Free to be Confident

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Good morning, Chapel family. A very happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers among us. Thank you moms for all that you do—and especially mothers who have young kids right now—I think it’s harder to be a mother now than it’s ever been before—with Covid and hybrid school and all the other challenges in our world. So moms, just know that we appreciate you and we thank God for you, and what you do is so valuable in the eyes of God. So, may you feel the blessing of God on this Mother’s Day. Can we just show our appreciation for the moms here?

So, we are taking this spring to walk through Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Paul knew these people in Philippi personally, because twenty years earlier he had spent some time there, and started a church there. And they had kept in touch over the years. So the letter is very warm and personal. But what makes it so amazing is that Paul wrote it from a Roman prison cell. And so, similar to the prison writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela, and others, there’s this added sense of gravitas and power to everything Paul says.

But not only that; it also makes us recognize the prisons in our own lives. Some of you feel locked in by a terrible job situation. Or you feel imprisoned by an addiction. Or an abusive relationship. Or a really difficult marriage. Or a school that you hate. Or maybe motherhood—and I say that very respectfully, but sometimes the demands and the relentlessness of motherhood can feel very confining, and can make you feel trapped—right moms? We all have our prisons. And in this letter, Paul is showing us that even when life traps us and imprisons us, there is an inner kind of freedom that no chains can take away.

So today we come to chapter three, and Paul is going to show us that, regardless of what prisons may be around us, we are Free to Be Confident. Free to be confident. And the way he goes about it is he opens up about his life story. Years earlier, Paul had been extremely confident. He didn’t struggle with insecurity or lack of ambition; he knew exactly who he was and where he was going. And then everything blew up. And it was through that blowup—through the crisis—that Paul learned a new kind of confidence. And this new kind of confidence he had found was so solid, even prison couldn’t shake it.

So I don’t know how confident you’re feeling today—some of you probably feel ready to go take on the world; some of you probably feel like crawling back into bed—but wherever you are on the confidence scale, you need to hear this. We need to hear this. Because we all have a tendency to base our confidence on very shaky things—just like Paul used to. And God wants to show us a better way.

So let’s look at the Scripture together. Philippians chapter three, the first nine verses. I invite you now to hear the Word of God…

1 Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. This is the Word of the Lord.

So based on this teaching, let’s talk about three things today: The Search for Confidence, The Elusiveness of Confidence, and The Secret of Confidence. The search, the elusiveness, and the secret of confidence.

So first, let’s talk about The Search for Confidence. In verse 2, Paul gives a very strange warning: Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. What is he talking about? Well, back in that time, a lot of the people who became Christians were Jewish people, who had accepted Jesus as the Messiah. And sometimes those Jewish believers would pressure the Gentile Christians to follow the Jewish laws—the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament. So they would say, “Hey—welcome to church. Now, listen: when you go to the Bonefish Grill tonight, just remember: you can’t order the pork chops or the Bang-Bang Shrimp anymore. Those are on the ‘unclean’ list.” And that was just one in a long list of rules. And for many, the most important one, was the Old Testament law of circumcision. Gentile men who became believers were pressured to be circumcised. (Isn’t this a great theme for Mother’s Day? Hey—we just teach what’s in the Bible). So if you were a Gentile Christian, and you didn’t get circumcised, there was a nickname for you. The would call you a “Gentile dog.” And Paul is saying, “Actually, the real dogs are the people who are pressuring you—the people who want to mutilate your flesh by circumcising you. Don’t fall into their trap.”

Some of you are thinking, “What could this possibly have to do with us?” Here it is: they were being pressured to base their confidence—the way they felt about themselves and their value as people—on whether they were complying with an outward rule. And that’s always a mistake. Paul goes on in verse 3: For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. In other words, the real people of God aren’t those who’ve had minor surgery on their reproductive parts. The real people of God are those who have this certain kind of relationship with God through Christ. Real confidence doesn’t come from rituals; it comes from a relationship.

And that last line is so key: he says the real people of God are people who put no confidence in the flesh. So this is a broader principle. He’s talking about a tendency that you and I have to put our confidence in outward things: things that we’ve accomplished—religious or otherwise; things that we’ve accumulated; our reputation. That’s what Paul means by “the flesh.” All the outer stuff that make us feel good about ourselves; or if we don’t have them, we don’t feel good about ourselves. That’s “the flesh.” And Paul says, “People who truly know God have learned to stop putting their confidence in the flesh.”

