Sermon Tone Analysis

For me to Live is Christ, and to die is gain v.21

Introduction:

Many years ago a Texas oil millionaire specified in his will that He wanted to be buried in his Cadillac.

So when the man died, a firm of undertakers prepared to carry out his instructions.

They dug an enormous grave, placed the Cadillac on a huge lowering device, dressed the corpse in a sports jacket, put a cigar in his mouth, seated himself at the steering wheel, and set the speedometer at 60 miles per hour.

The mourners gathered around the grave as the strange coffin sank into the ground, to the appropriate words of committal, another millionaire, looking at his dead friend with a tear in his eye, said “Man, that’s living!”.

In my opinion there was more emphasis not on the living but on the dying.

Nothing could have been more dead than this man.

Whenever you do something that gives you pleasure, you express your enjoyment by saying “This is the life”, or “this is living!”

What makes you say that?

What brings you joy in your life?

Take a few minutes to really think about that.

Text:

Phil

Remember how I asked you what makes you say “This is the life?” or “This is living?”

Well Paul said it in prison.

He believed in Jesus Christ and had committed his life to Him. “To me,” he said, “to live is Christ”.

For Christians this is living.

Life begins with Christ v. 21

Some people say life begins at forty.

When would you say life began for you?

The truth is however, that life begins at whatever age one finds Christ as personal Lord and Savior.

When we are born again we find real life, new life in Christ.

Is that truth for you?

Paul discovered this truth when he met Christ on the Damascus road.

Augustine was born again when he heard the voice of Christ in a quiet garden.

Francis of Assisi started a new life on the day he heard Christ’s voice in a run down church

John Wesley found new life on an evening when Christ spoke to him in a Moravian chapel.

Truly we begin living with Christ!

Born again there’s really been a change in me

Born again just like Jesus said

Born again and all because of Calvary

I’m glad so glad that I’ve been born again!

Oh what a change what a difference!

Living He loved me!

So let us begin at the first part of verse 21.

The first main heading that I want to set before you is, “To Live is Christ.”

Notice how this begins, “for to me,” this is put in what we call the emphatic position in a sentence.

In other words, it is to draw attention to this.

This is very personal for Paul, “For me,” “For me, to live is Christ.”

Paul does not have a secondhand experience of Christ.

He does not have a secondhand faith.

He does not have faith through his parents or through his spouse.

Paul can say, “For me, for to me, in the depths of my soul, in the core of my very being.”

It is a very personal experience.

We cannot make heaven on the merits of our nan or pop, mom or dad.

We have to personally ask for forgiveness and allow the transformation of salvation to come to us!

He is a personal God!

What Paul is saying is regardless of how anyone else is living, “for me.”

Regardless of what my friends are doing, “for to me.” Regardless of those around me, and what they will choose, “for to me.” Regardless of what the world says, “for to me.” Paul says, “For me, this is what is real and authentic and genuine in my life, for to me to live.”

Paul is making a distinction here between merely having existence and actually, truly living.

When he says, “to live,” he is talking about the very reason and purpose for his life.

He is speaking here of that which is supreme in his life.

I’ll tell you the best thing… this is us singing to the uttermost of what God has done for us personally.

Not only is “For me” meaningful here but he then says “to live”.

In other words I get from this Paul is telling us the what the driving force is in his life.

What is imperative in his life.

What without, my life would be meaningless and pointless and would be empty.

He is talking about what it really means to live.

What is living for you?

He is not talking about just going through the empty motions of life.

He is not talking about being a mechanical robot and just cranking out a day-to-day existence.

He means for him to be fully alive in the Lord Jesus Christ, “for me to live.”

I have said it before church we need to wake up and realize we are not meant to go through the motions of meandering through life.

Our life is to exemplify Him!

And to reflect living For Christ as much as we can.

For me to live, Christ.”

This is to say, “my whole life is Christ.

The sum and the substance of my life is Christ.

There is nothing in my life that is outside of living for Christ.

Everything in my life is under the lordship of Christ.

Christ is the very essence of my being,” that is what Paul is saying, the deepest reality of his soul.

Col. 3:4

Gal. 2

There was a time in Paul’s life when he did not live for Christ, just as there was a time in your life when you did not live for Christ.

At that time before his conversion, Paul lived for himself.

Paul was lost and perishing.

Paul lived for his own reputation.

Paul lived for his own cause.

Paul lived for his own religiosity, and at that time, Paul lived against Christ.

Paul lived without Christ.

Paul lived independent of Christ.

Paul lived for Paul.

Then he had an experience on the Damascus road that changed it all!

, Paul with letters in hand was en route to apprehend the Christians in Damascus and to bring them back to stand trial in Jerusalem and to be put to death.

Never was anyone more determined against Christ than was Paul and with all of his energy, and with all of his might, and with all of his strength, Paul’s intent was to snuff out the name of Christ from the earth, and he did it as one who was religiously blind thinking he was serving God.

Then on that Damascus road, Jesus Christ intervened in his life, and there was a bright light that appeared out of heaven and literally knocked Paul off his horse, and in that moment sovereign grace apprehended the Saul of Tarsus and laid hold of him, and Saul looked up and said, “What would you have me to do, Lord?”

In that movement, Paul came under the authority of the sovereign lordship and the absolute deity of Jesus Christ.

In that conversion experience Paul undertook, by the Spirit of God, a 180-degree change of direction.

Paul had been on the broad road headed for destruction, and suddenly he was transformed by the power of God.

Life is lived in Christ

Dr. Harry P. Stagg retired after many years as the executive secretary of the NEw Mexico Baptist Convention.

He had returned to his home in Louisiana after serving in WW1.

While serving there he suffered lung damage from exposure to poisonous gas.

It looked like he was going to die.

But he went to New Mexico and not only did he live but he had a long and strong ministry there.

He found a climate he could live in.

Christ provides a climate where Christians live.

A daily devotional life and fellowship with other Christians in the church help provide this environment.

A coal cannot remain alive burning alone.