Spending Time with the Lord — Philippians 2-3

0:00 This morning, we have opportunity to look at the the lord's scripture here. God's word together and let's just bow in another word of prayer before we do that and dedicate our time to him. Our heavenly father, we do give thanks. We are thankful for this opportunity to to be in the word together. Father, we know that your scripture is is helpful, is relevant, is profitable.

0:28 We do well to spend spend much time in it. Father, we're thankful for every person, every soul that's represented here this morning and we we give thanks for the unity that we can have in the lord Jesus Christ. We are thankful for the blessing that it can be to be with one another. We are thankful for the this time of year, the season, even as we approach some of the holiday events coming up and so we we just pray now as we turn our our thoughts and and our attention toward your word that we would be open. We pray for the holy spirit to work among us, to give us understanding, to open our eyes, and father, we pray that thou would allow us to see things that we we would change or grow areas we need to grow in each of our lives And so we pray these things in Jesus Christ name.

1:26 Amen. Amen. Well, this morning, we would... I'll just present what we'd like to do is is consider the importance of spending time with the lord. The importance of spending time with the lord and we're going to take the scripture and and look at for for some reasons why that would be important, why it's important to spend time with the lord and the the benefit that it would be.

1:55 In fact, go ahead and turn to Philippians, Philippians chapter three if you would. If I were to maybe, we already had one handout this morning. So we, if we, if I were to hand out some slips of paper and a pen and would ask ask you to consider the question, what is one of my most important needs? What is the most important need in my life? And we would, I don't know, we'd probably...

2:32 A a group this size would come up with a several different type of answers, right? And we're considering this morning the importance of our time with god or our time with the lord and where would that fall? You know, where would that fall is is what would that be on the top of our list? It's one of my greatest needs that my time with the lord. Paul, you know, we we understand wrote the book of Philippians and in in Philippians chapter three, look there at at verse at verse eight.

3:09 Philippians three eight. Yey, doubtless and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my lord. Notice if you will that little phrase, the knowledge of Christ Jesus and this morning, some of the passages that we're going to look at, I want to highlight that word knowledge or some verses that will be no. In fact, in the verse we're getting ready to read here, we see the word no but what's Paul saying here? He said, I'm I'm count all things but loss for the excellence, the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus, my lord.

3:54 For whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but dung that I may win Christ. He's making a comparison here against all other things. Any other things that may have been on your own list if we, well, what's what what is important to me or what is one of the most important things in my life? We made a list of of those important items. He, Paul is saying, I count all things lost.

4:20 I count all things and and then comparing it to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus And so, the knowledge of Christ Jesus, that's a pretty important thing. And so, we're making a we're making a kind of a... I don't know if you want to call it a theory for some... Any of the college students out there, help me out with this, you know. What do you...

4:44 We're going to say, the knowledge, in order to gain knowledge, the... There's going to have to be time spent, right? In order to gain knowledge, we're going to have to be time spent with Christ. Okay? So we've got that...

5:00 It could be a theorem, it could be a formula, it could be, you know, whatever you want to... A thesis statement. There you go. Good. Yeah.

5:09 So you you see what we're you see what we're saying. So, let's read this passage. Again, Philippians three eight, yea, doubtless, I count all things but lost for the excellency of of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is the law which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death. That verse 10, that I may know him. Right?

6:24 I appreciate that. Any other volunteers I'm not. That we may have? Tammy is is just declined, Okay? So that's alright, you know.

6:42 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, Right. Now, actually, I'm gonna I'm gonna Harold, if you're... I know you didn't raise your hand, but I can just see that you wanted to, you know. And Harold will be our first example of... We have...

6:59 I've met Harold. I know a little bit about him. I know he went on on a mission trip to Haiti, right? With my son and so I got to know him a little bit that way. I got a little bit of connection but I would say that, I mean, I mean, we could we could fix this but Harold and I really don't know each other well, right?

7:18 Right. I mean, I know, you know, he might recognize me, I might recognize him, but we don't know each other well. Alright? So that's a level of knowing. Right?

7:27 Then we've got some, we probably should have a little bit of a intermediate knowledge. I I mean, yeah, you know like. This is an example of no knowledge, I don't really know you. My name's Andy Hilton. Kip from us.

7:43 Kip from us. Kip, yeah, nice to meet you. Yeah. So there's an example of no knowledge, Harold is an example of some knowledge, you know, of knowing each other, and then like an intermediate type of, there's several people that, you know, we could use for for that that we would know as... DJ or know...

8:07 What's that? Daniel. No, got the original. Oh, I got DJ. Yeah.

