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in the Lord to write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe beware of dogs beware of evil workers beware of the concision for you're the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh though I might also have confidence in the flesh if any other man thinketh that he hath that whereof you might trust in the flesh I more circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the church touching the righteousness which is in law blameless but what things were gained to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency 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 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 sufferings being made comfortable unto his death if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which I am also apprehend I am apprehended of Christ Jesus brethren I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if and anything you be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rules let us mind the same thing brethren be followers together of me and mark them which also which walk so as he of us for an example for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ those whose end is destruction whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame who mind earthly things for our conversation is in heaven for once also we look for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the work whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself let's pray to the Lord God thank you for every soul here at this church right now Lord we just pray that you bless pastor and fill him with the Holy Spirit he's and give him boldness as he preaches your word unto us Lord and please ready our hearts to hear the preaching every word Lord and so bless this time we pray this all in Jesus name amen amen okay the time of my sermon this evening is counted all but dung count it all but dung Philippians chapter 3 and verse number 7 says yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency 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 now this is a very popular passage here and this is a passage that I've quoted many times throughout my Christian life and it's a very powerful passage and you kind of wonder like why would Paul use such crass language when describing this he's saying count it all but dung well first of all let me describe to you what dung is okay in case you don't know we don't need to go to the Greek for this or anything like that dung is just another way of saying excrement it's another way of saying let me just put it this way it's another way of saying crap okay and what he's saying is that certain things in his life he counts it basically a waste it's like crap to him it doesn't matter it's refused it's a waste he's not gonna look to it he's just kind of gonna forget about it he's gonna put it behind him and not value some of the things that took place in his past he's counting it but dung and that's what I want to talk about this evening is having this attitude to certain things in our past we should count but dung we should count it as a waste we shouldn't value it we should just put it behind us in order to move forward in our Christian life now this was a subject that the Apostle Paul brought up as a response to the people that he was warning the Philippians about because in the book of Philippians this is essentially what would be referred to as the the prison epistles he's writing this from prison and he's admonishing the believers regarding various Christian virtues and one of the things that he tells the Philippians is that they need to be aware of certain people okay in fact look at verse 1 he says finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord and that's a very good positive thing right rejoice be a joyful person be excited about the things of God he says to write the same thing two things to you to me indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe now what he's about to say is is connected with what he just stated right now which is basically I'm repeating this over again and for you it might be a little redundant but really for you it is safe it's basically saying that this warning that he's gonna give them they need to give he too and then you hear it more than once because it's for safety purposes and what is that verse 2 beware of dogs now he's not talking about the dogs you come out you know they come out during soul winning although that's a good admonition there as well amen some people get a little too confident going through that gate without checking if there's a dog first so beware of dogs that was that's like a fifth sixth application to this okay it's not the main interpretation I remember one time I was out solely with some from our church and I was kind of instructing them on how they should approach a gate and I said when you approach a gate you don't really know if there's a dog and so you got to be careful so what I typically do is I'll tap the gate a little bit or I'll shake it or I'll even whistle a little bit to see if there's a dog and he's like I don't need to do that and I just go in you know I got I'm bold and all that stuff and I'm just like all right you know what do I know and so he's doing that he's going in and then this one instance I was just like let me check and he's like no I'm good and he just goes right through and he was a fairly large person I'll just put it that way and quite frankly I never seen a large person run so fast it was like a cartoon you know when the when they're like the legs are spinning he he and I didn't know what he was running from he was like oh and then he yelled some sort of expletive and then he started running and there's a pit bull chasing him okay and you know you said what were you pastor I was safely on the other side cuz I was be oh you know I was aware of the dogs you know and so I told him I said see you got to be careful okay now obviously this verse is not an application to that per se but that's just good wisdom for you to know okay don't be so crazy you just go through some girls I will say this though years ago I went so many with the guy at our old church plant and he was just not afraid of dogs at all and almost to the point of recklessness I'll just be honest he would go through gates and I would just follow behind him and dogs would clearly be there and they're very aggressive and I remember one time where a dog came out and bit his forearm okay and he's just like playing with it he's like oh great dog and I'm just like are you okay he's like I'm fine go knock on the door you know just like and the dogs like trying to maul him and he's just like oh this dogs great you know I'm like man this guy that was a very unique experience now that's you then by all means but that's not mean now obviously verse two is not referring to literal dogs when we look at the definition or the the description of dogs spiritually speaking in the Bible it's referring to reprobates okay people who are workers of iniquity refers to them as dogs it obviously falls on the spectrum of either referring to a sodomite or just a false prophet who's trying to take advantage of the vulnerable and innocent you can basically couple all those there and just say beware of those types of people okay beware of dogs he says beware of evil workers and then he gets really specific and he says beware of the concision okay now concision sounds a lot like circumcision and people have stated that the reason he said concision instead of circumcision was because he was trying to be contemptuous about him describing the Jews okay because later on he says we are the circumcision essentially saying that we are the true believers we are the true Jews because we were believers in Christ and so he's actually talking about the Jews and more specifically the Judaizers those who are intentionally