To Live is Christ

Philippians: To Live Is Christ

By Sean Kelly

You won't get to not change the title on the notes. Every once in a while that happens. So I don't think I actually even thought of the title.

So you can just ignore the title because that's wrong. That's last week's title. Everything else got changed, though, so I think we're good there.

I said, I don't think I have one yet. I didn't really think about if I would have thought of a title, I would have went and changed it. I don't think that's what it's going to be.

Okay, so let's go ahead, we'll pray, and then we'll get started. Jonathan, would you open us up a prayer? Amen. So we're in Philippians 119 through 26.

That is correct. Wherever we've been, Paul starts out by talking about how he is praying for and he's concerned for the Philippian Church. He's praying about their spiritual needs, about their growth in the Lord.

Then last week we talked about that. Paul turned his direction into his situation, how he's in prison. And remember, this is his first imprisonment.

So this is more of a house arrest where he's renting his own house and he's not allowed to leave. He has palace guards from Caesar's Palace with him day and night. And he's letting the church know that while the situation looks bad in human standards, while things don't look like they're going right, this is exactly where God wants them, that he's here, he's ministering, he's sharing the gospel.

He's reaching people with the gospel of Christ. They're being saved. God's working through him.

And that we looked at another pastor where he talks about the Gospel is not chained. It's not chained. Just because he's chained, he's able to do exactly what God wants him to do.

This week, he's going to focus a little more on his circumstances and continue to reassure the church. In the previous verses, Paul assures the church that he's right where God wants him. But in these verses, he wants to assure him that no matter what happens going forward here, god is in control and God deserves the glory.

And we're going to look at that, and we're going to look at how Paul viewed life and death and apply these principles in our life. So let's go ahead and read the passage at the top of the sheet there. Philippians 119 through 26.

Josiah, your hand was up before I even asked, so go ahead. For I know that this will turn out Jesus Christ according to my earnest expectations and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed. But with all boldness, as always, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

For to me to live as Christ and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, there shall be fruit from my labor. Yet what I shall choose I cannot tell, for I'm hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart than be with Christ, which is far better.

Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more of this. I know that I shall remain and continue with all for your progress and joyous faith that rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. Okay.

So again, we're going to look at this. We're going to look at Paul's attitude, his philosophy concerning basically whether he lives or dies. What does that mean for him? And we're going to apply it to us because I think these same principles apply to us in our life, and I think we can learn some things through them.

So we're going to start out, first of all, looking at Philippians 119 and 20 here, we see that God will be magnified whether we live or whether we die. I say God will be magnified. I think this is a choice that we make to some extent, especially the living part, or how are we going to live our lives.

And we'll talk about that a little bit later. But Philippians 119, Paul says, I know this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ according to my earnest expectation hope that nothing I shall be ashamed. Both all boldness as always.

So now also Christ will be magnified my body, whether by life or by death. And so you see at the end of the verse, he's talking about going forward. What happens to him? He's in imprisonment.

His future is uncertain from human perspective. He could go on living. He could be released.

He could stay in this house arrest. Or Rome could suddenly change their mind and say, hey, this guy's dangerous. Let's kill him.

So there's a lot of uncertainty in his life. But Paul says no matter what happens, life or death, Christ is going to be magnified in me. That's what my intention is.

That's what my goal is. That's what my desire is. So we look in verse 19 here, he says, Paul believed that God would deliver him.

He says, here, for I know the idea of no here. This is different than the previous no. Remember, we had no a couple times in the first couple of chapters.

That word was an experiential knowledge. It's knowing something by spending time with it, by experiencing it, by just being thoroughly involved with it. Kind of like you'd say if you're a husband or your wife, you know your spouse because you spend time with them, you understand them, you've talked with them, you shared your feelings and thoughts and done things with them.

So you know them better than almost probably anybody else on the earth knows them. That's that kind of no. This no is different.

This is not a deep experiential knowledge. This is just the kind of a no for certainty. Paul is certain that whatever happens here, that he's going to magnify God in his body.

So what does he know, he knows that first of all, this will turn off for his deliverance. So we have to ask the question. He says this will turn off his deliverance.

What is this? Well, he's in a set of circumstances here. He's already explained some of it in the previous verses. He's imprisoned.

We've already talked about that. The previous verses actually talk about men who are going on sharing the Gospel with bad intent. And one of their bad intent is that they wanted to see Paul hurt.

They wanted to destroy his ministry. And as much as, you know, I don't care as long as the Gospel goes out, that's the main point that the Gospel shared. It's still a situation he's in.

He's still dealing with people that are against Him personally and against his ministry. So there's that going on. So there's a lot of things on Paul's mind, a lot of things that he's dealing with.

And he says, I believe that I am going to be delivered from this. So what does deliverance mean? Well, the word deliverance is literally the word for salvation. Any place else we see saved, salvation, anything in the Bible, this is the same word here.

So his deliverance is literally, God's going to give me salvation. And again, we can understand salvation in different ways. We understand salvation.

One way is that God justifies us. He turns us from being sinners apart from Him to saved saints, right? That's salvation. Another way salvation used is in our sanctification to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

It's not that you work to be saved, but it's work to grow in Christ, to go from being the sinful person that you are to a holy, sanctified person. We also know that salvation is used at times to talk about our ultimate salvation when Christ returns or when we die, and we go to be with Him, and he removes that sin from us and makes us perfect before Him. That's also called salvation in the Bible, the Old Testament, a lot of times, salvation was a physical deliverance from an know, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies.

David was talking about the Philistines are throwing spears at me. God's going to save me from that. That's salvation here.

This idea is salvation from his circumstances, from what's going on in his life. Paul's already saved, obviously, he's apostle of Christ, he's sharing the Gospel. There's no doubt about his salvation, as we normally talk about, but he's talking about being saved in his circumstances here.

So he believes that God's going to save Him from that. Romans 828 tells us that God's going to do good things in our life as we trust Him, as we serve Him, because that's what God's in the business of. So Romans 8:28 Olivia.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. God is going to work out all things for good in their lives. So even Paul with his imprisonment, even Paul with the naysayers, the people that are trying to hurt him, everything that's going on in Paul's life, he knows that this is going to work out for good and that God's salvation is going to work in him.

He's going to deliver him from this thing that's going on. So how does this happen? He says, I know this will turn out for my deliverance. First of all, through your prayers.

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about prayer, and we said Paul's emphasis a lot of times in praying is on our spiritual needs. And I told you, well, I think the Bible gives us different passages, like James Five. And then I'm trying to think what the other one was.

Drawing a blank here third John, where it talks about different people praying for physical needs of people. I say most of the emphasis in the Bible seems to be on praying for spiritual things. I think we sometimes fail to do that.

We need to be better at that. But here Paul's talking about a physical deliverance, and he's talking about that they're praying for him. So he acknowledges their prayers are for his physical need, for his deliverance from prison, for his deliverance from the people who are against him.

And so he says that God's going to provide this deliverance, first of all, through your prayers as you're praying for me on these things. And so Paul is not even asking. He knows that the Philippian Church is already doing this.

