[0:00] Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Well, we're going to be in the book of Philippians, chapter 3. So if you'd like to join me in that, we'll be reading in a little bit.
[0:12] But I'd like to kind of start things off. Let me hear you say, Rejoice. Rejoice. Let me hear it a little bit better. Rejoice. Amen. If you happen... Oh, there we go. He's holding up a sign.
[0:25] Let's see. If you are 18 years old or younger, let me hear you say, if you're younger than 18 or 18, let me hear you say, Rejoice. Young people.
[0:37] I know we only got a few. Let me hear it one more time. Oh, I was thinking... Okay, if you're 19 or older, I don't know what that says. I can't read from... Oh, okay. I was wondering what they kept holding up a sign for.
[0:50] I thought they were holding up like, you know, you see people in the concert holding up, something like that. I started saying, Oh, wow, things are going good already. Yeah. Yeah.
[1:02] So, but if you're 19 or older, let me hear you say, Rejoice. Rejoice. Oh, amen. And one more time, church, say, Rejoice. Rejoice. Amen.
[1:13] We have a lot to rejoice for. And we're going to be talking a little bit about Paul and his letter to the Philippians. And one of the first things he starts out with is this idea of rejoicing.
[1:24] But I want us to think a little bit about where Paul's at right at this moment. Paul is writing a letter to the Philippians. And I guess in a way we could think of it as he's kind of writing to us too.
[1:35] You know, God in His infinite wisdom, He made possible for these words to be put down and be put in print that we might be able to read these to encourage us, to build us up, and to give us guidance and everything.
[1:49] And this is all inspired Word of God. And it's just a wonderful thing that we have this for us. I often think of what it must have been like many, many years ago when you didn't have that. You had to go to a church or hear somebody present this or something in some way.
[2:03] But we have it right here before us. And so I just praise God that we have this. And so if you've got your Bible, go ahead and turn to Philippians chapter 3.
[2:14] And I'm only doing the first 11 verses, which hopefully I won't go too bad and on too long. I'll be able to stay on course. But I'm going to be reading now the New American Standard.
[2:27] And you just kind of follow along the best you can with your version and everything. He says, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Now let me ask you something real quick.
[2:38] When I told you to rejoice, what did you feel like you were rejoicing? What do you have to rejoice about? Salvation. Salvation. Who else? Life.
[2:51] Health. Family. So we have plenty to rejoice about. And Paul is reminding us here, he's saying rejoice in the Lord. He says, To write the same thing again is no trouble to me.
[3:05] It is a safeguard for you. And then he continues on. Beware of the dogs and beware of the evil workers. Beware of the false circumcision. For we are the true circumcision who have worshipped in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
[3:24] 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. Circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.
[3:51] 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 lost 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 in order that I may gain Christ.
[4:13] And may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering being conformed to His death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
[4:40] When we look at this and we hear this, Paul is wanting to make sure he's encouraging the Philippians because they've got a lot of things going on. I'm going to sit this to the side. You know what?
[4:53] If I had my choice, we'd all be walking through the woods right now because I've been praying and talking about this and when I'm talking to the Lord, it seems like I'm pretty comfortable when we're walking through the woods and stuff.
[5:05] I know Miss Sherry can keep up with me because she walks all the time and everything, but it does me good. So he starts off with this idea of rejoice and he says rejoice in the Lord.
[5:19] And when you think of rejoice, the definition of rejoice is to feel or show great joy or delight. So he's telling us to have great joy and delight in the Lord. And I hope you have got that because see, Paul is talking to the church.
[5:34] He is talking to the people. He's not out on the street corner in the place right now. He is talking to the church and he says, and so he's saying rejoice. Now, rejoice doesn't necessarily mean happy. It means to be joyful because sometimes we have things in our life that we're not going to be happy, but we still can be joyful in our heart because of Jesus Christ.
[5:53] And that's because he is our Lord. So we rejoice in the Lord. Christians can and should always rejoice in the Lord. They should rejoice in his person and the work of Jesus Christ.
