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Philippians Series - Chapter 3
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We are reading from Philippians chapter 3 as part of a four-part series walking through this remarkable book. Written by the Apostle Paul from a prison cell, Philippians is one of the most joyful letters ever written—proof that our circumstances don't have to determine our faith.
Before we dive in, I want to encourage you: it will take just 20 minutes to read all four chapters of Philippians. As we walk through it slowly together over August, please take time each day to read a few verses. God's word is alive and active. The Bible says it is sharper than a double-edged sword, and it has the ability and power to go right into the heart of who we are as people.
Rather than be conformed to the pattern of this world, Romans tells us: "Let's be transformed by the renewing of our mind." The best way you can be transformed is by reading this book and bringing it to your memory. When stuff happens in life, rather than think about anything else, your first thought should be: What does the word say?
That's how we're transformed by the renewing of our mind—we filter everything that happens in our life through thinking that's been formed by the word. Then we can test and approve God's good and perfect will for us.
Here's the key: we don't put the word through the lens of popular culture today. We don't ask, "What does the Bible mean through a 2026 lens?" Instead, we ask, "What's the word say? And how do we make sense of our world through the lens of the word?" That's how to live the Christian life.
The letter of Philippians was written by Paul to a church he had personally started. We can read in Acts chapter 16 about Paul's visits to Philippi, a small but significant business city.
One of his first encounters was with a businesswoman named Lydia. In that moment, the gospel transformed her life, transformed the purpose of her business, and transformed that city.
Next, Paul encountered a young girl who had been enslaved and oppressed by demonic forces. She was used to predict people's futures, but when Paul spoke the gospel, her life was transformed. She was broken free and became part of the church.
Then came the famous account of Paul in jail, where he and Silas were worshiping God when the prison gates flung open, chains came off, and the prison guard cried out, "What can I do to be saved?" His whole household was baptized.
The church started out of these radical life-changing moments. And when Paul writes Philippians, he writes to those real people, saying, "I remember when I think about you, I remember with joy your partnership with the gospel. How in a moment your life was changed and you positioned your life for God and what God was building."
Philippians chapter 1 introduced us to living our best life—the God life that you can access. Last week, Philippians chapter 2 taught us about thinking like Christ and having the right attitude. This week, we're talking about the confidence of knowing Christ. And here's the truth: anything that we try to match up to is just going to pale in insignificance.
The good life offers us the hope of a better job, a better car, a new house, or even a life partner. But the God life promises you something of eternal significance.
I want to encourage you: in our pursuit of all the things of this life and this age, let's not make them the main thing. The main thing is simply but profoundly knowing Christ. We must make our main pursuit knowing him, because knowing him, we understand that everything else pales into insignificance.
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It's no trouble for me to write the same things to you again. And indeed, it's a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs. Watch out for those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it's we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the spirit of God, we who glorify in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If any of you think you're good and you've got reason to put confidence in the flesh, I've got even more.
I'm going to list them to you. Circumcised on the eighth day. I'm of the people of Israel, Jewish. And not only that, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. Don't you know? I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. In regard to the law, I'm a Pharisee. As for zeal, I've persecuted the this early church who popped up the way of this guy called Jesus. As for legalistic righteousness, me faultless. I've got it all going on from a religious perspective.
But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ, Jesus, my Lord. For whose sake I've lost all things, I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having the law, but be that which through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ. I want to know Christ.
Knowing Christ. No comparison.
As we walk through Philippians chapter 3, we'll find three themes—three comparisons that Paul makes to help the church understand: you can either go the good life or you can go the God life.
We can either put our hope, trust, and confidence in our good works, or we can put our faith, trust, and confidence in his works.
Paul is listing all of his Jewish credentials. He's saying: every qualification for what you thought was going to make you spiritually qualified, every box you thought needed ticking—I've done them all. There is nothing that you could do to outweigh my spiritual pursuit, my spiritual disciplines, my obedience to the letter of the Lord. You can't supersede me. I've done it all.
And yet Paul says: And yet all of those things, they actually don't qualify me compared to all of those things that I thought were going to qualify me. They're all actually a loss compared to that of knowing Christ.
