All The Wrong Places Series

ILLUSTRATION – Doing the brakes on my daughter’s car…lost the lug nut key. After searching for DAYS in the garage, I eventually found it at the end of the driveway 100 yards away…

I was looking in all the wrong places. And this illustration is the picture I want to paint this morning of our quest for joy. So, take your Bible and turn with me to Philippians 3 for a message titled “All the Wrong Places.”

Most of the methods that would seem to produce joy in a person’s heart are actually fool’s gold. The things that promise us joy look like real sources of it. They look just like the real thing. However, after fully mining the source of them we sadly discover none of the glitter is actually gold. We sadly discover that despite investing a lot of time and passion into certain endeavors, those endeavors do not produce the joy that our heart is searching for. And I believe the church is often a promoter of these sources of fool’s gold so today will give a chance to set the record straight.

Philippians 3:1-11

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. 2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day (a Jewish baby boy was always circumcised on the 8th day – not the 7th and not the 9th), of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin (Belonging to the tribe of Benjamin was a heritage that was greatly esteemed by the Jews. Israel’s first king, Saul, had come from this tribe and it was only one of two tribes that, in the Old Testament, returned to Israel from exile), a Hebrew of Hebrews (this refers to Paul’s nationality); as to the law, a Pharisee (a Pharisee not only kept the written law of Moses but also kept the strict ORAL laws that had been passed down from generation to generation); 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church (he was ridding the world of the heretics and blasphemers that were plaguing the first-century Jewish culture); as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, 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— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

In Philippians chapter 3, we see two common places that people search for joy only to come up short. But before we get into these verses, I want to note something that happens at this point in the book of Philippians. As we have gone through the first two chapters, we find Paul coming across as a warm and affection spiritual father. Remember back in chapter one how Paul greeted the church?

Philippians 1:7-8

For it is right for me to think this about all of you, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel all of you became partners together with me in the grace of God. For God is my witness that I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Is it just me or do you listen to those two verses give you the warm fuzzies? But beginning in chapter three, Paul’s tone shifts from compassionate father, to stern lecturer. In verse 2 alone, Paul warns “Look out!” (beware) two or three times (depending on translation). This is the voice of a dad that yells from the street for his toddler on his Big Wheels to be careful…not because he had done something wrong but to warn him about something…a car…coming his way. And Paul is intensely disturbed at the possibility that the Philippians would be led astray. So Paul starts off with an intensity that we have yet to see to this point in the book of Philippians because he knows that the greatest joy, the joy of our salvation, is at stake.