STEP #11-B “PROFIT AND LOSS” PHILIPPIANS 3:l-11 As we continue on in our study, we see Paul’s conversion was not just an experience of a moment. Conversion is not a balloon ascension. A great many people think that you can go down to some altar and have an experience, see a vision, and be carried to the heights--and that’s it. Oh, my dear friends, conversion is something that stays with you. It is not just for the moment. Although it happens in a moment of time, it continues for a lifetime. Even into eternity. And sanctification is not a great emotional experience; it is a daily walk in dependence upon God. Q. Was your experience some big wow wow factor that shook the church? PA. My conversion was a very emotional one for me. I had lived a very evil life, and God had to forgive me much. And as He did, I cried hard as I confessed my sins to Him. He in return kept empting me of my over burdened heart, and was filling me with His love and joy, something I had never really known before. Was I on some balloon ride to the stars, no, I was being touched by the healing hand of God, and I was reacting to the wonderful feeling I was receiving back from Him. Lets listen to verse 8 now… Phil. 3:8... “ Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” A true conversion doesn’t count those things from their past as meaning anything to them any more. They have become as rubbish. Your desires should have changed at your conversion. You should be striving for the new things of God and the Gospel for what now gives you happiness. Q. What makes you happy now/ Does the world still find some importance to you? Does the thing of Christ now demand your obedience without complaint lingering in your heart? PA. I crave a deeper relationship with my Lord in every way I can find it. But it doesn’t stop the enemy from placing stumbling blocks at times in my path. But when your conversion is real, you will quickly repent willfully, and get back on the right path to please Him. Our new desires should be growing in obedience to His Word, and not to the old ways we are suppose to have left behind. Paul says that since that moment of his conversion he lives for Christ. He has suffered the loss of all things. Jesus Christ is uppermost in his thinking. The things that he used to consider most precious he now considers to be dung--that is strong language! He says he flushes his religion down the drain. He flushes away all the things he used to trust. Now he trust in the Lord Jesus and in Him only for his salvation. I remember hearing Dr, Carroll say, “When I was converted, I lost my religion.” A great many people need to loss their religion and find Jesus Christ as Paul did. He was so revolutionized that what had been his prized possession is now relegated to the garbage can! Q. Are your old desires still with you, or are have they been revolutionized to the garbage can? PA. We better hope we are dumping our worldly trash in the refuse can daily, as we need to clean house often. The enemy, as I keep saying, does not sleep when it comes to taking down a Christian from the presence of God. Do you have a religion, or a conversion was the question by Paul to us. And our answer should be that we are converted unto Christ, and Him only. Food for thought; Jim Elliott was a well-educated, smart, handsome dude. Everyone could see he had a great future. But when he told people that he was going to go to the mission field; he was going to go down to South America, into an area where some weird tribes were located, people said, ”How can you be so foolish as to give up that life that is ahead of you/ You’re a fool.” He answered: “He is no fool to give up what he can not keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” People today are telling you, “Oh yeah, be a Christian, but make something of yourself; get an education, get that high-paying job.” Education is a good thing, jobs are a good thing, don’t think they are bad. But sometimes God puts on the heart of a man or a woman to do a specific thing. And as they start to head that way, their parents, their friends, their instructors at college say, “Don’t throw your life away, you are wasting your life, you’re a fool.” Q. You are no fool to give up that what you cannot keep, Right? PA. Education and jobs are fleeting. After you die what good is that Ph.D. or that great job? To gain that which you cannot lose. Giving up all for Jesus has eternal rewards, which not even death can take away from you, The math is simple, at least it should be. Paul goes on with a theological statement of what happened to him in our next verse. Verse 9... Phil. 3:9... “ And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” This is the verse that came to John Bunyan as he walked through the cornfields one night, wondering how he could stand before God. He said that suddenly he saw himself--not just as a sinner, but as sin from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. He realized that he had nothing, and Christ had everything perfect. The phrase “And be found in Him,” is the term you and I would use when saying “Be truly born again.” Are you truly born again? Have you ever fully accepted Jesus into your heart? If you have, that is how you are then found to be in Him. The second part of this verse says, “Not having my own righteousness.” That means not counting on my own self in any way. Q. Are you counting on your own self in any way? PA. We have to come to Jesus in complete bankruptcy. With nothing, having nothing to offer. Coming and bowing down just like the tax collector, have mercy on me, the sinner that I am. Depending on nothing that I am able to do; nothing that I have ever done; nothing that I do on a regular basis; just fully trusting and depending on Jesus. These are heavy things