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Good morning. My name is Carrie Moulton, and I'm a member of the Oakland Women's Little Faith Group.
And today's reading is from Paul's letter to the Philippians, chapter 3, verses 7 through 14, as printed in the liturgy.
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish,
in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law,
but from that which comes through faith in Christ,
the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
That I may know him and the power of his resurrection,
and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this, or am already perfect,
but I press on to make it my own,
because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own,
but one thing I do,
forgetting what lies behind,
and straining forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal
for the prize of the upward call of God
in Jesus Christ.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thank you for that scripture reading, Carrie.
It's just a text that's so beautiful.
It just preaches itself.
Will you join me in prayer?
Father,
we thank you for these words
that you placed on the pen
and on the lips of your servant, Apostle Paul.
Lord, we ask that you would place these words
on our lips as well,
but yet God, place them on our hearts,
convince us, O Lord,
that these are not words only to be uttered
by once-in-a-generation super saints,
that these are the words of all your children,
of anyone who has ever seen your son Jesus
for who he really is.
O Lord, place these words on our lips
as a people who have beheld the beauty
and believed in the bounty
that exists in Jesus Christ.
Make us a people who are straining
with all our might,
pursuing just one thing,
a deeper relationship with Christ.
In so doing, Lord,
bring about the revival
that you so desire amongst us
and in the bay and all the world, God.
For our good
and for your glory we pray.
Amen.
Good morning, everyone.
My name's Andrew.
I'm one of the pastors here.
You'll have to forgive me.
I have had a little bit of a cough,
so I'm sucking on a cough drop.
Hopefully that won't affect too much.
In case you are new to Christ Church,
what you need to know
is that we are on the third Sunday
of a new ministry year.
It's also the third Sunday
of our lead pastor, Jonathan,
being back from his sabbatical.
And yeah, yay.
And one of the words,
the word really,
that has been on our lead pastor,
Jonathan's heart,
coming back from sabbatical,
is the word revival.
Revival.
So that's what we will be preaching through
in this fall season,
and it's really what we're gonna be praying for
for at least this whole ministry year.
Lord, revive us.
Revive our city.
Revive our land.
Revive this world.
And start with us.
Revive your people.
Revive your church, oh God.
And you know, personally,
I feel very invested in this theme
because in a way,
I feel like I've been praying for revival
for like over a decade.
It all started actually 17 years ago.
Well, actually, that's half of my life ago
when I went to UC Irvine.
And I had to find a church.
I'm Chinese American,
but I joined a Korean American church.
And you know, at this church,
like all we did was pray for revival.
That's all we did.
So I lived there,
and I worshiped there for six years.
Every Friday night, Bible study.
Seven to nine.
Prayer meeting, 9.30 to 11.
And I can still smell that office
in that business park where we used to pray.
I can still feel the rough blue rug
making an imprint on my knees
because I always wore basketball shorts.
And I can still hear the cries
of my spiritual role models
in that room on their knees as well.
The ajashis of the church.
If you don't know what that is,
ask a Korean friend what an ajashi is.
But these ajashis,
they would cry out to God,
Lord God, give me a passion.
Give us a passion for your name.
And I remember singing with them,
crying out to God,
create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,
and renew a right spirit within me.
And we would remember the promises of God.
If my people who are called by my name
will humble themselves and pray,
and seek my face,
and turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven,
and forgive their sins,
and heal their land,
if they humble themselves and pray.
And honestly,
these were probably the most spiritually formative years of my life.
Praying on my knees with the Koreans.
And like for about 10 years,
between 2006 and 2015,
from the beginning of college to the end of seminary,
I would get up early,
and I would pray this same prayer every single day.
Lord, if one day you should give me a wife.
Lord, if one day you should give me children.
Lord, if one day you should allow me to pastor a church.
Lord, make us a people who are zealous for your glory.
Lord, make us a people who have a high regard
for the scriptures, for your word.
Lord, make us a people who have eyes to see
the heights of our sin,
and the depths of your overwhelming grace.
Give us hearts that cherish and treasure Jesus Christ.
Hearts that are broken for those who don't know Jesus Christ.
And hearts of compassion
for those who suffer in this world.
I pray this every day
for my future wife,
for my future children,
and really for all of you
at my future church.
And I don't share this with you
so you'll think I'm a super holy man.
I am sure you I am not.
You can ask my wife about that.
But I share this with you
because I want you to consider
that our pursuit of revival
here at Christ Church in this season
is not some accident,
not some phase that Jonathan's going through
in his, what, mid-40s.
