To Live is Christ

To Live is Christ

Phil. 1:20-27

Theme: Paul’s decision proves living for Christ is real life.

Welcome to Mountain View Baptist Church on this first Sunday of a new year. What a blessing to have you here with us today. You are making a wise investment today in your spiritual walk by being in church today.

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As we start 2024, what are you going to live for? On a tombstone in the graveyard there are names and there are dates. Most will focus on the day of a person’s death or a person’s birth. The most important though is the dash. The is what you lived for.

The great voiceover artist Mel Blanc, who voiced Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Pie, Sylvester, and many other popular cartoon characters, was also the voice of Looney Tunes’ ubiquitous sign-off, “The-the-the-that’s all folks.”

One golfer had written on his tombstone: “at last a hole in one.”

How you live today will be written after you are gone by those who know you. Here is Paul’s life laid out before us. He is writing about a life decision under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He is giving something worth not only living for but also dying for.

There are two viewpoints from which Paul is addressing in verse 21

Life and Death

Christ and Gain

There are three considerations found here for a believer who lives for Christ.

Consideration 1. . .

The resolution

Paul had already made up his mind how he was going to live and how he was going to die. There was no confusion, no question, no capitulation. He had already decided. It is always best to resolve what you will live for. Certainly, God doesn’t call every person to be a full-time Christian worker or a missionary or preacher or preacher’s wife, but He does all everyone to be full-time Christians.

This means your mind has been made up of what you are going to live for.

I am a part of the "The Fellowship of the Unashamed". I have the Holy Spirit Power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight-walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving and dwarfed goals!

I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by presence, lean by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer and labor by power.

My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, back up, let up or shut up until I've preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know and work until He comes. And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear.

Paul had resolved his heart was not chasing a worldly dream or a temporal pleasure but he wanted his life to count for God. The Bible tells us few have made the resolve to live for Christ.

“For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14)

Over the years I have seen people whom God called but they refused to follow Him. So many excuses like family or friends or job or fear of failure or love for the world.

In this passage God is calling for a man to resolve what he will live for. Jesus calls a man to be a committed follower of Him. This is what the ministry pathway is about. There is the connection after consecration and then commitment. Will you resolve today to be a committed follower of Jesus Christ?

Leonard Ravenhill in his book “Why Revival Tarries” on page 27 he says, “When a man who crept along for years in conventional Christianity suddenly zoom into spiritual alertness, becomes aggressive in the battle for the Lord, and has a quenchless zeal for the lost, there is a reason for it. (But we are so subnormal these days that the normal New Testament experience seems abnormal.). The secret of this “jet-propelled fellow we have just mentioned is that somewhere he had had Jacob like wrestlings with God and has come out stripped, but also “strengthened by the Holy Ghost.”

Consideration 2. . .

The concentration

Because of Paul’s chains, Christ was known 1:13, and because of Paul’s critics, Christ was preached 1:18. But because of Paul’s crisis, Christ was magnified 1:20. Isn’t it amazing how Christ is often magnified through our weaknesses and our struggles?

His concentration and single-minded heart were to magnify Christ in his body. How can we magnify the Son of God? Well, the stars are much bigger than the telescope, and yet the telescope magnifies them and brings them closer. The believer’s body is to be a telescope that brings Jesus Christ close to people. As unbelievers watch believers go through a crisis, they can see Jesus magnified and brought so much closer to people.

Nothing can steal a man’s joy if he possesses the single mind.

Galatians believers were struggling with the law and thinking they were growing in their walk with the Lord by keeping the law.

First of all nobody can keep the law. Even if they could, they would get the glory rather than the Lord Himself. There is a verse in the middle of this discussion which explains the concentration of a committed believer

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” (Galatians 2:20–21)

Paul is saying for him at the conscious center of everything is Christ. Paul had a Christ-centered ministry, a Christ-powered ministry, and a Christ-exalting ministry.

Today there are many distractions to your concentration which attempt to attract your attention away from the important. It is your phone, your social media, your hobby, your recreation, your TV programs, your travels, all can distract you away from magnifying Christ in your life.

Let me assure you whatever you concentrate on, you will become. There are many a preacher today who is not in the ministry because he concentrated on money or pornography or a hobby which led him away from Christ.

Many times our lives have constant distractions from Christ. Let me give you a test just for you. Since you came into the service today, how many times have you checked your email, or checked your phone texts or social media. I know some of you use a Bible app on your phone. Our concentration should be on Christ. We are here to worship and honor Him. Our concentration from the Scriptures is easily broken when we allow those things in our lives.

When Nathan came in for a few days we went to this restaurant in Torrance. It was a mom and pop’s privately owned place. We were not in a hurry but neither were they. Our wait time was long but the food and the atmosphere was good. On the wall was a plaque:

We do not have WIFI. Talk to each other. Pretend it’s 1995

I have thought how often I have not concentrated on the people in front of me at the table. It seems like my phone or text is more important than they are. This is exactly how we are with Christ. There are so many other things we allow to distract us from following and serving Christ.

Consideration 3 . . .

The commitment

Verse 21 is an amazing verse of commitment. He says if I stay alive here there will be the furtherance of the gospel. But if I die, I will gain so much more. His heart for service was so evident that he was willing to postpone going to heaven in order to help Christians to grow, and he is willing to go to hell so that he might win the lost to Christ in Romans 9:1-3.

Now that is a commitment. Christian, are you willing to serve Christ this year? If Paul was willing to postpone going to heaven to serve, shouldn’t we be willing to serve the Lord also? Many will not serve because they are not committed enough to come to church, to follow Christ, or be a living example.

Notice he talks about departing. Death had no terrors for Paul. This word was used by the soldiers to take down your tent and move on. What a picture of Christian death! The “tent” we live is taken down at death, and the spirit goes home to be with Christ. The sailors used the word to mean to loosen the ship and set sail. It was also used as a political term to set free of a prisoner. We are in bondage to the limitations of the body and temptations of the flesh but death will free us from the bondage.

Verse 21 becomes a valuable test of our lives. For me to live is ___________ and to die is ____________. You fill in the blanks

Is it. . .

For me to live is money, and to die is leave it all behind.

For me to live is fame and to die is to be forgotten.

For me to live is power and to die is to lose it all.

For me to live is getting the most like’s on Facebook and to die is the loss of popularity.

For me to live is sports, and to die is the ending,’

How could Paul say “For to me to live is Christ?” It was Christ in him and he in Christ-a description used in the New Testament to describe the believer’s living, saving, union with Christ.

Among the ancient ruins of Carthage there is an inscription carved by a Roman soldier: “To laugh, to hunt, to bathe, to game—that is life.” You mean for me to live is to hunt, to go to baths, and to party.

Tabloid magazines and TV programs of celebrities say “for me to live is to fornicate, to accumulate, to dine well. Or on a more prosaic level for me to live is to golf, to work, to garden, to travel, to watch TV. If this is life then death is everything.

What about your life Christian? What are you living for?

What about you who are not yet a Christian? Without Christ you are not ready to depart. Will you accept Christ today? Will you turn to Him right now?