if you would, to open up the Philippians chapter number three. Philippians chapter number three. Thank you so much for having me here. I appreciate it so much. I really tell you the truth, after watching, I watched Monday night on the online, on Facebook. We have our Vacation Bible School going on right now, so I had to be there to drive a van. That was my important job in all Vacation Bible School, was to drive a van. So I was there to drive the van, and then I went to my office and I was watching the services, and when I saw the Brother Shelton Smith preach, and a new Brother Mike Allison, I've heard Brother Mike Allison several times here before, and I thought, Brother, what are you thinking, having me come and preach? but I do appreciate the opportunity to come and to be here. I'm sorry that my wife couldn't be here tonight, and more than just that she couldn't be here with you all, but I rely on her to sit right there, and I know when I say something wrong because her mouth goes from a smile to a frown, and I know I need to back up and correct myself, so somebody's got to help me out on that here tonight. Philippians chapter number three, verse number one, the Bible says, finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of concision, the concision, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof, that he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But the things which were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done that I may win Christ. And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God which is by faith. I read all this to get to this verse right here. that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. Let's pray. Dear Lord, again we come to you and I thank you so much for your goodness, for your graciousness. Lord, thank you for the church here in Jackson, for Bethel Baptist and what they mean to this city. Lord, I pray that you'll continue to be a brother savage in the people here and that you'll bless them, give them strength. Lord, I pray tonight that Lord, anything and everything that I say is going to be for your honor and for your glory. Lord, I pray that anything that will come between me and you and the message you'd have me to give, Lord, I pray that you would remove that, that you'll keep it away. Give me your strength, your power, your wisdom, and your might. Lord, I love you, and I'm trusting you here tonight, Lord, to just lead me in the right direction. In your name we pray. Amen. Now, I want to tell you what I tell my people. If they had diagnosed ADD or ADHD back in the 70s, I guarantee you I would have been diagnosed with that. I mean, my mind can go 50 different directions at one time. In our church, when we built our church auditorium, I'm going to tell you honestly the truth, we came and visited your church and looked around at your church. And I loved how that the auditorium fanned out. And so that's how ours is built. It fans out like this, but in the back over here on the right, we have three 12-foot windows that are in the back over there to let in natural light. But the problem is, when I stand here at the pulpit, I see those three windows. I see everything that's going on outside the building. And so I have to work to keep my mind. So I like the fact that I'm corralled here. I'm brought in here. But I want to look here at Philippians chapter 3, and starting here with verse number 1, I want to look back at these verses just quickly and give you a few things that the Lord has laid on my heart. I've been telling our people the last few years, and I ask them this question, are you in a religion or are you in a relationship? Because that right there dictates what kind of a Christian life we're going to have. It dictates what kind of a walk we're going to have with the Lord. This religion versus a relationship. We have churches today and members in churches today that have been sitting in the same pew for years and years and years. In fact, the pew has taken the form of their posterior because they sit there every single service, but God never moves them. And it's not that God hasn't tried. It's not that God hasn't spoken to them. But the problem is they are in a religion and not a relationship. We are called to have a personal relationship with Christ. Several years ago, I started pushing us with our church and telling them, listen, we need to have a relationship with God. If we're going to have the power of God in our church, if we're going to see God move among us, if we're going to see God move in a way that our church grows, our church flourishes, it's because we have a relationship with him. It's not tied into everything that we do, it's tied into how we walk with Him, how we talk with Him, how we fellowship with Him. Because when we have that relationship, all of a sudden, all those things that go into religion become part of our life. Now let me say this, a lot of times you hear this statement, do you have a religion or a relationship, and it tends to go south. It tends to go more towards, well then, I don't have a religion, I have a relationship, so I can do this, and I can do this, and I have liberty to do this, and I have liberty to do that. But when you are in a true, solid relationship with God, you find that you don't have any desire to do those things. You don't have a desire to walk that way. You don't have a desire to talk that way. In Bible college, and I'll apologize right now, I was not a preacher. I was a teacher. I graduated secondary education major. I was a coach and a teacher for over 20 years. I taught history and I taught a little bit of junior high English, which will not show up in this message here tonight. But I taught those things, and I taught math, I taught a little bit of science, but a lot of history, and then I coached. I coached football, I coached basketball, and I coached a little bit of baseball as well, helped out with the baseball. And as I look back at that, I think, you know, Lord, what were you doing when you called me to pastor? You know, I was a teacher, not a preacher, so I want to apologize a little bit for that tonight. But as I look at this and think about this, this is something that's been missing in our churches, in our youth departments. I worked with the youth for over 22 years. I loved working with teenagers. One of the reasons is, I knew that as a youth pastor, I never had to grow up. I never had to become mature more than the people that I