- Good morning. Just so you know, we're all on the same page as we start here today. This is the third service for those of you that were looking at this being the second service, okay, good to see you all. Welcome and just delighted to have you with us in this room and also worshiping with us down in the warehouse. I want you to take your Bibles out right away today and I want you to go to Philippians chapter three, locate verse one, you're welcome to use your electronic version. You can use the Bible you brought in here. If you want to use the chair Bible in front of you, it's page 981. And you'll find Philippians 3:1. Rockpoint Church, we love jumping into God's word, that's really our text for life. And so that's what we're going to do today. I also want to encourage you to take your notes out and a pen. There will be some things you're going to want to write down this morning, as we work through a topic that I think is absolutely essential for the Christian faith. Now, the disciples were living on the edge of anticipation. Jesus Christ died, he rose and he had spent 40 days talking to them about the coming Kingdom of God. So it is understandable by the time you get to Acts 1:6, that they're saying, "Lord, is this the moment? "Is this the time when you're going to set up "your physical Kingdom here on Earth. "Rome is going to be kicked out of here, "and we're going to get the ball rolling." And they were greatly anticipating. It's interesting to hear Jesus response or see it when we read it in God's word. Because Jesus looks at them. And he says, it's not for you to know the times. In other words, he says, it's coming, but you don't need to know exactly when. But living in light of that time when he will come and believe me, he will establish his physical Kingdom on earth. But in the meantime, you are to go to Jerusalem. When you go to Jerusalem, I want you to wait because this promised Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity is coming and he's going to infuse you with power so that you can live the kind of life I want you to live both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the rest of the world. It's a great application for us, right? In light of the fact that he's coming again, how am I now supposed to be living my life? And that can only happen through the power of the Holy Spirit. And what we're going to talk about today is what does that kind of life look like? Jesus didn't come in His first coming to set up his physical Kingdom. He came to establish a spiritual kingdom in our hearts, to do what we could never do for ourselves, to perform our work, to save us and transform us and change us and to become the king of our hearts from the inside out. And as we've been going through this series on the essentials of the faith and discovering what that is and how those lenses are really giving us a different view of our world the way it's supposed to be. We landed last week on this massive subject of the kingdom of God. And what we began to understand is that Jesus came to change us from the inside out. We began to unpack what it was like to live out this kingdom life from the inside out. And today, we're actually going to take a deeper look, from a passage that Paul really unpacked this concept of what it means to live with Jesus Christ on the throne, involved in every area of our lives. So because you've turned to the book of Philippians, the book is about living the Christian life. It is about, in particular, living the Christian life, in the midst of the suffering and the struggles and just the stuff of life. Paul, as he's writing this letter is in jail in Rome. This is a guy who he's not out running around. He's not experiencing the comforts of life. He's in prison. And he's writing a letter of how you can live the Christian life, how you can be content, how you can have Jesus Christ on the throne of your life in the midst of everything that he is going through, and he's the example. So we read down in verse one of chapter three, and I'm going to read through all verses, one through 11 and then I'll come back and we'll unpack them and share a few thoughts. He says, "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. "To write the same things to you is no trouble to me "and it is safe for you." Now, when I get through verse one, I'm right away the words that jump out is rejoice and safe. It's not a safe place for him. He's in prison, okay, and he's telling us to rejoice. If I'm in prison, okay, if I'm in jail, the last thing on my mind is rejoicing regarding myself and telling you to rejoice. I'm complaining about life. But not Paul. He's found something that I want to uncover today. He says in verse two, "Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, "look out for those who mutilate the flesh "for we are the circumcision who worship "by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus "and put no confidence in the flesh, "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 eighth day "of the people of Israel with the tribe of Benjamin, "a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisees, "as to zeal a persecutor of the church, "as to righteousness