Cherish Christ - Philippians 3:7-11

Welcome to God's Word for Youth, a ministry of Sharon Arpey Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart. Please turn in your Bibles with me to Philippians 3. Philippians 3, and we'll be reading verses 1-11. Philippians 3 can be found on page 1044 of your Pew Bibles. You're now God's Word.

Final Point

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.

For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. For we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 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 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, that I may know him and the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our God endures forever.

Well, it's amazing, there are gifts when a lot of you are grandparents, and there are gifts that parents are not allowed to buy for their children, but you have to have a grandparent's card to buy something for your grandkid. And recently, our son Nathan got one of these gifts that no parent is allowed to give to their kid.

She got Nathan this kid's smart watch. And it's been amazing watching Nathan walk around the house looking at the smartwatch, playing with the smartwatch. He comes up and he says, Daddy, my watch can do this and your watch can't do that. And a whole lot of you know what this watch is because Nathan has proudly come and shown you this watch.

And it's amazing. What happens is when you get a gift and it's a good gift, what do you want to do? You want to explore it. You want to know it. You want to play with it. And you're thinking about it. You care about it. You want to show people it. And isn't that what it's like when we're on fire for Christ? We want to know him. We want to be in him. We want to be like him. We care for him. We love him. We want to share him with people.

Sometimes people find Christians like this obnoxious, like just tone it down a little. But yet, just like gifts, how quickly Will that battery run out in that watch? How quickly have you gotten a gift and a year later, do you remember all the gifts you've gotten? It's amazing what happens in the human heart. We love something and we often grow cold towards it. It's put away. We might be nostalgic towards it.

This is a real danger in our Christian life. Jesus might be something we're nostalgic about, someone who we like to think about every once in a while, but we forget what it was like to have him as everything. And your call this morning, Christian, is to cherish Jesus Christ like He's everything. Cherish Jesus Christ like He's everything. But first, how we do that cherishing Jesus Christ is we need to balance it out. It's your first point. Balance it out.

Look with me at verse 7 through 9. But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 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, 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."

Paul here uses the same word again and again and again. In the New King James Version it's translated, consider. I considered, I consider, I considered. This is the idea of, he's turned it over in his brain. He's thought about the pros and cons. He's taken, remember verse 6, the context of this. Paul is just saying, if anybody has confidence in the flesh, I'm more so. I was a Jew. I was a Pharisee. I persecuted the church. I was of the tribe of Benjamin, of the stock of Israel, circumcised the eighth day.

And it's as if he's got a scale. It's a balance. And he puts good works, heritage. He says, oh, I like this. And he puts it up there and he has this good work and he puts it here. And the scale goes a little bit lower and a little bit lower and a little bit lower and a little bit lower. And he thinks, man, I'm doing pretty well. And then Jesus Christ appears to him on the road to Damascus. And Jesus Christ gets put on that other scale, and the scale flips, and his priorities change.

He realizes, none of this is worth anything. I consider it loss. I don't care about it. It's rubbish. Compared to Jesus Christ, this is like I was playing with tinfoil, and now I have a bar of 24-ounce gold. Why would I care about this stuff anymore?

I counted it as loss. I considered it as loss. But he goes even further and he says, he says in verse eight, Yet indeed, I also counted all things loss for the excellence of knowledge of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. This idea of for whom I have suffered the loss of all things could be translated for whom I have been bankrupted of everything.

He doesn't have anything more. All he has is Jesus Christ and he's happy with it. When's the last time you've met someone who went bankrupt and was happy? Paul is bankrupted for Jesus Christ and he's happy about it. Because Paul has realized what Jesus was talking about in the book of Matthew when he says the kingdom of God is like a man who goes out to buy pearls. He finds a pearl of great price and he goes and he sells everything he has to go buy that pearl. Or a man who goes out into a field and finds a treasure and sells everything he has that he might go buy that field and have that treasure. Everything else is gone because Jesus Christ is worth it.

Jesus Christ is the one here who Paul desires, but more than just Jesus Christ being worth it, more than just that this stuff isn't worth anything, Paul uses a really crass word here. The New King James, again, New King James is a really polite version. I really like it.

It says, and I counted them, verse 8, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ." This idea of rubbish, there's really two meanings behind it. One is, you know, what you do on the toilet, dung. It's not really trash. It's stinky stuff. This is the idea of, you know, well, some of you have cow farms, and so I'm not going to say Well, someone corrected me one time. I said, you know when you smell cow manure, you think, ugh. And he said, you haven't been around farmers. They smell cow manure.

