Longing for Revival

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Good morning. My name is Carrie Moulton, and I'm a member of the Oakland Women's Little Faith Group.

And today's reading is from Paul's letter to the Philippians, chapter 3, verses 7 through 14, as printed in the liturgy.

Philippians 3:7–14

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish,

in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.

Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law,

but from that which comes through faith in Christ,

the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

That I may know him and the power of his resurrection,

and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this, or am already perfect,

but I press on to make it my own,

because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own,

but one thing I do,

forgetting what lies behind,

and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal

for the prize of the upward call of God

in Jesus Christ.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thank you for that scripture reading, Carrie.

It's just a text that's so beautiful.

It just preaches itself.

Will you join me in prayer?

Father,

we thank you for these words

that you placed on the pen

and on the lips of your servant, Apostle Paul.

Lord, we ask that you would place these words

on our lips as well,

but yet God, place them on our hearts,

convince us, O Lord,

that these are not words only to be uttered

by once-in-a-generation super saints,

that these are the words of all your children,

of anyone who has ever seen your son Jesus

for who he really is.

O Lord, place these words on our lips

as a people who have beheld the beauty

and believed in the bounty

that exists in Jesus Christ.

Make us a people who are straining

with all our might,

pursuing just one thing,

a deeper relationship with Christ.

In so doing, Lord,

bring about the revival

that you so desire amongst us

and in the bay and all the world, God.

For our good

and for your glory we pray.

Amen.

Good morning, everyone.

My name's Andrew.

I'm one of the pastors here.

You'll have to forgive me.

I have had a little bit of a cough,

so I'm sucking on a cough drop.

Hopefully that won't affect too much.

In case you are new to Christ Church,

what you need to know

is that we are on the third Sunday

of a new ministry year.

It's also the third Sunday

of our lead pastor, Jonathan,

being back from his sabbatical.

And yeah, yay.

And one of the words,

the word really,

that has been on our lead pastor,

Jonathan's heart,

coming back from sabbatical,

is the word revival.

Revival.

So that's what we will be preaching through

in this fall season,

and it's really what we're gonna be praying for

for at least this whole ministry year.

Lord, revive us.

Revive our city.

Revive our land.

Revive this world.

And start with us.

Revive your people.

Revive your church, oh God.

And you know, personally,

I feel very invested in this theme

because in a way,

I feel like I've been praying for revival

for like over a decade.

It all started actually 17 years ago.

Well, actually, that's half of my life ago

when I went to UC Irvine.

And I had to find a church.

I'm Chinese American,

but I joined a Korean American church.

And you know, at this church,

like all we did was pray for revival.

That's all we did.

So I lived there,

and I worshiped there for six years.

Every Friday night, Bible study.

Seven to nine.

Prayer meeting, 9.30 to 11.

And I can still smell that office

in that business park where we used to pray.

I can still feel the rough blue rug

making an imprint on my knees

because I always wore basketball shorts.

And I can still hear the cries

of my spiritual role models

in that room on their knees as well.

The ajashis of the church.

If you don't know what that is,

ask a Korean friend what an ajashi is.

But these ajashis,

they would cry out to God,

Lord God, give me a passion.

Give us a passion for your name.

Give us a passion for your name.

And I remember singing with them,

crying out to God,

create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,

and renew a right spirit within me.

And we would remember the promises of God.

If my people who are called by my name

will humble themselves and pray,

and seek my face,

and turn from their wicked ways,

then will I hear from heaven,

and forgive their sins,

and heal their land,

if they humble themselves and pray.

And honestly,

these were probably the most spiritually formative years of my life.

Praying on my knees with the Koreans.

And like for about 10 years,

between 2006 and 2015,

from the beginning of college to the end of seminary,

I would get up early,

and I would pray this same prayer every single day.

Lord, if one day you should give me a wife.

Lord, if one day you should give me children.

Lord, if one day you should allow me to pastor a church.

