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

The Gospel to All Nations and the Call to Worship Christ

I don't know if you think about the gospel being very Jewish or being very Gentile or you never consider that. Psalm 117 says, "'Praise the Lord, all nations! Laud Him, all peoples! For His lovingkindness is great towards us, and the truth of the Lord is everlasting.

Praise the Lord!'. And the psalmist's desire was that not just the Jewish people 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.

And so that's why I love Jeremy Smith and his wife and the kids, because they not only have good theology, they not only want to teach men how to preach the Bible expositionally in a local church setting, but they have a heart for Indian people, 1 billion Indian people, to worship the 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 Jeremy now for several months as we met in India and met in Bombay and in Los Angeles, and Jeremy loves the Word, he loves the Lord, and he loves dying people enough to go there and live for ten years to preach the gospel, and I.

Fellowship in the Gospel and Paul’s Joy in Philippians

Appreciate that in him. Welcome. Good morning. It is really a pleasure, I honestly mean that, to be with you this weekend and this morning, 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.

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? And that's what's happened this morning. I really have enjoyed it and appreciated that this morning.

You know, it says in Philippians chapter 1, I thank my God, in verse 3, I thank my God and all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all. Why was Paul rejoicing and praising 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. So Paul was thanking God for the fellowship which he experienced in the gospel, in the work of the gospel, in ministering, and that brought him great joy.

And you know, 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? Together we are serving, you are serving the Lord here, people are growing and getting saved.

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 just hope that this morning, and these days as we're together, that you also enjoy that fellowship.

You know, I know some of you I've never met, some of you I've met one time, a few of you I'm getting to know a little bit better, but you know, over the years, as we work together and minister together, 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, thank you, and I thank the Lord also for you, and for your ministry and supporting us as missionaries. 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.

You know, it's been neat this morning, as we were worshiping, we've looked at Jesus Christ a lot. In the song, in the special music, in the worship, we have looked at who He is, and what He means to us, and that has been precious.

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 valuing Christ above all. We're going to look at Philippians chapter 3.

Worship, Value, and the Problem of Idolatry

Valuing Christ more than any other thing that we have, or that we experience, or that we value in life. You know, we value a lot of things. In fact, I would go so far to say that we worship many things.

We'll talk about that in a minute. But we're going to see in this passage, in Philippians chapter 3, 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 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, 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. We were decorating, we just moved into our apartment, and 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, they had the bonsai trees. You know what bonsai are? Those miniature trees. And that's kind of one of my hobbies. And so I enjoyed going over and looking at that. Well, Andrea and the two kids, my wife and two kids, were with us.

And so we go over to the bonsai section, and all these different kinds of interesting miniature trees. And my son 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, 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, there is a mango sitting right at the base of the tree.

And I thought, wow, well maybe so. I don't, you know, know what kind of tree this is. Then one of the ladies who worked in the nursery came over and heard us talking about this. 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. 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.

They're 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 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 is 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, 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. 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 rather than the Creator. That's exactly what the sinful heart does. They see beauty in what God has created. You know, we even sang a song in the worship time about all of creation worshipping the Lord.

It does. It's wonderful. It's a wonderful expression of God's glory and His greatness. But what does sinful man do? 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. Man is at heart a worshiper. He worships, he seeks naturally that which 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, I've heard it said, is the most religious. And I believe it, having lived there for two and a half years. They are an extremely religious people.

I would say they are an extremely worshipful people. They worship all the time. They have religious festivals constantly, where they're celebrating, and the bands, and the music, and the firecrackers, and the rejoicing, and the feasting.

And they're worshipping these gods. When someone has a birthday party in the Hindu homes, they will have a puja, 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 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 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 worshipping. They're celebrating. They're rejoicing. They're having a good time.

What is worship? What is worship? What is the nature of it? What does it consist of? And I believe a good answer to that question is this. Listen. Worship is recognizing, appreciating, and expressing the ultimate value of something or someone.

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 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 to it.

