Philippians 2: To Live is Christ

Well, good morning again! Thank you for being here today to worship the Lord with the church family of Eastern Hills. And thanks for joining us if you are doing so online.

If this is your first time visiting with us, we would just like to tell you how grateful we are that you’re here, and we would like to be able to do so personally. To that end, I need to ask for just a little bit of information from you so we can reach out to you this week and see if there is anything we can pray for you about, or some way to serve you. If you’re online, you can fill out our online communication card by going to the bottom of our I’m New page on our website. If you’re in the room you can do that as well, or you can fill out a physical communication card that you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you. You can return the card to us one of two ways: first, I’d really love it if you would bring it down to me at the end of service. I’ll be down front, and I would really enjoy meeting you and giving you a gift to thank you for your visit today. You can also drop your welcome cards in the boxes that are by the doors as you leave when service is over.

Also, if you’re a visitor, as you look around you may have noticed that there are several people in the congregation today who are wearing name badges. These people generally know what’s going on, where to go, or other information that you might need, or at the very least can point you to a person who does. So be on the lookout for those name badges.

I wanted to say a special thanks this morning to someone who has faithfully served in a particular place for like 18 years. Tok Nyo Wright has managed the coffee and snack area in the cross courts for a long time, and she generally does not like to be the center of attention. But I asked her husband, and Riley said that it was okay to acknowledge her today. You may not know this, but when you put money in for the coffee and snacks, Tok Nyo takes uses funds out to buy the necessary supplies, but everything over that she saves up until it reaches $100, and then she designates it to some ministry in the church. For the last couple of years, that designation has been the Endeavor Campaign, our special giving to pay for the upgrades to our lighting, display, roof, and air conditioning. Through the coffee bar and Tok Nyo’s faithfulness, you have given over $6,000 to special ministry initiatives. Thank you, Tok Nyo, for managing that wonderful ministry every week!

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Opening

Last week was week 1 of our 10 week series through the book of Philippians. We began by looking through the first 11 verses of this book, an opening thanksgiving prayer of Paul about the church, a statement of confidence about the work of God in the church, and a prayer of blessing for the church from his imprisonment in Rome. And I suppose that a main question from last week is: “Are you thankful for your church?” We should be. And Paul was thankful for the Philippians.

The believers in Philippi had sent Paul a monetary gift of some sort in order to help him in his ministry from prison. Certainly, they saw the situation of Paul’s life as precarious, given that he would be appealing his case before Caesar at some point. Caesar literally held the power of life and death over Paul. So following his prayer of thanksgiving and blessing, Paul sought to put his friends minds at ease in the next section of his letter to them. This will be our focal passage today.

So please open your Bibles or your Bible apps to Philippians chapter 1, and we will read verses 12 through 26 this morning. I would ask that you would stand as you are able to in honor of the reading of God’s Word:

Philippians 1:12–26 CSB

12 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually advanced the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard, and to everyone else, that my imprisonment is because I am in Christ. 14 Most of the brothers have gained confidence in the Lord from my imprisonment and dare even more to speak the word fearlessly. 15 To be sure, some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good will. 16 These preach out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; 17 the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking that they will cause me trouble in my imprisonment. 18 What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice 19 because I know this will lead to my salvation through your prayers and help from the Spirit of Jesus Christ. 20 My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 Now if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me; and I don’t know which one I should choose. 23 I am torn between the two. I long to depart and be with Christ—which is far better—24 but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. 25 Since I am persuaded of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that, because of my coming to you again, your boasting in Christ Jesus may abound.

PRAYER

I’m sure that many of you have seen the Pixar movie “Inside Out.” If you haven’t, the movie is about an 11 year old girl named Riley who is struggling with a major life change—her family had to move from Minnesota to San Francisco. The movie is mostly from the perspective of the emotions in her head, with the character of Joy trying desperately to keep Riley’s “core memories” from being affected by one of the other emotions—Sadness—because of the upheaval in her life.