They're already so concerned about Paul, they've been in prayer for him. And so this is not something where he's like, guys, you better be praying for me now. He says, you're already doing it.

Your prayers are already working for me. James 516 would somebody read that? Eric yes. I decided I'm going to let everybody who reads come up afterwards and get the candy so we don't have to pass it around and be a distraction.

I think that might be a better way to do this. So we'll invite you up afterwards, and you can get your starbursts to one another. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails.

So here you see both a spiritual and a physical need. Confess your trespasses to one another. Pray for one another that you may be healed.

So there's a spiritual element. There's a physical element. But the point I want to make is the end of that verse.

The fervent prayer of a righteous man does what God can do whatever he wants, right? God's all powerful. He's all knowing. He's sovereign over all things.

If God didn't want you in whatever situation you're in that you're stressed about, he doesn't have to put you in it. And if you're in it, he can certainly get you out of it whenever he wants to. However, God seems to desire to use our prayers to show his power.

I think part of that is just an acknowledgment of who God is. As we pray to God and say, this is outside of my control. This is something I can't deal with, this is something that I can't change in my life.

God, I'm trusting you. And then he works through that. Then we can go and say, wow, look what God did.

If God just took that away, how would we know that God's doing that? If God never left in that situation, how would we even know that God's working? I think it's for his glory that he uses our prayers to show forth his power. And so it's neat here. The fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

God listens to that and he works through that as we're praying. He wants to show his power. He wants to work on our behalf as we acknowledge Him and come to Him and say, god, I need you.

You're the only one. You're the one I'm depending on. And God says, Great, let me show you what I can do.

And so the fervent prayer of a righteous man avails about I just love that verse. Romans 1530, 1st Corinthians one, five through eleven. Do I have that on here? Okay, that was the one that was long.

So, yeah, if you can get all your Bibles, there are a couple of verses in here where I knew they were a little longer. I was already at four pages. I'm like, I'm not going to put the verse on there because they're going to be like, he's going to teach for 3 hours, so what's going on? So second Corinthians five, if you do have your sorry.

Second Corinthians one, I can't read my notes. That's the problem. I typed it out and I have no idea what I typed.

I mean, it's just like, okay, so verses five through eleven, I'm in first Corinthians. That's why that doesn't look right. Not only can I not read my notes, I can't read my Bible.

Okay, so five, five through eleven, Corinthians or second Corinthians one, don't listen to what I say, listen to what's on the paper. Nathan, you can volunteer. Whereas the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.

Now, if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation, salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.

For we do not want you to be ignorant brethren of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raised the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us in whom we trust that he will still deliver us. You also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf, for the gift granted to us many.

Now, I'm not going to execute this whole passage. There's a lot in here, but look at verse five starting there, and what's going on. He starts off saying, the sufferings of Christ abound in us.

He says in verse six we're afflicted verse eight we don't want to be ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were above strength, that we despaired even of life. Things are so bad that they're just sick of being alive and having to deal with this. I mean, that's what he's saying there, right? And we've all been in that place, I think that things have been bad and we said, I just don't know how to go on.

That's kind of where Paul was at. There verse nine, he said, yes, we have the sentence of death in ourselves. Things are so bad for him that they thought they were going to die.

They thought the time had come. And verse ten talks about that. God delivered them from so great a death and does deliver us in whom we trust, and he will still deliver us.

So Paul has this confidence, god's delivered us, he's delivering us now, and he's going to continue to deliver us. But look at verse eleven, so that you also helping together in prayer for us. So here the Corinthian church.

As much promise as we contribute to the Corinthian Church and all the things that they were doing wrong, here's one thing that they were doing really well. They were praying for Paul. They were praying for him in his situation.

And Paul says, part of the reason why God has delivered us is because you have been praying. And here's the point. I think it kind of goes with what I said earlier, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf.

Well, how are thanksgiving? Well, they're praying for Paul, paul's delivered. And then they can go back and say, we pray for Paul. God did something.

Let's thank God for what he's done. Again, it's giving glory to so the idea that they're praying for Paul in his hard times, this was not an unusual situation. The churches were doing this faithfully.

And the Philippian Church we see here was praying for Paul even as he's in prison, even as he's struggling with dealing with people that are against him and these different things. The Philippian Church is spending time in prayer for him. So he trusts his things will turn out for his deliverance through prayer, but also through the Holy Spirit.

And here he talks about the supply of the Holy Spirit. The supply is the assistance, the help of the Holy Spirit. So not only is God going to use their prayers, but God has given them His Spirit.

And that should be a comfort to all of us, because who has the Holy Spirit of God in them? Every believer, right? And so when we get in hard times, when we get in difficulties, guess what? God's there with you. He's there to help you. We just need to depend on the supply that he gives, that assistance that help the Spirit will do.

And Paul here in his case, will do his work in Paul. Let's look at Ephesians 320 and 21. Lynn, go ahead.

Now, to Him who is able to abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power of his work in us, be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, all generations, forever and ever. Amen. So here you can see a little bit of prayer in here, right? Because there's that asking there.

But it talks about that God can do exceedingly abundantly. It's not just exceedingly. It's not just abundantly.

It's exceedingly abundantly above what we could ask or even what we could think of. And it's through the power that works in us. What's the power that works in us? That comes from his Holy Spirit, right? So God's Spirit working in us can do so much more than we would ever even ask for, but even what we could even think of that God can work in us that way.

So Paul's saying, you're praying for me. That's awesome. God's going to use that.

God's going to answer that because he wants to glorify Himself. But you know what else? God's given me his spirit, so I can handle this. I can get through this.

I can do what God wants me to do because this Spirit's going to work in me. And Paul, by the way, wrote Ephesians, too, so he understands that God's going to work in me even greater than I can know. I think Paul was a human being.

I don't think Paul was a superhero, right? So him being in prison, there's probably some discouragement that he's actually in prison. Wouldn't you think? I would be discouraged? But as Paul's writing Philippians, he's saying, this has happened for good. This has happened for the furtherance of the Gospel.

He's seen God work, and maybe it's more than he even expected. That, okay, I'm in prison in Rome, okay, I'll do my best for God. And God's saying, look what I can do for you.

I'm going to have the Gospel go out to Rome. I'm going to have the Gospel go out to Caesar's household, even that people that serve the most powerful man in the world are going to trust Christ as their Savior. I'm going to bring people in to see what you're doing, and you're going to have a chance to share the Gospel with them.

I can do so much more than you could ever think, Paul. And it's because of my spirit working in you. Paul has that I think that's just neat there.

So he says, Now, I believe I'm going to be delivered because you're praying for me and because God's spirit is working in me, that God's going to provide his salvation in this circumstance. So what's he going to do? So verse 20, according to my earnest expectation, hope that nothing I will be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always. So now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

And I think the big point in that verse is that Christ is going to be magnified. Paul will magnify God in his body. Here, this magnify means I'm going to come back to this later.

