I would like you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Philippians chapter 3 and before we open the text together.
All right, that's something I want to work at and I'm going to be conscious and deliberate in doing so.
So here's my appeal to do.
At least when we're singing.
Now I understand some of us are linear and some of us are global.
You know, some of us are all over the place.
And some of us are pretty tracky.
You know, it's like one thing after another.
So I'm asking you to do something that may be stretching things a little bit.
But when we are singing, would you mind cross-referencing the things we're singing about with Scripture?
Does that make sense?
Hey, listen to me.
Isaiah chapter 8 verse 20 says this.
To the law and to the prophecies or the testimonies, if it speaks not according to this, there is no light in them.
In other words, the benchmark of truth is really the Bible.
And I am so appreciative of the fact that when we gather to sing, that those who minister to us and encourage us in singing are very conscious and deliberate about taking the passage that we are going to study.
And finally, John gets this most of the time in advance, quite a bit in advance, about a week or so.
And he has time to kind of ponder this.
And then the songs reference back to the text.
And so my plea is this.
This is on your 15 to-do list, right?
You got that?
And I'll try not to nag too often about this, but at least bump your wife and say, hey, what passage?
Do that, okay?
Or nudge your children and say, what passage?
Or do you understand what I'm saying?
Here's my plea.
Listen.
Everybody look up.
Smile.
Please.
Seriously.
I want us to learn to be conscious and deliberate in thinking scripturally.
And probably one of the easier places to exercise is when we are singing.
So you say, all right, Holy Spirit, bring to mind passages that I need.
Am I the only one getting hot in here?
I see lots of people fanning.
And I am very tempted to take off my sweater.
That's a threat.
But anyway, okay.
All right.
Here we go.
Philippians chapter 3.
Let me read the passage to you.
Beginning there in verse 8.
Indeed, I count everything as lost 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 that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
Now here's verse 10 that I want us to focus on this morning,
that I may know him and the power of his resurrection,
and I may share in his suffering, becoming like him in his death.
Will you pray with me and pray for me?
Holy Father, for us to take this passage in mind and hand this morning
is to do something that is important and we trust is enabled by the Spirit of God.
Lord, we are often guilty of hearing and not applying.
We're often guilty of allowing time that should be spent profitably,
focusing on things that are of Christ's preeminence and glory,
and squandering that time in thinking of things that are of no eternal value and purpose.
And so we would ask humbly this morning that your Spirit would enable me as I preach,
that I might do so in such a fashion that it is evident that it is the work of God
that is playing out in real time in the teaching and the preaching of the Word,
but also, Lord, that it is received with the help of the Spirit
that it might bear fruit in the lives of those who know the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it might be used by your Spirit to draw those who are here today
that do not know the Lord Jesus to the cross and to salvation.
And so, Lord, as I preach, I'm committed to bathe this message in prayer,
and as I preach, I trust your people will pray that we might rejoice together
and seeing you at work in our fellowship and in our lives individually this morning.
And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
As we take up this passage, I really look at verse 10 as being one of those focal passages
that helps us in our journey.
And I think about the year that lies in front of us,
and I would imagine that there are some of you that have consciously and deliberately
made some decisions about things that you're going to work on this year.
Now, you may be on the other side of Christmas, and you're thinking to yourself,
well, okay, Christmas and New Year has come and passed,
and I need to do something about the fact that I have overindulged myself a little bit.
I don't want you to raise your hand and give yourself away, but you understand that.
There are some of you who might be saying, well, okay,
last year was a bust in such and such an area,
and this year I'm going to be conscious and deliberate,
and this is what I'm going to work on.
I'm just curious, how many of you have a plan to read through the Bible this year?
Raise your hand and wave at me.
Get it up above the elbow like this.
Okay, you're going to read through the Bible.
How many of you are thinking about it and might be a good idea,
but you haven't decided yet?
Raise your hand.
Let's try that again.
It was a real soft question.
Are you alive?
Are you thinking about it maybe?
And it might be a good idea.
Thank you.
I like seeing that hand.
Okay, that's a goal.
That's one that's worthy of your consideration.
You may have others that you've thought about and decided,
man, this is what I'm going to focus on, God being my help,
and as a result of that focus, it's going to make a difference.