They think money. So your own dung, it ain't worth anything. But there's the other idea to it. It's that this is your own deeds over here. They're like putrid stuff you find in the back of the refrigerator. The other idea of this is like, have you ever opened the fridge, and you're hungry, and you're looking around, and you find that Tupperware container? And you haven't seen that Tupperware container in a while. And I don't know what it is about human nature, but maybe it's not just me. Do you open that container? Why do we open that container and smell it?

You know you're going to be repulsed by it. That's gross. I don't want that. You don't even want to give it to the dogs. You just throw it in the trash. That's how Paul sees his old good works. He says, how was I eating this? I was eating this stuff. I thought this was nourishing me. This isn't good. I mean, here's the bread of life. This is what will fill my soul for eternity. I'm not going to live on this garbage. It's not worth anything. Just get rid of it. That's the idea that Paul is saying here.

Put it on the balance. Balance it out in your own life. Jesus Christ is worth it. Jesus Christ is worth everything. This isn't the way that people generally think. People generally think, well, I'm good enough. If you ask most people why they think they should get to heaven, they'll say, well, I'm not as bad as the next guy. Well, I've done good stuff. I don't murder people. I'm kind to people. I stopped last week and helped that guy who had a flat tire.

That's rubbish. That's not what God values. That's not what's going to get you into heaven. That's not what's going to earn you the favor and the countenance of God upon you. It's Jesus Christ. And Satan would love nothing else. Satan would love absolutely nothing else but to get your eye off this side of the scale. Satan would love for you to go back and look at your good works. Satan would love for nothing else but to have you avert your eyes away from Jesus Christ and back to, well, I'm not like all my neighbors. It's a temptation in your life and you're going to have to fight it.

It's Jesus Christ. It's Jesus Christ. It's Jesus Christ. It's Jesus Christ. He's the winning side of the scale. Keep your eyes there. What a gift we have. The gift we have when we see our eyes starting to veer off. We need to pray. We need to go back into the word. We need to get back here, remind ourselves of what's important. We need to cherish Jesus Christ. But it's not just. religion, it is Jesus Christ himself. That's your second point. Cherish Jesus himself. Cherish Jesus himself. Look with me at verses eight and nine.

Yet indeed, I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have counted suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ, 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."

Jesus, the knowledge of Jesus is everything. Paul wants to know Jesus. Paul wants to be found in Jesus. Paul wants Jesus. Jesus is his gain. The personal relationship that you have with Jesus Christ through faith is what's important. Jesus is his gain. is what he calls here the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Or some of your translations might say the exceedingly great knowledge. Or some of you might have, if you're in the NIV, something like the surpassing greatness of the knowledge. Paul is saying it's everything. He can't get any bigger than this. His vocabulary, this is the top of the top. This is the cream of the cream. This is the best gift possible is Jesus Christ. himself.

We're talking about a person, we're talking about a real live person who came from heaven and walked on the earth, who had flesh and has flesh now and is in heaven. That's who your relationship is with, with Jesus Christ himself. And Paul knows Jesus Christ. Paul knows Jesus Christ as his Messiah, his king, the anointed one of the Lord. This is what Philippians 2, verses 6-11 was all about, about Jesus humbling Himself and becoming in likeness of a man. He had to come as the Son of David. So He might be the Messiah. He might be the Christ. He might be the anointed King who came from the own loins of David. Jesus Christ is your Messiah. Jesus Christ was Paul's Lord.

Lord is a weird word. We don't use Lord very often. If you watch Monty Python or something like that, me Lord is a phrase that's old English, right? When's the last time you've walked up to someone and you said, my Lord, will you give me pardon to be absent from work tomorrow? No, we don't use that, but you get the sense of it still, don't you?

This is someone who's above you. This is your master. This is the one you serve. This is your king. This is why the book of Revelation calls Jesus the Lord of lords. He is the king of kings. He is the master. And we're going to spend all next week just looking at Jesus Christ as our king. Paul knows that Jesus is his Messiah and his Lord. Jesus Christ himself. was the one that he obtained. And this wasn't just Paul who got it. It's like every person who comes in contact with Jesus gets this, that it's Jesus Christ himself who they need.