going out of their way going into Gentile churches not synagogues going into these congregations seeking to turn away believers from the truth and this is very much a real problem in the New Testament okay the vast majority of the New Testament specifically in the book of Acts and we see spots of this in the book of Galatians there was a major problem with Judaizers coming in after the leaders left trying to come in and convert people back to Judaism trying to get them to apostatize and observe times months and years trying to bring them back under the law and the Apostle Paul is saying you need to be aware of the concision they are not saved they're false prophets that's what he's talking about now hold your place there and go to Acts chapter 15 I'm gonna get into the application of the sermon in just a bit but I want to give you some context of what he's talking about here and how he really you know transitions into the subject of just counting everything but done look at Acts 15 if you would and then we're gonna go to the book of Galatians Acts 15 in verse number 1 now why would he call them the concision or the circumcision because in other instances that's what it's referred to the reason he's saying that is because these people are characterized by measuring spiritual you know spirituality or measuring whether they're godly based upon if they're circumcised okay so they basically determine if a person is a believer if a person is a child of God if they're spiritual based upon the physical act of being circumcised and look what it says in verse 1 of Acts 15 and certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren now let me just give you a spoiler alert the certain man is referring to Judaizers and said except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses ye cannot be saved now the question that I would propose to those guys is what about the women right like how does that work for the females do they all just go to hell because they can't be physically circumcised I mean think about that how nonsensical that idea is for them to say you got to be circumcised after the manner of Moses if you're gonna be saved that's obviously a false doctrine it's a workspace salvation he says in verse 2 when therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the Apostles and elders about this question and being brought on their way by the church they pass through Phoenice and Samaria declaring the conversion of the Gentiles and they cause great joy unto all the brethren now let me clarify something regarding verse 2 Paul and Barnabas are coming back not to ask questions to the elders like hey is this true maybe should we like say that they should be circumcised in order to be saved they're not questioning that okay Paul and Barnabas are saved okay they're not wondering like hey you know they bring up a good point there you know we do have to be circumcised to be saved what they're questioning is whether people should be circumcised after salvation if that's even a thing that they should continue to follow in the New Testament not for salvation because there was no small dissension or disputation about that you know they they obviously defended the faith against these Judaizers now they're just kind of wondering like hey should this be something that we even practice as New Testament Christians okay he says in verse number four and when they were come to Jerusalem there they were received of the church and of the Apostles and elders and they declared all things that God had done with them but there arose of certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses so there are certain Pharisees that were believers they were saved but for whatever reason retained this position of being a Pharisee and they were saying well you know you should circumcise them and command them to keep the law of Moses and obviously this is out of ignorance right this is a flawed understanding of the transitional period between Old Testament and New Testament and the Apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter eventually James who's the brother of the Lord ends up you know commanded the Gentiles to abstain from these things strangled and to abstain from not for me excuse me to abstain from things strangled to abstain from blood fornication idols things of that nature imposing these unlawful things upon the Gentiles and as the New Testament began to progress they obviously ditched all that circumcision and keeping of the law under having a more perfect understanding of what it is that God required of them but the point that I'm making here is that even then there was a group of people these Judaizers who were preaching this gospel of circumcision you know you have to be circumcised in order to be saved that's obviously a false doctrine go to Galatians chapter 5 Galatians chapter 5 you see the circumcision in the Old Testament was a seal to indicate that a person was part of the people of God known as the nation of Israel but in the New Testament there's no longer a physical circumcision applied to the people of God now it's referring to a spiritual circumcision and it's a circumcision of the of the heart that Old Testament circumcision was a physical one that symbolized a spiritual circumcision of the heart and we'll see that in Romans chapter 2 in just a bit look at Galatians 5 verse 1 it says here stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage behold I Paul saying to you that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing and obviously you can add to that if you do any kind of works Christ shall profit you nothing of course in context of salvation he says for I testify against every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law and here's the funny thing about people who believe you have to keep the law in order to be saved they're literally disregarding the fact that it's the whole law that they have to keep you know they want to uphold and specified specific aspects of the law that maybe they are accustomed to keeping but here's what the Bible says that if you offend in one point you're guilty of all if you keep the whole law you're defending one point you are guilty of all the law because the law was our schoolmasters to bring us unto Christ righteousness cannot come by the law it's there to basically show you that there's none righteous no not one there's none that do with good no not one he goes on to say verse 4 Christ has become of no effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the law ye are fallen from grace now that's a powerful statement right there because when he says you're falling from grace that's another way of saying you've apostatized doesn't mean you've lost your salvation a lot of people try to misconstrue that verse into teaching that but fallen from grace essentially means that they have fallen away which is synonymous with apostasy right he goes on the same verse 5 for we threw the spear away for the hope of righteousness by faith for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but faith which did which worketh by love ye did run well who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth and of course the who there are these Judaizing Pharisees that are coming in trying to bring people back under the law go to Romans chapter 2 if you would Romans chapter number 2 one last verse and we'll come back we'll go back to Philippians chapter 3 the point that I'm making here is that these Pharisees these Judaizers were coming in and they weren't just saying you have to be circumcised other portions they were saying you have to observe times months and years you have to keep the Sabbath you basically got to keep the law and keep in mind that these are the same people that Jesus Christ was addressing in Matthew 23 that they command other people to keep these laws but they themselves will not even lift it up with one of their