Philippians Series Pt. 11 - Pastor Greg Addison - November 17, 2024

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Turn with me, if you will, in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

As uh we have been going through this study of Philippians, and we began praying with Brad and Matt and I talking with him about the timing of the ordination and all of that.

I skipped over this passage of scripture and held on to it just for today.

And so today, what I want to do is preach a message that uh is referred to sometimes as an ordination message.

It's something that's pastor to pastor that shares those principles of scripture for us as ministers.

But I talked about this calling, it's not some unique thing.

We have people in our church who were called to teach the Bible in Sunday school groups.

We have people in our church who have taught for decades.

We have men who have been called as deacons and set apart.

And it's important that we understand these principles go beyond just Brad's life or me or Matt or Jared or whoever, that they apply to all of us as a part of our living worthy of the gospel.

It means something that we've given our lives to Christ and our lives are his.

When I was called to the ministry, I was 30 years old.

I was enjoying a career that I had spent my life wanting to be a part of and enjoying and all of that.

And the Lord showed up in my office one day and he had stirred my heart and he'd made it uncomfortable for me to do what I was doing just internally in my heart.

And he said, I want you to be a preacher.

And I said, No, I'm really, I'm really good when I'm doing.

Lord, you bless me and it's good.

And he said, I want you to be a preacher.

And I said, Listen, I'll tithe more, I'll do whatever you want me to do, stay where I am.

I want you to be a preacher.

And I said, Do you I just I struggled with it?

And then he said, Listen, son, whose life is it?

Well, when I was a nine and a half-year-old boy, I gave my life to Jesus Christ, and that means something.

And so when I gave my life to him, it was his and not mine anymore.

And so when it was time and he decided he wanted to do this with it, it was his life.

And so it means something for all of us when we have given our lives to Christ, just as that definition I gave you, it is that profound impression that God establishes parameters for your life.

And so some of you are, this will encourage you in your ministry as a leader in the church.

As we are growing as a church, many of you need to step forward into ministry or a higher level of ministry.

And these principles will guide you in listening to the Lord as he says, I want you to serve here.

I want you to serve here.

What I want to do is share with you five principles today from Philippians chapter 3 about how to live a life of impact until you're finished.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

As we know, Paul wrote this letter from prison.

In fact, in the beginning chapter, he says this my life is like a drink offering being poured out.

He is reminding Timothy that his life is not his own.

And he is in this predicament of being in prison because he has been a preacher of the gospel.

And his life is an offering back to the Lord for how Jesus saved him.

And so here he is at the end of his life, and he still has a passion for the gospel, a passion for Jesus.

He still has a passion for people to be saved, as we looked at in the first chapter of that letter.

He has a passion for the church.

And so it's not just how to have an impact in a moment, but as we apply these principles, it's how we will have an impact to the finish.

Read with me in Philippians chapter 3, beginning in verse 12.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Paul says, Not that I have already reached the goal or that I am already fully mature, Paul, the apostle Paul says he is not yet fully mature.

But I make every effort to take hold of it.

What is he talking about?

He's talking about salvation and a life worthy of the gospel lived through Jesus.

He says, I make every effort to take hold of that because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

Brothers, I do not consider myself to have already taken a hold of that.

But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, all who are mature should think this way.

And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this to you also.

In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained.

In other words, you don't have to know everything about Scripture and all of the deep mysteries of God.

What you have to do is be faithful to what God has taught you, and he'll continue to teach you more.

When you get saved, you're not a theologian when you get saved.

In fact, Pastor I grew up used to tell us all the time people who lead someone to Christ get more excited for the person than the person who got saved because we know more about what happened to them, and they're just beginning the journey of learning.

And so what he says is, live up to what you know, what God has shared with you and taught you in your life, and as you do that, he will continue to teach you more as you grow.

For I've often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction, their God is their stomach, their glory is in their shame.

They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

Let me share with you just five of those principles to have spiritual impact and to be able to do that through the course of your life.

Principle number one, Brad to you and then other leaders in our church and church family, we are called to live a life that is not our own.

That is not our own.

Paul makes it very clear, I make every effort to take hold of this life, live for Jesus, because I have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

It is not our life.

In fact, the gospel makes it very clear how we're saved.

You come to the place where you realize, man, I'm a sinner.

I've got guilt.

There's judgment for my sin.

I have tried to cover it up, I've tried to fix it, I've tried whatever I've tried.

