I can't begin to express how excited I am to see this morning, especially after the potential wild night that we experienced last night. There's the saying, like, listen, if you don't like the weather today in Georgia, just wait till tomorrow and especially the rest of this week. In fact, I heard one guy say that this cold air that's coming Wednesday, Crosby is going to be in a world of hurt on Wednesday because supposedly it's going to drop 50 millibars of pressure by Wednesday, which means it's the equivalent of being 30ft underwater. So if you have, for example, like, metal plates in your neck, if you know anybody that has a metal plate in their neck, they're going to hurt. If you've had some knee replacements, Wednesday may not be a good day.

Right.

I'm just glad to be here. There's a lot of other places we could be right now, but I am so glad we're right here, and I'm glad you're here, because I think I'm going to share something with you today that could challenge where you sit right now. It could challenge the way you think about things. In fact, I want you to think right now about something in your life, maybe in the past or maybe in the present that you have held so close and so valuable that later in life you realize, looking back at it, that you're like, you know what? That wasn't as big a deal.

I thought it was. I remember each time in my life that I've graduated school and I've graduated four times from school. I'd go back right now, but my girls are breaking me.

We're putting them through school. So when they're all done and Micah goes through school, I'm going to go back to school, and I'll be 85, but I will go back again. But. But I remember, like, being in the midst of studying, especially that last degree. Like, I had worked for years and years and years, and it consumed my time, my effort, my thinking.

I mean, everything was built around working on that degree. Or maybe in times past, there was that time where my job or my ministry, like, consumed my time, my effort, my focus. Or maybe it was relationships, or maybe it was I was on a team and I was striving for that trophy. Only later to look back and think, you know what? That thing wasn't as big deal.

Big a deal as I thought it was. The truth is, guys, is there's a lot of things in our life that are not as big a deal as we think they are, but we Let them define us. You see, whatever is in your life that drives the decisions you make and the course you take, those things are what are most valuable to you. But I'm telling you that there's something more valuable than those things. Those trophies, those titles.

Whether you have a prefix or a suffix on your name, whether you have trophies galore, whether your wall is covered with family pictures, there's something even more valuable than that. Y'all know a movie buff. And like right now, I'm just really disappointed. I can't tell you that in the last three years I've seen a movie worth watching again. The writing is just horrible.

If Hollywood's listening in, they can censor that all they want. It's just not good. But you go back a few years ago and y'all know I love Count of Monte Cristo. That's one of my favorite stories, favorite movies. But probably in that top 10 is the movie Cars, the animated movie.

Now, a lot of you haven't watched it. I knew my college kids would show up. I'm telling you, to me, it's one of the best stories ever. You've got this arrogant, young, hotshot, highly talented young race car driver. Can we put it in that language?

And his only ambition is to win the championship, the Piston cup, not that it is a piston out of a car. And that's the only thing he wants to do. And so the movie opens and he ends up with a three way in a three way tie. Now, some of you older folks will remember Richard Petty, number 43, STP. That's who the King was modeled after.

In fact, it's Richard Petty doing his voice. So those of you young ones that just went, yeah, amen, you don't even know who Richard Petty is. You need to go get a cowboy hat and wear it and you'll know what I'm talking about. But he ends up, and his goal is to get to California and to win the Piston cup to. So he can schmooze Dinoco.

Dinoco is this company that if he can get them to sponsor, oh, he's arrived. He'll have the name, he'll have the trophy, he'll have the notoriety, he'll have everything. He will have arrived. But then tragedy hits. He gets separated and he gets lost and he freaks out and he's running and speeding through this little town called Radiator Springs.

And in the midst of his freaking out, he misses up the road and it lands him in front of this old rusty, crusty, grouchy car named Doc Hudson. And Doc's the town judge. And he sentences him to fix the road. Now, this shiny, beautiful race car, who thinks of himself better than everybody else is now towing Bessie. Bessie was the road paving machine.

And he's fixing the road beneath him, beneath who he is, beneath where he was. Do they not know who he is? How many of you ever walked in a place and somebody be like, do you know? Do you know who I am? Sometimes in traffic, you think you know who you are.

