If you had to make a list of people you know well, who would make the cut?
Let’s say you had to limit the list to ten people—who would be first?
What about people who know you well?
Are there people with whom you are only acquainted that you wish you knew well?
We were created with a need for deep relationships. If your life is relationally bankrupt, there will come a time when you look back and realize that no matter what else you have accumulated and accomplished, that relational poverty is rotting your insides.
So here’s the question: When you made your list of those you know well or those you would like to know well, where was God on that list? We’re going to explore Philippians 3:1-11 and ask the question “What if we abandoned worthless pursuits and sought significant relationships?”
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Buddy Hoffman
Series: Philippians – The “What Ifs” of Faith
November 10, 2013
What If We Abandoned Worthless Pursuits and Sought Significant Relationships?
Philippians 3:1-11
We’re going to read the Bible. That’s pretty novel, isn’t it? We’re going to read a passage of Scripture. We’re going to look into it, and we’re going to ask the Lord, “What do you want me to know about that passage of Scripture?” One of the things you need to do as we’re reading this passage is be aware that the Holy Spirit speaks in your heart. We’ve all had that happen.
I’ve gone and listened to people preach sermons on a passage of Scripture I was reading, and the pastor or the speaker that morning did not say anything at all about what the Lord spoke to me about in that passage. The goal here is we’re going to open the Scripture, we’re going to read that Scripture, and we’re going to see what that Scripture says.
Then we’re going to take a few minutes on the back side of the service… I say this because, if you’re a guest here, generally speaking, when the speaker says, “Amen,” that means it’s over. It’s not over. When you have a conversation with someone, the thing you expect is some response. Worship is responding rightly to the Word of God.
So this morning we want to take a few minutes. We’ve carved that time out. If I don’t go too long, we’ll have plenty of time at the back end of the service. We want to have time for Communion, and we want to have time for some worship response.
We’re in the book of Philippians. We’ve been looking at The “What Ifs” of Faith. If you haven’t been here for all of that (and I wouldn’t be surprised, because we have a lot of people at Grace who are on the every-other-Sunday plan), Acts 16 is the plant of the church at Philippi. We asked the question…What if God called us to reach the city? What if God called us to reach people and we were obedient and sent people out intentionally to reach places and target population centers? That’s what happened with Philippi.
The second one was in chapter 1, verses 1-11. We asked the question…What if, as a church, we really interceded for others in prayer? What we found there was a whole section on what to pray for people you love in verses 1-11. In chapter 1:12-19, we asked the question…What if trouble is really God’s way of trailblazing new paths for his kingdom gospel and King Jesus to be preached in places where the kingdom had not been proclaimed previously?
That’s what Paul answers there. He says, “I know some of you have these questions about the things that have happened to me, but let me just encourage you to realize that my imprisonment, rather than hindering the pioneer advance of the gospel, has actually made that gospel plain in places it would not be heard before.” The answer to each of those is that trouble can be joy, that if we pray we’ll have joy. If we reach people, we’ll have joy.
In verses 1-20, he talks about…What if heaven is real? What if heaven is not just some metaphor but is actually real? He talks about being drawn in between the desire to depart (this is the word he uses), which is far better. Now for most of us, that’s not something we really have come to grips with.
For most of us, the idea that we would depart is like the worst thing that could possibly happen to us. I’m going to tell you right now, if we really believe the Bible is true, yes, it may be needful for us to be here for fruitfulness, to invest in other people’s lives, but death for the believer, for those who are in the kingdom, is not a demotion. It’s an amazing thing.
In chapter 2:12-18, we looked at…What if we were to give up useless work and pursue that which really matters? Last week we looked at…What if we trained Timothies? What if we intentionally reached into the next generation?
Now in chapter 3, look at verse 1. I’m going to read down through verse 11. I’m reading out of the New King James. “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.” (Philippians 3:1a) Again, you see this idea. This is the idea of joy. He goes, “Remember, rejoice.” “For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.” (Philippians 3:1b)
What he’s saying in a very clear way is, “I don’t mind repeating myself. The reason I don’t mind repeating myself is that you forget what I say.” He says, “It’s important for you, because we forget what we really need to remember.” By the way, let me just say something here. Have you ever noticed we tend to forget the things we ought to remember and remember the things we ought to forget?
