Eden Church

My All for Him1. SET THE SCENEWe often discuss or even teach about our own suffering and what we do to overcome…ourhardships, our pain, our disappointments, our even the flesh being crucified and even theunderstanding of how we walk in God in the crucified life.But we rarely pause to feel the weight of Christ’s suffering, the fellowship of His anguish, theprivilege of being counted with Him.We consider God as above all things…enthroned, victorious, untouchable and …He is.But the God who sits above creation is also the God who became a man, who felt pain, who tookon sorrow, who felt torment.On the cross of Calvery, Jesus said, as He was beaten, and mocked, He says, “father forgivethem for they know not what they do”…On the Damascus Road, Paul persecuted the church, but Jesus said,“Why do you persecute Me?”He makes it personal.He feels what His body feels.He identifies with our suffering because we are in Him, and He is in us.And in following Him, we are not only invited into His resurrection power but we are invited intothe fellowship of His sufferings,the devotion that costs something, the bridal love that walks through the valley with Him.This is not self-pity.This is not emotional tribulation.This is Holy union…and identification with The Cross of Calvary.2. SCRIPTURE*read all of Philippians 3*Philippians 3:8–11 (ESV)“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus myLord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that Imay gain Christ and be found in him…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection,and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible Imay attain the resurrection from the dead.”3. TENSIONThe tension: Are we suffering for Christ, or just suffering in our flesh?Crucifying the flesh is not suffering for Christ.That is simply the very necessary death of the old man in order that we might identify with Him.True suffering for Christ is Holy union, it is identification with Him.It is sharing in His rejection,His humiliation,His burdens,His pain for the sake of the gospel.Many believers obsess over where they’ve been, what they’ve lost, what they feel but Paul says:“I count it all loss.”It is all eclipsed by the revelation and privilege it is to know Him.In fact, all that I do have is but worthless in the eyes of eternity, for anything I have moth and rustwill destroy but Jesus, the person of Jesus, the love, the embrace, the knowing of Him, He isenough.He even warns:Many have become enemies of the cross (Phil 3:18).Not just enemies of Jesus but enemies of His way. How he comes lowly. How he comes to lay Hislife down.And so often in our charismatic circles, we often say “I don’t need to strive”, “it’s a free gift”…well,you’re right that salvation is a free gift but Paul says: “By any means possible I may attain…”This is not earning salvation, but living with holy longing, reverential pursuit, costly devotion.I want to see us drawn into the depths of His love, the union of His suffering, the union ofHis death, the union of His life and the union of His resurrection power.The question we are presented then is this:Do we love His resurrection power but avoid His suffering?Do we want His glory but not His cup?