Everybody needs to get out of your way and obey your traffic laws. But there's this scene that you can see the picture up on the screen. Some of you have a cup on your desk that's full of pencils like this. Usually it's the cup you don't drink out of. I've got one on my desk at home that I've got pens and pencils and markers and stuff in it.

But McQueen, as he's looking for Doc. Now, Doc, he didn't take him serious. The whole tension builds as there's this conflict between Doc and McQueen. Because McQueen, he knows he's got life figured out. He knows where he's going.

But Doc has been there and done that. He just doesn't know it yet. And he gets lost in his shop. And he looks up on this shelf. It wasn't glistening, it wasn't shining, it wasn't put there to be displayed.

But he sees the shape of the very thing that he's after. The Piston Cup. And engraved on the front of it was the fabulous Hudson Hornet, 1951. But wait, there's more. Because he looks beneath the table and there's another one, and then there's another one.

Not only is there one Piston cup, there's three Piston Cups. And all of a sudden, that crusty old car who is in his way of getting to California, he's done what McQueen wants to do, and his story changes. But still, in his arrogance and his pride, his eyes set on California, he goes. Doc rolls up and asks him what he's doing in there. He's oh.

Oh, you're the Fabulous Hudson. Oh, we gotta talk. He said, we've already tried that. You gotta tell me your tricks. Well, I've already tried that, too.

You see, before, he wasn't to be taken serious because he didn't have a title, he didn't have notoriety, he wasn't popular. And McQueen judged him and said, well, you don't have anything to offer. And he says, look at those cups. He says, you look at them. All I see is A bunch empty cups.

Because after that third season, Doc had a wreck and he could no longer race. And all those things that was pushing him to hold him on that pedestal came crumbling down. And I think in the story, Doc counted the cost and he deemed it wasn't worth it. Cameron Diaz left Hollywood years ago. Stop acting.

And she said, I left for 11 years to reclaim my life. Because she realized that none of the offers, none of the notoriety, none of the popularity met the need that she had in her life. In fact, some of you are more familiar with Kirk Cameron. Kirk Cameron kind of went through the same thing as a 17 year old kid on Growing Pains. What we don't know is behind the scenes they were writing this stuff and sliding it across the desk.

And because of his convictions, he was like, no, I'm not saying that and I'm not doing that. And so those writers would have to go back to the table and rewrite the script for 11 to 12 different people. Because he said no on something and they started to make fun of him and to mock him and to push him away and not give him opportunity. And he says about that rejection, he says, when in actuality what I was experiencing was nothing more than a 17 year old kid finding something that was worth more than all the celebrity in the world and wanting his life to be a living thank you to the God who saved him from hell and adopted him into his own family. He counted the cost.

I remember counting the cost. I was at Georgia Tech in 1995 in Daniel's lion den. Well, I called it Hefner Hall. And I had one of those moments where I'm like, what in the world am I doing here? Things weren't working out, things weren't panning out.

You know, I just got saved before I got down there, like, what am I doing here? And in that moment I felt like the Lord said, well, I know what you're doing there. You're trying to escape your past, you're trying to exceed your raising. You're trying to get a job where you can have money and then you'll be secure. You'll have arrived, you'll have the degree, you'll have the job, you'll have the title.

And all of those things, though they may be expressions of what we do, are not who we are. This morning, ladies and gentlemen, you are who you are in Christ. And if you don't know Christ, you really have no identity. Up to this point, Paul's been arguing two different things. He's argued that Christ exhibited the greatest example of sacrifice for others and in our lives.

If we want to experience the abundance of the Christian faith, faith filled life, then we need to mimic exactly what he's doing. For the benefit of the Gospel. And the means to get there is this little word called submission. Say submission. See, I mean we say it, but do we really understand and fully grasp what the word submit means?

It means to literally put yourself beneath someone else. How many of us are like Lightning McQueen and we don't think that there's anything that should be beneath us. I'm serious. If you could look at every decision and every reaction you have in the day, most of those are laced with a pride and an arrogance because you really do think of yourself better than other people. You see, what I'm offering you today is a way that you can find humility in your life.

And the way you find humility in your life is through submission. Submission to Christ. Submission to the Gospel. Now last week we left off in chapter two, verse 18, let me remind you what we said in there, that God was working in you what he had worked in you, to work out of you his will. And that ability to do that, he commanded us to not grumble, complain, to be blameless, innocent, to.