There’s a tiny little part of this movie that I want to use as an illustration this morning. The clip is only 16 seconds long, so it’ll be quick. So Joy and Sadness, guided by Riley’s childhood imaginary friend Bing Bong, come to a place in Riley’s mind called “Imagination Land,” where her imagined ideas are being manufactured. And the idea being manufactured at that moment is that of Riley’s “imaginary boyfriend.” This imaginary boyfriend declares the moment he comes off of the assembly line, “I would die for Riley.” It’s his main characteristic. He doesn’t even have a name. The only other thing we get is that he’s from Canada, as are all good imaginary boyfriends or girlfriends.

But what’s so interesting about this, and why I wanted to use Imaginary Boyfriend as an illustration this morning, is that this is the only thing that Riley’s 11-year-old mind can conceive about what the love of a boyfriend would be: that he would die for her.

It’s not surprising that she would think this way. This is, in our minds, usually the greatest sacrifice that we believe that we can make for someone else or for some cause—to die for them or for it. A declaration of that willingness is thus to declare the greatest passion for that person or cause. When soldiers die on the battlefield, the saying I believe first coined by Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address is that they “gave the last full measure of devotion.”

And certainly, this isn’t wrong. Once we give our lives for something, then that’s it—we can’t give anything further at that point. And I think that probably most of us would say that we would stand up in the face of life-threatening persecution and say, “I would die for Jesus.” And I believe that we truly mean it. We believe that, faced with the prospect of death for our faith, we would exalt Christ and die. We’d rather live, but if we had to, we’d die.

So this brings up a deeper question for those of us who are Christians: We say that we are willing to die for Christ—but are we willing to truly live for Him?

For Paul, he could go either way. It didn’t make any difference to him what happened in his life; he was going to exalt Jesus regardless. That theme is central to this passage—the fact that exalting Jesus was Paul’s greatest priority and calling, and it should be ours as well. God wants to use us to bring glory to Himself. And He can use our difficult situations, our selfish motivations, and either of our daily life’s destinations to do so.

We begin with a look at how God can use our difficult situations, like the one that Paul was in.

1: God can use our difficult situations.

Other than to have failing health, I can’t think of a more difficult situation to be in than prison. Imagine having to be under guard day and night every day, to not be able to go where you want to go, to not be able to make your own choices and decisions. Prison sounds miserable. However, for the apostle Paul, prison was an opportunity to exalt the name of Jesus through sharing the Gospel. Look at how positively he speaks to the church about his difficult situation:

Philippians 1:12–14 CSB

From a worldly perspective, Paul’s situation was dire indeed. Arrested in Jerusalem, transferred to Caesarea, and now awaiting trial in Rome, at every point Paul’s life was in danger. The Jews planned to have him assassinated before he was transferred to Caesarea, and then tried to manipulate his being brought back to Jerusalem to stand trial there so that they could make good on their plans. So Paul had exercised the right that he had as a Roman citizen to appeal to being heard by Caesar himself. So while he waited for his audience with the Roman Emperor, he was kept under guard.

And he really made the most of it. In a sweeping reversal, instead of Paul being the prisoner being watched, the soldiers assigned to him became a captive audience for the declaration of the Gospel! When Paul said that what had happened to him had “advanced” the Gospel, the word he chose is a word that can be used for “blazing a trail.” Because of Paul’s arrest and imprisonment and transfer to Rome, the whole imperial guard—the guards who guard the Emperor—had heard about not just fact that Paul had been arrested because of his Christian faith, but certainly about what Jesus had done for them as well.

And they couldn’t get away! They were assigned to stay with Paul, ordered to stay with Paul. And while we don’t know for certain that any of the guards came to faith in Christ, Paul said that “everyone else” had heard about the reason for his imprisonment. And we know from the last chapter of the book that some of those in Caesar’s household either were believers before Paul came to Rome, or had surrendered to Jesus since his arrival there:

Philippians 4:22 CSB

22 All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.

How did Paul take his imprisonment and turn it into an opportunity to exalt the name of Jesus? Well, first, he didn’t have a bad attitude about it. Yes, he was imprisoned. But he was still saved and loved by Jesus. He still had a ministry, a purpose, a calling on his life to spread the Gospel. If he had become self-focused about his situation, feeling sorry for himself for being in prison, he wouldn’t have shared the message of Christ with the people around him very well, if at all. His attitude would not have matched his testimony of hope, peace, and love.

