What does it look like for you to be living “the dream”? What are your dreams? What are your aspirations? What are you passionate about?
Maybe for you, it’s to become wealthy. Money is oftentimes a goal at the foundation of our dreams. Maybe for you, it’s to be famous. I bet at the foundation of whatever your dreams are, is this idea of joy. Is that not why you have a dream? We may think that the “dream job” will lead to that “dream salary” so that we might become wealthy because that might bring us joy.
Finding joy is often the reason why people want to become famous or successful and they think that this might make them happy. It might. Having a dream may be good and healthy. As you think about what your passions and dreams are, they should be put into the proper perspective so that the joy you seek in having that dream will never be compromised. If you are clinging to a dream, apart from Christ, for the wrong reasons, joy will never be found. Joy can only be found in knowing and growing in Christ.
Here are a few questions to consider concerning your dreams. Are your dreams in line with God’s will and, do your dreams bring you closer to Jesus Christ?
If your answer is not yes, then this may be the dream-crusher. You may need to give up that dream for the sake of pursuing Christ, or at least park that dream until you can put it in its proper priority, with Christ reigning supreme over and above that dream. Here is an example of someone who had to learn this lesson the hard way.
Phil Vischer, the co-creator of VeggieTales, founded the Big Idea company. Phil wanted the Big Idea to be just like Walt Disney but in a Christian form. While it seemed like a worthy aspiration that could benefit the kingdom, there was a problem.
God never asked Phil Vischer to create an empire that was like Walt Disney. God just wanted Phil to create animated videos for Christians in America. As soon as Phil founded Big Idea, he started to become successful. The “empire building” became his dream, and it soon took over Phil’s priorities. From 1996 to 1999, revenues of Big Idea Company skyrocketed from approximately $1.3 million to $44 million. It seemed like a wildly successful adventure and in some respects it was. But then, it turned belly-up in 2002. Phil was sued and he lost everything and the Big Idea company went bankrupt.
Here is what happened to Phil Vischer. His dreams were crushed and because his dream came outside of his pursuit of Christ, so was he. The problem was that he put the pursuit of his dreams above his pursuit of Christ. On a Focus on the Family broadcast, Phil Fischer said, “My dream of creating this empire became my religious experience.”
Phil forgot that his chief aim should be pursuing Christ and that everything else is in submission to that singular pursuit. Phil Vischer has continued to grow as a Christian and has learned some lessons there. And here’s the advice Phil would give you today:
Cling tightly to Jesus and loosely to everything else, especially your dreams.
Today, Phil can be found making Christian animation stories for children in submission to his pursuit of Christ.
If you are holding tighter to your dreams and your passions than you are to Christ, then you will be crushed when those dreams go away. In those dreams, apart from Christ, you are trying to find hope. You will never find it. You are trying to find joy apart from Christ, it will never happen. If you cling tighter to Jesus than anything else, let the dream come or let the dream go. It will not matter. Joy will not be on the table. Your hope will not be sacrificed. Why? Because you can never lose Christ.
Everything – that is what Paul is saying in this text. Everything – your dreams included must be considered a loss compared to treasuring Christ. This is a challenging message.
Philippians 3:1-11 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
The secret to finding true joy comes by choosing to treasure Christ above your worldly accomplishments or above your worldly resume. This is what Paul is trying to say. Paul chose to treasure Christ.
Here are four observations from the text in Philippians:
- WHEN LOOKING FOR JOY, LOOK TO CHRIST FIRST – Philippians 3:1
When you’re looking for joy, usually in our society today, we tend to look outside of Christ – to our job, our finances, to the stability in this world, to our family. And then, when we don’t find it there, we finally give up and choose the second choice of Christ. No, that is backward. That is why our world is such a mess. When looking for joy, choose Christ first.
In the Philippian church, they were young, small, poor and they were persecuted for their faith yet they were faithful in their giving. They were faithful in their serving. Despite their circumstances, Paul gives them this command to “rejoice in the Lord”. It is amazing to consider that both Paul and the Philippians were in abject poverty yet they were much closer to obeying this command, to choose joy in their circumstances than we are yet we have so much more than they.
What is the lesson here? The lesson is – worldly wealth is fleeting. Proverbs 23:4-5, “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth” yet, what do we usually chase? The author of Proverbs says, “Cease from your consideration of it.” He says, “When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.”
The advice from Paul would be to stop chasing wealth. Chase Christ and what will He give you? Not wealth. He will give you JOY every time. Start with Jesus when you are looking for happiness and joy and you will always find it. Spend time with Him above everything and it will always be there. We should look to Jesus first, for our joy, and should make Christ our treasure.
2. BEWARE OF THOSE WHO PUT CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH – Philippians 3:2-7
We should be weary of putting confidence in the flesh. Today the underlining spiritual struggle is probably not circumcision and thinking that it saves you. But the spiritual struggle is still very real for us. It’s a warning directed towards those who try to add anything to the Gospel as necessary for salvation. There are so many things that people try to add to the gospel.