To be a light in the world, to be turned on like a switch and to hold fast the word of truth. And in this, rejoice together. Well then for the rest of chapter two, he gives two examples. Two examples, Two key examples of what it looks like to think of others better than themselves. The first one was Timothy, his son in the faith.

I mean if he's his son in his faith, who better to represent Paul to a church than the man who's been tutored, who's been mentored by Paul himself. But Timothy's with Paul. Why? Because Paul had needs and Timothy was ministering to him. But he said, I'm confident that he will be genuinely concerned about you.

He says that he would not be seeking after his own like those other guys. But his connection gave Paul confidence that when he sent Timothy to them, that would be like he was there himself.

He was self sacrificial. You know why? Because Timothy, he started counting the cost, his old life, putting that away and picking up this new life. Well, the next example that he gives is a man by the name of Apaphroditus. Bleh.

This is why no one's named Epaphroditus today. Because number one, if you're still taking scantron tests at school, it would take you five hours to bubble in Epaphroditus. But here, listen to this. Epaphroditus loved the Philippians as much as Paul loved the Philippians to the point that he became sick serving Jesus. Wait a minute.

You're like, well, that sounds really weird. How many of you have ever worked yourself to be sick? You're not taking care of yourself. You're staying up too late. You're just going and going and going and going and going and going.

And it takes. It comes with a price. And you get sick as a result of running too much. Well, that's exactly what Epaphras did. And not only was he almost.

It almost killed him, as we find out in the text. But here's the other problem. It upset him that the Philippians were worried about him.

He thought so much of the Philippian church that he didn't want them to be upset over him.

See, we live in a society that's all me, me, me, me, me, me, me. But to take on this mindset of Christ means to start thinking you, you, you, you, you. And these two examples. Listen to these two last verses. He says when he comes, he sent this letter, most likely with Epaphroditus.

He says, when he comes, receive him with all joy. So they had to read half this letter to get to that part. And I kind of wonder if they stopped and said, epaphroditus, man, we're so glad you're here. You kind of wonder if they had to stop reading the letter because there might have been some tears shed. You kind of have to wonder what happened in the room as he got to that part of the letter that they were like, we had no idea that you got sick because you were trying so hard to push the gospel forward.

Have any of us suffered to the point of shedding blood? Have any of us suffered to the point of our life being in the line? And that's the kind of love Jesus had. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. And here's two examples.

Well, actually, there's a third example, and it's Paul himself. And what we're going to find out is Paul is finally going to identify who it was that is preaching out of strife and envy. Theologians call them Judaizers. Of course, they didn't call themselves Judaizers. It's a fancy word that basically says this.

They were Jews who became believers, but they thought their lot in life was to tell everybody else, a, okay, you're saved, but you need to start keeping the law. In fact, one Definition says it like this. Those who were in the early church who sought to compel Gentile believers to adhere to Jewish ceremonial requirements, and the primary means was for men to be circumcised. Paul dealt directly with that idea at least five different times in five different letters. The whole Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 was called together to silence the Jews because they kept preaching this Jesus.

Plus, if you study the Bible and you take note, the whole reason that the Roman Empire began to persecute Christians is because the Jews persecuted them first. Every time Paul turned around every town that he went into, who was it that got mad? First it was the Jews. Now, if you are a Jewish Christian and you want to keep Mama and Daddy happy, now listen to me. You want to keep Mama and Daddy happy.

So I'm going to keep doing those things that are actually trapping me in a box because I'm trying to please a man or a woman. You and I today are not experiencing the full freedom of Christianity because we're still too busy trying to please men and not God. Paul wrote in Galatians 1, 8, 10, where he says, you've deserted the Gospel and you're taking on this whole idea that the Judaizers are preaching. And you've deserted what I preach to you, which is Christ alone. That, ladies and gentlemen, you bring nothing to the table.

I don't care if you have Dr. In front of your name. I don't care if your 501k blows everyone else out of the water. I don't care what your family heritage is. I don't care if you grew up in Tacoa or Clarksville or Timbuktu.

I don't care about any of those things. You bring nothing to the table regarding your goodness before God, and none of those things will save you. And if they won't save you, then why are you putting your stock in those things? Why are you letting those be the things that guide and drive your life? Now I know every one of us.