Paul is saying, especially as the man of power and importance that he was. He was highly educated, he was highly gifted, he was a highly powerful man, and he was full of energy. He had all sorts of things that everybody would look at and say, “He is going to make it, he will make it to the top.” But Paul was the one who said, by the power of the Holy Spirit, “In me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing.” Remember what Paul said when he was blinded on the road to Damascus? “Okay God, you’ve got a good one now in picking me!” No, he didn’t say that, what did he really say? “What will thou have me to do?” No matter how hard we try to keep the Law, we need to listen to this verse found in Isaiah 64:6... “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” The best day you have ever had this month, this week; the holiest day you have ever had, was nothing without depending on the righteousness of Good. And every time I come to God thinking, “boy, you have something now, you sure could use me!” I am not ready yet Paul says, “I want to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness.” Q. Have you ever thought that God might think of the things you have accomplished for His kingdom, and say of you, you are my very favorite saint, you make me so happy, you are so special, I don‘t know how I made it thus far without you? PA. Paul has told us, if we have feelings like this, we have missed the mark in our understanding of what it takes to please God. As the song goes, “I want less of me, and more of you God.” That is the mind set of Paul, and that is the mind set you and I should have before our heavenly Father. Nothing about me that I should boast of, but make my boasting in Christ, and in him only. The next part of the verse speaks of God’s righteousness… “But that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” God’s righteousness by faith, is what we have if we are truly born again. Receiving God’s righteousness, through His Son, Jesus Christ, by faith. You simply trust God in faith. If you ever want to be used by God, simply trust him in faith. That is the way to be used by the King of Kings. Paul used to trust in the things that he listed in verse five and six. Now, he says, here is what I trust in; God by faith. Having nothing of my own to bring, bankrupt, I come to God and say, “Here am I, send me, use me. Here is a willing heart. I have nothing but You.” If we will say that, God will fill us with His Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit will give us super natural giftings. Nothing that we have earned, nothing that we deserve, but supernatural gifts. And the Holy Spirit gives severally, as he desires. In other words, the Holy Spirit gives something to each person separately from the others. You may not have the same gift as others, but it is according to God’s will, based on what He wants of you. Q. Do you some times think, “Well, God should probably make me a…” with you filling in the blank with maybe a Tele-evangelist, some super well known pastor, or be all knowing of His Word? (You know what some people might think, and want). PA. To tell you the truth, I had times that I thought that way when I first got born again. I did not know what God wanted me to do, But I had a constant hunger to read and know His Word, had some management experience, and was a pretty good artist. Therefore, I decided, God should probably use me to lead and teach bible studies. But did He? No. not at first, He did do something else. And I kept thinking He made a mistake! God you are really missing out on my abilities and talents, God you are missing out on a great opportunity here! He did use my art abilities to help design and paint prop’s for the kids ministry, and some murals around the church, and in cleaning the church each week, and as I grew, He used me more. Q. Now, how often do you think this way, if ever? PA. You do not work for your righteousness, you cannot buy it, you cannot steal it, you are never going to earn it, you are not going to get closer to it as the days go on, like some people seem to think. Truly, you simply trust Jesus, in faith. It is never about what we have done or will do, it will always be about Christ and what He did, and is doing. Lets move on to verse 10... Phil. 3:10...”That I might know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Some of us know Jesus, and some of us know about Jesus. You know about some people. For instance; you know about the president of the United States. You may have seen him speak on television or read what he said in the news. You have some knowledge about him, but have not walked in his shoes. Q. How many times have you sat and spoken with him? PA. Most of us would have to say, never. So we can say, we know of him, but we do not really know him, do we? We are told by God that a person is known by their fruit. All of us have good points and bad ones on any given day, It will be by close fellowship with someone that we really get to know them deeply. Q. Do you really know Jesus? Not just know about Him, but really know deep inn your heart. I’ll ask again, Do you truly really know Him? PA. How do we really get to know somebody? We must spend some quality time with them and often. By doing this, we will get to know them. You listen to them, you talk with them, and you get to know them. You might see a girl or guy over there, and say, Yeah, I know them, they are married and they have been coming to church three years now. I’d know their faces anywhere.” But then I ask you, do you know them? You say, “No, to tell you the truth, I have never really spoke too much to them.” Do you know Jesus? You have to spend time, in communion, conversing together with Jesus to get to really know Him. Lets look at the Power