Counting it all Loss During the Holiday Season

I want to begin as we enter the holiday season, we've just concluded Thanksgiving, we begin to turn our eyes to Christmas and I'm so thankful for that Christmas music. I'm a huge fan of Christmas music. I will try to sneak one in throughout the year leading worship myself. And I believe it's appropriate to call us to a time of examination as the Christmas season is oftentimes so hectic. I'm wondering if we could take this Sunday morning to evaluate the condition of our Thanksgiving. If we can evaluate the condition of our joy, if we can even evaluate the condition of our rejoicing.

The scripture specifically in the text that we read this morning does a phenomenal job of opening our hearts. This morning we're going to learn of a man who literally lost it all. He sits in a jail cell and writes to a church that has supported him faithfully. But when he says in his text that I've lost all things, please understand this, that he lost all things. We know from Paul's writing that there were many occasions while writing the prison epistles. Those were the letters that he wrote from jail. He was oftentimes cold. He was oftentimes hungry. He was oftentimes in need of even a copy of parchments of scripture.

We also learned that on many occasions he would have companions who would leave him and many would have even abandoned the cause. So what we're going to do this morning is I'm going to ask you four questions. We're going to ask four questions from the text that I believe this text calls us to ask ourselves. Now there's quite a lengthy portion of this text that we'll need to understand the background. So I'll share background of this text as we go. The first question this morning is what is the source of your joy? Now I'll read the text as I go. Let's read the first verse. "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord.

To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you." We know that Thanksgiving is a season of gratitude. Hopefully you spend some time with family taking turns around the table sharing things that you are thankful for. Undoubtedly you mentioned your family, your house, your food, your clothing. We need to remember to rejoice in these things, these common grace gifts. You know that gratitude reduces stress. I come across this literature but scientists have shown, psychologists and social scientists and even medical doctors have found that gratitude reduces stress. Gratitude also replaces sadness.

If someone were to become depressed and seek out professional help, it's oftentimes very likely possibility that the professional helper prescribes Thanksgiving. Write a list of things that you're thankful for. Gratitude produces joy. We know this not just from medical research but we know this from scripture. Later in his text, Paul would write, "Rejoice in the Lord always." And again, I say rejoice. But the Christian community of writers and commentators speak of this as well.

Matthew Henry says, "Sincere Christians rejoice in Christ Jesus." Charles Spurgeon says, "There is no purer or more thrilling delight to be known this side of heaven than that of having Christ's joy fulfilled in us, that our joy may be full." And if you read this book of Philippians, you will see that joy is a theme throughout. We know that gratitude not only reduces our stress and replaces sadness but it produces Christian fellowship. Paul begins the letter of Philippians, chapter 1, verses 3 through 5.

His Thanksgiving was spent in a jail cell, figuratively speaking, as he opens this book and he says, "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer. For you all, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." Last April, Brother Chris preached here and he later preached this message, Brother John O'Sims Church, and he talked about how thankful he was for our partnership with Anchored in Truth. If I can ask, are you thankful for your church family? How thankful are you? Actually, if I could even ask, what is your greatest source of joy?

Do you get more joy from family, hobbies? Are you thankful for Christian partners, partnership and ministry? You know if church is a drudgery for you, if it's a have to, if the Christian community is a list of shoulds, then perhaps this question can cause us to evaluate. You know when we come to church, sometimes perhaps we have a list, that's our activity for the week, or perhaps we have a quiet time and we mark that off the list.

But Paul was in a jail cell as he writes this, and the very first thing he says is, "I thank God all the time, constantly, and I thank God for you." We learn of Paul's heart when he says that he, it's as if he sat under a weight, and the weight that was on his shoulders daily, incessantly, was the condition of the churches that he was praying for. Occasionally somebody would come and they would send aid or they would send people to minister to Paul, and he would say constantly that I sit under a burden, a weight of the condition of the churches. How is your prayer life for people in the church? How thankful are you for people in the church?

I'm blessed that in a sweet fellowship like this, I was very blessed to get some text messages from people. You know when you are going through a hard time, specifically around the holidays perhaps, the holidays can remind us of loved ones who are not here. With all of our Christmas traditions, we can think of loved ones who have passed. It is the body of Christ that will get us through that. It is thanksgiving. It is rejoicing in the Lord always that gets us through those times. Second question this morning, what is the source of your strength and security? What is the source of your strength and security?

