How to Lose Everything

Things can rob us of joy. They can be thieves that steal from us the joy that God desires us to have.

Things in themselves are not sinful. God made all things and in Genesis 1:31 He declares all that He has made is good. God knows that we need things to live.

According to 1 Timothy 6:17 God supplies all we need to enjoy life. In Luke 12:15 Jesus warns us that our lives don’t consist in the abundance of things that we possess. Quantity is no assurance of quality.

In Philippians 3:1-11 Paul deals with not putting confidence in the flesh or in our natural human resources. He shares how He wants Jesus more than anything and how much joy that brings.  

Philippians 3:1-3

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.

Paul reminds us to rejoice in the Lord. We are to rejoice because of:

Who Jesus is

What Jesus has done

What Jesus will do

We are to watch out for people who try and steal our joy.

These people who try and steal our joy do so by:

Trying and getting us to relate to God based on rules

Trying and getting us to focus on religion instead of relationship

Trying and making it all about ritual

If we are going to experience real joy, we will:

Worship God by the power of His Spirit

Honor God

Put no confidence in our natural human resources

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is rejoicing in Jesus and His grace, not our circumstances or our human resources.

Philippians 3:4-6

Though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more, circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

Paul points out that if anyone has reason to put confidence in himself, he did.

Paul was faultless in his relationship to the nation (the people of God).

He was a member of Israel, God’s chosen people.

He was a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

He was a Hebrew of Hebrews.

Paul was faultless in his relationship with the law.

He was circumcised on the eighth day.

He was a Pharisee.

He was perfect in his legalistic righteousness.

Paul was faultless in his relationship to Israel’s enemies.

He persecuted the church.

None of these things brought Paul joy or peace. They didn’t because he was using the wrong measuring stick.

Paul was outwardly obeying the demands of the law.

Paul inwardly was not experiencing the satisfaction of knowing God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is not depending on our efforts, but on the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

Philippians 3:7-11

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, 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 is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul first shares his losses:

What he had gained personally apart from Jesus

His reputation as a religious scholar

His reputation as a religious leader

His Jewish heritage

His religious achievement

Paul considered all of these that he once valued as loss and as rubbish or dung (I will let your mind translate that into 21^st century vernacular).

Paul lists his gains:
The knowledge of Jesus

The righteousness of Jesus

The fellowship with Jesus

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is giving up everything in our lives that is not of God and receiving what God wants to give us in Jesus.

Paul expresses his life goals in verse 10.

Paul wants to:

Know Jesus

Experience the power of Jesus’ resurrection

Share in suffering with Jesus over sin

Be like Jesus in His death (completely obedient to the Father)

Paul was able to desire these things and to experience these things because he had died to his old self, his old nature.

He had been crucified with Jesus and it was Jesus living in and through him.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is dying to our old self, our old nature and letting Jesus live His life through us.

 

Life to Paul was all about Jesus.

Life for us is to be all about Jesus.

With Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls

                                        Joe