“To Live is Christ” means:
- I am Confident in Christ's resources (Phil 1:19)
- I live in one Expectation: no shame in Christ (Phil 1:20)
- "Death is a Win." (Phil 1:22-23)
- "Life is about Serving others." (Phil 1:24-26)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:02
Are you in Philippians chapter 1? Alright.
00:04-00:07
Let's get the God's Word together this morning. Let's pray.
00:10-00:27
Father in heaven, we just pause and thank you for giving us your Word, a clear, objective revelation concerning yourself.
00:31-00:33
Father, might we take your Word as seriously as you do?
00:37-00:46
Might our hearts be open for the transforming work that your Word and your Holy Spirit accomplishes.
00:50-01:03
We thank you for the children and for the finances, Father, as we've just, we just received our offer and we pray that it would be used to your glory and honor.
01:04-01:13
For the children, Father, might this be a time where they are getting instruction from your word while their parents are doing the same.
01:14-01:18
Glorify your name, Father, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
01:21-01:25
Alright, how many people here have a Facebook account?
01:27-01:33
How many have a Facebook account? Maybe a better question would be, who does not have a Facebook account? Let's ask that one.
01:34-01:37
How did it seem like there were just as many hands? Really?
01:38-01:40
Alright, let me see the people that have a Facebook account again.
01:40-01:42
Now, who does not?
01:44-01:44
Really?
01:46-01:47
This room is like 50/50.
01:48-01:48
Do you see that?
01:50-01:50
Wow.
01:54-01:57
Well, for many of you, this is going to be informational.
02:02-02:06
For those of you who do not have a Facebook account, you know what it is.
02:07-02:17
It is basically this online thing where you make your own page, and you can put your picture up, or pictures of your kids, or pictures of your dog, or whatever.
02:17-02:28
And you can update whatever you want to put, and it goes on this news feed so that when you go on this website, you can actually see what all your friends are doing.
02:32-02:45
And when I originally got on Facebook, I thought It was such an amazing thing for me because I had friends from high school and I had friends from college and I had friends from wrestling and I had people from different churches and ministries.
02:45-02:53
And it was a great way to stay in contact with everybody to see what they were, oh, did you know so-and-so that you went to Bible college with?
02:53-02:58
They, you know, got married and all these other friends from this other church just had a baby.
02:58-03:01
And it was a great way to stay caught up with friends.
03:04-03:08
But to be honest with you, it's not been near as cool lately.
03:09-03:19
Now, the people that actually have a Facebook account and check their feed and things like that, would you agree with me that Facebook has just been kind of lame lately?
03:19-03:20
Would you agree with that?
03:21-03:26
It used to be fun to get on and see what people were doing, but now it's just become-- well, here's what it's become.
03:30-03:32
These are some friends that you have on Facebook.
03:36-03:41
And I thought about, you've heard of the book, seven people you meet in heaven, right?
03:42-03:46
Well, this is like seven people you meet on Facebook.
03:46-03:47
I'm still working on this.
03:50-03:53
But these are people that you run into on Facebook now, which makes it kind of lame.
03:57-03:59
First of all, everyone has a food friend.
04:00-04:01
Do you know what I mean?
04:01-04:09
person that takes a picture of their meal right before they eat it. Now people that get on Facebook, you guys know who I'm talking about? Is that somebody here?
04:10-04:36
Because if it is, and that offends you a little bit, I'm sorry, but they're the people that like, they take a picture of their meal and I just have to, I don't, I just have to wonder what goes on there. Like, "Kids, it's time to eat!" You know, and the kids come running, they sit down at the table and, "Oh boy, this looks good, "Mom, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah." "Oh, I know, right, Mom, I'm supposed to pray, right?" "No, no, no, no, did you take a picture of that?"
04:37-04:37
(congregation laughing)
04:38-04:43
Because your friends are gonna be wondering what you had for supper, all right?
04:43-04:45
So did you take a picture of your meatloaf?
04:46-04:48
We have our food friends on there.
04:51-04:53
We also on there have our workout friends.
04:55-04:58
These are the people that are constantly updating you on their latest workout.
04:59-05:01
I just ran 4.4 miles.
05:01-05:04
I just benched, you know, 103 pounds.
05:04-05:07
And I just did this and I just did that.
05:07-05:09
And, you know, here's my weight progress.
