The Colonel had had enough by then and sent back this response: ‘Sirs, you must
decide. I can dispatch the entire army to find your missing jelly or
kick Saddam out of Kuwait, but not both!’ He got no reply” (p. 48).
Paul, realizing he couldn’t have both, gave up the things that were gain to
him that he might have Christ.
What is it that stands between you and a life of passionate love for the Lord
Jesus? It’s really only jelly . . . give it up!
WE
GAIN IN CHRIST WHAT WE CAN’T GAIN IN ANY OTHER WAY — v. 9
When the curtain falls on our lives here on earth, we’ll have to stand before
Holy God. Paul didn’t want to stand before God in the clothing of his own deeds,
but rather in the righteousness of Christ. This righteousness comes not through
earthly achievements, but through faith in the Christ of Calvary. Only in His
righteousness will we experience acceptance with God.
PASSIONATE
PURSUIT OF CHRIST IS THE LIFESTYLE OF A GRATEFUL BELIEVER — v. 12-14
One
cannot read this passage seriously without feeling the passion the apostle Paul
has for Jesus Christ. We are not speaking merely about a philosophy of life
here. We are not addressing a code of conduct that can be mimicked to facilitate
a good life. We are hearing the testimony of radical transformation from one
who has moved from fanatical religious idealism to a passionate relationship
with the living Lord. It is a testimony of one who has been delivered from
the stuffiness and bondage of legalism by the power of the God of grace. It
is the victory of deliverance from a life of “meism” to a focus on the One who
is worthy of the total attention of “my soul, my life, my all.”
This focus on Christ, like a magnifying glass, effected a fire of passion that
would drive him to declare, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain”
(Philippians 1:21).
This is the passion that is to be normal for every child of God. But oh, how
hard it is to turn loose of the temporal to gain the eternal; to give up the
immediate self-gratification to hear the future “well done” from our Lord; to
die to self to possess the abundant life of Christ.
That which separates high achievers from mediocrity is passion. That which
propels one team ahead of another is not just talent, but passion. And passion
for all that God has planned for you in Christ Jesus will be that which propels
you beyond a life of status quo, failed dreams, and regrets.
The songwriter said it well. “It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus!”
Keep pressing forward . . . with passion!
______________________
Sermon
brief provided by: Larry Gilmore, Group Leader of the Evangelism
Strategies Group for the Tennessee Baptist Convention in Brentwood, TN