How many of you have ever gone to the store and didn't make a list
and then come back and decided you needed to go again?
You ever done that?
Well, with life, you don't get a do-over.
It kind of whittles out behind you,
and if you haven't planned and thought about it intentionally,
the outcome often is a level of disappointment
as you look back across the path and say,
man, I should have.
I wish.
I could have done better.
And so my appeal, my plea for you this morning
is that you who are believers would consciously
and deliberately make some objective decisions
and mark them down
and keep those in front of you in the coming year.
And I can tell you this, it'll make a difference.
What we're looking at in this passage, actually,
in Philippians chapter 3,
is the apostle kind of pushing together
his life objectives and goals,
and he's separating out all the chaff
and setting aside those things
that are of no importance to him
and zeroing down on those things
that were at the very center of his life.
And it is from that core
that I want to encourage you this morning
to take the pattern of the apostle
and make it true for your life.
So let's look here at the things
that really governed the apostle's life
as he kind of ground on through life.
Look at the passage in verse 10.
It says,
that I may know him.
And so let's take this simple statement up
and just kind of ponder what Paul means
because we understand, for one thing,
that Paul's background was very, very significant
in understanding all about the Old Testament.
He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
He was a well-trained Jew.
He had sat at Gamaliel's feet,
and without question,
if you had asked him about any of the Old Testament passages
that had reference to the Messiah,
he probably could have spoken on them
and referred to them and understood the relationship
that those passages had to the hope of Israel.
But nevertheless,
he'd never come to a personal relationship with Christ
until on the road to Damascus.
Do you remember what happened?
Christ revealed himself to him.
Christ drew him to salvation,
and Paul's life was radically changed.
Where at one time,
he had been a persecutor of believers.
He became one of the preeminent spokespersons for the gospel
and the one that God used in a very particular way
to bring the gospel to the Gentiles.
That's who we are.
Paul was a phenomenal instrument in the hands of God.
And so as you hear him say this this morning,
you understand that when Paul says,
that I might know him,
he's not speaking just about that academic information
that he gathered at one time.
And there are some of you sitting here
that maybe grew up in a Christian home.
You heard the Bible stories.
You know about who Jesus is.
You know that he was born in a manger in a stable.
You know that he was born of a virgin.
But all that information is just kind of academic
and kind of abstract.
It doesn't really have a personal connection to you.
When Paul makes that statement that I might know him,
he's talking about having more than a head knowledge
about who Christ is.
He's talking about having a personal,
genuine relationship that is governed by the reality
of who that person is.
I don't want to overplay the importance of the word,
but when Paul speaks about knowing here,
he's talking about that kind of knowledge
that is something that is personal
and experiential in nature.
In other words,
I understand by virtue
of what I've gone through and experienced.
So in relationship to this business of knowing Christ,
let me draw out several truths
that I want you to think about this morning.
For one,
our knowledge of Christ can be deepened.
Our knowledge of Christ can be deepened.
And I want to assure you
that a deepening relationship
and understanding of the person of Christ
will make a significant difference
in the life of the believer.
You see,
the things that we care about
and the things we invest our energy in
end up having a profound influence
on who we are
and how we go about life.
Go back just a little bit.
We're in verse 10.
So go back to verse 8.
And here's Paul saying,
Indeed,
I count everything as loss
because of the surpassing worth
of knowing Christ.
Indeed,
I count everything
as loss
so that I may have
a growing understanding
of the person of Christ.
It's amazing when you stop
and think about this.
Paul was saying that
all the other things in my life
are of relative insignificance
in comparison to the importance
of knowing the Lord Jesus.
Now, it's easy for us
to hear that said,
but let's kind of play it out
in real time.
So there you are.
You get up in the morning
and you have all good intentions
of spending some time
with the Lord, right?
I mean,
after all,
Christians,
we know that.
That's important.
But there you go.
You grab your iPad
and before you actually
have time with the Lord
and time with the Word,
guess where you go?
Not to Facebook.
You wouldn't do that
because Jesus is first.
And you don't go to MSN
or CBS
or whatever else
the news feed is.
You don't even check the weather.