fingers right they're a bunch of hypocrites who are laying on men's shoulders these heavy burdens but they themselves aren't keeping the law there are guilty of violating the law once over again look at Romans 2 verse 25 he says for circumcision verily profited if thou keep the law but if thou be a breaker of the law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision so basically saying if you're physically circumcised and you know you are a violator of the law you might as well for lack of a better way of saying basically be deemed or termed as someone who is uncircumcised why because your circumcision doesn't avail anything especially if you're not saved okay so this is verse 26 therefore if the uncircumcision referring to the unsaved this is what it's talking about the Gentiles keep the righteousness of the law shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision he said what if there's someone out there who's uncircumcised who's better at keeping the law than those who are circumcised he goes on saying shall not uncircumcision which is by nature if it fulfill the law judge thee who by the letter and circumcision does transgress the law he goes on to say for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit not of the letter whose praise is not a man but of God dispensation listening to memorize this passage and realize that the Bible conclusively teaches that the only Jew that God esteems as being a legitimate spiritual Jew is the uncircumcised who is circumcised in heart through his faith in Jesus Christ okay go back to Philippians chapter 3 if you wouldn't Philippians chapter 3 so that was a response to that he's saying you know beware of you know the concision he's referring to these Pharisees to these Judaizers and then he compares himself to them because he's saying you know beware of them for we are the circumcision in verse 3 which worship God in spirit in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh now the first thing that he's gonna cover here is the fact that our flesh or his flesh for salvation is but done okay because he says in verse 4 though I might also have confidence in the flesh if any other man thinketh that he has whereof he might trust in the flesh I more so he's saying you know these Judaizers who are claiming to keep the law they're circumcised well here's the thing is that I keep the law more than these guys probably do I have more confidence I could have more confidence in my flesh than those who are preaching his workspace salvation and it kind of reminds me when workspace salvation try to get on me you know you gotta do works and stuff and I don't ever do this every once in a while I might but I think to myself like I probably do more works than you though I don't believe in workspace salvation but if we're to just go toe-to-toe and spiritually spar to see and just take inventory of works you know I probably have more works than you and it's not because I believe I'm working my way to heaven it's because you know we are as workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which got it before a day that we should walk in them and so it's like oh you're saying that you all you have to do is believe and I can rape steal and kill and murder and do all this stuff and it's like that's funny I've been saved for 17 years and I've just never thought that in fact for the last 17 years I just wanted to live a righteous life not perfect I sin because I'm not perfect I'm still you know in this flesh but in general my track record as a Christian is that I've served the Lord all right and yet they're in trying to impose perfection upon you and they don't even like fulfill just like the bare minimum how about just like going to church or something you know you got Catholics online that are condemning you for being a prodigy but I guarantee you the vast majority of these online Catholics don't even go to mass so it's just like they're trying to impose that standard on you there are modern-day fairs who are not even keeping up with their own standard of what it means to do works you know and obviously we don't believe in works for salvation and in my experience is those who believe the salvation is by grace your faith alone they end up doing a lot of works not because they're afraid of losing their salvation or whatever it's because we know there's a reward it's because we love the Lord because we moved on and are going on into perfection right so this is what the apostle Paul saying he's like if they have confidence in the flesh I have more confidence in the flesh if we want to go that route he's saying and he's not believing in a worse based salvation but he begins to give his pedigree here okay it's a pretty hefty pedigree if you think about it I mean Paul was a strict Pharisee you know he's he's a he was like a no-dung Pharisee in a sense like you know he he actually believed what he was doing and and did what he claimed that he did look at verse 5 let's start off with circumcised the eighth day so this is like aside from just everything else let's just talk about circumcision I'll circumcise the eighth day which is an adherence to a strict adherence to the law right he says of the stock of his real oh would you look at this of the tribe of Benjamin now that is a very powerful statement since the vast majority of the tribes didn't know where they were from in the New Testament right they're already intermingled if you've been here on Thursdays right we've been talking about that how that northern kingdom a lot of them have been lost they were grafted in with the heat then and that and then became the Samaritans right well he's able to track his pedigree back to the tribe of Benjamin so he has like one up on a lot of these Pharisees you can probably go to one of these Pharisees of what tribe are you from he's like oh I'm part of the tribe of Dan oh really let's see that pedigree let's see that you have records of that or something or what you know what's your 21 23 and me let's see it you know it was like oh I'm German well let's take a look at your 23 means you if that's true oh no you're pure Mexican oh that was a lie you know oh you're Indian you know he's of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin I like what he says here a Hebrew of the Hebrews he doesn't say a Jew of the Jews just like I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews and then he says that's touching the law a Pharisee meaning that when it comes to the adherence to the law he was essentially a Pharisee who essentially you know believed in the law upheld the law and then verse 6 says concerning zeal so aside from his pedigree aside from the fact he was circumcised the eighth day as a law prescribed aside from the fact that you he can essentially see his results is you know from what tribe he was from he can trace himself back to the tribe of Benjamin concerning zeal he persecuted the church now I don't believe he's like exalting this as being something that's honorable he's just going toe-to-toe with them saying that aside from his beliefs that were intact his pedigree was intact but even his actions were in play as well his zeal caused him to go puke persecute the church of God and we see them in the book of Acts where he is you know desiring letters from the chief priest you know hauling men and women he's traveling as far as Damascus to try to arrest Christians and doing all that why because he was actually zealous over his false religion okay touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless that's a pretty bold statement there too is he saying anything that was prescribed for the Pharisee to do and believe you know you could check my track record and I was blameless in that area I fulfilled my responsibilities as a Pharisee so what do we see here we see that he's basically showing that his pedigree his track record the things that he did