Tomorrow we're going to get up and we're going to go to work. Why? Because you want to eat. I like to eat, and you like to eat. But I'm not going to let my job define me.

My job should be an extension of me. If somebody sees the word doctor in front of my name, it shouldn't be, because that defines me. It's just an extension of something that I did. And when I began to count the cost. There are things in this world so much better and more valuable than anything that I've accomplished that I've done or where I've been.

If we want to find that freedom, then like Paul, and what we're going to discover in this passage is I need to count the cost and consider everything a loss for knowing Jesus. So would y'all stand with me as we read. In fact, what I want to do, just for time's sake, I just want to read one verse. Just want me to read one verse. I want to read verse seven because it's kind of the crescendo of this paragraph from verses 1 through 11.

And it says this. But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Father, as we let you purge us today, as you let us examine our own lives, we believe that we need to own our faith. We believe that we are disciples of Jesus. And because of that, you are calling us to follow you.

I can't follow you, Lord, as long as I hold on to my old successes and my titles and I let that define me. I need the freedom to step into this new life and be defined only by Jesus Christ. Lord, we love you. In Jesus name, Amen. So the first point that I want to give you today, as we jump right in, we'll back up to verse number one.

Says this, the contrast. This is a contrast, because again, he's about to identify these Judaizers. These people who were preaching out of strife and envy. Remember, they were envious of Paul. Why would they be envious of Paul?

Because their agenda was to preach Jesus plus and Paul was preaching something different. But they were believing Paul. They were trying trusting Paul. They were following Paul's leadership and they wanted them to follow them. Well, how better to do that than if they would buy into being circumcised or following the festivals and the feasts and making the treks to Jerusalem, all those things that the law required.

But Paul was saying, no, Jesus fulfilled the law. No one in this room brings anything to the table in regard to righteousness in the sight of God. When Jesus died on the cross, he bore the wrath of God that we deserve because we broke the covenants, because we broke the law, because we didn't keep his prerequisites. And that's what Jesus did for you and for me. He didn't take a almost halfway good stuff and make it better.

No, he took what we did and he wiped it completely out. And as a gift, he gives to us the righteousness of Christ, that whatever is existing in you that is good is not good in your flesh.

But what God has deposited in you, that remember what we talked about last week, that you're mining out that jewel, that treasure that's coming, it's bubbling forth of your life because of a life you have connected with Christ. So this contrast says this. We lose joy when we focus too much on ourselves. That is a formula. When you take your eyes off Jesus and keep them on yourself, you will lose joy every time.

Now, what am I talking about though? Does that mean I don't need to be concerned for myself? That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about when we say, all right, well, I'll arrive if I get that promotion. I'll arrive if I get that degree, I'll arrive if I get the starting position on that team, I'll arrive if I become senior class president, I'll arrive if that certain person likes me back.

You with me. I'll arrive if that group takes me in. We're craving so much, this connection. I believe there's only one or two reasons why we are people pleasers. One reason is so that people will accept us.

I need identity. And so if this group will take me in, then that gives me identity. But the other one is so I can rule over people, that I can manipulate them. That if I have an idea like you look on social media, if somebody gets on there and they start spouting some idea I'm getting, I turn 50. So I turn on.

If I look on Facebook, the first ad I always get is, is the chair workout for 50 year olds. Has anybody tried it? I'm just. You just proved my point. There's this dude on there that looks like Hulk hogan in an 85 year old body and he's doing presses on a chair and I'm going like seven minutes a day, I can look like that.

No, you cannot look like that. But they're self appointed experts and here's, here's how they get their affirmation. As soon as you click that share or that, like, hey, young people, that's exactly where you live. You put that stuff on Facebook and you want that. Like you want that share, you want all of those things because it gives you something that dopamine releases in your mind as you look and go, oh man, 20 people liked my post.

That post does not define who you are. Jesus Christ does. In fact, what does he say? It's his first command in this text. He says, finally, my brothers rejoice.

But he gives it, he qualifies it. Remember we said that joy was grace Recognized. Well, here it is. We rejoice where. What does your Bible say?

In the Lord? That preposition means you are in it. It's like a barrel. You're going over the Niagara Falls, you're in the barrel, you are rejoicing in the Lord. That's where you are.