[6:05] That is something that we have that is solid, that is truthful, that we can hold on to. Jesus Christ is our ultimate source and the reason for our joy. We have joy in our hearts because of him.
[6:20] Family, he is the one that gives us joy. If you are struggling with finding joy, you need to just go to him. He is going to be the one to give you that joy. So delight yourself in the Lord and rejoice that you are in union with him.
[6:34] You always have that thing to remember, that you are in union with him. Paul then says, it's no problem to write this again for it is a precaution.
[6:46] In other words, he is saying, better safe than sorry. So here it goes. And so he says, rejoice in the Lord. Now what a wonderful way it is for us to start off each of our days.
[6:57] If in the morning we wake up, we get his word and we say, we rejoice in you Lord. In Philippians, matter of fact, he says it a couple of times in Philippians. In chapter 2, he said, you too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.
[7:12] And then, again, in chapter 4, he'll say, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. You've got to remember, now he's not in the best situation. Paul is in prison.
[7:24] He is, he's under house arrest. Now you might think, well, house arrest don't sound too bad. Sometimes I wouldn't mind being arrested in my house because I've got my refrigerator in there and I've got my TV and stuff.
[7:35] But it's a little bit different. He has to have a rolling guard with him all the time. And he has to pay for this. Somehow this has to come out of pocket. And everything, he is having to take, this isn't something that they're taking care of and all the eats and all the entertainment you want, Paul.
[7:50] He has to have this. So people are having to take up collections and get them to them. People have to come and see him. He can't go see them. And you have to remember too that for Paul, the Philippi church is a church that God had brought him there to start this church.
[8:08] People there, I don't think people there even knew of Jesus Christ. They probably knew very little about Jews. I'm reading a book that's, it's a novel, it's a fiction novel, but it, it kind of helps open my eyes sometimes because it says, in this book, it says when he got there, he, when he's walking around Philippi, he realized that he really stood out.
[8:26] So he, because being a Jew, you know, they had that big, he shaved off his beard. Now this is in the book. He cut his hair and he started dressing different because he wanted to be able to, be able to talk to people and he knew that his differences would cause, be a little tough.
[8:42] And I'm not saying that's biblical, but you know, someone, you go to another country, you just can't, just walk in sometimes because you can annihilate yourself. Did I say that right?
[8:53] And, and from, I know when we go to Columbia, they said you have to be careful of the t-shirts and stuff you have to wear. You don't wear stuff all over your shirts when you go down and you have to be careful of stuff. You're not supposed to stand out. So, I can kind of see this a little bit with Paul.
[9:06] And so, Paul is, he is, he has really got a lot of concerns for the Philippi because he is worried about what's going on. So he gets correspondence. He may even have visitors that are coming up and telling them about different things that are happening in Philippi.
[9:21] And the church is struggling. And this is why. Because this is something that has followed, seems like it's followed Paul all through his, since he, he has come to know the Lord and he is bringing God's Word.
[9:33] He says, beware. You notice in there, he's saying beware. Now, who is Paul warning the Philippians to watch out for? Well, there's these, this group called the Judaizers.
[9:45] And he is telling them to be careful of this. He says, and this is not the first time Paul's had to deal with him. In 2 Corinthians, it says, for such men are false apostles and deceitful workers, distrusting themselves, disguising themselves as the apostles of Christ.
[10:05] And then in Acts, it's written, some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.
[10:16] And then it continues in verse 5, but some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up saying, it is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the law of Moses.
[10:28] Now, see, this is what was happening. Paul has come and started this church. He has come to them and he said, you know what? Accept Jesus Christ in faith. And then he started discipling them.
[10:40] And he had, I think it was Luke and a few others and they discipled them and everything. You know, you accept Jesus Christ in faith. And so, now he has gone on, he's continued his mission trip, but what is happening now is there are these people who are coming behind him and saying, listen, you know what?
[11:01] Paul is a good man, he got some good information, but there's more to it. And they used this idea that Jesus was a Jew. And if you wanted to be saved, then you need to be a Jew to be saved.