the things that he believed his actions spoke for themselves he's like I got more than you okay but then he goes on to say that he counts it all but done though now any other Pharisee would look at him like wow that's that's pretty good pedigree and then Paul's like yeah but it's all crap though I don't esteem it one one bit because he says in verse 8 a doubtless I count all things what all things his pedigree the fact that he was circumcised the eighth day the adherence to the law I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them bug dung that I may win Christ he's basically saying even though I've superseded you in works Pharisees I've superseded you even in my genealogy my pedigree it means absolutely nothing to me it's literal crap to me it's a waste I count it a loss and he says in verse 9 and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith so he's just like kind of exalting his position his pedigree but then he just just throws it all down and says I want to be found not having my own righteousness though but the righteousness which is of Jesus Christ exalting the pedigree of Christ over his own pedigree okay because at the end of the day who cares where we come from who cares what works we've done who cares how long you've been in the ministry before he got saved or something like that it doesn't matter it's all done when it comes to salvation it's all done and this kind of reminds me sometimes of people who maybe they were you know a part of a church maybe there is like a Christian laborer or a pastor or an evangelist those part of a church and you know it was a false church or something and maybe they have a lot of invested time in that particular church and then they get saved and they just feel like they can't leave that church because they have so much invested into that church but folks you know what the attitude should be I can't it all but done and this is all lost to me I don't care about these things you know I don't care whatever whatever reputation I had amongst the Pentecostals with this particular church or with that congregation if it was a false church you just got saved and you just got saved you know and at the end of the day your ministry experience means nothing if you weren't saved count it all but done because your works your labor your pedigree means nothing in the sight of God when it comes to this matter of justification and salvation we are all listen to this as an unclean thing the Bible says you know I mean think about the pedigree of the guy in Matthew 7 right he's like I prophesied in thy name cast out devils done many wonderful works oh what a great pedigree but guess what it's all crap and it's going down the toilet called hell it's gonna be flushed down the spiritual toilet called the lake of fire because all that stuff means nothing to God all the works mean nothing to God and you know people take offense to that because they're like are you saying that all these things that I've done and preached in the name of Jesus and I've cast out all these devils and I've you know healed all these people yeah it's all dung and you're done it's all false the Bible says that you're a worker of iniquity those are works of iniquity it means nothing in the eyes of God count it all but dung especially in comparison to salvation being justified that is the most important thing and you know what let me just mention this briefly is that you know if there's a pastor out there who I know is a charismatic pastor a Pentecostal pastor and get saved it just remains a pastor you know that person should step down they're not qualified especially if they just got saved and you know some people there's I'm sure there's many pastors out there who get saved believe it or not and they just want to remain as a pastor because they can't count everything they did but dumb you know what I mean but here's the thing everything BC before Christ means nothing in the eyes of God all your experience I mean you're literally preaching you're an unregenerated individual preaching which is completely forbidden by the Bible you're you're basically essentially a false prophet until you get saved and then you're just gonna remain no count it all but dung step down go join a fundamental Baptist Church be under a person be trained and maybe later on revisit that potential goal do you have of being a pastor right don't just remain a pastor after you just got saved you know it should be that the pastor has been saved quite some time and doesn't just have experience listen to me has spiritual experience which I don't know if you notice but it requires the spirit and if you don't have the spirit that you don't know what you're talking about or if you're just a babe in Christ the Bible says literally in first Timothy chapter three not a novice less being lifted up with pride he'd fall into the condemnation of the devil what is a novice someone who's new newly saved was I thought I was just talking about age well obviously you can apply it to a physical age but more than that though it's referring to like the spiritual age of a person okay and I don't want to belabor that point but that is part of this right you know and obviously the Apostle Paul you know wasted a lot of time being a Pharisee but the Lord called him and he is that unique case but you know what that's not the case today God has given qualifications in first Timothy chapter 3 and in Titus chapter 1 for who a pastor can be who can be ordained as a pastor as a full-time Christian you know person an evangelist a deacon of sorts you know and and a newly saved person is not it doesn't matter how much experience you have it's funny you have 10 15 years of experience of just reading the Bible just never understanding it that's not a good record look at verse 6 again now let's let's get into some some nice applications okay and you know one thing we can learn from this particular passage and it's a very inspirational thing it's it's very good for us as Christians to think about is that you know this shows us that our sins and our failures of the past should should be considered but done sometimes and you know the reason that's important is because you know as Christians we fail sometimes you know we may have had failures in the past sins that we struggle with in the past things that we did that displeased the Lord dishonored the Lord dishonored others and sometimes the things of the past can actually hinder you from doing things in the future you know people can use that as an excuse as to why they're not serving God why they're not going forward for him you know all it's because I did all these things and you know I just don't know if the Lord can use me but you know what you need to do is just count it all but dung and just move on with your life and don't allow your past failures to hinder you in the present serving God or in the future from serving God because God can still use you in a great way regardless of what happened in the past like oh yeah but I had this window of time where I was out of church yeah but can you is there a time machine though you have access to one can we go back in time and fix that no okay then just flush it down the toilet and just move on with your life stop looking at the crap in the toilet flush it and move on with your life right too many people is just like look at what they produce in the past it's like uh can we go ahead and flush that and move on with their lives there's that what I'm saying but at the end of the day this is how people treat their sins and their past failures and you know what it's just like hey we got things to do here souls to win lives to change you know the Bible to read we need to serve God can we stop looking at the crap flush it and just move on and you know what the Apostle Paul is a great example of this is he not because he says concerning zeal persecuting the church you know