26 May The magnificent obsession

Philippians 3:4-12

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. ² Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. ³ For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— ⁴ though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for 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; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. ⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. ¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Some of you might find it hard to believe, but I was actually a pretty good athlete back in the day. I was a sprinter. If you do not know what a sprinter is, a sprinter is someone who run 100M and 200M race. I was a 100M and 200M sprinter for my school and I was fast. Let me take you back to the very first time I represented my school in sporting event. I was not accustomed to competing in sport. If you have seen a picture of me when I was young, you know why. I was chubby and nerdy. I looked like Nobita in Doraemon. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous for my race. Just an hour before my 100M race, I was asked to run the 800M race because the runner that supposed to run the race was sick. And I did. Did you guys remember in which position I finished the race? I was first for the first 400M but then I was knocked out. I ended up in 16^th place out of 16 runners. Dead last. One of the most embarrassing moment of my life. But in my defense, 800M was not my thing. I was a sprinter. I was there to run the 100M and 200M race. Then an hour later, the 100M race was up. Now, that was my race.

However, after coming last on the 800M race, I was mentally down. It was the very first time I represented my school and I came last. I was very nervous just to be in the zone athletic carnival, and now added to it the fact that I just came last on the 800M race. I was not ready for my 100M race. My coach realized that. He walked up to me before my race and said, “Hey, I know you are nervous but right now I need you to stop thinking about the last race. I need you to focus in this race. So this is what you will do. You get in that block and prepare yourself for a good start. And when you hear the gunshot, don’t look to the right and left. Just look straight ahead. I will be waiting for you at the finish line. Just look straight at me and run. Don’t worry about your surroundings. I have trained you and I know you are fast.” My coach gave me the inspirational coach talk. Anyway. I set up my block and prepared myself for a good start. And when I was in that block, my body trembled. I was nervous and afraid. “On your mark, set…. Bang.” The moment I heard the gunshot, I jumped out of the block and immediately my right calf got a little cramp. I stumbled at the start. If you know anything about a sprint, a good start is extremely crucial. And I thought I was going to be dead last again in this race. But then I remembered what my coach said. “Don’t think about anything else, just look straight at me and run.” So I did. And I finished the race. Anyone want to guess in which position I finished the race? First. And it was my fastest time for 100M race.

How does my race related to the passage? I’m glad you asked. The truth is, all of us are in a race. Many New Testament writers depict Christian life as a race. And in order to finish the race, we need to look straight to the finish line and see that our prize is waiting for us. We need to see that Jesus Christ is waiting for us at the finish line, ready to congratulate us for finishing the race. With another word, in order for us to finish the race, we have to look to him. We have to gaze at him. We have to run hard after him. He needs to be our life-long passionate pursuit. He must become our magnificent obsession. And this is not as easy as it sounds. Because we live in a world that is obsessed with self-resume.

What is resume? A resume is an argument; it is a case that gives credential to who you are. Correct? Anyone ever write a resume before? What do you write? Anyone ever write in their resume, “I am 33 years old, I am a free loader who still lived in my parents’ house and I am proud of it”? No. Resume is a list of your merits. Your accomplishment. Your qualifications. The purpose of resume is to get you into some place that you desire. Right? How do you get into college? You wave your resume at them. “Look at all my grades in high school. I barely pass but I still pass. So I’m confident that I’ll pass your college.” If you want a marketing job, you wave your resume at that job. “I have this and that experience. I was the best marketing for Lestari and I made their fried rice really famous. This is why I should get this marketing job.” Resume is a list of your merits in order to get you to some place you desire. You can’t get anywhere without a good resume.