You go right to the book,
right?
And all God's people say,
yes, that's me.
I'm there.
It's the book that I want
because I want to know Jesus
more than the weather
or what somebody posted, right?
Paul says this.
Listen, look at the passage.
He says,
I count everything as loss
because of the surpassing worth
of knowing Christ Jesus,
my Lord.
And so as you think
about this business,
we recognize that our knowledge
of Christ can be deepened
and that the knowledge
of Christ being deepened
comes about from a conscious
and deliberate choice
on our part,
in our heart
to put Him
in that position
of preeminence.
I want you to understand,
secondly,
that our knowledge
of Christ can be deepened
by pursuing time
with Him
and obedience.
By pursuing time
with Him
and obedience.
Let me give you
several things
in relationship to this.
Number one,
if you're going to grow
in knowing Christ,
there must be
a willingness to hear.
Be humble to hear.
It's very interesting
when you stop
and think about
this business
of picking up information
about who the Lord Jesus
actually is.
It doesn't come by osmosis.
Does anybody know
what osmosis is?
It's the transfer
of something
from a place
of lesser density
or how does that go?
Help me here.
Mark,
spare me.
From greater density
to lesser density.
There we go.
Thank you.
A PhD can help me anytime.
So here we go.
Osmosis is not
how we gain information
about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Laying your pillow
on top of the Bible
and sleeping with the Bible there
doesn't mean it's going
to kind of work
its way up into your brain
and you're going
to become more deeply affectionate
with the Lord Jesus Christ.
There has to be
a willingness to hear
who He is
and that takes time.
That takes time.
It's very interesting
when you stop
and think about
the issue of
how we grow
in knowing who God is
and knowing about
the Lord Jesus Christ
that we recognize
we are dependent
upon revelation.
We're dependent
upon Him telling us.
I think for a moment
about the story of Job
and in Job
you have a man
who was a good guy.
He was an upright man
and eschewed evil.
You kind of look up
the word eschewed.
It means he kind of avoided it.
He was into
not doing all the bad things.
But you know what?
Job's understanding
of God
was kind of
not where it needed to be
and God allowed Job
to go through
all kinds of
what?
Heartache and difficulty.
Chapter 38
through 42.
Every one of those chapters
is God coming to Job
and saying
by the way Job
it's time for you
to listen up
because Job
was a little full of himself
and why am I suffering
these things
and what's going on
and why are you doing
this to me?
By the way
did God ever answer
Job's questions
about why he was suffering?
No.
All God did
in those chapters
essentially
was give Job
a picture
of God's
great wisdom
in particular
in relationship
to creation.
Are there any other
illustrations
of God's wisdom
and power
besides creation?
The answer is
you bet.
In those chapters
we find Job
first saying
you know
it's time for me
to be quiet
but then
at the end
of God's recitation
of who he is
in relationship
to creation
here's what Job says
I have heard of you
by the hearing
of my ear.
In other words
there are some things
I knew about you
I'd heard
but now my eye
sees you.
In other words
I've gained
further understanding
and further insight
into who you are.
And so I would appeal
to you this morning
as you kind of
look into the future
to say to yourself
one of the deliberate
intentions of my life
this year
is going to be
I by God's grace
am going to grow
in knowing Christ.
That's my goal.
I want you to understand
also that we grow
by being humble
to obey.
John chapter 15
verse 10
let's look at that
just for a moment
keep your finger there
in Philippians
but I want you
to go back
to John chapter 15
if you keep
my commandments
you will abide
in my love
just as I've kept
my father's commandments
and abide in his love.
If you keep
my commandments
you will abide
in my love.
You know
one of the things
that I kind of
am flummoxed
a little bit by
today
is I look at
the general
spiritual poverty
of many many
people in America.
I was reading
a Facebook post
by an individual
who at one time
quite an effective
speaker
pastor
and the guy
has drifted
far away
from the Lord
and as I was
as I was
paying attention
I don't know
where his heart
is for sure
but as I read
his recurring
posts
it seems that
so much
of the truth
has been lost
and just kind of
laid aside
and I thought
what is behind
all this?
Well for one thing
in order to grow
in understanding
who Christ is
there must be
a willingness
to follow
his instruction.