that's kind of embarrassing right that's something that's just like everyone knew who he was like oh this is the guy that persecuted the church I mean how how awkward it is if he ran into someone he arrested that's kind of awkward you know he's like driving them and all of a sudden he's like now he's kissing them on the forehead awkward and it got to a point where you probably had to come to the conclusion that he had to forget about that stuff and not allow that to hinder him from serving God look at verse 13 brethren I count on myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do here's a good thing forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before you don't think some of those things might have haunted the Apostle Paul every once in a while just thinking about some of the stupid stuff that he did before he was saved how he persecuted the Church of God I mean just imagine the amount of guilt he probably experienced at times just thinking like man like I was a hindrance to the gospel at one point I was fighting against God I was fighting against the church I was like going out of my way to stop the work of God but you know what he had to forget those things which are behind and press forward to those things which are before okay go to 1st Timothy chapter 1 hold your place there and go to 1st Timothy chapter 1 our sins and our failures of the past should be considered but done and if you don't they're gonna hinder you from just living a normal Christian life today you know sometimes people think about yeah but I was an alcoholic back in the day you know and I don't know if or I was a weed head back in the day or something I was involved in this back in the day you know I just don't know if that that might be something that comes up in the future why don't you just forget about that though you know and I'm all for you know if you were an alcoholic I'm all for you understanding that that is a door that you open and understanding that you may be susceptible and vulnerable to that temptation once again in the future but you know sometimes people can get so enveloped into that thought that way of thinking that it actually hinders them from actually doing greater things for God because they feel like they've disqualified themselves or something you know you understand what I'm saying you know maybe maybe you're someone who might have lived somewhat of an immoral life you either before getting saved or before getting committed to the Lord and going to church and you might have committed fornication you might have done things that are displeasing unto the Lord and sometimes people can get this mentality well I did this in my past and therefore I can't really I don't know if I could ever find someone you know to marry or have a godly marriage have a godly family have godly children but you know what if God has brought you thus far you need to just flush that down the toilet and just move on and if God's given you opportunities he's blessing you run with it stop just focusing on all those stuff that happened in the past or you know the drugs that you've taken in the past and the alcohol you drink in the past and the party life you have the past the people you had in the past just flush it down the toilet and move on with your life and here's a great way to make sure that the toilet doesn't get clogged stop talking about it no one wants to know about the turd of your past you know and you're so ashamed of it then just don't talk about it there are certain things of my past that I'm extremely ashamed about because I don't know if you know this there's a time when I wasn't saved you know my teenage years and a little bit of my adult years there's a time when I wasn't saved and you know a lot of people don't know about that past because guess what I don't talk about it I flushed that mess down the toilet and it's just like made sure it was just gone and just never revisited that again okay now obviously that's not to say that you know ever once in a while we should kind of revisit the past just to be thankful for what God has done in the present right like you know you just kind of it's like a window you kind of peek into the past and see what a shameful person you were at one point and just be like well by the grace of God I am what I am but you know don't just hang out there looking in the sewer hate to be so crass but you know it's getting the point across though right you're just looking at the sewers like everybody's to do those things it's more like man God is like work greatly in my life he's he's transformed me by the Word of God Church has just helped me so much people have helped me you know and and then you you you don't stay there you move on okay and so and it kind of goes along with what we're talking about last week about your testimony right a lot of people just want to show their crap to everybody right they want to show their crap and all their feces of their past and all the filthy stuff that they've done in the past it's like uh I don't want to see that or smell it can you put that away can you how about you talk about what God is doing in your life right now instead of talking about all the filthy things you used to do why don't you talk about all the holy things God is doing in your life why don't you talk about all the friends that you've made in Christ tell me what you got out of the Bible why don't you tell me what you've learned from the Word of God that's that that'll be a great thing to hear about I don't want to revisit the toilet just flush it leave it never revisit it and stop allowing that stuff to hinder you from getting people saved and you're just kind of talking yourself down well how can God ever use me you know what the way he used the Apostle Paul that's how look at 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse 12 this is Paul speaking again he says I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that economy faithful put me into the ministry so does God require you not to have a sinful past in order to use you no because pretty much we're all sinners what he actually requires in order for him to enable you is that you are faithful because he says faithful put me into the ministry you know he wants he wants consistency in your life is what he wants he doesn't want you to erase your past because you can't he doesn't want you to change your past because you can't what he actually wants is just you to remain faithful to the things of God now you know the Bible says a faithful man who can find what does the Bible ask that because it's kind of hard to find consistent people sometimes God is just always looking for people who are just faithful consistent just serving him for weeks months years decades a lifelong time right and one of the things that will cause God to enable you to do great things for him is you just being consistent consistently reading your Bible consistently coming to church consistently soul winning consistency is the key amen to having God enable you and he says there you know God enabled me for the economy faithful put him into the ministry verse 13 who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious now I want you to notice there does it say murderer no that's important to know because a lot of people slanderously report that Paul was just like some psychopath murderer you call out Jeffrey Dahmer for being just this pervert cannibal this reprobate devil and you know how he talked about how he got saved and I don't believe that guy who got saved because he's a reprobate and people were like well that case in the Apostle Paul couldn't be saved because he murdered Christians where in the world is that in the Bible there's not a single event in the book of Acts where Paul murdered anybody the closest he even got to murdering someone was holding the coats of them who were stoning Stephen but it doesn't say he picked up a