05:13-05:24
I just think these things are interesting because we're putting on the internet things that we're basically telling the whole world, things that we wouldn't tell people if we ran into them on the street.
05:24-05:25
Isn't that kind of weird?
05:27-05:35
Like seriously, we're telling the whole world things that we wouldn't, if you ran into an old high school buddy walking down the street, "Hey Joe, good to see you.
05:35-05:37
"By the way, had some meatloaf last night."
05:39-05:39
(congregation laughing)
05:41-05:43
Yeah, here's a picture of it, let me get my wallet.
05:44-05:45
Oh, are those your kids?
05:45-05:47
Yeah, yeah, these are my kids, but I wanna show you my meatloaf.
05:47-05:52
And oh, by the way, I'm benching like 103 now.
05:55-05:56
Well, then you have your political friend.
05:57-06:02
You know, the person that's just-- and I have many political friends on both sides of the fence.
06:04-06:10
It's this candidate lied about this, and this candidate lied about this, and this-- and you know the political friend?
06:10-06:12
You know, you guys know what I'm talking about?
06:13-06:16
Everything is just, here's why you should vote for this person.
06:16-06:22
And that one's not near as funny as the next one.
06:23-06:25
How about cryptic message friend?
06:26-06:29
It's the person that puts up an update that you know is for one person.
06:30-06:31
You know what I'm talking about?
06:31-06:39
It's the person they put up a post that's like, you think you can trust some people, and they stab you in the back.
06:40-06:42
I will always hate you for this.
06:46-06:49
And if you've known me at all, I take things very personally.
06:50-06:51
I always assume that's about me.
06:53-07:14
And I'm just like, "Oh my gosh, I haven't seen Carl in like 20 years and what have I done?" But they put this message out that's like, "I hope this one person is reading this because this is for you." And then you have your religious friend on Facebook, your religious friend.
07:15-07:22
Some of you are like, "Yeah, Pastor Jeff, that's you." Well, I don't mean like posting scripture.
07:23-07:27
I mean like posting the cheesy pictures of Jesus.
07:29-07:33
Sam's favorite, I know this is one, he sends it to me all the time and I actually wish he would stop.
07:34-07:46
But there's a picture of Jesus standing, he's like in his robes and stuff, but he's standing outside this very modern looking house and he's knocking on the door of this very modern looking house.
07:47-07:51
And you think the caption underneath would be like, you know, "Is anybody home?
07:51-07:53
I forgot my keys again.
07:53-07:55
You know, what did you say, Laura, Mrs. Miller?
07:55-08:01
Can Jeff come out and play?" But it's all these pictures of Jesus in modern contexts.
08:03-08:05
A lot of them are pretty silly.
08:06-08:08
Is there anybody I haven't offended yet?
08:09-08:13
Because we'll catch you with this last one, the animal lover.
08:16-08:18
You know, the person that has to post pictures of kittens.
08:19-08:27
You know, there's a kitten hanging on the clothesline, and the caption underneath says-- hang in there.
08:27-08:27
Right.
08:28-08:41
Or there's a cat that just-- he's obviously wet, and there's some witty statement underneath about how much he loathes being wet because cats don't like being wet.
08:41-08:43
So there's some kind of really cute statement underneath.
08:44-08:48
Or there will be a picture of a kitten on fire.
08:48-08:51
Let's be nice to the kittens kind of thing.
08:51-09:01
And well, why are we talking about this?
09:01-09:02
Oh, I remember.
09:04-09:11
I think one of the reasons Facebook is so popular is it gives a lot of people a platform to be like, this is who I am.
09:12-09:13
This is who I am.
09:13-09:22
And you get to see, obviously characterizing some of these friends, but you get to see through these types of things, what people are all about.
09:24-09:25
Like, oh yeah, that's my friend.
09:25-09:27
He's always talking about working out.
09:27-09:27
That's my friend.
09:28-09:30
He's always talking about politics.
09:30-09:33
That's my friend that's always talking about this.
09:35-09:53
Well, today, Philippians, we're looking at a very familiar verse where the apostle Paul says in Philippians 121, "For to me, to live is blank." He doesn't say blank, I put the blank there.
09:53-09:54
But what goes in the blank?
09:55-09:58
"For to me, to live is," what?
09:58-10:02
Well, for many people, it's multiple things.
10:04-10:14
Many people would put different things in the blank, But the problem is what people typically put in the blank doesn't work with the rest of the verse.
