To live is Christ and to die is gain

Growing up when I was growing up was a very different experience to growing up today. We risked everything.

First time I came off a motorbike was 3 days after getting my first learners licence - I was 16.

We climbed trees

We jumped off roofs

We rode bikes everywhere without a helmet and protective gear

We climbed over fences

Played with knives

We risked life and have the scars to show it

Those were the days! And they were fun!

Something has changed. This world has become very risk averse.

We buffer our children - we control our lives

We cherish comfort

We avoid hardship

We avoid pain

We avoid discomfort

We avoid insecurity

We avoid failure

What is interesting is that we avoid the things that help us grow and mature. It is as if the more we become comfortable the more we fear losing that comfort. We want to control our lives but we allow fear to control us. Yet we fear what we can’t control.

Maybe the idol of comfort is bigger for us than we have ever seriously considered. And this impacts the church. Now we celebrate budgets and bums on seats rather risky steps of faith.

And then Paul comes along and models something radical for us.

He is sitting in a Roman jail and he’s joyful. He’s not bitter. Rather he sees this as being used by God to advance the Gospel.

He’s joyful because God is at work in His situation. He is saying that everyone knows that his imprisonment is because he is in Christ.

He’s joyful because the church is getting more confident because of his imprisonment. Some were now speaking the word fearlessly. That tells me they were believing God!

Christ is being proclaimed

How could a guy, who has done no evil but has been put in jail for the mnessage he proclaims, rejoice?

READ Philippians 1:12-30

I wonder how many of us can say, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

I know some of us can say...

“For me to live is my family!”

“For me to live is my possessions!”

“For me to live is my hobby”

“For me to live is the outdoors.”

How do we get to the place of saying, “For to me to live is Christ...”? Where He defines my life and He is the reason I get up tomorrow. He defines my priorities.

1. We need to see him - see who it is that we say we live for!

Live with a life-transforming vision of a glorious Christ.

1.1. See who He is

He’s saying Christ is worth living and dying for. For that to be real for us, we need to see Jesus as He is not as we want Him to be.

It’s easy to have a vision of God who serves me and He has served us. But you weren’t made for you.

My fear is that we’ve stopped seeing Him because we have stopped looking at Him.

We read the Bible for me

We pray for me

We don’t tell because it’s not comfortable for me.

But these things reveal Christ to us. They cause us to expeience Him more fully when He is the object. We are reminded of our weak humanness and Christ’s glorious and m,ajestic divinity.

Take a moment and let these words refresh us.

Colossians 1:15–20 CSB

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. 18 He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

1.2. See what He has done

He, God creator God, the One is preeminent in everything, entered our history to reconcile us to Himself by the blood of His cross.

Heavens marvels at this!

I was listening to a podcast by Joe Rogan and he was interviewing a guy named Chadd Wright who had been Navy Seal team leader and had encountered the risen Christ. He couldn’t stop talking about Jesus because He had experienced Christ. He couldn’t stop talking about how he had been dead and Christ made Him alive.

2. Understand You are in Him

This is the place of true identity. The Apostle said that he was in this place because he was in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

3. You are for Him

There is something in the apostle that says, “I want to live well for the right purpose.” So he says, “At the end of it all I do I want Christ to be honoured whatever happens in my life.”

Philippians 1:20 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.

Many Christians start well because we saw Him and He was amazing. But something faded.

Being "in Christ" is more than just a phrase; it is the foundation for a new life filled with hope, purpose, and the power to live in accordance with God's will.

3.1. Clarity on purpose

My purpose is to live for Christ whatever that looks like. He is the one who rescued and made me alive. I am nothing without Him.

Galatians 2:20 CSB

20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

So everything becomes about the glory of God.

3.2. Changed perspective

Have you noticed how often we face challenges even in the church and then we want to give up on the bride of Christ.

Paul sees God’s hand even in being imprisoned and says, “God is using my imprisonment to advance the Gospel.” Everyone knows it’s because he is in Christ! And the church has been encouraged to rise with courage and speak the Word of God.

When he faces challenges in the church he sees things from God’s position and says, “Christ is being proclaimed!” The Gospel is advancing. The church is being mobilised.

3.3. Committed life

The life of Faith. Sometimes faith is spelt RISK. Other’s have given it the acronym, “Forsaking all I take Him.”

If you have done this then there is no fear to stop you from stepping out following Jesus into unknown territory. You know that to be with Christ is better by far.

We don’t tell the stories of how we stayed safe in this world. The stories that captivate us are the ones that involve risk - getting to the ende of danger. Sometimes, because of our lack of faith, we think like Homer Simpson: You tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try.

Ultimatelly it involves Surrender

What does it mean to live for Christ?

To die to self

Live bigger than yourself

Trusting in God because we know He is true. His promises are true.

We forget this is a faith thing for us!

4. You will be with Him

Underlying current of hope even in the possibility of death.

For me, to live is Christa nd to die is gaith.

Some need to start changing lives so this is true.

True in family

True in finances

True in work

True in matters of intregity

True in habits

True in this church

Come back! Make this a moment of renewed surrender!