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I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions. Hi, this is Pastor Tom
Holiday and we are looking at Philippians 3 this week. This is day one of our
look at Philippians 3.

We're going to be looking at verses 1 to 6. And these are verses that get right
to the heart of how our lives can be filled with joy. Paul had been a
successful, powerful, energetic man who was completely without joy.

And these verses, this chapter, Philippians 3, is a chapter about how he turned
the corner, how he began to live with joy. As we've been going through this
book, we've discovered that Philippians tells us that the same places that you
lose joy are the very places you find joy, depending on how you respond,
depending on your faith in those places. In chapter 1, we talked about people
and problems.

You can either lose joy there or find joy. In chapter 2, we talked about your
potential and your job, the places where you can either lose joy or find joy.
And in this chapter, chapter 3, we're going to be looking at your past
accomplishments and your future hope, beginning in verse 1 with how to find joy
in your accomplishments.

Truth is, we all know people who have got a lot of accomplishments, have done a
lot of great things, but they've got zero joy. But we know other people who have
few accomplishments, at least in the world's eyes, but they've got a great joy.
So what's that all about?

Where do you get real joy in your life? These are verses that are about life's
greatest accomplishment, knowing Christ. There is no greater accomplishment than
knowing Christ.

That's what God put us on this planet to do, to get to know Him. I've got to get
to know the one who gave His life for me. Now I know that when I say that, I may
have lost some of you.

You're a little bit task-oriented, you want to get things done, and when you
hear accomplishments and that the greatest one is knowing Christ, you think,
"Well, that sounds good. That sounds right, but I hate to say this. How does
that help me get more done today?

" Now, some of you listening to this, you're more relationship-oriented, and you
love this. Just get to know Him. That's all I have to do.

Truth is, the truth of knowing Christ is good for both, whether you're
task-oriented or more relationship-people-oriented. If you're task-oriented,
when you really get to know Christ, that doesn't mean you stop doing. It means
you're released to do the things that God made you to do, the things that bring
genuine joy.

Even if you're more relationship-oriented, a relationship with Christ, knowing
Christ, is more than just sitting at Jesus' feet. That's part of it, but He has
some place for you to go. So it fits for both of us.

And we're going to dig in a little bit and talk about, "How do I look at the
accomplishments, the things that I do, the things that I've done, and how does
joy result from that? " Joining me today is Pastor Buddy Owens, our spiritual
growth pastor here at Saddleback. I thought it would be enjoyable to have him
look together with us at Philippians 3.

And Buddy, there are a couple of things that this chapter tells us to watch out
for when it comes to our accomplishments and the way that we look at life. Would
you take a look with us at the first of those things that we're supposed to
watch out for? Yeah, I'd be happy to.

Thanks for having me here today. Yeah, Paul begins this chapter now by telling
us to be joyful but giving us an immediate warning. He says, "Watch out for
false teachers.

" Let me just read the text to you. Chapter 3, verses 1 through 3. Paul says,
"Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord.

It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a
safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those
mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship
by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in
the flesh.

" Now what's Paul talking about here? He starts by saying rejoice, but then he
goes into this warning about false teachers. He's saying keep your eyes open for
false teachers.

In this case, he's referring to people that they call Judaizers, and Judaizers
were people who were followers of Christ but who were trying to follow Jesus and
keep the law. Their whole approach to Christianity was Jesus plus something
else, Jesus plus accomplishments, Jesus plus this list of things to do or not
do, and Paul is saying that's a false teaching because any kind of Jesus plus
anything is nothing. Our salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone.

It's not then also keeping this long list of duties, and Paul's saying watch out
for these people. They're trying to get you to finish in the flesh what's been
started in the Spirit. And they're the kind of people who base their
relationships with God and their accomplishments.

Now there are a lot of people like that around in the church today. You've
probably seen them before. They've got a list a mile long of all the great
things they're doing in the church, but they've always got a scowl on their
face.

They have absolutely no joy in their life. They're miserable because they can't
even live up to their own expectations. Now how do you watch out?