Lord, make us a people who are zealous for your glory.

Lord, make us a people who have a high regard

for the scriptures, for your word.

Lord, make us a people who have eyes to see

the heights of our sin,

and the depths of your overwhelming grace.

Give us hearts that cherish and treasure Jesus Christ.

Hearts that are broken for those who don't know Jesus Christ.

And hearts of compassion

for those who suffer in this world.

I pray this every day

for my future wife,

for my future children,

and really for all of you

at my future church.

And I don't share this with you

so you'll think I'm a super holy man.

I am sure you I am not.

You can ask my wife about that.

But I share this with you

because I want you to consider

that our pursuit of revival

here at Christ Church in this season

is not some accident,

not some phase that Jonathan's going through

in his, what, mid-40s.

But like, what if,

at least in part,

at least in part,

what if it's an answer

to a 17 years worth of prayer?

What if it's an answer

to 17 years worth of prayer?

Prayers that interestingly began

the year that Christ Church started.

In 2006,

before I even knew about Christ Church,

I probably wouldn't have even wanted

to come to this church back then,

to be honest.

But here we are.

What if?

What if, right?

That's a question I hope you'll consider

in this season of our church.

Like, what if God wants to do

a thing amongst us?

Like, what if the pandemic

we've just endured,

the polarization we're seeing

in our nation,

what if our public and mental health

crises and the mounting global instability

that all trouble us,

what if these are just occasions

for the power of God to be displayed?

What if these were just occasions

for our church to be a non-anxious presence,

a community of compassion,

light in the darkness,

messengers of the best possible news,

the only hope of the world,

Jesus Christ?

What if we've merely been enduring

a season of pruning

in order that the Spirit of God

might produce an incredible crop

of fruitfulness?

What if what we thought

was nothing but crap

hitting the fan

was God fertilizing the soil

that we've been standing in

for a season of revival?

Now, I understand that for some of us

in this room, revival

doesn't exactly excite you

as it does me.

Maybe you're here

and you're not even sure

you believe in God,

let alone that you need

some kind of spiritual awakening

in your life or in your community.

Maybe you're thinking,

isn't revival just for religious people?

And if that's you,

what I want to say to you today

is that sure,

we do long for spiritual renewal

in our church

and in our community

and for you too individually.

But make no mistake,

when true revival happens,

it isn't merely an inward,

invisible, individualistic experience,

but it always results

in the good of the city.

In the early church,

when the Spirit came upon the apostles,

the sick were healed,

the lame walked,

and as one witness wrote,

God's grace was so powerfully

at work in them all

that there were no needy persons

among them.

For from time to time,

those who owned land or houses

sold them,

brought the money from the sales

and put it at the apostles' feet

and it was distributed

to anyone who had need.

And even when the church

was persecuted

and scattered,

the apostle Philip,

he went out to another city

and the same witness writes,

when the crowds heard Philip

and saw the signs he performed,

they all paid close attention

to what he said.

For with shrieks,

impure spirits came out of many

and many who were paralyzed

or lame were healed.

So there was great joy

in that city.

So there was great joy

in that city.

I love that,

don't you?

Or take the more recent example

of the Second Great Awakening,

right,

which historians acknowledge

as significantly serving,

supporting,

and inspiring

the abolitionist movement

and women's right movement

in the 19th century.

See,

when the Spirit of God

comes in power

to bring revival,

the result isn't just

a spiritual renovation

within the hearts

of religious people.

But it's a holistic renovation

of whole communities.

So like,

even if you don't consider

yourself religious,

don't you want

this revival

that we're searching for?

We're not after

something purely religious

or spiritual,

we're after a sign

and a taste

of the new creation

that Jesus Christ

has promised us.

Now maybe you are

a Christian,

but you still

hear this word revival

and it just sounds

like such a super churchy

word to you.

