Knowing Christ Through Suffering

Yesterday I preached on Philippians 3:8-11…

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— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Did you know the most central point in salvation is not forgiveness of sins?  Did you know that the most central point is not going to heaven.  The most central point is knowing God, and the most central way we know God is through suffering with Christ.

Here are some high points from yesterday’s sermon.

1. The most central way we know Christ is through sharing in his suffering.
2. Jesus is not interested in a superficial knowledge of him, he wants you to have intimate knowledge of him.
3. Knowledge of Christ requires that we are first “found in him.”
4. If we are “found in Christ” then God “imputes” Christ’s righteousness to us.
5. Knowledge of Christ requires that we share in his suffering.
6. There are three ways we suffer with Christ
   1. Spiritual Suffering
   2. Normal Suffering
   3. Persecution
7. Knowledge of Christ requires that we share in his resurrection.

If you would like to listen just go to www.embc.church/sermons.  There you will find an archive of all of our sermons.

God bless,

Andrew