village and I think she said she moved there in 1975 and I was out of there by 1971 and so but we know some neighbors from the old days and so we had a fun time talking in the parking lot and so good to meet both of you appreciate you bringing your brother your brother here and taking him home too But it's good to meet both of you. And brother Raul, good to meet you too. We talked on the phone. Every time I talk to people on the phone, I always imagine what they look like. This is just a bad habit that I have. And his voice sounded like I asked him, by the way, how old are you? He says, he told me his age. I says, well, you have a voice of a 23 year old man. And I'm always wrong when I guess what people look like. And so he told me, I said, oh, well, wrong again. You're ready for his coming when Jesus claims his own. Amen. Well, I need to hook myself up. So here we go. I told my brother Paul that every time this happens to me, that it seems like I always press the wrong button and I don't press the right button. I said, I go into, I'm going into the 21st century kicking and screaming with all the technology, so then I do this. I pull out this and everybody starts laughing at me. They say, where's your iPhone? Where's your smartphone? And I said, I'm too dumb for a smartphone. That's the problem. So, well, I am so honored and humbled because your preacher, having not met me face-to-face, was willing to have me come and not just be here, which I would be glad just to sit and hear the preaching and teaching, but to ask me to speak. And I thank you, preacher, and I'm glad to be here. I was, you know, one of the first things I thought, you know, when my brother made it possible for me to come and his sister-in-law, I thought, well, my sister-in-law, I thought, well, I need to go to church. And so I'm looking online and I saw obviously your website and I thought, great, awesome. I heard a little bit of the preaching and the teaching and the singing and so forth. And I said, it looks like that'll be the church not too far from my brother's house. And so thank you, preacher, and I appreciate the opportunity. Can you hear me now? Am I on? Okay, I just wanna make sure, because sometimes I think I'm on and I'm not. But as preacher said, I am an evangelist, and I am with the team of La Espada. La Espada is translated the sword in English. It was started by a really, an English-speaking missionary who was learning Spanish on the mission field, oh, about 40 years ago probably. He was a Texan. He was down in that part of the world, He was influenced by the ministry of John R. Rice. How many of you have heard the name John R. Rice? Well, John R. Rice, of course, at that time was having conferences on revival and soul winning. He had the paper. Of course, you know that, and of course, revival meetings, major conferences across the country. And Brother Roland Garlick, who was the founder, was so burdened to have a similar ministry like this for the Spanish-speaking world. And there's nothing like that existed. There was no Last Father. There was no paper like the sword with sermons and Christian articles and so forth to help Christians mature and grow in the Lord. They said, Lord, we need something like that. And usually what happens is when you're burdened about something, The Lord says, yes, I want to use you to take care of that need, to meet that need. And that's what happened with Roland Garlick. And so he started this ministry by faith. There was no real financial, direct financial help of any kind. He just said, I believe the Lord wants me to start this ministry, and we're gonna start it, and we're gonna have a conference. And it started probably with a group like this size. And he would have Spanish pastors and local churches Come through it by invitation and he would have English-speaking pastors of fundamental pastors preach English and he would have it translated and the Lord begin to use that at first and Lord begin to work in the hearts of those that came because of what the Lord did in those early days and some of those pastors now are pastoring churches and in Central America, Mexico, and even in the States where they're just impacting their areas and their communities for Christ. I was impacted personally by this ministry because of 1975, we started a Spanish ministry in our church in Connecticut. We had a need to reach Spanish adults. We were getting the kids, the kids could come and they can be in our English Sunday school, and go to our services, but of course the adults no speak the English, right? No hablo, English. And so we were having trouble obviously reaching them, and we were burdened as an English-speaking church to reach them. And so I was, at that time, working on staff. I went to Maranatha Baptist Bible College and came back, I was serving there. I said, Preacher, look, I grew up in a Puerto Rican home. I didn't speak Spanish fluently, though. I heard it. I didn't speak it. But if I could be immersed in the language, maybe we can get this ministry off the ground. So we worked it out. I went to a Spanish-speaking ministry in Long Beach, California. was immersed as much as I could cram and jam Spanish in my brain. That's what I was doing at the time. I went to Spanish services. I sang in the Spanish choir, went soul winning, knocking on