WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.480 Okay, we're going to spend a short time this evening looking at Philippians chapter one as 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:10.640 we're going to go through on a Sunday evening the four chapters of this book, a short sprint 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:16.480 through Philippians. And I'm going to take one verse from each chapter as a kind of focus 00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:21.440 for the chapter. I'm not sure if that's what Paul intended. It probably wasn't because 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:27.760 he didn't split his letter into chapters for a start. But the chapters are usually 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:36.640 divided thematically at least to a degree. And I'm going to use verse 21 of very famous words 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:43.679 for us as Christians of chapter one verse 21, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:51.680 That's kind of the anthem for this chapter and the theme of this evening as his philosophy or a 00:00:51.679 --> 00:00:57.519 great Christian philosophy for us to have for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. It's quite 00:00:57.519 --> 00:01:05.280 a challenging one, I think, if we're honest with each other. And I hope that we will be challenged 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:13.840 by these words and that philosophy for our lives. I'm not sure if you have a philosophy for your own 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:19.760 life. And I don't know if you have a philosophy for your Christian life, but it's good to have 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:24.320 this clear thinking. It's a brilliant for me to live as Christ to die as gain. 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:34.480 In Acts chapter 16, there is a cry to Paul from a man in a dream come over 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:43.280 to Macedonia and help us. So the cry of the Macedonian cry. Paul was given this vision to go 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:51.439 and plant the gospel ministry in Macedonia and gateway towards Europe. And Philippi was the 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:59.920 leading city in Macedonia. And so he planted a church there. And we know about planting church 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:05.599 it. Well, we don't know very much about planting churches, but we try and work at planting churches 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:11.759 because we believe that is a New Testament reality for us and a New Testament calling for us to do 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:18.479 that. And Paul also planted a church and he planted a church in Philippi. And this is a personal letter 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:24.560 of thanks to the church that had been founded in Philippi because they had brought him gifts. 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:29.680 He's in prison by this point when he writes this, probably in Rome, although we're not absolutely 00:02:30.399 --> 00:02:37.759 clear. And someone from Philippi called the Paphroditus brings gifts from the church to Paul 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:45.039 who's in Rome. And this is his return letter giving thanks to them for being committed to doing this. 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:50.560 And he also gives them some spiritual teaching and advice and learning under the Holy Spirit 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:58.000 that has become part of Scripture for us. And it's a great book and it's an encouraging letter for us. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:08.159 It's very personal, it's really very personal in many ways and it shows how quickly a true bond 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:12.879 of Christian love can develop within a Christian community, both between leader and people, but 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:20.319 also just between the congregation and the importance of that. And also the attitude of joy 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:25.680 that Christians can have even when things aren't going terribly easily or well for us. And I think 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:33.280 that's great. It's great to have a spiritual joy in our lives, great for other people to know and to 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:39.920 see the joy that you have and the joy that you have in Jesus Christ. So Paul's simple Christian 00:03:39.920 --> 00:03:44.080 philosophy as it's expounded here is for me to live as Christ to die again. So we're going to look at 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:52.319 that in two sections, for me to live as Christ and then to die as gain. For me to live, that's 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:57.599 very simple, isn't it? You can all grasp it. I know it's hot and sweaty tonight and you're all tired, 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:04.159 but so I'm keeping it simple and we can walk away with simple, simple which is for me to live as 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:15.519 Christ. We don't want to come to the Word of God or to Christian teaching, to have a PhD thesis 00:04:15.519 --> 00:04:20.560 on how to live our Christian lives. We don't really want complex life strategies for being 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:28.319 Christians. We want something profound, yes, but simple and this is profound and simple. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:37.120 Paul was able to say, for me to live as Christ and that's a great philosophy of life. What did 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:42.560 that look as we unpack this chapter a little bit, what did it look like for Paul to live for Christ? 