Whatever Gain I Had, I Counted as Loss
First B Jackson
2025-01-18

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Well, good morning. If you're coming in, go ahead and come on in. We'll sing together. This is one of my favorite. Would everyone please stand as we sing the wonderful grace of Jesus.

Oh, I love that so much. I just wanna keep singing the chorus over and over again. If you have a hymnal out, which probably is a pretty good idea now if you have to sing a song like that. But we can go ahead and turn to hymn number five seventy five. We'll sing Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.

Hymn number five seventy five. Hang on just a second. If you've got a hymnal, this is really great because you can sing the really cool part. There's a really cool part in there. Really, we don't have them in here, do we?

Oh, here. Stack here. Stack here. If you want one. This is hymn number five seventy five.

We're gonna start the second verse. Go ahead and have a seat.

Hey, good morning, everybody. Welcome to First Baptist Church. We're delighted you're here. There's always lots of programs going on around here, but not a wanna. Tomorrow, you have the day off.

It's our kids program. Be praying for them and those kids as they're not here this week. But thank you all for for those of you who participate with Awana. It's such a blessing to those kids, and we'll see you next week. The men's lunch study is on this week though for all men of all ages.

Would you show up down the hall? We don't provide the lunch, but we do provide a great message, and it's great conversation. And it's neat to see men opening up and feeling safe to be able to share in so much abundance. It's really great. There is an Easter youth choir starting on February 1.

I don't think anybody in this room oh, we've got one person who's eligible. Alright. Hey. I'm looking right at you. Here, come on by and sing with us.

But all the information is on the website. Would you sign up if you wanna be a part of it? It was super cool for Christmas when we had that. And the First Baptist Church directory, directory, I think this service is the most well represented service of them. But would you please get us a photo and your information?

And if you can, make it be a horizontal photo. You don't have to be a member or anything like that. It's for people like me in the office when you come in and you say hello and I can't remember what you're supposed to look like. I I lean over to my directory and I find your face and I'm like, oh, that's who it is. Yeah.

Mary Kadol. I've known her for seventeen years. Oh, thank goodness. She's in the directory. So would you please help me out?

It's a it's a personal favor to me. Would you please help us out with that? And would you be praying for the meal music and message event that's going on starting January 28? Over the hill, they're starting a little almost church service. Is that the right kinda is it almost.

Almost. Something like meal music and a message. It's a message light. It's anyway, it's gonna be great. Would you be praying for them?

It's over the the fairgrounds over there. It's a really cool opportunity to be able to reach that valley over there. And something new. It's it's neat that we're trying stuff around here, and Van's a big part of that. The men's snowmobile retreat is also coming up.

Keep Ben on your calendars for the end of February. We're asking men to sign up early if you would. And the women's community Bible study is also going on as well. Information for that is on our website. Pastor Ray is not here this week because his his uncle passed away.

And and can we lift up that family to us? It's always hard when somebody passes away, and let's just be praying for them. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for who you are and, Lord God, that Ray's uncle loved you, Lord God, and that he's in your arms now. And I just pray for the family, Lord. Would you give them peace and rest?

Would you give them comfort in this moment, Lord God, and be able to heal any old wounds that might be around and be able to say the nice things that they need to say? Would you just draw them together, and would you draw them towards you, Lord Jesus? Thank you so much for who you are and for who you've made that family to be. In your holy name, amen. Okay.

Well, for everything else, you can go to the church website, firstbjackson.org, and I guess we'll go back to some singing. Thanks so much for letting me interrupt for a moment.

Last job, Nick. It's okay. If you do have the hymnal, it's 342 as our next one. It's rocket I'm sorry. 343.

I read the wrong one. Amazing Grace. Go ahead and stand up. Amen. How can you not pay attention to words when you're reading singing a song like that?

In moments like these, number 91.

Father, we're thankful for the opportunity to come and worship you, to study your word, to sing hymns to your name. Father, we're thankful for the privilege of being able to give of ourselves, give of our love to each other, and to give what resources that we want to give to you so that your work in this, your kingdom will advance and will, that we will, understand that it is you that does these things. It is not us. It is you. And we're thankful for that.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Alright. How about that? Is that better? Good morning. I'm gonna do the scripture reading this morning before Van comes up.