Our heart attitudes matter, folks. It’s true. In Psalm 73, Asaph’s attitude is terrible from verses 3 to 16. You’ll see: we’re reading it in the Bible reading plan tomorrow. But then he focuses on the Lord, and everything falls into place. As he reflects on his bad attitude, though, look at what he says about himself:

Psalm 73:21–22 CSB

21 When I became embittered and my innermost being was wounded, 22 I was stupid and didn’t understand; I was an unthinking animal toward you.

His attitude about the wicked and their prosperity made him forget about God’s goodness and faithfulness. Has this ever happened to you? Your situation makes you feel that God is messing up, not doing things that way that He should be, and you get discouraged? Well, Paul didn’t fall into that trap, even though he could have.

Secondly, not only did he not have a bad attitude about his imprisonment, he understood that he still had the greatest message of hope that world had ever heard—the Gospel—and that a little bit of difficulty didn’t change that fact. Jesus, the Son of God incarnate, had come, and He had taken our place in death so that we could be forgiven and set free from the punishment that we owe because of our sins. And He rose from the grave, defeating death so that we could have eternal life. And looking forward to that eternal life with God filled Paul with hope. He had even written to the Roman church before his arrest, saying:

Romans 8:18 CSB

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

So to Paul, suffering for the sake of the Gospel was not only nothing, it was a privilege! And related to that is the third reason that Paul could take his difficult situation and use it as an opportunity to share the Gospel: he knew that God was going to use it for His purposes in glory.

We may bemoan difficulty, but we can’t see behind the veil—we can’t tell the future, and we can’t know what sort of impact our sharing the Gospel has throughout eternity. God might be doing something completely amazing that we don’t know about in the midst of our trial, and it might be in someone else’s life… not even our own!

In Tony Merida and Francis Chan’s co-written commentary on Philippians, Merida shares a story that I wanted to share with you because of how well it illustrates this point. I’m not putting it on the screen, because it’s entirely too long:

We never know how God might use suffering to advance the gospel. For example, I recently heard about the faith journey of Peter O’Brien (renowned Bible scholar—quoted often in the present work) in a sermon preached by D. A. Carson on the story of Joseph. When he was a youth, neither of O’Brien’s parents were Christians. But his mother became greatly impacted by the faithful witness of a neighbor. This neighbor was a simple lady with sincere faith in Christ, who unfortunately lived with an incurable disease and suffered day after day. But she never complained. Her attitude and witness made a tremendous impact on O’Brien’s mother, who eventually trusted Christ as Savior. Humanly speaking, it was because of this simple lady’s faith that O’Brien’s mother became a Christian. Because of that, O’Brien later believed. He would then go to seminary and get a PhD. Then he would go to India and make the gospel known for years. Then he would go to Australia, teach, and write several extraordinary commentaries. Now, suppose you had said to this simple, suffering woman: “Here’s the deal: If you will glorify Christ in your suffering, then as a consequence Indians will be converted, pastors will be trained to teach the Bible, and countless sermons will be preached. Will you now suffer faithfully every day?” I’m sure she would have said, “Yes! Of course! I can endure for these reasons!” But she didn’t know all of this would happen. When we’re in the middle of our suffering, we never know what will happen, but we must trust that God is sovereign and that He can and often does advance the gospel through great personal hardships, such as imprisonment or cancer. Our job is to stay faithful, joyful, and Christ-centered through the suffering, confidently trusting in His wise, sovereign will (D. A. Carson, “The Temptation of Joseph”).