doors in Spanish, everything in Espanol. And then after the seven months were over, my pastor said, okay, you need to come home. We need to get this ministry started. And I wasn't quite ready. I thought, pastor, can I stay a little longer? No, no, we need you to come. You've been out there long enough. We started by faith, really. We started with a small group, a Sunday school class setting in 1995. On Easter Sunday, we figured that would be the best Sunday to get folks to come. And so we did. So fast forward, the Lord blessed. We literally touched probably hundreds of lives. But as you know, you throw the seed out there, but it doesn't always take root in every heart. But the Lord blessed and as the years went by, we got to know this ministry of La Espada. I had a Spanish pastor, a friend who is in heaven now. He pastored for decades in Brooklyn, New York. He contacted me and he said, Brother Pinto, we have a conference every October, we'd like to have you come. It's really a conference kind of like on Revival and helping pastors and sessions for pastors, sessions for ladies. We have services every night for three or four nights. And I said, sure, I need all the preaching I can get. I need all the preaching I can get. I need all the Spanish I can get. So I went and that began my exposure to La Espada. And at that time, the Roland Garlick, who was the founder, was suffering from Parkinson's disease. His son, Dan Garlick, was really taking more of the ministry as his dad was getting worse with Parkinson's. And when I saw him on the platform, he's kind of sitting there with other guest pastors, he was about this tall, blonde hair, blue-eyed guy, white, and I'm thinking, he's gonna preach in Spanish, and I'm thinking, it doesn't look Spanish to me, and so, but when he got up to speak, I thought, boy, he blew me away, because he grew up with his dad on the Spanish mission field, you know, so, you know, Spanish and English were, you know, he spoke since he was a kid, because his dad literally, you know, obviously, he grew up on the mission field, and his dad really had him working with him in the ministry of God's Father. And so a couple years later, probably one or two years later, I said, I thought to myself, I want to have him come and speak to our Spanish people. But we had a small group kind of like what we have here tonight. And I thought on our best Sundays, this is our crowd, right? This number of people. And so. I said, I thought to myself, he's not gonna be able to come. The way he's talking, he's speaking to thousands of people. I mean, they have conferences where there are hundreds, if not a thousand people would show up in different parts of the Spanish-speaking world, especially in Central America, Mexico. And I thought, and he's gotta be booked until 20, 21, 22, 23, somewhere. This was back in the 90s now. So, Well, I came up with, I got enough courage. I went up to him and I said, Brother Garlic, I introduced myself. My name is Raul Pinto. I have a Spanish ministry in Connecticut. Can you come for a Sunday morning? Somehow, you know, work it out. And I was expecting him to say, well, Brother Pinto, I'm sorry. But instead he said, well, tell me, give me a date. So I'm going, oh, okay. So I wasn't ready for that. You know, I'm saying, okay, I'll get back to you. And so should, uh, not, I don't think it was the following year. It may have been the following year, actually, but he did give us a Sunday morning, uh, the, the Spanish pastor who had him for the big conference and he let me borrow him. And I would go pick him up at the airport in New York and bring him to Connecticut, have him preach for us. We'd have our big Sunday. And then I would take him to New York for the conference for the rest of the week. But when he came, he brought tables and tables, loads of pamphlets. Donald Rice had pamphlets on so many different topics. And so Brother Dan had that and more. I mean, he brought so, he had these big sea bags. My brother knows what a sea bag is, right? He had these big sea bags and they were in the trunk of his rental car. He said, Brother Pinto, can you help me with those? I said, sure, so I go and I... Oh, man, what have you got in here? And he said he had his stuff with pamphlets. He had his stuff with all the things that we spread out for our Spanish folk. And I was so excited because They're gonna see all this stuff in Spanish, and it's gonna be on all different topics. It's gonna be not only on how to win people to Christ, but it's gonna be on growth, it's gonna be on different Bible doctrines, and I thought, boy, this is a great resource for our folks, and good conservative Christian music for them, and even some Bibles, and so from that point on, we had that relationship. Every fall, he would come and give us a Sunday, and then we, actually, we worked it out for him to give us a mini La Espada Sword Conference, And we had him for two or three days. And so after about 10 years of that relationship, the Lord opened up an opportunity for me to join the team as an evangelist. And so that's what I did. I did pass Spanish pastor at about 15 plus years in our Spanish ministry. We handed over the ministry to a Spanish pastor and his wife. And then I moved to Maine after a couple years, really only because I wanted to have a base of