A few weeks ago, we looked in John chapter four at the woman at the well and Jesus offering her water that will well up into her unto eternal life. She walks away from that encounter with Jesus. She goes back into the town and what does she say? Come, meet the man who told me everything I have ever done. Could this be the Christ? Could this be the Messiah? Could this be the King? She knew that she gained Christ. Christ was offering her living water. Christ was offering her himself.

This is what Mary got at the tomb. Do you remember that story, Mary Magdalene, when she goes to the tomb and Jesus isn't there and she's weeping because the angels, she thinks that, where have you put my Lord? And then she turns around and somebody's asking her why she's crying. She says, please tell me where have you put him? And Jesus calls her by name and says, Mary. She calls out, Rabboni, teacher. She gets Jesus Christ. She lunges for him and tries to hang on to him. Not yet. Not yet. I haven't been resurrected yet. That's what he tells.

But even when he's, or after he's been resurrected and he's inside that room with the locked doors and he appears to be doubting Thomas, Thomas gets this point that Jesus himself is his treasure. Jesus holds out his hand and says, go ahead. Put your finger there, shows him his side, and he says, put your hand in my side. It's interesting, Thomas doesn't need to do any of that. Thomas falls on his face and says, my Lord, my God. Thomas got it.

His religion was about the person standing in front of him, Jesus Christ. Your religion is about our resurrected Savior and King, your Lord, Jesus Christ. He is your reward. He is your pearl of great price. He is your inheritance. He is your hope. Jesus Christ himself is our great gift. It's easy to water this down to where Jesus is just theological doctrine. We forget that he's our risen Lord, who we love, who we are united to.

Are you cherishing Jesus? Are you cherishing Jesus Christ himself? When's the last time you've in prayer thanked God, for his son. When is the last time your heart has been warmed and thankful for Jesus Christ himself shedding his own blood for you? Cherish Jesus Christ. Thirdly, we cherish Jesus Christ by being found in Jesus. That's your third point. Be found in Jesus. Look with me at verse 9. That I may gain Christ 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.

Imagine there was a man who was rowing in a little dingy of a fish boat. He went out on the ocean to go catch fish. He had all this tackling equipment, and he went out there, and he was trying to catch his daily fish. And while he was out there, a storm came upon him. And that storm threatened his actual life. Peals of thunder. The flashes of lightning brought fear in his soul, and the waves crashed apart his boat. He was there, dying in the ocean. certain death before his face.

Gasping for his last breath, a hand reaches down, snatches him up out of the water, and brings him inside the hull of a Navy warship. And he's brought inside and a feast is laid out for him. He's inside the ship and they put new clothes on him. He's inside the ship and they give him warmth. He's inside the ship and the captain attends to him and makes sure that he's okay and he's cared for. And on the whole of that ship is the name Jesus Christ. You are found within the whole of Jesus Christ. That's where you are, Christian. You are cared for in him. Your righteousness is found in him. You are clothed with his righteousness. Your identity is within Jesus Christ himself.

When the father searches the land from east to west and he sees blasphemer, adulterer, a liar, thief, Jesus Christ, you, glutton, drunkard, slanderer, wife beater, You in Jesus Christ. He finds you. He finds us. He has his eyes land upon his own son as he searches out humanity. He does not see you. He sees his own son, Jesus Christ. He sees his righteousness. He does not see your sin. He does not see your stain. He sees his own son. Are you in Jesus Christ? Is he your protection? Is he your life? Is he your joy? Is he your warmth? Is he your righteousness? That man in the dingy couldn't save himself, because all of his rowing did absolutely nothing trying to get to the shore.

But he was saved by being in Jesus Christ. Be found in Jesus Christ, Christian. Have no other joy than that. What a gift that God would find us in his son. But lastly, know Jesus really and powerfully. Know Jesus really and powerfully. Look with me at verses 10 and 11. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Really know Jesus Christ. You can have fellowship with Jesus Christ, but it's gonna hurt. It's gonna mean suffering for you, Christian. We live in a weird land. We live in a weird country. America is an anomaly. What we were praying for this morning in Chengdung province in China of early reign covenant church, that's reality.

That's what happens to over 95% of the Christians in this world is persecution. Our brothers and sisters in China were rounded up this week and put in jails. This was not the first time in China that Christians have been banished, that Christians have been re-educated, that Christians have been put under the hardship of the communist rule. It happened under Mao Zedong and it's happening now under the current president. Xi Jinping would love nothing more than to crush the Chinese Church.