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:49.920 How did it reveal itself? Because we can make these statements and leave them there or we can begin 00:04:49.920 --> 00:05:00.399 to see what it meant for Paul to live for Christ. And it meant in the first place that he had, 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:04.800 I'll just go through one or two things, he had significant spiritual relationships. 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:12.240 For him to live for Christ meant that he was involved in an engaged in significant spiritual 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:17.759 relationships with people and with Jesus Christ. Okay, that's obvious he had with Christ because 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:23.680 he said to live as Christ. But he also had significant spiritual relationships with people 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:29.600 and we see that in the first eleven verses of the chapter. He speaks and gives thanks for them 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:37.120 because he loves them and because he remembers them. He's the founding pastor of this urban church 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:43.199 plant. And we have the privilege of knowing, sometimes when these letters were written biblically, 00:05:43.840 --> 00:05:48.079 we don't know anything really about the church other than what is in the actual letter, but we 00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:53.840 know one or two of the members of this church. So we have a little bit of an insight into the kind 00:05:53.840 --> 00:06:00.079 of church that Paul was writing. We know Lydia and her family, we know that she became a Christian 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:05.680 through Paul's preaching, we know the Philippian jailer, we don't know his name, but he was there 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:10.400 and his family were in the church. We know that there was a slave girl in the church who came to 00:06:10.400 --> 00:06:17.920 Christ because of Paul's testimony and miracle, miraculous removal of evil spirits from her 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:23.680 in her life. We know that it was elders and deacons, we know Epaphroditus was there, we know that it 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:29.600 was full of people who had come to know Christ and who were called saints in this chapter, just as 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:36.800 we are called saints. And Paul has this relationship with them, he holds them in partnership. 00:06:37.520 --> 00:06:43.439 So maybe this morning we were looking at ordinary Christians and we maybe even pushed aside ourselves 00:06:44.320 --> 00:06:49.439 to be comparable with Peter and John and certainly not Paul because he was an apostle, 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:59.439 he's a founder of the church. But Paul recognizes the partnership that he has with these Christians. 00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:05.199 He doesn't lord it over them, he recognizes the great partnership that he's had from the first 00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:11.680 until this day, until now with them. And this is part of what it means for him to live for Christ, 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:17.199 he has this spiritual, significant spiritual relationships with other Christians. The church 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:23.920 of Christ is important to him and so it should be for us, there's a joyful, prayerful thanksgiving. 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:30.800 He speaks very personally, he says, I hold you in my heart. He's not a kind of distant, famous 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:37.439 preacher who comes and stands in a grand gallery, a pulpit and delivers his aeration, 00:07:38.400 --> 00:07:44.240 apostolic aeration to the people and then leaves by a back door in a black limousine, 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:51.600 not to be seen by anyone. He's not that kind of important, separate person, but he recognizes 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:56.960 that he holds them in his heart, the apostle Paul, he holds the people, he yearns for them, 00:07:56.960 --> 00:08:05.360 he longs for them. If you see these early verses, I yearn for you with all the affection of Christ 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:11.439 Jesus and it's my prayer that you'll love me about more and more knowledge and discernment. 00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:19.200 So he has a specific prayer for the people. Oh, what was this, flash, preachers coming, 00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:25.039 lights going on and off. Okay, we'll carry on preaching. I'll just work my way through it in 00:08:25.039 --> 00:08:33.279 the dark. Well, I can see, it's good, I can see. So the message, you guys are right in the gallery, 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:43.120 can't see very much up there, don't fall asleep. Anyway, so he was, he had a specific, 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:50.000 he had a desire for them and a love for them, and he prayed for them, specifically had specific 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:56.000 prayers about them and for their love growing, and that they might grow knowledge and discernment 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:04.080 and approving what is excellent and good. It was worked through, it was specific, it was caring, 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:12.799 as he had this powerful relationship with people. So living for Christ can't be for us a monastic 00:09:12.799 --> 00:09:20.240 experience, a solitary experience. We're looking for, living for Christ to be something that