All Things Rubbish Compared to Christ
Tom Shrader works through Philippians 3, contrasting the empty credentials of religion with the surpassing worth of knowing Christ personally. Drawing on Paul's biography as a zealous Pharisee and persecutor of the church, Shrader argues that all human achievement and religious effort are rubbish compared to the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. The teaching closes with a reading from Major Ian Thomas on Paul's Damascus Road conversion, calling listeners to move from religious performance to genuine relationship with God.
“Religion is man trying to somehow understand that something's wrong — and God says there's nothing you can do to make it right. There's only one way for this to be right, and it's not religion, it's relationship.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Philippians
Recorded: 2008 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 41 min
Themes: religion vs relationship, knowing christ, righteousness, faith, religious pride, human achievement, conversion, grace, struggling with religious performance, new believer, raised in church but unsaved, seeking assurance of salvation, recovering religious person, young adult questioning faith, lifelong churchgoer, feeling unworthy of god
Scripture: Philippians 3:1-10, Romans 12:1-2, Ephesians 5:18, Jeremiah 9:23-24, 1 Peter 4, James 1, Romans 5, Acts 7:54-60, Acts 8:1-3, Acts 9:1-18, Matthew 23, Philippians 1:6
Theological Themes: justification by faith, imputed righteousness, soteriology, works righteousness, union with christ, sanctification, repentance, pauline theology
Full Transcript
Religion Versus Relationship
Open your Bibles, please, to Philippians chapter three. We are going to answer the question today: what is the difference between religion and relationship? If you hang around a church like East Valley Bible Church or some sort of non-denominational community church, you will hear a lot about a relationship with Christ, but what does it mean to have a relationship with Christ? Paul says, look at verse 10, that I want to know him.
We believe that Jesus lived 2,000 years ago, and He died, He was crucified, He was buried, He rose again, He is alive today, and you and I can know Him in a personal way. That is so different from religion, which has this kind of abstract notion: here is this God, He is out there, do not get Him too angry, and then you try to come up with some way to make Him happy. That is what religion is. Christianity — biblical Christianity — is a relationship with Christ. Religion is everything else.
Religion is man trying to somehow understand that something is wrong. We got that. We are screwed up. Is there anybody who is not? No, we are screwed up, and what the Bible says is that that screwed-up thing is sin, and sin has separated us from God. What man tries to do is figure out how to make it right, and God says there is nothing you can do to make it right. There is only one way for this to be right, and it is not religion — it is relationship.
God hates religion. God hates this meaningless, ritual, ceremonial thing that we go through over and over again, thinking that somehow if we do this, we will make God happy. That is Paul's point here.
Rejoicing as a Command
Look at chapter three, verse one: "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me. It's a safeguard to you." I love the second part of that verse, because Paul says he has been telling them this over and over again. It feels, so often, like almost every Sunday I am saying the same thing again and again. Paul says that is all right, because this is how we learn — we learn through repetition, and there are just different times in our lives when we are more open.
I have a series I do every year, exactly the same, at the beginning of the year: what kind of year was last year, and how to make next year the greatest year of your life. I have done that for twelve years and have never changed a single point. A guy came up to me a couple of years ago and said, "You changed something this year." I said I did not change anything — these are the same notes from ten years ago. Here is the difference: he was ready to hear it. So we need to hear these things.
Now look at what Paul drops into verse one: rejoice. It is in the imperative — it is a command. Rejoice in the Lord. How can he command that? Here is something really important. If he were saying "be happy," that would be a foolish thing to say. I cannot command you to be happy, because happiness is circumstantial. I am happy if the headline is right, if the financial report is right, if I win the game, if I get the scholarship, if the deal closes, if she says yes when I ask her out, if she says yes when I ask her to marry me. Happiness is circumstantial.
Rejoicing, however, I can command, because rejoicing is not based on circumstances. The world is trying to be happy, and it is just a greased pig — you simply cannot control it. Right now four teams are heading to the Final Four and they are happy, but in a week three of them are going to be sad. That is happiness. I am happy when things are going well, when I get the job, when I get the promotion. Paul does not say be happy — he says rejoice, and rejoicing is not based on my circumstance. Rejoicing is based on my relationship.