But we not only use our resume to get to some place we desire, we also use our resume in everything we do. We use our resume for friendship. When you first come to a new place, you want people to accept you. Let’s say it is your first time coming to RSI. Girls, you would be thinking, “What should I wear? Should I dress up or dress down? Is this skirt too short? Is this make up too much? Oh no, I look like a beggar. I better buy some new clothes.” Why? Because you already assume that people will size you up and judge whether you are good enough to enter their circle or not. The same with romance. When you choose your partner, you look at their resume. Am I right? Anyone want to spend the rest of their life with a homeless, jobless, no direction in life type of person? No. So guys, what do we do when we pursue a woman? We show her our resume. Correct? “Hey girl, this is why you should be with me. This is what I can do for you. Look at my income. Look at my achievements. Look at my nice personalities.” What we are doing with our resume is we are saying, “Babe, no one can love you like I do so you should be with me.”

We lived in a world system structured by resume. Good resume gets you in while bad resume kicks you out. So no wonder we are obsessed in building our own self-resume. The problem is that we are not only using our resume for the things of this world, but we also use this resume in our relationship with God. We want God to open the door for us because of our resume. But then came apostle Paul and he tells us that all of our resume is rubbish in comparison to the joy of being found in Christ. Paul is introducing us to another resume that is ours if we put our faith in Christ. And this resume is unlike every resume in this world. This resume has nothing to do with our merits and our accomplishment. This new resume is filled with Christ’s merits and accomplishment. Here is my sermon in a sentence: Christians, you can stop obsessing about your self-resume because you have been given a brand new resume, a new magnificent obsession, the resume of Christ.

Let me give you a quick context of this passage. There are false teachers who taught the church in Philippi that they need to work on their self-resume to be a good Christian. And to this issue, Paul responded in verse 2, “who let the dogs out?” And this meant to be an insult. For many of us, we think of dog as a cute pet. But in those days, dog is a symbol of something unclean and unworthy. Paul intentionally choose strong words because he wants the church in Philippi to understand that Christians do not boast on their self-resume but Christians boast in Christ’s resume. Christians are those who boast in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in self. And whatever message that lessen the glory of Christ, that message is of a dog. Don’t listen to it. This is the gist of verse 1 to 3. So rather than obsessing over our own self-resume, Paul wants us to have a magnificent obsession on Christ and his resume.

So three things we will talk about. Wrong obsession; Magnificent obsession; True satisfaction.

Wrong obsession

Phil 3:4-6 – ⁴ though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for 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; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Paul is making a comparison between his self-resume and the resume he received from Christ. He started off with showing us his self-resume and it was a very impressive resume. He mentioned seven things which consisted of four inherited privileges and three personal accomplishments. Let’s list out the inherited privileges first. First, he said that he was circumcised on the eight day, he was of the true people of Israel, he was of the tribe of Benjamin, and he was Hebrew of Hebrews. What does it mean? It simply means that Paul was born in the right family! Paul was not your ordinary common men. If he wanted to boast about his family heritage, he could! I’m not going to tell you the details of what each privileges meant because of time but it is suffice for us to know that Paul was a person with high social status. Maybe if Paul was living in our days and time, he would be equivalent to someone who was born of the Royal family. He had the inherited privileges that common people could only wish for. In a simple modern word, Paul is saying, “If you want to know how impressive my resume is, all you have to do is look at my last name.”

But Paul did not stop there. He also gave us three personal achievements. He said that as to the law he was a Pharisee; as to zeal he was a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law he was blameless. Basically what Paul was saying was that he had lots of knowledge of Scripture. He spent his life studying the Scriptures as a Pharisee. And not only that, Paul was also devoted to his Jewish faith. He not only studied the Scripture, but he lived it out the best he knew how to the point that he persecuted the church because of his zeal on his Jewish faith. And he also said that he had an excellent moral lifestyle. In regard to following and obeying the law, Paul was blameless. Wow! Paul had reached the pinnacle of moral and religious development. Every Jews would admire Paul. They looked at Paul’s achievement and said, “This dude is legit. He is the Hebrew of Hebrews.” With another word, Paul is saying, “If you want me to compare my self-resume with the false teachers, I’ll win anytime. They have nothing on me.”