involves 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:27.120 ourselves with lots of fellow Christians being encouragers and being encouraged and praying 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:36.159 for one another and sacrificially serving one another. It involves chasing grace until it's 00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:42.959 overflowing, not just for ourselves, but for others in their Christian lives, loving the local church 00:09:42.959 --> 00:09:50.319 in partnership with the local body of believers, the family of God. So they had significant spiritual 00:09:50.319 --> 00:09:56.639 relationships with people, but also of course with Christ, and verses 9 to 11 he speaks about just that 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:03.600 knowledge of Christ that he has and that longing that what he knows he wants to share 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:10.879 with others in liaison with Christ, he is praying for himself and for others. And his love for Jesus 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:18.960 Christ, as it's spoken of here, is linked to, what's it linked to? It's linked to knowledge 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:30.080 and discernment. It's linked to wisdom. His love for Christ is linked to knowing Christ and discerning 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:38.720 Christ and being wise. It involved for him that deliberate conscious choice, for him to live 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:45.759 for Christ was a deliberate conscious choice pursuing, approving and pursuing. What's excellent? 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:52.080 We looked at, no we didn't, look this morning at excellence. On Friday night in our broth, 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:57.280 we looked at excellence. I was speaking up there and talking about Daniel, I have spoken about it 00:10:57.279 --> 00:11:04.000 here. Daniel who lived in Babylon and who pursued excellence even though he was in exile. Okay, 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:11.039 and these two paradoxical truths that we balance out in our Christian lives, we pursue excellence 00:11:11.039 --> 00:11:16.799 in culture, in the world, in work, in all that we do, but we also recognize ourselves as exiles. 00:11:16.799 --> 00:11:22.959 Well, Paul was someone who pursued excellence and looked for excellence in his relationship with 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:30.480 Christ. He made these choices. He isn't, we saw this morning, he's not in a rut of unbelief or a 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:38.240 rut of self-centeredness. He's in a routine of pursuing excellence, choosing righteousness. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:47.200 Now you may argue, we don't choose righteousness as an everyday way of life. It's a gift. We become 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:53.120 righteous because of what, it's a declaration. Of course, we know and recognize that. We are 00:11:53.120 --> 00:12:00.080 declared righteous because of Jesus, but we choose, we need to choose righteousness as a daily 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:06.240 pursuit in our lives, independence and Christ. And so Paul has this great interest in Christ 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:12.240 and in people. He's not interested in his, the congregation being acolytes of Paul. 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:21.519 Paul, he's pushing them towards Jesus as he follows Jesus Christ for him and Christ for us is the 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:27.919 key. So we're looking as a congregation, you're looking in your Christian life, not to be dependent 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:35.200 on church or on preaching or the minister or even your parents as Christians are. You're not dependent, 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:41.440 they're important, but you're not depending on them. We're looking to depend on Jesus, 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:47.120 you're looking to take responsibility to depend on Jesus Christ. So it's that old adage, 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:52.320 give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. And we need 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:59.200 to recognize the importance of teaching and being taught one another to go after Jesus Christ 00:12:59.840 --> 00:13:05.840 in our lives. To live for Christ is a pursuit and it's a choice and a discipline that we make. 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:12.320 So that's one way, that's one way it looks for him to live for Christ, but also it also looks for 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:19.519 him to live for Christ is to be self-forgetful. Okay? He's not a proud person, he's not a 00:13:19.519 --> 00:13:27.120 self-centered person, he's not even that concerned about his own circumstances. And that maybe sets 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:35.440 him apart. I am and I'm sure you are very concerned about your circumstances. They often are the gauge 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:42.000 of how spiritual we feel otherwise. And yet Paul is very self-forgetful. It's an upbeat letter, 00:13:42.800 --> 00:13:49.920 but he's not in great circumstances, he's in prison and he's speaking into his reality. 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:58.000 Not only is he in prison, but the church that he helped found has been kind of wrecked by false 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:04.160 teachers who are coming in and who are jealous of Paul and who want to, who don't like Paul and who 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:09.679 want to preach much better than him and who want to give him a hard time because he's in prison. 