Come Thanksgiving Day, when you start thinking about being thankful and all of those kinds of things, there are some things that are just better left behind and some things we really need to hold on to. What Paul does here is he uses some words that some of you who are really nice people… All of you are nice people, but some of you who are really, really nice people are going to find what he’s going to say in the next 11 verses offensive.
I’m sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, but there are parts of the Bible that are really, really offensive. The Bible is not an edited book of fairy tales that is like a feel-good, Chicken Soup for the Soul sort of thing. One of the reasons we have children’s programs here and we encourage you to use those children’s programs is that I don’t really intend to edit the Bible. When the Bible says something, I’m going to say what the Bible says.
Some of the things the Bible says aren’t really Sunday school material. We don’t really need to teach Song of Solomon in second grade. There are things that need to be taught at grade level, where children are ready to hear things. For some of you, you still live in that Sunday school world. You really haven’t come to grips with the fact the Bible is actually full of violence and some treachery.
The passage we’re going to look at here is pretty direct and probably not something you would encourage your children to do. In verse 2, notice what he says: “Beware of dogs…” You do understand this isn’t like a sign on somebody’s fence. He’s saying there are people who are spiritually dogs. Whoa. What does he mean by that? “…beware of evil workers…” He does these “Watch out” statements. “Watch out for dogs. Watch out for evildoers.”
Then he says, “…beware of the mutilation!” The mutilation is the circumcision, which I don’t even want to get into. In verse 3, he says, “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh…” (Philippians 3:3) What he’s describing there is, first, who to avoid. He says, “Beware of these dogs.”
When he uses that word dogs, he’s not describing the little poodle that is your lap dog. In that day, dogs were vicious animals that traveled and hung out on the outskirts of the city. They were scavengers and bearers of diseases. They basically were like vultures. They didn’t do a whole lot of hunting. They just fed off the carcasses of those which were already dead.
He says there are people who are attack animals spiritually. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a church… What he’s going to get into is this whole thing of (I’m going to use this word) legalism, where your spiritual worth, your acceptance before God, is based on keeping a list of rules (and oftentimes, the rules are different in different churches). Whether God loves you or not is based on your personal performance.
Now I’m going to tell you something. I have been told my entire life that I shouldn’t say this, but it’s true, so I can’t help but say it. There is nothing you can do that will make God love you less, and there’s nothing you can do that will make God love you more. I know that sounds kind of crazy for people.
Many of you who grew up in church think of God as this kind of angry fellow. He’s like a spiritual accountant who’s watching you and keeping a log on you. Most of the time, you feel like God is mad at you because you haven’t done enough; you haven’t been enough; you aren’t measuring up. You feel this weight on your shoulders of, “God, I wish I made you happier.”
Let me just say something to you. When Jesus died on the cross, he took all of your sins with him. Do you understand that? When you came into the kingdom, all the righteousness of Jesus Christ was imputed into your account, and when God the Father looks at you, he sees Jesus, and he is completely happy with Jesus. How good is that? I’m going to tell you something. That’s an “amen.” That’s like “hallelujah” stuff. That’s like charismatic, Pentecostal, old-fashioned, wave-a-hankie kind of stuff.
Here’s what’s going on. He says, “Be careful, because there are people out there who parade as spiritual and even hyper-spiritual people, and their lives are a big list of rules. They have a list of rules for themselves, and then they have even a longer list of rules for you. ‘This is what will make you right with God or God happy with you.'” He says, “Beware of the dogs.”
You do realize that your conscience is not necessarily the way you know whether something is right or wrong. You can have a miscalibrated conscience. You can grow up with a miscalibrated conscience. I remember years ago, when contemporary music was just breaking on the scene (this tells you how ancient I am)… When I was growing up, it was organs and pianos. How many of you grew up in the organ and piano era? That was it. That was all there was.
I remember the first time we put a real drum set on the platform. You would not believe how many people… We might as well have burned the cross. I mean, it was like the worst thing that could possibly happen. We were out to eat after church one Sunday morning, and this lady who had quit coming to the church… I saw her in the line and said, “Hey, how are you doing?” She said, “You know, it was God’s plan for me to see you today, because I just have to tell you that when I hear those drums on the platform, it grieves my spirit.”