Let's read in chapter 3, second half of the first verse down to verse 3. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Now when Paul says I write these things to you, I write the same things to you, he is repeating himself. He has called the church to rejoice in Christ multiple times in this book, specifically the phrase glory in Christ is repeated over 30 times.

Paul is constantly telling this group of people glory in Christ, rejoice in Christ and again I say it again, rejoice in Christ. As we rejoice in the completed work of Jesus on the cross, we find protection. Are you trusting in something other than Jesus? You know we often times grieve at the Thanksgiving holidays and we will find that we are grieving the loss of something that was dear to us. But we're going to learn in this text and in this message that Thanksgiving and gratitude is not something confined to one week or holiday season. In fact, Thanksgiving is a protection for us.

Paul is telling them we run into Christ, we are protected as we focus our mind on Christ. We even learn that rejoicing in Jesus is a time of protection against self-pity and wallowing in our own sadness and becoming self-centered. But what is Paul trying to protect them from? He repeats himself several times in this book, what is he protecting them from? Specifically, the better question is who is he protecting them from? First Paul is writing to protect them from false ministers. It's important that you know that there is a group of people called the Judaizers. Paul actually calls them dogs in verse 2. These are not kind words.

The Judaizers promoted a gospel of Christ and the Mosaic law. You know, Isaiah 56.10 would echo the same language. You might think that's kind of harsh for Paul, the Apostle, to call a group of people dogs. You know, Isaiah the prophet called a group of false prophets dogs in Isaiah 56.10. Matthew Henry says this, "These are malicious heretics, they are barking and they are biting faithful brothers." Paul calls them mutilators of the flesh. Now this is a play on words. The original language is actually, it's very poetic that Paul twists this language.

See the Judaizers believed that you needed Jesus as your Messiah, but then you needed all of these other rules and rituals. You need to keep the Mosaic law. You see, what they ran to is their source of security and safety, was a religion and a righteousness of their own. Because their circumcision was an empty religious practice, they simply were cutting themselves. This morning if your religion is empty, if there is no life in it, it will not produce joy for you and the next trial that you go through, you will not have the power of God within you. Paul's thanksgiving in the jail cell while he was cold, while he was hungry.

What got him through that was thanksgiving. And he says over and over and over again in this book, "Rejoice in the Lord always." Rejoice when your loved ones pass away. Rejoice when thanksgiving and Christmas are difficult. Rejoice when you're going through a period of anxiety and you're trying hard to obey the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord when you're feeling depressed. Rejoice in the Lord always. See the Judaizers, for them circumcision was not sacred, it was simply self-injury. And if your religion this morning is not filled with thanksgiving and joy year round, highs, lows, ups, downs, good and bad, well then you're open to influence.

Paul is writing to protect them from false ministers and he's also writing to protect them from false Christians. Paul calls them evil doers. And he's drawing a distinction. He's saying not only are these people not good ministers, they're not even good Christians. And they're hanging around you and they are pulling some of you away. They're dangerous. Paul is protecting them from false ministers and false Christians, but also he is writing to protect them from a false religion, verse 3. He's drawing a distinction. He's saying those people, many of which you might think are godly, many of them you might revere as righteous.

He said we are the circumcision. See Paul promoted a true religion. He said we in the church are blood bought. Also we in the church are spirit led. What does he say? We worship by the spirit. Not only are we blood bought and spirit led, but we're glory consumed. He said we glory in Christ Jesus. Dear Christian, what separates you from the world is the source of your joy. Do you realize that this morning, the one thing that best distinguishes you between a lost person is the things you give thanks for? Do you realize that? When you go through trial, what are you rejoicing in? When you go through a season of loss, what are you rejoicing in?

The world rejoices in anything and everything other than that which really produces joy. Brother Chris and I pray and we work hard to see that you are protected from wolves. In my experience as an elder, and I know that Brother Chris would share this, we have seen genuine Christians pulled away from the church by those who do not rejoice in Jesus. In fact, we have seen real Christians pulled away from Jesus and their walk through people that are not even godly. This is dangerous. To find sincere, genuine believers pulled away by people who are less godly than they are is extremely heartbreaking. What is your protection this morning?