We've got to understand: put your hope, trust, and confidence not in your spiritual activity or religious pursuits or any other physical activity, but your full hope, trust, and confidence needs to be in his works, not in our works.
Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9 reminds us:
It's by grace that you've been saved through faith, not by works so that no one can boast.
No Christ, no comparison. John 6:63 says:
It's the spirit that gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. The words I've spoken to you are full of spirit and life.
There was a great 19th century missionary based out of north of Scotland named John Paton. Inspired by the great commission to go into all the world, he went to the Pacific Islands—literally to the ends of the earth. But he was struggling to find a local word to translate the word "faith."
One day, a local person came to him in great trouble and needing help. This person said: "May I come and lean heavily upon you?"
In that moment, this missionary thought, "Wow, that's exactly what faith is." Faith is leaning heavily upon Christ. He said:
It's not labor, but the cessation of labor. It's not doing but ceasing to do. It's not simply leaning the whole weight on our needs, but upon him.
We must be people that lean heavily upon Christ. We don't rely and trust on our own goodness, on our own qualifications, on our own pursuit of happiness. We simply and profoundly lean our full weight, trust, and dependency on God and on the works of Christ.
Proverbs 3:5–8 says:
Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your path straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes, but fear the Lord and shun evil, and this will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
I want to pray for anyone with fear about the future right now. We break it off you in the name of Jesus. It's not hope, trust, confidence in your works right now. We lift that heavy burden off you in the name of Jesus. Spirit of God, come and refresh, recalibrate. And as you put your whole weight, your full confidence, your full leaning on him, may you by faith know that he will make your paths straight. He's got your future in the name of Jesus.
In verses 10–16, we see this theme: taking hold of that for which Christ has already taken hold of. Christ has already paid for something through his works that now we get to access his life, not our life.
The second comparison is: your life or his. And it's based on whether your hope, trust, and confidence is in your works or his. Because if your hope, trust, and confidence is in your works, then the fruit is the life that you can make for yourself. But if your full trust, hope, and confidence is in his works, then you get to experience his life—the life that he's paid for and he's won for you.
John chapter 10, verses 9 and 10:
I'm the gate. Whoever comes through me will be saved. They will come in and they'll go out and they will find pasture. And the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. But I've come that they might access life and have life to the fullest.
I love this in verse 16 of Philippians chapter 3. It says:
Only let us live up to that which we've already obtained.
Christ has already won life. Jesus said, "I've come to give you life and life to the fullness." And Paul's saying, "Come on. This is the life that God has for you. Live up to the life that is invited you into—that's not based on your works, but is based on his works."
If you want this God-Spirit-breathed life that comes from the source of Jesus, then you got to put your trust in what he's done. And that releases you from the burdens of your own works. And then you get to enjoy the freedom and liberty of God.
Thank you for doing what you've done. You've paid the price. And I lean heavily in you. And now I get to experience liberating freedom of life beyond the restriction of other people's expectations or what I should accomplish by a certain age in my life. I'm now free of that because I get to live the God life. And the God life is freedom.
God's spirit wants to invite you into that life today. Paul's saying: that's the life I'm encouraging you. Church in Philippi, church in Manchester. Live that God life—the one that Jesus promised for you, the one that Jesus won for you. Live up to what he's already attained.
In other words: don't live down to your own limitations. Don't live down to your own expectations. Don't live down to other people's expectations of you. Don't live down to other people's ideas of what you should be. Don't live down to what the culture of this age is telling you.
No. Live up to the God life.
Ephesians 4:1 says:
I urge you live the life that God has called you to.
And secondly, live up to that life that he's already attained. It's not your works, it's his.
God help us to live the God life—the God-Spirit-breathed life of Jesus that he came by his works to set us free from the limitations of this age and help us to live this God-Spirit-breathed life. I'm not worried what everybody else is saying. Spirit of God, you lead me as I lean and trust in you. Help me to walk into a spacious place that you've got full of freedom.
God, as I live that life—wow—I get to experience life and life to the full.
When we live according to the expectations that the culture sets on us, when we live according to even our own time frames and limitations, we end up living like we're always in survival mode.