Now, let me try to modernize Paul’s resume and you try to guess who am I referring to. “I was born in Yusuf’s family.” That’s a big hint already. “I grew up with a strong Christian education. I was baptized at the age of 12 because Jesus went to the temple at the age of 12.” Until today, I still don’t get what’s the correlation between the two, but hey, it’s the thing a true Christian family does: baptise their kid at the age of 12. Let’s continue. “My parents are pastors. I am an Indo-Chinese. I graduated from my Bible College with Cum-laude. I was called the “one-man-church” because of my ability to perform at every area of ministry. I am currently pastoring a thriving International church called RSI and I preach the gospel week in and week out. And most importantly, according to me, 99% of the people in the church like me, I think. Who am I?” If you get the answer wrong, you must be the other 1% who do not like me. That’s my self-resume. Your resume might looks different from mine but we all have our self-resume and the list of things we are proud of. “I have this education degree. I make $100 grand a year. I am pretty. I am handsome. I am only 25 and I have my own house already. I have this car or that bike. I am admired by people. I have a good family. Or I have 10 exes.” Here is the thing about our resume. They are all good things! They are not bad and certainly they are not sins. But here is the thing that we need to understand. It does not matter how good and awesome our resume is, if it does not give us more of Christ then it is meaningless. And lots of times what stops us from pursuing Christ are not bad things but good things.

This is massive. I hope you feels the weight of what Paul is saying here. It is very possible for you be good Christians, for you to take your family and your kids to church every Sunday, for you to be involved in MC every week, for you to have good reputation at work and in your neighbourhood, for you to make $100K a week, for you to know the Bible in such a way that you can teach other about the Bible, for you to be highly involved in ministry, for you to be moralistic people with no character flaws on the outside, only to come to the end of your life and realize that it is all loss. It is very possible for you have all the good things of life and waste your life. Because there is only one thing worth obsessing for and his name is Christ. All our self-resume is meaningless in comparison to Christ.

Magnificent obsession

Phil 3:7-8 – ⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

Paul says that whatever gain he had, he counted as loss. With another word, he looked at all his past accomplishment in his resume, he added up the score, and came to conclusion that the score was 0. This is very crucial for us to understand otherwise we will waste our lives trying to climb up the social ladder and build our own self-resume. Here is a man who managed to get to the top of the social ladder and counted all as lost. Why? Because Paul realised that none of his accomplishment can save him. So Paul was not saying that all his accomplishments were worthless in itself. You accounting people will appreciate this illustration. So here we have Paul opens up his ledger book. In one side of the table he writes the heading, CREDIT. And he lists out all his credentials and accomplishments. But after he put all of his accomplishment in the credit column of his ledger book and then he put Christ on another side of the table, he realizes that what he thought was credit before is in fact, loss. In comparison to Christ and what Christ gives, all his merits are worthless. So now Paul crosses out the heading credit on top of the table and changes it to LOSS. And then he moves to the other side of the table where Christ is written and he writes GAIN.

Paul then continued, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Surpassing worth. I love that words. For Paul, knowing Jesus was not only worth it but it was surpassing worth. And pay attention to what he said next. “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” The word rubbish is a soft translation. The literal translation of “skubala” is dung, or you can think of it as dog’s crap. So, Paul not only considered his self-resume as loss, but he considered it as dog’s crap. So there was a radical shift that happened in Paul. The progression was not from gain to less gain but from gain to dog’s crap. Why? Because of surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus! Those merits and accomplishments became dung not because they were worthless but because Christ is so much better.

And please note that Paul is not only saying this figuratively. He was not saying that, “Even if I loss it all, Christ is still my magnificent obsession.” That is not what Paul was saying. Paul was saying, “I have suffered the loss of all things.” Paul did not just count all as loss; he lost it all. Can you imagine losing everything in your life that you are proud of and you spent years building on? Paul experienced that. Yet it so much more than worth it. He saw his self-resume that he spent years working on and count it as dog’s crap, in order that he may gain more of Christ. Jesus Christ is Paul’s magnificent obsession.

