Philippians 3:8 • Everything Loss
by Danny Bennett - Lead Pastor, Hope Church (discoverhope.church)
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Sometimes it takes a lockdown to get us to look up. And God wants us to see that the most valuable things in life are not something that we can do or buy. As we are forced to hit pause, God is working to do great things in us and through us. These letters from the Apostle Paul’s that have been changing lives for thousands of years were birthed out of a time of lockdown in prison. Join us as we learn from his letters. And, don’t miss the good that can come from leaning into the lockdown.
READ Philippians 3 -
People who were giving Paul trouble because they were hung up on circumcision
Finding worth from their efforts
Knowing Christ is based on grace and pursuing Him
We’re not perfect but if we pursue Him we’re being made perfect day by day.
“I want to know Christ.”
I'm not perfect I’m being made perfect day by day
You don’t really know it until you get to a place in life where all you have is
Surrender control -
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, 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 on the basis of faith. Philippians 3:7-9 NIV
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - letters from prison and gave his life for what he believed while he was in prison like Paul
Quote 1 “We don’t understand him(Jesus) if we arrange for him only a small compartment in our spiritual life.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Seek what really matters -
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:10-11 NIV
When I first became a Christian - ALL IN and it was too much for some people (Christian school)
Most of the people who were affected ended up leaving to go reach people in the public schools
Stay the course -
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus... Only let us live up (march in rank) to what we have already attained.” Philippians 3:12-14 NIV
I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ESV
Reflect - What really matters to you? How has that changed through this?
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
Philippians 3:20-21 NIV