The Supremacy of Christ in All Things

0:34Philippians 3, verse 1. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

1:24But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everyone. 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, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

2:08This is God's word. You may be seated. Amen. One of the things I love about being back in College Station and ministering to college students is just that big transitional period that is college, that is that age of 18 to 22, or 23, or 24, or 25, 26, whatever. Because life changes, and it changes a lot. And it's not just that life changes, it's the relationships that are around us change. A big relationship that changed during this time period was the relationship that I have with my father.

2:55I have a great dad. My dad's one of my best friends. He is a pastor also. Also, Pastor's a Little Bitty Church, faithfully, out in Edge, Texas. When you're younger and you're growing up in a house with a mom or dad who care about you, oftentimes a lot of those conversations that you have are going to be conversations of teaching and correction, right? And that's a good thing. Don't be dismayed by that. That just means that mom and dad love you. Amen. They love you enough that they don't want you to continue to break the law. And by law, of course, they mean the law of your mom and dad, right?

3:36And so a lot of your conversations are going to be around correction and teaching, possibly in response to something. When I got to college, my relationship with my dad changed, and I could tell because of the conversations that we would have. I no longer had conversations that primarily were around correcting me. But at this time, I was out of the house, and I was supposedly a man and trying to live that way. And so my dad saw his relationship with me more as a brother in Christ to come alongside.

4:16And so we would have lunch every so often at Garcia's Mexican restaurant on Harvey Road. Don't look it up. You can't go there. It's now Fudrucker's. Okay, it's gone. But we would have lunch there every so often. And I would always just, it was just every so often during the conversation, I would just notice that primarily my dad was an encourager. He was coming alongside me. And yet, during those conversations, there were times when he just couldn't help himself. And he had to offer advice. And he had to offer maybe even a little tweak of correction because, after all, he's my dad, right?

4:58The book of Philippians is really unlike most of Paul's epistles when it comes to epistles that went to churches. Oftentimes, whether he's writing, as we just heard earlier, when he's writing to the church in Galatia or he's writing to the church in Corinth, he's writing in response or in the church in Colossi. He's writing in response to maybe heresy. He's writing in response to some great dramatic thing that's going on in those churches. And that there are people in those churches that need reproof and they need correction. And so that was the main purpose of Paul's writing. The book of Philippians is different.

5:40The book of Philippians is written solely out of Paul's rejoicing, out of his gratitude to that church in Philippi, a church that he planted, but a church that had ministered to him thoroughly in Paul's ministry. That had been a blessing to him, that had sent people from their church to minister specifically to specific needs in Paul's life, whether they were physical, emotional, or spiritual. Paul's letter to the church in Philippi is different. It's mature, spiritually mature.

6:23And yet, when we get to chapter 3, Paul, just like my dad, can't help himself. He's got to come with a little word of warning. He's got to come with a little teaching. After all, Paul is a teacher at heart. And so when we get to Philippians chapter 3, in chapter 1, one of the things that you notice is that the great theme is life in Christ. To live is Christ, to die is gain, right? Your life must be hidden in Christ. In chapter 2, Paul begins to encourage the Philippians to have the mind of Christ.

7:01To just as Christ walked in humility, you also surrender your own wants and needs and goals and all those other things and have this humble mind of Christ. And then we get to chapter 3. And in chapter 3, Paul paints a bullseye. He paints a target and says, Here is your goal in Christ. And he's going to begin chapter 3 with a Word of warning. So, what we see here in chapter 3 is in verses 1 through 3, we see the caution, the warning. In verses 4 through 8, we're going to see the calculation. He's going to illustrate this warning.

7:46And he's going to establish who we are in Christ. And in verses 9 through 11, we'll see the great call to the pursuit, if you will, of the goal, who is Jesus. So come with me, and let's discover this together in Philippians chapter 3. First thing we see is the caution. In verse 1, Paul says, finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. That word rejoice, it means to have confidence in. He says, rejoice in the Lord. One of the marks of a New Testament believer is joy in Christ.