under the law, "blameless. "But whatever gain I had "I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. "Indeed, I count everything a 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 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." It's a powerful passage. Paul is actually describing something that's going on deep inside of him. Now, just so that you understand a couple of key components here as we unpack it first. He's writing to this church and the reason why he is going into all of this stuff about who he is and the confidence of the flesh is because there was a group of individuals, I'll just give you the name, but I'll unpack what it is. Don't be scared by it. They were called Judaizers. And Judaizers were individuals that were following Paul, wherever he plant a church, they would show up and they would plague him. And so he really cuts to the quick and deals with this issue. What were they doing? Well, these are individuals that were showing up in these churches, and they were actually telling the Gentiles that they had to convert to Judaism first, follow the law in order to be saved and have spiritual growth. You can believe in Christ, that's fine, but you've got to first convert to the law. You've got to convert to being a Jew, follow the law with all of its practices. That's why he brings many of them up. And then you can find spiritual life and salvation. And Paul said it was anathema to Paul. I mean, no way that that's possible. And these individuals were coming and saying, "Look, you've got to perform these works." And Paul says, "No, you can't perform enough works." As a matter of fact, Paul says, "If you want to compare notes, look at me, "because I'm way better than those guys are." And he writes in Romans six, he says that, "The law was given not to build you up, "but to knock you down. "So that you would begin to see how sinful you really are." But what was happening here is that these individuals were showing up and they were saying, "No, no, you can in your flesh "make yourself righteous enough "so that God will accept you." And that's the other key term I want to explain, when Paul says the word flesh, and he uses it at the end of verse three. He's describing all we were apart from Christ, every part of who we are, our sinful nature, that arrogant, prideful self, that self that said, life is about me, independent living, rebellious from God. This diagram will help a little bit. It was everything that pushes me towards a self-dependent selfish me. I want to be on the throne, I want to call the shots instead of being God-dependent, and the selfless me, and that's the flesh. And before we come to Christ, it rains in our life. And Paul, when he uses the word flesh, that's what he's describing. He's describing a time in his life when he was under the reign and the power of this flesh. Now your flesh and my flesh, the sinful nature and if you've been with us over the past several months when we talked about this with the essentials of the face, before we've come to Christ, it rains in our life. We are under its power, its grip. It is a part of who we are. It affects our actions, oh, yeah, but it affects the motives of the heart and that's where Paul is going here. And it shows up in our lives in a variety of different ways. For some of you who came to Christ later in life, it showed up in the fact that you wanted to go and, "Hey, for tomorrow we die, "so I'm just going to party hardy." Well, that drive to party hardy is your flesh. The woman at the well that pastor Doug had mentioned in John chapter four, she had a God given, love is not wrong or sinful. But that driving passion in her was being driven towards a counterfeit by her own flesh. And that's why she was looking for love in all the wrong places. But she had never found the component that could change her life. Now, the flesh shows up different for somebody who's religious. This is what makes man-made religion so dangerous. Because here's what Paul's saying. He was saying, "If you want to compare your flesh, "here's what's really going on. "I'm better than any of these guys are. "And if anybody could build a platform high enough "to reach God and be righteous enough, it would be me." And Paul says, "Look at all the things that I have done." Now when Paul brags about these elements, it's not about prideful, boastful statements in and of themselves. It's much, much deeper. What Paul is describing is the boastful self. What Paul is describing is that prideful self that says, "I'm going to leverage those things "so that it's about King Me." It's about King Paul. And this is the danger of man-made religion. Because what it is it's our attempt to be righteous before God. Starts out good, ends really, really bad because Paul actually says, "By the way, doing those good things "will never take away your sin problem "because physical solutions "cannot address a spiritual problem." They never can. And Paul is saying, "I tried it and look at all of these things." And to even further his point, he says, actually, when I did those things to try and solve my problems in life, my flesh seized it and it actually became a way to promote