Philippians
3:4b-14
7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
As you know, my wife and I have been moving from Ft
Myers to Orlando. Moving is a
challenge. Part of the challenge is that
you find yourself evaluating the things you have accumulated. Every item is looked at and you wonder – “do
I really need to keep this?”
You may not have used that
item for ten years, but for some reason that one item is hard to let go
of.
And for other things, you
look at them and think how you once valued them, but now they are easily parted
with and end up as donations to the thrift store or the trash can.
We live our lives and we
gather such wonderful treasures – or junk.
Sometimes it is hard to
know what’s a treasure, and what’s trash.
Paul is writing to the
Philippians and in his letter he talks about his treasures.
He is
at the end of his life, and he is on a treasure hunt – answering the question
about what is most important in his life.
What is the most valuable
possession you own?
What
do you treasure in your life?
If
you went on a treasure hunt in your home, what would you find?
Years
ago, I read in one of Ann Landers' columns an interesting story about a woman
who had married a tightwad. This man
married a real skinflint and she could never get any thing out him -- not even
an extra quarter. He controlled every
little bit of money in the household.
And he would take his money and put 20% of all of the money he earned,
and save it.
But
he would save it by putting it under his mattress, because he did not trust
banks.
Whenever
the woman would ask for money from her husband, he would refuse, and would
insist that the money was going to come in handy in their old age.
When the man was 60 years old, he was
diagnosed as having cancer. Toward the end, he made his wife promise, in the
presence of his brothers, that she would take the money he had stashed under
the mattress and put it into his coffin so he could buy his way into heaven if
he had to.
They all knew he was a little odd, but
this was clearly a crazy request. But
sure enough, the wife made the promise.
Then,
when the man died, the first thing she did was to take the money to the bank
and deposit it in a new account.
But
she found a way to honor her promise.
The
first check she wrote was for the full amount -- $752,457.99.
She made it payable to
cash, so that anyone could cash it, and then -- right before the burial -- she
very quietly put it in her dead husband's casket. Let's see him cash that check.
She
had the best of both worlds – honoring her husband’s request, and yet also
having the ability to spend the money in that account.
We
all value the strangest things. We go
through life being told, "You can't take it with you," but this man
sure tried.
What
do you treasure most in your life?
In
1923, nine of the world's most successful financiers met at Chicago's Edgewater
Beach Hotel. Financially, they literally
"held the world by the tail" -- anything that money could buy was
within their grasp -- they were rich -- rich -- rich! Listen to their names and the high position
each held:
1. Charles
Schwab, the president of the largest steel company.
2. Samuel
Insull, the president of the largest electric utility company.
3. Howard
Hopson, the president of the largest gas company.
4. Richard
Whitney, the president of the New York Stock Exchange.
And
on down the line. Each person a CEO of a
great company, or a person who held enourmous wealth and power.
A tremendously impressive group . But let's look at what happened to them a few
years later, after the famous Wall Street Crash, the Depression, and World War
II.
Twenty
five years later, you'd find that
1. Charles
Schwab was forced into bankruptcy and lived the last five years before his
death on borrowed money.
2. Samuel
Insull not only died in a foreign land, a fugitive from justice, but was
penniless.
3. Howard
Hopson was insane.
4. Richard
Whitney had just been released from Sing Sing prison.
And
on down the line. Many were poor, some
had died, and several had died at their own hands.
Still
impressed with this group? A vast amount
of talent and potential went down the drain with these men. What happened?
Their lives were out of balance!
They
treasured the wrong things. They
committed themselves to the wrong things of life. What do you treasure?
It is
said that about 200 years ago, the tomb of the great conqueror Charlemagne was
opened. The sight the workmen saw was
startling. There was his body in a
sitting position, clothed in the most elaborate of kingly garments, with a
scepter in his bony hand. On his knee lay the Holy Scriptures, with a cold,
lifeless finger pointing to Mark 8:36: "For what shall it profit a man, if
he shall gain the whole world, and loose his own soul?"
What
do you treasure? That is an important
question, because life is a treasure hunt, and if you go through life and begin
to treasure the wrong things, you lose meaning to your life. You lose your very soul.
Paul's
life, on the other hand, is in perfect balance and harmony, because he knows
what he should value. He knows what he needs to be committed to.
Not
the money.
Not
the fine home.
Not
the car.
Not
the smart phone.
Not
the clothing.
Paul
said, "Yet whatever gains I had, these I have
come to regard as loss because of Christ. More
than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
For
Paul, nothing was more important than Christ.
