God’s Game Gains More - Philippians 3:4-14

If you’ve ever watched as kids learn to play basketball, perhaps you’ve seen a situation like this one unfold. Picture for example, it is a youth basketball game and you’re sitting up in the stands. As you sit there and watch, something that seems ordinary enough, doesn’t quite get the reaction that you had expected. A player that doesn’t play all that often, subbed in and on the next play caught the ball, lobbed up a shot, the net swished but the crowd… sighed. Perhaps it doesn't take too much to guess what happened. That overly zealous child had accidentally shot the ball into the wrong team's hoop. 

Every now and again this sort of situation plays out. Now to the parents sitting in the stands, it is humorous and somewhat cute. But the feelings coming from his teammates are completely different. His teammates at that very moment don’t appreciate the long hours of practice he has put in at the gym nor his just perfect release. No one appreciates that, except their opponents, who stand to benefit from his misplaced efforts. He played the game all wrong and what was meant for good with the best of intentions, only caused his team to suffer. Like that confused grade schooler blindly tossing up a shot, we play a losing game when we live our lives according to our own rules and standards. For all we know, we could be taking aim at exactly the wrong goal. But God has a better game plan for us and in our text for this morning we see that God’s game gains more. More than we had, more than we deserve and more opportunities to serve him.

In this portion of Paul's letter to the Philippians, Paul begins listing out his resume of righteousness according to worldly standards. In fact Paul says that according to things both inherited and earned he has more of a right than anyone to boast about his righteousness. He tells us why he says “look at my upbringing, I was raised the right way. I was “circumcised on the 8th day” - Paul's parents not only knew the command of the law of God given to Moses at Mt Sinai, but they actually obeyed it too like a good Jewish couple would. He says, I am an Israelite - one of the chosen people of God, he could trace his lineage directly back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was a part of the people to whom was promised a Savior. In fact not only was he an Israelite, he says I am “a Benjamite” - a descendant of one of the 2 faithful tribes of the Southern Kingdom of Israel who remained faithful to the Lord, unlike the wicked 10 northern tribes which were carried off into captivity never to be seen from again. Paul says not only am I an Israelite, I am a good one too. In an increasingly Greco-Roman world, Paul says I am “a Hebrew of Hebrews.” He grew up reading and writing in the Hebrew language and he studied his Torah relentlessly.

But he hadn’t just passively inherited worldly goodness, no, he had worked hard for it too. “In regard to the law, a pharisee.” Paul had gone above and beyond the average expectation for Jewish men by becoming a Pharisee, one of those pious religious elites. In order to be extra good they followed their own, additional rules and regulations on top of the commands of God given to Moses.  “As to zeal, persecuting the church” he wasn’t one of those lazy bones believers, no he had blood on his own hands as he persecuted the Christians. “As for righteousness according to the law, faultless.” By outward expectations Paul was the epitome of what it meant to be a ‘good’ Jewish man.

But what's his point for listing out this extensive resume of righteousness? Well, at one time in his life, Paul took immense pride in these things. He thought that by his right upbringing and strict piety he could be righteous in God’s sight. With each “good deed” that little voice in the back of his head whispered that he, more than others, was doing it all right. God had to be pleased with his commitment to the bit. When what he really was doing was playing the wrong game. He was lobbing up shots at the wrong goal entirely and true believers, the Christians, were suffering because of it. Paul, in his self imposed zeal wasn’t just missing the mark time and time again, no, he was actively opposing God’s will. Paul was playing a losing game.

So Paul’s question for you this morning is this: What’s your list of credentials that you quietly carry with you? What's your subtle resume that you secretly flash before God to flaunt your righteousness. Maybe it goes something like this… Well, I was born to lifelong Christian parents who themselves were raised by Christian parents. I was baptized as a baby and later enrolled in a Christian school. I was confirmed here and still remain a member here. In regard to weekly attendance: I’m spotless. As for zeal, I always participate in outreach efforts and I volunteer at every possible event. As for righteousness in outward appearances, well, ask anyone around here they know how much I do. Others seem to think well of me and God should too.”

But he doesn’t, not with that attitude anyways. Because that isn’t God’s game, it's a different game entirely. It’s a subtle yet devilish game our egos just love to play called work’s righteousness. A game of “Christ and… something.” Yes, Jesus’ life and death for me and my family’s legacy of strong Christians. Christ and my victory over that sin I’ve been wrestling with. Christ and my efforts to be a more involved member and a better spouse or more patient parent, a more honest worker and a more loving friend. But even with a million of those ‘good deeds’ on our resume do we earn a right to flaunt our righteousness before an Almighty God?

