FOUND IN HIM-June 23, 2019

PACIFIC CROSSROADS CHURCH

Pastor Rankin Wilbourne—Philippians 3:7-8

I. Introduction
Madison Holleran was, by all appearances, the girl who had it all.

She ran track at the University of Pennsylvania. She was popular and beautiful. With a
wonderful supportive family. By all accounts Maddy was happy, vibrant, successful,
destined to do amazing things with her life. That was on the outside.

On the inside, she was slowly wilting under the weight of anxiety and depression. There
were some signs of fraying. Her parents were worried but not overly so. Then, in the
middle of her freshman year, Maddy went to the top story of a tall building in the middle
of downtown Philadelphia.

Her suicide raised a lot of questions about mental health on college campuses. It sparked
a bestselling book which I commend to parents, teachers, coaches and anyone who
cares about mental health. What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic
Death of an All-American Teen by Kate Fagan.

Fagan talks about why it was so hard for Madison to talk about her struggles. She was
on a track and field team at a Division One school. That’s very competitive. You can’t
show any weakness. That's a hard environment to say, hold on a minute, I'm struggling
and I’m not sure why.

Maddy talked about what the students called “The Penn Face.” It's a term that those who
attended or attend Penn used to describe the relentless pursuit of achievement, the
exacting pressure to perform, but when you look around at Penn, you see "Penn Face,"
which is happy, easy, everything is coming naturally — whereas below the surface,
everything is like this furious pedaling. It’s a pose.

And this posing is compounded by social media. Judging by her Instagram account,
Maddy’s life was beautiful, but her presentation of herself was carefully edited, which
only heightened her anxiety. Maddy knew that she was projecting an image of herself
that was not real. And yet, when she looked at her close friends and what they were
projecting on social media, she took it at face value. She compared.

A. Key questions and info

1. Do you know a Maddy? Are you a Maddy?

Do you know something about putting on face?
Is it hard for you to be vulnerable about how you’re really feeling…inside?

2. Did you know depression is the most diagnosed mental disorder in the world.

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3. In “The Weariness of the Self”, Dr. Alain Ehrenberg concludes that the phenomenon is
on the rise today because of increased feelings of inadequacy – inadequacy, I’m not
enough; I haven’t done enough – arising from a social context in which success is
attributed to and expected of, the autonomous individual.
A. If it’s all up to you…and you don’t live up to what you were expecting:
B. If it’s all up to you, and you fail: who is there left to blame? So…you run!
C. Maddie – she not only got into Penn, she was on the Track Team--had grit!
D. She got what she thought she wanted – GREAT!
E. Now all you have to do is keep on doing it…pedal, pedal, pedal………….
but that pressure is unrelenting because no matter what you do
– the question is: can you keep it up?

4. What about you?

Does your outside match how you’re feeling on the inside?
Is there an LA face ? This is the city of headshots. But I know this:
We are skilled at projecting on the outside something so different ……
from how we feel on the inside.

Do you know a Maddy?

Is there a Maddy in your life?
Are you Maddy?
Are you sitting next to a Maddy?

II.THE SECRET OF CONTENTMENT

A. Philippians 3:7-11, the Apostle Paul gets to the very heart of Christian identity.
I know for a fact-few of us actually believe what these verses are so clearly saying.”
1. These verses have such power to change the course of our lives.
2. To set us free. If only Maddy had internalized what these verses were saying.
3. If only we can…For they contain, a secret that so few ever learn.
joyful – in any circumstance? How does this happen?

B. We’re going to do something unusual just look at one verse, Philippians 3:8.

C. To understand verse 8, we have to go back to verse 7, which we touched upon

last week, for verse 8 is an amplification; intensifies the point made in vs. 7
:7-“but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ”.

D. These are words we can understand- Gains and Losses- taken from business.
These are bottom line words for bottom line people. You’re interested in gains,
rewards, in winning. Let me take you at your own currency, Paul is saying.

E. We miss the force of what Paul is saying. He’s saying what I formerly thought
were my wins: what I once believed winning meant, this has all been turned
upside down.

F. It’s not that these former wins don’t compare. It’s that he considers them losses
– What he once thought were his assets, he now accounts as liabilities.

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 G. Because? ..they were distracting him and moving him away
from his true joy and highest good: knowing Christ.