10:16-10:29
Because the rest of the verse says, "And to die is gain." So what is it that you're living for that someday when you die and, spoiler alert, you're going to die someday.
10:31-10:39
If you were part of our small group, you totally would be on top of that because we're going through Ecclesiastes And Solomon, he just likes to remind people of that, right?
10:39-10:44
Like all through Ecclesiastes, he's like, "Enjoy life from God, because by the way, you're going to die.
10:45-11:01
And, you know, take life from the hand of God, because by the way, someday you're going to die." And what is it that we can live for that when we actually die, there's a sense of gain?
11:03-11:08
Well, for example, if living is money, as some people would say, well, living is about making money.
11:09-11:10
It's about the American dream.
11:10-11:11
It's about earning.
11:12-11:14
If living is money, then dying is what?
11:15-11:16
Dying is loss, isn't it?
11:17-11:19
Because you're not taking it with you, right?
11:20-11:22
You've never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul, right?
11:24-11:31
But if living is about my possessions, then dying is loss, because again, I'm not taking that stuff with me.
11:31-11:44
If living is about popularity or influence, then dying is, well, it's not gain, because my last day of being popular is going to be my funeral.
11:47-11:51
And thus, when my influence on the earth, what goes in the blank?
11:53-11:55
Well, look at Philippians 121.
11:55-11:56
You tell me, what does Paul say?
11:57-13:30
"For to me, to live is I'm going to give you another run at that. Are your Bibles open? That's really why we did that whole video. For me to live is what? Christ. And to die is? Gain. So to live is Christ. That's a biblical truth. Would we all agree with that biblical truth? To live is Christ. But as always, we didn't assemble today to see if we agree on theology. Because I want you to look at the first three words in verse 21. Paul says, "For to me to live is Christ." You see that? Paul didn't just say, "To live is Christ," as if, "You know and everybody goes to church. That's kind of what they say. That's kind of the motto at the church. To live is Christ, to live is Christ, to live is Christ. It's not some kind of a nonsensical, meaningless, empty statement. Paul was saying, "For to me, to live is Christ." Let me tell you what my life is about. For to me, to live as Christ. This has to be personally appropriated. The question is, can you say that in your heart?
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You can probably say, well, yeah, to live as Christ. Can you say to me to live as Christ?
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You're like, well, what's that mean? Well, first of all, let me tell you what it doesn't mean.
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He's not saying living for Christ.
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He's not saying living to be religious.
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He's not saying living is preaching Christ.
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What does it mean to live as Christ means?
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Life is summed up as Christ.
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If you're taking notes right, very fast, it means I'm filled with Christ, I am occupied with Christ.
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I trust Christ.
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I love Christ.
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I hope in Christ.
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I obey Christ.
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I follow Christ.
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I fellowship with Christ.
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Christ is my inspiration.
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Christ is my direction.
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Christ is my meaning.
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Christ is my purpose.
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I am consumed and dominated by Christ.
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That's what it means to live as Christ.
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You see, he didn't say for me to live, living is for Jesus, as if part of what I'm doing here is to...
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The sum total of what I'm doing here is for Jesus, is what he's saying.
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It's not living for Jesus. Life, it is Jesus.
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Because there's no life apart from Jesus.
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Therefore, any life that I have has to be Jesus.
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So the best way that I can say it is living is Christ.
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Paul says, that's what it is for me.
15:29-15:30
What about you?
15:34-15:41
Jot this phrase down, no compartments, that's what it means to live for Christ, no compartments.
15:42-15:43
What do I mean by no compartments?
15:43-15:50
What it means is sometimes church, we come in here on a Sunday morning and we're like, yeah, to live is Christ, to live is Christ, to live is Christ.
15:51-15:58
And then we walk out of there and we leave these little pockets of our lives that somehow we think Christ is exempt from those.
16:00-16:01
And that is wrong.
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For example.
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Marriage.
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What is God's purpose for your marriage?
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Like, well, purpose for marriage is I work and earn and she stays home and raises the kids.
16:21-16:23
No, that's not God's purpose for marriage.
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You know what God's purpose for marriage is?
16:27-16:28
You know what God's purpose for marriage is?
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God's purpose for marriage is that you would display the relationship between Jesus Christ and the church.
16:35-16:36
Did you know that?
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that marriage is supposed to be this on earth illustration of Jesus Christ who loves and lays down his life for the church and the church that honors and obeys and submits to Jesus Christ.