operations, and the Lord provided some money for me to actually purchase a home, begin purchasing a home, so the Lord provided for that. And so basically, when I joined the team, Brother Dan wanted to use me as his song leader. So brother, I appreciate your song leading tonight. And that's one of my big, uh, my big responsibilities and then coordinate the special music. And then he had me preaching too, which I wasn't expecting. Uh, he had me doing sessions. He had me, he had me preaching from time to time. Uh, and so he told me from the, from the onset, brother Pinto, you've got to raise your own support. We can't pay you a salary. Okay, so I'm called and I've never I've never done that before I've been on church staff for 25 years, you know, this the check was in the box, you know every week so had a salary didn't have to think about it until finally I'm thinking well, I actually have to live by faith. wow you know how you preach about it and then you like the lord said now you're gonna have to practice what you preach and i said okay um so i've been raising support for the last several years basically the the intent is for me to be free enough so that i can go wherever brother dan needed me to go And he was really getting me in as much as he could. They paid the expenses of bringing me to the conferences. I have to take care of that. I raised enough support to pay my own living expenses. Well, Brother Dan, about two years ago, contracted cancer. He had cancer. He was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas. Uh, again, it hit us, uh, you know, like deer in the headlights. We, we were just didn't know, uh, you know, if the Lord was going to heal, we prayed for his healing. And after about a year or so, a year and a half probably of the battle with cancer, the Lord took him home a year ago, almost this May. And so we had that happen last year and we had COVID hit us at the same time. So needless to say, our ministry just came to a screeching halt. So if you would pray for a couple of things, pray that the Lord will open up doors for our ministry. We really want to get going again. Brother Dan has two sons that grew up with him. They grew up in the ministry with him, serving him. They do feel the call of evangelism, so they're not being forced into this. I've worked with them. They really helped his dad in so many ways. And so what we're doing right now is we're just waiting for the Lord's timing on this. And these two young men are ready and willing and able. Obviously, you know, they're not going to be like their dad, but certainly the pastors know them. And so I am praying for them. Their names are Ben and Jonathan. So ladies, if you cook with garlic, Remember to pray for the garlic family, okay? Because that's their last name, garlic, okay? And pray for, obviously, his wife, Teresa. It's not been a year yet that she lost her husband, but she's been a trooper. She has done a lot of work behind the scenes and made a lot of stuff possible in the office. She was really the office manager, you could say. She made things happen behind the scenes, but they are fully committed. And Brother Dan went to heaven, just praising the Lord. I had the last text that he gave me, and he had quite a shining testimony through all of that trial. I saw the Christ just shining from his countenance. And I know that he and his dad are just rejoicing in heaven because his father ministry has impacted the Spanish speaking world. And literally we are a ministry of evangelism. The Bible says in Ephesians four that the evangelist was given to the local church to help, just like a pastor, to help God's people mature for the work and the work of the ministry. And so that's our mission. That's our philosophy. I'm here to help your pastor, your church. And I tell people now that, you know, I still speak English, so I can still go to English speaking churches and do the work of an evangelist, just like we do in the Spanish speaking world. So with COVID being thrown in, well, I said, Lord, we can't travel, but I have 16 churches that are supporting me, and I'm not gonna just sit at home. I do work a part-time job, but the part-time job is to supplement the support that I'm getting. I'm still trying to raise support. I really need about five or six more churches to take me on for support, and so pray along with me on that as well. But I want to be busy, and I can't, we can't travel. I've been to Nicaragua, I've been to Puerto Rico, I've been on the West Coast for meetings, been down South for some regional meetings in our Las Palmas ministry. Brother Garlick has taken me down to Mexico, was the last time I was with him. Two years ago, we went to one of our major conferences in Mexico, not too far from Mexico City. And I had the privilege of standing there and leading over a thousand people in music. And it was just a humbling experience, but it was a wonderful experience because God impacted many. Believers, and we've seen hundreds of people come to know the Lord, really, from the time that Brother Roland Garlick, the founder, started that ministry until now, which is almost 45 years now, I think, we could say that thousands of Spanish-speaking people came to know the Lord because of one man saying, I surrender, I have a burden, Lord, use me. And you can be used. God wants to