stone so he just held the coats of those who did you see what I'm saying so you know I don't like that narrative because you know they try to use that to say like Ted Bundy got saved and you know Jeffrey Dahmer and they always like compare him to some of the worst scum of the earth he's like what you're then by your standard the Apostle Paul couldn't be saved or something well the Apostle Paul was not a cannibal I don't know if you know that you know he had a strict diet actually because he was a Pharisee okay like he wasn't like all into you know he said every creature of God is good nothing to be refused but he's referring to animals he's not referring to people it says he was a blasphemer he was a persecutor he was injurious but he says but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief in other words you know a lot of mistakes he made he didn't really he thought he was doing the right thing and you know just like a lot of us when we're just living our lives prior to Christ we just kind of were just kind of getting by you know we just thought that we thought we were doing right we're just we're just like kind of like living life is what we're doing ignorantly and unbelief and here's the key here verse 14 and the grace amen of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of who I am chief I'll be it for this cause I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering I want you to notice this for a pattern to them who which should after should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting you know God used the Apostle Paul as an example to all of us as a pattern you know if God can use the Apostle Paul he can use you too regardless of what you did in the past you know regardless now obviously there are certain sins of the past that might disqualify you from certain things of the future for example you might not be able to be a pastor but guess what being a pastor is not the only thing that you can do to serve God though the vast majority of people throughout history serve God exceedingly without being a pastor now it's obviously a privilege to be a pastor I love being a pastor I'm thankful that God enabled me to be a pastor but even before I was a pastor I was still serving God you know and it was and I was content and I was happy just serving someone else being under someone else's leadership serving the Lord because you can serve God at whatever capacity but he was a pattern to them which should after believe on him to life everlasting what is the pattern what is the lesson the lesson is this you know what flush the dung down the toilet move forward to your life and stop using your failures of the pastor hinder you from doing something today and tomorrow okay you're like well you know I'm just stupid some people have that attitude you know I'm just not smart well thankfully you have the spirit of truth and you can become smart yeah but I was just never good at XY and Z well thankfully you're safe so now you can become good at XY and Z well I just was never really a good worker but now you're a Christian now you can become a good employee the possibilities are endless because the element of salvation the element of the Holy Spirit exists now now we are enabled to you know succeed and excel and do great things for God because we're children of God okay and the righteous is more excellent than his neighbor the Bible says and so the point that I'm making here is that don't allow go to 1st Corinthians chapter 15 1st Corinthians 15 don't allow your past to just hinder you and think to yourself well I'm just gonna come to church I'm gonna listen to the preaching but you know I'm not really gonna do anything else because I think I just blew it too much in my past or something that's nonsense you're you're you're full of excuses and you know what once eternity begins you're just gonna regret that because God can use you at whatever capacity he can use you at whatever stage of life and don't downplay what God is able to do and then through you your family your wife your children through you I mean God can do amazing things within a short period of time too by the way yeah I think anybody here could testify that you know the last three months or six months or a year that they've been in church like God has worked in their lives exceedingly well just imagine what he can do in a decade right just imagine what he could do in two decades just imagine what he can do in a lifetime and so flush the dung don't keep hanging in your dung over your head or ours by the way you know using it as excuse why you can't do this why you can't do that why you can't hold on a job why you can't you know just just just get with the program and then you know he's given us all things that we need in order to succeed in this world flush the dung down the toilet let's look at another example here in verse 1st Corinthians 15 and verse 6 is after that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remain into this present but some are falling asleep after that he was seen of James and of all the Apostles and last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time what does that mean he's like I came late basically so I came to the party late is what he's saying because he's the last of all the Apostles and saying like I got saved late okay he says for I am the least of the Apostles that I am not meet to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God now think about that the Apostle Paul became he got saved and became an apostle like later on in life yet within a short period of time was able to do more than the Apostles before him that's amazing and that's a testament that you know what if you get saved later on in life and later on can mate it can vary with everyone you know I mean like I would say I got saved later on in life but there's people who are older than me and say well that's not really later you're still young or whatever you know everyone it's all relative right well we can say you got we got saved later on in life and you know what the according to this example we can still get more done than some people who've been saved for decades you could know more Bible than people who've been saved for decades you can win more souls to Christ than those who've been saved for more decades than you because he did it with the Apostle Paul the grace of God was presented to him and he utilized that to do something great go to 2nd Timothy chapter 4 2nd Timothy chapter 4 let me give you this last example here before I move on to my next point and let me finish reading actually in 1st Corinthians 15 verse 10 it says but by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain but I labored more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me I hope that God's grace is not in vain in your life you better utilize every droplet of God's grace especially if you got saved later on in life it's available to you that's what the Apostle Paul say he's like it's not in vain I use it to labor more abundantly than they all he was able to do more he wrote more of the New Testament than the Apostles did he covered more ground you know evangelistically than all the Apostles did he's mentioned more than the all the other Apostles it's probably one of the most exciting Christians of the New Testament I mean here we are talking about them 2,000 years later no no offense to the other guys you know what I mean but there's 12 apostles that we some of them we just never talk about let's just be honest right now the last example that I want to give regarding this particular point is you know there's a man by the name of Mark in the Bible okay and his name is John but his surname is Mark and during Paul's missionary journey his first missionary journey he goes with Barnabas on this missions trip and they take Mark with him but Mark bails out early on in the trip okay they're like in Panfilia and then