So get this. It means to enlarge or to make or declare great. They know about God, they know about Jesus.

But Paul says, watch what I'm doing, because it's going to show you how big Jesus is. It's going to show you how great he is. That's what's going to happen when you watch my life, because that's my desire.

That's what I want to do. I want people to see Christ in me, and not only see Christ in me, but see Christ for who he is. He's just huge.

He's just above all things, he's worthy to be praised. He's worthy to be worshiped. He's worthy to be served.

He's worthy to be honored. You're going to see that because of the way I'm living. That's what Paul's saying here.

He's going to magnify my body. So Paul desires to not be ashamed. He's like, I'm not going to bring shame on the name of Christ here.

I'm going to magnify him. And he says here his expectation, this word expectation, his eager longing, his deep desire is that I don't want to be causing shame to the cause of Christ. I want to be magnifying Christ.

I want to be lifting Him up and glorifying Him. So his expectation, his hope we understand hope. This is confidence in what's going to happen, that he knows that whatever happens, god is going to be magnified in Him and that he will not be put to shame.

Let's look at two Corinthians 1018 who would like to read? Go ahead. For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, and here he's dealing with people that are questioning his authority. They're questioning whether he's worthy to be an apostle, whether they should listen Him.

And he says, I could boast about my authority. I could boast about what Christ has done for me and the position he's put me in. But you know what? I'm here for your edification.

I'm here to build you up. I'm not here to build me up to show you what my authority is. My goal is to build you up as a church, and I'm not here to destroy you.

And I think the idea here is to say, look, I'm Paul, you're nobody. You need to listen to me. That's not his goal here.

But no matter what happens, he says, you can doubt my apostleship, you can endow my ministry. I'm not going to be ashamed of what Christ has called me to do. I'm going to keep doing it.

And it's up to you what your response is, but I'm not going to be ashamed of who I am and what God's called me to do. So he's not going to be put to shame. And here he says in this, he's hoping, he has this earnest expectation, he has this future look, that God is going to be magnified in Him, and nothing's going to put that cause to shame.

He's going to continue to push forward and do that. So Paul will magnify him in his body. Let's look at two Corinthians 410.

Another reader. Go ahead, Jordan. So here, he's always caring about in his body the dying of Lord Jesus.

He's always looking at Christ's death in his life. And what that's accomplished that in his life, Jesus is going to be manifested, it's going to be shown, it's going to be made clear, made evident in his body that people are going to see Christ in Him. Again, kind of the same concept here.

So he's going to do this with boldness. This is a characteristic of Paul in this passage. He says, with all boldness.

As always, Paul was bold. He was certain of what his message was, he's certain what his mission was, and he just went out and did it. And he said, that's not going to change here.

Yeah, I'm in prison. Yeah, people hate me. Guess what? That doesn't change anything.

I'm still going to do what God wants me to do. I'm going to be bold and share this message. And so here's the big thing where I think it fits into this lesson, because we're going to come back to this life and death issue very often that Christ will be magnified in his body, whether by life or by death.

So in life and his life, Paul will magnify Christ by his attitude, by his actions, by what people see in his life. They're going to see Christ in Him, but here, and we're going to see in a second, he's not sure what's going to happen. So he says, okay, so what if I die? Well, even in death, his deliverance comes because of death.

What happens? Well, I don't have to deal with prison anymore. Once I die, I don't have to deal with people belittling my ministry and trying to cause harm to me. That's all done.

That's like ultimate deliverance. Everything's taken care of at that point. So I'm confident in life.

God's going to take care of the situation. He has me where he wants me to be. And if he wants to release me from prison, that's great.

If he wants me to continue minister here, that's great. That's my deliverance. I'm going to serve God and magnify Him, but if I die, that's even better.

And we're going to see that he really believes that this is ultimate deliverance. This takes care of everything I'm done. It's well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy prepared for you beforehand.

That's where he's at. So he's ready for that. So his deliverance comes because of his death.

God will be magnified by what Paul accomplished through Him and through his testimony here. People are going to say, hey, Paul continued right to the end. He did what God wanted him to.

He was a faithful servant, and they're going to see that. A few verses here. I put a lot of verses in because as I was going through, there's so many that were good, and I left a lot out that I wanted to put in.

So we'll do a few job 1315 and 16. Jonathan, go ahead. Though he slayed me, yet will I trust Him.

Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him, he also shall be my salvation, for hypocrite could not come before Him. So here Job is arguing with his friends, and he makes this statement, though he's slaying me, yet I will trust Him. Job is basically saying, god's going to do whatever he wants with me.

He's already taken away my health. He's taking away most of my family. He's taken away all my possessions.

If he kills me, okay? He's God. I trust him. I'm going to believe in Him.

I'm going to know that he's faithful still. And then he says in verse 16, he shall also be my salvation. Well, what is he talking about? If God slaves me, he's still going to be my salvation.

It kind of sounds a little bit like Paul, right? Job's going through these hard times because Job is going through very hard times, hard times that probably almost none of us have ever gone through, like Job. And he says, I'm still going to trust God, even if it comes to the point where he says, you're done Job. Your life's over.

This is it. He still trusts him. So great testimony there.

Two Timothy, four, six, and seven. Another reader, please. Isabelle, go ahead.

Now, when we go to second Timothy, we're looking at the last book Paul wrote. This was certainly shortly before his death, and he's actually talking about it in this passage when he's saying he's being poured out as a drink offering. This is him saying that the time of my death is at hand.

I'm coming to the end of things. I'm just about done. He's writing Timothy, and he's passing the torch on to Timothy.

He's the next guy in line, and he's instructing, Timothy, you need to do what you need to do. Preach the. Word, be in season, be out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine, that kind of thing.

Timothy, you are taking over. I'm done. I'm being poured out.

This is the end for me. And look at his testimony in verse seven. I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. These are words that if you're saying that out loud and you haven't done that, people are going to go, oh yeah, what about this, Paul? What about this? He knew he could say that because he has been faithful.

He had been with his attitude, I'm going to magnify Christ in my body while I live. And now he can say at the end of his life, when things are over, I've done that. I've done what God wanted me to do.

I've been faithful to his cause. I've been faithful to what God's called me. And he can make that statement.

And that's this kind of idea that even in death I get to death and there's my testimony. I've been faithful to God. I've been doing what he wanted me to do.

I ran his race. I fought this good fight. I've done what God wants me to do.

And God's magnified in that. Romans 14, seven through nine. Nathan, go ahead.

For none of us lives to Himself, and no one dies to Himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord.

Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lords. For to this end, Christ died and rose and lived again that he might be lord of both the dead and the living. So no one lives to Himself.

No one lives for himself. No one dies for himself. The point of your life, the point of your death is not to build you up.

It's not to glorify you. If we live, we live to the Lord. If you live to serve the Lord, that should be your goal.

That should be your purpose. Unfortunately, we don't always do that, right? This morning's message was talking about looking at that sin and seeing that sin as God sees it and just hating it. Abhorring.

