In Philippians 3:1-11, the message centers on knowing christ above everything else. Explore Philippians 3:1–11 and discover why knowing Christ surpasses religious achievement, personal credentials, and every lesser source of confidence. Rather than treating the passage as abstract theology, the sermon traces what these truths reveal about God, the gospel, and the way followers of Jesus are called to live.
The sermon follows the biblical text into practical discipleship, connecting doctrine with identity, character, and daily obedience. It challenges listeners to examine the assumptions shaping their lives and to allow the truth of Scripture to renew the way they think and respond. The emphasis is not merely on understanding the passage, but on becoming the kind of people whose lives are formed by it.
Along the way, the message engages themes including Philippians 3:1-11, knowing christ above everything else, philippians 3, personal credentials. These ideas help place the primary passage within the larger story of Scripture and show how its theology speaks to real spiritual formation. At its heart, the sermon helps answer questions such as: What does Philippians 3:1-11 teach about knowing christ above everything else? It also considers how should knowing christ above everything else shape the way Christians live?
For someone studying this passage, exploring the Christian faith, or looking for practical biblical teaching, this sermon offers a clear path from the text to everyday discipleship. The invitation is to hear what Scripture says, receive it with humility, and take the next faithful step in following Jesus.
What does Philippians 3:1-11 teach about knowing christ above everything else? | How should knowing christ above everything else shape the way Christians live? | How can believers apply Philippians 3:1-11 in everyday life?
Philippians 3:1-11, knowing Christ above everything else, philippians 3, personal credentials, every lesser source of confidence
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Not necessarily what you're living for, but where are you living from? Amen. When I was 13 years old, I had an encounter with God. I was weeping in my in my room for my lost friends. I was hysterical. I was broken. And I remember my mom coming to my room and and praying over me. And I was praying. And God just began just convicting my heart more and more. And I just had this beautiful moment. And I heard the Lord speak to me and say, "Nick, you're going to be a missionary." And some of you know this story already. And for those of you that don't, here you go. For the next 15 years, I was 13, for the next 15 years, I started traveling all around the world and I was filming missionaries and photographing them and had a media business and all these different things. And it was really fun. It was really cool. And I and I intentionally was trying to film all these stories so that I could learn to be the greatest missionary that ever walked the face of the earth. Like that was my goal. Like I'm going to be the best of the best. I'm going to be the greatest like they're going to write, you know, books about me someday. Like that was my mindset as a kid. And that's why I started doing all this stuff. And my parents were like, "Hey, we don't want you to wait until you're, you know, 25, 30, 40 years old to go and start doing go now." And so at 15, I started traveling by myself. My parents are crazy. Um but they let me do all the all these things and film all the stuff. And it was amazing. I went By the time I was you know, 25, 26 years old, I'd been to 30 nations and got to do so many incredible things and raised tons and tons of money for ministries all around the world. It was awesome. It was amazing. And then finally, God called my wife and I to go serve in Thailand. And I was just like, "I've arrived. This is the moment. Like I'm going to be the missionary. Finally, like get the biographies ready. Like here we go. Like God's about to move. I'm I'm going to see this whole nation saved for Jesus, right? Like let's go." And we get there. My wife was 7 months pregnant with our third. We had again years of all this focused work, encounters with God, extreme passion, hope, all these different things. But the first 9 months were some of the most frustrating months of my entire life. I almost said years. It felt like years. Anyone else have a ever have a month feel like a year? Come on, somebody. I was full it was full of frustration, backstabbing, gossip, difficult relationships with other missionaries. And ultimately for me it was a season of suffering. And I remember telling God, again I was I was real cocky. God, I've done everything that you've asked me to do. I've moved out here. We sold everything. We missed out on crazy like financial decisions. Like we I got offered over a million dollars to not go to the mission field and be a part of this company. God, I did