8:11 Okay. Yeah. Alright. So I'm going through my d's. Devin, I'm back there.

8:15 So, see, maybe a little bit of intermediate knowledge, may know DJ a little bit better. We went hunting camp together. I mean, you know. So, but then, Scott volunteered and I would have to say, you know, I know Scott pretty well. Right?

8:34 I mean, you know. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. I know what Scott likes, what dislikes.

8:41 I know what makes him happy. I know his wife, You know, I know his family. I can, you know, I know he's a grands, a grandfather. So, you see that different. Now, I will have to say that I've spent no time with Kip, And we just met.

9:02 I've spent a little bit of time with Harold, spent a little bit of time with DJ, but in comparison to all, I've spent the most time with Scott. Right? So, there's an example and we're looking at like how important is our time with the lord that I may know him, right? That I may know him and so, we would ask ourselves the question, how much time am I spending with the lord? And we could talk about, we can think about like, okay, how do I spend time with the lord?

9:34 When do I spend time with the lord? Why do I spend with the lord but you know, what does that look like? Is it prayer? Is it bible reading? Is it coming to a church meeting?

9:44 All those things, you know, but but the importance of spending time and Paul puts an importance on it by saying, all other things I count as lost but the knowledge of Christ and he says that I may know him and the verse goes on and says, that I may know him in the power of his resurrection, right? And so, can we think of any greater power that the power of god's resurrection that that that Christ was died on the cross, was buried in a tomb, and was raised from the dead, defeating, defeating Satan, defeating sin, making atonement for us, the power of his resurrection that I may know the fellowship of his suffering and we think about the fellowship of his suffering is what he endured for us. In fact, in Philippians right there, we we read earlier in chapter two that he made himself of no reputation, right? The sufferings of of Christ to leave, he left the father's side, he would come and live here on Earth, made himself of no reputation, took on the form of a servant, became obedient to the death, even the death of the cross, the fellowship of his suffering, what he endured on my behalf.

10:55 Why? He loves me. Why does why does he want to spend time with me? He loves me. Why does he want me to get to know him?

11:03 He loves me. We talked this morning to breaking the bread. Draw nigh to god. He will draw nigh to you. It was pointed out that Christ first drew nigh to us, right?

11:15 Low in the volume of the book, it is written to me, I come to do my father's will and so, that I may know him. What's the very last part of that verse? The little last phrase there. That I may win Christ. Christ.

11:31 That I'm that I'm at well right before that. I do count the laws. Of verse 10. Oh, verse 10. Yeah.

11:44 The fellowship of the suffering and what what does it say after that? Being made conformable unto his death. Being made conformable under the... I think the King James says, unto the image of his death. Right?

11:53 Being made conformable. So you can break it down and say, and apply knowledge or knowing in those three different phrases that I would know him and the power of his resurrection, that I would know him in the fellowship of his suffering, that I would know him and being made conformable into the image of Christ. We're all being conformed, translated into the image of Christ. So, you know, we sometimes we sing that it's in our red book. I thought about calling you Abe and asking if we could sing this song.

12:43 Should we spend time with him? That's not even a question. I mean, we we spend time, we, do you, do you ever thought about the fact that Scott, here it comes. If if I if I try to know more about Jesus, I I, in fact, we sat in the breaking of bread. I appreciate it.

13:12 Christian, Christian said this morning, lord, thank you for giving me a new thought that I've not considered before. That the lamb went willingly and today, well, you know, pick whatever time period you want, the lamb is usually led to the slaughter. It's not the lamb's choice but Christ willingly went like an innocent little lamb willingly went. That's something new he picked up about Christ And every new tidbit that we that we pick up about Christ, every new fact, every new facet, every new attribute, and the more we we say, well I know about the love of Christ, but then we think, man, he loved me while he was on the cross enduring the shame. He loved me when his beard was being plucked.

14:03 My sin was laid upon him. Anything we we start to think about Christ, the more we learn about Christ, the more we say, he is altogether lovely. Right? I mean, the... There's nothing that we're gonna learn about Christ that's ever gonna be disappointing to us.

14:22 Nothing that we're ever going to learn and say, oh, I wish I didn't know that about him. It's going to be more beautiful. He's going to reveal himself. The the glory, the glory of Christ. Unsearchable, unsearchable.

14:43 I wasn't going to say anything about this but you know, we cut our meat and short this morning for some kind of vote. Alright? But Psalm one forty five was on my mind when we... When after breaking of bread. Oh God, how searchable, how unsearchable.