use all of us. in the ministry. So I wanted to give you that synopsis at least before I went into the word because that way you'll have a little bit of understanding of what La Espada is. I do have my prayer cards, as Pastor said. If you have any other questions about it, just feel free to talk to me after the service. I will be here Sunday, Lord willing, and I look forward to the Sunday service. And I'm glad that I get to go to church while I'm here in Hawaii. Anytime I go anywhere for a vacation or vacation or just just to get away my first thought is I need to go to church I need to be in God's house and no matter what I am where I'm at what I'm doing I want to be there so thank you again pastor for for allowing me this time Let's go to the book of Philippians and we're gonna touch on some things. We're gonna go like really quick tonight, okay? So you're gonna need to buckle your seat belts and hang on with me. Try to stay with me mentally, all right? The Philippians chapter number three, Philippians three. We're just gonna hit on some highlights tonight. There's much, obviously, in this chapter. We're not gonna go through all of the chapter, but we're gonna hit probably a good portion of it. Philippians 3, and as you're getting there, let me pray. Father, thank you for this church. Thank you for this pastor and his family. Lord, thank you for this shining light here in Honolulu. Father, we need churches like this. Father, that's the hope of our nation. Thank you, Lord, and thank you for these, your people that have come tonight. Now help me, Lord, cleanse me, Lord, fill me with your spirit, and Lord, help us to have spirit-filled listening ears, and Lord, help us to apply Holy Spirit, what would you what you would have us to apply by your grace Lord in Jesus name. Amen Philippians 3 in verse number 1 Finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous But for you it is safe Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless. But what things were came to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mined by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though as I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." We'll stop there. The Apostle Paul at this time was writing this prison epistle. We call it a prison epistle because at this point in time Paul, for the second, actually for the first time, Paul ends up being under house arrest. He is He had an issue in Jerusalem. There was a riot that stirred because they were trying, the leadership, the Jewish leadership were saying that he was breaking the law by bringing a Gentile into the court. And so, of course, it was not true. And then there was all this, obviously, this, well, close to a riot going on in the Temple Mount. And so the Roman guards come in and rescue him and take him out of that situation. And of course, he had to go before the the authorities, and there was a Jewish authority that wanted to stone him, and then the Romans, of course, wanted to squelch any riot, any kind of disturbance in the empire. And so, long story short, he ends up going to Caesarea, and then, of course, he's questioned. He wants to go back to Jerusalem to, again, give his testimony to say that he was not guilty of breaking the law, and he wanted to preach the gospel, and then, Nephew gets some news that there's a plot to kill him, so then Paul says, I appeal the season. And of course, as a Roman citizen, Paul was able to do that. And of course, that set in motion some things. Well, he was probably a couple thousand miles away from Rome. He had to go by ship, and we know that he shipwrecked and all of the things that happened on the way to Rome, and he finally gets to Rome. And then when he gets there, he has to wait two years before he can go before Caesar to plead his case, it's kind of like going to the DMV, you know, you go to the DMV and you want to get your place and you want to get your registration and of course, you know, you go and you pick a number, wait in line, you know, anything that the government does, it takes forever to do and so you can imagine Paul, he wants to get this over with and, you know, I can picture Paul going and, you know, whoever's does the scheduling for the emperor. Okay, let's see. All right, let's see. Okay, he's available two years from now. I can imagine how discouraging that would be. But Paul was under house arrest. He wasn't in the Mammothine prison, which he would be later on, before he was executed. But basically, is he in a place where he can write? He's in a place where, of course, the guards were there 24-7 keeping an eye on him. They were chained together. And Paul talks about this in Philippians. You know, don't feel sorry for me. I'm paraphrasing here. Don't feel sorry for me. In chapter 1 he says, because I have an opportunity now to get the gospel to the praetorium guard. I'm able to get the gospel to the guards that actually are directly contacting the emperor. And so I'm okay. I'm fine. Pray for me. I believe the Lord is going to answer your prayer and I will be released, but I am able to preach the gospel. So he's thinking about the Church of Philippi. Remember that when he went to the Church of Philippi, here in Acts, we don't have time to go there, but in Acts 16, the church is established. We know that he goes there, he