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:15.439 He speaks about that in the passage that we read particularly from verses 12 to 18, you know, 00:14:15.439 --> 00:14:21.679 some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, others out of goodwill and so on. And he's in prison here, 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:30.399 but he's self-forgetful. Not everyone liked him. He was disappointed by what was happening in the 00:14:30.399 --> 00:14:38.399 church. There had been fallouts, ministerial jealousy, false teaching and of course his own 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:44.480 inability to be there because he was in prison. How would we react to that? We would possibly be 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:50.639 more defensive. We would write a big long letter defending the way we preach or the way we live 00:14:50.639 --> 00:15:00.000 or the way we have our lives. We want to be popular and so we would court popularity. We would maybe 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:05.600 be bitter. How could they possibly give me such a hard time? I'm not even there to defend myself, 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:14.000 I'm in prison. Let's consider briefly Paul's responses. Paul's responses, yes, 18, second bit 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:21.039 of 18, yes, and I will rejoice. I will rejoice. So for him to live for Christ meant he was a 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:27.120 Christian who was rejoicing even when the circumstances didn't really dictate rejoicing for him. 00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:34.879 The verb is such, so it's in the continue. It's I will continue to rejoice because he could see a 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:41.759 bigger picture in his circumstances. And the great thing is, for example, although he's in prison, 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:48.000 he can't preach, he's not in Philippi, he can't, he's not an itinerant anymore, he's in prison, 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:54.960 but he can see that the gospel has been advanced. If it was in Rome at the very heart of imperial 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:00.480 power, the gospel is being known in the palace and other prisoners to the soldiers, they are 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:06.720 hearing about it. It means that people in the churches where he is not able to be have been 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:14.560 released to serve. Now sometimes it's a nightmare having a minister or a full-time worker because 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:21.200 subconsciously we sit back and think, well, they can do the work, they can serve, they can run 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:27.440 everything in the Christian community. And yet sometimes churches flourish most when 00:16:28.560 --> 00:16:36.560 that particular office is removed from them because others are given the opportunity to serve. 00:16:36.560 --> 00:16:42.640 Now that's not the ideal, of course the ideal is both and because that's God's pattern for us. 00:16:42.640 --> 00:16:49.840 But people in responsibility can hold on to responsibility, they cannot delegate, 00:16:49.840 --> 00:16:56.160 they can be power mad, maybe in any of the particular ways you serve in the church, 00:16:56.160 --> 00:17:00.080 you don't want to share it, you want to keep doing it yourself. No one does it like me, 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:03.920 I'm the best person at doing it. It can't be that I pass on to someone else, 00:17:03.920 --> 00:17:07.360 that they'll make a mess, they'll do it wrong. And yet Paul was someone who says, 00:17:07.360 --> 00:17:12.799 it's great that I'm in prison because it's freed up people to serve and they're taking that 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:22.240 responsibility great as they do so. And they have become much more bold and speak the word 00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:30.639 without fear. And the preaching rivals, what does he say? He says, who cares? I don't care, 00:17:31.200 --> 00:17:37.680 I don't care what they say about me, I don't care their motive, actually I don't even care about 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:42.240 their motives as long as Christ is preached. Now that's a remarkable statement, if I made that 00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:48.079 statement, you would have me out of this place as being theologically unsound for saying that it 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:56.000 didn't matter about their motives. Their motives did matter, of course, but Paul isn't justifying 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:02.319 their motives, he's saying, look, Christ is preached. And the truth of Christ transcends 00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:08.000 even the motives of those who preached it. Maybe people were converted under the preaching of 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:19.279 Judas Iscariot because it's the gospel and the truth that is effective. So that even the enemy 00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:26.319 who seeks to turn the gospel upside down by putting false teachers there is sometimes defeated because 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:36.720 the power is in the word often. And at every point he can be defeated so that we can rejoice. 