8:30It's joy in Christ. That my joy is made complete in him. I rest in him. My joy, my general happiness, my blessedness is in Christ, in what he has accomplished. Now Paul's going to turn it over a little bit, and the teacher is going to come out. The caution is going to come. He says, to write the same things to you. What are these same things? Having your joy, your confidence. In Christ. He says, to write these same things to you, he says, is no trouble to me.

9:07It's no trouble to me and is safe for you. Now, that's an interesting way to phrase that. He says, it's no trouble to me. In other words, Paul is about to expound on something that he talks about a lot, right? So he essentially is saying, guys, I'm going to talk about this again because I love to talk about this. And what is it? It's about having your confidence, your joy in Christ and what he has done in him alone.

9:36He says, I love to talk about this stuff. It's a blessing. Trust me, you have stuff that you like to talk about too. And let's not be so holy roller as to think that it all pertains to the scriptures, right? Everybody here has stuff they like to talk about. You're known. People, when they're in conversation with you, they're just waiting for you to start talking about movies or they're starting to wait for you to talk about baseball or football or whatever, or talk about whatever it is. They can't wait. People know that I am going to wear them out about the Astros, whether they like it or not. I was particularly obnoxious in 2017. And it may get worse this year, folks. But he tells them ahead of time, he says, look, he says, it is no, I'd love to talk about this.

10:24It's no trial for me to talk about this. It's no trouble for me. And what he's going to Talk about is the gospel. What he's going to talk about is Christ's finished work on the cross that cannot be added to for salvation. And the way he describes that at the end of verse 1 is he says that that gospel, he says, it is safe for you. Osfello is the word that describes that phrase. It's where we get the word asphalt. Why do we have asphalt? Because we don't like to get our cars and trucks stuck in the mud. Amen? Asphalt exists so that we can have a safe place from which to travel.

11:08He says, this gospel, which I have joy in, which I rejoice in, which I have confidence in, it is safe ground for you to stand. The converse of that is true, then, that anything outside of the gospel, if we place our faith and our trust in anything besides what Christ has finished on the cross, we are in danger. We are stuck. He loves these people. He's writing them out of gratitude and joy. He can't help, but as an older brother in the faith, come with a little teaching and a little warning. What's the warning? Verse 2. He says, look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers.

12:00Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. Paul's using a, he makes a play on words here. He says he says, look out for the dogs, the mutilators of the flesh. Paul's speaking about the Judaizers. He's speaking about those who call themselves Christians and yet, within the context of Christian fellowship, tell other believers that in order to really please Christ, in order to really be saved, that you have to continue to keep the law, the law, by the way, that Christ has already fulfilled.

12:36In order to please God, you have to continue not just to please him, but in order to have safe footing, in order to have salvation, in order to have your eternity secure, you need to continue on in the old covenant. You need to continue on in the Jewish dietary laws, in the temple laws. Paul doesn't have room for that. Paul says, he says, we're not going to hang out with that idea. We're not going to entertain that theology, which is actually heresy. So he calls it what he is. He says, people who believe that are actually doers of evil. And then he's going to get really crass, and he's going to get all these texts on them, and he's going to call them dogs, right?

13:26He says, they're dogs. And he says, they're mutilators of the flesh. Mutilators of the flesh. He says, we're the circumcision. They're the mutilators. The word for circumcision is the word peritome. Peri is like perimeter. It's around. The idea is to cut around. The sign of the covenant, the old covenant in the Old Testament, was that circumcision. That was a sign that you were part of God's people. It's to cut around. Mutilate here in the Greek is the word katatome. That literally means to cut down.

14:14Let me say that again. That's to cut down. Every man in here should be squeamish right now. It's to cut down or to cut off. Paul knows exactly what he's talking about here. He's trying to make an illustrative point. Deuteronomy 23:1, you cannot enter into the temple to make sacrifice if you have been mutilated, if you have been cut down. Paul says, they're not adding righteousness. Paul says, they're not to be admired. These aren't the godly people in your church. These aren't the people that you need to be around. These aren't the people that need to be leading in the church. He says they're evildoers.