was working with, and a lot of times I was probably a little bit less mature than most of the kids that I was working with. But I enjoyed it, I loved it. And when the Lord called me to pastor, it was under Brother Scott Hanks. He was preaching a youth conference for me, and he just gave his testimony real quick as he was getting into the message, and the Lord tapped me and said, that's you. That's you. I'm calling you to pastor." I said, Lord, no you're not. And I've waited all these years to take the helm as the youth pastor. I've waited all these years to become the administrator of the Christian school. You're not calling me. So I put him off for a year. And that whole year I was miserable. But then that next year rolled around. Brother Hanks got in the pulpit again. He made the same statement he made the year before, and God slapped me in the back of the head. He said, I'm talking to you. And then God led us through a series of events. God led us to Union City, Tennessee. I'd never been through there, never been there before, but God led us there, and I love it. I love it. We were there 10 months. I took a big little bit of a vacation went back to Oklahoma for a wedding and got the call 631 Sunday morning that our building was on fire and Right after that not long after that phone call. I got a phone call from your pastor. I At that time I didn't know brother Savage at all I hadn't met him yet didn't know him yet But we had brother Hanks in common and your pastor was the first pastor that reached out to me in that whole time and became a blessing to me became a friend to me and But in all that, I want to say this, in all that, God leads us to where we need to be to have that relationship with Him. And when we follow Him, we find out that as we are in the center of His will, God makes us happy, God makes us excited, God makes us joyful, and God turns us into something that we never thought we would be. For years I swore, God, I am not going to pastor, I am not going to preach. I will teach, I will coach, I will work with children, I will work with teenagers, but You do not want me to pastor. Be careful about telling God what He wants you to do and what He doesn't want you to do. But He brought me to that place, and I've never been more excited to be somewhere than I am where we are at there in Union City. Now as I look at this passage of Scripture, I look there at verse number one, it says, To write the same things to you, to me, indeed is not grievous. Now, to me, that right there, for a second there, I thought, now wait a minute, that does not sound right. I'm a parent. I have three children. I say children, they're not children anymore, they're adults now. I have a son who is 27 years old. He is a Tennessee Highway Patrolman. out in Dyer County, out there towards Dyersburg. I have a son who is a science teacher out in Springfield, Tennessee for Brother Gaglione out there in South Haven. And then I have a daughter who is a church pianist and a Christian school teacher down in Florida. And as I thought about that, you know, I'd raised three children along with my wife. We raised those three children, and it seemed like over and over and over again, we were having to repeat ourselves. You know, what did I just tell you? You parents ever said that to your kids? What did I just tell you? It was grievous to me. I tell you what, it made me mad. When I had to tell them twice to do something, you better watch out. I told you to do this, and you did not do this. We're going to have a little bit of a business meeting here in my bedroom. Let's go. I need to talk with you." You know, as parents, it's grievous to us. But what Paul was saying here is what I've heard all along. We had a teacher in the Bible college. My name is C.W. Fisk. I don't know if you've ever met Brother Fisk or not. Brother Fisk made the statement. He said, repetition is the key to learning. And that's what I thought of when I saw this verse. To repeat or to write the same things to you, to me indeed, is not grievous. Because repetition is the key to learning. We learn God's Word and we learn the principles of God's Word when we place ourselves in a Bible-preaching church that is going to preach and teach the truth. And then he goes on to say this, but for you it is safe. I heard somebody make the statement one time, I left the church where I was at, because it seemed like all he was preaching on was salvation. I thought, my word, if you are a Christian and you call yourself a Christian, and it wearies you to hear the story of salvation, you've got problems. You've got trouble. We ought to be hearing the message of salvation every single message from the pulpit. Because that is what we are called to do. We're called to receive Him. Then we're called to reflect Him. And we're called to carry Him to the world. That is our whole purpose. If our purpose was just to fill the pew, then we would already be in heaven. We'd already be gone. But God has called us to be a witness. He said, so for you to hear the same thing over and over and over again, it is safe. But then in verse number 3 he makes this statement, Now you think of that word circumcision, and parents, you've got your kids with you, don't worry, I'm not going to go there, but I do want you to understand something. The circumcision in the Old Testament was a sign of the Old Covenant. It was a sign of acceptance of the Old Covenant. But he said we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit. This was the circumcision of the New Covenant. A cutting away of the old flesh. A cutting away of the old ways. A cutting away of the old paths. Taking those things away and then accepting what God has called us to be. That holy, acceptable person that has a holy, acceptable service. And when we accept that, and when we take that, and when we reach out and grasp that, we are now circumcised in the heart. We are bearing that mark of the new covenant. Now, I'm not preaching a work salvation. You cannot work your way to heaven. We'll see that here in just a minute. But we do take on that circumcision of the heart. Then it says in verse 5, or he goes through and he says, listen, if anybody here can talk about what they were and be proud of what they were, I could do that. He said, I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Basically what he was saying here is that I've been there, I've done that, and I've got the shirt. I've been there, I've done that, I