Living Successfully In Christ

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• Now that we are a few weeks away from the New Year, I was wondering how many of you made New Year’s resolutions?

• Raise your hands please.

• Now, 17 days into 2010, how many of you are still staying with it? 

• It seems like people are not too successful in keep their New Year’s resolutions.

• I wonder why so many people fail in keeping their newfound resolutions?

• I think the struggles we have in keeping our resolutions are very similar to our struggles in living successfully in Christ.

• I think many of us would like to have a better devotional life, a better prayer life, and maybe a better study life.

• I do not know of too many Christian’s who would not like to have an overall stronger faith in Christ.

• Today as we examine Philippians 3:4-14 together, I would like to suggest four things we can work on that will help us to living more successfully in Christ. By the way the beauty of these principles is they will help you to be able to live successfully in all areas of your life.

• Let us begin with verse 4-8.

• In the first couple of verses of the chapter Paul is telling the folks that there will be people who will come in and try to steal their joy. Paul is reminding us what is really important in life.

• SLIDE #2 AND SLIDE #3

• Philippians 3:4-8(ESV) 4though 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: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless. 7But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8Indeed, 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

• Let us begin by seeing that to live successfully in Christ we need to:

SERMON

• SLIDE #4

I. Seek the right perspective on life. (4-8)

• Many times failures in our walk can be attributed to not having the right perspective on life.

• We really do not understand what life is all about.

• When we struggle with things as small as New Year’s resolutions, not having the right perspective on things can keep us from being successful.

• For instance in life we many times forsake the future for the now. That cake will taste good now, but what about what it will do to us over time.

• In our relationship with Jesus, without the right perspective on life, our faith will be difficult to develop because everything else will be seemingly more important.

• The question then comes, “How can we develop the right perspective on life? Let us examine three things.

• SLIDE #5

1. Seek the real definition of success. (4-6)

• How do you define success? Do you measure it in dollars? Do you measure it in material things? In verses 4-6 Paul recounts his life.

• By the standards of the day, he was quiet successful. He most likely had money, he was respected as a Pharisee, and he was from a good blood line.

• Paul was someone whom others envied; he was a person only others could dream of being.

• If the passage stopped at verse six, he is looking pretty good.

• What about you? How are you defining success?

• When I coached softball, one way we could define success was by our record.

• The record and the scoreboard was not the only thing we looked at.

• In life it is not always that easy. What kind of price do you have to pay in order to achieve your “success”? Are you paying for it with your family, your faith?

• In verse 4 Paul said he could have had confidence in the flesh because of his “worldly” success.

• When Paul met Jesus, his definition of success changed. Paul realized the futility of the way his life was going.

• There was something more to life than what he first believed.

• The next thing we need to do in order to seek the right perspective in life is…

• SLIDE #6

2. Seek what is really important in life. (7)

• As Paul reflected on his life, he came to realize what he thought was important, really was not.