Early Rain Covenant Church was persecuted this week. Women were ripped out of their homes by their hair, literally. And one night, every single elder of that church was arrested, minus one who managed to flee and is now living in hiding. Their seminary shut down. Their school shut down. Their deacons were arrested. It's amazing, though, hearing what they've told us about their persecution. It's on our Facebook page. Go read the elder's letter. They knew this persecution was going to come. They could have stopped it at any point.

At any point, early reign church could have stopped the persecution. At any point, at any point along the years, all their pastor had to do was submit the church, the three self church, the official Chinese church. All he had to do was submit his sermons to the communist government so they could make sure what he was saying was in line with party ideals. All he had to do was come in line with the secular rulers of the day. And none of this persecution would have happened.

But the church remained faithful, even though they knew persecution was coming. They also knew that this passage was that they would know Jesus Christ more fully by suffering with him. It's one of the verses they used when writing about their plan for what they would need in their suffering. And they've asked you, they've asked me, they've asked the church and the whole world to pray, not that God would end their persecution, but that God would convert their jailers and that God would keep them faithful to Jesus Christ. I don't know about you, but that seems crazy. It's not the way the world works. People try their whole lives to avoid pain and suffering. And here, our brothers and sisters in China, are willing to accept it. Why? Because they know it's fellowship with him in their suffering. And in that, they know Jesus even more than they did before. Know Jesus really, but also know Jesus powerfully.

Look with me again at verses 9 and 10. 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, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death, and if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." The resurrection is powerful, Christian.

The resurrection changes lives. I have seen men who were slobbering drunks, who had killed their nervous systems and their hands shook because they had drowned their bodies with alcohol. And when they encountered the resurrected Jesus Christ, they prayed with fervency that I only wish to attain. Their lives were changed and they became productive citizens, working and putting down the bottle. I have seen the power of the resurrection when men who are pathological liars, addicted to pornography and doing horrible things to their wives, encounter the living, reigning Savior resurrected and becoming truth tellers, becoming men who love their wives because they were changed by the power of the resurrected Jesus Christ. I have seen men who are liars and drunkards who are pathological womanizers changed one into being a pastor because of the power of the resurrection in his life. So a man who beat his wife and who is cruel to his children come in contact with a resurrected Jesus Christ. and turn from his wicked ways and become a family man and a contributing member to a church and hold down a steady job. Resurrection is powerful. It changes lives now. It is not just resurrection power in death, but it is resurrection power in life. This is what Paul says in Romans chapter 6. Turn with me there if you can. chapter 6, verses 3 through 11.

Or do you not know that as many as us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so even we also should walk in newness of life. For we have been united together in the likeness of his death.

Certainly, we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slave to sins. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Christ, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died for sin once for all. The life that he lives, he lives to God. Jesus Christ died to sin that you might die to sin also. Christian, you are not a slave to sin.

The power of the resurrection in your life is that you are united to Jesus Christ really, truly, powerfully through His Son. You, you Christian, have a power that's going to be seen on the last day. So the power of the resurrection is true in your life now.

But Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 into something even far greater. And that's at the last day, Christian. On the last day, Jesus Christ, our King, is going to return. And on that last day, even though your soul is in heaven and your body is in the grave, when Jesus Christ comes back in the flesh, you, Christian, will also raise from the dead with Him.

And you will be given an incorruptible body, one that will never sin. And you, in the resurrection, will live forever in peace with Jesus Christ as your King. That is the Christian hope. that you will live forever in perfection with Jesus Christ. Is that your hope, Christian? Is Jesus Christ and living with Him forever, your great value. Is it Jesus Christ who's worth everything? Know Him powerfully. Know Him really. Know Him truly. Partake in His suffering. Value Him above everything else.

Closing Prayer

This is what will keep you to your dying breath by cherishing that great gift you have from your Father, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, thank you. Thank you for Jesus Christ. God, we pray that you would forgive us when our hearts are cold. God, we pray you would, with the power of your spirit, cut off the calluses of our hearts. We pray that we would not be lukewarm. We pray that we would not have forgotten our first love.

But Father, you would kindle in us a desire for Jesus Christ. Lord, that we would love him to our dying breath. Lord, we pray that you would unite us to him. God, we need you to do this. It's not something we can conjure up or pick ourselves up by our bootstraps. Lord, it's only you and your spirit who can do this. We pray, God, that you would do it. Lord, we pray that you would make us a people who loves you and cherishes you. We pray in Jesus' powerful name. Amen.