know what it's all, and I am proud of maybe some of the accomplishments I used to make, but that's not important. Because in verse 8 he says, I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. See, Paul willingly sacrificed everything to gain a better understanding of his Lord and Savior. The sad thing is, we won't sacrifice 15 minutes of our time to read the Scripture, to get along with Him, in order to get a more excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ. You know, we ought to be walking with God every single day, but as Christians, a lot of times, we can't get our Christian church members to crack open the Scripture for a matter of 15 minutes even, to learn more about their Lord and Savior. He said, listen, I would sacrifice everything for a better knowledge of Jesus Christ. And then verse 9, he says this, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." See, this is the perfect example of choosing a relationship over religion. He says, not of my own righteousness. I want to see just a few things here, and we're going to move quickly, but I want you to see a few things about what Paul was saying. See, here in verse number 10 he says, that I may know Him. That I may know Him. That I may experience Him. And I'm not talking about experiencing Him in a way as like a charismatic church service. I'm talking about experiencing Christ in a way where you really grasp the idea of His forgiveness. You really grasp the idea of His holiness. You really grasp the idea of His love and His dedication and His reaching out His compassion to you. Grasping that, that I may know Him. That's an intimate relationship with Christ. See, this, that I may know Him, is more than just, I've heard of Him. It's more than just, yeah, I've seen Him from time to time. This is a, I know Him, that I may know Him, that I may spend time with Him, that I may walk with Him, that I may talk with Him, that I may experience the power that He can give me. But then he says also in verse number 10, and the power of His resurrection. In John chapter 10, verse 27. To me, this is the power of the resurrection, that is our eternal life. He says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life. That is not only the personal intimate relationship. This is the personal intimate gift from Christ. As a Christian, I strive to experience the knowledge of him, but also to acknowledge the gift that he gives me. He has given me eternal life, the personal intimate relationship with Christ, the personal intimate gift from Christ. But then he says, and the fellowship of his sufferings. This is a personal, intimate commitment to Christ. There ought to be a commitment from each and every one of us that no matter what comes our way, we will stand with Him. Turn back with me, if you would, to Daniel chapter number 3. To me, the greatest test of our commitment is what will it take us to quit? What's it going to take to make you quit your Christianity? What's it going to take to make you quit your walk with the Lord? What's it going to take to fold you? I was telling our young people back at the church when I was the youth pastor, My wife and I, of course, we had three kids, but we had a fourth one. She was pregnant with that fourth one, and we found out that the baby had died in the womb. And so, as we sat there, and as I looked at that sonogram with no heartbeat, no movement, and I looked at my wife and the tears that were welling up in her eyes, that's when I realized what love was. Love is not just a fluttery feeling that you feel when you see somebody that you think you're attracted to. Love is being able to stand with them through those hard times, being able to stand by their side, being able to support them. You know, our commitment to Christ is because of our love for Him. And it's not a love that's only there during the good times. It's a commitment and a love that is there even during the hardest times. As I sat there in that room in Oklahoma City, and I heard the church is on fire, and I understood what was going on. At that time, we only thought it was just a small area. About 15 minutes later, the phone rang. It was my son again. He said, Dad, it looks like it's a total loss. I said, what do you mean? He said, it's a total loss. And in the background I could hear the walls of the church falling in. I could hear the roof caving in. I could hear the fire department yelling, pull back, pull back, pull back. And it became real to me. That was the longest nine and a half hour drive home that I've ever experienced in my entire life. We got back to Union City and as we came over the hill there on Real Foot Avenue, up there by Baptist Hospital, I looked and I saw what used to be our church. The roof caved in, smoke coming up out of it. Everything was gone. I'd been there 10 months. I said, Lord, what are you doing? You brought me from Oklahoma to Union City, Tennessee for 10 months to experience this. But you know, I look back at it today, and I know that if I had stopped right there and I'd moved back to Oklahoma, I would never see what God has done. We're in a $1.9 million building. paid off. God did that. We're sitting in a 3 or 4 year old building on 12 acres. No debt because of God. We saw the church double in size in that time because of God. See it takes a commitment to Him. I'm not saying it's because of me, it's not because of me, it's because of faithful church members that stood with me, stood behind me and we pushed forward. It's a matter of our commitment. Here in Daniel chapter 3 we see the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And we see that they had been challenged to bow before the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And we see here in Daniel chapter 3 and verse number 16, they were given one more chance to bow. It says, And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said, O king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand. But look at these next three words. But, if not. That sets the stage for the rest of the story right there. But, if not. Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. If they had known, and they did know what was coming, they saw the furnace, they saw what the possibility was, and if they had known that they were actually going to get thrown into there, and they had seen it in the future, if it had been most of us, we would have backed off. We would have bowed and said, you know what, I'm not up for this, I'm not committed to this, I didn't ask for this. But they said, but if not, we still will not bow. We still will not worship your gods. We still would rather burn than bow to them. See, this is a statement of everyone that desires a close relationship with Christ. You think about intimate relationship they had. They walked with Him in the furnace. We've been doing some studies about the Bible. And I had somebody ask me one time, well, what's the difference between the New King James Version and the King James Version? And I always take them to this scripture right here. Because if you go to the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when Nebuchadnezzar says, I see four in the fire, in the King James Bible it says that the fourth is likened to the son, capital S, of God. In the New King James Version it says, is likened to a son of the, little g, gods. That's not who was there. It wasn't some far-off, distant Zeus-type God. It was the Son of God, Jesus Christ, with them in the fire. They had that intimate relationship because of an intimate commitment. I want you to see just a couple of things here. I'm going to skip ahead for sake of time just quickly. I want you to see these things. Religion and relationship. Religion will destroy your prayer life by placing unreasonable expectations on God. and then unreasonable demands by you. We as Christians bow before God and we pray and we say, God, I've done this for you, I've done that for you. I need you to answer this prayer. And we have an unreasonable expectation from God. We say, God, you need to answer this, this way, by this time or I'm done. That's religion. But a relationship will deepen your prayer life because of the fellowship. You realize that God will answer your prayer. God will take care of you in His time, in His way, and it will be the best. Why? Because He loves you. He cares about you. Religion places this unreasonable expectation that leaves us feeling abandoned when we don't feel like our prayer is answered the way that it should be. But relationship shows us, I will be there for you. A religion will destroy your service. by seeing it as an obligation and robbing you of the joy of freely and willingly serving God, but a relationship will enhance your service by showing the blessings that come from truly serving God. I wake up every day as the pastor of Union City Baptist Temple thinking, I don't deserve this. There's no reason I should be able to do this. Now, I have to be careful saying that. I'm not saying that I wake up every day saying, I don't deserve this. Why did you do this to me? It's, Lord, why are you allowing me to do this? Why have you given me this blessing? I don't deserve this. But God has given us that. When we take that time to realize we are in a relationship with Christ and we build that relationship with Him, all of a sudden, we're excited for what God has called us to do. We're excited to serve Him. Ephesians 6, 5 says, servants, be obedient to them which are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. Serving Him, not out of a religion, but serving Him out of relationship. Religion will destroy your prayer life. Religion will destroy your service. Religion will wear you out, stress you out, and burn you out. In Matthew 11, 28, the Bible says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? Rest. Will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I'm meek and lowly at heart and ye shall find what rest Unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light See it's wrong there. It's not wrong for the labor of God to rest in Mark chapter 6 in verse 30 The apostles had returned to Christ. They were telling him everything that they had seen and accomplished on the road as they served. It says this, and the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And he said to them, come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while. He said, come apart into a desert place and rest a while. Where does that rest come? It comes in our relationship. When we have that relationship with Christ, we find rest. Lamentations 3, 21 through 23 says this, this I call to mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed daily because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. When you come together with Him in the morning, your time in prayer, your time in fellowship, your time in walking with Him, that's when you're refreshed. That's when you find rest. That's when you find strength to do what you need to do. Religion will wear you out. Religion will stress you out. Religion will burn you out. But a relationship with God will give you rest. Let me say this lastly. Religion is righteous living with an expectation of blessing. I'll say it again. Religion is righteous living with an expectation of blessing. Matthew 19, 16 says this, And behold, one came unto him and said, Good master, what good thing shall I do? In other words, what can I do to earn salvation and earn your favor? The answer is nothing. And that's what Christ showed him. He told him, well, you need to do this, you do this, you do this. Well, I've done all that. What do I lack? See, he knew that he was lacking something. He knew that something wasn't right. He knew that he didn't have the blessing that he wanted. See, righteous living with an expectation of blessing, but a relationship is righteous living with no expectations whatsoever. You live a righteous, holy, separated life. because that's what you do to have a relationship with Christ. Job 13, 15, I love this scripture. Job made the statement, he says, though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. He trusted Christ with no expectation of deliverance. That's the relationship that we ought to have with Christ. You can live your life in a religion and you'll never find peace, you'll never find happiness. or you can choose a relationship with Jesus Christ, and you can find the peace, you can find the calmness, you can find the assurance of what you're looking for. Dear Lord, I just thank you for this time we've had together in your word. Lord, I thank you for these dear people and their attention. Lord, I pray that you'll use these points of religion versus relationship. Lord, help us to choose a relationship, a genuine, intimate relationship with you so that we can give you genuine, intimate service. Lord, I love you, and I am thankful for what you've done. Please continue to bless tonight, Lord. In your name we pray.