00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:42.559 It doesn't defend that kind of action, it doesn't mean that we don't need to care about our motives, 00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:49.440 but Paul is saying, God is judge, God is sovereign. It is God's reputation, not mine, 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:57.120 that matters. And he knows and he can rejoice because he is soon to be passing on from the scene 00:18:57.119 --> 00:19:07.519 of time. So in personal suffering and in disappointments in the church when we're let down or when 00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:15.199 we're discouraged or when you feel you're ignored or unappreciated or you've been a victim of jealousy, 00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:21.919 God forbid, in the church or you see selfishness in the behavior of others and people wanting to 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:31.840 take your place and consider what Paul is saying. Consider the joy that he had because of who he 00:19:31.840 --> 00:19:41.279 was in Christ and because of who Christ is. A reputation doesn't matter, a response does. 00:19:42.560 --> 00:19:49.279 So that a response to opposition and difficulty and disappointment and let down is so important 00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:56.240 that we are to live for Christ. Whatever else everyone else is doing, our responsibility is to 00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:03.440 live for Christ and that enables us to rejoice in him because we are not that important. 00:20:04.879 --> 00:20:10.639 So there's self-forgetfulness and he's also Holy Spirit dependent verse 19, 00:20:10.639 --> 00:20:13.839 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:18.399 this will turn out for my deliverance. It's a bit like what we were saying this morning, 00:20:18.400 --> 00:20:25.360 he's dependent. That's the simple message for me to live as Christ. He was dependent and interestingly 00:20:25.360 --> 00:20:30.720 not just on the Holy Spirit but also the prayers of other Christians, prayers of other Christians. 00:20:31.360 --> 00:20:35.759 She said, I don't know what to pray for. I've got nothing to, I don't know how to pray, 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:41.600 pray for other Christians because they need your prayers and I need your prayers and you need their 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:48.399 prayers and we need the Holy Spirit. And the insight and the joy and the courage he had was because 00:20:49.199 --> 00:20:54.559 of the prayers of other people and his dependence on the Holy Spirit. This philosophy of life 00:20:54.559 --> 00:21:01.679 enabled him to live this way, that routine of being dependent on the Holy Spirit, 00:21:01.679 --> 00:21:05.359 that's the impossibility of this life on his own. 00:21:05.359 --> 00:21:16.240 And I have said to you before, how precious are the prayers of other people for you. 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:23.119 I'll say it again, it's really precious when people come up and say to you, I've been praying 00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:27.839 for you today. I have prayed for you this morning. You text them and say, I'm praying for you. 00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:34.079 It's a great thing, it's an encouragement. It reminds us we're in this work together and we're 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:40.799 all struggling and we pray and encourage one another and pray for the Holy Spirit. So for me 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:49.359 to live as Christ, and very briefly in conclusion, to die is gain. What a statement. To die is gain. 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:57.279 Why could he say that? The nihilist occasionally says that. Well, to die maybe is not gain but it's 00:21:57.279 --> 00:22:04.799 just kind of neutral and he goes, but Paul is saying to live as Christ to die is gain. What a 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:12.960 strange thing to say, unless it comes with a deep conviction of someone who has met with the Savior 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:22.240 beyond the grave, the resurrected Son of God. He's met with Him and He knows Him and He not only 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:28.400 in conversion did He meet Him but in the equipping for His role as apostle, He meets Him so He can 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:38.799 see. We can see because we know what He sees that to die is gain. That's a great statement. 00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:50.639 I wonder who of us can say that? To be happy, to be alive but actually too long to be with 00:22:50.639 --> 00:23:03.919 Christ. And he has such a powerful statement here of his perspective on life that many ways 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:11.279 this life is only the opening gambit, only the opening chapter. There's something far, far greater 00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:19.279 that is to come for which he longs. In verse 23 he speaks about, I am hard pressed between the two, 00:23:19.279 --> 00:23:24.560 my desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better but to remain in the flesh is more 00:23:24.560 --> 00:23:30.000 necessary in your account. And I think the idea of departing, the word departing there has the idea 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:43.279 of pulling up anchor, leaving the shore and heading off on an adventure. I feel a Cory reference 00:23:43.279 --> 00:23:49.039 coming up to the Hobbit or to Lord of the Rings. He would certainly have done one there at that 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:54.799 point. I feel that there's an adventure coming on. But that's the picture of Lord of the Rings, 00:23:54.799 --> 00:24:02.000 that's the picture of Gandalf and the rest of them going off on the boat. Isn't that they're 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:07.519 leaving the shore, they're going away and there's a great adventure leaving the shore. You know the 00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:15.519 excitement, don't you? I hope of being at one level, anyway, of being in a railway station 00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:22.799 or an airport or a departure lounge of some kind or another when you're going away on an adventure 00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:30.639 or on a holiday or to the other part of the world to meet family and anticipation and joy and the 00:24:30.639 --> 00:24:35.680 expectation is quite different on the way back. But on the way out there's great expectation. 