Jesus puts it this way. Matthew 13:44 – “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” So one day a man finds a treasure hidden in a field. He knows that this treasure worth so much more than everything he has. So he sells everything he has and buys that field. But pay attention to the man’s response. He does not sell everything he has begrudgingly. He does not do it with sad face. He sells everything he has in his joy. Joy! Why? Because the treasure hidden in the field is so much more valuable than everything he possesses. This is what Jesus and Paul are getting at. The life of Christian is a life of joy. Yes we may loss everything we have. Yes we may have to sell everything we have. But it is a joyful transaction because we gain more of Christ in return. There is so much more of Christ to be known. It will take eternity for us to experience his wonders. So whatever transaction we have to make in order to have more of Christ, it is a joyful transaction. You can take all of my books in my bookshelves, you can take all of my suits in my closet, you can take all of my one piece collection in my display cabinet, you can take all of my sermon notes in my IPad and computer, if it gives me more of Jesus then it is a joyful transaction.

If you ever fall in love, you get it. Whatever transaction that gives you more of him or her is worth it. Am I right? When you fall in love, you do silly things. I don’t know if love letter is still a thing or not today but back in the day when I first fell in love and received my first love letter from her, let me tell you, I spent hours reading that letter. And that letter was only a page long. I paid attention to every words she wrote and began to dissect it. “Dear Yosi…” Two words and I pause and ponder already. What is the meaning of this ‘dear’? Does she call everyone dear or am I dear to her? “Dear Yosi, I’ve been thinking about you…” She is thinking about me. In what way? In a friend way or in a more than a friend way? Then she writes, “I have been praying for you.” Is this a general prayer or is it prayer about me being her future boyfriend? Then she draw a smiley face. And I thought, “Aw, she is smiling at me.” You might think I am obsessive but every word matters! So maybe today you spent time reading your chat history with him or her. Maybe you spent hours talking to them and spending time with them instead of studying for your exam which is on the next morning. And you are joyful about it. It is a dumb transaction for sure but it is a joyful one. But the transaction you make in order to gain Jesus is never dumb because it is the only transaction that gives you eternal life and joy. Jesus is the treasure above all treasure. Jesus is our magnificent obsession.

True satisfaction

Phil 3:9-11 – ⁹ 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 that depends on faith— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Here Paul gives us the reason why his self-resume was a dung and why Jesus’ resume was so much better. Paul came to the understanding that nothing in his resume could save him. None. Nothing in his resume could give him the satisfaction that he needed. Nothing in his resume could make him right with God. That is why his resume is nothing but dog’s crap. But here is the gospel. The gospel does not only say that our resume is a dung but the gospel also offers us the perfect resume – Christ’s resume. And here is what is written in Christ’ resume: sinless; holy; perfect; blameless; fully righteous; eternally loved by God the Father; child of God; heir of the kingdom. And you can receive this perfect resume not by working hard to validate yourself but by putting your faith in Christ. Everything your soul and my soul desire is ours by putting our faith in Christ. By trusting in the works of Christ at the cross. Where the judgement of our sins is paid once and for all and forgiveness is given for those who trusts in Christ. And not only forgiveness, but Christ’ righteousness, Christ’ standing, Christ’s resume are yours in a single moment of faith. Everything that is true about Christ is true about you. It does not matter what your self-resume looks like. You can be at the top of the ladder or at the bottom of the ladder. You can be the best student or the worst student in your grade. The good news of the gospel is that I might get BPF in my exam (barely pass fifty) but in Christ I am Suma Cum Laude. Barely pass in Uni but Suma Cum Laude in Christ. Jesus Christ has given me his resume by my faith in him and now I have the perfect resume because of it. That is why I can count my self-resume as dung!