15:02 Right? And and we... The excellencies of Christ. Now, the more we learn about Christ, the more lovely he is. Let's go back to our example of knowledge, of knowing people.

15:17 Scott, stand up. The more I learn about Scott, I'm gonna like some things, I'm gonna not like some things. Okay? And we've had our moments, right? We have.

15:32 Yeah, yeah. So, but we're we're good right now. We're good. We're good right now. Yeah.

15:36 But thank you. I mean, he does have some quirks, you know. And there are some shortcomings. So, but ain't it true? Man's gonna let you down.

15:54 And I've I've even experienced this. Maybe you have in your own life. I've I've like thought about you know, man, this guy is great. I'd like to spend more time with him, you know, and you know, I developed this relationship and like, oh, I can I can learn a lot from this guy and then like, you know, you're tracking along and you're you're saying like, what? He does that.

16:15 Like, like, he handled what? You know, like and it's, I mean, man's going to let you down and so, the only person that won't let you down is your spouse. Okay. Jim would give testimony to that if he were here with us this morning. You know, right?

16:36 So, all, you know, all all kidding aside. You see the point. Christ, the more we learn, the more we love. The more there is to love. Man compared to man, the more we learn, we find the bumps, the warts, the wrinkles, the whatever, you know.

17:41 John twelve three then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly and and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. We've got this example of of of Mary that that chooses to spend some time with Christ. You know, this is the sister to Lazarus. We know that they had spent time before. Have you ever thought about like, I wonder how Mary knew that Jesus would like would like this, right?

18:29 Had they talked about this before? Had they talked about this spikenert that maybe Jesus had mentioned that he loved the smell. You know, he loved he loved that. Maybe before at another visit, another time, Jesus has said, boy, my my feet are dirty. You know, after traveling and it sure feels nice to have somebody wash your feet and and and even have em anointed with oil.

19:00 How how somehow Mary knew that this would please the lord and I I think maybe the point we could glean from this is time spent with the lord, we know him better, and time spent with the lord, we'll know what he likes and what he dislikes. What pleases him, what displeases him. We can... We we make a very just simple instruction or simple observation to know that what that obedience would please and and sin would displease, right? But time spent with the lord, getting to know what he he likes, what he appreciates.

19:48 Go to go to Mark chapter one please. Mark chapter one. We do... We talk about the godhead, right? Father, god the father, god the son, god the holy spirit and we've already made reference to Philippians chapter two where Christ would leave the father's side.

20:16 God the father would be there. God the son would leave the father's side to dwell, be clothed in humanity, take on human flesh, and dwell among us, dwell among mankind. The gospels record for us some of the actions, some of the things that Christ did while here. Mark chapter one, we have have such a such a a record. Look at Mark chapter one verse 35.

20:44 Boy, Mark chapter one is a big chapter, 45 verses. Speaking of the lord Jesus, in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed. This is Christ. Okay? This is the lord Jesus, God in the flesh.

21:15 What's he doing? Oh, he... Here he is, he's he's he's rising up early, he's going to spend time with his heavenly father. Time spent, right? He's getting, would you say he's getting to know him?

21:30 He knew him. He's spending time with him. He's learning him more. I mean, you think about your own, I mean, this is a this is a shallow, not a shallow but but not an adequate comparison but think about your father son relationship, right? Think about your own father son relationship or mother daughter relationship.

21:48 Do you do you feel like like Andy, do you think you're still getting to know your dad, Don? Yeah. Yeah. Did you ever know he did a come over? Yeah, I did.

22:00 Okay, yeah. Yeah, so, alright. You, we, we could say the, but what would be the the time element is still there, right? Like, Lindy, you're getting to know your mom better. I mean, y'all...

22:17 Some of y'all are... You pass it into different phases where now you've got... You're going from childhood to middle middle earth, middle adulthood. You're going into adulthood and and the the parenting phases change and you learn, you learn different dimensions about your parents at different phases of life, right? I mean, now your your parents are becoming, I mean, look, we got we got a a grandbaby over here, right?

22:53 And now you're you're learning your parents in a different way in that grandbaby phase, you know, and like, hey mom, what, you know, he hadn't he hadn't eaten in the last three hours, you know, what I... And and so relationships developing. You're still learning and I don't... Again, here's Christ communing, talking, spending time with his father. What are some things that we might learn from even this this this one example that Christ has given us here?

23:28 He's he's spending time and first thing is that he he's an example to us, isn't he? Christ. The Lord Jesus himself is setting precedent. You know, we all feel good about making decisions when there's a precedent set. Right?