of His Resurrection from verse 10... “And the power of His resurrection.” In our language; This is to be completely identified with Jesus in resurrected life. Jesus is risen from the dead, and we should be completely identified with Him. Are you born again, do you really know Jesus? Can you say, “I’m crucified with Christ yet I live. But it’s not really me that lives, it is Christ that lives in me; I have risen with Him.” Q. Are you personally, completely identified with Jesus Christ in His resurrected life? PA. How much time everyday do you spend talking and listening to Jesus, is what is going to make the difference between knowing Him, and just knowing about him. If your walk is weak, you are not spending enough time in His presence. If you are being used by God often to reach the loss, and to fill servant roles in the church, meet the needs of others. Then you know Him well, as that is why you are being used by Him. You have become truly identified with Him, you are born again. Lets move to the next part of the verse… “And the fellowship of His suffering.” Here is where many Christians draw the line in their walk with Christ. They are willing to do most of what Christ ask of them, but to suffer, that is not suppose to happen to them. They draw back from anything they cannot control, or feel the comfort, or security is not there for them to continue down that path. So long, I’ll catch you later minded Christians. Not me, Huh, Huh! No way Jose’ type of Christians. Q. How do you feel inside right now about the possibility of ever having to suffer in any way as a Christian? PA. Paul was under attack constantly by the enemy. Do we take part in the fellowship of Jesus’ suffering? Or, are we doing everything now to be sure that we do not suffer even if someone else does. Any little bit of suffering, do we get frustrated or give up? Get a divorce! I am sick of these people’ I am leaving this church! Are we at all cost willing to give up, drop it, and let it go? If we are, we do not know the fellowship of His suffering. Jesus would not do that. Even when you and I mocked Him, made fun of Him, did not listen, ignored Him, didn’t even take the time to see what He was all about, even then. Jesus still did not drop it, give up, wimp out, and walk away. Jesus went to the cross for everyone of us. Even those who will not accept Him, who don’t want to get to know Him, who don’t even believe He exist, who don’t believe He is the Son of God: He loves them and died for them. Jesus did not quit when it got ugly or when someone hurt His feelings, because He wanted to obey His Father. Q. How much of a wimp are you? How far are you willing to go to stay pleasing to the Heavenly Father? Is He alive in you, or barely holding on in your life? PA. Okay, we all have our times of fear while living in this world, and they are real, and some times darn right frightful to us. But that mostly is when we are viewing things from our abilities, not in Christ abilities. Jesus Christ has unlimited power in and over our life, fact my friends. When you start out letting Him use you as He needs and wants to use you, called baby steps, you begin to gain more and more confidence in walking with Him. As you let Him use you, you are on the path that leads to being strong enough to trust more in His abilities, not so much in your own. You didn’t learn to ride a bike without some fear attached to it, but as you gained abilities, you gained comfort and confidence in how you were taught how to do it. Learning and applying Gods Word, then learning form those experiences, begins to give you more of the ability to do His will, and to go through any of your sufferings should they come along your way. Your fear then is losing the battle, and your ability to go through what ever comes your way, begins to win the battle. But it takes your baby steps to get you there, not hiding in your crib, or behind your mothers skirt so to speak. Lets move on some more in our verse… “Being made conformable unto His death;” Being conformable, means to become in true likeness, compliant, following in unbroken sequence, uniformed in every way. So when we read this, it means to be completely identified with Jesus in His death. Died to self, and living to Christ. Q. Do we see ourselves as completely identified with Christ in His death? Can we say with the Apostle Paul, I am crucified with Christ? If I am crucified with Christ, I will not have anything to offer anybody because, what do dead people offer? Maybe Stink, after a few days. Do you see yourself as crucified with Christ? Or do you see yourself as really doing pretty well on your own? PA. We boast to often in simple ways before others. Hey, I’m a prayer warrior!” “I am a real servant of God!” “I am a soldier of the King!” These are nice things; we should be all those things, but those words should not be coming out of our mouths. We ought to just be saying, “I’m a Christian.” Remember, God says let another boast about you, and not that of yourself. What matters is having the right heart filled with faith in Christ. We should be doing those things that are right. Jesus is the one that tells us, “You left your first love, remember your first works and do them again.” Q. But, do you think Jesus wants us to do our first works without our whole self diving into it? PA. If you are just being nice to somebody because you are suppose to be nice, you are actually being disobedient. “well I don’t like you but I have to be nice because that’s what Christians do.” “I would like to wish you a five-car accident with no survivors, but I shouldn’t say that out loud because that’s not right.” “I don’t like you, but I will put up with you because the Lord says I should.” Husbands and Wives. “I don’t like him but I’m not going to