That's what worship is, isn't it? You know, we have a tendency to compartmentalize worship, don't we? To kind of tame it. I've heard some people say, well, I prefer to go to, you know, XYZ Church because I like the what?

The worship, right? And what do they mean? Well, I like the music. That's my style of music, right? I prefer that. I prefer that worship. 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. Worship is what you find most valuable. And it's appreciating it, it's valuing it, 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.

So in India, we see Indians worshiping every part of creation. They say there are 33 million 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, therefore they give it honor and worship and devotion. What about us here in America? What do we worship? Do we see things as valuable? Of course. We're human beings. We have the innate desire to find that which is most valuable and to honor it.

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? That's something that we value in American culture and life?

I think so. How about health? Having a healthy life, surviving, having a good quality of life. That's something we count as valuable and some people worship that. What about beauty, aesthetics, you know, looking good, 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. 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?

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 Apostle Paul and his value system, that we would be challenged to have the same value system, to value Christ above all.

Paul’s Value Judgment in Philippians 3:8

Turn to Philippians chapter 3 and verse 8. We're primarily, but we're going to look at the context as well. But let's just read Philippians chapter 3 and verse 8 and notice what Paul valued in life. The scripture says this.

He says, more than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing 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 Christ.

That's a short verse. Can I read that again? Follow along. Scripture says, more than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing 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 Christ.

We're going to see two things in this passage, two points really. First of all, we're going to 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, Paul's value judgment. And then secondly, his explanation. Why would he make such a value judgment? And I hope that as we look at this, we will be challenged.

The Lord will open our eyes, as we sang, that we can see Christ and all his glory and all of his value. Now before we look at verse 8 in depth, I want us just to look at the context. Paul, of course, was a very logical thinker, right?

Very logical writer. So to understand him completely in verse 8, we need to understand what he's writing in verse 1. Now when he comes to verse 1, chapter 3, 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 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. 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. He says, beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.

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 Philippian church. Paul's saying there's a danger to be aware of.

There's a problem. There's something that you need to be aware of. There's a trap that you may fall into. And this wasn't just for the Philippians. The same trap, the same danger 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. 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.

These were people who were tempting the Philippians, trying to draw them away, to put their confidence in something besides Jesus Christ. They're Judaizers. They were those who would say, yeah, Jesus did it all for you.

But it still requires that you obey the law, that you place your confidence for spirituality, for acceptability before God in certain things. So that was the danger 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. And in the next few verses, verses 3 to 6, we see Paul saying, you know what? 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 worshiped. I used to put value in things that were trash. So don't be a fool like me, Paul's saying here.

He says, don't spend your life on something that is just gone like that. It doesn't matter a whit to God, and you're gonna waste your life. 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. 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 Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh.

If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. So he's saying, if anyone thinks that they should put confidence in doing things, I've got them beat. I was there. I did it. I went down that road.

And then he gives the list in verse 5. I was circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.

This is his resume, right? I was impressing God. I had the right rituals. I had the right genealogy. I was in the right family. I was zealous. I was religious. And he said, I thought that was valuable.

Paul was doing the religious road, the intellectual religious path. That was his value system. And then we come to verse 7, big contrast, but whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as what?

As loss for the sake of Christ. In verse 7, 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. It was reversed.

It was changed. Massive change in my life. The things we once thought were valuable are 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?

I had a massive change in my assessment of what is ultimately valuable in life. Just notice, even in verse 7, the value terms that are there. Do you see them? Whatever things were gained, that's profit to me.

These are financial terms, actually, that Paul's using. Those things I have counted as loss. Another value term, another financial value term. So he's talking about value. He's talking about what he considered most valuable.

At the time of his conversion, he had a massive switch in his understanding of what really mattered in life. But then we come to verse 8, and he shifts gears. And just notice verse 8. We'll just read the first part.

He says, more than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing 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. 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.

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, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus Christ.

