My Life: A Waste or one that Counts / Message 3

February 10, 2013
My Life: A Waste or one that Counts / Message 3
Philippians 3
Scott Howard

• God wants to raise up men and women in His church whose lives count for His glory on the landscape of human history.

**See the previous two sermons, Message 1 & 2 in earlier posts for more detailed notes regarding the first part of Philippians chapter 3.

Four Characteristics of someone who's life will count for God's glory:

1. They Treasure Christ above everything this world has to offer.

• The only treasure of life that Counts: Christ
• We have found something worth losing everything for

    2.   They Trust in Christ to provide everything that they could ever need.

• His Righteousness covers our sin
• His Power guarantees our resurrection
• His Satisfaction transcends our suffering

Characteristics # 1 & 2 above come from Philippians 3:1-11
Characteristics # 3 & 4 below come from Philippians 3:12-21

    3.   They Persue Christ with obsessive passion --> the word "persue" in the original language of Paul's letter literally means to run or to follow after.  The language of running a race, or running after something is used also in Acts 20:24 and 2 Timothy 4:7

So why follow hard after Christ?  We ask this question because we think if we already have been saved, why persue Him more?  We misunderstand being "found" in Christ isn't just a one time thing--it means that we find Him so fulfilling that we want more of Him until we are made complete in Him.


The Qualities we need to Persue Christ:

• A Holy dissatisfaction with casual or comfortable Christianity
• A Fresh understanding of the degree to which Christ has followed hard after us
• A Single-minded discipline that governs our lives

Since the seeds of sin are born in stagnation, we should be careful not to coast idly through Christianity, but rather discipline our lives to persue Christ daily.

    4.   They look forward to the Prize of His praise
The Two-Fold prize of the life that Counts:

• The Completion of our salvation--> we will experience the fullness of Christ in eternity so we live to manifest His Glory here on Earth
• The Crown of their salvation--> we live for & persue Christ for other's sake, so that they can also come to know salvation through Christ.  We live to multiply His Gospel so that many will enter eternity along with us.  It's much greater than just being delivered from Hell ourselves--to share the Good News to others will further the Kingdom of God.

May we not get distracted and miss the whole point, may we live productive Christian lives; lives that count for His Glory.

One prayer:  God, even if it costs us everything, don't let us waste our lives, and don't let us waste Your church.