Joy can only be found in Jesus – Sunday, November 22nd
Opener:
Well Good morning everyone! So nice to see everyone here this morning! We are just so thrilled to be having service and enjoying God’s Presence here this morning.
This morning, the title of our message is “Joy can only be found in Jesus”. So let me ask you a question. Have you ever tried to accomplish something that seemed impossible at the time? I can remember when I was a kid. I really like to play football, and believe it or not I was super skinny at the time and was not able to play on the team because I would have gotten squashed. I can remember working so hard to gain weight. I would take weight gainers, eat lots of ice cream. In fact, I would eat like a 5 gallon pail of ice cream by myself. My mom must have set aside a portion of her budget just for me to eat mint chip ice cream. No matter what I tried, it seemed like I could never gain weight and my efforts were futile. I saw myself getting frustrated because I could not gain weight to play on the football team. Eventually I gave up trying to gain weight and then when I got older, I started to gain weight and then wanted the weight off. So funny how that works!
In our text this morning, the apostle Paul warns believers of going back to the ways of the Old Testament laws. Paul draws on his life experiences in an effort to get these new converts to focus on the New Covenant.
Being a Christian during the Apostle Paul’s time was not easy. In fact, it was very difficult and for many of these converts, it cost them everything that they had. Even for the Apostle Paul, we will see in our text this morning that the price was high. Yet, in the middle of this difficulty, Paul found a secret, he found a way that enabled him to be joyful through it all.
This morning out text may be found in Philippians 3:7-11 - NKJV 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
I. Considering what is important
A. Priorities
a. The Apostle Paul was able to evaluate his life and determine what was important to him.
b. Let me say this: When we do not have our priorities aligned with God, it can drain out the life and joy in the Lord.
c. We tend to lose joy especially when we are chasing things in life that are not of eternal significance.
d. We have been created to seek God and when we seek things other than God, deep down inside of us we realize that we are chasing the wind which causes us to feel empty inside.
e. King Solomon faced this in his life. He had everything anyone could ever want, wealth, prestige, power, and brains, yet deep down inside he contemplated the purpose of it all. He struggled with finding a purpose in the midst of having all that.
B. Confidence in who we are
a. The Apostle Paul put a lot of confidence in being a religious leader: a Pharisee.
b. Part of his identity was wrapped up in his job. Paul was born in the tribe of Benjamin, studied the law vigorously, was trained by top Pharisees at the time.
c. Paul was confident in his training and upbringing.
d. Let me say this, when our priorities are not in alignment with God, we will put confidence in things that we should not.
e. Paul seemingly had it all. He had a powerful position and all the prestige that came with that position, yet that would all change when he met Jesus!
f. After Paul met Jesus, he re-evaluated his life goals and ministry.
C. Balance sheet
a. Let’s take a closer look at our text in Philippians 3 verses 7 &8 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
b. Paul was able to look at his life and assess his accomplishments prior to knowing Jesus.
c. Paul suggests that not only were all those past achievements meaningless, he saw them as hindrances in his walk with the Lord now!
d. No matter what we have achieved in the past, knowing Christ in a personal way is better than all of that.
e. Knowing Jesus is and should be more important to us than anything! Amen!
II. Putting Jesus at the center
A. Next step
a. After we have evaluated our lives to determine what is important, we need to take the step of faith and place Jesus at the center.
b. So many Christians lack joy in their life because they look at church attendance as a chore.
c. Coming to church is not a chore, but is a blessing. It is an opportunity to get closer to the love of our life!
B. Works
a. Paul previously to knowing Christ, placed works of the law as marks of righteousness.
b. As a teacher, a Pharisee, Paul felt like observing the works of the law would buy him a ticket to heaven.
c. The false teachers at the time of Paul’s writing of this letter was trying to convince the people that they needed to go back to the old ways in order to achieve the status of being righteous before God.
C. Faith in Christ
a. Paul addresses this teaching there in verse 9 of our text which says: 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
b. Paul does not mince his words here at all. He clearly is teaching these early disciples that it is not about our own righteous acts.
c. It is not about trying to be good enough!
D. Trust in self
a. Really, in a lot of ways, these false teachers were trying to get the people to trust in themselves.
b. They were proposing that if the people do enough good deeds, that they would be considered a good person and therefore worthy of earning eternal life.
c. Where is your trust here today? Is it rooted in your church attendance record, or how much you give, or how much you read your bible?
d. We can all agree that these are all really good things to do! But you are not saved because of them!
e. The religious leaders at the time of Jesus, Knew a lot about God, they could quote the scriptures forward and backwards.
f. Yet they were so far from God, Why? Because salvation is not something that we can earn, it is a free gift.
E. Receive this free gift
a. If I were to offer you a gift here this morning, what would you have to do to receive it?
b. Now what if I offered you a gift but then said you have to work and earn that gift?
c. Which gift would you appreciate more? The one you were given freely or the one you had to earn?
d. When faith becomes more about ourselves than others then our faith becomes dull and empty.
e. There is no joy in that. When reading the bible and praying becomes more of something we do just to mark off that from a checklist, then joy evades us.
f. Once you put Jesus at the center of your faith, it will change your approach to life and ministry.
III. Closer than ever before
A. Make Jesus priority
a. As we look at the last part of our text here this morning, something really jumps out to me.
b. Let’s take another look at Philippians 3 verses 10 and 11 which says: 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
c. Here the apostle Paul uses the phrase “to know Him”.
d. Paul was open and wanting to experience more of Jesus in his life.
e. He wanted to develop a closer relationship with Jesus.
B. Intimate relationship
a. When I met my wife, Charity, we had a mutual friend named Vonvilay. I met Von while going to college in a class. Von and I quickly developed a friendship.
b. As time went on, I remember Von introducing me to one of her friends Charity.
c. Charity, when I met her, she shared with me some basic information about herself some of her likes and dislikes.
d. After I got to really get to know Charity, and our friendship blossomed into a courtship. I got to know her on a deeper level when we got married and our relationship went even deeper.
C. Closer
a. As we walk closer to Jesus, we have a more intimate relationship with Him.
b. Like any relationship, the more time and effort we spend on that relationship the better and closer we will become.
c. I love what Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV- 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
d. The book of Psalm 145:18NKJV18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.
e. James the half brother of Jesus further teaches us that when we draw near to God, He will draw near to us.
Closing:
As we close here this morning, we can be drawn to the fact that we can have unspeakable Joy in our lives. Our lives can feel and be complete when we take a look at what are priorities are. When we make Jesus our priority, when we make Him the reason why we live and breathe, we will experience a new found faith and freedom in the Lord. As the worship team plays this morning, maybe you have lost your joy, maybe you are in a rough place in your life right now. I would like to invite you up front cause, we are going to pray for you here this morning.