myself. And it built up his own arrogance, so that he was better than everybody else. And he was so very prideful. You see what Paul is describing here is the King Me life. What Paul is describing is that life is about me, it's masqueraded by religion, and Paul knew that the only way to find forgiveness is by finally coming to that point. And he finally did in Acts chapter nine when the light bulb went off and he met Jesus Christ and everything he thought about Jesus was false. And everything that Jesus said about himself was true. And through the work of the Holy Spirit of God in his heart and life, Paul began to see that not only were his works not gonna make him righteous before God, God began to reveal his boasting, prideful self that was behind it all. And he saw himself that he was far worse than he could possibly imagine. And yet God's grace was much, much bigger. And that's what changed his life. It was the grace. When you think about it, doing all these good things. What was the group of individuals in the life of Jesus Christ, when you read through the Gospel accounts, what was the group that gave him more problems than anybody else? They were religious people. Why is that the case? Because they said they had it all figured out. They said, "I can do all these things." But they were the most prideful, arrogant people that Jesus came in contact with. Why? Because they were trying to deal with this flesh of independence, about King Me, about my pride and boasting, by physical things and all it did was feed it. It made it even more arrogant. See, it's not even about saying, "Hey, look what I did." Because you can be quiet and still be incredibly arrogant because it shows up in your cynicism and judgment of other people. That's why sin is a motive issue. It's an issue of the heart. And Paul finally got to the point of saying, "Wait a minute, he saw it all." And that's why when he understood the gospel, the gospel invites us to believe, to trust, to understand that I can never ever, ever build a platform high enough to be forgiven. And that's why he says in verse seven, that he finally came to the end of himself, that doing all of these things, I mean, circumcision set the Jewish people apart as God's chosen people. But Paul says, "No, really, it's about the circumcision "of the heart, dealing with the heart issues, "so that when I trust Christ as Savior, "I enter into a new covenant "and then I'm set apart by the spirits work, "but not by some physical thing." And he finally says, and that's what we read unpacking it, he says, "But I realized all of those things needed "to be counted loss, forsaken." He actually refers to them as rubbish, or garbage or dung, actually. Because I want to know Jesus Christ. And finally he found Him as Lord. And he understood that now he can be forgiven. Now, he is no longer under the reign and the power of sin. That's the gospel. But you know what? The Gospel invites us to believe. But the gospel invites us to become. And here's where we're going to spend the bulk of our time. See, the gospel is not just about believing that's important, that's the foundation because when you understand that you're a sinner and you need a savior, then you understand that you have been delivered from the power of sin. And now you need to live a life whereby you can experience the practice of righteousness in everyday living. That's the key. And we love believing because that makes me feel good about the fact that I really messed up over here and I'm forgiven. And then if I mess up again, I know I'm still forgiven and I'm so grateful for that, aren't you? Anybody want to join me in that? But do you know what I hate? I hate becoming. And you know why? Because that's the part of me that has to die. And that's where Paul is going. Martin Luther, great illustration. How many of you are Lutherans or where you were? You're recovering whatever, I don't care, we'll make a lot of fun there but still have that hymn book in your house, anyway. You know the name Martin Luther, right? Great guy, love his reformer. This was a guy who was like the Apostle Paul trying to build a platform for righteousness. He finally came to the point where he just couldn't do it. Every time he'd go to confession, he'd sin immediately. Because as an individual, he is really brilliant. He was so introspective that he saw everything laid out. Every motive, every thought, and I'm thinking he got in these zones where there's just no win here. Well, did I or didn't I? Did I mean it this way? Did I not mean this? And he just was agonizing over any sense of being found righteous before God. And as a Roman Catholic professor priest, he started teaching through the book of Romans, and he realized there's nothing I can do to achieve right standing before God. And all of a sudden, he was going through chapter one, verse 17, and he realized, wait a minute, the light bulb came on. And he realized the righteousness of God comes to me through faith in Jesus Christ and the burden was just gone. Yeah, the gospel invites you to believe. But you know what Martin Luther's problem one, I hate to burst your bubble. He didn't quite get this idea of becoming