Counting Everything as Loss to Know Christ Jesus

Many times, that's how we talk about the gospel. Like, God forgave me of all of my sin. He cleansed me of all of my unrighteousness. Yes and amen. But he didn't stop there. What Paul is talking about here is what we know as the great exchange. He didn't just forgive all your debt and put it in the balance sheet as zero. He filled it up with a trillion dollars. And more than that, in the glorious riches scripture says of Christ Jesus, that now when God looks at you, he doesn't see your sin, he sees his perfect son. [01:07:45] (34 seconds)  #GreatExchange

And you have that God and you are not that. And so, do you bridge that gap? It's like the Grand Canyon. How do you get over that? How do you get right standing with God? Paul talks about that several times, righteousness. And he says clearly, it's from God and it's in Christ that all the things you do cannot leap over the Grand Canyon to get to God's holiness. But all the things Christ did for you on your behalf in his perfection, in his death on the cross, it bridges that gap completely. [01:06:24] (40 seconds)  #ChristBridgesTheGap

he's saying, hey, you you think you're so high and mighty in your religiosity and your self righteousness? You're actually just like an unbeliever. Because instead of by grace through faith, you're trusting in your works and your religious resume. Yeah. The Gentiles, they may have a rap sheet, but your religious resume, it's almost as bad. You are dogs, he says, who mutilate the flesh. This is a little graphic. Again, Paul is doing this on purpose. [00:49:58] (30 seconds)  #GraceNotWorks

That that Paul knew better than anybody not to rejoice in his circumstances because your circumstances change, the Lord does not change. Many of us, we live our lives like the drop tower ride at Castles And Coasters or whatever big drop ride you did at Six Flags because you're a crazy person. I I just remember when my kids were little, we'd go to Castles And Coasters and they wanted to do this this drop tower ride where you just go up and then you go down. You go up and then you go down and people pay for this. [00:43:39] (29 seconds)  #AnchoredInChrist

That Jesus didn't just die on the cross, he rose again. Amen? He defeated sin, Satan, death and the grave. He gives us an eternity with him in glory where there's no more tears, pain, or death ever again. And everything's perfect and and every good thing that you can imagine on this earth, like every smell that you love, like a fajitas. Do you think that's just glory? That's heavenly. Praise God it is. Just wait till you get to heaven. [01:01:00] (28 seconds)  #HeIsRisen

And if he's the only worthy one, I wanna be found in him. I wanna proclaim and declare, I wanna be excited when I get to heaven. I don't know about you because I know Jesus paid it in full. Because I serve the one. I'm found in the one who said it is finished. It's finished. And I have right standing as a sinful human being before a holy and glorious infinite God for eternity because I'm in him. [01:11:55] (35 seconds)  #FoundInChrist

See, I meet with people all the time. They're like like, how's it going? And they're like, well, you know, I'm in this class. I'm going to this group. I'm studying this book of the Bible. I'm doing this this this, and it's it's a resume. Okay. Well, what is God showing you? What is God teaching you in your relationship with him? And they don't know what to say. And that's the whole point. Amen? That's why we do all those things. Otherwise, they're just lame hobbies. [01:02:48] (31 seconds)  #FaithNotResume

Day to day, hour to hour for some of us. If our success is going up, our joy is going up. If our health is going up, our joy is going up. If our relationships are going up and people are liking us in real life or on the gram, our joy is going up. But as soon as one of those things doesn't happen, our joy drops into anxiety and depression. And somehow, is again hour to hour like the right, up and down, up and down, and it's exhausting. [00:44:18] (30 seconds)  #JoyBeyondCircumstance

Rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Two things stand out here. Philippians is the joy book, 16 times. Four chapters. Rejoice, joy, over and over and over. You would think Paul wrote wrote this from a palace, but he doesn't. He writes this from a prison. He's chained to an imperial guard and yet he has joy. How does he have it? You see it in the text. [00:43:08] (24 seconds)  #JoyInChains

And that you walk out of that bank, not just my my debt has been forgiven, you walk out of that that bank rich in Christ. Do you believe that? That that's where your righteousness found. I I love that language, found. He says being found in him. My identity is in him, not in my resume. What what's your identity in? Where are you found at the end of the day? Is it whatever your vocation says? Is it in father, husband, wife, single? [01:08:19] (47 seconds)  #IdentityInChrist

