PHILIPPIANS 3:10

March 4, 2012FIRST BAPTIST CHURCHJACKSON, MISSISSIPPI

GOING DEEPER with GOD CONFERENCE

Led by Dr. Greg FrizzellSunday, March 25 & Monday, March 26

*On Sunday, March 25 ALL ADULTS will meet in Fellowship Hall East. *This will take the place of our Sunday School class on March 25th at 9 am.

"Praying For Our Jerusalem" Acts 1:8Praying For Our Jerusalem is a prayer effort by which we attempt to go into every home of our church family

for the sole purpose of praying with the people in that home. It is that simple. No gimmicks, no signing up for something, just to pray.

Prayer Warriors will visit up to four homes and pray with our church family from April 1-30. Dr. Frank Page will lead a Training Session for all

enlisted Prayer Warriors TODAY at 4:45 p.m. in Fellowship Hall East. This prayer emphasis will be a life changing  event for each of us individually and

for our church family.

*Prayer is a double blessing: *It blesses those on the praying end and those on the receiving end.

If you know someone willing to serve as a Prayer Warrior, who will be going into 4 homes during April 1-30 and pray with our church family, please call Trish Jenkins at

(601) 949-1941 or e-mail her at: pjenkins@fbcj.org 

BREATH OF LIFEA SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS FOR THOSE WITH A CHRONIC COUGH*TIME: 8 AM APRIL 15th*PLACE: ROOM E423

Thank You for Serving banquet to honor waiters & waitresses at: The South, 627 East Silas Brown Jackson, MS 39201Monday, April 23rd 6-8 pm

MARK THE DATE. . .

FRIEND DAY

SUNDAY, APRIL 29th

The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Copyright © Moody Press and John MacArthur, Jr., 1983-2007.

*Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

*Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)

*J. Vernon McGee's Thru The Bible

Wiersbe Expository Outlines

Philippians 3:9b

9b “ the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith”

*Paul was very religious before he was saved, but his religion could not save him.

*He had to lose his religion in order to find eternal life!

Three sins a day:3 x 365.25 = 1095.75 sins/yr

(78 – 12 = 66 years life span)

66 years x 1095.75 = 72,319.5

Paul gladly shed the threadbare robe of his own righteousness and stretched out his empty hands to receive the glorious royal robe of God's righteousness.

So now we come to:

Philippians 3:10

10“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;” Philippians 3:10

“that I may know Him”:

personally (intimately)powerfully (resurrection)passionately (sufferings)!

Philippians 3:10 a

“that I may know Him” (personally) Philippians 3:10 a

*To know Him personally is more than merely to know a doctrine about Him. *The Holy Spirit brings us not only to redemption, but to the Redeemer Himself.

To know Him: in Hebrew the verb is ‘yada' and in Greek it is translated by ‘ginoskein’. This verb indicates the most intimate knowledge of another person.

To know Christ is to know Him with such intimacy that in the end we are as united with Him as we are with those whom we love here on earth.

That initial saving knowledge of Christ became the basis of Paul's lifelong pursuit of an ever deeper (intimate) knowledge of His Savior. (by sanctification)

*Paul is no longer going to try to build up legalistic righteousness. *He isn't going to see how religious and pious he can be any more.

*Since he has changed his bookkeeping system of the past, Paul has also changed his purpose for the present.

*Like Paul, since we have been saved by faith, we now have: a new motivation, a new life purpose, a new life-style.

Some people get the impression that being saved by faith means there is no motivation for: 1) godly conduct or for 2) works done in faith.

*They think that if a person is saved by grace it must mean he just sits around and twiddles his thumbs. *Nothing could be further from the truth.

Saving faith is a faith that moves us. James 2:1818 …“I will show you my faith by my works.”(faith-works not law-works)

Paul dissipates any notion that being saved by faith means you can sit in a rocking chair and rock yourself all the way to Heaven.

Paul exhibits an effort and an energy that is derived from the Holy Spirit, which is far greater than any legalistic effort.

Under the Law, Saul was so zealous that he was willing to go to Damascus to stamp out the followers of Christ.

*But now, under the grace-faith system, he will go to the ends of the earth to make followers of Christ and to witness for Him.*Faith produces good fruit!

*Your faith in Christ is a motivation for you to live for God. *That is the reason Paul went on to live as he did – as should we.

Motivation - Greg Frizzell said on page 73 of his book: How to Develop a Powerful Prayer Life “that in 1981, God led him to begin praying through all nine fruit

of the Spirit. To this day, I have never found anything that comes close to the power of daily praying these character words for my own spiritual growth.”

*“that we may know Him” – experientially, personally, intimately. *That’s the aim of the "righteousness" just mentioned in Phil 3:9.

Some saints give the impression that they have complete knowledge and they only need to polish their halo every morning.

Yet Paul, the greatest missionary the world has ever seen, said at the end of his life; "My ambition is still to know Christ personally, intimately.”

*The cry of Paul’s heart was “that I may know Him” (personally, intimately). *Paul also longed to experience the power of Christ’s resurrection.

Philippians 3:10 b 10 “that I may know Him (personally) and the power of His resurrection” (powerfully)

*Life pushes us (those who are saved and those who are lost) to our destinations: either to Heaven or to Hell. *A lost soul is never too dead for a resurrection!

*Paul knew there was no power in the Law. *He also knew there was no power in his flesh to overcome sin or serve God (Rom 7:18).

18 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.” Romans 7:18

Because he knew Christ and had His righteousness imparted to him, Paul had been given the Holy Spirit. The same spiritual power that raised Jesus from the

dead now enabled him to accomplish the work God had sent him to do. *The resurrection was and is the greatest display of Christ's power! (Rom 1:16)

Rising from the dead revealed Christ’ absolute power over both the physical and spiritual realms.

It is the resurrection power that saved us, a truth Paul affirmed in Romans 6:4-5: 4) "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death,

so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

5) For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Romans 6:4-5

*At salvation, we are identified with Christ both in His death and in His resurrection.

But more than that, it is Christ's resurrection power that sanctifies us to defeat temptation and trials, lead a holy life, and fruitfully proclaim the Gospel.

*Paul gladly exchanged his impotence for Christ's potency – His resurrection power! *Paul desired to experience its fullness as should we.

Philippians 3:1010“that I may know Him (personally) and the power of His resurrection (powerfully) and the fellowship of His sufferings,”

Philippians 3:10 c

“and the fellowship of His sufferings,”(know Him passionately).

That we may know Him:personallypowerfully andpassionately. Philippians 3:10

We are conformed to His death at salvation(Rom6:4-5) *But Paul has something more in mind here, a deep partnership and communion with Christ in His suffering.

When he met Christ, Paul gained a Companion to be with him in his suffering — One Who endured far more intense persecution and suffering than anyone else

who ever lived, all of it undeserved.

The deepest moments of spiritual fellowship with the living Christ are at times of intense suffering; suffering drives us to Him.

"I walked a mile with PleasureShe chattered all the way;And left me none the wiserFor all she had to say.

I walked a mile with SorrowAnd not a word said she;But oh, the things I learned from herWhen Sorrow walked with me.“ Robert B. Hamilton

“In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” Jesus Christ John 16:33

“God had one Son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.” 

AugustineWorks and Biography