16:56-16:57
Ephesians five is all about that.
16:59-17:01
See, that's what you can say for me, my marriage is Christ.
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My marriage is Christ because we don't have a goal for our marriage outside of the goal that God has for our marriage, which is to represent Christ in the church, Ephesians 5.
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Kids, your children.
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For to me, raising kids is Christ.
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What does that mean?
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You view your children as, these are people that God has entrusted to you, to disciple.
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Do you understand that?
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Now I know you've heard us say this before, but it is not the church's job to disciple your children.
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It's not.
17:44-17:46
God gave those children to you.
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It is our job as a church to come alongside you, parents, and assist you in helping you disciple your kids, but it is your job to disciple your own children.
17:58-18:14
And part of living is Christ means you see your children from the living as Christ perspective to say, these aren't rugrats that I have to put up with until they're old enough to drive or leave the house to go to college.
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God has entrusted these lives to me to disciple them with the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
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That's what it means to live as Christ as far as kids go.
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What about money?
18:29-18:30
What about money?
18:31-18:34
Oh, Pastor Jeff, you should have said this before the offering.
18:34-18:39
Do you see money from God's perspective?
18:45-18:50
You know, to have the attitude, well, you know what, at church on Sunday, I give God his 10%.
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Really?
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How much of the money in your pocket belongs to God?
18:58-18:58
100%.
19:02-19:03
Okay, 100%.
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you were born. You didn't bring anything. And how much are you taking with you when you leave? We already covered that. The Bible says, what is it, Psalm 24, 1, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness therein." Everything on the earth belongs to God. And God in his grace has entrusted a certain amount to pass through your hands, but it's all his.
19:28-19:59
is Christ means you see God's stuff as being God's stuff. Same with work. We covered this in Colossians, didn't we? Your work, your place of employment. "Well, Pastor Jeff, my boss is a bit of a jerk." You're to work as if Jesus Christ is your boss. With the same integrity, with the same diligence, that's how you are to work in your workplace. But are like in my workplace.
20:00-20:02
I know what things are like in the word of God.
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And God says, you need to work as if Jesus Christ is your boss.
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That's what it means that living is Christ.
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Even in recreation, I know a lot of you guys are involved whether it's softball teams or whatever.
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Even seeing recreation as Christ.
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There again, we don't compartmentalize.
20:29-20:37
You know, I've been to some Christian softball games back when I was on a softball team.
20:39-20:52
There wasn't much Christian about it other than the pathetic little prayer that got thrown up at the beginning, but the language and the conduct and the attitudes, and what is that all about?
20:57-21:02
I see my recreation as Christ.
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Christ at the center, no compartments.
21:08-21:27
Is there any area of your life right now where you're saying, "You know what, Jesus really isn't the center of that area." If so, you're going to have a hard time saying, "For me to live is Christ." Well, let's look at the text here very quickly.
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What does it mean to live as Christ?
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Well, if you say to live as Christ, here are four other things that you say, okay?
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So you're going to give yourself a little test.
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Here are four other things that someone who says to live as Christ, they also say these things.
21:42-22:04
And the first one is, verse 19, "I am confident in Christ's resources." "I am confident in Christ's resources." Remember so far in Philippians 1, we saw Paul thanking God for the church and the joy that he has, and the love that he has for the church, and how the gospel is going forth.
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It doesn't matter that I'm in prison, it doesn't matter that there are preachers with horrible motives, The gospel is going forth. He says, "I'm rejoicing in that." He says, "Yes, and I will rejoice," verse 19, "for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance." So to live as Christ means I am confident in Christ's resources.
22:39-22:50
Notice Paul didn't say what I hear a lot of Christians saying, "It always makes me cringe." Well, I guess maybe we should pray about that.
22:52-22:56
Or, I guess all we can do is pray. Have you ever heard somebody say that?
22:56-22:57
All we can do is pray.
22:58-23:08
Paul didn't approach God's resources with this sheepish, like it's some last-ditch, pardon the pun, Hail Mary effort.
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He says, "For I know that through..." Do you see the three resources here?
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These are three things that always work together.
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Three things that always work together.
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The first one is prayer.
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The second one, he says, the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
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Or the Holy Spirit.
23:40-23:50
And the third one, notice he says, "This will turn out for my deliverance." Actually, that's a quote from Job chapter 13 and verse 16.