Our Identity in Christ
Rejoice — in what? In the Lord. That is where we find this joy: in Him. Paul uses that phrase constantly. "In Christ" — that is our relationship. When he writes to the church at Philippi, he says you are geographically in Philippi, but you are positionally and spiritually in Christ. We are geographically here in Gilbert, but because we are Christians, we are in Christ, bathed in Him. That is where we find our identity.
We do not find our identity in our job or in our title as CEO, because what happens when we are no longer that? We do not find our identity in our position as a mom or a dad or a parent. We find our identity in Christ. That is where we find our meaning, our purpose, and our direction. That is why Paul can say rejoice. In its essence, what he is saying is this: be in relationship. Be obedient. That is where you are going to find real joy — in obedience.
Completely Fearless, Continually Cheerful, Constantly in Trouble
Ray Stedman says this about Christians: we are people who are completely fearless, continually cheerful, and constantly in trouble. We are completely fearless — not because we are so brave. I am an absolute chicken.
Living Confidently and Joyfully
It is scary out there, and I don't have what it takes to power through this on my own. But I'm not alone. Paul says in chapter one, verse six, "I am confident of this very thing, that He who began this work in me will continue it till the day of Christ Jesus." So I am fearless and continually joyful.
Yesterday at noon I was doing a funeral up in Scottsdale, and a week ago Saturday at 12:30 I was doing a funeral at the same place in Scottsdale. People are dying in Scottsdale, I guess. Yesterday's funeral was for a lady I didn't know — I'm sure I never met her. So there was nothing I could do to really speak about her personally. I simply said, I didn't know her, so if you want to eulogize her, you're going to have to do it, because I don't know what to say. And then they began to talk about her — as a mom, as a grandma, as a wife, as a friend — and they painted this beautiful picture.
Here's what you see at the funeral of every Christian: a combination of joy and sorrow, of joy and grieving. The joy is for them. The grieving is for us. I was walking across campus last Sunday and said to a guy, "How are you doing?" He said, "Well, better than the alternative." That's not true at all. The alternative is what we're living for — that day when we are with Him. But until then, you bring heaven to earth. You show the world what it looks like to live confidently and joyfully. You will be in trouble periodically, because as you take a stand for Christ you're going to bump up against the world. But that is how we are to live.
Beware of the Judaizers
Now, here's what Paul says next, and the language is pretty strong. In verse two he uses the word "beware" three times. The idea there is to watch out — it is a warning. "Beware of the dogs, the evil workers, the false circumcision." He is talking about a specific group of men. When he uses the word "dogs" there, it is a really strong word. He is not talking about your little fluffy dog that gets groomed and blow-dried and comes home with a ribbon in its hair. This is a mangy, wild, filthy animal — a scavenger eating garbage, capable of attacking people.
It is the same group of men described three ways: they are dogs, they are evildoers, and they are the false circumcision — men who think they are the real believers, but they are not. These are a group known as the Judaizers. They were coming along behind Paul. Remember the contrast we are talking about — religion versus relationship. Paul is saying that we enter into right relationship with God through grace. The Judaizers were saying that grace is part of it, but you also have to become a Jew first. There are all these rules, all these regulations. These men were much like the Pharisees — the fundamentalists of their day. They had a rule for everything: do this, don't do this, come over here, stop that, do a little bit of this. In fact, Paul himself had been one of these men. But something has happened to him.
True Worship
See what he says in verse two: "We are the true circumcision." There is the contrast. "We worship by the Spirit of God." The word "worship" here means to render respectful spiritual service — in essence, to be obedient to God. Do we worship here? How can you not love coming in on a Sunday night and letting the band lead us in a time of worship? It is an incredible time. But sometimes we need to understand that that is just part of worship. Our whole life is to be worship. That is the whole idea Paul develops in Romans chapter twelve.
In Romans twelve Paul writes, "I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." He is saying that worship is taking my body, my life, and giving it to God. We worship in the Spirit.
The Fruit of the Spirit
If you were to go over to Mesquite tomorrow and start talking seriously with the students there, or go to ASU and do the same thing, or go to Fashion Square Mall — wherever you go, if you get people serious and ask them what they really want in life, here is what they are going to say: they want to be loved and to love, they want a sense of peace, they want joy, they want some sense of control. And here is the reality — they will never have it apart from Christ.
