Let me ask you, is that really your prayer? Is that really your prayer? Take myself and I will be ever only all for thee. We're gonna talk about the words of a man today who not only prayed that, but he lived it. As we look at the Apostle Paul, again in Philippians chapter three, one to 11, I promise this is the last week we'll be on this passage. We've been on it for three weeks now, this is not a rerun. I'm not testing you to see if you paid attention last week. This is a passage that if I were to preach on it for another 52 weeks or so, we might scratch the surface. It is a phenomenal passage and I'll share more with you about why we're looking at it. We looked first at Paul's command in verse one to rejoice in the Lord. And so two weeks ago, that's what we focused on was how it is and what it is to rejoice in the Lord. And then last week, we looked at where Paul gives his credentials as a religious leader. And we said as Christians, we must be willing to lay aside our boasting and lay aside what we have done and lay aside our self-righteousness if we are to entrust ourselves to the grace of Jesus Christ. We cannot boast in ourselves and entrust ourselves to Christ. And so we must at some point lay our pride down at his throne. Today, we're going to talk about what happens when you do that. When you have said, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. This is the third section, but we're going to read the whole passage. Philippians chapter three, verses one through 11. Finally, my brothers rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and it's safe for you. 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 thinks he has reason for 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. As to the law, a Pharisee. 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 as 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 in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Do you have a life verse? Have you ever thought about that? Do you have a life verse? I recently heard two pastors, both of them were British yet moved to America. Two of my favorite pastors, J.I. Packer and Sinclair Ferguson. And each of them said upon moving to America, they heard a question that they had never heard before. And that was, what's your life verse? And they said, you Americans are so invasive. You always wanna get into our business. They never thought about that. Apparently only Americans ask that question. Do you have a life verse? And I don't find it to be that peculiar of a question, but I'm also an American, so what would I know? At the heart of the question is this. Is there a verse that would summarize your life? Or a verse that you specifically wish to live by? This would be a verse that explains what drives you, what makes you do what you do. I don't know if I have one. Some of you that have been here under my teaching for a couple of years, you may know well what my life verse is because it's probably the one that I quote all the time. So maybe you know better than I do, but I would guess that if you were to ask the apostle Paul, what is your life verse? He might point to this passage and say, it's Philippians chapter three. He might point to this passage to show us what it is that motivates him, what makes him tick, what has captured him and made him labor so tirelessly. By the way, remember how long Paul's been a Christian? He's been a Christian 20 to 25 years at the time he's writing this. He's not a fresh idealistic spring chicken new to the faith who hasn't yet been jaded by the world, who hasn't yet grown weary. He has been laboring for years and years and years. And I think he would point to this passage and say, here's why, because I want to know Christ. I call this, I would call that ambition. Ambition is the thing inside of us that moves us, that compels us to be who we are and to do what we do. It's the passion that drives us. And compared to that one thing, everything else is worthless. Everything else is worthless compared to that compassion, to that true passion. And the summary of Paul's ambition was this. I want to know Christ. I want to know Christ, knowing Christ in every aspect of my life. I want to know him in my work. I want to know him in my prayers. I want to know him in my service to him. I even want to know him in my suffering. Paul says, I want to know Christ, his passion, Above all else was to know Christ and then help others come to know Christ, to know Christ and to make him known. And there was not one thing that could stand in his way that was more valuable to him than knowing Christ. In fact, it was so valuable. He longed for Christ so much that he literally gave up every comfort he had in life. Here's what I'm gonna ask you at the end of the sermon, but I want you to have it in mind as we go. Is it your ambition? Is it your drives? Is it what makes you tick on a daily basis? What makes you get out of bed to know Jesus Christ? Is it your ambition to know Christ? Can you in good conscience say that your reason for being who you are and doing what you do is to know Jesus Christ? So we'll come back to that question about you. Let's talk about Paul. This was Paul's ambition when he wrote this letter, but it wasn't always his ambition. If you look back at verses four through six, he shows you what his ambition used to be. He says, I can trace my lineage back to Israel. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I persecuted the church. I was legalistic. I was blameless as far as external obedience to the law. See, his ambition used to be external obedience, the appearance of godliness, doing those things, going through the motions, making sure, at least on the outside, everybody thinks you're righteous. Because if everybody thinks it, it must be true, right? And so he lived his life all about externals, what people saw. And yet it was on the road to Damascus when he was on his way to persecute the church that he saw the Lord Jesus. And what did he realize? He realized that all those good works are worthless in comparison to him. All they will do is serve to condemn me. All they will do is cause me to stand in judgment before God. You see, for Paul, as a Pharisee, as a legalistic law keeper, it wasn't about knowing and loving God. It was about getting God off his back. Have you ever had that thought? Let's say you haven't been to church in a few weeks and you start to feel bad about it. You think, what do I do to get God off my back? That is a summary of world religion right there. What do you have to do to get God off your back? Every world religion has a different answer to it. Is that love, by the way? Those of you who are, your wife gives you a honeydew list. Do you look at that list and go, oh, I can't wait to do this because I love my wife. In a perfect world, we would, but most of us probably go, all right, let me do all these things so I can hurry up and watch the game. It's about appeasement and not love. And that's exactly what Pharisaic religion was, appeasing God, getting him off my back so that in the end, he has to let me in. He owes me. That's exactly what Paul had lived for, for his entire life up to the point of meeting Christ. Can you relate to that? Is your Christianity anything more than making sure God will leave you alone in the end? Because if so, you cannot say, I want to know Christ. Our heart here is not that we would have a bunch of lovely plastic people going through the motions, appearing beautiful, but on the inside, dead. Our heart is that you would cry out, I want to know Jesus. I want to know Christ. For Paul, it all changed when he met Jesus. It was no longer about appearances and external obedience. His ambition became to know Christ. Is it yours? Is it your ambition to say I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord? In order for you to answer that, I think we need to make sure we really understand what Paul is saying. We're going to look at it today in two categories. First, we're going to look at what Paul's not saying, what he's not saying when he says that. And second, what he is saying. Let's look at three things he doesn't mean when he talks about knowing Christ. First, he doesn't mean mere head knowledge. He doesn't mean mere head knowledge. He's not saying, I want to know all the information that there is about Christ and that's it. He's talking about a knowledge that penetrates the heart. We want you to have good head knowledge of the Bible. We want you to have good knowledge of theology, but that's only the starting point. That's the jumping off point. That's where you get into the water. Head knowledge only matters if it gives birth to heart knowledge. Let me say that again. Head knowledge only matters if it gives birth to heart knowledge. That's the kind of knowing Christ that he's talking about here. Have you ever heard it said that the longest 18 inches in the world is from your head to your heart? Because it takes a lot to take that knowledge of Christ and to let it sink into your heart. It takes repentance, it takes prayer, it takes study. But that's the kind of knowing Christ that he's talking about, not just head knowledge. J.C. Ryle, the great Anglican Bishop in the 1800s said, let us all be aware of resting satisfied with head knowledge. It is an excellent thing when rightly used, but a man may have much of it and perish everlastingly. What is the state of our hearts? That's the true question. What is the state of our hearts? Let me warn you about something that some of you may find offensive, but I think it's biblical. There are many people in hell who know theology better than we do. Many people in hell today who knew theology better than we do. I encounter people all the time who can quote, and I'll say generally they misquote scripture, But they can quote scripture better than any of us. But all it's going to do in the end, because they've refused to humble themselves and to repent, all it's going to do is stand up in judgment against them because they didn't believe it. They knew it, but they didn't believe it. Paul is talking about more than just head knowledge of Christ. Second thing he doesn't mean here. He doesn't mean just busy hands. We often equate knowing Jesus with busyness in the church, with busyness in religious duties. And so Paul gives us an illustration. He says, you want to talk about busy? You want to talk about religious duties? I fulfilled all of them in four through six. There was nobody more religious than Paul. And what does he say? I count all those things lost compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. there's a danger for you and I that we would trust in our works rather than in Christ. And so we think what makes us Christian is what we've done. And we look to our list, we look to our resume. But here's what happens. Religious busyness often does nothing more than deceive us because we assume we know Christ. We substitute it for knowing Christ. That's not a new problem. Jesus referenced this problem in Matthew chapter seven. He tells a story about how in the judgment, many would come to him and they would say, Lord, Lord, Didn't we do all these things? Didn't we prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name? Do mighty works? Maybe the equivalent today is, Lord, Lord, I had perfect Sunday school attendance. Lord, Lord, I was an elder. I was a Sunday school teacher. I was, whatever the list is. And what does Jesus say to him? He says, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. You are all concerned about externals. You cared about the motions of religion, but you never knew Christ. So it's not head knowledge. It's not busy hands. Let me tell you a third thing that matters maybe in our culture more than ever. Third thing he's not talking about here. Knowing Christ is not just an experience. Have you ever seen, there's a trend today in churches, they don't call it a worship service. They call it a worship experience. And the idea is that you're going to come and you're going to have some cathartic experience and you'll get goosebumps and you'll get all those feelings. And that's what it means to worship. In fact, that has become the Holy Spirit's job in modern culture is to give you goosebumps in worship. That's a dangerous