15:00He says, they're not of us, the true circumcision. Clear call and warning. So verse 3, he says, he's going to explain to you, okay, this is not what we are. We don't add to Christ's righteousness, to his finished work on the cross. He says, instead, we are of the true circumcision. And he's going to tell you what the true circumcision looks like. Look at verse 3. He says, for we are the circumcision. First thing, we are the ones who worship God in the Spirit. We worship by the Spirit of God. This reminds us, of course, of John chapter 4, when Jesus is meeting with the Samarian woman at Jacob's well, and she says, Well, my people, the Samarians, say that we're supposed to worship on this mountain. Your people say that you're supposed to worship on that mountain. What do you think it is? And Jesus cuts right to the heart of the matter, and he says, You have no idea what you're talking about. Because the day is coming and is already here. Well, you will no longer worship on these mountains, but you will worship in spirit and in truth. And Jesus points to himself.

16:16The real circumcision worships by the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2, verses 10 through 16, the Apostle Paul says this, These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searched, Everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the Spirit of that person, which is in him? So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept these things, does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They're folly to him, foolishness. And he is not able to understand them because they're spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. What does all that mean? That means that if your faith and trust is in the finished work of Jesus Christ, you have repented of your sin, and you are what the New Testament calls a Christian, then God fills you with His Spirit. And when you sit down to understand the mind of God, which has been revealed to us, not contrived, not made up, but has been revealed to us by His Word, you're able to understand it. Have you ever had a conversation? With a skeptic or a non-believer, and we start talking about the Bible, and they just look at you like a thumb is growing out of your forehead.

18:11What is this stuff? The natural man does not love, nor desire, nor want this, but you do. Why? Because you're of the circumcision. Amen. You have the Spirit of God that resides within you. You worship the Lord in spirit. Second thing, he says, and we glory in Christ Jesus. We glory in Christ Jesus. The word for glory there is the same word that Paul uses in verse 1 for rejoice. So the second mark of one of the true circumcision is that they would rejoice in Christ Jesus. That Christ gives you joy.

18:57He's your blessing. He's your treasure. He's your hope. He's your joy. Romans 15:13. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Those that are of the true circumcision, they rejoice in Christ. Third thing, and put no confidence in the flesh. Those that are of the true circumcision, that are of the true covenant family of God, they put no confidence in the flesh. The Judaizers, all their confidence is in what they can do to earn their salvation, to add to what Christ has already done. The true circumcision says no. We have no confidence in the flesh. Galatians 5, verses 16, 17. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. We look at desires of the flesh, and we automatically think of lust or we think of appetite, we think of all of these things. But that's not just what Paul's talking about. The flesh desires to add to what Christ has done. In my flesh, this is the reason, by the way, that in my flesh, when I first became a believer, and then when I first began to walk with Christ and was being discipled, man, my flesh pushed against election so hard. Why?

20:39Because I want a say. Amen? I want the power over my salvation. I want it. This is about me. I choose this. I choose God. Yet Romans 3 tells me no one chooses God. You want to talk a spear to the flesh. Amen? That hurt. That's a desire of the flesh, is in wanting to be the one who owns my salvation. Me to be the one who works my salvation. Not works out, works my salvation. For me to be the one that can go before God and say, look at what I've done.

21:22That's the flesh. Paul says in Galatians 5, we put no confidence in the flesh. He says in verse 17, for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. When God comes and resides within a person and saves a person, he changes their heart. He begins to work on changing their desires. Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. We are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

22:07We are to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And when God saves someone, he begins that work of the mind. He saves someone in an instant and then begins the work of renewing our mind and becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. The caution that Paul has here is grave. And it's not something that even we as believers here in 2018 should believe that we're past or believe that doesn't apply to us. But the truth of the matter is, it's very dangerous for us as believers.

