"Glittering Garbage"

Philippians 3:7-16

Where is our focus as the Body of Christ?  Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between us and the world?  We at times run the church as an organizational business as opposed to a ministry.   We treat each others as associates as opposed to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We rely on our strengths, talents, and abilities as opposed to relying on Jesus.  We still find our worth and our strategy for success in what the world tells us.  We are taught from an early age to: 1.  Go to school.  2.  Get a good education.  3.  Have a successful career.   4.  Provide financial stability for our family.  5.  Give our kids what we did not have.   All these things are fine but it can leave us feeling empty and unfulfilled.  Because no matter how hard we strive to obtain all these we will always feel as if we are falling short.

So we should seek after what brings us wholeness and not self-contempt.   Our education, careers, and experiences are easy to fall back on.  But the Word of God tells us to put no confidence in these things.  The Apostle Paul put it best when measuring the confidence he had gained from his life of education, career, and experience "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ (Philippians 3:7)."  He saw that there was no greater value to anything else in life than knowing and growing in Jesus.

How many times do we chase after education, the promotion, or the one in a lifetime experience.  We fill our lives with things that will quickly fade as opposed to filling our lives with something that is eternal.  We will gladly take on the financial burden of paying for college but we struggle to give 10% of our income to the Lord.  We will work overtime to earn extra money on the job or get that promotion.  However we neglect to spend five minutes in God's Word or prayer.  We seek to "live in the moment" and experience something new.  But we are hesitant to devote the necessary time to develop ourselves spiritually.  The problem is we have not considered everything we could gain, carry out, and do as rubbish when we compare it knowing Jesus.  The truth is everything else is "glittering garbage" when it comes to knowing  and growing in Jesus (Philippians 3:8).

When we consider everything else worthless in the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus we understand that we can only rely on Jesus and nothing else.  Our education does not qualify us for or give us a special place in God's Kingdom. Our careers cannot not gives us the fulfillment we seek. And our experiences are good but they do not make us any more righteous or wiser than the sinner in need of grace (Philippians 3:9).  Instead it is our faith in Christ Jesus that brings fulfillment, righteousness, and salvation  (Philippians 3:10).  So anything else we count as a loss and not a gain.

And we humbly understand that none of us have obtained this yet.  None of us are perfect and complete.  We are all lacking in this area, not one of us have arrived.  Despite our shortcomings we diligently and intentionally move towards Christ.  We make it our goal above all to know Jesus for ourselves and grow in our relationship with Him daily because He is our God and we are His Children (Philippians 3:12).  So forsake who we were, who we could become, what we could get, what we have, what we have done, or what we could do all for the sake of Jesus.  Our goals get rearranged and our focus gets readjusted, the only thing we really strive for is to know and grow in Jesus (Philippians 3:13-15).  So we pray to the Lord He will help us to view Him as the most important thing in our life if we are struggling in this area (Philippians 3:16).

I am not condemning any of us for wanting to improve ourselves through education, advance our careers, and experience the wonders of life.  But I am saying that Christ is the central thing and our highest priority in this life and for all eternity.  Because nothing else matters.  Stay focused, you can do this!


"In His JOY!"