leave him because that would make it look like I was disobedient to God.” All of these are being disobedient to God! You are because of where the heart is right at this moment! It is a heart issue, something is wrong in the heart. Confessing one unto the other solves issues, not some kind of fake effort by grinning and then slipping away. Here is a good example for you to remember about dealing with most any people problems. “The grass is never greener on the other side of the fence. Because once you move over there, your bad habits will make it just the same as the other side of the fence was, and is still a mess. If you don’t change, others wont change, especially in how they view you, fact!” Q. Do you need to change anything in your way of life to help make things better for you and others? PA. Yup! I work hard at changing me everyday. God says I, and you, are sinners, and we need to change. Others see things in us that they find not to their liking, and most of the time they are right. Be on the alert for errors in your life style, and when you find they are there, change them to become more pleasing to God, and they will become more pleasing to other as well. Think for a moment, If no one can find a fault in Christ, shouldn’t we want to become more like Him in every way we can, so others might view us in somewhat the same way. You and I, can do the right thing with the wrong heart. If you do not believe that, let me show you something that always amazes me found in 1 Cor. 13:1-3... Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profited me nothing.” Even if we have the gift of speaking in tongues, and use that gift, and do not have love, we are just making noise. Even if we foretell the future and we can understand all kinds of things that have been kept secret and are mysteries, and though we have all knowledge and though we have all faith so that we could even move mountains, and we do not have love, We are wasted. We are nothing. Though we give every bit that we have to feed the poor, though we give our body to be burned or even be martyred, and don’t have love, we get nothing for it. Q. What are you counting on? Are you counting on communion; baptism; doing the right things; acting the right way for justification and acceptance? PA. Understand that it is a heart issue every time you and I do anything. You can do all the right things, you go through the motions, and you can do them with the wrong heart. A self check about your heart being right or not, would be who is actually getting the glory out of your efforts or words. If your not doing it because you know this is what Christ would want you to be doing, then you are doing it for some other reason, usually the wrong reasons. Simply get your priorities correct in your walk, as it is all about Christ and others, not you or I. “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” The way that the King James Version language says it here makes it sound like Paul is not sure that he is going to make it to the resurrection of the dead. He says IF by any means I MIGHT attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Q. Is Paul worried that he is not saved? Is he worried that when the roll is called up yonder he might not make it? Why, or why not? PA. No, he already told you, I am depending on nothing but faith alone, not on anything I have ever done, not on anything that I am doing, not on anything I am ever going to do. I am totally dependant on Jesus Christ, and Him alone. Although the English word “resurrection” has been used many times through the New Testament, this particular Greek word was never used before, and is never used again in the New testament. The Greek word is, exanastasis. It doesn’t meant “resurrection,” it means, “out-resurrection.” This word, is used only once in the entire New Testament, exanastasis, meaning “out-resurrection.” Paul is not worried about the resurrection from the dead, he knows he belongs to God; but he is talking about something else entirely. If by any means I might attain out-resurrection, literally resurrection from all the rest of those that are dead. Paul is talking about a separation of true believers, whether dead or alive, from all the rest of the dead, out from the dead. Out-resurrection. Paul is saying, I want to be counted as one, if the Lord allows me to live, that will be taken out and changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. He is talking about what we call rapture. Listen to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17... “For the Lord Himself shall decent from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; And the dead in Christ shall rise first; Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; And so shall we ever be with the lord.” Q. Where do you expect to be when the Lord comes and shouts? Going up or staying down? PA. We, who are of those who are true Christians, want to be like Paul and have our hope that Jesus will come in our lifetime and we will be out-resurrected. At any moment, no one knows the day or the hour, taken out and given a new body. We call it the Rapture. Paul said, “I am counting on faith alone, and I am waiting for Jesus.” Paul believed that Jesus could have come in his lifetime. That he might get to be out-resurrected from among those that are dead. To be ever with the Lord. Are we hoping that Jesus will come soon and we will be out-resurrected? In 1 Thessalonians Paul tells us we should encourage one another with that very thought. Next posting to study will be STEP # 12, Philippians 3:12-4:1. Titled “Citizens of heaven.” Pastor Jay McLaughlin FB; Solid bible studies Email; jaybigmack@aol
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 22:04:08 +0000
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