It reminds you

of huge tent meetings,

naive,

mindless crowds,

inauthentic,

emotional outbursts,

and just religious fanaticism.

Maybe you hear us

talking about revival

and you want to put up

your defenses

against the threat

of manipulation

and peer pressure

all under the guise

of God's Spirit.

You know,

I would say

that you're right.

You're right to put up

your defenses

because in church history

there have been

Christians and churches

who've tried to force

the hand of God

and conjure up His Spirit

and harness His power

and His presence

by their own,

you know,

manipulative techniques.

The sad reality

is that a big temptation

for those of us

who seek revival

has been to seek it

by mere technique,

as if we could reduce it

to a formula.

And we can see this

in so much

of the American church

with its modern faith

in technology

and its modern conception

of productivity.

So much of the American church

has become distracted, right?

Groping around

for the next new thing,

whether it's the next

church growth strategy

or just some other

yet-to-be-revealed

silver bullet

that will somehow

catalyze a revival

like never before.

But I want to assure you

today that that is not

at all what we're after

here at Christ Church.

A new next thing

that will generate

some kind of desired outcome

that we can call

a revival

and then pat ourselves

on the back

for stirring up.

Now churches

that focus merely

on new techniques

only ever end up

either looking like

lame posers,

always copying

but never creating culture,

always behind

the most recent

cultural trends

and just trying to catch up

but never really figuring out

who they are

and who God

wants them to be,

or we just end up

looking no different

from the world around us.

A church that's in the world

and of the world

just uncritically adopting

wholesale one ideology

after another

either on the left

or the right.

Now this is not to say

that we should be

anti-technique

and anti-innovation.

Can innovative technology

serve the movement

of revival?

Yes.

And please,

think about the printing press.

Right?

Without the printing press

will you have

the Protestant Reformation

as it was?

The Bibles in the hands

of common people,

right?

Feeding upon the very

words of God

for themselves.

Blooming into

a literate

and increasingly

democratized society.

I'm not saying

that we should be

anti-technique

and I even pray

for innovation

and creativity

in our church

as we seek revival.

But what we need

to understand

is that revival

can't be manufactured.

It can't be manufactured

by manipulation,

by applying

the fanciest,

most sophisticated,

innovative technique

to stir up

some kind of

religious fervor.

At Christ Church East Bay,

we are not after

the newest,

next thing

that will bring us

to new heights.

Now, in our pursuit

of revival,

we aren't primarily

looking for something new.

We're looking for

something ancient.

Not something fancy,

something fundamental.

Not something sophisticated,

something simple,

not necessarily posh,

but definitely profound.

Revival is not so much

about newness,

but I prefer to talk

about it as freshness.

Revival isn't about

coming upon something

that's brand spanking new.

It's about experiencing

a fresh,

something which had

previously become

stale.

So you see,

the secret sauce

for revival

isn't for us

to figure out

again and again

and again.

The recipe,

it hasn't changed.

Revival will only happen

when people are brought

back to the most basic,

the most necessary truth

that the world

truly needs

and that's the gospel.

That Jesus Christ

of Nazareth,

crucified and risen,

is Lord.

At the center

of revival

is a white hot faith

in this ancient

and basic truth

of Christianity,

a fresh and burning

passion concerning

our most basic conviction,

the deep, deep conviction

that Jesus truly is Lord

and that that is

the best news

for the world.

and that there is

no more basic,

no more ultimate,

no more all-controlling

truth than that.

Revival happens

when people awaken

to the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ.

Christ Jesus

as their Lord

and strain forward

to know Him more,

to experience His presence

and His power

by any means possible,

no matter the cost,

even at the cost

of suffering,

even at the cost

of their own lives.

And see,

that is why we are

turning to chapter 3

of Paul's letter

to the Philippians today

because Paul understood this.

Paul understood

that Jesus,

Jesus has to be

everything to us.

He has to be

everything to us.

Like,

Jesus plus nothing

equals everything.