[11:13] In other words, they wanted you to go through all the certain things, different things that they would do. And Paul is saying, stay clear of these people. See, these individuals are using the Sabbath, circumcision, dietary needs, and even ancestry as a way of, kind of like a world currency of religion.
[11:31] And they said, if you want to be saved, yeah, accept Christ in faith. But now you've got to put, you've got to do these things too. And Paul is saying, beware of them and everything. See, these things can be secondary.
[11:43] There's nothing wrong with these things, but they don't save a person. They are not the, they are not what brings salvation and everything. And if a person makes this a center stage of their faith, of their religion, then the believer will end up with a pile of garbage.
[11:59] Even today, we see groups of so-called believers that insert their earthly standards into the faith of Jesus Christ. And sometimes, they even do it to the exclusion of Jesus Himself.
[12:14] So we have to be careful. We have to, we have to know the Word. We have to be strong in this and understand it. Christianity is not an add-on to Judaism. It's, it's about a relationship.
[12:25] And we have to remember having been, having Christ in our life and giving ourselves to Christ, it's all about a relationship. You can choose a path of relationship or you can choose a path of religion.
[12:39] The path of relationship and accepting Jesus Christ and having Him as your Savior will, is what will get you to heaven. A path of a religion, you know, I don't know about that. I don't think you're going to.
[12:50] So the religious clothes that might look good on us but it's not, but it's nothing but a shell. In other words, you can come to church every Sunday. You can give a tithe every Sunday.
[13:02] You can sing the worship psalms every Sunday. You can be a good person and everything. But to have to, to have the salvation to God, it has to come through Jesus Christ and that relationship with Him.
[13:16] And that's what God wants is a relationship with us. He's not wanting us to follow all these rules and everything. And this is what's trying to be placed on them. Paul goes on to say the circumcision of the believer, which he's saying is the changing of the heart and everything.
[13:31] He's saying this is what consecrates oneself before God. And it is, and in Galatians he says, if we live by the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit.
[13:44] So he's telling, it's also, he's repeated that. And when he says we in verse 3, he's saying the believers of the church. Paul is saying do not trust external ceremonies.
[13:56] There are nice things to add in that can add in to our worship, but don't trust into those things to make you, to give you sanctification before God and everything. It all comes through Jesus Christ.
[14:08] Paul is recognizing that that outward act of circumcision is not the ultimate issue, but it's the symbol of the heart. The heart commitment and the love for the Lord is where that relationship is.
[14:20] So Paul says worship in the Spirit. Exalt Jesus Christ. Put no confidence in the flesh. And that's what Paul wants the church to remember. And not to let these influences from outside come in and disrupt their fellowship and disrupt their worship of the Lord.
[14:38] Then Paul says if anyone has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, he says, I far more. You know, one of the things that we think about when we think about Paul has some good credentials.
[14:49] You know, if you wanted to look at he's saying, listen, these people are coming in and saying, we're Jewish. We come from Jerusalem. We have all these. We have been God's people all these years. And Paul says, well, you know what?
[15:01] If you want to talk about credentials, he says, bring it on. He says, I got some credentials. He says, I was circumcised on the eighth day. I'm of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, and as to the law of Pharisees.
[15:16] And in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, he said, are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham?
[15:28] So am I. See, he has those same credentials. And then in Acts, he says, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus, of Sislam, but brought up in the city, educated under Gamaliel.
[15:41] Now, I don't know who that fellow was, but evidently that name spoke to people. And he brought that up that even, he says, I have the credentials all there. And he said, matter of fact, he said, before I came to follow Christ, he says, I persecuted the way, which was the church at that time, to death, binding and putting both men and women to prison.
[16:08] You know, I've always been amazed. You know, Paul was, I mean, Paul was a hardliner. He knew what he was, what he had in his head. He had something there and he, he's like a dog grabbed a hold of something.
[16:20] He didn't let go of it. And he was persecuting the church. Terribly. And, because his whole thing was about the Jewish faith. And then, Christ came to him on the road to Damascus.
[16:32] That light shined on him and Christ said, Paul, why are you, I actually saw it at that time, why are you persecuting me? And he didn't know who it was. And Jesus said, Jesus said, told him who he was.
