Sunday 1:31:10

My hope for us above everything else is that we’ll have a vibrant, dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ. Individually and corporately that we’ll be caught up in loving and pursuing Him. We talked about how easy it is to miss a relationship with Christ in the parable of the Prodigal son. We can miss relationship with Christ like the younger son in his sin, he wandered away from the father. Or like the older son in his self righteousness and judgmental attitude, he was with the father, but missed the whole idea of relationship. We want to embrace the Father, relying only on His grace. We’ve talked about how to be in relationship with God is through being in the Scriptures, but that too often, we don’t want to be. So we confess to God our brokenness and ask for His help. We talked about how important prayer is in our relationship with God, but that too often we don’t pray consistently and we don’t pray for the most significant things. So we ask God for help to pray according to His will and His purposes. Philippians 3:1-3 Judaizers tried to force gentile converts to Christianity to be circumcised, but Paul taught that salvation does not come through trying to follow the law, but only by faith in Jesus Christ. He once had confidence in his ability to follow the law to gain favor with God, but now had no confidence in the flesh to save. Philippians 3:4-6 Paul’s old confidence Philippians 3:7-9 He didn’t just consider knowing Christ better than his legalistic righteousness, but that everything but knowing Christ is loss. Paul had an advantage that you and I never had. He met Christ 25 years before. He had given up his old life, and now lived to preach Christ’s gospel. How can it be that his primary goal in life is still to know Christ? He knew Christ’s salvation, but wanted to know Him even more as His Lord. It was not that Paul had a one-time meeting with Jesus that he looked back on all the time. He had a desire for a greater and greater relationship with Jesus. He wanted to know Jesus more and more. That was his primary goal in life, above everything else. For the sake of Christ…. Knowing Christ….gain Christ….be found in him. These show Paul’s purpose and goal in life was to know Christ and his desire to be united with Christ. Philippians 3:10-12 “know” is to “know by experience” Paul already knew Jesus as savior, but wanted to know him more intimately as Lord. “Power of his resurrection” – the power that brought Christ back from the dead now operates in believers. This is the “power” to overcome resistance – maybe resistance in us and the world. “Fellowship of His sufferings” – suffering for the sake of righteousness and God’s purpose. “Becoming like him” – As Christ died for sin, so a believer has died to sin. We should exhibit that cutting off from our former sinful ways by daily being set apart from sin and living a new life by means of Christ’s power in us. Knowing Jesus Christ was Paul’s primary goal in life. It was not enough to look back at an event in his life. He wanted to progressively, continually know Jesus more, be united with Him more, and follow Him more intimately. Let’s pray for Greater desire for the Lord. Greater obedience to the Lord.