I broke down some of the words that Jordan used this morning, just finding it disgusting, our sin, because we want to live for the Lord. But if we die, guess what? We also die to the Lord. We die serving his purpose and his goals.

And so therefore, whether we live or we die, we are the Lord's. And that's Paul's attitude here as he's Philippians. He says, I don't know if I'm going to live or die.

My future is not laid out before me. God hasn't revealed that. But either way, I'm going to magnify God.

I'm going to live for Him. I'm going to die for Him. And then at the end here, it says that Christ might be the Lord of both the dead and living.

He's Lord, he's the master over you whether you're alive or whether you're dead, which if you're dead and you're a Christian, you're alive, right? Because you're with Christ now. We're going to talk about that in a bit. So you magnify God by the way you live.

You magnify God as you die that you have that testimony and you've served Him faithfully in your own life and that's what Paul's doing. So God will be manifested whether or not Paul lives or dies. That was a long point.

That took a long time. We'll try to move a little faster here. Number two, both living and dying have advantages.

We as a culture, we as a people are so afraid of death. Even as Christians sometimes we like somebody has a terminal illness and our first thought is, let's pray for God to heal them. And that's not bad prayer.

I'm not going to tell you not to do that. God can do it. Certainly that fits in that category.

If we pray for somebody to be healed from terminal cancer and they're healed, then we go, well, that's obviously God medical technology didn't do that, god did that. So that would certainly give a lot of glory to God if we said we prayed about that and look what God did. So that would work into that category.

But sometimes we need to look at it and say, you know what, there are advantages for a Christian who has died. There's lots of advantages for a Christian that's died. That's something I had to come to terms with as I thought about my wife and her death last summer.

I miss her a lot. I think about her every single day. I sometimes wake up and I struggle and go, what am I going to do today? Just because she's gone.

I mean, it's been a hard thing in my life, but I also think, wow, she is in a great place right now. She is serving the Lord. She's worshiping perfectly.

She's without sin. Her and Pastor Jim are causing trouble in heaven, I'm sure. No, they're not really causing trouble.

You can't cause trouble in heaven. But you know what? They're not worried about us because they're so focused on God the way they should be. And that's wonderful.

So there are advantages. I took verse 21 because this verse we use a lot. I wanted to unpack this.

I thought it was worth a whole point here. So Paul says, for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Very simple statement here.

So there's two things he talks about. So living is to serve and honor Christ. That's the whole point of what our lives should be as Christians, that we're here to serve, we're here to honor, we're here to glorify, we're here to magnify, we're here to worship Christ, right? Galatians 220.

I need a reader. Josiah, your hand. I saw first, I saw a couple of other hands, but there's some of you who are a little shy about it.

Get your hand up there quick and I'll call on you. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live.

Christ lives in me, in the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I've been crucified with Christ, and this is a big statement here.

It is no longer I who live. I'm not living for my own desires, my own pleasures, my own purpose, my own plan. It's not me who lives anymore, it's Christ living in me.

I'm living for Christ's plan, for his will, for his glorification, to build Him up. It's Christ who lives in me. It goes on to say, I live by faith in the Son of God, believing who he is and what his word says.

I'm living for what God wants me to live for, not for what I want to live for. That's what should be our attitude as Christians. And you can see this is Paul's testimony here, by the way.

So this fits in exactly what he's saying here. He wants to magnify Christ. Why? Because it's Christ that's living in him.

That's Christ that's living this life. It's not Paul's life. It's Christ who owns him.

So there's a purpose in living for Christ. Ephesians 111 through 14. One of you shy people in the third row, who wants to read that one? Okay, you weren't the one who had your hand up shyly before, but go ahead, Sarah.

Ephesians 111 through 14 in Him we also have obtained an impairment, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the Gospel, your salvation also having believed possession to the praise of his glory. So the unbolded parts here are Paul's explaining what Christ has done for us.

I'm taking it out of a chapter. So there's a lot more in the chapter that he talks about what Christ has done for us, but we've obtained inheritance, we've been predestined. He's working all things to the counsel, his will.

Verse 13 we've trusted, we've heard the word of truth, the Gospel we've believed, we're sealed with the Holy Spirit. All these things are things that God's given us. From this morning's sermon.

I'm going to take you back to that. Which point does this talk about in the sermon? Anybody remember this morning's sermon? Right? So stuff that he's given us would be that first point, right? That God has shown his grace. And remember, Jordan talked about this great overflowing, abounding grace that we have.

This is the kind of stuff that God's given us in his grace. We don't deserve any of that. So what's the purpose? He's given us all this good stuff that as we live I highlighted this because it happens here twice.

Verse twelve says that we first trusted in Christ. And Paul may be referring to Himself, the apostles, the first people in the Church, whoever it is, should be the praise of his glory. So unless we think that it's just Paul and his people, that should be the praise of his glory.

In verse 13, in Him you also trusted, which is true of who? Anybody who's trusted Christ the Savior, we could say in Him you also trusted Eric. In him. You also trusted, right, Ted? In Him you also trusted that you should be to the praise of his glory.

So what's the purpose of living? It's to be to the praise of his just. So we don't think well, that's a lot that we have to deal with. He puts in all this stuff here, look at what God's done for you.

And again you can go previous verses in Ephesians One and further verses in Ephesians One and see what God's done for us. And when one place there in Ephesians One, it says he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Every single spiritual blessing in Christ.

So we have the equipment to do it. Now we need to be people who live for Christ, who live to be to the praise of his glory. So living is to serve God in Christ.

There's a purpose in living for Christ. God's equipped us. I could have probably put that as a point there, that God's given us great things, great blessings that we have, so that we can live for Christ.

But sometimes the reward is not seen immediately. What's the benefit? Peter asked this question, Matthew 1927 through 29. Another reader we'd like to read Nathan.

Then Peter answered and said to him, see, we have left all and followed you, therefore what shall we have? So Jesus said to them, assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration, when the Son of man sits on throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, or brothers or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife or children, or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life. So Peter asked the question we've left everything, we've given up everything to follow you.

What's our reward? What do we get out of it? And he first of all tells them, and I think this first part is to the disciples themselves, because there's twelve disciples, twelve thrones, you get to be on one of the twelve thrones, you judge the twelve tribes of Israel, you get a nice position in the regeneration. Okay, but then it says verse 29 and everyone but who's? Everyone that's the rest of us, right? If because of Christ you've had to leave your houses, you've had stress with your brothers or sisters, or father, or mother or wife or children, or you've lost lands or any of this stuff for his name's sake. In the regeneration, you're going to get that one hundredfold.

Don't worry about what you're losing, god's going to take care of it. Oh, and by the way, you get eternal life too. So I'll throw that on at the end there.

That's pretty cool, right? So you may say, well, living for Christ is hard. I'm going to suffer persecution, I'm going to suffer humiliation, I'm going to suffer ridicule. That doesn't seem like something I want.

Well, sometimes the rewards aren't there right away, but they're coming, they're coming. Most of the time the rewards dory says, most of the time the rewards aren't there right away. But don't worry, God's going to take care of it.

