Prayer: Gracious and almighty father, thank you for Christ, the one worthy of our confidence, and for Paul’s witness to him. Repent each of us from confidence in the garbage heap of our will…it gets really stinky after all. Please grant unto us faith in Christ – in his death and resurrection – so that we may leave behind our garbage and press on to take hold of that for which he has taken hold of us; in Jesus’ name I ask this. Amen.
Each night when I go to my knees and pray with my family for our two sons off at college, I ask the Lord to give them and their friends humility and confidence for their calling. What is confidence? Perhaps not what you think. Literally, the word means “with faith.” So…where do you put your faith?...Who is the trustworthy one…?
Saul, later and better known as Paul, tells us he has more reason than anyone to put confidence in himself, in his will. “If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more.” Then he proceeds to lay out a most impressive resume:
- Clean cut boy, circumcised on the 8th day, the RIGHT day, the politically correct day according to Jewish law.
- And not just an Israelite, one of the chosen, but from the best family among the tribes of Israel: the Benjamins. Joseph’s little brother, his father’s right-hand man.
- Best confirmation student…Top of his class in Hebrew school and in law school…on the dean’s list every semester.
- Zealous, type “A” leader...kept all 10 commandments and then some.
- As far as rightness, goodness gained according to the law, he was in a word: faultless.
Yep, all the reason in the world to put confidence in himself. But Saul, later and better known as Paul, has been down that road…he’s climbed that ladder…Yertle the Turtle he has made it to the top…and been knocked off by none other than Jesus himself. So he confesses: “whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider all my accomplishments, my righteousness as garbage.”
Here’s what garbage looks like: The gracious maintenance/housekeeping crew agreed to help me preach to you this morning: have a familiar Grand View worker bring out a familiar garbage sack…in volume. What’s in here???)
Paul, the faultless one, the one who has more reason than anyone to put confidence, to put faith in himself, confesses that any and all righteousness of his own, that his own self-improvement projects and spiritual practices, are all garbage. Perhaps you are familiar with one of Al Franken’s old character on Saturday Night Live, “Stuart Smalley” and his “Daily Affirmations”…Stuart would look at the man in the mirror and say: “because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”
Paul is not saying that! In fact, this is the best, smartest teacher and keeper of law, confessing: “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord... I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”
So what does Jesus do about this?...to free Paul and you and me from the pride that gets us to carry around so much garbage…so much of ourselves and our goodness? Well, he goes and gets himself crucified. Where? Golgotha… Golgotha was the garbage heap outside of the city…today we call them landfills…but then there was no covering up the garbage. There, heaped up high is all of Paul’s righteousness, all of mine, all of yours. All of your attempts to say and to prove “I’m a good person, dog gone it, and isn’t that what matters”…all your efforts to defend your own righteousness… to be a “Home Depot Christian” who says “I can do it, God can help.”…the whole smelly mess is there.
And Jesus, the Garbage Collector, comes along and takes it all…not into his truck, but into himself. When the garbage gets picked up at our house, it never gets touched. The truck comes along with a mechanical arm, in a flash picks up the whole bin, dumps it into the hopper, replaces the empty bin…and drives away. Not so sanitary and safe for Christ. In fact, to dispose of your righteousness, your pride, Jesus has to put his hands all over it, all over you. He rolls up his sleeves and takes you, all your garbage into himself, becomes it, and dies from it…goes to death with it in his body. And then after three days, he rises from death, walks out of the landfill of human righteousness…and gives you HIS righteousness…a free gift.
His righteousness is not a “Christian to do list”…that would only throw you back on the garbage heap of your works. His righteousness is a right relationship with the Lord in he takes hold of you in the sweetest way, the way only the true lover can…and sets you free from proud self…free to cling to him and follow him…and to tell others about him with your lips and your life.
Here’s what garbage looks like: The gracious maintenance/housekeeping crew agreed to help me preach to you this morning: have a familiar Grand View worker bring out a familiar garbage sack…in volume. What’s in here???)
Paul, the faultless one, the one who has more reason than anyone to put confidence, to put faith in himself, confesses that any and all righteousness of his own, that his own self-improvement projects and spiritual practices, are all garbage. Perhaps you are familiar with one of Al Franken’s old character on Saturday Night Live, “Stuart Smalley” and his “Daily Affirmations”…Stuart would look at the man in the mirror and say: “because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”
Paul is not saying that! In fact, this is the best, smartest teacher and keeper of law, confessing: “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord... I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”
So what does Jesus do about this?...to free Paul and you and me from the pride that gets us to carry around so much garbage…so much of ourselves and our goodness? Well, he goes and gets himself crucified. Where? Golgotha… Golgotha was the garbage heap outside of the city…today we call them landfills…but then there was no covering up the garbage. There, heaped up high is all of Paul’s righteousness, all of mine, all of yours. All of your attempts to say and to prove “I’m a good person, dog gone it, and isn’t that what matters”…all your efforts to defend your own righteousness… to be a “Home Depot Christian” who says “I can do it, God can help.”…the whole smelly mess is there.
And Jesus, the Garbage Collector, comes along and takes it all…not into his truck, but into himself. When the garbage gets picked up at our house, it never gets touched. The truck comes along with a mechanical arm, in a flash picks up the whole bin, dumps it into the hopper, replaces the empty bin…and drives away. Not so sanitary and safe for Christ. In fact, to dispose of your righteousness, your pride, Jesus has to put his hands all over it, all over you. He rolls up his sleeves and takes you, all your garbage into himself, becomes it, and dies from it…goes to death with it in his body. And then after three days, he rises from death, walks out of the landfill of human righteousness…and gives you HIS righteousness…a free gift.
His righteousness is not a “Christian to do list”…that would only throw you back on the garbage heap of your works. His righteousness is a right relationship with the Lord in he takes hold of you in the sweetest way, the way only the true lover can…and sets you free from proud self…free to cling to him and follow him…and to tell others about him with your lips and your life.
Let me be clear, this is not a condemnation of doing good works. A lifetime of good works is exactly what Christ has taken hold of you for. Paul speaks here to free you from carry around your good works and putting confidence in them and therefore in yourself. Carrying around a bag full of yourself slows you down from following Jesus…and it’s pretty hard to have my hands free to help my neighbor when I’m holding on to the garbage of my righteousness.
Our confidence is not in our flesh, not in that garbage. Our confidence is “in Christ Jesus, who though he was in his very nature God, he did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And…he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! …so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Confidence…I pray for it for my children…and for you…not faith in myself nor yourself. Our faith, our confidence is in Jesus Christ alone…’cause when it is, then we can forget what lies behind and press on “in our calling…to know Christ and be like him in his suffering.” Amen.
Our confidence is not in our flesh, not in that garbage. Our confidence is “in Christ Jesus, who though he was in his very nature God, he did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And…he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! …so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Confidence…I pray for it for my children…and for you…not faith in myself nor yourself. Our faith, our confidence is in Jesus Christ alone…’cause when it is, then we can forget what lies behind and press on “in our calling…to know Christ and be like him in his suffering.” Amen.
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