I realize that I cannot do anything about this sin.

And the wages of sin is death.

But Jesus loved me so much that he stepped out of heaven.

He lived a sinless life.

He went to the cross, and there he died a voluntary death.

There was no judgment attached to Jesus.

He would still be alive as a man today because he never sinned and he never faced that.

And yet he voluntarily went to the cross.

Jesus said very clearly to his followers, No one takes my life.

I freely give it.

On the cross, hanging on the cross, the Bible says that Jesus cried out aloud so that everyone can hear.

And then he gave up his spirit.

He was making clear to everyone I am not expiring on this cross.

I am still alive.

I'm still here.

And now it is finished as I give my life up.

He paid the price for sin, a human death, dying for human sin, but it was a death that had no judgment attached to it.

On what we refer to as Ezra, Jesus rose again, conquering death and sin, and now he offers to us salvation.

He offers us the opportunity to take my sin-filled life and exchange it for Jesus' death on the cross.

In his life, when God looks at me now from heaven, he sees me through the shed blood of Jesus and the righteousness of Jesus.

It is what he did on the cross that saves me.

No longer do I have to try to grope around finding some way to forgive myself or deal with my sin because Jesus paid it all.

Now, how do we accept that salvation?

Jesus said, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, like we just described, that whosoever believes in him will never perish.

What does that belief mean?

Well, he says in the book of Romans very clearly, if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved.

And the first component of that is I take my life, everything I have been, everything I am, and everything I ever will be, and I give it all to Jesus.

It's all his.

I don't own any of it any longer.

And I do that because I believe that he died and rose again.

That is a factual event of history that occurred so that we could be saved.

And you give your life to Christ.

And so Paul says it right here.

I make every effort to take hold of this life because I have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

We should never, ever, ever forget or walk away from the truth that our life is not our own.

So, Brad, your life was not your own when you gave your life to Christ.

But now your professional life and your calling is not your own.

You go where God calls you to go.

You've given him a blank check.

You follow that calling because it's not your life, it's Jesus' life.

If you're called to teach Sunday school, if you're called to be a deacon, if you have a place of service here and it's a place of passion that you feel like God has directed you, listen, we need to live that life and serve in that spot because Jesus took hold of your life for you to do that through his power.

It is his life, not ours.

When we preach the gospel, we have to make it very clear.

You take your life, everything you've been, you are, and you ever will be, and you give it all to Jesus.

But here's the beauty of it.

Listen to me.

Brad, Emma, church family.

God will do more with your life than you could ever plan, dream, or imagine.

There is no better life for you to live than the one God has taken hold of you for and to live.

And so we must, as Paul says, live a life that is not our own.

Principle number two.

It follows directly from principle number one.

And it is this that you must pursue and live out your Christian walk with Jesus with a relentless focus.

Listen to what he says.

This is Paul, church planter Paul.

This is Paul that God called and set up to lead the gospel around the known world.

This is Paul that God is using to write half of the New Testament.

This is Paul that is elevated to that position of people that we all look up to.

The church has always looked up to as that leader.

And here's what he says: I have not reached the goal.

I've not reached it.

I am still pursuing.

He repeats it, what he says in verse 12.

He repeats again in verse 13.

I do not consider myself to have taken a hold of it, but one thing I do.

Only one thing.

And then he defines that one thing all throughout this chapter.

And time doesn't give us a chance to go through all those things, but look what he says here in verse 14.

I pursue as my goal the prize.

The prize.

Every sacrifice I've ever made.

It doesn't matter how many good things have happened or what I've seen happen.

I have not reached that goal because he has such a lofty picture of what it means to walk with Jesus.

Because he has seen who Jesus is and what he's done.

He cannot get enough.

There is never a point where he has reached or plumbed the depths of the things that we learn from Jesus, or the grace, or the forgiveness, or the understanding of who he is.

Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

And to know him and to walk with him is a prize that is so incredible it can never be described.

It can never be attained in this life here.

We will never run out of things that Jesus wants to teach, show, do, how he wants to love us, how he wants to touch our lives.

Everything in our lives must be our walk with Jesus Christ.

All of our pursuit in life is how close can I be to Jesus?

What is Jesus doing in my life?

How do I grow?

We elevate the picture of what it means to be a Christian, of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

We elevate it to a prize to be pursued beyond all else.

We want nothing but to get a hold of Jesus.