22:56And we are susceptible to fall into this whole mindset of adding to our salvation. That all of a sudden, we're not simply desiring to please God, but we're trying to earn for God. That I can add to, I can make it better for myself. I can make what Jesus did on the cross better. Applying my work. So here's what Paul's going to do. He's going to say, Let me explain what this means. In verses 4 through 8, you're going to have this grand calculation. It's this formula. If you're an accounting person here, you're a business person that had to suffer through accounting, this is for you. Amen? You never thought you were ever going to use this again, but here it is right for you today at church. Amen? This is awesome. So get ready. A history major is going to teach you about accounting. This is awesome. That's funny. Verse 4.

24:02Here's the calculation. He says, Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh, also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. So Paul's making a bold statement. He says, Okay, let me explain it to you this way: if you think that you can add to your salvation, if you think that you can add to what Christ has already done, he says, Let me slow you down. Let me stop you right there. Because if you think you've got something, check this out. And you know what Paul's going to do? He's going to give his resume, his spiritual resume. He says, All right, guys, let's compare resumes and let's see who really has the right to have confidence in their flesh. Let's see who really has the right to have confidence in what they've done, who can really add to what Christ has accomplished. And this is what he does: Man, his resume is unlike any other. Check this out.

25:05He says, I have more. Verse 5, circumcised on the eighth day. Circumcised on the eighth day. He's not a proselyte, he's born into it. Amen. Eighth day, he was in the temple and he was circumcised. He was given that old covenant sign right there that he is a part of God's people. He was born into it, right? Born into it. Into it. You Aggies know what this is about, right? Some of you guys, your parents went someplace else. Some of you, your parents went to AM and your grandparents went to AM, right? You're born into it. You didn't have a chance, right? You were brainwashed from the beginning, weirdo.

25:49Right? Paul's saying, I'm not a proselyte. I'm not new to this. My parents were Jews. I was born into this. He says, circumcised of the eighth day, of the people of Israel, or literally of the stock of Israel, directly descended from Jacob. The Arabs, they could say that they were descended back to Abraham as well, but only the Jew could say, I'm directly related to Jacob, who received the new name of Israel. The name Israel, which means, by the way, to strive with God, right? Only the Jew could say, I have striven with God. Do you see the pride welling up here?

26:38He says, of the tribe of Benjamin. Now, that may not mean a whole lot to us, but here's a couple things about what that would mean to a New Testament Jew. The tribe of Benjamin? Benjamin, that land is where Jerusalem is. Benjamin was the only son of Jacob that was born in the promised land. Israel's first king, Saul, was of the tribe of Benjamin. When all of the other tribes rebelled against God, Benjamin stayed with Judah in the southern kingdom. I am of the tribe of Benjamin. I'm a real Jew. I'm the real deal. I'm a real Christian, right? My church never wavered.

27:28I'm a real fill-in-the-blank denomination. I'm proud of it. I'm a real fill-in-the-blank non-denomination and proud of it. Do you see the pride that exists there? Paul's resume is incredible. He says, I'm a Hebrew among Hebrews. Both of his parents were Jews. He understood the customs of the Jews. He wasn't a Greek or a Hellenistic Jew. He could have boasted in the things of a religious nature. He says, concerning the law, a Pharisee, literally a separated one, that when the Israelites were conquered by the Romans, you have this group that sort of separated themselves from everybody else and said, hey, we're going to hold fast. We love Israel. We love our country. We love being the top dog, also. But we love having power. We love having control. And we're going to continue to keep that by not. Only keeping the law, but we're going to add to it. So if we're going to make ourselves by our own actions, by our own ability to keep the law, we're going to separate ourselves out even from our own countrymen.

28:46A Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church. And Paul was sincere, man. He was enthusiastic about killing Christians. He was enthusiastic about being a Jew to the point that he wanted to kill all of these people that were in this heretical sect called Christianity. You know, he tells us in Acts 23, we don't have time to go there, but in Acts 23, one of the things that he says about his conversion experience is that he said, whenever I was killing, when I was persecuting the church, he said, I did it with a clear conscience. Before Paul was a believer, he laid his head down at night with a smile on his face, thinking that he was pleasing God by what he was doing.