But first, I just wanna say, said this in the first service too, but thank you to Van and Lauren and his whole family for being here and just being open to the call of God on their life and just for for their obedience in in following that call. And we know I heard the message already. So when you hear the message, you're gonna go, man, some of that dovetails with, like, their story of how they got here. And so, you know, thank y'all. And also, Van is here preaching today on short notice because of a death and Ray's family.

So thank you for for being here on short notice too. So Philippians three, seven through 11, but whatever was to my profit, now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my lord. For whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them rubbish 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 is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Thank you, Philip. Good morning, everybody. How are you all? Y'all, that's from Alabama. Oh, man.

So good. Yeah. So we're two weeks ago, we got here Sunday night and yeah. Just suddenly found myself up here preaching, which is a great it's a great honor to to get to be here this morning. Relieve Ray as he's with his family.

And it's really good to see all of you here. Yeah. Can't couldn't couldn't tell you how thankful I am for the Lord's clarity in this step. So Philippians three has been really good for me this this week preparing and it it has brought a lot of consolation and and comfort as the the main focus is really on not depending on yourself, not depending on your works or or your own ability, but really putting all of your dependence on Christ. And most of my experiences in construction, And if I, as your new associate pastor, put all confidence in my own ability, flesh, knowledge, whatever, I will fail you.

I will be doing all I can no matter how much experience I gain to to always put my dependence on Christ and look to him to lead this body. So, I hope you are also encouraged that the pressure is not on you and your performance. It's it's it's on all of us to to have faith in Christ, right? And and and trust him for the work that he does through us. So, I'll I'll get started with a prayer first and then we'll dive into it.

Lord, thank you so much for today for this opportunity for each of us in the room to to read your word, hear your word, and we pray that you open our eyes and open our ears to receive your truth. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Amen. It wouldn't be a a great sermon without a map, right?

At first beast. So, you got your map. Philippi is where the Philippians are. Of course, and Paul is writing to them from prison in Rome. So, just a little visual representation.

That's all that's all I'm gonna give you there. We got a lot to go through. We're going from one all the way to 14. I know we read just the the meat in the middle, but verse one through three, Paul gives some encouragement and some warning. And then verse four through six, it's like his fleshly resume.

So it's his his gains from the past. And verse seven and eight, there's this this twist, this turning of the gains counted as rubbish. In verse nine through 11, he he kinda gives us reason why it's flipped with these eternal gains that that he lists out for for believers. And in verse 12 through 14, is this journey to the price. And so, we will get through all of that today.

Verse one, finally my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you. There's no trouble to me and it's safe for you. So he's saying rejoice and he's I'm gonna move this because I think I'm gonna kick He's saying rejoice like he's riding from prison. He's been suffering and still he can say rejoice. And so let's have that mentality of of rejoicing as we go through the rest of it.

So that's his encouragement and then the warning, verse two, says, look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. So he's given them this warning to these certain people. Right?

Who are they? So not just in Philippi, but Galatia and other areas, there are these people called the Judaizers, and they are people who place tradition or these laws at this unhealthy high status. Okay? So so you've got the Gentiles who are not circumcised, but they they put their faith in Christ. They're going to this church, the Philippian church, but there's these people coming in and they're saying, hey, y'all need to do this, this, this and this, right?

You need to be circumcised. And Paul is saying, no, like, that's wrong. And he says, look out for the dogs. And so for us, we've got neighbors across the street that have awesome dogs. They're so sweet and like in an outdoor culture, we love our dogs.

Right? Man's best friend. So, it doesn't really make sense why he would say look out for the dogs to us. But in the culture over there and still today in The Middle East, Arab culture does not place a high value on dogs. Like, it's a negative connotation.

Like, imagine like nasty mangy dogs. You know, like that you don't wanna touch you or lick you or anything like that. So that's kinda why he's saying that and then he's also calling them evildoers and mutilators of the flesh because of the the circumcision. Okay? So he's saying, look out three times.

We gotta pay attention to it. And then he continues to dive into to to really what that means. So verse three, for we are the circumcision. We, the the body of Christ, Christ are the circumcision. Those set apart.

