Dear Church family,
As I visited my old town and old Church family last week, God reinforced a wonderful truth for me.
After Paul lists some of his accomplishments in life, he says in Philippians 3:7-9: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count 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 that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— “
As I visited my former Church family, I was reminded of the achievements that the Lord accomplished through me. When I began pastoring the Church of Warrensburg, they were practically in shambles (hence the reason for why they would be willing to hire a 25-year-old pastoral rookie!). And over a period of almost 7 full years, God built up that Church, created new births (both physically and spiritually), baptisms happened, new families joined, new kids attended, rich community relationships formed, and most importantly, Church life was transformed as we developed into a faith family of growing maturity in Christ. There was a sweet unity in the Church unlike when I came. When I left the Church, we appeared to have so much momentum and seemed to be at a kind of pinnacle of Church life. No doubt, I was at risk for feeling like I had built the Church (God forbid!) when in fact Christ was rebuilding and revitalizing a formerly anorexic Body of Christ. I could tell story after story of some awesome things that God did in lives around me (including me) and no doubt, there were many many many difficult and discouraging moments too, learning moments for me and hard conversations to have with people, toxic people, immature people and wolves in sheep’s clothing, but that’s beside the point.
My point is that I left the First Baptist Church feeling good about the relationships formed with these folks and the good work that God had done (Ps. 127). I truly tried my best to give God the credit (Ps 115:1-2).
When I went back to visit Warrensburg and my FBC Church family a week ago, I was reminded of this former work that the Holy Spirit had accomplished in that Church with the humble understanding that I was the primary vessel that God chose to make that happen. That reality has a way of tempting a pastor like myself to elevate my own self-importance, something that I’m fully aware of in my life.
And with the temptation of pride brewing in my soul, God reminded me of Philippians 3:7-9.
“7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
Even if it is the best and most genuine kind of achievement—like success rooted in eternal relationships formed, success grounded in restoring the reputation of Christ’s Church, success founded in genuine love, zeal for God, and dependence on His power—it can still become a matter for boasting that surpasses who we ought to boast in the most, which is in knowing and experiencing a relationship with Jesus Christ.
“7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
I find it particularly challenging to put that much more value in a relationship with Jesus than doing things for Jesus. We can feel the satisfaction of achievement. That’s not wrong. It’s a gift of God (Ecc. 5:19), but God glorifying achievement can easily turn into the most subtle form of idolatry when we worship our work for Jesus over our relationship with Jesus.
The reason that we need to count all successes as loss compared to knowing Jesus is because we truly have less control over ‘success’ than we think. Our ego wants to think that we’re successful because of something we did when in fact Psalm 127 says it so clearly: “unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor labor in vain.” And that’s because God brings success. “No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord.” (Prov. 21:30). He builds, and He will use us or not. But I’ll claim Proverbs 14:1 for myself: “The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.”
The wisest, genuinely most successful instrument used of God with skill, truth, wisdom and hard work, can tear down the work that he/she worked to build over a lifetime and see the progress crumble in a day. And that propensity is in all of us.
I say all of that to say that there is good reason to NOT boast in or overvalue our God glorifying Kingdom of God building successes lest 1 Cor. 10:12 becomes true of us:, “let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
Successes, however genuine and godly and good that they may be, are not meant to be used as our means to joy and satisfaction, but a relationship with Jesus is.
There is no greater success in life than knowing Jesus. And a relationship with Jesus should alter the way that we assess our successes. We put very little weight in them. And of course, the greatest worth in our life comes not from achievements at our job, in our family (how about raising Godly kids?), or in our community or Church, but our greatest worth comes from knowing Jesus and being known by Him. Valuing our relationship with Jesus in a way that morphs our stock in this world is not easy or natural but it is essential and should be intentional.
Paul goes on to say in Philippians 3:13-15, “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But 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 upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.”
To grow in Christian maturity means that we must “press on” and “strain forward” towards Jesus, simply Jesus. Everything else will fall into place after that.
“Forgetting what lies behind” means all of the successes. We must not dwell on our successful past, but dwell on our relationship with Jesus, the hope that we have one day of meeting Him face to face, and that will be the greatest day that we’ve experienced so far.
And speaking of knowing Jesus, only God can receive credit for that since if it was not for His grace and good work for us on the Cross, none of us would know Jesus, none of us would be justified, and if it was not for the work of the Holy Spirit in our life, none of us would be capable of trusting in Christ, loving Him, believing in Him or doing anything good for Him (Eph. 2:1-10!). So we rest in God’s successes, not our own, and that succuss of God has granted us a close relationship with Him.
Let’s glory in that simple truth, Church, and God help us!
With love in Christ,
Aaron