all these things. Look at everything I've done for you, everything that I've sacrificed. I served you for all of these years. I've been faithful. And now I'm walking in all of this suffering and pain. And some of you know this, it led me to a very dark place of depression and even suicidal ideation. And I would ask constantly, God, what are you doing? Anyone ever ask God that question? God, what are you doing? Why is this happening? Are you really in this or did I make a mistake? Is this all part of your plan? And we can have this attitude sometimes when we feel like we've put in so much effort, we've done all the right things or we've we've done all the we prayed all the prayers. We've been in all the meetings. We've done all the studies and we get into this place and this attitude where we can say, "God, you owe me for all that I've done for you." We do the hard work, we give all the effort, we do everything needed and what we've worked for just doesn't pan out. And and honestly, this comes really naturally to us in Western culture, right? Where we we connect our hustle and effort to our rewards and what we expect to achieve. And I've talked about this before, like I'm going to put in this much effort and I expect certain outcomes, right? And we can approach God this way. We want the blessing of God on our life, so we work really hard to be a good person. We work really hard to be a good Christian hoping that God is going to give us some kind of return on our investment. And honestly, we get Buddhist really quick as Christians. Because we we start playing this karma game. You know, if if I'm doing the good thing, then good things are going to come back my way. What goes around comes around, right? And we do this even too when something bad happens to somebody and we go, "Oh, you must have done something wrong and the Lord just doesn't like you right now." But we get involved in church, we go to Bible studies, we maybe maybe, you know, God will see me working really hard for him and then God will start working hard for me. But we aren't called to earn a relationship with Jesus. We're called to live from one. Religion says perform so God will accept you, but the gospel says Christ has already accepted you. Now, walk with him. Because we can hustle and be disciplined and work out our salvation just as scripture says. We just preached this a couple weeks ago. Go to church, read your Bible, pray daily, but those prayers and works can look like this. God, I really hope I get something out of this. Rather than, "Lord, everything that I'm experiencing, everything that I'm walking in, because I'm walking with you, it's worth it. Because of my relationship with you." Where we stop praying with a hopeful attitude, maybe God will show up in my life today. Maybe if I pray, God will be here. But instead, what if we live from a position of saved sons and daughters saying, "I know God is with me." How do you know? Because I'm walking with him. Because I am praying. Because I am reading my Bible. Because I am spending time with him. Because I am worshipping. Because I am continuing to repent of my sin and say, "Lord, transform me, change me, fill me with your spirit." And so, as we look at Philippians 3 today, there's this beautiful moment that Paul brings us into, and we're going to have a lot of fun. I hope you're ready. But I want us to see the passion that Paul is teaching from and sense it. Y'all ready? This is my favorite part of the whole the whole thing, just personally, because he starts this off in Philippians 3 saying, "Finally, my brothers." Let me just say, when the pastor says finally, he's got 20 more minutes to go, okay? We are halfway through, and he's saying finally, okay? So, he's got a whole ending. So, when I preach long, it just means I'm trying to be like Paul, okay? That was a joke, all right? Y'all Y'all Thank you. Well, thank you. When Paul says, "Finally," many times he means, "Let me just shift gears for a second." So, we're shifting gears. He says, "Rejoice in the Lord." "To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you." Just a reminder, he is held as a political prisoner. Can you show that that prison photo up here? He's probably at this moment like a death row inmate in a Roman prison. He has limited access to people, to sunlight, to good food. He He's most likely chained to the wall, and he's saying, "Under these extreme conditions, it is my pleasure. It is my honor to love you and put you first." And he switches attitudes here. So, feel this tone shift. I rejoice, and then he says, "Look out for the dogs." Everybody say, "Woof." "Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh." Again, he's not talking about street animals here. He's talking about people. Specifically in this verse, Paul is actually addressing a well-known group of Christians who are wrongly teaching that Christians must keep the Jewish traditions. Let me say that