preaches the gospel, he ends up being, he and Silas end up being imprisoned, and in a miracle, they're being released. the Philippian jailer getting saved and his whole family and remember Lydia she got saved there were at least two families that were recorded in that chapter that got saved so there was a church founded and of course as Paul having the pastor's heart Paul was always wanting to find out how they were doing spiritually and so he writes this letter to encourage the Church of Philippi because basically they were probably getting the news and that Paul is, you know, was taken to Rome, he's under house arrest, they haven't heard from him in a while, so they're worried about him. So Paul wants to kind of get them not to be worried, that pray, the Lord will, we're praying that the Lord will release me from this house arrest, and that I'll be back with you, and he wants to encourage them spiritually, as he always wanted to do with all the churches that the Lord used him, to establish. And so, he is finishing this letter and he's saying, finally brethren, rejoice in the Lord. And interesting, he's saying rejoice in the Lord while he's under house arrest. Okay? Interesting that at this point, you know, Paul's not saying, woe is me, oh man, I'm trying to serve the Lord and look what happened to me. Oh, I need to be doing the work in the ministry, and I can't because I'm under house arrest. And no, you don't see any of this in this letter. He's not complaining. He's not griping. He's not saying, woe is me. In fact, he wants them to be encouraged. He says to this church, rejoice in the Lord, brethren. He says, be beware of dogs." He's repeating this, by the way. He says, in verse number one, he says, to me indeed, to write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. You know, I like the way Paul says this, because usually what happens is, those of us that are believers, and we come to a good Bible-preaching church like this, and we kind of sit back, and you know, the preacher says, turn in your Bibles, and you go over to a chapter or passage of scripture or a book, and you say, you know, pastor begins to preach, and we, unfortunately, this is the human condition, right? We kind of turn our, we turn off a little bit because, oh, I've heard that before. Oh, we studied that before. Oh, you know, you know, you know, it's like, but, but, you know, Paul, just like Peter mentioned this too, it's good for us to go back and review what we already know. To be brought to remembrance, right? Peter uses that phrase, to be brought to remembrance. And usually what happens is a lot of the things that we're receiving We're taking it in now, but it usually goes in the front of the brain, it seems like, and then it goes way in the back, and it just doesn't have quite the impact. And we have to kind of bring it up to the front of our minds again and be reminded, and that's what Paul is saying here in a sense. He says, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. those that are Jews that were trying to really disturb and really confuse the early church. There were Gentiles coming to know the Lord and of course there were those Pharisees that knew Paul that were kind of spying out what was going on in these congregations and they were seeing Jews and Gentiles in the same room and that was not a good thing. And so they were coming in and they were trying to get those Gentiles that received Christ and had the assurance of salvation, and they were kind of coming over and they were saying, so you think you're going to heaven, huh? And yeah, yes, I trusted Jesus. But do you know that there are commandments that you need to keep? And so they tried to get the works mixed in with salvation. Of course, the book of Galatians deals with that. So Paul always, every once in a while, again, because a lot of these churches were a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, he wanted them to be sure that you've got to beware of, and he called them dogs here. Now my brother and sister-in-law, they have this big dog that he's so He looks like he's cute, like he's big and cute. And he's like, you want to hug him, and you want to take it. You don't think of any, he's a dog that you have to be aware of, right? He's like a good boy. He's so harmless, right? But he looks like he can kill you, but he's just very, very docile. But today's world, we think of dogs, and we don't think of them in the same vein as Paul is using here. Back in the first century, dogs were like rats around trash heaps, and they were filthy animals. And so Paul is using a very strong term here, saying to the believers, look, you need to keep your distance from those that would mix works with salvation. Keep your distance like you would keep your distance from anybody having any pet rats. Okay? Yeah. You want to stay away from them, right? Well, this is the idea here. Beware of dogs, okay? Because I think today we shampoo our dogs, we dress our dogs, they sit with us, they sleep with us, we hug them, we love them, we kiss them, and all that stuff, so this doesn't have quite the impact. But if I say rats, it's like, okay, we get it, brother Pinto, we get it. All right? So Paul's saying beware of those, and then he says this. Verse number three, for we, and he's referring to himself and those Jews