This was really personal for Paul. So this is where he starts sharing his own story—midway through verse 4… If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews… Paul came from a very good family—a devout, respectable, Jewish home. He goes on… in

regard to the law, a Pharisee; So Paul wasn’t just a synagogue-attending Jewish man; he was a Pharisee—which means he knew the Scriptures backwards and forwards, as a member of the most elite sect of the Jewish faith. And then verse 6: as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. So when it came to keeping the commandments; observing the holidays; keeping a kosher diet…Paul was a superstar. And he even did his part to try to stamp out this annoying sect called Christianity. And all of those things made him feel significant and confident.

How about you? Where do you find your confidence? Maybe you’re like Paul, and you find your value in doing church stuff. Because you grew up in a religious environment, and you discovered early on that if you memorized a verse, or if you had perfect attendance at Sunday School or CCD, your parents were pleased with you. And that’s so deep in you, that you only really feel good about yourself if you go to church and volunteer in a ministry…and if you skip a Sunday, you feel this vague sense that God doesn’t like you quite as much this week. So your confidence is in your church activity.

Or maybe it’s not such a spiritual thing. You’re a great athlete. And every time people see you, they ask you about your last game or they ask you what colleges are recruiting you and offering you scholarships. So your confidence is in your athleticism. It’s just who you are.

Or maybe you’ve been extremely successful in your career, and you take great pride in your home and your cars and maybe your boat. And those times when you’re having a bad day, or you’re doubting yourself, you can just picture that last dinner party you had at your house, and how impressed people were when they walked through your home. And you immediately feel better about yourself. Because you’ve obviously made something of your life.

So whether it’s a spiritual thing or an athletic thing or a job thing or anything, if that’s the thing that makes us feel good about our lives, we’re finding our confidence in the flesh. Which can actually work okay for quite a while—but eventually that approach will fail you.

Which leads to our second point: The Elusiveness of Confidence. Let me give you three reasons that find confidence in outward things is a losing strategy.

First, Relentlessness. Whatever thing you do for your sense of worth, you will start to realize that it’s a monster that keeps demanding to be fed. And that’s a lot of pressure. Sydney Pollack, the great film director, said this: “Every time I finish a picture, I feel like I’ve done what I’m supposed to do in the sense that I’ve earned my stay for another year or so.” And his family said that even when he was an older man, he couldn’t justify his existence if he stopped making movies. Whew. Is it like that for you? Like, you’re good at what you do, but you get the sense that your value is only as good as your most recent performance? Man, that’s exhausting.

I’ll be completely honest: if I’m not careful, I can start to feel that way about what I do here at the Chapel. Because I do lots of pastoral things during the week, but my one main deliverable is to stand up here and preach on Sundays. And here’s what I’ve realized: no matter how much I study and prepare and pray and just pour myself out to construct that sermon and deliver it on a Sunday, and no matter how much it helps people and moves people and leads people to Christ, when that Sunday is over, and I wake up on Monday, guess what? Everyone expects me to come up with another one next Sunday. As my wife sometimes says to me, “Keep crankin’ ‘em out, preacher boy.” And I’m not blaming you guys—it’s just the nature of this calling. And you probably have some version of it in what you do. But here’s the point: if we base our significance on our ability to deliver time after time after time, that is relentless and exhausting, and it’s very hard to sustain that.

Second—and this is related to the first one—Insecurity. When you base your significance on your performance, you can start to feel very insecure. Because deep inside, you know you’re not that good. You know you have your weaknesses. And there’s probably part of you that fears you’ll be exposed as a fake. Have you ever heard of “Imposter Syndrome”? It’s the fear that deep down, you’re just faking it, and you know it, and eventually people will find out. It’s very common. Some of the most powerful people are very insecure people. Now probably, you would look at them and say, “That person’s not insecure at all! He’s arrogant!” Here’s what I’ve realized: arrogance and insecurity are actually very closely related. Because you know what they have in common? They’re both an obsession with self. Wouldn’t it be great if you could be freed from obsession with yourself?

Here’s one more reason we find success elusive: Fragileness. If you gain your sense of identity from your good looks; your athletic ability; your intelligence; your business; it’s a huge risk—because all of those things are fragile. They can all be taken away.