I said, “It’s quite all right if you don’t like them, but they don’t grieve your spirit. That’s not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit actually likes those drums.” She goes, “No, it grieves my spirit. I know it’s sinful. It grieves my spirit.” I said, “No. You just don’t like them. And that’s okay. You just say, ‘I don’t like them.'” She goes, “Well, it’s not that.” I said, “Yes, that’s exactly what it is.” (I don’t know why I went there.)
Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the mutilation. That actually comes out of that commandment God gave to Abraham for his descendants, generation after generation, to be circumcised. That wasn’t some abstract, theoretical, hypothetical, speculative statement. I mean, literally, this was the sign of the covenant.
Then Acts, chapter 15, comes along. The Hebrew people had this idea that they were special in God’s eyes and that the Gentiles… That’s us, by the way. Most of us are Gentiles. Some of you may be Jewish, but most of us don’t even know what we are. We’re mongrels. I know some of you are saying, “No, no. I’m Scottish.” Yeah. You don’t have any idea. Everything but Hebrew, you’re mongrels. They were dogs. Now Paul is reversing it. He’s saying, “Listen. You’re really the ones who are dogs. You’re the party of the mutilation.”
Now let me tell you something. When the big revival broke out in Acts 15 and these Gentiles started coming into the kingdom, the Hebrews who had been circumcised were upset, because these new Gentiles really didn’t get the rules right. They weren’t getting circumcised, and they were eating pigs. That really, really troubled them.
If you think it’s difficult to get people to get baptized… I mean, can you imagine the new member orientation class? He talks about these people, and he says, “That’s not what makes us righteous with God. It’s not all of these rituals.” Then in verse 3, he starts talking about what really doesn’t count, and he goes through a whole list of things. He places himself as evidence. Look at what he says.
“For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh…” (Philippians 3:3) That’s a really important thing. “We don’t think God loves us because of something we have the ability to do.” Verse 4: “…though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so…” (Philippians 3:4)
Here’s what he’s saying: “If you think you kept the rules, let me describe to you my life.” He was, “…circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel…” That was at the right, precise time they were supposed to do it. “…of the tribe of Benjamin…” That’s like the one who was the kingly tribe that stayed righteous. “…a Hebrew of the Hebrews…” When he’s describing the Hebrew of the Hebrews he’s saying, “I was at the top of the food chain.”
“…concerning the law, a Pharisee…” At any given time, there were about 6,000 Pharisees in Jesus’ day who were part of this… The word literally means separated. They really prided themselves in extreme, meticulous obedience to the law in every way whatsoever. They sat around and argued and debated the law constantly. Some believe Paul was actually part of the Sanhedrin. Status-wise, religion-wise, he had everybody beat.
“…concerning zeal, persecuting the church…” He was out there trying to destroy the church. “…concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” (Philippians 5-6) Notice what he does here. He does a flip. We have here what I call a profit and loss chart, but I have it in the opposite way: loss and profit.
These are things about which most people of that day would have said, “Wow! That is spiritually impressive. Those are really amazing things.” He says, “The things that normally would have gone in the profit chart, I put them in the loss chart, and here’s why.” If what you do is designed to make God love you more, God is more concerned with your motivation than actually what you’re doing. I know that sounds kind of crazy.
If you’re sitting there going, “You know what? I tithe, I lead a huddle on Wednesday night, I share my faith with other people, I don’t do this and I do this,” and you have this list of things, and you think that list of things is what makes you acceptable before God, here’s what your basic problem is. You don’t realize that everything you do is tainted. Everything.
This is what the Bible says. Listen carefully to these words. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. The best you do is rancid. The best you do. The best I do. So what are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to just live any way we want to live and do anything we want to do? No. Let’s just stay in the passage.
Notice what he says in verse 7. “The things that were gain to me, I’ve counted loss. Indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of knowing Christ my Lord, for whom I’ve suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish.” (Philippians 3:7-8)
If you have a really old translation it says “dung.” That is a really kind way of saying “doo-doo.” What he’s saying is, “A ‘do-do’ religion is doo-doo.” If you have a religion where your faith and your way of relating to God is a list of dos (“I do, I do, I do”), it’s doo-doo. It’s “do-do” religion. A lot of us don’t want to come to grips with the fact that much of our lives are doo-doo.