No, of course not. At the end of the day, as we work harder and harder to improve our resume of righteousness, we play an unwinnable game because it can’t ever declare us perfect as God demands. Even worse, God doesn’t find our flawed and failed attempts at perfection amusing or cute at all, no he hates it. In fact, when we act like our righteousness depends on what we do, there is no one on the sidelines cheering us on—no one, except the devil, who hopes to see you keep playing that game and reject your Savior entirely. But that is not playing according to God’s gameplan for us. God’s game gains so much more than this because his is not a game of “doing more and more,” rather it's a game that simply points us time and time again to what’s already been done for you and for me by Jesus. We already have a Savior who perfectly followed God’s gameplan for us. God’s game shifts our focus away from our flawed resumes of righteousness, and points us to Jesus’ perfect one instead. His perfect record covers over ours.

Paul realized and relished this truth as he continues in verse 7 “but whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Apart from a relationship with Christ through faith, we have no true righteousness of which to brag. Anything we try to substitute into that position, Paul goes on to call, garbage. The Greek word that Paul uses is more vivid than that, in the Greek he calls it excrement or dung. You know, I spent most of my life living in WI which is rather well known for its quality dairy products. And for most of my life I lived blissfully ignorant enjoying the quality milk and cheeses that the supermarkets sell to us all neatly packaged. Well, this past summer I lived on a fairly large dairy farm and let me tell you what, as good as those things are, it's a messy process getting to that point. Animals, and cows especially, are really messy, and they make messes nonstop and because of that, they stink! That’s how Paul describes the good deeds we try to point to, when we try adding to our resume of righteousness. It’s a stinking mess, garbage.

God’s righteousness covering us through faith on the other hand, that is not garbage. Pau calls that a priceless treasure worth losing everything else for. Our lives here in this world get messy at times. Our motivation to serve him can easily become one of: all the right things, for all the wrong reasons. That is a losing game. That is why according to Paul everything other than Christ in this life is loss. But God’s game gains way more than we would deserve.

It may seem backwards - that God does something like this for me. I don't deserve it, I can’t deserve it, but God's game gives more than we deserve, and that's the definition of Christ's great love for you. Though on our own we are messy at best, because of Christ, we are righteous. Jesus knows that measuring up to a perfect standard is a tiresome and impossible game for us to win, so he went and won it for us. This is the pure and simple Gospel for you this Sunday, Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever and your Jesus calls to you and says because of me, you are righteous beyond what you deserve my child. Go in peace knowing that your salvation is sure and that heavenly treasure is waiting for you.

Paul concludes, “not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal.” The goal here that Paul is speaking about is heaven. Heaven is our goal and because of Jesus and we look forward to the day when that becomes our reality. But being in God’s game doesn’t mean we are to be lazy bone Christians just waiting for God to just call us home. No, Paul says, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Pressing on to the goal of heaven is Paul's, is every Christians purpose as long as we live. No, we won’t get it all right all the time, but notice that Paul doesn’t say that perfection is the goal, he says heaven is. Because of this, our acts of faith take on a whole new meaning, not to add to our resume of righteousness but to put our faith into practice. Everyday being in God’s game means there are always more opportunities on this side of heaven to grow in our faith and to display Christ’s love to the world around us.

As he wraps up this section of his letter, Paul uses one final picture to describe the Christian life; he compares the Christian to an athlete competing for a prize. Such an athlete has in mind the goal of winning the game. They long for that final whistle. But, until that signal comes there is a lot of hard work yet to be done. It isn’t always easy and it takes both physical discipline and mental fortitude to get through it. Whether you realize it or not, you and I and every believer are such athletes and we are in that game. Maybe I don’t know exactly what that game has looked like for you. Maybe you feel like your earthly race to the heavenly goal is just merely beginning. Maybe you have been straining at it for decades. Maybe you are feeling motivated and energized or maybe you are feeling down and out ready to walk away entirely. Wherever you may think you are, I've got good news for you today - that unlike a true game, where there can only be one winner, in Christ we are all winners. In fact, the game is already won. Christ’s victory is our victory, even before your earthly life here has ended.

So fellow athletes… no, fellow victorious athletes, keep playing the game God has set before you. Let your good deeds shine before others, not to elevate yourself or to add to your own resume of righteousness, but to make Christ's righteousness on their behalf known to all. While we live here in this world, playing in God’s game means that there are always more opportunities to serve him. Be thankful we aren’t in this by ourselves blindly playing according to our own rules, but rejoice, because we are in God’s game and God’s game gains so much more: more than we had on our own, more than we deserved, and more opportunities to serve him. Amen.