The fruit of the Spirit is what God produces in you. God is in this room right now. That is an incredible thought. God lives in His people. The Holy Spirit occupies your body. Paul says in Ephesians five, "Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit." In my old days I understood the drunk part quite well, because that was a pretty consistent everyday reality for me. Several times I even drove under the influence, and I would say something obnoxious and offensive and then say, "That's not me, that's the booze talking. I can't help it — I'm under its control."
That is exactly what Paul is saying — do not be under the control of wine, or drugs, or whatever it is. Be under the control of the Holy Spirit. When that happens, you start doing and saying things and you think, that isn't me — that is the Holy Spirit talking, that is the Spirit of God just pouring out of me. I cannot stop it, and I do not want to stop it. And the fruit of the Spirit in your life is love.
The Fruit of the Spirit and True Peace
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control — these are the fruit of the Spirit. And love doesn't mean the ability to love somebody when they're lovable; it means the ability to love the unlovable. Joy is not happiness — it's that right relationship with God that spills over into everything. Even as everything is falling apart, you can say, "Whatever — God has figured it out, God has a plan, God is in control."
Peace is really important to understand correctly. Peace is not the absence of turmoil. It is not eradicating pain and hurt and sorrow from your life. Peace is the presence of God in the midst of turmoil. To have no pain, sorrow, or suffering is to cease to be human — that is the very nature of human life.
Peter tells us in 1 Peter 4 not to be surprised by these fiery ordeals. God either allows or sometimes causes suffering and pain in our lives. Why would He do that? Because He loves you. He wants your attention, and He wants you to grow.
James says we can consider it all joy because we know that the testing of our faith produces endurance. Paul says in Romans 5 that tribulation produces perseverance. How remarkable is that?
Boasting in God, Not in Ourselves
Paul says we are in the Spirit and we glorify God — that is, we boast, but not about ourselves. Jeremiah 9:23 says, "Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, or the strong man boast of his strength, or the rich man boast of his riches." That is what we tend to brag about, isn't it?
The word "boast" appears 37 times in the New Testament, and Paul uses it 35 of those times. Almost always it is in this context: "I boast not of my strength, I boast out of my weakness, because when I am weak, then He is strong in me." God says in Jeremiah 9:23 not to boast about what you know, how smart you are, who you know, the power or influence you have, or the stuff you possess — because all of those can be gone tomorrow, and every one of them is a gift from God.
If you are smart, it is not because you are so impressive — it is because God gave you that. If you are in a strategic place, at school or at work, in a position of influence, there is one simple reason you are there: God put you there. If you have material wealth, God allowed you to have it. Do not for a second say it is because you are special, or smart, or a great entrepreneur. There are people smarter than you, who worked harder than you, who were more disciplined than you, and their deal did not close — yours did. So do not go bragging about what you know and what you have.
Jeremiah 9:24 tells us where our boasting should be directed: "Let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness and justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things, declares the Lord." That is the backdrop. Now we get to the heart of it.
Religion Versus Relationship: No Confidence in the Flesh
Paul says in Philippians 3:3, "I put no confidence in the flesh." What he is talking about is religion versus relationship. He puts no confidence at all in the idea of relying on his own effort to please God. Yet in verse 4 he says that if anyone should have grounds to boast in the flesh, it is him: "Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more."
He then lists seven reasons why he could be confident. I want to break these down quickly. Four of them he inherited; three of them were the result of his own effort.
In verse 5 he says he was circumcised on the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews — all things he inherited. This is actually the only time we see the phrase "an eight-dayer" in the New Testament. On the eighth day, his parents took him and had him circumcised. He had nothing to do with that. He did not wake up on the eighth day and say, "Mom, time to go." Being of the nation of Israel was not his doing either. He had the right pedigree.
Remember, he is writing in response to the Judaizers — men who were saying you need to be a Jew to truly follow Christ. Paul is saying: look, I was in the nation of Israel, I had the right pedigree. I am a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of the tribe of Benjamin — the tribe that stayed in the south, stayed true, and stayed faithful. Most Jews at that point could not trace their ancestry back that clearly. He says, "I am a Hebrew of Hebrews. I have all of that pedigree."