And everything

minus Jesus

equals nothing.

Jesus plus nothing

equals everything,

and everything

minus Jesus

equals nothing.

Now listen again

to these divinely inspired words

from the Apostle Paul.

But whatever gain I had,

I counted as loss

for the sake of Christ.

Indeed,

I count everything

as loss

because of the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ Jesus,

my Lord.

Lord,

for his sake,

I have suffered

the loss

of all things

and count them

as rubbish

in order that I may gain

Christ

and be found in him.

Not having a righteousness

of my own

that comes from the law,

but the righteousness

from God

that depends

on faith,

that I may know him

and the power

of his resurrection

and may share

his sufferings,

becoming like him

in his death,

that by any means possible,

I may attain

the resurrection

from the dead.

Not that I have already

obtained it

or am already perfect,

but I press on

to make it my own

because Christ Jesus

has made me

his own.

Brothers,

I do not consider

that I have already

made it my own,

but one thing,

one thing I do,

forgetting what lies

behind

and straining forward

to what lies ahead,

I press on

for the goal,

toward the goal,

for the prize

of the upward call

of God

in Christ Jesus.

Wow, right.

That is the word

of God.

If you are not

a Christian,

I have no expectation

that you would even

remotely consider

to take such words

upon your lips.

But if you are

a Christian today,

even as scary

and radical

and extreme

as this sounds,

doesn't it also

sound right?

Doesn't it also

sound good?

And even as far

away from this sentiment

as you might feel,

don't you want to feel

what Paul feels

for Christ?

Even if you

don't identify

with Christ,

don't you want to feel

this way about

something?

Something that you

believe will change

the world?

I mean, Christchurch,

can you imagine

if we took these words

upon our own lips

and upon our hearts,

if this high-achieving,

highly educated,

highly successful

community

of Jesus' followers,

just two blocks

north of the number

one public university

in the nation,

Go Bears.

Can you imagine

what God might do

in a family of faith

who believed

what Paul believed

about Jesus Christ?

These words

are not just

the words

of a super saint,

holy man, apostle.

They were meant

for our lips,

for our hearts

as well.

This is the kindling

of revival,

the stuff revival

is made of.

Can you just

imagine with me

what a witness

to the world

we might be

if we really believed

that Jesus

plus nothing

equals everything

and that everything

minus Jesus

equals nothing?

Now maybe you're here

and you're hesitant

because you feel like

you have too much

to lose,

but take it from Paul.

He had it all

and yet to him,

Jesus was more.

Verse 7,

but whatever gain,

like whatever successes

and achievements

and merits and profits

and advantages

I had, he says,

I counted as loss

for the sake of Christ.

Verse 8,

indeed, he says,

he counted everything

as loss

because the surpassing worth

of knowing Christ Jesus

as his Lord.

And you have to understand

that this was a man

who had major gains,

major advantages.

The word for gain here

is plural,

major achievements,

major merits.

This was one of the greatest minds,

if not the greatest mind

in the first century ancient world.

Perhaps the greatest Jewish scholar

and adherent of all time.

Nobody knew the Jewish faith

better than Paul.

Nobody lived the Jewish faith

better than Paul.

According to the metrics

and the standards

of his community

and in the highest courts

of Jewish opinion,

Paul was at the very top.

in education,

in knowledge,

in lifestyle,

in reputation,

in status,

and passion,

and integrity.

He literally made it

to the top of the ladder.

He had actually achieved

his highest life's ambitions.

He made it.

He had finally made his parents

as proud as possible.

He had finally won

the highest respect

of the most esteemed colleagues

and peers and mentors.

There is no higher status

for him to achieve

in his career

and in his community.

Can you imagine that?

Being the most highly educated,

most professionally successful,

most reputable person

in your community,

the best doctor,

lawyer,

entrepreneur,

academic,

investor,

executive,

maybe on the cover

of Forbes or Time Magazine,

the expert of your field.

