Paul Said, "This Is What I Want!”

MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS OK

(PowerPoints used with this message are available at no charge. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com and request PP #434.)

TEXT: Philippians 3:7-11

Have you ever experienced an embarrassing memory loss? A number of times people have come up to me & asked, "Do you remember me?" I look at their faces & I know I have met them, but at that moment I just can't remember their names.

There have been times, too, when I was preaching along & forgot what I was going to say next. At times like that you sometimes grope for words until your memory comes back & you remember what you intended to say.

ILL. The story is told about a young preacher who went to hear an old & well known preacher, thinking that maybe he could pick up a few pointers on preaching.

As he listened, in his sermon the old preacher made this amazing statement. "Some of the most meaningful moments of my life were spent in the arms of another man's wife."

Now instantly the old preacher had the attention of the entire congregation. Everybody was now listening attentively, & the young preacher thought, "Boy, that is really an attention getter!"

The old preacher repeated it to make sure everybody got it. He said, "Some of the most meaningful moments of my life were spent in the arms of another man's wife." Then he went on to explain the woman he was talking about was his father's wife, in other words, his mother.

The young preacher thought, "That was great! I’m going to use that in my sermon next Sunday." So the next week he was preaching along & made the same statement. "Some of the most meaningful moments of my life were spent in the arms of another man's wife."

And it worked for him, too. I mean everybody perked-up & listened. He wasn't used to having that kind of attention. So, basking in their undivided attention, he decided to say it again with a little more flare.

Gesturing & emphasizing the words he repeated, "Some of the most meaningful moments of my life were spent in the arms of another man's wife." And then his mind went blank.

He stumbled around in his words for a few moments, & then said, "For the life of me I can't remember whose wife she was."

In Philippians 3:7-11 the apostle Paul wrote, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

“I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and 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 and is by faith.

”I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

As I’m reading those words I can just picture Paul pausing in the midst of his writing. He leans back in his chair & begins to remember why he became a Christian, & what has happened since that day.

Once he was looked upon as a man of great influence among the Jews, a member of the ruling aristocracy with great wealth & fame available to him. Soldiers & servants followed him wherever he went.

But Paul had given all of that up to follow a man known as a carpenter, a man who didn't own anything except the clothes He wore.

And when asked why, Paul says, "I looked at all I once had & decided it was rubbish." Paul had come to realize that if you have all the things of the world, but you don't know Christ, you are poor indeed.

But if you have Christ, you are rich indeed. Paul was convinced that Jesus is the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in a field. He is worth selling everything you have in order to have Him. And that is a message we need to hear today.

I. I WANT TO KNOW CHRIST...

Paul said, "You want to know why I became a Christian? You want to know why I follow Jesus? It is because I looked at all the things that the world desires, & "I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ." And in vs. 10 he says, "I want to know Christ." The only thing that really counts is Christ.

ILL. Two people get married. They love each other as they’ve never loved anyone else, & then they begin to understand more about God's love for us.