It's important for us to call people to Jesus, for you to call students to Jesus next Wednesday night.

You've got to be holding on to the person of Jesus with everything that is in you.

If you're deacon in our church, if you're teaching Sunday school, if you're working as a door greeter, if you're keeping babies, all of that is ineffective unless it is flowing from our walk with Christ.

We have got to lay hold of Jesus and we have got to pursue him with everything we can possibly muster.

The life that we live has so much more distraction now, and there are so many more things, and there's so many things out there.

Let me just give you an example.

AI is a big thing, right?

Everybody's doing AI.

Janet and I went and got new phones because our phones, Noah had the same model when he got off the ark.

The phones that we had.

And they're trumpeting and they're doing all this.

Do you get a 16 or do you get a 15?

I'm like, I don't care.

I need to answer the phone.

I need to respond to my emails, and when my daughter sends me a picture of my grandson, I need it to look really good.

That's all I care.

That's all I need it to do, right?

Spider Solitaire every now and then is very appropriate.

But that's all I need it to do.

15 or 16, I don't care.

16 is designed with the new AI.

Whatever.

Okay, whatever.

I mean, that's all, you got all this stuff going on, and I get all the power of that, and I get the danger of that, and all this other kind of stuff.

And then I start listening to some of my pastor podcasts and some of the things, and they're telling me how AI can help me write sermons.

Well, y'all hear me every week.

You know I need a lot of help, right?

AI cannot replace your time with Jesus in the mornings.

AI has tools.

It's fine, and it's not a debate about that.

But what I'm saying is there are all kinds of distractions and there are all kinds of tools and there are all kinds of things, and all this stuff is coming at you all the time.

Forget what is behind and pursue it as your goal the prize of the heavenly calling, Jesus Christ, and his love for you.

Nothing can replace our individual relational pursuit of Jesus.

Principle number three.

Strive to live and serve with everything in you.

Look at what he says here.

Verse 12.

I make every effort.

I make every effort to take hold of.

So picture a sports analogy where you are striving with everything you have to get to the prize.

Can picture the Olympics as they were going on, and you had that incredible photo finish where it was barely the chest across.

You watch a guy strive with everything he's got to get there.

He is reaching with all he has.

You've got to get the passion and the zeal in that picture.

One thing I do.

There's only one thing with a relentless focus, and that is in my pursuit of Jesus.

He says, I pursue.

That word right there has the same root word as the word persecute.

Paul, when he writes that, is thinking, I went from persecuting the church and chasing them down and putting them in jail to chasing lost people while I'm in jail.

So they can know Jesus.

He's got to see the juxtaposition of that word as he writes that.

It's the same word as prosecute.

It's the word with someone who is that zealot prosecutor who is trying to make an impact in society and they're trying to right the wrongs of evil and put people in jail.

It is everything that they have.

He is pursuing.

He is after it with all that is in him.

Man, we live in a world today where we are emotional wimps.

Hear the balance of this.

I understand that self-care is important and balance in life and all of that, and you must always have balance.

But there must be an aggression, a pursuit of ministry.

We need to serve whether you're a pastor on our staff or whether you're a Sunday school teacher.

We need to study the Bible and we need to teach the Bible because it may be the last time that somebody hears the gospel and they die and spend an eternity in hell.

And it's not a check in the box when we show up and give the next lesson.

There's got to be a pursuit and a passion and a drive to see people saved, to see people grow in the Lord.

Yes, we've got to have balance.

That's a part of walking with Jesus.

But if we're pursuing the walk with Jesus, it's going to stir our passion.

That's why he told Timothy in 1 Timothy and in 2 Timothy, stir up the gift that is in you.

Do not let the fire die.

It is important because, Brad, there are times that ministry is hard.

It is exhausting.

Other people get to go do things on lots of weekends that we don't get to do.

And when you come to church by yourself because everybody else went to the ballgame and went fishing, sometimes it's hard.

There are things we set aside.

There are all kinds of things like that.

And yet, if we are walking with Jesus and we're understanding this calling, we are going to pursue it with all that we have.

All that we have.

It's amazing when you hear people share testimonies about if they've been raised in church, it doesn't take very long for someone to start talking about the Sunday school teacher.

That God used to impact their life.

And you see this picture of how a Sunday school teacher pursues the spiritual growth of people that God has given them for a season of time.

It's incredible to see that.

And it's important in our lives that we understand that we strive and we work and we seek and we pray with effort to see people saved.