Here’s what God wants from us. As we serve God, that service for God should be out of overwhelming love for what God has done for us. There’s “do-do” religion and there’s “done” religion, because of what Christ has done for us in the resurrection, in the cross, because he has given us his righteousness, not out of this sense of guilt, not out of this sense of “Oh well, I have to go do this because I don’t want God to be disappointed and I don’t want God to like me less.”
Listen carefully to what I’m going to say to you. There’s nothing you can do that will make God love you less. I know that sounds really radical. There’s nothing you can do that will make God love you more. I am not saying there are not consequences in connection with the things we do. I want to be really clear about this. If you never walk through the doors of this church ever again, God is not going to go, “Well, I hate them.” God is going to love you anyway. God is going to try to woo you into fellowship with him.
If you never do your devotions again… I know people who, if they forget to do their devotions for a day, walk around all day long thinking something bad is going to happen to them. They really do. I’ve talked with people who will say, “I had a flat tire today, but I’m not surprised. I forgot to say my prayers this morning.” I’ve had people say to me, “I had this car wreck, but I’m not surprised because I was laying out of church.” That is not how God works.
Now I will tell you this. God blesses you when you do the right thing, because that’s how he has built the system. If you love your wife and you love your husband and you love your kids and you do right by your family, God doesn’t say, “Okay, I love them a whole lot better than this person who’s a whoremonger.”
I’m going to tell you right now the way of the transgressor is hard. If you don’t live right by your family, God is not going to love you less, but alimony is expensive. Lawyers are expensive. God is not going to say, “I don’t like these people because they don’t come to LUG and they don’t bring their kids to KidzLife.”
I am not saying at all that God will not love you the same, but the reality is if you think it’s a trouble, a difficulty, a challenge to get your kids into LUG or KidzLife or some system where they learn to love God, it’s not nearly as hard to make those sacrifices as it is to see your kids get on drugs. Do you see what I’m saying here? It’s not a matter of God loving you less or God loving you more, but there is a system that when you do the right things, normally, they turn out better.
God is not going to hate you if you never give another dime to anything, but here’s what he says: “If you will test me with this, I’ll open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing you can’t even imagine or receive.” That’s pretty good. That’s not bad. Is there anybody who doesn’t want the windows of heaven opened on them? I’m ready for windows and doors and everything else to be opened.
So he goes down through here and says, “I’ve counted all this doo-doo. Nothing.” He says, “What matters is that I’m found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ and the righteousness which is from God by faith.” (Philippians 3:9)
Now this is the hinge, and we’re going to dig into this next week. He says, “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11) We’re going to talk about what it means to move into that maturity in Jesus.
I think the basic problem with most people (and I’m sure I think this because this is the way I was)… I grew up in an environment where it could be somewhat rules-oriented and legalism-oriented. My perception of God was a little distorted. Maybe even a lot distorted. I thought of God as sort of a cosmic killjoy, just looking around for someone having a good time so he could say, “Stop. Don’t do that.”
Did anybody go to Christian camp growing up? I remember going to Christian camp. In every Christian camp, the goal is to get everybody to make a decision. My decision whenever I would go to camp was, “I’m not making any decisions.” I remember going to camp one year, and my dad was one of the counselors. He came to me, and everybody in camp had made decisions.
He said to me, “You know what? You’re the worst kid in this camp. Everybody in this camp… I mean, people have made decisions they’re going to read their Bible every day. People have made decisions they’re going to come into the kingdom. People have made decisions they’re going to get new friends. All kinds of decisions. You have not made any decision at all.”
I said, “Yeah, I’ve decided I’m not going to decide anything. That’s my decision. I’m not deciding anything. This feels like too much pressure. If I’m going to make a decision, I’m going to make a decision when I can think about it more.” Do you know what my problem was? I remember one of the invitations was, “If you’ll do whatever God wants you to do with your life, why don’t you make that decision tonight?” I’m thinking, “No.”
I thought if I said that, God would make me be a missionary. I thought God was just waiting for me to say, “I’ll do whatever you want me to do,” and he’d go, “Okay. You have to be a missionary. You’re going to go to the Amazon, and you’re going to sleep with snakes, and you’re going to be flying along in a little plane, and they’re going to be throwing spears at you, and they’re going to be saying, ‘Yankee, go home.'”