approach because if we think that the only purpose for us to have worship is for us to have those feelings, for us to have that sensational experience, then we are missing the entire point of worship. I'm often concerned when people talk to me about the feelings they get in some worship service that was very cathartic. I'm not sure if they're talking about worship or indigestion. You ever heard that? You ever heard somebody talk and you think, I'm not sure that that was worship. I think it was just whatever you ate for dinner the night before. What we're to look for is not just an experience, but an encounter with the Holy God that will transform you forever. So those are three things Paul's not talking about. He's not talking about mere head knowledge. He's not talking about just busy hands and he's not talking about just an experience. So what is he talking about that it means to know Christ? We're going to see four things here that it means to know Christ. First, knowing Christ is a response to the grace that has been shown to us in Christ Jesus. Let me say that again. Knowing Christ is a response to the grace that has been shown to us in Christ Jesus. In other words, everything we do as Christians, Everything is done in response to the grace of God. Grace is our starting point. Those of us who think we have to get ready and get good enough so that then God will accept us, that's not how God works. There's a hymn that says, if you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all. If you wait till your life looks better, you will never come. We start with God by grace alone and we finish by grace alone. And everything in the middle, is by grace alone. Let me share with you a story that troubled me a lot over the last few weeks. There was an interview with a presidential candidate and he identified himself as a Christian. In fact, he identified himself as a Presbyterian. Why couldn't he be Methodist? Why couldn't he be Baptist? Why do you have to say Presbyterian? He was asked if he's ever, if he has ever asked forgiveness for his sins. Have you ever asked God for forgiveness for your sins? And here's his response. A man who goes to church, I believe, considers himself a Presbyterian. He says, I'm not sure that I have. I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don't think I have. I think if I do something wrong, I just try and make it right. But I really don't bring God into that picture. That's American theology right there. I just try to make it right. No, no. You don't try to make it right. You cannot make it right. And while that statement will not disqualify him from the presidency, it does disqualify him from biblical Christianity, because a person who is unrepentant will die in their sins. You cannot make it right on your own. So the starting point is grace. This is the only way to know Jesus Christ. to confess your sinfulness and entrust your soul to him. Listen to verse nine, where Paul summarizes that his desire is to, as he says, 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. Paul's saying here, my hope is in the grace of God. I didn't have righteousness according to the law. I couldn't keep the law. That presidential candidate is saying somewhere along the line, I'm good enough. I'm good enough on my own. Paul's saying, no, you're not. You don't have righteousness on your own. It's gotta be a gift from God. It's gotta be grace alone. You don't earn a thing. And then everything we do in the Christian life is a response to that grace. Everything we do, is a response to the goodness and graciousness of God. And in fact, here's what I would say. The more you realize your need of God's grace, the more devoted you will be to serving him. I think that was why Paul was so wholeheartedly devoted, not just because he was super religious, but because he realized how deeply he had been forgiven. He realized how sinful he was. He realized how gracious God was. And he said, this is the kind of God I want to serve. That's my hope in Christ, not how faithfully I've followed or how well I know scripture. My only hope is what Christ accomplished on the cross. And anyone who understands the goodness and grace of God will say with Paul, I wanna follow Christ. I wanna know Christ. Let me share with you a story from the 1800s. In America, there was a wealthy Christian who went down to the slave block, to the market, And there was a young girl for sale, and as she looked at the white man bidding on her, she figured he was just another white man who would take her and enslave her and all those things. He won the bid, and as he was walking away with his property, he said, young lady, you are free. Young lady, you are free. She said, what does that mean? It means you're free, he said. Does that mean that I can say whatever I want to?" she said. Yes, my dear, you can say whatever you want to. Does that mean that I can be whatever I want to be? Yes, my dear, you can be whatever you want to be. Does that mean I can go wherever I want to go? Yes, my dear, it does. And the girl with tears streaming down her face said, then I will go with you. Then I will go with you. If you would give up that much for me, then you're the kind of person I want to be with. You're the one I want to know and follow. And that's exactly what Paul is saying here. If you are that gracious, Lord, I want to follow you. You have set me free. And exactly what I want to do is follow you. Christianity is not a system of rules. They get God off your back. It's a relationship with Christ and it's lived in response to his grace. Second, knowing Jesus is the substance of our faith. Knowing Jesus is the substance of our faith. Where are you gonna spend eternity? You think about that often? Where will you spend eternity? That's a great question. It's a question that we ask a lot in churches. But it's not the only benefit to knowing Christ. We believe that our only hope of eternity is Christ, but we don't have to wait till eternity. We don't have to wait till after death to know him. We can know him right now. You can enjoy him right now. You can have a relationship with the God of the