So that's kind of my thought there. So living is to serve and honor Christ, and that's a beneficial thing, that's a good thing. God's given us so many gifts for that, so that we could be the praise of his glory, and there's going to be future rewards.

This life isn't the end of things, so good things do. It now. Live for Christ.

But guess what? To die is gain. This word gain means profitable. How is dying profitable? Well, it's because of what we get in death.

Right? First, Thessalonians 416 through 18, who would like to read ted, go ahead. The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first.

And we who are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

What's going to happen either when we die or some of us who remain till Christ returns? Well, when that happens, we're going to be with Christ forever, for always, lest we shall always be with the Lord first. John Three tells us that we are going to be like him, because we're going to see him as he is. He's going to take care of all the problems, all the sinfulness, all the evil that's in our hearts.

He's going to get rid of that and we're going to be like him. Is that gain? I think so. Very good.

I've been modest. That's what it says. Yes it is.

So the answer is yes, that's gain. And we as Christians, so often we as people, and sometimes as Christians, not always as Christians, but sometimes Christians, we think of death and we think, oh, that's so horrible. I have people when I share with them that my wife passed away last summer, what's the first thing that comes out of their mouth? I'm so sorry.

I understand their sentiment. They know that I'm hurting. I'm going through that.

They don't want me to do that. You don't have to be sorry about that. God's in control.

Sue is with God. She's with Christ. She's not hurting anymore.

Yeah. She's not dealing with sin. She has a perfect relationship with God, a perfect relationship with those in heaven.

Everything is wonderful. I read somewhere that each day is like, better than the last. I mean, this is what heaven's like.

This is going to be amazing. You don't have to be sorry for her, and you shouldn't be sorry for me because guess what? God's putting me in this situation, and I want to be like Paul, this is a hard situation for me. I'm going to magnify Christ in my body.

That's what I want to do. That's my desire. At least that should be what my desire is.

It doesn't always work out that way. I'm trying. No, he wasn't.

And the other thing about deliverance, I didn't want to go ahead, but when you pray for deliverance, you should pray in his will. In his will. Exactly.

Because look at how many epistles were risked in prison when he was alone. Yes. No, that's exactly right.

You can ask my wife. We want the prayer answered right now, and we want to answer it our way because we think we know what's best. Yeah, so that's totally true there.

And Paul wasn't perfect. I don't do the things I should do, and I do the things that I know I shouldn't do. And if Paul struggled with that, are we going to struggle at times? Yes, we are.

But his overall goal, his overall life, he want to be characterized by. He is there to magnify Christ. So I thought that was important for a point.

We're going to cover verses fastening these last two points, which I know I need to. So number three, there's a dilemma between living and dying. Two M's.

I learned that from my spell checker. What's that? I didn't do it the first time either. I got the little red squigglies and it's like, no, you're wrong.

To be fair, to make myself a little smarter, I did then put in a second M and it worked. So I didn't use the automatic spell check and have it put the word in some of the other places I have. So I'm not that smart.

But this one I got right. So verse 22 and 23, and you can see this if to live is Christ, and that's a great thing, and to die is gain, it's an advantage. That's a great thing.

How do you decide where you're supposed to be? Especially if you're in Paul's case, you're in prison. Your future is really up in the air. What should I do here? And verse 23 says, but if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit for my labor.

Yet what I shall choose, I cannot tell. If I'm hard pressed between the two having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. And so you see the dilemma in his mind.

It's like, if I stay here, if I serve Christ, Christ is going to do good things through me, right? Christ is going to work through me. He's going to accomplish his will. That's a good thing.

But I know that being with Christ is even better, so that's a good thing, too. Which way do I go with this? So let's look at the two choices. Living means results for Christ.

That's why I took fruit here. It's results for Christ sometimes. And I love John MacArthur.

I love his commentary. Sometimes he gets stuck on the Word, and then he sees fruit in here, and then he goes to every passage that has fruit in it and says, look at all this different fruit stuff. Well, let's simplify this a little bit.

What's fruit for his labor? This is results. This is God working through his labor. That's simply what you can say there.

Part of his labor was sharing the Gospel. So part of his fruit was seeing people saved. That's results from his labor.

Part of his fruit was enabling and edifying the church. So he's seeing the church grow that's fruit from his labor. So whatever it is, whatever he's doing, that's fruit, it's just his results.

So if he lives on in the flesh, one of the commentaries made a comment on this. This isn't talking like a lot of times when you say live in the flesh. This is like live by our sinful desires.

That's not what he's talking about. He's just talking about if he lives on Earth and the physical bodies that we have, it's living in the flesh. He'll have fruit from his labor.

And he describes the fruit from his labor in the next part of the thing. So I'm not going to go too much into what he thinks the fruit of his labor is, but Ephesians 210. Isabel, go ahead.

So here, you guys all know Ephesians two, eight, and nine, right? Most everybody does. It talks about being saved. It talks about how the process of salvation works.

Verse ten starts out for, okay, you're saved for what reason? For we are his workmanship creating Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Paul knows this. If he's here on earth, if he's saved, he's been created to do what's right, to do what's good, to do what pleases the Lord, to do what God wants Him to accomplish.

He's created He's God's workmanship in order to do good works. And so he says, well, if I live on the flesh, this will mean fruit for my labor. Well, how will be fruit for his labor? Well, as he's obedient and doing what God wants Him to do, he knows God's going to work because that's what God's created Him for.

I think about things I create. I don't create a lot of things. So I've used this example many times before.

I like Legos. That's something I can create. I don't actually create the Legos, but I create things out of the Legos, right? So if I create the Lego and I'm like, I'm going to create a spaceship because I like Star Wars Legos.

So I create spaceships and I build it. Then there's a spaceship. Well, that spaceship's created to be a spaceship.

It's created to be what it's supposed to be. So I get my little Anakin Skywalker figure and I put him in the cockpit and I fly it around with the kids and I make funny stories with them, and they laugh and everybody's happy. The spaceship's created to do what I made it to do.

God's created us as Christians, as people who have faith in Him, in order to do what we're supposed to be doing. And that's good works. And so Paul says, I'm going to do what God's created me to do.

I'm going to do what God wants me to do, and that's to do the good works that he wants me to accomplish. And because I'm doing that and because that's God's purpose, he's going to use me for that purpose. Just like I created that spaceship, I'm going to fly around as a spaceship.

I'm not going to turn into a semi truck. Here's my spaceship. Look, it's driving on the ground as a semi truck.

No, I created as a spaceship, so I'm going to use it for that purpose, and that's what it's going to accomplish. Paul's been created for the purpose of doing good works by God, so he's going to do that, and God's going to accomplish what he wants to through Him. So there's fruit for his labor.

So that's living. Living means for Christ. There's going to be fruit for my labor.

I'm going to do what God wants me to do, accomplish what God wants me to accomplish. Dying is far better because dying means being with Christ, and he's hard pressed here between the two choices. Now, this was hard to understand.

