Harbor Presbyterian Church - Uptown

When Will I Be Happy with God?

When I’ve Done Enough

Philippians 3:1-11 

INTRODUCTION

We’re starting a new series this week.  When will I be happy with God?  Paul has shown us hot to be happy with our lives, how to be happy with others, and now—for the next three weeks—we’re going to look at When will I be happy with God?   

When can I be happy knowing for sure that I have God’s love?  When can I have assurance that he’s on my side?   

The answer that so many think of to this question is, “When I’ve done enough.” 

Just thinking about this—When I’ve done enough—begins to make us feel tired and drained.  There are so many people who avoid church because life is already so demanding.  The last thing we need is to add an eternal list of demands from God.   

Thinking, “When I’ve done enough,” actually changes the question too.   It’s not “When will I be happy with God?” but “When will God  be happy with me?”  When will I have done enough to make God happy with me? 

Paul tells us that the key to it all is your Approach.  How do you approach God?  Three points today:

I.     Assessing Your Approach (v1-8)

II.   Changing Your Approach (v7-9)

III. The Happiness of the Right Approach (v10-11) 

1. Assessing Your Approach  (v1-8)

Paul starts by saying we need to assess our approach because v2—there are many who will push you into the wrong approach.  Paul confronts the approach that says it’s our performance that earns God’s favor. 

If you ask most people “When will I be happy with God?”  They’ll respond with some answer that says in one way or another, “Well, are you a good person?” 

And religions of the world affirm this same approach.  The difference with religions is that to a general morality, they’ll add a series of religious exercises that you also have to perform in order to be happy with God.   

This is who Paul was confronting in this text.  The religious folks of his day who were saying that in order to be happy with God, you had to keep all the laws of the Old Testament.  Circumcision was the chief of these laws, and to be circumcised meant that you were obeying all the laws.  Paul warns the church against these people in v2, and he is not kind in his words.   

He calls them dogs, evildoers, those who mutilate the flesh.  What is powerful about Paul’s response is that these three insults—dogs, evildoers, and mutilators of the flesh—these were insults that the Jews of Paul’s day heaped on the non-Jewish people.  The Jews thought they were better than everyone else—considered themselves the chosen people of God, and took great pride in the bodily mark that set them apart.   

Paul is saying that those who would push circumcision as necessary to approach God have become exactly the same as the non-Jewish dogs, evildoers, and mutilators of the flesh that the Jews had been insulting for hundreds of years. 

The point is that both religion and irreligion tend to be the same in their approach to God:  it’s all about performance, it’s what you have done, and if you haven’t done enough, you cannot be happy with God.  So also for us.  Paul is warning us:  Watch out for people who will muddy your relationship with God.  People who will confuse you about how your relationship with God works.   

These people Paul is referring to are motivated not by concern for others, but they want to impose their restrictions so that others would justify them.  They need you to do it their way so that it proves they are right.  They are concerned for themselves, not for others. 

Now, if anyone can speak on performance—either religious or secular— it’s Paul.  Usually, the people who speak against privileges and performance are those who have none.  But Paul has them all.  He is the uber-example.  V4-6, Paul says if you want to play the game of doing enough to be happy with God—I’m in front.  He lists 7 things that show his credentials:  the first 3 relate to his status, the last three show his achievements.    

Here’s his assessment:  v7—All of this, this approach to God is loss.  The approach that says, “that way of life has no happiness, no hope, no assurance.   There is nothing here.   

In an old episode of the I Love Lucy show, Ricky comes home to find Lucy crawling around the living room on all fours.  When he asks her what she’s doing she explains that she has lost her earrings.  “You lost your earrings in the living room?” Ricky asks.  Lucy replies, “No, I lost them in the bedroom—but the light is much better out here.” 

V8 even goes farther.  Paul says it’s rubbish.  This is a very clean translation of the word. It’s the word dung, excrement.  It’s a very vulgar word. 

This word loss doesn’t mean that these have kept Paul at zero.  They haven’t been neutral, they have been negatives.  This word loss can also be translated “loss, damage, disadvantage.”   

In speaking of gain and loss—he talking about profit and debt.  This shows that Paul is dealing with people who are trying to earn God’s favor.   