he's just like homesick or something doesn't really say why but he ends up like just going home and there's still like a lot of work to do and you know Paul was kind of upset about that that he just like bailed out he just kind of left them and you know I don't who knows what was going through Paul's mind but he was just upset at that and so you know you think of Mark as kind of being like a I don't know he's just like a quitter just quit on Paul and quit on the ministry just went home and we don't know exactly we don't know if he just went home and served the Lord there or something but in Paul's eyes he was like an unprofitable servant okay and let me read this to you from Acts chapter 15 so they're about to go on another missions trip okay and Barnabas wanted to take Mark with him and Paul's like the guy sucks that's my version of it and he brings up he's like that guy bailed on us like back in Panfilia he bailed on us you know easy he thought it not good to take them with them who departed from them from Panfilia and went not with them to the work and the contention between Paul and Barnabas was so like sharp the Bible says that basically they ended up just like going their separate ways Barnabas ended up taking Mark and Paul ended up taking a Silas and they went on separate missions trips so this is how strongly the Apostle Paul fell about that he's like I want nothing to do with this guy now you know obviously this is all speculation but you know if I was Mark I'd feel really bad you know I mean this is Paul right and you know I'm sure there's times when he probably felt like man like I did quit and that's something that's not like a unique pattern that's that's something that's been patterned throughout thousands of years people are just quitting on the Lord or quitting on the ministry or whatever may be but look at 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 9 this is Paul the Apostle speaking to Timothy he says do thy diligence to come to me shortly to come shortly unto me for demons have forsaken me he likes to talk about the people who no I'm yeah actually I'll take that please thank you he says for demons have forsaken me having loved this present world now it sucks to be demons right now because that's forever in the Bible like when you go to heaven is like what's your name I'm Demas oh I see and just out of curiosity so where part of the world did you go to what was so great you know he's like for all of eternity like demons is just known as the quitter like he's the legitimate quitter that loved the world and so on he departed into Thessalonica Cretans to Galatia Titus to Dalmatia he's only Lucas with me yeah it seems like Paul is really about like he's he's really big on loyalty like it's like an important thing to him he's like Demas he forsook me he loves the world he's like he's a worldly Christian he's just out there you know these guys are over here and it doesn't even say like the other guys it doesn't even say like if Cretans and Titus are backslidden but he's kind of lumping them in with that same idea right so these guys could be serving God in those areas he's like yeah those guys went over there they went to this church or so you know who knows what what he's thinking about he says only Luke is with me but then he says take mark and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the ministry so something happened between those instances right there because this is actually written later on in Paul's ministries whereas his first and second missionary journey was earlier in his life okay this is obviously written later on so between the time where he did not like mark and when he's writing this something happened with mark that caused him to become reputable again in the eyes of the Apostle Paul there's a time when he said he's not good to take with us but then here he says he's profitable to me and for the ministry as well you know what that shows us it shows us that mark somehow redeemed himself and he got back on track right he stopped being a baby stop being so homesick and he just decided to just go all in and the point that I'm making here is the fact that you know if you've had a bad track record prior to today or something you could always redeem yourself though you could always fix it up again and and you said what do I got to do this is what you do you just flush it down the toilet you just forget about it and you move on and and quite frankly most people don't know about like this particular story they probably more readily know about Demas and we don't hear about Demas like getting back on track we just know that he loved the world and that was it he is forever stigmatized as being the person who essentially quit on Paul and the Lord go back to Philippians if you would and so the point there is the fact that we need to make sure that we don't allow our failures and our setbacks to keep us back from serving God and putting in a hundred percent effort put a hundred percent effort in your Bible reading put a hundred percent effort in your church attendance put effort in your soul and put effort in leading your family don't stop using the excuses of the failures of the past to keep you from going forward in the future here's another thing that I want to mention that and I kind of already did but I want to spend a little bit of time on this and that is you know count wasted time out of the will of God but done and unfortunately you know this is just a reality is that sometimes people backslide they get out of church and there they spend time outside of God's will and when they come back you know it's great but sometimes they have a hard time assimilating and they have a hard time walking away or going forward in light of the fact that they've been out for so long that's just a common thing right but you just got to count up a dung and just move on with your life and here's what I think about you know when I think about this particular point I think about Joshua and Caleb now they were not backslidden at all but think about it because of the fear of the rest of the nation they also have to spend 40 years in the wilderness so they're subject to the actions and the bad decisions of their nation and essentially wasted 40 years wandering in the wilderness right but later on when they finally inherit the promised land Caleb is just old I shouldn't say he's old yeah he know he's old he's like 80 years or something and yet you know what he didn't use that 40 years as an excuse of why he couldn't do something in the future because he's just like I will give me this mountain and let me read this to you I love this passage here in Joshua 14 in verse 10 he says and now behold the Lord hath kept me alive as he said these 40 in five years even since the Lord spake this word into Moses while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness and and now lo I am this day four score and five years old as yet I excuse me as yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me as my strength was then even so is my strength now for war both to go out to come in I mean that's a positive outlook I don't know if he's yelling like that he's probably he's probably more like my strength was dead so is my strength now hmm for were both to go out to come in I'm joking but some something similar to that verse 12 now therefore give me this mountain I mean he's making demands like even at his age he's not like I need to retire no he's refiring not retiring he's like in fact I want this plot right here give it to me and I'll take it wherefore the Lord spake in that day for thou heardest in the day how the Anacoms were there and that the cities were great and fenced if so be the Lord be with me then I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said now that's powerful he's saying you know oh yeah I want this mountain because there's a bunch of Anacoms there that are