However, that’s not the end. Because now, Jesus has become our magnificent obsession. His life is our life. His resume is our resume. And if that is true, then our life-long pursuit is no longer about building our resume but to know him. To gain him. To be found in him. Paul said, “that I may know Christ and the power of his resurrection.” The resurrection power of Christ is the only reason that we can call ourselves Christian. The resurrection power that raise Christ from the death is the same power that saved us from our sins. You and I were once dead in our sin but God in his power breathe the resurrection power of Christ into our lives. He raised us from death and gave us new life. He conquered our rebellious sinful hearts and gave us new hearts that beats for God and loves one another.

So far so good. But then he continued, “that I may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” Now, this is tough. You and I don’t like sufferings. We have no problem with knowing the power of Christ’ resurrection. But sharing in his suffering? “Can I get an exemption please?” This is not popular. The kind of Christianity that is popular today say that if you do well then God will bless you. If you obey God, then he will bless you with abundant health and wealth. Following Jesus equals to richness and greatness. Sure, you might experience set back and suffer for a while. But behind that suffering lies a great promotion that God wants to give you. You might be a in a prison today but you will be a prime minister of Egypt tomorrow. If you believe it say “amen.” This is what is being taught in many church today and I’m sure some of you said amen in your heart when you heard this message being preached. You did not realize that I tricked you. Because of that, today, many Christians do not know how and what it mean to share in Christ’s suffering. The prosperity gospel has invaded the church in such a way that today many Christians have no idea how to face suffering. Their faith is built on the empty lies of prosperity gospel and when things does not turn out as they expected, they walk away from their faith. But Paul is very clear. After we experience the power of resurrection, we will share in Christ’s suffering.

Pay attention to the order. For Jesus, he suffered and died first, and then he was resurrected. But for us Christians, we experienced the power of Christ’s resurrection first, and then we share in his sufferings. With another word, suffering is not a choice. If you are in Christ, you will suffer. But here is the good news: you also have Christ’s resurrection power in you that enable you to share in Christ’s suffering. Therefore, Christians should not be afraid of suffering. Because we have Christ’s resurrection power, suffering cannot destroy us. Suffering only makes us know and love Christ more and that is a win. Whatever gives us more of Christ is a win since Christ is our magnificent obsession. Let me put it this way. If we want to know Christ more than anything, then we do not mind suffering because it gives us more of Christ.

Let me get Yo-yo Jr. to help me. Let’s say that one day Yo-yo Jr. is crying. I ask him, “Junior, why are you crying?” Yo-yo Jr. replies, “I dropped my $1 coin and I lost it.” So, I comfort him. I tell him that he does not need to worry about the S1 coin he lost. It might mean much to him now but it won’t mean much in few years. But Yo-yo Jr. continues to cry. So I say, “Why are you still crying? You are not an orphan. You are my son. If that $1 dollar is all you have, then it’s fine for you to cry. But you are my son. All that is mine is yours. Daddy has so much more in the bank. Well, not so much because Daddy is a pastor but enough to make you don’t have to worry about losing $1 coin. You are not losing anything by losing that $1. One day, all that is mine is yours.” Christians, do you realize, that even if you lose everything in life you can only lose $1? Because you have Christ.

This is why Paul was such an untouchable man. I mean, what can you do to him? Put him in prison? “I’ll sing hymn and converts all your guards.” Kill him? “For me to die is gain. I want to be with Christ so much. Thank you for killing me.” Leave him alone? “To live is Christ. I am going to continue to preach the gospel to everyone.” Torture him? “This present suffering is nothing to be compared to the future glory that is prepared for me.” Paul was a man obsessed with Christ and there was nothing you can do to him to stop him from pursuing Christ! And this is not only true for Apostle Paul but for everyone who put their faith in Christ. We are untouchable. No matter what happen, we win. The question is, do we live like it? Are we living our lives pursuing Christ or are we still pursuing other things? At the end of the day, the question above all question for Christians is not what do you do for Christ, but are you pursuing Christ? Is he your magnificent obsession?