Not just Paul, but Tom Brady, who had reached the absolute pinnacle of the football world by age 28.  He had won three superbowls and in an interview was asked how it felt.  He said, “God, life has got to be more than this. I mean this isn't, this can't be, what it's all cracked up to be.” When he was pressed on what else life was meant to be, he said, “I wish I knew.  I wish I knew.” 

We feel this way because the performance road is the wrong way.  You’re getting more and more lost.  When you get lost, typically you have two choices (well, women have two choices, for men there is only one choice):  you can either stop and ask for directions, or you can just try to “feel” your way to your destination.  If you take the second approach, it’s possible that you could be getting yourself more and more lost.  Paul is saying that to go down the performance road gets you farther and farther away from God. 

This shows that you can try to approach the right God in the wrong way.  His performance actually drove him away from God because he was trusting in something that wouldn’t help.  It’s better to be unconvinced than to be convinced of the wrong way. 

This question reminds me of digging at the beach when the tide is coming in.  When we’re at the beach, we love to dig and build things—castles, forts, islands, waterways… everything.  It’s frustrating because as the tide comes in, the waves are constantly coming—like judgment—and no matter how hard you work, not matter how great you build, the waves always come and wipe it out.   

This makes me feel one of two ways—either our work is meaningless, or it’s not enough.  Waves of judgment come—even if they approve of our good work, they are still wiped out, telling us there is always more to do.  There’s never any rest, as they say, “What have you don’t for me lately?” 

Where are you?  Are you on this road?  For you is it status?  Achievement?  That will make God happy with you?   Not just for non-Christians—Paul is addressing Christians here.  And he’s intentionally repeating himself!  V1—What does this tell us?  Paul needed to repeat it, and we need to keep hearing it. 

This approach to God—trying to do enough—doesn’t bring happiness.  If you want to fill the bucket of God’s requirements, it’s never ending.  To try to please him in order to have a relationship with him NEVER ENDS.   

What are we left with here?  Point #2.   

2. Changing Your Approach (v7-9)

Paul says he’s completely re-evaluated his whole life.  All his accolades, he now thinks of them not as supports to his relationship with God, but they have been hindrances to it.  He took the whole list, struck it from the credit side, and put it on the debit side.   

You can’t really do this—you can’t let go of the performance approach unless you have something else to cling to.  Paul didn’t change his approach until he learned that there was another way to approach God:  knowing Jesus.  Not just another option.  V9—He gives us righteousness.  This means a secure relationship with God.  This is good news!  Before you obey, before you perform—you need to know you have a relationship with God.   

In his death—Jesus takes away our negative on the cross.  In his perfect life, Jesus does all that we need.  In his resurrection, Christ shares with us his blessings.  Jesus was perfectly righteous, truly blameless—not the shell of righteousness that Paul brags about, but he was genuinely righteous through and through.  And yet, we read in chapter 2—he didn’t regard his status as something to use for his own advantage.  He served us, and he succumbed to being treated as a sinner.  He was made to be sin and punished for our sins, so that he could open a new approach to God for you! 

Paul says, “When I realized what he’d done, he did it for me, I threw everything else away.  I had been storing up performance points to offer God.  Then I saw Jesus raised from the dead for me, and I threw all my piddly performance away, because compared to Jesus, it was worthless.  Jesus filled the bucket of God’s requirements.  And he fills our bucket, so we can approach God in Jesus’ name. 

When it’s up to you—not only are the buckets never filled, but when things go bad, you are on your own to deal with it.  You can’t appeal to the one you’re trying to impress. 

STORY:  My own life—I believed in God, but I never thought of having a relationship with him.  Sure I prayed when I needed to get out of a jam, but I had no idea what it meant to really serve him, to love him.  I realized that I had nothing to catch me when I fell—I was on my own.  When I’d pray, it was empty because I had no relationship with God.  When I realized that, I realized that I needed help.  I couldn’t do it on my own.  So I gave my life to Jesus.  I wanted a relationship with him.  And he met me that night.    

All it takes is Trust.—Now if you’re ready.  Be done with your righteousness.  If you believe in Jesus you’ll receive his righteousness.   