Did you see the change? Did you see the contrast? Verse 7, he's saying, I counted, I have counted all things loss. 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? I count. Now, present tense. I counted, verse 7. I count, verse 8. Paul is changing gears. He's switching. He's saying, you know, when I was saved, massive change.

But that, it doesn't stop there. That's what Paul's trying to say in this verse. He says it didn't stop there. When I came to know Jesus Christ, I gave up everything. Everything was trash. But that didn't stop.

More than that, even now in my present life as a believer, as a Christian, as a mature Christian, I count everything as loss. That judgment about values, that judgment about what is really important in life continued on in Paul's life.

And that is the proper value system, even for a believer now. That everything is considered as loss. Everything is to be considered as nothing. 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.

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. He says, whatever things were gained to me, verse 7, those things I have counted as loss.

Now, this word has nothing to do with numbers. Okay, I hope you know that. Maybe another version would translate it differently. Nothing to do with numbers, okay. Has everything to do with the mind. Everything to do with the heart, the judgment, the individual judgment of a person.

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, 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. Don't ask me why the translator's translated it differently. I don't know. Chapter 2, verse 6, the same word is used again.

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. This is talking about Jesus Christ. And the word there is translated, I regard.

Jesus Christ did not regard 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. I considered something.

Chapter 2, verse 3, uses the same word. 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 but with humility of mind.

What? Regard one another as more important than yourself. Again, 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.

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 God is concerned about. God is concerned about what is your value judgment about those things, about the things in your life.

Everyone's different. Everyone has different things. They value different things. But what is the relative, 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 about everything in life. I want you to notice, first of all, something about his value judgment. He was passionate about it. He was passionate about his value judgment. See there back in chapter 3, verse 8.

He says, more than that. That doesn't cut it. That doesn't really do justice to the words in the original language. Paul here is piling up words. Literally, if you just translated those words out, it would be something like this.

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. Paul is just exploding here. He just remembered everything that had happened in his life and his conversion 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. 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 what my life and my testimony is like now. And so he's just exploding. He's passionate about it.

Paul was just a passionate guy. He didn't do things halfway. And especially, he didn't do important things halfway. He was radical. Some people would call him crazy. You know, just listen to some of the crazy things Paul said.

In Philippians chapter 121, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. To die is gain? What, was Paul suicidal? No, he really thought it would be better to die. That's what he's saying there. That's weird, you know?

Or how about chapter 1 verse 29? You know, the Philippians might have said, yeah, great Paul. I'm happy for you. 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.

He says, for to you, church, it has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in him, but what? To suffer for his sake. Whoa, wait a minute. You're stepping on toes now, Paul. Right? 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 Lord. And to suffer for his sake. What a blessing. What a joy. What a gift to suffer for Christ.

A little crazy. 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, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.

Paul's saying, even if I'm poured out, even if my life is spilt 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, I count all things as loss, he wasn't exaggerating.

He was radical. He went all the way. That was his judgment. That was his value judgment. 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, I count all things to be lost. How many things? All things. 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. You don't have to be an expert to know that.

It's just everything. I mean, the extent of his judgment was everything. He was including everything. He was wrapping his arms around every single thing in his life. Personally, externally, his job, his ministry, his family, his everything was part of this judgment, of this consideration.

I consider all things to be loss. You know, I think this is significant. Also, remember what happened in verse 8. He's talking about his present Christian life. You know, oftentimes we look at young believers, you know, oh, isn't it wonderful?

They just get saved, and they give up everything. Maybe they give up their job, or they give up, you know, the pleasures that they were going after. Man, they sacrificed so much. They just want fire for the Lord.

But, you know, they'll get older, right? They'll mature. You know, they'll become a little more even keel. You don't want to be so radical, right? They'll mature, and that's sad. That's sad, because in the Scripture it's saying here, Paul is saying in 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 loss. And in Paul's mind, and the Word of God is telling us here, that 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 Christ longer, as he becomes more devoted to Him, more in love with Him, there's just more things to consider loss. You know, the more you gain, the more you accomplish, the more you, you know, advance in life generally, you're just adding things to consider as trash, just compared to knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.