Paul then continues with an encouragement. Phil 3:12 – ¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Paul is not disillusioned. He understands that he is still in the race. Christ is his magnificent obsession but he realises that he has not obtain all of Christ and he is not perfect. There is still so much more of Christ to be had and he wants to be transformed to be more like Christ. Pauls says that he “press on to make it my own,” which mean that Paul is pursuing. This is not passive but active. Paul is running hard after Christ.

Now, can I be honest? If you have been pursuing Jesus for a while then you would know. There are days where I wake up in the morning and I know that I am deeply in love with Jesus and ready to count everything as loss in order that I may gain Christ. But there are also many days where I wake up and I don’t see Jesus as my ultimate treasure. Anyone? What do we do? Let me tell you a story of “The Lady or the Tiger.” In the story, the king of the land punished criminals by placing them in an arena which had two closed doors. Behind one door was a beautiful girl and behind another was a hungry tiger. If the criminals chose the door with the girl, he would immediately be freed, marry her and live happily ever after. But if the criminal chose the tiger, he got eaten by the hungry tiger. The story goes that the king’s daughter fell in love with a commoner. When the king found out, he was enraged. He placed the man in the arena, giving him the same choice of a beautiful girl or a hungry tiger. The princess had found out which door led to the girl and which led to the tiger. So when the man entered the arena, he looked to his beloved and she gently pointed toward one of the door. Here is the dilemma. Does she pointed him toward the beautiful girl or the tiger? Because now the question is, does she want the love of her life to escape with his life and marry another girl? Or would she prefer him to be eaten by the tiger because if she could not have him, no one could?

The real question in the story is this – do you trust the person telling you which door to take? When you wake up in the morning and are tempted to pursue other things beside Christ, do you trust the person telling you which door leads to life and satisfaction? Because Paul and Jesus is very clear. They points us to the priceless pearl, the true treasure of life. Jesus not only points us toward the door that leads to life, he gave his life in order to guarantee that door for us. It might cost us everything we have to reach that door but in the end it will be worth it. So yes, there will be many days that we do not feel like pursuing hard after Christ. But the question is, do we trust him? Do we trust him that he wants to lead us into true satisfaction? If we do, we run after him even in those days that we don’t feel like it.

But watch what Paul says next. He gives us the reason why we can run hard after Christ. “I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” My friend, this is the gospel. We do not pursue hard after Christ in order to have Christ but because Christ has made us his own. We do not pursue him because we do not have him. We pursue hard after him because Christ in us moves us to pursue hard after him. And this is the biggest difference between Pharisees and Christians. Pharisee says “I need to pursue hard after God in order for God to take hold of me.” Christian says “God has taken hold of me and that is why I pursue hard after him.” And if you put your faith in Jesus, this promise is yours. Everything can be taken away from us but nothing can take us away from Christ. You can take everything away from me. You can take away my parents, and I am no longer a child. You can take away my voice and I am no longer a preacher. You can take away my job and fire me from this church and I am no longer a pastor. But there is one thing that you cannot take away from me. You cannot take Christ away from me because Christ has made me his own. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Discussions:

1. What role does “self-resume” has in our society? Can you see it affects your everyday lives? How?
2. “It is very possible for you to have all the good things of life and waste your life.” Agree or disagree? Why?
3. Why does Paul count all his merit and accomplishment as “skubala”? What do we need to do to see self-resume as loss?
4. Read Matthew 13:44. Would you sell everything you have if you are the man in the parable? Explain the logic of this transaction.
5. Why is Paul untouchable? What does it say about us as Christians?
6. What does it mean to pursue Christ? Discuss.
7. What do we need to do when we don’t feel like pursuing God? Give some daily practical steps you can do as an individual and as a community.