"But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 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."

So Paul had a list.

And it was impressive. Circumcised on the eighth day. Of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of Hebrews. A Pharisee. Blameless under the law. This was his resume. His spiritual pedigree. The things that made him feel alive and accomplished and accepted in his religious world.

And he called it all garbage.

Paul isn't saying these things were inherently evil. Being from the tribe of Benjamin wasn't sinful. Being a Pharisee wasn't wrong in itself. These were real accomplishments in his culture. But here's what Paul understood and here's what I need you to understand right now... confidence in the flesh and confidence in human effort and confidence in religious performance will always fall short of knowing Christ.

Always.

Paul is doing something most of us avoid. He's naming the things that once made him feel significant and then publicly renouncing them. He's not just privately adjusting his values. He's declaring out loud that what once defined him no longer does.

And I think that's the challenge for us.

You say, Pastor Scott, what do you mean?

I mean this. What are the things that make you feel alive apart from Christ? What are the accomplishments that give you a sense of worth? What are the comforts you return to when life gets hard? Because here's the thing... if the season of discipline removed them, the question is whether you're going to pick them back up.

And can I tell you something? Most of us know exactly what those things are. We know what we reach for when we're anxious. We know what we scroll through when we're bored. We know what we brag about when we want to feel important.

And Paul would say... count it all as loss.

Not because enjoyment is sinful. Not because accomplishment is wrong. But because nothing... absolutely nothing... compares to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord. Nothing.

Here's what I see in this passage. Pursuit gets practical right here. Pursuit isn't just about adding more of God. It's about subtracting what competes with Him. It's about identifying the things that energize our flesh and choosing to leave them behind.

Listen. You cannot run forward while dragging the weight of everything you used to cling to. You have to travel light. You have to name your gains. You have to release them.

And maybe you're reading this and thinking... but those things aren't bad things. And you're right. Paul's list wasn't bad things either. Tribe of Benjamin. Hebrew of Hebrews. Blameless under the law. These were good things. Religious things. Commendable things.

But they were the wrong things to build your identity on.

So here's the question. What's on your list? What are the things that once defined you that need to be surrendered so you can pursue what's ahead?

The incredible thing is that Paul didn't lose anything of true value. He gained Christ. And in Christ he found everything he was actually looking for in all those other things. The acceptance. The accomplishment. The identity. It was all there. Just in a different source.

So surrender the substitutes. Name them. Release them. Count them as loss.

Because what you cling to reveals what you worship.

Tomorrow we'll explore why we pursue in the first place. And here's a hint... it's not about earning something. It's about responding to Someone.

Make a list of three things that once defined your sense of worth or accomplishment. Pray over each one and ask God to help you count them as loss compared to knowing Him.