Philippians: Righteousness in Loss

Well, we are making our way through the book, the letter of Philippians.

So it's Paul in prison writing a letter to his friend's church, the church at Philippi.

And this letter is just woven with the idea of joy over and over again.

Paul is dealing with issues in this church, and they're divided and they're having a hard time.

And he's writing them, trying to move them towards joy.

So he's trying to move them towards liberation and freedom.

And then this morning we get to Philippians chapter 3, and here we have this passage which is essentially about performancism.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

It's essentially about can you earn God's acceptance and love?

And can you as a human being earn value by what you do?

I ran into this quote this week in the New York Times, Aaron Callan.

She was the CFO of Lehman Brothers in like 2007, 2008, right?

Good time to be CFO of a massive bank in New York City.

Good timing for her.

After she transitioned out of that job and she was without work for a little bit, she wrote this article in the New York Times, and the title is Is There Life After Work?

And here's what she said in this short paragraph.

I didn't start out with the goal of devoting all of myself to my job.

It crept in over time.

Each year that went by, slight modifications became the new normal.

First, I spent a half hour on Sunday organizing my email to-do list and calendar to make Monday morning easier.

Then I was working a few hours on Sunday, then all day.

My boundaries slipped away until work was all that was left.

Inevitably, when I left my job, it devastated me.

I couldn't just rally and move on.

I did not know how to value who I was versus what I did.

What I did was who I was.

Okay, so maybe you're not a CFO in New York City.

Maybe you're a student, maybe you're in the arts, maybe you're in education, maybe you're raising kids, maybe you're in the business world.

No matter what, you know this thought, and I know this thought.

I do not know how to value who I am apart from what I do.

Equally as intellectual, I was watching Talladega Nights yesterday afternoon.

Equally insightful, Ricky Bobby is talking to a girl, and he says, You gotta win to get love.

I mean, that's just life.

Look at look at Don Shula, legendary coach, look at that Asian guy who holds the world record for eating all those hot dogs in a row, look at Rue McClanahan from Golden Girls, three people, all great champions, all loved.

Right?

The entire silly movie, which I watched about half of it yesterday afternoon, the entire silly movie is based on him getting over the idea of if you ain't first, you're last.

Right?

The whole movie is about him getting over that.

That if you don't perform, then you are not somebody.

So, how do you value who you are versus what you do?

Another way to say it is where do I find my identity?

Who am I?

What or who justifies me as a person of worth or value or meaning?

Can anything in my job do this?

Or is it something I produce?

Is it how I look?

Is it what I weigh?

Is it what I wear?

What about your religiosity or your morality or spiritual practice?

Is it that?

Is it the collection of that?

Is it the record of that?

Is it the resume of that?

And when is that enough?

When is that enough to be righteous?

Or when is that enough to be valuable or loved?

And so we're talking about performancism, which is the mistake.

Performances is the mistake to think you can find, I can find, love and value by your performance.

So achievements are not what we do, achievements are who we are.

So it would be like I do not just pastor at Christ the Redeemer, I am the pastor of Christ the Redeemer.

Or even worse, not just I am the pastor of Christ the Redeemer, I am my sermons at Christ the Redeemer.

Or I am the approval that gets created out of my sermons at Christ the Redeemer.

How do you value who you are versus what you do?

And you're very smart people, so it's all different for all of us how this plays out in your life.

Are you loved and secured as a child of God today based on your performance in any realm, secular or religious?

Do you feel exhausted because of that?

Or are you loved and secured today as a child of God based on Christ's performance for you, not your performance?

This is what Paul is speaking to in Philippians 3.

Now let's listen to verses 1 through 6 again.

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord to write the same thing to you, as no trouble to me, meaning, like the same thing, like Sam just read it, I have no trouble reading it to you again.

Like for him to say it again and again and again is no trouble and is safe for you.

Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

So he's saying, look out for all the people who are teaching you that behavior is the way in which you're going to get acceptance by God, righteousness by God, absolution forgiveness by God.

For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God.

He's saying we're different, we live by a different way, and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

No confidence, he's saying no confidence in what we do, though I might myself, here he goes, he's gonna say, here's my resume.

If you need a resume, here's what he says, verse 4, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

Circumcised on the day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, of Hebrew, of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under law, blameless.

So he says there's dogs, just dogs telling you, just telling you, be better, be more, be better, be more, and then then you'll be then you'll be valued, absolved, forgiven, whole.

And he says, ah he says it's loss, rubbish.

The actual word there is excrement.

Crap.

It's actually a stronger word than that, but I'll withhold.

And then that word righteousness, the whole passage is about this word righteousness.

And this word could, it means two things at the same time.

It means you're right standing before God, that you are righteous, you're right standing before God.

And it also means the core of who you are, that you are as you ought to be.

Now think of all the ways we go and try to figure that out in our lives.

All the ways we go and try to manufacture that and produce that.

How can I finally get to be how I ought to be?

And the dogs say, Oh, well, that's easy, just do more.

Do more, be more, the next achievement, the next thing.

And Paul says, all those gains, and he says, I got them.

I got those gains.

Really impressive stuff.

Excrement.

Verse 7 through 11, the rest of the passage, then I'll make a few points.

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

There it is.

I counted as, I count it as excrement.

Indeed, I count everything as lost 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.

I count them as excrement 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 that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know him and the power of resurrection, and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

So he says, My life is coming by Christ's work for me.

So a few points.

Number one, we all build stages and we all build resumes.

So there's a story.

There's a story, and it's about a guy who begins to walk up a hill.

And so he walks up the hill, he gets to the first cave.

In the first cave, there's a fitness trainer.

In the cave, that guy's in there, he's doing like caveman crossfit exercises in there.

He's getting big.

And the guy goes up to the CrossFit caveman and he says, Hey, I who am I?

And the fitness trainer says, Well, I can't answer that.

I have no answer for you.

You've got to go further up the hill.

And so he starts up the hill even further, and he keeps walking and walking, walking, gets to another cave.

He goes into the next cave, and then there is a career and financial consultant, the best of the best.

He could place him in the best job.

He could help him with his financial portfolio, he could get him exactly where he wants to go.

And the guy asks him, he says, Who am I?

And the consultant says, I can't answer that for you.

You got to go further up the hill.

And so he starts walking again, and he keeps walking.

He's walking up the hill and he keeps going and he goes on and on and on and he's getting more and more tired and more and more tired.

He gets into another cave.

He walks into the third cave, and then in there is his wife and his kids, and he looks at them and he says, Who am I?

And all of them look at him and say, We can't answer that for you.

You got to keep going up.

So he keeps walking.

He's going up this hill.

This hill turns into a mountains and then boulders begin, and he's climbing over, but he just has to get this question answered.

Who am I?

And who will answer this question?

And he keeps going, but he's getting more and more tired.

Eventually he gets to the end of himself.

He is exhausted by this.

And finally he lays down to die.

And just as he lays down to die, a lady approaches him.

A very normal-looking lady, but she's beaming with joy.

And he can barely get the question out.

And he says, Who am I?

And she smiles and says, Who's asking?

Now, before you think we all need to eat mushrooms in order to understand the story, we don't.

Meaning this, none of those people can answer that question.

None of those people can answer that question for you.

Asking the question to any of those other things never works.

It keeps you climbing.

The question can only be asked to the self.

When you ask it to the self, then may you have eyes in the grace of God to see your neediness.

That there's already been provision for this in Christ.

This question that we're going and we're just climbing mountains and asking people, and I mean all of this, all of this, there's already provision in Christ.

And Paul says, everything else is rubbish.

All these other things are they're idols in this way.

We build them up and we serve them and we spend energy before them and then and then we show them off to each other.

