We have a copy of the scriptures, invite you to open to Philippians, Philippians chapter three. I'm going to read the first 11 verses of Philippians chapter 3. As you turn there, I'll just remind you that we are in a new section and a new chapter of Philippians. And like all of the book, really, it's a very rich chapter. It's a Christ-centered chapter. And we'll see that again a little bit more this evening. So Philippians 3. I'll read verses 1 to 11. Paul says, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. This was a group of men, the Judaizers, false teachers, as we saw a couple sermons ago. He says, verse three, for we are the circumcision. who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Concerning the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Well, let's pray. Our God, we ask for your help in this time. We pray that Christ would be magnified. We pray that he would increase. Pray that we would decrease. Everything else would decrease in our thoughts, our aspirations. We pray that all would be directed to Christ. Ask that this time would be beneficial for us. Strengthen us, Lord, by your word. Pray that you would do your work in us by your spirit. We ask this in Christ's name, amen. Well, when we think of the great men and women in history, we often ask the question, or at least we want to know, what drove these people? What drove these great men and women? So we don't just want the facts of their lives. We want the facts, but what we really want, we want the facts behind the facts. So we want to know about the inner workings of these people. So whatever great person you might have in mind, you usually wanna know what made this person tick? What made them great? What drove them? And now when we come to the Apostle Paul, I have the same question at least, and I wanna know what made Paul tick? What drove Paul? In other words, how do we explain the Apostle Paul? How do we account for his extraordinary life? How do we make sense of his zeal, of his passion for the Lord, of his labors, and of his sufferings, and of his triumphs? Well, there's several things that we could point to throughout his letters, and if we just look here at the text I read, there's a number of things we could look at. I have four things in mind as we think about that question. What drove Paul? And tonight we're just gonna look at the first two things that I have in mind, and these I think are evident in our text. And these four things that we're gonna consider, I think over two sermons, these are things that we need to know if we're gonna understand Paul. If we're gonna know what made Paul tick. But they're also things that we need to know if we're gonna understand the Christian life in general. Title for this sermon is Understanding Paul. I don't really like that title. If you can think of something better, maybe let me know. But Understanding Paul. So we're gonna look at two things tonight. The first thing is this. Paul was a converted man. So if we're gonna understand Paul, really the first thing we need to consider, and the thing that we see in this text very clearly is that Paul was a converted man. Now this much is clear as we read this text is that Paul had undergone a radical change in his life, a change at the very root, at the very core of who he was. He's definitely not the man that he used to be. So there's a fundamental difference between the old Paul and the new Paul. And we see that side by side in this text. Now I want us first to appreciate Paul's conversion a little bit. So we see his past life, even here in this text, in verse six of Philippians 3, he mentions concerning zeal persecuting the church. Now, compare that with his present life. Compare that with the life of the man who's writing this letter and begins his letter with the words, Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ. So the man who was once persecuting the church and persecuting Christ is now a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and he's even in prison in chains for Christ, writing to the church to build up the church. But what we also see as we look at this is what's been called Paul's re-evaluation of his values. So Paul has completely re-evaluated his values and we saw that last time. And we begin to see it in the text here in verse seven when he says, but what things were gained to me, These I have counted loss for Christ." So it's that accounting change. Things that were in the gain column have been moved to the loss column. So it's a reevaluation of his values. Expanding on that, he says, yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. So he has come to know Christ, and he says, this is excellent. This is, as we said last time, the pearl of great price. And so he's totally reevaluated his values in light of that. But what we've also seen is not just a reevaluation of his values, but a complete reorientation of his life. And really, the reorientation of his life can be summed up in just two words, which we see in verse seven. And it's the words, for Christ, or for Christ's sake. So now Paul's life is all about Christ. It is for Christ. When he thinks and he reasons and makes decisions, it's for Christ that he does those things. So he's now a Christ-focused and Christ-centered man and wants to be more so. So that's just a little bit about appreciating his