that trusted Jesus Christ, he said, we are the circumcision, okay, which worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have, here it is, we have no confidence in the flesh. Now understand that Paul was a converted Jew. He was a Pharisee. If there was more than just the law, but the interpretations of the law according to the Jewish tradition, but Paul was one of them. and that's the reason why he persecuted the church. He thought he was doing God's service and he says this, in his letters, but he really felt like, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do as a Jew, and doing God's will, and squelching this blasphemous movement that was started by a crazy rabbi called Jesus, who claimed to be not only the Messiah, but he claimed to be the Son of God, and that's blasphemy, and it's a good thing he was crucified, he's a false prophet, and he wasn't what he claimed to be, and that's what, was in his mind, but then, of course, on the road to Damascus, he met Jesus, and he saw the truth. And he came to know the Lord, and so now he's saying, we have no confidence in the flesh. You see, before he met Jesus, he had lots of confidence in the flesh. He grew up in the school of Gamaliel. He was taught. And then this is what he says. He says, if you want to talk about good works, if you want to talk about, you know, being a devout Jew, He goes into these next few verses and says this, verse number four, for though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he might trust in the flesh, I have more. If you want to talk about trusting in good works, well, let me tell you about me. Let me tell you about what I did. Let me tell you about my background. And he says this, I was circumcised the eighth day. Well, every male Jew was circumcised the eighth day, so he, you know, checkmark, right? Of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the better tribes, checkmark, okay? So he's going, so he says, you know, if there was ever a Jew, I was a Jew. In Hebrew of the Hebrews, this is to say, I am really a Jew. You know, I'm about as Jewish as you can get. As touching the law, a Pharisee. So as a Pharisee, he was a leader in Judaism. He was a teacher of the Old Testament. He wasn't just one that would come into the synagogue and sit down and listen. He was a teacher. He grew up under Gamaliel, one of the foremost teachers of the day in that time period. And so he's telling him, look, if you wanna talk about good works, you wanna talk about a good religious background, well, I had that. Concerning zeal, verse number six, persecuting the church. Basically, he didn't just hear what the rabbis had to say or the ruler of the synagogue said in a synagogue and say, okay, that was a good sermon. He actually put feet to what he was being taught. And that's why he says concerning zeal, he persecuted the church because he believed it was the right thing to do according to his understanding of the Old Testament. Touching the righteousness which is in the law, and look at this, look at that next word, blameless. Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. This is what he thought about himself before he trusted Christ. In other words, he thought, hey, I'm all set. You ever heard that? When you're talking to people about salvation, I'm all set, I have my church, I go to church. Basically, in his mind, he viewed himself, I was blameless. But then here comes verse seven. But what things were gained to me? The list that he just gave, all those good works he thought were gained for him before God, those I counted lost for Christ. When he came and met Christ on that Damascus road, and he saw Jesus, and he saw a thrice holy God, he saw himself as he really was. And that's what we need. That's what the world needs. You see, we compare ourselves among ourselves. And even in the unsafe world, they do that. They kind of say, well, I'm not as bad as so-and-so. You know, I go to church faithfully. I'm good to my family. I'm good to my wife. I'm good to my husband. I pay my taxes, I do all these good things. And Paul was basically saying the same thing about himself, that he was blameless, but then he comes to see Jesus and he sees his sinfulness as compared to God, the Holy One, and he sees that, no, I'm not blameless. Remember that in the book of Romans he said, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He came to realize that when he met the Lord Jesus Christ. Before I met Christ, I had religion. I was a Catholic. I was weird in the Catholic religion, and I wasn't sure that I was going to heaven, but I didn't think I was that bad. It was like I did the best I could as a kid, and I went to the catechism. On Saturdays, I went to Catholic school. But I didn't realize I was without hope. outside of Christ. I had religion, but I didn't have a savior. I didn't have a relationship to Christ. I didn't see myself as I really needed to see myself before God as a sinner, meaning a savior. And so Paul says this. I count all these good works as lost because I had to come to a point, and all of us had to come to that point, and I trust all of you tonight that are here have come to that point. When you come to Jesus, you see yourself as God sees you as a sinner who needs salvation. And all those good works, the Bible says, are as filthy rags in God's