what do I enjoy doing? What do I enjoy spending my time at the most?
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What am I faithful to the most? What am I willing to sacrifice
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The most in my daily life When I have choices what choices do I make what does that tell me about what's really important to me?
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I think it's not so difficult to know what is valuable in our lives
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Is it we make decisions every day that reveal what's valuable in our lives, but knowing
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Jesus Christ That is the ultimate value The hard thing is not knowing what is valuable
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The hard thing is admitting when something is more valuable to us than Christ or the things of Christ That is the hard part is admitting it.
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There's something that's worth That's what's important to me. That's what I rejoice. That's what I get angry about when it's taken away
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That's what I value So brothers and sisters, I just I just pray that each one of us would heed the warning that the
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Apostle Paul is saying here He's saying you know what don't place value in things that are worthless. I've been there.
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I've done that someday We're gonna get to the end of our lives and we're gonna say you know what did
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I really invest my life in that? Which is valuable We're gonna have to face the music and at that moment
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May we stand before the Lord and say yes, we we had in our hearts the right value system that Christ was the most important thing that He was the one that we were faithful to that we devoted ourselves to that We made decisions for him and his glory and may that be true in our lives
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What a joy and a pleasure that would be and glory to God if we could say that that is true
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In our own lives Let's pray Lord, we just thank you for your grace
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We see ourselves falling so short of this standard Lord, but I pray that each one of us
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Especially this church each one would grow in the grace and the knowledge of the
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Lord Jesus Christ that they would count him and just knowing him as the most valuable thing in life
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And may there be nothing That would they would be more passionate about or more concerned about or more devoted to than a relationship with you