You can't experience this kind of rejoicing unless you are in Christ. Folks, the Christian life is not a doorway that we jump in and out of to just get the goods when we need the goods. I need to place myself in Christ. All of the things around my life being defined by Christ. If I'm ever going to experience the fullness of what Christ has for my life.

He says to write these things to you, it's not trouble. To me it's a safeguard or a fail safe for you. Write what things? What things is he writing? Well, he's about to say it.

Look at verse two. Beware of the dogs. This is a degrading, belittling term, but here's the irony. These Judaizers were telling them to be circumcised so they could be purified. But he just called them the very thing that was a source of impurity, a dog.

In fact, in some ways this word is used to describe a man with impure thoughts and intentions. That lying dog, that dog of a man. We've used that same phrase. But then he says, beware of the evil workers and beware of the false circumcision. When you compare this back to 2, 13 these evil workers are working out evil stuff.

When he's saying, but for you, you're working out God's will and his desire in your life, and that is contrary to evil. And he says, beware of the false circumcision, which is mutilation. He's saying basically, if you yield and you give into this, you are basically mutilating your body. When you think of the word mutilate, I think about maybe somebody who cuts their ear off or does something really, I mean, like to just scratch and cut up yourself. I mean, you don't want to mutilate yourself.

And he's saying these are mutilators. In Galatians, chapter six, in fact, five he goes as far to say, I wish talking about the Judaizers, that those who are troubling you would mutilate themselves. That's a strong statement. They're so concerned about cutting you. I wish they'd cut themselves.

And he says, beware, beware, beware. Watch out, watch out, watch out. Paul's already instructed them on this before, and he's having to bring it up again. These men that are preaching to you out of strife and envy, that are preaching something contrary to you are trying to put on you a load that you cannot bear. The Bible is very clear that your righteousness is what, filthy garments.

And that's exactly. They were trying to create this Jesus plus.

Every culture that I've been in where Christianity came in and waned, they always have a little bit of Jesus plus, don't they? Some of the South American countries I've been in, especially those that may have had some just weird practices. We call it judu. It's like voodoo plus Jesus, what kind of judo do you have in your life? Like, how are you succumbing to this and allowing culture to let your value be defined by your titles, by your accomplishments, by your notoriety, by your popularity?

Paul says this. He says, we are the true circumcision. Not this circumcision they're talking about. He's referring to the one that Paul writes about in Romans 2:25, 29. You want to write that down?

Romans 2:25, 29, go back and read it. But 28 says, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he who is a Jew is one who is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart, not the spirit, not by the letter. And his praise is not from men, but from God.

So can I ask you, where do you get your value?

Where do you get your value? Because if you're getting your value from what other men say about you, even your own family, you'll never find freedom you have in Christ. Because you're always striving to please someone else, to get the affirmation, to get the attaboy, to get the pat on your back. And the sooner you learn to die to that, the quicker you'll be able to live. What voices are in your life that are driving you to think that just because of what you have accomplished gives you value?

Are you like Doc Hudson, that after that wreck, all those people just said, you know what? I will have no more use for him. Because just as we are looking for people to affirm us, we affirm people. And those systems are dangerous. Come on, let's be real in the church.

What kind of things have we allowed to come into the church over the course of church history? That if you don't look this way, talk this way, act this way, smell this way, you Aren't a Christian. I mean, I drive by, there's a billboard now that says that if you worship on Sunday, you carry the mark of the beast. I guess we're all messed, right?

I don't have the mark of the beast, do you? But if I go to that church and let them and submit to that system, then you know what I've just said. You're right. How many things are you saying your right to to other people that's robbing you of life, the dogs in your life, the evil workers, the false circumcision. That's trying to tell you, well, if you're going to be a Christian, you got to do this.

Plus this, this, this, this, and this. You know what? You couldn't save yourself. You can't sanctify yourself. And the only hope you have is that Jesus saved you from hell.

Thank you, Kirk Cameron. So where do you stand today? Are you putting all of your eggs in the basket, your success? Or do you want to start putting your eggs in the basket of Jesus? Listen, second point.

We gain joy when we consider what we lose for the sake of Christ. That doesn't sound right. It shouldn't be that way. But we gain joy when we consider what we lose for the sake of Christ. And Paul's like, let me tell you something.