conversion, how complete it was. But I want us also to understand a little bit more about Paul's conversion. And if you can remember, Paul's conversion was quite sudden, and it was quite dramatic. We might call it a crisis conversion. And I want us to refresh our memory on that, and we have it recorded in multiple places, but I want us to look at Acts chapter eight and chapter nine. So if you wanna turn there, we'll look first at Acts eight. Couple verses there and then we will read in Acts chapter nine. So this is the account of Paul's conversion. But what we see in Acts eight, just to set the ground a little bit, the background, This was at the martyrdom of Stephen, and we read the words here that now Saul was consenting to his death. He was consenting to the death of Stephen. And then in verse three of chapter eight, we read that as for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. And then this in verse nine, we'll read more fully here. Then Saul, verse one, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, that was what the Christian church was called, the way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he journeyed, he came near to Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. So he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what do you want me to do? Then the Lord said to him, arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. And the man who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one. But they led him by the hand, and they brought him into Damascus. And he was there three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank." And then let's skip ahead a little bit to chapter, same chapter, sorry, verse 17. We read, and Ananias went his way, and he entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once. And he arose and was baptized. So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. And then you see here some of the evidence of this change. Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues that he is the son of God. Then all who heard were amazed and said, Is this not He who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that He might bring them bound to the chief priests?" They couldn't believe their eyes. This can't be Saul. Surely he's trying to trick us. But we read that Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ. So there's a refresher for us of the account of Paul's sudden and dramatic conversion, what we could call, as I said, a crisis conversion. Well, the question I wanna ask is what happened to Paul? What happened to Paul on the Damascus Road? And clearly, he had a life-changing encounter with the risen Lord. And this crisis, as we know, marks his conversion. This was the turning point in the life of Paul. So his conversion was the turning point. Now, what do I mean by conversion? We use that word all the time. We say, when were you converted or I was converted at such and such time or in this period of my life? Well, let me just give you a basic definition so that we're on the same page as we're thinking about Paul's conversion and about conversion in general. And I'm going to borrow from Louis Burkhoff. And this is the basic definition he gives for conversion. He says that true conversion is born of godly sorrow and it issues in a life of devotion to God. We see that very clearly in the life of Paul. It's a change that is rooted in the work of regeneration and that is effected in the conscious life of the sinner by the spirit of God. A change of thoughts and opinions, of desires and volitions, which involves the conviction that the former direction of life was unwise and wrong and alters the entire course of life. We see that in Paul, don't we? So like I said, he's reoriented his life and he's reevaluated his values and he was going in one direction and now he's going in the complete other direction. Now, Berkhoff's gonna distinguish between active and passive conversion, and let me just read that distinction, and then that's all I'm gonna say about this. But he says that active conversion is that act of God whereby he causes the regenerated sinner in his conscious life to turn to him. in repentance and faith. So God causing a regenerated sinner to turn to Christ in repentance and faith, that's active conversion. And then passive conversion is the resulting conscious act of the regenerated sinner whereby he, through the grace of God, turns to God in repentance and faith. So when I'm saying Paul's a converted man, that's what I'm talking about. So Paul is a converted man, that's very clear. Now, the question then is, how is all of this relevant to us? And I think it's quite clearly relevant because if you're not converted, Of course, you're not a Christian. If you're a Christian, you have been converted. It's really that simple. There's no such thing as an unconverted Christian or what we might say a carnal Christian. So this is a very relevant topic. But the question is, how can you know that you're converted? If it's this important, and if there's no Christian who's not converted, then we will wanna know, well, how can I know if I am converted? In other words, what should I look for? What should you look for in your life to show that the Lord has done a work in your heart? Well, I wanna think about a few things. First thing is, don't look for a sudden dramatic