How can you be aware for these false teachers? Well first of all, Paul is saying
look at who they are. They're people who are living for that which really
doesn't satisfy them, and you know, they're desperate for you to do the same
thing.

They're not happy, and they don't want you to be happy either. They can't live
up to that list that they think is so important, and they don't want you to do
it either. They're going to try to put the same rules on you that they're
putting on themselves.

And it's funny here because Paul calls them dogs. He says watch out for those
dogs, beware of dogs. Now traditionally dogs were what the Pharisees referred to
as Gentiles.

They called the Gentiles dogs, and the rabbis had this saying that the nations
of the worlds are like dogs. But here Paul, who himself had been a Pharisee, is
turning the tables, and he's saying no, these people, these Judaizers, they're
the dogs. How can you spot a dog?

You can spot a dog by the pile of bones that surrounds him. There's just death
all around him. He says look at the fruit of their lives, look at the things
they're doing.

That's going to tell you a lot about who these people are. Their main problem is
that they had a man-centered approach to salvation. They were, as Paul says, men
who do evil.

They didn't even follow their own rules, and he refers to them as mutilators of
the flesh. Now what he's talking about here in particular was circumcision.
These were Jewish believers who were trying to get the Gentiles to be physically
circumcised.

And in this case, there's a little play on words that Paul uses in this text.
The Greek word for circumcision is peretamnion. That's the word for circumcise.

But here he uses a word that sounds very much like it. It's katatamnion, and
katatamnion is the word for mutilate. He's saying this isn't just a spiritual
activity you're supposed to undertake.

He says these people want you to mutilate yourselves and call it righteousness.
So he says look at who they are. And then he says, and now look at who you are.

That you truly are the circumcision. Now you've got to remember that Paul is
writing here to Philippians. These were Gentiles.

And he's saying you are truly the followers of God. You are the true
circumcision. It's not a physical circumcision.

It's a spiritual one. In Colossians 2. 11, Paul says in him, that's Christ, you
were also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature.

Not with a circumcision done by the hands of men, but with a circumcision done
by Christ. He says that's who you are. You're the true circumcision.

He says you worship by the Spirit, and you glory in Christ, and you put no
confidence in the flesh. It's not just a little confidence. He says you put no
confidence in the flesh.

Now the flesh is used a couple of ways in the Bible. It can mean the physical
body, but it also can mean, as it does here, man's spirit without God. It's all
that I'm trying to do so I can muster God's favor.

He says we don't put any confidence in those things. Our confidence is in Christ
alone. Now the point here is that false teachers try to make you feel
spiritually inferior to them.

And the truth is that you're not. And when someone does that to you, they try to
make you feel like you're not as good a Christian, not a good follower of Christ
as they are. Your spiritual radar needs to go up.

The reason they're doing that is they want to drag you down to their level.
Because your growth that they can see in your life is actually a threat to those
who are not growing because it removes the excuses for not growing. You know, as
Buddy and I are talking to you about this today, we were talking earlier and I
think we both experienced this thing where people try to make you feel
spiritually inferior and it's very, very attractive to allow people to do that
to you.

And all of a sudden you think you've got to live up to what they're telling you
to live up to. But the good teacher of the Bible is someone who's going to help
you to see, I got to live up to what God's made me to be, not to what some false
image somebody else has given me. So yeah, you've got to watch out for false
teachers.

You also have to, as you continue through this passage, you also have to watch
out for yourself. Let me read for you beginning in verse 4, verses 4 to 6, Paul
says, "Although I myself have reasons for such confidence, confidence in the
flesh, confidence in myself, if anyone else thinks that he has reasons to put
confidence in the flesh, I have more. " Paul knew what he was talking about
here.

He had been through the shattering experience of seeing all the things that he'd
placed his confidence in be the wrong things. In fact, he gives here a list of
seven specific ways that he'd misplaced his confidence. These are ways that we
can misplace our confidence, the achievement confidence of our lives.

These are things that create a false sense of accomplishment that keeps you from
joy, especially false sense of spiritual accomplishment. These are seven ways
that we can convince ourselves that we can trust ourselves apart from God. Paul
just goes through this list real quickly.