Do you understand
that?
How many of you
remember
learning the
multiplication tables
and the addition
tables?
I mean it was
just drudgery.
Do you remember
that?
Flash cards.
How many of you
did flash cards
besides me?
Flash card
hands up.
Okay.
Whoa!
Real crowd here.
I mean I got it.
Okay put them down.
Put them down.
You know do you
remember the dull
business of two
plus two equals
what?
Four.
I mean yeah
we've got it.
But there were
times when we
kind of floundered
with that basic
information and
some of us
actually thought
to ourself
why do I need
to do this?
Some of us
stayed in that
state of why
do I need
to do this
and then when
we got on to
a little more
complex problems
like you know
N and P
over blah blah
you know
it's way beyond
me.
I rely on others
to help me
with that kind
of detail.
But you know
eventually we
got caught out
because we
weren't willing
to follow
the line.
Beloved I
want you to
understand this
obedience is the
key that unlocks
the door of
understanding.
And if you're
sitting here this
morning and you're
saying well listen
I want to know
more about Christ
here's what I can
tell you is going
to happen.
Listen to me
carefully.
You are in your
journey of learning
who Christ is
going to have him
speak to you
and say hey
it's time to stop
doing this
and it's time to
start doing that.
And when you
say no to him
guess what's
going to happen?
His voice gets
softer and his
voice gets
repetitious.
How many of you
understand what I
mean by repetitious?
You know if you're
not willing to
obey him on point
A he's not going
to move on to
point B and say
well let point A
go.
He's going to keep
on coming back
to it.
And so if you
want to grow in
understanding Christ
there must be a
willingness to hear
and there must be a
willingness to
obey.
I want to make one
other point before
we leave this
here.
Knowing him
must come first.
Make no mistake
about it going
back there to
Philippians chapter
3 we understand
that Paul is
laying out things
here in a sense
in a sequence
that has some
importance.
I want you to
know that Bible
behavior and
Bible obedience
are important.
But the
contemporary pattern
of providing
instruction in
certain behaviors
without helping
people understand
the underlying
issue of our
relationship with
Christ is
ultimately pretty
bankrupt and
ineffective.
Let me explain
it this way.
It is not an
accident that
Paul in
Ephesians spends
three chapters
helping you and
helping me
understand the
wonder of our
relationship with
Christ before he
talks at all about
the way in which we
relate with one
another.
You see a husband
who has not come
to grips with the
beauty of his
relationship with the
Lord Jesus Christ and
is not influenced by
his growing affection
for Christ can never
really love his
bride much more than
he loves the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Do you understand
that?
And so a reasonable
wife who would like
her husband to love
her more, guess what
she should be doing?
She should be quietly
encouraging his
spiritual growth and
doing everything she
can in prayer to help
him grow to be the
man that God needs
him to be because
what?
His love for her
rests upon the
foundation and the
bedrock of his love
for him.
And to teach
Ephesians 5 without
teaching Ephesians 1,
2, 3 is to lay a
very shallow and
shaky moral bedrock.
Let me have you look
at another illustration
of this and turn over
in your Bible.
We're talking here in
1 Thessalonians about
the matter of moral
purity.
Moral purity is an
ongoing battle in our
culture today.
Everywhere you turn you
see the evidence of it.
1 Thessalonians chapter
4 verse 3.
For this is the will of
God, your sanctification.
Boy, that sounds pretty
good in the abstract.
God's interest is that I
grow to be more godly,
more pure.
And then Paul immediately
cuts to the practical
application.
He says that you abstain
from sexual immorality.
All kinds.
God has made the sexual
communion of a husband
and wife as a blessing
in marriage.
Outside of that, we are
to abstain and to wait
for God to be the one
that provides the life
partner for us.
And so here is Paul
writing to a church in a
pagan culture.
He says, hey, don't be
doing what the rest of
the unsaved pagan world
is engaged in.
And then he lays out for
them.
He comes down there in
verse 5.
He says, your behavior is
not to be like the lust
of the Gentiles.
And what's the problem
that the Gentiles have?
Everybody smile.
Listen.
It's not that they don't
know the rules.