I thought God was going to make me marry some severe-looking woman with a little bun on her head who would quote Tozer to me every morning, or Bible verses. Like, maybe even khakis. I’m thinking, “No, I’m not going to live that way.” You know what the problem was? The problem wasn’t God; the problem was me. I had a misshapen idea of God.
I thought of a God who was a rule God, not a relational God, not a God who not only wanted me to know him (I know this sounds crazy) but wanted to know me. He wanted to have a real relationship with me. Before I could move on in my life spiritually, I had to get to the place where I got rid of some rubbish, rubbish about what I believed about God.
I’ve talked to people who have had all kinds of situations in their lives, and they’ll say, “You know what? God can’t really use me, because I’ve done this, or I haven’t done this.” They have all this baggage that (I’m going to use Paul’s words) spiritual legalists and dogs have fed them. What some of us need to do today is just put the rubbish where it belongs. You need to turn loose of that “do-do” religion, and you need to get into a relationship with God.
I’ve had people say to me, “If you preach a grace kind of faith, people will not behave. People will not come to church.” Do you notice we do have a parking lot problem? “People will not give. People will not volunteer. You have to put some guilt in there.” You know what? I’m not really good at guilt. Jody is good at guilt. She feels guilty for things I do.
Some of you were raised with guilt merchants. They piled guilt on you like crazy. Here’s what some of you need to do. Some of you need to just get rid of that doo-doo. It’s a “do-do” religion. It sounds good, but it doesn’t bring joy, and it doesn’t ultimately even work. When our kids were younger, my wife would not even let me go to the grocery store. Do you know why? Because when I went to the grocery store, I brought so much junk home.
I would go to the grocery store and I would go, “You know what? I think they’ll like that. I think they’ll like some of that.” I’d get ice cream. I’d get moon pies. I’d come home with stuff, and she would say, “Why are you bringing all this junk home?” I said, “I think the kids like it.” How many of you (let’s be honest) overfeed your kids? Yes.
I don’t even know what the number is. There are doctors in here. I’m sure somebody could tell me what it takes to keep a kid healthy, calorie-wise, daily. Twenty-five hundred calories? I don’t know. Thirty? Maybe fifty thousand. I don’t know. I’ve never counted a calorie in my life. I don’t even know what one actually looks like.
You know what? You will always do more for love than you’ll do for law. I’m telling you, it’s the truth. If you’re afraid of it, it’s just because you don’t understand what reckless-abandon love looks like. I’ll prove this to you right now. I guarantee you, if you’ll listen to me, I’ll prove this to you. How many of you purposefully overpay your taxes? Oh wow. Three of you. Nobody admitted it in the first service.
Do you know what most of us do? We pay somebody to make sure we don’t. Now can you imagine paying somebody to make sure you don’t feed your kids too much? “We can’t go to 5 Spot because that may overload your calories.” No. “Let’s get Five Spot, and let’s go from there to somewhere else. Bruster’s.”
Do you know why? Because you love. Now you can overlove. I don’t mince my words here. Here’s the problem. We don’t work from relationship. Our nature is to work from that set of rules. When we work from the set of rules, we’ll never find joy, because there will never be enough rules. You’ll never find yourself good enough.
There’s Communion on the corners here in the back. You have a piece of paper. Some of you can’t feel that love of God because of something in your life you’ve never let go of. You need to write on that sheet, and you just need to throw it away. You need to just put it where it belongs, because we are in Christ Jesus, and his righteousness has filled us. Let’s pray.
Lord, I pray this morning… There are maybe some here who have never even come into the kingdom. This whole idea that “By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself; it’s a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast” is new news to them. They think they’re going to have this relationship by being good, not receiving that goodness of God.
Lord, I pray for them this morning. I pray for all of us who have this tendency of legalism in our lives. I pray for some here this morning who maybe have been divorced, or they’ve done things they weren’t proud of, or they’ve betrayed somebody’s confidence, or any number of things, and they don’t feel the pleasure of God. Even though they’ve repented, even though it’s behind them, they still feel that sticking to them.
Lord, you have washed us clean in your blood. Lord, we are spotless in your sight. Lord, we don’t want that kind of religion. That’s not the kind of faith you’ve given us. That’s not the kind of relationship you’ve given us. So this morning I pray that we will respond to the Holy Spirit convicting us of the righteousness you have placed in us this morning. In your name we pray, amen.