Paul's Résumé as a Pharisee
And not only that — Paul says he was a Pharisee. He followed the law meticulously. The Pharisees were known as the separated ones. They were the influential intellectuals of Judaism. They were devout. They followed the law.
When you read through the Gospels, Jesus seems to have remarkable patience with people in all sorts of circumstances. Put Him with drunkards, tax collectors, and people of disrepute, and He does just fine. But the moment He is with the Pharisees, it shuts Him off like a rocket. These men drove Him to a level of frustration we see almost nowhere else in His ministry.
If you want to see His view of the Pharisees, look at Matthew 23, because Jesus goes right after them. He is saying: you make Me sick. You tithe your herbs down to a tenth of this and that, you attend to all these small details, but you miss the entire point. You think you are leading people to God — and you are in fact leading them away.
Paul's Credentials as a Religious Man
He uses a striking picture: "You are like a whitewashed tomb — you look so good, and you are filled with dead men's bones." Paul says, "I was one of those boys." He then makes two more points: "As to zeal, I was a persecutor of the church, and as to the righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless." When he says blameless, he is not claiming he never sinned. He is saying that when he sinned, he followed the prescribed remedy.
He also makes clear he was not simply going to synagogue and playing a game. He was serious about this. To understand just how serious, turn to Acts chapter 7.
Stephen's Martyrdom and Saul's Zeal
Acts chapter 7 verse 54 sets the scene. Stephen has just had the opportunity to testify before the high priest and the Jewish leaders, and he has given them the gospel. The result is recorded in verse 54: "When they heard this, they were cut to the quick and they began gnashing their teeth at him." Verse 57: "They cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears, and they rushed at him with one impulse." They drove him out of the city and began stoning him. "The witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul."
The robes were slowing these men down, so they removed them and handed them to Paul to watch while they took up stones to kill Stephen. Chapter 8, verse 1 tells us that "Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death." Paul was not a passive bystander. He was watching the coats, approving the execution, urging them on.
Saul Ravages the Church
Verse 1 continues: "On that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria." Then verse 3: "But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, dragging off men and women, and putting them into prison." The word translated "ravaging" is used in secular Greek literature to describe wild animals tearing apart their prey. He was attacking the church, and he did not stop.
Chapter 9, verse 1: "Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for a letter from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." Paul had finished his work in Jerusalem. He was heading to Damascus with a letter from the high priest granting him authority to arrest followers of Christ and bring them back to face judgment. This was his zeal in action.
All Things Counted as Loss
Now return to Philippians chapter 3, because what Paul has established is this: if religion could save anybody, he would be the man. He had every credential. Yet verse 7 delivers a complete reversal of values: "But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ." All those things he had considered assets, he now recognized as liabilities. Religion will always get in the way of knowing God. It will lead a person to focus on what they do or do not do, and to believe that God is pleased by that performance. But that is not where merit with God is found. It is found in a relationship with Him, in loving Him — and if we love Him, we will obey Him, but it is driven by love, not by rule or regulation.
Paul goes further in verse 8: "I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value" — a phrase that literally means something of incomparable worth — "the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ." The word translated "rubbish" literally means waste, excrement — dung or manure. Paul is saying that all his religion, all those things he did, were dung compared to knowing Christ.
Knowing Christ Is the Only Thing That Matters
For us it would be the same. Perhaps you were raised in a church, baptized as a child, confirmed, enrolled in Sunday school, earned stars for Bible memorization. Perhaps you taught a Sunday school class, sang in a choir, gave money, went to summer camp, or spoke from a music stand. Those things are of no value if you do not know Christ. The most important thing is not the activity — it is knowing Christ.
Remember what was said at the beginning: He lived two thousand years ago. He died, and they buried Him as they do with the dead. He rose from the dead, and He is alive today. He wants to know you and have a relationship with you. That is incredible. It is the very opposite of religion, because religion, if we are honest, is about feeding our pride and ego.