Principle number four.

We talked about this in ordination council this morning.

We serve with a singular focus for our people to walk with Jesus.

In every one of Paul's letters, you never get more than two pages without his passion for the church leaking out onto the page.

He is constantly speaking of, this is my prayer for you.

I want you to know Jesus.

I want you to affirm the power of Jesus in your life.

I want you to know the Jesus who can do all beyond you can think or imagine.

He brags on the church and people in the church in places where their passion is for the people around them to walk with Jesus and to grow to be like them.

Paul says in chapter one, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain, and he talks about I want to be with Jesus, that's that number two, where his walk with Jesus is so clear he can't wait to get into heaven.

Pastor, where I grew up, used to tell us all the time, listen, if I ever get sick, which he eventually did and died of cancer, when they when he would talk to us as his church, he'd say, Listen, if I ever get sick, don't you dare waste your breath praying to keep me out of heaven.

Someone who is that attached to Jesus, that's that passion to be there.

But listen to what he says.

With that kind of passion, I am pressured between two choices.

What two choices?

If I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me.

That means he is impacting them in their lives.

And as much as he desires to be with Jesus, he says, I am pressured.

I don't know which one of those to choose.

I have a desire to part and to be with Jesus, which is far better than continuing to be in prison in the middle of this life, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.

Since I am persuaded of this truth, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith.

We are shepherds.

I mean, I spend a lot of time doing budgets and renegotiating contracts and all kinds of stuff.

All of that is to get that junk out of the way so that the church works well so that our people can grow in the Lord.

I know your heart that it is for your students to know Jesus and to walk with him and don't lose that passion.

That is what we do.

Paul says here in chapter 3, join in imitating me, brothers, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.

He never loses sight of the church.

He never loses sight of leaders that he is affirming in their walk.

If you go back and read in chapter 2, and he talks about Epaphroditus, and he then talks about Timothy, and he describes them in terms of their love for the church.

When Paul elevates people, he is describing their love for the church.

Paul's love for people, his desire for them to walk with Jesus, it never gets far away from him.

And as shepherds, our calling is to passionately desire for our people to know Jesus and what that means in our lives.

It's not about us, it's not about our affirmations, it's not about any of that.

We want our people to flourish in their spiritual lives.

Sunday school teachers.

We have so many teachers that teach for that reason with that motivation and that passion.

We have people who've been rocking babies, singing Jesus loves me, so that those kids will begin from their earliest days hearing how much Jesus loves them.

We have people who are serving in our children's ministry, and they have been there decades because their greatest joy is when a boy or a girl comes to faith in Christ.

To listen to Steve Gaddis a couple of weeks ago talk about the bus ministry and what it means to see their kids saved.

I talked to a leader just this morning, somebody describing for me why they're involved with kids.

And they said, I have such ownership, and somebody's got to teach those kids, and I want them to know how to worship, and I want them to know what that means.

And in my heart to hear someone describe that kind of passion for kids to know what it means to worship Jesus.

That's why we do what we do.

Because we want you to know the height and depth and breadth of the love of Jesus.

You have that passion and it's been affirmed in your life and do not lose it.

And church family, those of you who teach Sunday school and teach that way, thank you for who you are and how you get that.

Principle number five.

Never, never, never forget that the gospel is not just that Jesus died, but that he rose again.

My favorite picture in Scripture is in 1 John chapter 1.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

When Jesus shows up with John and he is painted in this incredible picture of voice like thunder.

His eyes are like fire.

He's in his purity as the risen Savior, as the King of kings, and the Lord of Lords is so white.

The glory is so bright, John almost can't look at him when he speaks and he shows up in all of his glory.

The Bible says that John falls at his feet as if he is dead.

He is in fear.

He is in awe.

And Jesus, whom we love, reaches down and picks him up and says, Do not be afraid.

I am the Alpha and the Omega.

I was once dead and now I am alive and hold the keys to death and hell.

That is the Jesus that we preach and that we serve.

When we come to Jesus and we pray and ask his power, we are praying to show the Jesus on the cross, but we are praying to work in the resurrection power of the Jesus who is the King of kings and Lord of lords and conquered death and hell for all of eternity.

It is time we realize that we serve in the resurrection power of a Jesus who conquered death and sin.

Paul cannot stop when he's talking about this.

He says, I'm pursuing this heavenly call in Christ.

I am waiting for Jesus to come.

