Ep. 32 | The Aspiring Apostle | Philippians

Listen in as Pastor Eddie Blalock shares today’s daily devotional featuring Philippians 3:10-11. Let’s be Formed by The Word together!

Ready to connect? You can send us a message through our website theorchardcc.org, or email Pastor Eddie Blalock at eddie@theorchardcc.org. You can also follow The Orchard Community Church on Facebook and Instagram to stay connected, and find more content on our YouTube channel.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Formed by the Word, a podcast where we don't just read the Bible, we invite it to shape our lives. In each episode, Pastor Eddie Blaylock will provide daily devotionals seeking to connect real scripture to real life. We'll be starting with the book of Philippians. This incredible letter clearly reveals how life in Christ shapes a resilient faith and a joy that is not dependent on circumstances. So wherever you're listening, whether you're driving, working out, or just scrolling for something meaningful, lean in, open your heart, and let's be formed by the word together.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

So a fun question for you to start with this morning. What did you aspire to be when you were young? What did you dream about before life got complicated, right? When you could still dream about being anything. I asked AI what young boys and girls dreamed about becoming one day. I thought it might be interesting. The answers may or may not surprise you, but here's what he said. He said traditionally, boys tended toward being a professional athlete, football, baseball, basketball, or something else. They also said a firefighter or police officer. Also high on the list is astronaut, pilot, construction worker, or engineer, a soldier, or maybe an inventor. Now, traditionally, girls tended toward being a teacher, a veterinarian, a doctor, a nurse, a dancer, or performer, maybe an artist or a singer. And no, those did not take me by surprise at all. But what did is the next to note, and that is that there's been a noticeable shift in recent years. And today, ask that same question, what would you aspire to be when you grow up? The answers were these. Top of the list YouTuber influencer, a professional gamer, entrepreneur, a business owner, a scientist, a tech creator, or a content creator, TikTok streaming, et cetera. Wow. That's interesting, isn't it? Well, Paul was clearly driven toward his aspirations as well. I was thinking as I read this passage, isn't it interesting what Paul aspires to? It's quite different than ours, but let's take a look. Now, yesterday we saw that Paul wanted to be found in him, that is founded in Christ. Remember, now we're in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 9. He said, I want to be found in him. Today we're going to look at verse 10 and 11 and go a little bit further with his aspirations. Paul realized that his own efforts at pleasing God were or ever would be never enough. So he shared with his people in Philippi that this was his most cherished aspiration. He was so grateful for his new identity in Christ. He was so grateful to be trusting Christ's righteousness and not dependent upon his own. Again, his own, our own, will never be adequate to stand before God. So next, Paul shared with them these aspirations. Look at verse 10 where he says this. He says, My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection. Wow, what a thought. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection. Or we might say his goal was to be with him, right? In order to know someone, we have to be with them. Ray Steadman wrote these words. He said, The friends you know best are the ones you have spent the most time with, or at least the ones you have gone through deep experiences with. This knowledge of Christ comes by continual sharing of experiences together. It comes by the two of us, Jesus and I, living our lives together moment by moment, sharing experiences. It comes by gazing on the face of Jesus Christ as he appears in the pages of Scripture. Stedman continues, it comes by allowing every circumstance to make us lean back on his adequate life, hiding nothing from his eyes, by bringing every friendship and every loyalty to his gaze for his approval or his disapproval, by walking every day, reckoning upon him to be with us. Wow, what great words. And these words remind us that knowing Christ is relational, not just informational. Sometimes I think we think of knowing him as just informational, but Paul wants us to have a personal knowledge. He wanted to have a personal knowledge, an experiential knowledge, a relational intimacy with Christ. That was his goal, as he put it. That's my aim, that's my aspiration. Furthermore, his goal was to experience Christ's power in his life. He said, I want to know him and the power of his resurrection. I want to know that power that raised him from the dead is resident within me and experience that kind of power. And then he added, and the fellowship of his sufferings. Now we might be surprised to see that there, but his goal was not only to be with Christ, his goal was also to learn about him. He wanted to know the fellowship of his sufferings. The word fellowship means to have in common. Paul wanted to learn from our Lord's suffering. The remarkable thing about the sufferings of Christ is that they are always for someone else, never for oneself. That is, the compassion we all earnestly long for, but seldom achieve. You'll notice that it doesn't come by trying, it comes by knowing Him, not trying to feel compassionate. We can't conjure up such compassion as Christ did. We can't even find this compassion through remembering what he's done for you. These things won't make you compassionate. The fellowship of suffering that Paul talks about is a Christ-like compassion that only comes through being found in him. Next, Paul adds that he wants to be, his goal, his aspiration is to be conformed to his death. And then he adds in verse 11, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. So his goal was not just to be with Christ, not just to learn from him, but his goal ultimately was to be like him, to be conformed to his death. That is, dying to himself so that Christ could fully live in him. That's our aspiration, that we would die to ourselves, that I would die to myself so that Christ can live in me fully. It's not about physical death. Paul isn't saying I want to literally die like Jesus. He's talking about a spiritual shaping, a life that increasingly takes on the pattern of Jesus' death. It's absolutely a daily, about a daily death to self. Jesus' death was the ultimate act of surrender, obedience, and sacrifice. And so to be conformed to his death means we adopt that same posture in everyday life. So it means we die to pride, that we die to control of our life, we die to selfish ambition, and we we die to sin in our lives. It's a tall order, but that's his aspiration. Luke 9 23 echoes this thought. Jesus told his followers, if you want to follow me, he said, take up your cross daily. Take up your cross daily, that is, to die to yourself daily. So to fulfill his purpose in life, Paul welcomed suffering that was meant to shape his life spiritually. He wanted to have a heart that would trust God when it's hard, a heart that would obey when obedience costs something, and a heart that would stay faithful even when it was misunderstood. So let's wrap up our time this morning with some important application for us. I think it's important for this particular study. A couple of things. First of all, observe that Christianity is not merely believing doctrines, it's knowing Jesus, having a growing relationship with him that is personal and intimate. Second, our aspiration then should be that we would be like him, that we would learn from him, and that we would become like him. Paul's mighty motive to achieve all that Christ desired when he laid hold of him on the road to Damascus is the same longing that I have. My longing is to achieve all that Christ desired for me when I gave my heart to him as a nine-year-old boy. What about you? Here's the takeaway for today, and then a couple of thoughts quickly. The takeaway might be this I want to aspire to be less like me and more like him. That's my heart. I want to die to myself so that I might be formed more and more into his image. I would say it this way: I am not chasing a better version of me. I want to be more like Christ. Spiritual maturity is not measured by how much I know, how much money I make, or how successful I seem to be in light. Spiritual maturity is measured by how much my life looks like his. Good thought for this day. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us the moment that we have today. And Father, I thank you that you have given us an aspiration, an ambition to be like you, a calling to be like you. So, Father, begin to work in our hearts. We want to spend time with you, to learn from you, and most of all, to be like you. Father. We love you and honor you this day. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Thanks for joining us today. We are so glad that you chose to spend a few moments with us in God's Word. If this episode has encouraged you, we ask that you leave us a review or maybe share this episode with a friend. Also, would you consider sending us a note to let us know what God is doing in your life? Pastor Eddie would love to hear from you. You can find this email in the show notes. Until next time, stay in the scriptures, keep following Christ, and allow your life to be formed by the Word.