23:53-24:22
See what Paul's doing here is he's actually pulling on his wealth of Old Testament knowledge and if you know if you've ever taken a walk through the Old Testament one of the Recurring themes that you see especially in the book of Psalms is God delivers the righteous Have you ever read that in the Psalms God delivers the righteous he delivers the righteous That's what Job said in Job 13 16 So Paul was actually quoting a promise from God from his word.
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So I want you to see here's three things that work together.
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Prayer, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God.
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Those are the resources that God has given you.
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Now when he says, "This will turn out for my deliverance," what does that mean?
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Does that mean I know that I'm going to get out of jail, or these trials that I'm going through right now are going to be over, or was he talking about death?
25:00-25:02
Well, the answer really is all of the above.
25:03-25:13
Because what he's saying is, "I know that these problems that I'm going through right now are temporary." That's what he's saying.
25:13-25:15
"I know that this is temporary.
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So whether I get out of jail and I'm on my merry way, and we'll see this attitude come out here in a second, so whether I'm out of jail and I'm on my merry way preaching the gospel or I die, this is only temporary.
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So listen, I know that there are some people here right now that are going through some major league things.
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I know there are some people right now who are going through some relational hurt, financial hurt. Listen, that's temporary. OK, that is temporary.
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We talked about this about a month ago, you are not taking your trials to heaven.
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OK, God has promised resources in the meantime, and here they are.
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The question is, how much are you using the resources that God has given you?
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The first one is prayer.
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Do you realize what a resource that is?
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God's like, here's a gift.
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You can talk to me any time you want.
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Isn't that awesome?
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Isn't that awesome?
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I'm going to try again.
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Isn't that awesome?
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That you can, wherever you are, no matter what you're doing, you can stop, write that in there, and talk to the God of the universe.
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Isn't that awesome?
26:45-26:52
You know, this past Thursday, we went up to Geneva and spoke at the upper room service, and that was one of the things that just grabbed me.
26:54-26:55
Those people love to pray.
26:56-27:00
And those people pray as if they believe that God is listening.
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That's awesome.
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But you know, shame on us for when we don't take advantage of that resource.
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No matter where you are or what you're doing, God has given you this resource.
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Like, hey, call me.
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You don't need to make sure you have cell reception.
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You don't need to hit a high, you know, wifi hotspot.
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You don't need to make an appointment.
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Anytime, anywhere, you can cry out to the God of the universe and he will hear you and answer you.
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That's awesome.
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God's Holy Spirit, another resource.
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Is there a better resource than that?
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God's like, here's a resource.
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I'll just come and live inside you.
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So it's not as if I'm way up there beyond the cosmos somewhere.
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God, are you there?
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God says, here's a resource.
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I will indwell you.
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I will set up residency in your heart.
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You yield to me.
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I'll take control.
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That's why Paul says, "Walk by the Spirit so you don't fulfill the lust of the flesh." Walk by the Spirit. He's dwelling in you.
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Then the third resource is God's Word.
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God's Word.
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God gave us a book so that we don't have to guess, we don't have to suppose.
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It's crystal clear from God's Book who He is and what He's about, and who His Son is and what He's accomplished.
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But even beyond that, as Paul's talking about here, his promises for the future.
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Paul says, "I know. I know that through prayers and through the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit, and I know based on the promises of God, everything's going to be okay." So whatever you're going through, I want you to understand that you already have the resources to get through.
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Okay?
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Understand that.
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A lot of times, even in the Christian church, it's, "Well, if you want the resources to get through your trial, you have to go...
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We're having this conference here for, you know, $55, that includes your box lunch.
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Well, you have the greatest resources that you can have to get through whatever you're going through right now." That's prayer, God's Spirit, and God's Word.
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The question really is, how much are you using the resources that God gave you?
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That's the question.
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Have you put your confidence in money?
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If I just make more money, I can buy my way out.
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Or friends, you know, if I just make the right friends or if I trust these friends that have some influence or pull or whatever, they can help me out.
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Have you placed your confidence in your intelligence?
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If I just think harder, I can figure a way out of this mess.
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I heard a preacher say one time that Jesus is all you need, but you'll never know it until he's all you got.
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And then when he's all you got, you realize he's all that you need.
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So to live as Christ means I'm confident in Christ's resources.
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That's what it means to live as Christ.
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What else does it mean?
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Well, look at verse 20.