event in your life. So don't look for that. You may have that. You may have a sudden and dramatic event like Paul had, but not every conversion to Christ is a crisis conversion, and that's important to remember. Because sometimes we can be troubled if we've had more of a gradual conversion. We can be troubled because we're looking, saying, wait, I did not have a Paul-like experience. But think about Timothy. Timothy would have had a gradual conversion. We have no record of any sort of sudden crisis conversion, but he was raised up, like many of you, raised up in a Christian home, taught the scriptures, and he probably will have remembered just always believing in Christ. And so sometimes a conversion can be gradual. So don't necessarily look for a sudden and dramatic event in your life. Don't get hung up on that. Another thing not to look for is perfection. Conversion doesn't remove every sinful desire. I think that's clear. Pastor John has been teaching us that until we're glorified, we're gonna have to fight. We're gonna have to fight in the Christian life, and so we put on that whole armor God has given us. So don't look for perfection. What you should look for though is, like Paul, a reevaluation of your values. So look for a reevaluation of values and honestly ask yourself, can I say with Paul what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ? Can you say that? Things that were once of great value to you, can you say because of Christ, I count those things as lost? Those things which we're tempted to trust in and to boast in and to have confidence in, can you say that for Christ, those things are loss to me? So look for a reevaluation of values in your life. And also look for a reorientation of your life. A converted man or woman or boy or girl has reoriented their life around Christ so that Christ is at the center. And remember those words, for Christ. So that those words for Christ are inserted into your thinking. And you're gonna grow in this over time in the Christian life. It's not that all of your thinking and all of your decisions, you can say, yes, I've done it all for Christ. None of us can say that. But look for a reorientation so that you can say, by God's grace, I really do say for Christ, and that's in my thinking. Another thing to look for is fruit. Look for fruit. And first, faith and repentance. And I mean ongoing faith and ongoing repentance. It's not just a one-time sort of thing. Love for God, love for others, those sorts of things. If there's been a change, a radical change at the root, if the root has been changed, there's gonna be new fruit. So there ought to be fruit. There's a friend of mine and it was a few years ago, he was going through a very traumatic time in his life and was doubting and had begun to really obsess about when the Lord saved him, the exact time. And he was doubting because He kept telling me about a specific day when he made this decision at a camp, at a Christian camp. And he may have been saved at that point, I don't know. But I stopped him multiple times and I said, are you believing now? Are you trusting now? Did you make a decision or did you trust in Christ at that point 10 years ago, but are you trusting now? That's really all that matters. Are you trusting in Christ? So that's the question we need to ask. So don't obsess about, was it 10 years ago or was it 11 or 12 years ago that I first trusted in Christ? You say, am I trusting now? Am I alive now? And that's the question. So true conversion's life-changing. It's life-changing and it's lasting. It's not a temporary thing. Conversion's not simply just a matter of a one-time decision or signing of a card, whatever it might be, walking of an aisle. People don't just get converted and then get on with their life as if it never happened. Paul, you'll notice in verse seven, Paul says, I've counted all things lost for Christ, past tense. But then he says, he goes on in verse eight, and he says, I do count presents. And so he says, I've counted all things lost, and I still count all things lost. And I think there's some indication there that it wasn't just a decision in the past, but Paul continued to do that throughout his life. And that's what I mean here, that it's gonna have lasting effects. Once you get converted, you are converted, and you're never the same. So, Those are things we can look for. But Paul was a converted man, we see that. And those are things that we can look at and evaluate a little bit. Is this a work in my life that has happened? So Paul was a converted man, but secondly, if we're gonna understand Paul, we need to see here that Paul was an ambitious man. So Paul was an ambitious man. Now we don't typically think of ambition as a virtue. In fact, Paul has just been talking about selfish ambition as something that we should renounce, but. I'll explain what I mean. If you were to look in Webster's dictionary at least, the first definition they have is ambition is an ardent desire for rank and fame and power. And that's what we think of when we think of ambition. Somebody who just wants rank. They want to climb the ladders. And they want fame. They want to make a name for themselves. They want power. And it does seem that Paul had this sort of ambition before his conversion. Paul, we know, had climbed the ranks in Judaism, and he'd gained quite