And that's, we see that the extent of Paul's judgment, as a believer right now, was everything. Just a third thing I want us to notice about the value judgment is the actual statement of it. Look at the next phrase.

More than that, I count all things to be loss, in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Here we see really the reason why Paul had made such a radical decision, such a radical decision about value in life.

This word, he says, why, why did I make this consideration? Why do I continue to have this value system in life? 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.

In Paul's mind, there's no comparison. There's, the choice was simple. No, it wasn't a matter of, well, you know, what's more important, 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, as an old believer.

And again, I just want to point out the same word. Paul uses this word, the surpassingness, you could say. The emphasis is in that which goes beyond. That same word is used in chapter 4, verse 7, the surpassingness.

He says, in the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, that which goes far beyond what we can understand. That's the same word, that which goes beyond. And in chapter 2, verse 3, we see the word again, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as, what?

More important than yourselves. As others, as superseding you, going far beyond the value and the importance of you. So that's what Paul's saying here. He's saying, knowing Jesus Christ is far, far more valuable, far more important, far more valuable than anything I have in life.

That was Paul's value judgment. And what was it that Paul considered valuable? It was knowing Jesus Christ. I think it's important to note that Paul didn't say, you know, what's so valuable in my life is all the benefits I receive from knowing Jesus Christ.

The joy, the blessing, the righteousness, the escape from punishment in hell, 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.

He says, everything is lost in order that I may, what? Know Jesus Christ. It's a relationship. Is it a mental knowledge? Yes. Is it a relational knowledge? Yes, it's both. You can't know someone in a relational way, unless you know them in an intellectual way.

And so Paul really has in mind both of those things. Not one without the other, but both. He said, just to know him, to know who he is, to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, that's what is valuable.

That is what I count as the most important thing in life. I don't know about you, but when I was a young believer, I struggled with this concept of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Have you ever struggled with that?

What does it mean to have a relationship with Jesus Christ? You know, as a young man, I've never seen Jesus. Besides, he's a man, and you know, how do you have a relationship with a man, right? Love, I mean, you know.

But it has to do with knowing, it has to do with appreciating. And in Christ, he is the 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 Jesus Christ.

It's a relationship. Can you have a relationship with someone you have never physically or personally met? Yes. How do you do that? Through communication, through correspondence, 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, 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 grow in.

2 Peter 3, verse 18 is a good verse to remember in this regard. 2 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.

Amen. We must grow in that relationship. So as a young believer, you should have as much a relationship with Christ as possible, but as maturing believers, we should continue in that relationship of love, of adoration, and of value, and worship.

Worship is really the heart of a relationship with Christ. That's what it's all about. It's valuing him. 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 Jesus Christ.

It's a relationship with him. And that leads us to the second main point, is the reason for Paul's judgment. The reason for his judgment is the person of Christ. And I want you just to notice in verse 8, he switches focus here, and he focuses on the person of Christ, for whom 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, because of whom, or on account of whom, I have suffered the loss of all things.

So I want to just notice two things here about what it means to know 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?

Losing Everything for the Sake of Christ

First of all, knowing Jesus means that I lose everything. You see it there in the text? From Paul's mind, he says, knowing Christ, having a relationship with Jesus Christ, means that I lose everything.

For whom, or because of whom, I have suffered the loss of all things. Suffer the loss there. The word literally means to damage, but it's in the passive voice, which means to be damaged, or to be, to suffer a damage, or a loss.

Paul says, when I came to know Jesus Christ, and even now, I took a hit. I lose something. I sacrifice something. In fact, I don't sacrifice something. I sacrifice everything. Everything is a loss to me.

I am damaged. It's gone to me. And you know, one passage I just want to point you to in the Gospels really helps us understand. This is a passage that Jesus taught. Jesus taught in these very same words, and in fact, the same words are used here.