I’m not a big baseball fan, but this story really caught my attention. Mark Appel was a phenomenal pitcher from Stanford University. You baseball fans will appreciate this: his senior year he had a 2.12 ERA, struck out 130 batters and walked just 23 in 106.1 innings. So in 2013, the Houston Astros chose used their No. 1 pick in the draft to select him. They signed him to a $6.35 million bonus. The general manager of the Astrros called him "the most significant investment the Astros have made in their history in an amateur player.”

And then reality happened. To quote Mark Appel himself: "In 2014, I was maybe the worst pitcher in professional baseball." And it didn’t make sense—he ran, he worked out, he went to the gym; he prepared as much as he could, but whenever his turn to pitch came, he was awful. He said: "I go out and pitch, and it's the same thing every time. I can't get an out. Walk. Hit. Walk. Hit. Then I'm out of the game. What just happened?” So midway through that season, it was his 23rd birthday. He was scheduled to pitch the next day, and he just knew this was the turning point. So he went out…and he had the worst game of his life. And he was done. He went to the locker room with tears streaming down his face. He shut the door and screamed until his voice went hoarse.

So…are you ready to hear about his big turnaround? It never happened. After a couple more seasons in the minors, he took an indefinite break from the game of baseball. Someone asked him if he feels like he could be the biggest Major League Baseball bust of all time, and he said, “Yeah—I probably am.” Isn’t that a happy story?

I’ll get back to him in a minute. But I use that example because most of the time, it takes a crisis to get our attention. So if we’re finding our significance in our performance—or, as Paul describes it, “in our flesh,” we usually don’t let go of that until God somehow shakes it loose. Your business fails. Your spouse walks out. Your body gets injured. Or sometimes, the crisis doesn’t happen all at once; it kind of creeps up on you. Like the woman who’s gained her sense of sense from her beauty. But as time goes on she realizes she’s getting older, and she doesn’t turn heads like she used to—and dressing like a 20-year-old just makes her look silly. God uses all kinds of things to shake our idols loose.

And that’s exactly what happened to Paul. Now, in the case of Paul, it happened in a very dramatic, supernatural way. You probably know the story: Paul was right in the middle of doing the very thing that gave him his identity. He was being a religious leader; he was on his way to arrest more Christians; and God directly intervened: he struck Paul blind (temporarily) and knocked him to the ground. Why?? Because God is mean and he wanted to punish him? No. Because God loved him, and he had something so much better planned for Paul…just like he does for us.

And that brings us to the final point: The Secret of Confidence. What is the secret that Paul discovered? I see two parts of it. First, A New View of My Assets. Look at verses 7 and 8: 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ. Paul developed a new view of his assets. Here’s what I mean: right before this, Paul just listed off all the things he had going for him. Right? He came from a good family; devout, religious upbringing; he was very accomplished in his career; he knew the Scriptures; he kept God’s commandments. Those were his assets. So what does he say about those things now? He says, “I consider them loss.” In verse 8, he says, “I consider them garbage.” That’s pretty strong.

So does that mean that everything Paul had going for him before he met Christ, once he met Christ, he threw them all away? Like, they were just worthless? No. For example, Paul’s Jewish heritage was one of his assets. After he came to faith in Christ, he used that to connect with fellow Jewish people and talk to them about why he believed Jesus was the promised Messiah. Paul’s knowledge of the Scriptures was one of his assets. And after he came to Christ, he used that in profound ways, as he wrote letters that would become part of the New Testament. Paul definitely didn’t throw away everything he’d built up before coming to Christ. So why does he call it garbage?

Because as a means of righteousness, it was worthless. As a basis for confidence, it was garbage. Does that make sense? He used to feel like he was somebody because of his religious background and his education. He built his identity on those assets. Now he’s saying, “I have a whole new source of confidence. The assets in my life are no longer Saviors—they’re no longer idols. So now I can hold those things loosely. I can view them for what they are—they’re just tools I can use to serve God.”

And then here’s the second part of Paul’s secret: A New Basis for Confidence. Look at verse 9: and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. There was this radical shift in Paul’s heart, and here’s how I would describe it: he stopped relying on his own assets, and he started relying on Christ. It was no longer about Paul’s goodness and righteousness; it was about the goodness and righteousness of Jesus. He stopped pointing everyone to his own resume, and he started pointing everyone to the resume of Jesus. To use a biblical term, he stopped boasting in himself, and he started boasting in Christ. That’s a radical shift in identity!