in every area of his life. Because towards the end of his life, he made some terrible statements, anti-Semitic statements. They were so hateful that Hitler used it to fuel the Nazi Holocaust in Germany, where Luther was from, of all places. We can't ignore the facts. Where did that happen? How did that occur? Because he believed, it was the process of becoming like Jesus Christ that was missed. You see, what happens before we trust Christ is we are on the throne, King Jesus is outside the relationship. But here's what happens when we trust Christ. All of a sudden, Jesus becomes my savior and Lord, starts out really well on the throne because I want to follow him. And he gives me new desires and new drives, right? And I'm in there, but I'm not calling the shots because I just turned to him. The trouble is though as we live our life here in the meantime, okay, I start creeping back up on the chair again. And it becomes about me again, and Jesus is is removed. Why is this? Because I'm struggling with this. Even though I have a new nature, even though I'm not under the power of sin anymore, even though I've changed and I've been transformed, I'm still struggling with wanting to be self-dependent and the selfish me instead of the God-dependent selfless me. There's a struggle that goes on inside of my heart and in my life so the issue then becomes because those temptations, that flesh, it's still there. It never totally goes away until I get into the presence of Jesus Christ. I can't wait for that day. So what happens? How does that happen? Well, it happens through the process that Paul gives us, starting in verse 10, by dying and rising like Jesus. You look at verse 10, he says, "I've received this righteousness." So there's been a real change here. I've died to sin, that's its power, so that now I am freed from sins influencing my life. That's the idea. And he says, "So that I may know him, Jesus, "and the power of his resurrection "and may share in his sufferings." It's interesting, becoming like him in his death. That by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. I'm heading for heaven, there's no doubt about that. But Paul says, I enter into suffering here. The suffering cannot mean payment for sin because only Jesus does this. So what does the suffering mean here? It means the suffering of losing one's life to experience new life in Jesus Christ. It is the process that God uses oftentimes in our lives as a way to die to self and become this new person, to begin to live differently and love radically, to begin to have Jesus back on the throne of my life so that I'm moving towards that selfless God-dependent and away from self-dependent and selfish life. So the question then, how does this happen? How do I get King Me off the throne and get Jesus back up on there because that's that battle that's going on. Paul gives you the answer and the key is faith. He starts it in verse nine. The righteousness comes by faith, but it doesn't stop there. I continue to trust his will for my life. Even in the midst of the suffering, even in the midst of the trials, even in the midst of the difficulty, I step out and trust his way, and his plan. That's the idea. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says that we walk by faith, not by sight. By the time I get into Hebrews 11, I mean, it's totally unpacked in the New Testament. There's this great chapter of all these individuals who suffered, were sawed in two, experienced unbelievable trials and persecution, but they did so by faith. And by the time you get into chapter 12:1, he says, "Don't get hung up on the sin and the trials "and the stuff that keeps tripping you up. "Fix your eyes on Jesus." What are you doing there? You're letting go of self, you're dying, and then there's this process of rising. You're beginning to move in this direction. Jesus said it this way in Luke 9:23. And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me "let him deny himself and take up his cross, what, daily "and follow me." Daily. When you picked up your cross and were crucified, you had to surrender to the power and the authority of Rome. Jesus is taking that image, and he's saying, "You want to follow me. "You need to surrender to my power and authority "in your life." And when you do that on a daily basis, there is a dying in your life, what you want, that flesh, that says, "Hey, look at me, I want credit for that. "Look how wonderful I am." It's not about mentioning the things, it's about what's going on in my heart. That needs to die. Now, how can I package it for you? Here's some diagrams I want you to look at. Now, there's a book that's been terribly or not terribly, incredibly, wrong word, incredibly helpful to me. And it is a book written by Paul Miller. I'm giving credit where credit is due. He wrote a book called J-Curves. The subtitle is dying and rising with Jesus in everyday life. So if you want it, it's such a great book. But what he does is he's packaged this concept of dying and rising and the biblical principles that are found that Paul addresses here. Now we start with Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, it's really clear, he died, he rose again, and he did so as payment for my sin. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I enter into that. It's a total parallel, because Paul unpacks in Romans chapter six. If you've confessed Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have been transferred into the kingdom of light, transferred into God's kingdom, that we talked about last week, he wants to be raining in your heart and in your life. And in Romans chapter six, it says that you have died to sin, it's power so that you now are freed from sins influence in your life. You can start living differently, loving radically, as Jesus would, but then he turns a corner. He tells us about the battle in Romans 7. And then by the time, because there's this battle between King Me and King Jesus, I end up doing the things I don't want to do and the things I really want to do, I don't do, Paul says. What's it saying there? He's really getting to this point of dying and rising on a daily basis, as Jesus said, as Paul is pointing out, in chapter three, verse 10. What he's unpacking for us is the change that needs to happen. The removal of that pride, arrogance, the stuff that still remains after we've trusted Christ. And what I'm getting at is, in my opinion, one of the key core principles of the Christian life. I can boil this down to your marriage. I'm gonna give you some examples and just like boil it down to your work environment. I can boil it down to parenting. I can boil it down to so many things. Because it's this stuff that's left over where oftentimes, I don't like the dying. Now, I don't want to let go of that. And quite frankly, it's like a monster that needs to be fed. And when you pull back and say, "No, I'm not going to feed the sin, "I'm not going to feed the selfishness." There's a part of you that feels like, "Man, I don't like that. "I just feel like I lost something there." But it's in that moment that Jesus steps in and gives the living water and gives the rising so that you can begin to live differently and love radically. Now, Paul talked about Jesus Christ humbling himself willingly, giving up that, in chapter two, when he said Jesus Christ landed on earth and lived the perfect life to pay for your sin and my sin when he didn't have to. He gave up the glories of heaven to come down here and save us. By the time you get into chapter four, Paul says, I've learned contentment in anything and everything even though I'm in a jail cell, and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. What is he talking about there? The giving up of stuff in order to have the rising and the character of Christ into experiencing something new, the transformational life of moving King Jesus back on the throne. Go left from Philippians. I got to show you these two passages. Go to 2 Corinthians and now I want you to locate chapter four and then verse 11 and 12. 2 Corinthians chapter four, look at verse 11. Paul says this. For we who live, notice this, always being given over to death for Jesus sake. There's a continual dying that needs to happen in my life. This doesn't gain me salvation. Works don't gain me salvation. By faith in Jesus Christ, I am declared righteous. I get it, positionally now I begin to practice it. I don't earn eternal life by being made righteous, by doing certain church activities or nice things. It happens by faith in Jesus, that foundation has to be be there because then I'm delivered from the power of sin in my life so I can start being freed from sins influencing my life. And he says that is a process daily of this dying, notice, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. That's the rising. So death is that work in us, but life in you. Now part of what Paul's talking about here is, I died to myself, I experienced difficulties so I could come to you and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. He ended up going into a jail cell so that they could have the new hope of the gospel and there was a resurrection that occurred. It was a dying to him and his desires so that they could hear the message of Christ. Well, now let's go on, I want you to go to chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians. And I want you to locate verse seven. 2 Corinthians 12:7, now Paul is talking about, I'll give you the definition of the word 'cause then it'll make more sense to you. He's talking about a thorn in his life. And for those of you that are new to this, some of you already got it, but for those of you that are new, Paul wasn't talking about like a thorn in your finger. He was talking about a physical ailment. Most people believe, some kind of a physical ailment, probably affected his eyes, could have been malaria, we're not real sure, that affected him and it was not taken away, the thorn stayed. That's important for you to understand. Now look at verse seven. So, to keep me from becoming conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. He says it a second time. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, "for my power is made perfect in your weakness. "Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness "so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. "For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, "insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. "For when I am weak, then I am strong." What is Paul saying here? He's describing the dying process. He's describing exactly what we talked about in Philippians, the suffering piece. Because here it is, this is a guy who prayed for healing, and he didn't get it. Now, when I'm sick, I'm the biggest baby on the planet. I want out, I'm pulling every escape hatch. I mean, I'm begging God, "Get me out of this mess." I mean, you're the same way. Some of you may be a little bit better, but what do we do, we want to get out of the mess. That didn't happen with him. Why? Because the focus is not about the physical healing. The focus is about dying to self. Paul is after spiritual solutions here. He's not just after giving you a comfortable, happy, go lucky life. He's preparing you for the day when Christ comes again. Because that's glory. And Paul is saying, "Look, I was placed into this process "of suffering and dying with this ailment." Why? Because Paul needed some character development. Did you notice, I said this? Two times he mentions the word conceited. Why is that the case? Well, he tells you, he says, it's because of the greatness of the revelations. Paul wrote almost the entire second half of your Bible. This is a man who was absolutely brilliant. Now, he had brainpower that I only dream of. I have memorized Genesis 1:1, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. After that it's a struggle. Do you realize because of his pedigree that he lists earlier, he probably memorized major sections, if not most of the Old Testament? Try that one out. He could argue at the Supreme Court at a level legally that would rip people to shreds. His ability to look at everything, pull it together is the whole reason why he could write the book of Romans. Why he could unpack so much for us, connecting the entire narrative of the Bible, the redemption story, the cross, the resurrection, and it's why he lands here and says it's about dying and rising. Why? God put that in his life because this is a guy that I'm telling you he planted so many churches throughout the Roman world and heard revelations directly from God, don't you think he struggled a little bit with humility? That's what was going on here. So the dying was the releasing of himself and learning to be content. And then it transferred into the rising because he gets in all this persecution, suffering and all these calamities and everything, and you know what he says? He says, "By faith, I learned to be God-dependent "so that I could trust him and get rid of self. "And was in that moment by faith that he gave me his grace "so that I could endure "and I could walk a different road." Let me give you two pointers to write down. When we surrender to the dying, then God brings the rising. When we surrender to the dying, then God brings the rising. Write that down, don't forget it. It doesn't happen until we die. We surrender, my flesh is denied, doesn't like it. But at that point, then the rising happens in his timing and in his ways. It happens in my own character development. It happens when I learned humility. It happens when I learned that maybe the sacrifice that I'm going through is for the benefit of someone else. You see, when we enter into this dying, it primarily happens in three different ways. It happens as Paul said suffering because that, there's a dying that happens. It can also happen when I choose to love somebody else and set myself aside. And it can also happen when I enter into a dying and rising of repentance because I'm beginning to realize that all flesh wants to keep going down wrong roads and there needs to be a repentance in this and an asking of forgiveness and then I get right with God and then all of a sudden, it's the character of Christ that starts filling me with his presence again. You see, and if I don't understand this point about focusing on the rising when I'm dying, then suffering turns me inwards. This is really important. I go through difficult times. I don't like the trial. I don't like the fact that my flesh is getting ripped off. It needs to get ripped off. It needs to die. It's a monster that wants to be fed. And I don't like the becoming. I love the believing, but I don't like the becoming. And what happens, if you start focusing just on the dying and not the fact that he will bring about the rising in his time, you end up becoming terribly bitter and angry in your life because it's still all about you. And that's why you need to die. Because in that moment, the dying happens, and when you surrender it, then you're no longer becoming bitter. You're looking forward to that day of resurrection spiritually, and then eventually, physically. Here's the other thing you got to write down. God personalizes the dying and rising according to his plan and purposes. He personalizes the dying and rising according to his plan and purposes. He customizes it, just for you. He makes it so that it applies to your life. Let me give you a few examples. You may be suffering because of an illness. And if you're like me, I'm praying