We like to do that, we show them off to each other, and it's waste, it's the waste, it's energy waste, it's life waste.

It's asking a question to all these things that they never have an answer for.

So, point number one, we we all build stages and resumes.

We all do this, we're all we're all doing this.

Point number two, the stage in the resume, so all that stuff can be both good and can be excrement.

Right?

Paul listed a bunch of good stuff, but then he calls it rubbish.

So maybe you're here, you said, ah, sounds like you're dumping on achievement and morality and goodness and like accomplishing things and nice things.

I'm not.

Hey, we celebrated our anniversary and Highlands on Friday.

We had a that was great.

I had a great quiet time while I was there and had some good prayer time and read some.

That was great.

Spiritual practice, that was great.

I worked in my sermon yesterday, that was work, that was great.

Those are good things, right?

Like, see, the spiritual practices and achievement and the career and the family and the money, all that's not the problem.

That's not the problem.

None of that's actually the problem.

The problem is how we think about those things and how we use them.

I mean, are you do we ask those things the question, who am I?

See, they can but they can be both good and excrement, depending on how we think about them.

Do we turn them into idols, or do we just let them be what they are, which is part of life?

Point number three, the rescue, here's the relief in this process, right?

It's where Paul is trying to lead us.

The rescue is to stop asking gods, little G, the rescue is to stop asking gods who you are and begin being found in God.

The rescue is stop asking gods who you are and begin being found in God.

Verses eight and nine there.

I counted all loss as to gain Christ and be found in Him.

So I worked up just a little illustration here for us.

I found Dora last night in the playroom.

Dora, work with me.

If you have boys, sorry, no G.I.

Joe in our house, just Dora.

So here's Dora.

And let's find Dora's now found in the glass, right?

Dora's found in the glass.

When when I see Dora, I see the glass.

When I see the glass, I see Dora.

No other way around it.

She is found in the glass, right?

This is this is how we are in Christ.

When God sees you, however short you fall of the law, however short you fall of what you should be doing and how you ought to be, when God sees you, if you're found in Christ, he sees Christ, and when he sees Christ, he sees you.

And that is liberation.

That is incredibly, incredibly liberating.

It's the great secret of life that our culture and our world never tells us that your identity and your wholeness and your righteousness is never earned.

Never earned.

Your identity and your righteousness is a gift given.

That's the rescue.

That you already have what you need.

That's the rescue.

Now you can begin to understand who you already are.

In John 12, there's this story, Jesus is eating with his friends.

Maybe you remember if you've been around church.

So he's eating with his friends, and then Mary, this lady, she goes and she goes and she gets this jar of perfume, like really, really expensive perfume, and she dumps it.

She dumps it on Jesus' feet, just empties it out, and then she gets her hair and she starts to clean and wipe his feet with her hair.

And then Judas is there.

I mean, Lazarus is there, sorry.

I'm getting very confused.

Judas is there, and Judas, who is about to betray Jesus, and he says, Hey, that's a lot of waste.

Like, I mean, Jesus, come on.

Like, she dumped.

We could have, we could have sold that jar and we could have given that money away.

Of course, he didn't really want to do that.

Like, I mean, he had other motives, but he's he had a good point.

This is a good point, right?

Judas had a good point.

Look at all this waste of a good thing.

Right?

Get your priorities straight.

Have good stewardship, Mary.

Be a better steward.

That's the message, right?

I mean, this is this is often a message.

Be a better mother, be a better worker, and then cash that in, right?

Then cash that in for value.

But don't empty out.

Don't let go of the goodness.

Don't let go of that.

But Jesus defends her.

And what this story is about is a story about us emptying ourselves, even the good things, us emptying ourselves and counting nothing, nothing as our source of righteousness and identity and wholeness.

Except God's absolution and acceptance and love for us in Jesus.

Anything else is just climbing a hill, going into a cave, climbing a hill, going into a cave.