a reputation for himself. And he even said so himself, writing to the church, to the Galatians, he said that he had advanced in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries and in his own nation, being exceedingly zealous for the traditions of his fathers, exceedingly more zealous. So we can read between the lines of it and say Paul was probably quite an ambitious man. He had a lot of natural ability, I'm sure, but he seems to have been ambitious in that sense of wanting rank and fame and power. Now my point is that after his conversion, Paul was still an ambitious man. But the key is this, conversion doesn't remove ambition, but it redirects it. So conversion doesn't remove ambition but it redirects it. Or we might say it doesn't mortify or kill our ambition but it sanctifies it. So Paul's unholy ambition was turned to holy ambition. His ambition was no longer self-centered but it was Christ-centered because he'd been converted and he'd had that reorientation. So the I must increase became he, Christ, must increase. And the I want to be known became I want to know him, and I want to make him known. Now, where am I getting this in our text? Well, Paul actually tells us what his new ambitions are after his conversion. We see that in verse 8 and 9 and then in 10, and we've looked at two of these already briefly last time, but he has purpose statements in here, three in particular. And he says this, that I may gain Christ. So there's one of his ambitions, to gain Christ, and then verse nine, and be found in him. And then verse 10, another purpose statement, that I may know him. So those are Paul's ambitions that I'm talking about in this text. He wanted to gain Christ, he wanted to be found in him, and he wanted to know Christ. So we considered those first two ones last time, and Paul wants to gain Christ, and what he means by that really is he wants to be found in Him. He wants to be found in Him, and that means that he wants to be justified, he wants to be counted righteous in God's sight by faith alone. So he's put away his old ambition to be self-righteous by his law keeping. He's put that away and now all that he wants is the righteousness which is from God by faith. But what I want to draw your attention to tonight is Paul's third purpose statement. And that's the one we see there in verse 10, that I may know Christ. And this isn't really a different ambition. And it's important to see that. It's not different from verses seven and eight. What it is is really his highest ambition. It's the great aim of his life and it includes those other things. But this is his great aim. So really the logic here, and it's split up so it's hard to see because verse 10 begins with this purpose statement, but we need to see what it's connected to. And it's connected to Paul saying that he'd gladly suffered the loss of all things, even counting them as rubbish or trash, for this ultimate purpose. that he may know Christ. So he says that I may know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. So if we're gonna put it in a word, Paul's ambition in life and in death was to know Christ. That was his ambition. I want to know Christ. That's his passion that we see here. And as we saw last time, this knowledge of Christ is a personal knowledge and it's a saving knowledge. So we considered that it's not just a knowledge about Christ, it's not just the understanding and filling our minds with facts, but it's a knowledge of Christ. And we also considered that to know Christ is to have an intimate relationship with him, such that we say he's my Lord. To know Christ is to have him as your Lord and Savior. To know Christ is eternal life, even as Jesus himself said, John 17 three. So Paul's great ambition is to know Christ in this sort of way. He wants to know Christ personally, and savingly, but there's another thing I want to add to that tonight. He wants to know Christ experientially, or we might say experimentally. That's another word that's sometimes used. So he wants to know Him experientially, and we see this as an aspect of knowing Christ here in verse 10, that I may know Him And most commentators will say that what follows that and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings is really an explanation of what He means here by knowing Christ. I want to know Him, that is, I want to know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. So Paul is saying, I want to know him experientially. I wanna experience this power and I wanna even experience this suffering with Christ. So Paul's ambitious and his ambition to know Christ included a desire for power. Paul wants to know the power of Christ's resurrection. Paul's ambition here is to experience power of God in everyday life. He wants to experience God's power in his daily life, the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead. Now we might step back and say, well that's just Paul, right? But you know, that power's not just for apostles, and it's not just for what we might call super Christians. And I get this, we could get it from a number of places, but do you remember Paul praying, he's writing to the Ephesians, ordinary Christians, and he says that he's praying for all of them. And he's praying for them for power. He wants them all to know this same power that he said he's ambitious to know. And