23:46 Or we all feel good about following a good example, like, hey, Andy is in sales and and marketing for real estate, you know, and so you've got some, you've got a lot of people that try to sell steps to success, right, in the real estate market. You know, follow these 10 steps and you'll have success. We like that kind of thing. We we love a proven thing, you know, like say, hey, this guy did these six steps and he got these results. We like that.

24:18 And so here Christ has given us an example of a successful program of how to spend time with his heavenly father, right? So, he's an example. Do you realize that you in your own Christian walk and particular, probably more so as parents, you're an example to others. You're an example to your your children. I know that made a big impact on me to know how my dad spent time with the lord.

24:53 That that spoke his example spoke more to me than his his words or his instruction, like you gotta do this, set your alarm clock for thirty minutes, you gotta do this time, you know, but to see him do it was the bet... And you have that opportunity to be an example. Christ gave us an example. We have an opportunity to be example to others. What's something else that we see here that he did it first, right?

25:24 He did it first. Do we have anybody that's kind of like a time management buff in here? Anybody like time management? Okay. Okay, Scott would would, would be with, there with me on this, okay.

25:42 So, you know, like time management seminars, how to prioritize, how to order, the difference between ordering and prioritizing and all those kind of things, you know, it's like how to make the most out of your day. But you can go to probably, in fact, probably this week in Cleveland, there's a time management seminar going on and you could go to it, try to get more out of your day. All of them, all these seminars, they would probably all agree, is the thing that you do first is the thing that you get done. Right? So, if you're...

26:17 Whatever you want to get done that day, do it first. And Christ has given us that example, right? What was the first thing he did? I mean, he rose up early and he's spending time with his heavenly father. He put it first, right?

26:33 I know I'm not trying to make some kind of argument like you gotta do it first but hey, if you do it first, it gets done. Alright? So, spend time with the lord. Do it early. Do it first.

27:22 He does it first and it gets done. He goes to a solitary place. Well, something else that we can see here. It cost him, right? What did it cost him?

27:37 You can answer. It's okay to answer. If Dave Bingle was here, he'd answer. Alright. Sleep up early.

27:44 Okay, it cost him some sleep. Alright, what else did it cost him? Okay. Yeah. Time from doing something else.

27:53 You want to say that? Yeah. Yeah. You know, in time, one of our most precious commodities, really? I mean, like, and and so, it it will cost you.

28:03 Spending time with the lord, getting to know the lord better will cost you, right? It'll cost you. We just read about Mary. What did it cost her? Cost her a year's wages, Wow.

28:21 Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought like I don't, we could take any social class, okay, and then I'm not trying to, you know, make a social class, like I don't know if you're flipping burgers at McDonald's making minimum wage or if you're putting together corporate mergers and making 6 figures, would you ever think about in whatever scenario anywhere in between, would you ever think about taking a year's wage and giving it to god? I can't say that. I thought about that. I mean, like, she took, it cost her.

28:58 Wow. She took her a year equivalent to a year's wage and and gave it to to god, gave it to Christ. So, we're observing these these things. Christ, it was Christ set an example for us that that he did it first, that he did it in solitude, that it that it cost him something, and you know what the next thing that perhaps we can observe? It's something everyone of us can do.

29:34 Look at look at this verse and in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed. We can all do it. We can all do that. It's something that we can all do and you know what? It's something that we would all benefit from because as we do this, as we carve out this time, as we we we follow Christ's example, as we we we give it high precedent in our life to spend time with him, as we do get alone with god and spend that time, as we are not concerned about what it cost us or what we're giving up or what we're missing, as we do this, we get to know him better.

30:18 And that's really the heart of what I'm trying to say this morning. The importance of getting to know him better. The importance of spending time with him. I think in in our society, we have a lot of things backwards, don't we? I mean, you know, just think about like even in our in our work class, our society, you know, you work hard when you're young, you know, pour all this in so you can retire and then when you retire, you're too tired to do anything, you know, like, like, what, well, that was a kind of backwards like, we we have a lot of things kind of maybe off base in some of our American eyes thinking But if we could just know and understand the benefit even at a younger age, I just as some of the, you know, we had opportunity to work with a lot of different young people and I know there's some camp people here, which is great, you know, and you fill out your camp scholarship, or not scholarship, but like a staff application for Camp La la la, right?

31:32 And some of that, I've read many camp applications or or camp staff applications and you know what a common a common thing that I read, okay? Maybe this is true of you. Got saved at early age. Went away from the lord in my teen years. Lord brought about an experience in my early twenties that I I got serious back with god.