It's that they don't know
God.
Do you understand that?
It's not that they don't
know the rules.
It's that they don't know
God.
The underlying problem
with their moral behavior
is that it is a reflection
of the relationship or the
absence of a relationship
with the God of this
universe.
That's the reason that
when Joseph was tempted
by Potiphar's wife back
in the book of Genesis,
that when Joseph ultimately
responded to that
temptation, he said, how
can I do this great
thing against God?
And so I want you to
understand this morning as
you think about the matter
in Philippians of goal for
this year, number one, my
personal goal is I want to
grow in knowing Christ.
Knowing Christ.
That's my goal.
Write it down.
Make it clear.
Consciously and deliberately
make that determination.
And if you want to go out on a
limb, say it to somebody
else.
Now what's the danger of
telling somebody else that
that's your goal?
What's the danger?
Accountability, but not only
that, but sometimes when
you're drifting left of
center, they're going to
remind you of that.
Am I correct?
So there you are being a
little surly.
How many of you understand
what I mean by surly?
Grumpy, sarcastic.
Don't ever tell me.
Don't ever tell me that
sarcasm is your love
language.
That's a lie from hell.
That's not Bible truth.
And so there you are.
You're being a little
sarcastic, a little grumpy.
And the person that you
asked to pray for you about
growing in your love for
Christ says, hey, you're not
doing very well today.
How's that?
So I encourage you.
Go ahead.
Write it down somewhere
personally.
But then step out on a limb and
say to someone close to you that
has teeth.
You know what I mean by teeth?
Posting it on Facebook is not
the same as telling your
husband, hey, I want you to
pray for me that I grow in
loving Christ.
And here, here's the deal.
And as this year progresses, I
want you to let me know whether
you see any signs of it.
Let's go to the second one.
Paul says that I may know him
and the power of his
resurrection.
resurrection, the power of his
resurrection.
Now ask yourself the question,
why is knowing his resurrection
power important?
Well, there's a reason that Paul
puts it here in relationship to
this matter of spiritual growth.
I'm going to mention in broad
terms several of the things that
the resurrection has value to
the believer in regards to, but
then I'll come down and focus on
one particular thing, namely that
of our progressive sanctification and
growing to be more like Christ over
time.
I do want you to understand that
his resurrection is proof that
his substitutionary death, he died
in my place.
How do I know that his death
satisfied the righteous judgment of
a holy God against my sin?
His resurrection proves it.
I have confidence that Jesus has
paid my penalty and that that debt
is satisfied because Christ rose from
the dead.
There's another thing that the
resurrection provides to me as a
believer.
It provides to me great assurance of
my own resurrection.
Earlier this month, I was at the
graveside with my family where we
laid my father's body to rest,
waiting for the day of the
resurrection.
And I can tell you this without any
hesitation, I have confidence in the
day that I will see the Lord Jesus
Christ and I will also see my father
face to face.
Why?
Because Jesus rose from the dead, I
have confidence in the resurrection.
But I want you to understand that the
primary focus that Paul has this
morning is on the matter of the
resurrection's power being available
for me in progressive sanctification or
growing to be more like Christ.
Turn back in your Bible, you're in the
book of Philippians, turn back to
Ephesians chapter 1 verse 19.
One of two primary prayers that the
apostle prays in Ephesians.
And taking from verse 19, here is the
apostle saying this.
He says, let me kind of pick it up.
He says there in verse 16, I do not
cease to give thanks for you,
remembering you in my prayers, that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give you a spirit
of wisdom and of revelation in the
knowledge of him, knowing Christ.
Having the eyes of your hearts
enlightened, that you may know what is
the hope to which he has called you,
what are the riches of his glorious
inheritance in the saints, and what is
the immeasurable greatness of his power
towards us who believe, according to the
working of his great might.
In other words, hey listen, Paul's saying,
I want you to get your hands around how
wonderful the blessing of God is in
relationship to the work that God is
doing in you.
Well, what power is available to help me
grow to be different?
Here's the truth.
There's not a one of us that when we look
privately in the mirror of our own soul,
do not end up with a sense of, man, there
are things that need to be changed.
Would you agree with that?
Yeah, I'm not where I need to be.