1. Every promotion, every win, becomes a potential burden – something that

might lead you away from rooting your heart in the only soil that will lead to
true peace and lasting joy.
2. Your win becomes – if only I can Know Christ and become like him:
become vulnerable, humble, dependent, compassionate – never in a hurry.
When that becomes your win: TO KNOW CHRIST!
3. If we accepted this calculus – it would change all the accounting in our lives.
What you’re so afraid of – so worried about for your future –
4. Just imagine-how freeing it would be for our accounting to change.
You’d no longer be afraid of being vulnerable. No more LA Face.
No more posing. The integration of your inside with your outside?
5. You’d no longer resist letting other people see your pain.
No more sarcasm.
You’d never again apologize for your tears. You’d smile.
Even boast in those things – for the converse is also true –
that what you once thought were your liabilities,
these have become your assets – because they are the very things
that have driven you to no longer depend on yourself but to rely on God!
6. Rather than shaming yourself for your setbacks, your liabilities
become occasions to rest in Christ and praise Him for his presence,
power and his complete sufficiency.

H. The pain of having arrived at the utter end of any confidence in yourself
– ushers you, into the heart of God’s love and care for you.
So instead of resisting them, you boast in your liabilities,
they are moving you closer in, toward knowing Christ. That’s your win!
That’s verse 7 – “whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ”

I. Paul says, and I was more ambitious than any of you, and, his resume says, more
successful, but I’ve learned whatever gain I had…to count those as losses.
Verse 8 says this way of accounting has indeed become a deep seated resolution.
You could translate verse 8: I continue to regard everything as a loss.

Do you hear the intensification? Instead of…whatever gain I had, verse 7, he

moves to … I count everything on which I used to build my confidence, place
my trust…as LOSS! As positively injurious…Anything upon which I was once
tempted to find my joy and root my identity: I now tally as LOSS!

Because? Because.”of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.” I dare say
churches are full of men and women who don’t know this:
that the very heart is to know Christ.

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J. It’s NOT about subscribing to certain abstract doctrines…
It’s NOT about acting a certain way or doing certain things…NOT doing others.
…First and foundationally, a true believer is someone who knows Christ!
To know that knowing him is more valuable and worth more than knowing
anything else!

To know Jesus…and to know him personally…that’s what Paul says:

“because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord!”
This is the only place in all his writings he uses that phrase…
Christ Jesus…My LORD…I am his servant…He is my LORD.
This is deeply and intensely personal! It’s not private.

Do you know Him who knows you?

Do you know the One who sees you…has such compassion for you?
Do you know the One who cares about the details of your inner life?
What you’re going through?
Do you know him who died for you?
So why wouldn’t he help you with what you’re going through?
Is he your LORD? Are you his servant? Do you know Christ?

K. We need to talk about this word – to KNOW

…in the Greek and Hebrew mind, in the Old Testament
…to know something or someone…It implies intimacy and communion.
The Bible says that Adam knew his wife Eve…
knowing someone involves deep relational intimacy
…Abide in my love…is Jesus’ way of putting it
But it’s even richer and deeper than that – in the Bible to know is to love.
Knowing and Loving – knowledge and love – these were inseparably bound.
We get that …a scientist absorbed in her work…lost in the flow..she loves it so…

L. Hosea 6:3 writes: Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;
Hosea knew that knowing is loving – that if you don’t love God
…you don’t know God…even if you know a lot about God.

M. The Bible says that one proof of whether we know God, whom we haven’t seen,
is if we love the people, next to us, whom we can…
To know God is to love God…because you know God’s character
– who God is and what God has done for you
…so I ask again…do you know Christ?
If we know him…then we will obey him…because?
Jesus, you know what’s best and better for me…so I’ll trust you,
Above my own understanding..You are good and you intend Good for me!

N. Do you regard everything as loss and continue to regard everything as a

loss…compared to… the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

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 III. MORE???

A. Not just that Jesus is better than anything else singularly

But Jesus is better than everything else…collectively…
B. Are you there?
1. Have you come to the place?
Willing to renounce – everything that you once took pride in?
2. Those old credentials…that you used to tell yourself…I’m somebody!
3. Have you come to rip those up … along with everything else
that used to console you when it was going well…
or depress you when it wasn’t!
4. Are you done with that way of looking at your life?
5. All those things that used to be so important,
6. Compared to the higher privilege of knowing Christ Jesus/master/firsthand!

If that sounds far away to you: It doesn’t matter how far along you are:
What matters is the direction your life is facing …..
But you have tasted it and you say…I want to experience the love of God for me
More and more … that’s a reorientation!

IV. APPLICATION
A. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?
1. To walk through this world…
With complete confidence that you are accepted and worthy in Christ?
2. Content in any circumstance? How will we get there? This is the path…
3. This is the way forward…this is the way toward a life of contentment in any
circumstance V 7 Whatever gain I had I count as loss…
(verse 8),”I continue to regard everything as a loss…because of the
surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus…my Lord!