I want our people to know that.

Follow the people who know that Jesus, and then he can't stand it.

And the Holy Spirit lets him loose.

And he says, Our citizenship is in heaven.

It is in heaven.

Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He has gone to prepare a place for us, and we are looking for that return.

We are believing in a Jesus who conquered death and hell.

And he says, Listen, church family, we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are waiting for Him to return.

And then He describes His resurrection power.

He will take this body in this humble condition, and I've got this muscle right back here that hurts like the devil.

I didn't know it was there until I turned 55.

Somebody asked me, Why did you sell your Mustang and you bought a truck?

I was too embarrassed to tell you that it hurts to get in and out of a car that low because of that muscle I've just discovered.

I mean, I'm telling you, it's awful.

Every time I look in the mirror, I'm thinking, son, you are bald as a cue ball.

It's awful.

I look at this gray hair and I see all this, and Paul says, Jesus will take this humble body, and through his power, he will give us a resurrected body and life that will live for him forever in eternity.

He will change us forever.

And I'm going to preach now for just a minute.

It is time we realize that we serve a risen Savior.

Our hope is not in Washington, D.C.

I don't care who is there.

Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

He is on the throne.

It is Jesus that will transform us for eternity.

When we share the gospel, we are telling people hell is horrible and it is eternal.

But Jesus conquered death and sin for you.

And he is there waiting to transform you forever.

Next week is the third anniversary of my hero.

He did not die, he went to heaven.

He didn't pass away.

He got a transformed body that changed his life.

He met Jesus who saved him.

I know that heaven is real because my dad told me that no one will ever love you as much as Jesus.

And he lived it and he believed it, and I believe that I will see my dad again because God has promised to transform us for eternity.

And Brad, when you preach the gospel to students, I'm so sick and tired of skinny jeans and round tables, and you got to be conversational, all this kind of stuff.

Jesus conquered death and sin and you tell them.

And you tell them like you believe it.

When you're teaching Sunday school and you want your people to walk with Jesus, you tell them like you believe it that Jesus is alive and he's coming back.

And when we do ministry, we never walk away from the resurrection power of Jesus.

We will not ever serve in our own strength, Brad, when we are attached to this.

A lot of people can write a message, a lot of people can move a crowd, a lot of people can sing, a lot of people can do that.

There are people who fake ministry, they do it in their own strength.

So what Paul says by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

It is by the power of Jesus that we want to serve.

It is by the power of Jesus that we want our people to know Jesus.

It is by the power of Jesus that people are saved, and when we preach the gospel, we preach it under his power, and we never let go of his resurrection power.

And we rest in that and we prostrate ourselves to that and we depend on that by faith.

And that is what drives us, and that is what strengthens us, and that is what motivates us, and that is how we do what we do.

And then it does not matter how not good I am at this or how not good I am at that or how weak I am at that because it is no longer me, but it is the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.

And that's how lives are impacted.

I want to bless you if you're calling to ministry.

You represent these things.

Stay in them, walk in them.

Lead your wife and family in them as a model.

And it is our prayer that under resurrection power, you will see boys and girls and moms and dads saved for eternity by the resurrection power of Jesus.

Church families we close.

I can't even keep track of the number of times I've shared the gospel.

If you need Jesus, I want to invite you to be saved.

I want everyone to bow their head.

If you're watching on television or online, listen, Jesus conquered death and sin, and he will save you if you'll give him your life.

He has prepared eternity for you, as Paul said, and he will transform us in his resurrection power for eternity if you'll give him your life.

I'm going to pray.

God's people are going to stand and sing.

We'll have ministers at the head of our aisles.

If you need Jesus, I'm going to invite you to come.

If you're watching online and you need to be saved, right there where you are, you cry out to Jesus and He'll save you.

Lord, we love you.

And I pray that things I've messed up or not said well or that I've forgotten, the Holy Spirit will putty the cracks and we will go to the living, powerful word of God and see the prize of knowing you.

The heavenly call that Jesus calls us and offers to save us because he gave his life for us.

The truth of his resurrection power, that he can accomplish all.

And so no matter where we've been, no matter what we've done, Jesus can save us.

I pray that will be clear.

And if there are people here who need to be saved, if there are people online watching who need to be saved this morning, you will touch their lives, speak to their hearts and souls, draw them to you so they can be saved.

This is our prayer.

We pray in the name of Jesus and all God's people said.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.