What will keep you from being pulled away by false doctrine and by fierce, vicious heretics? If you rejoice in Jesus, if you love the word, if you're Berean, if you examine the word, if you go back when Brother Chris or myself preach and study these things, then you will find that you yourself are protected in the strong, safe, walled city that is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is more than turkey and dressing. It's more than sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole. It's more than family. Thanksgiving is your lifeblood. What are you taking refuge in?

If you love the word, if you love prayer, if you love worship, if you love Jesus and you love the church, then you are protected. Third question this morning, what is the source of your confidence? What is the source of your confidence? Philippians chapter 3 verses 4 through 7, "Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh, if anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more." Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

We need to see that for Paul to rejoice in Christ, he had to discard that which was not worth rejoicing in. In verse 5 we see that Paul trusted his heritage. Prior to his conversion, Paul trusted in his heritage. Now the true purpose of this portion of scripture, Paul is setting up a sort of straw man. He's setting up a false argument. He's saying because the Judaizers, which are threatening you, they pride themselves in keeping the Mosaic law and the traditions of the Pharisees.

They're actually even attacking me, Paul addressed this in Corinthians, that many of the Judaizers would follow Paul in churches where he ministered and they would actually gossip and slander him and they would say, "Well, he's not keeping the law, he is consorting with Gentiles." And Paul is saying, "If anybody has any reason to take pride, to rejoice in their own religious efforts, it's me." So he's setting this up only to tear it down, but I think it is noteworthy for us to see how Paul trusted in his heritage.

He says, "Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews." And I think this demands a closer look or else we'll read right over this and it's significant. When he says, "I was circumcised on the eighth day," what Paul is saying is, "I didn't convert to Judaism. I didn't join the Hebrew, the Jewish bandwagon. I am circumcised on the eighth day." That essentially he was saying, "My parents were obedient Jews." You know, we had this phrase, "I grew up in New Orleans, it's 70% Catholic and in that city we would refer to religion was in my family.

I was so the Baptist, like Paul, I identify with him. I was fourth generation Southern Baptist, third generation minister, and like Paul, I have to count a lot of that as a loss as well." But there were some people from time to time that you would refer to and you would say, "Well, so and so is Catholic, they're not good Catholic." And that essentially meant that they go to mass once or twice a year and perhaps if you have Catholic friends you've heard that language and I'm a good Catholic. Paul is saying, "Not only was I good Hebrew, my parents were obedient Hebrews.

They circumcised me on the eighth day." See if you were a convert to Judaism, specifically if you came from a Gentile people, you would take a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and you would go into the temple but you could only go so far. You could not go into, you could not go past the court of the Gentiles. And for Hebrews this was a source of pride. They walked past converts to Judaism who were Gentile standing out in the Gentile courts. They walked past them, waved and entered into a further state. So you literally, it's as if you would have to stay outside in the lobby.

You've traveled from your town many hundreds of miles away, you've walked there and you're going to stay in the lobby and Jewish people really took a great sense of pride, at least the Judaizers did. And Paul says, "I was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel." He's saying not only were my parents obedient but they weren't converts either. They were born into the people of Israel. Third he says of the tribe of Benjamin. See the tribe of Benjamin was a very small tribe, the nation of Israel at 12 tribes and Benjamin was the only son of Jacob to be born in the Promised Land.

So Benjamites, even though they were smaller, they had a very special point of pride. They took great religious and national pride in this fact. Also Benjamin gave Israel its first king. King Saul was a Benjamite. You know that the Benjamites gloried in this heritage. The Apostle Paul's parents were no different. They named him Saul. By his namesake he was a Benjamite. Jerusalem and the temple lay within the borders of the tribal territory of Benjamin. And the tribe remained loyal today than when the northern kingdoms were divided. And he says, "I am a Hebrew of Hebrews." He's saying, "I'm a Jew. Both my parents are Jews.

I'm a Benjamite." And this is significant as well because the Judaizers preached their gospel of Jesus plus. And this became a source of division in the churches. See the other group were the Hellenists. Hellenists were generally speaking people who had practiced Greek influenced Roman culture. So the Hebrews would argue, "If you converted to Judaism, you may be on our team, but you're not going to be a team captain. You're not fully Hebrew." In the New Testament church, the Judaizers leveraged this argument and they might say something like this, "You believe in Jesus. That's great. You're going to heaven.