again. There's this wrong teaching going around that Christians must keep the Jewish traditions if you're going to follow Jesus. So, Jesus came and he saved you. He saved the Gentiles as well. And these these Jewish Christians are now saying, "But you have to follow Jewish law. You have to do what the Torah says. You You Yeah, you you think you're saved, but you actually have to do all of these other things now, including mutilating your flesh." This is This is a little PG-13 here today, but I hope you all can roll with me, all right? He calls them dogs, evildoers. And really what he's talking about is circumcision. Because every male under Jewish law had to be circumcised. If you don't know what circumcised means, ask your parents, all right? That is all I'm going to say about that. But here's what's crazy. So, there was actually an assembly that took place in the book of Acts in Acts 15. It was the Jewish council or the I'm sorry, the Jerusalem council is what it was called. And basically the synopsis of it is this. I I put up the the Nick 4 uh synopsis. The Gentiles must be circumcised. No, the spirit of God is moving among people without circumcision of their male parts, without keeping observance of the Torah. Why do you try to test God by putting a yoke that none of us can bear? This is very interesting language. If you go and read all of this, this is a huge chapter in Acts 15. I'm just giving you the short version, but Peter's there. I'm not I'm actually not sure if Paul is there. But Paul is basically quoting this in the moment and saying, "Hey, God is moving among the Gentiles and they're not following Jewish law. So, does that mean that we have to do all of these things now in order to follow Jesus? We're saved and he saves us Jew and Gentile regardless. Church, we walk by faith, not by our religious observa- observations and traditions. And this is what's so cool. If we're saved by circumcision or if we're saved by following Jewish law, Paul says then Christ died for nothing." That That entire teaching undermines the gospel. It says this in Galatians 2:21, "I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." Why would Christ have to die? Why would Jesus have to die for our sins if we could just follow Jewish law and be good? If we can behave our way to God, then Christ didn't need to come. If you can just be a good person without Jesus, what's the point of Jesus? But church, the only way that we can please God is in Christ Jesus. And I'll be honest with you. Like I I've I've shared this on the platform. My family and I, we've we've celebrated Passover before. It's a It's a beautiful beautiful thing. We even have Shabbat on on Friday nights. I I bring my family together and we pray these prayers. We're not Jewish. But there's beauty in these practices when we come together in unity. Like I'm not going to a special place in heaven because I pray these prayers. But it's a beautiful way to disciple my family in prayer. But here's the thing, like if you had a cheeseburger this week, you're already not living under Mosaic law. Because you can't have cow meat with cow cheese under Jewish law. I know. It's so sad. Like bacon is off the table. I mean, what makes America great is pulled pork, bacon, and cheeseburgers, y'all. I mean, free speech is up there, too, but pulled pork, bacon, and cheeseburgers, hallelujah. Right? And And it's kind of funny because another way to say it is Paul's like, "Hey, God is still moving with all these Gentiles, and they're eating cheeseburgers, pulled pork, and lobster tails. So, your logic is off." No ceviche. It's not going to happen. And and really again, I want us to go back to this verse because Paul like goes hard in the paint on this. He calls them dogs. He calls them evil. And he calls male circumcision mutilation. Now, watch this. This is so cool. But but they Paul is just the baddest dude ever. He says in Philippians 3:3, "For we are the circumcision. We are the circumcision." This to me, like when I first read this, I was like, "This sounds like the movie Captain Phillips when the Somalian pirate gets on the ship and he goes, 'I'm the captain now.'" "I'm the captain now. We are the circumcision now. Us. It's not about this this action. It's not about this law, but we are the circumcision now. Cuz at the time, there was this actual like group of of Pharisees, Jewish people, not Christians, but they called themselves the circumcision party. Like a like a political party, like a Republican or Democrat. And they hunted down Jesus. They chased down Paul. Ultimately, they put him in prison. And this was the circumcision party. And they demanded that Jewish law be upheld for everyone, especially Christians. And Paul's like, "No, we are the circumcision party. We are the party of purity." Cuz read the rest of the verse. "For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus. And we put no confidence in the flesh. Paul