Philippians 3

No Turning Back or
We've come to far and our GPS is broken so lets keep going.

This post (if you haven't guessed it) is on Philippians chapter 3. Hopefully you've read the other 2 posts on Philippians otherwise some of this stuff won't make sense. If you haven't then what I'm doing is going verse by verse through the book of Philippians I can't stress the fact of joy enough and apparently neither can the apostle Paul since he uses the word 16 times in 4 chapters. So let's get started.

Verse 1 reads:
"Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters,* rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith." I'll give you 3 guesses as to what my first comment is going to be about. If you guessed Joy give yourself a pat on the back. Paul wants us to be joyful. "whatever happens" that means all trials and challenges that we face daily. He goes on to say "rejoice in the Lord." Now there is some bible irony in that little passage. Paul is in prison and is facing death, yet here he is reminding others to rejoice in the Lord. It's amazing that even in the face of death Paul still talks about Joy. I believe if we focus on God in these hard times it gives us hope and something to hold onto. When we don't focus on God then worry, stress, fear, anxiety, etc. begins to run our life. What does worry do? Jesus said "who by worrying can add one hour to their life." Worry causes anxiety. Then anxiety causes us to not sleep at night. So then we get a pull to help us sleep, and because of that pill we can't wake up. So we get a pill to help wake us up. Then the effects of the first pill wear off and we have to get a new one to help us sleep. We're a nation on pills, Paul is trying to save us from taking pills. Paul's saying just rejoice in God and all that worry, and stress goes away.

Verses 2-6 read:
"Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. For we who worship by the Spirit of God* are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault." Paul begins to explain salvation by grace not by works. It's not by what I do that I get into heaven. It's by accepting Jesus that I am able to get into heaven. Simple as that.

Verses 7-8 read:
"I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him."  There are 2 phrases that popped out at me while I was reading this. The first phrase is "infinite value of knowing Christ" the other is "discarded everything." When I think of infinite value I think of things that are priceless. Most of them I guess you could call Kodak moments. Paul is saying no amount in the world could replace the value of knowing Christ. We understand that there are somethings money can't buy and for everything else there's........MasterCard. Just remember that KNOWLEDGE of Christ is priceless. My second phrase was "I have discarded everything, counting it all as garbage." Paul had to discard his old way of thinking because that's how Saul became Paul. There are people out there today who have not discarded their old was of thinking. By that I mean some people haven't discarded their priorities. Some people still don't get "what really matters." It's important to note here that the word "garbage" is sterilised its like the "G" rated version. When we think of garbage we think of a piece of trash, that's not what it means in the original language. In the original text it actually means dung or poop. Paul wants us to just get rid of all the poop in our lives because it doesn't matter. So some questions for you to think about are; what do I value the most, and have I discarded my old ways of thinking?

Verse 9 reads:
"I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.* For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith." Again Paul is saying that by GRACE we are saved not by works.

Verses 10-11 read:
 "I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!" Verse 10 is kinda like Paul's wish list:
1.) To know Christ. OK yeah I want that too "check"
2.) To experience the power that raised him from the dead. A.k.a the Holy Spirit. Yeah I want that one as well.
3.) To suffer with him......ummm not so sure I wanna do that one.
4.) To share in his death. Really? OK if I didn't like Paul so much I'm pretty sure I'd label him as crazy. Nobody in their right mind would want that. If I were to ask you to write down things that you wanted. Probably the number one answer would be to know God/Jesus better (if not don't tell me). Then you would get into things like a new phone, or maybe a new car, maybe you'd want Justin Bieber to get a manlier voice who knows. My point is the things that we want are for here on this earth. I remember as a kid running into Sears to get their Christmas catalog. Let me tell you that other than the bible this book was sacred. It had all the cool new things in it, and it was just like a little piece of heaven on earth. My point is even though we may not have a catalog to look through we all still have a wish list (the items just happen to be a little bit bigger and a lot more expensive). Paul's number 1 thing that he wanted was to know Christ. When I read that I was like wait Paul don't you already know Christ? It's important to know that the word "knowing" really doesn't mean knowing. Let me explain. It actually means an intimate knowledge like a husband and wife type of thing. Paul's saying that he wants to have a RELATIONSHIP with Christ. Then he says I want to KNOW the Holy Spirit, or that power that raised Christ. I want that power to live and dwell inside me. then comes the part of I want to share in his suffering's. When we think about that its a hard concept to grasp, because we only want the blessings of Christ. I mean who actually prays for suffering? The truth is if you want to know God and have that RELATIONSHIP with him, suffering is the invitation. Often the purpose in our suffering is to strengthen our RELATIONSHIP with him, So this week and all the rest of the weeks in you life when your faced with suffering remember to rejoice in God because when we do our relationship with him grows stronger. So the next time suffering and trouble com knocking what are you going to do?

Remember there is only 1Way2Live and that's for Christ.