that's in Ephesians one. So let me read these prayers. Paul is praying here in Ephesians 1 verse 15. Prayer for spiritual wisdom. He wants the eyes of their understanding to be enlightened so that they, these ordinary Christians, that they might know what is the hope of his calling. What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places? far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also that which is to come. So he's saying, I'm praying for you who believe to know this power of God that raised Christ from the dead and even exalted him to the highest position. And then actually later in the letter to the Ephesians, we learn that this mighty power comes from God as a gift. and that it's mediated through the Spirit and it operates in our inner being. So we see that in Ephesians 3. where he says, again, for this reason I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, that he would give it to you as a gift, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might or with power through his spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and so on. So brothers and sisters, are any of you discouraged ever in the Christian life? I know you are. We all get discouraged. And we all get tired and overwhelmed. And when that happens, we need to consider the resources that are available to us in Christ. The resources from this rich treasury of God that are available to us, the power that is available to us as ordinary believers in Christ. So we're not meant, as you know, to live the Christian life in our own strength, in our own power, but practically, we try to do that quite often, or at least I do. So do you wanna know the power of Christ's resurrection? Do you have this ambition like Paul? And what we learn here, At least one thing is that we need to follow Paul's lead in praying for this power. If we want it, it comes by prayer because it comes from God as a gift. So this is a good prayer to pray, to remember to pray for the power of God in our lives, even this power of Christ's resurrection. Let me share with you a quote from Matthew Henry to this effect. He says that God has laid up spiritual blessings for us in his son, the Lord Jesus, but he requires us to draw them out and fetch them in by prayer. And so let that be an encouragement to pray in the Christian life. Somebody once said, little prayer, little power, much prayer, much power. We need to remember that. So Paul was ambitious, he earnestly desired to know Christ, and that meant that he wanted to know the power of Christ's resurrection. But that's not all, if you turn back to our text in Philippians, he continues and he says, not just the power of his resurrection, but he wanted to know the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death. Now I come across that and I say, why does Paul say that? Why didn't Paul just stop? Does Paul really desire this? Is he really ambitious to know, to have the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ? The answer, of course, is yes. Yes, Paul really desired this. Paul was ambitious for this. And I think at least this shows us how intense his desire was to know Christ. He wanted to know Christ so much that he even wanted to share in his sufferings. And we all know that Paul shared in the sufferings of Christ. And through all of that, Paul knew a closer and closer walk with Christ. And that's why he's saying, I wanna share in his sufferings. Because he says, when I do, there's fellowship there, there's closer communion. And he was so ambitious to know Christ, he said, I'm willing to suffer. Now as I was wrestling with these words in my own heart, there were a number of things that came to mind and I wanted to share a few of those things that I think will help us to understand this ambition of Paul's and also to understand the Christian life. And the first thing is just looking here at the text, it's that Paul doesn't separate knowing the power of Christ's resurrection and knowing the fellowship of Christ's sufferings. So he doesn't separate those. He doesn't separate them grammatically and he doesn't separate them actually in practice. He puts them together because the more Paul suffered for Christ, the more power he knew. So in his mind, they just went together. And this was especially true in his weakness. In his weakness, he knew more of the power of God. And you know, he had to learn this lesson. He didn't like it either. Paul didn't like to be weak any more than any of us like to be weak. But he learned, the Lord had to teach him. Let me remind you of a well-known text, 2 Corinthians 12, nine and 10. The Lord said to Paul in his affliction, he said, my grace is sufficient for you. Now remember, Paul had been praying. He prayed three times to the Lord, take away this thorn, this affliction, this thing that was weakening him, but God says my grace is sufficient for you. For my strength, my power is made perfect in weakness. So Paul goes on and says, well, therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So you see the connection there. He says, fine, if that's the way it works, I'll boast in weakness so that I can have the power. And then he says, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. So that's the first thought I have here, that Paul doesn't separate knowing the power of Christ's resurrection and sharing in