Fine." But you need to get circumcised. And after that, just know that you're never fully going to be one of us because you don't speak our language. You can't go to the temple, you can't hear a good message in Aramaic. You're a Hellenist. Still on our team, but you're not going to be team captain. So Paul meets them in this argument. He reveals his heritage. We learned in the book of Corinthians that many assumed Paul was a Hellenist. He was from Tarsus. Tarsus was part of the Roman Empire. He was Hellenistic.

And when he goes further and he says, "I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews," you need to see this is significant, that Paul trusted in his heritage. But secondly, Paul trusted in his own effort. This was not just a matter of religious heritage. Paul put great effort. He had skin in the game. He was devout. He says, "I was a Pharisee of Pharisees." The Pharisees were the most law-abiding sect of Judaism. They were regarded as this. And in that law-keeping sect, Paul stood up. He was educated by Gamaliel, who was the chief scholar of the Pharisees. He was zealous. He says of himself, "As to zeal, I persecuted the church.

I was a Pharisee of Pharisees." He was so zealous that he mounted a personal campaign. This was not something that someone told him to do. This is not something that someone financed. If you read the account of his salvation experience, he's knocked off his high horse. There is a group of people with him. Who paid for that? Paul did. Paul financed his persecution ministry out of his own pockets. This was his life. He says, "I was blameless as to righteousness in the law." Blameless. Now, we have no metric to see how blameless this was, because he would have followed Gamaliel's essentially his counsel of how to obey the law.

Even today in Jerusalem, there are rabbis, and the rabbis are almost regarded as gurus in the Eastern world, but your specific rabbi will have his own guidance of what does it look like to follow the law. Paul said, "I was blameless." And if we're not careful, we will enter the Thanksgiving season, and we will enter trial, taking pride in something other than Jesus. In fact, it's trial, and only trial, that kicks the legs out from under whatever it is we're trusting in. If I can ask you, what is your source of confidence? You know, the Lord, in his graciousness, allows trial into our lives to show us what our confidence is.

It's only through sickness, the death of loved ones. It's only through losing a job, struggling to find a job. It's only through these difficulties that we see we've been rejoicing in, and we have been putting our hopes in something other than Jesus. Paul had to get knocked off a high horse. He had to be blinded for three days. Fourth question this morning, what is our treasure? Let's look at verse 8. "Indeed, I count everything as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things." If you're reading, you have a copy of God's Word, and you can write, underline, highlight, please underline that phrase, "all things." For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things. Which things? All things. And he continues, "I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith." Many times when we're grieving at the holidays, it's because something that was dear to us, something we treasured, is no longer with us and we're constantly reminded.

If you are grieving a lost treasure this morning, please know that Paul lost all things. You could argue that his best friend was his religious heritage. His closest relative was his religious heritage. It was his life. And we can find great comfort that the Lord deals with His children lovingly and graciously. We need to see that Paul found that worthless gain had to be acknowledged. He had to see the things in his life that had to die. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish. Now the language used here suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish.

It's used to speak of old bones that are thrown out and given to the dogs. So in the original context, the original readers of this, Paul is saying, "My religious heritage, the fact that I was Hebrew of Hebrews, the fact that I was circumcised on the eighth day, the fact that I was a Pharisee of Pharisees, I now consider that to be old bones that I throw out to my dogs." That was incredibly offensive to the Judaizers. It was meant to be incredibly offensive to the Judaizers. It was also meant to be incredibly encouraging. He's saying, "I am more Hebrew than these people who are trying to influence you. I am more Jewish.

I am more zealous." And all of that I threw out when Christ saved me. And if we can catch a glimpse of that great loss, nothing we lose can compare to that. When Jesus is our all in all, we should be able to be joyful in anything. Worthless gain was acknowledged and worthless gain was forsaken. If we understand the language, this speaks of a past and present action. Paul is saying, "I lost all things on the Damascus Road when the Lord humbled me, and I lose all things daily." So he's saying, "I have forsaken worthless gain in the past, and I have forsaken worthless gain daily.

Daily, I count it all as lost." Now I know many of you to be saved. You had your own Damascus Road experience. We've heard your testimonies. But it's the second one that gets us. Paul says, "I count it all as lost." That's very much present tense. And so let me ask the question again. What is your treasure? If we are honest about this, we need help here. We need help daily treasuring Jesus. In the Eris tense, this is a imperative command. It tells us, "Count it all as lost daily." Count it all as lost in trial, in holiday season.

