Experiencing Jesus

Experiencing Jesus
Philippians 3:1-11



Introduction: What was the happiest day of your life? One of mine was the day I married Amy. I often remember the moment she stepped into the sanctuary of the church we were married in, that April day almost 25 years ago….
What was the greatest achievement of your life to date?
What is the thing you are the most proud of in your family heritage? Did you have a forefather who fought valiantly in the Civil War or was one of your family members a famous person? What is the one thing you live for in life? If you could have all the free time in the world, what is the one thing you would probably do more than anything else? What is your life vision? What are you doing here on earth?

Without a vision, the people perish! Not having a clear vision produces weak Christians, weak Christian families, weak LifeGroups, and weak Churches. Without a clear vision for our lives, we will flounder in the difficulties we face and never know how to walk in the joy of Christ. They say if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time. We will never be satisfied in life unless we have the right target, and we hit that target with own life. We will never have a joy-fill journey in Christ Jesus. So what does the bible say about developing a personal destiny? A personal vision?

I. Make sure you are not like the _Pharisees_: Put no confidence in your natural abilities, achievements, wealth or heritage. Philippians 3:1-7

A. Religious people tend to rely on their good deeds, performance and
spiritual heritage.

B. Revelation of Christ delivers us from a performance based faith.

Note: the comparison of dogs, those men who do evil & who mutilate their flesh.
Show the picture of the latrine in Philippi.

Circumcision & Paul’s play on the words in the Greek here.

Paul’s summarization of all his natural ability, achievements, wealth & heritage is in Vs 7.

II. Make sure you are like _Paul_: Value Jesus so much everything else pales in comparison with Him! Philippians 3:8-11

A. Anti-experiential faith
B. Experiencing Jesus
Progression:
My own ability, achievements, wealth & heritage are all loss in comparison
to the supreme value of knowing Christ.

Defining knowing Christ: experiential knowledge, not fact gathering.
Knowing Christ is a supernatural encounter with God. Hunger to experience more of Jesus’ power, more of Christ daily is theologically laid out right here! Never let people tell you that because you have everything
you need in Christ, that you should not seek for more of Christ. That is
the error of emphasizing what you already have to the exclusion of seeking
more. The same error occurs when people pray for healing only in the realm
of declaring healing to the exclusion of asking for healing also! We are to
affirm who we are in Christ and hunger for more of Christ! That is Paul’s
example. The Kingdom which is to come, has already come. The Kingdom which has already come we are also to pray for that very Kingdom to come…
These truths are NOT mutually exclusive. We must be inclusive.

So thank Christ for what He has done for you. Ask Christ…seek Christ for what He will do for you & in you!
Back to Philippians 2: If Christ counted the laying aside of the throne of heaven to become a man, something He would do to reach us, then how can
we value anything on this earth over knowing Christ? Now that we see who
Jesus really is, that He is God living inside us, how can we value anything as
much as knowing Him? Everything is a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus.

All I have lost is ‘skubalon’ in exchange for gaining & being found in Christ!
(contrast a legalistic righteousness to the free righteousness by personal faith
in Jesus). ‘Skubalon’ is either human excrement or dog dung or scraps of food thrown out for dogs to pick through. It is a vulgar term, like a curse word.

Hunger for Christ:
Power of his resurrection
Fellowship of sharing in His sufferings
Conformation to His death
Attaining the resurrection from the dead