B. And just look with me at the end of verse 8, “For his sake I have suffered
the loss of all things.” He suffered much for Christ and we’ll talk more about
that next week: why suffering is integral to knowing Christ…

C. But look at the end of v8 “I have suffered the loss of all things and count them
as rubbish.” …. that is the word for DUNG, EXCREMENT-uses it for a reason.
1. He’s saying…the things I used to take pride in…are not just liabilities…
2. But they disgust me now…
3. He has utter revulsion for…those other good things…
4. Not only liaiblities…but they have become abhorrent to him

His choice of the vulgar, one commentator puts it, stresses the force and totality of his
renunciation! And why so forceful! Why so graphic?
Please underline the phrase…”in order that I may gain Christ.”

I continue to regard everything as loss….I count them as dog dung:”in order that”

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 D. Whenever you see the phrase: “in order that”…take note!
That’s a particular Greek word…hina…
This happened…or that was done…in order that…
“I count them as excrement in order that I may gain Christ”…what’s the connection?

1. Everything outside of Christ in which I was once prone to build my sense of

self-worth….To tell me that I was adequate: all those good things…
And they are good…that’s why we are so tempted to rely upon them!
2. Keep on reminding myself – that they count as little as a pile of poop that a dog
leaves on the side of the road. I wouldn’t be tempted to boast in that !
A. Look at all this poop I’ve collected…but that’s what we do!
“all those things I used to pursue and rely on to lift myself up as defining
who I am”……………
..I don’t want to get near that.
….I don’t want to step in it I don’t even want to sniff it…
in order that I may gain Christ
3.What’s the point he’s making?
A. All the places my old self used to look to build my self-confidence
The things I did, or had, or what others thought of me…
Just a bunch of poop to me now…in order that … I may gain Christ!
B. He’s not just worth more than anything else in your life
He’s worth more than everything else in your life, altogether…
it doesn’t add up to worth of knowing Him
C. That anything that distracts me…or tempts me away from resting in Him
I have to keep reminding myself that when my heart lurches toward them:
that’s GROSS…..That’s me pursuing the wrong reality!
D. I remind myself, that these other things are as poop…
In order that I may KNOW, that I may single-mindedly know, Christ
And be devoted to him…
E.Here’s a story:
The missionary Chrissie Chapman has spent many years serving in the African country
of Burundi. She tells the story of an eighty-four-year-old man she saw sitting in the dirt
as she was distributing porridge to displaced people in a camp. He had walked down
from the mountains, twenty kilometers over five days, and he told how his entire family
had been killed in the civil war—his wife, their five children, as well as their families.
His house had also been destroyed, and he escaped with nothing more than the clothes
he was wearing. As she gave him food, he told her, “Madam missionary, I never
realized that Jesus was all I needed, until Jesus was all I had.”
1. that’s hard to imagine! That the loss of these good things…could become a gain in
our lives. Most of us feel we couldn’t even survive the loss of these things
Which is why we spend so much energy, and anxiety, protecting them
2. But just imagine with me the freedom you’d feel…as your heart comes to know
that Jesus is enough! The joy you can then experience in the good gifts he’s
given you…When you are no longer clutching them so tightly!
3. That’s why you can be content in any circumstance
Because the worst … can’t take from you what is most needful
If you know Christ, you have him…and all that he brings! Here and now!

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 V. CONCLUSION
We’ve only looked at one verse today, but the wonderful surprise of this verse is
that you already have…everything in this world…you could ever need…if you know Christ!
He’s the only one who can give you…what you are asking of those other things…
But when you see … they never could…then you too will say:
Whatever gain I had, I now count as loss and I continue to regard them as loss

What made Maddy run? What makes you run? How I wish Maddy had known this..
For all the Maddies out there…running so hard…posing and pretending,
For those of you whose outside doesn’t match how you are feeling on the inside

What’s the way out? What’s the way forward? There is a way out…another way…
It’s this way… the Jesus way…the way of renouncing your old way of trying to prove your
adequacy by what you do or what others think of you, which is only a recipe for chronic
anxiety.

Instead…whatever gain I had…I now count as a loss Indeed, I continue to count

everything else as a loss…in fact, I count all those old idols…like poop…revulsion
In order that, I may gain Christ, to know Him, so I can receive and rest upon Christ
alone as he is offered in the gospel

With him, you can bear the loss of all things

With him, you have every spiritual blessing!
Which, as that old man found out, is everything we need
Even in the face of heartbreak…He is with you…and He is enough
So you are full … but we don’t feel full…we too must change our accounting.
In order that…we may gain Christ!

AMEN and AMEN