And the most upstanding,

upright,

and admirable person at that,

living up to the highest,

most rigorous,

moral,

and ethical standards,

blameless,

under the most intense scrutiny.

This is who Apostle Paul was.

And yet,

for the sake of Christ,

all those gains,

whatever gains he had,

he counted them as loss.

Even the best things he had,

as loss.

Even as disadvantages.

This superstar who had come

into a position and status

that most of us can only dream

of arriving at,

in which anyone else

in his position

could justifiably lord themselves

over all those

they'd surpassed in merit,

he had discovered something,

someone,

even higher.

A higher lord,

far surpassing himself,

Jesus Christ.

A lord so high,

so preeminent,

that in comparison,

all he ever achieved

was nothing but loss

and disadvantage,

and even rubbish,

he says.

In the Greek,

skubala,

literally trash,

or even human excrement.

For Apostle Paul,

Jesus plus nothing

equaled everything,

and everything minus Jesus

equaled nothing.

For Apostle Paul,

knowing Jesus,

fundamentally changed

how he counted

and evaluated himself

and everything else.

You see,

Paul's eyes were opened

by the Spirit of God

to revalue

all that he had once

considered good

and profitable

and advantageous.

That's what he's getting at here

in verse 10

when he talks about

these two different kinds

of righteousness.

He talks about these

two different kinds

of righteousness, right?

Not the kind of righteousness

that comes from the law,

but the righteousness

that comes through faith

in Jesus.

And if this righteousness language

is kind of unfamiliar to you,

I love how Tim Keller

describes it.

He says,

everybody has a slightly

different set of things,

but fundamentally,

all of us seek

to earn our own righteousness.

All of us use a resume

by which we seek

to face the world,

ourselves, and God.

It's how we get in.

Paul says,

everybody does it.

It's your most fundamental need.

You know you're naked

and you're trying

to clothe yourself

with your righteousness.

You know in yourself

you have to find some way

to recommend yourself,

and so you're trying

to cover yourself

with your resume.

Adam and Eve

put fig leaves on,

but what those were

were resumes.

They have to cover

their nakedness.

They want to say,

this is why you should accept me.

We say that to God.

We say that to the world.

We even say it to ourselves.

We all have a set.

It's the most fundamental need

we have, he says.

For Paul,

his righteousness

was previously wrapped up

in just being super Jewish, right?

The Hebrew of Hebrews.

That's where he placed

his confidence.

That's where he understood

his value to be.

in his knowledgeable,

obedient,

and zealous posture

toward the religious law

of the Jewish faith.

And his resume was nice

and it was clean

and it was impressive.

But how long

could he sustain it?

Could he keep the pace?

Could he climb

that ladder forever?

And also I want to ask,

what kind of person

did it make him?

Well, the kind of person

that looked down

on those who weren't

as far up on the ladder

as he was, right?

The kind of person

who went and persecuted

and sought to kill

those who he believed

threatened his Jewish identity.

Those who threatened

his understanding

of his own righteousness.

But then he met Jesus.

But then when he met Jesus,

right,

the standard of his confidence

and value

was completely,

it was turned upside down.

No longer depending

upon his achievements

and his merits

and his Jewish identity,

but rather on Jesus alone.

He boldly transferred

his faith

from dependence upon himself

and his own righteousness

to dependence on Jesus

and Jesus' righteousness.

And see,

this is the stuff

that revivals are made of.

The gospel.

The gospel.

Because you see,

you have to understand

how liberating this must have been

for Apostle Paul.

Yeah, sure,

maybe he was on the top

of the ladder at one point,

but still,

he was always just

one bad homily,

one bad sermon,

one moral failure,

one newer, smarter,

better-read Pharisee

away from being knocked off

from the top of the ladder, right?

When Jesus came into his life

and radically changed

how he valued everything

he'd once prized,

you see what happened here?

He was actually liberated

when he repented

of his righteousness.

