Our Goal should be knowing Jesus

Philippians 3:7-8
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 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.

Here we see Paul telling the church at Philippi that he counts everything as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. His goal in life as a Christian was to get to know Jesus more and more. Paul even says that he has lost everything and even called all things rubbish in order to gain Jesus. 

I think today the church has lost this passion and love for Jesus. We begin to love the gifts from God more than we love God Himself. Lets think about some of the gifts the Jesus gives us. 

[Peace, love, joy, salvation, happiness, eternal life, heaven, faith, God]

We love God’s gifts, right?

These are great gifts! We all should love the great gifts that God has given us. 

But what I am afraid is happening today is that we take one or more of God’s gifts and we elevate them above God Himself! 

So we take heaven and we worship heaven. 

In John Piper's book, "God is the gospel" he asks a great question, If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?

I am afraid to many of us, if we searched our hearts, would answer yes. So if your answer to this is yes then you have elevated heaven above God Himself who created heaven. 

Your sole purpose for wanting to go to heaven should be to be with, to worship, to spend eternity with your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! He should be are main reason for longing for heaven!

Let’s take another one, what about God’s love?

Especially God’s love for us! 

What we have done is turned the gospel into a divine endorsement of our delight in many lesser things, especially the delight of being made much of. We trust in Jesus and worship God because we want to be made much of. We want to feel excepted and special. We want God to make the world revolve around us, to give us our hearts desires and to take good care of us. Why? Because we are special in God’s eyes! Again this is a gift of God’s! It is a good thing, but are we elevating His gift above Himself?We don’t see Paul doing this. He is all about knowing Jesus! 

Here is another question for you, Do you feel more loved because God makes much of you, or because, at the cost of his Son, he enables you to enjoy making much of him forever?

That is the test to examine if your worship is man-centered, which means your worship revolves around you, or if your worship is God-centered, which means everything you do revolves around God!

Which is it?

Does your happiness hang on seeing the cross of Christ as a witness to your worth, or as a way to enjoy God’s worth forever? Is God’s glory in Christ the foundation of your gladness?

The sad thing is that a radically man-centered view of love has spread rapidly into many churches around the world.  

If the enjoyment of God himself is not the final and best gift of love, then God is not the greatest treasure, his self-giving is not the highest mercy, the gospel is not the good news that sinners may enjoy their Maker, Christ did not suffer to bring us to God, and our souls must look beyond him for satisfaction.

That is not the gospel! We have all heard that the gospel is good news. 

Go look at Paul describe the gospel; 1 Cor. 15:1-4. This is the gospel. This gospel is all about Jesus! 

Lets look at another place where Paul discusses the gospel. 
2 Cor. 4:3-6. 

Here Paul says the gospel is “the glory of Christ”. He is what the gospel is all about. His glory is what the gospel is all about. It is not about us. Our gifts from Jesus are given to us to make much of Jesus, not to make much of ourselves. That is the purpose of all gifts. 

Another way to put it is that we have heard the message of victory! 

Consider another picture of the gospel arriving. Imagine American prisoners of war held behind barbed wire in a camp with little food and filthy conditions near the end of the Second World War. On the outside of the fence the captors are free and go about their business as though they don’t have a care. Inside the fence the captured soldiers are thin, hollow-eyed, unshaven, and dirty. Some die each day.
Then somehow a shortwave radio is smuggled into one of the barracks. There is connection with the outside world and the progress of the war. Then one day the captors on the outside of the fence see something very strange. Inside the fence the weak, dirty, unshaved American soldiers are smiling and laughing, and a few who have the strength give a whoop and throw tin pans into the air.

What makes this so strange to everyone outside the fence is that nothing has changed. These American soldiers are still in captivity. They still have little food and water. And many are still sick and dying. But what the captors don’t know is that what these soldiers do have is news. The enemy lines have been broken through. The decisive battle of liberation has been fought. And the liberating troops are only miles away from the camp. Freedom is imminent.

This is the difference that news makes. Christians have heard the news that Christ has come into the world and has fought the deci- sive battle to defeat Satan and death and sin and hell. The war will be over soon, and there is no longer any doubt as to who will win. Christ will win, and he will liberate all those who have put their hope in him.
The good news is not that there is no pain or death or sin or hell. There is. The good news is that the King himself has come, and these enemies have been defeated, and if we trust in what he has done and what he promises, we will escape the death sentence and see the glory of our Liberator and live with him forever. This news fills us with hope and joy (Rom. 15:13) and frees us from self-pity and empowers us to love those who are suffering. In this hope-sustained love he will help us persevere until the final trumpet of liberation sounds and the prison camp is made into a “new earth” (2 Pet. 3:13).

This is the good news of the gospel! We must pray that we have a more Christ-centered view of the gospel as Paul did. 

Jesus saves us for His glory, not ours. He saves us not because we are special but because He is special and saves us to make much of Him to others.