I need to grow in grace.
I need to grow to be more like Christ.
How will that growth come about?
Well, Paul argues here.
He says you need to understand that the
power that is available to help you
change is the resurrection power that
raised the Lord Jesus from the dead.
I want to encourage you with that.
So you think this morning about the fact
that here you are, you're a person who is
struggling with the reality of some
pervasive sin in your life.
Secret, nobody else knows about it maybe,
but you're sitting there, man, how can I
change?
You can change through the power of the
cross and the resurrection.
The power that raised Jesus from the dead
is available to raise you up in newness
of life, in salvation, but also to begin
the process of helping you grow in grace.
So here's the blessed fact that I am
completely confident in.
We who know Christ are not doomed to stay
slaves to our pasts.
Can I say that slowly so you don't forget it?
We who are in Christ Jesus are not doomed to
stay slaves to our past.
Contemporary psychology indicates that people
cannot escape their past.
The fact of the matter is, is that if a man
is in Christ Jesus, he is a what?
He is somebody different.
And not only is he somebody different,
but he also has the power of the Spirit of God,
better yet, slap my mouth, it's not just the
power of the Spirit of God, it's the Spirit of God.
Do you got that?
It's better than just the power.
It's the person of the Spirit of God in me.
And why is he there?
Does anybody know?
Well, there are a number of things, but one of the
reasons he's there is to help me change.
I like that.
And so this morning, as you stop and think about
who wrote this letter, you stop and recognize that
the man who writes this there in Philippians was at
one time an incredibly arrogant and murderous
individual.
Individual, not individuals.
He was a persecutor of the church.
He was full of himself.
And he came by the grace of God to realize the bankruptcy
of his own soul.
And he was drawn to the cross.
And his life continued to grow in grace and knowledge of the
Lord Jesus.
If that power was available for Paul to change him from Saul to
becoming Paul, is that power available for you this morning?
And the answer is yes.
Yes.
And so I want you to recognize that to know that power,
to know that power, is to trust him to help you change and
then see the change taking place in time.
One of the advantages of getting older in the faith,
now here's the truth, growing in grace is a little,
it's like a roller coaster ride a little bit with an uphill
journey.
A roller coaster ride goes how?
Up, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, right?
Do you follow me?
I mean, they're relying on gravity to take you where?
Down.
Progressive sanctification is relying on grace and the power of
the Holy Spirit to take you where?
Up.
And if you kind of look and chart your life,
you would see that there are ups and downs in the journey.
How many of you realize that?
There are ups and downs in the journey.
Do I wish it was straight uphill?
Bang.
Yes.
Is it?
No.
But you know what?
One of the privileges of being a 66 is I can see where the dots on
the chart are going in the right direction and he gets the credit
for it.
I love the blessing of being able to say to people who are caught in their sins,
I've got good news for you.
Jesus can save you and give you complete forgiveness for all of your sins.
And not only that, you don't have to stay the way you are.
You don't have to stay the way you are.
That brings me to a third thing that we find there in the passage in Philippians.
Mark what it says,
and may share his sufferings becoming like him in death.
Let me take a moment and back up and have the larger picture here.
Here is Paul praying.
Number one, he prayed for an intimate knowledge of Christ.
He prayed for an understanding of the divine power that's available to help him
grow.
But then he comes to this business also of the matter of suffering.
To what end?
I want you to understand that the believer is called to be a living sacrifice
worthy of his high calling.
And so here's Paul who says,
Hey, listen, I want to grow in knowing Christ.
I want to grow in seeing the power of the resurrection work in my life.
And I want to grow to the point that suffering and challenge and hardship is not something
to be avoided, but it's something to be received for the sake of the kingdom and for the sake
of Christ.
You see, when we share in his suffering, we become like him.
We grow through that.
And I want you to understand that the one who was writing this, Paul, was someone who suffered
deeply.
When he wrote the epistle to the church at Philippi, he was writing it in prison.
And there is not a single note in this entire epistle of Paul kind of commiserating about how hard
and how difficult his journey was.
By the way, does anybody know how Paul's last lap in life played out?
2 Timothy, we find the apostle largely abandoned by the entire church that he had ministered to and raised up through the
grace of God.