I recently switched to an electric car. Every day I'm stressing about the energy levels. The car shows a percentage that goes down by the second. I find myself turning off the air conditioning, keeping the windows rolled down manually, no music, nothing—all to conserve energy. We're just relying on the grace of God to get home.
You know, when we're relying on our own works and our own making of our own life, we can end up like that. Every day feels like we're in survival mode. Has things gone right? Has the right door opened? Am I doing everything that I need to be doing? And you can be so strained and stressed about life. It feels like you're squeezing life. And what you're actually doing is strangling your own life.
But when we break free of our own works and our own making of our own life, we experience: Thank you God for your works. You've paid for the Jesus God-Spirit life. You're just free, and you get to live not in survival but you get powered by a different source.
Acts 1:8 says:
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
None of us is called to live in survival. Every one of us is called to thrive in our life—powered by the Holy Spirit. And that means this next seven days for you, you can live in full confidence, full trust of what God has paid for. And you can live this life with freedom and liberty and step into the God-ordained doors of opportunity. That's the life God's got for you.
Right now, we break off limitation, restriction, the pressure God that we put on ourselves. And God, we just believe: Spirit of God, come and breathe in our lives in the powerful name of Jesus.
In the last part of Philippians chapter 3, verses 19 and 20, Paul is encouraging the church:
Their destiny is destruction. Their God is their stomach. They're just trying to survive each day, trying to make the best of this life and everything that this life, this age has to offer. Their glory is actually their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But church, our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul is specifically writing to the church in Philippi. He's saying: don't put your trust in the economic prowess of Philippi. Yeah, you got a great business. Yeah, you got regional impact. Don't put your identity in that. You've got this Roman setup and it seems to be going well for you. Well, don't put your identity in the Roman operation of the city. Don't put your hope and trust in just the way things are happening and the way your life has panned out.
Don't base your identity on your success and your accomplishments and your achievements. No, no, no. Remember who you are. You're a citizen of heaven.
1 Chronicles 29:15 says:
We're foreigners and strangers in your sight as were all of our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow.
Like a shadow. Simply gone. One hundred years from now, one thing is pretty much guaranteed: I'll be dead. I'm not worried about that because my hope and my trust is not in my future. It's that he's given me an incredible future. This is not it for you.
Your future—as good as you can plan it out, think it out, strategize, work for it—is good. But his future for you is way better. And he wants us to put our trust in his works, experience his life, so that our hope is in his future for us.
Revelation 21, verses 1–5:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Wow, God. This new heaven and new earth—not separate but one place, experiencing with God. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. There was no longer any sea. And I saw a holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband—the church. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people."
Isn't that amazing? We're just going to walk physically with God in a new heaven and new earth and we're going to be the ultimate us. I believe I'm going to be the 25-year-old me just two years ago. I'm going to beat my 12-year-old son. Only problem is he'll also be 25.
They will be God will dwell among them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. And he will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, no mourning, no crying, no pain. For the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making all things new." Not just better, not just a little bit incrementally. I'm making all things brand new.
Then he said, "Write this down for these words are trustworthy and true."
This is our hope. We get to lift our eyes. Thank you, Jesus, for your works. It releases your life—life to the full. And it releases a new hope. It's not based on anything that happens here and now. It's about my eternal future—my eternal hope walking, living, breathing, worshiping God forever in a new heaven and a new earth.
That's the future that God has got for every person in this room.
But you've got to respond to his initiative. You got to respond to his love. Jesus came to give us an opportunity and an invitation.
When he lived this life, he said, "I'm going to live a life that you could never do." That's his works, not your works. You can try as much as you can, but you'll never be able to accomplish it.
Jesus walked the earth to demonstrate perfect life. He gave his life up, sacrificed his life to the will of his father. Not my will, your will. He paid for his life on the cross. That represented taking all of your old life, all of your sin, all the things that up until this point has separated you from God. None of those are disqualifying you right now from a relationship with Jesus.
But you got to come to him. You got to say: "Sorry God. Sorry. I want to leave that life behind. I want to trust and follow you. I want to turn my life around."
Good news: on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead to give you a brand new life, a brand new start. And that can happen instantaneously right now through faith. You can access new life.