is saying circumcision used to be a physical representation of your life lived under God. But now we walk in a circumcision of the heart. This is good, guys. Where God cuts us at the place in our heart that needs to be changed and cut out. In our spirit. Why did Jesus come? To save us. Yes. And to rebuke the Pharisees who followed the law, but their heart was far from God. And so Paul is saying in this moment, don't put confidence in the flesh. Having some kind of surgery or mutilating yourself to to to say that you follow God. Where is your heart in all of this? We worship by the spirit, so we are all circumcised internally by the work of the Holy Spirit within us. We're the ones who worship by the spirit of God, not you. We can't even worship God unless the spirit of God is helping us worship him. That's how great our God is. God puts a desire within us to worship him. The reason that you're here this morning is you had a desire to worship him today. And guess who put that desire there? His spirit. Our glory is in Jesus and not in our flesh. But here's the thing, all of us have some version of putting our confidence in our flesh. In our ability, in our knowledge, in our experiences. I want to prove myself to God. I'm going to be really faithful, serving, giving, praying, attending church, all these different things. I'm going to do, do, do, do, do everything. But we're not called to be human doings, we're called to be human beings. God's called us to be and live from a position, from a posture of relationship with Christ. Not just doing all this stuff so that we can earn a position with him. Does that make sense? Does this make sense, church? Like again, I don't have to perform to prove my salvation. But in my love and closeness to Jesus, the spirit of God actually compels me to worship, to love others, to serve in church, to give generously, to prophesy, to share the gospel with others, maybe even sell all your possessions and move to a nation you've never even heard of. So that others could come to know Christ. It's all because of my love for him, because he calls me a son, he calls me a daughter. I get to be with him. Not just do for him. And I'll be honest, this is where it gets tough for a lot of people. Because we hear Jesus saved you and you don't have to do anything to earn it. And our flesh goes, I can do whatever I want. Oh, I can pray a prayer. Jesus, come into my life. And now I can do whatever I want and I've got fire insurance. I'm not going to hell now cuz I prayed this prayer. But when we have that attitude, it actually reveals your closeness to God. It reveals my closeness to God. If I'm going, what can I get away with in my relationship with Jesus? That should convict our hearts. And show us, oh, I'm I may not truly be living all for him. And again, this isn't condemnation. I'm not going to beat you over the head with the Bible. Unless you want me to. We're God's people because we follow Jesus. We have circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit. And it's when we give him permission to come into our lives and have full reign and rule over our hearts that he can cut and change and mold and make us into who he desires us to be. Not influenced by the world, but completely influenced by God. We glory not in our behaviors, but we glory in the behaviors of Christ who lived and died and was raised from the dead to save us. If we're putting any confidence in our flesh, if we're putting any confidence in our religious behaviors, if we're putting any attachment to our ability to keep the rules, if we're trying to prove ourselves to God, if we think that our church attendance or what denomination or what church we're a part of is going to save us, I'm sorry. It's not going to work. If you think that growing up with Christian parents or Christian grandparents is going to save you, if you're putting any confidence in any of that, then our confidence is not in Christ. And this is hard, but it's true. And I want you to hear the heart of Paul in this and and just let me just fade into the background here. Because Paul is saying watch out for this kind of attitude. It's pervasive. It's everywhere And it's not only outside forces telling you to live however you want and to do whatever you want to do, but it's us internally, our flesh telling us, "You don't have to live this way. You can just go to church. You don't have to really have an all-in relationship with God. He can just be a handbag or an accessory and you're good." And I don't know, maybe you are good. Maybe I've got it all wrong. Woo. I'd love to be wrong. Honestly. Cuz I've got so many friends that I know I'm never going to see in heaven because they treat Jesus like an accessory and they don't really love him. And my heart breaks because I'm I'm I'm trying to be all in. And it's just like, "No, it's cool. Yeah, I you know, I pray sometimes." As a church, we're committed to following