[16:46] And he's, you know what? Jesus let him know he was going to be an instrument for him. And not just an instrument to the Jewish people, but to the Gentile world and everything. Now, being a Jew of the Jews, I mean, I don't think you can get any more Jewish than maybe what Paul was.
[17:02] He was being told he was going to go to the Gentiles and he was going to spread the faith of Jesus Christ. I've often wondered, man, well, I mean, it would be bad enough to know that, oh, I shouldn't have been persecuting my people.
[17:17] But now, Christ is going to send me out to people that I don't really like at all and everything. It's almost like Job, you know, Job didn't want to go up to Nineveh, but God said, you got to go.
[17:29] And so, this is what Paul's hearing. And Paul, he got on fire for the Lord in doing this. And so he, but he admits that he was a persecutor of the church. So he's showing a change that we're going to see a little bit here in just a few moments.
[17:44] So, how does this confidence in the flesh show up in the church? Family? How does it show up in this individually? Sometimes we can put things in churches and in religious and communities and stuff, I guess, of the church.
[18:00] We can put these kind of circumstances that, you know, you want to be saved. Well, you know what? You got to kind of, you can't be doing this. You can't be doing that and everything. And if you want to be saved.
[18:11] Well, I agree there's things that we shouldn't be doing. But salvation is about the change of the heart. I've, personally, when I have spoken to folks, I say, listen, you need to give your life to the Lord and let Him work out those things.
[18:27] Don't think you, we sometimes think people have to get all cleaned up first and then we can present them to the Lord. No, the Lord wants to see them just like they are. And He says, I'll take care of everything else.
[18:38] You bring them to me. And so, it is a decision that each one of us make. When I, when I accepted Christ when I was 13, I didn't, at that time, I didn't change.
[18:49] I was, I knew there was going to be some changes. I didn't know what they were going to be. But I knew that there was going to be some changes and I knew because I knew what had happened to me, it was worth it.
[19:01] There was something that happened to me that day when I gave my life to Jesus Christ that I thought this is the most, I was scared, I was confused, but I just knew whatever happened, it was worth it.
[19:15] So, in Philippians chapter 3, verse 7, Paul goes on to say, so now we begin to hear, we begin to talk and Paul's crying for something better, something that will satisfy the heart and he's letting them know that it's Jesus Christ.
[19:32] Paul shares his perspective of his credentials at this time too. And in verse 7, he says, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. See, he's talking about, if you notice that word counted, it's got ED on there, so that's kind of talking about something in the past.
[19:46] All those credentials I have, I count those things as loss because of Jesus Christ. I'm weighing those, all my credentials with Christ. And he says, and he's going to let us know what he thinks about that.
[19:59] And Paul is referring to his past life here. Then he speaks in the present. He says, I count all things to be lost in view of surpassing value of knowing Christ, Jesus my Lord.
[20:11] See, he's saying, I have found something of such value that is more value than anything else I have had in the past and that I have in the present and that I could have in the future.
[20:23] In the future in this life and that is Jesus Christ. Jesus actually gave some two good little short parables that I like and actually the youth and I talked about this I think some during the summer.
[20:37] One of them is, he says, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field which a man found and hid again. From joy over it, he goes and sells everything he has and buys the field.
[20:51] See, that treasure he found was of such great value. He sold everything he had to have that. And then another parable Jesus said, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and brought it and bought it.
[21:13] So, Paul is saying, I have found something of such great value. I give everything, I have sold everything, everything I have in the past and now is not of a value as this is.
[21:27] And Paul says, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. So, he's saying, all those things I've had were rubbish.
[21:40] All those things I have now and everything compared to Christ is rubbish. He said, I've lost my religion but I have gained the relationship of Jesus Christ.
[21:51] And we should remember that. It's all about that relationship. See, all the things compared to Christ are worthless. They're empty and valued. Everything we have in this world, everything that we desire and strive, compared to Christ, there's just no comparison.
[22:09] And Paul is not rejecting his Jewish heritage or anything. No, Paul is rejecting the false assumption that one can earn righteousness standing before God when we can't earn it.