Let me paraphrase verses 4 through 7. He said, if you think you're good, I got you beat. Listen, I am the perfect Jew. And he probably was the perfect, perfect Christian. Let's put it in quotation marks.

He was circumcised. Not only was he circumcised, he was circumcised on the eighth day according to the law. Perfect. Just like Jesus was of the nation of Israel. He knew where he came from.

He was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew, of Hebrews. As to the law, he was a Pharisee, a perfect Pharisee. He did his job perfect. As to a zeal, a persecutor of the church. He loved Judaism so much that we know not only was he standing there holding the coats of people that were picking up the rocks and stoning Stephen to death.

You get that, right? This man stood there as one of the first pillars of the church was being killed. And it said he gave hearty approval to it. And after that he went and got warrants and was dragging men and women out of their homes and dragging them to jail because they were believing in Jesus. He was the first persecutor of the church.

He said, I had every bit of it. But then what did he say? I met Jesus. Actually, Jesus met me. I was on my way.

I can imagine if Paul was standing here today. Listen, I was on my way to drag more men and women out of their homes and lead them to their death. And he might even say, I loved it. But then Jesus blinded me on the road, and he called me, and I believed in him. And you know what Paul did that day?

He stood up and he began going, you know, being a Jew is not as important anymore. And my family heritage is not important anymore. And my title as a Pharisee doesn't matter anymore. I'm counting all of those things as a loss. In fact, if you could in your bulletin, write down the five things that you say, these are my biggest accomplishments.

Could you go and then take an X and put through every one of those and count them all a loss for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ, because there is nothing more valuable than that he's counted all things a loss for the surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ Jesus. Remember what he said in 121? Because when he says here, whatever things were a gain to me, he's used that word already in this text. You know where he used it, 121, when he said this? For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Can I be real with you today? When Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. The old things are gone, and new things have come. I'm afraid too many of us will say, no, no, no, no. That's in the past.

It's back there. But I think we're still wearing some of those old clothes. We're still putting on some of those garments. Maybe it's. How many of you have got that undershirt?

I wear undershirts under everything I wear. And I got some undershirts that I would not wear in public if it's to save my life. I'm eeking it out. Like, if it doesn't have holes in it, don't throw it away. I mean, we have to go through Micah's socks every once in a while.

He'll have these big old holes in his sock. I mean, Micah's toe's about this long and sticking out of that. I mean, we're like, so I think it's about time to throw that sock away, don't you think? But too many of us are wearing the old clothes but thinking we're living a new life. Folks, listen to me.

The only way you're going to find the freedom of living in that new life is when you count the cost and you count it as a loss. It's over. It's done. Point number three, we can rejoice when we. How can we rejoice?

I just lost. I'm considering everything in my life a loss. But how can I. How is that because of what I have in Christ? I mean, we really have to think for a moment.

How is it that Jesus and what he's given to me better than anything? It is better than anything. There's nothing else in your life that's going to bring you back to life.

If Jesus tarries his coming, everyone in this room is going to die a physical death. And you know why those disciples put their lives on the line? Because they knew Jesus would raise them from the dead. And I believe that's what Paul had in his mind right now, too. If this ends up in death, if I end up dying in prison, I'll be raised back from the dead and I win.

If I leave this world, I win. If I win somebody to Jesus, I win. If I get to go back to the church, I win. I win. I win.

Paul saw everything as a win because there was all but loss in his life. There was nothing in his life that he was going to let keep him back from being all that God intended for him to be. So I look at verse 7 through 11, and these are realities. Now, I'm about to put eight things on the projector. Can I ask you a favor?

Don't try to write them down. Just listen. Just listen. If you want a copy of those eight things, I will email them to you. Email me and I'll turn around and I'll send you those slides.

I just want you to hear. What. What are the benefits? The realities exist because I have Jesus. Listen to this.

Number one. Jesus is in charge. I'm not responsible.

Did you get that? How many of you have created more turmoil in your life because you take responsibility for things that aren't yours to take responsibility for? Come on. You know you've had two people in your life that are fighting. And if you step in to try to fix that fight, usually you become the punching bag.