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"I live in one expectation, no shame in Christ." Paul says, "As it is my eager expectation and hope." that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
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I live in one expectation, no shame in Christ.
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No matter where you've been in life or where you're heading, what age you are, Everybody in this room has expectations, right?
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Do you have expectations about your kids, about your jobs, about your health?
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Do you have expectations?
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All right, spoiler alert.
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You're going to be disappointed.
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You're like, "Well, thank you for that, Debbie Downer." This is reality check.
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There are times in life that things don't work out the way you planned.
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And I don't think there's anyone in this room naive enough to think that everything is candy land until you get to heaven.
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You're going to have expectations and you're going to be disappointed, which is why Paul says here in verse 20 that he only has one expectation.
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Because here's one thing that you will never be disappointed in, and that's this, you will never be ashamed in your life in Jesus Christ.
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You will never be ashamed of your life in Christ.
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Now, I've done a lot of things that I'm ashamed of.
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Part of it you could say is growing up in the 80s and the 90s.
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You know, do you see those pictures of yourself from a different era?
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That you're like, I can't believe I wore that.
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You ever seen those pictures?
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Like burn those pictures.
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Or I'm so embarrassed that I used to be into that or I used to act like that or I used to dress like that or I used to have my hair like that.
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I'm so embarrassed about that.
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I'm so ashamed that I thought once upon a time That was so cool to do this.
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See, that's exactly what Paul's saying here.
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You know what my expectation is?
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I know that I'm never, ever, ever going to look back and say, Jesus disappointed me.
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He says, I'm never going to look back and say, you know what, there was a period in my life that I think I just prayed too much.
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I think I just spent too much time praying when I should have been spending more time doing something else.
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There's no shame.
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Or, you know, I just worked a little too hard for Jesus.
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You know?
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You know, I got involved with the church and I was really working hard and involved.
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And looking back now, I'm not really sure that was worth it.
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I gave too much to that church.
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You know what?
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I gave so much to that church that I didn't have enough to take care of my own family, and I didn't have enough to take care of my own needs, and you're never going to say that.
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Here's something else you'll never say.
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You know, I just worship too much.
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Do you think anybody in heaven's saying that?
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Do you think anybody in heaven, looking at the full splendor of God, is saying, you know what, while I was on the earth, I just got a little bit too excited about you, and I just worshiped a little too much.
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I'm a little embarrassed about that.
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Paul says, "I will not be at all ashamed, "but that with full courage, now as always, "Christ will be honored in my body, "whether by life or by death." He said, "That's the only thing I got my eyes on, "is Christ honored in me, is Christ honored in me, "because as long as living is Christ, "I'm never going to be put to shame.
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I'm never going to be embarrassed of Christ.
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He's never going to let me down.
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So to live as Christ means I'm confident in Christ's resources.
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To live in Christ means I live in one expectation that there's no shame in Christ.
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Number three, here's another expectation.
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Death is a win.
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Verse 21, he says, "For me to live as Christ "and to die is gain." For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." And then he says, look at verses 22 and 23, "If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.
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Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell.
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I'm hard-pressed between the two.
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My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better." Death is a win.
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He says, "Living is to serve and dying is a gain." You know how the world treats death?
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That living is for me and death is the end.
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Life is about me.
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I only get one shot at this.
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And you gotta make yourself happy.
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You gotta make sure that you're living in such a way because you only have one life and make it for you because when you're dead, it's over.
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Paul's like, "No, living is Christ. Dying is actually gain." I want you to underline in your Bible this phrase in verse 23.
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He says, "My desire is to depart and," underline this, "be with Christ." Why do I want you to underline that?
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Because a lot of times people ask me, "What happens when you die?" And the reason I get asked this question a lot, there's a lot of false teaching out there that when you die, you go to this other place.
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It's sort of like a holding place that has these fires that burn off the remainder of sin still on your account.
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So the belief is you die, you go to this place, and people on earth pray for you so that the fiery finds you and gets you ready for heaven so that you're there for however many countless years until you're purified enough for heaven.
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That is blasphemy.
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That is an insult to the gospel of Jesus Christ who, when he died on the cross, what did Jesus say?
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It is finished.
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So the concept of, well, Jesus died for my sin, but there's still some sin that needs paid for.
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So what, Jesus' crucifixion was just a little bit lame?
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Is that what we're saying?
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That Jesus didn't fully do the job?
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Is that what we're saying?
