Courage To Sacrifice Series

Courage to Sacrifice

Philippians 3:1-11

November 19, 2023

Have you ever known anyone who seemed to have it all, they were on the fast track to success. It seemed like their star power was increasing more and more. When someone looked at them, they whispered to others . . . “they’re going to go far! Wow, look at their wisdom, they’re going to be president of the company.”

We’ve heard about missionaries, people who believed they were called by God to give up what we might call their normal lives to serve God in a foreign country. They gave up their American way of living for something many of us would commend them for, but would never dream of doing.

I mean, I don’t like bugs and insects and to go to the far reaches of Africa or Central America isn’t really appetizing. You know what I mean?

So, when we think about God calling us to do something out of what we believe is our comfort zone, we often balk at it. We’re kind of like ----

video of dog

that dog who’s about to have his bone taken away too soon. Not that I’m saying we’re dogs, but we struggle to give them up.

The bone represents our pride, anger, jealousy, money, bitterness, our independence, or control. That’s the bone and we don’t want to give it up, and God goes, “Drop it, drop it.”

Sometimes we equate that call from God as a sacrifice. I guess I need to sacrifice to give more money, to give more time, to serve more.

This series has been about having the courage to sacrifice. And sacrifice is not always easy! Because, you see, we often equate sacrifice with losing something.

So, what happens when Jesus gets ahold of us?

We’re in our final week of looking at sacrificing for Jesus. Today, we’re looking at Philippians 3 and Paul is one of those great examples of someone who had it all. He was on the fast track to success, yet he gave it all up for Jesus. We’re going to look at Philippians 3 in sections. Let’s look at Philippians 3:2, as Paul comes out swinging - - - -

2SLIDE Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

Paul was talking to his own people. He’s talking to the Jewish Christians. He’s talking to the legalists. And he’s not holding back his thoughts about them.

Paul refers to them as dogs, now it’s not a cute little dog we might want to have as a pet. Dogs were not endeared family members for Jews. The Jews viewed dogs as unclean scavengers and evil. They referred to Gentiles as dogs, because they were considered unclean.

So, Paul is speaking with lots of irony, maybe a bit of sarcasm as well. Paul’s stating that the Judaizers, not the Gentiles deserve that label. Paul’s irony continues as he labels those who trust in good works of the law as evildoers and those who mutilate the flesh.

It’s a play on words as he’s talking about circumcision. The Judaizers’ supposed badge of pride turns out to be the sign of their destruction.

Paul’s not so much angry, as he is concerned for the misleading by the Jewish legalist Christians. He wants them to hold onto what is at the heart of the faith in Jesus.

In Paul’s way of looking at the faith, if you cut this out, if you dilute the faith, if you’re willing to compromise the faith, then you’ve lost the heart of the faith we are to have in Jesus. So this is worth fighting for, Paul says.

He continues in verse 3, stating - - - -

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 —

Now Paul explains that those who have accepted Jesus on the basis of faith, not by works or the law are the real circumcision. They are those people who worship by the Spirit of God. They glorify Jesus and don’t put confidence in good works.

Their hearts are changed! In fact, their lives have been changed because of their faith in Jesus.

We’ve all met people who seek to follow all the rules, which on the surface isn’t bad, but sometimes you need to look at what’s the spirit of the law. What’s the real intent, the deeper value of who God is calling us to be. That’s what we’re to be doing. So, Paul is pretty blunt in his irony and sarcasm. We need to be people of faith, not the law.

Now, Paul explains all that he had, in fact, his point in what he’s about to say is not to puff himself up, but to show how he had the pedigree of the most righteous of the Jews. He wrote - -