He's in control. If he's my Lord, he says more than that. I count all things to be a loss in view of the surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ Jesus. What does that say there? My Lord, folks?

Is Jesus your Lord or is he just your Savior? Do you see Jesus as more than the Jesus of Christmas? And you also See him, the Jesus of Easter? Do you see him more than just a baby who was born in a manger and gives me a reason why I can give people presents? Or do you see him crucified, hanging from a cross, bleeding so that your sins can be taken away?

If that is the defining point of my life, then why would I not live my life for my Lord? Is He. Listen to me. Is he your Lord? I'm not saying.

Are you going to be. No one in this room will ever live a perfect life. Life, if that's what you're striving for. Stop it. Just stop it.

You can't. God's not after your perfection. He's after your effort. When you point your heart to the Lord, you're going to mess up. I was sharing in our prayer group this morning that God is our Father and we're like his child.

And when we pray, it's like scribbles that our kids used to give to us when they were little. Y'all remember the scribbles? How many of you saved your kids scribbles? Do you realize as an adult praying to the Lord that you're like, scribbling on paper? Because on any given day, you're ignorant.

You don't know what you want. You don't know what you need. You're just like that little kid who sits down on the floor and takes that big crayon and goes like. And you bring it to the Lord, you bring it to your Father, and you go, look what I drew for you. And you go, oh, yeah, that looks just like me.

And no, it doesn't. But let me ask you, what did you do with that drawing? Stuck it on your fridge, didn't you?

Don't you ever forget that. God takes your scribbles and sticks it on his fridge.

And I think that's the hangup for a lot of us because we think that we've got to make the drawing perfect for God to think that I'm acceptable. And we're striving to please men because we don't see a God who accepts me, warts and all. Is he my Lord? Second one here says, what I have now is definitely less than what I gained. That what you gain in Jesus is so much more.

In fact, that reference there, mark 14, 17, 31, please correct it. I put the wrong verses in there. I got two of them backwards. But here's the truth. This is the story of the rich young ruler who didn't follow Jesus.

Why? Because he had a lot of wealth, and he couldn't give it up. See, he counted his cost, but he wouldn't move it over into the lost column. He decided this was more important. His status, his success, his riches was more important than knowing Jesus.

There are people that come in these doors every Sunday and go out, and they no more know Jesus than Satan himself because they still haven't counted their gains as loss. Number three there says, I get righteousness that I did not achieve. Thank God that he's not basing it. Because if you read Matthew 5, even our very thoughts discredit us. If I hate my brother, if I lust after a woman, if all those things discredit me, I have no righteousness.

I don't have a little bit of righteousness. I have none. I come to God bankrupt, and he gives to me freely. Wouldn't you rather have that than something you could muster up on your own? Thank God that he lets us sometimes hit a brick wall to remind us that we need Him.

Number four. I gained knowledge of Jesus himself. Remember, Paul said to have this mind that's in Christ Jesus until I really begin to embrace and understand the ugliness of the cross, but at the same time the beauty of life that it creates, then I can't extend that to those who are around me. Second Peter 1:3 says this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

Through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, I get to know. In fact, here he uses that word koinonia again. Fellowship that I get to fellowship in his sufferings. Are y'all ready to sign up for that one? We're gonna.

We're gonna create a registration for you to sign up to suffer for Jesus. I guarantee you we'll have zero registrations. But let me ask you this. Remember we talked a few weeks ago? Sometimes we like to take all of our suffering and think it's suffering for good.

It's not always God uses all of our suffering, but the suffering he's talking about here is for the cause of Christ. Have you really suffered for Jesus? Have you really? Have you shedded blood yet? Have you come to the point of death because you were grieved over serving somebody?

I don't think we have. But maybe the better question is, do I want to? And when I do, I discover a nugget that I cannot explain. There's something beautiful. Remember, Jesus said, it's more blessed to give than receive.

Until you've done it with Pure intentions. You don't know what that's like. Number five. I need to learn. This is discipline.

Listen. It's a discipline. Just like prayer, coming to church, studying your Bible. I need to seek to die daily. Verse 10.

The last part said, being conformed to his death. This is the first aspect of being conformed to his death. I need to learn how to die. I need to learn how to die to my ambition, my lust, my desires, my tendency to want to please people. And I'm telling you guys, it's hard.