sight. God demands perfection. righteousness, not one tenth of sin. In action, in motive, in thought, it's impossible to be holy outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not possible. There's no human effort that can match the holiness of God. And so Paul is basically saying this. He's saying, I met Christ, and I thought I was okay. I had all these good works, and then I was blameless. I was all these good things. And then I saw Christ and I had to make a decision. Do I hang on to my good works? Do I hang on to my religion? Do I hang on to the fact that I'm the Hebrew of the Hebrews? Do I hang on to the fact that I'm blameless as a Pharisee? As a Pharisee, I taught in the synagogue. I did it for years. Or do I throw those aside and ask Jesus to be my savior and trust in his righteousness for salvation? Well he obviously decided to throw those away. It was lost for him on a human level but he gained. the righteousness of Christ. Yea, doubtless, verse eight, and I count all things but loss, all these good things, I count them but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. There are some things that you have to just lose when you come to know the Lord, and that is basically your pride, those good works that you thought were good enough, you just kinda said, you know, nope, can't hang on to that, that's not gonna do it for me, I need Jesus Christ. he says I count all things he says I do count them verse number eight but done that I may win Christ that's a strong word I use this illustration I go to churches as I as I am tonight preaching and usually you know I I don't announce it that I'm single, but people ask, are you married? And I say, I'm single. And the word gets out. And especially the ladies in the church, they see that, oh man, Brother Pinto, he looks like he needs to put some meat on his bones. And usually there's some type of an event where there's food. And so we go through that maybe on a Sunday afternoon or something. And of course, there are leftovers, right? There's gonna be leftovers. And so the sisters of the church, they kind of look at Brother Pinto and they say, you know, let's give Brother Pinto some leftovers. Let's give him some containers and they can take with him. So that way, you know, he won't starve. Of course, I take them. And I go home, and I put them in the refrigerator. And like a single guy, I put them in there, and somehow or other, some of those containers get pushed to the back of the refrigerator, leftovers that were given to me. And, you know, because I'm the kind of guy, I open the door, and I reach in for what's in the front of the refrigerator, and I don't look for what's in the back of the refrigerator. And so, you know, days go by, weeks go by, and then, you know, oh, you know what, I need to clean my refrigerator. What is that container back there? I forgot when I got it. I don't even remember when I pushed it back there. And I reach back there, and I take it, and I go, well, it must have been at one of the churches I was at. And I open it up, and some cultures are growing in there, some things that I could probably take to the lab, and they could probably test it, and this fuzzy green stuff. And I can't even make out what it was. Well, this is kind of like, This word dung, when I look at that, the only thing I can do with that is throw it away. When God looks at our good works, he looks at our good works like I'm looking at that container that has growth and stuff in there, okay? There's no way, right? But wait a minute, this is a guy thing, okay? If there's a part that doesn't have something growing on it, I'll just cut off the bad part and take the other part, right? Now, look. Pasture's doing this, OK? So I know some of you are going, come on, bro Pinto. Let's spice it, guys. I know there's some guys here that are probably sitting now, but you don't want to admit it. But yeah, of course. It's like, no. Why? Because part of it's no good, right? But you know what? God looks at it, at our good works and we say, but God, I, you know, what about this? This is good. I do this. I get to the church. I try to be good, you know, to my, I, you know, I don't, I don't, I'm not like my next door neighbor. You know, right? And we try to say, God, but what about this? And we think this is good and that God, you should take this. This is a good work. And Paul said, no, no, it's all bad. It's all bad. None of it's good. Just like you expect me to just throw the whole thing out. Brother Pinto, please throw the whole thing out. None of it's good. Well, that's the way God looks at our good works. Don't hang on to any of them because none of it's good. I count them but done. And verse number nine says this, And be found in him not having mine own righteousness, there it is, which is of the law, that's what he had before he came into the Lord, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. He had to, again, make this very clear so that those in the church that may not really be saved, that they're trying to confuse, you know, those Jews that are trying to Judaize or make Jewish converts out of these believers so they understand, no, it's not by works. He wants to be found in Christ. It's all about our relationship with Christ. Verse number 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Really, there's a lot more here, but we're running out of time, so let's just quickly hit the high points. Paul mentions the fact that now, as a saved Jew, it's not about my impressing God, but it's about Jesus Christ in me, the hope of glory, changing me from the inside out. It's not about my trying to be a good Baptist or a good Catholic or whatever. No, no, it's about my relationship with Christ now. I need to be like Him, be found in Him. he says his righteousness the power of his resurrection just as Jesus Christ rose from the dead he He's alive forevermore. When we trust Jesus Christ, we die to self. And that's the water baptism picture. We die to our past. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And when you come out of that water, it symbolizes that new life in Christ because Christ is in us. And it's Jesus Christ living through us and changing us from the inside out. That's the idea of the power of the resurrection that Paul talks about here in verse number 10. The fellowship of his sufferings. Jesus Christ, of course, suffered for us on the cross. He suffered and Paul was more than happy, more than glad to go through all of the persecution that he went through because Jesus went through that for us. And he was glad to go through that for him. But here's the one other thought I want to leave with you tonight. Verse number 12, not as though I had already attained. Now when he says already attained, he's talking about being completely like the Lord Jesus Christ. No sin, just being like Him, completely like Him. We know that's not possible as long as we are in His body, but I can tell you this, that if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, old things will pass away. They're passing away, they continue to pass away, and the more we draw closer to the Lord, and the more we grow in the Lord, the more we're like Him and the less we're like us. The old carnal nature. And that's the idea that Paul is talking about here. And so, again, Paul is writing this after 30 years of ministry. Imagine this. He has started multiple churches. He has been an evangelist pastor. I think a lot of us would think or say that outside of Jesus Christ, there has probably been no greater Christian than the Apostle Paul. But look what he says about himself 30 years later. He says, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect. And that word perfect has the idea of maturity or completeness. So he's saying spiritually, I have not arrived yet. You mean after 30 years of ministry, Paul, you haven't arrived yet to be like Jesus? Nope. And I'm thinking to myself, if the apostle Paul says that about himself, where does that leave me? I cannot hold a candle to the Apostle Paul." And I'm thinking, wow, that's something. That's really kind of a sobering thought here. But he says this, I follow after, verse number 12, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this is what he does. But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. What is that mark? To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus. Let me just end off with this one passage in 1 John. We'll go there real quickly and we'll close. By the way, there's a lot more there, but we're out of time. But I hope that you'll get this point. Paul, before he came to know the Lord, thought he was all set, blameless. After he comes to know the Lord, he sees himself where he really is in God, and now who he is in Christ. He has Christ now, his righteousness, and he wants to be more like him. This is what I believe Paul is referring to 1 John 3, verse 2. 1 John 3, verse 2. Here it is. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, here it is, we shall be like him. That's the power of resurrection life. And it starts from the moment we get saved and that process of from glory to glory, as it's talked about in the scripture, being more and more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. I trust that you've accepted Christ but that you're not satisfied where you are in your level of spiritual growth, but that you press toward the mark to be more like him, because when he shall appear, we shall be like him. Forget about Raul Pinto. No hope in him. He's not going to change himself. He's done. I need to have Jesus in me. I need people to see Jesus in me. And that's what Paul is talking about, I believe, in Philippians, and he's pressing toward that mark. 30 years of ministry, 30 years of ministry. He says, I'm not quite like him yet, but I'm pressing toward that. And let's not be satisfied, brothers and sisters, where we are spiritually, but let's keep pressing toward the mark. All right, let's pray. Father, Again, there's just so much here. But Father, perhaps, Lord, if you would just take one of these truths and just impact us, help us to meditate on this and realize, Lord, that the Christian life is a constant pressing, not easy. Can't do it without you because you told us without me, you can do nothing. But we know, Lord, that you wanna transform us to be like you. Father, you are pleased with your son. You said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And if we're like you, Lord Jesus, then you, Father, will be pleased. Lord, help us. Help us to press, help us to grow, that you might be glorified, that others might see Jesus in us. In Jesus' name, amen.