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:42.559 You're looking for a love and a relationship maybe to be fulfilled as you're waiting in the 00:24:42.559 --> 00:24:49.919 departure lounge. That's kind of what he's saying here. He says that, you know, I have this longing 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:55.039 to be with Christ, I'm happy enough to be here but there's something far greater that I've already 00:24:55.039 --> 00:25:07.759 tasted and I long to just feast on just what I've only tasted up till this point. I doubt if many of 00:25:07.759 --> 00:25:17.759 us are there yet, I certainly doubt that I am. But what a life we can have in Christ here, but yet 00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:26.879 this life is only a warm-up for what is to come and for what we can enjoy in him. These great words 00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:36.879 from 1 Corinthians chapter 2, which again Paul summarizes the way Paul thinks about these things. 00:25:36.879 --> 00:25:42.640 In verse 9 he says, you know, as it's written, what no eye has seen, no ear heard, nor the heart 00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:49.680 of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. We haven't begun to appreciate what 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:56.320 God has prepared for us. We're only second guessing at best. We're only dreaming and we'll never come 00:25:56.320 --> 00:26:03.360 near to considering exactly what it is. Paul, I believe Paul had a privilege, a sneak preview 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:11.520 as one who went into the heavens and he met with Christ and he tasted a little bit and maybe that 00:26:11.519 --> 00:26:18.000 gave him that extraordinary sense. But we can, through the Spirit of God also, say the same, 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:22.079 the more we are in his company, the more we are facing him. 00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:31.279 We're getting old. Some of us are getting older than others. We're facing death. Some of us closer 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:38.160 than others. But it's not a curse, you know. The curse has been removed from us. It's a curse in 00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:43.600 this world. It's a curse for most people to the thought of getting old, losing your youth and 00:26:43.600 --> 00:26:51.440 your vigor and your energy. It isn't for Christians. And it wasn't for Paul, because for Paul, for him 00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:57.279 to live was Christ and to die is God. For us as we get older, all we're looking forward to is pulling 00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:04.560 up anchor. That's all. And setting out on another adventure. And we look forward to that. And whether 00:27:04.559 --> 00:27:11.519 you're young or old or middle-aged or whatever it might be today, we are looking for this great 00:27:11.519 --> 00:27:17.039 philosophy of life for me to live as Christ and to die is game. Because it's the perspective the Holy 00:27:17.039 --> 00:27:24.559 Spirit can give us and the prayer that we share for one another, you know. For I know that through 00:27:24.559 --> 00:27:30.480 your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, that's what we're doing. We're not isolates. 00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:36.480 We're not monastic. We're praying and caring and loving in city group and in church and in family 00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:42.400 for one another and praying for these things that we might live for Christ and know that to die is 00:27:42.400 --> 00:27:49.360 game for us. To its game. Isn't that great? Death is the great unmentionable today, but for the 00:27:49.360 --> 00:27:56.400 Christian to die is game. If you're not a Christian, you should think hard about that. Because that is 00:27:56.400 --> 00:28:02.080 a philosophy of life you can only have when you've come to the foot of the cross and recognize your 00:28:02.080 --> 00:28:08.960 need for a Savior, for me to live not only recognized but entrusted your life and your death and your 00:28:08.960 --> 00:28:20.000 future to Him. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we need you in our lives and we need to recognize this amazing 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:28.000 philosophy, this great perspective that is very counterculture and very different from our life, 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:36.000 which is so often about today and tomorrow and the future and just the future in this life as if this 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:45.039 is all there is. Help us to remember that the great aim for us is to live for Christ and enjoy this 00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:52.240 world that He has given us and serve Him and pursue excellence. And yet remember that we are 00:28:52.240 --> 00:28:58.159 exiles and that we have a home, we have an adventure, we have a journey, we have a departure, 00:28:58.159 --> 00:29:07.599 which is going to take us into an unimaginably wonderful place of joy and fullness and life 00:29:07.599 --> 00:29:18.240 and hope and adventure and praise and worship and singing and feasting and a place where there will 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:27.199 be no more night and where there will be no more death and no more separation and when we will be 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:38.160 with in an unimaginably great way with God in Christ and with His people forever. Amen.