universe right now. That's the substance of our faith, that Jesus Christ is knowable. You can have a relationship, you can know the God of the universe who loved you and gave himself up for you. You know what happens when you realize that, that this isn't just a system of rules? You show up here expecting to meet with Jesus. You expect to encounter God, not only in worship, but in daily life. You walk with him. You live for him. You submit yourself to him. You know, that's, to me, it's one of the main questions about churches. Not all the external things, but does the church believe in a real, powerful, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ? Do they believe in a real powerful, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ? Here's what happens if the answer is no. Of course, nobody's gonna say no, are they? But other things become central. So you take the youth ministry, you take the building, you take the activities of the church, you take the music ministry, and you make those the center of the church. Not Jesus. Not that Jesus himself is knowable. See what happens when we don't believe that we can know Christ is we start to substitute other things. We start to substitute other things and we have to make it flashy and we have to make it, we have to do other things to attract people because we don't believe Jesus is actually knowable. So we start putting one thing after another in his, in its place. But you know, if people don't know Jesus, then all those other things are worthless. Amen. All those other things are worthless. We had a decision to make prior to going to seminary. Two, we were in a small town, two churches. One had a lot of activities, had youth ministry, had everything we could want. The other had nothing except faithful preaching. We were the youngest by 40 years. So we had a decision to make. What will we do? Will we put our infant son in a nursery where there's nobody else? Or will we keep him ourselves? Or will we take him to this church that has everything to offer? What do you think we did? As parents, we had to say, if we're being fed, our family will be fine. If the word is central, our family will be fine. We can stand to go without all those other accoutrements and trappings of the church. As long as we are being, as long as the word is being preached, as long as Jesus Christ is central. Cause in many cases, what happens is people will put up with a lack of preaching because the church has everything else to offer. That is sin. That is sin. That is idolatry. That is the worship of things that are not central. You, as you seek to follow Christ, you will have to make one exchange after another. There will be one trade after another. You'll give up perhaps what you have always known in order to have something that's new to you. Let me explain that with the third point. The third point is this. Knowing Jesus is a constant and conscious exchange of my rags for his riches. Knowing Jesus is a conscious and constant exchange of my rags for his riches. Verses four through six, Paul lists all of his religious accomplishments. If anyone could earn righteousness, it was him. But I want you to listen to a passage that should have rang out in Paul's ears. No, Paul. No, Paul. It didn't count. None of those things earn your righteousness. Isaiah 64, six. Isaiah says, we have all become like one who is unclean. and our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. When Paul met Jesus, he made a trade with him. He gave all of his righteousness, his self-righteousness, everything he had done, the works of his hands, he gave them up in order to receive the righteousness of Christ. Let me give you a great illustration of this. In our family devotional this week, we've been studying about a man I'd never heard of before named Albin. Of course, we always had to say Alvin, but it was Albin who lived in the second or third century in Britain. And he was a wealthy young man and he was known for doing good in the community. One of the things he would do was when Christians were being forced to flee from the Roman government, he would hide them. He would hide them. He wasn't yet a Christian. He would be converted through that process, but he would hide them. And he had a man one day, an elderly man who came to him in rags. His name was Amphibolus and Amphibolus asked him to hide him because if the Roman government found him, he would die. If Amphibolus was caught, he was a fugitive and he would be executed. And so he hid there for several days, but finally the Roman government found out where he was and they came after him. And so Albin got a warning that he was coming. So Albin said to Amphibolus, to the elderly fugitive staying with him, give me your rags and I'll give you my robe. They'll never think that a fugitive, a Christian fugitive would have the robes like I have and they'll ignore you. You can walk right out and I'll wear your rags. And so what happened was Amphibolus put on the beautiful robes that Albin had and he walked right out of the house. Nobody paid any attention. And there was Albin in the rags. He let the beautifully robed older man go, and he took on his tattered rags. It's a perfect picture of what Jesus Christ does for us, isn't it? By the way, Albin was killed for it because he came to faith in the process. And so he was executed. He gave his life for another. Christ takes our rags. He takes everything we've earned. and he takes them unto himself and he gives us his righteousness. Think of it like a robe. And so when God looks at us, he doesn't see our rags for all who are in Christ. He sees the beauty of Christ's righteousness wrapped around us. He sees the robe of Christ's righteousness upon us. The entire Christian life is an exchange. Me giving up my pride, me giving up what I deserve to follow Christ, to know Christ, It's a lifelong turning away from ourselves, turning to him. When we do that every day, we'll be able to say with Paul that I want to know Christ, that there is nothing in this world that compares. Look at verse eight. I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Depending on