—Tony Merida & Francis Chan, Exalting Jesus in Philippians

You can’t know what kind of impact your telling someone about Christ is going to have in eternity, so trust Jesus and share the hope that you have in Him with others. The ripple effect might be incredible!

But as one last point, the fourth reason that Paul could see his imprisonment as an opportunity to exalt Christ is that his boldness with the Imperial Guard and others had emboldened the other believers who saw Paul’s confidence, according to verse 14. So not only was he sharing the Gospel regularly, but as a result, others were as well.

If a prisoner could share the Gospel fearlessly and boldly, certainly those free men could! And many of them did! When we do what we are called to do, sharing the Gospel when we have the opportunity, it motivates others to do so as well. Your faithfulness in a difficult situation might be the catalyst that someone needs to take that next step of faith that they need to take.

So God can take our difficult situations and use them to bring Himself glory. But He also can use, believe it or not, even our selfish motivations to exalt the name of Jesus.

2: God can use our selfish motivations.

This point is a little hard for us to swallow, in a way. I mean, before we get to the HOW, we have to ask the WHY. Why would God use our selfish motivations for His purposes? Because He can use even broken things to fulfill His purposes—just think about what he’s done with us, and we’re broken.

Anyway, Paul shared with his friends in Philippi that some were preaching Jesus with pure motives, and others were doing so with not-so-pure motives:

Philippians 1:15–19 CSB

15 To be sure, some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good will. 16 These preach out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; 17 the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking that they will cause me trouble in my imprisonment. 18 What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice 19 because I know this will lead to my salvation through your prayers and help from the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Some had their hearts right, and some didn’t. But before we get into those who were preaching with wrong motives, let’s take a second and consider the right motives. These preached Christ out of “good will” (v. 15), out of “love” (v. 16), and by contrast, “sincerely” (v. 17). Obviously, this is how it should be. We should share the Gospel with others because we want the best for them (good will), because we care about them (love), and in a way that is genuine and true and honest (sincerely). Just because Paul wasn’t particularly worried about the worldly motives of the others didn’t mean that he condoned the state of their hearts. It’s just that to him, it appears that as long as the message was accurate, that was more important than the motive.

And what was their motivation for preaching the Gospel, if it wasn’t out of good will and love? Well, it was out of “envy and rivalry” (v. 15), “selfish ambition” (v. 17), and to somehow “cause Paul trouble in his imprisonment” (v. 17). How could preaching the Gospel come from these things, and how could preaching the Gospel cause Paul trouble?

Well, the idea behind their preaching out of envy and rivalry is that they were jealous of Paul’s success in sharing the Gospel with the imperial guard and the rest of Caesar’s household, or at the very least his influence in doing so. They wanted to build their own influence: they proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition. But this is not how Paul did things, as he wrote in 2 Corinthians:

2 Corinthians 4:5 CSB

5 For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake.

Paul wasn’t in the Gospel ministry for himself. And one of the things that we need to acknowledge is that we shouldn’t be either. And we should beware of envy or rivalry in ministry. There are churches out there that are bigger than Eastern Hills, and that have more programs, and better buildings, and more money. As long as they are preaching accurately the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they are on our team. We’re not in competition with them, and we have no need to be envious of them. There are churches out there that are smaller than Eastern Hills, with fewer resources, and my hope and prayer is that they aren’t jealous, because we’re on their team. When they win, the Kingdom wins, which means that we win. In fact, we have no problem partnering with other churches who get the Gospel right. We love to share the resources that we have with other biblical churches if we can. It’s part of our DNA.

Likewise, there should be no jealousy or envy between us as members of this particular body of Eastern Hills. There’s no place for it, and in fact, it’s a poison. Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 12:

1 Corinthians 12:14–18 CSB

14 Indeed, the body is not one part but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted.

So if they were preaching to expand their own glory, instead of the glory of Jesus, then how would this cause Paul trouble in his imprisonment (v 17)? There are kind of two thoughts on how this was possible, only one of which I think has any merit. The first is that by them preaching the Gospel, as the Gospel spread it would be blamed on Paul, and when he came before Caesar, he would already be marked as a trouble-maker. This is the least likely, because it doesn’t make a lot of sense. People heard the Gospel and were saved, and that was just on the hopes that Christianity as a whole would become a problem, which would get Paul killed? This sounds pretty far-fetched, because it would make their own ministry more difficult in the long run.