[22:20] There's no way that we can ever earn our righteousness before God. The only way we'll have our righteousness before God is through Jesus Christ. Because righteousness is the perfection of our heart, our mind, our soul, everything.
[22:36] And we can never achieve that. But Paul has lost all things. He lost his promising career as a Pharisee, a rabbi. He left his home country, the comfort of his own people.
[22:49] But, what he has gained is an indescribable value. And that is Jesus Christ. The intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. You know what?
[23:00] That relationship can be so much for us. And I encourage you to think about that. Now, in verse 9, he goes on, he said, we find that knowing Christ includes gaining Christ and being found in Him.
[23:16] Which all points to the final resurrection. So, it's the idea of knowing Christ and gaining Christ and accepting Him as our Savior and our Lord. And being found in Him.
[23:28] And in verse 9, where it says being found in Him, is being found in the righteousness that comes from Him. Paul is stressing it is by faith he knows Christ. and by faith he declares the resurrection and lives out his life suffering and all those things.
[23:47] And it's all through faith. You know, faith is kind of a hard thing sometimes to figure out what it is. I like this description and everything.
[23:58] It comes from a song that I like. I'm not going to sing it for you. I don't want to mess it up. Faith is to hear with your heart, to see with your soul, to be guided by a hand you cannot hold and to trust in a way you cannot see.
[24:13] And for me, a lot of times that's what it is. But I have faith in Jesus Christ. I have faith in God because I know that change that happened in me when I was 13 years old has been one that has affected my whole life.
[24:28] No matter how far Glenn has strayed, how far Glenn has run, or how far mistakes Glenn has made, it always draws me back. I always have to come back.
[24:40] So, Paul's wrapping this up in verse 10. So, in verse 10, now Paul says, I want to share three goals of Christian living with you. Paul, first Paul's with, all I want to know is to know Christ.
[24:53] So, he said, I think that's the way we should look at it. All we want to know is to know Christ. And in this, and I'm not much on this Greek verb and all this stuff, but there is a word that she uses called Gignoscum.
[25:06] I don't know if I said that right, but it implies a personal knowledge rather than an intellectual understanding. A personal knowledge. Now, there is a difference between knowing about Christ and to know Christ.
[25:20] With evidence, it comes from the fruit of our Christian living is evidence of when we know Christ. it's even like in our, we can know someone, know about someone, but it's different when you know them.
[25:36] I'll put it in this way. You can know about your wife, but it's a difference when you know your wife. Renee knew about Glenn before she married him. Then she got to know Glenn.
[25:47] She knew Glenn when Nath got married and she almost changed her mind after that. But, you know, so it is that idea. It's a different kind of understanding.
[25:58] This is where the Holy Spirit comes in. It gives us understanding of the words of Christ when we read the Scriptures and how we get to know them. It gives us understanding in our personal relationship with them.
[26:09] This is how it helps us understand. Because sin can limit our earthly knowledge, can limit what we know. But with the Holy Spirit, we are able to understand a lot of these things.
[26:21] We are not being told to hedge our bet for when we die. No. But to experience the fullness of the salvation of Christ through a lifelong relationship.
[26:33] In other words, it is a relationship that you have with Him. When you accept Him as your Lord and Savior, it is a relationship. It's not just saying those words, saying that prayer and that's it. Woo-hoo, I'm done.
[26:43] I got my ticket. I'm going to heaven. It's not that. It's having that relationship. Second, Paul says, know the power of Christ's resurrection. Paul wanted, and this is something that he was saying, he said, Paul wants to know and experience the same power through his own being that raised Christ from the dead.
[27:01] See, and that's one of the things that I have a goal. That's one of the things I want to experience is that resurrection, that new body, that new person when Christ comes back and when we're resurrected.
[27:14] He wanted to be part of the kingdom. And then third, he says, know the fellowship of His suffering. Paul is speaking of becoming like Christ in His suffering, in His death, and in His resurrection.