And what happens after Paul delivers this message? What do people ask? What should I do? That is exactly what the crowd asks when Peter delivers his sermon in Acts chapter 2. That is what religion produces — the question of what must I do.
is always trying to do something and here's what he's saying you don't have to do anything we'll get to the doing later right now you need to be you need to be my kid you need to call him father how cool is that and you can know him you can have a relationship with him you can know him just like you know the person sitting next to your family member a friend this is verse 9 that I may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law what is the righteousness of his own what would be the word we'd use there what is it religion he said I'm not right they don't get hung up on this word righteousness it just means right right with God I'm not right with God because of what I did with the law I'm right with God see it through faith in Christ my righteousness comes from God on the basis of faith my right living doesn't come from me to him my right living comes from God to me he's the one who does that how cool is that I'm saved by grace unmerited favor he does that work in my life and he gives me this thing called faith the ability to believe that Jesus is who he said he was if we go back to Acts chapter 9 that's what happened to Paul because Paul's this religious guy when we left off Paul's on the way to Damascus he ain't searching for God he's convinced he knows God right he's convinced he's on God's team and if God had a captain of that team he's pretty convinced it'd be him he's not looking for God here's the cool thing what God's looking for him as he was traveling Acts chapter 9 verse 3 it happened that he was approaching Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying Saul Saul why are you persecuting me and he said who are you Lord and he said I am Jesus that you're persecuting but get up and enter the city and it will be told to you what you must do the men who traveled with him stood speechless hearing a voice but they didn't see anyone got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. And leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus, and he was there three days without sleep, food, or drink. There was a disciple of Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, here I am, he said. The Lord said to him, get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. And he's seen a vision, and in this vision he saw a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight. And Ananias said, Lord, I've heard from many about this man. He said, I've heard all these things. I've heard how he's here to destroy the church. I've heard how much harm he did to your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has the authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon your name. But the Lord said to him, go, for he's my chosen instrument to bear my name before the Gentiles and the kings and the son of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. And Ananias departed, entered the house, and after laying his hands on Saul, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized, and he took food, and he was strengthened. Now when we go back to Philippians chapter 3, that experience on the road to Damascus is what took place in his thinking, the difference between verses 4, 5, and 6, and verses 7 and on. He said, for a long time I thought religion saved. For a long time I thought I was something special, and then on the Damascus road it all changed. I want to read you something. I'm using three or four different Bibles, and it's stupid because I can never find anything. I'll go, I know it's on here. I know it's on the left-hand page about halfway down. Do you do that? On the left-hand page halfway down, it's another Bible, I got this Bible. But I've been using the first Bible I ever had, I've been using that Bible some. And it's really cool to go back and see all those notes that I made. I had not been a Christian but maybe three or four months when I got that Bible, and see all these things that I wrote in the front that were so important to me, and verses I wanted to remember, and truths and principles and doctrine I wanted to remember. And in the back, there's a piece of paper that I taped in the back, and it was a piece of paper that I got from Larry Wright, and many of you know Larry. Larry is just like the key guy in my life, apart from family. Larry was teaching one day and he read this, and I said, Larry, I know it's probably inappropriate but could I have a copy of that? And he said, sure. Larry had a guy that he loved to listen to, and his name was Major Ian Thomas. And many of you don't know that name, and it's a great day, and we can go, well, Google Major Ian Thomas, and you'll figure out who he is. Major Ian Thomas wrote this little piece on the conversion of Paul, on the move from Saul of Tarsus to Paul the Apostle. And Larry gave it to me, and I taped it in the back of my Bible. Now here's the deal, I'm going to read it to you. Some of you are going to want a copy of it. So I, today, made a copy and put it in Karen's box. She needs to clean it up and reformat it. So if you want a copy of this, don't email me, okay? But email Karen. That's why. Because if you say to Karen, why do you exist, she says to get you a copy of Major Ian Thomas's appraisal of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. That's her whole purpose in life. So she's waiting for your email. Let me read this to you, and then we'll kind of tie it together and close. Remember, Ian Thomas as Saul. There was a time when, as Saul of Tarsus, I made my own independent evaluation of this man called Jesus. I investigated into
A Complete Reversal of Values
As Saul of Tarsus, I made my own independent evaluation of what Jesus was worth. I was not unfair, and I was not unkind, and I applied to him all the normal, natural standards by which any life is evaluated in any age. I looked first into his ancestry and discovered there was a cloud over his birth right from the start. As I investigated, it became quite clear that he was the illegitimate son of a faithless woman who had been taken in by a kind-hearted carpenter and raised as his own son. He was an outcast from the beginning, and socially, he was worth absolutely nothing.