32:01 You know, it's like a comment like I'm I'm reading these things and I'm thinking, this... What's happening here? Why is this happening? You know, why why are we seeing this trend if you will? And and that I could say it's true in my own life.

32:17 I, if I look back in my own life, this little, I'm opening up here, Scott. Okay? I'm opening up. Yeah. I got saved at an early age and but I would say my my time spent with the lord in my teen years was meager, right?

32:39 I mean, maybe a devotion here, there, maybe try but the arm cut goes off, you gotta get to school a certain time, whatever. See, they didn't really do homeschooling back then, you know. Just kidding. But you you have that, you know the, you know the pace we're talking about and even when you when you when you're at job, you're working, we all understand that but like, what I'm, let me go back to my example is that that that that drift period, we're we're weak, we're feeble spiritually, right? And and so, how could we do anything but to expect to drift?

33:23 And and that's where if we could reorient ourselves to say, you know what? Knowledge of god, the things that please the lord, the things that that are in obedience to god, if I knew those, if I was on track with those, if I was spending time there, then, I would stay closer to god. I would stay closer. I would walk in step with the with the lord. There's a lot of benefit.

34:22 Here, Peter writes this for us. In second Peter chapter one, did I say chapter one? Yep. Second Peter chapter one and verse three. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness and then notice this next phrase, through the knowledge of him.

34:49 That's the knowledge of Christ, okay? To to the knowledge of Christ, that has called us unto glory and virtue. What what has he given us? Through the knowledge of Christ, look at the first part of the verse. What has he given us?

35:02 He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Paul wrote earlier we we observed in Philippians and said, I count all things as lost and even goes on to say, I count all things as dung but but I I I pursue this knowledge of Christ of of the Christ Jesus and and here Peter is saying, I pursue the knowledge of Christ Jesus and I'm given all things that pertain to life and godliness. It's that right order. It's it's what does it mean to give Christ preeminence? What does it mean to give god the first place in your life?

35:44 Go to Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three. We pick up a verse here. Colossians chapter three and verse 10, and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge. There's our word again that we're highlighting this morning, knowledge.

36:14 Having put on the new man, may... I mean, met a new creature, a new Christ, which is renewed in in knowledge after the image of him that created him. And then, let's go to James. James chapter one. A practical a practical book, James is and perhaps it will give us some of our application here this morning.

36:45 James chapter one and and we're going to look at verse 22. But be doers of the word. Doers, taking action. Put it into action. Christ, the lord Jesus Christ was a doer, right?

37:07 He gave us an example. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass or a mirror. For he beholdeth himself and goeth away and straightway forget it what manner of man he he was. Now, look at verse 25, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, a reference to the scripture, looks into the looks into the Bible, looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, he not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.

37:53 This man shall be blessed in his deed. This man shall be blessed in his deed. All things that pertain to life and godliness. All all other things. I blessed in my deed, blessed in my action.

38:11 One that how do I know what the word says? Where am I? Am I getting to know Christ? Am I spending time praying? Am I spending time in the word?

38:21 Am I doing? Am I following? Am I am I hearing? I want to be a hearer and a doer, an action. I want to take action on these things.

38:34 Timothy tells us that all scripture is given for profit, right? All scripture is is good, is profitable. All scripture is inspired and it's good for reproof and for doctrine and correction and to equip to to see the the man of god perfectly furnished or or perfectly mature in Christ. So, we have this opportunity for just to be reminded to maybe maybe it's refocus, maybe it's recalibrate. You know, we were driving yesterday and have any of you all seen these signs in on on the Ohio Highway?

39:37 Focus back on Christ. Spend time in his word. Get to know him better. Follow Christ's example and put into action the things that we learn of Christ. Remember, we're being conformed into his image.

39:54 The more we learn about him and know the image that we're being conformed in, we act like that. We we put into practice that that that attribute, that out outworking of Christ. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we we are thankful. Father, we're we're thankful that that one observation we made is that this is something that we can all do.

40:19 We can all spend time with the lord. Young, old, infirmed, discouraged busy, or bored. We can all spend time with the lord. And so we we ask that you would reorient our thinking, that you would give us an ability to self examine. Father, how do I, how well do I know your son, the lord Jesus Christ?

40:58 How can I get to know him better? How well do I know the word, your revelation for us? How can I spend more time in it? Give us wisdom in making some adjustments to our daily schedule. Father, help us to all be investors, investors in in time with you, in time with the heavenly father, in time, in time at your son's feet.

41:26 Help us to forget the human cost that there are but to to be fully committed to learning, to exploring, to walking with Christ. We pray these things now in Jesus Christ name, amen.