The second, and far more likely, possibility is that they hoped to draw support away from Paul during his imprisonment and to themselves. We know that Paul had people who helped him while he was in jail. He mentioned just in the introduction that Timothy was with him (v. 1). We’ll see later that Epaphroditus (who was sent by the church at Philippi) has been serving with him, and we see in the other prison epistles that he had people like Tychicus (Eph 6:21, Col 4:7), Onesimus (Col 4:8, Philemon 13), Mark (Col 4:10), Justus (Col 4:11), Epaphras (Col 4:12), and Luke and Demas (Col 4:14) serving with him while he was awaiting trial. Again, really these falsely-motivated preachers wanting to build their own kingdoms.

This is something that Paul could say that he didn’t do. In fact, when he wrote his first letter to the church at Thessalonica, he said:

1 Thessalonians 2:2–6 CSB

2 On the contrary, after we had previously suffered and were treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, we were emboldened by our God to speak the gospel of God to you in spite of great opposition. 3 For our exhortation didn’t come from error or impurity or an intent to deceive. 4 Instead, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please people, but rather God, who examines our hearts. 5 For we never used flattering speech, as you know, or had greedy motives—God is our witness—6 and we didn’t seek glory from people, either from you or from others.

One quick word on dealing with this: Church, the way to overcome jealousy and envy in the church family is by caring more about Jesus’s glory than your own. It’s that simple. If you look at someone and Jesus is getting the glory from their life, then you praise God for that, which is exactly what Paul did.

He said that it didn’t really matter, as long as Jesus was being proclaimed. Apparently they preached the Gospel correctly, so that was good enough for Paul. He didn’t even try to defend himself or correct them. In fact, he rejoiced because the Gospel was going out.

Do we rejoice when other churches are successful? Do we rejoice when our brothers or sisters in the church are recognized for their ministry? Do we celebrate the victories that others experience in their faith lives, without comparing them to our own? If we can’t do these things, then we should step back and take a heart check. Are we more concerned with the glory of the Lord, or our own?

And finally, Paul says that he is going to continue to rejoice, because he knows that this situation will lead to his “salvation through your prayers and help from the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” (v. 18b-19) Commentators were split about this salvation statement. Some think that it’s just referring to his deliverance from prison—that he was confident that when his case came up, the truth of the Christian faith will be heard, and he will be acquitted and released. This would happen as an answer to the prayers of those in the church at Philippi through the power of the Holy Spirit (notice that He is called the Spirit of Jesus Christ here). And I’ve always seen it that way. Before now.

You see, the other option is that he’s speaking of his salvation salvation: eternal-life-in-heaven-salvation. And if you take verse 19 by itself, that doesn’t seem likely. But Paul’s word choice is a direct echo of the Greek version of the Old Testament (called the Septuagint) in Job 13:15-16:

Job 13:15–16 CSB

15 Even if he kills me, I will hope in him. I will still defend my ways before him. 16 Yes, this will result in my deliverance, for no godless person can appear before him.

And the thematic change that Paul makes in verses 20-26 really lends itself to the reflection of this passage, as well as the fact that he’s talking about his eternal salvation. However, I don’t think this view is totally right either. I think he’s talking about either kind of salvation: either deliverance from his current predicament in prison through release, or deliverance from his current predicament in prison through death. This is because God can use either of life’s destinations—living and dying—to exalt Himself.

3: God can use either of life’s destinations.

He is God. He can literally do whatever he wants to do. And He has plans that are WAY more complicated and comprehensive than we can imagine. Paul said in Ephesians 3 that God is able to do above and beyond all that “we ask or think according to the power that works in us.” For Paul, that meant that he could be confident of his delivery from Roman bondage, one way or another.