[27:28] Paul wants to be a copy of Christ. And I think that is a worthy goal of all of us is to be like Christ and everything. Now, when we have a tendency when we put this idea of suffering in place, we have a tendency to think, well, you know, somebody's got to be throwing rocks at me when I go out to church or be waiting out for me to have.
[27:48] They're suffering in all different ways because sometimes it's almost like what we've heard already in a couple past weeks. Sometimes we have to set things aside because those things are going to interfere with our relationship with Christ.
[28:02] Our goals are no longer the goals that I want. Our goals are what God and Christ wants in us to do. We make our decisions based on Him and we do the things that He wants us to do.
[28:18] It doesn't mean you can't be successful. No, I think everything is successful when we're in Christ. But you base your decisions on what you're going to do and how you're going to do it on Him and not on yourself.
[28:30] John 17.3 says, this is eternal life that we may know you, excuse me, the only true God in Christ Jesus whom you have sent.
[28:43] And then He goes in Romans 6.5 He says, but, I'll be, for if we have become united with Him in likeness of His death, certainly we shall be in His likeness in His resurrection.
[28:56] So now I'm getting to the end. You know, one of the things I thought about when Paul was writing in the first part of my Scripture, you notice he said, finally, and there, it's kind of like saying in conclusion, well, isn't that just like a preacher who gets in the middle of the sermon and says, well, this is in conclusion and then he goes on for another hour.
[29:15] And that's kind of what Paul does here. But this is an interesting thing I found here that I read. In verse 11, he says, in order that I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
[29:27] Now, my understanding is this attain to the resurrection from the dead, this is not really used anywhere else in the Bible. It's a, in the translation, it's not really clear.
[29:39] But I did read where one guy said, you know, a good way to put this is an out of the box, out of the box, kind of unique. And I thought, and he said, so Paul, what Paul is saying is, I want to be an out of the box Christian.
[29:52] And I kind of like that. I want to be an out of the box Christian. I want to be somebody a little bit different. I want to be that person sometimes that people say, well, you know what? I don't know if you want to be around him because, you know, he's kind of odd.
[30:05] You might become like him. He's got these strange ways and stuff like that. It's kind of like, I heard this guy give this example. He said, you know, you take a poker and, you know, you mess with it in the fire and you leave it in the fire.
[30:17] What happens then in that poker? It gets hot, don't it? Well, that's kind of like with our relationship with Christ. We're kind of like that poker. A lot of us like to be the poker just kind of sitting out there in a little stand, you know, we look pretty and everything.
[30:30] That's kind of like our church. We're happy with that. But if you get that poker and you start messing with that fire and you leave it in there, it gets hot. And if you take that poker, what happens if you take that poker and touch yourself with it?
[30:41] Yeah, it's going to get some attention. And I want to be that kind of poker and I think that's the kind of poker God wants us to be. He wants us to get people's attention. He wants us to get hot. And so it's important for us to believe that and understand Christ invites believers to enter with Him in His death a gift that assures us resurrection in His life.
[31:02] It's something that we have to look forward to that we should never... You know, I always get worried about how I'm going to deal with that idea of death or dying and everything because I don't like pain.
[31:14] I'll be honest with you. I don't want to hurt. I often think of my brother Wally because Wally went to sleep. When he woke up, he was with the Lord. And I've asked the Lord sometimes that.
[31:27] I said, Lord, if you can do that with me, I kind of like it like that and everything. Renee probably wouldn't like it if you take me first, but I have that idea in my head. And so, in Romans 6, 4 and 5, it says, Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism and in death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life.
[31:51] For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of Him in His resurrection. Christ shares His suffering with us and we may share in His glory.
[32:06] Now, the thing I want you to think about is, is it worth it? Is it worth it to you to have that relationship with Jesus Christ? To deal with all the things that you want to have to deal with in this world by seeing through His eyes, having a Christ-like mind?
[32:24] Is it worth it? And it's important for us to think about that. I've got a little video of a song I'd like for you to listen to and then after that I want to share a little story with you and we'll be finished.
[32:40] So, see what you think of this. This is no pain, it's no fairytale, I'll stand right here to a rival bear.
