B.C. – A.C. Philippians 3:1-11

What this episode covers

Philippians 3:7-11 Outline with Blanks Completed Outline You Tube Video at the end of the service scroll to 22:20 for the sermon B.C. – A.C. Philippians 3:1-11 Well, if you’ll remain standing, we’re going to read just a few verses from Philippians 3. This is Paul writing from prison to the church at Philippi, and this is his testimony about coming to Christ as his Savior, at least a part of it. Let me read these four or five verses. Paul writes, but whatever were gains to me I now consider lost 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. To 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. 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. Well, Dr. Erwin Lutzer, who pastored Moody Church for many, many years, used to say when it came to sermon time, he says, well, my job is to speak, and your job is to listen, and let’s hope that that ends at the same time, and that would be good. I’m sure you have all heard about the pastor that was looking out, and halfway through his sermon, he noticed someone that was sleeping halfway down the right side of the auditorium, and so he stopped the sermon, and he asked the person next to him, he says, would you happen to nudge him and wake him up? He fell asleep during the sermon, and the man responded, you wake him up, you put him to sleep. So, but really, I don’t mind, I really don’t mind if people sleep during the sermon. I say, you’re either going to wake up spiritually refreshed or physically refreshed, and I’ll take either one, so. I won’t tell the story of years ago when our kids were young, and you’re not getting much sleep at night, and my wife was snoring during the sermon, so that was a little distracting, but didn’t happen often, but anyways, we’re looking at the book of Philippians, and just a little context, it’s the joy epistle, Paul’s writing from prison, he’s appealed to Caesar for a trial, and so he’s in Rome, he’s under house arrest, he ended up being there for two years, eventually was released, but during that time period, he wrote four letters, they’re called the prison epistles, and he shared the gospel, and people in Caesar’s household came to faith in Christ, and at the end of the book of Philippians, he says, all God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. So, Paul used his circumstances that weren’t the greatest as an opportunity, what, to share the gospel, and so we’ve been working our way through these four chapters in Philippians, and this morning we’re in Philippians chapter three, verses one through 11. This is really Paul’s testimony about how he came to faith in Christ, and not necessarily the details, we get that in Acts chapter nine, but just the change in his life, and as I say that, if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, all of us have a story, all of us have a testimony to share of, this was my before-Christ life, this is my after-Christ life. Some of those stories are more dramatic than others. I grew up in a pastor’s home, I’ve been going to church since I was two weeks old, and I remember I’d hear these stories of people who were all sorts of trouble, and made all sorts of bad choices in their life, and they came to faith in Christ, and I’m kind of like, my story’s a little boring. Well, you realize that if you were saved young, you could take confidence in the fact that God’s maybe saved you from going astray, and there but for the grace of God go I. So, we all have a story to tell, that’s Ephesians 2:10, we’re God’s workm

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