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to Jesus, the full work of salvation was done at the cross. So to then say, "Well, I think that I still have some sin on my account," that's blasphemy. So people say, "Well, where does the Bible say that when we die we immediately go into the Lord's presence?" Here's one place, okay? Here's one place. I can show you some others, but Here's one, we're here.
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But notice Paul says, "What should I choose?
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"If I live, it's to serve Christ, "and if I die, it's to go burn some sin off.
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"If I die, it's to be with Jesus Christ." So do you see that?
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There is no intermediary place.
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There's no temporary place.
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It's from earth, death, to where?
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Christ's presence.
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Do you catch that?
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Christ's presence immediately.
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You don't pass go and you don't collect $200.
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Right to Christ's presence.
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So Paul here is saying, you know, heads I win, tails I win.
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I can't lose.
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There's no sting of death.
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Paul's like, I just can't lose here.
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And this all boils down to believing what God's word says about heaven.
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That's a whole nother sermon, but I would like to remind you today that in heaven, you are done with pain, you are done with hurt, you're done with sorrow, with disappointment, with sickness, with anything on the earth that makes earth a pain sometimes to dwell in.
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Those things aren't in heaven, But that's not the sales pitch.
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Here's the sales pitch.
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Do you know what makes heaven so awesome?
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Do you know?
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Because that's where God is.
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That's where God is.
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And that's what Paul is focused on here.
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And that's why he uses the phrase far better.
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So when living is Christ, something else you say is, you know what?
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Death is a wind.
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We're not scared of death.
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Eternity in the presence of my Savior forever done with sin and pain, and we're scared of that?
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Death is a win.
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And then finally, life is about serving others.
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Look at verses 24 through 26.
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Life is about serving others.
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But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
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Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again." Life is about serving others.
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Notice he said dying was far better for him, but remaining is, he says, more necessary.
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Paul isn't focused on what he prefers. He's focused on others' needs. If you had five minutes to choose, stay or go, which would you pick? What would you do? You had five minutes.
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that God was like, "Okay, Bob Arnold, five minutes.
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You either decide you're staying or you're going to heaven.
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What would you pick?
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You know, Carrie Newman, five minutes, you have to pick.
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Are you staying or are you going?
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What would you pick?" Well, some people would want to stay for earthly reasons.
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I imagine some people would say, "Well, I'd like to stay because I'd like to see my kids grow up and graduate.
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And I would like to, you know, I kind of see how the election turns out next month.
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And, you know, JC Penney's is having a sale in December.
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And I kind of like, like, really?
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Well, Paul said, going is better, but I know that right now it's necessary that I stay.
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Why?
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He was thinking about other people.
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So it boils down to this being alive, in Paul's mind was equal to fruitful labor for Christ.
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Do you see that?
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He's like, "Living is one thing, and it's serving Christ." That's what living is.
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Why? Because living is Christ.
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And if Christ is alive, and Christ is alive in me, and Christ wants to do something through me, That must mean that since I'm still on the earth, Christ is going to accomplish his purposes through me in ministry.
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Living is Christ.
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How about for you?
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For to me, to live is Christ.
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As I close, I wanna talk about baptism for just a minute.
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You know, for us to say to live is Christ, you know, Jesus gave us a way to publicly declare that.
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And that's through baptism.
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He gave us a way to publicly declare that we are not ashamed, that we are not part-time, and that we are not experimenting.
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Say, "Well, I'm gonna try Jesus for a while "and see how he does." No, we are sold out, we have been made alive, and our life is Christ.
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And that's the picture of baptism.
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That's why he gave us this picture.
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In baptism, when you go under the water, see that water represents a tomb.
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When you go under the water, what you're saying is, "I'm dead." Jeff Miller is dead.
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And then when you're brought up out of the water, you're identifying with the resurrection of Christ to say, "I have been raised in the newness of life." The Jeff is dead, now Christ lives in me and through me.
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My life now is all about Jesus Christ.
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That's the picture of baptism.
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I'm identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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And biblically, there is no such thing as an unbaptized Christian.
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So if you have not been baptized, this is the time.
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You need to come and talk to me about it today, after the service.
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November 20th at 7 o'clock at Northway, that's a Tuesday.
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We're going to be having a night of incredible worship.
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And it's your opportunity, if you've not taken that step, it's your opportunity to publicly declare, profess your faith in Jesus Christ, to say, "You know, to me, to live is Christ."
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Philippians 1:18-26
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.