Message Notes                                                                                                 May 1, 2005
Fools Week 4                                    The Secret of My Success (Philippians 3:4-14)                                                                            

1 Corinthians 4:10a We are fools for Christ…

2 Corinthians 11:24-28 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, ²⁶I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. ²⁷I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. ²⁸Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

The Secret of My Success:

 

1) My confidence is in Christ to save me, nothing else
vs. 4-7 If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

2) Nothing is more important to me than the joy of knowing Christ

vs. 8a What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord

Jesus, I want to be a fool for you. I’m tired of worrying about what everybody else thinks about me. I want to be living my life to please you. Thank you, Jesus, for loving me when I ignored you. In this moment, I turn from living for myself to you. I ask You to forgive me for the wrong things I've done, all of  which have offended you. I want You to show me how to live.  Please take over my life and guide me.  Please, help me to live for you every moment of my life. Amen.

3) I have truly given everything up to follow Christ
vs. 8b-9a for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him

4) Becoming like Christ is of highest priority in my life

vs. 9b-11 not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

 

5) I will strain towards Christ with everything I have until I die
vs. 12-14 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.