But the whole Torah, the first five books of the old testament, Paul says, I've done that. I'm more zealous than you. I'm more blameless than you. If anyone could claim elite covenant status with God, Paul says, I'm at the front of the line. And then verse seven, he says something that would have sounded scandalous to the Philippians. Verse seven, he says, I count it all as loss. Verse eight, he says, I count everything as loss. Will you notice in Paul's language, it's accounting language. [00:53:38] (30 seconds)  #GospelAccounting

You're using the alphabet and you will for the rest of your life. You ever try to write a book? That's hard, but it's just the alphabet. It's just the link. Like, yeah, but you get deeper with it. It's the framework in which you see all of life. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's how silly it would be to say I've graduated from it. So Paul says, hey, this is safe for you. [00:47:43] (21 seconds)  #GospelIsFoundation

This is good for you. This is exactly where you need to be hearing the gospel over and over and over and over over and over. Preaching the gospel to yourself over and over and over and over. Having your pastor preach the gospel and yell at you about it over and over and over and over and over every single Sunday to the point where you say stupid things like, let's get deeper and talk about end times because that's what we mean by deeper. Let's just I'll be honest in this place. Okay. [00:48:04] (25 seconds)  #RepeatTheGospel

Paul is about to rail on religion and self righteousness, so get ready for that. Right? And he's gonna contrast self righteousness and religion with the gospel of grace, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he's gonna do that over and over and over. That's why he says, I'm writing these same things to you. It's actually good for me to do this. See, what happens sometimes, if you've been around the church for a little while, know all of us have different backgrounds, some of us are brand new to church, some of you were born in a pew. [00:45:56] (28 seconds)  #GraceOverReligion

But this is what this is what Paul talks about and this is what really the bible, this is what Jesus talks about. That we have an upside down kingdom in our world and that as we choose to lose, we actually gain the greatest thing, namely Jesus Christ. Amen? That's what we believe. And so we're gonna walk through that. I'm gonna give you two questions really simple today, then we're gonna take communion at the end. Here's the two questions if you're taking notes. What do we choose to lose? [00:42:11] (29 seconds)  #LoseToGainJesus

Like, you know what kind of freedom you get when you have that? Man, I could go out and conquer the world when I have that. who gave us everything when we had nothing. And so now we give him everything in return, and we do it for the joy set before us like Jesus did and like Jesus does. And that's we we choose to lose everything else. What are you still reluctant to lose compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus? You know those things. [01:14:42] (42 seconds)  #SurrenderToKnowChrist

But have you looked at Jesus Christ, the son of God, the creator and sustainer of all the earth who literally sustains the the earth and everything in it by the power of his word? The one who lived a perfect life, who when he was suffering, he uttered not a word when he could have defended himself but he did that for you, who who went up to the little children and had a blast with them but who also could go up to the prostitute and have a conversation and not be worried about what people thought of him, [00:59:50] (33 seconds)  #JesusForEveryone

who went to the cross in in agony, public humiliation and shame and some of the worst physical pain that they had at the time. For hours upon hours upon hours, he gave his life for you even though he knew that you would be indifferent to him at times. And you would do a thousand things in your morning routine before you read scripture. You check social media, Jesus knew that before you'd read the words of God spoken to humanity who's sinful. [01:00:23] (37 seconds)  #JesusKnowsYou

Just wait till you're with Jesus face to face. When when you think about like, I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna get a little tan and I I like the sun. I'm I'm gonna go to beach. I'm gonna go to Hawaii. Just wait till you see the glory shining in the face of Christ. You can't comprehend his greatness. And by the way, that is forever, forever. And you get to know him as a finite, sinful person who yelled at your kid yesterday, who got frustrated and and instead of going directly to the person you gossiped to 10 other people and you called it prayer requests. [01:01:27] (38 seconds)  #HisGlorySurpassesAll

Friends, here's what happens when you realize that. You don't think like, well, I'm just gonna hang out then. You you you start working from approval instead of for approval. You you ever seen a kid I have three kids. My wife is out of town. Y'all pray for your pastor. and I was taking my girls to to dance yesterday, and one of them had two shows. One of them had one show. I was coming back and forth. Uber driver, you parents, anybody with me? Okay. [01:12:30] (34 seconds)  #LiveFromApproval