So, you know, circumcision in the Old Testament is this outward sign of being set apart for God, like God's people. Right? But now, he's saying those who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. Okay.

So stark contrast with that. So hopefully that makes sense. This is the part where I was talking about is kinda like his resume. So this gives him some credibility as he's writing to the church and warning them of these people that are trying to authoritatively tell them, hey, you need to do these things. He's listing out his own set of fleshly gains here.

So though I myself, Paul, have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. So he's hinting at these Judaizers. Right? Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.

So trace back multi, multi, multi generations. You're like, I know for some of us like, what family we're a part of is a big deal, right? Like, he's traced way further back than most likely any of us have to the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of Pharisees. So, you know, Pharisee, they were given a lot of grief by Jesus, right? For good reason because they they're really strict and they added laws to help them make sure that they were just doing exactly what they should.

And sometimes, like in Paul's sake, it was out of a zeal. Like, he was zealous for God. He wanted to make sure that he was one of God's people. Right? So, he's a highly, you know, status, high status, prestigious type guy that's a pharisee out of a zeal for God.

And then but his zeal back then before he meets Jesus is a persecutor of the church. So, a persecutor of the church, why? Not because he hates God. And I think it's easy for us to see this and be like, man, what was he thinking? But in fairness, like all of his past and his studying and all of that rich Jewish knowledge that he has at face value, he can't understand how Jesus is the answer.

Like he just doesn't At that point in time, that's why he was persecuting the church, was out of his zeal for God. And as to righteousness under the law, blameless. So he's he's got all this stuff that he has going for him, but he's like, he totally missed it. Right? You can be so zealous and and so passionate, but but then just completely miss the miss the point.

And then he says in verse seven, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Like, seriously? How could all that great stuff be counted as loss? And he says it again, in case you missed it. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

If you really take a step back and think about who he was at that time, like when he walked into the temple, like everybody knew like, oh man, like there's there's Paul or Saul or whatever they called him. Like, he's really smart. He teaches a lot. He whatever. Like, he's attained this status, this prestige.

Right? And then he's counting it all as lost, but how? Like, man, I know y'all recently went through Acts, studied Acts here. In Acts nine, if you remember, he's on the road to Damascus to do what? To persecute the church, like to persecute believers.

But Jesus meets him there with this blinding light and his thundering voice, you know, and asked him, Paul, what are you doing? Why are you persecuting me or persecuting my church? And it's so cool to think like, with his physical blindness that he got from that blinding light, he receives this spiritual sight. And he and he starts to understand that all of these gains that he's achieved in his life, all those things we listed. And then his the the lowest thing would be like Christ who he's trying to persecute.

Right? In this moment, everything changes. He's counting all those gains as loss, and that which he was persecuting is now the greatest gain, the biggest thing going on. And so that's what's going on in verse seven and eight as he's describing this. And he makes sure we understand by three times, verse seven and eight, three times he says loss.

Like, his gains are counted as loss for the sake of Christ. He counts everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, suffer the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, which the translators when they wrote rubbish, I mean, they could have used maybe a more accurate word which would be poop. He counts it as poop. All those things, that's that's wild to think about.

And why? Because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. And so in this section eight through 11, the the eternal gains, there's kind of three sections, and I'll have them underlined as we go through each one. So this first one, for his sake, I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him and be found in him. Right?

And so that perspective, I was reading a book by N. T. Wright this week, and it was really cool that he has a quote like describing the perspective of, you know, thinking of Jesus as small and then not. So the sun has risen. I know I'm going out of order.

The sun has risen and it turns out we are in its orbit. Right? Not the other way around. Like, God's so big. And when we're until this this happens, right, that happened with Paul, like, it's hard for us to wrap our minds around what's actually happening.

Like, the conclusion is not so that he may be my savior. The conclusion is, so that I may be found in him. Like he he he is who he is whether we know it or not. You know, like, but we have that opportunity to know him, be found in him. Jim Elliot, y'all probably know this quote.

He's echoed Philip Henry from the sixteen hundreds here. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose. And and he was saying this on his way to the mission field. He was he sold all his stuff and was leaving his his life behind, the gains behind, to go pursue what God had called him to do. Like, he gaining Christ and he can't lose that, right?

He can lose all this stuff but you can't lose Christ and and I I thought that was a really cool quote to bring in to kind of help us see how this works.

Got your own.

Okay. I am pressing the button. It's not me. There we go. Alright.

So next, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law. Okay. So, he's he's thinking back as a Pharisee, as a a Jew. He is was counting on his works to show God like I am doing everything I can to to be righteous, to be one of God's people. But that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith is what we have to enjoy.

Right? So he's saying, 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. So that I may know Christ. That's infinitely valuable.

Right? That I may know Christ in the power of his resurrection. Earlier in chapter two, he really does a great job writing this little poem song in verse six through 11. Talking about who God who Christ is, you know, and just thinking how do we know Christ? This is Christ.

Though he, Jesus, was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen. That's who he is.

Like, what do you see in there? We see humility. We see power. We see that he loves us so much that he he didn't even count equality with God a thing to be grasped. It's kind of a tough word.

But he emptied himself. Why? For us, because he loves us. And now he's exalted, and every knee will bow. Like, I love like thinking through, if I'm about to have a conversation with somebody, maybe here in the valley that is opposed to who Jesus is.

Man, I know that at the end, everyone will know who he is. Every knee will bow. Every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. That's who we have the opportunity to know. Last week, Ray was in Jeremiah and Jeremiah nine twenty three really like dovetails well into the into what we're talking about today.

Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. So this is just think about like fleshly confidence, earthly gains, like the list from Paul earlier. Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boast, boast in this, that he understands and knows me.

That I am the Lord Yahweh, who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. Like, it pleases God for us to know him and not boast in our list of stuff but only in him and you know, back then in in Jeremiah's day, the the people needed to hear that like they were really not doing great and then, clearly, in Paul's day, man, they needed to hear it too. Like, he's having to say basically the same thing and in our day, honestly, I need to hear this too. Like, we all need to hear this.

It's a it's a perpetual issue that we're dealing with. And and in his in his letter in Paul's letter to the Galatians, he says, but far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. What is he saying there? He's saying, man, the surpassing worth of knowing Christ is so high up here that anything the world has to offer is really way, way, like way down there. That's what he's saying here.

Last eternal gain we'll go through, and may this is the last thing he's he's gaining here, share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Wow. Like, share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death so that any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. There's a cool picture that that the Lord has given us to look at with this cicada bug. Okay?

Y'all have these here. Right? We have them in Alabama. My kids love to take the shell, and, you know, the legs are still really sticky, and they'll they'll place it on mom's little shoulder secretly, and she'll be like, oh gosh, you know. And it is fun to like put them around the house or whatever, but it's just a shell.

It's empty. It has no value. It doesn't do anything. It's dead. Right?

And this is I was just thinking like, this is a cool picture of like, that's our flesh over there. Like, we're dead, we're dying. Like, this stuff that we thought was so valuable, it's more it's like that show. Like, it's just it's worthless, you know? Compared to the the the life with Christ, second Corinthians five seventeen, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

The old has passed away, behold the new has come. How amazing. And like that that transformation can look a lot of different ways. But in Paul's life, you know, like we read about or or talked about in Acts nine, he goes from his zealous. What does his zealousness look like before Christ?

It looked like killing, persecuting Christians. And then the zealousness looked like sharing in the sufferings of Christ and being persecuted with the Christians. He's still zealous, but it looks so much different, right? Jesus' disciples. Man, what did it look like for them with the power of the resurrection?

Totally different. They went from hiding in the upper room when he was being killed, And then, but most of them died a martyr's death because they had confidence, they had the spirit in them, and they they had the power of the resurrection that they knew. And they proclaimed boldly the gospel that they were previously afraid of. In Matthew 13, there's the parable of the man who finds the treasure in the field. Okay, y'all tracking?

I like to think that that man probably walked by that field every day, and he just saw a field and you know, who cares? Right? It's just a it's just a field. But when he discovered the treasure that was in the field, what did he do? Man, everything changed in his life.

Right? All the stuff that he had, all his belongings, everything he had, and the field went like this. He sold it all and bought the field because he knew the treasure that was there. Do we live like we actually value knowing Christ to the point that he's infinitely more worth anything else in our life. I struggle with that.