Is Paul like saying, I'm going to either kill myself or I'm going to not kill myself? No, he's not saying that. He's basically saying this as unknown, that I don't know what's going to happen to me in the future, in God's sovereignty and God's will. He hasn't revealed this to me.

So my desire is, yes, to continue doing this and serve God, but my greater desire is to stop doing this and be with God and serve Him even better. And so he's expressing this as like it's his choice. It's not his choice, but what is his desire? What does he want to do? So he's hard pressed.

This word hard pressed means being hemmed in on both sides. It has this idea of walking in this narrow valley and the walls are closing in on you, and it's getting narrower and narrow, and it's kind of pushing you on both sides. He can't go one way, he can't go the other.

He's not sure what to do. That's the idea of this word. So he has a desire to depart.

He has a desire to die and depart from this world and be in God's world. No, this world is God's world. That is a poor way of saying it to be with Christ.

I'll just put it that way. Romans 823. Let's read that.

Go ahead, Eric. Not only that, but we also have the first fruits of the spirit. Even we ourselves grown with equated, so Paul says this is true of us as Christians, we have the first fruits of the spirit.

What's the first fruits of the Spirit? It's the Spirit dwelling in us. Well, the spirit dwell in us is when we're saved, that's his first fruit is this indwelling. So those of us who are saved, we groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

We're looking forward to being with Christ, whether you realize that or not. Now, as you get older, I think you look more and more forward to it, one, because I think you have less time anyway. Every day you're day closer to being with Christ.

But I think also, I've noticed this, and I know I'm going to say this, and some of you who are what we used to call senior saints a lot are going to say, you're such a young whippersnapper, you can't even say that. I'm 50 now and I have soreness in places I didn't even know I could have soreness. I've been going bowling with Josiah and Nathan and Thomas and Caleb sometimes comes with us.

And I've gone out there and my middle finger on my bowling hand is sore because I'm gripping the ball. I didn't know that could happen. I used to bowl a lot when I was younger.

That never happened to me. You're still young, you got to learn a lot more. I know I do have to learn a lot more.

That's why I say that the senior saints are going to tell me, you need to calm down, you're not even there yet. Yeah, I've been my middle finger about this far and I go, that's starting to hurt right there from bowling. How does that so I think that's a part of it, too, that I'm like, okay, I can't wait till the aches and pains and sores are gone.

Christ come back again. I want to have that attitude of Paul that if I'm here, I'm serving the Lord, but if God comes back or if God takes me home through death, that, oh, wow, that's going to be so much better. And I think there's a lot that goes into that and just our desire as we get to know the Lord and as we learn about who he is, as we're studying his word there should automatically be a desire that, yes, I want that.

I want to know Him better. I want to be with Him that ought to be there. As the deer panted for the water, so my soul longs after you.

I mean, what's a better way to get to know God than to be in his presence? I mean, we have His Word, he's given us what we need. I'm not saying that that's not good enough, but when we're there, we're going to see Him as he is. That's going to be amazing.

So there ought to be a longing in our heart. And Paul says, I have this desire. I have this desire to depart.

And think about, he's in prison again, he's facing persecution from Gentiles, he's facing tribulations from those who are supposed to be saved and are supposed to be supporting Him and working alongside Him. And they're know there's probably days where he goes, I'm ready to be done with this. Jesus come back, or Jesus, come get me.

And so he has a desire to depart and to be with Christ. Two Corinthians five. Eight.

Yeah, let's look at one through eight and then we'll talk about eight in a second. Josiah. Josiah wants the big passage.

For we know that if our earthly house destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heaven. For in this we grown earnestly desiring to be clothed, if indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. We who are in this tent room, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, and we're towing they be followed up by life.

Now, he who has prepared us for the very thing of God, who also has given us spirit as a guarantee, we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased, rather, to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

So this fits with points one and two under B. There the first part there. He has a desire to depart and he's talking about here, he's talking about tents and he's talking about buildings and he's talking about being clothed and unclothed and re-clothed.

This is all Him talking about death. The tent, the old clothing is you, this flesh, it's our bodies. He says, when we get to heaven, god's going to take away that sinful awful clothing which he calls a tent.

He's going to give us a building, he's going to give us a better body, he's going to give us a good body, he's going to give us a perfect body. And the same thing he says, we don't want to be unclothed, we don't want to be out of body, but we want to be further cold. We want the better body.

That's what we should be groaning. For. That's what we should be desiring.

And that's all talking about being with Christ. And then he goes on to say, and this is the second point, he wants to be with Christ. Verse six.

So we are always confident, knowing that while we're at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. While you're here, you're not in the Lord's direct presence. Now, I know the Holy Spirit's in us.

God is everywhere at once, right? So he's here. But in the same way we don't see, we don't experience, we don't taste, we don't feel, we don't hear all the stuff, the senses. We're not in his presence in that way.

So when we're in the body, we're not with the Lord, but verse eight, we are confident, yet well pleased rather, to be absent from the body and be present from the Lord. Our desire is to get rid of this body. It's decaying.

It's the law of thermodynamics everything is going from a state of more complex to more simple. It's decaying, it's falling apart. This body is falling apart from the moment you're born.

Your body's working towards death. We want to get rid of that. And we want to be in the Lord's presence.

We want to be with Him. Yes. I knew a lady who got up every morning, 04:00 in the morning most of her life, and her Bible.

Anyway, she got sick and went to the hospital, went to be with the Lord at exactly 04:00 in the morning. And I always think because God said, let's do this. That's neat.

I love that picture of Scoop where she got her arms wide open and it's like she's looking at that's how she is now. I was talking to a friend of mine, he has a friend who he lost his wife and he's a pastor. He's teaching his congregation that he prays to God, that God would say hi and I love you, to his wife in heaven.

I said, I don't think that's biblical, because they're not really concerned about that. They're focused on Christ so much that that doesn't matter to them. They're there where they need to be, where they ought to be.

And not that it's a bad sentiment necessarily, but it's not a biblical one. When you're with Christ, you're with Christ, your whole focus is to worship and honor Him. I'm glad that Sue's not thinking about what I'm doing down here.

I'm glad that she has the right focus now and it's perfect. So she's with the Lord, she's absent from the body and present with the Lord, and she has that new habitation, that new dwelling, that new body that she can serve Him perfectly. So anyway, that's way off the point here, probably.

Well, that's not way off the point, but I'm just talking. So Paul ends in verse 23 here. This is far better.

It's far better to be with the Lord. This is far better than continuing here job 1925 through 26. Job is great because I don't think anybody can argue that he's gone through some extremely hard things.

So what does he say in verses 25 and 26 of Job 19? Olivia for I know that my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand at the earth, and after my kid is destroyed, this I know that in My flesh I shall does anybody know about when we think lived? When he lived. What time? Well, yeah, pretty early, like before Abraham or maybe in Abraham's time somewhere. He's a very early Genesis, right? Look at what he says.

I know that my Redeemer lives. Job had some good theology. Job knew who God was.

He knew that God was his redeemer. I know my redeemer lives. He shall stand there last on earth.