[33:04] It all comes down to this, Is he worth it? This is no dream, it's reality There's no my love and my dignity It all comes down to this Is he worth it?
[33:25] This is where faith lives or dies This is where hope comes alive Big prize, big prize This love demands a sacrifice I live what I can't keep To gain what I can't lose Count the cost, count the cost It's a privilege to bear a cross No matter what I face, my heart is hurt That he's worth it This is no play, it's no Sunday's food Just keep up now, don't be a fool They jeered and laughed and said Is he worth it?
[34:24] This is no lie, they stole my child They'd give her back and fight just to die The road seems long ahead Is he worth it?
[34:37] Pay the price, pay the price This love demands a sacrifice I'll give what I can't keep To gain what I can't lose Count the cost, count the cost It's a privilege to bear a cross The man who's in our face, my heart is certain And I'm so fast, you make a choice And I'm afraid for a great point You're a huge fan And Jesus had a rise In the head of the car, let me see it next Seven million, I'm gonna say The man who's in our face, my heart is worth it Every day Be the price This love demands a sacrifice
[35:37] I'll give what I can't keep To gain what I can't lose Count the cost, count the cost It's a privilege to bear a cross The man who's in our face, my heart is certain It's worth it It's worth it It's worth it So I want to ask you this Paul says it's worth it Is it worth it to you?
[36:31] I want to ask the worship team to come up We're going to sing a song And I want you to think about this song And is He worth it to you? Can you rejoice in your relationship with Jesus Christ?
[36:45] The song we're going to sing now is I Have Decided to Follow Jesus This is a Christian hymn that originated from India The lyrics are based on the last words of a man in Garo, Assam About 150 years ago, there was a great revival in Wales And as a result, many missionaries come to the northeast India To spread the gospel The region known as Assam Was comprised of hundreds of tribes Who were primitive and aggressive And headhunters And to these hostile, aggressive communities Came a group of missionaries From the American Baptist missions Spreading the message of love, peace, and hope of Jesus Christ Naturally, they were not welcomed One missionary succeeded in converting a man and his wife and two children This man who saved his faith proved courageous And many villagers began to accept Christianity Angry, the village chief summoned all the villagers
[37:48] He then called the family at Who had first converted to renounce their faith in public Or face execution Moved by the Holy Spirit The man said That's a suspenseful pause, guys I have decided to follow Jesus Enraged by his refusal The chief ordered the archers to shoot arrows down into his two children As both boys lay twitching on the floor The chief said Will you deny your faith?
[38:30] You have lost two children Will you lose your wife too? But the man replied Though no one joins me Still I will follow The chief was beside himself And with fury Ordered his wife to be shot down with arrows In a moment She joined the two children in death Now he asked the man last time I will give you one more opportunity to deny your faith And to live In the face of death The man said these final memorable lines The cross before me The world behind me No turning back He was shot down dead With the rest of his family But With their deaths A miracle took place The chief who had ordered the killing Was moved by the faith of the man He wondered Why should a man His wife and two children Die for a man who lived so far away On another continent Over two thousand years ago There was much There was much to be
[39:33] To be some remarkable There must be some remarkable power Behind this family's faith And And I too Want to taste it Is what the chief said In his spontaneous confession of faith He declared I too Belong to Jesus Christ When the crowd heard This from the mouth of their own chief The whole village Accepted Christ As their Lord and Savior And the words that he used Were converted into a song By the people of this tribe And they sing it And it came out This song that we're going to be singing The words came out of that So I want to leave you with two things I want to know Do you have something to rejoice about When I say rejoice Can you say I rejoice Because I have Jesus Christ in my heart And then I want you to think about it Is it worth it To you to have him In your heart To have that relationship Because it's not just Accepting him As your Lord and Savior It's about living it In any way that he calls you to do In every decision In everything you do You do it based
[40:33] On God and Christ And so As you hear this As we sing this song together I just ask that you Think of those words Again In every neuron I have included That he counts In everything you do For us And so In your heart To have that Is it that EU становa Hearts The Orion As The각 The Half As What The Gy Tip