Reverse Resume Sunday, October 08, 2017 - 9 AM

Reverse Résumé - Philippians 3:4b-14 Bascomb UMC / October 8, 2017 / 9 AM Focus: The desire of Paul to place %100 of his life at the feet of Christ. Function: The clarify the difference between knowing about and knowing God. 5 Purpose Outcomes of the Church: Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Evangelism, Service Philippians 3:4b–14 (CEB) 4b If anyone else has reason to put their confidence in physical advantages, I have even more: 5 I was circumcised on the eighth day. I am from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews. With respect to observing the Law, I’m a Pharisee. 6 With respect to devotion to the faith, I harassed the church. With respect to righteousness under the Law, I’m blameless. 7 These things were my assets, but I wrote them off as a loss for the sake of Christ. 8 But even beyond that, I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ 9 and be found in him. In Christ I have a righteousness that is not my own and that does not come from the Law but rather from the faithfulness of Christ. It is the righteousness of God that is based on faith. 10 The righteousness that I have comes from knowing Christ, the power of his resurrection, and the participation in his sufferings. It includes being conformed to his death 11 so that I may perhaps reach the goal of the resurrection of the dead. 12 It’s not that I have already reached this goal or have already been perfected, but I pursue it, so that I may grab hold of it because Christ grabbed hold of me for just this purpose. 13 Brothers and sisters, I myself don’t think I’ve reached it, but I do this one thing: I forget about the things behind me and reach out for the things ahead of me. 14 The goal I pursue is the prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus. Some of my sermon commentators call the beginning of this scripture “Paul’s HumbleBrag.” – humblebrag is a term coined by Harris Wittels, comedian & writer/producer for Parks and Recreation. It’s a post on Facebook or Twitter that tells the world how great your life is, then downplays it under the guise of humility or self-deprecating humor. Who wants to be known as a braggart, right? Well, enter the humblebrag! Here are a few actual humblebrags on Twitter: Annie Duke – Cheryl Yeoh – David Hasslehoff Our greatest strengths become our great weakness! A handsome student in my youth group was always popular with the girls, but he quickly ran through his fill of girlfriends dating each female member of my youth group and creating many counseling opportunities for me as he “two timed” each girl with his next conquest. Years later I discovered his good looks ruined his family life because romantic relationships were too easy for him to find but impossible for him to sustain! His good looks became a fatal flaw in his pursuit of happiness. Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory) is so intelligent that he barely tolerates his friends because they possess inferior brains: Video Clip: “Is Howard Smart Enough?” from The BBang Theory You may call out Paul for a “humblebrag,” but Paul WAS trying to make a point to a church under attack by Judaizers who were trying to add requirements to our faith. The Christian faith was not an outside-in deal. It was inside-out. Salvation is by grace through faith alone, Paul said, so that no-one could boast. People are always trying to ADD to grace. Jesus AND… keeping the law – Jesus AND… the right of circumcision. Jesus PLUS… this or that rule or requirement is all they were saying. It can’t be just “a free gift of grace” for us; people gotta EARN their salvation. And people have been doing that up until today. We can never be at peace with an un-earned gift. Now who are you? What are your gifts, your talents? What benefits do you bring to this organization? I know Paul was having trouble getting his credentials accepted by some of these early Christian communities and He knew he was “quite a catch” as leaders went. Of all people, Paul could have been the chief boaster. He rolls out his religious resume. Is that what Paul is doing giving us this text? Then why does he run it through the shredder? How are we to understand Paul’s “reverse resume?” Is Paul saying he should NOT take advantage of his unique skills? NO, I don’t think so. I believe that Paul (when he was Saul) was the EXACT person God wanted to use to expand the gospel all over the world. The Apostles relate best to the Jewish community while Paul was the perfect choice for the Gentiles – a Roman citizen, a scholar of the OT scriptures, a Teacher trained in persuasive rhetoric. He stood side by side with the great men of Athens and held his own! That was a job for Paul, not Peter. However, though Paul did pass the test as a religious zealot. Even though he got an A+ in religion; it was, for eternity’s sake, all a big fat fail. And now he glories in that FAIL - wow! Understand that Paul is NOT “dissing” his accomplishments, rather, he is prioritizing what is most important. God intends to use ALL of Paul’s special skills to bridge Hebrew and Greek as well as Paul’s pedigree as a Roman citizen. However, Paul is not our salvation. Years ago, I found a man around here somewhere who could repair a certain weed-eater. He had the know-how and the parts needed and I said offhandedly “It looks like you are my salvation!” The man was a Christian, so he looked at me and said “No, Jesus Christ is your salvation, I can only fix your weed-eater.” YES! That’s what Paul means – Paul can organize churches and go on missionary journeys but Paul can’t save anyone! There’s a great story about Saint Thomas Aquinas, a priest, scholar and doctor of the church, he was one of the most prolific and influential theologians in church history. By the time he was 50 he had written over one hundred books, treatises, and theological documents. On December 6, in the year 1273, he was celebrating communion on the Feast Day of St. Nicholas in the Chapel of St. Nicholas in Naples, Italy. That day God showed up in a way Thomas had NEVER experienced. It was an encounter with God from which he never was never able to fully recover and he refused to ever write again. In response to his secretary’s urging he famously said, “Reginald, I can do no more. The end of my labors has come. Such things have been revealed to me that all I have written seems as so much straw.” He went from knowing ABOUT Christ to KNOWING Christ. We think we truly understand God and the Gospel because we have an understanding of what God has done for us. This is good, as far as it goes, but it does not go anywhere near far enough. When our understanding of the Gospel is limited to what God has done for us, our understanding of sharing the Gospel will be limited to telling others what God has done for them. Ultimate understanding means knowledge about God must give way to knowing God. To become a real Christian is our aim. Most often, it requires us to humble ourselves and confess that we might not be there quite yet—not that we aren’t on the way, but that the Way just might be a whole lot more than we ever imagined. I Want To Know Christ Lyrics - LARNELLE HARRIS I know that I know that my life is redeemed I know I have found what some only have dreamed I hold in my heart the pearl of great price Dear God, hear my cry - I want to know Christ I want to know Christ - I keep Him before me I lift up my eyes - I drink in His glory I press toward the goal - His goodness unfolds March on, oh my soul - I want to know Christ And the things that entangle me I lay them down - all the treasures and trophies of life Let them be lost only let me be found in Christ If you take any person: famous, rich, a Nobel prize winner or homeless on the streets – all of us are adrift in the middle of a vast ocean of chaos – we cannot help ourselves and we cannot help each other. Unless God intervenes, we are lost! We must be rescued. Until we realize this we will remain lost. The worst kind of sinner thinks “well, since we didn’t ride the Titanic to the bottom of the ocean we somehow don’t need as much grace as the ones who did. This is a lie. We all must be rescued, especially me (say that aloud). In fact, we never become a real Christian until each of us admits that we are a real sinner cast adrift in an ocean of sin. This is why we brag on Jesus alone. This is why we boast in the Cross alone. This is why everything that mattered so much to Paul before doesn’t matter at all anymore. This is the only freedom. Everything else is just another form of slavery. Most, if not all of us, in here are fairly well behaved. You’re not out breaking into cars, are you? But don’t let your moral high ground become a stumbling block to REAL relationship. To KNOW in a Biblical sense is real intimacy with God. It’s not 10% of who you are… it’s %100. Page 5 of 5