This is an ongoing process.  V7—“I counted”—perfect tense, v8—“I count”—present tense. Past and present:  we have to keep remembering this.  For Christians and non-Christians. 

This creates a relationship with God where he says, not “You’ve done enough.”  But “Jesus has done enough.  I will accept you in him.”  V9—not having a righteousness of my own, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.  Instead of being dressed in the excrement of our failed performance, we are dressed in the perfect life of Jesus’ performance.  This brings happiness with God. 

3. The Happiness of the Right Approach (v10-11)

This doesn’t just make you happy on the day that you commit to Jesus.  But it creates an ongoing relationship with God that enables you to walk in this happiness.  Paul says life then is about knowing Christ.  V10—that I may know him.  TO know him is to experience his resurrection power.  His victory over sin, over death, over the things that are broken in life—this victory becomes yours.   

How do you experience this resurrection power?  The more you know Jesus, the more you get it.  This verse brings knowing, being, and doing together.  The more you know, the more you’re changed and your life will look different.  What is your gospel journey? 

I remember a time before the summer of 1994.  I was at UCLA, walking back to my apartment with my roommate.  He told me that he was excited because our college pastor was going to preach a summer series on the gospel.

What I thought in my mind was, “Oh come on.  Really?”  I was already bored.  I knew Jesus died for my sins.  Why do we need to hear more about that?  I was honestly a bit depressed. 

But then something happened to me.  I had a lot of respect for my roommate.  I thought to myself, “What if there’s more to the gospel than I thought?”  At that moment, I committed myself to trying to better understand the gospel.  I decided to believe that the gospel was bigger than I thought, and I was going to find out how. 

Gospel Journey—The work of Jesus for you

The first thing that began to hit me was the significance of the work of Jesus for me.  His life, death, and resurrection were for me.  It begins when you see his victory over sin.  It brings forgiveness with God.  Jesus as savior means you experience his work for you. 

The work of Jesus in you

Then I began to understand the idea of union with Christ.  Christ is a title that means Messiah, this means he is the representative of his people.   His work for you—you are connected to it—and it fills you.  Jesus works in you to make you new from the inside out.    OT know him is to know him in you.  He died, so you died to sin.  He was raised, so you are raised in new life. 

The work of Jesus through you

And it keeps going.  5 years ago I began to learn that Jesus wants to fill the world with God’s image and his glory. He wants to touch the world—to share his love, his grace, he wants to fix what’s broken—in the church and in the world.  And he wants to do this through you.  His work through you fills the world with his kingdom. 

For you, in you, through you.  Even here, we’re just scratching the surface. 

Charles Spurgeon said, “Every blessing from God has a tag on it that says, More to come.” 

I’ve been knowing Christ and the good news of the gospel for 15 years—it keeps getting better and better and better, fuller and fuller.   

•  

  Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace, 
  Over all victorious, in its bright increase; 
  Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day, 
  Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way. 

As you get to know Jesus, knowing him begins to move you.  Nothing else matters.  Is this the greatest passion of your heart? 

The most powerful expression of this knowledge of Jesus comes with what Paul says in v10—sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.   

Jesus showed us what God is like, Jesus showed us who God is like most clearly in 2:6-11—by coming as a servant.  On the cross we see that if you want to know God, he is a servant.  He is sacrificial love to death.  When we sacrifice, when we suffer, you continue to show the world what your God is like.   

This transforms all of your “religious” activity—now not waves of judgment, but now waves of grace—the whole point is to know Christ.  Now all the things you did before—they aren’t things to earn more status with God, they are now actually ways to know Christ better.  All of the Christian life becomes an opportunity to know Christ better.   

You read the Bible—to know Jesus.

You pray—to talk to Jesus.

You serve—to love others like Jesus and to learn what it was like for him to serve.

You worship—to show Jesus how much you love him.

You work—to reflect Jesus.

You participate in community—to experience the Christ in others. 

It’s not that doing the right things fills up your glass with God’s blessings so you can drink it.  Doing the right things is actually drinking from the glass that God has already filled to overflowing.  Jesus himself was emptied, poured out in death, so he could keep your cup continually full.  That brings happiness that will never end.