29:39Let us never underestimate the hardened paganism that exists in the world. There are not a bunch of people that are simply out there waiting for some Christian to come by and simply walk down the Romans. Road with them. But they are alienated from Christ. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2 that they are enemies of God. Their conscience is clear. They're not walking, they're not breaking down the doors to get in here. Certainly not to hear me preach, but to hear anyone preach.

30:32God's call is for us to go, amen? To go and in love make relationships centered upon the gospel so that people can receive and hear. Paul's conscience was clear. He went after them. He says, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, he says, I was blameless. It's not that he was perfect, but that when it came down to fulfilling all of the requirements in the temple, Paul was there. When the church doors were opened, Paul was there. Paul was at every conference. Paul was at every retreat. He spoke at half of them, right? Paul was there. He never missed the passion conference. He never missed breakaway. He was always there. He was always at prayer meeting. By the way, all those things are. Great things.

31:34And Cody is bearing down on me saying, please say something positive, please say something positive about those things. Just kidding, he's not. Those things are awesome. They cannot add to what Christ has done. So Paul sums up. And he is essentially the man when it comes to the covenant. It was said that Robert E. Lee, when he was at West Point, that he's the only person who ever went through West Point and never had a single solitary demerit ever. The Robert E. Lee of Judaism is the Apostle Paul.

32:11And so here's what Paul's done. Imagine, if you will, a ledger. I told you we were getting to that. A ledger, okay? And on this ledger, you have two columns, right? And on one column, you have this column. It's assets, right? This is what you have. Assets. Over here, you got debts, right? Losses. Well, there's a difference in two. We don't have time for that right now. Debts, losses, things that are not assets are over here, right?

32:42So Paul, before Christ, listen, before Christ, Paul had this list was all in the asset column. Does that make sense? He was going to go before God, and he was going to lay down before the Lord all of his assets. And he was going to say, here I am, circumcised on the eighth day. Here I am. Of the tribe of Benjamin, of the nation of Israel. Here I am, a Pharisee. Here I am, zealous. Here I am a Jew of Jews, an earner of the law.

33:12And these are all my assets. And honestly, that is how the vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority of humanity thinks about their eternity, if they think about eternity. That they have this ledger book and they have all these good things on one side. And we're not going to touch on the bad things, but we're just going to look at the good things and we're going to give that to the Lord. And that was Paul, but something happened to Paul. And what happened to Paul is Paul encountered Jesus.

33:54Paul didn't find Jesus. Jesus wasn't lost. Amen? He wasn't looking for him. Paul was on a road to Damascus to go find more of his followers to kill. And it was there that Jesus invaded his life and found him. When that happened, and the scales were knocked from his eyes, and he saw Christ for who he really is, and he saw himself for who he really is. Paul's ledger changed. His ledger changed. What do you mean by that? Well, he tells us that. Look at verses 7 and 8. Verse 7. Whatever gain asset I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. What do you mean by that, Paul? Indeed, I count everything, everything as loss because of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

35:17For whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. You know what Paul did? Paul, Jesus found Paul, saved him, and what Paul did was he took his ledger and he said, All of these things right here, they were all gain compared to Christ, he moves them all over to the loss column, all of them. And the only thing, this is what's so important, the only thing that is in the asset column is Jesus. The only thing Paul had was Christ. The only thing that he claimed before God when God took him from that place was Jesus. The only thing that we have to claim before Jesus Christ. Before God is Christ.

36:05Not your goodness, not your family history, not your work, but Christ and Him crucified. That's it. He's the asset, He's it. Everything else is a loss. Paul uses the word rubbish. You know, the old King James, it says dung, right? Scubalon. Ballo means to throw, literally. Kuan is a dog. It's where we get the word cur, a kuan. Scubalon means to throw to the dogs. Throw to the dogs. All that awesome stuff that Paul was talking about, he said chunk it, throw it in the waste pile, put it in the disposal. Stacey and I just got back this week from New Orleans. New Orleans is crazy. But like, here's the thing about New Orleans. Everyone thinks that New Orleans, when they think about New Orleans, they just think about Bourbon Street. Don't even go to Bourbon Street. New Orleans is amazing. Culture is incredible. Music is incredible. People are awesome. The food, the food.