He's got the eschatology down right. Christ is coming back. He didn't even know his Christ.

He just knew His Redeemer was coming back. And after my skin is destroyed, he's going to die. He's going to be buried in the ground.

And what happens when you get buried in the ground? Your body doesn't last that long, let's put it that way. Your skin is destroyed. This.

I know that in my flesh I shall see God. Even though my earthly body is destroyed, I am going to see God. Yeah, right.

But he understands a lot of truth here. For somebody that didn't have all the New Testament that we're studying, having Paul tell us point blank this is what it means, he already knows what it means. If I left the reference off and gave this to the normal Christian, said, where is this found? I bet a lot of them would say one of the Epistles, probably maybe in Romans, maybe in Ephesians.

But this is job. He understands the truth about God, that this life doesn't last. But when I'm done here, I'm going to be with God.

I'm going to see him. I'm going to be with Him. Revelation 715 through 17 gets to go to Revelation.

Imagine that went from job to revelation. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them.

They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them, nor any heat, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Now, if I said, is being with Christ, is that a wonderful, great thing? Is that a wonderful reward for us? I think you would all say, yeah, that's what we want, right? Look at what else comes along with it.

They'll neither hunger nor thirst anymore. I'm hungry right now. I'm ready to go home and have something to eat, and as soon as I stop talking, we can do that.

It's going long. Yeah. The sun shall not strike them.

How many of you have had like, a sunburn or heat stroke or something like that? The sun is nice. It does a lot of good things. But the sun can hurt you too, right? For the lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them.

I don't know how you feel about our current president. I'm not a big fan. The one before him, even though he did some good things, I wasn't a big fan of him either, to be quite honest.

Most of the presidents disappoint me in some way or another. They're not very good leaders. Some of them better than others.

I think there's better ones than the ones we have now. Who's going to shepherd us in heaven? It's going to be the Lamb, the perfect lamb. He's going to be a good leader, I think.

I'm going to like everything that he decides because he's going to be a shepherd. Not only that, does what's righteous, what's just what's holy, but he's also going to do what's loving, what's gracious. I mean, this is going to be the perfect leader.

Lamb, who is the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them, and he's going to lead us to living waters. I don't know what living waters are exactly. Well, you're going to be perfect, too, so there won't be any problems.

Yeah, but I got my 40oz of water here that I try to get through. I know that that's not living water. So whatever it is, it's going to be a lot better, right? And last thing here, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Every single tear from their eyes is going to be wiped. We're never going to cry again. We're never going to hurt again.

Those are some good things. Is that far better than now? Oh, yeah. By a lot, right? I mean, this isn't even a question.

So Paul's saying here, I know I need to stay here. I need to live for Christ. There's going to be fruits of my labor if I live here.

But, boy, what's coming next, that is a ton better. So why wouldn't I desire this? Well, Paul says this is what's going to happen number four here. If our lives, if we live I added that in there because that's kind of how Paul puts it.

If our lives, if we live, are to produce fruit. So here's what we're to focus on, then. We have a desire to depart.

We have a longing, we have a groaning, but we need to be focusing on producing fruit in our lives. Produce. Thank you.

Same thing, right? That's protein. Okay. Yeah, they do sometimes mercilessly, but they do that.

Especially that one. That's my son. He likes to do that.

Philippians 124. Yes. I'm not ready for you yet.

If you get the next one, though, nevertheless, to evade in the flesh is more needful for you. So he's saying it's better to depart. But what's more needful for you is I stay here that I live.

And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, that your rejoice for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. So he says, even though being with Christ is far better, even though being with Christ has so many more benefits, what's necessary is that I stay here and minister and produce fruit in my life. So living and I put in here to serve, because if you're just living to live, that's not what God wants.

God wants you to serve. Living to serve is necessary. This word needful here, it means necessary.

It's urgent. Paul doesn't see this as like, well, it'll be good for you if I stick around, because I have some nice things to give you. I'll read a couple books of the Bible.

You can read it if you want to. No, he's saying this is urgent, this is important that I be here to do what God wants me to do because it's for your benefit. It's not for my benefit.

My benefit is I'm going to go be with Christ and things will be taken care of. But what's beneficial is for me to serve you and do what God wants me to do in your life. So it's for others progress.

Paul desires the church to grow in Christ. I give a couple of verses. I was going to give like a whole long passage here in Ephesians four, but I'll just give you a couple here because I think I can point out what Paul's trying to say.

Lemuel, you want this one? Ephesians 411 through twelve gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelist, some pastors and teachers for the equipment of the saints. I think you can qualify Paul as that first category there. He's an apostle, right? We all agree to that.

So God gave some to be apostles. What's the purpose for the equipping of the saints? For the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ? Paul's purpose here is to build up to equip the body of Christ. And he says, this is what God's given me to do.

This is why it's important. This is why I'm staying. It's not for my benefit.

It's to serve you. It's to give you the tools you need to build you up into the people God wants you to be, because that is important. So it's for the others project and it's for others joy.

He says, I continue for your progress and for your joy of faith. There is joy in common fellowship. We have, as Paul sees, the people that he's taught, the people he's trained, the people he's saved, doing what's right, serving God, being the people God wants them to be.

That brings him joy. Can I use our conversation this morning as an example? Josiah? So Josiah had to take his dad to the airport. I assume you're one of the only ones who was available to do it.

And it was necessary. He had to get there for a flight. A lot of people would say, you know what? I miss church, taking my dad to the airport.

I'm just going to take the day off. I'm going to go home, sleep, rest, whatever. Josiah came back towards the end of the service.

I saw him there. Not that I was a little surprised, but Josiah is here. He's not the airport anymore.

That's cool. I said to him, I said, It makes me so happy to see that you are so committed to being here that even though you could have not shown up and nobody would have questioned it because you were taking your dad to the airport, you're here. That brings me joy.

That makes me happy that you're doing that. And Josiah said, well, it brings me joy that I'm learning, I'm growing, I'm being here with the people of God. I don't remember exactly how he said it, but that kind of idea that this is beneficial to Him to be here, and he's finding joy in that.

And I'm finding joy because he committed himself to coming back. And it should be expected for Christians, right? That should be normal. But you don't always see that very often.

So when someone does that, I'm like, it made me so happy this morning. I really was like, yeah, Josiah, you're doing what's right. That's awesome.

So it's for others joy that Paul is that he says, here, for your progress and joy of faith. There's joy in people doing what's right. Two Corinthians 124 Do I have that on? I do.

Yeah. Josiah. Okay, go ahead.

Not that we have dominion over your faith, but our fellow workers for your joy. And Paul says, we're fellow workers for your joy. Not even for his joy, but for your joy that you would experience the joy of God.

That's what he's there for. So the progress of their joy. So living to serve is necessary.

Living on brings rejoicing. This word rejoicing is a different word than we normally have for rejoicing. It means boasting or an object of boasting.

So it brings reason for them to say, look what God's doing in Paul. It's kind of a boasting about Paul, but it's really a boasting about God that they're saying, look at how God is using Paul to help us. There's a reason for boasting here.