I was counseling with a young woman recently and she was talking about, will I ever be good enough? And I'm like, no, you won't be. And she's like, what? I'm like, no, you won't be. You'll never be good enough because you're not good enough now.

But love isn't measured by perfection. If you're here today, you're still resisting coming to the Lord because you think you got to get all your stuff cleaned up. You're never going to get cleaned up. Listen to me. Look at me, folks.

The greatest thing you'll ever do is come down here and lay down your entire life, warts and all, to a God who has proven time and time and time again that he loves you. You're the one that's hung up on your failures and your mistakes. God is inviting it for an opportunity to bathe you in his love. Number six. I must learn how to live in the power of the resurrection.

You know, it took 1.21 gigawatts to get Marty McFly into the past and back to the future. That's a lot of power. There's more power in your life if the Holy Spirit lives inside of you than 1.21 gigawatts. But I think sometimes we look at the Resurrection and this Holy Spirit living in our life is like a triple A battery. You have resurrection power in your life.

You are a king and a queen in the kingdom. You're not Jesus himself, but he has made you royalty because you're sons and daughters of God. We need to step into that and live that way. He's given us that power he promised the disciples in Acts 1:8. You will receive what power?

To be my witnesses. What if it looked like if you considered living that way. Number seven. Resurrection life. Greater than living in sin and death.

Resurrection life is. There's no comparison. You can either choose to go sit and wallow in self pity and sin because you're worried about what everybody else thinks about you, or you can get up out of that muck and mire and stand on the rock of Christ who has promised that if you confess your sins, he will forgive them. But, Lord God, I just messed up again. I don't see how you could love me, but he still loves you.

Don't be led by your heart. Be led by your head and know that the truth of God says He will forgive your sins. If you call on his name and you step into that instead of going over and taking you a mud bath, you'll begin to find more victory the more you stand on the rock than in the muck. He counted everything a loss. You know what that word means in Greek?

It means poop, dung, manure. He looked at all the things he had achieved in life and he said, it's a mess. I'm running a little long. I apologize. Number eight.

I have future confidence that death is not final.

Why don't we live that way then? Death is not my destination. It is not the thing that cuts me off. Because he said in verse 11, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, it almost sounds like he's saying, well, I've got to do all these things so that I can be saved. It's not what he's saying.

He's talking about the value of your life. Are you living according to the resurrection of Jesus? See, I can refuse to lose joy by not focusing on myself. I can gain joy when I begin to start valuing Jesus. More like a scale.

If I put all of my stuff, all my successes, my trophies, my titles on this side of a scale, and I put Jesus over here every time, this side is going to go straight down because there is nothing, there's absolutely nothing that measures up to him. I find joy by putting confidence in the right place. So I'm just going to get in your stuff and just ask you, what is it? What is it that for way too long. What title is it?

What heritage is it? What task is it? What job is it? What security is it that you're still putting your hope and trust in? Maybe today's the day that you take the checkbook register and you go, okay, I have a degree from MIT and I have this much money in my this and this.

You make a list of all those things. Now you're going to take. You're going to slide that into the loss column. You're going to bankrupt yourself so that you can find the joy of serving Christ. So as we sing in just a minute, I'm just going to invite you if that's you today, and you say, you know what?

I just need to come and just empty my hands, right? Here it is. There are people in this room that will come pray with you. They'll talk to you if you don't know Jesus. Fred's down here.

I'm down here. Steve's over here. There's lots of us in here you can come talk to. Kevin's over here. Come talk to one of us.

And even if you just say, you know what, I just need somebody to pray for me because this has been an issue in my life for way too long. Because that could also be addictions, it could be other things. Whatever it is that's holding you back from finding full spiritual life in Jesus, I'm pleading with you today, count it as lost. Slide it from the positive to the negative and see what God will do with it. Father, in Jesus name, as we stand to sing and to celebrate and to worship.

Lord, I pray God that you might do a mighty work, that you would speak to our hearts. God, we come to you bankrupt. And if we don't come to you bankrupt, if we come to you holding on just to do a little bit, Lord, then I'm not letting it go. I've got to empty my hand of everything so that it can be filled back up with you. Lord, we love you and we praise you in Jesus name, Amen.