Have you learned to make that shift? Because when we make that shift and lean fully on Christ, we start to change deep inside. The way we look at life changes noticeably.

The pressure to perform doesn’t seem so relentless anymore. We still strive for excellence in what we do, but we can relax, because our identity is not riding on our performance. I’m doing my best on this sermon, but even if you think this message stinks, that won’t crush me. I’ll be okay.

Back to Mark Appel. Can you imagine being considered the biggest bust in baseball in all of history? Can you imagine what that would do to your confidence and your self-image? But God used that moment in his life. He had been a Christian for years, but it’s one thing to know truth in your head; it’s another thing to lean into it and live it, right? And that failure became an opportunity to remember who he was, and what really gave him value: it wasn’t his performance on the mound; it was his Savior. So when he finally walked away from baseball, he wasn’t demoralized or depressed; it was just another experience in his life. And by the way, I just found this out: this season, he’s trying to make a comeback. The April 1 edition of Sports Spectrum magazine ran an article with the headline: “Former

No. 1 overall pick Mark Appel back in baseball with contentment in Christ.” So he just signed with the Phillies organization, and I hope he makes it this time. But if he doesn’t, he’s going to be okay.

When we’re basing our confidence on Christ, we handle criticism better. We no longer need to get defensive and angry. Recently one of our younger staff members told me about an email he got from someone in the congregation, giving some constructive criticism. Don’t you love those emails? But they’re such a great gauge of our maturity. And I was so proud of this staff member, because he was able to separate his identity from the thing being criticized, and he was able to respond in a gracious way, and even learn from it. That might seem like a little thing to you, but it’s a big thing.

We can laugh at our mistakes, and we don’t get embarrassed so easily. We can take risks…because failure doesn’t devastate us.

We struggle with guilt less often. Some of you have high standards for yourself, and a highly sensitive conscience. So you lie awake at night and you think about the things you did wrong. You think about all the people who must be disappointed and mad at you, including God. Can you relate to that? Paul was able to get a good night’s sleep—right in his prison cell—because he had gotten off the treadmill of trying to be good enough for God, and he had rested his soul in Christ.

When we’re basing our confidence on Christ, even if we’re really good at our work, we won’t feel like we need to compromise everything else in our life for the sake of work. We don’t compulsively check email—we know when to shut it down and take a day off. We can actually go on vacation.

Finding our confidence in Christ changes us in so many ways.

One of my favorite pictures of this comes from the movie Chariots of Fire. It focuses on two British runners: Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell. Both of them ran for England in the 1924 Olympics in Paris. Eric Liddell was a Christian, and his faith was really the center of his life—even more than his running was. So there’s a scene in the movie where the two guys are talking, and Harold Abrahams was about to run the 100-meter. And he says these words: “I will raise my eyes and look down that corridor; 4 feet wide, with 10 lonely seconds to justify my whole existence. But will I?” Isn’t that a sad thing to say? Those are the words of a man who built his life on his performance: “I’ll have ten seconds to justify my existence.” In other words, I’m only as valuable as I can prove myself to be on this track.

In radical contrast to that, Eric Liddell, the other runner, says, “God has made me fast…and when I run, I can feel his pleasure.” Those are the words of a man whose confidence is in Christ.

See, one guy was running to prove he was valuable; the other guy was running because he already knew he was.

And by the way, even though Eric Liddell found his value in Christ, he still worked hard! He trained; he won gold in those Olympics. Security in Christ frees us to live with passion and excellence. It doesn’t mean we stop doing what we do; it just means we don’t worship it. We hold it more loosely. We can relax in it. Our whole identity no longer rests in what we do… because our identity is wrapped up in Christ.

I know some of you are really struggling with confidence right now. Because you feel trapped by some life situation. You feel powerless; you feel like you have no control; it’s a terrible feeling. And all you want to do is get out of that prison. But maybe God has you right where he wants you. Maybe this hard thing in your life is the only way that you’ll finally stop trusting yourself, and start trusting Christ. He loves you; he gave his life for you on the cross; and he’s there for you right now.

So no matter what prison you might be in, you are free to be confident.