Most of them had turned their backs on Paul.
And yet Paul here in the midst of all that hardship and suffering, he says,
Man, I am ready to be offered up.
I've run my race.
I've kept the faith.
And I'm looking forward to the day I'm going to see Christ.
Why?
Because he understood who he was following and who he was serving.
And he understood the value of the hardship and difficulty that he faced in life.
Paul's suffering for Christ and for the gospel was a blessing to be desired rather than a pain to be avoided.
So I want you to think with me just for a moment about what it means to suffer with Christ.
Christ suffered in loving people that had no time for his love or his salvation.
Do you ever find yourself small group leader, deacon, Sunday school teacher, youth leader?
You find yourself investing in the lives of kids and lives of other people and you find yourself frustrated
by the fact that they don't even seem to appreciate what you're putting into it.
You are suffering in place of Christ and for him.
Jesus also suffered with intentional rejection by those who most desperately needed him.
Stop and think about that.
Jesus suffered at the hands of those who most desperately needed him.
One of the things that goes with ministry, whatever role you have and whatever place you have,
you're going to find yourself investing repeatedly in individuals who desperately need the work of Christ in their life.
And as you pour the ministry of the gospel into their lives, sometimes they're going to say,
Hey, no, thank you.
In fact, it's going to go worse than that.
They're going to say, Leave me alone.
I want you to understand that Christ suffered because what he did was he revealed the light of man's heart
or the real depravity of man's heart.
And when he turned on the light, those who didn't like the light, guess what they did?
They hated him.
I can think back to this last year and several of the incidents.
Most of you know that I am not a frequent poster on Facebook.
It's a rare situation that leads me to post something on Facebook.
There's so much blather out there that I don't engage in it, but I do read a lot of it.
And every now and then something will light me up to the point I say,
You know, I think about this and I craft it over a period of days and finally put something out there.
I can tell you some of the most scathing things I've ever had said to me have been said by people on Facebook
in regards to things that I've said that were sweet and simple gospel truths.
Understand this.
You're going to suffer for representing Christ faithfully.
I want you to recognize this morning that Paul here says,
I want to know him.
I want to know his power.
And I want to know the fellowship of suffering along with him in the ministry of the gospel.
Is that your desire for this year?
Think with me.
I want to grow in knowing Christ.
I can do that.
But the practical part, I want to grow in understanding Christ's power to help me change.
I need to be someone different than I am.
I can do that.
I need to grow to be one who sees suffering not as something to be avoided,
but something to be joyfully received,
because when I am suffering for the testimony of Christ and the glory of his gospel,
I am suffering according to the will of God.
I want to be there.
So this Sunday, as we think of our first Sunday together,
I want to challenge you.
Consciously and deliberately, without emotional fanfare,
and with the brutal reality of the scriptures,
which speaks authoritatively into the life of a believer.
Do you understand what I just said?
God's word has a right to tell you how to live and how to think.
On the basis of the authority of the scripture,
I encourage you to consciously and deliberately say,
Philippians chapter 3 verse 10,
or one such verse like that will determine the year in front of me.
And if you have the intestinal fortitude
and a deliberate intention to be a person who grows in grace,
write it down.
Tell someone with teeth
and ask them to help you track the work of grace in your life this year.
Let's close in prayer.
Our Father God, this morning,
as we think in particular of believers,
of the blessing we have in our salvation,
we understand that you have delivered us out of darkness into marvelous light.
And you have set the year in front of us
and called us through your spirit
and through the authority of your word of God
to be a people that are conscious and deliberate
in pursuing a growing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ
and an understanding that we can count upon your power to help us change
and a willingness to be sacrificial in servanthood.
I pray, Lord, for your people this morning
that as we have heard your word,
that your spirit would take and chisel it firmly into the heart.
that, Lord, in the year to come,
it might be evident that we individually
and we as a body of believers
are growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And unbelievers watching us
ask us a reason for the hope.
Believers who are struggling
are encouraged by the evidence
of progressive sanctification in our heart.
and we rejoice
in seeing your power at work.
We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
As John comes to lead us in our closing song,
let me encourage you to stand, if you would, please.