I'm 10, from Canada to Columbia, and as part of that journey I discovered that basically a billion people in the world didn't have access to clean drinking water. So I began this journey and did some higher level education and then on a series of trips with my friends in the last six years. That's all led us to this spot now where we've become very interested in small scale decentralized desalinization projects. It's really the future of water. Welcome to Bible at the Beach, I'm Ryan.
Today we'll be in Philippians chapter 3 verses 1 through 8. Paul says, my beloved ones, don't ever limit your joy or fail to rejoice in the wonderful experience of knowing our Lord Jesus. I don't mind repeating what I've already written you because it protects you. So Paul had sort of a fatherly protective vibe to his writings. He's writing to encourage, he's writing to instruct, he's also writing to protect.
You know, the way that we protect ourselves is by protecting our thoughts and protecting our mind. And so Paul is really always warning us, hey, be careful what you think about, be careful what you let in. And so he says, beware of those religious hypocrites who teach you that you should be circumcised to please God, for we've already experienced heart circumcision and we worship God in the power and freedom of the Holy Spirit, not in laws and religious duties.
God cares mostly about your heart and what's going on on the inside. So every day it's very useful to say, as David did, God created me a pure heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me, restore to me the joy of my salvation. So what's David saying there? God created me a new heart and restore unto me the joy of my salvation. So when it comes to our heart, we're to pray for a clean heart, we're to pray for a pure heart, we're to pray for a heart that's right.
And also to understand that God really isn't concerned with how you look as much as he is with what's going on on the inside. How you look is just cultural. It's pretty much irrelevant. What is important is what's going on in your heart and in your relationship with the Lord. That's the most important thing in our life. He says we are those who boast in what Jesus Christ has done and not in what we can accomplish in our own strength.
So it's what God does in us and through us that we're supposed to be most proud of. And you find out what's really going on in your life when you go through difficulty. I just had a friend call me before I made today's Bible at the beach and my very good friend passed away in an automobile accident. Very, very sad. Very, very heart wrenching.
And yet to hear my friend talk about her husband, who was my good friend, who was also a cyclist, didn't pass away riding a bicycle, was just a fellow bicycle rider. And to think about the joy and somehow the strength that she had even through losing her spouse. You see, when you really go through the hard stuff, when you really go through the deep stuff, that's when you find out that the Lord is your strength.
And there is a joy and there is a peace that does not take into consideration circumstances. And you can literally have joy and peace in every age, in every stage, in every chapter, in every circumstance that you find yourself in your life if you look to the Lord to be your strength. Paul wrote, I was born, or he says, it's true that I once relied on all that I had become. I had a reason to boast and impress people with my accomplishments more than others for my pedigree was impeccable.
Well, do people have pedigrees? Of course, all cultures have pedigrees. Think about the culture you're in and think about the pedigrees that go along with the culture that you're in. So I live in coastal California, San Clemente is very much about how much schooling or how much success you've had in your career. There's a lot of things people care about around here. And Paul says all of it takes a backseat to Jesus.
So whatever culture you find yourself in, whether it's by the coast or not by the coast or whatever, all of the things that we use to set our measurement for success, for the culture that we're in, Paul says, look at all this stuff secondary. What matters is knowing Christ. What matters is knowing Jesus. Paul goes on to list his pedigree. It's going to include educational, political, and wealth.
So he says, I was born a true Hebrew of the heritage of Israel, a son of the Jewish man from a tribe of Benjamin. That means that he was going to already have access to wealth. These tribes were generational. They passed down to the next generation, land, wealth and acquisitions. He was within the line to inherit a lot of wealth. He says, I was circumcised eight days after my birth. So he was a part of the strict tradition.
So not only did he have the wealth, elitism, he had the religious elitism. We've got wealth, elitism, religious, elitism. He said living is separated and devout life as a Pharisee. He had the wealth, elitism. He has the religious elitism. And then within the religious elitism, he's like a three-stripe black belt within the religious elitism. He says, in concerning the righteousness of the Torah, no one surpassed me. I was without peer. And then even within that, he was at the top of his class.
So I persecuted the Messianic believers with religious zeal. Then look at verse seven, yet all of the accomplishments I once took credit for, I've now forsaken them and I regard it all as nothing compared to the delight of experiencing Jesus Christ, my Lord.
He says all of these accomplishments, the wealth that I inherited, the education that I had, the religious elitism that I experienced, the family that I came up in, the place that I lived in, everything that went with being in the 1% of the 1%, it's all rubbish. One translation says that he considers it dung for the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. Boy, that's true. That's why my alarm goes off before every day.
And I sit in my chair and I just pray and I think and listen to the scripture because that's the best part of my day, every single day. Every single day, spending my time praying and thinking and listening to scripture is the best part of my day, every single day. So that's why I get up and do that every single day, except Sunday. Sunday is I turn my alarm off.
And then lastly, he just says, I truly know to truly know him meant letting go of everything from my past and throwing all my boasting on the garbage heap. It's all like a pile of manure to me now so that I may be enriched in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ and embrace him as Lord in all of this greatness. So he says all of this stuff doesn't mean anything. It just means nothing.
What's important in life is knowing Christ, spending time with Jesus, praying, thinking and being in the scriptures and allowing that quiet place in your life and your soul to shape your future. So as always, may God give us the eyes to see, may he give us the ears to hear, may he give us the heart to feel today so we can be his people. In Jesus' name, amen.
You'd like more information about Ocean Water Church, how to join us on an upcoming trip, how to be part of one of our Clean Water projects, how to financially support our movement or even information on how you can start an Ocean Water Church yourself. Please look us up at OceanWater.com.