37:18We went to this restaurant for our 16th wedding anniversary called Commander's Palace. Oh. Gulf shrimp and grits. I mean, it's amazing. Here's the thing. When I ordered my food, they didn't come and bring me a chewed-up bone from a ribeye. Right? I would have politely sent that back. Amen? Right? Why? Because that's the scubalon. I came here for Commander's Palace. Paul Proudhon, baby. I came for the good stuff. I don't want the trash. That's offensive to me for you to bring that trash in front of me.

38:03It is offensive to God for us to bring our scubalon, our work in front of him and say, judge us by this. The scubalon is to be thrown away. And Paul says, in the end, he is justified in Christ and in Christ alone, and it's all he's got. He's the asset. Amen. Everything else is a loss. Everything else is a loss. That's the sweet calculation. And he's going to end this text with the call. With the call. Look at verses 9 through 11.

38:49He says, and be found in him. That's the transition. That's the transition there. Verses 4 through 8 is talking about justification. It's talking. About the finished work of Christ, a work that Christ accomplished in time and space. It is a historic moment. It happened. The tomb really was empty. Jesus really rose from the dead. But he's not going back. Amen? Because he did it once for his church. It's over. It's done. That's our justification. That's the past. Verse 9, he brings it into the present. He's trying to explain to us what his target is, what his goal is. He says, that's who I am in Christ. My asset is Jesus. That's it. Everything else is a loss compared to him. And he says, this is my goal. This is my target. My target is to be found in him. That's the present. That's sanctification. That's becoming more and more like Jesus. He wants to be found in him looking like Jesus. I want to be found in him. And look what he says. He says, not having a righteousness of my own. He doesn't want a righteousness from his own. He's not going to trust in keeping the law of Moses. That's done. It was finished in Christ. He says, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Experiencing salvation as a gift from God through faith in Jesus. He's like, I want to experience the benefits of that. I want to. Grow in Christ's likeness. That's what it means to be found in him.

40:38Look at verse 10. He says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. To know him means to be recognized, it means to be acquainted with him. In its root, it's where we get the word friend. I want to be his friend. In Ephesians 2, we're enemies. Then something happens. Christ happens. Amen? And he reconciles us back to the Father. And I no longer have fear of God for my eternity, but I rest in him as his son, as his friend. He has brought me close to him.

41:27Jeremiah 31, the new covenant says that we will know him from the least to the greatest, to know him in Christ. And then he says this, these two things. So how do we know him? How do we walk this out? How would he live this out in our life? He's two things in verse 10. He says, I want to know him in the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. To know him in the power of his resurrection, that's the power to say yes to God and to His word. There's a direct correlation between Jesus rising from the dead and saying yes to God. I'm no longer a slave to sin because Christ overcame death and the grave. I am no longer a slave to that grave, but I am now free in Christ to serve. Colossians 3, 1 through 4. If then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. Where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. That's to say yes to God. Before Christ had a hard time saying yes to God, I want to say yes to me. I love me some me. I love my flesh. I love that pleasure. I love whatever it was.

43:01Then Christ comes and invades our life, and all of a sudden, bam, things are turned upside down. I can say yes to God. But it's also the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death. That means the power to say no to sin in the flesh. What does Christ's suffering have to do with saying no? 1 Peter 4, 1, 2 says this. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves. With the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased to sin so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. And Peter's not saying that we're not going to fall into temptation and sin, he's talking about going on sinning forever. In other words, that this is a lifestyle, that this is who I am. You're not identified in sin anymore. But he says, because Christ suffered, you suffer. And you can arm yourselves in his humble suffering because he withstood temptation. You now have the power to withstand temptation, not on your own, but from Christ. You're connected in. You can rise in the newness of life. When we baptize you, we say, buried with Christ in baptism. Amen. There's an identification with Christ and His death and His suffering. But we don't hold you there. Amen. That would be really terrible theology, and we'd all be arrested, right? We don't hold you under. We say, raised, amen, to walk in the newness of life.

