“Becoming Like Christ- Regaining Intimacy”
“Because Being Like Me Just Aint Gonna Cut It”
Pastor Matt. October 23, 2005
Philippians 3:1-6
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following the law is not enough
to gain salvation
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having religion is not what it is all about
3:7
But whatever was to my profit
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legalism was for Paul’s personal gain
I now consider loss for the sake of Christ
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but that is not what Christ is about
3:8
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Paul ups the ante
I consider everything a loss (not just religion – everything
in his life that he did up until that point)
compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all things
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you might as well trade the world for Jesus
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up until that point, life meant nothing
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knowing Christ, my Lord is talking about a saving knowledge
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choosing to believe is worth trading it all away
…knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.
To choose Christ is to damage the old you, to throw the old
you in the trash. To distinctly leave behind the trashy you
I consider them (the old things) rubbish
DUNG
denotes “refuse,” whether
(a) “excrement,” that which is cast out from the body, or (b) “the leavings of a feast,” that which
is thrown away from the table.
“manure,” [1]
If doing all the right
things, having all the right religion is not worth anything, than what are we to do?
What are we to find
value in? How are we to live?
3:8b-9a
I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him
Our value is found when we find ourselves in Jesus.
We are not to fit the
mold of religion… we are to be like Jesus.
Jesus did not fit the mold of religion. (Remember that religion is man’s added rules not found in the Bible)
Who we really are is only truly realized when we are in Jesus…When
we live as Jesus wants us to be.
The real you is only found in Him.
Who you really
are is waiting to break out of the inside of you if you find yourself in Him.
The false, bad
you is not really you if you are not in Christ.
Be the amazing
person, God created you to be
Be like Jesus
3:9-10a
not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that
which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know
Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
Paul is already saved, but he wants to take things to the next
level.
His righteousness comes from faith in Jesus but his life is
to be lived as Christ would have him live it. This is done by knowing Christ
intimately.
If we truly understand
who Jesus is and what he did for you, the issue is never eternal security or works, rather, we want to live for Jesus. This life for Jesus is done by knowing Him intimately.
How intimate? How well are we to know Him?
9:10b -11:
And the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and
so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Fellowship: koinonia
Becoming like him: conforming/ changing/ from the word morphe
(metamorphosis – change from one thing to another)
We become like him
by doing the things He did and by following all his commands in obedience as Jesus did.
For some of you,
you need to put your faith in Jesus for the first time.
For some of you,
you have accepted Jesus but have not become like Him.
You need to return
to your faith.
You need to start
walking with him again.
For many of us,
Jesus is a far off relative. You’ve heard me say you need to be like him,
but you are so far away, you are not close,
An example of someone
who lost that closeness and is no longer walking in a relationship with Jesus:
Ephesians 6:23-24
Look at what happened to them:
Rev 2:1-7
- they held to their religion but fell from their first love
- they fell from their relationship
- that still had all the outward duties of a christian but they were missing
what was most important, their relationship with Jesus
What are we to do to return to Jesus
so we can start walking with Him again and learning to be like Him?
(5) Repent and do the things you did at
first
Everything always
starts with repentance
Change
without repentance is not genuine change, its just pretend change
We must be
broken before Him so we can surrender ourselves to Him so he can change us
What was it like
when you were first a Christian?
Do you remember…
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Soaking up the Word?
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Meditating on His love and what He did for you
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Remembering the fresh feeling of being forgiven and having your slate wiped
clean?
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Being involved in Bible study
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Serving others
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Times of prayer
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Times of seeking God for direction
Return to
those things and begin to restore your relationship with Jesus. You cant be like him if you are not close to him.
Start walking
with him again today.
Closing
Believe in Him
Return to Him
For those of you
who are walking with him, take some time to thank him for removing you from the rubbish. Thank Him for the person He will change you to be as you continue to walk with Him.
[1]Vine, W. E., Merrill F. Unger, and William White. Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary
of Old and New Testament Words, Vol. 2, Page 180. Nashville: T. Nelson, 1996.