He was liberated

when he repented

of his righteousness,

when he repented

of all his dependence

upon all his goodness

and his smarts

and his achievements.

It was only when he changed

the scales

by which he once measured

and evaluated all things

and adopted God's scales

instead of his own.

It was only then

that he could really come

to know Christ

for who he really was.

And as it says in verse 11,

the power of his resurrection.

See, Paul had to die

to the old value system

he had given everything

to win at.

And yet it was precisely

when Paul died to himself,

putting to death

all he had previously worked for,

that he was able

to experience

the resurrection power

of Jesus Christ.

Gladly sharing in his sufferings,

becoming like him

in his death.

So what?

By any means possible,

Paul attaining

to the resurrection

from the dead.

And maybe you're here today

and you can't make up your mind.

You want to know Jesus

a little bit more,

but you don't want

to go so deep, right?

You're afraid

that you'll lose everything

just like Paul did.

And you're not sure

if you're ready

to go that far.

You've climbed up

the ladder pretty far,

invested too much

in your own righteousness

to throw it all away.

You've done well

for yourself.

You played the game well

and you're quite proud

of your resume.

But the question

I want to ask you

is how are you handling

the anxiety

of that one

personal failure,

that one accident

on the surgery table,

that one flawed

legal argument,

that one bad investment,

that one bad business decision,

that one bad exam score

that haunts you?

And another question,

what are you going to do

if and when

you fall from the ladder?

What guarantee do you have

that you can

and will rise again?

I was actually reminded

of this ladder image

by one of my best friends

in seminary.

Her name is Esther Liu

and she's coming out

with a book next month

that I have been able

to read in advance.

It's called Shame,

Being Known and Loved

and I highly recommend it.

You can pre-order it now.

But borrowing from

our late great professor,

David Pallison,

she writes this,

Each ladder represents

a standard we live by,

whether it be physical beauty,

intelligence,

ministry success,

or something else.

The higher you are

on the ladder,

the better you feel

about yourself.

The lower you are,

the more you feel resigned

to a lesser,

shame-filled life.

We tend to look

at the people above us

on our ladders

and feel self-condemnation

or envy.

We look at the people

far below us

and feel superior,

even judgmental.

We look at the people

right under us

and worry that they

might surpass us.

And then she writes,

Ladder climbing

doesn't ultimately

deliver on its promises.

It doesn't provide

true and abiding freedom,

peace,

and contentment,

even if you reach

the top.

That's why Pallison

calls these

the ladders

to nowhere.

That's why I often

call ladder climbing

the ladder game

of hell,

because there is

something hellish

about this self-reliant,

anxious striving

that does not

ultimately rescue you

from shame.

Some of us

are working hard

to climb ladders

but are losing hope.

Some of us

have given up,

resigned to our shame.

Others of us

may have made it

relatively high

on our ladders

only to find

our sense of insecurity

isn't cured up there.

But,

she writes,

but knowing God,

being in relationship

with Him,

and praising Him

help us

to step off

our ladders

to nowhere.

So,

if you have ears

to hear,

God's word to us

today is that

we will only ever

experience the

imperishable

resurrection life

of Christ

if we will die

with Him

to the faulty

systems of this

world that only

oppress us

and leave us

eternally anxious.

Jesus invites us

to step off

of our hellish

ladders to nowhere

and to receive

the righteousness

that comes from God,

that depends on faith

and not on ourselves,

and this is

the gospel.

That Christ's

resurrection

can be for us

because His death

was for us.

That by faith alone

we can be united

with Him

in both His death

and His resurrection.

Now,

I want to close

by looking at

the last three

verses here.

You know,

a common misconception

that our faith

in Christ,

a common misconception

is that our faith

in Christ

is simply a passive

thing.

Like just hopping

on a surfboard

and riding the wave

to the shore.