his sufferings. But also, Paul understood the Christian life in terms of dying and rising with Christ. in terms of being buried with Christ and then being raised with Him. And the key text here is Romans chapter six. Let me read verses three to five. Paul understood the Christian life in terms of dying and of rising. So Romans 6.3, he says, or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him through baptism into death. Now when Paul's thinking of baptism, just a side note, he's not saying that you've just been dunked in the water, but that there's real faith there, that there's repentance. So we've been baptized into death, into his death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. So that's just the way Paul understood the Christian in life. The Christian life as a sharing in the death and in the resurrection of Christ. And so that's why here he says that the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. But then, a final thought here, is Paul viewed suffering with Christ as a prerequisite to being glorified. with Christ at the resurrection. So he viewed suffering with Christ as a prerequisite to being glorified with Christ at the resurrection, and we get a hint of that in our text, and we'll consider this more next time. But you see, he's saying, I wanna know Christ, I wanna know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. So Paul wanted to be glorified with Christ at the resurrection. And he understood suffering for Christ to be a prerequisite to that. And again, looking in Romans, we have a key text, but this time in Romans eight. So Romans chapter eight, verses 16 and 18. He says here that the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him. that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. So those are just some thoughts here. As we think about Paul being ambitious to share in these sufferings, those are some things that can help us and I hope not just to understand Paul but to understand the Christian life and how this ought to be our ambition too. So how do we make sense of a man like Paul? That's the question that I began with and we need to know that he was a converted man. And we need to know that he was an ambitious man. He was an ambitious man, he wanted to know Christ. And I said earlier that Paul's conversion was the turning point in his life. But we need to realize that it wasn't just the turning point in his life, it was the starting point of his new life in Christ. So Paul wasn't just content to be converted and then that's it. But this was the beginning of his life in Christ. So he wasn't content. We think of Paul as a content man, and indeed he was, but in this way he was not content. He wasn't satisfied just to be saved in the sense that all he cared about, well, I just want my sins forgiven, I wanna be in heaven. No, his desire was to know Christ and to know him more and more and to be brought into greater conformity with Christ, even if that meant being conformed to his death. So for Paul, the Christian life was not just about forgiveness and justification, all of these glorious things. The point here is that for Paul, the Christian life was about a person. It was about Christ. And that's why his greatest ambition was to know Christ. I'll just leave you with a couple questions. One is what's your ambition in life? What's your ambition in life? Some of you maybe who aren't converted. What are your ambitions? What do you desire? What are you aiming at? And where's that taking you? But if you're a Christian, been converted, you're trusting in Christ, Christ alone, you've been justified, my question is, are you satisfied in the Christian life? I hope we all have a holy dissatisfaction. They were all discontent with our current love for Christ, or our current attainments in grace, or our current desires to know Christ. I hope we all want to grow, and I pray that God would make us all more and more ambitious like Paul, such that we would say, my great aim is to know Christ. So may God help us to continually grow in the grace and in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your word, your holy word. We pray that you would write its truths upon our heart. Lord, as we've looked at the life of Paul and his conversion and his great desire to know Christ, We see a man who's been changed by your grace. Lord, we ask that you would so work in all of our hearts, that you would powerfully work that we would be focused upon Christ, that our great aim in life would be to know him, to please him, to glorify him, to make him known. Lord, we ask that you would do this. We pray that none of us would be satisfied, that we would keep pressing on in the faith, And Lord, some who are satisfied here to live apart from Christ, we pray that you would not let them be satisfied, that you would Stir in them that you would convict them, that you would give them a new heart and you would turn them around like you turned Paul around. Lord, even suddenly that you would do it or gradually, however you do it, Lord. We ask that you would do that work for your glory. The word has been preached today, it's been preached many times before. We pray that that seed would bear much fruit, that it would bear the fruit of salvation and of sanctification all the way to glorification. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen.