Joy | Philippians 3

Father God, we come before you right now, and we know because that tomb is empty, anything is possible. That's why we're here today, to celebrate who you are, what you've done, to submit ourselves underneath of your authority, to stand on your word, and so as we open up your holy scriptures today, Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit will change us, will move in this place across all of our campuses, and will do something that none of us would ever be able to do under our own power, our collective power. We submit to your power. We love you. In Jesus' beautiful name we pray. Amen. Hey, you can have a seat. If you've got your Bibles, and I hope you do, go ahead and meet me in Philippians chapter 3. You've got your journals. Your key word is joy, again, and as you're getting there to Philippians chapter 3, let me just ask you a quick question. Has anybody ever had backstage passes somewhere? Ever able to gain access to people or an experience because you had, here's the word, the credentials for it? You know what I'm talking about? I know Railbird's going on this weekend, maybe some of you had some backstage passes for that. I've had a couple experiences like that in my life. One was back in 2013. My friend Cody Donovan was going to have what was going to be, at the time, his third fight in the UFC, and he called me, and he was like, hey man, I want you to travel with me and my coaches to Las Vegas. I'm going to be on this huge fight card, which at the time was a massive fight between a George St. Pierre, GSP, a guy named Johnny Hendricks, and he's like, would you travel

with me? Spend a few days with me leading up to the fight and just be there for spiritual support and to be a friend? I was like, let me think about that. Yes. And so I decided to go. Now here's the thing that you have to understand. It's not nearly as exciting as it sounds because here's what you're basically doing for several days in Las Vegas. You're dealing with the most anxiety-ridden type of human possible for several days because here's a dude who's going to literally climb into a cage and fight another dude who climbs into that cage in front of an arena full of like 10,000 people in front of a worldwide audience. Oh, and also he's not allowed to eat hardly anything because he's cutting weight. So it's really not fun. You're not going to Cirque du Soleil. You're certainly not going to the buffet, and you're not playing the slots. What you're actually doing is you're hanging out in a hotel room trying to keep him from going insane. That's what it looks like. He wanted me to be a part of everything, up to and including like doing his weight cut with him, which meant that I found myself in a sauna with a bunch of fighters sweating to death. That's a story for a men's conference. I'll save it for later. But he wanted me to go everywhere with him. The only problem was I had no credentials. They only issued two coaches credentials, and he needed his two coaches, but he wanted me to be right there with him, which meant that everywhere we went, up to and including like backstage before the weigh-ins, like I found myself seated next to a friend of

mine, and then GSP himself came and sat next to that friend and told him confidentially, hey, at the end of this fight, I'm going to retire. I'm like, I could post this on Twitter right now and blow up. I'm like, I don't think I'm supposed to be here. Then underneath of the MGM grand, Dana White's giving his big backstage speech, a guy named Burt Watson back then used to rev up all the fighters as they would go out to the fights. I got to be there, and I got to see it all, but I didn't have any credentials. The way that that worked was everywhere Cody went, I was just right there, and every time anybody kind of asked like, what are you doing here, I go, I'm with him. Here's what we're going to be doing today as we dive into Philippians chapter three. Paul is going to give us a binary choice, and that binary choice is going to be what do you place your confidence in? There's basically one of two things. If you don't like binaries, you're not going to like the Bible. By the end of today, we're going to make a decision today. You thought you were coming here to just go to church today, but you're actually going to make a decision today, and it's going to be where am I going to place my confidence? Let's dive in. Philippians chapter three, verse one, Paul says this. That's verse two. Let's go back to verse one. Where did verse one go? There it is. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. When he says this phrase, to write the same things to you, he's being accused of being redundant. Quick question, how many of you are parents? Raise your hands. Keep your hands up.

Keep them up. Keep them up. How many of you find yourself repeating yourself over and over and over again? Raise them high. Interesting. It's every parent that raised their hand. That's because that's literally like the job description of being a parent. Here's Paul. He's going, you want to know why I write the same things to you guys? Because you're dumb-dumbs. Because you'll do dumb things if I don't say the same things to you over and over and over again. I'm trying to keep you from doing dumb stuff. This is a very parental thing going on with Paul as he writes his letters to all these churches. Here's what he says next, back to verse two. Look out for the dogs. This is who he wants them to watch out for. Look out for the dogs who are also evil doers. Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. These are all the same group of people. He's saying, look out for the dogs. Now again, let me remind you, in the first century world, that is not a compliment. He's saying, look out for these dogs, look out for these evildoers who mutilate the flesh. These are the same false teachers that we talked about in that Galatians series, remember them? They're like, hey, it's not just Jesus plus nothing equals everything,

it's actually Jesus plus the law in order for you to become a Christian, up to and including obeying all the Old Testament laws and prescriptions, including circumcision for all the fellows. So he calls them mutilators of the flesh. He says, watch out for them, don't listen to them, don't give in to them. For we are the circumcision. Those of us who are in Christ, we're actually the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no, here's our phrase, no confidence in the flesh. In essence, Paul is flipping the script. He's going, actually, if you wanna be technical, we're the circumcision because we have received the fulfillment of all the Old Testament law and prophecy found in the face of Jesus. So we're actually the ones who have access to God because of Jesus, not because of our outward compliance to a list of rules. Though I myself, check this out, have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Here's what Paul's saying. He's saying, listen, if you wanna like, hold each other's resumes, religiously speaking, against one another and have like a little competition,

I win every day of the week and twice on Sunday. That's what he's saying. He's like, if anybody ever complied with all the Old Testament law and stuff like that, I did it. Now we're gonna take a little time out. Those of you across all of our campuses who are seated at the end of the aisle to my left, your right, reach underneath of your seat or beside your seat. There's a little basket in there. This is 100% participation. Don't stare at me, all right? So here's the thing. There's a card in there. Grab one of those cards. There's also some little golf pencils if you need something to write with, and you do need something to write with today. And take one and pass it down your row to your left, my right. And here's what you're gonna notice on that card, okay? We all have a tendency to build a religious resume. There's something we've decided to put our confidence in, and that's what you're gonna see on this card. And there's one category that I'm gonna refer to as Bible Belt Credentials. You know what I'm talking about? This is the South. A lot of us know what I'm talking about.

Like, you've banked everything. You've put your confidence in the reality that you grew up in a good church-going family. Y'all went to church every Sunday. Not only that, because you were varsity Christians, you even went on Sunday night. Nobody goes on Sunday night, right? You even went on Wednesday night to Wednesday night prayer meeting. Your mom was in the choir, and your dad was a deacon. You were varsity Christians. You didn't just go to Sunday school. You went to vacation Bible school. You didn't just do that. You were in, like, depending on your denomination, maybe you were in a Juana's, or maybe around here, maybe you did Whirlybirds. Know what I'm talking about? You got a little vest. You got a little badge. You got all kinds of little pins every time you memorized scripture. And some of them, you get a little funny hat, things like that. You did all the things. You didn't say cuss words in your house, and you weren't allowed to say even euphemisms for cuss words in your house. You listened to Christian music only. You had all the Michael W. Smith albums,

all the DC Talk albums. You didn't go to R-rated movies till The Passion of the Christ came out, and then everybody had an exception clause for that. You held out for marriage. You got married in a church. You built all the Bible Belt credentials. You know what I'm talking about? Some of you are like, yeah, amen and amen. I know exactly what you're talking about. Some of you are like, I don't even know this universe of what you speak. Because some of us picked another path. We built up what I'll call cultural credentials. We did everything the world prescribed for us. We got on that path of saying achieve more, do more. You got great grades, maybe. Maybe you excelled on the field in some sort of athletic arena. You found out that when you got out of school, you could just put a whole bunch of diplomas on the wall, and you would get your worth from that, and you placed your confidence in that. And then maybe you discovered you could build big piles of money, Scrooge McDuck style. Some of you picked a different path. You're like, no, actually, I just proved my sexual prowess. You just proved to a watching world that you could get anybody and everybody into bed with you. Or you picked power.

People do what you say when you say it. Cultural credentials. And then, let's just be super honest, most of us blended the two. We placed our confidence in all of these things in different ways at different times. As you're getting those cards in your hand, here's what I want you to do. Circle all that apply based on, here's the deal, what you once built your life upon and placed your confidence in, maybe back in the day, maybe yesterday, maybe 10 years ago, whatever it was, or what maybe for many of us, you are currently placing your confidence in. Circle all that apply, and then notice we left you some blanks, because there's some stuff I left out. Go ahead and write in the things that I left out. Now, as you're doing that, because I believe this is the gifted class here today, you can do two things at once. I'm gonna read you Paul's credentials as you're circling your credentials, because here's what Paul did. He said, man, I was circumcised on the eighth day, just like the law said you're supposed to be. I'm of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law, man, I was a Pharisee.

I was top of the food chain. As to zeal, I persecuted the church. As to righteousness under the law, I was blameless. I did it all. I checked every box. Everything you could have on your religious bingo card, Paul had it. He was the number one draft pick. He was the most sought after. Everybody threw the most NIL money at him until he switched to Team Jesus. And everything changed. He went from having zeal at such a level that he would persecute the church to actually planting churches in the name of Jesus, and only Jesus can do something like that. Now, when you're done filling out this card, here's what I want you to do. I want you to keep it right in front of you. Some of you, this might be really, really helpful. I want you to actually hold onto this for the rest of this sermon, because that's what you're doing with your life. You're holding onto this. So keep it right in front of you. Paul says this next. Look at verse seven. But whatever gain I had, all those credentials, my whole resume, whatever gain I had, look at what he counts it.

He says, I count it as loss for the sake of Christ. All that stuff is junk compared to knowing Jesus. You can make the argument that Paul is the biggest loser in the Bible. And I mean that in the best sense of the word, because he lost the facade of religious self-righteousness, and the problem with the sin of self-righteousness, it is so insidious, it just whispers lies to you over and over again, saying, you're really great, you're good, you've earned it, you've done enough. You can do this under your own power. And then that creates pride, especially in comparison to other people. This puts you in great danger. That's why we're in great danger in the Bible belt, y'all. C.S. Lewis said it profoundly. He said, prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God. No, man, it's the proud, it's the avaricious, the self-righteous that are in that danger. Maybe you're like me, you're like, okay, I get all those words, but what's the word avaricious mean? It means this, having or showing an extreme greed for wealth or material gain. In other words, this side of heaven, when you have the ability to achieve big piles of cash, one of the problems with that is you will put your confidence in it.

And Jesus said it this way. Look at this, you don't have to go there, but just write this in your journal to go to Matthew 19 sometime this week. Because Jesus had a famous interaction with an avaricious young ruler. And behold, a man came up to him, saying, teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? In other words, I wanna play the, I do enough good stuff to get me in the heaven game. Jesus is like, well, I'll play along if you want to. And he said to him, well, why do you ask me about what is good? There's only one who's good, and that's God. So if you would enter life, here's your answer. You know, just keep the commandments. And I love what comes next. This is such an important question. He said to him, well, which ones, Jesus? Because there's like 613 of them. Which ones specifically do I need to be perfect at keeping? And Jesus, he throws him some fastballs down the middle right out of the gate. I mean, look at this. He's like, all right, man, I'll play your game. Don't murder anybody. Don't commit adultery. Let his wife still be his wife at the end of the day. Don't steal. And then he's probably like, check, check, check.

Doing good, doing good, doing good. This is the part where it should start to fall apart for him, though. You shall not bear false witness. Who passes that test? You don't say anything untrue about anyone at any point in your life. Honor your father and mother. Anyone pass that one? Perfect your whole life. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Man, those things should knock him off of his pedestal. That should make him go, okay, I don't wanna play this game anymore, Jesus. But that's not how he responds. The young man said to him, check the arrogance out. All these I've kept. What am I missing? What do I still lack? He's trying to build the same kind of credentials that Paul had once built, the same kind of resume. But here's my question. Why did he bother to come to Jesus if he thought he was doing such a good job? Something's keeping him up at night, isn't it? And that's the way it works, isn't it? When you're under the weight of religiosity, it really haunts you between the hours of, like, I don't know, midnight, 3 a.m. When you can't sleep and you're going through

the list of ways that you haven't even lived up to your own standards, much less the standards of a holy and righteous God, and you're trying to be perfect, but the weight of it is so crushing that you can't sleep. And so I think this dude is struggling with insomnia, so he brings his question to Jesus because he needs some sleep, he needs some rest, he needs some peace, which is a great thing to do. Bring all your questions to Jesus, but once you bring your questions to Jesus, it's really. It's really important you listen to him. Jesus said to him, well, if you want to be perfect, you'll sell what you possess and give to the poor, man, that's what you're missing. And then you'll have treasure in heaven, and then, this is the key phrase, follow me. And when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful. Why? Because he had great possessions. Might be more precise to say great possessions had him. He could not let go of his resume. For the sake of following Jesus, for the sake of knowing him, for living in relationship with Jesus, this man picked his credentials instead. And that's pretty astonishing. And then, I mean, if you're gonna bring your questions to Jesus and you think he actually has the right answers,

man, that's step one. Step two would be listen, and step three would be obey. Do what Jesus actually tells you to do. And this is so astonishing. This creates like a teachable moment for Jesus' disciples. And Jesus said to his disciples, like as this dude's walking away, truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it's actually easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, well, then, who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said, well, with man, this is impossible, but with God, what's possible? All things. The point of the metaphor that Jesus was speaking about, camels squeezing through the eye of a needle, is precisely that that's impossible. Anybody ever been on a camel? I have, they're super gross. They smell terrible, they spit, they're weird, all right? I can promise you one cannot fit through the eye of your grandmother's needle and thread. It's not possible. That's why the disciples are like, then how can anyone get into heaven?

And that's why Jesus says, with man, this is totally impossible, but with God, all things are possible. That's the point. It should be making us go, okay, so the only way that you and I gain entry into the kingdom of heaven is because of something God does with us, for us, and through us, not because of anything we could present as credentials to get us in. Because the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And that's why Paul had this mentality, back to Philippians three, look at verse eight. Indeed, and this is the pinnacle of Philippians, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. This is the apex of this letter that we are studying. Paul takes all of his past credentials, and he says none of it is worth anything compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Listen to me, being the smartest person in every room that you walk into doesn't compare to being in the same room with Jesus. Having the biggest 401k doesn't amount to anything compared to the security you can have in Jesus. Being the most knowledgeable theologian in the whole world doesn't compare to having the childlike faith

of a little one who knows Jesus, doesn't just know about him, but actually knows him. And y'all might think I'm like being extreme today, not even close to the level of extreme that Paul is. Watch what he says next, you're gonna love this, some of you. For his sake, speaking of Jesus, I've suffered the loss of all things, and I count them, highlight, underline, put a star next to, circle, this word, he counts them all as rubbish. You know what that is? A cuss word right in the Bible. It's gonna bother some of you. The Greek word is scubalon. It means waste, it means refuse, it means excrement. It's BS, bull scubalon, that's what it is. It's right there in the Bible, take it up with Paul, don't take it up with me. Here's what's fascinating, you know what else it actually refers to? Things thrown to dogs. Interesting, what did he call the false teachers in Ephesians earlier in the passage? Dogs, what's he saying? Take all of it, all the stuff that you once held dear and built your life upon and placed your confidence in, and you throw that to those dogs, those false teachers, and you let them fight over the scraps because it is trash, it's refuse.

And you throw that away, watch this, this is so important, so that, in order that, I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, the dependence. on faith that I may, here it is, know him and the power of his resurrection and I may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Paul can be complicated sometimes. Jesus is simple. This is Paul's way of explaining two of the shortest parables that Jesus ever taught. Write this in your journals. You don't have to go there today. Matthew chapter 13, Jesus said it so concisely. He said, the kingdom of heaven, man, it's like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found, he covered it up, and then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and he buys that field. When I was a kid, I used to go hunting arrowheads with my pawpaw out in western Kentucky on his farm. We would just kind of casually walk down a lane. We'd just kind of kick rocks over and things like that, and every now and then, my pawpaw would go, hey, go pick that one up.

Once you scrape around in the dirt a little bit and see what that one is, and every now and then, we'd find a perfect arrowhead. I got an office with a whole thing full of them. What Jesus is saying is, hey, some of you, you're not even intentionally seeking treasure. You're just kind of out in a field, just kind of hanging out. Some of you, you didn't even know you were coming to church today. She just said she wouldn't go out with you unless you came. Some of you got stuck in traffic and you just got ushered in here, and you're like, well, at least there's coffee, you know? You weren't even seeking Jesus, but here's the cool thing. By the end of today, you may be owned by Jesus. He might be his, and you might have him. You might have life for the first time in your life, and you weren't even seeking it, but then Jesus says, let me say this again, because Jesus has to repeat himself, just like parents have to repeat himself, but a little bit differently. He says, again, the king of heaven's like a merchant. This one's in search of fine pearls. Well, I'm finding one pearl of great value. Went and sold all that he had and bought it. Some of you are seeking today. You're treasure hunting. You've tried everything, and today, you're trying Jesus,

and here's what Jesus, here's what Paul are both saying. You wanna know, in the metaphor or in the writing of Paul, what the treasure is, you wanna know what the treasure is? Write down the name Jesus. He is the treasure. He's the one worth trading everything you once built your life upon. One of the toughest parts about my job, let me just let you into my soul here for a minute. My life's desire is to help people meet the real Jesus, to go, here's the real Jesus, meet him, and then get out of the way. That's what my whole life is all about, and so I can beg, I can borrow, I can plead. I can do the best I can to describe him to you. I can preach from his word. I can do all the things. Here's what I can't make you do. I can't make you treasure Jesus. I can't. I can't save you. I can't fix you. I can't. I can't do any of that stuff, but here's what I know, and here's who I'm confident in. I am confident in the power of the Holy Spirit to take his word and to move in your heart and to do all the things that I can't do for you to save you, to fix you, to restore you, to redeem you, to rescue you, and give you life,

and so that's why I get up here and I pour out my soul week after week so that you can see him and know him, and that was Paul's driving passion. Look at what he says. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect. Side note, you ever hear from a teacher that says you can be perfect this side of heaven? Just gather your things and walk away because the Apostle Paul himself said, I ain't gonna be perfect this side of heaven, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus, here's the beauty, has made me his own. He presses on. Here's the question. Why? He's in prison. How are you pressing on, Paul? How do you do that from prison in the middle of all that pain? One of the things I think Paul is saying he put down was the weight of perfectionism. Would it be good news to anybody today to put down the weight of perfectionism? To say that you don't have to live under the weight and the shame of perfectionism anymore because you have a perfect Savior and you ain't him?

His name is Jesus and you can put your faith and your trust in him? So Paul is going, man, I put down perfectionism but I still press on and I can do it in the middle of a prison cell and I've watched many of you in our church do this week in and week out. Some of you are such an encouragement to my faith because of the way that you press on in the middle of your pain. Some of you, right now, you're in the middle of cancer treatments. Right now, you just got out of the hospital a couple weeks ago. Right now, this week, you buried somebody. Right now, you are praying because of a prodigal son or a child that's just wandering from the faith but you keep pressing on. And that's how Paul goes, man, even in the midst of this prison cell that I'm in, I'm writing this letter as evidence that I'm. pressing on, and I will keep straining toward the goal. And that's how Paul could even use a running metaphor, even though he's locked in a prison. That's where he goes next. Brothers, I don't consider that I've made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, polluting all those credentials, and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Here's what Paul is saying. You don't run a race looking backward. You've never seen a sprinter in the Olympics win a race while they're looking over their shoulder, or they're going over in their mind what happened in the starting blocks. No, what do you do? You strain, you reach for the tape, you forget all that lies behind, and you throw yourself towards what's ahead. That's what Paul is doing. You know sprinters, when they run, they're not running with baggy sweatpants on and hoodies. They're wearing basically nothing. They're wearing spandex, because you don't want to be held back. What Paul is saying is, hey man, don't run with file folders full of your accomplishments under your arms. Throw all this stuff away. Don't run with your former victories and trophies flapping in the wind, your credentials on a lanyard in the breeze. Throw all that stuff away, because it's not worth anything compared to knowing Jesus. You've got to put it down. He knows this is hard to swallow.