44:43I can give sin the stiff arm because Christ suffered. Verse 11 in this call, he says that by any means possible, I may. Attain the resurrection from the dead. Now, that's confusing sometimes because we look at verse 11 and we say, oh, yeah, he's talking about the judgment. He's talking about that final day. That's not what he's talking about. He doesn't talk about glorification. He doesn't start talking about future things until we get to verse 19. He's still talking about now. What resurrection is he talking about? Well, the word for resurrection is anastasis.

45:33And that's the word that he usually uses. And the word anastasis means resurrection from the dead. But that's not the word that he uses in verse 11. He uses the word ex anastasin. Ex anastasin doesn't mean resurrection from the dead. It means resurrection among the dead. What does that mean? Paul's saying, by any means possible, in other words, everything else, I don't care what it takes, I want to live a resurrected life amongst the dead. I want to be a pleasing, life-giving aroma amongst the death of sin in this world.

46:13I want to be that flower that's in the junkyard. Not for myself, but to point to the one who planted me there. Amen. I want to be life amongst the dead. The dead. That's Paul's goal. Paul's not ready to go to the sweep by and by quite yet. He's got seven years, by the way, right? He's under house arrest in Rome. He's not done yet. He says, My goal while I'm here is to be resurrected amongst the dead, it's to be life amongst the dead.

46:52What does that mean? It means this. Go back to the ledger. Christ. That's our asset. Amen, right? Everything else, loss. Here's what happens in the Christian life. Well, man, now I can see because of Jesus, I have like purpose in my job, in my career. It's to go into glorify Him in whatever I'm doing. So I can take that career, put it back to the asset column under Jesus. Amen? Under Christ. School, man, at first school was all about me. It was all about showing how awesome I am. Everything was about that. Now, man, I can study to know him and his world. I can study and perform in such a way that just brings honor to him. Bam, school goes back under the asset column under Christ. Does that make sense? This is the stuff, man, I deal with all the time in ministering with college students, especially with athletes. Athletes will come to faith in Jesus and their world is just turned upside down. They have been living their entire life for this pitiful. False God of sport. Sport is a terrible God. Terrible.

48:07And they've been living for it their whole life. And all of a sudden, they come to faith in Christ. God changes their heart. And they don't know what to do. They're like, man, I see this. Jesus is everything. It's like, compared to him, man, this is nothing. And what happens is, sometimes, honestly, sometimes players stop playing that sport. Because verse 11 says, by any means possible. Amen. Right? So if that means putting away this, then that means putting it away. If that means breaking up with that guy or that girl, it means breaking up.

48:47You see what I'm saying? If it means quitting that job, it means quitting that job. But what happens, and what's beautiful, is that the vast, vast majority of the time, we send these athletes back to their teams not to go and make an idol of their sport again, but to be life amongst death. To be life amongst death. To be that gospel and life-giving creature amongst people. Who desperately need him. That's Paul's aim. That's my aim, too. I pray it's ours. Amen.

49:41Let me pray for us. Father, in your goodness and your grace, you have gathered us here in your church to worship you, to sing and to say what is true, what has been revealed in your word about you. Lord, we also need to say and sometimes sing what is true about ourselves in light of that. And the truth is, Lord, oftentimes we can be enticed into believing, even for a moment, that we can add to what you have already done at the cross.

50:35Oh, Lord, we confess that. Lord, please forgive us in Christ Jesus. Lord, help us to have not a righteousness of our own that we try to work out in our own religiosity or in our own job or in our own school, in our community, in our relationships, whatever it is. But God, help us to have. A righteousness to remember that we have a righteousness that is found in Christ and Christ alone. And Lord, may our aim simply be for Christ to live His life in us in a place of death and decay to not be removed into our holy huddles, but Lord, to engage and impact the world that you've called us to.

51:40We love you and we bless you in Christ's name.