for you all the time 24/7. But God's not bringing it. You're stuck right there and the thorn is staying. It's not going anywhere. Then you begin to ask yourself the question, well, why? Maybe I need to repent of my selfishness and my focus on self. And all of a sudden you embrace the fact that he's got you in that moment because while you're sitting in that chair taking chemotherapy, there's somebody next to you who has no idea that Jesus Christ can be the hope of their life. That's the resurrection. You are a young parent. And you have changed so many diapers, you can't even count them. As a matter of fact, you've changed so many diapers in your life right now that you are dreaming about diapers. And you have sacrificed your time and your your talents and your treasures. And it's all about this little kneebiter running around your house. And you have no idea what to do, what have you entered into in that moment. You have entered into a process of getting your eyes off of yourself and your agenda and your timing and your purposes and maybe even your work world so that you can invest and love someone else, there is a dying, why? Because there will be a rising in their life and in your character. It's why I call parenting discipleship 101. And then before you know it, the kneebiter moves into middle school. And they come home one day and you think they're possessed because of stuff going on in your head. And your hormones are just going nuts and you don't know what to do. But what do you do? You get on your knees and you start praying. You say, "God, you got to show up, "because I have no clue what I'm doing." And all of a sudden, there's a dying and there's a rising. Because in that moment of surrender, he begins to show up in ways you couldn't possibly imagine. Now, some of you are dying right now and you're surrendering and you're not seeing any hope. Hang in there. Don't let go of God. You go to work at 3:00 a.m. and you're a wonderful engineer. And you put together this great package. And all of a sudden, you're loving this boss of yours who is a bit unkind, actually, he's a jerk. And all of a sudden, he goes before his supervisor, and he takes credit for your idea. What do you do? You want to get bitter? Or do you pull back and say, "Wait a minute, "what is my motive for wanting credit for that? "It's about myself. "It's about my flesh. "It's about me gaining credit." And when you pull back and say, "Wait a minute, maybe this is the dying of self." And when you can't have that, and then you enter into the love curve of saying, "Maybe I need to focus on him and his needs." 'Cause he's an awful guy, and he's an awful guy and hurt people hurt people. And so as I begin to love him, all of a sudden, God resurrects an opportunity for you to share Christ with him, so that he can see the difference in your life. You get the process? And in the process of dying, you are doing this, you are pursuing the person of Christ, and you are knowing him in ways you couldn't possibly know him before you entered the dying process. And that's why Paul says what he does in Philippians. Here's what I'm gonna do, I want you to close your eyes, bow your heads. Here's how we're going to wrap it up. Nobody looking around. I just want you to reflect on a couple things here, just between you and the Holy Spirit. First is this. Maybe you're here, and you've never received the gospel. Because the gospel is about believing and becoming, but you got to start with the believing. And that happens when you finally come to grips that, "Boy, if Paul couldn't justify himself by doing good works, "and there's nothing I can do to get there." And you've never come to that moment in your life where you've acknowledged you are a sinner, and you turn to Jesus. And you say, "Jesus, I believe you died for me. "And I'm going to wholly trust you as a person "as the one who paid the price for my sin. "I want you to be my savior. "And I want you to help me follow you "all the days of my life." That's the heart cry. But you're committing to him as savior. That's the repentance that saves. You're saying, "I believe you died for me "and I need your forgiveness. "Please come into my life and save me." Some of you have done that. But this morning, you know what the thorn is. And this morning, you need to surrender it and enter the dying. Maybe there needs to be repentance over sin. Maybe that's what the Spirit spoke to you on. Maybe there's somebody in this room or at home or at work that you need to love sacrificially, and that's the dying. Remember, we control the willing surrender and then we trust by faith, that he will bring the rising. Lord, we come to you with open hearts, asking that you would cultivate your character in us in ways that we can't possibly imagine. That in these moments of surrender, we give our lives to you afresh and anew that we might die to that old part that no longer has power over us. And we might walk a new road, living differently, loving radically, serving and loving and experiencing the power of Jesus Christ, the Gospel at work, King Jesus on the throne in every area of our lives. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.