He says, "I am circumcised on the eighth day. " That's ritualism. He says, "I
fulfilled all the symbolic ceremonial rituals of the Jewish faith.

" Literally, this is circumcised, eighth day, boom, check, I did it exactly
right, but the ritual didn't get him where he wanted to be. It wasn't enough.
Ceremonies are wonderful when they express commitments, but if you're trying to
get to commitment through a ceremony, through a ritual, not enough.

He talks about nationalism. He says, "I was of the nation of Israel. " When we
read the Old Testament, its ancient history for Paul, it was family history, but
he said, "Not enough.

The nation I was born in was not enough to get me to the accomplishment of joy
that I needed in my life. " He says, "I was of the tribe of Benjamin. " That's
elitism.

Benjamin was one of the twelve sons of Jacob who became the twelve tribes, and
this tribe of Benjamin that Paul was a part of, he alone, Benjamin, that son,
was born in the promised land. King Saul was the first king of Israel. He came
out of this tribe.

This was the tribe that marched first in military parades. Paul is like saying,
"Not only am I an American, but I came over on the Mayflower. " He was elite.

He was in the end crowd, but it wasn't enough. It didn't work. He says, "I was a
Hebrew of Hebrews.

" Here he's talking about religionism. Now, you might think, "Religionism,
that's not a word. " Well, I looked it up.

It is a word. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. He says, "I was religious through and
through.

My mother was a Hebrew. My father was a Hebrew. I had a purely religious
bloodline, but it wasn't enough.

" The truth is, some of the most bitter, hateful, ugly people in this world are
also the most religious and honestly, not just under titles like Buddhist or
Muslim or Hindu, but also true of people under titles like Methodist or Catholic
or even Baptist. There is nothing uglier than religion without Christ.
Religionism is man using God to reach man's desired ends.

He says, "I was a Pharisee," as he continues through this list. That's
exclusivism. He was set apart from everyone else.

He was part of the religious aristocracy. It was not enough. He talks about
activism, the sixth thing in this list of seven.

He persecuted the churches. You might remember that as a Pharisee, Paul
persecuted the early church. He was an enthusiastic man.

He was sincerely enthusiastic. He wasn't persecuting the churches like some
other Pharisees because he was concerned about his position. He really believed
they were wrong.

His life is a reminder that you can't put confidence in human sincerity and
enthusiasm. We can be, I can be, you can be sincerely enthusiastically wrong.
And then he says, "I was faultless.

" There were 613 laws, not the laws of the Old Testament, but other laws they'd
written around those laws in Paul's day that you had to keep if you were to be
perfect. Little things like not scratching a flea on the Sabbath because that
would be work, tiny things. And Paul, when he says faultless here, is saying, "I
was 613 for 613.

" Every rule that his society had devised, he kept. He put his confidence in the
keeping of rules. He completely sold out to that and he discovered it's not
enough.

Paul looked at these seven things and he says, "They've gotten me somewhere, but
it's not to where I wanted to be. There's no joy where I am. " Do you realize
how painful that was for Paul to admit?

The false teaching of others and our own pride can easily cause us to get the
cart before when it comes to accomplishment and joy in our lives. Accomplishment
cannot produce joy, it can't produce faith, it can't build a relationship with
God. Now, joy does result in great accomplishments.

The joy of the Lord is our strength, but the joy has to come first. The faith
has to come first. Buddy, it's good to have you with us today.

Would you lead us in a brief prayer together before we close? Yeah, I'd be happy
to. Let's take a minute and just search your heart.

Do you have joy in your life? Of all the accomplishments that you think you've
made for God, have they brought you joy? And as you think about that question,
let me pray for us.

Lord, today, as we do search our hearts, we want nothing to stand between us and
you, and we want to only look to you and the work of Jesus Christ in our lives
to truly give us joy. We're thankful for the gift of salvation and for your
grace. Help us always to be aware that it's your kindness, it's your grace that
has reconciled us to you.

Help us not to look to anything else, as good as other things may be. Help us
not to look to anything else for that source of joy than just to look to the
Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done for us. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Thanks, Buddy. Join us tomorrow.

We'll be looking at Philippians chapter 3 verses 7 to 9.