I investigated his professional standing and discovered that he was born of peasant stock and had attended no schools. He was raised as a simple carpenter in a village of no standing, and professionally, he was worth absolutely nothing. I found that he had sat at nobody's feet, that he had been to no seminary, that he had no theological training. In fact, he was repudiated by all the ecclesiastical authorities of his day. He was nothing but an incorrigible street preacher and rabble-rouser, and as far as his theological standing was concerned, he was worth absolutely nothing.
Furthermore, I looked into his standing financially. I found that he had no bank account, that he was buried in a cave and laid in a borrowed manger and lived in other people's homes. He was always borrowing things from people — he borrowed money to pay his taxes, borrowed his clothes from other people, rode on a borrowed donkey, died on a borrowed cross, and was buried in a borrowed tomb. Financially, from the standpoint of the accumulation of the world's goods, he was worth absolutely nothing.
So as I investigated and applied to him all the normal standards by which any life is evaluated, I discovered that this man, Jesus, was not worth following. He was worth nothing. But on the road to Damascus, something happened.
Everything Turned Upside Down
There, in a blinding flash of a moment, I looked into the face of a man and I saw God. I discovered that He who I thought to be worth nothing was the Lord of everything — that He was the God of glory, that everything that was made was upheld by the word of His power, that He was behind all things. He is the very imprint and image of God. There I found that He who I thought to be nothing was everything, and I who I thought to be everything was nothing.
In that moment, I came to a tremendous reversal of all the values of my life. Later, I learned that I who was nothing could be filled with Him who was everything, and that would make my life something. That is what happened to Paul.
The Same Reversal Must Happen in You
Unless you have that same experience that Paul had on that road to Damascus, you are not a Christian at all — not circumstantially, but substantially. The reversal of values, the moving away from religion and moving to relationship, the understanding that there is nothing in me on my own that can please God — but I please Him through faith. And it is not just faith that brings me into the family of God; it is the faith that allows me to continue the life He has called me to live.
He has called us to be obedient, to be holy, to be perfect, to follow Him. And your cry at that moment should be, "I can't do it." That is exactly right — but He does it in you. He asks you to submit to Him, and He will give you the power. You will say, "I can't go on another day," and He will say, "That's all right, because I am going to fill you with that Spirit. I am going to control you with that Spirit."
Paul says, "Here is what I want my life to be all about." And if you are wise, this is what you will want your life to be all about. Verse 10: "to know him, and to know the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, and to be conformed to him in his death."
Do You Know Christ?
I want to ask the question: do you know Christ? I am not talking about religion. I am not asking whether you have been to church. I am asking, do you know Christ? Have you come to that point where there has been that reversal of your values — where you have faith, and you begin to see yourself as God sees you: a sinner who is helpless and hopeless, and there is nothing you can do?
There is no religion in the world, nothing that can change that except knowing Christ. How do you know Him? You come to Him in repentance and faith. Is it that simple? It is that simple. We instinctively, even to feed our egos, will acknowledge we are sinners and want to do something about it so we can take credit for it — and God just strips all of that away. You are saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourself; it is a gift of God, so you cannot boast about anything but your weaknesses in His strength.
You cannot boast about what you know, or what you have, or what you think you have earned. You boast about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Do you know Him?
Respond — There Is No Neutral
You cannot stay in neutral. You cannot walk out of here the same way you walked in. Jesus said it this way: you are either for Me or against Me. There is no spiritual Switzerland in this — you are either His or you are not. If you are still trying to figure it out, then you are not His. If you know Him, respond.
I want to pick up there next week, because I want to talk about what it means to know Him — really think about it, especially in the context and comparison of religion. But right now, it is time to respond.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for this wonderful truth. It is amazing that we can actually know You, the one true God, that we can call You Father, that You will be ours. God, thank you for saving us. Thank you for being in control. Whether we have power and air conditioning and video, it doesn't really matter, because what we need is one thing — it is You. God, thank you for that. Use us, would You? We pray it in Christ's name. Amen.