Jesus Christ and we're committed to follow Christ because he's our good shepherd. He's our pastor. And we worship in the spirit of God, by the spirit of God, not in our man-made efforts. We sing and we we honor him in our worship and and our worship team is is great, but this isn't worship unless our hearts are worshipping. We give, we come, we serve because he's been so good to us, because he loves us, and it's in response to his love for us that we live our lives in love and devoted to him. Like I love just getting to sit with God and feel his love, experience his love. Because when I come from that moment, when I read his word and it and it says that Christ died for me, that he lived and died for me because he so loved me, because he so desired closeness, it just it just pushes me to be closer to him. It makes me want more. I want more of him. I want more of his presence. But again, many times we can get in this place where he's an accessory or it's something that we just try out or we just play games with God. Like I was thinking about I was actually thinking about Chadwick and Reagan this week. We have an incredible military in our in our in our country. Amen. We've got many people in in this room that have served in the military. But I can guarantee you that no one that has served in our military went on Amazon and bought some camo and showed up on the battlefield. Right? I mean, you may have done that, but like No, I'm just kidding. Like here's the thing, Call of Duty is not going to train you to serve in our military. Call of Duty's awesome, don't get me wrong. But here's what they did. All they did was say yes. Signed a piece of paper. Here's when you show up for basic training. And then the commanding officer says, "Okay, it's time to make you into soldiers." For many of us, all we did was say yes to God. But have we shown up to basic training? I said, "Okay, God, I'm ready to become a soldier. I'm ready to become who you saved me to be. I'm ready to be all in." Again, they didn't earn it. Just by saying yes, they were accepted because of the yes. And we can say, "I grew up in this church. I went to Sunday school. I tithed. I read my Bible. I attended small groups. God, now are you pleased with me?" Christianity says that Jesus behaved in a way that pleased the Father, and we, as a church, receive his life by faith. So, now we live in that response to that. Our confidence is in Jesus, not in our flesh. It's not in your history with God. It's not even how many encounters you've had with God. And with all this, I I I need you to listen to, just as your as your pastor today, I got to be careful, because I'm not telling you not to show up to church. I'm not telling you to not have a prayer life, and I'm not saying, "Pray this prayer and live how you want." I want you to pray and worship because you've received Christ. And say, "God, thank you for saving me." And live from that place. It's amazing, because for me, I'm not sitting hoping that maybe God loves me. I have faith, and I know he does. Because he has done so much for me. I go to I don't go to church just to check a box. I go to church because it's God's family. Like, I love being around God's people. I love I love knowing when when people are sick, cuz I can be praying for them. Cuz I know that when I'm sick, they're going to be praying for me. When I'm around the people of God, they challenge me to grow and become more like Jesus. So, put no confidence in your flesh. I know I I know I sat long on this, but this is really the setup for where we're going because this is about to get really fun. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks he has a reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. This is Paul talking. Paul is like about to start flexing. Somebody say flexing. Because he hit he lived his entire life trusting in the religious game. He lived his whole life chasing a religious status symbol in his flesh and all of his own efforts, and he's going to go into it here. He said he was circumcised on the eighth day of his life, of the people of Israel. He is of the tribe of Benjamin. He is a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law, he was a Pharisee. This is cool. The Benjaminite were the only Jews that were literally still seen as a pure line of the Jewish people. Out of all the other tribes. And Paul's like, "I'm not just Jewish, I'm Jewish Jewish." I'm the Hebrew of Hebrews. I was a fantastic Pharisee. That sounds like a superhero movie a little bit. He's all these things. He says, "As to zeal, I persecuted the church. As to righteousness under the law, blameless." He's like, "You think you're zealous? I persecuted and killed Christians as a Jew." Churches that we're building right now. I was so zealous, I was putting people in the prison and torturing them. As for righteousness under the law, Paul says, "I was blameless. I was the best of the best." It's