Most
of us think of Christ as important to our lives. But for most of us, Christ is NOT the most
important aspect of our lives.
But
for Paul, he said everything else in life was rubbish compared to knowing and
following Christ.
Sometimes
it takes a crisis in our lives for us to think about what is important --
really important -- in our lives.
Fred
Craddock tells a story about friends of his who were missionaries to China many
years ago. At one point all missionaries
were being forced out of the country.
Fred Craddock's friends were told they had 24 hours to leave. Each adult missionary would be allowed to
take with them 400 pounds of luggage, but nothing more.
So
the missionaries began to ask themselves, what is it that we treasure? What
are those things that are most important to us?
The
typewritter? No. Too heavy and too easily replaced.
The
vase that has been in the family for generations? Yes.
Pack that.
The
family photos? Sure.
The
candlesticks the church had given them in honor of their work? Hard to say. They mean a lot, but they are so
heavy. Set them aside, we'll decide
later.
Finally,
they had their luggage. Each adult
missionary had packed 400 pounds each. They had measured and remeasured and
they had left no room for error.
They
got to the boat docks and they were being checked out by the authorities when
one of the Chinese officials said, "Did we not explain this to you? The 400 pounds includes your children."
So
much for the candlesticks, the vase that belonged to Great grandmother, and
many of the other items they thought they had valued.
In
the moment of the crisis it had become clear what they really treasured most.
We live in an age that seems to treasure all of the
wrong things.
We
put great value on the home, but not so much on the family within the home.
We
take time for golf, but not for Christ.
We
want to be served by others, but we've forgotten how to be servants of God.
We
really don't know what we treasure most.
There
is a point in the Gospels when people are ready to make a commitment to Christ,
but Christ turns them away.
Why? Because to be committed to Christ is an all
or nothing experience.
You
can't make half a commitment to Christ.
It is
all or nothing. Because God's commitment
to us, was all and total.
In
Luke's Gospel, (Luke 9:57-62), Jesus encounters a man who says, "I will
follow you wherever you go."
Jesus
replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of
Man has no place to lay his head."
"He
said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord,
first let me go and bury my father."
Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go
and proclaim the kingdom of God."
Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go
back and say good-by to my family."
Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back
is fit for service in the kingdom of God."
I
think we all treasure Christ, otherwise we would not be here today. But are we still on a treasure hunt looking
for something better?
We
have a commitment to Christ.
But
how deep is our commitment?
We
cannot follow Christ with half of our heart.
We
cannot be half way committed to him.
Christ
himself rejected such followers, telling them that it was better for them not
to follow at all, if they could not follow all of the way.
What
do you treasure?
If
you do not treasure Christ above all things,
if
you have not committed yourself to Christ above all things,
then
you have no commitment to Christ at all.
Your life is out of balance.
It is
an easy thing to treasure Christ.
It is
a difficult thing to treasure him above all other things in our lives.
How
can that be possible?
Tom
Long is a friend of mine who served a church in Georgia as a pastor. A man came into his office he hadn't seen in
years. A high school buddy he'd lost
track of.
Tom
greeted his friend with open arms. The laughed and talked about old times. They talked about this. They talked about
that. And finally, they talked about IT.
Tom's
friend said, “You know I'd heard you'd become a minister, so I thought I'd look
you up. I really need to talk to someone
about my life. I don't seem to value
anything. Nothing is important to
me. And that bothers me. I've been thinking about it, and I've come to
the conclusion that my problem is that I'm not committed to anything.”
Tom
told me that he had just written a stewardship sermon, and he was tempted to
preach it to his friend right then and there.
“You better believe your life won't count for anything, so you'd better
get your life in order and find something to be committed to.”
But then, it dawned on Tom that this might not be the right approach. He looked at his friend and said, “I hear you saying you don't believe you are committed to anything. I'm wondering if what you're really feeling is, 'no one is committed to you.'”
But then, it dawned on Tom that this might not be the right approach. He looked at his friend and said, “I hear you saying you don't believe you are committed to anything. I'm wondering if what you're really feeling is, 'no one is committed to you.'”
Paul
was not committed to anything, until he learned how committed Christ was to
him.
Paul
is in the midst of a crisis. He is in
prison. He is writing a letter to the Philippians and he says, “Whatever was to
my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss
compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose
sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain
Christ and be found in him.”
Christ
is fully committed to us.
Therefore
we need to be -- we are able to be -- fully committed to him.
We treasure
our smart phone, we treasure our car, and we treasure our home.
But
in the end, what we should treasure most is Christ – above all other things in
life.
Copyright 2013
Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.