All of it is dangerous and eventually leads to legalism, such as baptism. Those who look to baptism to save them fall into this category of warning. You can be friends with them and you probably need to love them, but be wary of their theology.
It can’t be Jesus plus anything else, because if there was anything else other than Jesus, then why did Jesus die? If you add anything else to Jesus, you get legalism. Jesus was the one that died and was buried.
He was the one that rose from the dead and it’s your faith and your repentance in him that leads to your salvation.
Beware of such false religiosity that says you need Jesus plus anything else for salvation. When we worship by the Spirit of God and don’t put any confidence in the flesh, Paul says, We are the true believers. Where does your confidence come from? Does it rest in what you can do and what you have done? Or does it rest in what Christ can do and what He has done?
Legalism is treasuring the flesh, meaning what you can do, whereas Christianity is treasuring Christ above all. As far as the legalistic observance of the law, Paul was blameless. If you’re looking for a human resume, Paul says, I had it all. But apart from Christ, Paul acknowledged that it wasn’t nearly enough. We still deserved God’s wrath apart from Christ, even for the most minor offense against the law. This is why Christ had to die.
Knowing Christ surpasses all of your worldly qualifiers before God, your resume, your heritage, your family name, titles or reputation.
Maybe you walked in today and your bank account was overflowing. Maybe you have a long and respected academic pedigree. Maybe you have wood plaques that fill the walls of your office that herald all your achievements. All those things could be true. But do you see them as nothing compared to your relationship with Jesus Christ? I pray that you do.
Is there anything that could be as important as our relationship with Jesus Christ? I thought, well, we value relationships, don’t we? I know I do. I love my wife. I love my children. I love you. I love my friends and I love my other family members. However, compared to Christ, we must admit that there’s really no comparison at all.
Only Jesus Christ can hold the number one position in your life and in your heart and whatever you place above him, the Bible calls it an idol.
All idols must be overthrown in our hearts so that we can let Christ reign supreme, even if it’s a dream that advances the kingdom. That dream, apart from your pursuit of Christ, can become an idol in your life.
Many times, pastors, missionaries and other people in the ministry will sacrifice their family on the altar of ministry, and then blame it on the church. No, that’s on them. God never asked us to do that. Yet, it’s not just pastors that struggle with sacrificing their families for ministry. It’s all of us that put our jobs, our careers and our pursuit of anything above Christ and above our families now.
Many times we justify it because we say, “Somebody has to put food on the table. My job does that. I have to give my time to my job.” When you put Christ first, He’ll make you a better employee. He’ll make you a better husband. He’ll make you a better wife. He’ll make you a better child. But He must reign supreme.
It’s amazing to me what people sacrifice for their prosperity and their happiness. If people today think that thing, whatever it is, going to make them happy, they do almost anything to get it. They work crazy hours. They travel across the world, and they pay almost anything for the thought of happiness.
People get so passionate about sports. Sports can be good. They’re great for community. They can bring joy, and if used properly, they can be leveraged to advance the gospel. But if we take sports to an unhealthy level, It could consume us and distract us, just like media can. Families will sacrifice every weekend for their children to play a sport. And I get it – for a season of the year or a season of childhood.
But for every weekend for your whole child’s life, I wonder what’s the cost. Is it worth it? Let’s say your child gains the whole world of sports notoriety. They win the gold medal. They take the state championship. They become a professional athlete, but they sacrifice their soul or even their spiritual formation. Was that worth it? I think not.
Here’s what God told me. Christ must be first in your home. You need to find balance. I think it’s interesting how much time we invest into things like sports and how complacent we become towards faith in church.
Does the current life you live now compete with our affections for Jesus? Do we really consider knowing Jesus as surpassingly better than everything else? Can we really say that everything is garbage compared to gain in Christ? Sadly, for most of my life I cannot say that statement with honesty and integrity. So I need to focus in and prioritize more.
The more sideways our world gets, there’s going to be less prestige gained by following Christ. Jesus never promised worldly wealth. So what do I gain? Righteousness is what you gain and it’s enough. You gain hope and you gain joy that the world cannot touch.
Our righteousness is in Christ.
The righteousness which comes from God is based in faith. Webster’s 1828 dictionary, defines righteousness as this purity of heart. It’s equivalent to holiness.
It’s the conformity of one’s entire life to the divine law. It includes all that we consider just honest, virtuous and true. So I wonder, is there a righteous man or woman in here today? No, not completely. It reminds me of that definition that there’s only been one righteous one. His name is Jesus Christ. If you were to die today. I wonder, where would you be found? Would you be consumed in your job, your problems, your hobbies, your sin, or would you be found in him? Paul says, I want to be found in Christ
You do not want to stand before the Holy God with his perfect law judging you on your own righteousness. If you think you can stand on your own, that God would soften your heart and show you that your righteousness is not enough.
Faith in Christ allows us to make the great exchange of our sinfulness for His righteousness. This new life in Christ is full of hope and it’s full of joy that the world cannot take away. If you’ve been relying on your own abilities and your own human righteousness to be enough to earn God’s favor, I pray today you would surrender to Christ and Christ alone until salvation.