And I imagine that most people struggle because we can see these things that are temporary, and Christ and spiritual things are unseen, and so our bodies have a tough time with them. So is that the end? No. We have a little bit more time. We got this last section of kind of like the action, the call to action.

Here's the truth. We don't place confidence in the flesh. We place confidence. We boast in in Christ and who he is. So, let's read verse 12 through 14.

Now that I've already obtained this. So, he's saying like, Paul knows that his his journey at this time is not done. He's got more suffering to do. He's got more writing to do, more proclamation of the gospel, more work to do. Right?

So he's not he's not complete. He's not perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You see, press on, straining forward, press on.

What? Like, didn't we just talk about it's not by works? We're not saved by works, by faith alone, in Christ alone. Right? So what's he talking about?

Why is he saying work, strain, press on. It's not to achieve righteousness. It's not for your salvation. Your salvation is taken care of. Jesus paid it all.

You don't need to do anything to earn your salvation. No, absolutely not. You are secure, eternally secure, even if your emotions tell you otherwise. This training, this working is happening because Christ Jesus has made me, Paul, his own. Like, there's a motivation that comes from this, I'm being found in Christ.

I have a savior, and he has called me to this eternal purpose, right? So he Yeah. He's acknowledged he hasn't reached this goal. He's got more to do, and because he is Christ, he press He wants to press on, and and continue the hard work. Right?

Paul is not afraid of some hard work. First Corinthians fifteen ten, he says, I worked harder than any of them. And I I worked with some guys in construction that sound like that. I don't know if Paul made it like had that same tone or not, but he was a hard worker. Colossians one twenty eight through 29, him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

For this I toil, for this I work, struggling with all his energy. Wait, whose energy? Yes. With his energy that he powerfully works within me. Right?

And and Philippians four thirteen, often misquoted, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's him that gives us the ability. It's not us. It's not our list of stuff. Right?

It's him. Man, so good. Like, I love this part. He says, but one thing I do, and it and it made me think about in John nine, the it's a big parable. It takes up or not a parable, sorry.

John nine, Matthew 13 was parable. John nine, blind man who's born blind is healed by Jesus when Jesus tells him to you know, he makes mud and then he tells him to go wash, and then all of a sudden, after he washes, he can see. And the Pharisees, this happened on the Sabbath. Jesus loved to do this on the Sabbath, right? And he liked to mess with the Pharisees.

The Pharisees got really upset about that. And they so much so they're like questioning his family like, hey, mom and dad, this your son, right? He's like, yeah. Was he really born blind? Yes, he was born blind.

Are you sure? Yeah, he was born blind. He was blind yesterday, you know? And then they questioned him like multiple times, and they're like, hey, blind man, were you really born blind? Yes, I was born blind.

And they kept saying like, what about this guy that healed you? Did he heal you on the Sabbath? He's like, hey, one thing I know, I was blind, and now I see. I was blind, but now I see. It's like Paul was spiritually blind, but after his encounter with Jesus, now he sees.

It's like us, like the disciples, like us. We were blind, and now we see. This one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead. What are we gonna do with the reality that that we're not dependent or focused on this stuff that's worthless? But now we see who Christ is and his worth, his eternal worth, and the gain that we have, and and what are we gonna do?

We're gonna press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So we rejoice like verse one. We rejoice. He's given us new life. We're not the little dead bug thing.

Right? The life Jesus offers in relationship with him is infinitely better than trying to grasp for these things that the world pushes in front of us. May we know him, worship him in spirit and truth and praise him, and may we toil. May we work hard, joyfully submitting ourselves to him, so he may work in us and through us to accomplish his will. Let's pray.

Lord, thank you so much for for the truth that you've given us, for the perspective, for opening our our eyes to who you are and what you have done for us, Lord. We love you and praise you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Is there another song? Yes? Okay.

Let's go ahead and stand. And you know, I learned my lesson from two weeks ago. I'm ready. K? But I just want Judy, you picked those you picked these hymns out right?

I was. You you picked these songs out. Is that correct? And did you know what he was preaching on today? No.

What? Did you know what he was preaching on today? No. No idea. This this is,

you

know you know, what was it? The thirteenth verse? Is that right? We forget what is behind us. We follow him.

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the light of his face shine upon you. Have a great week.