Literally means, for Paul, "I considered my heritage and my effort rubbish yesterday, and I have to pray and ask God to help me, and I have to do it every minute of every day. Indeed, I count everything as lost, compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus." So worthless gain had to be acknowledged. It had to be forsaken. And worthless gain has to be replaced. Paul could never have discarded that which was precious to him if he didn't replace it with something. You might hear it said that if you want to get rid of a bad habit, you need to replace it with a good habit.

So when Paul lays aside old bones thrown out, what does he replace it with? We see empty religion replaced with surpassing worth, verse 8. Empty religion replaced with surpassing worth. Paul has surpassed and supplanted his empty religion. We see lost false righteousness. We see gained, he gained Christ in verse 9. Paul lost false righteousness and he gained Christ, verse 9. In order that I may gain Christ and be found in him. When human effort failed, the sacrifice of Jesus prevailed also in verse 9. Be found in him, not having a righteousness on my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.

And finally in verse 10, we see that worthless gain of false confidence in the flesh was replaced with faith in Christ. Now in conclusion, I want to ask you another question. This is not on the slides. Last question is simply what now? What now? What should I do if I've been settling for lesser loves? What should I do if I'm born again, I remember my Damascus Road experience, but I'm having difficulty counting it all as a loss? You know, if we're honest, there's a lot in the world that is designed to produce discontent, especially at the holidays.

There's a lot going on that would captivate us and would seduce us to settle for something other than Christ. Can we begin this Christmas to rejoice? Perhaps in the incarnation. Perhaps you begin by giving thanks. Blessed is the man whose sins are not counted against him. Perhaps you just begin by rejoicing and giving thanks that your sins can be totally forgiven. Now why this message? Last thing that I want to share is briefly is just my testimony. I identify with this, I identify with Paul because the very first time I shared my testimony a year after getting saved, it was March, almost a year to the date I got saved.

So in 2004, I shared a testimony to about 500 youth. A year prior to that, I was leading worship for them. It was actually just leading songs. And I was lost as a ball in high weeds. I was a Pharisee. And if anybody could rejoice and could celebrate and being Baptist, I could. Fourth generation, my maternal grandfather was an editor for the Sunday School Board, which became LifeWay. My maternal grandmother and grandfather were both published authors. They both had several degrees. Of my immediate family, my dad was a minister, everybody in my family had a master's degree from seminary except for me. Both sisters, mom, dad.

I started a Bible club in my high school. I went on summer missions. And there came a point in time, March 3 of 2003, after leading worship to 500 youth, sitting down on the left side of the congregation. Hearing someone preaching about the old covenant, how the old covenant of works was not sufficient. That if you'd never repented, you'd never been born again. And I was knocked off of my high horse. And as a Pharisee of Pharisees, I had to count all that I took pride in. I had to count it as trash I would throw out to dogs. Now perhaps you are not getting saved out of Pharisaical religion. Some of you got saved out of hedonism.

You still took confidence in the flesh. When you went out to party Friday, Saturday night, and really had no remorse, you took confidence in the flesh. You took confidence in that. Whatever you rejoice in, other than Jesus, it's going to send you to hell. And dear Christian, please ask the Lord to rescue your Christmas before it even starts. To give you a love for that which He loves. Now friend, if you are lost in this place this morning, you've been placing your trust in something other than the finished work of Jesus. You need to repent and be saved. I call you to repent. That's what salvation is.

Salvation is seeing that you are on the road to hell because you rejoice in everything but Jesus. He deserves your life. He deserves your devotion. He deserves your thanksgiving even in trial. And so the message to the unconverted is repent and believe the gospel. Come to rejoice in Jesus and see that He is your all in all. So as Jared comes, we are going to close in prayer. We are going to sing one more song and I am going to challenge you all. Lost and saved, that we begin this holiday season, this Christmas season with rejoicing. Begin by thanking God for knocking you off of your high horse. We have lost relatives that need to be saved.

But let's begin by thanking the Lord for knocking us off of our prideful position. Unconverted friends, would you be saved this morning? Would you come to Christ and find Him to be your all in all? Let's pray.