like, "I'm still the best. I'm the man. I'm the man. I'm the man." He was blameless and elevated in religious society. Promoted at a young age, he studied under prestigious rabbis. He had the training. He put in the work. He had everything going for him. So, please hear me today when I say all this. I have wept so much over this message this week. Here's what happens when we put our confidence and our effort and all these things into any sort of religious establishment, institution, religious activity, works, whatever. Titles. When we put our confidence in all of these things, we get frustrated and mad at God. We get entitled. We say, "God, I did all these things. You owe me." "YOU OWE ME. I'VE BEEN SO FAITHFUL. I SAID YES WHEN EVERYBODY ELSE SAID NO. I GOT RID OF ALL THESE FRIENDS when you told me to. And God, you haven't brought me any new friends. I've been holding on, Lord, FOR THE RIGHT SPOUSE, FOR THE RIGHT JOB OPPORTUNITY, waiting for you. You owe me." But here's the thing, that attitude is a trick from hell. It's going to cause you to spiral where where all of these promises are made to you. Oh, if you'll do this, you'll do that, then God's going to give you all of these things. It's like It's like so many times and I got so frustrated with my friends growing up because they loved this scripture verse, Psalm 37, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and then he will give you the desires of your heart." It's a great verse. But here's what's fun. We tend to only read the second half of it. All the desires of my heart. God, you owe me all the desires of my heart. We don't say that. But many times in our flesh and our heart, we feel that. We think that. God, I've done all these things. Why haven't you given me the desires of my heart? Because we have to delight ourselves in him. We have to delight ourselves in the Lord. And I love that it says in the Lord, because it's going to open up so many things for us here in a second. We put our confidence in our flesh, we don't get what we want, we get mad. But Paul, he's filled with joy. Again, he said, "I was the best of the best, elite in faith by all religious standards." But again, he's writing this from prison. Some good all your religious activity did, you're in prison now. He says this. He says, "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ." Everything I had, everything I achieved, is nothing compared to knowing Jesus. I know Jesus. I know Jesus, and I'm suffering in a prison cell. Paul chose torture, suffering, pain, when he could have lived the good life as a zealous, perfect, blameless, elite rabbi. He says, "But none of that meant anything compared to knowing Christ Jesus." Says, "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. You can be a governmental leader, the the top of your company, head of the nursing floor, you can write hit songs, make crazy money, have a big following, a hot spouse, have all the success in the world, but it's nothing compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus. There's nothing like getting to know Jesus. To live for God, to serve the king, to live in a relationship with him. Knowing about him is not the same as knowing him. And many times we put a lot of stock in our in our resume, trying really hard to do all the right things and and act right, or compare ourselves to other Christians. Well, I'm not as bad as that one. At least I care more than this person does. Look at my virtue. Look at all that I'm doing. Nothing this world has to offer, nothing religion has to offer, has anything in comparison to relational intimacy with God. I want to invite everybody here in this to stop trusting your flesh. I'm saying this to myself. Stop trusting your flesh, Pastor Nick. Stop trusting religion. Like a lot of people are deconstructing, I'm deconstructing, too. I'm more deconstructing a lot of traditions that really have more stock in religious attitude than actually in scripture. Trust Jesus. And hear me on this, I'd rather suffer for Jesus than have success in this world because I'll have Jesus. And it's a very hard line to walk because the world will tell you again, it's okay for Jesus to just be part of your life. But my challenge to you is to open your Bible, spend time in prayer because he loves you, not because you're trying to earn brownie points with your pastor, or earn brownie points with some Christian friend that you met on Christian Mingle. He already loves you so deeply, church. He loves you. There's nothing that you can do to push away his love for you. And if you're trying to prove yourself to him, repent. Repent. I've been repenting all week, bro. I've been crying at kids camp. That's why my voice is like shot. When we put so much stock in attending church and doing all this stuff, and who your daddy is, and what church you're from, man, it means nothing. This is what Paul is telling us. And I let me just say this, I know that we're all a work in progress, but I am a work in progress. And as your pastor, if I have if I have ever preached in a way that causes you to feel that following Jesus is a burden or a chore, I repent today. And I want you to forgive me. You don't have to, but I'm asking. Because it's not His yoke is easy, His burden is light. And I have spent too much of my life trying to prove to God that I'm worthy, or get God to owe me one. And it's just a waste. He's called us to live worthy from relationship with Him. And I know that I can't live worthy without being close to the one who is worthy. We want to live from a place of love for God, not in an effort to earn our love for God. We walk by faith and not by the flesh. And just hear me for a second on this because this is going to stick it to somebody. I would challenge you and I would say the measure of your walk with God isn't in what you've done for God. If we're taking polls and measurements here, I would I would say for me, I know how close you are to Jesus based on how much you've suffered for him. It's not about how many spiritual encounters you've had. Like you're not more special because you speak in tongues. You're not more special because you've had so many encounters or you've heard the audible voice of God. Has your faith been tested? And have you passed the test? Have you suffered? And I'm not talking about suffering withdrawing from sin. Some of you Some of you all know what withdrawals are. I'm talking about suffering great loss because of your relationship with Jesus. You've lost friends, you've lost relationships, you lost opportunities. Is Jesus worth your suffering and sacrificing and being uncomfortable? Is he worth it? Come on. Every day you and I have an open invitation for fellowship and intimacy with God in the name of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit to invite him into that suffering and pain. That's why Paul is able to write one of the most joyful letters in the Bible in Philippians from a prison cell. I'm suffering, but I'm full of joy because I have Jesus. Because I have Jesus, it's worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it. I've been through hell and back and it's worth it, church. He wants to sit with you in that pain. He wants to sit with you in that suffering. He wants to bring peace to your life in the midst of the chaos in the storm. This is who Jesus is. I love this. This is where it gets fun. I'm sorry. I get heavy. I just love the Lord so much. For his sake I've suffered the loss of all things and I count them as a rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. And this is one way you can know that your relationship with God is strong cuz Paul said, "Everything I worked hard for, I've lost it all. Who cares?" Who cares? I've got Jesus. Like have you ever known someone or maybe you yourself you've lost everything. You find yourself in a hole like financially and you're like, "I can't wait to rebuild it." Like that's like the that's like the story for a lot of millionaires now. Like I made one bad decision. I lost it all, but then I doubled my business back in the next year, right? Those that's all over TikTok and Instagram. You can do it too if you buy my program, right? How this is how I made my millions. Again, I lost it all. I worked really hard and then some. And Paul's like, "I'm not trying to build it back. I'm not trying to get it back. I lost it all and I counted all as rubbish. Somebody say rubbish. The word rubbish Hey, hey, hey, shh. The word rubbish in English feels like just a pile of trash, right? This is fun. It's the Greek word skubalon. Somebody say skubalon. You just cussed in church. I just want you to know right now. You did. You did. Paul said skubalon. It means a steaming pile of human and animal excrement. It's a four-letter word. It's great. This is awesome because Paul is like trying to connect He's trying to be a relevant preacher to the the the Gentiles, all right? Paul is saying, I was working really hard. I was blameless for the law. I lost it all and I counted all as a steaming pile of soft-serve chocolate ice cream on the sidewalk. This is what he's saying. EVERYTHING THAT I'VE DONE IN THE NAME OF GOD, IT'S a pile of insert word here. It pales in comparison to gaining Christ and being found in Christ. Look at this, Philippians 3:9, and be found in him. In him. Remember that verse in in Psalm 37, delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart. And it echoes the words even of Jesus being found in him, not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Even after all we've done, all we've sacrificed, all the stuff, all we've accumulated or beefed up on our Christian resume, all the things that we think we laid down for God. He's saying, are you found in him or are you found in your efforts? Cuz again, one day God will have us all before him and he's going to separate the ones who lived in