Philippians 1:20–26 CSB

20 My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 Now if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me; and I don’t know which one I should choose. 23 I am torn between the two. I long to depart and be with Christ—which is far better—24 but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. 25 Since I am persuaded of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that, because of my coming to you again, your boasting in Christ Jesus may abound.

It didn’t matter which way things were going to go for Paul. He expected that if he was going to live, then Christ would be highly honored in his body while he lived, and if he died a martyr’s death, then Christ would be highly honored in how he died. Either way, Christ would be exalted, which is exactly what Paul wanted.

Back when I was the Youth Pastor, I took our students to Centrifuge up at Glorieta. And I believe that it was actually Tony Merida (who co-wrote the commentary I quoted earlier) who was speaking on this passage. And he approached it by saying that it didn’t matter which thing people threatened Paul with to get him to stop preaching—life or death, Paul had an answer for them.

If they said, “We’re going make sure you die, Paul...”

“OK. To die is gain.”

“Fine then. We’ll make sure you live and stay in prison.”

“OK. To live is Christ.”

There was nothing they could do. Nothing they could say. Because Paul was certain that Christ would be exalted either way, and that either one was ultimately a win for him personally, they had no power over him. He couldn’t be intimidated into being quiet about the Gospel.

How could he say this? He could say it because in living, he could continue serving, continue preaching, continue teaching, continue ministering (which is what he said in verses 24-26). And if he died? Well, because of his faith in Christ, he knew that he would be in the presence of the Lord:

2 Corinthians 5:6–9 CSB

6 So we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him.

This is what he was referring to in verse 23.

Wow. What a perspective to have! I don’t know about you, but sometimes I’m afraid to share the Gospel with someone because I don’t want them to dislike me… and I’m not even sure they will dislike me if I share. When I read something like this from Paul, it’s super convicting!

Paul knew that dying was a possibility for him, and in fact, that would ultimately be better for him, because to die was to be with Jesus (we should in no way read verse 23 to imply that Paul was contemplating suicide or that he was planning on giving up his defense before Caesar). This fact brought him great peace and comfort.

But he was confident that he was going to survive this imprisonment and be released, because that occurring was best for the Philippians—so that he could help them in their “progress and joy in the faith,” because being reunited with them would give them opportunity to boast about Jesus. His focus was always on the exaltation of Jesus.

He would live for Jesus, or he would die for Jesus.

Romans 14:7–8 CSB

7 For none of us lives for himself, and no one dies for himself. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

We have a purpose, whether we live or die: we belong to the Lord, and are to be about what He calls us to. Are we willing to tell other people about the hope of the Gospel? Are we willing to see, like Paul, that living is Christ, and dying is gain? God can use both of those destinations to exalt the name of Jesus.

Closing

Nothing else can do this. Nothing else we can live for can become gain at our death. Only Jesus can. Maybe we find it easy to say with Paul, “I would die for Jesus.” Can we also say with Paul, “I will live for Jesus?”

If you’ve never surrendered to Jesus in faith, never believed the Gospel message, then the Bible says that you actually CAN’T live for Jesus. You’r not capable of it because you don’t belong to Him. In short: you are lost. Jesus died so you could be forgiven—justified before a holy God. And He rose from the grave so that you can have eternal life with Him, living in heaven forever, just as Paul had confidence of. Will you trust Him as your Savior this morning, and surrender to Him as your Lord? If that’s you, we want to celebrate that with you this morning.

Baptism: filling up the baptistery on October 6, ready to go.

Church membership

Repentance

Prayer

Giving

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Jerry Gates passing this week

Bible reading (2 Chr. 35-36, Ps 72)

No Pastor’s Study because of Business Meeting & Wendy’s

Prayer Meeting

Lord’s Supper next week

Instructions for guests

Benediction

2 Corinthians 5:20–21 CSB

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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