But while our

faithfulness could

never earn

or merit

or put God

into our debt,

our faithfulness

and our pressing

onward,

straining to go

deeper with Christ,

it's always assumed

in a genuine faith.

That's why Paul says

in verse 12,

even with His faith

in Christ,

not that I have

already obtained it

or am already perfect,

but I press on

to make it my own

because Jesus

has made me His own.

Brothers,

I do not consider

that I have already

made it my own,

but one thing I do.

One thing.

I just love that.

Just one thing.

Again,

it's so simple,

but it's absolute

and totalizing, right?

Like what is our one thing,

whether you claim

to know Jesus or not?

What is the one thing

you resolve to do?

The one goal,

the one prize you're after.

Here's what Paul,

inspired by the Holy Spirit,

commends to us.

One thing I do,

verse 13,

forgetting what lies behind

and straining forward

to what lies ahead.

I press on

toward the goal

for the prize

of the upward call of God

in Christ Jesus.

So Christ Church,

as we seek revival,

it is absolutely true

that we cannot force

the hand of God.

We cannot manufacture

a revival

by our manipulative

techniques.

And it is absolutely true

that the resurrection life

we long to enjoy

and experience

can only be received

by faith.

But while we depend

fully on the work of God

to bring about

this revival

and to draw us

into his resurrection life,

we don't just passively

sit our butts

on our surfboards

bobbing up and down

in the open waters

of the ocean.

No.

We get on our bellies

and we paddle

along with the waves

that are headed

to the shore.

And we take risks

and we stand up,

straining forward

to enjoy

the full experience

of riding the wave

of God's Spirit.

Don't you want that?

Don't you want that?

The Lord Jesus

has made us his own.

So let's press on

to make him our own,

no matter the cost.

For if Jesus

has suffered the loss

of all things

unto death

to secure for us

an imperishable

resurrection life,

surely it is worth it

for us

to count all our gains

as loss,

everything as rubbish,

to share in his sufferings,

becoming like him

in his death,

that we may know him

and by any means

possible

that we may know

the power

of his resurrection.

Christchurch,

this is a season

to lean in,

to lean in,

to revival,

to lean into the rhythms

of the church together,

to seek the face of God,

that we may know him

and the power

of his resurrection.

Will you pray with me?

Lord God,

make this our prayer

that we may know you,

that we may count

everything as rubbish.

Put these words

upon our lips

and our hearts.

Give us a yearning

to know Christ

and the power

of his resurrection.

give us a willingness

to count everything

as rubbish

compared to the surpassing

worth of knowing him.

God,

some of us here

do not yet know Christ.

I pray that they would

come to know him

and the power

of his resurrection.

And God,

some of us here

may not even know

we don't actually know

Christ.

Some of us here

might be confusing

knowledge about him

with a personal relationship

with him.

And so I pray

that you would reveal

that to us today.

That we would all heed

your invitation

to strain forward,

to take hold

of the one

who has taken hold

of us.

Lord,

I pray for those

who need to hear

your commands

to forget what lies behind.

Those of us

who are depending

on our own righteousness,

confident in our own goodness,

or maybe relying

on some past experience

with you,

but not currently

walking with you,

straining forward

to what lies ahead.

Oh Lord,

stir us up

to strain forward,

to press on

for the precious prize

of just being near to you,

experiencing more

of you.

And God,

lastly,

I want to pray

for those of us here

who need to hear

your permission.

Your permission

to forget

what lies behind.

Those of us

who have fallen off

of our ladders

more times

than we can count.

Those of us

who hear nothing

but the lies

of the evil one

and our self-condemning

hearts telling us

that we can never

take hold of this prize

that is union

and communion

with Christ Jesus.

Oh Lord,

help us to forget

all of that,

to leave it all

behind us

and to jump

off our ladders

into your arms

that we might experience

how you have already

taken hold of us

and would that only

drive us deeper

into your embrace,

Lord.

We pray this

in the mighty name

of Jesus.

Amen.