strong but the Lord said he'll deliver me deliver them into my hand so I'm gonna go ahead and fulfill that promise that means in his old age he still has faith in the Lord he's not gonna use the 40 years wasted in the wilderness to hold him back from from obtaining that mountain that's inspirational hmm and Joshua blessed them and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance and so you know if you were out of the will of God for a while you got saved later on in life don't think you can't do anything for God you can you can actually do more than some people who've been in church for quite some time and one thing I've learned is that God can help us make up for lost time he can always help us to make up a lot for lost time teach us to number our days the Bible says right the Bible tells us see then that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil he says wherefore be not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is you know obviously if you got saved later on and you got committed to the Lord later on in life you got serious about the things we've got later on in life you know you just got to make sure you redeem the time and you definitely don't have the luxury to just observe all the dung you produced in your past that thing needs to get flush forgotten about move on go get that mountain serve the Lord and don't let that hold you back you're in Philippians chapter 3 here's my last point and that is you know the we need to count past success as done okay you know don't rest on your laurels in other words past success can often hinder you from trying to achieve greater things in the future and you know obviously there's certain things that like for example that I've experienced in my personal life that I was that I would view as being successful but you know what at the end of the day I can't really think about those things now and I think about the fact that you know prior to even starting this church I was a successful bus captain I was in Bible college you know I was a leader back then I was a Bible college team I can list all these things but you know what I needed is just kind of a dunk and obviously a lot of that stuff is done okay you know obviously Bible college there's some there's a lot of good things that I learned in Bible college I don't want to throw it all under the bus because I did learn some good things there not doctrine but you know I did learn a lot of just practical things there and it gave me structure which I think is a very much important and I feel like young men should learn that today but they should be able to learn it in church but here's the thing is this is I could easily think about like the time that I spend them like now all that money wasted oh and you know this Bible college graduates and people got kicked out of Bible college in our church you know and they probably think like all that money just like yeah it's all what it's all what down the toilet just kiss the goodbye you know cuz there's I could think of instances where it's just like I was literally in the ministry I was doing Bible college with the intent to become a pastor and prepare for that and I'm not gonna go through the whole story but then like that just didn't happen because you know controversial things took place and it's just like oh man like all that was like for nothing but no it wasn't for nothing because of the fact that I was doing it as unto the Lord and you know what there's nothing that's a waste when you're doing it as unto the Lord when you're serving Christ you're serving God but the point that I'm making is like you know I'm not gonna think about all the big days that I had in a bus route or how big days we had at our old church plant those things are behind me and I'm not saying that they're done in a sense of like it just didn't mean anything but I'm not gonna like revisit those things as as though like they're like the marker of success for today because I'm looking forward amen I'm looking to see what God's gonna do next week I'm gonna see what God's gonna do this year I'm looking at what God's gonna do in five years I want to look forward press towards the mark and not just rest on the laurels of times past and all the great services we've had before great sermons before great salvations before I want to look forward to what God's gonna do in the future I want to be like Caleb and it's just like I want that mountain and so you know maybe you've had some successes in the past maybe you've had some achievements in the past kind of a dung if it's holding you back from doing anything in the future you know what here is the message for old IFP pastors too who've had much success in the past and it's kind of holding them back from doing things in the future Oh great salvations in the past great exploits of the past let's see it done in the future though you know and we never want to be a church that just only thinks about the glory days the only glory days that I like to think about are those that are coming future missions trips future sowing marathons future families that are gonna get saved in our church be integrated to our church future generations that are gonna raise up because of the efforts of this church future children are gonna be born amen future people are gonna get married amen they will find each other yes amen I think about those things amen I believe it those are the glory days and I don't want to just think about you know the only time I think about these successes and achievements of the past is to look at it as a pattern of what God can do in the future like God did it back then he can do it again God did it back then he could do it of greater quality tomorrow God did a great work yesterday I'm looking forward to what he can do doubly tomorrow it's just to be viewed as a pattern of what God can do not just be like yeah that was me you know those are my trophies and therefore I could just be a lazy spiritual bum and not do anything for the future not attempt anything big in the future no I want to keep doing great things for God and so what's what's the point of the sermon this evening the point is counted all the crap and dumb whether your failures your sins the things of the past stop allowing that to just hold you back from just going all in today and going all in tomorrow you know some of you just you know not you but I'm just speaking generally you just spend too much time in the toilet spend too much time in the restroom just looking down at all the crap that you produced it's time to just wash your hands dry and you just go on with your life stop just hanging out in the bathroom literally too you know can you just utilize for what it's used for and just get out of there please I'm just kidding you know don't just live there you know spiritually speaking flush it down the toilet move on with your life that's great father we thank you so much for your word and Lord thank you for what you're doing in our present we're thankful for the past and I love revisiting the past of great things that you did when you increased our faith and you used us Lord and we love to revisit it as a pattern for what you can do in the future and given sometimes I like to look in the past of past hurts and pains sorrows and and tribulations times of loneliness and and just grief and I like to peek in there every once in a while just to be just to have a heart of gratitude for what you've done in my life now and what you will do in the future and but may we never allow the past to just keep us back from what we can do in the future Lord I pray father God that we count it all but done and may we press forward forgetting those things which are behind and reach forth into those things which are before may we honor and glorify you and all that we do we love you we thank you pray these things in Jesus name amen please turn your song books and song number 255