What Really Matters In Life
Series: Life In a Great Community
June 15, 2008 Pastor Bill Bump
I believe one of the real challenges for each of us is to decide what really matters in our lives.
WHAT REALLY MATTERS IS…
1. Knowing that human advantages and human accomplishments are ultimately things without value.
Philippians 3:3b (NLT)
...We put no confidence in human effort. Instead, we boast about what Christ Jesus has done for us.
A. Paul was speaking from personal experience as he had many advantages and accomplishments.
Philippians 3:4,5 (NLT)
Yet I could have confidence in myself if anyone could. If others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! For I was circumcised when I was eight days old, having been born into a pure-blooded Jewish family that is a branch of the tribe of Benjamin. So I am a real Jew if there ever was one! What’s more, I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law.
B. Paul declares that much of what we may think of as important is in reality simply garbage.
Philippians 3:7-9 (NLT)
I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with Him...
2. Knowing that we can never be good enough to satisfy God.
Philippians 3:9 (NLT)
...I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God’s law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith.
3. Knowing that the ultimate value in life is knowing Jesus.
Philippians 3:10,11 (NLT)
As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!
We know Jesus when we have experienced the power of resurrection in our lives.
CONCLUSION:
We need to take a survey of our lives and all things in them that we find we have loved and held on to and been supported by. These we need to judge as worth nothing compared to the surpassing value of knowing Jesus.