But like, what if,
at least in part,
what if it's an answer
to a 17 years worth of prayer?
What if it's an answer
to 17 years worth of prayer?
Prayers that interestingly began
the year that Christ Church started.
In 2006,
before I even knew about Christ Church,
I probably wouldn't have even wanted
to come to this church back then,
to be honest.
But here we are.
What if?
What if, right?
That's a question I hope you'll consider
in this season of our church.
Like, what if God wants to do
a thing amongst us?
Like, what if the pandemic
we've just endured,
the polarization we're seeing
in our nation,
what if our public and mental health
crises and the mounting global instability
that all trouble us,
what if these are just occasions
for the power of God to be displayed?
What if these were just occasions
for our church to be a non-anxious presence,
a community of compassion,
light in the darkness,
messengers of the best possible news,
the only hope of the world,
Jesus Christ?
What if we've merely been enduring
a season of pruning
in order that the Spirit of God
might produce an incredible crop
of fruitfulness?
What if what we thought
was nothing but crap
hitting the fan
was God fertilizing the soil
that we've been standing in
for a season of revival?
Now, I understand that for some of us
in this room, revival
doesn't exactly excite you
as it does me.
Maybe you're here
and you're not even sure
you believe in God,
let alone that you need
some kind of spiritual awakening
in your life or in your community.
Maybe you're thinking,
isn't revival just for religious people?
And if that's you,
what I want to say to you today
is that sure,
we do long for spiritual renewal
in our church
and in our community
and for you too individually.
But make no mistake,
when true revival happens,
it isn't merely an inward,
invisible, individualistic experience,
but it always results
in the good of the city.
In the early church,
when the Spirit came upon the apostles,
the sick were healed,
the lame walked,
and as one witness wrote,
God's grace was so powerfully
at work in them all
that there were no needy persons
among them.
For from time to time,
those who owned land or houses
sold them,
brought the money from the sales
and put it at the apostles' feet
and it was distributed
to anyone who had need.
And even when the church
was persecuted
and scattered,
the apostle Philip,
he went out to another city
and the same witness writes,
when the crowds heard Philip
and saw the signs he performed,
they all paid close attention
to what he said.
For with shrieks,
impure spirits came out of many
and many who were paralyzed
or lame were healed.
So there was great joy
in that city.
So there was great joy
in that city.
I love that,
don't you?
Or take the more recent example
of the Second Great Awakening,
right,
which historians acknowledge
as significantly serving,
supporting,
and inspiring
the abolitionist movement
and women's right movement
in the 19th century.
See,
when the Spirit of God
comes in power
to bring revival,
the result isn't just
a spiritual renovation
within the hearts
of religious people.
But it's a holistic renovation
of whole communities.
So like,
even if you don't consider
yourself religious,
don't you want
this revival
that we're searching for?
We're not after
something purely religious
or spiritual,
we're after a sign
and a taste
of the new creation
that Jesus Christ
has promised us.
Now maybe you are
a Christian,
but you still
hear this word revival
and it just sounds
like such a super churchy
word to you.
It reminds you
of huge tent meetings,
naive,
mindless crowds,
inauthentic,
emotional outbursts,
and just religious fanaticism.
Maybe you hear us
talking about revival
and you want to put up
your defenses
against the threat
of manipulation
and peer pressure
all under the guise
of God's Spirit.
You know,
I would say
that you're right.
You're right to put up
your defenses
because in church history
there have been
Christians and churches
who've tried to force
the hand of God
and conjure up His Spirit
and harness His power
and His presence
by their own,
you know,
manipulative techniques.
The sad reality
is that a big temptation
for those of us
who seek revival
has been to seek it
by mere technique,
as if we could reduce it
to a formula.
And we can see this
in so much
of the American church
with its modern faith
in technology
and its modern conception
of productivity.
So much of the American church
has become distracted, right?
Groping around
for the next new thing,
whether it's the next
church growth strategy
or just some other
yet-to-be-revealed
silver bullet
that will somehow
catalyze a revival
like never before.
But I want to assure you
today that that is not
at all what we're after
here at Christ Church.
A new next thing
that will generate
some kind of desired outcome
that we can call
a revival
and then pat ourselves
on the back
for stirring up.
Now churches
that focus merely
on new techniques
only ever end up
either looking like
lame posers,
always copying
but never creating culture,
always behind
the most recent
cultural trends
and just trying to catch up
but never really figuring out
who they are
and who God
wants them to be,
or we just end up
looking no different
from the world around us.
A church that's in the world
and of the world
just uncritically adopting
wholesale one ideology
after another
either on the left
or the right.
Now this is not to say
that we should be
anti-technique
and anti-innovation.
Can innovative technology
serve the movement
of revival?
Yes.
And please,
think about the printing press.
Right?
Without the printing press
will you have
the Protestant Reformation
as it was?
The Bibles in the hands
of common people,
right?
Feeding upon the very
words of God
for themselves.
Blooming into
a literate
and increasingly
democratized society.
I'm not saying
that we should be
anti-technique
and I even pray
for innovation
and creativity
in our church
as we seek revival.
But what we need
to understand
is that revival
can't be manufactured.
It can't be manufactured
by manipulation,
by applying
the fanciest,
most sophisticated,
innovative technique
to stir up
some kind of
religious fervor.
At Christ Church East Bay,
we are not after
the newest,
next thing
that will bring us
to new heights.
Now, in our pursuit
of revival,
we aren't primarily
looking for something new.
We're looking for
something ancient.
Not something fancy,
something fundamental.
Not something sophisticated,
something simple,
not necessarily posh,
but definitely profound.
Revival is not so much
about newness,
but I prefer to talk
about it as freshness.
Revival isn't about
coming upon something
that's brand spanking new.
It's about experiencing
a fresh,
something which had
previously become
stale.
So you see,
the secret sauce
for revival
isn't for us
to figure out
again and again
and again.
The recipe,
it hasn't changed.
Revival will only happen
when people are brought
back to the most basic,
the most necessary truth
that the world
truly needs
and that's the gospel.
That Jesus Christ
of Nazareth,
crucified and risen,
is Lord.
At the center
of revival
is a white hot faith
in this ancient
and basic truth
of Christianity,
a fresh and burning
passion concerning
our most basic conviction,
the deep, deep conviction
that Jesus truly is Lord
and that that is
the best news
for the world.
and that there is
no more basic,
no more ultimate,
no more all-controlling
truth than that.
Revival happens
when people awaken
to the surpassing worth
of knowing Christ.
Christ Jesus
as their Lord
and strain forward
to know Him more,
to experience His presence
and His power
by any means possible,
no matter the cost,
even at the cost
of suffering,
even at the cost
of their own lives.
And see,
that is why we are
turning to chapter 3
of Paul's letter
to the Philippians today
because Paul understood this.
Paul understood
that Jesus,
Jesus has to be
everything to us.
He has to be
everything to us.
Like,
Jesus plus nothing
equals everything.
And everything
minus Jesus
equals nothing.
Jesus plus nothing
equals everything,
and everything
minus Jesus
equals nothing.
Now listen again
to these divinely inspired words
from the Apostle Paul.
But whatever gain I had,
I counted as loss
for the sake of Christ.
Indeed,
I count everything
as loss
because of the surpassing worth
of knowing Christ Jesus,
my Lord.
Lord,
for his sake,
I have suffered
the loss
of all things
and count them
as rubbish
in order that I may gain
Christ
and be found in him.
Not having a righteousness
of my own
that comes from the law,
but the righteousness
from God
that depends
on faith,
that I may know him
and the power
of his resurrection
and may share
his sufferings,
becoming like him
in his death,
that by any means possible,
I may attain
the resurrection
from the dead.
Not that I have already
obtained it
or am already perfect,
but I press on
to make it my own
because Christ Jesus
has made me
his own.
Brothers,
I do not consider
that I have already
made it my own,
but one thing,
one thing I do,
forgetting what lies
behind
and straining forward
to what lies ahead,
I press on
for the goal,
toward the goal,
for the prize
of the upward call
of God
in Christ Jesus.
Wow, right.
That is the word
of God.
If you are not
a Christian,
I have no expectation
that you would even
remotely consider
to take such words
upon your lips.
But if you are
a Christian today,
even as scary
and radical
and extreme
as this sounds,
doesn't it also
sound right?
Doesn't it also
sound good?
And even as far
away from this sentiment
as you might feel,
don't you want to feel
what Paul feels
for Christ?
Even if you
don't identify
with Christ,
don't you want to feel
this way about
something?
Something that you
believe will change
the world?
I mean, Christchurch,
can you imagine
if we took these words
upon our own lips
and upon our hearts,
if this high-achieving,
highly educated,
highly successful
community
of Jesus' followers,
just two blocks
north of the number
one public university
in the nation,
Go Bears.
Can you imagine
what God might do
in a family of faith
who believed
what Paul believed
about Jesus Christ?
These words
are not just
the words
of a super saint,
holy man, apostle.
They were meant
for our lips,
for our hearts
as well.
This is the kindling
of revival,
the stuff revival
is made of.
Can you just
imagine with me
what a witness
to the world
we might be
if we really believed
that Jesus
plus nothing
equals everything
and that everything
minus Jesus
equals nothing?
Now maybe you're here
and you're hesitant
because you feel like
you have too much
to lose,
but take it from Paul.
He had it all
and yet to him,
Jesus was more.
Verse 7,
but whatever gain,
like whatever successes
and achievements
and merits and profits
and advantages
I had, he says,
I counted as loss
for the sake of Christ.
Verse 8,
indeed, he says,
he counted everything
as loss
because the surpassing worth
of knowing Christ Jesus
as his Lord.
And you have to understand
that this was a man
who had major gains,
major advantages.
The word for gain here
is plural,
major achievements,
major merits.
This was one of the greatest minds,
if not the greatest mind
in the first century ancient world.
Perhaps the greatest Jewish scholar
and adherent of all time.
Nobody knew the Jewish faith
better than Paul.
Nobody lived the Jewish faith
better than Paul.
According to the metrics
and the standards
of his community
and in the highest courts
of Jewish opinion,
Paul was at the very top.
in education,
in knowledge,
in lifestyle,
in reputation,
in status,
and passion,
and integrity.
He literally made it
to the top of the ladder.
He had actually achieved
his highest life's ambitions.
He made it.
He had finally made his parents
as proud as possible.
He had finally won
the highest respect
of the most esteemed colleagues
and peers and mentors.
There is no higher status
for him to achieve
in his career
and in his community.
Can you imagine that?
Being the most highly educated,
most professionally successful,
most reputable person
in your community,
the best doctor,
lawyer,
entrepreneur,
academic,
investor,
executive,
maybe on the cover
of Forbes or Time Magazine,
the expert of your field.
And the most upstanding,
upright,
and admirable person at that,
living up to the highest,
most rigorous,
moral,
and ethical standards,
blameless,
under the most intense scrutiny.
This is who Apostle Paul was.
And yet,
for the sake of Christ,
all those gains,
whatever gains he had,
he counted them as loss.
Even the best things he had,
as loss.
Even as disadvantages.
This superstar who had come
into a position and status
that most of us can only dream
of arriving at,
in which anyone else
in his position
could justifiably lord themselves
over all those
they'd surpassed in merit,
he had discovered something,
someone,
even higher.
A higher lord,
far surpassing himself,
Jesus Christ.
A lord so high,
so preeminent,
that in comparison,
all he ever achieved
was nothing but loss
and disadvantage,
and even rubbish,
he says.
In the Greek,
skubala,
literally trash,
or even human excrement.
For Apostle Paul,
Jesus plus nothing
equaled everything,
and everything minus Jesus
equaled nothing.
For Apostle Paul,
knowing Jesus,
fundamentally changed
how he counted
and evaluated himself
and everything else.
You see,
Paul's eyes were opened
by the Spirit of God
to revalue
all that he had once
considered good
and profitable
and advantageous.
That's what he's getting at here
in verse 10
when he talks about
these two different kinds
of righteousness.
He talks about these
two different kinds
of righteousness, right?
Not the kind of righteousness
that comes from the law,
but the righteousness
that comes through faith
in Jesus.
And if this righteousness language
is kind of unfamiliar to you,
I love how Tim Keller
describes it.
He says,
everybody has a slightly
different set of things,
but fundamentally,
all of us seek
to earn our own righteousness.
All of us use a resume
by which we seek
to face the world,
ourselves, and God.
It's how we get in.
Paul says,
everybody does it.
It's your most fundamental need.
You know you're naked
and you're trying
to clothe yourself
with your righteousness.
You know in yourself
you have to find some way
to recommend yourself,
and so you're trying
to cover yourself
with your resume.
Adam and Eve
put fig leaves on,
but what those were
were resumes.
They have to cover
their nakedness.
They want to say,
this is why you should accept me.
We say that to God.
We say that to the world.
We even say it to ourselves.
We all have a set.
It's the most fundamental need
we have, he says.
For Paul,
his righteousness
was previously wrapped up
in just being super Jewish, right?
The Hebrew of Hebrews.
That's where he placed
his confidence.
That's where he understood
his value to be.
in his knowledgeable,
obedient,
and zealous posture
toward the religious law
of the Jewish faith.
And his resume was nice
and it was clean
and it was impressive.
But how long
could he sustain it?
Could he keep the pace?
Could he climb
that ladder forever?
And also I want to ask,
what kind of person
did it make him?
Well, the kind of person
that looked down
on those who weren't
as far up on the ladder
as he was, right?
The kind of person
who went and persecuted
and sought to kill
those who he believed
threatened his Jewish identity.
Those who threatened
his understanding
of his own righteousness.
But then he met Jesus.
But then when he met Jesus,
right,
the standard of his confidence
and value
was completely,
it was turned upside down.
No longer depending
upon his achievements
and his merits
and his Jewish identity,
but rather on Jesus alone.
He boldly transferred
his faith
from dependence upon himself
and his own righteousness
to dependence on Jesus
and Jesus' righteousness.
And see,
this is the stuff
that revivals are made of.
The gospel.
Because you see,
you have to understand
how liberating this must have been
for Apostle Paul.
Yeah, sure,
maybe he was on the top
of the ladder at one point,
but still,
he was always just
one bad homily,
one bad sermon,
one moral failure,
one newer, smarter,
better-read Pharisee
away from being knocked off
from the top of the ladder, right?
When Jesus came into his life
and radically changed
how he valued everything
he'd once prized,
you see what happened here?
He was actually liberated
when he repented
of his righteousness.
He was liberated
when he repented
of his righteousness,
when he repented
of all his dependence
upon all his goodness
and his smarts
and his achievements.
It was only when he changed
the scales
by which he once measured
and evaluated all things
and adopted God's scales
instead of his own.
It was only then
that he could really come
to know Christ
for who he really was.
And as it says in verse 11,
the power of his resurrection.
See, Paul had to die
to the old value system
he had given everything
to win at.
And yet it was precisely
when Paul died to himself,
putting to death
all he had previously worked for,
that he was able
to experience
the resurrection power
of Jesus Christ.
Gladly sharing in his sufferings,
becoming like him
in his death.
So what?
By any means possible,
Paul attaining
to the resurrection
from the dead.
And maybe you're here today
and you can't make up your mind.
You want to know Jesus
a little bit more,
but you don't want
to go so deep, right?
You're afraid
that you'll lose everything
just like Paul did.
And you're not sure
if you're ready
to go that far.
You've climbed up
the ladder pretty far,
invested too much
in your own righteousness
to throw it all away.
You've done well
for yourself.
You played the game well
and you're quite proud
of your resume.
But the question
I want to ask you
is how are you handling
the anxiety
of that one
personal failure,
that one accident
on the surgery table,
that one flawed
legal argument,
that one bad investment,
that one bad business decision,
that one bad exam score
that haunts you?
And another question,
what are you going to do
if and when
you fall from the ladder?
What guarantee do you have
that you can
and will rise again?
I was actually reminded
of this ladder image
by one of my best friends
in seminary.
Her name is Esther Liu
and she's coming out
with a book next month
that I have been able
to read in advance.
It's called Shame,
Being Known and Loved
and I highly recommend it.
You can pre-order it now.
But borrowing from
our late great professor,
David Pallison,
she writes this,
Each ladder represents
a standard we live by,
whether it be physical beauty,
intelligence,
ministry success,
or something else.
The higher you are
on the ladder,
the better you feel
about yourself.
The lower you are,
the more you feel resigned
to a lesser,
shame-filled life.
We tend to look
at the people above us
on our ladders
and feel self-condemnation
or envy.
We look at the people
far below us
and feel superior,
even judgmental.
We look at the people
right under us
and worry that they
might surpass us.
And then she writes,
Ladder climbing
doesn't ultimately
deliver on its promises.
It doesn't provide
true and abiding freedom,
peace,
and contentment,
even if you reach
the top.
That's why Pallison
calls these
the ladders
to nowhere.
That's why I often
call ladder climbing
the ladder game
of hell,
because there is
something hellish
about this self-reliant,
anxious striving
that does not
ultimately rescue you
from shame.
Some of us
are working hard
to climb ladders
but are losing hope.
Some of us
have given up,
resigned to our shame.
Others of us
may have made it
relatively high
on our ladders
only to find
our sense of insecurity
isn't cured up there.
But,
she writes,
but knowing God,
being in relationship
with Him,
and praising Him
help us
to step off
our ladders
to nowhere.
So,
if you have ears
to hear,
God's word to us
today is that
we will only ever
experience the
imperishable
resurrection life
of Christ
if we will die
with Him
to the faulty
systems of this
world that only
oppress us
and leave us
eternally anxious.
Jesus invites us
to step off
of our hellish
ladders to nowhere
and to receive
the righteousness
that comes from God,
that depends on faith
and not on ourselves,
and this is
the gospel.
That Christ's
resurrection
can be for us
because His death
was for us.
That by faith alone
we can be united
with Him
in both His death
and His resurrection.
Now,
I want to close
by looking at
the last three
verses here.
You know,
a common misconception
that our faith
in Christ,
a common misconception
is that our faith
in Christ
is simply a passive
thing.
Like just hopping
on a surfboard
and riding the wave
to the shore.
But while our
faithfulness could
never earn
or merit
or put God
into our debt,
our faithfulness
and our pressing
onward,
straining to go
deeper with Christ,
it's always assumed
in a genuine faith.
That's why Paul says
in verse 12,
even with His faith
in Christ,
not that I have
already obtained it
or am already perfect,
but I press on
to make it my own
because Jesus
has made me His own.
Brothers,
I do not consider
that I have already
made it my own,
but one thing I do.
One thing.
I just love that.
Just one thing.
Again,
it's so simple,
but it's absolute
and totalizing, right?
Like what is our one thing,
whether you claim
to know Jesus or not?
What is the one thing
you resolve to do?
The one goal,
the one prize you're after.
Here's what Paul,
inspired by the Holy Spirit,
commends to us.
One thing I do,
verse 13,
forgetting what lies behind
and straining forward
to what lies ahead.
I press on
toward the goal
for the prize
of the upward call of God
in Christ Jesus.
So Christ Church,
as we seek revival,
it is absolutely true
that we cannot force
the hand of God.
We cannot manufacture
a revival
by our manipulative
techniques.
And it is absolutely true
that the resurrection life
we long to enjoy
and experience
can only be received
by faith.
But while we depend
fully on the work of God
to bring about
this revival
and to draw us
into his resurrection life,
we don't just passively
sit our butts
on our surfboards
bobbing up and down
in the open waters
of the ocean.
No.
We get on our bellies
and we paddle
along with the waves
that are headed
to the shore.
And we take risks
and we stand up,
straining forward
to enjoy
the full experience
of riding the wave
of God's Spirit.
Don't you want that?
The Lord Jesus
has made us his own.
So let's press on
to make him our own,
no matter the cost.
For if Jesus
has suffered the loss
of all things
unto death
to secure for us
an imperishable
resurrection life,
surely it is worth it
for us
to count all our gains
as loss,
everything as rubbish,
to share in his sufferings,
becoming like him
in his death,
that we may know him
and by any means
possible
that we may know
the power
of his resurrection.
Christchurch,
this is a season
to lean in,
to revival,
to lean into the rhythms
of the church together,
to seek the face of God,
that we may know him
and the power
of his resurrection.
Will you pray with me?
Lord God,
make this our prayer
that we may know you,
that we may count
everything as rubbish.
Put these words
upon our lips
and our hearts.
Give us a yearning
to know Christ
and the power
of his resurrection.
give us a willingness
to count everything
as rubbish
compared to the surpassing
worth of knowing him.
God,
some of us here
do not yet know Christ.
I pray that they would
come to know him
and the power
of his resurrection.
And God,
some of us here
may not even know
we don't actually know
Christ.
Some of us here
might be confusing
knowledge about him
with a personal relationship
with him.
And so I pray
that you would reveal
that to us today.
That we would all heed
your invitation
to strain forward,
to take hold
of the one
who has taken hold
of us.
Lord,
I pray for those
who need to hear
your commands
to forget what lies behind.
Those of us
who are depending
on our own righteousness,
confident in our own goodness,
or maybe relying
on some past experience
with you,
but not currently
walking with you,
straining forward
to what lies ahead.
Oh Lord,
stir us up
to strain forward,
to press on
for the precious prize
of just being near to you,
experiencing more
of you.
And God,
lastly,
I want to pray
for those of us here
who need to hear
your permission.
Your permission
to forget
what lies behind.
Those of us
who have fallen off
of our ladders
more times
than we can count.
Those of us
who hear nothing
but the lies
of the evil one
and our self-condemning
hearts telling us
that we can never
take hold of this prize
that is union
and communion
with Christ Jesus.
Oh Lord,
help us to forget
all of that,
to leave it all
behind us
and to jump
off our ladders
into your arms
that we might experience
how you have already
taken hold of us
and would that only
drive us deeper
into your embrace,
Lord.
We pray this
in the mighty name
of Jesus.
Amen.