Who am I?

Who am I?

Who am I?

Every night this week, my four-year-old, I guess it started last Sunday night.

We did it for about three or four nights in a row.

She demanded us to go find this book, Tangle Fairies.

Don't know how it ended up at our house.

Somebody must have given it to us or something.

I don't remember buying it.

But this one particular book, I got it on our mind.

I'm like, hey, whatever books are in the bed, this is what we're doing.

Let's, you know.

And she's like, no, Tangle Fairies are where at the bookshelf find this out of like 200 books.

You know, that's fun to do, just a little slender binder here.

And so we're looking for it.

We find it back in the bed.

We read the book.

She's still four, so I can read like every other line, and she has no idea.

Just you know what I'm talking about, parents.

You've done the same thing.

And she doesn't know.

I can kind of, you know, get the plot together by the end of it.

And so I'm reading this.

She loves this story.

Now, what the story's about, it's about some fairies that live inside of your hair, right?

And they're asleep during the day, and then at night, when you go to sleep, they wake up and they play badminton and they swing and they do all sorts of fun stuff.

Wow, she sounds so creepy to me that a kid, that a child would want that like this this would be something you want to hear before you go to sleep.

But she loves it, they love it.

And then by the time you wake up, the tangled fairies go back to sleep, and that's why your hair is tangled in the morning.

It's a good, creepy, good idea for a book.

And she loves it.

And we read it over, and then she asks for it like four nights in a row.

And we read it over and over and over and over again, and she loves it.

And she laughs all over again.

She laughs at the same place that she laughs.

She gets caught up in the story over and over and over again.

I say that because I told you two stories today.

I don't know if you picked up on it.

It wasn't like, oh, that Jesus story with Mary, and then you told another story.

No, I told you two arcing narratives for life today.

And it's two stories we hear over and over.

And we one we hear over and over again, and we need to learn how to hear it, spot it, and turn from it.

And the other, we need to move towards and remember it over and over and over again.

Because one is a story from our world about how you will form your righteousness and your value and your identity via secular and religious means based on performances and what you do and your stage and your resume.

And it will exhaust you, it will kill you.

And the other is the gospel story.

What Christ did for you.

And that story we need to hear over and over and over again.

That which you're looking for, you already are in Christ.

Though I'm more flawed than I originally thought, I'm more loved by God in Christ Jesus than I ever dared to dream.

And now what I know is I know we switch between stories all the time, right?

I mean, it's almost as just like driving down the road and you get tired of one audiobook, so you switch to the other one, then you switch to the other.

Like we do that, that's what we're constantly doing.

The good news, the remarkable grace, is that the gospel story for you is just as true when you're listening to the world story than when you're listening to the gospel story.

It's still true for you.

Like when God looks at you in the glass, he sees you when he sees Christ, and when he sees Christ, he sees you.

So go for it.

Go for it.

Achieve, save money, give money.

Live, have spiritual practices.

Those are part of a fruit of grace.

You're gonna suffer along the way.

That's part of life too.

But none of it is for your righteousness.

None of it is for your identity.

None of it, none of it is for the wholeness that we all crave.

The core of who you are has already been spoken for by God in Christ.

So, my brothers and sisters, may you be awakened to the gift of counting all things as lost, that you might know Christ in greater and greater ways.

Let's pray together.

Jesus, thank you for your sufficiency for us.

For we need it greatly.

We confess that we do climb, constantly climb hills and wander into different places and ask all sorts of things, idols, little gods, who am I?

Who am I?

Who am I?

Who am I?

Help us.

Help us to turn from that pursuit back to where we already are, deemed righteous, deemed whole by you, that we are found in Christ, that we are not scored or measured by our performance in this world, but we are yours, secure and beloved.

Forgive us for the ways that we turn from you and use other things as gods and saviors.

And help us in our walk of faith to trust in you in greater ways.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.