And he says that they would be more abundant that Paul's deliverance and remaining I use remaining quotes. This is his living would bring more abundant rejoicing to them that they would be able to boast in what Paul's doing and thus boasting what God's doing. Because remember, Paul's goal is to magnify the Lord.

So it all goes back to that. And so it's in Christ. It's on behalf of what Christ has done for Paul and to serve the church through Paul.

So how Christ is working in God, they're able to boast in that. And because of Paul's presence here, he says at the end of the verse here that rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Christ Jesus by my coming to you again. So Paul says, I'm praying for God's deliverance.

He may deliver me through death, but if he lets me live, I'm hoping that I can come to you in person and meet that urgent need in you to grow and to know Christ and to do what Christ wants you to do. That's what Paul's desire is and he feels is necessary, and it brings joy in the church. So that's kind of that last point.

I know I'm way, way over time. I'm sorry. This morning these were hard verses.

I wanted to break them up smaller, but I thought that we needed to do them together. So that's my main notes. I want to look at three takeaways here and we're going to turn one more in our Bible.

So it's gonna be another few minutes yet. I'm sorry. Hopefully you stick with me just a little bit longer.

God wants to be enlarged in your life. That was that first part about magnifying Christ in our body. God wants to be enlarged in your life.

He wants to be showing through your life to be bigger, to be greater, to be proclaimed before people. What are you doing to bring Him glory and to magnify Him? Does your life reflect who God is? And is it live consistently with like God's word tells you it should look like? Are you portraying that? Are you Magnifying Christ? Are you showing Him for who he is by the way you live, by the things you do, by the things you say? So God wants to be enlarged in your life? Secondly, I think our focus in this life should be to serve others. As Paul said.

That continuing meant continuing again. This continuing living meant a benefit for the believers in Philippi. Do our lives impact those around us in a beneficial way? Are we living to help others? Are we living to show Christ to others? Are we living to encourage others in Christ? Are we witness to eternal life to the unsaved we come into contact with? That's the way we can benefit people as they're hearing the gospel and they're saved, that's a humongous benefit.

They're going from death to life. They're experiencing that eternal life that God promises. So we need to be doing that.

Are we edifying believers around us? Are we working to build up each other and help each other grow in Christ? Our lives ought to be doing that. The purpose of us being here is to serve those around us. It's far better for us to be with Christ.

We can do almost everything better. But we can't help other people grow, and we can't share the gospel better than we can right now. So we need to do that.

My last point here. Death can scare us. It can sadden us too.

It can do a lot of things, but we should understand our death here on Earth only means that we are able to be with Christ. I'd say only means. I mean, that's a great thing, right? When faced with our own death, if we have trusted Christ as our Savior, we can be reassured and we can stand boldly, because to die is gain.

For a lot of my life. I grew up in the 80s. In the 80s, things were kind of starting to go downhill morally in our country.

And as I've gone along in years, it's gotten worse and worse. I don't have any illusion that at some point in time in the United States, I believe that Christianity is going to be persecuted to the point that it's probably going to be illegal. It's probably going to cause us to be in prison.

It may cause some persecution, some torture. I don't know. That's next year.

I don't know if it's 50 years from now. I just see that's the way we're going. Unless God changes something drastically in our country.

For a while, that used to scare me. I used to hate that idea. What am I going to do if they take me to prison and they beat me and they torture me and stuff? I'm getting less and less worried about that because I'm understanding that, what can man do to me? This is a short time, and then I get to be with God, I get to be with Christ.

I get to have all the benefits of a perfect right relationship with God in his presence. Man can't do anything to me. God has me in his hand.

God's not letting me go. So that's why I say we can stand boldly because I'm getting to the point now where I'm like, they can do whatever they want to me. I'm standing for my faith.

I'm proclaiming the gospel. I'm telling them who Jesus is and that he's true. I'm not as worried about that anymore.

There's nothing that man can do to take that away. Romans 835 through 39. I want to close with this, so let's go there.

Somebody wants to volunteer to read. Jonathan has hand up a little. Olivia has her hand up a lot.

They're both pointing at each other now. We'll let Jonathan do it. We'll do that.

Olivia is very gracious, and I appreciate that, and she's been raised well. My wife did a good job. I did an okay job.

Okay, Jonathan, go ahead. Verses 35 through 39 who shall separate us from the love of Christ, our tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep of the slaughter. Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that love us.

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? You look at that list there. Shall tribulations have hard times separate us? No distress, no.

Persecution? Absolutely not. Famine? I like eating. You can probably tell that I don't like the idea of famine.

But can that separate me from the love of Christ? No. What else do we have here? Nakedness, not having anything, having all our goods taken away, no peril, no sword. That's people physically coming after us.

None of those stuff can separate us from the love of Christ. Those are all physical things. Now look at verse 38.

For I'm persuaded that neither death nor life so either in death or life, we still are under the love of Christ. Angels, principalities, powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ. What do we have to fear? Nothing.

What can stop us from doing what God wants us to do? Nothing. Paul's in prison. Paul's going to get imprisoned later.

Again, we talked about this. This is kind of his house arrest prison. Later he gets the dungeon.

Prison. You know what? Both of them. He was serving the Lord, and as you pointed out, he's writing epistles.

He's writing the word of God while he's in these places. Is God stopping him? No, god's putting him in position that he can do what God wants him to do. And he said, I'm going to continue to serve.

I'm going to continue to magnify. None of this stuff is going to stop me because God's love, nothing can separate me from that. It's awesome.

We need to have that kind of attitude. We need to have that kind of thinking that would free us up. If we're afraid to share the gospel with somebody, we don't need to be afraid.

What can separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing. Go ahead and share the love of Christ with people. We don't have to be afraid to stand for our faith.

We don't have to stand to face persecution. We don't have to stand fear to face ridicule. We can do that.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. So those are my takeaways. Any thoughts or questions? I know you're probably like, oh, he's done talking finally.

Glenn, go ahead. Yep, yep. Jesus said that don't fear those who can kill the body, but fear the one who can throw both body and soul into hell.

So who do we fear? Who do we honor? Who do we obey? We don't have to worry about what man's going to do. And you can see the apostles live that out throughout Acts. And if you study history, most of them I think John might not have, but most of the apostles died for their faith.

They died in defense of the Gospel, and they were willing to do that because they knew nothing can separate them from God. And that to live is Christ, and to die is gain. So either way, we serve the Lord, we magnify Him.

Yes. You said my favorite salvation verse already so much there, and you can go to any verse to further explain it. My second one is favorite verse is Philippians 413.

Do all things I like to do things myself who strengthens me. He gives us the ability to do that, his grace. Good.

Let's go ahead and close in prayer, unless somebody has something vital they need to say here. Derek, would you be willing to close us in prayer? Yeah. Father God.

Thank you. Again, I apologize for taking such a long time this morning. Next week is three verses, I believe, so hopefully I'll be able to cover that a little faster.