your version of the Bible, there's different translations for that word rubbish. It's the word scubula, scubula in Greek. It can be translated rubbish, refuse, or if you're reading the King James, what does it say? It says dung. I count my goodness. I count everything that I deserve as dung compared to what I receive in Christ. What is it for you? that you are counting as more precious than Jesus? What is your ambition that is keeping you from following Christ with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength? What is it for you? What is it that steals your confidence and your affection that belong to Jesus Christ alone? What means so much to you that it captivates your attention so much so that there is no zeal left for Christ? Whatever that thing is, that is your ambition. For me, it's been different in different seasons of life. Sometimes it's sheer laziness, not praying enough, not studying enough, and so on, just sitting in front of the TV. It's laziness. At times it's been a sin that I was ashamed of and so I didn't want to face God. I didn't want to know Christ because I was bearing the weight of my sin rather than turning it over to him and seeking forgiveness. Sometimes it's been idols like work and sports and so on that dominated my time. For many of us, it's our pride. We don't think we need forgiveness. So why do we need to know Jesus? Whatever is stealing our focus from Christ, it is trash. It is refuse. It is dumb compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus. which brings us to our last point. Knowing Jesus is the Christian's greatest ambition. I was in a conversation the other day with folks, I didn't know them, I was in a restaurant, and they were talking about all that needed to be done to make our community better. And particularly they were talking about mentoring, mentoring young people. And they talked, but the more they talked, they talked themselves out of doing anything. My assumption is they were gonna meet the next day and have the same talk. And I walked by them on my way out, on and off been part of the conversation. And I said, talk is cheap, isn't it? The apostle Paul wasn't all talk, was he? He didn't just say, I want to know Christ. He didn't just say, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. But he lived it. He meant it. He backed it up. He pursued Christ the way many of us pursue leisure, wealth, and right now, college football. He pursued Christ with that diligence. For many of us, that zeal is being zapped by those things rather than pursuing Christ. For Paul, Christ was his life. He didn't ask the question, what's in it for me? He knew what was in it for him. Right when he got saved, Jesus said to him, I've appointed for you to suffer many things. He knew what was in it for him. Knowing Jesus Christ must be the Christian's greatest ambition, not comfort. not a life of ease, but knowing Jesus Christ, we've got to be willing to set aside all other things compared to the surpassing greatness of that one true ambition. It doesn't mean we forsake our worldly duties of family and church and work, but it means we use those things as an opportunity to know Christ. And if we can't use those things, if you can't use your work as an opportunity to know Christ, you may need a different job. Y'all Christians are far too distracted. Some of you, some of us are far too distracted. If we can fit Jesus in, that's great. But if not, that's okay too. If we can fit church in, that's great. But if not, we'll be okay. That's the attitude that we take. And we don't see where we've lost very much. But if Jesus Christ is your ambition, if knowing Christ is your ambition, then you will not be willing to part with those things. Whatever has stolen your ambition doesn't deserve to be in first place. I want to challenge you to answer this question in all honesty. What is your greatest ambition? What do you think about? What do you think about when you think about nothing? When your mind can just wander? What do you think about? What do you spend your time doing? What drives you? Because if it's anything other than Christ, It's worthless in the end because what will you gain if you got to get the whole world and yet forfeit your soul? Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, Lord, we have many things that would steal our attention. We are far too easily distracted by the world, the flesh and the devil. Many of us are working our way up the ladder. only to realize that we've been building on the wrong foundation. We've been working our whole lives for the wrong things. Our ambition is not to know Christ, but it's been to know wealth, to know comfort, to know popularity and respect, to know power, but not to know Christ. Father, give us a heart to say that everything else is scubala. It's worthless compared to the surpassing worth of Christ. Father, we will be a drastically different people if that's the cry of our hearts. If we really believe the hymn we sang a few minutes ago, to take our life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee, take our moments and our days, let them flow in ceaseless praise. If we really believe that, We will be a drastically different people. And not only will we be drastically different, but our community will be drastically different. And it will benefit from a people who are so sold out for the Lord Jesus Christ, that nothing will hinder us from knowing him and making him known. Father, we ask that you would give us deep conviction of our sin. For those in here who are unrepentant, who are like the presidential candidate, who've never turned to you, I pray that they would have a burden of sin that they can't get out from under until they trust Christ. And you would take that burden away the moment they come to know you. For those who believe they know Jesus and yet they give him a small portion, a little corner of their lives. Father, I pray that they would repent of that and give you all. That we would take our hands off the controls and give them over to You. Father, help us to that end, we pray. We want to know Christ. We pray all this in His name. Amen.