That's why the next thing he says is this. Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that to you also. In other words, God's never gonna tell you to do something that contradicts what he's already said in his word. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. This is a warning. Watch, brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. This is so sad and tragic. For many of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly. You wanna know what that is? That's the ancient equivalent of follow your heart. Do whatever you wanna do. Do whatever feels good. If you desired it, must be good. That's saying you are God, you understand? And they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. So here's the question Bible commentators have wrestled with for a long time. Who's Paul talking about? He's saying there's some people

that were running the race, but they quit. And the question becomes like, is he talking about those false teachers who were super religious, or is he talking about like total pagans who wanna abuse grace? Is he talking about people who keep file folders full of their religious achievements, or people who are just sinning blatantly so that grace may abound? The fancy theological word for it is antinomianism, people who hate the law. Here's my answer as a simple dude, both. It's both. And here's the thing, it doesn't really matter, does it? If you're not holding on to Jesus, it doesn't matter what it is that you're holding on to, Satan's just as happy, do you understand? Satan's just as happy if you're super religious or you're hyper pagan. He doesn't care as long as you're not holding on to Jesus. So here's the choice that's in front of us today. This is the binary choice that we've been leading up to. Take that card that you've been holding on to. You get to have your credentials or Christ, but you can't have both. You get to choose today. Do you want those credentials or do you want Christ? You can't have both. Where do you want your citizenship to be?

Because this is what Paul says next. This is such an encouragement. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers whom I love and long for, my joy, there's our word, and crown, circle this phrase, stand firm. Thus in the Lord, my beloved. And I have no idea why when I read that phrase, stand firm, it reminded me of this super obscure passage in the book of Daniel. So like, write in your Bibles out by Philippians 3 in the margin if you can. Just write Daniel chapter 11, verse 32. It simply says this. But the people who know their God, that's the kind of people we want to be. We want to know our God. Well, they do, they shall, there it is. Stand firm, but that ain't all. What's next? And take action. People who know their God shall stand firm and take action. It's time to not only stand firm, but also to take action today. There's this old song, some of you are old like me,

and you'll remember this song. We used to sing it around here at Southland all the time, but it was basically, it was written as a reflection on Philippians 3 and Paul's entire mentality. And what you have to understand is, Paul's mentality is written all over the pages of the New Testament. Acts chapter 20 says it clearly, it says this. And now behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit. testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me, but I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself if only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And here's the thing you gotta understand, that mentality of Paul is so contagious, it's spread for two millennia since. Write down to people like Jim Elliott, who right before he got butchered by the very people he was gonna share the gospel to, he said, for he is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he could never lose. Edmund Clowney said it this way, every true church is composed of losers, those who've lost everything for Christ's sake but found everything in him.

So we're getting ready to sing a song, it's an old, old song, and we're gonna make this choice. You may have noticed across our campuses, in front of all of our stages, there's all these trash cans. And so you've got that thing in your hand right now. And we're about to sing an old song just saying, knowing you is better than anything else I once built my life upon, anything else I've been holding on to, knowing you is the best. And so for some of us, this is just gonna be a reminder of a choice we made a long time ago, but maybe you picked back up those credentials a while back and you need to throw them back in the trash where they belong, or maybe today you're going, this is literally what I've built my life upon. And you're gonna have the opportunity to just throw them away today. Because here's what I can promise you, there is a day coming when you and I will breathe our last breath. And our eyes will either close or someone will shut them for us. And the next breath that we draw and the next image we take in will be the face of our creator. And in that moment, we do not want to say, well, here's my credentials, here's what I built my life upon. All we want to do is just look next to that throne and look at the face of Jesus and say, I know him.

I know him. And then we will be welcomed home into his kingdom. And so we're all gonna stand, let's stand. And we're gonna stand firm, but we're also gonna take action. So for the next three songs, you have your opportunity to throw that garbage away.